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     

Leveraging reading-writing connections through three transformative reading lenses

ABSTRACT

In surveys and semi-structured interviews, Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) discussed the role of reading in their first-year composition (FYC) courses infused with ‘writing about writing’ and ‘teaching for transfer’ perspectives. Three transformative reading lenses played a pivotal role in instructors’ pedagogies – deconstructing genres, situating texts in discourse communities, and reading like a writer – that each embody a paramount threshold concept in Writing Studies: writing is a social and rhetorical activity. GTAs’ responses indicate that these transformative reading lenses facilitate students’ ability to make reading-writing connections. When students engage texts through these lenses, the act of reading becomes a tool for shaping students’ current and future writing development.     

Instruction-first and problem-solving-first approaches: alternative pathways to learning complex tasks

According to cognitive load theory, using worked examples is an effective and efficient instructional strategy for initial cognitive skill acquisition for novice learners, as it reduces cognitive load and frees up cognitive resources to build task competence. Contrary to this, productive failure (as well as invention learning, desirable difficulties and other problem-solving-first) frameworks suggest that scaffolded problem-solving activities (a generation phase) preceding explicit instruction enhance learners’ performance. The reported experimental study investigated the effectiveness of different levels of instructional guidance provided to students during the learning phase preceding explicit instruction in standard solution procedures in enhancing students’ engagement and transfer problem-solving skills. Specifically, the study compared partially-guided or unguided attempts at generating problem solutions as opposed to comprehensive guidance, in the form of a worked example. Levels of experienced cognitive load and learner motivation were evaluated in addition to delayed post-test performance scores. There were no differences between the three groups on the transfer post-test outcomes, even though the condition with fully-guided worked examples prior to the explicit instruction expectedly reduced cognitive load relative to the conditions without such guidance. There were also differences between the conditions on some sub-dimensions of the motivation scale. In general, the findings indicate that similar overall outcomes (delayed transfer performance) could be achieved by different sequences of instructional tasks aimed at achieving different sets of specific goals.     

Children’s Self-Reported Effects of Stimulant Medication

This study determined the self-reported positive and negative physical, academic, and social effects of stimulant medication on middle/junior high school and high school students who have been diagnosed with AD/HD. The study also identified other students’ attitudes toward those diagnosed with AD/HD and receiving stimulant medication. Students in regular education classrooms, classrooms for students with an emotional disturbance, and classrooms for students with learning disabilities participated by filling out a questionnaire. A convenience sample of 925 students in Wisconsin and Minnesota participated in the study. Eighty-six of the students were taking stimulant medication for the treatment of AD/HD. Students did report experiencing side effects from the medication. The social and behavioural effects of the medication rather than the academic achievement enhancement effects appear to be the reasons for taking stimulant medication. Students not taking stimulant medication reported neither they nor teachers treated students taking stimulant medication differently.     

The relationship between citation errors and library anxiety: An empirical study of doctoral students in education

The present study investigated whether levels of library anxiety predict simultaneously the citation error rate and quality of reference lists in doctoral dissertation proposals among 93 doctoral students in education. This study was unique for at least two reasons. First, it was one of the first studies to examine bibliographic citation inaccuracies in doctoral research proposals. Second, the current investigation was one of the first to investigate the psychological characteristics of doctoral students who commit such errors. A canonical correlation analysis revealed a multivariate relationship between levels of library anxiety and both the citation error rate and quality of reference lists. This finding suggests that level of library anxiety plays an important role in students’ ability to construct accurate reference lists. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Conflict in the Dyadic Play of 3-Year-Old Children

Episodes of conflict provide a rich source of information about children's development of interactive skills. In the present study, 184 3-year-old children were observed in dyadic play and the 287 conflicts that occurred during their play were transcribed and coded. In general, children's conflicts arose in the context of ongoing play and were brief, lasting less than 15 seconds. Most disputes concerned toy possession, and almost 80% were ended by the simple withdrawal of one or the other children from the conflict. When children responded with emotional intensity to conflict, their conflicts lasted longer and were more likely to be followed by continued negative interaction. Individual difference data were available for one member of each dyad observed in play. Children rated in infancy as having difficult temperaments were found to be more intense during conflict, to spend more time in conflict, and to score higher on an index of conflict resolution competence, whereas concurrent social behavior was not related to conflict variables. Girls scored higher than boys on competence at conflict resolution, and children with better language skills spent less time in conflict. The more time children spent in nonmaternal child care up to age 3, the less likely they were to initiate conflict.