The informationist: building evidence for an emerging health profession

Background:

To encourage evidence-based practice, an Annals of Internal Medicine editorial called for a new professional on clinical teams: an informationist trained in science or medicine as well as information science.

Objectives:

The study explored the effects of informationists on information behaviors of clinical research teams, specifically, frequency of seeking information for clinical or research decisions, range of resources consulted, perceptions about access to information, confidence in adequacy of literature searches, and effects on decision making and practice. It also explored perceptions about training and experience needed for successful informationists.

Methods:

Exploratory focus groups and key interviews were followed by baseline and follow-up surveys conducted with researchers and clinicians receiving the service. Survey data were analyzed with Pearson''s chi-square or Fisher''s exact test.

Results:

Comparing 2006 to 2004 survey responses, the researchers found that study participants reported: seeking answers to questions more frequently, spending more time seeking or using information, believing time was less of an obstacle to finding or using information, using more information resources, and feeling greater satisfaction with their ability to find answers. Participants'' opinions on informationists'' qualifications evolved to include both subject knowledge and information searching expertise.

Conclusion:

Over time, clinical research teams with informationists demonstrated changes in their information behaviors, and they valued an informationist''s subject matter expertise more.

Highlights

• Informationist involvement in traditional team activities—going on rounds and searching and critically evaluating the literature—increased over time.
• As the relationship between a clinical team and informationist developed, activities expanded to include projects such as development of wikis, databases, and websites.
• Clinical teams came to view subject knowledge as key to an informationist''s preparation; however, their expertise as information scientists was valued most highly.
• “Initiative,” approaching research staff in their workplace, was the one personal trait focus group participants agreed on as most desirable for an informationist.
• When first introduced to the concept, researchers cited customization of services to team needs as a major benefit.

Implications

• To assure a successful informationist program, libraries must be prepared to commit time and money.
• Whether informationists or not, librarians should be prepared to support users'' increased need for genetics and molecular biology information.

     

Interest-enhancing approaches to mathematics curriculum design: Illustrations and personalization

Two common interest-enhancement approaches in mathematics curriculum design are illustrations and personalization of problems to students’ interests. The objective of these experiments is to test a variety of illustrations and personalization approaches. In the illustrations experiment, students (n?=?265) were randomly assigned to lessons with story problems containing decorative illustrations, contextual illustrations, diagrammatic illustrations, misleading illustrations, or no illustrations (only text [control condition]). Students’ problem-solving performance and attitudes were not affected by illustration condition, but learning was better in the control compared with contextual illustrations. In the personalization experiment, students (n?=?223) were randomly assigned to story problems that were either personalized based on: a survey of their interests, their choice of interest topics, a randomly assigned interest topic, or the original nonpersonalized story problem (control). The findings indicated there were benefits for choice personalization both for performance in the problem set as well as on a later learning assessment.     

Correlates of Bystander Readiness to Help Among a Diverse College Student Population: An Intersectional Perspective

This study seeks to understand which socio-demographic variables explain bystander readiness to help (BRH) among a diverse (via race/ethnicity) sample of college students. This study uses an intersectional approach by investigating how gender intersects with variables, specific to a college student population (e.g., class level, college of major, sexual harassment on campus), to influence readiness to help. The results are from a survey about campus climate experiences, which includes a stratified random sample of college students from a large Southwestern university in the United States, with 964 respondents. We conducted bivariate crosstabulations, comparisons of means, and multiple regressions. The multiple regression analyses illustrate that for women, the single most robust relationship with BRH is experiences with sexual harassment. For men, the strongest correlate is being a student within the college of liberal and fine arts. The practical and research implications of these findings are discussed.

     

Threading mathematics through symbols,sketches, software,silicon, and wood: Teachers produce and maintain cohesion to support STEM integration

ABSTRACT

This classroom-based investigation sought to document how, in real time, STEM teachers and students attempt to locate the invariant mathematical relations that are threaded through the range of activities and representations in these classes, and how highlighting this common thread influences student participation and learning. The authors conducted multimodal discourse analyses of teacher–student interactions during multiday observations in 3 urban high school STEM classes. The focal lessons were in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering (within Project Lead the Way), and precollege geometry. Across 3 cases, teachers and students actively built and maintained cohesion of invariant mathematical relations across activities and representations. Pre- and postlesson interviews revealed that teachers intentionally managed cohesion to provide the continuity across the curricular activities that teachers believed would promote student understanding. The findings contribute to ways of fostering STEM integration and ways of grounding abstractions to promote meaning making and transfer.     

Gender differences in science attitude‐achievement relationships over time among white middle‐school students

Four causal models describing the longitudinal relationships between attitudes and achievement have been proposed in the literature. These models feature: (a) cross‐effects over time between attitudes and achievement, (b) influence of achievement predominant over time, (c) influence of attitudes predominant over time, or (d) no cross‐effects over time between attitudes and achievement. In an examin‐ation of the causal relationships over time between attitudes toward science and science achievement for White rural seventh‐ and eighth‐grade students, the cross‐effects model was the best fitting model form for students overall. However, when examined by gender, the no cross‐effects model exhibited the most accurate fit for White rural middle‐school girls, whereas a new model called the no attitudes‐path model exhibited the best fit for these boys. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 324–340, 2002     

Establishing and sustaining teacher educator professional development in a self-study community of practice: Pre-tenure teacher educators developing professionally

This paper outlines the professional development of pre-tenure teacher educators through the establishment of a self-study group. Through reflecting on three significant events, a discussion is offered as to how members contributed to the self-study of teacher education practices and experienced enhancement as a community of scholars. Evidence is presented as to how pre-tenure faculty can work together to build a culture that links teaching practice to scholarship within an organizational framework for group interactions. This work contributes to research on the induction of new professors by providing a model of professional development that is self-directed, collaborative, and empowering.