Starting the data conversation: informing data services at an academic health sciences library

Objective

The research obtained information to plan data-related products and services.

Methods

Biomedical researchers in an academic medical center were selected using purposive sampling and interviewed using open-ended questions based on a literature review. Interviews were conducted until saturation was achieved.

Results

Interview responses informed library planners about researchers’ key data issues.

Conclusions

This approach proved valuable for planning data management products and services and raising library visibility among clients in the research data realm.     

Talent,Schmalent: An Instructional Design/Action Research Framework for the Professionalization of Teaching in Academic Libraries

When myths become canonical beliefs within a professional culture, they can have a profound impact on professional practice. In this paper we identify as a pernicious educational myth the belief that the ability to teach well is a naturally occurring innate talent or skill. The first two sections of the paper aim to demonstrate (i) that the concept of the naturally gifted teacher is a myth based on factually incorrect assumptions about expertise development and (ii) that this myth has several major negative implications for professional practices around teaching in academic libraries. We then we draw on the education literature to offer an alternative model for the cultivation of teaching excellence, an instructional design/action research framework that prioritizes ‘deliberative’ practice over innate talent. We close with suggestions for how academic librarians and library administrators can implement this framework within their institutions.     

Four Cases of Transfer Leading to Accomplishment

Throughout their lives, individuals accumulate and apply lessons learned from instruction and experience. It is unclear how they transfer these lessons to become accomplished in their fields. In this exploratory study, we develop grounded hypotheses about the relationship of transfer to accomplishment. Selected individuals told stories about what they learned that influenced their major accomplishments, their sources, and timing. Findings indicate that individuality is magnified on the road to accomplishment, although shared lessons were evident. Attitudes and values, adopted and applied, seemed to play a special role in the passage from transfer to accomplishment.     

Prenatal Caloric Intake and the Development of Academic Achievement Among U.S. Children From Ages 5 to 14

Few studies have examined the relation between maternal caloric intake during pregnancy and growth in child academic achievement while controlling for important confounding influences. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the current study examined the effects of reduced prenatal caloric intake on growth in scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test from ages 5 to 14. While models controlling for within‐family covariates showed that prenatal caloric intake was associated with lower reading and mathematical achievement at age 5, models controlling for between‐family covariates (such as maternal IQ) and unobserved familial confounders revealed only a statistically significant association between siblings differentially exposed to prenatal caloric intake and mathematical achievement at age 5.     

Transforming education systems: comparative and critical perspectives on school leadership

The centrality of education in the pursuit of better economic and social prosperity is now well established. The dominance of human capital theory, which provides a strong argument for better education as a key factor in fuelling economic growth, has encouraged policy makers, in various countries, to focus on education reform as a key priority and to borrow policy solutions from other countries. This special edition explores one policy solution in depth. It investigates the preparation and training of school leaders in very different countries and takes a comparative perspective. This article argues that the limitations of standardized strategies are clearly visible when taking a comparative view and, most importantly, that context matters significantly in shaping, defining and explaining differential educational performance.     

Comparing performance: a cross-national investigation into the teaching of mathematics in primary classrooms in England and China

This article presents initial findings from an empirical study of the effectiveness of mathematics teaching (EMT). The article explores the teaching of mathematics in two very different contexts: England and China. Within each country, the target cohort of pupils were those aged 9–10 and overall, 19 teachers, 10 from England and nine from China, participated in the study together with their pupils (n = 562). Two internationally validated instruments were used to collect the data and teacher behaviours were also measured systematically. In addition, structured observation was undertaken in classrooms in both countries. The results show that, on average, Chinese teachers scored higher on effective teaching measures and Chinese pupils outscored their English peers in the tests that were part of the study. This research project is currently collecting qualitative data but its findings, to date, reinforce the findings from previous research studies suggesting that certain teacher behaviours and classroom factors work effectively to improve student learning outcomes.     

Multimodality in the Technical Communication Classroom: Viewing Classical Rhetoric Through a 21st Century Lens

The authors provide a robust framework for using rhetorical foundations to teach multimodality in technical communication, describing a pedagogical approach wherein students consider the rhetorical canons—invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory—when developing texts beyond print. Students learn to assess their own work, reflecting on how each canon contributed to the rhetorical effectiveness of their multimodal projects. The authors argue for using the canons as a rhetorical foundation for helping students understand technical communication in the digital age.     

A defensive mindset: A pattern of social information processing that develops early and predicts life course outcomes

The hypothesis was tested that some children develop a defensive mindset that subsumes individual social information processing (SIP) steps, grows from early experiences, and guides long-term outcomes. In Study 1 (Fast Track [FT]), 463 age-5 children (45% girls; 43% Black) were first assessed in 1991 and followed through age 32 (83% retention). In Study 2 (Child Development Project [CDP]), 585 age-5 children (48% girls, 17% Black) were first assessed in 1987 and followed through age 34 (78% retention). In both studies, measures were collected of early adverse experiences, defensive mindset and SIP, and adult outcomes. Across both studies, a robust latent construct of school-age defensive mindset was validated empirically (comparative fit index = .99 in each study) and found to mediate the impact of early child abuse (38% in FT and 29% in CDP of total effect) and peer social rejection (14% in FT and 7% in CDP of total effect) on adult incarceration.     

Academic leisure crafting: More than a respite to breath?

In the context of the increased frustration and anxiety around managerialism of universities, this article explores how a group of 11 academics, from three different universities, diverse disciplines and levels are responding collectively outside of their work. Moreover, it tracks the enactment of the ‘Slow Swimming Club’, initiated by the author and jointly participated in and shaped by these academics. The club represents a particular form of leisure crafting, called slow swimming. Using an autoethnographic approach, the impact of the Slow Swimming Club was explored over a 10-year period. The article reflects on the initial effect of this practice, around an individualised compensatory respite from the academics’ feelings of frustration and insecurity. This respite was framed in terms of temporal and aesthetic task crafting. The article then reflects on how the external, counter-performative nature of leisure crafting has opened up time and space for job crafting, back in their universities. The differentiating feature of this research is around the role of academic agency in moving beyond respite towards structural contestation and more systemic change. It also highlights the importance of the relationship between leisure and work within this crafting process. Through placing the aesthetic and temporal dimensions in the foreground, the article offers a significant conceptual contribution to crafting typology. It also extends slow scholarship, by advocating an embodied, sensual and experiential response to the fast pedagogies of managerialism.