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The purpose of this paper is to identify three key areas where autistic people may find themselves impacted through COVID-19, namely, education; employment; and anxiety.

This paper provides some views based on the extensive experience of using immersive technologies for the utilisation and application with autistic groups during COVID-19.

This paper offers some examples of immersive technology application that might be helpful for practitioners, services and others to consider in overcoming possible challenges faced by people with autism.

This opinion piece offers expert insights to the role immersive technologies and virtual reality might play during COVID-19 in the lives of autistic groups.

Deutsche Bank (DB) is using project‐orientated learning, new technology and academic input as part of a radical transformation of its HR function. In 1999, after acquiring Bankers Trust, DB had more than 90,000 employees at five globally‐operating business divisions and a corporate center, and had customers in 68 countries. In response to the demands of a new economy and an environment of continuous change, DB decided that its HR function should play a more strategic and value‐creating role in the business.

The current pilot study explored food insecurity, food waste, food related behaviours and cooking confidence of UK consumers following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Data were collected from 473 UK-based consumers (63% female) in March 2020. A cross-sectional online survey measured variables including food insecurity prevalence, self-reported food waste, food management behaviours, confidence and frequency of use of a range of cooking methods, type of food eaten (ultra-processed, semi-finished, unprocessed) and packaging type foods are purchased in.

39% of participants have experienced some food insecurity in the last 12 months. Being younger, having a greater BMI and living in a smaller household were associated with food insecurity. Green leaves, carrots, potatoes and sliced bread are the most wasted of purchased foods. Polenta, green leaves and white rice are the most wasted cooked foods. Food secure participants reported wasting a smaller percentage of purchased and cooked foods compared to food insecure participants. Overall, participants were most confident about boiling, microwaving and stir-frying and least confident with using a pressure cooker or sous vide. Food secure participants were more confident with boiling, stir-frying, grilling and roasting than insecure food participants.

This has implications for post lockdown policy, including food policies and guidance for public-facing communications.

We identified novel differences in self-report food waste behaviours and cooking confidence between the food secure and insecure consumers and observed demographics associated with food insecurity.

This paper presents a moderated discussion on popular misconceptions, benefits and limitations of International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA) programs, clarifying how ILSA results could be more appropriately interpreted and used in public policy contexts in the USA and elsewhere in the world.

To bring key issues, points-of-view and recommendations on the theme to light, the method used is a “moderated policy discussion”. Nine commentaries were invited to represent voices of leading ILSA scholars/researchers and measurement experts, juxtaposed against views of prominent leaders of education systems in the USA that participate in ILSA programs. The discussion is excerpted from a recent blog published by Education Week. It is moderated with introductory remarks from the guest editor and concluding recommendations from an ILSA researcher who did not participate in the original blog. References and author biographies are presented at the end of the article.

Together, the commentaries address historical, methodological, socio-political and policy issues surrounding ILSA programs vis-à-vis the major goals of education and larger societal concerns. Authors offer recommendations for improving the international studies themselves and for making reports more transparent for educators and the public to facilitate greater understanding of their purposes, meanings and policy implications.

When assessment policies are implemented from the top down, as is often the case with ILSA program participation, educators and leaders in school systems tend to be left out of the conversation. This article is intended to foster a productive two-way dialogue among key ILSA actors that can serve as a stepping-stone to more concerted policy actions within and across national education systems.

This paper investigates the degree to which self-selection explains the apparent higher purchase value of research shoppers.

An online survey was administered to 594 retail shoppers. The purchase value of research shoppers and single-channel shoppers was compared before and after propensity score matching to account for self-selection effects.

Prior to matching, research shoppers spend significantly more than single-channel shoppers. This difference persists after accounting for self-selection but is reduced by 25%. The impact of self-selection differs across product categories and channels, with the online channel most likely to lead to higher purchase value.

The findings build on existing literature on the value of omni-channel retail strategies and provide insights for retailers to determine the likely impact of encouraging research shopping among their customers.

The research provides important insights into the role that self-selection plays in the value of multi-channel shoppers, and the likely value to retailers of omni-channel strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the confusion generated by a loose definition of the term knowledge artifact (KA) and its impacts on the design of technologies supporting their use.

The paper looks at the conceptual foundations underpinning the concept of KA that are related to the way in which knowledge is conceived, and revisits the outcomes of empirical investigations to shed light on different aspects of the use of KA in various settings.

The paper identifies a class of KAs and its role in relation to other classes of KAs, as it emerges from the empirical investigations.

The focus is on documental artifacts that are, however, widely used in different domains and organizations. New empirical work is needed to consider other kinds of artifacts and their role in knowledge-intense activities.

The paper aims to drive the attention of the designer on phenomena that hinder the acceptance, appropriation and effectiveness of the technologies they design to support a crucial aspect of collaboration.

The paper is original in the following ways: first, documenting the interplay between a kind of KA that is poorly considered in the literature with other classes of KAs; second, highlighting a set of principles that should guide the construction of computational KAs of a different nature.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that emotions characterise organisations and, therefore, emotional labour and performance is central to the work of school administration. Thus, the study of emotions needs careful attention in educational administration programmes. The author also considers whether school leadership preparation programmes in Canada and elsewhere provide theoretical knowledge to support this. Finally, the author posits three theoretical perspectives on emotion in administrative work and organisational settings, including education, that might be included in school leadership courses to better support principals in the emotional work that is core to their effectiveness.

The author draws on two research studies to inform the analysis offered: one on the effects of restructuring on the work of school administrators and the other a consideration of principal preparation programmes in Canada. Both employ qualitative methods, including document searches. A broad literature review in relation to the research focus is also offered.

The paper finds that principals talk a great deal about the emotional aspects of their work yet there is no explicit exploration of theories of emotion in principal preparation programmes. The author provides brief examples of the efficacy of psychoanalytic, socio‐cultural, and feminist post‐structural analysis of emotional labour as useful for emotional praxis in administrative work.

The analysis offered will be useful in reviewing principal preparation programmes with regard to their effectiveness in addressing central concerns of emotional praxis in the work of school administrators.

Examines the seventeenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how assessment design was used to enhance students’ critical thinking in a subject concerned with business enterprise systems. The study shows positive results and favorable perceptions of the merit of the approach.

A case study approach was used to examine how the problem-based assessment task was redesigned to enhance students’ critical thinking. The study documents post-graduate accounting students’ achievements, including some comparison with results from an earlier version of the task. Data were collected using surveys and anonymous student comments.

The case study reveals that the merit of the assessment design lay in presenting students with new material that generated some cognitive dissonance, which had to be resolved, rather than just applying subject knowledge to a new scenario. By requiring students to assimilate and harmonize the materials, they were encouraged to think more critically about how their prior learning applied to the problem.

Congruent with widespread calls by employers and professional bodies, there is renewed focus on the importance of developing critical thinking skills as an integral part of higher education courses. Whilst achievement is usually realized interdependently through communication, problem solving and analysis, critical thinking must be fostered in the context of the specific professional knowledge. This study contributes knowledge about how students’ critical thinking may be fostered, with the added difficulty that the context involves a focus on the role and value of technology.