Consistency in learning strategies

This article examines the reported use of surface and deep level learning strategies by first-year student teachers at an Australian College of Advanced Education. Students responded to a brief questionnaire measuring the learning strategies they adopted in different assessment situations. The article describes the development of this questionnaire, its factorial structure, and the predictive validity of its factors. High levels of achievement, on both objective tests and essay assessments, were found to be associated with the reported use of deep strategies. Three-mode factor analyses revealed high levels of consistency in the strategies reported for various learning contexts, implying that these were stylistic behaviours rather than strategic approaches to learning which were situation specific. The notion of consistency in learning strategies was considered in light of recent literature suggesting a greater extent of cognitive flexibility.     

Collaborative learning in university grammar courses

An innovative collaborative learning model, used for the teaching of modern English grammar classes, combined elements from peer teaching and cooperative learning. This model is innovative for higher education since it involved students and instructor co-laboring to master knowledge as a socially held phenomenon without any authoritarian leveling. It involved: 1) Student lectures explaining assigned readings from the text(s); 2) Daily quizzes of the material from the assigned reading; and 3) Student grading of the daily quizzes and exams with the instructor checking for accuracy. Student attitudinal surveys revealed positive perceptions of students on the whole toward the conduct of the class. An even greater positive aspect of the collaborative learning model used here is the attainment of a high level of mastery of the subject matter and almost perfect classroom attendance.He obtained his Ed.D. at the University of Michigan in 1963. His major areas of interest include the teaching of written composition and TESL.     

Variation in learning orchestration in university biology courses

The manner in which students manage their learning activities in response to perceived task or course demands describes their 'learning orchestration'. This paper addresses relations between a student's learning orchestration and their learning outcome as a function of prior understanding in first year university biology courses. A cluster analysis of 272 Australian students revealed three different forms of learning orchestration - understanding, reproducing and disintegrated. In one cluster, students felt their environment was more supportive of deep approaches to learning and they adopted deeper approaches. They were the students who had the better prior understanding and they did best on measures of meaningful learning. However, less than one third of the students showed this coherent (and desirable) learning pattern. A second cluster of students showed a coherent but less desirable learning orchestration focused on more surface perceptions and approaches and they had significantly worse learning gains and achievement scores. The third cluster of students saw the learning environment as being more supportive of deep approaches, but, unlike the other groups, they did not adopt an approach consistent with their perception. We describe these students as having a disintegrated learning orchestration. A key finding is that the students with this orchestration also have very poor levels of prior knowledge and also have very poor achievement outcomes.     

大学英语学习的策略研究

在二语习得领域里,学习策略是一项重要的研究内容,通过定量分析可以给大学英语教学带来重要的帮助。基于此,本文对青海师范大学中学生的英语学习策略进行实证研究以便对教学有所启示。     

大学数学专业课程教与学模式的改革研究

传统的大学数学专业课程的教与学模式比较单一,存在理论脱离实践的现象。本文主要对大学数学专业课程教育学模式改革的意义、存在的问题及其具体实施进行了阐述。     

Relationships between motivational strategies and cognitive learning in distance education courses

This study examines the relationships between students’ academic levels, the use of motivational regulation strategies, and cognitive learning strategies. A total of 141 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in online distance courses participated in the study. The findings show that students use different motivational regulation strategies and cognitive learning strategies depending on their academic levels. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses using two dependent variables (i.e., surface level learning strategy and deep processing level learning strategy) indicate that a surface level learning strategy (i.e., rehearsal) and deep processing level strategies (i.e., elaboration, organization, and critical thinking) are predicted by different sets of motivational regulation strategies after controlling for academic level and age. The results provide distance educators and instructional designers with practical suggestions on how to support undergraduate and graduate students’ motivational needs and further promote their use of cognitive learning strategies in online distance education programs in higher education.     

Internationalising a learning environment instrument for evaluating transnational online university courses

This article describes the adaptation and validation of the Constructivist OnLine Learning Environment Survey (COLLES) for use in the transnational higher education context. As higher education becomes a more global phenomenon, ‘borderless’ education, either online or by distance education, is becoming a reality and there is a need for remote evaluation of course delivery and student learning. Curtin University of Technology is managing supported online delivery of Business Studies Degree and Diploma courses to four partner institutions of the African Virtual University, an initiative based in Nairobi, Kenya. Evaluation of students’ learning has included an online survey about the provision of resources and the quality of the learning environment in the various computer-based classrooms. Embedded in this instrument has been the adapted COLLES, providing a concomitant opportunity to test the properties and usefulness of the learning environment instrument. Problematic issues surrounding adaptation of the instrument have included the consequences of modifying the wording and establishing or confirming the meaning of the latent constructs in partially online courses and for transnational students. The process of establishing the validity and reliability of the scales is discussed.     

基于学习风格和学习策略的大学英语教学模式研究

大学英语教学是建立在中学英语教学之上的。建立在这种基础上的大学英语教学,不仅应拓宽他们的词汇量,还应增高他们的英语口语能力、阅读能力和写作能力。由此,作为主观层面的能力构建,就应围绕着"学习风格"和"学习策略"来展开。基于本国教育大环境使然,无法照搬它国的先进教学方式。因此,应从环境适应性的角度来构建具体的教学模式。     

浅析大学英语学生学习现状及应对策略

本文就我国大学英语课程中学生的学习现状进行了分析,并就如何解决提出了相关的应对策略,希望对学生学习大学英语,提高英语能力有所帮助。     

基于微信的大学通识课程学习平台研究

通识课程是目前我国高等教育课程体系中的重要组成部分,但其教学效果良莠不齐。针对通识课程实施过程中出现的问题,在分析微信教育功能的基础上,探讨了微信引入通识课程教学的模式。以"化妆"通识课程为例设计了一个微信学习平台并加以应用,证明了该平台能够有效提高通识课程教学效果。     

Modelling and coaching of relevant metacognitive strategies for enhancing university students' learning

Recent developments in strategy instruction research suggest that learning in a particular discipline is enhanced by guiding students through the development of content-relevant metacognitive strategies. The potential of such an instructional approach for university settings is discussed in this paper, and is supported with evidence from an experimental field study. The study, conducted with 28 experimental and 28 matched control students over 13 weeks of an introductory computer science course, involved (a) students' development of a metacognitive strategy relevant for computer programming, (b) modelling and coaching procedures with complete explanations about strategy use, and (c) a socially supportive learning context. The instructional method had significant short-term and long-term effects on students' cognitive and affective learning outcomes.     

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Little is known about the relative effects of post‐secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course‐intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high‐intervention) or (3) use services only as needed (low‐intervention). Pre‐ and post‐test comparisons revealed improvements in academic self‐efficacy and academic resourcefulness for students in the course‐ and high‐intervention groups. The course‐intervention group also showed decreases in their failure attributions to bad luck and increases in their general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills in comparison to the high‐intervention group and had significantly higher year‐end GPAs in comparison to the low‐intervention group. Here we find positive outcomes for students with learning disabilities taking a course that teaches post‐secondary learning and academic skills.     

Framing student evaluations of university learning and teaching: discursive strategies and textual outcomes

Evaluation in higher education is an evolving social practice; that is, it involves what people, institutions and broader systems do and say, how they do and say it, what they value, the effects of these practices and values, and how meanings are ascribed. The textual products (verbal, written, visual and gestural) that inform and are produced by, for and through evaluative practices are important, as they promulgate particular kinds of meanings and values in specific contexts. This paper reports on an exploratory study that sought to investigate, using discourse analysis, the types of evaluative practices that were ascribed value, and the student responses that ensued, in different evaluative instruments. Findings indicate that when a reflective approach is taken to evaluation, students’ responses are more considered, they interrogate their own engagement in the learning context and they are more likely to demonstrate reconstructive thought. These findings have implications for reframing evaluation as reflective learning.     

高校计算机基础课程分层教学研究

国之振兴,教育为先。在计算机及网络技术飞高速发展的今天,计算机专业教师应加深对新形势下计算机学科教育的思考、认识和理解,以便更好地为学生服务。[1]本文从高校计算机基础教育的培养目标出发,首先分析了目前计算机基础教育存在的问题,然后就如何应用分层教学,提高教学质量,培养学生的理论、应用能力,进行了一些探索研究。     

Coeducation and factors affecting choice of university courses

One of the arguments in favour of single-sex schools for girls is that they encourage the study of traditionally male-dominated subjects. To test this hypothesis, the association between coeducation and faculty choice is examined for students from private schools entering Monash University in 1990 and 1992. No significant association is found for girls at non-Catholic independent schools or boys or girls at Catholic schools. For boys at non-Catholic independent schools, coeducation is associated with higher chance of studying science-based courses at university. There is a similar, but not statistically significant, association for girls at Catholic schools.     

Collaborative learning activities in graduate courses

Structured collaborative learning activities undertaken in two graduate level classes are described. Student and instructor perspectives on these activities are explored based on data collected through interviews, open-ended evaluation instruments, and journals. Four perspectives on collaborative learning emerged from the data: (1) student expectations; (2) instructor tolerance for ambiguity and flexibility; (3) student reliance on authority; and, (4) evaluation of student learning. Suggestions for implementing collaborative groups in graduate courses are presented.Julie A. Hughes Caplow is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Higher Education Administration. Her areas of interest include postsecondary instructional strategies, faculty beliefs about teaching and knowledge, and postsecondary curricula. CarolAnne M. Kardash is an Associate Professor of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Educational Psychology. Her areas of interest include text processing, reading comprehension, and instructional and learning strategies.