Archive for March, 2011

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Artscience

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

In an academic environment given to increasing specialization, David Edwards defies the trend. His training is in chemical engineering, his faculty position at Harvard is in biomedical engineering, and his passion is incubating innovation. To achieve this, he has set up two labs that fuse both creativity and empiricism. He calls this blend “artscience.”

His labs have produced an installation curated by an artist and a psychologist that depicts fear in an age of terrorist. A chef and a scientist combined to produce breathable chocolate, which is now marketed commercially.

In a book about these experiences, Edwards advocates for learning through creativity. A scientific lab infused with art is less likely to shoot down unorthodox ideas. Together, they lead to concrete breakthroughs.

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Work to Live or Live to Work?

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Nigel Marsh found himself in the typical corporate rat race. He never had enough time to spend with his family and attend to his personal growth. When his company's fortunes turned, he decided to take a year off and reconnect with his family.

His money ran out, and he had to return to work, but he did so with newfound understanding. As he relates in a TED talk below, it's not enough to wait until retirement to enjoy your personal life. Nor is it realistic to expect to achieve balance every single day. But we can find inspiration in small gestures like meditation or a trip to the playground.

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A New Medical School

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Western Michigan University is a public university in Kalamazoo. The university conducts research in the health sciences, and two teaching hospitals in the city already train residents on clinical rotations. So, in 2010, WMU began the process for accreditation of a new medical school.

This week, WMU announced an anonymous donation of $100 million to launch the new school. Like the source of the gift, WMU's medical school will be privately funded. The school now has a dean and several committees dedicated to having classrooms ready to welcome students in two or three years.

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Confidence Boosters

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Even at elite colleges, underrepresented minority students obtain lower GPAs than majority students. Two Stanford researchers hypothesized that a reason for this performance gap could be the minority students' lack of confidence.

So they conducted a randomized controlled trial in which some first-year students read essays by upperclassmen of all races about how they too had trouble fitting into college at first. The nontreatment group read essays that had nothing to do with belonging.

After this short intervention, the investigators tracked the students until the end of college. They found that African-American students in the treatment group had higher GPAs and greater levels of happiness. The readings had no effect on white students. They published their results in Science.

If a brief confidence boosting halved the achievement gap, then imagine what more concerted efforts to address students' self stereotyping could accomplish. The study also points to the social origins of academic performance.

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Challenging the IRB

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

When Brown University Associate Professor of Education Jin Li began her research on learning among Chinese immigrant children, she secured funding from private sources, prepared her methodology, and received approval from the IRB. As the research began, she noticed that her plan to provide $600 to all families who participated did not reflect the added effort low-income families expended on the learning assessments, so she decided to offer some families $600 and others $300.

She submitted her modified budget to the IRB and was rejected. Moreover, the Board told her she could not use data collected from families paid only $300 even though they had signed consent forms. Nor could she pay those families an additional $300 because she had run out of funds. So, she is suing Brown for harm to her research.

Originally, IRB approval was intended for research funded by federal sources. A new book, Ethical Imperialism, documents how that mission has grown to encompass all research with human subjects. Social scientists, in particular, find the restrictions ill suited for their work with interviews, archives, and oral histories. Just as under regulation can be harmful, so can overreach.

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Graceful Self-Promotion

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Last week I attended a gathering of faculty development and faculty affairs professionals at a nearby medical school. The theme for the meeting was to help clinician-educators produce scholarship, and thus advance academically. In the discussion, the topic of self-promotion came up, and the sponsor of the conference said that she had run into the dean earlier that day and mentioned to him that she was hosting our group on campus.

Some scientists and physicians shy away from this kind of comment because they see it as opportunistic bragging. On the other hand, deans and chairs are always interested in the activities of their faculty. It is their job to champion our successes to a larger audience, so they welcome hearing about achievements. It's unrealistic to expect that academic leaders can know about every achievement, so it's up to the faculty member to spread the word.

Here are some pointers for pointing out your successes adapted from the advice of a journal editor:

  1. Sharing good news is not a sign of arrogance. It's being part of a supportive community.
  2. It is inconsiderate not to tell your community what you've accomplished.
  3. A link on Facebook or a signature line in your e-mail is an acceptable and considerate way to let people know of an activity you're participating in.
  4. Tell them once and send a link. More than that is harassment.
  5. Winning awards and publishing articles are not something to be embarrassed about. Sharing them inspires others and opens up opportunities for collaboration.

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Match Day

Friday, March 18th, 2011

According to a press release from the National Resident Matching Program, primary care residencies saw an increase in the number of U.S. medical school graduates entering their programs.

All the numbers involved in the 2011 match seem to be on the increase: more slots, more applicants, more graduates of international medical schools.

As encouraging as the trend in primary care residencies may be, U.S. seniors fill only 50-60% of the available slots. In specialities like dermatology and orthopaedic surgery, US. medical graduates make up over 90% of the incoming cohort, a sign of how competitive they are.

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Selling Seats

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Like a lot of government-supported institutions in the United States, Dalhousie University Medical School in Canada is facing a budgetary shortfall. A cut in provincial funding eliminated 8% of the school's budget.

To make up the shortfall, Dalhousie will sell 10 first-year seats to students from Saudi Arabia for an annual payment of $75,000 each. The Saudi students will still have to go through an interview process and will take residencies in their home country.

My initial reaction was outrage, but reading more, it seems that Nova Scotia does not have as great a demand for doctors as Saudi Arabia does. This is not the kind of diversity that many medical schools aim for, but it will certainly enrich the experience of the Canadians in next year's incoming class.

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Cover Letters

Friday, March 11th, 2011

A friend of mine and I were talking about the difficulty many people have in finding jobs. News reports profile job seekers who send out hundreds of resumes without landing a single interview. While I find those stories painful to hear, my friend mentioned that she was one of those employers who receive hundreds of resumes and had a different view.

In the case of the job opening in her office, the response to the ad was strong. But many of the resumes submitted did not match the stated qualifications or came in without a cover letter. If the goal of an application is to make the candidate stand out, an unattached resume fails to call attention to the strengths of the applicant.

The conversation reminded me of other applications that academics submit. Whether it's a manuscript for a journal or a nomination for an award, a cover letter explains why the candidate is a good fit. The letter shouldn't merely restate the CV or the manuscript; it should connect the application to the mission of the award or journal. Keep it brief and jargon-free, but always include a cover letter.

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Coaching

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

InsideTrack partners with colleges to offer undergraduate and adult learners personalized coaching for academic success. When schools contract with the service, students receive regular calls from coaches who give them tips on time management and keep them engaged in their studies.

A large-scale, randomized study of the service found that students who received academic coaching were more likely to stay on track than those who didn't. Male students, in particular, responded well to coaching, increasing their retention by 6 percentage points.

Although the study involves college students, it holds relevance for faculty as well. The small intervention of a coach to hold you accountable to your goals seems to yield positive results.

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