Public Libraries as Post-Crisis Information Hubs

Like the crisis responses to hurricanes, after a tornadic event public libraries play emergency roles both in the short and long term. Community members rely on public libraries for Internet access to request aid, to help find missing family and friends, to file Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and insurance claims, and, in general, to begin rebuilding their lives. This article reports the quality of services and activities public libraries performed in response and recovery in twelve different communities impacted by tornadoes. The discussion includes an evaluation of the quality of the responses and some recommendations to improve preparedness and response.     

Using an inoculation message approach to promote public confidence in protective agencies

This investigation tested the effectiveness of inoculation as a pre-crisis strategy in combating the effects of politically motivated violent acts. A four-phase experiment was conducted involving 355 national consumer panel participants. The findings indicate that inoculation can be an effective pre-crisis message strategy as it was successful in enhancing public beliefs in the ability of government agencies to prevent, and minimize the effects of, violent acts. This strategy also created a ‘blanket of protection’ that extended beyond the focal politically motivated attack event as it enhanced the confidence in government agencies to manage national crises in general. Inoculation was also effective in lowering the intensity of experienced fear evoked by the threat of violent attacks and it enhanced the ability of individuals to cope with the aftermath of a crisis.     

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

Inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) can be viewed as opportunity structures for students underrepresented in STEM. By opportunity structures, we mean an education that provides not only access to high quality STEM curriculum and instruction or “opportunity to learn,” but also the capacity to create learning environments where students can build STEM social capital and the dispositions, knowledge, skills, and networks to be successful in STEM college majors and careers. This is a cross‐case analysis of case studies that describe the design and implementation of eight “exemplar” ISHSs. Beginning with 10 hypothesized critical components, we found evidence for all 10, but present in unique patterns of prominence, depending on the school context. Further inductive analysis located an additional four emergent critical components that complete the picture of how these successful ISHSs were able to achieve their goals. Importantly, across schools, four components stood out as foundational: a flexible and autonomous administrative structure; a college‐preparatory, STEM‐focused curriculum for all; well‐prepared STEM teachers and professionalized teaching staffs; and supports for students in underrepresented groups. Although many of the critical components found in the ISHSs are also found in the school reform literature, these schools also had characteristics unique to STEM education. This paper is important in understanding STEM high schools as opportunity structures and as a school reform alternative that can help solve equity and social mobility gaps in STEM.     

Research on Reading Instruction for Students with Emotional and Behavioural Disorders

Although children with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) demonstrate significant difficulties in academic achievement including reading, little attention has been placed on effective reading instructional practices for this population of students. The purpose of this article is to briefly review the knowledge base of early reading instruction and the deep gaps in the research literature on how reading is taught to students with EBD. Finally, we will summarise several completed and ongoing research efforts that inform us of the instructional status quo for students with EBD in reading and efforts to improve academic outcomes for this population.     

Sources of science self‐efficacy beliefs of middle school students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which A. Bandura's ( 1997 ) hypothesized sources of self‐efficacy predict the science self‐efficacy beliefs of middle school students (N = 319), to replicate previous findings that science self‐efficacy predicts science achievement, and to explore how science self‐efficacy and its antecedents differ by gender. Significant correlations were found between mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasions, physiological arousal, and self‐efficacy. Only mastery experiences significantly predicted science self‐efficacy. Girls reported stronger science self‐efficacy than did boys. Findings support and extend the theoretical tenets of Bandura's social cognitive theory. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 485–499, 2006     

Intelligence in the Wild: A Dispositional View of Intellectual Traits

Most accounts of intelligence are abilities-centric. They aim to explain intelligent behavior in terms of IQ or other measures of intellectual aptitude. However, several investigators have proposed that intelligent behavior in the wild—in everyday circumstances in which carefully framed tests do not tell people exactly what intellectual task to attempt—depends in considerable part on thinking dispositions. Definitionally, dispositions concern not what abilities people have, but how people are disposed to use those abilities. Everyday language includes a number of dispositional terms such as curiosity, open-mindedness, and skepticism. We review several dispositional constructs that researchers have investigated, sometimes under the label dispositions. The findings in trend show that dispositions are stable traits that help to explain intellectual performance over and above measures of intellectual aptitude. It is argued that a dispositional view of intelligence is warranted, and that it is an important area for continued research.     

Salaries of recruits to university teaching in Britain

This paper investigates the determinants of the salaries of recruits to university teaching. The data sources are the University Grants Committee survey of recruits 1967–68, and a special survey of recruits to twenty universities undertaken by the Higher Education Research Unit at L.S.E. in 1969.Salaries of recruits are regressed on grade, age, subject, university type, quality of first degree and highest degree attained. The regression results generally accord with the theoretical predictions. However, the more substantive result is that (excluding grade) the age variable is the dominant influence on salary. The influence of subject taught on salary is surprisingly low given that the different subjects comprise non-competing groups. This tentatively suggests that equity considerations are more important to universities than economic efficiency considerations when universities set recruits' salaries.

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Résumé L'article vise à tester l'influence des différents déterminants du salaire parmi les enseignants débutant à l'Université. Les données proviennent de deux sources: l'enquête menée par la Commission des Crédits pour les Universités (University Grants Committee) sur les enseignants débutant en 1967–1968 et une enquête spéciale faite sur les enseignants débutants de vingt universités sous la responsabilité du Groupe de Recherche sur l'Enseignement Supérieur de la L.S.E. (London School of Economics).La recherche repose sur une analyse des corrélations entre les salaires de ces enseignants et des variables telles que le grade, l'âge, la discipline, le type d'université, la nature du premier et du plus haut diplôme obtenu. Les résultats de l'analyse de régression concordent en règle générale avec les prévisions théoriques. Cependant, le résultat le plus net consiste en ce que (abstraction faite du grade) c'est la variable de l'âge qui exerce l'influence la plus forte sur le niveau du salaire. L'influence de la discipline d'enseignement sur le salaire est étonnament faible, étant donné que le découpage en disciplines ne définit pas des groupes en compétition. Ceci suggère que les considérations d'équité jouent un rôle plus important que les considérations de rendement économique aux yeux des universités lorsqu'elles fixent le salaire des débutants.

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The authors are respectively lecturer in economics at LSE and lecturer in statistics at the University of St. Andrews. This paper reports one aspect of a wider study of the academic labour market undertaken in the Higher Education Research Unit at LSE. The study was originally sponsored by the National Board for Prices and Incomes. However, the views expressed are solely those of the authors. We are grateful to Gareth Williams for helpful comments on an earlier draft (Metcalf and Bibby 1970), which was more heavily statistical and is obtainable from HERU on request.