A suggested approach to a library building program

The preliminary building program suggested in this paper makes use of outlines, graphs, charts, and lists, rather than long-winded paragraphs, to describe the needs, objectives, and philosophy of the library. It is hoped that a short, concise, but detailed, report using these methods will save time and make the report more attractive to read, thereby encouraging the many people who will need to assist in the building planning to use the report.     

Guiding Low Spatial Ability Individuals through Visual Cueing: The Dual Importance of Where and When to Look

Research suggests that spatial ability may predict success in complex disciplines including anatomy, where mastery requires a firm understanding of the intricate relationships occurring along the course of veins, arteries, and nerves, as they traverse through and around bones, muscles, and organs. Debate exists on the malleability of spatial ability, and some suggest that spatial ability can be enhanced through training. It is hypothesized that spatial ability can be trained in low-performing individuals through visual guidance. To address this, training was completed through a visual guidance protocol. This protocol was based on eye-movement patterns of high-performing individuals, collected via eye-tracking as they completed an Electronic Mental Rotations Test (EMRT). The effects of guidance were evaluated using 33 individuals with low mental rotation ability, in a counterbalanced crossover design. Individuals were placed in one of two treatment groups (late or early guidance) and completed both a guided, and an unguided EMRT. A third group (no guidance/control) completed two unguided EMRTs. All groups demonstrated an increase in EMRT scores on their second test (P < 0.001); however, an interaction was observed between treatment and test iteration (P = 0.024). The effect of guidance on scores was contingent on when the guidance was applied. When guidance was applied early, scores were significantly greater than expected (P = 0.028). These findings suggest that by guiding individuals with low mental rotation ability “where” to look early in training, better search approaches may be adopted, yielding improvements in spatial reasoning scores. It is proposed that visual guidance may be applied in spatial fields, such as STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine), surgery, and anatomy to improve student's interpretation of visual content. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Arts councils,policy-making and “the local”

ABSTRACT

In the British Isles, national policies for the arts are primarily viewed as the responsibility of arts councils with statutory duties to distribute state funding that meet the requirements of both “arms-length” principles and national strategic frameworks. This paper explores the tensions between policy making for the nation-state and for “the local” through comparative research on the arts councils (and equivalent bodies) in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with senior representatives from these organisations, it explores their notions of, responsibilities to and affiliations with “the local”. Findings suggest that despite their different models and relationships to the nation-state, and the disparities in the scale of investment, these national policy bodies commonly rely on networked governance to facilitate their relationship to “the local” which risks reproducing national interests, limiting the localised agency of place-based approaches and contributing to a culture of competition within cultural policy.     

How teacher and students study ‘all that matters’ in high school chemistry

This study focuses on the relationships between meanings of science constructed in classrooms and sociocultural precepts of the wider society. Research presented is part of a larger study of the negotiation of knowledge and roles in high school science classrooms. The data presented document that what goes on in classrooms reflects and recreates societal attitudes towards work, in general, and teachers’ work, in particular. The teacher in this study reduces his demands for academic work in return for students’ cooperation and as a means of coping with negative aspects of teaching. Students, in turn, are not concerned about the specific subject matter of chemistry. What matters to them are the academic credentials that lead to success in the college and employment arenas. As a result, teacher and students construct school chemistry to be what you‐get‐through‐as‐you‐get‐along. The interdependence of the roles and actions of teachers and students suggests changes in policy and practice.     

Public Library Services for Veterans: Selected Brief Case Studies

Public libraries across the country design and deliver programs for military veterans and their families, often collaborating with other organizations and agencies. The examples were assembled from both general and specialized interviews with librarians, and literature and Internet searches, with summaries of programs assembled and written by multiple researchers. The specific limitations on the listing in this article are clearly outlined in the first section. Overall, however, the article provides a good introductory overview of what’s going on in veteran’s programs and services in America’s public libraries in over seventy libraries in forty states. We hope this list of what public libraries have organized or are doing will supply other public librarians with ideas on how to provide new services or enhance their existing ones.     

Effects of tapering on physical match activities in professional soccer players

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine: (i) the effect of decreasing training load (TL) during taper weeks on physical match activities in professional soccer players, and (ii) to disclose the relationship between weekly TL and physical match activities. Rating of perceived exertion was collected after each training session and match to quantify the TL in 19 professional players over 17 standard and 7 taper weeks during the season. Physical match activities were quantified by a computerised match analysis system and compared between standard training and taper weeks. Compared to standard weeks, the duration and frequency of training sessions during the taper weeks decreased (?21.7% and ?18.8%, respectively; P < 0.01) with no change in intensity (?4.8%; P = 0.09). Consequently, the weekly TL decreased during the taper weeks (?25.5%; P < 0.01). Increases in distance covered by intense running (+15.1%; P < 0.05), high-intensity running (HIR) (+15.7%; P < 0.01), number of sprints (+17.8%; P < 0.05) and number of high-speed runs (+15.7%; P < 0.05) were observed during the seven matches played after the taper weeks. High relationships were observed between TL and HIR distance covered, number of HIR and number of sprints (r = ?0.53; r = ?0.55; r = ?0.65, respectively; P < 0.01). Decreasing TL during taper weeks by reducing training duration and frequency but maintaining intensity was associated with an increase in physical activities during matches. However, it needs to be determined whether tapering or other match factors led to the changes in match activity.     

Managing physical education lessons: an interactional approach

Physical education (PE) lessons involve complex and dynamic interactive sequences between students, equipment and teacher. The potential for unexpected and/or unintended events is relatively large, a point reflected in an increasing amount of scholarship dealing with classroom management (CM). This scholarship further suggests that unexpected and disruptive events negatively impact on learning and can have deleterious effects on teacher health. Despite considerable potential for these kinds of events, many PE lessons occur in structured, organized ways. The broad purpose of this paper is to consider how classroom action becomes ordered in PE contexts. To this end, an interactional approach is put forward including the specific analytic concepts of directives, epistemic authority and deontic authority. To exemplify the approach, the micro-dynamics of a situation in which a group of students are building a human pyramid is examined. The examination draws attention to: how the teacher engages in a series of interactions with the students to move the sequence forward; how the students themselves achieve order through their interactions with one another; and how the characteristics of the activity help to organize the students' behaviors and limit possibilities for action. The discussion is located against a backdrop of current CM scholarship. Reference is also made to two aspects of social context: the increasing prominence of managerial discourse in educational arenas and the significance of student-centeredness in pedagogical theory. Both aspects appear to influence how order can be achieved in PE today. The analysis raises issues related to pedagogy, management and authority which are addressed in the final two sections of the paper.     

Problems Associated with Multi-Media Data Bases

Education is intimately associated with communication, and so may utilize any technology that is able to support a process that enables information to be transferred from one location to another. This paper describes the meaning of the term multi-media data base and presents a model of its potential role in aiding message creation for the purposes of communicating educational material using many parallel channels. Some of the problems associated with the implementation of such systems are outlined.     

The judgement processes involved in the moderation of teacher-assessed projects

Classroom-based assessments have the potential to enhance validity by facilitating the assessment of important skills that are difficult to assess in written examinations. Such assessments tend to be marked by teachers. To ensure consistent marking standards, quality assurance procedures are needed. In the context of continued debate over the robustness of assessment by teachers, this research aimed to provide insights into the cognitive and social processes involved in the moderation of project work in General Certificate of Secondary Education qualifications (taken by many 16 year olds in England). The research involved nine examiners across three subject areas ‘thinking aloud’ whilst moderating the marks given to six students (treated as a mock school). The participants were also interviewed. These methods were chosen to provide an in-depth look at the judgement processes involved. The research provides an improved understanding of moderation judgements and how aspects of this process relate to existing theories of judgement. Improving our understanding of the judgement processes involved when an examiner moderates teacher marking can help to evaluate the appropriateness of this assessment method, may contribute to debate on whether teacher marking can be sufficiently well verified by quality assurance procedures, and may inform moderation practice.