Beyond model answers: learners’ perceptions of self-assessment materials in e-learning applications

The importance of feedback as an aid to self‐assessment is widely acknowledged. A common form of feedback that is used widely in e‐learning is the use of model answers. However, model answers are deficient in many respects. In particular, the notion of a ‘model’ answer implies the existence of a single correct answer applicable across multiple contexts with no scope for permissible variation. This reductive assumption is rarely the case with complex problems that are supposed to test students’ higher‐order learning. Nevertheless, the challenge remains of how to support students as they assess their own performance using model answers and other forms of non‐verificational ‘feedback’. To explore this challenge, the research investigated a management development e‐learning application and investigated the effectiveness of model answers that followed problem‐based questions. The research was exploratory, using semi‐structured interviews with 29 adult learners employed in a global organisation. Given interviewees’ generally negative perceptions of the model‐answers, they were asked to describe their ideal form of self‐assessment materials, and to evaluate nine alternative designs. The results suggest that, as support for higher‐order learning, self‐assessment materials that merely present an idealised model answer are inadequate. As alternatives, learners preferred materials that helped them understand what behaviours to avoid (and not just ‘do’), how to think through the problem (i.e. critical thinking skills), and the key issues that provide a framework for thinking. These findings have broader relevance within higher education, particularly in postgraduate programmes for business students where the importance of prior business experience is emphasised and the profile of students is similar to that of the participants in this research

Unpacking the client(s): constructions, positions and client–consultant dynamics

Research on management consultancy usually emphasizes the role and perspective of the consultants. Whilst important, consultants are only one element in a dynamic relationship involving both consultants and their clients. In much of the literature, the client is neglected, or is assumed to represent a distinct, immutable entity. In this paper, we argue that the client organisation is not uniform but is instead (like organisations generally) a more or less heterogeneous assemblage of actors, interests and inclinations involved in multiple and varied ways in consultancy projects. This paper draws upon three empirical cases and emphasizes three key aspects of clients in the context of consultancy projects: (a) client diversity, including, but not limited to diversity arising solely from (pre-)structured contact relations and interests; (b) processes of constructing ‘the client’ (including negotiation, conflict, and reconstruction) and the client identities which are thereby produced; and (c) the dynamics of client–consultant relations and how these influence the construction of multiple and perhaps contested client positions and identities

Troubling gender norms on Mumsnet: Working from home and parenting during the UK's first COVID lockdown

tle:9f52bc9f-2383-4666-9105-fec50904793c:afee126f-04b2-41a9-a6dd-b29b7c6c20ab:1This article examines the troubling of gender norms that unfolded on the social networking site, Mumsnet, at the beginning of the UK's first lockdown response to the COVID pandemic. Using an analysis of 7144 contributions which included the acronym 'WFH' (=working from home), posted from 1/3/2020 to 5/4/2020, the article examines how Mumsnet members talked about WFH whilst caring for toddlers and home-schooled children. Mumsnet discussions about everyday moral dilemmas create a discursive space for examining the situated rationalities and normative judgements which shape expectations of how to behave as a working parent. Drawing on post-structuralist discourse theory, the article shows how Mumsnet contributors generated alternative sub-categorisations of ‘good mums’, and destabilised discourse assumptions of intensive motherhood such as always ‘being there’ for their children, thereby ‘working the weakness in the norms’ (Butler, 1993) and creating potential for change

Social determinants of psychological wellness for children and adolescents in rural NSW

Background: The mental wellness of children and adolescents in rural Australia is under researched and key to understanding the long-term mental health outcomes for rural communities. This analysis used data from the Australian Rural Mental Health Study (ARMHS), particularly the parent report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) measure for children under 18 years old and their reporting parent's demographic information to compare this sample's mental wellness scores to the Australian norms and to identify what personal, family, community and rurality factors contribute to child mental wellness as pertaining to the SDQ total and subdomain scores. Method: Five hundred thirty-nine children from 294 families from rural NSW were included. SDQ scores for each child as well as personal factors (sex and age), family factors (employment status, household income and sense of community of responding parent), community SES (IRSAD) and rurality (ASCG) were examined. Results: Children and adolescents from rural areas had poorer mental wellness when compared to a normative Australian sample. Further, personal and family factors were significant predictors of the psychological wellness of children and adolescents, while after controlling for other factors, community SES and level of rurality did not contribute significantly. Conclusions: Early intervention for children and families living in rural and remote communities is warranted particularly for low income families. There is a growing need for affordable, universal and accessible services provided in a timely way to balance the discrepancy of mental wellness scores between rural and urban communities

An Assessment Compact: changing the way an institution thinks about assessment and feedback

Offered as a case-study, this chapter considers the introduction by Oxford Brookes University of an Assessment Compact (defined as a non-legally enforceable agreement) between the university and its students. The aim of the Compact is to reconceptualise thinking about assessment and feedback in the institution to bring about significant change in both assessment practices, and attitudes to assessment and feedback among staff and students, rather than just consolidate current practice. The chapter will consider the difficulties and challenges that have been faced in the implementation of the Compact, and the degree to which it has so far been successful, and why

Work and careers: Narratives from knowledge workers aged 48-58

A weakness of the burgeoning policy-related literature on older workers is a tendency to treat ‘older workers’ as a single, homogenous group, overlooking the influence of intersectional factors such as income, education, social background, occupation, age and the type-of-work on individual experience. Only ‘gender’ has attracted sustained research attention, yet other socio-demographic characteristics are likely to have effects which are just as important. To take one example, professionally qualified accountants have very different opportunities in later life compared with car assembly workers whose activities are tied to ‘the track’ and therefore lack portability. Age itself is a key variable in older worker research. The experiences, motivations and aspirations of a 50-year-old are likely to be barely comparable with those of an 85-year-old; the 35-year gap is almost a generational difference. This heterogeneity of older worker experiences, contexts and situations suggests that research should be more attentive to variations. This can be partly achieved by investigating sub-groups within the broader ‘older worker’ category. The potential advantage of doing so is a greater understanding of older workers, which may lead to more targeted policymaking. This study seeks to contribute to this broader agenda by focusing on one particular group of workers: those aged between 48 and 58 years employed in, or studying at, a higher education institution. People in this group are getting older, but are certainly not elderly, and they potentially have many years of work ahead of them. In the literature and the media, they are often referred to as the ‘sandwiched’ generation with caring responsibilities for their offspring as well as for longer living parents

Learning to signal graduate employability : an exploratory study of UK students’ experiences of online recruitment processes

Graduate employment programmes offer university students the prospect of a reasonable salary and development opportunities. For employers, such programmes offer a talent pipeline and a means to identify future leaders. The psychological contract which develops during recruitment processes creates high expectations on both sides of the employment bargain. A corollary is that graduate programmes usually entail highly competitive, multi-stage selection processes, in which applicants must repeatedly demonstrate their employability in online psychometric tests and computerised activities before progressing to the final selection stage. Drawing on Foucauldian theories of governmentality, this study uses interviews (n = 17) and focus groups (n = 2) to explore how final-year students at a post-1992 English university navigate graduate recruitment processes, and learn to signal what they believe is employability. The article shows how students’ understanding of employability is formed not only through traditional channels such as university careers services or employer communications, but increasingly through third-party (and often commercial) ‘helper’ apps offering online test-practice sessions, templated careers advice, and other methods for gaming the recruitment process. These helper apps can have distorting effects, producing graduates focused on the performance rather than the substance of employability

From fluctuation and fragility to innovation and sustainability: the role of a member network in UK enterprise education

Enterprise education has been identified as suffering from fluctuating policy, inconsistent funding and faddish practice, thereby limiting the development of a sustainable community of scholar-practitioners. In view of these constraints, this article considers the position of the often-isolated enterprise educators, and focuses on the role networks play in supporting their sustainable professional development and hence the domain itself. A case–based analysis draws on social-constructivist concepts of networks and communities of practice to analyse a UK-based network, Enterprise Educators UK (‘EEUK’). It is argued that the member-driven nature of EEUK is unique and important for providing a sustainable forum through which enterprise educators can engage, share practice, find identity, develop ownership of and deliver sustained innovation in enterprise education. Generating a rich picture of the enterprise educator’s ecosystem, the article makes a methodological contribution to network research by undertaking a longitudinal analysis of a decade of ‘Best Practice’ events. It extends Community of Practice theory of peripheral participation and identity in professional associations, and derives practical implications for enterprise educator networks. Recommendations are made for future research and dissemination of enterprise educator practice at, between, and beyond events, to further the development of the international enterprise education domain