Humansolutions Bulletin - February 23rd 2021

An essential resource for practice educators and study supervisors. Helping others to learn is a skilled job. This practical guide offers extensive advice and guidance on how to get the best results, whether in student supervision or any other process of helping colleagues to learn. Available for purchase here or here

We tend to see failure as the opposite of success. But this simplistic way of viewing failure hides some very complex issues. It is more accurate and realistic to think of failure as part of success. A one hundred per cent success rate in any significant project is relatively rare. Most of the time, success encompasses failure. Sometimes, it is failing at one thing that enables us to succeed at something else – for example, by seeing where we have been going wrong, what assumptions we have been making that need to change. Furthermore, fear of failure can be a major obstacle to innovation, to a balanced approach to risk and to learning. And, let’s be clear about it, we…

The impact that Covid-19 is having on our mental wellbeing – sometimes referred to as the 'shadow pandemic' – is clear to see in the numbers: Depression - More people are experiencing some form of depression. Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that 19% of adults were likely to be experiencing some form of depression during the pandemic, almost double the proportion (10%) from before the pandemic. Poor coping strategies - Recent research from Bupa Global, for example, found that 38% of UK board-level executives have used drink and drugs to manage pressures of the pandemic. Loneliness - Research from the ONS reveals that at the start of November, with its darker evenings, 8% of adults were…

The idea that people learn better when taught in a way that matches their specific “learning style” — auditory, kinesthetic, visual or some combination of the three — is widely considered a myth. Research has variously suggested that learners don’t actually benefit from their preferred style, that teachers and pupils have different ideas about what learning styles actually work for them, and that we have very little insight into how much we’re actually learning from various methods. Despite this evidence, a large proportion of people — including the general public, educators and even those with a background in neuroscience — still believe in the myth. And a new review, published in Frontiers in Education, finds no signs of that changing.…

Racial injustices and ingrained inequalities are apparent in society and evident in UK workplaces. To address the root causes of racial inequality (racism), employers need to maintain a zero-tolerance approach to workplace discrimination – as is required by the Equality Act 2010 – and commit to planned action. This guide outlines six principles (which build upon our initial call for an approach based on four key principles) to help organisations develop an action strategy to help end systemic racism and address racial inequalities at work. Race discrimination is illegal in the UK as per the Equality Act 2010. As such, employers must enact their policies if allegations of racial discrimination occur, while individuals are within their rights to raise a…

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