Quality Control: A Necessary Good for Improving Service

This article reports the benefits, challenges, and effective methods of assessing the quality of virtual references services at an academic library.     

Short‐term effects of an anti‐marijuana media campaign targeting high sensation seeking adolescents

Sensation seeking, a biologically‐based personality variable, is strongly related to both drug use and preferences for highly novel, arousing, and/or unconventional messages and TV programs. This connection is the basis of a targeting strategy in an anti‐marijuana public service announcement campaign in a medium‐sized market aimed at high sensation seeking adolescents. Data from the first half of the media campaign suggest that the anti‐marijuana PSAs are reaching the target audience's marijuana‐related beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in the experimental city when compared to the control city. Implications for future campaigns are discussed.     

Arousal and affective responses to writing styles

Although arousal measures have been employed to predict responses to television programs and music, they have not been used previously to evaluate print media. In this study, skin conductance response (SCR) and a mood scale were used to measure physiological and affective responses to three factors of newswriting style: narrative vs. traditional; direct quotations vs. paraphrased statements; and active vs. passive verbs and adjectives. News stories about the mass suicides in Guyana were used as stimulus materials. Narrative style generated the strongest SCR responses. Narrative style, direct quotations, and active verbs and adjectives interacted to produce the most positive affective responses. The study raises a number of questions about the nature of responses to reading.     

A Challenge to Established Assessment Practice

The article looks back 35 years to a challenge on examination practices, based on common assumptions at the time. It notes that many – although not all – of these assumptions are still accepted in much of current practice, although some have been examined by researchers and found wanting extensively in the intervening time. The particular assumptions investigated relate to the distribution, recording and use of examination results, the demand for uniformity of treatment, the comparability of degrees, the assessment of imponderables and the use and value of external examiners.     

Democracy and Social Studies Education at the Junior Secondary School Level in Botswana

This paper briefly examines the concept of democracy, its relationship to education and its African context. The meaning and value of democracy in African society is discussed and it is suggested that traditional political systems represented a particular kind of democracy. It then focuses on the extent to which the concept of democracy is covered in the junior secondary school social studies syllabus in Botswana. Finally the authors make some recommendations for curricular improvement in education for democracy at the junior secondary level in Botswana as part of the continuing attempt to produce the effective citizen for the new millennium.     

Reference, or advisory, groups involving disabled people: reflections from three contrasting research projects

Increasingly in recent years, the involvement of disabled people as co-researchers has been regarded as 'good practice'. This has been informed by growing participatory and emancipatory research paradigms as well as user-focused policy imperatives. The benefits of these shifts apply to the research itself (improved definition, direction, applicability and impact), to non-disabled researchers (personal growth and enhanced understanding of the reflexive research process), to people with disabilities involved as researchers or collaborators (personal growth and enhanced opportunities), and (if externally funded) to the funder whose ways of operating are likely to be challenged profoundly. In this paper, Ann Lewis, Sarah Parsons and Christopher Robertson (based at the University of Birmingham), Anthony Feiler, Beth Tarleton and Debby Watson (based at the University of Bristol) and Richard Byers, Jill Davies, Ann Fergusson and Claire Marvin (based at the University of Cambridge) discuss the work of three independent research teams carrying out concurrent projects. The authors share their experiences of trying to take seriously the participation of disabled people in research. All three projects were informed, to a significant degree, by their respective reference groups of disabled people. The work of these groups in each of the three projects is outlined and then discussed in relation to five common themes: formal contracts with members of reference groups; considerations concerning drawing on an established reference group; planning for reference group involvement; style of reference group involvement; and building on good practice.     

The definition of academic merit

Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 417 recommendations for merit salary awards, this article examines how faculty and administrators at an American university define merit. Particular attention is paid to how the academic characteristics of a writer or recipient affect the type of case made and the relative weight given teaching, research, and service in the letters. The assessment of what determined merit varied by discipline and rank. It was also found that teaching is less valued than administrative service and research.     

Maternal Self-Efficacy: Illusory Control and Its Effect on Susceptibility to Learned Helplessness

66 mothers of 5-month-old infants participated in 2 simulated child-care tasks to examine differences in response to the performance demands of child care. Mothers first participated in a task in which they estimated their perception of control over stopping an audiotaped infant cry (illusion of control). 1 week later, they participated in another task to assess their ability to learn effective responses in stopping the cry (susceptibility to learned helplessness). Mothers with a high illusion of control differed from mothers with low or moderate illusory control by showing increased susceptibility to helplessness. Physiologically, mothers with low and moderate illusory control showed attenuated and "attentive" heart-rate responses to the impending cry, respectively. Mothers with high illusory control were "inattentive", with mothers of difficult infants in that group responding "defensively". Our data suggest that high illusion of control may be a maladaptive response to the performance demands of child care.     

Estimating the Consistency and Accuracy of Classifications Based on Test Scores

This article presents a method for estimating the accuracy and consistency of classifications based on test scores. The scores can be produced by any scoring method, including a weighted composite. The estimates use data from a single form. The reliability of the score is used to estimate effective test length in terms of discrete items. The true-score distribution is estimated by fitting a 4-parameter beta model. The conditional distribution of scores on an alternate form, given the true score, is estimated from a binomial distribution based on the estimated effective test length. Agreement between classifications on alternate forms is estimated by assuming conditional independence, given the true score. Evaluation of the method showed estimates to be within 1 percentage point of the actual values in most cases. Estimates of decision accuracy and decision consistency statistics were only slightly affected by changes in specified minimum and maximum possible scores.