Writing - next project - parts 1 & 2 in search of titles

Currently, I'm pulling together what have become two drafts, that consider Hodges' model as a mathematical object. Part 1, put-down in the new year, and picked-up now; a good start as there is more than I thought. There's a cost of that, of course? Part 2 is a gathering of tatters. Well, it is an effort.

As I don't work in academia where connections may more readily follow, can I claim that Hodges' model also does work? That the model can help in finding potential collaborators and co-authors? Once the fundamentals are understood, and again - it's not rocket science - for some people thankfully, something clicks. It clicks absolutely where it is should.

The model can be quite addictive in a positive way, as one of many among the vast array of assessment, evaluation and other tools. It is complementary.

So, with much needed support to follow, including from previous publication (please see the bibliography in the sidebar), plus April's WCCS26 conference, I'm working away to share them in 12 days or so. Then the work really begins as I benefit from collegial input, new perspectives, views, critique and the reward of constructive debate, experience and knowledge of others. I hope the drafts reward the curiosity that's been displayed. It is still quite exciting. Hoping too that students and early career researchers might pick this up ...

'Curiosity': child safety and safeguarding c/o BBC News

'Teacher who killed his adopted son given whole life prison sentence

14:30 18 June

That concludes our live coverage of the sentencing hearing.

To recap what happened at Preston Crown Court earlier: A teacher who sexually abused and murdered the 13-month-old baby boy he adopted with his partner has been told he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Preston Davey died in July 2023 at the hands of Jamie Varley, 37, who subjected the child to physical, sexual and emotional abuse during the final four months of his life.

Varley, from Blackpool, told police Preston had accidentally drowned in a bath, but a post-mortem examination discovered the child had suffered 40 injuries.'

Continued ...

◇

individual

|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES             

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

group

curiosity
	PROFESSIONAL CURIOSITY

Source (Various): BBC Live News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4gyrewq8xkt

 Previously: 'curiosity' : 'risk'

Seeking postdoctoral researchers for ERC project IDENTITY ERROR

Dear Colleagues
Please help connect people in your network with this ERC-funded postdoc opportunity in our department.

"The project will combine computational modelling and group-based experiments to scale individual models of epistemic vulnerability (i.e., belief in misinformation/conspiracy theories) to a social level."

Many thanks,

Mike
________________________________

The ERC-funded IDENTITY ERROR project is hiring 2 Postdoctoral Researchers (hosted in the Psychology Department in UL). The project will combine computational modelling and group-based experiments to scale individual models of epistemic vulnerability (i.e., belief in misinformation/conspiracy theories) to a social level. There is a computational post that will require some knowledge of network analysis and/or agent-based modelling, and a social psychology post that will require experience conducting behavioral experiments. We are a supportive group of interdisciplinary researchers, and we do not expect either postdoc to have full knowledge of these methods. We only expect a willingness to learn and a curious attitude. Further details on each post can be found at the links below. The closing dates for applications are October 28th (computational postdoc) and November 3rd (psychology postdoc). 

Each post is estimated to last for 3 years. Contact paul.maher AT ul.ie for enquires.

Computational post: https://my.corehr.com/pls/esbsheulrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=079248

Social Psychology post: https://my.corehr.com/pls/esbsheulrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=079308
------------------------------

My source: Mike Quayle, Mike.Quayle AT UL.IE
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=simsoc
SIMSOC Digest - 15 Oct 2025 to 16 Oct 2025 (#2025-169)

Paper - (finally!) "A generic model and conceptual framework to prime curiosity across health and social care ..."

 It has been over a decade but at last the second* paper has been published in Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice:

Jones, P. (2025), A Generic Model and Conceptual Framework to Prime Curiosity Across Health and Social Care Disciplines to Facilitate Lifelong Learning. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 31: e70252. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.70252

ABSTRACT 

Rationale: The Corona virus pandemic highlighted the importance in continuity of the physical and emotional labour across all care sectors. Synergy between healthcare in hospitals, and community services must be allied with social care; and be central to integrated and efficient policy and service delivery. Services were found wanting in the pandemic and in recurring winter crises. The politics of funding for care delivered in rest and nursing homes remains contested, awaiting long‐promised governmental action. The workforce is recognised as dedicated, skilled, compassionate and yet under‐valued and under‐paid; managers face ongoing recruitment challenges, with a national shortage of staff, and high turnover of personnel. A National Care Service is awaited in England and Wales. 

Aims and Objectives: This study explores the ongoing care crisis, using the educational lens of threshold concepts, projected, analysed and synthesised of a generic conceptual framework, known as Hodges' model. Readers will understand Hodges' model and threshold concepts being equipped to explain both. 

Methods: The study is descriptive and uses a conceptual mapping approach supported by discussion and literature. Additional resources and avenues for ongoing study are also provided. 

Conclusion: In conclusion, Hodges' model is a pragmatic, practice‐based tool, that can support and sustain curiosity for workforce learning and development. 

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Messrs Mark Bird and Matthew Graham and the journal's reviewers for comments on drafts of this study; and acknowledge the effort of Dr Michael T. Flanagan in creating the informative threshold concepts resource (referred to above). 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/IRPNBR2KHJNYJK8XUAW6?target=10.1111/jep.70252

*This paper was originally the first of a two-part work. Feedback from reviewers suggested the papers be standalone. United now, in one journal.

Many thanks to the reviewers, editor, editorial and publications team at JECP.

This paper has been added to bibliography in the blog's sidebar.

Paper: "A generic model and conceptual framework to prime curiosity across health and social care disciplines to facilitate lifelong learning"

 What seems a long time ago now (a decade!) I started writing a paper on:

• Threshold concepts
• Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)
• and Hodges' model

This ended up as a two part work, which after review ended up as two separate papers:

One appeared in April:

Jones, P. (2025). A Conceptual Mapping Exercise of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in Residential & Community Care Using Hodges' Model and Threshold Concepts. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 31: e70085. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.70085

The other should be published soon - same journal. I appreciate the editor's patience and team's support:

"A generic model and conceptual framework to prime curiosity across health and social care disciplines to facilitate lifelong learning"

Unfortunately, I've no funds to pay for open access. I will bear this in mind, as I resurrect another project - with two versions of 13,000 and 6,000 words. This is on (and began during) COVID-19, society, information and technology.

An observational record and learning from 30,000 years ago

"A fascinating example is the shoulder blade of an ox unearthed in the 1980s (Figure 1) by archaeologists investigating a stone age encampment in the south of France. Carbon dating showed this to be approximately 30,000 years old. The bone was marked with inscriptions that the archaeologist couldn't decipher. It was clear they were neither a tally, nor a pattern, nor any recognisable form of writing. Late one night one of the archaeologists noticed the moon, and something in its shape caught his curiosity.

Aurignacian Lunar Calendar / diagram, drawing after Marshack, A. 1970; Notation dans les Gravures du Paléolithique Supérieur, Bordeaux, Delmas / Don’s Maps
Figure 1 my source: https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/oldest-lunar-calendars/

Then it struck him. Here, on this fragment of bone, was a lunar calendar complete with 72 observations ... something like 1,600 generations ago. One of our common ancestors (statistically, all of us can claim a relationship to this thoughtful person) 30,000 years ago had the intellectual curiosity to watch the moon, night after night, and then transcribe these movements, at scale, onto the stone age equivalent of the back of an envelope, as he (or she) attempted to "think it through". What makes us human is our ability to think, learn and adapt to our changing environment. The story of the stone age learner gets even better when you imagine a small community of people (adults, adolescents, children on their laps) sitting around a campfire every night working out the meaning of the lunar phases together." pp.72-73.

Abbott, J. & Ryan, T. (2000). Chapter 4, How mass education eclipsed apprenticeship, The Unfinished Revolution: Learning, Human Behavior, Community, and Political Paradox, Stafford, UK: Network Educational Press. (The figure in the book does not include the bone.)

Previously: 'diagrams' , 'archaeology'

[I am also still trying to clear papers and books, as some posts will suggest.]

Emphasising 'naivety' and collections of things: The Serving Library

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

NAÏVE SET THEORY
by Anthony Huberman

1. A total absence of information about a given subject usually solicits no curiosity: without an awareness of its existence, we can’t possibly care about it.

....

7. Eventually, we have a dictionary definition.

See the pdf below and the title link for many other items within this journal:
http://www.dextersinister.org/MEDIA/PDF/NaiveSetTheory.pdf

My source: Visit to The Serving Library exhibition at Tate Liverpool

Image source: Goodreads.com