Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Applying Interpretation Principles To A Non-Western (Japanese) Training Context, Naoko Yamada, Jeffrey Skibins, Betty Weiler

International Journal of Tour Guiding Research

Interpretive guides play an indispensable role in achieving tourism and sustainability outcomes. Although interpretation theory and best practice principles are supported by literature, they have been primarily developed in Western countries. Little work has been done to evaluate the cross-cultural applicability of using Western-based interpretation in training non-Western interpretive guides. This study evaluates the use of Western-based interpretive competencies in a Japanese training context. The efficacy of the training was assessed using quantitative and qualitative pre- and post-training data from all 42 trainees. Training programs were successful in improving trainees’ perceptions of the importance of links between individual roles and ...

Botanical Tour Of Christian Art At The National Museum Of Ancient Art (Lisbon, Portugal), Luis Mendonça De Carvalho, Francisca Maria Fernandes, Maria De Fátima Nunes, Miriam Lopes, Maria Vlachou, Paula Nozes, Ana Maria Costa

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Christian works of art, from the middle XIV to early XIX centuries, were studied in order to contribute to a new perspective of the cultural history of plants in Portuguese and European art displayed at the National Museum of Ancient Art (NMAA). The symbolic use of trees, leaves, flowers and fruits in painting, sculpture and tapestry were compared with theological data from the Bible, Apocrypha Gospels and codes of symbols from the XVII to XX centuries, as well as pictorial data from academic literature and photographic databases. We found 40 botanical taxa used as symbols that aimed to reinforce moral ...

The Processes, Effects And Therapeutics Of Pilgrimage Walking The St. Olav Way, Nanna Natalia Jørgensen, John Eade, Tor-Johan Ekeland, Catherine A.N. Lorentzen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage walking is increasingly sought as self-therapy for different mental, physical and spiritual ailments, sudden life changes, crossroads or challenges. However, pilgrimage walking as therapy is largely an unexplored ground within health science / care / interventions notwithstanding millennia of human experience. To unfold the nature and add to the knowledge about pilgrimage walking as therapy, this article explores the health-related processes (as experienced mentally, physically, spiritually, socially and in nature), the after-effects (on daily life, behaviour and future actions) and the therapeutic mechanisms (that bring forth these processes and effects) involved in walking the St. Olav Way across Norway.

Qualitative open-ended ...

Examining Irish Educators’ Attitudes Regarding The Promotion Of Student Social And Emotional Wellbeing: Preliminary Findings, David Byrne

Other resources

Background: A review of the literature identifies that Irish post-primary students are at significant risk of experiencing negative affect in their academic lives. Previous research has demonstrated that initiatives aimed at promoting the development of emotional and social wellbeing in such students can produce positive outcomes such as higher academic achievement, improved self-efficacy and reduced attrition [1][2].

In 2017, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) have recently published wellbeing guidelines which mandate all Irish secondary schools to allocate 300 hours of junior-cycle instruction to the promotion of students’ social and emotional wellbeing. While much is understood globally ...

The Impact Of The Professional Development Framework On Dit’S Information Literacy Programme, Allison Kavanagh

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter presents a case study of the influence engaging with the Professional Development Framework (PDF) has had on the Information Literacy (IL) programme in a Library of the Technological University Dublin (DIT), since 1 January 2019 the City Campus of Technological University Dublin. The PDF was developed by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. For over a decade (2008-2018), a team of DIT library staff has used a ‘menu’ of one-hour classes to deliver its IL programme in a standardised way. Participation by some team members in L2L (Librarians Learning to Support ...

Achieving Sdg Targets: The European Approach: Compliance - The Case Of Energy & Irish Universities, Dr. Mary Whitney, Andy Maguire

Conference papers

Ireland, as a nation, has signed up to the SDGs. The main drivers in reaching these targets will be through a set of interventions that are encompassing
- legislation
- compliance to higher regulations
- incentives
- dissemination of effective best practice
When all put together it is a large and complex tapestry of actions.

The presentation takes Energy as an example. It outlines how the targets have been set nationally to achieve Ireland's internationally agreed targets. The resulting approach is highlighted, filtering down to what specific steps are taking place in the public sector. The resulting actions that are being implemented in ...

An Examination Of Factors Influencing Emotional And Social Wellbeing In Irish Junior-Cycle Students, David Byrne

Other resources

A review of the literature identifies that Irish second-level students are at significant risk of experiencing negative affect in their academic lives. Previous research has demonstrated that initiatives aimed at promoting the development of emotional and social wellbeing in such students can produce positive outcomes such as higher academic achievement, improved self-efficacy and reduced attrition[1][2].

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) have recently published wellbeing guidelines which will mandate all Irish secondary schools to allocate 300 hours of junior-cycle instruction to the promotion of students’ social and emotional wellbeing from September 2018. While much is understood ...

Graduates’ Expectations And Experience Of Social Care Work: Strengths And Abilities Being Nurtured?, Fiona Mcsweeney

Other Resources

This paper reports on the views of social care graduates with regard to their expectations of the workplace and subsequent experiences as newly qualified practitioners in the workforce.

Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the same participants. The first was at the end of their final year in college (n=17) and the second nine to twelve months later when they were in employment (n=14). Findings indicate that participants, while apprehensive, felt ready for the workforce. Similarly graduating students held fears about transitioning to the workplace particularly in relation to increased practice accountability but as workers participants reported themselves ...

Civic Engagement: Strategic And Implementation Perspectives Within A Higher Education Institution, Des Moore

The ITB Journal

This paper will give a brief overview of what Civic Engagement means in Higher Education in general with a particular focus on Knowledge Exchange, Service Learning, Community Based Research and Volunteering. Following this, emergent thinking on Civic Engagement in Ireland is presented. Given both the theoretical context and the strategic importance of ensuring Civic Engagement opportunities are offered in a Higher Education Institution some possible organisation arrangements regarding the structured development and implementation of Civic Engagement at strategic and implementation levels are proposed.

Virtual Interaction: A Real Alternative, Emmett Tuite, Lavinia Mclean

The ITB Journal

Social care students on block placement have reported a feeling of disconnection from both the broader student group and the natural supports available in the college environment. Students experience a variety of challenges and opportunities on placement, and when combined with practical and geographical limitations on support this can provide a key obstacle for successful progression through placement. Appropriate navigation of practice placement challenges offer the opportunity for key personal and professional development. This article is intended to outline the implementation and use of a specific moderated online interactive support space designed for social care students on final practice placements ...

Taking Time To Pause: Engaging With A Gift Of Reflective Practice, Patricia Ganly

Articles

This paper is a call to action to engage readers in cultivating reflective practice. The demands of a rapidly changing global society, the influences on emerging learning and teaching landscapes, and the ubiquity of information in twenty-first century society are catalysts for this focus on reflection. The author conducted a literature review, integrated with personal experience, resulting in a proposed PARA model (pausing, attending, revising, adopting, adapting) as an extension to existing reflective practice models. In the context of this paper, reflective practice is addressed in terms of professional development within higher education (HE) and the personal experience of its ...

Investigating The Views Of Staff And Students To On-Campus Catering In A Third Level Educational Institution, Gereva Hackett, Detta Melia

Other resources

On-campus provision and catering has become a very important part of campus life for both staff and students. The aim of this study was to investigate the views of staff and students to on-campus catering in a large third level educational institution. There was a response rate of 68% from all categories of staff and a response rate of 4.86% from students.

A comprehensive investigation of existing trends in the food and beverage sector in general and on-campus is provided in this study analyses in a literature review.

The results of the surveys concur with the secondary research of ...

Process Evaluation Of Abc Grangegorman 2015-2017., Sarah Murphy

Programme Reports

ABC Grangegorman: Vision Against Poverty was aimed at improving outcomes for 0-6 children and their families in the Grangegorman area that are experiencing poverty. The programme was delivered by a consortium of 27 organisations from the area and led by the DIT Access and Civic Engagement Office. Consortium organisations included local schools, pre-schools, crèches, community organisations, as well as statutory agencies including HSE, Tusla and the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB). ABC Grangegorman consisted of nine programmes, which included:  Six interventions: Four Incredible Years (IY) programmes: IY Baby, IY Basic Parenting, IY Teacher Classroom Management, and IY ...

A Career In Tour Guiding: A Case Study Of Dublin, Ireland, Detta Melia

Conference papers

Tourist guides are the essential interface between a tourism destination and its visitors, and are very much responsible for the overall impression of the destination and satisfaction offered. However, of the small amount of literature published, very few studies have asked tourist guides their views and opinions, or have built up a profile of the tourist guide. This paper attempts to redress the balance. This study, concentrating on professional tourist guides in Dublin, Ireland.

Potential threats and challenges to the future of the industry are explored, particularly threats from unqualified guides and from the introduction of information technology (IT). Primary ...

Investigating The Views Of Students To On-Campus Catering In A Third Level Educational Institution, Gereva Hackett, Detta Melia

Conference papers

The overall aim of this study was to investigate the views of students to on-campus catering, student preferences with food and to gather information and opinions on the current catering provision in a large third level educational institution. The survey sought to acertain factors influencing the type of food eaten by students, the type of establishments frequented for food, spend trends, how far students would walk to purchase food, the meal most frequently purchased during the college day, and factors important to students when eating out while at college. A questionnaire was administered to all students.

A comprehensive investigation of ...

Emotional Intelligence And Graduates - Employers' Perspectives, Ailish Jameson, Aiden Carthy, Colm Mcguinness, Fiona Mcsweeney

Articles

Research has demonstrated that employers favour graduates who possess higher levels of emotional intelligence. Many

initiatives to increase students’ levels of EI have involved ‘whole school’ approaches, whereby generic EI skills programmes are

delivered to all students in a third level institute. This paper details an initial survey of employers’ (n = 500) opinions on the

importance and current level of graduates’ social and emotional competencies. The survey was completed across five sectors:

engineering, IT/computing, professional services (including accounting, business, finance, HR, law, retail), science (including

pharmaceutical and life), and social science which are identified growth industries in Ireland. It ...

Mapping Of Digital Literacy Skills, Allison Kavanagh

Other Resources

In 2013 DIT developed a set of graduate attributes known as the “Five E’s”: Engaged, Enterprising, Enquiry based, Effective and Expert in chosen subject discipline. Each of these five attributes is comprised of several additional attributes, one of which is digital literacy.

This presentation explains what digital literacy is, why it is an important attribute for our students and graduates to develop, and discusses practical ways of creating a mapping between a programme’s assessment methods and the digital literacy graduate attribute.

An Introduction To Emotional Intelligence, Aiden Carthy, Ailish Jameson

Book/Book Chapter

In recent decades, there has been increasing focus on the role of formal education in empowering students’ social and moral development. A wealth of research evidence has shown that helping students to develop their social and emotional competencies can encourage students’ personal growth and can also yield benefits including increased student engagement and decreased levels of drop-out. However, much of what has been previously published in this field has focused on younger students, and there has been a lesser focus on third level students and educators. Therefore, there is a notable need for a single volume that synopsises the research ...

Service, Sale And Marketing Of Alcohol For The Tourism, Hospitality And Retail Industries, James Peter Murphy

Conference papers

The responsible service, sale and marketing of alcohol for the tourism, hospitality and retail industries is crucial those working in the tourism, hospitality, culinary arts and retail industries including those in supervisory and management positions. This presentation explored a wide range of topics associated with sale and service of alcohol in these inter-related industries. Its aim was to provide attendees with a greater awareness of the effects of alcohol, and of their moral and legal obligations to act responsibly when supplying alcohol beverages or when dealing with alcohol misuse in their respective workplace. This presentation was also created to coincide ...

Overcoming Fraud & Dishonesty In The Hospitality Industry, James Peter Murphy

Conference papers

The licensed industry is an increasingly competitive market place, many bars have responded by empowering staff and undertaking structural and management reforms in recent years. Undoubtedly, these changes have significantly raised the levels of customer service and enhanced customer satisfaction. Paradoxically these changes, combined with the responsibilities allocated to bar staff and management to supervise and manage bars with autonomous control have created more fertile conditions, scope and opportunity for dishonest actions by staff members.

The way licensed premises approach the issue of staff fraud is changing in response to the increased risk. Many bars have historically been anxious to ...

Digital Literacy: Why It Matters, Allison Kavanagh, K.C. O'Rourke

Articles

In the past two decades the internet, email, apps, mobile devices and all associated hardware and software have become firmly embedded in everyday life, to the extent that it often feels that we have had no control over this phenomenon. What are the implications for education?

Primary and secondary students today have grown up with the always-connected life which the internet has enabled. However, the credence given to the idea that this makes them fully comfortable and aware as "digital natives" is misguided. The social implications of the internet society – surveillance and the decline of privacy, cyberbullying and so on ...

Heritage Sites And Schoolchildren: Insights From The Battle Of The Boyne, Bernadette Quinn, Dervilia Roche

Articles

Children are very much under-represented in heritage tourism studies, particularly in terms of their own perspectives. This exploratory study begins to redress this imbalance by investigating how 34 primary school-going children experience and make sense of the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, an Irish heritage site. Among the research questions posed are: How does the group make sense of heritage? Where do they get their ideas about heritage attractions? What appeals to them about heritage attractions? The research adopted an interpretivist approach and employed a variety of innovative data collection tools, gathering ideas from the children through discussions, writing ...

Supporting Sustainability Through Developing A Learning Network Among Traditional Food Producers: Applications Of Action Learning, Paul Coughlan, David Coghlan, Denise O'Leary, Clare Rigg, Doireann Barrett

Articles

Purpose: The chapter describes and reflects upon an EU-funded research initiative, TRADEIT, which has attempted to develop a learning network among European traditional food producers as one way of contributing to the economic sustainability of the ventures, the social sustainability of the food’s regional character, and the environmental sustainability of food production through the use of traditional methods.

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter describes TRADEIT before moving on to an exploration of learning in organizations and networks. It outlines the action learning research methodology developed and implemented to explore the development of a learning network in TRADEIT. A ...

Turning To Case Studies As A Mechanism For Learning In Action Learning, Denise O'Leary, Paul Coughlan, Clare Rigg, David Coghlan

Articles

Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to ...

Creating Supportive Working Environment For Academics In Higher Education; Country Report Ireland, Marie Clarke, Aidan Kenny

Book/Book Chapter

A major new study involving almost 1,200 academics calls for ‘significantly increased and sustained levels of investment’ and increased staffing levels to meet continued growth in student numbers. Almost three-quarters of respondents feel their working conditions are deteriorating.

The Report ‘Creating a Supportive Working Environment for Academics in Higher Education’ by Marie Clarke, Aidan Kenny and Andrew Loxley, is published Monday, June 22^nd. It was commissioned by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and involved consultations throughout Irish third-level institutions.

The Report points out that funding to the third level ...

Syllable Circles For Pronunciation Learning And Teaching, Charlie Cullen, Keith Gardiner, John B. Whipple

Articles

Syllable Circles is an interactive visualization representing prominence as a feature in short phrases or multi-syllable words. They were designed for Computer Aided Pronunciation Teaching as a part of English Language Teaching. This study explores the question of if and how interactive visualizations can affect English Language Learners’ awareness of prominence, or stress, in English pronunciation. The study followed seven learners and three teachers. Think-aloud protocols, notes from direct observation and interviews of two groups allowed for six streams of data. It was found that interactive visualizations of syllable circles facilitate noticing prominence. Learners and teachers believed interactive visualizations were ...

Peer Mentoring And The First Year Experience, Aiden Carthy, Peer Mentoring Resources Limited

Other Resources

The transition from secondary level learning to independent study can be difficult to negotiate and many students also experience emotional pressures as they adjust to a busy social environment at college (McAleavy, Collins and Adamson 2004 ; O’Reilly 2008). Many third level institutions are exploring ways to improve the first year experience and one such approach that has gained increasing interest in recent years is the provision of peer mentoring. This paper outlines and evaluates a pilot peer mentoring programme that was conducted with first year business students (n = 112) from three separate courses at a third level institution in ...

Re-Imagining Our Curriculum: Critiquing Meaningful Reflection And Threshold Concepts In Practice Education: Knowing It All, Aoife Prendergast

Stream 2: Curriculum

Humanities education, particularly in the areas of early childhood education and applied social studies must engage with professional practice education. There is urgency for the need for practitioners and educationalists to communicate, and for practitioners to be aware of developments in educational theory. The idea of ‘threshold concepts’ is currently widely discussed by educationalists. Threshold concepts are described as areas of knowledge without which the learner cannot progress, and which, when grasped, lead to a transformation in the learner’s perspective and understanding. Much is known about the purpose of placement educators, but how their role is implemented is subject ...

What Stick Figures Tell Us About Irish Politics: Creating A Critical And Collaborative Learning Space, Sharon Feeney, John Hogan, Paul Donnelly

Articles

This paper focuses upon the interpretation of freehand drawings produced by a small sample of 220 first-year students taking an Irish politics introductory module in response to the question, ‘What is Irish Politics?’ By sidestepping cognitive verbal processing routes, through employing freehand drawing, we aim to create a critical and collaborative learning environment, where students develop their capacity for interpretation and critical self-reflection. This is because the freehand drawing technique, as part of a critical pedagogy, can generate a more critical and inclusive perspective, as visual representations permit us to comprehend the world differently, and understand how others also see ...

Comparing Elites Across Countries: Formation & Discourses, Brendan O'Rourke

Other

Comparing elites across countries: formation & discourses .Presentation to Masters in International Business, Dublin Institute of Technology, February 23rd 2015