Clinical librarians,a new tribe in the UK: roles and responsibilities

Aims: The aims of this research were to determine the background, education, training experience, roles and responsibilities of practising Clinical Librarians (CL) in the UK. This paper reports the findings of a survey undertaken in 2007 at the third Clinical Librarian conference. This research builds on research undertaken by Harrison and Sargeant in 2002 and Ward in 2004, and can be considered as part of a longitudinal study of the role of the CL in the UK. Objectives: The objectives of the research were to define and gain a broad understanding of the role of the CL in the UK highlighting similarities and differences amongst the professionals and provide evidence for a baseline of skills and activities for the CL role. The type of sampling used was Judgemental. Results/analysis: Results/analysis detail the skills and activities undertaken by CLs. Searching for information for Clinicians was the activity most frequently undertaken. Developing good relationships with other healthcare professionals was considered essential. Two‐thirds of the respondents held a postgraduate library qualification. Conclusions: Crucially a new model for the UK CL role is derived drawing on the findings of this study and the existing literature.     

Boarding schools: A longitudinal examination of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous boarders’ and non-boarders’ wellbeing

Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australian students is a key strategy to helping Indigenous people reach their full potential. This has resulted in well-intentioned efforts by Australian educators and governments to ensure Indigenous children have positive school experiences. However, Indigenous students still lag behind their non-Indigenous counterparts in educational outcomes. This is particularly so for Indigenous students living in rural and remote parts of Australia where educational opportunities are limited, especially in high school. One solution to this problem has been to enrol these students in boarding schools in urban and metropolitan centres. While research on the success of boarding schools for Indigenous students is scarce, what little that does exist is not encouraging. The focus of this research was to examine the effects of boarding for Indigenous (n = 11) and non-Indigenous students’ (n = 158) wellbeing (N = 1423) in two large private boys’ schools. Participating students aged 12–18 years old completed a survey measuring wellbeing constructs on two occasions, 12 months apart. Non-Indigenous boys were generally higher in wellbeing compared with Indigenous boys. There was also evidence of improved social wellbeing beyond that of non-Indigenous boarders over time. Overall, while evidence of merit was weak, boarding schools may benefit their Indigenous students’ development in social wellbeing.     

Family Reading Behavior and Early Literacy Skills in Preschool Children From Low-Income Backgrounds

This study investigated the family reading behavior of 233 preschool children from low-income backgrounds who were attending Head Start. Parents completed a survey of their family reading behavior, including Child Reading, Parent Reading Interest, and Parent-Child Reading Interaction, and provided demographic data on their educational level, parent and child age, and family size. Children's receptive vocabulary, story and print concepts, letter knowledge, and general emergent literacy skills were assessed in the fall of their preschool year. Analyses focused on the variation in family reading behavior, the relationship between different dimensions of family reading behavior, and the contribution of family reading behavior to early literacy skills. Results indicated that Parent-Child Reading Interaction and Child Reading Interest were significantly related to children's early literacy skills. In addition, multiple regression analyses indicated that Parent-Child Reading Interaction was a small yet significant predictor of children's receptive vocabulary, story and print concepts, and general emergent literacy skills, above and beyond the influence of demographic variables. Child Reading Interest was a significant, albeit small, predictor of letter knowledge above and beyond these demographic controls. Implications of these results for the early literacy education of children of low-income families are discussed.     

The new inset: a transformation scene

The work of Lawrence Stenhouse strongly promoted the view that curriculum development was dependent upon teacher development and as such, has had a great impact on the in‐service education of teachers. Such a teacher‐centred model is now called in question by recent DES moves in relation to the funding and control of INSET. By exploiting the mechanisms of categorical funding, as refined by the MSC, it seems likely that the Department will be able to impose a conception of ‘curriculum led staff development’, which originated in Further Education. Such a conception assumes that curriculum is a given and that the development needs of teachers may be deduced from it, thus increasingly restricting them to the business of execution and not of conception.     

Post-secondary Science Students’ Explanations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Randomness</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Variation</Emphasis> and Implications for Science Learning

The concepts of randomness and variation are pervasive in science. The purpose of this study was to document how post-secondary life science students explain randomness and variation, infer relationships between their explanations, and ability to describe and identify appropriate and inappropriate variation, and determine if students can identify sources of variation. An instrument designed to test statistical concepts was administered to 282 college students from three universities, ranging from introductory non-science majors to science graduate students. Students readily distinguished between causes of variation. A naïve no-pattern concept of randomness persisted from first-year non-science majors to senior-level science majors, contributing to incorrect responses on the variation instrument. Students’ expressions of randomness were better predictors of performance on the variation instrument than their expressions of variation. It is argued that inclusion of everyday language uses of randomness in instruction can bridge the gap between vernacular and scientific uses of this term.