Engaging students in active learning: use of a blog and audience response system

Librarians provide instruction to medical students as part of a core course in the medical school curriculum. Instruction was provided, in part, through didactic sessions covering professional-level medical information resources, PubMed search skills, psychosocial information, and evidence-based medicine. Librarians redesigned instructional sessions with the goals of increasing student engagement and minimizing the lecture format, maximizing the number of students receiving feedback on their search and evaluation skills, and permitting students to see a variety of possible responses as well as engage in peer- and self-evaluation. Librarians integrated the use of a blog and an audience response system (ARS) into the instruction to help accomplish these goals.     

Changes in Science Content Knowledge and Attitudes toward Science Teaching of Educators Attending a Zoo-based Neuroscience Professional Development

Abstract

Informal learning environments often host teachers for learning opportunities, but little is known about the impact of these experiences on teacher professional development (PD). This article describes a unique collaborative PD experience between zoological park personnel and university faculty, examining the impact on teacher content knowledge, attitudes, and classroom lessons. Our findings suggest that the PD improved science content, but made no impact on already high attitudes toward science. In light of the high level of self-reported satisfaction and high frequency of teacher lesson plan use, we propose that the PD had other positive outcomes such as pedagogical knowledge and authentic learning experiences.     

Mentoring expectations and realities: an analysis of metaphorical thinking among female undergraduate protegés and their mentors in a university mentoring programme

This article describes the differences between mentors’ and protégés’ expectations and realities regarding mentoring relationships and goals. Faculty and senior undergraduate mentors and female undergraduate protegés who participated in a formal, university mentoring programme at the University of Idaho, organised by the institution’s Women’s Centre, were asked to describe their ideal and actual mentoring relationship through metaphor; the responses were analysed qualitatively to explore protégés’ and mentors’ expectations and experiences. Results indicate that protégés held more traditional and hierarchical mentoring ideals at the beginning of the programme and that most mentoring ideals differed from actual experiences. Given this disparity and because metaphorical processes have the capacity to enhance mentoring experiences due to their generative and expansive capacities, we suggest that metaphors be employed in explicit ways to align expectations and realities between mentors’ and protégés’ expectations through shared reflection. We conclude with metaphorical exercises that can be used in formal mentoring programmes in higher education to help participants negotiate expectations and help organise relationships in ways that are aligned with the mission and goals of particular mentoring programmes.     

A framework for incorporating orienting activities in computer-based interactive video

A good deal of research has been published concerning the effects of orienting activities on learning. Orienting activities include advance organizers, embedded pre-questions, behavioral objectives, as well as other strategies designed to prepare the learner for instruction. This paper focuses on the presumed functions of orienting activities and the implications of such functions for the design of computer-based interactive video. In addition, the application of empiricallyfounded principles in the design and production of computer-based interactive video is described.Grumman Aerospace Corporation     

Determinants of predisposition to transfer among community college students: A structural model

Employing aspects of Tinto's (1975, 1987) theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to test a model of student transfer behaviors and attitudes with a community college student population. More specifically, this study examined the structural relationships among five constructs: (1) student background factors, (2) initial commitments, (3) social integration, (4) academic integration, and (5) predisposition to transfer. Student background factors were examined to determine their direct and indirect effects on community college students' initial commitments, social integration, and academic integration on three multiple indicators of the dependent variable, predisposition to transfer: (1) number of four-year institutions students planned to apply for transfer, (2) transfer behavior, and (3) transfer perceptions. The study supported utilization of factors identified in the retention literature that are based on Tinto's model to examine transfer attitudes and behaviors among community college students. Students with high levels of social and academic integration tended to have high levels of predisposition to transfer. Ethnic background was found to have no relationship to predisposition to transfer.     

The invented spellings of non-Spanish phonemes by Spanish–English bilingual and English monolingual kindergarteners

This study compared the English spelling of native Spanish-speaking children receiving English-only instruction with monolingual native English speaking children at the end of kindergarten. In invented spelling, young bilingual children can show us how they perceive the unique sounds of English by the way they map English letters onto non-Spanish sounds. The spelling of non-Spanish phonemes and English and Spanish stop consonants differing in voice onset time were examined. The relationship of plausible English spelling with English vocabulary knowledge was also investigated. The bilingual kindergarteners had significantly fewer correct spellings of ending stop consonants, which differ phonetically in English and Spanish, than did the monolingual group. No significant difference between the two groups at the end of kindergarten was found when spelling non-Spanish phonemes however. The lexical restructuring model was applied to explain a positive correlation between vocabulary and plausible English spellings.     

Exploring Third-Grade Student Model-Based Explanations about Plant Relationships within an Ecosystem

Elementary students should have opportunities to develop scientific models to reason and build understanding about how and why plants depend on relationships within an ecosystem for growth and survival. However, scientific modeling practices are rarely included within elementary science learning environments and disciplinary content is often treated as discrete pieces separate from scientific practice. Elementary students have few, if any, opportunities to reason about how individual organisms, such as plants, hold critical relationships with their surrounding environment. The purpose of this design-based research study is to build a learning performance to identify and explore the third-grade students’ baseline understanding of and their reasoning about plant–ecosystem relationships when engaged in the practices of modeling. The developed learning performance integrated scientific content and core scientific activity to identify and measure how students build knowledge about the role of plants in ecosystems through the practices of modeling. Our findings indicate that the third-grade students’ ideas about plant growth include abiotic and biotic relationships. Further, they used their models to reason about how and why these relationships were necessary to maintain plant stasis. However, while the majority of the third-grade students were able to identify and reason about plant–abiotic relationships, a much smaller group reasoned about plant–abiotic–animal relationships. Implications from the study suggest that modeling serves as a tool to support elementary students in reasoning about system relationships, but they require greater curricular and instructional support in conceptualizing how and why ecosystem relationships are necessary for plant growth and development.     

A cross-national comparison of international strategies: global citizenship and the advancement of national competitiveness

This paper examines national-level strategies concerning internationalisation of education and the extent to which global citizenship is deployed in their discourse. We focus on a cross-national comparison of selected internationalisation strategies in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK and the USA, all countries with highly developed economies and a relatively high proportion of the market share of international students. We draw on a thematic textual analysis and the use of corpus technologies to explore the framing of discourses and language use in each strategy. Our comparative analysis of national strategies highlights a dominant approach to international education that is primarily competitive in its orientation, with national interest as the key driver. This cross-national comparison also revealed considerable variation in framing of strategic internationalisation on a discourse level. Based on findings, we argue that internationalisation strategies limit the possibilities of advancing central tenets of global citizenship.     

Exploring Differential Effects Across Two Decoding Treatments on Item-Level Transfer in Children With Significant Word Reading Difficulties: A New Approach for Testing Intervention Elements

In English, gains in decoding skill do not map directly onto increases in word reading. However, beyond the Self-Teaching Hypothesis, little is known about the transfer of decoding skills to word reading. In this study, we offer a new approach to testing specific decoding elements on transfer to word reading. To illustrate, we modeled word-reading gains among children with reading disability enrolled in Phonological and Strategy Training (PHAST) or Phonics for Reading (PFR). Conditions differed in sublexical training with PHAST stressing multilevel connections and PFR emphasizing simple grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Thirty-seven children with reading disability, 3rd to 6th grade, were randomly assigned 60 lessons of PHAST or PFR. Crossed random-effects models allowed us to identify specific intervention elements that differentially impacted word-reading performance at posttest, with children in PHAST better able to read words with variant vowel pronunciations. Results suggest that sublexical emphasis influences transfer gains to word reading.     

How Do We Market to Distance Populations,and Does It Work?: Results From a Longitudinal Study and a Survey of the Profession

This article discusses the results of a longitudinal survey conducted by Kansas State University Libraries to assess the marketing of library services to the university's distance education population. The latest implementation of the survey revealed overall similar or increased awareness of and satisfaction with library services compared to the previous survey. Also included are results of a survey of library professionals on best practices for distance education librarians. Findings include the importance of developing relationships with campus distance education offices and faculty and the need to be persistent with marketing efforts to a changing population.