Student perceptions of satisfaction and anxiety in an online doctoral program

Eighty-four students in an online health education doctoral program taking the first course in the program over one year (four quarters) were surveyed in regards to their computer, Internet, and online course anxiety, and overall course satisfaction. An 18-item anxiety tool with domains in computer, Internet, and online learning was administered in the first and last weeks of an educational research course to assess for changes in student anxiety. A 24-item satisfaction tool with domains regarding the instructor, technology, setup, interaction, outcomes, and overall satisfaction was administered at the end of the course. Results show a significant negative correlation between anxiety and student satisfaction. Student anxiety levels were in the relatively moderate range; changes in anxiety levels over time were not significant. Participants who felt anxious when using computers or the Internet, or when taking online courses experienced anxiety with other domains.     

美国高校管理对我们的启示

根据北京市委组织部和北京市委教育工委的安排,在2005年暑期,北京工商大学、首都师范大学、首都经济贸易大学、北京建工学院、北京联合大学和北京电影学院等市属市管院校的18名正职领导干部赴美进行了为期一个月的学习考察。现将此行的主要收获和启示总结如下:一、主要收获这次     

Newborn response to auditory stimulus discrepancy

Newborns were assessed for their recovery of head turning toward laterally presented auditory stimuli (titi) that varied from a familiar standard on 1 of 5 levels of fundamental frequency. Following habituation to repeated standard trials, newborns recovered to 14% and 21%, but not to 0%, 7%, or 28% discrepancies, indicating that recovery was a quadratic function of the degree of stimulus-schema discrepancy. Moreover, newborns reliably turned away from the standard stimulus during posthabituation no-change control trials, indicating that the neural network associated with that stimulus was not fatigued. Infants in every condition showed recovery of head turning to a novel posttest stimulus (papa). These data are interpreted with a dual processing model postulated to include both reflexive (context-independent) orientation and stimulus-schema comparison process (context-dependent) orientation.     

甄别多项选择题考试中答案抄袭的不同方法的比较

在美国,各个考试公司都会用不同的统计方法来检测考试中的舞弊现象。本文研究了两个检测舞弊的指数:基于经典考试理论的g2指数和基于项目反应理论的w指数。文章模拟了四种真实测试情形中常见的抄袭模式和几个可能影响指数的变量,研究结果表明,对于g2和w指数,在各种情形下,按照有偏差的估计参数以及真实参数计算出来的第一类错误率都是类似的,并且较低。因此,用有偏差的估计参数来计算g2和w指数不会增加将被抄袭者误认为抄袭者的可能性。而基于有偏差的估计参数的g2和w指数,只有在抄袭题目百分比较高且测试长度较长的情况下,才可能实现较低的第二类错误率。当抄袭题目百分比较低时,即便使用真实参数,g2和w指数都会造成较高的第二类错误率。     

Die Öffnung des Schulsystems: Fakt oder Fiktion?

Opening up educational paths and especially decoupling educational courses and final school qualifications are seen as important aspects of the modernization of Swiss education. The study presented here investigates to what extent this de-linking actually took place in the case of the Swiss canton Freiburg. 525 pupils from German-speaking schools were observed in their progress from the end of primary school (year 6) to the transfer into the upper secondary level Gymnasium (year 10) or into alternative educational routes. Indeed, almost half of the young people, who went to the Gymnasium, previously studied at a middle-level general secondary school and not the preparatory Progymnasium; a strong indication of decoupling. Furthermore, the study shows that entry into the upper secondary level Gymnasium is still possible for pupils despite weak performance at primary level. Irrespective of the evidence for an opening of the education system, the findings also show that attending a Progymnasium has a significant effect on school biographies. The chance of transferring into the upper secondary level Gymnasium is twice as high for graduates, who attended a Progymnasium, as for comparative pupils, who did not. Additionally, a privileged social background correlates with a high chance of entry into the upper secondary level Gymnasium.     

Long-term stability of students' evaluations: A note on Feldman's “consistency and variability among college students in rating their teachers and courses”

Feldman (1977), reviewing research about the reliability of student evaluations, reported that while class average responses were quite reliable (.80s and .90s), single rater reliabilities were typically low (.20s). However, studies he reviewed determined single rater reliability with internal consistency measures which assumed that differences among students in the same class (within-class variance) were completely random—an assumption which Feldman seriously questioned. In the present study, this assumption was tested by collecting evaluations from the same students at the end of each class and again one year after graduation. Single rater reliability based upon an internal consistency approach (agreement among different students in the same class) was similar to that reported by Feldman. However, single rater reliability based upon a stability approach (agreement between end-of-term and follow-up ratings by the same student) was much higher (medianr=.59). These results indicate that individual student evaluations were remarkably stable over time and more reliable than previously assumed. Most important, there was systematic information in individual student ratings—beyond that implied by the class average response—that internal consistency approaches have ignored or assumed to be nonexistent.     

Teaching Nature of Scientific Knowledge to Kindergarten Through University Students

Science & Education -     

Cognitive development,genetics problem solving,and genetics instruction: A critical review

Recent studies have analyzed the cognitive demands of solving problems in genetics, focusing primarily on the Piagetian schemas of combinations, proportions, and probability. Based on data from these primarily correlational studies, some authors have argued for the elimination of classical genetics from the high school curriculum. The critical review of the literature presented in this article reaffirms that formal-operational thought is conducive to successful genetics problem solving. The weight of the evidence to date, however, does not support the position that formal operational thought is strictly required for solving typical genetics problems. Arguments are therefore presented in support of the inclusion of genetics and genetics problem solving in high school biology. Implications of this analysis for the selection of appropriate content, problems, and instructional techniques for genetics instruction for nonformal students are presented.     

DNA combing on low-pressure oxygen plasma modified polysilsesquioxane substrates for single-molecule studies

Molecular combing and flow-induced stretching are the most commonly used methods to immobilize and stretch DNA molecules. While both approaches require functionalization steps for the substrate surface and the molecules, conventionally the former does not take advantage of, as the latter, the versatility of microfluidics regarding robustness, buffer exchange capability, and molecule manipulation using external forces for single molecule studies. Here, we demonstrate a simple one-step combing process involving only low-pressure oxygen (O₂) plasma modified polysilsesquioxane (PSQ) polymer layer to facilitate both room temperature microfluidic device bonding and immobilization of stretched single DNA molecules without molecular functionalization step. Atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy experiments revealed a significant increase in surface roughness and surface potential on low-pressure O₂ plasma treated PSQ, in contrast to that with high-pressure O₂ plasma treatment, which are proposed to be responsible for enabling effective DNA immobilization. We further demonstrate the use of our platform to observe DNA-RNA polymerase complexes and cancer drug cisplatin induced DNA condensation using wide-field fluorescence imaging.