Identifying the reasons behind students’ engagement patterns

This study focuses on identifying the reasons behind students’ specific engagement patterns in a large first year mathematics course in UCD. Maths for Business is a unique course in that students have a choice of whether to engage with the course material through lectures, videos or a combination of both. Cluster analysis of the engagement data (lecture attendance and video usage) has identified four distinct clusters of engagement. For explanations of resource use, surveys were distributed to the Maths for Business 2015/16 class (of approximately 550 students of mixed ability). 166 survey responses were received. Qualitative analysis is currently being performed on the survey responses in order to explain engagement patterns

Redbook: 1997

Advice compiled by Boston University School of Medicine students for incoming first year students and third or fourth year students preparing for clinical rotations

CeTEAL News, July/August 2019

https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/ceteal-news/1019/thumbnail.jp

Hate crimes against the LGBT community in the Commonwealth: a situational analysis

This report outlines the nature and extent of anti-LGBT hate crime and its impact on individuals and societies in the Commonwealth. Section 1 outlines the methodology and approach of this report, and sets out the legal and social context in which hate crimes are committed against LGBT people. Section 2 assesses the extent and nature of anti-LGBT hate crimes, exploring trends across the Commonwealth and surveying regional and country-specific case examples. Information on the perpetrators of anti-LGBT victimisation is also outlined. Section 3 examines the impacts that anti-LGBT hate crimes have on individuals, communities and society. Commonalities and differences in experiences across different sectors of LGBT communities are described. Section 4 of the report concludes with recommendations on how Commonwealth states should legislate against anti-LGBT hate crime, and why statutory agencies must implement monitoring tools to ensure that anti-LGBT victimisation becomes visible and is measured

Transcending Traditional Approaches to Sexuality Education: A Case Study in Communicating, Constructing, and Defining Sex-Positive Sexuality Education

Guided by a social-ecological approach to health, this study explored a new approach to sex education--sex-positive sexuality education (SPSE). A collective case study was completed on three organizations that utilize a sex-positive approach to sexuality education--Good Vibrations, Scarleteen.com, and The National Sexuality Resource Center\u27s Summer Institute. Good Vibrations is an adult sex toy retailer, Scarleteen.com is an adolescent sexual health website, and the Summer Institute is an academic institute for scholars and practitioners of sexuality studies. Using qualitative methods of observations, interviews, and textual analysis, this study explains how sex-positive sexuality education is constructed, communicated, and defined. Despite studying three disparate organizations in regards to their context and audience, all three organizations enacted sex-positive sexuality education in similar ways. A three-tiered definition was constructed to understand this approach. The first tier consists of a three-element model, Enactment of Sex-Positive Sexuality Education. This model explains the three elements--core values, physical environment, and communication strategies--that were seen across the dataset as necessary for enacting sex-positive sexuality education. The second tier is composed of relational pairs. These relational pairs--inclusivity and normalization, pleasure and health and safety, accessibility and a critical approach, open environment and agency, and clarity and comfort--highlight how within a sex-positive approach to sexuality education, similarities and differences work in tandem. Finally, these pairs inform the third level, a dynamic that sets sex-positive sexuality education apart from other approaches to sexuality education. The model of SPSE is unique from other approaches to sex education--abstinence-only and comprehensive--because those approaches stay muddled in tensions over appropriate values, contexts, content, and communication strategies. SPSE however, embraces the natural tensions inherent in sexuality education. This dynamic co-existence of multiple concepts forms a holistic approach to sexuality education. Thus, SPSE transcends approaches that enforce an either/or or wrong/right dichotomy and instead brings together divergent perspectives in an all-inclusive approach to sexuality education. This study contributes to academic scholarship and public health initiatives because it offers a definition of sex-positive sexuality education and concrete examples of this approach in practice. Also, it benefits sexual health communication scholarship because it suggests the centrality of communication to what SPSE is and how it functions. Finally, this study provides research on a new approach to teaching sex education that may be able to help improve our nation\u27s sexual health

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2006

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2006

Gender differences and the development of L2 English learners' L2 motivational self system and international posture in China

The study is based on Dörnyei's (2009a) L2 Motivational Self System and Yashima's (2009) International Posture (IP) with L2 English learners in China, and focuses on gender issues with regards to L2 motivation. A longitudinal research design with a mixed methods approach was used. The statistical analysis from the quantitative data of 240 participants (F = 178; M = 62) showed significant gender differences for ten motivational variables (criterion measures, ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, instrumentality A(promotion), instrumentality B (prevention), travel orientation, attitude to learning English, integrativeness, cultural interest and attitudes to the L2 community) within the L2 Motivational Self System and three variables within IP (intergroup approach avoidance tendency, interest in international news and having things to communicate to the world). Over a 12-month period, the repeated measure analysis revealed that female learners had more significant changes in motivational variables than male learners: eight variables for female learners (ought-to L2 Self, family influence, instrumentality A, instrumentality B, integrativeness, attitudes to the L2 community, fear of assimilation and English anxiety) and one variable for male learners (English anxiety). Both female and male learners had significant decrease in two IP variables: intergroup approach avoidance tendency and interest in international vocation/activities. The interactive relationships, over the 12-month period, between ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self, and between ideal/ought-to L2 self and other motivational/IP variables were also different between female and male learners. Embedding the participants in their social values and L2 English learning contexts, we highlighted the influences of collectivism and social factors on the gender issues of the learners' L2 motivation. Within the L2 Motivational Self System, the social perception of gender bias in language learning and the dominant number of female L2 English learners positively affected female learners but negatively affected male learners' attitudes toward learning English. We argue that collectivistic social values enhanced female learners' ideal L2 self images and built a bond between the female learners' possible selves and their parents' hopes. Within IP, collective social values could prevent female learners from discussing contentious issues while the male learners' inherent interest in politics was also reflected in their L2 English learning