Effect of personalization of instructional context on the achievement and attitudes of hispanic students

This study investigated the effects of three levels of personalization—individualized, group, and non-personalized—on the mathematics achievement of 123 seventh-grade Hispanic boys and girls. Personalization was accomplished by using personal information provided by students on a biographical inventory. Subjects were randomly assigned within sex to one of three versions of a two-day instructional program on one-step and two-step mathematics word problems. Subjects in both the individual and group personalization treatments scored significantly higher on the posttest than those in the nonpersonalized treatment on two-step word problems, but not on one-step problems. Subjects in the individualized treatment had significantly more positive attitudes toward the instruction than those in the other two treatments.     

Changing the Face of Reference: Adapting Biomedical and Health Information Services for the Classroom,Clinic, and Beyond

This article describes how the reference department at a large academic health sciences library evolved to address the clinical and research information needs of the parent organization without losing its close connections to the classroom and curriculum. Closing the reference desk, moving to on-call and house call models, designing positions such as clinical research librarian and basic biomedical sciences librarian, finding alternative funding to grow the department, providing technology and training to facilitate librarians' work, and developing programming for and taking advice from library clients facilitated efforts to create a relevant presence and solidify the library's place in the university community.     

A critical review of education support practices in Spain

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to analyse different models of educational support that are used in schools with public funding from the perspective of support teachers, counsellors and members of management teams. Participants were 79 professionals from the three areas mentioned above. The methodological approach was a phenomenological qualitative one using focus groups and subsequent qualitative analysis of the data. The systems of categories and subcategories underwent a progressive process of triangulation. The results show that professionals identify support practices that can be divided into two differentiated models: a traditional model linked to a medical perspective of providing personal support to the most vulnerable students and a support model consistent with inclusive education. There are also discrepancies among professionals, especially about the need for support to be provided within the reference classroom. The discussion focuses on identifying essential aspects, to more effectively support students and teachers in an ordinary school context. In addition, professionals question the regulations for their disconnection from the reality they experience in schools. All this requires a rethinking of the functions of support teachers supported by careful initial and ongoing training.     

Interdisciplinary Synergy: A Partnership Between Business and Library Faculty and Its Effects on Students’ Information Literacy

In today's information-rich environment, business faculty are challenged to teach students how to conduct effective business research and evaluate information critically. We describe collaboration between business professors and reference librarians in an introductory business course. Students were surveyed before and after completion of a Business Discovery Project requiring use of print and electronic sources in writing a research paper on a publicly traded company. Student perceptions indicated increased abilities in communication skills, research skills, use of business information sources, and composition skills; paired t tests showed these increases to be significant.     

把家变成游乐场

沙发是一个可以让飞船停靠的新星球,转椅是一只等待被驯服的长颈鹿,收纳可以变成一场藏宝游戏——准备好一切．让家变成游乐场．让孩子尽情又安心地玩耍吧!     

Implementing and managing legal deposit in South Africa: Challenges and recommendations

This article discusses an investigation which was undertaken on behalf of the Legal Deposit Committee into the state of legal deposit in South Africa. Legal deposit cannot be successfully implemented in a country without the positive and committed participation of publishers and legal deposit institutions. The main aim of the study was therefore to investigate how the attitudes, opinions and behaviours of these core role players affect the depositing of material subject to legal deposit. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with selected groups or individuals representing the publisher populations. Similar interviews were conducted with representatives of the five legal deposit libraries. As no studies have been done in South Africa to determine the state of compliance with legal deposit requirements in the country, a smaller investigation in the form of a feasibility study was undertaken with the aim of obtaining figures that reflect the levels of compliance over a specific time period. Based on the results obtained from these investigations, suggestions and recommendations for improved procedures and methods for monitoring and managing legal deposit in the future were provided. Although this study is specific to the South African situation at the present time, the methods employed and suggestions provided may have a wider scope for implementation than in this country only. Other countries on the African continent, for example, could use the methods and suggestions of this study, or adaptations thereof, for their own purposes.