The Use and Effectiveness of an Argumentation and Evaluation Intervention in Science Classes

This study explored teachers’ use of the Argumentation and Evaluation Intervention (AEI) and associated graphic organizer to enhance the performance of students in middle and secondary science classrooms. The results reported here are from the third year of a design study during which the procedures were developed in collaboration with teachers. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design with 8 experimental and 8 control teachers was used with a total of 282 students. An open-ended test assessed students’ abilities to evaluate a scientific argument made in an article. The students were asked to identify the claim and its qualifiers, identify and evaluate the evidence given for the claim, examine the reasoning in support of the claim, consider counterarguments, and construct and explain a conclusion about the claim. The quality of students’ responses was assessed using a scoring rubric for each step of the argumentation process. Findings indicated a significantly higher overall score and large effect size in favor of students who were instructed using the AEI compared to students who received traditional lecture–discussion instruction. Subgroup and subscale scores are also presented. Teacher satisfaction and student satisfaction and confidence levels are reported.     

The challenge of promoting self-regulated learning among primary school children with a low socioeconomic and immigrant background

The authors explore the effects of student tutoring as an approach to provide support on self-regulated learning (SRL) to fifth- and sixth-grade students with a low socioeconomic or immigrant background. In total, 401 Flemish (Belgium) students participated. A quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest, and retention test control group design was used, combining teacher ratings, self-report questionnaires, and think-aloud protocols. The teacher rating results show a significantly positive effect from pretest to posttest for the experimental condition, but this was not maintained at the retention test. The questionnaire and think-aloud results reveal no significant effects on students’ SRL. However, differential effects depending on students’ motivational profile were found. This study illustrates the complexity of promoting SRL among primary school children with a low socioeconomic or immigrant background, recommending further research into conditions and factors influencing the effectiveness of student tutoring programs promoting SRL.     

Using the retrospective pretest to get usable,indirect evidence of student learning

Minimal evidence exists regarding the retrospective pretest’s effectiveness as a tool to obtain usable, indirect evidence of student learning in open admissions institutions. The researcher conducted this study to determine if a retrospective pretest more accurately detected a change in students’ knowledge compared to a conventional pretest–posttest. The researcher designed a 17‐item inventory covering course objectives, and students were randomly assigned to either a retrospective pretest (referred to as post‐then) or a conventional pretest–posttest group. Findings indicated that participants in the post‐then group reported a greater change in knowledge compared to the conventional group. This finding supported the use of the retrospective pretest as a tool for getting usable, indirect evidence of student learning. Future research needs to examine response effect, alternative ways of calculating treatment effect and the confounding influences of other perceptual variables.     

Experimental problem solving: An instructional improvement field experiment

An instructional program based on expert-novice differences in experimental problem-solving performance was taught to grade 6 students (N = 265). Classes of students were randomly assigned to conditions in a delayed treatment design. Performance was assessed with multiple-choice and open-ended measures of specific transfer. Between group comparisons using pretest scores as a covariate showed that treatment condition students consistently outperformed controls; similar results were revealed in the within group comparisons. The achievement of the early treatment group did not decline in tests administered one month after the posttest.     

Improving students’ representational flexibility in linear-function problems: an intervention

This study evaluates the effects of an intervention aimed at improving representational flexibility in linear-function problems. Forty-nine students aged 13–16 participated in the study. A pretest–intervention–posttest design with an experimental and control group was used. At pretest, both groups solved a choice test, where they could freely select a table, a graph, or a formula, and three no-choice tests, where they used predetermined representations. Twenty-five students in the experimental group were exposed to the intervention, where they learnt to fine-tune their choices both to the task at hand and to their own characteristics as representational users. The control group was not exposed to any intervention. The posttest was similar to the choice pretest. A flexibility score was calculated per student based on Siegler and Lemaire’s score. At posttest, the experimental group became more flexible than the control group. The impact of increased flexibility on problem-solving accuracy and speed is discussed.     

The Effectiveness of the Geospatial Curriculum Approach on Urban Middle-Level Students’ Climate Change Understandings

Climate change science is a challenging topic for student learning. This quantitative study examined the effectiveness of a geospatial curriculum approach to promote climate change science understandings in an urban school district with eighth-grade students and investigated whether teacher- and student-level factors accounted for students’ climate change knowledge achievement. The participants included 12 science teachers and 956 eighth-grade students. Data included a pre- and posttest climate change assessment measures for both teachers and students and a teacher measure of Geospatial Science-Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Paired-sample t tests revealed statistically significant gains from pretest to posttest on their climate change knowledge (p < .001; effect sizes being large on multiple-choice items and medium on the open-ended response assessment). Both ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression and 2-level hierarchical linear modeling found that students’ initial climate change knowledge and gender were significant predictors for students’ posttest scores, p < .05. Students’ pretest scores were the strongest significant predictor of the posttest scores, p < .001. Neither the teachers’ climate change knowledge nor their Geospatial Science-Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge had significant association with the students’ posttest scores. Teaching years was a significant predictor for students’ posttest scores in OLS regression (p < .001). The findings provide support that a geospatial curriculum approach is an effective science curriculum approach for learners in urban middle-level education.     

Scaffolding middle school students’ content knowledge and ill-structured problem solving in a problem-based hypermedia learning environment

This study investigated the effects of domain-general and domain-specific scaffolds with different levels of support, continuous and faded, on learning of scientific content and problem-solving. Students’ scores on a multiple-choice pretest, posttest, and four recommendation forms were analyzed. Students’ content knowledge in all conditions significantly increased from pretest to posttest. However, the continuous domain-specific condition outperformed the other conditions on the posttest. Although domain-general scaffolds were not as effective as domain-specific scaffolds on learning content and problem representation, they helped students develop solutions, make justifications, and monitor learning. Unlike domain-specific scaffolds, domain-general scaffolds helped students transfer problem-solving skills when they were faded. Several suggestions are discussed for making improvements in the design of scaffolds to facilitate ill-structured problem solving.     

Student Perceived and Determined Knowledge of Biology Concepts in an Upper-Level Biology Course

Students who lack metacognitive skills can struggle with the learning process. To be effective learners, students should recognize what they know and what they do not know. This study examines the relationship between students’ perception of their knowledge and determined knowledge in an upper-level biology course utilizing a pre/posttest approach. Significant differences in students’ perception of their knowledge and their determined knowledge exist at the beginning (pretest) and end (posttest) of the course. Alignment between student perception and determined knowledge was significantly more accurate on the posttest compared with the pretest. Students whose determined knowledge was in the upper quartile had significantly better alignment between their perception and determined knowledge on the pre- and posttest than students in the lower quartile. No difference exists between how students perceived their knowledge between upper- and lower-quartile students. There was a significant difference in alignment of perception and determined knowledge between males and females on the posttest, with females being more accurate in their perception of knowledge. This study provides evidence of discrepancies that exist between what students perceive they know and what they actually know.     

Student performance and attitudes using personalized mathematics instruction

This study investigated the effects of personalized instruction on the achievement and attitudes of Taiwanese students on two-step mathematics word problems. A total of 136 fourth-graders in a Taiwanese public school participated in the study. Subjects initially completed a Student Survey on which they chose their favorite foods, sports, stores, classmates, and other selections. The most popular items were then used to create personalized math word problems for the pretest, personalized instructional program, and posttest. Subjects were blocked by ability based on their pretest scores and were randomly assigned within ability levels to either a personalized or nonpersonalized version of the print-based instructional program. After finishing the program, subjects completed a student attitude survey and the posttest. A repeated-measures univariate analysis of variance revealed that subjects in the personalized treatment made significantly greater pretest-to-posttest gains than those in the nonpersonalized treatment. Subjects also performed significantly better on the personalized pretest and posttest problems than on the nonpersonalized problems. Personalized subjects and higher-ability students both had significantly more positive attitudes toward the instructional program than did their nonpersonalized and lower-ability counterparts. This research was conducted while he was a doctoral student at Arizona State University.     

An embodied cognition approach to enhancing reading achievement in New York City public schools: Promising evidence

The study purpose was to examine the relationship between the Mark DeGarmo Dance (AKA Dynamic Forms, Inc.) (MDD) program, involving principles of embodied cognition, and student achievement over time. The sample included fourth grade students (N = 169) in schools (N = 4) in New York City Public School District whose teachers and students participated in the MDD program. Using a pretest posttest single group design and hierarchical linear modeling, the results of this study analyze student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Teacher survey results are also reported. The achievement results reveal a significant increase in reading between pretest and posttest for students that were in the program. Teachers reported adequate fidelity of implementation.     

Examining the effects of combining self-explanation principles with an educational game on learning science concepts

Educational researchers have indicated that although computer games have the potential to promote students’ motivation and engagement, the work on how to design effective games that fulfil educational purposes is still in its infancy. This study aimed to examine how integration of self-explanation into a computer game affected primary schoolers’ acquisition of light and shadow concepts. The participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group and played a computer game with or without self-explanation prompts individually as a treatment. Students’ conceptual understanding was evaluated through a pretest and a posttest administered right after the treatment. The results revealed that by controlling the pretest scores, students who played the game with self-explanation features did not outperform those who played the game without any prompts in the posttest. Further analyses of the experimental group students’ responses to the self-explanation prompts also indicated that the students with more correct responses to the prompts did not perform better than those with lower accuracy rates. The deficits in the use of self-explanation prompts are identified, and possible improvements to enhance the function of self-explanation in educational games are proposed.     

Early science learning with a virtual tutor through multimedia explanations and feedback on spoken questions

The purpose of this pilot study with a within-subject design was to gain a deeper understanding about the promise and restrictions of a virtual tutoring system designed to teach science to first grade students in Finland. Participants were 61 students who received six tutoring science sessions of approximately 20 min each. Sessions consisted of a sequence of narrated multimedia science presentations during which a virtual tutor explained science phenomena displayed in pictures. Narrated science explanations were followed by one or more multiple choice questions with immediate feedback about students’ choices and a possible second attempt, during which students reached 97% accuracy. A pretest and posttest was administered to assess students’ ability to reason about the science and to transfer knowledge to new contexts. Results indicated significantly greater improvement in the understanding of the science concepts taught during the tutoring sessions, relative to the concepts that were not taught. Results from the surveys administered to teachers and students indicated that the program was well received. Detailed analysis of student error responses provided a deeper understanding about the complex interplay between students’ prior knowledge, the way topics were taught in the multimedia lessons, and the way learning was assessed. Findings from the quantitative and qualitative analyses are discussed in the context of designing high quality lessons delivered through a virtual tutoring system.     

The differential effects of two self‐managed math instruction procedures: Cover,Copy, and Compare versus Copy,Cover, and Compare

This study compared the fluency and error rates produced when using the Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC) and a modified CCC procedure (MCCC) called Copy, Cover, and Compare to complete subtraction math problems. Two second‐grade classrooms consisting of 47 total students participated in the study. The following items were administered to participants: (a) a timed pretest, (b) a timed CCC worksheet, (c) a timed MCCC worksheet, and (d) a timed posttest. Then the participants were asked which procedure they liked best. Results revealed significantly higher digits correct per minute (i.e., fluency scores) on the posttest when compared with the pretest scores. Likewise, students' fluency scores were significantly higher under the CCC condition when compared to the MCCC condition. There were no significant differences in accuracy from pretest to posttest nor between the CCC and MCCC conditions. Discussion focuses on implications for modifying instructional strategies, measuring student progress, implications for practice, and directions for future research. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Moving Stories: Evaluation of a BSW Oral History Project with Older Adults with Diverse Immigration Histories

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an experiential learning project with BSW students to see if their perceptions of older adults have changed. The project consisted of an oral history project and presentation that matched BSW students with older adults from diverse ethnic backgrounds to gather their immigration narratives. The study used a single group pretest posttest design with 17 BSW students enrolled in an integrative field seminar class. Using a series of inferential analyses, BSW students’ attitudes towards older adults, future career plans, confidence with working with older adults from diverse backgrounds, and geriatric competencies were examined. Overall, a significant increase in BSW students who had varying levels of participation in project perceptions of geriatric social work competencies between pretest and posttest were found. Students who both conducted and presented the oral histories of older adults also were significantly more likely to report future plans to work with older adults compared to students who did not. Exposing BSW students to aging and diversity content has important implications towards fostering student interest in pursuing social work practice with older adults and preparing them for culturally competent social work.     

Informal learning: Student achievement and motivation in science through museum-based learning

This study examined changes in student motivation and achievement in science during a visit to a university children’s science museum. The study was based on the pretest–posttest control comparison group design with four treatment groups: control, exhibit, lesson and exhibit/lesson. The sample consisted of 228 sixth-grade students from a Louisiana public school who were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups. Pretest, posttest and delayed posttest measures of intrinsic motivation and achievement in science were obtained using the Children’s Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory and an achievement test written to measure areas of science incorporated in the museum exhibits. The data were analysed using a one-way ANOVA, dependent t tests and Pearson r. Significant differences were found within groups for (1) the lesson group in motivation and (2) the exhibit group in achievement from pretest to posttest and from posttest to delayed posttest. A significant relationship between level of motivation and science achievement was revealed for the exhibit group on the delayed posttest. There were no other significant findings to support that the treatment led to any long-term effects on motivation or achievement within any of the four experimental groups.     

Learning by Giving: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Student Philanthropy in Criminal Justice Education

Student philanthropy is a teaching strategy that “provides students with the opportunity to study social problems and nonprofit organizations, and then make decisions about investing funds in them.” This represents the first study of student philanthropy in the criminal justice education literature and the first quasi-experimental study of student philanthropy in the higher-education literature. Specifically, it examines the impact of student philanthropy on students' beliefs, interest, learning, and intended behavior by analyzing pretest and posttest data for students who participated in a philanthropy experience (experimental group), relative to students who did not participate (comparison group). Key findings include: those who participated in the student philanthropy project were significantly more likely to be aware of organizations in their community, and change scores support the differences between the experimental and comparison groups regarding social problem awareness.     

Beyond the Flipped Classroom: A Highly Interactive Cloud-Classroom (HIC) Embedded into Basic Materials Science Courses

The present study compares the highly interactive cloud-classroom (HIC) system with traditional methods of teaching materials science that utilize crystal structure picture or real crystal structure model, in order to examine its learning effectiveness across three dimensions: knowledge, comprehension and application. The aim of this study was to evaluate the (HIC) system, which incorporates augmented reality, virtual reality and cloud-classroom to teach basic materials science courses. The study followed a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental research design. A total of 92 students (aged 19–20 years), in a second-year undergraduate program, participated in this 18-week-long experiment. The students were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group (36 males and 10 females) was instructed utilizing the HIC system, while the control group (34 males and 12 females) was led through traditional teaching methods. Pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest scores were evaluated by multivariate analysis of covariance. The results indicated that participants in the experimental group who used the HIC system outperformed the control group, in the both posttest and delayed posttest, across three learning dimensions. Based on these results, the HIC system is recommended to be incorporated in formal materials science learning settings.     

Empowering educationally disadvantaged mathematics students through a strategies-based problem solving approach

A major impediment to problem solving in mathematics in the great majority of South African schools is that disadvantaged students from seriously impoverished learning environments are lacking in the necessary informal mathematical knowledge to develop their own strategies for solving non-routine problems. A randomized pretest–posttest control group design was used to empirically investigate the effectiveness of a strategies-based problem solving approach on the problem solving performance of 9th grade disadvantaged students. In this approach students receive explicit instruction on a wide repertoire of problem solving strategies. The results reported in this study show a significant improvement in problem solving performance when a strategies-based approach to problem solving was being implemented. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the responses to the items showed how the treatment group students had internalized as part of their problem solving repertoire the strategies on which they had been explicitly instructed on. The findings of this study make a case for the adoption of this approach so that the gap between the student’s existing problem solving competence, and the cognitive demands of a problem solving task can be bridged.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING OF THE CONCEPT OF FORCE, REPRESENTATIONAL CONSISTENCY, AND SCIENTIFIC REASONING

This quantitative case study used a pre- and posttest design for exploring the gender differences in secondary school students’ (n?=?131, 45 males and 86 females) learning of the force concept when an interactive engagement type of teaching was used. In addition, students’ ability to interpret multiple representations (i.e., representational consistency) was documented by a pre- and posttest and scientific reasoning ability by a pretest only. Males significantly outperformed females in learning of the force concept, pre- and posttest representational consistency, and pretest scientific reasoning. However, the gender difference in learning of the force concept was not significant when ANCOVA was conducted using pretest results of representational consistency and scientific reasoning as covariates. This appeared to indicate that the gender difference in learning gain was related to students’ abilities before the instruction. Thus, the teaching method used was equally effective for both genders. Further, our quantitative finding about the relation between representational consistency and learning of the force concept supports the assumption that multiple representations are important in science learning.     

Flipping the classroom and instructional technology integration in a college-level information systems spreadsheet course

The purpose of this research was to explore how technology can be used to teach technological skills and to determine what benefit flipping the classroom might have for students taking an introductory-level college course on spreadsheets in terms of student achievement and satisfaction with the class. A pretest posttest quasi-experimental mixed methods design was utilized to determine any differences in student achievement that might be associated with the instructional approach being used. In addition, the scalability of each approach was evaluated along with students’ perceptions of these approaches to determine the affect each intervention might have on a student’s motivation to learn. The simulation-based instruction tested in this study was found to be an extremely scalable solution but less effective than the regular classroom and flipped classroom approaches in terms of student learning. While students did demonstrate learning gains, the process focus of the simulation’s instruction and assessments frustrated students and decreased their motivation to learn. Students’ attitudes towards the topic, their willingness to refer the course to others, and the likelihood that they would take another course like this were considerably lower than those of students in the flipped or regular classroom situations. The results of this study support the conclusion that a technology enhanced flipped classroom was both effective and scalable; it better facilitated learning than the simulation-based training and students found this approach to be more motivating in that it allowed for greater differentiation of instruction.