Letters of recommendation

Tirk and Prenska 2003; Exploring the color of glass: letters of recommendation for female and male medical faculty.

e-Mentoring

The CareerWISE project is an NSF-funded, interdisciplinary research and development program housed at Arizona State University. The CareerWISE project has two major thrusts with the goal of increasing women’s persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) doctoral programs. These are the development and testing of internet-delivered resilience training and a comprehensive research program to characterize the experiences of women who are pursuing and leaving PhD programs in STEM disciplines.

MentorNet

a 13-year-old nonprofit working to further the progress of women and others underrepresented in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. We have matched more than 30,000 mentors to protégés and guided their one-on-one relationships with our unique e-mentoring program.

iclicker free webinar

Topic:		Teaching Faculty About Effective Clicker Use
Session dates:		Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Starting time:		1:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)
Duration:		1 hour
Presenters:		Stephanie Chasteen

Geared specifically for those involved in faculty development and support (e.g., instructional technologists, faculty excellence programs, or other faculty professional developers), this webinar will cover best practices in helping faculty to use clickers to enhance their teaching. The webinar presenter has been creating faculty professional development materials around clicker use for years, and will share tips and techniques — many based on research — for helping faculty to see the potential power of this technology and learn to implement it effectively. Webinar components will include: (1) best practices in clicker use, (2) resources available for faculty learning to use clickers, (3) research-based techniques for faculty development around clickers, and (4) working with faculty resistance and alleviating frustration. HIghly recommended: Watch “Make Clickers Work for You” webinar recording at http://theactiveclass.com/speaking-events/ prior to this webinar, and/or the video “How to use clickers effectively” at http://STEMvideos.colorado.edu.

Don't lecture me

A radio documentary on not-lecturing in college

Scientists and Human Rights

An editorial in Science by Leonard Rubenstein and Mona Younis.

The “On-call” Scientists AAAS program.

White Victim Mentality

The new study by Michael Norton (Harvard) and Samuel Sommers (Tufts) is filling up pages and pages of news”papers” and bringing up many ideas around affirmative action.

Is Anti-White Bias a Problem? room for debate on The New York Times
I’m afraid the best I have found is in Spanish: “Aún hacen falta cuotas raciales” at elpais.com
Some things mentioned in the more extensive analysis (note: yes, some of them are scary):

Grutter v. Bollinger (wiki summary)
Ricci v. DeStefano (wiki summary)
The Negro Family by Mr. Moynihan (a comment on it)

Dorothy E. Roberts talks about the biopolitics of race in her new book Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the 21st Century (a short article about it here) and her article What’s Wrong with Race-Based Medicine?: Genes, Drugs and Health Disparities

Stages of Change model for attitude and behavior change

Something to think about when we try to implement any changes, at institutional level or with the students' learning habits:

Precontemplation> Contemplation> Preparation (planning)> Action> Maintenance>Termination

The development of the model

The initial paper, around self-change of smoking: Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983.
In search of how people change: Applications to addictive behavior; Prochaska, DiClemente and Norcross 1992.
The transtheoretical model of health behavior change; Prochaska and Velicer, 1997.

And some related references and examples, quite far from our scope, I am afraid, but useful anyway:

An analysis of the model by a graduate student of Applied Psychology; Lenio 2006.
A nice collection of references at the Motivation at a Glance site.
Changing people's traveling behaviours (TravelSmart) and Reducing Alcohol harm (HAMS) have some cartoons that helped me understanding the concept. I add them in case there are more visual learners out there.
Trying to forget that the World Bank is behind this analysis of the Theories of Behavior Change, I have to admit that this brief report on Communication for Governance and the references therein were useful to me.

Support

The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education has:

some grants
plenty of publications including a series of Essays on Teaching Excellence and A Guide to Faculty Development (book reference)
and many more things I suggest you to check at some point

Designing learning experiences

Ernest Becker's Beyond Alienation: A Philosophy of Education for the Crisis of Democracy

Dee Fink's Creating Significant Learning Experiences (2003) and his full-of-resources website

Why we have too few women leaders

Gender Wage Gap

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation published some time ago by the Institute for Womens' Policy Research. In summary, no matter what, in the most common occupations for women, the most common occupations for men, the occupations with the highest earnings, the occupations with the lowest earnings: men earn more than women except in the "Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food" category. But bias only exists in your imagination...

Measuring Diversity

AAAS & NSF guide “Measuring Diversity: An Evaluation Guide for STEM Graduate Program Leaders" 2011

Research Deconstruction

Research-Based Science Instruction for Early-Stage Undergraduates and High School Students by HHMI Professor Utpal Banerjee at UCLA, the same professor who published a high impact factor paper on Drosphila eye development with 138 undergrads.

Ethics and Patents

Last week's news about gene patents brought to my mind a paper I re-read no long ago:

Reasons Scientists Avoid Thinking about Ethics. Wolpe 2006. Cell

The news about the patents:

Rulling Upholds Gene Patent in Cancer Test, on the New York Times.
Pigs return to Earth: Federal Circuit Reinstates Most - but not all - of Myriad's Patents, a Genomics Law Report

Preparing Those Who will Become Faculty

Andrea Widener wonders on the HHMI bulletin Is there Room for Teaching and Research in a Postdoc Experience.

The Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Medical Sciences launches a pilot program for postdocs who want to learn to teach.

Extensive information at the Preparing Future Faculty Program including:

Some teaching training programs I have heard of:

FIRST IV
The Teaching Fellow Postdocs at University of Colorado Boulder (I can't find the link but I know they exist!)
SABER: Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research
Teaching Postdoc Program at the University of Arizona
SEPAL (Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory) at SFSU

(if you know more, do not hesistate to leave a link on the comments)

Talking

David Bohm 1996; On Dialogue. - and related essays around it

D. Stone, B. Patton, S. Heen 1999; Difficult Conversations. How to Discuss What Matters Most.

K. Patterson, J. Grenny, R. McMillan, A. Switzler 2002; Crucial Conversations. Tools for Talking when Stakes are High.

Leaving or Staying: More than Flipping a Coin

Elaine Seymour and Nancy Hewitt 1997; Talking about leaving. Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences.

Vincent Tinto 1987; Leaving College. Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition.

various authors, 2003; Improving Completion Rates Among Disadvantaged Students.

David Moxley, Anwar Najor-Durack and Cecille Dumbrigue 2001; Keeping Students in Higher Education. Successful Practices and Strategies for Retention.

Publications by the European Access Network (EAN)

More active learning

Freeman et al, 2011; Increased course structure improves performance in introductory biology

Prince 2004; Does active learning work? A review of the research

Walker et al. 2008; A delicate balance: integrating active learning into a large lecture course

"IDEaS: Diversity is our Future" is now on UCSD-TV

IDEaS: Diversity is our Future - UCSD-TV - University of California Television

Books

Electronic Scholarly Publishing - a collection of classics of the science "literature"

Laboratorios virtuales

Biomodel

Just-in-time teaching

- Having the students make quizzes that are due a few hours before the class to inform the way you are going to teach. -

A JiTT sampler

Interactive Learning Tool-kit ILT-BQ

21st Century Skills

Also called Route 21

Multiple Choice Questions

Annotated bibliography of website resources for creating good multiple choice questions created by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Carneson, J., Delpierre, G., & Masters, K. (n.d.). Designing and managing multiple-choice questions: Appendix B, designing MCQs – do’s and don’ts. and Appendix C, MCQs and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved June 12, 2011

Designing and managing multiple choice questions. A manual developed by the University of Cape Town. Retrieved June 12, 2011

Guidelines for creating multiple choice questions using Bloom’s developed by University of Texas. Retrieved June 12, 2011

Haladyna, T. M. (1999). Developing and validating multiple-choice test items, 2 nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Haladyna, T. M. (1989). Taxonomy of multiple-choice item-writing rules. Applied Measurement in Education, 2 (1), 37-50. An excerpt retrieved June 12, 2011

Gronlund, N. E. (1998). Assessment of student achievement. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Instructional Assessment Resources on Writing multiple-choice questions, from University of Texas

Jacobs, L. C. (2002). How to write better tests: A handbook for improving test construction skills. Retrieved June 12, 2011

Levels of Understanding Assessed by Multiple Choice Questions by the American Psychological Association

Marshall, J. C., & Hales, L. W. (1971). Classroom test construction. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.

Sevenair. J. P., & Burkett, A. R. (1997). Item writing guidelines. Retrieved June 12, 2011

Tutorial to create MCQ on Blackboard from the Center for Instructional Technology (they have a tutorial for almost anything you can imagine on assessing learners)

Writing multiple-choice questions that demand critical thinking from the Teaching Effectiveness Program at the University of Oregon. Retrieved June 12, 2011 Adapted into a pdf Retrieved June 12, 2011

Student-centered approaches work

Wood 2009 Innovations in Teaching Undergraduate Biology and Why We Need Them

Armbruster et al. 2009 Active Learning and Student-Centered Pedagogy Improve Student Attitudes and Performance in Introductory Biology

Froyd 2008 Evidence for the Efficacy of Student-active Learning Pedagogies

McCrindle and Christensen 1995 The Impact of Learning Journals on Metacognitive and Cognitive Processes and Learning Performance

Burrowes 2003 A Student-Centered Approach to Teaching General Biology That Really Works: Put to a Test

Michael 2006 Where's the evidence that active learning works?

Osborne 2010 Arguing to Learn in Science: The Role of Collaborative, Critical Discourse

Schroeder et al. 2007 A Meta-Analysis of National Research: Effects of Teaching Strategies on Student Achievement in Science in the United States

Diversity training

Online Vignette Exercises for Racial Diversity Training

Diversity and Inclusion at the LEARN Center at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Check out their Discovery Hunt activity

The Interculture Project in Lancaster shares the data from Raising Intercultural Awareness in preparation for periods of residence abroad and Acquiring Intercultural Competence.

On-line Diversity Workshop of the CIRTL Network

The Diversity Training Modules for Pre-Service Training of the Peace Corps

Teaching goals

Test your teaching goals at the Teaching Goals Inventory of the University of Iowa

Cheap measures, big changes

Haak et al. Science 2011 Increased srtructure and active learning reduce the achievement gap in introductory biology

and a comment about it in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Case Studies

The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science site and training opportunities

SENCER - Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities

Retention of New and Minority Teachers

Hilary L. Kissel, J. Patrick Meyer, Xiaofeng Liu Successful Retention of New and Minority Teachers: Results from the SASS and TFS

Misconceptions

The AAAS 2061 Project website has plenty of useful tools, including teaching guides for special topics and assessment tools. After free registration one can browse the results of a wide study performed with middle- and high-school students to find out what they know and what their misconceptions are on different topics. I wonder how many of those continue through college...

5-minute university

A good way to start the conversation about “giving up content”.

Identity and science

"A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and work of Barbara McClintock", by Evelyn Fox Keller, W.H. Freeman, 1983 deals with identity (specifically gender) affecting scientific approaches

Stereotype threat

Claude M. Steele - Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us (Issues of Our Time)

WANTED: readings on science for pedestrians

I am creating a new page to make a compilation of interesting scientific readings that non scientists can enjoy. Join us and leave your suggestions in the comments of the first post. I will try to get them organized on the new tab of the blog.

I am just leaving here the first one: Bad Science - Ben Goldacre's column

Service learning in Biochemistry

by Neena Grover at ASBMB today

Trained postdocs: a tool to improve science learning

Benedict Carey reflects on Improving the Science of Teaching Science (The New York Times) based on the work lead by Carl Wieman published in Science.

Your so-called education

The poor quality of an undergrad education - By RICHARD ARUM and JOSIPA ROKSA at The New York Times.

Distributing resources and rewards based on student learning instead of student satisfaction would help stop this race to the bottom.

The book by the authors, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, by the Unversity of Chicago Press.

Inquiry

Haury, D.L. 1993 - Teaching Science through Inquiry in ERIC/CSMEE Digest.

Brown et al. 2006 – College Science Teachers’ Views of Classroom Inquiry.

POGIL = Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning

POGIL Chemistry
POGIL Biology

CASES at Emory University – case based learning activities

Courageous Conversations about Race

Beginning Courageous Conversations about Race, by Glenn E. Singleton and Cyndie Hays

Mentoring postdocs and young faculty

Faculty Mentoring - Office of Faculty and Organizational Development at Michigan State University.

FemaleScienceProfessor talks about their practice on Postdoc Mentoring.

A post in the JuniorProf blog Your postdoc mentor should be an effective advocate for your career development…

The National Postdoctoral Association on Developing a Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan.

The Office of Intramural Training and Education at the NIH gives really good training opportunities for postdocs. Others could learn to mentor from them…

Virginia Gewin in Nature: Learning to mentor.

Betty Neal Crutcher writes Mentoring Across Cultures on Academe Online.

Richard Hain talks about Mentoring students and postdocs from the Department of Mathematics at Duke University.

In a broad sense, the mentoring of postdocs is to prepare them to be more effective faculty members, if they are headed to academia, or to guide them towards the kind of interdisciplinary research experiences valuable for those who intend to work in industry or government labs.

National Academy of Sciences Report, "Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers: A Guide for Postdoctoral Scholars, Advisers, Institutions, Funding Organizations, and Disciplinary Societies," 2000. (available to read free online).

The HHMI lab management handbook Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Managements for Postdocs and New Faculty is available on-line.

I recommend the book Lab Dynamics: Management Skills for Scientists by Carl M. Cohen and Suzanne L. Cohen.

The Office of Research Integrity at the US Department of Health and Human Services presents a guide for Mentoring International PostDocs made by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in which some cases are presented in video. The guide is available in pdf here.

I wish I had found this earlier: International Postdoc Survival Guide, from the National Postdoc Association.

And some resources from The University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School on Mentoring:

The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has created a Compact between Postdoctoral Appointees and Their Mentors, which is "intended to initiate discussions ...about the postdoctoral appointee-mentor relationship and the commitments necessary for a high quality postdoctoral training experience." The AAMC suggests various ways it can be used in order to create mutual expectations for training between postdocs and their mentors.

An annual review and an Individual Development Plan for Postdoctoral Fellows developed by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) provides a planning process that identifies both professional development needs and career objectives.

UW-Madison offers informal and formal activities for postdocs to improve their teaching and mentoring skills through the Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning and the Annual Teaching and Learning Symposium.

Backward Design

The basic steps of backward design of a teaching practice are: Identify the desired results >> Determine acceptable evidence >> Plan learning experience

One starts with the end - the desired results (goals or standards) - and then derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning (performances) called for by the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to perform (Wiggins and McTighe, 2000, page 8).

The guide Principles of Backward Design by the Tasmanian (Australia) Department of Education is based on the Expanded 2nd edition of the book Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe, which was published in 2005 by Pearson Education and the Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

The design process involves teachers planning in 3 stages, each with a focusing question:
• Stage 1 - What is worthy and requiring of understanding?
• Stage 2 - What is evidence of understanding?
• Stage 3 - What learning experiences and teaching promote understanding, interest and excellence?

[Digital] literacy has a scheme of the process

Bloom’s taxonomy

The original Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.

The Performance Juxtaposition Site, a website about performance, learning, training and leadership has an overview of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning Domains: the three types of learning

Domains can be thought of as categories. Trainers often refer to these three categories as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude). This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.
Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, revisited the cognitive domain

Bloom’s Affective Domain
Crowe et al. 2008; Biology in Bloom: Implementing Bloom's Taxonomy to Enhance Student Learning in Biology
Useful Process Clues at the Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

Measuring Excellence in Diversity

Hazelkorn and Huisman 2008 in Higher Education Policy; Higher Education in the 21st Century — Diversity of Missions

How should quality and excellence be measured? Are there different definitions or metrics depending upon the type of institution or mission? Some people argue that excellence is a normative concept requiring international benchmarks, while others say there can be different ways of measuring excellence and achievement, including impact measurements. Most national and global rankings, for example, only measure research because there is publicly available data. Yet, higher education institutions are more complex. As Einstein's famous sign in his office read: ‘Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts’.

Romney et al. 2008; Measuring the Success of Diversity Directors in Independent Schools; it’s a bit out of scope, but includes a few references in the introduction that might be useful.

Clayton-Pedersen et al. Making Excellence Inclusive. This paper has a chart that compares the traditional versus the inclusive notions of excellence and lays out each of them for students, faculty, administrators and staff, the curriculum and the institutional environment.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Diversity Efforts (in companies). The author, Tracy Brown, is the President of Diversity Trends LLC, and wrote 71 ways to demonstrate commitment to diversity

Contextualizing Developmental Biology

Anne Fausto-Sterling has a tremendous list of publications on this matter. She also published with Scott Gilbert an article explaining the philosophy behind the Bioethics supplement of Developmental Biology, THE book for any developmental biologist. The paper is Educating for social responsibility: changing the syllabus of developmental biology.

Reaching All Students and More Social Justice

A comprehensive resource from the CIRTL network is this Reaching All Students. It goes from planning a course to teaching methods and assessment, including plenty of tips. A great open source.

Chamany, Allen and Tanner join efforts in this paper from 2008 Making Biology Learning Relevant to students: Integrating People, History, and Context into College Biology Teaching

Sible et al 2005 presents the development of a course in Teaching Cell and Molecular Biology for Gender Equity

Incorporating Social Justice in the Sciences

Katayoun Chamany is an Associate Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Eugene Lang College, pretty much at the heart of New York city. I don’t intend to reinvent the wheel here, so I’ll just paste her profile, which says quite clearly the kind of (amazing) work that she is doing. I'll include a few references at the end.

Born in Iran, raised in Iowa, and trained as a geneticist and cell biologist, Katayoun finds the study of biological processes fascinating. For over a decade she has been conducting research to better understand why some students share her love for biology, while others recoil from the subject. Part of her work suggests that biology courses must be contextualized and made relevant, especially for those students who don’t initially see biology as important to their everyday experiences. To promote this education reform, she has developed seminars, workshops and educational materials that reflect an interactive and case-based method of teaching and learning. She firmly believes that biology is accessible and relevant to everyone, and that a basic understanding of biology is important for contributive members of society.

Chamany 2006, Science and Social Justice. Making the case for case studies

Chamany 2006, MDR Tuberculosis: A Case Study for Non-Science Majors Focused on Social Justice

Chamany K. 2004-2009. Cell Biology for Life: Online Book and Curriculum. Three modules include: Stem Cells (basic cell biology) Botulinum Toxin (specialized cells and communication), and HPV and Cancer (viral genetics and oncogenesis).

Chamany K. 2001. “Niños Desaparecidos: A Case Study About Genetics and Human Rights.” Journal of College Science Teaching. 31 (1):61-65.

BILD95 Spring 2011

Reader for BILD95 Spring 2011 Intergroup Dialogue: Skills for building effective multicultural research teams.

Mervis J. 2010. Better Intro Courses Seen as Key to Reducing Attrition of STEM Majors. Science 330:306-.

McCormick, D. W. (1999). Listening With Empathy: Taking the Other Person's Perspective. In A. Cooke, A. Craig, B. Greig, & M. Brazzel (Eds.). (pp. 57-60). Reading Book for Human Relations Training. Arlington, VA: NTL Institute.

Bidol, P. (1986). Interactive communication. In P. Bidol, L. Bardwell, & N. Manring (Eds.), Alternative environmental conflict management approaches: A citizen’s model, (pps. 205-209). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan School of Natural Resources.

Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. The complexity of identity: “Who am I?” In Why are all of the blacks sitting together in the cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, revised edition (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003): Chapter 2, pp. 18-28.

Harro, B. (2000). The Cycle of Socialization. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Casteñeda, H. Hackman, M. Peters, X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 463-469). NY: Routledge.

Enrico, D. (1995, Sept.). Bridges: How I learned I wasn't Caucasian. Glamour (p. 6).

Pharr, S. (1997). Common elements of oppression. In Homophobia: A weapon of sexism. Hoboken, NJ: Chardon Press.

Lorde, Audre (1996). There is no hierarchy of oppression. In J. Andrzejewski (Ed.), Oppression and social justice: Critical frameworks, (5th Ed, p. 51). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.

Pincus, F. (2000). Discrimination comes in many forms: Individual, institutional, and structural. In M. Adams, W.J. Blumenfeld, R. Casteñeda, H. Hackman, M. Peters, X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 31-35). NY: Routledge.

Anzaldúa, G. E. (2000). Allies. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Castañeda, H. W. Hackman, M. L. Peters & X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 475-477). NY: Routledge.

Sherover-Marcuse, R. (2000). Working assumptions and guidelines for alliance building. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Castañeda, H. W. Hackman, M. L. Peters & X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 486-487). NY: Routledge.

Harro, B. (2000) The cycle of liberation, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 463-69). NY: Routledge.

McClintock, M. (2000) How to interrupt oppressive behavior. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (pp. 483-85). NY: Routledge.

Sources of numbers

The US Census bureau

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Why some get high graduation rates

FemaleSicenceProfessor talks in her other blog, Scientopia, of the reasons that make her research group having an excellent graduation rate. I think is so worth it that deserves a bit of copying and pasting.

The success of our graduates is primarily a testament to their talents and hard work. There is no doubt about that.
Even so, we (the professors) like to think that we had some role in launching these careers. I should say here that I am using the research group ‘we’, although I am the youngest professor in the group and #3 in terms of number of PhDs graduated, so the credit primarily goes to my colleagues.
In any case: What, if anything, do we do that maximizes the chances of post-graduate success for our advisees? Earlier today, I discussed this with one of my research group colleagues, the most successful mentor of us all. We came up with the following, only somewhat-self-serving hypotheses:

And then she describes the FIVE points:

1. We encourage our advisees to consider their doctoral research in a broad context.
2. We work with our advisees to find interesting research topics.
3. A combination of 1 & 2: we encourage breadth and depth in the research topic
4. Most of our graduates are supported by a combination of research and teaching assistantships
5. We push them to publish, attend conferences (and present their research), and write proposals.

Oh, and the ending. She sure believes in what she does

I have stated many times in the FSP blog, and probably here in Scientopia as well, that I view a research group as a community: a community of people who work together and who, by the work of the individuals and the group, help each other. Today’s topic is a great example of the community concept: If graduates of our research group are successful at getting good jobs, this becomes widely known and attracts new excellent students to our group, and the cycle continues for as long as we are fortunate to have ideas, students, grants...

It doesn't seem so difficult when she describes it, so, why is it so rare to find a lab like that? I don't know about you, but I am beginning to think that being nice cannot be enough anymore for a PI to be put in the bag of good mentors...

Attrition also happens at Grad School

The Ph.D. Completion Project is a seven-year, grant-funded project that addresses the issues surrounding Ph.D. completion and attrition. In the news section the have plenty of good articles about what the rates of graduation are in different groups and what universities can do to improve their rates.

The FemaleScienceProfessor opens a room for discussion about the attrition rates or, as she calls them, the graduation rates.

In some places they actually measure those rates and make them available: Penn State Clinical Psychology Program; the UC Berkeley PhD Program in School Psychology

Some cases seem worse than other. 62% PhD student drop out rate at Flemish Universities

This is from the NSF, Summary of Workshop on Graduate Student Attrition

The Graduate School at the University of Minnesota publishes the numbers of several programs, has an amazing compilation of resources in its PhD Completion Project site. Check out the list of things that make for an Excellent Graduate Student Experience. They also have an Office for Diversity in Graduate Education. A bit out of topic, their Office of Interdisciplinary Initiatives seems like a great idea.

Stereotypes

Reducing the stereotype threat

Steele, 1995; Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans

Even though is not exactly the topic of this blog, I can't help it but including this link on Inacurate and Overly Hostile Stereotypes with plenty of references about dealing with stereotypes in VERY serious conflicts

Integración estudiantes con discapacidad

La Universidad de Valencia tiene algunos recursos para facilitar la atención a estudiantes con discapacidad

Voices

Blogs and Columns at the Diversity Executive website

Microagressions

The work of Dr. Kevin Nadal, Dr. Stanley Sue and Dr. D.W. Sue is a good place to start.

A short article about Dr. D.W. Sue's book. The ever present case of "What did you say?"

To combat microaggressions, Sue said it’s important for diversity executives to increase awareness. Make the invisible visible; then provide training and allow the voices of minorities to be heard. Focus groups to share workforce experiences also can help.

And the book itself: Microagression in everyday life. Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation

Overcoming Microagressions in Educational Institutions. Dr. D. W. Sue. Nov 2010. It's a 2 hour Lecture, but the first minutes per se are highly recommendable.

Projects

The Urban League of Greater Madison is transforming Greater Madison into the Best Place in the Midwest for everyone to LEARN by building a pipeline of high quality cradle to career educational services that impact the entire family, eliminate the achievement and education gaps, move all children towards high performance, and prepare youth and adults for post-secondary and career success.

The mission of Reality Changers is to provide inner-city youth from disadvantaged backgrounds with the resources to become first generation college students by providing academic support, finantial assistance, and leadership training.

Team buiding tools

Team-Maker and CATME were developed and are currently maintained with support from the National Science Foundation in the United States and are free for instructional use in educational settings.

International students

Andrade, 2010; Increasing accountability: faculty perspectives on the English Language Competence of Nonnative English Speakers

Beykont and Daiute, 2002; Inclusiveness in Higher Education Courses: International Student Perspectives

O'Rourke, 1993; Grading the Work of Non-native Speakers of English

Outreach

The web Pathways to Science seeks to connect underrepresented groups with STEM programs, funding, mentoring and resources.It's an initiative of the Institute for Broadening Participation a non-profit organization created to design and implement strategies to increase access to STEM education and careers for diverse underrepresented groups.

Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) was initiated in 2001 under the National Science Foundation's CCLI national dissemination track. Since then, SENCER has established and supported an ever-growing community of faculty, students, academic leaders, and others to improve undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education by connecting learning to critical civic questions. SENCER is the signature program of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement, which was established in affiliation with Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

Ocean Discovery Institute is a Non-profit that seeks to transform students' lifes through science

More women in science

Some references from the Center for Teaching at the Vanderbilt University:

Tips for Teachers: Sensitivity to Women in the Contemporary Classroom: From The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University, this article provides helpful strategies for instructors concerned about gender issues in the classroom. Several specific recommendations given to insure an inclusive environment.

Academic Support for Women in Science and Engineering: Susan Montgomery (Chemical Engineering) and Martha Cohen Barrett (Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education) present critical factors that have been found to influence the learning experiences of undergraduate women studying science and engineering. They also offer suggestions for improving the academic environment that are applicable to all students. This link is provided by The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.

Book Review: Women Faculty of Color in the White Classroom, edited by Lucila Vargas.

Book Review: Women in the Classroom: Cases for Reflection. Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University: 1996.

Intergroup Dialogue

Nagda and Derr 2004, Intergroup Dialogue: Embracing difference and conflict, Engendering community; Chapter in W. Stephan & P. Vogt (Eds.). Learning together: Intergroup relations programs. New York: Teachers College Press.

Dessel et al. 2006; Using Intergroup Dialogue to Promote Social Justice and Change

Nagda and Zúñiga 2003; Fostering Meaningful Racial Engagement Through Intergroup Dialogues

Nagda, B. et al. 2009. Evaluating intergroup dialogue: Engaging diversity for personal and social responsibility. Diversity & Democracy, 12(1), 4-6.

"White stuff"

Ashmore consultants ask you to consider How white is your world?

Well-rounded students

Heather Wilson analyses how narrow the curricula of American students is getting on the Washington Post opinion article Our Superficial Scholars.

Our great universities seem to have redefined what it means to be an exceptional student. They are producing top students who have given very little thought to matters beyond their impressive grasp of an intense area of study.

Perhaps faculty members are themselves more narrowly specialized because of pressure to publish original work in ever more obscure journals.

Richard H. Hersh proposes A Well-Rounded Education for a Flat World at the Educational Leadership magazine. The draft of the project can be found at the Bringing Theory to Practice website.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities presents its own view of A well-rounded Education for a Flat World including Promoting and Protecting Mental Health as Flourishing.

Effects of inequality

The unnatural causes website asks, is inequality making us sick?

Technology in the classroom

David Glenn weighs the pros and cons about Divided attention at the Chronicle of Higher Education

"Heavy multitaskers are often extremely confident in their abilities," says Clifford I. Nass, a professor of psychology at Stanford University. "But there's evidence that those people are actually worse at multitasking than most people."

The CIRTL network has a quarter long course on the Effective Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning

The Elluminate website has plenty of resources for moderators and participants on virtual classes

Science Reports

The UNESCO Science Report 2010, a periodic review of the state of science around the world through the eyes of an independent team of experts.

The Science, Technology and Industry Outlook reviews key trends in science, technology and innovation in OECD countries and a number of major emerging economies including Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. OECD STI 2010

Inclusive teaching

Tanner, 2010; Order matters: using the 5E model to align teaching with learning

Kate MacLean writes and Inclusive teaching guide for elementary school

This two-page paper is A MUST. Easy to read, full of useful information, clear, precise, just what scientist need! Barger, 2005; Strategies for Inclusive and Effective Teaching

Fostering campus diversity

UCSD - Final report - Advisory committee on increasing yield of underrepresented students. March 2007

Do UC Us? - The Black Student Union of UCSD in conjunjuction with the Black/Afrikan Student Unions, Alliances and Assemblies of several UCs.

Wade-Golden and Matlock, 2007; Ten core ingredients for fostering campus diversity success.

Teaching-related professional development

Doctoral and Postdoctoral STEM Teaching-Related Professional Development: Effects on Training and Early Career Periods. WCER working paper N.2007-8; October 2007

Brower et. al 2007 A Learning Community Model of Graduate Student Professional Development for Teaching Excellence in Higher Education.

Effects of diversity

Nemeth, C. (1985). Dissent, group processes and creativity. In E. Lawler (Ed.), Advances in Group Processes Theory and Research (57-75). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Goncalo and Staw, (2005). Individualism-colectivism and group creativity.

Astin, A. (1993). Diversity and multiculturalism on campus. How are students affected?

Handout for the Plenary session National Association of bar Executives. Nemeth, C. The benefits of diversity and dissent.

Nemeth, C. (1995). Dissent as driving cognition, attitudes and judgments. Social Cognition, 13, 273-291.

Simma Lieberman writes a short post on the Benefits of Diversity

Coustaut, 2007; Diversity as Inclusion, Diversity as Excellence

Smith and Schonfeld, 2000; The Benefits of Diversity. What the Research Tells Us. (available at UC e-links)

How people learn

The National Research Council 1999 report "How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school."

Prince, 2004; Does active learning work? A review of the research.

Unconscious bias

Susan T. Fiske writes about how prejudice is hardwired in our brains but we can override it, Are we born racist?

Test yourself at Project Implicit, a collaborative research effort between researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and University of Washington.

The Teaching Tolerance Project gives plenty of background and explains many concepts and also connects to the implicit project tests.

Havard's Derek Bok Center For Teaching & Learning has a guide for teaching in (racially) diverse classrooms

Books on teaching

Scientific teaching Interesting Chapter 2: Active learning and Chapter 4: Diversity

Reaching All Students Resource Book; pdf available on CIRTL website

BILD 95 Winter 2011

Reader for BILD95 winter 2011 Intergroup Dialogue: Skills for building effective multicultural research teams.

Mervis J. 2010. Better Intro Courses Seen as Key to Reducing Attrition of STEM Majors. Science 330:306-.

Enrico, D. (1995, Sept.). Bridges: How I learned I wasn't Caucasian. Glamour (p. 6).

Pharr, S. (1997). Common elements of oppression. In Homophobia: A weapon of sexism. Hoboken, NJ: Chardon Press.

Lorde, Audre (1996). There is no hierarchy of oppression. In J. Andrzejewski (Ed.), Oppression and social justice: Critical frameworks, (5th Ed, p. 51). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.

Nagda, B., Gurin, P., Sorensen, N.,& Zúñiga, X. (2009). Evaluating intergroup dialogue: Engaging diversity for personal and social responsibility. Diversity & Democracy, 12(1), 4-6.

Jobs

The Chronicle of Higher Education job search

HigherEdJobs

SABER jobs site

News webs

Inside Higher Ed

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Hechinger Report

Diversity Executive newsletter

Resources webs

Diversity website at Arizona State University (ASU)

Resources site at the CIRTL network website

Diversity Blog at experience.com

Rihcard Felder's website on Resources in Science and Engineering Education

Diversity and Inclusive teaching in the Center for Teaching at the Vanderbilt University

Training sources

Courses offered by the CIRTL network

CTD programs

FIRST IV Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching

Intergroup Relations Opportunities for Faculty and Staff at UCSD Intergroup Relations Program

On-line live classes on the use of Elluminate software for virtual classes

Race incidents

Race at Alabama, Inside Higher Ed Feb 11, 2011

Polls

Diversity in Higher Education - HigherEdJobs

Sparkling conversations about diversity

Steve L. Robbins books and resources

HigherEdjobs includes some articles on Looking beyond Race and Gender

Social Identity Wheel adapted from Voices of Discovery

The Chronicle of Higher Education facts and figures

"Fish is fish." by Leo Lionni

"Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?" by Beverly Daniel Tatum; Chapter 2 "Who am I?" is available here

White antiracist writer Tim Wise has a few words to say

Increasing Diversity in STEM disciplines

Agogino et al, 2001; Theater helps transforming climate in engineering.

Tanner and Allen, 2007; Cultural Competence in the College Biology Classroom.

Reducing the gaps

Miyake et al. 2010; Reducing the Gender Achievement Gap in College Science: A Classroom Study of Values Affirmation

Gerardo Ramirez et al. 2011;Writing About Testing Worries Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom

Cohen et al. 2009; Recursive Processes in Self-Affirmation: Intervening to Close the Minority Achievement Gap

Nature news talks about the real gap in the sciences Science gender gap probed

PNAS article on women's underrepresentation in science Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science

The Atlantic gives a different analysis of the future of gender issues The end of men

The New York Times talks about the few women that make it to tenure positions Keeping women in science on a tenure track

Ben A. Barres commentary on Nature Does gender matter?

Harvard Business Review touches upon Why men still get more promotions than women

Londa Schiebinger writes a whole book asking Has feminism changed science? and also a short article under the same title

Peggy A. Pritchard edits Success strategies for women in science. A portable mentor

The AAAS and L'Oreal 2010 booklet on Women in Science: Forging New Paths in Green Science is available in pdf or ebook for those iPAD-like gadget users.

Cecily Cannan Selby asks Does bias in science hold women back?

P Moguerou (2002). Job Satisfaction among US PhDs: The Effects of Gender and Employment Sectors (Working Paper)

Teaching philosophy

Article in the Chronicles of Higher Education about writing a teaching philosophy
4 steps to a memorable teaching philosophy

The center for teaching and learning at UM gives a Step by step approach to writing a teaching philosophy statement
Writing your teaching philosophyhttp

The University Centre for the Advancement of Teaching at Ohio State University writes on how to write a teaching philosophy statement
teaching portfolio

From the AAAS Science careers section
Writing the Teaching Statement

Pages

Is Anti-White Bias a Problem? room for debate on The New York Times

I’m afraid the best I have found is in Spanish: “Aún hacen falta cuotas raciales” at elpais.com

Some things mentioned in the more extensive analysis (note: yes, some of them are scary):

Grutter v. Bollinger (wiki summary)

Ricci v. DeStefano (wiki summary)

The Negro Family by Mr. Moynihan (a comment on it)

Claude M. Steele - Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us (Issues of Our Time)

Benedict Carey reflects on Improving the Science of Teaching Science (The New York Times) based on the work lead by Carl Wieman published in Science.