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Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) is a growing interdisciplinary field addressing exposures to microbial pathogens and infectious disease processes. Risk science is inherently interdisciplinary, but few of the contributing disciplinary programs offer courses and training specifically in QMRA. To develop multidisciplinary training in QMRA, an annual 10-day long intensive workshop was conducted from 2015 to 2019--the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Interdisciplinary Instructional Institute (QMRA III). National leaders in the fields of public health, engineering, microbiology, epidemiology, communications, public policy, and QMRA served as instructors and mentors over the course of the program. To provide cross-training, multidisciplinary teams of 5-6 trainees were created from the approximately 30 trainees each year. A formal assessment of the program was performed based on observations and surveys containing Likert-type scales and open-ended prompts. In addition, a longitudinal alumni survey was also disseminated to facilitate the future redevelopment of QMRA institutes and determine the impact of the program. Across all years, trainees experienced statistically significant increases (P < 0.05) in their perceptions of their QMRA abilities (e.g., use of specific computer programs) and knowledge of QMRA constructs (e.g., risk management). In addition, 12 publications, three conference presentations, and two research grants were derived from the QMRA III institute projects or tangential research. The success of QMRA III indicates that a short course format can effectively address many multidisciplinary training needs. Key features of QMRA III, including the inter-disciplinary training approach, hands-on exercises, real-world institute projects, and interaction through a mentoring process, were vital for training multidisciplinary teams housing multiple forms of expertise. Future QMRA institutes are being redeveloped to leverage hybrid learning formats that can further the multidisciplinary training and mentoring objectives.

This study reports on two key aspects relating to the use of the Online Learning Readiness Self-Check (OLRSC) survey, which has been proposed as identifying non-traditional students' readiness for online learning, and their strengths and weaknesses in six key areas. The first aspect validates the use of the instrument based on data from 199 students engaged in an online tertiary enabling course at a regional university in Australia. Factor analysis verified the scale structure of the instrument; however, two items were removed prior to the final analysis due to low communality and/or high cross loading with other items. This is followed by an examination of whether the instrument might be useful for the early identification of students who are at risk of disengagement from the enabling program. While it was hypothesised that the instrument, which measured factors such as the quality of interaction with peers and instructors, their capacity to manage technology and how well they managed learning, should have been a useful tool to identify early disengagement, the hypothesis was not supported. No significant associations were identified between any of the instrument's scales and early withdrawal from the course or completion of the first unit of study. Future recommendations for educators are made with a view to improving student engagement.

The school reliance on exclusionary discipline drives behavioral inequities and sustains the marginalization of youth in schools. The narratives of punishment often extend beyond the walls of the school system and may be reinforced by news media discourse. Never-the-less, the relationship between news media discourse and the school disciplinary structure is an understudied area of research. Using critical discourse techniques--with a theoretical framework of critical race and news framing theories--we analyze news coverage of exclusionary discipline across (N = 64) newspaper articles. Our findings underscore news discourse with a hyper-focus on youth deficits, stigmatizing portrayals of violence and blame, and teacher resistance to discipline alternatives and reform. Discursive absence included a lack of youth and family voices and perspectives, and a disconnection from the systemic mechanisms that shape the disciplinary structure. We conclude with implications for educators, policymakers, and scholars--as we advocate for a re-invigorated focus to-ward the equitable support and inclusion of youth.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard several cases regarding special education. These cases have resulted in decisions that have addressed issues involving special education programming and procedural issues. On March 21, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in "Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools." This decision, which was the most recent special education case heard by the highest court in the United States, involved litigation in special education. In this brief article, we address the Supreme Court's decision in "Perez" by (a) examining the background of the case; (b) reviewing the decision by the lower courts and the U.S. Supreme Court; and (c) discussing the implications of the case for special educators.

Collaborative learning, driven by knowledge co-construction and meaning negotiation, is a pivotal aspect of educational contexts. While gesture's importance in conveying shared meaning is recognized, its role in collaborative group settings remains understudied. This gap hinders accurate and equitable assessment and instruction, particularly for linguistically diverse students. Advancements in multimodal learning analytics, leveraging sensor technologies, offer innovative solutions for capturing and analysing body movements. This study employs these novel approaches to demonstrate how learners' machine-detected body movements during the learning process relate to their verbal and nonverbal contributions to the co-construction of embodied math knowledge. These findings substantiate the feasibility of utilizing learners' machine-detected body movements as a valid indicator for inferring their engagement with the collaborative knowledge construction process. In addition, we empirically validate that these inferred different levels of learner engagement indeed impact the desired learning outcomes of the intervention. This study contributes to our scientific understanding of multimodal approaches to knowledge expression and assessment in learning, teaching, and collaboration.

Spatial skills can predict mathematics performance, with many researchers investigating how and why these skills are related. However, a literature review on spatial ability revealed a multiplicity of spatial taxonomies and analytical frameworks that lack convergence, presenting a confusing terrain for researchers to navigate. We expose two central challenges: (1) many of the ways spatial ability is defined and subdivided are often not based in well-evidenced theoretical and analytical frameworks, and (2) the sheer variety of spatial assessments. These challenges impede progress in designing spatial skills interventions for improving mathematics thinking based on causal principles, selecting appropriate metrics for documenting change, and analyzing and interpreting student outcome data. We offer solutions by providing a practical guide for navigating and selecting among the various major spatial taxonomies and instruments used in mathematics education research. We also identify current limitations of spatial ability research and suggest future research directions.

Objective: Our study examined the impact of sex, ADHD subtype, and comorbid illnesses (depression/anxiety) on the timing of diagnosis and treatment for ADHD. Method: To analyze ADHD patients, four health databases were used to assess subtype, comorbid mood, and antidepressant or anxiolytic drug exposure. Analyses were stratified by sex and age. Standardized mean differences measured intergroup differences. Results: Females with ADHD were identified at older ages and had higher rates of depression and anxiety diagnoses and treatments before and after their initial ADHD diagnosis. Predominantly inattentive ADHD patients were diagnosed later and more likely to receive mood disorder diagnosis and treatment than hyperactive impulsive ADHD patients. Conclusions: Results suggest a more complex ADHD presentation in females, potentially causing late diagnosis and delayed treatment.

Digital technology has long been ubiquitous in many communities within Australia and internationally, thereby requiring suitable digital proficiencies. While a majority of Australian children experience digital literacies as part of their everyday lives, limitations in access disadvantage others. In educational settings, there is a clear need for teachers to incorporate the digital literacies of learners while also working towards addressing inequities by providing rich literacy experiences that bring together print and digital forms of texts. Well-established understandings about the importance of literacy development early in a child's life support teachers of the first years of school to teach essential digital literacies. In Australian schools, teachers are mandated by a range of documents, including the Australian Curriculum, that provide content for teachers to teach. Situated within a frame of New Literacies theories, this paper reports findings from analyses of the ways these mandated documents may support teachers in the first years of school to design learning experiences that respond to learners' needs in producing digital texts. We then determine implications for teachers' responsiveness to these documents. With the recent release of the Australian Curriculum version 9.0, we argue for the pedagogical knowledge that teachers require to implement digital text production experiences within the mandates of the curriculum and, consequently, the professional learning they need for realising the potential of all children's digital capabilities in their classrooms.

Over the past decade, increasingly more colleges and universities have had to address student-initiated demands following racist incidents that occur both locally and nationally. However, the demands to address unfair conditions on campus do not necessarily result in meaningful change. To better understand how student activism facilitates administrative actions that lead to change and the extent to which social media accentuates activism, we examined student-initiated efforts to increase "diversity" at Yale University. Our study combined more than 100 documents with 5 years of social media data to identify key patterns that significantly contributed toward facilitating institutional change. The findings show that to facilitate administrative actions, student activists grew their reach, reiterated their demands over time, and activated the individuals and groups peripheral to the original demands. Their combined efforts were accentuated by the use of social media, which served to make their activism even more consequential for mediating tangible and demonstrable change at the institutional level.

A substantial amount of media comparison research has been conducted in the last decade to investigate whether students learn Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) content better in immersive virtual reality (IVR) or more traditional learning environments. However, a thorough review of the design and implementation of conventional and IVR conditions in media comparison studies has not been conducted to examine the extent to which specific affordances of IVR can be pinpointed as the causal factor in enhancing learning. The present review filled this gap in the literature by examining the degree to which conventional and IVR conditions have been controlled on instructional methods and content within the K-12 and higher education STEM literature base. Thirty-eight published journal articles, conference proceedings, and dissertations related to IVR comparison studies in STEM education between the years 2013 and 2022 were coded according to 15 categories. These categories allowed for the extraction of information on the instructional methods and content characteristics of the conventional and IVR conditions to determine the degree of control within each experimental comparison. Results indicated only 26% of all comparisons examined between an IVR and conventional condition were fully controlled on five key control criteria. Moreover, 40% of the comparisons had at least one confound related to instructional method and content. When looking at the outcomes of the studies, it was difficult to gather a clear picture of the benefits or pitfalls of IVR when much of the literature was confounded and/or lacked sufficient information to determine if the conditions were controlled on key variables. Implications and recommendations for future IVR comparison research are discussed.

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services are critical points of intervention for children impacted by trauma. Intervention Mapping was utilised to develop an initiative for trauma-informed organisational change in ECEC. This paper describes how the research team understood the need and opportunity for the program using Intervention Mapping Step 1. This included: (i) convening a planning group, (ii) conducting needs assessment, (iii) describing the context for intervention, and (iv) establishing program goals. Benefits, challenges, and recommendations on using Intervention Mapping for program development in ECEC settings are discussed.

Virtual teams have been adopted by organizations and studied for decades. However, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of technology-supported collaboration more than ever. This growing importance of virtual teamwork suggests that business education related to virtual team collaboration and communication is critical for students today, and universities play a significant role in equipping students with the knowledge and skillsets necessary to work in a digital world. This work reviews the literature on virtual teams and educational approaches used for teaching virtual team collaboration and communication and presents a framework for virtual team education. Survey findings and illustrative cases are gathered to demonstrate current virtual team education practices. The study concludes with recommendations for the education of virtual team knowledge and skills.

We present a case-based role-play exercise that effectively simulates a crisis students must manage. In the exercise, a farm equipment manufacturing company has decided to redirect its product line, and this change requires laying off a significant portion of its workforce. Students must grapple with the fact that a local news report will be released soon to inform the public about the company's plans, possibly before the company's employees learn about them. Students assume one of five roles in the executive team and discuss how to resolve the crisis. The objective of the exercise is to help students learn ways to lead in an organizational crisis. To meet this objective, we discuss how instructors can implement and debrief the exercise. This exercise was designed as the second in a two-part series (the first part focusing on organizational change), but it can also be used as a stand-alone exercise.

As the need for school social work (SSW) practitioners increases, more research may be useful to understand how roles and practices are shaped and how this differs from their perceptions of essential practice. To understand the roles and functions of SSW, a survey of nine critical components was developed through an evaluation of national association's standards that offer guidance for SSW practice. Survey respondents (N = 318) consisted mostly of SSW practitioners (85%), evaluated nine critical components: advocacy, building capacity, home-school liaison, multi-tier system of support, navigating school settings, professional values, service delivery, social work theory, use of data and evidence, and suggested the addition of new essential components. The results focus on which practices are deemed essential and the frequency of performing these tasks. We conclude with implications of practice essentiality and frequency discussed across the nine critical component domains, offering suggestions for future research, education, training, and professional development of SSW practitioners.