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

Undergraduate teaching assistant impact on student academic achievement.

This study evaluated the impact that trained and supported undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) may have had on the academic achievement of students in the first semester of an introductory chemistry course for science and engineering majors. Framed by the concepts of Lave and Wenger’s Community of Practice and Wheeler, Martin and Suls’ Proxy Model of Social Comparison , the study used an untreated control group with dependent post-test only design. Covariates related to student academic achievement and contextual variables were also collected and used to build models for the final exam core outcome variable. Hierarchical linear models indicated that having a UTA gave students with above-average college GPA a statistically significant boost on final exam score. More importantly, having a UTA was associated with persistence into the next course in the two-semester introductory chemistry sequence, regardless of academic achievement

Development of undergraduate teaching assistants as effective instructors in STEM courses.

This study examined the development of peer mentoring skills and deepening of content knowledge by trained and supported undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) working with students in entry-level STEM courses across nine departments at a large research intensive U.S. university. Data were collected from two sources: a survey with 10 items requesting 5-point Likert-type responses and an open-ended reflection written by each UTA to process their experiences. The survey responses were analyzed by comparing rates of agreement across the 10 items. Statements from the reflections were categorized by research question and descriptively labeled to capture the essence of implied or explicit meaning. UTAs reported developing stronger pedagogical skills and fostering metacognitive approaches to learning, as well as benefitting personally from improved communication skills. UTAs also indicated they have deepened their own knowledge of content in their discipline and learned to use more strategies for becoming a better learner

Integrating science and literacy for young English learners : a pilot study.

This pilot investigated the promise of positive outcomes in literacy, science, and social behavior on K– 2 English learner (﴾EL)﴿ students after two months of implementation of the Science Inquiry Centered Argumentation Model (﴾ScICAM)﴿—a systematic teaching approach to science learning that integrates literacy instruction and argument-‐based inquiry. The sample included 17 teachers and 31 EL students. Results indicated that teacher practices (﴾proximal outcomes)﴿ aligned well with the ScICAM approach and resulted in increases in EL student learning (﴾distal outcomes)﴿. Teacher increase in the use of inquiry and writing scaffolds and student growth in the ability to express understandings through oral and written modes also suggested that ScICAM practices are supportive of key practices identified by the Next Generation Science Standards (﴾NGSS Lead States, 2013)﴿. These results highlight the merit of pursuing larger, long-‐term projects that collaborate with teachers on developing and implementing ScICAM interventions

Implementing Collaborative Learning across the Engineering Curriculum

Active and collaborative teaching methods increase student learning, and it is broadly accepted that almost any active or collaborative approach will improve learning outcomes as compared to lecture. Yet, large numbers of faculty have not embraced these methods. Thus, the challenge to encourage evidence-based change in teaching is not only how to educate faculty about collaborative learning techniques, but how to support them as they attempt to implement paradigmatic changes in how they deliver their courses. This paper presents a multiple case study detailing the approach one mid-sized Midwestern research university’s school of engineering used to encourage faculty in all departments to embrace the use of collaborative learning techniques, and then analyzes the impact of the approach on faculty participants. Support structures to enable faculty to implement collaborative teaching techniques, as well as the benefits participants experienced from pedagogical shifts, are discussed

A Unifying Mechanism for Mitochondrial Superoxide Production during Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury occurs when blood supply to an organ is disrupted--ischemia--and then restored--reperfusion--leading to a burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from mitochondria. It has been tacitly assumed that ROS production during IR is a non-specific consequence of oxygen interacting with dysfunctional mitochondria upon reperfusion. Recently, this view has changed, suggesting that ROS production during IR occurs by a defined mechanism. Here we survey the metabolic factors underlying IR injury and propose a unifying mechanism for its causes that makes sense of the huge amount of disparate data in this area and provides testable hypotheses and new directions for therapies.Work in our laboratories is supported by the Medical Research Council (UK) and the British Heart Foundation. E.T.C. is supported by a Human Frontiers Science Program fellowship.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cell Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2015.12.00

Methamphetamine-Induced Dopamine-Independent Alterations in Striatal Gene Expression in the 6-Hydroxydopamine Hemiparkinsonian Rats

Unilateral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the medial forebrain bundle are used extensively as a model of Parkinson's disease. The present experiments sought to identify genes that were affected in the dopamine (DA)–denervated striatum after 6-hydroxydopamine-induced destruction of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway in the rat. We also examined whether a single injection of methamphetamine (METH) (2.5 mg/kg) known to cause changes in gene expression in the normally DA-innervated striatum could still influence striatal gene expression in the absence of DA. Unilateral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the medial forebrain bundle resulted in METH-induced rotational behaviors ipsilateral to the lesioned side and total striatal DA depletion on the lesioned side. This injection also caused decrease in striatal serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) levels. DA depletion was associated with increases in 5-HIAA/5-HT ratios that were potentiated by the METH injection. Microarray analyses revealed changes (± 1.7-fold, p<0.025) in the expression of 67 genes on the lesioned side in comparison to the intact side of the saline-treated hemiparkinsonian animals. These include follistatin, neuromedin U, and tachykinin 2 which were up-regulated. METH administration caused increases in the expression of c-fos, Egr1, and Nor-1 on the intact side. On the DA-depleted side, METH administration also increased the expression of 61 genes including Pdgf-d and Cox-2. There were METH-induced changes in 16 genes that were common in the DA-innervated and DA-depleted sides. These include c-fos and Nor-1 which show greater changes on the normal DA side. Thus, the present study documents, for the first time, that METH mediated DA-independent changes in the levels of transcripts of several genes in the DA-denervated striatum. Our results also implicate 5-HT as a potential player in these METH-induced alterations in gene expression because the METH injection also caused significant increases in 5-HIAA/5-HT ratios on the DA-depleted side