Focusing Teaching on Students: Examining Student Perceptions of Learning Strategies

This study examined undergraduate and graduate students’ perceptions of the impact of in-class learning activities, out-of-class learning activities, and instructional materials on their learning. Using survey methodology, students anonymously assessed their perceptions of in-class activities, out-of-class activities, and instructional materials as most impactful, helpful, and enjoyable to their learning. Undergraduate college students found Jeopardy games, PowerPoint slides, and checking for understanding/review questions to be most helpful, while 50% often perceived Jeopardy games, Poll Everywhere, videos, and PowerPoint slides as enjoyable active learning strategies. Graduate students perceived small groups, out-of-class writing assignments, and Lino as most helpful to their learning. Additionally, an analysis of student comments about why these strategies were impactful, helpful, and enjoyable revealed 4 themes: fun, learning collaboratively, challenging but helpful, and variety in how students learn. Creating a learner-centered environment that is engaging as well as enjoyable for students positively impacts perceptions of students’ learning, which should encourage teachers to adopt this approach in their own college classrooms.     

Using Necessary Information to Identify Item Dependence in Passage-Based Reading Comprehension Tests

Applications of traditional unidimensional item response theory models to passage-based reading comprehension assessment data have been criticized based on potential violations of local independence. However, simple rules for determining dependency, such as including all items associated with a particular passage, may overestimate the dependency that actually exists among the items. The current study proposed a more refined method based on cognitive principles and substantive theories to determine those items that pose a threat. Specifically, the use of common necessary information from text was examined as a contributor of local dependence. Cognitively similar item pairs, those with connected necessary information, had higher local dependence values than item pairs with no connected necessary information. Results suggest that focusing on necessary information may be useful to some extent for understanding and managing item dependence for passage-based reading comprehension tests.     

The constructivist classroom learning environment and its associations with critical thinking ability of secondary school students in Liberal Studies

In this study, we investigated-secondary school students’ perceptions of their constructivist learning environment in Liberal Studies, and whether their perceptions were related to their critical thinking ability. A convenience sample of Secondary Three students (N = 967) studying Liberal Studies in Hong Kong participated in this research by completing a self-administered questionnaire which included the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X, and demographic information on age and gender. Students perceived their learning environment to be moderately constructivist in nature. Both age and school banding differences were identified in that younger students and students in band 1 schools tended to perceive a higher degree of constructivist characteristics in their learning environment. Multiple regression analyses indicated that three of the five scales of CLES were predictors of critical thinking ability. Shared Control was the strongest predictor and negatively associated with critical thinking ability, while Personal Relevance and Critical Voice were positively related to critical thinking ability. Findings of the study are discussed with reference to developing students’ critical thinking ability in Liberal Studies classrooms.     

Engaging City Hall: Children as Citizens

In this article, the authors suggest that current notions of advocacy in early childhood education should be expanded to include a view of young children as citizens. The authors ground their discussion in a how-to book project in Providence, Rhode Island, consider different concepts of children and citizenship, share commentary from City Hall and propose four key features of their perspective: (a) highlighting the civic nature of schools as central to the teaching and learning process; (b) focusing on young children's distinctive perspectives and competencies, not just their needs; (c) providing professional development around shared projects that promote literacy and higher order thinking skills; and (d) documenting children's learning in order to challenge assumptions about their capabilities and put forth an alternative image of teaching and learning.     

THE EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE LINKING LEVELS IN BIOLOGY LESSONS UPON STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE

Knowledge structure is an important aspect for defining students’ competency in biology learning, but how knowledge structure is influenced by the teaching process in naturalistic biology classroom settings has scarcely been empirically investigated. In this study, 49 biology lessons in the teaching unit blood and circulatory system in 9th grade German classrooms were videotaped and analyzed. Before the lesson, a questionnaire was administered to the students to solicit their responses about learning motivation. After the lesson, students’ learning outcomes on knowledge structure were examined with the concept mapping method. The video coding used in this study focused on the knowledge linking levels during the biology lesson. Out of the 49 classes, those with the highest and those with the lowest linking levels were selected based on the coding results. In high-linking classes, interrelated facts were introduced more often in the lessons, whereas in the lessons of the low-linking classes, isolated pieces of knowledge were predominant. The results from the concept mapping task showed that the students in the high-linking classes constructed more correct relations among the concepts compared to the students in the low-linking classes. The results remained stable even after controlling for learning motivation. These findings confirm the importance of teaching interrelated facts and concepts instead of isolated facts for fostering students’ knowledge structure. As a result, based on the Bavarian biology curriculum, we develop materials and programs to enable students, student teachers, and teachers to focus on interrelated facts and basic concepts instead of isolated facts in biology lessons.