Critical Information Literacy Beyond the University: Lessons From Service in a Women's Health Interest Group

Library instruction methods most frequently focus on teaching students searching skills to navigate the maze of library databases to locate appropriate research materials. The current theory of critical information literacy instruction calls on librarians to spend more of their time in the classroom focused on understanding the social, political, and cultural construction of knowledge. In this article, the author provides a case study of the information environment in the National Women's Health Network, a women's health interest group, to help librarians facilitate nuanced discussions with students on the applicability of interest group literature inside and outside of the university classroom.     

The Indirect Association Between Television Exposure and Self-Protective Behavior as a Result of Worry About Crime: The Moderating Role of Gender

Persistent fear of crime can have serious consequences for one’s social behavior. Previous research has shown that people who fear crime are more likely to engage in self-protective behavior. Although a substantial amount of research has examined the relationship between television exposure and fear of crime, research on the association between television exposure and self-protective behavior is scarce. Based on cultivation theory and the mediated fear model, the current study aimed to examine whether news and crime drama television viewing are indirectly related to self-protective behavior via fear of crime. Structural equation modeling of data from 392 undergraduate students showed that news viewing and crime drama viewing is indirectly associated with self-protective behavior. The current study provided evidence for the importance of accounting for gender when investigating the complex issue of media effects on fear of crime and self-protective behavior.     

Student and faculty perceptions of plagiarism in health sciences education

Academic misconduct is a problem encountered by many academic programmes, including programmes in the health sciences. The primary purpose of the present study was to assess doctoral student and graduate faculty perceptions of academic misconduct, specifically plagiarism. We used a cross-sectional survey design, and separate surveys were developed for students and faculty. The student survey measured student perceptions of the prevalence of plagiarism among students in general and assessed the occurrence of each student’s plagiaristic behaviours. The faculty survey measured faculty perceptions of the prevalence of plagiarism among students in general and among students in their courses specifically. Two hundred and thirty-eight students and 92 faculty completed the surveys. Students were doctoral health sciences students enrolled in a campus-based, online or hybrid programme. Compared with the self-reported behaviour of students, faculty believed more students were involved with plagiarism. Self-rated knowledge about plagiarism was significantly higher among online students and faculty than among campus-based students and faculty (p<0.001). Both students and faculty believed the most common plagiaristic activity was citing and referencing a full-text source when only the abstract was read, but only a few students reported personally doing this. Additionally, more campus-based students than online students reported working closely with another classmate on an assignment when they were not authorised to do so (p<0.001). In the present study, surveyed students and faculty believed plagiarism was prevalent among the general student population; however, few students self-reported this behaviour.     

A Tree-Based Approach to Proficiency Scaling and Diagnostic Assessment

A new procedure for generating instructionally relevant diagnostic feedback is proposed. The approach involves first constructing a strong model of student proficiency and then testing whether individual students' observed item response vectors are consistent with that model. Diagnoses are specified in terms of the combinations of skills needed to score at increasingly higher levels on a test's reported score scale. The approach is applied to the problem of developing diagnostic feedback for the SAT I Verbal Reasoning test. Using a variation of Wright's (1977) person-fit statistic, it is shown that the estimated proficiency mode accounts for 91% of the "explainable" variation in students' observed item response vectors.     

Is day care safe? A review of research on accidental injuries

A major concern about the effects of day care has been the safety of the children who participate. Although studies are limited, a body of research literature is beginning to emerge that provides some important information about the magnitude of accidental injuries in day care centers.Charles W. Snow is Professor and Jane King Teleki is Associate Professor, Department of Child Development and Family Relations; David M. Cline is Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Kathleen Dunn is Clinical Instructor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health Policy, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.     

“Why Does Rain Fall?”: Children Prefer to Learn From an Informant Who Uses Noncircular Explanations

These two studies explored 3‐ and 5‐year‐olds' evaluation of noncircular and circular explanations, and their use of such explanations to determine informant credibility. Although 5‐year‐olds demonstrated a selective preference for noncircular over circular explanations (Experiment 1: Long Explanations; Experiment 2: Short Explanations), 3‐year‐olds only demonstrated a preference for the noncircular when the explanations were shortened (Experiment 2). Children's evaluation of the explanations extended to their inferences about the informants' future credibility. Both age groups demonstrated a selective preference for learning novel explanations from an informant who had previously provided noncircular explanations—although only 5‐year‐olds also preferred to learn novel labels from her. The implications and scope of children's ability to monitor the quality of an informant's explanation are discussed.     

A “Library School:” Building a Collaborative Preschool-Library Partnership to Support Whole Family Engagement

Early Childhood Education Journal - Preschools and public libraries are natural partners in that they share similarities in their support for early learning and family engagement for the young...