Information literacy in South-East Europe: Formulating strategic initiatives,making reforms and introducing best practices

South-East Europe (SEE) is one of the geographic regions in the world which is lagging behind positive global Information Literacy (IL) developments. An informed, authoritative and enlightened understanding of the state of Information Literacy conceptual understanding and best practices across the region was recently provided by two important UNESCO co-sponsored workshops that addressed specific IL challenges in this part of Europe. The first meeting, the Workshop on Information Literacy Initiatives for Central and South-East European Countries, co-organized by UNESCO, with the support of the CEI (Central European Initiatives, an arm of the EU), took place in 2006 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The second, also co-organized by UNESCO, was held in Ankara, Turkey, as a part of a series of eleven Training-the-Trainers in Information Literacy («TTT») workshops that covered all regions of the world. This paper will review and analyse some of the main policy agreements reached by the participants at these meetings, as well as best practices shared by the participants at the two workshops, and discuss remaining Information Literacy advocacy and promotional barriers. The authors will endeavour to identify region-specific barriers to IL in the SEE region and, based on the aforementioned Ankara and Ljubljana workshop outcomes, define focal points for future local and regional IL events, meetings and other initiatives that could and should be taken.     

Peer mediation: citizenship and social inclusion revisited

In sociometric research tradition, popularity is defined as the degree to which children are liked or accepted by their peers. However, research indicates that two definitions of popular students should be distinguished: (1) popular students as those students who are well liked by many and disliked by few peers, and (2) popular students as those students who are described as popular by their peers. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity in Slovenian students of different grades of elementary and secondary school. Additionally, the age differences in the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity were examined. Another purpose of the study was to investigate the differential relationships between concepts of popularity and some students' characteristics. The participants were 321 boys and 329 girls who ranged from the 5th grade of elementary school (the mean age 11.04 years) to the 3rd grade of secondary school (the mean age 17.02 years). The results of this study confirm previous findings that peer perceived popularity is a construct that is distinct from sociometric popularity. There are some substantial differences in relations between indices of perceived popularity and sociometric indices between elementary school students and secondary school students—i.e. between early adolescents and middle to late adolescents. It seems that perceived popularity and sociometric popularity are rather similar constructs in elementary school students, whereas in secondary school students they become almost unrelated to each other. Based on these findings, the terminological issues are discussed and some conclusions are made.     

Ambiguity as persuasion: The Vietnam Veterans memorial

Visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial generally are deeply moved by it—regardless of their positions on the Vietnam War itself. In this essay, five visual features of the memorial are identified that enable it to appeal to virtually all visitors: (a) It violates the conventional form of war memorials; (b) It assumes a welcoming stance; (c) It provides little information to the visitor; (d) It focuses attention on those who did not survive the war; and (e) It generates multiple referents for its visual components. The effectiveness of the memorial suggests that it may serve as a model for contemporary anti‐war rhetoric.     

Coaching the Mentor: Facilitating Reflection and Change

The purpose of this study is to explore the process of coaching a mentor of experienced teachers. In particular, we sought to determine if coaching would help a mentor to compare her espoused beliefs about mentoring to her mentoring behaviors and possibly resolve any dissonance. The mentor and coach (the co‐researchers) participated in a platform conference, three coaching conferences, and a debriefing conference. In the platform conference, the mentor espoused the use of nondirective mentoring behaviors. The mentor and coach used the coaching conferences to review audio recordings of the mentor working with mentees during conferences intended to improve the mentees’ teaching, and to engage in reflective dialogue concerning the mentor’s interpersonal behaviors. The mentor experienced cognitive dissonance on several occasions during the coaching conferences when she discovered her use of directive behaviors in some interactions with mentees. Eventually, the mentor resolved this dissonance, primarily by changing her beliefs about mentoring and shifting from a nondirective to an eclectic platform. We conclude that the coaching of mentoring explored in this study has considerable potential for future research on the coaching process.     

Toddlers’ peer engagement in Swiss childcare: contribution of individual and contextual characteristics

The present study observed 86 three-year-old children (M = 43.7, SD = 6.4) from 15 Swiss childcare groups, to investigate multiple individual and contextual contributions to toddlers’ positive engagement with peers. The children’s individual characteristics (age, sex and social skills) and childcare-related predictors (emotional and behavioural support from caregivers, and structural group features) were assessed. We employed the child-by-environment perspective and tested the hypothesis that high-quality behavioural and emotional support provided by caregivers benefits children with deficits in social abilities. Results of the multilevel structural equation modelling indicated that toddlers rated by caregivers as sociable and assertive showed more positive situation-specific peer engagement, especially with a concomitant higher quality of caregiver emotional and behavioural support. By contrast, being prosocial-cooperative was negatively associated with observed peer engagement. Thus, children’s social skills were found to be the most important factor for peer engagement in childcare settings. Important suggestions for future research are made, and practical implications are discussed.

     

Specific managerial human capital,firm age,and venture capital financing of biopharmaceutical ventures: A contingency approach

In this article we investigate how specific human capital in biopharmaceutical ventures' management teams impacts the financial commitment of venture capital investors. Further, we explore how this impact changes with the venture's age. We draw on data from 138 VC financing rounds in the US and Europe to show that biopharmaceutical ventures with greater portions of specific managerial human capital in the fields of management, law, medicine, and biosciences acquire more money in venture capital financing rounds, but this effect is contingent on the age of the venture. We discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on VC financing of high technology ventures.     

A cross-cultural study of preschool quality in South Korea and Sweden: ECERS evaluations

The aim of the study is to explore cross-cultural similarities and differences in preschool quality in South Korean and Swedish preschools as measured by two national adaptations of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). The approach adopted is that cross-cultural comparisons of preschool quality are both achievable and of great importance to researchers as well as policy-makers, educators, teachers and parents. The results indicate that Swedish childcare programs rate higher on the entire ECERS and all of the individual subscales. The similarities and differences in preschool quality are interpreted within the socio-cultural context of each country and the respective pedagogical goals for preschool.     

Professional Supervision as a Mean of Learning and Development of Counselors

Supervision can be understood as onemethod of fieldwork education and staffdevelopment that enables counselors to acquirenew professional and personal insights throughtheir own experiences. In this paper dimensionsof learning activities of Walter and Marks aswell as other psychological concepts oflearning and development (Piaget, Kolb) asapplied to the learning process in supervisionare discussed. Special emphasis is given to theexplanation of interdependence of personal andprofessional development in supervision andtheir integration into a so calledprofessional self (Kessel and Haan).