A more equitable account of the note-taking functions in learning from lecture and from text

Previous research investigating the encoding, encoding-plus-storage, and extermal-storage functions of note taking has failed to equate processing opportunities among the groups. The present studies did so by having the encoding group take notes on two occasions without review, the encoding-plus-storage group take notes one time and review notes the next, and the external-storage group twice review a set of borrowed notes. Three forms of note taking were used: conventional, and note taking on skeletal and matrix frameworks. In both Experiment 1, involving lecture learning, and Experiment 2, involving text learning, an advantage was found for the encoding-plus-storage function on tests involving factual-recall and recognition performance but not on tests measuring higher-order performance. With respect to note-taking forms, no advantage existed for any form when information was acquired from lecture. When text material was used there was some advantage for conventional notes and a clear advantage for not taking notes at all, but instead twice reading the material. These findings were explained relative to observed note-taking behaviors, the opportunity for review, and the processing demands proposed by the combination of reading and note taking, particularly when notes must be classified into an existing framework.     

Developing and Assessing Curriculum on the Physics of Medical Instruments

Undergraduate educational settings often struggle to provide students with authentic biologically or medically relevant situations and problems that simultaneously improve their understanding of physics. Through exercises and laboratory activities developed in an elective Physics in Biomedicine course for upper-level biology or pre–health majors at Portland State University, we aim to teach fundamental physical concepts, such as light absorption and emission and atomic energy levels, through analysis of biological systems and medical devices. The activities address the properties of electromagnetic waves as they relate to the interaction with biological tissue and make links between physics and biomedical applications such as microscopy or laser eye surgery. We report on the effect that engaging students in tasks with actual medical equipment has had on their conceptual understanding of light and spectroscopy. These initial assessments indicate that students’ understanding improves in some areas as a result of taking the course, but gains are not uniform and are relatively low for other topics. We also find a promising “nonshift” in student attitudes toward learning science as a result of taking the course. A long-term goal of this work is to develop these materials to the extent that they can eventually be imported into an introductory curriculum for life sciences majors.     

Stereotyped: Investigating Gender in Introductory Science Courses

Research in science education has documented achievement gaps between men and women in math and physics that may reflect, in part, a response to perceived stereotype threat. Research efforts to reduce achievement gaps by mediating the impact of stereotype threat have found success with a short values-affirmation writing exercise. In biology and biochemistry, however, little attention has been paid to the performance of women in comparison with men or perceptions of stereotype threat, despite documentation of leaky pipelines into professional and academic careers. We used methodologies developed in physics education research and cognitive psychology to 1) investigate and compare the performance of women and men across three introductory science sequences (biology, biochemistry, physics), 2) document endorsement of stereotype threat in these science courses, and 3) investigate the utility of a values-affirmation writing task in reducing achievement gaps. In our study, analysis of final grades and normalized learning gains on content-specific concept inventories reveals no achievement gap in the courses sampled, little stereotype threat endorsement, and no impact of the values-affirmation writing task on student performance. These results underscore the context-dependent nature of achievement gaps and stereotype threat and highlight calls to replicate education research across a range of student populations.     

Self-Efficacy Ratings of Technology Proficiency Among Teachers in Mexico and Texas

The Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment (TPSA) questionnaire was administered to 978 elementary and middle school teachers from Mexico City, and 932 elementary and middle school teachers from the Dallas, Texas, metroplex in the USA, in order to examine self-efficacy similarities and differences for technology proficiency self-appraisals in a cross-cultural environment. Results indicate acceptable reliability and clear cross-cultural discriminant validity among the four subscales of the 20-item instrument. Texas teachers perceived themselves as more proficient in using e-mail and the World Wide Web than teachers from Mexico City, while the differences between the two groups were not large for self-ratings of integrated applications or teaching with technology. It is concluded that the TPSA is a useful measure for assessing level of proficiency in using technology among teachers from Texas and from Mexico City. It is also concluded that the measure is appropriate for studying differences between teachers from the two cultural contexts. Suggestions for future research include the need to control for certain variables such as large differences in technology access and a Hispanic ethnicity factor that appears to be present in the Texas sample.     

Using a Physics Experiment in a Lecture Setting to Engage Biology Students with the Concepts of Poiseuille's Law

Biology students enrolled in a typical undergraduate physiology course encounter Poiseuille''s law, a physics equation that describes the properties governing the flow of blood through the circulation. According to the equation, a small change in vessel radius has an exponential effect on resistance, resulting in a larger than expected change in blood flow. To help engage students in this important concept, we performed a physics experiment as a lecture demonstration to mimic the original research by the 19th-century French scientist. We tested its impact as a research project and found that students who viewed the demonstration reacted very positively and showed an immediate increase in test performance, while the control group was able to independently “catch up” at the fourth week posttest. We further examined whether students’ math skills mapped to learning gains. The students with lower math scores who viewed the demonstration had slightly more improvement in test performance than those students who did not view the demonstration. Our data suggest that watching a lecture demonstration may be of even greater benefit to biology students with lower math achievement.     

Rewarding academics: Experiences of the Tenure Track System in Pakistan

Pakistan introduced the Tenure Track System (TTS) as a new performance-based reform in public universities in 2005. The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of higher education authorities, university leaders and tenure-track faculty about the implementation of this reform. This is a qualitative interpretive study and utilised a nested case study design, focusing on two cases—Science Faculty and Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty in a large provincial university. It utilises three perspectives taken from organisation theory—instrumental, cultural and myth perspectives. The main results show instrumental problems of hierarchical authority and horizontal coordination, lack of expertise to implement, cultural compatibility problems through active resistance from some groups and active use of symbols to modify the impression of a challenging reform implementations. Summing up, this is a Western-inspired reform that meet challenging conditions in Pakistan, making is rather less successful.     

Matching three classifications of secondary students to differential levels of study guides.

This study examined the effectiveness of matching three classifications of secondary students (17 with learning disabilities, 18 remedial, and 47 nondisabled) to differential levels of study guides. The students, 45 males and 37 females, were enrolled in science and social studies classes in middle school and high school. In one treatment, students were assigned multilevel study guides containing different levels of referential cues, with the guides implemented through three instructional groups: teacher-directed, dyadic, and independent. In another treatment, the same students were assigned single-level study guides that did not contain referential cues, with the guides implemented as an independent activity. An equivalent time samples design was arranged, with six multilevel and six single-level treatments randomly assigned in two-session blocks. The dependent measures consisted of two types of test items, factual and interpretive. The results of group analyses indicated that multilevel study guides were more effective than single-level study guides in all classes and overall on factual questions, with individual analyses verifying that the greatest benefit occurred for the teacher-directed students. On interpretive test items, the results of group analyses favored the multilevel study guides in high school social studies and overall, with individual analyses revealing few remarkable differences for students in any instructional group. A trend analysis revealed little practice effect over time in either treatment. Several methodological and clinical issues involved in matching heterogeneous students to differential levels of textbook instruction in secondary programs are discussed.