Matching Up Learning Styles with Learning Objects: What's Effective?

ABSTRACT

Online instruction is quite prevalent on campuses and within libraries. Librarians are engaged in the creation of learning objects that can either be linked to or embedded within course-management systems. But are those instructional tools designed to best accommodate diverse learners or are they constructed to reflect the teaching and learning style of the designer? Results from a study (a survey of librarians, student usability studies, and interviews) document both considerations made in the creation of learning objects, and the effectiveness of learning objects from students’ perspectives. The findings may be useful for future modifications of these tools (e.g., tutorials, videos, podcasts, and PowerPoints).     

What Your Patient Reads: Creating a Value-Added Tool for Physicians

Through a number of media sources, today's consumers have unprecedented access to health information of varying reliability and authority. Empowered by this information, patients are more involved in their health care decisions and more willing to question physicians' advice. This poses a challenge for physicians who must now find time to read mass media health reports in addition to medical research. In order to help physicians with this task, librarians at the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries created What Your Patient Reads – one-page summaries of health-related media reports supplemented with references to evidence-based medical literature.     

Vocal and visual cue training in behavioral lie detection

The present study tested the effect of training observers to detect deception using different behavioral cues. Participants were trained to detect deception using either:(1) vocal‐only cues, (2) visual‐only cues, or (3) a combination of vocal and visual cues. A fourth group of observers did not receive any training and served as a control. Results indicated that trained observers were more successful than untrained observers in detecting deceptive communication. More specifically, observers trained to use either visual or both visual and vocal cues were more accurate detectors of deception than untrained naive observers. No differences were found between training conditions with respect to determining the veracity of truthful communication.     

Improving teacher preparation and selection: lessons from the Pennsylvania experience

This paper examines Pennsylvania's teacher preparation and selection processes over the last decade. Teacher test scores are examined across colleges of education, and extreme differences in teacher test scores are found. Also, extreme variations are evident among districts' employed teachers. A unique survey of district employment practices reveals that, on average, 40% of a district's teachers previously attended there as students. An exploratory econometric model indicates that the higher the unemployment rate in a district, the more likely it will hire its former students to teach, and that the greater the fraction of former students now in the district's teacher force, the lower is student achievement. The paper concludes with a discussion of conventional and unconventional strategies to improve the quality of teachers actually hired by school boards.     

Designing Online Workshops: Using an Experiential Learning Model

This article describes 4 online workshops designed to assist college students with improving their time management, textbook reading, memory and concentration, and overall academic performance. These workshops were created to work equally well with imaginative, analytic, common‐sense, and dynamic learners. Positive student feedback indicated that these workshops met students' perceived needs and expectations.     

Ecological contexts and early learning: Contributions of child,family, and classroom factors during Head Start,to literacy and mathematics growth through first grade

The current study investigated the extent to which child, family, and classroom factors during Head Start are related to children's literacy and mathematics skills at the beginning of preschool and through first grade. Children and families (n = 945) were participating in the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a large-scale data collection effort that assessed children's developing skills as well as their family and classroom environments. Longitudinal growth models revealed that Head Start children began their academic careers well below their more advantaged peers in literacy and mathematics, although by the end of first grade, their scores were nearly on par with national averages. Demographic characteristics of children, as well as their early language and social skills, were the strongest predictors of children's initial status and growth in both early academic domains. Results highlight key foundations and specific promotive factors of early school success for the nation's most disadvantaged children.     

Socio-emotional climate of storybook reading interactions for mothers and preschoolers with language impairment

The current study describes the storybook reading behaviors of 45 preschoolers [30 with language impairment (LI) and 15 with typical language (TL)] and their mothers. Each dyad was observed reading a storybook within their homes, and sessions were subsequently coded for indicators of emotional and instructional quality as well as for child participation. Mothers of children with LI showed lower levels of emotional support than mothers of children with TL, although all mothers exhibited similar quality of instruction. The two groups of children were equally enthusiastic about the book; however, children with LI were observed to be less compliant than children with TL and showed a trend to be less persistent. For the children with LI, participation in the book reading task was found to be high only when mothers’ behaviors were observed to be highly sensitive in nature, demonstrating the importance of exposing children to maternal behaviors that are responsive to their unique abilities and needs.