The impact of student misconceptions on student persistence in a MOOC

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) provide opportunities to learn a vast range of subjects. Because MOOCs are open to anyone with computer access and rarely have prerequisite requirements, the range of student backgrounds can be far more varied than in conventional classroom-based courses. Prior studies have shown that misconceptions have a huge impact on students' learning performance; however, no study has empirically examined the relationship between misconceptions and learning persistence. This study of 12,913 MOOC-takers examines how students' misconceptions about the upcoming course material affect course completion. Using a survival analysis approach, we found that, controlling for the score in a pre-course test, students holding more misconceptions had a higher dropout rate at the start of the course, an effect that diminished over time. Other student variables were found to have a positive impact on survival that persisted throughout the entire course: U.S. location, higher age, an intention to complete, better English skills, prior familiarity with the subject, motivation to earn a certificate, and score and time spent on the previous problem set (homework). By contrast, student gender, education level, number of previous MOOCs completed, and motivation to participate in online discussion forums did not affect survival.     

Conceptual difficulties experienced by senior high school students of electrochemistry: Electrochemical (galvanic) and electrolytic cells

This research investigated students' understanding of electrochemistry following a 7–9-week course of instruction. A list of conceptual and propositional knowledge statements was formulated, and this provided the framework for semistructured interviews that were conducted with 32 students in their final year of high school chemistry, following instruction in electrochemistry. Three misconceptions identified in this study and five which have been reported earlier are incorporated into an alternative framework about electric current. The framework is grounded on the notion that a current always involves drifting electrons, even in solution. Another area where students' misconceptions were prevalent was in relation to the sign of the anode and cathode. Students who thought the anode was negatively charged believed cations would move toward it, and those who thought it was positively charged were unable to explain why electrons move away from it. Electrolytic cells also proved troublesome for students. Many students did not associate the positions of the anode and cathode with the polarity of the applied electromotive force (e.m.f.). Other students attempted to reverse features of electrochemical cells and apply the reversals to electrolytic cells. The implications of the research relate to students' interpretation of the language that is used to describe scientific phenomena and the tendency for students to overgeneralize, due to comments made by teachers or statements in textbooks.     

Common misconceptions of suspension: Ideas and alternatives for school leaders

The use of exclusionary discipline practices in schools has been well documented since the 1970s with the passing of the Safe Schools Act and implementation of zero‐tolerance policies. Despite research indicating the ineffectiveness of exclusionary practices, students continue to receive suspensions and expulsions at alarming rates. Additional research highlights that there may be misconceptions regarding the application of suspensions and their perceived functions and effectiveness on students and their families. The purpose of this article is to discuss common misconceptions regarding the effects of suspension and provide teachers, school psychologists, and administrators with proactive strategies for implementation in local systems to create positive school climates and optimize successful outcomes for all students and staff.     

Identification of student misconceptions in genetics problem solving via computer program

A genetics problem practice program and tutor on microcomputer was used by 135 undergraduate education majors enrolled in an introductory biology course at Purdue University. The program presented four genetics problems, two monohybrid and two dihybrid, and required the users to predict the number and type of each class of offspring. Student responses were recorded on diskette and analyzed for evidence of misconceptions and difficulties in the genetics problem-solving process. Three main areas of difficulty were identified: difficulties with computational skills, difficulties in the determination of gametes, and inappropriate application of previous learning to new problem situations.     

Common origins of diverse misconceptions: cognitive principles and the development of biology thinking

Many ideas in the biological sciences seem especially difficult to understand, learn, and teach successfully. Our goal in this feature is to explore how these difficulties may stem not from the complexity or opacity of the concepts themselves, but from the fact that they may clash with informal, intuitive, and deeply held ways of understanding the world that have been studied for decades by psychologists. We give a brief overview of the field of developmental cognitive psychology. Then, in each of the following sections, we present a number of common challenges faced by students in the biological sciences. These may be in the form of misconceptions, biases, or simply concepts that are difficult to learn and teach, and they occur at all levels of biological analysis (molecular, cellular, organismal, population, and ecosystem). We then introduce the notion of a cognitive construal and discuss specific examples of how these cognitive principles may explain what makes some misconceptions so alluring and some biological concepts so challenging for undergraduates. We will argue that seemingly unrelated misconceptions may have common origins in a single underlying cognitive construal. These ideas emerge from our own ongoing cross-disciplinary conversation, and we think that expanding this conversation to include other biological scientists and educators, as well as other cognitive scientists, could have significant utility in improving biology teaching and learning.     

Addressing student misconceptions concerning electron flow in aqueous solutions with instruction including computer animations and conceptual change strategies

The effects of both computer animations of microscopic chemical processes occurring in a galvanic cell and conceptual change instruction based on chemical demonstrations on students' conceptions of current flow in electrolyte solutions were investigated. Preliminary results for verbal conceptual questions suggest that conceptual change instruction was effective at dispelling student misconceptions that electrons flow in aqueous solutions of electrochemical cells. Computer animations did not appear to have an effect on students' responses to visual or verbal conceptual questions. An animation/conceptual change interaction for verbal conceptual questions suggests that animations may prove distacting when the questions do not require students to visualize. Data from this study also suggests that lecture attendance and recitation participations helped students answer visual questions.     

Virtual carrots,sticks and student engagement: supporting student researchers

This article describes a three-year research project which aimed to introduce a technological innovation in working with three cohorts of undergraduate students to support them in completing their final-year dissertations through the use of a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). An additional aim of the project was to establish, amongst the students, a Community of Enquiry. Drawing on evidence from module evaluations, focus group interviews and user logs, the article highlights how students engaged with the VRE to support their research projects and their peers. By examining the activities of the three cohorts the authors were able to apply the seven key factors for building an educational Community of Enquiry outlined in previous research by the first author and colleagues to assert that the third cohort worked collaboratively to the degree that they could be said to have formed a Community of Enquiry.     

Student misconceptions, declarative knowledge, stimulus conditions, and problem solving in basic electricity

Previous research has indicated that students' prior inaccurate conceptions about physical concepts interfere with the solution to physics problems and the acquisition of new concepts. In the present study, the effects of students misconceptions, declarative knowledge, and stimulus conditions on student solution to a problem in basic electricity were investigated. The results indicated that students performance was influenced by their knowledge of relevant declarative facts and the stimulus conditions of the experiment as well as by their models (or misconceptions) of the electrical situations. The theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.     

Armed with real guns: student unions,student identity,and violence in Côte d’Ivoire

ABSTRACT

African higher education has been the site of repeated contestations over identity. Higher education institutions, as spaces made up of individuals claiming a diversity of identities, are susceptible to conflict when identities are influenced by politicians and paramilitary groups seeking to advance their political agendas on campus through the use of ethnic, religious, and nationalist rhetoric. This qualitative case study of a university in Côte d’Ivoire explored how students engaged in violent political student union activities on campus constructed and enacted their identities through the lens of self-authorship. Findings suggest that student identities are context-dependent and change according to the observer; that self-authorship is difficult due to highly politicized external formulas and social structures; and that, without student support services, vulnerable students may succumb to violent identity enactment and discourse mechanisms.     

The double curse of misconceptions: misconceptions impair not only text comprehension but also metacomprehension in the domain of statistics

Research shows that misconceptions are usually detrimental to text comprehension. However, whether misconceptions also impair metacomprehension accuracy, that is, the accuracy with which one self-assesses one’s text comprehension, has received far less attention. We conducted a study in which we examined students’ (N = 47) comprehension and metacomprehension accuracy (prediction accuracy and postdiction accuracy) of a statistics text as a function of their statistical misconceptions. Text comprehension and metacomprehension accuracy referred to both conceptual and procedural aspects of statistics. The results showed that students who had more misconceptions achieved poorer conceptual text comprehension and, at the same time, provided more overconfident predictions of their conceptual and procedural text comprehension than students who had fewer misconceptions. In contrast, postdiction accuracy of conceptual and procedural text comprehension was not affected by misconceptions.     

Income-contingent student loans: Context,potential and limits

Government reliance on student borrowing in financing postsecondary education varies greatly among countries. Nevertheless, some of the problems encountered, such as competing demands on public funds that undercut grant support or an excessive burden of debt on students, make consideration of the potential and limits inherent in the use of student loans a matter of common concern. The present article examines the role of undergraduate student loans within the context of an overall program for financial assistance. The emphasis is on placing realistic limits on individual debt burden while broadening the use of loans, consistent with encouraging access to postsecondary education and providing opportunity for choice of institution. To reduce risk and make borrowing in moderate amounts acceptable, loan programs are developed that combine income-paced repayment with provision, through ex post facto grants, for earlier discharge of repayment obligations than in alternative proposals. A model is developed for simulating borrowing and cumulative debt limits given the parameter values relevant to a country's situation. Results from using alternative parameter values are compared to authorized loan limits and to average amounts borrowed and cost of attendance for low-cost and higher-cost educational options, using U.S. data by way of illustration.     

College environment,student involvement,and intellectual development: evidence in China

China’s higher education system has been marked by dramatic growth since 1999. In response to calls for quality assurance, substantial efforts have been made to improve collegiate environments and enhance student learning. However, only limited empirical research has been conducted to investigate the effects of the college environment on student gains in the Chinese context. Drawing on data from 1121 students at a prestigious four-year university, this study investigated how college environmental factors (i.e., course challenge, faculty guidance, academic climate, and interpersonal relationships) and student involvement affected students’ intellectual development. The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that academic involvement mediated the relations between college environmental factors and intellectual development. Among the four environmental factors studied, faculty guidance was the strongest predictor of intellectual development. The results highlight the pivotal role of teachers in student involvement and development. Practical implications for the design of college environments conducive to student learning are discussed.     

Getting in,getting on: fragility in student and graduate identity

ABSTRACT

Over a period of three years this longitudinal study explored new approaches to consider student identity during the transition from university to employment. Students were followed through a new portfolio-based final year course and beyond university into the workplace. With universities increasingly recognising the employment aspirations of their students, facilitating self-awareness of graduate attributes and the development of employability skills are becoming integral to the higher education proposition; however the impact of employability initiatives is not well understood. The aim of the study was to examine changes in self-identification through the development of a portfolio of work using Holmes’ Claim Affirmation Model of Emergent Identity as the conceptual framework. Data were collected through student questionnaires and graduate interviews. The study uncovered the ways in which role models, developmental networks, and imaginings of a possible self were used in identity work. A fragile reconstruction of identity was observed as graduates faced the labour market, with this fragility continuing to be experienced while navigating an uncertain work landscape. We used these findings to allow us to refine Holmes’ Model by (a) adding a dynamic element and (b) grounding it on longitudinal data.     

Student knowledgeability,student sex,class size,and class level: Their interactions and influences on student ratings of instruction

Student knowledgeability, class size, and class level were found to significantly influence students' ratings of instruction. In general, the more knowledgeable the student in an area, the higher his ratings of courses and instructors in that area. Also, large courses and advanced courses were most highly rated by students. The effect of student sex on student ratings of instruction varied as a function of the particular aspect of instruction being evaluated. Significant interactions among the four main effects were also found across the judgmental dimensions students utilized in evaluating instruction, as assessed by factor analysis. Student knowledgeability and class size were found to be the main predictors of student ratings on these dimensions.     

Observational,student, and teacher perspectives on interpersonal teacher behavior: Shared and unique associations with teacher and student emotions

Teachers’ interpersonal behavior in class is important for teacher and student emotions. Often the same rater (either teacher or students) is used to assess both perceptions of teacher behavior and emotions, which makes it vulnerable to common-method bias. Including other perspectives on teacher behavior has been proposed as a solution, but it is unclear to what extent different perspectives are correlated and how to separate their shared and unique variance in explaining emotions. Behavior of 80 teachers was rated from three perspectives (observers, students, and teachers) in terms of Agency (i.e., social influence) and Communion (i.e., friendliness). The three perspectives overlapped more strongly for teacher agency than for communion. Especially for students, teacher communion was a stronger predictor of emotions than agency. Our innovative statistical approach showed that the strong association between ratings of teacher behavior and emotions of the same rater are unlikely to result from common-method bias only.     

Teacher support,student motivation,student need satisfaction,and college teacher course evaluations: testing a sequential path model

Self‐determination theory posits that individuals who have basic psychological needs satisfied while engaging in an activity will be more likely to value and persist in that activity. Scholars in this area have also posited that autonomy‐supportive social contexts are top‐down determinants of individual need satisfaction. To understand better the progression from social to motivational to outcome variables, we tested a four‐step path model within a classroom setting. Data were collected from 220 students in an introductory journalism course, which was subdivided into 14 lab sections. Students were surveyed regarding their feelings about the course, the autonomy support of the instructor, the motivation they felt to engage in the course, and the levels of need satisfaction they experienced. Theoretically‐guided structural equation modeling produced a best‐fitting model in which teacher autonomy support predicted more self‐determined student motivation, which along with teacher autonomy support predicted greater student psychological need satisfaction, which led finally to higher predicted course grades and higher teacher‐course evaluations. Overall, the results replicate and significantly extend previous findings regarding need satisfaction and teacher‐course evaluations. Implications for pedagogy and educational interventions are discussed.