Focusing Teaching on Students: Examining Student Perceptions of Learning Strategies

This study examined undergraduate and graduate students’ perceptions of the impact of in-class learning activities, out-of-class learning activities, and instructional materials on their learning. Using survey methodology, students anonymously assessed their perceptions of in-class activities, out-of-class activities, and instructional materials as most impactful, helpful, and enjoyable to their learning. Undergraduate college students found Jeopardy games, PowerPoint slides, and checking for understanding/review questions to be most helpful, while 50% often perceived Jeopardy games, Poll Everywhere, videos, and PowerPoint slides as enjoyable active learning strategies. Graduate students perceived small groups, out-of-class writing assignments, and Lino as most helpful to their learning. Additionally, an analysis of student comments about why these strategies were impactful, helpful, and enjoyable revealed 4 themes: fun, learning collaboratively, challenging but helpful, and variety in how students learn. Creating a learner-centered environment that is engaging as well as enjoyable for students positively impacts perceptions of students’ learning, which should encourage teachers to adopt this approach in their own college classrooms.     

Qualified Satisfaction: First‐Year Architecture Student Perceptions of Teamwork

Across disciplines, skills associated with collaboration are now ubiquitously considered requisite graduate attributes. Despite decades of studies on the various dimensions of academic teamwork, challenges for both students and staff remain. For this year‐long study at a UK school of architecture, we considered teamwork as a thread woven through the first‐year curriculum, traversing course modules and project types. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the collective impact of teamwork activities on the incoming cohort of 200+ undergraduate students and how the structuring and coordination of such activities might improve the holistic student experience. Across two rounds of online questionnaires and focus group sessions, student participants articulated the benefits of collaboration for learning, socialisation and professional development. However, resentment towards teamwork increased throughout the year, as frustration with disengaged cohort mates grew, and student sought greater structure and oversight from tutors. On the other hand, when given the chance to reflect on the multidimensional nature of teamwork in focus group discussions, many students adopted a productively nuanced perspective toward the topic. This implies that, whether students like or dislike certain aspect of collaborative projects, opportunities for critical conversation can promote or prompt an appreciation for the educational value of including teamwork projects in curricula. The results of this study should be relevant to educators seeking to improve the implementation and effectiveness of team‐based learning, particularly those in design‐based fields and those in higher and professional education contexts.     

Teacher and Student Perceptions of the International Baccalaureate Program

Abstract

This study examined the perceptions of teachers and students during the first year of implementation of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program at a high school. The research team interviewed all IB teachers and students regarding their decision to teach/enroll in IB; how IB differed from teaching/taking regular courses; and other facets related to the Program. IB faculty and students perceived the Program positively, believing it challenged them to be better teachers and higher achieving students. The study also cited the increased workload of teaching/taking IB courses and its impact. Policy recommendations are offered for schools utilizing the IB for the first time, and guidance is provided to parents regarding the suitability of IB as an option for gifted students.     

试析美国多元文化主义论争中的保守主义立场

在当代美国多元文化主义的论争中,持极端立场的保守主义者对多元文化主义的价值观多有批判和指斥。深入地剖析保守主义者的基本立场及其理论根据,有助于加深对多元文化主义思潮的认识。     

英国的多元文化教育与公民教育

全球化和多元化对许多国家的发展带来重要影响,同时也要求这些国家的教育适应其人口多元化的发展.过去60年英国也在致力于探寻一条适应其人口多元化发展的路径.人口的多元化发展,不仅要求课程设置进行改革,也要求教师培养方式的转变.然而这种由人口多元化带来的差异与统一的国家和公民身份融合仍显得比较困难.     

后现代、全球化与多元文化

后现代主义是现代社会在思维方式上的一次根本性转型。以多元和差异为精髓的后现代主义思想理所当然地成为多元文化的认识论渊源和基本价值基础。多元文化的冲突、交流和融合,导致文化的不断创新,促进了人类文明的发展。在全球化的背景下发展多元文化,需要正确解决文化全球化与多元文化的悖论,做到“和而不同”。     

Student Teachers' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of their Initial Preparation

What influences how well-prepared student teachers feel towards working in schools upon completion of their initial teacher preparation (ITP)? In order to investigate this question, we used a path analysis using data from a longitudinal study investigating the experiences of trainee and early career phase teachers in England. The data were generated via self-complete questionnaires and follow-up telephone interviews with 1,322 trainees. Those on undergraduate or school-based programmes felt better prepared to work as teachers than one-year postgraduate trainees, perhaps because the former give higher ratings of the quality of assessment of, and feedback received on, teaching practice, and because of the clarity of theory-practice links in programmes. Across different kinds of ITP programme, good relationships with school-based mentors significantly boosted trainees' confidence that their ITP had effectively prepared them for teaching. Trainees' motives for entering the profession and their initial concerns about and expectations of ITP also affected their perceptions of its effectiveness, by shaping the way they experienced aspects of their courses. Implications of these findings for policy and practice in teacher preparation are discussed.     

历史小说《纽约》中谱系的多元文化性

爱德华·拉瑟福德在2009年出版的历史小说《纽约》以梵.迪克和马斯特家族为线,时间跨度达400年。其错综复杂的姓氏谱系来源广泛,反映了各个时期、各个民族、各个人种等文化多元现象,特别是在小说中的一章《爱丽丝岛》里,蕴涵了《纽约》的宏大历史背景下的身份政治和多元文化特性,移民的阶级、性别和种族在纽约这座大都市里显示了个体的差异性和不平等境遇,但强调平等、无差别待遇和文化共存的多元文化主义最终有了强大的生命力。     

Preparing to teach diverse student populations: a British and American perspective

Demographic changes in Britain and the USA have resulted in schools that are more culturally diverse than they were a generation ago. In response to these changes, colleges and departments of education are attempting to prepare teachers who are able to work with students from a wide range of ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds. Teacher preparation programmes face the challenge of measuring the cultural sensitivity of their students. They must also grapple with the problem of designing programmes to enhance their students’ cultural sensitivity. This study compares and contrasts the cultural sensitivity of British and American students in teacher preparation programmes, and underscores the difficulties these programmes face when they attempt to alter students’ long‐held beliefs.     

Student perceptions of Thai university initiations

Recently there have been several sensational reports of serious consequences of freshmen initiation rites at Thai universities. The purpose of this study was to investigate Thai freshmen students' perceptions of the faculty initiation process. For this study, roughly 1,000 freshmen students took a pre-test during the first week of their initiation and a post-test after the initiations were complete. These tests were administered at 18 universities around Thailand during the first term of the 2007 academic year. The results of the survey suggest that initiations seem to have little effect on student perceptions of themselves, the activities, and their institutions. In conclusion, the university initiation process should be reviewed so that it can better focus on helping students get accustomed to life at the university.     

Multiculturalism Hiding in the Film:An Analysis of Welcome

Multiculturalism is an inevitable topic facing with our daily life.A film may represent a society,culture,class,sexuality,and a multitude of things.Therefore films should be a very valuable object for studying culture in the world.In this paper,I would like to analyze the film Welcome to show the conflicts of different cultures and how multiculturalism present in movie.The purpose of this study is to view and discuss how multiculturalism has been depicted in this film.     

Teacher Perceptions of Learning Motivation and Classroom Behavior: The Role of Student Characteristics

The present study investigates whether teacher perceptions of students’ cognitive skills, their learning motivation, and their classroom behavior differ according to students’ socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and gender. Data from N = 4746 German fourth graders and data from their parents and teachers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Controlling for student achievement as measured in a standardized achievement test and student motivation as measured by student and parent reports, we found that teachers overestimated the cognitive skills of high-SES students and girls in comparison to those of low-SES students and boys. Similarly, teachers perceived high-SES students, students who are not from an immigrant background, and girls as having a higher learning motivation and as having more cognitive skills. Finally, we found that teachers’ perceptions of students’ learning motivation and classroom behavior mediated the relationship between student characteristics and cognitive skills as perceived by the teacher.     

多元文化与民族认同

通过多伦多和蒙特利尔两个城市的多元文化实践的案例研究,讨论了加拿大的多元文化政策及其成功经验和失败教训。关于民族认同,有必要在差异和趋同之间保持一定张力;关于民族政策,有必要在柔性和现实之间保持某种平衡。中国的民族问题和国家认同问题实质上也是一个多元文化问题。加拿大的成功经验和失败教训对我们面对和解决当前的问题有重要的启示意义。     

文化多元主义语境下的普遍主义——以哈贝马斯与罗尔斯为例

上世纪六七十年代,后现代主义开始滥觞,人们提倡文化与价值的差异、多元和特殊。哈贝马斯坚持普遍主义政治的可能,其实现依赖于公共领域中的理性沟通,在立法与行政的合法程序中寻求共识。罗尔斯提出了"正当优先于善"的命题,在人们所信仰的多元化的完备性学说的基础上,公民就政治领域诸问题达成重叠共识。这种对话的普遍主义有待建构,能为我们支离破碎的世界提供一个坚实的思想基础。     

Student perceptions and use of feedback during active learning: a new model from repeated stimulated recall interviews

As active learning pedagogies continue to increase in popularity in higher education, new questions have emerged about how instructors can manage all of the associated ‘moving parts’ of active learning, including how and when to deliver feedback. Currently, little is known about how students perceive the effects of verbal feedback during in-class activities. This study examined two large sections of introductory biology held in an active learning SCALE-UP (Student-Centred Active Learning Environments with Upside-down Pedagogies) classroom. Thematic analysis of repeated stimulated recall interviews with 15 students (72 total interviews) uncovered three main categories of feedback effects that students perceived: assure, alert and add (AAA). These three categories were supported by repeated stimulated recall surveys with a larger student population (262 students). We describe each category, quantify the frequency of each category in the target course, outline the students’ perceived impact of each on examination preparation and performance, and conclude with implications regarding how understanding students’ perceptions of their feedback experience may help instructors to deliver student-centred feedback during active learning.     

多元文化视野下图书馆精神的构建

世界文化、国家文化的多元性以及个体文化需求的多样性,决定了和而不同、多元一体和公正平等的精神不但是图书馆安身立命之所在,更是其科学发展的基础。在构建图书馆精神时,应尊重多元文化需要,并在实践中提供多元文化服务。     

Relations of Student Perceptions of Teacher Oral Feedback With Teacher Expectancies and Student Self-Concept

In this article, the authors investigated the relations of students’ perceptions of teachers’ oral feedback with teacher expectancies and student self-concept. A sample of 1,598 Taiwanese children in Grades 3 to 6 completed measures of student perceptions of teacher oral feedback and school self-concept. Homeroom teachers identified students for whom they had high or low expectancies. Discriminant analysis indicated student perceptions of positive and negative academic oral feedback were more important than nonacademic feedback in predicting teacher expectancies. A 2-way multivariate analysis of variance showed that boys perceived more negative oral feedback than did girls, and fifth-grade students perceived more negative oral feedback on academic and nonacademic domains than did the third- and fourth-grade students. Furthermore, structural equation modeling results indicated a particularly strong relation between positive academic oral feedback and academic self-concept.     

A Scale for Measuring Student Perceptions of Quality: An Australian Asian Perspective

ABSTRACT

Australia is rapidly moving into the globally competitive higher education market. As a consequence the issue of consumer satisfaction and quality is emerging as an area of interest. This paper focuses on the issue of student understandings of quality by developing a consumer derived scale which identifies the quality variables related to student perceptions with the university experience. The scale was derived from focus groups, in-depth interviews and through an examination of the literature. The scale was tested and refined on a cohort of 351 Australian and Singaporean/Hong Kong students studying business subjects at an Australian University. The refined scale comprised 25 quality variables which factored into four orthogonal components. The mean values of the variables and factors were examined to make inferences about how educational marketing practitioners can be assisted.     

Student Perceptions of a Summer Robotics Camp Experience

Research on the effectiveness of STEM-focused (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-focused) schools and other learning experiences (e.g., short-term camps) on student outcomes is sparse. This study documented perceptions of STEM content and careers for elementary, middle, and secondary school students participating in university-based summer camps focused on robotics. Attitudes before and after the camp experiences were compared across gender groups and grade levels. Middle school students showed greater growth on the surveys compared to their elementary and secondary school peers. Implications for the design and evaluation of STEM experiences include looking at longer, more intensive experiences.