Bright Students Research Articles

Has The Time Come for a Bachelor’s Degree Prerequisite to Pharmacy School?

Has The Time Come for a Bachelor’s Degree Prerequisite to Pharmacy School?

Indonesia. Islam, nationalism and democracy: A political biography of Mohammad Natsir By Audrey R. Kahin Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. Pp. 235. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Indonesia. Islam, nationalism and democracy: A political biography of Mohammad Natsir By Audrey R. Kahin Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. Pp. 235. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. - Volume 46 Issue 2

Commentary on “Shared Truth”

Commentary on “Shared Truth”

Predicting Student Academic Performance at Degree Level: A Case Study

Universities gather large volumes of data with reference to their students in electronic form. The advances in the data mining field make it possible to mine these educational data and find information that allow for innovative ways of supporting both teachers and students. This paper presents a case study on predicting performance of students at the end of a university degree at an early stage of the degree program, in order to help universities not only to focus more on bright students but also to initially identify students with low academic achievement and find ways to support them. The data of four academic cohorts comprising 347 undergraduate students have been mined with different classifiers. The results show that it is possible to predict the graduation performance in 4th year at university using only pre-university marks and marks of 1st and 2nd year courses, no socio-economic or demographic features, with a reasonable accuracy. Furthermore courses that are indicators of particularly good or poor performance have been identified.

Psychosomatic and liaison psychiatry in Zaragoza: Philosophy, objectives and results in a four decade experience: The 2014 EAPM ‘Frits Huyse Award’ lecture

Article history: Received 24 July 2014 Received in revised form 22 August 2014 Accepted 24 August 2014 the connections of the telencephalus and the heart system. This work accomplished in the country of Ramon y Cajal, the Nobel Prize who revolutionized the study of the nervous system, still opened doors and I was accepted in the psychiatric residency program at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical School. That turned out to be a crucial step since, under the direction of Professor McHugh, a remarkably charismatic and energetic person who attracted many bright students, Cornell was the place of a

Commentary: Massive open online courses and the future of education

Commentary: Massive open online courses and the future of education

Learn from the best.

What is more inspiring than a discussion with the leading scientists in your field? As a student or a young researcher, you have likely been influenced by mentors guiding you in your career and leading you to your current position. Any discussion with or advice from an expert is certainly very helpful for young people. But how often do we have the opportunity to meet experts? Do we make the most out of these situations? Meetings organized for young scientists are a great opportunity not only for the attendees: they are an opportunity for experts to meet bright students and learn from them in return. In this article, we introduce several successful events organized by Regional Student Groups all around the world, bridging the gap between experts and young scientists. We highlight how rewarding it is for all participants: young researchers, experts, and organizers. We then discuss the various benefits and emphasize the importance of organizing and attending such meetings. As a young researcher, seeking mentorship and additional skills training is a crucial step in career development. Keep in mind that one day, you may be an inspiring mentor, too.

GAMTAMOKSLINIO UGDYMO PROJEKTAS „VAIKAI-VAIKAMS. EKSPERIMENTUOJAME KARTU“

„Children to children. Let‘s do experiments together“ is the project where senior students share their experience and knowledge among primary school students. The senior students prepare for such kind of activities very responsibly: they search for information not only in the student‘s books, but also in extra literature and prepare the interesting worksheets. Every experiment starts from the theoretical part where the senior students try to introduce the primary students to activities. Later they do experiments: examine the snow cover, the amount of starch in different kinds of potatoes, identify the tree age and compare the prints of tree trunks, study the fingerprints using the microscopes, produce lemonade, construct the fountain in the classroom, learn to make a fire without matches, construct the robots from the material for recycling. We are glad that students can do the experiments themselves. Such kind of collaboration is very useful. The bright students can actualize their abilities, develop their competencies in studying. The adaptation process is much easier at the beginning of the school year in the fifth grade because the students are still in close relationship with their first teacher. All students approve that such kind of lessons are very interesting and useful. Key words: senior and primary school students, collaboration, an experiment, competency.

Roundtable on Pedagogy: Renunciation as Pedagogy

Grades are like a student's drug addiction. We revolve our lives around them, we sabotage for them, we will do anything for the high of getting a good grade. We hurt ourselves for them. THE ABOVE QUOTE is from one of our best and brightest students. She put into words a feeling many of our students are intimately familiar with. It is an awareness of this sentiment that initially encouraged me to start thinking outside the box. I have been teaching at an elite, private, Canadian college1 for twelve years. I watch students walk into my classroom for the first time over and over again. They are eager, competitive, and often even aggressive about their learning. They take classes because they have to for their program requirements, and they go to school because they have to for their life requirements. They tend to equate learning with grades and to believe that their future potential can be measured by the floating numbers we provide. My competitive young students have few illusions about why they are sitting in my classroom on hard plastic chairs. Unfortunately, they have few expectations too.

Understanding Honors Programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): An Exploratory Study

Often when one reads about historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), one hears about their role in uplifting underprepared Afincan American students. This role is, in fact, accurate as the majority of HBCUs have large numbers of low-income, first-generation who have often been left behind by the primary and secondary school systems. Seventy-four percent of HBCU receive Pell Grants, indicating the level of poverty in the families from which they hail (Gasman, 2013). HBCUs meet these where they are and work diligently to get them to college-level proficiency and provide them with a globally competitive education. While much focus remains on this noble task, often neglected are the presence and experiences of the high-achieving who attend HBCUs. We know very little about these several reasons. First, the majority of research on African Americans and HBCUs operates with a deficit mentality (Fries-Britt, 2004; Harper, 2005). Second, there is very little research on HBCU honors programs and most high-achieving who participate in these programs after graduation pursue advanced degrees (Harper, 2005).Much of HBCU literature focuses on historical accomplishments and contributions or challenges in administration, leadership, and resources. However, there has been a growing body of work examining HBCUs, their practices, and their through a non-deficit lens (Harper, 2005; Palmer & Gasman, 2008). Also, honor students, in general, and African American honor students, more specifically, have most often been researched to highlight their academic talent or resilience (Fries-Britt, 2004; Griffin, 2006; Harper, 2005). Little is said about the role that the institution, institutional policies, and institutional practices play in the student's experience. The fact that many HBCUs have thriving honors programs and very talented who are attracted to these institutions these programs is often overlooked; their voices are lost in the literature. In order to fully understand the dynamics of HBCUs, we must explore it from various angles and through various programs. Furthermore, knowing more about HBCU honors programs will begin to give insight into high-achieving students, a majority of them Black at HBCUs, and the practices that aid in these high-achieving students' attraction, retention, and persistence at these institutions.This article explores the curriculum, infrastructure, and associated with HBCU honors programs. Using the survey method to capture this information, we provide the first comprehensive study of these programs to date.Literature ReviewHigh-achieving make purposeful choices when it comes to attending college. Although the Ivy League schools and the most highly selective elite institutions are often top choices highachieving students, honors programs at colleges and universities that may not top the rankings still attract these (Seifert et al., 2007). Increased competition within the higher education context created the desire institutions to enroll, persist, and graduate the best and brightest students. This increased competition initiated the creation of honors programs, specifically for those institutions that are not able to increase their overall selectivity ... as a means to market themselves to highachieving students (Seifert et al., 2007, p. 57).Honors programs vary from institution to institution (Seifert et. al, 2007). There are universitywide programs, honors colleges, and departmental programs. Therefore, the literature regarding honors programs is neither vast nor concentrated in one area. Much of the literature facilitates a discussion of how to define honors and programs, as well as gain a better understanding of these programs (Hebert & McBee, 2007; Owens, 2010). Assessment along with varying views and approaches to the assessment of honors programs are also topics found in honors program literature (Cosgrove, 2004; Otero & Spurrier, 2005; Hebert & McBee, 2007; Tallent-Runnels, Shaw, & Thomas, 2007). …

Important Others

The music education profession needs the best and brightest students with potential to be excellent music educators to choose music education as a profession. Past research has identified several influences in the career choice of music educators, including important others in students’ lives. In particular, high school music teachers appear to influence the career choices of students who choose to major in music education. The present study surveyed a purposeful sample of high school music teachers to help illuminate these important others’ beliefs and actions on students’ music education career choices. Students’ love of music and their in-school experiences were perceived to highly influence career choice; direct encouragement and identifying students with a love and passion for music were frequently identified strategies. Through increased understanding of the career choice process, music teacher educators can work most effectively with K–12 teachers in music teacher recruitment efforts.

Local Labour Markets and the Interregional Mobility of Italian University Students

This paper looks at a little-explored role that universities can play: that of representing a channel for brain gain, enabling regions to attract bright students who may decide to stay after they have graduated. In this way, universities can be a source of selective migration processes and possibly of diverging development paths, by augmenting the capability of economically dynamic regions to attract bright people from the lagging regions. In this paper, we argue that student mobility behaviour is a function not only of the quality of universities, but also of local labour market conditions in the destination locations. The paper relies on a gravity model, and shows that graduate migrations respond to several determinants, among which graduate job vacancies (that is, the dynamism of the local labour market) appear to be essential.

A Reflection of Biological Education in the United States

This issue concludes the NABT’s celebration of its 75th Anniversary. Since my term as ABT editor will also be over at the end of this year, this will be one of my last official opportunities to share my ideas about biology education. First I will tell you a little about myself, and then I will share some reflections on biology education past, present, and future. I was always interested in a career in teaching, and biology was my favorite subject. During my senior year in college as a pre-med biology major, I was sent a military draft notice. The draft board gave me three choices: (a) graduate, and we send you to OCS and you will go to Vietnam; (b) graduate and go to med school; when you finish you will go to Vietnam, as we need physicians badly; or (c) get certified to teach secondary science as a critical industry, and you are deferred indefinitely. The decision was a no-brainer. I began a 12-year career teaching high school biology in San Jose, California, the next year. My classroom curriculum emphasized evolution, ecology, genetics, and the human body. My students said that all I ever emphasized was sex and evolution. Well, why not? I also taught about every science except physics, and my favorite class was a six-week summer session in field ecology with lots of field trips. After teaching biology for just a few years in the late 1960s, I attended an NABT Convention in San Francisco. One of the featured sessions was a debate over evolution versus creation. Speakers on the evolution side included none other than Theodosius Dobzhansky, who made his now famous statement, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” The creation side was represented by Duane Gish from the Creation Research …

Why the U.S. Budget Sequester Is a Disaster for the Future of Biomedical Science

As the United States enters its fifth month of the acrossthe-board spending cuts of federal budget sequestration, most residents have probably forgotten about it. The topic is no longer headline news, and because life has gone on, many people believe that we have adjusted. Nothing could be farther from the truth for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). An NIH-supported research program is a multiyear process that begins with the submission, peer review, and approval of a proposal to perform a body of research over a period of time, usually 3 to 5 years. A principal investigator (PI), the leader of the research program, assembles and leads a team of scientists on experimental projects that may take years to run from start to finish. The grant itself pays the salaries of highly trained professional technicians; some have been working on the same or related projects for years and have developed unique and irreplaceable skill sets. Research grants also support the best and the brightest graduate students and fellows who represent the next generation of scientists. Finally, grant monies pay for supplies, equipment, and reagents, the hardware of science used in laboratory experimentation. So, where and how are research scientists to cut expenses? At academic institutions, a PI cannot always impose a salary cut or furlough personnel, because this violates the rules of the college or university. Often, a disproportionate cut is made to the experiments themselves, effectively curtailing progress on research. Multiply such budgetary adjustments by the number of NIHsupported grants in the United States, and it becomes possible to predict the loss of forward momentum of scientific discovery. Let me now turn to the unintended consequences of the uncertainty and unpredictability that have been engendered by the budget sequester, together with the unanticipated tripling or quadrupling of administrative work for PIs and university officials. Scientists are struggling to manage the operations of their laboratories in a void of solid information about upcoming grant budgets. By way of background, federal grants are funded by annual allocations that, under normal circumstances, arrive at a predictable time each year with an expected budget amount based on the original grant award. Due to sequestration, the receipt of annual funds has been delayed, often for months. This causes PIs and their administrators to create temporary budgets and to do their best to juggle monies to make the payroll while waiting for awards to arrive. Without knowing any specifics about the exact dollar amount of the cuts, PIs are constantly adjusting and readjusting budgets, typically involving a series of handoffs from the PI to an administrative assistant, next to a university accountant, and finally to an institutional official. As the NIH agencies struggle to backfill some of the cut revenues, many investigators, while grateful to receive additional monies, will go through the process yet again. Individuals, departments, and universities are reeling from the increased workload, with a massive loss of time that ought to be dedicated to the progress of scientific research instead going into bureaucratic money management. Entire research laboratories are spinning their wheels, waiting for awards to arrive or to be processed by overworked personnel. A 5%–10% across-the-board cut will be so much greater than the amount of money that is being “saved” by ill-conceived efforts to cut the U.S. debt. What a waste of time, money, effort, and brainpower. The budget sequester is not a 1-year event. It will remain in effect until Congress acts to change current laws,

Educating bright students in urban schools

Our study analyzes the impact of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, a college-preparatory educational program designed for higher-achieving students, on high school academic achievement in Chicago Public Schools. We exploit exogenous variation in the offering of the program across schools over time with a difference-in-differences framework. We estimate a positive effect of the program on the probability of obtaining a B average or better in coursework, with most of the effect accruing to performance in mathematics. Most importantly, the program led to a decrease in the likelihood of high school dropout and an increase in the probability of high school graduation.

Has the Quality of Accounting Education Declined?

For decades, accounting practitioners, academics, and professional bodies have argued that the quality of accounting education is falling. There are two specific claims in the literature. First, that the knowledge acquired by students in accounting programs has become less valuable and second, that the best students self-select away from accounting degree programs. In this study, I use several large, publically available datasets to empirically test both claims. I measure the quality of accounting education using a model of the private economic returns to accounting education relative to the returns to education in non-accounting fields and find no evidence of a decline in the returns to accounting education from either 1950 to 2010 or 1970 to 2010 relative to all non-accounting workers or all non-accounting workers in business occupations. To assess the quality of students selecting into accounting degree programs, I model the quality of students expressing interest in various college degrees after controlling for a number of their demographic characteristics. I find that, relative to students pursuing all non-accounting majors, the quality of freshmen interested in accounting has by most measures been steady over 1971 to 1999. Relative to freshmen interested in non-accounting business majors, the quality of freshmen interested in accounting has significantly declined over the sample period. The results are broadly inconsistent with the hypothesis that the quality of accounting education has declined, but they do suggest that accounting programs have fared increasingly poorly in the competition for the best and brightest students in business schools, a fact that could have contributed to the perception that the quality of accounting students has declined.

Turned off and burned out: what will it take for "front-line" medicine to tune back in?

The United States is facing a severe shortage of physicians providing access at the front lines of care access. Specialties with provider shortages include general medicine, family medicine, and other fields providing longitudinal primary and comprehensive care.1,2 In fact, because nearly one-half of visits to subspecialists actually involve primary and general medical care services,3,4 the insufficient supply of front-line physicians to meet patient care demands may be even more extreme than current projections suggest. Despite this impending crisis, student and resident interest in these front-line longitudinal care fields has been stagnant at best in recent years and has declined drastically during the past 2 decades.5,6 For example, in 2012, only 6% of graduating medical students planned careers in family medicine.6 Additional data suggest only 2% of graduating medical students plan to practice general or primary care internal medicine,7 and only 1 in 5 internal medicine residents plans a career in general medicine after graduation.8

In2scienceUK helps students get into university

With student fees increasing and with degrees at top research-intensive universities being overrepresented by students from private schools, bright students from low income backgrounds face a number of barriers when pursuing their interests in science. This is reflected in a report by the Sutton trust in 2010 stating that 18% of pupils on free school meals progressed to higher education compared with 36% on non-free school meals and 96% at independent schools.

FOREWORD: CIVIL RIGHTS IN AMERICA: OUR JOURNEY IS NOT COMPLETE

76 No.2 FOREWORD: CIVIL RIGHTS IN AMERICA: OUR JOURNEY IS NOT COMPLETE By Alicia L. Moore and La Vonne I. Neal Angela Y. Davis's activism and life journey focuses on civil rights and collective freedom. Thus, for the purpose of this discourse we revisited Davis's definition of civil rights: ...the rights of citizens, of all citizens, but because the very nature of citizenship in the United States has always been troubled by the refusal to grant citizenship to subordinate groups—indigenous people, African slaves, women of all racial and economic backgrounds—we tend to think of some people as model citizens, as archetypical citizens, those whose civil rights are never placed in question, the quintessential citizens, and others as having to wage struggles for the right to be regarded as citizens. And some—undocumented immigrants, along with ex felons or "suspected" ex-felons—are beyond the reach of citizenship altogether.1 In 2014, we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, salient legislative moments in history that mark the journey toward freedom and equality. Authors in this issue of the Black History Bulletin highlight past and present struggles for civil rights and offer suggestions to reframe historical narratives about the civil rights era. In the same spirit, during his second inaugural address in 2013, President Barack Obama reminded us that the journey to civil rights was guided by a belief that we were all created equal. We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.2 4 BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN Vol. 76, No. 2 President Obama also reminded us that our journey is not complete and, despite legislative milestones, conditions of subjugation remain. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law—for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity—until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.3 Despite the milestone of President Barack Obama being the first African American elected President of the United States (twice), our journey is not complete until we are all equal. We conclude our thoughts as we began, with a reflection from Angela Y. Davis. We should be especially aware of how the notion of civil rights, especially for women and people of color, has been redefined in a way that contradicts its collective impact in favor of an individualized interpretation that pits individual white men against groups and classes that have suffered historical discrimination.4 Notes 1. Angela Y. Davis, The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues (San Francisco: City Light Books, 2012), 181-182. 2. "Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama" (speech, Washington, DC, January 21, 2013), The White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press office/2013/01/21/inaugural-address-president-barack obama. 3. Ibid. 4. Davis, The Meaning of Freedom, 131. Teacher Resources 1. Freedom's Song: 100 Years of African-American Struggle and Triumph (Farmers...

Making the Grade: Examining Teacher Education

High quality teachers make a difference. Marzano notes, “the single most influential component of an effective school is the individual teachers within that school” (2007, p. 1). There are a multitude of considerations that impact the effectiveness of an individual teacher, but arguably the quality of a teacher’s educational training program is of paramount importance. The initial theory and practical training that pre-service teachers receive not only prepare educators to enter the classroom but can have a profound impact on their later growth and development as a professional. However, despite the impact that pre-service teacher training may have on developing effective teachers, what constitutes a quality teacher education program is not commonly agreed upon. As Linda Darling-Hammond (2000) comments, “Education schools have been variously criticized as ineffective in preparing teachers for their work, unresponsive to new demands, remote from practice, and barriers to the recruitment of bright college students into teaching” (p. 166). Educational programs can be considered fragmented, with various aspects of the content, pedagogical coursework and field experienced viewed as disconnected, with a divide existing between university and school based training (DarlingHammond, 2000). The research objectives of this paper are to examine: (1) the pre-service education model developed at one Alberta, Canada university, an undergraduate program that strives to achieve program coherence between the teaching skills required by provincial legislation, course content and field experiences; (2) the government standards for beginning teachers, (3) student personal responses of their sense of readiness compared to the government standards (comparing the education program to government requirements), and (4) potential use of a reflective tool shared in further forging program coherence. The results show a clear-headed view of the students’ own “sense of preparedness.” They can distinctly see where they have strengths and where they have areas that they intend to work on.