Yer Doin’ it Wrong: How NOT to Interact with Vendors,Publishers, or Librarians

Three librarians who have extensive experience working in libraries or for publishers, vendors, or consortia presented an informal discussion on librarian–vendor relationships. The audience was encouraged to participate. Problems were articulated; speakers and audience members contributed suggestions for better approaches or behaviors when handling difficult situations.     

Supervision and evaluation: The Wyoming perspective

The intent of this study was to assess the perceptions and actions of Wyoming principals concerning their role in supervising and evaluating teachers. A survey was sent to all 286 principals in the state of Wyoming, of which, 143 returned surveys, a response rate of 50%. Findings suggested that principals utilized supervisory behaviors more often than evaluative behaviors. Elementary principals perceived their evaluative practices as significantly more prevalent than secondary principals. Furthermore, principals indicated that their greatest frustrations in supervising teachers were time, the evaluation instrument, and teachers’ unwillingness to change. Additionally, findings suggested that Wyoming principals utilized classroom walkthroughs because they provided a snapshot of teaching and provided a medium for providing feedback. In regards to developmental supervision, principals indicated that novice teachers received much more supervision than veteran teachers. However, their reported use of differentiated supervision only applied to teacher autonomy concerning professional development goals. Principals reported that teachers had little input concerning the methods by which they were supervised. Finally, a majority of the Wyoming principals felt that improvement plans were effective at changing mediocre teaching behaviors, but 40% were speculative that such plans truly remediated poor teachers.     

Developing,expressing and contesting opinions of science: encouraging the student voice

In a typical science degree, little emphasis is placed on the need for scientists to make judgements about evidence and little value is placed on the development of students' opinions about science, with the focus largely on assessment of declarative knowledge. Yet it is the ability to evaluate evidence that is crucial to the development of the student as a scientist. This study assesses the impact on students' conceptions of science of a course that aims to engage students in discussion and reflection on what scientists do and on their own learning about science. Analysis of written reflective assignments from the three years the course has been run shows that participants become more confident in their expression of opinions about science and also develop a more mature view of science and its inherent uncertainty. It appears that a critical factor enabling this development is the way the course activities are designed to explicitly value students' opinions and to provide a supportive environment in which they can be expressed and contested.     

Organizational identity challenges in a post-merger context: A case study of an information system implementation project

This study examines the effects of the differences in organizational identities that emerged during a post-merger project that aimed at unifying the laboratory services of a large healthcare center that resulted from the merging of three hospitals by supporting them with a unique information system. We draw on the concepts of organizational identity and sensemaking to analyze the laboratory information system implementation project. Organizational identity is conceptualized as the mental representation that organizational members have of themselves as a social group in terms of practices, norms, and values and how they understand themselves to be different from members of other organizations. Data analysis suggests that divergent organizational identities and team members’ alternative interpretations of others’ practices, norms and organizational symbols, coexist during the post-merger integration phase. These interpretations are reflected in the final functionality of the information system that was different from the planned one.     

Academic outcomes from between-class achievement grouping: the Australian primary context

Grouping students by academic achievement level has been practised in a wide variety of forms and contexts for over a century. Despite a general consensus in the research that between-class achievement grouping provides no overall benefit for students, the practice has persisted in various guises. Between-class achievement grouping is common in high schools, and is also practised in a number of primary schools in various countries. While the affective outcomes of such practices have been investigated recently, academic outcomes at primary level have not been studied in recent decades. This paper examines the academic outcomes of between-class achievement grouping in literacy and numeracy classes in Australian primary schools. Results from standardised tests are compared between two groups of schools—one regroups students for these areas, and one maintains mixed-achievement classes. It is argued that the current regrouping practice closely resembles streaming and provides no apparent academic advantage for students.