Assessment by Interview and Portfolio in a Graduate School Program

Assessment plays an integral role in teaching and learning in higher education and teachers have a strong interest in debates and commentaries on assessment as and for learning. In a 1-year graduate entry teacher preparation program, the temptation is to emphasize assessment in an attempt to ensure students “cover” everything as part of a robust preparation for the profession. The risk is that, for students, assessment drives curriculum, and time spent in the completion of assignments is no guarantee of either effective learning or authentic preparation for teaching. Interviews as assessment provide an opportunity for a learning experience as well as an authentic task, since students will shortly be interviewing for employment in a “real world” situation. This paper reports on a project experimenting with interview panels as authentic assessment with preservice early childhood teachers. At the end of their first semester of study, students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma of Education program at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia were required to participate in a panel interview where they were graded by a panel made up of three faculty staff and one undergraduate student enrolled in the 4-year Bachelor of Education program. Students and panel members completed a questionnaire on their experience after the interview. Results indicated that both students and staff valued the experience and felt it was authentic. Results are discussed in terms of how the assessment interview and portfolio presentation supports graduating students in their preparation for employment interviews, and how this authentic assessment task has benefits for both students and teaching staff.     

Infant stress and parent responsiveness: regulation of physiology and behavior during still-face and reunion

This study examined infant response and recovery from a social challenge and parent responses. Behavioral and physiological responses were measured from forty-three 5- and 6-month-olds infants during a modified still-face procedure that used an additional still-face reunion sequence. Results confirm the hypothesis that infants of more responsive parents show more regulation than infants of less responsive parents. Infants of more responsive parents showed greater regulation of heart rate and negative affect during the final episode of the procedure than infants of less responsive parents. In addition, this procedure elicited a cortisol response (from .22 microg/dl to .31 microg/dl). Findings suggest important links between parent behavior and infant stress reactivity and regulation.     

The effect of modifying the cognitive tempo of reading disabled children on reading comprehension

The present investigation was concerned with teaching poor readers to use a reflective cognitive style. It was hypothesized that such a strategy would facilitate the reading ability of poor readers. To test this hypothesis, approximately half the poor readers and half the average readers were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group of children was taught to delay their responses and to use more efficient search and scanning techniques. All groups were tested before and after training on the Matching Familiar Figures test and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. Poor readers' vocabulary and comprehension scores and level of reflectivity improved following training. It was concluded that imposing slow reading strategies on impulsive children is an important factor in developing educational programs for children with reading disabilities and that teaching poor readers a reflective cognitive strategy may have important consequences on the child's reading performance.     

Evaluation of an Embedded Program Through the Embedded Ecosystem Framework and Toolkit

This article provides a theoretical model for understanding embedded librarianship by introducing an Embedded Ecosystem Framework (EEF) and toolkit to evaluate the health of an embedded program in an academic setting. The toolkit measures the tangible services and the intangible relationships with users in embedded programs under the framework's four facets: Actions, Awareness, Perceptions, and Impact. The Actions facet is measured by traditional library reference metrics, while Awareness, Perception, and Impact measures such as program awareness, self-reported academic gains, or service satisfaction are measured by a survey as well as individual and class evaluations. Analysis of data trends can indicate gaps in services provided or utilization of services by specific user groups to encourage more active engagement with their communities. The toolkit is customizable to fit other embedded librarian programs.     

Partnering to Analyze Selection of Resources by Medical Students for Case-Based Small Group Learning: A Collaboration between Librarians and Medical Educators

Librarians and medical educators analyzed the quality of information resources used by first- and second-year medical students in their case-based small group learning summaries. Librarians provided instruction on using library resources and gave formal feedback to students about appropriate resources for basic science and clinical questions. The team found that students used a high number of clinical and basic science journal articles and textbooks with a number of factors influencing their resource choices. The study demonstrates numerous areas where librarians can play a key role in assisting students to find and assess information to answer clinical questions.