Developing Reading Partnerships Between Parents and Children: A Reflection on the Reading Together Program

Early reading exposure is important in setting a foundation for students to acquire the basic literacy skills that set them up for school and life success. More importantly, parent involvement at an early age is a critical component of reading skills development. This report presents an overview of the Reading Together Program that introduced families of young children ages 6–36 months in a community-based setting to the necessary skills, techniques, and resources to enhance their knowledge of how to effectively develop a reading partnership with their children. Additionally, this free reading program that was sponsored by a faculty development grant invited parents to play an active role in their children’s reading journey. Results indicated that parents understood and appreciated the value of early reading habits, and would continue to nurture the reading relationship with their children. This article also presents responses of the initial and final reading perception surveys as well as implications for future research and practice.     

Using a wiki to facilitate an online professional learning community for induction and mentoring teachers

The purpose of this case study was to report on the use of a wiki as a tool for conducting online professional learning communities (OLCs) with 26 induction and mentor teachers. Data sources include teachers’ wiki postings and teacher interviews. Results indicate that: (a) Web 2.0 tools may be most effective in OLCs when the social features are utilized in addition to the features that enable task completion; (b) Using Web 2.0 tools restrictively, and without consideration of their affordances, may inhibit the success of OLCs; (c) Online learning communities for induction teachers may be most effective when supplemented with face-to-face discussion; and (d) A task-driven environment in OLCs can encourage professional dialogue and reflection, but may make induction teachers feel isolated and unsupported.     

Delayed matching to sample: Reinforcement has opposite effects on resistance to change in two related procedures

The effects of reinforcement on delayed matching to sample (DMTS) have been studied in two within-subjects procedures. In one, reinforcer magnitudes or probabilities vary from trial to trial and are signaled within trials (designated signaled DMTS trials). In the other, reinforcer probabilities are consistent for a series of trials produced by responding on variable-interval (VI) schedules within multiple-schedule components (designated multiple VI DMTS). In both procedures, forgetting functions in rich trials or components are higher than and roughly parallel to those in lean trials or components. However, during disruption, accuracy has been found to decrease more in rich than in lean signaled DMTS trials and, conversely, to decrease more in lean than in rich multiple VI DMTS components. In the present study, we compared these procedures in two groups of pigeons. In baseline, forgetting functions in rich trials or components were higher than and roughly parallel to those in lean trials or components, and were similar between the procedures. During disruption by prefeeding or extinction, accuracy decreased more in rich signaled DMTS trials, whereas accuracy decreased more in lean multiple VI DMTS components. These results replicate earlier studies and are predicted by a model of DMTS from Nevin, Davison, Odum, and Shahan (2007).     

Prominent Messages in Television Drama Switched at Birth Promote Attitude Change Toward Deafness

The study at hand employed a pre- versus posttest experimental design to test the effects of television drama Switched at Birth on viewers’ attitudes toward deafness. This program tells the story of two teenage girls (one of whom is deaf) and their struggles to relate to their peers and families after discovering they were switched as newborns. Two hundred eleven female adults completed pre- and postexposure measures utilizing Cooper, Rose, and Mason's (2004 Cooper , A. , Rose , J. , &; Mason , O. ( 2004 ). Measuring the attitudes of human service professionals toward deafness . American Annals of the Deaf , 148 , 385 – 389 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Attitudes to Deafness measure, the items of which were categorized according to thematic dimensions. After exposure to one of three episodes, viewers’ attitudes toward deafness significantly improved overall, although significant differences in attitude changes varied by episodes and dimensions. The three thematic dimensions that were most strongly represented in the program (social interaction, deafness as a handicap, and language issues) appeared to show the strongest attitude change. Positive attitude changes were observed on social interaction and deafness as handicap dimensions, which was consistent with program content depicting positive deaf-hearing friendships and capable deaf characters. However, attitudes on the language issues dimension showed a negative shift, possibly due to the way that deaf characters communicated with hearing characters onscreen.     

Measuring patrons' technology habits: an evidence-based approach to tailoring library services

Librarians continually integrate new technologies into library services for health sciences students. Recently published data are lacking about student ownership of technological devices, awareness of new technologies, and interest in using devices and technologies to interact with the library. A survey was implemented at seven health sciences libraries to help answer these questions. Results show that librarian assumptions about awareness of technologies are not supported, and student interest in using new technologies to interact with the library varies widely. Collecting this evidence provides useful information for successfully integrating technologies into library services.     

Motivated by Meaning: Testing the Effect of Knowledge‐Infused Rewards on Preschoolers' Persistence

Research and theory suggest that young children are highly attuned to causality. This study explores whether this drive can motivate task engagement. Fifty‐six 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds completed a motor task as many times as desired, viewing a picture of a novel item upon each completion. Forty‐two randomly assigned children then received either: (a) causally rich information regarding the item, (b) causally weak information regarding the item, or (c) a tangible reward. The remaining 14 children participated in a baseline condition featuring no rewards. Preschoolers completed more trials when rewarded with causally rich than causally weak information, or when given no reward. Children also trended toward lengthier persistence in the causally rich than the tangible reward condition. Implications for theory and educational practice are discussed.     

Perceptions of parental substance use disorders in cross-system collaboration among child welfare,alcohol and other drugs,and dependency court organizations

Cross-system collaboration among child welfare (CW), alcohol and other drugs (AOD), and court organizations shows promise in addressing the many needs of CW-involved families experiencing parental substance use disorders (SUDs). Research has suggested that differing perceptions of parents with SUDs among staff in these organizations may hinder the collaborative process. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach, this study explored staff perceptions of parental SUDs among CW, AOD, and court organizations. Logistic regression analyses indicated that, compared to CW respondents, AOD respondents were: (a) less likely to believe that parents could provide effective parenting; (b) more likely to believe that abstinence should be a criterion for reunification; (c) more likely to agree that parents should receive jail time as a consequence for noncompliance with court orders; and (d) more likely to believe that parents could succeed in treatment. Thematic analyses of these focal areas identified two core themes (focus on the primary client and mandated time frames for permanency), as well as multiple subthemes, that provided a nuanced understanding of differing perceptions on these matters. Suggestions for the development of anticipatory cross-system training and practices and implications for policy evaluation are discussed.     

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Ideas About Scientific Practices

With the goal of producing scientifically literate citizens who are able to make informed decisions and reason critically when science intersects with their everyday lives, the National Research Council (NRC) has produced two recent documents that call for a new approach to K-12 science education that is based on scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. These documents will potentially influence future state standards and K-12 curricula. Teachers will need support in order to teach science using a practices based approach, particularly if they do not have strong science backgrounds, which is often the case with elementary teachers. This study investigates one cohort (n = 19) of preservice elementary teachers’ ideas about scientific practices, as developed in a one-semester elementary science teaching methods course. The course focused on eight particular scientific practices, as defined by the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (2012). Participants’ written reflections, lesson plans and annotated teaching videos were analyzed in fine detail to better understand their ideas about what it means to engage in each of the practices. The findings suggest that preservice elementary teachers hold promising ideas about scientific practices (such as an emphasis on argumentation and communication between scientists, critical thinking, and answering and asking questions as the goal of science) as well as problematic ideas (including confusion over the purpose of modeling and the process of analysis, and conflating argumentation and explanation building). These results highlight the strengths and limitations of using the Framework (NRC 2012) as an instructional text and the difficulties of differentiating between preservice teachers’ content knowledge about doing the practices and their pedagogical knowledge about teaching the practices.     

“I Can Air My Feelings Instead of Eating Them”: Blogging as Social Support for the Morbidly Obese

The morbidly obese, defined as people who are 100 pounds or more overweight, are the fastest growing population among the obese. They often live with health risks, face discrimination, and lack traditional social support. This article explores the use of weight loss blogs by the morbidly obese (N = 50) and argues that blogging provides invaluable computer-mediated social support for them in four ways: (a) it allows for empathy; (b) it ensures accountability to others; (c) it provides venting and advice seeking; and (d) it shares validation of the weight loss experience. Additionally, the article argues that social support scholars must move beyond chat rooms and message boards as media and explore more media-rich environments such as blogging and social networks.     

Meeting Evolving Research and Curriculum Needs: A Survey of Interlibrary Loan and OhioLINK Borrowing at an Academic Law Library

The research goal was to study the law faculty's interlibrary loan and OhioLINK borrowing activity to assess current subject gaps in the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library's collection. The authors analyzed and collated faculty research interests. The results indicate that additional purchases are required to support international law and health law, two curriculum areas currently under development at Cleveland-Marshall.