12244 research outputs found
Sort by
Somatic landscapes and urban identities: mapping emotional engagements through site, dance and body connections in Raval, Barcelona, a case study
No full textThe historic neighbourhood of Raval, in Barcelona presents a multicultural
urban landscape. It contains a sense of both tangible and intangible
identities influenced by a high level of social mobility arising from migration,
tourism and urban gentrification processes. In April 2018 we led an exploratory
workshop with neighbourhood residents, our objective was to observe the
multisensorial nature of this urban landscape with locally-based
participants. Through an arts-based residency we explored body-site
relations by drawing attention to the body, human movement in space and its
relation to and reflection of the urban landscape. Our methodology involved a
five-day movement workshop with 14 participants in site-based movement
experimentation through which we explored urban affects, engagement,
familiarity, and senses of belonging to space. We focused our attention on the
creation of emotional and sensorial landscapes through our bodies, using site-specific movement explorations in space and experimental modes of
cartography in which we „mapped‟ the neighbourhood according to our
experiences, senses and emotions. We considered the communicative role of
the body as a producer of non-verbal and non-representative language that
expressed experiences of the sites in which we moved. The mapping of urban
space through the body enabled us to understand the participants‟ subjective
engagement with space (feelings, emotions, rhythms, movements, intensities,
memories, wishes, visions). We explored landscape as an active and predicative
creation arising from subjective and vital experience, conscious, cognitive and
sensorially filtered and shaped by memories, emotions, narratives and
perceptions. Through sharing experiences and “co-mapping” bodies and urban
sites we explored the intra-active nature of these engagements through New
Materialist lenses, spatial theory and discourses of urban flow and mobility
Best practice standards in animal-assisted interventions: how the LEAD risk assessment tool can help
Get PDFAnimal-assisted interventions (AAI) in educational and other settings have steadily increased over the last fifty years and a steep rise in AAI has been observed in many countries and settings in recent years. Surprisingly, while different providers and organisations provide a range of guidelines, no unified, standardised guidelines or risk assessment tools for AAI exist. This means that in practice AAI takes place in an unregulated manner and without a gold standard of best practice. In addition, knowledge of which interventions are effective is still scarce and the mechanisms of successful interventions are not yet fully understood. This is partly due to AAI being a relatively new research field and standards of research and practice have often lacked rigour in the past. Furthermore, knowledge and experience of providers undertaking interventions varies greatly as there is no standardised training either. We address the striking lack of standardised guidelines and procedures. In all AAI, high importance should be placed on safety and welfare of all involved. Children and other AAI participants, staff and animals should be given equal consideration when assessing risks and welfare needs. To ensure safe AAI worldwide, we provide urgently needed guidelines on best practice in relation to risk assessment, safeguarding and animal welfare priorities. The guidelines were developed for a large-scale longitudinal, randomised controlled trial AAI project and are relevant to AAIs within educational and other settings. We also provide the first set of comprehensive risk assessment and animal welfare tools to achieve consistent welfare and safety standards for best practice across educational and other settings around the world
Blood moon
No full textAn extraordinary YA novel in verse about the online shaming of a teenage girl. During astronomy-lover Frankie's first sexual experience with the quiet and lovely Benjamin, she gets her period. It's only blood, they agree. But soon a graphic meme goes viral, turning an innocent, intimate afternoon into something disgusting, mortifying and damaging. As the online shaming takes on a horrifying life of its own, Frankie begins to wonder: is her real life over
Does short-term memory develop?
No full textSuch is the consistency by which performance on measures of short-term memory (STM) increase with age that developmental increases in STM capacity are largely accepted as fact. However, our analysis of a robust but almost ignored finding – that span for digit sequences (the traditional measure of STM) increases at a far greater rate than span for other verbal material – fundamentally undermines the assumption that increased performance in STM tasks is underpinned by developmental increases in capacity. We show that this digit superiority with age effect is explained by the relatively greater linguistic exposure to random sequences of digits versus other stimuli such as words. A simple associative learning process that learns incrementally from exposure to language accounts for the effect, without any need to invoke an STM mechanism, much less one that increases in capacity with age. By extension, using corpus data directed at 2–3 year old children, 4–6 year old children, and adults, we show that age-related performance increases with other types of verbal material are equally driven by the same basic associative learning process operating on the expanding exposure to language experienced by the child. Our results question the idea that tests such as digit span are measuring a dedicated system for the temporary maintenance and manipulation of verbal material, and as such have implications for our understanding of those aspects of typical and atypical development that are usually accounted for with respect to the operation of such a system
Lockdown unlocking change in music education practice [blog post]
No full textISM member and instrumental music teacher, Rachel Beale discusses her PhD research paper on unlocking change in music education practice during lockdown, providing an in-depth analysis of what can be learnt from the 'new normal' within the music education space
Impact of labeled glasses in a bar laboratory setting: no effect on ad libitum alcohol consumption
Get PDFAims:-
Information provided on glass labels may be an effective method to reduce alcohol consumption. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of glass labels conveying unit information and a health warning in reducing ad libitum alcohol consumption.
Methods:-
A cluster-randomized experimental study was conducted to measure the efficacy of a labeled glass in reducing alcohol consumption in a semi naturalistic bar laboratory setting, in a sample of 81 pairs (n = 162) of UK young adult drinkers. Pairs were randomized to receive two 340-ml glasses of beer or wine: labeled or plain (control). Alcohol consumption was assessed in an ad libitum drinking period, and urge to drink was measured at baseline and postdrinking period. Focus groups (n = 2) were conducted, and thematic analysis was used to gain an insight into the acceptability and the perceived effectiveness of the glasses.
Results:-
Mean unit consumption was 1.62 (SD ± 0.83) units in the labeled glass condition and 1.69 (SD ± 0.82) units in the non labeled glass condition. There were no significant effects of the labeled glasses on ad libitum alcohol consumption (95% CI −0.25 to 0.37, p = 0.35), despite participants (85%) noticing the information. Qualitative analysis of focus groups indicated that although participants perceived the glasses as a useful tool for increasing awareness of units and guidelines, they were viewed as limited in their potential to change drinking behavior due to the unappealing design of the glass and a view that unit guidelines were not relevant to drinking patterns or contexts.
Conclusions:-
Labeled glasses did not change alcohol consumption in the current study, potentially due to ineffectiveness of this type of message in a young adult population. The information on the glasses was attended to, highlighting that glasses could be a feasible tool for providing information
Postdigital we-learn
No full textThis paper examines relationships between learning and technological change and argues that we urgently need new ways to approach what it means to learn in the context of a global Fourth Industrial Revolution. It briefly introduces the postdigital perspective, which considers the digital ‘revolution’ as something that has already happened and focuses to its reconfiguration. It claims that what we access, how we access it, what we do with it, and who then accesses what we have done, are important elements of a postdigital world worthy of closer examination. Focusing to recent debates about postdigital collective intelligence, we develop the concept of postdigital we-learn by showing that it might help us, amongst other things, to counter the idea of a lone human accessing education primarily for future individual, economic profit, as prescribed by the neoliberal learning economy. Building on new schools of thought emerging in response to the expansion of non-human (algorithmic) agency, we refine the concept of postdigital we-learn as a gathering between humans and machines. The consequences of this gathering are uncomfortable, as they imply unlearning elements of both capitalism and critical pedagogy. However, such unlearning is inherent to ‘a critical pedagogy of becoming’ and positions postdigital we-learn as a suitable framework for understanding and development of emancipatory, critical learning in our postdigital reality
Academic employees’ understandings of workplace well-being in Ghana: an interpretive phenomenological analysis
No full textAim:-
This study aimed to use eudaimonic theory to investigate how academic employees in Ghana understand workplace well-being, what well-being means to them and what changes have taken place over time.
Method:-
The well-being experience, views and stories of academic employees from three public universities in Ghana were investigated using semi-structured interviews together with an interview guide involving eighteen academics. The study adopted a qualitative research approach, and the data were analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenology Approach (IPA).
Results:-
The results suggest that academic employees understood workplace well-being from both the negative and positive perspectives of the eudaimonic theory. The sociocultural aspect of well-being together with several workplace well-being components were highlighted in the academics’ stories with commonly used phrases such as society expects us to behave in a certain way, our culture frowns on complaints at work and we are brought up not to challenge our leaders. The results further suggest that depending on the context of work, meeting work targets, delays in promotion, inadequate resources, student progress, identities and research collaboration with colleagues can act as both negative and positive assets for well-being.
Conclusion:-
This study indicates that the socio-cultural facet of well-being is dominant in the experience of academics and that it is important not only for a mindset change but also for a complete understanding of workplace well-being issues. Additionally, any plans to introduce workplace well-being programs and policies at the workplace in Ghana should be aligned with employees’ mindset changes (cultural beliefs), the work environment and the employees themselves. The results have placed the problem in a developing country context and are grounded in the experiences of academic employees, supported by the eudaimonic theory and reflect other contextual factors, including cultural beliefs and structural needs
