Rethinking the problem of faculty resistance to engaging with students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education

Engaging students as partners in the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoTL) is a principle guiding good practice. Enthusiasm for student-faculty partnerships in learning and teaching continues to grow. In this essay, I want to invite readers to reflect with me about concerns of resistance to partnership practices. I interweave stories from my experiences with selected literature that is shifting the conversation about the ‘challenge of resistance’ in partnership work in learning and teaching. Positioning students as partners work as a values-based practice and in the context of ‘scaling-up’ partnership programs, I argue that our pre-occupation with resistance is problematic. Instead, we should accept resistance as part of a natural sense-making process that allows us to think together about the complexity of genuine pedagogical partnership

Disc wind models for FU Ori objects

We present disc wind models aimed at reproducing the main features of the strong Na I resonance line P-Cygni profiles in the rapidly-accreting pre-main sequence FU Ori objects. We conducted Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations for a standard magnetocentrifugally driven wind (MHD) model and our own "Genwind" models, which allows for a more flexible wind parameterisation. We find that the fiducial MHD wind and similar Genwind models, which have flows emerging outward from the inner disc edge, and thus have polar cavities with no absorbing gas, cannot reproduce the deep, wide Na I absorption lines in FU Ori objects viewed at low inclination. We find that it is necessary to include an "inner wind" to fill this polar cavity to reproduce observations. In addition, our models assuming pure scattering source functions in the Sobolev approximation at intermediate viewing angles ($30^{\circ} \lesssim i \lesssim 60^{\circ}$) do not yield sufficiently deep line profiles. Assuming complete absorption yields better agreement with observations, but simple estimates strongly suggest that pure scattering should be a much better approximation. The discrepancy may indicate that the Sobolev approximation is not applicable, possibly due to turbulence or non-monotonic velocity fields; there is some observational evidence for the latter. Our results provide guidance for future attempts to constrain FU Ori wind properties using full MHD wind simulations, by pointing to the importance of the boundary conditions necessary to give rise to an inner wind, and by suggesting that the winds must be turbulent to produce sufficiently deep line profiles.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Using Motivational Interviewing to Give Ambivalence the One-Two Punch

Presented as a Small Group/Roundtable Discussion at 2020 IUSM Education Day.Knocking out ambivalence to motivate students towards positive change is a delicate, yet powerful process. As advisors, we often encounter students who know they need to alter strategies for improving academic performance, career preparation, and overall well-being but find it difficult to make necessary changes. Decisional balance,coupled with the fundamental aspects of Motivational Interviewing,allows students to weigh the pros and cons of changing their behavior and identify the source of their motivation, ultimately leading to their own self-authorship.Within our session, participants will learn how we incorporate decisional balance into our coaching conversations with students to move towards intrinsic motivation and change, as well as how to incorporate decisional balance within their own daily practice

Phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1)-independent activation of the protein kinase C substrate, protein kinase D

Phosphoinoisitide dependent kinase l (PDK1) is proposed to phosphorylate a key threonine residue within the catalytic domain of the protein kinase C (PKC) superfamily that controls the stability and catalytic competence of these kinases. Hence, in PDK1-null embryonic stem cells intracellular levels of PKCalpha, PKCbeta1, PKCgamma, and PKCepsilon are strikingly reduced. Although PDK1-null cells have reduced endogenous PKC levels they are not completely devoid of PKCs and the integrity of downstream PKC effector pathways in the absence of PDK1 has not been determined. In the present report, the PDK1 requirement for controlling the phosphorylation and activity of a well characterised substrate for PKCs, the serine kinase protein kinase D, has been examined. The data show that in embryonic stem cells and thymocytes loss of PDK1 does not prevent PKC-mediated phosphorylation and activation of protein kinase D. These results reveal that loss of PDK1 does not functionally inactivate all PKC-mediated signal transduction

Practising Student Voice in University Teaching and Learning: Three Anchoring Principles

In this invited commentary, we offer three principles to anchor understanding of student voice in university teaching and learning. Encompassing related concepts and practices, the principles we offer support a shift in (1) attitude toward, (2) structures for, and (3) goals of teaching and learning. In our introduction, we provide a short history of the concept of student voice and our reason for using the notion of anchoring to argue for embracing its practice. In the main body of our commentary, we share expanded reflections on what each of the three principles might look like in practice, grounded in examples and selected scholarship. We conclude with an invitation to continued dialogue about this work

Toward curriculum convergence for graduate learning outcomes: academic intentions and student experiences

Graduate learning outcomes in undergraduate science degrees increasingly are focussed on the development of transferrable skillsets. Research into, and comparisons of, the perceptions of students and academic staff on such learning outcomes has rarely been explored in science. This study used a quantitative survey to explore the perceptions of 640 undergraduate science students and 70 academics teaching into a Bachelor of Science degree program on the importance, the extent to which outcomes were included and assessed, the improvement and likely future use of science graduate learning outcomes. Analysis of findings shed light on potential pathways toward curriculum convergence by arguing the need for shared perspectives of academics and students on graduate learning outcomes and drawing on the planned-enacted-experienced curriculum model. Moving toward coherent curriculum planning that draws on both student and academic perspectives to achieve graduate learning outcomes is the key contribution of this study. Resulting recommendations include: the need to consider the development of each complex graduate learning outcome as distinct from other outcomes in both curricular and pedagogical approach, and the need for a programmatic framework for assessment practices to facilitate the constructive alignment of assessment with learning outcomes