A learning-centred blended model for professional doctorates

A solid pedagogy can ensure the achievement of the learning outcomes set for any university qualification, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Currently there is an urgent need for a wider consideration of appropriate pedagogies for doctoral programmes. This paper looks in particular at the characteristics of professional doctorates, which are typically studied part-time and focus on researching a professional setting. Based on the needs of these programmes, it proposes a learning-centred blended mode of delivery that fosters students’ engagement with activities anchored in the set learning outcomes. The range of activities aims at facilitating the multiple interactions necessary for competent researchers by making use of the resources, tools and spaces within two main learning environments: the virtual and the physical. This model prompts universities to consider appropriate pedagogies for the delivery of professional doctorates and suggests the need to ensure the alignment of their approaches with available technologies, educational policies, and practices of teaching and learning in their institutions. In order to ensure a successful implementation, such a consideration must also include effective action for the development of the relevant academic staff

Artistic value and spectators’ emotions in dance performances

Our experiences of art are framed by the context and the rules that apply to it. Not only the theatre where performing arts are enjoyed, but also art museums displaying paintings, sculptures, installations and other artistic objects, dictate the distance to the pieces and the type of sensory perception permitted to the visitors. How art is presented to us reflects traditional established settings that determine the conditions of our appreciation and that have become part of each art’s ontology. Moreover, what we are allowed to do in those public contexts, when confronted with art works, reflects the artistic value attached to them. But, in some cases, there seems to be a tension between the borders erected by categories of artistic value and the affective reactions by the perceivers. In this paper I will discuss contexts (original, transplanted and mediated) and perceptual conventions for dance art, and how these define spectators’ roles and impact on their emotional responses to dance performances. In particular, I will focus on negative reactions to dance art to argue that the use of moving human bodies presents specific affective challenges to audiences

Learning about Chinese-speaking cultures at a distance

This chapter focuses on the challenges posed by curriculum choices and pedagogical frameworks to the study of Languages of the Wider World in the UK. These languages reflect complex linguistic and cultural realities that do not fit into the traditional constraints of language education, which raises questions about the extent to which we can address the global and local dimensions of the target languages and cultures. I examine in particular the case of Chinese – a language family with multiple varieties and spoken by many communities in Asia and other parts of the globe – in the context of distance education. Issues surrounding language learning at a distance are discussed, as well as the role that teachers and technology play in supporting the development of language learners’ cultural awareness. While teachers can, in a face-to-face situation, exploit, expand and discuss cultural information, this possibility is very limited in distance learning. We will see how, at present, technology has taken on a major role in both formal and informal education, facilitating contact between learners and between learners and teachers (however distant they might be). For example, the Open University’s beginners’ Chinese course discussed here makes use of online forums to enable cultural interaction; initial examinations of these forums reveal the students to be diverse and mobile, and they also give us a sense of their cultural stances, and of the shapes of the beliefs, values and attitudes supported by their individual cultural backgrounds

Time as a strand of the dance medium

Time and space are at the core of our aesthetic experiences of dance performances, yet dance has been frequently categorised as a space-based art. In this paper I revise the choreological perspective developed by Preston-Dunlop and Sánchez-Colberg that conceives dance as an embodied performative art articulated in a multistranded medium (performer, movement, sound, space). I argue that time should be allowed a distinct place in the choreological discourse since its presence is key to the expressivity of a dance piece. I conceptualise the meaning of the time strand and expose how different substrands emerge, connect with others and become expressive in dance performances. My investigation considers in particular the aesthetics of time in live performances in the theatre compared to dances created for the camera, focusing specifically on instances of contemporary transpositions from one context to the other

The prosecution of fisheries crime in Spanish criminal law: the impact of European Union regulations

This contribution offers a critical reflection on fisheries crime as described in the Spanish Penal Code. It sets out the reasons why its treatment is considered ineffective, and why the administrative offences and sanctions provided for in Law 3/2001 on Maritime Fisheries are more effective and dissuasive. However, it also considers that a legislative policy relying on the severity of administrative sanctions for its effectiveness may be counterproductive. The most recent judgements of the ECtHR consider that a disproportionate administrative sanction is equivalent to a penalty and should therefore be imposed with the same procedural and substantive safeguards. Finally, it is concluded that in order to avoid impunity for serious crimes in the field of IUU fishing activities, often managed by transnational and organised criminal networks with links to other criminal activities, the contribution of criminal jurisdiction is essential. Therefore, a reform of the Spanish Criminal Code is required, extending the conducts punishable as fishing crimes, increasing the penalties and establishing the criminal liability of legal personsThis work has received financial support from the Spanish State Research Agency, Ministry of Science and Innovation (DOI: 10.13039/501100011033) within the framework of the research project “The implementation of SDG 14 in Spain and the EU: regulatory challenges for international cooperation and maritime security (ESPODS14)” (PID2019-109680RB-I00)S

Language Provision in UK MFL Departments 2018 Survey

The report investigates the provision of language modules (i.e. modules whose object of study is language) in MFL departments alongside models of collaboration between Languages departments and Institution-Wide Language Provision (IWLP) in UK universities. Results offer an invitation to reconceptualise our discipline to strengthen an agenda of inclusion and diversity integrating all languages, as well as a single voice for MFL and IWLP

A Framework for the Development of Researching Professionals

The Researching Professional Development Framework (RPDF) is an online reflective resource that supports the development of students on a professional doctorate (PD) programme. The framework has been designed from empirical research undertaken with students enrolled in a Doctorate in Education (EdD) and graduates with such a degree. The resource prompts students to reflect on their own development as researchers. Following a successful pilot with EdD year one students, the resource is now being introduced in PD programmes across the Open University (OU) in the UK

Multilingual and multicultural task-based learning scenarios: a pilot study from the MAGICC project

In this article we report on the results of a pilot study on the use of task-based multilingual and multicultural professional scenarios for higher education teachers and learners at BA and MA level. The scenarios reflect new learning outcomes and assessment criteria for the presently under-conceptualised domain of communication in multilingual and multicultural settings (as opposed to monolingual regimes). The study was conducted as part of the work of the MAGICC project (Modularising Multilingual and Multicultural Academic Communication Competence for BA and MA level), which focused on the design of a conceptual framework based on existing practices, initiatives, tools, projects and elements from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe 2001), and in relation to multilingual and multicultural academic communicative competence, an area much less developed. We start by examining the meanings of multilingualism and plurilingualism in the context of formal education and review some of the practical pedagogical approaches that have been put forward for the introduction of a more flexible approach to language use in the classroom. We discuss in particular the pertinence of task-based learning for encouraging multilingualism. The testing of the MAGICC task-based multilingual scenarios revealed positive experiences among the users and highlighted the innovative contribution of the tasks for both students’ and teachers’ awareness of the possibilities of multilingual communication and the significant impact that a appropriate plurilingual practice can have on their self-awareness