To click or not to click: investigating conflict detection and sourcing in a multiple document hypertext environment

This study investigated whether accessing conflicting claims in other documents by means of hyperlinks embedded within currently read documents may facilitate conflict detection and source-content integration. Norwegian undergraduates (n?=?85) read multiple conflicting documents on a controversial health-related issue, with half of the conflicting claims across documents hyperlinked and the other half not. Moreover, half of the participants were told that they would get more information by clicking on the links (weak prompting condition) while the other half were additionally told that clicking on the links was necessary to get a more complete understanding of the issue (strong prompting condition). Results indicated that the extent to which participants accessed conflicting claims in other documents via the hyperlinks was positively related to their detection of cross-document conflicts as well as their integration of source-content information. A mediational analysis indicated that conflict detection mediated the effect of accessing conflicting claims via the hyperlinks on source-content integration. No relationship was found between the prompting condition and participants’ selection of the hyperlinks. The theoretical significance as well as the practical value of our findings are discussed.

     

Document,documentation, and the Document Academy: introduction

A series of efforts starting in the late nineteenth century to manage the increase in documents came to be knows as “documentation.” Leaders included Paul Otlet and Suzanne Briet. The concern was with access to evidence and the meaning of “document” was broadened to include any sign preserved to represent phenomena. Legal deposit, when extended to new modern media, required new techniques and led to a new program in documentation at the University of Tromsø, Norway, in 1996. Niels Lund, Michael Buckland, and others collaborated in forming the Document Academy and organized a series of conferences.     

Embedding engaged learning in high enrollmentlecture-based classes

Engaged learning opportunities have become powerful foundations upon which students build lifelong skills and organizational capacities. Research has empirically validated the long-term positive learning impacts of active and experiential learning opportunities for students. As such, institutional administrators and external stakeholders have encouraged and, in some cases, required that faculty use engaged teaching methods. At the same time, difficult economic circumstances continue to batter higher education, with class sizes increasing to improve efficiencies and reduce instructional costs. The confluence of those two trends has resulted in calls to integrate engaged learning opportunities in large higher education classes, engendering special challenges for educators. It is within this particular gap—practical guidance for transforming passive course designs to active ones—that our article contributes to the international higher education literature. We share our experiences implementing engaged learning practices into large university classes over a 4-year period, guided by an experiential learning theoretical framework. By analyzing text from our individual teaching journals and collaborative post-mortems, we are able to introduce an integrative model highlighting important contextual and logistical issues that must be considered: pre-class planning, in-class facilitation, assessments and feedback, training and renorming student expectations, and institutional context. We end the article with caveats and ethical considerations when introducing engaged learning into large classes.     

Redefining Opportunity for the Library Employee with Autism: A Model of Positive Behavioral Support for Library Management

This article explores the 90% unemployment rate for job-seeking individuals with high-functioning autism, by presenting a theoretical model of positive behavioral support (PBS) adapted from the work of E.G. Carr and the information theory of Roger Greer, and considered within the context of library employment. The information transfer based model of PBS emphasizes the role of metalinguistic awareness and lexical-semantic processing in the design of traditional four-stage PBS intervention. This design may promote the successful employment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders within libraries and other settings.     

Personality Dispositions,Expectancy and Context in Attributional Thinking

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between attribution and selected personality dispositions, as well as self‐serving attribution. Four hypotheses were formulated: (1) Attributions for positive events correlate differently with the five personality dispositions than attributions for negative events, (2) factor analysis and cluster analysis of attributions for positive and negative events and the five personality dispositions will generate a general bipolar expectancy factor, (3) self‐serving attributions will dominate irrespective of subcultural context, and (4) the dominance of self‐serving attributions will be stronger in an individualistic‐oriented context than in a collectivistic‐oriented context. One‐hundred‐and‐fifty students, selected from two educational contexts (one individualistic‐oriented and one collectivistic‐oriented), were scored on attributions for positive and negative events as well as on the five personality dispositions on the basis of an inventory. All four hypotheses were supported. Educational implications are discussed.     

Video-Based Analyses of Motivation and Interaction in Science Classrooms

An analytical framework for examining students’ motivation was developed and used for analyses of video excerpts from science classrooms. The framework was developed in an iterative process involving theories on motivation and video excerpts from a ‘motivational event’ where students worked in groups. Subsequently, the framework was used for an analysis of students’ motivation in the whole class situation. A cross-case analysis was carried out illustrating characteristics of students’ motivation dependent on the context. This research showed that students’ motivation to learn science is stimulated by a range of different factors, with autonomy, relatedness and belonging apparently being the main sources of motivation. The teacher’s combined use of questions, uptake and high level evaluation was very important for students’ learning processes and motivation, especially students’ self-efficacy. By coding and analysing video excerpts from science classrooms, we were able to demonstrate that the analytical framework helped us gain new insights into the effect of teachers’ communication and other elements on students’ motivation.