Implicit and explicit instruction of spelling rules

The study aimed to compare the differential effectiveness of explicit and implicit instruction of two Dutch spelling rules. Students with and without spelling disabilities were instructed a spelling rule either implicitly or explicitly in two experiments. Effects were tested in a pretest-intervention-posttest control group design. Experiment 1 suggested that explicit instruction of a morphological spelling rule led to instance-based knowledge in students with spelling disabilities and to rule-based knowledge in students without. Implicit instruction led to instance-based knowledge in students with spelling disabilities, and in the group without spelling disabilities no learning at all occurred. Experiment 2 revealed that explicit and implicit instruction of an orthographical spelling rule were equally effective in both groups and that the spelling knowledge they had acquired was instance-based. Findings suggest that explicit instruction is more effective than implicit instruction for the teaching of spelling rules when generalization is aimed at.     

Slower implicit categorical learning in adult poor readers

We investigated the relationship between reading and explicit and implicit categorical learning by comparing university students with poor reading to students with normal reading abilities on two categorical learning tasks. One categorical learning task involved sorting simple geometric shapes into two groups according to a unidimensional rule. The sorting rule was easily stated by the participants, consistent with explicit learning, and all participants attained criterion levels of performance. The second task involved the integration of features on different dimensions with a more complex rule that could not be described by participants, even though most could attain criterion levels of performance consistent with implicit learning. Poor readers performed as well as those without reading problems in explicit learning but not in implicit learning. Implicit learning was correlated with word reading, phonological decoding, and orthographic skill, independent of verbal ability. We consider the role of implicit learning in reading, and how a deficit could impair phonological and orthographic representation and processing.     

Increasing explanatory behaviour,problem-solving,and reasoning within classes using cooperative group work

The present study builds on research that indicates that teachers play a key role in promoting those interactional behaviours that challenge children’s thinking and scaffold their learning. It does this by seeking to determine whether teachers who implement cooperative learning and receive training in explicit strategic questioning strategies demonstrate more verbal behaviours that mediate children’s learning than teachers who implement cooperative learning only. The study also sought to determine whether students who receive training in explicit questioning strategies demonstrate more explanatory behaviour than their untrained peers, and, as a consequence, do these same students demonstrate more advanced reasoning and problem-solving skills on follow-up reasoning and problem-solving tasks. The study involved 31 teachers in two conditions, the cooperative + strategic questioning condition and the cooperative condition, and two groups of students from each teacher’s classroom. The results show that the teachers in the cooperative + strategic questioning condition used significantly more mediating behaviours than their peers in the cooperative condition. The study also showed that the children in these teachers’ classes engaged in more elaboration and obtained significantly higher scores on the follow-up reasoning and problem-solving tasks. The study demonstrates the importance of explicitly teaching strategic questioning strategies to children during cooperative learning.     

内隐学习在英语写作中的作用

内隐学习理论对大学英语写作教学有重要的启示意义。学生通过内隐学习能在文章结构、内容和语言三个层面的能力上有实质性的飞跃。内隐学习与外显学习相结合才能有效提高学生的英语写作水平。     

Transforming the Social Practices of Learning with Representations: A Study of Disciplinary Discourse

This study used an interactive dynamic simulation of action potential to explore social practices of learning among first year undergraduate biology students. It aimed to create a learning environment that fosters knowledge building discourse through working with multiple concept-specific representations. Three hundred and eighty-nine students and twenty-four tutors from different tutorial classes in Queensland, Australia participated in the study. Students were randomly allocated to two experimental groups and a comparison group. In the experimental groups, pairs of students used the interactive simulation to explore action potential. Only one of the experimental groups received instruction that modelled the scientific and visual language conventions of the representations within the simulation. In the comparison group, small groups of students used a traditional paper-based activity. Students across all groups were audio recorded using a think-aloud protocol while completing the group activity. Individual learning gains in the experimental groups and the comparison group were similar. However, the experimental groups showed a significantly greater frequency of knowledge construction discourse that included explanatory answers, evaluations, interpretation, testing and synthesis compared to the comparison group, indicating a deeper understanding of action potential. Analysis of misconceptions on the post-test and tutors’ reflections revealed that the experimental group receiving instruction modelling the scientific and visual language conventions around the representations had a better grasp of the terminology associated with the concepts compared with the other groups. The findings suggest that instruction focussing on the language conventions of concept-specific representations fosters the development of disciplinary discourse by transforming students’ social practices of working with scientific knowledge.     

Effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of students’ science inquiry skills in grades 5 and 6 of primary education

In most primary science classes, students are taught science inquiry skills by way of learning by doing. Research shows that explicit instruction may be more effective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of inquiry skills. Participants included 705 Dutch fifth and sixth graders. Students in an explicit instruction condition received an eight-week intervention of explicit instruction on inquiry skills. In the lessons of the implicit condition, all aspects of explicit instruction were absent. Students in the baseline condition followed their regular science curriculum. In a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design, two paper-and-pencil tests and three performance assessments were used to examine the acquisition and transfer of inquiry skills. Additionally, questionnaires were used to measure metacognitive skills. The results of a multilevel analysis controlling for pre-tests, general cognitive ability, age, gender and grade level indicated that explicit instruction facilitates the acquisition of science inquiry skills. Specifically on the performance assessment with an unfamiliar topic, students in the explicit condition outperformed students of both the implicit and baseline condition. Therefore, this study provides a strong argument for including an explicit teaching method for developing inquiry skills in primary science education.     

Making the invisible visible: enhancing students’ conceptual understanding by introducing representations of abstract objects in a simulation

This study aimed to identify if complementing representations of concrete objects with representations of abstract objects improves students’ conceptual understanding as they use a simulation to experiment in the domain of Light and Color. Moreover, we investigated whether students’ prior knowledge is a factor that must be considered in deciding when to use representations of abstract objects. A pre-post comparison study design was used, involving 69 participants assigned to two conditions. The first condition consisted of 36 students who had access to a simulation with representations of concrete objects, whereas the second condition consisted of 33 students who had access to a simulation with representations of both concrete and abstract objects. Both conditions used the same inquiry-oriented curriculum materials, consisting of three sections that included physical phenomena with increasingly complex underlying mechanisms, so that the third section’s mechanisms were more complex in nature than those in the first two sections. Tests were administered to assess students’ conceptual understanding before and after the presentation of the curricular material as a whole, as well as before and after each of its three sections. Results revealed that the presence of representations of abstract objects was helpful for the first two sections, but only for students with low prior knowledge. On the third, most complex section, also the students with higher prior knowledge profited from the presence of abstract objects. From these findings, we conjecture that for physical phenomena with a lower level of complexity, students with high prior knowledge are able to mentally construct the necessary abstract concepts on their own, whereas for higher levels of complexity they need an explicit representation of the abstract objects in the learning environment.     

Effect of explicit problem solving instruction on high school students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding of physics

In this study a two-sample, pre/posttest, quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the effect of explicit problem-solving instruction on high school students' conceptual understanding of physics. Eight physics classes, with a total of 145 students, were randomly assigned to either a treatment or comparison group. The four treatment classes were taught how to use an explicit problem-solving strategy, while the four comparison classes were taught how to use a textbook problem-solving strategy. Students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding were assessed both before and after instruction. The results indicated that the explicit strategy improved the quality and completeness of students' physics representations more than the textbook strategy, but there was no difference between the two strategies on match of equations with representations, organization, or mathematical execution. In terms of conceptual understanding, there was no overall difference between the two groups; however, there was a significant interaction between the sex of the students and group. The explicit strategy appeared to benefit female students, while the textbook strategy appeared to benefit male students. The implications of these results for physics instruction are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 551–570, 1997.     

内隐与外显学习双管齐下,提高学能降低焦虑一箭双雕——以英语专业教学为例

焦虑被认为是外语学习最关键的心理变量之一.降低语言焦虑,提高英语专业学生的语言能力,应充分发挥内隐与外显学习各自的优势以及协同作用：以英语专业课堂教学为平台,创建最佳内隐、外显协同学习的条件,加强语言基本功训练,形成合理的语言知识结构,促进语言技能的发展,提高英语专业教学效率.     

A generative theory of textbook design: Using annotated illustrations to foster meaningful learning of science text

In three experiments, college students read a text explaining how lightning works and then took problem-solving transfer tests. Some students (integrated group) also viewed illustrations depicting the major stages in the formation of lightning that (a) were placed adjacent to corresponding text paragraphs and (b) contained annotations repeating the verbal cause-and-effect information from the text. Other students (separated group) viewed the same illustrations (a) on a separate page and (b) without annotations, after they had finished reading the text. The integrated group generated approximately 50% more creative solutions on transfer problems than the separated group, and this pattern was stronger for students who lacked experience in meteorology than for high-experience students. The positive effects of integrated illustrations depended on incorporating annotations (i.e., captions and labels) into the illustrations rather than placing illustrations close to corresponding paragraphs. Results were interpreted in light of a generative theory of multimedia learning which posits that meaningful learning requires constructing connections between visual and verbal representations of a system.     

The impact of guidance during problem-solving prior to instruction on students’ inventions and learning outcomes

Multiple studies have shown benefits of problem-solving prior to instruction (cf. Productive Failure, Invention) in comparison to direct instruction. However, students’ solutions prior to instruction are usually erroneous or incomplete. In analogy to guided discovery learning, it might therefore be fruitful to lead students towards the discovery of the canonical solution. In two quasi-experimental studies with 104 students and 175 students, respectively, we compared three conditions: problem-solving prior to instruction, guided problem-solving prior to instruction in which students were led towards the discovery of relevant solution components, and direct instruction. We replicated the beneficial effects of problem-solving prior to instruction in comparison to direct instruction on posttest items testing for conceptual knowledge. Our process analysis further revealed that guidance helped students to invent better solutions. However, the solution quality did not correlate with the posttest results in the guided condition, indicating that leading students towards the solution does not additionally promote learning. This interpretation is supported by the finding that the two conditions with problem-solving prior to instruction did not differ significantly at posttest. The second study replicated these findings with a greater sample size. The results indicate that different mechanisms underlie guided discovery learning and problem-solving prior to instruction: In guided discovery learning, the discovery of an underlying model is inherent to the method. In contrast, the effectiveness of problem-solving prior to instruction does not depend on students’ discovery of the canonical solution, but on the cognitive processes related to problem-solving, which prepare students for a deeper understanding during subsequent instruction.     

How Partner Gender Influences Female Students’ Problem Solving in Physics Education

Research has shown that female students cannot profit as much as male students can from cooperative learning in physics, especially in mixed-gender dyads. This study has explored the influence of partner gender on female students’ learning achievement, interaction and the problem-solving process during cooperative learning. In Shanghai, a total of 50 students (26 females and 24 males), drawn from two classes of a high school, took part in the study. Students were randomly paired, and there were three research groups: mixed-gender dyads (MG), female–female dyads (FF) and male–male dyads (MM). Analysis of students’ pre- and post-test performances revealed that female students in the single-gender condition solved physics problems more effectively than did those in the mixed-gender condition, while the same was not the case for male students. We further explored the differences between female and male communication styles, and content among the three research groups. It showed that the females’ interaction content and problem-solving processes were more sensitive to partner gender than were those for males. This might explain why mixed-gender cooperation in physics disadvantages females in high schools.     

Malaysian and Australian children’s representations and explanations of numeracy problems

Two developments have contributed to the convergence of views about the benefits of real-life and inquiry-based pedagogies in mathematics learning. First, the mathematics teaching community is increasingly focused on the learning of mathematics that involves the transfer of prior knowledge to novel problem-solving situations, a key element in recent characterizations of the notion of Numeracy. Second, research about human cognition in domain-specific learning suggests that problem-solving activity provides better contexts in which to observe the construction of creative connections of disparate information. The question is how can we examine the above cognitive processes, as these are played out in Numeracy contexts? (Tan, Educ Res Policy Pract 6:101–114, 2007) identified dialogue and inquiry as important themes of the psychology that girds problem-based learning. In this report, we take up Tan’s suggestion that research needs to make learner’s cognition more visible by immersing a cohort of Malaysian and Australian students in arithmetic word problems. Students were required to explain and justify their solutions. The frameworks of dialogue representation and schema guided our analyses that focused on students’ readings, explanations, representations and reflections about a given set of problem contexts. Results showed that both the groups experienced difficulty in representing far-transfer numeracy problems. However, Australian children tended to develop longer and more varied explanations in comparison to their Malaysian counterparts. Potential implications for classroom practices, policy-making and future research directions are explored.     

Using Concept Maps to Facilitate Collaborative Simulation-Based Inquiry Learning

This study investigates the effect of a shared concept-mapping task on high school students' learning about kinematics in a collaborative simulation-based inquiry setting. Pairs of students were randomly assigned to a concept-mapping condition (12 pairs) or a control condition (13 pairs). Students in the concept-mapping condition had a computer-supported collaborative concept-mapping tool that aimed to integrate concepts and propositions. Students in the control condition used the same learning environment without the concept-mapping tool. Students' interactions with each other and with the simulation were tracked by log files. Learning was assessed with tests of intuitive and structural knowledge and a proposition test. Students in the concept-mapping condition exchanged significantly more chat messages related to experimentation, interpretation, and drawing conclusions and were more engaged in integration-oriented consensus building, which regression analysis showed to be positively related to learning gains for both intuitive and structural knowledge. Students in the concept-mapping condition outperformed their peers on the intuitive and structural knowledge tests. These results suggest that concept maps can positively influence consensus-building activities and learning in a collaborative inquiry-learning setting. The findings of the current study thereby contribute to the ongoing debate about (shared) graphical representations as scaffolds for collaborative learning.     

Substituting one mystery for another: the role of self-explanations in solving algebra word-problems

Explanations students provide themselves (self-explanations) in the course of learning or problem-solving have been shown to be positively associated with performance. However, the role self-explanation plays in problem solving has not been fully elaborated. This study aims to analyze the role of self-explanation in solving algebra word problems. We argue that self-explanation may function as verbal mediation that supports the transformation between different external representations of the problem. Our analysis of the problem solving protocols aims to illustrate this point through a multiple case studies design. Specifically we illustrate the way a particular kind of self-explanation (categorical explanation) mediates students' transformation from the sentential representation of the problem to the tabular one.     

网络环境下大学英语教学中内隐知识的外显转化

内隐学习是认知心理学的一个重要概念,是区别于传统外显学习的学习过程。文章探讨了内隐学习理论,以及内隐学习与外显学习的关系,分析了在网络环境下大学英语教学中如何通过营造内隐知识外显转化环境、发挥内隐学习在语感习得中的作用、重视学习兴趣在内隐知识外显化中的作用,来转化大学英语学习中的内隐知识,提高学习效率。     

Group composition and its effect on female and male problem-solving in science education

Background:?Cooperative learning may help students elaborate upon problem information through interpersonal discourse, and this may provoke a higher level of thinking. Interaction stimulates students to put forward and order their thoughts, and to understand the ideas or questions of their peer learner. However, partner gender is an important variable in cooperative learning. Previous research indicates that female students profit less than male students from mixed-gender cooperative learning in physics, especially where problem-solving is involved. Female and male students have different communication styles. For example, male students tend to give their opinions and explanations directly, while females tend to avoid presenting their opinion and are more likely to initiate cooperative problem-solving by asking questions.

Purpose:?The main aim of this study was to ascertain whether partner gender influences female students' learning to solve science problems and the role female communication style plays in the cooperative learning process.

Sample:?A total of 62 high schools students (31 female, 31 male) from three schools in the Netherlands participated in the study. Students were selected from three physics classes in grade 10, with a mean age of 15.6. Students came from various family backgrounds.

Design and methods:?An experiment was carried out to test the effect of group composition on female and male students' cooperative problem-solving in science. The students were randomly assigned to dyads and three research conditions: 15 mixed-gender pairs (MG); eight female–female pairs (FF) and eight male–male pairs (MM). Students were given training in how to solve a problem as a team, and how to complete the answer sheet. All students solved the same problems in four 50-minute sessions. In each session, students were asked to solve three new and moderately structured problems working together. Each dyad had a university student as an observer. The observer's task was to log the students' time on task and to document the interactions between the students. The observers did not interfere with the communication between the students during problem-solving.

Results:?Analyses of pre- and post-test performance revealed that female students in the MG condition did not learn to solve physics problems as well as male partners or as female students in all-female dyads. Analyses of interactive behaviours showed that female students in the MG condition devoted less time to actively seeking solutions and spent more time asking questions than their male partners.

Conclusions:?Difference in solution-seeking behaviour could explain an important part of the difference in problem-solving performance between the female and male students in this study. Female students in the all-female dyads did not differ in interactive behaviour or post-test performance from males. They had a more balanced interactive style than females in the mixed-gender dyads. Suggestions for further research are discussed. It would be interesting to examine if the findings of this study carried over to areas in which females are traditionally more comfortable, such as biology.     

借鉴内隐学习理论 培养英语良好语感

学习新知识的过程可分为内隐学习和外显学习两部分,它们是同时进行的。相比外显学习,内隐学习没有固定的规则与束缚,是人们在无意识中进行的学习。它在英语学习中有十分重要的作用,能够帮助学生形成良好的英语语感。教师在英语教学中应合理借鉴内隐学习理论,让学生在诵、抄、仿、阅的过程中培养良好的语感,提高英语素养。     

Disciplinary Foundations for Solving Interdisciplinary Scientific Problems

Problem-solving has been one of the major strands in science education research. But much of the problem-solving research has been conducted on discipline-based contexts; little research has been done on how students, especially individuals, solve interdisciplinary problems. To understand how individuals reason about interdisciplinary problems, we conducted an interview study with 16 graduate students coming from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. During the interviews, we asked participants to solve two interdisciplinary science problems on the topic of osmosis. We investigated participants’ problem reasoning processes and probed in their attitudes toward general interdisciplinary approach and specific interdisciplinary problems. Through a careful inductive content analysis of their responses, we studied how disciplinary, cognitive, and affective factors influenced their interdisciplinary problems-solving. We found that participants’ prior discipline-based science learning experiences had both positive and negative influences on their interdisciplinary problem-solving. These influences were embodied in their conceptualization of the interdisciplinary problems, the strategies they used to integrate different disciplinary knowledge, and the attitudes they had toward interdisciplinary approach in general and specific interdisciplinary problems. This study sheds light on interdisciplinary science education by revealing the complex relationship between disciplinary learning and interdisciplinary problem-solving.     

Understanding pictorial information in biology: students’ cognitive activities and visual reading strategies

ABSTRACT

In classroom, scientific contents are increasingly communicated through visual forms of representations. Students’ learning outcomes rely on their ability to read and understand pictorial information. Understanding pictorial information in biology requires cognitive effort and can be challenging to students. Yet evidence-based knowledge about students’ visual reading strategies during the process of understanding pictorial information is pending. Therefore, 42 students at the age of 14–15 were asked to think aloud while trying to understand visual representations of the blood circulatory system and the patellar reflex. A category system was developed differentiating 16 categories of cognitive activities. A Principal Component Analysis revealed two underlying patterns of activities that can be interpreted as visual reading strategies: 1. Inferences predominated by using a problem-solving schema; 2. Inferences predominated by recall of prior content knowledge. Each pattern consists of a specific set of cognitive activities that reflect selection, organisation and integration of pictorial information as well as different levels of expertise. The results give detailed insights into cognitive activities of students who were required to understand the pictorial information of complex organ systems. They provide an evidence-based foundation to derive instructional aids that can promote students pictorial-information-based learning on different levels of expertise.