Learning approaches,study time and academic performance

This study investigated the relationship between learning approach, time spent studying and grades awarded. A class of mechanical engineering students (N=34; male) were asked to keep an hour-by-hour study diary for one week. The Biggs' Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) provided measures of these students' approach to study tasks. Use of a surface approach to learning was found to be positively correlated with both high attendance in class and greater hours of independent study time. The former is explained by the surface learner's need for the lecturer to define the course; the latter by the inefficiency of a surface approach. Poor grades in spite of long study hours mirror an inefficient surface approach. This finding suggests the need for individual study counselling. Case studies show that the use of a deep approach does not result in good grades unless accompanied by sufficient work. The diary method in conjunction with the SPQ appears to be a promising method for researching workload, study times and other related variables.     

Learning and gender: Complexity and possibility

Severiens and Ten Dam's efforts to link theories of learning and gender are applauded as a valuable step forward in understanding learning. Complexities of the relationships among epistemic structures, patterns within structures, and learning activities are highlighted as are dilemmas in assessing these multiple layers of learning.     

Learning strategies and study approaches of postsecondary students with dyslexia

The present study describes the self-reported learning strategies and study approaches of college and university students with and without dyslexia and examines the relationship of those characteristics with reading ability. Students with (n = 36) and without (n = 66) dyslexia completed tests measuring reading rate, reading comprehension, reading history, learning strategies, and learning approaches. The results indicated that students without dyslexia obtained significantly higher scores than students with dyslexia in their reported use of selecting main ideas and test taking strategies. Students with dyslexia reported significantly greater use of study aids and time management strategies in comparison to students without dyslexia. Moreover, university students with dyslexia were significantly more likely to report a deep approach to learning in comparison to university students without dyslexia. Reading ability correlated positively with selecting main ideas and test taking strategies and negatively with use of study aids. The authors interpret the learning strategy results as consequences of and compensations for the difficulties that students with dyslexia have in word reading.     

Learning strategies,styles and approaches: An analysis of their interrelationships

Research in the area of learning strategies and styles of university students has led to many studies as well as to the development of many research tools for measuring learning, but without the necessary interrelationships among the tools or within the research. The aim of this study has been to examine the interdependence among the best-known tools coming from different theoretical bases. A sample of 991 university students in their first and last years, from ten different disciplines, completed four tests: ILP, LASSI, ASI and LSQ. The scales of each test, taken as the unit of analysis, were submitted to a factor analysis by the principal-components and the principal-factors methods. The latter method revealed an overarching structure composed of the following four factors: Traditional Study Methods; Deep Processing; Elaborative Processing; and General Learning Styles. These relationships confirmed the existence of three dimensions, or paths involved in learning, with clear motivational and approach elements, and also showed a separation between Deep Processing and the Deep Approach. Finally, we carried out principal-factor analyses of ASI and LASSI, obtaining two factors for each inventory.

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Résumé La recherche dans le domaine de stratégies et des styles d'apprentissage chez les étudiants universitaires à abouti à de nombreuses études et a developpé divers instruments de mesures d'apprentissage, mais san ce rapport indispensable entre études et entre instruments. Le but de cette recherche a été d'examiner l'interdepéndence entre les instruments les plus connus provenants de différentes théories.Un echantillonage de 991 étudiants universitaires de première annèe, de dix disciplines différentes ont repondu à 4 tests: ILP, LASSI, ASI et LSQ. Les échelles de chaque test, prises comme unité d'analyse ont été soumises à une analyse factorielle d'après les méthodes de composantes principales et de facteurs principaux. Celle-ci revèle una structure commune composée des 4 facteurs suivants: Méthodes d'étude traditionelles, Traitement profond, Traitement élaboratif et Styles génériques d'apprentissage. Les rapports entre aux confirment l'existence de trois dimensions, impliquées dans l'apprentissage, avec des élèments de motivations et d'approches; et ils montrent aussi une séparation entre le Traitement profond et l'Approche profonde. Finalement, nous avons réalisé une analyse factorielle d'après le méthode de facteurs principaux pour les tests ASI et LASSI, obtenant deux facteurs pour chacun des ces tests.

     

新建本科院校学科建设策略偏差及校准对策

学科建设是高校提升内涵实力、提高办学地位的根本途径。文章针对当前一些新建本科院校在办学发展定位、学科专业方向、人才培养目标、师资队伍建设、学科建设运作机制等方面出现了策略决策偏差,导致学科建设效果不理想、影响长远发展的情况,在客观分析新建本科院校学科现状及其发展可能的基础上,依据学科内涵建设良性规律,提出阶段定位和策略对应的学科建设建议。     

Learning approaches and lecture attendance of medical students

There are arguably many factors that affect the way a student learns. A recent report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on student academic experience in the UK states that class size is an important factor in the quality of the student experience and that smaller class sizes provide greater educational benefit than the delivery of lectures. This article assesses research related to lectures, lecture attendance of medical students and their learning approaches in higher education outside the clinical setting. A questionnaire and focus groups were employed to gather quantitative and qualitative data. The results show that students value lectures in the curriculum alongside other teaching and learning methods.     

Class,gender, and societal inequalities: A study of Nigerian and Thai undergraduate students

This article focuses on the linkages between class, gender and student aspirations in the Nigerian and Thai cultural contexts. Building upon critical and feminist theory that employs class and patriarchal relationships to explain the role of educational institutions, this study examines the educational and career aspirations of 741 university students from two different cultural and academic settings.Based on qualitative and statistical analyses of the perceptions, family backgrounds, and expectations of a random sample of Nigerian and Thai university undergraduates, the study concludes that class and gender affect both university access, and students' educational and career aspirations once admitted to university. However, the results of this study also suggest that the specific effects of class and gender remain dependent upon the cultural milieu of which they are a part.     

中考物理命题趋向--开放型试题

开放型试题是对物理问题或物理实验进行创新设计,具有“条件不确定,答案不唯一,所求多元性”的特点,能够充分体现出“以学生为本”,“用活题,考能力”的指导思想,本文对此作一些探讨。     

Learning process, strategies and web-based concordancers: a case study

The recent widespread use of web‐based concordancers seems to provide a promising mode for language teaching and learning, especially in the English as a foreign language (EFL) setting, because through concordancers students can easily gain exposure to a huge number of authentic and sorted language examples. This paper describes a case study of the learning process and strategies used by three Taiwanese college students in the concordancer setting. A web‐based concordancer was used to assist the participants while undertaking a proofreading activity. Think‐aloud protocol was used to collect their data. The results showed that the following four factors have influenced learners’ learning process and strategies in use: (1) prior knowledge, (2) cognitive skills, (3) teacher intervention and (4) concordancer skills.     

Learning about sustainability and gender through Farmer Field Schools in the Taita Hills,Kenya

This research uses transformative learning theory to explore how Farmers Field Schools (FFS) of the Taita Hills, Kenya have contributed to environmental sustainability, with a particular focus on gendered learning. Both genders experienced transformations in their meaning schemes related to farming (e.g., men and women switched their traditional roles in tillage and planting). A significant change in meaning perspective occurred among men who overcame personal biases and a cultural practice of land inheritance for males to now include their daughters. More research is needed to explore how all participants (farmers, extension agents, scientists) could enhance sustainability efforts and gender equality through agricultural participatory education projects such as FFS.     

Children's over- and underestimation of academic competence: a longitudinal study of gender differences, depression, and anxiety

A total of 807 third and sixth graders completed questionnaires about their academic competence, feelings of depression, and symptoms of anxiety, every 6 months for 3 years. Teachers provided objective measures of academic competence. Compared to teachers' ratings, boys overestimated and girls underestimated their academic competence. Gender differences first emerged in fourth or fifth grade and increased through eighth grade. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were negatively associated with academic overestimation. Furthermore, controlling for depression and anxiety eliminated most of the gender differences in academic over- and underestimation. Finally, self-reported depression and anxiety predicted changes in the tendency to overestimate academic competence over time. Evidence of the reverse relation was much weaker.     

Leadership and gender in higher education: a case study

Literature concerning leadership styles in HE provides no distinct view on whether style relates to gender. Transformational styles are regarded by some as particularly suited to times of change, and likely to be adopted by women; but others argue such styles are unsuited to HE. In a study of leadership within an institute of higher education undergoing change, transformational and transactional leadership behaviours were identified in all senior managers, male and female. However, when official communications were plotted over time, transformational attitudes were superseded by transactional. Women managers apparently identified more with male gender paradigms and displayed male-type leadership behaviours, whilst men showed female paradigm identification and female-type leadership. Additionally, managers indicated that past experience of ‘poor’ management and their subject training had greatly influenced their leadership approaches.     

现代教育技术与学科教学的整合应用研究

现代教育技术的理论与实践在各种形式的教学实践中发挥着重要的指导作用。如何有效的将现代教育技术用于指导学科教学实践,这需要教育者对现代教育技术应用的定位有个深刻的认识。目前,在探讨将现代教育技术整合到各个学科的教学实践过程中,急待正确的分析教育技术环境下的课堂教学若干新特征分析,这也是教育者运用现代教育技术在尝试教育改革和实施素质教育中首先应该解决的问题。     

Environmental attitudes of young people in Turkey: effects of school type and gender

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of school type (private and public) and gender on sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth grade students’ attitudes toward the environment. A total of 1497 students (n?=?765 girls; n?=?715 boys; and n?=?17 gender not provided) attending public (n?=?603) and private schools (n?=?892) located in Ankara participated in the study. A 45‐item Likert‐type questionnaire consisting of four dimensions, namely, awareness of environmental problems, national environmental problems, solutions to the problems and awareness of individual responsibility, was used to measure students’ environmental attitudes. A two‐way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the effect of school type and gender on four dimensions of the environmental attitude questionnaire. Results showed that school type and gender had a significant effect on the collective dependent variables. Univariate ANOVAs indicated that mean scores on each dimension of the questionnaire were significantly different for students in public and private schools. Moreover, there was statistically significant mean difference between boys and girls with respect to scores on each dimension of the questionnaire. It is concluded as a result of the study that, although there are differences between categories of individuals, there is a widespread support for conservation of the environment among young people living in Ankara/Turkey.     

A comparative study of children's concentration performance on picture books: age,gender, and media forms

The reading development of children depends on various sensory stimuli, which help them construct reading contexts and facilitate active learning and exploration. This study uses sensory stimuli provided by picture books using various forms of media to improve children's concentration performance. We employ picture books using four forms of media: conventional picture books, pop-up books, talking books, and e-books. Children in young (Grade 3) and senior elementary school students (Grade 6) are recruited as participants. The NeuroSky MindBand (electroencephalogram) is used as a tool to measure children's concentration. The results indicate that children in Grade 3 express higher concentration and interest than children in Grade 6 in picture books, and the effect of gender is greater than that of grade on the level of concentration invested in the picture book media form and exhibits a significant interaction and effects on children's concentration performance. As a result, we suggest that talking books or e-books, which provide multisensory stimuli, should be selected for elementary school boys. In addition, talking books should be selected for girls in young elementary school students, while conventional books should be used for girls in senior elementary school students to avoid distraction caused by excessive media stimuli.