Choosing the right approach: Three models for teaching government information sources

Government information librarians value instruction as a way to promote their collections and meet their users’ information needs. Government information librarians must choose the most appropriate model for their audience and for the relevant learning outcomes in each instruction session they teach. This article discusses three models for teaching government information (traditional, information cycle, and critical thinking models) and identifies learning outcomes described in the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education that are associated with each model.     

Careers Under Stress: Teacher Adaptations at a Time of Intensive Reform

There is currently a crisis of recruitment and retention of teachers in the United Kingdom. One feature of this trend is the number of teachers who are leaving the profession prematurely in reaction to the changed nature and organization of their work. This article focuses on how the crisis was experienced at the level of the individual. It explores the perceptions and interpretations of a group of teachers who left teaching or who considered leaving but remained by making adaptations to their roles; adaptations of retreatism; downshifting; and self-actualisation. The article uses data from a longitudinal study of a sample of English primary school teachers who are experiencing or have experienced occupational stress and stress-related illness. Unpredictable and stress-induced breaks in the teachers' careers are defined as `fateful moments' involving a `reassessment' and `redefinition' of each teacher's self, commitment and career. This case study of teacher stress makes emerging patterns and experiences of teacher career in the conditions of `late modernity' highly visible. The article concludes by arguing that the new and unplanned disruption in careers can involve the teachers in repeated re-inventions of the self (a stressful and convoluted process in itself) and that a reconceptualisation of teacher career is required.     

The use of skill tests to predict status in junior Australian football

This study examined whether skill tests were predictive of status in junior Australian football. Players were recruited from the 2013 under 18 (U18) West Australian Football League competition and classified into two groups: elite (state U18 squad representative; n = 25; 17.9 ± 0.5 years) and subelite (nonstate U18 squad representative; n = 25; 17.3 ± 0.6 years). Both groups completed the Australian football kicking (AFK) and Australian football handballing (AFHB) tests, assessing kicking accuracy/ball speed and handballing accuracy on dominant and nondominant sides. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) modelled the main effect of “status”, whilst logistic regression models were built for the predictive analysis using the same test parameters. Between-group differences were noted across all parameters, with the combination of kicking accuracy and ball speed on the dominant and nondominant sides being the best predictor of status for the AFK test (wi = 0.25, AUC = 89.4%) and the combination of accuracy on the dominant and nondominant sides being the best predictor of status for the AFHB test (wi = 0.80, AUC = 88.4%). The AFK and AFHB tests are predictive of status, suggesting that their use is warranted as a means of talent identification in junior Australian football.     

Allowing learners to choose: self-controlled practice schedules for learning multiple movement patterns

For this study, we investigated the effects of self-controlled practice on learning multiple motor skills. Thirty participants were randomly assigned to self-control or yoked conditions. Participants learned a three-keystroke pattern with three different relative time structures. Those in the self-control group chose one of three relative time structures before each of 90 practice trials; yoked participants were not allowed to choose but were yoked to a self-control participant and followed that individual's sequence of practice trials. Results of the 24-hr serial transfer test revealed the self-control group exhibited significantly lower relative timing error, absolute error, and total error than the yoked group. Findings further support the efficacy of self-controlled learning     

Educational psychology service contribution to community cohesion: an appreciative inquiry

ABSTRACT

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) calls for education to prepare children for ‘ … responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin’. The current study examines the potential role of Educational Psychologists (EPs) in addressing the UNCRC call to promote community cohesion through their work in schools. Through an Appreciative Inquiry cycle EPs considered facilitators of and barriers to working with communities. Facilitators included EP practices, skills and knowledge and seeing schools as communities in themselves. Barriers included public service funding and aspects of service delivery. A multi-level approach to promoting community cohesion is put forward, including acknowledgement of the context within which the work takes place as well as positing a continuum of community cohesion to community conflict.