Search

This article proposes two models and four principles for creating taxonomies of transferable skills that reflect and enable cross-institutional partnership between academic and professional services colleagues. Such language or taxonomies provide a shared focus for all institutional stakeholders in support of students' development and future employment outcomes. An anonymised UK university case study demonstrates the models and principles in practice through a cross-institutional collaboration between the Careers Service, other student services teams, and academic departments. Universities, subject/programme teams, academics, careers services, extra-curricular programme teams, and teaching and learning professionals can use the principles and models in this article to create transferable skills taxonomies for their students that can be owned by all university stakeholders, and are relevant to the graduate workplace.

Children actively and selectively transmit information to others based on the type of information and the context during learning. Four- to 7-year-old children preferentially transmit generalizable information in teaching-like contexts. Although 2-year-old children are able to distinguish between generalizable and non-generalizable information, it is not known whether they likewise transmit generalizable information selectively. We designed a behavioral study to address this question. Two-year-old children were presented with three novel boxes, identical except for their color. In each box, one of two equally salient actions led to a generalizable outcome (e.g., playing a [different] tune in each box), whereas the other led to a non-generalizable outcome (e.g., turning on a light, vibrating the box, or making a noise). In the discovery phase, children had a chance to discover the functions of each box presented one-by-one. Then, in the exploration phase, they were given the opportunity to independently explore all three boxes presented together. Finally, in the transmission phase, an ignorant recipient entered the room and asked the child to show them how these toys work. We measured whether children preferentially transmitted either generalizable or non-generalizable information when they were asked to demonstrate the function of the toys to a naïve adult. We found that children did not display any preference for transmitting generalizable information. These findings are discussed with respect to toddlers' selectivity in transmitting information but also the development of sensitivity to information generalizability.

The ability to work effectively in a diverse team is a valuable skill which is transferable to many contexts. As such, it is important to build this skill through deliberate, targeted, and meaningful learning activities in higher education. The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) model enhances team diversity by combining students from different disciplines and years of study to work together on a research project within the curriculum. Additionally, VIP provides the option to remain on the project for an extended period over several semesters and gain team leadership experience. Our research investigates the recent implementation of VIP at the University of St Andrews. Using a survey of student perceptions and analysis of student reflective writing, this case study reports evidence that the VIP model adds value to the development of teamwork skills.

The final year dissertation is an important part of an undergraduate degree which delivers a wide range of subject-specific and transferable skills. It plays a significant part in students' learning development and overall experience of university. Finding the right project is emotionally important to students and may underpin their subsequent motivation and engagement. Little is known, however, about how students make this important choice. This study aimed to learn more about students' experiences of choosing a dissertation, how their choice processes varied and whether their choices worked out well for them. It surveyed 150 undergraduates in natural sciences at a UK university, asking a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions. Findings indicate that students value a range of factors when choosing their dissertation, most prominently interest in the subject and approach but also their existing familiarity with the area, the perceived benefits and demands of the work and staff support. Multivariate analysis suggests a variety of choice processes are in operation, with some students valuing content factors and others trading these off against relational ones. With hindsight, 91 respondents (60.7%) felt their choice process had worked well and 87 (58%) would choose the same way again. A subset, however, had felt unprepared to choose, and some of these were particularly unhappy with the outcome. The implication for learning development is that helping students learn to make conscious and informed choices and making dissertation modules student-centric is likely to significantly improve engagement and learning, especially for the less confident.

This study investigates whether there are different first-language-second-language (L1-L2) dependency resolutions by focusing on less-studied crosslinguistic variances in L2 acquisition of Chinese, a null-subject language, by speakers of English, a non-null-subject language. The overt subject pronoun of a Chinese main clause has free orientation and its antecedent can be the subject or object of the preceding causal subordinate clause, depending on pragmatic biases. The null subject of a Chinese main clause, however, is subject-oriented, and this subject orientation is not affected by any pragmatic bias. English does not allow null subjects and, like Chinese, overt subject pronouns in English have free orientation. An acceptability judgement task and an interpretation task were adopted, and the results suggest that only the free orientation of overt subjects, but not the subject orientation of null subjects, is acquirable for English-speaking learners; they are found to be influenced by the pragmatic bias. This provides evidence for the cue-based model (Cunnings, 2017), which states that L1-L2 differences in dependency resolution can be explained in terms of L1-L2 differences in susceptibility to interference and L2ers' over-reliance on discourse-based/pragmatic cues. It is also observed that in L1 Chinese, competition between the target antecedent and distractors occurs during the reading of the sentence, while in L2 Chinese, this occurs after the reading of the sentence. These findings add to our growing understanding of different mechanisms in L1 vs. L2 dependency resolutions.

This paper draws on interviews with 10 psychologists working in NHS (National Health Service) Adult Gender Identity Clinics across the UK and focuses on the way they put their clinical knowledge about gender into practice. It also questions how two major NHS consultations set the parameters for professional and clinical practice in relation to gender affirming technologies despite their methodologies being at variance with each other and having severe implications for treatment options. Findings indicated that psychologists believed their experiences of working in a gender clinic was deeply problematic, leading them to question their mental health, their agency at work, and recent shifts to professionalise their role by introducing 'specialist' level accountability. They were routinely challenging a dated neo-liberal system that lacks compassion, is inflexible, reductive, functionalist and interventionist. Such a system sustains a cis-normative, neo-liberal framework at the expense of transgender and non-binary pedagogy and testimony.

This paper explores the different epistemologies that define the Professional Doctorate, paying close attention to how Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) doing a Professional Doctorate reconcile academic and professional knowledge. Through a narrative exploration of the literature published since the first UK Professional Doctorates were awarded in 2000, the paper situates the Professional Doctorate within the confluence of the workplace, the profession and the university. From this stance, the paper explores distinct knowledge terrains between knowledge generated by Professional Doctorates in the context of application and knowledge generated in the context of disciplinary laws applied to sites of practice. The purpose of this discussion is to understand if, how and to what extent Professional Doctorates reconcile competing knowledge terrains. This study draws towards two broad conclusions. The first conclusion suggests that in the literature identified, the distinction between academic and professional epistemologies has little resonance. Instead of the dichotomous knowledge generated in the context of practice in contrast to knowledge generated in the context of disciplinary laws, Professional Doctorates were ensconced within several competing epistemologies. The literature identified focuses on impact and identity, concepts the study employs as lenses to guide a discussion. The paper thus views the process of reconciliation first through the lens of impact and then through the lens of identity. The investigation then draws a second conclusion: The epistemic landscape occupied by the Professional Doctorate is involved in a reconciliation of more significance that the putative academic and professional binary. The paper is compelled towards a diffractive re-reading of this academic-professional knowledge tension. This new reading allows a full recognition of both difference and mutual entanglement between knowledge generated in the context of practice and knowledge generated in the context of disciplinary laws.

This study explored the effects of learning activities which encouraged positive crosslinguistic influence from L2 Spanish to L1 English grammar in young learners. The learners (N = 82) were studying Spanish as their compulsory foreign language at an English state primary school in the UK. As part of ten timetabled Spanish classes over a period of six months, 40 pupils, aged 10-11, engaged in self-study activities involving aspects of Spanish grammar. The activities incorporated thematic content and metalanguage based on the grammar, punctuation and spelling exam (GPS), a national English grammar test taken at the end of primary education. A control group of 42 children engaged in self-study activities with no focus on grammar. L1 English grammar knowledge pre- and post-intervention was assessed using GPS scores. At post-test, a small, non-significant positive effect on attainment in L1 English grammar was observed. Although preliminary and involving only a small effect, the results are promising, showing that engagement with Spanish grammar activities might lead to better performance on English grammar. These findings are consistent with recent research which has established that the cognitive maturity required to develop and deploy metalinguistic awareness is present in children at a younger age than previously assumed.

The approach that students take in their studies at university is critical not only for their academic success but is equally important in life-long learning for their career and professional development. Heutagogy is the study of self-determined learning and it is important that we appraise how students in higher education are developing their metacognitive awareness in how they learn and study effectively. Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary research area that involves the scientific study of the human mind. It helps provide new knowledge in relation to areas such as memory, problem solving, knowledge transfer and understanding of complex topics. Cognitive science has demonstrated that re-testing oneself on material when learning, enhances and promotes greater retention of knowledge compared to re-reading the material. Learning that is distributed or spaced out over multiple study sessions also allows for greater retention of knowledge in the longer-term compared to 'cramming' of information. To evaluate the use of effective study approaches and habits across three different levels of study in an undergraduate pharmacy programme, a survey study was employed. A paper-based survey was completed by first-, second- and third-year undergraduate pharmacy students (n=192) during class sessions. Although there was some evidence of metacognitive awareness such as using testing (retrieval practice) with practice problems; across all years, suboptimal study approaches such as rereading, copying notes and cramming were endorsed. A schedule of deadlines shaped the organisation of study and time management for most students. Self-testing was predominantly used to test learning rather than an approach used during learning. There was evidence of a difference between the cohorts in relation to decisions for prioritizing studying, returning to review course material and re-reading. The evidence from this study demonstrates that learners would require training on metacognitive awareness and effective study strategies to enable their self-determined learning capabilities to evolve. The linear progression through a programme of study alone will not achieve this. There is a need to embed and emphasize effective strategies for learning into curricula and for faculty to utilise metacognitive awareness in their teaching.

This research explores the different types of motivation that inspired students to engage in an online peer-assisted learning (PAL) leader role. An interdisciplinary online PAL pilot programme at a university in the United Kingdom was reviewed to investigate the experience and perceptions of voluntary online PAL leaders. The purpose of the study was to address a paucity in knowledge about the motivations for this role, specifically from an online perspective, and to guide future online PAL leader recruitment. A thematic analysis of in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews was used to determine emerging and relevant themes. Three research questions guided the interviews, and findings are presented in response to these questions. Findings indicate that different types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were key reasons for engaging in the online PAL leader role. The participants expressed an altruistic and empathic approach towards volunteering. Potential personal benefits motivated their participation, including improved study skills, transferable skills, and the possibility of an award. These motivations fell into two significant themes: the awareness of personal gain and the emergence of a desired version of self. Recommendations are made for the recruitment and training of online PAL leaders and the logistics of the scheme to ensure it is well advertised, accessible, endorsed by academic staff, and combines synchronous and asynchronous modes. It is hoped that this research will be valuable given the shift to online study and blended learning in response to and as an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic and the value placed on interactive virtual spaces to minimise isolation.

Transnational higher education (TNHE) of UK universities has been noticeably expanding during the last two decades in the Arab Gulf region, but few studies investigated qualitatively the different ways in which students in that region experience both teaching and learning. The aim of this study is to understand the ways that students conceptualise their learning and educational experiences at a British TNHE in Qatar. Employing a phenomenographic approach, we interviewed forty students in a TNHE UK programme within a Qatari higher education institution (HEI). The outcomes of our interviews generated three hierarchically related categories as follows: developing academic skills, acquiring self-learning skills, and acquiring employability skills. Our findings also suggest themes of interdependence in learning and transferability of skills developed by students. This study offers HEIs a better understanding and insight into the design of TNHE programmes that would respond to the students' learning experiences and educational development.

This study investigates two models of L2 vocabulary acquisition at an advanced L2 level: L1 lemma mediation and the revised hierarchical models. Proponents of the L1 lemma mediation model postulate that advanced L2 learners map L2 words to L1 meanings or concepts, whereas proponents of the revised hierarchical model argue that the increasing experience in L2 helps learners remap the L2 words to their L2 meanings. In this study, 26 proficient Arab L2 speakers of English and 26 English native speakers were given 76 semantically related word pairs and were instructed to rate their semantic relatedness on a 5-point Likert scale as quickly as possible. It was found that word pairs sharing the same Arabic translations had been rated significantly higher than word pairs not sharing the same Arabic translations. The results supported the L1 lemma model--namely, even advanced L2 learners still rely on their L1 to access the meanings of L2 words.

This article offers a global overview of the burgeoning field of micro-credentials and their relationship to lifelong learning, employability and new models of digital education. Although there is no globally accepted definition of micro-credentials, the term indicates smaller units of study, which are usually shorter than traditional forms of accredited learning and courses leading to conventional qualifications such as degrees. The paper aims to provide educators with a helicopter view of the rapidly evolving global micro-credential landscape, with particular relevance to higher education leaders, industry stakeholders and government policy-makers. It addresses five questions: (i) What are micro-credentials? (ii) Why micro-credentials? (iii) Who are the key stakeholders? (iv) What is happening globally? and (v) What are some of the key takeaways? Drawing on a European-wide perspective and recent developments in The Republic of Ireland, the paper concludes that micro-credentials are likely to become a more established and mature feature of the 21st-century credential ecology over the next five years. While the global micro-credential landscape is currently disconnected across national boundaries, more clarity and coherence will emerge as governments around the world increasingly align new credentialing developments with existing national qualification frameworks. The micro-credentialing movement also provides opportunities for governments and higher education institutions in partnership with industry to harness new digital learning models beyond the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced the availability of work placements in commercial organisations for university students and potentially changed the nature of placements in the future. Similarly, charitable organisations who were already suffering budget restrictions have been financially affected by COVID-19 due to reduced revenue on trading activities, with financial sustainability predicted to be an ongoing issue. The opportunity, therefore, for charities to entice university students to volunteer to support their work, with the lure of developing their employability skills, seems irresistible at this time. The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of job advertisements for volunteer positions to determine the extent to which they specify transferable skills desired of the candidates, or state that they can be developed once employed in the post. The underlying assumption is that, to attract student volunteers, job advertisements will need to explicitly state the transferable skills resulting from the post, since students will be focused on developing employability skills through the volunteering activity to support their graduate careers. The paper offers originality by conducting a content analysis of volunteer jobs and assessing the specified criteria against recognised employability skills. It concludes by challenging charities, students and universities to embrace the opportunity for students to develop transferable skills through volunteering by modifying current practices.

Within Geography, as in other disciplines, the neoliberalisation of Higher Education has led to an increasing curriculum focus on graduate attributes with student employability as an outcome. The multiple and competing discourses of employability that shape pedagogies can at times ignore social enterprise and enterprising skills that are too often neglected within geography curricula. In this contribution we draw on our experience working with SIDshare, a co-curricula student run social enterprise operating as an NGO (non-governmental organisation), to show how enterprising skills nurtured through student communities of practice have enhanced employability. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews undertaken with graduates who previously participated in SIDshare we analyse how their engagement contributed to graduate employment outcomes. SIDshare had increased not only the development of enterprising skills and entrepreneurialism but also encouraged the development of transferable, so-called "softer skills". These included strong interpersonal skills, team skills and good working relationships as well as professionalism developed through participation in an extracurricular student community of practice alongside engagement with external partners. Effectual and causal reasoning skills were developed further encouraging entrepreneurialism. Graduate interviewees clearly demonstrated that their career success had been aided by their involvement in the co-curricular student led social enterprise, SIDshare.

This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phonology on second language (L2) early reading skills in Sylheti-English bilinguals (N = 58; 48% girls; British Bangladeshi) and their monolingual-English peers (N = 43; 45% girls; 96% White British, 4% multiethnic British) in a diaspora context. Language-specific phonological awareness and nonword repetition were tested at two time points (6;2-7;8 years-old). At Time 1, the bilinguals had lower productive accuracy for phonological sequences that violated their L1 phonology (d = 0.56; 0.84), and these skills accounted for a significant amount of variance in their reading accuracy. At Time 2, the language-specific effects were no longer present. These findings highlight the importance of considering language structure in multilingual early literacy development.

The dominant public discourse regarding the recruitment and retention of teachers is one that is often framed in terms such as 'crisis'. Data from the Department for Education, the National Audit Office and bodies such as the Education and Training Foundation highlight challenges in filling vacancies across each part of the education sector. This is particularly acute in subject areas relating to Science, Engineering and Technology (SET). This paper analyses discourses relating to teacher training amongst tri-service personnel in the English context. Sources from publications such as FE Week and CTP (Career Transition Partnership) are addressed. In doing so, the paper compares educational and military sources in order to examine how the representation of a civilian teaching career varies between the two. This is about adding to the wider societal narrative regarding the ways in which military to civilian transition can be aided by the reframing of skills and experience acquired during military service.

PhD researchers are increasingly working in non-academic sectors, garnering interest in the extent to which doctoral education is relevant for careers beyond academia. Writing, arguably the most important and challenging activity PhDs must master, is a skill also coveted in the knowledge economy, required of employees across labour sectors. Using the concept of genre knowledge to frame how genres are performed in various situations, this exploratory qualitative study examines the perceptions of UK PhD holders in non-academic posts regarding the similarities and differences between academic and non-academic genres and the relevance of their PhD writing skills to their workplace writing. Findings suggest that PhD researchers' time and investment in academic writing during the degree leads to an understanding of how genres work -- knowledge that allows PhDs to adjust to writing in new situations.

Purpose: Every year several thousand female cadets participate in the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) in the UK, but little is known about the impact that this experience has on the subsequent employability of the female cadets. This study aimed to understand the perceptions of academic teenage girls from one all-female unit of their participation in CCF and the personal benefit or otherwise in relation to their ultimate employability. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of 10 young women who had participated in CCF for at least three years. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis. Findings: Participants were effusive about the transformative effects of CCF in relation to personal confidence, recognising transferable skills and raising personal aspiration, all key elements to employability, particularly for women. They also considered they had gained future workplace advantage having had opportunity to trial leadership strategies in mixed gender teams, an experience unavailable elsewhere to them. Loyalty to the contingent pervaded every discussion and the importance of team goals, although this level of selfless commitment may be detrimental to employability, subsuming their personal interests to the greater good. Originality/value: Research into the benefit or otherwise of teenage girls' extra-curricular activities is scarce, and this is the first study, to the authors' knowledge, that explores the perceptions of the impact their time in CCF had on their graduate employability skills.

Improving perceptions of graduate utility is fundamental to Higher Education's employability and skills agenda. However, utility enhancement is a ubiquitous consequence of all learning. Therefore, motivating students to engage in deep learning to improve their utility is problematic. Using the student voice, in this article, I explain how prompts endorsing marginalism as a benefit of attaining superior utility with higher subjective value informed and motivated meta-learning approaches. Drawing on data from an ethnography and interpretive phenomenology situated in the unique learning environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, findings reveal students were motivated to seek utility attainment opportunities that marginally enhanced self-perceptions, transferability of learning, and employability. This article is among the first to explain why the attainment of knowledge and can-do competencies associated with marginalism, superior utility, and higher subjective value, motivates learners' present and future time perspectives.

Embedding employability in higher education is a key Teaching Excellence Framework requirement, and psychology departments across the UK recognise that this is indeed important for students' employability prospects. The Final Year Research Project is the most important independent piece of work that psychology undergraduate students undertake, contributing considerably to the overall degree classification. Therefore, it can provide a fertile ground for embedding employability and allows for innovation in teaching and supervision of projects. Yet, based on our extensive Final Year Research Project supervision and coordination experience, this opportunity tends to be overlooked by psychology departments, project coordinators and supervisors; often resulting in projects being given insufficient attention in students' job and further study applications and interviews. In this practice exchange paper, we first detail how employability is built into Years One and Two of our undergraduate degree, before outlining how it is integrated in Year Three within Final Year Research Projects. We then describe and discuss several initiatives that we developed and implemented to embed employability in Final Year Research Projects. We developed the 3R approach to helping students Recognise and Reflect on their skill development and Relate them to the next step in their career.

In recent years significant emphasis has been placed on staff and students as partners in higher education in order to address issues of engagement and transferable skills. However, the concept covers a wide range of meanings. On the one hand it can refer to module feedback questionnaires. At the other extreme it can include student input in curricular design, particularly constructing course materials. These very different experiences require different levels of academic preparation and student engagement. For the purpose of clarity in discussion it would seem useful to have a framework for the different levels of student-instructor partnerships, which emphasizes this range of experience rather than the activity content. This paper presents a framework based on the levels of student initiation of the partnership and of student involvement in the outcomes (referred to as ownership and autonomy respectively). The scheme was arrived at following study of the collaborative activities in two cognate programmes, the Natural Sciences degree programme at the University of Leicester and the Honours Integrated Science program at McMaster University. These programmes adopt pedagogical models which encourage the formation of strong, cohesive learning communities, thereby providing a rich variety of examples and an international perspective.

The perfective aspect marker in Chinese is partly functionally similar to inflectional suffixes in Indo-European languages but is non-inflectional and lexical in nature, lying thus at the semantics-syntax interface. This provides us with the opportunity to compare directly the syntactic and semantic constraints during second language (L2) sentence processing. The present study explored how L2 Chinese learners with Indo-European languages as their first languages (L1s) process the Chinese perfective marker. The Competition Model prioritizes syntactic processes entailed by cross-linguistic transfer from the participants' L1s, but this prediction might be challenged by the concurrent functioning of semantic processes. In an event-related potentials (ERP) experiment, 22 European language-speaking L2 Chinese learners with low to intermediate proficiency level and 20 native Chinese speakers (i.e. the control group) participated. An aspectual agreement paradigm was used for materials. Results showed that in the aspect marker mismatch condition, L2 Chinese learners with a shorter learning experience were more likely to show a P600-like component, indicating a morpho-syntactic routine, supporting thus the predictions of cross-linguistic transfer based on the Competition Model. Those with a longer L2 learning experience were more likely to show an N400-like component similar to native Chinese speakers. This shift from P600 to N400 for more advanced learners suggests that L1-L2 syntactic similarity may exert much stronger influence than semantic constraints for learners with shorter L2 experience.

Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of referential markers by Polish--English bilingual children and Polish monolingual children. Using the LITMUS-MAIN picture stories, the authors collected speech samples of Polish-English bilinguals raised in the UK (n = 92, mean age 5;7) and compared them with matched Polish monolinguals (n = 92, mean age 5;7). The analyses revealed that the bilinguals' mean length of utterance (MLU) in Polish was significantly higher than that of the monolinguals because the bilinguals produced significantly more referential markers (especially pronouns) which inflated their MLU. The authors posit that the non-standard referentiality used by the bilinguals in Polish is caused by cross-language transfer at the syntax-pragmatics interface. When producing narratives in Polish, Polish-English bilinguals overuse referential markers as cohesive devices in their stories, which is not ungrammatical, but pragmatically odd in Polish. Bilinguals tend to do this because they are immersed in English-language input, rich in overt pronouns. Thus, in the process of realizing the surface features of the Polish DP they partly rely on an underlying English DP structure.

Attaining transferable skills is increasingly important for undergraduates and, while such skill development may be embedded within the curriculum, it is often not well recognised by students. This mixed methods study explores the use of skills badges as icons displayed on curriculum materials in several disciplines at two universities. The badges are designed to draw students' attention to skill development opportunities; an approach that is easily scalable in any discipline. Results indicated that more than half of students found the badges helpful and their recognition of the development of some skills increased. Other benefits included understanding the wider purpose of learning tasks, increased motivation and satisfaction and identification of examples for use in the job application process. The badges prompted some staff to communicate with students about skills and to re-evaluate their teaching approach to maximise skill development opportunities. Communication between staff and students is key to ensuring students understand the purpose of the badges and how to use them.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse student perspectives on the contribution that teaching anticipatory reflection can make to the development of their reflective practice. The project explores lived student experiences of anticipatory reflection and the value students attribute to these in helping them bridge the transfer gap between reflective learning and reflective practice. Design/methodology/approach: An interpretivist approach is taken whereby student reflections on the students' experiences of practicing anticipatory reflection in a workshop setting were analysed using template analysis to understand the value attributed to these. Students were guided through a series of exercises including visualisation of future events and the nature of future practice as well as reflective writing. Findings: Students identified multiple benefits of being taught and practising anticipatory reflection. Specifically, high levels of realism, personal relevance and engagement were reported, as well as increased confidence, self-efficacy and self-belief. In addition, the development of empathy and increases in self-awareness were common benefits of working through the process of anticipatory reflection. Originality/value: In contrast to existing retrospective approaches, here the authors focus on the future, using anticipatory reflection to inform pedagogical approaches enabling students to experience anticipatory reflection in a classroom setting. The positive value attributed to experiencing anticipatory reflection suggests that the temporal focus in teaching reflection should evolve to incorporate prospective approaches which have a valuable role to play in bridging existing transfer gaps between reflective learning and practice.

This article reports on an empirical study on the acquisition of Chinese imperfective markers ("zai," "-zhe[subscript P]" and "-zhe[subscript R]") by English-speaking learners at three proficiency levels. Compared to English, Chinese has a richer imperfective aspect in terms of markers (forms) and features (meanings). Results are presented from a grammaticality judgment task, a sentence-picture matching task and a sentence completeness judgment task. We find that advanced learners are successful in reassembling additional semantic features (e.g. the [+durative] feature of "zai" and the [+atelic] feature of "-zhe[subscript P]") when the first language (L1) and second language (L2) functional categories to which the to-be-added features belong are the same. However, advanced learners have problems in differentiating between the interpretations of the progressive "zai" and the resultant-stative "-zhe[subscript R]", and are not sensitive to the incompleteness effect of "-zhe[subscript P]", which indicates that discarding L1-transferred features is arduous for learners. Our findings, in general, support the predictions of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2009). In addition, there is some evidence obtained for L1 influence, which persists at an advanced stage.

This research investigates students' transferable skills in an integrating blended learning environment, specifically addressing writing skills. Drawing on Biggs' application of constructivism theory, the study analyses students' characteristics, perception of the designed teaching methods, and confidence in their writing skills. The study context was a suite of accounting and finance programmes in the United Kingdom. 164 student participants answered questionnaires, from among whom focus group participants were organised. A mixed research method was adopted to clarify the drivers of the active learning process. The findings reveal that students' characteristics influence perceptions, and that a well-designed blended learning method can alter their perceptions and improve students' writing skills. The study contributes to the literature on blended learning by providing evidence of its positive impact on the students' learning process and performance. The findings encourage accounting educators to develop strategies to improve students' performance in transferable skills through an appropriate learning design.

The results of a self-paced reading study with advanced German, Dutch and French second language (L2) learners of English showed that their online comprehension of early closure (EC) sentences which are initially misanalysed by native English speakers (e.g. "While John hunted the frightened rabbit escaped") was affected by whether or not, like English, their first language (L1) encodes aspect grammatically (French) or only via lexical means (German, Dutch). The English and the higher proficiency French participants showed a processing asymmetry in their online reading of the temporarily ambiguous sentences, assumed to be caused by the difference in the aspectual perspective a comprehender takes when initial verbs appear in the past simple vs. the past progressive. In contrast, the German and Dutch learners, irrespective of proficiency, treated both progressive and simple sentences in the same way, despite the fact that all the L2 learners were matched according to their metalinguistic knowledge of English aspectual distinctions. Furthermore, despite patterning with the German learners online, the Dutch L2 learners' offline judgments were more akin to those of the English native speakers and the French L2 learners, showing an effect of aspect, which could be argued to lend support to the idea that progressive aspect may be becoming grammaticalized in Dutch. Taken together, the results of this study add to our growing understanding of cross-linguistic influences during online L2 sentence processing, and differences between L2 parsing and learners' metalinguistic L2 performance.

Background: In the United Kingdom, creative dance is classified as part of physical education rather than an important core subject. Purpose: Taking the U.K. National Curriculum as an example, the article's primary aim is to examine literature exploring the benefits of creative dance, for children aged 3 to 11 years in mainstream state education, to evaluate whether creative dance can be categorized as experiential learning. Methodology/Approach: The literature review included key words in several databases and arrived at potential benefits which can be framed within experiential learning. Findings/Conclusions: The findings identify benefits of creative dance in socioemotional, arts-based, transferable, embodied, physical, and cognitive learning. Conceptualizing creative dance as experiential learning could support it filling a more central role in the curriculum. Implications: This article recontextualizes the role of creative dance in children's learning through reviewing related literature. Creative dance might play a more central role in the curriculum when the benefits and its process are framed as experiential learning.

The present study aimed at investigating the influence of social power, as a social hierarchy, on perception of speech act of apology by 40 Jordanian second language speakers (JL2Ss) compared to that of 40 Jordanian non-English speakers, those whose English proficiency is low (JNESs) and 40 English native speakers (ENSs). Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and Scaled Response Questionnaire (SRQ) were used to elicit data from the three groups of participants. For data analysis, one way ANOVA, post hoc pair comparisons statistical tests were employed. Similarities and differences between Jordanian Arabic and British English cultures were detected. Social power found to have an impact on Jordanian participants perception significantly higher than ENSs. Moreover, significant mean differences among the three groups regarding their perception of the four context-internal variables were also found. Further, results showed that although JL2Ss are highly proficient in English they still lack the required sociopragmatic competence which consequently led to negative sociopragmatic transfer. The study concludes with some pedagogical implications, findings could benefit EFL course designers and teachers to develop EFL curricula in Jordan which may remedy the JL2Ss lack of pragmatic knowledge of the target language and reduce pragmatic failure across cultures.

Many employers report that newly qualified graduates lack key skills necessary for success in the workplace. Although variable, many lack general 'transferable' or 'soft' skills including communication and teamworking. Staff at Edinburgh Napier University have sought to address this using the Skills Passport tool. The main element of the Skills Passport is the Skills Evidence Evaluation Record (SEER), which encourages students to document and reflect on their skills throughout their time at university in preparation for employment. The purpose of this study was to explore students' awareness of, and attitudes towards, their own skills development. Two final year students were recruited to the project and collected data from first to fourth year students via a questionnaire they designed to gather data about the Skills Passport and skills development as part of their final year project. In addition, an employer focus group and individual interviews gathered the thoughts of employers regarding graduates' skills sets and the skills important to them as employers. Students were aware that transferable skills are highly desirable, and that extracurricular activities are important; they become increasingly concerned about their skills development as they progress through their studies. These results suggest that students are aware of and are willing to invest extra time in their skills development, but that they require further support from the institution in order to be more confident about future employment prospects.

Year-one chemistry students at two different institutions were asked to rate the importance of a series of discipline-specific, transferable and laboratory skills by responding to a series of Likert-type questions. The students at both institutions had studied similar curricula but had different levels of experience of the Context and Problem Based Learning (C/PBL) approach. Analysis of the responses to the questionnaire was conducted by determining the "Level of Importance" (reported as the percentage of students at each Institution rating each skills as "Important" or "Very Important"). Both cohorts assigned a very similar level of importance to all disciplinespecific and laboratory skills (i.e. under 10% difference). There were larger (>15%) differences between responses from the two institutions to statements on two transferable skills: Team-working Skills and Oral Presentation Skills, the cohort with exposure to C/PBL giving the higher level of importance in each case. This study has revealed some potentially important differences in the perceived level of importance chemistry students place on the development of oral presentation and team-working skills which may be related to the use of C/PBL in the early stages of degree programmes. The study has also shown that the level of importance students assign certain transferable skills (such as Problem Solving Skills) may be independent of exposure to C/PBL.

The ability to apply prior knowledge to new challenges is a skill that is highly valued by employers, but the confidence to achieve this does not come naturally to all students. An essential step to becoming an independent researcher requires a transition between simply following a fail-safe set of instructions to being able to adapt a known approach to solve a new problem. Practical laboratory classes provide an ideal environment for active learning, as the primary learning objective of these teaching sessions is to gain skills. However, laboratory handbooks can be presented as a series of fail-safe recipes. This aids the smooth running of practical classes but misses the opportunity to promote engagement with the underlying theory and so develop confidence in recalling approaches and adapting them to a new problem. To aid the development of employability skills, a practical laboratory series was developed for Bioscience teaching that requires on-the-spot decision-making, the recall of skills and their adaptation to new challenges. After using this approach, the proportion of student's expressing a high level of confidence with each of eight key employability skills rose by between 9 and 35% following the practical sessions, showing that the approach of recalling, adapting then applying prior knowledge and skills can increase the confidence that students have in their employability related skills. The approach was developed for use within biological sciences practical laboratories but the principles can be adapted to any discipline involving project work.

The development of students' professional skills is an important issue in higher education in China. This research reports a 3-month study investigating engineering students' communication strategies (CSs) while they were interacting to do a 12-week mobile-assisted learning project, i.e., "Organizing and Attending a Model International Conference". This learning project was a major teaching module of the English course of Professional Applications, which used a blended teaching mode integrating face-to-face instruction and mobile learning. Sixty-seven students volunteered to participate in the study. The instruments included eight oral communication sessions, a questionnaire, stimulated recall interviews, the participants' WeChat exchanges, etc. Results showed that the participants used a variety of CSs when completing the academic learning project. Moreover, these CSs were closely related to the students' involvement in social interaction. Future research should focus on a longitudinal investigation of the amount of scaffolding that helps students transfer their communication strategies across tasks.

Bilingual language development might be characterized by transfer, deceleration, and/or acceleration, the first two being relevant for the language impairment diagnosis. Studies on bilingual children's productive phonology show evidence of transfer, but little is known about deceleration in this population. Here, we focused on phonological transfer and deceleration in L1 speech of typically developing Polish-English bilingual children of Polish migrants to the United Kingdom (aged 4.7-7). We analyzed L1 speech samples of 30 bilinguals and 2 groups of Polish monolinguals, matched to the bilinguals on age or vocabulary size. We found that bilingual children' speech (both simultaneous and early sequential) was characterized by transfer, but not by deceleration, suggesting that while phonological deceleration phases out in children above the age of 4.7, transfer does not. We discuss our findings within the PRIMIR model of bilingual phonological acquisition (Curtin et al., 2011) and show their implications for SLT practices.

Introduction: Nurses globally have strived to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) especially those in academia. Few publications have focused on lived experiences of nurses especially those reporting failed attempts. Thus, this paper presents how lessons learnt from a failed attempt of a PhD in Nursing was used to achieve an outstanding success of a second attempt. Process and strategies: Using a reflexive ethnographic approach, conclusions reached are that student's pre-entry skills, use of software, mentorship, effective management of family and work enhance the outcome of a PhD study. Other strategies were effective time management, social support, and creating learning and cognitive spaces. A disadvantaged background of a PhD student should not lead to failure. It was reinforced that PhD students require extensive reading and use of rigorous but systematic research processes. Conclusion: Adequate support is required to help PhD students in Nursing based on the individual's need to enhance a successful outcome. It is recommended that nurses should rise to the challenge of obtaining PhDs and contribute to the body of nursing knowledge.

This paper focuses on how generic skills can be developed to enable young adults to best utilise them in making transitions into the labour market. Drawing on the literature and a Commercial Education Trust study of practices which encourage employer engagement in skills development, it is argued that 'putting skills to work' is not automatic or unproblematic. It is not simply a matter of 'skills transfer', but a 'continuous, contextually-embedded and transformative process' during which individuals, supported by partners, learn how to recontextualise skills to suit different activities and environments. It may be tempting to distil employability into a list of so-called 'soft skills', but context matters. It requires more than that which can be taught in Education. Support is needed in the workplace through mentoring, for example, to help recruits acquire knowledge of workplace culture, norms and practices, situational understanding, and apply metacognitive strategies for bringing together this knowledge and a range of different skills and personal attributes in productive application. Further research is needed to explore the inter-relationships between skills supply, demand and utilisation, including ways in which employers can better recognise young recruits' skills and provide 'expansive' working environments that maximise their capabilities and potential for development.

Background: A responsive and innovative postgraduate programme curriculum that produces an effective and competent multi professional healthcare leader whom can lead within the United Kingdom (UK) and international healthcare context offers a promising approach to contributing towards the challenging global healthcare agenda. Aims: The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of utilising constructive alignment curricular methodology incorporating the Patchwork Text Assessment on the healthcare leadership development of UK and international postgraduate students. Design: Case study design, incorporating Kirkpatrick's Five Levels of Evaluation Model. Settings and Participants: 12 post graduate students (multi-professional, UK and international) studying on a healthcare leadership and management programme at one UK University in the North West of England. Methods: Retrieval of the critical commentary produced and submitted by students as part of the Patchwork Text Assessment process Data Analysis: Thematic content analysis approach. Results: Four key themes emerged demonstrating how the success of constructive alignment and the Patchwork Text Assessment in promoting deep learning for UK and international postgraduate healthcare leadership students is underpinned by principles of good practice and these include: a) Curriculum planners incorporating work based learning activities into the generated learning activities; b) Curriculum planners creating the best learning environment so the student can achieve the learning activities; c) Providing the learning activities that reflect the real world of healthcare leadership; d) Providing students with opportunities to contextualise theory and practice through relevant patchwork activity and learning activities; e) Equipping students with the transferable postgraduate skills (through learning activities and patch working) to embark on a journey of lifelong learning and continuous professional development; f) Targeting the postgraduate programme /module intended learning outcomes and assessment patches against contemporary leadership qualities frameworks; g) Providing students with opportunities to reflect in multi- professional groups that remain constant in terms of facilitator and supervisor; and h) Creating the learning opportunities for students to apply their learning to their own healthcare organisation.

The paper describes the importance of graphicacy as a key communication tool in our everyday lives. The need to better understand the development of graphicacy and its use in the school curriculum is emphasised. The need for a new research tool is explained and the development of a new taxonomy of graphicacy is described. The use of this tool within a methodology researching the significance of graphicacy in the curriculum is introduced. An overview of prior research concerning how children deal with graphicacy is also provided. The paper then discusses the results reported in the context of this prior research. The paper illustrates how graphicacy can affect children's learning; identifies cross-curricular links involving different areas of graphicacy and consequential transfer opportunities; illustrates how the implementation of a curriculum policy for graphicacy could influence students' learning; demonstrates the magnitude of the research opportunities in relation to graphicacy within general education curricula and suggests the need for collaboration in order to effectively pursue these substantial research agendas.

"There is no difference between academic skills and employment skills," (Jackson, 2011, p.1). This paper argues that there is often a false dichotomy in the minds of academics between employability, and the so-called "skills agenda", and the teaching of academic disciplines. And even in professional courses, the view of employability can be very blinkered, limited to getting a job and working in the specific profession -- e.g. law, nursing, architecture. It is our argument that an explicit focus on the graduate attribute "personal literacy" -- literally the ability to „read? oneself, to be critically self-aware -- can unite the academic and employability agendas and reveal them as one, joint enterprise. We also argue that both the development of employability and the learning of academic disciplines can be significantly improved through the development of students? critical self-awareness and personal literacy. Having made this case, we then go on to consider examples of how this might be achieved in practice.

The aim of this research is to provide perspectives on how entrepreneurial practitioners, specifically owners of high-tech small firms (HTSFs), engage with knowledge transfer and learn. The authors draw on extant research and report on the views and observations of the principals in two case study companies in the HTSF sector with regard to growing their ventures and developing learning while part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme. Entrepreneurial learning is an area of significant interest due to the growth of entrepreneurship and the varied ways in which learning can take place. There are many different interventions that can be used to transfer knowledge and develop learning, but there is limited, if any, consensus on their respective effectiveness. The researchers used an ethnographic approach in two companies over an 18-month period. The study concludes that the KTP intervention facilitates an opportunity for learning through disruption, with the key barrier to any new learning being established practice. Interestingly, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial learning is greatly facilitated by 'on-the-job' learning.

The principle that research should demonstrate impact is now a central driver in UK research policy, with some describing the UK as having undergone a 'culture change' in regards to evidencing the value and contribution of academic research (Watermeyer, R. 2012. "From Engagement to Impact? Articulating the Public Value of Academic Research." "Tertiary Education and Management" 18 (2): 115-30). This article takes a case study approach, examining one university faculty in depth in relation to research impact. Comprising an analysis of 18 Research Excellence Framework impact case studies submitted by the faculty in 2014, alongside a survey of 68 faculty staff and PhD students, and interviews with four research centre or group leaders, the case study explores the perceived benefits and challenges of evidencing research impact amongst a range of disciplines, as well as the 'transferable' skills which researchers utilise in evidence gathering.

Rephotography involves making one or more pictures of the same subject in order to repeat an existing image, usually to show change. Recognized early on as a rigorous visual method for natural sciences, rephotography in popular culture has grown into a popular visual strategy of displaying images of the past within or alongside images of the present, but such images cannot alone explain events that led to their production. While any methodological compromises in scientific applications are usually held to account, the act of rephotographing -- as a common and varied set of practices within visual culture -- faces far less scrutiny. Focusing on the presence of rephotography in photography education, this paper reports on responses to an explicit rephotographic task given to students of an online MA Photography program and considers compromises regarding two aspects seen as methodologically fundamental: the accuracy applied in revisiting a previously made image and the depth of exploration undertaken in response to it. In doing so, it supports the notion that rephotograph"ing" as a way of learning through looking at and making images is vital for the visual literacy of photography students.