Orbis Cascade Alliance Distributed Print Repository: Organizing Collections at the Consortial Level

Journal print archives or repositories have been in existence for some time. More recently, the academic libraries in the United States Pacific Northwest that belong to the Orbis Cascade Alliance undertook the development of a distributed repository to preserve the print journals from the American Chemical Society and the JSTOR Arts and Sciences I & II collections. The project sought to identify two complete runs of each title held between the members of the consortium and assign responsibility for preserving the titles in perpetuity. The methodology, challenges, and benefits of this project are discussed.     

Scholarly Productivity and Impact of School Psychology Faculty in APA‐Accredited Programs

The primary objective of this study was to conduct a normative assessment of the research productivity and scholarly impact of tenured and tenure‐track faculty in school psychology programs accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). Using the PsycINFO database, productivity and impact were examined for the field as a whole and by faculty rank and gender between 2005 and 2009. Results of our study reflected considerable variability in scholarly impact and productivity. For example, on average, school psychology faculty published slightly more than one refereed journal article per year, with productivity rates ranging from zero to eight articles per year. Similar variability in results was observed for scholarly impact. Results of this study also revealed no significant differences in productivity and impact by scholarly rank. Significant differences were observed for gender, however, with higher productivity and impact for men than women. A secondary objective of this study was to rank the most productive and impactful faculty by total authorship credit, number of publications, and number of citations, and to examine the relationships among these different rankings. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Identifying Indicators of Behavior Change: Insights From Wildfire Education Programs

Environmental educators are challenged to document behavior changes, because change rarely depends solely on outcomes of education programs, but on many factors. An analysis of 15 communities in the United States that have increased their preparedness for wildfire allowed us to explore how education programs encouraged individual and community change. Agency-sponsored adult educational programs helped communities change their philosophy about firefighting, pass ordinances that restrict individual property rights, and empower residents to reduce their wildfire risk. This article explores several outcomes of these programs and offers suggested indicators of change that might be useful for education program evaluation.     

Contextualised Meaning Making: One way of rethinking experiential learning and self-directed learning?

Experiential learning and self-directed learning are keystone constructs in adult education. This paper examines ideas underpinning these constructs and offers a rethinking of experiential learning and self-directed learning as contextualised meaning making. In exploring this concept, the paper discusses contextualised meaning making as a multi-layered experience incorporating exposed meanings, hidden meanings and unheard voices. These ideas are illustrated by reference to practice in an adult education degree program.     

A systematic approach to embedding academic numeracy at university

This paper argues that academic numeracy is an important, but undervalued and under-researched, area in tertiary education. Academic numeracy is first defined in terms of students' competence, confidence and critical awareness of their own mathematical knowledge and the mathematics needed in context. The development of academic numeracy is then discussed in terms of obuchenie (teaching/learning) and the metaknowledge around the mathematics in context needed by key staff. The paper presents a systematic approach to develop academic numeracy at the university, program, course and individual student and teacher level. Finally, it provides examples of how to embed academic numeracy. This paper provides a framework for future studies in this under-researched area.     

Enhancing Web‐based Courses through a Mutual Aid Framework

Students taking a class together belong to a group where members typically develop a sense of connection to each other by engaging in mutual support and assistance through shared experiences and knowledge. Some have argued that the lack of face‐to‐face interaction precludes such processes and prevents the effective teaching of social work in an online environment. When online students were asked what they liked most and least about their classes, one‐third of the responses referred to ideas that reflected interactions among students and with faculty. These comments were evaluated in the context of Shulman's (1999 Shulman, L. 1999. The skills of helping individuals, families, groups and communities, Itasca, IL: Peacock.  [Google Scholar]) processes of mutual aid. This exploratory study suggests that despite a lack of face‐to‐face contact, mutual aid is relevant to online students and could be used to strategically enhance the delivery of course content in an online environment and facilitate a sense of connection among students.     

Behaviour and adjustment problems of young developmentally delayed children

ABSTRACT

As part of an ongoing longitudinal study of developmental delay (DD), 35 six‐year‐old children with delays of unknown aetiology were assessed with measures of cognitive, language and educational competence. Their parents provided detailed information about their self‐help and personal‐social competencies, behaviour problems and temperament. As a group, the DD children evidenced high rates of behaviour problems, but there was considerable within‐group variability in intensity and pattern of problems. Low relationships were found between the intensity of behaviour problems and children's chronological age (CA), IQ, language level and self‐help competencies. The child variable most strongly associated with behaviour problems was temperament, or behavioural style.     

Voices in Education: What Other Countries and Disciplines Have to Offer

Abstract

Emphasizing critical thinking in teacher education could potentially increase society's effectiveness in addressing national and international problems. This linkage between teacher education and societal problem solving is predicated on three major possibilities: (a) Increased emphasis on critical thinking in teacher education will increase the emphasis on critical thinking in K‐12 education, (b) increased emphasis on critical thinking in K‐12 will lead to increased use of critical thinking within society, and (c) increased use of critical thinking among society's leaders and citizens will produce better problem solving at a societal level. The proposed linkage between teacher education and societal problem solving is anchored in three aspects of critical thinking: disposition toward critical thinking, cognitive skill in critical thinking, and information bases for critical thinking.     

Knowledge, writing, and language outcomes for a reading comprehension and writing intervention

Many students struggle with gaining knowledge and writing about content text material and therefore require effective intervention. In a randomized controlled trial study, 77 low-achieving fourth-grade students received reading comprehension instruction or reading comprehension plus writing instruction or were assigned to a no-treatment control. Knowledge outcomes were evaluated through students’ retelling and performance on a standardized reading test. Written language-based outcomes were analyzed using a computer software program for semantic and syntactic measures. Analyses indicated that students in reading comprehension instruction and reading comprehension plus writing instruction outperformed the control group on oral and written retelling, a standardized reading test, and semantic measures. Syntactic measures, however, did not show statistically significant differences by treatment or control group. Implications for including language instruction and assessments within multi-component instruction are suggested.     

In Pursuit of Validity: A comprehensive review of science attitude instruments 1935–2005

The purpose of this review is to present a comprehensive evaluation of science attitude instruments based on published psychometric evidence. A multitude of instruments have been used through the years and some have been linked to career choice and school performance. Substantiating such associations is of paramount importance if researchers wish to influence educational policy. However, associations are reduced, or hard to discover, if instruments have weak psychometric properties. Several databases were searched for peer‐reviewed articles that discussed the development and use of science attitude instruments. Instruments were grouped into the following categories: attitudes toward science, scientific attitudes, nature of science, scientific career interests, and other. A data abstraction and scoring rubric was used to summarize and evaluate 150 published articles that spanned 66 instruments. Most instruments had single study usage and showed an absence of psychometric evidence. This review demonstrated that there are few instruments available with the necessary psychometric data to merit recommendation. The review quantifies the current state of the research regarding the measurement of science attitude in students; the results should elicit further discussion and encourage more rigorous analyses of instruments. The findings may assist other researchers to select an instrument and alert them to its strengths and weaknesses. This review points the way forward for research in this field. Instruments already in existence should be used in repeat studies, and reliability and validity evidence should be collected and shared.