A comparison between girls' and boys' experiences of unwanted sexual behaviour in secondary schools

Background

This study examines gender differences (and similarities) in the context, meaning and effects of unwanted sexual behaviour in secondary schools.

Purpose

First, the study's purpose is exploration of variables that discriminate between girls' and boys' experiences of unwanted sexual behaviour. Secondly, the aim is to find empirical grounding for diversity in schools' interventions and policies.

Sample

Respondents were 2808 adolescents (14 or 15 years of age) in secondary schools, randomly selected in two regions in The Netherlands. Of the 22 schools that participated in the project, 30% were Catholic, 25% Protestant, 11% interdenominational (several religions within one school) and 38% of the schools were public schools. School size varied. The majority of the students' parents were born in The Netherlands (86%), 14% were born in Morocco, Turkey and Surinam.

Design and methods

Survey questionnaires were to be completed during class time. Non-response rate: 2%. Analysis: discriminant function analysis.

Results

Girls more often experienced unwanted sexual behaviour by school personnel than boys. Their experiences were more often non-verbal in nature, physical or a combination of different sorts of behaviour. Girls experienced unwanted sexual behaviour as more upsetting than boys and they also experienced more psychosomatic health problems. The typical form of boys' experiences of unwanted sexual behaviour was verbal harassment by peers. The behaviour was less upsetting to boys and they experienced less psychosomatic health problems than girls.

Conclusions

This study was the first attempt to find out whether girls' and boys' scores on several variables form a different type of unwanted sexual behaviour. Two different types of unwanted sexual behaviour were found. Although the context (locations and the presence of others) was more or less the same for both sexes, the meaning and the effects of unwanted sexual behaviour were clearly different for girls and boys.     

Solving wicked problems through action learning

This account of practice outlines the Oxyme Action Learning Program which was conducted as part of the Management Challenge in my final year of the MSc in Coaching and Behavioral Change at Henley Business School. The central research questions were: (1) how action learning can help to solve wicked problems and (2) what the effect of an action learning program is on the individual set members, the set and the organization as a whole. This paper also describes my personal development as a facilitator of change and ends with key learnings and recommendations for future action learning programs.     

A psychopedagogical approach to the teaching of a programming language in secondary schools

Abstract

Some of the aspects that characterize the novelty and the difficulties observed in the pupil/computer interaction in the school context are discussed from a psycho-cognitive and a psycho-pedagogical point of view. Special emphasis is put on the need to be particularly sensitive to the problems posed to pupils by the introduction of a formal language and by its use for programming and problem-solving.     

Professional development through action research in township primary schools in South Africa

The paper examines an action research project, the Primary Education Project (PREP), located in African primary schools in Cape Town, South Africa between 1987 and 1989. The main aim of PREP was to evaluate action research as a means of improving educational processes and outcomes. Drawing on my own action research case study as the facilitator of curriculum and research development in PREP, I explore action research as a strategy for teachers' professional development. This latter concept is problematised as meaning on the one hand, narrow vocational skilling of teachers, and on the other, reflective practice. Further, I argue that the concept is value-laden and thus fundamentally political. Improvements in teachers' practice are recounted, and the teachers' first order action research and my own second order action research evaluated along a continuum from reflection to research.     

Consultation-based programming: instituting the collaborative ethic in schools

Consultation-based programming is widely supported as a logical augmentation to the current educational service delivery system. However, despite increasing advocacy for formats that foster collaborative efforts of multidisciplinary personnel, implementation of these program formats in schools remains sporadic. This article (a) discussed a number of the conceptual principles which underpin program development, (b) proposes informal standards for ecological evaluation of specific-formats, and (c) identifies factors that maximize the potential for successful installment of consultation-based programs in schools.     

在高中物理解题中培养学生的思维品质

解题是每位学生尤其是理科学生要面临的基本任务,解题能力是学生的必要能力,而解题能力应根植于好的思维品质。思维的品质包括思维的广阔性、深刻性、敏捷性和批判性等。通过习题课的策划,抓住对学生思维品质的培养,才能在教学中不仅“授之以鱼”,而且“授之以渔”。一、从一题     

A call to action: exploring and responding to educational developers’ workplace burnout and well-being in higher education

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research exploring stress, burnout, and well-being within the context of educational development. The purpose of this study was to examine the concepts of burnout and workplace well-being among educational developers across the international landscape. Thematic analysis from the survey responses (n = 210) revealed characteristics around four themes that both enhanced or hindered participants’ sense of well-being: a) colleagues, b) manager/director, c) institution/senior administration, and d) workplace. Our findings highlight the need to further amplify conversations related to burnout, as well as examine and promote workplace well-being for educational developers.     

The contribution of schools to moral development: A working paper in the theory of action

In what is essentially a working paper, an ideal typical and analytical concept of moral action is derived from the general theory of action. The concept is described in terms of the pattern-variable scheme, with moral action seen as involving the choices of affective neutrality, quality, universalism, and diffuseness. This model of moral action is then used to hypothesize an end state of moral development. The definition of this end state involves the specification of the analytical choices to the human condition, which is a given of all human action and the most universal point of reference for moral action in relation to human communities. The full development of moral action is thus seen to involve the capacity for involvement with others as whole persons; for relating to people in terms of their humanity; for respecting the moral autonomy and liberty of others; and for resolving moral issues by reasoning, which implies flexibility in relation to specific situations. A major part of the paper is devoted to an examination of some social structural features of schools, indicating the considerable extent to which schools ordinarily inhibit the development of such moral capacities in children.     

The role of design ethics in maintaining students' privacy: A call to action to learning designers in higher education

Maintaining students' privacy in higher education, an integral aspect of learning design and technology integration, is not only a matter of policy and law but also a matter of design ethics. Similar to faculty educators, learning designers in higher education play a vital role in maintaining students' privacy by designing learning experiences that rely on online technology integration. Like other professional designers, they need to care for the humans they design for by not producing designs that infringe on their privacy, thus, not causing harm. Recognizing that widely used instructional design models are silent on the topic and do not address ethical considerations such as privacy, we focus this paper on how design ethics can be leveraged by learning designers in higher education in a practical manner, illustrated through authentic examples. We highlight where the ethical responsibility of learning designers comes into the foreground when maintaining students' privacy and well-being, especially in online settings. We outline an existing ethical decision-making framework and show how learning designers can use it as a call to action to protect the students they design for, strengthening their ethical design capacity.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Existing codes of ethical standards from well-known learning design organizations call upon learning designers to protect students' privacy without clear guidance on how to do so.
• Design ethics within learning design is often discussed in abstract ways with principles that are difficult to apply.
• Most, if not all, design models that learning design professionals have learned are either silent on design ethics and/or do not consider ethics as a valid dimension, thus, making design ethics mostly excluded from learning design graduate programs.
• Practical means for engaging in ethical design practice are scarce in the field.

What this paper adds

• A call for learning designers in higher education to maintain and protect students' privacy and well-being, strengthening their ethical design capacity.
• A demonstration of how to use a practical ethical decision-making framework as a designerly tool in designing for learning to maintain and protect students' privacy and well-being.
• Authentic examples—in the form of vignettes—of ethical dilemmas/issues that learning designers in higher education could face, focused on students' privacy.
• Methods—using a practical ethical decision-making framework—for learning design professionals in higher education, grounded in the philosophy of designers as the guarantors of designs, to be employed to detect situations where students' privacy and best interests are at risk.
• A demonstration of how learning designers could make stellar design decisions in service to the students they design for and not to the priorities of other design stakeholders.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Higher education programs/institutions that prepare/employ learning designers ought to treat the topics of the designer's responsibility and design ethics more explicitly and practically as one of the means to maintain and protect students' privacy, in addition to law and policies.
• Learning designers in higher education ought to hold a powerful position in their professional practice to maintain and protect students' privacy and well-being, as an important aspect of their ethical design responsibilities.
• Learning designers in higher education ought to adopt a design thinking mindset in order to protect students' privacy by (1) challenging ideas and assumptions regarding technology integration in general and (2) detecting what is known in User Experience (UX) design as “dark patterns” in online course design.

     

A call to action and a challenge to use a standard to measure mother-friendly birth classes

In spite of the efforts of numerous organizations and individuals to offer mother-friendly birth information and care in the United States, the nation remains a highly technical, low-touch birth culture with a decline in positive maternal-fetal outcomes. A number of organizations and individuals came together to form the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services and to create the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI). The MFCI is a wellness model of maternity care that offers 10 evidence-based steps of care that will improve birth outcomes and reduce costs. Birth educators can use this self-assessment tool to provide the same evidence-based information.     

ServiceNation: A call to higher education

The Serve America Act was signed into law in April 2009. Here's what Barbara Jacoby thinks the higher education community needs to do next.     

From rhetoric to action: Implementing sts education through action research

This article outlines the arguments for an action research approach to the implementation of STS education, and describes some of the experiences and outcomes of an action research group of six teachers (one elementary, five secondary) based at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto. The teachers' initial views, and their changing perceptions throughout the duration of the project (the 1992-93 academic year), are presented in terms of four categories: the nature of STS education; the development of curriculum materials; personal/professional development; collaborative work. The emergence of an additional complex theme involving reinforcement, extending horizons, and building professional confidence, is considered the most significant outcome of the project.