scholarly journals Assessing the impact of a Multi-Disciplinary Peer-Led-Team Learning Program on Undergraduates STEM Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Kerri Carlson ◽  
Dayius Turvold Celotta ◽  
Erin Curran ◽  
Mithra Marcus ◽  
Melissa Loe ◽  
...  

There has been a national call to transition away from the traditional, passive, lecture-based model of STEM education towards one that facilitates learning through active engagement and problem solving. This mixed-methods research study examines the impact of a supplemental Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) program on knowledge and skill acquisition for students in introductory biology, chemistry, calculus and applied statistics courses. Results indicate program participants reliably outperform their matched pairs in courses that emphasize quantitative reasoning. Moreover, program participants report acquiring important insights about learning, collaboration, and engagement in undergraduate STEM education. These results are consistent with previous findings on PLTL and also provide insight into the roles of course context and student population on program outcomes.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (Winter) ◽  
pp. 110-113
Author(s):  
Jeremy Gombin-Sperling

Since January 2018, my colleague and I have co-led a two-week, three-credit critical international service learning course to Santiago de Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Our course is designed to question and complicate students’ relationship to service through the use of intergroup dialogue pedagogy and theory. Intergroup dialogue (IGD) encourages students to understand one another across their social identities (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, ability, nationality, ability, etc.) by engaging in conversations around social issues and power that allow us to unpack our relationship to systems of oppression and inequality (Zúñiga 2003). My proposed research is focused on the 2020 iteration of this program and will look more closely at the impact on student learning to see how, if it all, students' ideas around identity, the nature of inequality, and the purpose of service shift throughout their experience abroad. Through analysis of student reflection journals and multiple interviews with participants, I hope to gain insight into this question. This research will add to the growing field of critical studies of international service learning by assessing whether or not our program and its pedagogy is able to undo oppressive ideologies and/or strengthen existing ideologies built on collective solidarity that our students carry regarding identity, inequality and service.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0247544
Author(s):  
Naneh Apkarian ◽  
Charles Henderson ◽  
Marilyne Stains ◽  
Jeffrey Raker ◽  
Estrella Johnson ◽  
...  

Six common beliefs about the usage of active learning in introductory STEM courses are investigated using survey data from 3769 instructors. Three beliefs focus on contextual factors: class size, classroom setup, and teaching evaluations; three focus on individual factors: security of employment, research activity, and prior exposure. The analysis indicates that instructors in all situations can and do employ active learning in their courses. However, with the exception of security of employment, trends in the data are consistent with beliefs about the impact of these factors on usage of active learning. We discuss implications of these results for institutional and departmental policies to facilitate the use of active learning.


Author(s):  
Jennifer A Halliday ◽  
Jane Speight ◽  
Sienna Russell-Green ◽  
Eric O ◽  
Virginia Hagger ◽  
...  

Abstract Diabetes distress is a common negative emotional response to the ongoing burden of living with diabetes. Elevated diabetes distress is associated with impaired diabetes self-management and quality of life yet rarely identified and addressed in clinical practice. Health professionals report numerous barriers to the provision of care for diabetes distress, including lack of skills and confidence, but few diabetes distress training opportunities exist. The purpose of this paper is to describe how we utilized Intervention Mapping to plan the development, implementation, and evaluation of a novel diabetes distress e-learning program for diabetes educators, to meet a well-documented need and significant gap in diabetes care. A multidisciplinary team (combining expertise in research, health and clinical psychology, diabetes education, nursing, tertiary education, and website architecture) developed a diabetes distress e-learning program. We followed a six-step process (logic model of the problem, program outcomes and objectives, program design, program production, program implementation plan, and evaluation plan) known as Intervention Mapping. The program is underpinned by educational and psychological theory, including Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and social cognitive theory. We developed a short (estimated 4 h) e-learning program for diabetes educators, which draws on the content of the Diabetes and Emotional Health handbook and toolkit. It integrates a 7As model, which provides a stepwise approach to identifying and addressing diabetes distress. Our diabetes distress e-learning program has been developed systematically, guided by an Intervention Mapping approach. In the next phase of the project, we will trial the e-learning.


Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072098169
Author(s):  
Aidan McKearney

This article focuses on the experiences of gay men in the rural west and northwest region of Ireland, during a period of transformational social and political change in Irish society. These changes have helped facilitate new forms of LGBTQI visibility, and local radicalism in the region. Same-sex weddings, establishment of rural LGBT groups and marching under an LGBT banner at St Patricks Day parades would have been unthinkable in the recent past; but they are now becoming a reality. The men report continuing challenges in their lives as gay men in the nonmetropolitan space, but the emergence of new visibility, voice and cultural acceptance of LGBT people is helping change their lived experiences. The study demonstrates the impact of local activist LGBT citizens. Through their testimonies we can gain an insight into the many, varied and interwoven factors that have interplayed to create the conditions necessary for the men to: increasingly define themselves as gay to greater numbers of people in their localities; to embrace greater visibility and eschew strategies of silence; and aspire to a host of legal, political, cultural and social rights including same-sex marriage. Organic forms of visibility and local radicalism have emerged in the region and through an analysis of their testimonies we can see how the men continue to be transformed by an ever-changing landscape.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026975802110106
Author(s):  
Raoul Notté ◽  
E.R. Leukfeldt ◽  
Marijke Malsch

This article explores the impact of online crime victimisation. A literature review and 41 interviews – 19 with victims and 22 with experts – were carried out to gain insight into this. The interviews show that most impacts of online offences correspond to the impacts of traditional offline offences. There are also differences with offline crime victimisation. Several forms of impact seem to be specific to victims of online crime: the substantial scale and visibility of victimhood, victimisation that does not stop in time, the interwovenness of online and offline, and victim blaming. Victims suffer from double, triple or even quadruple hits; it is the accumulation of different types of impact, enforced by the limitlessness in time and space, which makes online crime victimisation so extremely invasive. Furthermore, the characteristics of online crime victimisation greatly complicate the fight against and prevention of online crime. Finally, the high prevalence of cybercrime victimisation combined with the severe impact of these crimes seems contradictory with public opinion – and associated moral judgments – on victims. Further research into the dominant public discourse on victimisation and how this affects the functioning of the police and victim support would be valuable.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 771-771
Author(s):  
Miriam Morey ◽  
Cathy Lee

Abstract In recognition of the GSA’s 75th Anniversary “Why Age Matters” we celebrate the 7th anniversary of the Gerofit dissemination initiative. Gerofit is an exercise and health promotion program for older Veterans that has been declared a Veterans Health Administration (VA) “Best Practice” and been disseminated to 17 VA’s across the country. Over 7000 Veterans have participated in Gerofit initiated programs and have reported robust outcomes including improved quality of life, physical and mental health, and high levels of satisfaction with the programs. For this symposium, we focus on newly acquired program outcomes that emphasize the importance of fitness as we age. The first paper compares hospitalization and emergency room visits between individuals participating in Gerofit for 12 months compared to a matched control group. The second paper describes four-year trajectories of physical performance to highlight the impact of becoming fit over expected normative trajectories. The third paper examines outcomes of a home-based geriatric walking clinic. The fourth paper describes the impact of exercise adherence on chronic pain. The fifth paper describes changes in medication utilization compared to a matched control group following 12-months of supervised exercise. These papers highlight the importance of fitness as a contributor to overall health during the aging process and celebrates that fitness matters, no matter when you start!


BMC Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bimandra A. Djaafara ◽  
Charles Whittaker ◽  
Oliver J. Watson ◽  
Robert Verity ◽  
Nicholas F. Brazeau ◽  
...  

Abstract Background As in many countries, quantifying COVID-19 spread in Indonesia remains challenging due to testing limitations. In Java, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were implemented throughout 2020. However, as a vaccination campaign launches, cases and deaths are rising across the island. Methods We used modelling to explore the extent to which data on burials in Jakarta using strict COVID-19 protocols (C19P) provide additional insight into the transmissibility of the disease, epidemic trajectory, and the impact of NPIs. We assess how implementation of NPIs in early 2021 will shape the epidemic during the period of likely vaccine rollout. Results C19P burial data in Jakarta suggest a death toll approximately 3.3 times higher than reported. Transmission estimates using these data suggest earlier, larger, and more sustained impact of NPIs. Measures to reduce sub-national spread, particularly during Ramadan, substantially mitigated spread to more vulnerable rural areas. Given current trajectory, daily cases and deaths are likely to increase in most regions as the vaccine is rolled out. Transmission may peak in early 2021 in Jakarta if current levels of control are maintained. However, relaxation of control measures is likely to lead to a subsequent resurgence in the absence of an effective vaccination campaign. Conclusions Syndromic measures of mortality provide a more complete picture of COVID-19 severity upon which to base decision-making. The high potential impact of the vaccine in Java is attributable to reductions in transmission to date and dependent on these being maintained. Increases in control in the relatively short-term will likely yield large, synergistic increases in vaccine impact.


2021 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 101795
Author(s):  
Xinyu He ◽  
Tingting Li ◽  
Ofir Turel ◽  
Yong Kuang ◽  
Hui Zhao ◽  
...  

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