Medical students’ perceptions and preferences for sexual health education

Sexual health topics are not well-covered in US medical schools. Research has not typically asked medical students what sexual health topics they would like addressed and their preferred methods of sexual health education. This study attempted to address this deficit via an online survey of medical students at an institution where little sexual health education is offered. Participants reported receiving the most education in endocrinology and sexually transmitted infections, but they also saw the following topics as important: sexual development, child sexual abuse, healthy sexuality, male sexual dysfunction and female dysfunction. Participants were more confident in talking to adults about sexual health matters than children, and more uncomfortable talking to opposite sex patients. Perceived barriers to sexual health education in medical school included a busy curriculum, other topics being seen as more important, religious influences, discomfort with sexuality and unqualified teaching faculty. Participants favoured training strategies that included panels of experts, panels of patients and role-plays conducted by seasoned professionals in sexual health. To reduce the barriers to sexual health education in US medical schools, educators need to highlight the relevance and importance of sexual health topics to the future work of physicians.     

Tracing the feedback loop: a Foucauldian and actor-network-theory examination of heart rate monitors in a physical education classroom

As digital tracking technologies such as heart rate monitors are being implemented into physical education classrooms with increased frequency, ‘techno-enthusiasts’ and ‘sceptics’ alike are attempting to understand the implications of these practices. Focusing on heart rate monitors in physical education, I utilize Foucauldian theories and actor-network-theory to extend the scholarship within the sociology of sport and physical education literature that has studied the relationship between technologies and the (in)active body. To better understand how the feedback loop of heart rate monitoring functions in the university-level physical education class that was studied here—or indeed, does not function—I consider the material-semiotic networks that variously form or fail to form alliances through the feedback loop of heart rate monitoring. These include the numerous technologies and bodies that are a part of this assemblage, an interest in heart rate data, and knowledge about heart rate. I conclude by arguing that we need to move beyond the techno-utopian/techno-dystopian dualism that often frames examinations of technology in PE.     

The Academic Library and the Common Read: A Multitude of Possibilities for Collaboration With Campus Programs and Departments

The continued popularity of the common read within the first year curriculum invites critical campus partnerships between the academic library and a wide variety of campus departments. These can include Honors, Student Success, Academic Affairs, and Community Engagement. This paper describes the efforts of one First Year Success Librarian to collaboratively expand campus programming related to the common read. Specifics include planning events related to the book and its themes, creating learning objects for first year students and pedagogical tools for instructors, and holding a position of leadership in the common read committee. Additional examples from existing library and information scholarship and future ideas are shared as well, with the goal of assisting a diversity of campus stakeholders on how to best support common read initiatives.     

Examining ontological and self-monitoring scaffolding to improve complex systems thinking with a participatory simulation

Instructional Science - Most of humanity’s important and difficult problems such as pandemics, environmental health, and social unrest require recognizing and understanding complex systems....     

Generative mechanistic explanation building in undergraduate molecular and cellular biology*

ABSTRACT

When conducting scientific research, experts in molecular and cellular biology (MCB) use specific reasoning strategies to construct mechanistic explanations for the underlying causal features of molecular phenomena. We explored how undergraduate students applied this scientific practice in MCB. Drawing from studies of explanation building among scientists, we created and applied a theoretical framework to explore the strategies students use to construct explanations for ‘novel’ biological phenomena. Specifically, we explored how students navigated the multi-level nature of complex biological systems using generative mechanistic reasoning. Interviews were conducted with introductory and upper-division biology students at a large public university in the United States. Results of qualitative coding revealed key features of students’ explanation building. Students used modular thinking to consider the functional subdivisions of the system, which they ‘filled in’ to varying degrees with mechanistic elements. They also hypothesised the involvement of mechanistic entities and instantiated abstract schema to adapt their explanations to unfamiliar biological contexts. Finally, we explored the flexible thinking that students used to hypothesise the impact of mutations on multi-leveled biological systems. Results revealed a number of ways that students drew mechanistic connections between molecules, functional modules (sets of molecules with an emergent function), cells, tissues, organisms and populations.