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1.
This qualitative case study at a two-year community college investigated the reasons behind a persistent gap in the college students’ engagement level in several key areas such as active and collaborative learning and student-faculty interaction as demonstrated in the longitudinal Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE) results. Using the maximal variation purposeful sampling method, 63 students participated in the study. Results suggested that students’ own perception and behaviors, faculty’s expectations and characteristics, the course characteristics, and institutional level support all played an important role in engaging students. There was a disparity between students’ high perception of the importance of engagement and low level of effort and a disparity between faculty’s perception of student engagement and students’ own perception of engagement. Community college students welcomed high expectations and high standards from their faculty and also desired more challenging courses despite all the obstacles in their lives. Discussions and recommendations for strategies to close the gap in the two disparities and, thus, improve student engagement level are provided.  相似文献   

2.
This study examines how student practice of scientific argumentation using socioscientific bioethics issues affects both teacher expectations of students’ general performance and student confidence in their own work. When teachers use bioethical issues in the classroom students can gain not only biology content knowledge but also important decision-making skills. Learning bioethics through scientific argumentation gives students opportunities to express their ideas, formulate educated opinions and value others’ viewpoints. Research has shown that science teachers’ expectations of student success and knowledge directly influence student achievement and confidence levels. Our study analyzes pre-course and post-course surveys completed by students enrolled in a university level bioethics course (n = 111) and by faculty in the College of Biology and Agriculture faculty (n = 34) based on their perceptions of student confidence. Additionally, student data were collected from classroom observations and interviews. Data analysis showed a disconnect between faculty and students perceptions of confidence for both knowledge and the use of science argumentation. Student reports of their confidence levels regarding various bioethical issues were higher than faculty reports. A further disconnect showed up between students’ preferred learning styles and the general faculty’s common teaching methods; students learned more by practicing scientific argumentation than listening to traditional lectures. Students who completed a bioethics course that included practice in scientific argumentation, significantly increased their confidence levels. This study suggests that professors’ expectations and teaching styles influence student confidence levels in both knowledge and scientific argumentation.  相似文献   

3.
Studies over the last 30 years have considered various factors related to student success in introductory biology courses. While much of the available literature suggests that the best predictors of success in a college course are prior college grade point average (GPA) and class attendance, faculty often require a valuable predictor of success in those courses wherein the majority of students are in the first semester and have no previous record of college GPA or attendance. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of the ACT Mathematics subject exam and Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning in predicting success in a major’s introductory biology course. A logistic regression was utilized to determine the effectiveness of a combination of scientific reasoning (SR) scores and ACT math (ACT-M) scores to predict student success. In summary, we found that the model—with both SR and ACT-M as significant predictors—could be an effective predictor of student success and thus could potentially be useful in practical decision making for the course, such as directing students to support services at an early point in the semester.  相似文献   

4.
Accountability mandates often prompt assessment of student learning gains (e.g., value-added estimates) via achievement tests. The validity of these estimates have been questioned when performance on tests is low stakes for students. To assess the effects of motivation on value-added estimates, we assigned students to one of three test consequence conditions: (a) an aggregate of test scores is used solely for institutional effectiveness purposes, (b) personal test score is reported to the student, or (c) personal test score is reported to faculty. Value-added estimates, operationalized as change in performance between two testing occasions for the same individuals where educational programming was experienced between testing occasions, were examined across conditions, in addition to the effects of test-taking motivation. Test consequences did not impact value-added estimates. Change in test-taking motivation, however, had a substantial effect on value-added estimates. In short, value-added estimates were attenuated due to decreased motivation from pretest to posttest.  相似文献   

5.
China’s higher education system has been marked by dramatic growth since 1999. In response to calls for quality assurance, substantial efforts have been made to improve collegiate environments and enhance student learning. However, only limited empirical research has been conducted to investigate the effects of the college environment on student gains in the Chinese context. Drawing on data from 1121 students at a prestigious four-year university, this study investigated how college environmental factors (i.e., course challenge, faculty guidance, academic climate, and interpersonal relationships) and student involvement affected students’ intellectual development. The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that academic involvement mediated the relations between college environmental factors and intellectual development. Among the four environmental factors studied, faculty guidance was the strongest predictor of intellectual development. The results highlight the pivotal role of teachers in student involvement and development. Practical implications for the design of college environments conducive to student learning are discussed.  相似文献   

6.
《College Teaching》2013,61(4):170-175
Writing to learn is a pedagogical approach grounded in the belief that the reasoning required to write about a topic or concept will help students gain understanding. However, research indicates that the impact writing has on student learning depends on context. Using a mixed-method, quasi-experimental, repeated measures design, we examined how embedding writing-to-learn pedagogy in a required college course impacted students’ learning as well as their perceptions of writing to learn. Our quantitative analysis revealed that writing to learn did not have a differential effect on student achievement of course goals. However, qualitative analysis revealed evidence indicating students valued writing to learn as a way to make sense of course content by reasoning through their ideas and responses to class experiences. From the instructor's perspective, writing to learn also helped build rapport with students. Our results indicated that in our context, writing to learn pedagogy had benefits and limitations. We offer practical implications and pedagogical suggestions based on our experiences and findings.  相似文献   

7.
While statistics is an essential topic for business students, many students experience barriers to successful learning due to anxiety, motivation, or difficulty with quantitative understanding. This research examines the use of online videos with an effort to explore the relationship between student characteristics, video usage, and course performance measures. In addition, the study examines student perceptions of the supplemental resources in an effort to examine the efficacy related to student learning and performance. This study seeks to confirm previous research regarding the benefit of supplemental video resources and extend the knowledge base by understanding the impact for various types of students (e.g., level of course, level of previous academic performance, etc.). The study found that the use of the video resources varies based on students’ previous math performance and the difficulty of the material. Student ratings indicate that the videos were helpful in learning the content and that they provided an important resource when students needed additional tools to master the material. Analysis of the results provides implications for understanding how different students use online videos and offers recommendations for educators and researchers about how to enhance student success in difficult statistics coursework.  相似文献   

8.
Hispanics face multiple barriers to academic achievement. This study measured learning in an undergraduate criminal justice program at an Hispanic Serving Institution bordering Mexico. We estimated the average gains students achieved across core content areas using a technique that can be used by other faculty as part of program assessment. The majority of participants were Hispanic first-generation college students. An independent samples t-test was used to examine differences between freshman- and senior-level students, and the Lovett/Johnson model (2012) model was used to measure student gains using regression analysis. Results indicated that seniors showed meaningful gains at every level.  相似文献   

9.
We present a multiple-choice test, the Montana State University Formal Reasoning Test (FORT), to assess college students' scientific reasoning ability. The test defines scientific reasoning to be equivalent to formal operational reasoning. It contains 20 questions divided evenly among five types of problems: control of variables, hypothesis testing, correlational reasoning, proportional reasoning, and probability. The test development process included the drafting and psychometric analysis of 23 instruments related to formal operational reasoning. These instruments were administered to almost 10,000 students enrolled in introductory science courses at American universities. Questions with high discrimination were identified and assembled into an instrument that was intended to measure the reasoning ability of students across the entire spectrum of abilities in college science courses. We present four types of validity evidence for the FORT. (a) The test has a one-dimensional psychometric structure consistent with its design. (b) Test scores in an introductory biology course had an empirical reliability of 0.82. (c) Student interviews confirmed responses to the FORT were accurate indications of student thinking. (d) A regression analysis of student learning in an introductory biology course showed that scores on the FORT predicted how well students learned one of the most challenging concepts in biology, natural selection.  相似文献   

10.
Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of low-stakes assessments (i.e., assessments without direct consequences for the test-takers) are being used to evaluate the quality of educational systems. Internationally, research has shown that low-stakes test results can be biased due to students’ low test-taking motivation and that students’ effort levels can vary throughout a testing session involving both cognitive and noncognitive tests. Thus, it is possible that students’ motivation varies throughout a single cognitive test and in turn affects test performance. This study examines the change in test-taking motivation within a 2-h cognitive low-stakes test and its association with test performance. Based on expectancy-value theory, we assessed three components of test-taking motivation (expectancy for success, value, and effort) and investigated its change. Using data from a large-scale student achievement study of German ninth-graders, we employed second-order latent growth modeling and structural equation modeling to predict test performance in mathematics. On average, students’ effort and perceived value of the test decreased, whereas expectancy for success remained stable. Overall, initial test-taking motivation was a better predictor of test performance than change in motivation. Only the variability of change in the expectancy component was positively related to test performance. The theoretical and practical implications for test practitioners are discussed.  相似文献   

11.
Using data from the 2006 cohort of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, we examined the relationships between three approaches to measuring student learning outcomes (direct-assessment learning gains, self-reported gains, and college grades) and student persistence from the first to second year. Results from a series of logistic regressions indicated that students’ grade-point averages had the largest explanatory power in student persistence, followed by self-reported gains. Direct-assessment learning gains had the least power in explaining persistence. The findings have implications for the national conversation on student success in college.  相似文献   

12.
States are currently seeking ways to improve alignment between K–12 and postsecondary education and better prepare students for postsecondary schooling. Some states have begun implementing policies that inform high school students that they are not ready for college-level courses well before they graduate, in order to give both notice and time to prepare. However, if the early information from these tests suggests that a student may require remedial coursework upon entry to college, the student may be discouraged from attending college. This article focuses on one state's effort to increase students’ information about college readiness. Regression discontinuity design is used to determine whether a student receiving a signal that he/she needs remediation lowers the probability of that student applying to or enrolling in participating universities. Results indicate that the policy has had little to no impact on application and no impact on enrollment.  相似文献   

13.
College teachers in the sciences and professional studies have endorsed collaborative learning group strategies for teaching undergraduate statistics courses, but few researchers provide empirical evidence that students’ quantitative skills actually increase as a result of the collaborative experience. Assessment of the efficacy of collaborative learning group techniques is frequently subjectively based, and often relies on casual comments from students or faculty. Despite this shortcoming, instructors searching for new and effective ways of teaching quantitative courses continue to experiment with collaborative pedagogy. Consequently, an exploration of the effectiveness of collaborative teaching modalities on students’ statistical knowledge seems warranted. This study examined the relationship between performance on collaborative learning group assignments and students’ examination scores in statistics. Data were derived from 270 students enrolled in nine sections of a social statistics course, taught between 1996 and 2004. The results both challenge and support the efficacy of collaborative learning groups, and suggest that faculty modify such techniques when evidence of student learning cannot be empirically linked to the collaborative experience.  相似文献   

14.
Investment in higher education facilities in terms of both hardware and software has witnessed significant growth on a yearly basis since the reintroduction of the college entrance examination known as the NMT in 1977. However, a social assessment of graduates’ qualities seems to indicate that the improvement in skill levels and graduates’ general qualities has failed to keep pace with the growth in investment. As a bridge to relate college environment to student gains in learning, student self-determined involvement in educational activities plays an important role in analyzing the educational effects of colleges. Based on a conducted through the survey of Chinese College Student Experience Questionnaire, with data collected from 647 valid respondents, universities can observe and evaluate the levels and quality of students’ involvement in the educational process. The students’ involvement of educational activities can be investigated through data analysis, employing statistical methods of a structural equation model. In observing student involvement in the educational system, it becomes apparent that the students’ capacity for building on and playing a key role in the improvement of the quality of education they receive is largely controlled by their involvement activities in the learning process. In addition, both of the college environment and student motivation have a combined and significant effect on student involvement behaviors. Student involvement can be divided into three gradual but distinct levels (controlled, identified and integrated involvement) in accordance with the varying degrees of internalization. Student involvement will exponentially magnify the positive effects on student gains when colleges invest in new and additional resources, particularly when students become more deeply involved in the educational environment. In addition, when colleges make a concentrated effort to recognize the importance of student involvement, and they encourage and incentivise students to become involved, the college itself will benefit greatly from the improved university environment. This combination of mutually beneficial activity, therefore, represents a virtuous circle of promotion between college and students.  相似文献   

15.
Research indicates that there has been a decline in college reading over the past decades, yet few studies have been conducted at community colleges. The aim of this exploratory study was to gain a broad view of what reading across the curriculum looks like at one urban community college from the perspectives of students and faculty. A survey was administered to students to gather information on their reading practices, beliefs, and attitudes. A second survey was distributed to full-time faculty to gather information on assignments, practices, and beliefs regarding reading. Findings indicate that many students do not complete assigned readings. Further, women students spend more time on reading and attend class more often having completed assigned reading than men. There are discrepancies between students’ and faculty’s assessments of students’ reading abilities, whether reading is essential to course success and between the kinds of readings commonly assigned and those students enjoy reading. The study identified areas for further research on reading in community college including the relationship between gender, reading compliance, and community college outcomes; the effectiveness of reading compliance strategies; the relationship between PowerPoint use and student reading; and students’ use of active reading strategies. The findings also point out the need for pedagogical innovation in the teaching of reading in community college, namely through the implementation of reading across the curriculum programs.  相似文献   

16.
ABSTRACT

Many science curricula and standards emphasise that students should learn both scientific knowledge and the skills associated with the construction of this knowledge. One way to achieve this goal is to use inquiry-learning activities that embed the use of science process skills. We investigated the influence of scientific reasoning skills (i.e. conceptual and procedural knowledge of the control-of-variables strategy) on students’ conceptual learning gains in physics during an inquiry-learning activity. Eighth graders (n?=?189) answered research questions about variables that influence the force of electromagnets and the brightness of light bulbs by designing, running, and interpreting experiments. We measured knowledge of electricity and electromagnets, scientific reasoning skills, and cognitive skills (analogical reasoning and reading ability). Using structural equation modelling we found no direct effects of cognitive skills on students’ content knowledge learning gains; however, there were direct effects of scientific reasoning skills on content knowledge learning gains. Our results show that cognitive skills are not sufficient; students require specific scientific reasoning skills to learn science content from inquiry activities. Furthermore, our findings illustrate that what students learn during guided inquiry activities becomes visible when we examine both the skills used during inquiry learning and the process of knowledge construction. The implications of these findings for science teaching and research are discussed.  相似文献   

17.
Recently published evidence of limited learning among American college students confirms the damage done when students, faculty and institutions pursue interests that conflict with the educational process. The ‘disengagement compact’ in which faculty tacitly trade lenient workloads and grading for higher student evaluation of teaching (SET) scores and fewer complaints from students does damage wherever it operates. The work of Johnson confirms the link between SET and grade inflation. We propose a modification of an earlier grade index, the Real Grade Point Average (GPA), and propose as well an index for SET scores, the Real SET, to make inflated grades and inflated SET scores more visible. Used by institutions, parts of institutions or individual faculty, Real GPA and Real SET would encourage and protect faculty and students who offer or seek out educational experiences that have not been deflected by greed, sloth or cowardice.  相似文献   

18.
This quantitative case study used a pre- and posttest design for exploring the gender differences in secondary school students’ (n?=?131, 45 males and 86 females) learning of the force concept when an interactive engagement type of teaching was used. In addition, students’ ability to interpret multiple representations (i.e., representational consistency) was documented by a pre- and posttest and scientific reasoning ability by a pretest only. Males significantly outperformed females in learning of the force concept, pre- and posttest representational consistency, and pretest scientific reasoning. However, the gender difference in learning of the force concept was not significant when ANCOVA was conducted using pretest results of representational consistency and scientific reasoning as covariates. This appeared to indicate that the gender difference in learning gain was related to students’ abilities before the instruction. Thus, the teaching method used was equally effective for both genders. Further, our quantitative finding about the relation between representational consistency and learning of the force concept supports the assumption that multiple representations are important in science learning.  相似文献   

19.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(2):356-375
Abstract

The aim of this article is to report on a study conducted to assess the effect of an intervention programme to improve SRL and the achievement of a group of poorly performing undergraduate students at the Tshwane University of Technology. SRL was used as theoretical framework. The case study reports on 20 Engineering students who attended learning skills intervention sessions and wrote a college version of the learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI) pre-test and post-test. The intervention consisted of 12 workshop sessions presented over a period of three months. The LASSI pre-test showed that the group scored below the 50th percentile on four scales (anxiety, attitude, selecting main ideas and test-taking strategies). Observed improvements in the post-test scores of the LASSI scales for seven out of ten scales were statistically significant. The students’ academic achievements also improved. The findings are important for improving student success and throughput in South African higher education.  相似文献   

20.
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