Taking the Library to the Users: Satellite Reference at the University of Mississippi

ABSTRACT

It is no secret that the nature of reference is changing. Users no longer have to go to the library to find the resources needed for their research. The library is becoming a place to study more than a place to do research. Business students at the University of Mississippi are no different. With nice computer labs, a big building, and atriums for relaxing, there was little need for them to leave the School of Business Administration. How do you reach users who won't come to the library? You take the library to them. In 2004, the business librarian at J.D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi began offering satellite or on-site reference to the School of Business Administration. Three years later the program is still running and considered a success—not only as a way to provide reference to a user group but also as a form of marketing and outreach for the library.     

Apparent hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic conditioned responses with exogenous insulin as the unconditioned stimulus

Rats were injected with either insulin or saline and placed in one of two distinctive environments for 25 min on each of several days. On test trials for conditioning, the animals were injected with saline in both environments and blood glucose levels were measured. Apparent conditioned changes were obtained, but the direction of the conditioned response depended upon the environment in which the animals were placed. A conditioned hyperglycemic response occurred in one environment, and a conditioned hypoglycemic response occurred in the other environment. This pattern occurred in both within-subject and between-subjects designs and was not influenced by route of insulin injection (ip or sc). The hypoglycemic, but not the hyperglycemic, response was blocked by methyl atropine. The occurrence of both CR patterns with the same low insulin dose is contrary to previous speculation that the different CR patterns are due to different dose levels of insulin.     

Designing computer-based learning contents: influence of digital zoom on attention

In the present study, we investigated the role of digital zoom as a tool for directing attention while looking at visual learning material. In particular, we analyzed whether minimal digital zoom functions similarly to a rhetorical device by cueing mental zooming of attention accordingly. Participants were presented either static film clips, film clips with minimal zoom-ins, or film clips with minimal zoom-outs while eye movements were recorded. We hypothesized that minimal zoom-ins should lead to more gaze coherence, to longer dwell times as an indicator of more elaborative processing, and to fewer transitions as an indicator of less mental integration. Zoom-outs, on the other hand, were expected to have opposite effects. Results showed that zoom-ins increase gaze coherence and dwell times on the center parts of the depictions while decreasing transitions of pictorial elements from the center and the context areas. In contrast, patterns of results from zoom-outs and static presentations were similar to a large degree, indicating that zoom-ins and zoom-outs do not operate in a complementary fashion. Theoretical and practical implications of the present results are discussed.     

Conceptual development in infancy: the understanding of containment

In each of 2 experiments, 2 measures were used to assess infants' understanding of the concept of "containment." After being habituated to videotaped episodes of sand being poured into and out of a cylinder, infants saw a "possible" event and then an "impossible" event. Infants who understand containment were expected to look longer at the "impossible" event. In the second test, infants were involved in a game of dropping blocks into a cup. In Experiment 1, 14-month-olds were contrasted with 20-month-olds to establish that the latter but not the former demonstrate an understanding of containment on both tasks. This age effect was obtained. In Experiment 2, we examined whether this understanding could be acquired by 14-month-olds. 50 infants were randomly assigned to 5 training conditions. 1 condition was effective in leading to the development of an understanding of containment: Infants who played with both cans and tubes in their home for 1 month performed in both tests similarly to untrained 20-month-olds.     

Principles and practices of designing narrative distance for transformative learning experiences

Narratives have a unique ability to grant listeners emotional and cognitive space in a way that encourages them to choose how they will make sense of a story. This effect, called narrative distance, also has the potential to help create transformative learning experiences. This article is a qualitative research study of experts who regularly design for narrative distance. Six experts from a variety of fields were interviewed about the principles and practices of designing for narrative distance with the purpose of discovering ways that instructional designers can better facilitate transformative learning experiences. A variety of principles and practices on how to create narrative distance are categorized under four themes: cognitive space, emotional space, invite change, and meaningful content. General comments are also given on the application of these insights to instructional design along with further suggestions for research.     

We Look More, Listen More, Notice More: Impact of Sustained Professional Development on Head Start Teachers�� Inquiry-Based and Culturally-Relevant Science Teaching Practices

Despite many scholars?? recommendations, science is often avoided during early childhood education. Among the reasons provided by early childhood teachers for the exclusion of science from their daily routines included science anxiety, low self-efficacy with respect to teaching science, lack of experience participating in science activities as students, or the notion that literacy and language are more important during the early years. In minority populations the problem is even greater due to identification of science with the ??culture of. This article presents results from Ah Neen Dush, a sustained and transformative professional development program for Head Start teachers on an American Indian Reservation. The goal of the program is to support early childhood teachers in developing inquiry-based and culturally-relevant teaching practices. Through analysis of teachers?? classroom practices, surveys and interviews, we explore changes in teachers?? attitudes toward science and inquiry-based practices. Classroom observations were conducted using CLASS (Classroom assessment Scoring System), a tool used to evaluate the quality of classroom interactions. After 1 year of professional development teachers?? attitudes were found to improve and after 2 years teachers classroom practices were more inquiry-based with statistically significant increases in CLASS observation scores.     

My Attitudes Toward Science (MATS): the development of a multidimensional instrument measuring students’ science attitudes

The number of students in the United States choosing science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers is declining at a time when demand for these occupations is rapidly increasing. Numerous efforts have been undertaken to reverse this trend, yet results are uncertain. One’s attitude is key to many choices one makes, and this includes, for many, what career is pursued. Hence, teachers, informal science educators and researchers often wish to measure children’s attitudes towards science using a pretest and a posttest to determine the effects of a curriculum, an activity or an intervention. However, measuring children’s attitudes toward science has been problematic because of both the limited use of basic psychometrics in checking reliability and validity of instruments and the lack of a single construct of students’ attitudes towards science being surveyed. This article reports the development and testing of an instrument for measuring students’ science attitudes across several dimensions. Thirty-two scientists and teachers from the northeastern and south central United States participated in content validity trials. The instrument was field tested with 549 children (92 elementary-school students, 327 middle-school students and 130 high-school students) from 6 rural and suburban school systems located in the northeastern United States to determine inter-item reliability for each dimension. The resulting instrument, entitled My Attitudes Toward Science (MATS), has 40 items that measure four dimensions: (1) Attitude towards the subject of science; (2) Desire to become a scientist; (3) Value of science to society; and (4) Perception of scientists. The MATS, as a multidimensional instrument, can measure several facets of students’ attitude toward science and is designed to be used across grades levels and to be scored easily.     

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education: a critical review of published questionnaires

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education affect its successful implementation within mainstream schools. This paper reviews nine questionnaires which capture primary school teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion, with the aim to support researchers in selecting the most appropriate measure according to the purpose of their study. Most of the reviewed questionnaires showed acceptable reliability and validity. The Multidimensional Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) and the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised Scale (SACIE-R) were the only questionnaires with adequate psychometric properties which addressed the affective, cognitive and behavioural components of teachers’ attitudes. As another psychometrically sound scale, the Teachers’ Attitude towards Inclusion Scale (TAIS) was found to use more up-to-date terminology and suitably addressed the cognitive and behavioural components. This paper provides a useful resource to facilitate the appropriate selection of questionnaires that measure teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion.