EBOOK: The First Year At University: Teaching Students In Transition


Book Description

If academics are genuinely to develop as teachers throughout their careers, if they are to continue to produce innovations, they have to bring a scholarly orientation to teaching. This series will show them how to do that. It will teach them how to make credible cases for different forms of innovation, thus helping them to situate teaching centrally in their careers. It will also show them ways of solving students' problems and methods of helping their students to learn more effectively. THE FIRST YEAR AT UNIVERSITY Teaching Students in Transition The first year at university can be a very challenging time for students especially in a mass system of higher education. Many students are ill- equipped to cope with life at university and retention is now a critical metric for all universities. This has resulted in universities having to spend considerable time and attention on ensuring that the 'first year experience' is as positive as possible for all students. This book offers a range of practical strategies, underpinned by relevant research, which lecturers can implement when charged with working with first year students in order to ease their transition to higher education. These strategies affect not only the design of courses, teaching and assessment but also how teams of lecturers provide consistent support, and how this in turn is supported by strategic planning at an institutional level. The First Year at University is a practical resource that can be used by a wide range of lecturers including those undertaking the PGCE (Higher Education) as well as those on CPD courses on teaching and learning in higher education.




EBOOK: Study Skills for Psychology Students


Book Description

This practical handbook is an essential companion for psychology students. From day one of your degree, it will make all the difference. Based on the authors' extensive knowledge of psychology, it includes: Key approaches in psychology The best ways to study How to use IT effectively Producing excellent assignments and exams Helpful advice on statistical methods Tackling projects and dissertations An introduction to careers in psychology It contains exercises, tips, advice from students, and a glossary of commonly used terms in psychology. An accompanying website www.openup.co.uk/psychologysuccess has more information on psychology-related careers with up-to-date web links.




EBOOK: Learning Spaces: Creating Opportunities for Knowledge Creation in Academic Life


Book Description

“This is a timely and important book which seeks to reclaim universities as places of learning. It is jargon free and forcefully argued. It should be on every principal and vice-chancellor's list of essential reading.” Jon Nixon, Professor of Educational Studies, University of Sheffield The ability to have or to find space in academic life seems to be increasingly difficult since we seem to be consumed by teaching and bidding, overwhelmed by emails and underwhelmed by long arduous meetings. This book explores the concept of learning spaces, the idea that there are diverse forms of spaces within the life and life world of the academic where opportunities to reflect and critique their own unique learning position occur. Learning Spaces sets out to challenge the notion that academic thinking can take place in cramped, busy working spaces, and argues instead for a need to recognise and promote new opportunities for learning spaces to emerge in academic life. The book examines the ideas that: Learning spaces are increasingly absent in academic life The creation and re-creation of learning spaces is vital for the survival of the academic community The absence of learning spaces is resulting in increasing dissolution and fragmentation of academic identities Learning spaces need to be valued and possibly redefined in order to regain and maintain the intellectual health of academe In offering possibilities for creative learning spaces, this innovative book provides key reading for those interested in the future of universities including educational developers, researchers, managers and policy makers.




Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet


Book Description

Living on a damaged planet challenges who we are and where we live. This timely anthology calls on twenty eminent humanists and scientists to revitalize curiosity, observation, and transdisciplinary conversation about life on earth. As human-induced environmental change threatens multispecies livability, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet puts forward a bold proposal: entangled histories, situated narratives, and thick descriptions offer urgent “arts of living.” Included are essays by scholars in anthropology, ecology, science studies, art, literature, and bioinformatics who posit critical and creative tools for collaborative survival in a more-than-human Anthropocene. The essays are organized around two key figures that also serve as the publication’s two openings: Ghosts, or landscapes haunted by the violences of modernity; and Monsters, or interspecies and intraspecies sociality. Ghosts and Monsters are tentacular, windy, and arboreal arts that invite readers to encounter ants, lichen, rocks, electrons, flying foxes, salmon, chestnut trees, mud volcanoes, border zones, graves, radioactive waste—in short, the wonders and terrors of an unintended epoch. Contributors: Karen Barad, U of California, Santa Cruz; Kate Brown, U of Maryland, Baltimore; Carla Freccero, U of California, Santa Cruz; Peter Funch, Aarhus U; Scott F. Gilbert, Swarthmore College; Deborah M. Gordon, Stanford U; Donna J. Haraway, U of California, Santa Cruz; Andreas Hejnol, U of Bergen, Norway; Ursula K. Le Guin; Marianne Elisabeth Lien, U of Oslo; Andrew Mathews, U of California, Santa Cruz; Margaret McFall-Ngai, U of Hawaii, Manoa; Ingrid M. Parker, U of California, Santa Cruz; Mary Louise Pratt, NYU; Anne Pringle, U of Wisconsin, Madison; Deborah Bird Rose, U of New South Wales, Sydney; Dorion Sagan; Lesley Stern, U of California, San Diego; Jens-Christian Svenning, Aarhus U.




Mars


Book Description

The planet Mars has been a subject of wonder for millennia, as attested by its place in mythology, by later speculation about its canals, and by the scientific and public excitement over the Viking mission. Although the scientific literature about the planet is voluminous, no comprehensive treatment of the results of modern spacecraft exploration has yet been made available. This volume fills that gap by providing a summary of what is presently known about Mars and identifying many puzzles such as polar cap variance, occurrence of dust storms, and the possible location of water. The introductory chapter cites questions, controversies, and milestones in the study of Mars, and also includes an annotated book list, basic data about the planet, and a guide to Martian seasons. A chapter on telescopic observation credits the contributions made by many amateurs that have advanced our knowledge of variations observed on Mars. A chapter on spacecraft exploration, by an American and a Russian author who have participated in all Mars missions, includes a revelation of an additional Soviet attempt. Twenty-nine technical articles cover geophysics; bedrock geology; surface; atmosphere; exosphere and magnetic field; and climate history. Two chapters address the search for life on Mars; three concluding chapters consider the Martian satellites. An indispensable reference for scientists, Mars will also serve as a complete sourcebook for serious amateur astronomers.




Life on a Young Planet


Book Description

Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, with the very latest discoveries in paleontology integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science. 100 illustrations.




How to Change Everything


Book Description

“[A] uniquely inclusive perspective that will inspire conviction, passion, and action.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) An empowering, engaging young readers guide to understanding and battling climate change from the expert and bestselling author of This Changes Everything and On Fire, Naomi Klein. Warmer temperatures. Fires in the Amazon. Superstorms. These are just some of the effects of climate change that we are already experiencing. The good news is that we can all do something about it. A movement is already underway to combat not only the environmental effects of climate change but also to fight for climate justice and make a fair and livable future possible for everyone. And young people are not just part of that movement, they are leading the way. They are showing us that this moment of danger is also a moment of great opportunity—an opportunity to change everything. Full of empowering stories of young leaders all over the world, this information-packed book from award-winning journalist and one of the foremost voices for climate justice, Naomi Klein, offers young readers a comprehensive look at the state of the climate today and how we got here, while also providing the tools they need to join this fight to protect and reshape the planet they will inherit.




EBOOK: A Practical Guide to Using Second Life in Higher Education


Book Description

In recent years there has been increasing use of virtual worlds in Higher Education, particularly in Second Life. This practical handbook is a pedagogically-informed text that guides staff in the use of Second Life in the fields of further and higher education. The book has been designed to support teachers who want to use Second Life and provides both an overview and a detailed consideration of the opportunities this immersive world offers for teaching, learning, assessment and research. To assist readers, Maggi Savin-Baden has included: A glossary of terms Details of challenges and mistakes to avoid Examples of good practice Links to websites and other sources of help This book is designed both for those new to Second Life as well as those with experience of teaching in virtual environments. It will help teachers to progress from getting started with Second Life to developing their teaching within the environment.




EBOOK: Understanding University: A Guide to Another Planet


Book Description

Does university seem like another planet? Does everyone else seem to speak another language? What can you do to make the grade? If these are the kind of questions you are asking, then this is the book you need. After the excitement of being accepted, the reality of life at university or college can be daunting, but help is at hand. This practical book guides new students through the terminology used at university and shows you: what a student needs to know how to be accepted by students and lecturers how to get the best out of your institution and yourself how to communicate using appropriate language in higher education institutions how to learn the conventions of your specific subject area how to be confident and competent in your new world All new students find the move to university slightly bewildering, but with this book you can be one step ahead. The author has spent time talking to students across a broad range of different universities and uses her first-hand experience as a basis for the book. Understanding University provides a lifeline for new students in further and higher education offering everything from practical advice on studying, to explanations of frequently used terms. If you don’t know the difference between a seminar and a tutorial or want to know what ‘matriculation’ means, then this is where to start. Need a little assistance? Just open this book. And remember - you are not alone.




Sociology


Book Description