UK Higher Education Survey of Carers

From: Marie Moreau <marie_moreau AT HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: UK HE survey of carers

Dear Colleagues

I am sharing this final call as we will be closing our survey of carers in UK HE at the end of the month.

Many thanks to those of you who have replied.

To be eligible, you need to be employed by a UK-based university and to be a carer (broadly understood, including as a parent, for a friend, a relative etc.). Here’s the link:

https://angliaruskin.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/national-carers-survey-uk

The outcomes will help us to better understand the experiences of carers in higher education and to provide recommendations to the sector.

We have received ethical approval for this project and are happy to address any question.

Warm wishes

Marie-Pierre Moreau
ARU, Cambridge, UK

My source (with some editing):

This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/FREEDOM-OF-INFORMATION, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/

2023 Improving University Teaching - Hybrid Conference: Sustaining Academic Resilience

 I received news this morning that I will be presenting virtually at:

"Students may arrive at university without a clear sense of what to do now that their goal of admission has been attained. To them, reaching that goal feels like a significant achievement—and it is. But finding a purpose—their own purpose—for pursuing university studies beyond admission is clearly a key ingredient for their academic and personal success.  Without it, they risk not having the resilience needed to cope with novelty and failure. With faculty support, however, students can develop a personal sense of direction to both guide and inspire them as they learn. A corollary is that emotional investment in their studies will help determine their success just as much as intellectual gifts and academic preparation.

Two years ago, the IUT conference was organized around the theme of “the human side of teaching.” This year we return to some of these same issues, which have become if anything more important in the light of our experience during the pandemic. We have seen how students who engage in remote learning often miss the support of direct contact with peers and academic staff and must compensate with added commitment of their own. We have also seen how teachers and students can become stressed to the point that wellbeing becomes an urgent issue for both. How can their wellbeing be nurtured? How can we sustain academic resilience?"

More details ...

 
Looking forward to join, learn and share:

"Hodges' model: Insights into Sustainability & Resilience"

Reflecting on The Times Education Commission 2022

"At the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, Susan Prescott, vice-president of enterprise and education marketing, argued that economic prosperity depended on human ingenuity. “Creativity doesn’t mean ‘Have a music and an arts class’. Creativity means across disciplines, how can you bring in ways for kids to engage in the material differently? How do you bring in opportunities for kids to reflect their learning in new ways? How do you use it to get a different, broader view rather than the fact-based stuff?" p.58. (with my emphasis and below)

Included in the 12-point plan for education:

1 A British Baccalaureate

It would offer broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child.

2 ‘Electives premium’

This should be offered for all schools to be spent on activities including drama, music, dance and sport and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with volunteering and outdoor pursuits expeditions to ensure that the co-curricular activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become available to all.

3 New cadre of Career Academies

These would be elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms that are being established and a new focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism in education to unleash the economic potential of Britain.

4 Significant boost to early years funding

The extra funding should be targeted at the most vulnerable. A unique pupil number would be given to every child from birth, to level the playing field before they get to school. Every primary school should have a library.

5 Army of undergraduate tutors

The students would earn credit towards their degrees by helping pupils who fall behind to catch up.

6 Making the most of tech

A laptop or tablet for every child, greater use of artificial intelligence in schools, colleges and universities to personalise learning, reduce teacher workload and prepare young people better for future employment.

7 Wellbeing at the heart of education

A counsellor should be placed in every school and an annual wellbeing survey of pupils carried out to encourage schools to actively build resilience rather than just support students once problems have arisen.

8 Bring out the best in teaching

The profession’s status and appeal would be increased with better career development, revalidation every five years and a new category of consultant teachers, promoted within the classroom, as well as a new teaching apprenticeship.

9 A reformed Ofsted

Ofsted should work collaboratively with schools to secure sustained improvement, rather than operating through fear, and a new “school report card” with a wider range of metrics including wellbeing, school culture, inclusion and attendance to unleash the potential of schools.

10 Better training

Teachers should be trained to identify children who have special educational needs, a greater focus should be placed on inclusion and a duty put on schools to remain accountable for the pupils they exclude to draw out the talent in every child.

11 New university campuses

New campuses should be created in 50 higher education “cold spots”, including satellite wings in further education colleges. In addition, pay and conditions in the FE sector should be improved and a transferrable credit system between universities and colleges created to boost stalled British productivity.

12 A 15-year strategy for education

The strategy should be drawn up in consultation with business leaders, scientists, local mayors, civic leaders and cultural figures, putting education above short-term party politics and bringing out the best in our schools, colleges and universities.

Obviously idealised but mapped here to Hodges' model the long-term - policy, strategic, funding, resource and workforce emphasis is apparent.

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

7 Wellbeing at the heart of education reflection critical thinking, communication and creativity	2 ‘Electives premium’ (outdoors) ... 6 Making the most of tech 7 Wellbeing at the heart of education
2 ‘Electives premium’ (drama, music, dance) ...	1 A British Baccalaureate 2 ‘Electives premium’ (National Citizen Service experience) 3 New cadre of Career Academies 4 Significant boost to early years funding 5 Army of undergraduate tutors 8 Bring out the best in teaching 9 A reformed Ofsted 10 Better training 11 New university campuses 12 A 15-year strategy for education

What, if anything, is missing?

With its recommendations, the Commission is not intended to be prescriptive, specifying educational methods, methodologies and resources. But the aims and mapping above, point to the need to link education and health as per #7 Wellbeing at the heart of education. 

There is surely an avenue here - via the sustainable development goals, which the UK must also 'achieve'. Consider the following too:

"The system doesn’t measure creativity; it measures what you can remember of other people’s facts.” p.11.

"A British Baccalaureate at 18, an equally rigorous but broader qualification than A-levels with academic and vocational options under the same umbrella. Pupils studying for the academic Diploma Programme would take six subjects — three major, three minor — covering humanities and sciences as well as units on critical thinking, communication and creativity. Those on the Career-related Programme would combine learning (which could include BTecs or a T-level) with work experience. There would be the option for students to “mix and match” elements of both programmes to create the qualification that best suited them. All pupils would do an extended project, community service and some literacy and numeracy through to 18. Digital skills would be woven through the whole curriculum." p.95.

What is missing is understandably the aforementioned tools to facilitate creativity, but let state this as follows and join the dots with wellbeing.

• We need to respect, support and encourage students to be and become curators of their lifelong learning and life chances. 
• The reference p.11 to students being measured on what they can "remember of other people’s facts" is a key statement. As a curator, students should be the marshal of their own 'memory palace' pushing the boundaries, their envelope as the lifelong learning (constant test-pilot) of what we hope is a long career - and not just while in 'work'.
  
• In the above mapping, we can see what is recognised in 'wellbeing'. Pupils need a foundation, they need the confidence and self-esteem to explore, express and explain any difficulties commensurate with their unique situation and identity. The importance of security (nationally, locally and personally) as the basis to address the social determinants of health are essential to integrate short and long-term policy aims and objectives, individual and collective success.

This is identified in the findings:

"Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said there were 'bold and compelling reform' in the commission’s findings.

He welcomed the adoption of his recommendations for undergraduate tutors to help poorer pupils, adding: 'We need to consider radical reset to ensure that the education system fulfils the potential of all children.'”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/times-education-commission-report-welcomed-by-tony-blair-john-major-qwc3b7ktx

The Times Education Commission 2022, 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/society/education/education-commission

'Health career' - 'life chances'

DrupalCon Summits: Higher Education & Healthcare

DrupalCon Attendee

DrupalCon North America 2021 started today and the programme includes  several summit events; two of particular interest next week:

Higher Education Summit

Using Drupal at a college or university? Attend this summit to connect with other Higher Education Drupal users, typically web developers, managers, communicators, graphic designers,  editors and the like. 

Learn from peer Drupal users and experts, working in a variety of contexts in the higher education sector, about the ever-changing Drupal and web landscape, including new trends and current best practices. 

Expect small group discussions, lightning talks, a keynote, and other formats allowing you to engage with your peers. 

The DrupalCon Higher Education Summit is informal, and focuses on best practices, case studies, and discussing solutions to the unique situations inherent to higher education.

Who should attend?

The DrupalCon Higher Education Summit is open to all higher education staff, volunteers, and service providers who are using, or considering using, Drupal as part of their technology stack. This summit is not intended for vendors to pitch new business. 

https://events.drupal.org/drupalcon2021/summit/higher-ed 

Plus:

Healthcare Summit

The healthcare space is now, more than ever, a critical area for all development communities. Digital communication and technologies offer the promise of improved access for patients, but building good solutions requires a solid foundation in accessibility, security and compliance.

Whether you are at a pharma working towards the next vaccine or therapy, a hospital network treating patients with AND without COVID, an insurance company making sure all patients have access to critical healthcare during this tough time, there is much for you to gain from this summit.

Join us for a day of facilitated peer-to-peer problem solving combined with industry leaders sharing their experience solving common challenges like building a digital roadmap for a healthcare system, vaccine distribution platforms, and building user-centered patient experiences.

Who should attend? 

Anyone interested in hearing how companies and the community are creating rich Digital Experiences in the Healthcare space and all levels of colleagues in the Pharma, Medical, Clinical, Hospital, Payers, Caregivers and Healthcare Professional space.

https://events.drupal.org/northamerica2021/summit/healthcare 

Between the humanistic AND mechanistic ...

There is need for a new academic discipline, a hybrid called -

humanics

 

- a hybrid between the humanities and the STEM disciplines

 

 

Individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

HUMANISTIC -------------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

Population

intra- interpersonal	sciences
culture and society	political

 

 

 "A “robot-proof” education, Aoun argues, is not concerned solely with topping up students’ minds with high-octane facts. Rather, it calibrates them with a creative mindset and the mental elasticity to invent, discover, or create something valuable to society—a scientific proof, a hip-hop recording, a web comic, a cure for cancer. Aoun lays out the framework for a new discipline, humanics, which builds on our innate strengths and prepares students to compete in a labor market in which smart machines work alongside human professionals.

The only certainty about the future is change. Higher education based on the new literacies of humanics can equip students for living and working through change."

http://robot-proof.com/#about

 

STEM, in full is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Joseph E. Aoun (2017) Robot-Proof Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

 

 My source: Livsey, A. The human factor, FT Weekend, Life&Arts, 20-21 January, 2018. p.9.

Digital Wellbeing Educators - Online Summit

Higher Education has been transformed in recent months in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as face-to-face teaching has been abruptly transformed into emergency remote teaching in virtual learning environments. For many, this has been a first-time experience, accelerating adoption of online education, often in a very agile way without the time and resources to allow for a carefully planned approach. Throughout this process students have also been compelled to change the way that they learn, and many may lack the competences required to fully participate in online education. 

More details and booking ...

See also:
http://www.digital-wellbeing.eu/

My source:
Dr Julie-Ann Sime
Centre for Technology-Enhanced Learning
Educational Research Department | Lancaster University

Peter Draper: Nursing theory in British nursing (and beyond..?)

Thirty years ago Draper identified a need for British nurses to:

"... have more confidence in themselves as practitioners, researchers and theoreticians. We must put aside the argument that nursing practice based on models derived from individual nurses own beliefs about people and life will lead to confusion in the client's mind and impede recovery, and instead use the implicit theoretical notions that guide the practice of every nurse as a starting point for the development of theory which explores, explains and enhances the reality of British nursing." pp.14-15.

"The resulting theory will achieve relevance from its grounding in the phenomena and data it seeks to explain, and although it may not have the power to account for nursing in all of its complex reality, it will be more likely to form an adequate curriculum framework than will deductively based theory." p.15.

Draper, P. The development of theory in British nursing: current position and future prospects. J Adv Nurs. 1990 Jan;15(1):12-5.

WHO Health for All Film Festival 2020

Dear All,

The World Health Organization is launching its first ever film festival on 16, 21 and 22 May 2020. The WHO Health for All Film Festival invites independent film-makers, production companies, NGOs, communities, students, and film schools from around the world to submit their original short films on health. The submissions can be on any health issue and/or social and environmental determinants of health for the first two categories (non-fiction and animation). The third category focuses on nurses or midwives to pay tribute to the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife in 2020. Only films completed between 1 January 2017 and 30 January 2020 are eligible for the festival. Closing date for entries is 30 January 2020.

Many thanks to spread the word with the following online multilingual tools, the webpages contain the application rules and access to submission tool:

Youtube link to embed everywhere!

English: https://youtu.be/GporpcgO310

Spanish: https://youtu.be/nFW_n5UWwOM

More linguistic versions of this trailer to come in our Youtube channel.

Multilingual webpages (are available)

Social media kit: https://who.canto.global/b/MUT1S

I share with you, as well this media advisor note to all journalists

Dear Journalists,

The World Health Organization is launching its first ever film festival on 16, 21 and 22 May 2020. The WHO Health for All Film Festival invites independent film-makers, production companies, NGOs, communities, students, and film schools from around the world to submit their original short films on health. The Film Festival aims to recruit a new generation of film and video innovators to champion and promote global health issues. Films are a powerful way to raise awareness, improve understanding and encourage action.

The submissions can be on any health issue and/or social and environmental determinants of health for the first two categories (non-fiction and animation). The third category focuses on nurses or midwives to pay tribute to the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife in 2020. Only films completed between 1 January 2017 and 30 January 2020 are eligible for the festival. Closing date for entries is 30 January 2020.

More information: https://www.who.int/film-festival

Access the application tool

Contacts:

REBOUX, Gilles - rebouxg AT who.int

GUERRA, Jaimie Marie - guerraja AT who.int

All my best regards.

Isabelle Wachsmuth

Universal Health Coverage and Health Systems

World Health Organization

Geneva, Switzerland

Office: +41 (0)22 791 3175

Web: www.who.int

TC2020: 8th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference 2020

Bentham House, University College London

London, UK, July 8-10, 2020

After almost two decades of research on threshold concepts that stemmed from Meyer and Land’s seminal publication in 2003 it is time to reflect and take stock. As an idea it has generated significant interest and has become a world-wide phenomenon that has captured the interest of researchers and practitioners across the globe.

The promise it offers as a lens to consider curriculum design, approaches  to pedagogy and a way of reimagining learners has already had significant impact  as the Flanagan website attests… But its full potential remains as yet unrealised. Is it time for an honest appraisal of where we are and where we want to go? If we want to continue to develop the ideas then we need to ask ourselves some potentially troublesome questions:

• Has threshold concepts become synonymous with learner difficulty?
• Have we become entrenched in a slavish adoption of the framework? Or do we apply the framework too loosely?
• How do we avoid thresholds becoming seen as a panacea that can explain all learner difficulty?

In considering these and other questions the conference offers an opportunity to reflect on the achievements thus far and encourages us to consider where we think work in the area needs to go next. There will never be a single solution to support all learners master the same threshold but an awareness of threshold concepts and their associated complexities allows us to become more informed practitioners.

Conference Sub-themes

• Disciplinary retrospectives: transforming the disciplines;
• Practice based thresholds: embedding thresholds within professional practices;
• Liminality: knock knock knocking on transformation’s door;
• Thresholds and curriculum design: new horizons;
• Troublesome not tricky: not all that challenges is a threshold;
• Avoiding swampy ground: acknowledging the pitfalls and planning for the future.

Submission Guidelines

We are inviting the following submissions:

• Full paper: 20 minutes presentation, 10 minutes Q&A (max 300 word submission);
• Lightning Talk: 5 minutes presentation, grouped questions (max 150 word submission);
• Roundtable: 1 or 2 to lead a discussion, perhaps outlining a planned project or exploring an interdisciplinary collaboration (max 300 word submission).

The deadline for submissions is 6pm GMT 16 December (was originally end of Friday 6th December) 2019.

Conference sub-themes

• Disciplinary retrospectives: transforming the disciplines;
• Practice based thresholds: embedding thresholds within professional practices;
• Liminality: knock knock knocking on transformation’s door;
• Thresholds and curriculum design: new horizons;
• Troublesome not tricky: not all that challenges is a threshold;
• Avoiding swampy ground: acknowledging the pitfalls and planning for the future.

Organising Committee

• Jason Davies (UCL)
• Julie Rattray (Durham)
• Anne Tierney (Heriot-Watt)
• Susannah McGowan (Georgetown, USA)
• Abel Nyamapfene (UCL)
• Elia Gironacci (Warwick)

See also:

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=TCS

Book: Visualising Powerful Knowledge to Develop the Expert Student

A Knowledge Structures Perspective on Teaching and Learning at University

Following Professor Friel's book on Climate Change and the People's Health, I've another to review with just 33 pages left to read.

Another short book at 134 pages it has been read by-and-large whilst in casualty (3 times in 6 days), waiting and shifting between ambulance triage, X-Ray, Zones 1-3 to being warded, or not (warded now); with a family member. This probably accounts for the fact that while reading I've noticed some word errors, but not pencilled the margin. I think there are 3-4 thus far. (Usually) Proof-reader-Pete, I'll watch and record any others. This is not a major problem from a gift of book, that was brought to my attention on the Threshold Concepts Discussion list. Blogging over the years, I've probably referred to many 'gifts' granted through academia, books, journals and study in ideas and influences that can further Hodges' model. Here is another and as the book covers below reveal - what is the first book in a trilogy.

Constructionism clearly has a role to play in studying Hodges' model. Professor Kinchin from the outset prompts me to see limitations. Limitations not in Hodges' model, far from it; but the limitation and challenge of time to really focus on the model and where, how and why it 'fits' and 'sits' within theory, practice, discourse and research. I am sure it does in a way beyond the rendering of 2x2 tables on W2tQ. I've been aware of CMap and other software for many years - decades even. As my source indicates, threshold concepts figure here. I look forward to writing this review in the next few weeks, including ramifications for my study of Hodges' model and the impact upon future teaching I might pursue as a tutor.





Kinchin, I., 2016. Visualising powerful knowledge to develop the expert student. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

See also:

Review One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Thanks to Brill for my review copy.

8th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference 2020

Threshold Concepts in the Moment

The 8th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference, 2020 is taking place at University College London from July 8-10, 2020 and we are inviting submissions from across all academic disciplines. The closing deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday 6th December, 2019.

"After almost two decades of research on threshold concepts that stemmed from Myer and Land’s seminal publication in 2003 it is time to reflect and take stock. As an idea it has generated significant interest and has become a world-wide phenomenon that has captured the interest of researchers and practitioners across the globe. 

The promise it offers as a lens to consider curriculum design, approaches to pedagogy and a way of reimagining learners has already had significant impact as the Flanagan website attests… But its full potential remains as yet unrealised. Is it time for an honest appraisal of where we are and where we want to go? If we want to continue to develop the ideas then we need to ask ourselves some potentially troublesome questions:

• Has threshold concepts become synonymous with learner difficulty?
• Have we become entrenched in a slavish adoption of the framework? Or do we apply the framework too loosely?
• How do we avoid thresholds becoming seen as a panacea that can explain all learner difficulty? 

In considering these and other questions the conference offers an opportunity to reflect on the achievements thus far and encourages us to consider where we think work in the area needs to go next. There will never be a single solution to support all learners master the same threshold but an awareness of threshold concepts and their associated complexities allows us to become more informed practitioners." ...

For more details please visit the conference website:

https://thresholdconcepts.home.blog/biennial-threshold-concepts-2020/biennial-conference-2020-threshold-concepts-in-the-moment/

... and see the discussion list:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/TCS

Best wishes
Julie

Dr Julie Rattray SFHEA
Associate Professor of higher Education and Director of Education
School of Education
Durham University
Leazes Road
DURHAM
DH1 1TA

Email: julie.rattray AT durham.ac.uk
Twitter @joolsled
Web: https://www.dur.ac.uk/education/staff/profile/?id=1964

(The original message from Julie has been modified above with text from the conference site and mention of the discussion list.)

Threshold Concepts: TCS discussion list and CATCH

TCS discussion list JISC

This list is a forum for continuing discussion on threshold concepts and builds on the many fruitful and engaging conversations started by colleagues across the globe at the bi-annual threshold concepts conferences and other events.

CATCH

(Collaborating around Threshold Concepts in Health) Special Interest Group

- set up by Hilary Neve (Plymouth) and Linda Martindale (Dundee). CATCH have a website/e-mail list, blog, and focused meetings. https://healththresholds.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Julie Rattray & Sarah Meek.

See also:

Inaugural Scottish Threshold Concepts Conference: TCs in Action [i]
Inaugural Scottish Threshold Concepts Conference: TCs in Action [ii]
Inaugural Scottish Threshold Concepts Conference: TCs in Action [iii]
Threshold Concepts: Reflection on chaos, complexity and AI

Book: National Populism - The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy

individual - self

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group- population

	National Populism

"Universities are not here to make people feel comfortable or to allow only research that avoids causing offence. Nor are they here to coddle young minds and present to them an ideologically homogenous view of the world. Universities are here to pursue truth, engage in reasoned argument, support freedom of inquiry and nurture the development of critical thinkers." Goodwin, 2019.

This post also links with Prof. Land's keynote in Dundee.

Book review by LSE Review of Books


My source:
Goodwin, M. Mob rule is crushing the campus, The Sunday Times, 30 June, 2019, p.25.

12th Networked Learning Conference 2020 18-20th May - Denmark

18-20th May, 2020 in Kolding, Denmark

A research-based conference on networked learning in higher education, lifelong learning & professional development

The 2020 conference is the twelfth international networked learning conference.

Since 1998 the biennial Networked Learning Conference has been an opportunity to participate in a forum for the critical examination and analysis of research in networked learning – particularly in Higher Education and lifelong learning. Networked learning has become a broader area of inquiry over the years bringing together research in education and organisations spanning formal and informal learning settings. It is a conference that has been particularly concerned with critical perspectives, theory, pedagogical values, analysis, practice based research and designs for learning. The focus of the conference has been research and practice that addresses relational and interactional aspects of learning and development with an emphasis on dialogical learning, collaborative and cooperative learning and learning in social networks.

The conference will be held at on the 18th, 19th and 20th May, 2020, at University of Southern Denmark in Kolding, and the local organisers are all from the University of Southern Denmark.

http://www.networkedlearning.aau.dk/
 

[ I greatly enjoyed attending in 2016 at Lancaster, UK. ]

Journal: Learning Health Systems - April 2018

Learning Health Systems is an open access peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the science, engineering and design of continuous improvement of health and health care.

The new April 2018 issue is now available. Click here to read the latest articles. All articles are freely available to read, download and share.

My source:
Email: Kathleen Young

Editorial Assistant, Learning Health Systems

Room 210 Victor Vaughan

1111 East Catherine Street

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

734-763-1400

Event: 'Critical Thinking and Health in Music Education' mapped to Hodges' model

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

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

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

psycho-physical
health promotion
qualitative : quantitative
subjective : objective

psychology reflection - CRITICAL THINKING (training) psychological demands of training health and well-being impacts - stress, anxiety, depression... pressure on individual to change lifestyle neuromyths - beliefs individual attitude, health literacy through related knowledge and skills Socratic method individual courage assertiveness	music education literature evidence - research musical instruments physical human - player instrumental demands practice, environment health and well-being impacts - musculoskeletal, neurological, audiological... rigour in empirical investigations question formulation
culture - tradition (norms and myths) expectations of peers and seniors group discussion socialisation conservative - conformity history, social change 'cohort courage'	high standards professional attitudes empowerment, self-advocacy citizens - world view policy and management practices

socio-political

Please see the original post for the - context and event details 14 Nov 2017

The context of music education and specifically what sounds like the socio-politics of education reminds of the healthcare. That is the socialisation of healthcare professionals. I can see this as a former student nurse and today with student nurses and many workplace conversations with doctors. The experiences and attitudes towards junior doctors and the hours they work stand out. Not all of course, but many juniors found the most vociferous defenders of the status quo were the Senior Consultants. This could be summed up as: "It was good enough for us....!"

I picked up a euphonium at school. Yes, her name was Denise and she was in the school brass band. I quickly put the instrument down, preferring the fields and woods after school. The heart strings still resonate though a great many decades later. Discovering the guitar since and Raluca Matei and her colleagues planned event I can appreciate the word 'interface' in a new way. This is learning not just the music, but that special interface between the musical instrumental and the would-be player.

There is also a sense that Hodges' model is an instrument and interface ...?

'Critical Thinking and Health in Music Education' 14 Nov 2017 Manchester

Raluca Matei posted this item to the Mental Health in Higher Education hub. The resonances with the purposes of Hodges' model are clear to me. With Raluca's permission I will map the themes of this event to Hodges' model in a further post. There is no primary link for the event itself, please see the contact details below:

Dear All,

My name is Raluca and I am an AHRC-funded PhD student in psychology and health promotion among musicians, at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), in Manchester. Together with Keith Phillips, a fellow PhD student in music psychology, we are organising ‘Critical thinking and health and music education’, a one-day event to be held at RNCM, on 14 November 2017, with funding from the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP).

OK…but why do that at all? 

• The physical and psychological demands of the training and practice that musicians must achieve to perform to a high standard on their instruments can produce deleterious effects on health and wellbeing, arising mostly from musculoskeletal, neurological and audiological causes. 
• Although there is a need for more rigour in the empirical investigation of potential interventions to address musicians’ health and wellbeing, British conservatoires remain guided more by tradition than the available evidence. Their websites still endorse practices that are either not supported by research (despite their popularity among musicians) or are so poorly defined that they can hardly be researched and investigated. This retrograde outlook encourages a rather conservative and conformist attitude that is prevalent among musicians. 
• An unfair emphasis on individuals to enact changes in lifestyle is continuously being pushed, while the larger cultural, social and environmental factors remain vastly unaltered and particularly resistant to change. 
• We argue that the above are at least partially due to the lack of critical thinking training and health education among music students and their teachers. Introducing such training might not only increase their health literacy (i.e. the achievement of health-related knowledge and relevant set of skills), but also empower them individually and as a group to question the status quo and assertively demand for changes to be made accordingly, to their own benefit, rather than submissively adapt to cultural norms informed by the mere passage of time and the burden of tradition. 
• Although such changes require considerable resources and never happen immediately, we argue that we need to start by asking questions. The literature suggests that critical thinking needs specific training and doesn’t necessarily happen by itself, especially given that one would need exceptional courage and to assume some risk to go against ingrained cultural norms. 
• Given that the role of higher education is not solely to prepare students for existing jobs but also to turn them into informed citizens, critical thinking can help them to shape the world and to embody the change they want to see. In addition, efforts focused on changing policy and management practices might be more effective, realistic and beneficial for a larger number of people than solely attempting to change individuals. 

And what are you aiming for? 

• To raise awareness of and debunk various myths that are being circulated in music education in relation to psychology and health
• To discuss about the importance of critical thinking in education and what the available literature tells us about effective interventions aimed at training it
• To discuss how we can, as researchers, bridge the gap between the evidence and the practical real world, as well as educational policies
• To discuss the findings of the first paper on neuromyths among music teachers and how these might inform future practice 
• To discuss potential ways in which the specific training of critical thinking could be incorporated into the pedagogical training of musicians
• To address the link between critical thinking and health promotion in music education 
• To discuss how the Socratic method might be used in training critical thinking 
• To brainstorm ideas on how critical thinking and psychology might be incorporated as part of musicians’ formal training – examples will be provided from the latest research in the field 

How would I benefit from this?

• Free access to an interdisciplinary, ground-breaking event on critical thinking in higher education

• The chance to be innovative within your own field and even initiate new professional pathways

• The opportunity to meet students, researchers and practitioners from your field of interest, as well as from related fields

• The opportunity to have your ideas discussed within an exploratory round table discussion, given that we will allow plenty of room for this!

Our speakers include:

• Prof. Reinhard Kopiez, Professor of Music Psychology, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
• Prof. Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology, University of Surrey

The event will incorporate a considerable amount of group discussion, in an attempt to dive into a rather innovative field and hopefully reach some meaningful conclusions and suggest a few solutions. 

Our event is highly interdisciplinary, and it is open to postgraduate students, researchers and specialists in:

• Music (Performance and Education)
• Psychology
• Philosophy
• Education sciences and policy
• Medicine (with a focus on health education, health promotion and prevention, as well as public health)
• Science journalism/Science communication 

Although attendance is free, places are limited and registration will be based on a brief expression of interest. We ask potential participants to explain the nature of their research, interests and/or background, and detail why this event is relevant to them in writing to us by Sunday, 15 October 2017. 

Finally, we will keep the format and content flexible and depending on the background and interests of attendees, the conversations we will be having can follow various pathways. 

Raluca Matei – ... 

Keith Phillips – ... 

Please do email one of us for further details. Additionally, If you could please forward this to any relevant postgraduate students, researchers and/or specialists, I would be immensely grateful! 

With many thanks and kind wishes,

Raluca

Raluca Matei MSc, BMus, MBPsS

AHRC-funded PhD student in psychology and health promotion 

Royal Northern College of Music, 

Manchester

...

I am looking f/w to attending. PJ 

Open Data as Open Educational Resources: 4th March 1400-1700 UCL

Next Thursday evening I'm heading to London for Drupalcamp Saturday and Sunday. On the Friday afternoon I'm attending:

Open Data can be understood as “universally participatory data”, which is openly shared by government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions or international organisations.

Open Data can be used in Higher Education using real life scenarios, bringing together students, academics and researchers working towards overcoming local and global real problems.

In this way students can develop transversal, research and citizenship skills, by working with the same raw materials researchers and policy makers use, contributing with the society in new and yet-unimagined ways.

 The event will be featuring

• Santiago Martín: University College London
• Mor Rubistein: Open Knowledge International
• Leo Havemann: Birkbeck, University of London
• Dr Carla Bonina: University of Surrey  
• William Hammonds: Universites UK
• Dr Fabrizio Scrollini: Latin American Open Data Initiative
• Dr Tim Coughlan: Open University  

WHEN

Friday, 4 March 2016 from 14:00 to 17:00 (GMT)

WHERE

Medawar G01 Lankester Lecture Theatre: UCL, Gower Street, London, United Kingdom -

Papers - reading: Metalearning, Case-Based Learning, Reflection and Threshold Concepts

Working on the latest paper for module 4...

Jones, P. R. (1995) Hindsight bias in reflective practice: An empirical investigation. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 21(4), 783-788.

Within any web tool-resource based on Hodges' model can I try to ensure that reflection is a more 'contemporaneous' activity?

Ward, Sophie C., & Meyer, Jan H. F. (2010) Metalearning Capacity and Threshold Concept Engagement. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47(4), 369-378.

Metacognition, metalearning, reflection, reflective practice?

Kinchin, I., & Miller, N. (2012) ‘Structural transformation’ as a threshold concept in university teaching. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 49(2), 207-222.

McDonald, K. (2013) Is reflective practice a qualitative methodology? Nurse Education Today, 33, 13–14. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2012.07.011

Reflective practice as a single case study?

Kantar, L.D. & Massouh, A. (2015) Case-based learning: What traditional curricula fail to teach. Nurse Education Today, 35(8), E8-E14.

Three learning practices that were developed by the case study approach: (a) recognizing the particulars of a clinical situation, (b) making sense of patient data and informing decisions, and (c) reflection. Indepth analysis of these practices helped unravel four professional attributes that form the tenets of case-based learning: (1) a salience of clinical knowledge, (2) multiple ways of thinking, (3) professional self-concept, and (4) professional caring.

Several forms of situatedness are also described.

I am wondering about the possible role of 'worked examples', but am also aware through Kantar  & Massouh and others of the labour intensive nature of producing case studies (as worked examples). Is there another way to present them? One that is also student produced?

Situated Noticing
Drawing on students’ experiences in CBL, three categories emerged from the data to describe the sequence of noticing activities: (1) grasp of patient data, (2) holistic grasp of every aspect of the patient, and (3) clinical imagination (e10).

Assumpta, A. (2015) Transdisciplinary technology education: a characterisation and some ideas for implementation in the university, Studies in Higher Education, 40:9, 1715-1728, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2014.899341

No mention of 'holis*' interesting for that?
Figure 1. Conceptual framework to understand complexity theory (Jackson and Ward 2004).

Figure 2. Traits of transdisciplinarity as a process group (Wenger 2000, 233) - includes 'A set of maps'.

(btw - the first paper is not mine.)

New Media Consortium Horizon Report & Reflection in a Time of Connectivism (c/o Khan & Ally, 2015, Chaps 3, 4 and 21)

My reading of Khan and Ally's International Handbook of E-Learning could amount to a review by a thousand snippets at this rate.

As other priorities also demand attention I'm still on Volume 1 and avidly looking f/w to the 2nd with thanks to the publisher. I've references for my latest study to contribute to other reading. What is interesting is contrasting the place of reflection in nursing, nurse education, education generally and technology enhanced learning. Reflection and reflective practice is a personal activity that is also extensible, something that can and must educationally be shared with others. If there are already challenges in proving the value of Hodges' model within nursing (and global health!) there are other pressures from within education and technology enhanced learning specifically. As João Mattar notes:

Although Hirumi (2011) argues that his grounded approach neither subscribes to, nor advocates any particular epistemology, his decision of distinguishing internal interactions from all others as one of the three fundamental levels within his framework seems indeed to privilege a specific type of learning in an era where connectivism claims that learning should no longer be considered an internal and individualistic activity (Siemens, 2004; Anderson & Dron, 2010,2012). (p.301)

There are lessons in all these chapters for me. Pencilled observations and things to pospost (new word?) are scrawled throughout the 320 pages so far and here are a few more:

The NMC Horizon Report 2015 Higher Education Edition is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). This 12th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. ...

In chapter 4 Stephen Downes writes:

My own theory of education is minimal (so minimal it hardly qualifies as a theory, and is almost certainly not my own): "to teach is to model and to demonstrate; to learn is to practice and reflect." Thus, minimally, we need an environment that supports all four of these on a massive scale. In practice, what this means is a system designed so that bottlenecks are not created in any of the four attributes: modeling, demonstration, practice, and reflection. p.66.

More to follow, read and write!

Mattar, J. (2015) Designing and Evaluating E-learning Interactions, Chap. 21 In Badrul H. Khan, Mohamed Ally (Eds) International Handbook of E-Learning. Volume 1, Oxford: Routledge. pp.295-307.

Corbeil, J.R. & Corbeil, M.E. (2015) E-Learning: Past Present and Future, Chap. 3 In Badrul H. Khan, Mohamed Ally (Eds) International Handbook of E-Learning. Volume 1, Oxford: Routledge. pp.51-64. (see p.59-).

Downes, S. (2015) The Quality of Massive Open Online Courses, Chap. 4 In Badrul H. Khan, Mohamed Ally (Eds) International Handbook of E-Learning. Volume 1, Oxford: Routledge. pp. 65-77.