title: Students' perceptions of travel through the liminal space: Lessons for teaching

authors: Harlow, Ann

abstract: This paper presents findings from a study in which educational researchers followed the progress of analogue electronics students over their first two years at university.
In this study, the lecturer's main motivation was to examine how a teaching-focus on threshold concepts might help students grasp troublesome ideas and if those students who grasped the threshold concepts achieved higher scores in the end-of-course examination. The lecturer identified two concepts in the first-year course which students repeatedly found hard to grasp. He focused his teaching on these concepts in the first year, and revisited them, albeit indirectly, throughout the second-year course.
Over the two years, the lecturer utilised a variety of teaching strategies to facilitate students' learning of the troublesome concepts. In order to evaluate the effects of these strategies on student learning, an educational researcher, in collaboration with the lecturer, explored students' perceptions about where they 'got stuck' and what helped them understand the selected threshold concepts. Data from student surveys, individual interviews, and focus groups contributed to insights about their experience of transition through the liminal space. The lecturer and researcher reflected on and analysed the lecturer's teaching strategies using video-stimulated reflective dialogue.
Findings revealed that many students did not fully grasp the two identified threshold concepts in their first year, however, repeated experiences with threshold concepts through varied teaching strategies, and a diversity of learning contexts contributed to students' understanding. In the second year, the continuing students felt that they took the threshold concepts for granted and had ceased to regard them as troublesome. They reported that grasping these threshold concepts was necessary to progress in analogue electronics. Findings of this study indicate that travel through the liminal space can be supported by an explicit and sustained focus on threshold concepts.

text: Students' perceptions of travel through the liminal space: Lessons for teaching This paper presents findings from a study in which educational researchers followed the progress of analogue electronics students over their first two years at university.
In this study, the lecturer's main motivation was to examine how a teaching-focus on threshold concepts might help students grasp troublesome ideas and if those students who grasped the threshold concepts achieved higher scores in the end-of-course examination. The lecturer identified two concepts in the first-year course which students repeatedly found hard to grasp. He focused his teaching on these concepts in the first year, and revisited them, albeit indirectly, throughout the second-year course.
Over the two years, the lecturer utilised a variety of teaching strategies to facilitate students' learning of the troublesome concepts. In order to evaluate the effects of these strategies on student learning, an educational researcher, in collaboration with the lecturer, explored students' perceptions about where they 'got stuck' and what helped them understand the selected threshold concepts. Data from student surveys, individual interviews, and focus groups contributed to insights about their experience of transition through the liminal space. The lecturer and researcher reflected on and analysed the lecturer's teaching strategies using video-stimulated reflective dialogue.
Findings revealed that many students did not fully grasp the two identified threshold concepts in their first year, however, repeated experiences with threshold concepts through varied teaching strategies, and a diversity of learning contexts contributed to students' understanding. In the second year, the continuing students felt that they took the threshold concepts for granted and had ceased to regard them as troublesome. They reported that grasping these threshold concepts was necessary to progress in analogue electronics. Findings of this study indicate that travel through the liminal space can be supported by an explicit and sustained focus on threshold concepts.

year: 2014

title: Perceptions of child pornography and its inherent harm: Does personality play a role?

authors: Aitken Worth, Ann

subjects: Child pornography

abstract: This study examined perceptions of inappropriateness of child sexual abuse material, the degree of perceived harm in that material and any relationship the latter had to the Five Factor Model of Personality domains. It examined whether a non-expert audience of university students would use the typology of the 10-level COPINE scale to create a hierarchy of harm or seriousness of offending that aligns with the original. The study found that while the anchors of the scale were ranked in original position, other levels moved in their ranking, representing some disagreement as to whether the COPINE scale adequately represented ascending level of seriousness of offending with regards to the harm caused to the victims 
Perception of harm represented to the children depicted in the images was tied to wrongdoing. Participants appeared to link harm to the context in which images were used rather than the content represented 
No correlation was found between Five-Factor Model of Personality domains and perception of harm, which may have been due to limitations of the study rather than the lack of any such link.
Results were obtained in an anonymous online survey created using an open-source questionnaire based on Goldberg's (1990, 1992) five-factor construct and plain English textual description of each of the 10 levels of the COPINE scale.

text: Perceptions of child pornography and its inherent harm: Does personality play a role? This study examined perceptions of inappropriateness of child sexual abuse material, the degree of perceived harm in that material and any relationship the latter had to the Five Factor Model of Personality domains. It examined whether a non-expert audience of university students would use the typology of the 10-level COPINE scale to create a hierarchy of harm or seriousness of offending that aligns with the original. The study found that while the anchors of the scale were ranked in original position, other levels moved in their ranking, representing some disagreement as to whether the COPINE scale adequately represented ascending level of seriousness of offending with regards to the harm caused to the victims 
Perception of harm represented to the children depicted in the images was tied to wrongdoing. Participants appeared to link harm to the context in which images were used rather than the content represented 
No correlation was found between Five-Factor Model of Personality domains and perception of harm, which may have been due to limitations of the study rather than the lack of any such link.
Results were obtained in an anonymous online survey created using an open-source questionnaire based on Goldberg's (1990, 1992) five-factor construct and plain English textual description of each of the 10 levels of the COPINE scale.

year: 2016

title: Māori men, relationships, and everyday practices: towards broadening domestic violence research

authors: King, Pita

subjects: Māori

abstract: Relationships are central to the health and wellbeing of Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand). Through processes of colonisation, cultural ways of relatedness embedded within Māori social structures experienced disruption and were reshaped over decades of assimilation. Māori knowledge and everyday practices that assisted in protecting Māori from societal problems, such as domestic violence, began to dwindle. In contemporary New Zealand, Māori are over-represented in domestic violence statistics. Utilising an auto-ethnographic approach and case studies, our research focuses on five Māori men’s experiences within intimate relationships and whānau (extended family) life. A significant feature of this research is that it provides insights into the ways Māori men draw on their cultural ways-of-being to enhance intimate relationships and maintain bonds within whānau and community life to forge new ways-of-being. Such insights have the potential to inform preventative measures against domestic violence within Māori communities.

text: Māori men, relationships, and everyday practices: towards broadening domestic violence research Relationships are central to the health and wellbeing of Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand). Through processes of colonisation, cultural ways of relatedness embedded within Māori social structures experienced disruption and were reshaped over decades of assimilation. Māori knowledge and everyday practices that assisted in protecting Māori from societal problems, such as domestic violence, began to dwindle. In contemporary New Zealand, Māori are over-represented in domestic violence statistics. Utilising an auto-ethnographic approach and case studies, our research focuses on five Māori men’s experiences within intimate relationships and whānau (extended family) life. A significant feature of this research is that it provides insights into the ways Māori men draw on their cultural ways-of-being to enhance intimate relationships and maintain bonds within whānau and community life to forge new ways-of-being. Such insights have the potential to inform preventative measures against domestic violence within Māori communities.

year: 2017