THE EFFECT OF SCAFFOLDED VIGNETTE INSTRUCTION ON STUDENT MASTERY OF SUBJECT MATTER

Vignettes have long been used as a tool to model, teach, and research behavior and understanding as well as to stimulate discussion and problem solving in learning situations. The growing body of research on vignettes as an instructional and assessment tool to enhance recognition, recall, and transfer of subject matter knowledge suggests that the effectiveness of vignettes is due in part to its use as a scaffolding tool during instruction. This article summarizes an analysis of the effects of vignette instruction on vignette quiz performance in three sections of a blended graduate educational psychology course. Eight instructional vignettes administered to two sections and eight traditional scaffolding activities completed by the third section represented the only difference in the intervention. Study results suggest that vignette instruction provides efficient near-transfer opportunities and richer scaffolding experiences on student mastery of subject matter than does instruction without vignettes, regardless of whether the scaffolding is conducted in class or online or whether the vignette tasks involve solving a problem or evaluating a solution to a problem in a hypothetical teaching situation.     

走出欧氏几何——论射影几何中理想元素、复元素和对偶元素作用

本文论述了射影几何中理想元素、复元素和对偶元素的引入对几何学从欧氏几何发展到射影几何的重要作用，分析了由此导出的两种特殊的证明方法和作图方法     

EFFECT OF CLASS SIZE,GRADES GIVEN,AND ACADEMIC FIELD ON STUDENT OPINION OF INSTRUCTION

This study reviewed the effect of class size, grades given, and academic field on student opinion of instruction. Data analysis showed that there were no significant correlations between variables of the three groups: (a) class size and student opinion of instruction; (b) grades given and student opinion of instruction, and (c) college and national academic field rankings and student opinion of instruction. These results leave teacher effectiveness as the most likely variable to explain ratings of student opinion of instruction.     

THE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF THE TEST ROOM ON STANDARDIZED ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES

A group of 384 ninth-grade students were given a standardized achievement test, half under relatively poor physical conditions in an auditorium and half in relatively adequate physical conditions in regular classrooms. An analysis of covariance (using I.Q. as the covariate) indicated no significant difference due to the physical conditions.     

试论射影几何方法的形成和发展

本文通过翔实的数学史料,阐明射影几何方法——综合法与代数法的形成和发展     

论老子道本体论的实质和理论成就

老子《道德经》中的道作为世界的本原,它是客观世界的最普遍规律和最深刻本质的统一体。老子的道作为物质性的世界规律和本质的统一体,其基本性质是唯物主义的,但也包含着某些唯心主义的因素。老子的道的本体论不仅达到了中国古代理论思维水平的最高境界,而且对当代人类认识宇宙的本质和规律也具有积极的促进作用。     

CONTEMPLATIVE INSTRUCTION AND THE GIFTS OF BEAUTY,LOVE, AND SILENCE

In this essay Angelo Caranfa maintains that what education should be engaging in is a ceaseless effort of cultivating in the students attention to the things of the spirit—that is, the world of aesthetic apprehension as described by such figures as Plato and Simone Weil. Caranfa attempts to show that in Plato and in Weil, we receive a vision of education that motivates the contemplative life conceived as contact with the Good, Truth, Justice, Love, and Beauty. This is a life of detachment or withdrawing, of looking or attention, of silence, and of contemplation or prayer, which is essentially a way of learning that leads, step by step, or degree by degree, and by repeated exercises, out of the cave to the realm of goodness, truth, justice, love, and beauty. This contemplative method of learning that the writings of Plato and Weil offer us is not only a critique of today's method of problem solving, of statistical analysis, of verbal noise, and lack of attention, but also of those who speak of learning apart from the spirit of beauty.     

PREDICTING MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT: THE INFLUENCE OF PRIOR ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDES

Achievement in mathematics is inextricably linked to future career opportunities, and therefore, understanding those factors that influence achievement is important. This study sought to examine the relationships among attitude towards mathematics, ability and mathematical achievement. This examination was also supported by a focus on gender effects. By drawing on a sample of Australian secondary school students, it was demonstrated through the results of a multivariate analysis of variance that females were more likely to hold positive attitudes towards mathematics. In addition, the predictive capacity of prior achievement and attitudes towards mathematics on a nationally recognised secondary school mathematics examination was shown to be large (R ²  =  0.692). However, when these predictors were controlled, the influence of gender was non-significant. Moreover, a structural equation model was developed from the same measures and subsequent testing indicated that the model offered a reasonable fit of the data. The positing and testing of this model signifies growth in the Australian research literature by showing the contribution that ability (as measured by standardised test results in numeracy and literacy) and attitude towards mathematics play in explaining mathematical achievement in secondary school. The implications of these results for teachers, parents and other researchers are then considered.     

THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT

Three teaching methods were compared in this study, namely a Cognitive Conflict Management Module (CCM) that is infused into Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), (Module A) CASE without CCM (Module B) and a conventional teaching method. This study employed a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design using non-equivalent control groups. The design involved 130 participants from Form 2 (Grade 7) in a Malaysian secondary school. The cognitive level of all participants was classified as non-formal operational on the pre-test and were allocated to one of the four intact groups: experimental group 1, EP1 experienced Module A, experimental group, and EP2 experienced Module B, while the others were divided between two control groups. The impact of the three teaching methods on the level of cognitive development and science achievement were observed after a 20-week intervention. Data were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance/multivariate analysis of covariance, analysis of covariance and a paired-samples t test. It is hoped that this study can contribute to knowledge in the field of cognitive intervention and cognitive conflict strategy. The findings show that a high dose of cognitive intervention in CASE activities within a short period has an effect on the levels of students’ cognitive development, standard science achievement and constructive cognitive conflict.     

PERSPECTIVES ON THE INSTRUCTION OF BIOLOGICAL AGING COURSES

Courses in biological aging are becoming increasingly common and necessary in college curricula for several reasons. At the same time, there is a lack of guidance for instructors regarding necessary content in such a course, which is in part perpetuated by uncertainty about the background of students who need this instruction and a lack of consistency in the content and style of human aging textbooks. In this article, the authors, as instructors who have taught undergraduate level human biological aging courses for many years, describe the areas of study and needs of students likely to enroll in such a course and also detail strategies and organizational methods found to be advantagous in teaching this material in a coherent and understandable manner to a largely nonscience major student cohort. Strategies discussed include alteration of course content, decompartmentalization of topics, relation of biological topics to social science reference points, and contrasting “universal” and pathological age‐related changes. Also included is an outline of the content and order of subjects that the authors have found through experience to be successful in the instruction of a biological aging course.     

EFFECT OF THE PRESENCE OF EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS ON ACCURACY AND REACTION TIME IN SOLVING MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-CHOICE PROBLEMS BY STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF INSTRUCTION

This study explores the effects of the presence of external representations of a mathematical object (ERs) on problem solving performance associated with short double-choice problems. The problems were borrowed from secondary school algebra and geometry, and the ERs were either formulas, graphs of functions, or drawings of geometric figures. Performance was evaluated according to the reaction time (RT) required for solving the problem and the accuracy of the answer. Thirty high school students studying at high and regular levels of instruction in mathematics (HL and RL) were asked to solve half of the problems with ERs and half of the problems without ERs. Each task was solved by half of the students with ERs and by half of the students without ERs. We found main effects of the representation mode with particular effect on the RT and the main effects of the level of mathematical instruction and mathematical subject with particular influence on the accuracy of students’ responses. We explain our findings using the cognitive load theory and hypothesize that these findings are associated with the different cognitive processes related to geometry and algebra.