Creating a Role for Embedded Librarians Within an Active Learning Environment

In 2013, the librarians at a small academic health sciences library reevaluated their mission, vision, and strategic plan to expand their roles. The school was transitioning to a new pedagogical culture and a new building designed to emphasize interprofessional education and active learning methodologies. Subsequent efforts to implement the new strategic plan resulted in the librarians joining curriculum committees and other institutional initiatives, such as an Active Learning Task Force, and participating in faculty development workshops. This participation has increased visibility and led to new roles and opportunities for librarians.     

Investment in Higher Education: Do Labor Market Opportunities Differ by Age of Recent College Graduates?

This study examined the post-graduation labor market experiences of recent college graduates for evidence of age-related barriers to employment. Older graduates were considerably less likely than younger graduates to seek new jobs following graduation, but, among those who did, the two age groups showed little difference in their job-seeking behaviors or their susceptibilities to unemployment. Despite these similarities, older graduates, on average, had fewer post-graduation job interviews and fewer job offers than younger graduates. The relationship between age and number of job interviews disappeared after controlling for the effects of other variables, but the relationship between age and number of job offers remained. Nonetheless, older graduates appear to have been employed in better jobs one year after graduation. Their higher average salaries were not explained by sociodemographic, educational, or employment-related variables. Thus, findings are generally inconsistent with the view that older graduates face age-related barriers to employment.     

Heat energy and temperature concepts of adolescents,adults, and experts: Implications for curricular improvements

We conducted two studies of beliefs about laboratory and everyday thermal phenomena. The first study identified concepts of heat energy and temperature held by adolescents, adults, and scientists. We found a classic separation of “school” and “everyday” knowledge in each population. We conducted clinical interviews with 37 middle school students, 9 adults, and 8 chemists and physicists to obtain their predictions and explanations of real-world phenomena. Many students believed that metals “conduct,” “absorb,” “trap,” or “hold” cold better than other materials and that aluminum foil would be better than wool or cotton as a wrapping material to keep cold objects cold. Respondents in each group held many intuitive ideas that were well established. Although scientists made more accurate predictions than students and gave theoretical definitions of terms, they too had difficulty explaining everyday phenomena. The second study investigated the impact of a middle school science curriculum designed to help students understand everyday thermal events. We found marked improvements in posttest scores and clinical interview responses as a result of instruction that built on students' intuitions.     

Psychological issues in relocation: Response to change

Conclusion Although nearly all individuals will find relocation at least minimally stressful and will experience some stress related symptoms such as emotional reactivity, irritability, and exhaustion, those who find ways to establish security and meaning in their new situation within a reasonable time (2 to 6 months) will suffer less turmoil. The coping strategies that individuals employ will vary; people are generally fairly creative problem solvers. When the stress of a relocation continues beyond a reasonable time individuals experiencing excessive psychological discomfort should seek professional help. Help can best be provided by assisting the individual to overcome the obstacles which are a part of the naturally occurring process of adjusting to a new situation. Framing the experience as a normal reaction to a traumatic or crisis event can help individuals find ways to maintain both a sense of security and meaning, and to regain a sense of perspective.Marcia Hausman is a Counseling Psychologist who received a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1983. She has been on the staff of the Counseling Center for Human Development at the University of South Florida since 1984. She has moved 12 times, reluctantly.James Reed is a Counseling Psychologist with a Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Born in West Africa, he has moved 16 times since then.     

Is it formal if it's not physics? (the influence of content on formal reasoning)

Formal reasoning has been studied extensively with tasks that have physics or laboratory content. This study compares laboratory and naturalistic content influences on formal reasoning tasks. Ninety 13-, 15-, and 17-year olds received both laboratory and naturalistic content tasks which required ability to control variables. Expectations about the variables in each task were measured. Results revealed that 8 to 20% of the variance in performance was associated with task content. Content effects were shown to reflect expectations about task variables.     

Use of digital video technology in an elementary school foreign language methods course

This article presents a case study of the use of digital video technology with a new pedagogical approach under a constructivist framework in an elementary school foreign language methods course. Data were collected through interviews with the methods course instructor, field notes, analytical notes from videotaped student presentations of their learning from the video clips, students’ mid‐semester evaluation of the use of video clips, and end‐of‐semester student reflections on open‐ended questions regarding the use of video clips. A careful examination of the data identified themes that illustrate the characteristics of the use of digital video technology under a constructivist framework. Those themes include the flexibility and capability of digital video technology, the development of the video clips, students’ ownership of knowledge, feedback from the students, and evaluation of the use of video clips. This case reports the vision of technology integration being realized. It results from the presence of technology, the instructor's pedagogical knowledge, and his or her content expertise.