Estimating the Impact of Instructional Practices on Student Achievement in Science

This study used a hierarchical linear model (HLM) to estimate direct and indirect effects of instructional practices recommended by the National Science Education Standards on individual achievement. Three pedagogical reforms—namely, providing more opportunities for laboratory inquiry, increasing emphasis on critical thinking, and reducing the amount of teacher‐centered instruction—were expected to account for variability in school mean achievement and explain why gender, racial‐ethnic status, and socioeconomic status have more influence on achievement of students in some schools than in others. Results suggest that whereas the instructional policies recommended by the authors of the Standards may be associated with higher achievement overall, they are equally likely to have the unintended consequence of contributing to greater achievement gaps among students with different demographic profiles. Theoretical expectations about the impact of instructional practices on academic excellence and equity require further evaluation. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 1110–1126, 1999     

对教学设计研究方法的探讨

论文通过文献阅读以及内容分析的方法,对于教学设计中的研究问题做了初步的概括,另外依据"质"量"两种研究方法的特点,归纳出教学设计研究方法的选择取向,最后探讨了行动研究在教学设计中的发展。     

Laptops as Instructional Tools: Student Perceptions

For six years, a college of health professions at a southern medical university has made student computing an integral component of its academic environment by requiring all residential students to own laptops. While most faculty members have acknowledged that access to a computer is necessary for most students to complete coursework, both faculty members and students have commented that a laptop requirement has its drawbacks. Focus groups, survey, and classroom observation were conducted involving students to examine how laptops have been employed as instructional tools. Results revealed student perceptions of uses, benefits, drawbacks, and ways to improve, and important policy implications are discussed.     

Student Models of Instructional Design

Mental models are one way that humans represent knowledge (Markman, 1999). Instructional design (ID) is a conceptual model for developing instruction and typically includes analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (i.e., ADDIE model). ID, however, has been viewed differently by practicing teachers and instructional designers (Kennedy, 1994). In a graduate ID course students constructed their own ID models. This study analyzed student models for (a) what ADDIE components were included (by teacher, nonteacher), and (b) model structural characteristics (by teacher, nonteacher). Participants included 178 students in 12 deliveries of a master's level ID course (115 teachers, 63 nonteachers). Our conceptual ID model is presented, and the ID model task is described. Students most frequently represented design, followed by program evaluation, needs assessment, development, and implementation. In terms of structural characteristics, 76 models were characterized as metaphoric, 61 dynamic, and 35 sequential. Three interrelated conclusions and implications for ID learning are offered. Susan G. Magliaro [sumags@vt.edu] is Director of the School of Education and the Center for Teacher Education at Virginia Tech. Neal Shambaugh is Assistant Professor of Instructional Design & Technology in the College of Human Resources & Education at West Virginia University. An erratum to this article is available at .     

'The Writers' Zone': A Study of the Impact of Targeting Verbal Reasoning on Student Performance and Behaviour

‘The Writers' Zone’ project took place in an 11–18 mixed comprehensive in south‐east Essex. It involved 16 Year 7 boys identified as having a high level of performance in non‐verbal reasoning but low levels of performance in verbal reasoning. They were isolated from normal lessons for a fortnight to follow an alternative curriculum focusing specifically on writing. This article details the structure of the project and evaluates its success in accessing writing potential.     

处在师生关系中的教学推论

推论(推理)是皮尔士“探究方法”的核心,教学推论是推论与教学的独特结合,其教学意义必须存在于教师与学生群体的关系中,其核心在于教学中教师如何处理学生推论的条件,即原因、规则和结果。推论有两种处理方式:(1)教师直接明确推论条件———教师对学生推论控制程度取决于明确的条件种类数;(2)教师间接控制推论条件,包括对原因、对规则和对结果三种控制行为。教学推论本质上是在技术兴趣指导下的工具性活动。     

Listening to Student Concerns: An Instructional Strategy to Expand Student Perspectives

It is well documented in the literature that relationships influence the lives of young children (birth to second grade). Consequently, it is essential that young children's caregivers and teachers build professional relationships with children's parents, because these relationships influence the children's present and later learning environments both at home and in school. While listening to parents is a well-established value in the field of Early Childhood Care and Education, details about what “listening to parents” means seem less clear in the literature, research, and our own pedagogy as early childhood educators. Incidentally, teacher candidates and advanced teacher students (hereafter referred to as “our students”) sometimes voice concerns related specifically to listening to parents. Yet, answers to such concerns also seem limited in the literature and the research. Therefore, the intent of this reflective position paper is threefold: to provide my fellow teacher educators with three literature-based reasons to share with our students about why it is important to listen to parents; to indentify familiar comments, concerns, and feelings that our students have voiced about listening to parents; and to provide five practical cooperative-learning activities that will potentially influence our students' practices.     

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students’ perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.     

Identifying Cognitive Processing Events during Clicker Exercises and Exploring Their Relationship with Student Learning

The use of clickers in the classroom has been linked to student learning. However, studies that examine the effects of clickers on learning often conceptualize a clicker exercise as a single, homogeneous cognitive processing (CP) event. We offer a conceptualization of sequenced cognitive activities that unfold during a clicker exercise. An inductive approach is adopted to identify three CP events that occur during a clicker exercise: an investigation event, a confirmation event, and a ratification event. We then use data collected from a sample of 187 students in an undergraduate business capstone course to explore the relationships between the three CP events and student learning. Contrary to expectations, not all CP events contribute positively to student learning. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer directions for future research that advance the understanding of clicker‐enhanced student learning. These insights afford instructors new options for optimizing the contributions of clicker exercises to student learning in their courses.     

Supporting Student Discussions: it isn't Just Talk

The role of dialogue in learning is considered with respect to the use of educational technology. The Vicarious Learner project aims to create a re-usable resource base of learning dialogues from which later learners can benefit. This depends on effective dialogues arising within computer-based media, so that they can be captured. The conditions for effective dialogue are dependent not only on the technology, but on structures and conventions surrounding its use. Two studies are described, from which it emerges that new structures are needed. A notion of Task Directed Discussions (TDDs) is developed, through which effective dialogues are explicitly encouraged. A theoretical framework for the re-use of such dialogues is described. © IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Why Instructional Explanations Often Do Not Work: A Framework for Understanding the Effectiveness of Instructional Explanations

Although explanations are a common means of instruction, research shows that they often do not contribute to learning. To unravel the factors giving rise to the ineffectiveness of instructional explanations, we propose a framework that brings together empirical work on instructional explanations from a variety of research fields, including classroom instruction, tutoring, cooperative learning, cognitive skill acquisition, learning from texts, computer-supported learning, and multimedia learning. In our framework, we identify the distinctive characteristics of instructional explanations, present general guidelines for designing instructional explanations, and describe factors influencing both the generation and use of instructional explanations. It is argued that future research should uncover in more detail the interrelations between the different aspects of providing and using instructional explanations and their specific effects on learning.     

How Do Academic Departments Impact Student Satisfaction? Understanding the Contextual Effects of Departments

Using multilevel modeling to analyze survey data from more than 1,300 alumni from a large research university, this study examines the impact that academic departments have on student satisfaction and development. Controlling for individual characteristics, we found that characteristics of departments such as faculty contact with students, research emphasis, and proportion of female undergraduates had a significant impact on satisfaction with education in the major and the perceived impact that college had on skill development.     

Realism vs. Constructivism in Contemporary Physics: The Impact of the Debate on the Understanding of Quantum Theory and its Instructional Process

In the present study we attempt to incorporate the philosophical dialogue about physical reality into the instructional process of quantum mechanics. Taking into account that both scientific realism and constructivism represent, on the basis of a rather broad spectrum, prevalent philosophical currents in the domain of science education, the compatibility of their essential commitments is examined against the conceptual structure of quantum theory. It is argued in this respect that the objects of science do not simply constitute ‘personal constructions’ of the human mind for interpreting nature, as individualist constructivist consider, neither do they form products of a ‘social construction’, as sociological constructivist assume; on the contrary, they reflect objective structural aspects of the physical world. A realist interpretation of quantum mechanics, we suggest, is not only possible but also necessary for revealing the inner meaning of the theory’s scientific content. It is pointed out, however, that a viable realist interpretation of quantum theory requires the abandonment or radical revision of the classical conception of physical reality and its traditional metaphysical presuppositions. To this end, we put forward an alternative to traditional realism interpretative scheme, that is in harmony with the findings of present-day quantum theory, and which, if adequately introduced into the instructional process of contemporary physics, is expected to promote the conceptual reconstruction of learners towards an appropriate view of nature.     

论教学理解的生成机制与教学设计

教学理解源于视域融合。共性知识是视域融合的心智条件系统,个性知识是视域融合的心力动力系统。基于共性与个性知识融合而生成的教学理解系统是解读性、对话性、反思性的教学关系系统。师本间解读、师生间对话以及生生间反思构成了教学理解复杂的表现形式,基于理解的教学设计则是优质教学设计。     

深度参与:理解型教学设计的学生视角

理解型教学的关键不在于采用哪种教学形式,重要的是学生一定要全身心地投入,进行深入地思考,找到解决问题的贯穿线索,才能真正达到理解的目的。所以,理解型教学就是灵活地思考和运用所学知识的过程,而学生能灵活运用所学知识的有效途径就是"深度参与"。为使学生切实理解所学知识,关键是要让他们体验知识的建构过程,积极参与各个教学环节。即在理解型教学设计与实施过程中,从理解型教学目标的制定,学习活动的设计到持续性评价等阶段,学生都要积极参与。"深度参与"会激发学生学习的信心,树立学习的责任感,表现出持续的进步。     

Effect of Instructional Pace on Student Attentiveness1

Abstract

An observational study was conducted to examine objectively the effect of instructional pace on “student attentiveness.” Student behavior was videotaped while lectures were presented at low, moderate, and fast instructional paces as defined by approximate syllabication rates. Videotaped student behavior was observed and quantified, and the resultant data were subjected to multivariate and nonparametric analyses. Results indicated that observation techniques used in this study had sufficient discriminative strength to serve as a sensitive measure of the dependent variable and that instructional pace affects some aspects of “student attentiveness.”     

Evaluating the Instructional Sensitivity of Four States' Student Achievement Tests

As state tests of student achievement are used for an increasingly wide array of high- and low-stakes purposes, evaluating their instructional sensitivity is essential. This article uses data from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Project to examine the instructional sensitivity of 4 states' mathematics and English language arts assessments to 5 measures of pedagogical quality. The results indicate modest overall levels of sensitivity, with some state assessments insensitive to most or all measures of pedagogical quality. Furthermore, there are sometimes substantial differences across states in the sensitivity of their assessments. The article calls for more research on what makes state tests instructionally sensitive and cautions against the use of insensitive assessments for consequential decisions.     

Teachers' Instructional Use of Summative Student Assessment Data

This study examines the extent to which classroom teachers self-report using summative assessment data in formative ways to shape instruction. A Web-based survey was administered to elementary, middle, and high school teachers in a large, suburban school district in central Virginia. Teachers reported administering a variety of summative assessments with varying frequency, and analyzing data at the aggregate level, most often using central tendency statistics. Useful methods for disaggregating data by content standards or student subgroups were not as frequently reported. Regardless of the methods of data analysis, a majority of teachers reported using assessment results to evaluate their instructional practice and make adjustments to support student learning. The results suggest, however, that teachers engaged in a cursory analysis of student performance fairly regularly but conduct more in-depth analyses less often. The study raises questions about how teachers can effectively use summative data for instructional purposes.