8.4.1 Plan your use of problem-solving skills and select methods Exploring and planning an activity often results in different options, possibilities and ways forward. Some approaches will be more feasible or will interest you more than others. At this stage you need to think about how you will be using your problem-solving skills and how you will assess the overall quality of your work. To help you make these decisions, you may find tools such as concept maps or critical-path analysis helpful in representing the different parts of the problem-solving acti
8.3.4 Research information from other sources Spend some time finding out about what you will need to help you complete your problem-solving work successfully and who you need to consult. You may need to arrange access to a library, the Internet, databases on CD-ROM or online, or specialist training or publications. If you need to learn more about tools or techniques (for example concept maps, critical-path diagrams or flowcharts), then look first at your course material, and then at study guides or notes aimed at your area of interest (
8.3.3 Explore problems Recognising and framing problems so that you can tackle them effectively is a central part of a problem-solving strategy. Often, problems are not presented in a well-defined way, and it is up to you to define exactly why a problem exists and what its boundaries are. Recognising a problem means identifying that there is a gap between the present situation and what is desirable, and establishing that no immediate solution is at hand. This exploratory stage is about finding out more about
8.3.2 Identify the outcomes you hope to achieve An outcome is the result or consequence of a process. For example, you may want contribute effectively to a design project in a course, or work in a team to improve a product or system. In this case the design or product improvement is an outcome, and using your problem-solving skills is part of the process by which you achieve that outcome. You may find it useful to discuss or negotiate the outcomes you hope to achieve with others. Solving problems will often depend to some extent on other k
8.3.1 Identify opportunities for using problem-solving skills Where and how will you use problem-solving skills over the next 3–4 months? What opportunities do you have to develop your skills? For example, you may be working on a course project with a defined goal but the best route to that goal is not clear; you might be involved in contributing to the design of a system, improving its performance or investigating the feasibility of ideas; you may be involved in resolving resource or staffing difficulties, or in planning a major event. Problems
8.3 Developing a strategy In developing a strategy for improving your problem-solving skills you are aiming to: identify the opportunities you can use to develop and practise your problem-solving skills; establish the outcomes you hope to achieve and targets for achieving them; identify the resources you might use for developing your skills, including people who might be able to help you as well as sources of data, books, study guides, tutoria
8.2 Working on improving your problem-solving skills The three-stage framework for developing and improving your skills provides the basis for you to become more confident in: developing a strategy for using a variety of problem-solving techniques and tools, including being clear about what you want to achieve, identifying relevant sources of information that will help you to achieve your goals, and planning how you intend to improve your skills; monitoring your progress and critically
8.1 Introduction to improving your skills in problem solving This key skill develops your problem-solving skills in your studies, work or other activities over a period of time. To tackle this key skill, you will need to plan your work over at least 3–4 months to give yourself enough time to practise and improve your skills, to seek feedback from others, and to monitor your progress and evaluate your strategy. Problem solving runs through many other activities and, rather like the key skill ‘Improving own learning and performance’, it
7.7 Drawing ideas together This key skill has used a three-stage framework for developing your skills. By developing a strategy, monitoring your progress and evaluating your overall approach, you take an active role in your own learning. But learning does not necessarily follow a path of steady improvement, it involves change: revisiting ideas, seeing things from different perspectives, tackling things in different ways. You are unlikely to be able to complete your work by working through it from beginning to end
7.6.5 Identify ways of further developing your number skills Think about your overall number skills and suggest areas where you feel you need to improve, based on the experience you have gained. You might find it useful to discuss with a tutor, manager, another student or work colleague how you might do this. There may be changes you feel you need to make so that you can move forward, such as trying to extend the facilities and resources available to you, changing the way you study to make best use of the time you have, or focusing on improving your ow
7.6.4 Evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy Using the records in your Skills File, look back over your number skills development work and think about how your decisions, and the facilities and constraints of your working environment influenced the way you tackled the task. How effective was your strategy in improving your skills? Identify what was and was not helpful in achieving your goals and outcomes, and assess how your own strengths and weaknesses contributed to this. Evaluate your achievements against the criteria you estab
7.6.3 Explain results in relation to your work You should be able to explain the results of your work, drawing attention to any patterns, trends or relationships you have identified. What are the consequences of your work? Does it support the hypotheses or assumptions you started with? How did you carry out your work? What lines of enquiry did you follow to reach your conclusions? Were there any dead-ends where you felt you could not make further progress, or particular insights that you felt helped you to understand your work better? You
7.6.2 Present information effectively Organise your data so that you can use it to illustrate and support your arguments or point of view. To do this successfully you must be clear about what you want to say, who is your intended audience, and what points you want your audience to understand. Think about the most appropriate way to present your findings, and whether particular types of charts, graphs or diagrams will bring out the relationships you want to demonstrate. Choosing graph axes carefully (for example using non-linear s
1.1.1 When do we use key skills? Key skills underpin almost everything we do. In the following table, there are some examples of when we use key skills as part of our studies or in other areas of our lives. As you read through the list, think about how confident you are in each of the key skills. Click on 'View document' below for a printable version of Table 1 that you can fill in. 7.6.1 Interpret results and identify your main findings In stating your conclusions and interpreting the results of your work, you should refer back to what you set out to investigate or demonstrate. Have you achieved your goals? What evidence have you got to support your conclusions? If you are making general statements based on your work (for example a statistical analysis of data), then you should be able to explain clearly the reasoning that has led to your conclusions. In quoting mathematical results you should be able to say whether the resu Learning outcomes Having studied this unit you should be able to set skills targets and provide evidence that you have met these in the following areas: own learning and performance; communication; information technology; information literacy; application of number; problem solving; working with others. Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (s Introduction This unit focuses on higher level skills. Skills development is complementary to other learning – it cannot be done in isolation. The higher level skills in this material aim to raise your awareness of the processes of learning and development – other subject-based material must supply the context and motivation for this. Key skills underpin the ability to carry out successfully, and improve on, a wide range of tasks in higher education, employment and wherever there is a continua 5.1 Introduction MRI Scanner leaves The University of Nottingham for CERN 2012 Orientation Slideshow Session 6
www……..gov.uk You can now access government directly through the web. E-government in action. While studying this unit you look at the scope of e-government, the databases that are necessary, the use of biometrics in identification and verification of identity and assess the usability and accessibility of websites.
One of the original MRI scanners, which was at the heart of pioneering research into neurosicence and physiology at The University of Nottingham, is heading for a new life at CERN.
Having been superseded by the super fast 7T MR scanner it is bound for a new life with physicists from York University who are working on a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The retired scanner will help them investigate the effects of magnetic fields on the radio-active decay of
Slideshow of pictures taken during the Orientation and Registration session on July 26th, 2012.
