Good Practice in Supported Decision Making for People with Disability: Desktop review of the evidence for best practice principles for supported decision-making

The Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) contracted a research team from the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) at UNSW Australia to identify and develop evidence-based good practice guidelines for supported decision-making, compliant with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which have practical application and work across systems such as justice, mental health, health and child protection. This is a desktop review of the relevant literature to inform the study. This report presents the findings of the desktop review

Comparison of Problem Based Learning and Realistic Mathematics Education to Improve Students Academic Performance

Abstract: Comparison of problem based learning and realistic mathematics education to improve student academic performance. Objectives: The aim of this study was to see an increase in the academic performance of island studentsin Ambon City by applying the problem based learning (PBL) learning model and realistic mathematics education (RME). Methods: This research was in the form of a descriptive qualitative study with a case study approach and a sample of 116 students. Findings: There was a significant increase in student academic performance at each meeting and learning outcomes with PBL were higher than RME. Conclusion: The PBL model is more effective in increasing students’academic performance than RMEbecause students were facilitated with online-based mediain PBL when compared to RME, so that it can attract students' attention in learning and have a significant impact on student academic performance.Keywords: Academic performance, problem-based learning, academic realistic mathematics education Abstrak: Perbandingan pembelajaran berbasis masalah dan pendidikan matematika realistik untuk meningkatan performa akademik siswa. Tujuan: Adapun tujuan dalam penelitian ini adalah melihat peningkatan performa akademik siswa kepulauan di Kota Ambon dengan menerapkan model pembelajaran problem based learning (PBL) dan realistic mathematics education (RME). Metode: Penelitian ini berupa studi kualitatif deskriptif dengan pendekatan studi kasus dan sampel penelitian sebanyak 116 siswa. Temuan: Terjadi peningkatkan yang cukup signifikan untuk performa akademik siswa pada setiap pertemuan dan hasil belajar dengan PBL lebih tinggi bila dibandingkan dengan RME. Kesimpulan: Model PBl lebih efektif dalam meningkatan performa akademik siswa dibandingkan dengan RME, hal ini karena pada PBL siswa difasilitasi dengan media berbasis online bila dibandingkan dengan RME, sehingga dapat menarik perhatian siswa dalam belajar dan berdampak signifikan pada performa akademik siswa.Kata kunci: Performa akademik, pembelajaran berbasis masalah, pendidikan matematika realistik akademikDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23960/jpp.v9.i2.20192

Interplay of Dirac nodes and Volkov-Pankratov surface states in compressively strained HgTe

Preceded by the discovery of topological insulators, Dirac and Weyl semimetals have become a pivotal direction of research in contemporary condensed matter physics. While easily accessible from a theoretical viewpoint, these topological semimetals pose a serious challenge in terms of experimental synthesis and analysis to allow for their unambiguous identification. In this work, we report on detailed transport experiments on compressively strained HgTe. Due to the superior sample quality in comparison to other topological semimetallic materials, this enables us to resolve the interplay of topological surface states and semimetallic bulk states to an unprecedented degree of precision and complexity. As our gate design allows us to precisely tune the Fermi level at the Weyl and Dirac points, we identify a magnetotransport regime dominated by Weyl/Dirac bulk state conduction for small carrier densities and by topological surface state conduction for larger carrier densities. As such, similar to topological insulators, HgTe provides the archetypical reference for the experimental investigation of topological semimetals.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted in PRX, added kp calculation and supplementar

Student Evaluations of Teaching: Understanding Limitations and Advocating for a Gold Standard for Measuring Teaching Effectiveness

The arbitrator’s decision in Ryerson University v Ryerson Faculty Association [2018] CanLII 58446 (ON LA) rejected use of Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) for academic confirmation and promotion purposes. SETs provide largely quantitative data in response to pre-determined institutional, generic questions using a Likert scale applicable to all teaching modes. SETs may be efficient, but commonly low response rates mean the data is often statistically invalid. Studies of SETs suggest gender, age, race, and other biases are widespread, and they discourage teaching innovation because academics fear student backlash in SET scores. Consequently, SETs are of little value to academics for their professional development, confirmation or promotion, or as evidence for teaching grant or awards processes. The continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on traditional models of teaching has forced many changes in teaching, learning and pedagogy, often with a temporary suspension of SETs to allow teachers to innovate without negative impact on professional development measures. This presents a unique opportunity for us to revisit how the effectiveness of teaching and learning is measured. Academic teaching staff still need evidence of teaching effectiveness, as do sessional staff looking for continued employment and/or a career in academia. This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of SETs; seeks to equip law academics to advocate for other measures of teaching effectiveness that better reflect their contribution to student learning; and to pave the way for law discipline and institutional level changes that support a gold standard in measuring teaching effectiveness beyond reliance on SETs, for the benefit of teachers in law and other disciplines

Growing Up Making Decisions

Many young people with cognitive impairment grow up without the support and skills to express their will and preference to make decisions about their life. This is likely to result in other people making decisions on their behalf. Evidence given at the Disability Royal Commission shows this can result in abuse, neglect, harm or exploitation. This research examined what supports young people with cognitive impairment need to develop skills to identify what they want and do not want, and make decisions for themselves. The research also tried to understand if this was different for young people living with family and young people living in other settings

Counterpropagating topological and quantum Hall edge channels

The survival of the quantum spin Hall edge channels in presence of an external magnetic field has been a subject of experimental and theoretical research. The inversion of Landau levels that accommodates the quantum spin Hall effect is destroyed at a critical magnetic field, and a trivial insulating gap appears in the spectrum for stronger fields. In this work, we report the absence of this transport gap in disordered two dimensional topological insulators in perpendicular magnetic fields of up to 16 T. Instead, we observe that a topological edge channel (from band inversion) coexists with a counterpropagating quantum Hall edge channel for magnetic fields at which the transition to the insulating regime is expected. For larger fields, we observe only the quantum Hall edge channel with transverse resistance close to $h/e^2$. By tuning the disorder using different fabrication processes, we find evidence that this unexpected $\nu=1$ plateau originates from extended quantum Hall edge channels along a continuous network of charge puddles at the edges of the device.Comment: 8+3 pages, 5+2 figure

Topological dynamics of an intrinsically disordered N-terminal domain of the human androgen receptor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are thankful to Eugene Shakhnovich (Harvard University) for critical reading of the manuscript, and to Peter Bolhuis and Ioana Ilie (University of Amsterdam) for technical discussions. The research in Mashaghi lab is supported by funding from Muscular Dystrophy Association (USA), Grant Number MDA628071, and Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) through NWA-IDG (NWA.1228.192.309) and Open Competition XS (OCENW.XS.076).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe