The 2018 Guidelines for Initial IFT Approval of undergraduate food science and food technology programs

IFT Approval of undergraduate food science and technology programs has continued to evolve since its inception in the 1960s. This report provides rationale and outlines key changes in the latest revisions of the IFT Approval Guidelines that were approved by the IFT Board of Directors in 2018. The 2018 Guidelines retained the previously established outcomes‐based assessment model, but includes changes to Program Goals, redefined Standards, and measurable Essential Learning Outcomes. In addition, this report describes a new online submission platform. The report also provides insights into the training and review systems employed by the Higher Education Review Board.     

Controlled processing in pigeons

This paper investigates whether rehearsal, or posttrial processing, of information about an event can be modulated by instructions in infrahuman organisms. Using pigeons, a procedure was developed for establishing a stimulus as a cue to disengage rehearsal, or posttrial processing, of a food reinforcer. Specifically, the stimulus instructed the animals to behave on a subsequent choice test as if food had not, in fact, been presented. Results are reported that suggest that this training was successful in establishing the stimulus as a cue to forget the occurrence of the food. These findings are interpreted as providing tentative support for the view that the cognitive repertoire of infrahuman organisms does include controlled processing strategies.     

Lessons learned from a decade implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in resource poor settings: The World Starts With Me

Today, more than half of the world population is under the age of 25 years and one in four is under age 18. The urgency of expanding access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) notably for children and young people in Africa and Asia is greater than ever before. However, many challenges to the implementation and delivery of CSE in resource poor settings have been identified in the literature. CSE’s effectiveness could be strongly improved if these challenges were better met. This paper aims to contribute to those much-needed improvements by sharing lessons learned from a decade of implementation of one particular CSE programme, The World Starts With Me, among various populations in 11 low income countries in Africa and Asia. The aims, content, reach and effectiveness of the programme are described. Next, the challenges for implementation and delivery at student, teacher, school and context level are discussed with reference to the wider knowledge base in this area. Finally, suggestions are provided for ways forward including the increased sensitivity of programmes for normative and practical barriers to sexual health, further advancement towards gender transformativity, a far-reaching expansion of comprehensive forms of teacher training and coaching, and a serious stepping-up of multilevel ‘whole school’ approaches.     

Whispering in our Hearts: Speaking of another in changing schools

Beneath discussions about race and ethnic relations is an unease, ‘a whispering in our hearts’ these debates that need to be understood ‘otherwise’. In more recent times, they seem increasingly complex and dangerous as the essential differences that underpin modern notions of identity appear negotiated, contingent, and disjunctive. In this paper, I examine the ways in which teachers and parents in one Melbourne secondary school spoke about these notions in 1988 and 1998. Taking up suggestions in the postcolonial and race literatures, the article argues that the normalised notions which make up these conversations need to be made explicit, and the near silences that negotiate the parameters of these discussions should also be the focus of analysis. While at one level teachers and parents discussed their unease and their excitement about the ways their school had changed, their conversations remained underpinned by taken-for-granted understandings about the ways people belong differently within the school community.     

Emotional and behavioral characteristics over a six-year period in youths with persistent and nonpersistent dyscalculia

The authors examined behavior problems in a matched sample of 58 youths with persistent dyscalculia (PD) and nonpersistent dyscalculia (NPD). Participants were classified as having dyscalculia at age 10-11 years. Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist for their children at ages 10-11, 13-14, and 16-17 years, while the youths did so at the last two age periods. Only at age 16-17 years were there significantly more problems, particularly attention problems and externalizing problems, reported by parents for PD youths compared to NPD youths. A higher percentage in the PD group than in the NPD group received scores in the clinical range for externalizing problems. However, the mean levels of behavior problems at this age and the earlier ages were within the normal range for both groups. For youth-reported problems, the only significant difference was for attention problems at 16-17 years. Therapeutic interventions should focus on the academic domain and improving and altering behavioral patterns.     

The Spectrum of Dynamic Inquiry Teaching Practices

The Israeli high school biology curriculum comprises the Biomind program, in which students are engaged in an open inquiry learning process. The dynamic features of open inquiry often pose challenges to teachers in implementing the Biomind program. The current qualitative research shows that facilitating students in a dynamic open inquiry process is multidimensional. Teaching practices cover a wide range of methods, from structured inquiry through guided inquiry to open inquiry. An individual teacher’s profile can be elucidated on the basis of this spectrum. In addition, we realised that teachers often encounter several difficulties in implementing open dynamic inquiry: A dearth of teachers’ scientific knowledge, students’ lack of scientific knowledge and skills, and a restrictive time-frame. This study suggests several areas which should be considered while implementing an on going professional development support for teachers who are engaged in open inquiry teaching.     

Climate change and education

Abstract

Understanding climate change is becoming an urgent requirement for those in education. The normative values of education have long been closely aligned with the global, modernised world. The industrial model has underpinned the hidden and overt curriculum. Increasingly though, a new eco-centric orientation to economics, technology, and social organisation is beginning to shape up the post-carbon world. Unless education is up to date with the issues of climate change, the estate of education will be unable to meet its task of knowledge transfer. This article covers the basic science and ethical policy debates, and begins to outline the questions that will necessarily entangle education as we orientate ourselves to the new world that is upon us.     

Are Intuitive Rules Universal?

This paper presents a cross-cultural study on the intuitive rules theory. The study was conducted in Australia (with aboriginal children) in Taiwan and in Israel. Our findings indicate that Taiwanese and Australian Aboriginal students, much like Israeli ones, provided incorrect responses, most of which were in line with the intuitive rules. Also, developmental trends were found to be similar yet differences were found with regard to the rate of developmental change.