Brian E. Myers

Stages of Concern Profiles for Active Learning Strategies of Agricultural Technical School Teachers in Egypt.

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess Egyptian Agricultural Technical School (ATS) teachers’ implementation of active learning strategies in their classrooms. Methods: The Stages of Concern Questionnaire was administered to 230 participants in active learning workshops. After eliminating headmasters, supervisors and people no longer teaching, the population became 160 teachers with usable responses from all. Findings: ATS instructors who had participated in an active learning workshop indicated some concern in adopting the innovation and in being well prepared to utilize the strategies. Implications: Adoption of innovations is dependent upon instructor motivation to change and support from the school. Future workshops must address those concerns, as well as provide additional information regarding how to implement innovative strategies. Value: ATS teachers in Egypt have participated in various workshops to assist them in learning about, practicing and incorporating into their teaching the innovation of active learning strategies. Agriculture teachers do not complete formal preparation to become teachers in Egypt, so the development of teaching strategies is often neglected. ATS instructors may be reluctant to adopt new innovations such as active learning, since there are few incentives to make changes and few opportunities to learn new strategies. If workshops on active learning are to be continued, the concerns of teachers regarding the adoption of the innovation can be valuable. Further investigation is also warranted regarding the implementation of and concerns with each of the active learning strategies.

Reflecting on a multidisciplinary collaboration to design a general education climate change course

Courses designed through multidisciplinary collaboration represent an opportunity for curricular innovation, but require a larger investment of university resources. This paper describes lessons learned from designing and pilot testing a general education course on climate change as a multidisciplinary team. The course will be required for undergraduate students to fulfill core requirements in natural science beginning in 2017 at a research university in the southeastern USA. This narrative study allows us to share our perceptions of best practices, challenges, and lessons learned based on participant observations and open-ended questionnaires completed by students during three semesters of pilot testing. We describe trade-offs involved in our decisions and propose that our design, which takes advantage of reusable learning objects and a hybrid format with online and in-class components, is an innovative way to create and deliver core curricula to large groups of undergraduates. Compared to an individual designer or designers from a single discipline, multidisciplinary design teams have advantages in creating activities that integrate disciplines, incorporating a diversity of scientific perspectives, and considering instructional design choices. Challenges included ensuring connectivity and calibrating the complexity of content and activities created by different designers. Given the trend toward interdisciplinary teaching and instructional design, this qualitative work may provide useful information to those undertaking similar projects.

The University of Florida’s Scientific Thinking and Educational Partnership Program: An Approach for Genetics Outreach

In an effort to compete for multimillion-dollar grants that require researchers to translate their findings for the general public in the form of outreach programs, the University of Florida developed the Scientific Thinking and Educational Partnership (STEP) program. This article describes the evolution of the STEP program, from the creation of a model outreach program called ufgenetics.com—a Web site geared toward media professionals and middle school and high school teachers—to the testing, evaluation, and promotion of that project. The STEP program has garnered over

THE INFLUENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING STYLE ON CRITICAL THINKING SKILL

1 million in grants in just 2 years of existence.