Open to critique: predictive effects of academic outcomes from a bridging/foundation programme on first-year degree-level study     

Elana Curtis  Erena Wikaire  Yannan Jiang  Louise McMillan  Robert Loto  Sonia Fonua 《Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education》2017,42(1):151-167

Bridging/foundation programmes are often provided by tertiary institutions to increase equity in access and academic performance of students from under-served communities. Little empirical evidence exists to measure the effectiveness of these bridging/foundation programmes on undergraduate academic outcomes. This research identifies the predictive effect of academic outcomes achieved within a bridging/foundation programme, targeted towards indigenous and ethnic minority students, on first-year degree-level outcomes. Overall performance within the bridging/foundation programme was positively associated with increasing Grade Point Average (GPA), ‘Core 4’ GPA and passing all courses in first year. However, mixed associations were identified between feeder bridging/foundation courses and their intended first year course counterparts. These findings support the continued provision of bridging/foundation education; however, curricular reform within the bridging/foundation programme was required. Key developments included: restructuring course delivery; increasing constructive alignment across the curriculum; increasing cultural content within western science-orientated courses; introduction of cross-curricular assessment and use of additional innovative teaching and learning activities. Additional challenges remain for degree programmes to explore how they can change in order to better support indigenous and ethnic minority student success within first-year tertiary study.  相似文献   

Effects of footwear midsole thickness on running biomechanics     

Mark H.C. Law  Eric M.F. Choi  Stephanie H.Y. Law  Subrina S.C. Chan  Sonia M.S. Wong 《Journal of sports sciences》2019,37(9):1004-1010

Shoe manufacturers launch running shoes with increased (e.g., maximalists) or decreased (e.g., minimalists) midsole thickness and claim that they may prevent running injury. Previous studies tested footwear models with different midsole thicknesses on the market but the shoe construct was not strictly comparable. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effect of midsole thickness, from 1-mm to 29-mm, in a standard test shoe prototype on the vertical loading rates, footstrike angle and temporal spatial parameters in distance runners. Fifteen male habitual rearfoot strikers were recruited from local running clubs. They were asked to run on an instrumented treadmill in shoes with different midsole thicknesses. We found significant interactions between midsole thickness with vertical loading rates (p < 0.001), footstrike angle (p = 0.013), contact time (p < 0.001), cadence (p = 0.003), and stride length (p = 0.004). Specifically, shoes with thinner midsole (1- and 5-mm) significantly increased the vertical loading rates and shortened the contact time, when compared with thicker midsole shoes (25- and 29-mm). However, we did not observe any substantial differences in the footstrike angle, cadence and stride length between other shod conditions. The present study provides biomechanical data regarding the relationship between full spectrum midsole thicknesses and running biomechanics in a group of rearfoot strikers.  相似文献   

Is child sexual abuse declining in Canada? An analysis of child welfare data     

Collin-Vézina D  Hélie S  Trocmé N 《Child abuse & neglect》2010,34(11):807-812

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CLASS–Infant: An Observational Measure for Assessing Teacher–Infant Interactions in Center-Based Child Care     

Kristen Roorbach Jamison  Sonia Q. Cabell  Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch  Bridget K. Hamre  Robert C. Pianta 《Early education and development》2014,25(4):553-572

Research Findings: The growing body of literature demonstrating the importance of quality interactions with caregivers to infant development coupled with the increasing number of infants spending time in classroom settings highlights the need for a measure of interpersonal relationships between infants and caregivers. This article introduces a new measure of quality in infant classrooms based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) framework. This measure focuses on teacher–infant interactions with the goal of understanding how these proximal process features can be assessed in this environment. Results from a small pilot study of 30 infant classrooms indicated that the CLASS–Infant demonstrated adequate variability as well as expected convergent and divergent validity with the most commonly used infant child care quality measure. The dimensions of the measure composed a single construct of classroom quality based on teacher–infant interactions. Practice or Policy: Implications of using this measure as an assessment of center-based infant classroom quality and improving professional development are discussed.  相似文献   

Leading through partnership: enhancing the Teach First Leadership Programme     

Sonia Blandford 《Teacher Development》2014,18(1):1-14

Teach First works in partnership with government, business organisations, higher education institutions (providers of Initial Teacher Training, ITT) and schools to offer a two-year integrated Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Leadership Development Programme; the first cohort of students were accepted in 2003. Its delivery of an integrated QTS/leadership programme, recruitment of top graduates who would not otherwise consider teaching, focus on teaching in challenging schools and joint business–Higher Education Institution delivery, set Teach First within a unique position amongst ITT partnerships in England. In 2008, building on its success, Teach First sought to enhance its Leadership Development Programme, relevant to teachers and leaders in all fields, including the development of an optional Masters route. This paper considers the development of the enhanced programme within the Teach First partnership model and explores the merits of the programme in developing teachers. Evidence suggests that the core values, focus on mission and strong ethos have been major contributory factors to its success.  相似文献   

Building services cabinets as teaching material in a degree in architecture     

César Martín-Gómez  Omayra Zapata  Amaia Zuazua  Sonia Villanueva  Paula Olaizola 《European Journal of Engineering Education》2014,39(2):143-156

The aim of this innovative educational project is to encourage students’ interest in one of the most underrated fields of architecture: building services. With this material students interact with real elements and thereby understand the relationship between facilities and the building. A set of three small technical cabinets is planned. They allow for comfortable use and movement inside the building, need minimum maintenance and are easily stored. The result is an alternative concept of a mobile laboratory called a ‘technical cabinet’, made up of three mobile units for fire safety, electricity and the heating/cooling system. The design, content and learning systems of the cabinets confirmed the validity of the initial concept during the first year of use. A protocol has also been developed for each of the technical cabinets so that the teaching experience may be of use in other Schools of Architecture.  相似文献   

Interventions in teaching first-year law: feeding forward to improve learning outcomes     

Sonia Walker  Julia Hobson 《Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education》2014,39(3):326-338

Aligned assessment is a cornerstone of higher education curriculum design. Yet, it does not address the problem of how students learn how they should proceed when faced with a new assessment task. That teaching task is often left to the role of ‘feedback’. This article examines changes to a first year law unit, introduced following negative student feedback about an assessment task. The feedback made apparent a lack of alignment between staff and student expectations as to what was being assessed and how it was being assessed. The article considers formative assessment through a feed-forward model, and relates this to the design and process of the intervention. The teaching method of the feed-forward model is detailed. The analysis of the results shows that a number of key misperceptions were held by students as to the points of difficulty in the assignment. A significant number of students also found it extremely difficult to judge the quality of past assignments against a marking guide. This direct feeding forward allowed some of the students’ tacit and false assumptions to emerge and be addressed, before they began their first major assessment, resulting in improved pass rates for the assessment.  相似文献   

The Welsh Credit Vision     

Sonia Reynolds 《Higher Education Quarterly》2001,55(3):285-291

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Professional development for design-based learning in engineering education: a case study     

Sonia M. Gómez Puente  Michiel van Eijck  Wim Jochems 《European Journal of Engineering Education》2015,40(1):14-31

Design-based learning (DBL) is an educational approach in which students gather and apply theoretical knowledge to solve design problems. In this study, we examined how critical DBL dimensions (project characteristics, design elements, the teacher's role, assessment, and social context) are applied by teachers in the redesign of DBL projects. We conducted an intervention for the professional development of the DBL teachers in the Mechanical Engineering and the Electrical Engineering departments. We used the Experiential Learning Cycle as an educational model for the professionalisation programme. The findings show that the programme encouraged teachers to apply the DBL theoretical framework. However, there are some limitations with regard to specific project characteristics. Further research into supporting teachers to develop open-ended and multidisciplinary activities in the projects that support learning is recommended.  相似文献   

A web-based community-building archives project: a case study of Kids in Birmingham 1963     

Sonia Yaco  Ann Jimerson  Laura Caldwell Anderson  Chanda Temple 《Archival Science》2015,15(4):399-427

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