Hand to mouth: automatic imitation across effector systems

The effector-specificity of automatic imitation was investigated using a stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) procedure in which participants were required to make an open or a close response with either their hand or their mouth. The correct response for each trial was indicated by a pair of letters, and each of these imperative stimuli was accompanied by task-irrelevant action images depicting a hand or mouth opening or closing. Relative to the response, the irrelevant stimulus was either movement compatible or movement incompatible, and either effector compatible or effector incompatible. A movement compatibility effect was observed for both hand and mouth responses. These movement compatibility effects were present when the irrelevant stimulus was effector compatible and when it was effector incompatible, but they were smaller when the irrelevant stimulus and response effectors were incompatible. These findings, which are consistent with the associative sequence learning model of imitation, indicate that automatic imitation is partially effector-specific, and therefore that the effector specificity of intentional and instructed imitation reflects, at least in part, the nature of the mechanisms that mediate visuomotor translation for imitation

Preparing students to engage with science‐ and technology‐related misinformation: The role of epistemic insight

Helping students to become more resilient to online misinformation is widely recognised as an essential task for education in a rapidly digitalising world. Students need both scientific knowledge and epistemic insight to navigate online spaces containing sensationalised reports of scientific and technological developments. Epistemic insight involves epistemic curiosity and the ability to think critically about the nature, application and communication of knowledge. This includes developing an understanding of the power and limitations of science and a curiosity regarding its relationship with other disciplines. We present a workshop designed for school students aged 16–18 titled ‘Can science and technology cure loneliness?’, designed to develop students' epistemic insight through investigating loneliness through a multidisciplinary perspective. We discuss how the design and pedagogy of this workshop might help students to build epistemic humility—the recognition that no single disciplinary perspective can complete our knowledge about a given topic. As part of a broader programme, epistemic insight-based pedagogies have the potential to develop students' resistance to science- and technology-related misinformation and prepare them for their potential role in shaping our scientific and technological future

The role of biology teachers in epistemically insightful health and wellbeing education: a case study of the English relationships, sex and health education curriculum

In the period following a global pandemic, the promotion of health and wellbeing is a priority area for schools. This accompanies growing calls for health and wellbeing education to be delivered through a whole-child/whole-school approach that connects across subject areas. While it may be clear to most people that a purely scientific sexuality education is undesirable, it is also clear that biology plays a vital role in developing students’ understanding about a variety of health and wellbeing topics, including those around sex, sexuality and sexual health. In this article, we explore the contribution of the biology teacher to an integrated health and wellbeing education in schools through a case study comparison of the English Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum and the English biology curriculum. Biology teachers in England and many other national and regional jurisdictions operate in a compartmentalised system which can create frustration and anxiety for both students and teachers when navigating the complexities of how sensitive topics are delivered in different disciplinary siloes. Epistemically insightful approaches, conceptualised at the macro-, meso- and micro-level of school organisational structures, may provide a way for biology teachers and educational leaders to address and overcome some of these challenges

Social attitudes modulate automatic imitation

In naturalistic interpersonal settings, mimicry or ‘automatic imitation’ generates liking, affiliation, cooperation and other positive social attitudes. The purpose of this study was to find out whether the relationship between social attitudes and mimicry is bidirectional: Do social attitudes have a direct and specific effect on mimicry? Participants were primed with pro-social, neutral or anti-social words in a scrambled sentence task. They were then tested for mimicry using a stimulus-response compatibility procedure. In this procedure, participants were required to perform a pre-specified movement (e.g. opening their hand) on presentation of a compatible (open) or incompatible (close) hand movement. Reaction time data were collected using electromyography (EMG) and the magnitude of the mimicry / automatic imitation effect was calculated by subtracting reaction times on compatible trials from those on incompatible trials. Pro-social priming produced a larger automatic imitation effect than anti-social priming, indicating that the relationship between mimicry and social attitudes is bidirectional, and that social attitudes have a direct and specific effect on the tendency to imitate behavior without intention or conscious awareness

Roman Catholic education in County Durham 1580-1870

The thesis examines the education of Catholic youths in penal times and links their education with the activities of the missionary priests and the recusant parents, who found means of primary education in the humanities before sending their sons abroad to be educated. The possibility of a clandestine school in Dalton-le-Dale in 1641 is considered, and an account is given of the attempts at organised education in Durham and Gateshead during the reign of James II. Source material is used to show where Catholic teachers practised in the eighteenth century and how schools were often linked with the foundations of missions. Support by the Catholic gentry for private education for rich and poor is examined, and there is a comprehensive account of the foundation at Tudhoe, its system of education, its links with Crook and Ushaw and its subsequent history as a Poor Law school. Education at Crook and Ushaw is treated as an integral part of the development of Catholic education in the county. Family papers are used to describe the education abroad in the late eighteenth century of a young Catholic gentleman (W. T. Salvin), and this account can be compared with the education of his own children in the early nineteenth century in a chapter that deals with private foundations at Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington. A major part of the thesis is concerned with the growth of the Catholic poor schools of the nineteenth century and their connections with the early missions. Original sources are used to trace the development of all the Catholic schools in the county and to compare their growth with national progress. It has been possible to give detailed accounts of all the Catholic poor schools in Durham, to chart their progress, examine their means of support and their qualification for grant, and to describe the way the Catholic teachers became qualified

How close are formal and informal work?

Purpose: Recent changes in the UK to the regulation and modes of work in the formal and informal economies are considered. Research in this field has tended to remain in silos (treating formal economy working conditions separately from research on the informal economy. The question is whether the means of work and benefits to the worker for formal and informal work are now as different as the former images of formal and informal economy work imply under a ‘jobs-for-life’ economy. This leads in to a consideration of whether the current aim of government regulation of the informal economy – to formalise it – is actually of benefit to workers, as might be supposed. Design/methodology/approach: The article considers recent research findings on the formal and informal economy, using official government statistics for the UK and more detailed European studies on the informal economy. Findings: The article argues that formal employment in the UK is becoming more casualised, with less associated benefits to employees. Though it is still of benefit to the state to formalise informal work (to increase tax take), some of the links between formalisation and a good working environment for workers are being broken, which may lead to the informal economy becoming more popular and require different priorities in regulation. Originality/value: The article argues that we need to change our assumptions and image of work in the formal economy, compared to that in the informal economy

Comparative Developments in Labour Administration

The aims of this report are to take stock of recent developments in labour administration and highlight some of the ways in which national governments have sought to improve the functioning of their national systems of labour administration. Over the past two decades, substantial changes have taken place in the organization of national labour administration systems and the principles according to which they are managed. Reforms have been initiated so as to support new labour, employment and social protection policies and enhance the effectiveness of service delivery in these areas. The reforms have also taken place as a consequence of attempts by national governments to improve performance, transparency and accountability within the public sector. The widespread tightening of public finances that followed the economic crisis that began in 2008 has provided added impetus to these efforts. Labour administration bodies in many countries have experienced reductions in their budgets and therefore their capacity. Austerity has been accompanied by an even greater emphasis on ‘efficiency savings’

Covid-19 as an opportunity to teach epistemic insight: findings from exploratory workshops on Covid-19 and science with students aged 15-17 in England

The contributions of science and scientists to combatting Covid-19 have been at the forefront of media attention throughout 2020 and early 2021, exposing the public to the processes of science in an unprecedented manner. The pandemic has highlighted the necessity of scientists working collaboratively with other disciplines in informing thinking about a complex, evolving real-world problem. This draws attention to recent efforts, both in the UK and internationally, towards curriculum reform integrating epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge, including about what disciplines are and how they interact), with significant implications for the teaching of science in schools. We present findings from two exploratory workshops with 15-17-year-old students in England on the role of science during the pandemic. We found that the workshops provided space for students to begin to develop epistemic insight regarding how science informs decision-making in dialogue with other disciplines. We make recommendations proposing pedagogical approaches using live, complex, real-world problems to address issues around understandings of the nature of science, misinformation, trust and participation in science

Underemployment and well-being in Europe

This paper examines the consequences of underemployment for the well-being of workers in European countries. Previous studies of the impact of underemployment on well-being have tended to focus on a single country or occupational group and have examined single dimensions of underemployment. This paper, by contrast, examines experiences across several European economies and explores two different dimensions of underemployment: the gap between hours of work and workers’ desired hours and the under-utilisation of their skills and abilities. The paper uses data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and explains the consequences of underemployment for well-being by drawing on the international comparative political economy literature, particularly the theorisation and analysis of comparative employment and welfare regimes. We find that while underemployment is generally associated with lower levels of well-being, the nature and strength of relationships between different dimensions of underemployment and well-being vary between employment regimes. The paper also highlights the detrimental consequences of ‘over-employment’ for workers’ well-being and shows that the well-being of women tends to be lower than that of men, regardless of employment regime