Comparison of preservice elementary teachers anxiety about teaching students to identify minerals and rocks and students in geology courses anxiety about identification of minerals and rocks

Students were given clearly defined, characteristics for the identification of minerals and rocks. This system requires visual identification of decisive characteristics, not rote memorization. In addition, this classification system differs from the usual method of first grouping rocks into the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic categories. In this study the initial grouping of rocks was crystalline or noncrystalline. Two groups of students (preservice elementary teachers & students in geology courses) were tested on their ability to identify, the characteristics listed in Figure 1. The preservice teachers were anxious about teaching students to identify minerals and rocks. This initial high anxiety was reduced by completion of the task of identification. Students in geology classes were given the same task as the preservice teachers. However, the students in geology courses were not anxious about identifying minerals and rocks. Further analysis of the geology students showed that students whose grades on the lab exam were above the mean had low initial anxiety and the level of anxiety was reduced after the exam. Geology students with grades below the mean had high initial anxiety and the anxiety level was elevated after the exam. This indicates an inverse relationship between anxiety and performance in these students, and supports the work of researchers in the field of psychology.     

An assessment of the quantitative skills of students taking introductory college biology courses

Twenty-three mathematical competencies were identified and a 46-item multiple choice test was developed to measure the extent to which students entering introductory college biology courses possessed these competencies. Students enrolled in semester-long introductory courses for science majors and non-science majors were given the test at the beginning and end of the courses. The relationships between the mathematical competencies possessed by students at the beginning of the semester and 15 variables dealing with student characteristics were examined. Also investigated was the relationship between test scores and the type of mathematics courses taken during the semester students were enrolled in the introductory biology courses.     

Learning logs in introductory literature courses

This article explores the beneficial and sometimes unpredictable implications of a daily reflective writing exercise for introductory literature courses: the learning log. Pseudonymous samples of student writing, coupled with instructor commentary, gesture toward ways in which the learning log's continual implementation and modification foster a learning and teaching environment in which students and teachers can experience a greater degree of equality and engagement. The article draws upon in-class experiences, and student data collected between 2001 and 2006, in order to illustrate the learning log's potential to instill introductory literature courses with a sense of participatory innovation and creative democriticization.     

Ethnicity,test anxiety and science achievement in Nigerian students

Abstract

This study investigated ethnic and gender differences in test anxiety and achievement test performances of Nigerian junior secondary school students. The sample consisted of 100 Ibibio, 100 Yoruba and 100 Tiv students randomly drawn from four rural schools in each ethnic zone. Each sample consisted of 50 male and 50 female students, between the ages of 11 and 16. Two research instruments, a test anxiety scale and an integrated science multiple‐choice test, were used, Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that: (i) there were significant ethnic and gender effects on the test anxiety and achievement test performance of the students; (ii) there was significant negative correlation between test anxiety and achievement test performances for the ethnic and gender groups of the students, except for the Yoruba female students who had insignificant negative correlation for the two variables. The significant negative correlation remained when the effects of gender and ethnicity were statistically controlled; (iii) test anxiety was affected by the inter‐active effects of gender and ethnicity; (iv) achievement test performance was affected by gender, ethnicity and test anxiety, and their interactive effects.     

浅谈电子专业课的导入技巧

导入新课是课堂教学过程的开始环节,是创设良好课堂教学情境的重要方面,也是提高课堂教学质量的基石。导入过程处理得好、方法得当,就容易吸引学生的有意注意,激发学生的求知欲望,为提高整堂课的教学质量打下良好的基础。笔者以电子专业课为例,谈谈几种常用的导入技巧: 一、联系实际导入法 联系实际导入法是教师在讲授新课内容之前展示相关实际生活或工业生产中的物品。它激发的是人的探究情绪,引起的是学生的有意注意,使抽象难懂的电子专业知识,首先变成一个具体的实物展现在学生的面前,其次才开始45分钟的探究历程。 如在讲“环形脉冲分配器”这节课之前,我先向同学们展示了一组彩灯,接上电源后,彩灯轮流闪烁,仔细分析,它们闪烁的时间间隔有一定的规律。然后反问:“这是什么原因?”听完这节课,大家就明白了。学生们听了,反映很热烈,注意力也比较集中,大大的“?”变成了“！”;又如,我在讲述“触发器的应用举例”前,请同学回忆一下参加过的智力竞赛的热闹场面,在做抢答题时起关键作用的是抢答器,然后我再向同学们展示实物——用触发器组成的抢答器,学生的注意力一下子集中起来了。这种导入方法不仅能激发学生求知欲,     

Planning introductory college courses: Content, context and form

Course planning is an important faculty role requiring expertise and effective decision-making. Despite the centrality of planning activities in the teaching-learning process, relatively little research has explored the process by which instructors in higher education plan their classes. Thus, the author and colleagues pursued a three-year series of studies of college instructors in the US who were teaching introductory classes. The study explored faculty members' underlying assumptions about planning and their decision-making processes. This chapter summarizes these empirical studies that inform us about the general and discipline-specific purposes faculty express for their classes, the contextual influences that modify their intentions, and the way they arrange discipline content for teaching. A key finding was that differences in course planning reflect varied assumptions about students and about their discipline that faculty in different fields bring to the planning process and which strongly influence them.     

Professors' and students' conceptualizations of the learning task in introductory physics courses

What are students expected to learn in physics courses? Eight expert physics teachers and researchers, two from the University of Western Ontario in Canada, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, Stanford University in the United States of America, and Monash University in Australia, described their perceptions of learning in their courses. Students from the courses were then interviewed for their perceptions of learning in physics courses. In their courses, professors focused on the development of intellectual skills, assuming that students had a specific physics vocabulary. Students, however, were aware of their own limitations and suggested that professors should take nothing for granted. Students considered that to be a good teacher, a professor should know the perspective of the students and should start at the students' level. The results suggested that the intellectual challenge of learning physics merits early explanation.     

On teaching about the coefficient of variation in introductory statistics courses

The standard deviation is related to the mean by virtue of the coefficient of variation. Teachers of statistics courses can make use of that fact to make the standard deviation more comprehensible for statistics students.     

文理科大学生外语听力焦虑的现状调查与对策

听力焦虑与其它外语学习焦虑相比有其特殊性,文章探讨了非英语专业文理科大学生外语听力焦虑的总体现状,研究探讨了听力焦虑的主要成因,并有针对性地提出了一些教学应对策略。     

Motivation in high school science students: A comparison of gender differences in life,physical, and earth science classes

The aims of this study were to examine self‐efficacy and other motivation variables among high school science students (n = 502); to determine the degree to which each of the four hypothesized sources of self‐efficacy makes an independent contribution to students' science self‐efficacy beliefs; to examine possible differences between life, physical, and Earth science classes; and to investigate patterns of gender differences that may vary among the fields of science. In Earth science classes, girls earned higher grades and reported stronger science self‐efficacy. In life science classes, girls earned higher grades but did not report stronger self‐efficacy, and did report higher science anxiety. In physical science, there were no gender differences in grades or self‐efficacy, but girls again reported higher levels of science anxiety. For boys across science fields, science self‐efficacy significantly predicted course grades and mastery experiences was the only significant predictor of self‐efficacy. For girls, self‐efficacy was also the strongest predictor of science grade across fields. Mastery experiences significantly predicted self‐efficacy in Earth science for girls, but social persuasions, vicarious experiences, and physiological states were better predictors of science self‐efficacy in life and physical science classes. Results support (Bandura, A., 1997) hypothesized sources of self‐efficacy, previous research findings on self‐efficacy in the domain of science, and validate the suggestion made by Lau and Roeser (2002) to disaggregate data by science field. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 955–970, 2008     

Hints for the improvement of quality teaching in introductory engineering statistics courses

In recent years there has been a spectacular increase in concern within society about problems of service and, in particular, that of university teaching. Teaching quality can be understood as a goal to be achieved in three nurtured phases: course planning; the adoption of a methodological approach; and the evaluation of the results. The teaching of statistics in engineering schools raises common problems as well as certain others specific to each qualification. In this article, proposals are made about how to improve the quality of teaching of statistics to undergraduate engineering students.     

An investigation of introductory physical science using the test of science process

The hypotheses tested were that there would be differentially, significant improvement in scores on the Test of Science Processes (TSP) for four homogeneous divisions of an eight grade class during the period they studied the first five chapters of Introductory Physical Science (IPS). Results indicated significant improvement in at least one process subscore for each division of the class. A hierarchy of processes was suggested as a topic for further study.     

The effects of a problem solving strategy on the achievement of earth science students

A review of the stated goals for education reveals a consistent emphasis on problem solving. Problem solving is compatible with the investigative nature of science and with higher order thinking. Consequently, a problem solving strategy was developed to improve the achievement of eighth grade students enrolled in earth science. The sample consisted of 287 eighth grade students randomly assigned to fourteen sections taught by four teachers. This resulted in seven control sections and seven experimental sections. The students in the treatment groups received approximately six weeks of instruction with the experimental groups receiving a variety of problem solving activities. A forty item posttest consisting of four subtests was administered to all students. The results indicate that the problem solving approach was useful in improving the overall achievement of students. It was particular effective in facilitating application of earth science subject matter. This problem solving approach appears to be a feasible strategy to use in most secondary science classrooms.     

Coherent teaching and need-based learning in science: an approach to teach engineering students in basic physics courses

In the present paper, we propose an alternative, based on constructivism, to the conventional way of teaching basic physics courses at the university level. We call this approach ‘coherent teaching’ and the underlying philosophy of teaching science and engineering ‘need-based learning’. We have been applying this philosophy in practice in a basic physics course at the Department of Engineering Physics and Mathematics of Helsinki University of Technology. Here we present the main ideas of the new approach and how we have implemented them, as well as discuss how coherent teaching has affected the students' opinions about the course and how it has changed the learning results.