Providing Help in Hard Times: A Blueprint for Successful Strategic Planning

ABSTRACT

In response to a lack of funding during the 2007–2009 recession, many library systems reduced or eliminated professional and library support positions. Traditional outcome measurements were not sufficient to convince tax-depleted legislatures to allocate more funds to libraries. In response to the crisis authors recommended cost-saving measures and tactics for perception management. Studies have shown that the demand for library services increases during times of economic hardship. The production of a strategic plan justifying budget requests is necessary in those times, and should be accompanied by efforts to secure endowment and donation opportunities. This column provides a table or “blueprint for successful strategic planning” that matches goals, actions and measurement criteria.     

The Relationship Between Chinese Students’ Subject Matter Knowledge and Argumentation Pedagogy

Science education in China is Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) oriented in that SMK understanding is the major benchmark to assess students’ achievement in science learning. Such an orientation causes students to overemphasize the memorization of SMK and neglect other indispensable components of science, such as scientific attitudes and research skills. The central government in China launched an educational innovation known as New Curriculum Reform in 2003. Considerable progress has been made in the past 11 years in regard to theoretical understandings and administrative priorities, but little progress has been made in terms of classroom instruction and scientific literacy cultivation at the secondary level. Under the pressure of nationwide standardized exams, any educational innovations are unlikely to be accepted unless there is robust evidence suggesting their efficacy in promoting students’ achievements on exams, or even attempted unless teachers are assured such attempts will not negatively impact such achievement. Argumentation-integrated curriculum is one such innovation. Scientific argumentation is an essential scientific activity that leads to the development of an explanation based on empirical evidence. An initial foundation of SMK, in terms of the necessary background knowledge, is considered by many to be a vital component of argumentation and an enhanced SMK is one of the intended products of argumentation. The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to investigate the relationship between Chinese students’ SMK levels and argumentation pedagogy and to provide insights into a possible research agenda focused on implementing argumentation in a heavily SMK-oriented context.     

Framing evolution discussion intellectually

This study examines how a first‐year biology teacher facilitates a series of whole‐class discussions about evolution during the implementation of a problem‐based unit. A communicative theoretical perspective is adopted wherein evolution discussions are viewed as social events that the teacher can frame intellectually (i.e., present or organize as exchanges of an intellectual nature). Furthermore, we characterize teacher framing of evolution discussion in terms of five communicative components: focus, orientation, social structure, mood, and participatory nature. Our video‐based analyses revealed that the teacher paid little attention to the conceptual contents and history of evolutionary theory, framing evolution discussions as moderately playful and partially mandatory events focused mainly on student sharing of ideas (i.e., personal opinions) and polite communication of evolution. Within this framing, the teacher adopted the role of a neutral (though admittedly biased) facilitator with an intermediary expert status (less knowledgeable than evolutionary biologists) and who was legally required (though also inclined) to discuss evolution. The main significance of this study is that it provides new and useful insights into social phenomena such as respect, politeness, and humor in the context of evolution discussion as well as a robust theoretical framework for analyzing evolution discussion from a social perspective. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 257–280, 2011