Deconstructing Google Dataset Search

This essay examines the beta tool from Google, Google Dataset Search. The Google Dataset Search, announced in September 2018, is a search engine specific to finding research data published on the internet. The structure and methods of the search engine are examined, as well as the methods Google recommends to web developers to make it an effective tool across the World Wide Web. The column concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of this tool in the research information landscape.     

The arts in England: Developing a survey of attendance,participation and attitudes

Reliable data on attendance, participation and attitudes to the arts are needed by planners, policy makers, arts organisations, those concerned with marketing the arts and researchers.

This chapter describes the development and piloting of a national survey of people's engagement with the arts by the Arts Council of England and the Office for National Statistics. It outlines the main reasons for the development of the survey, presents results from the pilot and compares them with other national and international sources of data.

From the outset, procedures for obtaining feedback on the pilot questionnaire were built into the planning process. The paper discusses respondents’ reactions to the questionnaire, their views on how meaningful the questions were and how well the interview worked. It also explores respondents’ understanding of such terms as ‘the arts’ and ‘public funding’, and how they responded to questions.

The chapter concludes with a summary of the changes made in the light of the pilot and outlines future plans for the survey.     

The relations of proper character introduction to narrative quality and listening comprehension for young children from high poverty schools

The present study explored the types and frequency of literate language features in children’s narratives, and the relation of literate language and proper character introduction to children’s oral language skills in a sample of 184 prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade students from high-poverty schools. Using hierarchical regression, the results showed that literate language features were not predictive of listening comprehension or narrative quality outcomes. In contrast, children’s skill in properly introducing characters significantly accounted for variance in all outcome measures (narrative comprehension, narrative quality, and listening comprehension) above and beyond the control variables (age, total number of words, and mean length of utterance) and literate language features (adverbs, conjunctions, mental and linguistic verbs, and elaborated noun phrases). These results indicate that the child’s retell and language comprehension skills may develop concurrently with proper character introduction.     

Ethnic Diversity and Inclusive School Environments

Inclusive school contexts can promote psychological and social adjustment and enhance learning among students. Changing demographics and 21st-century workplace needs suggest that ethnic diversity is one important dimension of inclusion to consider. This article presents 4 suggestions for how schools can facilitate inclusivity for ethnic diversity that are recommended to be employed in conjunction with one another: (a) school and classroom ethnic composition (i.e., increased ethnic diversity), (b) positive ethnic identity for ethnic minority students, (c) multicultural/diversity training and cooperative learning, and (d) the promotion of social competence and prosocial behaviors. Developmental considerations are discussed and a case is made that improving individual students’ functioning can ultimately promote inclusivity for all students. Assisting students to be ready and able to form friendships with peers from ethnically diverse backgrounds provides them with valuable experience and skills that they can carry forward to new educational, community, and workplace settings.     

Development,Dissemination, and Preimplementation Evaluation of Food Safety Educational Materials for Secondary Education

Abstract: With the persistence of microbiological foodborne illness and anticipated future shortage of scientists with agricultural and food science expertise in the United States, it is imperative to educate youth on microbiological food safety and enhance their awareness of opportunities to become engaged in finding solutions to food safety challenges. To help integrate food science education across the high school curriculum, new educational materials on microbiological food safety were developed and then disseminated to and evaluated by educators of secondary basic and applied sciences. The materials present food safety concepts in the context of foodborne illness outbreaks to introduce basic concepts of food microbiology, epidemiology, and food safety strategies as well as their broad impact on economics, communication, and regulations. The ready‐to‐implement educational materials support educational content standards and various learning styles and encourage critical thinking skills. The materials include a presentation on food microbiology and foodborne illness surveillance, case studies on foodborne illness outbreaks, a video on the laboratory investigation of foodborne illness, interactive web‐based activities, and supporting materials for teachers and classroom display. Exposure to the materials in a 1‐d workshop positively impacted educator familiarity with general microbiology, food safety strategies, regulatory requirements, and associated terminology as measured by a test administered prior to and after use of the materials. Teachers of biology, chemistry, family and consumer sciences, and related sciences rated the materials favorably on applicability, anticipated ease of implementation, and anticipated reception by students.     

Book reviews

Researchers have largely ignored students’ creative works as a source of insight into their everyday experiences. This study is a hermeneutic analysis of 23 works written by talented writers on the topic of academics. The findings include depictions of students as detached from their teachers and their curriculum. In these stories and poems, moments of intellectual engagement occur unexpectedly when students connect course content with personal introspection. Competition serves to heighten the conflict in the stories and develop resentment among capable students. Geekdom is depicted as both a strength and a social liability. Practical implications for teachers and school counselors are discussed.     

Bridging the Information Literacy Gap with Clickers

A Class Performance System (CPS) is applied as an assessment tool to assist in determining the level of information literacy knowledge already possessed by adult students enrolled in a graduate Educational Leadership and Technology program. The CPS data collected reveals that students possess varying degrees of technology expertise and information literacy skills. Study results suggest that clickers facilitate differentiated information literacy pedagogy and increase engagement for graduate students.     

Where are We? Critical Race Theory in Education 20 Years Later

This article explores the territory that has been covered since the publication of Ladson-Billings and Tate's 1995 article, “Toward a Critical Race Theory in Education.” We organize our review of the CRT literature is organized around what we are calling CRT “boundaries.” We identify six boundaries for CRT and education: 1) CRT in education argues that racial inequity in education is the logical outcome of a system of achievement presided on competition; 2) CRT in education examines the role of education policy and educational practices in the construction of racial inequity and the perpetuation of normative whiteness; 3) CRT in education rejects the dominant narrative about the inherent inferiority of people of color and the normative superiority of white people; 4) CRT in education rejects ahistoricism and examines the historical linkages between contemporary educational inequity and historical patterns of racial oppression; 5) CRT in education engages in intersectional analyses that recognize the ways that race is mediated by and interacts with other identity markers (i.e., gender, class, sexuality, linguistic background, and citizenship status); 6) CRT in education agitates and advocates for meaningful outcomes that redress racial inequity. CRT does not merely document disparities. We suggest that these core ideas provide a framework for analyzing the work that has been done in education in the past and a way to determine what might be left to do.     

Faculty evaluation: A prickly pair

In this exploratory study reviewing an institution's faculty evaluation process, we found support for the judgmental aspects of appraisal, but a desire for greater focus upon development. The institutional culture supports a combined approach to the evaluations. Although this diminishes the focus of both forms of evaluation, it serves both the faculty and the institution.