Adding a Feature: Can a Pop-Up Chat Box Enhance Virtual Reference Services?

Online users seek help from virtual reference services via email, phone, texting, and live chat. Technologies have enabled new features in library websites to help make this service more accessible and effective. This article is an evaluation of an experimental pop-up live chat box on the website of a health sciences library to see whether the feature would enhance virtual reference services.     

Rethinking teacher evaluation using human,social, and material capital

Teacher evaluation’s relationship with instructional improvement is under-theorized in the literature. To address this gap, this paper uses a conceptual framework rooted in human, social, and material capital to analyze and synthesize findings from research conducted since 2009 on whether and under what conditions teacher evaluation stimulates change in teachers’ instruction. We find that teacher evaluation can facilitate instructional improvement if evaluators understand teaching and the teacher evaluation system and teachers and evaluators trust each other and have opportunities to develop social capital regarding instruction. In addition, adequate time and a userfriendly online data system appear to facilitate the use of teacher evaluation to stimulate changes in teachers’ practice. This paper thus presents a theoretical framework, rooted in theory and empirical research, that may prove useful to scholars and practitioners.

     

Reading Foreign Languages in the First Phase of Secondary Education: why,what and how?

In this article it is argued that reading skills in the teaching of a foreign language are much neglected in the first phase of secondary education. In order to show (I) why reading is of great importance for language acquisition in general and (2) how to utilise reading in the initial stages of language learning, the following questions are dealt with: (1) What is the status of reading in the different approaches to foreign language learning? (2) Why not focus on listening in terms of the receptive skills? (3) Which different types of texts (books) can be used? (4) How should these texts be used in order to maximise the contribution to language acquisition?     

Measuring the quality of e‐learning

This paper shows how concept mapping can be used to measure the quality of e‐learning. Six volunteers (all of them 3rd‐year medical students) took part in a programme of e‐learning designed to teach the principles of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Their understanding of MRI was measured before and after the course by the use of concept mapping. The quality of change in individuals' maps was assessed using criteria developed to distinguish between meaningful and rote‐learning outcomes. Student maps were also scored for evidence of conceptual richness and understanding. Finally, each map was compared directly with the content of the electronic teaching material. The results show that many of the student misconceptions were put right in the course of their learning but that many of the key concepts introduced in the teaching were ignored (or sometimes learnt by rote) by the students. This was because the teaching material locked these new ideas in structures and terminology that precluded meaning‐making among non‐experts. Our data suggest that students' prior knowledge is a key determinant of meaningful learning. We suggest that this must be acknowledged if the design and use of electronic teaching material is also to be meaningful. Ultimately, measures of student learning are the only authentic indicators of the quality of teaching through technology.     

The links between pedagogical competence,instructional quality,and mathematics achievement in the lower secondary classroom

Educational Studies in Mathematics - It is widely assumed that teachers play a key role in providing high-quality learning opportunities to students and fostering students’ learning. Yet it...     

The impact of cognitive communities on the diffusion of academic knowledge: Evidence from the networks of inventors of a French university

Looking at micro-data on the networks of inventors of a French science university, we investigate whether the kind of cognitive relationships between researchers influences the geography of their collaborations.The hypothesis we test (and confirm empirically) is that academic knowledge diffuses in a restricted geographic area when the connected researchers belong to epistemic communities, whereas communities of practice entail less localised effects. We also show that institutionally mixed research teams do not impede large knowledge diffusion.     

Data‐Driven Improvement in Prekindergarten Classrooms: Report From a Partnership in an Urban District

In 2014–2015 and 2015–2016, a metropolitan school system in the southern United States embarked on a unique mission to improve the quality of its public prekindergarten programs through a partnership with a group of developmental researchers in an iterative, data‐based venture. Data on 407 children in Year 1 and 433 in Year 2 (who were enrolled in 26 classrooms and extensively observed) are presented from the first 2 years of the ongoing partnership. All children were 4 years of age. Variability in classroom practices, measured empirically, and variability in child outcomes provided the means to examine the relations between children's gains in academic and social‐emotional areas and major areas of classroom practices. Lessons learned, the eight identified significant practices, implications, and next steps in the partnership are addressed.     

For-profit post-secondary education and civic engagement

Theorists such as Gumport (2000) suggest thatdifferent conceptions of higher education mayhave important consequences for students andsociety. We explore this possibility byconsidering a specific research question: Dostudents who attend for-profit post-secondaryschools show lower levels of civic engagementthan students who attend non-profit communitycolleges, either at the beginning of theirstudy or two years later? Using longitudinal data from the U.S. NationalCenter for Education Statistics (NCES)National Post-secondary Student Aid Survey(NPSAS90) and Beginning Post-secondary Survey(BPS), we test the hypothesis that students whoattend for-profit, post-secondary vocationalschools will show lower levels of civicengagement on several measures than similarstudents in community colleges. Studentsattending the two types of schools are alike intheir levels of civic engagement at thebeginning of their post-secondary education,but different four years later. We considerwhether observed differences in civic behaviorare due to variations in who attends thedifferent types of schools or to identifiableexperiences students may have in theirprograms, such as interactions with faculty orother students. The effect of proprietary school attendance onseven out of the ten different types of civicengagement measured here appears to be direct,rather than being mediated by measurableeducational experiences. We reflect further onprocesses that might explain the differencesand consider the policy implications of thesefindings for educational decision-makers.     

Portfolios, Accountability, and an Interpretive Approach to Validity

How can the results of classroom-based portfolio assessment be communicated outside the classroom? How might a portfolio-based assessment system be designed and implemented? How can we evaluate the merits of portfolio-based assessments?