P.212 Demographic Trends in Canadian Neurosurgery Training & Academic Neurosurgery

Background: Exploring current trends in career outcomes can guide further expansion and diversity in neurosurgery demographics, as well as inform medical trainees of qualifications required for a career in neurosurgery. This study therefore aims to explore temporal trends and gender distribution in training, teaching, and leadership positions among currently practicing neurosurgeons. Methods: A list of practicing Canadian neurosurgeons and their certification year, degrees, fellowships, and teaching positions was created using publicly available information and phone/email confirmation by surgeons. Results: We identified 297 neurosurgeons currently practicing in Canada (F=32, M=265). There was a significant trend towards a greater number of neurosurgical staff having at least one advanced degree or fellowship over time (p=0.0012, p=0.0048 respectively), with no significant difference between proportions of males and females. Within academia, women represent 33% of adjunct professors, 8% of associate professors, and 15.2% of full professors. Two neurosurgical departments in Canada are led by women. Conclusions: Literature shows there is an underrepresentation of women in neurosurgery, particularly in higher-ranking teaching and leadership positions, yet our results suggest there is no significant differences in qualifications between males and females. Further exploration is needed to identify reasons underlying these trends and propose solutions to promote growth in the field.

“I teach, therefore I am?”

This exploratory study sought to identify the existence of a “teaching persona” in college professors. Specifically, an examination of self-reported differences in traits displayed as teachers versus in everyday life was conducted. Also investigated were feelings of job satisfaction and burnout in relation to these differences. Findings suggest that professors see themselves as more extraverted, emotionally stable, caring/supportive, professionally competent, and better communicators as teachers than in their everyday lives. However, adjunct professors lacked distinctiveness in all areas. Social science professors were less open to new experiences as teachers than in their everyday lives, while natural science professors were more open. In a few instances, larger differences between one’s teaching persona and everyday life were significantly related to more burnout and less job satisfaction. Being more conscientious, feeling more capable, and perceiving oneself as a better communicator in the teacher-role was associated with more job burnout.

Academic Librarians Examination of University Students’ and Faculty’s Perceptions of Open Educational Resources

A survey of 2,574 students and 1,157 faculty members across ten institutions of postsecondary education in the state of Utah was conducted by the Utah Academic Libraries Consortium. Survey items were created to understand the influence of textbook costs on student academic behavior and the viability of faculty adopting open educational resources (OER) as a solution to the cost of textbooks and the possible need for librarian support of OER. Two-year and four-year institutions were compared to identify differences that might exist between them. Most students felt that their academic success was negatively impacted by textbook cost, particularly at two-year institutions where students registered for fewer courses because of associated textbook costs. Faculty survey findings showed that adjunct professors were more likely to require a traditionally copyright-restricted textbook. Approximately 90% of participants indicated they would be willing to use suitable OER for their course, and almost half of survey participants expressed a desire for help finding these resources.

Pedagogik blir pedagogik och didaktik vid Stockholms universitet

This article is primarily based on my experiences as professor of Education during the last years of 1990 and first years of 2000, being appointed professor in 1992 and becoming emerita in 2005. With a background in psychology and a licentiate thesis in this discipline I had to tackle the question of the relationship between psychology and education in 1969 when I left psychology for education as academic subject. During the period which I overview a number of new positions as professor, appointed as well as promoted, were important as were adjunct professors, recruited to bridge the gap between academy and society at the department. The two main tasks of a university, education and research, came to be in important ways related to a third task – the cooperation with the world outside the academy, We recruited important persons from abroad as doctors of honors, which improved the quality of research as well as the variation of content in courses. My own interest within what I prefer to name Educology concerns primarily childhood culture and the possibility to interpret its importance with the help of theories of socialization and knowledge formation, which in my case have an origin in psychology of perception and philosophy. What has happened at the department from 1969 (starting as a lecturer), via the appointment as professor 1992 and to my retirement 2005 is viewed from my perspective with focus on events that are of importance for my experience. I have taken up some important authors who are not always acting within the discipline of Educology, or even education, but rather important as challengers in a broader sense. I finish my article with a focus on future development, pointing out possibilities to broaden as well as identifying new important challenges, without losing scientific ambitions.