SYMBIOSIS: Development,Implementation, and Assessment of a Model Curriculum across Biology and Mathematics at the Introductory Level

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”Alan Cohen (Used by permission. All rights reserved. For more information on Alan Cohen''s books and programs, see (www.alancohen.com.)

With the support of the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) administration and a grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the departments of Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, and Curriculum and Instruction have developed a biology–math integrated curriculum. An interdisciplinary faculty team, charged with teaching the 18 curriculum modules, designed this three-semester curriculum, known as SYMBIOSIS. This curriculum was piloted to two student cohorts during the developmental stage. The positive feedback and assessment results of this project have given us the foundation to implement the SYMBIOSIS curriculum as a replacement for the standard biology majors curriculum at the introductory level. This article addresses the history and development of the curriculum, previous assessment results and current assessment protocol, and the future of ETSU''s approach to implementing the SYMBIOSIS curriculum.     

Training of elite cyclists: effects on mood state and selected hormonal responses

The psychobiological status of cyclists over a period of 8 months of training was assessed by measuring the sympatho-adrenal level, the central noradrenergic activity, and the cortisol?-?testosterone ratio status non-invasively. Alteration of these indices after a large increase in training load lasting 4 days (?+?187%) was also examined. Urinary excretion of methoxyamines (metanephrine, normetanephrine) and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol sulphate (MHPG-S), and salivary concentrations of cortisol and testosterone, were measured in 12 national cyclists after a non-specific training period and 48 h before 4 days of increased training (T₁), after these 4 days (T₂) and at the end of 4 months of specific training (T₃). Urinary and salivary samples were also collected during a rest period (T₀). At each of these times, mood states and ratings of perceived muscle soreness were assessed, and a questionnaire of early clinical symptoms of the overtraining syndrome (Profile of Mood States) was administered. A significant increase in normetanephrine (P <?0.05) and a decrease in the testosterone?-?cortisol ratio (P <?0.05) were observed at T₂, while MHPG-S excretion remained unchanged. Over the same periods, increased training loads did not induce mood disturbances. Eight months of training were associated with significant alterations in metanephrine (P?<?0.05) and MHPG-S (P?<?0.05). These results suggest a dissociation between the neural and endocrine catecholaminergic components systems. Opposite responses between MHPG-S and Profile of Mood States scores show that further investigations are needed to understand the relationship between central noradrenergic function, which is recognized as a regulatory factor of mood, and psychological tests measuring mood.     

Using Decision Tree Analysis to Understand Foundation Science Student Performance. Insight Gained at One South African University

The Foundation Programme of the Centre for Science Access at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa provides access to tertiary science studies to educationally disadvantaged students who do not meet formal faculty entrance requirements. The low number of students proceeding from the programme into mainstream is of concern, particularly given the national imperative to increase participation and levels of performance in tertiary-level science. An attempt was made to understand foundation student performance in a campus of this university, with the view to identifying challenges and opportunities for remediation in the curriculum and processes of selection into the programme. A classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify which variables best described student performance. The explanatory variables included biographical and school-history data, performance in selection tests, and socio-economic data pertaining to their year in the programme. The results illustrate the prognostic reliability of the model used to select students, raise concerns about the inefficiency of school performance indicators as a measure of students' academic potential in the Foundation Programme, and highlight the importance of accommodation arrangements and financial support for student success in their access year.     

The Effects of User-fee Policy on Attendance Rates among Kenyan Elementary Schoolchildren

What happens when a government cannot meet its obligation to provide universal primary education and enhance the quality of education for all of its citizens? The present study examines the interactions among stakeholders in the user-fee policy in primary education in Kenya. It seeks to show how this policy has affected attendance rates and drop-out rates among elementary schoolchildren. It reveals that, in addition to limiting access and contributing to attrition, user-fees significantly contribute to absenteeism. The study also exposes the dire situation of economically vulnerable citizens who do not have the resources which they need to ensure private education for their children. It concludes that together the government and household-level economic weaknesses have made it virtually impossible to attain the goal of education for all in Kenya.     

Comparación entre dos modelos de educación bilingüe

Resumen

La presente investigación es una comparación entre dos modelos de educación bilingüe introducidos hace algunos años en el Colegio Alemán de Estocolmo: por un lado, estudiantes con el sueco como primera lengua de instrucción en el primer curso, con tres horas semanales de instrucción en alemán, que se iba incrementando progresivamente en los años posteriores, de manera que en el cuarto curso, el idioma en las clases era en un 50 por 100 alemán y en un 50 por 100 sueco. Por otro lado, estudiantes con tres horas semanales de instrucción en sueco en el primer curso, que aumentaban a cinco horas en los siguientes cursos.

Sólo se encontró un bilingüismo balanceado en los estudiantes que siguieron el currículum en alemán. Los estudiantes que siguieron el currículum sueco, mantuvieron el sueco como su idioma claramente dominante y obtuvieron una alta competencia en el alemán como segundo idioma.

Estas diferencias se explicaron por el bagaje lingüístico de los alumnos. Puesto que los alumnos que tenían el alemán como primera lengua adquirían sus dos lenguajes tanto en los entornos informales como en el formal, conseguían más input de los entornos naturales. Los estudiantes de idioma sueco en cambio, recibían el input del alemán únicamente en la instrucción formal de la escuela, que no podía compensar la fuerte influencia del idioma del hogar y del país.

Además, la presente investigación ha contribuido a corroborar la hipótesis de la edad óptima para el aprendizaje de la segunda lengua.     

English and French pedagogical cultures: convergence and divergence in Cameroonian primary school teachers' discourse

This article approaches the phenomenon of the continuing influence of French and English pedagogical cultures in Africa relying on post-modern notions of time and space. It reports on a project carried out in Cameroon where both cultures are in contact and where the teachers from two primary schools were observed and interviewed over a period of five weeks each. The data collected is interpreted as revealing divergent professional contexts within which the teachers' discourse about their professional roles and the place of languages rests on assumptions reminiscent of the pedagogical values of the former colonisers. However, teachers from both schools are strongly in favour of maintaining French and English as medium of education. The significance of the phenomena reported is critically discussed to highlight new discontinuities in present day Cameroon which transform these apparently sharp distinctions: the disjunction between the notion of place and the medium of education, the fast evolving meanings of ‘French’ ‘English’ and ‘bilingualism’ in the twenty first century and the fact that schools are multilingual sites. The paper concludes that the differences in the way teachers construct their professional identities has prevented them from developing a joint pedagogical repertoire and that lack of mutual understanding might be a reason for the reported mere ‘cohabitation’ provided by bilingual schools.     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES IN U.S. RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

The present study aims at assessing faculty attitudes toward institutional competitive strategies in U.S. research universities and at exploring some of the correlates of these attitudes.

A stratified random sample of 40 U.S. research university departments, 10 each in physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education was surveyed by means of a questionnaire.

The major findings of this study suggest that faculty members at research universities express non‐receptive attitudes toward university generic strategies, although, more productive,more satisfied and more committed faculty members are relatively more receptive toward university strategies than less productive, less satisfied and less committed faculty members.

The meaning and the implications of these findings are discussed.