Isabel, a clinical decision support system

A clinical decision support system (CDSS) is an interactive tool designed to assist clinicians in making decisions, such as determining a diagnosis. The Isabel Database is a CDSS featuring a clinical checklist and topic-specific knowledge components. This column contains an overview of the database, provides searching tips, and places Isabel within the context of the CDSS field.     

Information behaviors of Latinos attending high school in East Los Angeles

The data on Latino school-aged youth with regard to their information and digital literacies are nascent, while this US population is growing explosively. An exploratory study investigated the information behaviors of Latinos attending high school in East Los Angeles. Information behaviors including library use and research skills were investigated through a series of focus groups and a questionnaire. Results challenge several assumptions regarding access to technology and first-generation Latinos.     

Confronting assumptions,biases, and stereotypes in preservice teachers' conceptualizations of science teaching through the use of book club

This study focuses on the structure and theoretical foundations of the book club for promoting multicultural understandings in science teacher education. The book club was defined as an informal, peer‐directed group discussion that met regularly to discuss an ethnographic, multicultural text regarding issues pertinent to science teaching and learning in urban classrooms. Twenty‐three preservice teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a 16‐week elementary science methods course at a large urban university participated in the study. From the qualitative analyses of PSTs' written reflections and researcher journal notes, five themes which emphasize Individual, Collaborative, and Collective learning are presented. These findings highlight how the book club structure and theoretical foundation fostered critical, reflective inquiry and served as a method for effecting ideological change which is needed in order to embrace issues of diversity in urban science education. Implications for science teacher education concerning the relevancy of pedagogical strategies, the use of multiple theoretical perspectives, and the book club as a strategy in teacher education and urban education are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 1041–1066, 2009     

Summary and frequency of KR presentation effects on retention of a motor skill

This experiment investigates the recent proposal of Schmidt, Young, Swinnen, and Shapiro (1989) that summary knowledge of results (KR) improves skill retention. In Schmidt et al.'s experiment, however, summary length varied concomitantly with the frequency of KR presentation. The current investigation held KR presentation frequency constant while manipulating the number of trials seen in the summary KR display. Subjects were required to perform a timing task on a linear slide. Five groups (n = 12) of subjects participated in acquisition trials then in 10-min and 2-day delayed no-KR retention tests. In 4 conditions, subjects completed each acquisition block without any KR, but following each block they received KR on either 15, 7, 3, or 1 of the 15 trials performed in that block. In the final condition subjects received immediate KR. Analysis of the absolute constant error (magnitude of CE) data for acquisition revealed all groups improved with practice and the immediate KR group performed better than all the summary groups which in turn did not differ significantly. Analysis of the magnitude of CE retention data found performance to be worse on the 2-day retention test for all groups. The effect of condition was significant. The 1/1 group had lower error scores than all other groups, which in turn were not significantly different. Analyses of variable error (VE) revealed only that VE decreased with practice. These findings suggest frequency of KR presentation may be the basis for the summary KR effect found by Schmidt et al. (1989).