Writing with word processors: an effective way to develop students' argumentative writing skills

Context one: the computer classroom It is period three on Tuesday. 8H is in the computer room. Wendy is tapping at her keyboard energetically, stopping every few minutes to read over the evolving text on the screen. The writing task is a letter to the members of the school's Student Representative Council (SRC) to persuade them that Our school is the perfect school. She is engrossed in her writing, oblivious to any movement or talk in the classroom. At another table, Susan stands behind Samantha who is peering at her monitor. Susan points to a sentence on the screen and suggests that Samantha move it to the beginning of the paragraph where, she argues, it might be more effective. Samantha uses a block command and inserts the sentence in its new position. They confer, then decide that it worked better where it was, so Samantha moves it back to its original location. Mary and Jill have been working at adjacent computers. They turn away from their keyboards and screens, move their chairs closer together and talk about the possible directions Mary's letter could take. Lauren has just printed her letter to the SRC. As she tears off the perforated edges, she approaches Tina and asks her to read it. They stand together, resting against a table, their eyes moving down the printed page. Tina suggests to Lauren that the tone is too formal. Lauren agrees and asks Tina's advice about how to loosen it up. Jacqui, the teacher, sits beside Anabelle who is reading her piece out loud. They are concentrating on the cohesiveness of the letter. Jacqui suggests where a conjunction would be useful. All the students in the classroom are engaged in writing, some independently, some collaboratively. Context two: the pen classroom English, Friday morning. The students of 8K are working on their letters to the members of the SRC. Jacqui, the teacher, sits next to Petula, but their discussion of the sequencing of the text is regularly broken. For the third time since the lesson began, Jacqui stands up and asks the girls to stop talking and get on with their writing. The students sit four to a table: they whisper to each other; the giggles and nudges indicate that they're not discussing writing. Jill has decided to move to an unoccupied table: as she gathers her books, Jill explains to Peta that she hopes she'll be able to concentrate better away from the interruptions of her friends. Abigail looks at her watch and exclaims that the bell is about to go and she has written only one paragraph. Jodie and Penny also announce that they are nowhere near finishing their letters. Jodie remarks that it's boring writing in class. Penny agrees and comments: “It's also too hard!”     

An analysis of the processes of change in two science teachers educators' thinking

This study examined the processes of change in thinking as a means of learning about the professional development of two science teacher educators. A qualitative methodology was used. The main research tool was a semistructured in‐depth interview. The primary data analyzed came from two science teacher educators, selected from a broader set of seven. Findings emphasize the importance of questions regarding the knowledge possessed by teacher educators and of the questions regarding the role of science teacher educators. That is, the knowledge of an expert science teacher educator was more than a list of givens; it was personal and context‐bound. This study contributes new insight into the processes of teacher educators' professional development and change in their thinking. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1219–1245, 2007     

Faculty salary equity: Issues and options

How do you develop a salary equity analysis procedure that will help identify whether or not your institution has a reasonably equitable and legally defensible salary structure? This paper presents a multiphase approach to identify and correct salary inequities based on gender. The major steps are to (1) determine if a problem situation exists by using a conceptually sound, objective procedure that does a legal and effective job of explaining faculty salaries; (2) develop feasible adjustment strategies if inequities exist that solve or improve the situation; (3) implement the correction and establish a monitoring process that is consistent with the culture and values of the institution. Involving and educating key university personnel in the selection of models and strategies is critical to acceptance and validation of the process and to minimizing negative reaction internal or external to the campus. This paper is designed to be helpful to administrators and researchers who need to make informed choices about salary equity models and implementation strategies.     

Connecting college and work: examining the relationship between students’ college employment experiences and their professional and career attitudes

This study examined the relationship between U.S. students’ employment experiences during college/university and their fourth-year professional career attitudes as defined by the Wabash National Study Professional Success Scale, including obtaining recognition from one’s colleagues for contributions to their field of expertise, having administrative responsibility for the work of others, working in a prestigious occupation, making a lot of money and becoming successful in a business of one’s own. This study considered three types of employment experiences (on-campus work; off-campus work; and completing an internship practicum, field experience, co-op or clinical assignment), as well as the number of hours spent engaged in on-campus and off-campus employment, and whether these measures of student employment were associated with students’ fourth-year professional career attitudes. Results suggest that on-campus work experiences, off-campus work experiences; and completing an internship practicum, field experience, co-op or clinical assignment, as well as the number of hours of employment during college have the potential to influence students’ fourth-year professional career attitudes.     

Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Summer Institutes: meeting modern challenges in undergraduate summer research

Summer undergraduate research programs in science and engineering facilitate research progress for faculty and provide a close-ended research experience for students, which can prepare them for careers in industry, medicine, and academia. However, ensuring these outcomes is a challenge when the students arrive ill-prepared for substantive research or if projects are ill-defined or impractical for a typical 10-wk summer. We describe how the new Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Summer Institutes (BBSI), developed in response to a call for proposals by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), provide an impetus for the enhancement of traditional undergraduate research experiences with intense didactic training in particular skills and technologies. Such didactic components provide highly focused and qualified students for summer research with the goal of ensuring increased student satisfaction with research and mentor satisfaction with student productivity. As an example, we focus on our experiences with the Penn State Biomaterials and Bionanotechnology Summer Institute (PSU-BBSI), which trains undergraduates in core technologies in surface characterization, computational modeling, cell biology, and fabrication to prepare them for student-centered research projects in the role of materials in guiding cell biology.     

“Authentic Tasks” and “Extreme Tasks”: Potential Approaches to Overcoming Incorrect Responses in Conservation Tasks

This study begins the task of mapping out two approaches that may be helpful in overcoming incorrect responses to conservation tasks, focusing on the non-conserved quantity. The incorrect responses, which were the result of over-generalizations of conservation, and gradually increased with age despite formal knowledge and minor perceptual input, were explained as being consistent with the intuitive rule “same A–same B.” The following paper presents initial findings, involving 60 students (5th, 7th, 9th grade), who were presented with “authentic tasks” and 40 9th grade students who were presented with “extreme tasks.” As data show, in both “authentic tasks” and extreme tasks, the percentage of participants’ correct responses was higher compared to students’ responses to formal analogue tasks, although there was no difference in participants’ declarative judgments. Indeed, further research is needed to improve students’ responses and judgments not only in analogous and everyday tasks but also on how learning tasks can be designed, and to understand the observed gap between the students’ performance and their declarative knowledge.     

Undergraduate Laboratory Exercises Specific to Food Spoilage Microbiology

Food spoilage has an enormous economic impact, and microbial food spoilage plays a significant role in food waste and loss; subsequently, an equally significant portion of undergraduate food microbiology instruction should be dedicated to spoilage microbiology. Here, we describe a set of undergraduate microbiology laboratory exercises that focus specifically on food spoilage which were taught in 2 lab periods as part of the undergraduate food microbiology lab curriculum at Cornell University. The lab was broken down into 3 exercises. Two exercises lead students to determine the likely source of contamination in a canned salsa through (exercise 1a) plating and observation of colony morphology and (exercise 1b) determination of the thermal resistance for those isolates. The final exercise (2) involved detection of the spoilage bacterium Alicyclobacillus in apple juice. Spoiled juice demonstrations were also prepared in this exercise for students to observe sensorial changes resulting from spoilage, emphasizing that spoilage is not always visually detectable. Students were able to successfully determine the source of contamination based on the results of their laboratory findings, which they used to make recommendations for production to reduce microbial food spoilage in the canned salsa product. Based on student answers to discussion questions provided following lab exercises, participants were able to (a) identify the significance of microbial spoilage and how spoilage is principally different from food safety, (b) describe varying sensorial changes associated with microbial spoilage, and (c) employ methods and analysis to evaluate sources and type of contamination. Downloadable handouts and stepwise instructions are available as supporting information.     

The effects of consequences on patterns of social interaction: a quasi-experimental approach to reinforcement in natural interaction

Research on social interaction has consistently documented the existence of mutual interdependencies between the behavior of 1 person and reactions to that behavior by others in the social environment. The concept of social reinforcement, although often used to explain acquisition and change in interaction patterns defined by such interdependencies, is difficult to apply to interaction observed in natural settings. On the basis of extended observation of the interaction of 2 mother-child dyads, the procedures needed to assess the effects of naturally occurring consequences on interactional patterns are detailed in this study. Reliable mother action-child reaction patterns were first identified, and the effect of maternal consequences for those patterns on the probability of their subsequent occurrence was assessed. Positive consequences were associated with increases, and negative consequences with decreases, in the probability of a child reacting to the next occurrence of the maternal action when compared to the base-rate probability of that action-reaction pattern. Thus consequences affect momentary shifts around the baseline probability of interactional patterns. Positive consequences were also associated with short-term increases, and negative consequences with short-term decreases, in the base-rate probability of interactional patterns.