The influence of task difficulty on engagement, performance and self-efficacy

peer-reviewedMy research examined the impact of a person’s belief about their own capabilities and how this influences their performance. In order to examine this I needed a task that was both relatively enjoyable, so that participants would engage with it in their own free time without pressure to do so, and a task that was not heavily linked to a particular subject as this would influence performance. That is the line of thinking that led to a PhD examining self-efficacy theory by getting hundreds of children to play Pacman, a popular arcade gameACCEPTEDPeer reviewe

Where is my time? Identifying productive time of lifelong learners for effective feedback services

Lifelong learners are confronted with a broad range of activities they have to manage every day. In most cases they have to combine learning, working, family life and leisure activities throughout the day. Hence, learning activities from lifelong learners are disrupted. The difficulty to find a suitable time slot to learn during the day has been identified as the most frequent cause. In this scenario mobile technologies play an important role since they can keep track of the most suitable moments to accomplish specific learning activities in context. Sampling of learning preferences on mobile devices are key benchmarks for lifelong learners to become aware on which learning task suits in which context, set realistic goals and set aside time to learn on a regular basis. The contribution of this manuscript is twofold: first, a classification framework for modelling lifelong learners’ preferences is presented based on a literature review; second, a mobile application for experience sampling is piloted aiming to identify which are the preferences from lifelong learners regarding when, how and where learning activities can be integrated. Both framework and pilot provide an important scaffold for lifelong learners to identify productive times during the day with mobile technologies.NELL

Towards Defining, Assessing and Reporting Against National Standards for Literacy and Numeracy in New Zealand

The Education (National Standards) Amendment Act 2008 sets in place the government’s ten-step Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy (Hon. John Key, 13 October, 2008). As part of that Crusade: (i) national standards will be set in literacy and numeracy; (ii) every primary and intermediate student will be assessed regularly against the national standards; and (iii) every primary and intermediate school will report to parents in plain English about how their child is doing compared to national standards and compared to other children their age. Where it is indicated, targeted funding will be provided to enable schools to give assistance to the students who do not meet national standards. This paper discusses these elements of the Amendment Act, (referred to as ‘national standards’ in this paper for simplicity), proposes a number of principles that should underlie the design of an assessment, analysis and reporting system based on them; and makes several suggestions for supporting their development and successful implementation

High-Risk Contexts for Violence Against Women: Using Latent Class Analysis to Understand Structural and Contextual Drivers of Intimate Partner Violence at the National Level

Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects 1 in 3 women and poses a major human rights threat and public health burden, yet there is great variation in risk globally. Whilst individual risk factors are well-studied, less research has focussed on the structural and contextual drivers of IPV and how these co-occur to create contexts of high risk. Methods: We compiled IPV drivers from freely-accessible global country-level data sources and combined gender inequality, natural disasters, conflict, colonialism, socioeconomic development and inequality, homicide and social discrimination in a latent class analysis, and identified underlying 'risk contexts' based on fit statistics and theoretical plausibility (N=5,732 country-years; 190 countries). We used multinomial regression to compare risk contexts according to: proportion of population with disability, HIV/AIDS, refugee status, and mental health disorders; proportion of men with drug use disorders; men's alcohol consumption; and population median age (N=1,654-5,725 country-years). Finally, we compared prevalence of physical and/or sexual IPV experienced by women in the past 12 months across risk contexts (N=3,175 country-years). Results: Three distinct risk contexts were identified: 1) non-patriarchal egalitarian, low rates of homicide; 2) patriarchal post-colonial, high rates of homicide; 3) patriarchal post-colonial conflict and disaster-affected. Compared to non-patriarchal egalitarian contexts, patriarchal post-colonial contexts had a younger age distribution and a higher prevalence of drug use disorders, but a lower prevalence of mental health disorders and a smaller refugee population. IPV risk was highest in the two patriarchal post-colonial contexts and associated with country income classification. Conclusions: Whilst our findings support the importance of gender norms in shaping women's risk of experiencing IPV, they also point towards an association with a history of colonialism. To effectively address IPV for women in high prevalence contexts, structural interventions and policies are needed that address not only gender norms, but also broader structural inequalities arising from colonialism

Young children are human beings

11th September 2017 was a big day for Tommy, my four-year-old nephew in England: it was the day he started school. Tommy is the middle child of three in his immediate family; he is an active, inquiring little boy, disposed to becoming deeply involved in activities that interest him. He likes playing outside, he loves playing with his toy cars and he enjoys baking cakes. But at 4.5 years old, Tommy’s opportunities to engage in activities that he values have already diminished. Now, he must focus on another agenda: learning to use phonic knowledge to decode and read words, on spelling correctly and on counting and ordering numbers to 20. These are examples of the ‘schoolified’ knowledge that Tommy must acquire in preparation for the English National Curriculum which he will follow from next September when he reaches 5.5 years old. Tommy has entered a space where he is viewed, measured and valued according to what he will become, rather than the human being he is now (Qvortrup, 1994)

Polymorphisms in the CTLA4 promoter sequence are associated with canine hypoadrenocorticism

Canine hypoadrenocorticism is an immune-mediated endocrinopathy that shares both clinical and pathophysiological similarities with Addison’s disease in humans. Several dog breeds are overrepresented in the disease population, suggesting that a genetic component is involved, although this is likely to be polygenic. Previous research has implicated CTLA4 as a potential susceptibility gene. CTLA4 is an important regulator of T cell function and polymorphisms/mutations in CTLA4 have been associated with a number of autoimmune phenotypes in both humans and rodent models of autoimmunity. The aim of the current study was to undertake a case:control association study of CTLA4 promotor polymorphisms in three dog breeds, cocker spaniels, springer spaniels and West Highland white terriers (WHWT)

Teachers' classroom feedback: still trying to get it right

This article examines feedback traditionally given by teachers in schools. Such feedback tends to focus on children's acquisition and retrieval of externally prescribed knowledge which is then assessed against mandated tests. It suggests that, from a sociocultural learning perspective, feedback directed towards such objectives may limit children's social development. In this article, I draw on observation and interview data gathered from a group of 27 9- to 10-year olds in a UK primary school. These data illustrate the children's perceived need to conform to, rather than negotiate, the teacher's feedback comments. They highlight the children's sense that the teacher's feedback relates to school learning but not to their own interests. The article also includes alternative examples of feedback which draw on children's own inquiries and which relate to the social contexts within which, and for whom, they act. It concludes by suggesting that instead of looking for the right answer to the question of what makes teachers' feedback effective in our current classrooms, a more productive question might be how a negotiation can be opened up among teachers and learners themselves, about how teachers' feedback could support children's learning most appropriately

Psychology students’ perception of and engagement with feedback as a function of year of study

Undergraduate students’ perception of feedback and level of engagement with the feedback they receive have gained increasing attention in the educational literature recently to identify areas which require educators’ attention. However, research in this area has generally been based on limited self-selecting samples, and has not considered how students’ relationship with feedback may alter depending on their year of study. To address this, a survey measuring students’ views and practices regarding feedback was completed at a higher education institution by 447 first-, second- and third-year psychology students, representing 77% of the cohort. Findings revealed that third years responded more negatively in both areas than their first- and second-year counterparts, whose ratings on these aspects themselves were far from optimal. These findings highlight the need for early interventions to improve students’ perception of and engagement with feedback in the earlier years, and to prevent the recorded deterioration later on in the degree course