Enhancing research through academic staff development

Abstract

In the past few years, research has been an increasingly important focus of academic staff development, but there is little documentation of this new area of development. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution over four years of a programme to develop research skills. The experience of planning and implementing this programme illustrates how changes in higher education and university priorities (such as amalgamations of institutions, increased pressures on staff, increased competition between institutions for funding, and universities’ growing corporatization) have interacted with staff development objectives to shape changes in the programme's purpose, format, mode of participation, and planning approach. A collaborative approach to planning is seen to be appropriate in the current climate, maximizing sensitivity to the distinctive needs of the various faculties, departments or schools. Current scholarly discussion is recognized as providing support for a move toward collaboration and context‐sensitivity.     

Field testing of physiological responses associated with Nordic Walking

This study compared the physiological responses (oxygen consumption and energy expenditure) of Nordic Walking to regular walking under field-testing conditions. Eleven women (M age = 27.1 years, SD = 6.4) and 11 men (M age = 33.8 years, SD = 9.0) walked 1,600 m with and without walking poles on a level, 200-m track. For women, Nordic Walking resulted in increased oxygen consumption (M = 14.9 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1), SD = 3.2 vs. M = 1 7.9 ml x kg(-1) min(-1), SD = 3.5; p < .001), caloric expenditure (M = 4.6 kcal x min(-1), SD = 1.2 vs. M = 5.4 kcal x min(-1), SD = 1.2; p < .001), and heart rate (M = 113.7 bpm, SD = 12.0 vs. M = 118.7 bpm, SD = 14.8; p < .05) compared to regular walking. For men, Nordic Walking resulted in increased oxygen consumption (M = 12.8 ml x kg(-1) min(-1), SD = 1.8 vs. M = 15.5, SD =3.4 ml x kg(-1) min(-1); p < .01), caloric expenditure (M = 5.7 kcal x min(-1), SD = 1.3 vs. M = 6.9 kcal x min(-1), SD = 1.8; p < .001), and heart rate (M = 101.6 bpm, SD = 12.0 bpm vs. M = 109.8 bpm, SD = 14.7; p < .01) compared to regular walking. Nordic Walking, examined in the field, results in a significant increase in oxygen use and caloric expenditure compared to regular walking, without significantly increasing perceived exertion.     

The Big History Project and colonizing knowledges in world history curriculum

This empirical study uses content and frequency analysis to investigate how the Big History Project (BHP) online curriculum represents different racial and cultural groups within its units fusing science and history. The prevalence of a Western Civilizations perspective in curricula offers a challenging irony: that world history could be culturally irrelevant, or inaccurate, for non-Europeans. Drawing on Indigenous, postcolonial and critical social studies scholarship, this study offers a new framework identifying five attributes of a Eurocentric World History curriculum and uses it to analyze BHP. Findings reveal that BHP materials promote Eurocentrism through its content and source selections, across all five attributes of the framework. Implications for curriculum and pedagogy in the social and natural sciences are discussed.     

Training letter and orthographic pattern recognition in children with slow naming speed

Although research has established that performance on a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task is related to reading, the nature of this relationship is unclear. Bowers (2001) proposed that processes underlying performance on the RAN task and orthographic knowledge make independent and additive contributions to reading performance. We examined the benefits of training orthographic pattern recognition and speeded letter recognition for children in Grades 1 and 2 with slow naming speed. Children first received training in either orthographic pattern recognition or speeded letter recognition, and then switched to the other type of training. Results indicated that speeded letter recognition can improve through training, but only when preceded by training in orthographic pattern recognition. Orthographic pattern recognition training improved the accuracy and speed of reading training words, whether training occurred alone or following letter training. Letter training prior to the orthographic training provided no additional benefit. Together, these results argue for the importance of orthographic training for children with slow naming speed.     

Inhibition,Integrity and Etiquette Among Online Learners: The Art of Niceness

Recent research on online learning has explored the dense fabric of social presence giving us a better understanding of the rhythms of the teaching-learning exchange. Quantitative studies, especially, have concluded with calls for deeper, more intensive explorations into what happens in online learning environments (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer, Journal of Distance Education, 14 (2), 50-71, 1999 ). In this paper, the results of an interpretive study conducted among mature university learners engaged in online study reveal learners' strong affinity to a code of online etiquette. On the demanding front lines of online learning, these learners valued and constructed ways of "being nice" to their fellow learners, creating tolerable levels of harmony and community within which to complete their studies successfully.     

Impulse control or selective attention: Remedial programs for hyperactivity

The purpose of the present study was to compare various cognitive treatment approaches for ameliorating the difficulties of hyperactive children on tasks requiring sustained vigilance and accuracy. Differential training techniques comparing training in attention to inhibitory control indicated that a combination of attentional and inhibitory control strategies was most efficacious in enhancing cognitive performance of these children. The findings from the present research further were interpreted to support the hypothesis suggesting that problems with impulse control and attention occur concurrently in hyperkinetic children, although remediation in attentional deploying strategies is necessary for enhancing cognitive performance of these children. The results from this study further indicated that training hyperkinetic children solely in inhibitory control simply is not sufficient for enhancing cognitive performance.     

INCEPTION,GROWTH, AND DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

Community colleges, increasingly, are having to look for funding sources other than state revenues, local taxation, and student fees and tuition. More and more community colleges are recognizing fund raising as an alternative funding source. Because community college fund raising is in an embryonic stage, research addressing community college foundations has been limited. This research project involved a case study of one community college foundation. The project looked at why the foundation was established, what factors influenced the development of the foundation, and the way it evolved to the present day. The findings are suggestive to other community colleges seeking to begin a foundation or to strengthen the existing one.