The Sabah Oral Literature Project

George N. Appell, M.B.A., A.M. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Australian National University) is a social anthropologist. He has done fieldwork, assisted by his wife Laura W.R. Appell, among the Dogrib Indians of the Northwest Territories of Canada, the Rungus of Sabah, Malaysia, and the Bulusu’ of Indonesian Borneo. They began working with the Rungus in 1959 to record their social organization, language, religion and cultural ecology. They continue to work with the Rungus and are compiling ‘The Rungus Cultural Dictionary’ as well as managing the Sabah Oral Literature Project. This project continues to collect the oral literature of the Rungus and other peoples of the Kudat Peninsula. Dr Appell is cofounder and president of the Borneo Research Council, founder and president of the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, founder of the Anthropologists’ Fund for Urgent Anthropological Research, and is Senior Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University. He is currently finishing a monograph on culture-free methods to determine rights over resource tenure and other property interests that are faithful to the local distinctions. Other information on the publications of the Appells can be found at: www.gnappell.orgGeorge and Laura Appell were prevented by the Sabah government from continuing their research among the Rungus, which had begun in 1959-1963. But in 1986 they were permitted to return to the Rungus and visit their friends. By then little of the traditional Rungus social organization and culture remained unchanged, except for their oral literature. Consequently, George and Laura Appell formed the Sabah Oral Literature Project to collect the various genre from the Rungus and related ethnic groups. The project was so constructed as to be run by the Rungus for the Rungus, with the Appells providing equipment, direction and training. It was hoped that this project would form a model for ethnic groups in other areas of Sabah and in other regions of the world to begin collecting their own oral literature. This article covers the various genre of Rungus oral literature from the extensive religious poems performed by priestesses to cure illness and promote fertility, to the prayers for the rice spirits, to historical narratives, songs, and word play. It discusses the selection of personnel to collect texts, their training, the equipment used, the payment of performers, the transcription of texts, the archiving of the recordings and problems in translating the texts. Translation and exegesis requires a detailed knowledge of the culture, which may necessitate study and analysis by scholars outside the society.World Oral Literature Project and the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research

Building Civic Capacity on Campus Through a Radically Inclusive Teaching and Learning Initiative

In this article we explore the definition and development of civic capacity at a liberal arts college through a specific teaching and learning initiative. This initiative encourages faculty, staff, and students to share the roles of teacher, learner, and colleague as they gain educational opportunities and foster these for others. Through a description of two programs and analysis of participants’ reflections, we identify four stages of change that foster civic capacity. We suggest that this initiative invites a re-interpretation of the institution as a site of educational opportunities and raises questions about how to broaden access to these opportunities

Building Civic Capacity on Campus Through a Radically Inclusive Teaching and Learning Initiative

In this article we explore the definition and development of civic capacity at a liberal arts college through a specific teaching and learning initiative. This initiative encourages faculty, staff, and students to share the roles of teacher, learner, and colleague as they gain educational opportunities and foster these for others. Through a description of two programs and analysis of participants’ reflections, we identify four stages of change that foster civic capacity. We suggest that this initiative invites a re-interpretation of the institution as a site of educational opportunities and raises questions about how to broaden access to these opportunities

Activity (for Instructors): Toward a Critical-Inclusive Assessment Practice

Practicing critical information literacy requires dedication to flexible and responsive teaching, reflective practice, and engaging in dialogue. While there is a growing body of literature on critical information literacy, there is limited discussion on using critical pedagogy values in the assessment of student learning. These workshop materials focus on developing a critical-inclusive assessment practice based on the Critical-Inclusive Pedagogical Framework (CIPF)

Supporting graduate teaching assistants in two STEM areas

No abstract available

Language concepts and design patterns

Programming languages aim at the construction of simple but expressive programs. To achieve this, plenty of language concepts have arisen over time. Design patterns aim at the solution of common design problems. To achieve this, plenty of approved design concepts have been collected. We claim that language concepts and design patterns are essentially the same. Indeed, a language may offer a design pattern as a language concept; we call such patterns "language patterns". A design pattern can be implemented in terms of other design or language patterns. Since a concrete programming language only supports a subset of language patterns, every other pattern must be expressed in terms of this subset. We call such an implementation a "workaround". The specification of a workaround imposes proof obligations: it must be shown that a workaround simulates the pattern. Once proved correct, we can collect patterns and their workarounds in a trustworthy catalogue. This helps software developers to correctly apply patterns in any language and helps the language designer to decide which patterns to put into the language core. We demonstrate this pattern integration process with well-known design patterns and concepts of object-oriented languages. Additionally, we list important language patterns together with their workarounds

Developing e-assessment using the quiz activity within Moodle: empowering student learning

Using formative assessment within Moodle has been shown to encourage self-directed learning (Bromham & Oprandi, 2006). Our experience of using formative assessment quizzes as stand alone entities, as well as within Moodle lessons, has been used to introduce Moodle assessment quizzes over the past year in Level 1 and Level 2 Life Sciences courses. This experience has been distilled to inform the content of this workshop. Some advantages of incorporating assessments in the form of Moodle quizzes are that they allow for quick, reproducible and flexible assessment with a relatively small initial set-up cost, and substantial long-term staff and administration savings. One significant advantage is that staff and room pressures can be reduced as students can attempt the assessment at a time and location of their choice within a specified time period. This flexibility can help to reduce student stress associated with completion of a continuous assessment for their course. It is also a relatively simple process to account for students entitled to extra time during assessments. Providing clear instructions beforehand and at the start of the quiz ensures that students understand their responsibilities for completion of this assessment and ultimately the course. There are some disadvantages and limitations to the system as it currently exists, for example there is the perceived ability for students to “cheat” by completing the assessment as a group, accessing books and the internet. Strategies to account for these can be put in place and will be discussed in detail during the workshop. This workshop aims to take the participants through the initial set up of a quiz, highlighting the various question types and how these can be used to create a challenging assessment that can be quickly graded and prove informative for staff and course development. Reference Bromham L. & Oprandi P. (2006) Evolution online: developing active and blended learning by using a virtual learning environment in an introductory biology course. Journal of Biological Education 41 (1): 21-25

Reviewing the literature on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL): An academic literacies perspective: Part 2

There are few sources that critically evaluate the different ways of reviewing the literature on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). We use an academic literacies perspective as a lens with which to explore the different ways that literature reviews may be undertaken. While reviewing the literature is often presented as a scientific, objective process; the reality is much messier, nuanced, and iterative. It is a complex, context-dependent procedure. We provide a practical, critical guide to undertaking SoTL literature reviews. By adopting an academic literacies perspective, we argue that undertaking a synthesis of the literature is a socially constructed process. There is no one way of reviewing the SoTL literature. We distinguish between embedded reviews that present a review contextualising the research that follows, as in most SoTL research articles; and freestanding reviews that synthesize research on specific topics. We discuss the nature of embedded reviews, and evaluate systematic and narrative review approaches to undertaking freestanding reviews. We contend that some of the claims of the superiority of systematic reviews are unjustified. Though critical of systematic reviews, we recognise that for the most part narrative and systematic reviews have different purposes, and both are needed to review the SoTL literature. We suggest that narrative reviews are likely to continue to dominate the SoTL literature, especially while most SoTL studies use qualitative or mixed methods. It is important that contextually-sensitive judgements and interpretation of texts, associated with narrative reviews, are seen as central to the reviewing process, and as a strength rather than a weakness. This article complements a separate one, where we apply an academic literacies lens to reviewing the literature on searching the SoTL literature (Healey and Healey 2023). Together they present a narrative review of searching and reviewing the SoTL literature undertaken systematically. We conclude the current article by discussing the implications for the further development of an academic literacies perspective to searching and reviewing the SoTL literature. We call for studies investigating the lived experiences of SoTL scholars as they go about searching and reviewing the literature. We illustrate this argument with an auto-ethnographic account of the often-serendipitous nature of our hunt for sources in preparing this review and the way our thinking and writing evolved during the writing of the two articles