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The authors examined abstracts written by graduate students for their research proposals as a requirement for a course in research methods in a distance learning MLIS program. The students learned under three instructional conditions that involved varying levels of access to worked examples created from abstracts representing research in the LIS field. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) detected significantly higher scores in areas related to fluency in describing the research design and the required elements of a research proposal in the groups with more exposure to worked examples, while the rhetorical skills necessary to compose a succinct abstract and to relate a proposal to implications in the field were not affected.central tenet of graduate education is the expectation that students will be able to generate new knowledge from the research related to the discipline in which any given graduate student has elected to pursue study. The development of the skills needed by the students to meet this expectation requires a curriculum including coursework that exposes students to the research in the field and, ultimately, prepares students to demonstrate that they can transform that research into an original thesis. To this end, the culminating activities in many graduate programs include the submission of a thesis or a capstone paper. To help students to succeed in meeting exit requirements such as these, most graduate schools provide formal instruction in research methods. The hope is that, beyond graduation, these newly minted professionals will enter their fields armed with the tools they need to conduct research when the opportunities arise.In the library and information science (LIS) discipline, the need for students and practicing librarians to acquire experience in research methods has resulted in recomdoi:10.5860/crl.75.6.822 crl13-526

PurposeThe paper explored the benefits as well as the concerns of vocabulary learning with clay modeling in terms of practical and pedagogical implications for creating positive learning experiences.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods design was conducted to examine the effectiveness of vocabulary learning with clay modeling practices in lower socioeconomic status schools.FindingsAlthough test results showed no statistically significant differences between the groups, the clay modeling group did improve vocabulary acquisition similar to the sentence writing group. The students were actively engaged with hands-on activities using the clay and also demonstrated positive emotional, behavioral and physical experiences.Research limitations/implicationsThe addition of the clay modeling provided an opportunity for kinesthetic learning but created a high extraneous cognitive load with the challenges incurred through the use of clay.Practical implicationsThe challenges can be reduced by 1) adopting appropriate instructional strategies to design and implement effective clay modeling activities for students and teachers, 2) providing training or professional workshop development for teachers and 3) ongoing practical support and assistance for students.Social implicationsExploring the use of kinesthetic instructional practice at the high school level may prove beneficial since clay modeling is frequently used effectively at lower grade levels.Originality/valueThe current study explores the added value of clay modeling for high school students’ biology vocabulary learning in a lower socioeconomic status school from practical and pedagogical perspectives.

Very few formal studies have documented the errors committed in online searching performances, and none have focused exclusively on students in library and information science programs. To fill this gap, the authors conducted a content analysis of online searching errors of MLIS students based upon a coding scheme derived from previous error typologies and enhanced with new categories related to strategic searching decisions. The results suggest that errors committed by MLIS students align with errors identified in previous online searching studies but also include errors that seem unique to the MLIS participants’ searching outcomes. Using observed error patterns, the authors suggest instructional activities that can be developed to teach techniques for error correction and avoiding tactical and strategic flaws in online searching assignments.

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