Score Gains, Attitudes, and Behavior Changes Due to Answer-Changing Instruction

Six undergraduate and three graduate classes were given multiple-choice tests with subsequent evaluation of answer changes. The 300 students were tested twice, once before and once after instruction on answer changing. After each test, students were asked to complete two forms. The forms evaluated attitude toward answer changing, reasons for changing, and confidence in final answers. Students showed a significant increase in favorability toward answer changing after instruction. No significant change was found in number of answers changed. Psychology students were found to change significantly more items than were business students. Mean gain score did not change significantly after instruction. It was concluded that although instruction does lead to a change in attitude in answer changing, the number of changes and overall gain due to answer changing do not change. It was also determined that students continue to make significant gains even when their confidence in the final answer is less than 50 on a 100-point scale.     

Some empirical issues in research on academic departments: Homogeneity,aggregation, and level of analysis

This study investigated the appropriateness of the academic departmental level of analysis. Homogeneity of faculty members' responses to measures of organizational structure, environmental uncertainty, and task routineness was examined to determine the legitimacy of aggregating those responses to create departmental level variables. Analysis of variance suggested that the structure and environmental uncertainty subscales were measuring departmental level phenomena, but that the task routineness scales were not. Results demonstrate the importance of empirically testing, rather than assuming, levels of analysis in studies of academic departments.     

Using lay volunteers to represent children in child protection court proceedings

Despite a widespread conviction that children ought to be independently represented in child protection court proceedings in the United States, there is little consensus as to what the role of that independent child advocate ought to be or, indeed, who should fulfill that role. This study accomplished three purposes: articulated an aggressive, ambitious and continuous role for the child's representative which encompassed a broad range of the child's interests, both legal and nonlegal; provided training in this role to demonstration groups of attorneys, law students and lay volunteers; and compared the effectiveness of each of the three demonstration groups in representing children to one another and to a control group of attorneys who received no special training from the research team. The findings indicate that carefully selected and trained lay people representing children in child abuse and neglect legal proceedings under lawyer supervision performed similarly to trained lawyers and law students in the way they approached their duties and in case outcomes achieved and significantly different from attorneys who, consistent with the practice in nearly all the United States, received no special training in child advocacy.     

Academic libraries as active contributors to student wellness

Abstract

Colleges and universities have come to realize that student wellness is a factor in student retention and success. While academic libraries have not generally been included in wellness initiatives they are strategically placed on college campuses to play an essential role. By parlaying their reputations as trusted information providers and community centers, academic libraries can partner with more traditional campus health providers to be active and effective participants in this essential form of outreach.     

Portugal

In the library literature, a great deal of interest in patron-driven collection development has recently been expressed, especially in those programs that link acquisitions with interlibrary loan. However, the implementation of such programs has been limited, at least in part because of concerns over the potential for wasteful spending. The authors will attempt to address this common concern by assessing whether monies spent via a patron-driven acquisitions program were more or less effective than monies spent via traditional modes of acquisition.     

Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess perceived environmental education (EE) curriculum needs in the United States (K-16). The Environmental Education Curriculum Needs Assessment Questionnaire (EECNAQ) was developed, validated, and direct-mailed to 169 randomly selected professional environmental educators (58.6% return rate). The EECNAQ elicited perceptions about the desired status and the current state of EE curricula, the need for curriculum development, the anticipated use of curricula teachers, and the need for inservice teacher education. These five major questions were posed relative to fifteen goals which reflected the Tbilisi objectives and four levels of environmental literacy. The findings reveal a consensus among the professional participants that the EE goals are important ones, that they are not being met to a large extent in existing curricula, that extensive needs exist for both goal-oriented curricula and teacher education, and that the goaloriented curricula would be used by teachers.     

Feeling like a fraud: Helping students renegotiate their academic identities

A sense of belonging is an integral aspect of success in a long-term, group-oriented endeavor such as the pursuit of a college education. When students feel their presence at college is fraudulent, their achievements unfounded, or that they will be further disenfranchised if their true self is discovered, it is less likely that they will connect to the people who and services that can help them achieve their educational goals. This “imposter syndrome” or “imposter phenomenon” can be addressed and turned around through a concerted effort. While that effort involves a personal journey, like any journey it is often aided and accompanied by others. Through strategic outreach efforts, academic libraries are positioned to be important players in that journey, helping these “imposters” renegotiate their self-images to include a sense of their essential place in academia and belief in their ability to successfully complete their academic goals.     

BBC Radio Ulster: Public Service Radio in Northern Ireland’s Divided Society

BBC radio has been broadcast in Northern Ireland since shortly after the establishment of the country in the early 1920s. Throughout this period it has been faced by the challenge of how to deliver public service radio in a divided society, one that has for many years experienced violent conflict. Today as BBC Radio Ulster, the station has the highest audience reach of any BBC network radio service or those nations services in Scotland and Wales. This article outlines how BBC policy serves to deliver this performance, by examining a BBC Trust Service Review in relation to culture and diversity.