Undergraduate students’ perceptions of their advisors: socioCommunicative style and perceptions of relational satisfaction

This study examined the specific interpersonal communication styles and behaviors of advisors and the expectations they have on their advisee’s level of satisfaction, as well as what characteristics lead to higher relational satisfaction in the advisor-advisee relationship. A combination of convenience and snowball sampling were utilized to obtain participants for this study. Three hundred and ninety-seven college students voluntarily completed a survey on their current advisor. The instruments used relied on the Sociocommunicative Style Scale created by Richmond and McCroskey (1985), and on the Relational Satisfaction Scale created by Beatty and Dobos (1992). Results revealed that there is a significant relationship between sociocommunicative style and relationship satisfaction. The authors note as study limitations the lack of qualitative data, the randomness of the sample, and the large proportion of female participants that resulted from the random sample. The authors conclude that by further studying variables within the advisee-advisor relationship, advisors can learn how to communicate better in order to have a satisfying and beneficial relationship with their advisees. Additionally, advisees can learn what to expect from advisement and how to attain satisfying relationships with their advisors. DOI:  10.18870/hlrc.v5i2.188

Introduction
Undergraduate academic advising can be a beneficial undertaking for many college students' success and achievement (Kramer, 2003;Mastrodicasa, 2001;Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Tinto (1987) found that interactions with undergraduate advisors have an impact on students' satisfaction. It can also have an impact on the school's retention rate. Ender (1994) discovered a significant relationship between students who had better undergraduate advisor relationships and higher retention rates. The current study examined the specific interpersonal communication styles and behaviors of advisors and the expectations they have on their advisee's level of satisfaction.
Undergraduate Advisor-Advisee Relationships Crookston (1972) focused on two kinds of academic advising: prescriptive and developmental. Prescriptive advising involves an advisor imposing institutional rules to the student. The prescriptive advising approach occurs when the interpersonal relationship is not naturally formed between the student and the advisor. The advisor acts as the expert by providing instructions and knowledge to the student advisee. The student primarily asks questions and follows the directions provided by the advisor without necessarily developing a personal relationship with the advisor.
Developmental advising is formed naturally between the student and the advisor. This approach focuses on fostering the professional growth of the advisee by allowing them to explore their own ideas and make their own decisions with the assistance of a knowledgeable advisor. It focuses on openness and trust between the advisor and advisee in order to develop a reciprocal relationship. Crookston (1972) noted that advising is similar to teaching since the student will cultivate results for themselves, their peers, and their surroundings.
The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) has encouraged the practice of developmental advising over prescriptive advising, because it allows the advisee a better educational experience yet most academic institutions do not offer developmental advising to undergraduate students (Pardee, 1994). Ender (1994) and Gordon (1994) noted that there are several reasons why developmental advising does not occur at the undergraduate level, such as time, training, and lack of comprehension about developmental advising. Developmental advising tends to occur at the graduate level due to students' interests and attitudes toward a specific advisor. It is important to note the graduate level advising is often different as the advisor is supervising faculty. Gordon and Habley (2000) noted that undergraduate academic advisors are among the first collegiate members to communicate with students and provide students with valuable resources. Past research revealed that undergraduate students need effective academic advising to succeed in college (Kramer, 2003;Mastrodicasa, 2001;Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). Tinto (1987) found that interactions with undergraduate advisors have an impact on students' satisfaction with the school and retention rate. Similarly, Ender (1994) discovered a significant relationship between students who had better undergraduate advisor relationships and higher retention rates among those same students. Based on these findings, it appears that undergraduate advisors may have a substantial impact on their undergraduate advisees. Creeden (1990) found that numerous undergraduate students were dissatisfied with their academic advisors due to perception differences about advising between advisors and their advisees. The top two areas that students wanted to discuss with their advisors were career options/goals and life goals while advisors reported that they did not feel that career counseling was a part of their responsibilities. The advisors who responded indicated that they believed they were responsible only for class selection and class drop/add procedures. It appears that undergraduate advisors and advisees perceptions of what should take place during advising may differ substantially. Advising has often been viewed as an inconsequential task or chore required by faculty rather than an opportunity to foster students' professional and personal growth (Tuttle, 2000). Kuhtmann (2004) mentioned that there has been a recent trend among academic institutions to increase the effectiveness and scope of undergraduate advising in order to have satisfactory relationships and higher retention rates.

Socio-Communicative Orientation and Style
As documented by one of the authors in previous research, Bem (1974) began examining psychological gender orientation. In her theorizing of psychological gender, Bem measured two constructs, masculinity and femininity, using a scale she created called the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). The BSRI was originally constructed by having different groups of participants read a list of adjectives and determine which characteristics on the list were seen as more desirable in the United States for one biological sex or the other. After participants rated these lists, Bem computed 400 t-tests to determine 20 items ranked by females and males to be more desirable for a man (masculine scale) and 20 items ranked by females and males to be more desirable for a woman (feminine scale) (see Punyanunt-Carter, Wrench, & Nance, 2014). 16 N. Punyanunt-Carter and S. Carter Also documented in a prior publication, Richmond andMcCroskey (1985, 1990) believed that the BSRI's conceptualizations of "feminine" and "masculine" were really just poorly labeled conceptualizations of actual communicative behavior. Instead of being marginalized with one biological sex, the authors believed that the more descriptive terms responsive (for feminine) and assertive (for masculine) communication styles was more accurate of what was being measured by the BSRI. Ultimately, what came out of Richmond and McCroskey's work were two new scales, called the Sociocommunicative Orientation (an individual's innate tendency to communicate responsively or assertively) and Sociocommunicative Style Scales (an individual's perception of another person's communicative behavior as either responsive or assertive) (see Punyanunt-Carter et al., 2014).
Responsiveness refers to an individual who "considers other's feelings, listens to what others have to say, and recognizes the needs of others" (Richmond & Martin, 1998, 136-37). The ten items that are used by Richmond and McCroskey (1985) to measure assertiveness are: helpful, responsive to others, sympathetic, compassionate, sensitive to the needs of others, sincere, gentle, warm, tender, and friendly (as previously documented in Punyanunt-Carter et al., 2014). Conversely, assertive communicators "are able to initiate, maintain, and terminate conversations, according to their interpersonal goals" (p. 136). The ten items that are used by Richmond and McCroskey (1985) to measure assertiveness are: defends own beliefs, independent, forceful, has strong personality, assertive, dominant, willing to take a stand, acts as a leader, aggressive, and competitive (see also Punyanunt-Carter et al., 2014).
As previously documented by Brogan, Fiore, and Wrench (2009), a study completed by Thompson, Klopf, and Ishii (1990) compared American and Japanese socio-communication orientations and found that U.S. females reported higher responsiveness levels than the Japanese females, but there was no difference in responsiveness between U.S. males and Japanese males. When examining assertiveness, the researchers found that U.S. females and males were more assertive than Japanese females and males. They found that cross-culturally females were more responsive and males were more assertive. This general pattern was also seen in Chinese sample (Anderson, Martin, Zhong, & West, 1997) and a Russian sample (Christophel, 1996).
As documented by Brogan et al. (2009), "[o]utside of the intercultural examination of sociocommunicative orientation, research has also been conducted on the influence of sociocommunicative orientation and style in the classroom" (Brogan et al., 2009). Most of the research looking at sociocommunicative orientation and style in the classroom has primarily studied the impact that a teacher's sociocommunicative style (as perceived by her or his students) in the college classroom (2009). Research has found that a teacher's assertiveness and responsiveness positively relates to student perceptions of nonverbal immediacy (Thomas, Richmond, & McCroskey, 1994) and student perceptions of teacher trustworthiness (Wooten & McCroskey, 1996). Research by Wanzer and McCroskey (1998) found a negative relationship between a teacher's sociocommunicative style and student perceptions of teacher misbehaviors. Aylor and Oppliger (2003) found that students were more likely to communicate with highly responsive teachers out of class, and students were more satisfied with their communication with highly responsive teachers.

Satisfaction
Another key component of the advisor-advisee relationship is satisfaction. For the purposes of this study, the focus was primarily on relational satisfaction. Dainton, Stafford, Satisfaction is an outcome gained from perceptions of the communication interaction (Spitzberg & Hecht, 1984). The greater the interaction, the higher the level of relationship satisfaction (Lewis & Spanier, 1979). Hinde (1997) agreed, stating that satisfaction is related to communication and the attributions of the communication. Based on this research, not only the type of communication, but the amount of communication is associated with satisfaction.
Dindia (2000) stated that, "relational satisfaction is the most common conceptual and operational definition of relational maintenance, and the correlation between maintenance strategies and relational satisfaction has been examined in several studies" (p. 292). Researchers have found that relationship satisfaction was linked with perceptions of the partner's relationship maintenance behaviors (Dindia & Baxter, 1987;Stafford & Canary, 1991). Thus, there is a relationship between maintenance behaviors and satisfaction.
Based on these previous findings, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1:
There is not a positive relationship between advisee perceptions of her or his advisor's sociocommunicative style (assertiveness & responsiveness) and advisee relationship satisfaction with her or his advisor.

Procedures and Participants
A combination of convenience and snowball sampling were utilized to obtain participants for this study. Undergraduates were invited to participate in this project via solicitations on a campus listserv and university professors were encouraged to pass along the invitation to participate to their undergraduate students. The invitation email included a link to the survey web site. After clicking on the link, potential participants were taken to the consent page. Participants were then asked to click on the link to if they consented to participate in the study. Participation was completely voluntary and no incentive was given.

Instrumentation
Sociocommunicative Style. The Sociocommunicative Style scale was created by Richmond and McCroskey (1985) as an instructional tool to examine the extent to which individuals use assertive or responsive communication. The instrument was first utilized in research by Thompson, Ishii, and Klopf to examine cultural differences in assertive and responsive communication Ishii et al., 1990). After the publication of these two articles, Richmond and McCroskey (1990) demonstrated the reliability and dimensionality of the measure itself. The sociocommunicative orientation scale consists of ten items on each factor for a total of twenty items. Participants are asked to respond to short descriptive phrases that range from one to five words in length that indicate ways in which they perceive their advisors communicating. Two categories are determined: assertiveness (M = 35.84, SD = 5.78) and responsiveness (M= 40.12, SD = 5.55). The measure asks a participant to respond in terms of how well the items applies to her or him using a Likert scale from (1) strongly disagree that it applies to (5) strongly agree that it applies. Alpha reliabilities for this scale were .90 for assertiveness and .93 for responsiveness.
Relational Satisfaction Scale. The Relational Satisfaction Scale was created by Beatty and Dobos (1992) to measure the extent to which an individual is satisfied with her or his interpersonal relationship with another individual. The scale consists of six oppositely worded adjective pairs with seven steps. For this study, advisees were asked to rate their relational satisfaction with their advisors. The alpha reliability for this scale was .93. The mean was 27.99 and the standard deviation was 6.23.

Results
The null hypothesis predicted that advisor's sociocommunicative style (assertiveness & responsiveness) would not relate to advisee relationship satisfaction with her or his advisor. Simple linear multiple regression was calculated using assertiveness and responsiveness as the independent variables and relationship satisfaction as the dependent variable. A significant linear relationship was noted between advisor sociocommunicative style and relationship satisfaction, F (2, 368) = 16.95, p < .0005. The sample multiple correlation coefficient, R, was .31, which indicates that approximately 8.8% of the variance of an advisee's relationship satisfaction with her or his advisor could be accounted for by the linear combination of advisor assertiveness (t = 2.41, p < .05, β = .12) and responsiveness (t = 5.23, p < .0005, β = .24).
Regressions were also run to see if demographic differences existed among the variables. Results revealed no significant differences among the demographic variables and satisfaction. Results also revealed no significant differences among the demographic variables and sociocommunicative style.

Discussion
The current study was designed to examine the relationships between advisor sociocommunicative style and advisee relationship satisfaction with her or his advisor. The hypothesis predicted relationships between an advisor's sociocommunicative style (assertiveness & responsiveness) and relationship satisfaction was supported by the findings in this study. As Crookston (1972) noted, mentoring involves to levels of orientation: prescriptive oriented (focused on rules) and developmental oriented (focused on professional growth). An advisor could be either highly assertive/responsive or lowly assertive/responsive and still accomplish both levels of advising. As for the significant relationships between advisor sociocommunicative style and advisee relationship satisfaction and motivation, the results are very similar accounting for a small portion of the variance in both variables. This reasoning for the responses probably stems from their common ground in learning affect (Richmond, Wrench, & Gorham, 2001). In essence, previous research has demonstrated that highly assertive and responsive teachers increase affective learning, which in turn positively relates to both student satisfaction and student motivation (Richmond et al., 2001). This is important for advisors to take into account so that they are able to increase higher levels of relational satisfaction with their advisees.
Interestingly, there were no differences among the demographic variables and satisfaction. This could be due to the fact that males and females want similar characteristics in an advisor and the sex of the advisor/advisee does not impact perceptions of the relationship. Moreover, there were no differences among demographic variables and perceptions of sociocommunicative style. Again, one could assume that demographics such as age, race, or classification do not impact perceptions of assertiveness or responsiveness. All and all, this is a noteworthy result, because it implies that these characteristics can transcend to both males and females.

Limitations
There are a few limitations that must be discussed concerning the current study. First, the method used in this study to recruit research participants was completely random and could have influenced the results. It is entirely possible, that this study did not yield a representative sample of the entire population of undergraduate students. Because participation was completely voluntary, only specific students that were either completely satisfied or unsatisfied chose to participate. This was a convenient sample. In addition, snowball sampling was used. Hence, participants could voluntarily select if they wanted to participate or not. It might have been beneficial to get as many possible participants to see if there were any differences.
Another limitation was the method in which this information was collected. It might have been more fruitful to collect qualitative data as well. Qualitative data would allow for more descriptions and interpretations of the advisees' perceptions about their advisor.
The third limitation to this study was that the characteristics of the sample. Many of the participants were women and a large portion of the sample reported on a female advisor. Because females tend to be relationship oriented, this might have affected the outcome of the study. 20 N. Punyanunt-Carter and S. Carter Because females are more likely to perceive relational satisfaction, they are also more likely to report it. For that reason, the results may not be generalizable to all advisor-advisee relationships.

Conclusion
This investigation furthers a research program that examines advisor-advisee communicative relationships. The advisee-advisor relationship is an untapped and needed line of communication research that should be further examined so that we can understand how to improve these types of relationships. Future possible avenues of research should include areas such as organizational identification and assimilation, conflict-management, and further interpersonal communication variables that could possibly impact the advisor-advisee relationship. By further studying variables within the advisee-advisor relationship, advisors can learn how to communicate better in order to have a satisfying and beneficial relationship with their advisees. Additionally, advisees can learn what to expect from advisement and how to attain satisfying relationships with their advisors.


Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters)

Students often memorize the definition of a transcriptional promoter but fail to fully understand the critical role promoters play in gene expression. This laboratory lesson allows students to conduct original research by identifying and characterizing promoters found in prokaryotes. Students start with primary literature, design and clone a short promoter, and test how well their promoter works. This laboratory lesson is an easy way for faculty with limited time and budgets to give their students access to real research in the context of traditional teaching labs that meet once a week for under three hours. The pClone Red Introductory Biology lesson uses synthetic biology methods and makes cloning so simple that we have 100% success rates with first year students. Students use a database to archive their promoter sequences and the performance of the promoter under standard conditions. The database permits synthetic biology researchers around the world to find a promoter that suits their needs and compare relative levels of transcription. The core methodology in this lesson is identical to the core methodology in the companion Introductory Biology Lesson by Campbell and Eckdahl. The methods are reproduced in both lessons for the benefit of readers. The two CourseSource lessons provide the detailed information needed to reproduce the pedagogical research results published in CBE Life Sciences Education by Campbell et al., 2014.

Learning Goal(s)
Students will: • understand how genes are regulated at the transcriptional level by internal and external conditions. • know how cells with the same genome can produce different proteins. • demonstrate how cell genomes can be manipulated through experimentation to alter function. • know how microorganisms serve as good model organisms for fundamental processes.

Learning Objective(s)
At the end of the activity, students will be able to: • Describe how cells can produce proteins at the right time and correct amount. • Diagram a bacterial promoter with −35 and −10 elements and the transcription start site. • Describe how mutational analysis can be used to study promoter sequence requirements. • Develop a promoter mutation hypothesis and design an experiment to test it. • Successfully and safely manipulate DNA and Escherichia coli for ligation and transformation experiments. • Design an experiment to verify a mutated promoter has been cloned into a destination vector. • Design an experiment to measure the strength of a promoter. • Analyze data showing reporter protein produced and use the data to assess promoter strength. • Define type IIs restriction enzymes. • Distinguish between type II and type IIs restriction enzymes. • Explain how Golden Gate Assembly (GGA) works. • Measure the relative strength of a promoter compared to a standard promoter.

INTRODUCTION
One of the core concepts in biology is information storage and flow (1). To help students master this core concept, genetics courses typically cover how promoters serve as key genetic elements that determine the conditions under which a gene will be transcribed and how much mRNA will be produced. For more than twenty years, we have noticed that our students could recite the definition of a promoter, but many were unable to relate that definition to cell functions. For example, students were often surprised to learn that mutations in promoters can result in new phenotypes or diseases. To help students develop a deep understanding of the role of promoters in gene expression, we developed a new lab lesson that would give our students extensive, handson experience with promoters that they designed based on information from their textbook and material covered during class time. This lesson was designed for a genetics course and is closely associated with a similar CourseSource Lesson in Introductory Biology.
In addition to learning about promoter structure and function, we also wanted our students to conduct real research rather than simply demonstrate a known outcome. Conducting research improves science education while also increasing the number and diversity of scientifically literate citizens (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). To accomplish these research goals, we drew on our years of experience of mentoring undergraduates in synthetic biology research (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Synthetic biology is the use of engineering principles, molecular cloning methods, and mathematical modeling to design and construct biological parts, devices, and systems with applications in energy, medicine, and technology. Synthetic biology is a new area of research that is amenable to undergraduate and high school students (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). In the context of the recently redesigned AP Biology curriculum, the pClone Red Genetics lesson would also be appropriate for high school AP Biology courses (21,22).
To fully understand promoters, we believe that students need to study a promoter in the lab. Specifically, our students design mutations in a known promoter and make predictions about how the promoter function will change as a result. They test their predictions by cloning their mutated promoter in the pClone Red expression plasmid, as described in detail later in this lesson. Because it is very difficult to measure promoters in absolute units (e.g., number of mRNA molecules per cell), we provide students with a positive control RFP expression device (number J04450) that uses a very well characterized promoter (Plac; part number R0010) and have them calculate the relative strength of their promoter compared to Plac which is 200 bp long. One benefit of using Plac is that most genetics classes also cover the lac operon. Using this familiar promoter in lab has the added benefit of reinforcing concepts learned during class time. For practical considerations, we limit choice of wildtype promoters that are no more than 60 basepairs (bp) long because the company that supplies our oligonucleotides charges more per base for synthesis over 60 bases. Students taking Genetics as sophomores at MWSU are charged with applying what they have learned in lecture and from their textbook about the properties of bacterial promoters to a research proposal they design. To start the process, students complete a take-home quiz (see S2) in which they propose two mutations to make in a consitutive promoter that would provide information about the promoter's function. The students share their mutation plans with each other and discuss the merits of their designs during lab. Through this discussion, they arrive at a group decision about which two mutations to clone and study in each lab section. With three lab sections, the class as a whole can clone and study six promoter mutations. During the discussion, we emphasize that the students are engaging in authentic and often original research.
Once the students have designed the mutant promoters, they design complementary oligonucleotides containing the mutant promoter sequence. We order their oligonucleotides, which the company returns within three business days. The students clone their mutant promoters into the pClone Red plasmid (part number J119137), which we designed and built ( Figure 1; (23)).
The pClone Red plasmid is the key to the success of this lesson. "Red" refers to the common reporter red fluorescent protein (RFP) that is included in the plasmid. If unaltered pClone Red is transformed into cells, the cells appear green because they contain a GFP expression cassette of a "backward" green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene and a "backward" (right to left in Figure 1) promoter (PlacIQ1; part number K091112). This backward promoter is located between GFP and the "forward" (left to right in Figure 1) RFP coding sequences on the plasmid. If the students' mutant promoter is functional, it will initiate transcription of RFP ( Figure 2) and the transformed cells will appear red if they produce sufficient amounts of RFP.
Students who clone a promoter can see three possible colors of colonies when their tranformation plates are viewed under UV light. Green colonies still contain the original backwards Plac promoter. Red colonies contain a functional mutated promoter. Colorless colonies contain a mutant promoter that is unable to drive sufficient expression of RFP to be visible in UV light.
To accomplish all of the cloning steps within the constraints of the ~ 3 hr lab periods, students use a new cloning method that is extremely easy, called Golden Gate Assembly (GGA; (24,25). GGA involves a one-tube reaction containing the type IIS restriction enzyme BsaI and DNA ligase. The Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters) restriction enzyme removes the backward PlacIQ1 promoter and generate distinct sticky ends for directional cloning of the mutant promoter. The DNA ligase directionally inserts the double stranded mutant forward promoter into the gap. Thus, GGA eliminates GFP transcription driven by the backward PlacIQ1, while simultaneously cloning the "forward" mutant promoter (left to right in Figure 1). The removal of the constitutive backward PlacIQ1 promoter and cloning of the mutant forward promoter with GGA takes place in a single tube in one hour. Transformation of E. coli takes about 15 minutes. Students can easily perform the entire process in a normal laboratory session. After students have transformed and plated the bacterial cells, each lab group prepares to quantify the RFP produced by the transformed cells using a fluorometer (23).

Intended Audience
Genetics laboratory course for potential majors, sophomores.

Learning time
Minimum of four weeks in lab, plus time for oral presentations.

Pre-requisite student knowledge
Students need to be able to pipet small volumes and work sterilely with bacteria. They need to know DNA base pairing and have learned about transcription. This laboratory lesson goes hand-in-hand with classroom material and they reinforce each other.

SCIENTIFIC TEACHING THEMES
Active learning • Student lab groups decide mutations they want to make to the promoter and formulate a testable hypothesis about the function of their mutated promoter. • Students use their textbook and understanding of how promoters work to design a mutation they want to make and test in the promoter. • Students perform the laboratory procedures of cloning a promoter, transforming cells, and identifying colonies that contain the mutated promoter.
• Students test whether their mutated promoter performs as they had predicted. • Students interpret the quantitative data they produce. Inclusive teaching • Student lab groups include individuals with different learning styles and prior knowledge. They learn how to work together through cooperation. • Students must communicate, collaborate, and self-organize at many points throughout the laboratory sessions. Each person must contribute at multiple steps every week. • Oral presentations include questions and answers where some students thrive more than others do.

LESSON PLAN
The Timeline for this lesson is available in Supporting File S1.

Instructor Preparation Before Class
Instructors can purchase the pClone Red plasmid from Carolina Biological starting in the fall of 2015. Once they have the plasmid, they can use the reagents supplied in the Carolina Biological kit, or assemble their own reagents and produce ample plasmid from a single miniprep. Details of the ligation preparation procedure are available in the kit or Using Synthetic Biology and pClone Red for Authentic Research on Promoter Function: Genetics (analyzing mutant promoters) from the supplemental file entitled "Golden Gate Assembly with pClone Red." We have found that students more fully understand GGA when they perform the paper activity during the GGA reaction. Instructors will want to print enough copies for each student to have one copy (see supplemental PowerPoint file) as well as access to scissors and clear tape. We have provided several additional PowerPoint files that instructors can use to present and overview of GGA and experimental details. Instructors will want to familiarize themselves with the synthetic biology registry of standardized DNA parts (http://parts.igem.org/Main_Page). All part numbers (such as J119137) are described in detail in the registry.

General Information
Because this is a four-week wet-lab module, we start slowly to allow time in the classroom to cover DNA structure and gene regulation. Then, we cover how cloning works in general and GGA with pClone in particular (see S3). Students visit the two DNA registries they will be using so they realize their work will be part of a publicly accessible database of promoters and their functions. Knowing that their research will be part of a global research enterprise helps students recognize they are doing real science and not just reproducing outcomes that are already known.
Students take a pre-survey the first day of class to capture what they know prior to any instruction (see S4 and S5). There is no simple way into the literature for beginning students, so they are taught how to search for papers that describe the function of bacterial promoters and contain promoter DNA sequences. Students do not need to understand the entire paper and should focus on the promoter's function in a prokaryote and whether it is positively or negatively regulated, or constitutive (always functions). From this starting point, they can develop a hypothesis about how their promoter design will function in E coli. To limit our costs and increase cloning success rates, the total length of the mutant promoter cannot exceed 60 bp. Our DNA provider, www.idtdna.com, has a cost inflection point at 60 bases (about $7 for each of the two oligos), so none of the student mutant promoters can be longer than 60 bp long. This size restriction will accommodate most constitutive bacterial promoters.

Designing a Mutated Promoter and Generating Promoter Oligonucleotides -Week 1
The first lab period in this sequence begins with a summary presentation to students about how pClone Red makes promoter research accessible (see S6). After question and answers, students begin the design phase of their research process. Students refer to their completed Promoter Quiz, in which they propose two mutations in a consitutive promoter that would provide information about the promoter's function (see S2). The students share their mutation plans in lab and discuss the merits of each idea. Through this discussion, the group chooses which mutations to clone and test. Sometimes the discussion generates new ideas that combine different student proposals. We encourage the students to be specific about predicting the effect of their mutations on promoter function, based on the structure/function relationships they have learned. Student often ask their instructor what the effect of their mutation is going to be and are empowered when the instructor does not know the answer and adds that perhaps no one knows the answer.
The lab session continues with an instructor presentation showing the details of how pClone works (see S7). The main outcome of the Week 1 lab is to design the two oligonucleotides that will form the double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) with the mutant promoter sequence that will be cloned into the pClone Red plasmid (see S8). Students will need to add one sticky end to each oligonucleotide, so that the resulting dsDNA will be correctly oriented to drive RFP expression in the plasmid. Students must submit their promoter sequences to the Registry of Standard Parts (26). Students submit their sequence to the registry and the default designation is "planning." Once the students clone and test their promoter, they will provide functional information and convert the status from "planning" to "works" or "failed." This is the normal procedure for all parts submitted to the Registry.

Cloning the Promoter -Week 2
For each of three lab sections, two mutation plans are developed. The six mutations are cloned and studied in each of the lab sections. The afternoon before lab, at least one student from each lab group comes to lab to mix their oligos, boil them for 5 minutes, and allow them to anneal overnight (see S9). During their regular lab meeting the next day, students dilute the cooled oligos in preparation for the GGA reaction. After diluting the annealed oligos, students add them to the GGA mixture, which contains the pClone Red plasmid, type IIS restriction enzyme BsaI, DNA ligase, ATP, and a buffer (see S10). The instructor prepares aliquots of the GGA mixture in advance; the aliquots are stored at -20° C. The students prepare a negative control GGA reaction that lacks the mutant promoter oligonucleotides. Later, they will transform their positive control plasmid (part J04450) that uses the constitutive promoter Plac to drive RFP transcription.
The GGA reaction tubes are placed into a thermocycler for at least 20 rounds of a two-step cycle: 1 minute at 37° C and 1 minute at 16° C. (More rounds produce higher success rates but take longer.) The temperature cycles reflect optimal temperatures of the enzymes in the GGA reaction: the restriction enzyme BsaI works optimally at 37° C and DNA ligase works well at 16° C. After the cycles, a final step of 15 minutes of 37° C is added to reduce the number of undigested pClone Red plasmids. Once GGA is completed, students do three transformations with different DNA samples: 1) negative control of pClone Red after GGA, without addition of mutant promoter oligonucleotides that produce only green colonies; 2) the experimental GGA reaction containing their mutated promoter and 3) positive control plasmid with Plac promoter driving transcription of RFP (part number J04450; see S11). The students plate each transformation onto separate LB + ampicillin plates, which are allowed to grow about 16 hours at 37° C before photographing under UV light.
While the GGA reaction is in the thermocycler, students perform the paper GGA exercise to better understand what is happening to pClone Red and their oligonucleotides (see S12).

Characterizing the Promoter -Week 3
The afternoon prior to lab, at least one student from each group picks three colonies from each plate and grows them overnight at 37° C in 2 ml of LB + ampicillin broth (see S13). To select colonies, students place the transformation plates colony side down a UV light box, which allows students to distinguish red, green, and colorless colonies. Each group picks three green colonies from the negative control plate, three red colonies from the positive control plate, and three non-green colonies (red or colorless) from the experimental colonies. No matter how few in number, red colonies indicate the mutated promoter is working. If no red colonies appear, then the mutated promoter is not strong enough to drive sufficient RFP transcription to produce a visible red color, or does not work at all.
When lab starts, students photograph the plates and tubes of cells before using a 96-well plate reader to measure RFP fluorescence (585 nm excitation and 615 nm emission) and light absorbance (590 nm) to quantify cell density. Students calculate the fluorescence to absorbance ratio to normalize the amount of RFP signal to the number of cells present (see Options to Extend the Lesson to measure promoter strength in lieu of a fluorometer). Fluorescence and absorbance do not have absolute units so they are measured in arbitrary units. Students spend their remaining time interpreting their results and generating graphical representations of their data. They also submit their results to the two DNA registries, including fold induction when comparing the Plac promoter to their mutant promoter (Figure 3). Students submit the information as prompted by the Registry of Functional Promoters (27). Students also return the Registry of Standard DNA Parts and update their promoters with the "experience" data so other users can see how well the promoter works, if it works at all.

Presenting the Results -Week 4
Outside of lab, students prepare and practice their oral presentations. Each presentation is limited to ten minutes and divided into four sections -introduction, methods, results, and discussion. Students work together to prepare their presentations and are encouraged to share the workload and the presentation time. The instructor provides students with a graded evaluation of their presentation that counts for one quiz grade.
Options to Extend the Lesson The pClone lesson has four possible extensions, all of which are appropriate for genetics students.

Extension 1: Quantifying without a Fluorometer
If a fluorometer is not available, students can take a photograph of colonies and then use the free software ImageJ to quantify the redness of the colonies (28). This photographic method is not as accurate as using a fluorometer, but it will give quantitative data that students can use to assess relative promoter function. The details for using ImageJ are in the supplemental materials (see S14, (23)). It is worth noting that, unlike GFP, RFP is easily visualized with normal room lighting.

Extension 2: Quantifying without a UV Light Box
If you do not have a UV light box, or want to use a different reporter, you can use pClone Blue (part J119313) that has amilCP Blue as the reporter gene instead of RFP (29). pClone Blue is paired with a positive control plasmid (part J119128) that contains the well-characterized promoter P5. As with pClone Red, pClone Blue can be quantified by photographs of colonies analyzed by ImageJ. There is a second method to collect qualitative data using pClone Blue. You can grow the positive control blue cells and produce a serial dilution. From this dilution series, you can measure absorbance at 400 nm and generate a standard curve against which you can compare any mutant promoters (see S15).

Extension 3: Dissect Function of Bases in Known Promoter
Rather than mutating a known promoter, students can identify a new promoter from the literature for cloning and testing. This extension is described in detail in the companion CourseSource Introductory Biology Lesson by Campbell and Eckdahl. Analysis of a new promoter could be combined with the one described in the current lesson by having student introduce mutations into promoters that are expected to be under positive or negative control.

Extension 4: Verify Cloning of Non-Functional Promoter
One limitation of pClone results is that plasmids may contain no promoter at all; the original promoter was removed and the plasmid re-ligated without insertion of the mutant promoter into the plasmid. This plasmid religation produces colorless colonies, which is the same phenotype as a plasmid that contains a mutant promoter that does not work or works at a very low level. To distinguish these two possible genotypes, you could either have some plasmids sequenced, or use PCR to distinguish the longer original promoter (PlacIQ1 is 70 bp) from the shorter mutant promoters (see S16). For example, the P5 promoter is only 36 bp which is easily distinguished from PlacIQ1. We have used PCR screening with genetics students before, but stopped because it was not central to the learning goals.

Technical Issues
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of this lesson is that 100% of all lab groups have successfully cloned their mutant promoters despite them being sophomores with no prior cloning experience. pClone Red is inexpensive and does not require any specialized equipment unless you want to quantify the RFP by fluorescence. Students have cloned and tested many different types of mutations including insertions, deletions, and substitutions. Less than half of these mutant promoters have worked as predicted. Students have various reactions to disproving their hypotheses. Some assume that they have made a mistake; others are frustrated that they did not get the results they thought they were supposed to get; and others realize that they may have discovered something new about how bacterial promoters function. Regardless of the nature of students' reactions to the results, we help them learn that disproving hypotheses is a valuable part of science. Students realize that their hypotheses can be wrong even when they did everything correctly. We want them to realize that even a negative result is worth recording in the two Registries associated with this lesson. As in "real" science, unexpected results can lead students to the literature where they are looking for good explanations for their results ( Figure 3B).

Student Comments
Students often start this lab lesson with a fair bit of confusion about what they are doing, but early confusion can be stimulate learning. As they progress into the semester, they learn more and more about promoters so their lab experiences make more sense with time. Students have repeatedly indicated that they like doing real promoter research rather than canned labs. Students often express surprise at how accessible authentic research on promoter function was made using the pClone Red lesson. These comments are consistent with the data discussed in Vision and Change (1) as well as BIO2010 (3). Cognitive psychologists have documented that students learn best when they construct their own knowledge. The concept of knowledge construction is consistent with students in our class moving from initial confusion to eventual clarity about how a promoter works and how their research with pClone Red tested the function of their promoter (30).

Learning Outcomes
Recently, Classroom Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs; (8,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) have received a lot of attention. The pClone Red promoter research lesson provides an easy way to scale up CURE opportunities in all teaching lab sections. In our paper describing pClone Red (23), we showed that students accomplished seven of the nine genetics learning objectives. Interestingly, the students were not able to adequately describe the GGA method, even though they had performed it to clone their mutated promoters! Because of their confusion about GGA, we instituted the paper activity where students physically manipulate paper versions of DNA during GGA (see S12). This activity can be performed by students during the hour-long GGA reaction.
The pClone Red Genetics lesson addressed one of the core concepts and several core competencies outlined in Vision and Change (1). It provides faculty with a lost cost lab module that has allowed 100% of the student lab groups to clone a promoter they designed. The students evaluated their hypotheses about how their promoters would function. Students are actively engaged in constructing their own understanding about promoters while using many learning strategies. Feedback on course evaluations has been very favorable and students synthesize their knowledge in oral and written laboratory reports that confirm that many of the learning goals and objectives are accomplished.
A common misconception is that different cell types in a multicellular organism contain different genes rather the correct understanding that all cells containing the same genes that are differentially regulated at the transcriptional level. Working with promoters over an extended period and testing the strength of a promoter they designed helps students gain a greater appreciation for the central role promoters play in cell and molecular biology. Furthermore, students learn to clone using a new method that is substantially easier and more effective than the traditional approach that often requires gel purification and the need for sticky ends generated when type II restriction enzymes cut within their recognition sites. Students often think that the newest method is normal, rather than being as impressed as their instructors are by the innovation. Despite their inability to appreciate the advantages of the new methods, it is very common for students to share their excitement during lab that this synthetic biology promoter lab module is real research that other biologists can access and use in their own research. It should not be surprising that students prefer to do meaningful lab work, rather than busywork replicating previous results, or studying a new question that is of little interest by the scientific community.
It is exciting to offer Genetics students a meaningful research experience that is inexpensive and allows every lab group to clone and test original mutation hypotheses. For four years, 100% of the student lab groups have successfully cloned their mutated promoters. Often the effect of the mutations on promoter function is surprising to students and the instructor. This produces a very rich learning environment when students can learn that unexpected results are normal in research.
This lesson spells out the details of how to implement a course-based, undergraduate research experience (CURE) within the budget and time constraints of a typical lab. In particular, the degree of difficulty and cost of the lab are consistent with a typical introductory biology course intended for majors and potential majors. In 2014, we published a detailed description of the learning objectives and student assessment data in CBE -Life Sciences Education (23).


Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp) Used, and it's Relationship with the University Students Contact with their Families in Saudi Arabia

Social media an important component of modern people lives of contemporary societies, and on the point of particular young people. The aim of the present research to study the relationship of the use of social media the following social media: WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, continuing university students with their families. The sample consisted of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, of the four departments' in which the study Bachelor until eighth level, and the total sample 658 students from the departments: psychology, sociology, geography and history. And the used tool of The researcher is composed of three axes: the first axis of public data, and the second axis, means of communication: Includes used of social media and the time you spend with them daily, and the third axis of relationship and social media to communicate with the family: Includes ten phrases dealing with the impact of social media on the continuing student with his family. Extraction was ratified arbitrators and internal consistency, as a way to extract stability, and got good rates. The most important results was : 1) having a negative relationship between the use of statistically significant means of social communication and the relationship of students with their families. 2) the lack of impact on the type of scientific department on social media used. 3) time spent on the means of communication: the time came less than an hour the first rank (37.6%) of WhatsApp, and (54.4%) of Twitter, and (76.5%) for Facebook. 4) in the spread of means was ranked first way WhatsApp in use (93.4%) and then Twitter (46.4%) and Facebook (36.8%). The researcher concluded discussed a set of recommendations derived from the search results. Keyword Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, University Students, Saudi Arabia

Introduction
Social media is as active tools of communication in the contemporary societies. The Arab Social Media Report series (1) found that social media devices have an impact on people lives, particularly on freedom of expression, empowerment of youth and women with the skills needed for functioning effectively in their active social life. These devices dominated the behavior of the individuals they played major role in popular civic movements. Statistical data (2) showed that the people registered on Twitter is 645.750000 (01/05/2014) and 135000 added daily. Facebook established before Twitter, and now has 1.310.000000 active participants. WhatsApp has 600.000000 active users .
WhatsApp spreads widely among users and friends daily. It is a useful tool of connecting people with common interests and shared concerns. For this reason, the present research is designed to investigate the impact of social media on university students/families communications and social interactions. . Das and Sahoo (3) stressed the growing popularity of social networking sites among the Internet users. Turan and et al. (4) collected Data from two large state universities in Turkey to assess why students of high tech do not use social networking websites (Facebook). The data finding showed that students perceived the use of Facebook as waste of time. It might lead to addiction, violate the privacy, and might invoke family concerns. Al Ahmari (5) showed that social networking sites leads to social isolation and create virtual life instead of real life.
Researchers found that most users of the Internet in the wrong way are living two types of life or two characters separate the two:  Regular personality: and called in the online world outside the network (Off-Line).  Virtual Personality: called in the online world within the network (On-Line).

Definitions
Facebook: (formerly [the facebook]) is an online social networking service headquartered in Menlo Park, California. the University Students Contact with their Families in Saudi Arabia Its name comes from a colloquialism for the directory given to students at some American universities. Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The founders had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities and later to their high-school students. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old worldwide to become a registered user of the website, although proof is not required (6).
Twitter: is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco and has more than 25 offices around the world. Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass and in July 2006 the site was launched. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with more than 100 million users who in 2012 posted 340 million tweets per day. The service also handled 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013 Twitter was one of the ten most-visited websites, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet." In July 2014, Twitter has more than 500 million users, with more than 271 million are active users. (6).
Whats App Messenger: is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smartphones and selected feature phonesIt uses the internet for communication. In addition to text messaging, users can send messages, images, video, and audio media as well as their location. WhatsApp Inc. was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both former employees at Yahoo!. The company is based in Mountain View, California and employs 55 people. As of October 2014, WhatsApp is the most globally popular messaging app more than 600 million users. (6).
Student Communication with his families is defined as: the interaction of university student with his family on daily basis in a positive way.
The aim of the present research is to study the use of Social media (Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp) as a tool of communication between university students and their families in Saudi Arabia.

The Theoretical Framework
Social learning theory is an integrated behavioral and cognitive theories of learning that provides a comprehensive model that includes learning experiences in the real world. This theory developed by Albert Bandura and Walters in 1963 and expanded further in 1977, The key tenets of social learning theory are as: 1) Learning is a cognitive process grounded within social context. 2) Learning can occur by observing a behavior and by observing the consequences of the behavior (vicarious reinforcement). 3) Learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations, and making decisions about the performance of the behavior (observational learning or modeling). Thus, learning can occur without an observable change in behavior. 4) Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely responsible for learning. 5) The learner is not a passive recipient of information.
Cognition, environment, and behavior influence each other mutually (reciprocal determinism).
Social learning theory draws heavily on the concept of modeling, or learning by observing a behavior. Bandura outlined three types of modeling stimuli: Live model: in which an actual person is demonstrating the desired behavior.
Verbal instruction: in which an individual describes the desired behavior in detail and instructs the participant in how to engage in the behavior.
Symbolic: in which modeling occurs by means of the media, including movies, television, Internet, literature, and radio. Stimuli can be either real or fictional characters.
Exactly what information is gleaned from observation is influenced by the type of model, as well as a series of cognitive and behavioral processes, including: Attention is impacted by characteristics of the observer (e.g., perceptual abilities, cognitive abilities, arousal, past performance) and characteristics of the behavior or event (e.g., relevance, novelty, affective valence, and functional value).
Retention: In order to reproduce an observed behavior, observers must be able to remember features of the behavior. Again, this process is influenced by observer characteristics (cognitive capabilities, cognitive rehearsal) and event characteristics (complexity).
Reproduction: To reproduce a behavior, the observer must organize responses in accordance with the model. Observer characteristics affecting reproduction include physical, cognitive capabilities and previous performance Motivation: The decision to reproduce (or refrain from reproducing) an observed behavior is dependent on the motivations and expectations of the observer, including anticipated consequences and internal standards.
An important factor in social learning theory is the concept of reciprocal determinism. This notion states that just as an individual's behavior is influenced by the environment. The environment is also influenced by the individual behavior. In other words, a person's behavior, environment, and personal qualities all reciprocally influence each other. For example, a child who plays violent video games will most likely influence his peers to play more.
This could lead to violence, which in turn will most likely affect the child's real life and behavior (6).
g) The high percentage of the subjects began using social media between 1-3 years ago (11;18).

Research questions
Based on theoretical framework and the results of previous studies, the researcher formulated the following questions for consideration: The first question: Is there a relationship between the use of social media by the students and the communication with their families?
Second question: How often they use the social media? What Ratio for each one (Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp)?
Third question: How much time spent in each one? Fourth question: Are there significant differences in the use of social media according to Students academic specialties?
Fifth question: Are there significant differences in the use of social media according to their academic level?
Sixth Question: Are there significant differences in the use of social media due living with the parents?

Research Methodology
The researcher used a descriptive approach, which, is suitable for the current research.

Research Tool
The researcher designed a questionnaire for the current research, it consists of three axes: 1) General information 2) Social media: Includes Do you use any of the following social media (Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp).
3) The relationship of social media to communicate with family: Includes ten questions.
Validity and reliability: The validity and reliability of the research tool were scientifically acceptable.

Research sample
College Students of social sciences Collage at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, has been selected from four scientific departments Psychology, Sociology & Social work, geography, and history. The researcher distributed 1200 copies and 658 copies returned with ratio of 55%.
The most important results were 1) There is a negative relationship between Students use of social media and communication with their families.
2) There is no effect of academic scientific department affiliation on social media uses.

Conclusion: The Researcher Conclude
1-Due to prove the negative relationship between the use of social media and the relationship of students with their families, the researcher recommends educating young people through lectures and Dialogue professors with them in the halls for the rationalization of the use of such means, and alarm to the rights of the family, including the two parents are great Vhakogahma and should not be a concern about anything do affect those rights. 6 ( 2-Due to the lack of effect on the type of scientific departments on the use of contraception because it is not included in their curricula, the researcher recommends the inclusion of these means in a curriculum that is taught to students and explain how to take advantage of them positive, especially in the educational process, and how to avoid Alsalbeh effects associated with their use. 7 ( 3-Given that nearly a third of the sample (34.9%) spend between an hour to less than three hours in the use of those means a day which is a long time, under the guidance of students researcher recommends reducing the time spent on those means, so as not to drown out other tasks such as communication with the times family or revision of lessons and homework or other than his importance in the life of a student.
84-Because the way Alwats August ranked first in use (93%), the researcher recommends that departments and 72 Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp) used, and it's Relationship with the University Students Contact with their Families in Saudi Arabia professors to take advantage of them in the learning process effective in a positive way. 9 ( 5-Find other studies recommend more in-depth and broader in that they contain all disciplines at the university and both sexes to learn more about these methods and their effects, and can be singled out for each way of their own research.


Thinking Globally: Ict Teaching Perspectives☆

Abstract This work was encouraged by the contemporary global processes taking place in the world labor market. These processes impose new demands on the modern specialists, and in particular on the future teachers of foreign language. These changes lead to the necessity of modernization of the foreign language education targeted at the development of the competences necessary for the teachers of «the new formation». Current study was aimed at examination of the effectiveness of the implementation of ICT for the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. This research lasted for two months and involved two groups of third-year future teachers of a foreign language taking the ESP course. The research participants comprised 15 students in control group (CG) and 16 students in experimental group (EG). In the course of the study CG was taught according to the standard ESP syllabus with the use of the ESP course-book. In EG in addition to the standard program was implemented ICT. The research results were obtained from the comparison of the EG and CG course achievements by means of pre- and post-tests. The research results have shown that the use of ICT in the foreign language teaching facilitates the development of the cross-cultural professionally – reflective competence.

Introduction
The globalisation of the world labour market is leading to the need for changes in our traditional life setting. The rapid pace of development in the processes of international integration requires an increase in the amount of welleducated specialists. The entrance of Kazakhstan onto the international scene of socio-economic market relations leads to the necessity of undertaking obligations to the global community. These obligations also impact on the sphere of education.
One of the main goals of the Governmental Programme for the Development of Education in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020 (2010) is the training of highly qualified specialists in the sphere of ICT. There are also great gains planned in the professional development of future teachers of foreign languages because these languages are an important instrument of international cooperation. Under the given circumstances there is a strong need for the modernisation of the system of foreign language education.
Thus, the traditional educational system targeted at the development of students' knowledge is losing its authenticity and is gradually being substituted with approaches which lean towards teaching that is focused on the development of the students' personalities, leading in turn to creative self-expression. That is why our goal is the introduction of a new educational model which leads to specialists of the new approach who will possess the requisite competences that guarantee their ability to meet the demands of the world's labour market.
The introduction of the competence approach into the modern system of foreign language education allows for the development of the system of competences necessary for the teacher of a foreign language of the new formation because it is based on the humanitarian and culture-oriented methodologies (Kunanbayeva, 2010). We assume that the implementation of the modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will contribute to the process of the modernisation of Kazakhstani foreign language education and facilitate the development of the set of competences necessary for the future teacher of the foreign language.
For this reason, current research is being steered towards an examination of the impact of ICT on the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence of the future teacher of the foreign language. The general research method for this study is an experiment aimed at estimating the effectiveness of the stage-bystage implementation of the process of development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence as an integral part of the professional development of the future teacher of the foreign language. We will present the research objectives and hypothesis for the current study. After that there will be a description of the participants and the research site, the method and procedures of data collection and analysis, followed by the presentation and discussion of the research findings.

Research Objectives
The main objectives of the current study were -professionally reflective: to specify the theoretical model of the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence of the future teacher of the foreign language through the use of ICT in context-based teaching (Bordovskaya, 2011); to empirically check the effectiveness of the use of ICT in foreign language teaching for the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence of the future teacher of a foreign language.

Research Hypothesis
The leading research hypothesis was that the process of the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence of the future teacher of a foreign language would be more effective if: the foreign language education was based on competence, learner-centred and cognito-linguo-culturalogical approaches; the leading technology was the use of ICT in professional-context teaching; a mechanism to initiate context-based communication goals and operational settings was used. Then, there would be the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence leading to the final achievable learning outcome -the development of the intermediator of intercultural communication, "who is capable of adequate intercultural communication in various vocational and daily situations, and who is aware of the communicative-behavioural culture and the national mentality of native speakers, possible where teaching occurs outside the linguocultural and sociocultural environment, due to the realisation of the cognito-linguoculturalogical, learner-centred and competence approaches". (Kunanbayeva, 2010).
Competence education is the attempt to balance education with the demands of the market. This puts the main emphasis on the students' ability to solve problems occurring in the course of an activity, thus reducing the value of the pure storage of theoretical knowledge. The theory of cross-cultural communication is based on the cognitolinguo-culturalogical methodology which is targeted at the development of the intermediator of intercultural communication, able to perform cross-cultural communication in different professional situations mirroring real life situations. The theory of context-based teaching with the use of ICT is targeted at the preparation of people for new conditions of life and work in the new informational environment. It is aimed at the development of the competences that would help students use ICT in their future job and gain the new world view through the prism of modern technology. Current research is guided by the following methodological principles: the communicative principle, which implies the possession of the complex of norms and traditions of the communicative behaviour of the target language's native speakers; the cognitive principle, which directs the process of the formation of the "intermediator of intercultural communication" through the creation of visual images, supporting schemata, associations, creation of conflicting situations targeted at the development of the mental constructions in the consciousness of the students; the conceptual principle, which is responsible for the acquisition of the new linguistic culture by the students within the conditions of the information educational system. This includes the electronic educational resources such as: audio, video, multimedia information about the linguistic, cultural, ethnical, sociological and other peculiarities of the world's population; the socio-cultural principle, which is targeted at the comparison of native and foreign society; and then there is the developmental-reflexive principle which is aimed at self-development through selfassessment by the students (Kunanbayeva, 2010).
In addition to the principles listed above, this study also implements the principle of systematisation that allows for the integration of ICT into the system of foreign language teaching to increase its interactive capacities. There is also the principle of the synthesis of the content that allows the integration and structuring of the content of foreign language education to correspond to the social demands of the information society (Chahklikova, 2009). Add to this the principle of activity which views the development of professional qualities as the process taking place in professional pedagogical activity. The principle of continued professional development views professional pedagogical activity that encourages the teacher to undergo constant professional development and adopt the principle of professionalisation that presupposes the use of the foreign language as essential for the achievement of professional goals (Zhumabekova, 2010).

Research Design
The research was conducted in the Ablai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages and lasted for two months. The research was conducted in three stages. In the first stage the theoretical framework for the research was established and existing literature on the problem of the development of the crosscultural professionally reflective competence was analysed.
In the second stage the methodological model of the development of cross-cultural professionally reflective competence was worked out, incorporating ICT.
At the third stage experimental work was included to check the effectiveness of the methodology of the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence with the implementation of ICT.

Research Participants
The participants were 31 students of the Ablai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages, all studying English for Specific Purposes (ESP). All of them were female. The age range was 20-21 years old. In the course of study all research participants were assigned to two groups: experimental and control. In the experimental group there were 16 students and in the control group, 15. The selection of third year students as participants was conditioned by the required level of the students' level of proficiency in the conditions of the competence approach based on the professional model of the specialist.

Research Procedures
The experiment was conducted with two groups of ESP students. One of the groups was the experimental group (EG) the second group was the control group (CG). In CG the classes were conducted according to the regular ESP syllabus. In the EG, in addition to the regular ESP syllabus, ICT was implemented. In each group the lessons were conducted five times a week. The classes with the EG were conducted in the multimedia room that was equipped with an interactive board and an LCD projector that allowed for the implementation of ICT in the lessons. In addition to the equipment in the classroom, the researcher brought her own laptop and speakers. The classes with the CG were conducted in a regular classroom not equipped with ICT. To listen to the audio files that were indicated in the ESP course book the researcher also used her own laptop in the CG because the regular classroom did not provide the conditions for working with audio and video files.
The classes in the CG were conducted by the researcher with the use of the ESP course book. In the EG the researcher taught the same ESP content as in the CG but with the help of ICT. The ICT technologies implemented during the experiment included: Nicenet, podcasts, electronic journals, and Audacity.
The research led to the creation of an electronic class with the help of the "Nicenet" application and the research participants were asked to sign in to this class. "Nicenet" was used for the presentation of the schedule of the course assignments, distant communication between the research participants and the researcher and feedback on the classes and assignments from the participants. In addition, it allowed the researcher to send personal comments to the participants and give feedback on the latters' comments.
Electronic journals were used for the collection of students' reflections on class assignments, learning students' opinions about different assigned topics, for example "teaching philosophy". These electronic journals were emailed to the researcher on a regular basis.
"Podcasts" were implemented for the presentation to the students of authentic information relevant to their course in the form of audio and video files downloaded from the Internet. "Audacity" was implemented for the development of students' speaking skills. It was used to afford the research participants the opportunity to record their speech, with the opportunity of the further listening to it so that the students could analyse their progress by themselves. Students' recordings were also sent to the researcher so that she could check the students' progress and at the same time save classroom time owing to the possibility of simultaneous participation including all the students on one and the same task without disturbing each other's performance.
The experiment was structured in the following way: 1) diagnostics. At this stage the pre-test was conducted to check the level of development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence in EG and CG; 2) experiment. During this stage in EG, ICT was implemented; 3) analytics. Here the post-test was conducted in EG and CG to check if the implementation of ICT in the process of ESP teaching made a difference in the level of development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence in comparison to the teaching given according to a standard ESP syllabus without the use of ICT.

Data Collection
Before conducting the experiment, both groups were asked to complete a pre-test to reveal their level of proficiency as well as the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence in EG and CG. This pre-test contained five sections. Each section included the task of checking the level of development of each of the sub-competences, such as: cognitive, conceptual, information-accumulating, linguo-cultural, and reflexivedevelopmental which constitute the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence.
After conducting a number of classes in EG with the use of ICT, and in CG without it, students of both groups were asked to complete the post-test to check their progress in the development of their cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. The structure of the post-test was the same as the structure of the pre-test and consisted of five tasks where each task was aimed at measuring the development of a particular sub-competence.

Data Analysis
The research data was analysed by means of calculating and comparing the results of the pre-and post-test in EG and CG. First of all the average results of the pre-and post-tests were calculated for every sub-competence in the EG and CG. After that, the total score was calculated for the pre-and post-tests for EG and CG. Finally, the pre-and post-test results of EG and CG were compared.
The average grade was calculated according to the following formula: Ca = ∑n1/N; where: Ca -stands for the coefficient of the development of the professional communicative abilities; ∑n1 -stands for the sum of the received points; and N -stands for the number of participants.

Research Results
The pre-test and post-test results for the EG are presented in Table 1. In this table there are the results achieved by the research participants during the pre-and post-tests according to the level of development of each subcompetence, and the total score for the level of development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. In Table 2 there are the results of the pre-and post-tests for the CG. The results of the pre-test indicate that EG and CG initially have approximately the same level of development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. Though the CG showed a slightly lower score from the very beginning, the results of the post-test indicate that the EG increased its score in comparison to the pre-test by 7.2 points and in comparison with the final results of the CG by 6.7 points. The CG also increased its score in the post-test in comparison to the pre-test by 2.5 points. However, the CG lost 0.1 point in the conceptual sub-competence.

Interpretation Of The Research Results
Analysis of the results has shown that the EG achieved better results in the post-test in comparison to the CG. The difference in the final score is 6.7 points. Such a difference confirms the hypothesis of the current study that the implementation of ICT into the foreign language education facilitates the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. The results of the CG show that the currently existing foreign language teaching methodology also develops the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence, but it would be more effective if foreign language teaching involved ICT technologies such as: "Nicenet", "podcasts", "electronic journals", and "Audacity".

Discussion And Conclusions
The results of the current study prove that the implementation of ICT into the foreign language educational system leads to a more effective development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence in comparison to teaching according to a standard programme. This could be explained by the possibilities that are provided by the implementation of ICT into the foreign language education.
ICT allows access to sources of authentic information, removes geographical boundaries, encourages learners' motivation for self-development, creates opportunities for self-evaluation, and imposes on students a responsibility for their own learning. Though current research confirms the research hypothesis, its results are in no way conclusive and there is a need for further investigation in the area because of the number of limitations to this research. Among such limitations is the limit on time. Most probably, research lasting longer would show a more distinct influence of ICT on the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. Another limitation of the current study was the small number of research participants, which is why the results of the study do not allow us to make any statistically significant claims.
Considering the limitations of the current study we suggest that future research into the use of ICT in foreign language teaching be conducted with a larger amount of participants, and for a longer period of time. As for possible research topics in this area, we could advise study of the influence of every technology implemented in the currently ongoing study of the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence of the future teacher of the foreign language, to find out which of the implemented technologies (Nicenet, podcasts, electronic journals, Audacity) are the most effective. This, as well as comparing the effect of the aforementioned technologies on every separate sub-competence.
Summing up, the implementation of ICT into foreign language training leads to progress in the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence and allows us to become competent participants in the global labour market. Thus, the use of ICT is a step forward in foreign language education and the development of specialists of the new formation who meet the demands of the global community. However, the issue of ICT in foreign language education needs further research.

Literature Review
Global changes lead to changes in educational goals. In the current circumstances, the competence approach has great authenticity because it is based on humanitarian and culture-oriented methodologies that are targeted at the development of the system of competences (Kunanbayeva, 2010). Zimniaya (2006) characterises the competence approach as a way to achieve the education of the new quality, to point out the directions, key points, and content of the educational process. Kunanbayeva (2010) defines this approach as the attempt to balance the educational system with the demands of the market, putting the main emphasis on the students' ability to solve problems occurring in the course of the activity by developing a particular competence as a learning outcome, thus reducing the value of the pure storage of theoretical knowledge.
Earlier research has revealed that students do not possess enough awareness about the culture of the target language of the country which is why the concept of cross-cultural communicative competence was introduced to foreign language education, with the development of the intermediator of intercultural communication a key learning aim. (Kunanbayeva, 2010).
Taking into account all the existing models and structures of cross-cultural communicative competence, Kulibayeva (2006) concluded that for effective foreign language teaching it is enough to consider the following subcompetences: linguistic, strategic, discursive, and sociocultural, which allow us to treat cross-cultural communicative competence as a separate competence.
The process of integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into education is gradually gaining more and more validity. Kruchinina (n.d.) defines ICT as methods, facilities, and processes allowing for the collection, processing, storage and diffusion of information, with the goal of its further involvement in the educational process. Tinio (n.d.) presents ICT as the tools that allow for changes in education. According to her, ICT includes: radio, television and other new digital technologies such as computers and the Internet.
Another definition views ICT as a system of processing information in its broad meaning. In education, ICT is understood as technical sources for independent work with any type of information that is required for the teacher or the student and is searched, processed, transmitted, and so on, as well as pedagogical sources that help to optimise the professional-pedagogical activity of the teacher in the process of education. This facilitates the process of achieving educational goals. ICT could also be presented as a complementary source for the resolution of concrete scientific problems by teachers and students (Bordovskaya, 2011). Dutton & Pelta (1996) claim that the end of the Twentieth Century was marked with the rapid development of ICT. Thus, ICT innovations like personal computers, cellular phones, the Internet, satellite television and others has become an integral part of our everyday life. On the other hand, such an intensive development of ICT raises many questions about employment concerns and the growing distance between those who have access to information and those who do not (Dutton & Pelta, 1996). Tinio (n.d.) argues that the appearance and rapid development of a new global economy is leading to the necessity of a lifelong learning approach, instead of just viewing learning as a transmission of information from a teacher to a student within a set period of time.
According to Sysoev and Evstigneyev (2010), nowadays a lot of attention is paid to the problem of the informatisation of teaching and the preparation of students to live and work in the new conditions of the information media through the development of the new competences necessary for effective functioning in the new learning environment. For the time being, there is enough scientific background to view the process of the informatisation of education as one of the innovative approaches in the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence. Gilmore (2008) states the development of modern ICT has greatly changed teaching and learning processes. Many more educational establishments use the Internet to increase their presence in the digital environment, and are creating a digital environment in their classrooms. She claims that the involvement of the Internet can increase student-teacher communication and collaboration, and provide the lessons with additional resources and information for student idea exchange and presentation. The Internet also allows them to access information from all over the world without leaving the classroom or their house, which saves a lot of time and makes the research or study process more rapid. Gilmore (2008) also notes that the Internet provides students with the opportunity to contact the teacher via email and ask questions or submit a task without coming to a personal appointment. Thus, we can conclude that ICT and in particular the Internet, is eradicating geographical borders and saving teachers' and students' time. This simultaneously improves the interaction and collaboration, making a teacher more accessible for the students. Gilmore & and Halcomb (n.d.) support Gilmore's (2008) claim that the introduction of the Internet into education reshapes the students' learning process providing them with more control and a wide range of learning materials. Reddi & Mishra (2003) see the strength of ICT as the opportunity to present difficult concepts in a simpler way. Gilmore (2008) adds that besides the Internet there are other forms of ICT that have great potential for enhancing the educational process among which she names Smart Board. This, in addition to the functions of a regular classroom board, could fulfill the functions of a computer screen. Its touch screen design allows for the use of computer applications directly on the Smart Board. According to her, the introduction of modern ICT into the educational process raises students' motivation to learn making them active participants of their learning, as well as helping teachers to address all the learning needs and styles of their students.
However, although the Internet provides many benefits for the teaching process, A. Gilmore (2008) also reminds us of its possible drawbacks. First of all, she raises the issue of security. With the introduction of the Internet into the teaching process, teachers could lose control over their students. According to A. Gilmore (2008), teachers will not be able to monitor whether their students are really working on the task and if they are retrieving information from reliable sources. In this regard, Gilmore & Halcomb (n.d.) argue that the implication of ICT imposes more control on the teacher. According to them, the teacher should be very careful when giving instructions and careful when creating their lesson plans. Newhouse (2002) supports the claim made by C. Gilmore & Halcomb (n.d.) that the introduction of ICT into the educational process leads to further re-evaluation of the teacher's role in the classroom. He further lists the ways in which teachers could impact on the ICT learning environment (Newhouse, 2002).
According to Newhouse (2002), teachers should create a balance between the roles they play and be ready for a reduction in the influence they have on their students. He also states that the implication of ICT causes an increase in interest towards teaching experimentation, which requires additional communication and collaboration with the administration and other teachers. It also takes more preparation time and energy, and more time to familiarise students with the new learning environment. He summarises the impact of ICT on teaching as more learner-centred, more cooperative and collaborative, more active and providing access to more information and sources (Newhouse, 2002).
Collins (cited in Newhouse, 2002) argues that though the use of ICT could lead to some changes in the teaching and learning process, teachers would always remain the instruction leaders because many of the features of the traditional organisation of the educational process would not be changed, because in spite of it all, there is always the need for human-to-human interaction. However, Riel (cited in Newhouse, 2002) as well as C. Gilmore & Halcomb (n.d.), insists that the integration of ICT into the educational process requires more skills and awareness from the teachers so as to be able to direct their students through the huge amounts of information.
Another problem with the involvement of ICT in teaching, according to A. Gilmore (2008), is its high cost which could lead to inequality in access to ICT between wealthy and poorer societies. However, she describes organisations such as "Internet 4Classrooms" and "4Teachers.org" which provide teachers with free software, as well as the efforts of ICT manufactures to develop effective educational products at lower costs. One more drawback of ICT in the teaching process is teachers' lack of training in the use of ICT (Peddi & Mishra, 2003). Pelgrum (2001) speaks of the barriers of bringing ICT into the educational process. Among them is the lack of hardware and teacher training in the use of ICT (Pelgrum, 2001) that to a degree coincides with Peddi's & Mishra's claim (2003). Nevertheless, Peddi & Mishra (2003) state that nowadays there is a lot of effective educational software which is easy to use and does not require any special training for teachers.
The issue of the informatisation of Kazakhstani foreign language education has been raised by Chakhlikova (2009). She represents the process of the informatisation of foreign language teaching as the process that supplies the system of foreign language teaching with the methodological and empirical background for the development and implication of the modern technologies (Chakhlikova, 2009). Using ICT creates the conditions for authentic professional communication and the stimulation of the creative energy of the future teacher of a foreign language, as well as the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence through the context of integrating educational and future professional activities. The involvement of ICT in the process of teaching facilitates the development of the communicative and informational competences, and at the same time promotes the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence.
With the spread of the integration of ICT into teaching, the development of informational competence is becoming very important (Sysoev & Evstegneyev, 2010). ICT is promoting the development of a special environment in educational establishments, intensifying the communication of the educational subjects, and contributing to unmediated communication through the integration of modern technologies (Bordovskaya, 2011).
According to Chakhlikova (2009) the use of ICT in foreign language teaching is one of the most effective ways for the development of cross-cultural communicative competence because it allows for the rational organisation of communicative and cognitive activity, helps to establish the socio-cultural background and makes the foreign language the transmitter of a culture which leads to the personal development of the student. This raises the level of his or her creativity and develops their 'critical thinking'. ICT raises students' motivation by providing them with a feeling of independence and responsibility for their actions (Kisby, n.d.).
In spite of all the benefits that could be gained from the implication of ICT into EFL education, many teachers feel frustrated and uncertain as to whether to use it in their classes or not. Kisby (n.d.) explains this by stating that teachers fear that classes could be noisy, or that students could take advantage of the ICT and use class time for surfing websites irrelevant to the lesson. In addition, teachers are unsure that the facilities will work in the right way, and if the students would be interested in the tasks. Dudeney & Hockly (2007) add that teachers could feel frustrated that their students are more knowledgeable about the modern technology than they are. At the same time they point out that the new generations of learners are growing up with technology and that it is a natural part of their life, (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007) which is why they expect teachers to use ICT in their teaching. They state that the Internet creates new opportunities for the development of authentic tasks and materials, as well as providing teachers with access to a great amount of readymade foreign language teaching materials. And besides teaching resources, ICT presents many opportunities for assessment (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007). So in conclusion, ICT is gaining more popularity among contemporary educators and learners. Though the use of ICT could have some drawbacks and require additional training for teachers and students, as well as involving additional costs for administration, it offers far greater benefits to the learners, such as for example: allowing access to sources of authentic information, removing geographical borders, making learners more responsible for their learning and in turn more motivated. Taking into account all the benefits of ICT for the educational process it is also viewed as an efficient tool for the development of the cross-cultural professionally reflective competence.