Gender Differences and Condom-Associated Embarrassment in the Acquisition of Purchased Versus Free Condoms among College Students

Condoms are not used consistently among sexually active college students, indicating a need to understand condom acquisition patterns. This study describes purchased and free acquisition of condoms, factors influencing purchased condom acquisition, and condom-associated embarrassment among college students. A random sample of students at a public university was invited to complete an online survey. More participants obtained free condoms (77.1%) than purchased condoms (59.3%). Individuals who had only ever obtained free condoms were significantly more embarrassed around condom acquisition than individuals who had ever purchased a condom, and women were more embarrassed than men. Implications for health educators and higher education professionals are discussed.     

Changing their minds: the social dynamics of school leaders' learning

This paper questions whether a focus on individual development is appropriate when it comes to attempting to change professional practice. Based on a study of the conceptual development of candidates on the Scottish Qualification for Headship Programme (SQH), the paper examines evidence from detailed case studies of the learning of some of the students. These were constructed using the reflective commentaries written by the candidates at the end of each year and the outcomes of semi‐structured interviews to explore their experiences of the course and what they felt they had learned as a result. The evidence indicated that there was a complex dynamic involved in learning to change practice where the conceptual development of individuals was closely related to their experience of enacting new behaviours in the social setting of the workplace. The sense that candidates made of school leadership and management was shaped and embedded in their social experience. Change and development on their part was closely bound to the capacity and willingness to change on the part of others.     

Automatic for the people: the automation of communicative labor

Artificial intelligence is rapidly giving rise to new automated technologies. Among the most important of these innovations is the development of artificially intelligent machines that produce increasingly sophisticated forms of oral and written discourse. As more of our communicative encounters are with artificial agents, our notions of communicative labor, surveillance, and digital rhetoric will have to contend with these extensive shifts. As a step in this direction, the present article evaluates several trends in the automation of oral and written discourse, examining their social and economic impact.     

Contemporary Test Validity in Theory and Practice: A Primer for Discipline-Based Education Researchers

Most discipline-based education researchers (DBERs) were formally trained in the methods of scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics, rather than social science disciplines such as psychology and education. As a result, DBERs may have never taken specific courses in the social science research methodology—either quantitative or qualitative—on which their scholarship often relies so heavily. One particular aspect of (quantitative) social science research that differs markedly from disciplines such as biology and chemistry is the instrumentation used to quantify phenomena. In response, this Research Methods essay offers a contemporary social science perspective on test validity and the validation process. The instructional piece explores the concepts of test validity, the validation process, validity evidence, and key threats to validity. The essay also includes an in-depth example of a validity argument and validation approach for a test of student argument analysis. In addition to DBERs, this essay should benefit practitioners (e.g., lab directors, faculty members) in the development, evaluation, and/or selection of instruments for their work assessing students or evaluating pedagogical innovations.     

On the bus and online: instantiating an interactive learning environment through design-based research

The World Health Organization converted an award-winning experiential learning course that takes place on a bus traveling down the “cold chain” for time- and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products in Turkey to an online interactive learning environment through design-based research. Similarities and differences in the objectives of the two courses as well as the overlap in the learning activities, tools, and technologies deployed in courses are delineated. Many learning activities from the real bus course were successfully moved to the online course, but a few learning activities from the bus course could not be replicated in the online environment. However, several new and arguably more effective learning activities were implemented online that could not be accomplished on the bus. Design principles for developing online experiential learning environments were derived from the design-based research.     

Cultural engagement across the life course: Examining age–period–cohort effects

Longitudinal studies of cultural engagement are uncommon. This paper explores whether there are stable latent clusters of cultural engagement over time and whether age–period–cohort (APC) effects explain within-person changes between these clusters across the life course. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (N?=?25,149), I conduct longitudinal latent class analysis to uncover the latent patterns of cultural consumption across nine activities: cinema, watching live sport, attending the theatre, eating at a restaurant, doing DIY, attending an evening class, meeting with local groups, volunteering, and going to a club/pub. Then, I explore whether APC effects are observable in the data using scatterplot smoothing, lowess regression. Six latent clusters are consistently observed in each wave: None, DIY, Restaurant/Pub, Cinema/Theatre, Volunteer, and All (almost all activities). A large number of respondents have highly stable patterns of cultural engagement but there is also a substantial degree of variation. Transitions between latent clusters over time occur between those that are compositionally similar (in terms of activities). These changes in patterns of cultural engagement are partially explained by age effects, such as time constraints and health. Additionally, there is some evidence of cohort effects among the youngest cohorts moving into the “All” latent cluster, the cluster with the most cultural breadth.