The main aim of the study was to help the staff when advising prospective students (of various drop‐out risks) and to distinguish between students requiring different levels of assistance on the course.
The findings, based on a sample of 445 students from 1982–;88, indicate that particular attributes such as occupation affect the drop‐out rate, while achievement in the project course appears to be influenced by the students’ performance in some previous courses. 相似文献
Research design. Students taking four courses received an end-of-course questionnaire. The following year, students taking all six courses received a mid-course questionnaire.
Method. The Course Experience Questionnaire and the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory were administered in a postal survey to 3539 students of the UK Open University.
Outcomes and results. Across successive levels of study, students were progressively less likely to adopt a deep approach, were more likely to adopt a surface approach and rated their courses less favourably, especially with regard to the workload and materials. Between the middle and end of a course, students were more likely to adopt a deep approach and gave more positive ratings with regard to the materials and amount of choice.
Conclusions. The survey instruments can be recommended as useful tools for monitoring the experiences of engineering and technology students. 相似文献
This led to a second potential problem. Was the video‐taped lecture unit a suitable learning resource? Hence the unit was trialled on local students. After live lectures or independent video‐tape learning, students' results on an identical examination were internally standardised to their overall performance. These standardised results showed clear‐cut improvements when video‐taped lectures were utilised. Thus, for a (special) group of students studying chemistry at a distance, the generalised results of the trial suggest the telelecture mode of presentation to be a highly desirable alternative.
Biochemistry majors responded much more positively to the stimulus of the novel method of presentation (in their second, chemistry major) than the double major chemistry students. There is a clear general implication here for teachers of students in non‐preferred or service areas, whether at a distance or not. 相似文献
‘The most important variable in learning is not the presence or absence of a specific medium, but rather how the medium is used in the classroom.’
‘Despite reasonable planned courses no programme in the country allows students meaningful opportunities to test materials and methodologies in a classroom situation.’ (Hancock et al., 1974). 相似文献
A total of 132 students sat a voluntary examination in the final year of their studies to determine their competence in three subject areas: electrical facilities, machinery and construction. The degree courses completed by these students are meant to provide them with the legal standing required to undertake infrastructure projects in agricultural installations.
This work detected significant differences in the competence of graduates in the mentioned subjects, depending on the number of HI they had received. Students who had received under 120 HI in these subjects were found to be significantly less competent than those who had received more. 相似文献
In this article we will explore the problem of adapting the delivery of learning materials to student characteristics in relation to a course based on ‘cases’ in the law domain. Two different study modes are researched: a study mode that starts with the theory and next moves to practical work with the cases versus a study mode that starts with the practical work and next moves to the theoretical base.
Two studies are presented. Within the exploratory study, the research questions focus on the potential interrelations between student characteristics and the preference/choice for one of the two study modes. From the results can be concluded that almost all students from the Open universiteit prefer a theory‐based study mode, because they have a relatively large amount of experience with this study mode and because they find it a successful study mode.
In the second study, an experimental design is adopted with students studying in one of four different conditions: two study modes of printed learning materials and two study modes of interactive learning materials. In contrast with the exploratory study students clearly indicate a more diverse preference for certain study modes. Students also differ in their preference for the delivery mode. However the more traditional study and delivery mode (theory‐based and printed learning material) remains more popular. Again this might again be due to the greater experience students have with this approach. Only two student characteristics are significantly related to opting for the practice‐based study mode: the experience level with a study mode and one's prior knowledge with the subject matter. Comparable results were detected regarding the preferred delivery mode: students with little prior knowledge more readily prefer a printed book, probably because they have a better overview. 相似文献
Data were collected on 1064 students registered on various courses in the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences (FLSS) of the University of Yaounde. A Teaching Evaluation questionnaire was constructed, validated and administered to students in the first, second and third years. Multiple regression techniques were used to rank order the variables, and discriminant analysis employed to determine the variables which show gender differences.
The results showed that variables such as development of interest in the course, overall organisation of the course, whether or not the student gains from the course, the use of the chalkboard as a teaching aid, and students' background preparation for the course are considered important, in that order. The teachers' rapport with the class and the language of instruction do not seem to be important in the prediction of overall evaluation of courses.
On the other hand, the four most important variables that maximally distinguish the male students from the female students in evaluation of instruction are fairness in marking, overall judgement of the course, organisation of individual class sessions, and overall organisation of the course. 相似文献
Purpose: Aiming to understand the enrolment dynamics, this study analyses sample-based data from Finland’s National Assessment in Science to determine whether pedagogical approaches influence student intention to enrol in upper secondary school physics courses.
Sample: This study examined a clustered sample of 2949 Finnish students in the final year of comprehensive school (15–16 years old).
Methods: Through explorative factor analysis, we extracted several variables that were expected to influence student intention to enrol in physics courses. We applied partial correlation to determine the underlying interdependencies of the variables.
Results: The analysis revealed that the main predictor of enrolment in upper secondary school physics courses is whether students feel that physics is important. Although statistically significant, partial correlations between variables were rather small. However, the analysis of partial correlations revealed that pedagogical practices influence inquiry and attitudinal factors. Pedagogical practices that emphasise science experimentation and the social construction of knowledge had the strongest influence.
Conclusions: The research implies that to increase student enrolment in physics courses, the way students interpret the subject’s importance needs to be addressed, which can be done by the pedagogical practices of discussion, teacher demonstrations, and practical work. 相似文献
Findings reveal that students of both groups have considerably lower scores, especially in the affective domain, in relation to the other college students answering the same items in previous evaluations. However no important difference has been found between the groups belonging to the traditional and open learning systems evaluated in this study. 相似文献
Purpose: Thus far, few detailed investigations explore the importance of complexity in actual classroom lessons. Moreover, the few efforts made so far revealed inconsistencies. Hence, the present study sheds light on the influence the complexity of students’ and teachers’ class contributions have on students’ learning outcomes.
Sample: Videos of 10 German 8th grade physics courses covering three consecutive lessons on two topics each (electricity, mechanics) have been analyzed. The sample includes 10 teachers and 290 students.
Design and methods: Students’ and teachers’ verbal contributions were coded manual-based according to the level of complexity. Additionally, pre-post testing of knowledge in electricity and mechanics was applied to assess the students’ learning gain. ANOVA analysis was used to characterize the influence of the complexity on the learning gain.
Results: Results indicate that the mean level of complexity in classroom contributions explains a large portion of variance in post-test results on class level. Despite this overarching trend, taking classroom activities into account as well reveals even more fine-grained patterns, leading to more specific relations between the complexity in the classroom and students’ achievement.
Conclusions: In conclusion, we argue for more reflected teaching approaches intended to gradually increase class complexity to foster students’ level of competency. 相似文献
These trends are having important implications for the scope of practical training and its relationship to other parts of the studies. Traditional forms of practical training that had developed at pedagogical academies are being discontinued but the new ones are not yet firmly established.
The existing forms of practical training of student teachers are briefly described (exercises in general professional courses, exercises in classroom observation, teaching attempts and block practice). In addition, the role of teachers of special didactics and the role of practice teachers is analysed.
The pragmatic character of practical training has to be overcome on the basis of systematic attempts to confront students’ subjective theories on teaching and learning, based on experience, with scientific theories throughout the process of their training.
An important prerequisite for the necessary integration of different components of study and especially of theory and practice is cooperation between university teachers of academic, general professional subjects and special didactics. How do we achieve such a cooperation and overcome the negative attitude of teachers of academic subjects toward professional and practical training of students? This remains one of the open problems in the reform of teacher training in Slovenia. 相似文献
Purpose: This paper reports a study that explored the effectiveness of two different independent learning approaches: (i) guided independent learning and (ii) unguided independent learning with independent research, in enabling students in an undergraduate Macromolecules course to acquire knowledge in one chemistry context and apply it successfully in another.
Sample: The study involved 144 chemistry students commencing their first term of undergraduate study at a northern university in England. Students completed pre- and post-intervention tests containing 10 diagnostic questions, of which 4 measured students’ knowledge acquisition in one context and 6 measured their ability to apply it in another.
Design and methods: Diagnostic questions had been identified using a Delphi approach. Paired t-tests and chi-square tests were used to analyse the significance of any change in students’ responses to the diagnostic questions and the number of responses evidencing misconceptions, respectively.
Results: Whilst guided independent learning settings were found to improve students’ knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge in novel situations, unguided independent learning had no statistically significant effect. Unguided independent learning was also linked to a statistically significant increase in the number of student misconceptions in one of the diagnostic questions.
Conclusions: The results of this study show that guidance in independent learning activities is a key necessity for effective learning in higher education. This paper has strong relevance and high significance to tertiary STEM education, especially in the light of increased importance of teaching, such as the Teaching Excellence Framework in the UK, and shifts to more independent learning activities. 相似文献
Purpose: This is a report of teacher and student reflections on some of the tensions, reconciliations and feelings they experienced as they worked together to engage in inquiry learning. The study sought to find out how networked ICT use might offer new and different ways for students to engage with, explore and communicate science ideas within inquiry.
Sample: This project developed case studies with 6 science teachers of year 9 and 10 students, with an average age of 13 and 14 years in three New Zealand high schools. Teacher participants in the project had varying levels of understanding and experience with inquiry learning in science. Teacher knowledge and experience with ICT were equally diverse.
Design and Methods: Teachers and researchers developed initially in a joint workshop a shared understanding of inquiry, and how this could be enacted. During implementation, the researchers observed the inquiry projects in the classrooms and then, together with the teachers, reviewed and analysed the data that had been collected.
Results: At the beginning of the project, some of the teachers and students were tentative: inquiry based teaching supported by ICT meant initially that the teachers were hesitant in letting go some of the control they felt they had over students learning, and the students felt insecure in adopting some responsibility for their own learning. Over time a sense of trust and ease developed and this ‘control of learning’ balance moved from what was traditionally accepted, but not without modifications and reservations.
Conclusions: There is no clear pathway to follow in moving towards ICT-supported science inquiry in secondary schools. The experience of the teacher, the funds of knowledge the students bring to the classroom, the level of technological availability in the school and the ability of the students are all variables which determine the nature of the experience. 相似文献
New information technologies are forcing major changes on both traditional campus‐based institutions and the large autonomous open universities. Some reasons for introducing new technologies are incompatible with traditional views of open‐ness and distance. For instance, the move to computer‐based learning raises major issues of access and student support for distance learners. Nevertheless mere are some strategies for addressing these issues.
The new technologies now allow for a powerful combination of highly interactive stand‐alone material with two‐way asynchronous communication between teachers and students. There is seen to be a relationship between the type of technology used and the type of learning outcomes intended, but still little hard evidence that these outcomes are actually achieved.
To achieve the most cost‐effective use of new technologies major changes are required to the organisation of both dual‐mode and dedicated open learning institutions. As well as the need for institutional re‐structuring, there is also a need for open and distance educators to re‐think and re‐define their roles. 相似文献
Purpose: The purpose of this research, consisting of two studies, was to explore Taiwanese university science-major students’ conceptions of learning science by laboratory (CLSL).
Sample: In Study I, interview data were gathered from 47 university science-major students. In Study II, 287 university science-major students’ responses to a CLSL survey were collected.
Design and methods: In Study I, the interview data were analyzed using the phenomenographic method. Based on the findings derived from Study I, Study II developed an instrument for assessing students’ CLSL by exploratory factor analysis.
Results: Study I revealed six categories of CLSL, including memorizing, verifying, acquiring manipulative skills, obtaining authentic experience, reviewing prior learning profiles, and achieving in-depth understanding. The factor analysis in Study II revealed that the ‘verifying’ category was eliminated, but found another new category of ‘examining prior knowledge.’
Conclusions: This study finally proposes a framework to describe the variations of CLSL, consisting of three features: cognitive orientation, metacognitive orientation, and epistemic orientation. Possible factors influencing students’ CLSL are also discussed. 相似文献
>One year PGCE courses have undergone major change in the last decade. They have become increasingly functional with an emphasis on meeting a student's ‘early concerns’. Both education studies and method studies have been re‐thought but a major change has been to establish the notion of school experience as the structural core of the course. Practical training for classroom skills has intensified.
The BEd course after a period in which course programmes were interlocked with diversified BA/BSc schemes has now become increasingly a four year concurrent model, thus abandoning the proposed changes of the James Report. Education Studies has been re‐thought in ways similar to the PGCE and school experience likewise has taken on still more significance and can even contribute to honours classification. The main subject has been made increasingly ‘professional’ and the degree has looked more and more to meet the generalist needs of secondary schools. This latter trend has, however, been overtaken by events.
In both courses more attention is being given to such key concerns as multi‐cultural education, children with learning difficulties, literacy and numeracy, the new technology and the re‐think of the curriculum necessitated by unemployment and recession. 相似文献
Purpose: The study aims to find out primary school students’ perceptions of microorganisms and to analyze whether theoretical or practical teaching interventions produce different levels in student’s learning about this topic.
Sample: The sample consisted of 199 primary students in 2nd (aged 7–8) and 6th (11–12) grades from two public schools in Albacete (Spain).
Design and method: This study uses a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire to evaluate the knowledge of students on the issue of microorganisms. We compare differences by age and two teaching–learning intervention methodologies: theoretical and practical.
Results: Results from the pre-test showed a poor understanding and several misconceptions. Children have a limited and negative view of microorganisms, mainly derived from non-formal learning. Both types of intervention provided an improvement in knowledge, but closed questions did not reveal clear statistically significant differences between methods. Open questions showed how the scientific use of the language and quality of verbalization is much better in the groups that received a practical intervention.
Conclusion: The findings can be a starting point for curriculum planners and for teachers interested in engaging students in science learning. 相似文献
Notwithstanding these methodological difficulties, the results are helpful to draw conclusions in relation to the quality and impact of expertise. As in the earlier study, attention was paid to the construction of a set of tests to grasp the complex nature of prior knowledge at the content level. The instruments used during the earlier study were improved in relation to their psychometric qualities.
Concerning the hypotheses about the quality of expertise, the results of this investigation revealed that students with different educational backgrounds and studying different diploma‐types, possess a complex of different expertise components.
In relation to the impact of prior knowledge on the acquisition of subject‐oriented knowledge, regression analysis reveals that expertise accounts for 37‐42% of the variance in post‐test scores. The optimization of the instruments used was helpful to differentiate to a better extent the impact of the three different expertise tests.
Since the results of the present study are consistent with the findings of the earlier study in relation to the quality and impact of expertise, more weight can be given to the arguments that can be put forward to support students, in the initial stage of their studies, to cope with the demands of specific domains to be studied. 相似文献
Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the factors affecting digital reading literacy among upper-elementary school students.
Method: A 3-stage stratified cluster sampling was implemented that resulted in a sample of 592 upper-elementary students from 29 classes in 7 schools. Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Assessment (S-RLSA), Digital Reading Literacy Assessment (DRLA), and student reports of their parents’ education backgrounds were used to collect data on the outcome and predictor variables. Interpretation of these data involved two highly regarded statistical techniques. First, structural equation modeling was used to explore relationships amongst the constructs. Second, multi-group invariance (MI) analyses were used to assess the influence of parental education and self-regulated learning strategies on students’ digital reading literacy.
Results: Enriching students’ family learning resources and strengthening their self-regulated learning abilities could have very important influences on promoting upper-elementary school students' digital reading literacy -webpage information retrieval, reading and communication abilities.
Conclusions: This study also provides information on how teachers can address student resources to improve digital reading literacy and self-regulated strategies. 相似文献