How Professors Infuse Critical Thinking into College Courses

Abstract The purpose of this case study was to explore professors’ understandings about how they infuse critical thinking within Signature courses in one private Catholic university, where a strong commitment exists to develop students’ critical thinking skills through the Core Curriculum. This qualitative study investigated the views of 12 professors in 6 disciplines as to how they approach the teaching and assessment of critical thinking skills within three Signature courses of the Core Curriculum. Data collection included documentation and one-on-one interviews with the professors, who taught Signature courses during the Spring 2011 semester. Through a cross analysis of the data,the professors’ perceptions about how they understood and defined critical thinking, their teaching and assessment practices, the challenges of infusing critical thinking as one of the core proficiencies, and their views about critical thinking professional development programs were examined. The results from this study generated further insights about the challenges professors confront when they focus on infusing critical thinking into core curriculum courses. These major challenges are related to a number of complex factors, such as overcoming faculty resistance, a lack of a common understanding and definition about critical thinking, and the need for more effective professional development opportunities. Given the complexity of attempting to align all of these various factors together in one institution, this case study examined the understandings of how professors implemented critical thinking as a valued curricular goal

Social influences on drivers in China

China is one of Asia’s many rapidly-motorising nations and recent increases in private-vehicle ownership have been coupled with an escalation in novice drivers. Several pieces of road safety legislation have been introduced in recent decades in China. While managing the legal aspects of road use is important, social influences on driver behaviour may offer alternative avenues to alter behaviour, particularly in a culture where such factors carry high importance. This paper reports qualitative research with Beijing drivers to investigate social influence factors that have, to date, received little attention in the literature. Findings indicated that family members, friends, and driving instructors appear influential on driver behaviour and that some newly licensed drivers seek additional assistance to facilitate the transition from learning to drive in a controlled environment to driving on the road in complex conditions. Strategies to avoid detection and penalties for inappropriate road use were described, many of which involved the use of a third person. These findings indicate potential barriers to implementing effective traffic enforcement and highlight the importance of understanding culturally-specific social factors relating to driver behaviour

How Professors Infuse Critical Thinking into College Courses

Abstract The purpose of this case study was to explore professors’ understandings about how they infuse critical thinking within Signature courses in one private Catholic university, where a strong commitment exists to develop students’ critical thinking skills through the Core Curriculum. This qualitative study investigated the views of 12 professors in 6 disciplines as to how they approach the teaching and assessment of critical thinking skills within three Signature courses of the Core Curriculum. Data collection included documentation and one-on-one interviews with the professors, who taught Signature courses during the Spring 2011 semester. Through a cross analysis of the data,the professors’ perceptions about how they understood and defined critical thinking, their teaching and assessment practices, the challenges of infusing critical thinking as one of the core proficiencies, and their views about critical thinking professional development programs were examined. The results from this study generated further insights about the challenges professors confront when they focus on infusing critical thinking into core curriculum courses. These major challenges are related to a number of complex factors, such as overcoming faculty resistance, a lack of a common understanding and definition about critical thinking, and the need for more effective professional development opportunities. Given the complexity of attempting to align all of these various factors together in one institution, this case study examined the understandings of how professors implemented critical thinking as a valued curricular goal

Conformity Through Fear: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of COVID-19 Information Adverts

The UK Government has produced an array of televised information adverts or ‘campaigns’ to increase public awareness of COVID-19 and promote compliance with its subsequent policy. Research has shown that compliance with public health policy is influenced by fearful visual-verbal campaign messaging strategies, and that emotive representations of ‘risk’ are generally perceived to be more effective than non-emotive discourse. However, how the Government has semiotically constructed and utilised fear within their COVID-19 campaigns to nudge public compliance remains unexplored. Preliminary analysis of seventeen COVID-19 adverts revealed four sequential phases to the Government’s pandemic response: responsibility, management, mitigation, and reflection. An in-depth Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of four selected adverts (one screenshot per advert, per phase), revealed that fear was constructed using less conventional meaning potentials in favour of more implicit multimodal semiotic interactions. By portraying a ‘good’ pandemic subject as one who makes ‘moral’ and ‘rational’ decisions to comply with COVID-19 policy, pre-existing societal inequalities which might hinder compliance, particularly for the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups of society, were reduced and problematised. This raises ethical concerns over notions of ‘expertise’ and the ‘rationalising’ of ‘irrational’ lifestyles. Future research should further explore multimodal nudges in public health campaigns to hold producers accountable

The Role of Dress in Objectification Research: An Opportunity for Dress Researchers

We focus on relationships between the concepts of dress and objectification. A two-pronged definition of dress is all modifications of and supplements to the body. Objectification occurs when a person is reduced to the status of an object for others’ sexual use. Objectification Theory proposes that girls and women living in media-saturated Western cultures are gazed at, evaluated, and potentially objectified by others. When women and girls are objectified by others, they may self-objectify; or internalize an outsider’s perspective and see themselves as objects to be evaluated for their physical attributes. We show that dress has been used in objectification research to both evoke and document objectification but the importance of dress in these processes has seldom been acknowledged. Whether using a revealing dress manipulation or a manipulation of the body, these manipulations focus participants on their bodies. This focus may be what evokes self- and other-objectification. Opportunity exists for dress researchers to offer insight in the objectification literature. Some studies provide no rationale for choice of dress stimuli to elicit other-objectification and numerous terms are used to describe dress manipulations (e.g., sexy dress, provocative dress), with no clear rationale. Topics of interest to dress researchers such as sexual harassment/assault, trying on clothes and evaluating oneself in a full-length mirror, and undergoing body scanning may be sexually objectifying experiences to those involved; thus research hypotheses and results can be informed by extant objectification literature. Also using the two-pronged definition of dress, dress researchers can bring new structure/organization to objectification research

A Be star with a low nitrogen abundance in the SMC cluster NGC330

High-resolution UVES/VLT spectra of B12, an extreme pole-on Be star in the SMC cluster NGC330, have been analysed using non-LTE model atmospheres to obtain its chemical composition relative to the SMC standard star AV304. We find a general underabundance of metals which can be understood in terms of an extra contribution to the stellar continuum due to emission from a disk which we estimate to be at the ~25% level. When this is corrected for, the nitrogen abundance for B12 shows no evidence of enhancement by rotational mixing as has been found in other non-Be B-type stars in NGC330, and is inconsistent with evolutionary models which include the effects of rotational mixing. A second Be star, NGC330-B17, is also shown to have no detectable nitrogen lines. Possible explanations for the lack of rotational mixing in these rapidly rotating stars are discussed, one promising solution being the possibility that magnetic fields might inhibit rotational mixing.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to A&

Fluorine abundances in planetary nebulae

We have determined fluorine abundances from the F II 4789 and F IV 4060 nebular emission lines for a sample of planetary nebulae (PNe). Our results show that fluorine is generally overabundant in PNe, thus providing new evidence for the synthesis of fluorine in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. [F/O] is found to be positively correlated with the C/O abundance ratio, in agreement with the predictions of theoretical models of fluorine production in thermally pulsing AGB stars. A large enhancement of fluorine is observed in the Wolf-Rayet PN NGC 40, suggesting that high mass-loss rates probably favor the survival of fluorine.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Terminal velocities of luminous, early-type SMC stars

Ultraviolet spectra from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) are used to determine terminal velocities for 11 O and B-type giants and supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from the Si IV and C IV resonance lines. Using archival data from observations with the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph and the International Ultraviolet Explorer telescope, terminal velocities are obtained for a further five B-type supergiants. We discuss the metallicity dependence of stellar terminal velocities, finding no evidence for a significant scaling between Galactic and SMC metallicities for Teff < 30,000 K, consistent with the predictions of radiation driven wind theory for supergiant stars. A comparison of the $v_\infty / v_{esc}$ ratio between the SMC and Galactic samples, while consistent with the above statement, emphasizes that the uncertainties in the distances to galactic O-stars are a serious obstacle to a detailed comparison with theory. For the SMC sample there is considerable scatter in this ratio at a given effective temperature, perhaps indicative of uncertainties in stellar masses.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ; minor revisions prior to acceptanc

Socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and burden of morbidity associated with self-reported hearing and vision impairments in older British community-dwelling men: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Hearing and vision problems are common in older adults. We investigated the association of self-reported sensory impairment with lifestyle factors, chronic conditions, physical functioning, quality of life and social interaction. METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study of participants of the British Regional Heart Study aged 63-85 years. RESULTS: A total of 3981 men (82% response rate) provided data. Twenty-seven per cent (n = 1074) reported hearing impairment including being able to hear with aid (n = 482), being unable to hear (no aid) (n = 424) and being unable to hear despite aid (n = 168). Three per cent (n = 124) reported vision impairment. Not being able to hear, irrespective of use of hearing aid, was associated with poor quality of life, poor social interaction and poor physical functioning. Men who could not hear despite hearing aid were more likely to report coronary heart disease (CHD) [age-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) 1.89 (95% confidence interval 1.36-2.63)]. Vision impairment was associated with symptoms of CHD including breathlessness [OR 2.06 (1.38-3.06)] and chest pain [OR 1.58 (1.07-2.35)]. Vision impairment was also associated with poor quality of life, poor social interaction and poor physical functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Sensory impairment is associated with poor physical functioning, poor health and poor social interaction in older men. Further research is warranted on pathways underlying these associations