1,006 research outputs found
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Assessing final-year practical work through group projects; A further study
The use of a group-based approach to project
working has been shown to provide significant
advantage to students in terms of project
outcomes, motivation and engagement. The
Department of Chemistry at the University of
Reading has recently explored the use of group
projects for final year practical work. In this
model, students are presented with a research
problem that they investigate within a team of
three to five students. Students are expected
to divide the work and share results in a
manner that closely resembles project working
in industry. This paper will report the
experiences and attitudes of final-year BSc
students towards this group-based approach,
and outline the self-identified skills
development of these students
Playing Out: A Movement for Movement?
In 2009, the âPlaying Outâ project was set up in Bristol in the United Kingdom by a parent-led community group who were seeking to address concerns about the lack of freedom for young people to play outside. Playing Out has, as its primary purpose, supporting children to âplay outâ where they live through providing the space within which children might engage in informal play and physical activity, while also improving relations between neighbors and developing a sense of community. This paper examines the potential of Playing Out for fostering community cohesion by undertaking interviews with participants, officials and policy-makers, alongside some observation of Playing Out events, between 2013 and 2016. In particular, we evaluate the significance of social capital for the development, and success, of a community-led initiative to influence policy outcomes and increase physical activity levels in the local population, giving consideration to the ways in which social movement concepts build on, and strengthen, social capital. In many societies, such activities take place within a context of neoliberalism, where social order is viewed as being dependent on individual responsibility: governments are deregulated, social programs are cut and/or privatized, and social problems have to be solved by individual, private solutions. Our findings draw on the work of Putnam (1993, 1996, 2000) to demonstrate that social capital is both cause and effect in the success of initiatives such as Playing Out, and that when social capital is combined with elements of a social movement, there can be more fundamental and sustained outcomes.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Completing College in a Covid Moment -- Expectation vs. Reality for the Class of 2021âs College Experience
Using the overarching theoretical frameworks of emerging adulthood and ritual behavior, this qualitative study explores how students in Butler University\u27s Class of 2021 perceive their original college experience expectations vs. their current Covid moment reality and what supplemental behaviors these seniors are using to create a meaningful college experience despite the perceived disconnects
A practical guide to assessing clinical decision-making skills using the key features approach
Aimâ This paper in the series on professional assessment provides a practical guide to writing key features problems (KFPs). Key features problems test clinical decision-making skills in written or computer-based formats. They are based on the concept of critical steps or âkey featuresâ in decision making and represent an advance on the older, less reliable patient management problem (PMP) formats.
Methodâ The practical steps in writing these problems are discussed and illustrated by examples. Steps include assembling problem-writing groups, selecting a suitable clinical scenario or problem and defining its key features, writing the questions, selecting question response formats, preparing scoring keys, reviewing item quality and item banking.
Conclusionâ The KFP format provides educators with a flexible approach to testing clinical decision-making skills with demonstrated validity and reliability when constructed according to the guidelines provided
Contagious Anxiety: Anxious European Americans Can Transmit Their Physiological Reactivity to African Americans.
During interracial encounters, well-intentioned European Americans sometimes engage in subtle displays of anxiety, which can be interpreted as signs of racial bias by African American partners. In the present research, same-race and cross-race stranger dyads ( N = 123) engaged in getting-acquainted tasks, during which measures of sympathetic nervous system responses (preejection period, PEP) and heart rate variability were continuously collected. PEP scores showed that African American partners had stronger physiological linkage to European American partners who evidenced greater anxiety-greater cortisol reactivity, behavioral tension, and self-reported discomfort-which suggests greater physiological responsiveness to momentary changes in partners' affective states when those partners were anxious. European Americans showed physiological linkage to African American and European American partners, but linkage did not vary as a function of their partner's anxiety. Using physiological linkage offers a novel approach to understanding how affective responses unfold during dynamic intergroup interactions
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Reaching across organisational, sectoral and geographical boundaries: exploring the learning potential of an EU cross-border project
Research
This paper outlines some of the key findings from an evaluation of the project and demonstrates that EC funded projects such as this, which seek to promote cross border collaboration and understanding (i.e. across organisational, sectoral and geographical boundaries) offer considerable learning potential â not least about variances in health politics across different communities. However, for this learning to be realised a comprehensive system of knowledge management needs to be an integral part of project planning alongside a system for sustaining embryonic professional networks. The concept of managing relationships was also a key part of the projects success. Executing a project funded by the EU demands the development of complex organisational skills to negotiate all the administrative challenges en route to successful completion and this project in particular relied for its success on the development of social relationships of trust and mutual respect across national, professional and social boundaries.
Context
A threeâyear European Commission funded project designed to exchange a wide range of staff (professional semiprofessional and voluntary staff in health and social care) project led by the University of Greenwich (UK) and the UniversitĂ© Catholique de Lille, France was completed this year (February 2008). The project was complex because it involved working in different national contexts, was multi-disciplinary, and demanded the negotiation of multiple boundaries.
Theories
A mixed method evaluation including written reports gathered immediately after each exchange visit and a post hoc series of individual interviews and focus groups was conducted in order to gain qualitative information (from the participants
perspective) on their experiences and to identify any learning gained.
Results
Analysis of the data provided evidence of learning on a number of levels; personally, inter and intra professionally and organisationally as well as across sectors and also from a project management perspective. The learning crystallised around the extent of the differences noted by the participants between the UK and the French health and social care systems despite geographical proximity, common membership of the EU and many shared challenges in health and social care. The extent of these differences, noted at every level from policy to practice proved a rich source for reflection on organisational philosophies, ways of working, distribution of resources, professional roles and autonomy and professional registration and mobility - in short on health politics at âmacroâ and âmicroâ levels
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Assessing final-year practical work through group projects
The final year project is a valuable research experience for undergraduates and can be one of the most rewarding aspects of their degree course. With increasing student numbers it is becoming more difficult to supervise students effectively, as truly independent enquiry-based working requires significant supervision, time and resource. To address this, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Reading has recently explored the use of group projects for final year practical work. Students work in teams of 3 to 5 and are presented with a research problem to investigate. These are genuine problems where the answer is unknown and the work open-ended. The students must work together to investigate the problem, dividing the work and sharing results in a manner that more closely resembles project working outside of academia. The studentsâ output is assessed through a variety of means including a group presentation and report. The projects were successful, with all students completing the work to a satisfactory level and developing strong team-working skills. This paper will outline some of the issues faced in the first year of delivery, and the steps taken to alleviate them
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Intergroup Contact Facilitates Physiological Recovery following Stressful Intergroup Interactions
A growing body of research has demonstrated the importance of intergroup contact in reducing fear, threat and anxiety in intergroup domains. Here we focus on the regulatory benefits of intergroup contact. We hypothesized that past intergroup contact would facilitate recovery from a stressful intergroup evaluation. White and Black participants completed a stressful evaluative task in the presence of two White or two Black interviewers while autonomic nervous system and hormonal responses were assessed. When examining how participants recovered after the stressful task, intergroup contact predicted faster physiological recovery for both autonomic and neuroendocrine reactivity. The importance of recovery from stress for physiological resilience in diverse contexts is discussed.Psycholog
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