Student Predispositions as Predictors of Dissent Behaviors in Supply Chain Courses*

This study investigates how student dissent behaviors are affected by student predispositions (i.e., math anxiety and self‐efficacy) in supply chain related courses. The data support a model in which students’ vengeful dissent behaviors are indirectly induced by these predispositions through the mediation of perceived immediacy. It is critical for instructors to understand the relationship between these variables to help improve the classroom environment for students, which this study helps to accomplish. Instructors of quantitative courses may need to engage students with predispositions in communication outside of the classroom to foster effective relationship building away from an environment that triggers students’ anxiety.     

Simulation in Higher Education: A sociomaterial view

This article presents a sociomaterial account of simulation in higher education. Sociomaterial approaches change the ontological and epistemological bases for understanding learning and offer valuable tools for addressing important questions about relationships between university education and professional practices. Simulation has grown in many disciplines as a means to bring the two closer together. However, the theoretical underpinnings of simulation pedagogy are limited. This paper extends the wider work of applying sociomaterial approaches to educational phenomena, taking up Schatzki’s practice theory as a distinctive basis for doing so. The question ‘What is being simulated?’ is posed, prompting discussion of multiple bodies, performances and experiences. The potential of adopting such a framework for understanding simulation as a pedagogic practice that brings the classroom and workplace together is illustrated with reference to clinical education in nursing.     

Expanding discourse repertoires with hybridity

In ??Hybrid discourse practice and science learning?? Kamberelis and Wehunt present a theoretically rich argument about the potential of hybrid discourses for science learning. These discourses draw from different forms of ??talk, social practice, and material practices?? to create interactions that are ??intertextually complex?? and ??interactionally dynamic.?? The hybrid discourse practices are described as involving the dynamic interplay of at least three key elements: ??the lamination of multiple cultural frames, the shifting relations between people and their discourse, and the shifting power relations between and among people.?? Each of these elements requires a respective unit of analysis and are often mutually reinforcing. The authors present a theoretically cogent argument for the study of hybrid discourse practices and identify the potential such discourses may have for science education. This theoretical development leads to an analysis of spoken and written discourse around a set of educational events concerning the investigation of owl pellets by two fifth grade students, their classmates, and teacher. Two discourse segments are presented and analyzed by the authors in detail. The first is a discourse analysis of the dissection of the owl pellet by two students, Kyle and Max. The second analysis examines the science report of these same two students. In this article, I pose a number of questions about the study with the hope that by doing so I expand the conversation around the insightful analysis presented.     

Seekers after truth? Images of postgraduate research and researchers in the twenty-first century

Western cultural practices contribute to our understanding of the purpose of higher education and how we are to conduct ourselves in educational contexts. In this article, entitled ‘Seekers after truth?’, I analyse recent works of popular fiction which draw on and contribute to the idea that postgraduate research is a process of locating and amassing clues leading to the revelation or discovery of a truth. These novels re-inscribe the metaphor of the postgraduate researcher as detective or ‘seeker after truth’. This article considers the contradictory and productive meanings that arise from the trope of the researcher-detective. In addition, I argue that, although there are challenges in bringing the work of one field to bear on another, analyses of discourses which are not produced within higher educational contexts can nonetheless promote reflection on educational concepts. In this case, fiction enables us to consider ideas about what it is to do postgraduate research and to be a postgraduate researcher.     

Investigating a Method of Scaffolding Student-Designed Experiments

The process of designing an experiment is a difficult one. Students often struggle to perform such tasks as the design process places a large cognitive load on students. Scaffolding is the process of providing support for a student to allow them to complete tasks they would otherwise not have been able to complete. This study sought to investigate backwards-design, one form of scaffolding the experimental design process for students. Students were guided through the design process in a backwards manner (designing the results section first and working backwards through typical report components to the materials and safety sections). The use of reflective prompts as possible scaffold for metacognitive processes was also studied. Scaffolding was in the form of a computer application built specifically for this purpose. Four versions of the computer application were randomly assigned to 102 high school chemistry students and students were asked to the design of an experiment, producing a report. The use of backwards-design scaffolding resulted in significantly higher performance on lab reports. The addition of reflective prompts reduced the effect of backwards-design scaffolding in lower-level students.     

Placing data in the hands of discipline-specific decision makers: Campus-wide writing program assessment

Writing is complex, and assessment of writing is equally complex, particularly when considering the need to measure outcomes at the institutional level while providing meaningful data that informs curriculum reform and supports learning at the discipline-level. Using a multi-layered assessment that incorporates standardized measures of writing assessment, such as two writing subtests of the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) published by ACT, as well as locally-developed rubric ratings, data from the assessment process can provide useful information to departmental faculty, assisting them in understanding students’ skills in their given content areas. The data generated in this system provides unique perspectives on discipline-specific writing expectations and outcomes.     

Building a sustainable project management capacity in Cyprus

The performance‐driven project management program examined in this article was funded to support a variety of technical assistance efforts designed to strengthen the performance of small and medium enterprises in the Turkish Cypriot community in Cyprus. The customized program combined progressive workshops with hands‐on and distance coaching by local consultants, with participants expected to apply a performance‐driven project management approach and tool set. The Performance Driven Project Management: Journal of Performance (KNO Worldwide, 2010) documents that 12 of the 14 projects met the rigorous program requirements.     

An evaluation of pharmacogenomic information provided by five common drug information resources

Introduction:

This study evaluated whether pharmacogenomic information contained in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved package inserts of sixty-five drugs was present in five drug information resources.

Methods:

The study searched for biomarkers from the FDA package inserts in 5 drug information sources: American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information (AHFS), Facts & Comparisons 4.0 (Facts), ePocrates Online Free (ePocrates Free), Lexicomp Online (Lexicomp), and Micromedex 2.0. Each resource had the opportunity to present biomarker information for 65 drugs, a total of 325 opportunities. A binary system was used to indicate presence or absence of the biomarker information. A sub-analysis was performed on the 13 most frequently prescribed drugs in the United States.

Results:

Package insert biomarker information was available, on average, for 81.5% of the 65 FDA-listed drugs in 2011. Percent availability for the individual resources was: Lexicomp, 95.3%; Micromedex 2.0, 92.3%; Facts, 76.9%; AHFS, 75.3%; and ePocrates Free, 67.7%. The sub-analysis of the 13 top drugs showed Lexicomp and Micromedex 2.0 had the most mentions, 92.3%; ePocrates Free had the least, 53.8%.

Conclusion:

The strongest resource for pharmacogenomic information was Lexicomp. The gap between Lexicomp and ePocrates Free is concerning. Clinicians would miss pharmacogenomic information 6.6 times more often in ePocrates Free than in Lexicomp.

Implications:

Health sciences librarians should be aware of the variation in biomarker availability when recommending drug resources for licensing and use. Librarians can also use this study to encourage publishers to include pharmacogenomics information from the package insert as a minimum standard.