Moving Beyond Teaching Excellence: developing a different narrative for England’s higher education sector

Purpose: Teaching excellence remains a contested term in English higher education. This paper begins by reflecting on its complex and sometimes blurred meaning, charting the divergence between academic interests in the complexity and contextual questions relating to practice development and organisational and sectoral shifts which have been driven by managerialism, accountability and ‘topdown’ ideas of change. We argue that this divergence, epitomised in the development of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), has led to a confused, if ubiquitous, use of excellence to identify organisational and sector-led ideas of what it means to deliver quality teaching. However, these frameworks have become progressively detached from the complexity of practice investigated by those interested in pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper which brings together literature from teaching excellence, organisational science, time and higher education to develop an alternative approach to pedagogic development. Findings: Based on a critique of the current, confused conceptualisation of teaching excellence, we offer a different narrative which demonstrates how a reconsideration of the factors important in developing critical and challenging teaching opportunities. Based on a ‘bottom-up’ system focusing on dialogue, sustainability and ‘unhasty’ time, we argue for a re-establishing of a holistic approach in HE providers based on emergent pedagogies as opposed to teaching excellence. Originality and value: This paper demonstrates why teaching excellence has become conceptually fractured in an English context, and why a new approach to pedagogic development needs to be considered to establish a more positive and critical approach at both institutional and sectoral levels. This paper outlines a possible approach to developing such renewal

Moving Beyond Teaching Excellence: developing a different narrative for England’s higher education sector

Purpose: Teaching excellence remains a contested term in English higher education. This paper begins by reflecting on its complex and sometimes blurred meaning, charting the divergence between academic interests in the complexity and contextual questions relating to practice development and organisational and sectoral shifts which have been driven by managerialism, accountability and ‘topdown’ ideas of change. We argue that this divergence, epitomised in the development of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), has led to a confused, if ubiquitous, use of excellence to identify organisational and sector-led ideas of what it means to deliver quality teaching. However, these frameworks have become progressively detached from the complexity of practice investigated by those interested in pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper which brings together literature from teaching excellence, organisational science, time and higher education to develop an alternative approach to pedagogic development. Findings: Based on a critique of the current, confused conceptualisation of teaching excellence, we offer a different narrative which demonstrates how a reconsideration of the factors important in developing critical and challenging teaching opportunities. Based on a ‘bottom-up’ system focusing on dialogue, sustainability and ‘unhasty’ time, we argue for a re-establishing of a holistic approach in HE providers based on emergent pedagogies as opposed to teaching excellence. Originality and value: This paper demonstrates why teaching excellence has become conceptually fractured in an English context, and why a new approach to pedagogic development needs to be considered to establish a more positive and critical approach at both institutional and sectoral levels. This paper outlines a possible approach to developing such renewal

Quantification and Identification of Microproteinuria using Ultrafiltration and ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy

The presence of low amounts of specific proteins in urine can be an indicator of diagnosis and prognosis of several diseases including renal failure and cancer. Hence, there is an urgent need for Point-of-care (PoC) methods, which can quantify microproteinuria levels (30-300 ppm) and identify the major proteins associated with the microproteinuria. In this study, we coupled ultracentrifugation with attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) to identify and quantify proteins in urine at low parts per million levels. The process involves the preconcentration of proteins from 500 μL of urine using an ultrafiltration device. After several washings, the isolated proteins are dried onto the ATR crystal forming a thin film. Imaging studies showed that the absorbance of the protein bands was linear with the amount of mass deposited on the crystal. The methodology was first evaluated with artificial urine spiked with 30-300 ppm of albumin. The calibration showed acceptable linearity (R2 = 0.97) and a limit of detection of 6.7 ppm. Linear relationships were also observed from urine of healthy subjects spiked with microproteinuria concentrations of albumin, immunoglobulin, and hemoglobin, giving a prediction error of the spiked concentration of 23 ppm. When multiple proteins were spiked into the real urine, multivariate analysis was able to decompose the data set into the different proteins, but the multicomponent evaluation was challenging for proteins at low levels. Although the introduction of a preprocessing step reduces the PoC capability of the method, it largely increases its performance, showing great potential as a tool for the diagnosis and prognosis of several illnesses affecting urine proteic compositio

Optimising acute stroke pathways through flexible use of bed capacity: a computer modelling study

BACKGROUND: Optimising capacity along clinical pathways is essential to avoid severe hospital pressure and help ensure best patient outcomes and financial sustainability. Yet, typical approaches, using only average arrival rate and average lengths of stay, are known to underestimate the number of beds required. This study investigates the extent to which averages-based estimates can be complemented by a robust assessment of additional ‘flex capacity’ requirements, to be used at times of peak demand. METHODS: The setting was a major one million resident healthcare system in England, moving towards a centralised stroke pathway. A computer simulation was developed for modelling patient flow along the proposed stroke pathway, accounting for variability in patient arrivals, lengths of stay, and the time taken for transfer processes. The primary outcome measure was flex capacity utilisation over the simulation period. RESULTS: For the hyper-acute, acute, and rehabilitation units respectively, flex capacities of 45%, 45%, and 36% above the averages-based calculation would be required to ensure that only 1% of stroke presentations find the hyper-acute unit full and have to wait. For each unit some amount of flex capacity would be required approximately 30%, 20%, and 18% of the time respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the importance of appropriately capturing variability within capacity plans, and provides a practical and economical approach which can complement commonly-used averages-based methods. Results of this study have directly informed the healthcare system’s new configuration of stroke services. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08433-0

Hill of Banchory Geothermal Energy Project Feasibility Study Report

This feasibility study explored the potential for a deep geothermal heat project at Hill of Banchory, Aberdeenshire. The geology of the Hill of Fare, to the north of Banchory, gives cause to believe it has good geothermal potential, while the Hill of Banchory heat network, situated on the northern side of the town, offers a ready-made heat customer. The partners in the consortium consisted of academics and developers with relevant expertise in deep geothermal energy, heat networks, and financial analysis, together with representatives of local Government. They conducted geological fieldwork around the Hill of Fare, engaged with local residents to establish their attitudes to geothermal energy, and built business models to predict the conditions under which the heat network at Hill of Banchory would be commercial if it utilised heat from the proposed geothermal well. They also estimated the potential carbon emission reductions that could be achieved by using deep geothermal energy, both at Hill of Banchory and more widely

Light-weight clustering techniques for short text answers in human computer collaborative (HCC) CAA

We first explore the paedogogic value, in assessment, of questions which elicit short text answers (as opposed to either multiple choice questions or essays). Related work attempts to develop deeper processing for fully automatic marking. In contrast, we show that light-weight, robust, generic Language Engineering techniques for text clustering in a human-computer collaborative CAA system can contribute significantly to the speed, accuracy, and consistency of human marking. Examples from real summative assessments demonstrate the potential, and the inherent limitations, of this approach. Its value as a framework for formative feedback is also discussed

Markets, managerialism and teachers’ work: the invisible hand of high stakes testing in England

High stakes testing has been long established in the English school system.In this article, we seek to demonstrate how testing has become pivotal tosecuring the neo-liberal restructuring of schools, that commenced duringthe Thatcher era, and is reaching a critical point at the current time.Central to this project has been the need to assert increased control overteachers’ work and this is being achieved through a pincer movementof marketisation and managerialism. Both of these ‘policy technologies’require the value of individual teachers’ work to be measured andquantified, and in this article we seek to demonstrate how high stakestesting underpins these processes. The article concludes by making thecase for reclaiming teaching as a professional process, within the contextof education, as a public good and conducted in a public space