A solution‐focused model for improving individual university teaching

Universities commonly use individual teaching development as one of a suite of strategies to improve teaching and learning outcomes. This paper outlines an individual teaching development programme based on the tenets of solution‐focused brief therapy (SFBT). The programme was trialled with a senior lecturer of a large third‐year subject in an Australian university. The approach resulted in evidence of positive changes in teaching. The potential and wider application of this approach is considered.     

Knowledge Integration and Displaced Volume

This study contrasted spontaneous and reflective knowledge integration instruction delivered using a computer learning environment to enhance understanding of displaced volume. Both forms of instruction provided animated experiments and required students to predict outcomes, observe results, and explain their ideas. In addition, the reflective instruction diagnosed specific inconsistencies in student reasoning and encouraged students to reflect on these dilemmas as well as to construct general principles. We distinguished the impact of instruction on students who believed scientific phenomena are governed by principles (cohesive beliefs) versus students who believed that science is a collection of unrelated facts (dissociated beliefs). Students typically held multiple models of displacement, using different explanations depending on the form of assessment. For example, we found that 17% of these middle school students made accurate predictions about displacement experiments prior to instruction and 25% could construct an accurate general principle. However, only 12% consistently used the same explanation across assessments. After instruction, students were more accurate and more consistent: over 50% accurately predicted experimental outcomes, 79% gave an accurate general principle, and about 40% gave consistent responses. We found no advantages for enhanced animations over straightforward animated experiments. The reflective integration instruction led to more substantial long-term changes in student understanding than did spontaneous integration instruction. Furthermore, on a delayed posttest we found that students with cohesive beliefs not only sustained their understanding of displaced volume, but, when exposed to reflective integration instruction, actually continued to construct more predictive views following instruction. In contrast, students with dissociated beliefs made no long-term progress independent of the form of instruction.     

Evaluation of the science enrichment activities (SEA) program: A decision oriented model

This study examined three questions of interest to decision-makers. Results revealed that subjects made some cognitive gains and chose different types of activities. The most striking finding relates to the third question. Groups who chose different activities made similar gains in learning. Older subjects perform fewer activities but make gains similar to those made by younger subjects. These results suggest that either eighth graders learn in less time or more activities are not proportionately more instructive. A question for future studies is whether subjects who choose more challenging activities make proportionately greater gains in understanding how to control variables. Of particular importance, it was found that subjects who are more sophisticated on the basis of age or ability to control variables choose proportionately more difficult activities (those with larger numbers of variables or with unfamiliar variables). This supports Hunt's (1965) suggestion that the learner is able to select experiences which help him to learn. The decision-makers concluded that open education programs might succeed, in part, because students are able to choose experiences which help them learn. These results do not, however, imply that student selection of educational activities is the most appropriate form of instruction.This study combined with earlier studies (Linn, Chen & Thier, 1977) strongly suggests that the most one can expect students to learn in the SEA program is to criticize experiments. Even for eighth graders who are presumably more likely to learn to control variables, the SEA is not sufficient to teach controlling variables. A different approach is needed to teach this (e.g., Linn, in press).Several research and evaluation studies are consistent with the findings of this evaluation (e.g., Shann et al., 1975; Atkinson, 1976). Many educators interested in “open” education have suggested that interactive learning experiences teach children to be autonomous, curious, and able to plan investigations. These questions were suggested by the evaluators as meriting further study.The decision-making model employed in this evaluation succeeded in influencing decision-makers and also in suggesting some implications for future studies. Rather than focusing on program objectives the evaluation focused on program decisions. Setting priorities in evaluation studies is a multivariate process not fully discussed in this paper. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the potential benifit of an evaluation plan rather than on a set of program objectives.     

The effect of sample and comparison ratio schedules on delayed matching to sample in the pigeon

In Experiment 1, three food-deprived pigeons received trials that began with red or green illumination of the center pecking key. Two or four pecks on this sample key turned it off and initiated a 0- to 10-sec delay. Following the delay, the two outer comparison keys were illuminated, one with red and one with green light. In one condition, a single peck on either of these keys turned the other key off and produced either grain reinforcement (if the comparison that was pecked matched the preceding sample) or the intertrial interval (if it did not match). In other conditions, 3 or 15 additional pecks were required to produce reinforcement or the intertrial interval. The frequency of pecking the matching comparison stimulus (matching accuracy) decreased as the delay increased, increased as the sample ratio was increased, and decreased as the comparison ratio was increased. The results of Experiment 2 suggested that higher comparison ratios adversely affect matching accuracy primarily by delaying reinforcement for choosing the correct comparison. The results of Experiment 3, in which delay of reinforcement for choosing the matching comparison was manipulated, confirmed that delayed reinforcement decreases matching accuracy.     

Assessing Knowledge Integration in Science: Construct,Measures, and Evidence

In response to the demand for sound science assessments, this article presents the development of a latent construct called knowledge integration as an effective measure of science inquiry. Knowledge integration assessments ask students to link, distinguish, evaluate, and organize their ideas about complex scientific topics. The article focuses on assessment topics commonly taught in 6th- through 12th-grade classes. Items from both published standardized tests and previous knowledge integration research were examined in 6 subject-area tests. Results from Rasch partial credit analyses revealed that the tests exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties with respect to internal consistency, item fit, weighted likelihood estimates, discrimination, and differential item functioning. Compared with items coded using dichotomous scoring rubrics, those coded with the knowledge integration rubrics yielded significantly higher discrimination indexes. The knowledge integration assessment tasks, analyzed using knowledge integration scoring rubrics, demonstrate strong promise as effective measures of complex science reasoning in varied science domains.     

An Investigation of Explanation Multiple-Choice Items in Science Assessment

Both multiple-choice and constructed-response items have known advantages and disadvantages in measuring scientific inquiry. In this article we explore the function of explanation multiple-choice (EMC) items and examine how EMC items differ from traditional multiple-choice and constructed-response items in measuring scientific reasoning. A group of 794 middle school students was randomly assigned to answer either constructed-response or EMC items following regular multiple-choice items. By applying a Rasch partial-credit analysis, we found that there is a consistent alignment between the EMC and multiple-choice items. Also, the EMC items are easier than the constructed-response items but are harder than most of the multiple-choice items. We discuss the potential value of the EMC items as a learning and diagnostic tool.