Interlibrary loan and commercial document supply: Finding the right fit

This study examined the cost and performance of six commercial document suppliers accessible via OCLC, and comapared their service to that of traditional interlibrary loan (ILL). Results indicated that, while commercial firms cannot be recommended as a wholesale replacement for ILL, they can add much-needed flexibility to a library's overall plan for document delivery.     

Educational and Employment Testing: Changing Concepts in Measurement and Policy

How will the expansion of the concept of construct validity affect validation practice in employment testing? How does the need for consequential validity differ in educational and employment testing? How do the research bases differ for performance assessment in these settings? Are there parallel trends in policies for test use in education and industry?     

The University Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities

To explore the university experiences of students with learning disabilities (LD), 63,802 responses to the 2014 Student Experience in the Research University Survey were analyzed. Compared to other students, those with self‐reported LD (5.96 percent) had difficulty with assignments and had more obstacles caused by nonacademic responsibilities and imposed by their skill levels. Students with self‐reported LD sensed more bias toward people with disabilities on campus, and they were less satisfied with their overall experience. Interactions between disability status and age suggested even more challenges for older students who self‐reported LD. Approximately one‐third of students who self‐reported LD received accommodations. The rate of accommodations was higher among individuals who were wealthy, who lived alone, and who were out‐of‐state students. Compared to students who self‐reported LD but reported no accommodations, those with accommodations had more contact with faculty and less difficulty with assignments.     

English in Education: the first fifty years

On the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of English in Education, this article reviews the journal's contribution to research and practice in the teaching of English. A thematic analysis based on close study of a sample of volumes is arranged chronologically (to show the development of ideas and practices) and thematically in terms of language mode (speaking; writing; reading, including new technologies). The article argues that the journal archive can shed light on the educational past in ways that can effectively inform the educational present and help to set agenda for the future.     

School English,literature and the knowledge-base question

This article takes up questions about knowledge and the school curriculum with respect to literary studies within subject English. Its intention is to focus on literary studies in English from the context of current waves of curriculum reform, rather than as part of the conversations primarily within the field of English, to raise questions about the knowledge agenda, and the knowledge-base agenda for teaching and teacher education. The selection of texts and form of study of literature within the English curriculum has long been an area of controversy. Without assuming a particular position on knowledge in this area, this article shows that important questions of what knowledge-base teachers are expected to bring to their work are elided both in current regulations and debates, and in research on ‘good teaching’ in this area. If ‘literary studies’ (as a discipline or university major) is itself an unstable and changing field, what kind of knowledge does a good English teacher bring to their work? This paper takes up these questions in the context of the Australian Curriculum and standards for teacher registration, but it also points to the way these issues about knowledge are of broader relevance for researchers and teacher education.     

Are there constraints on learned responses to odors from rewarded and nonrewarded rats?

This study determined if test rats could utilize biological odors, generated from donor rats receiving reward (R) and frustrative nonreward (N) treatments, to predict reward and nonreward goal events equally well. In Phase 1, two groups of test rats were exposed to R and N odors that signaled, respectively, either R and N goal events (“same” condition) or N and R goal events (“opposite” condition). Rats demonstrated significant discriminative use of these odors under both conditions. Subjects in the “opposite” condition, however, were slightly slower to learn the discrimination. Reversal learning was readily accomplished in Phase 2, regardless of the same-opposite factor. Thus, little evidence for a constraint on learning was found, and an interpretation in terms of interfering response tendencies and their habituation seemed favored.