Tri-partite reviews: a signature pedagogy for police education

All apprenticeship training providers are required to conduct regular tri-partite reviews by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) as a matter of funding rules compliance. Tri- partite reviews, as the name suggests, involve three parties, the learner (apprentice), an employer representative who is supporting the learner and a tutor who is supporting the learner as a provider of apprenticeship training collectively reviewing learning progress. Since April 2021 Ofsted have undertaken responsibility for inspecting all apprenticeship training including apprenticeships at levels 6 and 7 (with the exception of apprenticeships related to initial teacher training). Ofsted’s interest in tri-partite reviews is in their impact on the progressive acquisition and application of the knowledge, skills and behaviours in association with other factors of an apprenticeship (such as apprentice’s own personal goals or the ongoing development of functional skills) which are identified at the start of the programme. Tri-partite reviews are used as an important source of evidence during Ofsted inspection because they are a key means of ensuring that the quality of provision is meeting the needs of both the apprentice and the employer. However, the provision of tri-partite reviews is not solely a matter of compliance, it is also a key determinant of the quality of apprenticeship training. This research project is intended to contribute to the development and dissemination of good practice with regards to the provision of tri-partite reviews for the benefit of learners, employers and providers

Using Pre-Lecture Activities to Enhance Learner Engagement in a Large Group Setting

The disadvantage to students of beginning a module with no prior knowledge or inaccurate knowledge is well documented. For learners, the development of the necessary prior knowledge to facilitate their learning is essential. The use of screencasts, whether prior to or during class, is becoming more widespread. There is a need, however, to better understand how these are used and whether or not there is any impact on overall learner engagement and academic achievement when a component with instantaneous feedback (such as a multiple choice quiz) is embedded into the pre-lecture screencast activity. In this study, pre-learning activities consisting of screencasts and multiple choice quizzes were introduced to improve student engagement with the topic, gauge common misconceptions and give timely feedback to the students. An examination of screencast usage indicated that students did not predominantly nor exclusively employ the resources as originally intended, that is, in advance of lectures. Rather, students continued to access the activities across the module and often after the associated lecture. Implications are discussed with an acknowledgement of the importance of taking into account how learners prefer to use resources when designing and introducing new activities to modules. Keywords large group teaching, learner engagement, multiple choice quizzes, prior knowledge, screencasts Identifying and enhancing learner prior knowledge – what do learners know already and how can this help them?[AQ1] To find ways to support student learning, educators are increasingly turning their attention to the very roots of the learning experience, that is, to the knowledge, skills, environments and processes already possessed and encountered by the learner before the new, to-be-learned material is introduced (Coppola and Krajcik, 2014). Although such awareness of the importance of prior knowledge is not a recent emergence (Ausubel, 1968), interest in what learners know in advance

Making judgements about students making work : lecturers’ assessment practices in art and design.

This research study explores the assessment practices in two higher education art and design departments. The key aim of this research was to explore art and design studio assessment practices as lived by and experienced by art and design lecturers. This work draws on two bodies of pre existing research. Firstly this study adopted innovative methodological approaches that have been employed to good effect to explore assessment in text based subjects (think aloud) and moderation mark agreement (observation). Secondly the study builds on existing research into the assessment of creative practice. By applying thinking aloud methodologies into a creative practice assessment context the authors seek to illuminate the ‘in practice’ rather than espoused assessment approaches adopted. The analysis suggests that lecturers in the study employed three macro conceptions of quality to support the judgement process. These were; the demonstration of significant learning over time, the demonstration of effective studentship and the presentation of meaningful art/design work

The relation between psychological flexibility and mental health stigma in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A preliminary process investigation.

The present study examined the relation between changes in psychological flexibility and changes in mental health stigma in the context of a 2.5-hour long Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group workshop for reducing mental health stigma. Of 27 college undergraduates who attended the workshop, 22 completed one-month follow-up assessments, and their data were used for analyses. Results revealed that mental health stigma reduced significantly at post-treatment, and these reductions were maintained at one-month follow-up. The degree of improvement in psychological flexibility from pre to follow-up was found to be significantly correlated with the degree of reduction in mental health stigma from pre to follow-up. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are discussed

Short tandem repeat sequences in the Mycoplasma genitalium genome and their use in a multilocus genotyping system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several methods have been reported for strain typing of <it>Mycoplasma genitalium</it>. The value of these methods has never been comparatively assessed. The aims of this study were: 1) to identify new potential genetic markers based on an analysis of short tandem repeat (STR) sequences in the published <it>M. genitalium </it>genome sequence; 2) to apply previously and newly identified markers to a panel of clinical strains in order to determine the optimal combination for an efficient multi-locus genotyping system; 3) to further confirm sexual transmission of <it>M. genitalium </it>using the newly developed system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We performed a comprehensive analysis of STRs in the genome of the <it>M. genitalium </it>type strain G37 and identified 18 loci containing STRs. In addition to one previously studied locus, MG309, we chose two others, MG307 and MG338, for further study. Based on an analysis of 74 unrelated patient specimens from New Orleans and Scandinavia, the discriminatory indices (DIs) for these three markers were 0.9153, 0.7381 and 0.8730, respectively. Two other previously described markers, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the rRNA genes (rRNA-SNPs) and SNPs in the MG191 gene (MG191-SNPs) were found to have DIs of 0.5820 and 0.9392, respectively. A combination of MG309-STRs and MG191-SNPs yielded almost perfect discrimination (DI = 0.9894). An additional finding was that the rRNA-SNPs distribution pattern differed significantly between Scandinavia and New Orleans. Finally we applied multi-locus typing to further confirm sexual transmission using specimens from 74 unrelated patients and 31 concurrently infected couples. Analysis of multi-locus genotype profiles using the five variable loci described above revealed 27 of the couples had concordant genotype profiles compared to only four examples of concordance among the 74 unrelated randomly selected patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We propose that a combination of the MG309-STRs and MG191-SNPs is efficient for general epidemiological studies and addition of MG307-STRs and MG338-STRs is potentially useful for sexual network studies of <it>M. genitalium </it>infection. The multi-locus typing analysis of 74 unrelated <it>M. genitalium</it>-infected individuals and 31 infected couples adds to the evidence that <it>M. genitalium </it>is sexually transmitted.</p

Evaluation of a Conversation Management Toolkit for Multi Agent Programming

The Agent Conversation Reasoning Engine (ACRE) is intended to aid agent developers to improve the management and reliability of agent communication. To evaluate its effectiveness, a problem scenario was created that could be used to compare code written with and without the use of ACRE by groups of test subjects. This paper describes the requirements that the evaluation scenario was intended to meet and how these motivated the design of the problem. Two experiments were conducted with two separate sets of students and their solutions were analysed using a combination of simple objective metrics and subjective analysis. The analysis suggested that ACRE by default prevents some common problems arising that would limit the reliability and extensibility of conversation-handling code. As ACRE has to date been integrated only with the Agent Factory multi agent framework, it was necessary to verify that the problems identified are not unique to that platform. Thus a comparison was made with best practice communication code written for the Jason platform, in order to demonstrate the wider applicability of a system such as ACRE.Comment: appears as Programming Multi-Agent Systems - 10th International Workshop, ProMAS 2012, Valencia, Spain, June 5, 2012, Revised Selected Paper

A parametric study of cognitive defusion and the believability and discomfort of negative self-relevant thoughts

A previous time series study showed that rapidly repeating a single word version of a negative self-referential thought reduced the discomfort and the believability associated with that thought. The present parametric study examined whether durations of word repetition were differentially effective in altering the discomfort and believability of negative self-referential thought. In two studies, both discomfort and believability varied systematically with the duration of word repetition. The effects of rapid repetition on emotional discomfort bottomed out after 3 to 10 seconds of rapid repetition, while the effects on believability did so after 20 to 30 seconds of repetition. This study lends support to the cognitive defusion interpretation of the effect of word repetition, suggesting that emotional discomfort and believability may be distinctive functional aspects of cognitive events

Impact demagnetization of the Martian crust: Current knowledge and future directions

The paleomagnetism of the Martian crust has important implications for the history of the dynamo, the intensity of the ancient magnetic field, and the composition of the crust. Modification of crustal magnetization by impact cratering is evident from the observed lack of a measurable crustal field (at spacecraft altitude) within the youngest large impact basins (e.g., Hellas, Argyre and Isidis). It is hoped that comparisons of the magnetic intensity over impact structures, forward modeling of subsurface magnetization, and experimental results of pressure-induced demagnetization of rocks and minerals will provide constraints on the primary magnetic mineralogy in the Martian crust. Such an effort requires: (i) accurate knowledge of the spatial distribution of the shock pressures around impact basins, (ii) crustal magnetic intensity maps of adequate resolution over impact structures, and (iii) determination of demagnetization properties for individual rocks and minerals under compression. In this work, we evaluate the current understanding of these three conditions and compile the available experimental pressure demagnetization data on samples bearing (titano-) magnetite, (titano-) hematite, and pyrrhotite. We find that all samples demagnetize substantially at pressures of a few GPa and that the available data support significant modification of the crustal magnetic field from both large and small impact events. However, the amount of demagnetization with applied pressure does not vary significantly among the possible carrier phases. Therefore, the presence of individual mineral phases on Mars cannot be determined from azimuthally averaged demagnetization profiles over impact basins at present. The identification of magnetic mineralogy on Mars will require more data on pressure demagnetization of thermoremanent magnetization and forward modeling of the crustal field subject to a range of plausible initial field and demagnetization patterns.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNG04GD17G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX07AQ69G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX06AD14G

The impact of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus education on stigma toward people with psychological disorders

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has previously been shown to alter stigmatizing attitudes and to be relatively useful for psychologically inflexible participants. The present study is the first to bring those two findings together by comparing ACT to an education intervention for reducing stigma toward people with psychological disorders, and examining whether results differ for psychologically inflexible versus flexible individuals. A sample of college students (N = 95) was randomly assigned to a 2 ½ hour ACT or educational workshop. Measures were taken before and after the workshop and at a one-month follow-up. ACT reduced mental health stigma significantly regardless of participants’ pre-treatment levels of psychological flexibility, but education reduced stigma only among participants who were relatively flexible and non-avoidant to begin with. Acceptance could be an important avenue of exploration for stigma researcher