The use of specially designed tasks to enhance student interest in the cadaver dissection laboratory

Cadaver dissection is a key component of anatomy education. Unfortunately, students sometimes regard the process of dissection as uninteresting or stressful. To make laboratory time more interesting and to encourage discussion and collaborative learning among medical students, specially designed tasks were assigned to students throughout dissection. Student response and the effects of the tasks on examination scores were analyzed. The subjects of this study were 154 medical students who attended the dissection laboratory in 2009. Four tasks were given to teams of seven to eight students over the course of 2 weeks of lower limb dissection. The tasks were designed such that the answers could not be obtained by referencing books or searching the Internet, but rather through careful observation of the cadavers and discussion among team members. Questionnaires were administered. The majority of students agreed that the tasks were interesting (68.0%), encouraged team discussion (76.8%), and facilitated their understanding of anatomy (72.8%). However, they did not prefer that additional tasks be assigned during the other laboratory sessions. When examination scores of those who responded positively were compared with those who responded neutrally or negatively, no statistically significant differences could be found. In conclusion, the specially designed tasks assigned to students in the cadaver dissection laboratory encouraged team discussion and collaborative learning, and thereby generated interest in laboratory work. However, knowledge acquisition was not improved.     

The effect of site quality on repurchase intention in Internet shopping through mediating variables: The case of university students in South Korea

We performed a study to determine the influence that site quality has on repurchase intention of Internet shopping through customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer commitment. Appropriate measures were developed and tested on 230 university students of Gyeongnam province in South Korea with a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. The results of the empirical analysis confirmed that site quality can be conceptualized as a composite of six dimensions of shopping convenience, site design, information usefulness, transaction security, payment system, and customer communication. Second, site quality positively affected customer satisfaction and customer trust, but did not affect customer commitment and repurchase intention. Third, site quality can affect repurchase intention by enhancing or attenuating customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer commitment in online transaction situation. The mediating effect of customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer commitment between site quality and repurchase intention is identified. Fourth, site quality indirectly affected customer commitment through customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction indirectly affected repurchase intention through customer trust and customer commitment. Thus, it is found that site quality can be a very important factor to enhance repurchase intention in the customer perspective.     

An initial examination of Singaporean seventh and eighth graders’ views of nature of science

Research in nature of science (NOS) among Asia-Pacific countries such as Singapore is arguably scarce. This study aimed to survey Singaporean secondary school students’ views of NOS with a newly developed instrument named Students’ Views of Nature of Science (SVNOS), which included various key aspects of NOS that are generally agreed upon by the science education community. Moreover, the relations between some demographic factors, including gender and grade, and students’ views of NOS were explored.

Sample, design and method

In total, 359 Singaporean seventh and eighth graders were invited to participate in this survey. The reliability, validity and structure of the SVNOS instrument were ensured by confirmatory factor analysis. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance was then conducted to determine the interaction effects between the gender variable and the grade-level variable.

Results and conclusion

The results indicated that the SVNOS instrument is reliable and valid to assess students’ views of NOS regarding seven distinct NOS dimensions. The male students were more prone to have constructivist-oriented views of NOS in the most of the SVNOS dimensions, while the female students conveyed more non-objective views of NOS. In addition, the eighth graders revealed more empiricist-oriented views of NOS than the seventh graders in several SVNOS dimensions. This result seems to contradict the results of previous studies that students’ views of NOS may reflect a developmental trend with their increasing educational experiences.     

Effects of Missing Data Methods in Structural Equation Modeling With Nonnormal Longitudinal Data

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of missing data techniques in longitudinal studies under diverse conditions. A Monte Carlo simulation examined the performance of 3 missing data methods in latent growth modeling: listwise deletion (LD), maximum likelihood estimation using the expectation and maximization algorithm with a nonnormality correction (robust ML), and the pairwise asymptotically distribution-free method (pairwise ADF). The effects of 3 independent variables (sample size, missing data mechanism, and distribution shape) were investigated on convergence rate, parameter and standard error estimation, and model fit. The results favored robust ML over LD and pairwise ADF in almost all respects. The exceptions included convergence rates under the most severe nonnormality in the missing not at random (MNAR) condition and recovery of standard error estimates across sample sizes. The results also indicate that nonnormality, small sample size, MNAR, and multicollinearity might adversely affect convergence rate and the validity of statistical inferences concerning parameter estimates and model fit statistics.     

Reading-growth estimates for elementary-school students using curriculum-based measurement

In this study, we examine grade-level growth rates for general education students and students with learning disabilities in grades two to six. In conducting the study, we demonstrate how schools, districts, and state educational agencies can use a combination of Curriculum-Based Measurement and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) methods to develop growth-rate norms in reading. The participants were made up of 273 general education students and 430 students with learning disabilities. The growth rates for these two groups of students in each grade were estimated using HLM. Within each grade, separate growth rates for subgroups of general education students (i.e., high, average, and low achievers) were estimated. The uses of estimated growth rates for setting year-end goals, monitoring student progress, and evaluating the effectiveness of instructional programs are also discussed.     

Cognitive predictors of literacy acquisition in syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji

We examined the role of different cognitive skills in word reading (accuracy and fluency) and spelling accuracy in syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji. Japanese Hiragana and Kanji are strikingly contrastive orthographies: Hiragana has consistent character-sound correspondences with a limited symbol set, whereas Kanji has inconsistent character-sound correspondences with a large symbol set. One hundred sixty-nine Japanese children were assessed at the beginning of grade 1 on reading accuracy and fluency, spelling, phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid automatized naming (RAN), orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness, and on reading and spelling at the middle of grade 1. The results showed remarkable differences in the cognitive predictors of early reading accuracy and spelling development in Hiragana and Kanji, and somewhat lesser differences in the predictors of fluency development. Phonological awareness was a unique predictor of Hiragana reading accuracy and spelling, but its impact was relatively weak and transient. This finding is in line with those reported in consistent orthographies with contained symbol sets such as Finnish and Greek. In contrast, RAN and morphological awareness were more important predictors of Kanji than of Hiragana, and the patterns of relationships for Kanji were similar to those found in inconsistent orthographies with extensive symbol sets such as Chinese. The findings suggested that Japanese children learning two contrastive orthographic systems develop partially separate cognitive bases rather than a single basis for literacy acquisition.     

Tutoring styles that encourage learner satisfaction,academic engagement,and achievement in an online environment

This study was aimed to find which tutoring styles significantly predict learners’ satisfaction with an e-learning service, academic involvement, and academic achievement. The tutoring styles included subject expert, facilitator, guider, and administrator. In this study, 818 Korean sixth-grade students (ages 11–12 years), enrolled in the e-study program, and completed tutoring style and academic satisfaction evaluation surveys. Students’ login and posting frequency in the e-study program were measured to assess their academic involvement. Academic achievement was computed using completion rates and assessment scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that there is some association between tutoring styles and academic outcomes. Of the four tutoring styles, facilitating tutoring styles particularly showed strong associations with the three outcome variables. Tutors’ guiding activities as opposed to facilitating were not significant contributors to students’ academic outcomes. The effect of tutors’ facilitating styles in an online learning environment was significant as being found in the existent literature.     

Examining the hard,peer, and teacher scaffolding framework in inquiry-based technology-enhanced learning environments: impact on academic achievement and group performance

Educational technology research and development - The purpose of this study was to examine how students’ academic achievement and group performance related to their perceptions of the...