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This paper adopts an ecological approach to describe the opportunities offered by school landscape for children's curricular learning. The approach is based on Gibson's concept of affordances which refers to the opportunities offered by an environment to its users. The research conducted in school grounds in two different contexts – Scotland and Bangladesh drew on this theory to examine the relationship between the school landscape and children's learning. Case study research included application of observation and behaviour mapping in school grounds, and interviews with participants in both contexts. Opportunities for teaching and learning offered by the school landscape in both cases were later defined as 'cognitive affordances' by the authors. 'The concept of 'cognitive' affordances' had limited attention in the field of landscape research. This paper thus introduces and defines the term to understand and study the potential of outdoor environments for development of children's learning and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the spatial attributes in the hospital ward environment and their impact on medical students' learning and experience of the clinical workplace. An ethnographic study was conducted in a Scottish teaching hospital, combining observations and interviews over a period of 10 months. Two teaching wards served as the field-sites where approximately 120 h of non-participant observations took place sequentially. In addition, 34 individual interviews were conducted with identified key informants that included medical students, junior doctors, postgraduate trainees, consultant supervisors, ward nurses and hospital pharmacist. A combination of Actor-network Theory (ANT) and Social cognitive theory (SCT) was applied to analyse data pertaining to spatial attributes and their relevance to clinical teaching and learning. Analysis of the observational and interview data led to generation of the following themes: spatial attributes in the clinical workplace can enable or constrain teaching and learning opportunities, inadequate spaces impact students' and junior doctors' sense of value, short clinical rotations influence a sense of ownership of doctors' spaces, and contested nature of space in the clinical environment. Several illustrations of the field-sites help to contextualise the themes and aid in understanding the participants' experiences and perceptions. Our findings suggest a complex entanglement of space with medical students learning and wellbeing in the clinical workplace. Provision of suitable spaces needs to be a core consideration to realise the full potential of work-based learning in medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two-stage study was conducted to examine the awareness of policy and underlying pedagogy as well as the use of reflective practice by teaching staff (faculty) within a Scottish university. In the first stage, teaching staff completed a questionnaire; of these 14 then took part in stage two, semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were subject to thematic analysis and three main themes emerged: (1) The methods and processes of reflection ('How'); (2) The personal and organisational drivers for employing reflective practices ('Why'); and (3) The barriers to reflection ('Why not'). Significant findings included the dominance of traditional (paper-based as opposed to computer mediated) reflective writing in teaching staff's own reflection, and the importance of both formal and informal group reflection in methods and process. Reasons for reflection focused on the importance of both organisational drivers such as professional standards and awarding bodies, and personal drivers such as personal growth, identity, and psychological wellbeing. Barriers to reflection included both the concrete such as insufficient time and lack of opportunities to share resources, as well as the attitudinal and cultural. Possible ways of tacking these barriers also emerged. Implications for organisational and individual practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical education is expected to play a significant role in developing pupils' health. This is the case in Scotland, where physical education is located in a prioritised cross-curricular area of Health and Wellbeing (HWB). However, there is a lack of evidence on the extent to which physical education contributes to pupils' HWB under the new curriculum. Given that there is a growing interest in exploring how teachers enact pedagogies as a response to mental health issues, this study seeks to examine the practices of teachers who identify as being committed to pedagogies of affect within a sample of Scottish secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to report how pupils and teachers talk about the contribution of physical education to pupils' HWB, with a particular focus on the affective domain. The study on which this paper is based used qualitative methods within a grounded theory approach. Six physical education teachers who were from four different secondary schools participated in semi-structured interviews. Pupils were selected by the teachers and participated in focus group interviews. We outlined two main themes: (1) teachers' and pupils' practices in building confidence in pupils, which was exclusive to the female pupils and teachers; (2) teachers' concerns with building relationships with pupils. A notable finding was that teachers who had an explicit and direct intention for affective learning among their pupils sought to build a trusting relationship with pupils as a basic concern to implement teaching for affective learning, rather than the need for an emphasis on lesson contents and specific teaching approaches. This study could be a valuable resource for teacher professional learning as the findings referred to teachers' regular practices and their knowledge of the curriculum, especially for those who recognise a need to enact pedagogies of affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physicians play a key role in ensuring athletes with concussion safely return to sport. Research has shown deficiencies in concussion education amongst physicians and medical students. However, studies have not previously been conducted in UK medical schools. To assess students' concussion knowledge and learning in Scottish Medical Schools. A survey with 23 questions was distributed to Year 3–6 medical students studying in Scotland in October 2020. The survey included the following: (1) demographics, (2) concussion knowledge, e.g. 'What is the role of headgear in preventing concussion?' (3) concussion learning, 'In which part of the curriculum should concussion be taught?.' Frequencies of responses were calculated for each question. 200 students responded (response rate 8%). The average symptoms and management score were 87.3% and 31% respectively. 15% of participants knew that headgear has no role in preventing concussions and one participant identified the minimum "return to sport" timeframes for adults and children. 15% had learnt about concussion at medical school with 92.5% interested in receiving concussion teaching at medical school. Knowledge gaps exist in managing and preventing sports-related concussion. There is a discrepancy between levels of concussion teaching and the desire and importance placed on concussion education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]