Barriers to learning online experienced by students with a mental health disability

Online education is widely regarded as increasing accessibility to higher education to individuals with disadvantage and disability, including those with a mental health disability. However, the learning challenges these students experience within the online learning environment are not well understood. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to better understand the barriers to learning that these students face in this environment. A qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 students revealed three major learning barriers: (a) impact of impairment, (b) personal and situational circumstances, and (c) learning environment. These barriers were found to have wide-ranging consequences for the students’ ability to fully engage in study and their overall wellbeing. The findings lend insight into the low retention rates for this cohort of students and the learning barriers that need to be addressed by online education providers to better enhance the educational experience of these students.     

The Effects of a Strategic Writing Program for Students with and without Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Fifth‐Grade Classes

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a comprehensive writing program for students with and without learning disabilities (LD) in inclusive general education classrooms. The program incorporated research‐based components including instruction in a prewriting planning strategy, narrative text structure, writing strategies, and the process approach to writing. The study was conducted in five fifth‐grade inclusive classrooms with 113 students (including 14 students with LD). A quasi‐experimental comparison‐group design was utilized, whereby three intact experimental classes received the writing intervention, and two intact comparison classes received traditional writing instruction. Measures included several writing indicators as well as state writing competency test scores. Results indicated that the students with and without LD in the experimental group made significant gains from pretest to posttest on several writing measures. Although students in the comparison group made some gains, the gains were related to fewer measures than the measures associated with experimental‐group gains, and the effect sizes were smaller.     

A cross-age study of the understanding of five chemistry concepts

A sample of 100 students from junior high school physical science, high school chemistry, and introductory college chemistry were examined for understanding of five chemistry concepts. The concepts addressed were chemical change, dissolution of a solid in water, conservation of atoms, periodicity, and phase change. The amount of experience with the concepts (grade level) and reasoning ability (developmental level) were examined as possible sources of variation in student understanding. Differences in understanding with respect to grade level were found to be significant for the concepts of chemical change, dissolution of a solid, conservation of atoms, and periodicity. However, few of the students in the college chemistry sample exhibited sound understanding of chemical change, periodicity, or phase change. The use of particulate terms (atoms, ions, molecules) increased across the grade levels. Reasoning ability proved to be a significant factor for student understanding of conservation of atoms and periodicity. An examination of the number and types of misconceptions across the grade levels revealed several interesting patterns and suggested sources for the students' alternative conceptions.     

Transfer and conceptual change: the change process from the theoretical perspectives of coordination classes and phenomenological primitives

The purpose of this study is to understand the nature of pre-instructional knowledge transferred by students into problem situations and the change process on students’ knowledge system during classroom discussions. This study was framed by two interrelated theoretical frameworks on knowledge structures, phenomenological primitives and coordination classes. The data were collected through problem solving sessions on turning effect of forces (torques or moment) from ten participants who were seeking a degree to become physics teachers. The analysis of data showed that, in this particular context, students’ pre-instructional ideas can be characterized according to phenomenological primitives. The theoretical constructs of the coordination classes generated meaningful results to understand students’ particular difficulties in transferring the moment concept across different contexts and the change process on students’ knowledge system. The major stimulator of the change process emerged as the students’ becoming aware of the epistemological nature of their knowledge structures and searching the causal mechanisms behind physical phenomena.     

Examining the effects of writing on conceptual and procedural knowledge in calculus

It has been claimed that writing to learn mathematics (WTLM) may benefit students' conceptual understanding as well as their procedural ability. To investigate this claim, we collected data from students in two sections of an introductory calculus course. In one of the sections, students used WTLM activities and discussed the activities after completing the writing; in the other section, students used similar activities that did not involve writing but engaged them in thinking about the mathematical ideas and in discussing the activities. The errors from the in-class and final exams of both groups of students were categorized and analyzed for information about the students' conceptual and procedural understanding. We found no significant differences between the WTLM group and the non-writing group, which suggests that the real benefit from writing activities may not be in the actual activity of writing, but rather in the fact that such activities require students to struggle to understand mathematical ideas well enough to communicate their understanding to others. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Writing to learn writing skills – a case study

The paper describes a case study in which the main objective is to understand how engineering students can improve their writing skills, regarding spelling and syntax, when taught specifically on these issues. The methodology Writing To Learn is applied in two courses and, making use of the written texts, the students’ writing skills are assessed and evaluated. In one course, writing skills are taught and assessed and in the other they are only assessed. The comparison allows conclusions on the success of teaching writing skills, the influence of text styles and the differences between basic and advanced writing skills. It was found that writing skills were successfully taught, particularly with regard to basic writing skills. Advanced writing errors are twice as common as basic writing errors. Schematic writing styles favour a reduced number of writing errors.     

Promoting elementary students’ epistemology of science through computer-supported knowledge-building discourse and epistemic reflection

This study examined the role of computer-supported knowledge-building discourse and epistemic reflection in promoting elementary-school students’ scientific epistemology and science learning. The participants were 39 Grade 5 students who were collectively pursuing ideas and inquiry for knowledge advance using Knowledge Forum (KF) while studying a unit on electricity; they also reflected on the epistemic nature of their discourse. A comparison class of 22 students, taught by the same teacher, studied the same unit using the school’s established scientific investigation method. We hypothesised that engaging students in idea-driven and theory-building discourse, as well as scaffolding them to reflect on the epistemic nature of their discourse, would help them understand their own scientific collaborative discourse as a theory-building process, and therefore understand scientific inquiry as an idea-driven and theory-building process. As hypothesised, we found that students engaged in knowledge-building discourse and reflection outperformed comparison students in scientific epistemology and science learning, and that students’ understanding of collaborative discourse predicted their post-test scientific epistemology and science learning. To further understand the epistemic change process among knowledge-building students, we analysed their KF discourse to understand whether and how their epistemic practice had changed after epistemic reflection. The implications on ways of promoting epistemic change are discussed.     

The use of ubiquitous sensor technology in evaluating student thought process during practical operations for improving student technical and creative skills

This study investigated a Ubiquitous Sensor System (USS) that we developed to assess student thought process during practical lessons on a real‐time basis and to provide students with a reflective learning environment. Behavioral curves and data obtained by the USS would help students understand where they had made mistakes during practical lessons and the exact times when incorrect process parameters were observed. This research was conducted during a course on manufacturing. The results indicated that the proposed USS was effective in improving student analysis and evaluation skills in manufacturing thinking, as well as the three psychomotor skills of guided response, mechanism and complex overt response. Student psychomotor skills also gained an overall improvement. Results also showed that improvements in student thought process also helped in the learning of psychomotor skills and that the USS helped improve the clarity of student thought process during practical operations. The improved clarity of thought allowed students to understand the reasons behind their thought process for them to make the necessary logical deductions. Through repeated reflection and practice, students would then be able to create works with personal creative elements.     

Self-assessment in the process of self-regulated learning and its relationship with academic achievement

Abstract

Despite the theoretical argument and empirical evidence regarding the impact of self- assessment on academic achievement and self-regulated learning (SRL), the mechanism for this impact is understudied. The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics of self-assessment practices at different SRL phases and its relationship with academic achievement. Using a course assignment as the learning task, sixty-three students enrolled in a one-year master programme in a teacher education institute responded to an instrument assessing their self-assessment practices (including four self-assessment actions) at the SRL Preparatory, Performance and Appraisal phases of the task. Their final scores of the assignment were also collected. The results showed that self-assessment is a fundamental skill for SRL and occurs at each SRL phase with different patterns. Autoregressive relationships were found for all self-assessment actions between different SRL phases. Self-reflection at Performance phase was found to influence feedback seeking at Appraisal phase. Self-directed feedback seeking through monitoring at Performance phase was the strongest and positive predictor of academic achievement; and achievement had negative impact on all self-assessment actions at Appraisal phase. This study may assist educators and researchers to better understand the complexity of self-assessment in relation to learning process.     

Student understanding of the volume,mass, and pressure of air within a sealed syringe in different states of compression

Problem-solving strategies in the physical sciences have been characterized by a dependence on algorithmic techniques often devoid of any reasoning skills. The purpose of this study was to examine student responses to a task relating to Boyle's Law for gases, which did not demand the use of a mathematical equation for its solution. Students (17- to 18-year-olds) in lower sixth form from two colleges in the Leeds district of Yorkshire in England were asked to respond to a task relating to pressure and volume measurements of air within a sealed syringe in different states of compression. Both qualitative and quantitative tasks for the sealed syringe system were examined. It was found that 34% to 38% of students did not understand the concepts of volume and mass, respectively, of a gas under such circumstances. Performance on an inverse ratio (2:1) task was shown to depend on gender and those students who performed well on the 2:1 inverse ratio task did not necessarily perform well on a different inverse ratio task when an arithmetic averaging principle was present. Tasks which draw upon qualitative knowledge as well as quantitative knowledge have the potential to reduce dependence on algorithms, particularly equation substitution and solution. The implications for instructional design are discussed.     

Changing middle school students' conceptions of matter and molecules

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to understand the conceptual frameworks that sixth-grade students use to explain the nature of matter and molecules, and (2) to assess the effectiveness of two alternative curriculum units in promoting students' scientific understanding. The study involved 15 sixth-grade science classes taught by 12 teachers in each of two successive years. Data were collected through paper-and-pencil tests and clinical interviews. The results revealed that students' entering conceptions differed from scientific conceptions in various ways. These differences included molecular conceptions concerning the nature, arrangement, and motion of molecules as well as macroscopic conceptions concerning the nature of matter and its physical changes. The results also showed that the students taught by the revised unit in Year 2 performed significantly better than the students taught by the original commercial curriculum unit in Year 1 for 9 of the 10 conceptual categories. Implications for science teaching and curriculum development are discussed.     

论坛写作环境下英语专业学生思维能力的发展研究

针对中国东部的一所大学开设的“本科毕业论文设计”课程进行定性研究,旨在探究一批英语专业学习者在论坛写作环境中的思维过程,从而揭示和了解他们在思辨和创新能力、信息处理能力以及推理能力这三方面思维能力的发展过程,并且挖掘出影响他们思维发展的积极和消极因素.希望能给思维能力发展的相关研究与教学实践提供一定的启示作用.     

Effects of graphing conventions and response options on interpretation of small n graphs

The present study examined the effects of manipulation of two graphing conventions on judgements of time‐series data by novice raters. These conventions involved the presence of phase change lines between baseline and intervention data and whether data points across phase changes were connected. The 1990 study of Matyas and Greenwood was also partially replicated and participant error rates were examined when responses were on a non‐binary scale (no effect, uncertain, clear effect) in contrast to the binary scale used in the original study. Thirty postgraduate special education students rated intervention effects on 36 graphs. There was no substantive evidence that graphing conventions affected judgements. Type I errors, defined as a response of ‘clear effect’ when no intervention effect was present, were very low (0–7%) and Type II errors were correspondingly high (0–100%), particularly with low intervention effects and high random error. Thus, judges were very conservative when using a non‐binary response scale, in contrast with the results of Matyas and Greenwood. Several directions for further research are proposed.     

The relationship between intelligence and performance on the test of variables of attention (TOVA)

The present study explored the relationship between the intelligence of young adults and their performance on the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). The study also examined whether significant differences existed between adults with and without attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on TOVA errors of omission, errors of commission, mean correct response time, and variability, as well as on performance on the freedom from distractibility (FD) factor on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). Seventy-nine adults participated in the study, including 17 with ADHD and 62 college students without ADHD. Pearson product-moment correlations indicated that none of the correlations between Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) and TOVA variables were significant. Analysis of variance results revealed that adults with ADHD made more errors of omission on the TOVA than did controls. Between-group differences were not found on the remaining dependent variables.     

The accuracy of students’ predictions of their GCSE grades

The paper reports a study that investigated the relationship between students’ self-predicted and actual General Certificate of Secondary Education results in order to establish the extent of over- and under-prediction and whether this varies by subject and across genders and socio-economic groupings. It also considered the relationship between actual and predicted attainment and attitudes towards going to university. The sample consisted of 109 young people in two schools being followed up from an earlier study. Just over 50% of predictions were accurate and students were much more likely to over-predict than to under-predict. Most errors of prediction were only one grade out and may reflect examination unreliability as well as student misperceptions. Girls were slightly less likely than boys to over-predict but there were no differences associated with social background. Higher levels of attainment, both actual and predicted, were strongly associated with positive attitudes to university. Differences between predictions and results are likely to reflect examination errors as well as pupil errors. There is no evidence that students from more advantaged social backgrounds over-estimate themselves compared with other students, although boys over-estimate themselves compared with girls.     

Knowing Inquiry as Practice and Theory: Developing a Pedagogical Framework with Elementary School Teachers

In this paper, we characterize the inquiry practices of four elementary school teachers by means of a pedagogical framework. Our study revealed core components of inquiry found in theoretically-driven models as well as practices that were regarded as integral to the success of day-to-day science teaching in Singapore. This approach towards describing actual science inquiry practices—a surprisingly neglected area—uncovered nuances in teacher instructions that can impact inquiry-based lessons as well as contribute to a practice-oriented perspective of science teaching. In particular, we found that these teachers attached importance to (a) preparing students for investigations, both cognitively and procedurally; (b) iterating pedagogical components where helping students understand and construct concepts did not follow a planned linear path but involved continuous monitoring of learning; and (c) synthesizing concepts in a consolidation phase. Our findings underscore the dialectical relationship between practice-oriented knowledge and theoretical conceptions of teaching/learning thereby helping educators better appreciate how teachers adapt inquiry science for different contexts.     

Writing errors in Japanese kanji: A study with Japanese students and foreign learners of Japanese

The present study examined kanji errors in handwriting made by Japanese students and Australian learners of Japanese. First, a cognitive psychological model to explain the production of writing errors was proposed based upon the analysis of 374 writing errors of two-morpheme (kanji) compound words generated by Japanese students in spontaneous sentence writing situations. Despite the common assumption that kanji writing errors may not be related to the sounds of kanji characters (i.e., morphological phonology), the present study found that phonologically-related kanji writing errors were most numerous (60.0%), followed by orthographically-related errors (43.6%) and semantically-related errors (29.7%), including some overlap of these three types. Second, 408 kanji writing errors made by students learning Japanese in an Australian university were analyzed. Unlike the Japanese students, these subjects wrote more non-existing kanji and made orthographically-related mistakes rather than semantically- and phonologically-related errors. This result must be related to the level of kanji writing skills held by learners of Japanese. In light of these results, several suggestions were proposed for the methods of teaching kanji writing.     

Resolution Adopted by the ad hoc Conference on Society and the Study of Science,Mathematics and Technology

This study explored and documented students' responses to opportunities for collective knowledge building and collaboration in a problem-solving process within complex environmental challenges and pressing issues with various dimensions of knowledge and skills. Middle-school students (n =?16; age 14) and high-school students (n?=?16; age 17) from two Singapore public institutions participated in an environmental science field study to experience knowledge integration and a decision-making process. Students worked on six research topics to understand the characteristics of an organic farm and plan for building an ecological village. Students collected and analysed data from the field and shared their findings. Their field work and discussions were video-recorded, and their reflective notes and final reports were collected for data coding and interpretation. The results revealed that throughout the study, students experienced the needs and development of integrated knowledge, encountered the challenges of knowledge sharing and communication during their collaboration, and learned how to cope with the difficulties. Based on research findings, this study further discusses students' learning through a collaborative problem-solving process, including the interdependence of knowledge and the development of mutual relationships such as respect and care for others' knowledge and learning.     

Effective compiler error message enhancement for novice programming students

Programming is an essential skill that many computing students are expected to master. However, programming can be difficult to learn. Successfully interpreting compiler error messages (CEMs) is crucial for correcting errors and progressing toward success in programming. Yet these messages are often difficult to understand and pose a barrier to progress for many novices, with struggling students often exhibiting high frequencies of errors, particularly repeated errors. This paper presents a control/intervention study on the effectiveness of enhancing Java CEMs. Results show that the intervention group experienced reductions in the number of overall errors, errors per student, and several repeated error metrics. These results are important as the effectiveness of CEM enhancement has been recently debated. Further, generalizing these results should be possible at least in part, as the control group is shown to be comparable to those in several studies using Java and other languages.