Differential development of 24-h retention capacities for two components of T-maze escape learning by infant mice

At 9 or 11 days of age, separate groups of Swiss-Webster mice received 12, 24, or 40 training trials to the goal opposite their first-trial choice in a shock-escape T-maze task. All groups were retested to the same goal for 25 trials 24 h following training, while maturation controls without prior exposure were trained to the goal opposite their first choice. All groups demonstrated increased escape proficiency during original training on two separate escape components: reaching the choice point and making the correct turn at the choice point. During retention testing, all groups at both ages exhibited better escape performance in terms of reaching the choice point than their maturation controls. However, when escape was measured in terms of choice, none of the groups trained at 9 days of age differed significantly from maturation controls when retested at 10 days of age. In contrast, retention of correct choice point turn varied directly with number of original training trials for mice trained at 11 days of age.     

The influence of Work-Integrated Learning and paid work during studies on graduate employment and underemployment

To enhance employability and improve the career prospects of graduating students, this study explores the influence of practical experience on graduate employment outcomes in an Australian setting. To develop our understanding of the relative benefit of different forms of practical experience, the study evaluates the influence of both Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) and paid work in the final year of study on graduate employment and underemployment. Two samples are used, N?=?628 and N?=?237, to evaluate institutional data on practical experience combined with national data on graduate employment outcomes. Findings indicate that participating in WIL does not produce an increase in full-time employment rates. There is some evidence to suggest that it could lead to higher quality, relevant employment in both the short and long term. Paid employment during the final year of undergraduate study produced higher full-time employment rates, but had little effect on underemployment. Findings will help to inform stakeholders of the relative benefit of curricular and extra-curricular work experience and contribute to the dearth of empirical evidence on the value of activities designed to improve graduate employment prospects. This is particularly important given growth in the supply of graduates, concerns for credentialism, soft graduate labour markets and global economic weakening.     

Learning To Read Each Other: Black Female Graduate Students Share Their Experiences at a White Research I Institution

This paper uses Black Feminist Thought to explain the lived experiences of three Black female graduate students at a White Research I institution. Through mentoring from Black female professors, the students received instrumental and psychosocial support that helped them to navigate through their graduate level work. Common themes of identity, community service missions, and empowerment provides a thread that ties the student’s narratives together. We close by offering some suggestions for further research on the Black graduate experience and mentoring Black graduate students. Meca R. Williams, Denise N. Brewley, R. Judith Reed and Dorothy Y. White are affiliated with University of Georgia. Rachel T. Davis-Haley is affiliated with University of New Orleans.     

Students' perceptions on the influence of institutional evaluation on universities

There are many studies about the experiences of higher education students, but few analyse their representations of the governance and the management of their institutions. Our study will describe, analyse and compare students' representations of institutional evaluation at three institutions in Portugal and Brazil. Our results, based on an open questionnaire which sought to collect students' views on institutional evaluation, show that students' views are neither homogeneous nor do they simply reproduce the dominant external perspectives on the subject. A significant amount of students thought that evaluation is a legitimate exercise, resulting from a political decision, which is useful to improve the quality of universities and the relationship between students and academic staff. Some students also recognize that evaluation will lead to institutional comparisons, functioning as a mechanism of control, regulation, monitoring, and possibly of standardization. It is also noted to be ‘an impossibility’, since it can never comprehend the existing diversity of institutional performance.     

Gardnerella vaginalis infection and sexual contact in female children

Gardnerella vaginalis (GV) infection has been reported as being acquired via sexual contact in adults and as an indicator of sexual contact in female children (DeJong, 1985). The purpose of this study was to determine if GV infection was more commonly found in 191 female children who gave a history of sexual contact and/or were infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) or Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) (Group 1), compared with 144 female children evaluated for possible sexual abuse and found to have no such history or infection with GC or CT (Group 2), or 31 female children (friends of the authors) without such a history or GC or CT infection (Group 3). Vaginal GV was found in 5.3% of Group 1, 4.9% of Group 2 and 6.4% of Group 3 (p > .05). Also, vaginal GV infection was not related to the type of sexual contact or race, but did increase with age in white female children. Because vaginal GV infection is not more commonly found in children with a history of sexual contact than those without such a history, the finding of GV in a vaginal culture in an individual case would not be a reliable marker of sexual contact. Routine culturing for GV is not recommended as part of a sexual abuse workup.     

Assessing the unassessable: making learning visible in undergraduates’ experiences of scientific research

We suggest that academics involved in the provision of research experiences to undergraduate science students may benefit by reconceptualising these experiences as work-based learning. In particular, drawing on the widespread use of reflective practice in work-based learning allows for a more effective focus on process-related learning. We describe an empirical study involving the implementation of reflective blogs in which science students responded to prompt questions designed to focus their attention on how their project was progressing, the process of research and their own learning. The blogs reveal examples of students engaging in independent thinking, creative thinking and developing a sense of themselves as scientists, all qualities valued by supervisors. They also show how these combine as ‘wicked competences’ that allow students to address the complex problems and uncertainties of research. We identify characteristic patterns of reflection that indicate the exercise of such competences and suggest that these could be used as explicit evidence by academics making judgements for assessment purposes.