Shaping the professional landscape through research,advocacy and education – an Australian perspective

This article is the first in a new series in this regular feature. The intention of the series is to look at important global developments in health science libraries. Librarians will be invited to share with HILJ readers key initiatives in their country or region. These articles should serve as a road map, describing the key changes in the field and exploring factors driving these changes. We initiate this series with an article by three Australian librarians who use research findings to depict the evolving professional landscape in their country. The starting point of their analysis is a report completed in 2011 which looked into likely future workforce and education requirements for health library professionals. The authors trace the achievements since then, most notably in the areas of research, advocacy and education. Clearly, a great deal has been achieved leading to a greater return on investment. The authors maintain that the key to shaping the profession and enhancing the status of librarians is ongoing professional development. To this end, Australia is promoting a systematic, competency based health specialist certification. Finally, they identify trends impacting on health librarianship, such as the growing importance of research data management and consumer health literacy. JM     

NONVERBAL ASPECTS OF CREATIVE THINKING: STUDIES OF DEAF CHILDREN

Pictorial figural representations are of essential importance in the cognitive development of the deaf. Creative abilities of the deaf were studied with regard to five components of classroom behaviour: motivation, socialization, antisocial behaviour, passiveness and level of intelligence. The subjects were a group of 22 deaf pupils aged 13‐15 and a group of hearing children. The Test of Creative Thinking‐Drawing Productions (TCT‐DP), the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices and the Pupil Behaviour Inventory were used to examine main trends. Comparisons indicated that no significant difference was found between the school functioning of the hearing and the nonhearing in achievement motivation and antisocial behaviour. However in socialization and in intelligence level the nonhearing were significantly lower than the hearing. TCT‐DP results showed that the number of thematic solutions and humour responses increased with deafness, and certain elements became more stereotypical, less individual and less original In addition, IQ in deaf pupils was related to the drawing of concrete objects, whereas in the hearing group intelligence level was related to use of abstractions.     

Environmental Education in Teacher Training: a case study of seven German Colleges and universities and its outcomes

This paper consists of two parts, the first one sets out the place of the case studies in the context of environmental education in German colleges and universities [1]. The case studies reported here should initiate inter‐university discussions on the objectives of, and the ways to incorporate, environmental education into the training for the pedagogical professions at German academic institutions. The second part tries to deduce generalisable aspects from the studies carried out in order to make some provisional conclusions about environmental education in pre‐service teacher education and the necessary research work in this field. Here use is made of the EEITE characteristics which Country Project Representatives agreed during their Summer Conference in 1993 as criteria to analyse the outcomes of the case studies [2].     

Analysis of an instructional unit for level of cognitive demand

A section of the secondary chemistry curriculum was analyzed to determine the level of cognitive demand of the various aspects of the selected topic. Piagetian levels of thinking of 71 pupils were initially assessed by two group tests, a unit on the mole was taught, and guidelines were used to estimate the level of cognitive operations required by each concept and problem type in the unit. Results of a 23-item test were used to compare the estimated level of cognitive demand of each test item with the Piagetian cognitive level of pupils who were able to answer the item correctly. It was found that pupil cognitive level was positively associated with overall unit test score and with percent success on all test items. Predicted levels of cognitive demand were confirmed for eight items and were within one level for nine additional items.     

A mechanism for sharing best practices between university technology transfer offices

Research has shown that university technology transfer offices (TTOs) learn through experimentation and failure, and by sharing these experiences with others. There are many barriers to successfully sharing the best practice between TTOs. The Maturity Model (MM) created by Secundo et al. (Meas Bus Excell, 20:42–54, 2016) provides a means by which the performance of a TTO can be better understood to allow for effective sharing of best practices. The aim of this study is to improve and validate the MM to formalize a mechanism through which best practices can be identified and shared between TTOs. This was accomplished by testing the MM in 54 TTOs across Europe and the United Kingdom. Findings regard several improvements of the intangible indicators and the maturity levels of the MM. This research improves the rigor of the MM and formalizes its application as a mechanism for sharing best practices through the Improved MM.     

International education and the employability of UK students

A common theme within the literature on higher education is the congested nature of the graduate labour market. Researchers have highlighted the lengths to which many students now go, in response to this congestion, to ‘distinguish themselves’ from other graduates: paying increased attention to university status; engaging in a range of extra‐curricular activities; and pursuing postgraduate qualifications. Studies that have focused on the strategies of Asian students, specifically, have pointed to the important place of studying abroad as a further strategy in this pursuit of distinction. Given that there is now some evidence that the number of UK students enrolling on a degree programme overseas is increasing, this article explores the extent to which an overseas education can be seen as part of a broader strategy on the part of British students to seek distinction within the labour market and whether such an education does indeed offer tangible employment benefits.     

Surgical Clinical Correlates in Anatomy: Design and implementation of a first‐year medical school program

Medical students state the need for a clinically oriented anatomy class so to maximize their learning experience. We hypothesize that the first‐year medical students, who take the Surgical Clinical Correlates in Anatomy program, will perform better than their peers in their anatomy course, their surgical clerkships and ultimately choose surgical residencies. We designed and recently implemented this program for first‐year medical students. It consisted of General Surgical Knowledge, Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Urology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) sessions. Each session had defined learning objectives and interactive cadaveric operations performed by faculty members and students. The program was elective and had 25 participants randomly chosen. An evaluative questionnaire was completed before and after the program. Comparative analysis of the questionnaires, first‐year anatomy examination results, clinical surgical rotation scores, and residency match results will be completed. The positive opinions of surgeons increased for all medical students from the pre‐evaluation to the post‐evaluation, and there was a greater increase in positive opinions for our participants. Our participants also had the highest average overall for all combined anatomy examinations. A need exists among medical students to develop a clinically correlated anatomy program that will maximize their learning experience, improve their performance and allow them to make moreinformed career choices. The recent implementation of this Surgical Clinical Correlates in Anatomy program fulfills this need. Anat Sci Educ 2: 265?272, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.