Beg,borrow, and steal: Formal and informal access to the scholarly literature at U.S. master's universities

This study investigates the methods by which faculty obtain scholarly articles, books, and chapters. It focuses on full-text retrieval rather than discovery, drawing on a survey of 529 full-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities in the Carnegie master's—large and master's—medium categories. When seeking articles, faculty rely mainly on their home-institution library collections, freely accessible online resources, and interlibrary loan. The situation is different for books, however; faculty most often purchase the books they need. Despite the continuing importance of formal access mechanisms (home-institution library collections and interlibrary loan), faculty rely on other sources of full text—informal access mechanisms—for 50% of the articles and 66% of the books they use. Nearly 25% get more articles from the open web than from any other source, and substantial minorities report heavy reliance on other sources. In particular, faculty sometimes use other libraries, often relying on current or past affiliations (e.g., part-time teaching) or on the user accounts of family, friends, and colleagues. Many are critical of their university library collections, but most are satisfied with freely accessible online resources and interlibrary loan.     

THE PRACTICALITY OF IMPLEMENTING CONNECTED CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY IN SECONDARY MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE CLASSROOMS

Connected classroom technology (CCT) is a member of a broad class of interactive assessment devices that facilitate communication between students and teachers and allow for the rapid aggregation and display of student learning data. Technology innovations such as CCT have been demonstrated to positively impact student achievement when integrated into a variety of classroom contexts. However, teachers are unlikely to implement a new instructional practice unless they perceive the practical value of the reform. Practicality consists of three constructs: congruence with teacher’s values and practice; instrumentality—compatibility with the existing school structures; and cost/benefits—whether the reward is worth the effort. This study uses practicality as a framework for understanding CCT implementation in secondary classrooms. The experiences of three science teachers in their first year implementing CCT are compared with matched-pair mathematics teachers. Findings suggest that despite some differences in specific uses and purposes for CCT, the integration of CCT into regular classroom practice is quite similar in mathematics and science classrooms. These findings highlight important considerations for the implementation of educational technology.     

Health sciences librarians' research on medical students' use of information for their studies at the medical school, University of Queensland, Australia

This study reports the findings of research undertaken by health sciences librarians at the University of Queensland Library into how medical students use information for their studies, particularly resources and services provided by the Library. The methods utilized were an online survey and focus groups. Results indicated that students favor print resources over electronic, value accessing resources on a one-stop basis, and prefer training to be delivered flexibly. The implication of these results for future resource selection, service provision, and instructional design and delivery is discussed.     

Health and wellbeing: a policy context for physical education in Scotland

The ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (CfE) guidelines and associated learning experiences and outcomes have been developed following a national debate on the purposes of education in Scotland. The recent development shifts physical education's (PE) role in Scottish education, changing from contributing to the ‘Expressive Arts’ area of the curriculum, to one central to the newly created curriculum area of ‘Health and wellbeing’ in the CfE. This paper provides an analysis of the broader policy context at national and global levels examining the policy developments for PE in Scotland situating them within a globalised discourse emphasising concerns about ill-health and obesity within society. Drawing on the work of Bowe et al., the paper examines the context of production and the context of influence that has contributed to the recent development of ‘Health and wellbeing’ within the CfE. It is argued that the role for PE and the focus on schools promoting daily physical activity within the CfE masks the complexity of addressing the issues of health and well-being. In conclusion it is highlighted that in the interpretation and implementation of policy there will be further issues for PE and as yet unknown consequences for the context of practice and pupils' experiences of PE in Scotland.     

The long‐day childcare context: implications for toddlers' pretend play

Forty‐eight toddlers aged 17 to 31 months attending long‐day childcare participated in this project, which examined some of the influences of the day‐care context on their emerging pretend play. Ninety minutes of video‐taped observations were collected for each participant as they engaged in free play with their same‐age peers and their pre‐school‐aged peers. The play environment was assessed on a number of dimensions, including the provision of play materials, the quality of care and staff attitudes toward play. Additionally, the participants' weekly attendance pattern was taken into consideration. The complexity of pretend play was coded in accordance with Westby's Symbolic Play Scale (1991 Westby C A scale for assessing children's pretend play 1991 in: C. E. Shaefer, K. Gitlin & A. Sandgrund (Eds) Play diagnosis and assessment New York Wiley 131 161  [Google Scholar]). Two components of the long‐day childcare context—play with pre‐school‐aged peers and the unsatisfactory provision of play materials—were found to be significantly influential on the participants' complexity of pretend play. An attendance of four or more days in childcare was also found to be favourable. A number of implications for educational programming in the day‐care context arise from these results.     

Being taught to learn together: an ethnographic study of the curriculum in two Chinese kindergartens

This paper reports the findings of a pilot study which adopted an ethnographic approach to investigate the cultural features of the Chinese kindergarten curriculum by means of ‘semi‐participant’ observations, semi‐structured interviews, daily conversations and open‐ended questionnaires in two Chinese kindergartens. The paper first introduces the debate over teaching and learning in the early years in Western contexts. It then demonstrates that the curriculum in Chinese kindergartens is mainly implemented by means of teachers' formal collective teaching. Children seem to be taught to learn; their spontaneous learning interests are welcomed but seldom developed in depth. The preference among teachers for this formal collective teaching, coupled with their perception that this teaching is required in their particular situations, creates a tension between teaching and children's learning. The shift in parents' views of education, from an over‐emphasis on children's knowledge‐based study to support for children's harmonious overall development, also contributes to this tension.     

Practising what we preach: towards a student-centred definition of feedback

Students appear to have an almost insatiable appetite for receiving feedback and the scholarly literature has acknowledged its central importance for learning. And yet there is no widely accepted definition of feedback, most definitions reflecting the perspective of the teacher rather than student. When staff at the University of New South Wales who had put a lot of time into providing feedback nevertheless failed to score highly on the course satisfaction survey question on feedback, staff conjectured that their students might not recognize what they are providing as constituting feedback. A study was undertaken to find out just how students would define feedback. This article provides the background to the study, describes its design and presents the definition of feedback as conceptualised by the students, and then considers its significance.     

Perceptions of two television cartoons: Powerpuff girls and Johnny Bravo

“Powerpuff Girls” (PPG) and “Johnny Bravo” (JB) are two recent additions to cartoon programming on the Cartoon Network. In Study 1 over three‐fourths of 187 elementary school children indicated that they had watched JB and PPG. These children perceived PPG to be significantly more aggressive than JB. In Study 2 two trained, independent raters scored JB, compared to PPG, as more likely to make appearance‐enhancing actions and more likely to use come‐ons while the PPG were more aggressive and more likely to giggle/laugh. Johnny was more likely to be the recipient of aggressive behaviors, rather than be aggressive himself.     

Effects of threatening visuals and announcer differences on responses to televised alcohol warnings

This study examined threatening background visuals and voice-over differences in televised alcohol warnings. Participants ( N v = v 401) viewed four television adwarning pairs embedded in sports programming. Between-subjects conditions included a threatening visual behind the warning, a non-threatening visual, a plain background, and a no-warning control. Use of a male or female announcer, each using a relatively warm or imperative voice quality, were manipulated within-subject factors. Outcomes included knowledge, cognitive responses regarding warning content and presentation, and perceptions of the risk of the product (beer) shown in the ad. All warnings increased post-test knowledge of alcohol risks relative to control; the largest increase resulted when warnings were accompanied by the threatening visual. Threatening visuals also increased positive thought elaborations about the warning message content and presentation. However, the threatening visuals did not reliably impact perceived risk of beer use, suggesting that threatening visuals influenced responses and knowledge by increasing attention to the warning rather than by increasing perceived threat. These findings are consistent with the EPPM's proposed initial threat appraisal mechanism (Witte, 1992), and further suggest that threatening visuals serve as a heuristic cue motivating increased processing of message content (see Eagly & Chaiken, 1993), rather than an influence via a peripheral route as suggested by the ELM (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Interactions between drinking level and announcer gender and vocal quality variables were also found, but contributed only trivially to explained variance.