Getting Off on the Right Foot: Psychological Contracts,Socialization Theory and Library Student Workers

Academic libraries rely on student employees to manage a wide range of operational areas. Employing students can be beneficial to the library, to the students, and to the library patrons, but there are also challenges in recruiting, training, and supervising a student workforce. In this article, we introduce two frameworks from human resources management that describe and explain new relationships between employees and employers. Psychological contracts are tacitly held expectations by employees and employers that direct attitudes and behaviors about the work, attitudes toward the organization, and interpersonal relationships. Socialization refers to the wide range of tactics that organizations and newcomers may take to adjust to a new work situation. In the article, we first explore each of the constructs and provide a short review of empirical studies that show the relevance of each construct as it pertains to student workers in libraries. We then offer some suggestions for steps library managers can take based on these frameworks to maximize the benefits of the student employee workforce for the students and for the organization.     

Adventures in Implementing a Testing Program

What are the ways in which a testing program can run aground? What are some suggestions for avoiding these problems?     

Access arrangements for secondary students. Are they fit for purpose?

The purpose of this study was to investigate Access Arrangements (AA) which allow students with specific learning difficulties (SpLDs), disabilities or medical needs to access assessments by making reasonable adjustments, as established by the Equality Act 2010. A review of the literature revealed some problematic issues relating to the perceived manageability of the system, assessments used to ascertain eligibility for AAs, the evidence-base for specific AAs, some training routes to become an assessor, and the lack of stakeholder voice in the process. The present study involved gathering information on views and experiences with AA by means of a survey with 513 UK educational professionals, in-depth interviews and a small-scale study involving pupils with reading difficulties. The results suggest that the system needs reviewing to make sure there is equitable provision for all those who need AA.     

Acceptability assessment of school psychology interventions from 2005 to 2017

Recommendations from multiple professional organizations (e.g., American Psychological Association, Council for Exceptional Children, National Association of School Psychologists) suggest that collection of data on the social validity in practice and research is necessary. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the inclusion of acceptability measurement, which has been one of the most common way to measure social validity, within the intervention literature published across five school psychology journals between 2005 and 2017. Findings suggested just over one third of intervention studies included acceptability assessment. Intervention studies that were delivered individually, targeted behavior skills, and included treatment integrity data were significantly more likely to include acceptability assessment. When acceptability was measured it was typically evaluated one-time following treatment completion using self-report tools completed by teachers. Nearly half of studies employed one of seven published tools and the remaining half used researcher-created measures. The published tools were adapted in a variety of ways and inconsistently reported either item or total scores making it difficult to summarize these data according to intervention target or delivery format. Implications of findings are described.     

Correction to: Assessing the direct and indirect effects of metalinguistic awareness to the reading comprehension skills of struggling adult readers

Reading and Writing - In the original publication of the article.