Speaking Personally—With Susan C. Aldridge

Researchers conducted a national survey of administrators at doctorate-granting universities to determine the current status of institutional policies and practices related to the organization and governance of online courses, faculty incentives to develop and teach online, and course ownership. Survey results document a wide variation in policies and practices, yet they also identify common practices. About 82% of the universities gave extra pay to faculty to develop online courses, and 94% provided campus-based faculty development workshops or training on online education. The large majority of institutions hired professional course designers (84%) and provided technical assistance to students (86%). Another 84% had an intellectual property policy in place or were developing one, and 77% shared revenues from online courses with academic colleges, schools, or departments. Although these practices existed on campuses, they were not always instituted campuswide. The researchers found statistically significant relationships for a number of faculty incentives and support services and faculty willingness to be involved in online education.     

Innovation development – an action learning programme for medical scientists and engineers

There is increasing evidence that action learning is valuable in a higher education setting. This paper goes on to report a personal development programme, based on principles of critical action learning, where the aim is to equip early-career scientists and engineers working in a university setting with the knowledge, skills and confidence to approach the management of innovation. After learning about action learning and critical reflection, the participants, all postdoctorate researchers, completed innovation projects at work, meeting in action learning sets as they proceed. We explain a method of critical thinking before reporting results from an evaluation study based on interviews and focus groups. We consider examples of projects undertaken before considering challenges for students with this approach to learning. Challenges included scepticism about the usefulness of management literature, difficulties in finding ‘problems’ within the constraints of postdoctoral work, and the discomfort and intensiveness of action learning. However, through adaptation by the tutors with students, some significant results were achieved.     

Geology as an Historical Science: Its Perception within Science and the Education System

For much of the 20th century, geology has largely been ignored as a pre-college science subject in many English-speaking nations. In this paper, we examine some of the historical based influences which have affected its status within the educational system. A key factor is that as a science, geology has sometimes been treated as being derived from physics. This is supported by episodes in which geology and physics have interacted. Thus, in the late 19th century, many geologists accepted Lord Kelvin's restricted calculation of the earth's age even though the fossil record spoke differently. More disturbing, are events in which geologists have attempted to replicate physics' methodology. Thus, Charles Lyell defined the principle of uniformitarianism on the basis of Newton's Vera Causa in which only those processes operating today would be accepted as geological causes. Lyell believed that uniformitarianism had to be defined as such, if geology, like physics was to be considered a valid, logically based science. However, the adoption of such restrictive principles is short sighted because it does not consider geology's unique defining characteristics, its historical interpretive nature. These characteristics complement the physical sciences, and also provide students with another route to scientific literacy, a major goal of Project 2061. The environmental crisis, with its large collection of interconnected variables, emphasizes that the systemic methodology of the earth sciences has much to contribute in the future to both science and education, specifically, and the welfare of the planet, generally.