Cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies among Arabic language students

This study investigates cognitive and metacognitive strategies in learning oral Arabic among students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The concept of these strategies was derived from the self-regulated learning framework, which consists of five components, namely rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies. The purposes of this study are to investigate the level of cognitive and metacognitive strategies used (1) among UiTM students; (2) between students with different prior experiences, namely, some of them had an experience of 5 years in learning Arabic in secondary school (abbreviated by SWE) and some of them did not have any experience at all (abbreviated by SNE); (3) between students of different gender; and (4) between students with the interaction of different gender and prior experience. The sample of this study consists of 183 students and employs a questionnaire adapted from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The study revealed that (1) all UiTM students used cognitive and metacognitive strategies at a moderate level; (2) SWE scored significantly higher than SNE in all five components of cognitive and metacognitive strategies; (3) females scored significantly higher than males in rehearsal, organization, and metacognitive strategies; and (4) there were no statistically significant differences noted in all components between students with the interaction of prior experience and gender. This study had some classroom implications. It suggested that some improvement and changes in learning oral Arabic should be made in terms of selecting learning materials, implementing oral Arabic activities, and learning tasks, which will stimulate the use of all strategies, as well as conducting proficiency tests instead of achievement tests. Students should also be exposed to the learning techniques which used all these strategies extensively and collaborative activities may be carried out among students with mixed prior experience and gender.     

Cognitive strategies for learning from static and dynamic visuals

An experimental study with 60 students investigated the effects of including static or dynamic visuals in an expository text on a learning outcome and the use of learning strategies while working with those visuals. For the study, two illustrated and one text-only version of a computer-based learning text on an astrophysical subject were developed and served as the learning material. Considering the cognitive task demand in a learning test, we found significant differences between the illustrated versions and the text-only version, but not between the two illustrated ones. We used think-aloud protocols to examine the learning processes initiated by both types of visuals. The coding of the recorded learning activities was based on recent theories of learning strategies. The results for both types of illustrations indicate different frequencies in the use of learning strategies relevant for the learning outcome, and therefore indicate the contribution of the cognitive process quality for the supportive function of visuals.     

传热设计性实验教学的探索与实践

介绍了一门具有创新性的设计性实验教学课程,利用传热学领域的气膜冷却基本原理,在已有实验台的基础上,设计多个实验课题,由学生自行选择课题,对课题的相关发展进行调研,设计实验件、实验方案,并通过实验得到一定结论.整个时间比研究生课题研究时间要短,属于进入课题前的锻炼课程,培养学生的创新能力.     

传热学多层次、创新性实验教学模式的研究

实验教学作为传热学这门课程的重要组成部分,对于加深学生对热量传递过程物理机制的认识,了解其工程应用情况,掌握基本的传热测试方法,提高学生的创新能力和对知识的综合应用能力,起着极其重要的作用。我们从对实验教学内容进行优化整合、实验课件的开发、网络实验教材的建设以及自主研发综合性实验台,到学生自发进行创新性实验,建立起了多层次的创新性实验教学体系。     

理科大学生在专业学习中的认知规律及相应教学策略

系统分析了理科大学生神经层级、心理层级、语言层级和思维层级的认知规律.提出了运用学生注意规律和思维规律的教学改革策略以及对错误认知习惯的纠正方法.认为高尚的认知动机有助于理科大学生改善认知模式.在认知能力培养中应该注重综合化、因材施教和以用促能三个原则.     

Mathematics achievement and mathematics learning strategies: Cognitive competencies and construct differentiation

Responding to a survey requires cognitive abilities similar to those for any other linguistic task. We argue that, when faced with a cognitively challenging task, individuals respond by simplifying the task, declining it, or performing it poorly. Using the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2003) data sets, we document that the extent of construct differentiation in students’ mathematics learning strategies is strongly associated with their level of mathematics achievement. Likewise, the higher the level of mathematics achievement, the lower is the probability of a non-response to the mathematics learning strategy questions. Finally, the higher the students’ level of mathematics achievement, the more varied were their responses to the learning strategies items. These associations were examined across 40 participating countries.     

Identifying pedagogy and teaching strategies for achieving nationally prescribed learning outcomes

With the globalisation of university education, national frameworks are commonly used to prescribe standardised learning outcomes and achieve accountability. However, these frameworks are generally not accompanied by guiding pedagogy to support academics in adjusting their teaching practices to achieve the set outcomes. This paper reports the results of a scoping review of health science literature aimed at identifying pedagogy and teaching strategies relevant to achieve the learning outcomes specified by the Australian Qualifications Framework at a master's degree level. Eight practical teaching messages emerged from the review and three broad pedagogical trends were identified: the need to use authentic disciplinary-based learning activities; ensure that students are able to discover different perspectives about future practice and bring student reflection about their own knowledge into curricula. More critically, the review highlights that academics attempting to translate national learning outcome frameworks into their teaching practices face a complex and time-consuming task which may involve searching beyond their own disciplinary focus to identify practical teaching strategies to meet prescribed learning outcomes.     

Do learning protocols support learning strategies and outcomes? The role of cognitive and metacognitive prompts

Although writing learning protocols is an effective follow-up course work activity, many learners tend to do it in a rather suboptimal way. Hence, we analyzed the effects of instructional support in the form of prompts. The effects of different types of prompts were investigated in an experiment with four conditions: cognitive prompts, metacognitive prompts, a combination of cognitive and metacognitive prompts, or no prompts (N = 84 undergraduate psychology students). We found that the prompts stimulated the elicitation of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. The provision of purely metacognitive prompts did not, however, improve learning outcomes. Only the groups who had received cognitive, or a combination of cognitive and metacognitive, prompts learned more than the control group. This effect was mediated by cognitive learning strategies. The learners in the successful groups did not perceive the prompted learning strategies as more helpful than the learners of the group without prompts. It can be concluded that cognitive prompts—alone or in combination with metacognitive prompts—are an effective means to foster learning. However, additional means should be employed in order to convince the learner of the usefulness of such prompts.     

Student activity and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between degree of participation and learning outcomes in an e-learning course on medical informatics. Overall activity in using course materials and degree of participation in the discussion forums of an online course were studied among 39 medical students. Students were able to utilise the course material in discussion groups focusing on the lectures, quizzes and students’ own notes. Each student’s data recording of activities and individual participation in discussion in the online course was analysed in order to assess which activities predicted learning outcome. Higher course grades were associated with studying the course material frequently and also with regular participation in reading postings and replying to them. There were no connections between learning outcome and the students’ original contributions to the discussion forums. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in how they utilised the various components of the learning material.     

Linking online course design and implementation to learning outcomes: A design experiment

This paper reports on preliminary findings from ongoing design-based research being conducted in the fully online Master of Arts in Teacher Leadership (MTL) program at a small, Midwest public university. Researchers are using the Quality Matters (QM) and Community of Inquiry (CoI) frameworks to guide the iterative redesign of core courses in the program. Preliminary results from the redesign of one course suggest that such approach can improve student learning outcomes. Results also support the efficacy of the QM and CoI theoretical frames, and the usefulness of design-based approaches in online learning.     

Framing student evaluations of university learning and teaching: discursive strategies and textual outcomes

Evaluation in higher education is an evolving social practice; that is, it involves what people, institutions and broader systems do and say, how they do and say it, what they value, the effects of these practices and values, and how meanings are ascribed. The textual products (verbal, written, visual and gestural) that inform and are produced by, for and through evaluative practices are important, as they promulgate particular kinds of meanings and values in specific contexts. This paper reports on an exploratory study that sought to investigate, using discourse analysis, the types of evaluative practices that were ascribed value, and the student responses that ensued, in different evaluative instruments. Findings indicate that when a reflective approach is taken to evaluation, students’ responses are more considered, they interrogate their own engagement in the learning context and they are more likely to demonstrate reconstructive thought. These findings have implications for reframing evaluation as reflective learning.     

Consistency in learning strategies

This article examines the reported use of surface and deep level learning strategies by first-year student teachers at an Australian College of Advanced Education. Students responded to a brief questionnaire measuring the learning strategies they adopted in different assessment situations. The article describes the development of this questionnaire, its factorial structure, and the predictive validity of its factors. High levels of achievement, on both objective tests and essay assessments, were found to be associated with the reported use of deep strategies. Three-mode factor analyses revealed high levels of consistency in the strategies reported for various learning contexts, implying that these were stylistic behaviours rather than strategic approaches to learning which were situation specific. The notion of consistency in learning strategies was considered in light of recent literature suggesting a greater extent of cognitive flexibility.     

Cognitive conflicts in mathematics learning

The paper describes research results on how students’ conceptions conflict and change in the process of learning mathematics. There are conflicts within the learner which can be explained as developmental conflicts. Some of them seem to be age-dependent (U-shaped behavioral growth: a global view gets destroyed into a chaos and grows up again as a structured view), and others seem to be fundamental as gaps between two types of concepts (spontaneous versus scientific in the sense of Vygotsky). A third kind of conflict appears when the learner expands the boundaries or exceeds the limits of a concept which was successful till then in the limited version. Conflicts between the learner’s concept and an outside concept originate from communication problems. Both the learner and the teacher may have correct concepts but there is a mismatch of understanding because of thinking in different frames.     

Cognitive abilities and learning disabilities

Summary The greater discrepancy between spatial vs sequential/conceptual WISC subtest results in learning-disabled children is instrumental to the idea that these children might profit relatively more from an imagery based strategy in organizing and recalling noun pairs and triplets than from a verbal strategy. The results from the present studies with concrete nouns show that this is not the case. Another result is that learning-disabled children’s recall performance is also lower when strategy instructed (except in the first experiment) than normal children’s performance. Suggestions as to which strategy aspects could be responsible are given. This paper is based upon a presentation at the 30th Annual Conference of The Orton Society in Indianapolis, November 1979.     

Applying learning and instructional strategies in open and distance learning

This paper is about the application of learning and instructional strategies in open and distance learning settings. First, a brief comment is made on the nature of open and distance learning and also teaching and learning in such settings. This is followed by a brief discussion of the impacts of particular types of learning and instructional strategics on learning. A framework is presented for applying learning and instructional strategies in open and distance learning contexts, and the translation of this framework into an instructional transaction that offers a generic plan for developing instruction.

This is, therefore, a conceptual paper. It discusses a theoretical framework for applying learning and instructional strategies that is currently being implemented in the design and development of instruction for an on‐line (electronic) teaching‐learning environment. The results of that implementation will be reported at a later date.     

Cognitive and affective processes in multimedia learning

This special section focuses on cognitive and affective processes in multimedia learning in a range of learning domains. Expanding previous research that has taken a predominantly cognitive perspective of multimedia learning, recent studies have begun to consider affective aspects of multimedia learning with the aim of integrating emotion, motivation, and other affective variables into cognitive processing models. The articles included in this special section are examples of the various ways in which the cognitive perspective can be enhanced by taking affective aspects of learning into account. Investigations range from the study of confusion as an affective state that can be beneficial to learning, and the consideration of the potential distracting or motivating function of decorative illustrations, to an inquiry into how visual design can induce positive emotions in learners. The results of the studies included in this section are in line with Moreno's Cognitive-Affective Theory of Learning with Media (CATLM; Moreno, 2006) and show how emotion and interest facilitate cognitive processing and improve cognitive and affective outcomes.     

学习策略在外语学习中的作用

文章运用定量研究的方法，调查了来自宁夏四所高校非英语专业学生的学习策略使用情瓦和学习策略与学习成绩的相关关系，并就此提出了一些教学措施与建议。