Wired Professional Development: New Librarians Connect Through the Web

ABSTRACT

Taking advantage of professional development opportunities is imperative for new academic librarians. Even if not a position requirement, continuing education and professional involvement have the potential to inspire and improve job performance. While online resources should not replace traditional professional development experiences such as conferences, they can certainly provide additional ways to develop skills and expertise. Connecting with other librarians electronically through listservs, virtual conferences, and other online opportunities can make such involvement more accessible for new professionals.     

'I Normally Just Ramble On' -Strategies to Improve Writing at Key Stage 3

This article reports the findings of a classroom-based study into the effectiveness of various strategies designed to assist children at Key Stage 3 (11–14 years) to become better writers. It takes account of the attitudes of the pupils themselves and considers the role of the teacher in facilitating improvement in imaginative writing.     

AN EXAMINATION OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN OBSERVED AND SELF‐REPORTED CULTURALLY PROFICIENT TEACHING PRACTICES

A critical next step in advancing our understanding of teacher practices that can equitably engage and support learning in diverse classrooms is determining the effectiveness of culturally responsive interventions. Yet, quantitative measurement indicators of the effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching interventions are scarce. Most research relies exclusively on self‐reports, with limited attention to issues of social desirability, and few studies observe teacher practices. Data come from 142 K‐8 teachers in six schools who were assessed via the Assessing School Settings: Interactions of Students and Teachers (ASSIST), an externally‐conducted observation, and who also provided self‐report data of cultural responsiveness. Analyses indicated that teachers self‐reported higher rates of culturally responsive teaching strategies than were observed on the ASSIST. There were, however, significant associations between observations and teachers’ ratings of self‐efficacy. Findings suggest a need for additional research to develop and validate efficient, multi‐informant approaches for assessing cultural responsiveness in the classroom.     

Affirming Cultures,Communities and Experiences: Teaching for Social Justice in Teacher Education Literacy Courses

In this article we share several activities we use in our teacher education literacy courses that incorporate a social justice lens. For each activity we suggest resources, offer examples we have created and used in our teaching, and share research to support each activity. The activities build on each other, with the intent of increasing preservice teacher knowledge of how to teach for social justice by moving beyond awareness and understanding lived experiences of students to affirming cultures and experiences of all students, creating inclusive and equitable classrooms. By experiencing teaching from this stance in our courses, we hope that our preservice teachers take up and teach from a social justice stance in their future classrooms.     

Leadership decision making and the use of data

Intelligence gathering, or data collection, is a preliminary and critical stage of decision making. Two key approaches to intelligence gathering are “discovery” and “idea imposition.” The discovery approach allows us to learn about possibilities by gathering intelligence in order to identify and weigh options. The idea imposition approach limits intelligence gathering and focuses resources on promoting a solution. The purpose of this study is to explore the intelligence‐gathering stage of organizational leaders during decision making from both of these perspectives and to begin to identify themes as they relate to the data considered, types of decisions and outcomes sought, and level of confidence in decision‐making success.     

Motivating factors: perceptions of justice and their relationship with managerial and organizational trust

Research on trust in organizations shows that it facilitates relationships, cooperation between individuals and organizations, organizational commitment, and employees’ motivation to innovate. Organizational justice, which refers to perceptions of the fairness of workplace outcomes or processes, is often considered an antecedent to managerial and organizational trust. The current research sought to determine whether different types of justice relate to managerial and organizational trust in unique ways. Participants from numerous organizations representing two geographic regions were surveyed regarding their last performance appraisal. Results indicate that procedural justice was the strongest predictor of both organizational and managerial trust, distributive justice only predicted managerial trust, and interactional justice did not predict either type of trust.     

Maximizing PEDAGOGY for Secondary Co‐Teachers

Student understanding of content can be dependent on the pedagogies that co‐teachers plan and implement, regardless of which co‐teaching model they use. However, when co‐teachers vary instruction using different co‐teaching models, secondary students with and without disabilities have more opportunities to take advantage of having two teachers and more opportunities to be taught using evidence‐based practices. In this article, ‘PEDAGOGY’ is used as an acronym to describe ways in which co‐teachers can design and deliver instruction using various co‐teaching models in multiple content areas at the secondary level.     

Exceptional educators: a collaborative training partnership for the inclusion of students with Down's syndrome

This article discusses the results of a teacher training initiative in the United States. Exceptional Educators is the result of an inter‐organisational collaboration between a community‐based organisation (Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization), the local public school system and a university professor. The training focuses on three distinct objectives; understanding the physical and emotional needs of the disability, creating modified curriculum units based on individual learning goals and recognising common behavioral problems that arise in school settings. Overall, the results showed positive outcomes, with gains in knowledge of curriculum modification, behavioural strategies and overall understanding of Down's syndrome, as well as an increase in confidence level. A six‐week follow‐up survey indicated that the majority of the participants used the information presented back in their teaching environments. This study also investigated the added value of this collaboration, finding that the community connection often continues past the training and has provided teachers additional avenues for support.