Applying case-based method in designing self-directed online instruction: a formative research study

This study investigated the case-based method (CBM) instructional-design theory and its application in designing self-directed online instruction. The purpose of this study was to validate and refine the theory for a self-directed online instruction context. Guided by formative research methodology, this study first developed an online tutorial based on 13 design assumptions synthesized from the CBM literature. The researchers then formatively evaluated the online tutorial as a design instance of CBM through two iterations of design, evaluation, and revision. The major findings included: (1) perceived value of various CBM design features, (2) benefits and limitations of applying CBM in the tutorial design, and (3) validation and revision of a set of generic and context-specific CBM design assumptions. These findings extend our understanding of CBM to the context of self-directed online instruction and provide useful insights and practical guidance to inform instructional design practices.     

Meaningful interaction: toward a new theoretical approach to online instruction

ABSTRACT

Taking full advantage of the educative benefits of interaction in digital learning environments will require the development of new theoretical frameworks that can contribute to a richer understanding of interaction. Literary theory provides an excellent place to develop such a framework and advanced understanding. Literary theory enables us to reconceptualise online courses as ‘texts’, thereby equipping us with more sophisticated modes of analysis for the teaching and learning process. By rethinking online courses as texts, and better yet as what Roland Barthes has described as ‘writerly’ texts, we can improve interaction in the online classroom. More importantly, we can move toward a more meaningful form of interaction, where learners interact with course content at the level of meaning and meaning making, where interaction becomes a full participation in the production of a lesson’s meaning. Indeed, this aim of co-producing meaning should be the primary objective of all learning.     

提问中的形成性评价

自20世纪80年代中期以来,由布鲁姆提出的形成性评价的相关理论引起我国教育界的广泛关注,广大教师纷纷在教学中运用形成性评价方法,并在一定程度上改善了教学成果,但是教师在使用形成性评价时仍然存在一些的误区。课堂提问是教师检测学生掌握知识的常用手段,但提问本身并不能达到形成性的目的。本文就教师如何更好地发挥课堂提问中形成性评价的功能进行探讨。     

The department-wide approach to improving faculty instruction in higher education: A qualitative evaluation

This study applies qualitative methods to evaluate a model for the improvement of university teaching. According to this model, a departmental instruction specialist comprehensively treats issues concerning the quality of instruction within the department. This specialist gets to personally know all faculty members in need of teaching improvement and initiates preventive measures prior to the development of severe problems in instruction. Two years of implementation in the Physics Department at Tel Aviv University have shown an increase in quality of instruction and in faculty motivation and attitudes toward both instruction and students, suggesting that this approach has potential for department-wide teaching improvement. This article illustrates the complexities of the processes underlying teaching improvement, the longitudinal effort required to comprehensively improve instruction, and the reasons for failure and success in these efforts.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA, April 1993.     

Student evaluation of instruction: comparison between in-class and online methods

This study compares student evaluations of instruction that were collected in-class with those gathered through an online survey. The two modes of administration were compared with respect to response rate, psychometric characteristics and mean ratings through different statistical analyses. Findings indicated that in-class evaluations produced a significantly higher response rate than online evaluation. In addition, Rasch analysis showed that mean ratings obtained in in-class evaluation were significantly higher than those obtained in online evaluation. Finally, the distributions of student attendance and expected grade in both modes were compared via chi-square tests, and were found to differ in the two modes of administration.     

The contribution of classroom exams to formative evaluation of concept-level knowledge

Are students able to learn from exam experience about their level of knowledge for tested topics? Prior to taking an exam, undergraduates made predictive category learning judgments (CLJs) by estimating the percentage of questions they expected to answer correctly for six topics. After the exam, they made postdictive CLJs for the same topics. Supporting the postdiction superiority hypothesis, postdictive CLJs were slightly more accurate than predictive CLJs, indicating students could make better formative evaluations after taking an exam. However, postdiction accuracy was low, and in a second study, accuracy did not differ for predictive and postdictive CLJs. We also investigated two processes required to make accurate postdictive CLJs: monitoring performance for individual questions and accurately classifying each question with respect to the topic that it assessed. Although students performed these tasks adequately, their less-than-perfect performance would constrain their ability to accurately judge their topical knowledge from exam experience.     

提升网上教学有效性的程序与策略

网上教学的有效性应以科学、合理的实施程序和灵活、恰当的策略为保证。基于6年多工商管理专业(本科)企业战略管理课程网上教学的实践,我们将该课程及该专业相关课程的网上教学程序和策略归纳为:最优化的教学资源配置、一体化的教学设计、多样化的教学交互和模式化的教学实施。其中,建设满足学生学习需要的、高质量的课程网上教学资源是提升网上教学有效性的起点;编制出一体化的课程设计方案并在此统领下开展课程网上教学,是确保网上教学有效性的重要基础;多样化的网上教学交互是确保网上教学交互有效性的核心;模式化的教学实施能使课程教学具体化、操作程序化、活动内容明确化,使网上教学有效性逐步得到提升。     

Paulo Freire's relevance to online instruction and performance improvement

Paulo Freire argued that learning should be conversational, accessible, and centered on the experience of the participants. Freirean theory remains strong in adult education and has implications for human performance technology applications in such areas as online learning in terms of design, accessibility, and content, as well as performance improvement.     

An examination of the relationship between technology problems and teaching evaluation of online instruction

To address faculty members' concern that teaching evaluation in the online environment might be lowered because of technology problems students experience in online courses, a sample of 202 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory statistics course in a college of business administration was surveyed. Students' evaluation of their instructors and the course and their experiences with technology problems when taking the course were measured. As expected, a negative correlation between teaching evaluation and experience of technology problems was observed. Based on the finding, it is suggested that, to encourage faculty members to teach online, universities need to examine the relationship between teaching evaluation and technology problems experienced by students in the online environment and adjust the evaluation skewed by problems that are out of instructors' control. Measurement instruments used in the study and a suggested formula for adjusting teaching evaluation are provided.     

A cybernetic approach to programmed language instruction

Introductory remarks

In the following discussion, the term language instruction is used in the sense of teaching the manipulation of language mechanics. This enables the student to produce grammatically correct sentences and strings of sentences in response to any given sentence meaning or string of sentence meanings and to understand the cognitive meaning of any given sentence formulations. The skills he practises during foreign language instruction thus correspond to the content of those rules in a transformational grammar which are not contained in the base (Chomsky 1984) and to their inverse.     

A (TRANS)formative approach to gender-inclusive science education

The teaching of science in K-12 schools has long been criticized as a process that propagates oppression for students who do not conform to entrenched norms of gender, sex, and sexuality. Academic standards, curriculum, and textbooks are rife with rhetoric that reinforces any deviation from cisheterosexuality as aberrant, unusual, or abnormal. However, these often-over-simplified conceptions discount the historic social and scientific intricacies of gender and sexual diversity as well as students' own lived experiences. While there have been advancements in LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive science education reform, these movements have been stymied by a lack of cohesive guidelines for pedagogy and practice, particularly for trans, nonbinary, and gender-creative youth. Situated within trans-created conceptual frameworks for critical education, this study explored the pedagogical practices of 10 transgender science teachers with the purpose of learning from their experiences creating gender inclusive curriculum. From the data (in-depth interviews, instructional materials samples, and reflective teaching statements) emerged the TRANS (Trans and Research-informed Approaches for Nonbinary and gender-inclusive Science education) Framework for gender inclusive science education pedagogy. This framework is anchored in three domains for teaching science through a trans-informed lens:interrogating and accessing power, resisting essentialism, and embracing experiential knowledge and personal epistemologies. The findings of this study contribute to our growing understanding of gender-inclusive science learning environments. Importantly, this study amplified the experiential knowledge of teachers whose voices are critically absent from research surrounding gender and LGBTQ+-inclusive science education practice. Moreover, the framework derived from teachers' experiences can be used to guide educators in making their science classrooms safer and more gender inclusive.