4101 research outputs found
Sort by
The utilisation of Project - Based and Problem - Based Learning for the transition towards Active Learning and Critical Thinking for Undergraduate Motorsport learners
No full textThis work focuses on Project and Problem-based Learning as assistive educational tools for the transition of HE undergraduate motorsport engineering learners towards active and critical thinking. An Action Research Project (ARP) was developed focusing on the ‘Chassis Development and Telemetry’ module which is delivered during the second year of the undergraduate motorsport courses at the National Centre for Motorsport Engineering of the University of Bolton. This module has a strong hands-on element and therefore, it is appropriate for learners that begin to develop active learning and critical thinking skills as well as other employability (transferable) skills. The ARP included a series of hands-on portfolio exercises in the area of analysis and processing of signals acquired from racecar sensors and incorporated features aiming to simulate the professional motorsport environment within the HE framework. The quantitative analysis included, apart from basic statistical analysis, the use of the Pearson Product-moment Correlation Coefficient, the k-means algorithm and the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The observations and conclusions stemming from the analysis of the ARP regarding the incorporation of project and problem-based learning were very encouraging; they indicated that the learners’ satisfaction levels improved through the delivery of a series of exercises which involved analysis and processing of authentic signals acquired from racecar sensors. Moreover, the quantitative analysis indicated a positive correlation between the learners’ prior knowledge and their academic performance in the ARP, for one of the two groups of students
The impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure on financial performance : evidence from the GCC Islamic Banking Sector
No full textThis paper examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance for Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region over the period 2000–2014 by generating CSR related data through disclosure analysis of the annual reports of the sampled banks. The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between CSR disclosure and the financial performance of Islamic banks in the GCC countries. The results also show a positive relationship between CSR disclosure and the future financial performance of GCC Islamic banks, potentially indicating that current CSR activities carried out by Islamic banks in the GCC could have a long-term impact on their financial performance. Furthermore, despite demonstrating a significant positive relationship between the composite measure of the CSR disclosure index and financial performance, the findings show no statistically significant relationship between the individual dimensions of the CSR disclosure index and the current financial performance measure except for ‘mission and vision’ and ‘products and services’.Similarly, the empirical results detect a positive significant association only between ‘mission and vision’ dimension and future financial performance of the examined banks
Leisure, Community and the Settlement Movement
No full textWalter Besant’s novel All Sorts and Conditions of Men and Andrew Mearns’ The Bitter Cry of Outcast London, published in 1882 and 1883 respectively, stimulated middle-class interest in the urban slum as a separated community. Together with social surveys they contributed to a topographical imagination of the late-Victorian city, which, in Rosalind Williams’ terms, posited the slum as a subterranean social underworld inhabited by a dispossessed class. At a time when degenerationist theories were fashionable, the slum seemed to herald a collapse of civilization. Helen Dendy (later Bosanquet), a leading figure in the Charity Organisation Society, expressed a widely held view in describing its population as a ‘residuum’ characterized by lack of foresight and self-control. To middle-class reformers the slum constituted a challenge to address the spatial and cultural distances between prosperous and poor communities
Increasing Efficiency Of Earthmoving & Pavement Processes At Highways England
No full textThis report presents some key recommendations and suggestions for Highways England (HE) to helpimprove Earthworks operations by re-addressing issues like collaboration, good governance, real-time datasharing and appropriate use of innovation to achieve maximum competence. Department for Transporthas decided to spend £15.2 billion on over 100 major schemes to enhance, renew and improve the networkover next 5 years that will help increasing user satisfaction, smoothen traffic flow and reduce interruptionson roads. It is critical to spend this money in the most efficient manner to achieve the desired strategicoutcomes over the next five years. Highways England is supposed to generate £1.2 Billion worth of savingsover the 5 years plan
The Use of Models in Learning Design and Learning Analytics
No full textThe practice of Learning Design (LD) and Learning Analytics (LA) is analysed using two lenses. Firstly, it is argued that both LD and LA involve the making of models. All models involve idealisation, i.e. the simplification of something complicated to make it more tractable. Various educational actors generate idealisations of the system they are working in, but only a subset of these idealisations is embodied in LD and LA implementations. Secondly, LD and LA both change the way that the actors in education handle the complexity which they are faced with in their practice. This is analysed in terms of the cybernetic concepts of variety and black boxes. It is then argued that LD and LA implementations share a tendency to shift control to higher levels in the hierarchy, and that this has consequences for the autonomy of teachers and learners, and for the acceptability to users of LD and LA. Finally, some conclusions are offered which can help LD and LA to be implemented while addressing the common problems that have been identified
Portable wireless electrocorticography system with a fexible microelectrodes array for epilepsy treatment
No full textIn this paper, we present a portable wireless electrocorticography (ECoG) system. It uses a high resolution 32-channel fexible ECoG electrodes array to collect electrical signals of brain activities and to stimulate the lesions. Electronic circuits are designed for signal acquisition, processing and transmission using Bluetooth Low Energy 4 (LTE4) for wireless communication with cell phone. In-vivo experiments on a rat show that the fexible ECoG system can accurately record electrical signals of brain activities and transmit them to cell phone with a maximal sampling rate of 30 ksampling/s per channel. It demonstrates that the epilepsy lesions can be detected, located and treated through the ECoG system.The wireless ECoG system has low energy consumption and high brain spatial resolution, thus has great prospects for future application
The case for open learning cycles and the need for micro-reflections
No full textThis conference paper provides a contemporary theoretical approach to reflecting for educational purposes. It examines the historical approach to learning in a wrote, or repetitive manner which suits the closed if somewhat criticised cyclical approaches of Kolb (1974), Kolb and Fry (!984) Boud et al. etc. and enters the debate on the suitability of closed learning cycles by exploring the critiques from Webb (2004) Forrest (2012) and ideas from John Dewey (1933) to suggest the singular nature of learning experiences in a modern world might be better catered for by short immediate reflections using the open cycle learning approaches of Otto Scharmer (2009)
Adventures at the fringe of thought: William James, Modernism, and disability studies
No full textThis paper argues that new direction can be found for the modernist concept of stream of consciousness by returning to William James’s original insights in Principles of Psychology (1890). I begin by briefly outlining James’s idea of the “stream of thought” in order to identify the nature of its relationship to the literary technique. I go on to show how early readings of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (1929) were inspired by a modernist cognizance of “stream of consciousness” narration but were “ableist” in their treatment of Benjy Compson’s narrative. More recently, these shortcomings have been redressed from a literary disability studies perspective but not without importing unwarranted humanist values into Faulkner’s presentation of Benjy. To develop a reading of cognitive impairment which is neither dehumanising nor humanist, I return to James’s “stream of thought” to show how it can be reconciled with a recent (Deleuzian) disability studies account of “impersonal life”. The broader aim of this return to James is to explore how aspects of the stream of thought concept such as “fringe awareness” and embodied cognition might supplement and enrich contemporary literary and disability studies
Tapping into pedagogical knowledge through the use of smartphones
No full textThe advancements in mobile phone technology over the last decade, has enabled educators and students to adopt smartphones in their teaching and learning. However, historically the utilisation of digital devices in the classroom were not prevalent as a pedagogical tool within Higher Education. The uncertainties surrounding the impact of these devices on students’ engagement and performance have been a phenomena within educational and teaching practices. Although these portable devices can be powerful learning tools, whether students from diverse cultural backgrounds, age groups, disciplines, and study levels can accept and engage with these tools in the classroom requires further exploration. As such, this research investigates students’ expectations and perceptions, considering the use of smartphones within the classroom from a UK university. Mixed methods approach was adopted with both questionnaires (n = 48) and focus groups (n= 6*2). Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to examine the differences in perceptions among grouping variables of continents, age, subject of study, and year of study. Moreover, regression analysis was adopted to explore the impact of the influencing factors on the effectiveness of the use of smartphones. Finally, principle component analysis was applied to evaluate how these factors might be correlated according to the responses from the questionnaire.Results showed that:(1) The use of smartphones has a positive influence on students perception of their engagement and performance; (2) there is no significant differences in students’ perceptions when they come from different continents, age groups, year of study and subject of study; (3) support from the software / websites, their interface design, students’ awareness of peer performance, and learning styles appear to have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the use of smartphones according to students’ perception; (4) The appropriateness of the type of the tasks students required to do on their phone, the length of time they spend on the phone, and the amount of tasks required are correlated according to the responses.Additionally, the conceptual framework for implementing smartphones in the classroom within Higher Education, is developed accordingly to both the questionnaire and focus group results