Perceptions of Work–Life Balance for Urban Academic Librarians: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The topic of work–life balance (WLB) has gotten a lot of attention in popular literature, but there has been little library scholarship on the issue. This exploratory study presents the perceptions of 329 academic librarians on what they believe an ideal WLB looks like, and how it impacts their personal and professional responsibilities. The authors asked about strategies for a successful WLB, about overall job satisfaction, coping strategies, and more. The study is intended to prompt discussions of the topic, and lead to an exploration of how to continue to grow and support a strong workforce.     

Challenges of ‘thinking differently’ with rhizoanalytic approaches: a reflexive account

Growing numbers of educational researchers are using rhizoanalytic approaches based on the work of Deleuze and Guattari to think differently in their research practices. However, as those engaging in debates about post-qualitative research suggest, thinking differently is not without its challenges. This paper uses three complex challenges encountered in the author's doctoral research – concerned with the early childhood education workforce – to reflexively explore some of the implications of thinking differently with rhizoanalytic approaches. In particular, the author discusses ways of making correctives to: repetition and thinking differently, ways that subjects are produced as-and-in-assemblages, and, immanent ethics. The paper concludes with some possible implications of these challenges and correctives for research practices, and for debates about post-qualitative research.     

Engineering an online course: applying the 'secrets' of computer programming to course development

Colleges and universities are increasingly migrating towards utilising the World Wide Web to convey at least part of, and in many cases, their entire curricular offering. Despite this trend there is little support for the professors responsible for translating courses refined over a career in the classroom for delivery via the Web. Teachers who are experts in their subject area and masters of their craft when in a classroom find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to relearn how to teach in a new environment with little or no support. Development of an online course is, in many significant aspects, analogous to developing a computer product. The procedures and tools utilised in the software engineering field to manage computer software development, therefore, offer promise for developing online courses. This paper explores the potential of one process developed for the software engineering field—the System Development Lifecycle (SDL)—as a tool to effectively design and develop online college courses.     

Improving self-monitoring and self-regulation: From cognitive psychology to the classroom

Although there is abundant experimental metamemory research on the relation between students’ monitoring, regulation of learning, and learning outcomes, relatively little of this work has influenced educational research and practice. Metamemory research, traditionally based on experimental paradigms from cognitive psychology, can potentially contribute to designing and improving educational interventions that foster self-monitoring and self-regulation in children, adolescents, and young adult learners. We describe the metamemory paradigm, and provide a short overview of the insights it has generated with regard to improving metacognitive skills in these groups of learners. Moreover, we summarize the contributions to this special issue on translating insights from cognitive psychology research on metamemory to educational research and practice, and describe possible themes and directions for future research that could further bridge the gap between fundamental and more applied research on metacognition, so as to design effective educational interventions.