Danny Saunders

Peer tutoring in higher education

ABSTRACT Peer tutoring between students involves more advanced learners helping less advanced learners with their studies. The present paper argues that a number of recent developments and initiatives within higher education offer much encouragement to the establishment of peer tutoring systems within colleges. One particular institution, Nottingham Polytechnic, has explored such activity over the past 5 years. The findings are reviewed and a critique is offered of this valuable initiative.

Gambling and leisure: the case of racing

While betting on races of one kind or another has been extensively discussed by theorists who are interested in aspects of compulsive gambling and social policy, little attention has been paid to leisure perspectives in the study of betting populations. The present paper addresses the enjoyable and commonplace pastime of gambling as a leisurely pursuit, and focuses on the off-track betting office for a more detailed analysis of the variety of customer and staff groupings, career patterns, and life-styles. Such a typology is based on observations of five gambling enivronments within South Wales, and includes the identification of gambling bars as well as the more frequently recognized betting offices. The authors conclude that recent innovations in both technology and legislation have had, and will continue to have, profound effects on customers and the traditional small-time bookmaker.

Differential effects of red and blue coloured lighting on gambling behaviour

Gambling at a modified version of three-card brag was observed for 28 volunteers, subjected to red or blue light conditions. It is concluded that subjects within a red light environment gambled more money more often and selected riskier odds than did subjects gambling under blue light. Furthermore, riskier bets were generally associated with later trials and red light again enhanced such an effect as compared with blue light. The results are discussed in terms of psychoanalytical theory, psychophysiology and choice shifts within group situations for various gambling activities.

Accommodating change: the process of growth and development amongst a mature student population

Abstract Many commentators have noted that mature students speak of education changing them. One of the most positive outcomes is a heightened sense of self-belief and confidence, which pervades other areas of their lives, not just the academic environment. It is argued within this paper that such research tends to offer a somewhat simplistic account of the change outcomes; rarely is space dedicated to a discourse about the processes involved in negotiating them. Drawing on concepts from life span psychology, the role of conflict or imbalance is explored. It is suggested that this is an inevitable and, indeed, necessary part of the process. Within this context, the nature of the conflicts experienced by mature students returning to education will be identified, together with a discussion of the ways in which they can be negotiated in order to facilitate development within the present academic environment

A Twinning Model for Staff Development in Higher Education

SUMMARY A ‘twinning’ programme for staff development is outlined, involving collaboration between lecturers from the University of Glamorgan in Wales and the Bath College of Higher Education, a university sector college in England. The principle aim is that of disseminating good practice in educational development, including innovations in work‐based learning, educational technologies and mentoring. This paper addresses the theme of professional development for academic staff, and reviews twinning experiences through an application of communication models to learning organizations within Higher Education. The essential advantage of twinning strategies lies with institution‐wide rather than discipline‐specific developments.

Peer tutoring and peer–assisted student support: five models within a new University

Abstract This paper discusses a range of peer tutoring initiatives developed within a new University, and focuses on the Peer Assisted Student Support scheme [PASS] that operates in its Business School. It also explores PASS extension to another institution as part of the Department for Education and Employment funded ‘Twinning’ project. The achievements, successes and failures of the scheme over this period have been assessed and some suggestions for further development are offered.

Control and Interaction in Computerized Simulations

Four CAS examples are described, and these help to illustrate the interdependence of the two variables. The basic assumption of this article is that if both the limitations of computers and the importance of human relations are recognized, then during simulation the roles of both participant and computer will be more effective, and this in turn allows the learning potential of such simulations to be more fully realized. As a general principle,

The Challenges of Modularization

SUMMARY Higher education institutions (HEIs) are responding to the movement towards credit accumulation and transfer with varying degrees of enthusiasm and energy, and linked to this is a parallel series of developments towards modularization and semesterization. Some HEIs have highly developed and well advanced programmes of credit‐based modularity (PCFC, 1992), whereas others are just beginning to implement what we believe to be one of the most important and radical changes to affect higher education in recent years. This article is grounded in the experience of two universities which are currently moving towards modular schemes: the University of Northumbria at Newcastle and the University of Glamorgan. It uses a range of case studies based on actual experiences of colleagues in our own universities and those we have encountered in our workshops nationally. At the University of Northumbria, the term unitization is used to indicate that named routes are retained, whereas the term modularization is prefe...

Language teaching through role-play: a Hungarian view

This article explores the introduction of new teacher training methods at the Centre for English Teacher Training (CETT) at the University of Budapest, along with its partner schools. A particular interest has emerged in the use of role-play to make language learning more student centered and interactive, thereby creating a more spontaneous and realistic learning environment that prepares teacher trainees and their students for social interaction via the medium of a foreign language. The article concludes with a summary of main findings about the perception of role-play activity based on in-depth interviews with 10 trainee teachers linked with the CETT program.

Curriculum Methodology A Case Study in Large-scale Curriculum Development

A review of the contemporary literature on curriculum development indicates that much of the existing work either: (i) focuses on the development of educational resources; or (ii) identifies desirable features of development methods without providing any practical guidance. This article describes the development and application of a methodology for curriculum development. The methodology is flexible and evolutionary, and is soundly underpinned by accepted theory and practice from the field of information systems.The methodology was successfully appliedto a ‘live’ curriculum development project, i.e. the 1999 revalidation of the BTEC/EdExcel Computing Scheme at the University of Glamorgan. More recently, one of the authors has been involved in the development of an online degree programme as part of a European-funded project based in the University of Glamorgan.The author has identified that the prototype methodology needs to be extended to cover the development and approval of e-learning materials. The extensions are outlined in the conclusions.