Mentored Discussions of Teaching: An Introductory Teaching Development Program for Future STEM Faculty

Today’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are tomorrow’s new faculty members; but these junior academicians often receive limited pedagogical training. We describe four iterations of an entry-level program with a low time commitment, Mentored Discussions of Teaching (MDT). The program is designed to introduce participants to pedagogical issues and literature in STEM disciplines and foster related discussions. It consists of group meetings, classroom observations, and discussions with faculty members. Program components were generally highly rated and valuable, even for those with prior teaching experience. We have found that this program is also an effective way to engage faculty members in the teaching aspects of students’ professional development.     

Children seek help based on how others learn

Do children consider how others learned when seeking help? Across three experiments, German children (N = 536 3-to-8 year olds, 49% female, majority White, tested 2017–2019) preferred to learn from successful active learners selectively by context: They sought help solving a problem from a learner who had independently discovered the solution to a previous problem over those who had learned through instruction or observation, but only when the current problem was novel, yet related, to the learners' problem (Experiment 1). Older, but not younger, children preferred the active learner even when she was offered help (Experiment 2), though only when her discovery was deliberate (Experiment 3). Although a preference to learn from successful active learners emerges early, a genuine appreciation for process beyond outcome increases across childhood.     

Recent advances in swollen-state NMR spectroscopy for the study of drying oils

The cross-linking processes of three drying oils (poppy, linseed, walnut), a class of organic compounds very important in the field of artworks, were studied by means of ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, following the change of the protons signals when oils are heated at 60 °C in the presence of air or nitrogen gas. This preliminary information is particularly important to identify the presence of drying oils within a solid painting film. We demonstrated that it was possible to study these films by swollen-state NMR, an innovative spectroscopy method that can directly analyze very small semisolid samples instead of solutions. The main advantages of this method are the short time of analysis, the possibility to analyze samples without any preliminary treatment, and the small quantity of the sample required. Therefore, swollen-state NMR technique was used to characterize three real painting films: in this way, we succeeded in recognizing in real paintings specimens the presence of drying oils employed as binders, avoiding any interferences due to other organic compounds acting as binding agents, like waxes or egg-yolk media.     

Young children's adaptive partner choice in cooperation and competition contexts

Choosing adequate partners is essential for cooperation, but how children calibrate their partner choice to specific social challenges is unknown. In two experiments, 4- to 7-year-olds (N = 189, 49% girls, mostly White, data collection: 03.2021–09.2022) were presented with partners in possession of different positive qualities. Children then recruited partners for hypothetical tasks that differed with respect to the quality necessary for success. Children and the selected partner either worked together toward a common goal or competed against each other. From age 5, children selectively chose individuals in possession of task-relevant qualities as cooperative partners while avoiding them as competitors. Younger children chose partners indiscriminately. Children thus learn to strategically adjust their partner choice depending on context-specific task demands and different social goals.     

The Influence of Adult and Peer Role Models on Children’ and Adolescents’ Sharing Decisions

This study explores how the age (adult vs. peer) and the suggestion (to be fair vs. unfair) of models affect the sharing decisions of 9‐ and 12‐year‐olds (N = 365) from Italy and Singapore. Results demonstrate a developmental shift in the influence of models on children's and adolescents’ sharing decisions in both cultures: Children's decisions were more affected by an adult model's suggestion than by that of a peer model, whereas the opposite was true for adolescents. Regardless of the models’ influence, participants considered equal sharing to be the fair choice and reported being happier when their sharing decisions were generous. Our results highlight the crucial importance of social and developmental factors for the promotion of fairness judgments and emotions.