Designing Navigation Support in Hypertext Systems Based on Navigation Patterns

In this paper, we present two studies designed to help students navigate effectively and learn from a hypertext system, CoMPASS. Our first study (N = 74) involved an analysis of students’ navigation patterns to group them into clusters, using a k-means clustering technique. Based on this analysis, navigation patterns were grouped into four clusters, enabling us to understand the kinds of support that students needed. This formed the basis of our next study, in which we designed and implemented metanavigation support to help students navigate and learn science content. Support in the form of prompts was provided to one group (N = 58) while a second group (N = 58) with no support served as the comparison group. Our results suggest that students in the support group performed better on a concept-mapping task. Based on the results we provide suggestions for providing metacognitive support in hypertext systems.     

Toward implementing distributed scaffolding: Helping students learn science from design

In this article, we present two studies that helped us understand the kinds of support that students need to learn science successfully from design activities. Both were enacted in the context of an approach to learning science from design called learning by design (LBD). In our first study, we designed and integrated a paper‐and‐pencil scaffolding tool, the design diary, into an LBD unit to support students' design‐related activities. We learned two important lessons from the first study. First, we refined our understanding of the processes involved in designing and the ways we might present those processes to students. Second, and more important, we observed that in the dynamic, complex environment of the classroom, not all of the scaffolding could be provided with any one tool or agent. We found that students need multiple forms of support and multiple learning opportunities to learn science successfully from design activities. In our next study, we provided additional support through an organized system of tools and agents. Our analysis of data from the second study leads us to believe that supporting multiple students in a classroom requires us to rethink the notion of scaffolding as it applied to groups of learners in a classroom. We put forth the notion of distributed scaffolding as an approach to supporting hands‐on inquiry learning in a classroom. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 185–217, 2005     

Comparing Classroom Enactments of an Inquiry Curriculum: Lessons Learned From Two Teachers

Abstract

Examining how teachers structure the activities in a unit and how they facilitate classroom discussion is important to understand how innovative technology-rich curricula work in the context of classroom instruction. This study compared 2 enactments of an inquiry curriculum, then examined students' learning outcomes in classes taught by 2 teachers. The quantitative data show that there were significant differences in the learning outcomes of students in classes of the 2 teachers. This study then examined classroom enactments by the 2 teachers to understand the differences in the learning outcomes. This research specifically focused on how teacher-led discussions (a) helped connect the activities within a curriculum unit and (b) enabled deeper conceptual understanding by helping students make connections between science concepts and principles. This study examined the role that teacher facilitation played in helping students focus on the relations between the various activities in the unit and the concepts that they were learning. The results point to important differences in the 2 enactments, helping to understand better what strategies might enable a deeper conceptual understanding of the science content.     

Helping students learn ‘how to learn’ from texts: Towards an ITS for developing metacognition

Intelligent tutoring systems have most frequently concentrated on imparting domain knowledge. However, there is another important aspect to learning. This is the meta level knowledge abouthow to learn a domain. Metacognition is a very important feature of learning. It consists of being aware of and regulating one's own cognitions.Good students have full control over their learning and see it as a planful and purposive activity. They reflect on their learning activities, are aware of a variety of strategies, and they oversee and monitor the application of these strategies, i.e. they are proficient in metacognitive activities. This paper describes a computer based system that helps students to learn these important self regulation skills. Students work with the system in pairs, and they can use it with any text from which they wish to learn. Apart from being used as a study aid, the system is being used as a tool to gather data about students learning processes.     

Metabolic studies on effect of fiber: Effect on digestibility of energy related nutrients

Dietary fiber alone or coupled with other factors affects the utilization of nutrients. In the present investigation, response of 4 men consuming diets at 3 levels of energy and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) was studied. Pooled ANOVA for 3 experiments with 4 subjects showed significant differences between the experiments within the subject (P< .01) for digestibility of fat, carbohydrate, nitrogen and NDF. Results indicate that habitual NDF intakes of about 40 grams per day have digestibility of 49% and that amount and source of fiber modify the fat digestibility.     

Middle school students’ learning of mechanics concepts through engagement in different sequences of physical and virtual experiments

ABSTRACT

Physical and virtual experimentation are thought to have different affordances for supporting students’ learning. Research investigating the use of physical and virtual experiments to support students’ learning has identified a variety of, sometimes conflicting, outcomes. Unanswered questions remain about how physical and virtual experiments may impact students’ learning and for which contexts and content areas they may be most effective. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined eighth grade students’ (N?=?100) learning of physics concepts related to pulleys depending on the sequence of physical and virtual labs they engaged in. Five classes of students were assigned to either the: physical first condition (PF) (n?=?55), where students performed a physical pulley experiment and then performed the same experiment virtually, or virtual first condition (VF) (n?=?45), with the opposite sequence. Repeated measures ANOVA’s were conducted to examine how physical and virtual labs impacted students’ learning of specific physics concepts. While we did not find clear-cut support that one sequence was better, we did find evidence that participating in virtual experiments may be more beneficial for learning certain physics concepts, such as work and mechanical advantage. Our findings support the idea that if time or physical materials are limited, using virtual experiments may help students understand work and mechanical advantage.     

Diplomas for learning, not seat time: the impacts of New York Regents examinations

Economic theory predicts that improvements in signaling of achievement generated by external exit examination systems will (1) result in students learning more and this in turn will (2) enable them to get better paying jobs. Since New York State had the only statewide curriculum-based external exit exam system in the nation in the early 1990s, hypothesis 1 predicts that New York students should out perform socio-economically comparable students from other states. Cross section analysis of mean 8th grade NAEP math scores and SAT-I scores found that New York students were indeed about one grade level equivalent ahead of where one would expect given their socio-economic background. A similar analysis of dropout rate data found no differences between New York and other states. Hypothesis 2 was tested in HSB and NLS-88 data. Female students who reported that their high school required they pass a minimum competency exam in order to graduate were paid significantly more after they graduated from high school. Men did not earn more but did get a higher hourly wage.