Upload
dodiep
View
217
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
N I P I S S I N G U N I V E R S I T Y
1
Faculty of Arts & Science
Monthly Newsletter Issue No. 12 - November 2013
Message from the DeanIssue Paper 16: Making the Grade? Troubling Trends in Postsecondary Student Literacy was published on October 31, 2013 by HEQCO with little fanfare. The authors, Nicholas Dion and Vicky Maldonado observe that, “The pressing question for Ontario is whether students entering postsecondary education have the literacy skills required to succeed.” Upon reviewing data from Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—which includes results from the International Literacy Survey (IALS), the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)—the authors conclude that few respondents have “the minimum level of proficiency” (1). In other words, students entering PSE (both college and university) do not seem to demonstrate sufficient proficiency to succeed (proficiency is equated to Level 3 on the chart below).
The authors’ aim in this report is to move beyond the anecdotes about literacy in which faculty often bemoan the quality of writing and oral communication skills demonstrated by students and, instead, capture an accurate representation of university and college students’ literacy. With your permission, I will be quoting liberally from the report.
Context and ConcernThe primary concern is framed in economic terms. According to the Canadian Council on Learning (2007), Canada exemplifies a “learning paradox: while Canada has one of the most highly educated populations in the world, 42% of the adult population still lacks the literacy skills required to thrive in the global economy” (4). As a consequence of globalization, “If Canadian graduates do not leave their postsecondary institutions with strong writing skills, they may soon find
themselves losing employment opportunities to strong writers from other countries” (5). Essential Skills Ontario (2012a) reports that “those with low literacy skills are twice as likely to be unemployed for six months or longer than those with more developed abilities, and that a 1% increase in national adult literacy levels could result in a permanent 1.5% increase in Canadian per capita GDP” (6). What is surprising and most concerning is that “Canadians’ literacy scores have not been improving, neither in Ontario nor at the national level” (10). According to the Canadian Council on Learning (2009), “20% of university graduates in Canada fell below level 3 on the PISA prose literacy scale in 2006. This proportion was expected to rise to 24% by 2031. While this increase might seem relatively small, we must keep in mind that a decrease was instead expected as a younger, more educated demographic supposedly populated the sample and as older graduates, who are more likely to have seen their literacy skills decline with age, leave it.” (21)
The IssueThe data suggests that students are not totally unable to write upon admission to PSE. Instead, the problem is that “students cannot write well….Students have mastered the basics and can write to be understood but often seem unable to move beyond this functional level. Prose remains inelegant and unsophisticated, document structure is rudimentary and is often limited to the ‘five-paragraph essay’ taught in Ontario high
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
2
schools” (16-17). Significantly, students are aware of their limitations. One cited study, conducted at Nipissing University coincidentally, reports that “When…asked how prepared they felt for university upon entry, most students stated that they were not at all prepared” (17).
The report is unusually blunt:
Given the abundance of anecdotal critiques from faculty, the lack of preparation to which some students admit and the increased number of students that tertiary education attracts, especially with the move towards mass higher education, postsecondary institutions should consider carefully the readiness of students’ reading and writing abilities upon entry and take corrective measures to strengthen these abilities where necessary. Institutions of higher education do not exist simply to teach applied career skills or discipline-specific knowledge. They should also exist to strengthen basic skills, including reading and writing. Nor can institutions of higher education assume that these skills are sufficiently developed simply because students arrive with high school diplomas in hand. (17)
In “consider[ing] the readiness” of students and directing energies to support students in the development of basic skills, the authors acknowledge that these skills ought to have been acquired before admission. The “reality” is that students are graduating from high school unable to satisfy the expectations of the high school curricula, spec. “to write an error-free, five-paragraph argumentative essay.” Without that foundation, “First-year students, in many cases, will not be comfortable carrying out...PSE-level skills”, including “the ability to read texts critically, to integrate quotations, to summarize or paraphrase a text, to use referencing systems confidently and to conduct basic research.”
We might be prepared to quibble with whether summarising and paraphrasing are PSE-level skills. Importantly, the authors affirm that university expectations are reasonable, even low, for first-year students. But there is no relish in fair and reasonable, especially since “students are failing in large numbers to meet even this level of competence.”
How do we reconcile “the gap in expectations between high school graduation and postsecondary admission” (24)? Where do we place responsibility for this discrepancy and its redress?
The Solution(s)Universities have gotten away from entrance and
exit examples that test literacy, in part, because of the expense and because they were not demonstrably effective. They were regarded as punitive by students, hoops, obstacles to success, tests that did not focus students’ attention on the fact of their basic literacy. Presently, in Ontario, the University of Waterloo is alone in having kept it Proficiency Exam. The report identifies Nipissing University’s WCT as a model for consideration—but we have given up on the WCT in favour of a required course in university-level academic writing (ACAD1601) for all B.A. and B.Sc. students in Arts and Science. The University of Toronto is also identified as an institution committing in a different way to writing support. UToronto has an Office of English Language and Writing Support that directs initiatives across the three campus, as well it provides Writing Instruction for Teaching Assistants. I have used this forum to raise the issue of literacy because it is central to our mandate, there is a widening gap between expectations and students’ preparation, and if this report has sway then we may be asked (required) to return to both entrance and exit exams in order to demonstrate that students have acquired the basic skills necessary to success in the global economy.
Dr. Ann-Barbara GraffInterim Dean, Arts and Science
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
3
DEPARTMENT NEWS
Amanda Burk also had some of her work on exhibi2on at the Alex Dufresne Art Gallery in Callander last month.
The exhibi2on, Animals in the Wild, showcased eight large-‐scale charcoal drawings from Burk’s Dual series. The exhibi2on also featured the work of Rick Cunnington. "It is a rare and wonderful opportunity to show my work this close to home," said Burk, "It seems especially poignant since this body of work was mo2vated by my reloca2on to the North.”
For more informa2on on Amanda Burk and her work, please visit her website at hJp://www.amandaburk.com/Default.aspx.
Fine & Performing ArtsAmanda Burk recently proposed and chaired a round-‐table panel discussion at the University Arts Associa2on of Canada Conference, held at the Banff Centre for the Arts last month.
The round-‐table, 2tled The Current Climate of Studio Cri6ques, asked the ques2ons, “what is the impact of the evolving climate of studio-‐based educa2on on studio cri2ques?” and “are there considera2ons that might lead to more effec2ve cri2ques for our current genera2on of students?” The round-‐table also explored and discussed strategies, formats, and approaches to leading effec2ve cri2ques.
Panelists on the round-‐table included Lucie Chan (Assistant Professor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design), Dr. Chris Jones (Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at Emily Carr University of Art and Design), and Natalie Majaba Waldburger (Assistant Professor, Ontario College of Art and Design University).
"Cri2ques have played an essen2al and longstanding role within studio-‐based educa2on and pedagogy, but there is liJle wriJen or discussed about this topic,” said Burk. “This round-‐table was a great opportunity to open up this discussion among studio arts prac22oners from across the country".
The University Arts Associa2on of Canada defines itself as an organiza2on "concerned with providing a presence for university art and art history facul2es within the network of academic disciplines in Canada; establishing a forum for exchange of ideas and scholarly work."
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
4
PsychologyDr. Dana Murphy presented data collected in his laboratory at the Aging and Speech Communica6on Conference, 5th Interdisciplinary Interna6onal Research Conference, in Bloomington, Indiana, last month.
Dr. Murphy’s presenta2on, The distrac6bility of speech spoken in emo6onal tones in younger and older adults, was co-‐authored with Harmony Driver (Nipissing University), Dr. Mark Wachowiak (Associate Professor, Computer Science -‐ Nipissing University), Xin Hu (Nipissing University), and Pascal Van Gerven (Assistant Professor, Maastricht University), and looked at the results on the effects of emo2onal prosody -‐ the way in which speech is actually said, and includes such characteris2cs as speech uJerance as tempo and inflec2on -‐ in speech, and the distrac2bility of such emo2onal prosody.
In this research, which was carried out as a 4th year Honour’s thesis by Harmony Driver, younger and older adults completed a visual working memory task in which they counted asterisks presented on a screen. They began their count at a presented number and then counted forwards and backwards depending on the symbols they encountered as they completed the task. At the end of the display, another number was presented and par2cipants were required to indicate if their final count matched the presented number. At the same 2me they completed the task, they heard, but were instructed to ignore, numbers and sentences. The sentences were spoken with one of three different prosodies (emo2onal tones of voice). In one condi2on par2cipants ignored happy speech, in another condi2on they ignored neutral speech, and in a final condi2on par2cipants ignored angry speech. The 2me to complete the coun2ng in each display was measured and they found that neutral speech and angry speech were significantly more difficult to ignore and resulted in significantly slower coun2ng 2mes than either happy speech or coun2ng in silence. Younger and older adults were equally affected by the prosody of the speech. Angry speech may be more distrac2ng because it could be indica2ve of a possibly dangerous situa2on. The neutral speech was also more distrac2ng than silence, likely caused by the ar2ficial prosody used in this neutral speech which was flat and robo2c. Thus, when it comes to the distrac2bility of irrelevant emo2onal speech, how you say the words may be more important than what you actually say.
Dr. Darren Campbell won the best poster award at the 12th Annual New Principal Inves6gators Mee6ng, hosted by the Canadian Ins6tute of Health Research Ins6tute of Gene6cs and Ins6tute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addic6on, held in Mont-‐Gabriel, Quebec, November 1 -‐ 3.
Dr. Campbell’s poster, Social Phobia Fusiform Func6onal Connec6vity: The Threat of Faces, garnered one of two best poster awards among the 65 poster presenta2ons from across Canada.
The award winning study demonstrated that people with social phobia (those who fear and avoid interac2ng with strangers or those they do not know well) show a paJern of brain responses sugges2ng that visually examining a stranger's face ac2vates self-‐focused, social rejec2on concerns, while healthy comparison par2cipants show the opposite paJern.
Dr. Jus<n Carré was recently featured in an ar2cle in The Globe and Mail.
Go neurons go! Science explains why it hurts to be a Leafs fan – sports diehards are wired that way, was wriJen by Alex Hutchinson and looks into the some2mes rabid brains of sports fans. In the ar2cle, Dr. Carré discusses his research of how hormones interact with the brain to influence social behavior, in the context of a sports fan.
To read the full ar2cle, please visit hJp://2nyurl.com/kxqewjl.
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
5
On October 25th, Dr. Ma> Saari gave the second talk in the Psychology Speaker Series with his presenta2on, Neuroscience and Consciousness. “The puzzle of consciousness fascinates both philosophers and psychologists alike and is something that we may all have wondered about in our ‘conscious’ moments,” said Dr. Saari. “I hope to argue that consciousness ought to be viewed as nothing more than a biological phenomenon that is a natural process of neural ac2vity of specific brain regions. The ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ problems of consciousness may best be resolved by recognizing that the problems are essen2ally seman2c, caused by the ‘language games’ which give meaning to such concepts. I will draw from philosophers such as WiJgenstein, Popper, Munz, Churchland, and others to construct the neural monist posi2on. As an example of the u2lity of the neural monist view of consciousness I may even suggest that the idea of life aper death, a cri2cal part of many world mythologies, can be easily understood as a natural consequence of the stability of neural circuitry dedicated to sensory/motor mapping of the body.”
Recently appointed Dr. Kirsten Greer had her ar2cle, Geopoli6cs and the Avian Imperial Archive: The Zoogeography of Region-‐Making in the Nineteenth-‐Century Bri6sh Mediterranean, published in the Annals of the Associa2on of American Geographers.
In her ar2cle, Dr. Greer examines the material remnants of the “avian imperial archive” (avian lists, bird skins, eggs, travel wri2ng), and demonstrates how Bri2sh military ornithology helped to materialize imagina2vely and empirically the Bri2sh Mediterranean as a transi2onal region for the physical and cultural acclima2za2on of Bri2sh officers en route to and from India and to extend Bri2sh imperial interests into North Africa.
For more informa2on, and to read the full ar2cle, please visit hJp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00045608.2013.784095#.
Dr. Adam Csank was the second speaker in the Masters of Environmental Studies/Science Speakers Series on October 24th with his talk, Environmental sensi6vity of trees killed during insect outbreaks in south-‐central Alaska revealed by tree-‐ring isotope chronologies.
In his talk, Dr. Csank looked at the ques2on “are trees that are killed during insect outbreaks under more stress by climate than trees that survive?” According to Dr. Csank, “this was the focus of our study of trees killed by recent spruce bark beetle outbreaks in South-‐central and southwestern Alaska. Tree ring growth, carbon and water isotopes show difference in correla2on with spring-‐summer temperatures or surviving and non-‐surviving trees. Our results show that some trees may be physiologically predisposed to mortality events (i.e. insect aJach) by nature of their sensi2vity to climate.”
Geography
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
6
Dr. Gillian McCann’s was the recent recipient of a 2013 Heritage Toronto Award of Merit for her book, Vanguard of the New Age: The Toronto Theosophical Society, 1891-‐1945.
According to the publisher’s website (McGill-‐Queen’s University Press), Dr. McCann’s book is “the story of the small ‘new age’ religious group that introduced Victorian Toronto to Eastern thought and theology, vegetarianism, reincarna2on, crema2on, and the pacifism of Mohandas Gandhi... Me2culously researched and compellingly wriJen, this careful reconstruc2on preserves
Theosophist founder Albert Smythe's dream of a culturally dis2nct, egalitarian, and religiously pluralist na2on.”
Heritage Toronto is a charitable arms-‐length agency of the City of Toronto established in 1949 to promote a greater apprecia2on for the city’s rich architectural, cultural, archaeological and natural heritage.Through partnerships with local community groups and volunteers, Heritage Toronto provides city-‐wide programs and services.
For more informa2on on Dr. McCann’s book, please visit hJp://www.mqup.ca/vanguard-‐of-‐the-‐new-‐age-‐products-‐9780773539983.php.
Religions & Cultures
Political Science, Philosophy and EconomicsDr. David Tabachnick (poli<cal science) presented his talk, How Big is that Crucifix?: The Charter of Quebec Values as an A]ack on Mul6culturalism, at Nipissing’s Award Winners Speaker Series on October 29th.
“The Charter of Quebec Values is presented as a proposal to assert religious neutrality in Quebec society,” says Dr. Tabachnick. “This includes the prohibi2on of the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols by public servants, including headscarves, yarmulkes and crucifixes”. In his talk, Dr. Tabachnick highlighted “the absurdity of placing the state in a posi2on of judging the religious inten2on behind how people dress as well as revealing the deeper story behind the Charter as an aJack on mul2culturalism and an aJempt to replace it with an ‘interculturalism’ that affirms a rather par2cular set of values supported by the separa2st Par2 Québécois”.
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
7
SPOTLIGHT ON:ARTIST RESIDENCY
Dr. Susan Cahill and Laura Peturson were the organizers of an ar2st residency last month. You Are Here: Visualizing Place at the Gateway to the North, brought six par2cipa2ng ar2sts to North Bay for an eight-‐day residency where they created site-‐specific works to be installed in various loca2ons in and around North Bay. The residency invited the ar2sts to contemplate the meaning of “North” as a loca2on, myth and construc2on, and to consider the rela2onship between his/her history and an idea of North. The group of par2cipa2ng ar2sts included individuals who were familiar with the geography, poli2cs, and history of the region, as well as those who came to North Bay with outside perspec2ves.
The residency culminated in the installa2on of five site specific artworks:
Study for a new understanding of north, by Julian Higueray Nunez, is an open construc2on room with wheels that allow for circular movement. When turned, the electromagnet fastened to the roof pulls the orienta2on of the arrow-‐shaped room back to its north-‐poin2ng posi2on. This piece was installed in a residen2al neighbourhood, across from the North Bay Public Library.
Chris2an Chapman’s large-‐scale work on canvas, en2tled Gichi-‐Gaazhagens/Great Cat, was installed on the walking trail of the former CN rail line, across from Sweetman's Garden. Using his personal memories of life in northwestern Ontario as an entry-‐point, Chapman explores blurred boundaries between progress and destruc2on, leisure and labour, as well as poli2cs of use of, and access to, par2cular spaces in northern regions.
Gichi-‐Gaazhagens/Great Cat -‐ Chris6an Chapman
Study for a new understanding of north -‐ Julian Higueray Nunez
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
8
Ar2sts and interested community members were brought around to each site by bus so that they had the opportunity to engage in dialogue. Following the tour of the public installa2ons was a roundtable with the ar2sts-‐in-‐residence to discuss their work and the broader implica2ons of public spaces as sites for art -‐ par2cularly in northern areas. The roundtable took place at the North Bay Heritage Museum and was followed by the opening recep2on of a photographic installa2on of all the works created by this project. Located in downtown North Bay at the former CPR sta2on, the Heritage Museum presented an amazing opportunity to situate works by contemporary ar2sts within the larger context of the region’s history.
In Drowning and Drowned Out, North Bay-‐based ar2st Jaymie Lathem immersed photo-‐transferred images in mason jars filled with lake water. Three hundred of these jars were installed on a network of large tree roots on the Lake Nipissing shoreline at Kinsmen Beach. This piece addresses Lathem’s struggle to work through her fears of water and drowning, as well as some of the difficul2es she has experienced as an ar2st working in a northern region that can be marginalized—or “drowned out”—by larger, urban areas.
Drowning and Drowned Out -‐ Jaymie Lathem
Tanya Lukin-‐Linklater’s work, Slow Scrape, presents a medita2on on her connec2ons to life and family in northern Canada. The work is composed of nine banners with poe2c texts that Lukin-‐Linklater developed through a series of interviews with James Bay Cree women that centre on the acts of sewing/beading, or "crap" work. The banners were installed on the rock ledge of the Lake Nipissing shoreline, south-‐east of the Chief Commanda.
For Kevin and Robert Yates, their piece Now You See Me plays with everyday spaces and objects in order to make the familiar seem unfamiliar. The work uses digital prints on wood construc2on to create mirrored and altered reflec2ons of an image. It takes on the form of a billboard and was installed on the island in the pond behind Nipissing University and Canadore College. The aesthe2c of reflec2ng/transforming parallels their interest in highligh2ng the tension and difficul2es in represen2ng “nature” in art.
Slow Scrape -‐ Tanya Lukin-‐Linklater
Now You See Me -‐ Kevin and Robert Yates
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
9
NIPISSING ALUMNI
Nichola Hoffman graduated from Nipissing University with her BA Honours in Psychology in 2013 and is currently working on her master’s degree in Psychology at Lauren<an University. Last month she presented her thesis research at the Aging and Speech Communica1on Conference, 5th Interdisciplinary Interna1onal Research Conference, in Bloomington, Indiana.
Nichola’s presenta2on, 2tled An Inves6ga6on of the Impact of Age, Working Memory Capacity, and Emo6onal Prosody on Selec6ve A]en6on and Inhibi6on in Audi6on, was co-‐authored with Nipissing’s Dr. Dana Murphy. Nichola completed this project as her honour’s thesis in Dr. Murphy’s laboratory last year when she was in her final year at Nipissing. Similar to the study Dr. Murphy presented (The distrac6bility of speech spoken in emo6onal tones in younger and older adults) at the same conference, Nichola’s study also assessed the influence of emo2onal prosody on language processing, but her focus
was on working memory for spoken language. In this study, younger and older adults were required to listen to sentences and remember the final word of each sentence. They heard an increasing number of sentences, star2ng with a single sentence, then including two, three, four, etc. sentences. All of the sentences in a specific condi2on included the same emo2onal prosody. The three prosodic condi2ons included Happy Speech, Neutral Speech, and Angry Speech. They measured prosodic working memory by having par2cipants remember the final word of each sentence within a set of sentences. The prosodic working memory score then became the largest number of sentences the individual could remember without error. They found prosodic working memory to vary depending upon the emo2onal prosody of the sentences in the specific condi2on. Younger and older par2cipants alike more effec2vely remembered words when they heard them spoken in a happy or a neutral tone of voice rather than in an angry tone of voice. In fact, the prosodic working memory for angry speech was significantly lower than the prosodic working memory for either happy or neutral speech. This paJern of results was the same for younger and for older adults. This clearly shows that memory for speech varies depending upon the prosody used in that speech with happy or neutral tones leading the greatest memory. Angry speech appears to be much more difficult to process and remember for both younger and older adults. As with Dr.Murphy’s study, Nichola’s study demonstrates the importance of how something is said. When it comes to speech you want someone to remember, it is important to speak calmly without any angry tones in your voice. If you are in an environment where you may be hearing someone speaking angrily, you may find this speech to be especially distrac2ng.
Nichola originally applied to present a poster at this conference, but the conference organizing commiJee deemed her work as extraordinary and decided that her project deserved a spoken presenta2on. In addi2on, Nichola was also awarded a student travel award which paid for a por2on of her travel and also covered the conference registra2on fee.
“This is quite an honour as only a few people were invited to give such presenta2ons. Most of the people who will be par2cipa2ng were only allowed to apply for a poster presenta2on,” said Dr. Murphy. “I am quite proud of Nichola and the recogni2on she is receiving for her work. We are currently wri2ng a paper detailing the findings from this research which we will hope to submit for publica2on before too much longer.”
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
10
ANNOUNCEMENTS &
UPCOMING EVENTS
Discover new cinema from Spain and La2n America at Nipissing University during the Spanish Film Fes2val!
All movie screenings take place on Thursdays in H104, and are scheduled as follows:
November 145:30pm -‐ Un cuento chino/Chinese Takeaway7:30pm -‐ Pa negre/ Black Bread
November 215:30pm -‐ Después de Lucia/ Afer Lucia7:30pm -‐ Infancia clandes6ne/Clandes6ne Childhood
November 285:30pm -‐ A busca/Father’s Chair
Admission is free, but sea2ng is limited. Dona2ons of non-‐perishable goods for the Nipissing University Food Bank are appreciated. Viewer discre<on is advised due to mature themes, strong profanity, sexual ac2vity, drug use and explicit violence.
The Spanish Film Fes2val is organized by students in Nipissing’s Spanish and La2n American Film course. For more informa2on, please visit nipissingspanishfilmfes2val.weebly.com.
Spanish Film Festival
A R T S & S C I E N C E N E W S L E T T E R
11
November 14 Spanish Film Fes2val -‐ Un cuento chino/Chinese Takeaway, 5:30pm in H104 Pa negre/Black Bread, 7:30pm in H104
November 19 Award Winners Speaker Series -‐ Dr. Amir Erfani, 7:00pm in the Harris Learning LibraryNovember 21 MEs/MESc Seminar Series -‐ Dr. Kirsten Greer, 5:00pm, Room TBA Spanish Film Fes2val -‐ Después de Lucia/ Afer Lucia at 5:30pm in H104 Infancia clandes6ne/Clandes6ne Childhood at 7:30pm in H104
November 22 Computer Science & Math Talks -‐ Dr. Alex Karassev, 1:30pm in A223 Psychology Speaker Series -‐ Dr. Dana Murphy, 2:00pm in A257November 28 Spanish Film Fes2val -‐ A busca/Father’s Chair, 5:30pm in H104November 29 History Seminar Talk -‐ Dr. Daniel Rueck, 2:30pm in A252 December 4 Faculty Council, 12:30 -‐ 2:00 p.mDecember 6 Last day of FA and FW courses History Seminar Talk -‐ Dr. Ilse Mueller, 2:30pm in A252 Submissions for the December NewsleJer DueDecember 9 -‐ 18 Exam period for FA courses
January 6 Classes beginJanuary 21 Award Winners Speaker Series -‐ Dr. Trevor Smith, 7:00pm in the Harris Learning Library
CALENDAR
Have something you’d like to appear in next month’s newsle]er? Please send your submissions to [email protected] or [email protected].
To view past newsle]ers, please visit: h]p://www.nipissingu.ca/academics/facul6es/arts-‐science/Pages/Arts-‐and-‐Science-‐Forms.aspx.