Community outreach library services in the UK: a case study of Wirral Hospital NHS Trust (WHNT)

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The study evaluates the Community Outreach Library Service at Wirral Hospital National Health Service Trust (WHNT). It considers the information seeking behaviour and information needs of primary care staff, and service effectiveness in meeting those needs. METHODS: A literature review established the current context and areas of best practice. The investigative case study used postal questionnaires to 250 primary care staff and an interview with the Community Outreach Librarian. FINDINGS: Themes emerged from the literature regarding information seeking behaviour, information needs, and meeting user needs through effective service delivery. Outreach services have value in terms of improving information skills and providing services at point of need. Time is a major constraint for both users and service providers. CONCLUSIONS: Investment is needed from appropriate funding sources to support the provision and marketing of outreach library services. Librarians benefit from sharing best practice. The continued evaluation of outreach library services is recommended.     

DISCUSSION, COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE WORK AND EPISTEMIC FLUENCY

ABSTRACT:   This paper argues for an action-oriented conception of learning in higher education: one which marries higher order learning (coming to understand) with apprenticeship in knowledge work. It introduces epistemic tasks, forms and fluency as constructs that are useful in giving a more precise meaning to ideas about collaboration in knowledge construction. Discussion is seen as central to collaborative knowledge work and we examine the role of discussion in supporting weaker and stronger interpretations of collaborative knowledge construction.     

Changing roles in sustaining successful charter school leadership in high poverty schools: Voices from the field

Effective educational leadership is essential for the success of schools and ultimately student achievement. The impact of school leadership may be even more pronounced in charter schools. Due to current and unprecedented growth, unique design, and complexities of political, financial, and governance issues they face, there is a need for more highly qualified charter school leaders and perhaps even “differently” prepared leaders. In this qualitative study, the authors documented the characteristics and skills of two successful, sustained charter school leaders who retrospectively described their evolved and evolving roles over twenty five years. Each transformed high-poverty, low-performing schools with at-risk populations and led with vision, passion, and a relentless desire to positively influence their organizations and ultimately improve student success in their communities. Although many of their skills and characteristics fall within existing theories, such as situational leadership, transformational leadership, and distributive leadership, they embodied a level of dedication and commitment to the original communities in which they founded charters lasting over a quarter of a century. The findings suggest that founding a charter school and seeing it through to success over time may more closely resemble missionary work than traditional school leadership.     

‘Birth work’ accompaniment and PhD supervision: an alternative feminist pedagogy for the neoliberal university

In this paper, we discuss how ‘with-woman’ midwifery and doula care provide resources for rethinking the theory and practice of academic supervision from a feminist perspective. We identify how the tradition of accompaniment in both birth work and academia is under threat given the economic reforms facing public sector education and health care. Despite these pressures, we suggest that the practice of focusing on the pregnant woman as an ‘expert’ on her pregnancy rather than on the foetus or the delivery – that is, the ‘product’ of her pregnancy – would help transform how we theorise and practise academic supervision. The aim of the supervisory relation would mean supporting the student’s direct relation to the intellectual, embodied and emotional process of completing the PhD. Such an approach suggests ways in which the pedagogical practices of contemporary midwifery and doula care can inform academic supervision in the neoliberal university.     

Development and validation of the moral disengagement in sport scale

A sport-specific measure of moral disengagement was developed in 2 studies. In Study 1, a 59-item questionnaire was developed and tested with 308 athletes from 5 team sports. A series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) testing different models suggested the model that best fitted the data had 6 first-order factors that could be represented by 1 second-order factor. Study 2 involved 305 athletes from the same 5 sports. CFA confirmed the 6-factor, second-order structure for the final 32-item measure. Results from Study 2 supported the construct validity of the scale, providing evidence for the factorial, concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity. The Moral Disengagement in Sport Scale (MDSS) is proposed as a valid and reliable measure of moral disengagement for use in the sport context.     

Political satire and its disruptive potential: irony and cynicism in Russia and the US

When cynical distance and ironic posturing have become the prevalent means of relating to public life, political humour is no longer considered subversive. It has been argued that both in Russia and the United States, ideology has co-opted satire, meaning that citizens can consume outrage passively through various satirical media products, thereby displacing outrage and abstaining from more active forms of resistance. This articles explores the twenty-first century potential of irony and cynicism to disrupt and subvert through parody, be it in the form of political satire or ironic protest, examining how similar paradigms are expressed across different geographical contexts.     

Rhetoric and reality in science performance assessments: An update

This article addresses the rhetoric of performance assessment with research on important claims about science performance assessments. We found the following: (a) Concepts and terminology used to refer to performance assessments often were not consistent within and across researchers, educators, and policy-makers. (b) Performance assessments are highly sensitive not only to the tasks and the occasions sampled, but also to the method (e.g., hands-on, computer simulation) used to measure performance. (c) Performance assessments do not necessarily tap higher-order thinking, especially when they are poorly designed. (d) Performance assessments are expensive to develop and use: technology is needed for developing these assessments in an efficient way. (e) Performance assessments do not necessarily have the expected positive impact on teachers' teaching and students' understanding. (f) If teachers are to use performance assessments in their classrooms, they need professional development to help them construct the necessary knowledge and skills. This article attempts to address some of these realities by presenting a conceptual framework that might guide the development and the evaluation of performance assessments, as well as steps that might be taken to create a performance assessment technology and develop teacher inservice programs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.