Advisement and management strategies as design variables in computer-assisted instruction

Some studies of computer-assisted instruction have shown that when students control the amount of instruction they receive, they often terminate too early and fail to learn what they should. While sophisticated adaptive systems may eliminate the problem of premature termination of study, they neglect the important goal of learner responsibility. These researchers were interested in whether giving learners information about their achievement in relation to the criterion during instruction would improve learning in both learner-controlled and program-controlled systems. Success was measured in terms of posttest scores, time on task, and number of instructional examples required during instruction.     

Innovative approaches to information literacy instruction for engineering undergraduates at Drexel University

As information professionals, engineering librarians have the primary responsibilities of providing access to engineering information resources and giving instruction in how to use these resources. In the case of undergraduate engineering students, this extends to building their information literacy skills, an important component in helping them become lifelong learners; to be curious and independent, and to take greater responsibility for their own learning. The challenge in building information literacy in engineering students is to acquaint the students with the array of library resources available to them and to help them intelligently navigate the systems that contain the information. Too often, information literacy instruction is presented as a set of procedures for locating a hypothetical resource in the library. However, students are not interested in finding some resource randomly chosen as an example; they want to find resources that they perceive as being important and useful. During the 2005–2006 academic year, the engineering librarians at Drexel University took this into consideration and employed a new methodology for information literacy instruction: combining an online tutorial covering basic library skills with face-to-face consultations between student design teams and the engineering librarians. By utilizing varied instruction techniques aimed at different learning styles, with a strong active learning component delivered at the student's point of need—when they have a concrete, perceived information need—information literacy instruction can be improved so that engineering students retain more and develop lifelong learning skills.     

Comparing the effectiveness of preparatory activities that help undergraduate students learn from instruction

Students can learn better from instruction after first engaging in activities that prepare them to learn (Kapur, 2016; Loibl, Roll, & Rummel, 2017; Schwartz & Bransford, 1998). In this study, we compare the effectiveness of four activities that prepare university students to learn from instruction. We use productive failure, an established instructional design, as the baseline preparatory condition. In productive failure, students generate solutions to challenging but accessible problems, which serves as preparation for formal instruction. We compare this approach with three alternative preparatory activities: contrasting a correct and an incorrect solution, sensemaking of the correct solution only, and studying a fully worked-out example of the correct solution. Despite the differences in preparatory activities, participants on average performed nearly identically on most of the process and outcome measures. In universities, or with similarly advanced learners, a variety of activities may be equally effective at preparing students to learn from instruction.     

The Impact of Coordination Methods on the Enhancement of Business Writing

Universities with limited resources are being pressured to cover more material within their degree programs. Because of this, schools are looking to integrate material from different classes. This paper sets out to determine if students can learn business writing within the context of another class, specifically, an information systems class. The goal is to eliminate the need for a separate business‐writing course. However, the students will have to learn the material with limited support in order not to place an additional load on the instructor. This study investigates whether individuals can develop their business‐writing skills during the course of repeated group work and whether there are differences in the level of their learning, based on collaborative media. The results show that individuals can learn business‐writing skills with a minimum of support through direct instruction. In addition, there is no difference between individuals working in face‐to‐face (F2F) groups and those working in groups using electronic collaborative work (ECW) systems.     

Do students with and without lexical retrieval weaknesses respond differently to instruction?

Deficits in phonological processing are theorized to be responsible for at least some reading disabilities. A considerable amount of research demonstrates that many students can be taught one of these phonological processes-phonemic awareness. However, not all students have responded favorably to this instruction. Research has suggested that these nonresponders may be unable to retrieve phonological codes quickly from long-term memory. The purpose of this study was to examine whether such a deficiency, which we refer to as lexical retrieval weakness, blunts the effectiveness of combined phonemic awareness and decoding training. To this end, we compared the effectiveness of phonemic awareness and decoding training for students with and without severe lexical retrieval weaknesses. All students in both groups demonstrated poor phonemic awareness. The results suggested that students with relatively strong lexical retrieval skill responded more favorably to beginning reading instruction than did students with weak lexical retrieval skill. In other words, lexical retrieval weakness may influence reading development independently of the effects of phonemic awareness. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

The Effects of Text Familiarity and Cohesion on Retrieval of Information Learned from Text

This study examined the effects of familiarity of passage concepts and passage cohesion on retrieval of text information. In order to distinguish between comprehension and retrieval processes, subjects were equated on comprehension; therefore, any differences found could be attributed to differences in retrieval processes. The passages used varied on familiarity and cohesion, but syntax was held constant. Middle school students learned information in passages to an 85% correct criterion using a study-test procedure. The subjects were not told that they would be tested on the material. Two weeks later, they took a free recall test and reported their rehearsal of the passage information during the intervening time period. The results showed that although the original amount learned was equated, recall of propositions from passages with more familiar concepts was about 35% greater than the recall from passages with less familiar concepts. There were no significant differences due to cohesion or the interaction of cohesion and familiarity. The explanation presented is that familiarity stimulates elaboration of passage material and elaborations provide alternate retrieval pathways at recall. Educational implications are discussed.     

Better together: Simultaneous presentation of speech and gesture in math instruction supports generalization and retention

When teachers gesture during instruction, children retain and generalize what they are taught (Goldin-Meadow, 2014). But why does gesture have such a powerful effect on learning? Previous research shows that children learn most from a math lesson when teachers present one problem-solving strategy in speech while simultaneously presenting a different, but complementary, strategy in gesture (Singer & Goldin-Meadow, 2005). One possibility is that gesture is powerful in this context because it presents information simultaneously with speech. Alternatively, gesture may be effective simply because it involves the body, in which case the timing of information presented in speech and gesture may be less important for learning. Here we find evidence for the importance of simultaneity: 3rd grade children retain and generalize what they learn from a math lesson better when given instruction containing simultaneous speech and gesture than when given instruction containing sequential speech and gesture. Interpreting these results in the context of theories of multimodal learning, we find that gesture capitalizes on its synchrony with speech to promote learning that lasts and can be generalized.     

Electronic reading and digital library technologies: understanding learner expectation and usage intent for mobile learning

Mobile information technology is changing the education landscape by offering learners the opportunity to engage in asynchronous, ubiquitous instruction. While there is a proliferation of mobile content management systems being developed for the mobile Web and stand-alone mobile applications, few studies have addressed learner expectations and usage intent in consuming digital documents from online content providers and digital libraries with specific emphasis on formal instruction. Understanding usage intent and actual usage of a mobile learning agent as a result of ease of use and usefulness of mobile devices will be addressed in this study. A research framework for instructional technology usage is proposed to help better articulate critical success factors in implementing formal learning using a mobile device, specifically an electronic reader or a tablet computer.     

Children's Reasoning about the Interaction of Forces

In order to acquire an advanced understanding of movements caused by more than one physical force, children must learn to combine force vectors. Former studies suggest that children consider information on only one aspect (direction or amount) of both vectors. Two experiments tested this hypothesis. A total of 160 elementary school children and 31 adults judged the effect of two forces pulling at one object simultaneously. Participants had to predict the direction of the resulting force under different experimental conditions. In line with previous findings, most children took into account either the direction or the amount of both forces. Their preferred solution varied with the nature of the vector problem and the context of the task. Performance generally improved with age.     

Critical Literacy,Disciplinary Literacy: Reading the Engineering-Designed World

Globally, many people spend most of their time interacting with the products of engineering design as they wear clothes, drink clean water, use transportation systems, and more. Given the omnipresence of engineering design, whose material results are felt daily in people’s lives, it seems especially important that students learn to recognize and question how certain designs promote the welfare and interests of some while remaining inaccessible to others. In this article, we outline a vision for critical literacy instruction in engineering that simultaneously incorporates and challenges professional standards. We—an associate professor of literacy, an engineer, and a teacher at an engineering-focused high school—illustrate how critical literacy instruction might be enacted in the context of engineering design instruction in high schools. We describe how critical literacy can complement disciplinary literacy instruction in engineering as students use critically-focused, disciplinary lenses to move toward social justice.     

论现代教学过程中的信息优化

计算机网络技术改变了人们的学习方式,使自主学习和终身学习成为可能.在传统教学形式和多种网络教学形式并存的形势下,针对我国当前课堂教学形式占主体地位的现状,本文从信息传递的角度,就现代教学过程中如何运用现代教育技术,有效编排、组织、管理、传递信息,提高信息的传递效果进行了探讨.从而达到促进教学过程优化,培养创新人才的目的.     

Teaching and learning in digital environments: The resurgence of resource-based learning

The digital age has not simply changed the nature of resources and information; it has transformed several basic social and economic enterprises. Contemporary society—the settings where we live, work, and learn—has likewise changed dramatically. Both the amount of information and access to it have grown exponentially; a significant potential for using varied resources in numerous ways for instruction and learning has emerged. However, several issues related to the educational uses of varied resources (e.g., people, place, things, ideas) must be addressed if we are successfully to implement resource-based learning environments. In this paper, we trace the changing nature of resources and perspectives in their use for learning in the digital age, describe the overarching structures of resource-based learning environments, and identify key challenges to be addressed.     

基于页面链接结构Page Rank算法的改进--有向访问模型

互联网上的信息每天都以指数量级的速度爆炸性增长,面对如此浩瀚的资源,从web中的大量信息中准确并且有效的提取用户所需要的信息成为了Internet的用户的迫切需要。web信息检索系统可以利用web页面的这种特殊的链接结构关系来改进检索的算法,以提高检索的精度。链接结构分析显著地提高了检索结果的相关性。在充分分析基于链接结构的算法的基础上,本文提出了一个更接近真实情形的模型——有向访问模型,它假定访问者将根据与查询相关的概率模型来指导下一步的访问,它能够真实地描述用户在浏览网页时的行为。     

Retrieval Cues On Tests: A Strategy for Helping Students Overcome Retrieval Failure

Students often struggle to recall information on tests, frequently claiming to experience a “retrieval failure” of learned information. Thus, the retrieval of information from memory may be a roadblock to student success. I propose a relatively simple adjustment to the wording of test items to help eliminate this potential barrier. Specifically, I examined whether embedding salient information from class lectures in test items as retrieval cues enhanced student performance on tests. In two studies, including both an upper- and lower-division course, student performance on identical test items with and without retrievals was compared. Student performance varied significantly depending on whether retrieval cues were embedded in the items, and in both courses the difference was at least a half letter grade (study 2) or more (study 1). These results suggest that the selective use of retrieval cues on tests may be an effective strategy for helping students overcome retrieval failure on tests.     

Using Explicit and Strategic Instruction to Teach Division Skills to Students With Learning Disabilities

Students with mathematics learning disabilities (LD) exhibit difficulties with retrieval and cognitive skills that impede their ability to perform basic mathematical skills. Instruction in mathematical procedures (i.e., procedural knowledge) is necessary to help students learn and apply skills such as basic facts and whole-number computation. Division is a skill that is identified in curriculum across the grade levels; yet, it is a skill that is often taught last in instructional sequences because of its complexity and prerequisite knowledge. Reviews of research have revealed that students with LD benefit from a combined model of academic instruction that includes both explicit and strategic instructional procedures. This article presents an overview of division instruction and a sample of interventions for teaching division that include explicit and strategic instructional procedures, which are found in the combined model of teaching.     

The Use of Additional Information in Problem-Oriented Learning Environments

Self-directed learning with authentic and complex problems (problem-oriented learning) requires that learners observe their own learning and use additional information when it is appropriate (e.g. hypertextual information in computer-supported learning environments). Research results indicate that learners in problem-oriented learning environments often have difficulties using additional information adequately, and that they should be supported. Two studies with a computer-supported problem-oriented learning environment in the domain of medicine analysed the effects of strategy instruction on the use of additional information and the quality of the problem representation. In Study 1, an expert model was used for strategy instruction. Two groups were compared: one group with strategy modelling and one group without. Strategy modelling influenced the frequency of looked-up hypertextual information, but did not influence the quality of learners' problem representations. This could be explained by difficulties in applying the general hypertext information to the problem. In Study 2, the additional information was presented in a more contextualised way as graphical representation of the case and its relevant concepts. Again, two groups were compared: one with a strategy instruction text and one without. Strategy instruction texts supported an adequate use of this graphical information by learners and had an effect on the quality of their problem representations. These findings are discussed with respect to the design of additional help systems in problem-oriented learning environments. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

语言学关键词检索的认知偏离

为了获取大量的语言学研究信息,在线文献检索模式的掌握至关重要,有时直接关涉语言学文献检索的效果。语言学文献检索的目的是获取所需的语言学研究信息,而文献检索编辑的目的是提供多种信息,而非单一的语言学研究文献信息。这种接受与给予之间的信息关联取决于检索者和编辑者之间的信息认知协调。从语言学关键词检索来看,检索者和编辑者的知识框架的认知偏离极易导致漏检、误检等诸多检索失误现象。如此检索失误有其更为深层次的认知动因,这无疑导致二者有关语言学典型信息的认知解析的差异。本研究指出,作为权势一方的编辑者应该关注弱势一方的检索者的认知取向,做到熟悉常规方式,力求统一检索模式,发展智能手段,从而达成双方的认知协调,进而实现语言学文献检索的最佳效果。     

Asymmetric translation between multiple representations in chemistry

Experts are more proficient in manipulating and translating between multiple representations (MRs) of a given concept than novices. Studies have shown that instruction using MR can increase student understanding of MR, and one model for MR instruction in chemistry is the chemistry triplet proposed by Johnstone. Concreteness fading theory suggests that presenting concrete representations before abstract representations can increase the effectiveness of MR instruction; however, little work has been conducted on varying the order of different representations during instruction and the role of concreteness in assessment. In this study, we investigated the application of concreteness fading to MR instruction and assessment in teaching chemistry. In two experiments, undergraduate students in either introductory psychology courses or general chemistry courses were given MR instruction on phase changes using different orders of presentation and MR assessment questions based on the representations in the chemistry triplet. Our findings indicate that the order of presentation based on levels of concreteness in MR chemistry instruction is less important than implementation of comprehensive MR assessments. Even after MR instruction, students display an asymmetric understanding of the chemical phenomenon on the MR assessments. Greater emphasis on MR assessments may be an important component in MR instruction that effectively moves novices toward more expert MR understanding.     

全文检索在SQL Server2000中的应用

目前,全文检索技术是国内外学者研究的热点。它以文本信息作为检索对象,允许用户直接获取文中的有关章节、段落或句子,是从海量信息中精确定位所需信息的最有效手段。随着信息量的急剧增加,为了在浩如烟海的文字信息中快速找到所需的相关信息,很多应用系统都通过全文检索技术来提高系统检索效率。     

Some Student Misconceptions in Chemistry: A Literature Review of Chemical Bonding

Students' misconceptions before or after formal instruction have become a major concern among researchers in science education because they influence how students learn new scientific knowledge, play an essential role in subsequent learning and become a hindrance in acquiring the correct body of knowledge. In this paper some students' misconceptions on chemical bonding reported in the literature were investigated and presented. With this aim, a detailed literature review of chemical bonding was carried out and the collected data was presented from past to day historically. On the basis of the results some suggestions for teaching were made.