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Évaluation en collaboration : utilisation de l’auto-évaluation et de la réflexion pour l’apprentissage des étudiants et des étudiantes et le développement de programmes
No full textAs program-level assessment increasingly becomes an integral part of the higher-education landscape, so does the debate regarding the efficacy of current assessment methods. Traditionally, students do not participate in assessment—neither of their own learning nor of institutional or program efficacy. Our assessment process presents an alternative to traditional program-level assessment and is meant to improve student learning in two ways: (1) by asking students to reflect on their achievement of learning outcomes using evidence-based methods; (2) by providing assessment practitioners with authentic, contextualized data on which to make claims about curricula. This collaborative assessment process was designed to address the complex needs of a cross-curricular rhetoric program but responds to many general concerns about traditional assessment methods.Au fur et à mesure que l’évaluation de programmes fait de plus en plus partie intégrante du paysage de l’enseignement supérieur, il en va de même du débat sur l’efficacité des méthodes d’évaluation actuelles. Traditionnellement, les étudiants et les étudiantes ne participent pas à l’évaluation, ni à celle de leur propre apprentissage ni à celle de l’efficacité des programmes ou de l’établissement. Notre processus d’évaluation présente une alternative à l’évaluation traditionnelle de programmes et a pour but d’améliorer l’apprentissage des étudiants et des étudiantes de deux manières : 1) en demandant aux étudiants et aux étudiantes de réfléchir à la manière dont ils et elles ont atteint les résultats d’apprentissage, à l’aide de méthodes basées sur l’évidence, et 2) en fournissant aux praticiens de l’évaluation des données authentiques et contextualisées sur lesquelles ils peuvent se prononcer sur les programmes d’études. Ce processus d’évaluation en collaboration a été conçu pour répondre aux besoins complexes d’un programme de rhétorique transdisciplinaire mais il répond également à de nombreuses préoccupations générales concernant les méthodes d’évaluation traditionnelles
If “Ifs” and “Buts” Were Candy and Nuts: The Failure of Arguments Against Trans and Intersex Women's Full and Equal Inclusion in Women's Sport
No full textIt’s relatively easy to say that the debates about whether trans and intersex women athletes deserve full and equal inclusion in women’s sport is a contentious contemporary issue. I’ve already argued for the legal, ethical, and scientific basis for full and equal inclusion of trans and intersex women in women’s sport. In this paper, I want to analyze what I take to be a representative selection of recent arguments against full and equal inclusion of trans and intersex women in women’s sport. In short, these arguments tend to be based on mere assumption, unsupported “common sense,” straw arguments, fallacious question begging, and a number of hypotheticals and unsupported counterfactuals rather than established fact. Essentially, they’re based on a lot of “ifs.
Eating as a Self-Shaping Activity: The Case of Young Women’s Vegetarianism and Eating Disorders
No full textThis paper contends that eating shapes the self; that is, our practices and understandings of eating can cultivate, reinforce, or diminish important aspects of the self, including agency, values, capacities, affects, and self-understandings. I argue that these self-shaping effects should be included in our ethical analyses and evaluations of eating. I make a case for this claim through an analysis and critique of the hypothesis that young women’s vegetarianism is a risk, sign, or “cover” for eating disorders or disordered eating. After outlining the relevant empirical literature, I suggest that the evidence for this hypothesis is inconclusive. Given this uncertainty, we should consider the risks of making a mistake when accepting or rejecting this understanding of young women’s eating. I argue that these risks importantly include negative effects on the self, such as damage to moral and epistemic agency. Along with other potential consequences of mistakenly accepting the hypothesis, these effects give us reason to reject it pending more conclusive research. Overall, this paper offers a philosophical intervention into the debate over the relationship between vegetarianism and eating disorders while illustrating the ethical importance and relevance of eating as a self-shaping activity
English for Academic Purposes Programs: Key Trends Across Canadian Universities
No full textBecause of the large number of post-secondary English for academic purposes (EAP) programs and the varying ways they are structured, it can be difficult to identify how a particular program fits within the overall landscape of university education. To identify general trends across Canada, the webpages for 74 EAP programs at 50 public English-medium universities were examined for key information related to each program. Data analysis included descriptive statistics as well as graphical representation. The results pointed to typical EAP programs that are independent units that offer non-credit courses with some credit options, have international tuition fees around $9,000 per semester, provide approximately 22 hours of instruction per week, and generally require IELTS scores over 5.0 or TOEFL iBT scores over 59 for entry. These results provide an avenue of comparison and indicate the need for future research to better understand how EAP programming is conceptualized in the Canadian context
Rethinking and Reinventing Intercultural Education in Post-Secondary Institutions: A Critical, Anti-Colonial Approach
No full textCritical and anti-colonial scholarship helps us imagine how intercultural education might begin to address the power imbalances inherent to issues of culture and epistemology. This paper reflexively dialogues anti-colonial theory with my own experiments of practically implementing these theories within the Intercultural Program (IP), an extracurricular program at a Canadian postsecondary institution, to demonstrate possibilities for shaping intercultural education towards ethical ends. Through curriculum, programming, and community-building that is cocreated with students, the IP aspires to shape intercultural education towards social justice and equity, opening spaces for engagement with nondominant epistemologies, and promoting the critical thinking necessary for evaluating the historical, economic, political, social, and ethical implications of students’ own and others’ positions. At the same time, the IP provides a helpful site for exploring the challenges of doing critical work in an internationalizing institution, and the need, perhaps, to move intercultural education away from internationalization within higher education
Comparing the Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Fluoxetine in Pediatric Depression
No full textAs pediatric depression becomes more prevalent around the world, establishing which treatments are efficacious for managing depression has become imperative. This review presents a summary of the literature on the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and fluoxetine as standalone treatments, and in combination to determine the most efficacious treatment for pediatric depression. The literature on the efficacy of CBT as a treatment for depression in youth has shown inconsistent and mixed results in terms of response rates and symptoms reduction. Moreover, fluoxetine treatment for pediatric depression has displayed more positive results than what has been shown by CBT alone, however the results for these analyses must also be interpreted with caution. To continue, much of the literature reviewed concerning the use of CBT and fluoxetine as standalone treatments possess several limitations that question the validity of the efficacy of these treatments. The limitations include a small number of trials used in the reviews, biases in the individual studies, selective reporting of results, and differing participant characteristics across studies. Further research on the efficacy of CBT and fluoxetine separately is needed to conclude that they are efficacious treatments for pediatric depression. Overall, the literature examining the efficacy of CBT and fluoxetine in combination for the treatment of pediatric depression has displayed consistent positive results, with much of the literature suggesting that the combination of treatments is more efficacious than either treatment alone
Types of Social Relationships and Their Effects on Psychological Well-being
No full textResearchers have established the importance of social networks in developing and maintaining well-being. Furthermore, different types of social relationships have been found to influence individuals’ lives in unique ways. There is little understanding, however, of how relationship types compare in their effects on individuals’ psychological well-being. Using a correlational design, this study investigated the associations between relationship intimacy and psychological well-being. Relationship intimacy was measured for respondents’ parents, significant others, close friends, and pets. The surveys were distributed to 91 undergraduate students and included the Miller Social Intimacy Scale (MSIS; Miller & Lefcourt, 1982) and Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB-18; Ryff & Keyes, 1995) to assess respondents’ relationships and psychological well-being, respectively. The results of two regression analyses revealed that intimacy in relationships with one’s significant other and close friends was a significant, positive predictor of well-being, though specific mechanisms of influence could not be established. Further research opportunities include diversifying the study sample and the creation of a standardized scale to more accurately measure intimacy across different relationship types
[Ex]traction Earth: The New Frontier
No full textNew avenues of interconnectivity born from global crisis foster a return to the land and a decentralization of Earth’s population. Climate-induced northern migration sparks boundary expansion beyond our perceivable atmosphere, as human-made infrastructure grapples with the natural environment. Territories of [ex]traction fuel the lifeblood of the 21st century energy-scape.
The site for this investigation is Canada’s carbon corridor, spanning from Calgary to Edmonton, Grand Prairie to the remote north. A land scarred by resource exploitation is re-envisioned in a time after oil, in the not so distant future. Territories of extraction are rejuvenated as a renewable energy corridor. A super energy grid is laid across the landscape, linking major urban nodes by coupling the natural environment with infrastructure. Field’s within the super grid are dedicated to agricultural production, pollination, and wildlife incubators. These feed natural ecosystems while simultaneously fueling a network of high-speed trains that extend to the arctic circle, where new trade routes open up due to receding ice and warming climates.
A continuous mixed-use bridge structure links people to major hubs as a path for production. Human life is elevated so wildlife may roam freely on the land—reducing harmful impacts to natural ecosystems. Pipelines become long range carbon sequestering systems that distribute green energy to cities, landscapes, wildlife, and insects. Energy beacons are sprinkled across the land to assist birds with natural migration patterns while also acting as habitats for bees.
This proposal supports humans, wildlife, and insects through closed-loop systems of energy production that equally prioritizes all living organisms through harvesting of natural resources with minimal environmental impacts and an appreciation for the land. Born from a deep respect for the Earth’s natural resources and the cyclical nature of the environment, this proposal sparks a return to the organic. All organisms of the earth are part of a necessary ecosystem that may be deemed one wholistic being. Designers have an obligation to consider systems for wildlife that empower us to reframe what it means to be a living organism. A colony collapse for the bees means a doomed future for humans. So please, save the bees
The Traumatized Time-Traveller: Locating Memory, Nostalgia and Healing in Starz' Outlander
No full textThis essay examines the construction of an abstraced space in Outlander's season 5 finale titled "Never My Love." Reffered to as the "dreamscape" this imaginary space is framed as a visual representation of the protagonist's dissociative experience developed in response to an overwhelming trauma. The cinematic space is constructed through a combination of history, memory, reality and fiction. It exists at once outside the bounds of linear time but is also diretly informed by memory rooted in an identifiable time. This essay examines how this type of space serves characters and viewers alike, revealing in the process the ways in which nostalgic atemporal space functions as a trauma response and potential site of healing.