Worth the effort: Why societies should make room for books

Key points

• With increased pressure on longstanding society business models, society journal publishers must pursue more aggressive growth strategies to remain competitive.
• A practitioner‐focused book portfolio that translates research into practice offers an opportunity to establish an alternative revenue stream and an additional path for society member engagement.
• Societies are in a unique position to capitalize on their existing connections to industry via their membership base.
• Brief, easy‐to‐consume content and interactive tools are of the greatest appeal to the practitioner audience.
• Focusing on shorter, template‐driven formats and more frequent updates allows society publishers to develop content more rapidly and at lower cost.
• Challenges include incentivizing society members to author and review the content, identifying individuals who are capable of doing so, and obtaining adequate internal resources.

     

Actual and ideal roles of school staff to support students with special needs: current needs and strategies for improvement

To optimise school-based service delivery for students with disabilities, it is important to understand roles and needs of school staff. This study aimed to clarify ideal and actual roles of school staff (teachers, special educators, administrators) working with students with special needs, and to identify potential strategies to support actual roles. Ninety-five school personnel (64% teachers) from 3 different elementary schools and school boards in Quebec completed a 14-question survey. Open-ended responses were coded and analysed thematically. Common actual roles included task adaptation, offering individualized support, being available and teamwork. Respondents felt roles could improve through in-context professional support, continuing education, teamwork opportunities extending to partnerships with families and access to resources. Clarifying roles and expectations within a tiered-model to best support students also emerged, emphasizing the importance of sharing responsibilities across all service providers. Findings can guide implementation strategies and processes for providing effective services, enabling inclusion for students.     

Early Educators’ Collective Workplace Stress as a Predictor of Professional Development’s Impacts on Children’s Development

Although professional development is widely used to improve the impacts of early childhood education, little is known about the conditions under which such interventions promote child outcomes. This study applies newly developed methods for quantifying intervention impact heterogeneity to understand whether educators’ collective workplace stress moderates professional development’s impacts on children’s language and literacy skills, executive functioning, and learning behaviors. Within a sample of 406 children from the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education Professional Development Study (M_age = 4.17; 50% female; 50% Black, 32% Latinx, 11% White), professional development positively impacted child outcomes in centers where educators collectively reported high workplace stress but negatively impacted child outcomes in centers where educators collectively reported low workplace stress.     

Creating a Science E-book with Fifth Grade Students

This article explains how one teacher used iBooks Author, a free digital textbook creation tool that makes iBooks for iPads, in an upper elementary classroom to improve students’ expository writing skills and understanding of science content. The classroom teacher taught students pre-requisite writing and technology skills for two weeks, and then helped these students design, develop, and publish their own iBook. Students planned and developed content using Thinking Maps, storyboards, Google Docs, iMovie and other technology tools to create their iBook. A comparison of students’ work in the iBook to previous written work revealed an improvement in expository writing in multiple ways: better organization and connection of ideas; increased use of academic vocabulary; and an increased use of clarifying details and analogies. Students also gained a deeper understanding of science concepts as reported through their comments after the project was finished. Students became more proficient users of the technology, and also reported an increased sense of self-efficacy and confidence because they published a book in the iBookstore     

Rethinking Responsible Literature Searching Using LibGuides

Drawing from the Responsible Literature Searching project developed by the Health Sciences Library System–University of Pittsburgh, the Mayo Clinic Libraries utilized Springshare's LibGuides software to create an Effective Database Searching Guide for its diverse set of users. Library databases are organized under broad subject categories with overview information, links to help materials, and news on system updates. Additionally, the guide features a visual site map, searching best practices, a database comparison chart, responsible literature searching guidelines, classic evidence-based practice articles, and recommendations on when to contact a librarian for assistance. The self-guided tool is both easy to use and maintain.     

Moral Sensitivity in the Context of Socioscientific Issues in High School Science Students

This study is a part of a larger study that examined using socioscientific issues (SSI) as a form of effective science teaching. The purpose was to investigate how teaching a year‐long curriculum using SSI affects science learning outcomes. In this report, we examine the effects of a SSI‐driven curriculum on the development of students’ moral sensitivity. Our results indicate that development of moral sensitivity can be promoted through science learning experiences embedded in SSI. Results also suggest that moral sensitivity is contextually dependent. Implications for teaching are discussed.     

Commitment Messages Communicated in Families of Origin: Contributions to Relationship Commitment Attitudes

Despite the wealth of research on relationship commitment, surprisingly little has examined the contributions communication in families of origin makes to perceptions of commitment. Data from a survey of 145 individuals revealed three types of individuals based on reports of commitment-related communication in families of origin: optimist, structural-optimist, and cautious. Results revealed that these three types of individuals differed on their beliefs, models, and expectations about commitment and romantic relationships. The study contributes to our understanding of the developmental origins of perceptions of commitment in relationships and the contributions communication in families of origin makes to those perceptions.     

Testing a web information portal for people with learning disabilities

This paper contributes to an incremental base of research exploring usability issues related to information and communication experiences and needs of individuals with learning difficulties. A web portal designed specifically with the intended users in mind (i.e. individuals with learning difficulties) has been developed and piloted through a Rix Centre (UEL (University of East London) ) initiative in collaboration with a number of schools and adult service organisations. Seven individuals aged 14–16 years and identified with mild learning difficulties participated in the study. Assessment of findings includes evidence of participant self-directed interest and initiated use of web technologies, recognition and competent utilisation of basic navigation tools, and simple task completion within the web portal itself. Areas of noted interest warranting further exploration include participant behaviour in regard to limited length, depth, and frequency of individual web site browsing; participant difficulty with advanced navigation skills and eye–hand coordination connected to directed cursor movement and mouse manipulation; and web content readability levels. Additionally, further consideration exploring a user's degree of real information acquisition is necessary better to ensure meaningful and relevant web experiences for individuals with learning difficulties.     

女运动员怎样避免受伤及获取最佳状态

近来的研究表明,女运动员和男运动员在受伤几率方面有很大的差异。这与男女生理和身体结构差异有关。随着女子运动竞争越来越激烈,这个现象越来越明显。下面有一组数据可以说明这个问题:(1)2004年约有3万名中学和大学女运动员饱受膝伤之苦;(2)女运动员受膝伤的几率是男运动员的