Assessing Students' Opportunity to Learn: Teacher and Student Perspectives

How can we assess the opportunity that students have to learn the material they find on tests? How do students' perceptions of opportunity to learn differ from their teachers?     

Academic Factors Related to Student Achievement in a Capstone Food Chemistry Course

The 1st step in successfully intervening with students who may fail a course is to identify them as early as possible in the semester. The objective of this study was to create a model to predict student performance in FDSC 4304, the required capstone Food Chemistry class, using academic performance in prerequisite courses as potential predictors. We analyzed data for 116 undergraduates who completed Food Chemistry (FDSC 4304) between 2008 and 2015. Data included semester of enrollment and grade earned in FDSC 4304; transfer status; grades in prerequisite classes in science, math, and statistics courses and an introductory Food Science course, FDSC 1103; and the students’ university GPA at the time of enrollment in FDSC 4304. Cumulative GPA had the strongest significant (P < 0.001) positive correlation with FDSC 4304 grade (r = 0.64), followed by grade in statistics GPA (r = 0.52), FDSC 1103 grade (r = 0.45), pre‐requisite chemistry GPA (r = 0.44), and biology GPA (r = 0.42). When using partial correlations to control for cumulative GPA, only grades in FDSC 1103 (completed by 62.9% of students) were significantly correlated with grades in FDSC 4304. Linear regression indicated cumulative GPA and FDSC 1103 grades explained 35.5% of the variance in FDSC 4304 grades. When cumulative GPA (available for 91.6% of students) alone was regressed on FDSC 4304, it explained 40.6% of the variance for the larger group. Lower cumulative GPAs and FDSC 1103 grades are suggestive but not determinative of potential student struggles in FDSC 4304. Instructors should use cumulative GPAs and introductory food science course grades (either alone or in combination) with actual early course performance measures to identify students in need of additional help.     

Effect of Precise Objectives upon Student Achievement in Health Education

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect the communication of precise instructional objectives to students has on their learning. The study was designed (1) to provide data on whether student achievement can be influenced significantly by providing students, in advance of instruction, information on what is expected of them as an outcome of instruction and (2) to investigate various ways of communicating to students, in writing, that which is to be learned in class. The Ss for this study were selected from five tenth-grade health and safety classes taught by the same teacher. Of the 143 Ss, one third in each class was randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. For treatment groups one through three, the participants received precisely stated instructional objectives, vaguely stated instructional objectives, and short paragraphs of health information, respectively. Ss receiving prior to instruction precise information on what is expected of them showed greater achievement than those who received vague or related information.     

Effects on Student Achievement of Behavioral and Nonbehavioral Objectives

Educators disagree on the relative merits of stating classroom objectives behaviorally or nonbehaviorally and have done little to add data to their argument. An experiment was conducted in the field of social science where one of three lists of objectives—one list nonbehavioral, the other two behavioral--was randomly assigned to participating high school social studies teachers who were instructed to teach objectives in their classes. Unit sampling was used and eighteen classrooms were involved. Students were measured, using a form of item sampling, on the acquisition of the five skills stated in the behavioral objectives as well as on eighteen transfer skills. Teachers’ faulty understanding of objectives, indicated by their inability to provide relevant classroom practice and to identify, when asked, test items measuring given objectives, may have accounted for lack of differences.     

Relationship Between Opportunity to Learn and Student Performance on English and Algebra Assessments

The purpose of this study was to examine how various opportunity to learn (OTL) variables impact student outcomes and whether these effects are consistent across different subject areas. In this study, we examined the impact of OTL variables on student performance on English and algebra assessments. Despite the differences in the subject areas, 3 consistent findings emerged. First, we found a significant positive relationship between teacher expertise and student performance. Teacher expertise in this study is defined specifically as expertise and knowledge within the content areas covered in the standards and the district assessment, rather than overall expertise in the subject area. Our study also showed that content coverage was positively correlated with student performance in English and algebra. Finally, consistent with previous findings, our study indicated that the socioeconomic status of the classroom has a significant impact on student performance.     

Student Motivation to Learn via Computer Conferencing

This study investigates why some university students appear motivated to learn via computer conferencing (CC) whereas others do not, exploring the correlations of three key aspects of student motivation—reasons for engaging in academic learning (goal orientation), beliefs that they can acquire the ability to use CC (self-efficacy), and beliefs that learning to use CC will help them learn the course material (outcome expectations)—with satisfaction and with the frequency of CC contributions. Participants (n = 79) came from 4 graduate-level face-to-face courses and 1 undergraduate DE course. The results suggest that students who believe that CC will help them learn the course material are more likely to express satisfaction and to be active online, that students who believe that they are capable of learning how to use CC are more likely to be active online, and that students who are concerned about their relative performance compared to others tend to send fewer messages to conferences where online activity is not graded. Practical implications for instructors and suggestions for future research are described.     

Extending Opportunity to Learn for Students Placed At Risk

This article describes a viable alternative to hiring full-time certified teachers or to using lay volunteers to provide children at risk of failing in school with academic coaches (tutors). The Academic Coaching Program described herein recruited and trained students enrolled in a university's school of education programs to serve as academic coaches primarily for 7th and 8th graders in an inner-city school in which 96% of the students are placed at risk by the socioeconomic (SES) status of their families. The program extended the school's regular instructional programs in reading and mathematics. It provided the at-risk students with high-quality coaching by university students through a systematic process of training the university students in the school's reading and mathematics programs, monitoring them as they coached, and providing feedback to the coaches on a regular basis.     

Opportunity to Learn: A language-based perspective on assessment

In many countries today schools have been subjected to a testing and accountability agenda tied to a return to 'basic skills' in reading, maths and science and a demand that all children, regardless of race and class, learn these skills. In this paper I argue that current work in sociolinguistics, cognitive science, and literacy studies, work not directly involved with assessment, suggests a more complicated view of assessment and its ties with learning and equity. This view challenges the current testing and accountability agenda, but can also redefine more broadly how we have to think about learning, assessment, and equity in schools. I develop this view around one key notion, namely opportunity to learn . In each section of the paper I discuss some area of current research relevant to learning and assessment and then state a principle about opportunity to learn. While I centre my discussion around assessing reading, in the end I make clear that my argument applies to assessment of all content areas in school (e.g. maths and science).     

教会学生向同伴学习

交往学习是影响小学生发展的重要因素.在教学过程中教师要引导学生交流信息,表达思想、合作探究、相互评价,开展同伴互动学习.     

Psychotherapy as Opportunity to Prevent College Student Suicide

Suicide rates among college age youth have increased two to three fold over the past 25 years, most notably among males. Colleges and universities, however, have developed better mental health resources and the stigma against using them has decreased, allowing more opportunity to prevent student suicide. This article depicts how psychotherapy can be made most effective in transformation suicide threat into a strong life orientation. Artful referral, social support and common destructive social attitudes are depicted as major factors in determining the odds of success. Combinations of these factors together with several psychotherapeutic caring processes, taking into account the depressive transformation, are illustrated with case examples. In conclusion, the author notes the relevance of increasingly common destructive role models, for young men especially, in relation to suicide and murder.     

Learn to Learn a Foreign Language

This essay is a practical step to Learning Theory.By comparing cognitive learning with non-cognitive learning,the author tries to lay emphasis on creative foreign language learning.     

学贵质疑方始为学

“学起于思，思起于疑”，思维往往是从问题开始的。爱因斯坦说：“提出问题往往比解决问题更重要。”善于提出问题或发现问题是学生自主学习与主动探求知识的生动表现，是教师导学的重要的依据。在质疑状态下的学生求知欲强，学生主动地参与到学习中去，学习兴     

《春秋穀梁传》与文学有关的史学成就!

《春秋穀梁传》与文学相关的史学成就包括其解史特点、历史观、文体和结构方式四个方面,解史特点包括"信以传信,疑以传疑"、"为亲者讳,为尊者讳"、惩恶扬善、崇尚简洁四个方面;《春秋穀梁传》历史观是在大多数情况下更大程度上关注于历史进程中的主体——人在历史进程中的作用;《春秋穀梁传》是一部编年体的历史著作,而且发展了编年体;《春秋穀梁传》的结构方式是二级结构方式。《春秋穀梁传》不仅在史学上达到了很高的成就,而且在文学上也有一定的成就。     

Opportunities to Learn and Achievement in Mathematics in a Sample of Sixth Grade Students in Lima, Peru

In recent years, the mathematics achievement of Peruvian students has been evaluated in three national and two international studies. The results in all cases suggest very poor learning. A similar situation is found in many developing countries. In this study, we analyzed the opportunities to learn (OTL) mathematics of sixth grade students from 22 public schools in Lima, Peru. OTL were defined in this study as curriculum coverage, cognitive demand of the tasks posed to the students, percent of mathematical exercises that were correct and quality of feedback. These variables were coded in the workbooks and notebooks of the students, which were gathered at the end of the school year (at the same time, the mathematics achievement test was administered). The results show that: (a) regarding OTL, less than half of the exercises available in the workbooks were solved, teachers overemphasize some topics of the national curriculum ({i.e.} related to Number and Number Sense), they pose tasks that are at very low levels of cognitive demand, and it is common to find mistakes in the students' answers to problems that have no feedback (or even worse, the feedback is wrong); (b) students in relatively poorer, multigrade classrooms have less OTL; (c) OTL, as defined earlier, is positively associated with achievement.A preliminary version of this paper received the Research Medal in the category Knowledge, Education andTechnology at the Annual Meeting of the Global Development Network (GDN) in Cairo, in January 2003.     

Rural Differences in Student Achievement: The Effect of Student Perceptions

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of effective high schools in rural Western Australia by investigating factors influencing science and mathematics achievement. This article reports findings from 2 years of a longitudinal study undertaken in a cohort of urban and rural schools in Western Australia, called the Western Australian School Effectiveness Study [WASES]. A multilevel analytical model was used to demonstrate that most variability in student achievement is at the classroom and student level, with negligible amounts at the school level. Upon further analysis of the residuals, this article demonstrates that teacher effects were substantial and warrants further investigation.     

Formative Assessment Techniques to Support Student Motivation and Achievement

Formative assessment can have a powerful impact on student motivation and achievement. This article discusses five key practices that teachers can use to gather important information about student understanding, provide feedback to students, and enable students to set and attain meaningful learning goals. Each of the techniques can enhance student motivation as well as achievement.     

高中数学教学中如何引导学生有效学习

新课改强调的是学生学习方式的转变,教学的侧重点要由教师的教转向学生的学,要实现以学生为中心的主体探究,引导学生展开有效的学习。这成为教师不断探索的重要课题。我认为要实现这一目标就要从激发兴趣、巧妙提问、生活实践这三个方面展开。