Forget About Cheating, What About Learning?

This paper will argue that academics need to re-focus on what really matters when developing policies to prevent plagiarism (used here in a broad sense to include unauthorised collaboration in assessment) and deal with its occurrence. Too often, institutions adopt an approach based the concepts of dishonesty and theft. A focus on learning, I will argue, can be fairer to students, more effective in terms of plagiarism prevention, whilst resulting in a system with strengthened resilience to litigation

A Master’s course in sustainable development advocacy: integrating the Brundtland, Stern and Leitch agendas

The MA Professional Practice (Sustainable Development Advocacy) is delivered in partnership by the University of Worcester and the Bulmer Foundation between 2003 and 2009. The programme integrates work-based learning with education for sustainable development. Its student projects have catalysed real change within many local businesses and communities. The network of graduates is working to create new paths towards sustainability within organisations and communities, locally and globally. In this way the programme exemplifies the Brundtland principles of sustainable development; the call by Lord Stern for urgent action to re-orientate the economy towards greater environmental sustainability; and the recommendation of the Leitch Review that skills development should be led by the needs of employers

Integrated and situated academic development for all categories of staff: lessons for constructive alignment from an HEA-accredited Continuing Professional Development scheme

Higher Education Academy (HEA) Fellowship and the UK Professional Standards Frameworks (UKPSF) are increasingly used within British higher education institutions to support the professional formation of university teachers. This paper evaluates the use of practitioner inquiry within an HEA-accredited scheme (OpenPAD) to support the professional development of part-time Associate Lecturers at a large distance-learning institution. OpenPAD was available between 2013 and 2016 to all academic and academic-related staff in the Open University, including the 5000+ part-time teaching-only staff who are the main focus of this evaluation. OpenPAD used situated learning through practitioner inquiry to generate evidence against the UKPSF. Participant experience is evaluated and lessons drawn, which may have implications for similar schemes in other institutions. Opportunities for the further integration of academic development opportunities for all categories of staff in a successor scheme are identified in a proposed alignment between academic development; career-related processes such as induction and appraisal; institutional teaching and learning policies; and scholarship agendas

Parents, clinicians and the genesis of a contested diagnosis: the development of knowledge surrounding pediatric bipolar disorder in the United States

The diagnosis of paediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) has emerged as an object of controversy in the United States over the last two decades as it continues to expand despite a lack of professional consensus surrounding diagnostic criteria. At the same time there is a push among American parents for greater acknowledgement and awareness of their position, as well as clinical alignment with what they see as indicative of the disorder. Interaction between these two groups, and their local systems of professional versus experiential knowledge, provides insight into how a contested disorder is constructed by competing knowledge systems, shedding light on psychosocial processes leading to diagnostic expansion. This paper presents findings from thematic dialogical analyses of interviews with 10 American child psychiatrists and 15 parents of children with PBD. Using a socio-psychological framework emphasizing modalities of social influence and cognitive polyphasia, the circular influence at play among and between these two key actors in the genesis and development of PBD as a diagnostic category will be explored. This paper is very much grounded in scholarship related to the medicalization of childhood, and the construction of related diagnoses such as ADHD and Autism, however much of the literature on PBD remains in the clinical realm. As a disorder still attempting to establish itself, an exploration into the wider social and cultural factors shaping negotiated interactive processes behind how PBD emerges and takes hold is warranted

The leadership of place and people in the new English combined authorities

This paper explores the theory and early practice of elected political leadership in the first six English mayoral combined authorities (CAs). It draws on the history of local government in England, policy documentation, and theory on leadership, place and institutional formation to analyse the early leadership of the metro-mayors from the perspective of the leadership of place. It suggests that public policy and the literature on political leadership could usefully recognise the power of place in the exercise of leadership. The paper concludes by raising questions around the development of CAs and their mayors within the wider governance landscape

The Dynamics of Energy Poverty : Evidence from Spain

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Developmental divergence: motor trajectories in children with fragile X syndrome with and without co-occurring autism.

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is highly prevalent in fragile X syndrome (FXS), affecting 50-70% of males. Motor impairments are a shared feature across autism and FXS that may help to better characterize autism in FXS. As motor skills provide a critical foundation for various language, cognitive, and social outcomes, they may serve an important mechanistic role for autism in FXS. As such, this study aimed to identify differences in motor trajectories across direct assessment and parent-report measures of fine and gross motor development between FXS with and without autism, and typical development, while controlling for cognitive functioning.MethodsThis prospective longitudinal study included 42 children with FXS, 24 of whom also had ASD (FXS + ASD), as well as 40 typically developing children. The Mullen Scales of Early Learning provided a direct measure of fine and gross motor skills, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales provided a measure of parent-reported fine and gross motor skills. Random slopes and random intercepts multilevel models were tested to determine divergence in developmental motor trajectories between groups when controlling for cognitive level.ResultsModel results indicated the children with FXS + ASD diverged from TD children by 9-months on all measures of gross and fine motor skills, even when controlling for cognitive level. Results also indicated an early divergence in motor trajectories of fine and gross motor skills between the FXS + ASD and FXS groups when controlling for cognitive level. This divergence was statistically significant by 18 months, with the FXS + ASD showing decelerated growth in motor skills across direct observation and parent-report measures.ConclusionsThis study is the first to examine longitudinal trends in motor development in children with FXS with and without comorbid ASD using both direct assessment and parent-report measures of fine and gross motor. Furthermore, it is among the first to account for nonverbal cognitive delays, a step towards elucidating the isolated role of motor impairments in FXS with and without ASD. Findings underscore the role of motor impairments as a possible signal representing greater underlying genetic liability, or as a potential catalyst or consequence, of co-occurring autism in FXS

The experience of community first responders in co-producing rural health care : in the liminal gap between citizen and professional

Non peer reviewedPublisher PD