The information requirements and information-seeking behaviours of health and social care professionals providing care to children with health care needs: a pilot study

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this work were to identify the sources of information currently received, information-seeking behaviours, information requirements and preferences for future information provision amongst health and social care professionals providing care to children with health care needs. METHODS: Data were collected using a cross-sectional postal questionnaire survey. RESULTS: A wide range of information resources was reported as being available to professionals. However, a large proportion of respondents found it necessary to perform additional searches for information, suggesting that current resources were not satisfying their needs. The majority of professionals reported a preference for electronic formats, whilst a smaller proportion preferred hard copy materials. Participants promoted the use of informal networks as a means of support and exchange of information. CONCLUSION: Supplementing the information that is provided in electronic and hard copy formats, by enhancing informal networks, may be the most effective way of meeting the information needs of this group of professionals.     

Focus-on-form instructional methods promote deaf college students' improvement in English grammar

Focus-on-form English teaching methods are designed to facilitate second-language learners' noticing of target language input, where "noticing" is an acquisitional prerequisite for the comprehension, processing, and eventual integration of new grammatical knowledge. While primarily designed for teaching hearing second-language learners, many focus-on-form methods lend themselves to visual presentation. This article reports the results of classroom research on the visually based implementation of focus-on-form methods with deaf college students learning English. Two of 3 groups of deaf students received focus-on-form instruction during a 10-week remedial grammar course; a third control group received grammatical instruction that did not involve focus-on-form methods. The 2 experimental groups exhibited significantly greater improvement in English grammatical knowledge relative to the control group. These results validate the efficacy of visually based focus-on-form English instruction for deaf students of English and set the stage for the continual search for innovative and effective English teaching methodologies.     

The historical context of science and education at the American Museum of Natural History

In this article I critically examine the historical context of science education in a natural history museum and its relevance to using museum resources to teach science today. I begin with a discussion of the historical display of race and its relevance to my practice of using the Museum’s resources to teach science. I continue with a critical review of the history of the education department in a natural history museum to demonstrate the historical constitution of current practices of the education department. Using sociocultural constructs around identity formation and transformation, I move to the present with a case study of a teacher who transforms the structure of science education in her classroom and school as a result of her identity transformation and association with a museum-based professional education program.

Doing the right thing: infants' selection of actions to imitate from observed event sequences

Two studies were conducted to investigate how 14- to 16-month-old infants select actions to imitate from the stream of events. In each study, an experimenter demonstrated two actions leading to an interesting effect. Aspects of the first action were manipulated and whether infants performed this action when given the objects was observed. In both studies, infants were more likely to imitate the first action when it was physically necessary to generate the effect, and in Study 2 they were also more likely to imitate the action when it was socially cued. It seems that infants' own knowledge of space and causality as well as their sensitivity to others' social signals both contribute to their tendency to imitate actions.     

Three universities in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: the struggle against corruption and for social cohesion

Universities may contribute to a nation’s social cohesion through both direct and indirect means. In their syllabi they may include techniques necessary for understanding complex social problems. Faculty may model good behaviour in terms of listening and understanding points of view that may contradict their own. University administrators may illustrate ways to lead honourably, which can enhance the chances for achieving consensus with respect to future dilemmas. This project assessed typical areas of university tension, including academic freedom, equity of participation and academic honesty. Three different universities were chosen as sites for faculty interviews—a foreign private university in Kyrgyzstan, a flagship state university in Georgia, and a regional teacher training college recently upgraded to university status in Northeast Kazakhstan. Results suggest that the single most important arena wherein universities can influence social cohesion in these countries is the manner by which they address education corruption. The paper reproduces the statements of those faculty members who participate in corruption as well as those who refuse to participate. It concludes with some predictions about the future of the relationship of higher education to social cohesion.

Closing the Gap: Fostering Successful Research‐Practice Partnerships in Counselor Education

Research‐practice partnerships offer counselor educators an opportunity to generate scholarship that can promote client welfare and create systemic change in practice and policy. The purpose of this article is to articulate strategies for building and sustaining research‐practice partnerships, as well as suggest methods for evaluating these partnerships.     

Consistently inconsistent: An examination of the variability in the identification of emotional disturbance

The federal definition of emotional disturbance (ED) has been heavily criticized as vaguely defined and poorly operationalized yet there has not been a formal analysis of the reliability of the ED criteria. This study examined the reliability of the federal criteria for a special education designation of ED. A total of 179 school psychologists reviewed a mock special education report, made an eligibility determination, and provided information about their eligibility decision. In all, 56 participants found the student met ED eligibility criteria using 16 different combinations of the five criteria. Krippendorff’s α, a statistic preferred for content analysis, was calculated as a measure of criterion reliability. Results indicated extremely poor reliability (α = 0.2011). These findings demonstrate the importance of redefining the existing criteria.