Interior Design Supports Art Education: A Case Study

Interior design, as a field of study, is a rapidly growing area of interest — particularly for teenagers in the United States. Part of this interest stems from the proliferation of design‐related reality shows available through television media. Some art educators and curriculum specialists in the nation perceive the study of interior spaces as a ‘practical application’ of the arts. This article discusses an experiential design problem, originally used in higher education interior design studio courses that was modified and shared with students in third grade to address national academic standards. Later, this same project was modified for use with high school students in the educator's community and with international design students in South Korea. Lastly, the project was presented in a workshop to art education students at a higher education institution. The project was modified to address (1) the age group level and (2) a topic relevant to the audience. Goals of the design project were: (1) to explore creative problem‐solving, (2) to explore the application of design elements and principles, and (3) to increase student understanding of spatial relationships within an interior environment. Findings indicate that the project supported several visual art standards, including perception and community. This project may be of interest to current and future art educators and others interested in the potential of interior design content supporting art education.     

Ambidextrous Scholarship: A Review Essay

This essay reviews three recent works in the field of philosophy of education, each of which brings the work of a major philosophical thinker to bear on contemporary topics within education: Michael Peters, ed., Heidegger, Education, and Modernity ; Randall Curren, Aristotle on the Necessity of Public Education ; and Mordechai Gordon, ed., Hannah Arendt and Education . I argue that these works are representative of a current trend in educational philosophers' ideas, including their political, social, and ethical philosophy. This approach to philosophy of education differs in significant ways from past approaches, in which the connection between philosophy and education was conceived narrowly. In the works under consideration here, education is not understood as an isolated field that is connected to philosophy only through a concerted effort; rather, education is understood as a presence within the broad constellation of philosophical questions. These books therefore not only shed light on educational matters, but they also demonstrate an elegant way to bring together theory and practice, mind and body, philosophy and education.     

Refutational text and multiple external representations as a method to remediate the misinterpretation of box plots

The ability to interpret graphs is highly important in modern society, but has proven to be a challenge for many people. In this paper, two teaching methods were used to remediate one specific misinterpretation: the area misinterpretation of box plots. First, we used refutational text to explicitly state and invalidate the area misinterpretation of box plots. Second, we used multiple external representations (MERs): Histograms were used as an overlay on box plots in order to give students a better insight in the way box plots represent data distributions. Third, we combined refutational text and MERs. We found that refutational text was successful in improving students’ interpretation of box plots, but that the use of MERs did not improve students’ interpretation of box plots. The addition of MERs also did not increase the effect of refutational text.     

Effect of professional development on teaching behaviors and efficacy in Qatari educational reforms

Qatar is undergoing major educational reform that is shifting its educational policy toward an instructional orientation grounded in constructivism and student-centered instruction. Differences in cultural conceptions of knowledge acquisition and the purpose of education are examined to highlight challenges to Qatar’s reform implementation efforts. Self-efficacy theory is reviewed to provide a theoretical framework for our examination of the adequacy of professional development to impact teacher efficacy for implementing reform-based teaching practices. Teaching behaviors in line with the reform and teacher efficacy were quantitatively measured before and after professional development for treatment and control groups. Regression methods were used to examine the impact of professional development on the relationship between teaching behaviors and teacher efficacy. Results indicate a significant interaction effect; for teachers who received the training, the relationship between behaviors and teacher efficacy was negative, while for teachers in the control group this relationship was positive. Implications of the findings for teacher efficacy and professional development are discussed.     

Collaborative Problem Solving in Five‐Year‐Old Children: Evidence of social facilitation and social loafing

Children’s problem solving while working by themselves or with a partner was investigated to explore whether young children are susceptible to social facilitation and social loafing. Five‐year‐olds were asked to complete easy or hard puzzles, either alone or with a partner. Half of the children were given instructions indicating that their performance would be evaluated and the other half were not. Children showed social facilitation, in that they performed better with a partner than when working alone under evaluation conditions, with the easy puzzle. Children also showed social loafing, in that performance with a partner was poorer when working under no evaluation than evaluation conditions, with the easy puzzle. Performance with the hard puzzle did not differ whether children worked alone or with a partner, but children working on the hard puzzle under no evaluation conditions performed better than those working under evaluation conditions. The findings suggest that evaluation affects children’s performance in group settings in different ways depending on task difficulty.     

Seeking Out and Avoiding the News Media: Young Adults’ Proposed Strategies for Obtaining Current Events Information

This study takes a closer look at the role the news media plays in how young adults inform themselves in the high-choice media age. In-depth interview data with 21 young adults from varying socioeconomic backgrounds were used to identify the strategies they had for locating current events information. During the interviews, the young adult participants responded to six hypothetical “vignettes” by articulating the steps that they would take to find information about current events. Findings revealed two strategy patterns that interviewees voiced—one set of strategies directly involved use of the news media, and another set avoided the news media in favor of functional information alternatives. Common among all the interviewees, however, was the need for information skepticism when navigating the contemporary media environment. Implications for social inequality and news media literacy are discussed.     

“Where Are the Bathrooms?”: Academic Library Restrooms and Student Needs

This article investigates bathrooms, paying specific attention to those in academic libraries. The authors describe how bathrooms have been considered in the library literature for the past century and challenges to changing the status quo. Finally, this work sets the stage for future inquiry. Research materials come from a range of sources: historical library literature, building codes, social science theory and research that address the issues around bathroom taboos, and checklists for assessing bathrooms. The authors propose librarians and library administrators reconsider all aspects of their own bathrooms: location, features, equity/inclusiveness, and maintenance in service to their patrons.     

Exploring the Evidence in Evidence-Based Acquisition

ABSTRACT

This article explores the University of Colorado (CU) Libraries’ experiences with evaluating a patron-driven (PDA) program with Kanopy and an evidence-based (EBA) program with Alexander Street for streaming videos. The article includes a thorough comparison of EBA and PDA models, workflows, and outcomes. Three separately administered libraries within the CU system support campuses of different budgets, student and faculty demographics, programs, and exposure to streaming collections. Lessons in implementing and assessing streaming videos at each library and across the consortia are shared along with details on how to implement similar analysis at other libraries.