Teaching for transfer of core/key skills in higher education: Cognitive skills

This article is a result of a completed survey of the mainly cognitive science literature on the transferability of those skills which have been described variously as ‘core’, ‘key’, and ‘generic’. The literature reveals that those predominantly cognitive skills which have been studied thoroughly (mainly problem solving) are transferable under certain conditions. These conditions relate particularly to the methods and environment of the learning of these skills. Therefore, there are many implications for the teaching of key skills in higher education, which the article draws out, following a summary of the main findings of the research literature. Learning of principles and concepts facilitates transfer to dissimilar problems, as it creates more flexible mental representations, whereas rote learning of facts discourages transfer. Transfer is fostered when general principles of reasoning are taught together with self-monitoring practices and potential applications in varied contexts. Training in reasoning and critical thinking is only effective for transfer, when abstract principles and rules are coupled with examples. Transfer is promoted when learning takes place in a social context, which fosters generation of principles and explanations. Transfer improves when learning is through co-operative methods, and where there is feedback on performance with training examples. The specificity of the context in which principles are learned reduces their transfer. Transfer is promoted if learners are shown how problems resemble each other, if they are expected to learn to do this themselves, if they are aware of how to apply skills in different contexts, if attention is directed to the underlying goal structure of comparable problems, if examples are varied and are accompanied by rules or principles (especially if discovered by the learners), and if learners’ self-explanations are stimulated. Learning to use meta-cognitive strategies is especially important for transfer.     

Successful Concurrent Programs: An EXCELerate Program in Oklahoma

The article presents the implementation and findings of a successful collaborative effort with the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (OSRHE), Tulsa Community College (TCC), and two local public school districts, Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) and Union Public Schools (UPS). Known as EXCELerate, it's a five-semester dual enrollment pilot program that received state policy exceptions for juniors and seniors to enroll in dual enrollment courses and supportive resources from the participating agencies. Whereas the traditional dual enrollment student is White and college-going, the program's intent was to increase the number of high school students who may be first-generation, lower-socioeconomic, ethnic or non-ethnic. The article identifies three major barriers to successful dual enrollment and completion: state policy, financial issues, and transportation. It also examines how these barriers were eliminated through a collaborative effort. The results demonstrate that over 87% of the juniors and seniors persisted over the semesters, and enrollment tripled among African American and Latino students. The article is constructed to benefit further research and practical application for urban and rural community colleges.     

Relationship between maximal oxygen uptake and oxygen uptake attained during treadmill middle-distance running

Traditionally, it has been assumed that during middle-distance running oxygen uptake (VO2) reaches its maximal value (VO2max) providing the event is of a sufficient duration; however, this assumption is largely based on observations in individuals with a relatively low VO2max. The aim of this study was to determine whether VO2max is related to the VO2 attained (i.e. VO2peak) during middle-distance running on a treadmill. Fifteen well-trained male runners (age 23.3 +/- 3.8 years, height 1.80 +/- 0.10 m, body mass 76.9 +/- 10.6 kg) volunteered to participate in the study. The participants undertook two 800-m trials to examine the reproducibility of the VO2 response. These two trials, together with a progressive test to determine VO2max, were completed in a randomized order. Oxygen uptake was determined throughout each test using 15-s Douglas bag collections. Following the application of a 30-s rolling average, the highest VO2 during the progressive test (i.e. VO2max) was compared with the highest VO2 during the 800-m trials (i.e. VO2peak) to examine the relationship between VO2max and the VO2 attained in the 800-m trials. For the 15 runners, VO2max was 58.9 +/- 7.1 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1). Two groups were formed using a median split based on VO2max. For the high and low VO2max groups, VO2max was 65.7 +/- 3.0 and 52.4 +/- 1.8 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) respectively. The limits of agreement (95%) for test-retest reproducibility for the VO2 attained during the 800-m trials were +/- 3.5 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) for a VO2peak of 50.6 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) (the mean VO2peak for the low VO2max group) and +/- 2.3 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) for a VO2peak of 59.0 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) (the mean VO2peak for the high VO2max group), with a bias in VO2peak between the 800-m runs (i.e. the mean difference) of 1.2 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1). The VO2peak for the 800-m runs was 54.8 +/- 4.9 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) for all 15 runners. For the high and low VO2max groups, VO2peak was 59.0 +/- 3.3 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) (i.e. 90% VO2max) and 50.6 +/- 2.0 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) (i.e. 97% VO2max) respectively. The negative relationship (-0.77) between VO2max and % VO2max attained for all 15 runners was significant (P = 0.001). These results demonstrate that (i) reproducibility is good and (ii) that VO2max is related to the %VO2max achieved, with participants with a higher VO2max achieving a lower %VO2max in an 800-m trial on a treadmill.     

Facts,Knowledge, and Skills in the Humanities

Abstract

English language learners (ELL) are students with a primary language spoken other than English enrolled in U.S. educational settings. As ELL students take on the challenges of learning English and U.S. culture, they must also learn academic content. The expectation to succeed academically in a foreign culture and language, while learning to speak and comprehend the language itself, would be a stressful and challenging task for almost anyone. In comparison with non-ELL students, ELL students tend to demonstrate lower levels of academic achievement. The current study examined ELL students' perceptions on teacher power and its' influences on self-perceptions of learner empowerment. Quantitative data was collected measuring perceptions of teacher power use and self-perceptions of learner empowerment. Qualitative data consisted of twenty in-depth interviews with ELL students illuminating their perceptions of teacher power and its relationship to their perceptions of learner empowerment. Differences were found by language in coercive, legitimate, and expert teacher power. Four themes emerged from interviews; what good teachers do, what bad teachers do, what teachers should know, and understanding ELL students. Implications for educators and future research are discussed.     

Arithmetic word problem solving. Analysis of Singaporean and Spanish textbooks

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The success or failure of education systems in promoting student problem-solving skills depends on attitudinal, political, and pedagogical variables. Among...     

Relative preferences for various bivalued ratio schedules

Widely cited experiments on optimal foraging have used bivalued distributions as representing environmental stochasticity, characterizing these in terms of their arithmetic means. In contrast, research on free-operant choice has established that organisms prefer variable patterns of food delivery, relative to fixed patterns with the same mean values. To explore such departures from linear averaging, specifically with respect to bivalued alternatives, pigeons were given choices between a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule of food delivery that required 15, 30, or 60 responses and bivalued variable-ratio schedules with an arithmetic mean of 60,5 or 60, A bivalued schedule of 1 and 120 was preferred almost exclusively over each of the FR values. With a bivalued schedule of 15 and 105, there was a shift of preference, most notably in the FR-15 condition, but in no case was linear averaging a good predictor of the birds’ choices. Geometric averaging fared better, but even this failed to represent the apparent salience of the minimum value of the bivalued schedule in some conditions.     

Incremental validity of thinking styles in predicting academic achievements: an experimental study in hypermedia learning environments

The study examined the incremental validity of thinking styles in predicting academic achievement after controlling for personality and achievement motivation in the hypermedia‐based learning environment. Seventy‐two Chinese college students from Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China, took part in this instructional experiment. The End‐Of‐Semester test was designed to examine the students’ achievement in the course of General Psychology. The results partially supported the hypotheses concerning the relationships between students’ Type I and II thinking styles and their academic achievement in Type I test (including analysis, problem‐solving, and essay tests) and Type II test (including multiple‐choice and cloze tests), and showed that some Type III styles were significantly related to their academic achievement. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the capacity of thinking styles for explaining and predicting academic achievement was sometimes over and above the sum of personality traits and achievement motivation. Implications for educational practice are discussed.