Students–exhibits interaction at a science center

In this study we investigate students' learning during their interaction with two exhibits at a science center. Specifically, we analyze both students' procedures when interacting with exhibits and their understanding of the scientific concepts presented therein. Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse (1990, 2000) provided the sociological foundation to assess the exhibit–student interaction and allowed analysis of the influence of the characteristics of students, exhibits, and interactions on students' learning. Eight students (ages 12ndash;13 years of age) with distinct sociological characteristics participated in the study. Several findings emerged from the results. First, the characteristics of the students, exhibits, and interactions appeared to influence student learning. Second, to most students, what they did interactively (procedures) seems not to have had any direct consequence on what they learned (concept understanding). Third, the data analysis suggest an important role for designers and teachers in overcoming the limitations of exhibit–student interaction. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 987–1018, 2006     

Climbing Bloom's taxonomy pyramid: Lessons from a graduate histology course

Bloom's taxonomy was adopted to create a subject‐specific scoring tool for histology multiple‐choice questions (MCQs). This Bloom's Taxonomy Histology Tool (BTHT) was used to analyze teacher‐ and student‐generated quiz and examination questions from a graduate level histology course. Multiple‐choice questions using histological images were generally assigned a higher BTHT level than simple text questions. The type of microscopy technique (light or electron microscopy) used for these image‐based questions did not result in any significant differences in their Bloom's taxonomy scores. The BTHT levels for teacher‐generated MCQs correlated positively with higher discrimination indices and inversely with the percent of students answering these questions correctly (difficulty index), suggesting that higher‐level Bloom's taxonomy questions differentiate well between higher‐ and lower‐performing students. When examining BTHT scores for MCQs that were written by students in a Multiple‐Choice Item Development Assignment (MCIDA) there was no significant correlation between these scores and the students' ability to answer teacher‐generated MCQs. This suggests that the ability to answer histology MCQs relies on a different skill set than the aptitude to construct higher‐level Bloom's taxonomy questions. However, students significantly improved their average BTHT scores from the midterm to the final MCIDA task, which indicates that practice, experience and feedback increased their MCQ writing proficiency. Anat Sci Educ 10: 456–464. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Why do students exhibit different attention-related behavior during instruction? Investigating effects of individual and context-dependent determinants

To determine the success of their instruction, teachers need to rely on observable cues in students' behavior. However, students exhibit different attention-related behavior within one lesson as well as compared with their peers. It is not yet clear to what extent these differences result from the design of classroom instruction and how individual and contextual factors determine students' behavior during instruction. In the present study, we applied a continuous behavior-rating system to 10 classroom videos and based our analysis on 1200 1-s intervals of N = 199 students. Using dynamic structural equation modeling, students' attention-related behavior was primarily determined by contextual factors, stressing the important role of teachers but also the impact of factors that are unique in individual classrooms.     

Addressing student misconceptions concerning electron flow in aqueous solutions with instruction including computer animations and conceptual change strategies

The effects of both computer animations of microscopic chemical processes occurring in a galvanic cell and conceptual change instruction based on chemical demonstrations on students' conceptions of current flow in electrolyte solutions were investigated. Preliminary results for verbal conceptual questions suggest that conceptual change instruction was effective at dispelling student misconceptions that electrons flow in aqueous solutions of electrochemical cells. Computer animations did not appear to have an effect on students' responses to visual or verbal conceptual questions. An animation/conceptual change interaction for verbal conceptual questions suggests that animations may prove distacting when the questions do not require students to visualize. Data from this study also suggests that lecture attendance and recitation participations helped students answer visual questions.     

Undergraduate project work: can directed tutor support enhance skills development?

Students' perceptions of their skills development and the overall value of their undergraduate project work were evaluated using data derived from questionnaires. Thirty‐nine students completing their second year of study (i.e. prior to the commencement of project work) and 42 students completing their third‐year project work took part. Thirteen tutors also completed questionnaires. They were asked to give their perceptions as to what skills project students developed and what attributes of project work enhanced both students' personal development and students' assessment grades. Results showed a shift in students' perceptions of the types of skills reinforced, developed and assessed within project work during the course of their third‐year project. Their perceived views did not fully coincide with tutors' perceptions of student skills development, although evaluation of both the assessment and personal importance of particular aspects of project work showed some interesting relationships between students and tutors. The diversity of opinion shown in these results may be due to lack of clarification of assessment criteria rather than a ‘hidden curriculum’. For example, the distinction between presentation of work and scientific writing may not be clear from an initial reading of the criteria. The outcomes of this study, with particular reference to the relationship between scientific writing and thinking, have implications regarding tutor and student discussion, the development of marking criteria and the use of plenary project support sessions.     

The predictive power of intuitive rules: A critical analysis of the impact of `more A–more B' and `same A–same B'

In the international community of mathematics and science educators the intuitive rules theory developed by the Israeli researchers Tirosh and Stavy receives much attention. According to this theory, students' responses to a variety of mathematical and scientific tasks can be explained in terms of their application of some common intuitive rules. Two major intuitive rules are manifested in comparison tasks: ‘More A—more B’ and ‘Same A—same B’. In this paper, we address two important questions for which the existing literature on intuitive rules does not provide a convincing research-based answer: (1) are the reasoning processes of students who respond in line with a given intuitive rule actually affected by that rule or by essentially other misconceptions (leading to the same answer), and (2) are individual students consistent in their choice of one of the intuitive rules when confronted with different, conceptually unrelated tasks? A test consisting of five comparison problems from different mathematical subdomains was administered collectively to 172 Flemish students from Grades 10 to 12. An analysis of students' written calculations and justifications suggested that the students were considerably less affected by the intuitive rules than their multiple-choice answers actually suggested. Instead, essentially different misconceptions and errors were found. With respect to the issue of individual consistency, we found that students who made many errors did not answer systematically in line with one of the two intuitive rules.     

The impact of three‐dimensional computational modeling on student understanding of astronomical concepts: a quantitative analysis

The increased availability of computational modeling software has created opportunities for students to engage in scientific inquiry through constructing computer‐based models of scientific phenomena. However, despite the growing trend of integrating technology into science curricula, educators need to understand what aspects of these technologies promote student learning. This study used a multi‐method research approach involving both quantitative (Paper 1) and qualitative data (Paper 2) to examine student conceptual understanding of astronomical phenomena, relative to two different instructional experiences. Specifically, based on students' understandings of both spatial and declarative knowledge, we compared students who had constructed three‐dimensional computational models with students who had experienced traditional lecture‐based instruction. Quantitative analysis of pre‐interview and post‐interview data revealed that construction of three‐dimensional models best facilitated student understandings of spatially related astronomical concepts — whereas traditional instruction techniques best facilitated student understandings of fact‐oriented astronomical knowledge. This paper is the first in a two‐paper set that continues our line of research into whether problem‐based courses such as the Virtual Solar System course can be used as a viable alternative to traditional lecture‐based astronomy courses.     

A Pilot Study of a Physical Therapy Cadaveric Anatomy Course: Assessing the Impact of Examination Format on the Learning Environment

Anatomy education continues to evolve in health professional programs as curricula shift to competency-based models and contact hours decrease. These changes in curricula may significantly alter the learning environment for students. Importantly, changes in learning environment have been shown to impact student learning strategies and well-being. It follows, then, that an investigation of students' perceptions of the learning environment is key to understand the impact of modern anatomy curriculum alterations. The current pilot study evaluated the impact of modifying examination format on the learning environment of physical therapy students participating in a human cadaveric anatomy course. Two study cohorts of first year (entry-level) physical therapy students were invited to complete a preliminary learning environment questionnaire with 13 visual analog scale items and four short answer items. One study cohort was tested with a viva (oral) practical examination, and the other, with a bell-ringer practical examination. Analysis of quantitative items revealed two significant findings: physical therapy students in the bell-ringer cohort found it was more difficult to prepare for their examination, and that they had inadequate time to respond to questions compared to the viva cohort. Analysis of qualitative items revealed distinct themes that concerned physical therapy student learning environment specific to cadaveric anatomy. These results demonstrate that examination format can influence the learning environment of physical therapy students studying cadaveric anatomy. As a result, care needs to be taken to ensure that modernized curricula align the examination format to the method of instruction and the future application of students' knowledge in clinical practice.     

Learning to look through the eyes of our students: action research as a tool of inquiry

Abstract

The story we are about to tell occurred when Gayle was a middle school science teacher and graduate student in Joanne's seminar on the study of teaching. Gayle was trying to make sense of her science students' indifference toward the environment, an attitude that concerned her as an environmentalist. She turned her inquiry into an action research project that sought to answer the question, ‘What are the assumptions that my middle school students have about their relationship with the environment?’ Joanne was mentoring Gayle in her action research study, and at the same time exploring Gayle's perspective as an action researcher. Now, several years later, we are both action researchers and teacher educators and understand that we have been looking through the eyes of our students in order to become scholars of our own teaching.     

Emotionally and motivationally supportive classrooms: A state-trait analysis of lesson- and classroom-specific variation in teacher- and student-reported teacher enthusiasm and student engagement

Teacher enthusiasm and student engagement are often interrelated and have important implications for student learning and students' and teachers' well-being. However, results on the lesson-specific variation of teachers' and students' affective-motivational experiences and their interplay are scarce. This study investigated variation in teacher enthusiasm and student engagement, each rated by teachers (n = 70) and students (n = 1537), as indicators of a shared affective-motivational climate in ninth-grade math classrooms across five consecutive lessons. Multitrait-multistate analyses revealed substantial “trait-like” consistency in all four affective-motivational measures. However, there was also a substantial degree of “state-like” lesson-specific variance that was shared across the four measures. This indicates that teachers' and students’ affective-motivational experiences are shaped by situation-specific influences and person-by-context interactions, which are shared between teachers and students. Teacher gender, teaching experience, class-level achievement, and the availability of motivationally supportive instructional interventions failed to explain substantial variance in these associations.     

A comparison of students' conceptual understanding of electric circuits in simulation only and simulation‐laboratory contexts

The aim of this experimental study was to compare learning outcomes of students using a simulation alone (simulation environment) with outcomes of those using a simulation in parallel with real circuits (combination environment) in the domain of electricity, and to explore how learning outcomes in these environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction. Matched‐quartets were created based on the pre‐test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results demonstrated that the instructional support had an expected effect on students' understanding of electric circuits when they used the simulation alone; pure procedural guidance (SI) was insufficient to promote conceptual understanding, but when the students were given more guidance for the discovery process (SE) they were able to gain significant amount of subject knowledge. A surprising finding was that when the students used the simulation and the real circuits in parallel, the explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for their understanding of electric circuits compared to the implicit instruction (CI). Instead, the explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment (CE). Although the explicit instruction was able to improve students' conceptual understanding of electrical circuits considerably in the simulation environment, their understanding did not reach the level of the students in the combination environment. These results suggest that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 71–93, 2011     

Exploring the validity of assessment in anatomy: Do images influence cognitive processes used in answering extended matching questions?

Assessment is an important aspect of medical education because it tests students' competence and motivates them to study. Various assessment methods, with and without images, are used in the study of anatomy. In this study, we investigated the use of extended matching questions (EMQs). To gain insight into the influence of images on the validity of test items, we focused on students' cognitive processes while they answered questions with and without images. Seventeen first‐year medical students answered EMQs about gross anatomy, combined with either labeled images or answer lists, while thinking aloud. The participants' verbal reports were transcribed verbatim and then coded. Initial codes were based on a task analysis and were adapted into final codes during the coding process. Results showed that students used more cues from EMQs with images and visualized more often in EMQs with answer lists. Ready knowledge and verbal reasoning were used equally often in both conditions. In conclusion, EMQs with and without images elicit different results in this think aloud experiment, indicating different cognitive processes. They seem to measure different skills, making them valid for different testing purposes. The take‐home message for anatomy teachers is that questions without images seem to test the quality of students' mental images while questions with images test their ability to interpret visual information. It makes sense to use both response formats in tests. Using images from clinical practice instead of anatomical drawings will help to improve test validity. Anat Sci Educ 7: 107–116. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Editorial

The first article in this issue raises some fascinating issues that relate to my own background in research into student learning and experience of courses in conventional higher education. Richardson, Long and Woodley have administered the Academic Engagement Form', used widely in colleges in the USA, and the 'Course Experience Questionnaire', used widely in universities in Australia, to distance learning students. John Richardson and various colleagues have previously shown that these questionnaires, separately, work as well in distance learning contexts as they do in conventional contexts: that is, they identify the same factors as components of students' experience, and the same factors relating to overall perceptions of quality of experience, as in conventional contexts. Of the many findings reported in the study reported in this issue of Open Learning, two stand out for me. First, academic engagement is shown to play a key role in students' perceptions of academic quality: engaged students perceive their course to be of higher quality. This does not tell us if students who are happy with their courses become more engaged or if those who are engaged become happier with their courses, however, merely that they are related. 'Engagement' here encompasses both social and academic engagement as defined in Tinto's model of student retention. Second, students' overall perceptions of academic quality are mediated by their perceptions of their tutors. The authors conclude: '... the attitudes and behaviours of tutors are crucial to students' perceptions of the academic quality of courses in distance education'. In conventional contexts the item on the Course Experience Questionnaire that relates most closely to student performance concerns the quality of teacher feedback, not teaching, and this is easy to understand in a distance context. The methodology of this paper (relying on factor analysis of questionnaires and multivariate analysis of the relationship between questionnaire scale scores and background variables such as age, gender, educational qualifications, workload and hearing status) may be relatively unfamiliar to readers of Open Learning. What is perhaps more familiar is that such an analysis adds to similar conclusions about the centrality of the tutorial role in ODL students' learning from very different kinds of study (such as of the relationship between tutorial attendance and student performance). There is a growing body of evidence that the same variables are involved in student perceptions of courses and of academic quality in distance learning contexts as in conventional contexts.     

The Nature of Scientific Explanation: Examining the perceptions of the nature,quality, and “goodness” of explanation among college students,science teachers,and scientists

Issues regarding scientific explanation have been of interest to philosophers from Pre-Socratic times. The notion of scientific explanation is of interest not only to philosophers, but also to science educators as is clearly evident in the emphasis given to K-12 students' construction of explanations in current national science education reform efforts. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on conceptualizing explanation in science education. Using a philosophically guided framework—the Nature of Scientific Explanation (NOSE) framework—the study aims to elucidate and compare college freshmen science students', secondary science teachers', and practicing scientists' scientific explanations and their views of scientific explanations. In particular, this study aims to: (1) analyze students', teachers', and scientists' scientific explanations; (2) explore the nuances about how freshman students, science teachers, and practicing scientists construct explanations; and (3) elucidate the criteria that participants use in analyzing scientific explanations. In two separate interviews, participants first constructed explanations of everyday scientific phenomena and then provided feedback on the explanations constructed by other participants. Major findings showed that, when analyzed using NOSE framework, participant scientists did significantly “better” than teachers and students. Our analysis revealed that scientists, teachers, and students share a lot of similarities in how they construct their explanations in science. However, they differ in some key dimensions. The present study highlighted the need articulated by many researchers in science education to understand additional aspects specific to scientific explanation. The present findings provide an initial analytical framework for examining students' and science teachers' scientific explanations.     

Factors Influencing M.S.W. Students' Interest in Clinical Practice

This study utilizes linear and log‐linear stochastic models to examine the impact that a variety of variables (including graduate education) have on M.S.W. students' desires to work in clinical practice. Data was collected biannually (between 1992 and 1998) from a complete population sample of all students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (n = 5,793). The influences of past practice experiences, professional motivations, socio‐demographic characteristics, ideological affiliations, and education and training experiences while a graduate students were all examined. Findings suggest that there is tremendous commonality in the variability of interest toward doing clinical practice among all student groups both before and after the completion of graduate studies. Male and female students, students of varied ethnic, social class and political identifications/affiliations, along with students of varied ages did not differ in their desire or interest to engage in clinical practice. The desire to prepare for private practice had the strongest influence—that was maintained over the course of their education—on students' interests in clinical social work. Desires to work with the poor were not associated with students' desires to be clinicians who wish to apply their trade across a wide variety of problems and populations.     

Face-to-Face Tutorials in a Distance Learning System: Meeting student needs

Many distance learning programmes include an element of face-to-face tuition. This paper reports on a research project concerned with various issues related to face-to-face tutorials in the Open University of Hong Kong's distance education system, including students' expectations of the benefits they will gain; their reasons for attending; the approaches they prefer; and their overall satisfaction with what tutors actually provide. Some comparisons are drawn between students in the university's different schools-and the overall findings are compared with those reported for distance learners in the West, in an effort to assess the impact of cultural context on student attitudes to tutorials. The research found that the Hong Kong students' attendance at tutorials was very high compared to that found in other similar studies, possibly reflecting Hong Kong's geographical compactness, but also possibly reflecting a preference for face-to-face meetings; that the students looked for specific guidance and support from tutors within a largely directive framework; that even where the format of the tutorial departed from the students' expectations, the students did not necessarily give the tutorial a low evaluation, provided that it was a fruitful experience; and that the cultural context within which a distance education system operates affects students' expectations and learning styles.     

Teachers' perceptions of students' excuses for academic difficulties

Ninety-seven teachers described situations in which their students experienced academic difficulties and gave reasons (excuses) to explain their difficulties. Teachers indicated whether or not they believed the reasons students gave, what they thought the “real” reasons for the students' difficulties were, and how they reacted and behaved toward the students. Analysis of teachers' reports indicated that students were most likely to attribute their academic difficulties to external, uncontrollable factors, whereas teachers tended to believe that the “real” reasons for students' difficulties were internal and controllable. Teachers reported that they would react in a positive manner toward the students whether or not they believed the reasons the students gave to explain their difficulties. Implications of these findings for student motivation are discussed.     

Teachers,loosen up! How teachers can trigger interpersonally cooperative behavior in students at risk of academic failure

Student cooperativeness underlies high quality teacher-student relationships, and has been positively associated with students' school engagement. Fostering cooperative rather than oppositional student behavior might be especially helpful for protecting at-risk students against academic failure. To understand how exactly students' cooperativeness can be fostered, we investigated the interpersonal behaviors of secondary school teachers and at-risk students during dyadic interactions (N = 82 dyads) in the context of positive teacher-student relationships. Using Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics, moment-to-moment teacher and student behavior was captured in terms of interpersonal agency (dominance vs. submissiveness) and communion (opposition vs. cooperation). Time-series analyses were used to analyze interpersonal behavior within individuals, within dyads, and between dyads. Cooperative student behavior was most likely if teachers acted friendly and cooperatively and if teachers ‘loosened up’ their agency and the structure they imposed on the interaction repeatedly, which may give students more freedom to express themselves and to cooperate.