A Research Preparatory Program for First-Year College Students: Student Selection and Preparation Lead to Persistence in Research

Undergraduate research experiences may increase persistence in STEM majors. We describe a research program that targets first-year students selected for their curiosity and attitudes towards science. We explain the implementation of the program over 3 years and present evaluation data using a group of matched controls. Participants and controls pursued STEM degrees at equivalent rates, but participants were significantly more involved in research. Initial laboratory interest and mentor pairing may have played a role in this finding. Female participants, particularly those with male laboratory mentors, engaged in more research than men.     

“Taking Good Care of Our Health”: Parent-Adolescent Perceptions of Boundary Management About Health Information

Family members’ communication about health has a significant impact on issues of obtaining social support, avoiding stigma, and seeking and receiving appropriate medical treatment and care. A Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theoretical perspective was used to analyze 85 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with parents and one of their adolescent children in 40 families. Findings reveal intergenerational motivations and strategies for managing individual and collective privacy boundaries around health information and the consequences of this management for individuals and families. Motivations include protecting personal privacy, preventing stress, and soliciting social support. Strategies for boundary management include humor and topic avoidance. Implications for future research in the areas of privacy management, health, and family relationships are discussed.     

Enrolment,content and assessment: a review of examinable senior secondary (16–19 year olds) physical education courses: an international perspective

Senior secondary physical education courses for certification continue to attract increasing student enrolments amidst international concerns for the state and status of physical education in schools. Curricula analysis of senior secondary physical education has typically focussed on courses in local contexts. This review aims to contribute to the current discussion around physical education curricula through a document analysis of 15 senior secondary physical education courses for certification. Results from the analysis of curricula documents reveal similarities in subject aims, objectives and rationales, subject specific content and assessment. Senior secondary physical education is firmly based in both the biophysical and sociocultural fields of study and draws on a broad range of disciplines from which to study human movement. The stated rationales of the courses reviewed suggested that an understanding of the complex interrelationships between content areas underpins senior secondary physical education; however content was mostly prescribed in stand-alone units. This review identified more similarities than differences in content and assessment practices in senior secondary physical education, a point of distinction between the courses reviewed was those that assess physical performance and those that do not. Internal assessment provided for a variety of tasks to determine student learning, however, external assessment was dominated by a written examination.     

Embodying life-long learning: Transition and capstone experiences

This paper discusses the principle of Transition as it has been conceptualised by the Curriculum Renewal in Legal Education project. The project sought to develop a principled framework for renewing the final year of tertiary legal education in Australia. Capstone experiences were chosen as the most appropriate mechanism for assisting final year students to manage the transition process. Thoughtfully designed capstones assist students to integrate and synthesise their learning over their entire degree programme, facilitate closure on the undergraduate experience, and assist students to transition from student to emerging professional. We discuss the importance of addressing final year students’ transitional needs and explain how the principle facilitates this process. Although the framework has been developed specifically for legal education in Australia its approach enables transferability across disciplines and institutions. The framework addresses criticisms that universities and law schools are not meeting the needs of final year students by preparing them for the transition to graduate life in a complex and uncertain world.     

“It's Wrong to Exclude Girls From Something They Love.” Adolescents’ Attitudes About Sexism in Science,Technology, Engineering,and Math

The current research examined adolescents’ attitudes about sexism in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The ethnically diverse sample (61% East Asian) was composed of 629 adolescents (M_age = 16.09) who attended a public school in the United States. Participants responded to closed- and open-ended questions about the prevalence and severity of sexism in STEM. We used latent profile analysis to classify participants into latent classes according to their responses. Of note, one latent class included participants who perceived sexism in STEM as a fairly common and very serious problem. Relative to the other classes, participants in this class were more likely to be girls and showed higher STEM value. Qualitative analyses illustrated that the participants in each class reasoned in fundamentally different ways about sexism in STEM.     

Double Blind: Supervising women as creative practice-led researchers

Abstract

Many women creative practice-led researchers appear inhibited by a number of factors directly connected to their gender. This article discusses these factors, including the culture of visual arts professional practice, the circumstances surrounding women postgraduate students and unproductive self-theories about intelligence and creativity. A number of feminist strategies are discussed as potential interventions that may assist women creative practice-led researchers and their supervisors to reap more personal and professional rewards from their postgraduate research.     

Disentangling genetic and environmental influences on early language development: The interplay of genetic propensity for negative emotionality and surgency,and parenting behavior effects on early language skills in an adoption study

Parenting and children's temperament are important influences on language development. However, temperament may reflect prior parenting, and parenting effects may reflect genes common to parents and children. In 561 U.S. adoptees (57% male) and their birth and rearing parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, and 7% and 2% Latinx, respectively), this study demonstrated how genetic propensity for temperament affects language development, and how this relates to parenting. Genetic propensity for negative emotionality inversely predicted language at 27 months (β = −.15) and evoked greater maternal warmth (β = .12), whereas propensity for surgency positively predicted language at 4.5 years (β = .20), especially when warmth was low. Parental warmth (β = .15) and sensitivity (β = .19) further contributed to language development, controlling for common gene effects.