Different perspective, same challenges

I present a perspective on one of the most important challenges facing teaching and learning, in the Physical Sciences and many other disciplines. I argue that the challenge is less about finding novel ways to enhance student learning but ensuring a wider and more rapid take up of evidence-based approaches that have been convincingly shown through research studies to be effective in creating conditions for successful learning. I offer some advice to those engaged in supporting teaching and learning, from academic staff at the coalface, to institutional leaders and the HEA

Exploring shared leadership in a UK public sector programme

This thesis considers shared leadership in a UK public sector programme. Many UK public sector change initiatives are delivered through programmes. In recent years, the practice and academic domain of programme management have developed from within the established discipline of project management. The leadership of projects has been widely studied, both conceptually and empirically, but programmes are substantively different. Shared leadership is a relatively new conceptualisation of leadership which may be valuable for the study of leadership of programmes. The thesis uses a case study of one programme to explore shared leadership in this environment, primarily based on 15 interviews and observation of meetings and events. In particular, it focuses on the leadership tasks of setting the vision and establishing and structuring the programme. The study helps to improve the characterisation of the emerging theoretical concept of shared leadership by adding empirical evidence. It supports the conceptualisation of shared leadership as a plural, processual, diagonal and lateral influence-based phenomenon by unpacking the above leadership tasks into their constituent activities and interactions. It provides evidence for the mechanism of “numerical action” through the seamless transfer of leadership and contributes to the discussion on the nature of “concertive action”. It also highlights the propensity of organisational actors to attribute artefacts of leadership to individuals. It supports the conceptualisation of leadership in such an environment as hybrid or integrated, combining traditional vertical with shared leadership. In light of this, it proposes a dual processual and artefactual approach to the study of leadership. It does not support defined, complementary roles and structures as important for effective programme leadership. It provides useful guidance to programme management practitioners and stakeholders from seeing their own experiences and environments through the lens of shared leadership

Transitions to Entrepreneurship and Industry-Specific Barriers

Drivers of entrepreneurial entry are investigated in this study by examining how entry into small-business ownership is shaped by industry-specific constraints. The human- and financial-capital endowments of potential entrepreneurs entering firms in various industries are shown to differ profoundly, depending on the type of venture entered. The educational credentials of highly educated potential entrepreneurs, in particular, predict avoidance of small-firm ownership in some industries as well as attraction to others. Recognizing that individuals choose an industry sector jointly with their decision to enter entrepreneurship, we find that the conventional practice of conflating different industry types in empirical analyses of transitions to entrepreneurship generates misleading findings about the determinants of entrepreneurship.entrepreneurship, self-employment, capital constraints, transitions, entry barriers, business start-ups

Assessing the quality of a student-generated question repository

We present results from a study that categorizes and assesses the quality of questions and explanations authored by students, in question repositories produced as part of the summative assessment in introductory physics courses over the past two years. Mapping question quality onto the levels in the cognitive domain of Bloom's taxonomy, we find that students produce questions of high quality. More than three-quarters of questions fall into categories beyond simple recall, in contrast to similar studies of student-authored content in different subject domains. Similarly, the quality of student-authored explanations for questions was also high, with approximately 60% of all explanations classified as being of high or outstanding quality. Overall, 75% of questions met combined quality criteria, which we hypothesize is due in part to the in-class scaffolding activities that we provided for students ahead of requiring them to author questions.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Clustering and Micro-immiscibility in Alcohol-Water Mixtures: Evidence from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

We have investigated the hydrogen-bonded structures in liquid methanol and a 7:3 mole fraction aqueous solution using classical Molecular Dynamics simulations at 298K and ambient pressure. We find that, in contrast to recent predictions from X-ray emission studies, the hydrogen-bonded structure in liquid methanol is dominated by chain and small ring structures. In the methanol-rich solution, we find evidence of micro-immiscibility, supporting recent conclusions derived from neutron diffraction data.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Closing the feedback loop for clicker questions

We describe the output from a recently-funded JISC Learning and Teaching Innovation Grant: Electronic Voting Analysis and Feedback for all (EVAF4All). We have created a web-based software tool (EVAF) that allows electronic voting system data captured at the point of delivery in lectures, to be fed back to students, thus providing valuable formative feedback of their progress over what can be a large number of such questions. In institutions where 'loanership' models of handset distribution are used (typically, when students keep the same handset for a whole course or year) this is particularly powerful as it can supply students with their own data as well as the aggregate data from the rest of the cohort. Academic staff can use the tool to evaluate the effectiveness of their clicker questions as an aide to course monitoring or development processes. We briefly cover the technical aspects of the system we have built and also present a case study of its use in an introductory Physics course taught at the University of Edinburgh

Diagnostic tests for the physical sciences: A brief review

We present a review of diagnostic testing in the physical sciences. We cover the motivation for using such instruments and their historical development via a case study of probably the most cited and influential test instrument and application: the Force Concept Inventory, developed in the early 1990s by Hestenes and co-workers, and its use to quantify learning gains from different instructional methodologies by Richard Hake. We then present an overview of the process of creation and validation of such instruments, and highlight the results from studies that have made use of some of the many instruments available in the literature. We conclude with a short summary of our own recent work to develop a diagnostic test of data handling skills of physical science undergraduates

Mapping the transition: Content and pedagogy across the school-university boundary

The period of transition for students from school to university is of great importance, however it is also potentially fraught with difficulties. Incoming students are faced with a study environment very different to anything they have known before and often face a steep learning curve of new study skills and learning methods in order to keep afloat. Whilst these factors are well recognised and have been addressed in literature, there is a growing recognition of the fact that how students perceive their chosen subject has a large impact on how they perform. In fact it has been suggested that students‟ expectations of a subject may be better predictors of performance in tertiary education than the previous performance of students in school examinations

Interactive physics: a virtual library of simulations for use in physics undergraduate teaching

This report outlines the design and deployment of a virtual (online) library ofinteractive simulations (principally Java applets) designed to be used inUndergraduate Physics teaching. The project was funded by an LTSN PhysicalSciences Project Development Grant in 2001