The landscape of professional doctorate provision in english higher education institutions:Inconsistencies, tensions and unsustainability

This article reports findings from a recent research project, commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which explored the current landscape of professional doctorate (PD) provision in English Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) (Mellors-Bourne et al., 2016). Given the absence of a clear definition by the Quality Assurance Agency in England, of the characteristics which distinguish PDs from practice-based doctorates and the Doctor of Philosophy, this paper makes a timely contribution through considering the inherent characteristics of PD programmes. The paper presents an overview of the state of play of PD programmes currently available in HEIs in England, highlighting how the proliferation of PD titles and programmes, and inconsistencies between the various programmes, has resulted in confusion around what PDs are, the contribution they make, and the value they add to professional practice. Consideration is given to the tensions created through the expansion in the number and types of PDs available and the implications of these tensions with regard to the future sustainability of PD programmes in general and, in particular, in relation to the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD)

Microbial respiration, the engine of ocean deoxygenation

Microbial plankton respiration is the key determinant in the balance between the storage of organic carbon in the oceans or its conversion to carbon dioxide with accompanying consumption of dissolved oxygen. Over the past 50 years, dissolved oxygen concentrations have decreased in many parts of the world’s oceans, and this trend of ocean deoxygenation is predicted to continue. Yet despite its pivotal role in ocean deoxygenation, microbial respiration remains one of the least constrained microbial metabolic processes. Improved understanding of the magnitude and variability of respiration, including attribution to component plankton groups, and quantification of the respiratory quotient, would enable better predictions, and projections of the intensity and extent of ocean deoxygenation and of the integrative impact of ocean deoxygenation, ocean acidification, warming, and changes in nutrient concentration and stoichiometry on marine carbon storage. This study will synthesize current knowledge of respiration in relation to deoxygenation, including the drivers of its variability, identify key unknowns in our ability to project future scenarios and suggest an approach to move the field forward

Applying coupon-collecting theory to computer-aided assessments

Computer-based tests with randomly generated questions allow a large number of different tests to be generated. Given a fixed number of alternatives for each question, the number of tests that need to be generated before all possible questions have appeared is surprisingly low.Comment: 19 pages; bibliographic information added as follows. To appear in Bingham, N. H., and Goldie, C. M. (eds), Probability and Mathematical Genetics: Papers in Honour of Sir John Kingman. London Math. Soc. Lecture Note Series. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pres

Book review: A vision for advancing children’s rights education in classrooms and communities

Children's rights in diverse classrooms: Pedagogy, principles and practice starts from a seemingly simple question: what implications follow for teaching in schools if our starting point is that children are rights holders and teachers are duty bearers? The book addresses this question through exploring different approaches to teaching and learning about children's rights in different countries. In doing so, Jerome and Starkey present a vision for what focused children's rights education (CRE) might look like and provide scholarly insights into the tensions and challenges that emerge when working to develop practices aimed at advancing CRE in schools

Student-centred approaches in Mathematics

Student-centred approaches in Mathematic

An analysis of understanding and cooperation as it depends upon communication between the Meeting Street School and parents of children there enrolled

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Workload challenge research projects:overall summary

Three reports from the Independent Teacher Review Groups (DfE, 2016a; DfE, 2016b; and DfE, 2016c) included findings from the Department for Education (DfE) Workload Challenge Survey in which 56% of respondents indicated that data management caused unnecessary workload (DfE, 2016a, 6), 38% identified detailed lesson and weekly planning as adding an unnecessary burden to their workload (DfE, 2016b, 6), and 53% thought that the excessive nature, depth and frequency of marking was burdensome (DfE, 2016c, 6). The National College for Teaching and Leadership commissioned 11 school-based research projects to investigate practical and sustainable solutions for tackling teacher workload and provide evidence of impact of successful workload reduction strategies related to data management, planning and marking. The majority of the research projects were conducted in existing networks of schools, comprising between three and 25 schools; primary, secondary and, in a small number of cases, middle schools and special schools were involved in these projects. In all cases, the schools and networks of schools involved in the projects identified aspects of policy and practice relating to either data management, planning or marking as a focus for their research. This summary report details findings from the analysis of the 11 commissioned research projects, and a further independent research report. The analysis aimed to determine the methods trialled to reduce teacher workload around data management, planning and marking, and resulting outcomes on teacher workload and pupil outcomes. The overall conclusions drawn from the review of the research reports suggest studies that trialled interventions also reported successful reductions in teacher workload without impacting negatively on pupil outcomes. Additionally, studies that developed recommendations for, but did not trial, interventions reported that teachers were confident that once implemented, the interventions would lead to a reduction in their workload. Specific organisational and cultural factors were found to be significant in both facilitating and impeding the implementation of new initiative