Developing Useful and Transferable Skills: Course Design to Prepare Students for a Life of Learning

This article examines evidence of academic skill development and transfer related to the taking of a first year Inquiry-based seminar course designed to enhance a range of self directed learning skills and their transferability to other learning contexts. The study compares a sample of academic work from two groups of Social Sciences students, one comprised of students who had taken the Inquiry course and the other who had not. The student work consists of 1) papers submitted by participants who were asked for the best paper they had written at university and 2) descriptive narratives provided by participants of the steps they took in researching and writing that paper. Qualitative and quantitative analysis by multiple raters using a blinded protocol was conducted. The results show both meaningfully higher paper and skill assessments for students who had taken the inquiry seminar and evidence of transfer of skills and strategy to other learning contexts, supporting the hypothesis that transfer of core skills occurs under particular learning conditions that can be fostered through course design and enhanced through specific pedagogical objectives

Chuave politics : changing patterns of leadership in the New Guinea highlands

In this study of contemporary politics and political change in Chuave, Simbu province, Papua New Guinea, I document how the nature of local level leadership has changed since Europeans first entered the area in 1933 and examine how current big men co-operate and compete in everyday political affairs within and beyond their own clan or village. To a great extent my analysis focuses on the effects of superimposing a state organization on a traditional political system lacking formal leadership offices and representative institutions. The introduction of administrative officials, local government councils and, more recently, village courts has forced people to alter their conception of political authority and has provided big men with new opportunities to achieve influence in political arenas incorporating former enemy groups. Government elections are highly competitive affairs which highlight rivalries between individual big men and traditional socio-political groups. I show how people's perceptions of government institutions and officials are coloured by their allegiance to particular political groups and describe the problems leaders confront when attempting to fulfill the duties of elected offices. Contemporary politics is in no a way confined to state derived political processes. Christian missions have well established systems of village leadership. Big men also achieve prominence by manipulating wealth in ceremonial exchanges that include both traditional and modern valuables. Furthermore, men now gain recognition as entrepreneurs within the western sector of the Chuave economy. In short, the ways in which a man obtains recognition as a leader are extremely diverse. Traditional-style big men compete with church leaders, store owners or government officials. Chuave women have remained peripheral to mainstream political affairs. But they have created a separate organization that allows them to achieve public recognition and political power at the local level. My thesis, then, traces the development of new institutions and organizations that have arisen since contact. At the same time I detail the persistence of traditional beliefs and behaviours that continue to influence current political action. In doing so I analyse how both men and women emerge as leaders within a framework of traditional socio-political groups and state political arenas

Community engagement: A central feature of NOSM’s socially accountable distributed medical education

Background: Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) serves as the Faculty of Medicine of Lakehead and Laurentian Universities, and views the entire geography of Northern Ontario as its campus. This paper explores how community engagement contributes to achieving social accountability in over 90 sites through NOSM’s distinctive model, Distributed Community Engaged Learning (DCEL).Methods: Studies involving qualitative and quantitative methods contribute to this paper, which draws on administrative data from NOSM and external sources, as well as surveys and interviews of students, graduates and other informants including the joint NOSM-CRaNHR (Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research) tracking and impact studies.Results: Community engagement contributes throughout the lifecycle stages of preadmission, admission, and undergraduate medical education. High school students from 70 Northern Ontario communities participate in NOSM’s week-long Health Sciences Summer Camps. The MD admissions process involves approximately 128 volunteers assessing written applications and over 100 volunteer interviewers. Thirty-six Indigenous communities host first year students and third-year students learn their core clinical medicine in 15 communities, throughout Northern Ontario. In general, learners and communities report net benefits from participation in NOSM programs.Conclusion: Community engagement makes a key contribution to the success of NOSM’s socially accountable distributed medical education

Women and politics in Papua New Guinea.

This volume comprises papers presented to the Department of Political and Social Change's fifth annual seminar on Papua New Guinea, held at The Australian National University in May 1984, together with an introductory paper by Professor Maev O'Collins. It brings together contributions by Papua New Guineans and foreigners, politicians and scholars, women and men

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

2009 American Anthropological Association Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Session on Culture, Health and Aging in Native North American Communities

Introduction: Wayne Warry Marie’s Story Of Aging Well: Toward New Perspectives on the Experience Of Aging For Aboriginal Seniors in Canada Syvia Abonyi Marie Favel, Ile a la Crosse Mistreatment and the Meaning of Respect for Native Elders Lori L. Jervis William Sconzert Hall Forgetting and Forgotten: Dementia in Aboriginal Seniors Kristen Jacklin and Wayne Warry Understanding Aging: Culture, Cognitive Health and Contemporary Aboriginal People’s Experience with Dementia Jessica Pace Perspectives on Brain Autopsy, Diabetic Amputation, and End-of-Life Issues among Elderly American Indian People        Neil Henderson, L. Carson Henderson, Ryan Blanton and Steven Gomez Discussion: Robert C. Harman and Wayne Warr

Doing Unto Others: Applied Anthropology, Collaborative Research and Native Self-determination

This paper examines applied anthropology in relation to Native self-determination. Adherence to the principle of self-determination in research produces a fundamental shift from independent to collaborative research. The paper discusses Native people’s involvement in research design and the role of aboriginally defined policy in shaping the parameters of applied research.The research-policy nexus remains dominated by non-Native practitioners and bureaucrats employing inappropriate methodologies. Anthropologists can strengthen interdisciplinary research by advocating the use of participatory and other qualitative research techniques which Native people view as ‘culturally appropriate’.Cet essai traite de l’anthropologie appliquée mise en rapport avec l’autodétermination des autochtones. On note une mutation radicale de la recherche indépendante à la recherche collective lorsque le principe de l’autodétermination est mis en application. L’auteur décrit l’engagement des autochtones dans l’élaboration d’une recherche et le rôle de leur politique concernant les paramètres de la recherche appliquée.Les praticiens et bureaucrates non-autochtones aux méthodes inadéquates détiennent toujours le monopole du lien entre cette politique et la recherche. Les anthropologues peuvent renforcer la recherche interdisciplinaire en encourageant la recherche collective et toute autre technique de recherche qualitative jugée « culturellement appropriée » par les autochtones

Chuave politics: changing patterns of leadership in Papua New Guinea Highlands.

This study of contemporary politics and political change in Chuave, in Papua New Guineas Simbu Province,documents the way in which the nature of local level leadership has changed since Europeans first entered the area in 1933 and examines how current big men cooperate and compete in everyday political affairs within and beyond their own clan or village

Developing Useful and Transferable Skills: Course Design to Prepare Students for a Life of Learning

This article examines evidence of academic skill development and transfer related to the taking of a first year Inquiry-based seminar course designed to enhance a range of self directed learning skills and their transferability to other learning contexts. The study compares a sample of academic work from two groups of Social Sciences students, one comprised of students who had taken the Inquiry course and the other who had not. The student work consists of 1) papers submitted by participants who were asked for the best paper they had written at university and 2) descriptive narratives provided by participants of the steps they took in researching and writing that paper. Qualitative and quantitative analysis by multiple raters using a blinded protocol was conducted. The results show both meaningfully higher paper and skill assessments for students who had taken the inquiry seminar and evidence of transfer of skills and strategy to other learning contexts, supporting the hypothesis that transfer of core skills occurs under particular learning conditions that can be fostered through course design and enhanced through specific pedagogical objectives

Academic Skill Development - Inquiry Seminars Can Make a Difference: Evidence from a Quasi-experimental Study

This paper examines whether a single first-year inquiry-based seminar can have a lasting impact on students’ academic skills. Fifty-four Inquiry students and 71 comparable students participated in three performance tests: a research skills exercise; an evaluation of oral presentation ability; and a test of critical reasoning and teamwork skills. In addition, participants completed a questionnaire focusing on learning approaches and experiences. The study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring long-term effects of relatively small educational interventions. Findings indicate that although universities may not be developing the skills they assume, a single first-year inquiry seminar can have far reaching effects on academic skill development and these skills are typically lasting