Instruction and Cognitive Change in Mathematics

A methodology for studying change during instruction in content-specific cognitive processes is presented. The methodology borrows both from the cognitive mediational approach in instructional effectiveness research and the instructional approach in cognitive psychology research. It is argued that learning from instruction must be understood in terms of the way in which instruction changes the cognitive processes used to solve tasks. The methodology is illustrated by summarizing a project on instructing middle-school students in semantic processes for solving decimal-fraction problems. The benefits of the methodology, such as tracing the effects of instruction on performance change, are discussed.     

Using Technology to Assist in Realizing Effective Learning and Instruction: A Principled Approach to the Use of Computers in Collaborative Learning

This article describes a principled approach to the design of computer-based tools for use in collaborative instruction. We argue that a project should progress through four steps: (a) making explicit the instructional requirements that serve as design goals for the project; (b) performing a detailed study of current educational practice with regard to these goals; (c) developing a specification based on the identified requirements/limitations of the instructional setting and the known capabilities of the technology; and (d) producing an implementation that allows for local adaptation to instructional practice. We propose six principles of effective learning and instruction, which we view to be the critical features of learning in complex and ill-structured fields. Next, a detailed case study is presented based on the preclinical training given to medical students in the first 2 years of medical school. The problems of providing adequate instruction in the preclinical years are described, as is an instructional method known as problem-based learning (PBL) that has been introduced to redress some of these problems. The product of this design process is a set of specifications for technical augmentations that we believe will serve not only the needs of PBL but also those of other methods of instruction that depend on collaborative, case-based, or student-centered learning.     

What Hath the Coronavirus Brought to Assessment? Unprecedented Challenges in Educational Assessment in 2020 and Years to Come

This paper discusses the unprecedented challenges and possible directions in which the field of educational assessment is going after the outbreak of COVID-19. Though the pandemic leads to a lot of pressure related to instruction, learning, and assessment, it also provides opportunities that are likely to require changes to the current theories and practices as well as the assumptions that are no longer justified. It is hoped that the challenges will motivate our field and the instructional experts to work closely together with the learning and instruction process so that assessment will be better integrated and can provide data-driven insights related to the sequence and content of instruction based on the diagnosis of students' strengths and weaknesses from assessment data. We expect that the integration of assessment in learning and instruction will definitely exert significant positive impact on learning outcomes. We believe the field will become aware of the assessment issues that teaching at a distance presents and will come up with innovative solutions to the many emerging problems when the world of instruction and learning undergoes significant changes from social distancing. This paper provides comments, and predictions about what the challenges and directions in educational assessment will be.     

Marrying theory building and the improvement of school practice: a permanent challenge for instructional psychology

Recent research on learning and instruction has substantially advanced our understanding of the processes of knowledge and skill acquisition. However, school practices have not been innovated and improved in ways that reflect this progress in the development of a theory of learning from instruction.It is argued in this article that to be successful in making psychological theory and research applicable to education one should develop a strategy that combines the following basic characteristics:

• •good communication with practitioners which means that the relevant outcomes are translated in such a way that they become palatable, accessible, and usable for the teachers;
• •an orientation toward a fundamental change of teachers' belief systems about the goals of education and about good teaching and productive learning;
• •a holistic (as opposed to a partial) approach to the teaching–learning environment, i.e. all relevant components of the learning environment should be addressed.

Taking this into account a successful approach for bridging the theory–practice gap is presented. This approach consists in carrying out design experiments involving the creation and evaluation in real classrooms of complex instructional interventions that embody our present understanding of effective learning processes and powerful learning environments. In order to make a reasonable chance to be successful, such attempts at fundamentally changing the classroom environment and culture should be undertaken in partnership between researchers and reflective practitioners. Such partnership is essential to promote mutual good communication, but also in view of modifying and reshaping teachers' beliefs about education, learning, and teaching. This intervention approach which is illustrated with a recent research example, has a twofold goal: it intends to advance theory building, while at the same time contributing to the optimisation of classroom practices.     

Learning from instruction: the case of mathematics

Starting from a brief analysis of adaptive competence in mathematics, this article describes a series of research-based characteristics of the kind of learning processes that should be elicited in students to facilitate and support in them the progressive acquisition of such competence. Four major characteristics are discussed in some detail: learning is constructive, self-regulated, situated or contextual, and collaborative. A rather new approach to transfer of learning is then presented in which transfer is conceived as the preparation for future learning. Throughout the article it is argued that, notwithstanding the progress made in research on learning from instruction, numerous and complex issues and problems remain for continued inquiry.     

Getting to the heart of the problem: Using the problems of practice approach as a starting place for creating problem‐centered instruction

It is often difficult to transfer learning from one situation to another. Learning is more likely to be transferred if instruction is situated within a realistic context, using a problem‐centered instructional approach. However, it can be challenging to create problem‐centered instruction that authentically represents the needs and activities of the workplace and profession. This article describes the problems of practice approach––an iterative, guided process for developing problems for problem‐centered instruction.     

Designing a Web-Based Science Learning Environment for Model-Based Collaborative Inquiry

The paper traces a research process in the design and development of a science learning environment called WiMVT (web-based inquirer with modeling and visualization technology). The WiMVT system is designed to help secondary school students build a sophisticated understanding of scientific conceptions, and the science inquiry process, as well as develop critical learning skills through model-based collaborative inquiry approach. It is intended to support collaborative inquiry, real-time social interaction, progressive modeling, and to provide multiple sources of scaffolding for students. We first discuss the theoretical underpinnings for synthesizing the WiMVT design framework, introduce the components and features of the system, and describe the proposed work flow of WiMVT instruction. We also elucidate our research approach that supports the development of the system. Finally, the findings of a pilot study are briefly presented to demonstrate of the potential for learning efficacy of the WiMVT implementation in science learning. Implications are drawn on how to improve the existing system, refine teaching strategies and provide feedback to researchers, designers and teachers. This pilot study informs designers like us on how to narrow the gap between the learning environment’s intended design and its actual usage in the classroom.     

A structured model of the dynamics of student learning in developing countries,with applications to policy

Learning trajectories vary amazingly widely across countries, regions, and individual students in dynamic ways. In this paper we develop a parametrized structural model of the dynamics of the learning process and use the model for suggestive policy applications. We first synthesize the existing empirical literature on learning profiles, which suggest a clear set of parameters that formally characterize the learning process. We then calibrate this model of the learning process to reproduce the distribution of observed learning outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Applying our calibrated model to policy simulations, we find that expanding schooling to universal attainment of basic education without changing the dynamics of the learning process would produce very little additional learning. Adjusting other parameters in the model, however, has large, positive effects. Slowing the pace of curriculum, so that more children can keep up, increases average learning in grade 10 by the learning equivalent of 1.6 years of schooling. Expanding the student skill levels that learn from a given level of instruction to account for within classroom heterogeneity of learning levels increases average grade 10 learning by the equivalent of a full year of schooling. The parameters we use are flexible, to accommodate the learning process in different contexts, and future work could explore additional parameterizations and calibrations for informing plans to improve education systems’ coherence for learning.     

Scaffolding dynamics and the emergence of problematic learning trajectories

This study aims at examining problematic learning trajectories of students with emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) by means of a longitudinal and time serial (micro genetic) study of individual instruction sessions during arithmetic lessons. Micro genetic analysis techniques were applied on the variable “responsiveness” in the scaffolding dynamics, which was chosen as an indicator variable for the quality of the instruction. In a representative EBD student–teacher pair, an iterative process of stability and change of five dynamically related scaffolding variables and one arithmetic variable was demonstrated, which indicated the existence of three phases over a period of two school years. In the short term dynamics of scaffolding, an asymmetric engagement level of teacher and student was found, which was dominated by the teacher's initiatives. Overall, the data point to a suboptimal coupling in this student–teacher pair. An applied conclusion of our study is that educational recommendations should be aimed at transforming existing, self-sustaining transactional patterns between the teacher and the student in real-time instruction sessions during arithmetic lessons.     

Learning the Cell Structures with Three-Dimensional Models: Students’ Achievement by Methods, Type of School and Questions’ Cognitive Level

The cell topic was taught to 9th-grade students in three modes of instruction: (a) students “hands-on,” who constructed three-dimensional cell organelles and macromolecules during the learning process; (b) teacher demonstration of the three-dimensional model of the cell structures; and (c) teaching the cell topic with the regular learning material in an expository mode (which use one- or two-dimensional cell structures as are presented in charts, textbooks and microscopic slides). The sample included 669, 9th-grade students from 25 classes who were taught by 22 Biology teachers. Students were randomly assigned to the three modes of instruction, and two tests in content knowledge in Biology were used. Data were treated with multiple analyses of variance. The results indicate that entry behavior in Biology was equal for all the study groups and types of schools. The “hands-on” learning group who build three-dimensional models through the learning process achieved significantly higher on academic achievements and on the high and low cognitive questions’ levels than the other two groups. The study indicates the advantages students may have being actively engaged in the learning process through the “hands-on” mode of instruction/learning.     

Volleyball and other analogies: a response to Englert.

Englert and her colleagues have contributed much to our knowledge about effective writing instruction. They have demonstrated that interventions that make explicit the writing process and text structures are successful with students with learning disabilities as well as those without. Englert attributes this success to the holistic, social, and interactive nature of the instruction. However, one must keep in mind that CSIW was a package approach that included other validated instructional components. CSIW teachers presented conceptual models, used examples and nonexamples to illustrate text structure concepts, modeled thinking overtly while demonstrating the process, provided guided practice by prompting the process through dialogue and think-sheets, faded prompts as students took over more of the responsibility for the process, and taught for generalization by addressing more than one text structure and promoting student talk about the process. As Englert reported, most teachers seldom do these things, even when they claim to teach the writing process. Englert allows for the possibility that all students with learning disabilities may not be ready for cognitive strategy instruction as it is described in her article, and professionals must acknowledge that different techniques may be more effective for students of different ages and abilities. Swanson (1990) emphasized that there must be a match between strategy and learner characteristics and that strategies must be considered in relation to a student's knowledge and capacity. Strategic teaching requires that the teacher have a repertoire of approaches along a continuum that encompasses coaching students to use their own mental resources at one end and basic skill instruction at the other.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

基于WWW下的课件设计技术方案

远程教学和网络学习已成为当前教育的一种新的模式,在这种的新的模式下的课件设计与以往的课件设计制作有所不同,前者以交互学习为主,而后者则是单面教育为主.本文提出了基于www下的课件设计技术方案.     

Understanding the Effects of a Process‐orientated Instruction in the First Year of University by Investigating Learning Style Characteristics

In an attempt to remedy transition problems from secondary education to university, the Learning and Guidance Centre of the Faculty of Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has developed a process‐orientated instruction, called Interactive Working Groups (IWG). The major goal is to promote in‐depth learning by the training of general and specific learning skills in a content‐specific context. Previous quantitative analyses have shown that participation in IWG leads to better performance in examinations and induces positive effects on the learning approach. Therefore, we considered separately variables such as prior knowledge test results, examination scores and learning style characteristics. The goal of the present research is to understand these effects by analysing quantitatively the interdependency of previous variables. The results show, for instance, that the IWG enhance precisely those changes in learning approach and regulation which induce an increase in performance in examinations. The results were confirmed by qualitative analyses through interviews.     

Trajectories in teacher education: Recognising prior learning in practice

This article analyses the trajectories into teacher education of a group of child minders who are studying to become pre-school teachers. The specific focus is what impact their prior experiences and learning from pre-school have on their trajectories, and how these experiences and learning are recognised in the first year of teacher education. A situated learning perspective is applied, with a focus on participation and trajectories in the two communities of practice in which teacher education is situated – the university and the pre-school. The data consist of transcribed interviews with ten student teachers, and additional data are gathered from stakeholders in the program. The results show that prior experiences and learning are given implicit and indirect recognition. In the practice of the pre-school, the trajectory means a shift in identity, from child minder to student teacher and pre-school teacher. In the practice of the university, prior experiences and learning help students in their trajectories from peripheral to fuller participation.     

构建与脑兼容的教学

脑是我们赖以记忆、思维和学习的基础,因此,良好的教学必定是与人脑学习机理相容的。这就要求,教师必须极力营造和谐、充满爱意的学习氛围,必须选择难度适中且以多种方式持续呈现的学习内容,以使学习者“浸润”在学习过程之中。     

Learning deeply in science: An analysis and reintegration of deep approaches in two case studies of grade 8 students

The purpose of this study was to articulate in fine detail, the kinds of learning strategies associated with a deep approach to learning science. The interactions of two groups of Grade 8 students were taped while they were engaged in hands-on science activities during instruction in a chemistry unit. The students were also interviewed both before and after instruction to find out more about their understanding of the science concepts in this unit. The focus in this paper is on case studies of two students who showed a deep approach to learning. Analysis of transcipts produced several categories which were used to classify the different strategies used by the students. Examples illustrating the use of these strategies are provided. A model illustrating how a learner's use of strategies is translated into regulatory control of the learning process is proposed.     

The influence of prior knowledge and viewing repertoire on learning from video

Video is increasingly used as an instructional tool. It is therefore becoming more important to improve learning of students from video. We investigated whether student learning effects are influenced through an instruction about other viewing behaviours, and whether these learning effects depend on their prior knowledge. In a controlled environment, 115 students watched a number of instructional videos about the technical equipment needed in a course on digital photography. Every second student was instructed about other possible viewing behaviours. A pre-post-retention test was carried out to calculate learning effects. The differences with respect to the learning effects of students who received an awareness instruction on an alternative viewing strategy were not significantly different. The differences as observed in our earlier experiment however could not be reproduced. Students with a broad viewing repertoire showed higher learning effects than students with a narrow repertoire. Furthermore, students with a strategic viewing approach also showed higher learning effects. Certain conditions have to be met: the technical and didactical quality of the video must be good, the integration in a learning task must be apparent, students must be aware of their viewing behaviour, and teachers must be aware of their students’ viewing behaviour in order to enrich the viewing repertoire of students when they have at least some basic knowledge e.g. after several lessons on the topics at hand. In future research, this study should be replicated using more complex video episodes than the instruction videos we used in our experiments that were only on the factual knowledge level of the taxonomy of Bloom. Moreover, replication of this study with a larger sample size could yield a significant improvement in learning effects. This is plausible because students need an amount of prior knowledge beyond a certain threshold value in order to be able to expand their knowledge network in their long term memory. Finally, additional media player functionality, facilitating effective student learning from video, can be described based on the results of this study.     

鼓励创新:新课程课堂教学改革的核心

鼓励创新是我国新课程课堂教学改革的核心。对于教师而言,课堂教学是一个不断通过创新而实现自我生命价值的过程,创新精神和创新能力是教师能否形成独特教学风格的关键因素;对于学生而言,课堂教学是一个在教师引导下进行自主发现、探究和不断创新的过程。因此,课堂教学应积极引导学生实现学习方式的转变,从被动接受走向自主发现和探究,鼓励学生发表不同的观点和见解,允许进行不同的“解读”,倡导“创读”。在此基础上,实现培养学生的创新精神和创新能力的目标。