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1 – 10 of 428Matthew Pointon, Geoff Walton, Martin Turner, Michael Lackenby, Jamie Barker and Andrew Wilkinson
This paper intends to explore the relationship between participants' eye fixations (a measure of attention) and durations (a measure of concentration) on areas of interest within…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper intends to explore the relationship between participants' eye fixations (a measure of attention) and durations (a measure of concentration) on areas of interest within a range of online articles and their levels of information discernment (a sub-process of information literacy characterising how participants make judgements about information).
Design/methodology/approach
Eye-tracking equipment was used as a proxy measure for reading behaviour by recording eye-fixations, dwell times and regressions in males aged 18–24 (n = 48). Participants' level of information discernment was determined using a quantitative questionnaire.
Findings
Data indicates a relationship between participants' level of information discernment and their viewing behaviours within the articles' area of interest. Those who score highly on an information discernment questionnaire tended to interrogate the online article in a structured and linear way. Those with high-level information discernment are more likely to pay attention to an article's textual and graphical information than those exhibiting low-level information discernment. Conversely, participants with low-level information discernment indicated a lack of curiosity by not interrogating the entire article. They were unsystematic in their saccadic movements spending significantly longer viewing irrelevant areas.
Social implications
The most profound consequence is that those with low-level information discernment, through a lack of curiosity in particular, could base their health, workplace, political or everyday decisions on sub-optimal engagement with and comprehension of information or misinformation (such as fake news).
Originality/value
Ground-breaking analysis of the relationship between a persons' self-reported level of information literacy (information discernment specifically) and objective measures of reading behaviour.
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Geoff Walton, Matthew Pointon, Jamie Barker, Martin Turner and Andrew Joseph Wilkinson
The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent a person’s psychophysiological well-being is affected by misinformation and whether their level of information discernment…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent a person’s psychophysiological well-being is affected by misinformation and whether their level of information discernment has any positive or negative effect on the outcome.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants (n = 48) were randomly and blindly allocated to one of two groups: control group participants were told a person they were working with was a student; experimental group participants were additionally led to believe that this other participant had extreme religious views. This was both stigmatising and misinforming, as this other person was an actor. Participants completed a pre-screening booklet and a series of tasks. Participants’ cardiovascular responses were measured during the procedure.
Findings
Participants with high levels of information discernment, i.e. those who are curious, use multiple sources to verify information, are sceptical about search engine information, are cognisant of the importance of authority and are aware that knowledge changes and is contradictory at times exhibited an adaptive stress response, i.e. healthy psychophysiological outcomes and responded with positive emotions before and after a stressful task.
Social implications
The findings indicate the potential harmful effects of misinformation and discuss how information literacy or Metaliteracy interventions may address this issue.
Originality/value
The first study to combine the hitherto unrelated theoretical areas of information discernment (a sub-set of information literacy), affective states (positive affect negative affect survey) and stress (challenge and threat cardiovascular measures).
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ANDREW WILKINSON and DERMOT TURING
Bank regulation tends to develop as a reaction to bank insolvencies. Much of the detail of regulatory measures, comprising EU Directives, statute and guidance from the Bank of…
Abstract
Bank regulation tends to develop as a reaction to bank insolvencies. Much of the detail of regulatory measures, comprising EU Directives, statute and guidance from the Bank of England is intended to enable banks to avoid collapse. The Bank of England's role and duties as prudential supervisor of banks is much more ambiguous than would be expected from this pattern, however. The Bank's effectiveness as supervisor has been subject to criticism since the Barings debacle, calling into question the purpose of bank regulation. After explaining the existing legislative and practical background to supervision of troubled banks, this paper considers the importance of protecting depositors as a guiding principle of regulation and explores possible developments.
The purpose of this paper is to juxtapose different sources concerning educational experiments embarked on by an English primary school teacher, Muriel Pyrah. Pyrah taught at…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to juxtapose different sources concerning educational experiments embarked on by an English primary school teacher, Muriel Pyrah. Pyrah taught at Airedale School, Castleford, Yorkshire, UK, from the 1950s until 1972. Her approach was celebrated in the fields of oracy and arts education in the final years of her working life. Airedale was a Local Education Authority (LEA) school within the West Riding of Yorkshire, an LEA led by Alec Clegg, from 1945 to 1974.
Design/methodology/approach
Using film footage, sound recordings, artwork and topic books produced by her pupils, the paper entangles these archival sources with recent interviews from Pyrah’s former pupils and a former school inspector (HMI). Pyrah’s actual name has been used, as has that of the HMI. The names of pupils who contributed insights are anonymised.
Findings
The former pupils provide accounts that encourage a move away from a revisiting of progressivism that is predominantly anchored in studying the intentions and hopes of high profile educationalists postwar.
Research limitations/implications
The number of former pupils willing to discuss their memories was small, so no claims are made that their perspectives represent the dominant views of former pupils. However, these interviews reveal details that are absent in the other surviving archival sources.
Originality/value
The paper lays the foundation for further research on the voices of former pupils, inviting a focus on the way those participants reflect on the long-term impact of being involved in an educational experiment. Thus far, the representation of Pyrah’s pedagogy has been choreographed in print to build the legacy of the LEA. The pupils’ stories resonate differently.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the important work of Peter Medway in seeking to define English as a school subject in the period from the 1980s to the early years of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the important work of Peter Medway in seeking to define English as a school subject in the period from the 1980s to the early years of this century.
Design/methodology/approach
The author reviews the work of Peter Medway.
Findings
The paper addresses the issue of how his work reflected – or not – the curriculum thinking of his time and the complexity of ideas he brought to this endeavour.
Originality/value
This paper is an original look at the work of Peter Medway in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
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Much of what Age Concern Isle of Man, a core partner in the Tell Me Project, does is about giving older people a voice: a voice in government, in the media and in the third…
Abstract
Much of what Age Concern Isle of Man, a core partner in the Tell Me Project, does is about giving older people a voice: a voice in government, in the media and in the third (voluntary) sector. The Tell Me Project is also about giving older people a voice; one that is being heard and recorded for posterity to make an invaluable contribution to a unique social history of the Isle of Man. This is an intergenerational education project through which the older generation can unlock and share their memories with young people; a project bridging the gap between generations, demonstrating that the young and the not‐so‐young have much to share and learn from each other, and helping fulfil Age Concern Isle of Man's mission: ‘to create an age‐friendly society where every older person counts’.
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Zoe Mawby, Andrew Newman and Megan Wilkinson-Tough
The offender personality disorder (OPD) pathway faces the difficult task of identifying individuals who are eligible for their service from the entire probation caseload. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The offender personality disorder (OPD) pathway faces the difficult task of identifying individuals who are eligible for their service from the entire probation caseload. The offender assessment system personality disorder (OASys PD) screen is a national screening tool used by the pathway to help with this task. This paper aims to describe an evaluation of the effectiveness of this plus an additional screening tool currently used to identify eligible individuals for the OPD service in the South of England. Recommendations for improvements were made as necessary.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methods design used a quantitative analysis of data on the effectiveness of the OASys PD for correctly identifying individuals and a thematic analysis of a focus-group conducted with clinicians within the service.
Findings
The analysis revealed a positive predictive value of the OASys PD screen of 72% and a negative predictive value of 91%. Key themes from the focus-group revealed what worked well about the screening process, what was difficult and what needed to be improved.
Practical implications
The OASys PD performed better than the clinicians had expected. It was recommended that the service continued to use the combination of the screening tool and the interviews with minor adjustments.
Originality/value
This is the first research study of its kind on the effectiveness of the OASys Personality Disorder Screening tool. Using such a tool with some caution (the addition of consultation) creates a useful and effective process for tackling the very difficult task of identifying people for the community component of the Offender Personality Disorder Service. This research provides some evidence for the validity of such a process that is currently used throughout the National Probation Service in England and Wales.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of planners and designers in supporting residents to negotiate the challenges of rebuilding after wildfire on the urban fringe…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of planners and designers in supporting residents to negotiate the challenges of rebuilding after wildfire on the urban fringe. The research seeks to understand how planning and design professionals, in providing professional services, comprehend the changing expectations of residents transitioning from emergency to the slow process of achieving a post fire normal state through the project of redesigning their homes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses semi-structured interviews to examine the role of planners and designers employed to facilitate and assess, or provide design services for residents who rebuilt houses after the 2003 bushfires in Canberra, Australia’s Capital City. Narrative analysis was used to identify emerging themes based on their professional experiences during the redevelopment of the suburb.
Findings
Case analysis shows that external influences were significant contributing factors in determining the design of houses rebuilt after the fires. The goal for both the designers and residents was to design a more sustainable built form; however, this was not achieved as external social and cultural influences came into the decision-making process.
Practical implications
The paper provides a different perspective on the competing goals planners and designers face in supporting residents to rebuild after disasters such as wild fires. It highlights the changing nature of the relationship between professionals and community. In particular, the research suggests planners can play an important role as observers and facilitators of long-term change occurring in the years after wildfire. The research provides insights into how planners and building designers may better serve the community by gaining a better understanding of the changing nature of redevelopment over time.
Originality/value
The research provides a novel approach to understanding the challenges facing planners and building designers working with residents to rebuild houses after wildfire. The paper makes the case for a better understanding of the temporal dynamics and external influences affecting decision making in post disaster redevelopment of homes.
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Raj Kumar Kothari and Priyanka Bhaduri
In the post-9/11 period, tackling the vertical and horizontal growth of international terrorism has become a major challenge for the international community, more pertinently for…
Abstract
In the post-9/11 period, tackling the vertical and horizontal growth of international terrorism has become a major challenge for the international community, more pertinently for the liberal states. About three decades ago, Paul Wilkinson wrote a book entitled Terrorism and the Liberal State in which he made a hypothetical statement that the liberal states in today’s world were more vulnerable to terrorist attacks and threats than any other political system. Totalitarian societies do not provide any space to terrorism in view of the fact that this system does not recognize the importance of civil societies. However, the point to be noted is that in today’s globalized international order, terrorist activities are not only confined within the territory of liberal societies alone, rather it has engulfed many parts of the globe that includes non-liberal societies as well. Therefore, strengthening democratic regimes and values is not the solution to abolish terrorism. In this context, this chapter attempts to test Wilkinson’s propositions that liberal states are more vulnerable to terrorism than any other political system by making a comparative study between democratic and non-democratic regimes to identify the recent trends of terrorism.
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Rafael Gomez, Michael Barry, Alex Bryson, Bruce E. Kaufman, Guenther Lomas and Adrian Wilkinson
The purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time accounting for the (possible) interactions with similar union and management-led high commitment strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using new, rich data on a representative sample of British workers, the authors identify workplace institutions that are positively associated with employee perceptions of work and relations with management, what in combination the authors call a measure of the “good workplace.” In particular, the authors focus on non-union employee representation at the workplace, in the form of joint consultative committees (JCCs), and the potential moderating effects of union representation and high-involvement human resource (HIHR) practices.
Findings
The authors’ findings suggest a re-evaluation of the role that JCCs play in the subjective well-being of workers even after controlling for unions and progressive HR policies. There is no evidence in the authors’ estimates of negative interaction effects (i.e. that unions or HIHR negatively influence the functioning of JCCs with respect to employee satisfaction) or substitution (i.e. that unions or HIHR are substitutes for JCCs when it comes to improving self-reported worker well-being). If anything, there is a significant and positive three-way moderating effect when JCCs are interacted with union representation and high-involvement management.
Originality/value
This is the first time – to the authors’ knowledge – that comprehensive measures of subjective employee well-being are being estimated with respect to the presence of a JCC at the workplace, while controlling for workplace institutions (e.g. union representation and human resource policies) that are themselves designed to involve and communicate with workers.
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