Integrating technology in a field-based teacher training program: The PT3@ASU project

The Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative has funded various efforts to improve and enhance the technology preparation of preservice teachers. At Arizona State University, these efforts have focused on providing preservice teachers with opportunities to develop, implement, and evaluate their own instructional activities that utilize technology effectively and appropriately in authentic situations, to give them the myriad of tools necessary to integrate technology into teaching and learning activities. This paper focuses on the integration of these efforts into the field-based elementary education program, and discusses our formative evaluation of the field-based technology integration model, through the following questions: What are the preliminary successes of the model with regard to student perceptions, attitudes, and integration of technology into instructional activities? and What components of the model require additions or modifications?     

Credits, curriculum, and control in higher education: Cross-national perspectives

Through an examination of the higher education systems in threecountries (Indonesia, Nicaragua, and Vietnam), the authors explore howthe use of academic credits for monitoring student progress has been andcontinues to be linked to policies and institutions associated withcapitalist, market-driven economic systems. The recent histories ofthese countries and their current social and political contexts areanalyzed in relation to three interrelated themes that have emerged fromthe analysis of the three cases. These themes are: (1) Linkages topolitical and economic systems: higher education as vocationaltraining, (2) Standardization, efficiency, andtechnocracy, and (3) Who controls the curriculum? Inconclusion, the authors suggest that the academic credit system,embedded within a network of other educational practices, hastransformed the university into an institution focused on relativelynarrow, utilitarian aims rather than a more universal pursuit ofknowledge.     

Sports nutritionists’ perspectives on enablers and barriers to nutritional adherence in high performance sport: A qualitative analysis informed by the COM-B model and theoretical domains framework

ABSTRACT

Athlete adherence to nutritional guidance is critical for optimal health and performance, yet little is known about the barriers and enablers to athletes’ dietary behaviours within high-performance sport. To advance understanding, we applied a theoretical lens derived from the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation – Behaviour (COM-B) model and the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to explore the qualitative accounts of sports nutritionists. Five focus groups comprising sports nutritionists working in Olympic and Paralympic sport (n = 14), professional sport (n = 6), or both (n = 6) were undertaken. Thematic analysis was conducted and the interpretations of the findings were guided by COM-B and the TDF. To achieve nutritional adherence, the behavioural analysis identified the need to intervene across all three COM-B components and at least five associated TDF domains (e.g., decision-making processes, reinforcement, social influences, behavioural regulation and environmental context and resource). For the first time, the findings illustrate the complex interplay of the training setting with the capabilities, opportunities, and motivation of the practitioners, athletes and coaches. By applying established behavioural science theories to sports nutrition, the foundations for the development of targeted and multifaceted behavioural interventions addressing athlete dietary adherence in high-performance sport have been laid.     

Mothers' experiences of facilitated peer support groups and individual child health nursing support: a comparative evaluation

The “Early Bird Program” is a support group facilitated by child and family health nurses and offered to families of infants aged 0–8 weeks in South East Sydney, Australia. This paper describes the experiences of 20 women who participated in the Early Bird groups and 20 women who chose to use individual consultations with the child and family health nurse. The qualitative evaluation used focus groups and interviews with the 40 women, and data were analysed using content analysis. Key findings show the Early Bird Program mothers received support and knowledge from both the nurses and each other, while the women who utilised the individual consultations with the nurses sought out and received specific services and information that focused on the baby. The group approach appears to promote group relationships and to empower mothers as a group by de-emphasising the power and expertise of the professional.     

Increasing impact in a time of decreasing budgets

This virtual issue (VI) has been compiled to mark the CILIP Health Libraries Group Conference 2012. In line with the conference theme: ‘Health libraries under the microscope: perfecting your formula’, the VI is a collection of 10 articles and regular features that have been published in Health Information and Libraries Journal in the last 2 years. The VI focuses specifically on the topics of impact, value and cost‐effectiveness. All the articles and regular features contained in this VI are freely available online.     

Is What’s “Trending” What’s Worth Purchasing? Insights from a National Study of Collection Development Librarians

ABSTRACT

New forms of data like altmetrics are helping librarians to make smarter decisions about their collections. A recent nationwide study administered to librarians at R1 universities shines light on exactly how these metrics are being applied in academia. This article is based on a presentation from the NASIG 31st Annual Conference. It includes survey results addressing previously unknown rates of technology and metrics uptake among collection development librarians, the most popular citation databases and altmetrics services being used to make decisions, and surprising factors that affect attitudes toward the use of metrics.     

Teachers' Emotions and Teaching: A Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research

The purpose of this study is to review the limited literature on the emotional aspects of teachers' lives. First, a multicomponential perspective on emotions is described, then the existing literature on teachers' positive and negative emotions is reviewed and critiqued. Next is a summary of the literature suggesting that teachers' emotions influence teachers' and students' cognitions, motivation, and behaviors. Four areas for future research are proposed: management and discipline, adoption and use of teaching strategies, learning to teach, and teachers' motivation. An overview of research methods used in a multicomponential perspective on emotions is provided. This review draws on a variety of research literatures: educational psychology, social and personality psychology, educational sociology, and research on teachers and teaching.