Traditional Academic Settings Research Articles

Mindfulness for education students: addressing welfare as part of the professional training

Students in special education teaching and counselling are exposed to relatively high levels of stress during their studies and their professional career, which are commonly manifested in high occupational burnout. Professional development programmes normally do not address this issue. A practicum course was developed to provide theoretical framework for research on mindfulness, training of self-application techniques, and guidelines for fieldwork teaching of these techniques to children, with the aim of improving quality of life by reducing anxiety and stress levels. Participants of mindfulness and control practicum filled questionnaires at the beginning and end of the year. Significant reduction in stress, rumination and sleep disturbances as well as elevated level of mindfulness were observed in the mindfulness practicum only. The results suggest that mindfulness training can be successfully introduced in traditional academic settings to enhance the personal mental health of future teachers, and subsequently lower their chances to suffer from burnout.

Feasibility Analysis of Flipped Classroom in Chinese Adult English Training

Flipped teaching has gained a growing popularity, starting from higher education and coming all the way down the academic pyramid to the primary schooling. Evidence has shown that positive results are produced in improving learning results. However, it remains to be seen whether these developments can be extended to the training outside of traditional academic settings and realize its full potential in adult English class. Therefore, essential features of the flipped classroom, adult English teachers, adult English learners and learning environment in the private language education institutions are presented to analyze the feasibility.

Cocitation or Capacity-Building? Defining Success within an Interdisciplinary, Sustainability Science Team

To address gaps in knowledge and to tackle complex social-ecological problems, scientific research is moving toward studies that integrate multiple disciplines and ways of knowing to explore all parts of a system. Yet, how these efforts are being measured and how they are deemed successful is an up-and-coming and pertinent conversation within interdisciplinary research spheres. Using a grounded theory approach, this study addresses how members of a sustainability science-focused team at a Northeastern U.S. university funded by a large, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant contend with deeply normative dimensions of interdisciplinary research team success. Based on semi-structured interviews (N = 24) with researchers (e.g., faculty and graduate students) involved in this expansive, interdisciplinary team, this study uses participants’ narrative accounts to progress our understanding of success on sustainability science teams and addresses the tensions arising between differing visions of success present within the current literature, and perpetuated by U.S. funding agencies like NSF. Study findings reveal that team members are forming definitions of interdisciplinary success that both align with, and depart from, those appearing in the literature. More specifically, some respondents’ notions of team success appear to mirror currently recognized outcomes in traditional academic settings (i.e., purpose driven outcomes – citations, receipt of grant funding, etc.). At the same time, just as many other respondents describe success as involving elements of collaborative research not traditionally acknowledged as a forms of “success” in their own right (i.e., capacity building processes and outcomes – relationship formation, deep understandings of distinct epistemologies, etc.). Study results contribute to more open and informed discussions about how we gauge success within sustainability science collaborations, forming a foundation for appreciation and exploration of the disciplinary and normative dimensions of this work.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Twice-exceptional students are characterized by the almost paradoxical combination of giftedness accompanied by learning difficulties that hinder their ability to reach their potential in a traditional academic setting. This qualitative study examined the experiences of three twice-exceptional students during transfer to a New Zealand high school. Successful transfer has been shown to be dependent on factors such as the timely handover of accurate and complete student records. Barriers to successful transfer result in disruption in curriculum continuity, which can be especially detrimental for learners with special needs. Using student voice data from interviews and journal entries, the participants’ lived experiences of the transfer process were revealed. Findings suggest that the way in which the twice-exceptional students experienced transfer influenced the development of their personal capabilities as learners in the education setting.

Initial Results from the Survey of Organizational Research Climates (SOuRCe) in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.

BackgroundIn service to its core mission of improving the health and well-being of veterans, Veterans Affairs (VA) leadership is committed to supporting research best practices in the VA. Recognizing that the behavior of researchers is influenced by the organizational climates in which they work, efforts to assess the integrity of research climates and share such information with research leadership in VA may be one way to support research best practices. The Survey of Organizational Research Climate (SOuRCe) is the first validated survey instrument specifically designed to assess the organizational climate of research integrity in academic research organizations. The current study reports on an initiative to use the SOuRCe in VA facilities to characterize the organizational research climates and pilot test the effectiveness of using SOuRCe data as a reporting and feedback intervention tool.MethodsWe administered the SOuRCe using a cross-sectional, online survey, with mailed follow-up to non-responders, of research-engaged employees in the research services of a random selection of 42 VA facilities (e.g., Hospitals/Stations) believed to employ 20 or more research staff. We attained a 51% participation rate, yielding more than 5,200 usable surveys.ResultsWe found a general consistency in organizational research climates across a variety of sub-groups in this random sample of research services in the VA. We also observed similar SOuRCe scale score means, relative rankings of these scales and their internal reliability, in this VA-based sample as we have previously documented in more traditional academic research settings. Results also showed more substantial variability in research climate scores within than between facilities in the VA research service as reflected in meaningful subgroup differences. These findings suggest that the SOuRCe is suitable as an instrument for assessing the research integrity climates in VA and that the tool has similar patterns of results that have been observed in more traditional academic research settings.ConclusionsThe local and specific nature of organizational climates in VA research services, as reflected in variability across sub-groups within individual facilities, has important policy implications. Global, “one-size-fits-all” type initiatives are not likely to yield as much benefit as efforts targeted to specific organizational units or sub-groups and tailored to the specific strengths and weaknesses documented in those locations.

The Paradox of “Practical Liberal Arts”. Lessons from the Wagner College Case for Liberal (Arts) Education in Eastern Europe

The article presents the case study of Wagner College curriculum as an example of paradoxical transformation within contemporary liberal education. The Wagner Plan for Practical Liberal Arts is an important example of overcoming the traditional liberal/vocational distinction in higher education, that has been increasingly challenged by both the economic condition of colleges and wider changes in skills required by the workforce of developed countries. The Wagner College case is not widely acknowledged, yet it may be important for European liberal education institutions. Even though they are mostly public colleges/programs, they operate in a context that has become increasingly similar to that which Wagner College was facing in the early 1990s. Calls for more liberal education go against governmental expectations, study choices and disciplinary traditions of institutions. Wagner buildson the triple assumption that learning is really practical, that higher education can have a practical impact on a local community and that broad interdisciplinary knowledge is even more useful preparation for a future career. Such claims, even though controversial, fit well with the pragmatic consensus in American “pragmatic consensus” that strengthened around liberal arts in last three decades. For Eastern European liberal education, which is a growing field, Wagner provides an interesting example of holistic educational vision that was implemented with relatively limited resources. Apart from administrators, this study may also be of interest to teachers and students who consider the traditional academic setting due to be revamped, even in liberal education programs. Any strategy of development of liberal education in Eastern Europe require scaling up and making it more relevant for major stakeholders (as happened in the Netherlands and is now taking place in the UK), as well as overcoming the neoliberal pressures and academic reluctance. The Wagner case example may spark much needed discussionon how to accomplish it without losing our soul. Eastern Europe, civic engagement, liberal education, liberal arts education, pragmatism, higher education, practical liberal arts.

Outcomes and Quality of Care for Anal Cancer Patients Treated With IMRT in a Large Multisite Cancer Center

Little is known about the quality and efficacy of IMRT-based chemoradiation therapy for anal cancer delivered outside the traditional academic setting. Our multi-site cancer institute offers radiation therapy services over a broad geography, without centralized planning or subspecialty radiation providers. Our experience may be instructive for others practicing in similar environments.

Changing Lives, One Note at a Time: Library Internships for Undergraduate Students

Library internships can be valuable learning opportunities for undergraduate students and excellent examples of the rich learning environment of college and university campuses. This article examines undergraduate academic library internships through the lens of an internship for music majors and discusses ways to create engaging, high-impact educational experiences that complement traditional academic settings and programs. Examples are taken from the internship programs in music, reference, and special collections and include former interns' reflections on the life-changing nature of their experiences.

Mindfulness Meditation Training for Graduate Students in Educational Counseling and Special Education: A Qualitative Analysis

Students of teaching and counseling training programs are exposed to relatively high levels of stress during their studies, and later during their work. They are expected to help their pupils deal with stress and frustration; however, few professional development programs specifically address this issue in their curricula. I developed a two-semester training course to provide theories and research on mindfulness meditation, training of self-application techniques, and instruction in fieldwork teaching of these techniques to children. Over the academic year, students completed weekly journals. Qualitative analysis of students’ journal summaries yielded three core themes related to students’ mindfulness training: process, experiences, and outcomes. Most students lacked previous experience in meditation and reported difficulties as the process began. Changes in experiences emerged, sometimes following a turning point, together with a change in the relationship to thoughts, accepting them in a more compassionate manner. Outcomes included a better awareness of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, a perceived reduction in stress, and a better sleep quality. The study suggests that mindfulness practices can be successfully introduced into traditional academic settings and integrated as part of preservice course curricula to enhance professionals’ personal mental health and their ability to transmit the benefits of meditation to their pupils.

Distance Learning Centres and Administrators’ Quality Assurance Implementation in Nigeria

Implementation of the concept of quality assurance is central to the performance of all educational institutions of learning and those operating outside the norm of traditional academic setting such as National Open Universities. Against this background, this study undertook to verify four hypotheses related to quality assurance in distance education in Nigeria. An ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. A sample of 1,033 Academic staff were randomly selected from a population of two (2000) thousand staff. The selection was done through multistage sampling technique. A research instrument titled: Educational Administrator Quality Assurance Implementation Questionnaire. (EAQAIQ) was used for data collection. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was the statistical tool used for data analysis. The result of the study indicates that a significant relationship exists between quality assurance implementation and the systems performance. Based on the results, the study recommends that: Educational administrators should recruit qualified academic staff to teach and perform commensurate with their wealth of professional experience and qualification. Keywords : Open and Distance Learning (ODL); Quality assurance; Nigeria.

Comparison of Knowledge and Knowledge Application Confidence in Physical Therapist Students Completing a Traditional Versus Blended Learning Professional Issues Course

Background and Purpose. The explosion of information technologies has brought computer-assisted learning and webbased learning to the forefront, creating new opportunities for students to engage with each other and course content within and outside traditional academic and classroom settings. This method/ model paper describes an instructional evaluation project that examined the effects of blended learning, as compared to traditional classroom-based learning, on knowledge and knowledge application confidence in physical therapist students enrolled in an entry-level physical therapy Professional Issues course.Method/Model Description and Evaluation. Four units of content of a Professional Issues course were converted to modules that were delivered through an online course platform. The modules included a variety of learning experiences, including: asynchronous discussions with other students in small groups; review of video-recorded vignettes; opportunities for exploration of professional issues topics; individual and group assignments; reflections on future practice; and critical thinking and clinical application exercises.Outcomes. Both groups of students completed a 7-item confidence questionnaire pre and post intervention, and the blended learning group also completed a 36item questionnaire related to the online learning experience.Discussion and Conclusion. Confidence levels in internet and computer skills affected student satisfaction and perceptions of the blended learning experience. Blended learning did not negatively affect knowledge confidence compared to traditional classroom-based learning, and it was found to be beneficial from students' perspectives.Key Words: Physical therapy, Blended learning, Education, Professional issues, Ethics.BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEThe physical therapy profession has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. As autonomous practitioners, physical therapists (PTs) are responsible for professional judgement and their actions.1 This independent and self-determined authority over and accountability for decision making has resulted in increased professional complexities in the current practice environment. As PTs continue to assume a more autonomous role in health care, ethics will continue to be integral to daily clinical decision making.2 How physical therapist educators can best prepare graduates to address the increasingly complex and challenging professional and ethical issues that are inherent in clinical practice has been the source of much dialogue. Although most instruction in ethics education incorporates case analysis and identification of ethical issues in the case,35 the teaching of ethics in physical therapist education programs varies greatly with regards to teaching methodology, content, and course organization. For example, some programs incorporate aspects of ethics content into one or more courses, while other programs devote entire courses to the teaching of ethics.68 No single teaching strategy has been determined to best facilitate learning about professional issues and ethics. Although role playing, simulations, and interactions with standardized clients have been described in the physical therapy literature,911 Jensen and Richert11 propose that development of students' reflective capacity is important and learning experiences that facilitate emotional reflection are critical in ethics education.12The explosion of information technologies has brought computer-assisted learning and web-based learning to the forefront, creating new opportunities for students to engage with other students and course content within and outside traditional academic and classroom settings. In fact, 74% of publicly funded higher education institutions report that online learning is a critical component of their long-term strategies.13 The extent to which technologies may be incorporated into classroom learning can be considered along a continuum. …

Implications of Out-of-Class Engagement: Exploring the Experience of OBU Students

In addition to learning, the college experience involves building relationships with peers and university faculty. For many students, interactions with faculty take place only in the classroom. For students at small liberal arts colleges, though, students and faculty often meet serendipitously both on and off campus. This study focuses on the unplanned interactions that occur between students and faculty. Data obtained from an interview, a focus group, and a campus-wide survey indicate that students who interact with their professors out-of-class (OOC) gain more value from their college experience and enjoy greater academic success than students who meet their professors in only the traditional academic settings. This study highlights the value of informal student-faculty interactions and suggests that university administrations would do well to foster these types of OOC relationships on their campuses. Keywords: Out-of-class, student-faculty, affective learning, interactions, administrative influence, retention

Students’ experiences of supervision in academic and industry settings: results of an Australian study

The joint supervision of Research Higher Degree (RHD) students by an industry and university supervisor is likely to increase in forthcoming years with a rise in the number of university–industry collaborations. Research students may become involved in these collaborative arrangements for a variety of reasons and may launch into their RHD without considering how they will serve two masters, and how this complex relationship will affect their RHD experience. Moreover, little research has been conducted to assess the impact of these arrangements on current RHD students’ experiences. The experiences of students with academic and industry supervisors were, therefore, explored in a survey of confirmed RHD students at an Australian research‐intensive university. This paper investigates whether RHD students conducting research in traditional academic settings have a different experience to students working on industry‐related projects in industry settings, specifically in regards to supervision and institutional access and engagement.

The Implications of Comparative Effectiveness Research for Academic Medicine

With growing constraints on government spending, policy makers are investing in comparative effectiveness research (CER) to attempt to bring the power of science to bear on the problems of suboptimal outcomes and high cost in the U.S. health care system. This commitment of resources to CER reflects confidence that better evidence can help clinicians and patients make better decisions, consistent with the long tradition of medical schools' and teaching hospitals' use of science to inform medical care. Thus, CER offers a great opportunity, albeit with some considerable challenges, for academic medicine to play a central role in comprehensive health care reform. Certainly, many scientists conducting CER will learn their methodological rigor in the training programs of academic health centers. Numerous new CER research teams will be needed, establishing effective partnerships far outside the walls of the traditional academic setting. And the clinicians interpreting the medical literature and applying the insights from CER to the unique problems of individual patients will need to learn this evidence-based, patient-centered care from the educators, mentors, and role models at U.S. medical and other health science schools and teaching hospitals. Achieving this will require investment in research infrastructure, adaptations of institutional culture, development of new disciplines and research methods, establishment of new collaborations, training of new faculty, and the expansion and refocusing of educational capacity. By successfully responding to this challenge, academic medicine can further strengthen its long-standing commitment to the scientific practice of medicine and the use of evidence in patient-centered, personalized care.

Achieving flexible learning through recognition of prior learning practice: a case‐study lament of the Canadian academy

Although the recognition of learners' experiential learning toward postsecondary credentials holds the promise of increased flexibility and opportunity for many, especially in the current climate of labour shortage, Canadian universities have been slow to adopt recognition of prior learning (RPL) systems. This case study of one Canadian institution showcases its RPL practice against the framework of the challenges that face RPL in traditional academic settings; and presents some of the lessons learned by Canada's foremost open and distance institution's RPL practice.

Open-ended Practical Projects Improve Preparedness of Undergraduate Students for Aerospace Industry

The Aviation Technology Department in the College of Technology at Purdue University has been effective at graduating students who have mastered the technical knowledge and concepts taught in traditional academic settings. Through a well-established combination of courses, the program has also exposed its students to a variety of materials and processes that gives them practical knowledge about aerospace materials, sheet metal fabrication and repair, corrosion, heat treatment, and painting. Over the years, this approach has provided graduates with the knowledge and skills they’ve needed as they entered the job market after graduation. However, in recent years the program has gone through an extensive curriculum change designed to produce graduates who have the skills needed to be immediately productive in entry-level positions, and to move quickly to higher-level positions. This is accomplished by introducing project-based courses in which students are tasked to solve industry-like problems using Six Sigma tools, work in teams, and collaboration with companies and with instructors and students at other universities. Under this new paradigm, students do not just follow their professors’ instructions - they attempt to solve real-world open-ended problems with a range of possible solutions. This paper will provide some details and outcomes of this approach.

Removing the barrier between teaching in the classroom and research in the laboratory

This talk will discuss an experiment where research and classroom education are intimately linked and where efforts in effective teaching translate into a high interest in research. The research project taken into the classroom aims at probing binding surfaces on proteins using the Multiple Solvent Crystal Structures (MSCS) method. For this, the crystal structure of a protein is solved in at least 10 organic solvent environments. The final 10–20 structures are superimposed to reveal characteristic patterns of bound organic solvents for analysis. At the beginning of the course, each of 10–20 students is given a data set and a starting model for structure refinement. A series of modules are being developed to simultaneously guide the students through the refinement process and to point out properties of protein structure and chemistry being discussed in class. Graduate students, postdocs and the PI work individually with the undergraduates in a coordinated fashion and at the end all students are either authors or acknowledged for their work in the publications. The project brings together various groups that are often separated in the traditional academic setting to accomplish common goals in a situation that decreases the gap between teaching and research, exposes students to topics discussed in traditional classrooms in the context of the pressing questions guiding cutting edge research, motivates graduate students and postdocs to be excellent teachers because the results provided by the undergraduates will feed into their research and publications. This connection between teaching, learning and research is effective in keeping the students interested in science.

Do You Really Want a Revolution? CyberTheory Meets Real-Life Pedagogical Practice in FrankenMOO and the Conventional Literature Classroom

This paper is a case study in the pedagogical uses of literary MOOs in a discussion-based undergraduate literature classroom. Student responses to experiences in the author's FrankenMOO, a MOO based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, test the revolutionary pedagogical promises of cybertext theorists like N. Katherine Hayles, David Bennahum, and Espen Aarseth. This paper examines cybertext theory's relationship with older reader-response theory of Roland Barthes and Wolfgang Iser as a basis for understanding the ways current theoretical approaches to interactive electronic hypertext environments succeed or fail to revolutionize pedagogy and actual classroom practice. The paper highlights practical approaches to using literary MOOs to enhance student learning.

Meditating Teachers: a qualitative study

This study focused on 21 educators who have been meditating for an average of 4 years. These educators, who were mostly teachers, had been introduced to meditation in a graduate course in education. They chose to continue meditation after the class was completed. The study examined the nature of their meditation practice, and the effects that the participants perceived in their personal and professional lives. Almost all the participants indicated that they felt meditation had made a significant difference in their lives. The most cited benefit was feeling calmer and more centred. Four of the teachers had also introduced meditation to their students. The study indicated that holistic approaches to learning can be successfully introduced in a traditional academic setting

“Peas ‘N Rice” or “Rice ‘N Peas”—Which One are We Really Ordering?

The intent of the study was to explore the perceptions of African American male students who chose to leave the traditional academic setting and enroll in an alternative education program within the same school system. The primary informants, referred to as early leavers, were 5 African American male students enrolled in a suburban high school program, their parents, and several teachers. The study’s conceptual framework extended the analysis of the drop-out phenomenon beyond the demographics, drug culture, home environments, self-esteem, and teachers’ perceptions as contributing factors of African American early-leaver patterns and academic discontent. Instead, this study focused on the students’ narrated schooling experiences and offered insight to students’ agencies as alternate explanations of drop-out behavior.