Enhancing Students’ Learning Process Through Self-Generated Tests

The use of new technologies in higher education has surprisingly emphasized students’ tendency to adopt a passive behavior in class. Participation and interaction of students are essential to improve academic results. This paper describes an educational experiment aimed at the promotion of students’ autonomous learning by requiring them to generate test type questions related to the contents of the course. The main idea is to make the student feel part of the evaluation process by including students’ questions in the evaluation exams. A set of applications running on our university online learning environment has been developed in order to provide both students and teachers with the necessary tools for a good interaction between them. Questions uploaded by students are visible to every enrolled student as well as to each involved teacher. In this way, we enhance critical analysis skills, by solving and finding possible mistakes in the questions sent by their fellows. The experiment was applied over 769 students from 12 different courses. Results show that the students who have actively participated in the experiment have obtained better academic performance.     

Views on College Students’ English Learning Motivation

This paper aims at exploring college students’ English learning motivation to language learning, including effort, interest, and attitudes. To some extent, it is very important to perform activities in language learning classes. On the one hand, teachers should do every effort to develop students’ keen interest in English study so as to foster their intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, they should set up new goals for students and feedback properly in order to build confidence in English learning. In a word, it is essential for English teachers to understand students’ motivation of English learning so as to save time and teach more efficiently.     

Students’ Learning Experiences in an Early College High School

Early College High Schools (ECHS) are at the forefront of high school reform embodying the principles of rigor, relationship, and relevance. This study examines students’ learning experiences in the context of relationships and rigor at an ECHS. Specifically, I investigate factors that influence students to attend an ECHS, what they attribute to their academic success, and the challenges they experience. I draw upon data from individual and focus group interviews with students at one 3-year-old ECHS in southeastern North Carolina.     

Autonomous Learning to Improve College English Students’English Re-search

This paper aims to resesrch on the autonmons tearning so as to improve the college students’English learning . First of all, it introdues some basic concepts of the autonomous learning theory , Secondl...     

College Students’ Time Management: a Self-Regulated Learning Perspective

Educational Psychology Review - Despite its recognized importance for academic success, much of the research investigating time management has proceeded without regard to a comprehensive...     

A Survey on College Students’ English Learning Motivation and the Learning Results

This survey has been processed on 78 graduate students in grade 2010, majoring in science and engineer, from different classes. By analyzing the results of College English Test 4 and questionnaire, it shows that the students’ English learning motivation roots in Certificate. Differences between the winners and losers are not reflected in the time they have used to study, but the learning motivation they possess.     

Discussion on College Teacher’s Role in Students’Autonomous Learning

In recent years,with the shift from traditional teacher-centered model to new learner-centered model in foreign language teaching,autonomous learning has become a research hotspot in foreign language circle.Although the researches on this issue are supposed to be prosperous,the attempt to look into the change of teachers’role on learner autonomy seems fairly limited.Therefore,this paper aims to deal with the changing of teachers’role in college students’autonomous learning.The significance of this paper is to make teachers adapt to their new roles so as to further improve their college teaching efficiency.     

How to Teach Integrated Skills to College Students

English is taught throughout China. What skills will be used and how many skills will be involved depends on the materials available and the classroom situation. However, given these circumstances, a major problem that has always concerned many teachers of English is how to make full use of techniques and approaches in the classroom to teach English effectively. To an English teacher, the only way to achieve this aim is to collect good and interesting coursebooks, to adopt a communicative methodology and to integrate the four skills, i.e. listening, speaking,     

Community College Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Climate and Fundamental Engineering Skills

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine community college engineering students’ perceptions of their classroom climate and how these perceptions are related to fundamental skills in engineering. The study was guided by the following research question: How are community college engineering students’ perceptions of their fundamental engineering skills related to their perceptions of classroom climate? Data from a 2009 National Science Foundation sponsored project, Prototype to Production: Processes and Conditions for Preparing the Engineer of 2020 (P2P), which contains information from students in 15 pre-engineering community college programs, were examined. Measures of classroom climate and fundamental skills related to engineering were first established through an exploratory factor analysis. In order to explore differences in student perceptions by individual characteristics and by institution, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used. Results indicated that for community college engineering students, a warmer perception of classroom climate was associated with a higher perception of fundamental engineering skills. At community colleges, class sizes are generally smaller, especially compared to introductory courses at universities, and may provide a warmer climate for students considering beginning their engineering degrees. Given the diversity within community colleges, these institutions may provide an important pathway for underrepresented groups in engineering.     

Metrics for Students’ Soft Skills

This article presents a systematic approach to defining, applying, evaluating, refining, and revising metrics for students’ soft skills—their abilities like critical thinking, problem solving, leadership and responsibility, communication, and collaboration. The importance of these skills in educational and work settings is growing rapidly. While such skills are easy to notice, they are hard to measure. Metrics do exist, but vary from one case to another, and are often rather implicit and vague. Contrary to that, this article proposes the use of precisely specified, measurable, low-inference indicators (metrics) to assess soft skills. The article also introduces an open set of principles that can be used to guide the specification of concrete, evidence-based metrics for different soft skills. Two case studies are used to illustrate the approach. These case studies are part of a larger research effort that has developed an open set of metrics for different soft skills; some of them are discussed in the article extensively. Generalizing the metrics used in specific educational contexts is also discussed.     

Learning Theory as Teaching Resource: Enhancing Students’ Understanding of Economic Concepts

A group of experienced secondary school teachers used a novel learning theory as a resource for planning and carrying out their teaching of a difficult economic concept. Their students mastery of this concept after a series of three lessons was compared with the mastery of the same concept by students who were taught by another group of teachers under the same conditions except for the use of the theory. The difference in learning outcomes was extreme. Observations of what was happening in the classrooms showed subtle but decisive differences correlated with the differences in outcome. These differences were interpreted in terms of the theory used by the first group, and the results seem to give support to the theoretical claim that for any specific object of learning there is a necessary pattern of variation and invariance that the learners must experience in order to appropriate the object of learning in question and thus by bringing out that pattern in the learning situation, the likelihood of that object of learning being appropriated is enhanced. Furthermore, this study shows how the understanding of the simultaneous change in the supply of and the demand for a certain good affects its market price can be brought about in a powerful way.     

Mini-corpus Based Analysis of Errors in Higher Vocational College Students’ Writing

Errors are of significance to language learners in that they are unavoidable and necessary part of learning. We collect120 HVC students’ in-class compositions. Writing errors are identified,marked and annotated in line with the error tagging system used by Gui in CLEC. A mini-corpus is created and tokens are counted and analyzed with SPSS. A factor analysis together with follow-up interview is made to figure out if common factors can account for certain types of errors.     

Advocating Students’ Individual Learning

A new approach formed with the application of modern teaching facilities makes English teaching and learning more collaborative and individualized through using computers,the Internet,and multimedia.Therefore,students’individual English learning,teaching and learning environment,and conditions that students need in their individual learning are discussed.     

Mini-corpus Based Analysis of Errors in Higher Vocational College Students ’Writing

Errors are of significance to language learners in that they are unavoidable and necessary part of learning. We collect 120 HVC students’in-class compositions. Writing errors are identified, marked and...     

From Input to Output:Chinese College Students’English Language Learning Situation

English as a second language has been learned and taught in Chinese colleges for several decades. But seen from stu?dents’TEM-4 and TEM-6 results and their practical application, the effect is limited ...     

The Effects of College Students’ Personal Values on Changes in Learning Approaches

Many studies of changes in learning approaches have used data from different age groups at one point in time only (Gow and Kember, High Educ 19:307–322, 1990; Watkins and Hattie, Br J Educ Psychol 51:384–393, 1981) or have analyzed the effects of just two or three factors using single level analytical techniques (Cano, Br J Educ Psychol 75:203–221, 2005; Duckwall et al., Res High Educ 32(1):1–13, 1991; Jay and Love, NCSSSMST J 7(2):4–8, 2002; Loo, Educ Psychol, 17(1/2), 1997; Watkins and Hattie, Hum Learn 4:127–141, 1985; Zeegers, Br J Educ Psychol 71:115–132, 2001). This study employs multilevel modeling as a more appropriate technique for the analysis of longitudinal data to examine factors influencing changes in the learning approaches of 153 international undergraduate students over a 3-year period. Specifically, using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), the effects of personal values (level-2) on learning approaches and changes in them over time (level-1) are examined. Results show no changes within students in the deep and surface approaches to learning but a significant decline for the achieving approach, particularly for students who previously experienced a more formal teaching authority. Furthermore, students’ personal values in terms of security, achievement and hedonism affect the achieving approach while no effects emerge for the personal values of tradition, conformity, universalism, self-direction and stimulation. Finally, these effects can be observed while no significant effects emerge for gender, discipline and ability.     

Understanding the PAD-Based Class Acceptance among Modern Chinese College Students’English Learning

This paper gives an understanding of PAD-based class acceptance among modern Chinese college students’English learning.It first introduces the brief definition of what the PAD-based class is,as well as the situation of English language learning in present China,especially the learning amongst Chinese college students.And then it focuses on the acceptance of the PADbased class in the English learning of Chinese college students,including the breakthrough of the traditional Chinese classroom teaching mode and the innovation of the PAD-based class among Chinese college students’English learning.     

Influence of Tibetan Language and Culture on Tibetan College Students’ EFL Learning

Nowadays teaching English as a foreign language is becoming more and more important in Tibetan education. Since Ti?betan education system is complicated, Tibetan college students are facing many proble...     

Some Reflections on Enhancing Students＇ Interest in College Mathematics

大学数学作为基础课程的教学状况,总体是好的,成绩也是显著的。但目前数学基础课程的教学的状况应该说也有很多不尽如人意的地方,鉴于此,从倡导启发式的教学方法、培养学生的学习兴趣、激发学生主动学习和鼓励教师用心灵去教学四个方面对如何提高学生学习大学数学的兴趣作出了一些思考。     

Integration of Innovative Technologies for Enhancing Students’ Motivation for Science Learning and Career

This paper analyzes the outcomes of an innovative technology experience for students and teachers (ITEST) project, Mayor’s Youth Technology Corps (MYTCs) in Detroit, MI, which was funded by the NSF ITEST program. The MYTC project offered an integration of two technologies, geographic information system (GIS) and information assurance (IA), to stimulate students’ interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career pathways and learning opportunities among high schools in underserved communities of the City of Detroit. Pre- and post-surveys demonstrated that the MYTC students showed growth in nearly every area covered in the surveys, including dispositions about STEM career and learning. A STEM career goal measure showed that overall interest in having a career in STEM increased 9 % throughout the program, with an additional 10 % for those who participated in an internship experience, the capstone of the MYTC project.