Introductory Course on Getting to Know Journals and on “Browsing” a Research Paper: First Steps to Proficiency in Scientific Communication

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of a course that promotes familiarity with biomedical periodicals and teaches efficient reading skills. Methods: A 16-hour course was designed to help inexperienced readers gain confidence navigating the contents of a research paper (instead of reading only abstracts), and make the first steps to critical appraisal. The course consisted of short lessons and small group work in which research papers were read and presented to the class. Participants learned a method called “browsing” that guides the first, superficial reading of a research paper and substitutes abstract reading. The course was administered to 15 hospital physicians and 40 graduate students of molecular medicine, in 4 separate sessions. Results: At course entry, 45 of 55 participants normally read the abstract before consulting the body of a research paper. An end-of-course questionnaire, completed by 47 participants, revealed that only 3 would still read the abstract first, while 33 would perform browsing, 7 would scan figures and tables, and 4 would consult another section of a paper outside of their research interests; similar responses were given for a research paper within their fields. For 43 participants, the course was effective in developing reading skills. On a final comprehension test, participants had a median score of 69% correct responses (interquartile range, 56%-80%). Conclusion: This introductory course on reading scientific articles is effective in overcoming abstract-only reading and in developing confidence with the research literature. Considering participants\u27 subjective evaluation and test scores, the course contents are appropriate for both physicians and young researchers

From the Classroom to Musselman Library: Bridging the Gap for Music Education

I am in my sixth semester as a music education major through the Sunderman Conservatory and yet I had no idea there was a music education collection here at Musselman Library until just a couple weeks ago. After reading up on some policies and practices for maintaining collections I was given some time to peruse the music education collection more closely. As I looked through the shelves and skimmed some introductions and tables of contents of a few of the books in MT1 I began considering how I would go about updating and maintaining this small collection. [excerpt

Reading English News Articles by Constructing Tables

This paper shows a way of helping readers to understand the contents of English passages by constructing tables. It is based on three recent business news articles used in the author’s 2018 Marketing and Management classes. The paper follows on from the author’s previous paper “Authentic Reading on Business News Articles” in Ohkagakuen University’s Journal of the School of Liberal Arts, Volume 8 (2016), but with an emphasis on the effectiveness of table making for a comprehensive perspective. Table activities are more productive for this than multiple choices or the understanding of detached sentences. The discussion of each is accompanied by a content table to be filled in through reasoning and logic, with a few additional questions. Tables, as understood here, are constructions that “show numerical values or textual information arranged in an orderly display of columns and rows” and “present a large amount of information efficiently” (American Psychological Association, 2010, 125). Constructing a table of the sort used to solve a logical problem can be an excellent way to obtain a comprehensive picture of information in an article. This paper also demonstrates how this can lead to a more integral understanding of an article through inferences about non-explicit information

A Study of Adult Reading in a Selected Rural County of Utah

One of the most remarkable developments of the present age is the apparently large increase in the reading public. The vast output of reading materials being purchased would seem to be evidence that reading is playing an increasingly important part in the daily lives of most people. Magazines and other publications crowd our stores, our homes, our very tables; at first glance, one would think that reading matter usurps our attention, and that we have come to depend upon it. The modern reader glances at the label on a can to learn its contents and uses. He reads the weather forecast and dresses accordingly; he looks to the want-ads for a second-hand typewriter, an apartment, or a lost purse. If the world were suddenly deprived of all printed material, it is probably that many people in the United States would find life exceedingly empty. That the educational world is coming to realized the fundamental importance of reading in the life of the individual citizen is shown by the increasing amount of attention which is being given the subject by scientific investigators. Interest in and a desire for knowledge concerning the reading habits of adults and the factors which affect these habits have developed rapidly during the past few years. Some of the most significant contributions which have been made recently in the field of educational research have been studies of phases of the reading process. The studies reveal that the dominant reading interests of the American people have varied with their changing needs and ideals. Furthermore, these same reading interests have exerted a strong influence upon the nature of the materials supplied for school reading, for religious study, and for the influencing of the people\u27s loyalty to the nation. There are several reasons for the new emphasis upon the reading habits of adults: first, the efforts of librarians and educators generally to promote adult education, and second, the increased interest in reading by adults because of their own realization of its social utility. Also the fact that useful learning is not prevented by advancing age has had a great deal to do with the place of serious reading in a modern society, for it implies that serious reading is helpful at any age

Full Text and Figure Display Improves Bioscience Literature Search

When reading bioscience journal articles, many researchers focus attention on the figures and their captions. This observation led to the development of the BioText literature search engine [1], a freely available Web-based application that allows biologists to search over the contents of Open Access Journals, and see figures from the articles displayed directly in the search results. This article presents a qualitative assessment of this system in the form of a usability study with 20 biologist participants using and commenting on the system. 19 out of 20 participants expressed a desire to use a bioscience literature search engine that displays articles' figures alongside the full text search results. 15 out of 20 participants said they would use a caption search and figure display interface either frequently or sometimes, while 4 said rarely and 1 said undecided. 10 out of 20 participants said they would use a tool for searching the text of tables and their captions either frequently or sometimes, while 7 said they would use it rarely if at all, 2 said they would never use it, and 1 was undecided. This study found evidence, supporting results of an earlier study, that bioscience literature search systems such as PubMed should show figures from articles alongside search results. It also found evidence that full text and captions should be searched along with the article title, metadata, and abstract. Finally, for a subset of users and information needs, allowing for explicit search within captions for figures and tables is a useful function, but it is not entirely clear how to cleanly integrate this within a more general literature search interface. Such a facility supports Open Access publishing efforts, as it requires access to full text of documents and the lifting of restrictions in order to show figures in the search interface

Developing key concepts for the design of hypertext for printed books

In the modern world, computers and interactivity are becoming an ever-increasing phenomenon, but this means that the tactile appeal of the printed book is giving way to the increasing popularity of digital interactivity. This research explores how one of the integral concepts of computer interaction, hypertext, can be applied to the medium of print and the advantages that this can bring to the reading environment. The interaction used to read a printed book is different to that of reading material in an electronic form. Books are linear, moving forward, whereas electronic material is laterally associative. However, reading material in an electronic form, such as hypertext, allows the readers to customise and reorder knowledge for their own needs. In comparison, navigation of paper documents is aided by the information being fixed, and readers can easily refer to several documents simultaneously. The considerations that need to be made when combining the benefits of two such contrasting media needs careful attention. Six key design concepts applying hypertext methods to books are discussed to assist the production of effective reading media

The rise of social ereading : interactive ebook platforms and the development of online reading communities : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Ebooks have caused a revolution in how people read fiction. Ereading devices and apps now integrate interactive features which have led to the development of digital reading communities populated by millions of readers from around the world, with a resurgence of social reading practices in new forms. Two of the biggest social reading communities in existence today are hosted by Amazon’s Kindle and Wattpad. This thesis offers an analysis of how these platforms’ readers are using the interactive technology within the pages of their ebooks to participate in these online reading communities. Original research into popular texts on Wattpad reveals that while only a small percentage of users are actively engaging with the ebooks and other readers during the process of reading, all active and passive interactions have a significant influence on the reading experience. Thus, the infrastructure of such communities ‘rewards’ serialised books which encourage higher levels of reader interactivity with greater recognition within the community, but this reward is short-lived. The application of Genette’s paratextual theory to the interactive features of these ereading platforms reveals new processes of authorisation and readers-as-writers. New paths for the evolution of digital paratextual theory see paratexts developing from ‘thresholds’ into ‘vectors’. The statistical notations of reader interactions are now informational paratexts attached to each ebook, and these online reading communities may be considered paratexts themselves, operating through the new paratextual phenomenon of digital marginalia. Furthermore, the existence of these reading communities on free platforms such as Wattpad is supported by commercial paratexts found within the ebook pages. These new paratexts are iii having a significant impact on social ereading and reading communities - such as how they operate and judge the ‘value’ of ebooks - but historical precedents suggest these paratexts will be readily accepted by most readers, leading to an increase in the incidence and influence of such digital paratexts. These new interactive technologies and paratexts will potentially lead to significant changes in how fiction is read. Exactly how these technologies may develop, and how public, industrial, and academic stakeholders might take advantage of these opportunities, requires further research

The WEB Book experiments in electronic textbook design

This paper describes a series of three evaluations of electronic textbooks on the Web, which focused on assessing how appearance and design can affect users' sense of engagement and directness with the material. The EBONI Project's methodology for evaluating electronic textbooks is outlined and each experiment is described, together with an analysis of results. Finally, some recommendations for successful design are suggested, based on an analysis of all experimental data. These recommendations underline the main findings of the evaluations: that users want some features of paper books to be preserved in the electronic medium, while also preferring electronic text to be written in a scannable style

Developing reading comprehension for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder through concrete representations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Educational Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The ability to comprehend written text is an essential skill for all students, leading to their increased engagement at school, and the development of communication and cognitive skills. Recent research has found that a significant number of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have fluent word reading skills, but often experience difficulties with reading comprehension. Research is limited on this topic, and there are few studies that have identified strategies that enhance comprehension for learners with ASD. In the present study, the researcher investigated whether it was possible for students with ASD to improve their reading comprehension through a multimodal, researcher developed intervention, “Show Me’. Concrete figures and objects representing text features were manipulated by the students in accordance with the text they read, as a scaffold to assist their understanding. A single subject multiple baseline design was utilised to assess the effect of the intervention on the reading comprehension ability of three participants (aged 7-10 years old) with ASD. The results established a functional relationship between the independent variable, the ‘Show Me’ intervention, and participants’ ability to respond to comprehension questions during and after a reading session. A smaller relationship was established between the intervention and the verbal output of the students. Staff responses to the intervention were positive and indicated high social validity. The findings suggest that the manipulation of concrete representations may support students with ASD develop their reading comprehension abilities

Representations of cultural elements in the Finnish 8th grade EFL textbook On the Go 2

Abstract. This study aims to find out how elements of English-speaking culture are represented in the Finnish eight grade English as a foreign language (EFL) textbook On the Go 2 (Daffue-Karsten et al. 2017a, 2017b). This topic was chosen since the new Finnish National Core Curriculum 2014 portrays cultural education as an important part of language education that aids the student’s growth into a member of a multicultural society (FNBE, 2016). As learning materials are a central part of EFL teaching in Finland, it is important to research what examples they give of culture, and how culture is portrayed. This study focuses on four chapters (Units) found in On the Go 2 and arranges the cultural content into tables. The contents are arranged into categories, and the contents are then divided into elements of visible or invisible culture. Finally, the cultural content in the categories is coded under either products, practices or perspectives. Post-colonialist criticism is applied when analysing the cultural contents, along with the objectives set for assessing cultural competence in intercultural communicative competence. This study shows that On the Go 2 enforces intercultural communicative competence to a degree and while some elements of invisible culture are integrated, the focus is on visible culture. On the Go 2 avoids direct criticism towards cultures, but when reading the text closely, some negative attitudes towards non-Western cultures can be discovered.Tiivistelmä. Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään sitä, miten englanninkielistä kulttuuria esitetään kahdeksannen luokan englannin On the Go 2-oppikirjassa (Daffue-Karsten et al. 2017a, 2017b). Tämä aihe valittiin, sillä uusi Perusopetuksen Opetussuunnitelman Perusteet 2014 korostaa kulttuurin opetuksen tärkeyttä osana kieltenopetusta ja oppilaan kasvamista monikulttuurisen yhteiskunnan jäseneksi (FNBE, 2016). Koska oppimateriaalit ovat keskeinen osa vieraan kielen opetusta Suomessa, on tärkeää tutkia, millaisia esimerkkejä ne antavat kulttuurista, ja miten kulttuuria käsitellään. Tässä tutkimuksessa tutkitaan neljää On the Go 2-kirjasta löytyvää kappaletta taulukoin, joissa kulttuurisisältö jaotellaan eri kategorioihin, ja edelleen joko näkyvään tai näkymättömään kulttuuriin. Lopuksi kulttuurisisältö jaotellaan joko tuotteiksi, käytänteiksi tai perspektiiveiksi. Kirjojen kulttuurisisällön arvioinnin tukena käytetään postkolonialistista kritiikkiä, sekä interkulturaalisen kommunikatiivisen kompetenssin saavuttamisen asettamia tavoitteita kulttuuriopetukselle. Tässä tutkimuksessa käy ilmi, että On the Go 2 saavuttaa osin interkulturaalisen kommunikatiivisen kompetenssin tavoitteet, ja integroi jonkin verran näkymättömän kulttuurin elementtejä, mutta keskittyy yhä enimmäkseen näkyvään kulttuuriin. Kulttuureihin suhtaudutaan suoraa kritiikkiä vältellen, mutta tekstiä tarkemmin luettaessa käy ilmi, että kirjasta on löydettävissä negatiivisa asenteita eurooppalaisen kulttuuripiirin ulkoisia kulttuureja ja niiden tuotteita kohtaan