Asymmetric synthesis of N-protected 3-methylpiperidin-2-one and its diastereoisomer

This paper reports the asymmetric synthesis of an important pharmaceutical intermediate (3S)-1-[(1R)-2-hydroxy-1-phenylethyl]-3-methylpiperidin-2-one (compound 1) from commercially available D-plenylglycinol and delta-valerolactone. During the alkylation process, the hydroxyl group can be protected or unprotected, resulting in a different consumption of s-BuLi, and leading to a different diastereomeric excess (de) of compound 1. When 1-[(1R)-2-hydroxy-1-phenylethyl]-piperidin-2-one (compound 2) was alkylated with 2.5 eq. of s-BuLi, compound 1 was obtained as a single isomer detected by chiral high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns with an overall yield of 91%. With the hydroxyl group protected, (R)-1-(2-[(tert-butyldimethylsil) oxy]-1-phenylethyl) piperidine-2-one (compound 6) could be alkylated with 1.5 eq. of s-BuLi, giving compound 1 and its diastereoisomer 8 in a ratio of 1:2.5 and a yield of methylation of 90%. Compounds 1 and 8 could be separated completely and easily by flash chromatography. The absolute configuration of compound 8 was determined by singlecrystal X-ray analysis. The mechanism of the alkylation process is discussed based on experimental results.     

Internationalising the Student Experience: Preparing Instructors to Embed Intercultural Skills in the Curriculum

The Internationalising the Student Experience Project was devised and piloted as a teaching innovation to improve the intercultural awareness of instructors and, subsequently, that of their domestic and international students. In this article we claim that instructor preparation in the use of the Alliance Building and Cultural Mapping tools of the international EXCELL (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) Program can provide a base for institutionalised support. We report and discuss this approach and the outcomes to the challenges of and opportunities for internationalising the curriculum in the broader higher education context.     

Short-term retention in rats: The effect of goal-arm confinement on delayed alternation performance

Gordon and his associates (e.g., Gordon & Feldman, 1978,Learning and Motivation,9, 164–178; Feldman & Gordon, 1979,Learning and Motivation,10, 198–210; Gordon, Taylor, & Mower, 1981,American Journal of Psychology,94, 309–322) have reported that a reactivation treatment significantly enhances memory for prior forcings in delayed alternation using rats. The reactivation treatment consisted of placing the rat in the goal arm to which it had been forced previously on that trial. The confinement occurred in the absence of food and was 5 sec in duration. The present experiments explored the possibility that the treatment might influence performance by affording an opportunity for new information to be acquired during the confinement period. Evidence consistent with this view was found in that (1) accuracy was reduced on trials in which the initial event was a 5-sec confinement to the arm opposite that of the target forcing and (2) increasing the duration of the confinement from 5 to 15 to 45 sec increased the magnitude of this effect. It was concluded that the effectiveness of goal-arm confinement as a reactivation treatment does not necessarily implicate processes of retrieval in delayed alternation behavior.     

Leading Change and Innovation in Teacher Preparation: A Blueprint for Developing TPACK Ready Teacher Candidates

When preparing TPACK ready teacher candidates, faculty must incorporate and model TPACK within the teacher education curriculum, which often requires an ongoing change process. But for change to take place we must consider the role leadership plays in the innovation of change. Leaders, deans and department heads must be an integral part of this process. The challenge for innovation, change and education technology leaders is to transform teacher preparation programs into fully realized TPACK environments and determine the necessary learning opportunities and support necessary to motivate college leaders and faculty to fully embrace the change process. This article outlines a collaborative ongoing process and blueprint that leaders should consider as they make plans for the effective integration of TPACK into their colleges. “Tomorrow’s teachers must be prepared to rethink, unlearn and relearn, change, revise, and adapt” (Niess, 2008, p.225). Leaders, deans and department heads must be an integral part of this process if it is to be successful. While technology can support changes in how teacher educators teach and future teachers learn to teach (Dilworth et al., 2012), teaching with technology is a “wicked problem” in that it has “incomplete, contradictory and changing requirements” (Koehler & Mishra, 2008, p.10). New and innovative ways of confronting this complexity must address core knowledge base components that include content, pedagogy, and technology. These components have been used as the foundation for a technology , pedagogy , and content knowledge (TPACK) framework known as technological pedagogical content knowledge, or TPCK (AACTE, 2008; Koehler & Mishra, 2008; Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Pierson, 1999). But what is the role of leaders where TPACK based processes are being implemented in university teacher preparation programs? Educational technology leaders often approach models for teacher preparation in collectives that examine them iteratively. The 2012 National Technology Leadership Summit brought together the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and its Innovation and Technology Committee. Representatives from college administrations met and examined leadership issues facing deans, directors and chairs as they work to support college-wide change facilitating faculty and teacher candidates in the task of becoming TPACK proficient. This work built upon a CITE (Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education) journal editorial focused on initial conversations around leadership needs for effective TPACK implementation (Dexter, Herring, & Thomas, 2012). A presentation at AACTE 2013 extended this work with teacher preparation and education technology leaders sharing “what worked” in their colleges around these processes. A panel presentation at the 2013 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) Conference also shared insights into a blueprint for key areas that leaders should consider as they make plans for the effective integration of TPACK into their colleges as well as several implementation case studies. This article compiles this iterative work from a leadership perspective. While the challenge is to transform teacher preparation programs into fully realized TPACK environments, leadership becomes the key in developing new ways of confronting this complex issue that must address core knowledge base components inclusive of content, pedagogy and technology. To accomplish this task, faculty are faced with incorporating modeling these ideas within a teacher education curriculum in concert with ongoing change processes. A solid understanding of the interactions of these components can result in effective teaching with technology in varied and diverse settings; but the critical role of leadership in making such changes must first be considered. The critical features of a blueprint for leaders is based upon the work of Leithwood and colleagues’ framework comprised of three key leadership functions associated with improved student outcomes (Day, Sammons, Leithwood, Kington, 2008; Leithwood, Harris & Hopkins, 2008; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008; Leithwood & Riehl, 2003). The three major component of the Leithwood transformational leadership model are: (1) Building vision and setting direction (2) Developing people through understanding people and (3) Developing the organization through redesigning it. Leithwood, Begley and Cousins (1994) define transformational leadership as follows: The term ‘transform’ implies major changes in the form, nature, function and/or potential of some phenomenon; applied to leadership, it specifies general ends to be pursued although it is largely mute with respect to means. From this beginning, we consider the central purpose of transformational leadership to be the enhancement of the individual and collective problem-solving capacities of organizational members; such capacities are exercised in the identification of goals to be achieved and practices to be used in their achievement (p. 7). Transformational leaders can create significant change in both followers and the organization with which they are associated (Griffin, 2003). Transformational leaders also find common ground that allows them to enlist followers in processes of change. Fullan (2010) finds that for true reform to take place, resolute leadership that remains focused is critical when new ideas encounter serious difficulty, thereby sustaining and building on success. To achieve this task and create significant change, transformational education leaders realize that true technology integration means understanding and negotiating the relationships between the three components of knowledge and going beyond a “business” organizational model to create change in teacher preparation programs. Too often organizations start down the road to change without being clear on key factors that influence the outcomes of the initiative. Deans and educational leaders must develop a model for change based upon both the organizational culture and the environments they need a set of resources to help and guide them to integrate a framework like TPACK. Through ongoing collaboration and discussion the focus has been around the development of a leadership module which would help leaders establish a vision and set a direction for addressing TPACK. The purpose of a leadership module would be to provide Deans and other educational leaders with the tools they need for full-scale implementation and motivate them to redesign their programs while continuing to improve and sustain a developing / changing curriculum.     

The influence of partner cues on the extinction of causal judgments in people

Studies in laboratory animals have shown that the extinction of a conditioned stimulus, A, is regulated by the associative history of a second stimulus, X, when the two are extinguished in simultaneous compound: An inhibitory X protects A from extinction (Rescorla Learning & Behavior, 31, 124–132, 2003), whereas an excitatory X facilitates, and under some circumstances deepens, the extinction of A (Rescorla Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 26, 251–260, 2000, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 135–144, 2006). In the present study, we used the allergist task to examine whether the extinction of causal judgments in people is similarly regulated by the causal status of co-present stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that a cue trained as a conditioned inhibitor protected a target cue from extinction: The target extinguished in compound with the inhibitor was rated as being more causal of the outcome than was a target extinguished in compound with a control cue lacking inhibitory properties. In contrast, the remaining experiments showed that the extinction of a target cue was regulated by the presence, but not the causal status, of a partner cue: Target cues extinguished in compound were protected from extinction, and no evidence showed that an already extinguished partner conferred more protection (Exp. 2), or that an excitatory partner conferred any less protection (Exps. 2 and 3), or that an excitatory partner deepened the extinction of its already extinguished target. These findings are inconsistent with elemental models that rely on a common error term to explain associative changes in extinction. They are largely, but not completely, consistent with the configural model proposed by Pearce (Psychological Review, 94, 61–73, 1987), which predicts an ordering of levels of protection that was not observed.     

A new approach to the assessment of children's mathematical competence

The report is a translation of part of a Swedish paper entitled “On Students' Achievement in Mathematics after Finishing Comprehensive School”. The intention of the investigation was to

- diagnose the retention of some basic skills in some topics in algebra and geometry,

- reveal difficult steps in the learning processes in these topics.

Starting with a complicated question, e.g. the equation \(\frac{{3x - 2}}{2} = \frac{x}{3}\) a sequence consisting of 5–15 problems were constructed. Each new problem followed by the preceding one by taking away one or two details. \(\begin{gathered} 3(3x - 2) = 2x \\ {\text{ 9}}x - 6 = 2x \\ {\text{ 7}}x - 6 = 0 \\ {\text{ 7}}x = 6 \\ \end{gathered} \) is an example of a sequence belonging to the equation above. From about 10 complicated problems (“top-items”) and their sequences, in all 130 items, 10 sub-tests were put together in such a way that the pupils who took the test were not aware of the sequences but found no connection between the problems. Many surprising results were found, e.g., that the students scored higher on 14/(x+2)=2 than on 4/x=3, that the difficulty in finding the area of a triangle depended on the position of the triangle and that the problems “Simplify a/a ², a²/a, a/a” were of quite unequal difficulty. A discussion about the students' thinking in patterns and mechanically learning ends the report.     

Because trucks aren’t bicycles: orthographic complexity as an important variable in reading research

Severe enduring reading- and writing-accuracy difficulties seem a phenomenon largely restricted to nations using complex orthographies, notably Anglophone nations, given English’s highly complex orthography (Geva and Siegel, Read Writ 12:1–30, 2000; Landerl et al., Cognition 63:315–334, 1997; Share, Psychol Bull 134(4):584–615, 2008; Torgesen and Davis, J Exp Child Psychol 63:1–21, 1996; Vellutino, J Learn Disabil 33(3):223, 2000). They seem rare in transparent orthography nations such as Finland, which use highly regular spelling and few spelling rules beyond letter sounds, and most children read and write with impressive accuracy by the end of Year 1 (Holopainen et al., J Learn Disabil 34(5):401–413, 2001; Seymour et al., Br J Psychol 94:143–174, 2003; Spencer and Hanley, Br J Psychol 94(1):1–29, 2003; J Res Read 27(1):1–14, 2004). Orthographic complexity has strong and diverse impacts on reading, writing and academic development (Aro, Learning to read: The effect of orthography, 2004; Galletly and Knight, Aust J Learn Disabil 9(4):4–11, 2004; Aust Educ Res 38(3):329–354, 2011). Despite these strong effects, orthographic complexity is rarely included as a variable in reading research studies considering evidence from both Anglophone (complex orthography) and transparent-orthography readers, or included in discussion of factors influencing results. This paper discusses the differences in reading-accuracy development and difficulties evidenced in studies of Anglophone (complex-orthography) and transparent-orthography readers. It then explores instances of orthographic complexity not being considered in studies where it may have impacted results. This disregarding of orthographic complexity as a variable in research studies appears an oversight, one likely to be contributing to continuing confusion on many aspects of reading and writing development in both healthy- and low-progress readers. Needs for research in these areas are discussed.     

Re-embodying (preservice middle years) teachers? An attempt to reposition the body and its presence in teaching and learning

This four-part story is about one teacher educator’s attempt to embody praxis as a form of academic work, emphasizing the importance of the corporeal in learning and teaching. I describe the inter-related context (1) of my embodied self, the teacher education course I constructed, and theory employed in mediating course practices. Evidence of praxis in emergence (2) is illustrated through written text and visual artefacts of the operationalized assessment. I discuss (3) using embodied subjectivities, the importance of practice/praxis, and how we operationalize discourse in education to then pose questions (4) as flows for teacher educators, preservice teachers and teachers in their classpaces.     

The effect of mindfulness on extinction and behavioral resurgence

In the present experiments, we investigated the effects of mindfulness on behavioral extinction and resurgence. Participants received instrumental training; either they received FI training (Experiment 1), or they were trained to emit high rates and low rates of response via exposure to a multiple VR yoked-VI schedule prior to exposure to a multiple FI FI schedule in order to alter their rates of responding learned during Experiment 2. Participants were then exposed to either a focused- (mindfulness) or an unfocused-attention induction task. All participants were finally exposed to an extinction schedule in order to determine whether a mindfulness induction task presented immediately prior to extinction training affected extinction (Experiment 1) and behavioral resurgence (Experiment 2). During the extinction phase, the rates of responding were higher in the control group than in the mindfulness group, indicating that the mindfulness group was more sensitive to the contingencies and, thus, their prior performance extinguished more readily (Experiment 1). Moreover, rates of response in the extinction components less precisely reflected previous training in the mindfulness group, suggesting less resurgence of past behaviors after the mindfulness induction (Experiment 2).     

Infusing Authentic Inquiry into Biotechnology

Societal benefit depends on the general public’s understandings of biotechnology (Betsch in World J Microbiol Biotechnol 12:439–443, 1996; Dawson and Cowan in Int J Sci Educ 25(1):57–69, 2003; Schiller in Business Review: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (Fourth Quarter), 2002; Smith and Emmeluth in Am Biol Teach 64(2):93–99, 2002). A National Science Foundation funded survey of high school biology teachers reported that hands-on biotechnology education exists in advanced high school biology in the United States, but is non-existent in mainstream biology coursework (Micklos et al. in Biotechnology labs in American high schools, 1998). The majority of pre-service teacher content preparation courses do not teach students appropriate content knowledge through the process of inquiry. A broad continuum exists when discussing inquiry-oriented student investigations (Hanegan et al. in School Sci Math J 109(2):110–134, 2009). Depending on the amount of structure in teacher lessons, inquiries can often be categorized as guided or open. The lesson can be further categorized as simple or authentic (Chinn and Malhotra in Sci Educ 86(2):175–218, 2002). Although authentic inquiries provide the best opportunities for cognitive development and scientific reasoning, guided and simple inquiries are more often employed in the classroom (Crawford in J Res Sci Teach 37(9):916–937, 2000; NRC in Inquiry and the national science education standards: a guide for teaching and learning, 2000). For the purposes of this study we defined inquiry as “authentic” if original research problems were resolved (Hanegan et al. in School Sci Math J 109(2):110–134, 2009; Chinn and Malhotra in Sci Educ 86(2):175–218, 2002; Roth in Authentic school science: knowing and learning in open-inquiry science laboratories, 1995). The research question to guide this study through naturalistic inquiry research methods was: How will participants express whether or not an authentic inquiry experience enhanced their understanding of biotechnology? As respondents explored numerous ideas in order to develop a workable research question, struggled to create a viable protocol, executed their experiment, and then evaluated their results, they commented on unexpected topics regarding the nature of science as well as specific content knowledge relating to their experiments. Four out of five participants reported they learned the most during authentic inquiry laboratory experience.     

Threshold capabilities: threshold concepts and knowledge capability linked through variation theory

The Threshold Capability Integrated Theoretical Framework (TCITF) is presented as a framework for the design of university curricula, aimed at developing graduates’ capability to deal with previously unseen situations in their professional, social, and personal lives. The TCITF is a new theoretical framework derived from, and heavily dependent upon, the ideas of the Threshold Concepts Framework (Meyer and Land 2003a; Land et al. 2006) and Capability Theory (Bowden and Marton 1998; Bowden et al. 2000; Bowden 2004). Capability theory is firmly based in phenomenography and variation theory, is concerned with the development of knowledge capability, but has had limited application in practice. The threshold concepts framework has enjoyed greater acceptance by a large range of academics in many fields. This acceptance has initially focussed on analytic studies of what constitutes a threshold concept—and the location and distribution of such concepts—in a given domain. In many instances subsequent attention has focussed on issues of pedagogy and assessment, including the design of curricula. We propose a merging of capability theory and the threshold concepts framework and argue that capability and variation theories provide the ideal mechanism for developing a strong pedagogical approach based on newly emerging knowledge of the critical features of threshold concepts within different domains.     

Evaluating research-oriented teaching: a new instrument to assess university students’ research competences

Several concepts have been developed to implement research-oriented teaching in higher education in the last 15 years. The definition of research competences, however, has received minor attention so far. Some approaches to modeling research competences describe these competences along the research process but either focus on a specific academic discipline and/or specific facets or offer no empirical verification for cross-disciplinary approaches. We have developed a new approach to model research competences across various academic disciplines in form of a competence model—the RMRC-K-model. This model comprises five dimensions: skills in reviewing the state of research, methodological skills, skills in reflecting on research findings, communication skills, and content knowledge. In this study, we present an instrument (R-Comp) developed on the basis of this cross-disciplinary competence model. The factorial structure of the R-Comp was examined with data from 391 university students in three groups, either enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, or a PhD program. The sample represented various academic disciplines. Results from confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesized structure of the R-Comp for the five dimensions in accordance with the RMRC-K-model. Additionally, results provided evidence for a more detailed differentiation of all dimensions with sub-dimensions reflecting theorized facets of the model. Both Cronbach’s α and construct reliability H indicated overall good reliability. Despite limitations to this study, there is some first evidence of a valid and reliable assessment of student research competences.     

An easy-to-hard effect after nonreinforced preexposure in a sweetness discrimination

Experiments 1A and 1B used a taste-aversion procedure with rats to demonstrate that exposure to easily discriminated flavors along a dimension (1 % and 10 % sucrose) can facilitate learning a subsequent hard discrimination (4 % and 7 % sucrose) when one of those flavors is paired with illness. Experiment 1A compared the effects of preexposure to the easily discriminated flavors against exposure to the same stimuli used in the discrimination training or no exposure at all. Experiment 1B replicated the conditions in Experiment 1A, with 2 additional days of training and unrestricted access to the flavors on CS+/CS– trials in discrimination training. Contrary to findings with multidimensional stimuli (Scahill & Mackintosh, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 30, 96–103, 2004; Suret & McLaren, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56B, 30–42, 2003), we found that preexposure to the easily discriminable stimuli varying along a single dimension of sweetness facilitated subsequent discrimination training over the other conditions in each experiment. We discuss the results in terms of the ideas presented by Gibson (1969) and Mackintosh (Psychological Review, 82, 276–298, 1975) and in terms of hedonic variables not considered by theories of perceptual learning.     

An examination into some variables said to affect serial learning

In each of three serial learning investigations, rats in a runway were given varying numbers of 0.045-g food pellets in a fixed order. Serial learning was indexed by faster running to larger than to smaller reward quantities. It has been suggested by Hulse (Animal Learning & Behavior, 1980,8, 689–690) and by Roitblat (Behavioral Brain Sciences, 1982,5, 353–371) that differences between two or more serial learning groups that have been obtained under one set of specified experimental conditions may be completely reversed or eliminated under another set of specified experimental conditions. In each of the three investigations reported here, we examined series that had been compared in previous investigations, employing, however, experimental conditions that, according to Hulse and to Roitblat, should produce results different from those obtained previously. In each of the three investigations reported here, the groups differed as they had previously. The findings obtained in this report suggest that none of the following variables is critical to the results obtained in serial learning investigation in the sense suggested by Hulse and Roitblat: the number of items contained in the series, the number of times the series is presented each day, the temporal interval elapsing between items, and the temporal interval elapsing between series presentations. The implications of the present findings for the rule-encoding view of Hulse and his coworkers and for the memory-discrimination learning view of Capaldi and his coworkers are examined.     

Résolution de problèmes de division au cycle elementaire dans deux types de situations didactiques

This study deals with the observation of a class composed of children aged 8–9 solving division problems. The analysis aims at differentiating the attitudes of pupils confronted with situations resulting from ‘EMPIRICAL’ learning from those observed in situations involving action resulting from ‘DIALECTIC’ learning. Two learning sequences are described in the course of the study:

* The first includes four classical terms which allow the use of empirical methods to find the quotient and the remainder.

* The second includes two terms elaborated so that they favour a dialectic of action with the children.

The observed differences reveal that:

* The repetition of drills of the same nature during the first learning sequence does not result in important variations as far as success and solution procedures are concerned.

* On the other hand, during the second learning sequence, all pupils use a more economical solution procedure with high level success rate.

     

Case study of a TeaM challenge game—e-PBL revisited

Today’s societies place challenging demands on individuals, who are confronted with complexity in many parts of their lives. What do these demands imply for key competencies that individuals need to acquire? Defining such competencies can improve assessments of how well prepared young people and adults are for life’s challenges, as well as identify overarching goals for education systems and lifelong learning. Why are competencies so important today? The PISA 2000 results underline the importance of student engagement. PISA found strong relationships between students’ attitudes, learning strategies and performance. In addition to skills related to specific parts of the school curriculum, students need to be equipped with some general competencies to solve life’s challenges. As they progress to adulthood, they need to learn to be able to complete not just pre-rehearsed exercises, but must also be able to solve problems set in unfamiliar situations by thinking flexibly and pragmatically. PISA 2003 therefore made a first-time assessment of students’ problem-solving skills. Findings revealed that just under one in five 15-year-olds in OECD countries are ‘reflective, communicative problem solvers’ able to tackle difficult tasks and also just under one in five students have problem-solving skills that cannot even be classified as ‘basic problem solvers’. What could be the basic problem and what resolution can be sought for? There are several examples in learning theory that suggests promises which need to be revisited. Barr and Tagg [From teaching to learning. Change. November/December pp. 13–25. Retrieved June 15, 2006 from http://critical.tamucc.edu/~blalock/readings/tch2learn.htm, 1995] defined the differences of paradigms in terms of learning theory comparing the notions of ‘teaching’ and that of ‘learning’, obviously expressing preferences to the later for its more in-depth effect on the learner. One of the main learner-centric approaches providing adequate positive results is problem based learning (PBL). This paper revisits the pedagogic theory behind PBL and examines it through a practical case study of a TeaM challenge game [TeaM challenge games: http://kihivas.ini.hu] with respect to its value in teacher education. It will concentrate on issues centred around:

• Traces of use of higher order thinking skills—according to Bloom’s taxonomy.
• Pedagogic pre-assumptions (designer’s side): requirements for design and supposed impact of students and teachers.
• Assignment within teacher training (training side): as the task of setting up such game is performed within Informatics teacher training at ELTE University and games were launched into public education.
• Pedagogic realities (facilitator’s side): how the teachers at a specific participant school viewed their role, the game, its impact and pedagogic value, its role in fulfilling the National Curriculum and its benefit for students.
• Indirect impact (staff’s side): how the game has affected the whole staff at school and what impact it had of the attitude of teachers.
• Results (evaluator’s side): how the game was evaluated in several ways and what new methods it has introduced into public education.