Characterizing the University of California's tenure-track teaching position from the faculty and administrator perspectives.

Teaching faculty are a potential mechanism to generate positive change in undergraduate STEM education. One such type of faculty is the Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment (L(P)SOE), a tenure-track faculty line within the University of California (UC) system. As a foundation for future studies, we sought to characterize individuals in the L(P)SOE position in terms of their background training, job expectations, and resources available for their success. Data were collected through an online survey completed by over 80% of STEM L(P)SOEs across the UC system, as well as interviews with over 20 deans and chairs in STEM departments at three UC campuses. From this work, we found that the majority of current L(P)SOEs were formally trained within their disciplines and not in an education field; however, they possessed substantial education experience, such as classroom teaching or participation in professional development opportunities. Expectations for time spent on teaching, research, and service are aligned between individuals within varying ranks of the L(P)SOE faculty and between L(P)SOEs and administrators. L(P)SOEs and administrators are also in agreement about what constitutes acceptable professional development activities. Interestingly, we identified differences that may reflect changes in the position over time, including increased start-up funds for more recently hired L(P)SOE faculty and a differing perspective on the role of discipline-based education research and scholarly activities between non-tenured and more senior L(P)SOEs. Overall, these data provide a snapshot of the L(P)SOE position that will aid in future work to identify the potential institutional impact of these individuals

A Challenge to Lepton Universality in B Meson Decays

One of the key assumptions of the Standard Model of fundamental particles is that the interactions of the charged leptons, namely electrons, muons, and taus, differ only because of their different masses. While precision tests comparing processes involving electrons and muons have not revealed any significant violation of this assumption, recent studies involving the higher-mass tau lepton have resulted in observations that challenge lepton universality at the level of four standard deviations. A confirmation of these results would point to new particles or interactions, and could have profound implications for our understanding of particle physics.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Natur

Constructive or Disruptive? How Active Learning Environments Shape Instructional Decision-Making

This study examined instructional shifts associated with teaching in environments optimized for active learning, including how faculty made decisions about teaching and their perceptions of how students responded to those changes. The interviews and subsequent analysis reveal a broad range of course changes, from small modifications of existing activities to large shifts towards collaborative learning, many of which emerged during the term rather than being planned in advance. The faculty discuss several factors that influenced their decisions, including prior experience, professional identity, student engagement, and perceived and realized affordances of the environments

Defining Understanding: Perspectives from Biology Instructors & Biology Education Researchers

Promoting student understanding of biological concepts is a key part of biology education, and the ability to “understand” a concept forms one of the six categories of the oft-used Bloom’s Taxonomy. Despite this, there remains no consensus as to what it means to understand a concept. While several formal definitions have been offered, we investigated how biology instructors and biology education researchers define the term and how they perceived the skill sets needed for a student to understand a concept in the context of assessments. We found that there was no agreement on the definition of understanding, and that responses differed in the cognitive level required to reach “understanding” of a concept. We discuss these findings in the context of Bloom’s Taxonomy and variation theory and provide directions for future inquiries. We conclude by discussing implications for biology instructors and the importance of explicitly conveying expectations to better align student and instructor expectations

Suppression of Plasmodium falciparum by serum collected from a case of Plasmodium vivax infection.

BACKGROUND: It has frequently been reported that Plasmodium vivax suppressed Plasmodium falciparum and ameliorated disease severity in patients infected with these two species simultaneously. The authors investigate the hypothesis that immunological responses stimulated by P. vivax may play a role in suppressing co-infecting P. falciparum. METHODS: Sera, taken sequentially from one of the authors (YN) during experimental infection with P. vivax, were added to in vitro cultures of P. falciparum. Cross-reactive antibodies against P. falciparum antigens, and cytokines were measured in the sera. RESULTS: Significant growth inhibitory effects upon P. falciparum cultures (maximally 68% inhibition as compared to pre-illness average) were observed in the sera collected during an acute episode. Such inhibitory effects showed a strong positive temporal correlation with cross-reactive antibodies, especially IgM against P. falciparum schizont extract and, to a lesser degree, IgM against Merozoite Surface Protein (MSP)-119. Interleukin (IL)-12 showed the highest temporal correlation with P. vivax parasitaemia and with body temperatures in the volunteer. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the involvement by cross-reactive antibodies, especially IgM, in the interplay between plasmodial species. IL-12 may be one of direct mediators of fever induction by rupturing P. vivax schizonts, at least in some subjects. Future studies, preferably of epidemiological design, to reveal the association between cross-reactive IgM and cross-plasmodial interaction, are warranted

Academic influencers: Teaching faculty as potential departmental change agents for inclusive pedagogy

There is a disproportionate loss of minoritized undergraduate students from STEM majors. Faculty change efforts to confront this diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenge, such as the adoption of evidenced-based instructional approaches, has been slow. Research on affecting change in STEM departments suggests that initiatives are more successful when they are sustained and target departments rather than individuals. One potential change strategy to promote DEI-related change within a department is to embed tenure-track education-focused faculty within STEM departments. The specialist faculty have been demonstrated to pedagogically innovate within their department and consistently interact with their colleagues regarding teaching. Therefore, we sought to assess whether tenure-track education-focused faculty can influence their colleagues on instructional topics, including those related to DEI. We surveyed five STEM departments at large research-intensive campuses. The surveys had faculty select colleagues who were influential upon various aspects of instruction, including methodology, course materials, and aspects of DEI. We constructed social networks of influence across these aspects of instruction. Our analyses reveal heterogeneity across these networks. Some, like the teaching strategies network, are highly connected and involve the majority of the department, while others, like the DEI influence network, comprise a significantly smaller population of faculty. We find that tenure-track education-focused faculty are influential across all aspects of instruction and are disproportionately so in the sparsely populated DEI influence networks. This suggests that embedding these specialist faculty within departments may lead to effective sustained change efforts in the DEI values held by STEM academic departments. This research was approved by the institutional review board at the University of California, Irvine

The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations: 2022 Edition

For 25 years, the Council on Foundations and Candid have partnered on studies of globally focused giving by U.S. foundations. The new edition of The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations dives into 2016-2019 data to provide the latest perspective on how the nation's foundations are supporting critical efforts to improve health outcomes, address climate change, offer access to education, ensure human rights, and engage with a wide array of other global priorities. Through interviews with a selection of global funders, Global Giving also offers insights on how foundations are addressing the critical challenges of our time and where they see signs of optimism and opportunity going forward.Key Report FindingsU.S. private and community foundations included in Candid's Foundation 1000 dataset awarded globally focused grants totaling $8 billion in 2019—close to four times the approximately$2.2 billion awarded in 2002.Health accounted for 49 percent of global grant dollars.The largest shares of funding focused on the Sub-Saharan Africa (25.1%) and Asia & Pacific (17.7%) regions.Among the many issue areas supported by foundations, human rights has realized the fastest growth in global support in recent years. In the 2016-2019 period, human rights reached 11 percent of global foundation grant dollars, up from less than 7 percent in the 2011-2015 period.Roughly 13 percent of U.S. foundations' global grant dollars went directly to organizations based in the country where programs were implemented in the 2016-2019 period, up marginally from approximately 12 percent in the 2011-2015 period.Funding by Foundation 1000 foundations for efforts to counter or mitigate the impact of climate change in the United States and globally totaled nearly $1.8 billion in the 2016-2019 period, up from$1.3 billion in the 2011-2015 period.The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation accounted for 44% of global giving by U.S. foundations from 2016 to 2019