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The complexity of modern biology poses challenges in fostering interdisciplinary understanding, particularly between practicing scientists and the public. Furthermore, scientists often lack formal training in science communication, despite various motivations to engage the public. The science literacy of the public in the biological sciences can also vary across socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Leveraging popular culture and informal learning practices to promote active learning offers promising avenues to enhance public understanding of biological systems. Organized sports hold collective recognition across various communities and cultures, serving as a means to bring people together. Notably, the NCAA March Madness event holds widespread national and international popularity, presenting an opportunity to laterally apply this concept to promote science communication within STEM and biology education. An educational social media and web-based contest tool was developed integrating NCAA-inspired brackets with animal biological systems concepts. The tool featured tournament-style matchups based on animal biological systems, interesting animal facts, and a voting system, all housed within a user-friendly interface. To encourage regular user access to the tool, graphic designs were developed for all social media posts to aid in visual recruitment to the voting website. Based on online metrics, the use of social media garnered repeat users across both the public and educators. The latter noted the tool's simplicity and informative content. Application of this social media and web-based bracket contest tool, which leverages informal settings for active learning for use in biology education, can foster science communication to engage audiences, improve comprehension, and promote interdisciplinary biology education.

Background: The American Psychological Association has identified information literacy as a crucial component to undergraduate education. One major barrier to comprehensive information literacy instruction has been a lack of guidance integrating this into survey courses, particularly with reduced pedagogical resources available. Objective: This research evaluates the effectiveness of a scaffolded information literacy curriculum that may be integrated into psychology courses. Method: Students in introductory psychology courses were taught with either an information literacy curriculum or the typical science-focused curriculum. Information literacy knowledge was evaluated using a multiple-choice test. Results: Students who received the specialized curriculum demonstrated significant improvements on an objective information literacy test by the end of the course, while students in the control group did not. Conclusion: Evidence suggests that this easily adaptable information literacy curriculum is effective in meeting psychology information literacy goals, more so than the traditional science-focused curriculum taught in introductory psychology classes. Teaching Implications: Instructors and faculty should be encouraged to utilize this adaptive curriculum, available on Open Science Framework, as a way of improving information literacy. Other implications, including feasibility and content, are discussed.

School staff increasingly seek to implement evidence-based school mental health services to promote student mental health. However, barriers to accessing programming and support mean that implementing these programs is difficult. Popular strategies to address these challenges, like one time professional development, often fail to be effective or sustainable. This study used mixed methods to evaluate how a set of training activities--sequential online learning modules combined with interprofessional telementoring, following the extension for community healthcare outcomes (ECHO) model--influenced provision of school mental health services. School counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers (n = 46) participated in training activities, which included nine, cohort-based ECHO sessions and 12 modules. We used a concurrent mixed methods design in which quantitative (implementation data and pre-post surveys) and qualitative (posttraining focus groups with a subset of participants, n = 11) data were used to evaluate training. Quantitative results indicated statistically significant pre-post improvements in participants' clinical self-efficacy (d = 0.83) and knowledge of evidence-based practices (d = 0.37). Qualitative data corroborated quantitative results. Post training, focus groups described positive reactions, learning, and behavior change, particularly with respect to equitable service provision and interprofessional teaming. ECHO appeared to facilitate the application of evidence-based strategies to real-life practice and improved participants' understanding of effective coordination of services. Taken together, findings suggest that group-based telementoring may be a high-impact strategy for supporting the implementation of effective, culturally specific, and collaborative school mental health services.

This study assesses adults' perceptions of and predictors of intention to use prescription drug take-back boxes. This mixed methods study utilized focus groups and an online survey to examine factors related to intention to use a prescription drug take-back box. This study was conducted in [State] during the spring and summer of 2018. Themes identified in focus group data included the importance of take-back box location, benefits of take-back box use (such as reducing opportunities for medication misuse), and barriers to take-back box use (such as lack of awareness, stigma associated with law enforcement). Survey results indicate that pharmacies are the most preferred take-back box location and that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are statistically significant predictors of intention to use a take-back box. Results suggest that individuals are open to using take-back boxes in secure, convenient locations, but many arsoe unaware of take-back boxes as an option for safe disposal. These findings have implications for health communication and policy efforts designed to increase the use of take-back boxes for prescription drug disposal.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of university students who served as outside facilitators for evidence-based nutrition education for elementary-age children. Design: Qualitative case study. Methods: Thirteen undergraduate university students facilitated four nutrition education sessions for elementary-age students in an after-school programme using the Choice, Control, Change model as part of service learning curriculum. University students completed pre- and post-participation surveys. Elementary-age participants completed surveys after each session. Results: University students saw the benefit of this type of experiential learning with the following themes: knowledge application, learning about diverse perspectives and having a positive impact. Before the first nutrition education session, the university students felt excited, nervous and/or enthusiastic, and during and immediately after the sessions reported they felt confident. Participant engagement was low/mixed and classroom management was challenging, which may be linked to the university students' perceptions that they were underprepared to work in a distracting social environment, and with behaviour typical to elementary-age children. The education session recipients reported they gained knowledge about healthy behaviours and believed that eating healthy foods is important. Conclusion: There are gaps in nutrition education programme theory and implementation by outside facilitators. These findings are relevant to those who provide health education services for surrounding communities. This study provides information about implementation barriers when outside facilitators lead nutrition education, alongside recommendations to improve these types of programmes in the future.

In this paper, I draw together myriad theoretical and philosophical sources to think through the intensification of emotion amid and emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. I begin with three narratives from my own teaching and learning, which ground the subsequent conversation. I then characterize the current movement in educational theorizing known as the affective turn. The affective turn, I suggest, attunes educational inquiry to small, yet vital, moments of classroom interaction often taken for granted in public education. Toward considering those vital moments in more nuance, I discuss psychoanalyst Wilfred R. Bion's notion of the alpha function -- a nonconscious digestion of emotion we perform for others when they are overwhelmed. When coupled with Nel Noddings' evocation of the ethics of care in education, the alpha function offers an understanding of the hidden emotional labour in teaching. This hidden dimension of the teacher's task, the portion of the job that deals in regulating our own emotions and in helping students make sense of theirs, I suggest, is becoming more difficult amid the affective situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. I conclude the paper by gesturing toward a threefold response to be taken up more fully elsewhere: humility before the task of teaching, a reverence for the work of feeling, and a willingness to organize toward a more caring school system.

Community-Based Research (CBR) presents a wide range of benefits in higher education to students, community partners, and universities. Yet on our campus (and many others), CBR remains less common than other high-impact practices (HIPs) such as service learning and undergraduate research due to lack of effective institutionalization. Moreover, when CBR projects are undertaken, they result in a level of engagement with CBR that produces fewer of the expected benefits than is ideal. Here we detail our efforts to institutionalize CBR on our campus to appropriately expand the practice and its resulting benefits. These efforts focus on three initiatives: raising the visibility of CBR, diffusing expertise to implement CBR, and providing critical support for designing and implementing CBR. We also include our assessment plan which had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan utilizes a mixed-methods approach and will explore how our initiatives have made an impact on faculty and community partners involved with CBR, as well as assess interest and knowledge about CBR among faculty and community partners who are currently involved in service learning but not yet involved in CBR. We present our efforts as a model for other universities seeking to increase implementation of CBR.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a state-wide process used to determine which Teaching Works High Leverage Practices (Ball, 2016) pre-service teachers could be expected to implement at a proficient level by the completion of their preparation program (Initial HLPs), followed by two sets of high leverage practices novice teachers could master during their induction years (Induction and Expert HLPs) (Ball & Forzani, 2011; McLeskey & Brownell, 2015). Data were collected from a wide variety of stakeholders, including K-12 teachers, administrators, and educator preparation program faculty from across the state (N=203). Findings identified five High Leverage Practices that the majority of stakeholders indicated should be a priority for educator preparation programs in the state.

Nirodhini Narendran,1,2 Clare Bailey,3 Louise Downey,4 Richard Gale,5 Ajay Kotagiri,6 Ian Pearce,7 Christina A Rennie,8 Sobha Sivaprasad,9 James Talks,10 Peter Morgan-Warren,11 Jackie Napier,11 Carolyn O’Neil,11 Timothy Seeborne11 1The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Wolverhampton, UK; 2School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK; 3University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK; 4Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Hull, UK; 5York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, York, UK; 6South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, Sunderland, UK; 7Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK; 8University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK; 9NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; 10Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle, UK; 11Bayer plc, Reading, UKCorrespondence: Nirodhini Narendran, Ophthalmology Department, New Cross Hospital (Part of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust), Wolverhampton Road, Wolverhampton, WV10 0QP, UK, Email niro.narendran@nhs.netPurpose: The inclusion of ranibizumab biosimilars into National Health Service England commissioning recommendations published in 2022 created a need for expert guidance to optimize treatment outcomes in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) who otherwise may not have received first-line ranibizumab. This article provides a consensus treatment pathway supporting timely identification and management of a suboptimal response to these therapies, thereby aiming to facilitate clinically meaningful outcomes and efficient management of service capacity under specific circumstances where ranibizumab biosimilars may be initiated as a first-line treatment.Methods: Two structured round-table meetings of UK medical retina specialists were held in person and virtually on September 22 and November 3, 2022, respectively. These meetings were organized and funded by Bayer.Results: The panel provided guidance on the implementation of an early treatment optimization pathway in cases where ranibizumab biosimilars are used as a first-line treatment, including recommendations on patient suitability and capacity requirements, and criteria for identification and strategies for management of a suboptimal response. The panel discussed the role of aflibercept treatment and its potential benefits and outlined recommendations on switching ranibizumab biosimilar suboptimal responders to an aflibercept treat-and-extend regimen, where appropriate.Conclusion: Developed by a retinal expert panel, this early treatment optimization pathway provides guidance to facilitate optimal long-term patient outcomes while addressing capacity and resourcing constraints in circumstances of first-line ranibizumab biosimilar use for nAMD, including how aflibercept may be used in cases with a suboptimal response. Therefore, this fills an important gap in guidance on navigating the new treatment landscape.Keywords: anti-VEGF agents, capacity, consensus pathway, ranibizumab

Abstract Background Equitable health service utilization is key to health systems' optimal performance and universal health coverage. The evidence shows that men and women use health services differently. However, current analyses have failed to explore these differences in depth and investigate how such gender disparities vary by service type. This study examined the gender gap in the use of outpatient health services by Mexican adults with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) from 2006 to 2022. Methods A cross-sectional population-based analysis of data drawn from National Health and Nutrition Surveys of 2006, 2011–12, 2020, 2021, and 2022 was performed. Information was gathered from 300,878 Mexican adults aged 20 years and older who either had some form of public health insurance or were uninsured. We assessed the use of outpatient health services provided by qualified personnel for adults who reported having experienced an NCD and seeking outpatient care in the 2 weeks before the survey. Outpatient service utilization was disaggregated into four categories: non-use, use of public health services from providers not corresponding to the user’s health insurance, use of public health services from providers not corresponding to the user’s health insurance, and use of private services. This study reported the mean percentages (with 95% confidence intervals [95% CIs]) for each sociodemographic covariate associated with service utilization, disaggregated by gender. The percentages were reported for each survey year, the entire study period, the types of service use, and the reasons for non-use, according to the type of health problem. The gender gap in health service utilization was calculated using predictive margins by gender, type of disease, and survey year, and adjusted through a multinomial logistic regression model. Results Overall, we found that women were less likely to fall within the “non-use” category than men during the entire study period (21.8% vs. 27.8%, P

Nontraditional grading methods have recently become more common, and as with any large pedagogical shift, there are a number of questions to consider when applying a new grading scheme to a course. This article summarizes four types of nontraditional grading and shares experiences from the authors who have applied them to a variety of courses in statistics. This article is structured as a set of questions and answers, seeking to address many of the concerns and considerations that one may face as they transition a course’s grading structure. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Alternative grading methods, such as standards-based grading, provide students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of the learning outcomes in a course. These grading methods allow for more flexibility and help promote a growth mindset by embracing constructive failure for students. Implementation of these alternative grading methods requires developing specific, transparent, and assessable standards. Moving away from traditional methods also requires a mindset shift for how both students and instructors approach assessment. While providing multiple opportunities is important for learning in any course, these methods are particularly relevant to an upper level mathematical statistics course where topics covered often provide an additional challenge for students as they lie at the intersection of both theory and application. By providing multiple opportunities, students have the space for constructive failure as they tackle learning both a conceptual understanding of statistics and the supporting mathematical theory. In this article we share our experiences—including both challenges and benefits for students and instructors—in implementing standards-based grading in the first semester of a mathematical statistics course (i.e., focus primarily on probability). Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

In this study, we analyzed student participation and success in a college-level Calculus I course that utilized standards-based grading. By measuring the level to which students participate in this class structure, we were able to use a clustering algorithm that revealed multiple groupings of students that were distinct based on activity throughout the semester. Additionally, we analyzed student progress, defined as the number of graded activities successfully completed each week. We found that students who progressed steadily throughout the semester, and thus had lower variability in the number of completed activities per week, tended to receive a higher overall grade. Students whose progress was less consistent, and thus exhibited higher variability in weekly activities completed, tended to receive a lower grade. Overall, this shows a relationship between understanding the expectations in standards-based grading and succeeding in a course.

Knowledge exchange (KE) is increasingly important in higher education internationally, yet relatively little attention has been paid to it as a pedagogic opportunity for students. This paper draws on 26 interviews with stakeholders within and outside HE to develop a model of student-led knowledge exchange as a guide for learning through KE. The model includes the following elements: Preconditions, Prior Knowledge, Planning and Place, Pedagogic Context and Product, and offers an analysis of different forms of KE which occur between individuals in a learning triad consisting of student, facilitator and external participant. The research foregrounds a social view of learning where valid knowledge comes from diverse participants in the exchange, including students themselves. Students act as a catalyst for multi-directional KE -- a finding which challenges the implied hierarchies evident in much of the literature on this topic. The model is offered as a starting point for developing a pedagogy of KE in higher education.

Recent decades have seen a global shift in educational policy and practice towards various forms of "joining-up," through partnerships and networks. These networks have differing aims but are broadly geared towards increasing quality and/or innovation in educational provision, although many prove messy and problematic. Policy makers in England have encouraged schools to collaborate, although parallel market pressures can also drive competition, leading to an argument that schools must engage in "coopetition." More recently, policy has encouraged schools to form or join a multi-academy trust (MAT) and the government's stated aim is that all 21,000 schools in England will be part of a MAT by 2030. A MAT is a formal legal entity with a board and Chief Executive which oversees multiple schools. The headline question we address is whether pre-existing partnerships between schools predict eventual membership of multi-academy trusts? We do this through an analysis of ego network and case study interview data collected from 20 schools across two local areas. We track these networks over a seven-year period, identifying which schools join which MATs. We find that schools do not form or join MATs with other local schools they have collaborated with in the past. We assess this somewhat counter-intuitive finding through the lens of socio-spatial theory, presenting a framework for assessing the interactions between place, scale and networks and considering the implications for policy, practice and research.

This paper revisits the well-known and often-taught novel "The Chrysalids" toward a reconsideration of the novel's place within curriculum and the pedagogies it may offer. Framed as a mourning ceremony, a way of revisioning what the novel could mean in the present by saying goodbye to what it has meant in the past, the paper progresses in two major moments. The first looks at the novel in the author's lived experience and discusses personal mourning. The second engages affect theory toward a (re)reading of the material resistances and erasures within one copy of the text. The author concludes by expressing the need for a (re)visioning of what curricular fixtures such as "The Chrysalids" could mean today.