Assessment of Personality through Behavioral Observations in Work Simulations

This study outlines the development of a rating scale designed to measure personality-related behavior in the context of work simulations. The tool, labeled the Work Simulation Personality Rating Scale (WSPRS), was validated in an assessment center by rating the personality of 123 assessment center participants. Scores from the WSPRS were correlated with corresponding traits from a self-reported personality inventory, and a Trait Activation Potential (TAP) framework was adopted to predict which traits would display best convergence based on assessment center observations. Correlations between the WSPRS dimensions and self-report trait scales ranged from .11 (Neuroticism) to .31 (Extraversion), with the rank-order of convergence exactly reproducing the ordering of the TAP judgments made by the experts

Incorporating Genomics and Bioinformatics across the Life Sciences Curriculum

Undergraduate life sciences education needs an overhaul, as clearly described in the National Research Council of the National Academies’ publication BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. Among BIO 2010’s top recommendations is the need to involve students in working with real data and tools that reflect the nature of life sciences research in the 21st century [1]. Education research studies support the importance of utilizing primary literature, designing and implementing experiments, and analyzing results in the context of a bona fide scientific question [1–12] in cultivating the analytical skills necessary to become a scientist. Incorporating these basic scientific methodologies in undergraduate education leads to increased undergraduate and post-graduate retention in the sciences [13–16]. Toward this end, many undergraduate teaching organizations offer training and suggestions for faculty to update and improve their teaching approaches to help students learn as scientists, through design and discovery (e.g., Council of Undergraduate Research [www.cur.org] and Project Kaleidoscope [ www.pkal.org])