The Best of the Recent Literature Focusing on the User

This will be my first time authoring this column, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity it presents to explore the intersection of library technology and public services. As the recent title of the 2008 Internet Librarian conference indicates, Beyond Library 2.0: User-Focused Tools and Technologies, the tide of what for several years has felt like library technology evangelism is turning. A focus on more effective tech-based development in libraries is underway, one that privileges the actual impact of services on patrons over our need to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. This is a natural correction—libraries experienced a sort of “tech bubble” as early adopters enthusiastically explored the promise of new Web-based communication methods and user-created tools. After several years of trial and error, many early adopters now find themselves adjusting expectations, considering overall scalability, and evaluating outcomes of their early experiments. Much can be learned from these experiences, and a wealth of evidence, conjecture, and rules of thumb can now assist librarians in any stage of technology development prevent duplication of effort (and error). With this in mind, I will attempt to make this column as practically oriented as possible. I will draw from the knowledge of those who have confronted the types of issues and pitfalls inherent to library innovation, and I will explore proven approaches that can help librarians in the public services develop more effective and user-centered technologies. At times I will invite guest authors to describe best practices developed at their own institutions and/or explore topics that carry broad implications for public service practitioners.     

Improving the Cultural Competency of Social Work Students With a Social Privilege Activity

This article describes the development and utilization of an instructional activity created by the authors for the purposes of preparing social work students for culturally competent practice with members of historically oppressed populations. Experiential activities in the classroom provide an alternative approach to traditional pedagogical methods by positioning the learner at the center of an educational process that is grounded in reality. The activity is designed to highlight the social privileges of individuals and the inherent risks that are taken when deciding to challenge or confront oppressive structures, attitudes, and behaviors.     

Improving Museum Docents' Communication Skills

This article presents the results of a study evaluating a program to help museum docents improve accessibility for visitors with communication challenges (such as hearing, language and/or speech disorders). This was done by adapting docent presentations. The docents' speech patterns were evaluated before and after a training program, and showed significant improvements in the rate, duration, and use of pauses in their speech. There also was significant improvement in ensuring that view of their faces remained unobstructed—important for people with communication disorders—in order to facilitate the consistent visibility of their facial expressions and visual cues. The training was found to be effective in adjusting the docents' presentations so that the museum experience would be improved for visitors with communication challenges.     

Foundations for self-awareness: An exploration through autism

Developmental psychopathology holds promise for elucidating the structure of self-awareness. Here we studied social emotions in matched groups of children and adolescents with and without autism. Our aims were to determine whether there are potentially dissociable aspects of self-awareness, and to reconsider how the qualities of young children's engagement with other persons influences the development of their sense of self. Parent interviews yielded evidence that children with autism are limited in social-relational and emotional domains of self-awareness; for example, few were reported to show guilt, embarrassment, or shame. Yet according to parent report, most were affected by the moods of others, showed some degree of pity and concern, and manifested jealousy. When presented with videotaped scenes, participants with autism were similar to those without autism in identifying pride, guilt, and shame, and they were able to describe their own experiences of pride and, more rarely, guilt. In situations designed to elicit emotions, participants with autism were rated as showing pride, but they manifested lesser degrees and atypical qualities of guilt and coyness. Relatively few showed personal forms of self-consciousness when asked to pose for a photograph. We argue that in order for children to achieve depth in self-awareness, and to relate to themselves as occupying a distinctive stance within a framework of mutual self-other relatedness, they need to identify with the attitudes of other people. We interpret the present studies in terms of dissociations among three forms of social emotion: "person-centered" qualities of relational self-awareness that require identification and are specifically limited among children with autism, more diffuse modes of relational self-consciousness, and a third group of social emotions, epitomized by jealousy, situated in a separate developmental line. We propose a rebalancing of emotion theory that gives greater prominence to children's developing forms of interpersonal and intra-psychic relatedness.     

国际高等教育研究的现状及其对我国的启示——基于国外期刊高等教育研究论文量化分析

选择2000—2006年13种国际知名教育类期刊中涉及高等教育的研究论文,对其作者、研究方法、研究领域、引用数等情况进行的抽样量化分析显示,国际高等教育研究具有如下特点:偏重微观应用研究,问题导向性显著;实证研究居于主导地位,研究方法比较规范,地区间差异显著,美英居于绝对主导地位,西方中心主义倾向突出。借鉴国际经验,我国高等教育研究应以提高国际竞争力为导向,加快推进国际化进程;以方法论突破为重点,加强学科规范化建设;努力实现理论创新,着力构建中国特色高等教育学科体系,服务建设高等教育强国战略目标。     

学业情绪研究及其对学生发展的意义

学业情绪是在教学或学习过程中,与学生学业活动相关的各种情绪体验, 包括在课堂学习活动中和完成作业过程中以及考试期间的情绪体验。学业情绪与成就动机、归因、自我效能感有着密切的联系,良好的学业情绪不仅有助于学生认知活动的开展和主动学习态度的培养,而且有助于建立良好的师生关系,促进学生身心健康发展。因此,在教育教学中应加强对学生学业情绪的管理,并展开相关的研究。     

论我国硕士研究生教育学制及其改革

我国硕士研究生教育实行的是长学制,它是一个相对独立的教育层次,为我国各类高校和科研机构高层次人才培养和高水平科学研究输送了数十万生力军,在未来一个时期仍然是影响我国高校教师队伍建设的主要教育层次和教育形式。与此同时, 短学制硕士研究生教育的需求日益增强,这是我国经济和社会发展水平不断提高的必然结果。因此,硕士研究生教育应当积极探索长短学制并存的、多样化的人才培养模式,在改革学制的同时,加强教育观念创新,深化培养和管理工作改革,建立中国特色的硕士研究生教育新体系。