Block scheduled versus traditional biology teaching—an educational experiment using the water lily

In this study, we compared a traditional teaching sequence (four distinct lessons) with a block schedule dealing with the ecological adaptations of the water lily. The educational unit contained original plant material and both experimental groups received the same tasks and working sheets. Pupils worked together in groups of three to four pupils in a self-regulated manner, carrying out hands-on experiments. However, both groups differed in their time schedule (four distinct lessons of 45 min versus one block of 180 min). Pupils from the traditionally scheduled education performed significantly better in the immediate post-test while these differences merged in retention.     

No Difference in the Neural Underpinnings of Number and Letter Copying in Children: Bayesian Analysis of Functional Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy Data

It is under debate whether the neural representation of numbers and letters might rely on distinct neural correlates, or on a mostly shared neural network. In the present study, a total of 47 children in fifth grade (Experiment 1) and sixth grade (Experiment 2) simply copied numbers and letters on a touch screen while brain activation changes were recorded by means of functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS data of both experiments and a joint analysis revealed that a shared neural network, particularly in the left hemisphere, was activated in response to both number and letter copying. Interestingly, no difference was observed in brain activation patterns between these two stimuli, as revealed by Bayesian analysis. Our findings indicate that both number and letter copying lead to similar brain activation in children. We further suggest methodological and applied applications of these findings in the frame of educational neuroscience.     

The role of elevation in moral judgment

ABSTRACT

Elevation is the emotion elicited by witnessing acts of moral beauty and may be framed as the opposite of disgust. Two studies investigated the role of elevation in moral judgment and its relation to disgust. In Study 1 it was investigated whether elevation can attenuate the effects of disgust on moral transgression judgments. Participants were either induced to experience disgust (by giving them a bitter beverage), or to experience disgust and elevation simultaneously (by video induction). No effects of either emotion on moral transgression judgments were found. In Study 2 the nature of causal connectedness between elevation and moral virtue judgments was investigated by testing whether elevation amplifies moral virtue judgments. It was found that participants judged morally good acts as being more morally good when being elevated, suggesting that there is a bidirectional causal link between elevation and judgments of moral virtue.     

Außerhalb des Krankenhauses erworbene Pneumonie (community acquired pneumonia CAP)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Student teachers’ appraisal of the importance of assessment in teacher education and self-reports on the development of assessment competence

Abstract

Competence in assessment has been identified as a key feature in teachers’ professional success. However, assessment competence is a complex field, comprising capacity in both summative and formative assessment. Hence, a detailed view on how student teachers perceive assessment is the focus of this study. Based on an official catalogue of assessment standards, over 900 student teachers repeatedly rated the importance of the standards and the frequency with which they behaved in accordance with the standards in practicum situations. Analyses revealed that (a) students perceived assessment competence as a contextual entity distinguishable from other domains, (b) while they assigned high importance ratings to assessment standards in general, standards concerned specifically with external evaluation were seen as relatively unimportant, and (c) they perceived a rise in their own assessment competence during their teacher education. Taken together, this suggests that in the student view assessment competence is important and develops over time.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Accuracy of metacognitive judgments as a moderator of learner control effectiveness in problem-solving tasks

A possible explanation for why students do not benefit from learner-controlled instruction is that they are not able to accurately monitor their own performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how the accuracy of metacognitive judgments made during training moderates the effect of learner control on performance when solving genetics tasks. Eighty-six undergraduate students solved self-selected genetics tasks using either a full learner control or a restricted learner control. Results indicated that learner control effectiveness was moderated by the absolute accuracy (i.e., absolute bias) of metacognitive judgments, and this accuracy was a better predictor of learning performance for full learner control than for restricted learner control. Furthermore, students’ prior knowledge predicted absolute accuracy of both ease-of-learning judgments (EOLs) and retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) during training, with higher prior knowledge resulting in a better absolute accuracy. Overall, monitoring guided control, that is, EOLs predicted time-on-task and invested mental effort regardless of the degree of learner control, whereas RCJs predicted the total training time, but not the number of tasks selected during training. These results suggest that monitoring accuracy plays an important role in effective regulation of learning from problem-solving tasks, and provide further evidence that metacognitive judgments affect study time allocation in problem solving context.     

Akute Exazerbation bei COPD

Ohne Zusammenfassung