Rising like a glorious turkey from the ashes of burnout

Abstract

Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries recently held its first library-centered First-Year Experience course. To develop an appealing class for first-semester students, the authors turned to game-based learning in conjunction with a portion of the school identity to teach the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy that they hoped would resonate with the students. This article discusses the games that were implemented along with the corresponding IL framework and assessment of the course. The authors were able to increase student scores from 66.4% (pretest average) to 84.31% (post-test average).     

Finding their way: How public library users wayfind

A multi-method case study research design, guided by Passini's conceptual framework of wayfinding, was employed to investigate library user wayfinding behavior within the entry area of a medium-sized public library facility. The case study research design included document review of the library's wayfinding information system; unobtrusive observation of library user wayfinding behavior; intensive interviews with library users to discuss their views on wayfinding in the library; and an expert review with library staff and a library wayfinding and signage expert to validate research findings. Overall, the study found library users' wayfinding behavior to be generally inconsistent over time, but that there are users who stick to predominant segments (those segments used heavily to connect two particular nodes, or stops). Those segments tend to be the straightest or most direct segments connecting two given nodes. Also, users appear to employ Passini's wayfinding styles more often than his wayfinding strategies, but additional research is needed that delves more deeply into these cognitive processes.     

Modeling Group Differences in OLS and Orthogonal Regression: Implications for Differential Validity Studies

In evaluating the relationship between two measures across different groups (i.e., in evaluating “differential validity”) it is necessary to examine differences in correlation coefficients and in regression lines. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is the standard method for fitting lines to data, but its criterion for optimal fit (minimizing the squared vertical distances between the points and the line) is less natural in many contexts than the criterion used in orthogonal regression (minimizing the squared Euclidean distances of points from the line). OLS regression is appropriate if the goal is to predict some unknown dependent variable from a known independent variable, but in examining the relationship between two variables, which both contain error, OLS regression introduces bias. This bias, associated with regression toward the mean, can suggest that the test scores have different relationships, and therefore different meanings, in two groups, when the two sets of test scores have the same relationship and the same meanings in the two groups. The impact of regression toward the mean in differential validity studies is illustrated with two synthetic and two real data sets. Each of the two real data sets include two measures of competence in applying legal principles to fact situations (an essay test and a multiple-choice test) for candidates in two groups (Black/White in the first example and women/men in the second example).     

Serial Argumentation Goals and Their Relationships to Perceived Resolvability and Choice of Conflict Tactics

The present study utilized a scale that measured Bevan, Hale, and Williams' (2004) serial argumentation goals and associated these goals with the perceived resolvability of the serial argument and serial argument conflict tactics. College students reporting on current and former dating partnerships completed a written survey containing close-ended items. Six of Bevan et al.'s (2004) ten original goals again emerged from data analyses, and the four remaining goals combined to form a single goal. These seven serial argument goals were related to perceived resolvability and conflict tactics in generally expected ways.     

Reviews

FREEDOM SPENT. By Richard Harris. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1976; pp. 460. $12.95.

MALE/FEMALE LANGUAGE, WITH A COMPREHENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY. By Mary Ritchie Key. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1975; pp. vii + 200; $7.95.

CONTEMPORARY SPEECH: A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO COMMUNICATION. Compiled by Mary Frances Hopkins and Beverly Whitaker. Edited by Bernard Brommel. Skokie, IL: National Textbook Company, 1976; pp. ix + 316. $11.

COMMUNICATING. By Anita Taylor, Teresa Rosegrant, Authur Meyer, and B. Thomas Samples. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., pp. xiii + 466. $9.95.

MASTERING CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION: WHAT INTERACTION ANALYSIS TELLS THE TEACHER. By Dorothy Grant Hennings. Pacific Palisades, California: Goodyear Publishing Company, 1975; pp. xiii + 193. $5.95.

THE RHETORIC OF WESTERN THOUGHT. By James L. Golden, Goodwin F. Berquist, and William E. Coleman. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1976; pp. 272. Paper $9.95.     

Imagining Recovery,Resilience, and Vulnerability at 75: Perceptions of Social Work Students

BSW and MSW students (N = 183) read one of three vignettes and were asked to respond to 21 items investigating their perceptions about depression, anxiety, and resilience of the vignette's character. While the incidents in each vignette were identical, the main character was (a) a 75-year-old Mr. Jones, (b) a 75-year-old Ms. Jones, or (c) “Imagine you are 75 years old.” The character of each vignette had lost a spouse, was a victim of a mugging, and was exhibiting symptoms of depression and anxiety. The 21 items were analyzed by vignette type using a General Linear Model (GLM) and controlling for student type (BSW, MSW) and ethnocultural identity (member of the dominant or minority group). The GLM was significant (F = 3.020, df = 42, p = .000). There were significant differences among the vignette types in 11 of the 21 items. In general, respondents were more likely to perceive that they would be more resilient and less vulnerable at 75 than other 75-year-old men and women.     

Training Alone Is Not Enough

Improving healthcare services in the developing world remains a major goal for many organizations and despite enormous training and program investments from international organizations, service improvements have been modest. This study looks at how to improve results by examining the relationship between the conditions in a healthcare providers' work environment and his or her performance. Drawing upon a human performance model that assumes that performance expectations, timely feedback, adequate environment, incentives, and skills and knowledge are required for a worker to perform well, this study explores how these conditions might affect healthcare provider performance in four countries. The study successfully shows that although multiple conditions were deficient or missing in every country, significant association is found between the performance of workers and conditions in the workers environment. Further, when viewed across all countries, non‐monetary incentives is the most powerful “predictor‘ of performance when compared with other factors. Of particular interest to Performance Improvement practitioners, knowledge and skills surfaced as important in only three of eight possible cases (with multiple cases in each country)—the least influential factor overall.     

Promoting multicultural understanding and positive self-concept through a distance learning community: Cultural connections

We explored the effectiveness of distance learning and multimedia technologies in facilitating an expanded learning community among two teachers and their students in geographically separated schools. The teachers collaboratively developed curricular activities and identity-forming multicultural activities for their K-12 students to conduct over the distance. Predominantly Hispanic students in a school on the Texas border with Mexico communicated regularly over a school year with diverse students in a partner school hundreds of miles to the north. They participated in collaborative activities and shared multimedia files via interactive videoconference. Using qualitative research methods, we discovered that the participating teachers developed empowering multicultural relationships while their students developed multicultural understanding and positive self-concept. Examples of empowerment and positive self-concept included raised levels of academic aspirations and heightened poise during public speaking. Thanks to Lucy Cifuentes, Sharon Clark, Trina Davis, and Teri Metcalf for their contributions of raw data and earlier versions of writings about Cultural Connections. Also, thanks to Ester Gonzales and Trina Davis for permitting us to use their names in this paper.     

Testing the double-deficit hypothesis in an adult sample

The double-deficit hypothesis of dyslexia posits that reading deficits are more severe in individuals with weaknesses in phonological awareness and rapid naming than in individuals with deficits in only one of these reading composite skills. In this study, the hypothesis was tested in an adult sample as a model of reading achievement. Participants were parents of children referred for evaluation of reading difficulties. Approximately half of all participants reported difficulty learning to read in childhood and a small subset demonstrated ongoing weaknesses in reading. Structural equation modeling results suggest that the double-deficit hypothesis is an accurate model for understanding adult reading achievement. Better reading achievement was associated with better phonological awareness and faster rapid automatized naming in adults. Posthoc analyses indicated that individuals with double deficits had significantly lower reading achievement than individuals with single deficits or no deficits.