Adapting instruction to individual difference among students

This article discusses some of the problems in research on aptitude treatment interactions (ATIs). Among these are the inconsistency and lack of generality in many ATI findings, especially in classroom based ATI investigations. It is suggested that such investigations may well be of limited generality due to the nature of the phenomena. Careful classification of aptitude and treatment variables between individual differences in prior achievement and instructional method avoids some of the problems of other approaches, including examining interactions between cognitive processes and instructional method. Suggestions for further ATI research are made.     

Aptitude-treatment interaction research in science education

Individual differences among learners constitute an important class of variables for research on instruction. Their study has been of interest because measures of these variables usually predict learning outcome. There is renewed interest in this fact today because aptitudes now often appear to interact with instructional outcomes, relating differently to learning outcomes under different instructional treatments. Practical interest for science educators stems from the possibility that such interactions may be used to adapt science instruction to fit different learners optimally. Aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI) have been the subject of many studies in recent years and a wide variety of ATI findings are now in hand establishing the existence of ATI as a phenomena. Continuing research in this area will hopefully lead toward improved theory and practice to explain and to use aptitude for science instructional purposes. This article identifies promising areas of ATI research as well as general methodological guidelines for interested science educators.     

Antagonism Between Achievement and Enjoyment in ATI Studies

There is evidence that negative correlations between student achievement and their enjoyment of instructional methods exist under certain circumstances. In aptitude‐treatment interaction (ATI) studies where two or more methods are allowed to interact with student aptitudes to predict enjoyment and achievement, it appears that students often report enjoying the method from which they learn the least. Selected ATI studies are reviewed, and an explanation is suggested which may account for the negative correlations between achievement and enjoyment in instructional settings. It appears that students make inaccurate judgments about the amount of effort they will have to expend to achieve maximum learning outcomes. Low ability students typically report liking more permissive instructional methods, apparently because they allow them to maintain a “low profile” so that their failures are not as visible. However, in order to experience maximum achievement low ability students require less permissive methods which lower the information processing load on them. High ability students like more structured methods which they believe will make their efforts more efficient when these lower load methods seem often to interfere with their learning. High ability students seem to learn more from more permissive approaches which allow them to bring their own considerable skills to bear on learning tasks.     

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.     

Expertise Reversal Effect and Its Implications for Learner-Tailored Instruction

The interactions between levels of learner prior knowledge and effectiveness of different instructional techniques and procedures have been intensively investigated within a cognitive load framework since mid-90s. This line of research has become known as the expertise reversal effect. Apart from their cognitive load theory-based prediction and explanation, patterns of empirical findings on the effect fit well those in studies of Aptitude Treatment Interactions (ATI) that were originally initiated in mid-60s. This paper reviews recent empirical findings associated with the expertise reversal effect, their interpretation within cognitive load theory, relations to ATI studies, implications for the design of learner-tailored instructional systems, and some recent experimental attempts of implementing these findings into realistic adaptive learning environments.     

梅耶多媒体教学设计原理的生成与架构

多媒体学习理论是一个贯通了学习理论与教学理论的科学体系。作为学习理论的多媒体学习认知理论基于双重编码理论、工作记忆模型以及生成加工理论,解释了学习者通过加工语词与画面所呈现的材料来建构知识的学习机制,属于解释性理论;作为教学理论的多媒体教学设计理论发展出一系列教学设计应遵循的原则,为教育实践提供了具有处方性意义的行动指南,属于处方性理论。解释性的学习理论为处方性的教学理论提供了扎实可靠的科学基础。在多媒体学习研究从学习理论向教学理论转化的过程中,多媒体教学设计理论是实现跃迁的关键环节,而认知负荷理论则是理论跃迁成功的关键变量。基于认知负荷理论,梅耶提出多媒体学习认知负荷三元模型,包括必要认知加工、外来认知加工和生成性认知加工。围绕这三类认知加工,梅耶及其同事进行了大量的实验研究,最终确定了12项与多媒体学习认知理论及其前提假设保持高度逻辑一贯性的多媒体教学设计原则。这些原则都是经得起实践检验的,但教学设计人员在应用的过程中,应明确各项原则的问题情境、适用范围等边际条件。     

Conceptual Teaching Through Multimediated Self‐instruction: a study with professional nursing students

A multimediated self‐instructional program was developed to introduce new concepts and techniques in an emerging area of nursing education. Two field testings of this instructional program were conducted with nursing students enrolled in a university. The results indicated that cognitive achievement did not differ between students taught by multimediated self‐instruction and lecture‐discussion. Students were able to effectively learn new nursing content through both teaching methods. There was no significant relationship found between students’ opinions about the instructional method experienced and their cognitive achievement. Students expressed some unfavourable feelings towards multimediated self‐instruction, possibly related to their general lack of prior experience with independent study or videotaped instruction. The effective use of multimediated self‐instruction is discussed.     

The effects of a teaching development institute for early career researchers on their intended teaching strategies,course design,beliefs about instructors’ and students’ knowledge,and instructional self-efficacy: The case of the Teaching Institute at Johns Hopkins University

Despite the importance of both research and teaching, doctoral and postdoctoral programs tend to focus on research. One approach to address the lack of teaching development for early career researchers (ECRs) is to train them on instruction. The purpose of this two-year study was to examine the effects of a Teaching Development Institute (TDI) on ECRs’ intended teaching strategies, course planning, beliefs about instructors’ and students’ knowledge, and instructional self-efficacy. We used the Approaches to Teaching (ATI) and the College Teaching Self-Efficacy (CTSE) instruments in a one-group pretest-posttest design. The sample was 109 and 140 ECRs who participated at the Teaching Institute at Johns Hopkins University in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The results of the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test indicated that the TDI intervention was effective. The theoretical implications of the paper include (a) reinterpreting the ATI according to the interactive, constructive, active, and passive (ICAP) cognitive engagement framework, and (b) proposing the professional development to student achievement (PDSA) model.     

Exploring the effects of cognitive conflict and direct teaching for students of different academic levels

Despite inconclusive evidence regarding the effectiveness of cognitive conflict, educators still consider it a significant instructional strategy. One of the challenges of current research is to study the conditions under which cognitive conflict is effective. This research examines the notion that cognitive conflict may have dissimilar effects for students of different academic levels. The study compares the effectiveness of teaching the control of variables thinking strategy to students of two academic levels (low vs. high) by two different teaching methods [inducing a cognitive conflict (ICC) vs. direct teaching (DT)]. One hundred twenty‐one students who learned in a heterogeneous school were divided into four experimental groups in a 2 × 2 design. Results show no main effect of teaching method but do show a significant interaction effect between level of students and teaching method. The findings show that students with high academic achievements benefited from the ICC teaching method while the DT method hindered their progress. In contrast, students with low academic achievements benefited from the DT method while the ICC teaching method hindered their progress. The interaction effect was preserved in a retention test that took place 6 months after instruction. The findings show that previous inconclusive findings regarding the effectiveness of the ICC method can be explained by its contradictory effects on students of different academic levels. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 829–855, 2005     

Different administrative directions and student ratings of instruction: Cognitive versus affective effects

A manipulation of the instructions students received prior to completing the 7-item Endeavor Instructional Rating card differentially affected their ratings on two types of items. Specifically, when students were led to believe their ratings would have a strong impact on the instructor's career, they tended to be more lenient on items measuring rapport (i.e., the affective domain); this same effect was not observed for items measuring pedagogical skill (i.e., the cognitive domain). The different items on our instructional rating instrument appear to be measuring different things. One implication of this observation is that the inconsistent findings reported in past research on student ratings of instruction may be due to the differential mix of items from one instrument to another. When instructors are compared on ratings given them by students, unbiased interpretation requires that the multidimensional nature of teaching (and of the rating instrument) be considered.     

When Traditional Won't Do: Experiences from a “Lower-Level” Mathematics Classroom

High school teachers who engage students through active learning in their classrooms can more fully understand this instructional practice by examining the theories and strategies underlying the cognitive perspective of educational psychology, which addresses the development of knowledge in the individual mind. Two theoretical explanations, psychological constructivism and information processing, promote learning as a constructive process that can be aided by strategies such as activating prior knowledge, chunking, elaborating, and invoking a schema. High school teachers can use these cognitive active learning strategies in classroom instruction or incorporate them into out-of-class assignments to increase students engagement in their learning.     

Classroom applications of mnemonic instruction: acquisition, maintenance, and generalization.

This investigation evaluated the effectiveness of classroom mnemonic instruction of science content, for 19 students with mild disabilities. Students were given either mnemonic instruction or more traditional instruction in a within-subjects design, in which treatment order was counterbalanced across classrooms, for each of two weekly units in life science. Following a third week of mnemonic instruction, students were taught to generate and draw their own mnemonic pictures. Results suggested that mnemonic instruction resulted in substantial increases in initial content acquisition, and substantially higher delayed-recall scores, over more traditional instructional procedures. Further, it was found that trained students were able to successfully generate and apply their own mnemonic strategies to novel content. Students overwhelmingly preferred mnemonic instruction over traditional instructional methods.     

Invention Versus Direct Instruction: For Some Content,It’s a Tie

An important, but as yet unresolved pedagogical question is whether discovery-oriented or direct instruction methods lead to greater learning and transfer. We address this issue in a study with 101 fourth and fifth grade students that contrasts two distinct instructional methods. One is a blend of discovery and direct instruction called Invent-then-Tell (IT), and the other is a version of direct instruction called Tell-then-Practice (TP). The relative effectiveness of these methods is compared in the context of learning a critical inquiry skill—the control-of-variables strategy. Previous research has demonstrated the success of IT over TP for teaching deep domain structures, while other research has demonstrated the superiority of direct instruction for teaching simple experimental design, a domain-general inquiry skill. In the present study, students in both conditions made equally large gains on an immediate assessment of their application and conceptual understanding of experimental design, and they also performed similarly on a test of far transfer. These results were fairly consistent across school populations with various levels of prior achievement and socioeconomic status. Findings suggest that broad claims about the relative effectiveness of these two distinct methods should be conditionalized by particular instructional contexts, such as the type of knowledge being taught.     

有效教学理论及其对大学英语教学的启示

有效教学是指符合教学规律,同时有效果、有效益、有效率的教学;教师相关能力的高低会直接影响教学效果有效与否。相关有效教学的研究给大学英语教学提出了很好的启示：大学英语教学要立足于社会,以期提高效率来满足新时期下人们对英语的实际需求。因此,我们有必要使大学英语教师更新教学理念,改善知识结构,实施多科教学变量组合,增强其自身的教学反思能力,培养良好的教学效能感,最终实现大学英语教学质的飞跃。     

Science Education and Students with Learning Disabilities

Students with learning disabilities (LD) are increasingly expected to master content in the general education curriculum, making the need for effective instructional supports more important than ever before. Science is a part of the curriculum that can be particularly challenging to students with LD because of the diverse demands it places on cognitive performance. In this summary we review a number of strategies that have been validated for learners with LD. The strategies include supports for (a) verbal learning of declarative information, (b) processing information in texts, (c) activities‐based instruction/experiential learning, (d) scientific thinking and reasoning, and (e) differentiated instruction. We also summarize the research regarding the impact of teacher behavior on achievement for students with LD in science education. The strategies reviewed yield tangible and positive effect sizes that suggest that their application to the target domain will substantially improve outcomes for students with LD in science education.     

Current status and future directions of educational psychology as a discipline∗

A data analysis strategy is proposed to test for aptitude‐by‐treatment interactions (ATIs) when treatments are administered to aggregates (e.g., classrooms or other groups) rather than individuals. The strategy satisfies both the statistician's concern for between‐unit independence and the ATI researcher's concern for focussing on individual, rather than group, characteristics. In addition, the strategy is shown to be logically and computationally straightforward, while at the same time being capable of detecting ATIs in actual research applications.     

Improving comprehension of expository text in students with LD: a research synthesis

This article summarizes the findings of research studies designed to improve the comprehension of expository text for students with learning disabilities. Twenty-nine studies were located that met the inclusion criteria. Interventions gleaned from the review were categorized as content enhancement (i.e., advance and graphic organizers, visual displays, mnemonic illustrations, and computer-assisted instruction) or cognitive strategy instruction (i.e., text structure, main idea identification, summarization, questioning, cognitive mapping, reciprocal teaching). Treatment outcomes are discussed in relation to the various instructional approaches, student characteristics (e.g., grade, IQ), instructional features (e.g., materials, treatment length), methodological features, strategy maintenance, and generalization components. Implications for classroom practice and future research directions are provided.     

Correlates of Physics Achievement

This research examined the interactive effect of cognitive entry behaviors (CEB) with mastery vs. non-mastery learning strategies of instruction on reading comprehension. One hundred eighty grade-three students were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: 90% mastery, 70% mastery, non-mastery, and control. Subjects were individually instructed a sequence of three tasks that aimed to teach the skills of word recognition, word meaning, and word order. Multivariate multiple regression analysis indicated a significant CEB × Treatment interaction on immediate comprehension achievement. A comparison of regression slopes revealed that low CEB mastery learning students benefited relatively more than high CEB mastery learning students. These findings confirmed the interactive relationship between initial abilities and instructional methods postulated in Bloom’s theory of school learning. The CEB × Treatment interaction on long-term retention was not significant, suggesting the need for extended mastery learning programs for low CEB students.