Increasing the effectiveness of learning how to teach in preservice education

Interchange - In the context of re-examining teaching practice as an integral part of teacher education, two hypotheses were tested by a year-long experiment in preservice education of elementary...     

Learner perceptions of realism and magic in computer simulations

The authors discuss a key issue affecting the educational potential of interactive computer simulations—their possible lack of credibility. They explore the circumstances under which students are able to separate'magical'features from those which map easily and directly onto the real world, and the relationship between their perceptions of events on and off the computer. They put forward some means of overcoming disbelief through manipulating the degree of reality inherent in simulations and offer suggestions for how future research might address these issues.     

Coordination costs and project outcomes in multi-university collaborations

Multi-university collaborations draw on diverse resources and expertise, but they impose coordination costs for bridging institutional differences and geographic distance. We report a study of the coordination activities and project outcomes of 491 research collaborations funded by the US National Science Foundation. Coordination activities, especially division of responsibility for tasks and knowledge transfer among investigators, predicted project outcomes (e.g., producing new knowledge, creating new tools, and training students). However, more universities involved in a collaboration predicted fewer coordination activities and fewer project outcomes. A statistical mediation analysis showed that insufficient coordination explained the negative relationship between multi-university collaboration and project outcomes.     

Identification of Threshold Concepts for Biochemistry

Threshold concepts (TCs) are concepts that, when mastered, represent a transformed understanding of a discipline without which the learner cannot progress. We have undertaken a process involving more than 75 faculty members and 50 undergraduate students to identify a working list of TCs for biochemistry. The process of identifying TCs for biochemistry was modeled on extensive work related to TCs across a range of disciplines and included faculty workshops and student interviews. Using an iterative process, we prioritized five concepts on which to focus future development of instructional materials. Broadly defined, the concepts are steady state, biochemical pathway dynamics and regulation, the physical basis of interactions, thermodynamics of macromolecular structure formation, and free energy. The working list presented here is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather is meant to identify a subset of TCs for biochemistry for which instructional and assessment tools for undergraduate biochemistry will be developed.     

Teaching Assistant Professional Development in Biology: Designed for and Driven by Multidimensional Data

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are increasingly responsible for instruction in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Various professional development (PD) programs have been developed and implemented to prepare TAs for this role, but data about effectiveness are lacking and are derived almost exclusively from self-reported surveys. In this study, we describe the design of a reformed PD (RPD) model and apply Kirkpatrick''s Evaluation Framework to evaluate multiple outcomes of TA PD before, during, and after implementing RPD. This framework allows evaluation that includes both direct measures and self-reported data. In RPD, TAs created and aligned learning objectives and assessments and incorporated more learner-centered instructional practices in their teaching. However, these data are inconsistent with TAs’ self-reported perceptions about RPD and suggest that single measures are insufficient to evaluate TA PD programs.     

Laminated microfluidic system for small sample protein analysis

We describe a technology based on lamination that allows for the production of highly integrated 3D devices suitable for performing a wide variety of microfluidic assays. This approach uses a suite of microfluidic coupons (“microfloupons”) that are intended to be stacked as needed to produce an assay of interest. Microfloupons may be manufactured in paper, plastic, gels, or other materials, in advance, by different manufacturers, then assembled by the assay designer as needed. To demonstrate this approach, we designed, assembled, and characterized a microfloupon device that performs sodium-dodecyl-sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis on a small sample of protein. This device allowed for the manipulation and transport of small amounts of protein sample, tight injection into a thin polyacrylamide gel, electrophoretic separation of the proteins into bands, and subsequent removal of the gel from the device for imaging and further analysis. The microfloupons are rugged enough to handle and can be easily aligned and laminated, allowing for a variety of different assays to be designed and configured by selecting appropriate microfloupons. This approach provides a convenient way to perform assays that have multiple steps, relieving the need to design highly sophisticated devices that incorporate all functions in a single unit, while still achieving the benefits of small sample size, automation, and high speed operation.     

The impact of polytechnic institutes on the local economy

Tertiary Education and Management - Higher education institutions and, particularly, polytechnic institutes in Portugal are, generally speaking, recognized as the key stakeholders in regional...     

The production of contraceptive cyborgs in Swedish upper secondary sexuality education

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In this study we examine upper secondary students’ notions of contraceptive methods, as human reproduction and contraception are common content in...     

Introducing an observational measure of standards-based mathematics teaching practices: Evidence of validity and score reliability

The purpose of this study is to introduce a measure of standards-based mathematics teaching practices, the Mathematics Scan (M-Scan), and to examine its validity and score reliability. First, we define standards-based mathematics teaching practices based on eight dimensions that have emerged in recent conceptualizations by researchers and in the context of existing observational measures. Second, we present three sources of validity evidence: content review by experts, analysis of response processes of coders, and convergent and discriminant patterns with existing observational measures. Third, we provide evidence of inter-coder (or inter-rater) reliability through analyses of variance components and calculation of reliability coefficients, using the framework of generalizability theory. Results show the M-Scan holds promise as a useful tool in mathematics education research, measuring indicators of standards-based teaching practices unique to the subject of mathematics.