Linking a learning progression for natural selection to teachers' enactment of formative assessment

Learning progressions, or representations of how student ideas develop in a domain, hold promise as tools to support teachers' formative assessment practices. The ideas represented in a learning progression might help teachers to identify and make inferences about evidence collected of student thinking, necessary precursors to modifying instruction to help students advance in their learning. The study reported in this article took the novel approach of using a learning progression for natural selection to support teachers' enactment of formative assessment. Sources of data include interviews and videotapes of six high school biology teachers leading assessment conversations around the same formative assessment questions. Results indicate that while teachers picked out and made inferences about student ideas related to the learning progression during assessment conversations, they did not use all parts of the learning progression in the same way. Furthermore, several of the teachers seemed to use the learning progressions simply as catalogs of misconceptions to be “squashed” rather than drawing upon the developmental affordances offered by a learning progression. Results are framed in terms of the utility of learning progressions as supports for classroom practice. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1181–1210, 2012     

Traits and skills theories as the nexus between leadership and expertise: Reality or fallacy?

The assumption that effective leaders differ in some identifiable and fundamental ways from other people is still a large part of mainstream industrial‐organizational psychology. Based on a research review on the trait theory of leadership and the concept of expertise, this article finds a convergence between leader and expert traits. Results suggest that leaders and experts may share similar characteristics, with expertise encompassing skills theory. Implications for performance improvement and human resource developers are discussed.     

Long-term high fructose and saturated fat diet affects plasma fatty acid profile in rats

As the consumption of fructose and saturated fatty acids (FAs) has greatly increased in western diets and is linked with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a moderate (10 weeks) and a prolonged (30 weeks) high fructose and saturated fatty acid (HFS) diet on plasma FA composition in rats. The effects of a few weeks of HFS diet had already been described, but in this paper we tried to establish whether these effects persist or if they are modified after 10 or 30 weeks. We hypothesized that the plasma FA profile would be altered between 10 and 30 weeks of the HFS diet. Rats fed with either the HFS or a standard diet were tested after 10 weeks and again after 30 weeks. After 10 weeks of feeding, HFS-fed rats developed the metabolic syndrome, as manifested by an increase in fasting insulinemia, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as by impaired glucose tolerance. Furthermore, the plasma FA profile of the HFS group showed higher proportions of monounsaturated FAs like palmitoleic acid [16:1(n-7)] and oleic acid [18:1(n-9)], whereas the proportions of some polyunsaturated n-6 FAs, such as linoleic acid [18:2(n-6)] and arachidonic acid [20:4(n-6)], were lower than those in the control group. After 30 weeks of the HFS diet, we observed changes mainly in the levels of 16:1(n-7) (decreased) and 20:4(n-6) (increased). Together, our results suggest that an HFS diet could lead to an adaptive response of the plasma FA profile over time, in association with the development of the metabolic syndrome.     

The Impact of Professional Development on Library Faculty Attitudes,Practices, and Knowledge of Student Learning Assessment

In order to align with university-wide assessment initiatives and to promote a systematic approach to one-shot assessment within our library, a team of five librarians participated in a campus-wide professional development program about student learning assessment. We then implemented library-specific professional development about student learning assessment for one-shot instruction. We provide an overview of the professional development program and discuss our study that explored the impact of the program on librarians’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes about student learning assessment. Our findings indicate that faculty participants had a positive change in practice, knowledge, and attitude after participating in the professional development program.     

“Feeling Much Smaller than You Know You Are”: The Fragmented Professional Identity of Female Sports Journalists

Interviews with women working as sports journalists showed that they must negotiate several tensions, including balancing their conflicting identities as woman and as professional journalist. Nevertheless, in the end, they also saw the two as compatible. They fell along a spectrum of resistance to traditional values in sports and journalism, providing evidence of cracks in hegemonic notions of what it means to be a woman covering sports.     

Focusing on the Thinking,Not the Tools: Incorporating Critical Thinking Into an Information Literacy Module for an Introduction to Business Course

Two librarians at the University of Louisville explain how a university-wide Quality Enhancement Plan focused on critical thinking led to positive changes in information literacy instruction at their institution. A revised information literacy module for an introductory business course serves as an example of a new instructional approach that emphasizes critical thinking about information, rather than library tools such as catalogs and databases.     

Personalizing twitter communication: an evaluation of ‘rotation-curation’ for enhancing social media engagement within higher education

Social media content generated by learning communities within universities is serving both pedagogical and marketing purposes. There is currently a dearth of literature related to social media use at the departmental level within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This study explores the multi-voiced interactions of a UK Psychology department’s ‘rotation curation’ approach to using Twitter. An in-depth analysis of a corpus of 4342 tweets by 58 curators (14 staff, 41 students, and 3 guest curators) was carried out using a combination of computer-assisted and manual techniques to generate a quantitative content analysis. The interactions received (e.g. retweets and favorites) and type of content posted (e.g. original tweets, retweets and replies) varied by curator type. Student curators were more likely to gain interactions from other students in comparison to staff. This paper discusses the benefits and potential limitations of a multi-voiced ‘rotation curation’ approach to social media management.     

Primary teachers’ perceptions of multi-grade classroom grouping practices to support inclusive education

ABSTRACT

Previous research has focused on inclusive classroom practices in mainstream primary schools but little is documented regarding practices in multi-grade classrooms. The purpose of this paper was to report mainstream primary teachers’ perceptions of multi-grade classroom grouping practices to support inclusive education specifically for students with special educational needs (SEN). The findings indicated that despite the difficulty of covering the curricula of the various grades, multi-grade teachers reported the implementation of flexible grouping practices (ability, mixed ability, social) for academic or social reasons. However, the tension between meeting the needs of the grade groups and the individual student with SEN were apparent, with some practices documented not necessarily inclusive. The importance of using appropriate grouping practices to enable teachers to include all students, thereby avoiding potentially negative effects of treating some students differently was emphasised.