Thursday, December 13, 2007

ProQuest Alerts: Tech for learning and research

Several weeks ago I used ProQuest via the UNE Library to get the full text of an article I wanted to read. I enjoyed the article and wanted to "keep up" on new developments from this research team. So, I signed up for a ProQuest Alert: How to Set Up an Alert. With the press of other tasks, I moved on to other work and let the alert fade from active memory. The ProQuest system surprised me pleasantly this morning with the following message:

ProQuest

Message:
Looking for publication of Penuel's research article on which the article with Riel was based. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1257125231&sid=3&Fmt=3&xxx...xxx

Below are the latest results for your alert. Click the links to view an article in ProQuest.
Delete this alert - Use this link if you wish to stop receiving this alert.
Help - Having trouble using this alert? Follow this link for instructions and support.

Databases selected: Multiple databases...
1 new articles found for: AU(William R Penuel)


1. What Makes Professional Development Effective? Strategies That Foster Curriculum Implementation
William R Penuel, Barry J Fishman, Ryoko Yamaguchi, Lawrence P Gallagher. American Educational Research Journal. Washington: Dec 2007. Vol. 44, Iss. 4; p. 921 (38 pages)

Abstract Abstract | Full text Full text | Full Text - PDF Full Text - PDF

The message provides links to a very recent article on a topic of great interest to me and potentially to our teacher candidates. I am writing this post on a computer that is not on the UNE network so the links require login and password that I don't have. They won't work for readers of this post either. So, I will wait until I return to the authorized network and read it then.

Now, that's a technology enhancement for teaching, learning and research!

2 comments:

SC Spaeth said...

I chose to write this post in this blog because I included my personal reaction to getting this pleasant surprise. That seems appropriate for a blog. But the ideas here deserve a fuller treatment that probably does not include this personal perspective.

Consequently, I started a page at TechStudio titled "ProQuest and Alerts" and added the tag "stub" so that I and others can easily recognize and locate it as something that needs further work.

Note: This comment serves as a manually produced trackback between two systems that are not designed for automatic coupling.

SC Spaeth said...

The following interpretation from the paper indicates that we are on the right trajectory with the development of the new MSE program:

"At the teacher level, perceived coherence of the professional development activities with teachers' own districts' goals for student learning and with their goals for professional development was a strong predictor of two aspects of curriculum implementation in GLOBE: protocol use and preparation for student inquiry. These effects suggest that teachers' interpretations of professional development activities, not just the design of the activities themselves, are important in shaping the effectiveness of those activities, as both the earlier Eisenhower study (Garet et al., 2001) and other scholars who have studied teachers' interpretations of reform efforts have found (Spillane & Jennings, 1997). At the same time, the significance of this finding should be interpreted with caution, as it is impossible from our data to know whether teachers'..."