Posts Tagged ‘access to higher education’
Wide Sargasso Sea
Posted April 15, 2016
on:This week our Access to Higher Education Humanities and Social Sciences students have started reading Jean Rhys’s novel the Wide Sargasso Sea. One of the students was asking me if there are any online literary criticism notes to help with novel. There are two free online from Shmoop and Spark Notes. We have a paper copy of Carl Plasa’s Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea in the Learning Resources Centre for students to borrow too.
Many of our students also find it useful to watch a DVD version of novels and plays they study. We have the Wide Sargasso Sea directed by Brendan Maher which was originally broadcast on BBC television. In addition there is a recording of a BBC Radio 3 broadcast from the 17 January 2016 which you can listen to on BBC iPlayer called the Sunday Feature, Literary Pursuits, Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea which uncovers the story behind the novel.
Our students read Rhys’s novel in tandem with Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Take a look at our 24 February blog post for more links on Jane Eyre material to match. Plus as this year marks the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth there is the BBC programme Being the Brontës which was broadcast over Easter which you can rewind on the BBC iPlayer.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Posted March 18, 2016
on:Last week saw the launch of a World Health Organisation Report on the increasing use of antidepressants in children across the developed world reported by BBC News.
Those under 18 years old are often prescribed anti-depressants and no other forms of treatment are made available. These other treatments can include talking therapies such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) however, there are long waiting lists.
This prompted a longer look at our current issue of Philip Allen’s ‘Psychology Review’ which has a double page spread on CBT. Don’t forget this resource is available on the VLE under eresources > Dynamic Learning ejournals. The article is written by Dr Judith Beck, daughter of the ‘father’ of CBT, Aaron Beck. She covers the following aspects:
- What CBT is
- How did it develop?
- What is its effectiveness?
- How does it work?
- Contents of an average session
At the end of the article, it directs you to Beck Institute audio clips and their blog. Hodder Education also direct you to a YouTube clip on CBT.
Other LRC resources covering CBT:
Collins Key Concepts in Psychology by Kendall
Psychology: a very short introduction 2nd edn. by Butler & McManus
Introduction to Psychology 16th edn. by Nolen-Hoeksema et al.
Riot girls!
Posted February 24, 2016
on:Did you know that BBC Radio 4 are running a season on feminist writing from the 1970s to the present day? It’s called Riot Girls.
You can catch up with broadcasts on BBC iPlayer.
The season includes Fay Weldon’s The Lives and Loves of a She Devil. The next episode is 2100 on Saturday 27 February. There is a set of 3 plays called Katy charting the feminist movement across three generations of women. Plus there’s Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying which is running in 5 episodes examining a young woman’s sexual liberation which was published in 1973. The next episode is today at 1945.
This year is the bicentenary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth. For our Access to Higher Education Humanities and Social Science students Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre in the Fifteen Minute Drama slot will be broadcasting on Radio 4 next week at 1045. There’s a In Our Time episode on Jane Eyre on BBC iPlayer too. Our learners compare Bronte’s novel with Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea. Spark Notes gives you a summary of the plot and analyses themes and characters. As it does for Jane Eyre too.
Natural intellectual brilliance
Posted January 16, 2015
on:
Astrodeep by Rich Murray is licensed under CC BY 2.0
I read this article today in The Independent newspaper (available in the LRC) on women and science. According to research, women overestimate the need to be naturally brilliant to succeed in science and engineering. This conclusion follows from research carried out into why so few women do engineering, technology and science degrees and even fewer progress further into such fields. It seems women feel less confident in their instant intellectual abilities.
This is compounded by images in the media portraying geniuses like Sherlock Holmes who when faced with a problem immediately solve it and don’t need to work long and hard at it. I watched the film ‘Theory of Everything’ recently and Stephen Hawking is shown in the lab writing complex maths formulae all across the blackboard. He is just naturally brilliant at physics. But hard work is important too.
Hopefully we can find ways to encourage women and men to challenge themselves with subjects that seem out of reach. There are lots of ways to find out more about subjects before deciding to go to university. For example, University College London holds weekly free lectures in science for everyone to attend. The next one is called ‘Auroras Abound – Comparing the Northern Lights of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn’ on Friday, 23rd January. Does this kind of lecture interest you?
Who Are You?
Posted December 9, 2014
on:As a college Hillcroft aims to reflect the diverse background of its learners and staff. Our Access to Higher Education: Humanities and Social Science students look at identity as part of their Psychology and Sociology units. If you’re interested in diversity and equality then you’ll like the Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry’s exhibition Who Are You? running until 15 March 2014 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The exhibition follows the 14 items in the exhibition which appeared in the Channel 4 programme Grayson Perry: Who Are You? broadcast this autumn. They include a poster representing the identity and beliefs of a deaf community group, a Benin-styled statue of Peter Pan depicting a female to male transsexual and a young British woman from Kent who has converted to Islam encapsulated in a silk Hijab. Plus 3 statues of women from a women’s group which supports so called obese women. One of Perry’s signature ceramic pots portrays a gay couple who have adopted a mixed race child. You can follow Grayson’s trail of works at the National Portrait Gallery.
If you’d like to find out more about the artwork go through backruns of the TV programme by visiting 4oD.
At the same time the National Portrait Gallery is displaying Suffragettes: Deeds Not Words examining how the suffragette movement spent the summer of 1914 increasing their fight for the vote and protesting against the Cat and Mouse Act up. The display runs up to 10 May 2015.
Both the exhibition and the display offer free entry.