Early Literacy and the Public Library: An Opportunity of a Lifetime (of Reading)

In this article, author Bill Ptacek says that the future is now, and, at least from the 1970s through today, in the field of early childhood work, the future has come so fast that it is constantly upon us. That reality means that those concerned about young children in libraries have been about adaptation on a continuing basis. In this world of rapid change, innovation is constant: City firefighters come to the libraries in uniform to read stories to children, library outreach specialists take programs to daycare centers in their communities, and staff members create a space in a library devoted to early childhood reading. This tradition of rapid change means that the early childhood staff of most large public libraries in North America is changing for the future on a regular basis. The work unit should be considered seriously as one model for 21st century public library reform.     

The engagement agenda,multimedia learning and the use of images in higher education lecturing: or,how to end death by PowerPoint

This article is concerned with student engagement and understanding in large group teaching in Higher Education (HE). Specifically, it is concerned with the application of Multimedia Learning (MML) methods in Politics, History, International Relations, Sociology, Social Work, and Business and Economics teaching that privilege the use of images to complement text in lecture presentations. This ‘visual’ method, it is claimed in the literature, generates engagement and understanding better than text alone. This article develops, applies and empirically tests with students, MML methods across a range of Higher Education disciplines over three years. The research deploys Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods engaging students as active agents of investigation and change. It finds evidence to support the hypothesis that apposite images combined with reduced text increases students’ engagement and understanding with academic content, but that much formal research needs to expand on the range of demographics tested.     

Video diaries: a tool to investigate sustainability-related learning in threshold spaces

This paper takes as a case study an undergraduate field class from a UK university to rural Uganda. It describes and evaluates the use of video diaries as a tool for investigating the process of transformative learning in the context of education for sustainability. The applicability of threshold concept theory to this learning is investigated. Results show the video diary technique to be much more successful in capturing the development of student learning than written diaries. Despite some practical difficulties, rich data were generated. Analysis demonstrated that learning met three of the five criteria for threshold concepts: the learning was transformative, integrative and troublesome. Further research could test whether the learning in this case study met the threshold concept criterion of irreversibility. Further elaboration of the theoretical relationship between threshold concepts, transformative learning and education for sustainability is also needed. It is concluded that the video diary method is potentially transferable to other educational research contexts and may be particularly suitable for researching learning in threshold spaces.     

Concentric collaboration: a model of leadership development for healthcare organizations

Drawing on their experience in a Midwest healthcare system, the authors propose a model of leadership development through action learning that embraces ‘concentric collaboration’ at its core. The present study suggests that the process of concentric collaboration can serve to strengthen the skills of the individual leader as well as foster collective leadership. Central to the model is the growth and development of the individual leader which extends outward to create connections with others, ultimately increasing the social capital necessary to effect organizational change. This work contributes to the leadership development literature by offering a comprehensive model that includes the process of individual growth as well as collective capacity, organizational factors that support or inhibit this process as well as implications for practice.     

Developing a virtual engineering management community

The paper reviews the lessons of planning and running an Engineering Management practitioner development programme in a partnership between BP and the University of Manchester. This distance-learning programme is for professional engineers in mid-career experienced in the engineering and support activities for delivering safe, compliant and reliable projects and operations worldwide. The programme concentrates on the why and how of leadership and judgement in managing the engineering of large and small projects and operational support. Two intensive residential weeks are combined with a virtual learning environment over one year. Assessed assignments between and after the residential weeks provide opportunities for individual reflective learning for each delegate through applying concepts and the lessons of case studies to their experience, current challenges and expected responsibilities. This successful partnership between a major global company and a university rich in research and teaching required a significant dedication of intellectual and leadership effort by all concerned. The rewards for both parties and most importantly for the engineers themselves are extensive.     

University Practicum Supervisors: marching to a different drummer?

The roles and responsibilities of university supervisors in the practicum have changed during the last ten years. Once, the routine tasks of observation and feedback of student teaching performance were the main responsibilities associated with visits to the school. Lecturers in this role also determined, with the school personnel, the assessment rating of the student teacher. Presently, there is considerable variation in the part played by university supervisors of the practicum. Against this background, this paper examines the actual and ideal characteristics of university supervisors from their own viewpoint and from the perspective of teacher supervisors, principals and student teachers. The reasons for the actual‐ideal discrepancies are discussed, and suggestions are made in relation to addressing the matter.