Enhancing Critical Thinking Across The Undergraduate Experience: An Exemplar From Engineering

Faculty in a large, urban school of engineering designed a longitudinal study to assess the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students as they progressed through the engineering program. The Paul-Elder critical thinking framework was used to design course assignments and develop a holistic assessment rubric. The curriculum was re-designed to include deliberate teaching of critical thinking and assessment in at least one key course for every student each year of their undergraduate curriculum. The critical thinking scores for seniors using the holistic rubric were significantly higher than their baseline critical thinking scores as freshmen (p = .004). This case-study can serve as an exemplar for other units, departments, or programs to model or replicate

Critical Thinking Development In Undergraduate Engineering Students From Freshman Through Senior Year: A 3-Cohort Longitudinal Study

Critical thinking is considered a necessary learning outcome for all college students and essential for academic and career success.  There are many challenges to developing a comprehensive approach to teaching and assessing critical thinking skills. Although the literature has many examples of the incorporation of critical thinking and assessment into courses, longitudinal studies following engineering students through their undergraduate career are lacking.  This study assessed the impact of using the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework to enhance undergraduate students’ critical thinking skills with the hypothesis: There will be a significant increase in undergraduate students’ critical thinking abilities from the freshman to the senior year with the explicit and strategic incorporation of critical thinking assignments. The research question was, “How do the critical thinking skills of undergraduate engineering students change as they progress through the engineering program with the explicit and strategic incorporation of critical thinking assignments?” The study was a descriptive, longitudinal study of three engineering student cohorts as they progressed through the four year undergraduate program. The study was approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board. There was a statistically significant increase in critical thinking scores over the four years for each of the three cohorts. Integrating and evaluating critical thinking assignments into engineering curricula is possible, but a major challenge to critical thinking assessment using a holistic rubric is training engineering faculty in their use.  The results are encouraging, and participating faculty agree; but sustaining these efforts to imbed critical thinking assignments throughout the engineering college curriculum will require effort and administrative support

Self-Control And Academic Performance In Engineering

Self-control has been related to positive student outcomes including academic performance of college students.  Because of the critical nature of the first semester academic performance for engineering students in terms of retention and persistence in pursuing an engineering degree, this study investigated the relationship between freshmen engineering students’ scores on the Brief Self-Control Scale and first semester GPA. To identify the unique explanatory contribution of self-control beyond incoming academic performance differences, the effect of ACT Composite scores was statistically removed from the sample of three cohorts of freshmen engineering students (n=1295 total).  The results showed the measure of self-control explained on average 4.2% of the residual variability in first semester GPA, after accounting for the variability explained by ACT scores.  Based on results of this study, self-control predicted between 27%-42% as much of the variance in first semester GPA as did ACT scores, a much-used high stakes measure frequently used for decisions such as program admittance or mathematics course placement.  Thus self-control is a nontrivial predictor of academic performance.  Based on post hoc analysis, relevant self-control behaviors might manifest themselves in time and study management since there was a significant correlation between self-control scores and scores on the MSLQ time and study management measure.  These results have implications for both how much of an impact positive self-control may have on freshmen engineering academic performance, while also offering potential avenues to support students in bolstering aspects of this personality trait through a focus on strengthening time and study management skills

Multidimensional Item Response Theory for Factor Structure Assessment in Educational Psychology Research

This study demonstrates the use of multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) to investigate an instrument's factor structure. For didactic purposes, MIRT was used to assess the factor structure of the 9-item Effort Beliefs Scale (Blackwell et al., 2007), based on data obtained from 1,127 undergraduate engineering students (20.9% female) across two academic years attending a large, metropolitan university in the east south-central region of the United States at the beginning and end of the first semester of freshman year. MIRT results supported the scale's multidimensional structure, which were compared to those based on confirmatory factor analysis. Specifically, comparisons of competing models supported the scale's bifactor structure in which the collective item set related to a primary dimension and each item related to one of two domain-specific factors: Positive Relationship, Inverse Relationship. Furthermore, the utility of item response theory for assessing effort beliefs changes across the first semester and the relationship of IRT and observed scores is provided. The paper concludes with an overview of MIRT for scale development and dimensionality assessment to advance the reader's awareness of its use as a psychometric tool

The Iowa Homemaker vol.23, no.7

Keeping Up With Today, Margaret Ralston, page 2 Lunch Program Expands, Doris Ann Gregg, page 3 Plan for Post-War Service, Patricia O’Connell, page 4 Medicine from Mold, Helen James, page 5 Home Front Organizers, Mary Elizabeth Lush, page 6 Graduates Report by Mail, Dorothy Drown, page 7 What’s New in Home Economics, Lily Houseman, page 8 Good Posture Makes Good Sense, Lila Mae Hummel, page 10 Child Training, Doris Rystrom and Jane Gardner, page 11 Your Best Foot Forward, Jean Miller, page 12 A Housemaking Teacher Talks Shop, Betty A. Brady, page 13 Wartime Decision, Doris Gugeler, page 14 Alums in the News, Rachel Ann Lusher, page 15 Across Alumnae Desks, Virginia Carter, page 1

HIV policy: the path forward--a joint position paper of the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American College of Physicians.

Executive Summary The American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) have jointly published 3 policy statements on AIDS, the first in 1986 [1], the second in 1988 [2], and the third in 1994 [3]. In 2001, the IDSA created the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), and this updated policy paper is a collaboration between the ACP and the HIVMA of the IDSA. Since the last statement, many new developments call for the need to reexamine and update our policies relating to HIV infection. First, there have been major advances in treatment for HIV infection that have transformed HIV/AIDS from a terminal illness to a chronic disease for many of those who have access to potent therapies and expert medical care [4]. Second, there has been a profound expansion and intensification of the global HIV pandemic, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with significant US leadership and resources aimed at providing prevention and care services to affected populations in developing countries. Third, the concerns that were prevalent in the mid-1990s regarding the possibility of HIV transmission in health care settings have ultimately proven to be unfounded as the result of the adoption of universal precautions in those settings. In this article, we emphasize the public health and clinical imperatives for earlier identification of persons with HIV infection; the urgent need to expand access to state-of-the-art HIV care and treatment for infected individuals; the need for access to comprehensive prevention and education for those living with and those at risk for HIV infection; and the need for stronger national leadership to respond to the HIV epidemic in the United States and in the developing world. In December 2008, the ACP and HIVMA released a guidance statement on screening for HIV infection in health care settings that recommended that clinicians adopt routine screening for HIV infection and encourage patients to be tested. Also included in the guidance statement is a recommendation that clinicians determine the need for additional screening on an individual basis

Fiber Type Conversion by PGC-1α Activates Lysosomal and Autophagosomal Biogenesis in Both Unaffected and Pompe Skeletal Muscle

PGC-1α is a transcriptional co-activator that plays a central role in the regulation of energy metabolism. Our interest in this protein was driven by its ability to promote muscle remodeling. Conversion from fast glycolytic to slow oxidative fibers seemed a promising therapeutic approach in Pompe disease, a severe myopathy caused by deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme acid alpha-glucosidase (GAA) which is responsible for the degradation of glycogen. The recently approved enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has only a partial effect in skeletal muscle. In our Pompe mouse model (KO), the poor muscle response is seen in fast but not in slow muscle and is associated with massive accumulation of autophagic debris and ineffective autophagy. In an attempt to turn the therapy-resistant fibers into fibers amenable to therapy, we made transgenic KO mice expressing PGC-1α in muscle (tgKO). The successful switch from fast to slow fibers prevented the formation of autophagic buildup in the converted fibers, but PGC-1α failed to improve the clearance of glycogen by ERT. This outcome is likely explained by an unexpected dramatic increase in muscle glycogen load to levels much closer to those observed in patients, in particular infants, with the disease. We have also found a remarkable rise in the number of lysosomes and autophagosomes in the tgKO compared to the KO. These data point to the role of PGC-1α in muscle glucose metabolism and its possible role as a master regulator for organelle biogenesis - not only for mitochondria but also for lysosomes and autophagosomes. These findings may have implications for therapy of lysosomal diseases and other disorders with altered autophagy

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies five loci for lean body mass

Lean body mass, consisting mostly of skeletal muscle, is important for healthy aging. We performed a genome-wide association study for whole body (20 cohorts of European ancestry with n = 38,292) and appendicular (arms and legs) lean body mass (n = 28,330) measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry or bioelectrical impedance analysis, adjusted for sex, age, height, and fat mass. Twenty-one single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with lean body mass either genome wide (p < 5 x 10(-8)) or suggestively genome wide (p < 2.3 x 10(-6)). Replication in 63,475 (47,227 of European ancestry) individuals from 33 cohorts for whole body lean body mass and in 45,090 (42,360 of European ancestry) subjects from 25 cohorts for appendicular lean body mass was successful for five single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/ near HSD17B11, VCAN, ADAMTSL3, IRS1, and FTO for total lean body mass and for three single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/ near VCAN, ADAMTSL3, and IRS1 for appendicular lean body mass. Our findings provide new insight into the genetics of lean body mass

The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative: Investigating Immigration and Social Policy Preferences. Executive Report.

In an era of mass migration, social scientists, populist parties and social movements raise concerns over the future of immigration-destination societies. What impacts does this have on policy and social solidarity? Comparative cross-national research, relying mostly on secondary data, has findings in different directions. There is a threat of selective model reporting and lack of replicability. The heterogeneity of countries obscures attempts to clearly define data-generating models. P-hacking and HARKing lurk among standard research practices in this area.This project employs crowdsourcing to address these issues. It draws on replication, deliberation, meta-analysis and harnessing the power of many minds at once. The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative carries two main goals, (a) to better investigate the linkage between immigration and social policy preferences across countries, and (b) to develop crowdsourcing as a social science method. The Executive Report provides short reviews of the area of social policy preferences and immigration, and the methods and impetus behind crowdsourcing plus a description of the entire project. Three main areas of findings will appear in three papers, that are registered as PAPs or in process