A Pilot Study Examining Religious Organization Affiliation,Sexual Health Information Sources,and Sexual Behaviors Among College Students

We conducted an online survey to examine religiosity, sexual health knowledge, and behavior and sexual health information sources among undergraduate students affiliated with student religious organizations (n?=?45) and unaffiliated students (n?=?82). Analyses included Fisher’s exact tests, t-tests, and exact regression models. Students reporting religious affiliation considered religious sources to be believable (p?=?.004 for sexual health; p?p?=?.0042). Although religiously affiliated students reported fewer sexual partners in the past year (p?=?.020), their reported condom use was not significantly different from that of unaffiliated students. Future research should explore the focus and content of romantic relationship information provided by student religious organizations. Health practitioners and educators should consider strategies for collaborating with religious organizations to meet the information needs of these students.     

To Whom It May Concern: Epistolary political philosophies and the production of racial counterpublic knowledge in the United States

This article explores the philosophical underpinnings and implications of the idea of the public in the US state processes of knowledge production and control. In it we take up questions of public and counterpublic political philosophical knowledge production and mediation in relation to an expanding state. Specifically, we examine the political philosophies of racialized counterpublics since the 1960s, considering the particular knowledge production genre of the political prison letter. We suggest that the philosophical principles of the dominant public in the US have a proclivity to merge with state mechanisms of domination and to thwart counterpublics and their modes of political knowledge production.     

Children’s Ability to Learn Evolutionary Explanations for Biological Adaptation

Research Findings: Evolution by natural selection is often relegated to the high school curriculum on the assumption that younger students cannot grasp its complexity. We sought to test that assumption by teaching children ages 4–12 (n = 96) a selection-based explanation for biological adaptation and comparing their success to that of adults (n = 30). Participants provided explanations before and after a 10-min, analogy-based tutorial illustrating the principles of variation, differential survival, differential reproduction, inheritance, and population change. Although younger children (ages 4–6) showed minimal evidence of learning these principles, older children (ages 7–12) showed robust evidence of doing so, learning them at rates equivalent to adults. Participants of all ages, however, provided nonevolutionary explanations for biological adaptations (i.e., explanations referencing need, growth, and creation) nearly as often at posttest as they did at pretest. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that older elementary school-age children can be taught evolutionary concepts but that learning such concepts does not lead to the automatic replacement of nonevolutionary views of biological adaptation, which must be addressed separately.     

The Initial Impact of the Anatomical Society Gross Anatomy Core Syllabus for Medicine in the United Kingdom: Student and Teacher Perspectives

“What do students studying medicine need to know” is an important question for curriculum planners, anatomy educators and students. The Core Regional Anatomy Syllabus (CRAS), published by the Anatomical Society in 2016, contains 156 learning outcomes (LOs) and has informed “what needs to be known.” This project explored how CRAS had impacted undergraduate anatomy and anatomists in the United Kingdom. A cross-sectional study was designed in two phases. Phase 1, involved a survey of students in clinical years (N = 164). Phase 2 included a survey of anatomist’s views (n = 50) and focus groups of anatomy educators (N = 16). The students’ perspective showed that specific regions of CRAS are deemed less relevant. These were also the body areas where students perceived their anatomical knowledge to be more deficient. Only 46% (n = 75) of students estimated that they knew over 50% (n = 78) of the LOs. Phase two revealed that all anatomists were aware of the syllabus and 48% (n = 24) had checked the CRAS against their own institutional LOs. Anatomists had shared CRAS with colleagues 64% (n = 32) and students at 34% (n = 17), respectively. Forty-six percent (n = 23) of anatomists reported having changed their teaching in some way because of CRAS. The focus groups generated four key themes: “support for CRAS,” “standardization and validation,” “professional identity,” and “limitations and leverage.” Overall CRAS has been well received and is establishing itself within the anatomical community as the new standard for anatomy teaching for medical students.     

The Languages We Choose to Speak: Speaker Agency,Proficiency and the Implications for English Classrooms

Using autobiographical experiences as a framework for inquiry, this article sets out to question the often unexamined assumptions that surround the definition of ‘proficiency’ in second/foreign languages. In so doing, it opens up possibilities of inquiry into the power-laden relationships between speaker agency, cultural belonging and self-expression that are equally relevant to intra-linguistic contexts. Recasting our linguistic identities as performative acts that respond to a number of personal and social agendas, the article concludes by considering some general implications of speaker agency and the emotional stakes inherent in language use for the teacher of English in the multilingual classroom.     

New perspectives in gaze sensitivity research

Attending to where others are looking is thought to be of great adaptive benefit for animals when avoiding predators and interacting with group members. Many animals have been reported to respond to the gaze of others, by co-orienting their gaze with group members (gaze following) and/or responding fearfully to the gaze of predators or competitors (i.e., gaze aversion). Much of the literature has focused on the cognitive underpinnings of gaze sensitivity, namely whether animals have an understanding of the attention and visual perspectives in others. Yet there remain several unanswered questions regarding how animals learn to follow or avoid gaze and how experience may influence their behavioral responses. Many studies on the ontogeny of gaze sensitivity have shed light on how and when gaze abilities emerge and change across development, indicating the necessity to explore gaze sensitivity when animals are exposed to additional information from their environment as adults. Gaze aversion may be dependent upon experience and proximity to different predator types, other cues of predation risk, and the salience of gaze cues. Gaze following in the context of information transfer within social groups may also be dependent upon experience with group-members; therefore we propose novel means to explore the degree to which animals respond to gaze in a flexible manner, namely by inhibiting or enhancing gaze following responses. We hope this review will stimulate gaze sensitivity research to expand beyond the narrow scope of investigating underlying cognitive mechanisms, and to explore how gaze cues may function to communicate information other than attention.     

Essential skills for creative writing: Integrating multiple domain-specific perspectives

The aim of this work was to gather different perspectives on the “key ingredients” involved in creative writing by children – from experts of diverse disciplines, including teachers, linguists, psychologists, writers and art educators. Ultimately, we sought in the experts’ convergence or divergence insights on the relative importance of the relevant factors that may aid writing instruction, particularly for young children. We present a study using an expert knowledge elicitation method in which representatives from five domains of expertise pertaining to writing rated 28 factors (i.e., individual skills and attributes) covering six areas (general knowledge and cognition, creative cognition, conation, executive functioning, linguistic and psychomotor skills), according to their importance for creative writing. A Many-Facets Rasch Measurement (MFRM) model permitted us to quantify the relative importance of these writing factors across domain-specific expertise, while controlling for expert severity and other systematic evaluation biases. The identified similarities and domain-specific differences in the expert views offer a new basis for understanding the conceptual gaps between the scientific literature on creative writing, the writer's self-reflection on the act of writing creatively, and educators’ practices in teaching creative writing. Bridging such diverse approaches–that are, yet, relatively homogeneous within areas of expertise – appears to be useful in view of formulating process-oriented writing pedagogy that may, above all, better target the skills needed to improve children's creative writing development.     

A qualitative study of student responses to body painting

One hundred and thirty‐three preclinical medical students participated in 24 focus groups over the period 2007–2009 at Durham University. Focus groups were conducted to ascertain whether or not medical students found body painting anatomical structures to be an educationally beneficial learning activity. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Five principal themes emerged: (1) body painting as a fun learning activity, (2) body painting promoting retention of knowledge, (3) factors contributing to the memorability of body painting, (4) removal from comfort zone, and (5) the impact of body painting on students' future clinical practice. Students perceive body painting to be a fun learning activity, which aids their retention of the anatomical knowledge acquired during the session. Sensory factors, such as visual stimuli, especially color, and the tactile nature of the activity, promote recall. Students' preference for painting a peer or being painted is often dependent upon their learning style, but there are educational benefits for both roles. The moderate amounts of undressing involved encouraging students to consider issues surrounding body image; this informs their attitudes towards future patients. Body painting is a useful adjunct to traditional anatomy and clinical skills teaching. The fun element involved in the delivery of this teaching defuses the often formal academic context, which in turn promotes a positive learning environment. Anat Sci Educ 3:33–38, 2010. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.