Literacy practices: using the literacies for learning in further education framework to analyse literacy practices on a post-compulsory education and training teacher education programme

The Literacies for learning in further education framework describes nine aspects of a literacy practice that elaborate the basic questions of what?, why?, who?, and how? that are needed to understand and describe literacy practices. The framework was used to analyse two literacy practices encountered on initial teacher education courses in the post-compulsory education and training (PCET) phase of the Teacher Education Department in order to understand those literacy practices and improve them. The framework was found to be a useful tool in articulating competing and contradictory purposes in literacy practices in order to clarify them particularly in the context of the complex partnership and stakeholder relationships within teacher education. It was also useful as a planning tool to support collaborative work between the PCET phase of the Teacher Education Department and faculty-based and central support services in supporting the academic literacy of trainees. The use of the framework by other University departments should be considered in supporting academic literacy

Group guided low intensity self-help for community dwelling older adults experiencing low mood : a dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Depression is amongst the most common health issues affecting older adults, however, access to evidence-based psychological treatments remains low amongst this age group. This is due, in part, to numerous barriers that surround current mental health treatment and delivery, which has contributed to discrepancies between treatment needs, availability, and uptake. To address such barriers, low intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapies (LI-CBT) and in particular guided self-help interventions have emerged as promising, brief, cost-effective, and evidence-based alternatives to traditional high intensity therapies. Recently, interventions have begun to utilise the advantages of guided LI-CBT selfhelp within a group or class setting, thus providing both a cost-effective and time-efficient form of treatment delivery. Of these group guided approaches, Living Life to the Full (LLTTF) is the only intervention that primarily targets depression and has undergone randomised effectiveness testing. While early evidence lends support for the efficacy of LLTTF, further research is needed to extend the findings to different populations and age groups, particularly older adults. The current study examined the effect of the group guided version of LLTTF on community dwelling older adults’ ratings of depression, anxiety, and quality of life. Additionally, the relationship between older adults’ engagement with LLTTF and improvements in their reported ratings on all primary outcome measures was evaluated. Twenty-four older adult participants with symptoms of depression were recruited from a New Zealand community setting. Participants completed the intervention over eight sessions and data was collected at baseline, during each session, and at 1- and 6-week follow-up. Data was analysed using Multilevel Modelling, implementing a multilevel (2 level), repeated measure (11 waves), single group design. Results indicated significant improvements in participants’ symptoms of depression, anxiety, and quality of life over time. There was no evidence of an interaction between participants’ engagement and depression or anxiety ratings. Unexpectedly, engagement did however interact with quality of life, demonstrating that higher levels of out-of-class engagement with self-help content was related to significantly lower improvements in quality of life. Finally, supplementary analyses indicated greater reductions in anxiety symptoms amongst participants who lived with others compared to those who lived alone. These results endorse LLTTF as a viable and effective low intensity treatment option for depression in older adults, with additional benefits for symptoms of anxiety and quality of life. When delivered to older adults, LLTTF could increase treatment access and choice, contribute to the reduction of secondary mental health service load, minimise treatment barriers, and importantly support older adults’ to manage symptoms of depression and anxiety while remaining in communities of their choosing

Remote laboratories in teaching and learning – issues impinging on widespread adoption in science and engineering education

This paper discusses the major issues that impinge on the widespread adoption of remote controlled laboratories in science and engineering education. This discussion largely emerges from the work of the PEARL project and is illustrated with examples and evaluation data from the project. Firstly the rationale for wanting to offer students remote experiments is outlined. The paper deliberately avoids discussion of technical implementation issues of remote experiments but instead focuses on issues that impinge on the specification and design of such facilities. This includes pedagogic, usability and accessibility issues. It compares remote experiments to software simulations. It also considers remote experiments in the wider context for educational institutions and outlines issues that will affect their decisions as to whether to adopt this approach. In conclusion it argues that there are significant challenges to be met if remote laboratories are to achieve a widespread presence in education but expresses the hope that this delineation of the issues is a contribution towards meeting these challenges

A selective and partially annotated bibliography on transcription in social research

[No abstract provided]

Why critical realism fails to justify critical social research

Many social scientists have argued that research should be designed to perform a ‘critical’ function, in the sense of challenging the socio-political status quo. However, very often, the relationship between the political value judgements underpinning this commitment and the values intrinsic to inquiry, as a distinct form of activity has been left obscure. Furthermore, the validity of those judgements has usually been treated either as obvious or as a matter of personal commitment. But there is an influential tradition of work that claims to derive evaluative and prescriptive conclusions about current society directly from factual investigation of its history and character. In the nineteenth century, Hegel and Marx were distinctive in treating the force of ethical and political ideals as stemming from the process of social development itself, rather than as coming from a separate realm, in the manner of Kant. Of course, the weaknesses of teleological meta-narratives of this kind soon came to be widely recognised, and ‘critical’ researchers rarely appeal to them explicitly today. It is therefore of some significance that, under the banner of critical realism, Bhaskar and others have put forward arguments that are designed to serve a similar function, while avoiding the problems associated with teleological justification. The claim is that it is possible to derive negative evaluations of actions and institutions, along with prescriptions for change, solely from the premise that these promote false ideas, or that they frustrate the meeting of needs. In this article I assess these arguments, but conclude that they fail to provide effective support for a 'critical' sociology

In search of foreign influences, other than French, in nineteenth-century Belgian court decisions

In many senses, nineteenth-century Belgium can be considered to be a 'legal province' of Belgium. In the tradition of the exegetical school, legislation is the one and only formal source of law for judicial decisions. This legislation is primarily composed of the Napoleonic codes. Judges seem to be afraid of referring to other sources. If a ‘foreign’ source is quoted, it is a French one