Incoming Veterinary Students’ Perspectives on Animal Welfare: A Qualitative Study

Animal welfare is an increasingly important component of veterinary medicine. While the AVMA Model Animal Welfare Curriculum is not required, there is growing research that examines veterinary students’ understanding of animal welfare and moral and ethical responsibility to animals. However, there is limited research that investigates incoming veterinary students’ perspectives on animal welfare: a significant pedagogical gap, as successful curriculum interventions take into account students’ pre-existing experiences. This study investigates this gap in the literature through a qualitative, interview-based study of twenty incoming veterinary students at an accredited veterinary college. Four themes are identified in the data: formative childhood experiences; pre-professional experiences in the field; public conversations in the media/ social media; and academic definitions memorized for admission interviews. In conclusion, I draw on the field of narrative medicine to discuss how students’ stories are important to understanding the curriculum and pedagogy of animal welfare in veterinary education.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Interventions Used to Increase Adolescent IEP Meeting Participation

This study examined the effectiveness of interventions used to increase the participation of adolescents with disabilities during individualized education program (IEP) meetings. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis were conducted to identify and synthesize the group-design experimental literature on this topic, as well as evaluate intervention effects. Six studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the analyses. Adolescents who participated in self-advocacy curriculum interventions made significantly more contributions during IEP meetings compared with students in control groups. Given this information, school districts should consider implementing such curricula and making student attendance and participation at IEP meetings a top priority. However, additional high-quality research is needed to expand the evidence base for this practice for students with more severe disabilities.

A networked social change lab approach to re-imagining engineering education

This paper presents a literature review of social laboratory and network approaches to change, and describes a collaborative approach being implemented in some Canadian engineering programs to rethink the engineering curriculum. As part of the Canadian Engineering Education Challenge in the Engineering Change Lab, the institutions present some proposed curriculum interventions and proposed research activities.

Curriculum Intervention Research as a Source of Knowledge of Most Worth

A major portion of Catherine Ennis’s scholarship and career was devoted to developing culturally relevant physical education curricula for K–12 students. She held a strong conviction that the efficacy of a curriculum lies in its ability to enhance students’ knowledge and skills of most worth for their lives. The approach she adopted for curriculum development is an evidence-supported curriculum-design process through which a curriculum is put to the rigorous process of intervention research to determine its efficacy. In this article the authors reflect on the experiences they had with her in these curriculum interventions, share the ideas and practices in the research as Ennis envisioned, and discuss challenges and solutions in conducting large-scale, school-based curriculum intervention studies.

Transformative Citizenship Education and Intercultural Sensitivity in Early Adolescence

As our world continues to evolve into an increasingly diverse, interconnected, and interdependent global society, it isbecoming more important for tomorrow’s citizens (today’s early adolescent students) to develop the knowledge,skills, and dispositions they will need to understand and communicate with individuals who come from many diversecultural backgrounds. Yet, relatively few researchers have examined the effects of specific curriculum interventions,strategies, and/or educational approaches designed to improve intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes duringearly adolescence. In this study, a causal-comparative quantitative research design was used to explore differences inintercultural sensitivity between a group of 4th–6th grade students at a school that embraces a transformativeapproach to citizenship education (School 1), and a group of students at a comparison school (School 2). Anindependent t–test revealed students at School 1 scored significantly higher than students at School 2 on aquantitative measure of intercultural sensitivity (AISI). These results suggest a transformative approach to citizenshipeducation can promote the development of intercultural sensitivity during early adolescence. In light of these results,several key aspects of this particular school’s transformative citizenship curriculum are discussed in detail.

Achievement Unlocked: Effective Curriculum Interventions With Low-Income Students

This article explores the world of curriculum intervention for gifted students from low-income and culturally diverse backgrounds. It delineates both general and specific approaches to practices that can be used in classrooms and beyond. Affective and conative concerns are addressed as they have an impact on motivation and learning. Efforts toward more positive intervention at these levels are both necessary and important to future student success and satisfaction. Breaking the cycle of poverty in respect to educational disadvantages can and should be consistently addressed and overcome.