What do clinicians want from us? An evaluation of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust clinical librarian service and its implications for developing futureworking patterns

Background: The Clinical Librarian (CL) Service at Brighton was established in 2003 with the aim of providing high‐quality evidence to designated teams and fostering an evidence‐based culture. Objective: To evaluate the CL service at Brighton and discuss the implication of the findings. Methods: A combination of internally collected data (n = 167), and an external evaluation of the service by questionnaires (n = 86) of users and non‐users and interviews (n = 9) of users. Results: Internal data suggest that the service is valued by its users and that patient care and continuing professional development are the most common uses for searches (confirmed by the external study); that searches generally result in some change in knowledge; and that this knowledge is disseminated. The external study found that visibility of the CL was crucial to the effectiveness of the role and that clinicians used the service mostly to get access to a wider range of resources and/or to save time. Users wanted the CL to include evaluative annotation with the results, and for the CL role to become more embedded in the team. Interview results expanded on the issues of integration of the CL and the need for annotation of results. Conclusions: To be most effective, CLs would be dedicated to one team, but financial constraints make this unlikely. Alternative working patterns are suggested as a possible compromise.     

How the Curriculum Guideline “The Cell Is to Be Studied Longitudinally” Is Expressed in Six Israeli Junior-High-School Textbooks

The most recent science and technology curriculum for junior high school in Israel contains a new guideline stating that the cell topic is to be taught “longitudinally in conjunction with other study contents.” This guideline confers a change in teaching the cell topic and provides an opportunity to form meaningful relationships between biological phenomena at the macro level and their cellular explanations. Here, we examined the extent to which six textbooks, available for junior high schools in Israel, support this teaching approach. We found that the textbooks differ in how they express the guideline and that most of them do not support the new teaching approach to any significant extent. Moreover, the textbooks generally emphasize cells’ structure and pay less attention to the processes occurring in them. Our findings could shed light on students’ difficulties in comprehending the living cell and in correlating macroscopic phenomena with their cellular explanations.     

How the structure and focus of teachers' collaborative activities facilitate and constrain teacher learning

What kinds of teacher collaboration are most likely to improve what teachers—and, ultimately, students—learn during their time in school? This study looks within and across different collaborative activities that occurred among one teacher team. Observational data analyzed through a sociocultural theoretical framework suggest how the structure and intended focus of collaborative activity can influence (1) how often and how concretely teachers discuss their teaching with colleagues; (2) which aspects of schooling collaboration will address; and (3) what opportunities for teacher learning are afforded and constrained. Intentionally focusing and structuring teachers' collaborative activity can improve its impact on schooling.     

Designing the Sustainable Foodshed: A Cross-Disciplinary Undergraduate Environmental Studies Course

This article demonstrates the educational value of an undergraduate course that integrates design and the liberal arts to teach about ecological systems, using study of the university campus as the means to connect theory and practice. It presents the curricular goals, objectives, results, and lessons learned from a qualitative case study of a cross-disciplinary course that required design and liberal arts students to develop innovative solutions to improve the sustainability of The New School’s food system. Student and faculty evaluations suggest that an integrated design and liberal arts course can be an effective and enjoyable method to learn about sustainability and urban systems; and it helps students learn different techniques for research, problem-solving, and communication.