The impact of the university context on European students' learning approaches and learning environment preferences

This article describesexperiences of 610 Dutch students and 241students from other European countries whostudied at least three months abroad within theframework of an international exchange program.The Dutch students went to a university inanother European country and the foreignstudents went to a Dutch university. By meansof a questionnaire students' perceptions ofthree main characteristics of the universitylearning environment were measured concerningthe home university, the host university andthe ideal learning environment. The studentswere also asked about their way of learning atthe home university and at the host university,in particular about the extent of constructivelearning and reproductive learning. Evidencewas found for the influence of aspects of thelearning environment on the two learningapproaches; e.g., a learning environmentcharacterized as student-oriented discouragesreproductive learning and promotes constructivelearning, especially when conceptual andepistemological relations within the learningdomain are stressed. The learning environmentpreferences of the students were partly relatedto their learning orientations at the homeuniversity, but they were strikingly similarfor students from different countries. Therewas a strong preference for those learningenvironment aspects that promote constructivelearning.     

The sequence of conceptual information in instruction and its effect on retention

Two experiments were carried out to study the effect of the sequencing of the information in an instructional program. In both experiments, two different ordering principles were used. These principles were based on the relation between the to be learned concepts. The ordering of the information could be successive or simultaneous. The relationship between concepts is categorized either successive or coordinate. It was hypothesized that a simultaneous presentation would show better learning results than a successive presentation if between the to-be-learned concepts exists a co-ordinate relationship. A successive presentation would lead to better results in case of a successive relationship. Results suggest that the definition of both types of relationships needs refinement. Further the results show that for coordinate related concepts a simultaneous presentation is preferable.This study was supported by a grant from the Institute for Educational Research in the Netherlands (SVO), Grant No. 6620. I wish to thank S. Dijkstra for his stimulating ideas, and M. C. Reisinger for his assistance during this project. I also wish to thank the students, the biology teacher and the management of the Willem van Oranje Mavo (Hengelo, the Netherlands) and Streekcentrum voor Tuinbouwonderwijs (Enschede, The Netherlands) for their friendly co-operation. The author is now with Boertien and Partners Educational Technology, Gooimeer 5, 1411 DD Naarden, The Netherlands.     

语境因素对英语听力教学的作用

听力理解在人类交际活动中起着非常重要的作用,为了提高学生的听力理解能力,首先要分析影响听力理解的因素。在此基础上,重点探讨利用语境提高听力理解能力,找出利用语境进行听力教学的方法。     

The effect of matching and mismatching cognitive style and science instruction

This study examined the effect of matching learners' cognitive styles with science learning activities on science knowledge and attitudes. Fifty-six elementary education majors who were identified as Sensing Feeling types on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator participated in this study. The Sensing Feeling type is predominant among elementary school educators. The subjects participated in either nine science activities matched to the learning preferences of Sensing Feelers or nine science activities mismatched to their learning preferences. These mismatched activities were geared toward the learning preferences of Intuitive Thinkers, the dominant type among scientists. Results revealed no significant differences between matched and mismatched groups in knowledge of the material presented or overall attitude toward science and toward science teaching. Comparisons made subsequent to the hypothesized analyses did suggest that cognitive style may affect reactions to certain specific learning activities. The immediate reactions of forty non-Sensing Feeling types who also experienced the treatments were compared to those of the 56 Sensing Feeling subjects. Certain activities which were rated by judges prior to the onset of treatment as being particularly well-matched to the Sensing Feeling style did receive significantly more favorable ratings by the Sensing Feeling subjects than by other types. Conversely, the Sensing Feelers gave significantly lower ratings than other types to certain activities which, according to independent judges, were strongly mismatched to the Sensing Feeling style.     

The influence of instruction on verbatim and content text recall

This investigation focuses on text recall in eight‐ and nine‐year old children. The main focus was on whether two different sets of instructions had a differential influence: one set instructed students to focus on an orally presented text verbatim, and the other instructed students to focus on its content. A differential influence on verbatim and content recall might indicate separate storage of verbatim and gist information, and could provide evidence for two subprocesses of text processing – that is, for construction and integration. The instructions were administered either before or after hearing the text, and recall was tested again one week later. The results showed differential instruction effects on verbatim and content recall. These effects depended on the time of instruction. Verbatim instruction had an enhancing effect on verbatim recall, both when instructions were given before and when given after text presentation. Content instruction given after text presentation had a suppressing effect on verbatim recall, but involved no advantage for content recall. Content recall was not suppressed by verbatim instruction at any time of instruction. Thus, the processing of content seems to be less situated than the processing of verbatim information.     

问题导向学习法在环境分析技术实践教学中的应用

在环境分析技术实践教学中引入问题导向学习法,充分发挥学生的能动性,使学生参与到实验课程的设置过程中,对实验的可行性进行分析,自主选择实验项目、设置实验内容、安排实验流程。实践证明,问题导向学习法引入环境分析技术实践教学中有利于培养学生的综合分析能力和实验研究能力,提高学生的科研效率和质量。     

Improving students' reading comprehension skills: Effects of strategy instruction and reciprocal teaching

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three different forms of strategy instruction on 210 elementary-school students' reading comprehension. Students were assigned to any one of three intervention conditions or to a traditional instruction condition (control condition). Training students were taught four reading strategies (summarizing, questioning, clarifying, predicting) and practiced these strategies in small groups (reciprocal teaching), pairs, or instructor-guided small groups. At both the post- and follow-up test the intervention students attained higher scores on an experimenter-developed task of reading comprehension and strategy use than the control students who received traditional instruction. Furthermore, students who practiced reciprocal teaching in small groups outperformed students in instructor-guided and traditional instruction groups on a standardized reading comprehension test.     

支架式教学方法在生物学探究性实验教学中的有效运用

支架式教学的生物学探究性实验教学,主要包括创设探究情境、搭建探究支架、学生独立或小组合作探究、探究性实验的效果评价以及开展表达和交流活动五个环节。     

Normal science and the paranormal: The effect of a scientific method course on students' beliefs

A nonequivalent control group design was employed to test the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary course on the scientific method in increasing students' skepticism toward the paranormal. The course explored legitimate methods of scientific inquiry and compared them to faulty, and often fraudulent, methods of pseudosciences. Topics included elementary logic, logical fallacies, statistics, probability, the scientific method, characteristics of pseudosciences, and the prevalence and persistence of pseudoscientific theories and beliefs. Students enrolled in a psychology and law class served as a control group for the “Science and Pseudoscience” class (the treatment group). At the start of the term, students in both groups completed the Belief in the Paranormal Scale (Jones, Russell, and Nickel, 1977) and a measure of beliefs in their own psychic powers. At the end of the semester, students completed these same measures. Results demonstrated that while there were no initial differences between the control and treatment groups in their belief in the paranormal, students in the “Science and Pseudoscience” class demonstrated substantially reduced belief in the paranormal relative to the control class. There were no changes in students' beliefs in their own paranormal powers. Implications for science education and research on teaching thinking are discussed.     

任务型教学法在高职英语教学中的应用

本文以高职英语精读课实际课堂教学任务的设计为例,从任务的界定、类型及教学模式的设计等几个方面,探讨了如何在英语教学中渗透任务型语言教学理念,以达到强化教学内容的实践性、提高语言交际能力的目的。     

英语课堂话语的认知语境与交际效果分析

英语课堂话语,是指其在特定的对话环境和语境当中,要求交流双方在参与交流过程当中采取最理想的交流方式来达到一定的交流目的教学活动。通过对英语课堂话语的认知语境的主要特征进行研究分析及课堂话语的认知语境对教学效果的影响,从而给出设计课堂话语认知语境的具体措施和对策。     

The effect of laboratory and lecture teaching methods on cognitive achievement in integrated science

A sample of 210 class-two (grade 8) students from six randomly selected classes from six Nigerian schools was divided into two (experimental and control) groups. Using materials from some units of the Nigerian Integrated Science Project (NISP), the experimental group was taught by a laboratory method while the control group was taught by the lecture method. Data were collected using an Achievement Test for Integrated Science Students developed by the authors and student ability was measured by tests secured from the Department of Teacher Education, University of Ibadan. In analyzing the data, an analysis of covariance was employed. T-test statistics were also used to determine significant difference between means of different groups. High achievers of both groups had identical achievement, but the low achievers in the experimental group performed better than their counterparts in the control group. While the study showed that males in this study prefer laboratory method to lecture method when compared with their female counterparts, the study also revealed that females in the control classes performed better than males of the same group.     

The effects of instructional methods on students' learning outcomes requiring different cognitive abilities: context-aware ubiquitous learning versus traditional instruction

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning) approach versus traditional instruction on students' ability to answer questions that required different cognitive skills, using the framework of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, including knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis. In this study, 230 third- and fourth-grade students in 8 classes were counterbalanced and assigned to the u-learning approach and traditional instruction for learning different topics in two separate plant-observing activities. The results showed that the students who learned with traditional instruction performed better than those who used the u-learning approach in terms of answering questions that required their cognitive abilities of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of the students' learning behaviors in the u-learning context revealed that most of their learning behaviors recorded in the u-learning system were not significantly related to their cognitive abilities.     

Visualization in learning and instruction: a cognitive approach

This article is based on the premise that instruction involves the control of cognitive processes by means of carefully selected instructional strategies. Visual cognitive processes having to do with perception, the assimilation of new information, and learning by means of analogy are examined, and particular instructional strategies by which each process can be controlled are identified. Ways of improving mental skills (i.e., those visual processes at which the learner is relatively adept) are discussed. Conclusions are drawn regarding relationships between visual learning and instruction, and implications for research and design are examined. Research for this article was conducted while the author was a visiting scholar in the Department of Instructional Technology, University of Southern California. The research was supported by a grant from the University of Calgary. The author wishes to thank Richard Clark for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article.     

论支架式教学法对高职英语教学的作用

在当今社会中,高等职业教育是高等教育的一个重要组成部分,鉴于职业教育是面向市场需求、面向社会的一种教育类型,以及英语是一门实用性极强的学科,英语教学在高职教育中理应占有绝对重要的地位。基于此,文章提出了全新的教学理念和教学方法,探讨了支架式教学法在高职英语教学中的作用。文章首先阐述了高职英语教学的现状,并解析了支架式英语教学法的基本概念,最后论述了支架式英语教学法对于高职英语教学的积极意义。     

基于学生发展的“先学后教”教学模式分析

先学后教教学模式以主体性哲学、建构主义和人本主义教学理论为理论基础,基础在学、关键在教,内在运行机制是以学定教。其内在价值表现在使教与学成为师生双主体间交往性质的交流活动,学习方式上提倡自主合作探究式学习,学习目标上注重学生的成长与发展。     

多元智能理论指导下的排球教学对学生人际关系的影响

以多元智能理论为指导进行排球教学,探讨对学生人际关系的影响．结果表明：多元智能理论采用目标、合作、反馈教学模式,以人为本的教学设计,采用“真实性”的评价方法,实验班学生在交谈方面的行为困扰、交际与交友方面的困扰、待人接物方面的困扰、与异性朋友交往的困扰方面相对来说更低,学生之间的人际关系发展更好．