Education, Community and Leisure

Historically there have been many claims made about the value of laboratory work in schools, yet research shows that it often achieves little meaningful learning by students. One reason, among many, for this failing is that students often do not know the``purposes'' for these tasks. By purposes we mean the intentions the teacher has for the activity when she/he decides to use it with a particular class at a particular time. This we contrast with the``aims'' of a laboratory activity, the often quite formalised statements about the intended endpoint of the activity that are too often the``opening lines'' of a student laboratory report and are simply the``expected'' speci®c science content knowledge outcomesÐnot necessarily learnt nor understood. This paper describes a unit of laboratory work which was unusual in that the teacher's purpose was to develop students' understanding about the way scienti®c facts are established with little expectation that they would understand the science content involved in the experiments. The unit was very successful from both a cognitive and affective perspective. An important feature was the way in which students gradually came to understand the teacher's purpose as they proceeded through the unit.

We present here a reflexive and critical commentary and exemplification of the teaching and learning of research methodology. The paper focuses on the teaching/learning of qualitative data analysis. It is our belief that it is essential to do data analysis when learning about the process and that there are serious limitations to methodological 'manuals' which set out to model the process. In doctoral workshops, Frankham and Stronach have used a passage by Jules Henry to provoke students into generating data which is then analysed as a group. This paper, written with a group of doctoral students, describes the reflexive and iterative processes of data analysis which took place in one such group. We hope that describing our discussions will be of practical use to others in our attempt to iterate a process. Our other purposes include a desire to underline the inappropriacy of the notion of 'skills' in the context of research 'training' or of following formulaic procedures in interpretive inquiry. Instead the process we set out to illustrate here is embodied and serendipitous and centres on individuals' capacity to think.

This paper examines and reflects on how an interactional process was established and utilised to make a difference in learning and teaching practices through a student led higher education close-up research project (Prichard and Trowler, 2003). This was part of Liverpool John Moores University’s (LJMU) ‘Developing Learning & Assessment Opportunities for a Complex World’ (Cable, Thompson and Vickerman, 2008) National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) project. The project set out to investigate the curriculum design challenges of aligning teaching and assessment of complex achievements and graduate attributes through ‘investigating dissonance and congruence in the perceptions, understanding and expectations of academic staff, students and employers and by providing aligned learning and assessment opportunities to bridge perception gaps’ (ibid) . The whole project took a student-led close-up research approach – using three recent graduates as PhD students/research assistants to carry out the investigation of higher education (HE) key stakeholders’ authentic concerns and issues raised by their daily practice of HE (Prichard and Trowler 2003 in Cable et al 2008).
As part of the project, one PhD student worked closely with programme teams in Sport Education. Through immersing herself in the programmes, meeting and working with students and staff members, she used this opportunity to make a difference to the programme in various ways. In this process, research findings were no longer generated and used in a conventional ‘problem solving model’ (Weiss, 1979) to make a change. In addition, the context of the research, the PhD student’s identity and the participants’ perspectives were changing constantly. As a result, the PhD student developed a reflexive model to meaningfully deal with the constant evolving research environment and the flexible nature of the research findings. This paper will focus on sketching this process of and reflecting on how changes happened through ‘interactional practice’ (Saunders, 2014).
The PhD student approach to HE close-up research offered a unique, immersive and detailed research-informed model and a process that connected key stakeholders with an engaging and meaningful dialogue (Cable et al 2012). While it did not, and cannot completely solve the complex issues of employability development in HE, it certainly illuminated new aspects of the challenges we are facing. Though the project ended two years ago, the findings and outcomes of this project are still shaping the university’s policy and practice.
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]cyt) are common to many stress-activated signalling pathways, including the response to saline environments. We have investigated the nature of NaCl-induced [Ca 2+ ]cyt signals in whole Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings using aequorin. We found that 2+ ]cyt indicate that NaCl may induce influx of Ca 2+ through both plasma membrane and intracellular Ca 2+permeable channels. Analysis of spatiotemporal [Ca 2+ ]cyt dynamics using photon-counting imaging revealed additional levels of complexity in the [Ca 2+ ]cyt signal that may reflect the oscillatory nature of NaCl-induced changes in single cells.

This paper describes an approach to conducting research leading to technological development that is grounded in detailed empirical research and participant engagement. We describe our initial findings about the diverse conceptualizations of cases and their use that exist in a number of higher education settings and match this to considerations of the potential of semantic technologies to support these teaching and learning activities. In this way we develop the argument for developing technologies in parallel with empirical research about current practices and engagement of participants in educational settings in order to realize the full potential of semantic technologies to support case-based learning.

At the University of Cambridge, a research and development project concerned with teaching and learning in small-group tutorials has been initiated in Department of Plant Sciences. Known as the Plant Sciences Pedagogy Project, it is part of the Teaching for Learning Network (TfLN), which includes members of the Centre for Applied Research into Educational Technologies (CARET), the Department of Engineering and the Faculty of Classics.

Out-of-home foods (takeaway, take-out and fast foods) have become increasingly popular in recent decades and are thought to be a key driver in increasing levels of overweight and obesity due to their unfavourable nutritional content. Individual food choices and eating behaviours are influenced by many interrelated factors which affect the results of nutrition-related public health interventions. While the majority of research based on out-of-home foods comes from Australia, the UK and USA, the same issues (poor dietary habits and increased prevalence of non-communicable disease) are of equal concern for urban centres in developing economies undergoing 'nutrition transition' at a global scale. The present narrative review documents key facets, which may influence out-of-home food consumption, drawn from biological, societal, environmental, demographic and psychological spheres. Literature searches were performed and references from relevant papers were used to find supplement...

Both international and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students are becoming growing contributors to the student population in the UK, however the community remains invisible in literature (1). Eating behaviour and an individual's personal food system is multidimensional and is influenced by a myriad of factors (2). For ethnic minorities an added factor includes maintaining cultural traditions through food. This is known as 'dietary enculturation', whereby an individual does not fully assimilate to the dominant society and maintains their ascribed cultural traditions, norms and eating habits. However, in some cases food acculturation-adopting the dietary practices and customs of the dominant culture is exhibited in the eating behaviours of ethnic minorities, particularly in second-generation migrants (3). This study aimed to examine the extent of dietary acculturation and dietary enculturation on the influence of BAME home and international student's food choices. Ethical approval was granted by the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences Ethics committee (reference number: 20/SPS_Marsh/NU/012). Sixty participants (forty-one BAME home students and nineteen international students) were recruited by purposive sampling. Data collection involved self-administered questionnaires (n = 43) and semi structured interviews (n = 17). The results were analysed using thematic analysis (4). Authors 1 and 2 conducted the repeated readings and coding independently and a general consensus was reached following discussions between all authors to ensure the validity of the data interpretations. When living away from home, six major themes influenced the eating behaviour of the studied population: 1) social environment; 2) individual factors; 3) physical environment; 4) university life; 5) enculturation; 6) acculturation. When at home, only five major themes were influential: 1) social environment; 2) individual factors; 3) physical environment; 4) enculturation; 5) acculturation. Enculturation was shown to influence the dietary behaviour of both international students and BAME home students. Ethnic food plays a fundamental role in affirming one's identity and despite increased autonomy during university term time, some students still practiced eating habits which reflect cultural acquisition. However, the overall practice with regards to culture was that both international students and BAME students were more accustomed to adopting westernised eating behaviours. Our findings suggest dietary enculturation is a factor that influences the dietary behaviour of both international students and BAME home students. The results of this study could be considered as a contribution to understanding the underlying factors influencing the eating behaviours of minority ethnic groups and sojourning students, which can help educators and health professionals cater to the needs of minority groups. Further longitudinal studies are now needed to measure the dietary habits of international and BAME students across their academic journey to show whether dietary acculturation decreases or increases alongside the time spent with increased autonomy.

This paper describes the landform and sediment assemblage produced by a surge (in 1948) of the Kongsvegen/Kronebreen tidewater glacier complex in northwest Spitsbergen. The main geomorphological products of this advance are two large thrustmoraine complexes on opposite sides of the fjord, and a system of geometrical ridges revealed on glacier decay. The thrust-moraines are composed largely of diamicton, sandy and muddy gravel, gravelly sand, sand and mud, with minor laminites. All of these appear to be derived from the fjord floor and represent both fine fjord basin sediments and coarse grounding-line fan deposits. Thrusting was the principal mode of emplacement of the sediment onto the adjacent land areas during the 1948 advance. However, the geomorphology of the thrust-moraine complexes on either side of the fjord is quite different, reflecting a transpressive regime on the southwest side (mainly long ridges) and a normal compressive regime on the northeast side (short ridges and pinnacles of a ‘hummocky’ nature). The advance which produced the moraine complex has previously been attributed to a surge of Kongsvegen, but the glaciological and geomorphological evidence suggests that the advance involved both Kongsvegen and Kronebreen. Comparison of the landform assemblage produced by this event with that produced by other tidewater glacier surges demonstrates the diverse range of landform assemblages associated with glacier surges, or other episodes of rapid flow, within glaciomarine environments.

In ice-cored landform assemblages, the process of resedimentation via sediment-flow is important in determining the morphology and sedimentary facies distribution after the ice core has melted. This paper documents the sediment-flow processes associated with the resedimentation of an ice-cored lateral moraine at Kongsvegen, Svalbard. Decay of the ice-cored lateral moraine is dominated by the development of a sediment-flow fan, which has an ‘hour-glass’ form in plan. The fan comprises a broad source area on the crest of the lateral moraine separated from the fan surface, composed of tessellated flow lobes, by a narrow ice-floored channel system. The principle sedimentary facies associated with this fan include matrix-supported diamictons, laminated silts and fine sands. The evolution of this fan and the likely end-products after complete deglaciation are discussed, and this paper contributes modern analogue data relevant to the interpretation of the Pleistocene landform and sediment record.

In ice-cored landform assemblages, the process of resedimentation via sediment-flow is important in determining the morphology and sedimentary facies distribution after the ice core has melted. This paper documents the sediment-flow processes associated with the resedimentation of an ice-cored lateral moraine at Kongsvegen, Svalbard. Decay of the ice-cored lateral moraine is dominated by the development of a sediment-flow fan, which has an ‘hour-glass’ form in plan. The fan comprises a broad source area on the crest of the lateral moraine separated from the fan surface, composed of tessellated flow lobes, by a narrow ice-floored channel system. The principle sedimentary facies associated with this fan include matrix-supported diamictons, laminated silts and fine sands. The evolution of this fan and the likely end-products after complete deglaciation are discussed, and this paper contributes modern analogue data relevant to the interpretation of the Pleistocene landform and sediment record.

In ice-cored landform assemblages, the process of resedimentation via sediment-flow is important in determining the morphology and sedimentary facies distribution after the ice core has melted. This paper documents the sediment-flow processes associated with the resedimentation of an ice-cored lateral moraine at Kongsvegen, Svalbard. Decay of the ice-cored lateral moraine is dominated by the development of a sediment-flow fan, which has an ‘hour-glass’ form in plan. The fan comprises a broad source area on the crest of the lateral moraine separated from the fan surface, composed of tessellated flow lobes, by a narrow ice-floored channel system. The principle sedimentary facies associated with this fan include matrix-supported diamictons, laminated silts and fine sands. The evolution of this fan and the likely end-products after complete deglaciation are discussed, and this paper contributes modern analogue data relevant to the interpretation of the Pleistocene landform and sediment record.