Priming institutional change through effective project management:A case study of the Chic project

This paper explores how learning and teaching innovations undertaken by externally funded projects, with a fixed remit and lifecycle, can be integrated successfully into institutional educational developments. The example and methods of one particular project, in embedding its work within and relating it to the context of wider, nationally-promoted educational designs, is utilized to illustrate the possibilities for fostering institutional change. Such change relies upon working to promote a climate whose norms support a culture of trust, where team-working can forge a broader ownership of innovation     

A 10-year follow-up survey of US academic libraries highlights the COVID-19 experience and greater interest in health information outreach

Background

As follow-up to their previous survey on health information outreach (HIO) in 2010, the authors became interested in the evolving nature of HIO activities at academic libraries within the past decade.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to understand how HIO activities at academic libraries have evolved since 2010, especially considering the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

An online survey, designed to collect quantitative data on general HIO activities and qualitative data specifically on COVID-19 information outreach, was distributed to over 1700 librarians at US general academic and academic health science libraries.

Results

Two hundred and fifty-five respondents completed the survey. Quantitative findings generally paralleled the 2010 results, except in a few areas. Most notably, a greater percentage of librarians in 2020 were participating in HIO (44%) than in 2010 (37%). Qualitative findings revealed that librarians are leveraging traditional information services and implementing innovative partnerships to promote reputable health information resources on COVID-19.

Discussion

Evidence suggests that further engagement and campus partnerships can enhance libraries' supportive roles as trustworthy purveyors of quality health information.

Conclusion

US academic librarians are increasingly engaging in HIO to support the health information needs of campus communities and should consider aligning outreach activities with national health goals.     

Promoting Career Development through Teamwork and Mastery Learning Course Requirements in Criminal Justice Research Methods Courses

An innovative semester long small group research project, that required collecting and analyzing original data, regular written reports, and an oral presentation, was included in a senior level criminal justice research methods course to promote career development for those close to graduation. Over five years approximately 446 students were surveyed at the end of their classes to assess their response to the group project. Results suggest senior level students are capable of sustained small group participation where they utilize strategies that reflect practitioner group processes, such as decision‐making autonomy, planning, and coordinated activities. Mastery learning techniques resulted in high quality project outcomes and associated competences.     

The Use of Lego Technologies in Elementary Teacher Preparation

The need to reform science teacher preparation programs has been pointed out in research (Bryan and Abell in J Res Sci Teach 36:121–140, 1999; Bryan and Atwater in Sci Educ 8(6):821–839, 2002; Harrington and Hathaway in J Teach Educ 46(4):275–284, 1995). Science teachers are charged with the responsibility of incorporating both cognitive and non-cognitive parameters in their everyday teaching practices. This often results in their reluctance to teach science because they often lack disciplinary and/or pedagogical expertise required to promote science learning. The purpose of this study is to propose an alternative instructional approach in which Lego vehicles were used as a tool to promote pre-service elementary teachers’ development and to examine whether there are non-cognitive parameters that promote or obstruct them from using Lego Technologies as a teaching tool. The context of the study was defined by a teacher preparation program of a private university in a small Mediterranean country. A sample of 28 pre-service elementary teachers, working in five 5–6-member groups were involved in scientific inquiries, during which they had to use vehicles in order to solve scientific problems related to concepts such as gear functioning, force, and motion. The nature of their cognitive engagement in the scientific inquiry process, non-cognitive parameters contributing to their cognitive engagement, and the impact of their involvement in the process on their development were examined through qualitative analysis of pre- and post-inquiry interviews, presentations of their solutions to the scientific problems and of their personal reflective journals.     

Inclusive education: teacher perspectives from Malaysia

This paper reports on a survey of views of inclusive education expressed by nearly 300 Malaysian primary school teachers involved in remedial literacy and numeracy education under the country's Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Overall, the views expressed were positive towards the principle of inclusion. However, despite common professional development on special educational needs, these teachers lacked a common consensus about the benefits of inclusion; they expressed concern about the lack of teacher skills in this area; and they articulated a negative view of children with disabilities and their families. The paper concludes that further professional development is required to address these shortcomings, and that, given the lack of sufficient teacher educators in this area, it seems likely that the government's aim of implementing inclusive education remains a distant goal.     

E-BOOKS IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: AN INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEW

This paper provides a broad international overview of e-books in academic libraries. The inconsistent terminology relating to e-books is noted in the first section and a brief history of e-books and some current definitions are given. The stakeholders within the e-book industry are described, with details of some of the services offered. For users and staff in library and information services, e-books can provide a variety of advantages as well as challenges, and these are outlined for those in academic libraries. Findings from various studies on e-books are presented and some of the issues involved in managing e-books in academic libraries are described. Finally an overview is presented of the e-Books Working Group in the United Kingdom. The paper is illustrated with a number of screenshots related to e-books in academic libraries in various parts of the world.     

The effects of changes in the order of verbal labels and numerical values on children's scores on attitude and rating scales

Research with adults has shown that variations in verbal labels and numerical scale values on rating scales can affect the responses given. However, few studies have been conducted with children. The study aimed to examine potential differences in children's responses to Likert‐type rating scales according to their anchor points and scale direction and to see whether or not such differences were stable over time. A total of 130 British children, aged 9 to 11 years, completed six sets of Likert‐type rating scales, presented in four different ways varying the position of positive labels and numerical values. The results showed, both initially and 8–12 weeks later, that presenting a positive label or a high score on the left of a scale led to significantly higher mean scores than did the other variations. These findings indicate that different arrangements of rating scales can produce different results, which has clear implications for the administration of scales with children.     

A Critical Examination of the Assessment Analysis Capabilities of OCLC ACAS

Over 500 libraries have employed OCLC's iCAS and its successor Automated Collection Assessment and Analysis Services (ACAS) as bibliometric tools to evaluate monograph collections. This examination of ACAS reveals both its methodological limitations and its feasibility as an indicator of collecting patterns. The results can be used to maximize the assessment capabilities of ACAS.     

Assessing contributions to group assignments

We report the use of a combination of self‐ and peer‐assessment in an undergraduate social psychology laboratory course. Students worked in small groups on a self‐directed empirical project that they each wrote up independently as a laboratory report. Marks for the written assignment were moderated by a contribution index measure based on the self‐ and peer‐assessment measures. Our analyses indicated that: (i) students took the peer‐assessment process seriously, clearly differentiating between group members on the contributions questionnaires; (ii) students show a self‐bias, rating their own contribution to the group task higher than that of other group members; (iii) for a large majority of students the contribution index resulted in very little moderation of the final assignment marks; (iv) there was a strong correlation between the contribution index and the overall assignment score. Implications for the assessment of group work are considered.