Making mentoring work: The need for rewiring epistemology

To help produce expert coaches at both participation and performance levels, a number of governing bodies have established coach mentoring systems. In light of the limited literature on coach mentoring, as well as the risks of superficial treatment by coach education systems, this paper therefore critically discusses the role of the mentor in coach development, the nature of the mentor-mentee relationship and, most specifically, how expertise in the mentee may best be developed. If mentors are to be effective in developing expert coaches then we consequently argue that a focus on personal epistemology is required. On this basis, we present a framework that conceptualizes mentee development on this level through a step by step progression, rather than unrealistic and unachievable leap toward expertise. Finally, we consider the resulting implications for practice and research with respect to one-on-one mentoring, communities of practice, and formal coach education

Guidebook for genetic resources documentation: A self-teaching approach to the understanding, analysis and development of genetic resources documentation

This guidebook comes with Genebank Management System Software User's Guide, a tutorial and reference guide for use with the Genebank Management System Software (GMS). This guidebook will assist users in making their own decision on the analysis, design, implementation and use of both manual and microcomputer-based documentation systems. (Chinese, Spanish and French versions available

Guide de documentation des ressources génétiques: Méthode d'auto-formation pour la compréhension, l'analyse et l'utilisation de la documentation des ressources génétiques

This Guidebook comes with Genebank Management System Software User's Guide, a tutorial and reference guide for use with the Genebank Management System Software (GMS). This guidebook will assist users in making their own decision on the analysis, design, implementation and use of both manual and microcomputer-based documentation systems. (Chinese and Spanish versions available

Assessment and Student Learning – a fundamental relationship and the role of information and communication technologies

This paper reviews the role of assessment in student learning and its relationship with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). There is ample evidence of technology-led innovations failing to achieve the transformations expected by educators. We draw upon existing research to illustrate the links between aspects of student learning, assessment practices and the use of ICT. Assessment influences not only what parts of a course get studied, but also how those parts are studied. While the adoption of ICT does not, in itself, change student behaviours, appropriately designed assessment that exploits the potential of ICT can change students’ approaches to learning. We argue that ICT can enable important learning outcomes to be achieved, but these must be underpinned by an assessment strategy that cues students to adopt a suitable approach to learning

E-learning: you don't always get what you hope for

Despite substantial growth in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) throughout western societies, there is much evidence of technology-led innovations within Higher Education (HE) failing to achieve the anticipated transformations in learning and teaching. This paper reviews evidence from research and evaluation studies relating not only to e-learning, but also to wider HE practices. It argues that the use of ICT does not, in itself, result in improved educational outcomes and ways of working. It considers contextual factors that are of greater significance in determining how and why e-learning is used in HE. Students' engagement with e-learning relates to their expectations and conceptions of learning and to assessment demands. Academics need to re-assess their own beliefs and practices concerning teaching and assessment and their impact on the experience of learners. Both teachers and learners need to understand why e-learning activities are to be undertaken and the rewards expected to be derived

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Culture and Personal Epistemology: U.S. and Middle Eastern Students’ beliefs about Scientific Knowledge and Knowing

Middle Eastern (Omani) and Western (U.S.) students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing in the sciences were compared on four dimensions of personal epistemology proposed by Hofer and Pintrich ( Review of Educational Research (1997), 67 , 88–140). As predicted, given their experiences with comparatively traditional political and religious institutions, Omani more so than U.S. college students were more likely to accept scientific authorities as the basis of scientific truth. Furthermore, Omani men were more accepting of authorities than were Omani women, but there was no gender difference among U.S. students. Omani more than U.S. students also believed that knowledge in the sciences was simpler and more certain, which is consistent with comparisons between U.S. and Asian students (e.g., Qian & Pan, 2002, A comparision of epistemological beliefs and learning from science text between American and Chinese high school students. In B. K. Hofer & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Personal epistomology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 365–385), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum). Students in the two countries did not differ, however, in whether their beliefs were based on personal opinions versus systematic evidence. Suggestions for further research included directly assessing experiences with, and attitudes toward, authorities in academic and other areas of students’ lives.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43812/1/11218_2005_Article_1826.pd