BDSM Disclosure and Stigma Management: Identifying Opportunities for Sex Education

While participation in the activities like bondage, domination, submission/sadism, masochism that fall under the umbrella term BDSM is widespread, stigma surrounding BDSM poses risks to practitioners who wish to disclose their interest. We examined risk factors involved with disclosure to posit how sex education might diffuse stigma and warn of risks. Semi-structured interviews asked 20 adults reporting an interest in BDSM about their disclosure experiences. Most respondents reported their BDSM interests starting before age 15, sometimes creating a phase of anxiety and shame in the absence of reassuring information. As adults, respondents often considered BDSM central to their sexuality, thus disclosure was integral to dating. Disclosure decisions in nondating situations were often complex considerations balancing desire for appropriateness with a desire for connection and honesty. Some respondents wondered whether their interests being found out would jeopardize their jobs. Experiences with stigma varied widely.     

Flipped classrooms: implications for K-12 students with learning and behavioural challenges from an international exploratory study of teacher educators

Flipped classrooms represent a new instructional paradigm for presenting K-12 instruction. Whereas in traditional classrooms new content is taught during the school day and application activities are assigned for homework, in flipped classrooms students are expected to acquire new content by working through assigned tasks at home prior to the next day’s class. Subsequently, class time is used for application activities. To date, limited, conflicting analyses of research about the efficacy of the flipped classroom paradigm have been reported. This lack of a clear consensus is of concern for students with serious learning and/or behavioural challenges who have not been the focus of these analyses and whose learning characteristics arguably run counter to what students must do to be successful in flipped classrooms. The investigation reported herein addresses one aspect of the aforementioned void in the literature. Data from an international survey of teacher educators from 33 countries that ascertained their thoughts about the appropriateness of the flipped classroom paradigm for students with serious learning and/or behavioural challenges are reported. Results indicate that teacher educators have reservations about the appropriateness of flipped classrooms, but that their opinions are not fully informed by knowledge about, and experience with, these classrooms.     

Examining the Effects of Stress and Campus Climate on the Persistence of Students of Color and White Students: An Application of Bean and Eaton’s Psychological Model of Retention

The current study examined the effects of stress and campus climate perceptions on the persistence decisions of students of color and White students using Bean and Eaton’s (2000) Psychological Model of College Student Retention. A sample of first-year students (N = 1,491) at a predominantly White research university were survey enduring their second semester and their enrollment status was subsequently tracked after 2 years. Path analysis was conducted on the sample of students of color (n = 548) and White students (n = 943). Results indicated models that explained 27 % of the variance for students of color and 44 % of the variance for White students in persistence after 2 years of college. Among the initial 37 variables included in the models, 17 had significant direct and indirect effects on students’ of color persistence including observing racism on campus, having comfortable academic interactions, stress related to the academic environment, and feelings about the campus environment. For White students, 13 variables had significant direct and indirect effects on persistence, including having opportunities for diverse peer interactions and comfortable academic interactions, stress related to the social environment on campus, and feelings about the campus environment. The discussion highlights the usefulness of the Bean and Eaton model for examining retention for students of color and White students.     

At the Crossroads: How Physical Education Can Succeed in a Public Health Paradigm

Physical education (PE) can make meaningful contributions to public health by directly providing moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA) opportunities for school-aged youth. Quality PE aims to contribute indirectly to PA beyond the school day. Unfortunately, insufficient evidence exists regarding the impact of PE on lifelong PA. This has led PE to a crossroads. Moving straight through the crossroads adds comprehensive school physical activity program responsibilities to the PE teacher’s load. Turning left results in PE teachers being replaced by PA leaders. The right turn reaffirms that the aim of PE is to teach youth the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to become physically literate and active for life. The right turn is the most difficult because it requires systemically changing school PE that has remained stagnant for decades. Recommendations are presented that include embracing the comprehensive school physical activity program model, conducting research clearly defining the role of PE and directing the contributions of PE to broader public health aims.     

Using self- and peer-assessments for summative purposes: analysing the relative validity of the AASL (Authentic Assessment for Sustainable Learning) model

The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof of concept of a collaborative peer-, self- and lecturer assessment processes. The research presented here is part of an ongoing study on self- and peer assessments in higher education. The authentic assessment for sustainable learning (AASL) model is evaluated in terms of the correlations between sets of marks. The article provides an explanation of the assessment process, and analyses sets of marks as a means of justifying the validity of the process. The results suggest that students, even those with no prior experience in peer- or self-evaluation, in their first year of tertiary study, under the right conditions, are able to accurately judge their own work and make reasonably accurate judgements of the work of their peers. While previous studies have expounded the benefits of self- and peer assessments in tertiary study, undertaking a prescribed process, such as AASL, has a further implication in allowing others to replicate the process with reasonable assuredness of the validity of the process across various fields of study.     

Can Examinees Use Judgments of Item Difficulty to Improve Proficiency Estimates on Computerized Adaptive Vocabulary Tests?

Recent simulation studies indicate that there are occasions when examinees can use judgments of relative item difficulty to obtain positively biased proficiency estimates on computerized adaptive tests (CATs) that permit item review and answer change. Our purpose in the study reported here was to evaluate examinees' success in using these strategies while taking CATs in a live testing setting. We taught examinees two item difficulty judgment strategies designed to increase proficiency estimates. Examinees who were taught each strategy and examinees who were taught neither strategy were assigned at random to complete vocabulary CATs under conditions in which review was allowed after completing all items and when review was allowed only within successive blocks of items. We found that proficiency estimate changes following review were significantly higher in the regular review conditions than in the strategy conditions. Failure to obtain systematically higher scores in the strategy conditions was due in large part to errors examinees made in judging the relative difficulty of CAT items.     

Readers Theatre: effects on word recognition automaticity and reading prosody

In this quasi‐experimental study, the researchers examined the effects of implementing Readers Theatre in a second grade classroom, comprised of seven and eight‐year‐old students. The 70 subjects were chosen as a non‐probability sample from two different classes and served as the treatment (n = 29) and comparison (n = 41) groups. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed statistically significant interaction and time effects. The post hoc analysis of simple effects indicated that the Readers Theatre treatment yielded larger effects on word recognition automaticity and prosody. Practical implications of this study suggest that consistent implementation of Readers Theatre in grade two classrooms can have a large impact on students' reading fluency.