Roles matter: Graduate student perceptions of active learning in the STEM courses they take and those they teach

Despite many calls to reform undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to incorporate active learning into classes, there has been little attention paid to graduate level classrooms or courses taught by graduate students. Here, we set out to understand if and how STEM graduate students’ perceptions of active learning change in the classes they take versus those they teach. We found that graduate students had taken relatively few graduate level classes using active learning and they felt that more time should be devoted to active learning in the courses they were taking. Teaching assistants felt that they were devoting the right amount of class time to active learning in the classes they taught. Graduate students also felt that they were using teaching methods in the classes they taught that were different from those they thought should be used when teaching undergraduates and were different from how they preferred to learn when taking classes

The persistence and evolutionary consequences of vestigial behaviours

N.W.B. and J.G.R. were supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/T0006191/1).Behavioural traits are often noted to persist after relaxation or removal of associated selection pressure, whereas it has been observed that morphological traits under similar conditions appear to decay more rapidly. Despite this, persistent non-adaptive, ‘vestigial’ behavioural variation has received little research scrutiny. Here we review published examples of vestigial behavioural traits, highlighting their surprising prevalence, and argue that their further study can reveal insights about the widely debated role of behaviour in evolution. Some vestigial behaviours incur fitness costs, so may act as a drag on adaptive evolution when that adaptation occurs via trait loss or reversal. In other cases, vestigial behaviours can contribute to future evolutionary trajectories, for example by preserving genetic and phenotypic variation which is later co-opted by selection during adaptive evolution or diversification, or through re-emergence after ancestral selection pressures are restored. We explore why vestigial behaviours appear prone to persistence. Behavioural lag may be a general phenomenon arising from relatively high levels of non-genetic variation in behavioural expression, and pleiotropic constraint. Long-term persistence of non-adaptive behavioural traits could also result when their expression is associated with morphological features which might be more rapidly lost or reduced. We propose that vestigial behaviours could provide a substrate for co-option by novel selective forces, and advocate further study of the fate of behavioural traits following relaxed and reversed selection. Vestigial behaviours have been relatively well studied in the context of antipredator behaviours, but they are far from restricted to this ecological context, and so deserve broader consideration. They also have practical importance, with mixed evidence, for example, as to whether predator/parasite-avoidance behaviours are rapidly lost in wildlife refuges and captivity. We identify important areas for future research to help determine whether vestigial behaviours essentially represent a form of evolutionary lag, or whether they have more meaningful evolutionary consequences distinct from those of other vestigial and behavioural traits.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Impact of a Vocational Counseling Based Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program upon Work and Well-Being: A Pilot Study

Even though recovery from Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) involves changes among a number of life domains, services have traditionally focused on abstinence from substances. Cursory attention is placed on holistic treatment approaches for persons with SUDs, such as vocational counseling services to address employment related concerns. In response to this need, the purpose of this study was to explore the influence of an innovative treatment approach for individuals with SUDs. Specifically, an exploration of the impact of an innovative intervention that prepares consumers in SUD treatment for gainful employment for the purpose of improving work and well-being outcomes was conducted.  Participants were consumers who received services from a Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program at East Carolina University and consented to participate (N = 69). Based on Life-Course theory and previous literature on the interplay of employment and the treatment of SUDs, the following research questions and hypotheses were generated. Research question 1 explored the impact of consumer demographic factors on SAIOP participation. Research question 2 explored the impact of SAIOP participation on work and well-being outcomes, and was tested through the following five hypotheses: (1) The longer the SAIOP participation, the more likely the participants were to be employed full- or part-time; (2 - 5) As participants' SAIOP participation increased, the severity of their employment issue, alcohol use, drug use, and psychiatric issue problem severity would decrease. For research question 1, results revealed one significant association, where consumers with no high school education had more participation hours in job readiness training than those with a high school degree or GED. For research question 2, the results revealed support for hypothesis 1, that longer hours of participation was associated with an increased likelihood of employment, and hypothesis 4, that longer hours of participation was associated with a decrease in drug use problem severity. The results did not show support for hypotheses 2, 3, or 5.   The results demonstrate the interplay between work and treatment for SUDs. Further, this study shows support re-conceptualizing SUDs treatment delivery to include a more life-course, holistic approach. Thus, this study has implications for rehabilitation counselors and administrators.  Ph.D

Skills competitions: a winning formula for enhancing the quality of vocational education?

This thesis seeks to establish the merits of engaging in skills competitions and the requirements for further education colleges to consider in doing so effectively. This study uses qualitative methodology based on data gathered from two case studies, each being a college of further education in the West Midlands. The case studies produced transcripts from 22 semi-structured interviews with staff employed at these colleges, and responses from 28 vocational teachers from the case study colleges to an on-line questionnaire. The perspectives of the respondents are considered against themes emerging from a review of relevant literature on skills competitions, quality assurance, vocational teaching, change management, vocational identity and continuous professional development within further education. Following an analysis of the findings it is suggested that skills competitions can be used to enhance vocational education. This is enabled through embracing the 'craft' of vocational teachers and their students, within a corporate approach to the introduction and use of skills competitions by colleges of further education. This approach is sustainable where colleges encourage the development of environments that are defined as 'expansive', but is less likely to sustain enhancements in vocational education where environments are seen as 'restrictive'

In-situ monitoring of microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition diamond growth

With a wealth of extreme properties, including the highest thermal conductivity of any known material, diamond is a highly desirable material for a wide range of applications. However, the growth of high-quality diamond films on heterogeneous materials can be challenging. With the properties of diamond films highly dependent on the substrate temperature during growth, non-uniform substrate temperature will result in the growth of inhomogeneous films. Chapter 4 details the development of an inexpensive temperature mapping system, combining dual wavelength pyrometry with a mirror galvanometer to produce substrate temperature maps under growth conditions. Temperature maps produced are compared to finite element simulations and spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman spectra, with good agreement between the results. As well as substrate temperature, the quality of diamond films is dependent on the early stages of growth. In Chapter 5, spectroscopic ellipsometry is applied to the initial stages of diamond growth on silicon. Ex-situ spectra are used to develop an optical model for characterisation, which is then applied to in-situ spectra. The model identified the point of coalescence of crystallites into a single film through a decrease in bulk void content followed by a spike in sp2 content. Ex-situ Raman spectra and atomic force microscopy images were used to validate the model. One potential application of diamond is for thermal management of gallium nitride devices, with potential growth routes on an aluminium nitride interlayer atop the GaN stack. This application is limited by a thermal resistance associated with the disordered transition region formed in the early stages of growth. Chapter 6 utilises spectroscopic ellipsometry for in-situ monitoring of the early stages of diamond growth on AlN, with observations again verified by Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy images