Promoting school libraries and schools library services: problems and partnerships

Literuture Matters was a two‐year, national programme in England designed to promote partnerships between schools library services and initial teacher training institutions. Its aim was to raise awareness of the role of the schools library service in promoting children's books and reading for pleasure. There were positive effects, in the short term, on student teachers, teacher educators and library staff. Potentially sustainable partnerships were developed, but structures and funding are needed to ensure a long term impact over new teachers' careers.     

A professional development framework for online teaching

The quality of online programs in higher education is strongly correlated with how the professional development approaches respond to the needs of online teachers. These approaches are critical in helping online teachers adopt online pedagogical practices and reconstruct their teacher persona in an online environment. This study proposes a nested professional development framework for online teaching. The proposed framework intends to recognize successful online teaching in higher education as an outcome of the interaction of support activities at teaching, community, and organization levels.     

A design framework for online teacher professional development communities

This paper provides a design framework for building online teacher professional development communities for preservice and inservice teachers. The framework is based on a comprehensive literature review on the latest technology and epistemology of online community and teacher professional development, comprising four major design factors and three contextual factors. The design factors include learning goals, communication tools, participant structures, and member responsibilities; the contextual factors are culture, politics, and economics. Finally, the role of universities and implications of the design framework for teacher professional development in the new culture of learning are discussed.     

A five level intervention model: division of professional labor and implication for school counseling

Mental-health services can contribute substantially to many areas of school life, but the nature and effectiveness of these contributions depend to a large degree on the willingness of the personnel involved to work as a team and to develop new perspectives and practices. This article presents a five level model of mental-health intervention in the school setting and posits a division of responsibility for that intervention among the school psychologist, the school guidance counselor and the teacher. Implications for a school-counselor preparation program are discussed.     

动画专业校企合作、产教结合人才培养模式的构建

校企合作、产教结合的人才培养模式能够打破以往传统的动画人才培养模式,利用产业、学校等多个相互独立的实体通过合作的形式进行教学模式的更新,使动画专业学生提前适应企业项目制作过程,积攒工作与操作经验,实现企业需求与人才培养的无缝对接。     

高校图书馆人才资源开发浅析

对当前图书馆人才资源管理过程中存在的问题进行了探讨,并提出了开发人才资源的一些做法。     

School district triggers for reconstructing professional knowledge

In a recent publication, Senge (All systems go: the change imperative for whole system reform. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, 2010, x) stated ??at no time in history has there been a more powerful need for a new vision of the purpose of education.?? Increasingly citizens, academics and practitioners are calling for radical changes to educational practices to meet the needs of a knowledge-based society in the twenty-first century (Dede in 21st Century skills: rethinking how students learn. Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, 2010; Hargreaves and Shirley in The fourth way: the inspiring future for educational change. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, 2009). Accomplishing such substantive educational change requires that individual educators collectively reshape their personal professional knowledge (Connelly and Clandinin in Teachers as curriculum planners: narratives of experiences. OISE Press, Toronto, 1988; Elbaz in Curriculum Inq 11(1):43?C71, 1981) and adapt their personal mental models (Duffy in J Staff Dev 24(1):30?C36, 2003). In 2000, we began a longitudinal study on the role of a school district in facilitating significant educational reform which required adaptations to individual and collective mental models of professional practice. Annually we conducted intensive interviews with a large sample of teachers, school and system administrators in this large Ontario, Canada school district. Recently, we conducted a retrospective analysis of these data collected in order to identify the conditions necessary for a large organization to support knowledge-creation and dissemination. In this paper, we identify three school district actions that triggered individual educators to challenge and reconstruct their professional personal practical mental models of the teaching and learning. First, improved student learning became the central focus of the school district. Second, the school district stressed and created opportunities for educators to collectively engage in professional dialogue about their practice. Third, the school district emphasized the importance of educators individually and collectively using evidence to assess whether their actions improved student learning.     

Mathematics and online learning experiences: a gateway site for engineering students

This paper focuses on the preliminary design of a multifaceted computer-based mathematics resource for undergraduate and pre-entry engineering students. Online maths resources, while attractive in their flexibility of delivery, have seen variable interest from students and teachers alike. Through student surveys and wide consultations, guidelines have been developed for effectively collating and integrating learning, support, application and diagnostic tools to produce an Engineer's Mathematics Gateway. Specific recommendations include: the development of a shared database of engineering discipline-specific problems and examples; the identification of, and resource development for, troublesome mathematics topics which encompass ideas of threshold concepts and mastery components; the use of motivational and promotional material to raise student interest in learning mathematics in an engineering context; the use of general and lecture-specific concept maps and matrices to identify the needs and relevance of mathematics to engineering topics; and further exploration of the facilitation of peer-based learning through online resources.     

ICT professional development for teachers in online forums: Analysing the role of discussion

This paper explores the role of engaging teachers in constructive dialogue within ICT professional development activity. As part of an ICT professional development program, sixteen teachers across eight geographically removed schools participated in an online threaded discussion forum for a school year. Data reported in this paper are generated from the archived posts to a threaded discussion forum and are analysed qualitatively for evidence of community and quantitatively for different forums of feedback (Mäkitalo, Häkkinen, Leinonen, & Järvelä, 2002) and levels of discussion (Jarvela & Hakkinen, 2002). The findings suggest evidence of both collegial and critical forms of discussion. Collegial discussion was found to be important in developing and maintaining community while critical discussion was vital for its role in transforming teachers' beliefs. The data also revealed a number of practical aspects of online environments that inhibit what is termed in this paper as constructive discussion.     

Improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: a systematic meta-aggregative review

Educational technology research and development - In order to fully realise the potential of online and blended learning (OBL), teacher professional development (TPD) strategies on how to teach in...     

Needs of elementary and middle school teachers developing online courses for a virtual school

Eight teams of elementary and middle school teachers developed pilot online courses for the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) in the USA. A qualitative case study with focus groups and a follow‐up survey helped to identify common needs of these non‐traditional course designers during course development efforts. Findings suggest virtual schools can better support non‐traditional course designers by providing leadership components such as technical expertise, regular feedback, and clear expectations, including an understanding of the target students. Findings further suggest designers need a range of bite‐sized professional development on replicating model courses, using course management systems, assessing learners online, designing with copyright and safety issues in mind, integrating Web tools, and developing course documentation for deployment. The article concludes with a discussion of support structures that may aid instructors tasked with online course development.     

Teachers' technological readiness for online professional development: evidence from the US e-Learning for Educators initiative

Although online professional development (OPD) is recognised as a viable alternative to face-to-face professional development, there are some obstacles to the delivery of effective OPD. This study examines one such obstacle, teachers' technological readiness for OPD participation. In particular, this study examines six research questions regarding the technological readiness of US elementary and secondary educators who participate in OPD. The data source was ‘e-Learning for Educators', a large-scale OPD initiative implemented between 2006 and 2011 in the US. The data show that this population of teachers, in general, report that they believe online professional development is as effective as face-to-face professional development; have easy access to the required technology; possess the required computer/technical skills; and perceive some of these skills to improve with course participation. Though these findings are largely favourable from the perspective of OPD stakeholders, this study also finds some variability among teachers that might warrant possible mitigation strategies.     

高校图书馆为所在地经济建设服务性研究

市场经济条件下地方经济的发展离不开准确、快速的信息保障。近些年来高校图书馆数字信息资源及网络建设都处于地方各类图书馆的前列。利用自身的优势,加强个性化图书馆建设,为所在地经济建设服务是新世纪高校图书馆发展中不可忽视的责任。