Enterprise Education Competitions: A Theoretically Flawed Intervention?

The demand for including enterprise in the education system, at all levels and for all pupils is now a global phenomenon. Within this context, the use of competitions and competitive learning activities is presented as a popular and effective vehicle for learning. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how a realist method of enquiry – which utilises theory as the unit of analysis – can shed new light on the assumed and unintended outcomes of enterprise education competitions. The case developed here is that there are inherent flaws in assuming that competitions will ‘work’ in the ways set out in policy and guidance. Some of the most prevalent stated outcomes – that competitions will motivate and reward young people, that they will enable the development of entrepreneurial skills, and that learners will be inspired by their peers – are challenged by theory from psychology and education. The issue at stake is that the expansion of enterprise education policy into primary and secondary education increases the likelihood that more learners will be sheep dipped in competitions, and competitive activities, without a clear recognition of the potential unintended effects. In this chapter, we employ a realist-informed approach to critically evaluate the theoretical basis that underpins the use of competitions and competitive learning activities in school-based enterprise education. We believe that our findings and subsequent recommendations will provide those who promote and practice the use of competitions with a richer, more sophisticated picture of the potential flaws within such activities.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Oppilaitten eettinen toimijuus videotutkimuksessa

The rapid development of various recording technologies in recent years has created appealing opportunities for researchers to document and study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in ways which previously were either impossible, high-priced, or impractical. The potential access that low-cost and ever-smaller recorders provide us has been wisely tempered with cautions that researchers critically reflect on whether the benefits of the research outweigh the invasion of participants’ privacy, especially in research with children. These cautions rightfully place the burden of ethical deliberation on the researcher. However, by so doing they also direct attention away from the ethical work done by study participants and overshadow their agency in relation to the research. In effect, the cautions join and reinforce dominant narratives of participant, especially children’s, vulnerability in research and the researcher as the main ethical actor during the research process. This study seeks to balance such narratives by drawing attention to how children demonstrate their awareness of the audience of nearby recorders to each other and, through such actions, also create spaces for private, out-of-view interaction they do not wish to be recorded. With demonstrative vignettes from a yearlong ethnographic study of children’s learning in an alternative STEM learning infrastructure, the study argues that such moments highlight children’s ethical agency in research.The rapid development of various recording technologies in recent years has created appealing opportunities for researchers to document and study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in ways which previously were either impossible, high-priced, or impractical. The potential access that low-cost and ever-smaller recorders provide us has been wisely tempered with cautions that researchers critically reflect on whether the benefits of the research outweigh the invasion of participants’ privacy, especially in research with children. These cautions rightfully place the burden of ethical deliberation on the researcher. However, by so doing they also direct attention away from the ethical work done by study participants and overshadow their agency in relation to the research. In effect, the cautions join and reinforce dominant narratives of participants’, especially children’s, vulnerability in research and the researcher as the main ethical actor during the research process. This study seeks to balance such narratives by drawing attention to how children demonstrate their awareness of the audience of nearby recorders to each other and, through such actions, also create spaces for private, out-of-view interaction they do not wish to be recorded. With demonstrative vignettes from a yearlong ethnographic study of children’s learning in an alternative STEM learning infrastructure, the study argues that such moments highlight children’s ethical agency in research.Peer reviewe

A good practice guide to managing human resource s in regional SMEs.

This publication is intended not only for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also for those who are in charge of human resources and are looking for inspiration on how to acquire and retain them or wish to educate themselves in this field further. The publication focuses on practice; it details the crucial challenges of HR in terms of literature, as well as practical case studies. And it is this focus - this lead in human resource management - that can give many companies a competitive edge and advance of others which have not yet gained that knowledge

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels

Controlled intermittent shortening contractions of a muscle-tendon complex: muscle fibre damage and effects on force transmission from a single head of rat EDL

This study was performed to examine effects of prolonged (3 h) intermittent shortening (amplitude 2 mm) contractions (muscles were excited maximally) of head III of rat extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL III) on indices of muscle damage and on force transmission within the intact anterior crural compartment. Three hours after the EDL III exercise, muscle fibre damage, as assessed by immunohistochemical staining of structural proteins (i.e. dystrophin, desmin, titin, laminin-2), was found in EDL, tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor hallucis longus (EHL) muscles. The damaged muscle fibres were not uniformly distributed throughout the muscle cross-sections, but were located predominantly near the interface of TA and EDL muscles as well as near intra- and extramuscular neurovascular tracts. In addition, changes were observed in desmin, muscle ankyrin repeat protein 1, and muscle LIM protein gene expression: significantly (P < 0.01) higher (1.3, 45.5 and 2.3-fold, respectively) transcript levels compared to the contralateral muscles. Post-EDL III exercise, length-distal force characteristics of EDL III were altered significantly (P < 0.05): at high EDL III lengths, active forces decreased and the length range between active slack length and optimum length increased. For all EDL III lengths tested, proximal passive and active force of EDL decreased. The slope of the EDL III length-TA + EHL force curve decreased, which indicates a decrease of the degree of intermuscular interaction between EDL III and TA + EHL. It is concluded that prolonged intermittent shortening contractions of a single head of multi-tendoned EDL muscle results in structural damage to muscle fibres as well as altered force transmission within the compartment. A possible role of myofascial force transmission is discussed. © Springer 2005

Non-telecentric two-photon microscopy for 3D random access mesoscale imaging

Diffraction-limited two-photon microscopy permits minimally invasive optical monitoring of neuronal activity. However, most conventional two-photon microscopes impose significant constraints on the size of the imaging field-of-view and the specific shape of the effective excitation volume, thus limiting the scope of biological questions that can be addressed and the information obtainable. Here, employing a non-telecentric optical design, we present a low-cost, easily implemented and flexible solution to address these limitations, offering a several-fold expanded three-dimensional field of view. Moreover, rapid laser-focus control via an electrically tunable lens allows near-simultaneous imaging of remote regions separated in three dimensions and permits the bending of imaging planes to follow natural curvatures in biological structures. Crucially, our core design is readily implemented (and reversed) within a matter of hours, making it highly suitable as a base platform for further development. We demonstrate the application of our system for imaging neuronal activity in a variety of examples in zebrafish, mice and fruit flies

An experimental study on the response of blanket bog vegetation and water tables to ditch blocking

We studied the effect of ditch blocking on vegetation composition and water-table depths in a blanket peatland. Measurements were made for a period of four years (water tables) and five years (vegetation) in the inter-ditch areas of three experimental treatments: (i) open ditches, (ii) ditches blocked with closely-spaced dams and (iii) ditches partially infilled with peat and blocked with dams. It is often assumed that ditch blocking will lead to an increase in the abundance of Sphagnum and, potentially, a reduction in the abundance of sedges, particularly the cotton grasses. However, our data show no treatment effects on the abundance of either group. We did find an effect of time, with the abundance of both sedges and Sphagnum spp. varying significantly between some years. For the sedges there was no systematic change over time, while for the Sphagnum spp. abundance tended to increase through the study period. This systematic change was not related to a measure of the vigour of the sedges, although vigour was lower towards the end of the study compared to the beginning. Our vegetation data are consistent with our water-table data. As with plant type abundance, we did not find any statistically significant differences in water-table depths between treatments, both for annual averages and summer averages. We comment on why ditch blocking does not seem to have affected water tables and vegetation composition at our study site

Primary Prevention of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Large-for-Gestational-Age Newborns by Lifestyle Counseling: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

In a cluster-randomized trial, Riitta Luoto and colleagues find that counseling on diet and activity can reduce the birthweight of babies born to women at risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but fail to find an effect on GDM