Exploring Academic Motivation of Canadian Master of Education Learners

Motivation, an important characteristic of the learner, is related to several key educational outcomes, such as persistence; performance; learning quality; and psychological well-being. Self-determination theory posits that human behaviors are either intrinsically motivated, extrinsically motivated, or amotivated. Using a self-reported questionnaire within the framework of self-determination theory, this study examined the motivational styles of Canadian Master’s of Education learners. Results indicated that this group of learners reported using more self-determined motivational styles. The age of the participants was a factor in that the participants who were more advanced in age reported less frequently that they perceived a locus of control for their academic learning from external sources. Part-time and full-time learners showed significant differences in terms of amotivation and identified regulation, indicating that part-time learners were more motivated than full-time students. By clarifying motivational styles used by graduate students, the study provides educational implications for graduate programs and adult education

QEP Process Writing Survey: Process and Results

Goals and Objectives: Our institution, Georgia Southern University, has selected a Quality Enhanced Plan (QEP) focusing on fostering effective student writing and associated thinking skills across all college and in the disciplines. In addition to the 1st Student Learning Outcome (SLO) of demonstrating argumentation, analysis, and synthesis skills through writing, the 2nd SLO in our QEP highlights students’ engagement in process writing. In this presentation, we will describe how the qualitative technique, along with the quantitative method, have been used to capture students’ engagement in process writing through a pre-post design. Theoretical Framework: Since the 1980s, writing pedagogy has expanded from solely teaching students to concentrate on their written product to writing processes (Cowan & Cowan, 1980; Hillocks, 1987). Writing has been perceived to be a recursive process that writers have the opportunity to plan, draft, edit, and revise their work. The current literature is significantly influenced by the social cognitive view of process writing (Flower & Hayes, 1980; Flower, 2010). Influenced by this theory, our QEP plan highlights not only student writing products but also process writing, not only cognitive process but also social strategies. Process writing in our plan aims at encouraging students’ engagement in 1) researching, 2) drafting, 3) reflecting, 4) collaborating, 5) reviewing, 6) editing. Methodology/Data: We used a survey which included both likert-scale and open ended questions to assess students’ engagement in process writing. The survey which was collected at the beginning and end of Fall 2015 included three sections: 1) students’ background information, 2) 6-point Likert-scale items about the six components of process writing, and 3) two open-ended questions about students’ specific actions from planning to submitting their writing assignment and their reflections of how their writing benefited from process writing. The Process Writing Survey was distributed among all the 14 Writing-Enriched courses. The responses of students who came from the programs that did not participate in the 1 st year of QEP were excluded. The responses to the 6-point Likert-scale items were entered and analyzed using REMARK and SPSS. The two open-ended questions were analyzed by hand through a standard qualitative thematic inductive coding approach. To minimize bias and increase trustworthiness, we cross-checked and cross-validated the codes. Educational/Field Significance: Our presentation provides important implications for program assessment. While the Likert-scale quantitative data allows generalizability, the qualitative approach using the open-ended questions offers rich and enhanced information regarding process writing. Open-ended questions provide richness of detail, bring to light examples or illustrations, and offer opportunities for students to elaborate and reflect their writing processes, although the qualitative method is time-consuming and responses may be obscuring to code. In addition, the comparison of the two sets of data provides triangulation of data sources. Hence, we are able to identify how the results from both datasets support or contradict each other. Proposed Significance/Outcomes: In the presentation, we will describe how the results offered data-driven evidence to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, document the changes and progresses of students’ engagement in process writing, and provide directions for action plans

Facilitators and Barriers to Engagement and Effective SoTL Research Collaborations in Faculty Learning Communities

To determine factors that influence faculty engagement and success in faculty learning communities focused on collaborative Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), our project gathered information on (1) faculty motivation to engage with SoTL; (2) structures that support collaboration; (3) the perceived impact of SoTL on teaching, scholarship, and faculty engagement in academic communities on campus and beyond; and (4) the role of the teaching center in supporting collaborative faculty learning communities focused on SoTL. In this explanatory, sequential design mixed-methods study, participants were asked to complete a survey on their experience as participants in faculty learning communities at a large comprehensive public university in the southeastern United States; researchers then conducted one-on-one interviews with select participants to gain an in-depth understanding of trends and questions emerging from the survey data. Results indicate that personal, institutional, professional, and team factors contribute to participants’ perception of the success and effectiveness of collaborative research teams. Findings from the study offer guidance for setting up effective collaborative structures for SoTL projects and nurturing inter-disciplinary research among faculty members, thus providing insights that can inform the design and facilitation of similar programs in the United States and internationally

Facilitators and Barriers to Engagement and Effective SoTL Research Collaborations in Faculty Learning Communities

To determine factors that influence faculty engagement and success in faculty learning communities focused on collaborative Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), our project gathered information on (1) faculty motivation to engage with SoTL; (2) structures that support collaboration; (3) the perceived impact of SoTL on teaching, scholarship, and faculty engagement in academic communities on campus and beyond; and (4) the role of the teaching center in supporting collaborative faculty learning communities focused on SoTL. In this explanatory, sequential design mixed-methods study, participants were asked to complete a survey on their experience as participants in faculty learning communities at a large comprehensive public university in the southeastern United States; researchers then conducted one-on-one interviews with select participants to gain an in-depth understanding of trends and questions emerging from the survey data. Results indicate that personal, institutional, professional, and team factors contribute to participants’ perception of the success and effectiveness of collaborative research teams. Findings from the study offer guidance for setting up effective collaborative structures for SoTL projects and nurturing inter-disciplinary research among faculty members, thus providing insights that can inform the design and facilitation of similar programs in the United States and internationally

What Writing Processes do Teacher Candidates Use? Findings from a Think-Aloud Protocol

The objective of this study was to examine changes in teacher candidates’ writing processes and writing quality while enrolled in a writing-enriched course that was part of a college of education’s teacher education program. Participants in the study were enrolled in an introductory middle grades course that focused on pedagogical methods in general. A modified think-aloud method was used to collect data on ten teacher candidates’ writing processes as they responded to a writing prompt, once at the beginning of the semester and then again at the end. Data examined were the final product of writing, writing processes used in real-time, and teacher candidates’ reflections on writing strategies after writing was complete. Taken together, the data showed that teacher candidates’ ability to write for a particular purpose and audience and their use evidence to back up written claims improved throughout the semester. We conclude that looking at multiple points of data – the final product of writing, writing processes, and explicitly described strategies to approach writing – to examine how teacher candidates develop as writers is a fruitful endeavour and that the writing-enriched course enhanced teacher candidates’ writing abilities

De novo entecavir+adefovir dipivoxil+lamivudine triple-resistance mutations resulting from sequential therapy with adefovir dipivoxil, and lamivudine

Additional file 4: Figure S3. Electropherogram of rtM204 V+rtL180 M+rtA181 V+rtI169 V clone in Patient 3 (GenBank accession number: KU751729)

Improved Quantification of Small Objects in Near-Infrared Diffuse Optical Tomography

Diffuse optical tomography allows quantification of hemoglobin, oxygen saturation, and water in tissue, and the fidelity in this quantification is dependent on the accuracy of optical properties determined during image reconstruction. In this study, a three-step algorithm is proposed and validated that uses the standard Newton minimization with Levenberg-Marquardt regularization as the first step. The second step is a modification to the existing algorithm using a two-parameter regularization to allow lower damping in a region of interest as compared to background. This second stage allows the recovery of the actual size of an inclusion. A region-based reconstruction is the final third step, which uses the estimated size and position information from step 2 to yield quantitatively accurate average values for the optical parameters. The algorithm is tested on simulated and experimental data and is found to be insensitive to object contrast and position. The percentage error between the true and the average recovered value for the absorption coefficient in test images is reduced from 47 to 27% for a 10-mm inclusion, from 38 to 13% for a 15-mm anomaly, and from 28 to 5.5% for a 20-mm heterogeneity. Simulated data with absorbing and scattering heterogeneities of 15 mm diam located in different positions show recovery with less than 15% error in absorption and 6% error in reduced scattering coefficients. The algorithm is successfully applied to clinical data from a subject with a breast abnormality to yield quantitatively increased absorption coefficients, which enhances the contrast to 3.8 compared to 1.23 previously