The importance of context: an exploration of factors influencing the adoption of student-centered teaching among chemistry, biology, and physics faculty

Background: Research at the secondary and postsecondary levels has clearly demonstrated the critical role that individual and contextual characteristics play in instructors’ decision to adopt educational innovations. Although recent research has shed light on factors influencing the teaching practices of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty, it is still not well understood how unique departmental environments impact faculty adoption of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) within the context of a single institution. In this study, we sought to characterize the communication channels utilized by STEM faculty, as well as the contextual and individual factors that influence the teaching practices of STEM faculty at the departmental level. Accordingly, we collected survey and observational data from the chemistry, biology, and physics faculty at a single large research-intensive university in the USA. We then compared the influencing factors experienced by faculty in these different departments to their instructional practices. Results: Analyses of the survey data reveal disciplinary differences in the factors influencing adoption of EBIPs. In particular, the physics faculty (n = 15) had primarily student-centered views about teaching and experienced the most positive contextual factors toward adoption of EBIPs. At the other end of the spectrum, the chemistry faculty (n = 20) had primarily teacher-centered views and experienced contextual factors that hindered the adoption of student-centered practices. Biology faculty (n = 25) fell between these two groups. Classroom observational data reflected these differences: The physics classrooms were significantly more student-centered than the chemistry classrooms. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that disciplinary differences exist in the contextual factors teaching conceptions that STEM faculty experience and hold, even among faculty within the same institution. Moreover, it shows that these differences are associated to the level of adoption of student-centered teaching practices. This work has thus identified the critical need to carefully characterize STEM faculty’s departmental environment and conceptions about teaching before engaging in instructional reform efforts, and to adapt reform activities to account for these factors. The results of this study also caution the over generalization of findings from a study focused on one type of STEM faculty in one environment to all STEM faculty in any environment

A CMOS implemented transimpedance amplifier design for optical communications

© 2018 IEEE. A transimpedance amplifier for optical communication system is presented in this study. The design includes a regulated cascode and an interleaving active feedback to improve the bandwidth of the transimpedance amplifier. Multiple gain stages are also employed to greatly improve the output voltage. This is implemented in 32 nm CMOS technology using Custom Designer from Synopsys. The circuit is designed to compete with existing transimpedance amplifiers implemented in other technologies in the field of optical communications. The transimpedance amplifier design in this study has a gain of 54 dB and a bandwidth of 9.39 GHz. The layout measures 0.0011mm2 in area and the total power dissipated is 2.94 mW

API management challenges in ecosystems

The API has become a cornerstone of software ecosystems, providing ways to drive innovation inside and outside the organization. Because of this criticality, we should manage APIs. The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the challenges that organizations evolving into internal ecosystems are facing as they have to deal with APIs. We performed a qualitative research study on three Siemens internal ecosystems with different sizes, technologies, and age. The results reveal that even if we are talking about the API economy, organizations are struggling with different aspects of API management related to Business, Architecture, Process, and Organization. The challenges identified in this paper provide a basis for future research