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The article presents information on the paper shown to Arnon Lotem, a professor of zoology at Tel-Aviv University in Israel, and his colleague Ido Erev concerning the pay-off odds of choosing two alternatives described verbally to humans and rats. The paper reported on the certainty effect, whereby rats repeatedly faced with the option of receiving either a bigger or lesser reward with certainty preferred the safer option. Moreover, Lotem and his colleagues discovered that both humans and other animals can exhibit certainty or reverse certainty.

Boyer’s call for the study of the “scholarship of teaching” has rekindled interest in outstanding teaching in higher education. However, most studies of teaching quality and student experiences in higher education have paid little attention to intense, meaningful key experiences and were limited in answering the pertinent question: Can universities administer excellent instruction? The current paper attempts to answer this question by providing exploratory evidence of key experiences in higher education. It is based on evidence from a large qualitative study of such episodes, using retrospective accounts provided by adults who speak about their best educational experiences in higher education. The results are grouped under three major thematic headings. The first describes the centrality of personalized student–teacher relations. The second focuses on the ways in which identification and integrity provided students with models to emulate; and the third tells of excellence in the skills of teaching. These results point that the administration of the scholarship of teaching is an intricate endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses about the scientific breakthroughs and research in West Asian countries. Topics include the science papers published by Israeli scientists, the budget allocated for research and development, and its weighted fractional count (WFC). The quality of research in Saudi Arabia, its university KAUST, and comments by its vice president Jean Frechet are included. Charts for research efficiency and research strengths of West Asian countries are also given.