Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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The Role of Equity and Diversity in Early Childhood Education
Krischa Esquivel; Emily Elam; Jennifer Paris; Maricela Tafoya · College of the Canyons · 2020
Guided by cultural beliefs and principles, families select experiences, convey attitudes, and impart knowledge to their children to prepare them for adulthood. Accordingly, it is important for program staff to learn to collaborate effectively with families. To develop a partnership and to tap into the family as a primary resource, early childhood educators must reach out to, learn about, and develop strong partnerships with families. This process requires openness to learning and an effort to understand the individuality of each family and the diversity of the families from which the children come.
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Understanding and Supporting Learners with Disabilities
Paula Lombardi · University of New Hampshire · 2019
This book is a cloned version of Understanding and Supporting Learners with Disabilities by Paula Lombardi, published using Pressbooks under a CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike) license. It may differ from the original.
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Beyond the Horizon: Broadening Our Understanding of OER Efficacy
Kaitlin Schilling · Rebus Community · 2023
Beyond the Horizon: Broadening Our Understanding of OER Efficacy is a concise yet comprehensive resource designed to provide insight into the current state of research and reporting on Open Educational Resources (OER) efficacy. This guide explores existing frameworks, delves into key themes and gaps, and highlights emerging opportunities in the realm of OER efficacy.
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Making Ripples: A Guidebook to Challenge Status Quo in OER Creation
Kaitlin Schilling · Rebus Community · 2023
Making Ripples: A Guidebook to Challenge Status Quo in OER Creation is a short resource designed to expand your understanding of inequities in the educational systems through breaking down the work into smaller pieces with opportunities for you to reflect, identify strategies for action, and locate resources and community members to connect with. The purpose of this guide is to explore strategies for you as OER creators to incorporate equitable practices into your workflows.
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Cataloging with MARC, RDA, and Classification Systems
Reed Hepler; David Horalek · College of Southern Idaho Pressbooks Network (CSI) · 2023
This book goes over a wide range of cataloging schemata, tools, and norms. It presents a concise but thorough view of the basics of library cataloging practice.
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Introduction to Library and Information Science
Reed Hepler; David Horalek · College of Southern Idaho Pressbooks Network (CSI) · 2023
This book explores the history, present, and future of library science, both in theory and in practice. It examines the place of the librarian as arbiter of information access in a constantly-changing and modernizing global community.
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Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning
Jako Olivier; Charlene du Toit-Brits; Byron Bunt; Amit Dhakulkar · AOSIS Publishing · 2022
This book covers original research on the implementation of open educational practices through the use of open educational resources at the university level. The emphasis on open education in this book is on contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning specifically within a South African milieu. The envisaged chapters cover conceptual and review research and empirical work focussing on open educational practices and the use of renewable assessments. The work starts off with an overview of an institutional-wide open education project that prompted the research followed by research on open education in terms of various modules in the health science, music education, law, philosophy, dietetics, anthropology, French language learning, journalism and political science. There is a clear gap in the literature on open education in terms of open educational practices, specifically in terms of contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning in a South African context. Despite the existence of some general works on open education in terms of policy, social justice and open textbooks, this book will be unique in exploring the intersections of openness, specifically with contextualisation, student agency and self-directedness.
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Urban Health: A Practical Application for Clinical Based Learning
Cynthera McNeill; Umeika Stephens; Tara Walker · Wayne State University Library System · 2022
Urban Health: A Practical Application for Clinical Based Learning is an openly licensed, peer-reviewed textbook for clinical-based nursing educators covering barriers in urban health and their impact on patient health outcomes. The authors explore perspectives of urban communities, urban patients, and urban healthcare providers to offer insight into how healthcare providers can address disparities in urban healthcare, provide meaningful care with the lived experiences of urban patients in mind, and improve patient-provider communication by moving towards a more solution-driven, team-based care approach. Features include learning activities, exemplars, and case studies.
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Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice
Kevin Adams; Murray Anderson; Elissah Becknell; CJ Ivory · Association of College and Research Libraries · 2022
As so often is the case, the idea for this book came from a twisting path. Not long after we began collaborating and presenting together at conferences, we were invited to draft a chapter on critical race theory (CRT) in academic libraries. An invited chapter is, of course, very flattering, so we proceeded without much thought to who the publisher would be. Angela had been working on social justice issues for a while at that point, while CJ had a wealth of expertise on open educational resources (OER). We merged our two areas of expertise in drafting that chapter, discussing OER as an opportunity to not only save students money but incorporate CRT into the curriculum—both in content and in practice. We submitted the final draft and were dismayed when we received the publication agreement. The publisher was unwilling to allow us to retain the copyright, even after we shared the licensing agreement that the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Press uses as an example. In discussing how to proceed—should we submit this chapter somewhere else?—we realized that we were really excited about extending the discussion of OER beyond just ensuring that all students can afford to access their course materials. So we pitched the idea of an edited volume on this topic to a publisher that we know has publishing practices we support (chapter authors retain copyright and select the Creative Commons license they prefer for their work), and here we are! Our entrance to academic work on social justice was through a focus on CRT. We outline this background here but wish to emphasize that it explicitly addresses only one aspect of social justice. For us, the structural understanding of racism in the United States creates a foundation upon which to understand other structures of oppression as well as intersectionality.
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Enhancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER)
Nikki Andersen · University of Southern Queensland · 2022
This practical guide provides a framework and tips to enhance inclusion, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in Open Educational Resources.
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Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science
Gloria Snively ; Wanosts’a7 Williams · University of Victoria · 2016
Knowing Home attempts to capture the creative vision of Indigenous scientific knowledge and technology that is derived from an ecology of a home place. The traditional wisdom component of Indigenous Science—the values and ways of decision-making—assists humans in their relationship with each other, the land and water, and all of creation. Indigenous perspectives have the potential to give insight and guidance to the kind of environmental ethics and deep understanding that we must gain as we attempt to solve the increasingly complex problems of the 21st century. Braiding Indigenous Science and Western Science is a metaphor used to establish a particular relationship. Linked by braiding, there is a certain reciprocity. Each strand remains a separate entity, but all strands come together to form the whole. When we braid Indigenous Science with Western Science we acknowledge that both ways of knowing are legitimate forms of knowledge. The book provides a window into the vast storehouse of innovations and technologies of the Indigenous peoples who live in Northwestern North America. It is our hope that the Indigenous Science examples, research and curriculum models will inspire deep reflection regarding the under-representation of Aboriginal students in the sciences. It is intended that the rich examples and cases, combined with the resources listed in the appendices, will enable teachers and students to explore Indigenous Science examples in the classroom, and in addition, support the development of curriculum projects in home places.
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Trauma-Informed School Practices: Building Expertise To Transform Schools
Anna A. Berardi; Brenda M. Morton · George Fox University Library · 2019
This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including community members such as parents and board members in these processes - a total system makeover. At the conclusion of this text, the student, educator, or mental health professional will have a deeper understanding of what trauma-informed practice requires of them. This includes practical strategies on how to transform our learning communities in response to the devastating effect of unmitigated stress and trauma on our student's ability to learn and thrive throughout the lifespan.
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Instruction in Functional Assessment
Marcie Desrochers; Moira Fallon · Open SUNY · 2014
Instruction in Functional Assessment introduces learners to functional assessment (FA), which includes a variety of assessment approaches (indirect, observational, and experimental) for identifying the cause of an individual's challenging behavior for the purpose of designing effective treatments. FA is mandated by federal law and is a recognized empirically based approach to treatment of individuals with challenging behaviors (e.g., disruptive, self-injurious, and aggressive behaviors). Instruction in FA is essential for students who will one day enter professions as educators, psychologists, social workers, counselors, or mental health professionals. The purpose of this textbook is to provide instruction in FA skills for pre-professionals in the fields of education and psychology. This supplemental resource provides the context, background, and knowledge to facilitate students' acquisition of the methods, decision-making, and skills involved in conducting FA. Each chapter begins with focus questions designed to promote reflective thinking and ends with discussion questions. To promote application of FA in diverse situations and teach important lessons, case studies of individuals with challenging behaviors, interactive activities, and opportunities for practice are embedded in the chapters. Moreover, the text includes the ingredients to facilitate students' role play and rehearsal of appropriate FA skills while working in cooperative groups and using performance-based training.
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Educational Psychology
Kelvin Seifert; Rosemary Sutton · University of Manitoba · 2009
Chapters in the text can be assigned either from beginning to end, as with a conventional printed book, or they can be selected in some other sequence to meet the needs of particular students or classes. In general the first half of the book focuses on broader questions and principles taken from psychology per se, and the second half focuses on somewhat more practical issues of teaching. But the division between “theory” and “practice” is only approximate; all parts of the book draw on research, theory, and practical wisdom wherever appropriate. Chapter 2 is about learning theory, and Chapter 3 is about development; but as we point out, these topics overlap with each other as well as with the concerns of daily teaching. Chapter 4 is about several forms of student diversity (what might be called individual differences in another context), and Chapter 5 is about one form of diversity that has become prominent in schools recently—students with disabilities. Chapter 6 is about motivation, a topic that is heavily studied by psychological researchers, but that also poses perennial challenges to classroom teachers. Following these somewhat more basic psychological chapters, we turn to several lasting challenges of classroom life—challenges that seem to be an intrinsic part of the job. Chapter 7 offers ideas about classroom management; Chapter 8, ideas about communicating with students; Chapter 9, about ways to assist students' complex forms of thinking; and Chapter 10, about planning instruction systematically. The book closes with two chapters about assessment of learning: Chapter 11 focuses on teachers' own efforts to assess students, and Chapter 12 focuses on standardized measures of assessment. We have organized material and features in ways that we hope will allow for a variety of students, instructors, and institutions to use the book. For instructors and courses that seek a strong focus on research and the research process, for example, we have included an extra “ch
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Psychology 2e
Rose M. Spielman; William J. Jenkins; Marilyn D. Lovett; Mara Aruguete · OpenStax, Rice University
Psychology 2e is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe. The second edition contains detailed updates to address comments and suggestions from users. Significant improvements and additions were made in the areas of research currency, diversity and representation, and the relevance and recency of the examples. Many concepts were expanded or clarified, particularly through the judicious addition of detail and further explanation where necessary. Finally, the authors addressed the replication issues in the psychology discipline, both in the research chapter and where appropriate throughout the book. Changes made in Psychology 2e are described in the preface to help instructors transition to the second edition. The first edition of Psychology by OpenStax is available in web view here.
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Lifespan Development
Diana Riser; Rose Spielman; David Biek; Alisa Beyer · OpenStax, Rice University
Lifespan Development aligns to the topics and objectives of most introductory developmental psychology courses taught across departments. Grounded in foundational theories and scientific research, the text teaches students about core aspects of human development—physical, cognitive, social, emotional—across the lifespan. A primary goal of the book is to incorporate content, scholarship, and activities that explore a variety of perspectives that encourage all students to feel seen and included. Lifespan Development strives to openly address complex topics with scholarly responsibility and an effort to increase equity and inclusion in the research presented, as well as to foster student engagement in the classroom through relevant examples and applications. Focused on driving meaningful and memorable learning experiences, the narrative places concepts in contexts that give students the means to understand human development and how that knowledge can be applied to and improve their own lives and the lives of others.
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Introduction to Sociology 3e
Tonja R. Conerly; Kathleen Holmes; Asha Lal Tamang; Jennifer Hensley · OpenStax, Rice University
Introduction to Sociology 3e aligns to the topics and objectives of many introductory sociology courses. It is arranged in a manner that provides foundational sociological theories and contexts, then progresses through various aspects of human and societal interactions. The new edition is focused on driving meaningful and memorable learning experiences related to critical thinking about society and culture. The text includes comprehensive coverage of core concepts, discussions and data relevant to a diverse audience, and features that draw learners into the discipline in powerful and personal ways. Overall, Introduction to Sociology 3e aims to center the course and discipline as crucial elements for understanding relationships, society, and civic engagement; the authors seek to lay the foundation for students to apply what they learn throughout their lives and careers. The authors, reviewers, and the entire team worked to build understanding of the causes and impacts of discrimination and prejudice. Introduction to Sociology 3e contains dozens of examples of discrimination and its outcomes regarding social science, society, institutions, and individuals. The text seeks to strike a balance between confronting the damaging aspects of our culture and history and celebrating those who have driven change and overcome challenges. The core discussion of these topics are present in Chapter 11 on Race and Ethnicity, and Chapter 12 on Gender, Sex, and Sexuality, but their causes and effects are extensively discussed in the context of other topics, including education, law enforcement, government, healthcare, the economy, and so on. Together and when connected by an instructor, these elements have potential for deep and lasting effects. Changes made in Introduction to Sociology 3e are described in the preface to help instructors transition to the third edition. The second edition of Introduction to Sociology by OpenStax is available in web view here.
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Introduction to Political Science
Mark Carl Rom; Masaki Hidaka; Rachel Bzostek Walker; Emilia B. Carvalho · OpenStax, Rice University
Designed to meet the scope and sequence of your course, OpenStax Introduction to Political Science provides a strong foundation in global political systems, exploring how and why political realities unfold. Rich with examples of individual and national social action, this text emphasizes students’ role in the political sphere and equips them to be active and informed participants in civil society. Learn more about what this free, openly-licensed textbook has to offer you and your students.
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Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
Elizabeth D. Kirby; Melissa J. Glenn; Noah J. Sandstrom; Christina L. Williams · OpenStax, Rice University
Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience aligns to the topics and objectives of introductory behavioral neuroscience courses taught in psychology, biology, neuroscience, and similar departments. This offering is intended for undergraduates with no presumed college-level science coursework, and presents the foundational principles of brain-behavior-environment interactions. In Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience, students will begin to understand how the physiology of the nervous system and the environment dictate our movements, thoughts and feelings. Students will be challenged to think about real neuroscience experiments, appreciate how neuroscience knowledge evolves over time, and consider open questions in the field. They will also be invited to learn about the people behind the science, such as through interview videos and researcher profiles. The development of this material was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under IOS-2035041 to Elizabeth Kirby. The opinions, descriptions, recommendations, and findings are those of the contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF. An Affordable Learning Exchange grant to Elizabeth Kirby from the Ohio State University also supported development of this material.
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Introduction to Anthropology
Jennifer Hasty; David G. Lewis; Marjorie M. Snipes · OpenStax, Rice University
Designed to meet the scope and sequence of your course, OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology is a four-field text integrating diverse voices, engaging field activities, and meaningful themes like Indigenous experiences and social inequality to engage students and enrich learning. The text showcases the historical context of the discipline, with a strong focus on anthropology as a living and evolving field. There is significant discussion of recent efforts to make the field more diverse—in its practitioners, in the questions it asks, and in the applications of anthropological research to address contemporary challenges. In addressing social inequality, the text drives readers to consider the rise and impact of social inequalities based on forms of identity and difference (such as gender, ethnicity, race, and class) as well as oppression and discrimination. The contributors to and dangers of socioeconomic inequality are fully addressed, and the role of inequality in social dysfunction, disruption, and change is noted.