Assessing creative process and product in higher education

This article examines how Education undergraduates explored their creative processes through the planning and presentation of an artwork. In particular, it addresses how they negotiated the demands of an assessment method which focused on both the reflective process and the finished product. This investigation is part of a more extensive study of creativity and engagement in Higher Education; it is underpinned by the idea that all students have the potential to be creative if they are provided with innovative learning experiences and open-ended assessment tasks. The empirical data was obtained from semi-structured interviews (n=30), students’ reflective sketchbooks and observations. The findings support the view that students are more motivated and engaged when they have access to alternative, creative assessment opportunities which involve experimentation and risk-taking in a supportive learning environment. The data shows that they value assessment methods which enable them to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills in different ways. However, concern about the perceived subjectivity of such an assessment process, and the emphasis placed on meeting the learning outcomes, initially presented a barrier to creative development. One implication is that the conflict between creativity and assessment might be partially resolved if students played a more active part in both the formulation of summative assessment criteria and the on-going formative assessment process

Pushing the boundaries: a study of higher education students’ responses to a creative, art-based learning experience.

This article examines students’ responses to an open-ended, art-based task which involved the documentation of the creative process and culminated in the production of individual art pieces. It explores how students approached the work, and how working independently in a collaborative, learning space impacted on their personal and professional identities. The findings support the view that students are more engaged with their learning when they have access to challenging, creative experiences which enable them to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills in different ways

Spacelab Data Processing Facility (SLDPF) quality assurance expert systems development

Spacelab Data Processing Facility (SLDPF) expert system prototypes were developed to assist in the quality assurance of Spacelab and/or Attached Shuttle Payload (ASP) processed telemetry data. The SLDPF functions include the capturing, quality monitoring, processing, accounting, and forwarding of mission data to various user facilities. Prototypes for the two SLDPF functional elements, the Spacelab Output Processing System and the Spacelab Input Processing Element, are described. The prototypes have produced beneficial results including an increase in analyst productivity, a decrease in the burden of tedious analyses, the consistent evaluation of data, and the providing of concise historical records

Achieving fruit, juice, and vegetable recipe preparation goals influences consumption by 4th grade students

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Including children in food preparation activities has long been recommended as a method to encourage children's consumption, but has not been evaluated. Goal setting is also a common component of behavior change programs. This study assessed the impact of attaining goals to prepare fruit-juice or vegetable recipes on student fruit and vegetable consumption as part of a 10-week fruit and vegetable intervention for fourth grade students.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>At six of the 10 sessions, students (n = 671) selected a fruit-juice or vegetable recipe to prepare at home before the next session. Students returned parent-signed notes reporting their child's goal attainment. Baseline and post consumption were assessed with up to four days of dietary recalls. Analyses included regression models predicting post consumption from the number of fruit-juice or vegetable recipe preparation goals attained, controlling for baseline consumption.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In general, girls and Hispanic students achieved the most recipe preparation goals. For students with highest baseline fruit-juice consumption, post fruit-juice consumption was higher by about 1.0 serving for those achieving 2 or 3 fruit-juice recipe preparation goals. Post vegetable consumption was highest for students reporting the highest baseline vegetable consumption and who achieved two or three vegetable recipe preparation goals. In general, recipe goal setting was a useful procedure primarily for those with high baseline consumption.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is one of the first reports demonstrating that home recipe preparation was correlated with dietary change among children.</p

Securing safer care staff : a model for the assessment, selection and training of staff to work in residential care

The recruitment of staff into residential child care presents an ongoing challenge for organisations. Methods of recruitment in the past have been criticised in a range of government reports. Skinner (1992) and others have highlighted the need for better preparation and training of residential workers. At a national level, the Care Standards and the establishment of registration for residential staff have prompted a re-examination of selection and training practices

Effects of goal setting on dietary and physical activity changes in the Boy Scout badge projects.

Background: This study evaluates the relationship of goal setting to low-fat vegetable (LV) and fruit/100% juice (FJ) consumption and physical activity (PA) change. Methods: A total of 473 10- to 14-year-old Boy Scouts from Houston took part in a 9-week intervention. A two-group (LV and FJ or PA) intervention design was used with each group serving as the control for the other. Internet-based activities included goal setting at home. Food frequencies measured dietary intake. Results: Goals attained were not related to LV intake or PA. Immediate posttest FJ consumption increased about 0.7 servings as home FJ availability increased, but social desirability of response appeared to confound reports of FJ intake at posttest 6 months assessment. Conclusions: Goals attained were not related to LV intake or PA but was related to FJ intake, but only when home FJ availability was high and the relationship was confounded by social desirability of response. Further research is needed with higher quality measures of dietary intake to clarify these relationships

In it for the long haul: A reflective account of collaborative involvement in aphasia research and education

Background: The involvement of service users and supporters/advocates in healthcare education and healthcare research has developed an increasingly high profile in recent years, but relatively little is known about collaborations involving people with aphasia and family members. Aims: To reflect on and learn from the experience of collaboration, examining the ways in which the involvement of people with aphasia and family members was carried out over a fifteen-year period in the context of a UK university. Methods and procedures: We have taken a reflective longitudinal case study approach, and used constructs from implementation theory as sensitizing concepts in a cross-sectional analysis of documents in four key activities: the Conversation Partner scheme; Reaching Further Out; Supported Communication to Improve Participation in Rehabilitation; the Aphasia Research Collaboration. We then produced narrative accounts which run through the whole period of the study. Through this process, we as authors also reflected on our own experiences of collaboration. Outcomes and results: Conversation Partners (CP), integrated into the speech and language therapy practice placement, was the basis for almost all subsequent involvement. We deepened and strengthened the scope of the CP collaboration through funded workshops–Reaching Further Out–facilitated by Connect. Increasing the visibility of our collaboration enabled us to attract institutional support to develop our first major research undertaking, where people with aphasia played a key role in highlighting the need for the study, developing and implementing the intervention, taking part in project oversight, and helping disseminate the findings. The Aphasia Research Collaboration began as a partnership between speech and language therapy students and people with aphasia and has continued in various forms. Four narrative threads run through the period of this study: the importance of systems and people being adaptable; the contribution of leadership and commitment to continuity; a commitment to act and learn together; the importance of understanding value. Conclusions: Collaboration between people with aphasia, family members, and academic staff has been a collective accomplishment, where careful attention to learning, negotiation and adjustment have led to sustained involvement. In the future, where collaborations may be increasingly mediated through online technologies, all those involved must ensure that these are supported by robust and inclusive processes

Self efficacy for fruit, vegetable and water intakes: Expanded and abbreviated scales from item response modeling analyses

Objective To improve an existing measure of fruit and vegetable intake self efficacy by including items that varied on levels of difficulty, and testing a corresponding measure of water intake self efficacy. Design Cross sectional assessment. Items were modified to have easy, moderate and difficult levels of self efficacy. Classical test theory and item response modeling were applied. Setting One middle school at each of seven participating sites (Houston TX, Irvine CA, Philadelphia PA, Pittsburg PA, Portland OR, rural NC, and San Antonio TX). Subjects 714 6th grade students. Results Adding items to reflect level (low, medium, high) of self efficacy for fruit and vegetable intake achieved scale reliability and validity comparable to existing scales, but the distribution of items across the latent variable did not improve. Selecting items from among clusters of items at similar levels of difficulty along the latent variable resulted in an abbreviated scale with psychometric characteristics comparable to the full scale, except for reliability. Conclusions The abbreviated scale can reduce participant burden. Additional research is necessary to generate items that better distribute across the latent variable. Additional items may need to tap confidence in overcoming more diverse barriers to dietary intake

Differential protein profiling as a potential multi-marker approach for TSE diagnosis

Rona Barron - ORCID: 0000-0003-4512-9177 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4512-9177This "proof of concept" study, examines the use of differential protein expression profiling using surface enhanced laser desorption and ionisationtime of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF) for the diagnosis of TSE disease. Spectral output from all proteins selectively captured from individual murine brain homogenate samples, are compared as "profiles" in groups of infected and non-infected animals. Differential protein expression between groups is thus highlighted and statistically significant protein "peaks" used to construct a panel of disease specific markers. Studies at both terminal stages of disease and throughout the time course of disease have shown a disease specific protein profile or "disease fingerprint" which could be used to distinguish between groups of TSE infected and uninfected animals at an early time point of disease. Results Our results show many differentially expressed proteins in diseased and control animals, some at early stages of disease. Three proteins identified by SELDI-TOF analysis were verified by immunohistochemistry in brain tissue sections. We demonstrate that by combining the most statistically significant changes in expression, a panel of markers can be constructed that can distinguish between TSE diseased and normal animals. Conclusion Differential protein expression profiling has the potential to be used for the detection of disease in TSE infected animals. Having established that a "training set" of potential markers can be constructed, more work would be required to further test the specificity and sensitivity of the assay in a "testing set". Based on these promising results, further studies are being performed using blood samples from infected sheep to assess the potential use of SELDI-TOF as a pre-mortem blood based diagnostic.https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-9-1889pubpub

Women and Seasonality: Coping with Crisis and Calamity

SUMMARY This article explores the contribution of female production, labour and domestic domain services to the management of seasonal stress, crisis and calamity, under the headings: switching tasks and responsibilities ascribed by gender; diversifying household income sources; changing the intensity and mix of multiple occupations; household gardening and common property resources; food processing, preservation and preparation; social organisation; gift?giving. It offers an analysis of adversity and calamity which pinpoints the resilience of networks of female?headed households and raises new questions concerning risk preference, probability assessment and the valuation of female labour time. RESUME Les Femmes et les Variations Saisonnières: Faire face aux Crises et aux Calamités Sous les titres suivants, cet article explore la contribution que les femmes apportent à l'organisation de la tension saisonnière, aux crises et aux désastres, par leur production, leur labeur et leurs services dans le domaine domestique: changement dans les travaux et les responsabilités assignés par le genre; diversifier les sources de revenu du ménage; changer l'intensité et l'association des occupations multiples; culture du jardin familial et resources communautaires; traitement, conservation et préparation de la nourriture; organisation sociale; échange de dons. Il offre une analyse des concepts d'adversité et de calamité qui cerne la résistance des réseaux de ménages où la femme est chef de famille et soulèvent de nouvelles questions concernant les priorités vis à vis des risques à prendre, les calculs de probabilité et l'évaluation du temps de travail de la femme. RESUMEN Mujeres y estacionalidad: enfrentando la crisis y la calamidad Este artículo examina la contribución de la producción de las mujeres, así como su trabajo y servicios en la esfera doméstica, en el manejo de las tensiones estacionales, las crisis y las calamidades. Los subtítulos pertinentes son: cambio de tareas y responsabilidades adscritas según sexo; diversificación de las fuentes de ingresos del hogar; cambio en la intensidad y combinación de ocupaciones múltiples; jardín del hogar y recursos comunitarios; procesamiento de alimentos, preservación y preparación; organización social; entrega de regalos. Proporciona un análisis de la adversidad y calamidad que destaca la recuperación de la interconexión de los hogares dependientes de jefes de hogar mujeres y plantea nuevas preguntas relativas a la preferencia por riesgos, la evaluación de probabilidades y la valoración del tiempo de trabajo de la mujer