Comparative evaluation of PBL and traditional lecturebased teaching in undergraduate engineering courses : evidence from controlled learning environment

Project and problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely recognised as an active, collaborative, cumulative and integrative learning approach that engages learners, motivates team creativity and centres on practical education. On the other hand, traditional lecture-tutorial teaching is often criticised for being a passive, surface learning and exam-focused approach. In spite of these evidence-based observations and claims over the years, the traditional lecture-tutorial teaching approach still dominates as the preferred teaching approach at Australian universities. This study sets up a control environment to compare these two teaching and learning approaches by analysing data from students' actual performance, course evaluation and expectation in two large undergraduate engineering courses in 2009 and 2010. The evidence reported in this study is broadly interesting in that both courses were taught by the same teaching staff using two entirely different learning and teaching approaches to the same cohort of students in the same semester within the same degree program. The analysis shows that there are significant differences between the students' actual performance, course evaluation and their expectation. Such conflicting differences may be some of the reasons that may negatively impact teaching staff deterring them from switching to PBL from traditional lecture-tutorial teaching.

Putting traditional values into practice: Russia’s anti-gay laws

This article examines the rise of so-called anti-gay laws in Russia as a response to international Russian-led support for using “traditional values” as the foundation for human rights norms. Viewed in this way, a logic of moral sovereignty emerges that purports to offer a compromise between international human rights obligations and local socio-cultural norms. However, in the case of anti-gay laws, moral panic over LGBTQ people has made homophobia a political proxy for understandings of traditional values, in the process implicitly legitimizing homophobic violence and discrimination, and setting a dangerous precedent for traditional values to be invoked as a justification for violations of human rights norms.

Comparison of the epipelagic zooplankton samples from a U-Tow and the traditional WP2 net

The performance of a new mesozooplankton sampler, the U-Tow, was compared to that of the traditional WP2 net. The U-Tow significantly underestimated species abundance, but gave a very good representation of species composition and community size structure. WP2 net samples could be used to calibrate the U-Tow, allowing absolute abundance to be determined. It is recommended that the U-Tow, in its current configuration, be used in conjunction with WP2 net samples to give measures of abundance, or as a tool to identify areas of change in plankton communities.

At the crossroads : the relationship between heritage and intellectual property in traditional knowledge protection in Southeast Asia

Matters related to traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) are 'at the crossroads' in various respects. From a legal perspective, TK is discussed in several international forums and is at the intersection of several already established or still emerging fields of law. Of particular interest here is the relationship between heritage and intellectual property. It is discussed in international diplomatic negotiations on intellectual property (IP) protection for TK/TCEs in the context of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and in the context of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Geographically, TK is also located 'at the crossroads'. It is linked to cultural spaces associated with certain peoples and certain territories and these are often not identical with the borders of nation states. Such borders are a colonial artefact that often fails to reflect the ethno-geographical reality of a region. The divergent national and ethnic boundaries create overlapping claims in situations that may be further complicated by both ancient and modern transmigrations and/or shared heritage. The Southeast Asian region, which is the geographical focus of this article, has been at the crossroads of trade and religious and cultural influences for centuries and it provides, therefore, excellent examples for such overlapping cultural spaces and resulting conflicting or competing claims. The article examines the legal and geographical intersections that have contributed to the current situation and the relationship between cultural and intellectual property in regional claims as well as examples of disputes that have arisen and the reasons for them.

Distribution and abundance of human-specific Bacteroides and relation to traditional indicators in an urban tropical catchment

The study goals were to determine the relationship between faecal indicator bacteria (FIB), the HF183 marker and land use, and the phylogenetic diversity of HF183 marker sequences in a tropical urban watershed

Putting “traditional values” into practice : the rise and contestation of anti-homopropaganda laws in Russia

This article explores how “traditional values” are being used by the Russian government to refute the claim that “LGBT rights are human rights” and justify the introduction of anti-homopropaganda laws, and how members of the Russian LGBT community have sought to contest it. Centrally, it traces the development of a discourse that refutes the essentialization of sexual identity and, in doing so, seeks to challenge the focus on individual identity-based rights of contemporary human rights norms. This discursive shift has meant that opponents of the legislation have had to develop contestation strategies that collectively seek to present an alternative interpretation of “traditional values.” The article concludes by considering the implications of the Russian case for human rights norms and for the notion of universal human rights more widely, arguing that it represents a serious challenge to the viability of identity-based LGBT rights claims as a basis on which to advance observance of fundamental human rights due to their homonormativity.