Training versus instruction in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies

As various cognitive learning strategies have been identified and shown to be useful, the question of how best to teach an individual to use these techniques becomes important. Two studies compared simple instruction to more extended training. In Experiment 1 training was found superior to simple instructions with the method of loci for serial recall learning. Training in generalizable strategies involving imagery, verbal elaboration, and grouping was compared to simple instruction for a reading comprehension task in Experiment 2. Training was found to be more effective than instruction with a short-answer test over easy reading material, but not with difficult readings or multiple-choice tests.     

Teaching strategies to promote concept learning by design challenges

Background: This study is the second study of a design-based research, organised around four studies, that aims to improve student learning, teaching skills and teacher training concerning the design-based learning approach called Learning by Design (LBD).

Purpose: LBD uses the context of design challenges to learn, among other things, science. Previous research shows that this approach to subject integration is quite successful but provides little profit on (scientific) concept learning. For this, a lack of (knowledge of) proper teaching strategies is suggested as an important reason. This study explores these strategies and more specific the interaction with concept learning.

Sample: Six Dutch first-year bachelor’s degree science student teachers, between the ages of 16 and 18, and two science teacher trainers (principal investigators included) were involved.

Design and methods: A mixed methods study was used to study LBD’s teaching practice in depth. Based on a theoretical framework of (concept) learning-related teaching strategies video recordings of a guided LBD challenge were analysed to unravel teacher handling in detail. Complemented by questionnaire and interview data and students’ learning outcomes (pre- and post-exam) the effectiveness of teaching strategies was established and shortcomings were distracted.

Results: Students reached medium overall learning gains where the highest gains were strongly task-related. Teacher handling was dominated by providing feedback and stimulating collaboration and only 13% of all teacher interventions concerned direct explication of underlying science. And especially these explicit teaching strategies were highly appreciated by students to learn about science.

Conclusions: In accordance with insights about knowledge transfer, LBD needs to be enriched with explicit teaching strategies, interludes according to poor-related science content important for cohesive understanding and de- and recontextualisation of concepts for deeper understanding.     

Impediments to developing collaborative learning strategies: The input vs. output conflict

Journal of Science Education and Technology -     

Networking for life-long learning in graduate education

Networking is a new term for educators. It identifies a process where people and resources are engaged through intentional acts based upon acquired skills. The term is closely associated with self-directed learning and can serve as a collaborative rather than a competitive educational principle. This article examines the applicability of networking for graduate education, including a demonstration of uses, and the identification of skills to be learned by the successful networker.     

Effects of testing versus review on rote and conceptual learning from prose

This study investigated the effect of reading ability level(high, low) and type of study activity (immediate rote test, immediate conceptual test, structured review, unstructured review, no review control) on rote and conceptual learning outcomes. Subjects were 110 sophomore and junior level high school students. The students studied a 2100 word passage and were then given either a posttest (rote or conceptual) or a set of directions leading to structured or unstructured review or a control group filler task. Rote and conceptual delayed retention tests were administered one week later. A 2×5 factorial design was used. Results indicated no significant effects for type of study activity. As expected, high reading ability students performed better than low reading ability students across all conditions.     

二语习得中自我效能感与学习策略关系的研究

本文以自我效能理论以及学习策略理论为基础,以调查问卷的形式,对235名东北林业大学非英语专业本科学生的英语学习自我效能感和英语学习策略使用情况进行了调查研究,旨在探讨英语作为第二语言的非英语专业学生英语学习自我效能感与其所用的英语学习策略之间的关系。研究结果表明:学生的英语学习自我效能感与学习策略各个要素之间呈显著正相关,学生英语学习自我效能感直接影响并决定着其对学习策略的选择和使用,同时学生是否对学习策略进行有效地选择和使用也影响着学生英语学习自我效能感程度的高低。     

Consistency in learning strategies

This article examines the reported use of surface and deep level learning strategies by first-year student teachers at an Australian College of Advanced Education. Students responded to a brief questionnaire measuring the learning strategies they adopted in different assessment situations. The article describes the development of this questionnaire, its factorial structure, and the predictive validity of its factors. High levels of achievement, on both objective tests and essay assessments, were found to be associated with the reported use of deep strategies. Three-mode factor analyses revealed high levels of consistency in the strategies reported for various learning contexts, implying that these were stylistic behaviours rather than strategic approaches to learning which were situation specific. The notion of consistency in learning strategies was considered in light of recent literature suggesting a greater extent of cognitive flexibility.     

Cognitive style and complex concept acquisition

College undergraduates classified by the Hidden Figures Test as high, medium, or low analytic studied one of two lesson types. Both lessons taught four complex nondimensioned concepts from the area of social learning by presenting a definition followed by either positive examples or positive and negative examples. Immediate acquisition was assessed by a test requiring subjects to identify positive and negative examples. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction on the dependent variable requiring the identification of positive examples.     

Implications of multi-image for concept acquisition

This study explored a number of questions related to multi-image presentation of information and acquisition of a concept — in this case, classifying plants in the subphylum Pteropsida. Of particular interest was whether redundancy (i.e., additional positive examples of plants in the classes) and an opportunity to view nonexamples as well as examples of classes would be helpful to the seventhgrade subjects. This study was funded by a Research Council grant, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The author is grateful to Virginia Henry, Jamestown (N.C.) Junior High School, for her effort and to Douglas Denny, University of Kansas, for his informative cooperation.     

Enhancing relevance: Embedded ARCS strategies vs. Purpose

The hypothesis of this study assumes that the cognitive effects of motivation result primarily from the relevance of what is being learned, that is, whether the ideas being studied are meaningful and whether they fulfill the goals of the learner. This study compared the effects of intrinsic relevance (material fulfilling a purpose or need of the learner) with embedded, extrinsic relevance-enhancing strategies based on the ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) Model of Instruction on perceived motivation and the learning outcomes of identification, terminology, comprehension, and drawing. Both intrinsic and extrinsic strategies enhanced the motivation of the college learners and their performance on identification, terminology, and comprehension questions following instruction. Embedded relevance-enhancing strategies resulted in greater motivation and performance gains than did intrinsic relevance. She is currently teaching reading and writing strategies to elementary school children. His publications include the recently completedHandbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology, reviewed in this issue. Francis M. Dwyer is Professor of Instructional Systems at the Pennsylvania State University, where he has been a leading researcher in the role of visuals in instruction. He is a past-president of AECT.     

On teaching strategies in second language acquisition

How to acquire a second language is a question of obvious importance to teachers and language learners, and how to teach a second language has also become a matter of concern to the linguists＇ interest in the nature of primary linguistic data. Starting with the development stages of second language acquisition and Stephen Krashen＇s theory, this paper puts forward teaching strategies： analyzing learner characteristics, signing classroom contracts, creating learner-centered classroom, setting language goals, integrating theory with practice and building learner motivation.     

Social learning strategies

In most studies of social learning in animals, no attempt has been made to examine the nature of the strategy adopted by animals when they copy others. Researchers have expended considerable effort in exploring the psychological processes that underlie social learning and amassed extensive data banks recording purported social learning in the field, but the contexts under which animals copy others remain unexplored. Yet, theoretical models used to investigate the adaptive advantages of social learning lead to the conclusion that social learning cannot be indiscriminate and that individuals should adopt strategies that dictate the circumstances under which they copy others and from whom they learn. In this article, I discuss a number of possible strategies that are predicted by theoretical analyses, includingcopy when uncertain,copy the majority, andcopy if better, and consider the empirical evidence in support of each, drawing from both the animal and human social learning literature. Reliance on social learning strategies may be organized hierarchically, their being employed by animals when unlearned and asocially learned strategies prove ineffective but before animals take recourse in innovation.     

Mastery goals,positive emotions and learning behavior in self-directed vs. teacher-directed learning

European Journal of Psychology of Education - It is generally accepted and well documented that mastery goal orientation positively affects students’ learning behavior. However, less is known...     

学习策略在外语学习中的作用

文章运用定量研究的方法，调查了来自宁夏四所高校非英语专业学生的学习策略使用情瓦和学习策略与学习成绩的相关关系，并就此提出了一些教学措施与建议。     

Beyond rote learning in organic chemistry: the infusion and impact of argumentation in tertiary education

ABSTRACT

There exists bias among students that learning organic chemistry topics requires rote learning. In this paper, we address such bias through an organic chemistry activity designed to promote argumentation. We investigated how pre-service science teachers engage in an argumentation about conformational analysis. Analysis of the outcomes concentrated on (a) pre-service teachers’ understanding of conformations of alkanes (b) the nature of the pre-service teachers’ discourse; (c) the quality of pre-service teachers’ argumentation; and (d) pre-service teachers’ spatial ability. Various measures were used to trace (a) conceptual understanding through the answers in the writing frames, (b) the nature of the pre-service teachers’ discourse using two different codes, (c) the quality of pre-service teachers’ argumentation by counting the number of episodes with higher-level argumentation, and (d) spatial ability by Spatial Ability Test. The results showed that high performing groups had multiple rebuttals in their argumentation and low performing groups had problems in evaluating the credibility of evidence. Furthermore, we observed that spatial abilities play an important role in pre-service teachers’ engagement in argumentation. The findings help understanding of how to further enhance pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding and engagement in argumentation regarding organic chemistry concepts.