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This paper synthesizes research-based instructional strategies in accounting education, providing an important resource of learning-centered educational approaches from recent studies. Eleven articles published in 2019 from five accounting education journals are summarized. Categorized according to Marzano's research-based instructional strategies framework for effective instruction, these articles provide empirically-based studies on instructional design, organized as a thematic-bibliography. Research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) provide educators with learning-centered educational approaches and demonstrated student learning efficacy through evidence-based conclusions. Trends in the literature highlight the positive learning outcomes associated with strategies that create an active learning environment. Studies published in 2019 include an analysis of group and team-based learning, structured student assessment, class-participation tracking tools, game-based learning, and the use of instructor-generated videos. These findings provide evidence-based pedagogical approaches to improve instruction and learning outcomes, potentially reducing the trial-and-error method of testing a strategy's effectiveness.

A Concept Inventory (CI) is an assessment to measure student conceptual understanding of a particular topic. This article presents the results of a CI for basic data structures (BDSI) that has been previously shown to have strong evidence for validity. The goal of this work is to help researchers or instructors who administer the BDSI in their own courses to better understand their results. In support of this goal, we discuss our findings for each question of the CI using data gathered from 1,963 students across seven institutions.

Under the initial aggressor doctrine, a person who initiates a physical confrontation loses the right to claim self-defense. Until recently, judges, legal scholars, and others have paid relatively little attention to this doctrinal limitation on the defense of self-defense. Two high-profile criminal trials in 2021 put the initial aggressor doctrine front and center of the national conversation on issues concerning self-defense and racial justice. One involved Kyle Rittenhouse, the seventeen-year-old teenager who brought an AR-15 style rifle to Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the third night of racial protests in August 2020, and ended up shooting three men, killing two and injuring the third. The other involved the February 2020 shotgun shooting by Travis McMichael of an unarmed Black man named Ahmaud Arbery as he was jogging in a predominantly White neighborhood in Satilla Shores, Georgia. The question of how the threatening display of a firearm in public should factor into the initial aggressor doctrine when a claim of self-defense has been asserted has become more important than ever as the nation continues to relax its restrictions on firearm carrying in public and as criminal homicides by firearms rise. As laws regulating the carrying of firearms in public--laws on the front end--become less restrictive, the need to tighten up laws that apply on the back end to those who discharge or otherwise use their firearms in public becomes more pressing. Initial aggressor rules, which are an integral part of self-defense doctrine, can serve this critical function and should be reformed to discourage gun owners from using their firearms except when truly necessary in self-defense. While all fifty states and the District of Columbia have placed some kind of limitation on an initial aggressor's ability to justify the use of force in self-defense, current initial aggressor rules are ambiguous and often contradictory. Most state statutes do not define the term 'aggressor' and no clear rules exist regarding whether and when an initial aggressor instruction must be given to the jury. This Article attempts to strengthen the initial aggressor doctrine so it can be used to help discourage gun violence. To this end, this Article makes three key contributions to existing legal scholarship. First, this Article clarifies the morass of confusing initial aggressor rules that currently exist across the nation. Second, this Article theorizes that one of the main problems with current initial aggressor doctrine is that it leaves too much discretion in the hands of the judge, which means the jury--the body that is supposed to decide whether a defendant qualifies as an initial aggressor--often never gets to decide this key question that can make or break a defendant's claim of self-defense. Third, this Article proposes a few ways to resolve these problems. It first suggests that states define the term 'initial aggressor' in a way that better captures the behavior the term is meant to include. Second, this Article proposes that judges, as a general matter, must give an initial aggressor instruction whenever an individual outside the home displays a firearm in a threatening manner or points that firearm at another person, is charged with a crime, and then claims they acted in self-defense. By lowering the threshold to get an initial aggressor instruction to the jury, this proposal ensures that in most cases the jury, rather than the judge, gets to decide whether the defendant was the initial aggressor., INTRODUCTION 3 I. THE INITIAL AGGRESSOR DOCTRINE 19 A. Categories of Initial Aggressors 21 1. Provocateurs 23 2. Aggressors 29 3. Individuals Engaged in Mutual Combat 31 B. No Uniform [...]

Human perceptions influence attitudes and intentions, and can predict actions. Despite the popular use of technology for English language teaching, and the association between learner factors and technology use, little is known about language learners' use of technology for personal and interpersonal learning activities, and whether there is a discrepancy between intention and actual adoption in this specific domain. The study adds to the existing literature by testing the association between university English learners' intention to use technology to achieve personal and interpersonal English learning purposes, attitude towards technology, and perceived usefulness of technology. It examined predictive paths between intended and actual technology use by university learners. With reference to 539 returned questionnaires collected from four language and education disciplines in a private university in Hong Kong, the respondents showed a positive attitude and perceptions towards the use of technology for English language learning. However, their actual adoption of technology to achieve personal or interpersonal learning purposes was not commensurate with the two key learner factors and intention. Students' discipline and level of study mediated the two learner factors, resulting in different actual English learning behaviours. Recommendations for practitioners to maximise and support technology use by students for learning are given.

Background The RTS,S/AS01E (RTS,S) malaria vaccine is recommended for children in malaria endemic areas. This phase 2b trial evaluates RTS,S fractional- and full-dose regimens in Ghana and Kenya. Methods In total, 1500 children aged 5–17 months were randomized (1:1:1:1:1) to receive RTS,S or rabies control vaccine. RTS,S groups received 2 full RTS,S doses at months 0 and 1 and either full (groups R012-20, R012-14-26) or fractional doses (one-fifth; groups Fx012-14-26, Fx017-20-32). Results At month 32 post-dose 1, vaccine efficacy against clinical malaria (all episodes) ranged from 38% (R012-20; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 24%–49%) to 53% (R012-14-26; 95% CI: 42%–62%). Vaccine impact (cumulative number of cases averted/1000 children vaccinated) was 1344 (R012-20), 2450 (R012-14-26), 2273 (Fx012-14-26), and 2112 (Fx017-20-32). To account for differences in vaccine volume (fractional vs full dose; post hoc analysis), we estimated cases averted/1000 RTS,S full-dose equivalents: 336 (R012-20), 490 (R012-14-26), 874 (Fx012-14-26), and 880 (Fx017-20-32). Conclusions Vaccine efficacy was similar across RTS,S groups. Vaccine impact accounting for full-dose equivalence suggests that using fractional-dose regimens could be a viable dose-sparing strategy. If maintained through trial end, these observations underscore the means to reduce cost per regimen thus maximizing impact and optimizing supply. Clinical Trials Registration NCT03276962 (ClinicalTrials.gov). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metadiscourse plays a significant role in determining the quality of writing. While a growing number of studies have investigated the use of metadiscourse by adult second language learners in academic writing at the tertiary level, studies on how secondary-level students adopt such linguistic resources in other genres, particularly in examination writing, remain few. The present study addresses this research gap by examining the distributions of metadiscourse markers in a corpus of 120 low-, medium-, and high-rated advice-giving texts (letters and reports) randomly selected from the Hong Kong public examination of English language writing, written by secondary-level Chinese learners of English. Using Hyland's (2019) framework of metadiscourse, the study found considerable variation in the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse across genres (letters vs. reports) and the final exam grades awarded to texts. Implications for teaching English to pre-tertiary Chinese writers are discussed with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to reveal the ways in which six 14- to 15-year-old second language (L2) learners, two each of high, mid, and low English proficiency levels were cognitively engaged in writing while using an automated content feedback program known as the Essay Critiquing System 2.0 in three out of five workshops in a Hong Kong secondary school. Through their video-recorded verbal reports and stimulated recalls, it was found that cognitive engagement was demonstrated by means of some composing strategies including questioning what and how to write, reading, reasoning and planning, making evaluative comments, and problem-solving strategies. Forty-eight strategies representing four types of mental activities, as well as six aspects of their writing were identified from the two sets of introspective data. Both sets of data showed that the three groups of adolescent language learners made mental efforts to complete their writing in their own ways. All of them were concerned with what to write most, followed by how to express themselves. Although the findings of the six case studies may not be generalizable, through introspections they indicate how the adolescent learners were stimulated to use the System and technology to help them enrich both content and language while writing. The introspective data also shed light on pedagogical implications regarding the use of the System or similar computer-assisted programs to assist writing. The present study contributes to the literature by enhancing our understanding of adolescent English learners' mental activities in a computer-assisted writing environment, an area which is not adequately researched.