Science and Values in Undergraduate Education

Science & Education - While a conception of science as value free has been dominant since Max Weber defended it in the nineteenth century, recent years have witnessed an emerging consensus that...     

Motivation to commit oneself as a determinant of achievement in problem-based learning

Problem-based learning is a constructivist approach toprofessional education stressing the use of real lifeproblems in education. Several previous attempts tounderstand the intricacies of learning in theproblem-based context have led to a causal model,elements of which were tested in the present study.The focus of the investigation was on the students' motivation to committhemselves to studying in a problem-based healthsciences curriculum, expressed in term of levels ofattendance at tutorial meetings. Data were collectedregarding functioning of the tutorial group, tutorfunctioning, level of prior knowledge, quality of theinstructional problems, time spent on individualstudy, academic achievement and increased interest.These data were analyzed using a structural equationsmodeling approach. As hypothesized, commitment appears to bea potent determinant of achievement. In fact, itrepresents one of the strongest determinants oflearning in the model tested.     

How to assess for improvement of learning

This review summarizes and builds on a seminar about assessment of student learning in higher education. Assessment can be looked upon as simply something that has to be done at the end of a course. During the course of discussions at the seminar the participants became more aware of how assessment can have an impact on learning. This means that assessment can be used as a means to improve learning. This realization is not a new one, but it is highlighted here in a more coherent and concise way than usual. Many alternative methods of assessment are possible. Some instructional design rules will be presented here for designing assessment sessions in such a way that learning can be improved. When designing an assessment method, one can be guided by the following considerations. The content of assessment should be chosen in accordance with the learning outcomes one hopes to achieve. The organization of assessment can be designed in such a way that the desired learning process is promoted. The outcome of assessment can provide feedback to many of the stakeholders: to the students on their learning process; to the faculty on its outcomes; and to the teacher by pointing out the following steps to be taken in improving assessment, learning and teaching.     

Designing research to inform sustainability and scalability of digital technology innovations

Educational technology research and development - Considerably more research needs to be done to understand how successful technological innovations and change processes are sustained and scaled to...     

What students learn in problem-based learning: a process analysis

This study aimed to provide an account of how learning takes place in problem-based learning (PBL), and to identify the relationships between the learning-oriented activities of students with their learning outcomes. First, the verbal interactions and computer resources studied by nine students for an entire PBL cycle were recorded. The relevant concepts articulated and studied individually while working on the problem-at-hand were identified as units of analysis and counted to demonstrate the growth in concepts acquired over the PBL cycle. We identified two distinct phases in the process—an initial concept articulation, and a later concept repetition phase. To overcome the sample-size limitations of the first study, we analyzed the verbal interactions of, and resources studied, by another 35 students in an entire PBL cycle using structural equation modeling. Results show that students’ verbal contributions during the problem analysis phase strongly influenced their verbal contributions during self-directed learning and reporting phases. Verbal contributions and individual study influenced similarly the contributions during the reporting phase. Increased verbalizations of concepts during the reporting phase also led to higher achievement. We found that collaborative learning is significant in the PBL process, and may be more important than individual study in determining students’ achievement.     

Relating relative humidity fluctuations to damage in oak panel paintings by a simple experiment

ABSTRACT

Panel paintings are essentially wooden boards painted on one side. Due to the vapor resistance of the paint layer, changing ambient conditions lead to exchange of moisture on only one surface. Subsequently, a non-uniform moisture content profile is formed across the thickness of the board. As a result, differential expansion causes the board to bend in case of no mechanical restriction, or it leads to a build-up of stresses inside the material if restrained. Experiments with oak boards sealed on one side and exposed to a change in the ambient relative humidity (RH) were performed. By scaling, the response of any board with different thickness can be predicted. Since the bending of the board can be described as a linear system behavior, the frequency response can be predicted based on the step response. In combination with critical strains for wood and gesso from the literature, this gives insight into allowable RH fluctuations in terms of frequency and amplitude for different board thicknesses.     

Accuracy of students' self‐assessment and their beliefs about its utility

The purpose of the two studies presented here was to evaluate the accuracy of students' self‐assessment ability, to examine whether this ability improves over time and to investigate whether self‐assessment is more accurate if students believe that it contributes to improving learning. To that end, the accuracy of the self‐assessments of 3588 first‐year students enrolled in a post‐secondary institution was studied throughout a semester during which each student made approximately 80 self‐assessments about his or her own learning process. These self‐assessments were then compared with multiple judgements by peers and tutors. The overall correlations between the scores of self‐, peer and tutor assessments suggest weak to moderate accuracy of student self‐assessment ability. The findings also reveal an ability effect; students judged as more academically competent were able to self‐assess with higher accuracy than their less competent peers. Comparing the accuracy of student self‐assessment averaged over four consecutive periods indicates that the accuracy does not improve over time. In a second study, a questionnaire aimed at eliciting student's beliefs about the effects of self‐assessment on their learning was administered to 936 first‐year students. Based on their responses, sub‐groups of students were identified: those who either believed in the usefulness of self‐assessment or did not. Results suggest that there is no significant association between student beliefs about the utility of self‐assessment and the accuracy of their self‐assessments.