Bishop Grosseteste University

About: Bishop Grosseteste University is a education organization based out in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Higher education & Teacher education. The organization has 148 authors who have published 269 publications receiving 2702 citations. The organization is also known as: Bishop Grosseteste College & Lincoln Diocesan Training School for Mistresses.

Academic boredom among students in higher education: A mixed-methods exploration of characteristics, contributors and consequences

Abstract: Academic boredom usually contributes adversely towards student engagement and performance across a diverse range of settings including universities. The formal study of academic boredom in higher education remains, however, a relatively underdeveloped field and one surprisingly neglected in the UK. Rooted in Control-Value Theory, details of a mixed-methods exploration of academic boredom among 235 final year undergraduates attending a single university in England are presented. Quantitative data included measurement using the BPS-UKHE, a revised boredom proneness scale developed for use across the sector. Qualitative data arose primarily from 10 research interviews. Findings indicate that about half of all respondents experienced the most common precursors of academic boredom at least occasionally; traditional lectures with a perceived excess and inappropriate use of PowerPoint stimulating the actual onset of boredom more than other interactive forms of delivery. Coping strategies included daydrea...

What Does the Skill of Observation Look Like in Young Children

Abstract: Fifty‐six children, aged between 4 and 11 years, in seven groups, were videoed playing with, being questioned about and sorting a collection of toys in order to identify what skills of observation looked like in young children, how observations influenced other scientific skills and what supported the skill of observation. Children’s skills of observation were found to be similar across all ages and included affective, functional, social and exploratory comments, actions, and questions. These initial observations led to the use of other scientific process skills: classification, prediction, hypotheses, along with explanation for younger children and interpretations for older children. There was generally a greater sophistication of observation skills with increasing age of the children. Observations in young children were found to be tactile and developed in two ways: by engaging in more unique close observation and interpreting observation by utilising previous knowledge and experiences. Important factor...

Autobiographical memory and hyperassociativity in the dreaming brain: implications for memory consolidation in sleep.

Abstract: In this paper we argue that autobiographical memory (AM) activity across sleep and wake can provide insight into the nature of dreaming, and vice versa. Activated memories within the sleeping brain reflect one’s personal life history (autobiography). They can appear in largely fragmentary forms and differ from conventional manifestations of episodic memory. Autobiographical memories in dreams can be sampled from non-REM as well as REM periods, which contain fewer episodic references and become more bizarre across the night. Salient fragmented memory features are activated in sleep and re-bound with fragments not necessarily emerging from the same memory, thus de-contextualizing those memories and manifesting as experiences that differ from waking conceptions. The constructive nature of autobiographical recall further encourages synthesis of these hyper-associated images into an episode via recalling and reporting dreams. We use a model of AM to account for the activation of memories in dreams as a reflection of sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes. We focus in particular on the hyperassociative nature of AM during sleep.

Critical Race Theory comes to the UK: A Marxist response

Abstract: On 20 November 2006, the first ever international Critical Race Theory (CRT) seminar in the UK took place at the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. CRT is very new to the UK, and has, as yet, few adherents here. These few are mainly working in the field of education. Indeed, CRT’s main UK-based protagonists, David Gillborn (2005, 2006a, 2006b), John Preston (2007) and Namita Chakrabarty (2006a, 2006b; Charkabarty and Preston, 2006, 2007), all educationists, presented papers at the conference. At the British Education Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference in the following year, at least six papers were also CRT-focused, including a symposium, titled, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to BERA? Has Critical Race Theory Arrived in UK Education Research?’ (BERA, 2007).1 Critical Race Theory (CRT), which has a much longer history in the US, is grounded in ‘the uncompromising insistence that “race” should occupy the central position in any legal, educational, or social policy analysis’ (Darder and Torres, 2004: 98). Given this centrality, ‘“racial” liberation [is] embraced as not only the primary but as the most significant objective of any emancipatory vision of education in the larger society’ (Darder and Torres, 2004: 98). CRT emerged out of Critical Legal Studies (CLS). CLS represented a response by liberal lawyers and judges in the US to the appointment of a number of Republican Federal judges during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Those liberal legal scholars left in the law schools believed that the system of law reflected the privileged subjectivity of those in power, and, believing that law cannot be unbiased and neutral, instituted D E B A T E

Can music lessons increase the performance of preschool children in IQ tests

Abstract: The impact of music on human cognition has a distinguished history as a research topic in psychology. The focus of the present study was on investigating the effects of music instruction on the cognitive development of preschool children. From a sample of 154 preschool children of Tehran kindergartens, 60 children aged between 5 and 6 were randomly assigned to two groups, one receiving music lessons and the other (matched for sex, age and mother's educational level) not taking part in any music classes. Children were tested before the start of the course of music lessons and at its end with 4 subtests of the Tehran-Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (TSB). The experimental group participated in twelve 75-min weekly music lessons. Statistical analysis showed significant IQ increase in participants receiving music lessons, specifically on the TSB verbal reasoning and short-term memory subtests. The numerical and visual/abstract reasoning abilities did not differ for the two groups after lessons. These data support studies that found similar skills enhancements in preschool children, despite vast differences in the setting in which the instruction occurred. These findings appear to be consistent with some neuroimaging and neurological observations which are discussed in the paper.