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A comprehensive guide for educators in Sixth Form learning
TODAY’S proliferation of misinformation and fake news makes the teaching of independent learning and the ability to evaluate information paramount. Shenton’s passion for encouraging a love of learning in tandem with the skills needed for independent learning shines through. He clearly has much experience and draws on this to provide us with practical examples and tools to adapt in our own teaching. Reference to other practitioners and theorists provides us with plenty of further reading.
Throughout, Shenton main- tains that students need to evaluate not just information and resources but also their own skills before, during and after the process. This is eas- ier in a specific assignment such as the Extended Project Qualification, which Shenton clearly has most experience with, but it’s clear that such analysis is incredibly useful in promoting independent learning.
Chapters on research methods, project design and time management show us how to provide a sound basis for students to develop their independent learning skills and highlight the need for thorough planning. The chap- ter on information literacy is by far the most helpful, with Shenton emphasising that a healthy scepticism of infor- mation in all forms should be encouraged. He is also keen to stress that biased infor-
50 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Practical and concise help in cleansing and classifying data
THIS is a no-nonsense, straight to the point guide- book on fixing dirty data such as missing, incorrect, misspelt, non-standard, incomplete, misleading, badly classified, duplicated or otherwise mixed-up data. The type of data considered in this book is business data but the principles for fixing it are transferable and relevant to any type of data in any organisation.
Shenton, Andrew. Facilitating Effective Sixth Form Independent Learning: methodologies, methods and tools. London: Facet Publishing, 2021. 288 pp. ISBN 9781783305582. £54.
mation is not necessarily to be discounted completely. The understanding that it is biased, however, is crucial. While Shenton’s style is sometimes a little abstruse, he clearly has much experi- ence to share and is careful to discuss the shortcomings as well as the strengths of his suggestions. It’s easy to see how the skills he teaches will be invaluable to his sixth formers both at school and at university.
Elizabeth Cutler
The author outlines the dangers and consequences of dirty data and gives some chilling examples of data horror stories. She presents methods for cleansing and classifying data, creating taxonomies and applying COAT methodology leading to data being consistent, organised, accurate and trust- worthy. She describes how data tools, visualisation tools and automation can be put to use to fix large or unwieldy data sets. Throughout the book, the reader is reminded of the importance of human input into data fixing as it is people who understand the context of data, its value and the fit with the business. The book acknowledges that achieving dirt free data is not easy and it describes the path to this achievement as the Dirty Data Maturity Model – the five stages through which data must pass to reach dirt free stage. Once data is dirt free, it is imperative to maintain it regularly as, without the main- tenance, data will not be dirt free for long.
Walsh, Susan. Between the Spreadsheets: classifying and fixing dirty data. London: Facet Publishing, 2021. 158 pp. ISBN 9781783305032. £28.
This book is extremely well written – clear, concise, engaging and entertaining at times. It is also highly practi- cal – full of examples, tables, figures, checklists and step by step instructions. The book ends with a summary pull- ing together the main points, which is perfect for those short of time or those who wish to dip in the relevant part of the book. Highly recommended for anyone involved with data in any capacity.
Margaret Iwona Katny London
March 2022
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