Collaborative Testing Improves Performance but Not Content Retention in a Large-Enrollment Introductory Biology Class

Collaborative testing has been shown to improve performance but not always content retention. In this study, we investigated whether collaborative testing could improve both performance and content retention in a large, introductory biology course. Students were semirandomly divided into two groups based on their performances on exam 1. Each group contained equal numbers of students scoring in each grade category (“A”–“F”) on exam 1. All students completed each of the four exams of the semester as individuals. For exam 2, one group took the exam a second time in small groups immediately following the individually administered test. The other group followed this same format for exam 3. Individual and group exam scores were compared to determine differences in performance. All but exam 1 contained a subset of cumulative questions from the previous exam. Performances on the cumulative questions for exams 3 and 4 were compared for the two groups to determine whether there were significant differences in content retention. Even though group test scores were significantly higher than individual test scores, students who participated in collaborative testing performed no differently on cumulative questions than students who took the previous exam as individuals.     

Engaging in science practices in classrooms predicts increases in undergraduates' STEM motivation,identity, and achievement: A short-term longitudinal study

Our short-term longitudinal study explored undergraduate students' experiences with performing authentic science practices in the classroom in relation to their science achievement and course grades. In addition, classroom experiences (felt recognition as a scientist and perceived classroom climate) and changes over a 10-week academic term in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) identity and motivation were tested as mediators. The sample comprised 1,079 undergraduate students from introductory biology classrooms (65.4% women, 37.6% Asian, 30.2% White, 25.1% Latinx). Using structural equation modeling (SEM), our hypothesized model was confirmed while controlling for class size and GPA. Performing science practices (e.g., hypothesizing or explaining results) positively predicted students' felt recognition as a scientist; and felt recognition positively predicted perceived classroom climate. In turn, felt recognition and classroom climate predicted increases over time in students' STEM motivation (expectancy-value beliefs), STEM identity, and STEM career aspirations. Finally, these factors predicted students' course grade. Both recognition as a scientist and positive classroom climate were more strongly related to outcomes among underrepresented minority (URM) students. Findings have implications for why large-format courses that emphasize opportunities for students to learn science practices are related to positive STEM outcomes, as well as why they may prove especially helpful for URM students. Practical implications include the importance of recognition as a scientist from professors, teaching assistants, and classmates in addition to curriculum that engages students in the authentic practices of science.     

The Impact of Research Training and Research Codes of Practice on Submission of Doctoral Degrees: An Exploratory Cohort Study

The paper examines the impact of the transformations in doctoral education in the arts, humanities and social sciences in the United Kingdom over the past decade. It focuses on the introduction of formal research training and codes of research practice and in the first longitudinal candidate cohort study examines their impact on doctoral outcomes, especially Ph.D. submission rates. Results from this quantitative study show that engagement with research training, completion of a project outline and plan and appointment of a supervisory team were statistically positively associated with submission of the thesis within four years. It is concluded that the professionalisation of doctoral education by research training and codes of research practice has had a positive impact on doctoral educational outcomes.     

Still no pedagogy? principle,pragmatism and compliance in primary education

This article revisits Brian Simon's 1981 Simon B (1981) Why no pedagogy in England? in: B. Simon & W. Taylor (Eds) Education in the eighties: the central issues (London, Batsford) 124 145  [Google Scholar] judgement that for deep‐seated historical reasons English education lacks a coherent and principled pedagogy. Given that since 1997 the tide of educational centralisation has added teaching methods to those aspects of schooling which the UK government and/or its agencies seek to prescribe, it is appropriate to test the continuing validity of Simon's claim by reference to a major policy initiative in the pedagogical domain: the government's Primary Strategy, published in May 2003. This article defines pedagogy as both the act of teaching and its attendant discourse and postulates three domains of ideas, values and evidence by which both are necessarily framed. It then critically assesses the Primary Strategy's account of some of the components of pedagogy thus defined, notably learning, teaching, curriculum and culture, and the political assumptions which appear to have shaped them. On this basis, the Primary Strategy is found to be ambiguous and possibly dishonest, stylistically demeaning, conceptually weak, evidentially inadequate and culpably ignorant of recent educational history. The article is an extended version of the last in the 2002–2003 Research Lecture series at Cambridge University Faculty of Education, and preserves some of the style of its initial mode of presentation.     

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Naming Skills of Children with Reading Disabilities and Children with Reading Disabilities Who Are At Risk for Mathematics Difficulties

Limited research has examined the skills of children with a reading disability (RD) and children with RD and a mathematics disability (MD). Even less research has examined the phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) skills in these two groups of children and how these skills relate to reading and math achievement. Additionally, various classification criteria are frequently implemented to classify children with MD. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the PA and RAN skills in children who met different criteria for RD only and children with RD who are at risk for mathematics difficulties (MDR). Participants were 114 second‐ or third‐grade students with RD from public elementary schools in three large metropolitan areas. Students were classified as at risk for mathematics difficulties utilizing a 25th‐percentile cutoff and a 15th‐percentile cutoff as assessed by the KeyMath‐Revised Test ( Connolly, 1988 ). A series of PA and RAN measures were administered along with a range of reading and mathematics measures. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that children with RD only evidenced a different pattern of results compared to children with RD + MDR. Additionally, using a more stringent criterion to classify children at risk for mathematics difficulties resulted in a differential pattern of results when compared to a less stringent classification criterion.     

The Effect of Mobile Support Devices on the Anxiety and Self‐Efficacy of Hospital Float Staff

Floating is the act of staff moving from one unit to another based on the needs of the patients in a hospital. Many staff who float to different units express negative feelings, including anxiety and lack of self‐efficacy. However, floating is an economical and efficient method to use staff across the hospital, especially with current staffing shortages in the United States. This study investigated how the use of mobile performance support devices may help reduce anxiety and increase self‐efficacy for staff who float to different units. With access to multiple resources available on mobile devices, Bandura's social learning theory and self‐efficacy concept set the framework through modeling, observing, and imitating others in order to reproduce certain behaviors and tasks and believe in one's capability to perform. A quantitative study incorporating the retrospective pretest‐posttest design was conducted using the population of float staff, both nurses and respiratory therapists, from Children's Medical Center of Dallas. Both the State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory and General Self‐Efficacy Scale, along with a basic demographic tool, were used to explore anxiety and self‐efficacy in relation to the use of mobile performance support devices. Findings can be used to alleviate the negative feelings of staff toward the idea of floating.