He Asked Me What!?—Using Shared Online Accounts as Training Tools for Distance Learning Librarians

ABSTRACT

This study explores the idea of creating a knowledge base from shared online accounts to use in training librarians who perform distance reference services. Through a survey, follow-up interviews and a case study, the investigators explored current and potential use of shared online accounts as training tools. This study revealed that the participants viewed the concept positively, but many encountered barriers to effectively employing a local knowledge base as a training tool.     

Do Infants Use Their Own Images to Locate Objects Reflected in a Mirror?

The ability of infants to locate a toy from a mirror reflection was investigated in 3 experiments. In the first, it was found that a minority of 22-month-old infants turned to locate the toy that was the source of the reflection, and that localization of the toy occurred regardless of whether the infants' own image was visible in the mirror. The results of 2 further experiments indicated that younger infants aged 14 and 18 months rarely use mirror information to locate a toy. When they do so, they also turn whether or not images of themselves are visible. It is concluded that tasks involving the localization of objects or events from mirror images are not direct indices of self-recognition. Rather, they indicate the skill of infants in using the mirror as a perceptual tool.     

Connecting Cline Library with Tribal Communities: A Case Study

ABSTRACT

One of the six strategic planning goals of Northern Arizona University (NAU) is to strengthen its relationship with Native Americans and to become one of the nation's leading universities serving Native American students. Considering its close geographic proximity to several tribal communities—particularly the Navajo Nation, which represents 44% of Native American Students at NAU—several programmatic and collection management activities have been instituted at the university's Cline Library as a response to this broader university goal. The library's outreach efforts, though, extend beyond the university's Native American student population and include activities designed to collaborate with tribal communities in a more direct and inclusive manner. Furthermore, incorporating concepts of critical librarianship into the library's teaching, learning, and public programming helps provide a progressive theoretical framework for improving relationships between the university and Native American communities. This case study provides an overview of existing programmatic and policy-based initiatives at the library and discusses where improvements could be made to help foster a closer and more meaningful relationship with Native American students, faculty, and patrons.     

Exposure to Media Violence and Young Children with and Without Disabilities: Powerful Opportunities for Family-Professional Partnerships

There is growing concern regarding the amount and type of violence that young children are exposed to on a daily basis. Through media, popular toys and video games violent images are consistently present in children’s lives starting at a very young age. This paper discusses (a) the growing presence of young children’s exposure to media violence, (b) the influence of media violence on early childhood development and well-being, (c) the impact of media violence on young children with disabilities, and (d) recommendations for addressing this national dilemma within the context of family-professional partnerships. A list of related web resources is also included.     

Participating in a Collaborative Action Learning Set (CAL): beginning the journey

Action learning is being increasingly utilised as a strategy to underpin practitioner focused development and research projects in healthcare generally and nursing in particular. Whilst facilitators of and participants in action learning have a variety of resource materials to guide their practice and participation, there continue to be few systematic and/or evaluative accounts of the experience of participating in action learning for potential action learning participants to draw upon. This paper attempts to address this agenda. The paper presents an interpretive evaluation of the experience of nurses participating in action learning as the learning strategy underpinning a 3-year emancipatory practice development/practitioner research programme. In particular, the paper focuses on the experience of ‘joining a learning set’. This focus has been adopted as the theory of action learning emphasises the principle of ‘voluntariness’, but yet action learning is increasingly being pre-prescribed as a component of development and research programmes. Such was the case with the programme reported on in this paper. The paper describes an approach used to evaluate learning that was adopted in this programme and in particular the initial evaluation stage that focuses on participants' feelings about joining an action learning set. The data collection and analysis processes are described and the key themes arising from the analysis (‘self-preservation’ versus ‘development of self’) discussed. It is concluded that working with principles of enlightenment is essential to successful action learning and the transformation of workplace cultures.     

An Interview with Kenneth A. Kiewra

Educational Psychology Review -     

A worldwide intercultural network: exploring electronic messaging for instruction

A worldwide international computer network has been developed to provide students from different cultures with opportunities to work cooperatively. Prototype activities have been developed and tested which facilitate and contextualize interactions among secondary and college students. Joint projects in language, science and social studies are carried out using an overnight electronic network to coordinate parallel surveys and to exchange findings of joint research. The instructional utility of these activities and the technical and organizational aspects of the network are discussed. Receiving-end translation as a method for achieving understanding across languages is reported.     

Preschool Children's Judgments about Hypothetical and Actual Transgressions

Preschoolers' ( N = 112) judgments about hypothetical and actual moral and conventional transgressions were examined. Equal numbers of boys and girls at 2 ages (3 and 4 years old) either made judgments about 8 hypothetical moral and conventional transgressions or were interviewed on the same dimensions about 8 naturally occurring moral and conventional transgressions they witnessed in their preschools. Children judged both hypothetical and actual moral transgressions to be more serious, punishable, generalizably wrong, and independent of rules and authority than conventional transgressions. Regardless of domain, hypothetical transgressions were judged to be more wrong independent of rules than actual transgressions, and hypothetical (but not actual) moral transgressions were judged to be more independent of rules than conventional transgressions. 3-year-old girls judged the wrongness of actual moral transgressions to be more independent of authority than did 3-year-old boys. Similar findings were obtained when hypothetical and actual transgressions were matched, and domain differences were still obtained when individual items were examined. Findings are discussed in terms of previous research on preschoolers' conceptions of rules and transgressions.