Arts‐Based Educational Research: The Challenges of Social Media and Video‐Based Research Methods in Communication Design Education

This article discusses the practical and ethical challenges and benefits of using social media and video‐based research methods – also known as Photovoice – to investigate contemporary Communication Design education. The two visual research methods discussed include the social media mobile application Snapchat^® and participant‐generated GoPro^® video filming. The investigation focused on understanding students’ on‐the‐ground, lived experiences of studio learning within two distinctive higher education case study settings in the United Kingdom and Australia. This study employed Participatory Action Research (PAR) as an inquiry process and incorporated a methodological framework involving a combination of narrative inquiry, visual Participatory Design (PD) and visual ethnography. The findings of this study revealed the impact of specialised studio and classroom‐based Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) on student learning and engagement as the participants expressed differing responses to their own learning and community of practice at each site. The choice of arts‐based educational research methods used for this study allowed the relationships between place, lived experience, and community to be explored. Students, in effect, became investigators of their own practice through engagement in a rigorous set of visual methods, which placed the tools directly into their hands.     

“Mathematical knowledge for teaching”: adapting U.S. measures for use in Ireland

This article describes a study in which measures of mathematical knowledge for teaching developed in the United States were adapted to measure mathematical knowledge for teaching in Ireland. When adapting the measures it was not assumed that the mathematical knowledge used by Irish and U.S. teachers is the same. Instead psychometric and interview-based methods were used to determine a correspondence between the constructs being measured, and ensure the integrity of item performance in the Irish context. The study found overlap between the knowledge that is used to teach in both Ireland and the United States, and that the items tapped into this knowledge. However, specific findings confirm the usefulness of conducting extensive checks on the validity of items used in cross-national contexts. The process of adaptation is described to provide guidance for others interested in using the items to measure mathematical knowledge for teaching outside the United States. The process also enabled the authors to raise questions about the assumptions that lie behind the practice-based construct of mathematical knowledge for teaching.

Going Out of Business

The author of The Business of Serials reflects on motivations for the creation of this column and offers some observations and encouragement for others to be a new voice in contributing ideas and viewpoints on the profession of librarianship for today and tomorrow. The column ends with this entry.     

Intimidated by a Number

Bibliographic and citation products are a mature market with limited potential for new sales and new revenue streams. Commercial vendors appear to have responded by reformatting and reconfiguring their existing products to quantitatively track and integrate reputational rankings with research activities and outputs. By repurposing and customizing the foundational data found in citation and bibliographic products, new sales are possible that tap into the massive growth in research expenditure and budgets outside of libraries. Librarians are encouraged to apply numeric literacy skills to ensure that context and meaning are applied to the data derived from these products so as to avoid misrepresentation, intimidation, and tyranny of numbers.     

Emeritus professors: Correlates of professional activity in retirement

The major purpose of this study was to investigate correlates of professional activity of professors in retirement. The investigation focused on a number of variables related to the nature of academic work, including professional role orientation, professional affiliations and contacts, material supports, department, and the state of knowledge in various fields. Sixty-four University of Iowa emeritus professors who continued to reside in the Iowa City area during the entire year, and thus had opportunity to maintain University contacts and use University facilities, were interviewed. The most striking finding was the high degree of consistency between level of professional activity during the preretirement career and level of professional activity in retirement. Significant correlates of professional activity in retirement included rated importance of research or other creative work, strength of ties to colleagues and professional organizations outside the University, contacts with former students, and departmental membership in the older, traditional professions.This article is based in part on the author's Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Department of Higher Education at The University of Iowa and was partially supported by a 1978 Research Award in gerontology from the Multidisciplinary Gerontology Center of The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and The University of Northern Iowa. The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable suggestions made by Professors H. Bradley Sagen, Department of Higher Education, and Hallowell Pope, Department of Sociology, throughout the study.     

An existential model for counselling women

Historically, theories of personality and therapy have tended to be biased against women Feminist ideology appears to be inadequate as a replacement for more traditional theoretical frameworks. Alternatively, the existential theory of Frankl (1969, 1975) appears particularly promising as a model for therapy with women. Data in support of this position were reported.University of WinipegUniversity of AlbertaPaper presented at Ninth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling. Thessaloniki, Greece, April 1980. The opening paragraphs also introduced an earlier paper by the authors at the CRIAW Conference, Edmonton, November 1979.     

Evaluating teaching effectiveness: where we are and where we should be

Although many studies have examined techniques used to evaluate faculty performance, the literature has generally provided mixed results regarding the proper ways to measure teaching effectiveness. This paper provides the results of a survey of 1300 administrators and faculty of AACSB International accredited institutions. Respondents were asked what they believe is currently being used, and what should be used, to evaluate overall faculty performance and teaching effectiveness. Differences in responses are evaluated across school types, respondent positions, and respondent years of experience. The findings of this study provide a ‘benchmark’ of measures administrators can use to evaluate faculty performance.