A Multilevel Analysis of Learning Environments and Student Attitudes

An investigation of relationships between students’ attitudes towards chemistry and their perceived laboratory environments was carried out using a sample of 1592 final year secondary school students in 56 chemistry classes in 28 randomly selected co‐educational government schools. This study is distinctive in that it marks the beginning of science classroom environment research in Singapore and because it pioneers the use of the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) in learning environment research. The Chemistry Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI), a modified version of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory, was used to assess students’ perceptions of the learning environment in chemistry laboratory classes. Students’ chemistry‐related attitudes were assessed using the Questionnaire on Chemistry‐related Attitudes (QOCRA), which is based on the Test of Science‐related Attitudes. Environment‐attitude relationships were examined using conventional multiple regression analysis and the more rigorous HLM. Positive associations emerged between the nature of the chemistry laboratory classroom environment and the students’ attitudinal outcomes     

Student Perceptions of Industrial Chemistry Classroom Learning Environments

This article describes a study conducted in Israel which focused on how learning industrial chemistry case studies affects students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment and their interest in chemistry studies. The goal of the study was to determine the effects of industrial case studies on students' perceptions of chemistry in general, and industrial chemistry in particular. Information on students' perceptions was gathered from a learning environment inventory specifically developed for this study. It was observed that industrial chemistry case studies helped in providing students with a relevant picture of chemistry in general and their chemistry studies in particular. It was also found that teachers who had attended an intensive training workshop were the most successful in presenting the relevance of chemistry in the case studies. These teachers also were more successful in raising students' awareness of the social implications of chemistry studies. Furthermore, their students had a better awareness of the contribution made by chemistry studies to their preparation as future citizens and for a possible career in chemistry. These findings have important implications for any decisions about whether to make industrial chemistry case studies obligatory for students who major in chemistry. There are further implications regarding the content and learning strategies to be used for the professional development of science teachers in general and chemistry teachers in particular. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Constructing Learning Environments for Complex Social Skills

This article addresses issues faced in the construction of computer programs that teach complex social skills. We describe a software architecture called Guided Social Simulation (GuSS). GuSS combines a simulation in which students can practice social skills with guidance that enhances the simulated experience. One of the applications of GuSS, called YELLO, teaches how to sell Yellow Pages advertising. YELLO is described in detail. The social simulation and guidance components of GuSS each present a set of technical and theoretical challenges. We discuss both sets. In discussing the techniques we use for constructing a social simulation, we emphasize the mechanisms that implement social agents as simple social planners. We then focus on one particular guidance component of GuSS—the storyteller. The storyteller is a teaching module that contains the real-life stories of experienced practitioners captured on videodisk. The storyteller monitors the student's actions in the simulation and interjects stories that are relevant to the student's experience.     

Student and Teacher Perspectives in Computer-Mediated Learning Environments in Teacher Education

Rapid advances in technology, particularly with the Internet, have led to the availability of numerous tools to support teaching and learning. This study involved the use of an Internet application, Connecting Communities of Learners (CCL), in courses for prospective teachers. Unlike earlier studies involving the use of the CCL, the context of this study related to full-time graduate students who used the CCL to augment weekly face-to-face instruction. An interpretive study was undertaken to ascertain student and teacher perceptions of the learning environments associated with the use of the CCL. Through the use of the CCL, students were able to be autonomous in regard to their own learning, co-participate with their peers and the instructor, and establish and maintain a community of learners in which participants could interact with others as co-teachers and co-learners. The CCL was perceived as a useful tool for building learning environments in which all participants can contribute written texts as evidence of what is known and as objects from which others can learn. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Scaffolding Complex Learning: The Mechanisms of Structuring and Problematizing Student Work

There has been much interest in using software tools to scaffold learners in complex tasks, that is, to provide supports that enable students to deal with more complex content and skill demands than they could otherwise handle. Many different approaches to scaffolding techniques have been presented in a broad range of software tools. I argue that two complementary mechanisms can explain how a diversity of scaffolding approaches in software act to support learners. Software tools can help structure the learning task, guiding learners through key components and supporting their planning and performance. In addition, tools can shape students' performance and understanding of the task in terms of key disciplinary content and strategies and thus problematize this important content. Although making the task more difficult in the short term, by forcing learners to engage with this complexity, such scaffolded tools make this work more productive opportunities for learning. I present arguments for these mechanisms in terms of the obstacles learners face, and I present several brief examples to illustrate their use in design guidelines. Finally, I examine how the mechanisms of structuring and problematizing are sometimes complementary and sometimes in tension in design, discuss design tradeoffs in developing scaffolded investigation tools for learners, and consider the reliance of scaffolding on a classroom system of supports.     

Learning Environments and Learning Styles: Non-traditional Student Enrollment and Success in an Internet-based Versus a Lecture-based Computer Science Course

Colleges and universities are increasingly using information technologies to enhance the learning environment. Many educational institutions offer Internet-based on-line courses in an effort to meet the educational needs of students. The primary goal of this research was to determine if there is a relationship between students' preferred learning environment (i.e. face-to-face or on-line) and their learning style. The secondary goal was to determine if there were any differences in the academic success of students in the face-to-face versus on-line sections. Participants were adult (ages 22+ years), non-traditional computer science students given the option to take a face-to-face lecture-based or an on-line Internet-based computer science course. Results revealed that computer science students in the face-to-face learning environment were more likely to have the Assimilator learning-style, whereas computer science students in the on-line Internet-based learning environment were more likely to have the Converger learning-style. Student academic success did not reliably differ as a function of learning environment selection. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of learning style characteristics of computer science students, learning styles and gender differences and implications of student academic success in on-line vs face-to-face environments. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

四成分教学设计模型——面向复杂学习环境的多媒体原理

四成分教学设计模型认为要实现复杂学习需要借助学习任务、支持性信息、程序性信息和子任务练习等因素.本文探讨运用这一模型设计多媒体学习环境及相关的14条多媒体原理.学习者可以在一个模拟的环境下完成学习任务,利用相关的多媒体原理有利于促进归纳学习过程;学习者还可以在超媒体系统中掌握支持性信息,相关的多媒体原理有利于促进信息的提取和精细加工过程;学习者也可以通过电子绩效支持系统来获取程序性信息,相关的多媒体原理有利于知识处理;最后,学习者能通过基于计算机练习程序来进行子任务的练习与训练,相关的多媒体原理有利于促进知识技能的巩固.本文还讨论了四成分模型框架的启示和不足.     

Breaking it Down: Engineering Student STEM Confidence at the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender

It is generally accepted that engineering requires a strong aptitude for mathematics and science; therefore, students’ judgments regarding their competence in these areas as well as engineering likely influence their confidence in engineering. Little is known about how self-confidence in science, mathematics, and engineering courses (STEM confidence) varies at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender. To fill this gap, this study examined the STEM confidence of multiple groups in undergraduate engineering programs. Results indicated that although some underrepresented groups may have lower STEM confidence overall, this finding no longer applies to all groups after controlling for personal, environmental, and behavioral factors. Specifically, African-American and Hispanic men report higher average STEM confidence than White men after controlling for these associated measures. In addition, White women continue to report lower average STEM confidence than White men after controlling for these measures, while other groups do not differ from White men. Further, many elements of student perception, including student views of professors, comparisons to peers, perceptions of the field as rewarding, and desirability of chosen major are positively associated with student STEM confidence. The changing patterns of significance for race/ethnicity and gender groups between the two models indicate that personal, environmental, and behavioral factors have different relationships with STEM confidence levels for different groups. This study contributes an understanding that gender differences in STEM confidence are not indifferent to racial and ethnic context. Social-cognitive theory provides a valuable framework for studying student academic confidence and would improve future self-confidence research.     

Student Engagement and Student Learning: Testing the Linkages*

This study examines (1) the extent to which student engagement is associated with experimental and traditional measures of academic performance, (2) whether the relationships between engagement and academic performance are conditional, and (3) whether institutions differ in terms of their ability to convert student engagement into academic performance. The sample consisted of 1058 students at 14 four-year colleges and universities that completed several instruments during 2002. Many measures of student engagement were linked positively with such desirable learning outcomes as critical thinking and grades, although most of the relationships were weak in strength. The results suggest that the lowest-ability students benefit more from engagement than classmates, first-year students and seniors convert different forms of engagement into academic achievement, and certain institutions more effectively convert student engagement into higher performance on critical thinking tests. *A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, April 2004.     

Interpersonal Behavior,Laboratory Learning Environments,and Student Outcomes in Senior Biology Classes

The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between students' perceptions of their biology teachers' interpersonal behavior and their laboratory learning environments and their attitudinal, achievement, and performance outcomes. A sample of 489 students from 28 senior biology classes in eight schools in Tasmania, Australia completed the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI). Responses to two attitude questionnaires, achievement on an external written examination, and performance in laboratory practical tests were used as student outcome measures. Statistical analyses supported the reliability and validity of the QTI and the SLEI when used with senior secondary biology students. We investigated associations between students' perceptions of teacher behavior and their laboratory learning environment with student outcomes, including the unique and common contributions of the QTI and SLEI to variance in student outcomes. Associations with students' perceptions of the learning environment were stronger for the attitudinal outcomes than for the cognitive or practical skills outcomes. Some commonality between the QTI and SLEI scales was found in their contributions to the variance in attitudinal outcomes, but not in their contributions to variance in cognitive and practical skill outcomes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 26–43, 2000     

Toward Improving Student Learning: Policy issues and design structures in course-level outcomes assessment

Conscientious instructors at all levels are constantly making decisions about how to improve their teaching. This is a natural, intuitive part of being a good instructor, but even faculty who value student learning and work hard to improve their teaching can fail to make the connection between what they do in the classroom and the continuous improvement philosophy of outcomes assessment. The connection can be missed because understanding course-level outcomes assessment requires understanding evaluation policies and structures that differ markedly from those employed for unit-level program accreditation. The purposes of this paper are two-fold: first, to address policy issues that impede adoption of systematic, course-level outcomes assessment for improving student learning; and second, to describe a design structure for applying outcomes assessment that addresses factors under control of the instructor that affect students' learning. The paper concludes with observations on the crossed purposes of collecting information for judging faculty merit in the annual review process as opposed to collecting information for course improvement in the outcomes assessment process.     

情感性支架：学生情感和学科内容交叉点上教师知识的研究

近十年以来,帮助教师更好进行教学的教师实践性知识研究成为教师教育研究领域越来越关注的热门话题.本文主要报告了对40名新手教师和专家型教师所进行的长达10多年的一系列关于教师实践性知识的研究.研究的主要目的是对学科教学知识理念进行批判和精炼.我们通过一系列实践活动探讨特定的教学表征是怎样影响学生对即将要学习的内容的情感反应,这些实践被称之为情感性支架.本文列举了一些情感性支架的例子,提出了情感性支架的分类方式,并探讨了它对教师知识理论和教师教育课程的启示.     

Different Logo Learning Environments and Mastery:

No abstract available for this article.     

Enriching the Student Learning Experience: Linking Student Development and Organizational Perspectives

Founding About Campus Executive Editor Patricia M. King discusses her concerns about what she sees as the unnecessary split between the institutional and the individual approach to supporting student learning and provides a forward‐looking model to merge the two.     

Flexible Learning Environments: Leveraging the Affordances of Flexible Delivery and Flexible Learning

The purpose of this article is to explore the key features of flexible learning environments (FLEs). Key principles associated with FLEs are explained. Underlying tenets and support mechanisms necessary for the implementation of FLEs are described. Similarities and differences in traditional learning and FLEs are explored. Finally, strategies and techniques for becoming a successful learner and facilitator in FLEs are presented.Initial ideas for this paper were generated after viewing a presentation created by Marie Jasinski, MindMedia, Douglas Mawson Institute, Adelaide, Australia ().Janette Hill is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology at The University of Georgia, Athens. She received her Ph.D. from The Florida State University in Instructional Systems. Dr. Hill's research focuses on online learning with adults, specifically exploring issues related to building community and connections with others in virtual environments. Dr. Hill can be reached at janette@uga.edu.     

学习"有生命力"的数学--"百分数意义"教学案例分析及反思

活动一：1.学生每人发一组题数不等的口算题,进行口算比赛。2．随机抽取几位学生口算比赛情况填入表     

Developing Professional Learning Environments: Model and application

In this article we offer a number of insights and instruments to facilitate the realisation of learning communities in professional training contexts, and in the context of adult education in general. We direct our attention towards environments that support the development of professional skills that follow the line of the behavioural sciences, and more especially management competencies and organisation psychology competencies. Firstly, we give a brief outline of our view of learning and the general approach that this may require. We then go on to present a number of theoretical viewpoints mainly from an experiential, and from a constructionist, situated learning perspective. We structure our argument introducing three concepts: orientation, elaboration and integration. Simultaneously, we illustrate our point with a case: CIGO, 1 a training program that regards the development of variable competencies with reference to change within groups and organisations. Finally, we discuss the model/method more critically, which leads us to its refinement, showing the tensions between the practice of orienting, elaborating and integrating within a learning trajectory.