Western Libraries OJS
Not a member yet
7960 research outputs found
Sort by
Enhancing the Quality of IEP Goals Using an Interactive Feedback Procedure
No full textResearch emphasizes the necessity of improving teachers’ skills in writing individualized education program (IEP) goals. Thus, we aimed to develop an interactive feedback procedure and examine its effects on teacher candidates’ performance in writing IEP goals. We also examined whether there was a difference between treatment and control groups regarding their goal-writing skills. The 119 teacher candidates were divided into treatment (n= 58) and control groups (n = 61). The quality of IEP goals was rated using the first section of the IEP/IFSP Goals and Objectives Rating Instrument (GORI; Notari & Bricker, 1990). In this quasi-experimental study, we implemented an interactive feedback procedure for the treatment group while the control group was given only verbal feedback. ANCOVA revealed that the interactive feedback procedure was statistically significantly more effective than verbal feedback in improving the quality of IEP goals. The results suggest a useful framework that teacher-training programs can use to deliver effective instruction for teachers working with students with special needs
Hand Hygiene Compliance Among the Public and in Ontario Hospitals
No full textHand hygiene (HH) is a simple but important procedure for reducing the spread of infectious diseases, including gastrointestinal illness like cholera as well as respiratory illnesses like influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we explore HH habits among the general public and among health care providers at Ontario hospitals and find that in both settings, HH compliance is sub-optimal. Overall, it is vital that we improve access to HH and stress good HH behaviours where access is not a concern to reduce the spread of various disease-causing agents
Online Extremism, AI, and (Human) Content Moderation
No full textThis paper has three main goals: (1) to clarify the role of artificial intelligence (AI)—along with algorithms more broadly—in online radicalization that results in “real world violence,” (2) to argue that technological solutions (like better AI) are inadequate proposals for this problem given both technical and social reasons, and (3) to demonstrate that platform companies’ (e.g., Meta, Google) statements of preference for technological solutions functions as a type of propaganda that serves to erase the work of the thousands of human content moderators and to conceal the harms they experience. I argue that the proper assessment of these important, related issues must be free of the obfuscation that the “better AI” proposal generates. For this reason, I describe the AI-centric solutions favoured by major platform companies as a type of obfuscating and dehumanizing propaganda
How Transportation Disadvantage Hinders Mobility, Service Access, and Exiting Homelessness
No full textFor people experiencing homelessness, the ability to move between and within communities is an important aspect of achieving stability and improving overall well-being. However, people experiencing homelessness are often transportation disadvantaged, which creates barriers to health management, housing, employment, and social service connections. This paper draws on qualitative interviews with frontline homeless service providers (N=21) in a large, geographically diverse region of New York State to explore the impact of transportation disadvantage on mobility, service use, and exiting homelessness. Findings center on how the housing process often necessitates significant mobility (e.g., moving between communities or counties) and how a lack of transportation access limits the mobility necessary for gaining stability. The findings illustrate the insurmountable nature of transportation disadvantage in many communities and how this disadvantage continues and even worsens once a person is housed. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed
Street Medicine: A Scoping Review of Program Elements
No full textGlobally, homelessness has grown over the past decade due to a diverse range of social and economic factors, including lack of affordable housing and retrenchment of social programs. People experiencing homelessness (PEH) experience markedly higher disease burdens than housed populations, as well as reduced access to healthcare. Street Medicine is a promising form of healthcare delivery that seeks to address the healthcare needs of this population despite known structural barriers to access. However, there is limited empirical literature describing Street Medicine practice and program elements. To address this gap, scoping review methods were used to review two major academic databases, web-based literature, and sources provided by content experts. Studies had to specifically reference “Street Medicine” as healthcare delivery and at least one of the review’s primary focuses: definitions, philosophies, or program elements. We conducted qualitative analysis to identify relevant themes. Of 1,016 unique sources identified, 349 met inclusion criteria. Six practice categories were identified: direct care, wraparound health services, harm reduction services, psychosocial case management, provision of life necessities, and education/research/advocacy. Despite a shared definition, there are a wide variety of Street Medicine program elements in use. This review sets parameters around which future research on effectiveness of these elements could be based
Sarah Cowper's "Character" of John Locke
No full textLady Sarah Cowper (1644-1720) is best known for her commonplace books, which preserve unique and variant versions of poems by Restoration “wits.” She also kept a diary, in which she recorded her readings and meditations. The diary contains an unnoticed encomiastic “Character” of John Locke, composed at his death. It is one of the earliest obituaries of him, but it was commonplaced from other sources. Her use of her sources exemplifies aspects of the manuscript circulation of texts and the ways in which the active selection and redaction of textual material reflected a reader’s own religious, political, and personal preoccupations. Cowper portrays Locke as a moral exemplar and Christian virtuoso, whose orthodoxy she defends, and whose latitudinarian and Whig commitments she shares
Social Constructions of Masculinity and Excessive Drinking Among Male Undergraduate Students at Western University
No full textUniversity culture and alcohol consumption have a long, well-established relationship, as heavy episodic drinking rates are the highest they have ever been (Kovac & Trussell, 2015). This study combines interpretive analysis and social constructionist theory within an explanatory research paradigm to enhance understanding of the connections between excessive (binge) drinking behaviour and socially constructed ideals of masculine identity, among male undergraduate students at Western University. 
A Phenomenological Approach to Sexual Consent
No full textRather than as a giving of permission to someone to transgress one’s bodily boundaries, I argue for defining sexual consent as feeling-with one’s sexual partner(s). Dominant approaches to consent within feminist philosophy have failed to capture the intercorporeal character of erotic consciousness by treating it as a form of giving permission, as is evident in the debate between attitudinal and performative theories of consent. Building on the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Ann Cahill, Linda Martín Alcoff, and others, I argue that taking consent to be an intercorporeal and dynamic coexistence of desiring bodies opens up new ways of thinking about the role of consent in sexual ethics. I suggest that phenomenology’s theories of embodied consciousness, operative intentionality, and the direct perception of others provide a better groundwork for conceptualizing the role of ambiguity and subtle power dynamics in sexual encounters than attitudinal or performative accounts of consent. I also defend my view against Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa’s argument for doing away with the concept of consent in sexual ethics due to consent's stubborn and infelicitous presupposition of permission-giving
A Thematic Analysis of Indigenous Students’ Experiences with Indigenization at a Canadian Post-secondary Institution: Paradoxes, Potential, and Moving Forward Together
No full textIndigenization is a relatively new phenomenon in Canada. It is a broad concept that includes everything from changing physical spaces to challenging Western epistemologies and the status quo. In this study, I describe nine Indigenous students’ experiences with Indigenization at the University of Saskatchewan. Students were impacted both positively and negatively by their engagement: They described both opportunities borne of engagement with Indigenization and detriments such as exhaustion and lack of basic needs. In terms of methods to Indigenize, the participants described the importance of representation, centring Indigenous values and knowledges, and creating communities that can Indigenize. I end the paper with four policy recommendations for post-secondary institutions interested in Indigenization