Approaches to studying and academic performance in short-essay exams     

Amirali Minbashian  Gail F. Huon  Kevin D. Bird 《Higher Education》2004,47(2):161-176

Previous research has generallyfailed to find a relation between the waystudents approach the task of studying andtheir exam grades. The present studyinvestigated why it is that a deep approach tostudying, which has been shown to result in ahigher quality of learning, does notconsistently result in higher exam grades. Theparticipants in the study were 49 third-yearpsychology students. They completedquestionnaires that assessed approaches tostudying, motivation, and intelligence. Theirfinal exam marks, along with indicators of thequality of their final exam responses and thequantity of information reproduced in the finalexam were used as indicators of academicperformance. The results showed that the deepstudy approach was linearly related to thequality of exam responses, but quadraticallyrelated to the quantity of informationreproduced. The use of the deep approach was nomore effective in facilitating high exam marksfor questions that emphasised understanding ofthe study material than for questions thatemphasised reproduction of it. Taken together,these findings suggest that students who usehigh levels of the deep approach fail toconsistently achieve higher exam grades becauseof deficiencies in the quantity of theirresponses, rather than because of theinsensitivity of exams to students'understanding of the study material.  相似文献   

Young Children''s Vulnerability to Self-Blame and Helplessness: Relationship to Beliefs about Goodness   总被引：8，自引：0，他引：8  

Gail D. Heyman  Carol S. Dweck  Kathleen M. Cain 《Child development》1992,63(2):401-415

Motivational helplessness, linked to conceptions of intelligence, has been well documented in older children. While some researchers have reported that children just starting school are motivationally invulnerable, others have found evidence of helplessness when these children encounter failure. The present study seeks to determine whether the reactions associated with helplessness can be identified in a new context, that of criticism, and whether any such responses are related to the child's conceptions of goodness. Subjects were 107 5- and 6-year-old children who enacted achievement situations in which teacher criticism was presented. The 39% of children whose own assessments were undermined by criticism exhibited the affect, task choices, and nonconstructive problem-solving strategies characteristic of helplessness. They were also more likely to make global negative self-judgments following criticism, including negative judgments of their goodness. Finally, these children were more likely to endorse stable and global beliefs about goodness.  相似文献   

A prospective study of the relationship between phonological,semantic and syntactic skills and specific reading disability     

Gail Gillon  Prof. Barbara J. Dodd 《Reading and writing》1994,6(4):321-345

Although it is well established that a relationship exists between specific reading disability and spoken language difficulties, the nature of that relationship remains controversial. In the study reported here, the performance of poor readers was firstly compared with that of matched good readers on a series of spoken and written language tasks on three assessment trials 12 months apart, and secondly to that of younger average readers. Five experimental tasks were used to measure the readers' phonological processing skills, and three subtests from the CELF-R were selected to measure the students' syntactic and semantic skills. Reading accuracy and comprehension ability were assessed by the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability-Revised. The results showed that 8–10-year-old poor readers performed poorly in all three linguistic areas concurrently, and that these difficulties persisted. However, the important finding from this study was that while the good readers demonstrated no significant difference between their phonological processing skills and their semantic/syntactic skills, the poor readers' ability did differ according to skill area. The poor readers' phonological processing skills appeared to be particularly impaired, a finding which was further enhanced by results from the reading-match comparison. The results are discussed in terms of current theories of reading disability.  相似文献   

Enhancement of Mentor Selection Using the Ideal Mentor Scale   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Rose  Gail L. 《Research in higher education》2003,44(4):473-494

Doctoral students seeking faculty mentors have few tools available to assist them. The Ideal Mentor Scale (IMS) is a new measure designed to help graduate students consider the qualities they as individuals most value in a potential mentor. Ph.D. students at 3 different universities (Ns = 82, 250, 380) contributed to the development and cross-validation of the 34-item IMS. Item frequencies indicated that 2 universal qualities were central to graduate students' definitions of a mentor: communication skills and provision of feedback. Principal factor analysis of the IMS indicated that 3 individual differences dimensions reliably underlaid graduate students' importance ratings of mentor attributes: Integrity, Guidance, and Relationship. In one sample, Guidance and Relationship were significantly related to student satisfaction with their mentor. The IMS is an assessment tool that could individualize the initiation and maintenance of mentoring relationships, enhance communication, and ultimately improve the satisfaction of students with their doctoral education.  相似文献   

Elementary Teachers’ Selection and Use of Visual Models     

Tammy D. Lee  M. Gail Jones 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2018,27(1):1-29

As science grows in complexity, science teachers face an increasing challenge of helping students interpret models that represent complex science systems. Little is known about how teachers select and use models when planning lessons. This mixed methods study investigated the pedagogical approaches and visual models used by elementary in-service and preservice teachers in the development of a science lesson about a complex system (e.g., water cycle). Sixty-seven elementary in-service and 69 elementary preservice teachers completed a card sort task designed to document the types of visual models (e.g., images) that teachers choose when planning science instruction. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to analyze the card sort task. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a subsample of teachers to elicit the rationale for image selection. Results from this study showed that both experienced in-service teachers and novice preservice teachers tended to select similar models and use similar rationales for images to be used in lessons. Teachers tended to select models that were aesthetically pleasing and simple in design and illustrated specific elements of the water cycle. The results also showed that teachers were not likely to select images that represented the less obvious dimensions of the water cycle. Furthermore, teachers selected visual models more as a pedagogical tool to illustrate specific elements of the water cycle and less often as a tool to promote student learning related to complex systems.  相似文献   

Exploring undergraduates' understanding of photosynthesis using diagnostic question clusters     

Parker JM  Anderson CW  Heidemann M  Merrill J  Merritt B  Richmond G  Urban-Lurain M 《CBE life sciences education》2012,11(1):47-57

We present a diagnostic question cluster (DQC) that assesses undergraduates' thinking about photosynthesis. This assessment tool is not designed to identify individual misconceptions. Rather, it is focused on students' abilities to apply basic concepts about photosynthesis by reasoning with a coordinated set of practices based on a few scientific principles: conservation of matter, conservation of energy, and the hierarchical nature of biological systems. Data on students' responses to the cluster items and uses of some of the questions in multiple-choice, multiple-true/false, and essay formats are compared. A cross-over study indicates that the multiple-true/false format shows promise as a machine-gradable format that identifies students who have a mixture of accurate and inaccurate ideas. In addition, interviews with students about their choices on three multiple-choice questions reveal the fragility of students' understanding. Collectively, the data show that many undergraduates lack both a basic understanding of the role of photosynthesis in plant metabolism and the ability to reason with scientific principles when learning new content. Implications for instruction are discussed.  相似文献   

How Moroccan mothers and fathers view child development and their role in their children's education     

Gail L. Zellman  Michal Perlman  Rita Karam 《International Journal of Early Years Education》2014,22(2):197-209

Despite the documented importance of parental engagement in early learning, little is known about how parents in the Middle East and North Africa understand child development. To inform the literature, a small-scale study involving four focus groups was conducted with parents of children aged six years and under living in Casablanca. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' understanding of and support for their children's early development. Results reveal that parents see a vital role for themselves in their children's upbringing as supporters and nurturers, but little role as teachers. Across different education and income levels, parents in this small-scale qualitative study believe that children's experiences in their first years of life do not affect their longer-term intellectual development or school success and see little value in early intellectual stimulation or formal preschool education. Our results suggest that parents need to understand their role as their child's first educators. Also, it is essential that parents are taught how to promote their children's early cognitive development without undermining their nurturing roles.  相似文献   

Teachers’ Concepts of Spatial Scale: An international comparison     

M. Gail Jones  Manuela Paechter  Chiung-Fen Yen  Grant Gardner  Amy Taylor  Thomas Tretter 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(14):2462-2482

Metric scale is an important concept taught as part of science curricula across different countries. This study explored metric and relative (body-length) scale concepts of inservice (N?=?92) and preservice (N?=?134) teachers from Austria, and Taiwan, and their concepts were compared with those of teachers from the USA. Participants completed three assessments: the Scale Anchoring Objects (SAO), Scale of Objects Questionnaire (SOQ), and a subsample of participants were interviewed with the Learning Scale Interview. A Rasch analysis was conducted with the SAO and SOQ and results showed that the Rasch model held for these assessments, indicating that there is an underlying common dimension to understanding scale. Further analyses showed that accuracy of knowledge of scale measured by the SAO and SOQ was not related to professional experience. There were significant differences in teachers’ accuracy of scale concepts by nationality. This was true for both metric and body-length SAO assessments. Post hoc comparisons showed that the Austrian and Taiwanese participants were significantly more accurate than the US sample on the SAO and SOQ. The Austrian participants scored significantly higher than the US and the Taiwanese participants. The results of the interviews showed that the Taiwanese experienced teacher participants were more likely to report learning size and scale through in-school experiences than the Austrian or the US participants. US teachers reported learning size and scale most often through participating in hobbies and sports, Taiwanese teachers reported learning scale through sports and reading, and Austrian teachers most often noted that they learned about scale through travel.  相似文献   

How Bureaucratic Are Big-City School Systems?     

Kenneth K. Wong  Gail L. Sunderman 《Peabody Journal of Education》2013,88(3-4):14-40

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The Minicourse: Helping Teachers with Curriculum Change     

David Cohen  Christine Deer  Marelle Harrison  Gail Thompson 《课程研究杂志》2013,45(2):175-180

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