How effective is our feedback? : feeding forward and self-regulation

Giving and receiving feedback is based on a number of stages, procedures, and factors that could determine whether the feedback is effective or not. The key stakeholders of feedback are the tutor and the student, who could work together towards building bridges, such as holding dialogues, giving and receiving constructive criticism. Ideally, feedback is not a one-way, top-down approach, where the tutor ‘commands’ the discourse, whilst the student is merely a passive recipient. In whatever form it is delivered, the feedback that is passed on to the student should be more than ‘correcting’ the work; it could involve a communicative approach whereby the tutor passes on salient information that the student may utilise to sharpen his or her work. Hence, the possession of feedback is not solely relegated to the tutor. Instead, there is a transference where the student claims ownership of the feedback, and thus becomes responsible for its implementation. The responsibility to do so should not be perceived by the student as though he or she were doing a favour to their tutor, but an action which is undertaken for their own personal benefit and gain. Rather than feeding ‘back’, it is transformed to feeding ‘forward’, as the tutor provides suggestions that help shape future writing or assigned work. This paper, which is the result of a doctoral study conducted by the author, aims to present some benefits and challenges of feedback. Whilst exploring various areas of feedback, it suggests that, by revisiting practices, perceptions, and conceptualisations, there can be a shift towards feed forward and eventually offer the possibility of harnessing students’ autonomy and self-regulation.peer-reviewe

National Authority for Health: France

Provides an overview of France's National Authority for Health, which defines best-care standards and assesses the benefit and effectiveness of new technologies for inclusion on benefits lists. Examines its use of comparative effectiveness research

‘We need to demystify poetry’ : an Interview with David Musgrave

This article explores the views of the contemporary Australian poet and publisher David Musgrave. Based on an interview conducted in Sydney, it examines Musgrave’s thoughts on poetry education and the status of the genre in the present social, cultural, and educational milieu. His experiences as a poet, small press publisher of poetry, and poetry educator serve to illuminate his discussion of the writing, promotion, and teaching of poetry in Australia and beyond. His views resonate with other poets and teachers working in diverse contexts.peer-reviewe

Il principio di sussidiarietà nel diritto dei trasporti

Si sostiene comunemente in dottrina che quello di sussidia¬rietà è un concetto estremamente ambiguo. Ed in effetti presenta mille sfaccettature e procede per mille rivoli e canali, cosicché non sembre¬rà strano parlare di sussidiarietà nel diritto dei trasporti non solo sotto l’aspetto della sussidiarietà verticale, in connessione con temi e proble¬mi legati al riparto di competenze fra Stato e Regioni ed ai rapporti tra Unione Europea e Stati membri, ma anche sotto quello della sussidiarie¬tà orizzontale in relazione alla necessità di calibrare le politiche legisla¬tive sui trasporti in base alle esigenze dei cittadini. E’ in questo ambito infatti che si muovono le scelte dell’ultimo libro bianco dei trasporti, a livello comunitario e quelle di alcuni enti territoriali in relazione al trasporto pubblico locale, a livello interno. L’atipicità dell’ordinamento comunitario presenta una appli¬cazione altrettanto atipica del principio di sussidiarietà che si manifesta chiaramente nella materia dei trasporti. La tendenza ad assumere la sussidiarietà quale criterio regolatore dei rapporti tra autorità gerarchi¬camente ordinate, ricompare in tutta la sua evidenza ed importanza nella misura in cui l’Unione europea interviene normativamente in un setto¬re tradizionalmente rimesso alla potestà legislativa degli Stati membri, che ne hanno anche la capacità operativa, nel nome dell’armonizzazione e della tutela della libera concorrenza

Experimenting with Dogme in a mainstream ESL context

This article explores the use of Dogme with postsecondary ESL students in a mainstream educational institution. By means of a small-scale action research study it was found that in spite of its reputation for being somewhat unconventional, Dogme can also be incorporated in an exam preparation course and allow students to benefit not only from the interaction that acts as a motor for the entire lesson but also from the emphasis put on emergent language. This article discusses how this materials-light and learner-centred teaching approach has the potential to empower the teacher to capitalise on students’ contributions and help them engage with language in a meaningful manner.peer-reviewe

The need for stronger awareness of housing rights in Malta

Housing rights have undergone a very significant evolution both under the ECHR as well as under other international statutes such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the European Social Charter. On the contrary, they remain a rather vague concept under the Maltese legal order. The best justification is perhaps offered by Mifsud Bonnici (2003) who suggests that the notion of the right to housing reached Malta at a moment when public opinion was convinced that local administrative structures had already seen effectively to this need. A rapidly changing housing scenario seems, however, to be warranting a stronger rights-based approach capable of ensuring the respect of every individual’s right to adequate.peer-reviewe

The capacity of organizations to deliver effective water management through the provisions of the Water Framework Directive: the case of Malta

Effective implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is dependent on Member States’ national water institutions and organizations, often designated as ‘competent authorities’. Although substantial research relating to the Directive itself has been carried out, less is known about the extent to which competent authorities have the organizational capacity to deliver it. The literature notes that conceptual understanding of capacity has been hampered by lack of definitional clarity making both its management and assessment challenging. In this contribution, several conceptualizations of organizational capacity found in the literature are used to construct a set of core qualitative organizational components that encourage analysts to consider the ways in which legal authority, information and knowledge, skills, resources and leadership shape a competent authority’s ability to deliver the WFD. Malta, the smallest European Member State, is the case study used to test the application of these components. Qualitative empirical data collected from policy documents, face-to-face semi-structured interviews and online news media articles, provided the evidence to thematically explore and evaluate the Maltese competent authorities’ organizational capacity across the implementation of three main WFD provisions that are in focus: Article 8, 9 and 14. As a result, the core components of organizational capacity are expanded and refined to produce an organizational capacity thematic map. The results show that competent authorities experience influences across the institutional frameworks they work in as well as external factors (primarily political). The results also support the idea of the organizational capacity components being highly interlinked and the presence (or lack thereof) of one component having knock-on effects on others within an organization. The combination of these two factors highly affect management options and outcomes in the implementation of the WFD. In the small state context of Malta these highlight the need to channel support in a coordinated manner from European counterparts to the Maltese water network. In turn, the water network can have positive knock-on effects on the organizational capacity of the Maltese competent authorities, which currently struggle to perform and seize available opportunities due to low possession of human resources and time availability. The approach and findings presented in this research provide a mechanism and evidence base that can facilitate bilateral discussions between Member States as well as with the European Commission, and help inform the WFD review process planned by end of 2019

Developing Employees’ Critical Thinking Skills in Malta: Evaluating a Hypothetical Business Proposal

Critical thinking is considered one of the most significant competencies that employees need to develop in order for them to contribute to an organisation’s success and productivity. The lack of professional development opportunities aimed at enhancing the critical thinking capacity of employees might be deleterious for organisations seeking to capitalise on this competence as a means of remaining innovative. By means of a conceptual case study of Thinkerly – a business-to-business (B2B) firm offering critical thinking training solutions in Malta – this article considers the firm’s business idea, target customer segment, and competitive external business environment. The hypothetical business proposal analyses the internal and external factors affecting the firm’s performance and evaluates the positioning, strategy and competitive advantage of the bespoke training firm. The primary objective of the conceptual case study is to indicate the main considerations a B2B company needs to take when developing critical thinking training in a specific context. To illustrate how any such proposal is likely to have its limitations, two of the models utilised in the design of Thinkerly’s proposal are subjected to critique

Case number 3 : Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

A 62-year-old man was admitted in October 2013 due to worsening involuntary movements of his arms and legs. This was confirmed on examination which revealed persistent jerky movements in his left upper limb associated with generalised stiffness and hyperreflexia in his lower limbs. His dystaxia had developed in August 2013 whilst visiting Argentina. An MRI and EEG were consistent with a diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). Over the following weeks, he developed rapidly progressive cognitive decline and myoclonus. The patient was eventually placed on palliative care.peer-reviewe

Comparing the impact of management on public and private nurses in Bangladesh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use conservation of resources (COR) theory as a lens for comparing the impact of line management on Bangladeshi public and private nurses’ perception of work harassment, well-being and turnover intentions where Anglo-American and European management models have been super-imposed on an existing different culture. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 317 Bangladeshi nurses’ (131 from the public sector and 186 from the private sector). Structural equation modelling was used for analysis. Findings High work harassment was associated with low-being, and together with management practices, it explained approximately a quarter of private sector nurses’ well-being. In total, management, work harassment and employee well-being explained approximately a third of the turnover intentions of public sector nurses, whereas only work harassment explained approximately a third of private sector nurses’ turnover intentions. The findings suggest a differential impact of management on work harassment across the public and private sector. Research limitations/implications Cross-sectional data are susceptible to common method bias. A common latent factor was included, and several items that were explained by common method variance were controlled. Further, the findings are limited by the sample size from one sector and the use of only one developing country. Practical implications It is a waste of resources to transplant Anglo-American and European management models to developing countries without understanding the impact on nurses’ outcomes. Originality/value Anglo-American and European management models are not easily transferable to the Bangladesh context probably because of the impact of ties and corruption. Line management is a positive resource that builds employee well-being for public sector employees only