Hospital library support of Navy medical operational readiness

Hospital librarians in Naval Medical Centers and Naval Hospitals provide information to support the physicians, nurses, psychologists, chaplains, dentists, and corpsmen on ships and on Navy bases worldwide. The concept of "operational readiness" refers to the training required by Navy personnel during peacetime to perform war-time missons. Navy medical librarians receive challenging requests. Providing information electronically through full text, electronic main, and fax, is part of the routine when preparing staff to deploy to other countries and when supporting them in the field and on ships. Librarians at Naval Medical Center, San Diego help prepare Navy Healthcare providers for operations during combat, humanitarian, and peacekeeper missions. This paper describes several Navy medical field operations with brief explanations of medical librarians' support.     

Librarians Flip for Students: Teaching Searching Skills to Medical Students Using a Flipped Classroom Approach

This article describes the development of a flipped classroom instructional module designed by librarians to teach first- and second-year medical students how to search the literature and find evidence-based articles. The pre-class module consists of an online component that includes reading, videos, and exercises relating to a clinical case. The in-class sessions, designed to reinforce important concepts, include various interactive activities. The specifics of designing both components are included for other health sciences librarians interested in presenting similar instruction. Challenges encountered, particularly in the live sessions, are detailed, as are the results of evaluations submitted by the students, who largely enjoyed the online component. Future plans are contingent on solving technical problems encountered during the in-class sessions.     

It’ll Be Okay,Because We Belong Together: The Influence of Person-Organization Fit on Interpretation of Bad-News Messages in Academic Settings

Higher education has recently faced significant budget cuts. In response, academic leaders must communicate negative information to stakeholders while simultaneously attempting to maintain morale and credibility. This project investigated how students interpret a bad-news message from the university president and examined the impact of person-organization fit and demographic characteristics on interpretations and credibility. In Study 1, participants (N = 52) provided 19 varying interpretations for a real-life message. Using 5 components derived from the interpretations, Study 2 (N = 466) determined that person-organization fit and demographic characteristics influence interpretations and source credibility. Some outcomes varied according to whether participants had previously read the bad-news message.     

On the benefits of bi-literacy: just a head start in reading or specific orthographic insights?

In a previous study [Schwartz et al. (2005). Written Language and Literacy, 8, 179–207] we showed that early literacy in Russian (L1) facilitated decoding acquisition in Hebrew (L2) among Russian-Hebrew first graders. The present study examined two alternative explanations for this finding. The first account concerns the general benefits of an early start in literacy. The second relates to the specific meta-linguistic insights engendered by early exposure to a fully fledged orthography—Russian. We therefore compared two groups who had acquired literacy prior to the onset of schooling: bi-literate bilinguals (Russian L1 literates and Hebrew L2 learners) (n = 26) and early-literacy monolinguals (Hebrew-speaking monolinguals) (n = 18). The research was conducted in two stages. First, linguistic, meta-linguistic and cognitive tasks in Hebrew were administered to all children and in Russian to the bilinguals at the beginning of the first grade. Next, reading and writing skills in Hebrew were assessed at the end of the first grade. Bi-literate bilinguals showed superior levels of phonological awareness on an initial phoneme isolation task in Hebrew compared to other three groups. In addition, the bi-literate bilinguals were found to be superior to the early-literacy monolinguals on measures of word and pseudoword accuracy, which are known to depend heavily on phonological processing efficiency, but not on fluency and spelling measures, which are more reliant on stored orthographic information. This pattern of outcomes was attributed to the facilitating effects of an orthography characterized by a fully fledged alphabet, in contrast to Hebrew’s primarily consonantal orthography, as well as the complex syllabic structure of Russian.     

Children's thinking about diversity of belief in the early school years: judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons

Children's thinking about diversity of belief in 4 realms--morality, taste, facts, and ambiguous facts--was examined. Ninety-six participants (ages 5, 7, and 9) were interviewed about beliefs different from their own that were endorsed by characters with different status; their judgments of relativism, tolerance, and disagreeing persons were assessed. Five-year-olds made fewer relative and tolerant judgments than 7- and 9-year-olds. Nevertheless, participants of all ages organized their judgments according to the realm of diversity, thought that some beliefs are relative and some are nonrelative, and made tolerant judgments of some divergent beliefs (and their proponents) but not of others. The findings suggest that, in the early school years, children have multiple and well-differentiated perspectives on belief diversity.     

Accessibility in post secondary education： Application of UDL to college curriculum

The inclusion of students with disabilities at the university is a relatively new occurrence in the field of special education. Although legislation in the United States has supported the acceptance of students with disabilities at the post-secondary level, it has only provided minimal support with the emphasis on the learner rather than the curriculum. Now we are looking for multiple ways for students to access learning and demonstrate mastery. Universal Design for Learning （UDL） is currently seen as a means to reconceptionalize curriculum. This study examines the experience of four professors and their effort to use a Classroom Performance System （CPS） as part of reformatting their courses using UDL. The Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST （2001） states that the goal of Universal Design for Learning is to develop teaching methods that enable all students with diverse learning needs, including those with disabilities and cultural differences, to have equal access to classroom curriculum. This paradigm shift echoes the move in special education from a deficit model to a minority rights model put forward by Hahn （1989）, and which is the basis of inclusive educational philosophy. Together inclusion and UDL create learning environments that strive to serve all students. This research describes the implementation of clickers as part of the CPS program in college courses in a special education teacher preparation program. The case study demonstrates how technology can provide access for all learners with positive outcomes such as increased participation and application of knowledge. It also illustrates some of the difficulties in making this pedagogical paradigm shift particularly in the use of technology, and the value of overcoming the existing barriers in place.