Nurturing faculty vitality by matching institutional interventions with career-stage needs

A questionnaire study, modeled after Baldwin's 1979 research on faculty at a liberal arts college, was conducted with 42 Lilly Teaching Fellows and Lilly Mentors at a large, public, research-oriented university in the Southeast U.S.A. Results from the study support the notion that one of the keys to a successful instructional and faculty development program is to target activities to the academic career stage of the faculty member.Patricia Kalivoda works in the Office of Instructional Development at The University of Georgia. She holds an MBA and an Ed.D. from The University of Georgia. Her research focuses on faculty career development and faculty vitality. Geraldine Rogers Sorrell is Special Populations Coordinator at Middle Georgia Technical Institute. She holds an M.Ed.and an Ed.D. from The University of Georgia. She specializes in faculty and staff development, and career counseling. Ronald D. Simpson is Director of the Office of Instructional Development at The University of Georgia, where he also is professor of Higher Education and Science Education. He holds degrees from The University of Tennessee and The University of Georgia.     

Group size regulates self-assertive versus self-deprecating responses to interpersonal competition

The current study examined the hypothesis that group size can influence whether children display self-assertive versus self-deprecating responses to interpersonal competition, especially under stress. Twenty same-sex play-groups (N = 120) of 9- to 10-year-old children played a competitive game in groups and in dyads. Stress was induced by causing some of the children to lose the game and watch as their opponents received psychological and material rewards. Results demonstrated that both the dynamics of the game and individual reactions to stress varied consistently as a function of the social context. Individuals displayed more assertive behaviors in groups than in dyads. In contrast, individuals exhibited more self-deprecating behaviors in dyads than in groups. Given that under naturalistic conditions males are more likely than are females to interact in groups and females are more likely than are males to interact in dyads, group size provides one possible mechanism for the development of sex differences in self-assertive versus self-deprecating behaviors.     

Assessment and its outcomes: the influence of disciplines and institutions

Existing research provides evidence at the module level of systematic differences in patterns of assessment, marks achieved and distributions of marks between different disciplines. This paper examines those issues at the degree course level, and suggests reasons for the presence or absence of those module-level relationships at this higher level. The analysis finds that both discipline and institution have large and roughly equal impact on the balance between assessment types. However, contrary to the suggestions in the literature, that balance has virtually no independent impact on degree outcomes. The analysis also discovers that, while there is only a small independent impact of disciplines on average degree marks compared to the institutional impact, disciplines do have a larger relative impact on the distribution of those marks.     

Attitudes of introductory college biology students toward evolution

Introductory college biology students were surveyed to investigate their attitudes toward evolution. Thurstone's Scale No. 30, Form A, Attitudes Toward Evolution was used to survey the sample. Results indicate that the majority of introductory biology students believe in the theory of evolution. Two demographic variables, sex and influence of the church, produced a significant correlation with the attitude scores. There were significant interactions between sex and influence of high school biology teacher and between sex and major. Self rating by the individual students and attitude scores also produced a significant correlation. Construct validity of the attitude scale was supported by the significant correlation between student self rating and scale scores. ANOVA produced a F value significant at the 0.01 probability level, and Spearman's correlation coefficient between the two measures was 0.73. Although the Thurstone Scale No. 30, Form A, is over 45 years old, the results of this study suggest that it is a reliable instrument for use today with modifications in item construction, scaling or adaptation to other scoring methods.     

Online discussion in schools: Towards a pedagogical framework

In this paper, we draw on Bernstein's [1996. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. London: Taylor and Francis] notion of framing of pedagogical communication to propose a framework for use in specific literacy contexts. Here, we illustrate how this framework has emerged from an examination of text response online discussions in the English/Language Arts curriculum in primary and secondary school contexts ostensibly concerned with the development of critical literacies. We focus on the selection of the literary texts and the prompts around those, the pacing and sequencing of the discussion, and the way in which responses are negotiated online. Using this framework in two specific contexts, we find that the more mediated, but less interactive framing in one institutional context tends to support the development of desired critical literacy practices, while the less mediated but more interactive framing of the online discussions in the second context is less supportive of such literacy practices. We suggest that this analytical framework could be adapted for use in a range of online contexts in order to make more visible the extent to which the intended forms of literacy are realised and which interactional affordances are exploited in the process.     

Convergence of sequences and series: Interactions between visual reasoning and the learner's beliefs about their own role

This paper examines part of a set of students who were followed during their first-term, first-year studies in formal definition-based real analysis at a British university. It explores the approaches to problems about convergence of sequences and series made by students who have a tendency to include visual imagery in their reasoning. We explore links between the students' mathematical behavior in solving these problems and their perception of their roles as learners. We develop a theory in which the tendency to visualize, coupled with the students' view of their role, can be used to account for their mathematical behavior. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Faculty development in the United States

This report gives an overview of faculty development in the United States during the past 30 years and suggests what remains to be done before this movement becomes fully institutionalized in American higher education.Jerry G. Gaff is Vice President at the Association of American Colleges. His degrees are at DePauw University (A.B.) and Syracuse University (Ph.D.) with specialization in psychology. He helped pioneer the establishment of campus-based faculty development programs in the 1970s, has worked on improving undergraduate general education programs, and currently directs a new project to prepare future faculty members for their roles in teaching and service, as well as research. Ronald D. Simpson is Director of the Office of Instructional Development at The University of Georgia, where he also is professor of Higher Education and Science Education. He holds degrees from The University of Tennessee and The University of Georgia.     

Caught on Camera: Youth and Educators’ Noticing of and Responding to Failure Within Making Contexts

A lot of attention has been given to the role failure plays in learning and innovation. Yet, we know little about the conditions necessary for the experience to result in positive outcomes. In this study, we sought to answer three research questions: (1) What is the relationship among attend, interpret, and respond when experiencing failures within making-related activities? (2) How does youths’ and educators’ noticing of failure within making-related activities differ by tasks? (3) How does youths’ and educators’ noticing of failures within making-related activities differ by context? To address these questions, we used data collected from youths participating in making experiences in three different contexts: schools, a science museum, and an afterschool program run by science museum educators. Analysis of approximately 90 h of video revealed differences in how youths and educators attended, interpreted and responded to failures that suggest differences in the sophistication of their response. Educational implications from these findings support less direct oversight by educators and increased use of techniques to have the youth demonstrate positive troubleshooting behaviors.

     

Evaluation of a course designed to teach physics to students of physiotherapy

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a course in physiotherapy whereby the physics fundamental to the modalities of cold, heat and ultrasound therapies was integrated in lectures and actual physiotherapy activities. The design of the course is described together with the perceptions of physiotherapy students regarding the organisation of the course, safety aspects and how well the integration contributed to their understanding of the physics involved in electrotherapy. Specialization: Physics education. Specialization: electrotherapy. Specializations: Diagnosis of student learning difficulties and teaching for conceptual change, technology education, curriculum evaluation. Specializations: Material science, isotope studies, physics education.