In the Research and Development centre of the Ou, a project has concentrated on the innovation of current approaches. This framework can also be considered as an advance organizer to reading the remaining articles from the Open universiteit in this issue of Distance Education.
A key feature of the innovation is that during the design phase, course developers have to define ‘models’ of the materials to be developed: a content model, a support model, a student model and the learning path. From a flexibility point of view especially, the ‘student model’ is of importance since it defines the student variables that will be taken into account when developing/ presenting alternative materials (basic content and/or embedded support). A computer‐based system, the ‘Interactive Learning and Course Development Environment (ILCE)’, was developed to support the work of course development teams and tutors on the one hand, and students on the other hand. The development system supports the work of the developers; the delivery system supports the study process of students. The delivery is realised as an on‐line course, on the World Wide Web.
Students start working with the ILCE‐system by following an intake procedure. They can make choices in relation to student variables that have been defined in the student model (profession, study intentions, context, etc.). Next, they can ‘on the fly’ generate a course. Rom the large repository of learning materials only those materials are selected and compiled that are in line with the student model of this specific student Furthermore, they can choose to study the materials on screen and/or make prints of the materials. Of course, in printing the materials they lose the interactive and dynamic possibilities of the computer learning environment 相似文献
By providing each student with a tutor-counsellor who is responsible for the progress of a group of thirty to forty students from initial registration to graduation, the Open University has sought to create an intermediary support, between the distant institution and the student, who has a responsibility for the student in the institution and has a personal knowledge of the student's general progress.
However, since tutor-counsellors are part-time staff and since the University's system is large and complex, it has been necessary to support the part-time staff with up-to-date details of the information the institution holds on file concerning its students. The tutor-counsellor can thus operate in the context of his own personal ‘knowledge’ of the student and the University's institutional ‘knowledge’ of the student.
The Open University has therefore created a general data management and file processing system which allows it to assist selectively and efficiently the work of the tutor-counsellors in their support of the individual student. This is a major step in the University's objective of individualizing its support to students. 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
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
Design and methods: Participants in this study consisted of six students, three male and three female, ranging from ninth through twelfth grade at a rural Ohio high school, who attended a field trip to a biological field station for a four-day immersive science experience. Students were provided cameras to photograph what they believed was important, interesting, or significant during an immersive four-day science trip to a biological field station, individualizing their observations in ways meaningful to them, and enabling them to assimilate or accommodate the experiences to their schema.
Results: Analysis identified five positive benefits to use photovoice as an evaluation tool: teachers were provided qualitative evidence to evaluate student interaction on the field trip; teachers could evaluate the students’ photographs and captions to determine if the field trip met the learning objectives; students were empowered to approach the goals and objectives of the field trip by making the field trip personally relevant; students assimilated and accommodated the new observations and experiences to their own schema; students automatically reflected upon the learning experience as they captioned the photos.
Conclusions: Through photovoice, the teachers were enabled to qualitatively assess each student’s experience and learning from the field trip by illustrating what the students experienced and thought was significant; providing the teachers a method to evaluate all participating students, including those who are secretive or do not normally contribute to class discussions. 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
In designing the summative scales to obtain student feedback, four conditions were seen as important for achieving a system acceptable to both lecturers and students. These conditions—length of scale, time to complete the scale, face validity of the scale and the acceptability of the procedures used to distribute the scales, together with the context within which teaching takes place at the Institution, provided constraints to the design of the summative scales.
Following 98 lecturing and 43 course evaluations, the scales were subjected to a principal factor analysis. This analysis showed that the items most strongly related to overall teaching effectiveness, as assessed by students, included the lecturer's ability to communicate ideas and information and to stimulate interest in the subject.
By pooling student ratings from different teaching situations for any one lecture, a Teaching Performance Profile was prepared. This profile increased the reliability and validity of the information obtained. At the same time it provided a summary suitable for combining with the evaluative . information from the other three sources in making a judgement as to the individual's level of teaching competency. 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
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
The WindMill system starts with an intake procedure which guides the student to select the most suitable course variant. After the intake is completed and processed, a study planner provides the student with the necessary information and functions to study the selected course variant The study planner indicates which themes of the printed course materials should be studied and it gives an estimation of the required study load for each theme. Moreover, WindMill provides a large number of embedded support devices (ESDs), which are meant to support the student while studying the printed course materials.
The innovative course Environmental Law was tested with 35 students divided into two conditions, during a period of four months, and in a real life study setting. The control students (n =15) studied the full printed version of the course (basic content and workbook exercises). The experimental students (n = 20) also studied a part of the course from printed materials (basic content). The workbook, however, was substituted by the interactive WindMill system (intake and ESDs).
The field test showed no clear difference in test results between the two conditions. In both conditions more than 80% achieved the final test In general, the students appear to respond positively to the possibility that they can choose course variants which are adapted to some of their individual characteristics (juridicial prior knowledge and professional background). Furthermore, the students’ responses were positive on the printed basic content and were fairly positive on the ESDs. The experimental students were rather positive on the design and the contents of WindMill Especially, the clarity and overview of the study planner was highly appreciated. 相似文献
The results of the survey show that while international students experience more problems, and experience them to a more serious degree than their Australian counterparts, the nature of the issues which are of most concern are generally shared. These are concerns about financial issues such as access to Austudy for local students, and the level of fees for international students and the ability to find part‐time work for both groups. The other broad group of issues of concern was study related: workload, fear of failure, loss of motivation, doubts about academic ability, nervousness and tension. Notably, in spite of the differences ‐between the three institutions – the University of Adelaide representing a ‘traditional’ university, Flinders University of South Australia, a ‘1960s’ university and the University of South Australia a ‘post‐1987’ university – the student responses across the three institutions were remarkably similar.
In terms of student evaluations of the quality of the education and services provided, Australian students were consistently more likely to rate aspects of teaching more positively than their international counterparts, but for both groups it was evident, particularly in their comments, that aspects of teaching such as the quality of lectures, accessibility of staff, availability of resources and staff: student ratios were of major concern.
The findings lead to the recommendations that universities could improve both local and international student experience by providing clear information about courses and course expectations, by the provision of effective feedback on assignments, by embedding the teaching of academic skills within courses, by increasing course flexibility to enable students to balance study and earning demands, and by ensuring that student support services are adequately resourced. 相似文献
Purpose: In the current study, the purpose was to investigate the relations among perceived teacher affective support (PTAS), academic emotions (academic enjoyment, academic anxiety, and academic hopelessness), academic self-efficacy and behavioural engagement in elementary school science classrooms in Turkey.
Sample: A total of 633 fourth- and fifth-grade students in eight elementary schools in Istanbul, Turkey were participated in the study.
Design and methods: A self-report questionnaire was administered to participating students. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.
Results: Findings showed that PTAS was both directly and indirectly related to the given variables. PTAS was found to be significantly positively associated with students’ academic enjoyment, academic self-efficacy and behavioural engagement and significantly negatively related to their academic anxiety and academic hopelessness in science classrooms. An important finding is that the total effect of PTAS on behavioural engagement, a factor strongly associated with academic success in all disciplines, was as strong as the effect of students’ perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs in science.
Conclusions: Findings suggest that PTAS may help promoting positive emotions and motivation among students in science classrooms, eventually leading to more desirable attitudes and achievement outcomes in science. Teacher affective support deserves greater recognition from researchers, educational policy-makers, administrators and teachers to build better learning conditions for all students. 相似文献
Consideration of the end‐of‐course or final examination is used to discuss concepts of difficulty and time, fairness and validity, as intended by the teacher/examiner and as perceived by the student/candidate. Evaluation of the final examination can take a variety of forms, for example, student questionnaire, independent assessment of student papers, and correspondence of achieved weighting with planned weighting.
These considerations are discussed with reference to the final examination experiences of two groups of students – fourth year Architecture students and graduate Education students. When marks are to be combined, standard deviations and correlations should be reported and used to ensure that the planned weighting is achieved.
It is concluded that evaluation of the examination is important for making professional judgement of both teacher and student performance. Evaluation of the final examination should be part of the course evaluation and should include student perceptions of the nature of the examination and the quality of the questions. 相似文献
Purpose: This article aims to delineate the influence of textbooks on teachers’ selection and use of representations when teaching chemical bonding models and to show how this might cause students’ difficulties understanding.
Sample: Ten chemistry teachers from seven upper secondary schools located in Central Sweden volunteered to participate in this study.
Design and methods: Data from multiple sources were collected and analysed, including interviews with the 10 upper secondary school teachers, the teachers’ lesson plans, and the contents of the textbooks used by the teachers.
Results: The results revealed strong coherence between how chemical bonding models are presented in textbooks and by teachers, and thus depict that textbooks influence teachers’ selection and use of representations for their lessons. As discussed in the literature review, several of the selected representations were associated with alternative conceptions of, and difficulties understanding, chemical bonding among students.
Conclusions: The study highlights the need for filling the gap between research and teaching practices, focusing particularly on how representations of chemical bonding can lead to students’ difficulties understanding. The gap may be filled by developing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge regarding chemical bonding and scientific models in general. 相似文献
Purpose: The general purpose of this study was to assess and to describe university students’ meta-modelling knowledge. More specifically, it was analysed to what extent the meta-modelling knowledge, as expressed in a questionnaire, depends on the scientific discipline to which university students relate their answer and the concrete model to which they refer while answering.
Sample: N = 184 students from one German university voluntarily participated in this study.
Design and methods: The questionnaire was developed based on a theoretical framework for model competence and includes constructed response items asking about the purpose of models, ways for testing models and reasons for changing models. Students written answers were first analysed qualitatively based on the theoretical framework to decide whether they expressed advanced understandings or not. Further analyses then were conducted quantitatively.
Results: Findings suggest that only few university students possess an advanced meta-modelling knowledge. However, significant more students who relate their answers to the STEM-disciplines expressed advanced understandings than those who referred to social sciences or linguistics/philology. Furthermore, university students who expressed an advanced meta-modelling knowledge referred to rather abstract kinds of models in order to explain their view.
Conclusions: The present study supports the assumption that meta-modelling knowledge may be situated and contextualised. Both the scientific discipline and the concrete model to which university students refer seem to be relevant item features influencing university students’ expressed meta-modelling knowledge. Implications for assessment and teaching are discussed in the article. 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
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess pre-service science teachers' TPACK over a semester-long Science Methods.
Sample: Twenty-seven pre-service science teachers took the course toward the end of their four-year teacher education program.
Design and method: The study employed the case study methodology. Lesson plans and microteaching observations were used as data collection tools. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-based lesson plan assessment instrument (TPACK-LpAI) and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Observation Protocol (TPACK-OP) were used to analyze data obtained from observations and lesson plans.
Results: The results showed that the TPACK-focused Science Methods course had an impact on pre-service teachers’ TPACK to varying degrees. Most importantly, the course helped teachers gain knowledge of effective usage of educational technology tools.
Conclusion: Teacher education programs should provide opportunities to pre-service teachers to develop their TPACK so that they can effectively integrate technology into their teaching. 相似文献