Teaching Science Inquiry in Urban Contexts: The Role of Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs

This paper reports on a study of elementary preservice teachers’ inquiry-based practices, their efficacy beliefs, and the role beliefs had on two preservice teachers’ practices in urban classrooms. Results show inquiry-based practices can be cultivated through field-based experiences and preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs, as it relates to practice in urban settings, are malleable. Specifically, personal efficacy beliefs about teaching science improved or were sustained for one cohort of preservice teachers. However, beliefs about students’ ability to learn science, that is outcome beliefs, were less stable. The results of two case studies show that science content knowledge was a factor in preservice teachers’ inquiry-based practices. However, why preservice teachers’ beliefs about student learning declined is less clear. More research is needed, along with follow-up data on teacher induction, to learn how preservice teachers’ beliefs impact urban students’ science education.     

‘The constant rejections hurt’: Skills and personal attributes needed to successfully complete a thesis by publication

The thesis by publication (TBP) is an increasingly popular approach to doctoral education that sees candidates publishing their research during their candidature, and including these outputs in their final thesis submission. Responsive to the realities of modern academia, a TBP provides doctoral candidates with opportunities to engage in the scholarly publication process, and to build their research portfolio. As the TBP gains further traction in many fields and countries, there is a need to better understand the skills and attributes needed to complete a TBP successfully. This paper draws on the views of 246 recent doctoral graduates of Australian universities to identify the skills and attributes they felt supported their success. Their responses have implications for the development and refinement of institutional policies and programs that are sensitive to the needs and experiences of doctoral candidates seeking to publish during candidature and create a TBP. As editors, peer‐reviewers, and publishers see a growing influx of papers sole‐ or co‐authored by doctoral candidates in response to the trend toward TBP, they may find themselves involved in supporting students to develop the skills and attributes needed to successfully publish during candidature.     

Graduate Student Space and Service Needs: A Recommendation for a Cross-campus Solution

Focus group methodology was used to investigate graduate students' cross-campus technology, space and service needs. Although the library provides valued services and spaces, graduate students need enhanced and more equitable support for their roles as teachers and scholars. Librarians can provide leadership and act as advocates for graduate student needs in partnership with other campus stakeholders.     

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.     

Developing and using a rubric for evaluating evidence-based medicine point-of-care tools

Objective:

The research sought to establish a rubric for evaluating evidence-based medicine (EBM) point-of-care tools in a health sciences library.

Methods:

The authors searched the literature for EBM tool evaluations and found that most previous reviews were designed to evaluate the ability of an EBM tool to answer a clinical question. The researchers'' goal was to develop and complete rubrics for assessing these tools based on criteria for a general evaluation of tools (reviewing content, search options, quality control, and grading) and criteria for an evaluation of clinical summaries (searching tools for treatments of common diagnoses and evaluating summaries for quality control).

Results:

Differences between EBM tools'' options, content coverage, and usability were minimal. However, the products'' methods for locating and grading evidence varied widely in transparency and process.

Conclusions:

As EBM tools are constantly updating and evolving, evaluation of these tools needs to be conducted frequently. Standards for evaluating EBM tools need to be established, with one method being the use of objective rubrics. In addition, EBM tools need to provide more information about authorship, reviewers, methods for evidence collection, and grading system employed.

Highlights

• Eleven of the fourteen previous evidence-based medicine (EBM) tool evaluations were based on clinicians evaluating tools based on their perception of the products'' ability to answer a clinical question.
• EBM tools'' evidence summaries are not updated as often as products claim.
• Although many EBM tools claim to be evidence based, only 74% of the 70 evaluated treatment summaries included graded evidence.

Implications

• To offer the best tools for users, medical libraries should evaluate EBM resources regularly, including the quality of the evidence provided.
• Medical librarians have a role to play in evaluating the quality of EBM products and can develop assessment tools to aid in this evaluation.

     

How can Booktok on TikTok inform readers' advisory services for young people?

Libraries provide readers' advisory services to young people to foster reading for pleasure. The Booktok community on TikTok is a resource that can be drawn upon to support promotion of books with this demographic. A hybrid content analysis of 116 TikTok videos explores presence of hashtags, authors and books, and recurring themes promoted in Booktok videos. Popular hashtags build community and promoted authors and books are a small and select group. Young people use Booktok to provide recommendations, explore reader experience and emotional response, generate reader community and identity, discuss fictional characters and places, develop and promote writing, and discuss personal library management and being a reader in the family. Libraries' reader advisory services for young people can use these findings to employ language of the discourse community for insider signposting of the library's physical space and give greater primacy to the emotional response evoked by books and reading.     

“I Managed It Pretty Good”: Birth Narratives of Adolescent Mothers

The aim of this study was to understand adolescent mothers’ childbirth experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted with participants recruited from a community-based program for adolescent mothers. Fourteen mothers described their birth experiences. Using a narrative analytic approach, responses were reconstructed into birth stories. Stories, condensed into poetic form, were compared and contrasted. Four unique categories emerged: connected births, surreal births, disconnected births, and disempowered births. Categories differed by agency, support, and emotional tone. Positive support was found in stories that portrayed high agency and positive affect, whereas problematic support was apparent in stories that conveyed passivity, frustration, and disappointment. This study has implications for tailoring childbirth education for adolescent mothers and can inform health-care professionals working with this population.