Movements in Mentorship: Exploring Shifting Boundaries and Roles in a Faculty-Graduate Student-Undergraduate Student Mentorship Micro-community

The relationship between mentors and mentees in academic communities is often complex. In the interactive workshop described here, we worked with participants to make visible the generative function of the shifting boundaries within academia as a resource for establishing rich and enduring learning relationships between established and emerging members of a teaching community

Thyroid Hormone Therapy for Older Adults with Subclinical Hypothyroidism.

BACKGROUND: The use of levothyroxine to treat subclinical hypothyroidism is controversial. We aimed to determine whether levothyroxine provided clinical benefits in older persons with this condition. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial involving 737 adults who were at least 65 years of age and who had persisting subclinical hypothyroidism (thyrotropin level, 4.60 to 19.99 mIU per liter; free thyroxine level within the reference range). A total of 368 patients were assigned to receive levothyroxine (at a starting dose of 50 μg daily, or 25 μg if the body weight was <50 kg or the patient had coronary heart disease), with dose adjustment according to the thyrotropin level; 369 patients were assigned to receive placebo with mock dose adjustment. The two primary outcomes were the change in the Hypothyroid Symptoms score and Tiredness score on a thyroid-related quality-of-life questionnaire at 1 year (range of each scale is 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more symptoms or tiredness, respectively; minimum clinically important difference, 9 points). RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 74.4 years, and 396 patients (53.7%) were women. The mean (±SD) thyrotropin level was 6.40±2.01 mIU per liter at baseline; at 1 year, this level had decreased to 5.48 mIU per liter in the placebo group, as compared with 3.63 mIU per liter in the levothyroxine group (P<0.001), at a median dose of 50 μg. We found no differences in the mean change at 1 year in the Hypothyroid Symptoms score (0.2±15.3 in the placebo group and 0.2±14.4 in the levothyroxine group; between-group difference, 0.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], -2.0 to 2.1) or the Tiredness score (3.2±17.7 and 3.8±18.4, respectively; between-group difference, 0.4; 95% CI, -2.1 to 2.9). No beneficial effects of levothyroxine were seen on secondary-outcome measures. There was no significant excess of serious adverse events prespecified as being of special interest. CONCLUSIONS: Levothyroxine provided no apparent benefits in older persons with subclinical hypothyroidism. (Funded by European Union FP7 and others; TRUST ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01660126 .)

Failing to Learn: Design Thinking and the Development of a Failure-Positive Mindset in the University Classroom

Meaningful and impactful learning experiences are rife with failure. And yet, students struggle with framing, tolerating and attributing failure in a positive manner within the post secondary learning context. This paper explores whether using design thinking as a pedagogical approach might help students learn to tolerate, reframe and attribute failure in a more productive way. Findings from this comparative study of 600 undergraduate business students enrolled in a common first year marketing class reveal the ways in which design thinking-based learning approaches might be used to re-orient student’s conceptions of failure as a part of their creative problem-solving skill development process. Students were surveyed to learn more about how they perceived the concept of failure within their learning, to whom they attributed failures within their learning, and how well they tolerated failure as a part of their learning experience. Results from the nearly 400 responses to the online survey suggest that integrating design thinking focused approaches to learning into the post secondary classroom has a positive impact on the development of a student’s self-reported failure tolerance and may change the way that failure is attributed and framed in students’ descriptions of their individual learning. I find that design thinking-based learning might be used as an effective pedagogical approach in classes where the development of a failure-positive mindset is considered an essential competency or learning objective, and I offer practical recommendations for educators seeking to develop a failure-positive mindset within their learning communities

Designing our Thinking: Examining the Effects of Experiential Learning and Design Thinking on Creativity, Innovation, and Collaboration Skills Development in the Undergraduate Classroom

This paper shares initial findings from a study of the way that design thinking and experiential learning informed approaches to teaching can help programs and institutions in the higher education community meet the teaching and learning objectives identified by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as critical for our global future. The project surveyed undergraduate students in a large first year introductory course to learn more about how design thinking based learning practices might serve to extend an experiential learning pedagogical approach toward the successful development of innovation, creativity, interpersonal, self-paced, problem-based and lifelong learning skills. Results from the survey of 600 students reveal that using a design thinking model of learning as part of an experiential learning curriculum may be an effective way to enhance the development of the identified skills and approaches within an experiential learning framework. Students who experienced the addition of design thinking based learning practices to an experiential learning framework reported higher levels of confidence in their innovation and creativity skills and were more likely to seek opportunities for collaboration and self-paced learning than those who participated in an experiential learning focused section of the same class. This article provides an illustration of the impact of using design thinking as an extension of experiential learning in an undergraduate higher education class and offers recommendations for institutions and professional programs seeking to meet World Economic Forum Education 4.0 Initiative goals

Doing Design Thinking: An Ethnography of the Digital Graphic Design Studio

How do designers do design thinking? The design studio is often held as an epicentre of a new way of thinking about complex problems: design thinking. As such, the studio itself it is frequently appropriated as a model for generating creativity and innovation quickly and reliably. In this research, I describe how the discourse of design thinking is re-shaping the practice of design work from which it takes its name. By examining the effects of the design thinking discourse on the work of a design team, I provide a rich view into the day-to-day workings of communication designers engaged in negotiating the discourse of design thinking in their practice. Drawing on ethnographic observations of client pitches, team brainstorms and daily work in the studio itself, I argue the discourse around design thinking is made visible in the ways that designers engage with clients, with their teams, and in their individual practice. At the studio level, I investigate the ways in which auditing practices and client facing work are shaped by this evolving discourse, and how the discourse of design thinking is mobilized as both a translation device and catalyst for change. At the team level, I demonstrate the challenges introduced by this discourse to teams attempting to reconcile the performative aspects of their work with the mundane but essential labour of cultural production, and how they develop new understandings of what it means to be a designer who makes thoughts, not things. And at the practice level, I examine the surprising role of ambiguity within the daily work of individual members of this community of practice. By examining the development of graphic communications, and the effect of a discourse on a unique social practice of cultural production, I paint a picture of the interplay of routine and adaptation in the work of producing communication design. I conclude by proposing a model of a holistic design mindset: one that incorporates designed thinking, design doing, and design culture with the attitudes, aptitudes and approaches of this occupational culture