Enhancing curriculum and delivery: linking assessment to learning objectives

Typical university‐wide course evaluations do not provide instructors with sufficient information on the effectiveness of their courses. This article describes a course assessment and enhancement model where student feedback can be used to improve courses and/or programs. The model employs an assessment tool that measures student perceptions of importance and their current competence in course‐specific learning objectives both pre‐ and post‐course. Information gained from this assessment enables course improvement over time and also allows for modification in delivery and/or content of the current course. This model is intended to augment traditional course evaluation mechanisms based on specific and actionable feedback on learning objectives.     

Synergizing geriatric research and education in an allied health profession with an older adult community advisory board: development and process outcomes

ABSTRACT

Community advisory boards (CABs) have been used to improve research outcomes involving specific communities and populations, including older adults. There is potential to synergize the use of CABs to encompass both research activities and the education of healthcare professionals to help meet increasing demands for a geriatric healthcare workforce in aging populations worldwide. We describe the development and process outcomes of a CAB that synergizes geriatric research and education of students in an allied health profession (occupational therapy). Implementation costs from June 2017–June 2019 were recorded. In-depth interviews were conducted with CAB participants, who were community-dwelling older adults living in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Interview data were analyzed using a constant comparison method based on a grounded theory approach. Themes were derived regarding barriers, facilitators, and benefits of CAB participation for older adults. Fourteen older adults (aged 65 and over) were initially recruited. The total direct cost of CAB implementation was 4050 United States Dollars over two years. Barriers to CAB participation for older adults included unexpected schedule conflicts due to illness and lack of understanding of the research process, while facilitators included accessible meeting spaces, staff support, flexible participation options, and financial support (e.g., transportation). Perceived benefits of CAB participation included gains in social capital, more positive views of research, and social connectedness. Key lessons learned are described and can be used to inform a novel approach to developing and implementing CABs to improve outcomes of geriatric research and education.     

What works? Academic integrity and the research-policy relationship

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the intensifying pressures on critical research and academic integrity in a research policy context that has come to be increasingly dominated by an instrumentalist mind-set. Using sensitising resources drawn from Geoff Whitty’s critique of the ‘what works’ agenda, we reflect on the current conditions of academic labour and some of the key issues and dilemmas they pose for critical researchers in the sociology of education and beyond. In particular, we underline the trend for ‘what works’ agendas to become constitutive of academic identities and practices, including at micro-levels, such that the option of ‘standing outside’ them is shifting from being merely personally taxing to being institutionally disallowed. In addition to highlighting the dilemmas this creates for critical researchers and the threat this poses to expansive and democratic approaches to education, the paper emphasises the centrality of relationship-forming in understanding and underpinning academic integrity.     

Impact of Sensory Processing on School Performance Outcomes in High Functioning Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Difficulty processing sensory information may impede progress in school for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We explore the relationship between sensory processing and school performance in 26 high‐functioning youths with ASD and 26 controls (age 8–14) using measures of sensory, social, cognitive, and academic functioning. In the ASD group, bivariate Pearson correlations indicated a significant positive relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and the School Competence Scale (SCS) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and a significant negative relationship between Dunn's Sensory Processing Framework and SCS scores. Final hierarchical multiple linear regression model accounting for SCS scores in ASD included IQ, ADHD symptoms, and sensory features. An interaction between increased sensory sensitivity with reduced sensory avoidance behaviors explained the greatest amount of variance in SCS, meaning school performance is lowest for children with greater hypersensitivity and fewer avoidance behaviors. Results indicate a strong impact of sensory processing on school performance in ASD.     

Allergies and Learning Disabilities: A Status Report

This literature review examines the relationship between allergies and learning disabilities. Do allergies cause learning disabilities and related behavioural difficulties? The existing research is summarized and evaluated. The authors conclude that the role that allergies play in LD is complex and interrelated with other factors.     

论远程教学设计的基本问题

本文以系统论观点,详尽阐述了远程教学设计中应当考虑的诸如系统设计原则、学习者和学习内容分析、教学策略和媒体选择、效果评价以及学习环境中的信息传输等几个基本问题。这些远程教学设计的基本原则对于远程教学工作者开发成功的远程教学具有积极的理论指导意义。     

Self-reports of forgetting and remembering childhood sexual abuse in a nationally representative sample of US women

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to describe patterns of forgetting and remembering childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in a nationally representative sample of US adult women. METHOD: The respondents were a national probability sample of 711 women, aged 26 years to 54 years, residing in noninstitutional settings in the contiguous 48 states. In a 1996 face-to-face interview survey, trained female interviewers asked each respondent whether she had experienced any sexual coercion by family members or nonfamily members while growing up; whether she believed that she had been sexually abused (by family members or others); and whether she had ever forgotten the CSA experiences and, if so, how she had subsequently remembered them. RESULTS: Twenty-one and six-tenths percent of respondents reported having sexually coercive experiences while growing up; of these, 69.0% indicated that they felt they had been sexually abused. More than one-fourth of respondents who felt sexually abused reported that they had forgotten the abuse for some period of time but later remembered it on their own. Only 1.8% of women self-described as sexually abused reported remembering the abuse with the help of a therapist or other professional person. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that, among women who report CSA, forgetting and subsequently remembering abuse experiences is not uncommon. According to the women surveyed, however, very few (1.8%) of those who felt abused recovered memories of CSA with help from therapists or other professionals. As one of the few studies of CSA memories in a nationally representative sample, this study suggests that therapist-assisted recall is not a major source of CSA memories among women in the US general population.     

‘Beyond 2015’, within the modern/colonial global imaginary? Global development and higher education

Efforts to emphasize higher education’s role in development have grown in recent years, but important questions remain about the motivations and effects of these initiatives. In this paper, we employ the concept of a ‘modern/colonial global imaginary’ to consider the impact of the enduring power relations and uneven politics of knowledge in the relationship between higher education and development. Specifically, we consider the Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) ‘Beyond 2015’ campaign, which was launched in anticipation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals. We argue that despite the ACU’s intention to provide ‘a platform for diverse voices, particularly from the global South’, the campaign was structured in a way that discouraged dissenting perspectives. More broadly, we consider available possibilities and limitations for challenging mainstream development agendas.     

The PhD – is it out of alignment?

ABSTRACT

Globally there is recognition that doctoral programmes need to offer the opportunity for career pathways beyond academia, as PhD graduates are entering a range of careers. Consequently, some doctoral programmes now provide opportunities to develop a broader skill set. However, most PhD programmes in the United Kingdom and Australasia still concentrate on disciplinary knowledge and developing research skills. Moreover, the assessment has remained narrowly focused on a written thesis and an oral examination. Here we apply the notion of ‘constructive alignment’ to doctoral education and find that, even in terms of preparing PhD graduates for academic and research careers, the curriculum lacks opportunities to develop and assess relevant skills. The situation is even more extreme for wider careers beyond academia. To achieve alignment, we suggest providing more structured learning opportunities and personalised professional development plans with formative portfolios. If wanting true alignment in the PhD, a portfolio would be the summative assessment, but this is likely a step too far for a conservative academy.