Students’ Ideas about How and Why Chemical Reactions Happen: Mapping the conceptual landscape

Research in science education has revealed that many students struggle to understand chemical reactions. Improving teaching and learning about chemical processes demands that we develop a clearer understanding of student reasoning in this area and of how this reasoning evolves with training in the domain. Thus, we have carried out a qualitative study to explore students reasoning about chemical causality and mechanism. Study participants included individuals at different educational levels, from college to graduate school. We identified diverse conceptual modes expressed by students when engaged in the analysis of different types of reactions. Main findings indicate that student reasoning about chemical reactions is influenced by the nature of the process. More advanced students tended to express conceptual modes that were more normative and had more explanatory power, but major conceptual difficulties persisted in their reasoning. The results of our study are relevant to educators interested in conceptual development, learning progressions, and assessment.     

The challenge of an interdisciplinary curriculum: a cultural analysis of a doctoral-degree program in neuroscience

Drawing on data collected through 45 interviews with faculty, doctoral students, and administrators affiliated with an interdisciplinary neuroscience program, I examine the structure of the interdisciplinary graduate curriculum. The data presented here highlight the challenge of such programs. I review the purpose, organization, and content of the interdisciplinary curriculum, noting those challenges that arise. Not only do such programs require collaboration among faculty who traditionally has been highly invested in their individual discipline or department, but they also require an active, deliberate process to foster interdisciplinary integration and student learning.     

Multidisciplinary graduate training in social research methodology and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis: a hands-on/hands-off course design

Drawing on the experience of training graduate students and researchers in qualitative and mixed-methods analysis since the mid-1990s, the authors reflect on the evolution of a multidisciplinary graduate course developed in a Canadian university since 2007. The hands-on/hands-off course design based on the use of NVivo was developed in parallel with a conceptual and reflexive position on methodology and multidisciplinarity in the context of an action research supported by their institution. This article exposes the four basic components of the course and the constructivist assessment model based on a term-long team analysis of original data created specifically for this purpose. The balance between collective and individual work, in-class and online exchanges, hands-on experience with the software and hands-off reflection is described and compared to recent pedagogical literature on the subject. The interest of this blended approach in fostering the development of the methodological expertise expected from researchers and graduate students, as well as the main issues and challenges facing this type of training in a research environment characterised by new approaches and tools, are discussed.     

Developing Collaboration Skills in Team Undergraduate Research Experiences

Abstract

Interdisciplinary undergraduate research experiences often require students to work in teams with other students and researchers from different disciplines, creating a need for development of new skills in interdisciplinary collaboration. In this paper, we describe our unique efforts to mentor participants in developing these skills during our team-based research experience for undergraduates program. This effort was initiated in response to a perceived need to provide professional development in collaboration for our participants, who come from diverse backgrounds that span a range of disciplines, institutions, and cultures. We describe here the intervention used, which is a modified version of one successfully implemented in a classroom setting. Furthermore, we present our formative and summative program evaluation data regarding participants’ perceptions about what helps or hinders team science. The most-repeated themes in student evaluations, in order from most mentions to least, were: communication, goal setting, shared mental model, timing/scheduling, cooperation, non-participation, attitudes, and mentor guidance/support. Together these themes account for 82% of the student responses. Lastly, we present our observations of the positive effects of this intervention on our program. Our findings may be useful to those mentoring undergraduates in both team research and classroom group learning.     

中国研究生管理研究现状与反思：2000～2010

高校研究生事务管理作为研究生教育管理的特殊领域和重要有机组成部分,是影响研究生教育质量的重要因素。运用Cite Space可视化软件和SPSS统计软件,采用文献计量的方法,对2000～2010年CNKI数据库中检索到的研究生教育管理的相关学术文献进行统计分析与评估。期待通过评估,引起学界对中国研究生管理研究的深入探讨与反思,以更好地服务于研究生教育与研究生人才培养。     

Tackling the anxiety of learning statistics: The mystery of the red envelope

Most graduate programs in management require students to carry out a substantive research project. However, few management students have a comfortable command of the statistical techniques needed to realize such quantitative projects. This can lead to student anxiety and stress, which challenges instructors to devise ways to build students’ self-efficacy with statistical analysis. Drawing on game-based learning principles, we developed an exercise to help students in a graduate-level research methods course practice these statistical techniques. Designed around a series of four gamified challenges, students perform basic statistical analyses (correlations, t-tests, and simple linear regression) to solve puzzles and unlock a reward hidden in a mysterious red envelope. We used the exercise on seven occasions (five times in the methods course and twice in a graduate program preparatory course). After launching it in fall 2021, we observed that students were engaged and enthusiastic about the exercise. To ascertain its effectiveness more systematically, we collected data in five subsequent sections using a pretest/posttest design (N = 84) which showed that perceptions of statistics self-efficacy increased following the exercise. We conclude by suggesting that our exercise can be tailored to other learning contexts such as management and statistics-centered courses.     

我国硕士研究生课程体系现状调查及对策研究——以X大学为例

处于研究初期的硕士研究生对研究方法课程和跨学科课程知识的吸收、内化在整个学术研究阶段占有重要地位。文章运用SPSS软件,结合实际调查数据,分析发现研究方法课程、选修课程及跨学科课程数量存在明显不足,且性别、学科类别等因素影响学生对这三类课程的态度,并提出课程改革应致力于构建个性化的课程体系等建议。     

医学学术型硕士研究生科研驱动式培养模式的研究

医学研究生教育是医学模式中的高层次教育,担负着培养高素质医学人才和发展医学科学技术的双重任务,医学研究生的教学质量直接影响到医学事业发展。医学学术型研究生培养的侧重点在于学术理论、实验研究和科研能力训练。随着科学技术的快速发展和不断进步,学术型研究生培养在课程、培养平台以及培养方法等方面面临着新的挑战。针对当前学术型研究生创新教育的改革形势,滨州医学院以提升创新能力为核心,采用科研驱动式培养模式,将科研意识、科研能力和科研精神培养贯穿于研究生培养全过程。在医学学术型硕士研究生教育中,推行模块式课程体系与科研化教学模式;组建跨学科导师团队;建立多元化综合性考核评价体系。将参与科研训练与传授理论知识相结合,通过参与系统化、规范化培养模式,使研究生的科研水平得到显著提高。     

Measuring the educational impacts of a graduate course on sustainable development

While university‐level education is increasingly recognized as an important component of sustainable approaches to development, little empirical research has been done on the impact of sustainability education on student behavior. This study relies on an evidence‐based research approach to better understand how graduate coursework on sustainable development can facilitate learning and transform the perceptions and reported behavior of class participants. Specifically, the authors use ecological footprint analysis in an interdisciplinary graduate‐level course on sustainable development to make statistical conclusions about the degree to which education on sustainability influences students’ daily consumption patterns. The results of this study suggest that graduate‐level education can significantly increase the degree to which students behave in a sustainable manner as measured by their ecological footprints.     

Editorial

This paper centers on the process of conducting research on children’s social development through a partnership between university‐based researchers and teachers and students in an urban New England school district. It does so through the eyes of its first author, a second year graduate student who is negotiating the dual roles of researcher and teacher. In the process of investigating more about young children’s perceptions of teasing in conjunction with her research team, this student learns that theories about children’s social awareness developed in university settings virtually always require modification when examined in the real world. Ultimately, she concludes that the partnership between theorists and practitioners leads to a fine‐tuning of research protocols that elicit more complicated and variable responses from students, and that classroom climate factors, temporary or longstanding, may either facilitate or prevent effective data collection and analysis.     

Design,implementation, and evaluation of a multi-disciplinary professional development program for research mentors

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate research experience has been shown to enhance student learning and improve persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Researchers studying undergraduate research experiences have largely focused on student outcomes and have seldom investigated the outcomes of graduate and postdoctoral mentors. Here, we report a non-credit, year-long mentor professional development program designed for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and research staff in STEM. Mentors attended a series of six interactive and discussion-based workshops and mentored first-year undergraduate students in independent summer research projects. We report evaluation findings for three mentor cohorts using a combination of qualitative analysis of mentoring philosophies and quantitative assessment of pre- and post-surveys about mentoring objectives and skills. Results indicate that mentors gained self-efficacy in some objectives and skills. However, many other objectives and skills remained unchanged. We explore possible explanations for the lack of more broad-scale gains across survey items and present ideas for program improvement.     

Item Analysis in Introductory Economics Testing

Abstract

An interdisciplinary mentoring program for graduate teaching assistants, the GTA mentoring program, offers the needed support for graduate students in their training as teacher-scholars. Authors outline the vision and structure of the program and highlight student, faculty, and institutional benefits. This program involves regular meetings of small teams consisting of graduate students and a faculty mentor, as well as larger group meetings of all participants. Benefits include the development of personal and professional relationships, an open forum for the discussion of teaching and research issues, increased professional support, and greater confidence in classroom instruction.     

Sponsored Research Versus Graduating Students? Intervening Variables and Unanticipated Findings in Public Research Universities

This article examines the relationship between sponsored research monies and the graduation of undergraduate students at 22 public research universities. Using institutional and student characteristics for 59,982 students at these universities, we conducted chi-square, cross-tabulation, correlation, and hierarchical nonlinear modeling (HNLM) analyses to determine the relationship between our principal independent and dependent variables, and among them and other individual and institutional variables, including SAT (individual and institutional mean), gender (individual and percentage), underrepresented minority (individual and percentage), and graduate academic program rating. In contrast to a basic premise of most policymakers and academic managers, our findings suggest that an institution's sponsored research expenditures are positively related to undergraduates' graduation. We also find that mean SAT has a powerful impact on student graduation, although at the individual level gender is a more powerful correlate of graduation than is SAT score.     

Designing interdisciplinary instruction: exploring disciplinary and conceptual differences as a resource

This article presents a “telling case” of an interdisciplinary, team-teaching experience that explores how participants eschewed ethnocentricism of their fields of study in order to learn from each other, while providing instruction to students and analysing data collected from the class (a graduate course on literature and pedagogy). Through the process, the participants (a professor of English education and a professor of literature) ground the perspectives of literary interpretation in their field of study and languaculture, and developed a conceptual framework that guided their interactions and analysis of the discursive actions of the class. An ethnographic perspective served as the conceptual frame and informed how the participants observed, described, and developed claims about classroom interactions. Through this study, the participants answer calls for more examples of how faculty in higher education engage in interdisciplinary teaching and research and the need for faculty to develop conceptual ethnographic frameworks for their collaborations.     

Perspectives on interdisciplinary undergraduate research

Undergraduate Research (UR) provides deeper experiential learning opportunities for students while increasing their self-efficacy, academic success and motivation to pursue graduate studies. Many real-world problems require an integrated solution and collaboration across different disciplines; therefore, it is important that students develop skills to work across disciplines on challenging research problems. As types and complexity of UR increase, Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (IDUR) has become more prevalent, but little is known about it. We define IDUR as “student-faculty collaboration to examine, increase, and share new knowledge or works relevant to research questions the investigation of which necessitates an interdisciplinary approach”. From the faculty perspective, and based on the results of a national sample of higher learning institutions in the U.S., we outline the enablers of and barriers to IDUR and provide quantitative and qualitative insights. Survey results show that, irrespective of the size of the institution at which they work, faculty members value mentoring students conducting IDUR although it brings with it some challenges. Our findings may help institutions better facilitate IDUR projects and inform faculty development opportunities that deepen student learning and retention via enhanced curricula in which IDUR is embedded.     

Undergraduate Student Socialization and Learning in an Online Professional Curriculum

Using data collected from a qualitative case study of an online baccalaureate nursing program, we examined the influence of online degree programs on undergraduate student socialization and learning. We considered how components of socialization—knowledge acquisition, investment, and involvement—are influenced by the online context. The findings suggest the importance of considering non-academic influences in regards to nontraditional student experiences. The theoretical intersection of online learning and undergraduate student development offers new and significant areas of research, specifically related to the pedagogical role of faculty and the impact of social engagement. Implications for future research and practice are offered. Karri A. Holley  received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. She is Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama. Her research interests include graduate/professional education, interdisciplinary curricula, and qualitative inquiry. Barrett J. Taylor  is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. His research focuses on religious colleges and universities.     

Indigenous graduate research students in Australia: a critical review of the research

Over the last decade, there has been a steady increase in the number of Indigenous graduate research students in Australia, yet research and pedagogy has not kept pace with changes underway in the sector. From an extensive search of literature published between 2000 and 2017, 15 papers (representing 10 research projects conducted by seven teams or authors) were identified that addressed Indigenous graduate research student experience. Overall, the literature tends to focus on identifying barriers to completion, noting in particular the impact of financial difficulties, social isolation and racism. A research degree is a key site for the assertion and legitimation of Indigenous knowledges, and it is here that Indigenous students are navigating tensions between legitimated disciplinary practices of the centre and the peripheral status of Indigenous knowledges. We, therefore, adopt Herbert's ‘centre–periphery’ model to interpret the research, arguing that this framework explains the focus on barriers, the neglect of pedagogy centred on academic excellence and student strengths, and research relationships between students and Indigenous communities. Our review identifies the need for a systematic research agenda specifically focused on Indigenous student success at the graduate research level, and looking internationally in order to assess the performance and strategies of Australian higher education providers in comparison to international institutions meeting the aims of First Nations research communities. This approach, we suggest, should move beyond an analysis of the nature of enablers and barriers to focus on Indigenous Higher Degree by Research success.     

Educational development for responsible graduate students in the neoliberal university

In this article, we examine how our work in educational development, specifically in graduate student training, enacts the logic of neoliberalism in higher education in Canada. We approach this examination through a collaborative autoethnographic consideration of and reflection on our practices and experiences as educational developers, the design and delivery of a graduate student survey and our own experiences of and identification with ‘self-actualizing graduate students’. Further, we illustrate how neoliberalism shapes the work of teaching and learning centres resulting in offering programming, which compels graduate students to act in ways that can be read as responsible and capable of navigating an increasingly bleak academic labour market. Throughout the article we call attention to the ways in which our role as educational developers may either reinforce or disrupt neoliberal discourses. While we urge a critical approach, we also reflect on constraints to such criticism.     

Education for sustainable development in initial teacher training: issues for interdisciplinary collaboration

This article considers interdisciplinary approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) in initial teacher training (ITT) partnerships in the light of recent national policy initiatives. In identifying challenges for interdisciplinary innovation, it brings to bear research evidence from three sources: questionnaires sent to ITT partnership schools; questionnaire surveys of geography and science graduate student teachers; and questionnaire surveys of their school mentors. Key findings are that: schools are not yet well developed as sites for student teacher learning in the domain; student teachers generally have greater understanding of sustainable development than their mentors; geography mentors perceive themselves to be better prepared for mentoring in this area than their science counterparts (who feel ill‐prepared); for both students and mentors, there are significant gaps in understanding of ESD compared with representations found in the literature. Some implications and possible ways forward for interdisciplinary ESD in teacher education partnerships are discussed.