From the beginning: negotiation in community evaluation

This article focuses on negotiation and discusses its relevance for evaluators. Given the impetus for participatory evaluation, evaluators would benefit from improving skills that enable them to make collaborative decisions and work alongside stakeholders, in particular in community evaluations. Negotiation skills are explored through post hoc reflection of a Sure Start programme evaluation in a UK setting. Literature on stakeholder involvement and negotiation is discussed together with the UK evaluation. Recommendations are made on how to utilize elements of negotiation in community programme evaluation. Key skills are highlighted, including attention to: working with emotional situations, face-giving, rapport and creativity, timing, perceptions and improvisation

The impact on work-related stress of mental health teams following team-based learning on clinical risk management

Risk management is viewed as a systematic process based on multiprofessional and multi-agency decision-making. A learning pack was developed as part of a team-based learning project aiming to encourage and develop collaborative working practice. This brought different professionals and agencies working in mental health together to learn. There is little doubt that mental health practice is a source of stress for practitioners. Apart from the stress associated with managing 'risky' situations, risk management is also a relatively new concept. This can increase stress around ability to cope, both on an individual practitioner level and in teams. This article reports the impact that the learning pack had on team members' stress, specifically work-related stress. A range of scales were used to measure change in stress and results demonstrated reduced work-related pressure in a number of areas following the learning. The implications for team learning in relation to clinical risk management are discussed in light of the findings

Design Guidelines for Sensor-based Mobile Learning Applications

We present five design guidelines that we have developed from issues identified during our usability evaluations in a sensor-based citizen inquiry project. These have been compiled from existing literature, and after receiving feedback on use of the mobile application from participants through forum comments and survey responses, statistical analysis of the sensor measurements, and the researchers' observation and reflection. These guidelines aim to assist Technology-enhanced Learning (TEL) researchers and teachers who develop, modify or use mobile apps for their projects and lessons

Habent sua fata libelli: Aristotle's Categories in the first century BC

A re-examination of the question why, in the revival of interest, in the first century BC in Aristotle’s esoteric works, as opposed to his doctrines, the work Categories played so large a part. The answers suggested are that the work aroused interest just because it did not easily fit into the standard Hellenistic divisions of philosophy and their usual agendas, and that, more than Aristotle’s other works with the possible exception of the Metaphysics , it revealed aspects of Aristotle’s thought that had become unfamiliar during the Hellenistic period

Training novel phonemic contrasts: a comparison of identification and oddity discrimination training

High Variability Pronunciation Training (HVPT) is a highly successful alternative to ASR-based pronunciation training. It has been demonstrated that HVPT is effective in teaching the perception of non-native phonemic contrasts, and that this skill generalizes to the perception of unfamiliar words and talkers, transfers to pronunciation, and is retained long-term. HVPT is, however, not efficient and hence not motivating for the learner. In this study, we therefore compare HVPT with an alternative, namely oddity discrimination training. This comparison, in which Mandarin-Chinese speakers were trained to pronounce the English /r/-/l/ phonemic contrast, provides preliminary evidence to support the use of discrimination tasks in addition to identification tasks to add variety to HVPT

E-Pedagogy of Handheld Devices 2013 Survey: Patterns of student use for learning

The Pedagogy of Ebooks (E-Ped) project began in 2012 and seeks to document, analyse and explain the changing study practices of UK distance learning students as they employ, adapt and integrate the use of new portable digital devices such as e-book readers and tablets into their learning. This report describes the results of an undergraduate survey undertaken in 2013 at the Open University (UK) which asked students how they used e-readers, tablets and smartphones for study. This research represents a snapshot of the rapidly changing interaction between technology and education, and highlights issues and opportunities for Higher Education in supporting student adoption of appropriate technologies and development of effective new methods of study

PREFERENTIAL TRADING ARRANGEMENTS IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE COUNTRIES

Many countries of the Western Hemisphere in recent years have shown interest in participating in preferential trading arrangements (PTA) in anticipation of expanding exports. Results in this paper show that export expansion depends upon the type of agreement that is formed and who else is participating. Trade of two agricultural commodities are examined; wheat, and fruit and vegetable juices. Five PTAs are examined, each including the United States and one or more Western Hemisphere countries.International Relations/Trade,

Evidence for the frontline

This UK report explores what can be drawn from the advances across a range of fields to mobilise research knowledge more effectively across social policy and practice.It frames the issue by looking at the individual elements of an effective evidence chain – production, synthesis, transformation and implementation – whilst at the same time considering what needs to be done to integrate these elements more coherently. As well as looking at gaps in current infrastructure, it also picks out some exciting new initiatives and ideas that can hopefully produce tangible benefits for professional practice.The report draws on the themes raised at the Alliance for Useful Evidence ‘Evidence for the Frontline; What Works for Practitioners?’ event in Autumn 2012, which included inputs from social care, policing and education, as well as on previous literature, events and seminars that have explored the interface between research and practice