Academic Responsibilities Research Articles

Provider Scheduling to Maximize Patient Access.

We describe and demonstrate an efficient method for assigning clinic days to urology providers in academic and large urology group practices given their numerous scheduling constraints including evaluation and management visits, office or operating room procedures/surgeries, teaching, trainee mentorship, committee work and outreach activities. We propose an integer programming model for scheduling providers for clinic shifts in order to maximize patient access to appointments considering the aforementioned scheduling constraints. We present results for a case study with an academic urology clinic and lessons learned from implementing the model generated schedule. The integer programming model produced a feasible schedule that was implemented after pairwise and 3-way switches among attending providers to account for preferences. The optimized schedule had reduced variability in the number of providers scheduled per shift (standard deviation 1.409 vs 0.999, p=0.01). While other confounding factors are possible we noted a significant increase in the number of encounters after implementing changes from the model (1,370 vs 1,196 encounters, p=0.011). Optimization models offer an efficient and transferable method of generating a clinic template for providers that takes into account other clinical and academic responsibilities, and can increase the number of appointments for patients. Optimization of schedules may be performed periodically to address changes in providers or provider constraints.

Convivencia y comunicación escolar: Transformación desde la acción y la participación

La presente investigación tuvo como propósito Aplicar un Plan de acción dirigido a fortalecer la convivencia y la comunicación en una institución educativa pública en Venezuela a través de la Investigación Acción Participativa. El enfoque metodológico se circunscribió a la perspectiva del Paradigma Crítico promoviendo la participación del colectivo. Se llevó a cabo a través de cuatro fases En la Diagnóstica, se describió el contexto de investigación usando la encuesta como técnica de recolección de datos en su modalidad de cuestionario a estudiantes, docentes, administrativos, obreros y madres, padre representantes. Se realizaron grupos de discusión con los docentes, además de notas de campo y fotografías. El diagnóstico refleja que los estudiantes tienen poco compromiso con sus responsabilidades académicas, falta de cooperación por parte de los padres y representantes e incumplimiento de las normas de convivencia. Realizada la jerarquización de necesidades y aplicada la matriz FODA, resultó dar relevancia a la convivencia escolar debido a su importancia para la comunicación, e integración de los entes del proceso educativo. La fase de la Planificación permitió organizar las estrategias de acción La fase de la ejecución corresponde a la aplicación de las estrategias. En las fases de evaluación y retroalimentación se pudo concluir que cada una de las actividades ejecutadas en el marco del Plan de Acción propuesto generó el compromiso de seguir trabajando en pro de una sociedad capaz y dispuesta a relacionarse respetando la individualidad del otro, desde una comunicación armónica en la convivencia escolar.

On advocacy and engagement

On advocacy and engagement

Undergraduate pharmacy students' experiences of a mindfulness-based intervention

IntroductionStress negatively impacts upon physical and mental health, and pharmacy students demonstrate higher levels of stress than the general population. Mindfulness may be a suitable way to improve pharmacy students' stress and distress levels in order to cope with academic pressures and professional responsibilities. The objective of this study was to obtain students' views and insights into the content and design of a mindfulness-based intervention. MethodsUndergraduate pharmacy students in University College Cork who had completed at least 75% of a four-week mindfulness course offered during the 2016 to 2017 academic year were invited to participate in follow-up interviews. Local ethical approval was obtained. Recruitment occurred via email. Audio-recorded interviews were conducted, transcribed, and de-identified by the mindfulness tutor and primary researcher. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. ResultsA total of 21 participants (62% female) representing all year groups were interviewed in March 2017. Thematic analysis generated the following four key themes regarding the mindfulness course: 1) common humanity – an essential foundation, 2) personal development and self-awareness, 3) implementation – striking a balance, and 4) challenges of social influences. ConclusionsThe results of this study will be instrumental in deciding how to best bring this research forward. Mindfulness may have an important future role to play in pharmacy and healthcare education.

Roles and jobs in the open research scholarly communications environment: analysing job descriptions to predict future trends

During the past two-decades academic libraries updated current staff job responsibilities or created brand new roles. This allowed them to adapt to scholarly communication developments and consequently enabled them to offer efficient services to their users. The global calls for openly accessible research results has shifted the institutional, national and international focus and their constant evolvement has required the creation of new research positions in academic libraries. This study reports on the findings of an analysis of job descriptions in the open research services as advertised by UK academic libraries.METHOD: From March 2015 to March 2017, job advertisements relating to open access, repositories and research data management were collected.RESULTS: The analysis of the data showed that the primary responsibilities of the open research support staff were: to ensure and facilitate compliance with funders’ open access policies, maintain the tools that enable compliance, create reports and collect statistics that measure compliance rates and commit to continuous liaising activities with research stakeholders.DISCUSSION: It is clear that the open research services is a complex environment, requiring a variety of general and subject specific skill sets, while often a role may involve more than one area of expertise.CONCLUSION: The results of this study could benefit prospective employees and universities that wish to embed open research skills in their curriculum.

Compassion cultivation training promotes medical student wellness and enhanced clinical care

BackgroundCompassionate health care is associated with positive patient outcomes. Educational interventions for medical students that develop compassion may also increase wellness, decrease burnout, and improve provider-patient relationships. Research on compassion training in medical education is needed to determine how students learn and apply these skills. The authors evaluated an elective course for medical students modeled after the Compassion Cultivation Training course developed by the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. The elective goals were to strengthen student compassion, kindness, and wellness through compassion training and mindfulness meditation training modeled by a faculty instructor. The research objectives were to understand students’ applications and perceptions of this training.MethodsOver three years, 45 students participated in the elective at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. The course administered a pre/post Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills that measured observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment. Qualitative analyses of self-reported experiences were used to assess students’ perceptions of compassion training and their application of skills learned through the elective.ResultsThe mindfulness inventory showed significant improvements in observing (t = 3.62, p = 0.005) and accepting without judgment skills (t = 2.87, p = 0.017) for some elective cohorts. Qualitative data indicated that students across all cohorts found the elective rewarding, and they used mindfulness, meditation, and compassion skills broadly outside the course. Students described how the training helped them address major stressors associated with personal, academic, and clinical responsibilities. Students also reported that the skills strengthened interpersonal interactions, including with patients.ConclusionsThese outcomes illuminate students’ attitudes toward compassion training and suggest that among receptive students, a brief, student-focused intervention can be enthusiastically received and positively influence students’ compassion toward oneself and others. To underscore the importance of interpersonal and cognitive skills such as compassion and mindfulness, faculty should consider purposefully modeling these skills to students. Modeling compassion cultivation and mindfulness skills in the context of patient interactions may address student empathy erosion more directly than stress management training alone. This pilot study shows compassion training could be an attractive, efficient option to address burnout by simultaneously promoting student wellness and enhanced patient interactions.

Singing for science.

I wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall back to sleep. I feel I've reached the lowest point in my life, with little hope that I will be able to finish my Ph.D. It has only been 8 days since I agreed to give up singing, yet it feels like an eternity. Singing had provided a welcome balance to my scientific pursuits. But after a roller-coaster year, including a switch to a new adviser and myriad family and relationship issues, my work had suffered. Something had to give. I thought it needed to be music. ![Figure][1] ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “Although studying pollution drives me, not being able to sing drives me mad.” About 3 years earlier, I had decided to do my Ph.D. in New York City in part for the musical opportunities. I joined the university chorus and several opera productions. Juggling my academic responsibilities and singing stretched me thin sometimes. But, after a long day of classes or hours in front of my computer screen trying to debug code, singing helped me decompress, recharge, and recalibrate. During my second year, things started to take a turn. My original adviser left for a different institution. My new adviser was very supportive but had a much more hands-on approach than I was used to. I also needed to prepare for my qualifying exams at the end of the year. At times I considered dropping music. “You're doing a Ph.D. in air pollution, not music,” I told myself. “Priorities, priorities, priorities.” But when I remembered the joy and relaxation that I get from music-making, I rejected the idea. In fact, I took on one of the biggest, most challenging roles I've ever had: the title role in an oratorio. Preparing for the performance and my qualifying exam at the same time was a lot to manage. But every time I immersed myself in the music, I was transported away from the stresses of grad school—and when I came back, I was in better mental and emotional shape to tackle my scientific work again. I got through my qualifying exam, but my relationship with my new adviser was still bumpy. Spending the following summer in China didn't help. My research is on air pollution and health in China, and most of my extended family lives there. But 3 months without face-to-face interaction with my adviser did not improve our dynamic. Miscommunications piled up. My adviser sent me an email saying that we needed to have a serious conversation when I got back. I was dreading my return—all but the music. I looked forward to rehearsing for the roles I had lined up and resuming my voice lessons. Upon my return—on Friday the 13th, no less—my adviser and I sat down for our talk. I was not meeting expectations; my dissertation research needed to be my top priority. My adviser didn't know exactly how important music was for me and was just trying to help me be successful in my Ph.D. But I felt that giving up singing was my only choice. Maybe this would help get my doctoral work back on track. I wrote apologetic emails left and right, cutting all of my singing engagements. The result? I was miserable. I lost the motivation to get out of bed in the morning, let alone do research. I realized that although studying pollution drives me, not being able to sing drives me mad. So, I sent emails begging for the roles I had dropped. Amazingly, the directors all took me back. And a strange thing happened: I redoubled my efforts, on both my research and my relationship with my adviser. We started to meet weekly, with progress reports due. These new, more frequent deadlines were very stressful, but I scheduled my voice lessons to immediately follow each meeting. I clung to music like a rope dangling over a bottomless pit. Gradually, my adviser and I built a strong relationship, and my research finally seemed to head in the right direction. It has now been a year and a half since that fateful night. I'm making progress on my research and performing regularly. My adviser comes to some of my shows. A poster—featuring my photo—from my most recent performance is displayed on my adviser's office windowsill. The balance between music and research shifts at times—toward music in the week leading up to a performance, away as a grant due date nears—but pursuing both is my key to fulfillment. [1]: pending:yes

P144: “I wasn't oriented a lot, so I'm essentially learning as I go”: onboarding and transition to practice of new emergency physicians

Introduction: Transition to the attending physician role and onboarding at a new workplace are often stressful. Effective initiation is important to individuals as well as departments, hospitals and universities wishing to retain valuable staff. Our aim was to learn about early experiences from the perspective of new staff and apply these findings to develop a new onboarding program. Methods: Following a pilot study of individual interviews, we surveyed and conducted focus group interviews with all attending physicians who had joined our dual site, urban, academic emergency department within three years. We used a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach to collect and analyze data. We applied the data to develop a new needs-based formal onboarding program. Results: 24/36 participated in the survey, 22/36 in focus groups. 95% were 30-39 years old. Newcomers described the existing orientation as too brief, non-specific, and missing essential elements. We identified six onboarding themes: (1)clinical protocols and reference documents, (2)graduated responsibilities, (3)mentorship, (4)relationship building, (5)department structure and culture, and (6)emotions. We formed a committee to develop and implement these initiatives: (1)a new online platform enables easy access to clinical care and orientation documents, (2)a formal mentorship program matches each newcomer with 2 mentors to coach towards goals, navigate department structure and culture, and provide perspective to mitigate strong emotions, (3)adjusting shift and teaching assignments allows newcomers to ease into clinical and academic responsibilities, and (4)our next priority is to improve clarity around academic opportunities, expectations, and advancement. Conclusion: New emergency physicians are highly engaged and provided many insights on their orientation experiences. Using mixed methods, we identified six themes to guide the design and implementation of a program to promote successful integration of newcomers.

Navigating the university transition among women who self-report an eating disorder: A qualitative study.

Although developmental milestones have been observed to alter eating disorder (ED) symptom burden, it remains unknown how the transition to university affects symptomatology. To address this gap, we designed a qualitative study to elucidate how students with an ED perceive their general university experience and to describe how the university environment shapes their ED. Undergraduate students who self-reported an ED were recruited through fliers, an undergraduate advocacy organization, and local treatment centers. We conducted audio-recorded semi-structured individual interviews. Two investigators separately coded verbatim transcripts using an editing approach, and final themes emerged from the pattern of descriptors. Fifteen undergraduate students participated. Participants endorsed a variety of ED symptoms and sought various levels of treatment. Most participants transitioned to university with an already-established diagnosis. Participants described that ED symptoms tended to worsen in university for a variety of reasons including (a) minimization of ED severity, (b) loss of external accountability, (c) use of ED symptoms as a coping mechanism, and (d) glorification of ED behaviors in campus diet culture. Subsequently, the ED disrupted the university experience by (e) hindering participants' ability to focus on academic responsibilities and (f) leading to social isolation on campus. We identified challenges unique to the university experience that can be addressed by ED treatment teams in order to provide anticipatory guidance and patient-centered care. Study limitations include lack of formal diagnostic ED assessment by research team and sampling of students from one university.

Marital Status as a Stress Indicator in Postgraduate Dental Students.

The objective of this study was to explore perceived causes of stress and to analyse the influence of marital status and gender as indicators of these causes. Modified Graduate Dental Stress Environment Questionnaire was used on postgraduate students of basic dental sciences at a public sector university in Pakistan. Mean±SD was calculated for all stress-related items and statistical analysis was done through Mann Whitney-U test and multiple linear regression analysis. Out of 53 stress-related items, 15 (28.3%) factors were perceived as mildly stressful, 33 (62.26%) as moderately stressful and 9.4% as highly stressful. A significant relationship was found between 6 stress-related items and marital status. In the questionnaire majority of these items came under the domain of selfefficacy. Single students were more stressed in four areas relating to future career, academic responsibilities and confidence in their decision-making ability, while married students experienced higher stress when competing for research experience in their learning programmes.

The impact of outreach programs on academics development, personal development and civic responsibilities of dental students in Bhubaneswar city.

INTRODUCTION:Inequalities persists in distribution, accessibility, and utilization of oral health services between urban and rural population. One approach to lessen this inequality is by incorporating rural outreach programs in the academic curriculum of health-care professionals.OBJECTIVES:The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of outreach programs on academic development, personal development, and civic responsibilities of dental students and also to assess the changes in the domain scores within and between genders postintervention.METHODOLOGY:The study population consisted of 100 dental students. The study methodology followed a before and after without control informal experimental study designs. At baseline, the participants were administered pretested structured questionnaire developed by D. Diaz Gallegos. Intervention involved posting participants in various rural outreach activities and academic field visits in various public health installations. A postintervention questionnaire developed by Anu F. Shinnamon et al. was administered to assess the change from the baseline. The change in domain scores was assessed using paired and unpaired t-test appropriately. P ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.RESULTS:The baseline scores of academic, personal, and civic domains were 6.05 ± 2.44, 8.04 ± 2.84, and 6.36 ± 2.23 which increased to 6.52 ± 2.10, 13.56 ± 3.44, and 8.55 ± 2.71 postintervention, respectively (P ≤ 0.05). When comparing within genders, there was increase from the baseline, and this change in the scores postintervention was statistically significant (P = 0.001). The mean scores of all three domains between genders were statistically insignificant.CONCLUSION:The outreach programs developed and enhanced the subject's academic skills, leadership qualities, self-confidence, communication skills, managerial skills, and responsibilities toward the rural community.

Predict employee attrition by using predictive analytics

PurposeResearch questions that this paper attempts to answer are – do the features in general email communication have any significance to a teaching faculty member leaving the business school? Do the sentiments expressed in email communication have any significance to a teaching faculty member leaving the business school? Do the stages mentioned in the transtheoretical model have any relevance to the email behaviour of an individual when he or she goes through the decision process leading to the decision to quit? The purpose of this paper is to study email patterns and use predictive analytics to correlate with the real-world situation of leaving the business school.Design/methodology/approachThe email repository (2010–2017) of 126 teaching faculty members who were associated with a business school as full-time faculty members is the data set that was used for the research. Of the 126 teaching faculty members, 42 had left the business school during this time frame. Correlation analysis, word count analysis and sentiment analysis were executed using “R” programming, and sentiment “R” package was used to understand the sentiment and its association in leaving the business school. From the email repository, a rich feature set of data was extracted for correlation analysis to discover the features which had strong correlation with the faculty member leaving the business school. The research also used data-logging tools to extract aggregated statistics for word frequency counts and sentiment features.FindingsThose faculty members who decide to leave are involved more in external communication and less in internal communications. Also, those who decide to leave initiate fewer email conversations and opt to forward emails to colleagues. Correlation analysis shows that negative sentiment goes down, as faculty members leave the organisation and this is in contrary to the existing review of literature. The research also shows that the triggering point or the intention to leave is positively correlated to the downward swing of the emotional valence (positive sentiment). A number of email features have shown change in patterns which are correlated to a faculty member quitting the business school.Research limitations/implicationsFaculty members of only one business school have been considered and this is primary due to cost, privacy and complexities involved in procuring and handling the data. Also, the reasons for exhibiting the sentiments and their root cause have not been studied. Also the designation, roles and responsibilities of faculty members have not been taken into consideration.Practical implicationsBusiness schools all over India always have a challenge to recruit good faculty members who can take up research activities, teach and also shoulder administrative responsibilities. Retaining faculty members and keeping attrition levels low will help business schools to maintain the standards of excellence that they aspire. This research is immensely useful for business school, which can use email analytics in predicting the intention of the faculty members leaving their business school.Originality/valueAlthough past studies have studied attrition, this study uses predictive analytics and maps it to the intention to quit. This study helps business schools to predict the chance of faculty members leaving the business school which is of immense value, as appropriate measures can be taken to retain and restrict attrition.

The Rising Physicians Program: A Novel Approach for Mentoring Medical Students.

The transition to medical school is a particularly challenging time for new students as they are faced with significant academic responsibilities. Moreover, for many students at the Uniformed Services University they are adjusting to being on active duty in the military. Mentoring has been considered a way to help with the transition and professional development. Prior to 2015, there was no formal mentoring program for new students at the Uniformed Services University. In order to address the demands and challenges facing matriculating medical students, the Rising Physicians Program was created. This student initiated program enabled pre-clerkship medical students to connect with residents at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center via a secure database with resident profiles. Residents were recruited and voluntarily agreed to serve as mentors. Students were then able to access the database and reach out to mentors based on their specific goals. The program was introduced to students during orientation and student participation was completely voluntary. A survey was designed using best survey practices and sent to the 175 students participating in the program for the 2015 academic (class of 2019) year to determine participation and characteristics of the program. Sixty-four percent (112/175) of the students from the class of 2019 participated in the post-implementation survey. Fifteen percent of the class (26/175) reported participating in the voluntary mentoring program. The three most commonly used communication methods with mentors in precedence were in-person, e-mail, and text messages. The majority of the students found their interactions in this program were beneficial and did not get in the way of their academic performance. The most common topics of discussion were academics (20%), mentor's past experience (22%), military lifestyle (7%), medical school pathways (23%), and specialty selections (23%). Limitations of the program included a lack of U.S. Air Force mentors and mentors within certain residency specialties. The Rising Physician Program provides a near-peer mentoring model for new medical students. Students preferred to communicate with their mentors in person, but the flexibility of communication appears to be important. New students have a variety of academic and professional development concerns that could partially be addressed through mentoring by residents.

Actividad física y su relación con la carga académica de estudiantes universitarios

Objetivo: Caracterizar la dimensión del ejercicio y la actividad física, así como su relación con la carga académica, de los estudiantes universitarios de Popayán-Colombia. Metodología: Cuantitativa de tipo descriptivo-correlacional con un muestreo aleatorio de 350 estudiantes de nueve facultades de una institución de educación superior durante el segundo período de 2016, se empleó el Cuestionario de estilos de vida en jóvenes universitarios ―CEVJU-R―. Resultados: Se identificaron prácticas “no saludables” cuya motivación para realizar ejercicio fue “mantener la salud” y la primera inspiración para no realizar esas prácticas fue ‘pereza’; además se evidenció diferencia significativa de las prácticas entre hombres y mujeres (p≤ 0,05), estableciendo una relación positiva entre carga académica y nivel de actividad física. Conclusiones: Los hombres presentaron prácticas más saludables que las mujeres; se comprobó también que los estudiantes que presentaron una carga académica alta obtuvieron calificaciones altas en dicha dimensión, por lo que se ubicó en el rango de prácticas “no saludables”, lo que se asocia con poca o baja actividad física.

Retos de la investigación como asignación académica en la UNAH

La investigación científica como una tarea académica, anteriormente llamada Carga Académica, ha sido evaluada y gobernada por la Dirección de Investigación Científica de la Universidad (DICU) desde 2012. Se debe aclarar que la DICU no otorga la tarea, solo evalúa metodológicamente y las normas sobre Asimismo, las propuestas dan seguimiento a las investigaciones aprobadas hasta las cuales están terminadas para controlar su calidad. En este sentido, es el Jefe del Departamento Académico al que pertenece el profesor, quien asigna la investigación como parte de sus responsabilidades académicas.

An Analysis of Lunch Shaming in Indiana and Proposed Solutions

This report provides an analysis of lunch shaming—its causes and prevalence in Indiana—and proposes solutions at the local and state level. We used publicly available data from the Indiana Department of Education (“IDOE”) website and questionnaire feedback from 197 of the 290 Indiana public school corporations. Additionally, we analyzed 61 unpaid meal charge policies for compliance with the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) and IDOE guidelines. Further, analysis presents a clearer picture of the wider scope of school corporations’ administrative responses when a child cannot pay for a meal. Data provided throughout the report and illustrated in graphs and tables included as appendices shows that the balance of school lunch funds ranges from millions of dollars in debt to millions of dollars in surplus. However, the overall financial health of the school lunch funds did not correlate to the amount of unpaid meal charges. Further, analysis of the unpaid meal charge policies shows that: many were challenging to find; some were nonpublic; several attempt to provide alternative meals; and younger students are treated differently than older students. Last, the policies leave unclear what happens to a student once he or she exhausts the number of allotted alternative meals. The report suggests many schools use lunch shaming of students as a tactic to pressure parents to quickly respond and pay a meal charge debt. This technique seems to be a cheap, thoughtless, and ineffective solution crafted by school corporations to comply with strict restrictions and regulations imposed by Indiana statutes and federal rules. Further, while we know –from newspapers and social media - lunch shaming occurs in Indiana, the scope of the problem is difficult to measure because the IDOE does not collect information about unpaid meal charge debt. Finally, while unpaid meal charge policies are a good idea, in practice it is unclear how these published policies have reduced incidents of lunch shaming. Many of the policies are identical, and it does not appear that parents provided input into the drafting of these policies, as suggested by the USDA. The report contains the following recommendations: • Proposed legislation to prohibit lunch shaming and eradicate incentives to lunch shame; • Proposed direct action campaign for parents to address the problem at their local schools; • Improved data collection by the IDOE to fully understand the scope of lunch shaming; and • Improved unpaid meal charge policies for each school by improving the accessibility and clarity of each policy. The report is not without limitations. These include: availability of data, other academic and professional responsibilities, and our relatively new engagement in this area of law. However, we are enthusiastic about this issue and appreciate the collective effort goal: to cease lunch shaming. School corporations are invested in the health, safety, and wellness of each student they serve. Many school corporations achieve this mission on a shoestring budget. Additionally, most parents desire to protect their children. Together, we can reduce or eliminate lunch shaming of Hoosier kids.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

Flipping Student-Athletes’ ESP Course Using Teacher-Crafted YouTube Videos and an OMP Strategy

This study aims to discuss a flipped communicative learning and teaching model for student-athletes who usually have high motivation to achieve athletic success but lack interest in academic achievement. Nineteen Korean male student-athletes took an ESP course for one semester, accessing a school MOOC which provided ECS-based YouTube videos (before class), in-class activities and OMPs (during class), and teacher-crafted videos with quizzes (after class). Based on a pre- and a postquestionnaire, weekly OMPs and focal interviews, the findings illustrated that the students considered the model was necessary for the student-athletes’ ESP course, supporting their self-regulated learning. Second, the students became more comprehensible and had more fun with the help of the YouTube videos and in-class activities based on short spoken utterances, including formulaic expressions, which were suitable for beginners. Third, the teacher-crafted videos were used to wrap up the off-line classes, give opportunities to make up missed classes, and review the previous lessons. Fourth, the YouTube videos’ easy accessibility on mobile phones meant the students were more exposed to English learning. Fifth, the OMP turned out to be a very effective mechanism for teacher-student interaction and active learning. Sixth, the students started recognizing academic responsibilities more than before and became more aware of the importance of English instruction.

Discipline at the school: Examination of school administrators' views about discipline and disciplinary problems

This research is a phenomenology study which is one of the qualitative studies that examines the views of school administrators about discipline and disciplinary problems. 18 high school administrators participated to the research in Kozan district. Data collected by interview were analyzed by content analysis method. As a result of the study, school administrators defined the discipline as responsibility, system and order. A disciplined school must have the following features: everyone fulfills their duties, students should be academically successful, the educational materials are complete, and schools are clean and orderly. School administrators listed common disciplinary problems as: unfulfilled academic responsibilities at high school, the use of harmful substances, disobeying the dress code and violence. Administrators have associated discipline problems with student characteristics and the attitudes of their families. As a result of the research, it is seen that the school administrators prompt guidance service, classroom teacher and family cooperation in the process of managing the disciplinary problems, and they also take care to make interview and guidance work with the students. School administrators' expectations are that the parents should support the school's decisions and that the discipline regulation in the education system should be updated in accordance with the social conditions.

Symposium 1: E-Teaching: An Essential Prerequisite for Networked E-Learning

The discourse on the implementation of the digital technologies and networked learning in higher education settings focuses mainly on students' learning and their ability to connect to information and/or other students rather than on professors' teaching. The little attention paid to the crucial role of teachers in online settings results in a restricted and moderate adaptation of the technologies in higher education worldwide. It is quite clear nowadays that, for e-learning and networked learning to become a dominant learning pattern, technology alone will not suffice. In order to overcome the reluctance of many professors to use extensively the digital technologies, there exists a burning need to develop appropriate incentives and support systems. The little attention paid to the crucial role of teachers in digital networks and online settings results in a restricted and moderate adaptation of the technologies in higher education so far. Of particular importance is an ongoing and just-in-time support. Many institutions acknowledge nowadays the need to recruit in the future a broader range of personnel to complement academic staff in order to implement the technologies more effectively. The roles of teachers in an online environment differ meaningfully from their traditional roles in a classroom setting. To equip professors with tools to use the wide range of capabilities enabled by the new technologies necessitates a conceptual redefinition of the teachers' roles, a well designed training, and ongoing support systems for both students and teachers. The new technologies require the academic faculty to assume new responsibilities and to develop a range of new skills. Academics will have to become in the future reconciled to collaborating with other colleagues and professionals in designing materials and in the teaching process. They will need to learn how to collaborate in a team framework with tutors, editors, instructional designers, television producers, computer experts, graphic production personnel, etc. in developing and delivering their courses, as well as guiding their students to utilize efficiently networked learning. At the same time, teachers will have greater flexibility to choose the teaching styles better suited for their personal strengths and individual preferences. University leaders will have to deliberate how to prepare the new generations of academic faculty to operate in a world where blended courses, shared or dual diplomas, online teaching and networked learning are an integral part of the academic teaching responsibilities. Unquestionably, e-teaching constitutes an essential prerequisite for achieving efficient and fruitful networked learning and e-learning, and it provides multiple domains of investigation that have not been explored yet.