This dissertation is concerned with exploring the context of a rural professional learning community and the interactions between the context and participants, both teachers and facilitators. An interpretive, qualitative, instrumental case study, the format of data collection and analysis used an instrumental case study approach and interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and artifacts. Participants included four teachers across three different rural locales and two facilitators. Data on the six study participants was collected over the 2013-2014 school year. Findings from this study add to research on the understudied rural context as well as work of in-service educators and teacher educators working within and across these communities. First, this study elucidates nine components of the rural context: students, standards, and student learning needs; teachers and teacher learning needs; practices, curriculum instruction, assessment, and the learning environment; organizational culture; organizational structures and leadership; national, state, and local policies; resources; history of professional development; and parents and community. Additionally, this study identifies new roles for professional development facilitators and explores classroom the teaching practices in rural science classrooms. Finally, this dissertation highlights the importance of rural communities on the interactions of facilitators and participants who work in a rural context. Attention to the roles and interactions between facilitators, teachers and the rural context is of utmost importance towards understanding and ultimately improving professional development experiences for these predominantly isolated educators. This work has the potential to directly impact current and future STEM students and ultimately the STEM workforce by improving professional development for science educators and ultimately science students. Therefore, attention to who is working in and around these communities as well as what is happening within the context of the professional development of rural educations is of particular interest for all those working to improve science education. / text

Computer Science fields have a difficult time engaging underrepresented populations such as African Americans and women. EarSketch is an approach to engage these student through authentic STEAM learning involving computational music remixing. EarSketch has been used in several pilot studies. In this study, students from one pilot study participated in a focus group to understand the effectiveness of EarSketch in engaging underrepresented minorities. Qualitative analysis shows a variety of contributing factors in engagement such as motivation, confidence, identity, conceptualization, and creativity.

Despite the wide-spread acceptance of evolution within the science community, much of the public still holds reservations about evolution as a valid scientific explanation. This is due in part to questions regarding the very nature of a theory, which has been cited by many researchers as an obstacle to accepting evolution. The specific use of semi-structured interviews and research into how students view other nature of science terminology (fact, hypothesis, and law) in relation to theory may provide further insight into how use of the terms can frame attitudes towards evolution. This study qualitatively describes how four college-aged students (science, philosophy, education, and business) interpret basic science terminology and compare scientific explanations in their assessment of evolution. While discussing the terms, students were encouraged to raise other issues that aided them in the construction of their epistemological beliefs about science. The aim was to provide interviewees with the opportunity to speak openly about what they understood regarding nature of science and evolution rather than presuming a shared coherence in the use of the terms. The semi-structured interview format revealed students’ conceptions (or misconceptions) of the nature of science, relative degrees of certainty for the terms, and underlying biases. The results suggest the specific use of interviews can provide a credible and informative account of how students use basic science terminology. A mixed use of the terms can still lead to a favorable disposition towards evolution when students possess a positive attitude towards science, acknowledge the tentative nature of science as a strength rather than a limitation, and practice reflective reasoning. Conclusions made in the study also suggest that an explicit discussion about fact, theory, law, and hypothesis in the science classroom may actually play less of a critical role than previously thought in opening the door to learning content of which many people consider to be controversial. More concentration should be placed on how knowledge is generated and how to reflectively approach a scientific problem. / text

<p> Committed elementary teachers of science and engineering, members of a professional learning community called Collaborative Conversations in STEM, were studied to elicit their perceptions of experiences that influenced their commitment to, and their pedagogical content knowledge of, STEM teaching and learning. The hermeneutic phenomenological interviews enabled the teachers to express their beliefs in their own words. Data analysis employed a theoretical framework that investigated teacher epistemology and knowledge in light of their experiences. Findings revealed a web of lifelong experiences unique to each individual, and evidential of the committed elementary scientist-teachers&rsquo; present day values, teaching epistemology, lifelong learning, and emotional and intellectual engagement. Scientist-teachers are individuals whose teaching and learning characteristics reflect those of scientists and engineers.</p><p> Evidence indicated that no single transformative learning experience resulted in those elementary teachers&rsquo; commitment to STEM teaching and learning, but recent professional development activities were influential. Formal K-16 STEM learning was not uniformly or positively influential to the teachers&rsquo; commitment to, or knowledge of, STEM.</p><p> Findings suggest that ongoing professional development for STEM teaching and learning can influence elementary teachers to become committed to actively teaching STEM. The Collaborative Conversations in STEM provided intellectual and emotional engagement that empowered the teachers to provide STEM teaching and learning for their students and their colleagues overcoming impediments encountered in a literacy-focused curriculum. Elementary teachers actively committed to teaching science and engineering can undergo further transformation and emerge as leaders.</p>

Distance learning using telecommunications technologies holds new and challenging promises for library and information science (LIS) education. Pedagogical, technological, cultural/sociopolitical issues and their impact upon the constituents involved--faculty, accrediting bodies, students, employers and educational administration--need to be systematically studied. Findings of a research project that examined one of the human agencies involved in distance learning, full-time faculty at library schools who have taught LIS courses for graduate credit to distance learners using a telecommunications technology, are reported. The primary research questions were exploratory ones that sought answers about the impact of the distance-learning educational model upon faculty. The methodology used was a mix of written survey, telephone, and direct interview techniques. Faculty perceived that their role changed in the distance-learning model from what it was in the traditional classroom-based model. "Teaching is no longer a private act; it is a public performance." Other findings are that more time is required for class preparation; patterns of interaction and communication between students and faculty are different; technical and managerial skills are needed; sociopolitical issues (such as copyright) need to be addressed; and specific knowledge about learning behaviors within this model is needed. Teaching, in this model, is a complex performance that may conflict with the prevailing organizational culture of both the institution and the academic profession. However, the "critical mass" of a library school teaching faculty (conspicuous for its small size) requires several changes if distance learning is to be pursued successfully, and these are discussed briefly. Salient, early historical points about the Board of Education for Librarianship (BEL, American Library Association), American Association of Library Schools (AALS), forerunner to the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), and the Gaylord Brothers (New York) financed American Correspondence School of Librarianship (ACSL) are included.

This is an ALISE juried paper presented on Monday, January 11, 2005 in Session 1.4, LIS Curriculum: Global library Perspectives, of the 2005 ALISE Conference, Boston, MA. This is a study that offers a systematic analysis in the area of information literacy instruction. The results suggest a range of appropriate topics for courses in instruction, and highlight exemplary courses that could be used as a starting point to revise an existing course or develop a new one.

Purpose: To provide an introduction to concepts and resources that will be useful to library professionals learning about information ethics. Methodology: This paper argues for the importance of information ethics to 21st century library professionals. It describes what various authors have said about how information ethics can be applied to the ethical dilemmas faced by library professionals. Findings: In order to deal effectively with their ethical dilemmas, library professionals must have a good working knowledge of information ethics. Codes of professional ethics can help to provide such knowledge, but they are not sufficient. Courses on information ethics must be part of the education of information professionals. Such courses should provide library professionals with an understanding of ethical theories and how they apply to concrete practical cases. Such courses should also make explicit the connection between information ethics and the mission of the library professional. Research limitations: This paper is not intended to provide an exhaustive list of publications on the topic of information ethics and library professionals. Value: This paper provides library professionals with a concise introduction to information ethics.

Library and information science education, Hong Kong, Delphi study / This paper reports the results of PhD research into the future needs of library professionals for educa-tion in the digital era with special consideration to the needs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The research method used was a Delphi study and representatives from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and the United States were chosen as participants in the study. This paper outlines the special features of this method and why it was se-lected, how it was implemented and initial findings from the study. The research attempted to identify an ideal curriculum especially for use in the Hong Kong SAR, China, but also for consideration in other areas of South East Asia. It was conducted using the Delphi technique which is based upon the premise that a decision made by a group is more reliable and thus more desirable than a decision made by an individual.

This article explores the issue of teaching youth to use computers in the instructional environment. It particularly talks about web-assisted learning for children.

This paper reports the core findings of an international study that examined the perceptions of LIS community towards knowledge management inclusion in the LIS education. Taking the perspectives of members of international LIS communities, we try to identify the rationale for a paradigm shift in library education towards knowledge management. We also explore the perceptions of LIS community towards the nature and content of knowledge management program in the LIS education which best meets the challenges of the knowledge management work environment.