Theme-Based Information Literacy Instruction

Theme-based library and information literacy instruction offers an innovative, challenging, and timely approach to teaching credit library courses. This mode of instruction creates a learning environment that enhances student engagement and expands the teaching repertoire of library instruction faculty. Two practical examples of this methodology are discussed.     

A study of the perceptual orientation of community college students and their attitudes toward science as they relate to science achievement

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptual orientation and attitudes toward science of freshman community college students and the relationship of these characteristics toward science achievement. It was found that perceptual orientation (field independence-dependence) was related to attitudes toward science. In addition, it was found that students who were field independent and possessed a positive attitude toward science scored significantly higher on the science achievement test than students who were field dependent and possessed a negative attitude toward science.     

A systems approach to child abuse: management and treatment issues

In the systems approach certain patterns of family interaction are seen as fitting with physical abuse towards children in the family. If these interactions are blocked or changed using specific family therapy interventions, the risk of further abuse will be significantly reduced. Identifying typical patterns of interaction that fit with abuse is a useful first step in planning the management of physically abusing families. A full systemic formulation of the presenting problem will address numerous systems and sub-systems simultaneously, notably the family-professional system, the family within the extended family/friendship system, and the nuclear family. Interventions may have to be directed on a variety of these levels. The Marlborough Family Service has assessed and treated over 100 child-abusing families. A family day unit is used as the setting, and a multifamily group as the principle medium of treatment. Within the day unit real life stress situations are recreated around everyday issues, enabling families to find new and nonviolent solutions to the problems of daily life. In the cases seen, approximately one-third have resulted in a recommendation of permanent alternative family care for the children. In those families reunited, the re-injury rate has been found to be extremely low.     

A Technology Integration Education (TIE) Model for Millennial Preservice Teachers: Exploring the Canonical Correlation Relationships Among Attitudes,Subjective Norms,Perceived Behavioral Controls,Motivation, and Technological,Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) Competencies

Intellectual goods can follow the same pattern as physical goods with the product life cycle of birth, growth, maturity, and decline. For the intellectual good of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK), its birth began with Shulman (1986 Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1987 Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used to test the relationships among five of the 12 constructs in the technology integration education (TIE) model developed by Holland and Piper (2014 Holland, D. D., &; Piper, R. T. (2014). Technology integration education (TIE) model: Millennial preservice teachers' motivations about technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) competencies. Journal of Education Computing Research, 51(3), 257–294.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Based on the patterns of cross-loading correlations, this study found that there were limited correlational relationships between the set of independent variables and the set of dependent TPACK variables. For this pilot study, the sample consisted of 90 elementary education majors and 51 secondary education majors.     

Oral reading fluency and comprehension in Kenya: reading acquisition in a multilingual environment

Reading research has shown that variable relationships exist between measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension, depending on whether the language of the text is the reader's first language or an additional language. This paper explores this phenomenon, using reading assessment data for 2,000 Kenyan children in two or three languages: English, Kiswahili and one of two mother tongues, Dholuo or Gikuyu. The assessment data allowed us to compare reading and comprehension rates across languages. The data indicated that many children could read English words more easily than words in Kiswahili or their mother tongue; nevertheless, their reading comprehension was significantly lower in English than in Kiswahili, Dholuo or Gikuyu. The paper concludes that emphasising English reading fluency is an inefficient route to gaining reading comprehension skills because pupils are actually attaining minimal oral reading fluency in English and only modest comprehension skills in their own languages. The evidence also demonstrates that Kenya's national language policy of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the early primary grades is consistently ignored in practice.     

Discovery Tools in the Classroom: A Usability Study and Implications for Information Literacy Instruction

In 2016, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) library acquired ProQuest’s discovery tool Summon. To determine when information literacy instruction using Summon would be effective and what aspects should be taught, librarians conducted a usability study. Students completed tasks focused on determining whether Summon is intuitive and whether the interface needs to be taught. Results indicate that students are comfortable with the interface and have few problems with the tool. Instead, participants struggled with critical thinking processes associated with research. Results were used to integrate the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into instruction.