Bioinformatics and computational biology involve the use or development of techniques, including applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, computer

science, artificial intelligence, chemistry, and biochemistry to solve biological problems, usually on the molecular level. The primary goal of bioinformatics is to increase our understanding of biological processes. What sets it apart from other approaches, however, is its focus on developing and applying computationally intensive techniques (e.g., data mining, and machine learning algorithms) to achieve this goal. Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly, protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, prediction of gene expression and protein-protein interactions, and the modeling of evolution

Adults As Learners Part of being an effective instructor involves understanding how adults learn best. Compared to children and teens, adults have special needs and requirements as learners. Despite the apparent truth, adult learning is a relatively new area of study. The field of adult learning was pioneered by Malcom Knowles. He identified the following characteristics of adult learners:

Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves. Their teachers must actively involve adult participants in the learning process and serve as facilitators for them. Specifically, they must get participants' perspectives about what topics to cover and let them work on projects that reflect their interests. They should allow the participants to assume responsibility for presentations and group leadership. They have to be sure to act as facilitators, guiding participants to their own knowledge rather than supplying them with facts. Finally, they must show participants how the class will help them reach their goals (e.g., via a personal goals sheet). Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education. They need to connect learning to this knowledge/experience base. To help them do so, they should draw out participants' experience and knowledge which is relevant to the topic. They must relate theories and concepts to the participants and recognize the value of experience in learning. Adults are goal-oriented. Upon enrolling in a course, they usually know what goal they want to attain. They, therefore, appreciate an educational program that is organized and has clearly defined elements. Instructors must show participants how this class will help them attain their goals. This classification of goals and course objectives must be done early in the course. Adults are relevancy-oriented. They must see a reason for learning something. Learning has to be applicable to their work or other responsibilities to be of value to them. Therefore, instructors must identify objectives for adult participants before the course begins. This means, also, that theories and concepts must be related to a setting familiar to participants. This need can be fulfilled by letting participants choose projects that reflect their own interests. Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work. They may not be interested in knowledge for its own sake. Instructors

must tell participants explicitly how the lesson will be useful to them on the job. As do all learners, adults need to be shown respect. Instructors must acknowledge the wealth of experiences that adult participants bring to the classroom. These adults should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge and allowed to voice their opinions freely in class. Motivating the Adult Learner

Another aspect of adult learning is motivation. At least six factors serve as sources of motivation for adult learning:

Social relationships: to make new friends, to meet a need for associations and friendships. External expectations: to comply with instructions from someone else; to fulfill the expectations or recommendations of someone with formal authority. Social welfare: to improve ability to serve mankind, prepare for service to the community, and improve ability to participate in community work. Personal advancement: to achieve higher status in a job, secure professional advancement, and stay abreast of competitors. Escape/Stimulation: to relieve boredom, provide a break in the routine of home or work, and provide a contrast to other exacting details of life. Cognitive interest: to learn for the sake of learning, seek knowledge for its own sake, and to satisfy an inquiring mind. Barriers and Motivation

Unlike children and teenagers, adults have many responsibilities that they must balance against the demands of learning. Because of these responsibilities, adults have barriers against participating in learning. Some of these barriers include lack of time, money, confidence, or interest, lack of information about opportunities to learn, scheduling problems, "red tape," and problems with child care and transportation. Motivation factors can also be a barrier. What motivates adult learners? Typical motivations include a requirement for competence or licensing, an expected (or realized) promotion, job enrichment, a need to maintain old skills or learn new ones, a need to adapt to job changes, or the need to learn in order to comply with company directives. The best way to motivate adult learners is simply to enhance their reasons for enrolling and decrease the barriers. Instructors must learn why their students are enrolled (the motivators); they have to discover what is keeping them from learning. Then the instructors must plan their motivating strategies. A successful strategy includes showing adult learners the relationship between training and an expected promotion. Learning Tips for Effective Instructors Educators must remember that learning occurs within each individual as a continual

process throughout life. People learn at different speeds, so it is natural for them to be anxious or nervous when faced with a learning situation. Positive reinforcement by the instructor can enhance learning, as can proper timing of the instruction. Learning results from stimulation of the senses. In some people, one sense is used more than others to learn or recall information. Instructors should present materials that stimulates as many senses as possible in order to increase their chances of teaching success. There are four critical elements of learning that must be addressed to ensure that participants learn. These elements are 1. 2. 3. 4. motivation reinforcement retention transference

Motivation. If the participant does not recognize the need for the information (or has been offended or intimidated), all of the instructor's effort to assist the participant to learn will be in vain. The instructor must establish rapport with participants and prepare them for learning; this provides motivation. Instructors can motivate students via several means:

Set a feeling or tone for the lesson. Instructors should try to establish a friendly, open atmosphere that shows the participants they will help them learn. Set an appropriate level of concern. The level of tension must be adjusted to meet the level of importance of the objective. If the material has a high level of importance, a higher level of tension/stress should be established in the class. However, people learn best under low to moderate stress; if the stress is too high, it becomes a barrier to learning. Set an appropriate level of difficulty. The degree of difficulty should be set high enough to challenge participants but not so high that they become frustrated by information overload. The instruction should predict and reward participation, culminating in success.

In addition, participants need specific knowledge of their learning results (feedback ). Feedback must be specific, not general. Participants must also see a reward for learning. The reward does not necessarily have to be monetary; it can be simply a demonstration of benefits to be realized from learning the material. Finally, the participant must be interested in the subject. Interest is directly related to reward. Adults must see the benefit of learning in order to motivate themselves to learn the subject. Reinforcement. Reinforcement is a very necessary part of the teaching/learning process; through it, instructors encourage correct modes of behavior and performance.

Positive reinforcement is normally used by instructors who are teaching participants new skills. As the name implies, positive reinforcement is "good" and reinforces "good" (or positive) behavior. Negative reinforcement is normally used by instructors teaching a new skill or

new information. It is useful in trying to change modes of behavior. The result of negative reinforcement is extinction -- that is, the instructor uses negative reinforcement until the "bad" behavior disappears, or it becomes extinct. (To read more about negative reinforcement, you can check out Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction Negative Reinforcement Univeristy.) When instructors are trying to change behaviors (old practices), they should apply both positive and negative reinforcement. Reinforcement should be part of the teaching-learning process to ensure correct behavior. Instructors need to use it on a frequent and regular basis early in the process to help the students retain what they have learned. Then, they should use reinforcement only to maintain consistent, positive behavior. Retention. Students must retain information from classes in order to benefit from the learning. The instructors' jobs are not finished until they have assisted the learner in retaining the information. In order for participants to retain the information taught, they must see a meaning or purpose for that information. The must also understand and be able to interpret and apply the information. This understanding includes their ability to assign the correct degree of importance to the material. The amount of retention will be directly affected by the degree of original learning. Simply stated, if the participants did not learn the material well initially, they will not retain it well either. Retention by the participants is directly affected by their amount of practice during the learning. Instructors should emphasize retention and application. After the students demonstrate correct (desired) performance, they should be urged to practice to maintain the desired performance. Distributed practice is similar in effect to intermittent reinforcement. Transference. Transfer of learning is the result of training -- it is the ability to use the information taught in the course but in a new setting. As with reinforcement, there are two types of transfer: positive and negative.

Positive transference, like positive reinforcement, occurs when the participants uses the behavior taught in the course. Negative transference, again like negative reinforcement, occurs when the participants do not do what they are told not to do. This results in a positive (desired) outcome.

Transference is most likely to occur in the following situations:

Association -- participants can associate the new information with something that they already know. Similarity -- the information is similar to material that participants already know; that is, it revisits a logical framework or pattern. Degree of original learning -- participant's degree of original learning was high. Critical attribute element -- the information learned contains elements that are

extremely beneficial (critical) on the job. Although adult learning is relatively new as field of study, it is just as substantial as traditional education and carries and potential for greater success. Of course, the heightened success requires a greater responsibility on the part of the teacher. Additionally, the learners come to the course with precisely defined expectations. Unfortunately, there are barriers to their learning. The best motivators for adult learners are interest and selfish benefit. If they can be shown that the course benefits them pragmatically, they will perform better, and the benefits will be longer lasting

Andragogic Learning Knowles [1] and others prefer the word andragogic rather than pedagogic to describe adult learning. Both are based on the Greek word agogos (meaning guide). But for andragogy is coupled with andros (man) and for pedagogy it is coupled with pedos (boy). In teaching terms the two approaches are fundamentally different. Andragogic teaching is based on recognising and building on experience; being action oriented; being self directed and based on self motivation; being task or problem centred and with a focus on the learning process rather than just the knowledge content. Core Adult Learning Principles[1] 1. Learner's Need to Know

why what how

In school or university learning focuses on what is learned (content). For the adult learner this extended to and overshadowed by the reason for learning (why) and the learning process (how). The why need means that the learning must be relevant to the learner. And, as simulation places the learner in the position of working on a "real" business problem there is a direct link to business. Further, the how need means that the learning process is important and as the learner needs to links the learning (what) to its relevance (why) this process should be selfdirecting, allow time for reflection and ensure deep cognitive processing. In school and to an extent university, the learner is in the position of subservience and perhaps fear of failing. He or she sees themselves in the context of their parents rather than as individuals. In contrast the adult learner seems herself or himself as an autonomous, self-directing being. Thus at school or university the pupil sees the teacher as a font of knowledge and accepting of the relevance of the learning. In contrast, the adult businessperson, especially

2. Self-Concept of the Learner

autonomous self-directing

the experienced manager, is willing to challenge the trainer and demand that the teaching is relevant. A system, person, or organization that tends to achieve a goal and demonstrate it in subsequent actions. Goal-oriented or goal-driven/goal-directed/purposive is a property of systems which are able to think/reason/inference using symbols. To be goal-oriented is the concept which is included in the ontologies of systemics, cognitive science and engineering. The goals that human beings possess are arranged in hierarchy, such that higher order goals are more abstract than lower order goals (Lord & Levy, 1994). For instance, a person may have a goal to become an educated person. In order to achieve this goal, they may have a goal to get a college degree. In order to obtain a college degree, they may have the goal to complete a college application, and to complete a college application they may have the goal of reach for a pen. Behavior may also be directed from the bottom up, meaning that lower order goals may briefly shift attention (Lord & Levy, 1994). For instance, if one smells smoke while reaching for a pen, their new goal may be to investigate the smell of smoke. Individuals continuously monitor whether goals have been achieved through a process called self-regulation (Austin & Vancouver, 1996). Motivation theories attempt to address how individuals react when a discrepancy is perceived between one's goals and the current state of the environment. Several common theories of motivation involve goal directed behavior. The most common of these theories are Goal Setting Theory (GST; Locke & Latham, 1990; 2002), a group of theories referred to as "control theories" (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1998; Powers, 1973; 1991),and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT; Bandura, 1986; 1997). GST has accumulated a great deal of empirical evidence over the past 35 years (Locke & Latham, 2002). Essentially, individuals exert more effort and thus achieve higher levels of performance on a tasks when goals are difficult and specific. However, this is only the case when individuals are committed to the goal, believe they can accomplish the goal, and have the requisite skills (Locke & Latham, 2002). Control theories are centered around reduction of goal/environment discrepancies. According to control theories, when an individual perceives a discrepancy between the current state some action is taken to reduce the discrepency. In order to reduce a goal/environment disparity, individuals may change their behavior (e.g., exert more effort) or change their goal (Carver & Scheier, 1998). SCT also predicts that individuals will seek to reduce discrepancies between goals and the state of the environment; however, SCT predicts that individuals will set new and more difficult goals when goal/environment discrepancies have be eliminated (Bandura, 1986, 1997; Bandura & Locke, 2003). This goal/enviroment discrepancy production is expected to occur only when individuals believe that they will be able to accomplish their goals in the future, a construct known as self-efficacy (Bandura, 1986, 1997). An individual's goal orientation describes the goals that they choose and the methods used to pursue those goals (DeShon & Gillespie, 2005). Dweck (1986) noticed that school children seemed to display two distinct patterns of goal oriented behavior. While some children sought tasks that were challenging that they could learn from, other children sought out tasks that were easier, allowing them to either demonstrate their abilities or avoid appearing

incompetent. Dweck (1986) and others (e.g., Ames & Archer, 1988; Dweck & Leggett, 1988) found that children with an incremental theory of intelligence, that is, children who believed that intelligence was malleable and could be improved through effort, tended to be mastery oriented, seeking challenging assignments. Conversely, children with an entity theory of intelligence (believing that intelligence was fixed and not subject to change) tended to be performance oriented, choosing tasks where they could demonstrate their abilities. In the subsequent years since Dweck's papers, goal orientation has become an important motivational construct, not only in the educational literature but in the industrial/organizational psychology literature as well. However, the structure of the construct has not been well defined, with some models containing as few as 1 factor and others containing as many as 6 (DeShon & Gillespie, 2005). One of the most common conceptualizations of goal orientation is the three factor model (e.g., VandeWalle, 1997). That is, individuals can be described in terms of goal orientation based on three factors: mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoid. Individuals with a mastery goal orientation seek challenging tasks and value learning. Highly performance-approach oriented individuals seek tasks that allow them to demonstrate the skills they already possess, and highly performance-avoidant tend to avoid tasks where they may fail and thus appear incompetent.

3. Harden mengenalkan konsep the SPICES model untuk pengembangan kurikulum (Harden et al 1984). Konsep SPICES ini erat hubungannya dengan pengembangan kurikulum berbasis kompetensi Setelah penulis mencoba memahami konsep ini, penulis mendapatkan bahwa selain PBL merupakan salah satu komponen dari huruf yang ada di SPICES yaitu huruf P, ternyata PBL ini mempengaruhi huruf- huruf yang lainnya misalnya huruf S (Student Centre Learning), huruf I (Integration), huruf S (systematic), huruf C(tema blok community) dan huruf (E) dengan adanya blok elektif di PBL.