Plymouth Marjon University Repository
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‘Keep the pace! You’ve got this!’: The Content and Meaning of Impactful Crowd Encouragement at Mass Running Events
Get PDFThis study identified helpful and unhelpful encouragement at mass-participation running events and explored meaning that runners found in encouragement. First, 10k and half-marathon post-event surveys differentiated instructional and motivational components of helpful and unhelpful support. Second, an inductive, reflexive thematic analysis of 14 interviews highlighted the reciprocal relationship between the crowd and runners, whereby quality of support was reflected in runners’ emotions and behaviour. Participants drew pride in participation and belief from the crowd, and they wanted to ‘give back’ through doing their best. Personal and authentic support was particularly valued. Although support was widely appreciated, at times it created a pressure to ‘perform’. As a novel intervention based on our combined findings, we recommend that crowds, event organisers, and psyching teams give encouragement ‘with IMPACT’ (Instructional; Motivational; Personalised; Authentic; Confidence-building; Tailored to the distance). Crowds should demonstrate the ‘core conditions’ of authenticity, empathy, and being non-judgmental within their encouragement
Large but Local: Understanding the Challenge for Educationally Isolated Schools. A Case Study of a Multi Academy Trust ‘Hub School’ Model in the South West of England - Year One and Two Interim Report
Get PDFEducational isolation is complex, grounded in location, situated in access to resources and results in reduced agency for schools. Educational isolation is defined as: A school experiencing limited access to resources for school improvement, resulting from challenges of school location (Ovenden-Hope and Passy, 20191). The challenge of location is particularly strong for schools in rural and coastal areas.
The image of an idyllic country or seaside life, with strong community support for the local schools2, continues but is not necessarily the whole picture; some coastal and rural areas have high levels of deprivation, their schools can be isolated from different kinds
of support for teaching and learning, and community members do not always support their local school. A powerful indicator of the challenges that can be faced in schools in coastal and/or rural locations is demonstrated in an analysis of the 2014 GCSE outcomes of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, which showed that, as schools’ relative geographical isolation increased, so the average attainment of disadvantaged pupils decreased3. A more recent report suggested that this has not changed:
For a given level of deprivation, the attainment levels of pupils living in rural areas were lower than for pupils living in urban areas with a similar level of deprivation. (Department for Education, Rural Education and Childcare, 20184)
At the same time, the government’s focus for schools has been predominantly on densely populated and often disadvantaged urban areas5 which, in turn, has encouraged educational researchers to focus on the same areas. This means that the difficulties faced by schools in rural, coastal and isolated locations have been relatively under-researched, and that there is little wider appreciation of the challenges they face.
This project is a direct response to the issue of under-researching Educational Isolation.
Researchers from Plymouth Marjon University and the University of Plymouth are grateful for the opportunity to research in collaboration with a medium-sized multi�academy trust (MAT) in a rural and coastal part of the South-West of England. The aims of the study are first, to explore the concept of Educational Isolation in depth and secondly, to examine how its effects might be mitigated by the hub school model adopted by this MAT
Pathfinder Project – Preliminary Systems Mapping Report: A report delivered by The Plymouth Marjon University Pathfinder Team, June 2021.
Get PDFBackground
Sport England has been exploring place-based project work across the UK and has explored whether, through the
injection of focused support, local knowledge, skills and capacity can be developed to drive positive change in the system that surrounds and impacts upon a community's health & wellbeing. Plymouth Pathfinder is a 2-year programme that seeks to maximise the benefits that physical activity can bring to a cohort of children and young people in Plymouth. It is an initiative led by Plymouth City Council and Active Devon, and which Plymouth Marjon University are supporting as evaluation partners. The project hypothesis is that physical activity is a mediator to improved wellbeing, making people better able to tackle the issues they see as key to improving their lives, as well as bringing health gains through the physical activity itself. The programme will aim to link multiple systems across Plymouth and build on the evolving Trauma-Informed Network.
The initial stage of this project requires the evaluation partners to, “to complete a ‘baseline’ study of the trauma�informed system in Plymouth and explore understandings of ‘trauma’ and ‘trauma-informed’ approaches.
Methods
Presented with a list of potential stakeholders, we identified key roles and individuals to interview. We then completed a series of 45-60 min semi-structured interviews with each of ten stakeholders using these interviews to explore different methods of mapping stakeholders to help understand the "system” and identify appropriate levers of change that may exist in the system.
We developed a series of resources on the use of systems mapping and evaluation to help this element of the project to act as a springboard for further systems level work.
Results
We produced several draft systems maps. We identified a number of themes and insights from the interviews. These are outlined in the report. Within all interviewees there was a consistent and knowledgeable understanding of what “trauma-informed” approaches involved.
Summary Findings
• Trauma-Informed approaches were well understood by the interviewees; however, it was acknowledged that
this is not the case with all those in “the system” and that the use of jargon can be problematic as it can slow down translation into practice and potentially mask real change.
• The existing database of service level stakeholders is an extensive resource and there are existing networks that offer opportunities for sharing information and connecting with key stakeholders.
• The range of work being undertaken in Plymouth, around trauma-informed thinking and special educational
needs, is established and trauma-informed approaches are continuing to develop although in its early stages of
awareness. There is however a gap in the rhetoric of trauma informed principles and the practical realities
imposed by working practices and resource constraints.
• The support system that surrounds young people can be fragmented and not conducive to optimal “trauma�informed approaches”.
• The contribution of physical activity and sport in a trauma informed approach and special educational needs was agreed in principle by all participants. The active ingredient in these activities were the relationships withtrusted adults.
• All interviewees stressed the need for sustainable approaches that can engage with the young people in
question over an extended period and do not disappear once the funding has been taken away.
• While it is important for young people to be able to "tell their stories", extreme caution should be exercised when asking people to re-tell their stories unnecessarily as this can be re-traumatising
Investigating food preference in zoo‐housed meerkats
Get PDFUnderstanding food preference among animals in human care can support improvements to welfare through training and day‐to‐day care (e.g., diet management). Little has been published about food preference in zoo‐housed meerkats. Assessing meerkat food preference would be useful, not only for the welfare of that species, but also for developing approaches to assessing food preference in other grouphoused, social species. The specific aim of this study was to quantify food preference within the meerkat mob at Wellington Zoo. We developed a simple, cost‐effective method for characterizing the food preference hierarchy in meerkats by presenting pairs of foods to the mob as a group. We observed stable preference with the hierarchy for pups closely resembling that for adults. This study demonstrated that it is possible to assess food preference and identify a food preference hierarchy for a group of animals from a social species where it was neither practical nor appropriate to assess individuals' preferences separately
Making the case for the collection of a minimal dataset for children with speech sound disorder
No full textBackground: NHS case note data are a potential source of practice-based evidence which could be used to investigate the effectiveness of different interventions for individuals with a range of speech, language and communication needs. Consistency in pre- and post-intervention data as well as the collection of relevant variables would need to be demonstrated as a precursor to adopting this approach in future investigations of speech and language therapy intervention.
Aims: To explore whether routine clinical data collection for children with speech sound disorder(SSD)could be a potential source for examining the effectiveness of intervention(s).
Methods & Procedures: We examined case notes from three UK NHS services, reviewing 174 sets of case notes and 234 blocks of therapy provided for school-age children with SSD.
Main contribution: We found there was significant variation in pre- and post intervention data and variables collected by the services. The assessment data available in the case notes across all sites were insufficient to be used to compare the effectiveness of different interventions. Specific issues included lack of consistent reporting of pre- and post- intervention data,and use of a variety of both formal and informal assessment tools.
Conclusions & Implications: The case notes reviewed were from three sites and may not represent wider clinical practice, nevertheless the findings suggest the sample explored indicates the need for more consistent and contemporaneous collection of data for children with SSD to facilitate the investigation of different interventions in practice. Researchers should work with the clinical community to determine a minimal dataset that includes a core outcome set and potential variables.This should be feasible to collect in clinical practice and provide a dataset for future investigations of clinically relevant research questions. This would provide an invaluable resource to the clinical academic and research communities enabling research questions to be addressed that have the potential to lead to improved outcomes and more cost-effective services
International Recruitment of Radiographers and the Development of a Workplace Integration Support Package Project Evaluation Report
Get PDFIn October 2020, a regional workforce action group was established jointly by Health Education England (HEE) and NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) in the South West to work collaboratively to address the workforce challenges within diagnostic imaging. The group was established to support the restoration and recovery of services and identify interventions required to develop and enhance the future diagnostic imaging workforce in the region and then support the implementation of these interventions.
As part of the blueprint strategy that arose from the regional adopt and adapt workstream, an international recruitment campaign was identified as an intervention that could address an immediate shortfall of radiographers, fill vacancies and support diagnostic recovery.
Following a successful in-country recruitment campaign in Dubai, 58 radiographers were offered employment in departments across the region. Recognising the many challenges that staff may encounter when relocating to work in the UK it was identified that new recruits would need additional support.
Plymouth Marjon University was contracted to provide a package of training to help newly recruited radiographers from outside the UK integrate successfully into their host departments. Applying novel pedagogy (the eLEARN approach) to develop flexible learning opportunities centred around reusable digital learning assets, self-paced e-learning sessions were augmented by group ‘connected’ sessions online, facilitated by a tutor. The programme’s three-phase strategy that focused on a targeted ‘before, during and after’ has seen an impact on a number of self-efficacy measures, a raised awareness of challenges, and personal awareness of implications for practice. It has acted to support a smooth transition through onboarding and beyond to both new recruits and their departments.
The principal recommendations following development and implementation of this Workplace Integration Package include ensuring digital accessibility for new recruits as part of the on-boarding process, considering the timing of delivery of any online connected support sessions, the provision of long-term pastoral support; and mandating the training requirement for managers and team leaders to improve engagement
Can Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Help Children Be Physically Active? Exploring the Immersive Qualities of Les Mills’ and Marvel’s “Move Like the Avengers” Video
Get PDFThere have been calls for more enjoyable Physical Activity (PA) interventions which focus on ensuring a positive affective response. This study explored how using a narrative, characters, and music in a video-led PA session might influence the sense of immersion and impact the affective response. Onehundredandthirty-sixparticipants(boysn=65,girlsn=71)wererecruited,85%aged between 7 and 11 years old. Participants completed the “Move Like the Avengers” PA video created by Les Mills and Marvel, then complete a survey answering questions on their post activity affective responses, and the use of immersive elements. Positive average affective responses were found (valence mean score: 3.6±2.2, arousal mean score: 5.1±1.0). Analysis revealed the narrative with charactersindirectlymediatethevalenceresponsethroughcreatingasenseofimmersion(βstd =0.122 [95%CI 0.013 to 0.231]; p = 0.012). Musical elements had both a direct (βstd = 0.449 [95%CI 0.264 to 0.634]; p < 0.001), and an indirect (βstd = 0.122 [95%CI 0.014 to 0.229]; p = 0.011) effect upon valence and a direct effect upon arousal (βstd = 0.244 [95%CI 0.006 to 0.482]; p = 0.021). These promising results provide justification for future research into children’s immersive PA
Introducing immersive scheduling in a UK university: Potential implications for student attainment
Get PDFTraditionally, undergraduates study several ‘long thin’ modules at the same time. Under ‘immersive scheduling’, students complete a ‘short fat’ module (i.e. a single subject studied over a compressed period), before moving onto other modules. This piece of social research capitalised on the introduction of immersive scheduling to the first year of all undergraduate programmes at one UK University. Both semesters began with a short fat module, before students switched to studying long thin modules simultaneously. A novel ‘within-subjects’ analysis compared how individuals (N > 3000) performed in immersively-delivered modules versus traditional modules. Overall, marks on immersively-delivered modules were significantly higher, with this pattern replicated across semesters and in various demographic subgroups. This real-world evaluation complements existing ‘between-subjects’ studies, where an identical module is delivered in immersive and traditional formats to separate cohorts. It offers further indications that immersive scheduling may be a beneficial pedagogic tool for enhancing student attainment
Where next for the design, delivery and evaluation of community-based physical activity prescription? Emerging lessons from the United Kingdom.
No full textDespite widespread use, community-based physical activity prescription is controversial. Data limitations have resulted in a lack of clarity about what works, under what circumstances, and for whom, reflected in conservative policy recommendations. In this commentary we challenge a predominantly negative discourse, using contemporary research to highlight promising findings and ‘lessons learnt’ for design, delivery, and evaluation. In doing so, we argue for the importance of a more nuanced approach to future commissioning and evaluation. Contribution:• Amalgamating learning from multiple research teams to create recommendations for advancing physical activity prescription
‘Short and Sweet’: A Randomized Controlled Initial Investigation of Brief Online Psychological Interventions with Endurance Athletes
No full textThere is potential in delivering brief, educational interventions online, particularly for recreational athletes. This initial investigation examined how two online interventions were perceived by endurance participants and how they affected outcomes of interest. After measuring self-efficacy, 142 people were randomised to one of three groups (self-talk, implementation intentions, control) before an endurance event. Ninety-four completed post-event measures, which were self-efficacy, goal attainment, performance satisfaction, coping, stress appraisals, and social validity. The interventions involved approximately ten minutes of initial engagement with online material. Perceptions of stress controllability were significantly higher in the implementation-intention group compared to the control. There were no other statistically-significant effects. Nevertheless, both intervention groups were satisfied with their interventions, found them useful, and were planning to continue using them. The findings demonstrate the feasibility and value of using brief, online psychological interventions, which may be timely in our changing profession, as COVID-19 has moved many interventions online