Crossing MGLS with the Middle Grades Research Agenda: A Guide for Researchers

For the past several years, leaders in middle grades education research have strengthened their call for more methodologically robust quantitative research to address important questions in the field. Recently, two important routes towards addressing this call have emerged: the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study from the National Center for Education Statistics, and a new research agenda from the Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. In this paper, we conduct a content analysis of the items in the forthcoming longitudinal study in light of the extant research agenda. Results indicate that research questions in eight sections of the agenda are moderately to well-addressed by the data, and that the longitudinal study will provide rich contextual data related to many others. The concurrent emergence of the research agenda and this data offers an opportunity for the research community to engage in high-level quantitative research with a middle grades lens to inform future policy. The item-by-item crosswalk available for download (scroll down for link below) provides guidance for researchers using the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study data to address questions from the research agenda

A review of tertiary BIM education for advanced engineering communication with visualization

SPECT with Tc-99m-labeled agents is better able to detect viability after nitrate administration. Nitrates induce vasoclilation and may increase blood flow to severely hypoperfused but viable myocardium, thereby enhancing tracer delivery and improving the detection of viability. Quantitative data on the changes in blood flow are lacking in SPECT but can be provided by PET. The aim of the present study was to use PET to evaluate whether nitrate administration increases blood flow to chronically dysfunctional but viable myocardium. Methods: N-13-Ammonia PET was used to quantitatively assess blood flow, and F-18-FDG PET was used as the gold standard to detect viable myocardium. Twenty-five patients with chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction underwent N-13-ammonia PET at rest and after nitrate administration. Results: A significant increase in nitrate-enhanced blood flow was observed in viable segments (from 0.55 +/- 0.15 to 0.68 +/- 0.24 mL/min/g, P <0.05). No statistically significant change in blood flow was observed in nonviable segments (0.60 +/- 0.20 vs. 0.55 +/- 0.18 mL/min/g). A ratio of at least 1.1 for nitrate-enhanced flow to resting flow allowed optimal detection of viable myocardium, yielding a sensitivity of 82% with a specificity of 100%. Conclusion: N-13-Ammonia PET showed a significant increase in nitrate-enhanced blood flow in viable myocardium, whereas blood flow remained unchanged after nitrate administration in nonviable myocardium. Nitrate use during myocardial perfusion imaging will lead to improved assessment of myocardial viability

A Multi-Decade Response to the Call for Change

Engineering and society have always been intertwined, especially with the accepted realization of technology\u27s significant and rapidly increasing influence on the evolution of society. As a profession, engineering has a vital role in sustainably meeting needs and exploring opportunities that are ever changing and evolving. As societal and industry needs have evolved, engineering education itself has raised the call several times for evolving the way engineers are educated; however, the recent history of engineering education is, overall, one of missed opportunities. This was brought to a headline recently as ASEE leadership authored an article entitled “Stuck in 1955, Engineering Education Needs a Revolution.” Those words say it all. We see a need for a revolution in engineering education that looks at developing a whole new engineer that is equipped to operate in the age of information and Industry 4.0. This is vital to not only the field of engineering but for society. This paper parallels the calls for change in engineering education with the development story of a multi-disciplinary engineering education model that is often referred to as a beacon of light for change in engineering education. As is highlighted in the currently ongoing ASEE workforce summit series, the world of engineering is shifting beneath our feet. The world of engineering education must shift with it or face irrelevancy. The future iterations of this program are focused on developing graduates with digital savvy, new skills in innovating and collaborating, problem framing expertise, and horizontal leadership skills, while putting emphasis on the impacts in the economic development of rural regions. In the initial stages, 1990’s–2000’s, the program’s faculty spent time innovating in courses and curricula trying to shift towards the recently released ABET 2000 student outcome criteria in a rural community college setting. The mid-2000’s brought the development of a multi-disciplinary upper division university satellite program that embraced the Aalborg (DK) model of PBL. The new multi-disciplinary program had ABET outcomes at its core, focusing on the development of a whole new engineer, especially developing innovative strategies to intentionally promote growth of the professional person. By 2020, the program had achieved disruption, earning an ABET innovation award and being named an “emerging world leader in engineering education” in the Reimagining and Rethinking Engineering Education report. The latest evolution of the program combines on-line learning and work-based learning for a sustainable model that serves a culturally diverse nationwide audience of community college completers. This is a story of innovative curricula putting team-based project learning at its core. Promising strategies addressed in the paper include ABET outcomes, reflection, identity building, metacognition, teamwork, industry PBL, recruiting, learning communities, and continuous improvement. The conclusion puts a spotlight on where the program and engineering education in the U.S. needs to journey next

B2C Mass Customization in the Classroom

The purpose of this article is to describe an internet-based mass customization assignment in Operations Management/Supply Chain Management classes where students utilize the Web site of a company that offers a customized product. Students evaluate the user interface, judge the value proposition of the product they demonstrate, and discuss issues of product design, process design and scheduling, inventory management, Supply Chain Management, marketing, and competitors. The students learn about mass customization from both the producer\u27s perspective and the consumer\u27s perspective. Through their own research and the class presentations students are able to develop a better understanding of the implementation requirements and challenges of mass customization. The assignment is highly interactive and has been successfully used in Operations Management and Supply Chain Management courses at under-graduate and graduate levels and at multiple universities. In addition, practitioners interested in implementing a mass customization process can use the assignment as a brainstorming or benchmarking exercise

E-Learning in Business

e-Learning is replacing face-to-face classroom instruction in a growing number of businesses, but what is the prospect for the continued proliferation of e-learning in business? On one hand, the quality of instruction, the cost effectiveness of new technology, a supportive e-learning educational culture, an expansion of the Internet, an increase in online courses, shorter business cycles, mergers, and increasing competition encourage business use of e-learning. On the other hand, employee reticence in using learning technologies, insufficient corporate investment, lack of business-relevant university courses, narrow bandwidth, and Internet access issues are constricting the business use of these technologies

Comparing Learning Platform Impact on Low Vision Education for Occupational Therapists

This pilot study examines the impact of face-to-face, remote, and hybrid learning platforms on satisfaction, confidence, and knowledge-application of occupational therapy practitioners during a synchronous low vision continuing education program. Fifteen participants were divided into three groups, each corresponding to one learning platform. They engaged in two 45-min learning sessions and completed pre, post, and follow-up surveys to measure the impact of the learning platform on the dependent variables of satisfaction, confidence, and knowledge application. No significant differences were found between learning platforms for the three variables, but improvements from pre to follow-up survey were found to be significant for confidence and knowledge application for all groups. These findings indicate that similar education provided to occupational therapy practitioners may result in improved confidence and knowledge application to clinical practice from the beginning to the end of the educational program, despite the learning platform. Flexibility with online learning options increased participation and adherence rates. Synchronous remote and hybrid learning platforms may be as effective as traditional face-to-face methods, specifically with increasing practitioner confidence and knowledge application. Remote options may reduce peer interactions but increase flexibility and convenience with scheduling for program scalability and accessibility

MINDING MORE THAN OUR OWN BUSINESS: EDUCATING ENTREPRENEURIAL LAWYERS THROUGH LAW SCHOOL-BUSINESS SCHOOL COLLABORATIONS

Business clients often view lawyers as obstructionists who do little more than tell them they cannot do what they want to do. These perceptions are particularly prevalent among creative, energetic entrepreneurs who have crafted an innovative product or service to satisfy a market need and are anxious to commercialize their inventions. The most effective business lawyers understand that they must do more than report impediments. They recognize the need to consider the client\u27s underlying goals and business plans and, when they identify a legal obstacle, to be prepared to suggest and explore reasonable alternatives that can be accomplished in compliance with the law. This article reports on developments in the education of business-oriented law students that have occurred in recent years at several U.S. law schools, explores law school-business school collaborations in particular, and offers suggestions that might be of value to others seeking to use interdisciplinary initiatives to augment the training of students desirous of becoming effective business lawyers. It identifies obstacles to law school involvement in interdisciplinary collaboration and discusses course offerings at schools that have overcome these obstacles in implementing innovative programs in both regular classroom and clinical curricula. Finally, the article presents a case study of efforts to develop a comprehensive Entrepreneurial Lawyering Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, with special focus on a law school-business school collaborative course in Entrepreneurship & New Venture Creation which involves team teaching to law students, MBA students and engineering students. The article concludes that the benefits to faculty and students of this type of collaboration far outweigh the costs of addressing the associated challenges

Preparing Tomorrow’s World Language Teacher Today: The Case for Seamless Induction

This essay is a call to action. It offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing world language (WL) teacher educators and their employers, the K-12 schools, during the teacher induction period. We propose a new paradigm for WL teacher education based on national accreditation standards, best-practice pedagogy, insights from the professional literature on methods education, and the enhanced role of the methods instructor/supervisor. In order to become successful in the classroom, the pre-service educator undergoes a seamless period of induction that is student-centered and college/university-supported beyond the classroom arena

Learner Autonomy in the Moroccan Baccalaureate Classroom: Instructors’ and Students’ attitudes

Autonomous learning as a concept has been around since the early 1960s. Several studies have been carried out to establish its relevance, practicability, and efficacy in the EFL course. However, its use in circumstances other than those in which it first emerged has provoked passionate discussion. While some applied linguists say that learner autonomy is insufficient outside of its native environment as a culturally restricted feature, others feel it is a humanistic attribute that can be employed in any situation. Local instructors’ perspectives are not an exception in the Moroccan EFL context. Some teachers feel that educating students to accept autonomy will have a positive impact. Others, on the other hand, dismiss its significance due to administrative constraints and cultural differences. The purpose of this study is to learn more about Moroccan TEFLRS’ thoughts on student autonomy and how it is used in the local classroom. The study also shows how students think about learner autonomy and provides some suggestions for practicing it in the classroom