Cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety

Commentary on: Clinical and cost-effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety in medical patients (Tyrer et al THE LANCET-D-13-04564R2

That obscure object of ontology: Lacan, La femme, lathouse and Her

This chapter examines the “object-disoriented ontology” of Jacques Lacan and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in relation to Spike Jonze’s film, Her (2013), and the recent objectal turn in contemporary philosophy. It argues that the smartphone AI of Jonze’s technofable presents what Lacan calls the “lathouse” (object-cause of desire governed by science) according to a Lacanian “masculine” logic that relies on reference to the beyond, which is equally found in Quentin Meillassoux’s “speculative materialism”. This is critiqued through the dialectical materialism of the Slovene School, which instead situates both subject and object as immanent to a “feminine” logic of contradiction

Untangling the complexity of mentoring feedback practices in post-compulsory initial teacher education in the UK

In post-compulsory initial teacher education (ITE) in the UK, mentors are purported to play a critical role in shaping trainee teachers’ professional development through the provision of regular, constructive and purposeful feedback on their mentee’s teaching practices. However, the complexity of mentoring feedback practices – socially, spatially and temporally – situated within programmatical and institutional architectures and in the turbulent landscape of Further Education (FE), is often underestimated. Using the theory of practice architectures, this single-site case study attempts to untangle this complexity as it explores how mentoring feedback practices were realised on one post-compulsory ITE programme, examining the processes, arrangements and artefacts which enabled and constrained their enactment. The site ontological approach also examines the dynamic unfolding of mentoring feedback practices in response to these institutional conditions in time and space, concluding that their trajectory largely depends on the ‘stickiness’ of their relationship and congruence with other organisational practices and concerns

Beyond social chit chat? Analysing the social practice of a mobile messaging service on a higher education teacher development course

Mobile technology has become for many an essential aspect of everyday life. It has transformed how people interact and is widely adopted by social networks to facilitate communication, support engagement and build collaboration. With reference to Shove et al., (The dynamics of social practice: Everyday life and how it changes, 2012) three element social practice model and Wenger (Communities of Practice: learning, meaning and identity, 1998) community of practice framework, this “insider” research study analyses the norms, behaviours and attitudes of users of a mobile messaging service over a two-year higher education teacher training programme. It also examines the socio-technical interaction between the trainee teachers and the relationship between the mobile messaging application and other communicative practices.. Overall, the findings from this research study suggest that although the concept of a community of practice is problematic, the WhatsApp practice positively shaped the experiences of the trainee teachers on their programme

Prescription and Practice: A Small-Scale, Democratic Evaluation of Mentoring Provision on a Higher Education Teacher Training Programme

Mentoring is generally perceived to be an important aspect of initial teacher education. However, the quality of provision is variable, shaped considerably by societal and political conditions. The aim of this democratic evaluation was to look beyond a prescribed view of mentoring to examine how it was understood by different practitioners on a higher education teacher training programme, the range of collective, routinised activities undertaken and the nature of interaction in the mentoring relationship. The findings suggest that the success of the practice depends largely on the extent to which internal and external power dynamics affect the mentoring relationship

The voice, text and the visual as semiotic companions: an analysis of the materiality and meaning potential of multimodal screen feedback

The gap between how learners interpret and act upon feedback has been widely documented in the research literature. What is less certain is the extent to which the modality and materiality of the feedback influence students’ and teachers’ perceptions. This article explores the semiotic potential of multimodal screen feedback to enhance written feedback. Guided by an “Inquiry Graphics” approach, situated within a semiotic theory of learning edusemiotic conceptual framework, constructions of meaning in relation to screencasting feedback were analysed to determine how and whether it could be incorporated into existing feedback practices. Semi-structured video elicitation interviews with student teachers were used to incorporate both micro and macro levels of analysis. The findings suggested that the relationship between the auditory, visual and textual elements in multimodal screen feedback enriched the feedback process, highlighting the importance of form in addition to content to aid understanding of written feedback. The constitutive role of design and material artefacts in feedback practices in initial teacher training pertinent to these findings is also discussed

The effect of environmental change, planned and unplanned life events on the long-term outcome of common mental disorders

PURPOSE: To examine the nature of positive and negative environmental change on clinical outcome in 210 patients presenting with anxiety and depression and followed up over 30 years. METHODS: In addition to clinical assessments, major environmental changes, particularly after 12 and 30 years, were recorded in all patients by a combination of self-report and taped interviews. Environmental changes were separated into two major groups, positive or negative, determined by patient opinion. RESULTS: In all analyses positive changes were found to be associated with better outcome at 12 years with respect to accommodation (P = 0.009), relationships (P = 007), and substance misuse (P = 0.003), with fewer psychiatric admissions (P = 0.011) and fewer social work contacts at 30 years (P = 0.043). Using a consolidated outcome measure positive changes were more likely than negative ones to be associated with a good outcome at 12 and 30 years (39% v 3.6% and 30.2% v 9.1%, respectively). Those with personality disorder at baseline had fewer positive changes (P = 0.018) than others at 12 years and fewer positive occupational changes at 30 years (P = 0.041). Service use was greatly reduced in those with positive events with 50-80% more time free of all psychotropic drug treatment (P < 0.001). Instrumental positive change had greater effects than imposed changes. CONCLUSIONS: Positive environmental change has a favourable impact on clinical outcome in common mental disorders. Although studied naturalistically in this study the findings suggest that if harnessed as a therapeutic intervention, as in nidotherapy and social prescribing, it would yield therapeutic dividends