The Genetic Drift Inventory: A Tool for Measuring What Advanced Undergraduates Have Mastered about Genetic Drift

Understanding genetic drift is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of biology, yet it is difficult to learn because it combines the conceptual challenges of both evolution and randomness. To help assess strategies for teaching genetic drift, we have developed and evaluated the Genetic Drift Inventory (GeDI), a concept inventory that measures upper-division students’ understanding of this concept. We used an iterative approach that included extensive interviews and field tests involving 1723 students across five different undergraduate campuses. The GeDI consists of 22 agree–disagree statements that assess four key concepts and six misconceptions. Student scores ranged from 4/22 to 22/22. Statements ranged in mean difficulty from 0.29 to 0.80 and in discrimination from 0.09 to 0.46. The internal consistency, as measured with Cronbach''s alpha, ranged from 0.58 to 0.88 across five iterations. Test–retest analysis resulted in a coefficient of stability of 0.82. The true–false format means that the GeDI can test how well students grasp key concepts central to understanding genetic drift, while simultaneously testing for the presence of misconceptions that indicate an incomplete understanding of genetic drift. The insights gained from this testing will, over time, allow us to improve instruction about this key component of evolution.     

Mentoring pathways program for first-year education doctor of education students: perspectives of a program redesigned for sustainability

ABSTRACT

Education doctoral (EdD) students face unique challenges to complete a doctorate as scholar-practitioners. An EdD mentoring pathways program for first year EdD students to receive support and advice from fellow colleagues and graduates of the doctoral program to successfully complete the degree at a mid-sized, midwestern university was initially implemented in the 2016–2017 academic year. In order to sustain the EdD mentoring pathways program, the program was redesigned and studied for sustainability the following year for first year EdD students (mentees). To better understand mentees’ perspectives of the mentoring pathways program, mentees participated in pre- and post-surveys, an interview, and a focus group during the 2017–2018 academic year. Themes emerged from quantitative and qualitative data and include: (a) mentees view mentors as successful role models and resources; (b) mentees used the mentoring program to connect with one another; and (c) mentees desire more access to and advice from mentors.     

Supporting project teams: A framework used in a university‐community collaborative initiative

As commonplace as teams are in today's organizations, so too are the frustrations reported by members of many teams. Some of this frustration may be attributed to the lack of organizational support for team efforts. In this article, we draw on Kolb's components of clear direction and accountability, appropriate staffing and training, adequate information and resources, and rewards for team effort to describe and discuss a framework that was developed to support a series of 29 project teams. We use case study methodology to examine a university‐community initiative designed to increase collaboration between members of a university community and stakeholders external to the university. This design resulted in a continuous learning and feedback cycle that encouraged reflective thinking and improvement in procedures and outcomes. The focus is on the framework that was developed and executed to select, support, and evaluate these teams.     

Teaching in the borderland: critical practices in foundations courses

Using first-person accounts of classroom experiences, five professors examine the intersection of social foundations and borderland theory and their efforts to move students through resistance to understanding and affirmation of sociocultural diversity. The authors present this paper in two parts, the first providing examples of using a borderland approach within the classroom and the second providing illustrations moving these borderland strategies beyond the classroom. In each case, authors show the interwoven nature of pedagogy, identity, knowledge, and experience as they work to connect theory and practice. All of the institutions represented have majority white populations, and many do not reflect the diversity of the communities in which they are situated. The need for borderland practices in social foundations courses is urgent in these areas. These pedagogical reflections, although not meant to be recipes for success, provide examples of practices that can serve to meet the growing demands from schools and communities for culturally competent, socially aware teacher–leaders, and reaffirm the critical importance of social foundations in teacher education.     

Letter from Rob Kling-Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

Individuals who have ready access to three new communication media— email, vmail, and fax—may elect to use only one medium, or two or more in combination. Users make choices based on evaluations of the utility of each medium for their communication tasks (a function of the types of work they perform). Individuals may assess technological characteristics to evaluate the technological utility of each medium. However, since communication media require multiple users, individuals also may be expected to assess characteristics of the user community to evaluate the social utility of each medium. Social utility may be influenced by people's perceptions of the existence of a critical mass of media users, and by the social influence of their peers and superiors. This study finds that perceptions of the technological and social utility of email, vmail, and fax are relatively independent of the types of work people perform. Social utility explains media usage somewhat better than technological utility, except in the case of email. Thus, the concept of social utility should be given more attention in future investigations of media choice.     

Accountability: a key‐word in the discourse of educational reform

This paper examines the relationship between language and power in education policy. It takes the example of accountability as the specific focus for an analysis of discursive power in the shaping of education in the 1990s. In doing so, it examines the ways in which language contributes to the construction and maintenance of norms and consensual positions in education. Drawing on work in critical linguistics and cultural theory, the paper considers how recent changes in education might be analysed in a way which relates specific examples of social and linguistic practice to larger scale theoretical concerns. The examples which provide the specific focus for discussion in this paper relate to the concept of accountability and are drawn from an empirical study of the enactment of the statutory curriculum for English in secondary schools in 1992‐93.