Approaches to studying and perceptions of the academic environment among university students in China

It has been claimed that students from “Confucian-heritage” cultures approach studying in higher education differently from Western students. This study investigated the experiences and the approaches to studying of students at a university in China. A total of 356 students completed both the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI). Their responses to the CEQ yielded two factors concerned with student support and course demands. Their responses to the RASI yielded two factors: a deep/strategic approach and a surface approach. Students who rated their courses positively in terms of student support were more likely to adopt a deep/strategic approach. Students who rated their courses positively in terms of course demands were less likely to adopt a surface approach. In broad terms, the students' perceptions and approaches to studying were similar to those of Western students, though with some specific differences. The findings add to the literature on Chinese students' approaches to learning and also have practical implications for teachers seeking to promote more desirable forms of studying in their students.     

Approaches to studying and perceptions of academic quality in electronically delivered courses

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) were administered to students who were taking electronically delivered courses in computer science. The constituent structure of the CEQ was preserved in this distinctive context, and a second-order factor analysis confirmed its role as an index of perceived academic quality. The students' scores on the individual scales of the CEQ and the ASI shared nearly two-thirds of their variance. In short, approaches to studying in electronically delivered courses are strongly associated with students' perceptions of the academic quality of those courses.     

Does Displaying the Class Results Affect Student Discussion during Peer Instruction?

The use of personal response systems, or clickers, is increasingly common in college classrooms. Although clickers can increase student engagement and discussion, their benefits also can be overstated. A common practice is to ask the class a question, display the responses, allow the students to discuss the question, and then collect the responses a second time. In an introductory biology course, we asked whether showing students the class responses to a question biased their second response. Some sections of the course displayed a bar graph of the student responses and others served as a control group in which discussion occurred without seeing the most common answer chosen by the class. If students saw the bar graph, they were 30% more likely to switch from a less common to the most common response. This trend was more pronounced in true/false questions (38%) than multiple-choice questions (28%). These results suggest that observing the most common response can bias a student''s second vote on a question and may be misinterpreted as an increase in performance due to student discussion alone.     

Lasting effects of instruction guided by the conflict map: Experimental study of learning about the causes of the seasons

This study was based on the framework of the “conflict map” to facilitate student conceptual learning about causes of the seasons. Instruction guided by the conflict map emphasizes not only the use of discrepant events, but also the resolution of conflict between students' alternative conceptions and scientific conceptions, using critical events or explanations and relevant perceptions and conceptions that explicate the scientific conceptions. Two ninth grade science classes in Taiwan participated in this quasi‐experimental study in which one class was assigned to a traditional teaching group and the other class was assigned to a conflict map instruction treatment. Students' ideas were gathered through three interviews: the first was conducted 1 week after the instruction; the second 2 months afterward; and the third at 8 months after the treatment. Through an analysis of students' interview responses, it was revealed that many students, even after instruction, had a common alternative conception that seasons were determined by the earth's distance to the sun. However, the instruction guided by the framework of the conflict map was shown to be a potential way of changing the alternative conception and acquiring scientific understandings, especially in light of long‐term observations. A detailed analysis of students' ideas across the interviews also strongly suggests that researchers as well as practicing teachers need to pay particular attention to those students who can simply recall the scientific fact without deep thinking, as these students may learn science through rote memorization and soon regress to alternative conceptions after science instruction. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 1089–1111, 2005     

The influence of question type,text availability,answer confidence and language background on student comprehension of an expository text

Reading is an essential activity for learning at university, but lecturers are not always experienced in setting appropriate questions to test understanding of texts. In other words, their assessments may not be ‘constructively aligned’ with the learning outcomes they hope their students to exhibit. In examination conditions, questions may be set with insufficient time for re-reading available texts, thus drawing more on students' powers of recall than on deeper learning and comprehension. Previous research has been undertaken on reading comprehension generally, but no research has yet explored the interaction of factors such as text availability (re-reading of texts), text layout, question type and respondents' language background. This study explores the correctness of 50 participants' responses to a set reading task based on an expository text, and participants' confidence in giving those answers, in relation to four factors: the effects of question type; text availability; text layout; and language background. The main findings are that non-native speakers of English have more difficulty and less confidence in answering implicit questions and that reviewing the text has a significant effect on response correctness for implicit questions. The form of text layout did not show a significant effect, however. Our results have implications for lecturers who set readings and questions for comprehension and others who use reading comprehension as part of their ‘hidden curriculum’. Further research in this area is required to determine more precisely the effects of language background.     

Exploratory assessments of child abuse: Children's responses to interviewer's questions across multiple interview sessions

ObjectiveThe present study extends field research on interviews with young children suspected of having been abused by examining multiple assessment interviews designed to be inquisitory and exploratory, rather than formal evidential or forensic interviews.MethodsSixty-six interviews with 24 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years who were undergoing an assessment for suspected child abuse were examined. Each child was interviewed 2, 3, or 4 times. The interviewer's questions were categorized in terms of openness (open, closed or choice), in terms of the degree of interviewer input (free recall, direct, leading, suggestive), and for topic (whether the question was abuse-specific or nonabuse-related). Children's on-task responses were coded for amount of information (number of clauses) reported in relation to each question type and topic, and off-task responses were categorized as either ignoring the question or a diverted response.ResultsChildren provided a response to most questions, independent of question type or topic and typically responded with one or two simple clauses. Some children disclosed abuse in response to open-ended questions; generally, however, failure to respond to a question was more likely for abuse-specific than for nonabuse-related questions.ConclusionThe findings are discussed in terms of the growing literature on interviewing children about suspected abuse, particularly in interviews conducted over multiple sessions.Practice implicationsAssessment of suspected child abuse may involve more than a single investigative interview. Research examining children's responses to questioning over multiple interviews (or single interviews conducted over multiple sessions) is necessary for the development of best practise guidelines for the assessment of abuse.     

How Undergraduate Students Learn

The prime purpose of an educational institution is to prepare graduates for both industrial and research-oriented employment. In each case, the graduate must have a capacity for lifelong learning. The course content and process are interlinked parts of learning. Three standard questionnaires were used to assess how students learn. The ‘study process questionnaire’ (SPQ) showed that there was a significant proportion of surface learners but thai this percentage can be modified by adopting certain teaching methodologies. The ‘course experience questionnaire’ (CEQ) indicated that a good memory is not sufficient to pass examinations, but also showed that the workload was too heavy and that assessment methods tend to control the approaches to learning adopted by students. The ‘learning style inventory’ (LSI) showed that students have adapted their learning style to match course emphases. To accommodate the different types of learner, lecturers need to change their teaching paradigm from one where lecturers stand outside the students' learning context, to one where lecturers are intimately involved in the learning context.     

Transformation of text in the English classroom: does ‘context’ really matter?

This paper investigates the language demands of creating texts in the English classroom, which involve transformations in context. In particular, it focuses on the tensions inherent in tasks which require more traditional textual analysis to be presented in ways other than traditional ‘essay’ format. These tasks are interpreted differently by students and can result in texts which vary in terms of their choice of ‘written‐like’ or ‘spoken‐like’ styles. This paper uses data from year nine English students presenting speeches to an imagined jury arguing for Shakespeare's Macbeth's guilt or innocence and explores the implications of shifts along the mode continuum evident in the students' language. It raises the question of the relative importance of transformations of language and context and the extent to which control of mode is valued. Language analysis of student responses focusing on genre, periodicity, use of vocatives and endophoric reference suggests the imagined context required by the task is less important than the literary context in assessing student responses and can act as a distraction. Findings have implications for alignment of teaching and assessment practices in English classrooms.     

Children's Personal Prerogative in Home and School Contexts

The present study examined young children's conceptions of personal prerogative in the contrasting contexts of home and school. The central question was whether young children have a stable conception of the personal which underlies their responses to regulations in varying contexts. Interviews concerning conceptions of the personal domain were conducted with 37 middle class first grade children. The children were aware of continuities and discontinuities in personal prerogative at home and school as highlighted by their understandings of conventions at school. They identified areas of prerogative at school, but were aware of the conventionalization of some personal issues. They considered school to be the more restrictive place. Despite some willingness to cede authority to teachers for many personal issues, the children reserved rightful decision locus for themselves. They were noncommittal as to whether prerogative should be narrowed at school. They attempted negotiations in both settings, despite less success at school. The children had a conception of personal prerogative which extended over both home and school contexts. Results have implications for classrooms responsive to children's development of autonomy. The study was limited largely to white middle class children, however it raises questions which could have implications for a much broader range of children. Further studies on prerogative in contrasting contexts considering class and ethnic differences may also yield implications for classroom practice which is child and culture sensitive.     

The validity of multiple choice practical examinations as an alternative to traditional free response examination formats in gross anatomy

Traditionally, an anatomy practical examination is conducted using a free response format (FRF). However, this format is resource‐intensive, as it requires a relatively large time investment from anatomy course faculty in preparation and grading. Thus, several interventions have been reported where the response format was changed to a selected response format (SRF). However, validity evidence from those interventions has not proved entirely adequate for the practical anatomy examination, and thus, further investigation was required. In this study, the validity evidence of SRF was examined using multiple choice questions (MCQs) constructed according to different levels of Bloom's taxonomy in comparison with the traditional free response format. A group of 100 medical students registered in a gross anatomy course volunteered to be enrolled in this study. The experimental MCQ examinations were part of graded midterm and final steeplechase practical examination. Volunteer students were instructed to complete the practical examinations twice, once in each of two separate examination rooms. The two separate examinations consisted of a traditional free response format and MCQ format. Scores from the two examinations (FRF and MCQ) displayed a strong correlation, even with higher level Bloom's taxonomy questions. In conclusion, the results of this study provide empirical evidence that the SRF (MCQ) response format is a valid method and can be used as an alternative to the traditional FRF steeplechase examination. Anat Sci Educ. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Cognitive styles and instructional design in university learning

Changes in conceptualization and measurement of the verbalizer–visualizer dimension led us to re-examine the hypothesis that students learn best when instructional material matches their cognitive style. First-year psychology university students (n = 41) studied information on three personality theories presented in text only, text+picture, or text+schematic diagram format, demonstrated recall and comprehension of each theory, and completed an adapted cognitive styles questionnaire. Spatial and object visual scale scores were not correlated, but the latter showed a significant though relatively weak negative correlation with verbal scale scores. Recall could be predicted from students' verbal and object visual scores when presentation format matched these cognitive styles. All three styles significantly predicted students' comprehension, but only when they matched the presentation format. The results support the distinction between spatial and object visual styles, and provide evidence that learning outcomes improve when instructional material is matched to students' cognitive styles.     

Exploring the use of best-worst scaling to elicit course experience questionnaire responses

Students are an important stakeholder group in the context of quality assurance in higher education. From their perspective as learners, students’ views on educational experiences are increasingly used as an indicator of educational quality. The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a widely used quantitative tool to gauge students’ perceptions of degree programmes. With a view to enhancing the scope for differentiation between individual questionnaire items, this paper explores the use of best–worst scaling to elicit CEQ responses as an alternative to a ratings instrument. The data for this study were generated from a representative sample (n = 263) of graduates from a Dutch university. The survey focused on two core CEQ scales: Good Teaching and Generic Skills. The results show that the Generic Skills items were deemed more pertinent to the degree programme than were the ones related to Good Teaching, with problem-solving skills perceived as the most relevant aspect. Using latent class analysis, six groups of graduates were identified that differed mainly in terms of the relative importance of the skills attributes. Overall, this study shows how the features of best–worst scaling can be used to enhance the scope for discrimination between items in a degree programme evaluation.     

Using Natural Language Processing to Predict Item Response Times and Improve Test Construction

In this article, it is shown how item text can be represented by (a) 113 features quantifying the text's linguistic characteristics, (b) 16 measures of the extent to which an information‐retrieval‐based automatic question‐answering system finds an item challenging, and (c) through dense word representations (word embeddings). Using a random forests algorithm, these data then are used to train a prediction model for item response times and predicted response times then are used to assemble test forms. Using empirical data from the United States Medical Licensing Examination, we show that timing demands are more consistent across these specially assembled forms than across forms comprising randomly‐selected items. Because an exam's timing conditions affect examinee performance, this result has implications for exam fairness whenever examinees are compared with each other or against a common standard.     

Validating the Course Experience Questionnaire in West Bengal higher secondary education

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a 36-item instrument that is intended to measure six different aspects of students’ perceptions of the academic quality of their programmes. It has been widely used in Western countries, and it has also been used in non-Western countries, including China, Hong Kong, Japan and Pakistan. Nevertheless, in the latter countries, it has sometimes not been possible to identify the full range of constructs that were supposed to be measured by the original CEQ. We translated the CEQ into Bengali and administered this to 552 science students at 15 higher secondary schools in West Bengal, India. A confirmatory factor analysis found that their responses provided a poor fit to the original six-factor model of the CEQ. An exploratory factor analysis identified just four constructs, which reflected good teaching, generic skills, student support and appropriate workload. The items with salient loadings on the four factors were used to construct four scales. The students’ scores on three of the four scales showed satisfactory levels of internal consistency. A factor analysis of their scores on all four scales yielded one overarching factor that could be interpreted as a measure of perceived academic quality. A reduced version of the CEQ consisting of the 30 items that constitute these four scales can be recommended as a measure of students’ perceptions of the academic quality of programmes in West Bengal.     

The Drama Teacher's Journey

Abstract

This article focuses on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and English as a Second Language (ESL) texts, that is texts produced in interactions between native and non‐native speakers of English. Such texts are hybrid in that they comprise a blending of ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard'1 English forms. In these times of globalised English and the increasing prevalence of non‐native speaker models of English, research is increasingly likely to encounter ESL texts. The issue for the critical analysis of such ‘new’ texts is that CDA generally utilises ‘standard’ linguistic models for its analytical apparatus. Fairclough (2003), arguably the most widely‐recognised proponent of CDA, bases his analytical framework on Standard English. The question is whether and if so how CDA can accommodate hybrid texts, specifically those with a blend of linguistically ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard’ forms of English. In this discussion, I consider the application of Fairclough's model of CDA to the analysis of an interview with a Thai ESL student beginning postgraduate studies in Australia. I argue that the analysis is made more effective by drawing on principles from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, in particular communication strategies.     

Structural Influences on Deaf and Hearing Children's Recall of Temporal/Spatial Incongruent Letter Strings

A test of individual differences in cognitive flexibility was made by challenging 16 prelingually profoundly deaf children (CA = 11.33 yr.) and 16 hearing children (CA = 11.75 yr) with a short‐term memory task that required immediate recall of the temporal or spatial sequence in which four letters were presented. For each trial, letter presentation was arranged so that the temporal sequence was not correlated with the spatial sequence. On initial free‐response trials, all hearing children and seven deaf children showed a temporal orientation. The remaining nine deaf children showed a spatial orientation. On later trials, each child was instructed to take the orientation not originally taken. It was predicted from O'Connor & Hermelin (Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (1973) 25, 335‐343) that all groups would show substantial flexibility going from the initial to the challenge test, but only the hearing group actually showed the predicted recovery. Moreover, recall response times indicated processing differences between the two deaf groups, even when stimulus presentation parameters were individually adjusted to tap each child's optimum performance. It was concluded that individual differences in deaf children's initial orientations bear significantly upon differences in performance because of these children's relatively weak adaptive responses under challenging conditions.     

ON THE DIMENSIONS OF POWER IN EDUCATION

Power is manifested in human nature and activity. However, in the sphere of education, especially higher education, it should not be manifested. Something becomes an asset only when it has become a personal possession. In order for an asset to be accepted as such by an individual, it must be situated indirectly in the circumstances which have led to that individual's personal choice of the asset in question.     

Assessing concrete-abstract performance in two response modes

This study considers the question of the effect of providing two different response modes, free response and a multiple choice format, on concrete-abstract performance. If task format plays a role in subject response, then it also enters into a person's score on some intelligence test measures. This study, although preliminary in nature, provides evidence that response format may make a difference on an individual's concrete-abstract performance.     

The Relationship between Students' Course Perception and their Approaches to Studying in Undergraduate Science Courses: A Canadian experience

Research on students' approaches to learning in higher education has consistently demonstrated strong relationships between approaches to studying and perceptions of the learning environment. The vast majority of these studies have been carried out with Australian and British students. Using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), this study investigated these relationships with a large sample of Canadian undergraduates. The factor structure of the ASSIST was confirmed at the main scale level. The factor structure of the CEQ was largely confirmed, though some small changes were noted. Previous findings of significant correlations between approaches and CEQ scales were supported. The strongest relationships were found between heavy workload/inappropriate assessment and surface approach, and between generic skills and deep approach. Consistent with other studies, age was found to be a significant variable with regard to approaches. Implications for the practice of higher education staff development are discussed.