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Previous research has identified the saliency of gendered experiences in sport industry and educational settings. Drawing from self-categorization theory to better understand the impact of in- and out-group membership on experiences and perceptions, the purpose of this study was to examine college students' perceptions of gender in both the sport industry and their sport management discipline. Data were collected from a sport management student population at a moderately sized, urban-serving university using an exploratory questionnaire. Descriptive and bivariate results indicate statistically significant differences in perceptions of equality, fairness, and experiences between male and female sport management students. Results, which are in alignment with previous research, are discussed along with study limitations.

Purpose: This case study is based on the Women in Agri-Tech programme, a teacher professional development programme that aimed to build teachers' capabilities to use Agri-Tech in their agriculture/STEM classes to increase student awareness of agriculture technology and its associated career paths. Teachers and agriculture industry partners co-created Agri-Tech modules, which were implemented and evaluated from teachers' and students' perspectives. This paper demonstrates how work-related learning that emphasises technology can increase the visibility of career pathways and how multi-stakeholder benefits can evolve from teacher-industry partnerships. Design/methodology/approach: An action research design using quantitative and qualitative methods was used to construct this case study. Data collection methods included surveys, interviews, peer evaluation and teacher reflections. Findings: Teacher professional development that incorporates teacher-industry partnerships can increase teachers' self-efficacy and build confidence to support authentic work-related learning in their classes. Integrating technology into agriculture/STEM classes can increase the visibility of agriculture career paths for students, which is critical given the serious skills shortage in this sector. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited in that the Women in Agri-Tech professional development programme was one standalone programme tailored specifically for women agriculture/STEM teachers through a competitive process. However, the beneficial implications of such programmes that support teacher-industry engagement have far-reaching benefits. Teacher professional development programmes that provide opportunities to partner with industry can support improvements in integrating career-aligned learning into the curriculum and can specifically address industry skills and knowledge gaps by addressing school-based learning requirements for the future workforce. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature on education-industry partnerships and considers how teachers can contribute to an early intervention sector workforce development strategy for future industry sustainability.

3D-printing (3DP) is a rapidly evolving sector and is advancing at an unmatched pace. Integrating digital-based approaches to disseminate knowledge within institutional curricula is crucial for mainstreaming knowledge. This work explores the development of a virtual lab (VL) for additive manufacturing (AM), using an interactive VL simulator. The VL's experiments encompass anatomy, assembly, techniques, preprocessing, and postprocessing modules on AM. The aim of this dedicated AM VL is to facilitate digital education on 3DP among educational institutions. A case study compares the efficacy of VL to physical experimentation. Two groups of 30 students each provided feedback before and after conducting experiments in the physical laboratory and on the VL, respectively. The comparison elucidates how integrating the VL with traditional teaching pedagogy can be a progressive step in teaching AM in educational institutions. The teaching pedagogy approach is both cost-effective and time efficient. The developed VL offers unlimited access and availability for students to learn at their own pace. The design of the 3DP virtual simulation lab incorporates an inclusive align-act-assess approach, wherein each module includes related theory, aim, procedure, simulator interface, pretest, and posttest to align with this approach.

Technology Mandatory (Tech Mandatory) is a compulsory subject for New South Wales (NSW) Stage 4 students and aims to engage students in production and design activities applicable to Agriculture and Food Technologies (AFT), Digital Technologies (DT), Engineered Systems and Material Technologies. The GPS Cows Module, an agricultural education module focused on livestock and Global Positioning System (GPS) livestock data, was co-designed by the NSW Department of Education and CQUniversity Australia. Teachers had previously expressed concern about being able to successfully teach some content of the Tech Mandatory curriculum's AFT and DT components. Accordingly, the GPS Cows Module focused on livestock production and using digital solutions to address real-world problems. To introduce teachers to the GPS Cows Module and increase Module uptake, several one-day professional learning workshops were run in 2018 and 2019 across NSW, Australia. A post-workshop survey was used to evaluate the GPS Cows Module and the suitability of content related to AFT and DT learning outcomes. Participants agreed or strongly agreed that the Module content would address some of the AFT (92.8% combined) and DT (95.5% combined) outcomes of the curriculum. Over 72% of participants felt their students would find GPS Cows engaging and were excited to teach the Module. However, there were some barriers to implementation including perceptions of student ability, access to technology, teacher confidence and time. Overall, the GPS Cows Module comprises of high-quality content to address some of the AFT and DT outcomes of the Tech Mandatory curriculum. Additionally, it reinforces the importance of authentic data, real-life case studies, and a variety of accompanying resources to effectively implement into a teaching program.

In Kenya there are an increasing number of applied theatre and peacebuilding projects taking place. Currently, the perspectives and experiences of those undertaking this work, on the ground, are not adequately reflected in academic discourse or in the processes of setting up projects or establishing modes of support and collaboration. In this article we address this by outlining findings from a series of two-day workshops with theatre practitioners. In doing so, we map the challenges practitioners face, the skills and knowledges they feel they already have, those they lack, and the future support and opportunities they would value.

Sensory processing abilities are highly variable within and across people diagnosed with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined the transdiagnostic nature of sensory processing abilities, and their association with features of autism and ADHD, in a large sample of autistic people (n = 495) and people with ADHD (n = 461). Five similar data-driven sensory phenotypes characterized sensory processing abilities, and showed similar patterns of association with features of autism and ADHD, across both diagnostic groups. These results demonstrate the transdiagnostic nature of sensory processing abilities, while contributing to a growing body of literature that suggests the autism and ADHD diagnostic labels have poor explanatory power.

Purpose: This paper explores teacher perceptions of agriculture and the subsequent influence of these perceptions on student career pursual in the sector. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative study used a post-workshop survey to evaluate 185 Technology Mandatory teachers' knowledge, experience and perceptions of the agricultural sector. Findings: Participant's connection to agriculture was related to their childhood and current school locations. Childhood upbringing in a town or rural setting also impacted participants having an agriculture-related qualification, the likelihood of encouraging students to consider a career in agriculture, and an increased understanding of the job opportunities in the sector. Practical implications: This study highlights the importance of direct experiences with agriculture to increase teacher knowledge and perception of the sector and to encourage agriculture as a potential career for students, particularly if a teacher's childhood or school location is in a major city. Theoretical implications: The findings of this research provide preliminary evidence that formative learning experiences, exposure and education has an impact on perceptions of agriculture and these in turn are associated with teacher endorsement of careers in this area to their students. Originality/value: There are limited studies that highlight the current perceptions of teachers in Australia about agriculture as a career.

Two-year community college (CC) students face many barriers for recruitment and retention into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and vertical transfer to 4-year universities (4YUs). Experiential learning, mentoring, and cohort building are effective mechanisms for increasing STEM recruitment and retention, and close collaborations between CCs and 4YUs leverage complementary opportunities, supporting vertical transfer. We present a case study incorporating these concepts for a year-long Geoscience Education and Outreach Program (GEOP), a collaboration among a CC, a 4YU, and a non-profit science center, where 20 CC students participated in integrated academic, research, and internship components over three years. We present program design, implementation, revision, and outcomes for both students and institutions. Cohort-building activities encouraged professional conversations and built peer connections that addressed imposter syndrome, cultural divides, and other personal barriers to vertical transfer. The academic component had the highest completion rate, and a majority of respondents in exit interviews reported the internship as the most valuable experience, with half naming research or aspects thereof as most valuable. The vertical transfer exceeded typical CC rates, with 70% of GEOP students transferring to a 4YU, all in STEM disciplines. Successful implementation of GEOP required multi-institutional coordination, effective mentor-mentor and mentor-student communication, and program flexibility. Based upon our experiences, we provide several recommendations for implementation of similar programs.

This rich, longitudinally descriptive study provides an examination of program outcomes, student characteristics, and workforce outcomes of the Houston-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (H-LSAMP) program. Utilizing data from the University of Houston's Education Research Center, this study offers a detailed analysis of the long-term effects of participation in the H-LSAMP program, from high school to university and into the workforce. Findings from this study revealed that only 25% of the high school campuses attended by H-LSAMP students had a high proportion of economically disadvantaged students. In addition, nearly 75% of undergraduate students enrolled in the program graduated within the timeframe of the study, half of which were from Black and Latinx backgrounds.

In this new decade of the twenty-first century, research reports the same concerns about agricultural literacy in primary and high school students globally. A systematic review of agricultural literacy studies published between 2000 and 2020 which assess the agricultural literacy of the target population; evaluated an agricultural education program or curriculum; or developed instruments to measure agricultural literacy was conducted. The review method followed an internationally recognized protocol for selecting, screening, analyzing, and reporting outcomes. Results found that definitions of agricultural literacy have evolved from an awareness to a measure of a deeper understanding developed throughout the years of formal schooling by both formal and informal education and experiences. Informal agricultural knowledge may be gained through numerous sources and misconceptions are apparent even among those with informal familial knowledge networks. Developing agricultural literacy in school-aged children through formal education is critical. Recommendations offer innovative ways of developing agriculturally literate young people that can be used to design, deliver and evaluate programs which aim to increase the agricultural literacy of primary and secondary students across the globe.

The academic achievement of Black boys in the U.S. has been declining, and Black male mentorship can positively change these outcomes. Schools have tried many interventions to help Black boys receive the academic, social, and emotional support they need to close the performance gap. Some case studies have proven that Black male mentorship works. Bobby J. Rodgers Jr. and Devery J. Rodgers examine Black male student academic performance and propose Black male mentoring as a solution that offers promise in closing the performance gap.

Faculty have conducted many studies on the relationship between learning mode and student performance but few researchers have evaluated final grades, grade distribution, and pass rates in a sophomore introductory statistics course with a non-traditional student population who self-selected the learning mode from among different course sections. Accordingly, we examined 307 end-of-course grades from four different modes of instruction: (1) online; (2) videosynchronous learning classroom; (3) videosynchronous learning home; and (4) traditional classroom in an introductory statistics course. All data on grades, which included pass rate and grade distribution, were collected from the nine-week January 2019 term. All learning modes used the same text, syllabus, assignments, quizzes, and tests. In this study, learning mode was not significantly related to end-of-course score, final grade distribution, or pass rate. Future researchers should explore the impacts of gender, instructor quality, different term lengths, and the standardized use of textbooks and syllabi on student performance when exploring the impact of learning mode on grades, grade distribution, and pass rates.

When teachers harbor misconceptions or unjustified beliefs about teaching, learning, and academic motivation, the pedagogical consequences can be severe. It is likely these teachers will unintentionally perpetuate such false beliefs upon students through ineffective teaching strategies or misinterpretations of learning science. Misconceptions among K-12 teachers are particularly deleterious due to the substantial influence teacher beliefs exert upon curriculum development, pedagogy, and the construction of effective learning environments. Prior research has explicated the prevalence of erroneous beliefs about general psychology and neuroscience among various populations but has rarely examined teachers' misconceptions about pertinent topics in educational psychology. Consequently, this review highlights theoretical, inferential, and measurement concerns specifically related to educational psychology misconceptions. Recommendations for future research and the development of appropriate instrumentation to measure and mitigate educational psychology misconceptions are also discussed.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, students' right to education has been threatened globally, and medical colleges are not an exception to this. During COVID-19 induced lockdown, medical colleges had to resort to online classes instead of regular academic sessions. Medical colleges and other higher education institutions in India faced a challenge in determining on how to engage their students in the learning process and assess them using reliable, effective and acceptable methods. Now that the COVID pandemic is nearly over, many medical colleges have already started regular sessions. At the same time, some continue to use online lectures and other tools for engaging their learners in addition to regular classes. Medical colleges also used different online tools for formative assessments. But the effectiveness of such online educational activities is yet to be established in India. This article discusses how unsupervised online tests can be used for formative and summative exams in post-COVID medical education.

The Catholic, Jesuit inspired mission of Saint Louis University (SLU) -- "the pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity" -- firmly places serving humanity in line with the institution's goal for academic excellence. Importantly, service in the tradition of Catholic, Jesuit education is embedded in a broader vocational goal of forming people to build a just and equitable society. It remains to be seen in what manner and to what degree SLU students reflect the qualities such experiences are intended to aid and develop. What follows is an attempt to identify contemporary expressions of Ignatian education, a well-educated solidarity, depth of thought, and depth of imagination, within the students who took part in community engagement activities supported by SLU's Center for Service and Community Engagement. The present study drew upon assessment data from three distinct undergraduate experiences. Each of the three attributes were evident, either directly or in a latent form appropriate to the nature of the activity and the level of the student participants. While it is not possible to quantify a direct measure, the results indicate that the programs are generally succeeding in promoting an Ignatian inspired formation for its students.

Despite the debates surrounding online private tutoring, most scholars agree that the private tutor approach provides much positive insight to be adopted. The present study measures the students' intention in using online private tutoring. The measurement was conducted with a structural equation model analysis. The expectation confirmation model was used as the measurement instrument. A total of 150 students across Indonesia were analyzed as the case study. Five hypotheses were proposed to be tested. The result highlights the acceptance of most hypotheses except for the fourth hypothesis. Confirmation to Perceived Usefulness is revealed to have the most substantial relationship. Perceived Usefulness is revealed to be a significant predictor of Continuance Intention with the mediation of Satisfaction. The insight in this study can help online private tutoring providers improve the service and public education to narrow the gap between the advancement of the private sector in education and the educational sector as a whole. Further discussion and implications were also presented in this study.

Recently, there has been a demand for increased educational technology usage in the university classroom, despite expanded access and implementation there has been little attention paid to student data privacy concerns. Our work is one institution's response to addressing the data privacy gap by creating a comprehensive review process for educational technology discernment and adoption. Our review process provides a critical degree of reliability and validity for informed decision-making surrounding educational technology selection. We prioritize the frames of safety, pedagogy, consistency, and accessibility throughout the review. With the creation of this review process educational technology stakeholders can make empirically based decisions regarding educational technologies. While this work is only one institution's response, we believe that this process and approach can empower a broad set of stakeholders to consider their method behind adopting educational technologies.

A substantial amount of scholarly work focuses on conceptualizing, theorizing and studying the policy capacity of governments. Yet, guidance for practitioners on developing policy capacity training programs is lacking. In this article, I reflect on my experience as a public servant in the provincial government of Prince Edward Island where I designed and implemented the Policy Capacity Development and Mentorship Program for civil servants, recent graduates and students. In this article, I offer a descriptive overview of the framework and logic of the program and discuss how I integrated policy capacity theory. This article may serve other practitioners who seek to implement similar programs in their respective organizations and provides a base for future interventions. The article also offers thoughts on practitioner-led collaboration with academics and recommendations for those who would like to establish similar programs in their organizations.

This review of the literature covers 5 major areas within the graduate admissions process: (a) the decentralized nature of graduate admissions; (b) the types of materials that are collected as part of the application process, including standardized test scores; (c) the variety of admissions models that are used to make admissions decisions; (d) training and tools used by graduate admissions committees to support the graduate admissions process; and (e) admitting diverse applicants. The literature review concludes with a discussion of the findings and the areas for future research.

Elemental analysis is performed in a variety of ways in food and environmental sciences; thus, we have designed an activity in which students gain experience with research-level lab techniques in a real-world context through the quantification of key elements in breakfast cereals using microwave plasma optical emission spectroscopy (MP-OES). The experiment described here is a skill building assignment to scaffold into more advanced projects with research-level instrumentation and in analytical chemistry courses. Students compare their results to the nutrition facts published by the distributors in order to identify their cereals, emphasizing precision and accuracy in instrumental analysis and good standard operating procedures (SOPs). Although cereals were chosen on the basis of the relevance of fortified minerals in this study, variations of this method may be used for the analysis of different food products. The student learning objectives of this experiment include developing SOPs for emission spectroscopy, creating and using standard curves to determine detection limits and elemental concentrations, presenting results using the proper format along with using statistical techniques such as standard deviation and method detection limit, and writing a report following the form of a technical journal article. MP-OES is a relatively new, sensitive, and inexpensive technique for elemental analysis, making it a practical choice for an undergraduate laboratory.

This study details the mentored research component of a program intended to recruit, retain, and transfer students attending a two-year college (2YC) to four-year geosciences programs. Eighteen of 20 students who started the program were from minoritized backgrounds: 12 women, six racial/ethnic minorities, 12 low-income, and 13 first-generation college attendees. During a calendar year, students engaged in faculty-mentored research at a 4-year university (4YU), coursework at the 2YC, and a paid six-week internship in geoscience education. Students were to spend at least five hours weekly on research February-June and make a public presentation of results in December. Of 11 students who completed their research projects, 10 were minoritized students. Eight of 11 transferred into a science major. Students progressed the most in research when working together on a project designed for them and regularly meeting in-person with their mentors. Student exit interviews indicated that they valued the research experience and the skills gained. However, less progress occurred in the summer than planned, and students cited challenges in commuting to the 4YU due to jobs and personal commitments. Mentor-student matching produced mixed success. Based on the findings, we recommend incorporating a mini-internship with each mentor into the spring course, then pairing the students with one project and mentor for the summer and fall. Funding the research hours in addition to the internship would help alleviate financial burdens on students. Finally, all mentors would benefit from training together to better understand the mindsets of 2YC students and effectively accommodate individual needs.

Feedback is a complex socio-cultural construct, utilising various modalities over the lifespan of a research candidature. This study reports findings from a review of global literature on supervisory feedback to postgraduate research students. Three focus questions guided the review: students' problems in receiving feedback, perceptions of positive feedback strategies, and potential improvements to the feedback process. The review method combined a systematic search process with explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria applied to literature published over the last decade. A detailed content analysis of 43 articles is reported in a thematically ordered narrative. Findings suggested that problems with feedback were found to be caused by the content, processes involved and the expectations of those involved. Second, feedback strategies that positively impacted learning and teaching capabilities of both students and supervisors were identified as most effective. Third, improvements to the feedback process were canvassed through the three key actors of institutions, supervisors and students, providing insights into the synergistic relationship among these actors. Further research is warranted as feedback processes and products are at the mercy of research supervision, which is increasingly operating in online environments spanning different time zones, with professional, cultural and linguistic diversities impacting feedback processes and products.

The rigid architectures inherent within formal schooling continue to influence young people's disengagement from education. Globally and locally, policy makers have proposed education reform and innovation, politicians have legislated for education change, yet still the problem of disengagement remains. This paper investigates one community's effort to support the reengagement in learning of young people aged 15-18 years in regional Australia through a flexible, online, community-based education program. Theoretically, this study used critical discourse as a way in to expose so as to explain dimensions of power and ideological positions as to what counts as learning. Critical ethnography as a methodology extended critical discourse's explanatory authority to a naming of spatial and social architectures and their impact on the young people's lives. Discourses of a braided curriculum, structural conviviality and emotional well-being were found to reduce some barriers to reengagement in learning; develop a shared, multi-disciplinary approach to reengagement; and be inclusive of young people's emotional well-being as central to the reengagement process. At this time of pandemic induced online learning as the new normal on a global scale, young people who are already vulnerable due to individual, school, and socio-cultural marginalising conditions deserve research processes with outcomes valorising their voices and those who work with them.

This paper aims to identify and synthesise research related to industry perspectives of industry school partnerships (ISPs) with primary and secondary students globally. A systematic review of ISP studies published between 2001 and 2021 that included industry perspectives was undertaken in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol. This focused systematically ordered review of industry perspectives of ISPs elicited four key findings: 1. Limited research specifically focusing on industry participants' perceptions of career and knowledge sharing ISPs exist. 2. The most common reasons for participation included promoting careers and/or their industry, and enhancing community goodwill. 3. The most common barriers or challenges in participating included time, budget and process constraints, and understanding the partnership's impact. 4. Communication, trust, relationships, and setting clear goals are often important features highlighted for successful partnerships. The recommendations from this review will be used to design, deliver and evaluate ISPs which aim to benefit agricultural industry participants. Future research will apply the findings from this review to a rural case site in Victoria, Australia, focused on agricultural ISPs aimed at increasing students' aspirations for a career in the sector. This is vital as agriculture is an important industry in this region, yet many students are unaware of the range of career opportunities available to them.

The GPS Cows Module is a co-developed, Australian resource that aims to increase the knowledge and skills of high school students in emerging agricultural technologies. It aligns with many outcomes in the New South Wales (NSW) Stage 4 Technology Mandatory Syllabus, a compulsory subject for Stage 4 students (Years 7-8), that engages students in production and design activities for agriculture, food and other technologies. GPS Cows is a complete resource that teachers can apply into their teaching program. To facilitate the knowledge, skills and confidence required to implement the module, a one-day workshop was offered to NSW teachers in 2018 and 2019. To evaluate the workshop, participants completed a survey containing open- and closed-ended questions. Additionally, classroom clickers were used throughout the workshop to gauge the development of skills, knowledge and confidence over time. Overall, the workshop was well received, with over 98% of respondents enjoying the workshop and 97% indicating that the workshop was a good use of time. Positive aspects included the activities and engagement with data analytics, the resources provided, and the clear link between agricultural technologies and the real world. Identified improvements included the time allotted for workshop activities and minor changes to the resource. In conclusion, the professional development workshops enabled teachers to successfully implement GPS Cows in their teaching program.

The escalating price of instructional materials creates significant economic and academic hardship for many students. Open educational resources (OER) are instructional materials that are typically electronic and copyrighted under a license that allows free student use. Adopting OER is one strategy that has gained traction from higher education institutions and faculty to increase textbook usage while decreasing material costs. However, effective implementation of alternative resources requires a consideration of user perceptions, resource efficacy, and barriers to adoption. Thus, a systematic review of 97 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2002 and 2023 was conducted to answer three research questions: (1) what are student and faculty perceptions of OER; (2) which incentives and barriers impact OER adoption and use; and (3) what is the impact of OER on student achievement? Analysis of findings suggested that students and faculty have positive views of OER and believe they are of similar quality to paid instructional materials. Across culturally diverse studies, faculty and students reported incentives such as cost savings, accessibility, and increased academic engagement when using OER, but also reported technological and institutional barriers to using and adopting these materials. Student academic performance is stable across course grades, exam grades, and retention rates when using OER and especially beneficial for disadvantaged student achievement. Practical implications for instructors, university administrators, and researchers are advanced to mitigate barriers toward OER utilization and to enhance the potential for academic effectiveness.

Objective: Despite the availability of high-paying, high-demand careers, few women and students from underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities enter undergraduate programs understanding what the geosciences are and associated available career opportunities. This problem is compounded for students from backgrounds underrepresented in the United States. High-impact practices, such as mentoring, internships, undergraduate research experiences, and cohort-building, increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math at 4-year institutions. What is not yet clear is the impact these interventions have on underrepresented students at two-year colleges, where the STEM pathway has become a main postsecondary school entry point for these students due to the affordability, flexibility, and academic support provided. Therefore, we designed, implemented, and researched a year-long program providing underrepresented students at a two-year college exposure to several of these experiences. Methods: We interviewed program participants about their perceptions and experiences in the program. Analysis proceeded using constant comparison. Results: Participants reported benefits from networking opportunities, gains in confidence, and gains in job skills, while some reported challenges for participation such as communication and time expectation conflicts; participants also struggled to balance the program with employment needs on top of school requirements. Different aspects of the program benefited different students, suggesting that all of these experiences could support recruitment and foster interest in geoscience for underrepresented students at two-year colleges. Conclusion: We conclude with implications for future research, program enhancements, and time constraint and mentoring needs related to characteristics of two-year college students.

High attrition rates from university-based enabling programs continue to be the subject of much research and administrative effort. Understanding the factors behind decisions to withdraw from such programs is difficult since those who do not successfully complete an enabling program may not readily agree to participate in research into their motivations for enrolling, and reasons for withdrawal, leaving them silent in the literature. Students who are relatively successful with enabling study have "insider" perceptions to share concerning the motivations of their fellow students, and the barriers some face. They can provide unique insights into factors behind the intractable problem of high attrition from enabling programs and the low rates of articulation into university study.

Informal learning organizations such as museums, zoos, aquaria, gardens, and community-based organizations are often positioned as having programming that fill a void that may exist in the lives of youth participants. Often these institutions do not recognize the assets that youth gain from their own homes and communities and bring to bear in these programs and that contribute to their success and persistence in STEM and academics. In this paper, we problematize the prevailing deficit-oriented approach to STEM enrichment programs for youth who are underrepresented in STEM. Drawing from Tara Yosso's theory of community cultural wealth, we describe the STEM identity and trajectories of three individuals as they navigated a long-term, museum-based, informal science learning program. Using Yosso's framework, we describe the capital that youth brought into the program and the ways that they leveraged this capital as they moved from middle to high school, and into their postsecondary studies and early careers in the sciences. Furthermore, we describe how their existing capital intertwined with capital they gained from the museum program in ways that fostered persistence and achievement in science.

The formation of students' moral character is a critical part of civic engagement programs in US higher education. This is especially evident in Catholic, Jesuit education, which emphasizes pedagogical practices at the intersection of faith and justice. Advances in the fields of moral psychology and civic education, particularly service-learning, further clarify the vision of justice found in both the Jesuit tradition and the emancipatory ideals of American democracy. The influence of the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Saint Louis University, a mid-sized Jesuit institution in the Midwestern United States, signals a way for making this vision a reality through "social projection."

This photo essay reflects on Rafiki Theatre's recent work exploring Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) issues in refugee camps in Northern Uganda. The images portray the context, challenges and ways in which Rafiki responded to the aims set by the project donor.

Two critical challenges in science education are how to engage students in the practices of science and how to develop and sustain interest. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which high school youth, the majority of whom are members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM, learn the skills and practices of science and in turn develop interest in conducting scientific research as part of their career pursuits. To accomplish this goal, we applied Hidi and Renninger's well-tested theoretical framework for studying interest development in the context of a museum-based, informal science education (ISE) program. We used a mixed methods approach, incorporating both survey and interview data, to address three research questions: (1) As youth engage in authentic science research, do they develop perceived competence in mastering the skills and practices of science? (2) Do participants increase, maintain, or decrease interest in science research as a result of this experience? (3) How does participation in scientific practices manifest in non-program contexts? Our study yielded three main results. First, we found that participants developed competence in mastering several of the skills and practices of science. Strikingly, there was significant improvement in self-reported level of competency for 15 specific research skills. Second, we found that participants maintained their interest in scientific research over time. Our post-survey results revealed that one hundred percent of students were either excited about or expressed deep interest in scientific research. Based on a Phases of Interest Development Rubric developed for this study, most participants exhibited emerging individual interest. Finally, participants exhibited significant increases in the frequency in which they engaged in scientific practices outside of the program. Our findings suggest that participation in authentic research in an ISE context affords youth critical opportunities for gaining mastery of several of the skills and practices of science, which in turn reinforces, and in some cases increases participants' interest in scientific research beyond the span of the program.

An interactive open-source calculus textbook is compared to a popular commercial textbook. Structured as a non-inferiority study, use of the open-source textbook does not harm student outcomes, and there is evidence that the open-source textbook is better than the commercial textbook in promoting post-course enjoyment of mathematics and confidence in mathematical ability. The open-source textbook is viewed to be more readable as well. Given that open-source textbooks are more affordable, better aligned with the values of academia, and may result in similar student outcomes, committees tasked with deciding which textbook to adopt should consider this open-source textbook.

While there is extensive evidence that STEM careers can be important pathways for augmenting social mobility and for increasing individual prestige, many youth perceive a STEM trajectory as an unattractive option. In the USA, women and members of historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups continue to be underrepresented across STEM disciplines. One vehicle for generating and sustaining interest in STEM is providing youth long-term access to informal science education (ISE) institutions. Here, we incorporate triangulation methods, collecting and synthesizing both qualitative and quantitative data, to examine how participation in a longitudinal ISE out-of-school time (OST) program facilitated by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) impacted the STEM trajectories of 66 alumni. Findings revealed that 83.2% of alumni engaged in a STEM major, and 63.1% in a STEM career, the majority whom were females and/or members of historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Based on interviews with a purposeful sample of 21 AMNH alumni, we identified four program design principles that contributed to persistence in STEM: (1) affording multiple opportunities to become practitioners of science; (2) providing exposure to and repeated experiences with STEM professionals such as scientists, educators, and graduate students to build social networks; (3) furnishing opportunities for participants to develop shared science identities with like-minded individuals; and (4) offering exposure to and preparation for a variety of STEM majors and STEM careers so that youth can engage in discovering possible selves. These findings support our central thesis that long-term engagement in ISE OST programs fosters persistence in STEM.

Concerns have been raised internationally about whether alternative learning programmes are producing low-skilled labourers for rapidly disappearing twenty-first-century jobs. Researchers claim that learners in alternative programmes are more at risk due to the focus on low-level vocational and basic skill attainment, with a lack of formal academic pathways available to them. This article questions whether and in what ways an alternative learning programme supports young people to achieve successful transitions to sustainable social mobility for informed citizenship through a holistic approach to learning; or if class stratification is being re/enforced through systems' accountability discourses. Hesitant hopes in alternative learning are explored through an ethnographic study of one alternative learning programme across five sites in regional Australia. Contextually, not-for-profit community agencies provide physical infrastructures as well as youth workers and volunteers, while a publicly funded School of Distance Education provides teacher oversight of the curriculum. Findings suggest that the theme of 'hesitant hope' is constructed through the analysis of the discourses of supporting wellbeing, life skill development and academic learning. These discourses facilitate further analysis of the concept of social mobility, suggesting a conceptual starting point for an engaging critique of the differing perspectives on how support could be providing these marginalised young people with a sense of hope for a socially mobile future.

Justice education in the Catholic, Jesuit tradition is filled with tensions, many of which surface in different community service contexts. Saint Louis University offers an institutional illustration of these tensions, both in the conceptual origins of justice education and in the practical ways that students make meaning from service experiences. The overall work of the University's Center for Service and Community Engagement is one of the practical offshoots of the Jesuit mission to simultaneously promote faith and justice in a unifying vision. We focus on two specific student-led initiatives aimed at combatting hunger and homelessness in the St. Louis community as a way to illustrate the tension between structural and personal expressions of justice, as well as to highlight the important synergies that emerge when these complementary modalities are reconciled.

This study investigated proportional reasoning and the related concepts of decimal, percent, and ratio. In particular, the research focused on analyzing the gaps and understandings that grades 6, 7, and 8 students have and advanced factors for such gaps and understandings. The study employed a mixed method approach in which quantitative data was collected and analyzed in the first phase. The hypothesis that differences in mean performance of students on the test among grades 6, 7, and 8 would be statistically significant was not supported by the data. The second phase involved collection of qualitative data, specifically interviews and documents observation. The interview data revealed that several factors relating to the learner, task, and strategy were responsible for the gaps and understandings. Implication for planning, instruction, and assessment is discussed.

It has been observed that students shy away from the study of Mathematics even though it is a back bone of science and technology. This is confirmed by the negative attitude and poor performance of students in Mathematics especially at primary colleges' level. It is this background that prompted the research into the problems faced by lecturers and students in teaching and learning of "approximation" in primary colleges of education. The study was aimed at identifying problems and suggesting measures to improve performance. The study adopted the descriptive survey design using simple frequency and percentages in analyzing data. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select one hundred and ninety eight (198) students from four (4) randomly selected colleges of education on the Copperbelt Province and eighteen (18) lecturers were purposively selected from the same colleges. Data were collected by means of two questionnaires administered to students and lecturers. The five (5) points' Likert-type rating scale was adopted for the questionnaire responses which was of the types, strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. Some of the findings that emerged were related to personality of the lecturers, characteristics of students, nature of the curriculum, learning environments and government policies on education. Based on these findings, it was recommended that (i) the government should endeavor to provide the necessary infrastructure and facilities that will motivate teaching and learning of mathematics. (ii) Government should send lecturers for training and seminars for effective teaching and learning. The researcher recommended that colleges should invest in improving the classroom environment by reducing the lecturer-student ratio and offer incentives to lecturers in colleges of education.

This report introduces the "WorkFORCE"™ Assessment for Job Fit, a personality assessment utilizing the "FACETS"™ core capability, which is based on innovations in forced-choice assessment and computer adaptive testing. The instrument is derived from the fivefactor model (FFM) of personality and encompasses a broad spectrum of personality assessment. This document provides an overview of the assessment, beginning with detailing evidence-based practices for personality measurement and modeling its relationship to workplace outcomes.We address the validity and fairness of this assessment, the creation of composite scores, and the generalizability of the assessment across languages and job types. We conclude with recommendations on the use of this capability for workforce applications and guidelines for future research.

In the current study, we investigated the ways in which the acquisition and transfer of spatial knowledge were affected by (a) the type of spatial relations predominately experienced during learning (routes determined by walkways vs. straight-line paths between locations); (b) environmental complexity; and (c) the availability of rotational body-based information. Participants learned the layout of a virtual shopping mall by repeatedly searching for target storefronts located in 1 of the buildings. We created 2 novel learning conditions to encourage participants to use either route knowledge (paths on walkways between buildings) or survey knowledge (straight-line distances and directions from storefront to storefront) to find the target, and measured the development of route and survey knowledge in both learning conditions. Environmental complexity was manipulated by varying the alignment of the buildings with the enclosure, and the visibility within space. Body-based information was manipulated by having participants perform the experiment in front of a computer monitor or using a head-mounted display. After navigation, participants pointed to various storefronts from a fixed position and orientation. Results showed that the frequently used spatial knowledge could be developed similarly across environments with different complexities, but the infrequently used spatial knowledge was less developed in the complex environment. Furthermore, rotational body-based information facilitated spatial learning under certain conditions. Our results suggest that path integration may play an important role in spatial knowledge transfer, both from route to survey knowledge (cognitive map construction), and from survey to route knowledge (using cognitive map to guide wayfinding).