Instructional Efficiency of Tutoring in an Outreach Gene Technology Laboratory

Our research objective focused on examining the instructional efficiency of tutoring as a form of instructional change as opposed to a non-tutoring approach in an outreach laboratory. We designed our laboratory based on cognitive load (CL) theory. Altogether, 269 twelfth-graders participated in our day-long module Genetic Fingerprinting. In a quasi-experimental design, the control group (n?=?121) followed the non-tutoring approach previously used, while the treatment group (n?=?148) followed the newly developed tutoring approach. Each tutor was in charge of two student work groups and recorded the tutoring activities requested by the tutees throughout the day. We measured the students’ invested mental effort (as an index of CL), cognitive achievement (in a pre-post-follow-up design), and the students’ cooperation in their work groups as well as calculated the student instructional involvement (as a motivational variable). Additionally, we examined which aspects of the hands-on phases were of particular relevance to the students’ invested mental effort. Unexpectedly, the combined mental effort and cognitive achievement data indicated that our implemented tutoring approach resulted in a lower instructional efficiency despite the relevance of tutoring for students’ mental effort invested during the experimental phases. Most of the tutor assistance was unnecessarily requested for performing the procedural steps and using the equipment. Our results indicate an assistance dilemma and consequently underscore the necessity for effective tutor preparation in outreach laboratories.     

闭区间上连续函数有最大值最小值的多种证明方法

利用数学分析中的有界性定理、Weierstrass定理、有限覆盖定理、闭区间套定理、"单调有界数列有极限"定理、上下确界定义来证明闭区间上的连续函数能取到最大、最小值。     

Teaching and Learning of Citizenship Education at the Junior Secondary Level in Botswana

This article explores some evidence about tutoring as an effective strategy to support young people’s learning. It is argued that the central goal of the tutor is to provide support for students’ learning. How the activities, relationships and skills of the tutor contribute to the achievement of this goal is then explored. The author emphasizes the tutor’s unique position in the school and how it can contribute to learning for students as individuals and in groups.     

Tutor-student interaction in undergraduate chemistry: a case of learning to make relevant distinctions of molecular structures for determining oxidation states of atoms

ABSTRACT

In this study, we explore the issues and challenges involved in supporting students’ learning to discern relevant and critical aspects of determining oxidation states of atoms in complex molecules. We present a detailed case of an interaction between three students and a tutor during a problem-solving class, using the analytical tool of practical epistemology analysis (PEA). The results show that the ability to make relevant distinctions between the different parts of a molecule for solving the problem, even with the guidance of the tutor, seemed to be challenging for students. These shifts were connected to both purposes that were specific for solving the problem at hand, and additional purposes for general learning of the subject matter, in this case how to assign oxidation states in molecules. The students sometimes could not follow the additional purposes introduced by the tutor, which made the related distinctions more confusing. Our results indicate that in order to provide adequate support and guidance for students the tutor needs to consider how to sequence, move between, and productively connect the different purposes introduced in a tutor-student interaction. One way of doing that is by first pursuing the purposes for solving the problem and then successively introduce additional, more general purposes for developing students’ learning of the subject matter studied. Further recommendations drawn from this study are discussed as well.     

Research in the Department of Education at the State University of Utrecht‡

This study concerns students’ ideas about the superposition of electric fields. Two paper‐and‐pencil questionnaires were given to university students to investigate possible obstacles to a correct use of this principle.

The results confirm an expected difficulty about Gauss's theorem, i.e., the idea that only ‘internal’ charges create a field on a given closed surface. Another more surprising finding is that students are reluctant to admit that a field can penetrate into, or go out of, an insulator, particularly because ‘charges cannot move’.

These first findings are discussed in connection with common features of students’ reasoning about mechanics and about multivariable problems. Some directions of future research are proposed.     

Pastoral Care for Senior Students: An Analysis of a Voluntary Staff Counselling Scheme in a Sixth-form College

This article is written for new and experienced tutors to review the ways in which they are supporting their students’ learning. It considers the purposes of tutoring, drawing on the voices of students themselves. The article then considers the ways in which the tutor can support the learning of young people, including academic tutoring. It concludes with some guidance for the tutor to develop their own learning about tutoring.     

A Study in Self‐assessment: tutor and students’ perceptions of performance criteria

This paper reports a study which implemented and evaluated a method of student self‐assessment. The theme of the importance of marking criteria (Orsmond et al., 1996) is developed. Pairs of first‐year undergraduate biology students were asked to complete a poster assignment on a specific aspect of nerve physiology. The study was designed to allow the evaluation of (1) student self and tutor marking for individual marking criteria; and (2) student vs student marking of their poster work for individual marking criteria. A comparison between the tutor and the student self‐assessed mark reveals how important it is to consider the individual marking criteria rather than the overall mark. These results support our findings on peer assessment reported earlier (Orsmond et al., 1996). The results also illustrate the potential pitfalls that exist when making assumptions about the degree of student/student interaction and students’ marking ability. This study supports previous work which showed that self‐assessment is extremely useful in helping students reach their learning goals, i.e. it is a strong formative educational tool and can be used in order to bring about behavioural changes in students with regard to their own learning processes.     

Explorations of the Gauss-Lucas Theorem

Abstract

The Gauss-Lucas Theorem is a classical complex analysis result that states the critical points of a single-variable complex polynomial lie inside the closed convex hull of the zeros of the polynomial. Although the result is well-known, it is not typically presented in a first course in complex analysis. The ease with which modern technology allows the plotting of zeros and critical points makes the result discoverable by students. We propose a visual investigation, followed by a series of exercises leading to different complete proofs of the theorem.     

Feedback alignment: effective and ineffective links between tutors’ and students’ understanding of coursework feedback

Tutors’ intentions when providing feedback may not be accurately perceived and acted on by students. In this study, 19 biological sciences students and six tutors were interviewed concerning the tutor’s intentions when providing specific feedback and the students’ perceptions and usage of that feedback. A phenomenological approach was used to analyse the interview data. Additionally, copies of the documented feedback were examined and the feedback style was classified. Student conceptions of the role of feedback included providing guidance, identifying what the tutor wants and giving meaning to the work to develop learning. Analysis of tutor feedback styles indicates that tutors were focussed on giving praise and correcting misunderstandings in the present assignment. Since developmental aspects of students’ learning were rarely addressed in tutor feedback, these findings suggest some misalignment in feedback provision. Tutors need to provide more guidance to students regarding the use of feedback, possibly by introducing better scaffolding and variation into their feedback.     

赋范空间中连续函数的最值性定理

文章讨论了有限维赋范空间中连续函数取得最值的一个充分条件,以及利用紧性讨论了无穷维赋范空间中连续函数的最值性定理。     

赋范空间中连续函数的最值性定理

文章讨论了有限维赋范空间中连续函数取得最值的一个充分条件,以及利用紧性讨论了无穷维赋范空间中连续函数的最值性定理。     

Being ‘at’ university: the social topologies of distance students

This paper considers how online, distance students enact the space of ‘the university’, in the context of the rise of distance education within a traditional, ‘elite’ institution. Aiming to provide insight into how students translate into distance the space of a university which has traditionally had its basis in conventional on-campus education, it locates itself within the ‘new mobilities’ paradigm (Urry in Mobilities. Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007), drawing on four different kinds of social space delineated by Mol and Law (Soc Stud Sci 24(4):641–741, 1994) and Law and Mol (Environ Plan D 19:609–621, 2001) in order to analyse narrative and visual data generated with distance students at the University of Edinburgh. The paper shows that the material campus continues to be symbolically and materially significant for a group of students who may never physically attend that campus. Distance students, we find, need their own version of the ‘spatial certainties’ of bounded, campus space. Yet, in exploring the ‘new proximities’ of online distance education, we also argue that to define institutional and academic authenticity solely in terms of this bounded, ‘regional’ space is inadequate in the face of the other topologies which also come into play throughout distance students’ accounts of what it means to be ‘at’ university.     

Case study: what supports students to improve their grades?

Abstract

This case study considers students who achieved ‘borderline’ (40–45%) grades in their first assignment on a module, but went on to markedly improve their grades over the course of the module. The students were studying nursing and social work at the UK Open University, and they were all sponsored by employers. Semi-structured telephone interviews were used to explore the experiences of the students, including the way in which they reacted to assessment feedback and how this contributed to their learning and development. Other themes that emerged from the study include the emotions experienced by the students, sometimes challenging their self-confidence and evoking feelings associated with emotional vulnerability, and the tendency for students to initially approach assessment independently, but later to create and take advantage of opportunities for social learning. The role of the tutor in helping students to prepare for assessment appears to be significant, as does the fact that students are sponsored by their employers, which provides an additional incentive to complete the module.     

The personal tutor–student relationship: student expectations and experiences of personal tutoring in higher education

The personal tutor plays a key role in the student experience at university, and personal tutoring embodies the student relationship with the university, suggesting that it has the potential to provide insights beyond that specific relationship to the institution and higher education context. A focus session with first year undergraduate students explored expectations and experiences of personal tutoring from the student perspective. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore students’ lived experiences, and identified superordinate themes of expectations, experiences and relationships, with cluster themes including independence and authenticity. Developing a positive and genuine relationship with the personal tutor was found to ‘buffer’ against some of the first year challenges and contribute towards a sense of belonging. Importantly, this study provides evidence that experiencing poor personal tutoring is worse than not having a personal tutor at all, as this can lead to students experiencing strong negative emotions and re-evaluating their decision to go to university. Implications of these findings in the current higher education context of fee-paying students and competing institutional demands are discussed.     

Taylor’s polynomial and infinitesimals

Taylor’s theorem in analysis provides a way of approximating an n+1-times differentiable real function by an nth degree polynomial in a neighbourhood of a point x ₀. The usefulness of the theorem lies in the fact that if the bounds on |f ⁽ⁿ⁺¹⁾(x)| are known, then the error introduced by the polynomial approximation can be estimated. So while Taylor’s theorem provides an extremely useful manner of approximating the given function to a desired degree of precision in a neighbourhood of a given point, it says nothing about the nature of the polynomial approximation itself, and intuitive arguments are often offered to explain why the derivatives of f must figure in the coefficients of such a polynomial. In what follows, we shall attempt a rigorous explanation of the sense in which such a polynomial is the ‘best’ approximation of the given function.     

Feedback on feedback: eliciting learners’ responses to written feedback through student-generated screencasts

Despite the potential benefits of assignment feedback, learners often fail to use it effectively. This study examines the ways in which adult distance learners engage with written feedback on one of their assignments. Participants were 10 undergraduates studying Spanish at the Open University, UK. Their responses to feedback were elicited by means of student-generated screencast (Jing®) recordings in which students talked through the feedback written by their tutors. The recordings were analysed in terms of the students’ cognitive, affective and metacognitive responses to the tutors’ feedback. Results show that, while students do engage with tutor feedback and make active efforts to integrate it, they sometimes use ineffective strategies, especially when tutor and student make different assumptions about the role of feedback. The richness of the data obtained from the Feedback on feedback (F on F) method suggests that it has the potential to promote much needed feedback dialogue between students and tutors.     

高校研究生创新能力多级联动培养机制初探

目前我国研究生培养主要采用导师负责制,以课程学习及跟随导师团队完成科研项目和学位论文为主。由于激励措施不足等原因,研究生参与创新创业类活动的积极性较低,研究生的创新意识、创新思维和创新能力都有很大的提升空间。因此,有必要建立一种兼顾导师培养、学院创新训练以及创新成果激励三位一体的研究生创新能力多级联动培养机制,以达到提高研究生创新能力的目标。     

‘Connecting’ the Distance: relational issues for participants in a distance learning programme

Abstract

This article explores the relational expectations of distance learning students and tutors. The authors’ experiences teaching a degree course to mature students (mainly practitioners working for the National Health Service) highlight that the reality of the relationship is often incongruent with the expectations. This incongruence appears to have a negative effect on the learning process. In order to develop a more effective distance learning programme the authors explored the experiences and needs of the students, via a series of focus groups and conversations. What emerged as being significant was the need for students to experience ‘connectedness’ with the tutor. How the students defined this concept and what practical measures the tutors took to ‘connect’ the distance between participants in the learning process are discussed.