Explaining students' appraisal of lectures and student-activating teaching: perceived context and student characteristics

During lectures, some students are continuously focused and attentive, whereas others tend to be bored, jittery, or inattentive. The same might happen when students are given student-activating assignments. Some students simply love one type of instruction, whereas others tend to resent it. Moreover, it is not the context itself, but the context as it is perceived by the student that affects learning. This study sets out to discover how students view instruction, based on their experiences with a particular setting, and aims to investigate the effects of “context-by-student” characteristics, such as students' course experiences, and the effects of “student-by-context” features, such as approaches to learning. The research has a quasi-experimental design and compares a lecture-based setting with student-activating teaching methods (i.e. self-discovery learning by means of authentic tasks with the help of a scaffolding approach); followed by one of four assessment methods: a multiple-choice test, a case-based examination, a peer assessment or a portfolio assessment. Data (N = 579) were collected by means of validated questionnaires, comprising the ASSIST and LSQ instruments and the course experience questionnaire. Results demonstrate that students' appraisal of the assessment method, their course experiences and the teaching methods that are dominant in the setting contribute positively to students' appraisal of instruction. Interestingly, this conclusion applies to both the lecture-based and the student-activating groups and to both conventional assessment methods and new modes of assessment. Moreover, deep approaches to learning, monitoring studying and/or organized studying, as well as preferences for courses that support understanding, positively affect students' appraisal of student-activating teaching methods. In short, both student-by-context and context-by-student features prove to be strong predictors of students' appraisal of instruction and, as a consequence, student learning.     

Cross‐Curricular Gallery Learning: A Phenomenological Case Study

This article examines the strategies that can be used to enhance students' understanding of how subjects link together and whether cross‐curricular approaches, through a gallery project, have any real impact on students' understanding of the links between subjects. A substantial part of this article, however, describes the methodological aspect of the project. A phenomenological case study approach was used in order to engage fully with individual students' learning experiences. It was found that the students who were involved directly with the study felt that the links between subjects had more relevance to their learning when the teacher made such links explicit. They were unaware of the relevance of many cross‐curricular links made in lessons, but the study indicated that cross‐curricular learning can enable students to transfer skills and knowledge in order to understand concepts more fully.     

“Applying anatomy to something I care about”: Authentic inquiry learning and student experiences of an inquiry project

Despite advances to move anatomy education away from its didactic history, there is a continued need for students to contextualize their studies to make learning more meaningful. This article investigates authentic learning in the context of an inquiry‐based approach to learning human gross anatomy. Utilizing a case‐study design with three groups of students (n = 18) and their facilitators (n = 3), methods of classroom observations, interviews, and artifact collection were utilized to investigate students' experiences of learning through an inquiry project. Qualitative data analysis through open and selective coding produced common meaningful themes of group and student experiences. Overall results demonstrate how the project served as a unique learning experience where learners engaged in the opportunity to make sense of anatomy in context of their interests and wider interdisciplinary considerations through collaborative, group‐based investigation. Results were further considered in context of theoretical frameworks of inquiry‐based and authentic learning. Results from this study demonstrate how students can engage anatomical understandings to inquire and apply disciplinary considerations to their personal lives and the world around them. Anat Sci Educ 10: 538–548. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Teaching Research Methodology Through Active Learning

To complement traditional learning activities in a masters-level research methodology course, social work students worked on a formal research project which involved: designing the study, constructing measures, selecting a sampling strategy, collecting data, reducing and analyzing data, and finally interpreting and communicating the results. The final product was accepted in a respected, peer-reviewed journal. In the hopes of motivating social work educators to use active learning strategies when teaching research methods and to provide some pragmatic advice on how to do so, this article presents students' perceptions of involvement and lessons learned by the instructor. Through open- and closed-ended questions, students reported that involvement was meaningful, promoted understanding of research, strengthened relations among students, and made learning more exciting. Additionally, 41% of students reported that work on the project increased their interest in pursuing doctoral level work. Students also reported that engagement was time-consuming, stressful, and occasionally frustrating. Pragmatic suggestions about how to incorporate a formal research project with teaching are given based on experiences of the students and instructor.     

Modified team‐based learning strategy to improve human anatomy learning: A pilot study at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla,Colombia

As part of an institutional program sponsored by the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia, we developed an educational research study on two sessions of human anatomy in which we combined team‐based learning (TBL) and the use of iPads. Study data included the TBL, assessments applied during the course, student's grades on mid‐term examinations and students' perceptions of their experiences. Students reported a positive attitude toward the use of the TBL sessions, and the results showed a significant improvement in their learning between the first and second sessions. Significantly positive correlations (P < 0.05) were obtained between (a) the individual students' readiness test performance 1 and mid‐term examination 1, (b) the individual readiness test performances from Session 1 to Session 2, and (c) the group readiness test performances from the first and second sessions. These results point to positive learning experiences for these students. Analyses of the students' reflections on their activities also pointed toward future challenges. Anat Sci Educ 7: 399–405. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.     

Relationships among informal learning environments,teaching procedures and scientific reasoning ability

Informal learning experiences have risen to the forefront of science education as being beneficial to students' learning. However, it is not clear in what ways such experiences may be beneficial to students; nor how informal learning experiences may interface with classroom science instruction. This study aims to acquire a better understanding of these issues by investigating one aspect of science learning, scientific reasoning ability, with respect to the students' informal learning experiences and classroom science instruction. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible differences in students' scientific reasoning abilities relative to their informal learning environments (impoverished, enriched), classroom teaching experiences (non-inquiry, inquiry) and the interaction of these variables. The results of two-way ANOVAs indicated that informal learning environments and classroom science teaching procedures showed significant main effects on students' scientific reasoning abilities. Students with enriched informal learning environments had significantly higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those with impoverished informal learning environments. Likewise, students in inquirybased science classrooms showed higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those in non-inquiry science classrooms. There were no significant interaction effects. These results indicate the need for increased emphases on both informal learning opportunities and inquiry-based instruction in science.     

‘I've never done a dissertation before please help me’: accommodating L2 students through course design

This article considers how course design accommodates the adaptation of L2 students into the early stages of the master's dissertation (Social Sciences and Humanities) at a UK university. I present a contrastive process-oriented analysis of two students' experiences on different courses, extracted from a 13-month ethnographic study in which students' self-reports (journals; interviews) were triangulated with their assignments, interviews with lecturers and classroom observation. I identify two ‘literacy events’ in the early stages: discussing the topic and preparing the proposal. In order to make visible these events, I deploy Lave and Wenger's Community of Practice model, while taking a post-structuralist view of learning as a dynamic between language, identities, power relations, affordances and agency. Findings show unequal support for these events on the two courses; I argue that this exemplifies significantly different ideologies relating to the accommodation of L2 students, and discuss implications for course design.     

Enhancing transfer of learning through post-course reflection

Abstract

This article investigates how a structured post-course follow-up reflection activity affects the depth of reflection and facilitates the transfer of learning. The research is reflective, based on the findings from the Action Learning Management Practicum, a 3^rd year paper at Massey University, New Zealand. The initial reflections at the end of the course generally went no deeper than students “noticing”, or “making sense” of the experiences. With the benefit of distance and time away from the course, the students' reflection was deep and insightful. The findings suggest that the post-course reflection activity enables participants to “make meaning” from their experiences with the benefit of time and distance from the initial post-course reflection, thus enhancing the transfer of learning. The article argues for an extension and adaptation to Kolb's “Experiential Learning Cycle” model in relation to the time of reflection based on the empirical evidence provided.     

How do doctoral students experience supervision?

Supervision has been shown to have a high impact on doctoral students' development. However, little is known about how students perceive not only negative but also positive doctoral experiences, as well as their strategies for dealing with perceived problematic situations. The aim of this study is to analyse and relate doctoral students' significant supervision experiences to the strategies they use to cope with these experiences when they perceive them as challenging or negative. A total of 1173 doctoral students from different research-intensive Spanish universities responded to four open-ended questions about their most significant experiences in their doctoral journey, associated feelings and strategies to deal with them. We identified a total of 223 experiences related to supervision that were distributed into five categories: 1) central prerequisites for supervision, 2) supervisor choice, 3) supervision of the research process, 4) coaching and 5) project management. The results showed three distinct ways, as reported by the students, of handling the perceived negative supervision experiences: 1) no strategy, 2) local strategy and 3) regulatory strategy. The results suggest that analysing both positive and negative experiences may better capture variability in students' supervision experiences. A relation between experiences with supervision and students' satisfaction was also detected.     

Using educational games and simulation software in a computer science course: learning achievements and student flow experiences

This study investigates how educational games impact on students' academic performance and multimedia flow experiences in a computer science course. A curriculum consists of five basic learning units, that is, the stack, queue, sort, tree traversal, and binary search tree, was conducted for 110 university students during one semester. Two groups of students participated in learning activities: the experimental group was instructed using the gaming method; and the control group was instructed using the non-gaming method. During the study, tests, a survey, and interviews were conducted with students. The evaluation results for academic performance and multimedia flow experiences show that compared to the non-gaming method, incorporating the gaming method into the learning process can enhance students' academic performance and multimedia flow experiences. The results also indicated that there is a non-significant and positive relationship between students' academic performance and multimedia flow experiences.     

Educational Standards: Mapping Who We Are and Are to Become

Educational technology supports meaningful learning and enables the presentation of spatial and dynamic images, which portray relationships among complex concepts. The Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) involves media-rich software for simulation and visualization in freshman physics carried out in a specially redesigned classroom to facilitate group interaction. These technology-based learning materials are especially useful in electromagnetism to help students conceptualize phenomena and processes. This study analyzes the effects of the unique learning environment of the TEAL project on students' cognitive and affective outcomes. The assessment of the project included examining students' conceptual understanding before and after studying electromagnetism in a media-rich environment. We also investigated the effect of this environment on students' preferences regarding the various teaching methods. As part of the project, we developed pre- and posttests consisting of conceptual questions from standardized tests, as well as questions designed to assess the effect of visualizations and experiments. The research population consisted of 811 undergraduate students. It consisted of a small- and a large-scale experimental groups and a control group. TEAL students improved their conceptual understanding of the subject matter to a significantly higher extent than their control group peers. A majority of the students in the small-scale experiment noted that they would recommend the TEAL course to fellow students, indicating the benefits of interactivity, visualization, and hands-on experiments, which the technology helped enable. In the large-scale implementation students expressed both positive and negative attitudes in the course survey.     

Shifting Engagements in Figured Worlds: Middle School Mathematics Students' Participation in an Architectural Design Project

Project-based curricula have the potential to engage students' interests. But how do students become interested in the goals of a project? This article documents how a group of 8th-grade students participated in an architectural design project called the Antarctica Project. The project is based on the imaginary premise that students need to design a research station in Antarctica. This premise is meant to provide a meaningful context for learning mathematics. Using ethnography and discourse analysis, the article investigates students' engagement with the imaginary premise and curricular tasks during the 7-week project. A case study consisting of scenes from main phases of the project shows how the students took on concerns and responsibilities associated with the figured world proposed by the Antarctica Project and how this shaped their approaches to mathematical tasks (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998). Participating in the figured world of Antarctica and evaluating situations within this world was important for how students used mathematics meaningfully to solve problems. Curricular tasks and classroom activities that facilitated students in assuming and shifting between roles relevant to multiple figured worlds (i.e., of the classroom, Antarctica, and mathematics) helped them engage in the diverse intentions of curricular activities.     

Medical students' perceptions and performance in an online regional anatomy course during the Covid-19 pandemic

The present study evaluated the students' psychological well-being, experiences, performance, and perception of learning regional anatomy remotely. A regional anatomy remote learning curriculum was designed and learning materials were delivered virtually to 120 undergraduate medical students at Jinan University, China. All the students consented and voluntarily participated in this study by completing self-administered online questionnaires including the Zung's Self-Rating Anxiety and Depression Scales at the beginning and end of the learning session. A subset participated in focus group discussions. Most of the students (90.0%) positively evaluated the current distance learning model. More than 80% were satisfied with the content arrangement and coverage. Many students preferred virtual lectures (68.2%) and videos showing dissections (70.6%) during the distance learning sessions. However, writing laboratory reports and case-based learning were the least preferred modes of learning as they were only preferred by 23.2% and 14.1% of the students, respectively. There was no significant lockdown-related anxiety or depression reported by students using depression and anxiety scales as well as feedback from focus group discussions. The surveyed students' confidence scores in distance learning were significantly higher after 5 weeks than at the beginning of the session (3.05 ± 0.83 vs. 3.70 ± 0.71, P < 0.05). Furthermore, the present results showed no significant differences between the current group's academic performance in the unit tests as well as the final overall evaluation for different parts of the course compared to that of the previous year's cohort. The findings above were congruent with focus group discussion data that the use of the online teaching platform for regional anatomy significantly improved the students' confidence in virtual and self-directed learning and did not negatively affect their academic performance.     

The Influence of Service Learning on Students' Personal and Social Development

Abstract. An explanatory methods design was used to evaluate the influence of a service learning course on learning, personal, and social outcomes for service learning (n = 142) students. These students showed improvements in diversity and political awareness, community self-efficacy, and civic engagement scores from the beginning to the end of the semester. In addition, the students' academic learning, personal and interpersonal development, and community engagement were detected as the major benefits from engaging in service learning. The findings of this study suggest that service learning contributes to students' academic learning and personal and social development through social-emotional processes.     

What a difference mentoring makes: service learning and engagement for college students

Colleges are increasingly interested in ways to better engage students in their academic careers. This article reports 20 college students' experiences as mentors for at‐risk fourth‐graders through a mentoring program called The Learning Connection (TLC), run by the Community Services Office at Moravian College. The study describes students' voluntary participation in service learning activities as a source of student engagement, the characteristics of the TLC mentoring program, the process by which student mentors reported their experiences over the course of the academic year, and the benefits of the mentoring program through the eyes of the college student mentors. At the beginning of the mentoring experience, mentors reported that the primary reasons for mentoring were to make a difference in a child's life and supplement classroom learning. At the end of the academic year, mentors reported that mentoring taught them important lessons about children, themselves, community work and the value of mentoring. Mentor feedback supports mentoring, specifically, and service learning, generally, as a source of student engagement for college students.     

Evoked prior experiences in first-year university student learning

In this article, we focus on three aspects of students' prior experiences of learning: evoked conceptions of learning, evoked motivation and evoked self-efficacy. We show how, for a first-year undergraduate population, these three aspects of evoked prior experience relate to students' approaches to learning and their perceptions of the learning environment as well as to their previous schooling, their gender and the broad discipline area in which they are studying. In doing so, we confirm that evoked prior experiences are distinct and measurable and can be used to better understand the ways in which students experience learning in higher education.     

The Relationship between Students' Connections to Out‐of‐School Experiences and Factors Associated with Science Learning

This study examined the relationship between students' out‐of‐school experiences and various factors associated with science learning. Participants were 1,014 students from two urban high schools (secondary schools). They completed a survey questionnaire and science assessment describing their science learning experiences across contexts and science understanding. Using multilevel statistical modelling, accounting for the multilevel structure of the data with students (Level 1) assigned to teachers (Level 2), the results indicated that controlling for student and classroom factors, students' ability to make connections between in‐school and out‐of‐school science experiences was associated with positive learning outcomes such as achievement, interest in science, careers in science, self‐efficacy, perseverance, and effort in learning science. Teacher practice connecting to students' out‐of‐school experiences was negatively associated with student achievement but has no association with other outcome measures. The mixed results found in this study alert us to issues and opportunities concerning the integration of students' out‐of‐school experiences to classroom instruction, and ultimately improving our understanding of science learning across contexts.     

Do teachers' achievement goals and self-efficacy beliefs matter for students’ learning experiences? Evidence from two studies on perceived teaching quality and emotional experiences

Although teacher motivation is posited to matter for students' learning experiences, this remains largely uninvestigated, particularly in higher education. In two studies, we analyzed the role of higher education teachers' achievement goals and self-efficacy for students' learning experiences. In Study 1 (k = 166 teachers, n = 2,106 students), we assessed teachers' motivations at the semester start, and students' course-specific perceptions of teaching quality (overall rating, learning) and emotions (joy, boredom) at the semester end. Latent multilevel modeling indicated favorable associations for teachers' self-efficacy, but not for their goals. In Study 2 (k = 96 teachers, n = 16,009 students), we assessed the same constructs and measured students' learning experiences weekly regarding 828 specific course sessions. Additionally, we included teachers’ session-specific motivations. Results replicated the effects of self-efficacy on the teacher-level and suggested that performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals primarily matter on the level of specific sessions. This affirms the relevance of teacher motivations and illuminates the importance of their specificity.     

Mexican Immigrant Students' Schooling Experiences and the Construction of Disengagement in Mathematics Learning Contexts

Through an ethnographic and narrative inquiry approach, this study draws attention to the plight of 4 Mexican immigrant high school students and their pursuit of education and mathematics learning. Their elementary school stories and experiences show a deep relationship between the learning contexts in which these students largely do school (i.e., an English learner context) and the nature of students' relationships (or lack thereof) with teachers and their process of disengagement from mathematics learning and school. Doing school is used to convey a key distinction from simply attending school. Attending school assumes uniformity/neutrality in how students might experience schooling and is a passive way of describing student participation in school. Doing school implies that students make sense of and respond to their schooling experiences in different ways and accounts for how these experiences are shaped and/or influenced by other forces (e.g., structural forces, social forces) in and out of school.