MAINTAINING,REFRAMING, AND DISRUPTING TRADITIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND OUTCOMES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH CRITICAL FRIENDS GROUPS

Districts across the country are currently adopting models of professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means for improving teachers' instructional practice and student achievement. This evaluation research case study shares the 3-year history, development, and challenges of a district-wide implementation of Critical Friends Groups (CFGs), a particular format for PLCs. Using Argyris and Schön's (1974) theories of action framework, the authors identify teachers' espoused theories about a contextually situated CFG initiative and examine teachers' conceptualizations about the ways in which their work influences the progression and effectiveness of this professional development model. Findings from this study suggest that the degree to which the CFG implementation model is integrated with other school improvement initiatives, specifically those that address teachers' professional development, dramatically influences how key stakeholders conceptualize and draw the necessary connections to their roles in improving instructional practice and addressing student achievement and learning.     

Do creativity self-beliefs predict literacy achievement and motivation?

Previous work has suggested that creativity self-beliefs show only small relations with academic achievement and may only be related to intrinsic, not extrinsic motivation. We set out to re-examine these relationships accounting for the multifaceted and process embedded nature of creativity self-beliefs and the full domain range of extrinsic motivation. One hundred and twenty-two secondary school pupils completed self-report measures of creativity self-beliefs and motivation and were administered as test of fluid intelligence. Creativity self-beliefs were positively related to teacher assessed literacy attainment, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and also inversely related to amotivation. Creativity self-beliefs accounted for a significant additional proportion of variance in both literacy achievement and in motivational measures, beyond that already accounted for by fluid intelligence. These findings suggest that it is important to attend to the multifaceted nature of creative self-beliefs and the full domain range of extrinsic motivation.     

RSS made easy: a basic guide for librarians

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) uses extensive markup language (XML) to constantly scan the content of Web sites for updates, which will then be delivered to subscribers' desktops or mobile devices through an RSS feed. RSS helps professionals stay current while reducing workloads. Librarians need to get familiar with RSS to educate their users, to stay current in information technology, and to generate and disseminate selected information to target user groups. doi:10.1300/J115v26n01_04.     

Get the cite right: Design and evaluation of a high-quality online citation tutorial

As part of a library initiative to foster information literacy, promote academic integrity, and prevent inadvertent plagiarism, a high-quality online tutorial was designed to teach students to cite sources properly. The development of this tutorial, APA Exposed: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About APA Format but Were Afraid to Ask, was a collaborative endeavor among research and instruction librarians, learning technology specialists, and an instructor. This study employs a mixed-methods research approach that combines the use of multiple data sources – an online survey, website visitor-tracking software, e-mail correspondence, and a Google search – to evaluate the quality and efficacy of the tutorial. Analyses of online survey data indicate 98% of survey respondents found the tutorial useful or very useful. All of the respondents reported the tutorial improved their understanding of APA style. In addition, 93% of respondents said they planned to use this tutorial as a reference resource in the future and 99% said they would recommend the tutorial to others. The online tutorial received an average of 1055 visits per month. The findings of this study indicate that there is a need for high-quality online citation instruction and that the tutorial meets this need. Providing effective citation instruction online not only benefits tutorial participants but also research and instruction librarians as they can now allocate limited library resources to areas of instruction other then proper citation techniques.     

It's installed ... now get on with it! Looking beyond the software to the cultural change

This case study looks at the lessons learned from the ultimately successful implementation of the Blackboard Managed Learning Environment at Northumbria University and explores how these are now being applied to the matching implementation at a local further education college, which we are supporting. The study identifies key aspects that emerged from Northumbria's experience—the application of models of innovation from both educational and business worlds, the need to take account of the impact of cultural change, the need for effective staff development for all stakeholders, the need for a ‘road map’ for the development, and the need for ongoing dialogue with clients (staff) and customers (students). It reflects upon how Northumbria's approach has led to the emergence of a learning organisation that is adaptive and responsive and how a business approach can be applied to higher and further education innovations.