Ultra-processed foods

Positive attitudes to food begin in early childhood. In this first focus report of 2022, Hilary White looks at how we can tap into the young child's innate interest in food and encourage healthy eating habits.

Using Mid-Semester Assessment Programs (MAPs) as a Catalyst for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Mid-Semester Assessment Programs (MAPs) have been successfully utilized as a professional development tool for faculty interested in improving their teaching in the context of higher education by assessing voluntary formative student feedback that guides changes instructors make in the classroom. Faculty centers and educational developers have the unique opportunity to recruit instructors via MAPs who have participated in these programs to promote and support the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) among faculty who already display an innate interest in best teaching practices and are open to advancing their own teaching in order to improve student learning and to propel student success. This chapter provides a guide for educational developers who seek to become active partners for faculty to become interested and engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning through a unique recruitment mechanism that serves as a natural steppingstone for faculty not having engaged with SoTL yet.

Choosing to study music: student attitudes towards the subject of music in second-level education in the Republic of Ireland

The present study aimed to identify student (16–18 years) attitudes towards the subject of music in second-level education in the Republic of Ireland. The study, framed by an interpretivist approach, employed qualitative data collection methods through interviews and focus groups. Findings indicate that student attitudes to music were influenced by the following factors: their innate interest in the subject, which was strengthened by an existing musical skill or talent, and the perceived use of the subject as a pathway for entry to further/higher education or for a student’s professional career. The findings also suggested that the music curriculum and the teaching style of the music teacher impacted student attitudes as did the appeal of the practical element of the subject, particularly with regard to the practical assessment component. Some interpretations of these findings are explored.

Individual Context

The core principle derived from evaluation of the data is that the number of women in IT (or any career) is not a matter of the balance of societal forces, which we can push one way or another with the right lever. It comes down to the individual and her pursuit of happiness through her own values. This puts the individual at the core of the STEMcell Model. The influencing factors of philosophy, values, rights, assumptions, strength, self belief, interests, differences, ability, curiosity, creativity, and reality are explored in this chapter in that context. The centrality of individual choice does not mean there is nothing we can do about remaining barriers, but it does mean that empowering the individual (especially through the disruptive technologies of #SocialIT) and accepting their choices is the solution. The answer to collectivist prejudices about “women” is not collectivist actions that accept the same underlying assumption, but is instead recognising that the only differences that matter are individual ones. Contrary to beliefs that the low proportion of women in IT should be viewed through a gender or culture lens, the results and analyses in this book indicate that not only is innate interest the main driver of an IT career, but most women with that interest are perfectly capable of discovering it themselves. And that is why no single “solution” has been found, and why a wide variety of interventions have had no significant impact—because there is no generic solution to finding out “what women want”—individually.

Frederick Tom Brooks, 1882-1952

Frederick Tom Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, died at his home in Cambridge on 11 March 1952. A West- countryman by birth and upbringing, he never lost his innate interest in the countryside or his love of Somerset, and his robust figure, purposeful gait, marked west-country ‘burr’, and infectious, hearty laugh remained an outward sign of this to the end. Brooks was born at Wells on 17 December 1882, the youngest in a family of five children, three of them girls. At the age of twelve he entered Sexey’s School, Bruton, and there the traits that later typified his life were either implanted in him or were brought to light under the influence of a youthful headmaster, Mr W. A. Knight, who was to prove himself so truly a pioneer of nature study and of science teaching in secondary schools. The school, like its headmaster, was young—it had been opened only three years previously— but new ideas were already being put to the test. Botany rambles, for instance, formed part and parcel of the school curriculum, as it was right they should do in a district so richly endowed with a wealth and variety of flora. Small wonder, therefore, that inspired and guided by an unusual headmaster, Brooks became the first of a long succession of pupils from the school who subsequently made their mark in the botanical world. He was never slow to attribute his abiding interest in botany and his ardour as a field botanist to this early encouragement. Knight was, in fact, the first of three men who profoundly influenced his interests and career, for it was not only a love of nature that was stimulated in him during his schooldays. He, like all his fellow pupils, was taught, among other things, not only to work but also how to work, even at unpalatable tasks; to play as well as work with zest; to overcome difficulties and become self-reliant; and to be thorough: and these are the qualities, together with determination and resolution, that later stood out in Brooks for all to see.