Health information seeking behaviour: the librarian's role in supporting digital and health literacy

This paper is based on Rachel Butler's dissertation carried out at the University of Sheffield as part of the MA Library and Information Services Management. The study examines people's online health information seeking skills, with the specific aim to identify how libraries and health services can work together in supporting digital and health literacy. A survey approach is used to explore online searching habits as well as librarian and health professionals’ views on health literacy. The key findings indicate that whilst the majority of respondents consider themselves to be health literate, there was an overall agreement that effective education and support could be achieved through the collaboration between libraries and health services, and specifically to signpost information and to provide targeted education. The limitations of the research for dissertation are recognised leading to recommendations that further study focuses on the impact of signposting and education on health literacy.F.J.     

International students with dependent children: the reproduction of gender norms

Extant research on family migration for education has focused almost exclusively on the education of children. We thus know very little about family migration when it is driven by the educational projects of parents. To begin to redress this gap, this paper explores the experiences of families who have moved to the United Kingdom primarily to enable the mother or father to pursue a degree. It argues that, in common with what we know of UK student-parents, both choices about and experiences of higher education are strongly differentiated by gender.     

Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy in an Online Seminar

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded to the course, what they learned, and how they enacted their learning as well as the features of the course that the students believed contributed to their learning and practice. The study provides insight into features of online pedagogy that appear to facilitate transformative learning. It further provides insight into the kinds of content and assignments that may promote critical social justice praxis among educators.     

A love towards a thing eternal: Spinoza and the classroom

There is a growing concern about the struggles of early career teachers and an understandable questioning of the preparation being offered by teacher education courses. Are our preservice teachers being given workable strategies and techniques to allow them to survive the early years? Is it strategies and techniques that are primarily at issue here? Could it be that there is something more fundamental, to do with an underlying philosophical understanding about human nature, the desire to learn and the need to relate? I want to suggest that instruction about strategies and techniques is too often built on an insecure and incompatible foundation of assumptions about the nature of the world of sentient beings and their relationships. Ontology matters. Philosopher Spinoza divided the world of thought into ideas that were adequate – contributing to our well-being, potency and happiness – and those that were inadequate – leading us to feel weak, at the mercy of outside forces, and sad. I want to argue, with Spinoza, that inadequate ontologies lead to a sense of impotence and frustration, and that adequate ideas – a stronger ontology – can underpin and sustain a more durable pedagogy. I explore this idea by looking at some classroom events through a Spinozean lens.     

Assessing the Efficacy of Contextualized Group Counseling Education in Asia: A Mixed Methods Study

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling - Many experiential learning teaching models are developed in Western cultures, with their efficacy not tested in non-Western cultures,...     

Teacher perspectives on partnerships on families of children with autism

The success of students with disabilities in school and community largely relies on productive family professional partnerships (FPPs). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) recognises the importance of family collaboration to student success by mandating that parents be involved in the Individualised Education Plan (IEP) process as full team members. While several previous studies examined the perspectives of parents of children with disabilities on partnerships with educators, less research exists on teacher perspectives on family professional collaborations. Additionally, there are even fewer studies that focus on teacher perspectives on partnerships with parents of children with autism, a disability category which continues to increase in prevalence. The present study contributes to the literature by examining teacher perspectives on factors that build and hinder positive partnerships with families of children with autism. Researchers surveyed 25 Special Education teachers and conducted additional individual interviews and open-ended questionnaires to examine teachers' first-hand experiences. Findings identified four common themes that educators felt helped and hindered collaborative relationships with families. Study results may lead to the development of specific family professional collaboration strategies that can be implemented and discussed in school districts, teacher trainings, pre-service teacher education programs and family workshops.     

A Quantitative Assessment of the Research Chefs Association Core Competencies for the Practicing Culinologist

ABSTRACT: Professional organizations have linked core competency to professional success and competitive strategy. The Research Chefs Assn. (RCA) recently released 43 core competencies for practicing culinologists. Culinology^® is a profession that links skills of culinary arts and food science and technology in the development of food products. An online survey was created asking RCA members from all 6 membership categories (Associate, Affiliate, Chef, Culinology, Food Science and Technology (FS&T), and Student) to rate their knowledge level based on a 7‐point scale and agreement to importance in job performance based on a 5‐point Likert scale for each competency statement. RCA participant's (N = 192) survey results were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 13.0 at a significance level of P < 0.05. Statistical survey validation grouped all 43 competency statements into 8 factors (groupings) according to level of competency proficiency (opposed to the 7 groups each competency was originally designated by the RC A) and into 9 factors according to job success. Results suggest that Chef Members know “Culinary Arts” best and FS&T members know “Food Science” best. A gap analysis determined what competency factors were low in knowledge level yet important to job success for each membership category. Chef members have a lower level of knowledge in “Product Development,”“Food Science,” and “Quality Assurance” factors; however, the factors are important to job success. FS&T members have a lower level of knowledge in “Nutrition” yet identified the factor important to job success. An opportunity exists to improve educational efforts for specific membership categories.     

Books and the popularization of science

This article discusses best-selling science books, the characteristics of the audience for popular science books, and the role of books within science popularization and science education. Best-selling science books have been rare, but generally readable. Regional books, also important sources of scientific information, aim at much smaller, far more price-sensitive audiences. Many successful regional, nontechnical science books are readable, heavily illustrated, and in some cases, cross-disciplinary. To increase the attentive audience for scientific information, improvement in science education is necessary, and the most efficacious role for scientific institutions may be the production of materials that can be easily incorporated into school curricula. He is the author of several nontechnical guides to the geology of Kansas and teaches science writing at the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications A slightly different version of this paper was presented at the joint meeting of the Association of Earth Science éditors, European Association of Editors, and the Council of Biology Editors, Ottawa, Ontario, September 1989.     

Language play in the classroom: encouraging children's intuitive creativity with words through poetry

This article begins by identifying that children have a spontaneous predilection for playing with language, engaging in poetic discourse even before their first poetry lesson. Although children's language play is relatively unresearched in the classroom, in a case study of two groups of pupils aged between 10 and 11, it was observed that children engaged in creative word play, and that this was generated in response to interaction with poetry and each other. This article suggests that children's poetical experiences may best be nurtured by building bridges between children's existing knowledge of language play and the specialised knowledge of poetry taught in the classroom through a teaching methodology based on socio‐constructivist principles.