Information and library science MPACT: A preliminary analysis

Dissertation advising is an important form of mentoring. To investigate the impact of dissertation advising over time, advisor and committee member names were collected for 2400 dissertations completed over a 40-year period (1964–2004) in 32 North American information and library science schools. Several mentoring impact metrics are reported for a subset of the data, including the number of dissertations advised, the number of dissertation committees served on, the ratio of advising to committee membership, and the fractional “mpact” that weights advising and committee membership. The subset consists of data for six schools that produced at least three dozen dissertations and for which complete data is available. The data and resulting “mpact” metrics offer new ways to assess faculty impact and to investigate the nature and growth of a field.     

Early Learning in CRESPAR

The goal of the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR) Early Learning program is to ensure that young children reach the 1st grade with the necessary skills and competencies to be effective learners. This goal has been accomplished by 2 integrated areas of research. One area of research focuses on the development of effective practices that promote the development of language and literacy skills in young children. A 2nd area of research examines the systemic issues regarding school policies and teachers' beliefs and expectations that affect classroom practices. Over the past 5 years, the CRESPAR Early Learning Program has been conducting research in these areas, which has added to our understanding of how children learn and what teachers think that they can learn.     

Computer‐assisted learning in anatomy at the International Medical School in Debrecen,Hungary: A preliminary report

The University of Debrecen's Faculty of Medicine has an international, multilingual student population with anatomy courses taught in English to all but Hungarian students. An elective computer‐assisted gross anatomy course, the Computer Human Anatomy (CHA), has been taught in English at the Anatomy Department since 2008. This course focuses on an introduction to anatomical digital images along with clinical cases. This low‐budget course has a large visual component using images from magnetic resonance imaging and computer axial tomogram scans, ultrasound clinical studies, and readily available anatomy software that presents topics which run in parallel to the university's core anatomy curriculum. From the combined computer images and CHA lecture information, students are asked to solve computer‐based clinical anatomy problems in the CHA computer laboratory. A statistical comparison was undertaken of core anatomy oral examination performances of English program first‐year medical students who took the elective CHA course and those who did not in the three academic years 2007–2008, 2008–2009, and 2009–2010. The results of this study indicate that the CHA‐enrolled students improved their performance on required anatomy core curriculum oral examinations (P < 0.001), suggesting that computer‐assisted learning may play an active role in anatomy curriculum improvement. These preliminary results have prompted ongoing evaluation of what specific aspects of CHA are valuable and which students benefit from computer‐assisted learning in a multilingual and diverse cultural environment. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

A mathematical model for estimating the effectiveness of bigram coding

This paper discusses bigram coding as a technique for compacting data. A mathematical model is developed that estimates the effectiveness of such a code as a function of the fraction of bigram tokens that are encodeable: this model accounts for the degree of overlap of encodeable tokens by assuming that bigram token occurrences have a Markov property. The model requires that a single parameter be fit to the data. The results of an experiment testing this model on a file of catalog data in a library is given, and excellent agreement is found. This model provides substantial improvement over an earlier model in which bigrams are assumed to occur independently of each other.     

A Three-Way Dance: The Global Public Good and Accessibility in Information Technologies

When we recognize the development and use of information technologies as an emerging global public good, we can move away from the stark dualisms of profit versus human rights, market share versus accessibility, and competition versus inclusion, to an understanding of how both public and private interests are at play in the development of this global public good. Governments, industry, and disability advocacy organizations are all involved in the construction of this public good in a complex three-way dance. We argue that in the context of this three-way dance it is possible to create a common ground between disability advocacy organizations and the IT industry by developing tools that address the tensions that arise from their differing motivating forces. Specifically, we argue that three sets of tools—regulation, developing ease of use products and standards, and using education to increase the market strength of people with disabilities as consumers—can change the relationships between these two communities of interest in ways that will benefit each.     

Teachers’ and Children’s Differing Views on Relationships and Their Associations with Academic Outcomes

Early Childhood Education Journal - Preschool children’s relationships with their teachers play an important role in their learning and development. Despite this importance, extant research...     

The Role of Planning Skills in the Income–Achievement Gap

The pervasive income–achievement gap has been attributed in part to deficiencies in executive functioning (EF). The development of EF is related to children's planning ability, an aspect of development that has received little attention. Longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study of early child care show that early childhood poverty (1 and 24 months) is significantly related to fifth grade, math, and reading achievement (n = 1,009). The ability to plan in Grade 3, indexed by the Tower of Hanoi task, mediates the income–achievement gap in math and to a lesser extent in reading. IQ was incorporated as a statistical control throughout.     

Political Ideology and Perceptions of Social Justice Advocacy Among Members of the American Counseling Association

This study explored perceptions of social justice advocacy among liberal, moderate, and conservative members (N?=?214) of the American Counseling Association (ACA). Results showed that conservative participants had somewhat less favorable perceptions of social justice advocacy, but generally did not differ statistically from liberal and moderate participants. Statistically significant differences, however, were found among extremely liberal participants. All participants generally supported the use of ACA resources for social activism. Implications and limitations are discussed.