Introduction to the Special Issue on Perspectivesand Experiences on Mentoring Undergraduate Students in Research: Part II

Abstract

This issue is the second of a special PRIMUS two-part issue collecting articles on undergraduate research from experienced faculty mentors. We offer it as a valuable resource for faculty leading undergraduate research programs. This issue presents a collection of papers offering advice on a variety of specific topics important for leaders of undergraduate research programs. Issues of finding and designing appropriate and accessible research projects, assessing undergraduate research, and publicizing it in the media are addressed.     

Battle-outcome-prediction conditions for variable-coefficient Lanchester-type equations for area fire2

New important battle-outcome-prediction conditions are developed for combat between two homogeneous military forces modelled by variable-coefficient Lanchester-type equations for area fire. Such conditions are very significant in modern operations research for developing important insights into the dynamics of combat. However, similar differential-equation models do arise in other fields of science and technology such as mathematical ecology and epidemiology, and consequently our new mathematical results may also find application there. These new important “simple approximate” battle-outcome-prediction conditions depend on not only the combat-attrition model but also the battle-termination model, and they are developed for two different types of battle-termination conditions (fixed-force-level-breakpoint battles and fixed-force-ratio-breakpoint battles). They are sufficient (but not necessary) to determine the outcome of battle without having to explicitly compute the force-level trajectories, and a generalization of Lanchester’s famous linear law to variable-coefficient combat is involved in their development. Certain integrability properties of the Lanchester attrition-rate coefficients figure prominently in these results, and an important physical interpretation (relating to logistics considerations) is given for these properties.     

The exotic world of Pierre Pomet's A Compleat History of Druggs

The English translation of Pierre Pomet's A Compleat History of Druggs (1712) demonstrates how the expansion of print culture altered the way that scientific ideas were communicated. Although it makes utilitarian claims, the text of the History departs from the style of contemporary British pharmacopoeias by emphasizing the exotic aspects of drugs. In this sense, the text exemplifies how Enlightenment science could be sold to a cross-over audience interested as much in the fantastical as in the quality and operation of drugs.     

Changing leadership: Teachers lead the way for schools that learn

This paper presents findings from a three-year, qualitative study of teachers enrolled in a Masters of Teacher Leadership program. Researchers sought to understand the ways teachers’ beliefs about and understandings of teacher leadership were affected by their participation in a formal teacher leadership program, as well as the kinds of actions they took up as a result of this participation. Data indicate three significant ways participants’ work as teacher leaders was developed and enhanced, including: (a) identifying and amplifying their professional voice, (b) deepening and extending their voice as they plan, and (c) reframing their work/shift responsibility through constructing widening circles of influence and impact. Authors identify implications of their research for growing teacher leaders, school improvement and change, changing school culture, enhancing student engagement, and building new structures.     

Pre-service teachers’ episodic memories of classroom management

This study focused on past excellent teachers’ classroom management strategies from the perspective of 148 pre-service teachers. The purpose of the study was to examine how pre-service teachers’ memories reflect classroom management models that are typically taught in teacher education coursework prior to their study of those models, as well as to explore memories that did not fit a particular model. Results indicated that pre-service teachers related episodes that clustered on establishing rules, but were less likely to relate experiences based on other strategies such as withitness, smooth transitions, or formal classroom meetings. Implications for teacher education are explored.     

Advancing Diversity in STEM

Although progress has been made, greater efforts are needed to promote faculty diversity at the college and university levels, especially in STEM fields. Thus, it is important to elucidate best practices both for increasing awareness of diversity issues pertaining to higher education and for implementing change. This article focuses on the outcomes of a diversity workshop for college and university faculty hosted by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, Division of Science and Research. More specifically, it elucidates how participation in the workshop translated into practice at the faculty participants’ home institutions.     

Patterns and predictors of father-infant engagement across race/ethnic groups

This study examines whether levels of father engagement (e.g., verbal stimulation, caregiving, and physical play) vary by race/ethnicity using a model that controls for fathers' human capital, mental health, and family relationships. It also tests whether the models work similarly across race/ethnic groups. Its sample of N=5,089 infants and their families is drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). We found that, after including controls, African American and Latino fathers had higher levels of engagement in caregiving and physical play activities than White fathers. There were no differences in verbal stimulation activities across race/ethnicity. Fathers' education (college level) predicted more verbally stimulating activities whereas fathers' report of couple conflict predicted less caregiving and physical play. Although levels of engagement differed across the groups, the overall models did not differ by race/ethnicity, except for physical play. African American mothers who reported high levels of depressive symptoms had partners who engaged in more physical play than White mothers with high levels of depressive symptoms.     

‘Hope in failure’: A Level students,discursive agency,post-feminism and feminism

This article begins with Pollock’s comment that Judith Butler ‘finds hope in failure’ and its aim is to explore what ‘hope in failure’ means in relation to A Level students’ engagements with post-feminism and feminism. The article grounds its argument in an exploration of how post-feminism and feminism intersect with sixth form students’ subjectivities through the educational practices of their second-year A Level subject-based research. The article analyses empirical instances of students’ discursive agency through Butler’s notions of performativity, citationality, excessive signification and resignification to consider the complex, multiple and creative ways in which sixth form students produce themselves as viable gendered subjects in relation to post-feminist and feminist discourses. The analysis considers both how discourse regulates and conditions students’ relations with post-feminism and feminism and how discourse contains the possibilities for the subject to refuse the refusal of feminism in popular culture. Through its analysis of how students use their discursive agency to claim a feminist identity, and how these uses constitute transgressive practices, the article explores the political significance of identifications with feminism in doing gender differently. It ends with an argument for the re-consideration of the apparently assured popular cultural ‘failure’ of feminism in post-feminist neoliberal times.     

Theory of mind and social interest in zero-acquaintance play situations

Many studies have examined associations between children's theory of mind and social behavior with familiar peers, but to date none have examined how theory of mind might relate to behavior toward unfamiliar peers in a play setting. Forty-four 4-year-olds (21 girls, 23 boys) participated in standard theory-of-mind tasks and in a play session with 3 or 4 other children who were unfamiliar. Children were also tested on general vocabulary ability. No relations were found between theory of mind and social engagement. However, positive associations were found between theory of mind and time spent observing, but not interacting with, other children. Possible explanations of the links between theory of mind, temperament, and social interest are considered.