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The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of an understanding of “how the mind works” that has been gaining considerable traction in the coaching world and, increasingly, in the health education sphere.

A brief review of the “Three Principles” understanding of how the mind works (including definitions of the principles of thought, consciousness and mind), and an assessment of the strengths and challenges of this understanding.

Examples are provided of how this approach (labelled an educational initiative rather than a therapy) is being used professionally and how this understanding of how the mind works can make stress, anxiety and work-related problems appear different; recommendations include the establishment of a professional body, and the need for more research around the effectiveness of the approach.

Despite the need for greater professionalisation and more research evidence, the “Three Principles” understanding has huge potential to transform people’s lives – whether at work or home, for individuals with (or without) common mental health problems, and for those with chronic long-term conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a preliminary study based on a novel structured mental health education programme – Innate Health Education and Resilience Training (iHEART) – in a cohort of secondary school adolescents in the UK.

A curriculum-based ten-week programme was delivered by trained facilitators. In total, 205 students enrolled in the study. An additional 64 participants were within an age-matched non-intervention control group. A non-randomised control mixed methodology approach was used. All students, pre- and post-programme, completed a quantitative questionnaire – the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Survey. Qualitative measures were used to assess participants’ perceptions of changes in their resilience and mental well-being.

Those who received the intervention showed a small improvement in mental well-being relative to those who did not, with a similar change in resilience. Qualitative findings regarding impulse control and emotional resilience provided positive findings.

iHEART may be a promising new intervention offering a step change in mental health education for improving resilience, mental well-being and the ability for participants to navigate psychological challenges.

The purpose of this conceptual article is to examine the role of villainification and heroification in social studies through critically analyzing the author’s place-based encounters with three civil war narratives.

The article describes the author’s critical reflections on three narratives involving confederate figures and examines theoretical and pedagogical implications.

The article introduces a spectrum of ethical judgments which plots villainification and heroification on opposing ends. The author advocates for more nuanced ethical judgments that contextualize decisions as understandable or defensible based on evidence. The term understandable reflects a concept of being able to explain (i.e. demonstrate understanding) why a curricular figure made certain choices without agreeing with or supporting those choices. The term defensible denotes the existence of evidence that provides a rationale for a choice such that the person making the ethical judgment would feel comfortable making (i.e. defending) the same choice.

The article introduces a theory of nuanced ethical judgments in social studies that maps onto existing literature on heroification, villainification and place-based education. Pedagogical implications for social studies education are also identified.

Measurement uncertainty is present in all measurement processes in the field of production engineering. However, this uncertainty should be minimized to avoid erroneous decisions. Present methods to determine the measurement uncertainty are either only applicable to certain processes and do not lead to valid results in general or require a high effort in their application. To optimize the costs and benefits of the measurement uncertainty determination, a method has to be developed which is valid in general and easy to apply. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper presents a new technique for determining the measurement uncertainty of complex measurement processes. The approximation capability of artificial neural networks with one hidden layer is proven for continuous functions and represents the basis for a method for determining a measurement model for continuous measurement values.

As this method does not require any previous knowledge or expertise, it is easy to apply to any measurement process with a continuous output. Using the model equation for the measurement values obtained by the neural network, the measurement uncertainty can be derived using common methods, like the Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement. Moreover, a method for evaluating the model performance is presented. By comparing measured values with the output of the neural network, a range in which the model is valid can be established. Combining the evaluation process with the modelling itself, the model can be improved with no further effort.

The developed method simplifies the design of neural networks in general and the modelling for the determination of measurement uncertainty in particular.

This study attempts to determine whether the level and volatility of interest rates affect the equity returns of commercial banks. Short‐term, intermediate‐term, and long‐term interest rates are used. Volatility is defined as the conditional variance of respective interest rates and is generated by using the ARCH estimation procedure. Two sets of models are estimated. The basic models attempt to determine the effect of contemporaneous and lagged interest rate volatility on bank equity returns, while the extended models incorporate additional contemporaneous macroeconomic variables. Contemporaneous interest rate volatility has little explanatory power, while lagged volatilities do possess some explanatory power, with the lag length varying depending on the interest rate series used and the time period examined. The results from the extended model suggest that the long‐term interest rate affects bank equity returns more adversely than the short‐term or the intermediate‐term interest rates. The findings establish the relevance of incorporating macroeconomic variables and their volatilities in models determining bank equity returns.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

THE Fifty‐First Conference of the Library Association takes place in the most modern type of British town. Blackpool is a typical growth of the past fifty years or so, rising from the greater value placed upon the recreations of the people in recent decades. It has the name of the pleasure city of the north, a huge caravansary into which the large industrial cities empty themselves at the holiday seasons. But Blackpool is more than that; it is a town with a vibrating local life of its own; it has its intellectual side even if the casual visitor does not always see it as readily as he does the attractions of the front. A week can be spent profitably there even by the mere intellectualist.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

This paper explores the challenge of “fuzzy” assessment criteria and feedback with a view to aiding student learning. The paper untangles three guiding principles as mechanisms to enhance the effectiveness of assessment and feedback through overcoming the inherent challenges which stem from tacit judgement during assessment.

The paper applies a realistic evaluation methodology, with a framework for assessment and feedback consisting of three principles – Means, Opportunity and Motivation (MOM). Through in-depth interviews with undergraduate and postgraduate management students the paper identifies how and when the means, opportunity and motivation principles impact student learning through assessment and the utility of the feedback received on their learning.

The findings in the paper illustrate that students do not always understand the feedback they receive on their learning because they do not fully understand the criteria to which it refers due to the tacit dimensions of assessment. The findings substantiate the proposition that effective assessment processes must ensure that students have the means, opportunity and motivation to use feedback and to understand the criteria, a central component of which is understanding tacit dimensions of assessment.

The paper deciphers three practical implications for instructors related to (1) teaching, (2) course and program design and (3) the nature of the feedback instructors should provide.

While prior scholarship has flagged the challenge of “fuzzy” assessment and feedback, this paper identifies when and how the means, opportunity and motivation principles are manifested in the process of making the tacit components of assessment codified and actionable, a critical process in developing expert learners.