Diamond Ranking Research Articles

Student reflections on the curriculum and citizenship education using card sorting in group settings

This reflective paper aims to illustrate how card sorting activities can be used as an educational tool to capture group perspectives, prompt reflection and endorse citizenship skills such as discussion, critical thinking, group collaboration and decision-making. For this illustration, the paper presents the results of a pilot study in which students in a higher education context conducted two different card sorting activities. In addition, the reflections and lessons learned from the case study together with literature about Diamond Ranking and Q methodology's sorting technique, are presented to highlight the potential of card sorting as a multipurpose educational tool in higher education settings. In the final section, the author reflexively contemplates future research opportunities to enhance the body of literature on card sorting activities, based on the Q methodology's sorting technique, as an educational tool.

Exploring task design to promote discipline-specific reasoning in primary English

This paper draws upon a growing body of research emphasising the importance and prevalence of domain-specific practices in teaching and learning. Different disciplines have their own reasoning practices, conceptualised as reasoning styles, which are used to justify conclusions drawn. Although there is widespread recognition of the importance of teaching reasoning, this has proven difficult in practice. This is particularly challenging in subjects where reasoning practices have received limited attention. This paper focuses on reasoning in the curriculum subject of English in primary schools (as taught in compulsory education in England). Drawing on a theoretical framework of reasoning styles constructed for English, this paper asks: how can domain-specific reasoning styles be promoted in English for primary schools? It is suggested that engagement in domain-specific reasoning can be promoted through carefully selected and designed tasks, which foreground collaboration and dialogue. Empirical evidence illustrating domain-specific reasoning in student dialogue is presented. Evidence demonstrates the particular value of two task designs (diamond ranking and odd one out) to the realisation of reasoning styles. Sfard's (2001) participation metaphor and the concept of meta-discursive rules are used to explore the value of these task designs in promoting reasoning. Of particular value is their demand for explicit decision making, and the way in which visual aspects scaffold student thinking. To promote engagement with meta-discursive rules (or reasoning styles), students require structures which foreground and require participation in dialogue, collaboration and reasoning.

A Study of Supervisor and Student Views on the Role of Clinical Legal Education in Developing Commercial Awareness

This article examines the role of clinical legal education in developing commercial awareness, a key employability skill. Using data collected from a mixed-methods research study involving a visual data collection tool (a diamond), this research contributes to understanding of whether, and how, clinical legal education develops law students’ commercial awareness. This study provides the first detailed empirical evidence of the importance of commercial awareness to those teaching and learning in clinic, the teaching activities that supervisors use and that students identify as developing commercial awareness, and the impact of those activities in a graduate recruitment context. This data is important because commercial awareness is required across a range of graduate sectors, including the legal profession, and law students have a variety of available career options. The results indicate that whilst students and supervisors deem commercial awareness very important, there are differences between the two groups in terms of their understanding of what it means, and the type of clinic activities identified as developing commercial awareness. The results suggest that there is a genuine, but yet not fully realised, opportunity for students to develop commercial awareness in clinic. As well as providing a unique insight into the role of clinical legal education in developing commercial awareness, the author makes recommendations for clinicians on how best to support students in developing their commercial awareness. Key words: Commercial Awareness, Clinical Legal Education, Graduate Employability; Diamond Ranking, Law Students

Amplifying the voice of pupils: using the diamond ranking method to explore integrative and collaborative learning in home economics education in Finland

ABSTRACT Drawing on a sociocultural approach to learning, this article highlights comprehensive school pupils’ perspectives on working style and classroom pedagogy based on the integrative approach to learning. Using the diamond ranking method, seven groups of 8th grade pupils ranked classroom practices according to their importance for succeeding in integrative and collaborative learning tasks. The study was conducted in the context of home economics education in Finland. Audio and video data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that working style to enhance interthinking and shared commitment to working was considered important, as were several practical elements such as computer use. Utilising knowledge from other school subjects was found to be challenging. The findings suggest that for the participating pupils, collaborative ways of working and the teacher’s pedagogical choices in providing tools and framing the task were the keys to successful working.

Stakeholder Perceptions of Dignity Therapy for Children and Young People with Life-Limiting and Life-Threatening Conditions in the UK

In palliative and end of life care settings supporting people to make sense of their lives is as important as managing disease symptoms. Dignity Therapy is a validated psychotherapeutic intervention designed to bring about a sense of meaning and purpose for individuals at the end of life. Dignity Therapy has primarily been implemented and evaluated in adult palliative care settings. Prior to designing studies that evaluate Dignity Therapy for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, it is essential to establish stakeholders’ perceptions of Dignity Therapy, and whether adaptations would be required for this client group. We aimed to explore the acceptability of Dignity Therapy for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and health professionals, and report findings from our stakeholder activities. Stakeholder consultation activities involved one Death Cafe and two workshops, with over 80 health professionals, hosted at two hospice settings, and a range of social media activities including feedback from five young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions via a closed Facebook group and a twitter chat with 22 contributors. Data included field notes, workshop outputs (‘post-it ideas storm’ and ‘diamond ranking’) and social media postings that were analysed using thematic analysis. Across stakeholders, there was overwhelming support for explicit interventions that support the psychosocial and spiritual needs of children and young people with life-limiting conditions. Dignity Therapy could be a supportive intervention to promote open conversations about life, meaning and purpose and dying, between the child or young person, family members and health professionals, but needs adapting to meet their needs. A tool kit of interventions, appropriate to a range of ages and cognitive abilities was suggested, for example a storybook for young children and a digitalised version of dignity therapy for older children/young people. Collaboration with stakeholders is the first stage in developing, or adapting an existing intervention in a different context, a complex intervention. Our stakeholder consultation highlighted that Dignity Therapy has potential to improve the psychosocial and spiritual wellbeing of children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, through recalling memories and thinking about the things that are important to them and what they want to be remember for. Research is now needed to develop and test a Dignity Therapy intervention for children and young people with life-liming and life-threatening conditions in the UK.

Nemendamiðað námsumhverfi: Hugmyndir framhaldsskólanemenda um kjöraðstæður til náms

Í þessari rannsókn er leitast við að varpa ljósi á hugmyndir framhaldsskólanemenda um kjöraðstæður til náms samanborið við þær aðstæður sem þeir búa við og möguleika þeirra til að hafa áhrif þar á. Áhrif nemenda á eigið námsumhverfi tengjast hugmyndum um nemendamiðað nám og þeim er meðal annars ætlað að efla skuldbindingu nemenda gagnvart skólastarfinu. Gögnum var safnað í níu framhaldsskólum með viðtölum, vettvangsathugunum í skólastofum og ljósmyndum. Tekin voru hópviðtöl við nemendur og þeir beðnir að forgangsraða myndum af ýmsum aðstæðum í skóla með hliðsjón af því hvernig þær hentuðu við nám að þeirra mati. Niðurstöður úr þeirri umræðu voru bornar saman við aðstæður eins og þær birtust rannsakendum í skólastofunni. Helstu niðurstöður benda til þess að algengast sé að í kennslustundum sitji nemendur við einstaklingsborð í röðum þar sem allir snúa andliti í sömu átt, vel þekktar aðstæður í íslensku skólaumhverfi. Nemendum fannst aftur á móti best að læra í umhverfi þar sem þeir hefðu einhvers konar svigrúm, til dæmis val um það hvort þeir ynnu sjálfstætt eða með öðrum. Þeir kusu síður námsumhverfi sem var í föstum skorðum og gerði ráð fyrir einhæfum námsaðferðum, eins og algengast var í þátttökuskólunum. Það er von höfunda að niðurstöðurnar megi hafa til hliðsjónar við að hanna og bæta námsumhverfi nemenda með aukinni áherslu á lýðræðislega þátttöku þeirra og möguleika til að hafa áhrif á aðstæður sínar. Vísbendingar eru úr öðrum rannsóknum um að slíkt geti eflt skuldbindingu þeirra gagnvart náminu og þar með hugsanlega dregið úr brotthvarfi.

Connectivity Significance for Disease Gene Prioritization in an Expanding Universe.

A fundamental topic in network medicine is disease genes prioritization. The underlying hypothesis is that disease genes are organized as modules confined within the interactome. Here, we propose a novel algorithm called DiaBLE (DIAMOnD Background Local Expansion) which is a modified version of DIAMOnD, a successful algorithm based on the concept of connectivity significance. Instead of taking the whole interactome as the background model, DiaBLE considers as gene universe the smallest local expansion of the current seeds set at each iteration step. We show that DiaBLE significantly increases the overall DIAMOnD ranking quality of genes prioritization both in terms of cross-validation and biological consistency. Here, we focus on the two algorithms only since a comparative analysis among gene prioritization methods is beyond the scope of this study. Finally, we briefly discuss the improvement of biological insight provided by DiaBLE for two cancers (head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and kidney renal clear cell carcinoma).

Inclusion is a feeling, not a place: a qualitative study exploring autistic young people’s conceptualisations of inclusion

ABSTRACT This study investigates from their perspectives, the educational experiences of twelve autistic young people (aged 11–17 years) for whom mainstream was, or is, challenging. This paper focuses on one theme from this study and presents how these young people experience, define and conceptualise inclusion. A flexible qualitative participatory approach was used incorporating a range of methods, including: one-to-one semi-structured interviews; draw and write activities; a beans and pots activity; and, diamond ranking activities. These methods, and the topics discussed, were developed by an advisory group of three young people. Outcomes of this study suggest that mainstream school is not suitable for all autistic young people. Inclusion, for them, is not synonymous with mainstream and can occur in any school. They defined inclusion as belonging, being valued and wanted as a person by teachers, of fairness and of being afforded the necessary support to access and thrive in education. In short, inclusion is a feeling (a sense of belonging), not a place (mainstream or otherwise).

The use of a diamond ranking and peer interviews to capture pupils’ perspectives

In the new national core curriculum for Finnish preschool and basic education, rationales for supporting pupil participation are framed by the goal of developing school communities by listening to pupils’ perspectives, the social nature of teaching and learning and pupils’ participatory role in planning, implementing and evaluating their own learning. Also in educational literature, listening to pupils’ perspectives is seen as the first step of participation. Framed by these rationales, this article is based on a 6-week-long participatory learning project in one second-grade classroom in Finland. The research group of 8-year-olds included 11 girls and 10 boys. In this study, we used diamond ranking and peer interviews as mediating tools in listening to the pupils’ perspectives. In the article, we describe how a diamond ranking and a peer interview worked as a tool in capturing pupils’ perspectives. Two questions guided the research work: (1) How did diamond ranking and the peer interview work together as a method to improve teacher’s understanding from the pupils’ perspectives? and (2) How did diamond ranking and the peer interview work together as a method to promote pupils’ participation? In this study, the second graders were able to implement diamond ranking. This activity was used as a tool to stimulate pupils’ perspectives that were then captured in peer interviews. The methods provided important information about the pupils and helped the teacher to understand their perspectives. Diamond ranking and peer interviews also revealed information that was not related to pedagogical practices but indicated the sense of relatedness among pupils. In this study, the process of peer interviews was a child-led practice, while the process of diamond ranking activity was teacher-oriented. The method would have served pupils’ participation better if pupils had been more involved in the data collection.

‘I felt closed in and like I couldn’t breathe’: A qualitative study exploring the mainstream educational experiences of autistic young people

Background and aim More autistic young people are being educated in mainstream schools. While existing research suggests that the outcomes of mainstream inclusion are mixed for autistic young people, few studies have examined their views and experiences directly. This article discusses the educational experiences of 12 autistic young people (aged 11–17 years) from their perspectives and how education could be improved to better support the others with autism. Methods A flexible qualitative participatory approach was used which incorporated a range of methods, including individual semi-structured interviews, diamond ranking activities and draw-and-tell activities. A Children’s Research Advisory Group (CRAG) advised on the methods used and matters to be explored. Results The young people offered insights into how education has been for them in mainstream school, mostly negative, but with islets of positive experience. Several described themselves as being socially, emotionally and physically isolated from peers, with loneliness and bullying experienced by some. Participants felt unsupported and misunderstood by teachers within a social and sensory environment that was antithetical to their needs. Some spoke of the dread they felt before and during school and the negative impact their experiences in mainstream has had on their wellbeing. Many participants suggested simple strategies and curriculum adaptations that they felt would have helped make their time at mainstream more successful. These include having more breaks, smaller class sizes, less homework, instructions broken down, safe places to use when anxious and teachers who listen to their concerns and take account of their needs. In short they want to be understood, supported and included. Conclusions There exists scope to better support autistic young people in mainstream education, as evidenced by the literature and the participants in this paper. The participants demonstrate that mainstream is not working for all and that changes, such as smaller class sizes, flexible pedagogy and understanding could improve education for autistic learners. Implications Autistic young people can and should be central to the discussion on school improvement. They also show that being academically able for mainstream school should not be the only aspect when deciding on the suitability of mainstream school for meeting their needs. The young person’s social and emotional wellbeing must be considered to ensure they can flourish, and not flounder.

Purpose, Practice and Theory: Teacher Educators’ Beliefs about Professional Experience

: The purposes of professional experience within initial teacher education programs are varied (Russell, 2005). However, there is limited literature explaining (a) university-based teacher educators’ beliefs about its purposes and (b) how these purposes are reflected in practice. This study investigated these themes. A pragmatic mixed-method research design (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010) was developed to survey teacher educators from two Australian and New Zealand universities (n = 56). Participants were anonymously surveyed using a diamond ranking activity (requiring placement of 9 of 11 professional experience purpose statement cards, pre-determined from literature) and open response items seeking explanations of placement determining criteria and statement elimination. Following analysis of questionnaire data, focus groups were utilised to further explore the aggregated findings. Survey data were analysed by weighting frequencies of each statement. Analysis of the data indicated significant variation of perspectives amongst the teacher educators and resulted in the clustering of purposes into four groups. This paper presents these data from the Australian university cohort (n = 26). This study, the first of a series designed to elucidate understandings of teacher educators’ purposes for professional experience, reinforces the importance of professional experience as authentic workplace learning within initial teacher education. The findings also reveal the complex beliefs that underpin teacher educators’ practices when preparing, mentoring and supervising preservice teachers for and within professional experience.

Pupils as active participants: Diamond ranking as a tool to investigate pupils’ experiences of classroom practices

This article is based on a pedagogical action research initiative carried out in a Finnish primary school. Twenty-four 5th grade pupils and their teacher participated in the study. The research initiative was guided by two questions: (1) How do pupils experience their classroom practices? (2) How can pupils participate in the process of developing classroom practices through diamond ranking? Photographs, diamond ranking and written narratives functioned as mediating tools between the pupils’ experiences and the narratives of their classroom experiences. Drama lessons were the experiences that were most appreciated by the pupils. The pupils ranked experiential learning, learning games and group work activities as medium-level experiences in the learning projects. They ranked activities that were strictly structured, such as tasks from a book or notebook exercises, at the bottom of the diamond. In sum, the study reveals that diamond ranking, together with written narratives, worked well as a tool to capture the pupils’ experiences of classroom pedagogy. The activity gave each pupil the opportunity to participate in the process of gathering and analysing data, and to acquire agency in evaluating and developing classroom practices.

Children speak out: Gender and sexuality in treacherous school journey terrains

abstractThis Article provides a critical analysis of the role of gender and sexuality in children's navigation of treacherous school journey terrains in one Lesotho rural primary school. It draws on data generated with 12 children (male = 6; female = 6) who travelled an average distance of 10–15 km to and from school every day. The study employed creative participatory and visual research methodology (for instance, route mapping, diamond ranking and photographic technique) to document the challenges that the children experienced as they traversed the treacherous terrains of their school journey. The findings denote how children resourcefully exploited the dominant discourses of gender and sexuality to mitigate the dangers of passing through dense forests with herd boys, muthi murderers and Basotho traditional circumcision initiates. Children's agency in navigating these obstacles and (albeit life-threatening) challenges included travelling in protective gender-based groupings, getting involved in heterosexual walking relationships and creatively harnessing the dominant homophobic discourses in these contexts in their favour. By foregrounding how gender and sexuality featured as a resource and recourse in how children navigated their school journey, the Article challenges the dominant discourses that view children as immature, sexually innocent (or asexual) and unable to determine their lives. It provides insights into why actively involving children in matters that affect their lives and foregrounding gender and children's sexuality could become a potential catalyst for policy and social action aimed at improving the schooling experiences of rural children.

1697 Playing the Game: Working with Young Children to Develop Asthma Interventions

BackgroundInvolving children in designing healthcare interventions is encouraged but challenging and often limited to teenagers. We conducted a feasibility study assessing three methods for prioritising asthma intervention components with children...

Sustainability in chemical engineering curriculum

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a concentrated strategy to embed sustainability teaching into a (chemical) engineering undergraduate curriculum throughout the whole programme. Innovative teaching approaches in subject‐specific context are described and their efficiency investigated.Design/methodology/approach – The activities in chemical engineering include a week‐long module introducing fundamentals of chemical engineering in the first year, a number of industrially relevant case studies within enquiry based learning (EBL) that have a great societal impact. Information regarding the transition towards EBL, the case studies on fuel cell effectiveness and sustainable plant design are provided in this contribution. Emphasis is placed on the methods of assessment of student learning, and evaluation of student preferences of delivery is included. Student focus groups and diamond ranking are used to evaluate the effectiveness of delivery.Findings – Focus groups and diamond ranking have confi...

Using diamond ranking as visual cues to engage young people in the research process

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to describe and consider the use of diamond ranking activities as visual cues to elicit ideas, prompt reflection and promote discussion amongst pupils (aged 10‐13), teachers and other staff in two qualitative research studies.Design/methodology/approachThe activities included nine photographs as visual cues, and participants cut out these pictures and stuck them onto a piece of A3 paper in a diamond shape, ranking them by position where their preferred picture is at the top and the most disliked at the bottom.FindingsImportantly, participants also annotated their diamond with qualitative comments and explanations.Originality/valueThis article explores the use of diamond ranking as visual cues – a tool within qualitative research that is under‐developed – as a way of engaging participants in the research process. Issues explored include inclusivity, active discussions and applicability to a wide range of people.

Changing Perspectives: Exploring a pedagogy to examine other perspectives about stem cell research

This study explores how teachers developed and critically evaluated a range of teaching strategies that could support the discussion of a socio-scientific issue (SSI) that had the potential to be controversial. The issue was stem cell research and six New Zealand teachers of senior biology students (grades 12/13) took part in an action research project that was situational, collaborative and self-evaluative. The focus of the research was to identify communication barriers that interfered with classroom discussion and how teachers could help students cross cultural borders when they discussed SSIs that were outside their life worlds. The barriers to communication were access to relevant science knowledge, religion, language, an inability to question issues and cultural expectations of girls. Teachers trialled and adapted two discussion strategies, ‘Drawing the Line’ and ‘Diamond Ranking’ that provided a vehicle for their students to explore and discuss this issue from a range of perspectives. These discussion strategies enabled their students to take part in a dialogue where reciprocal conversation could occur because they had opportunities not only to explore their own perspectives but also other people's viewpoints.

‘Pizza, patients and points of view’: Involving young people in the design of a post registration module entitled the adolescent with cancer

Health policy and education directives emphasise the need to involve service users and carers in healthcare, from service design and delivery to the education of healthcare professionals. This paper describes a pilot project aimed at eliciting teenagers and young people with cancer views in relation to the content of a continuing professional development module entitled 'adolescents with cancer'. Seven young people participated in the project. The project design was based on the PARTICIPATION - spice it up [Shephard, C., Treseder, P., 2002. spice it up! Dynamix, Swansea] framework, which aims to ensure effective and appropriate involvement of service users and carers. 'Post-it ideas storm' 'diamond ranking' and 'dot voting' were used to elicit the young people's views. The teenagers and young people could clearly articulate the qualities they felt nurses should have when caring for adolescents with cancer. They also identified topics they felt were important to include in the module, with an understanding of, and using, humour being given the highest priority. This was not originally included in the module timetable but as a direct result of consulting with the young people changes were made to reflect their views.