Still life? : Children’s understanding of the reality status of museum taxidermy

Taxidermied animals provide an important source of information about the natural world, but failure to understand their reality status may result in missed learning opportunities for museum visitors. This study explored 4- to 10- year-old children’s and adults’ (n=207) reality status judgments, and biological and authenticity property attributions for a taxidermied rabbit during a museum visit. The aim was to examine their understanding of its former status as a living animal and its current status as an authentic piece of natural history under different presentation conditions, including: 1) as a touchable exhibit; 2) inside an exhibition case – untouchable; and 3) an experimental context paired with a toy rabbit – both touchable. Analysis revealed that there was an increase with age both in judgments that taxidermy was real and authentic, and in accuracy of biological property attributions. The toy condition resulted in more accurate reality judgments, whereas the touchable condition resulted in more accurate biological property attributions. There was no effect of age or condition on authenticity property attributions. Accuracy of biological property attributions was also associated with reality status judgments, suggesting that understanding the real and authentic nature of taxidermy was associated with understanding its biological status. Implications for the development of biological cognition and museum learning are discussed

A degree of studying - students who treat education as a commodity perform worse than their intrinsically motivated peers

One of the pivotal transformations in the marketisation of higher education has been the introduction of tuition fees. A degree from a higher education institution can now, to some extent, be purchased like any other commodity. In this post Louise Bunce presents evidence that students who identify as consumers of their education perform worse academically than students motivated by an interest in the content of their courses

Experiences of autonomy support in learning and teaching among black and minority ethnic students at university

In higher education in the UK, there is an unnecessary and inequitable attainment gap of approximately 15% between the number of black and minority ethnic (BME) students and white students who receive a first class or upper second class degree. The aim of this study was to explore whether BME students experienced structural inequalities in teaching and learning that thwarted the extent to which they experienced satisfaction of their need for autonomy, which may contribute to the existence of an attainment gap. Three focus groups were conducted to explore these issues with 17 BME students studying at one UK university. They were all female, aged between 18–50 years, and most described their ethnicity as Black African. Thematic analysis combining an inductive and deductive approach generated two themes: lack of satisfaction of the need for autonomy, and satisfaction of the need for autonomy. All students predominantly discussed situations in which they felt unable to behave in ways that were concordant with their true sense of self, due to factors including course material that did not address diverse cultural issues and negative stereotypes held by students and staff. They described how this often led to a sense of isolation, diminished motivation, and lower wellbeing. In contrast, some students described specific lectures in which diversity was discussed in a way that satisfied their need for autonomy. Implications for teaching are discussed

Dead ringer? Visitors’ understanding of taxidermy as authentic and educational museum exhibits

Museum professionals value authentic museum specimens because they are believed to promote inspirational and educational experiences for visitors; however, limited research has tested whether visitors value museum specimens in these ways. In this study, 4- to 10-yearolds and adults (n = 228), who were visiting the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, were asked to explain whether a taxidermied rabbit belonged in a museum and could help museum visitors learn about rabbits. Participants responded about a taxidermied rabbit that was presented either as a touchable object, inside an exhibition case, or alongside a realistic soft toy rabbit. As expected, the number of visitors who thought that the taxidermied rabbit belonged in a museum and could help visitors learn about rabbits increased with age and was greater when it was presented alongside the toy rabbit. Visitors explained their decisions by referring to the stillness of a taxidermied animal that permitted detailed study, its authentic features, and its previous status as a living animal. Implications for promoting visitors’ understanding of museum taxidermy are discussed

The use of a Facebook group to enhance student recruitment and the student experience: A cohort study

Universities routinely use Facebook as a marketing tool, but little is known about its impact on recruitment or the student experience. The current study evaluated the development of a subject-specific Facebook group for students at Oxford Brookes University (OBU). It was expected that creating a sense of connectedness among potential students and with the university through a Facebook group would help them to decide to accept their offer of a place to study and have a positive impact on their experience of OBU. A cohort of 116 first year students, who had been offered a place to study a health and social care subject, were invited to become members of the Facebook group. Sixty-three students became members. Subsequently, students who joined the University in September completed a survey to assess their perceptions of belonging or not belonging to the Facebook group. In support of the hypothesis, there was a significant association between Facebook group membership and accepting an offer to study at OBU: 59% of those in the Facebook group accepted their offer whereas only 32% of those who were not in the Facebook group accepted their offer. Analysis of open-ended responses revealed that students were positive about their experience of belonging to the group, but the majority of OBU students said that it did not influence their decision to study at OBU because they had already decided to accept their place prior to joining the group. Implications for student recruitment and the student experience are considered

Higher Education Psychology Teacher of the Year: Finalist Case Study 2021: Supporting students’ motivation for learning by challenging the student "consumer" identity

Research co-produced with my students over several years provided the first empirical evidence regarding the negative impacts on learning of students identifying as consumers. This work has culminated in the recent development and successful validation of a teaching resource (see www.brookes.ac.uk/SIIP) to support students’ motivation for learning by enabling them to critically reflect on the extent to which they identify as consumers. Our first publication on this topic (Bunce et al., 2017) found that a consumer identity is associated with lower academic attainment, and it is the highest cited paper in this area (371 citations according to Google Scholar). The open-access teaching resource has already been adopted by several universities nationally and internationally

Experiences of black and minority ethnic (BME) students in higher education: Applying self-determination theory to understand the BME attainment gap

British university students from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds are less likely to achieve a ‘good’ degree classification than white students, despite taking prior attainment into account. To examine this gap, the current study conducted focus groups with 17 BME students studying health and social care related subjects to understand their experiences of learning and teaching. This was theoretically informed by self-determination theory, which proposes that achieving one’s full potential for learning, alongside experience of wellbeing, is supported by environments that help individuals to meet their needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Thematic analysis revealed that BME students encountered many obstacles that inhibited their experience of fulfilment of these three needs, which often undermined their initial desire to achieve their full potential. The findings are discussed in light of how universities can support BME students to achieve their full potential, and in doing so, address the BME attainment gap

A degree of studying? : Approaches to learning and academic performance among student ‘consumers’

The marketization of higher education and focus on graduate employability and earnings data has raised questions about how students perceive their roles and responsibilities while studying for their degree. Of particular concern is the extent to which students identify themselves as consumers of their higher education, for example, whether they view their degree as a purchasable commodity to improve future earnings. This is because research has found that students with a stronger consumer identity perform less well academically. This study examined whether the negative impact of a consumer identity on academic performance could be explained by the impact of a consumer identity on the extent to which students adopt deep, surface, or strategic approaches to learning. The hypotheses were that the relation between consumer identity and academic performance would be mediated by approaches to learning, whereby a consumer identity would be associated with adopting a more surface approach and a less deep and less strategic approach. Undergraduates completed an online questionnaire that assessed the extent to which they identified as a consumer, their approaches to learning, and academic performance. The analysis partly supported the hypotheses: a stronger consumer identity was related to a more surface approach to learning. However, a surface approach to learning did not mediate the relation between consumer identity and academic performance. Conversely, a deep approach to learning mediated the relation between consumer identity and academic performance, whereby a stronger consumer identity was associated with poorer academic performance through its negative impact on a deep approach to learning. There was no relation between consumer identity and strategic approach to learning. Implications for students identifying themselves as consumers of their higher education are discussed

Fantasy orientation and creativity in childhood: A closer look

Fantasy orientation (FO) in childhood has previously been investigated in binary terms, with play being categorised as fantastical or not. This study examined the relation between FO and creativity by considering FO on a linear-type scale, with 0 = reality-oriented (e.g., playing basketball), 1 = possible fantasy (e.g., having a pretend tea party), 2 = improbable fantasy (e.g., pretending an alligator is hiding under the bed), and 3 = impossible fantasy (e.g., pretending to be a unicorn). Seventy-two 4- to 7-year-old children completed verbal, physical, and artistic creativity tests, and an FO interview. FO was only positively related to physical creativity when measured in binary terms. However, it positively related to both verbal and physical creativity when measured using the four-point scale, although, FO remained unrelated to artistic creativity. Future work could use this more nuanced coding of children’s FO to explore further the potential relations between FO and creativity

Rethinking clinical trials of transcranial direct current stimulation: Participant and assessor blinding is inadequate at intensities of 2mA

Copyright @ 2012 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and 85 reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The article was made available through the Brunel University Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Many double-blind clinical trials of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) use stimulus intensities of 2 mA despite the fact that blinding has not been formally validated under these conditions. The aim of this study was to test the assumption that sham 2 mA tDCS achieves effective blinding. Methods: A randomised double blind crossover trial. 100 tDCS-naïve healthy volunteers were incorrectly advised that they there were taking part in a trial of tDCS on word memory. Participants attended for two separate sessions. In each session, they completed a word memory task, then received active or sham tDCS (order randomised) at 2 mA stimulation intensity for 20 minutes and then repeated the word memory task. They then judged whether they believed they had received active stimulation and rated their confidence in that judgement. The blinded assessor noted when red marks were observed at the electrode sites post-stimulation. Results: tDCS at 2 mA was not effectively blinded. That is, participants correctly judged the stimulation condition greater than would be expected to by chance at both the first session (kappa level of agreement (κ) 0.28, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.09 to 0.47 p = 0.005) and the second session (κ = 0.77, 95%CI 0.64 to 0.90), p = <0.001) indicating inadequate participant blinding. Redness at the reference electrode site was noticeable following active stimulation more than sham stimulation (session one, κ = 0.512, 95%CI 0.363 to 0.66, p<0.001; session two, κ = 0.677, 95%CI 0.534 to 0.82) indicating inadequate assessor blinding. Conclusions: Our results suggest that blinding in studies using tDCS at intensities of 2 mA is inadequate. Positive results from such studies should be interpreted with caution.GLM is supported by the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia ID 571090