Formative and summative evaluation in the faculty peer review of teaching

If the process of the faculty peer review of teaching is to overcome institutional marginalization, then its formative and summative components must employ rules, criteria, and standards for the identification of effective teaching that have been agreed to within a peer conversation among the faculty members of a scholarly unit. This conversation serves to collectively clarify the unit's expectations for its curriculum, teaching, and student learning. Only such a process can produce the credibility necessary to regularly effect the faculty development and personnel decisions of a unit.Dr. Ronald R. Cavanagh holds a doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, a Master of Divinity from Moravian College and the Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in English. Since coming to Syracuse University in 1967, Dr. Cavanagh has served as a faculty member in and chairperson of the Department of Religion, Associate Dean, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he is presently the University's Vice President for Undergraduate Studies. In 1995, he was a participant in the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard Univesity, Boston, Massachusetts.     

Contemporary practices in school psychology: A national survey of roles and referral problems

Eight hundred school psychologists who were members of the National Association of School Psychologists were mailed a survey designed to assess their roles, types of referrals, consultation practices, and crisis team involvement. Three hundred seventy (49%) completed surveys were analyzed. Assessment was the most common role followed distantly by consultation. Academic problems were the most frequent type of referral with reading being the most common concern. Of the behavioral referrals, externalizing problems were more frequent than internalizing concerns. Behavioral consultation was the most common model used but less than half of respondents follow all of the stages. Only forty percent use an evaluative component in consultation. A majority of the informants had some involvement with their schools' crisis team. Implications of these findings for training, professional development, and future roles are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Desktop Video Conferencing

As a relatively new delivery medium, desktop video conferencing (DVC) promises to bring traditional face-to-face teaching to computer screens. Although ample literature covers incorporating technology into classrooms, little documents the experiences and perceptions of participants in DVC courses and DVC's effects on teaching and learning. A recent ethnographic study that examined incidental learning in five DVC courses offered at an American university found that incidental learning often overshadowed the planned curriculum and found a high level of participant frustration. The study's results reaffirmed the importance of incidental learning in a DVC course and of developing an environment that reduces faculty and student frustrations.     

Woeginger's axiomatisation of the h-index and its relation to the g-index, the h-index and the R-index

Recently Woeginger [Woeginger, G. H. (2008-a). An axiomatic characterization for the Hirsch-index. Mathematical Social Sciences. An axiomatic analysis of Egghe's g-index. Journal of Informetrics] introduced a set of axioms for scientific impact measures. These lead to a characterization of the h-index. In this note we consider a slight generalization and check which of Woeginger's axioms are satisfied by the g-index, the h⁽²⁾-index and the R²-index.     

Innovation in academic libraries: An analysis of university librarians' perspectives

Through a series of structured interviews, university librarians at six institutions provided their perspectives on innovation in academic libraries. The literature on leadership styles and organizational change provides insight into the roles of these leaders in the innovation process. Leadership was cited by many researchers as being a critical factor for organizations to innovate. University librarians revealed a commitment to innovation, some distinctively nontraditional innovations, and a concern for how to encourage risk-taking behavior. Further insight into the innovation process was sought by interpreting the interview data within a larger theoretical context. Although leadership and management can foster innovation in a library, researchers have reported other factors that can influence the ability to innovate, including organizational aspects – size and complexity – and environmental factors. Beyond the organizational aspects, the individual and the norms of the profession appear to create a framework with certain boundaries, some of which may impact the ability to innovate.