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The impact of Austerity Measures on people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
No full textContext: UK austerity measures following the 2008 financial crisis included budget reductions for health and social care. We aimed to investigate the extent to which austerity-measures had impacted the lives of people with intellectual disabilities in England, and whether their support costs were associated with their characteristics, needs and outcomes.Objectives: We report on what services people with intellectual disabilities were using, whether they had lost care, the costs of their support, and what impact any loss of benefits and services had on individuals’ lives.Methods: 150 participants with intellectual disabilities across England were interviewed about their services and their well-being. Service and individual support costs were calculated. Statistical and thematic analyses were employed.Results: The largest proportion (42%) of our sample had lost care. 14% had experienced changed care, and care had remained the same for 36%. Only 7% said their care had improved. No associations were found between costs and characteristics and needs except for whether the person had mild or severe intellectual disabilities. Those who had lost care engaged in fewer activities and had significantly lower self-esteem and quality-of-life scores compared with those who had not lost care. Loss of care impacted on individuals’ independence and future aspirations.Limitations: A comparative study of austerity impacts across the whole of England was not possible. Our costs data may be underestimated because full information on support from home, key, or support workers was unavailable.Implications: In attempting to mitigate against COVID-19 impacts on people with intellectual disabilities, policy-decisions will need to consider the backlog of a decade of cuts
Signature Pedagogies in vocational learning:Pedagogy - Challenges, Recent Advances, New Perspectives, and Applications
No full textThis section will look at differing concepts of pedagogy using research data collected at a college that is at the forefront of using technology as a tool for learning. The data collected was originally analysed using the concepts of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK), Signature Pedagogies and expansive vocational education to see how these concepts applied to practice. The research indicated that whilst there were differences in the pedagogical content approach, the concept of signature pedagogies was strong across all the vocational curriculum areas looked at. It highlighted several instances where the teachers were using an ‘implicit structure’ in their pedagogy to draw out the moral aspects of the profession and the inherent principles that guide a professional in a particular field. Finally, it confirms that through using signature pedagogies teachers are able to develop habits of the heart, mind and hand in their learners and to cultivate learners who ‘think like professionals’
When readers talk about characters as if they were real, how do they talk about them? Empathy and gossip in reading group discourse
Get PDFIt is often claimed that readers talk about fictional characters as if they were real. This article examines how this is done through the analysis of five reading groups talking about The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, leading to a new framework for understanding and analysing this phenomenon in book talk. Reading group discourse was selected as it provided situated and contextualised responses to the book, allowing for the empirical examination of reading-in-talk (Meyers 2009) from naturally occurring reading events. The analysis follows a discourse dynamic approach (Cameron, 2010), which views interaction as ongoing processes within a dynamic system (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008), influenced by socio-cultural and personal variables and subject to shifts and stabilisations in the flow of conversation. Empathy was identified as underpinning assumptions of how readers talk about characters. This was supported by the reading group data, where it was found that readers performed both automatic and deliberate empathy. To better understand how readers talked about characters as if they were real, deliberate empathy was further refined into attribution (Palmer 2004) and positioning (Harré, 2012) and additional processes (stereotyping, extension, mediation and synechdocal interpretation) were identified. Using these processes, readers were found to gossip about characters, evaluating their behaviour by drawing on a range of social knowledge, personal experience, textual detail and extensions of the text. The evaluations led to understanding of characters that ranged from complex individuality to stereotypes. However, even when stereotyping, by drawing on real world social knowledge and norms, these evaluations underpin how readers talk about fictional characters as if they were real. In addition, evidence of self-reflection alongside consideration of real-world social groups emerging from discussion of characters as if they were real supports existing scholarship that identifies reading groups as sites of intellectual and social development
#EEGManyLabs: Investigating the replicability of influential EEG experiments
No full textThere is growing awareness across the neuroscience community that the replicability of findings about the relationship between brain activity and cognitive phenomena can be improved by conducting studies with high statistical power that adhere to well-defined and standardised analysis pipelines. Inspired by recent efforts from the psychological sciences, and with the desire to examine some of the foundational findings using electroencephalography (EEG), we have launched #EEGManyLabs, a large-scale international collaborative replication effort. Since its discovery in the early 20th century, EEG has had a profound influence on our understanding of human cognition, but there is limited evidence on the replicability of some of the most highly cited discoveries. After a systematic search and selection process, we have identified 27 of the most influential and continually cited studies in the field. We plan to directly test the replicability of key findings from 20 of these studies in teams of at least three independent laboratories. The design and protocol of each replication effort will be submitted as a Registered Report and peer-reviewed prior to data collection. Prediction markets, open to all EEG researchers, will be used as a forecasting tool to examine which findings the community expects to replicate. This project will update our confidence in some of the most influential EEG findings and generate a large open access database that can be used to inform future research practices. Finally, through this international effort, we hope to create a cultural shift towards inclusive, high-powered multi-laboratory collaborations
Constructing a definition: adolescent wellbeing from the perspective of the child and expert.
Get PDFBackground: Adolescents' wellbeing is gaining increasing attention, with it being part of the United Nations sustainable goals (United Nations, 2019 [online]). The question regarding what adolescents' wellbeing is, however, has received no rigorous answer (Alexandrova, 2017), even though it is regarded as a fundamental measure of learning and growing as a human being (Stevens & Jarden, 2019). Understanding what wellbeing means to adolescents is vital and an under-researched area (Dunlop-Bennett et al., 2019) which has implications for the development and validation of tools to measure their wellbeing. Construct definition development literature highlights that experts, in addition to the relevant population, need to be consulted about the subject area to form a representative and valid definition (Podsakoff et al., 2016). Method: Two groups were invited to interview with the aim to understand their conceptualisations of wellbeing. Group 1 consisted of both expert practitioners and researchers from different disciplines in the field of wellbeing (n = 8) and Group 2 were young people aged 11-16 (n = 41). Conclusion: Any definition needs to be reflective of the multi-faceted nature of wellbeing. Findings revealed three themes: holism, positive feelings, and external influences. Based on these findings a definition of wellbeing was formed. These conclusions should be used to underpin research with adolescents and the development of a measure of young people’s wellbeing
The Influence of eWOM Credibility on Visit Intention: An Integrative Moderated Mediation Model
Get PDFPurpose: This study examines the process by which eWOM susceptibility moderates the strength of indirect links between the perceived credibility of eWOM messages and the intention to visit a destination via the destination image and the perceived usefulness of these messages. Methods: The research hypotheses were tested according to structural equations modelling and Hayes procedure, which made it possible to study simultaneously and rigorously the mediating and moderating effects, and to have a clear view on the model fittness. Results: The results indicate that the mediation links of the destination image on the relationship between perceived credibility and intention to visit a destination, are moderated by the susceptibility of the eWOM (the comments generated by Internet users or the sharing of tourists' experiences on Facebook). This study also indicates that the relationship between the perceived credibility of the eWOM and the intentions to visit a destination is mediated by the usefulness of the eWOM messages and the destination image. Implications: Tourism practitioners seeking to attract tourists can use the eWOM as a communication technique for product and/or service recommendations. Given the powerful influence of the eWOM, it should not be ignored or misused, but managed to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies in hospitality, tourism and travel
‘Using Scrapbooks in Historical Research: the case of the Institute of Race Relations, 1947’
No full textRoutine abdominal magnetic resonance imaging can determine psoas muscle area in paediatric Crohn's disease and correlates with bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy measures of lean mass
Get PDFBackground: Paediatric Crohn's disease (CD) has been associated with undernutrition. Accurate and accessible measures of body composition would provide data to personalise nutritional therapy. We assessed feasibility of MRI-derived measures of psoas cross-sectional area (PCSA) in paediatric CD and correlated with anthropometric and bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS) measures. Methods: MRI small bowel/pelvis images of patients with CD, aged <18 years, were retrieved. Patients with concurrent anthropometric and BIS measurements were eligible for inclusion. The PCSA at L3 was calculated by two assessors and combined. To assess reproducibility of measures we calculated the coefficient of variation (CoV). Age, height-Z-scores, weight-Z-scores and BIS measures were correlated with PCSA. Using normal paediatric data from CT-scans we derived psoas area Z-scores for our cohort. Results: 10 patients were included. Mean age at MRI scan was 14.6 years (11.7-16.3). PCSA was calculated for all MRI scans. There was high reproducibility between measurers, mean CoV 0.099. There was a significant positive correlation between PCSA and BIA-derived fat free mass, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) 0.831, p = 0.003. Correlation coefficients for PCSA and Height-for-age Z-score, weight-for-age -Z-score and age were PCC 0.343- p = 0.33, PCC = 0.222- p = 0.54, and PCC 0.6034- p = 0.065, respectively. The mean PCSA Z-score was -1.81, with 70% of the patients having a Z-score < -2.0. Conclusions: These data demonstrate the feasibility of deriving measures of body composition from routine MRI imagine. There was significant positive correlation between PCSA and BIS-derived lean mass. Further studies are required to confirm applicability of normal ranges prior to routine clinical implementation