INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD DISTANCE LEARNING

Eleven community college instructors and the 334 students in their distance learning classes were surveyed. Data showed instructors had conflicting attitudes about distance education. They were willing to teach a distance learning class again, but they rated the quality of the courses as equal or lower quality than other classes taught on campus. Their students, on the other hand, were highly satisfied with these instructors and the courses . But the critical factor in much of traditional classroom instruction, direct interaction with instructors, played no role in determining students' satisfaction in these courses. This difference in the nature of student-teacher interaction in distance learning classes may explain instructors' conflicting attitudes.     

Performance changes on the K-TEA: Brief form for learning-disabled students

The purpose of the present investigation was to measure performance changes on the K-TEA: Brief Form over a 3-year retest interval. Fifty-two learning-disabled students were retested with the K-TEA: Brief Form following 3 years of special education services. Results showed an average decrease of 3.33 points in Battery Composite over the 3-year retest interval. Nonsignificant mean retest differences for Battery Composite, Math, Reading, and Spelling were found. Retest trait stability coefficients ranged from .69 (Mathematics) to .88 (Spelling), suggesting that the K-TEA: Brief Form is a reliable instrument in screening for changes in special achievement over an extended period. An examination of individual difference scores revealed significant within variability for each achievement area. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MAIL SURVEY TECHNIQUES IN STUDIES OF SEMIPROFESSIONAL WORK GROUPS: RESPONSE RATES OF VOCATIONAL‐TECHNICAL TEACHERS

Survey research is threatened by increasing costs due to high rates of nonresponse. Because of this, there is renewed interest in determining which factors operate to influence response rates. These factors include instruments used, SES of subjects, personality characteristics, and job characteristics. This paper examines response rates to a mailed questionnaire in a sample of vocational‐technical teachers. In addition to variables typically studied, response rates of directors, and several organizational characteristics are examined as they relate to. response rates of teachers. Suggestions are offered for improving response rates in semiprofessional work groups.     

The utilization of congruence coefficients in human communication research

This paper describes the use of congruence coefficients, which can be used to determine the similarity of factor structures (Tucker, 1951). Although this technique has been widely used, the human communication literature contains no simple explanation of how to calculate congruence coefficients. Therefore, this paper provides information on how to use factor analytic data to compute congruence coefficients. Information on testing congruence coefficients for statistical significance is also provided.     

Examining the literacy component of science literacy: 25 years of language arts and science research

This review, written to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Journal of Science Education, revealed a period of changes in the theoretical views of the language arts, the perceived roles of language in science education, and the research approaches used to investigate oral and written language in science, science teaching, and learning. The early years were dominated by behavioralist and logico-mathematical interpretations of human learning and by reductionist research approaches, while the later years reflected an applied cognitive science and constructivist interpretations of learning and a wider array of research approaches that recognizes the holistic nature of teaching and learning. The early years focus on coding oral language into categories reflecting source of speech, functional purpose, level of question and response, reading research focused on the readability of textbooks using formulae and the reader's decoding skills, and writing research was not well documented since the advocates for writing in service of learning were grass roots practitioners and many science teachers were using writing as an evaluation technique. The advent of applied cognitive science and the constructivist perspectives ushered in interactive-constructive models of discourse, reading and writing that more clearly revealed the role of language in science and in science teaching and learning. A review of recent research revealed that the quantity and quality of oral interactions were low and unfocused in science classrooms; reading has expanded to consider comprehension strategies, metacognition, sources other than textbooks, and the design of inquiry environments for classrooms; and writing-to-learn science has focused on sequential writing tasks requiring transformation of ideas to enhance science learning. Several promising trends and future research directions flow from the synthesis of this 25-year period of examining the literacy component of science literacy - among them are critical listening and reading of various sources, multi-media presentations and representations, effective debate and argument, quality explanation and the role of information and communication technologies/environments.     

Role of comprehension on performance at higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy: Findings from assessments of healthcare professional students

The first four levels of Bloom's taxonomy were used to create quiz questions designed to assess student learning of the gross anatomy, histology, and physiology of the gastrointestinal (GI) system. Information on GI histology and physiology was presented to separate samples of medical, dental, and podiatry students in computer based tutorials where the information from the two disciplines was presented either separately or in an integrated fashion. All students were taught GI gross anatomy prior to this study by course faculty as part of the required curriculum of their respective program. Student responses to the quiz questions were analyzed to assess both the validity of Bloom's cumulative hierarchy and the effectiveness of an integrated curriculum. No statistically significant differences were found between quiz scores from students who received the integrated tutorial and from those who received the separate tutorials. Multiple regression analyses provided partial support for a cumulative hierarchy where scores on the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy predicted scores on higher levels. Notably, in the majority of regression analyses, the comprehension score was the key foundational predictor for application and analysis scores. This study supports the suggestion that educators increase the number of comprehension level questions, even at the expense of knowledge level questions, in course assessments both to evaluate lower order cognitive skills and also as a predictor of success on questions requiring application and analysis levels of the higher order cognitive skills of Bloom's taxonomy. Anat Sci Educ 11: 433–444. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.