Customizing for clients: developing a library liaison program from need to plan

Building on the experiences of librarian representatives to curriculum committees in the colleges of dentistry, medicine, and nursing, the Health Science Center Libraries (HSCL) Strategic Plan recommended the formation of a Library Liaison Work Group to create a formal Library Liaison Program to serve the six Health Science Center (HSC) colleges and several affiliated centers and institutes. The work group's charge was to define the purpose and scope of the program, identify models of best practice, and recommend activities for liaisons. The work group gathered background information, performed an environmental scan, and developed a philosophy statement, a program of liaison activities focusing on seven primary areas, and a forum for liaison communication. Hallmarks of the plan included intensive subject specialization (beyond collection development), extensive communication with users, and personal information services. Specialization was expected to promote competence, communication, confidence, comfort, and customization. Development of the program required close coordination with other strategic plan implementation teams, including teams for collection development, education, and marketing. This paper discusses the HSCL's planning process and the resulting Library Liaison Program. Although focusing on an academic health center, the planning process and liaison model may be applied to any library serving diverse, subject-specific user populations.     

Pedagogical approaches to exploring theory–practice relationships in an outdoor education teacher education programme

Understanding theory–practice relationships in pre-service teacher education is an enduring concern for many teacher educators. Drawing on data from an investigation into the theory–practice nexus in an outdoor education teacher education programme, this article examines pedagogical approaches to exploring theory and practice with pre-service teachers. The investigation, a qualitative case study, examined the views of the programme’s teacher educators (authors) using an analytical lens informed by two similar theoretical models.

The article focuses on elements that were found to be central to pedagogical approaches within the programme: self-awareness, experience, reflexivity, and a “community of learners.” While the approaches represent a departure from “theory application” and “theory–practice integration” approaches, and a move towards praxis development, the study highlighted challenges and issues including the need for teacher educators to scrutinise theory–practice relationships in their own teaching and discourse. Implications and possibilities for future practice are considered.     

Children's learning about the balance scale

We present a detailed look at children's learning about the balance scale. In our study, as children explored the balance scale, they acquired and built on special-case and context-specific knowledge. Before making general and context-independent observations, they made more local observations.We contrast our findings with two previous analyses of children's knowledge [Inhelder and Piaget, 1958; Siegler, 1978] about the balance scale in light of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and its acquisition. Educational implications of all three analyses are considered.     

Dilemmas of Participatory Enquiry: a case study of method‐in‐action

The purpose of this paper is to problematize the notion of participatory enquiry as a legitimate form of educational evaluation. Using a case study of a new teacher education program the authors describe how they negotiated and enacted an alternative evaluation methodology within a traditional context. The evaluation process was intended to actively engage faculty members and students, as well as representatives of the educational system and the broader community, in self‐reflection and self‐evaluation of their own program. The authors then attempt to turn the methodology back on itself by critically analyzing their own participatory process in terms of a number of dilemmas that arose during the three‐year course of the evaluation. These dilemmas were addressed directly as political issues of method as a means of eliciting discussion and debate about the appropriateness of various forms of enquiry in the assessment and evaluation of higher education.