Fostering topic knowledge: essential for academic writing

Several researchers emphasize the role of the writer’s topic knowledge for writing. In academic writing topic knowledge is often constructed by studying source texts. One possibility to support that essential phase of the writing process is to provide interactive learning questions which facilitate the construction of an adequate situation model by initiating macro-strategies. In order to examine whether the provision of interactive learning questions during studying source texts leads to better results in academic writing both writing process and performance of a group supported by interactive learning questions was compared to a study-only group which read the source texts without learning questions. Results revealed that students provided with interactive learning questions wrote longer essays and spend significantly more time prewriting and writing/revising their essays than did the students of the study-only group. Studying source texts with learning questions resulted in text products of better readability and partly better accuracy and coverage of content. These findings suggest that engaging students in answering learning questions when reading source texts can positively affect both writing process and performance.     

Mind the gap: Holocaust education in Germany,between pedagogical intentions and classroom interactions

The injunction to learn from history is a key feature of German debates over the politics of memory and history, which, since the end of World War II, have been seen primarily pedagogical. Thus, state schools were asked to serve as society’s central location for memory and learning. Research on history education has rarely addressed questions about how instruction on the history of National Socialism (NS) plays out in practice, about how ambitious educational goals are implemented at the level of actual instruction, or about the challenges that teachers and students face when they are asked to address such a morally fraught topic. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that explored these issues using analyses of concrete classroom experience. The paper is based on four carefully selected case studies. The first looks at how a contemporary account of the issue and its moral implications are handled in the classroom. The second examines the consequences for classroom discussion of a discrepancy between teacher expectations and student interpretations of an excerpt from Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The third also addresses a discrepancy, focusing on the institutionalized generation gap in school. Finally, the fourth case shows how instructional communication benefits when participants assume a reciprocal, though not always articulated, consensus opinion on NS. The interpretation of the cases illustrates how both the organizational framework of schools and the specific conditions of classroom interaction shape the treatment of NS. Classroom interactions are strongly influenced by the quirky, often unexpected, ways that students appropriate knowledge—ways that often conflict with the intended content of the lesson and with public expectations for the treatment of Germany’s past. The analysis reveals a tension between the under-moralization and the over-moralization of teaching the Holocaust, and a tension between the need to represent the crimes of NS adequately, and to fulfill the goals of moral education.     

Damage to the human quadriceps muscle from eccentric exercise and the training effect

Nine participants performed two bouts of a step exercise, during which the quadriceps muscle of one leg acted eccentrically. Before and after the exercise, isokinetic torque was measured over a range of knee angles to determine the optimum angle for torque. Immediately after the first bout of exercise, the quadriceps showed a significant (P < 0.05) shift of 15.6 +/- 1.4 degrees (mean +/-sx) of its optimum angle in the direction of longer lengths, suggesting the presence of damage. A drop in peak torque, together with delayed soreness and swelling, confirmed that damage to muscle fibres had occurred. After the second bout of exercise, 8 days later, the shift in optimum angle was 10.4 +/- 1.0 degrees, which was significantly less than after the first bout (P < 0.05). Other indicators of damage were also reduced. In addition, the muscle exhibited a sustained shift in optimum angle (3.4 +/- 0.9 degrees), suggesting that some adaptation had taken place after the first bout of exercise. We conclude that muscles like the quadriceps can show evidence of damage after a specific programme of eccentric exercise, followed by an adaptation response. This is despite the fact that the quadriceps routinely undergoes eccentric contractions in everyday activities.     

Game-based practice versus traditional practice in computer-based writing strategy training: effects on motivation and achievement

Achieving sustained student engagement with practice in computer-based writing strategy training can be a challenge. One potential solution is to foster engagement by embedding practice in educational games; yet there is currently little research comparing the effectiveness of game-based practice versus more traditional forms of practice. In this study, the ARCS model (Keller, Perform Instr 26(8):1–7, 1987b) was used to investigate the motivational characteristics of different practice conditions. To this end, 175 students were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: game-based, question-based, model-based, and writing-based practice. All students first learned strategies to write an essay introduction. Subsequently, students practiced using the strategies in the four different conditions. Game-based practice was expected to positively affect ARCS-related motivation toward practice. Results showed that students perceived game-based practice as significantly more interesting and engaging than question-based practice. However, although game-based practice was perceived more positively, only model-based and question-based practice demonstrated a beneficial impact on students’ ability to implement the writing strategies. These results underline the necessity of interconnecting motivational and instructional design when developing practice methods for computer-based writing strategy training.     

Designing a constructive learning activity with interactive elements: the effects of perspective-shifting and the quality of source material

When teachers or instructors create computer-based learning environments, they often solely consider technical aspects of interactivity. As a consequence, learners’ main role is to respond to requests of the learning environment (e.g. by answering multiple-choice questions). This aspect of interactivity is, however, not sufficient to understand the complex benefits of interactivity for learners’ knowledge acquisition. In order to create a higher level of interactivity, an instructional task that encourages learners to design learning materials for fellow learners is used in this paper. We will show that this instructional task can induce interactive elements because learners are encouraged to take not only their own perspective into account when designing. In addition, we investigated if the quality of source material affects knowledge acquisition in design tasks. In a two-by-two design, students (n?=?108) had to design either a learning environment for others (i.e. to perform perspective-shifting), or a representation of acquired knowledge for themselves (no perspective-shifting) with less or more coherent information sources. Results indicate that performing perspective-shifting can be a powerful technique for eliciting interactive learning behavior and, thus, for learning. The quality of information sources does not influence knowledge acquisition to a great extent.     

Informal Learning with Technology: The Effects of Self-Constructing Externalizations

ABSTRACT

Especially in the context of technology-enhanced informal learning, it is crucial to understand how to design information sources in such a way that learners are not overwhelmed by the demands of the learning process, but at the same time are engaged in higher order thinking processes. Guidance aids learners in dealing with the demands of a learning process. The authors examined the effects of different levels of guidance provided by an information source. To this end, the effects of a preconstructed externalization are compared to a self-constructed externalization. Thirty-eight students participated in the study. The results revealed no significant differences between the groups with respect to posttest retention. However, performance in application tasks was promoted by the condition associated with a lower level of guidance. This suggests that having learners self-construct an externalization might be a suitable means to elicit learners’ higher order thinking processes in technology-enhanced informal learning.     

Energy conservation by elastic storage in kangaroos

Kangaroos are able to increase their hopping speed without raising the total level of energy expenditure, and one means of energy conservation which may help them achieve this is elastic storage in muscles and tendons. During each hop muscles and their tendons are stretched; by taking up most of the stretch, the tendons allow muscle and tendon together to behave as a simple spring. During recoil most of the energy put in by stretch is released and provides the animal with some of the lift for the next hop.     

Computer‐based scaffolding to facilitate students' development of expertise in academic writing

Research on expert performance suggests that deliberate practice provides optimal opportunities for expertise development. This study examined whether the provision of computer‐based scaffolding (CBS) guiding deliberate practice facilitates students' development of writing expertise. A CBS environment escribo was designed to externally support expert writing activities, generate feedback and offer opportunities to practise corrected performance in academic writing. There were two testing times. First, the effects of practising writing with escribo were compared with the effects of a practice‐only situation without support. Second, a post‐test comprised composing an essay discussing an academic position without scaffolding. Results revealed that the escribo group at both testing times wrote essays of better comprehensibility than students in the practice‐only group. Furthermore, at both testing times the escribo group expended significantly more time on prewriting. These findings suggest that CBS guiding deliberate practice may be a promising means to facilitate the development of writing expertise.