Going Critical: Perspective and Proportion in the Epistemology of Rob Kling

One foundational element of Rob Kling's research and writing is his critical perspective on the nature, role, and dynamics of computerization. His main argument was that one should view as dubious any statements that are not grounded in empirical evidence or theoretical analysis. Rob's work was replete with critical refutation, in which he challenged assumptions or statements about computerization and provided alternative interpretations. Much of his work delivered indictments against hyperbolic statements that claimed either utopian or dystopian outcomes from computerization. However, some of his own writings on emerging technologies tended to be dismissive and marginalizing, revealing in his own work some of the weaknesses he pointed out in others' rhetoric and writing. This article identifies intellectual traps inherent in critical perspectives that can catch even the most acute practitioners. The objective is to help elucidate and stabilize the epistemological foundations for Rob's critical perspective on the role of computerization.     

Re-imagining the local in national cultural policy formulation – the case of the Anglophone Caribbean

ABSTRACT

The formulation of cultural policies in the Anglophone Caribbean constantly straddles the demands of global, regional and national imperatives as a function of its position as a region of post-colonial, small-island states. This paper will argue that the role these factors play in the art of policy making problematises conventions in the current global/local (glocal) debate circulating in the arena of Cultural Policy Studies. The paper shows that cultural policy making in the Caribbean constitutes a mélange of approaches that are in a constant state of contestation during the policy-making process. It employs content analysis of cultural policy texts from selected Caribbean states, as well as an analysis of stakeholder views from the national cultural policy consultations in Trinidad and Tobago to derive its findings. A Five Factor framework was developed to illustrate the range of responses that guide and shape local actors and activities in the national cultural policy domain. The research concludes that the relationship between the national and local (nocal) actors has to be re-imagined if cultural policy is to deliver on its promise of social transformation in the Caribbean.     

Taking a ‘reality’ check: Expanding pre-service teachers' views on pedagogy and diversity

The outcomes of a two-pronged ‘real-world’ learning project, which aimed to expand the views of pre-service teachers about learning, pedagogy and diversity, will be discussed in this paper. Seventy-two fourth-year and 22 first-year students, enrolled in a Bachelor of Education degree in Queensland, Australia, were engaged in community sites outside of university lectures, and separate from their practicum. Using Butin's conceptual framework for service learning, we show evidence that this approach can enable pre-service teachers to see new realities about the dilemmas and ambiguities of performing as learners and as teachers. We contend that when such ‘real-world’ experiences have different foci at different times in their four-year degree, pre-service teachers have more opportunities to develop sophisticated understandings of pedagogy in diverse contexts for diverse learners.     

Development of an Educational Packet for Persons with Life-Threatening Food Allergies

ABSTRACT:  Previous studies have shown that those with severe food allergies have significant gaps in knowledge about their disease and how to prevent recurrences. The purpose of this study was to address these deficiencies by creating and testing an educational packet, "Coping with Food Allergies." Participants included 46 of 58 adults with documented severe food allergies (response rate = 79%); and indeed, over half (57%) of the participants had experienced a food allergic reaction in the past year. The educational packet was tested in waves, with comments from participants used to revise the next version of the packet. Language targeted a lay audience and hand-drawn illustrations were added to make the material more appealing. Most participants recommended expanding sections dealing with symptom management and approaches to take when eating at restaurants. These sections became prominent features of the final edition.
The participants were equally divided regarding preferred learning type: text-based compared with visual. No significant associations could be drawn between learning style and perceived clarity of information, with 93% finding the packet very clear and easy to read. Participants commented that the simple illustrations were ideal for a child with allergies or someone reading at a 6th to 8th grade level. Even among this group with longstanding food allergy, over 60% reported that they learned something new from the packet. "Coping with Food Allergies" will be made available to the public via the Food Safety Educators web site of the USDA and the allergy support group, Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).     

The informationist: building evidence for an emerging health profession

Background:

To encourage evidence-based practice, an Annals of Internal Medicine editorial called for a new professional on clinical teams: an informationist trained in science or medicine as well as information science.

Objectives:

The study explored the effects of informationists on information behaviors of clinical research teams, specifically, frequency of seeking information for clinical or research decisions, range of resources consulted, perceptions about access to information, confidence in adequacy of literature searches, and effects on decision making and practice. It also explored perceptions about training and experience needed for successful informationists.

Methods:

Exploratory focus groups and key interviews were followed by baseline and follow-up surveys conducted with researchers and clinicians receiving the service. Survey data were analyzed with Pearson''s chi-square or Fisher''s exact test.

Results:

Comparing 2006 to 2004 survey responses, the researchers found that study participants reported: seeking answers to questions more frequently, spending more time seeking or using information, believing time was less of an obstacle to finding or using information, using more information resources, and feeling greater satisfaction with their ability to find answers. Participants'' opinions on informationists'' qualifications evolved to include both subject knowledge and information searching expertise.

Conclusion:

Over time, clinical research teams with informationists demonstrated changes in their information behaviors, and they valued an informationist''s subject matter expertise more.

Highlights

• Informationist involvement in traditional team activities—going on rounds and searching and critically evaluating the literature—increased over time.
• As the relationship between a clinical team and informationist developed, activities expanded to include projects such as development of wikis, databases, and websites.
• Clinical teams came to view subject knowledge as key to an informationist''s preparation; however, their expertise as information scientists was valued most highly.
• “Initiative,” approaching research staff in their workplace, was the one personal trait focus group participants agreed on as most desirable for an informationist.
• When first introduced to the concept, researchers cited customization of services to team needs as a major benefit.

Implications

• To assure a successful informationist program, libraries must be prepared to commit time and money.
• Whether informationists or not, librarians should be prepared to support users'' increased need for genetics and molecular biology information.

     

Modeling Rater Response Processes in Evaluating Score Meaning

Rater‐mediated assessments require the evaluation of the accuracy and consistency of the inferences made by the raters to ensure the validity of score interpretations and uses. Modeling rater response processes allows for a better understanding of how raters map their representations of the examinee performance to their representation of the scoring criteria. Validity of score meaning is affected by the accuracy of raters' representations of examinee performance and the scoring criteria, and the accuracy of the mapping process. Methodological advances and applications that model rater response processes, rater accuracy, and rater consistency inform the design, scoring, interpretations, and uses of rater‐mediated assessments.     

Interactions in the development of spelling,reading and phonological skills

Early interactive processes of development in reading, spelling and implicit and explicit phonological awareness were assessed in a group of children at four time-points as they progressed through their first three years in school. Exploratory causal path analyses were used to investigate the contribution of each ability to the subsequent growth of skill in reading, spelling and phonological awareness. The resultant structural models demonstrate a role of spelling in the early stages of reading acquisition, as well as differential contributions of implicit and explicit phonological awareness to both reading and spelling. They also suggest a developmental cascade from implicit to explicit phonemic awareness in the normal acquisition of phonological knowledge and associated skills. In the early formulative stages of reading implicit phonemic awareness and reading act reciprocally to build skill in each other. But, as ability in word recognition improves, implicit phonemic awareness plays a diminished role in reading. This pattern of initial reciprocal influence and later dissociation is repeated in the relationship between implicit phoneme awareness and spelling. Explicit phonemic awareness is an important factor in the first stages of spelling development but only emerges later as a significant contributor to reading. The early influence of explicit phoneme awareness on spelling, in conjunction with the major contribution of spelling to beginning reading, indicates that experience in spelling promotes the use of a phonological strategy in reading. Within a developmental context, explicit phoneme awareness initially appears to grow out of an implicit appreciation of the overall sound properties of words. Thereafter, ability to identify and segment phonemes develops independently of implicit phonemic awareness and plays an increasingly important role in the further growth of reading and spelling.     

Discrimination and classification of rising and nonrising pitch patterns by the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

In a series of four experiments, starlings learned to classify pitch patterns according to pattern structure. In Experiments 1 and 2, the starlings learned to discriminate a series of pairs of 1ourtone patterns in which one of the patterns rose in pitch and the other pattern did not. The starlings in these initial two experiments did not attend to pattern structure at all. Rather, they discriminated patterns according to the relative pitch of the initial pattern tones. In Experiment 3, the same starlings discriminated the same patterns from Experiments 1 and 2 in a new context that tempered the salience of individual pattern tones. The starlings initially failed to discriminate in the new context, but eventually learned to do so. In Experiment 4, the starlings classified novel pitch patterns according to their pattern structure. These experiments identify a hierarchy of relative pitch strategies, as well as a sophisticated conceptual capacity for the perception and classification of pitch patterns by starlings.