EditorialEvidence based library and information practice

Whilst many of us engage in supporting clinicians in identifying, appraising and using evidence, how many of us adopt the same approach to our own work? A recent survey by the UK LIS Research Coalition indicated that 60% of respondents use research reports as a source of information whilst a similar proportion of health library respondents use professional events such as conferences as a source of information. This summer sees the 6^th International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP6) being held at the University of Salford, UK between 27^th‐30^th June which will go some way to satisfying this latter information need whilst the Health Information and Libraries Journal can help satisfy the need for research reports. Whatever you’re doing this summer, let’s make it evidence based.     

Supporting School Readiness Through Librarian-Child Interactions in Public Library Storytimes: An Analysis of Assessment Scores and Influential Factors

Early Childhood Education Journal - A recent trend in public libraries′ children’s services emphasizes the role of promoting school readiness. In order to gain a deeper understanding of...     

Assessing the Epistemic Analysis Competence of Prospective Primary School Teachers on Proportionality Tasks

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - Solving problems by different methods, identifying the knowledge put at stake in each case, and stating variants of the problems are...     

The role of feedback in e-assessments for engineering education

The aim of this investigation was to compare two differently designed e-assessments (formative assessments) which supported the same engineering courses for two academic years. In this investigation two group of students participated (Control Group: CG and Experimental Group: EG). The teachers followed exactly the same teaching approach using the same learning tools (apart from the e-assessments) in the same learning environment. The first group of students (CG) had the opportunity to timely receive grades along with the correct answers, when they submitted the e-assessments on-line. The teachers themselves designed these e-assessments in BlackBoard Vista© learning environment. The second group of students (EG) had the opportunity to receive feedback each on their own individual responses having unlimited attempts to participate in the e-assessments designed by PhD students. We will demonstrate that the addition of individual feedback and the unlimited attempts increased the EG group performance at the end of the courses (summative assessment) in comparison to the CG group of students.     

Information and its value to health workers in rural Uganda: a qualitative perspective*

A study was conducted in 1998/99 to investigate the accessibility and use of information by health workers in rural Uganda. Data were collected qualitatively using semi‐structured interviews. As a qualitative study, it focused in‐depth on a relatively small sample of health workers selected purposefully. Different categories of health workers were interviewed. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach. In this paper, two main categories that emerged from the data will be discussed, namely: value of information and constraints. Information was valuable in clinical work, information dissemination, decision making, administration and detection. Constraints to effective information use included the quality and relevance of the information as well as the difficulties of sometimes putting theory into practice. Finally, the concepts that emerged from the analysis of the use of information pointed directly to the information needs of the health workers studied, which shows that information was valuable in meeting those needs. Some implications of the study and areas for further research are highlighted.     

Typical Didactical Activities in the Greek Early‐Years Science Classroom: Do they promote science learning?

This paper presents an epistemological analysis of typical didactical activities noted in early‐years science lessons, which was carried out in an attempt to diagnose the extent to which the teaching practices adopted by early‐years educators are successful in supporting young children’s understanding in science. The analysis of didactical activities used a framework that allowed us to discover whether they promoted desired connections between theoretical ideas, evidence and the material world. Theoretical ideas, evidence and the material world are entities internal to scientific inquiry and, in educational contexts, connections between them are considered essential in assisting the development of young children’s scientific thinking. The results indicated that in the early‐years science classroom scientific activity was mainly confined to the representational level. Intervention practices into the material world were limited, and were based on collected evidence. No interventions based on ideas were identified in the science lessons. Missing links between evidence and theory and between ideas and the material world suggest that the didactical activities analysed did not promote scientific understanding.     

Teacher stance in creative learning: A study of progression

This paper reports focused findings from a qualitative scoping study undertaken in four sites in England focusing on progression in creative learning (PICL) (February 2005–January 2006), funded by Creative Partnerships, a national development programme. The study sought to explore how progression in creative learning can be described in two curriculum areas. The paper introduces the analytic framework which emerged from the study, and summarises some of the key findings, with a particular focus on teacher stance, taking this slice of analysis further than is done in the original research report and discussing in particular teachers’ attitudes toward creative learning and toward teaching for creative learning.