Analysis and development of students' skill in selfregulated learning

The research reported here deals with students' skill in selfregulated learning. After analyzing the essential components of selfregulated learning, theoretical notions are presented on how skill in selfregulated learning could be developed in students. Next, two empirical studies are reported. In the first study, relationships between the components of selfregulated learning are investigated, as well as relationships between those components and variables such as educational experience, study results and age of students. The second study represents an attempt to help students to develop their skill in selfregulated learning. A Study Advisory Packet was developed intended to broaden their conceptions of learning, education and cooperation and to enlarge their metacognitive knowledge of studying. By means of an evaluative study the usefulness of this packet in the reality of studying at the Open university was researched. The results of the two studies indicate that (1) students' learning conceptions and orientations are closely linked to the study activities they employ, (2) students' learning styles are related to their educational experience and to their study results, but only in a small degree to their age, and (3) the Study Advisory Packet raised students' awareness of different ways of studying and contained practically useful suggestions for studying.A paper presented at the Second Conference of the European Association of Research on Learning and Instruction, Tübingen (FRG), September 19–22, 1987. Original title: Adult student learning in higher distance education. In: P. J. Janssen & L. Svensson (EARLI-Symposium Chair), Student Learning in Its Natural Context.     

Interactions of study orientation and students' appreciation of structure in their educational environment

Instructional systems differ in the amount of structure they impose on the educational environment in which learning activities take place, e.g., mastery learning implies highly structured learning, whereas problem-based learning (PBL) claims its effectiveness just because of its freedom in learning. Yet there seems to be a lot of structure in the educational system in which PBL is embedded. In this study dimensions of structure were explored in a curriculum based on PBL. Factor analysis on student judgments unfolded three forms of structure concerning different aspects of the educational environment: content, organization, and social setting.When looking for interactions between structure and student characteristics, e.g., in research on the effectiveness of PBL, it could be important to take this distinction in structure dimensions into account. In general, ATI-research suggests interaction effects for structure. The study that is presented here explored interactions between study orientation and students' appreciation of the three structure dimensions, revealing a rather consistent pattern of differences in appreciation tendencies influenced by the orientation of the student: meaning, dependence, minimalistic, or strategic.     

How Do Beginning Primary School Teachers Cope with Science? Toward an Understanding of Science Teaching Practice

This study emerged from a consideration of how some beginning primary school teachers cope when faced with teaching science. Primary teachers typically lack science content knowledge and therefore the science pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that enables them to teach science. Aspects of a group of beginning primary school teachers' science teaching practices were consequently examined in order to understand better the basis of their practice. In particular, science PCK and its relationship to activities that work were considered, illuminated by findings about activities that work from a separate study with practicing teachers. The main assertion arising from this study is that activities that work have a close relationship with science PCK. A number of implications for primary science curriculum emerge from this assertion, such as considerations for preservice teacher education science courses and the nature of the primary science curriculum.     

Student evaluations of teaching and courses: Student study strategies as a criterion of validity

Recent developments in higher education are likely to lead to increased evaluation of teaching and courses and, in particular, increased use of student evaluation of teaching and courses by questionnaire. Most studies of the validity of such evaluations have been conducted in terms of the relationship between traditional measures of how much students learn and their ratings of teaching and courses. But there have been few if any studies of the relationship between students' rating of teaching and the quality of student learning, or in how the students approached their learning.For the evaluation of teaching and courses by questionnaire to be valid we would expect that (1) those students reporting that they adopted deeper approaches to study would rate the teaching and the course more highly than those adopting more surface strategies and, more importantly, (2) those teachers and courses which received higher mean ratings would also have, on average, students adopting deeper strategies.In the paper we report the results for eleven courses in two institutions. The results, in general, support the validity of student ratings, and suggest that courses and teaching in which students have adopted deeper strategies to learning also have higher student ratings.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1989 Annual Conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia.     

Grades and college students' evaluations of their courses and teachers

From a review of existing research, it is concluded that college students' anticipated or actual grades in class are positively related to their evaluation of their courses and teachers. In general, the size of the association is small but not unimportant. A student's overall grade-point average appears to have little or no relationship to teacher or course evaluation, although limited evidence shows that a discrepancy between a student's grade-point average and his or her grade in a class is related to evaluations. Also, teacher- or course-induced interest in the subject is positively associated with evaluation, as are students' perceptions of the amount they have learned in a class and their performance on objective or standardized tests of achievement. Although it is thus possible that either these or other motivational and learning variables may account for the relationship between grades and evaluation, there is no evidence one way or the other that this indeed is the case. In all, currently available evidence cannot be taken as definitely establishing a bias in teacher evaluation due to the grades students receive or expect to receive in their courses, but neither is it presently possible to rule out such bias.This is the first paper of a projected series on teacher and course evaluation.     

Math,Science, and Foreign Language: Evidence‐Based Accommodation Decision Making at the Postsecondary Level

Accommodations in postsecondary settings have become commonplace for many students with learning disabilities (LD) who have documented needs. Many of the accommodations professionals recommend for students with LD are based on an analysis of the course demands, the student's functional limitations, and a basic understanding of how the accommodation can facilitate the demonstration or acquisition of knowledge. However, little is known about which accommodations are recommended for math, science, and foreign language courses as well as the effectiveness of those accommodations. Because these content areas pose substantial hurdles for secondary students with LD who may transition to postsecondary settings, a review of the literature was conducted to evaluate current practices in the provision of accommodations to postsecondary students with LD in math, science, and foreign language courses. Findings indicate strong empirical evidence for extended test time for algebra exams and emerging research in changes to foreign language instruction. Recommendations for further research are provided.     

The role of postsecondary Education Institutions in the U.S. Department of Education's adult literacy initiative

On September 7, 1983, the U.S. Department of Education announced a nationwide adult literacy initiative designed “... to promote functional literacy for the entire adult populations.” The department is committed to conducting several activities to attack and solve the problem of adult literacy. Two of the activities pertain specifically to postsecondary education. They are:

? working with postsecondary education institutions to develop demonstration programs utilizing college work-study students in adult literacy programs;

? promoting college student involvement through literacy tutoring experiences in college courses and through student volunteerism.

The authors believe that there should be much greater participation in the initiative by postsecondary education institutions, and they propose that more extensive participation can be attained through the institutions' performance of their usual functions of teaching, service, and research.     

A map of postsecondary assessment

Although most discussions of postsecondary assessment focus on students' knowledge and skills, these cannot be fully understood without assessing the wasy they are influenced by other aspects of postsecondary education. These aspects are described in a map consisting of 20 points which depicts the flow of students through institutions and experiences from precollege to adulthood. Consideration of the map identifies areas where better assessments and models are needed, particularly the areas of adult learners, graduate and professional education, and the characteristics and plans of college seniors.     

Evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs

The purpose of this study was to investigate alternative methods for evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs. In the first part of the study, scores obtained by a large sample of deaf students on the ACT Assessment (ACT Composite score and scores on the ACT English and Reading tests) were compared to their scores on various measures of English language and literacy skills. In the second part of the study, the performance of a smaller sample of deaf students on the ESL Reading and ESL Grammar/Usage components of COMPASS/ESL was compared to their performance on a set of concurrent measures of English skills. The results of this investigation demonstrate that neither the ACT Assessment nor COMPASS/ESL are appropriate for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary educational programs. However, the ACT Assessment is appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to transferable (BS and AAS) degree programs, and the ESL Reading and Grammar/Usage tests appear to be appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to nontransferable (AOS) degree programs. Taken together, the combination of the ACT Assessment and COMPASS/ESL appear able to provide a valid, reliable, and coherent approach to admissions screening assessment for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary programs.     

Class size and college students' evaluations of teachers and courses: A closer look

A systematic analysis of extant studies reveals, on average, a very weak inverse association between the size of class enrollment in a college course and students' overall evaluation of the course and its teacher, as well as between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's skill in presenting material and communicating information. Larger inverse associations are typically found between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's interactions and interrelationships with students. This pattern of findings is consistent with the accumulating evidence that the instructional dimensions of the first set have greater importance for students in forming their global opinions of teachers and courses than do those of the second set. The further finding in some studies of a negative curvilinear (roughly U-shaped) relationship between class size and evaluations is noted and discussed. Implications for the validity of teacher evaluations are considered and the related question of whether class size biases these evaluations is explored.     

Assessing quality in programs of university without walls graduates

The University Without Walls (UWW) program at the University of Minnesota completed a study of correlates of quality, those parts of students' programs that were thought to influence the quality of students' work. Graduation dossiers were rated according to graduates' fulfillment of seven graduation criteria. Quality ratings were correlated with barriers possessed by graduates at admission, major area of study, length of time in UWW, and narrative evaluations of graduates' work. Narrative evaluations from university faculty had the greatest effect on dossier quality ratings.     

Course characteristics and college students' ratings of their teachers: What we know and what we don't

From showing in a general way that there is room for course context to influence class (average) ratings of instruction, this review proceeds to a search for specific course characteristics that are associated with these ratings. Extant research has centered around five such characteristics: class size, course level, the electivity of the course, the particular subject matter of the course, and the time of day that the course is held. Although statistically significant zero-order relationships do not appear in every piece of research located for review, such relationships are more likely to be found than not for the first four of these characteristics. The associations may not be particularly strong, but rather clear-cut patterns do emerge. Of the studies reporting an association between size of class and class ratings, most find it to be inverse, although several studies show a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship. Teacher (and course) ratings tend to be somewhat higher for upper division courses and elective courses. Compared to other instructors, those teaching humanities, fine arts, and languages tend to receive somewhat higher ratings. The possible reasons for these relationships are many and complex. A precise understanding of the contribution of course characteristics to the ratings of teachers (and the courses themselves) is hampered by two circumstances. Studies in which relevant variables are controlled are far fewer in number than are the studies in which only the zero-order relationships between course characteristics and ratings are considered. More importantly, existing multivariate studies tend to underplay or ignore the exact place of course characteristics in a causal network of variables.     

The impact of scienceware and foundations on students' attitudes towards science and science classes

In this paper, we describe changes in students' ideas about science classes, attitudes about science, and motivations for studying science, in a classroom designed to support projectbased science learing. Using a survey designed to provide a measure of students' attitudes towards science classes and science, we have compared students enrolled in a traditional high school biology course, with students enrolled in an integrated, project-based science course called Foundations I. Survey responses were analyzed to look at differences between and within two groups of students over the course of one school year. In general, the results of this study suggest that providing students with opportunities to collect and analyze their own data in science classes results in a change in students' ideas about science classrooms. Foundations I students' increased tendency to agree with statements about using information, drawing conclusions, and thinking about problems, implies a change in their understanding of what it means to do science in school. These students, in contrast to students in the traditional Biology course, no longer describe their science experience as one of memorization, textbook reading, and test taking. Instead they see science class as a place in which they can collect data, draw conclusions, and formulate and solve problems.     

Conceptual knowledge in talk and text: What does it take to understand a science question?

What is referred to as conceptual knowledge is one of the mostimportant deliverables of modern schooling. Following the dominance of cognitive paradigmsin psychological research, conceptual knowledge is generally construed assomething that lies behind or under performance in concrete social activities. In the presentstudy, students' responses to questions, supposedly tapping conceptual knowledge,have been studied as parts of concrete communicative practices. Our focus has been onthe differences between talk and text. The most frequent approach for generatinginsight into conceptual knowledge is by means of written tests. However, the very mannerin which people handle the demands of this particular form of mediation is seldomattended to. This problem has been studied by means of two items taken from theinternational comparison of knowledge and achievement in mathematics and science, TIMSS.The results reveal that it is highly doubtful if the items test knowledge of scienceconcepts to any significant extent. In both instances, the difficulties students have, asrevealed in the interview setting, seem to be grounded in problems in understanding somedetails in the written questions. These difficulties are generally easily resolved in aninteractive setting. It is argued that the low performance on these items can to a largeextent be accounted for by the abstract and highly demanding form of communication that iswritten language.     

A second chance for higher education: Academic preparatory programs in Israel

The Israeli academic preparatory programs (APPs) challenge the sorting regime of regular education by offering a genuine second chance for higher education to youngsters who have failed to acquire the necessary prerequisites via the mainstream. The study analyzes the success of the APPs to produce changes in their students in light of the failure of a different second-chance framework, the community college, to do so. The analysis of a sample of APP graduates indicates that background characteristics and high school history, powerful sources of differentiation upon admittance to the APPs, lose their discriminating power after graduation. All graduates join any postsecondary educational framework, regardless of their initial disadvantages. The success of the APPs in eliminating initial gaps among the students is assigned mainly to their nonconformity to the selection criteria of regular education. The purpose of this research was to assess whether second-chance educational programs that challenge the sorting criteria of the mainstream succeed in enhancing social equality in education. Outcomes of the challenging second-chance academic preparatory programs in Israel are analyzed in light of the reported failure of community colleges to moderate inequalities in higher education.     

A practical guide to zero-based curriculum review

This paper presents a systematic framework and practical guidelines for the implementation of a zero-based curriculum review (ZBCR). ZBCR begins with atabula rasa and the commitment that program faculty and an external advisory board will create a framework of competencies, knowledge bases, professional practices and skills which graduates should have. ZBCR is intended to help us move from an accidental curriculum to an intentional curriculum. Specific examples illustrate the structuring, conducting, and application of the results of the review. ZBCR maximizes the benefits of a fresh perspective and minimizes time and effort, with a situationally-flexible and reusable structure and process. ZBCR is based on procedures recently developed and used with success in reviewing the curricula of a department's programs at a major state university.He received his Ph.D. in higher education and economics from the University of Iowa. His research and teaching fields are postsecondary curriculum and instruction and economics of higher education.He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. His research and teaching has focused on educational administration and planning.     

Motivation and study habits

The first part of the article reviews the literature (mainly British) on the relationships between academic performance in higher education and motivation and study habits. The distinction between goal-orientated and intrinsic motivation is used to clarify the meaning of previous studies. Among the investigations of study habits, the dimension of syllabus-boundness/syllabus-freedom helps to relate psychiatric work on study difficulties to research using self-report inventories.The weakness of the questionnaire approach in explaining the relationships observed led to the use of semi-structured interviews. In the second part of the article the students' explanations of their reactions to higher education demonstrate, in particular, that fear of failure and hope for success present alternative motivations towards academic success.     

Elementary Science Methods Courses and the National Science Education Standards: Are We Adequately Preparing Teachers?

Despite the apparent lack of universally accepted goals or objectives for elementary science methods courses, teacher educators nationally are autonomously designing these classes to prepare prospective teachers to teach science. It is unclear, however, whether science methods courses are preparing teachers to teach science effectively or to implement the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996). Using the Science Teaching Standards as a framework for analysis, this research proceeded in two phases. During the first phase, the elementary science methods courses, perspectives, and practices of six science teacher educators were examined to determine similarities and differences in the course goals and objectives, overall emphases, and their efforts to prepare their students to implement the Science Teaching Standards. The second phase of the study investigated the elementary science methods courses of a national sample of science teacher educators as reflected in their course syllabi. It was found that universal inclusion of content related to the Science Teaching Standards does not exist, nor are there clear linkages between course goals, activities, and assignments.     

The significance of circumstances for college students' ratings of their teachers and courses

Although firm generalizations and conclusions cannot yet be drawn from the extant research on the effects on teacher and course ratings of the circumstances surrounding these evaluations, at least some studies have shown that college students' ratings of their teachers and courses are somewhat higher when students remain anonymous rather than identifying themselves, when the purported use of the ratings is an official or administrative one for use in salary, promotion, or tenure considerations rather than otherwise, and when the instructor is present rather than absent during the rating session. (The differences between each of these contrasted circumstances are usually rather small and do not inevitably appear across studies.) Certain variations in rating format have been found to make a difference in the ratings obtained, whereas other have not. From limited evidence, the exact timing (or occasion) of evaluation appears not to be important to ratings. Variability in sampling procedures, as it affects the composition of students available to complete rating forms, may or may not turn out to be a generally important element in ratings (as directly relevant data are collected). The analysis concludes with a discussion of (1) the presumed bias in ratings produced in certain of the rating conditions and (2) the more general issue of the comparability of ratings made in different circumstances of evaluation.