What the Student Does: teaching for enhanced learning

Many teachers see major difficulties in maintaining academic standards in today's larger and more diversified classes. The problem becomes more tractable if learning outcomes are seen as more a function of students’ activities than of their fixed characteristics. The teacher's job is then to organise the teaching/learning context so that all students are more likely to use the higher order learning processes which “academic” students use spontaneously. This may be achieved when all components are aligned, so that objectives express the kinds of understanding that we want from students, the teaching context encourages students to undertake the learning activities likely to achieve those understandings, and the assessment tasks tell students what activities are required of them, and tell us how well the objectives have been met. Two examples of aligned teaching systems are described: problem‐based learning and the learning portfolio.     

Aligning learning, teaching and assessment using the web: an evaluation of pedagogic approaches

Biggs has argued that teaching is most effective when it supports those activities appropriate to understanding the curriculum objectives. This paper uses Biggs' argument to analyse how a UK higher education initiative, the Chic project, has promoted learning and teaching innovation that supports collaborative, inclusive learning by integrating on-line and face-to-face delivery. Methods by which assessments, teaching processes and learning objectives can be aligned are discussed.
The author identifies two project approaches to the utilisation of on-line materials within curriculum design. Staff and student questionnaires and interviews are evaluated in order to assess whether these processes promote a reflexive approach to learning. Such reflexivity depends upon stimulating the learner's emotional involvement and active engagement in undertaking achievable tasks.
The paper argues that an integrated approach to on-line learning and teaching can be used to promote students' critical use, understanding and application of materials. Moreover, it is argued that this can be liberating for staff and students as long as there is a shared vision and experience upon which to act. Promoting motivation within a supportive and meaningful context is fundamental.     

Keeping excitement in teaching

It is imperative for those of us who teach to find ways to stay renewed and refreshed over the long term. There are at least five ways through which most of us can find new energy and excitement in our teaching. One is to focus more genuinely on our students and learn more about them as persons and as colleagues- and to listen more carefully to what they say. Another is to inform them of the important objectives of a course and allow students to assume more of the responsibility for learning. A third tip is to use a greater variety of teaching methods, particularly ones that get students more actively involved in learning. Two additional ways to add excitement to teaching are to teach new courses and to plan periodic activities away from teaching. As John Gardner has recently stated so eloquently, it is our faith in human possibilities that is the generative element in such activities as leading, teaching, and guiding students.His office offers a wide range of instructional and professional services for faculty and academic administrators in the University's thirteen schools and colleges.     

Motivation and ability: which students use online learning and what influence does it have on their achievement?

There has been much recent research examining online learning in universities, but two questions seem to have been largely overlooked in this context: (1) Which students voluntarily utilise web‐based learning; and (2) Does this use influence their academic achievement? The current study aimed to determine whether the approaches to studying, ability, age, and gender of 110 undergraduates in the second year of a psychology degree predicted the extent to which they utilised online learning using Web Course Tools (WebCT) in support of a core Biological Psychology unit. Data were obtained from WebCT's student tracking system, Entwistle and Ramsden's 18‐item Approaches to Studying Inventory (1983) and academic records. Multiple linear regressions and discriminant function analysis were used to examine whether individual differences predicted WebCT use, while analysis of covariance determined whether web use influenced academic achievement. The number of hits, length of access, and use of the bulletin board was predicted by age, with older students using WebCT more. These factors were also influenced by ability and achievement orientation. The degree of participation in self‐assessment was not predicted by student variables, but, of those that repeated an online quiz, improvement was more likely in those with lower achievement orientation. Only bulletin board use influenced achievement, with those posting messages outperforming those not using, or passively using bulletin boards. However, because individual differences will determine the extent to which students utilise this facility, it is suggested that future research should focus on developing online learning environments that incorporate activities with both a beneficial influence on learning and appeal to a wide student population.     

An exploration of Biggs’ constructive alignment in course design and its impact on students’ learning approaches

This paper investigates whether instructors’ adoption of constructive alignment has any impact on university students’ learning approaches, which are highly correlated with students’ achievement of learning outcomes. A multi-method model with a combination of qualitative and quantitative design was adopted, using document analysis, interviews and survey. The analysis of covariance results suggested that regardless of individual differences, students would adjust their learning approaches and study behaviours in response to the classroom teaching and learning environment. Students in more ‘constructively aligned courses’ were more likely to adopt deep learning approaches and less likely to use surface learning approaches in their study of a particular course.     

Analyzing service-learning reflections through Fink's taxonomy

Reflection is an increasingly essential component of experience-based learning in higher education to encourage students to draw connections between theoretical and practical knowledge and experiences. This qualitative study examines the reflections of undergraduate students in a service-learning course for secondary English teacher candidates. The authors use Fink's taxonomy of significant learning as a lens through which to examine the learning within and critical natures of students’ reflections. Findings from this study suggest that to consider and extend students’ academic content knowledge and to move students toward new and critical understandings of their service work, reflections should direct students toward more explicit considerations of academic course content over a period of time. To help students write critical reflections that achieve both academic and personal growth learning goals, the authors recommend explicitly teaching the reflective mode, introducing students to Fink's taxonomy, and instructing students to include course content in their reflections.     

Editorial

The first article in this issue raises some fascinating issues that relate to my own background in research into student learning and experience of courses in conventional higher education. Richardson, Long and Woodley have administered the Academic Engagement Form', used widely in colleges in the USA, and the 'Course Experience Questionnaire', used widely in universities in Australia, to distance learning students. John Richardson and various colleagues have previously shown that these questionnaires, separately, work as well in distance learning contexts as they do in conventional contexts: that is, they identify the same factors as components of students' experience, and the same factors relating to overall perceptions of quality of experience, as in conventional contexts. Of the many findings reported in the study reported in this issue of Open Learning, two stand out for me. First, academic engagement is shown to play a key role in students' perceptions of academic quality: engaged students perceive their course to be of higher quality. This does not tell us if students who are happy with their courses become more engaged or if those who are engaged become happier with their courses, however, merely that they are related. 'Engagement' here encompasses both social and academic engagement as defined in Tinto's model of student retention. Second, students' overall perceptions of academic quality are mediated by their perceptions of their tutors. The authors conclude: '... the attitudes and behaviours of tutors are crucial to students' perceptions of the academic quality of courses in distance education'. In conventional contexts the item on the Course Experience Questionnaire that relates most closely to student performance concerns the quality of teacher feedback, not teaching, and this is easy to understand in a distance context. The methodology of this paper (relying on factor analysis of questionnaires and multivariate analysis of the relationship between questionnaire scale scores and background variables such as age, gender, educational qualifications, workload and hearing status) may be relatively unfamiliar to readers of Open Learning. What is perhaps more familiar is that such an analysis adds to similar conclusions about the centrality of the tutorial role in ODL students' learning from very different kinds of study (such as of the relationship between tutorial attendance and student performance). There is a growing body of evidence that the same variables are involved in student perceptions of courses and of academic quality in distance learning contexts as in conventional contexts.     

高职学生学习动机影响因素及教育措施

学习动机是推动学生从事学习活动的内部动力。学习动机水平会影响学生学业成就。研究发现,学生的需要及价值观、学习目标的自我设置、自我认知倾向、教学中的一系列因素（包括教学内容的选择和组织、教学方式及条件、教学氛围、对学生的结果的考核评定）、社会文化环境等会影响学生的学习动机水平。加强对高职学生的主流价值观教育,指导学生做好职业生涯规划、恰当设置学习目标,合理组织教学活动,帮助学生建立积极的自我概念、提高自我效能感有利于增强高职学生学习的动机。     

Improving course evaluations to improve instruction and complex learning in higher education

Recent research has touted the benefits of learner-centered instruction, problem-based learning, and a focus on complex learning. Instructors often struggle to put these goals into practice as well as to measure the effectiveness of these new teaching strategies in terms of mastery of course objectives. Enter the course evaluation, often a standardized tool that yields little practical information for an instructor, but is nonetheless utilized in making high-level career decisions, such as tenure and monetary awards to faculty. The present researchers have developed a new instrument to measure teaching and learning quality (TALQ). In the current study of 464 students in 12 courses, if students agreed that their instructors used First Principles of Instruction and also agreed that they experienced academic learning time (ALT), then students were about 5 times more likely to achieve high levels of mastery of course objectives and 26 times less likely to achieve low levels of mastery, according to independent instructor assessments. TALQ can measure improvements in use of First Principles in teaching and course design. The feedback from this instrument can assist teachers who wish to implement the recommendation made by Kuh et al. (2007) that universities and colleges should focus their assessment efforts on factors that influence student success.     

The influence of extracurricular activities on middle school students’ science learning in China

ABSTRACT

Informal science learning has been found to have effects on students’ science learning. Through the use of secondary data from a national assessment of 7410 middle school students in China, this study explores the relationship among five types of extracurricular science activities, learning interests, academic self-concept, and science achievement. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the influence of students’ self-chosen and school-organised extracurricular activities on science achievement through mediating interests and the academic self-concept. Chi-square tests were used to determine whether there was an opportunity gap in the student’s engagement in extracurricular activities. The students’ volunteer and school-organised participation in extracurricular science activities had a positive and indirect influence on their science achievement through the mediating variables of their learning interests and academic self-concept. However, there were opportunity gaps between different groups of students in terms of school location, family background, and especially the mother’s education level. Students from urban areas with better-educated mothers or higher socioeconomic status are more likely to access diverse science-related extracurricular activities.     

让大学英语精读课富有吸引力

精读课是大学英语课程中一门重要的综合基础课。教师要采用生动有效的教学方法引导学生积极学习,从而实现教学目标。教师可通过阅读前的预热环节引发学生的阅读欲望;分三个层次引导其逐步理解课文;科学选择语言点．精讲多练：在课文结束后,开展适当的活动,以拓展学生的思维及综合学习能力．     

Reflecting on Practice: using learning journals in higher and continuing education

The purpose of this study is to report on the use of learning journals as vehicles for encouraging critical reflection among non-traditional students and to compare variances with studies among traditional students. An objective of the study was to understand how adult students in a 'technical' computer class responded to the requirement for learning journals. Qualitative research focused on whether learning journals prove to be an effective teaching tool in science-based, adult learning. The study was conducted at Columbia University's Computer Technology programme in Continuing Education. Results suggest that non-traditional students are more skeptical than traditional students about using learning journals and more likely to use them as study tools. An implication of this study is that student perception and skepticism of the assignment can affect the objective of developing reflective thinking. This implication stresses the need to account for student perception in studies on learning journals and critical reflection.     

The effect of using augmented reality and sensing technology to teach magnetism in high school physics

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of MagAR, an instructional material for teaching magnetism using augmented reality and sensing technology, on students’ academic achievement and learning process, and to identify students’ views about augmented reality. An embedded mixed-method approach was employed in this study. The study’s results suggest that AR learning environments are effective in teaching physics, and facilitate learning by adding visual and textual components to the learning process. In learning activities integrated with AR, the students were observed to participate more, appeared more comfortable, were able to answer questions related to the subject more easily, had increased self-confidence and exhibited higher academic achievement levels in physics. The results suggest that AR should not be considered as an independent learning environment for the teaching of physics, but would be more effective as supplementary to the laboratory environment.     

本科阶段法学专业信息检索教育体系的建构

当前,中国法学教育改革已全面展开,信息检索作为法学专业本科学生最基础的技能,在法学教育改革中显得越来越重要,课程内容的增加、教学模式的变化、学生学习目标的多元化都对学生信息检索能力提出了进一步的要求。然而法学信息检索的传统教育体系却存在着明显的问题:专业针对性不强、未能区分学习层次、教师专业性不强。因此对法学信息检索教育体系进行改革势在必行。结合专业实际,系统化的信息检索体系应当包括:从通识教育到专业课程教育的教学体系、与学习层次相适应的课程体系、应用型的教学目标、互动型的教学方法、信息化的教学手段等五个方面的内容。     

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: the use of personal experience in theoretical and analytical approaches

Abstract

This article is drawn from my research work, where I have interviewed students on a combined women's studies course through the 3 years of their degrees. I worked with 14 students in total, mainly non‐traditional entrants. The women combined their women's studies programmes with a range of other subjects (including literature, law, sociology, health studies, psychology and more), so giving me good comparisons between a range of academic subjects. My research has indicated that although it is not always recognised as academic study, the women have found the use of personal experience both challenging and exciting in developing the tools needed for theoretical and critical analytical approaches. I will conclude by suggesting that to take account of gender issues, as well as considering other marginalised groups, subject areas need to develop approaches to learning and teaching which encourage the use of personal experience in enabling students to engage in theoretical and analytical approaches in their study.     

Student learning and perceptions of the academic environment

This paper examines the effects of the organisation of curricula, teaching, and assessment on student learning and looks at the different demands which different academic environments make on their students. After a brief review of research into learning contexts in higher education, data from a course perceptions questionnaire are presented. The principal dimensions which students themselves use to characterise academic environments are identified. The perceptions of students in six departments at one British university are compared; it is concluded that students in different subject areas see themselves to be studying in markedly different environments. The results also suggest students' evaluations of the teaching and the courses in each department. Data from the course perceptions questionnaire are supported and amplified by a preliminary analysis of results from semi-structured interviews of students in the six departments. The most important factor to emerge from the item analysis — the degree to which students feel that their teachers provide a facilitant atmosphere for learning — is confirmed. Students' perceptions of their departments and their teachers are shown to exert important influences on their approaches to learning. It is also suggested that a student's perception of a particular learning task influences the level at which he tackles it.     

成果导向的区域经济学研究生课程教学改革研究

基于成果导向理念,将单一的授课过程整合为“教师知识传授”和“学生论文创作”两线并行的过程,从课程设计思路、课程内容体系、课程授课方法和课程成绩考评四个方面探讨并总结如何对研究生区域经济学课程教学进行改革,最终目的是通过过程控制来保证学生完成一篇较高质量的论文,并能够发表在一定水准的专业期刊上。同时在这一过程中通过“干中学”的方式培养研究生的学术研究能力。     

苦学、混日子或放弃：高考改革背景下县中农村高中生的日常学习

近年来,以农村生源为主的县中升学状况不容乐观。许多研究将其归咎于超级中学抢夺县中的优质生源和优秀教师,鲜有研究留意到高考改革背景下农村高中生的日常学习行动。本文借助布迪厄的实践理论分析河南省一所县中农村学生在高考改革后“学”的常规实践：苦学、混日子或放弃。由于家庭文化资源匮乏、学校教学方式僵化,苦学成为农村学生竞逐升学机会的基本途径。然而,随着高考改革越来越强调活学活用,农村学生的苦学成为死读书,很难在高考中脱颖而出。在强烈感知到苦学效用有限时,他们诉诸混日子或弃考。本文指出,扭转县中升学困局有赖于调整农村学生付出学业努力的方式,而改变学校僵化的教学方式至关重要。     

Contract cheating in Australian higher education: a comparison of non-university higher education providers and universities

Abstract

This article reports on one aspect of a nationally funded research project on contract cheating in Australian higher education. The project explored students' and educators’ experiences of contract cheating, and the contextual factors that may influence it. This article reports the key findings from non-university higher education providers (NUHEPs). It compares survey responses from 961 students and 91 educators at four NUHEPs with previously reported findings from eight universities (14,086 students and 1,147 staff). NUHEP and university students report engaging in contract cheating in similar ways. However, while NUHEP educators spend more time teaching academic literacies and discussing contract cheating, NUHEP students are 12 times more likely than university students to report use of a professional academic writing service. Both NUHEP and university educators require systematic professional development regarding the relationship between the teaching and learning environment and students’ contract cheating behaviour. NUHEPs need to be cognisant of students’ vulnerability to commercial contract cheating services, and ensure they have access to timely academic and social support.     

Homework involvement among Hong Kong primary school students

One component of the curriculum reform in Hong Kong focuses on the use of homework in consolidating learning, deepening understanding and constructing knowledge. This study examines the profile of Hong Kong primary school students' homework involvement, and investigates the relationships between time involvement and academic attributes, namely interest in homework, interest in academic subjects, academic efficacy, and efficacy for self-regulated learning. The sample comprised 2,361 primary school students representing all six grade levels in Hong Kong. Data was collected using questionnaires and homework diaries. Results showed heavy homework involvement among primary school students in Hong Kong, especially at the senior primary level. Differential patterns across levels were observed for the relationship between homework involvement and academic attributes. Specifically, junior primary students' study-related interests and efficacies were found to decline with increasing time involvement, whereas inverted U-shape relationships were observed among senior primary students. There was concern for students with high time involvement as they received more homework and they worked slower. They were less likely to perceive the positive functions of homework, and showed poorer study-related interests and efficacy beliefs. The findings of this study provide crucial information for school personnel and educators in Hong Kong in developing homework strategies and policies that enhance teaching and learning.