Helping Students Make Sense of Graphs: An Experimental Trial of SmartGraphs Software     

Andrew Zucker  Rachel Kay  Carolyn Staudt 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2014,23(3):441-457

Graphs are commonly used in science, mathematics, and social sciences to convey important concepts; yet students at all ages demonstrate difficulties interpreting graphs. This paper reports on an experimental study of free, Web-based software called SmartGraphs that is specifically designed to help students overcome their misconceptions regarding graphs. SmartGraphs allows students to interact with graphs and provides hints and scaffolding to help students, if they need help. SmartGraphs activities can be authored to be useful in teaching and learning a variety of topics that use graphs (such as slope, velocity, half-life, and global warming). A 2-year experimental study in physical science classrooms was conducted with dozens of teachers and thousands of students. In the first year, teachers were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. Data show that students of teachers who use SmartGraphs as a supplement to normal instruction make greater gains understanding graphs than control students studying the same content using the same textbooks, but without SmartGraphs. Additionally, teachers believe that the SmartGraphs activities help students meet learning goals in the physical science course, and a great majority reported they would use the activities with students again. In the second year of the study, several specific variations of SmartGraphs were researched to help determine what makes SmartGraphs effective.  相似文献   

The Learning Transfer Big Picture     

George Hall  Mike Smith  Carolyn Dare 《Performance Improvement》2014,53(10):6-11

Do not forget learning transfer while crafting your learning and development initiatives. A research‐driven model allows your organization to adapt quickly and make real‐time adjustments to your learning strategy.  相似文献   

Conflict in the Dyadic Play of 3-Year-Old Children     

Marion O'Brien  Carolyn Roy  Anne Jacobs  Mery Macaluso  Vicki Peyton 《Early education and development》1999,10(3):289-313

Episodes of conflict provide a rich source of information about children's development of interactive skills. In the present study, 184 3-year-old children were observed in dyadic play and the 287 conflicts that occurred during their play were transcribed and coded. In general, children's conflicts arose in the context of ongoing play and were brief, lasting less than 15 seconds. Most disputes concerned toy possession, and almost 80% were ended by the simple withdrawal of one or the other children from the conflict. When children responded with emotional intensity to conflict, their conflicts lasted longer and were more likely to be followed by continued negative interaction. Individual difference data were available for one member of each dyad observed in play. Children rated in infancy as having difficult temperaments were found to be more intense during conflict, to spend more time in conflict, and to score higher on an index of conflict resolution competence, whereas concurrent social behavior was not related to conflict variables. Girls scored higher than boys on competence at conflict resolution, and children with better language skills spent less time in conflict. The more time children spent in nonmaternal child care up to age 3, the less likely they were to initiate conflict.  相似文献   

Student perceptions of gender roles: Implications for counsellors     

Doreen Lupaschuk  Carolyn Yewchuk 《International journal for the advancement of counseling》1998,20(4):301-318

Occupational aspirations of school children are undergoing changes as more men and women enter nontraditional spheres of work. Nevertheless, Papageorgiou (1982) reported that the overwhelming majority of a sample of upper elementary through high school students in Colorado regarded traditional gender roles as their only choice, and gender role stereotyping as placing serious limitations on career choices, particularly for females. In this article, we describe a replication of Papageorgiou's study in a western Canadian school district, with similar results. Gender-role stereotyping still appears to dominate the occupational aspirations of the majority of school children. Implications are drawn for counsellors interested in promoting career aspirations based on abilities and interests rather than gender-role stereotypes.  相似文献   

Investigating the thinking processes of eighth grade writers during the composition of a scientific laboratory report     

Carolyn W. Keys 《科学教学研究杂志》2000,37(7):676-690

This study examined the thinking processes used by 16 eighth grade science writers during laboratory report writing and explored the possibility that writing can contribute directly to science learning. Using Bereiter and Scardamalia's ( 1987 ) knowledge‐transformation model of writing as a theoretical lens, the study characterized specific content and rhetorical thinking engaged in by the students using think‐aloud protocols and qualitative data analysis methodologies. Thinking aloud was also related to the quality of the students' written products. Five of the 16 students exhibited no mental reflection during writing, recording information straight from memory into the composition. Two students engaged primarily in rhetorical planning, specifying the sequencing and organization of their writing in advance. Nine students demonstrated scientific problem solving including hypothesis and evidence generation, examining patterns in the data, and making general knowledge claims in response to the need to generate content for writing, indicating that the act of report writing can stimulate science learning directly. However, thinking during writing was not necessary to compose a report that contained hypotheses and supporting evidence. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 676–690, 2000  相似文献   

Telecommunications and Effective Distance Learning Telecourse Design     

Carolyn Ashe  Deborah Buell 《Performance Improvement Quarterly》1998,11(3):6-15

Effective distance learning course design focuses on meeting the lifestyle and learning-style needs of a non-traditional student. Fulfilling these needs is accomplished by making provision for human interaction that fosters classroom rapport, builds class membership behaviors and identification with the university. Equal attention is given to matching high-tech equipment capabilities to instructional purpose, instructor personality, student learning style, and preferred interaction style. Continuing evaluation of telecourse programs is vital for assuring telecourse program quality focusing on student learning satisfaction and cost effectiveness. Findings indicate important implications for the design of distance education courses and programs. An effectively designed distance learning telecourse provides for student academic support services. Effective tele-courses also provide the means for instructor/learner, learner/learner, and learner/content interactivity.  相似文献   

Correlates of College Retention and GPA: Learning and Study Strategies,Testwiseness, Attitudes,and ACT     

Carolyn W. Kern  Nancy S. Fagley  Paul M. Miller 《Journal of College Counseling》1998,1(1):26-34

This study assessed unique contributions of learning, study, and test-taking strategies; students' attitudes about college; and ACT scores, and linked them to college GPA and to retention. Although several variables contributed significantly to GPA, only GPA made a significant unique contribution to attrition and retention. This suggests that learning and study strategies and students' college attitudes affect attrition indirectly through GPA.  相似文献   

Language as an indicator of meaning generation: An analysis of middle school students' written discourse about scientific investigations     

Carolyn W. Keys 《科学教学研究杂志》1999,36(9):1044-1061

The purposes of this study were to (a) investigate how one group of middle school students generated meanings for scientific data and expressed them in writing, and (b) develop a methodology for assessing the relationship between students' written text and their scientific thinking. Previous research on writing to learn has focused on the reformulation of content material supplied by the teacher, rather than authentic inquiry data that provide opportunities for meaningful interpretation. The research design was a content analysis of documents produced in a naturalistic setting. Data analysis focused on the frequency, placement, and purpose of meaningful inferences embedded in the reports, as well as coding for the elaboration, extension, and enhancement of science ideas. Results indicated that many student reports included a minimal number of written inferences, expressing only vague meanings for the data. However, some students integrated inference and data, using inference to (a) explain specific meanings for data points in context, and (b) pose new hypotheses to explain data. An analysis of expansion characteristics revealed that some students were able to elaborate richly upon their initial ideas through the use of language, thereby generating new meaning for the investigations. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 1044–1061, 1999  相似文献   

Using the Science Writing Heuristic as a Tool for Learning from Laboratory Investigations in Secondary Science     

Carolyn W. Keys  Brian Hand  Vaughn Prain  Susan Collins 《科学教学研究杂志》1999,36(10):1065-1084

This article presents and discusses preliminary research on a new heuristic tool for learning from laboratory activities in secondary science. The tool, called the science writing heuristic, can be used by teachers as a framework from which to design classroom activities. Theoretically, the science writing heuristic represents a bridge between traditional laboratory reports and types of writing that promote personal construction of meaning. Two eighth‐grade classes participated in using the science writing heuristic during an 8‐week stream study. The teacher and one of the researchers collaboratively developed activities based on the science writing heuristic that the teacher implemented. Nineteen target students were studied in depth. Characteristics of report writing and students' understanding of the nature of science were investigated, using interpretive techniques. There is evidence that use of the science writing heuristic facilitated students to generate meaning from data, make connections among procedures, data, evidence, and claims, and engage in metacognition. Students' vague understandings of the nature of science at the beginning of the study were modified to more complex, rich, and specific understandings. The implications of the study for writing in science classrooms is discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 1065–1084, 1999  相似文献   

Affordances and constraints of computers in science education     

Wolff-Michael Roth  Carolyn Woszczyna  Gillian Smith 《科学教学研究杂志》1996,33(9):995-1017

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, computers in science teaching were seen as a panacea for many problems plaguing the domain. While considerable research has been done to determine cognitive achievements of students who interact with computers during their science learning, more basic questions have not yet been addressed. This study was designed to investigate how computers and a modeling software contributed to students' interactions and learning in a physics course. The interpretations focused on the microworld as a tool that supported but also limited students' sense-making activities. First, the computer microworld contributed in significant ways to the maintenance and coordination of students' physics conversations. Second, the computer environment (a) was sometimes “unready to hand” so that students spent more time learning the software rather than physics, and (b) limited the interactions within groups. It was concluded that while computer environments have some potential as learning tools, they also limit interactions in significant ways, rendering them less than ideal for everyday classroom use. With the use of software … students can be provided with the necessary tools and experiences to practice the investigative skills used by scientists and mathematicians… [Students] can pursue specific topics of their own interest and deal with this information in sufficient depth to construe personal meaning to various concepts. (Barman, 1993, p. viii) In educational applications, user interface design has received little attention, despite the fact that the interface is particularly important for educational software… This concern goes much deeper than the nebulous concept most often represented by the buzz phrase, ‘user friendliness.’ (Jackson, Edwards, & Berger, 1993b, p. 414) © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  相似文献