510 research outputs found
The effect of viva assessment on students’ approaches to learning and motivation
Higher education aims to encourage students to achieve a higher level of understanding of their subject matter. In order for students to achieve these higher levels, they have to approach their learning at a deeper level (Prosser and Trigwell, 1999; Barrab and Plucker, 2002), and be motivated to achieve (Deci and Ryan, 1985). One factor that is seen as a major influence on students’ intentions is their perception of the assessment of their learning (Gibbs, 2007; Ramsden, 2003; Biggs, 2003; Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000). A learner, who perceives that the learning outcome requires demonstration of understanding, application, and critical analysis, will approach their studying in a way that promotes this. Students who perceive the assessment can be achieved through memorising and regurgitation will approach their learning in a different manner. This study was to investigate if, as part of a constructive teaching methodology that allowed for practice, the introduction of a viva voce examination that required a deep approach to learning to achieve would have an influence on the students’ approaches to learning and motivation. By emphasising this assessment methodology, first year students were predominantly intrinsically motivated, and maintained their level of deep approach to learning throughout the module, where previous literature had found decreases in deep approaches to learning when assessment took place
Constructively aligned teaching methods and students’ approaches to learning and motivational orientations
Most studies have found that, at the contextual level (e.g. degree programme) approach to study is stable over time (e.g. Busato, Prins, Elshout and Hamaker, 1998). At the situational level (e.g. a module) the results are possibly less equivocal, with studies reporting a decrease in deep approach at the end of the module (e.g. Newstead, 1998). Fazey & Lawson (2000) conducted a study that was contingent upon the use of a teaching approach that consistently raises expectations that a deep approach to learning is required and uses an assessment methodology that will reward such an approach. They found that students taught using this constructively aligned methodology, maintained their deep approach to study and significantly decreased their surface approach at the assessment period of the module. In a follow up study Lawson, Fazey and Fazey (2006) further explored this concept in a variety of subjects, finding that modules classified as being strongly aligned and fostering deep approaches to learning, had students who scored significantly higher on deeper approaches to learning and intrinsic motivation than those in modules with low alignment that fostered a surface approach. This present study looks at changes over time in students approaches to learning and motivational orientation. The results show changes over time in these student factors, related to teaching approach and alignment
Engaging industry: Embedding professional learning in the business curriculum
Professional learning has become a feature of business curricula in universities throughout Australia and around the world. ‘Professional learning’ is often used to denote educational programs that are explicitly linked to industry and professional bodies through industry placements, industry projects and teaching approaches that highlight contemporary industry issues. Professional learning encompasses the skills, qualities and attributes that are required by a profession and the processes through which those skills are learnt: that is, the methods of teaching – case studies, role plays, field trips, work placement and the like. Professional learning encourages deep learning in relation to the student’s future profession, and includes industry engagement, work‐integrated learning and authentic learning environments..
Simulations of neutron background in a time projection chamber relevant to dark matter searches
Presented here are results of simulations of neutron background performed for
a time projection chamber acting as a particle dark matter detector in an
underground laboratory. The investigated background includes neutrons from rock
and detector components, generated via spontaneous fission and (alpha, n)
reactions, as well as those due to cosmic-ray muons. Neutrons were propagated
to the sensitive volume of the detector and the nuclear recoil spectra were
calculated. Methods of neutron background suppression were also examined and
limitations to the sensitivity of a gaseous dark matter detector are discussed.
Results indicate that neutrons should not limit sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon
interactions down to a level of (1 - 3) x 10^{-8} pb in a 10 kg detector.Comment: 27 pages (total, including 3 tables and 11 figures). Accepted for
publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research - Section
Interleukin-7 deficiency in rheumatoid arthritis: consequences for therapy-induced lymphopenia
We previously demonstrated prolonged, profound CD4+ T-lymphopenia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients following lymphocyte-depleting therapy. Poor reconstitution could result either from reduced de novo T-cell production through the thymus or from poor peripheral expansion of residual T-cells. Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is known to stimulate the thymus to produce new T-cells and to allow circulating mature T-cells to expand, thereby playing a critical role in T-cell homeostasis. In the present study we demonstrated reduced levels of circulating IL-7 in a cross-section of RA patients. IL-7 production by bone marrow stromal cell cultures was also compromised in RA. To investigate whether such an IL-7 deficiency could account for the prolonged lymphopenia observed in RA following therapeutic lymphodepletion, we compared RA patients and patients with solid cancers treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous progenitor cell rescue. Chemotherapy rendered all patients similarly lymphopenic, but this was sustained in RA patients at 12 months, as compared with the reconstitution that occurred in cancer patients by 3–4 months. Both cohorts produced naïve T-cells containing T-cell receptor excision circles. The main distinguishing feature between the groups was a failure to expand peripheral T-cells in RA, particularly memory cells during the first 3 months after treatment. Most importantly, there was no increase in serum IL-7 levels in RA, as compared with a fourfold rise in non-RA control individuals at the time of lymphopenia. Our data therefore suggest that RA patients are relatively IL-7 deficient and that this deficiency is likely to be an important contributing factor to poor early T-cell reconstitution in RA following therapeutic lymphodepletion. Furthermore, in RA patients with stable, well controlled disease, IL-7 levels were positively correlated with the T-cell receptor excision circle content of CD4+ T-cells, demonstrating a direct effect of IL-7 on thymic activity in this cohort
Neutron background in large-scale xenon detectors for dark matter searches
Simulations of the neutron background for future large-scale particle dark
matter detectors are presented. Neutrons were generated in rock and detector
elements via spontaneous fission and (alpha,n) reactions, and by cosmic-ray
muons. The simulation techniques and results are discussed in the context of
the expected sensitivity of a generic liquid xenon dark matter detector.
Methods of neutron background suppression are investigated. A sensitivity of
pb to WIMP-nucleon interactions can be achieved by a
tonne-scale detector.Comment: 35 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in
Astroparticle Physic
The calibration of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory using uniformly distributed radioactive sources
The production and analysis of distributed sources of 24Na and 222Rn in the
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) are described. These unique sources provided
accurate calibrations of the response to neutrons, produced through
photodisintegration of the deuterons in the heavy water target, and to low
energy betas and gammas. The application of these sources in determining the
neutron detection efficiency and response of the 3He proportional counter
array, and the characteristics of background Cherenkov light from trace amounts
of natural radioactivity is described.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figure
Semigroup Closures of Finite Rank Symmetric Inverse Semigroups
We introduce the notion of semigroup with a tight ideal series and
investigate their closures in semitopological semigroups, particularly inverse
semigroups with continuous inversion. As a corollary we show that the symmetric
inverse semigroup of finite transformations of the rank
is algebraically closed in the class of (semi)topological inverse
semigroups with continuous inversion. We also derive related results about the
nonexistence of (partial) compactifications of classes of semigroups that we
consider.Comment: With the participation of the new coauthor - Jimmie Lawson - the
manuscript has been substantially revised and expanded. Accordingly, we have
also changed the manuscript titl
Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross-sections from the first ZEPLIN-II data
The first underground data run of the ZEPLIN-II experiment has set a limit on
the nuclear recoil rate in the two-phase xenon detector for direct dark matter
searches. In this paper the results from this run are converted into the limits
on spin-dependent WIMP-proton and WIMP-neutron cross-sections. The minimum of
the curve for WIMP-neutron cross-section corresponds to 0.07 pb at a WIMP mass
of around 65 GeV.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Physics Letters
The ZEPLIN II dark matter detector: data acquisition system and data reduction
ZEPLIN-II is a two-phase (liquid/gas) xenon dark matter detector searching
for WIMP-nucleon interactions. In this paper we describe the data acquisition
system used to record the data from ZEPLIN-II and the reduction procedures
which parameterise the data for subsequent analysis.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
- …