Rapid cognitive assessment of learners' knowledge structures

Traditional assessment methods are not always suitable for diagnosing learners' knowledge structures at different levels of their expertise. This paper describes an alternative schema-based rapid assessment technique and its application in the area of arithmetic word problem solving. The technique is based on an assessment of the extent to which working memory limits have been altered by solution schemas held in long-term memory. In an experiment (N = 55, Grade 8), the average test time was reduced by a factor of 2.8 in comparison with a traditional test, with a significant correlation of 0.72 between scores on both tests.     

Theory and practice regarding acquired cognitive structures 1

Recent developments in cognitive psychology, particularly the theory of semantic memory and the theory of processes involved in problem solving, seem likely to provide a basis for strong developments in the theory of learning. These will be based on rigorous representations of cognitive states that are desired as the outcomes of instruction. It seems likely that a distinction between algorithmic knowledge and more general propositional knowledge will be needed in such a theory, and that knowledge of simple procedures will be distinguished from ability to interpret information in a problem, and also from skill in generating subgoals in order to organize problem‐solving activity.     

Accuracy of teachers' judgments of students' cognitive abilities: A meta-analysis

This paper presents a meta-analysis of the accuracy of teachers' judgments of students' cognitive abilities. The array of cognitive abilities includes intelligence, giftedness, other cognitive abilities, and creativity. The integration of 106 effect sizes from 33 studies with a meta-analytical multilevel approach led to a mean judgment accuracy of cognitive abilities of r = 0.43. Moderation analyses revealed moderate to large effects for intelligence: r = 0.50, other cognitive abilities: r = 0.42, giftedness: r = 0.36, and creativity: r = 0.34. Lower judgment accuracy was shown for preselected student samples and for judgments without eligible frames of reference. We discuss an academic achievement bias as selected studies revealed higher correlations between judgments of intelligence and academic achievement measures (r = 0.61) than between judgments of intelligence and measures of intelligence.     

The effects of cognitive style and course content on classroom social behavior

This study of the effects of course content and cognitive style on students' classroom social behavior utilized 29 boys experiencing academic difficulties. After completing the Embedded Figures Test, each subject was assigned to either field-dependent (FD) or field-independent (FI) groups. Systematic observations of the two groups' classroom behaviors in French and mathematics classes were compared using ANOVA techniques. Results showed that the social behavior profiles of the two groups were the same on 18 behavioral categories. However, consistent with previous findings, FI subjects were more disruptive than FD subjects. Variance in social behavior was due principally to course content. The interactive effects of cognitive and task characteristics on social behavior are discussed within a cognitive-behavioral perspective.     

Exploring academic and cognitive skills impacting retention and acquisition of word-problem knowledge gained during or after intervention

In the present study, we investigated the impact of a word-problem intervention in retention and acquisition of knowledge after the intervention ended. We based analyses upon Grade 4 students experiencing mathematics difficulty (average age at pretest = 8.77) who received one of two variants of a word-problem intervention (with [n = 111] vs. without [n = 110] embedded pre-algebraic reasoning instruction) and students within a business-as-usual condition (BaU [n = 127]) separately. Findings revealed that students who received the intervention not only tended to retain less, but they also showed more active knowledge acquisition after the intervention ended. Furthermore, word-problem intervention altered the contributions of some prior knowledge and skills on both retention and acquisition.     

Some methods for examining content structure and cognitive structure in instruction 1

Reform in science and mathematics curricula has moved from rote learning of facts and computation skills toward learning a structure of a subject matter. While the reasons for this shift, such as greater understanding, transfer and intellectual excitement are admirable, there is little empirical evidence to support them. A first step in examining such claims is to develop methodology for representing structure in the to‐be‐learned instructional material and in students' memories. The purposes of this paper, then, are to present (a) a method for examining a subject‐matter structure in prose materials, (b) methods for examining a subject‐matter structure in students’ memories, and (c) data bearing on the validity of structural interpretations of these measures. If these structures can be represented objectively and independently — even if not in a complete form or error free — a beginning has been made in validating the reasons for teaching structure.     

Effectiveness of ontology-based learning content generation for preschool cognitive skills learning

During early childhood, children start developing their cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural skills, laying the foundation for life-long learning. Cognitive skills are usually taught in traditional classrooms through the use of textbooks and worksheets. The learning content in these textbooks and worksheets is static pre-authored content that is repeatedly used for teaching and learning. This repetition jeopardises the child's learning of individualised and cognitive skills. Preschool cognitive skills learning content comprises facts of everyday life. Similarly, the Semantic Web attempts to model these facts through ontologies. From this, a relationship appears between preschool cognitive skills learning content and the ontologies. The present work focuses on the stated problem and presents the theoretical and development details of a child-friendly tutoring application that dynamically generates cognitive skills learning content using ontologies as domain knowledge. The proposed application was evaluated in a preschool environment for its learning effectiveness and the correctness of the generated content. Three groups of preschool children participated in the study for preschool cognitive skills learning through the use of the proposed application. The first group learned the cognitive skills through the traditional method with textbooks and the teacher's teaching. The second group learned the skills through the proposed application at school in classroom sessions. The third group experienced the proposed application both at school and at home, along with regular classroom sessions. The results show significant gains by the third group over the other two groups, and hence support the use of the proposed application in practice. However, the enhanced learning by the third group disappears if the additional application usage time is removed. Moreover, the results of the expert evaluation show that a great deal of the learning content was correctly generated, thus justifying the true modelling of the domain ontology.     

The influence of content organization on student's cognitive structure in thermodynamics

Two different approaches to the content of thermodynamics were used in an introductory college physics course: one was the traditional organization found in most textbooks on the subject, the other was based on the learning theory of David Ausubel. The influence of these different content organizations on the student's cognitive structure was investigated using a word association test which was analysed through hierarchical clustering analysis. Research findings suggest that the approach based on Ausubel's theory influences the student's cognitive structure in such a way that their conceptual hierarchies are more coherent with the basic laws and the conceptual structure of the subject matter.     

Hierarchial relationships among formal cognitive structures and their relationship to principled moral reasoning

Measurements of formal reasoning and principled moral reasoning ability were obtained from a sample of 99 tenth grade students. Specific modes of formal reasoning (proportional reasoning, controlling variables, probabilistic, correlational, and combinatorial reasoning) were first examined. Findings support the notion of hierarchical relationships which exist among those variables. Further results from factor analysis provide evidence that the variables represent specific cognitive structures that are interdependent with each other and precede operations in development. Finally, significant relationships were found to exist between the different modes of formal reasoning and principled moral reasoning. Combinatorial and correlational reasoning were found to significantly account for 22% of the variance in principled moral reasoning. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed.     

Biology content cognitive structure: From science student to science teacher

The F-Sort of Biology Concepts was used to assess understanding of the relationships among 37 biology concepts by five groups: Preservice secondary science teachers, in-service biology teachers with 1–3 years of teaching experience, in-service biology teachers with 5 or more years of experience, scientists in any biological science field, and college seniors majoring in biology. Data collected from the F-sort were analyzed using latent partition analysis and alpha factor analysis with additional interpretation from multidimensional scaling. The subjects were asked to think aloud as they performed the F-sort and each session was audiotaped for later analysis. These analyses indicated that the biology major and experienced secondary science teachers were separated from the scientists by a dimension based on a deep-versus-surface structure understanding of the concepts. A second axis shows that scientists are separated from other groups by a fluid-versus-fixed cognitive structure dimension. That is, both experienced teachers and scientists were found to have well-constructed and ordered cognitive structures, but scientists were much more likely to see an item having a place in two or more categories, whereas experienced teachers tended to focus on only one aspect of an item, and therefore understanding that it rightfully belonged in only one category. It appears that teachers restructure their science knowledge as they become more experienced. There is an apparent transition from poorly organized to highly organized cognitive structures for biology concepts when comparing preservice, novice, and experienced teachers, respectively. The transition does not seem to be one achieving a deeper understanding of the biology concepts or to a greater degree of integration of the concepts, but rather a transition from a fairly large, loosely organized pool of biology concepts to one which is highly structured but limited to the expectations of the established curriculum. The results have implications for the well-known conjecture that teaching helps one better understand the content being taught.     

The organization of conceptual materials: A methodology for measuring ideal and actual cognitive structures

The teaching-learning process is described in terms of a simple communication model with four components: the sender, the encoding structure, the decoding structure, and the destination. Within this context a method is proposed and illustrated for evaluating a student's understanding of the system of concepts underlying the topic areas in an elementary statistics and measurement course. The method, multidimensional scaling, involves determining the students' and instructor's cognitive maps for the various topics. A cognitive map represents a hypothetical cognitive structure of a student or instructor which characterizes his perceived organization of the concepts in a topic area. These individual cognitive maps were compared to the optimal organization or formal structure, as a basis for assessing the students' under-standing of the material. The present research was exploratory but demonstrated that:

1. With the help of experts it is possible to define the formal structure for the concepts in a topic area.
2. It is possible to measure, in a classroom setting, the cognitive maps that both the students and instructors have for a topic area.
3. By comparing individual students' cognitive maps to the instructor's cognitive map or to the formal structure, the student's understanding of the system of concepts defining the topic area can be evaluated.

     

Electrical resistance stability of high content carbon fiber reinforced cement composite

1 Introduction Reinforcing steel corrosion, freezing-thawing damageand environment pollution are often encountered inmelting snow and deicing for concrete structures suchas highways, airfield runways, bridge decks, etc. inwinter [1]. In North America chemical methods areusually used for deicing and anti-icing. Howeverchemical treatment has caused damage to concrete andcorrosion of reinforcing steel, and resulted in heavyeconomic losses. Therefore, research on new functionaconcrete materials a…     

Learning subject content through a foreign language should not ignore human cognitive architecture: A cognitive load theory approach

Several widely implemented educational approaches aim to provide academic content in a foreign language. While Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) works because it focuses both on content and on foreign language learning, approaches aiming at transmitting academic content through a foreign language should not be implemented without explicit foreign language instructional support. Based on cognitive load theory, there are theoretical reasons to hypothesize that exposure to new content in a foreign language without any foreign language instructional support may interfere with rather than facilitate learning compared to learning language and content separately. In three experiments conducted in higher education, a text was presented to 294 students in three different conditions: native language, foreign language, and foreign language with a translation into the native language. We varied the foreign language (English, German) and the domain (Law, Computer Science). Our results indicated that reading in the foreign language was never the best condition to learn either language or academic content. We concluded that considerable care should be taken when transmitting academic content in a foreign language, without explicit foreign language instructional support.