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We present a diagonal spacetime 4-manifold to model the wave-particle duality with two derivations of the energy ratio of wave to particle to be 1 to 3, by which we calculate the least time for an electron nutation as based on its quadrupole spin states in a 720-degree rotation of its associated electromagnetic wave in a model of Zitterbewegung.

While much of recent study abroad research has focused on identifying and measuring different learning outcomes in terms of specific skills, competencies, perspectives and attributes acquired during study abroad opportunities, less research has considered how students’ deeper conceptions and understandings of international experience may change and develop during such educational encounters. This paper presents a phenomenographical research study that explored how students conceive of and make meaning out of their international education experience in a study abroad context. The data are based on detailed semi-structured interviews conducted with a sample of 28 undergraduate students at an American university who engaged in a variety of different study abroad opportunities. Guided by Variation Theory of Learning, the analysis of the data resulted in a typology of student conceptions of international experience (SCIE) that identified four distinct categories of conceptions of international experience (observing, interacting, participating and embracing) described across three constitutive features (being in the other culture, relating to the other culture and learning in the other culture). Hierarchically related through nine critical aspects of variation, the typology provides a unique and useful framework against which to map the “messiness” of students’ complex, often complicated understandings of their experience. It offers study abroad programmers opportunities to better understand and design student learning experiences and assessment instruments that go beyond competencies, skills and other learning outcomes.

The brain can detect sound changes very early on, even prenatally. Both positively and negatively displaced responses to deviant stimuli have been found in infancy, with the majority of studies reporting, however, positive mismatch responses (MMR) in infants within the first few months of life. Besides neural development, stimulation parameters may influence polarity. The positively displaced MMR develops towards the adult-like MMN between the ages of 3 and 9 months, there being a wide inter-individual variation in this development. From school age onwards, sound changes elicit MMNs with negative polarities fairly systematically. The MMN peak latency becomes shorter with development, similar to other event-related potential components, which is consistent with the development of myelination. MMN/MMR studies have illuminated auditory abilities and learning mechanisms in infants, suggesting, for example, that the infant brain can extract information on the regularities of sound input and foetuses can form long-lasting memory traces.

This book introduces the electrophysiological change-detection response of the brain called the mismatch negativity (MMN). MMN is elicited by any discriminable change in some repetitive aspect of ongoing auditory stimulation even in the absence of attention, causing an attentional shift to change, hence representing a response of vital significance to the organism. In addition, an analogous response is also elicited in the other sensory modalities and occurs in different species and in the different developmental stages from infancy to the old age. Importantly, MMN, reflecting the NMDA-receptor functioning, is affected in different cognitive brain disorders, providing an index of the severity of the disorder and effectiveness of remediating treatments.

Psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia, major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, and alcohol use disorders are common and leading causes of global disability. Conventionally, diagnosis and treatment of these disorders has relied solely on clinicical observation of symptoms and inference of underlying neural dysfunction. Recently, however, technological advances have allowed for direct measurement of brain functioning in these disorders, and there has been increased interest in the exploration of sensory processing deficits involved. In this context, MMN is regarded as a ‘breakthrough biomarker’ for advancing the understanding and treatment of psychiatric illness. As MMN is among the most widely studied translational biomarkers and has already undergone extensive psychometric validation (e.g. reliability, suitability for use as a repeated measure, sensitivity to pharmacologica and non-pharmacological interventions), it is widely used for development of new treatments for brain disorders.

This chapter looks at potential common underlying factors linking MMN/MMNm deficiency to the broad range of heterogeneous clinical conditions outlined in the book. Several promising clinical applications of MMN/MMNm are summarized, including the prediction of conversion to psychosis among clinically at-risk individuals, the prediction of the recovery of consciousness and cognitive capabilities in patients in a comatose or persistent vegetative state, the early detection of perceptual deficits in developmental brain disorders, and the early identification of the presence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Furthermore, the evaluation of the cognitive decline occurring in different brain disorders, as well as the prediction of cognitive recovery after the occurrence of a stroke or other brain injury, and the objective monitoring of age-related cognitive brain change and potential countermeasures to slow down this age-related cognitive decline are discussed.

Developmental brain disorders, such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), autism spectrum of disorders (ASD), and oral clefts, include perceptual-cognitive deficits of language, audition, attention, and memory. It is important to detect these dysfunctions in early childhood in order to determine how the development of perception and cognition differs from the typical course and to design interventions supporting development. The MMN, being elicited from the foetal stage onwards, is a promising tool for this purpose. It has illuminated low-level perceptual-cognitive dysfunctions in these disorders and shows promise as an early neural marker of future language-related dysfunction.

In this chapter, the mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related brain potential is introduced. MMN is an automatic response to any sound change generated primarily in auditory and frontal cortices, reflecting auditory change detection and discrimination accuracy. Analogous responses have also been found in other sensory modalities. MMN can, for example, index improvement of sound discrimination as a function of learning or recovery. Consistent with this, MMN appears to index general brain plasticity, essential for learning and memory, and to reflect different cognitive brain disorders. It is elicited irrespective of the direction of attention, being, therefore, a feasible tool for investigating even inattentive participants, such as sleeping infants or comatose patients.

This chapter will introduce and discuss different experimental paradigms that can be used for eliciting MMN. The classical paradigm for this purpose is the auditory oddball paradigm with repetitive ‘standard’ stimuli interspersed with infrequent deviant stimuli which elicit MMN reflecting change detection. Subsequently, more informative multi-deviant paradigms were developed that provide profiles of auditory-discrimination accuracy including different auditory stimulus dimensions, such as sound frequency, duration, and locus of origin. These paradigms are sensitive to various forms of training, thereby reflecting brain plasticity, and they are selectively affected in different cognitive brain disorders.

The MMN amplitude is decreased and/or peak latency prolonged in a large number of different neurological disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases, brain lesions, cochlear lesions, chronic pain, or tinnitus. This is to a great extent due to a decreased brain plasticity affecting the formation of memory traces for different sensory stimuli essential for different cognitive operations of the brain. Furthermore, MMN can serve as a measure of recovery or neural reorganization in different neurological disorders. For example, the recovery from aphasic symptoms after stroke was associated with the enhancement of MMN. MMN has also been useful in determining neural plastic changes of the auditory system associated with cochlear implantation.

Peer-led small-group learning has been used quite extensively in the US to enhance performance and retention of undergraduate students in science, math, and engineering classes. This study presents the results from an evaluation of a peer-led small-group programme at a research university in the US over a 10-year period across five disciplines (biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, and mathematics) and seven courses. Data suggest the programme had a positive impact on participants' grades in five of the seven courses and on retention in the four courses that require students to take a course sequence. Effects of the programme were investigated across gender and ethnic groups. Participants benefited from the programme regardless of their gender or ethnicity. However, effect sizes were often larger for students from underrepresented groups. This was particularly true for course retention, where effect sizes for females were larger than those for males in four courses.

SummaryGenes disrupted in schizophrenia may be revealed by de novo mutations in affected persons from otherwise healthy families. Furthermore, during normal brain development, genes are expressed in patterns specific to developmental stage and neuroanatomical structure. We identified de novo mutations in persons with schizophrenia and then mapped the responsible genes onto transcriptome profiles of normal human brain tissues from age 13 weeks gestation to adulthood. In the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during fetal development, genes harboring damaging de novo mutations in schizophrenia formed a network significantly enriched for transcriptional coexpression and protein interaction. The 50 genes in the network function in neuronal migration, synaptic transmission, signaling, transcriptional regulation, and transport. These results suggest that disruptions of fetal prefrontal cortical neurogenesis are critical to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. These results also support the feasibility of integrating genomic and transcriptome analyses to map critical neurodevelopmental processes in time and space in the brain.

Today we live in an age of mass marketing and educational commerce where international education has become a big business, full of promise and reward. It is not surprising that in this spirit many colleges, universities and third party providers that promote study abroad characterize it as essentially guaranteeing “Global Citizenship,” a very attractive credential to students and parents alike.

Small-group learning in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines has been widely studied, and it is clear that this method offers many benefits to students. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which small learning groups differ from one another, and how these differences may affect student learning and experiential outcomes. This study uses a previously validated instrument to categorize, or type, small peer-led STEM learning groups, and then to investigate the impact of group characteristics on student outcomes. Six hundred and forty-six students were observed over 2 academic quarters. During the fall quarter, no relationship was found between group type and student course grade. During the winter quarter, statistically significant differences in student grade were found among group types. We posit that group type may not make a difference in grade early in the year because the groups are not yet functioning optimally, so that group “noise”, such as facilitator ine...

An undergraduate was recently asked to write an essay about his first experience working in a university science laboratory. After providing a general rundown of his daily activities, he zeroed in ...

Collaborative learning is being used extensively by educators at all levels. Peer‐led team learning in a version of collaborative learning that has shown consistent success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Using a multi‐phase research study we describe the development of an observation instrument that can be used to assess peer‐led group learning. This paper illustrates the development of a classification system for peer‐led learning groups and an instrument based on this classification system. The instrument evaluates small learning groups on two important aspects of group learning: problem solving approach and group interaction style. We provide evidence of the factor structure of the two dimensions using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We also provide information about the reliability of the two scales as measured by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data from a large peer‐led learning programme was used to conduct the factor analysis. Results from the...

The phenomenographic ‘approach to learning’ literature holds that students’ approaches to learning can change depending on the learning context. This implies that, by modifying the learning context, teachers can change the way students approach learning, and this can ultimately lead to a change in learning outcomes. The study presented here examines one effort to modify a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning context and the approaches to learning taken by students experiencing this environment. Using a qualitative, phenomenographic approach, we interviewed 45 students in a STEM peer‐led workshop programme at a large US research university. Similar to previous approach‐to‐learning research, the study identified three approaches students took to learning in the peer‐led programme, in which they focused on simply making it through the course, engaging more meaningfully with the material, and gaining better control over their own learning.

We study the theoretical structure of reflective executive development within the context of executive MBA programs, drawing upon the theoretical perspectives of the reflective practitioner (Schon,...

Over the last several years, engineering faculty and learning scientists from four universities worked in collaboration to develop educational materials to improve the quality of faculty teaching and student learning. Guided by the How People Learn (HPL) framework, engineering faculty worked in collaboration with learning scientists to develop learner-centered, student-focused instructional methods. In consultation with learning scientists, engineering faculty carried out educational inquiry in their classrooms aimed at investigating student learning and enhancing instruction. In this paper we discuss the extent to which faculty engaged in these collaborative endeavors and how their teaching approaches differed as a result of their level of engagement. Study findings reveal the role that collaborative reflection plays in shaping teaching approaches. Results from this study provide insights for researchers and other practitioners in engineering and higher education interested in implementing engineering faculty development programs to optimize the impact on teaching.

Atomic theory or the nature of matter is a principal concept in science and science education. This has, however, been complicated by the difficulty students have in learning the concept and the subsequent construction of many alternative models. To understand better the conceptual barriers to learning atomic structure, this study explores the troublesome nature of this fundamental scientific concept. In order to illustrate the distinction of student understanding by threshold barriers, this study chose three particularly high‐achieving students from an original interview sample of 20 students who were selected from an introductory college chemistry course. The pre‐course and post‐course interview responses were examined and compared in detail. This study considers the concepts of ‘probability’ and ‘energy quantization’ to both describe the structure of the threshold of understanding students’ need to negotiate in their construction of the target model of atomic structure. In this respect, this study sugg...

Increasing calls for accountability in education have promoted improvements in quantitative evaluation approaches that measure student performance; however, this has often been to the detriment of qualitative approaches, reducing the richness of educational evaluation as an enterprise. In this article the authors assert that it is not merely performance but also how learners think and how their thinking changes that we should be measuring in educational program evaluation. They describe a mixed-methods evaluation model based on the qualitative method phenomenography that can be used to evaluate how learners think in multiple contexts, from skills training to employee development to higher education, and how their thinking may change over time. They then describe two evaluation studies making use of this approach and provide suggestions for evaluators interested in using the phenomenographic model.

This article presents the results of a study investigating the experiences of undergraduatesacting as peer leaders in an extensive peer-led team learning program in introductory undergraduate sciences and engineering courses. In an effort to understand the facilitator experience in the program better and to report initial findings on the benefits derived through a peer-facilitation experience, the study identified multiple areas in which peer facilitators reported experiences ofgrowth and the ways in which they understood and responded to this growth.

This paper reviews recent literature addressing the state of technology in higher education as a backdrop for a faculty development program offered annually at Northwestern. First, we will present the state of technology related to teaching in three areas: (1) the varied institutional interest in technology, (2) the variance in faculty engagement with technology, and (3) factors that influence faculty acceptance of technology. Next, we will introduce Northwestern’s response to the need for faculty development related to technology, the 5-day Teaching and Learning with Technology workshop. Finally, we will present data gathered over two years that demonstrates how pedagogically-driven technology training can enhance teaching and encourage faculty to embrace technology in teaching to accomplish pedagogically-based learning objectives.

Nanotechnology is an inherently interdisciplinary field that has generated significant scientific and engineering interest in recent years. In an effort to convey the excitement and opportunities surrounding this discipline to senior undergraduate students and junior graduate students, a nanotechnology engineering course has been developed in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University over the past two years. This paper examines the unique challenges facing educators in this dynamic, emerging field and describes an approach for the design of a nanotechnology engineering course employing the non-traditional pedagogical practices of collaborative group learning, interdisciplinary learning, problem-based learning, and peer assessment. Utilizing the same nanotechnology course given the year before as a historical control, analysis of the difference between measures of student performance and student experience over the two years indicates that these practices are successful and provide an educationally informed template for other newly developed engineering courses.

Much qualitative research on student learningin higher education has focused on a keydistinction between surface reproductionof `knowledge' and a deeper understandingof it. This distinction has also been found inresearch on student practice and understandingof essay and discursive writing. This paperreports on results from a study of 40interviews conducted with students takingcreative writing courses at three differenthigher education institutions in the UnitedKingdom. Interviews were conducted withstudents of various levels of experience andexpertise in creative writing and includedstudents taking a single undergraduate modulein creative writing and students enrolled in ahighly selective Masters program in CreativeWriting. The interviews focused on thestudents' conceptions and practice of creativewriting while taking their respective courses. The analysis of the interview transcriptsrevealed an underlying subjectivistepistemology in the students' generalassumptions and perception of the nature ofCreative Writing vis-a-vis other forms ofacademic writing. Linked to this epistemology,the analysis disclosed a typology of fourdiffering conceptions of student understandingand practice of creative writing within twooverall transcribing and composingcategories of conception. These categoriesclosely resemble student's conceptions ofwriting practices in other disciplines.

Critical thinking is a key learning outcome for Palestinian students. However, there are no validated critical thinking tests in Arabic. Suitability of the US developed Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) for use in Palestine was assessed. The test was piloted with university students in English (n=30) and 4 questions were piloted in Arabic (n=48). Students responded favorably. Scores were comparable with US scores. Only two students found the content problematic. One-hundred-twelve Palestinian faculty reviewed the skills tested by the CAT. There was moderate agreement that they represent critical thinking. Translation of the CAT into Arabic and further study are warranted.