New research articles examine audiobooks, effective learners and digital learning

CHICAGO - Three new articles are now available in the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) peer-reviewed online journal, School Library Research (SLR). SLR promotes and publishes high quality original research concerning the management, implementation and evaluation of school library programs. Articles can be accessed at www.ala.org/aasl/slr.

In “Audiobooks: Legitimate 'Reading' Material for Adolescents?” Jennifer Moore and Maria Cahill review literature on adolescents and audiobooks to determine if listening to an audiobook can serve as a legitimate form of reading. Moore, an assistant professor at Texas Woman’s University, and Cahill, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, focused their review on three distinct participant groups: adolescents with visual impairments or learning disabilities, adolescent second language learners, and typically developing adolescents.

Sherry Crow and Lisa Kastello base their paper, “The Dispositions of Elementary School Children of Individualistic and Collectivist Cultures Who Are Intrinsically Motivated to Seek Information,” on two studies conducted in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2008 and in Kampala, Uganda, in 2014. Crow and Kastello, both at the University of Nebraska Kearney, were guided by the questions, “What are the experiences in the lives of upper elementary-aged children that foster an intrinsic motivation to seek information?” and “How do the experiences of students from a collectivist culture (Uganda) who are intrinsically motivated to seek information compare and contrast with the experiences of similarly aged students from an individualistic culture (Colorado)?” 

In “Applying the Quadratic Usage Framework to Research on K–12 STEM Digital Learning Resources” Jennifer Luetkemeyer and Marcia Mardis detail the results of their qualitative synthesis of K–12 STEM digital learning resources, research and policy literature. Their aim was to understand the relationship between national digital learning priorities, the shift to digital resources, and changes in teaching and learning. Luetkemeyer, a doctoral candidate at Florida State University, and Mardis, an associate professor at the same, analyzed the results for common themes, overarching conceptual structures and directions for future research.

School Library Research (ISSN: 2165-1019) is the successor to School Library Media Research (ISSN: 1523-4320) and School Library Media Quarterly Online. The journal is peer-reviewed, indexed by H. W. Wilson's Library Literature and by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology and continues to welcome manuscripts that focus on high-quality original research concerning the management, implementation and evaluation of school library programs.

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.