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.     

Enhancing critical thinking using team-based learning

This study examines students’ perceptions of the development of academic and critical thinking skills in college, with a specific focus on team-based learning (TBL), an active learning strategy designed to increase student interaction and engagement. Six hundred and fifty students in five different courses were surveyed at the beginning of the semester about the extent to which they felt the typical college course enhances various academic and critical thinking skills. These responses were compared to their responses after a semester of TBL regarding the extent to which the TBL environment enhanced these same skills. Students expressed significantly greater improvement in critical thinking skills in a TBL environment in comparison to typical courses for most of the skills assessed and greater improvement in all of these skills in comparison to lecture-based courses. These results held for every demographic subgroup examined, including males, females, freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors, as well as all levels of academic achievement as measured by grade point average.     

Learning to improve: using writing to increase critical thinking performance in general education biology

Increasingly, national stakeholders express concern that U.S. college graduates cannot adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits that may ultimately address these concerns. As an instructional method, writing has long been perceived as a way to improve critical thinking. In the current study, the researchers compared critical thinking performance of students who experienced a laboratory writing treatment with those who experienced traditional quiz-based laboratory in a general education biology course. The effects of writing were determined within the context of multiple covariables. Results indicated that the writing group significantly improved critical thinking skills whereas the nonwriting group did not. Specifically, analysis and inference skills increased significantly in the writing group but not the nonwriting group. Writing students also showed greater gains in evaluation skills; however, these were not significant. In addition to writing, prior critical thinking skill and instructor significantly affected critical thinking performance, whereas other covariables such as gender, ethnicity, and age were not significant. With improved critical thinking skill, general education biology students will be better prepared to solve problems as engaged and productive citizens.     

“Seminar课程”的研究与实践报告——以《批判性思维》课程为例

研讨课的本质在于让学生学会批判性的思维,开启新的认知与实践,专门的“批判性思维”课程更好地体现了研讨课的这一本质。通过对批判性思维的全面探索和深入考察可以更好地把握研讨课的目标及要求。本文为《Seminar课程的研究与实践报告》的研究报告,主要阐述了该课题的研究背景、意义、主要内容、方法,总结了研究的主要结论,重点探讨了批判性思维课程中存在的问题与对策。     

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.     

思辨缺席与Seminar教学范式

在西方国家,思辨能力的发展被视为高等教育的核心技能之一,其相关理论、方法论和教学实践研究成果丰硕。相比之下我国的相关研究尚不充分,学生思辨能力的培养并未得到足够的重视。思辨缺席是近年来我国外语界研究的一个热点问题。如果从教学实践的角度观察外语专业研究生思辨能力的培养,我国学者认为在研究生课程中采用Seminar教学范式是提高学生思辨能力的有效途径。     

思辨力培养之“读写融合”教学模式探究

外语专业学生思辨力培养的重要性已在学界达成共识,如何通过基础性课程综合英语培养学生思辨能力值得探究。综合英语具有综合性课程特质,因此基于“产出导向法(POA)”,可采用“读写”融合教学模式,通过精读环节与文本评价、写作反思相融合,促进思辨技能的正向迁移。同时在具体教学环节设计过程中,利用线上线下混合教学、先教后学的翻转课堂,使各个教学环节针对思辨技能和认知能力的不同维度进行训练,从而提高学生的思辨能力。     

Making inter-disciplinary spaces for talk about and change in student writing and literacy development

This paper discusses the role of a writing centre in creating spaces for talk about and change in disciplinary writing pedagogy. It asks how collaborative partnerships between disciplinary academics and Writing Centre practitioners might be established and nurtured sustainably. Drawing on insights from two collaborations with academics in political studies and law, the article asserts that writing centre practitioners play a valuable role in talking about and changing the way academic writing and literacy is taught in the disciplines. This is shown by working consistently with the understanding that critical reading, thinking and writing are literacy acts rather than generic skills and must therefore be learned and practiced in the disciplines. By supporting disciplinary academics in re-examining course outcomes, materials and assessments, and moving away from a ‘skills approach’ to writing, it is shown that building discipline-specific spaces for writing and literacy development is possible through these collaborative partnerships.     

论坛写作环境下英语专业学生思维能力的发展研究

针对中国东部的一所大学开设的“本科毕业论文设计”课程进行定性研究,旨在探究一批英语专业学习者在论坛写作环境中的思维过程,从而揭示和了解他们在思辨和创新能力、信息处理能力以及推理能力这三方面思维能力的发展过程,并且挖掘出影响他们思维发展的积极和消极因素.希望能给思维能力发展的相关研究与教学实践提供一定的启示作用.     

The Development of Critical Thinking Skills in Undergraduate Supervisory Management Units: efficacy of student peer assessment

Well‐developed critical thinking skills are essential to good management, yet the fundamentals of critical thinking are often not taught explicitly to management students. This paper reports on the efficacy of a module designed to develop students’ critical thinking skills in the context of peer evaluation in a second‐year supervisory management unit. The module comprised a lecture and a seminar on the nature of critical thinking, followed by a series of seminars in which students practiced the skills taught. Sixty‐eight student oral literature reviews were delivered and evaluated over the first two semesters in 1997. Each presentation was graded by several small groups of students, with the assistance of a detailed marking guide. Results indicate that tuition in critical thinking strategies and skills may influence both peer/tutor grading agreement, and literature review content.     

Cognitive Effects of College: Differences Between African American and Caucasian Students

In this longitudinal study of African American and Caucasian students from eighteen 4-year institutions, objective tests were used to estimate the cognitive effects of race in college, while applying statistical controls for an extensive set of confounding influences including precollege and background traits, institutional characteristics, and academic and social experiences. Evidence from the study suggests that in the first 3 years of college Caucasian students scored higher than their African American counterparts on seven standardized tests measuring critical thinking skills, knowledge of mathematics, reading comprehension, science reasoning, and writing skills. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Investigating students’ critical thinking in weblogs: an exploratory study in a Singapore secondary school

Critical thinking is an essential competency in the new information age. But research shows that students commonly lack critical thinking skills and hence promoting students’ critical thinking becomes crucial. This exploratory study investigated the extent to which secondary school students’ critical thinking could be promoted by writing reflections in the weblog. Students’ critical thinking was measured by using the Newman’s model. Results showed that writing reflections in the weblog could help promote students’ critical thinking and according to the Newman’s model, three categories of critical thinking were promoted the most, they were bringing outside knowledge or experience (O+), relevance (R+), and justification (J+). In addition, the study also found that the types of interaction with peers and the teacher had a more positive effect on the extent of critical thinking. Implications for other research are discussed.     

Using Academic Journals to Help Students Learn Subject Matter Content, Develop and Practice Critical Reasoning Skills, and Reflect on Personal Values in Food Science and Human Nutrition Classes

ABSTRACT:  It has been reported that students learn best when they use a wide variety of techniques to understand the information of the discipline, be it visual, auditory, discussion with others, metacognition, hands-on activities, or writing about the subject. We report in this article the use of academic journals not only as an aid for students to learn about content knowledge needed in an Experimental Foods course, but also as a way to have students think about and reflect on their own personal values. The topics of these journal entries cover several of the core competencies in the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Undergraduate Education Standards for Degrees in Food Science. These are basic principles of food science, as well as address several "Success Skills" (written communication, critical thinking, professionalism, life-long learning, interaction skills, and organizational skills). While there are no quantitative "measurements" of gains in learning, comments from the students indicate that learning took place, critical reasoning occurred, and personal values were analyzed. A guideline for writing and grading academic journals and a simple rubric for scoring the quality of the writing are included.     

Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes

In South Africa and in other parts of the world, many professions are bemoaning the poor ability of many graduates to communicate their skills and knowledge effectively once they enter the workplace. Increasingly, pressure is placed on higher education to do more in terms of equipping future professionals with the necessary critical reading, research, thinking and writing skills the workplace demands. However, in South Africa especially, the demand for access to higher education is resulting in increased admissions, and in many lecturers standing in front of larger classes filled with students from a wide range of home and educational backgrounds with ‘variable’ commands of English as a medium of instruction and communication (Greenbaum and Mbali in S Afr Linguist Appl Lang Stud 20:233–244, 2002). This makes the task of equipping these students with disciplinary knowledge and skills a challenge. In responding to this challenge, the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with a writing specialist, initiated a project aimed at transforming the way in which legal writing was taught at first year level. The overall aim was to start training students, from first year, to adapt their thinking and writing to the kinds of knowledge and practice required by academic study as well as the legal profession. The project was successful in achieving its modest aims, but certain challenges remain. This paper reflects critically on the development and evolution of the model for teaching legal writing in large classes. It argues that teaching legal writing in large classes requires creative and sustainable approaches so that students can become active and critical writers, readers and thinkers over time in this, or any, field.     

Critical thinking and the academic vocational divide

There is considerable interest in unifying post-compulsory education and training systems through the common teaching of core or key skills. Critical thinking appears to be a very attractive example of such a skill but this article argues against the idea that critical thinking is a core skill that should be widely taught to bridge what is termed ‘the academic vocational divide’. Some of the attractions of this idea are acknowledged but it is argued that the very meanings of critical, academic and vocational depend upon the context and purpose of thinking and it is misleading to suggest that thinking is any kind of a skill. On the basis of this argument and an empirical study it is concluded that when the idea informs curricular policy and practice, far from bridging an academic vocational divide, the idea will actually widen it. If this conclusion is correct for what appears to be a most plausible candidate for a core or key skill, then policies designed to bridge an academic vocational divide that are based on the core or key skills idea should be abandoned.     

Predicting course performance in freshman and sophomore physics courses: Women are more predictable than men

This study investigated the extent to which thinking skills and mathematical competency would predict the course performance of freshman and sophomore science majors enrolled in physics courses. Multiple-regression equations revealed that algebra and critical thinking skills were the best overall predictors across several physics courses. Although arithmetic skills, math anxiety, and primary mental abilities scores also correlated with performance, they were redundant with the algebra and critical thinking. The most surprising finding of the study was the differential validity by sex; predictor variables were successful in predicting course performance for women but not for men.     

Teaching critical thinking: an investigation of a task in introductory macroeconomics

This paper is an investigation of understandings of critical thinking from two teaching perspectives: academic staff and tutors. It explores critical thinking as situated within an assessment task in introductory macroeconomics. This study found that while the two academic staff conceptualized critical thinking as a set of concrete cognitive skills, the tutors challenged this notion. Although tutors used the way of understanding critical thinking identified by the academic staff in their teaching and marking, they also discussed broader notions of critical thinking that they saw as a fundamental aspect of the discipline. The paper examines the multiple constructions of critical thinking in this setting and its broader implications.     

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。     

Classroom learning environment,critical thinking and achievement in an interdisciplinary subject: a study of Hong Kong secondary school graduates

Although the relationship between the classroom learning environment and academic achievement has been explored in subject-free and disciplinary subject contexts, research into this relationship is still lacking in the context of interdisciplinary subjects. This study investigated the relationship between the classroom learning environment and student achievement in an interdisciplinary subject (i.e. liberal studies) in Hong Kong secondary schools. The mediating role of critical thinking was also explored. The participants were 410 Hong Kong secondary school graduates. The structural equation modelling analyses indicated that (1) the Content aspect of the classroom learning environment had an effect on the achievement in liberal studies, and this effect was not mediated by critical thinking; (2) the Pedagogy aspect predicted critical thinking skills, which in turn predicted the achievement in liberal studies; (3) the Relation aspect had no significant effects on critical thinking skills and student achievement in liberal studies. Suggestions on enhancing students’ high-order thinking skills and achievement in interdisciplinary subjects were provided.     

Harnessing the Power of Social Media in the Classroom: Challenging Students to Create Content to Share on Social Media Sites to Improve Learning Outcomes

Many young adults consume news, political, and historical information through social media sites, and yet students do not always connect this information to the academic knowledge they learn in their classes. In addition, while students learn academic writing and presentation skills, they may not feel equipped to present the knowledge that they have learned to a non-academic audience. I detail a class assignment in which students produce a social media project that imparts academic knowledge to a general audience. These have taken the form of short videos, websites, a documentary and even poems and songs. Drawing on a survey of the students, as well as a content analysis of the projects, I find that the project is successful in achieving several teaching goals, including knowledge retainment, critical thinking skills, making real world connections with class material, student empowerment, and improving communication skills.