Exploring the Impact of Assessment on Medical Students’ Learning

Abstract

What and how students learn depend largely on how they think they will be assessed. This study aimed to explore medical students’ perception of the value of assessment and feedback on their learning, and how this relates to their examination performance. A mixed methods research design was adopted in which a questionnaire was developed and administered to the students to gain their perceptions of assessments. Perceptions were further explored in focus group discussions. Survey findings were correlated with students’ performance data and academic coordinators’ perceptions. Students’ perceptions of the level of difficulty of different assessments mirrored their performance in examinations, with an improvement observed in clinical assessments as students progressed through their degree. Students recognised that feedback is important to allow improvements and seek more timely, better quality and personalised feedback. Academic coordinators identified that some of the students’ suggestions are more realistic than others. Students had a positive attitude towards assessment, but emphasised the need for educators to highlight the relevance of assessment to clinical practice.     

The Impact of Students’ Approaches to Essay Writing on the Quality of their Essays

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the essay writing processes of three third year Bachelor of Education students. The case studies, which were drawn from a larger research project, indicate that students writing essays of differing levels of conceptual structure approach the essay writing task very differently at every stage of the process, and these differences appear to emerge from how students conceptualise the task—whether the intention is to reproduce an ordered sequence of information on the topic, or to construct an argument and develop a coherent thesis. The results suggest that attempts to improve students’ essay writing abilities need to shift from a focus on discrete skills to an emphasis on the relationship between students’ understanding of the content and their ability to write about it.     

Effects of Multimedia versus Live Professional Development on Teachers’ and Students’ Performance Related to the Question Exploration Routine

In each of two studies, teachers were randomly assigned to either a Virtual Workshop (VW) group that used a computerized professional development program or an Actual Workshop (AW) group that participated in face-to-face professional development, including discussion, feedback, and collaboration. In both studies, teachers’ posttest scores related to their knowledge of the Question Exploration Routine and their plans for using it were significantly higher than their pretest scores. In Study 2, both groups’ posttest scores with regard to implementation and planning of the routine were significantly greater than their pretest scores. There were no significant differences between the groups at posttesting on any measure. The posttest knowledge scores of the whole groups of students and the subgroups of students with LD being taught by both groups of teachers were significantly higher than their pretest scores. All teachers indicated that they were satisfied with the training and the routine. VW teachers in both studies indicated that they were satisfied with the software program.     

Exploring Secondary Students’ Epistemological Features Depending on the Evaluation Levels of the Group Model on Blood Circulation

The purpose of this study is to identify the epistemological features and model qualities depending on model evaluation levels and to explore the reasoning process behind high-level evaluation through small group interaction about blood circulation. Nine groups of three to four students in the eighth grade participated in the modeling practice. Their group models, which were represented by discourse and blood circulation diagrams, were analyzed for the development of the framework that informed the model evaluation levels and epistemological features. The model evaluation levels were categorized into levels one to four based on the following evaluation criteria: no evaluation, authoritative sources, superficial criteria, and more comprehensive criteria. The qualities of group models varied with the criteria of model evaluation. While students who used authoritative sources for evaluating the group model appeared to have an absolutist epistemology, students who evaluated according to the superficial criteria and more comprehensive criteria appeared to have an evaluative epistemology. Furthermore, groups with Level four showed a chain reaction of cognitive reasoning during the modeling practice concerning practical epistemology. The findings have implications for science teachers and education researchers who want to understand the context for developing students’ practical epistemologies.     

Students’ and Teachers’ Application of Surface Area to Volume Relationships

The National Science Education Standards emphasize teaching unifying concepts and processes such as basic functions of living organisms, the living environment, and scale (NRC 2011). Scale includes understanding that different characteristics, properties, or relationships within a system might change as its dimensions are increased or decreased (NRC 2011). One such relationship involves surface area to volume which is a pervasive concept that can be found throughout different sciences. This concept is important for students to not only understand the association of the two, but to also be able to apply this relationship in science contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the understanding surface area to volume relationships. This study examined middle school students’, high school students’, and science teachers’ logical thinking skills (including proportional reasoning), visual-spatial skills, and understandings of surface area to volume relationships. Regression results indicated that participants’ reasoning abilities and components of visual-spatial skills could be possible predictors for one’s ability to understand surface area to volume relationships. Implications for teaching scale concepts such as surface area to volume relationships in the science classroom are discussed.     

Examining the Effect of Enactment of a Geospatial Curriculum on Students’ Geospatial Thinking and Reasoning

A potential method for teaching geospatial thinking and reasoning (GTR) is through geospatially enabled learning technologies. We developed an energy resources geospatial curriculum that included learning activities with geographic information systems and virtual globes. This study investigated how 13 urban middle school teachers implemented and varied the enactment of the curriculum with their students and investigated which teacher- and student-level factors accounted for students’ GTR posttest achievement. Data included biweekly implementation surveys from teachers and energy resources content and GTR pre- and posttest achievement measures from 1,049 students. Students significantly increased both their energy resources content knowledge and their GTR skills related to energy resources at the end of the curriculum enactment. Both multiple regression and hierarchical linear modeling found that students’ initial GTR abilities and gain in energy content knowledge were significantly explanatory variables for their geospatial achievement at the end of curriculum enactment, p < .001. Teacher enactment factors, including adherence to implementing the critical components of the curriculum or the number of years the teachers had taught the curriculum, did not have significant effects on students’ geospatial posttest achievement. The findings from this study provide support that learning with geospatially enabled learning technologies can support GTR with urban middle-level learners.     

Parents’ Perspective of the Impact of School Practices on the Functioning of Students with Special Educational Needs

Students with special educational needs (SEN) are at an elevated risk of psychological and behavioural dysfunctions. In this study, we conducted a survey of parents of students with SEN in Hong Kong to examine the impact of two school practices – learning support and school climate – on the psychological and behavioural functioning (PBF) of students with SEN. We also examined the mediating effects of social participation and academic engagement. Questionnaires were distributed to 586 parents in 139 primary schools. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis show that perceived school climate has a direct effect on perceived PBF, while perceived learning support does not. Perceived learning support has two indirect effects on perceived PBF, with perceived academic engagement or social participation as a mediator. The findings have implications for the effective use of educational resources to support the inclusive education of students with SEN.     

Students’ Differentiation of Reader-Based and Text-Based Questions

Abstract

This study examined the number of text lookbacks encouraged by tutors, appropriate text sampling, and the use of other strategic text behaviors (i.e., rewording, segmenting, and commenting). Eighty pairs of students, (one fifth-grade tutor and one third-grade confederate) worked with an expository text passage; an investigator observed and noted anv evidence of the strategic behaviors while the confederate was answering five questions with the tutor’s assistance. It was expected that there would be good comprehender (40 tutors)-poor comprehender (the other 40 tutors) differences among the strategic behaviors. A series of analyses of variance were performed on the observational notation data; significant differences by reader proficiency level were found for all three strategies being studied. The use of a confederate in the tutoring role is proposed as a means of reducing tutee confounding.     

Examining a Ferguson Effect on College Students’ Motivation to Become Police Officers

Abstract

The current study examines the impact of the Ferguson Effect and related public scrutiny on college students’ motivation to become police officers. Using data from 654 students located at two US universities with over 20,000 students, the results indicate that students’ who perceived that officer motivation and dangerousness has been affected by negative media scrutiny had significantly higher log-odds of strongly agreeing that such scrutiny has negatively impacted their trajectory to work in the police profession and had higher log-odds of strongly agreeing that it has made them apprehensive about applying for police positions in comparison to the reference category. The current study highlights how the negative attention directed towards law enforcement is adversely influencing college students’ motivation to enter the police profession. Police departments must make a concerted effort to mitigate such negative scrutiny in order to ensure a strong candidate pool for prospective police officers.     

National Evidence of the Impact of First-Year Online Enrollment on Postsecondary Students’ Long-Term Academic Outcomes

This study examines the influence of first-year online enrollment on the long-term academic outcomes of postsecondary students. Using a nationally representative sample and propensity score weighting, I find that enrolling in some online courses is associated with lower odds of dropping out of college. Additional results reveal a positive relationship between enrolling in some online courses and sub-baccalaureate indicators of long-term academic success, such as earning an associate’s degree and transferring from a community college to a 4-year institution.     

Investigating the Impact of Using a CAD Simulation Tool on Students’ Learning of Design Thinking

Engineering design thinking is hard to teach and still harder to learn by novices primarily due to the undetermined nature of engineering problems that often results in multiple solutions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of teaching engineering design thinking to freshmen students by using a computer-aided Design (CAD) simulation software. We present a framework for characterizing different levels of engineering design thinking displayed by students who interacted with the CAD simulation software in the context of a collaborative assignment. This framework describes the presence of four levels of engineering design thinking—beginning designer, adept beginning designer, informed designer, adept informed designer. We present the characteristics associated with each of these four levels as they pertain to four engineering design strategies that students pursued in this study—understanding the design challenge, building knowledge, weighing options and making tradeoffs, and reflecting on the process. Students demonstrated significant improvements in two strategies—understanding the design challenge and building knowledge. We discuss the affordances of the CAD simulation tool along with the learning environment that potentially helped students move towards Adept informed designers while pursuing these design strategies.     

What Is the Impact of Computer Literacy on the Academic Performance of D-learning Students？

Due to the globalization and the spread of the Internet, distance learning （D-learning） has gained extraordinary impulse in recent years by classes broadcasted by Websites and assignments fulfilled by students in their own computers. D-learning facilitates the access to education to those people who are working or have low buying power due to its reduced cost and time convenience. Although D-learning has existed in the world for over 150 years, only in the last decades, it has become the focus of academic studies and researches in a systematic way. In this context, the objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of computer literacy on the academic performance of the D-learning students of Faculdade lnterativa COC--EAD （COC--D-learning Interactive College）, P61o Lafaiete （Lafaiete Branch）, Ribeirao Preto. The research consisted of a questionnaire with 21 qualitative dichotomous questions, concerning the level of knowledge and mastery of information techdologies, besides the gender and academic performance （weighted average and marks of the last module）. The data were tabulated, being considered two main variables： （a） academic performance, represented by the marks of the last module; and （b） computer literacy, represented by the sum of the questions concerning this matter. The data were analyzed statistically, and the correlation between the two variables considered was analyzed by Pearson＇s Correlation Test. The interviews of the 54 interviewees （24 males （44.45%） and 30 females （55.55%）） taking the business administration course were analyzed. The correlation coefficient r = 0.303 indicates that there is a meaningful correlation between the students＇ academic performance （marks） and their computer literacy, that is, the greater the computer literacy, the better the marks obtained by these students in the D-learning course. D-learning has computing as its main tool, theretbre, the students with less computer literacy find barriers in D-learning, which o ref     

Erratum to: Students’ Perceptions of the Long-Term Impact of Attending a “CSI Science Camp”

Journal of Science Education and Technology -     

Impact of Secondary Students’ Content Knowledge on Their Communication Skills in Science

The expert blind spot (EBS) hypothesis implies that even some experts with a high content knowledge might have problems in science communication because they are using the structure of the content rather than their addressee’s prerequisites as an orientation. But is that also true for students? Explaining science to peers is a crucial part of cooperative learning methods such as the “jigsaw method”. Our study examined the relationship between science communication competence (SCC) and content knowledge (CK) of 10th-grade students (N = 213). Using latent class analysis, we identified two types of students with a different relationship between CK and SCC. Using path analysis, we found that the first type of 109 students primarily used their science CK as the “resource” for addressee-oriented science communication and both their SCC and their CK were correlated with each other. For the second type of 104 students (who used other resources), their CK even had a small negative effect on their SCC. Using t tests, we found that those students primarily using their CK as the resource for communication performed significantly worse in the communication test than did those students who used other resources. Using the EBS hypothesis, we suggest that students’ CK might have ambiguous effects in communication if the content structure—rather than their addressee’s prior knowledge—is used as the primary orientation for communication. We suggest that an effective use of cooperative learning techniques in classroom requires a special prior training for their science communication skills.     

Examining Teachers’ Instructional Moves Aimed at Developing Students’ Ideas and Questions in Learner-Centered Science Classrooms

Prior research has shown that orchestrating scientific discourse in classrooms is difficult and takes a great deal of effort on the part of teachers. In this study, we examined teachers?? instructional moves to elicit and develop students?? ideas and questions as they orchestrated discourse with their fifth grade students during a learner-centered environmental biology unit. The unit materials included features meant to support teachers in eliciting and working with students?? ideas and questions as a source for student-led investigations. We present three contrasting cases of teachers to highlight evidence that shows teachers?? differing strategies for eliciting students?? ideas and questions, and for developing their ideas, questions and questioning skills. Results from our cross case analysis provide insight into the ways in which teachers?? enactments enabled them to work with students?? ideas and questions to help advance learning. Consistent with other studies, we found that teachers could readily elicit ideas and questions but experienced challenges in helping students develop them. Findings suggest a need for more specified supports, such as specific discourse strategies, to help teachers attend to student thinking. We explore implications for curricular tools and discuss a need for more examples of effective discourse moves for use by teachers in orchestrating scientific discourse.     

Using Technology-Enhanced Inquiry-Based Instruction to Foster the Development of Elementary Students’ Views on the Nature of Science

The Next Generation Science Standards support understanding of the nature of science as it is practiced and experienced in the real world through interconnected concepts to be imbedded within scientific practices and crosscutting concepts. This study explored how fourth and fifth grade elementary students’ views of nature of science change when they engage in a technology-enhanced, scientific inquiry-oriented curriculum that takes place across formal and informal settings. Results suggest that student engagement in technology-enhanced inquiry activities that occur in informal and formal settings when supported through explicit instruction focused on metacognitive and social knowledge construction can improve elementary students’ understanding of nature of science.

     

The Impact of a Web-Based Research Simulation in Bioinformatics on Students’ Understanding of Genetics

Providing learners with opportunities to engage in activities similar to those carried out by scientists was addressed in a web-based research simulation in genetics developed for high school biology students. The research simulation enables learners to apply their genetics knowledge while giving them an opportunity to participate in an authentic genetics study using bioinformatics tools. The main purpose of the study outlined here is to examine how learning using this research simulation influences students’ understanding of genetics, and how students’ approaches to learning using the simulation influence their learning outcomes. Using both quantitative and qualitative procedures, we were able to show that while learning using the simulation students expanded their understanding of the relationships between molecular mechanisms and phenotype, and refined their understanding of certain genetic concepts. Two types of learners, research-oriented and task-oriented, were identified on the basis of the differences in the ways they seized opportunities to recognize the research practices, which in turn influenced their learning outcomes. The research-oriented learners expanded their genetics knowledge more than the task-oriented learners. The learning approach taken by the research-oriented learners enabled them to recognize the epistemology that underlies authentic genetic research, while the task-oriented learners referred to the research simulation as a set of simple procedural tasks. Thus, task-oriented learners should be encouraged by their teachers to cope with the scientists’ steps, while learning genetics through the simulation in a class setting.     

Examining the Effects of Stress and Campus Climate on the Persistence of Students of Color and White Students: An Application of Bean and Eaton’s Psychological Model of Retention

The current study examined the effects of stress and campus climate perceptions on the persistence decisions of students of color and White students using Bean and Eaton’s (2000) Psychological Model of College Student Retention. A sample of first-year students (N = 1,491) at a predominantly White research university were survey enduring their second semester and their enrollment status was subsequently tracked after 2 years. Path analysis was conducted on the sample of students of color (n = 548) and White students (n = 943). Results indicated models that explained 27 % of the variance for students of color and 44 % of the variance for White students in persistence after 2 years of college. Among the initial 37 variables included in the models, 17 had significant direct and indirect effects on students’ of color persistence including observing racism on campus, having comfortable academic interactions, stress related to the academic environment, and feelings about the campus environment. For White students, 13 variables had significant direct and indirect effects on persistence, including having opportunities for diverse peer interactions and comfortable academic interactions, stress related to the social environment on campus, and feelings about the campus environment. The discussion highlights the usefulness of the Bean and Eaton model for examining retention for students of color and White students.