Ending Child Poverty: What is happening in the UK?

A report from the Center for Impact Research's U.S./UK Welfare Reform Working Group

"Oh, Flip That!" An Evaluation of Flipped Learning in Initial Teacher Education

Technologies are already ‘established and stable’ in Further Education Colleges (AoC, 2014: p. 11), such as distance and blended learning packages, virtual learning environments (VLEs), e-portfolios, messaging and plagiarism detection, however, these technologies often mean there is no interaction between the users, or, when there is, it follows the more traditional didactic method. There is increasing pressure in all education sectors to broaden the use of digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment, and flipped learning has been seen to contribute to this. What makes the flipped classroom different is the use of technology in order to encourage collaborative teaching and learning. This paper will first provide a general overview of flipped learning and then evaluate its effectiveness within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLS) via a summary of a small-scale research project with in-service trainees. The conclusion emphasises that Teacher Educators require time and support in order to develop and embed e-learning effectively

Benchmarking global supply chains: the power of the ‘ethical audit’ regime

This article critically investigates the growing power and effectiveness of the ‘ethical’ compliance audit regime. Over the last decade, audits have evolved from a tool for companies to track internal organisational performance into a transnational governing mechanism to measure and strengthen corporate accountability globally and shape corporate responsibility norms. Drawing on original interviews, we assess the effectiveness of supply chain benchmarks and audits in promoting environmental and social improvements in global retail supply chains. Two principal arguments emerge from our analysis. First, that audits can be best understood as a productive form of power, which codifies and legitimates retail corporations’ poor social and environmental records, and shapes state approaches to supply chain governance. Second, that growing public and government trust in audit metrics ends up concealing real problems in global supply chains. Retailers are, in fact, auditing only small portions of supply chains, omitting the portions of supply chains where labour and environmental abuse are most likely to take place. Furthermore, the audit regime tends to address labour and environmental issues very unevenly, since ‘people’ are more difficult to classify and verify through numbers than capital and product quality

Accessible Inclusive Learning: Futures

The last chapter outlined some key approaches and challenges that we have seen when conducting research that seeks to make learning accessible to all. Here, we explore newer trends that are directing our current research and practice in this area. These promising directions include devising models for global networks, the potential to collect and use data to understand learning experiences in new ways, and new opportunities arising through artificial intelligence. By exploring current and recent projects around these areas, we also highlight some emerging tensions. Finally, we return to thinking about how we conduct research, considering how concepts of bricolage and guerrilla research can be an important part of our palette of approaches

Accessible Inclusive Learning: Foundations

One of the most persistent themes in discussions around technology in education is the idea that technology can affect access to learning. This can be seen as positive or negative, and it is often more complex than it seems. If computers can convert the text in a web page into spoken word, or the spoken words on a video into captions, have we made the learning accessible to deaf or blind students? Most likely we have made an important step in the right direction, but this might be only one challenge in the wider pedagogy and student experience. If MOOCs can teach thousands for free without any cost or entry requirements, does that mean they are increasing access? Perhaps, but are they also creating barriers for some through the pedagogical and technical design? In this chapter we will unpack how these issues have been tackled through research

Assessment, life circumstances, curriculum and skills: barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing in distance learning

Student mental wellbeing is increasingly a priority for universities, and this is particularly critical in a distance learning context. Studies have found that studying, academic pressure, university culture and systems can affect students’ mental health. There are increasing calls for universities to take a compassionate, holistic approach to supporting student wellbeing, and identify the barriers that are created by university cultures, systems, pedagogies, curricula, tuition and assessment practices. This study aimed to identify barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing in distance learning, and students’ recommendations for changes to be made. Using a student survey (N=584), we identified that assessment and life circumstances were the most significant barriers, while the greatest enablers were building study skills, the people in students’ lives, and curriculum and module content. The study revealed significant demographic differences in how students experience barriers and enablers, and how likely they feel they are to benefit from solutions. Students with disclosed mental health difficulties were consistently more likely to experience barriers than students without a disclosure, while enablers were experienced by all demographic groups. The study concludes that assessment should be prioritised as an area for action

Ability grouping in the primary school: a survey

In 1997, the DfEE suggested that schools should consider ‘setting’ pupils by ability as it was believed that this would contribute to raising standards. This survey of primary schools aimed to establish the extent to which primary schools, with same and mixed age classes, implement different grouping practices including setting, streaming, within class ability and mixed ability groupings for different curriculum subjects. Schools were asked to complete a questionnaire indicating their grouping practices for each subject in each year group. The findings showed that schools predominantly adopted within class ability groupings, either mixed or ability grouped, for most subjects. Ability grouping (within class and setting) was most common in mathematics, followed by English and science. Its implementation increased as pupils progressed through school. The type of setting adopted, same or cross age, tended to reflect the nature of the class structures within the school

Everolimus for patients with mantle cell lymphoma refractory to or intolerant of bortezomib: multicentre, single‐arm, phase 2 study

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106815/1/bjh12780.pd