Reinventing a health sciences digital library--organizational impact

What is the organizational impact of becoming a digital library, as well as a physical entity with facilities and collections? Is the digital library an add-on or an integrated component of the overall library package? Librarians see sweeping environmental and technological changes. The staff members feel exhilarated and challenged by the pressures to adapt quickly and effectively. Librarians recognize that a Web presence, like other technology components, must be continuously enhanced and regularly re-engineered. The Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is reinventing its digital presence to better meet the needs of the community. This paper provides a case study focusing on major changes in planning processes, organizational structure, staffing, budgeting, training, communications, and operations at the Health Sciences Library.     

Nichiren Buddhism and Deweyan Pragmatism: An Eastern-Western Integration of Thought

Let me begin by thanking the members of the George F. Kneller Advisory Committee and you the members of the American Educational Studies Association for inviting me to give the annual Kneller Lecture on this the fiftieth anniversary of the Association.The present phase of rising nationalism and growing global xenophobia does not suggest this is the season for the integration of international thought. Nonetheless, my lecture focuses on an instance of a nascent integration of Eastern and Western philosophical and educational ideas.     

Democratic science teaching: A role for the history of science

For John Dewey, democracy meant the opportunity and the ability to participate in the continuing conversation of the community. To participate effectively, education must free the intelligence to creatively reconstruct the community. Dewey traced logic back to its etymological roots in dialogue. The history of science is the history of a conversation of an international community. To participate in it effectively, students must free their intelligence. Logically, this is best done by creative and disciplined democratic classroom dialogue instead of the monologue common to so many schools. We recommend a dialogical model of science teaching.     

Working memory capacity and comprehension processes in deaf readers

This research studied deaf students' performance on memory span and component reading tasks that incorporated processes involved in higher level comprehension. The instruments developed in the study provide the basis for the measurement of functional working memory capacity, vocabulary knowledge, domain-relevant knowledge, and inference abilities. Multiple regression analysis was used to construct models that show the contributions of the independent assessments to reading comprehension ability. Overall results suggest that working memory operates as a general executive system, as indicated by significant correlations between subjects' performance on reading and nonreading tasks. Limitations in vocabulary knowledge continue to pose problems in reading for deaf individuals. General or procedural knowledge also plays a part in reading comprehension processes.     

Reading comprehension test item difficulty as a function of cognitive processing variables.

This study reports the results of a componential analysis of items comprising Sections A and C of Form Z of the reading comprehension portions of the California Achievement Tests (CAT) (Tiegs & Clark, 1963). A set of problem components or attributes characterizing the test items in terms of manifest content, psychologically salient features, and processing demands was developed, including methods for their quantification. The contributions of these components to task difficulty were then evaluated using linear regression methodology. Item difficulty indices were transformations of the familiar proportion-correct item score, obtained from data gathered during the spring of 1989 from 158 deaf examinees. Variation in the item difficulty values was substantially accounted for in terms of a small number of predictor variables (R2 greater than or equal to .90). Implications of the results for construct validity and interpretation of test scores are discussed.     

Readability of Informed Consent Documents at University Counseling Centers

The extent to which clients understand the nature and anticipated course of therapy is referred to as informed consent. Counseling psychologists often provide informed consent documents to enhance the education of services and for liability purposes. Professionals in numerous health care settings have evaluated the readability of their informed consent documents, but no such peer-reviewed research exists for university counseling centers. This study evaluated the informed consent documents for psychotherapy from university counseling centers using three readability formulas (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease Score, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook [SMOG] Grading). The findings support the authors’ exploratory hypotheses that informed consent documents in university counseling centers are rated as challenging to read for college students. Recommendations and implications for practice are discussed.