Same topic,different genre: Elementary school children's mental representations of information embedded in narrative and expository texts

Using a sentence recognition task, we investigated whether elementary school children's (N = 92; M_age = 9.3 years, SD = 1.1 years) memory of the text surface, the textbase, and the situation model differed depending on whether the same information was embedded in an expository or a narrative text. Previous research with children that used narrative and expository texts dealing with different topics indicated beneficial effects narrative over expository texts regarding various indicators of processing on the levels of the textbase and the situation model. In contrast, our results did not indicate differences between narrative and expository texts for any of the levels of representation. Thus, the role of text topic in studies investigating the effect of genre on text comprehension should be investigated further.     

同伴互评在英语专业写作教学中的功效

运用独立样本T检验的研究方法,在对同伴互评在英语专业一年级学生写作课的功效进行实证研究基础上,通过同伴互评对学生写作能力影响的评价,发现大部分同学对写作课上同伴互评的教学模式持肯定态度,表明同伴互评是英语写作教学的一种有效方式。     

The alignment of written peer feedback with draft problems and its impact on revision in peer assessment

Despite the wide use of peer assessment, questions about the helpfulness of peer feedback are frequently raised. In particular, it is unknown whether, how and to what extent peer feedback can help solve problems in initial texts in complex writing tasks. We investigated this research gap by focusing on the case of writing literature reviews in an academic writing course. The dataset includes two drafts from 21 students, sampled to represent a wide range of document qualities, and 84 anonymous peer reviews, involving 1,289 idea units. Our study revealed that: (1) at both substance and high prose levels, drafts of all quality levels demonstrated more common problems on advanced writing issues (e.g. counter-argument); (2) peer feedback was driven by difficulty of the problem rather than overall draft quality, peer comments were not well aligned with the relative frequency of problems, more comments were given to less difficult problems; (3) peer feedback had a moderate impact on revision, and importantly, receiving multiple comments on the same issue led to more repairs and improvement of draft quality, but consistent with the comments received, authors tended to fix basic problems more often. Implications for practice and research are drawn from these findings.     

Words on the screen: broadening analyses of interactions among fanfiction writers and reviewers

Young fanfiction writers use the Internet to build networks of reading, writing and editing – literacy practices that are highly valued in schools, universities and workplaces. While prior research shows that online spaces frame multiple kinds of participation as legitimate, much of this work focuses on the extensive contributions of exceptional young authors. In this paper, we foreground the contributions of fanfiction reviewers and focus on their interactions with writers, exploring their communicative literacy practices and hypothesising about how we can make their reading and writing more visible and more effectively consider their learning practices. To do so, we conducted a linguistic analysis of fanfiction review comments on two sites, FanFiction.net and Figment.com. While fanfiction readers provide writers with an authentic audience for their creative work, our findings indicate that the review comments that they leave generally do not offer specific feedback regarding the craft of writing. For this reason, we argue that teachers' expertise is still needed in the difficult task of developing young adults' composition, peer review and critique skills.     

The impact of three years of professional development on knowledge and implementation

A professional development (PD) program for Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) integrating effective PD features was implemented with teachers over 3 years. Using a 1-way analysis of variance, it was examined whether length of participation in PD impacted knowledge and ability to faithfully implement. Findings indicate significant improvements with each year of PD; those who participated for 3 consecutive years received the highest possible ratings on knowledge as measured by the levels of use and instruction as measured by the SIWI observation and fidelity instrument. Additionally, because of modifications to the PD program, it was examined whether the year of the PD involvement impacted outcomes. Findings reveal that outcomes were strongest during the last year when SIWI mentors were present.     

The Effects of Writing Workshop on Abilities of First Grade Students to Become Confident and Independent Writers

Writing Workshop is an interactive approach to teaching writing as students learn and practice the importance of rehearsal, drafting/revising, and editing their pieces of writing (Calkins, 1986; Graves, 1983). This study implemented a mixed methodology design incorporating qualitative and quantitative analysis (Mills, 2007) by administering a pre survey to each child before he/she began the Writing Workshop and a post survey after the intervention; systematic observational research as a checklist (Glanz, 2003) to record observed practices of students during peer revising conferences; portfolios to assess student writing and graded via a rubric; and lastly interview of students regarding confidence and ability in writing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the writing processes of drafting/revising and editing to support first grade students to become independent writers.     

语文教学中随文练笔的现状与对策刍论

纵观当下语文教学,由于认知理念的偏差,随文练笔在机械化、生硬化的推进下出现不容乐观的现状,学生练笔兴趣低下、练笔本质错位、缺乏匹配的评价体系,语文教学陷入高耗低效的尴尬境地。文章提出要立足文本语言、让随文练笔从迁移入手,立足故事情境、让随文练笔以想象推进,强化情感体验、让随文练笔从激趣入手。     

Use of an audience response system during peer teaching among physical therapy students in human gross anatomy: Perceptions of peer teachers and students

An audience response system (ARS) has become popular among educators in medicine and the health professions because of the system's ability to engage listeners during a lecture presentation. No one has described the usefulness of ARS technology during planned nonlecture peer teaching sessions in gross anatomy instruction for health professionals. The unique feature of each peer teaching session was a nongraded 12–15 item ARS quiz assembled by six second‐year doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students and purposely placed at the beginning of the review session for those first‐year DPT students in attendance. This study used a ten‐item questionnaire and a five‐point Likert scale in addition to three open ended questions to survey perceptions of both first‐year and second‐year DPT students about the usefulness of ARS technology implemented during weekly interactive peer teaching sessions during a semester course in Anatomy for Physical Therapists. First‐year students overwhelmingly acknowledged the ARS system permitted each student to self‐assess his/her preparedness for a quiz or examination and compare his/her performance with that of classmates. Peer teachers recognized an ARS quiz provided them an opportunity to: (1) estimate first‐year students' level of understanding of anatomical concepts; and (2) effectively prepare first‐year students for their weekly quizzes and future examinations. On the basis of the mutual benefits derived by both students/tutees and teachers/tutors, physical therapist educators may wish to consider using ARS technology to enhance teaching methods for a class in gross human anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 2: 286–293, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Effects of integrating mobile technology-assisted peer assessment into flipped learning on students’ dance skills and self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

Dance courses aim to not only intensify learners’ dance skills, but also cultivate their personal dancing features, self-confidence, self-reflection ability, creative power, appreciation ability, to name just a few, in order to attain much higher level artistic performance. In the present study, an approach which integrates mobile peer assessment into flipped learning is proposed. Moreover, a 9-week experiment was conducted to explore the effects of the approach on students’ dance skills, self-efficacy, and learning satisfaction. The results indicated that the students learning with the integrated mobile peer assessment and flipped learning approach had better dance skills than those learning with the conventional flipped learning approach and traditional instruction. In terms of self-efficacy, the students learning with the conventional flipped learning approach outperformed those learning with the proposed approach and traditional instruction. In terms of learning satisfaction, the conventional flipped learning approach outperformed the traditional instruction. Discussion and suggestions are provided accordingly. It is suggested that teachers who want to incorporate flipped learning into dance courses may decide whether to combine peer assessment according to the teaching objectives.     

Angle and rotation: Effects of different types of feedback on the quality of response

The study compares the levels of response to angle/rotation problems presented on screen with a Logo microworld with the levels of response to similar problems presented on paper. Pairs of children aged from 9 to 11 who had little or no experience of Logo completed the problems in about 40 minutes. Pairs of children completed the problems over a period of eight weeks. The responses, classified using the SOLO taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes), suggested that the effect of the immediate feedback of the screen turtle heading was to inhibit moves to a higher level of response compared to those levels of response reached when responding to paper tests.     

Reading and writing from multiple source documents in history: Effects of strategy instruction with low to average high school writers

This study examined the effects of historical reasoning strategy instruction on 11th-grade students. Students learned historical inquiry strategies using 20th Century American history topics ranging from the Spanish-American war to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In addition, students learned a pre-writing strategy for composing argumentative essays related to each historical event. Results indicate that in comparison to a control group (N = 79), essays written by students who received instruction (N = 81) were longer, were rated as having significantly greater historical accuracy, were significantly more persuasive, and claims and rebuttals within each argument became more elaborated. Importantly, students in the control group read the same primary and secondary source document sets, and received feedback on written essays on the same topics.     

Epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge as predictors of the construction of different types of arguments on socioscientific issues

This study investigates whether university students’ epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge about controversial socioscientific issues (SSIs) can predict the different types of arguments that students construct. Two hundred forty-three university students were asked to construct different types of supportive arguments—social, ethical, economic, scientific, ecological—as well as counterarguments and rebuttals after they had read a scenario on a SSI. Participants’ epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge were assessed separately. Results showed that students’ epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge predicted the quantity, quality, and diversity of the different types of arguments the students constructed. In particular, students who held sophisticated epistemic beliefs about the structure of knowledge and exhibited relatively more robust prior knowledge scores, produced arguments of greater quantity, better quality, and higher diversity than students with less sophisticated epistemic beliefs and low prior knowledge scores. Educational implications are discussed.     

What lies beneath: exploring the deeper purposes of feedback on student writing through considering disciplinary knowledge and knowers

Feedback plays an integral role in students’ learning and development, as it is often the only personal communication that students have with tutors or lecturers about their own work. Yet, in spite of its integral role in student learning, there is disagreement between how students and tutors or lecturers perceive the pedagogic purpose of feedback. Central to this disagreement is the role that feedback has to play in ensuring that students produce the ‘right’ kinds of knowledge, and become the ‘right’ kinds of knowers within their disciplines. This paper argues that, in order to find common ground between students and tutors or lecturers on what feedback is for, and how to both give and use it effectively, we need to conceptualise disciplinary knowledge and knowers anew. We offer, as a useful starting point, the Specialisation dimension of Legitimation Code Theory as both practical theory and methodological tool for exploring knowledge and knowers in English Studies and Law as two illustrative cases. The paper concludes that this analysis offers lecturers and tutors a fresh understanding of the disciplinary knowledge and knower structures they work within and, relatedly, a clearer view of the work their feedback needs to do within these.     

Effects of different text display types on reading comprehension,sustained attention and cognitive load in mobile reading contexts

Despite the popularity of mobile reading devices, many studies have indicated that small screens restrict information transmission, adversely affecting reading performance on mobile devices. Moreover, mobile reading typically occurs in different reading contexts. Therefore, suitable text display type for mobile reading in different reading contexts should be considered, such that learners can effectively read content. This work selected the frequently used static and dynamic text display types (i.e. Paging and Auto-scrolling) and assessed their effects on mobile reading performance. Furthermore, the features of static and dynamic text display types were considered when designing a mixed text display type for mobile reading. Based on brainwave detector, reading-comprehension test sheet, and cognitive-load scale, this work designed a mobile reading experiment with a two-factor experimental design to assess the effects of the selected static, dynamic, and designed text display types, which were respectively presented in sitting, standing, and walking contexts, on reading comprehension, sustained attention, and cognitive load of learners. Experimental results show that sitting obtained the highest sustained attention and the mixed text garnered lowest sustained attention. Moreover, although analytical results show that no significant difference existed in overall reading comprehension with each text type presented with the mobile reading contexts, reading comprehension (i.e. memory, comprehension, and application types) was significantly affected by the reading context, and to some degree, the text display type. This work also found that the text display type is a major factor affecting learners' cognitive load; however, learners' cognitive load is not be affected by the considered reading contexts. Among the three text display types, the mixed type generates the highest cognitive load, followed by the dynamic type, and then the static type. In conclusion, the three reading contexts with the three text display types have both advantages and disadvantages for reading comprehension, sustained attention, and cognitive load. As a result, text display type for mobile reading on small screens should be adjusted according to reading context or to improve reading comprehension, attention, or cognitive load.     

Learning from expository texts: Effects of the interaction of prior knowledge and text structure on responses to different question types

The objective of this study was to verify the effects of the interaction between text structures and prior knowledge on memory and learning from expository texts. It examined the effects of two levels of prior knowledge and two types of mixed structures on a post-reading questionnaire. A total of 119 French-speaking, sixth-grade subjects were selected on the basis of a multiple-choice questionnaire. This questionnaire served to distinguish two groups, one possessing a high level of prior knowledge about the topic covered in the text (HP group), and another having a low level of prior knowledge (LP group). The children’s reading ability was evaluated by a cloze test that also served to eliminate children with reading comprehension difficulties from the experimental groups. The subjects in each group were arbitrarily assigned to subgroups. One group read an experimental passage, “The effects of acid rain on maple and pine”, which was organized in a collection inserted in cause/effect structure (SI). The other group read the same information, but which was organized in a comparison inserted in cause/effect structure (S2). The post-reading measure consisted of 24 questions that varied according to three criteria. The statistical analysis revealed that the effects of text structure were dependent on the level of prior knowledge and on the type of questions and confirmed that prior knowledge had a determining influence on knowledge acquisition.     

Effects of surface finish and treatment on the fatigue behaviour of vibrating cylinder block using frequency response approach

INTRODUCTION Due to market pressures for improvements in productivity, reliability, ductility, wear resistance and profitability of mechanical systems, manufacturers are placing increasing demands on available materials.Economic constraints require that these materials are inexpensive and easily available. In order to enhance the surface properties of today’s materials, producers of components are turning to different surface finish and treatments. There are several techniques available …     

Dancing with children in the field: on the relevance of embodied knowledge and its methodological consequences

ABSTRACT

In contexts where dancing proves a relevant daily practice, dancing with children may provide an extremely interesting strategic option for education ethnographers. Drawing from my empirical material, I describe how dancing was accidentally introduced as a role in the field (dance teacher) before later becoming an unexpectedly great ethnographic tool. Through a series of different breakdowns, I found this constituted the key to gaining better access to complicated domestic fields and thereby also attaining a closer cultural intimacy with participants, getting more easily integrated into educational contexts, overcoming communication problems and issues with reluctant informants. From this methodological insight, I here reflect on the theoretical aspects involved: should we overlook practices deemed irrelevant from the school agent point of view but essential to domestic contexts, we risk reinforcing symbolic violence through research. Therefore, I conclude by stressing the importance of focusing on apparently ‘irrelevant’ forms of domestic embodied knowledge transmission.     

Learning nanotechnology with texts and comics: the impacts on students of different achievement levels

Comics are popular with adolescents because of their features of humor, narrative, and visual imagery. The purposes of this study were to examine the learning outcomes and emotional perceptions of reading a science comic book and a science text booklet for students of different levels of achievement, and to explore the main factors of the two media which attract high-school students to learn science. A mixed-method quasi-experimental design was adopted. The participants were 697 grade ten students from eight schools with different levels of academic achievement. Two similar classes in each of the eight schools were assigned as the comic group or the text group. The results indicated that the science comic book benefited medium achievers more than the science text booklet did, but the contrary result was found for the high achievers. In comparison, the two media benefited the low achievers equally, but both had only a limited effect due to the students’ lack of prior knowledge. We conclude four kinds of evidence, including perceived difficulty of comprehension, reasons for interest/disinterest, emotional perceptions of learning science, and learning time, to support the phenomenon of the learning benefit of media specific to certain achievers’ science learning.     

Effects of dietary supplementation with Clostridium butyricum on the growth performance and humoral immune response in Miichthys miiuy

The effects of dietary supplementation with Clostridium butyricum on growth performance and humoral immune response in Miichthys miiuy were evaluated. One hundred and fifty Miichthys miiuy weighing approximately 200-260 g were divided into five groups and reared in 15 tanks with closed circuiting culture system. The animals were fed 5 diets： basal diet only （control） or supplemented of the basal diet with C. butyricum at doses of 10^3 （CB1）, 10^5 （CB2）, 10^7 （CB3） or 10^9 （CB4） CFU/g. Compared with the control, the serum phenoloxidase activity was significantly increased by the supplementation （P〈0.05）, acid phosphatases activity was increased significantly （P〈0.05） at the doses of 10^9 CFU/g. Serum lysozyme activity peaked at dose of 10^7 CFU/g and in the skin mucus at dose of 10^9 CFU/g. Immunoglobulin M level in the serum and skin mucus was increased except at dose of 10^3 CFU/g （P〈0.05）. The growth at the dose of 10^9 CFU/g was higher than that of the control （P〈0.05）. It is concluded that supplementation of C. butyricum can mediate the humoral immune responses and improve the growth performance in Miichthys miiuy.