A comparison of four methods of teaching psychomotor activities to elementary school children from varying socioeconomic levels

Conclusions The results of this investigation showed that significant differences did exist at the 01 level among instructional treatments. A comparison of mean performance scores across groups (rows) and tasks (columns) showed that instructional treatments ranked as follows: 1) self-instruction, 2) lecturedemonstration (classroom), 3) lecture-demonstration (television), and 4) minimal-instruction. The socioeconomic background of subjects did not influence instructional treatment. Subjects from all three socioeconomic levels learned best from self-instruction. Under the conditions of this study, time was not a significant factor or causal effect in differences that resulted among instructional treatments. Self-instruction was found to be the most effective method of teaching subjects from different socioeconomic levels to perform manipulatory tasks. This study substantiates the findings of an early experiment conducted by Calder (1966) with college students.     

Maternal interaction,private speech,and task performance in preschool children

This study examined the correspondence between ontogenetic and microgenetic change in private speech, the association of private speech with task performance, and the relationship of maternal interaction during a teaching session to preschoolers' verbal self-regulation and success in independent problem solving. Thirty 4- and 5-year-olds were observed while their mothers assisted them in solving two challenging tasks. In three subsequent sessions, children's private speech and performance were tracked as they worked on tasks requiring skills similar to those taught in the mother-child session. Correspondences between age- and session-related trends in private speech and task performance appeared that are consistent with Vygotsky's assumption that private speech undergoes progressive internalization with increasing cognitive competence. Contrary to Vygotskian assumptions, utterances accompanying action were not replaced by those preceding action (planning statements) with advancing age and task mastery. Private speech predicted gain in task performance more effectively than concurrent performance. A global index of authoritative parenting was a better predictor of private speech and task performance than were microanalytic measures of scaffolding, suggesting that microanalytic indices may miss critical features of maternal teaching behavior that promote transfer of cognitive strategies from adult to child.     

Enhancing problem-based learning designs with a single e-learning scaffolding tool: Two case studies using challenge FRAP

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a powerful instructional approach. By working through assessable complex problem-solving tasks learners can be encouraged to actively engage in investigation and inquiry and to use high level cognitive thought processes to solve real-life problems in professional contexts. A critical element of a successful PBL design is the inclusion of instructional support, such as scaffolding, to guide and assist the learner through the reasoning process that is crucial to successful problem-solving. The e-learning tool ‘Challenge FRAP’ (Form for the Recording of the Analysis of Problems) is client-based public domain authoring software which facilitates the use of scaffolding, the provision of progressive feedback and can promote student reflection at key decision-making points. This paper illustrates the benefits of such an e-learning scaffolding tool through two PBL case studies; one group-based PBL task in science and technology and one self-directed PBL task in plant pathology.     

Teacher cognitive functioning as a factor in observed variety and level of classroom teaching behavior

A review of the literature suggests a relationship between life-long development of formal reasoning schema and performance in professional education careers. The study investigated implications of cognitive development of preservice teachers as it relates to their classroom teaching performance. Ninety-one seniors involved in a field-oriented teacher education program were given classroom responsibilities which included teaching a science unit. Formal thinking abilities were assessed using two types of developmental level tasks, performance on traditional type Piagetian tasks and recognition of formal thought approaches in solving educational tasks. Professional behaviors were assessed using observational ratings of classroom instructional and planning activities. Subjects assessed as formal operational, 30% of sample, using Piagetian performance tasks, had significantly higher facility in performing model classroom teaching behaviors than transitional or concrete subjects. Higher recognition ability of formal thought approaches to teaching was not related to facility in performing classroom teaching when compared to performance on Piagetian tasks. The relationship held up in seven of eight broad teaching behavior categories observed in classroom instruction. The results supported a general portrait of teaching behavior specifically related to teachers of differing cognitive functional levels. Implications for professional training programs are discussed.     

Effects of teacher training on children's analogical reasoning performance

Two studies were conducted to assess the effects of teacher training in analogical reasoning on students' performance of analogy tasks. Study One focused on elementary school teachers and students, while Study Two involved early childhood teachers. In Study One, 25 fourth-grade teachers were assigned either to Control, or to Level I or Level II treatment conditions. The Level I condition involved the receipt of detailed analogy lessons. The Level II condition encompassed both the receipt of instructional materials and explicit training for teachers in their underlying theory and use. Further, 19 of the 25 treatment and control teachers were observed during the course of the study to determine the influence of observation of teachers on students' analogical reasoning. Students' performance of an analogy task was compared prior to and following teacher-delivered instruction by means of an analysis of covariance procedure. Results indicated that students in Level II classrooms significantly outperformed Level I students, who significantly outperformed students in Control classrooms. Teacher observation was found to be a significant factor in the performance of Level I, but not Level II or Control, students. In Study Two, teachers participating in two summer programs for gifted preschoolers were taught how to deliver instruction in analogical reasoning to young children, ages three to six. Results demonstrated that children receiving explicit instruction in analogical reasoning scored significantly better on an analogy task than the children assigned to control. No effect for age, race, gender, or Socioeconomic studies were found. Implications of the results of these two studies for educational practice are discussed.     

Differential results of instruction at the preoperational/concrete operational transition

The same cognitive intervention was attempted with children from two schools serving different populations. All children were identified by their teachers as having cognitive difficulties in kindergarten. Within each school, children were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Children in the experimental groups received more than 40 short lessons on unidimensional classification (oddity), seriation, and number conservation. These lessons were taught via a learning-set procedure employing 160 kinds of manipulatable objects. Children in the control groups received an equal amount of instruction on verbal and mathematics materials recommended by their teachers. Five months after the instruction was concluded, the experimental group in one school scored significantly better on a psychometric test of reasoning. There was no significant difference in verbal and mathematics achievement. Differences in the significance of outcomes of the intervention at the two schools suggest that children at different stages of cognitive development will benefit differently from cognitive interventions. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Classroom keyboard instruction improves kindergarten children’s spatial-temporal performance: A field experiment

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of classroom music instruction featuring the keyboard on the spatial-temporal reasoning of kindergarten children. Sixty-two kindergartners were assigned to one of two conditions, keyboard or no music. All children were pretested with two spatial-temporal tasks and one pictorial memory task. The keyboard group was provided with 20-min lessons two times per week in groups of approximately 10 children. Children were then retested at two 4-month intervals. The keyboard group scored significantly higher than the no music group on both spatial-temporal tasks after 4 months of lessons, a difference that was greater in magnitude after 8 months of lessons. Pictorial memory did not differ for the two groups after the lessons. These data support studies that found similar skills enhancements in preschool children, despite vast differences in the setting in which the instruction occurred. The results have strong implications for school administrators and educators.     

The validity of certain subtests of the ITPA,WISC, and stanford-binet as measures of analogical reasoning

Certain subtests of the WISC, ITPA, and Stanford-Binet are used as measures of analogical reasoning. Because several facts suggested that the form of analogy used on these subtests does not require subjects to engage in true analogical reasoning, the validity of these subtests as measures of analogical reasoning was investigated. Two forms of verbal analogies were vised: quasi-analogies (the form used on the WISC, ITPA, and Stanford-Binet) which presented the problem in sentence form (a bird uses air; a fish uses. ); and true analogies which presented the problem in the form cf a proportion (bird is to air as fish is to…). Subjects were 9-, 12-, and 15-year old children. These ages were used because children below 12 years of age do not appear to have the cognitive skills necessary for analogical reasoning. Nine-year old subjects obtained significantly higher scores on quasi-analogies in comparison to true analogies. There were no significant differences for the older subjects. Because of this it was suggested that the “analogy” items on the WISC, ITPA and Stanford-Binet are inappropriate test items for assessing analogical reasoning.     

Unraveling the culture of the mathematics classroom: A video-based study in sixth grade

Changing perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning resulted in a new generation of mathematics textbooks, stressing among others the importance of mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills and their application to real-life situations. The article reports a study that investigates to what extent the reform-based ideas underlying these mathematical textbooks impact the current teaching of mathematics. Two problem-solving lessons were videotaped in 10 sixth-grade classrooms and a coding scheme was developed to analyze these lessons with regard to three aspects of the classroom culture that are assumed to enhance students’ mathematical beliefs and problem-solving competencies: (1) the classroom norms that are established, (2) the instructional techniques and classroom organization forms, and (3) the set of tasks students are confronted with. Two instruments were administered to measure students’ beliefs about learning mathematical word problem solving, and to assess their problem-solving processes and skills. The results indicate that some reform-based aspects seemed to be easier to implement (e.g., a strong focus on heuristic skills, embedding tasks in a realistic context) than others (e.g., the use of group work, an explicit negotiation of appropriate social norms).     

Verbal information-processing capabilities and cochlear implants: implications for preoperative predictors of speech understanding

In this study, we examined preoperative verbal cognitive capacity in 11 deafened adults who were cochlear implant candidates and reexamined level of speech understanding after 6-8 months' experience with the implant. Verbal cognitive performance in the implant group was compared in a group of normal hearing subjects and in nonimplanted group of deafened adults. The three groups performed on par with each other with an exception: The individuals in the cochlear implant group and the nonimplanted group of deafened adults performed significatly worse than those of normal hearing in tasks in which use of internal speech is a key feature (i.e., rhyme judgement and lexical decision tasks). Postoperative observations of the implanted individuals' level of speech understanding suggest that it is possible to predict the level of speech understanding by means of a properative cognitive assessment. The characteristics of three verbal cognitive abilities prove to be critical indicators of 6 - 8 months' postoperative outcome: internal speech functioning, speed of verval information processing, and working memory capacity - the first factor proved the most decisive. We discuss the results with respect to direct versus indirect predictors of outcomes from cochlear implant operations and the effect of auditory deprivation on deafened adults' capability to process auditory information.     

Short and long term effects of a teacher-training workshop in medical school

The effect of a teacher-training workshop in a medical school was studied. The change in instructional behavior was judged by the amount and kind of students' verbal activities during regular lessons and by the cognitive level of the teacher-student encounters. One hundred and sixty-one lessons of 60 teachers were observed in a period up to 500 days after the four-day workshop. The results indicate a considerable increase in both parameters following the training. The new level of performance was sustained for the activity parameter along the entire follow-up period. The cognitive level moderately declined after about 200 days. After 500 days the instructional behavior still was significantly different from that before the workshop. The implications for teacher-training and reinforcement interventions are discussed.     

A two-level study of predictors of private tutoring attendance at the beginning of secondary schooling in Germany: The role of individual learning support in the classroom

More and more students attend private supplementary tutoring to improve their academic achievement. Private tutoring might be understood as a reaction to insufficient instructional quality in school, especially regarding individual support. However, it might also be possible that parents generally see insufficient grades as an indicator of lacking support and engage a tutor in hopes of improvement or to enhance a competitive edge for their children. So far, the relationship between tutoring attendance and perceived individual learning support during classroom lessons has not been tested. We used multilevel analyses based on N = 2,842 students in 102 Grade 5 classrooms at German academic track schools to test for a relationship between private tutoring in several subjects and students’ shared perception of the instructional quality in these subjects. On the individual level, we controlled for typical predictors of private tutoring such as academic achievement and family income, as well as for additional variables such as working behaviour and parental homework assistance. In classrooms with more individual support, students were less likely to start private tutoring in English. However, we did not find comparable relationships for tutoring in mathematics and German. Therefore, school principals and educational policy-makers should monitor the incidence of private tutoring and consider within-school structured tutoring programmes as an effective measure to improve academic achievement and to meet parents’ desire for individualised instruction.     

One lesson is all you need? Stability of instructional quality across lessons

Observer ratings are often used to measure instructional quality. They are, however, usually based on observations gathered over short periods of time. Few studies have attempted to determine whether these periods are sufficient to provide reliable measures of instructional quality. Using generalizability theory, this study investigates (a) how three dimensions of instructional quality – classroom management, personal learning support, and cognitive activation of students – vary between the lessons of a specific teacher, and (b) how many lessons per teacher are necessary to establish sufficiently reliable measures of these dimensions. Analyses are based on ratings of five lessons for 38 teachers. Classroom management and personal learning support were stable across lessons, whereas cognitive activation showed high variability. Consequently, one lesson per teacher suffices to measure classroom management and personal learning support, whereas nine lessons would be needed for cognitive activation. The importance of advancing our theoretical understanding of cognitive activation is discussed.     

Teaching self-instruction to high school students

In an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of instructional programming in counseling, an experimental evaluation of a ten-week program aimed at teaching skills and strategies of self-instruction to high school students was conducted. Thirty-two grade ten students were assigned randomly to an experimental self-instruction group and a control group. Dependent variables included Rotter's (1966) Control of Reinforcement Questionnaire, Rosenbaum's (1980) Self-control Schedule, a curriculum-specific test of self-instruction concepts, and a transfer test. Results revealed that students in the experimental, self-instruction program outperformed students in the control group on all dependent variables except for the Self-control Schedule. Content analysis of student responses to the transfer test showed a distinct pattern of skill development in the experimental group from pretest to posttest. Implications for the development and offering of instructional counseling programs are drawn.Many students of counseling have argued that counseling is essentially a kind of teaching (Carkhuff and Berenson, 1976; Ellis, 1977; Katz and Ivey, 1977; Krumboltz and Thoresen, 1976; Sorenson, 1967). More recently, Martin and his colleagues have developed an approach to counseling that employs models of instruction as a basis for the development and implementation of a broad range of counseling interventions and programs (Hiebert et al., 1981; Martin and Hiebert, 1982; Martin et al., 1981; Martin et al., 1980). Martin (1983) also has suggested that counselors in schools and elsewhere can make use of systematic teaching programs to help clients/students acquire functional skills in a variety of areas such as anxiety management, decision making, interpersonal skills, and so forth. In the development and offering of such programs, counselors act as curriculum developers and instructors. Initial evidence for the viability of this type of instructional counseling in schools was provided by Haynes et al. (1983), and Leal, Baxter, Martin, and Marx (1981) who developed programs based on cognitive and behavioral counseling methods that were successful in alleviating the test anxieties experienced by high school students. The experiment reported here extends the work of Martin and others in instructional counseling by evaluating an instructional program designed to teach a series of integrated skills of self-instruction to high school students. [Note that the term self-instruction is used here to refer to the activities of people engaged in systematic self-change, and is not intended to connote the system of self-instruction training developed by Donald Meichenbaum (1977).]Nearly all teachers and curriculum specialists share at least one goal: to help students acquire the capacity to engage in self-directed learning. Most often, it is assumed that school students will acquire skills in areas such as self-instruction and critical thinking (skills often seen as necessary requisites to self-directed learning) as a result of stimulating interactions with traditional school curricula. A frequently voiced alternative is to attempt to teach such skills directly (cf. Beyers, 1984a, 1984b), more or less as a curriculum in their own right. Many attempts have been made to do this, but few have received detailed empirical, experimental analysis. In a recent meta-analysis of primary prevention studies conducted in schools, Baker, Swisher, Nadenichek, and Popowicz (1984) found 40 such studies that had been conducted since 1970. Most of the experimental programs in the studies reviewed were targeted at improving students' communication skills, decision making and problem solving skills, and self-awareness. None of the studies reviewed by Baker et al. included instructional interventions that attempted to teach a broad range of skills and strategies that would permit students to plan, implement, and evaluate programs of personal change and development. Teaching school pupils to engage in systematic self-instruction for purposes of personal change simply has not been attempted, to date, in the context of an experimentally controlled investigation. Given an increasing number of pleas for exactly this kind of broad-based school programming (Martin, 1983; Sprinthall, 1984), the need for controlled experimental studies in this area is acute.Self-introduction or learning to learn has been the subject of considerable theorizing by both cognitive and instructional psychologists (Gagné, 1977; Bransford, 1979). Experimental work by Ann Brown and her colleagues (Brown, 1978; Brown et al., 1979) has highlighted the difficulty of teaching various metacognitive strategies that would seem basic to the capacity to self-instruct so as to ensure the transfer of such strategies to tasks other than those employed during strategy acquisition. At the same time, Brown's research also shows that the teaching of generalizable metacognitive strategies such as self-testing is possible, even with educable retarded children (Brown, et al., 1979). Other research concerned with differences between expert and novice knowledge has highlighted the importance of the ability to access declarative knowledge stores and the availability of relevant procedural knowledge in attempting to explain these differences (Chi et al., 1982; Leinhardt, 1983). [See Anderson, (1980) for formal definitions and discussions of declarative and procedural knowledge.] The greater ability of experts to function as independent learners or self-instructors in their areas of expertise likely is related to such differences. While it sometimes is unclear as to whether self-instructional competence resides in procedural knowledge stores or cognitive and/or metacognitive strategies, it seems clear that learning to learn involves more than simply acquiring necessary declarative knowledge in relevant substantive areas (Glaser, 1984). Thus, explicit, direct instruction in skills and strategies of self-instruction probably is necessary if students in schools are to learn to direct their own learning and development.The experiment reported here was conducted to supply initial experimental data about the possible effectiveness of a program designed to teach skills and strategies of self-instruction to high school students. It is a study of a ten-week instructional counseling program developed to teach self-instruction skills in areas such as decision making, gathering information, self-assessment, framing objectives, planning, and self-evaluation. As such, it is a more comprehensive program than other programs of primary prevention in schools that have been studied experimentally. While a variety of school and extracurricular situations were employed as illustrative contexts for presenting information about these skills to the students, the goal of the experimental program was to teach the self-instruction skills as detached skills that could be applied to a variety of situations and life circumstances. This approach was viewed as contrasting with traditional approaches in which such skills are thought to be acquired indirectly as a result of working through a series of tasks in defined substantive areas such as mathematics, history, or physics. In this latter method, it is likely that such skills, if they are acquired, become embedded in specific substantive contexts and are therefore less likely to generalize to situations or contexts other than those in which they were acquired (see Rigney, 1978 for the distinction between detached and embedded strategies). Dependent variables employed in the study were selected to test for the acquisition and transfer of targeted skills as well as for the acquisition of underlying beliefs about one's ability to control or influence external and internal events. The latter type of learning is thought by many counselors to be of great importance, particularly if attitudes and beliefs are learned that affect clients' attributional styles and/or tendencies (Strong and Claiborn, 1982).The overall purpose of the experiment was to determine whether instructional counseling curricula could be developed that would succeed in teaching detached strategies/skills of self-instruction to high school students. Should such instruction be possible, additional support would be provided for the notions of instructional counseling and counselors as curriculum developers and instructors. After all, a major part of counseling typically is associated with assisting clients to make decisions, gather information, frame goals and objectives, assess their situations and capabilities, plan actions, and evaluate the effects of their actions—all components of the self-instruction program taught to the experimental students in this study.The specific hypotheses investigated were that participation in the experimental instructional counseling program would increase: 1) students' knowledge of self-instruction skills (acquisition learning), 2) students' abilities to apply this knowledge to everyday events (transfer learning), and 3) students' attitudes consistent with higher levels of self-control and internal attributional processes (general attitudinal learning).The research reported here was supported by a grant from the Chairpersons' Research Fund, Simon Fraser University.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Bruce Dallin, Louise Bourassa, Olwyn Irving, David Langton and the Abbotsford School District (British Columbia, Canada) in completing this work.     

Patterns of peer scaffolding in technology-enhanced inquiry classrooms: application of social network analysis

The purpose of this study was to identify types and patterns of peer scaffolding that occur during inquiry-based learning (IBL) group activities. It employed a single instrumental case approach that integrated quantitative and qualitative analyses of data gathered from 21 students in a ninth grade biology course. A verbal analysis, a content analysis, and a social network analysis (SNA) were performed to identify patterns in group interactions and refine emergent themes. First, nine types of peer scaffolding were identified and found to serve the goals of direction maintenance, cognitive structuring, and simplification. Second, three different patterns related to the high, mixed, and low prior knowledge levels of each group were identified. The high prior knowledge group provided peer scaffolding that focused attention on considerations key to developing their arguments, and this scaffolding may have improved the group’s work. In the mixed prior knowledge group, the students with greater prior knowledge were likely to support those with less prior knowledge. Together, these findings indicate the way students are grouped may impact observable patterns in peer scaffolding. Identifying the difficulties that learners face and the assistance they seek could help instructional designers and teachers identify areas in which students need support during IBL group activities. This study informs educators and practitioners of effective strategies for designing and implementing peer scaffolding to assist inquiry activities in technology-enhanced classroom settings.

     

Using an expectancy-value approach to examine teachers’ motivational strategies

This study explored verbal motivational strategies in exemplary teachers’ classrooms. A framework derived from expectancy-value theory, which addresses student motivation for academic tasks, was applied. Audiotaped math and literacy lessons of two exemplary second-grade teachers showed a high number of comments related to expectancies and relatively fewer related to valuing tasks. In addition, teachers made more motivational statements when in the process of instruction than when introducing or concluding instructional episodes. Interviews revealed that some teacher beliefs, such as the importance of rationales or ensuring student success, were related to classroom strategies. Implications for theory, practice, and research are discussed.     

Using analogies to improve the teaching performance of preservice teachers

Prior research in both education and cognitive science has identified analogy making as a powerful tool for explanation as well as a fundamental mechanism for facilitating an individual's construction of knowledge. While a considerable body of research exists focusing on the role analogy plays in learning science concepts, relatively little is known about how instruction in the use of analogies might influence the teaching performance of preservice teachers. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between pedagogical analogy use and pedagogical reasoning ability in a sample of preservice elementary teachers (PTs), a group that has been identified for their particular difficulties in teaching science. The study utilized a treatment/contrast group design in which the treatment group was provided instruction that guided them in the generation of analogies to aid in the explanation phase of learning cycle lessons. A relationship between analogy use and positive indicants of teaching performance was observed and a case study of a low performing preservice teacher who drastically improved teaching performance using analogy‐based pedagogy is presented. A notable effect on conceptual understanding of Newton's Third Law as a result of two brief analogy‐based demonstration lessons was also observed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 565–585, 2007.     

A conceptualisation of whole‐class scaffolding

The concept of scaffolding refers to temporary and adaptive support, originally in dyadic adult–child interaction. It has become widely used, also in whole‐class settings, but often in loose ways. The aim of this paper is to theoretically and empirically ground a conceptualisation of whole‐class scaffolding so that it remains close to the origin of the scaffolding concept, but also provides scope for features not salient in one‐to‐one interaction. Drawing an analogy with Vygotsky's concept of Zone of Proximal Development we argue why the extension to whole‐class settings is justified. We further distinguish three key characteristics for whole‐class scaffolding—diagnosis, responsiveness and handover to independence—and illustrate these with examples from a teaching experiment focusing on whole‐class scaffolding language in a multilingual mathematics classroom (age 10–12). The empirical data led to a metaphorical distinction between online and offline enactment of key characteristics, during respectively outside whole‐class interaction. Diagnoses can namely also be made outside lessons, for instance by reading pupils' work; responsiveness can also be realised in adapting instructional activities; and handover to independence can also be fostered in the design of lessons. In addition to this layered nature (online vs. offline), whole‐class scaffolding is often distributed over time. Finally, whole‐class scaffolding is cumulative with pupils' independence emerging as the cumulative effect of many diagnostic and responsive actions over time. We suggest these three features are at the core of whole‐class scaffolding that is deliberately employed to foster long‐term learning processes.     

Fraction Instruction for Students with Mathematics Disabilities: Comparing Two Teaching Sequences

Abstract. This study investigated the effects of teaching middle school students with mathematics disabilities equivalent fraction concepts and procedures using the concrete‐representational‐abstract (CRA) instructional sequence or the representational‐abstract (RA) instructional sequence. Twenty‐six students formed the CRA group, and 24 students formed the RA group. The two treatment groups received carefully sequenced instruction over 10 lessons. The only difference between the two treatment groups was that the CRA group used concrete manipulative devices for the first three lessons while the RA group used representational drawings. Analyses of the data indicated that students in both treatment groups improved overall in their understanding of fraction equivalency from pretest to posttest. On all achievement measures, students in the CRA group had overall higher mean scores than did students in the RA group. Implications for classroom instruction and suggestions for further research are discussed.