Stress prevention through a time management training intervention: an experimental study

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a short-term time management training programme on perceived control of time and perceived stress. The sample of 177 freshmen was randomly assigned to a time management training (n?=?89) and an active control group (CG) (n?=?88). We expected that an increase in external demands during the first weeks of the semester would lead to more perceived stress in the CG, but not in the time management training group, due to the time management intervention. As hypothesised, perceived stress increased in the CG, but not in the time management training group. Furthermore, perceived control of time increased in the time management training group but remained unchanged in the CG. Even a rather short intervention of 2?h can protect freshmen from an increase in perceived stress at the beginning of the semester.     

Precision teaching through Irish: effects on isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency

The current study examines the impact of a three-week precision teaching (PT) intervention programme through the Irish language on a group of primary school pupils’ Irish reading fluency. The study employed a mixed factorial experimental design. Thirty-six Irish primary school pupils who were learning Irish as a second language were recruited for this study. Participants were divided evenly into two groups: experimental and control (N?=?18). Participants completed tests of isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency before and after the PT intervention programme. The experimental group was exposed to the PT programme, which focused on isolated Irish vocabulary, while the control group experienced typical teaching of Irish. The results of a one-way multivariate analysis of variance and a series of dependent-samples t-tests revealed that in contrast to the control group, the experimental group exhibited a significant increase in both isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency following the intervention. This study emphasises the potential value of utilising PT to aid second language learning, not only for increasing isolated sight word reading fluency, but also for enhancing contextualised reading fluency.     

Revising lecture notes: how revision,pauses, and partners affect note taking and achievement

Note taking has been categorized as a two-stage process: the recording of notes and the review of notes. We contend that note taking might best involve a three-stage process where the missing stage is revision. This study investigated the benefits of revising lecture notes and addressed two questions: First, is revision more effective than non-revision? Second, what revision method is best? Experiment 1 addressed the first question by comparing the performance of participants who revise or recopy lecture notes. Experiment 2 addressed the second question by investigating whether revision was best done (a) during pauses throughout the lecture or one equally-timed pause after the lecture, and (b) with a partner or alone. Dependent measures were original and additional notes and fact and relationship test scores. Results upheld three effects: (a) a modest revision effect—revisers recorded more additional notes and achieved somewhat higher scores on relationship items than re-copiers, (b) a pause effect—those revising during pauses outperformed those revising after the lecture on the notes and achievement measures, and (c) a modest partner effect—those revising with partners recorded more original notes than those revising alone. Furthermore, the combination of pauses and partners has merit and holds promise as a means for revision. Overall, findings suggested that revision is a new student-centered means to boost lecture note taking and achievement.     

Implementation of a peer‐led team learning instructional approach in an undergraduate organic chemistry course

This study focuses on the implementation of a peer‐led team learning (PLTL) instructional approach for all students in an undergraduate organic chemistry course and the evaluation of student outcomes over 8 years. Students who experienced the student‐centered instruction and worked in small groups facilitated by a peer leader (treatment) in 1996–1999 were compared with students who experienced the traditional recitation section (control) in 1992–1994. Quantitative and qualitative data show statistically significant improvements in student performance, retention, and attitudes about the course. These findings suggest that using undergraduate leaders to implement a peer‐led team learning model that is built on a social constructivist foundation is a workable mechanism for effecting change in undergraduate science courses. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 606–632, 2002     

Experimental evidence of the relative effectiveness of problem-based learning for knowledge acquisition and retention

This study investigated the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on knowledge acquisition and knowledge retention in a controlled experiment in a lab setting. Eighty-eight first-year psychology students were randomly assigned to either a PBL condition, a lecture condition, or a self-study condition. All participants had the opportunity to study the same text. Their knowledge acquisition was tested on both an immediate post-test and a delayed post-test, one week later. The results showed beneficial effects for the PBL group on the immediate and the delayed test compared to the lecture group. There were no differences between knowledge acquisition scores for the self-study condition and either of the other conditions. Moreover, no differences on knowledge retention were shown, because the decline in performance over time was equal in all conditions. In conclusion, the present study provides experimentally based evidence of the disadvantageous effects of instruction through lectures compared to PBL.     

Value-added assessment in higher education: a comparison of two methods

Evaluation of the effectiveness of higher education has received unprecedented attention from stakeholders at many levels. The Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) is one of the initiatives to evaluate institutional core educational outcomes (e.g., critical thinking, written communication) using standardized tests. As promising as the VSA method is for calculating a valueadded score and allowing results to be comparable across institutions, it has a few potential methodological limitations. This study proposed an alternative way of value-added computation which takes advantage of multilevel models and considers important institution-level variables. The institutional value-added ranking was significantly different for some of the institutions (i.e., from being ranked at the bottom to performing better than 50% of the institutions) between these two methods, which may lead to substantially different consequences for those institutions, should the results be considered for accountability purposes.