Strategies to reduce the negative effects of spoken explanatory text on integrated tasks

Two experiments involving 125 grade-10 students learning about commerce investigated strategies to overcome the transient information effect caused by explanatory spoken text. The transient information effect occurs when learning is reduced as a result of information disappearing before the learner has time to adequately process it, or link it with new information. Spoken text, unless recorded or repeated in some fashion, is fleeting in nature and can be a major cause of transiency. The three strategies investigated, all theoretically expected to enhance learning, were: (a) replacing lengthy spoken text with written text (Experiments 1 and 2), (b) replacing lengthy continuous text with segmented text (Experiment 1), and (c) adding a diagram to lengthy spoken text (Experiment 2). In both experiments on tasks that required information to be integrated across segments, written text was found to be superior to spoken text. In Experiment 1 the expected advantage of segmented text in reducing transitory effects was not found. Compared with written continuous text the segmented spoken text strategy was inferior. Experiment 2 found that adding a diagram to spoken text was an advantage compared to spoken text alone consistent with a multimedia effect. Overall, the results suggest that spoken text is a cause of the transient information effect, which can be best avoided by substituting written text for spoken text on tasks that require integration of information.     

Toddlers Help a Peer

Toddlers are remarkably prosocial toward adults, yet little is known about their helping behavior toward peers. In the present study with 18‐ and 30‐month‐old toddlers (n = 192, 48 dyads per age group), one child needed help reaching an object to continue a task that was engaging for both children. The object was within reach of the second child who helped significantly more often compared to a no‐need control condition. The helper also fulfilled the peer's need when the task was engaging only for the child needing help. These findings suggest that toddlers’ skills and motivations of helping do not depend on having a competent and helpful recipient, such as an adult, but rather they are much more flexible and general.     

Promoting Interest by Supporting Learner Autonomy: the Effects of Teaching Behaviour in Biology Lessons

Research in Science Education - In self-determination theory, Ryan and Deci (2017) propose that psychological well-being is based on three innate psychological needs: relatedness, competence, and...     

Experimentation in biology lessons: guided discovery through incremental scaffolds

Experimentation is a complex problem-solving process. In biology lessons, experiments involve creative thinking and open discovery; however, they still require some degree of instructional guidance. The right balance between discovery learning and instructional guidance depends substantially on students’ prior knowledge. Students with low prior knowledge in particular might have difficulties with conducting and understanding experiments. Incremental scaffolds might be a valuable tool to meditate between pure discovery and strong guidance while simultaneously taking learners’ individual knowledge and skills into account. In the current study, we examined the effects of incremental scaffolds (IncSc), no scaffolds (NoSc), and worked-out examples (WoEx) on students’ knowledge acquisition while doing inquiry-based experimentation with a special focus on students with low prior knowledge. In a pre-posttest design, 193 students (M_age?=?13.02?±?0.81 years) participated in a four-hour teaching unit on animals’ overwintering strategies. In the pre- and posttest, we assessed the students’ conceptual and procedural knowledge. Our results partially confirmed our hypotheses: Regarding the conceptual and procedural knowledge of all students, incremental scaffolds showed no additional benefit regarding students’ knowledge in the posttest when compared to working with no scaffolds or worked-out examples. For the students with low prior knowledge, working with incremental scaffolds led to higher conceptual and procedural knowledge after the teaching unit than working with worked-out examples.     

Benchmarking in European Higher Education: A step beyond current quality models

Tertiary Education and Management - This paper presents the findings of a two-year EU-funded project (DG Education and Culture) Benchmarking in European Higher Education, carried out from 2006 to...     

Validity and reliability of portfolio assessment in pre‐service teacher education

This article concentrates on the validity and reliability of portfolio assessment as used in pre‐service teacher education. It is not possible to make general pronouncements about the validity of portfolio assessment in pre‐service teacher education as there are multiple portfolio applications. The validity depends on the purpose, namely the divers competencies which the course organisers wish to assess with it. Therefore, three categories of competencies and consequently three types of portfolios were distinguished in order to determine the validity of portfolio assessment. For the assessment of teaching and partnership competencies, it is argued that the validity is low due to the roundabout nature of the assessment. On the contrary, the validity of portfolio assessment for learning competencies can be high. The execution of a self‐regulated learning process can be accurately assessed using portfolios. The reliability of portfolio assessment is problematic, since it is incapable of fulfilling the classic psychometric requirement of reliability. Nevertheless, provided that the necessary measures are taken, the reliability of portfolio assessment can still be brought to an acceptable level. Five measures are proposed.     

Hiding in plain sight: Paratextual utterances as tools for information-related research and practice

Through a qualitative content analysis of a purposive sample (the 2010 finalists of the Canadian Governor General's Literary Awards in both French and English), this study investigates what information can be gleaned from the book-as-object using peritext as a research tool. Using the theories of Gérard Genette, who defined the paratext, and Pierre Bourdieu, this research posits that paratextual utterances serve as an expression and tool of the cultural realm of publication and can be used for informational purposes in library and information science (LIS) research and practice. Findings indicate that the peritext is a rich source for gathering information about authorship and publishing as it reveals contextually relevant information, shares the author's informational tools, constructs the author, markets titles, and provides relevant information for specific age groups and genres. Discussion centers on the impact for libraries and the LIS community, with a focus on readers' advisory.     

Assessing pupils’ intelligence through self,parental, and teacher estimates

This study examined the accuracy of self‐ and other‐estimated intelligence in relation to tested cognitive ability and gender. Three groups of raters were examined: 187 (102 male, 85 female; mean age 14.33 years, SD = .32) pupils of single‐sex comprehensive schools, 109 (55 mothers and 54 fathers) parents, and six teachers of the pupils. Pupils estimated their own overall IQ, while their parents and teachers estimated the pupils’ overall, mathematical, spatial, and verbal abilities. Self‐ and other‐estimates were compared to each other, and to the child’s psychometric test scores in verbal, quantitative, and figural/non‐verbal reasoning ability. Results suggested that participants were reasonably accurate at estimating pupils’ intelligence – teachers significantly more so than parents, and pupils significantly more so than fathers. Although both parents significantly overestimated their child’s IQ, this overestimation was more pronounced in fathers.