Exploring of new models of research pedagogy: time to let go of master-apprentice style supervision?

While the time-honoured one-to-one supervisory model of higher research degree training has its advantages, recent research suggests that the model also has significant drawbacks, including its hierarchical nature. Nevertheless, this pedagogical model remains the default for higher research pedagogy. Using the discipline of music as a case study, where growing interest in practice-based research has lately demanded considerable fluidity in supervisory practices, this research explores the benefits and challenges of one-to-one models of supervision. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, dialogue forums, survey data, the extant literature and observations of practices at selected higher music education institutions in Australia, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, it recommends and suggests ways to implement more ‘horizontal’ approaches to research pedagogy. The findings of this research may improve teaching and learning experiences and outcomes in higher research degrees in music and the creative arts, and stimulate a reflection of supervisory approaches more generally across the sector.     

Validating racism and cultural respect: testing the psychometric properties and educational impact of perceived discrimination and multiculturation for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students

Within the field of quantitative research, the diverse and negative effects of racial discrimination have become increasingly documented across a number of outcome variables (including physical, mental, and social wellbeing); however, research on the direct effects of racism is less evident within educational settings. The present investigation explored the negative impact of perceived racial discrimination, in addition to perceptions of cultural respect (Multiculturation) on both objective (e.g., student grades) and subjective (e.g., importance of school) schooling outcomes for a sample of Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous Australian high school students. Perceived racial discrimination was found to be one of the strongest negative predictors of a number of outcomes for Indigenous Australian students, and Multiculturation was also found to have substantial positive relations with the subjective schooling outcomes for the same group of students. That the results were also generalisable to the non-Indigenous students suggests that attempts to combat racism and promote respect may benefit all members of society.     

Computing as Educational Innovation: a model of distributed expertise

ABSTRACT

The introduction of innovation to a school doesn't just happen. Often it is the work of an interested and dedicated teacher. Such teachers are often frustrated in their efforts to change the curriculum because they lack both the leadership skills necessary for substantial change and an understanding of how innovation effects and spreads in an organization. School principals, in their position as curriculum leaders, should play a crucial role in bringing innovation to the classroom. Many, however, play an encouraging but less active role, supporting teachers’ efforts to change the curriculum. While this type of leadership has been sufficient in the past, the introduction of computer technology as an integral part of the instructional program requires active leadership because of its multifaceted nature and intense budgetary requirements. This paper suggests a model of school administration wherein already overburdened school administrators can share leadership in a meaningful way with interested teachers. It also presents a model for the diffusion of innovation by such leadership teams. The paper argues that innovation does not just happen; meaningful change requires both strong leadership and deep understanding of the politics of innovation. This is particularly true for the introduction of computers to schools because of the magnitude of the change required.     

How Librarians Can Shape the Future

The first two sections of this three-part article contrast the myopic five-year strategic plan that the American Library Association introduced just before the Boston ALA Midwinter convention in 2010 (Section 1) with a Danish view of a future for librarians that includes significant and irreplaceable work (Section 2). Section 3 of the article provides several on-line examples that illustrate how other user and professional communities are using modern electronic techniques to collect and provide timely information. These provide exemplary models which librarians can use to move ahead to develop and fulfill a significant information agenda for the nation, their institutions, and the profession.     

The Cooperative We Need: Open and Collaborative Library Content

This article highlights the need for database collaboration among OCLC and librarians in order to create the cooperative database that the entire library community needs to move ahead in the future. The author critiques recent OCLC strategic directions and suggests that the Dublin giant needs to focus essentially on its cooperative nonprofit roots to best serve the library community and library users in the years ahead.     

Librarians Use of Web 2.0 in UK Medical Schools: Outcomes of A National Survey

Using the results of an Email survey, this paper reviews the use of Web 2.0 technologies by librarians working in UK Medical Schools. Web 2.0 has been hailed as an innovation for facilitation of two way communication on the net, and it is, therefore, timely to measure how effectively librarians are capturing this opportunity for increased student engagement. The social nature of Web 2.0 can be particularly appropriate for undergraduate medical students who fit their studies around the unsocial hours and geographical isolation of clinical placements. This paper will investigate library use of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Consideration will also be given as to whether they facilitate a more collabroative library service or if they leave undergraduate medical students swamped with yet more information to manage.     

Media Preferences and Democracy: Refining the “Relative Entertainment Preference” Hypothesis

This article extends the work of research connecting media choice and relative preferences for entertainment to voter turnout. Markus Prior found that individuals who both preferred entertaining content to news and had either cable or Internet access were less likely to vote than were other citizens. As an update to his work, this article uses more recent Pew Research Center for the People and the Press surveys to test alternative measures of entertainment preferences and to update the Internet access findings for the broadband age. As a theoretical extension, this article looks at turnout differences among those with even finer content preferences. Specifically, people who prefer hard news are compared to those choosing societal welfare news (e.g., crime, community, health). The results indicate that there is value in considering Relative Societal Welfare News Preference in addition to—or even instead of—entertainment preferences alone.     

Travel Report: Kosovo and Macedonia,April 9–20, 2012

The author, the Library of Congress librarian responsible for Albanian materials, describes a trip he and a fellow staff member made to Kosovo and Macedonia in April 2012. The trip was funded by the US Department of State, and the two gave lectures on library-related topics.     

How Does a Pre-Assessment of Off-Campus Students’ Information Literacy Affect the Effectiveness of Library Instruction?

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact that pre-tests have on the effectiveness of library instruction when students are given feedback on their pre-test performance. Librarians and academic faculty partnered to measure library instruction outcomes in two Master's degree classes. The Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA) was used as a pre-test (before instruction) and a post-test (after instruction) in Class 1 and as a post-test only in Class 2. Students who completed both tests performed significantly better on a post-test, earning higher scores on obtaining information and overall information literacy. They reported greater library/research experience and less reliance on browsing. Compared to students who did not take a pre-test, students who received pre-test-based feedback had higher scores on library/research experience and lower scores on reliance on browsing. To enhance the effectiveness of library instruction, students can be given pre-test-based feedback that compares their actual and perceived literacy and encourages the use of library databases.