Demonstrating Library Impact Through Acknowledgment: An Examination of Acknowledgments in Theses and Dissertations

Academic libraries are increasingly seeking ways to demonstrate their impact on student learning. Acknowledgments - formal statements of indebtedness – in graduate theses and dissertations provide a rather unexplored area for demonstrating impact of the academic library on student learning. This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to characterize acknowledgments of the Texas A&M University Libraries (TAMU Libraries) in theses and dissertations, both overall and for three disciplines specifically: civil engineering, geography, and history. This study also searched for mentions of the TAMU Libraries throughout the entire body of theses and dissertations. Overall, acknowledgments to the TAMU Libraries in theses and dissertations were less than 1%, though acknowledgments were found in all three disciplines with over a quarter of the history theses and dissertations containing an acknowledgment to libraries. There was no statistically significant difference found between the numbers of acknowledgments in theses versus dissertations. Acknowledgments to the TAMU Libraries were found in the theses and dissertations of 28 different departments. Mentions to the TAMU Libraries – not necessarily a formal acknowledgment – were found throughout the text of theses and dissertations with most concentrated in the acknowledgment, method, and bibliography sections.     

Issues in Adopting a Laserdisk-Based Science Curriculum

We examined the implementation of a laser-disk based science curriculum in an elementary school. The goal was to develop a richer understanding of the principles for designing a curriculum that will adequately support teachers in adopting a learner-centered framework. Issues included: who has ownership of the classroom discussion; what types of activities are engaged in terms of the constraints imposed; and what is the teacher's response to the specific tools provided (the teacher's guide, the Circle of Learning, and concept maps). In addition to looking at the implementation pattern, we also examined the impact of the implementation on student attitudes and anxiety toward science. Results indicated little adoption of the curriculum, and teachers continued to maintain a high degree of control in the classroom. However, results also indicated significant effects of the curriculum on science attitude and anxiety. Suggestions for future research are included.     

Teacher capacity for and beliefs about data-driven decision making: A literature review of international research

Data-driven decision making continues to be a growing educational reform initiative across the globe. The effective use of data requires that teachers develop the knowledge and skills to analyze and use data to improve instruction. The purpose of this article is to examine teachers’ capacity for and beliefs about data use. These issues are examined through a review of research in the past decade. We find that teachers’ beliefs about and capacity for data use are often not connected within the literature or in practice, but we argue they are the heart of the connection between data and instructional change. Teachers’ capacity to use data and their beliefs about data use are shaped within their professional communities, in training sessions, and in their interactions with coaches, consultants, and principals. However, efforts to develop teachers’ capacity for data use often fall short of their goals. Correspondingly, teachers have varied beliefs about data use, and some feel they lack the ability to use data to inform instruction. In order to be more successful, capacity building should directly address teachers’ beliefs, and data use must be decoupled from external accountability demands and involve a variety of information on student learning.     

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN GERIATRIC EDUCATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR FACULTY

The demographic imperative for geriatric training and care is well documented and comes as no surprise to health care professionals working in the field (see National Institutes of Health, 1987). The dramatic increase in the numbers of elderly, particularly those age 75 and older, suggests that geriatric health care will grow in importance throughout the next decade. This article briefly examines strategies for geriatric education that may have relevance for attempts to formalize and institutionalize geriatric content in academic institutions, and suggests strategies for implementation.

The domains of geriatrics and gerontology have continued to overlap as models of training and health care delivery have evolved. Distinctions between these two perspectives remain important, particularly as they pertain to the emphasis on training related to normal versus pathological aging. For purposes of simplicity, the term geriatric is used in a broad context that includes gerontological education as well. The reality of our educational experiences suggests that a balance between normal and pathological aging content in our curriculum is one of the first crucial variables that needs to be addressed.     

The Viability of Combining Academic and Career Pathways: A Study of Linked Learning

In an attempt to reform high schools and prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed for the 21st century, educators and policymakers have turned to programs that combine career and academic pathways. One such program, Linked Learning, has taken up the reform challenge by relying on technical adjustments, rearranging students’ schedules, and integrating career technical education (CTE) with a set of courses that support students’ eligibility for their state and university college system. Linked Learning has attempted to avoid the pitfalls often associated with an earlier vocational education model. This article reports findings from a year-long study of eight schools in five districts whose district leaders and principals have placed Linked Learning at the core of their platform for school reform. Interviews with these educators reveal that while changing the structure of students’ course schedules offered some advantages for students, school principals were challenged to keep their academic and career promises. This qualitative investigation has shown that to understand reform challenges it is essential to examine the broader school, district, and state context in which the reform is embedded. Both structural and cultural considerations must be addressed if high school reform is to more effectively support students.     

Pseudo bond graphs of circulating Fluids with application to solar Heating design

Two different bond-graph schemes for the modeling of circulating fluids are discussed and compared. The first uses a heuristic approach wherein the flow path is broken into segments. Each segment has separate hydraulic and thermal submodels which are linked with active bonds. The model is general enough to handle natural convective flows, heat storage, conduction, forced convective heat transfer and heat energy sources. The second method, applicable to pumped flows, uses a modal analysis approach to derive state equations for the modal temperatures, the time varying coefficients of the spatially varying mode shapes in a separation of variables solution for the temperature partial differential equation. Two examples are worked to illustrate the models. Numerical simulation results are presented using the first method and a simple analytic solution given to illustrate the second.     

Systemizing and the gender gap: examining academic achievement and perseverance in STEM

For years, a popular explanation for women choosing to abandon studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been their lack of aptitude. This study challenged that notion by integrating theories of cognitive style, academic emotion, self-efficacy, and motivation to explain students’ academic achievement and perseverance in STEM when transitioning to college. A sample of 1597 high school and junior college students participated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were first conducted to validate a reduced version of the cognitive style questionnaire. Structural equation modeling revealed that the cognitive style known as systemizing indirectly predicted STEM achievement and persistence by way of intrinsic motivation, learning anxiety, and self-efficacy, providing a new perspective for re-examining the gender gap in STEM.