Two models for an effective undergraduate research experience in physiology and other natural sciences

68A realistic research experience is beneficial to undergraduate students, but it is often difficult for liberal arts colleges to offer this opportunity. We describe two approaches for developing and maintaining an interdisciplinary research program at small colleges. An active and continuing involvement of an individual with extensive research experience is an essential element in both. One model was developed by the faculty of Taylor University, Upland, IN and a research scientist who had retired from a major university to join the Taylor faculty as their first Research Professor. The school's Science Research Training Program was initially funded by a modest endowment provided by interested alumni and by extramural grants awarded to the Research Professor and to the institution; the program now enjoys significant funding from diverse sources. Taylor is not located near any large research university and consequently supplies all resources required for the experiments and stipends for students pursuing projects full-time during the summer. The second model was developed by the faculty at Asbury College in Wilmore, KY, working with a scientist having a full-time appointment at the University of Kentucky and a part-time appointment at the college. In this approach, Asbury faculty may place their students for a period of training, often during the summer, in a laboratory of a cooperating host faculty at the University of Kentucky or other institution. The host faculty funds the research and pays a stipend to those students who work full-time during the summer. Relationships established between faculty at the College and at the University of Kentucky have been mutually beneficial. The success of both programs is evidenced by the students' presenting their data at state and national scientific meetings, by their publishing their results in national journals, and by the undergraduate school faculty developing independent research programs.     

A multicenter study of the awareness and attitudes of Egyptian faculty towards research ethics: a pilot study

The awareness and attitudes of faculty towards research ethics committees (RECs) and research ethics practices are largely unknown. Accordingly, we conducted a cross-sectional survey study involving various faculties (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry) from four universities in Egypt. A large majority (> 85%) held positive attitudes towards RECs, but almost a third thought that RECs would delay research. More than half had not received prior training in research or medical ethics, but more than 90% thought that this subject matter should be taught to postgraduates. A large majority recognized the need for informed consent and confidentiality protections in research, but some held attitudes regarding certain research ethics practices that were questionable. We conclude that a curriculum in research ethics should be developed for university faculty and that further qualitative studies should explore the basis of several of the attitudes regarding practices in research ethics.     

Book Review Section

This article argues that education policy should support school-university partnerships that place preservice music teachers with their college professors in a laboratory school environment. With roots in Dewey's experimental school of 1896, the laboratory concept is a variation of the professional development schools now in vogue. The policies recommended here are not tied directly to this school-university partnership model, but they do support the collaborative concept. Policy recommendations include re-conceptualization of the student teaching experience; compensation of faculty members through financial incentives and professional development credits; and consideration for university faculty members engaged in such partnerships when determining workload and reviewing teaching, scholarship, and service for tenure or promotion decisions. The policy recommendations call for the creation of release time for school personnel to meet with university personnel to plan and assess the partnered collaboration, and for funding to support ongoing collaborative research by university and school personnel.     

Limitations on diversity in basic science departments

It has been over 30 years since the beginning of efforts to improve diversity in academia. We can identify four major stages: (1) early and continuing efforts to diversify the pipeline by increasing numbers of women and minorities getting advanced degrees, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); (2) requiring academic institutions to develop their own "affirmative action plans" for hiring and promotion; (3) introducing mentoring programs and coping strategies to help women and minorities deal with faculty practices from an earlier era; (4) asking academic institutions to rethink their practices and policies with an eye toward enabling more faculty diversity, a process known as institutional transformation. The thesis of this article is that research-intensive basic science departments of highly ranked U.S. medical schools are stuck at stage 3, resulting in a less diverse tenured and tenure-track faculty than seen in well-funded science departments of major universities. A review of Web-based records of research-intensive departments in universities with both medical school and nonmedical school departments indicates that the proportion of women and Black faculty in science departments of medical schools is lower than the proportion in similarly research-intensive university science departments. Expectations for faculty productivity in research-intensive medical school departments versus university-based departments may lead to these differences in faculty diversity.     

Employee Attitudes about the Impact of Visitation Dogs on a College Campus

Therapy and visitation dogs are becoming more common on college campuses to provide comfort and support to students, but little attention has been given to the concerns of faculty and staff who share space with the dogs in their workplaces. The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of faculty and staff with regard to both the benefits and the hazards (e.g., dander, bites, fleas) and risks associated with the presence of visitation dogs in their workplaces. One hundred and thirty-eight employees who worked in buildings with resident visitation dogs completed an online survey about their perceptions of the hazards and risks of the dogs and the effects of dogs on the wellbeing of both students and employees. In general, employees perceived that the dogs presented minimal risks, and most employees believed that they can reduce stress and provide comfort to students on campus. There were a few employees, however, who reported that the dogs did not improve the work environment and conferred no benefits to the staff or students. The findings of the present survey support the mostly positive attitudes that people have for dogs in the workplace, but they also highlight a potential challenge: accommodating individuals who believe very strongly that dogs do not belong in work environments.     

Organizing core facilities as force multipliers: strategies for research universities

Force multipliers are attributes of an organization that enable the successful completion of multiple essential missions. Core facilities play a critical role in the research enterprise and can be organized as force multipliers. Conceiving of cores in this way influences their organization, funding, and research impact. To function as a force multiplier for the research enterprise, core facilities need to do more than efficiently provide services for investigators and generate revenue to recover their service costs: they must be aligned with the strategic objectives of a research university. When core facilities are organized in this way, they can facilitate recruitment of faculty and trainees; serve to retain talented faculty; drive, acquire, and maintain cutting-edge research platforms; and promote interaction and collaboration across the institution. Most importantly, cores accelerate the discovery and sharing of knowledge that are the foundation of a modern research university. This idea has been systematically implemented through the Emory Integrated Core Facilities (cores.emory.edu), which include 16 distinct core facilities and the Division of Animal Resources. Force multiplier core facilities can significantly contribute to the many essential missions necessary for the success of the research enterprise at research universities.     

Faculty development in Canadian medical schools: a 10-year update

OBJECTIVE: To compare the current status of faculty development practices in Canadian medical schools with the status of such practices in 1986. DESIGN: Mail survey. SETTING: All 16 Canadian medical schools. PARTICIPANTS: Faculty development coordinators at the medical schools. OUTCOME MEASURES: Existence of faculty development committees, funding for faculty development activities, types of activities and recognition of faculty participation in such activities. RESULTS: Completed responses were received from all schools. They indicated a significant, positive evolution in faculty development since the previous survey, conducted in 1986. Most schools have established a faculty development committee and provide funds for such activities as workshops, sabbatical leaves and conference attendance. Although traditional development practices are prevalent, there is now widespread emphasis on computer technology, information retrieval, management skills and research. Experienced faculty and other experts are more widely used for consultation on teaching. Very little has been done to evaluate the impact of faculty development. CONCLUSION: Faculty development in Canadian medical schools has undergone a major, positive transition during the last 10 years.     

An Assessment of Diversity,Inclusion, and Health Equity Training in Endocrinology Fellowship Programs in the United States

ContextThe Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has instituted common program requirements related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for postgraduate trainees in the United States; however, the extent to which DEI training is being incorporated across endocrinology fellowship programs is unknown.ObjectivesTo describe the sociodemographic representation and DEI training experiences within endocrinology fellowship programs.Design, setting, and participantsNational cross-sectional survey study of fellows and fellowship program leaders in the United States whose fellowships were members of the Association of Program Directors in Endocrinology and Metabolism.Main outcome measures(1) Demographics of fellows and program leaders and (2) programs’ experience, confidence, and interest in formal DEI training.ResultsA total of 108 and 106 fellow and faculty responded to the survey, respectively. The majority of fellows and faculty are female. Less than 3% of fellows and 3.7% of faculty identify as Black. More than 90% of fellows/faculty are heterosexual and no respondents identified as transgender/nonbinary; however, 5% and 2% of all respondents preferred not to disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity, respectively. While 85% of faculty received institutional diversity and inclusion training, 67.6% of fellows did. Fellows are more likely to have received training in health equity than program leaders. Both fellows and program leaders express a high interest in health equity curriculum.ConclusionsWithin the diversity of endocrinology training programs, Black physicians are underrepresented in medicine, which persists in endocrinology fellowships. Fellowship programs express enthusiasm for national diversity and health equity curricula, with the majority of programs reporting institutional DEI training.     

Careers in Virology: Teaching at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution

A faculty position at a primarily undergraduate institution requires working with undergraduates in both the classroom and the research lab. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in such a career should understand that faculty at these institutions need to teach broadly and devise research questions that can be addressed safely and with limited resources compared to a research I university. Aspects of, and ways to prepare for, this career will be reviewed herein.     

Lessons learned through listening to biology students during a transition to online learning in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic

During the Spring Semester of 2020, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) and the illnesses it caused (COVID‐19) led to widespread cancelling of on‐campus instruction at colleges and universities in the United States and other countries around the world. Response to the pandemic in university settings included a rapid and unexpected shift to online learning for faculty and students. The transition to teaching and learning online posed many challenges, and the experiences of students during this crisis may inform future planning for distance learning experiences during the ongoing pandemic and beyond. Herein, we discuss the experiences of first‐ and second‐year university students enrolled in a biology seminar course as their classes migrated to online environments. Drawing on reported student experiences and prior research and resources, we discuss the ways we will adjust our own teaching for future iterations of the course while offering recommendations for instructors tasked with teaching in online environments.     

Career choices of physicians 15 years after entering medical school.

The career status of 149 graduates of the University of Toronto faculty of medicine who entered in 1958 and graduated in 1962 was determined in 1973. The response rate to the mailed questionnaire was 96.6%. Of the graduates 4.7% were not practising medicine, 2.0% stated that medicine was not their primary gainful activity and 4.1% were untraceable or unknown. Of the 24 women in the class 17 (70.8%) were practising at least 76% of their time and 4 (16.7%) were practising 26 to 75% of their time. General practice or family medicine had been chosen by 39.0% of the class and a specialty by 55.7%; 5.4% were unknown or untraceable. The place of longest residence before entrance to university was a good predictor of ultimate location of practice but not of type of practice.     

The effect of health care reform on academic medicine in Canada. Editorial Committee of the Canadian Institute for Academic Medicine.

Although Canadian health care reform has constrained costs and improved efficiency, it has had a profound and mixed effect on Canadian academic medicine. Teaching hospitals have been reduced in number and size, and in patient programs have shifted to ambulatory and community settings. Specialized care programs are now multi-institutional and multidisciplinary. Furthermore, the influence of regional planning bodies has grown markedly. Although these changes have likely improved clinical service, their impact on the quality of clinical education is uncertain. Within the academic clinical department, recruitment of young faculty has been greatly complicated by constraints on licensing, billing numbers, fee-for-service income and research funding. The departmental practice plan based on university funds and fee-for-service income is being replaced by less favourable funding arrangements. However, emphasis on multidisciplinary programs has rendered these departments more flexible in structure. The future of Canadian academic medicine depends on an effective alliance with government. Academia and government must agree, particularly on human-resource requirements, research objectives and the delivery of clinical and academic programs in regional and community settings. The establishment of focal points for academic health sciences planning within academic health sciences centres and within governments would assist in these developments. Finally, government and the academic health sciences sector must work together to remove the current impediments to the recruitment of highly qualified young faculty.     

清华大学《生物化学》全英语教学调查与分析

为了解清华大学全英语教学效果及学生对全英语教学的认可程度,通过问卷调查的方式,收集和分析学生对《生物化学》全英语教学的态度,对教学方式、教学质量的评价以及对全英语教学影响因素分析等信息。结果表明,学生对《生物化学》开展全英语教学有较高的认可程度,教学质量较高,有很好的教学效果,为全英语教学和双语教学的进一步推广提供了借鉴和依据。     

Measuring the Quality of University Lectures: Development and Validation of the Instructional Skills Questionnaire (ISQ)

In higher education, student ratings are often used to evaluate and improve the quality of courses and professors’ instructional skills. Unfortunately, student-rating questionnaires rarely generate specific feedback for professors to improve their instructional skills. The impact of student ratings on professors’ instructional skills has proven to be low. This study concerns the psychometric properties of the Instructional Skills Questionnaire (ISQ), a new theory-based student-rating-of-teaching questionnaire with specific questions concerning lecturing skills. The ISQ is administered after a single lecture. This way, it serves as a formative feedback instrument for university professors during courses to assist them to improve and (re-) evaluate their skills if necessary. The ISQ contains seven dimensions of professors’ instructional skills and three student (self perceived) learning outcomes. In this study, Dutch students in 75 courses rated three 90-minute lectures (T1, T2 and T3) of their respective professors using the ISQ. In total, 14,298 ISQ-forms were used to rate 225 lectures. The teacher level reliabilities of the seven dimensions were found to be good at each measurement occasion. In addition, confirmatory multilevel factor analysis confirmed a seven dimensional factor structure at the teacher level at each measurement occasion. Furthermore, specific teacher level factors significantly predicted students’ (self-assessed) learning outcomes. These results partly supported the proposed theoretical framework on the relationship between the ISQ teaching dimensions and the student learning process, and provided evidence for the construct validity of the instrument. In sum, the ISQ is found to be a reliable and valid instrument, which can be used by professors and faculty development centers to assess and improve university teaching.     

The burden of service for faculty of color to achieve diversity and inclusion: the minority tax

The exclusion of Blacks/African-Americans, Latinx/Hispanics, and Indigenous people from science has resulted in their underrepresentation in the biomedical workforce, especially in academia. Faculty diversity at academic institutions is unacceptably low (<6%) and has remained unchanged in the past 20 years. Despite low representation, faculty of color are disproportionately tasked with service to enhance diversity and inclusion of the academy, often to the detriment of their research and academic success. This essay offers a perspective on the undue burden of service placed on underrepresented faculty to achieve institutional diversity and inclusion. I reflect on the challenges that faculty of color face trying to maintain a competitive research program while serving the needs of the academy, often in a capacity greater than that of their well-represented peers. I also discuss opportunities for faculty of color to leverage related diversity and inclusion work to boost their career progression and academic advancement.

JoAnn Trejo     

Dilemmas in leadership: women of colour in the Academy

The hiring of women of colour faculty is not without unwritten presuppositions. We are expected to draw from cultural experience in catering to students of colour or when it fulfils institutional needs such as bringing ‘colour’ to all-white committees. Yet, the normative profile of university teachers demands detachment with a focus on high output in terms of students and publications. In the light of this, commitment to social justice seems in (certain) disagreement with mainstream interpretations of the academic profession. This article addresses how this dilemma is worked out in teacher-student relations.     

勤云测试

【】充分考虑高校教学和社会服务职能以及内部资源分配对科研活动的影响,本文提出一个研究我国高校知识生产创造活动的理论框架,并基于教育部直属高校2000-2008年的统计数据进行了实证分析。研究发现,高校参与科研活动的高级职称研究人员的比例对发明专利申请增加有显著影响;重视基础研究有助于增加SCI论文;在校本专科生规模对科研产出有负面影响,而研究生数量的增加则对科研活动有积极贡献;加强与企业联系有助于增加高校的发明专利申请和EI期刊论文。