Teaching controversial issues in the humanities and social sciences: using structured academic controversy to develop multi-perspectivity in the learner

Purpose: This study had two main objectives: The first was to explore the extent to which a group of University lecturers feel that they are prepared to deal with controversial issues in their classrooms. The second was to elicit their views on a didactic approach known as Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). SAC is a constructivist teaching strategy intended to aid the learner in developing their views on controversial issues and in understanding alternative views with the ultimate aim of locating a compromise position. Method: A qualitative intervention was designed to introduce six university academics from diverse specialisms to SAC by way of reflective engagement with it in the role of learners. Findings: The participants in this study deal with controversial issues frequently and several feel ill-prepared to do so. They identified several challenges associated with the use of SAC. These relate primarily to class size and curricular overload. However, despite the challenges, the participants all recognized the potential value of such approaches in developing multi-perspectivity, critical thinking, listening and negotiating skills in the learner. Future larger-scale, longitudinal studies in a variety of cultural contexts are needed to develop approaches which can facilitate those approaching controversial issues in their classrooms

From policy to pedagogy: Widening the discourse and practice of the learning society

This paper explores the policy turn of the learning society, and how the academic world is responding to new social and political demands. It highlights some of the criticisms levelled at the learning society, as well as the voices of support. The paper also showcases the European Language Portfolio and the Transferable Skills project as two examples of good practice. Cet article examine le tournant de la politique de la société du savoir ainsi que la réponse du monde intellectuel face aux nouvelles exigences sociales et politiques. Il met en lumière certaines des critiques soulevées par la société du savoir ainsi que par les voix favorables. L'article s'appuie sur deux exemples pratiques, à savoir le Portfolio Européen des Langues et le Project des Compétences Transmissibles

From policy to pedagogy: widening the discourse and practice of the learning society in the European Union

This paper explores the policy turn of the learning society, and how the academic world is responding to new social and political demands. It highlights some of the criticisms levelled at the learning society, as well as the voices of support. The paper also showcases the European Language Portfolio and the Transferable Skills project as two examples of good practice. Cet article examine le tournant de la politique de la socie´te´ du savoir ainsi que la re´ponse du monde intellectuel face aux nouvelles exigences sociales et politiques. Il met en lumie`re certaines des critiques souleve´es par la socie´te´ du savoir ainsi que par les voix favorables. L’article s’appuie sur deux exemples pratiques, a` savoir le Portfolio Europe´en des Langues et le Project des Compe´tences Transmissibles

From National Cultural Paradigms to European/Global Cultural Paradigms: A Copernican Revolution

- The polycrisis that the European Union is experiencing calls into question the very essence of the EU itself. - Dissemination of national-populist propaganda that feeds the myth of the restoration of national sovereignty, an illusion which is unable to respond to the current challenges. - Citizens’ disillusionment with the European Union, which has not met their expectations. - Unification can no longer be founded on market and economic criteria alone, rather a sense of belonging to Europe needs to be boosted to make it a point of reference for identity. - Shaping the European citizen, who must undertake a Copernican revolution in the paradigms used to interpret the contemporary world, and rethinking what a nation is

Teaching Controversial Topics in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ireland: Using Structured Academic Controversy to Develop Multi-Perspectivity in the Learner

Purpose: This study had two main objectives: The first was to explore the extent to which a group of University lecturers feel that they are prepared to deal with controversial issues in their classrooms. The second was to elicit their views on a didactic approach known as Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). SAC is a constructivist teaching strategy intended to aid the learner in developing their views on controversial issues and in understanding alternative views with the ultimate aim of locating a compromise position. Method: A qualitative intervention was designed to introduce six university academics from diverse specialisms to SAC by way of reflective engagement with it in the role of learners. Findings: The participants in this study deal with controversial issues frequently and several feel ill-prepared to do so. They identified several challenges associated with the use of SAC. These relate primarily to class size and curricular overload. However, despite the challenges, the participants all recognized the potential value of such approaches in developing multi-perspectivity, critical thinking, listening and negotiating skills in the learner. Future larger-scale, longitudinal studies in a variety of cultural contexts are needed to develop approaches which can facilitate those approaching controversial issues in their classrooms

Joint analysis of psychiatric disorders increases accuracy of risk prediction for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder

\ua9 2015 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. Genetic risk prediction has several potential applications in medical research and clinical practice and could be used, for example, to stratify a heterogeneous population of patients by their predicted genetic risk. However, for polygenic traits, such as psychiatric disorders, the accuracy of risk prediction is low. Here we use a multivariate linear mixed model and apply multi-trait genomic best linear unbiased prediction for genetic risk prediction. This method exploits correlations between disorders and simultaneously evaluates individual risk for each disorder. We show that the multivariate approach significantly increases the prediction accuracy for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder in the discovery as well as in independent validation datasets. By grouping SNPs based on genome annotation and fitting multiple random effects, we show that the prediction accuracy could be further improved. The gain in prediction accuracy of the multivariate approach is equivalent to an increase in sample size of 34% for schizophrenia, 68% for bipolar disorder, and 76% for major depressive disorders using single trait models. Because our approach can be readily applied to any number of GWAS datasets of correlated traits, it is a flexible and powerful tool to maximize prediction accuracy. With current sample size, risk predictors are not useful in a clinical setting but already are a valuable research tool, for example in experimental designs comparing cases with high and low polygenic risk

Cosmopolitan capabilities in the HE classroom

This study, concerning the development of cosmopolitan citizenship, draws on theories of human development and capabilities (Sen 1999; Nussbaum 2000) from a social justice perspective, where individual wellbeing is articulated as having the freedom to live a life of one’s choosing. In the context of an English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classroom this involves paying attention to pedagogical strategies, power dynamics and curriculum content as a means of developing valued beings and doings (or capabilities and functionings as they are described in the literature). Sample activities are presented and evaluated to see to what extent they achieve the desired end. These include critical pedagogical interventions, students’ artefacts and extracts from focus group interviews, class reports and reflective journals.  Results from the textual data offer research evidence of successful curriculum change, demonstrating that the learning that takes place there can make a difference: in terms of the learners’ identity development, capability enhancement and cosmopolitan citizenship

Self-training for Machine Translation

NRC publication: Ye