Graham Mowl

Using Self and Peer Assessment to Improve Students’ Essay Writing: a Case Study from Geography

SUMMARY This paper reports on a project aiming to improve students’ essay writing performance on a first year geography course. The intention was that through self and peer assessment as well as tutor assessment of essays, students would learn about assessment criteria and ways of meeting these. Students were prepared for this role in a preparatory workshop in which they helped to generate criteria, and self and peer assessment were carefully supervised and regulated. The success of the project is evaluated based upon analysis of marks, student feedback and the opinion of the staff who led the project. Self and peer marks were considered less reliable than tutor marks, perhaps because of the subjective nature of this type of assessment and the relative inexperience of the students, but this risk is considered to be outweighed by the benefits to student learning.

Difference and the Negotiation of ‘Old Age’

In this paper we contribute to recent discussions of ageing and ageism in human geography. Findings are presented from a qualitative study of older people which explored the association of old-age identities with different spaces. By focusing in particular on leisure spaces, some of the ways in which the identities and spaces available to older people are constructed by class, ability, and gender are highlighted. These sites have different meanings and associations, reflecting positive as well as negative discourses of ‘old age’, allowing some individuals to negotiate ‘old age’ through maintaining distinct and separate leisure activities and spaces.

Women, gender, leisure and place: towards a more ‘humanistic’ geography of women's leisure

A growing interest in the role of place in social processes has led to a recognition of the need to incorporate these ideas into the study of leisure and recreation. A critique of the traditional geographical approach to the study of leisure and recreation is followed by a brief review of the geography of gender and humanistic geography literature, indicating the possible contribution that some of the perspectives contained in this material can make to our understanding of womens leisure. In conclusion, it is argued that it is only through developing a deeper understanding of the way individuals and groups perceive different places, with their complex mosaics of gender and class relations, that a more complete, more contextual representation of womens leisure can emerge.

Improving Geography Essay Writing Using Innovative Assessment.

Abstract This article reports a project which aims to improve the essay writing of undergraduates on a first‐year geography course. The intention was that through self‐and peer assessment as well as tutor assessment of essays, students would learn about assessment criteria and ways of meeting these. As these techniques are unfamiliar to most students, and past experience shows that they sometimes view them negatively, it was important to stress the value of the project to their learning, to prepare them in a workshop, and to supervise and regulate the assessment process carefully. The project is evaluated from student feedback and suggestions are made for implementation of similar projects in the future.

Expatriate-owned Small Businesses: Measuring and Accounting for Success

TONY BLAcKwoOD AND GRAHAM MowL ARE both lecturers at the University of Northumbria, England. this paper aims to identify and account for patterns of success and failure among small, expatriate-owned businesses operating in the tourism service sector of the major resorts of the Costa del Sol in Southern Spain. This group of businesses is particularly interesting because they have acquired a reputation for economic instability and relatively high rates of business failure. Furthermore, the need has been argued for both area and industry specific research on small business failure in order to gain a more contextual understanding of their problems. To understand any patterns of business success and failure it is necessary to investigate not only the behaviour of business owners but also the more general economic and social processes affecting the industrial sector and the locality in which the firm operates. The paper assess the tourism industry and in particular the role of small businesses within the tourism-related sector. It also investigates the background, aims and business management practices of individual entrepreneurs and attempts to use these findings to generate possible explanations of the patterns of business success detected.

Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?

Abstract In the latter part of the nineteenth century the city of Málaga sought to develop a significant tourism function and, in northern Europe especially, became known as a potential winter resort for invalids. The citys suitability for this function was highly contested up to the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mainly due to its reputation as insanitary and unhygienic. This reputation, based mainly on external perceptions and representations, arguably obscured the subsequent success of the city in developing as a tourist resort with a substantial domestic market. The paper traces the growth of the main tourist infrastructure from the late nineteenth century through to the 1930s and explores the role of key groups of actors in this process. The ways in which changes in the citys urban structure, including architectural qualities, were used to promote this functional change, are also demonstrated.

Changing visitor perceptions of Malaga (Spain) and its development as a winter health resort in the nineteenth century

During the early nineteenth century, Spain became an increasingly popular destination for a growing number of northern European and American “romantic” tourists. Malaga was initially a popular tourist gateway for those exploring not only southern Spain but also parts of North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, and by the end of the nineteenth century, it had established itself as a winter health resort of some repute. This study explores the changing visitor perceptions of the city during this period of development. The published accounts of over 40 men and women travellers who visited Malaga in the nineteenth century have been examined using discourse analysis. Our analysis reveals not only the changing nature of Malaga as an emerging tourist destination but we also demonstrate the plural and contested nature of visitor perceptions of this tourist place and what these potentially reveal about the predilections and attitudes of the visitors themselves and how they reflect broader northern European social discourses towards southern Spain and its people at this time.

The characteristics and motivations of expatriate tourism service providers on the Costa del Sol, Spain

Expatriate-owned businesses account for a significant proportion of the total supply of small licensed premises within the main mass tourist resorts of the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. This paper presents some findings from a questionnaire survey conducted with owners of these small businesses in the resorts of Torremolinos and Fuengirola and focuses in particular on the behavioural characteristics and motivations of this group of small business owners. Using evidence from other research a comparison is made between the characteristics and motivations of this sample of expatriate tourism business owners and those of other small business owners in the tourism and hospitality industry. It is argued that although these expatriate owners are more likely than other owners of small tourism firms to possess relevant management and industry experience, they too are predominantly driven by non-economic motives and are prepared to work incredibly long hours in order to reap other intrinsic rewards.

Reforma Interior in Málaga: modernization and morphological change in the nineteenth century

In the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, various attempts were made to ‘modernize’ the city of Málaga (southern Spain) in terms of structural and built environment. These efforts originated from different groups at different times and with varying degrees of success but they had, as their principal motive, a shared desire to advance the image of the city against a background of political unrest and significant economic decline from mid-nineteenth century prosperity. With this objective in mind, there was a shared perspective that the visual appearance of the city and its morphological structure had to be modernized. However, in detail, the specific schemes proposed reflected the diverse ideologies and objectives of their chief protagonists although the generic term Málaga Moderna came to be applied to a wide range of different proposals. This article will examine the development of these key actor groups and their varying impact on the citys urban form.

UK Local Authority Place Promotion: Changing Contexts and Changing Priorities

Introduction Even the most cursory review of the recent literature on urbanism reveals that place marketing and promotional activity have become essential tools in the drive of many cities to move beyond industrialism and to create new identities for themselves. Just as place promotion itself has burgeoned in the past two decades, the literature on the activity has also grown immensely. 1 It may seem superfluous, therefore, that the present article is added to this literature. However, it is clear that the context within which place promotion is taking place in the UK is constantly changing and, in particular, the response of local authorities to such a dynamic situation is of particular interest. It is in that spirit that the present article is offered.