Formal Education Training Research Articles

Adding Value to Public Schools

This research investigated the value added to middle school public education by pedagogically trained college students. An experimental design was employed in which 680 middle school pupils were randomly assigned to instructional groups. University arts and sciences students were put into two groups on the basis of those with formal teacher training and those without. Each student taught four lessons to his or her instructional group. Pupils were administered pre- and posttest measures on the content delivered in the four lessons and a reflection scale on lesson difficulty. Teachers' behaviors were recorded and scored independently by two trained observers. Results indicated that pupils' achievement was influenced by their perceptions of task difficulty and that teaching behaviors had a statistically significant influence on adjusted pupil achievement outcomes among students with formal pedagogical training. These results support the contention that pedagogical preparation of teachers adds value to middle school public education when measured in terms of pupil academic learning.

Our Most Important Knowledge

Teaching and research at any level in the educational system is challenging. If we are fortunate, we continue to learn throughout our lives and contribute positively to humanity. The body of knowledge and information currently available is immense, and no one can master more than a small portion of it. The question therefore arises: what of our knowledge is the most important? Consequently, at the end of a student’s formal educational training period, one might wish to ask the following question. What is the most significant or important thing you know? The answers students offer are very diverse. For many people the answer is related to their beliefs in a supernatural entity, a God, eternal life and spiritual salvation. If we ask them to reconsider their answers without including the supernatural or a religious belief system, what do you suppose their answers would be? Some answers that Biology students have provided are as follows:

Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change (review)

Reviewed by: Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change Susan L. Smith Robbie Davis-Floyd and Christine Barbara Johnson, eds. Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change. New York: Routledge, 2006. x + 557 pp. Ill. $85.00, £70.00 (cloth, ISBN-10: 0-415-93150-9; ISBN-13: 978-0-415-93150-2); $31.95, £15.99 (paperbound: ISBN-10: 0-415-93151-7; ISBN-13: 978-0-415-93151-9). In Mainstreaming Midwives, anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd and sociologist Christine Barbara Johnson document the developments in midwifery in the United States from the 1970s to the present. The book covers the struggles and successes of lay midwives who sought to create an independent profession of midwifery, known since the 1990s as "direct-entry midwifery." Historians of twentieth-century midwifery often end their investigations at mid-century, when midwifery declined among such groups as Japanese Americans and African Americans. In this exhaustive collection of case studies and recent histories, the authors present the latest phase in the long history of American midwifery, this time among predominantly middle-class, white women. The collection is strongly influenced by the birth activism and scholarship of Davis-Floyd, a medical anthropologist at the University of Texas, Austin: not only did she write or cowrite six of the thirteen chapters, but the other contributors make references to her encouragement and insights. The authors, mostly midwives and/or social scientists, frequently refer to the political motivations for their research, identifying their approach by such terms as "activist anthropology" (p. 314). These ethnographic studies of grassroots midwifery are built on dozens, even hundreds, of interviews with the various players. [End Page 234] The book's overall argument is that the efforts to legalize and professionalize midwifery through political activism, litigation, and legislation came at a price. The midwifery renaissance, the authors convincingly demonstrate, entailed competing cultures of midwifery. In particular, competition between nurse-midwives and lay midwives grew, and disagreements erupted among members within each group. Distinctions and power inequalities between nurse-midwives and lay midwives have a long history, as Laura Ettinger showed in Nurse-Midwifery: The Birth of a New American Profession (2006). The goal of the editors, therefore, is to provide a better understanding of the different perspectives and to urge collaboration and unity in the interest of midwife survival. The book is divided into three parts that fit together nicely to reveal the hotly contested, multiple meanings of midwifery. Part 1 provides discussion of the two major national midwife organizations, the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the Midwives' Alliance of North America, and their creation of direct-entry midwife options. Nurse-midwives, who increasingly sought independence from nursing, nonetheless were dismayed by lay midwives' disregard for formal midwifery educational requirements and hospital training. Lay midwives, who struggled to retain the home as the site for birth and apprenticeship as a method of midwife training, were offended by efforts to turn midwives into university-trained practitioners. Part 2 details midwife activism and the legislative battles with state medical organizations and nursing organizations in Florida, Minnesota, Colorado, Virginia, Iowa, and Massachusetts. Part 3 explores key issues in moving midwifery into the mainstream, including the presence of "renegade midwives." Overall, this is a fascinating book, although I take issue with a few assertions. First, Davis-Floyd labels this latest population of birth attendants "postmodern midwives" in order to highlight their differences from previous midwives who served various ethnic communities. She argues that postmodern midwives are "educated, articulate, organized, political, and highly conscious of their cultural uniqueness and importance" (p. 4)—yet, many of the Japanese American midwives who practiced along the American west coast and in Hawaii in the first half of the twentieth century also fit this description. Second, drawing on the case of Ontario, Davis-Floyd asserts that American midwives should follow the Canadian model of unified midwifery in which "all midwives can practice at home or in hospital and can offer the full range from low- to high-tech birth" (p. 65)—but this is simply not an accurate description of the situation for midwives in many Canadian provinces, including my own. Still, this book is a significant resource for scholars interested in American...

Kathleen Mears Memorial Lecture: The Magic of Becoming an END Technologist Education: Past, Present, Future

ABSTRACT.We have all traveled various roads to becoming electroneurodiagnostic (END) technologists. END (formerly known as EEG) technology education began with informal mentorship such as on-the-job training. Later it progressed into formal educational training programs under the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). The American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists (ASET) has been actively pursuing the formulation of a standardized END curriculum and educational resources that should make the process of starting a training program easier. ASET has already produced online courses that have become a valuable resource for educating END technologists. What's next? Could it possibly be a combination of the old and the new? Perhaps taking advantage of the strengths of both the mentorship and formal educational techniques could be an answer to meeting the ever-increasing demand for END technologists. Let's imagine!

A study of the activities of Some Drug Hawkers within the Lagos Metropolis

Purpose: To investigate the activities of selected medicine hawkers in Lagos in search of tools useful in controlling them and consequently improve the quality of service given to their clients. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 290 medicine hawkers in 15 major areas of heavy human traffic within the metropolis using questionnaires filled by the interview technique. Results: The drug hawkers had shifted their activities from the day to the night time to evade inspection by officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Asministration Control (NAFDAC). Among the medicine hawkers, 109 (38%) and 116 (40%) completed primary and secondary school training respectively while 48 (17%) had no formal educational training. Also 17 (5%) hawkers had prior training in the handling of pharmaceuticals. Their level of educational attainment appeared to influence the ability of these drug sellers to prescribe the appropriate drug regimen. The traders prescribe and sell both over-the-counter and prescription only drugs. Conclusion: NAFDAC regulatory activity, an improvement in the quality of service provision at orthodox health facilities combined with a programme designed to recruit, train, and license these hawkers for the use of over-the-counter medicines only, may be key in controlling their activities. Keywords : Unethical drugs purchase, hawkers activities, Lagos metropolis. NQJHM Vol. 15 (2) 2005: pp. 98-102

Personal History and Professional Impairment

ABSTRACT This paper examines the personal histories of social workers and investigates how these variables were related to diminished professional functioning (i.e., professional impairment). One thousand practicing NASW members were anonymously surveyed as part of the study “Work and Well-Being: A Study of North Carolina Social Workers.” Social workers responded to 11 personal history questions, and an analysis found statistically significant differences in professional impairment scores for all but three of these variables. Regression analysis found that five personal history variables explained the most variance in professional impairment scores. This study's findings have important implications for organizations that employ social workers. Managers, supervisors, and administrators can create organizational conditions that make it safe for social workers to seek help for their problems. Professional impairment and concomitant personal history issues should be explored in social workers' formal education and subsequent training to prevent harm to clients and create a healthier workplace.

QS43. Are Students Learning What Faculty are Intending to Teach

Introduction: Medical students learn an overwhelming amount of information in a short amount of time, estimated at 13 facts/concepts per hour. (1) in most cases, the lecturer is a medical doctor without formal training in teaching. A great deal of literature has been devoted to assessing how students learn and retain this information. Many authors have concentrated on the format, the length and the appropriate evaluation of the lectures, most commonly evaluated by a post-test. (2-10) Very little research has been dedicated to evaluating free recall of information following a lecture. This study was designed to explore if third year medical students rotating through the general surgery clerkship can demonstrate knowledge gained in a lecture without being prompted by a post-test quiz and to assess if the knowledge gained during a lecture is the same as that which the lecturer identified as a key concept. Methods: Prior to lecturing the third year students during their general surgery clerkship, faculty submitted 3-6 key concepts of their lecture. Immediately following the lecture, students completed an anonymous, paper and pencil evaluation describing 3-6 concepts they learned. The qualitative data was analyzed using QRS’s NVivo. The codebook and coding was performed by two members of the team and discrepancies resolved with the 3rd member. A code was considered significant if more than 5 students reported a similar theme. Each statement was coded as “general”, “specific” or “very specific” intending to measure the depth of the statement. All statements were coded into twelve broad categories such as: basic science, risk factors, symptoms, physical exam, work-up, differential diagnosis, etc. Each session was also coded individually for specific themes. Finally, the student’s themes were compared with the faculty objectives. Results: More than 99% of students were able to name at least one concept they learned from the lecture. The number of students completing surveys ranged from 15-79 per lecture. Most of the statements (n>2300) were very specific or specific as compared to general (<500). During the general coding phase, the five most common themes were related to treatment (n=650), work-up (n=356), prognosis/course of disease (n=327), differential diagnosis (n=286), and indications for treatment (n=242). Four to twenty 20 themes (median 7, mode 7 and mean 8) emerged that were specific to each lecture. For example, during one of the vascular lectures, eighty-nine students commented on indications of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) vs. other treatments. Ten statements were general such as “indications for CEA”, 16 were specific such as “70% stenosis concept”, and most (n=63) were very specific such as “People w/ 50% carotid artery occlusion and symptoms are candidates for endarterectomy; consider co-morbidities for asymptomatic patients”. Congruence between faculty objectives and student’s identification of learning points ranged from 50%-100%. Conclusions: Most students can name something they learned following a lecture, however the depth of the concept learned varied greatly between students. In all lectures, students identified half to all of the objectives provided by the faculty. Many additional themes emerged as key learning concepts to students, some of which had no clinical significance. Future research is warranted to discover specific techniques used during the lecture that influence the number of congruent concepts.

Education scholarship: it's not just a question of ‘degree’

Background: Although medical faculty are frequently encouraged to participate in education scholarship, there is a paucity of literature addressing how to support those who wish to do so.Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore faculty involvement in and support needs for pursuing education scholarship.Methods: A purposive sample of 108 medical faculty with an interest in medical education were invited to participate in a two-phase, mixed-methods study (survey and focus groups).Results: Seventy-three faculty (67.6%) completed the questionnaire with 16 subsequently participating in focus group sessions. Nearly 40% had enrolled in or completed formal education training. Although the majority had been involved in at least one education project during the past five years, few had received funding or published their work. Three support-related themes emerged: education research support; enhancing colleague interactions; and ongoing development activities. Three related barriers were identified: time, access to support staff, and knowledge of research methodology. No significant differences were identified between those with and without additional education training.Conclusions: Assisting faculty to participate in education scholarship is a complicated endeavor. Institutional supports should not be limited to those with advanced degrees nor rely on Master-level degree programs to provide all the necessary training.

Da Formação de Professores à Condição de Educador

The article approaches the teacher training process, placing it within the scope of modernity and rationalism and the myth of progress. Taking such position as a starting point, it reviews the concept of Paideia and its evolution within the Western culture and compares it with the formal teacher training process. The idealization and the expectations set upon the teaching condition are confronted with alternatives that include the conviviality and power sharing within the teaching activity and seek to break with the paradoxical counter-productivity that permeates the teacher training process and school education, as defended by Ivan Illich. Relational and communitarian aspects, as well as the suggestion to start a dialogue with other forms of knowledge besides the scientific one, are presented as a way of widening the debate inserting in it the recovery of some aspects of Paideia and the educational whole in teacher training.

School‐based interventions can play a critical role in enhancing children's development and health in the developing world

Early interventions are critical to improving the health, nutrition and development of young children. A recent review in the Lancet makes a forceful case for pre-primary school interventions (Engle et al. 2007). However, the potential of school-based interventions to promote children’s health and development should not be underestimated. These are important because a considerably higher percentage of children in developing countries are enrolled in school than in pre-school (World Bank 2006; Engle et al. 2007). While the most marginalized children may not have access to pre-school, the increasing universality of primary education makes for high accessibility and attendance (World Bank 2006). Furthermore, school teachers have more training and qualifications than those in pre-schools. This enables them to deal better with the emotional, behavioural and developmental needs of children, and creates potential for good-quality, teacher-delivered school-based interventions. Teachers are well placed to liaise with caregivers to support children, and strategies and interventions can be taught at relatively low cost during formal teacher training. The 2007 World Development Report, focusing on ages 12–24, states that ‘decisions during five youth transitions have the biggest long-term impact on how human capital is kept safe, developed and deployed . . .’ and that ‘policies and institutions affect the risks, the opportunities and the outcomes of youth and their families (World Bank 2006). Emotional difficulties among children in deprived settings are common and interfere with learning (Abdel-Fattah et al. 2004; Cluver & Gardner 2006). While difficulties for vulnerable children may be reduced with pre-school interventions, many of the emotional problems associated with traumatic experiences (e.g. depression and anxiety) may only become apparent later and increase in prevalence with age (Ford et al. 2003). This may be because older children are better able to express themselves but, in developing countries, it may be attributable to the cumulative impact of chronic adversity. In sub-Saharan Africa, 12.3 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS and an estimated 18 million will do so by 2010 (UNAIDS, UNICEF, & USAID 2004). In high HIV settings, ongoing exposure to chronic illness and bereavement suggests the need for interventions in schools even in settings with pre-school programmes. In sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of infected mothers survive for the first 5 years of their child’s life – a figure likely to increase with Editorial doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2007.00820.x

Improving the teaching skills of residents as tutors/facilitators and addressing the shortage of faculty facilitators for PBL modules

BackgroundResidents play an important role in teaching of medical undergraduate students. Despite their importance in teaching undergraduates they are not involved in any formal training in teaching and leadership skills. We aimed to compare the teaching skills of residents with faculty in facilitating small group Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions.MethodsThis quasi experimental descriptive comparative research involved 5 postgraduate year 4 residents and five senior faculty members. The study was conducted with all phase III (Final year) students rotating in Gastroenterology. The residents and faculty members received brief training of one month in facilitation and core principles of adult education. Different aspects of teaching skills of residents and faculty were evaluated by students on a questionnaire (graded on Likert Scale from 1 to 10) assessing i) Knowledge Base-content Learning (KBL), ii) PBL, iii) Student Centered Learning (SCL) and iv) Group Skills (GS).ResultsThere were 33 PBL teaching sessions in which 120 evaluation forms were filled; out of these 53% forms were filled for residents and 47% for faculty group. The faculty showed a statistically greater rating in "KBL" (faculty 8.37 Vs resident 7.94; p-value 0.02), "GS" (faculty 8.06 vs. residents 7.68; p-value 0.04). Differences in faculty and resident scores in "the PBL" and "SCL" were not significant. The overall score of faculty facilitators, however, was statistically significant for resident facilitators. (p = .05).Conclusion1) Residents are an effective supplement to faculty members for PBL; 2) Additional facilitators for PBL sessions can be identified in an institution by involvement of residents in teacher training workshops.

Letters

To the Editor: We read with interest “Good Teaching Is Good Science” in the first issue of AJPE this year (vol 71, issue 1, page 10). The editorial made some excellent, and indeed important, points in drawing parallels between good scientific practices and good educational practices. However, the current efforts of schools and colleges of pharmacy to articulate, map, and assess curricular outcomes, and to use that information for continuous programmatic improvement, clearly fall into this category as well. The concepts underlying the broad area of curricular outcomes are viewed as abstract by many faculty members, especially classically trained scholars. In reality, these concepts relate very closely to the scientific method, and parallel such research-related activities as the construction of grant proposals. In the grant proposal process, the applicant is expected to plan and prioritize research activities so that the granting agency will clearly understand the nature and scope of the project, as well as the time and effort necessary to accomplish the work. A successful research project must address a relevant question, and well-conceived hypotheses represent the requisite first step in designing studies that effectively address the question(s) at hand. Once a hypothesis is formulated, methodologies and protocols are designed to address that question. Based upon the study design, data analysis and reporting strategies are developed. As the editorial noted, this process is quite applicable to inquiry related to teaching, learning, and assessment, whether at the curriculum, classroom, or instructional-activity level. Furthermore, if inquiry in this area is to have a significant impact on the quality of education and preparation of pharmacy professionals, then well-conceived research questions must be drawn from clearly defined, relevant educational outcomes. The vast majority of our curricular or classroom efforts should then promote student achievement of these outcomes in a thoughtfully considered and well-planned manner and assessment strategies should provide valid measures of the success of those efforts. As an educational community, we will be successful only to the extent that our “study design” acknowledges and reflects the complexities of defined educational outcomes that require integration of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors, and that we approach inquiry related to teaching and learning with the same enthusiasm, respect, and rigor that we reserve for other forms of scholarship. In clinical research, informed consent of patients or other volunteers is essential to ensure that they know what to expect and why their participation in the study is being asked. In the classroom, we should inform learners about the goals of instruction (desired educational outcomes) as well as strategies for achieving and assessing those outcomes. This “informed consent” promotes cooperation and an open-dialogue among instructors and students. Finally, our assessments and evaluation of educational innovations and related student learning should be approached in a manner similar to the data analysis section of a research project. Assessment or evaluation methods and tools focus on the primary research question (desired learning outcomes) and should be appropriate for the type of learning under inquiry. The best researchers align carefully conceived ideas, clear goals, superb study design, and analytical methods; curricular and classroom innovations should follow similar orchestration. Our schools of pharmacy rarely have the benefit of individuals with educational degrees. Among the more typical clinician and scientist faculty members, few have significant formal training in teaching, learning, and assessment. In order to change the way our schools do business from an educational standpoint, it is important that we all understand the concepts underlying the entire educational process, from conceptualization to conclusion, regardless of what terminology might be currently used. The scientific method, as stated in the original editorial, is familiar to most of us, regardless of discipline. By contrast, educational terminology is unfamiliar and seems to be in a constant state of evolution. Thinking of teaching and related inquiry in terms of the more familiar scientific process may be very beneficial to faculty members as they struggle to understand and engage in educational innovations to promote student achievement of contemporary learning outcomes in the professional curriculum. Adam M. Persky, PhD Wendy C. Cox, PharmD Kim Deloatch, MEd, BSPharm, Gary M. Pollack, PhD College of Pharmacy The University of North Carolina

Giving Teachers a Chance: Taking Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs to Rural Communities

Over the last several years special education teacher shortages have increased to alarming levels. Remote rural areas face even more critical special education teacher shortages. Many professionals teaching students with disabilities in rural areas do not have formal special education training. This article describes a distance education partnership program between Wright State University and school districts in rural Ohio that addresses special education teacher shortages in these areas. Although the program required intense effort from university faculty, partnership students, and district education staff, program benefits outweighed the work necessary to implement and maintain the program.

연구윤리교육에 대한 생명과학 연구자들의 의견 및 요구

This study was designed to examine the attitudes of biological scientists concerning research ethics education and the role of government agencies in promoting research ethics. An explanatory letter was sent via e-mail to the members of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cell Biology requesting participants to respond to an on-line questionnaire. Although most respondents claimed to be aware of the main issues in research ethics and the importance of research ethics education, 121 (or 69.1%) of the 175 participants experienced no formal training in research ethics education. The preferred formats for research ethics education among respondents included seminars at research institutes (98 respondents, 56.0%) or college courses at the undergraduate or graduate level (50, 28.6%) for less than 8 hours (117, 66.9%). Data processing and recording (122, 69.7%), authorship (109, 62.3%), and the management of research funds (105, 60.0%) were regarded as the most appropriate topics for education. Sixty-eight respondents (38.9%) reported some experiences with ethical dilemmas in conducting research and 135 (77.1%) showed interest in consulting an ombudsman if available. Chi-square analysis detected significant differences between principal investigators and other researchers concerning specific views on how research ethics education should be implemented in research institutes. To promote research integrity, respondents recommended that government agencies support research ethics education and construct an equitable, reliable, and transparent funding system for research. Jurisdiction and regulatory bodies to investigate research misconduct were also recommended.

Does Business Succession Enhance Firms' Innovation Capacity? Results from an Exploratory Analysis in Italian SMEs

The main objective of this paper is twofold. The first is to develop a conceptualization of intergeneration business transfer as potential source of innovation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The second is to deepen such an understanding through an exploratory analysis on a sample of micro and small enterprises located in Emilia Romagna. The paper is organized in two parts. In the first part we review the literature on the subject and in the second part we present our main findings. The empirical result indicates that succession process is not related to an enhancement of firm innovation capacity. Moreover juniors are strongly socialized with senior's vision of business. What are the causes that drastically reduce the opportunity to create new knowledge, visions, and, finally, to enhance firms' innovation capacity? Senior entrepreneurs do not pay much attention on the junior's development in term of formal education and outside training experience. Juniors also do not take responsibility for their level of preparedness. Prior generation does not take into consideration the possibility to buy-out the business or to separate ownership and management and develop managerial governance. Furthermore the owner/founder strongly expects next generation assumes the leadership of firms. These attitudes constrain willingness of next generation and promote a weak commitment of successor to family business. We conclude by arguing the need to rediscover the creative role of entrepreneur, to manage as valuable a resource for firms' sustainable development and to consider the firm as value of community. Based on this finding recommendations to firm and regional/institutional level are offered.

Solutions to the Asset Allocation Problem by Informed Respondents: The Significance of the Size-of-Bet and the 1/N Heuristic

Asset allocation is a classic topic in the theory of finance, and a crucial issue for investment policy. Noted for its significance in driving pension fund performance, it is also an issue that individual investors consider when designing their investment portfolios. In theory, Markowitz and those following in his wake have an optimal solution. In practice, however, we demonstrate that when asked to allocate financial assets to a set of asset classes arrayed in order of their riskiness, most respondents would vary their investment strategies according to the size-of-bet (the value of assets to be invested). As in previously reported research on the competence and consistency of pension fund trustee decision-making, we show that there are a variety of solutions to the asset allocation problem. These cannot be solutions explained by social status, formal education or professional training. Observed differences in respondent solutions to the asset allocation problem are due to strategies that mix together intuitive responses to the initial tranche of money with rudimentary theoretical-cum-practical shared conventions. Solutions to the asset allocation problem suggest that the size-of-bet is a significant issue for many informed investors, contrary to commonplace assumptions. In conclusion, suggestions are made about taking forward closer scrutiny of these observed patterns.

Review of Maryellen Weimer: Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning (Jossey-Bass 2006)

The great majority of those who teach operations research or management science at the college or graduate levels have no formal training in teaching and do not regularly read articles or books about teaching. These facts are well known but they raise fundamental questions for anyone interested in scholarly activity related to teaching MS/OR. Why do those of us who teach MS/OR spend so little time learning about teaching? Why is there essentially no literature (until recently) on teaching our subjects? Can there be a scholarship of teaching MS/OR? And the most provocative question: can the scholarship of teaching MS/OR ever deserve to be called research ?

Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: On Integrating Pedagogical Training into the Graduate Experiences of Future Science Faculty

“Good luck on your first day as an assistant professor, Dr. Tanner! Have a great class!” On the wall above my desk, these words scream out from an otherwise encouraging note that is adorned with many exclamation points. This note has hung on my wall since my very first day as an Assistant Professor of Biology. As I was charging off to teach my first class, a senior faculty member who had been on my hiring committee slipped this note under my office door. In moments of pause years later, I still stare up at that note and breathe a sigh of relief that I had much more than luck to guide me on my first day as a college-level teacher. Although I continue to have much to learn—as all of us do no matter the number of years of teaching experience—I did arrive at the university with both formal and informal training in science education. I had had plenty of exposure to innovative pedagogical approaches, questioning strategies, and techniques for engaging diverse audiences in learning science. As a scientist educator, I had had the privilege of many years of collaboration with outstanding K–12 educators as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in science education. However, my training has been, to say the least, unconventional compared with that of my fellow junior faculty and unique in its preparation in regard to the teaching and learning of my discipline. It will not be news to anyone reading this article that university and college teaching is to a large extent a profession with no formal training. It’s startling but true that the majority of faculty members—and lecturers who often teach large numbers of students—have no formal training in the teaching and learning of their discipline. In fact, the hiring process in university science departments is structured primarily to evaluate a faculty candidate’s ability to be a productive researcher, with success measured in number of publications and magnitude of grant funds raised. Depending on the type of institution, for example, research university, state-level university, or liberal arts college, there may be a component of the faculty interview process that probes a candidate’s teaching ability, for example, requesting a statement of teaching philosophy and requiring the candidate to teach a sample lecture class. However, this sample lecture often screens for gross inadequacies, rather than looking for stellar innovations or pedagogical skills. This lack of formal, accredited training for university and college instructors stands in stark contrast to the requirements for a high school teacher who is charged with the education of students only a year junior to college freshmen. High school teachers in the United States must be credentialed as a secondary science teacher, demonstrate subject matter competency in every subject that they will be teaching, and must continually engage in professional development in the teaching and learning of their discipline throughout their career as a science teacher. With the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind legislation, the onus is upon each precollege science teacher to become “highly qualified” in terms of formal university-level training in science education. However, no such required professional training or measurable standards for teaching are required in institutions of higher education. Many policy documents have suggested standards of teaching practice in postsecondary science education (National Research Council, 1996, 1997; Siebert and McIntosh, 2001), but the extent of implementation of these ideals is unclear and has gone relatively unstudied, although national and regional accreditation boards do look at outcomes, asking colleges and universities to assess what their students have gained from four years of study at their institutions. Nonetheless, there is a striking reversal of accountability that happens when one crosses the precollege teaching to college-level teaching boundary (Table 1). During the K–12 school years, society expects K–12 teachers to be responsible for student learning. Salaries of teachers in many states are tied to student test scores, and poor student performance can potentially invoke penalties. At a college or university, several variables in the educational universe shift. Students are the ones responsible for learning. The evaluation and compensation of college-level teachers is not DOI: 10.1187/cbe.05–12–0132 Address correspondence to: Kimberly Tanner (kdtanner@sfsu.edu). CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 5, 1–6, Spring 2006

Features of Pre-Kindergarten Programs, Classrooms, and Teachers: Do They Predict Observed Classroom Quality and Child-Teacher Interactions?

This study draws from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's Multi-State Pre-Kindergarten Study to examine the extent to which program, classroom, and teacher attributes of the program ecology predict observed quality and teacher-child interactions in a sample of 238 classrooms representing 6 states' pre-kindergarten programs. Quality was assessed observationally at the global level and for specific teaching practices. Quality was lower in classrooms with more than 60% of the children from homes below the poverty line, when teachers lacked formal training (or a degree) in early childhood education, and held less child-centered beliefs. Program and teacher attributes were statistically significant, albeit quite modest, predictors of observed quality. Location of the program in a school building, child:staff ratio, and length of day had no relation to quality. State-level factors not attributable to the teacher, program, and classroom factors examined accounted for the majority of explained variance in observed quality. Results suggest that the association between distal features of programs and teachers and quality in pre-kindergarten is more similar to elementary school settings than to child care settings and that quality appears most closely related to proximal teacher and child characteristics.

A survey of the provision of educational supervision in occupational medicine in the Armed Forces

The aim of this study was to assess whether balanced educational supervision was being provided for occupational medicine (OM) specialist registrars (SpRs) in the Armed Forces and to consider the effectiveness of current supervision. Anonymized postal questionnaires, using Likert five-point response scales, were sent to Service OM SpRs and their educational supervisors (Ed Sup) to assess the degree of understanding of the purpose, effectiveness and organization of the educational supervision being provided. Completed questionnaires were returned from 35 (92%) specialists and 14 (61%) SpRs. Less than a third of the specialists were involved as Ed Sup and only three (11%) had undergone any formal medical education training. There was an agreement about the purpose and effectiveness of educational supervision between both the groups, though there appeared to be a bias towards providing supportive functions with patient management and educational components scoring less highly. A high response rate enabled an accurate assessment of OM supervision practices in the Armed Forces to be made. There was agreement over the relative effectiveness, importance and coverage of educational supervision, though this was being provided by a relatively small group of OM specialists, few of whom had undertaken any formal medical education training. The supervision provided also appeared to be biased towards providing supportive functions rather than patient management and educational components of training, which may result in an unbalanced training for the SpRs. Having assessed the relatively close-knit service OM community, there would be value in seeing whether similar patterns prevail in the wider OM community.