When in Doubt,Go to the Library: The Effect of a Library-Intensive Freshman Research and Writing Seminar on Academic Success

The paper is an extension of a previous study, which examined student perceptions of a unique freshman seminar offered to Criminology and Criminal Justice students at Florida State University. The seminar is characterized by a heavy focus on interactive library sessions in which students learn how to conduct research and write a scholarly paper. The previous article reported on student perceptions of research and writing skills developed in the seminar. This report, using Multivariate Regression and Propensity Score Matching reveals that compared to a carefully constructed comparison group, first time in college students enrolled in the seminar have statistically significantly higher cumulative grade point averages and percentages of graduation within four years. The seminar’s emphasis on the library as a research tool is thought to have contributed to the differences seen on academic outcomes between students who took the seminar and a matched comparison group.     

The effects of communication medium on argumentation and the development of critical thinking

The aim of this paper is to compare the effects of different communication media on the quality of arguments and the development of argumentative reasoning. The study involved 73 undergraduate students. It consisted of a pre-test, an intervention session consisting of either an asynchronous online discussion or a face-to-face discussion, and a post-test. The pre-test consisted of a mini essay to ascertain participants’ opinion of smacking, and a 21-point smacking scale, where participants indicated how much they agreed or disagreed with smacking. The online group participated in a seminar discussion over a period of 2 weeks. The face-to-face group participated in the seminar discussion for a 1-h period. The seminar discussion was about the detrimental effects of smacking on children's development. One week after the seminar discussion, the post-test was administered. No statistically significant differences were found between the two conditions in terms of improvement in the quality of the students’ arguments. However, the quality of the argumentation used in face-to-face was higher than that used in the online discussions. The implications of these findings for theoretical models of collaborative activity are discussed.     

Patterns of interaction in the processes of joint reflection by student teachers

Although some research results indicate that joint reflection can improve student-teachers’ reflection, it is not clear how the interaction between student-teachers during a joint reflection process helps this to happen. The aim of this paper is to explore how the organisation of joint activity in processes of joint reflection assists students’ reflection, by identifying patterns of joint reflection (considering all the participants rather than only tutor–student dyads) and by discussing the functional role of these patterns within the students’ processes of reflection and internalisation. Two cases of joint reflection processes between a group of student teachers (15 and 13) and their tutors were examined. In each case, five seminars lasting around one-and-a-half hours each were videotaped and analysed, and individual written reflections after each seminar were gathered and scored. Results showed that joint reflection developed in each case according to different interaction patterns, and that individual written students’ reflections improved from seminar 1 to seminar 5 in one of the cases, but not in the others. These results suggest a relationship between interaction patterns of joint reflection and progress in students’ individual reflection.     

Media modules: A hands-on approach to media for education students

Summary Modules One, Two, and Three have been a required part of the seminars for the past eight years at Purdue University Calumet. It has been the experience of this university, that the students feel more comfortable in seminar with the small group setting. Since the EML/IRC is open 67 hours a week including evenings and Saturday, the students find they are better able to schedule their time to complete Modules One, Two, and Three in an independent manner. Faculty feel the seminars and modules are successful because instructors take on more of a leadership role in the seminar and leave the expertise of media to the Educational Media Lab/Instructional Resource Center. Specified topics are covered in each seminar class to ensure the students are exposed to topics and problems relevant to their future teaching experiences. Revisions are made on the Module booklets to ensure the students are aware of new equipment and technology. It is through these seminars and module experiences that the students can begin to grow and prepare for their teaching profession.     

A Thirst for Justice in the Arid Southwest: The Role of Epistemology and Place in Higher Education

How is the university connected to the pressing social and environmental problems that confront citizens in its region? What sorts of communities will students build in this changing cultural and environmental landscape as a result of their experiences in education? In this article I explore how an ethnobotany seminar uses critical pedagogy of place to engage students in the social, economic, and ecological relationships beyond the university campus. I describe how ethnobotany, the study of plants used by human cultures, is one way for students to explore the epistemology of Western science and traditional ecological knowledge. In this course, I encouraged students to ask, What counts as science? Whose knowledge is valued? What knowledge can sustain our communities? In our ethnobotany seminar, the topic of access and quality of water in the Southwest became a focal point for understanding the relation between place, epistemology, and ecojustice.     

“讨论课”与英语专业学生能力的培养

以"基础英语"课程的学习为个案,研究如何在英语专业课程中引入"讨论课"这一西方大学行之有效的教学组织形式,提出以"阅读-问题-辩论"为三个核心学习环节,立足于培养英语专业学生的理解能力、思维能力和表达能力,讨论学生和老师在"讨论课"中应扮演的角色。     

Appeals to Science: Recirculation of Online Claims in Socioscientific Reasoning

Conflicting knowledge claims regarding complex issues have become readily available through networked digital media, and the introduction of Internet access to classrooms has provided opportunities for accessing a huge number of sources. Science education plays an important role in providing students opportunities to seek and evaluate information and engage in reasoning. The aim of this article is to analyze ways upper secondary science students invoke recirculated online claims originating from a scientific paper in conversations regarding genetically modified organisms (GMO), and to understand how such invocations are effective in order for students to engage accountably. By using the notion of communicative activity types—the meaning and function of the recirculated claims were analyzed in (1) a peer discussion, (2) a debate, and (3) a reflective seminar. The persuasive power of the discursive resource “appeals to science” is illustrated when students enlist scientific objectivity and rigor to underpin the credibility of arguments in a debate, and when qualifying a reflective position in a seminar, whereas they reflect on how actors in a Web context use appeals to science rhetorically when engaged in a discussion with peers reporting online claims. The study offers insight into kinds of communicative competences involved in conversations and how “scientific facts” justify, in this case, opposition to GMO. Finally, it is reflected upon the importance of not only learning how to make well-founded knowledge claims, but also to understand how science is used rhetorically in order to develop appropriate responses to complex issues in the digital age.

     

How to Educate Future Engineers Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationships Between Technology,Society and the Environment?

In most European schools of engineering, the students are not well prepared to integrate socio-economic and environmental issues efficiently into their future professional activities. It is argued that necessary changes include a more interdisciplinary and systems-oriented approach to the problems, as well as better training in communication skills. An example of an interdisciplinary seminar entitled ‘Ethics, technology, society and environment’ and developed by the author of this paper is presented with many details. This seminar is followed by second-year students in engineering. Finally, other suggestions are presented as possible ‘starters’ to the necessary changes in the schools of engineering.     

What Do Field Seminars Accomplish?

This paper describes the evaluatin of a weekly school-based MSW field seminar with multiple purposes, among which was the integration of classroom and field learning. Both students and seminar instructors found the primary purpose of the seminar to be one of professional support. Knowledge integration was reported by participants to have taken place more often in structured vs. unstructured group sessions. Student suggestions have implications for such a seminar as a learning lab as well as a forum for professional growth and self-awareness.     

数字地球——新生研讨课的探索与实践

数字地球是地球科学、空间科学与信息技术交融的前沿,用新生研讨课的形式开设这门课程,通过小班化的学生自主学习和师生互动研讨,有助于学生在互联网技术高速发展的背景下对地球科学前沿知识的了解和掌握,也有助于学生批判性思维的培养,同时还可以帮助刚入学的新生尽快适应大学的课程学习。本文介绍了数字地球新生研讨课的开设背景、教学目标与内容体系,8个研讨的热点主题、教学效果以及存在的问题和未来课程改进的方向。     

Rethinking access,success and student retention in Open and Distance Learning

The focus of this paper is access problems distance students encounter when required to use the Internet for their studies, and how such problems influence the students’ ability to gain access to higher education. Empirically, the paper is informed by a qualitative case study of a Master’s programme in public administration offered to a group of students in a relatively remote area of Indonesia. It shows how access problems certainly become a challenge for such students, not only because of the absence of technology but also because of social constraints related to the presence of technology. However, as there are often no proper alternatives, new technology may well be considered a step forwards for such students, even if the new technology to some extent creates serious problems.     

研讨课在“行政伦理学”教学中的作用方式和课堂效果

“行政伦理学”是公共管理专业的一门必修课程,旨在培养学生在理解公共事务时运用哲学伦理思维。在“行政伦理学”研讨课堂中,通过选择递进关系的案例、树立问题意识的方法、基于BOPPPS模型的教学组织设计,让学生深度参与课堂,并在掌握伦理方法论的同时培养学生善于用伦理思辨的方式考量具体的公共事务,对学生基本素养的养成和专业知识的掌握有着不可低估的作用。学生普遍反馈研讨课教学效果优于传统授课模式,满意度较高,避免了分组讨论易产生的问题。“行政伦理学”研讨课初步实现了以学生为中心的教学理念,不失为一次有意义的尝试。     

Constructivism and teachers' professional development

The study aims to explore the implications of constructivist theory to the teacher's education and development. A post-graduate course for students of Education—“A Teacher Thinking” seminar, was constructed for this purpose. Its knowledge base was the participants' own practical knowledge which they were willing to share in the group. Its main strategy was the “Dialectical process of reflection in the group” which was used as a means of enhancing the participants to investigate their own practice and construct their own theories-of-teaching. Four examples from the seminar are elaborated in the paper. They serve as illustrations for the teachers' personal professional development.     

An Experiment in Multinational Collaborative Learning and Group Work Using the Internet

In this paper we describe a pedagogic experiment, intended to support and encourage interactive group discussion among students from different universities, in different countries, in what we call Internet Seminars. In an Internet Seminar students and teachers cooperate via the Internet to research and discuss a common subject. In the case discussed here, the chosen subject, 'Teleworking' was selected as one which would have particular resonance with the medium of the seminar, and also as being a topic which is not, as yet, part of the mainstream teaching curriculum. The aims of the seminar, however, were not only or even primarily concerned with the subject material. We also hoped to encourage and help the students develop the transferable skills of project planning, research, team-working and communication, with the added stimulus of working in a multinational context. We describe the form of the seminar, report on its outcomes, and comment on the successes and failures of our approach. © 1999 IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Accentuate the Negative to Latch onto the Affirmative (How to Save Mockingbirds)

Role play is a potent, widely employed technique in the teaching of controversial issues. Attitude modification is often cited as a major reason for using role play. But how can we expect attitudes to change if students, either through teacher accident or their own design, are allocated roles which reinforce attitudes with which they already identify? One possible remedy is to organise groups so that students are required to identify closely with value positions and attitudes with which they may not sympathise. The purpose of this paper is to outline a simple values clarification technique which can be used to assess students’ attitudes towards a controversial issue. Once this assessment has been completed, its results can be used for group selection. Subsequently the same technique can be used to assess the degree of attitude change. The approach outlined has the virtue of being a pedagogical technique which can also be used for group differentiation, summative evaluation and research. This approach will be illustrated by referring to the study of a controversial issue in Scotland by fourth year B.Ed. (Primary) students from Moray House Institute. Theoretical questions about how role play contributes to attitude change are also examined in the paper.     

军校研讨式教学方法改革评述

从研讨式教学的内涵、研讨题目的设定、研讨的时机和学时分配以及研讨式教学中教师和学生的角色定位等四个方面,对近年来军校开展研讨式教学研究与实践的概况做了评述;对当前研讨式教学面临的学生课余时间精力不足、参与讨论积极性不高和课业成绩评价难等问题进行了初步探讨。     

研讨式教学在高校哲学公共选修课中的应用

非哲学专业本科生哲学素养的培养虽然是意义重大的问题,但长期以来没有受到足够的重视,相关方面的教学研究也缺乏可操作性。本文以教学实践中受到学生喜爱的"研讨式"教学设计为例,强调以培养学生对问题的探求兴趣、热情,独立、开放的思维习惯等哲学素养为目标,探索更合乎哲学本性的教育方式、方法。     

COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS' OPINIONS REGARDING THE VALUE OF THEIR FRESHMAN SEMINAR EXPERIENCE

Students enrolled in a community college freshman seminar course were interviewed to gather qualitative data on their opinions regarding the value of the course. Existing dissatisfaction among students, faculty, and administrators initiated this study . Data analysis revealed that randomly grouping students with wide - ranging levels of academic abilities and life experiences in a freshman seminar class had a number of drawbacks, as older adult learners differ greatly from younger student learners in aptitude, ability levels, maturity, and academic needs. The findings suggest that older adults need a different kind of freshman seminar course than the traditional first - year student, and that "gifted" older students might be used to provide "on - campus apprenticeships" for other first - year students.     

Motivating midwifery students to digitalise their enquiry-based learning experiences: An evaluative case study

Within midwifery education, enquiry-based learning is a well-established means of optimising students’ autonomous discovery, knowledge acquisition and problem-to-creative-solution design. Similarly, as undergraduates they have an innate relationship with technology, which also serves to enhance their cognitive processing skills and overall learning gain. Yet in spite of the benefits of technology-infused learning, the healthcare sector reportedly struggles with integrating technology into enquiry-based learning experiences. This paper reports on one rapid application cycle of a motivational design model that aimed to motivationally influence midwifery students’ willingness to engage with technology; as a means of optimising their enquiry-based learning experiences. Phase one observes how midwifery students from Northern Ireland, spontaneously used technology during the enquiry-based cycle. Phase two describes how technology was introduced to enhance group learning. Phase three reports on the students’ evaluation of the integrated technology. The findings demonstrate that students perceive technology to be a valuable means for discipline-orientated learning.     

Counseling-Related Legislation: A Seminar

The complexity of counseling-related legislation has dictated the need for counselor-training programs to develop an organized and systematic approach to this topic. One method to accomplish this goal is through the use of a topical seminar. A graduate-level seminar is described in terms of goals, objectives, structure, and requirements. Significant incident-experience reports were used to learn about the legislative-experiencing levels of the students. From 110 reports received from students, 34 were directed to the awareness level, 39 to the knowledge level, 15 to the skills level, and 22 to the action level. Instructors' observations, student feedback, and recommendations are also provided.