Wake up Information Literacy Instruction: Ideas for Student Engagement

In this article, three librarians from Santa Fe College, the community college winner of the 2015 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, share their successful work in information literacy instruction. While the ACRL award is given for overall achievement, this article focuses upon their creative and varied approaches to instruction, incorporating a wide blend of strategies to reach students across the college. Beginning with targeted approaches to virtual instruction, including broad use of the flipped classroom model, and building in active learning techniques, the librarians at Santa Fe College have built an instruction program that could serve as a model to community college libraries across the country.     

How much exercise are older adults living in nursing homes doing in daily life? A cross-sectional study

Information on the amount of exercise practised by nursing home (NH) residents is scarce. This study aimed at describing NH residents’ participation in exercise classes, as well as to examine whether the presence of a professional exercise instructor in the facilities is associated with residents’ exercise habits. The cross-sectional data of 5402 residents (median age = 88 years; mostly women (75.2%)) from 163 NHs in France were analysed. Adjusted logistic and linear regressions were performed to examine whether the presence of a professional exercise instructor in the NH was associated with exercise habits: exercise participation, frequency, duration, and levels. From the 5402 participants, 1914 were participating in exercise classes provided in the NH. Most of them had an exercise frequency of 1x/week or less. Median duration of exercise sessions was 45 min. Exercise levels were rated as: highly active (n = 487), intermediately active (n = 1096), and poorly active (n = 331). The presence of a professional exercise instructor working in the facility was significantly associated with exercise participation and with higher exercise frequencies and levels, and session duration. In conclusion, the presence of professional exercise instructors is associated with better exercise habits in NH residents. Improved exercise habits may potentially be translated into better health in this population.     

王阳明“知行合一”说的系统论分析

从系统的整体性理解王阳明“知行合一”说,可知：“知行合一”是一个由目的、手段和根据构成的有机整体;知行的本来体段就是合一的,而语言的遮蔽、私欲阻碍和析心理为二的剧场假相,使得知行分离,这三者都背离了“致良知于事事物物”的要求;个体要真正做到知行合一,就必须在事亲事君、交友治民等具体实践中,通过致良知的努力,体认知行合一的真谛,为善去恶,成就个人的德性,这样才能实现安天下之民的目的。从系统的层次性审视阳明哲学可见,阳明虽然看到了个体的知和行、德性之知和闻见之知、心的社会性和个性、道德的自觉和自愿、为学和生活等两两之间,都是一个有机整体,但受时代所限,其伦理学说系统仍然只有社会关系和伦理政治两个层次,缺少了物质生产这个根本层次,故其知行合一说的深度和说服力不够。     

The promise and reality of formative assessment practice in a continuous assessment scheme: the case of Trinidad and Tobago

Continuous Assessment (CA) systems are externally directed, curriculum-based assessment schemes used for both summative and formative purposes within classrooms. CA has been implemented as national policy in several postcolonial developing countries and is believed to hold great promise for improving education outcomes. This theory-driven evaluation (TDE) used a mixed methods research design to interrogate the nature of CA practice. The focus was on stakeholders’ understanding and practice of formative assessment in the CA Programme (CAP) of Trinidad and Tobago. The integrated findings suggest that the programme planners’ formative intent was often not fulfilled. Instead, teachers routinely recorded assessment marks without using the data. There is evidence that formative assessment practice was not congruent with teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. Although the design of CA schemes suggests the possibility of synergy between formative and summative purposes, in reality this ideal is rarely achieved in these particular contexts.     

Design and implementation of multi-campus,modular master classes in biochemical engineering

The Master of Science in engineering technology: biochemical engineering is organised in KU Leuven at four geographically dispersed campuses. To sustain the Master's programmes at all campuses, it is clear that a unique education profile at each campus is crucial. In addition, a rationalisation is required by increased cooperation, increased exchange of lecturers, and increased student mobility. To achieve this, a multicampus education system for the M.Sc. in engineering technology: biochemical engineering was developed by offering modules that are also available for students of other campuses. Such a module is primarily based on the research expertise present at the campus. In the development, special attention has been given to the optimal organisation of the modules, evaluation, required modifications of the current curricula, and the practical consequences for students following the module at another campus. Even in the first year of implementation, around 30% of the students followed a multicampus module, which indicates the potential success of the multicampus concept described here.     

Assessing the Worth of the College Degree on Self-perceived Police Performance

Many formal policies have suggested that officers need a college degree; however, policies forced little change in practices of American police organizations. Six hundred-fifty patrol officers employed in 12 medium-sized police departments in three Midwestern states were surveyed as to their current educational attainment and job performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between educational level and police performance.     

The effect of school closures on standardised student test outcomes

The school closures owing to the 2020 COVID-19 crisis resulted in a significant disruption of education provision, leading to fears of learning losses and of an increase in educational inequality. This article evaluates the effects of school closures based on standardised tests in the last year of primary school in the Dutch-speaking Flemish region of Belgium. Using a 6-year panel, we find that students of the 2020 cohort experienced significant learning losses in three out of five tested subjects, with a decrease in school averages of mathematics scores of 0.17 standard deviations and Dutch scores (reading, writing, language) of 0.19 standard deviations as compared to previous cohorts. This finding holds when accounting for school characteristics, standardised tests in Grade 4 and school fixed effects. Given the large observed effect sizes, the effect of school closures appears to be a combination of lost learning progress and learning loss. Moreover, we observe that inequality both within schools and across schools rises by 7% for mathematics and 8% for Dutch. The learning losses are correlated with observed school characteristics, as schools with a more disadvantaged student population experience larger learning losses.     

Patterns of Italian high school and university students’ attitudes towards physics: an analysis based on semiotic-cultural perspective

The purpose of this study was to analyse Italian high school and university students’ attitudes towards physics using the Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT). In the SCPT framework, attitudes represent how individuals interpret their experience through the mediation of generalized meaning with which they are identified. A view-of-physics questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data with 1603 high school and university students. Data were analysed through multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. We identified four generalized meanings of physics: (a) interesting and important for society; (b) a quite interesting, but badly taught subject at school and not completely useful for society; (c) difficult to study and irrelevant for society; and (d) a fascinating and protective niche from society. The identified generalized meanings are significantly correlated to the choice to study physics at undergraduate level and to the choice of attending physics-related activities in high school. Implications for research are discussed.

     

Strategies that promote historical reasoning and contextualization: a pilot intervention with urban high school students

Reading and Writing - The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two types of historical problem-solving instruction with advanced urban high school students’...