What happens to pupils permanently excluded from special schools and pupil referral units in England?

There is widespread consensus in the research and policy‐related literature over the last decade that young people who have been permanently excluded from school are at a far greater risk of a variety of negative outcomes than young people who have not had this experience. These negative outcomes include prolonged periods out of education and/or employment; poor mental and physical health; involvement in crime; and homelessness. This article presents evidence from a small‐scale qualitative study of destinations and outcomes post‐exclusion for a group of young people considered to be at particular risk of such negative outcomes: namely, those who have been permanently excluded from special schools or Pupil Referral Units (now known as short‐stay schools). The specific focus of this paper is on the 24 young people's educational trajectories pre‐ and post‐exclusion; the reasons for their exclusion from school; and on what forms of alternative provision were available to them after their permanent exclusion.     

This is what I’m doing and why: Methodological reflections on a naturalistic think-aloud study of interactive information behaviour

Many user-centred studies of electronic information resources include a think-aloud element – where users are asked to verbalise their thoughts, interface actions and sometimes their feelings whilst using these resources to help them complete one or more information tasks. These studies are usually conducted with the purpose of identifying usability issues related to the resource(s) used or understanding aspects of users’ information behaviour. However, few of these studies present detailed accounts of how their think-aloud data was collected and analysed or provide detailed reflection on methodological decisions made. In this article, we discuss and reflect on the methodology used when planning and conducting a think-aloud study of lawyers’ interactive information behaviour. Our discussion is framed by Blandford et al.’s PRET A Rapporter (‘ready to report’) framework – a framework that can be used to plan, conduct and describe user-centred studies of electronic information resource use from an information work perspective.     

The application of archival concepts to a data-intensive environment: working with scientists to understand data management and preservation needs

The collection, organization, and long-term preservation of resources are the raison d??être of archives and archivists. The archival community, however, has largely neglected science data, assuming they were outside the bounds of their professional concerns. Scientists, on the other hand, increasingly recognize that they lack the skills and expertise needed to meet the demands being placed on them with regard to data curation and are seeking the help of ??data archivists?? and ??data curators.?? This represents a significant opportunity for archivists and archival scholars but one that can only be realized if they better understand the scientific context.     

Managing the Progressive Publishing Company During Market and Technology Transitions

As new media technologies and platforms emerge and take hold in our society, traditional publishers are wondering: What’s in this new content climate for me? The simple answer is: a lot. The digital world, mobile content delivery mechanisms and the public’s increasing comfort—even preference for—a media menu from which they can pick and choose what they want and how they want to receive it, brings exciting and potentially lucrative opportunities. For publishers who understand how to leverage their brand and create authentic, identifiable value in the eyes of the customer, risk can be reduced and new revenue streams built. Here are four best practices to position your publishing company for growth.     

Coaching competency and satisfaction with the coach: a multi-level structural equation model

The purpose of this initial predictive validity study was to determine the ability of measures derived from the Athletes' Perceptions of Coaching Competency Scale II?-?High School Teams (APCCS II-HST) to predict satisfaction with the head coach. Specification of the statistical model was informed by the mediational model of coach-athlete interactions. The technical quality of the satisfaction measure was evaluated before testing the predictive validity of the coaching competency measures. Data were collected from athletes of seven sports. Athlete observations (N?=?748) were clustered within teams (G?=?74). Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) provided evidence for factorial invariance of a reduced version of the satisfaction measure by athlete gender. Multi-level CFA provided evidence of model-data consistency for a reduced version of the satisfaction measure. Multi-level structural equation modelling provided evidence for the ability of latent coaching competency to positively predict latent satisfaction at both the athlete level (technique competency and motivation competency) and the team level (coaching competency) and for close model-data fit. Implications of this study include: that the APCCS II-HST should be viewed as a replacement for the Coaching Competency Scale when the intended population is appropriate; a preliminary multi-level measurement model for satisfaction with one's coach that should be considered as a potential starting point in subsequent studies; and empirical support for a key relationship proposed in the mediational model of coach-athlete interactions.     

Medical and health informatics services during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic should be virtual,tailored, responsive and interactive: a case study in Belgium

This is part of a new series in this regular feature regarding trends in the provision of information by health science libraries. By sharing expertise and drawing together relevant trends the series intends to serve as a road map for both health science librarians and health informatics professionals. This article shows how a medical and biomedical research library changed practices, and reassessed user needs for the COVID‐19 emergency. Discusses changes to online education (and collaborative working) to provide user‐friendly services, researcher support tailored to need and re‐visioning library space. J.M.     

A process for the critical analysis of instructional theory

Some have argued for a common language in the field of instructional design in an effort to reduce misunderstandings and simplify a multitude of synonymous terms and concepts. Others feel that this goal is undesirable in that it precludes development and flexibility. In this article we propose an ontology-building process as a way for readers to compare and analyze terms and concepts across theories. This process entails the development of categories that emerge from the literature, and the comparison of theories across categories. Such a process can reveal broader concepts that exist beyond specific theoretical terminology, differences in meanings behind common terms used by theorists, a greater understanding of the theorists’ intent, and discontinuities and gaps within the theoretical literature.     

Note-taking within MetaTutor: interactions between an intelligent tutoring system and prior knowledge on note-taking and learning

Hypermedia learning environments (HLE) unevenly present new challenges and opportunities to learning processes and outcomes depending on learner characteristics and instructional supports. In this experimental study, we examined how one such HLE—MetaTutor, an intelligent, multi-agent tutoring system designed to scaffold cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) processes—interacts with learner’s prior domain knowledge to affect their note-taking activities and subsequent learning outcomes. Sixty (N = 60) college students studied with MetaTutor for 120 min and took notes on hypermedia content of the human circulatory system. Log-files and screen recordings of learner-system interactions were used to analyze notes for several quantitative and qualitative variables. Results show that most note-taking was a verbatim copy of instructional content, which negatively related to the post-test measure of learning. There was an interaction between prior knowledge and pedagogical agent scaffolding, such that low prior knowledge students took a greater quantity of notes compared to their high prior knowledge counterparts, but only in the absence of MetaTutor SRL scaffolding; when agent SRL scaffolding was present, the note-taking activities of low prior knowledge students were statistically equivalent to the number of notes taken by their high prior knowledge counterparts. Theoretical and instructional design implications are discussed.     

An Investigation of Media Influences on Elementary Students Representations of Scientists

Even long before children are able to verbalize which careers may be interesting to them, they collect and store ideas about scientists. For these reasons, asking children to Draw-A-Scientist has become an accepted method to provide a glimpse into how children represent and identify with those in the science fields. Years later these representations may translate into student’s career choice. Since 1995, children’s illustrations of scientists have been assessed by the Draw-A-Scientist Checklist (DAST-C). The checklist was created from the common aspects or features found in illustrations from previous studies and were based initially on the scientists, broken down into “stereotypical” and “alternative” images shown in the drawings. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, field test and reliability of the modified Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) and The Draw-A-Scientist Rubric designed as an improvement of the DAST-C to provide a more appropriate method of assessing students’ drawings of scientists. The combination of the modified DAST and the DAST Rubric brings more refinement as it enables clarities to emerge and subsequently increased detail to what one could ascertain from students about their mental images of scientists.