SciEthics Interactive: science and ethics learning in a virtual environment

Learning in immersive 3D environments allows students to collaborate, build, and interact with difficult course concepts. This case study examines the design and development of the TransGen Island within the SciEthics Interactive project, a National Science Foundation-funded, 3D virtual world emphasizing learning science content in the context of ethical dilemmas. The 2 year development process is examined through the lens of the rapid prototyping instructional design model, following the project from conceptualization to implementation of a 3D simulation. Through expert interviews, focus groups, and working groups, we were able to determine critical scientific and ethical issues to present to learners in the virtual world. We collected data on 53 students using the simulation at universities in the United States and South Africa and evaluated their experience using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results showed that student participants were engaged and motivated by the simulation. The students reported an increase in science knowledge and ethical understanding, but individual experiences varied.     

Mapping Uncharted Territory: Launching an Online Embedded Librarian Program

ABSTRACT

Developing a strategy for embedding librarians in online courses can be challenging, but it is essential to demonstrate to accrediting agencies how libraries serve online students. A well-thought-out plan can be scalable and sustainable for rapidly growing online programs and can satisfy accreditation standards. This article examines how one small, liberal arts college developed a plan of action for an online embedded librarian program, including both the conceptual and practical aspects of launching the program: aligning library instruction with course and program learning outcomes, brainstorming strategies for embedded library instruction, and communicating the value of such a program to online teaching faculty.     

Choosing whether to resist or reinforce the new managerialism: the impact of performance‐based research funding on academic identity

This article uses four academics’ gendered and cultural responses to life in a university in Aotearoa New Zealand under the new managerialist regime. Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) requires academics to submit evidence‐based portfolios every six years to categorise and rank them, with government funding assigned accordingly. When the authors met as members of a writing group, the talk often turned to negative aspects of PBRF. Using co‐operative enquiry, the four co‐researchers began writing observations of their individual experiences, differences and identities to help them reflect and understand the impact of the changed environment. The four phases of writing as enquiry were: deciding on a focus, writing observations, engaging with the written accounts and interpreting the outcome through metaphor. The article process facilitated a positive outcome by helping the authors regain a sense of collegiality and mutual support, along with a sense of preserving their academic identity by writing and publishing as a group.     

Student Communication Motives and Interpersonal Attraction Toward Instructor

Instructional communication research has not specifically focused on the impact of student classroom communication behaviors on the student-teacher relationship. The current study investigated the relationship between student motives to communicate with instructors and interpersonal attraction toward them. Canonical correlation results indicated student levels of physical, social, and task attraction were positively related to their motivation to establish a relationship, and expressing interest in class and task attraction was inversely related to participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic motives. Regression analyses determined students' relational motivations as the greatest predictor of social and physical attraction, while excuse-making was the greatest predictor of task attraction.     

The Future of the Library: What Is a Public Library For?

The author suggests that libraries have been transformed a third time. Originally, libraries were the only place that valuable, handwritten, rare books could be found. As mass production kicked in post-Gutenberg, the library became an efficient way for the community to access knowledge. Today, though, in a post-paper world, the library must adopt a new role, a place where the community finds ideas, inspiration and others on a similar journey. The librarian is no longer a guardian of valuable books, but a curator of curiosity, passion and interest.     

Serum gamma glutamyl transpeptidase in breast cancer

Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT) levels were estimated in the sera of patients with breast cancer and compared with those of benign breast diseases and healthy controls. Serum gamma-GT levels were found to be significantly increased in patients with breast cancer compared to the controls as well as benign breast diseases. The rise however, was nearly same in all the patients irrespective of histopathology of cancer but was directly related to tumour mass. After mastectomy the levels remained higher upto 3 months. In patients with cancer the rise in serum gamma-GT was significantly higher as compared to those with benign breast diseases. Although gamma-GT is an index of liver diseases, its high level in breast carcinoma suggests the release of the membrane bound constituents from different tissues even in carcinoma.     

Envisioning Our Practice: Examining and Interpreting Pedagogical Visions of Four Early Career Teacher Educators

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to explore how pedagogical visions inform our work as former classroom teachers and current teacher educators in rural and urban regions of the United States. Specifically, we explore the instructional decisions we make as we work to meet these visions in higher education. Teacher educators are charged with the task of fostering visionary teachers in today’s highly challenging educational landscape. We pose the question: How can teacher educators foster visionary beginning teachers without an examination of their visions for their practice? Using a self-study design, we examine the intersections of our pedagogical visions for teaching and the instructional actions we take to work toward our visions in higher education. Findings highlight specific instructional practices and strategies used to enact visions while providing a critical discussion of the lens of visioning within self-study research.