Perspectives on Enabling Education for Indigenous Students at Three Comprehensive Universities in Regional Australia

Daniels, CR ORCiD: 0000-0002-0672-0450Indigenous students, particularly those from regional and remote areas, are under-represented in both higher education and vocational education in Australia. Enabling programs seek to address this under-representation. They offer pathways to higher education, are important in lifting participation rates and potentially encourage mobility between the sectors. However, strategic development of enabling programs is based on little evidence about student or staff experiences. This chapter presents a qualitative research project underpinned by the strengths-based approach of conscientisation, exploring how Indigenous learning journeys via enabling programs can respect and grow cultural identity, while simultaneously developing study skills. The research considered interpretations of ‘success’ from the perspectives of students and teachers participating in enabling courses. The research found that enabling programs were an ‘important’ and ‘exciting journey’ for students that brought about transformation of the inner self through the building of ‘resilience’, ‘strength’, ‘confidence’, ‘self-esteem’, ‘self-worth’, ‘cultural understanding’ and ‘identity’. Success was experienced across multiple dimensions of students’ lived experience including ‘cultural identity’, ‘voice’, self-realisation, self-acceptance and ‘pride’. Staff suggested that enabling programs imparted an ‘underlying layer’ of skills. Recognition of Indigenous people as ‘yarners’ and ‘story tellers’, along with ways of incorporating ‘both-ways’ methodologies, need to be considered when developing the curriculum. This chapter reports on research which will be used to inform the development of a best-practice framework for Indigenous education enabling programs in Australia, particularly in regional and comprehensive education settings

Advancing the understanding of treponemal disease in the past and present

Syphilis was perceived to be a new disease in Europe in the late 15th century, igniting a debate about its origin that continues today in anthropological, historical, and medical circles. We move beyond this age-old debate using an interdisciplinary approach that tackles broader questions to advance the understanding of treponemal infection (syphilis, yaws, bejel, and pinta). How did the causative organism(s) and humans co-evolve? How did the related diseases caused by Treponema pallidum emerge in different parts of the world and affect people across both time and space? How are T. pallidum subspecies related to the treponeme causing pinta? The current state of scholarship in specific areas is reviewed with recommendations made to stimulate future work. Understanding treponemal biology, genetic relationships, epidemiology, and clinical manifestations is crucial for vaccine development today and for investigating the distribution of infection in both modern and past populations. Paleopathologists must improve diagnostic criteria and use a standard approach for recording skeletal lesions on archaeological human remains. Adequate contextualization of cultural and environmental conditions is necessary, including site dating and justification for any corrections made for marine or freshwater reservoir effects. Biogeochemical analyses may assess aquatic contributions to diet, physiological changes arising from treponemal disease and its treatments (e.g., mercury), or residential mobility of those affected. Shifting the focus from point of origin to investigating who is affected (e.g., by age/sex or socioeconomic status) and disease distribution (e.g., coastal/ inland, rural/urban) will advance our understanding of the treponemal disease and its impact on people through time

Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty

This study explores how researchers’ analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers’ expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team’s workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers’ results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings

GENDER AND AGE STRUCTURE OF MULTIPLE CHRONIC DISEASES IN PATIENTS OF RYAZAN REGION

The study objective is to investigate gender and age structure of multiple chronic conditions (MCC) among patients seeking medical help from a primary care physician.Materials and methods. In total, 1940 patients under the care of primary care physicians in several polyclinics of Ryazan and the Ryazan Region were examined: 646 men and 1294 women aged 18–99. The list of conditions included cardiovascular disorders, lung, gastrointestinal, kidney diseases, oncological diseases, diabetes mellitus, etc. All diagnoses were made per the generally accepted criteria. The patients were divided into 5 age groups; age and gender structure of MCC, as well as polymorbidity index (total number of conditions per 1 patient), were determined.Results. Among all patients with MCC in all age groups, the number of women was larger than men. In the structure of MCC, predominance of cardiovascular disorders, diseases of the kidneys and joints was observed. With age, the fraction of patients in whom the majority of organs and systems was affected increased. However, in older patients, peptic ulcer disease, diabetes mellitus, oncological and autoimmune diseases were comparatively rare. In men, the mean number of diseases per 1 patient was higher, but after 75 years of age the number  of conditions in women exceeded the number in men. In obese patients, age increase led to quicker polymorbidity increase than in normal patients. The gender differences consisted of the prevalence of stomach/duodenal peptic ulcer, non-specific lung diseases, obliterating atherosclerosis of the lower extremities in men, and kidney diseases, diabetes mellitus type 2 in women.Conclusion. The main causes of polymorbidity are old age and obesity. In the structure of MCC, cardiovascular diseases, kidney and joint disorders are the most common. A gender difference in the incidence of some diseases is observed

Using a gamified mobile app to increase student engagement, retention and academic achievement

Abstract This study investigated whether the use of a gamified mobile learning app influenced students’ academic performance and boosted their engagement in the subject. Created to better engage students in lecture content, the app was used to deliver multiple-choice content-based quizzes directly to students’ personal mobile devices post-lecture and pre-tutorial. After measuring the relationships between students’ app usage and their engagement, retention and academic achievement in the subject, it is suggested that following the app’s introduction, student retention rates and academic performance increased, and there was a positive correlation between students’ scoring highly on the app and achieving higher academic grades. While the app’s affordances for learning are promising, the causal relationship between the app usage and improved student outcomes requires further investigation. Conclusions made in the context of the wider scholarship of mobile app enhanced learning and applied game principles in HE