Measuring the beginning: a quantitative study of the transition to higher education

This quantitative study measures change in certain factors known to influence success of first-year students during the transition to higher education: self-efficacy, autonomous learning and social integration. A social integration scale was developed with three subscales: ‘sense of belonging’, ‘relationship with staff’ and ‘old friends’. Students responded to this and existing scales measuring self-efficacy and autonomous learning, before and after participating in transition activities including a group-work poster project. The authors discuss positive outcomes regarding a sense of belonging and how the authors' expectations in other areas such as self-efficacy were not met. The importance of early contact with academic staff and small-group work is confirmed. Tinto's assertions on pre-existing relationships are challenged. The authors suggest that further investigation might prevent a ‘scattergun’ approach to transition based upon superficial understanding of outcomes. They discuss potential models for transition design and support a ‘longer’ process with several opportunities for student engagement in success factor development

‘I am wary of giving too much power to students” - addressing the “but” in the principle of staff-student collaboration.

Staff and students coming together to enhance learning is a key educational challenge facing the higher education sector. Literature proposes different ways of achieving this around co-creation, partnership and collaboration. This paper focuses solely on staff perspectives of a staff-student partnership project aimed at improving feedback strategies. Through a mixed-methods approach staff within four disciplines in one UK University were questioned in regard to collaborating with students, asked to take part in a co-creation experience and then invited to take part in a follow-up interview. Findings indicated that staff initially supported greater student engagement in curriculum development, but were very wary of how far they would be prepared to change in the design of curriculum content. Some doubted the experience and abilities of students in this context. The overarching response was a positive statement followed by ‘but’ and then the issues that could be caused by this type of approach

Clarity, consistency and communication: using enhanced dialogue to create a course-based feedback strategy.

This article examines the outcomes of a study across four discipline areas in order to develop course-based assessment strategies in closer co-operation with students. Second year students (n=48) from different disciplines were engaged in two phases of activity-orientated workshops. Phase one sought their perceptions of feedback. Phase two saw students design a proposed strategy to present to the respective staff teams. We discuss the emerging themes which appeared to be very similar amongst this diverse cross-section of students: a lack of faith in marking consistency; the need for clear guidelines and criteria; the greater use of positive feedback language and a close association with tutors. The emergence of strategies specific to each course is discussed along with the alignment of the outcomes of this approach with pedagogic knowledge. It is suggested that enhanced dialogue enabled staff and students to develop a common understanding, and gave impetus to improving, assessment feedback practices. Outcomes recommended here include changes to practice such as the benefits of a team approach to feedback development, the content and style of feedback; developing the usefulness of feedback for future work and; the need for teams to periodically revisit staff development in this area

The sorrow of the struggle or joy of the journey? Seven lessons from an education research writing group

Writing for scholarly higher education journals can be difficult to accomplish for many staff. Academic writing groups have been acknowledged as a successful method to increasing both the quality and output of research publications. In this Viewpoint paper, the authors share their experiences and insights, which are distilled into seven key lessons

Reflecting on 25 Years of Teaching Animal Law: Is it Time for an International Crime of Animal Ecocide?

2019 marked the 25th anniversary of the introduction of Animal Law to the law degree at Liverpool John Moores University. This article examines changes in the legal protection of animals during this time and the impact this will have on research and scholarship in the law relating to animals. We examine whether the overall international treatment of animals has improved and how far the approach to the Animal Law curriculum should be influenced by the growth in concerns around climate change. In this context, we examine the development of the law of ecocide and the extent to which it addresses concerns around animal welfare across the globe. We suggest that those involved in the development of Animal Law, ethics and policy might usefully engage in a new vision of ecocide, which incorporates a clearer notion of 'animal ecocide'. This new approach would enhance the international and national focus on animals in their own right, would recognise increasing knowledge of animal sentience and would move our responsibilities to them beyond anthropocentric approaches to environmental protection. We argue that the inclusion of a more specific reference to animal ecocide would contribute to the development of Animal Law and would lead to an enhanced relationship between Animal Law and attempts to protect the environment

Aluminum slurry coatings to replace cadmium for aeronautic applications

Cadmium has been widely used as a coating to provide protection against galvanic corrosion for steels and for its natural lubricity on threaded applications. However, it is a toxic metal and a known carcinogenic agent, which is plated from an aqueous bath containing cyanide salts. For these reasons, the use of cadmium has been banned in Europe for most industrial applications. However, the aerospace industry is still exempt due to the stringent technical and safety requirements associated with aeronautical applications, as an acceptable replacement is yet to be found. Al slurry coatings have been developed as an alternative to replace cadmium coatings. The coatings were deposited on AISI 4340 steel and have been characterized by optical and electron microscopy. Testing included salt fog corrosion exposure, fluid corrosion exposure (immersion), humidity resistance, coating-substrate and paint-coating adhesion, electric conductivity, galvanic corrosion, embrittlement and fatigue. The results indicated that Al slurry coatings are an excellent alternative for Cd replacement

RSPCA and the criminology of social control

This paper contributes to a rethinking of animal abuse control and animal welfare protection in criminology, specifically, and in the social sciences more broadly. We do this, first, through a broad mapping of the institutional control complex around animal abuse in contemporary Britain. Second, we focus on the institutional strategies and practices, past and present, of the main agency of animal protection, and the policing thereof, in this society, namely the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). In looking back to this charity’s growth since the first decades of the nineteenth century at the time of the birth of modern industrial capitalism and also to its current rationale and practices as a late-modern, corporate organisation, we explore the seeming paradox of a private body taking a lead on the regulation and prosecution of illegalities associated with animal-human relationships. Finally, the ideology and strategy of the RSPCA are explored in the context of the often visceral and culturally influential ‘morality war’ associated with proponents, respectively, of animal rights (‘abolition’) and ‘anthropic’ welfare proponents (‘regulation’ and ‘protection’)

In-situ local phase-transitioned MoSe2 in La0.5Sr0.5CoO3-?? heterostructure and stable overall water electrolysis over 1000 hours

Developing efficient bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting that are earth-abundant, cost-effective, and durable is of considerable importance from the practical perspective to mitigate the issues associated with precious metal-based catalysts. Herein, we introduce a heterostructure comprising perovskite oxides (La0.5Sr0.5CoO3?????) and molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) as an electrochemical catalyst for overall water electrolysis. Interestingly, formation of the heterostructure of La0.5Sr0.5CoO3????? and MoSe2 induces a local phase transition in MoSe2, 2???H to 1???T phase, and more electrophilic La0.5Sr0.5CoO3????? with partial oxidation of the Co cation owing to electron transfer from Co to Mo. Together with these synergistic effects, the electrochemical activities are significantly improved for both hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions. In the overall water splitting operation, the heterostructure showed excellent stability at the high current density of 100???mA???cm???2 over 1,000???h, which is exceptionally better than the stability of the state-of-the-art platinum and iridium oxide couple

Mobile phone voting for participation and engagement in a large compulsory law course

This article reports on an action-research project designed to investigate the effect of a technological intervention on the complex interactions between student engagement, participation, attendance and preparation in a large lecture delivered as part of a compulsory first-year law course, a discipline which has not been the focus of any previous study. The technology used was VotApedia, a form of mobile phone voting, and it was implemented in tandem with constructivist pedagogies such as explicit pre-reading and a prior context of interactive lecturing. Data were collected through observation, via mobile phone voting in class and by an online survey designed to specifically explore the relationship between attendance at VotApedia lectures and factors such as self-reported engagement, attendance and preparation. The findings indicated that student response systems (SRSs) are just as applicable to more Humanities-style disciplines which require divergent questioning, and supported complex interactions between engagement, attendance and preparation. Preliminary findings indicated that, although more work needs to be done, especially on the types of students who prefer to use these systems, there is a clear potential to increase student engagement in large law lectures through the use of SRSs.Chad Habel, Matthew Stubb