What ISPI and performance improvement mean to me

This year, the International Society for Performance Improvement celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the past half‐century, our field has moved from programmed learning to programmed instruction to performance improvement. This new column reflects on 50 years of member, industry, and Society memories and what it has meant to each of this column's contributors. If you would like to add to the discussion, please contact the PI journal editor: joandessinger@ispi.org.     

What ISPI and performance improvement mean to me

This year, the International Society for Performance Improvement celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the past half‐century, our field has moved from programmed learning to programmed instruction to performance improvement. This new column reflects on 50 years of member memories and what it has meant to each of this column's contributors. If you would like to add to the dialogue, please contact the PI journal editor: joandessinger@ispi.org     

What ISPI and performance improvement mean to me

This year, the International Society for Performance Improvement celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the past half century, our field has moved from programmed learning to programmed instruction to performance improvement. This new column reflects on 50 years of member memories and what it has meant to each of this column's contributors. If you would like to add to the discussion, please contact the PI journal editor: publications@ispi.org     

What ISPI and performance improvement mean to me

This year, the International Society for Performance Improvement celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the past half century, our field has moved from programmed learning to programmed instruction to performance improvement. This new column reflects on 50 years of member memories and what it has meant to each of this column's contributors. If you would like to add to the dialogue please contact the PI journal editor: joandessinger@ispi.org.     

What ISPI and performance improvement mean to me

This year, the International Society for Performance Improvement celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the past half century, our field has moved from programmed learning to programmed instruction to performance improvement. This new column reflects on 50 years of member, industry, and Society memories and what it has meant to each of this column's contributors. This month we feature our first graphic response—a word cloud from Guy W. Wallace, CPT, and president of EPPIC, Inc. If you would like to add to the dialogue, please contact the PI journal editor: joandessinger@ispi.org     

Effects of Strategy Training and Incentives on Students’ Performance,Confidence, and Calibration

This study examined the effect of strategy instruction and incentives on performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy. Individuals (N = 107) in randomly assigned treatment groups received a multicomponent strategy instruction intervention, financial incentives for high performance, or both. The authors predicted that incentives would improve performance, while strategy instruction would improve performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy as a result of better monitoring and self-regulation of learning. The authors compared pre- and posttest items and 20 new posttest-only items. They found significant effects for strategy training on performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy, as well as the interaction between strategy training and time on calibration accuracy. Incentives improved performance and calibration accuracy, either directly, or through an interaction with strategy training. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Instruction Effect and Developmental Levels: A Study on Water-Level Task with Chinese Children Ages 9-17

This study investigated the effectiveness of instruction on spatial skills. It examined the effect of instruction of liquid horizontality on the performance on Piagetian Water Level Task (WLT) from a developmental perspective through two substudies. In Study 1, the WLT was administered to 256 boys and 230 girls of ages 9, 10, 12, 14, and 17 from Beijing, China, before and after instruction. The results indicate that the instruction effect was significant for the 6th (p < .05) and 8th graders (p < .001) but not for the 4th, 5th, and 11th graders. Study 2 examined instruction effect in contrast with practice effect. Participants were 69 boys and 52 girls of ages 9–14 from Beijing, China. The results indicate that children improve more on the WLT with the combination of instruction and practice than with practice alone (p < .01). The findings depict a relationship between cognitive development and instruction effect on the WLT.     

The effect of systematic academic instruction on behavioural and academic outcomes of students with EBD

This study aims to assess the impact of systematic academic instruction on academic progress and behavioural problems of students with emotional and/or behavioural disorders (EBD) in special education. Earlier studies have noted the importance of a systematic approach as well as the significance of focusing on academic instruction instead of on behaviour. On the basis of these studies, it was hypothesised that the amount of teachers’ systematic academic instruction positively influences the academic progress of students with EBD as well as their behaviour. The amount of systematic academic instruction by teachers in daily teaching (N = 88) and the behaviour and academic progress of a sample of their students (N = 234) were measured and analysed by means of multilevel analyses. The results show a significant relationship between systematic academic instruction and academic outcomes. However, academic outcomes taking into account previous academic performance and behavioural outcomes could not be related to systematic academic instruction. Implications for research on the daily practice of special education are discussed.     

TEACHING SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN SCIENCE STUDIES: DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

This study explores the impact of ‘Scientific Communication’ (SC) skills instruction on students’ performances in scientific literacy assessment tasks. We present a general model for skills instruction, characterized by explicit and spiral instruction, integration into content learning, practice in several scientific topics, and application of performance tasks. The model was applied through an instructional program that focuses on the following learning skills: information retrieval, scientific reading and writing, listening and observing, data representation, and knowledge presentation. Throughout the 7th–8th grades, 160 students learned the whole program or one of its components: structured instruction (SI) of SC skills, or performance tasks (PT). A comparison group of 42 students did not receive instruction of SC skills. Students’ performances were assessed through a questionnaire and a complex task that measured students’ scientific content knowledge, SC skills, and the quality of the final products. Results indicated that students who learned the whole program or one of its components achieved higher scores in all categories than the comparison group students. High achievers can benefit from just one component of the program: either structured instruction (SI) or learning from practice (PT). However, they can hardly acquire SC skills spontaneously. Low and average achievers require both components of the SC program to improve their performances. Results show that without planned intervention, the spontaneous attainment of SC skills occurs only to a limited extent. Systematic teaching of skills can make a significant difference. The explicit instruction of skills integrated into scientific topics, the opportunities to implement the skills in different contexts, the role of performance tasks as ‘assessment for learning’—all these features are important and necessary for improving students’ scientific literacy. Our general model of skills instruction can be applied to the instruction of other high-order skills. Its application can lead to the realization of the central goal of science education: literate students possessing scientific knowledge.     

The Effects of Motivational Instruction on College Students' Performance on Low-Stakes Assessment

Assessments of student learning outcomes (SLO) have been widely used in higher education for accreditation, accountability, and strategic planning purposes. Although important to institutions, the assessment results typically bear no consequence for individual students. It is important to clarify the relationship between motivation and test performance and identify practical strategies to boost students' motivation in test taking. This study designed an experiment to examine the effectiveness of a motivational instruction. The instruction increased examinees' self-reported test-taking motivation by .89 standard deviations (SDs) and test scores by .63 SDs. Students receiving the instruction spent an average of 14 more seconds on an item than students in the control group. Score difference between experimental and control groups narrowed to .23 SDs after unmotivated students identified by low response time were removed from the analyses. The findings provide important implications for higher education institutions which administer SLO assessments in a low-stakes setting.     

Multilevel Assessment for Discourse,Understanding, and Achievement

Evaluating the impact of instructional innovations and coordinating instruction, assessment, and testing present complex tensions. Many evaluation and coordination efforts aim to address these tensions by using the coherence provided by modern cognitive science perspectives on domain-specific learning. This paper introduces an alternative framework that uses emerging situative assessment perspectives to align learning across increasingly formal levels of educational practice. This framework emerged from 2 design studies of a 20-hr high school genetics curriculum that used the GenScope computer-based modeling software. The 1st study aligned learning across (a) the contextualized enactment of inquiry-oriented activities in GenScope, (b) “feedback conversations” around informal embedded assessments, and (c) a formal performance assessment; the 2nd study extended this alignment to a conventional achievement test. Design-based refinements ultimately delivered gains of nearly 2 SD on the performance assessment and more than 1 SD in achievement. These compared to gains of 0.25 and 0.50 SD, respectively, in well-matched comparison classrooms. General and specific assessment design principles for aligning instruction, assessment, and testing and for evaluating instructional innovations are presented.     

The use of a computer simulation to promote scientific conceptions of moon phases

This study described the conceptual understandings of 50 early childhood (Pre‐K‐3) preservice teachers about standards‐based lunar concepts before and after inquiry‐based instruction utilizing educational technology. The instructional intervention integrated the planetarium software Starry Night Backyard™ with instruction on moon phases from Physics by Inquiry by McDermott (1996). Data sources included drawings, interviews, and a lunar shapes card sort. Videotapes of participants' interviews were used along with the drawings and card sorting responses during data analysis. The various data were analyzed via a constant comparative method in order to produce profiles of each participant's pre‐ and postinstruction conceptual understandings of moon phases. Results indicated that before instruction none of the participants understood the cause of moon phases, and none were able to draw both scientific moon shapes and sequences. After the instruction with technology integration, most participants (82%) held a scientific understanding of the cause of moon phases and were able to draw scientific shapes and sequences (80%). The results of this study demonstrate that a well‐designed computer simulation used within a conceptual change model of instruction can be very effective in promoting scientific understandings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 346–372, 2008     

Effectiveness of Schema-Based Instruction for Improving Seventh-Grade Students’ Proportional Reasoning: A Randomized Experiment

Abstract

This study examined the effect of schema-based instruction (SBI) on 7th-grade students’ mathematical problem-solving performance. SBI is an instructional intervention that emphasizes the role of mathematical structure in word problems and also provides students with a heuristic to self-monitor and aid problem solving. Using a pretest-intervention–posttest-retention test design, the study compared the learning outcomes for 1,163 students in 42 classrooms who were randomly assigned to treatment (SBI) or control condition. After 6 weeks of instruction, results of multilevel modeling indicated significant differences favoring the SBI condition in proportion problem solving involving ratios/rates and percents on an immediate posttest (g = 1.24) and on a 6-week retention test (g = 1.27). No significant difference between conditions was found for a test of transfer. These results demonstrate that SBI was more effective than students’ regular mathematics instruction.     

Evaluation of the effectiveness of remedial reading courses at community colleges

Limited research is available on the effectiveness of remedial college courses. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of two instructional approaches for developmental reading courses at a community college in the southwestern United States. The instructional approaches were traditional textbook-based instruction and strategic-reading instruction. The sample consisted of 64 participants. Half (n = 32) of the participants were in the control group (n = 32) and received traditional textbook-based instruction; the other half (n = 32) were in the experimental group and received strategic-reading instruction. All participants completed the Nelson-Denny Reading Form G at the beginning of the semester and then again 12 weeks later, at the end of the semester. The data were then statistically analyzed to identify any relationships between the type of instruction and the differences between the students’ pretest and posttest scores. The null hypotheses for H1 and H2 were rejected because the results of the paired t tests indicated that both traditional textbook-based instruction and strategic-reading instruction have a statistically significant positive effect on students’ performance on the test. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether the pretest/posttest difference scores varied based on the type of instruction. The findings showed that both methods of instruction were equally effective in improving the reading comprehension skills of community college students in a developmental reading course. Based on the findings, community college leaders are encouraged to assess the effectiveness of the instructional methods used in developmental courses to ensure at-risk community college students are receiving the most beneficial instruction.     

Mathematical thinking intervention programmes for preschool children with normal and low number sense

This study investigated the possibility of enhancing the level of preschoolers’ number sense by introducing two intervention programmes, Let’s think! and Young children with special educational needs count, too! .Forty‐five preschoolers, mean age 66.4 months, were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received instruction twice a week, for half an hour, and for a period of nine months. Pretest–postest comparison revealed that the experimental group showed enhanced number‐sense performance immediately after the instruction ended, but the between‐group difference faded after six months. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in general mathematical thinking abilities (transfer tasks) after the intervention.     

A Mathematics intervention for low-performing Finnish second graders: findings from a pilot study

Evidence-based practice is highly appreciated and demanded in the field of education, especially in relation to extra support provided for children struggling with learning. Currently, there is a lack of intervention studies in the area of mathematics. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a short mathematics intervention programme on second graders (M_age?=?8?years, 2?months) with low performance in mathematics, in a quasi-experimental, intervention-control setting. A group of low-performing second graders (LOWi, n?=?11) was taught twice a week for eight weeks on the mathematics topics of number word sequence skills, counting skills and conceptual place value knowledge. The intervention’s effectiveness was examined by comparing the mathematics performance of the LOWi group to those of two groups consisting of low performing (LOWc, n?=?13) and typically performing children (TYPc, n?=?64), who followed their business-as-usual mathematics instruction. The LOWi group made significant improvements in mathematics but did not show significantly better gains, compared to the LOWc and TYPc groups, immediately and three months after the intervention. We discuss the implications for educational practice and intervention research.     

Instructional design in a chemistry laboratory course: The impact of structure and aptitudes on performance and attitudes

Elements of instructional design such as explicitly stated objectives, reviews, examples, questions, and feedback were incorporated into the laboratory manual and instruction for a unit on kinetics in a college laboratory course. This treatment (high structure) was given to five sections of students (N = 109), while a laboratory manual and instructions that emphasized informational content without the use of these design strategies (low structure) was given to another five sections (N = 108) taught by the same instructors. The students receiving the additional structure scored significantly higher on a quiz, took less time to solve a set of laboratory problems, and felt more satisfied with the instruction provided. There were no differences between groups in their comfort with the knowledge acquired. There were no interactions with performance outcomes, but several occurred for attitudes, treatments, and personality measures. The more conforming the students, the more satisfied they were with the instruction in the high-structured group and the less they liked it in the low-structured group. The more motivated the students, the more they liked the instruction in the high-structure treatment, and even more in the low-structure group. There was also a complex interaction among treatment, anxiety, ability, and treatment satisfaction.     

Teaching primary mathematics with challenging tasks: How should lessons be structured?

Engaging students in a challenging (cognitively demanding) task and launching a mathematics lesson with a task before instruction are two characteristics of a reform-oriented approach to mathematics instruction often considered together. The authors systematically contrasted teaching with challenging tasks using a task-first lesson structure with that of a discussion-first lesson structure to three composite classes of first- and second-grade students (n = 73). Subsequent assessments of mathematical performance revealed that the discussion-first lesson structure was somewhat more efficacious in improving fluency performance but both structures similarly improved problem-solving performance. The findings suggest there is more than one way of incorporating challenging tasks into mathematics lessons to produce sizeable learning gains.     

Research on mathematics education in China in the last decade: A review of journal articles

This article reviews literatures on mathematics education in China in the last decade. It focuses on papers that were published after 2000, and Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI). Some influential journals in the field of mathematics education, such as the Journal of Mathematics Education and the Mathematics Instruction were also reviewed. The author shares in this article with international scholars the most recent research in the field of Chinese mathematics education. Mathematics education in China mainly focuses on the essence of mathematics classroom instruction, student learning of mathematics, mathematics teacher education, and its curriculum reforms.     

Pupils’ and Teachers’ Views on a British Science Magazine for Youth

This paper focuses on students' ability to transfer modelling performances across content areas, taking into consideration their improvement of content knowledge as a result of a model-based instruction. Sixty-five sixth grade students of one science teacher in an urban public school in the Midwestern USA engaged in scientific modelling practices that were incorporated into a curriculum focused on the nature of matter. Concept-process models were embedded in the curriculum, as well as emphasis on meta-modelling knowledge and modelling practices. Pre–post test items that required drawing scientific models of smell, evaporation, and friction were analysed. The level of content understanding was coded and scored, as were the following elements of modelling performance: explanation, comparativeness, abstraction, and labelling. Paired t-tests were conducted to analyse differences in students' pre–post tests scores on content knowledge and on each element of the modelling performances. These are described in terms of the amount of transfer. Students significantly improved in their content knowledge for the smell and the evaporation models, but not for the friction model, which was expected as that topic was not taught during the instruction. However, students significantly improved in some of their modelling performances for all the three models. This improvement serves as evidence that the model-based instruction can help students acquire modelling practices that they can apply in a new content area.