Proposed learning strategies of medical students in a clinical rotation in obstetrics and gynecology: a descriptive study.

PubMed

Deane, Richard P; Murphy, Deirdre J

2016-01-01

Medical students face many challenges when learning within clinical environments. How students plan to use their time and engage with learning opportunities is therefore critical, as it may be possible to highlight strategies that optimize the learning experience at an early stage in the rotation. The aim of the study was to describe the learning drivers and proposed learning strategies of medical students for a clinical rotation in obstetrics and gynecology. A descriptive study of personal learning plans completed by students at the start of their clinical rotation in obstetrics and gynecology was undertaken. Data relating to students' learning strategies were obtained from the personal learning plans completed by students. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used. The desire to obtain a good examination result was the most significant reason why the rotation was important to students (n=67/71, 94%). Students struggled to create a specific and practical learning outcome relevant to their career interest. Target scores of students were significantly higher than their reported typical scores (P<0.01). Textbooks were rated as likely to be the most helpful learning resource during the rotation. Bedside tutorials were rated as likely to be the most useful learning activity and small group learning activities were rated as likely to be more useful than lectures. Most students intended to study the course material linked to their clinical program rather than the classroom-based tutorial program. The main learning driver for medical students was academic achievement, and the proposed learning strategy favored by medical students was linking their study plans to clinical activities. Medical educators should consider strategies that foster more intrinsic drivers of student learning and more student-oriented learning resources and activities.

Your teaching strategy matters: how engagement impacts application in health information literacy instruction.

PubMed

Johnson, Heather A; Barrett, Laura

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare two pedagogical methods, active learning and passive instruction, to determine which is more useful in helping students to achieve the learning outcomes in a one-hour research skills instructional session. Two groups of high school students attended an instructional session to learn about consumer health resources and strategies to enhance their searching skills. The first group received passive instruction, and the second engaged in active learning. We assessed both groups' learning using 2 methods with differing complexity. A total of 59 students attended the instructional sessions (passive instruction, n=28; active learning, n=31). We found that the active learning group scored more favorably in four assessment categories. Active learning may help students engage with and develop a meaningful understanding of several resources in a single session. Moreover, when using a complex teaching strategy, librarians should be mindful to gauge learning using an equally complex assessment method.

Your teaching strategy matters: how engagement impacts application in health information literacy instruction *

PubMed Central

Johnson, Heather A.; Barrett, Laura

2017-01-01

Objective The purpose of this study was to compare two pedagogical methods, active learning and passive instruction, to determine which is more useful in helping students to achieve the learning outcomes in a one-hour research skills instructional session. Methods Two groups of high school students attended an instructional session to learn about consumer health resources and strategies to enhance their searching skills. The first group received passive instruction, and the second engaged in active learning. We assessed both groups’ learning using 2 methods with differing complexity. A total of 59 students attended the instructional sessions (passive instruction, n=28; active learning, n=31). Results We found that the active learning group scored more favorably in four assessment categories. Conclusions Active learning may help students engage with and develop a meaningful understanding of several resources in a single session. Moreover, when using a complex teaching strategy, librarians should be mindful to gauge learning using an equally complex assessment method. PMID:28096745

Achievement Goal Orientations and Self-Reported Study Strategies as Predictors of Online Studying Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adesope, Olusola O.; Zhou, Mingming; Nesbit, John C.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether achievement motivations influence the adoption of learning strategies and learning strategies influence studying behavior in an online learning environment. The Goal Orientation Questionnaire was used to measure achievement motives, and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire was…

Stages of Concern Profiles for Active Learning Strategies of Agricultural Technical School Teachers in Egypt

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Brian E.; Barrick, R. Kirby; Samy, Mohamed M.

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess Egyptian Agricultural Technical School (ATS) teachers' implementation of active learning strategies in their classrooms. Methods: The Stages of Concern Questionnaire was administered to 230 participants in active learning workshops. After eliminating headmasters, supervisors and people no longer…

Engaging Students in Large Health Classes with Active Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Steven; Combs, Sue; Huelskamp, Amelia; Hritz, Nancy

2017-01-01

Creative K-12 health teachers can engage students in large classes by utilizing active learning strategies. Active learning involves engaging students in higher-order tasks, such as analysis and synthesis, which is a crucial element of the movement toward what is commonly called "learner-centered" teaching. Health education teachers who…

Intertextual learning strategy with guided inquiry on solubility equilibrium concept to improve the student’s scientific processing skills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wardani, K. U.; Mulyani, S.; Wiji

2018-04-01

The aim of this study was to develop intertextual learning strategy with guided inquiry on solubility equilibrium concept to enhance student’s scientific processing skills. This study was conducted with consideration of some various studies which found that lack of student’s process skills in learning chemistry was caused by learning chemistry is just a concept. The method used in this study is a Research and Development to generate the intertextual learning strategy with guided inquiry. The instruments used in the form of sheets validation are used to determine the congruence of learning activities by step guided inquiry learning and scientific processing skills with aspects of learning activities. Validation results obtained that the learning activities conducted in line with aspects of indicators of the scientific processing skills.

The use of active learning strategies in the instruction of Reactor Physics concepts

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robinson, Michael A.

2000-01-01

Each of the Active Learning strategies employed to teach Reactor Physics material has been or promises to be instructionally successful. The Cooperative Group strategy has demonstrated a statistically significant increase in student performance on the unit exam in teaching conceptually difficult, transport and diffusion theory material. However, this result was achieved at the expense of a modest increase in class time. The Tutorial CBI programs have enabled learning equally as well as classroom lectures without the direct intervention of an instructor. Thus, the Tutorials have been successful as homework assignments, releasing classroom time for other instruction. However, the time requiredmore » for development of these tools was large, on the order of two hundred hours per hour of instruction. The initial introduction of the Case-Based strategy was roughly as effective as the traditional classroom instruction. Case-Based learning could well, after important modifications, perform better than traditional instruction. A larger percentage of the students prefer active learning strategies than prefer traditional lecture presentations. Student preferences for the active strategies were particularly strong when they believed that the strategies helped them learn the material better than they would have by using a lecture format. In some cases, students also preferred the active strategies because they were different from traditional instruction, a change of pace. Some students preferred lectures to CBI instruction, primarily because the CBI did not afford them the opportunity to question the instructor during the presentation.« less

The connection between teaching and learning: Linking teaching quality and metacognitive strategy use in primary school.

PubMed

Rieser, Svenja; Naumann, Alexander; Decristan, Jasmin; Fauth, Benjamin; Klieme, Eckhard; Büttner, Gerhard

2016-12-01

In order for teaching to be successful, students need to be actively involved in learning. However, research on teaching effectiveness often neglects students' learning activities. Although it is assumed that effective teaching promotes the use of beneficial learning activities, empirical evidence for this connection is still limited. This study aimed to investigate the connection between effective teaching and reported learning activities. We hypothesize specific relations between a three-dimensional model of teaching quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate, and classroom management) and students' reported use of metacognitive strategies. Students' intrinsic motivation is considered as a mediator and a moderator of this connection. N = 1,052 students from 53 German primary school classes and their science teachers participated. Data were collected through classroom or video observation and questionnaires over a period of approximately 2 months. Multilevel analysis was utilized to test our hypotheses. Each dimension of teaching quality positively predicted students' reported use of metacognitive strategies. For supportive climate, this connection was mediated by students' intrinsic motivation. Cognitive activation negatively predicted the slopes between students' reported metacognitive strategy use and motivation. The results support the notion that effective teaching is connected to learning activities and stress the importance of students' learning motivation. Results from the cross-level interaction could indicate that especially less motivated students' reported metacognitive strategy use might be supported by cognitively activating teaching. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Learning by strategies and learning by drill--evidence from an fMRI study.

PubMed

Delazer, M; Ischebeck, A; Domahs, F; Zamarian, L; Koppelstaetter, F; Siedentopf, C M; Kaufmann, L; Benke, T; Felber, S

2005-04-15

The present fMRI study investigates, first, whether learning new arithmetic operations is reflected by changing cerebral activation patterns, and second, whether different learning methods lead to differential modifications of brain activation. In a controlled design, subjects were trained over a week on two new complex arithmetic operations, one operation trained by the application of back-up strategies, i.e., a sequence of arithmetic operations, the other by drill, i.e., by learning the association between the operands and the result. In the following fMRI session, new untrained items, items trained by strategy and items trained by drill, were assessed using an event-related design. Untrained items as compared to trained showed large bilateral parietal activations, with the focus of activation along the right intraparietal sulcus. Further foci of activation were found in both inferior frontal gyri. The reverse contrast, trained vs. untrained, showed a more focused activation pattern with activation in both angular gyri. As suggested by the specific activation patterns, newly acquired expertise was implemented in previously existing networks of arithmetic processing and memory. Comparisons between drill and strategy conditions suggest that successful retrieval was associated with different brain activation patterns reflecting the underlying learning methods. While the drill condition more strongly activated medial parietal regions extending to the left angular gyrus, the strategy condition was associated to the activation of the precuneus which may be accounted for by visual imagery in memory retrieval.

A review of teaching-learning strategies to be used with film for prelicensure students.

PubMed

Oh, Jina; De Gagné, Jennie Chang; Kang, Jeongae

2013-03-01

The use of film in nursing and medical education has been supported as an effective instructional method. The purpose of this article is to identify and synthesize the available studies on teaching-learning strategies to be used with film for prelicensure students. Electronic databases were searched to identify studies published in the English language between January 1990 and March 2012. Twenty-seven articles met the selection criteria for this review and were analyzed. After in-depth discussion about and investigation of the relevant literature, we narrowed down three teaching-learning strategies: reflective activities, practical activities, and evaluative activities. The synthesis of the identified teaching-learning strategies provides a data point for the development of more effective evidence-based learning activities for prelicensure students. Future studies should focus on the examination of teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes, as well as the evaluation of using film, to achieve nursing competencies appropriate to role preparation. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

Transfer of Active Learning Strategies from the Teacher Education Classroom to PreK-12th Grade Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pepper, Kaye; Blackwell, Sarah; Monroe, Ann; Coskey, Shawn

2012-01-01

In this study, researchers investigated the influence of modeling active learning strategies in an introductory foundations teacher preparation course: 1) on teacher candidates' perceptions of participating in active learning in the college classroom, 2) on participants' acquisition of course content, and 3) on participants' later use of active…

The Role of Corticostriatal Systems in Speech Category Learning.

PubMed

Yi, Han-Gyol; Maddox, W Todd; Mumford, Jeanette A; Chandrasekaran, Bharath

2016-04-01

One of the most difficult category learning problems for humans is learning nonnative speech categories. While feedback-based category training can enhance speech learning, the mechanisms underlying these benefits are unclear. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated neural and computational mechanisms underlying feedback-dependent speech category learning in adults. Positive feedback activated a large corticostriatal network including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, middle temporal gyrus, caudate, putamen, and the ventral striatum. Successful learning was contingent upon the activity of domain-general category learning systems: the fast-learning reflective system, involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that develops and tests explicit rules based on the feedback content, and the slow-learning reflexive system, involving the putamen in which the stimuli are implicitly associated with category responses based on the reward value in feedback. Computational modeling of response strategies revealed significant use of reflective strategies early in training and greater use of reflexive strategies later in training. Reflexive strategy use was associated with increased activation in the putamen. Our results demonstrate a critical role for the reflexive corticostriatal learning system as a function of response strategy and proficiency during speech category learning. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Impacts of the Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy on English Learners' Reading Comprehension, Strategy Use, and Active Learning Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Lu-Fang

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether an English reading course integrated with the problem-based learning approach could foster foreign language learners' reading comprehension ability, strategy use, and their active learning attitudes. The pedagogy was featured with the small group scaffolding. Two intact English classes in a Taiwanese university were…

Developing Students' Listening Metacognitive Strategies Using Online Videotext Self-Dictation-Generation Learning Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Ching; Chang, Chih-Kai

2014-01-01

The study is based on the use of a flexible learning framework to help students improve information processes underlying strategy instruction in EFL listening. By exploiting the online videotext self-dictation-generation (video-SDG) learning activity implemented on the YouTube caption manager platform, the learning cycle was emphasized to promote…

Evaluation of a faculty development program aimed at increasing residents' active learning in lectures.

PubMed

Desselle, Bonnie C; English, Robin; Hescock, George; Hauser, Andrea; Roy, Melissa; Yang, Tong; Chauvin, Sheila W

2012-12-01

Active engagement in the learning process is important to enhance learners' knowledge acquisition and retention and the development of their thinking skills. This study evaluated whether a 1-hour faculty development workshop increased the use of active teaching strategies and enhanced residents' active learning and thinking. Faculty teaching in a pediatrics residency participated in a 1-hour workshop (intervention) approximately 1 month before a scheduled lecture. Participants' responses to a preworkshop/postworkshop questionnaire targeted self-efficacy (confidence) for facilitating active learning and thinking and providing feedback about workshop quality. Trained observers assessed each lecture (3-month baseline phase and 3-month intervention phase) using an 8-item scale for use of active learning strategies and a 7-item scale for residents' engagement in active learning. Observers also assessed lecturer-resident interactions and the extent to which residents were asked to justify their answers. Responses to the workshop questionnaire (n  =  32/34; 94%) demonstrated effectiveness and increased confidence. Faculty in the intervention phase demonstrated increased use of interactive teaching strategies for 6 items, with 5 reaching statistical significance (P ≤ .01). Residents' active learning behaviors in lectures were higher in the intervention arm for all 7 items, with 5 reaching statistical significance. Faculty in the intervention group demonstrated increased use of higher-order questioning (P  =  .02) and solicited justifications for answers (P  =  .01). A 1-hour faculty development program increased faculty use of active learning strategies and residents' engagement in active learning during resident core curriculum lectures.

The effect of active learning on student characteristics in a human physiology course for nonmajors.

PubMed

Wilke, R Russell

2003-12-01

This study investigated the effect of active-learning strategies on college students' achievement, motivation, and self-efficacy in a human physiology course for nonmajors. Variables were studied via a quasi-experimental, Solomon four-group design on 141 students at a small west-Texas university. Treatment groups were taught using a continuum-based, active-learning model implemented over the course of a semester. Control groups were taught using traditional didactic lecture methods. To assess the effects of the continuum-based active learning strategies, students were administered a comprehensive physiology content exam, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and attitude surveys. Factorial analyses indicated that the treatment groups acquired significantly more content knowledge and were significantly more self-efficacious than students in the control groups. There were no significant differences in motivation. Attitude surveys indicated that students in both the treatment and control groups demonstrated a positive attitude toward active learning, believed it helped (or would help) them to learn the material, and would choose an active learning course in the future.

Promoting Technology-Assisted Active Learning in Computer Science Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Jinzhu; Hargis, Jace

2010-01-01

This paper describes specific active learning strategies for teaching computer science, integrating both instructional technologies and non-technology-based strategies shown to be effective in the literature. The theoretical learning components addressed include an intentional method to help students build metacognitive abilities, as well as…

Learning a locomotor task: with or without errors?

PubMed

Marchal-Crespo, Laura; Schneider, Jasmin; Jaeger, Lukas; Riener, Robert

2014-03-04

Robotic haptic guidance is the most commonly used robotic training strategy to reduce performance errors while training. However, research on motor learning has emphasized that errors are a fundamental neural signal that drive motor adaptation. Thus, researchers have proposed robotic therapy algorithms that amplify movement errors rather than decrease them. However, to date, no study has analyzed with precision which training strategy is the most appropriate to learn an especially simple task. In this study, the impact of robotic training strategies that amplify or reduce errors on muscle activation and motor learning of a simple locomotor task was investigated in twenty two healthy subjects. The experiment was conducted with the MAgnetic Resonance COmpatible Stepper (MARCOS) a special robotic device developed for investigations in the MR scanner. The robot moved the dominant leg passively and the subject was requested to actively synchronize the non-dominant leg to achieve an alternating stepping-like movement. Learning with four different training strategies that reduce or amplify errors was evaluated: (i) Haptic guidance: errors were eliminated by passively moving the limbs, (ii) No guidance: no robot disturbances were presented, (iii) Error amplification: existing errors were amplified with repulsive forces, (iv) Noise disturbance: errors were evoked intentionally with a randomly-varying force disturbance on top of the no guidance strategy. Additionally, the activation of four lower limb muscles was measured by the means of surface electromyography (EMG). Strategies that reduce or do not amplify errors limit muscle activation during training and result in poor learning gains. Adding random disturbing forces during training seems to increase attention, and therefore improve motor learning. Error amplification seems to be the most suitable strategy for initially less skilled subjects, perhaps because subjects could better detect their errors and correct them. Error strategies have a great potential to evoke higher muscle activation and provoke better motor learning of simple tasks. Neuroimaging evaluation of brain regions involved in learning can provide valuable information on observed behavioral outcomes related to learning processes. The impacts of these strategies on neurological patients need further investigations.

Strategies influence neural activity for feedback learning across child and adolescent development.

PubMed

Peters, Sabine; Koolschijn, P Cédric M P; Crone, Eveline A; Van Duijvenvoorde, Anna C K; Raijmakers, Maartje E J

2014-09-01

Learning from feedback is an important aspect of executive functioning that shows profound improvements during childhood and adolescence. This is accompanied by neural changes in the feedback-learning network, which includes pre-supplementary motor area (pre- SMA)/anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), superior parietal cortex (SPC), and the basal ganglia. However, there can be considerable differences within age ranges in performance that are ascribed to differences in strategy use. This is problematic for traditional approaches of analyzing developmental data, in which age groups are assumed to be homogenous in strategy use. In this study, we used latent variable models to investigate if underlying strategy groups could be detected for a feedback-learning task and whether there were differences in neural activation patterns between strategies. In a sample of 268 participants between ages 8 to 25 years, we observed four underlying strategy groups, which were cut across age groups and varied in the optimality of executive functioning. These strategy groups also differed in neural activity during learning; especially the most optimal performing group showed more activity in DLPFC, SPC and pre-SMA/ACC compared to the other groups. However, age differences remained an important contributor to neural activation, even when correcting for strategy. These findings contribute to the debate of age versus performance predictors of neural development, and highlight the importance of studying individual differences in strategy use when studying development. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active Learning Strategies for Phenotypic Profiling of High-Content Screens.

PubMed

Smith, Kevin; Horvath, Peter

2014-06-01

High-content screening is a powerful method to discover new drugs and carry out basic biological research. Increasingly, high-content screens have come to rely on supervised machine learning (SML) to perform automatic phenotypic classification as an essential step of the analysis. However, this comes at a cost, namely, the labeled examples required to train the predictive model. Classification performance increases with the number of labeled examples, and because labeling examples demands time from an expert, the training process represents a significant time investment. Active learning strategies attempt to overcome this bottleneck by presenting the most relevant examples to the annotator, thereby achieving high accuracy while minimizing the cost of obtaining labeled data. In this article, we investigate the impact of active learning on single-cell-based phenotype recognition, using data from three large-scale RNA interference high-content screens representing diverse phenotypic profiling problems. We consider several combinations of active learning strategies and popular SML methods. Our results show that active learning significantly reduces the time cost and can be used to reveal the same phenotypic targets identified using SML. We also identify combinations of active learning strategies and SML methods which perform better than others on the phenotypic profiling problems we studied. © 2014 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Learn before Lecture: A Strategy that Improves Learning Outcomes in a Large Introductory Biology Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moravec, Marin; Williams, Adrienne; Aguilar-Roca, Nancy; O'Dowd, Diane K.

2010-01-01

Actively engaging students in lecture has been shown to increase learning gains. To create time for active learning without displacing content we used two strategies for introducing material before class in a large introductory biology course. Four to five slides from 2007/8 were removed from each of three lectures in 2009 and the information…

Comparison of sampling strategies for object-based classification of urban vegetation from Very High Resolution satellite images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rougier, Simon; Puissant, Anne; Stumpf, André; Lachiche, Nicolas

2016-09-01

Vegetation monitoring is becoming a major issue in the urban environment due to the services they procure and necessitates an accurate and up to date mapping. Very High Resolution satellite images enable a detailed mapping of the urban tree and herbaceous vegetation. Several supervised classifications with statistical learning techniques have provided good results for the detection of urban vegetation but necessitate a large amount of training data. In this context, this study proposes to investigate the performances of different sampling strategies in order to reduce the number of examples needed. Two windows based active learning algorithms from state-of-art are compared to a classical stratified random sampling and a third combining active learning and stratified strategies is proposed. The efficiency of these strategies is evaluated on two medium size French cities, Strasbourg and Rennes, associated to different datasets. Results demonstrate that classical stratified random sampling can in some cases be just as effective as active learning methods and that it should be used more frequently to evaluate new active learning methods. Moreover, the active learning strategies proposed in this work enables to reduce the computational runtime by selecting multiple windows at each iteration without increasing the number of windows needed.

Language Learning in Preschool Children: An Embodied Learning Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ionescu, Thea; Ilie, Adriana

2018-01-01

In Romanian preschool settings, there is a tendency to use abstract strategies in language-learning activities. The present study explored if strategies based on an embodied cognition approach facilitate learning more than traditional strategies that progress from concrete to abstract. Twenty-five children between 4 and 5 years of age listened to…

Investigating the Relationship between Instructors' Use of Active-Learning Strategies and Students' Conceptual Understanding and Affective Changes in Introductory Biology: A Comparison of Two Active-Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cleveland, Lacy M.; Olimpo, Jeffrey T.; DeChenne-Peters, Sue Ellen

2017-01-01

In response to calls for reform in undergraduate biology education, we conducted research examining how varying active-learning strategies impacted students' conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in two sections of a large-lecture introductory cell and molecular biology course. Using a quasi-experimental design, we collected…

Musical Peddy-Paper: A Collaborative Learning Activity Suported by Augmented Reality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomes, José Duarte Cardoso; Figueiredo, Mauro Jorge Guerreiro; Amante, Lúcia da Graça Cruz Domingues; Gomes, Cristina Maria Cardoso

2014-01-01

Gaming activities are an integral part of the human learning process, in particular for children. Game-based learning focuses on motivation and children's engagement towards learning. Educational game-based activities are becoming effective strategies to enhance the learning process. This paper presents an educational activity focusing to merge…

Active Learning Strategies in Face-to-Face Courses. IDEA Paper #53

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Millis, Barbara J.

2012-01-01

As numerous research studies suggest, teachers who desire increased student learning should adopt active learning. This article explores the research, defines active learning, discusses its value, offers suggestions for implementing it, and provides six concrete examples of active learning approaches: Thinking-Aloud Pair Problem-Solving;…

Investigating the Relationship between Instructors' Use of Active-Learning Strategies and Students' Conceptual Understanding and Affective Changes in Introductory Biology: A Comparison of Two Active-Learning Environments.

PubMed

Cleveland, Lacy M; Olimpo, Jeffrey T; DeChenne-Peters, Sue Ellen

2017-01-01

In response to calls for reform in undergraduate biology education, we conducted research examining how varying active-learning strategies impacted students' conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in two sections of a large-lecture introductory cell and molecular biology course. Using a quasi-experimental design, we collected quantitative data to compare participants' conceptual understanding, attitudes, and motivation in the biological sciences across two contexts that employed different active-learning strategies and that were facilitated by unique instructors. Students participated in either graphic organizer/worksheet activities or clicker-based case studies. After controlling for demographic and presemester affective differences, we found that students in both active-learning environments displayed similar and significant learning gains. In terms of attitudinal and motivational data, significant differences were observed for two attitudinal measures. Specifically, those students who had participated in graphic organizer/worksheet activities demonstrated more expert-like attitudes related to their enjoyment of biology and ability to make real-world connections. However, all motivational and most attitudinal data were not significantly different between the students in the two learning environments. These data reinforce the notion that active learning is associated with conceptual change and suggests that more research is needed to examine the differential effects of varying active-learning strategies on students' attitudes and motivation in the domain. © 2017 L. M. Cleveland et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Excellence in Physics Education Award Talk: Sharing Active Learning Strategies in the Developed and Developing Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokoloff, David

2010-02-01

Since the first series of National Microcomputer Based Laboratory (MBL) Institutes for Teachers of Physics in Summer, 1987, the Activity Based Physics Group (ABP) has presented numerous professional development institutes and workshops to thousands of high school, college and university faculty, sponsored by National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and others. An overview of these programs and details of our instructional strategies will be presented. Some common features of these include: (1) motivating participants through introduction to active learning research literature, including exposure to conceptual evaluations and student learning gains in traditional and active learning courses, (2) exposing participants to active learning strategies through intensive hands-on work using classroom tested curricular materials, (3) relying on these materials to enhance teacher knowledge and correct misconceptions---when necessary, (4) providing opportunities to practice active learning instruction with other participants and (5) distributing or facilitating procurement of equipment and supplies needed to get started. Recently, ABP group members have been working with physics educators from other countries to introduce active learning strategies in the developing world. New programs such as Active Learning in Optics and Photonics (ALOP, UNESCO) and Physware (ICTP/UNESCO/IUPAP), that support active learning using low-cost equipment, have been developed for this purpose. To date, ALOP workshops have been presented to over 500 secondary and college faculty in Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco, India, Tanzania, Brazil, Mexico, Zambia, Cameroon, Colombia, Nepal and Chile, and the ALOP Training Manual has been translated into French and Spanish. The first Physware workshop, held at ICTP in Trieste in 2009, had 32 participants most of whom were from developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. These programs will be described. )

Active-learning implementation in an advanced elective course on infectious diseases.

PubMed

Hidayat, Levita; Patel, Shreya; Veltri, Keith

2012-06-18

To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of an advanced elective course on infectious diseases using active-learning strategies. Pedagogy for active learning was incorporated by means of mini-lecture, journal club, and debate with follow-up discussion. Forty-eight students were enrolled in this 4-week elective course, in which 30% of course time was allocated for active-learning exercises. All activities were fundamentally designed as a stepwise approach in complementing each active-learning exercise. Achievement of the course learning objectives was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale survey instrument. Students' awareness of the significance of antimicrobial resistance was improved (p ≤ 0.05). Students' ability to critically evaluate the infectious-disease literature and its application in informed clinical judgments was also enhanced through these active-learning exercises (p ≤ 0.05). Students agreed that active learning should be part of the pharmacy curriculum and that active-learning exercises improved their critical-thinking, literature-evaluation, and self-learning skills. An elective course using active-learning strategies allowed students to combine information gained from the evaluation of infectious-disease literature, critical thinking, and informed clinical judgment. This blended approach ultimately resulted in an increased knowledge and awareness of infectious diseases.

Instructional Utility and Learning Efficacy of Common Active Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConell, David A.; Chapman, LeeAnna; Czaijka, C. Douglas; Jones, Jason P.; Ryker, Katherine D.; Wiggen, Jennifer

2017-01-01

The adoption of active learning instructional practices in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses has been shown to result in improvements in student learning, contribute to increased retention rates, and reduce the achievement gap among different student populations. Descriptions of active learning strategies…

Instructional Design, Active Learning, and Student Performance: Using a Trading Room to Teach Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Alice C.; Houghton, Susan M.; Rogers, Patrick R.

2012-01-01

This research used a quasi-experimental design with two conditions to test the impact of active learning in the context of integrated instructional design. The control condition was a traditional approach to teaching an undergraduate strategy capstone class. The intervention condition was an undergraduate strategy capstone class that was designed…

Active-learning Strategies for Legal Topics and Substance Abuse in a Pharmacy Curriculum.

PubMed

Steinhardt, Sarah J; Clark, John E; Kelly, William N; Hill, Angela M

2017-02-25

Objective. To implement active-learning strategies to engage students in learning, applying, and teaching legal and substance abuse topics. Design. Medication Safety course student groups created films on a National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) using a movie genre and presented them in film festival format. Pharmacogenomics course student groups taught ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) topics through presentation of short stories about comic book characters with genetic mutations. Students in the Drugs of Abuse course composed and performed dances depicting the mechanism of action of a drug in an in-class rave dance format. Assessment. Course evaluations revealed student engagement with subject material and enjoyment of the creative applications, critical thinking, and collaborative aspects of the activities. Students performed well on examination questions and graded assignments. Conclusion. These active-learning strategies facilitated students' abilities to learn, apply, and teach material in medication safety, pharmacogenomics, and substance abuse courses.

Active-learning Strategies for Legal Topics and Substance Abuse in a Pharmacy Curriculum

PubMed Central

Clark, John E.; Kelly, William N.; Hill, Angela M.

2017-01-01

Objective. To implement active-learning strategies to engage students in learning, applying, and teaching legal and substance abuse topics. Design. Medication Safety course student groups created films on a National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) using a movie genre and presented them in film festival format. Pharmacogenomics course student groups taught ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) topics through presentation of short stories about comic book characters with genetic mutations. Students in the Drugs of Abuse course composed and performed dances depicting the mechanism of action of a drug in an in-class rave dance format. Assessment. Course evaluations revealed student engagement with subject material and enjoyment of the creative applications, critical thinking, and collaborative aspects of the activities. Students performed well on examination questions and graded assignments. Conclusion. These active-learning strategies facilitated students’ abilities to learn, apply, and teach material in medication safety, pharmacogenomics, and substance abuse courses. PMID:28289294

Adopting reform-based pedagogy in post-secondary microbiology education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonner, Jeffery W.

Current emphasis on improving student learning and retention in post-secondary science education can potentially motivate veteran faculty to reconsider what is often a traditional, instructor-centered instructional model. Alternative models that foster a student-centered classroom environment are more aligned with research on how students learn. These models often incorporate active-learning opportunities that engage students in ways that passively taking notes in an instructor-centered classroom cannot. Although evidence is mounting that active-learning is an effective strategy for improving student learning and attitude, university professors, without formal pedagogical knowledge and training, can face uncertainty about where to start and how to implement these strategies. The research presented here was conducted in two parts under the same context during one semester of a post-secondary microbiology course. First, a quantitative study was conducted to compare collaborative and individual completion of a reform-based instructional strategy that utilized a student-centered, active-learning component. Students were evaluated on learning, critical thinking, and epistemological beliefs about biology. Results indicated no significant differences between treatment groups. Interestingly, the impact of active-learning implementations had positive effects on students' epistemological beliefs. This was a finding contradicting previous research in which epistemological beliefs became more novice-like in science majors enrolled in courses without an active-learning component. Study two represents one case in which a professor with a traditional instructional model became motivated to pursue instructional change in his introductory microbiology course. A single-case qualitative study was conducted to document the professor's initial effort at instructional reform. Results indicated that his utilization and understanding of reform-based instructional strategies improved over the course of one semester. Furthermore, this sustained effort of reform resulted in positive opinions developed by the professor regarding the use of reform-based instructional strategies in the future.

A New Comparison of Active Learning Strategies to Traditional Lectures for Teaching College Astronomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LoPresto, Michael C.; Slater, Timothy F.

2016-01-01

Although traditional lectures are still the dominant form of undergraduate instruction, there have been relatively few studies comparing various learner-centered and active learning teaching strategies to one another in order to guide professors in making informed instructional decisions. To study the impact of different active learning…

Focusing Teaching on Students: Examining Student Perceptions of Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lumpkin, Angela; Achen, Rebecca; Dodd, Regan

2015-01-01

This study examined undergraduate and graduate students' perceptions of the impact of in-class learning activities, out-of-class learning activities, and instructional materials on their learning. Using survey methodology, students anonymously assessed their perceptions of in-class activities, out-of-class activities, and instructional materials…

Evaluation of the role of incentive structure on student participation and performance in active learning strategies: A comparison of case-based and team-based learning.

PubMed

Carrasco, Gonzalo A; Behling, Kathryn C; Lopez, Osvaldo J

2018-04-01

Student participation is important for the success of active learning strategies, but participation is often linked to the level of preparation. At our institution, we use two types of active learning activities, a modified case-based learning exercise called active learning groups (ALG) and team-based learning (TBL). These strategies have different assessment and incentive structures for participation. Non-cognitive skills are assessed in ALG using a subjective five-point Likert scale. In TBL, assessment of individual student preparation is based on a multiple choice quiz conducted at the beginning of each session. We studied first-year medical student participation and performance in ALG and TBL as well as performance on course final examinations. Student performance in TBL, but not in ALG, was strongly correlated with final examination scores. Additionally, in students who performed in the upper 33rd percentile on the final examination, there was a positive correlation between final examination performance and participation in TBL and ALG. This correlation was not seen in students who performed in the lower 33rd percentile on the final examinations. Our results suggest that assessments of medical knowledge during active learning exercises could supplement non-cognitive assessments and could be good predictors of performance on summative examinations.

The relation between Assessment for Learning and elementary students' cognitive and metacognitive strategy use.

PubMed

Baas, Diana; Castelijns, Jos; Vermeulen, Marjan; Martens, Rob; Segers, Mien

2015-03-01

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is believed to create a rich learning environment in which students develop their cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Monitoring student growth and providing scaffolds that shed light on the next step in the learning process are hypothesized to be essential elements of AfL that enhance cognitive and metacognitive strategies. However, empirical evidence for the relation between AfL and students' strategy use is scarce. This study investigates the relation between AfL and elementary school students' use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The sample comprised 528 grade four to six students (9- to 12-year-olds) from seven Dutch elementary schools. Students' perceptions of AfL and their cognitive and metacognitive strategy use were measured by means of questionnaires. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the relations among the variables. The results reveal that monitoring activities that provide students an understanding of where they are in their learning process predict Students' task orientation and planning. Scaffolding activities that support students in taking the next step in their learning are positively related to the use of both surface and deep-level learning strategies and the extent to which they evaluate their learning process after performing tasks. The results underline the importance of assessment practices in ceding responsibility to students in taking control of their own learning. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Incorporating an Authentic Learning Strategy into Undergraduate Apparel and Merchandising Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Yoon Jin; Lee, Hyun-Hwa

2012-01-01

An authentic learning strategy fostering students' active learning was studied using the scenario of a real-world project. Students from two different classes at two different universities worked as clients or consultants to develop an apparel sourcing strategy. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from 44 undergraduates enrolled in…

Strategies in probabilistic feedback learning in Parkinson patients OFF medication.

PubMed

Bellebaum, C; Kobza, S; Ferrea, S; Schnitzler, A; Pollok, B; Südmeyer, M

2016-04-21

Studies on classification learning suggested that altered dopamine function in Parkinson's Disease (PD) specifically affects learning from feedback. In patients OFF medication, enhanced learning from negative feedback has been described. This learning bias was not seen in observational learning from feedback, indicating different neural mechanisms for this type of learning. The present study aimed to compare the acquisition of stimulus-response-outcome associations in PD patients OFF medication and healthy control subjects in active and observational learning. 16 PD patients OFF medication and 16 controls were examined with three parallel learning tasks each, two feedback-based (active and observational) and one non-feedback-based paired associates task. No acquisition deficit was seen in the patients for any of the tasks. More detailed analyses on the learning strategies did, however, reveal that the patients showed more lose-shift responses during active feedback learning than controls, and that lose-shift and win-stay responses more strongly determined performance accuracy in patients than controls. For observational feedback learning, the performance of both groups correlated similarly with the performance in non-feedback-based paired associates learning and with the accuracy of observed performance. Also, patients and controls showed comparable evidence of feedback processing in observational learning. In active feedback learning, PD patients use alternative learning strategies than healthy controls. Analyses on observational learning did not yield differences between patients and controls, adding to recent evidence of a differential role of the human striatum in active and observational learning from feedback. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The Relationship between Learning Style Preferences and Memory Strategy use in Adults.

PubMed

Dirette, Diane Powers; Anderson, Michele A

2016-07-01

Deficits in working memory are pervasive, resistant to remediation and significantly impact a persons ability to perform activities of daily living. Internal strategies are effective for improving working memory. Learning style preferences may influence the use of various internal working memory strategies. This study compares the use of internal working memory strategies among four different learning style preferences; converger, diverger, assimilator and accommodator. A non-experimental group design was used to compare the use of internal working memory strategies and learning style preferences among 110 adults. There were some significant differences in the types of strategies used according to learning style preferences. Knowing the learning style preference of clients may help occupational therapists better tailor cognitive rehabilitation treatments to meet the client's needs.

Teacher Knowledge for Active-Learning Instruction: Expert-Novice Comparison Reveals Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Auerbach, A. J.; Higgins, M.; Brickman, P.; Andrews, T. C.

2018-01-01

Active-learning strategies "can" improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates' abilities to learn fundamental concepts and skills. However, the results instructors achieve vary substantially. One explanation for this is that instructors commonly implement active learning differently than intended. An…

Effect of Error Augmentation on Brain Activation and Motor Learning of a Complex Locomotor Task

PubMed Central

Marchal-Crespo, Laura; Michels, Lars; Jaeger, Lukas; López-Olóriz, Jorge; Riener, Robert

2017-01-01

Up to date, the functional gains obtained after robot-aided gait rehabilitation training are limited. Error augmenting strategies have a great potential to enhance motor learning of simple motor tasks. However, little is known about the effect of these error modulating strategies on complex tasks, such as relearning to walk after a neurologic accident. Additionally, neuroimaging evaluation of brain regions involved in learning processes could provide valuable information on behavioral outcomes. We investigated the effect of robotic training strategies that augment errors—error amplification and random force disturbance—and training without perturbations on brain activation and motor learning of a complex locomotor task. Thirty-four healthy subjects performed the experiment with a robotic stepper (MARCOS) in a 1.5 T MR scanner. The task consisted in tracking a Lissajous figure presented on a display by coordinating the legs in a gait-like movement pattern. Behavioral results showed that training without perturbations enhanced motor learning in initially less skilled subjects, while error amplification benefited better-skilled subjects. Training with error amplification, however, hampered transfer of learning. Randomly disturbing forces induced learning and promoted transfer in all subjects, probably because the unexpected forces increased subjects' attention. Functional MRI revealed main effects of training strategy and skill level during training. A main effect of training strategy was seen in brain regions typically associated with motor control and learning, such as, the basal ganglia, cerebellum, intraparietal sulcus, and angular gyrus. Especially, random disturbance and no perturbation lead to stronger brain activation in similar brain regions than error amplification. Skill-level related effects were observed in the IPS, in parts of the superior parietal lobe (SPL), i.e., precuneus, and temporal cortex. These neuroimaging findings indicate that gait-like motor learning depends on interplay between subcortical, cerebellar, and fronto-parietal brain regions. An interesting observation was the low activation observed in the brain's reward system after training with error amplification compared to training without perturbations. Our results suggest that to enhance learning of a locomotor task, errors should be augmented based on subjects' skill level. The impacts of these strategies on motor learning, brain activation, and motivation in neurological patients need further investigation. PMID:29021739

The Validation of the Active Learning in Health Professions Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kammer, Rebecca; Schreiner, Laurie; Kim, Young K.; Denial, Aurora

2015-01-01

There is a need for an assessment tool for evaluating the effectiveness of active learning strategies such as problem-based learning in promoting deep learning and clinical reasoning skills within the dual environments of didactic and clinical settings in health professions education. The Active Learning in Health Professions Scale (ALPHS)…

Enhancing the Design and Analysis of Flipped Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Martin; Bokosmaty, Rena; Brown, Melanie; Browne, Chris; Gao, Qi; Hanson, Julie; Kupatadze, Ketevan

2017-01-01

There are numerous calls in the literature for research into the flipped learning approach to match the flood of popular media articles praising its impact on student learning and educational outcomes. This paper addresses those calls by proposing pedagogical strategies that promote active learning in "flipped" approaches and improved…

Active-Learning Implementation in an Advanced Elective Course on Infectious Diseases

PubMed Central

Patel, Shreya; Veltri, Keith

2012-01-01

Objectives. To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of an advanced elective course on infectious diseases using active-learning strategies. Design. Pedagogy for active learning was incorporated by means of mini-lecture, journal club, and debate with follow-up discussion. Forty-eight students were enrolled in this 4-week elective course, in which 30% of course time was allocated for active-learning exercises. All activities were fundamentally designed as a stepwise approach in complementing each active-learning exercise. Assessment. Achievement of the course learning objectives was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale survey instrument. Students’ awareness of the significance of antimicrobial resistance was improved (p ≤ 0.05). Students’ ability to critically evaluate the infectious-disease literature and its application in informed clinical judgments was also enhanced through these active-learning exercises (p ≤ 0.05). Students agreed that active learning should be part of the pharmacy curriculum and that active-learning exercises improved their critical-thinking, literature-evaluation, and self-learning skills. Conclusion. An elective course using active-learning strategies allowed students to combine information gained from the evaluation of infectious-disease literature, critical thinking, and informed clinical judgment. This blended approach ultimately resulted in an increased knowledge and awareness of infectious diseases. PMID:22761528

Enhancing Learning Performance and Adaptability for Complex Tasks

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-03-30

development of active learning interventions and techniques that influence the focus and quality of learner regulatory activity (Kozlowski Toney et al...what are the effects of these goal representations on learning strategies, performance, and adaptability? Can active learning inductions, that influence...and mindful process - active learning - are generally associated with improved skill acquisition and adaptability for complex tasks (Smith et al

Exploring In-Service Teachers' Perceptions on Values-Based Water Education via Interactive Instructional Strategies that Enhance Meaningful Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thoe, Ng Khar

2007-01-01

Instructional strategies determine the approaches an educator may take to achieve learning objectives. Research has shown that sets of strategies or instructional models anchored on social constructivist learning theories were found to be effective in enhancing active participation. It is particularly influential and meaningful in many areas of…

Modified Use of Team-Based Learning for Effective Delivery of Medical Gross Anatomy and Embryology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vasan, Nagaswami S.; DeFouw, David O.; Holland, Bart K.

2008-01-01

Team-based learning (TBL) is an instructional strategy that combines independent out-of-class preparation for in-class discussion in small groups. This approach has been successfully adopted by a number of medical educators. This strategy allowed us to eliminate anatomy lectures and incorporate small-group active learning. Although our strategy is…

The Implementation of Collaborative Learning Using AfL through Giving Feedback Strategy for Improving Students’ Attention to Mathematics Lesson

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurniasih, R.; Sujadi, I.; Pramesti, G.

2016-02-01

This research aims to describe the process of implementation collaborative learning with AfL through giving feedback strategy for improving students’ attention to mathematics lesson. Data which is collected in this research are students’ attention towards learning and students’ achievement. The result of this research showed that the learning steps by using collaborative learning with AfL through giving feedback strategy which can improve students’ attention are: 1) pre activity: the teacher delivers the purpose of the learning, successful criteria, apperception, and motivation. 2) main activity: the teacher gives the background of learning activity, explains learning materials at a glance, divides students discuss, the teacher observes and guides students to the problem solving, present their discussion result, gives feedback, the students do AfL problem and the answer is collected and result will be given before next meeting. 3) post activity: the teacher with students concludes the material. Test result, the percentage of students who complete the examination in the second cycle is 77.27%. Based on those results can be concluded that the implementation of collaborative learning using AfL through giving feedback can improve students’ attention towards learning and students’ achievement of XI IPA Students MA Al-Islam Jamsaren Surakarta academic year 2013/2014.

Effectiveness of Information Processing Strategy Training on Academic Task Performance in Children with Learning Disabilities: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Juntorn, Sutinun; Sriphetcharawut, Sarinya; Munkhetvit, Peeraya

2017-01-01

Learning disabilities (LD) can be associated with problems in the four stages of information processing used in learning: input, throughput, output, and feedback. These problems affect the child's ability to learn and perform activities in daily life, especially during academic activities. This study is a pilot study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of information processing strategy training using a combination of two approaches that address the ability to apply processing strategies during academic activities in children with LD. The two approaches are the Perceive, Recall, Plan, and Perform (PRPP) System of Intervention, which is a strategy training intervention, and the Four-Quadrant Model (4QM) of Facilitated Learning approach, which is a systematic facilitator technique. Twenty children with LD were assigned to two groups: the experimental group ( n = 10) and the control group ( n = 10). Children in the experimental group received the intervention twice a week for 6 consecutive weeks. Each treatment session took approximately 50 minutes. Children in the control group received traditional intervention twice a week for 6 consecutive weeks. The results indicated that the combination of the PRPP System of Intervention and the 4QM may improve the participants' ability to apply information processing strategies during academic activities.

Using Active-Learning Pedagogy to Develop Essay-Writing Skills in Introductory Political Theory Tutorials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Michael P. A.

2017-01-01

Building on prior research into active learning pedagogy in political science, I discuss the development of a new active learning strategy called the "thesis-building carousel," designed for use in political theory tutorials. This use of active learning pedagogy in a graduate student-led political theory tutorial represents the overlap…

Active Learning: The Importance of Developing a Comprehensive Measure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carr, Rodney; Palmer, Stuart; Hagel, Pauline

2015-01-01

This article reports on an investigation into the validity of a widely used scale for measuring the extent to which higher education students employ active learning strategies. The scale is the active learning scale in the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. This scale is based on the Active and Collaborative Learning scale of the National…

Active Learning and Cooperative Learning in the Organic Chemistry Lecture Class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paulson, Donald R.

1999-08-01

Faculty in the physical sciences are one of the academic groups least receptive to the use of active learning strategies and cooperative learning in their classrooms. This is particularly so in traditional lecture classes. It is the objective of this paper to show how effective these techniques can be in improving student performance in classes. The use of active learning strategies and cooperative learning groups in my organic chemistry lecture classes has increased the overall pass rate in my classes by an astounding 20-30% over the traditional lecture mode. This has been accomplished without any reduction in "standards". The actual methods employed are presented as well as a discussion of how I came to radically change the way I teach my classes.

Special Issues on Learning Strategies: Parallels and Contrasts between Australian and Chinese Tertiary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yao, Yuzuo

2017-01-01

Learning strategies are crucial to student learning in higher education. In this paper, there are comparisons of student engagement, feedback mechanism and workload arrangements at some typical universities in Australia and China, which are followed by practical suggestions for active learning. First, an inclusive class would allow learners from…

Triple Scheme of Learning Support Design for Scientific Discovery Learning Based on Computer Simulation: Experimental Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jianwei; Chen, Qi; Sun, Yanquing; Reid, David J.

2004-01-01

Learning support studies involving simulation-based scientific discovery learning have tended to adopt an ad hoc strategies-oriented approach in which the support strategies are typically pre-specified according to learners' difficulties in particular activities. This article proposes a more integrated approach, a triple scheme for learning…

Active Learning of Classification Models with Likert-Scale Feedback.

PubMed

Xue, Yanbing; Hauskrecht, Milos

2017-01-01

Annotation of classification data by humans can be a time-consuming and tedious process. Finding ways of reducing the annotation effort is critical for building the classification models in practice and for applying them to a variety of classification tasks. In this paper, we develop a new active learning framework that combines two strategies to reduce the annotation effort. First, it relies on label uncertainty information obtained from the human in terms of the Likert-scale feedback. Second, it uses active learning to annotate examples with the greatest expected change. We propose a Bayesian approach to calculate the expectation and an incremental SVM solver to reduce the time complexity of the solvers. We show the combination of our active learning strategy and the Likert-scale feedback can learn classification models more rapidly and with a smaller number of labeled instances than methods that rely on either Likert-scale labels or active learning alone.

Active Learning of Classification Models with Likert-Scale Feedback

PubMed Central

Xue, Yanbing; Hauskrecht, Milos

2017-01-01

Annotation of classification data by humans can be a time-consuming and tedious process. Finding ways of reducing the annotation effort is critical for building the classification models in practice and for applying them to a variety of classification tasks. In this paper, we develop a new active learning framework that combines two strategies to reduce the annotation effort. First, it relies on label uncertainty information obtained from the human in terms of the Likert-scale feedback. Second, it uses active learning to annotate examples with the greatest expected change. We propose a Bayesian approach to calculate the expectation and an incremental SVM solver to reduce the time complexity of the solvers. We show the combination of our active learning strategy and the Likert-scale feedback can learn classification models more rapidly and with a smaller number of labeled instances than methods that rely on either Likert-scale labels or active learning alone. PMID:28979827

Improved Student Learning through a Faculty Learning Community: How Faculty Collaboration Transformed a Large-Enrollment Course from Lecture to Student Centered

PubMed Central

Elliott, Emily R.; Reason, Robert D.; Coffman, Clark R.; Gangloff, Eric J.; Raker, Jeffrey R.; Powell-Coffman, Jo Anne; Ogilvie, Craig A.

2016-01-01

Undergraduate introductory biology courses are changing based on our growing understanding of how students learn and rapid scientific advancement in the biological sciences. At Iowa State University, faculty instructors are transforming a second-semester large-enrollment introductory biology course to include active learning within the lecture setting. To support this change, we set up a faculty learning community (FLC) in which instructors develop new pedagogies, adapt active-learning strategies to large courses, discuss challenges and progress, critique and revise classroom interventions, and share materials. We present data on how the collaborative work of the FLC led to increased implementation of active-learning strategies and a concurrent improvement in student learning. Interestingly, student learning gains correlate with the percentage of classroom time spent in active-learning modes. Furthermore, student attitudes toward learning biology are weakly positively correlated with these learning gains. At our institution, the FLC framework serves as an agent of iterative emergent change, resulting in the creation of a more student-centered course that better supports learning. PMID:27252298

Investigating the Effect of the Activities Based on Explanation Assisted REACT Strategy on Learning Impulse, Momentum and Collisions Topics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ültay, Eser; Alev, Nedim

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of explanation assisted REACT strategy which was based on context-based learning approach on prospective science teachers' (PSTs) learning in impulse, momentum and collisions topics. The sequential explanatory strategy within mixed methods design was employed in this study. The first phase of…

A response strategy predicts acquisition of schedule-induced polydipsia in rats.

PubMed

Gregory, James Gardner; Hawken, Emily R; Banasikowski, Tomek J; Dumont, Eric C; Beninger, Richard J

2015-08-03

Schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) is excessive, non-regulatory drinking. We aimed to identify phenotypic learning traits representative of neural circuitry that underlies SIP and hypothesized that rats that are response-learners will be more susceptible in developing compulsive water drinking. Using the Y-maze, the rats were characterized as either place- or response-learners. They were exposed to the SIP protocol for a period of 21days. Subsequent histological staining for FosB/ΔFosB examined neuronal activation associated with SIP in several brain regions. The rats with a preference for a response-learning strategy were more likely to develop SIP than the rats using a place-learning strategy. Furthermore amphetamine sensitization, observed to increase SIP, also shifted learning strategy to a response-learning strategy. No differences were observed in FosB/ΔFosB expression between SIP and non-SIP rats in the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) and CA1 region of the hippocampus. However, SIP rats had greater FosB/ΔFosB expression in prefrontal cortex regions. The rats that develop SIP have a preference for response-learning strategies and increased neuronal activation in frontal cortical regions associated with habit formation and compulsion. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Active-learning processes used in US pharmacy education.

PubMed

Stewart, David W; Brown, Stacy D; Clavier, Cheri W; Wyatt, Jarrett

2011-05-10

To document the type and extent of active-learning techniques used in US colleges and schools of pharmacy as well as factors associated with use of these techniques. A survey instrument was developed to assess whether and to what extent active learning was used by faculty members of US colleges and schools of pharmacy. This survey instrument was distributed via the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) mailing list. Ninety-five percent (114) of all US colleges and schools of pharmacy were represented with at least 1 survey among the 1179 responses received. Eighty-seven percent of respondents used active-learning techniques in their classroom activities. The heavier the teaching workload the more active-learning strategies were used. Other factors correlated with higher use of active-learning strategies included younger faculty member age (inverse relationship), lower faculty member rank (inverse relationship), and departments that focused on practice, clinical and social, behavioral, and/or administrative sciences. Active learning has been embraced by pharmacy educators and is used to some extent by the majority of US colleges and schools of pharmacy. Future research should focus on how active-learning methods can be used most effectively within pharmacy education, how it can gain even broader acceptance throughout the academy, and how the effect of active learning on programmatic outcomes can be better documented.

Applying Learning Analytics for the Early Prediction of Students' Academic Performance in Blended Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Owen H. T.; Huang, Anna Y. Q.; Huang, Jeff C. H.; Lin, Albert J. Q.; Ogata, Hiroaki; Yang, Stephen J. H.

2018-01-01

Blended learning combines online digital resources with traditional classroom activities and enables students to attain higher learning performance through well-defined interactive strategies involving online and traditional learning activities. Learning analytics is a conceptual framework and is a part of our Precision education used to analyze…

Opportunities to Create Active Learning Techniques in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camacho, Danielle J.; Legare, Jill M.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the growing body of research that focuses on active learning techniques. Active learning techniques require students to consider a given set of information, analyze, process, and prepare to restate what has been learned--all strategies are confirmed to improve higher order thinking skills. Active…

Actively Engaging Students in Asynchronous Online Classes. IDEA Paper #64

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riggs, Shannon A.; Linder, Kathryn E.

2016-01-01

Active learning activities and pedagogical strategies can look different in online learning environments, particularly in asynchronous courses when students are not interacting with the instructor, or with each other, in real time. This paper suggests a three-pronged approach for conceptualizing active learning in the online asynchronous class:…

Transforming Principles into Practice: Using Cognitive Active Learning Strategies in the High School Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swiderski, Suzanne M.

2011-01-01

High school teachers who engage students through active learning in their classrooms can more fully understand this instructional practice by examining the theories and strategies underlying the cognitive perspective of educational psychology, which addresses the development of knowledge in the individual mind. Two theoretical explanations,…

A Professional Learning Community Activity for Science Teachers: How to Incorporate Discourse-Rich Instructional Strategies into Science Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Elizabeth; Baker, Dale; Watts, Nievita Bueno; Lang, Michael

2014-01-01

In this article we describe current educational research underlying a comprehensive model for building a scientific classroom discourse community. We offer a professional development activity for a school-based professional learning community, providing specific science instructional strategies within this interactive teaching model. This design…

Shifting to Active Learning: Assessment of a First-Year Biology Course in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Downs, Colleen T.; Wilson, Amy-Leigh

2015-01-01

Large first-year class sizes have resulted in many lecturers adopting coping strategies consisting of direct-transmission mode teaching, reduced practical time, and assessment. Recently several strategies have been implemented in an attempt to improve student participation and active learning; however, these changes have to be facilitated and…

Use of Web Technology and Active Learning Strategies in a Quality Assessment Methods Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poirier, Therese I.; O'Neil, Christine K.

2000-01-01

The authors describe and evaluate quality assessment methods in a health care course that utilized web technology and various active learning strategies. The course was judged successful by student performance, evaluations and student assessments. The instructors were pleased with the outcomes achieved and the educational pedagogy used for this…

Mathematics Beliefs, Instructional Strategies, and Algebra Achievement of Adolescent Students in Japan: Results from the TIMSS 1999 Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

House, J. Daniel

2006-01-01

An important area for the application of instructional design is the development of effective teaching strategies for mathematics. Activities that include the use of computers, cooperative learning, and active learning materials are associated with mathematics achievement. Student self-beliefs are also significantly related to mathematics…

Striatal and Hippocampal Involvement in Motor Sequence Chunking Depends on the Learning Strategy

PubMed Central

Lungu, Ovidiu; Monchi, Oury; Albouy, Geneviève; Jubault, Thomas; Ballarin, Emanuelle; Burnod, Yves; Doyon, Julien

2014-01-01

Motor sequences can be learned using an incremental approach by starting with a few elements and then adding more as training evolves (e.g., learning a piano piece); conversely, one can use a global approach and practice the whole sequence in every training session (e.g., shifting gears in an automobile). Yet, the neural correlates associated with such learning strategies in motor sequence learning remain largely unexplored to date. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the cerebral activity of individuals executing the same 8-element sequence after they completed a 4-days training regimen (2 sessions each day) following either a global or incremental strategy. A network comprised of striatal and fronto-parietal regions was engaged significantly regardless of the learning strategy, whereas the global training regimen led to additional cerebellar and temporal lobe recruitment. Analysis of chunking/grouping of sequence elements revealed a common prefrontal network in both conditions during the chunk initiation phase, whereas execution of chunk cores led to higher mediotemporal activity (involving the hippocampus) after global than incremental training. The novelty of our results relate to the recruitment of mediotemporal regions conditional of the learning strategy. Thus, the present findings may have clinical implications suggesting that the ability of patients with lesions to the medial temporal lobe to learn and consolidate new motor sequences may benefit from using an incremental strategy. PMID:25148078

Striatal and hippocampal involvement in motor sequence chunking depends on the learning strategy.

PubMed

Lungu, Ovidiu; Monchi, Oury; Albouy, Geneviève; Jubault, Thomas; Ballarin, Emanuelle; Burnod, Yves; Doyon, Julien

2014-01-01

Motor sequences can be learned using an incremental approach by starting with a few elements and then adding more as training evolves (e.g., learning a piano piece); conversely, one can use a global approach and practice the whole sequence in every training session (e.g., shifting gears in an automobile). Yet, the neural correlates associated with such learning strategies in motor sequence learning remain largely unexplored to date. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the cerebral activity of individuals executing the same 8-element sequence after they completed a 4-days training regimen (2 sessions each day) following either a global or incremental strategy. A network comprised of striatal and fronto-parietal regions was engaged significantly regardless of the learning strategy, whereas the global training regimen led to additional cerebellar and temporal lobe recruitment. Analysis of chunking/grouping of sequence elements revealed a common prefrontal network in both conditions during the chunk initiation phase, whereas execution of chunk cores led to higher mediotemporal activity (involving the hippocampus) after global than incremental training. The novelty of our results relate to the recruitment of mediotemporal regions conditional of the learning strategy. Thus, the present findings may have clinical implications suggesting that the ability of patients with lesions to the medial temporal lobe to learn and consolidate new motor sequences may benefit from using an incremental strategy.

Dental Students' Study Habits in Flipped/Blended Classrooms and Their Association with Active Learning Practices.

PubMed

Gadbury-Amyot, Cynthia C; Redford, Gloria J; Bohaty, Brenda S

2017-12-01

In recognition of the importance for dental education programs to take a student-centered approach in which students are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning, a pediatric dentistry course redesign aimed at promoting greater active and self-directed learning was implemented at one U.S. dental school. The aim of this study was to examine the association between the students' self-reported study habits and active learning practices necessary for meaningful learning in the flipped/blended classroom. A convenience sample of two classes of second-year dental students in spring 2014 (SP14, n=106) and spring 2015 (SP15, n=106) was invited to participate in the study. Of the SP14 students, 84 participated, for a response rate of 79%; of the SP15 students, 94 participated, for a response rate of 87%. Students' self-reported responses to questions about study strategies with the prerecorded lecture materials and assigned reading materials were examined. Non-parametric analyses resulted in a cohort effect, so data are reported by class. In the SP15 class, 72% reported watching all/more than half of the prerecorded lectures versus 62% of the SP14 class, with a majority watching more than one lecture per week. In the SP15 cohort, 68% used active learning strategies when watching the lectures versus 58.3% of the SP14 cohort. The time of day preferred by the majority of both cohorts for interacting with course materials was 7-11 pm. Both SP14 and SP15 students reported being unlikely to read assigned materials prior to coming to class. Overall, the course redesign appeared to engage students in self-directed active learning. However, the degree to which active learning practices were taking place to achieve meaningful learning was questionable given students' self-reported study strategies. More work is needed to examine strategies for promoting study practices that will lead to meaningful learning.

Design, implementation and evaluation of innovative science teaching strategies for non-formal learning in a natural history museum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Çil, Emine; Maccario, Nihal; Yanmaz, Durmuş

2016-09-01

Background: Museums are useful educational resources in science teaching. Teaching strategies which promote hands-on activities, student-centred learning, and rich social interaction must be designed and implemented throughout the museum visit for effective science learning.

Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Collaborative Learning in a Differential Equations Mathematics Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hajra, Sayonita Ghosh; Das, Ujjaini

2015-01-01

This paper uses collaborative learning strategies to examine students' perceptions in a differential equations mathematics course. Students' perceptions were analyzed using three collaborative learning strategies including collaborative activity, group-quiz and online discussion. The study results show that students identified both strengths and…

The Impact of Students' Exploration Strategies on Discovery Learning Using Computer-Based Simulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalgarno, Barney; Kennedy, Gregor; Bennett, Sue

2014-01-01

Discovery-based learning designs incorporating active exploration are common within instructional software. However, researchers have highlighted empirical evidence showing that "pure" discovery learning is of limited value and strategies which reduce complexity and provide guidance to learners are important if potential learning…

The effect of encoding strategy on the neural correlates of memory for faces.

PubMed

Bernstein, Lori J; Beig, Sania; Siegenthaler, Amy L; Grady, Cheryl L

2002-01-01

Encoding and recognition of unfamiliar faces in young adults were examined using positron emission tomography to determine whether different encoding strategies would lead to encoding/retrieval differences in brain activity. Three types of encoding were compared: a 'deep' task (judging pleasantness/unpleasantness), a 'shallow' task (judging right/left orientation), and an intentional learning task in which subjects were instructed to learn the faces for a subsequent memory test but were not provided with a specific strategy. Memory for all faces was tested with an old/new recognition test. A modest behavioral effect was obtained, with deeply-encoded faces being recognized more accurately than shallowly-encoded or intentionally-learned faces. Regardless of encoding strategy, encoding activated a primarily ventral system including bilateral temporal and fusiform regions and left prefrontal cortices, whereas recognition activated a primarily dorsal set of regions including right prefrontal and parietal areas. Within encoding, the type of strategy produced different brain activity patterns, with deep encoding being characterized by left amygdala and left anterior cingulate activation. There was no effect of encoding strategy on brain activity during the recognition conditions. Posterior fusiform gyrus activation was related to better recognition accuracy in those conditions encouraging perceptual strategies, whereas activity in left frontal and temporal areas correlated with better performance during the 'deep' condition. Results highlight three important aspects of face memory: (1) the effect of encoding strategy was seen only at encoding and not at recognition; (2) left inferior prefrontal cortex was engaged during encoding of faces regardless of strategy; and (3) differential activity in fusiform gyrus was found, suggesting that activity in this area is not only a result of automatic face processing but is modulated by controlled processes.

The Relationship between Student Self-Regulation Strategies and Increased Student Achievement: A Study on How the Explicit Integration of Self-Regulation Strategies Impacts Student Reading Achievement in the Elementary Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egan, Patti A.

2017-01-01

Student ownership in learning is a topic that has become quite prevalent in recent years. While emphasis has grown on the importance of active student involvement in learning, integration of student self-regulation strategies is often absent in elementary classrooms. A paradigm shift that encourages active involvement of students in the learning…

Moments of movement: active learning and practice development.

PubMed

Dewing, Jan

2010-01-01

As our understanding of practice development becomes more sophisticated, we enhance our understanding of how the facilitation of learning in and from practice, can be more effectively achieved. This paper outlines an approach for enabling and maximizing learning within practice development known as 'Active Learning'. It considers how, given establishing a learning culture is a prerequisite for the sustainability of PD within organisations, practice developers can do more to maximize learning for practitioners and other stakeholders. Active Learning requires that more attention be given by organisations committed to PD, at a corporate and strategic level for how learning strategies are developed in the workplace. Specifically, a move away from a heavy reliance on training may be required. Practice development facilitators also need to review: how they organise and offer learning, so that learning strategies are consistent with the vision, aims and processes of PD; have skills in the planning, delivery and evaluation of learning as part of their role and influence others who provide more traditional methods of training and education.

A Low-Technology Strategy for Increasing Engagement of Students with Autism and Significant Learning Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnahan, Christi; Basham, James; Musti-Rao, Shobana

2009-01-01

Active engagement is critical to promote learning for students with autism. Although evidence-based strategies exist for promoting engagement for individual students with autism, there are few strategies designed for use with small groups. This study used an ABCAC design to assess the effects of a low-technology use strategy, namely interactive…

Young doctors' problem solving strategies on call may be improved.

PubMed

Michelsen, Jens; Malchow-Møller, Axel; Charles, Peder; Eika, Berit

2013-03-01

The first year following graduation from medical school is challenging as learning from books changes to workplace-based learning. Analysis and reflection on experience may ease this transition. We used Significant Event Analysis (SEA) as a tool to explore what pre-registration house officers (PRHOs) consider successful and problematic events, and to identify what problem-solving strategies they employ. A senior house officer systematically led the PRHO through the SEA of one successful and one problematic event following a night call. The PRHO wrote answers to questions about diagnosis, what happened, how he or she contributed and what knowledge-gaining activities the PRHO would prioritise before the next call. By using an inductive, thematic data analysis, we identified five problem-solving strategies: non-analytical reasoning, analytical reasoning, communication with patients, communication with colleagues and professional behaviour. On average, 1.5 strategies were used in the successful events and 1.2 strategies in the problematic events. Most PRHOs were unable to suggest activities other than reading textbooks. SEA was valuable for the identification of PRHOs' problem-solving strategies in a natural setting. PRHOs should be assisted in increasing their repertoire of strategies, and they should also be helped to "learn to learn" as they were largely unable to point to new learning strategies. not relevant. not relevant.

The Connection between Teaching and Learning: Linking Teaching Quality and Metacognitive Strategy Use in Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rieser, Svenja; Naumann, Alexander; Decristan, Jasmin; Fauth, Benjamin; Klieme, Eckhard; Büttner, Gerhard

2016-01-01

Background: In order for teaching to be successful, students need to be actively involved in learning. However, research on teaching effectiveness often neglects students' learning activities. Although it is assumed that effective teaching promotes the use of beneficial learning activities, empirical evidence for this connection is still limited.…

Improving Student Engagement in a Lower-Division Botany Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldberg, Nisse A.; Ingram, Kathleen W.

2011-01-01

Active-learning techniques have been advocated as a means to promote student engagement in lower-division biology courses. In this case study, mini-lectures in combination with active-learning activities were evaluated as strategies to promote a culture of learning and participation in a required botany course. These activities were designed to…

Effects of Image-Based and Text-Based Active Learning Exercises on Student Examination Performance in a Musculoskeletal Anatomy Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, M. Melissa; Wright, Mary C.; Anderson, Olivia S.

2017-01-01

Research on the benefits of visual learning has relied primarily on lecture-based pedagogy, but the potential benefits of combining active learning strategies with visual and verbal materials on learning anatomy has not yet been explored. In this study, the differential effects of text-based and image-based active learning exercises on examination…

The Flipped Classroom: An active teaching and learning strategy for making the sessions more interactive and challenging.

PubMed

Sultan, Amber Shamim

2018-04-01

Flipping the classroom is a pedagogical model that employs easy to use, readily accessible technology based resources such as video lectures, reading handouts, and practice problems outside the classroom, whereas interactive group-based, problem-solving activities conducted in the classroom. This strategy permits for an extended range of learning activities during the session. Using class time for active learning provides greater opportunity for mentoring and peer to peer collaboration. Instead of spending too much time on delivering lectures, class time can best be utilized by interacting with students, discussing their concerns related to the particular topic to be taught, providing real life examples relevant to the course content, challenging students to think in a broader aspect about complex process and encouraging different team based learning activities.

Understanding Fatty Acid Metabolism through an Active Learning Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fardilha, M.; Schrader, M.; da Cruz e Silva, O. A. B.; da Cruz e Silva, E. F.

2010-01-01

A multi-method active learning approach (MALA) was implemented in the Medical Biochemistry teaching unit of the Biomedical Sciences degree at the University of Aveiro, using problem-based learning as the main learning approach. In this type of learning strategy, students are involved beyond the mere exercise of being taught by listening. Less…

The Library's role and challenges in implementing an e-learning strategy: a case study from northern Australia.

PubMed

Ritchie, Ann

2011-03-01

  The Northern Territory Department of Health and Families' (DHF) Library supports education programs for all staff. DHF is implementing an e-learning strategy, which may be viewed as a vehicle for coordinating the education function throughout the organisation.   The objective of this study is to explore the concept of e-learning in relation to the Library's role in implementing an organisation-wide e-learning strategy.   The main findings of a literature search about the effectiveness of e-learning in health professionals' education, and the responsibility and roles of health librarians in e-learning are described. A case study approach is used to outline the current role and future opportunities and challenges for the Library.   The case study presents the organisation's strategic planning context. Four areas of operational activity which build on the Library's current educational activities are suggested: the integration of library resources 'learning objects' within a Learning Management System; developing online health information literacy training programs; establishing a physical and virtual 'e-Learning Library/Centre'; developing collaborative partnerships, taking on new responsibilities in e-learning development, and creating a new e-learning librarian role.   The study shows that the Library's role is fundamental to developing the organisation's e-learning capacity and implementing an organisation-wide e-learning strategy. © 2010 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2010 Health Libraries Group.

The Intersection between Out-of-Class Language Learning Strategies and In-Class Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saad, Noor Saazai Mat; Yunus, Melor Md; Embi, Mohamed Amin

2013-01-01

Studies on out-of-class language learning strategies (OCLLSs) are usually divorced from the activities in class. Thus, this study addresses the connection of the two entities. The participants in this study were nine international postgraduate students who were undergoing their English language proficiency course in an institution in Malaysia.…

Interaction between Gaming and Multistage Guiding Strategies on Students' Field Trip Mobile Learning Performance and Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Hung; Liu, Guan-Zhi; Hwang, Gwo-Jen

2016-01-01

In this study, an integrated gaming and multistage guiding approach was proposed for conducting in-field mobile learning activities. A mobile learning system was developed based on the proposed approach. To investigate the interaction between the gaming and guiding strategies on students' learning performance and motivation, a 2 × 2 experiment was…

The Value of Indirect Teaching Strategies in Enhancing Student-Coaches’ Learning Engagement

PubMed Central

Mesquita, Isabel; Coutinho, Patrícia; De Martin-Silva, Luciana; Parente, Bruno; Faria, Mário; Afonso, José

2015-01-01

This study aimed to examine the indirect teaching strategies adopted by a coach educator in terms of promoting student-coaches’ engagement in a positive and active learning environment. The participants were an expert coach educator and seven student-coaches from an academic coaching setting. A mix method approach was used to collect data. Whilst video-recording and participant observations were used to collect data from the lessons, focus groups were adopted to recall the perceptions of student-coaches. The results showed that indirect teaching strategies (i.e., asking questions, showing signs of autonomy by monitoring the pace at which they completed tasks and actively engaging in the search for solutions to tasks) implemented by the coach educator promoted a supportive and challenging learning environment which, in turn, encouraged student-coaches to be more actively involved in the lessons. Additionally, the affective aspects of the relationship established with student-coaches (tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, physical contact and humor) led them to feel confident in exposing their doubts and opinions, and in learning in a more autonomous manner. Moreover, the practical lessons proved to be crucial in helping student-coaches to reach broader and deeper forms of understanding by allowing the application of theory to coaching practice. In conclusion, this study reinforces the value of indirect teaching strategies to stimulate an active learning environment. It further highlights the value of practical learning environments to better prepare neophyte coaches for dealing with the complex and dynamic nature of their professional reality. Key points Both instructional and affective teaching indirect strategies used by the coach educator promoted a positive and challenging learning environment to student-coaches. The directness profile used by this coach educator (questioning, giving autonomy for problem solving and responsibility to regulate the learning tasks development) promoted the awareness and the ability of student-coaches to explore alternative solutions and self-regulate their own learning. Using humor, touch, gestures and tone of voice, the coach educator showed great care for student-coaches, which impacted positively on their enthusiasm, confidence and desire to be actively engaged in their own learning. PMID:26336354

Student Perceptions of Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lumpkin, Angela; Achen, Rebecca M.; Dodd, Regan K.

2015-01-01

A paradigm shift from lecture-based courses to interactive classes punctuated with engaging, student-centered learning activities has begun to characterize the work of some teachers in higher education. Convinced through the literature of the values of using active learning strategies, we assessed through an action research project in five college…

Evaluating Active Learning: A New Initiative for a General Chemistry Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Sullivan, Daniel W.; Copper, Christine L.

2003-01-01

Explains the results of an effort to introduce active learning strategies into the general chemistry curriculum at the United States Naval Academy. Reports that students in an active learning classroom showed significant improvement in performance compared to students in a lecture-based course. (Author/YDS)

Active-Learning Processes Used in US Pharmacy Education

PubMed Central

Brown, Stacy D.; Clavier, Cheri W.; Wyatt, Jarrett

2011-01-01

Objective To document the type and extent of active-learning techniques used in US colleges and schools of pharmacy as well as factors associated with use of these techniques. Methods A survey instrument was developed to assess whether and to what extent active learning was used by faculty members of US colleges and schools of pharmacy. This survey instrument was distributed via the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) mailing list. Results Ninety-five percent (114) of all US colleges and schools of pharmacy were represented with at least 1 survey among the 1179 responses received. Eighty-seven percent of respondents used active-learning techniques in their classroom activities. The heavier the teaching workload the more active-learning strategies were used. Other factors correlated with higher use of active-learning strategies included younger faculty member age (inverse relationship), lower faculty member rank (inverse relationship), and departments that focused on practice, clinical and social, behavioral, and/or administrative sciences. Conclusions Active learning has been embraced by pharmacy educators and is used to some extent by the majority of US colleges and schools of pharmacy. Future research should focus on how active-learning methods can be used most effectively within pharmacy education, how it can gain even broader acceptance throughout the academy, and how the effect of active learning on programmatic outcomes can be better documented. PMID:21769144

Implementing Peer Learning in Clinical Education: A Framework to Address Challenges In the "Real World".

PubMed

Tai, Joanna Hong Meng; Canny, Benedict J; Haines, Terry P; Molloy, Elizabeth K

2017-01-01

Phenomenon: Peer learning has many benefits and can assist students in gaining the educational skills required in future years when they become teachers themselves. Peer learning may be particularly useful in clinical learning environments, where students report feeling marginalized, overwhelmed, and unsupported. Educational interventions often fail in the workplace environment, as they are often conceived in the "ideal" rather than the complex, messy real world. This work sought to explore barriers and facilitators to implementing peer learning activities in a clinical curriculum. Previous peer learning research results and a matrix of empirically derived peer learning activities were presented to local clinical education experts to generate discussion around the realities of implementing such activities. Potential barriers and limitations of and strategies for implementing peer learning in clinical education were the focus of the individual interviews. Thematic analysis of the data identified three key considerations for real-world implementation of peer learning: culture, epistemic authority, and the primacy of patient-centered care. Strategies for peer learning implementation were also developed from themes within the data, focusing on developing a culture of safety in which peer learning could be undertaken, engaging both educators and students, and establishing expectations for the use of peer learning. Insights: This study identified considerations and strategies for the implementation of peer learning activities, which took into account both educator and student roles. Reported challenges were reflective of those identified within the literature. The resultant framework may aid others in anticipating implementation challenges. Further work is required to test the framework's application in other contexts and its effect on learner outcomes.

Flow Navigation by Smart Microswimmers via Reinforcement Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colabrese, Simona; Biferale, Luca; Celani, Antonio; Gustavsson, Kristian

2017-11-01

We have numerically modeled active particles which are able to acquire some limited knowledge of the fluid environment from simple mechanical cues and exert a control on their preferred steering direction. We show that those swimmers can learn effective strategies just by experience, using a reinforcement learning algorithm. As an example, we focus on smart gravitactic swimmers. These are active particles whose task is to reach the highest altitude within some time horizon, exploiting the underlying flow whenever possible. The reinforcement learning algorithm allows particles to learn effective strategies even in difficult situations when, in the absence of control, they would end up being trapped by flow structures. These strategies are highly nontrivial and cannot be easily guessed in advance. This work paves the way towards the engineering of smart microswimmers that solve difficult navigation problems. ERC AdG NewTURB 339032.

Debate: a teaching-learning strategy for developing competence in communication and critical thinking.

PubMed

Darby, Michele

2007-01-01

The literature highlights key benefits from debate as a teaching-learning strategy for developing critical thinking and analytical skills while fostering teamwork and communication. Authors report that this method of teaching-learning has been implemented successfully in nursing and occupational therapy programs and would benefit other academic programs in the health sciences, particularly in courses that cover controversial issues. Although there are disadvantages to using the debate as a teaching-learning strategy, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. In conclusion, debating is an effective pedagogical strategy because of the level of responsibility for learning and active involvement required by all student debaters. Moreover, it provides an experience by which students can develop competencies in researching current issues, preparing logical arguments, actively listening to various perspectives, differentiating between subjective and evidence-based information, asking cogent questions, integrating relevant information, and formulating their own opinions based on evidence. After the debate is over, students also report that the experience is FUN!

Performance in Physiology Evaluation: Possible Improvement by Active Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montrezor, Luís H.

2016-01-01

The evaluation process is complex and extremely important in the teaching/learning process. Evaluations are constantly employed in the classroom to assist students in the learning process and to help teachers improve the teaching process. The use of active methodologies encourages students to participate in the learning process, encourages…

Activating Metacognition through Online Learning Log (OLL)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurt, Mustafa

2007-01-01

This study aims to investigate the activation process of metacognition of learners who systematically reflect on their learning using Online Learning Logs (OLL) which were designed to encourage them to think about learning. The study is qualitative and attempts to identify the metacognitive strategies of learners and their attitudes towards OLL.…

The effect of active learning on college students' achievement, motivation, and self-efficacy in a human physiology course for non-majors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilke, Roger Russell

2000-10-01

This study investigated the effects active learning strategies had on college students' achievement, motivation, and self-efficacy, in a human physiology course for non-majors. A continuum-based active learning instructional model was implemented over the course of a semester to assess the effects on the variables and specific student outcomes of learning mentioned above. In addition analyses were conducted to explore what learner characteristics contributed to the successful implementation of the model such as students' gender, classification, major, grade point average, ACT and SAT scores, motivation, and self-efficacy. A quasi-experimental, Solomon-4 Group design was undertaken on 171 students in a small west-Texas university. Treatment groups were taught using the model while controls were taught using traditional lecture methods. Students were administered a comprehensive physiology content exam, sections of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and attitude surveys to assess the effects of the continuum-based active learning strategies. Factorial analyses indicated the treatment group acquired significantly more content knowledge and were significantly more self-efficacious than students in the control group. There were no significant differences in motivation. Factorial and modified regression analyses in the aptitude by treatment interaction exploration determined that males in the treatment group performed significantly better on the comprehensive physiology content exam versus males in the control group. While females performed better overall than males, there were no significant differences in achievement between females in the treatment group and those in the control. No significant interactions were found for the other learner characteristics. The results also indicated that students' general cognitive ability as measured by their grade point average, ACT, and SAT scores and their self-efficacy contributed significantly to their achievement. Attitude surveys indicated that students in both the treatment and control groups demonstrated a positive attitude toward active learning, believed it helped them to learn the material, and would choose an active learning course in the future if given the opportunity. This study demonstrated that continuum-based active learning strategies used in this context, improved students' content acquisition and self-efficacy and had wide applicability with a number of learner characteristics.

Faculty motivations to use active learning among pharmacy educators.

PubMed

Rockich-Winston, Nicole; Train, Brian C; Rudolph, Michael J; Gillette, Chris

2018-03-01

Faculty motivations to use active learning have been limited to surveys evaluating faculty perceptions within active learning studies. Our objective in this study was to evaluate the relationship between faculty intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and demographic variables and the extent of active learning use in the classroom. An online survey was administered to individual faculty members at 137 colleges and schools of pharmacy across the United States. The survey assessed intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, active learning strategies, classroom time dedicated to active learning, and faculty development resources. Bivariate associations and multivariable stepwise linear regression were used to analyze the results. In total, 979 faculty members completed the questionnaire (23.6% response rate). All motivation variables were significantly correlated with percent active learning use (p < 0.001). Intrinsic motivation demonstrated the highest correlation (r = 0.447) followed by current extrinsic motivations (r = 0.245) and ideal extrinsic motivations (r = 0.291). Variables associated with higher intrinsic motivation included the number of resources used (r = 0.233, p < 0.001) and the number of active learning methods used in the last year (r = 0.259, p < 0.001). Years of teaching experience was negatively associated with intrinsic motivation (r = -0.177, p < 0.001). Regression analyses confirmed the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in predicting active learning use. Our results suggest that faculty members who are intrinsically motivated to use active learning are more likely to dedicate additional class time to active learning. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation may be positively associated with encouraging faculty members to attend active learning workshops and supporting faculty to use various active learning strategies in the classroom. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Learning from an Enterprise Simulation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawyer, John E.; Gopinath, C.

1999-01-01

A computer simulation used in teams by 151 business students tested their ability to translate strategy into decisions. Over eight weeks, the experiential learning activity encouraged strategic decision making and group behavior consistent with long-term strategy. (SK)

A Waterfall Design Strategy for Using Social Media for Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahern, Terence C.

2016-01-01

Using social media can create a rich learning environment that crosses all content areas. The key to creating this environment is for instructors and designers to match appropriate social media software with the intended learning outcome. This article describes an instructional design strategy that helps educators create learning activities that…

Beyond Chalk and Talk: Engaging Students in the Learning Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Ruby

Teaching and learning in the traditional classroom continues to evolve in the presence of technological innovation. This paper highlights basic strategies in which the traditional classroom can be modified to involve students more actively in the teaching and learning process. One of the strategies outlined in this paper includes the incorporation…

Training and Educating Army Officers for the 21st Century: Implications for the United States Military Academy.

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-03-11

Characteristics of Active Learning 24 Vll Vlll The world is facing a paradigm shift as we enter an Information Age characterized by rapid change...general, their teaching philosophy is 22 rapidly moving toward promoting active learning through stimulating student/faculty intellectual interaction...College Teaching, November 1995. Similarly, characteristics of active learning are emphasized (Table 2) .55 These types of active learning strategies

Sex and estrous cycle differences in immediate early gene activation in the hippocampus and the dorsal striatum after the cue competition task.

PubMed

Yagi, Shunya; Drewczynski, Dimka; Wainwright, Steven R; Barha, Cindy K; Hershorn, Olivia; Galea, Liisa A M

2017-01-01

The hippocampus and dorsal striatum are important structures involved in place and response learning strategies respectively. Both sex and estrous cycle phase differences in learning strategy preference exist following cue competition paradigms. Furthermore, significant effects of sex and learning strategy on hippocampal neural plasticity have been reported. However, associations between learning strategy and immediate early gene (IEG) expression in the hippocampus and dorsal striatum are not completely understood. In the current study we investigated the effects of sex and estrous cycle phase on strategy choice and IEG expression in the hippocampus and dorsal striatum of rats following cue competition training in the Morris water maze. We found that proestrous rats were more likely to choose a place strategy than non-proestrous or male rats. Although male cue strategy users travelled greater distances than the other groups on the first day of training, there were no other sex or strategy differences in the ability to reach a hidden or a visible platform. Female place strategy users exhibited greater zif268 expression and male place strategy users exhibited greater cFos expression compared to all other groups in CA3. Furthermore, cue strategy users had greater expression of cFos in the dorsal striatum than place strategy users. Shorter distances to reach a visible platform were associated with less activation of cFos in CA3 and CA1 of male place strategy users. Our findings indicate multiple differences in brain activation with sex and strategy use, despite limited behavioral differences between the sexes on this cue competition paradigm. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How we value the future affects our desire to learn.

PubMed

Moore, Alana L; Hauser, Cindy E; McCarthy, Michael A

2008-06-01

Active adaptive management is increasingly advocated in natural resource management and conservation biology. Active adaptive management looks at the benefit of employing strategies that may be suboptimal in the near term but which may provide additional information that will facilitate better management in future years. However, when comparing management policies it is traditional to weigh future rewards geometrically (at a constant discount rate) which results in far-distant rewards making a negligible contribution to the total benefit. Under such a discounting scheme active adaptive management is rarely of much benefit, especially if learning is slow. A growing number of authors advocate the use of alternative forms of discounting when evaluating optimal strategies for long-term decisions which have a social component. We consider a theoretical harvested population for which the recovery rate from an unharvestably small population size is unknown and look at the effects on the benefit of experimental management when three different forms of discounting are employed. Under geometric discounting, with a discount rate of 5% per annum, managing to learn actively had little benefit. This study demonstrates that discount functions which weigh future rewards more heavily result in more conservative harvesting strategies, but do not necessarily encourage active learning. Furthermore, the optimal management strategy is not equivalent to employing geometric discounting at a lower rate. If alternative discount functions are made mandatory in calculating optimal management strategies for environmental management then this will affect the structure of optimal management regimes and change when and how much we are willing to invest in learning.

A comparison of professional-level faculty and student perceptions of active learning: its current use, effectiveness, and barriers.

PubMed

Miller, Cynthia J; Metz, Michael J

2014-09-01

Active learning is an instructional method in which students become engaged participants in the classroom through the use of in-class written exercises, games, problem sets, audience-response systems, debates, class discussions, etc. Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of active learning strategies, minimal adoption of the technique has occurred in many professional programs. The goal of this study was to compare the perceptions of active learning between students who were exposed to active learning in the classroom (n = 116) and professional-level physiology faculty members (n = 9). Faculty members reported a heavy reliance on lectures and minimal use of educational games and activities, whereas students indicated that they learned best via the activities. A majority of faculty members (89%) had observed active learning in the classroom and predicted favorable effects of the method on student performance and motivation. The main reported barriers by faculty members to the adoption of active learning were a lack of necessary class time, a high comfort level with traditional lectures, and insufficient time to develop materials. Students hypothesized similar obstacles for faculty members but also associated many negative qualities with the traditional lecturers. Despite these barriers, a majority of faculty members (78%) were interested in learning more about the alternative teaching strategy. Both faculty members and students indicated that active learning should occupy portions (29% vs. 40%) of face-to-face class time. Copyright © 2014 The American Physiological Society.

A comparison of professional-level faculty and student perceptions of active learning: its current use, effectiveness, and barriers

PubMed Central

Metz, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Active learning is an instructional method in which students become engaged participants in the classroom through the use of in-class written exercises, games, problem sets, audience-response systems, debates, class discussions, etc. Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of active learning strategies, minimal adoption of the technique has occurred in many professional programs. The goal of this study was to compare the perceptions of active learning between students who were exposed to active learning in the classroom (n = 116) and professional-level physiology faculty members (n = 9). Faculty members reported a heavy reliance on lectures and minimal use of educational games and activities, whereas students indicated that they learned best via the activities. A majority of faculty members (89%) had observed active learning in the classroom and predicted favorable effects of the method on student performance and motivation. The main reported barriers by faculty members to the adoption of active learning were a lack of necessary class time, a high comfort level with traditional lectures, and insufficient time to develop materials. Students hypothesized similar obstacles for faculty members but also associated many negative qualities with the traditional lecturers. Despite these barriers, a majority of faculty members (78%) were interested in learning more about the alternative teaching strategy. Both faculty members and students indicated that active learning should occupy portions (29% vs. 40%) of face-to-face class time. PMID:25179615

CBSS Outreach Project: Computer-Based Study Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson-Inman, Lynne; Ditson, Mary

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of the four-year Computer-Based Study Strategies (CBSS) Outreach Project at the University of Oregon. This project disseminated information about using computer-based study strategies as an intervention for students with learning disabilities and provided teachers in participating outreach…

An Investigation into the Management of Online Teaching and Learning Spaces: A Case Study Involving Graduate Research Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jowallah, Rohan

2014-01-01

This research evaluates the strategies implemented to support the research activities of postgraduate students pursuing online master's programs in the University of the West Indies Open Campus, as well as the activities of their supervisors. The three main strategies employed were (1) the use of a web-based "teaching-learning space" to…

An Examination of Undergraduates' Metacognitive Strategies in Pre-Class Asynchronous Activity in a Flipped Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yilmaz, Rabia M.; Baydas, Ozlem

2017-01-01

The aim of the study is to examine undergraduate students' awareness of metacognition, the metacognitive strategies they use in their learning and their learning performance in pre-class asynchronous activity in a flipped classroom. The sample consisted of 47 undergraduate students. Eleven students were not included in this study since they did…

Point-of-Purchase Advertising. Learning Activity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shackelford, Ray

1998-01-01

In this technology education activity, students learn the importance of advertising, conduct a day-long survey of advertising strategies, and design and produce a tabletop point-of-purchase advertisement. (JOW)

Teaching Diversity and Aging through Active Learning Strategies: An Annotated Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fried, Stephen B.; Mehrotra, Chandra M.

Covering 10 topical areas, this annotated bibliography offers a guide to journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and books useful for teaching diversity and aging through active learning. Active learning experiences may help expand students' awareness of elements of their own diversity, broaden their world view, and enhance their culturally…

The Flipped Classroom: An Opportunity to Engage Millennial Students through Active Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roehl, Amy; Reddy, Shweta Linga; Shannon, Gayla Jett

2013-01-01

"Flipping" the classroom employs easy-to-use, readily accessible technology in order to free class time from lecture. This allows for an expanded range of learning activities during class time. Using class time for active learning versus lecture provides opportunities for greater teacher-to-student mentoring, peer-to-peer collaboration…

The Effect of Cooperative Learning Method and Systematic Teaching on Students' Achievement and Retention of Knowledge in Social Studies Lesson

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korkmaz Toklucu, Selma; Tay, Bayram

2016-01-01

Problem Statement: Many effective instructional strategies, methods, and techniques, which were developed in accordance with constructivist approach, can be used together in social studies lessons. Constructivist education comprises active learning processes. Two active learning approaches are cooperative learning and systematic teaching. Purpose…

Adaptive Learning and Reduced Cognitive Uncertainty in a Financial Organization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antonsen, Yngve; Thunberg, Odd Arne; Tiller, Tom

2010-01-01

Purpose: This paper analyses and discusses the "learning activities" that comprise obligatory learning at work by employees each month. The management strategy is to use these learning activities to spread knowledge, exchange experience and implement new skills within the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question:…

Empowering Students in the Process of Social Inquiry Learning through Flipping the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jong, Morris Siu-Yung

2017-01-01

The "flipped classroom" is an educational strategy about inverting the traditional use of in-class time for conducting lower-level learning activities and out-of-class time for conducting higher-level learning activities. "Guided social inquiry learning" (GSIL), which is a scaffolded constructivist pedagogic approach, has been…

Active learning reduces annotation time for clinical concept extraction.

PubMed

Kholghi, Mahnoosh; Sitbon, Laurianne; Zuccon, Guido; Nguyen, Anthony

2017-10-01

To investigate: (1) the annotation time savings by various active learning query strategies compared to supervised learning and a random sampling baseline, and (2) the benefits of active learning-assisted pre-annotations in accelerating the manual annotation process compared to de novo annotation. There are 73 and 120 discharge summary reports provided by Beth Israel institute in the train and test sets of the concept extraction task in the i2b2/VA 2010 challenge, respectively. The 73 reports were used in user study experiments for manual annotation. First, all sequences within the 73 reports were manually annotated from scratch. Next, active learning models were built to generate pre-annotations for the sequences selected by a query strategy. The annotation/reviewing time per sequence was recorded. The 120 test reports were used to measure the effectiveness of the active learning models. When annotating from scratch, active learning reduced the annotation time up to 35% and 28% compared to a fully supervised approach and a random sampling baseline, respectively. Reviewing active learning-assisted pre-annotations resulted in 20% further reduction of the annotation time when compared to de novo annotation. The number of concepts that require manual annotation is a good indicator of the annotation time for various active learning approaches as demonstrated by high correlation between time rate and concept annotation rate. Active learning has a key role in reducing the time required to manually annotate domain concepts from clinical free text, either when annotating from scratch or reviewing active learning-assisted pre-annotations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a Mobile Learning System Based on a Collaborative Problem-Posing Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Han-Yu; Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Chang, Ya-Chi

2016-01-01

In this study, a problem-posing strategy is proposed for supporting collaborative mobile learning activities. Accordingly, a mobile learning environment has been developed, and an experiment on a local culture course has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Three classes of an elementary school in southern Taiwan…

Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Innovative Science Teaching Strategies for Non-Formal Learning in a Natural History Museum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çil, Emine; Maccario, Nihal; Yanmaz, Durmus

2016-01-01

Background: Museums are useful educational resources in science teaching. Teaching strategies which promote hands-on activities, student-centred learning, and rich social interaction must be designed and implemented throughout the museum visit for effective science learning. Purpose: This study aimed to design and implement innovative teaching…

Influences on Peer Evaluation in a Group Project: An Exploration of Leadership, Demographics and Course Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dingel, Molly; Wei, Wei

2014-01-01

Collaborative learning strategies are widely used in higher education to deepen learning, promote team-building skills and achieve course learning objectives. Using peer evaluation is an important strategy to ensure that engaged and active students are rewarded for their efforts, and to discourage loafing within groups. However, less is known…

Let's Cooperate! Integrating Cooperative Learning Into a Lesson on Ethics.

PubMed

Reineke, Patricia R

2017-04-01

Cooperative learning is an effective teaching strategy that promotes active participation in learning and can be used in academic, clinical practice, and professional development settings. This article describes that strategy and provides an example of its use in a lesson about ethics. J Contin Nurs Educ. 2017;48(4):154-156. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

A Problem Posing-Based Practicing Strategy for Facilitating Students' Computer Programming Skills in the Team-Based Learning Mode

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xiao-Ming; Hwang, Gwo-Jen

2017-01-01

Computer programming is a subject that requires problem-solving strategies and involves a great number of programming logic activities which pose challenges for learners. Therefore, providing learning support and guidance is important. Collaborative learning is widely believed to be an effective teaching approach; it can enhance learners' social…

Prevalence of Mind Mapping as a Teaching and Learning Strategy in Physical Therapy Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zipp, Genevieve; Maher, Catherine

2013-01-01

Background and Purpose: Regardless of our discipline educators seek to create environments that actively engage students in their learning journey. One teaching and learning strategy that has emerged in higher education is mind mapping (MM). The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the prevalence of MM usage in a health science…

Learning Environments and Inquiry Behaviors in Science Inquiry Learning: How Their Interplay Affects the Development of Conceptual Understanding in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bumbacher, Engin; Salehi, Shima; Wierzchula, Miriam; Blikstein, Paulo

2015-01-01

Studies comparing virtual and physical manipulative environments (VME and PME) in inquiry-based science learning have mostly focused on students' learning outcomes but not on the actual processes they engage in during the learning activities. In this paper, we examined experimentation strategies in an inquiry activity and their relation to…

A Bayesian Active Learning Experimental Design for Inferring Signaling Networks.

PubMed

Ness, Robert O; Sachs, Karen; Mallick, Parag; Vitek, Olga

2018-06-21

Machine learning methods for learning network structure are applied to quantitative proteomics experiments and reverse-engineer intracellular signal transduction networks. They provide insight into the rewiring of signaling within the context of a disease or a phenotype. To learn the causal patterns of influence between proteins in the network, the methods require experiments that include targeted interventions that fix the activity of specific proteins. However, the interventions are costly and add experimental complexity. We describe an active learning strategy for selecting optimal interventions. Our approach takes as inputs pathway databases and historic data sets, expresses them in form of prior probability distributions on network structures, and selects interventions that maximize their expected contribution to structure learning. Evaluations on simulated and real data show that the strategy reduces the detection error of validated edges as compared with an unguided choice of interventions and avoids redundant interventions, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the experiment.

Understanding the challenges to facilitating active learning in the resident conferences: a qualitative study of internal medicine faculty and resident perspectives.

PubMed

Sawatsky, Adam P; Zickmund, Susan L; Berlacher, Kathryn; Lesky, Dan; Granieri, Rosanne

2015-01-01

In the Next Accreditation System, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education outlines milestones for medical knowledge and requires regular didactic sessions in residency training. There are many challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, and we need to better understand resident learning preferences and faculty perspectives on facilitating active learning. The goal of this study was to identify challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, both through identifying specific implementation barriers and identifying differences in perspective between faculty and residents on effective teaching and learning strategies. The investigators invited core residency faculty to participate in focus groups. The investigators used a semistructured guide to facilitate discussion about learning preferences and teaching perspectives in the conference setting and used an 'editing approach' within a grounded theory framework to qualitative analysis to code the transcripts and analyze the results. Data were compared to previously collected data from seven resident focus groups. Three focus groups with 20 core faculty were conducted. We identified three domains pertaining to facilitating active learning in resident conferences: barriers to facilitating active learning formats, similarities and differences in faculty and resident learning preferences, and divergence between faculty and resident opinions about effective teaching strategies. Faculty identified several setting, faculty, and resident barriers to facilitating active learning in resident conferences. When compared to residents, faculty expressed similar learning preferences; the main differences were in motivations for conference attendance and type of content. Resident preferences and faculty perspectives differed on the amount of information appropriate for lecture and the role of active participation in resident conferences. This study highlights several challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences and provides insights for residency faculty who seek to transform the conference learning environment within their residency program.

Learning Theory and the Typewriter Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wakin, B. Bertha

1974-01-01

Eight basic principles of learning are described and discussed in terms of practical learning strategies for typewriting. Described are goal setting, preassessment, active participation, individual differences, reinforcement, practice, transfer of learning, and evaluation. (SC)

Using metacognitive strategies to help students learn in pretest and posttest review.

PubMed

Poorman, Susan G; Mastorovich, Melissa L

2008-01-01

The authors discuss the use of several metacognitive strategies that can help turn test reviews into an active learning experience. With these strategies, test reviews can provide students with valuable tools to enhance their thinking and help them better prepare for the high-level thinking test questions that are seen on nursing examinations.

Learning Strategies of Students Attending a "Second Chance" School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cartier, Sylvie C.; Langevin, Louise; Robert, Josianne

2011-01-01

This study was conducted in Quebec with 608 students (aged 16-19) in four "second chance" schools of the greater Montreal area. The objectives were twofold: (a) to identify the strategies of these students in the context of five learning activities; and (b) to compare the strategies of students who had withdrawn from school after their…

What We Know about the Impacts of WebQuests: A Review of Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbitt, Jason; Ophus, John

2008-01-01

This article examines the body of research investigating the impacts of the WebQuest instructional strategy on teaching and learning. The WebQuest instructional strategy is often praised as an inquiry-oriented activity, which effectively integrates technology into teaching and learning. The results of research suggest that while this strategy may…

Applying Active Learning to Assertion Classification of Concepts in Clinical Text

PubMed Central

Chen, Yukun; Mani, Subramani; Xu, Hua

2012-01-01

Supervised machine learning methods for clinical natural language processing (NLP) research require a large number of annotated samples, which are very expensive to build because of the involvement of physicians. Active learning, an approach that actively samples from a large pool, provides an alternative solution. Its major goal in classification is to reduce the annotation effort while maintaining the quality of the predictive model. However, few studies have investigated its uses in clinical NLP. This paper reports an application of active learning to a clinical text classification task: to determine the assertion status of clinical concepts. The annotated corpus for the assertion classification task in the 2010 i2b2/VA Clinical NLP Challenge was used in this study. We implemented several existing and newly developed active learning algorithms and assessed their uses. The outcome is reported in the global ALC score, based on the Area under the average Learning Curve of the AUC (Area Under the Curve) score. Results showed that when the same number of annotated samples was used, active learning strategies could generate better classification models (best ALC – 0.7715) than the passive learning method (random sampling) (ALC – 0.7411). Moreover, to achieve the same classification performance, active learning strategies required fewer samples than the random sampling method. For example, to achieve an AUC of 0.79, the random sampling method used 32 samples, while our best active learning algorithm required only 12 samples, a reduction of 62.5% in manual annotation effort. PMID:22127105

Flow Navigation by Smart Microswimmers via Reinforcement Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colabrese, Simona; Gustavsson, Kristian; Celani, Antonio; Biferale, Luca

2017-04-01

Smart active particles can acquire some limited knowledge of the fluid environment from simple mechanical cues and exert a control on their preferred steering direction. Their goal is to learn the best way to navigate by exploiting the underlying flow whenever possible. As an example, we focus our attention on smart gravitactic swimmers. These are active particles whose task is to reach the highest altitude within some time horizon, given the constraints enforced by fluid mechanics. By means of numerical experiments, we show that swimmers indeed learn nearly optimal strategies just by experience. A reinforcement learning algorithm allows particles to learn effective strategies even in difficult situations when, in the absence of control, they would end up being trapped by flow structures. These strategies are highly nontrivial and cannot be easily guessed in advance. This Letter illustrates the potential of reinforcement learning algorithms to model adaptive behavior in complex flows and paves the way towards the engineering of smart microswimmers that solve difficult navigation problems.

The Prisoner's Dilemma and Economics 101: Do Active Learning Exercises Correlate with Student Performance?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byun, Chong Hyun Christie

2014-01-01

The importance of active learning in the classroom has been well established in the field of Economic education. This paper examines the connection between active learning and performance outcomes in an Economics 101 course. Students participated in single play simultaneous move game with a clear dominant strategy, modeled after the Prisoner's…

A Comparison of Professional-Level Faculty and Student Perceptions of Active Learning: Its Current Use, Effectiveness, and Barriers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Cynthia J.; Metz, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Active learning is an instructional method in which students become engaged participants in the classroom through the use of in-class written exercises, games, problem sets, audience-response systems, debates, class discussions, etc. Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of active learning strategies, minimal adoption of the technique has…

Problem-Centered Supplemental Instruction in Biology: Influence on Content Recall, Content Understanding, and Problem Solving Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Joel; Belland, Brian R.

2017-01-01

To address the need for effective, efficient ways to apply active learning in undergraduate biology courses, in this paper, we propose a problem-centered approach that utilizes supplemental web-based instructional materials based on principles of active learning. We compared two supplementary web-based modules using active learning strategies: the…

Implementing the virtual reality learning environment: Second Life.

PubMed

Schmidt, Bonnie; Stewart, Stephanie

2009-01-01

Today, faculty members are challenged to find meaningful learning activities that enhance online nursing education. Second Life is an innovative Internet-based strategy that may be used to engage students in active learning. The authors discuss how this technology was implemented into an accelerated online nursing program.

Enhancing medical-surgical nursing practice: using practice tests and clinical examples to promote active learning and program evaluation.

PubMed

DuHamel, Martha B; Hirnle, Constance; Karvonen, Colleen; Sayre, Cindy; Wyant, Sheryl; Colobong Smith, Nancy; Keener, Sheila; Barrett, Shannon; Whitney, Joanne D

2011-10-01

In a 14-week medical-surgical nursing review course, two teaching strategies are used to promote active learning and assess the transfer of knowledge to nursing practice. Practice tests and clinical examples provide opportunities for participants to engage in self-assessment and reflective learning and enhance their nursing knowledge, skills, and practice. These strategies also contribute to program evaluation and are adaptable to a variety of course formats, including traditional classroom, web conference, and online self-study. Copyright 2011, SLACK Incorporated.

Learning by Doing: Twenty Successful Active Learning Exercises for Information Systems Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Alanah; Petter, Stacie; Harris, Albert L.

2017-01-01

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides a review of previously published work related to active learning in information systems (IS) courses. Background: There are a rising number of strategies in higher education that offer promise in regards to getting students' attention and helping them learn, such as flipped classrooms and offering courses online.…

A Planning Tool for Incorporating Backward Design, Active Learning, and Authentic Assessment in the College Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Heather L.; Kearns, Katherine Dowell

2017-01-01

Backward course design is a compelling strategy for achieving results-based, student-centered learning. The backward course-design approach is first to identify student-learning outcomes, then the means of assessing the outcomes, and lastly the classroom activities that would support the learning outcomes. With demonstrated success at improving…

Using Appreciative Inquiry for an e-Learning Change Management Programme: The ENTICE Project at Brunel University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, Linda A.; Alberts, Philip P.; Stephenson, Julia E.

Brunel University's e-Learning strategy provides direction for the teaching staff, but remains flexible. Although all Schools had engaged with e-Learning in the past, detailed consideration of effective e-Learning and the e-experience of students had not been generally in evidence. We sought to address this gap in the strategic work of schools by implementing a change management program, the major elements of which were the development of a local evidence-base of effectiveness of e-Learning practices and conversations for change. Our program was based on the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method, which we adapted for this educational context. The aim was to identify the pedagogic value of the diverse range of e-Learning activities already being undertaken and to encourage more widespread use. There was also a longer-term objective of assisting schools to establish or review their own e-Learning strategies and action plans. In terms of the effectiveness of the process, it is evident that the AI methodology was very beneficial. There is greater awareness among academic staff of the range of e-Learning activities that are currently being used in teaching designs of teaching staff at the University and about student use and attitudes to those activities. The evidence provides inputs to the development/review of e-Learning action plans and strategies for each school, usually within the context of the overall school plan.

The Effects of Game Strategy and Preference-Matching on Flow Experience and Programming Performance in Game-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Li-Chun; Chen, Ming-Puu

2010-01-01

Learning to program is difficult for novices, even for those undergraduates who have majored in computer science. The study described in this paper has investigated the effects of game strategy and preference-matching on novice learners' flow experience and performance in learning to program using an experiential gaming activity. One hundred and…

E?ffects of English Language Proficiency on the Choice of Language Learning Strategies by Saudi English-Major Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Javid, Choudhary Z.; Al-thubaiti, Turki S.; Uthman, Awwadh

2013-01-01

It is reported that language learning is a creative and dynamic process and the learners are active partners in this process. This trend in language teaching motivated the researchers to investigate the learners' individual differences and the identification of language learning strategies (LLS) has become a major area of interest in this regard…

Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Instructional Tools With Predict-Observe-Explain Strategy on the Topic of Cuboid and Cube Volume

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nurhuda; Lukito, A.; Masriyah

2018-01-01

This study aims to develop instructional tools and implement it to see the effectiveness. The method used in this research referred to Designing Effective Instruction. Experimental research with two-group pretest-posttest design method was conducted. The instructional tools have been developed is cooperative learning model with predict-observe-explain strategy on the topic of cuboid and cube volume which consist of lesson plans, POE tasks, and Tests. Instructional tools were of good quality by criteria of validity, practicality, and effectiveness. These instructional tools was very effective for teaching the volume of cuboid and cube. Cooperative instructional tool with predict-observe-explain (POE) strategy was good of quality because the teacher was easy to implement the steps of learning, students easy to understand the material and students’ learning outcomes completed classically. Learning by using this instructional tool was effective because learning activities were appropriate and students were very active. Students’ learning outcomes were completed classically and better than conventional learning. This study produced a good instructional tool and effectively used in learning. Therefore, these instructional tools can be used as an alternative to teach volume of cuboid and cube topics.

Flipping the Classroom for English Language Learners to Foster Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Hsiu-Ting

2015-01-01

This paper describes a structured attempt to integrate flip teaching into language classrooms using a WebQuest active learning strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the possible impacts of flipping the classroom on English language learners' academic performance, learning attitudes, and participation levels. Adopting a…

B-Learning under Examination: Advantages, Disadvantages and Opinions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bemposta-Rosende, Sergio; García-García, María José; Escribano-Otero, Juan José

2011-01-01

In recent years, learning management systems (LMS) have become very popular in almost all traditional universities, generating a new learning strategy approach, mixing elements from both traditional and online learning: the blended learning or b-learning. How these new environments influence teaching activities and learning processes are the main…

When Disruptive Approaches Meet Disruptive Technologies: Learning at a Distance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Chere Campbell

2000-01-01

Reviews research on constructivism in learning and selection of learning strategies. Suggests linking constructivism with instructional technologies for continuing medical education in order to "disrupt" reactive, habitual ways of learning and encourage active engagement. (SK)

Disseminating Innovations in Teaching Value-Based Care Through an Online Learning Network.

PubMed

Gupta, Reshma; Shah, Neel T; Moriates, Christopher; Wallingford, September; Arora, Vineet M

2017-08-01

A national imperative to provide value-based care requires new strategies to teach clinicians about high-value care. We developed a virtual online learning network aimed at disseminating emerging strategies in teaching value-based care. The online Teaching Value in Health Care Learning Network includes monthly webinars that feature selected innovators, online discussion forums, and a repository for sharing tools. The learning network comprises clinician-educators and health system leaders across North America. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of all webinar presenters and the active members of the network, and we assessed program feasibility. Six months after the program launched, there were 277 learning community members in 22 US states. Of the 74 active members, 50 (68%) completed the evaluation. Active members represented independently practicing physicians and trainees in 7 specialties, nurses, educators, and health system leaders. Nearly all speakers reported that the learning network provided them with a unique opportunity to connect with a different audience and achieve greater recognition for their work. Of the members who were active in the learning network, most reported that strategies gleaned from the network were helpful, and some adopted or adapted these innovations at their home institutions. One year after the program launched, the learning network had grown to 364 total members. The learning network helped participants share and implement innovations to promote high-value care. The model can help disseminate innovations in emerging areas of health care transformation, and is sustainable without ongoing support after a period of start-up funding.

Baby Boy Jones Interactive Case-Based Learning Activity: A Web-Delivered Teaching Strategy.

PubMed

Cleveland, Lisa M; Carmona, Elenice Valentim; Paper, Bruce; Solis, Linda; Taylor, Bonnie

2015-01-01

Faced with limited resources, nurse educators are challenged with transforming nursing education while preparing enough qualified nurses to meet future demand; therefore, innovative approaches to teaching are needed. In this article, we describe the development of an innovative teaching activity. Baby Boy Jones is a Web-delivered, case-based learning activity focused on neonatal infection. It was created using e-learning authoring software and delivered through a learning management system.

Choline acetyltransferase in the hippocampus is associated with learning strategy preference in adult male rats.

PubMed

Hawley, Wayne R; Witty, Christine F; Daniel, Jill M; Dohanich, Gary P

2015-08-01

One principle of the multiple memory systems hypothesis posits that the hippocampus-based and striatum-based memory systems compete for control over learning. Consistent with this notion, previous research indicates that the cholinergic system of the hippocampus plays a role in modulating the preference for a hippocampus-based place learning strategy over a striatum-based stimulus--response learning strategy. Interestingly, in the hippocampus, greater activity and higher protein levels of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), the enzyme that synthesizes acetylcholine, are associated with better performance on hippocampus-based learning and memory tasks. With this in mind, the primary aim of the current study was to determine if higher levels of ChAT and the high-affinity choline uptake transporter (CHT) in the hippocampus were associated with a preference for a hippocampus-based place learning strategy on a task that also could be solved by relying on a striatum-based stimulus--response learning strategy. Results confirmed that levels of ChAT in the dorsal region of the hippocampus were associated with a preference for a place learning strategy on a water maze task that could also be solved by adopting a stimulus-response learning strategy. Consistent with previous studies, the current results support the hypothesis that the cholinergic system of the hippocampus plays a role in balancing competition between memory systems that modulate learning strategy preference. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

"A kid way": strategies for including classmates with learning or intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

Nowicki, Elizabeth A; Brown, Jason D

2013-08-01

Thirty-six children between 9 and 12 years of age were invited to share their ideas on how to socially include classmates with learning or intellectual disabilities at school. Participants generated 80 strategies which were categorized into seven major themes. Thematic categories focused on the need for teachers to intervene in academic and social situations, child-to-child instructional strategies, being supportive, focusing on similarities between children with and without disabilities, modelling appropriate behaviors and intervening in negative interactions, structured inclusive activities, and noninclusive activities. Participants were aware of the challenges experienced by classmates with disabilities, and recognized the need to work with classmates and teachers towards the social inclusion of children with intellectual and learning disabilities. Educational implications are addressed.

A Randomized Crossover Design to Assess Learning Impact and Student Preference for Active and Passive Online Learning Modules.

PubMed

Prunuske, Amy J; Henn, Lisa; Brearley, Ann M; Prunuske, Jacob

Medical education increasingly involves online learning experiences to facilitate the standardization of curriculum across time and space. In class, delivering material by lecture is less effective at promoting student learning than engaging students in active learning experience and it is unclear whether this difference also exists online. We sought to evaluate medical student preferences for online lecture or online active learning formats and the impact of format on short- and long-term learning gains. Students participated online in either lecture or constructivist learning activities in a first year neurologic sciences course at a US medical school. In 2012, students selected which format to complete and in 2013, students were randomly assigned in a crossover fashion to the modules. In the first iteration, students strongly preferred the lecture modules and valued being told "what they need to know" rather than figuring it out independently. In the crossover iteration, learning gains and knowledge retention were found to be equivalent regardless of format, and students uniformly demonstrated a strong preference for the lecture format, which also on average took less time to complete. When given a choice for online modules, students prefer passive lecture rather than completing constructivist activities, and in the time-limited environment of medical school, this choice results in similar performance on multiple-choice examinations with less time invested. Instructors need to look more carefully at whether assessments and learning strategies are helping students to obtain self-directed learning skills and to consider strategies to help students learn to value active learning in an online environment.

The New School-Based Learning (SBL) to Work-Based Learning (WBL) Transition Module: A Practical Implementation in the Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) System in Bahrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alseddiqi, M.; Mishra, R.; Pislaru, C.

2012-05-01

This paper diagnoses the implementation of a new engineering course entitled 'school-based learning (SBL) to work-based learning (WBL) transition module' in the Bahrain Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) learning environment. The module was designed to incorporate an innovative education and training approach with a variety of learning activities that are included in various learning case studies. Each case study was based on with learning objectives coupled with desired learning outcomes. The TVE students should meet the desired outcomes after the completion of the learning activities and assessments. To help with the implementation phase of the new module, the authors developed guidelines for each case study. The guidelines incorporated learning activities to be delivered in an integrated learning environment. The skills to be transferred were related to cognitive, affective, and technical proficiencies. The guidelines included structured instructions to help students during the learning process. In addition, technology was introduced to improve learning effectiveness and flexibility. The guidelines include learning indicators for each learning activity and were based on their interrelation with competencies to be achieved with respect to modern industrial requirements. Each learning indicator was then correlated against the type of learning environment, teaching and learning styles, examples of mode of delivery, and assessment strategy. Also, the learning activities were supported by technological features such as discussion forums for social perception and engagement and immediate feedback exercises for self-motivation. Through the developed module, TVE teachers can effectively manage the teaching and learning process as well as the assessment strategy to satisfy students' individual requirements and enable them to meet workplace requirements.

Status of teaching elementary science for English learners in science, mathematics and technology centered magnet schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Alyson Kim

According to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (2001), one in three students speaks a language other than English. Additionally, the Commission stated that a student is considered to be an English learner if the second language acquisition is English. In California more than 1.4 million English learners enter school speaking a variety of languages, and this number continues to rise. There is an imminent need to promote instructional strategies that support this group of diverse learners. Although this was not a California study, the results derived from the nationwide participants' responses provided a congruent assessment of the basic need to provide effective science teaching strategies to all English learners. The purpose of this study was to examine the status of elementary science teaching practices used with English learners in kindergarten through fifth grade in public mathematics, science, and technology-centered elementary magnet schools throughout the country. This descriptive research was designed to provide current information and to identify trends in the areas of curriculum and instruction for English learners in science themed magnet schools. This report described the status of elementary (grades K-5) school science instruction for English learners based on the responses of 116 elementary school teachers: 59 grade K-2, and 57 grade 3-5 teachers. Current research-based approaches support incorporating self-directed learning strategy, expository teaching strategy, active listening strategies, questioning strategies, wait time strategy, small group strategy, peer tutoring strategy, large group learning strategy, demonstrations strategy, formal debates strategy, review sessions strategy, mediated conversation strategy, cooperative learning strategy, and theme-based instruction into the curriculum to assist English learners in science education. Science Technology Society (STS) strategy, problem-based learning strategy, discovery learning strategy, constructivist learning strategy, learning cycle strategy, SCALE technique strategy, conceptual change strategy, inquiry-based strategy, cognitive academic language learning approach (CALLA) strategy, and learning from text strategy provide effective science teaching instruction to English learners. These science instructional strategies assist elementary science teachers by providing additional support to make science instruction more comprehensible for English learners.

Teaching of anatomical sciences: A blended learning approach.

PubMed

Khalil, Mohammed K; Abdel Meguid, Eiman M; Elkhider, Ihsan A

2018-04-01

Blended learning is the integration of different learning approaches, new technologies, and activities that combine traditional face-to-face teaching methods with authentic online methodologies. Although advances in educational technology have helped to expand the selection of different pedagogies, the teaching of anatomical sciences has been challenged by implementation difficulties and other limitations. These challenges are reported to include lack of time, costs, and lack of qualified teachers. Easy access to online information and advances in technology make it possible to resolve these limitations by adopting blended learning approaches. Blended learning strategies have been shown to improve students' academic performance, motivation, attitude, and satisfaction, and to provide convenient and flexible learning. Implementation of blended learning strategies has also proved cost effective. This article provides a theoretical foundation for blended learning and proposes a validated framework for the design of blended learning activities in the teaching and learning of anatomical sciences. Clin. Anat. 31:323-329, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effectiveness of Active Learning Strategy in Improving the Acoustic Awareness Skills and Understanding What Is Heard by the Basic Stage Students in Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Odwan, Yaser

2016-01-01

This research aims to get acquainted with the effectiveness of the active learning strategy in improving the acoustic awareness skills and understanding what is heard by the basic stage students in Jordan by answering the two following questions: This research has been applied to a sample of 60 students from the basic third grade in Al-Ahnaf Ben…

An Exploratory Study of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in a Design Project by Students in Grades 9-12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawanto, Oenardi; Butler, Deborah; Cartier, Sylvie; Santoso, Harry; Lawanto, Kevin; Clark, David

2013-01-01

This exploratory study evaluated self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies of 27 students in grades 9-12 during an engineering design project. The specific focus of the study was on student task interpretation and its relation to planning and cognitive strategies in design activities. Two research questions guided the study: (1) To what degree was…

Process Mining Techniques for Analysing Patterns and Strategies in Students' Self-Regulated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bannert, Maria; Reimann, Peter; Sonnenberg, Christoph

2014-01-01

Referring to current research on self-regulated learning, we analyse individual regulation in terms of a set of specific sequences of regulatory activities. Successful students perform regulatory activities such as analysing, planning, monitoring and evaluating cognitive and motivational aspects during learning not only with a higher frequency…

Polling on a Budget: Implementing Telephone Surveys in Introductory and Advanced American Politics Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williamson, Jonathan

2011-01-01

Research suggests that student learning is enhanced when students are engaged through active learning strategies. In studying public opinion and polling, challenges include the provision of meaningful active learning environments when resources are limited. In this article, I discuss the design and implementation of telephone surveys as a teaching…

Critical Inquiry across the Disciplines: Strategies for Student-Generated Problem Posing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nardone, Carroll Ferguson; Lee, Renee Gravois

2011-01-01

Problem posing is a higher-order, active-learning task that is important for students to develop. This article describes a series of interdisciplinary learning activities designed to help students strengthen their problem-posing skills, which requires that students become more responsible for their learning and that faculty move to a facilitator…

An Empirical Consideration of a Balanced Amalgamation of Learning Strategies in Graduate Introductory Statistics Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughn, Brandon K.

2009-01-01

This study considers the effectiveness of a "balanced amalgamated" approach to teaching graduate level introductory statistics. Although some research stresses replacing traditional lectures with more active learning methods, the approach of this study is to combine effective lecturing with active learning and team projects. The results of this…

Who Benefits from Cooperative Learning with Movement Activity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoval, Ella; Shulruf, Boaz

2011-01-01

The goal of this study is to identify learners who are most likely to benefit from a small group cooperative learning strategy, which includes tasks involving movement activities. The study comprised 158 learners from five second and third grade classes learning about angles. The research tools included structured observation of each learner and…

Prescriptions for Success in Heterogeneous Classrooms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schurr, Sandra L.

This handbook details 28 specific learning strategies for diverse groups of middle school students, each cast as a prescription applicable for students whose diagnosis reveals certain "conditions" such as particular learning styles or high or low reading skills. Reproducible pages accompany most of the strategies. Following are the activities: (1)…

Qualitative Assessment of Learning Strategies among Medical Students Using Focus Group Discussions and In-depth Interviews.

PubMed

Joshi, Anuradha Sujai; Ganjiwale, Jaishree Deepak; Varma, Jagdish; Singh, Praveen; Modi, Jyoti Nath; Singh, Tejinder

2017-12-01

Globally, students with top academic performance and high intellectual capacity usually opt to study medicine. However, once students get enrolled, their academic performance varies widely. Such variations appear to be determined by various factors, one of them being types of learning strategies adopted by students. The learning strategies utilized by the students with better academic performance are likely to be more effective learning strategies. The objective is to identify effective learning strategies used by medical students. This study was carried out among the MBBS students of Final Professional Part I. Students were categorized into three groups namely: high, average, and low rankers based on overall academic performance in second Professional University examination. First, a questionnaire consisting of closed- and open-ended questions was administered to students, to find their learning strategies. Subsequently, focus group discussion and in-depth interviews were conducted for high- and low-rankers. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Key statements were highlighted, collated, and categorized into general themes and sub-themes. Evident themes which emerged as effective strategies were hard work in the form of regularity of studies, meticulous preparation of notes, constructive use of time, utilization of e-learning, learning styles and deep learning approach and regular ward visits. Intrinsic motivation, family support, balancing physical activities and studies, guidance by seniors, teachers, dealing with nonacademic issues such as language barriers and stress were also identified as important strategies. Disseminating effective learning strategies in a systematic manner may be helpful to students in achieving better academic outcomes. Furthermore, educationists need to modulate their teaching strategies based on students' feedback.

Educating Young Children: Active Learning Practices for Preschool and Child Care Programs [and] A Study Guide to Educating Young Children: Exercises for Adult Learners. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hohmann, Mary; Weikart, David P.

High/Scope preschool curriculum is a model for developing high-quality early childhood programs that encourage and support children's initiatives and active learning experiences. This revised manual for early childhood practitioners and students presents essential strategies adults can use to make active learning a reality in their programs. The…

Investigating Flipped Learning: Student Self-Regulated Learning, Perceptions, and Achievement in an Introductory Biology Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sletten, Sarah Rae

2017-06-01

In flipped classrooms, lectures, which are normally delivered in-class, are assigned as homework in the form of videos, and assignments that were traditionally assigned as homework, are done as learning activities in class. It was hypothesized that the effectiveness of the flipped model hinges on a student's desire and ability to adopt a self-directed learning style. The purpose of this study was twofold; it aimed at examining the relationship between two variables—students' perceptions of the flipped model and their self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors—and the impact that these variables have on achievement in a flipped class. For the study, 76 participants from a flipped introductory biology course were asked about their SRL strategy use and perceptions of the flipped model. SRL strategy use was measured using a modified version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ; Wolters et al. 2005), while the flipped perceptions survey was newly derived. Student letter grades were collected as a measure of achievement. Through regression analysis, it was found that students' perceptions of the flipped model positively predict students' use of several types of SRL strategies. However, the data did not indicate a relationship between student perceptions and achievement, neither directly nor indirectly, through SRL strategy use. Results suggest that flipped classrooms demonstrate their successes in the active learning sessions through constructivist teaching methods. Video lectures hold an important role in flipped classes, however, students may need to practice SRL skills to become more self-directed and effectively learn from them.

Energizing the nursing lecture: Application of the Theory of Multiple Intelligence Learning.

PubMed

Amerson, Roxanne

2006-01-01

Nurse educators struggle to find ways to create learning opportunities that are interactive and appeal to the needs of various students. The key to energizing the nursing lecture is to create an environment that encourages students to be active participants. It is essential to use creativity to design cognitive strategies that appeal to students' learning preferences. This article discusses the methods one educator has used to implement the Theory of Multiple Intelligence Learning in the classroom. Specific cognitive strategies that address the learning preferences of each intelligence are discussed.

Adopting an Active Learning Approach to Teaching in a Research-Intensive Higher Education Context Transformed Staff Teaching Attitudes and Behaviours

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Paul J.; Larson, Ian; Styles, Kim; Yuriev, Elizabeth; Evans, Darrell R.; Rangachari, P. K.; Short, Jennifer L.; Exintaris, Betty; Malone, Daniel T.; Davie, Briana; Eise, Nicole; Mc Namara, Kevin; Naidu, Somaiya

2016-01-01

The conventional lecture has significant limitations in the higher education context, often leading to a passive learning experience for students. This paper reports a process of transforming teaching and learning with active learning strategies in a research-intensive educational context across a faculty of 45 academic staff and more than 1,000…

Competency and an active learning program in undergraduate nursing education.

PubMed

Shin, Hyunsook; Sok, Sohyune; Hyun, Kyung Sun; Kim, Mi Ja

2015-03-01

To evaluate the effect of an active learning program on competency of senior students. Active learning strategies have been used to help students achieve desired nursing competency, but their effectiveness has not been systematically examined. A descriptive, cross-sectional comparative design was used. Two cohort group comparisons using t-test were made: one in an active learning group and the other in a traditional learning group. A total of 147 senior nursing students near graduation participated in this study: 73 in 2010 and 74 in 2013. The active learning program incorporated high-fidelity simulation, situation-based case studies, standardized patients, audio-video playback, reflective activities and technology such as a SmartPad-based program. The overall scores of the nursing competency in the active group were significantly higher than those in the traditional group. Of five overall subdomains, the scores of the special and general clinical performance competency, critical thinking and human understanding were significantly higher in the active group than in the traditional group. Importance-performance analysis showed that all five subdomains of the active group clustered in the high importance and high performance quadrant, indicating significantly better achievements. In contrast, the students in the traditional group showed scattered patterns in three quadrants, excluding the low importance and low performance quadrants. This pattern indicates that the traditional learning method did not yield the high performance in most important areas. The findings of this study suggest that an active learning strategy is useful for helping undergraduate students to gain competency. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Understanding the challenges to facilitating active learning in the resident conferences: a qualitative study of internal medicine faculty and resident perspectives

PubMed Central

Sawatsky, Adam P.; Zickmund, Susan L.; Berlacher, Kathryn; Lesky, Dan; Granieri, Rosanne

2015-01-01

Background In the Next Accreditation System, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education outlines milestones for medical knowledge and requires regular didactic sessions in residency training. There are many challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, and we need to better understand resident learning preferences and faculty perspectives on facilitating active learning. The goal of this study was to identify challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, both through identifying specific implementation barriers and identifying differences in perspective between faculty and residents on effective teaching and learning strategies. Methods The investigators invited core residency faculty to participate in focus groups. The investigators used a semistructured guide to facilitate discussion about learning preferences and teaching perspectives in the conference setting and used an ‘editing approach’ within a grounded theory framework to qualitative analysis to code the transcripts and analyze the results. Data were compared to previously collected data from seven resident focus groups. Results Three focus groups with 20 core faculty were conducted. We identified three domains pertaining to facilitating active learning in resident conferences: barriers to facilitating active learning formats, similarities and differences in faculty and resident learning preferences, and divergence between faculty and resident opinions about effective teaching strategies. Faculty identified several setting, faculty, and resident barriers to facilitating active learning in resident conferences. When compared to residents, faculty expressed similar learning preferences; the main differences were in motivations for conference attendance and type of content. Resident preferences and faculty perspectives differed on the amount of information appropriate for lecture and the role of active participation in resident conferences. Conclusion This study highlights several challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences and provides insights for residency faculty who seek to transform the conference learning environment within their residency program. PMID:26160805

Understanding the challenges to facilitating active learning in the resident conferences: a qualitative study of internal medicine faculty and resident perspectives.

PubMed

Sawatsky, Adam P; Zickmund, Susan L; Berlacher, Kathryn; Lesky, Dan; Granieri, Rosanne

2015-01-01

Background In the Next Accreditation System, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education outlines milestones for medical knowledge and requires regular didactic sessions in residency training. There are many challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, and we need to better understand resident learning preferences and faculty perspectives on facilitating active learning. The goal of this study was to identify challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, both through identifying specific implementation barriers and identifying differences in perspective between faculty and residents on effective teaching and learning strategies. Methods The investigators invited core residency faculty to participate in focus groups. The investigators used a semistructured guide to facilitate discussion about learning preferences and teaching perspectives in the conference setting and used an 'editing approach' within a grounded theory framework to qualitative analysis to code the transcripts and analyze the results. Data were compared to previously collected data from seven resident focus groups. Results Three focus groups with 20 core faculty were conducted. We identified three domains pertaining to facilitating active learning in resident conferences: barriers to facilitating active learning formats, similarities and differences in faculty and resident learning preferences, and divergence between faculty and resident opinions about effective teaching strategies. Faculty identified several setting, faculty, and resident barriers to facilitating active learning in resident conferences. When compared to residents, faculty expressed similar learning preferences; the main differences were in motivations for conference attendance and type of content. Resident preferences and faculty perspectives differed on the amount of information appropriate for lecture and the role of active participation in resident conferences. Conclusion This study highlights several challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences and provides insights for residency faculty who seek to transform the conference learning environment within their residency program.

Effects of team-based learning on self-regulated online learning.

PubMed

Whittaker, Alice A

2015-04-10

Online learning requires higher levels of self-regulation in order to achieve optimal learning outcomes. As nursing education moves further into the blended and online learning venue, new teaching/learning strategies will be required to develop and enhance self-regulated learning skills in nursing students. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of team-based learning (TBL) with traditional instructor-led (IL) learning, on self-regulated online learning outcomes, in a blended undergraduate research and evidence-based practice course. The nonrandomized sample consisted of 98 students enrolled in the IL control group and 86 students enrolled in the TBL intervention group. The percentage of total possible online viewing time was used as the measure of self-regulated online learning activity. The TBL group demonstrated a significantly higher percentage (p < 0.001) of self-regulated learning activities than the IL control group. The TBL group scored significantly higher on the course examinations (p = 0.003). The findings indicate that TBL is an effective instructional strategy that can be used to achieve the essential outcomes of baccalaureate nursing education by increasing self-regulated learning capabilities in nursing students.

Games as an innovative teaching strategy for overactive bladder and BPH.

PubMed

LeCroy, Cheryl

2006-10-01

A challenge for urologic nurses and nurse educators is how to present information to staff, students, and patients in a way that will capture their interest and engage them in the learning process. The use of adult-learning principles and innovative teaching strategies can make the learning experience dynamic, and encourage learners to take a more active role in their own learning. Games are a creative, fun, and interactive way to assist in the emphasis, review, reinforcement, and retention of information for urology nurses.

Using Active Learning to Identify Health Information Technology Related Patient Safety Events.

PubMed

Fong, Allan; Howe, Jessica L; Adams, Katharine T; Ratwani, Raj M

2017-01-18

The widespread adoption of health information technology (HIT) has led to new patient safety hazards that are often difficult to identify. Patient safety event reports, which are self-reported descriptions of safety hazards, provide one view of potential HIT-related safety events. However, identifying HIT-related reports can be challenging as they are often categorized under other more predominate clinical categories. This challenge of identifying HIT-related reports is exacerbated by the increasing number and complexity of reports which pose challenges to human annotators that must manually review reports. In this paper, we apply active learning techniques to support classification of patient safety event reports as HIT-related. We evaluated different strategies and demonstrated a 30% increase in average precision of a confirmatory sampling strategy over a baseline no active learning approach after 10 learning iterations.

Classroom Activities: Simple Strategies to Incorporate Student-Centered Activities within Undergraduate Science Lectures

PubMed Central

Lom, Barbara

2012-01-01

The traditional science lecture, where an instructor delivers a carefully crafted monolog to a large audience of students who passively receive the information, has been a popular mode of instruction for centuries. Recent evidence on the science of teaching and learning indicates that learner-centered, active teaching strategies can be more effective learning tools than traditional lectures. Yet most colleges and universities retain lectures as their central instructional method. This article highlights several simple collaborative teaching techniques that can be readily deployed within traditional lecture frameworks to promote active learning. Specifically, this article briefly introduces the techniques of: reader’s theatre, think-pair-share, roundtable, jigsaw, in-class quizzes, and minute papers. Each technique is broadly applicable well beyond neuroscience courses and easily modifiable to serve an instructor’s specific pedagogical goals. The benefits of each technique are described along with specific examples of how each technique might be deployed within a traditional lecture to create more active learning experiences. PMID:23494568

Art & Music Appreciation. A to Z Active Learning Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forte, Imogene; Schurr, Sandra

This workbook includes high-interest activities, lessons, and projects to further students' interest in and understanding of important exploratory and enrichment topics essential to a balanced middle grades program. The workbook includes lessons and activities that encourage students to learn more about the arts. Instructional strategies are…

Active Learning Strategies for Introductory Light and Optics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sokoloff, David R.

2016-01-01

There is considerable evidence that traditional approaches are ineffective in teaching physics concepts, including light and optics concepts. A major focus of the work of the Activity Based Physics Group has been on the development of active learning curricula like RealTime Physics (RTP) labs and Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs). Among…

Training hydrologists to be ecohydrologists: A ';how-you-can-do-it' example leveraging an active learning environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, S. W.; Walter, M. T.; Jantze, E. J.; Archibald, J. A.

2013-12-01

Structuring an education strategy capable of addressing the various spheres of ecohydrology is difficult due to the inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of this emergent field. Clearly, there is a need for such strategies to accommodate more progressive educational concepts while highlighting a skills-based education. To demonstrate a possible way to develop courses that include such concepts, we offer a case-study or a ';how-you-can-do-it' example from an ecohydrology course recently co-taught by teachers from Stockholm University and Cornell University at Stockholm University's Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) in Costa Navarino, Greece. This course focused on introducing hydrology Master's students to some of the central concepts of ecohydrology while at the same time supplying process-based understanding relevant for characterizing evapotranspiration. As such, the main goal of the course was to explore central theories in ecohydrology and their connection to plant-water interactions and the water cycle in a semiarid environment. In addition to presenting this roadmap for ecohydrology course development, we explore the utility and effectiveness of adopting active teaching and learning strategies drawing from the suite of learn-by-doing, hands-on, and inquiry-based techniques in such a course. We test a gradient of ';activeness' across a sequence of three teaching and learning activities. Our results indicate that there was a clear advantage for utilizing active learning techniques in place of traditional lecture-based styles. In addition, there was a preference among the student towards the more ';active' techniques. This demonstrates the added value of incorporating even the simplest active learning approaches in our ecohydrology (or general) teaching.

Training hydrologists to be ecohydrologists: A 'how-you-can-do-it' example leveraging an active learning environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, Steve W.; Walter, M. Todd; Jantze, Elin J.; Archibald, Josephine A.

2015-04-01

Structuring an education strategy capable of addressing the various spheres of ecohydrology is difficult due to the inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of this emergent field. Clearly, there is a need for such strategies to accommodate more progressive educational concepts while highlighting a skills-based education. To demonstrate a possible way to develop courses that include such concepts, we offer a case-study or a 'how-you-can-do-it' example from an ecohydrology course recently co-taught by teachers from Stockholm University and Cornell University at Stockholm University's Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) in Costa Navarino, Greece. This course focused on introducing hydrology Master's students to some of the central concepts of ecohydrology while at the same time supplying process-based understanding relevant for characterizing evapotranspiration. As such, the main goal of the course was to explore central theories in ecohydrology and their connection to plant-water interactions and the water cycle in a semiarid environment. In addition to presenting this roadmap for ecohydrology course development, we explore the utility and effectiveness of adopting active teaching and learning strategies drawing from the suite of learn-by-doing, hands-on, and inquiry-based techniques in such a course. We test a gradient of 'activeness' across a sequence of three teaching and learning activities. Our results indicate that there was a clear advantage for utilizing active learning techniques in place of traditional lecture-based styles. In addition, there was a preference among the student towards the more 'active' techniques. This demonstrates the added value of incorporating even the simplest active learning approaches in our ecohydrology (or general) teaching.

Training hydrologists to be ecohydrologists: a "how-you-can-do-it" example leveraging an active learning environment for studying plant-water interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, S. W.; Walter, M. T.; Jantze, E. J.; Archibald, J. A.

2012-08-01

Structuring an education strategy capable of addressing the various spheres of ecohydrology is difficult due to the inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of this emergent field. Clearly, there is a need for such strategies to accommodate more progressive educational concepts while highlighting a skills-based education. To demonstrate a possible way to develop courses that include such concepts, we offer a case-study or a "how-you-can-do-it" example from an ecohydrology course recently co-taught by teachers from Stockholm University and Cornell University at the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) in Costa Navarino, Greece. This course focused on introducing hydrology Master's students to some of the central concepts of ecohydrology while at the same time supplying process-based understanding relevant for characterizing evapotranspiration. As such, the main goal of the course was to explore central theories in ecohydrology and their connection to plant-water interactions and the water cycle in a semiarid environment. In addition to presenting this roadmap for ecohydrology course development, we explore the utility and effectiveness of adopting active teaching and learning strategies drawing from the suite of learn-by-doing, hands-on, and inquiry-based techniques in such a course. We test a gradient of "activeness" across a sequence of three teaching and learning activities. Our results indicate that there was a clear advantage for utilizing active learning techniques in place of traditional lecture-based styles. In addition, there was a preference among the student towards the more "active" techniques. This demonstrates the added value of incorporating even the simplest active learning approaches in our ecohydrology (or general) teaching.

Applying active learning to supervised word sense disambiguation in MEDLINE.

PubMed

Chen, Yukun; Cao, Hongxin; Mei, Qiaozhu; Zheng, Kai; Xu, Hua

2013-01-01

This study was to assess whether active learning strategies can be integrated with supervised word sense disambiguation (WSD) methods, thus reducing the number of annotated samples, while keeping or improving the quality of disambiguation models. We developed support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to disambiguate 197 ambiguous terms and abbreviations in the MSH WSD collection. Three different uncertainty sampling-based active learning algorithms were implemented with the SVM classifiers and were compared with a passive learner (PL) based on random sampling. For each ambiguous term and each learning algorithm, a learning curve that plots the accuracy computed from the test set as a function of the number of annotated samples used in the model was generated. The area under the learning curve (ALC) was used as the primary metric for evaluation. Our experiments demonstrated that active learners (ALs) significantly outperformed the PL, showing better performance for 177 out of 197 (89.8%) WSD tasks. Further analysis showed that to achieve an average accuracy of 90%, the PL needed 38 annotated samples, while the ALs needed only 24, a 37% reduction in annotation effort. Moreover, we analyzed cases where active learning algorithms did not achieve superior performance and identified three causes: (1) poor models in the early learning stage; (2) easy WSD cases; and (3) difficult WSD cases, which provide useful insight for future improvements. This study demonstrated that integrating active learning strategies with supervised WSD methods could effectively reduce annotation cost and improve the disambiguation models.

Applying active learning to supervised word sense disambiguation in MEDLINE

PubMed Central

Chen, Yukun; Cao, Hongxin; Mei, Qiaozhu; Zheng, Kai; Xu, Hua

2013-01-01

Objectives This study was to assess whether active learning strategies can be integrated with supervised word sense disambiguation (WSD) methods, thus reducing the number of annotated samples, while keeping or improving the quality of disambiguation models. Methods We developed support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to disambiguate 197 ambiguous terms and abbreviations in the MSH WSD collection. Three different uncertainty sampling-based active learning algorithms were implemented with the SVM classifiers and were compared with a passive learner (PL) based on random sampling. For each ambiguous term and each learning algorithm, a learning curve that plots the accuracy computed from the test set as a function of the number of annotated samples used in the model was generated. The area under the learning curve (ALC) was used as the primary metric for evaluation. Results Our experiments demonstrated that active learners (ALs) significantly outperformed the PL, showing better performance for 177 out of 197 (89.8%) WSD tasks. Further analysis showed that to achieve an average accuracy of 90%, the PL needed 38 annotated samples, while the ALs needed only 24, a 37% reduction in annotation effort. Moreover, we analyzed cases where active learning algorithms did not achieve superior performance and identified three causes: (1) poor models in the early learning stage; (2) easy WSD cases; and (3) difficult WSD cases, which provide useful insight for future improvements. Conclusions This study demonstrated that integrating active learning strategies with supervised WSD methods could effectively reduce annotation cost and improve the disambiguation models. PMID:23364851

Gamification: An Innovative Teaching-Learning Strategy for the Digital Nursing Students in a Community Health Nursing Course.

PubMed

Day-Black, Crystal; Merrill, Earline B; Konzelman, Lois; Williams, Tammie T; Hart, Natalie

2015-01-01

Serious games have "re-emerged" as innovative teaching-learning strategies that researchers have shown to be effective in improving student learning outcomes. "Serious games" refer to games that are driven by educational goals, not entertainment. The use of serious games as part of the teaching-learning experience in nursing education fits into the philosophy and strategies of active learning. The "digital" nursing student needs engagement, stimulation, realism, and entertainment not more readings and Powerpoint supplements in the classroom to support learning. Nursing faculty at a mid-Atlantic Historical Black College and University introduced "serious gaming" technology into a Community Health Nursing course by using two web-based gamed simulations, Outbreak at WatersEdge: A Public Health Discovery Game, and EnviroRisk. This innovation proved to be effective in reinforcing learning and improving student learning outcomes.

Task-Specific Response Strategy Selection on the Basis of Recent Training Experience

PubMed Central

Fulvio, Jacqueline M.; Green, C. Shawn; Schrater, Paul R.

2014-01-01

The goal of training is to produce learning for a range of activities that are typically more general than the training task itself. Despite a century of research, predicting the scope of learning from the content of training has proven extremely difficult, with the same task producing narrowly focused learning strategies in some cases and broadly scoped learning strategies in others. Here we test the hypothesis that human subjects will prefer a decision strategy that maximizes performance and reduces uncertainty given the demands of the training task and that the strategy chosen will then predict the extent to which learning is transferable. To test this hypothesis, we trained subjects on a moving dot extrapolation task that makes distinct predictions for two types of learning strategy: a narrow model-free strategy that learns an input-output mapping for training stimuli, and a general model-based strategy that utilizes humans' default predictive model for a class of trajectories. When the number of distinct training trajectories is low, we predict better performance for the mapping strategy, but as the number increases, a predictive model is increasingly favored. Consonant with predictions, subject extrapolations for test trajectories were consistent with using a mapping strategy when trained on a small number of training trajectories and a predictive model when trained on a larger number. The general framework developed here can thus be useful both in interpreting previous patterns of task-specific versus task-general learning, as well as in building future training paradigms with certain desired outcomes. PMID:24391490

First-Year and Non-First-Year Student Expectations Regarding In-Class and Out-of-Class Learning Activities in Introductory Biology †

PubMed Central

Brown, Tanya L.; Brazeal, Kathleen R.; Couch, Brian A.

2017-01-01

National calls for teaching transformation build on a constructivist learning theory and propose that students learn by actively engaging in course activities and interacting with other students. While interactive pedagogies can improve learning, they also have the potential to challenge traditional norms regarding class participation and learning strategies. To better understand the potential openness of students to interactive teaching practices, we administered a survey during the first week of two sections of an introductory biology course to characterize how students envisioned spending time during class as well as what activities they expected to complete outside of class during non-exam weeks and in preparation for exams. Additionally, we sought to test the hypothesis that the expectations of first-year students differed from those of non-first-year students. Analyses of closed-ended and open-ended questions revealed that students held a wide range of expectations and that most students expressed expectations consistent with some degree of transformed teaching. Furthermore, first-year students expected more active learning in class, more out-of-class coursework during non-exam weeks, and more social learning strategies than non-first-year students. We discuss how instructor awareness of incoming student expectations might be used to promote success in introductory science courses. PMID:28512514

An Exploration of Middle School Teachers' Essences of Participation in Service-Learning Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cochran Holmes, Ashlee Elizabeth

2013-01-01

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover the essence of middle school service-learning teachers' experiences with service-learning. Service-learning is "a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility,…

Examining Online Learning Patterns with Data Mining Techniques in Peer-Moderated and Teacher-Moderated Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Jui-Long; Crooks, Steven M.

2009-01-01

The student learning process is important in online learning environments. If instructors can "observe" online learning behaviors, they can provide adaptive feedback, adjust instructional strategies, and assist students in establishing patterns of successful learning activities. This study used data mining techniques to examine and…

Motivation, learning strategies, participation and medical school performance.

PubMed

Stegers-Jager, Karen M; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke; Themmen, Axel P N

2012-07-01

Medical schools wish to better understand why some students excel academically and others have difficulty in passing medical courses. Components of self-regulated learning (SRL), such as motivational beliefs and learning strategies, as well as participation in scheduled learning activities, have been found to relate to student performance. Although participation may be a form of SRL, little is known about the relationships among motivational beliefs, learning strategies, participation and medical school performance. This study aimed to test and cross-validate a hypothesised model of relationships among motivational beliefs (value and self-efficacy), learning strategies (deep learning and resource management), participation (lecture attendance, skills training attendance and completion of optional study assignments) and Year 1 performance at medical school. Year 1 medical students in the cohorts of 2008 (n = 303) and 2009 (n = 369) completed a questionnaire on motivational beliefs and learning strategies (sourced from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) and participation. Year 1 performance was operationalised as students' average Year 1 course examination grades. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Participation and self-efficacy beliefs were positively associated with Year 1 performance (β = 0.78 and β = 0.19, respectively). Deep learning strategies were negatively associated with Year 1 performance (β =- 0.31), but positively related to resource management strategies (β = 0.77), which, in turn, were positively related to participation (β = 0.79). Value beliefs were positively related to deep learning strategies only (β = 0.71). The overall structural model for the 2008 cohort accounted for 47% of the variance in Year 1 grade point average and was cross-validated in the 2009 cohort. This study suggests that participation mediates the relationships between motivation and learning strategies, and medical school performance. However, participation and self-efficacy beliefs also made unique contributions towards performance. Encouraging participation and strengthening self-efficacy may help to enhance medical student performance. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

To Activate English Learning: Listen and Speak in Real Life Context with an AR Featured U-Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Shu-Chun; Hsieh, Sheng-Wen; Sun, Pei-Chen; Chen, Cheng-Ming

2017-01-01

The increasing advance of mobile devices and wireless technologies has generated great interest in ubiquitous learning (u-learning) among academia, practitioners, and policy makers. However, design elements that incorporate learning styles and learning strategies into u-learning system applications in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education…

Critical Thinking Skills of Nursing Students in Lecture-Based Teaching and Case-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaddoura, Mahmoud A.

2011-01-01

In today's technologically advanced healthcare world, nursing students should be active learners and think critically to provide safe patient care. A strategy that promotes students' active learning is case-based learning (CBL). The purpose of this study was to examine critical thinking (CT) abilities of nursing students from two different…

Laboratory 3.0: Manufacturing Technologies Laboratory Virtualization with a Student-Centred Methodology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fabregat-Sanjuan, Albert; Pàmies-Vilà, Rosa; Ferrando Piera, Francesc; De la Flor López, Silvia

2017-01-01

This paper presents a blended-learning strategy for improving the teaching method applied in the laboratory subject Manufacturing Technologies. The teaching method has been changed from a predominantly teacher-centred to an active learning system with a student-centred focus and e-learning activities. In face-to-face classes, a game-based learning…

The Impact of Elderly Care Competence and Quality Improvement Programme in Four Swedish Municipalities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westerberg, Kristina; Hjelte, Jan

2013-01-01

During a number of years Swedish municipalities have work with improvement of competence and long-term quality in elderly care. The overall aim of the present study was to compare different learning activities (workplace improvement and/or courses), and to relate these activities to learning climate, learning strategies, and perception of care…

Fusing a Reversed and Informal Learning Scheme and Space: Student Perceptions of Active Learning in Physical Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donnelly, Julie; Hernández, Florencio E.

2018-01-01

Physical chemistry students often have negative perceptions and low expectations for success in physical chemistry, attitudes that likely affect their performance in the course. Despite the results of several studies indicating increased positive perception of physical chemistry when active learning strategies are used, a recent survey of faculty…

Using Active Learning Strategies to Investigate Student Learning and Attitudes in a Large Enrollment, Introductory Geology Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Stacy Jane

2013-01-01

There has been an increased emphasis for college instruction to incorporate more active and collaborative involvement of students in the learning process. These views have been asserted by The Association of American Colleges (AAC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and The National Research Counsel (NRC), which are advocating for the…

Employing Active Learning Strategies to Become the Facilitator, Not the Authoritarian: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patton, Cheryl M.

2015-01-01

Traditional higher education instruction involves an authoritarian educator who is charged with delivering information in lecture format to passive students. Within the past few decades, a new approach has gained popularity. Active learning allows the students to become more involved in their own learning. The educator becomes more of a…

Glutamatergic stimulation of the left dentate gyrus abolishes depressive-like behaviors in a rat learned helplessness paradigm.

PubMed

Seo, Jeho; Cho, Hojin; Kim, Gun Tae; Kim, Chul Hoon; Kim, Dong Goo

2017-10-01

Episodic experiences of stress have been identified as the leading cause of major depressive disorder (MDD). The occurrence of MDD is profoundly influenced by the individual's coping strategy, rather than the severity of the stress itself. Resting brain activity has been shown to alter in several mental disorders. However, the functional relationship between resting brain activity and coping strategies has not yet been studied. In the present study, we observed different patterns of resting brain activity in rats that had determined either positive (resilient to stress) or negative (vulnerable to stress) coping strategies, and examined whether modulation of the preset resting brain activity could influence the behavioral phenotype associated with negative coping strategy (i.e., depressive-like behaviors). We used a learned helplessness paradigm-a well-established model of MDD-to detect coping strategies. Differences in resting state brain activity between animals with positive and negative coping strategies were assessed using 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Glutamatergic stimulation was used to modulate resting brain activity. After exposure to repeated uncontrollable stress, seven of 23 rats exhibited positive coping strategies, while eight of 23 rats exhibited negative coping strategies. Increased resting brain activity was observed only in the left ventral dentate gyrus of the positive coping rats using FDG-PET. Furthermore, glutamatergic stimulation of the left dentate gyrus abolished depressive-like behaviors in rats with negative coping strategies. Increased resting brain activity in the left ventral dentate gyrus helps animals to select positive coping strategies in response to future stress. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improved Student Learning through a Faculty Learning Community: How Faculty Collaboration Transformed a Large-Enrollment Course from Lecture to Student Centered.

PubMed

Elliott, Emily R; Reason, Robert D; Coffman, Clark R; Gangloff, Eric J; Raker, Jeffrey R; Powell-Coffman, Jo Anne; Ogilvie, Craig A

2016-01-01

Undergraduate introductory biology courses are changing based on our growing understanding of how students learn and rapid scientific advancement in the biological sciences. At Iowa State University, faculty instructors are transforming a second-semester large-enrollment introductory biology course to include active learning within the lecture setting. To support this change, we set up a faculty learning community (FLC) in which instructors develop new pedagogies, adapt active-learning strategies to large courses, discuss challenges and progress, critique and revise classroom interventions, and share materials. We present data on how the collaborative work of the FLC led to increased implementation of active-learning strategies and a concurrent improvement in student learning. Interestingly, student learning gains correlate with the percentage of classroom time spent in active-learning modes. Furthermore, student attitudes toward learning biology are weakly positively correlated with these learning gains. At our institution, the FLC framework serves as an agent of iterative emergent change, resulting in the creation of a more student-centered course that better supports learning. © 2016 E. R. Elliott et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Effects of image-based and text-based active learning exercises on student examination performance in a musculoskeletal anatomy course.

PubMed

Gross, M Melissa; Wright, Mary C; Anderson, Olivia S

2017-09-01

Research on the benefits of visual learning has relied primarily on lecture-based pedagogy, but the potential benefits of combining active learning strategies with visual and verbal materials on learning anatomy has not yet been explored. In this study, the differential effects of text-based and image-based active learning exercises on examination performance were investigated in a functional anatomy course. Each class session was punctuated with an average of 12 text-based and image-based active learning exercises. Participation data from 231 students were compared with their examination performance on 262 questions associated with the in-class exercises. Students also rated the helpfulness and difficulty of the in-class exercises on a survey. Participation in the active learning exercises was positively correlated with examination performance (r = 0.63, P < 0.001). When controlling for other key demographics (gender, underrepresented minority status) and prior grade point average, participation in the image-based exercises was significantly correlated with performance on examination questions associated with image-based exercises (P < 0.001) and text-based exercises (P < 0.01), while participation in text-based exercises was not. Additionally, students reported that the active learning exercises were helpful for seeing images of key ideas (94%) and clarifying key course concepts (80%), and that the image-based exercises were significantly less demanding, less hard and required less effort than text-based exercises (P < 0.05). The findings confirm the positive effect of using images and active learning strategies on student learning, and suggest that integrating them may be especially beneficial for learning anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 10: 444-455. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

Contextual Clues Vocabulary Strategies Choice among Business Management Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmad, Siti Nurshafezan; Muhammad, Ahmad Mazli; Kasim, Aini Mohd

2018-01-01

New trends in vocabulary learning focus on strategic vocabulary learning to create more active and independent language learners. Utilising suitable contextual clues strategies is seen as vital in enabling and equipping language learners with the skill to guess word meaning accurately, moving away from dependency on a dictionary to improve their…

Making Physiology Learning Memorable: A Mobile Phone-Assisted Case-Based Instructional Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kukolja Taradi, S.; Taradi, M.

2016-01-01

The goal of the present study was to determine whether an active learning/teaching strategy facilitated with mobile technologies can improve students' levels of memory retention of key physiological concepts. We used a quasiexperimental pretest/posttest nonequivalent group design to compare the test performances of second-year medical students (n…

Enhancing Student-Student Online Interaction: Exploring the Study Buddy Peer Review Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madland, Colin; Richards, Griff

2016-01-01

The study buddy is a learning strategy employed in a graduate distance course to promote informal peer reviewing of assignments before submission. This strategy promotes student-student interaction and helps break the social isolation of distance learning. Given the concern by Arum and Roksa (2011) that student-student interaction may be…

Generative Learning Strategy Use and Self-Regulatory Prompting in Digital Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Alan J.; Morrison, Gary M.

2014-01-01

The digital revolution is shifting print-based textbooks to digital text, and it has afforded the opportunity to incorporate meaningful learning strategies and otherwise separate metacognitive activities directly into these texts as embedded support. A sample of 89 undergraduates read a digital, expository text on the basics of photography. The…

Effect of Writing-to-Learn Strategy on Undergraduates' Conceptual Understanding of Electrostatics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atasoy, Sengül

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of Writing-to-Learn (WTL) strategy on undergraduates' conceptual understanding of electrostatics. The sample of the study was 54 university students registered at elementary school mathematics education department. While the experimental group was asked to conduct WTL activities like explanatory…

Let's Be PALS: An Evidence-Based Approach to Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunst, Carl J.; Trivette, Carol M.

2009-01-01

An evidence-based approach to professional development is described on the basis of the findings from a series of research syntheses and meta-analyses of adult learning methods and strategies. The approach, called PALS (Participatory Adult Learning Strategy), places major emphasis on both active learner involvement in all aspects of training…

The Application of Cognitive-Developmental or Mediated Cognitive Learning Strategies in Online College Coursework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pruitt, Richard A.

2011-01-01

This research article explores the active use of cognitive-developmental or mediated cognitive learning strategies in undergraduate online courses. Examples and applications are drawn from two online sessions integrating online interaction, essay and discussion assignments, as well as a variety of multimedia components conducted during the spring…

The Development of the Simulation Thinking Rubric

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doolen, Jessica

2012-01-01

High fidelity simulation has become a widespread and costly learning strategy in nursing education because it can fill the gap left by a shortage of clinical sites. In addition, high fidelity simulation is an active learning strategy that is thought to increase higher order thinking such as clinical reasoning and judgment skills in nursing…

Exploring the Effects of the Computational Experiment Approach to the Epistemic Beliefs, the Motivation, the Use of Modeling Indicators and Conceptual Understanding in Three Different Computational Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Psycharis, Sarantos

2013-01-01

Contemporary teaching and learning approaches expect students--at any level of education--to be active producers of knowledge. This leads to the need for creation of instructional strategies, learning environments and tasks that can offer students opportunities for active learning. Research argues that one of the most meaningful and engaging forms…

Learning strategies, study habits and social networking activity of undergraduate medical students.

PubMed

Bickerdike, Andrea; O'Deasmhunaigh, Conall; O'Flynn, Siun; O'Tuathaigh, Colm

2016-07-17

To determine learning strategies, study habits, and online social networking use of undergraduates at an Irish medical school, and their relationship with academic performance. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Year 2 and final year undergraduate-entry and graduate-entry students at an Irish medical school. Data about participants' demographics and educational background, study habits (including time management), and use of online media was collected using a self-report questionnaire. Participants' learning strategies were measured using the 18-item Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory (ALSI). Year score percentage was the measure of academic achievement. The association between demographic/educational factors, learning strategies, study habits, and academic achievement was statistically analysed using regression analysis. Forty-two percent of students were included in this analysis (n=376). A last-minute "cramming" time management study strategy was associated with increased use of online social networks. Learning strategies differed between undergraduate- and graduate-entrants, with the latter less likely to adopt a 'surface approach' and more likely adopt a 'study monitoring' approach. Year score percentage was positively correlated with the 'effort management/organised studying' learning style. Poorer academic performance was associated with a poor time management approach to studying ("cramming") and increased use of the 'surface learning' strategy. Our study demonstrates that effort management and organised studying should be promoted, and surface learning discouraged, as part of any effort to optimise academic performance in medical school. Excessive use of social networking contributes to poor study habits, which are associated with reduced academic achievement.

A Crash Course in Learning Communities for the Political Scientist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thies, Cameron G.

2005-01-01

The evidence on learning communities suggests that student intellectual and psychosocial development is improved by participation. Faculty members become rejuvenated as learners once again through rediscovering the boundaries and intersection of their discipline with others. Active learning, collaborative learning, strategies to improve critical…

Implementing active-learning strategies to improve physics learning in Latin America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alarcon, Hugo; Zavala, G.; Fernandez, R.; Benegas, J.

2006-12-01

It is evident that the most effective active-learning strategies to improve physics learning at the college level have been developed in the United States. Recently, some universities in Latin America have begun adopting such methods as a part of institutional projects, or motivated by national projects led by education authorities. In this work we will present two cases, a large-scale implementation of Tutorials in Introductory Physics (1) in Mexico supported by the institution as a part of a change in its educational model, and a medium-scale implementation of this method in Chile supported by the national government. In both experiences, the professors involved in the educational experience have previously participated in a training workshop that prepared them for implementing this strategy in the classroom. The training workshop, described elsewhere (2), was designed also under active learning premises, so teachers completed the proposed activities in the same way as their students will do. We will present the first results of these two projects. References: (1) McDermott, L. C., Shaffer, P. S., & PER (1998). "Tutorials in Introductory Physics", Prentice Hall, translated as "Tutoriales para Física Introductoria" (2001) Prentice Hall, Buenos Aires.. (2) Zavala, G., Alarcón, H. and Benegas, J. (2005). "Innovative training of in-service teachers for active learning: A short teacher development course based on Physics Education Research", accepted for publication, J. of Sc. Teach. Ed. This work has been partially supported by Tecnológico de Monterrey through the Chair in Physics Education Research and by MECE Educación Superior Program (Chile).

An active learning approach to Bloom's Taxonomy.

PubMed

Weigel, Fred K; Bonica, Mark

2014-01-01

As educators strive toward improving student learning outcomes, many find it difficult to instill their students with a deep understanding of the material the instructors share. One challenge lies in how to provide the material with a meaningful and engaging method that maximizes student understanding and synthesis. By following a simple strategy involving Active Learning across the 3 primary domains of Bloom's Taxonomy (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor), instructors can dramatically improve the quality of the lesson and help students retain and understand the information. By applying our strategy, instructors can engage their students at a deeper level and may even find themselves enjoying the process more.

Using a multi-state Learning Community as an implementation strategy for immediate postpartum long-acting reversible contraception.

PubMed

DeSisto, Carla L; Estrich, Cameron; Kroelinger, Charlan D; Goodman, David A; Pliska, Ellen; Mackie, Christine N; Waddell, Lisa F; Rankin, Kristin M

2017-11-21

Implementation strategies are imperative for the successful adoption and sustainability of complex evidence-based public health practices. Creating a learning collaborative is one strategy that was part of a recently published compilation of implementation strategy terms and definitions. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partner agencies, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials recently convened a multi-state Learning Community to support cross-state collaboration and provide technical assistance for improving state capacity to increase access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) in the immediate postpartum period, an evidence-based practice with the potential for reducing unintended pregnancy and improving maternal and child health outcomes. During 2015-2016, the Learning Community included multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams of state health officials, payers, clinicians, and health department staff from 13 states. This qualitative study was conducted to better understand the successes, challenges, and strategies that the 13 US states in the Learning Community used for increasing access to immediate postpartum LARC. We conducted telephone interviews with each team in the Learning Community. Interviews were semi-structured and organized by the eight domains of the Learning Community. We coded transcribed interviews for facilitators, barriers, and implementation strategies, using a recent compilation of expert-defined implementation strategies as a foundation for coding the latter. Data analysis showed three ways that the activities of the Learning Community helped in policy implementation work: structure and accountability, validity, and preparing for potential challenges and opportunities. Further, the qualitative data demonstrated that the Learning Community integrated six other implementation strategies from the literature: organize clinician implementation team meetings, conduct educational meetings, facilitation, promote network weaving, provide ongoing consultation, and distribute educational materials. Convening a multi-state learning collaborative is a promising approach for facilitating the implementation of new reimbursement policies for evidence-based practices complicated by systems challenges. By integrating several implementation strategies, the Learning Community serves as a meta-strategy for supporting implementation.

Designing Instruction for Active and Reflective Learners in the Flipped Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shahnaz, Sherina Mohamed Fauzi; Hussain, Raja Maznah Raja

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper proposes a framework of instructional strategies that would facilitate active and reflective learning processes in the flipped classroom It is aimed at allowing one's maximum potential to be reached regardless of any individual learning style. As tertiary classrooms increasingly needs to be as active and social as possible, the…

Wildfire Research in an Environmental Hazards Course: An Active Learning Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wall, Tamara U.; Halvorson, Sarah J.

2011-01-01

Creating opportunities for students to actively apply hazards theory to real-life situations is often a challenge in hazards geography courses. This article presents a project, the Jocko Lakes Fire Project, that implemented learning strategies to encourage students to be active in wildfire hazards research. Wildfire hazards stand out as an…

The WebQuest: constructing creative learning.

PubMed

Sanford, Julie; Townsend-Rocchiccioli, Judith; Trimm, Donna; Jacobs, Mike

2010-10-01

An exciting expansion of online educational opportunities is occurring in nursing. The use of a WebQuest as an inquiry-based learning activity can offer considerable opportunity for nurses to learn how to analyze and synthesize critical information. A WebQuest, as a constructivist, inquiry-oriented strategy, requires learners to use higher levels of thinking as a means to analyze and apply complex information, providing an exciting online teaching and learning strategy. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all of the information learners work with comes from the web. This article provides an overview of the WebQuest as a teaching strategy and provides examples of its use. Copyright 2010, SLACK Incorporated.

Active learning of introductory optics: real-time physics labs, interactive lecture demonstrations and magic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokoloff, David R.

2005-10-01

Widespread physics education research has shown that most introductory physics students have difficulty learning essential optics concepts - even in the best of traditional courses, and that well-designed active learning approaches can remedy this problem. This mini-workshop and the associated poster session will provide direct experience with methods for promoting students' active involvement in the learning process in lecture and laboratory. Participants will have hands-on experience with activities from RealTime Physics labs and Interactive Lecture Demonstrations - a learning strategy for large (and small) lectures, including specially designed Optics Magic Tricks. The poster will provide more details on these highly effective curricula.

Multi-Perspective Indexing of Diverse Spatial Characteristics of an Outdoor Field toward Redesigning of Real-World Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okada, Masaya; Tada, Masahiro

2014-01-01

Real-world learning is important because it encourages learners to obtain knowledge through various experiences. To design effective real-world learning, it is necessary to analyze the diverse learning activities that occur in real-world learning and to develop effective strategies for learning support. By inventing the technologies of multimodal…

Complete Learning Disabilities Handbook: Ready-To-Use Strategies & Activities for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities. New Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harwell, Joan M.

The 16 chapters of this comprehensive guide to teaching students with learning disabilities cover the following topics: (1) an overview of the field of learning disabilities (characteristics, causes, prevalence, prognosis, and resources); (2) research in the field of learning disabilities (how the brain works, how children learn); (3) relevant…

Using a kinesthetic learning strategy to engage nursing student thinking, enhance retention, and improve critical thinking.

PubMed

Wagner, Elissa A

2014-06-01

This article reports the outcomes of a kinesthetic learning strategy used during a cardiac lecture to engage students and to improve the use of classroom-acquired knowledge in today's challenging clinical settings. Nurse educators are constantly faced with finding new ways to engage students, stimulate critical thinking, and improve clinical application in a rapidly changing and complex health care system. Educators who deviate from the traditional pedagogy of didactic, content-driven teaching to a concept-based, student-centered approach using active and kinesthetic learning activities can enhance engagement and improve clinical problem solving, communication skills, and critical thinking to provide graduates with the tools necessary to be successful. The goals of this learning activity were to decrease the well-known classroom-clinical gap by enhancing engagement, providing deeper understanding of cardiac function and disorders, enhancing critical thinking, and improving clinical application. Copyright 2014, SLACK Incorporated.

The Science of Home Automation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Brian Louis

Smart home technologies and the concept of home automation have become more popular in recent years. This popularity has been accompanied by social acceptance of passive sensors installed throughout the home. The subsequent increase in smart homes facilitates the creation of home automation strategies. We believe that home automation strategies can be generated intelligently by utilizing smart home sensors and activity learning. In this dissertation, we hypothesize that home automation can benefit from activity awareness. To test this, we develop our activity-aware smart automation system, CARL (CASAS Activity-aware Resource Learning). CARL learns the associations between activities and device usage from historical data and utilizes the activity-aware capabilities to control the devices. To help validate CARL we deploy and test three different versions of the automation system in a real-world smart environment. To provide a foundation of activity learning, we integrate existing activity recognition and activity forecasting into CARL home automation. We also explore two alternatives to using human-labeled data to train the activity learning models. The first unsupervised method is Activity Detection, and the second is a modified DBSCAN algorithm that utilizes Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) as a distance metric. We compare the performance of activity learning with human-defined labels and with automatically-discovered activity categories. To provide evidence in support of our hypothesis, we evaluate CARL automation in a smart home testbed. Our results indicate that home automation can be boosted through activity awareness. We also find that the resulting automation has a high degree of usability and comfort for the smart home resident.

Problem-based Learning Behavior: The Impact of Differences in Problem-Based Learning Style and Activity on Students' Achievement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Til, Cita T.; And Others

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a new instructional method is becoming increasingly popular. PBL is hypothesized to have a number of advantages for learning because it applies insights from cognitive learning theory and it fosters a lifelong learning strategy. As in all learning programs there are individual differences between students. This…

A Question of Questions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenwick, John; McMillan, Rod

In a conventional teaching situation, a lecturer may use a wide range of questioning techniques aimed at helping students to become active learners. In distance learning, students are often isolated and have limited opportunities for interaction in a social learning environment. Hence, learning strategies in distance learning need to be structured…

Learning To Learn: Western Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Gene L.

Building awareness of the self as learner is central to learning. Reflecting on past experiences helps individuals elucidate undetected characteristics of themselves as learners. Active learners are more likely to experiment with new learning strategies and take risks. Because of their inquiring dispositions, they self-monitor and self-evaluate…

Applying Learning Diagnosis Diagram in Computer Aided Instructions: Research, Practice and Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, YuLung

2010-01-01

In Taiwan, when students learn in experiment-related courses, they are often grouped into several teams. The familiar method of grouping learning is "Cooperative Learning". A well-organized grouping strategy improves cooperative learning and increases the number of activities. This study proposes a novel pedagogical method by adopting…

Blended learning pedagogy: the time is now!

PubMed

Pizzi, Michael A

2014-07-01

Pedagogy is rapidly changing. To develop best practice in academia, it is important that we change with the changing needs of students. This article suggests that blended learning is one of the most important pedagogical formats that can enhance student learning, optimize the use of active learning strategies, and potentially improve student learning outcomes.

The Contribution of Teachers' Peer-and Self-Assessment for the Implementation of Active Learning Strategies: Perceptions of Ethiopia Primary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mengistie, Solomon Melesse

2014-01-01

The present study tries to investigate the contribution of primary school teachers' peer- and self- assessment for effective implementation of active learning in their actual classrooms. In this study, areas in which self-reflection and peer assessment include three broad categories, such as methods of teaching and learning, instructional resource…

Minimizing Statistical Bias with Queries.

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-09-14

method for optimally selecting these points would o er enormous savings in time and money. An active learning system will typically attempt to select data...research in active learning assumes that the sec- ond term of Equation 2 is approximately zero, that is, that the learner is unbiased. If this is the case...outperforms the variance- minimizing algorithm and random exploration. and e ective strategy for active learning . I have given empirical evidence that, with

Teaching Research Methodology through Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundahl, Brad W.

2008-01-01

To complement traditional learning activities in a masters-level research methodology course, social work students worked on a formal research project which involved: designing the study, constructing measures, selecting a sampling strategy, collecting data, reducing and analyzing data, and finally interpreting and communicating the results. The…

Coordinated Implementation and Evaluation of Flipped Classes and Peer-Led Team Learning in General Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robert, Jenay; Lewis, Scott E.; Oueini, Razanne; Mapugay, Andrea

2016-01-01

The research-based pedagogical strategy of flipped classes has been shown to be effective for increasing student achievement and retention in postsecondary chemistry classes. The purpose of flipped classes is to move content delivery (e.g., lecture) outside of the classroom, freeing more face-to-face time for active learning strategies. The…

Elaboration and Organization Strategies Used by Prospective Class Teachers While Studying Social Studies Education Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tay, Bayram

2013-01-01

Problem Statement: Students spend a considerable amount of their time studying from textbooks, which play an important role in their learning activities. The strategies students use to learn work as guides, requiring them to mentally process, make sense of and internalize information offered to them during the instructional process. Of these,…

The Use of Small Group Tutorials as an Educational Strategy in Medical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferris, Helena

2015-01-01

Small group tutorials are an educational strategy that is growing in popularity in medical education. This is indicative of the movement from a traditional teacher centred approach to more student-centred learning, which is characterised by active participation and autonomous learning (Hedge et al, 2011). However, small group teaching is one of…

Activating Generative Learning in Organizations through Optimizing Relational Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Mary Kay

2010-01-01

Using a grounded theory method, this dissertation seeks to discover how relationships impact organizational generative learning. An organization is a socially constructed reality and organizational learning is situated in the process of co-participation. To discover the link between relationships and generative learning this study considers the…

Classroom Strategies That Facilitate Transfer of Learning to the Workplace.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Brenda S.; Korth, Sharon J.

1997-01-01

Describes a master's program in human resource development that uses experiential learning, transfer of learning, and team learning theories to maximize students' transfer of their formal training to the workplace. Activities include individual and group analysis papers and a team project. Students have found the group and experiential practice…

Self-Directed Learning in the Process of Work: Conceptual Considerations--Empirical Evidences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Straka, Gerald A.; Schaefer, Cornelia

With reference to the literature on adult self-directed learning, a model termed the "Two-Shell Model of Motivated Self-Directed Learning" was formulated that differentiates sociohistorical environmental conditions, internal conditions, and activities related to four concepts (interest, learning strategies, control, and evaluation). The…

Investigating the Use of Inquiry & Web-Based Activities with Inclusive Biology Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodzin, Alec M.; Waller, Patricia L.; Edwards, Lana; Darlene Kale, Santoro

2007-01-01

A Web-integrated biology program is used to explore how to best assist inclusive high school students to learn biology with inquiry-based activities. Classroom adaptations and instructional strategies teachers may use to assist in promoting biology learning with inclusive learners are discussed.

Active Learning Strategies for the Mathematics Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerrigan, John

2018-01-01

Active learning involves students engaging with course content beyond lecture: through writing, applets, simulations, games, and more (Prince, 2004). As mathematics is often viewed as a subject area that is taught using more traditional methods (Goldsmith & Mark, 1999), there are actually many simple ways to make undergraduate mathematics…

34 CFR 425.3 - What activities may the Secretary fund?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... VOCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC LEARNING PROGRAM General § 425.3 What activities may the Secretary fund? (a) The... programs using different models of curricula that integrate vocational and academic learning by— (1... effective integrative strategies to other school districts through the National Diffusion Network (NDN...

34 CFR 425.3 - What activities may the Secretary fund?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... VOCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC LEARNING PROGRAM General § 425.3 What activities may the Secretary fund? (a) The... programs using different models of curricula that integrate vocational and academic learning by— (1... effective integrative strategies to other school districts through the National Diffusion Network (NDN...

34 CFR 425.3 - What activities may the Secretary fund?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... VOCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC LEARNING PROGRAM General § 425.3 What activities may the Secretary fund? (a) The... programs using different models of curricula that integrate vocational and academic learning by— (1... effective integrative strategies to other school districts through the National Diffusion Network (NDN...

Using Web 2.0 to Support the Active Learning Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Jo; Chinn, Susan J.

2009-01-01

Increased attention to student engagement and active learning strategies have become particularly relevant in today's classroom environments. These approaches are also considered to be meaningful when teaching "net generation" students who have different styles and expectations. This study attempts to address these challenges through the…

Creativity of Biology Students in Online Learning: Case Study of Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diki, Diki

This is a study about the effect of students' attitudes of creativity toward their learning achievement and persistence in an online learning program. The study also investigated if there was an effect of indirect effect of attitudes of creativity toward learning achievement and persistence through learning strategies. There are three learning strategies, which are deep-learning, strategic-learning, and surface-learning. The participants were students of the department of biology and the department of biology teacher training in Universitas Terbuka (UT -- Indonesia Open University), a distance learning university in Indonesia. The researcher sent the questionnaire through email to students who lived throughout Indonesia. There were 102 students participated in the survey. The instruments were rCAB test for value and attitudes toward creativity (Runco, 2012) and approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) test (Speth, 2013). There were four research questions (RQ) in this study. The first was if there was a relationship between attitudes of creativity and persistence. The researcher used independent samples t test technique for RQ 1. The second was if there is a relationship between attitudes of creativity and learning outcome. The researcher used multiple regressions for RQ2. The third was if there was an indirect relationship between attitudes of creativity and persistence through learning strategy. The fourth question was if there is an indirect relationship between attitudes of creativity and learning outcome through learning strategy. The researcher used multiple regression for RQ3 and path analysis for RQ 4. Controlling variables were age, income, departments, gender, high school GPA, and daily online activities. The result showed that fun, and being unconventional negatively predicted learning outcomes while high school GPA positively predicted learning outcome. Age and high school GPA negatively predicted persistence while being unconventional positively predicted persistence. Two variables of deep-learning strategy predicted learning outcome. There were indirect relationships between attitudes of creativity and learning outcomes through deep-learning strategy.

An Elective Course on Antimicrobial Stewardship.

PubMed

Gauthier, Timothy P; Sherman, Elizabeth M; Unger, Nathan R

2015-12-25

To implement an antimicrobial stewardship (AS) elective course for second-year and third-year pharmacy students and to assess its impact on students' perceptions regarding the application of AS principles. A 2-credit elective course focusing on principles of AS incorporated prelecture didactic recordings with primary literature and guideline-based reading assignments, in-class active-learning group work and student-led presentations, and student-generated examination items. Perceptions were assessed by precourse and postcourse survey items. Graded course assessments included completion of preclass assignments (readings, prerecorded lecture and writing assessment items), in-class active participation and group presentations, a midpoint examination, and a final examination. An AS-themed elective course in a doctor of pharmacy curriculum incorporating preclass, self-directed learning and in-class group-based active-learning strategies positively impacted students' perceived understanding of AS strategies.

Do I dare? Using role-play as a teaching strategy.

PubMed

Kuipers, J C; Clemens, D L

1998-07-01

Role-play is a teaching strategy that models patient behaviors and nursing interventions that students need to learn in psychiatric nursing. Applications of this strategy can be used in both classroom and clinical settings. Benefits of using role-play range from cost effectiveness and active learning to modeling expected performance/skill levels and increasing self-confidence and assertiveness. Perceived drawbacks can be minimized by using the planning steps prior to the use of role-play.

Place-Based Science Teaching and Learning: 40 Activities for K-8 Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buxton, Cory A.; Provenzo, Eugene F., Jr.

2011-01-01

Grounded in theory and best-practices research, this practical text provides elementary and middle school teachers with 40 place-based activities that will help them to make science learning relevant to their students. This text provides teachers with both a rationale and a set of strategies and activities for teaching science in a local context…

Learning With E-books and Project-based Strategy in a Community Health Nursing Course.

PubMed

Sung, Tien-Wen; Wu, Ting-Ting

2018-03-01

With advances in information technology, "information-assisted instruction" has been gradually introduced to nursing education curricula. Specifically, the integration of an e-book system can effectively enhance nursing students' attention and interest. Most studies on nursing education that incorporated e-books have focused on the advantages of convenience and assistance provided by e-books. Few studies have addressed community health nursing and off-campus practice activities in relation to suitable teaching strategies for learning activities. This study involved designing and planning a multimedia e-book learning system with a project-based learning activity that conforms to the curriculum and practical requirements of a community health nursing course. The purpose was to reduce the gap between theory and practice and realize an effective learning process. For learning evaluations, a final examination analysis with an independent sample t test; a scoring scheme with intrateam, interteam, and expert ratings; and Bloom's taxonomy-based analysis were conducted. The evaluation results indicated that the comprehension and learning abilities of the experimental group using the e-book system with a mobile device were effectively improved. In addition, the exploratory process involved in project-based learning can develop multiple cognitive skills and problem-solving ability, thereby realizing effective learning.

Enhancing Study Motivation and Efficacy among First-year Students Using Minute Papers in the Interdisciplinary Subject of Yakugaku Nyumon.

PubMed

Yamaki, Kouya; Ikeda, Koji; Ueda, Kumiko; Habu, Yasushi; Nakayama, Yoshiaki; Takeda, Norihiko; Moriwaki, Kensuke; Wada, Akimori; Koyama, Junko; Kodama, Noriko; Kitagawa, Shuji

2017-01-01

Active learning in higher education is important for learning efficacy and motivation. Accordingly, lectures that integrate strategies toward active learning, such as minute papers, debates, and collaborative learning, have become widely adopted. Minute papers facilitate communication among both teachers and students, and can be used as a tool for reviewing lectures. In the present study, we examined the effect of using minute papers on learning efficacy and motivation. To enhance the curriculum of the interdisciplinary course Yakugaku Nyumon, which consists of an omnibus lecture series and problem-based learning, minute papers with exercises were provided to applicants. In a follow-up questionnaire, students who used minute papers (S-USE) responded that they had a better understanding of the relationships, ranging from basic to clinical subject matter, than students who did not use such papers (S-NON). Using the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) model questionnaire to measure study motivation, S-USE scored higher for some questionnaires than S-NON. This finding indicates that minute papers promoted learning motivation among students taking the Yakugaku Nyumon course. In regular examinations, the average score of S-USE was also statistically higher than that of S-NON. These results demonstrate that minute papers possibly encouraged students to actively review the lectures, thereby increasing both learning efficacy and motivation. This study shows that through promoting active, self-learning, minute papers are suitable for improving curricular strategies in subjects that rely on passive learning methods.

Effects of Self-Explanation and Game-Reward on Sixth Graders' Algebra Variable Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun-Lin, Hong-Zheng; Chiou, Guey-Fa

2017-01-01

This study examined the interaction effects of self-explanation and game-reward strategies on sixth graders' algebra variable learning achievement, learning attitude, and meta-cognitive awareness. A learning system was developed to support the learning activity, and a 2×2 quasi-experiment was conducted. Ninety-seven students were invited to…

Strategies for Individualizing Typing Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quible, Zane K.

1978-01-01

Strategies to individualize instruction in typewriting classes discussed in the article are the multimedia approach, mechanical pacing devices, computer-assisted instruction, learning activity packages, and several project-type devices. (MF)

Teaching Significant Figures Using a Learning Cycle.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guymon, E. Park; And Others

1986-01-01

Describes an instructional strategy based on the learning cycle for teaching the use of significant figures. Provides explanations of teaching activities for each phase of the learning cycle (exploration, invention, application). Compares this approach to teaching significant figures with the traditional textbook approach. (TW)

Strategies, Challenges and Prospects for Active Learning in the Computer-Based Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holbert, K. E.; Karady, G. G.

2009-01-01

The introduction of computer-equipped classrooms into engineering education has brought with it a host of opportunities and issues. Herein, some of the challenges and successes for creating an environment for active learning within computer-based classrooms are described. The particular teaching approach developed for undergraduate electrical…

Reducing Student Resistance to Active Learning: Strategies for Instructors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finelli, Cynthia J.; Nguyen, Kevin; DeMonbrun, Matthew; Borrego, Maura; Prince, Michael; Husman, Jennifer; Henderson, Charles; Shekhar, Prateek; Waters, Cynthia K.

2018-01-01

In spite of considerable evidence of the effectiveness of active learning and other contemporary teaching methods, barriers to adoption of those methods, such as possible student resistance, continue to exist. This study addresses student resistance by analyzing data from 1,051 students who completed our Student Response to Instructional Practices…

Multimedia Instructional Tools and Student Learning in a Computer Applications Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Debra L.; Wang, Shuyan

2015-01-01

Advances in technology and changes in educational strategies have resulted in the integration of technology in the classroom. Multimedia instructional tools (MMIT) provide student-centered active-learning instructional activities. MMITs are common in introductory computer applications courses based on the premise that MMITs should increase student…

Active Learning Strategies in Physics Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karamustafaoglu, Orhan

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine physics teachers' opinions about student-centered activities applicable in physics teaching and learning in context. A case study approach was used in this research. First, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 6 physics teachers. Then, a questionnaire was developed based on the data obtained…

Student Perceptions of Information Literacy Instruction: The Importance of Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Detlor, Brian; Booker, Lorne; Serenko, Alexander; Julien, Heidi

2012-01-01

This study investigates the merits of employing active learning strategies in the delivery of information literacy instruction (ILI). Traditional approaches to the teaching of information literacy skills--where students are passive recipients of the information they receive--are challenged. Rather, methods that encourage students to actively…

Consumer Education, 5-8: Activities, Resources and Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Perry D.; Murray, C. Kenneth

This publication suggests consumer education learning activities for grades five through eight. It is intended as a guideline for developing local curriculum and for designing instructional strategies. Students are taught to learn to manage, to buy wisely, to save and invest, to protect themselves from unscrupulous practice, and to understand the…

The Effect of Flipped Classroom Strategy Using Blackboard Mash-Up Tools in Enhancing Achievement and Self-Regulated Learning Skills of University Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Senousy, Hala; Alquda, Jumana

2017-01-01

The flipped classroom strategy (FCRS) is an innovative instructional approach that flips the traditional teacher-centered classroom into student-centered learning, by switching the classroom and home activities using the available educational technology. This paper examined the effect of (FCRS) on students' achievement and self-regulated learning…

Making Good Teaching Great: Everyday Strategies for Teaching with Impact

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breaux, Annette L.; Whitaker, Todd

2012-01-01

Every good teacher strives to be a great teacher--and this must-have book shows you how! It's filled with practical tips and strategies for connecting with your students in a meaningful and powerful way. Learn how to improve student learning with easy-to-implement daily activities designed to integrate seamlessly into any day of the school year.…

Designing and Evaluating Tutoring Feedback Strategies for Digital Learning Environments on the Basis of the Interactive Tutoring Feedback Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narciss, Susanne

2013-01-01

This paper describes the interactive tutoring feedback model (ITF-model; Narciss, 2006; 2008), and how it can be applied to the design and evaluation of feedback strategies for digital learning environments. The ITF-model conceptualizes formative tutoring feedback as a multidimensional instructional activity that aims at contributing to the…

Reflections on Engaging Students in the Process and Product of Strategy Development for Learning, Teaching, and Assessment: An Institutional Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Healey, Mick; Mason O'Connor, Kristine; Broadfoot, Patricia

2010-01-01

Two areas of growing importance for academic developers are: first, their involvement in the development of institutional and faculty learning and teaching strategies; and second, how to engage students in academic development activity at institutional, department and discipline levels. This paper explores both interests by considering how…

Cognitive strategy use as an index of developmental differences in neural responses to feedback.

PubMed

Andersen, Lau M; Visser, Ingmar; Crone, Eveline A; Koolschijn, P Cédric M P; Raijmakers, Maartje E J

2014-12-01

Developmental differences in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and superior parietal cortex (SPC) activation are associated with differences in how children, adolescents, and adults learn from performance feedback in rule-learning tasks (Crone, Zanolie, Leijenhorst, Westenberg, & Rombouts, 2008). Both maturational differences and performance differences can potentially explain variance in functional brain activation. To disentangle those effects, we established strategy differences in the performance of participants on the task of Crone et al. (2008) by the application of latent mixture models (McLachlan & Peel, 2000). We found 4 categorically different strategies, which were divided across age groups. Both adults and adolescents were distributed among all strategy groups except for the worst performing one, whereas children were distributed among all strategy groups except for the best performing one. Strategy use was a mediator and largely explained the relation between age and variance in activation patterns in the DLPFC and the SPC but not in the ACC. These findings are interpreted vis-à-vis age versus performance predictors of brain development. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

It's all in the delivery! An analysis of instructional strategies from effective health education curricula.

PubMed

Herbert, Patrick C; Lohrmann, David K

2011-05-01

This study explores the relationship between instructional strategies and effective health education curricula. A content analysis of 10 health education curricula was conducted to determine if they include common instructional strategies for actively engaging students in acquisition of health skills. To be included, the curricula had to (1) be research-based and proven via empirical testing to positively influence the health behaviors and (2) address 1 of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 6 priority health risk behaviors. Content analysis revealed 5 active learning strategies incorporated to involve students in acquiring health skills. Role play, group cooperation, and small group discussion were found in all 10 curricula. To a lesser extent, interactive technology and team games were also included. When combined with previous research regarding the characteristics of effective teachers, it becomes clear that effective health education is delivered by teachers who employ a wide repertoire of active learning strategies while devoting substantial instructional time to those specific strategies that involve students in skills practice. © 2011, American School Health Association.

An Active Learning Framework for Hyperspectral Image Classification Using Hierarchical Segmentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhang, Zhou; Pasolli, Edoardo; Crawford, Melba M.; Tilton, James C.

2015-01-01

Augmenting spectral data with spatial information for image classification has recently gained significant attention, as classification accuracy can often be improved by extracting spatial information from neighboring pixels. In this paper, we propose a new framework in which active learning (AL) and hierarchical segmentation (HSeg) are combined for spectral-spatial classification of hyperspectral images. The spatial information is extracted from a best segmentation obtained by pruning the HSeg tree using a new supervised strategy. The best segmentation is updated at each iteration of the AL process, thus taking advantage of informative labeled samples provided by the user. The proposed strategy incorporates spatial information in two ways: 1) concatenating the extracted spatial features and the original spectral features into a stacked vector and 2) extending the training set using a self-learning-based semi-supervised learning (SSL) approach. Finally, the two strategies are combined within an AL framework. The proposed framework is validated with two benchmark hyperspectral datasets. Higher classification accuracies are obtained by the proposed framework with respect to five other state-of-the-art spectral-spatial classification approaches. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed pruning strategy is also demonstrated relative to the approaches based on a fixed segmentation.

Educational Games as a Teaching Tool in Pharmacy Curriculum

PubMed Central

Mohamed, Heba Moustafa

2015-01-01

The shift in the pharmacist’s role from simply dispensing medications to effective delivery of pharmaceutical care interventions and drug therapy management has influenced pharmacy education.1-3 The educational focus has shifted from basic sciences to clinical and integrated courses that require incorporating active-learning strategies to provide pharmacy graduates with higher levels of competencies and specialized skills. As opposed to passive didactic lectures, active-learning strategies address the educational content in an interactive learning environment to develop interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills needed by pharmacists to function effectively in their new roles.4-6 One such strategy is using educational games. The aim of this paper is to review educational games adopted in different pharmacy schools and to aid educators in replicating the successfully implemented games and overcoming deficiencies in educational games. This review also highlights the main pitfalls within this research area. PMID:26089568

Educational Games as a Teaching Tool in Pharmacy Curriculum.

PubMed

Aburahma, Mona Hassan; Mohamed, Heba Moustafa

2015-05-25

The shift in the pharmacist's role from simply dispensing medications to effective delivery of pharmaceutical care interventions and drug therapy management has influenced pharmacy education.(1-3) The educational focus has shifted from basic sciences to clinical and integrated courses that require incorporating active-learning strategies to provide pharmacy graduates with higher levels of competencies and specialized skills. As opposed to passive didactic lectures, active-learning strategies address the educational content in an interactive learning environment to develop interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills needed by pharmacists to function effectively in their new roles.(4-6) One such strategy is using educational games. The aim of this paper is to review educational games adopted in different pharmacy schools and to aid educators in replicating the successfully implemented games and overcoming deficiencies in educational games. This review also highlights the main pitfalls within this research area.

Optimal teaching strategy in periodic impulsive knowledge dissemination system.

PubMed

Liu, Dan-Qing; Wu, Zhen-Qiang; Wang, Yu-Xin; Guo, Qiang; Liu, Jian-Guo

2017-01-01

Accurately describing the knowledge dissemination process is significant to enhance the performance of personalized education. In this study, considering the effect of periodic teaching activities on the learning process, we propose a periodic impulsive knowledge dissemination system to regenerate the knowledge dissemination process. Meanwhile, we put forward learning effectiveness which is an outcome of a trade-off between the benefits and costs raised by knowledge dissemination as objective function. Further, we investigate the optimal teaching strategy which can maximize learning effectiveness, to obtain the optimal effect of knowledge dissemination affected by the teaching activities. We solve this dynamic optimization problem by optimal control theory and get the optimization system. At last we numerically solve this system in several practical examples to make the conclusions intuitive and specific. The optimal teaching strategy proposed in this paper can be applied widely in the optimization problem of personal education and beneficial for enhancing the effect of knowledge dissemination.

Optimal teaching strategy in periodic impulsive knowledge dissemination system

PubMed Central

Liu, Dan-Qing; Wu, Zhen-Qiang; Wang, Yu-Xin; Guo, Qiang

2017-01-01

Accurately describing the knowledge dissemination process is significant to enhance the performance of personalized education. In this study, considering the effect of periodic teaching activities on the learning process, we propose a periodic impulsive knowledge dissemination system to regenerate the knowledge dissemination process. Meanwhile, we put forward learning effectiveness which is an outcome of a trade-off between the benefits and costs raised by knowledge dissemination as objective function. Further, we investigate the optimal teaching strategy which can maximize learning effectiveness, to obtain the optimal effect of knowledge dissemination affected by the teaching activities. We solve this dynamic optimization problem by optimal control theory and get the optimization system. At last we numerically solve this system in several practical examples to make the conclusions intuitive and specific. The optimal teaching strategy proposed in this paper can be applied widely in the optimization problem of personal education and beneficial for enhancing the effect of knowledge dissemination. PMID:28665961

Advancing student nurse knowledge of the biomedical sciences: A mixed methods study.

PubMed

Craft, Judy; Christensen, Martin; Bakon, Shannon; Wirihana, Lisa

2017-01-01

Nursing students' ability to learn, integrate and apply bioscience knowledge to their clinical practice remains a concern. To evaluate the implementation, influence, and student perspective of a team-teaching workshop to integrate bioscience theory with clinical nursing practice. The team-teaching workshop was offered prior to commencement of the university semester as a refresher course at an Australian university. This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design incorporating both quantitative and qualitative items. An evaluation survey with quantitative and qualitative items and a focus group were employed. The qualitative data were analysed using a thematic approach. The quantitative data was combined with the emergent themes in the qualitative data. Participants were final year nursing students. Nine students attended the workshop. All students completed the evaluation (N=9) and 44.4% (N=4) attended the focus group. The results revealed six themes: (1) lectures are an inadequate teaching strategy for bioscience; (2) teaching strategies which incorporate active learning engage students; (3) the team-teaching workshop provides an effective learning environment; (4) the workshop content should be expanded; (5) pharmacology should relate to bioscience, and bioscience should relate to nursing; and (6) team-teaching was effective in integrating pharmacology with bioscience, and then translating this into nursing practice. Students had felt there was disjointedness between pharmacology and bioscience, and between bioscience and nursing care within their undergraduate studies. The workshop that was based on team-teaching bridged those gaps, utilised active learning strategies and provided an effective learning environment. Team-teaching that employs active learning strategies is an effective approach to assist nursing students to integrate bioscience knowledge into their nursing practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing team-based and mixed active-learning methods in an ambulatory care elective course.

PubMed

Zingone, Michelle M; Franks, Andrea S; Guirguis, Alexander B; George, Christa M; Howard-Thompson, Amanda; Heidel, Robert E

2010-11-10

To assess students' performance and perceptions of team-based and mixed active-learning methods in 2 ambulatory care elective courses, and to describe faculty members' perceptions of team-based learning. Using the 2 teaching methods, students' grades were compared. Students' perceptions were assessed through 2 anonymous course evaluation instruments. Faculty members who taught courses using the team-based learning method were surveyed regarding their impressions of team-based learning. The ambulatory care course was offered to 64 students using team-based learning (n = 37) and mixed active learning (n = 27) formats. The mean quality points earned were 3.7 (team-based learning) and 3.3 (mixed active learning), p < 0.001. Course evaluations for both courses were favorable. All faculty members who used the team-based learning method reported that they would consider using team-based learning in another course. Students were satisfied with both teaching methods; however, student grades were significantly higher in the team-based learning course. Faculty members recognized team-based learning as an effective teaching strategy for small-group active learning.

Developing a Problem-Based Learning Simulation: An Economics Unit on Trade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maxwell, Nan L.; Mergendoller, John R.; Bellisimo, Yolanda

2004-01-01

This article argues that the merger of simulations and problem-based learning (PBL) can enhance both active-learning strategies. Simulations benefit by using a PBL framework to promote student-directed learning and problem-solving skills to explain a simulated dilemma with multiple solutions. PBL benefits because simulations structure the…

Selected Papers from the National Conference on College Teaching and Learning (6th, Jacksonville, Florida, April 5-8, 1995).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambers, Jack A., Ed.

This collection of 18 papers covers four broad areas of teaching and learning in higher education: innovative college teaching/learning strategies; effective classroom research/assessment activities; advanced classroom technology; and developing teaching and learning centers. Titles include: (1) "African American Students' Perceptions of…

An Auto-Scoring Mechanism for Evaluating Problem-Solving Ability in a Web-Based Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiou, Chuang-Kai; Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Tseng, Judy C. R.

2009-01-01

The rapid development of computer and network technologies has attracted researchers to investigate strategies for and the effects of applying information technologies in learning activities; simultaneously, learning environments have been developed to record the learning portfolios of students seeking web information for problem-solving. Although…

Selected Papers from the National Conference on College Teaching and Learning (4th, Jacksonville, Florida, April 14-17, 1993).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambers, Jack A., Ed.

This collection of 18 papers covers four broad areas of teaching and learning in higher education: innovative college teaching/learning strategies; effective classroom research/assessment activities; advanced classroom technology; and developing teaching and learning centers. Titles include: (1) "Changing Teaching Styles When Technology Becomes…

E-service learning: A pedagogic innovation for healthcare management education.

PubMed

Malvey, Donna M; Hamby, Eileen F; Fottler, Myron D

2006-01-01

This paper proposes an innovation in service learning that we identify as e-service learning. By adding the "e" to service learning, we create a service learning model that is dynamic, mediated by technology, and delivered online. This paper begins by examining service learning, which is a distinct learning concept. Service learning furnishes students with opportunities for applied learning through participation in projects and activities in community organizations. The authors then define and conceptualize e-service learning, including the anticipated outcomes of implementation such as enhanced access, quality, and cost effectiveness of healthcare management education. Because e-service learning is mediated by technology, we identify state of the art technologies that support e-service learning activities. In addition, possible e-service learning projects and activities that may be included in healthcare management courses such as finance, human resources, quality, service management/marketing and strategy are identified. Finally, opportunities for future research are suggested.

Improvements in Students' Understanding from Increased Implementation of Active Learning Strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayes-Gehrke, Melissa N.; Prather, E. E.; Rudolph, A. L.; Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars CATS

2011-01-01

Many instructors are hesitant to implement active learning strategies in their introductory astronomy classrooms because they are not sure which techniques they should use, how to implement those techniques, and question whether the investment in changing their course will really bring the advertised learning gains. We present an example illustrating how thoughtful and systematic implementation of active learning strategies into a traditionally taught Astro 101 class can translate into significant increases in students' understanding. We detail the journey of one instructor, over several years, as she changes the instruction and design of her course from one that focuses almost exclusively on lecture to a course that provides an integrated use of several active learning techniques such as Lecture-Tutorials and Think-Pair-Share questions. The students in the initial lecture-only course achieved a low normalized gain score of only 0.2 on the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI), while the students in the re-designed learner-centered course achieved a significantly better normalized gain of 0.43. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0715517, a CCLI Phase III Grant for the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS), and Grant No. 0847170, a PAARE Grant for the Calfornia-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Self-regulation strategy, feedback timing and hemodynamic properties modulate learning in a simulated fMRI neurofeedback environment.

PubMed

Oblak, Ethan F; Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod A; Sulzer, James S

2017-07-01

Direct manipulation of brain activity can be used to investigate causal brain-behavior relationships. Current noninvasive neural stimulation techniques are too coarse to manipulate behaviors that correlate with fine-grained spatial patterns recorded by fMRI. However, these activity patterns can be manipulated by having people learn to self-regulate their own recorded neural activity. This technique, known as fMRI neurofeedback, faces challenges as many participants are unable to self-regulate. The causes of this non-responder effect are not well understood due to the cost and complexity of such investigation in the MRI scanner. Here, we investigated the temporal dynamics of the hemodynamic response measured by fMRI as a potential cause of the non-responder effect. Learning to self-regulate the hemodynamic response involves a difficult temporal credit-assignment problem because this signal is both delayed and blurred over time. Two factors critical to this problem are the prescribed self-regulation strategy (cognitive or automatic) and feedback timing (continuous or intermittent). Here, we sought to evaluate how these factors interact with the temporal dynamics of fMRI without using the MRI scanner. We first examined the role of cognitive strategies by having participants learn to regulate a simulated neurofeedback signal using a unidimensional strategy: pressing one of two buttons to rotate a visual grating that stimulates a model of visual cortex. Under these conditions, continuous feedback led to faster regulation compared to intermittent feedback. Yet, since many neurofeedback studies prescribe implicit self-regulation strategies, we created a computational model of automatic reward-based learning to examine whether this result held true for automatic processing. When feedback was delayed and blurred based on the hemodynamics of fMRI, this model learned more reliably from intermittent feedback compared to continuous feedback. These results suggest that different self-regulation mechanisms prefer different feedback timings, and that these factors can be effectively explored and optimized via simulation prior to deployment in the MRI scanner.

Self-regulation strategy, feedback timing and hemodynamic properties modulate learning in a simulated fMRI neurofeedback environment

PubMed Central

Sulzer, James S.

2017-01-01

Direct manipulation of brain activity can be used to investigate causal brain-behavior relationships. Current noninvasive neural stimulation techniques are too coarse to manipulate behaviors that correlate with fine-grained spatial patterns recorded by fMRI. However, these activity patterns can be manipulated by having people learn to self-regulate their own recorded neural activity. This technique, known as fMRI neurofeedback, faces challenges as many participants are unable to self-regulate. The causes of this non-responder effect are not well understood due to the cost and complexity of such investigation in the MRI scanner. Here, we investigated the temporal dynamics of the hemodynamic response measured by fMRI as a potential cause of the non-responder effect. Learning to self-regulate the hemodynamic response involves a difficult temporal credit-assignment problem because this signal is both delayed and blurred over time. Two factors critical to this problem are the prescribed self-regulation strategy (cognitive or automatic) and feedback timing (continuous or intermittent). Here, we sought to evaluate how these factors interact with the temporal dynamics of fMRI without using the MRI scanner. We first examined the role of cognitive strategies by having participants learn to regulate a simulated neurofeedback signal using a unidimensional strategy: pressing one of two buttons to rotate a visual grating that stimulates a model of visual cortex. Under these conditions, continuous feedback led to faster regulation compared to intermittent feedback. Yet, since many neurofeedback studies prescribe implicit self-regulation strategies, we created a computational model of automatic reward-based learning to examine whether this result held true for automatic processing. When feedback was delayed and blurred based on the hemodynamics of fMRI, this model learned more reliably from intermittent feedback compared to continuous feedback. These results suggest that different self-regulation mechanisms prefer different feedback timings, and that these factors can be effectively explored and optimized via simulation prior to deployment in the MRI scanner. PMID:28753639

Collaborative Instructional Strategies to Enhance Knowledge Convergence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Draper, Darryl C.

2015-01-01

To promote knowledge convergence through collaborative learning activities in groups, this qualitative case study involved a layered approach for the design and delivery of a highly collaborative learning environment incorporating various instructional technologies grounded in learning theory. In a graduate-level instructional technology course,…

NursingQuest: supporting an analysis of nursing issues.

PubMed

Bassendowski, Sandra L

2007-02-01

With the development and use of new strategies, practices, applications, and resources in technology, the teaching and learning context is shifting. Nurse educators are challenged to create instructional strategies that appeal to the newer generation of students and have the potential to enhance learning. Effective learning programs for these students require new digital communication skills, new pedagogies, and new practices. Nursing students should not be seeking the right answer as much as they should be seeking appropriate information and then developing approaches to issues or resolutions for problems. The focus of the teaching and learning context is shifting from the individual to the group, with the purpose of constructing new knowledge from available information. This article discusses the value of WebQuest activities as inquiry-oriented strategies and the process of adapting the WebQuest format for the development of a strategy called NursingQuest.

ConfChem Conference on Select 2016 BCCE Presentations: Putting Your Own Personal Twist on a Flipped Organic Classroom and Selling the Idea to Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Ashleigh L. P.

2017-01-01

This paper presents gradual implementation of active learning approaches in an organic chemistry classroom based on student feedback and strategies for getting students on-board with this new approach. Active learning techniques discussed include videos, online quizzes, reading assignments, and classroom activities. Preliminary findings indicate a…

Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies Trial Edition. Set I.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairwell, Kay, Ed.; And Others

The Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies (OBIS) Trial Edition Set I contains 24 varied activities which make use of crafts, simulations, and basic investigative techniques to provide introductory learning experiences in outdoor biology for children aged 10 to 15. The individual water-resistant folio for each activity includes biological…

Active Teaching Strategies for a Sense of Salience: End-of-Life Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kopp, Mary L.

2013-01-01

This study compared active teaching strategies with passive lecture by evaluating cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning outcomes, while highlighting end-of-life communication in nursing education. The problem addressed was twofold: First, passive lecture prevents transfer to situational decision-making, or a sense of salience (Benner,…

78 FR 24392 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Evaluation and Accountability Report...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-25

... effectiveness of Title II, Part D formula and competitive grant-funded projects, activities and strategies in... and strategies that effectively infuse technology with curriculum and instruction, show evidence of positive impacts for student learning, and can be widely replicated by other State educational agencies and...

Forum: The Lecture and Student Learning. Sound Decision Making about the Lecture's Role in the College Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldeck, Jennifer H.; Weimer, Maryellen

2017-01-01

College instructors use lecture and its current counterpoint--active learning--widely and often rely on both strategies, but the question of which best promotes student learning has become a debate that ignores the fact that learning can result from both. Students still listen to and learn from lectures. They pass exams, obtain degrees, and…

Tracing International Differences in Online Learning Development: An Examination of Government Policies in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Allison; Barbour, Michael

2011-01-01

In 2006 the North American Council for Online Learning surveyed the activity and policy relating to primary and secondary e-learning, which they defined as online learning, in a selection of countries. They found most were embracing e-learning delivery of education as a central strategy for enabling reform, modernising schools, and increasing…

The teaching-learning approach and critical thinking development: a qualitative exploration of Taiwanese nursing students.

PubMed

Lin, Chun-Chih; Han, Chin-Yen; Pan, I-Ju; Chen, Li-Chin

2015-01-01

Health care professionals are challenged by the complexities of the health care environment. This study uses a qualitative approach to explore how teaching strategy affects the development of critical thinking (CT) among Taiwanese baccalaureate-level nursing students. Data collected from 109 students' reflection reports were analyzed using content analysis. Three categories generated by the analysis were the teaching-learning strategy, enhancing CT, and transiting into a different learning style. The teaching-learning strategy consisted of concept mapping, question and answer, and real-life case studies. CT was enhanced alternately by self-directed learning, the realization of the gap between known and unknown, and connecting the gap between theoretical nursing knowledge and clinical practice. The study results emphasize participants' perceptions of becoming a critical thinker, turning into an active learner, and eventually achieving self-confidence. These learning effects invest the wisdom of teaching-learning with a far-reaching significance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Elective Course on Antimicrobial Stewardship

PubMed Central

Sherman, Elizabeth M.; Unger, Nathan R.

2015-01-01

Objective. To implement an antimicrobial stewardship (AS) elective course for second-year and third-year pharmacy students and to assess its impact on students’ perceptions regarding the application of AS principles. Design. A 2-credit elective course focusing on principles of AS incorporated prelecture didactic recordings with primary literature and guideline-based reading assignments, in-class active-learning group work and student-led presentations, and student-generated examination items. Assessment. Perceptions were assessed by precourse and postcourse survey items. Graded course assessments included completion of preclass assignments (readings, prerecorded lecture and writing assessment items), in-class active participation and group presentations, a midpoint examination, and a final examination. Conclusion. An AS-themed elective course in a doctor of pharmacy curriculum incorporating preclass, self-directed learning and in-class group-based active-learning strategies positively impacted students’ perceived understanding of AS strategies. PMID:26889069

User-Driven Sampling Strategies in Image Exploitation

DOE PAGES

Harvey, Neal R.; Porter, Reid B.

2013-12-23

Visual analytics and interactive machine learning both try to leverage the complementary strengths of humans and machines to solve complex data exploitation tasks. These fields overlap most significantly when training is involved: the visualization or machine learning tool improves over time by exploiting observations of the human-computer interaction. This paper focuses on one aspect of the human-computer interaction that we call user-driven sampling strategies. Unlike relevance feedback and active learning sampling strategies, where the computer selects which data to label at each iteration, we investigate situations where the user selects which data is to be labeled at each iteration. User-drivenmore » sampling strategies can emerge in many visual analytics applications but they have not been fully developed in machine learning. We discovered that in user-driven sampling strategies suggest new theoretical and practical research questions for both visualization science and machine learning. In this paper we identify and quantify the potential benefits of these strategies in a practical image analysis application. We find user-driven sampling strategies can sometimes provide significant performance gains by steering tools towards local minima that have lower error than tools trained with all of the data. Furthermore, in preliminary experiments we find these performance gains are particularly pronounced when the user is experienced with the tool and application domain.« less

User-driven sampling strategies in image exploitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harvey, Neal; Porter, Reid

2013-12-01

Visual analytics and interactive machine learning both try to leverage the complementary strengths of humans and machines to solve complex data exploitation tasks. These fields overlap most significantly when training is involved: the visualization or machine learning tool improves over time by exploiting observations of the human-computer interaction. This paper focuses on one aspect of the human-computer interaction that we call user-driven sampling strategies. Unlike relevance feedback and active learning sampling strategies, where the computer selects which data to label at each iteration, we investigate situations where the user selects which data is to be labeled at each iteration. User-driven sampling strategies can emerge in many visual analytics applications but they have not been fully developed in machine learning. User-driven sampling strategies suggest new theoretical and practical research questions for both visualization science and machine learning. In this paper we identify and quantify the potential benefits of these strategies in a practical image analysis application. We find user-driven sampling strategies can sometimes provide significant performance gains by steering tools towards local minima that have lower error than tools trained with all of the data. In preliminary experiments we find these performance gains are particularly pronounced when the user is experienced with the tool and application domain.

Cavity approach to noisy learning in nonlinear perceptrons.

PubMed

Luo, P; Michael Wong, K Y

2001-12-01

We analyze the learning of noisy teacher-generated examples by nonlinear and differentiable student perceptrons using the cavity method. The generic activation of an example is a function of the cavity activation of the example, which is its activation in the perceptron that learns without the example. Mean-field equations for the macroscopic parameters and the stability condition yield results consistent with the replica method. When a single value of the cavity activation maps to multiple values of the generic activation, there is a competition in learning strategy between preferentially learning an example and sacrificing it in favor of the background adjustment. We find parameter regimes in which examples are learned preferentially or sacrificially, leading to a gap in the activation distribution. Full phase diagrams of this complex system are presented, and the theory predicts the existence of a phase transition from poor to good generalization states in the system. Simulation results confirm the theoretical predictions.

Resource Letter ALIP-1: Active-Learning Instruction in Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meltzer, David E.; Thornton, Ronald K.

2012-06-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on research-based active-learning instruction in physics. These are instructional methods that are based on, assessed by, and validated through research on the teaching and learning of physics. They involve students in their own learning more deeply and more intensely than does traditional instruction, particularly during class time. The instructional methods and supporting body of research reviewed here offer potential for significantly improved learning in comparison to traditional lecture-based methods of college and university physics instruction. We begin with an introduction to the history of active learning in physics in the United States, and then discuss some methods for and outcomes of assessing pedagogical effectiveness. We enumerate and describe common characteristics of successful active-learning instructional strategies in physics. We then discuss a range of methods for introducing active-learning instruction in physics and provide references to those methods for which there is published documentation of student learning gains.

Leadership Perspectives on Operationalizing the Learning Health Care System in an Integrated Delivery System.

PubMed

Psek, Wayne; Davis, F Daniel; Gerrity, Gloria; Stametz, Rebecca; Bailey-Davis, Lisa; Henninger, Debra; Sellers, Dorothy; Darer, Jonathan

2016-01-01

Healthcare leaders need operational strategies that support organizational learning for continued improvement and value generation. The learning health system (LHS) model may provide leaders with such strategies; however, little is known about leaders' perspectives on the value and application of system-wide operationalization of the LHS model. The objective of this project was to solicit and analyze senior health system leaders' perspectives on the LHS and learning activities in an integrated delivery system. A series of interviews were conducted with 41 system leaders from a broad range of clinical and administrative areas across an integrated delivery system. Leaders' responses were categorized into themes. Ten major themes emerged from our conversations with leaders. While leaders generally expressed support for the concept of the LHS and enhanced system-wide learning, their concerns and suggestions for operationalization where strongly aligned with their functional area and strategic goals. Our findings suggests that leaders tend to adopt a very pragmatic approach to learning. Leaders expressed a dichotomy between the operational imperative to execute operational objectives efficiently and the need for rigorous evaluation. Alignment of learning activities with system-wide strategic and operational priorities is important to gain leadership support and resources. Practical approaches to addressing opportunities and challenges identified in the themes are discussed. Continuous learning is an ongoing, multi-disciplinary function of a health care delivery system. Findings from this and other research may be used to inform and prioritize system-wide learning objectives and strategies which support reliable, high value care delivery.

Striatal dysfunction during reversal learning in unmedicated schizophrenia patients☆

PubMed Central

Schlagenhauf, Florian; Huys, Quentin J.M.; Deserno, Lorenz; Rapp, Michael A.; Beck, Anne; Heinze, Hans-Joachim; Dolan, Ray; Heinz, Andreas

2014-01-01

Subjects with schizophrenia are impaired at reinforcement-driven reversal learning from as early as their first episode. The neurobiological basis of this deficit is unknown. We obtained behavioral and fMRI data in 24 unmedicated, primarily first episode, schizophrenia patients and 24 age-, IQ- and gender-matched healthy controls during a reversal learning task. We supplemented our fMRI analysis, focusing on learning from prediction errors, with detailed computational modeling to probe task solving strategy including an ability to deploy an internal goal directed model of the task. Patients displayed reduced functional activation in the ventral striatum (VS) elicited by prediction errors. However, modeling task performance revealed that a subgroup did not adjust their behavior according to an accurate internal model of the task structure, and these were also the more severely psychotic patients. In patients who could adapt their behavior, as well as in controls, task solving was best described by cognitive strategies according to a Hidden Markov Model. When we compared patients and controls who acted according to this strategy, patients still displayed a significant reduction in VS activation elicited by informative errors that precede salient changes of behavior (reversals). Thus, our study shows that VS dysfunction in schizophrenia patients during reward-related reversal learning remains a core deficit even when controlling for task solving strategies. This result highlights VS dysfunction is tightly linked to a reward-related reversal learning deficit in early, unmedicated schizophrenia patients. PMID:24291614

Learning science as a potential new source of understanding and improvement for continuing education and continuing professional development.

PubMed

Van Hoof, Thomas J; Doyle, Terrence J

2018-01-15

Learning science is an emerging interdisciplinary field that offers educators key insights about what happens in the brain when learning occurs. In addition to explanations about the learning process, which includes memory and involves different parts of the brain, learning science offers effective strategies to inform the planning and implementation of activities and programs in continuing education and continuing professional development. This article provides a brief description of learning, including the three key steps of encoding, consolidation and retrieval. The article also introduces four major learning-science strategies, known as distributed learning, retrieval practice, interleaving, and elaboration, which share the importance of considerable practice. Finally, the article describes how learning science aligns with the general findings from the most recent synthesis of systematic reviews about the effectiveness of continuing medical education.

Strategies to improve learning of all students in a class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suraishkumar, G. K.

2018-05-01

The statistical distribution of the student learning abilities in a typical undergraduate engineering class poses a significant challenge to simultaneously improve the learning of all the students in the class. With traditional instruction styles, the students with significantly high learning abilities are not satisfied due to a feeling of unfulfilled potential, and the students with significantly low learning abilities feel lost. To address the challenge in an undergraduate core/required course on 'transport phenomena in biological systems', a combination of learning strategies such as active learning including co-operative group learning, challenge exercises, and others were employed in a pro-advising context. The short-term and long-term impacts were evaluated through student course performances and input, respectively. The results show that it is possible to effectively address the challenge posed by the distribution of student learning abilities in a class.

The Modular Approach (with Strategies) to Learning Motor Skills

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-03-01

Sciencies . ~~LThe findings in this report are not to be construed as an official Dopertment of the Army posotion, unless so designated by other...13 Conducting an Instructional Analysis .. ................ 14 Pre-Instructional Activities .. ............... ..... 16 Instructional Materials ...domains. Further, many processes that underlie a person’s use of strategies to enhance the learning of written material appears to be similar in the

Reconceptualising Outdoor Adventure Education: Activity in Search of an Appropriate Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Mike

2009-01-01

Experiential approaches to learning underpin teaching and learning strategies in outdoor adventure education (OAE). Recent critiques of experiential learning have problematised the individualistic and overly cognitive focus of this approach which creates binaries between experience-reflection and the learner-situation. This paper summarises these…

A Visual Approach to Helping Instructors Integrate, Document, and Refine Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Regina F.; Fisher, Beth A.; Solomon, Erin D.; Leonard, Denise A.; Mutambuki, Jacinta M.; Cohen, Cheryl A.; Luo, Jia; Pondugula, Santhi

2016-01-01

This article describes a visual approach to integrating observational data into self-evaluation and peer review of teaching, practices that can lead to adoption of evidence-based active-learning strategies in STEM. This approach was designed to be implemented for undergraduate courses across disciplines. The presentation of observational data in a…

Rules, Roles and Tools: Activity Theory and the Comparative Study of E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Angela; Lawler, Cormac; Whitworth, Andrew

2008-01-01

Activity theory (AT) is a powerful tool for investigating "artefacts in use", ie, the ways technologies interrelate with their local context. AT reveals the interfaces between e-learning at the macro- (strategy, policy, "campus-wide" solutions) and the micro-organisational levels (everyday working practice, iterative change, individual…

Modeling Social Activism and Teaching about Violence against Women through Theatre Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pataki, Sherri P.; Mackenzie, Scott A.

2012-01-01

To inform students about global violence against women and to empower them to take action, the authors developed an interdisciplinary course focused on experiential learning and theatre education. Their article discusses the development of the course; the implementation of active learning strategies to develop critical thinking, empathy, and…

Utilizing Field-Based Instruction as an Effective Teaching Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kozar, Joy M.; Marcketti, Sara B.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of field-based instruction on student learning outcomes. Researchers in the past have noted the importance of engaging students on a deeper level through the use of active course designs. To investigate the outcomes of active learning, two field assignments created for two separate…

Finding a Way: Learning Activities in Geography for Grades 7-11.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Council for Geographic Education.

This set of curriculum modules contains geography learning activities that emphasize strategies to encourage young women in geography and social studies classes. Compiled in an effort to improve the motivation and achievement levels of students in geography classrooms, grades 7-11, the modules aim to boost academic performance and overall interest…

Problem-Centered Supplemental Instruction in Biology: Influence on Content Recall, Content Understanding, and Problem Solving Ability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gardner, Joel; Belland, Brian R.

2017-08-01

To address the need for effective, efficient ways to apply active learning in undergraduate biology courses, in this paper, we propose a problem-centered approach that utilizes supplemental web-based instructional materials based on principles of active learning. We compared two supplementary web-based modules using active learning strategies: the first used Merrill's First Principles of Instruction as a framework for organizing multiple active learning strategies; the second used a traditional web-based approach. Results indicated that (a) the First Principles group gained significantly from pretest to posttest at the Remember level ( t(40) = -1.432, p = 0.08, ES = 0.4) and at the Problem Solving level ( U = 142.5, N1 = 21, N2 = 21, p = .02, ES = 0.7) and (b) the Traditional group gained significantly from pretest to posttest at the Remember level ( t(36) = 1.762, p = 0.043, ES = 0.6). Those in the First Principles group were significantly more likely than the traditional group to be confident in their ability to solve problems in the future (χ2 (2, N = 40) = 3.585, p = 0.09).

Active-learning strategies to develop health literacy knowledge and skills.

PubMed

Devraj, Radhika; Butler, Lakesha M; Gupchup, Gireesh V; Poirier, Therese I

2010-10-11

To implement active-learning exercises in a required pharmacy course and assess their impact on students' knowledge and confidence in identifying and communicating with patients with low health literacy, as part of a required course in cultural competency, health literacy, and health beliefs. Active-learning activities including administering health literacy assessments, identifying informal signs of low health literacy, conducting mock patient counseling sessions, rating the readability of drug information, analyzing information in drug advertisements, and writing patient education materials were incorporated into the 6-sesssion health literacy portion of the course. A pretest and posttest showed that students' knowledge of health literacy increased, and a retrospective pretest found improvement in students' confidence in their ability to care for patients with low health literacy. In-class discussions provided informal evidence that students gained new knowledge from the active-learning activities. The addition of active-learning activities was effective in teaching health literacy concepts to pharmacy students.

Strategies for Effective Faculty Involvement in Online Activities Aimed at Promoting Critical Thinking and Deep Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdul Razzak, Nina

2016-01-01

Highly-traditional education systems that mainly offer what is known as "direct instruction" usually result in graduates with a surface approach to learning rather than a deep one. What is meant by deep-learning is learning that involves critical analysis, the linking of ideas and concepts, creative problem solving, and application…

Writing for Learning in Science: A Model for Use within Classrooms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hand, Brian; Prain, Vaughan

1996-01-01

Discusses writing for learning within science classrooms. Presents a model that can be used by teachers to promote a greater variety of writing types. Includes examples of its use and an explanation of learning strategies students use in these activities. Discusses the value of the model in framing the planning of writing-for-learning tasks.…

Learning through Debate during Problem-Based Learning: An Active Learning Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mumtaz, Sadaf; Latif, Rabia

2017-01-01

We explored medical student's views and perceptions of a series of debates conducted during problem-based learning (PBL) practiced as a part of the Spiral curriculum at the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. A series of debates were employed during PBL sessions for second-year female medical students, over the period 2014-2016.…

41 Active Learning Strategies for the Inclusive Classroom, Grades 6-12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casale-Giannola, Diane; Green, Linda Schwartz

2012-01-01

Motivating adolescents to learn can be a challenge! Often distracted and easily bored, these kids are also critical thinkers capable of thriving in the classroom while learning 21st century skills. How do we hold their attention and develop their abilities? Research shows that all students--regardless of learning style, disability category, or…

Practices and Prospects of Learner Autonomy: Teachers' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Asmari, AbdulRahman

2013-01-01

Language learning process works through the learners' own reflection on how they learn and it makes learners active in the sense that they learn to analyze their learning strategies. So they start making decisions, e.g., whether to improve them or not, and in which way. Generally, this trait is missing in traditional language teaching process and…

Selected Papers from the National Conference on College Teaching and Learning (5th, Jacksonville, Florida, April 6-9, 1994).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambers, Jack A., Ed.

This collection of 18 papers covers four broad areas of teaching and learning in higher education: innovative college teaching/learning strategies; effective classroom research/assessment activities; advanced classroom technology; and developing teaching and learning centers. Papers also address the question of how the college classroom is…

Does self-reflection and peer-assessment improve Saudi pharmacy students' academic performance and metacognitive skills?

PubMed

Yusuff, Kazeem B

2015-07-01

The patient-centered focus of clinical pharmacy practice which demands nuanced application of specialized knowledge and skills targeted to meeting patient-specific therapeutic needs warrant that the training strategy used for PharmD graduates must empower with the ability to use the higher level cognitive processes and critical thinking effectively in service delivery. However, the historical disposition to learning in the Middle East and among Saudi students appeared heavily focused on rote memorization and recall of memorized facts. To assess the impact of active pedagogic strategies such as self-reflection and peer assessment on pharmacy students' academic performance and metacognitive skills, and evaluate students' feedback on the impact of these active pedagogic strategies on their overall learning experience. An exploratory prospective cohort study was conducted among 4th year students at the College of Clinical Pharmacy, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia to assess the impact of self-reflection and peer-assessment in a semester-wide assessment tasks in two compulsory first semester 4th year courses (Therapeutics-3 and Pharmacoeconomics). An end-of-course evaluation survey with a pre-tested 5-item open-ended questionnaire was also conducted to evaluate students' feedback on the impact of active pedagogic strategies on their overall learning experience. Male students (study group) constituted 40.7% of the cohort while 59.3% were females (control group) with mean ± SD age of 23.2 ± 5.6 and 22.1 ± 4.9 years respectively. The mean ± SD scores for quizzes, mid-term and final exams, and the overall percentage pass were significantly higher in the study group for both courses (P < 0.001). The majority of the students in the study group opined that the exposure to active pedagogic strategies enabled them to improve their use of critical thinking, facilitated deeper engagement with their learning and improved their clinical decision-making and discussion skills. The use of active pedagogic strategies such as self-reflection and peer-assessment appeared to significantly improve examination performance, facilitate deep and constructive engagement with learning and fostered students' confidence in the use of critical thinking and clinical decision-making.

Does self-reflection and peer-assessment improve Saudi pharmacy students’ academic performance and metacognitive skills?

PubMed Central

Yusuff, Kazeem B.

2014-01-01

Background: The patient-centered focus of clinical pharmacy practice which demands nuanced application of specialized knowledge and skills targeted to meeting patient-specific therapeutic needs warrant that the training strategy used for PharmD graduates must empower with the ability to use the higher level cognitive processes and critical thinking effectively in service delivery. However, the historical disposition to learning in the Middle East and among Saudi students appeared heavily focused on rote memorization and recall of memorized facts. Objectives: To assess the impact of active pedagogic strategies such as self-reflection and peer assessment on pharmacy students’ academic performance and metacognitive skills, and evaluate students’ feedback on the impact of these active pedagogic strategies on their overall learning experience. Method: An exploratory prospective cohort study was conducted among 4th year students at the College of Clinical Pharmacy, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia to assess the impact of self-reflection and peer-assessment in a semester-wide assessment tasks in two compulsory first semester 4th year courses (Therapeutics-3 and Pharmacoeconomics). An end-of-course evaluation survey with a pre-tested 5-item open-ended questionnaire was also conducted to evaluate students’ feedback on the impact of active pedagogic strategies on their overall learning experience. Result: Male students (study group) constituted 40.7% of the cohort while 59.3% were females (control group) with mean ± SD age of 23.2 ± 5.6 and 22.1 ± 4.9 years respectively. The mean ± SD scores for quizzes, mid-term and final exams, and the overall percentage pass were significantly higher in the study group for both courses (P < 0.001). The majority of the students in the study group opined that the exposure to active pedagogic strategies enabled them to improve their use of critical thinking, facilitated deeper engagement with their learning and improved their clinical decision-making and discussion skills. Conclusion: The use of active pedagogic strategies such as self-reflection and peer-assessment appeared to significantly improve examination performance, facilitate deep and constructive engagement with learning and fostered students’ confidence in the use of critical thinking and clinical decision-making. PMID:26106275

Emotional development in adolescence: what can be learned from a high school theater program?

PubMed

Larson, Reed W; Brown, Jane R

2007-01-01

Grounded-theory analyses were used to formulate propositions regarding the processes of adolescent emotional development. Progress in understanding this difficult topic requires close examination of emotional experience in context, and to do this the authors drew on qualitative data collected over the course of a high school theater production. Participants' (ages 14-17) accounts of experiences in this setting demonstrated their capacity to actively extract emotional knowledge and to develop strategies for managing emotions. These accounts suggested that youth's repeated "hot" experience of unfolding emotional episodes in the setting provided material for this active process of learning. Youth also learned by drawing on and internalizing the emotion culture of the setting, which provided concepts, strategies, and tools for managing emotional episodes.

The impact of constructivist teaching strategies on the acquisition of higher order cognition and learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merrill, Alison Saricks

The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative mixed design study was to compare the effectiveness of brain-based teaching strategies versus a traditional lecture format in the acquisition of higher order cognition as determined by test scores. A second purpose was to elicit student feedback about the two teaching approaches. The design was a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design study with repeated measures on the last factor. The independent variables were type of student, teaching method, and a within group change over time. Dependent variables were a between group comparison of pre-test, post-test gain scores and a within and between group comparison of course examination scores. A convenience sample of students enrolled in medical-surgical nursing was used. One group (n=36) was made up of traditional students and the other group (n=36) consisted of second-degree students. Four learning units were included in this study. Pre- and post-tests were given on the first two units. Course examinations scores from all four units were compared. In one cohort two of the units were taught via lecture format and two using constructivist activities. These methods were reversed for the other cohort. The conceptual basis for this study derives from neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Learning is defined as the growth of new dendrites. Cognitive psychologists view learning as a constructive activity in which new knowledge is built on an internal foundation of existing knowledge. Constructivist teaching strategies are designed to stimulate the brain's natural learning ability. There was a statistically significant difference based on type of teaching strategy (t = -2.078, df = 270, p = .039, d = .25)) with higher mean scores on the examinations covering brain-based learning units. There was no statistical significance based on type of student. Qualitative data collection was conducted in an on-line forum at the end of the semester. Students had overall positive responses about the constructivist activities. Major themes were described. Constructivist strategies help bridge the gap between neurological and cognitive sciences and classroom teaching and learning. A variety of implications for nursing educators are outlined as well as directions for future research.

Effects of web-based electrocardiography simulation on strategies and learning styles.

PubMed

Granero-Molina, José; Fernández-Sola, Cayetano; López-Domene, Esperanza; Hernández-Padilla, José Manuel; Preto, Leonel São Romão; Castro-Sánchez, Adelaida María

2015-08-01

To identify the association between the use of web simulation electrocardiography and the learning approaches, strategies and styles of nursing degree students. A descriptive and correlational design with a one-group pretest-posttest measurement was used. The study sample included 246 students in a Basic and Advanced Cardiac Life Support nursing class of nursing degree. No significant differences between genders were found in any dimension of learning styles and approaches to learning. After the introduction of web simulation electrocardiography, significant differences were found in some item scores of learning styles: theorist (p < 0.040), pragmatic (p < 0.010) and approaches to learning. The use of a web electrocardiogram (ECG) simulation is associated with the development of active and reflexive learning styles, improving motivation and a deep approach in nursing students.

PBL Trigger Design by Medical Students: An Effective Active Learning Strategy Outside the Classroom.

PubMed

Roche, Maya; Adiga, Indira Kakkunje; Nayak, Akshatha G

2016-12-01

Problem Based Learning (PBL) is known world over as an effective, active learning strategy with many benefits for the student. Usually, in medical schools, PBL triggers are designed by a well-trained group of faculty from basic and clinical sciences. The challenge was whether this task could be given to students in the first year of their curriculum and be executed by them effectively. To enhance active learning, comprehension and critical thinking with a view to promote horizontal and vertical integration between subjects. Student volunteers of the first year MBBS course (n=10), who had been exposed to the curriculum for approximately 38 weeks and were familiar with the PBL process were recruited for the study. In addition to a handout on the topic 'gout', they were given the freedom to access any resource in the university library to construct the PBL triggers. The PBL triggers were vetted by two faculties. In addition to a focus group discussion with students, students' and faculty's responses were collected on a Likert scale. Students opined that the exercise helped improve their comprehension (100%), critical thinking abilities (90%) and clinical orientation to the topic (100%). They felt that designing a PBL trigger was a relevant active learning strategy (100%) and would help them answer questions on this topic better in the future (90%). The clinicians who examined the PBL triggers, felt that they were of good quality and that the process was a good tool for vertical integration between basic and clinical sciences. The results prove that students when given a challenge will rise to the occasion. Unfamiliarity with the nuances of a disease did not prevent them from going the extra mile to achieve their target. By taking part in this exercise, students benefitted in many ways and got a holistic understanding of the topic. PBL trigger design can be introduced as an active learning strategy for students in medical schools where PBL is part of the curriculum. It promotes integration across subjects and is very effective in augmenting student motivation.

PBL Trigger Design by Medical Students: An Effective Active Learning Strategy Outside the Classroom

PubMed Central

Adiga, Indira Kakkunje; Nayak, Akshatha G.

2016-01-01

Introduction Problem Based Learning (PBL) is known world over as an effective, active learning strategy with many benefits for the student. Usually, in medical schools, PBL triggers are designed by a well-trained group of faculty from basic and clinical sciences. The challenge was whether this task could be given to students in the first year of their curriculum and be executed by them effectively. Aim To enhance active learning, comprehension and critical thinking with a view to promote horizontal and vertical integration between subjects. Materials and Methods Student volunteers of the first year MBBS course (n=10), who had been exposed to the curriculum for approximately 38 weeks and were familiar with the PBL process were recruited for the study. In addition to a handout on the topic ‘gout’, they were given the freedom to access any resource in the university library to construct the PBL triggers. The PBL triggers were vetted by two faculties. In addition to a focus group discussion with students, students’ and faculty’s responses were collected on a Likert scale. Results Students opined that the exercise helped improve their comprehension (100%), critical thinking abilities (90%) and clinical orientation to the topic (100%). They felt that designing a PBL trigger was a relevant active learning strategy (100%) and would help them answer questions on this topic better in the future (90%). The clinicians who examined the PBL triggers, felt that they were of good quality and that the process was a good tool for vertical integration between basic and clinical sciences. Discussion The results prove that students when given a challenge will rise to the occasion. Unfamiliarity with the nuances of a disease did not prevent them from going the extra mile to achieve their target. By taking part in this exercise, students benefitted in many ways and got a holistic understanding of the topic. Conclusion PBL trigger design can be introduced as an active learning strategy for students in medical schools where PBL is part of the curriculum. It promotes integration across subjects and is very effective in augmenting student motivation. PMID:28208882

Assessment in Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Betty

2012-01-01

Offering meaningful service to the community while engaging in active learning is a pedagogical strategy that has come to be known as service-learning. Both learner and the community are mutual recipients of benefits derived from the process. The fundamental question that remains is, "How do we assess the learner in this non traditional…

Processing the Experience: Strategies To Enhance and Generalize Learning. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luckner, John L.; Nadler, Reldan S.

This book contends that learning is enhanced through active involvement in personally meaningful experiences accompanied by processing for meaning and future use. While some processing takes place automatically, much can be done strategically to enhance and generalize learning. Intended as a resource for experiential educators and therapists, this…

Learning to Write and Loving It! Preschool-Kindergarten

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trehearne, Miriam P.

2011-01-01

"Learning to Write and Loving It!" equips teachers of young children with practical strategies, assessment tools, and motivating writing activities that are based on current research and proven practice and are easily applicable to all kinds of learning environments. Included are many authentic writing samples and photos to illustrate effective,…

Learning Strategies and Learning-Related Emotions among Teacher Trainees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wittmann, Simone

2011-01-01

Teacher trainees are questioned about their strategic and emotional relationships with a key area of their future activity, learning. Characteristics of German teacher trainees are identified through comparisons with German students on a related course of study (educational science), and through comparisons with Swedish teacher trainees. N = 875…

May I Suggest? Comparing Three PLE Recommender Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Modritscher, Felix; Krumay, Barbara; El Helou, Sandy; Gillet, Denis; Nussbaumer, Alexander; Albert, Dietrich; Dahn, Ingo; Ullrich, Carsten

2011-01-01

Personal learning environment (PLE) solutions aim at empowering learners to design (ICT and web-based) environments for their learning activities, mashing-up content and people and apps for different learning contexts. Widely used in other application areas, recommender systems can be very useful for supporting learners in their PLE-based…

From Reproduction to Construction: Bhutanese Higher Education Students' Attitudes towards Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stacy, Ivan; Bennett, Cathryn B.

2017-01-01

The rationale for the study is the developing state of Bhutanese higher education, and Bhutanese students' current tendency to employ reproductive learning strategies. This research therefore aims to determine whether using non-linear, semi-autonomous learning activities encourages Bhutanese students to adopt constructivist attitudes towards…

Applying Learning Theories and Instructional Design Models for Effective Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khalil, Mohammed K.; Elkhider, Ihsan A.

2016-01-01

Faculty members in higher education are involved in many instructional design activities without formal training in learning theories and the science of instruction. Learning theories provide the foundation for the selection of instructional strategies and allow for reliable prediction of their effectiveness. To achieve effective learning…

Differences That Make a Difference: A Study in Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Touchman, Stephanie

2012-01-01

Collaborative learning is a common teaching strategy in classrooms across age groups and content areas. It is important to measure and understand the cognitive process involved during collaboration to improve teaching methods involving interactive activities. This research attempted to answer the question: why do students learn more in…

Integrating the Core Curriculum through Cooperative Learning. Lesson Plans for Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winget, Patricia L., Ed.

Cooperative learning strategies are used to facilitate the integration of multicultural and multi-ability level students into California regular education classrooms. This handbook is a sampling of innovative lesson plans using cooperative learning activities developed by teachers to incorporate the core curriculum into their instruction. Three…

Recruitment and Lessons Learned from a Community-Based Intervention Program: The Learning Families Project in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Chu, Joanna T W; Wan, Alice; Stewart, Sunita M; Ng, Kwok Tung; Lam, Tai Hing; Chan, Sophia S

2018-01-01

Recruitment is central to any research project, and recruitment itself should be well documented and researched. We describe our recruitment efforts for a community-based research project-entitled the Learning Families Project-conducted in Hong Kong. In collaboration with community stakeholders, residents from a public housing estate were recruited to participate in family programs aimed at enhancing family well-being. Various recruitment strategies were employed including the distribution of 19,200 leaflets, 688 posters, a banner, a kick-off ceremony, 10 promotion activities, 1,000 direct calls, word of mouth, 51 mobile counters, and 10 door-to-door visits. Drawing on field notes, research logs, short questionnaires, and focus group conducted with our community partners and residents, we describe and discuss our recruitment strategies, challenges, and lessons learned. Over a 9-month period, 980 participants were recruited and participated in our study, exceeding our recruitment goal (860 participants). Several observations were made including active recruitment strategies (i.e., door-to-door and mobile counter) being more effective than passive strategies (i.e., posters and leaflets); the importance of raising project awareness to facilitate recruitment; and the challenges encountered (i.e., burn-out and loss of motivation of staff, decreased community capacity in collaborating in research projects). The lessons learned include the importance of engaging Chinese communities, utilizing a positive outreach approach, and setting realistic expectations. Although similar recruitment strategies have been reported the West, a number of cultural differences should be taken into account when working with Chinese population. Further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of tailoring recruitment strategies to various populations.

An investigation of the impact of selected prereading activities on student content learning through laboratory activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kass, Jesse (Shaya)

This study investigated whether two prereading activities impacted student learning from hands-on science activities. The study was based on constructivist learning theory. Based on the work of Piaget, it was hypothesized that students who activated prior knowledge would learn more from the activities. Based on the work of Vygotsky it was hypothesized that students who talk more and write more would learn more from the activity. The K-W-L chart and anticipation guide strategies were used with eighth grade students at Graves Middle School in Whittier, California before learning about levers and convection currents. D. M. Ogle (1986) created the three-column K-W-L chart to have students activate prior knowledge. In the first column, the students write what they already know about a subject, in the second column, the students write what they want to know about the subject, and the students complete the third column after learning about a subject by writing answers to the questions that they asked in the second column. Duffelmeyer (1994) created the anticipation guide based on Herber's (1978) reasoning guide. In the anticipation guide, the teacher creates three or four sentences that convey the major ideas of the topic and the students either agree or disagree with the statements. After learning about the topic, students revisit their answers and decide if they were correct or incorrect and they must defend their choices. This research used the Solomon (1947) four-square design and compared both the experimental groups to a control group that simply discussed the concepts before completing the activity. The research showed no significant difference between the control group and either of the treatment groups. The reasons for the lack of significant differences are considered. It was hypothesized that since the students were unfamiliar with the prereading activities and did not have much experience with using either writing-to-learn or talking-to-learn strategies, the short-term intervention was not effective. Directions for future study are considered.

Reviewing or Retrieving: What Activity Best Promotes Long-Term Retention?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindgren, Paul D.

2012-01-01

Research studies repeatedly emphasize the importance of vocabulary capabilities to a large variety of academic activities. This study compared a learning strategy that exclusively involved the visual review of vocabulary word-definition pairs to a strategy that, in addition, prompted participants to attempt free-recall retrieval of words to match…

Analyzing the Learning Process of an Online Role-Playing Discussion Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hou, Huei-Tse

2012-01-01

Instructional activities based on online discussion strategies have gained prevalence in recent years. Within this context, a crucial research topic is to design innovative and appropriate online discussion strategies that assist learners in attaining a deeper level of interaction and higher cognitive skills. By analyzing the process of online…

Using activity-based learning approach to enhance the quality of instruction in civil engineering in Indonesian universities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Priyono, Wena, Made; Rahardjo, Boedi

2017-09-01

Experts and practitioners agree that the quality of higher education in Indonesia needs to be improved significantly and continuously. The low quality of university graduates is caused by many factors, one of which is the poor quality of learning. Today's instruction process tends to place great emphasis only on delivering knowledge. To avoid the pitfalls of such instruction, e.g. passive learning, thus Civil Engineering students should be given more opportunities to interact with others and actively participate in the learning process. Based on a number of theoretical and empirical studies, one appropriate strategy to overcome the aforementioned problem is by developing and implementing activity-based learning approach.

Medical Student Perspectives of Active Learning: A Focus Group Study.

PubMed

Walling, Anne; Istas, Kathryn; Bonaminio, Giulia A; Paolo, Anthony M; Fontes, Joseph D; Davis, Nancy; Berardo, Benito A

2017-01-01

Phenomenon: Medical student perspectives were sought about active learning, including concerns, challenges, perceived advantages and disadvantages, and appropriate role in the educational process. Focus groups were conducted with students from all years and campuses of a large U.S. state medical school. Students had considerable experience with active learning prior to medical school and conveyed accurate understanding of the concept and its major strategies. They appreciated the potential of active learning to deepen and broaden learning and its value for long-term professional development but had significant concerns about the efficiency of the process, the clarity of expectations provided, and the importance of receiving preparatory materials. Most significantly, active learning experiences were perceived as disconnected from grading and even as impeding preparation for school and national examinations. Insights: Medical students understand the concepts of active learning and have considerable experience in several formats prior to medical school. They are generally supportive of active learning concepts but frustrated by perceived inefficiencies and lack of contribution to the urgencies of achieving optimal grades and passing United States Medical Licensing Examinations, especially Step 1.

An integrative review of in-class activities that enable active learning in college science classroom settings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arthurs, Leilani A.; Kreager, Bailey Zo

2017-10-01

Engaging students in active learning is linked to positive learning outcomes. This study aims to synthesise the peer-reviewed literature about 'active learning' in college science classroom settings. Using the methodology of an integrative literature review, 337 articles archived in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) are examined. Four categories of in-class activities emerge: (i) individual non-polling activities, (ii) in-class polling activities, (iii) whole-class discussion or activities, and (iv) in-class group activities. Examining the collection of identified in-class activities through the lens of a theoretical framework informed by constructivism and social interdependence theory, we synthesise the reviewed literature to propose the active learning strategies (ALSs) model and the instructional decisions to enable active learning (IDEAL) theory. The ALS model characterises in-class activities in terms of the degrees to which they are designed to promote (i) peer interaction and (ii) social interdependence. The IDEAL theory includes the ALS model and provides a framework for conceptualising different levels of the general concept 'active learning' and how these levels connect to instructional decision-making about using in-class activities. The proposed ALS model and IDEAL theory can be utilised to inform instructional decision-making and future research about active learning in college science courses.

Using film clips to enhance nursing education.

PubMed

Herrman, Judith W

2006-01-01

Film clips in nursing education provide a unique way to promote active learning. Several methods for using film clips and combining them with other teaching strategies are discussed. Suggestions for the use of popular clips, logistical aspects of showing clips in class, and legal issues associated with copyright are addressed. Faculty are encouraged to use this strategy to evoke emotional responses, generate discussion, enhance clinical decision making, and provide vicarious learning.

Learning to manage complexity through simulation: students' challenges and possible strategies.

PubMed

Gormley, Gerard J; Fenwick, Tara

2016-06-01

Many have called for medical students to learn how to manage complexity in healthcare. This study examines the nuances of students' challenges in coping with a complex simulation learning activity, using concepts from complexity theory, and suggests strategies to help them better understand and manage complexity.Wearing video glasses, participants took part in a simulation ward-based exercise that incorporated characteristics of complexity. Video footage was used to elicit interviews, which were transcribed. Using complexity theory as a theoretical lens, an iterative approach was taken to identify the challenges that participants faced and possible coping strategies using both interview transcripts and video footage.Students' challenges in coping with clinical complexity included being: a) unprepared for 'diving in', b) caught in an escalating system, c) captured by the patient, and d) unable to assert boundaries of acceptable practice.Many characteristics of complexity can be recreated in a ward-based simulation learning activity, affording learners an embodied and immersive experience of these complexity challenges. Possible strategies for managing complexity themes include: a) taking time to size up the system, b) attuning to what emerges, c) reducing complexity, d) boundary practices, and e) working with uncertainty. This study signals pedagogical opportunities for recognizing and dealing with complexity.

Biotechnology Education: A Multiple Instructional Strategies Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunham, Trey; Wells, John; White, Karissa

2002-01-01

Provides a rationale for inclusion of biotechnology in technology education. Describes an instructional strategy that uses behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivist learning theories in two activities involving photobioreactors and bovine somatotropin (growth hormone). (Contains 39 references.) (SK)

Designing Online Education Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trentin, Guglielmo

2001-01-01

Focuses on the main elements that characterize online course design. Topics include design constraints; analysis of learning needs; defining objectives; course prerequisites; content structuring; course flexibility; learning strategies; evaluation criteria; course activities; course structure; communication architecture; and design evaluation.…

[Motivation and learning strategies in pediatric residents].

PubMed

Sepúlveda-Vildósola, Ana Carolina; Carrada-Legaria, Sol; Reyes-Lagunes, Isabel

2015-01-01

Motivation is an internal mood that moves individuals to act, points them in certain directions, and maintains them in activities, playing a very important role in self-regulated learning and academic performance. Our objective was to evaluate motivation and self-regulation of knowledge in pediatric residents in a third-level hospital, and to determine if there are differences according to the type of specialty and sociodemographic variables. All residents who agreed to participate responded to the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Cronbach alpha was performed to determine reliability. The mean value of each subscale was compared with Student's t test or ANOVA, correlation of subscales with Pearson test. A value of p≤0.05 was considered significant. We included 118 residents. The questionnaire was highly reliable (α=0.939). There were no significant differences in motivation or learning strategies according to sex, marital status, or age. Those residents studying a second or third specialization had significantly higher scores in elaboration, critical thinking, and peer learning. There were significant correlations between intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy with the development of knowledge strategies such as elaboration, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation. Our students present average-to-high scores of motivation and knowledge strategies, with a significant difference according to type of specialization. There is a high correlation between motivation and knowledge strategies.

[Influence of learning styles of nursing students on teaching strategies choice].

PubMed

Vacas Pérez, Juan Crisostomo; Mérida Serrano, Rosario; Molina Recio, Guillermo; Mesa Blanco, María del Pilar

2012-12-01

The objective of this research focuses on the framework of teaching strategies, by acknowledging learning styles as first determination and, in relation to the changes that these are going through, identifying the teaching strategies best rated and preferred by the students. This is a prospective open cohort study with the students of Nursing Diploma 2007/2010 of the Universidad de Córdoba. Once the population was identified in the first year (first analysis), annual measurings were undertaken every year during their training. In order to study the learning styles, the questionnaire CHAEA was administered and a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = highest, 10 = lowest) was used to determine the preferences for learning strategies. The results show the variability of the learner (up to 11 styles). However, the dominant style is the reflective, followed by the theoretical and the pragmatic. The least developed was the active style. As the years of training go by, a tendency towards a dual style (reflective-theoretical) can be observed. In relation to teaching strategies, the preferred ones were those set in professional areas, workshops and debates. Relevant changes were also seen as they advanced in their training. The results establish a specific significant relationship between learning styles and teaching strategies.

Cognitive deficits are a matter of emotional context: inflexible strategy use mediates context-specific learning impairments in OCD.

PubMed

Zetsche, Ulrike; Rief, Winfried; Westermann, Stefan; Exner, Cornelia

2015-01-01

The present study examines the interplay between cognitive deficits and emotional context in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and social phobia (SP). Specifically, this study examines whether the inflexible use of efficient learning strategies in an emotional context underlies impairments in probabilistic classification learning (PCL) in OCD, and whether PCL impairments are specific to OCD. Twenty-three participants with OCD, 30 participants with SP and 30 healthy controls completed a neutral and an OCD-specific PCL task. OCD participants failed to adopt efficient learning strategies and showed fewer beneficial strategy switches than controls only in an OCD-specific context, but not in a neutral context. Additionally, OCD participants did not show any explicit memory impairments. Number of beneficial strategy switches in the OCD-specific task mediated the difference in PCL performance between OCD and control participants. Individuals with SP were impaired in both PCL tasks. In contrast to neuropsychological models postulating general cognitive impairments in OCD, the present findings suggest that it is the interaction between cognition and emotion that is impaired in OCD. Specifically, activated disorder-specific fears may impair the flexible adoption of efficient learning strategies and compromise otherwise unimpaired PCL. Impairments in PCL are not specific to OCD.

FísicActiva: Applying Active Learning Strategies to a Large Engineering Lecture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Auyuanet, Adriana; Modzelewski, Helena; Loureiro, Silvia; Alessandrini, Daniel; Míguez, Marina

2018-01-01

This paper presents and analyses the results obtained by applying Active Learning techniques in overcrowded Physics lectures at the University of the Republic, Uruguay. The course referred to is Physics 1, the first Physics course that all students of the Faculty of Engineering take in their first semester for all the Engineering-related careers.…

Using Self-Assessment to Assess the Effectiveness of Learner Centered Instructional Design and Delivery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wainwright, Susan

2009-01-01

Contemporary research in pedagogy provides evidence for use of active learning strategies in the classroom. It is important that faculty demonstrate effectiveness across the spectrum of teaching activities, as well as effectiveness in meeting the learning goals of students. This paper illustrates how self-assessment can be used to evaluate the…

Pitching Environmental Science to Business Majors: Engaging Students in Renewable Energy Choices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodgers, Vikki L.

2014-01-01

This article describes an active learning strategy for engaging undergraduate business students, a group often ignored in scientific pedagogy, in learning about renewable energy technology and associated trade-offs. I designed a small-group activity to appeal to and engage business students, but the exercise could easily be used for a variety of…

The Use of Multiple Tools for Teaching Medical Biochemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Se, Alexandre B.; Passos, Renato M.; Ono, Andre H.; Hermes-Lima, Marcelo

2008-01-01

In this work, we describe the use of several strategies employing the philosophies of active learning and problem-based learning (PBL) that may be used to improve the teaching of metabolic biochemistry to medical and nutritional undergraduate students. The main activities are as follows: 1) a seminar/poster system in a mini-congress format (using…

New Ways of Using Computers in Language Teaching. New Ways in TESOL Series II. Innovative Classroom Techniques.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boswood, Tim, Ed.

A collection of classroom approaches and activities using computers for language learning is presented. Some require sophisticated installations, but most do not, and most use software readily available on most workplace computer systems. The activities were chosen because they use sound language learning strategies. The book is divided into five…

Active Learning Institute: Energizing Science and Math Education. A Compilation of Lesson Plans.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuyahoga Community Coll. - East, Cleveland, OH.

The middle school and high school lessons featured in this collection were crafted by science and math teachers who participated in a week-long seminar sponsored by the Eisenhower Professional Development Program administered by the Ohio Board of Regents. The lessons showcase a variety of active learning strategies from using hands-on, low-tech…

Strategies for Adapting WebQuests for Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skylar, Ashley A.; Higgins, Kyle; Boone, Randall

2007-01-01

WebQuests are gaining popularity as teachers explore using the Internet for guided learning activities. A WebQuest involves students working on a task that is broken down into clearly defined steps. Students often work in groups to actively conduct the research. This article suggests a variety of methods for adapting WebQuests for students with…

Using Audience Response Systems during Interactive Lectures to Promote Active Learning and Conceptual Understanding of Stoichiometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cotes, Sandra; Cotuá, José

2014-01-01

This article describes a method of instruction using an active learning strategy for teaching stoichiometry through a process of gradual knowledge building. Students identify their misconceptions and progress through a sequence of questions based on the same chemical equation. An infrared device and software registered as the TurningPoint Audience…

An Action Research Study on the Effect of Interactive Technology and Active Learning on Student Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bear, Teresa J.

2013-01-01

This quantitative action science research study utilized a causal-comparative experimental research design in order to determine if the use of student response systems (clickers), as an active learning strategy in a community college course, improved student performance in the course. Students in the experimental group (n = 26) used clickers to…

Implementation literacy strategies on health technology theme Learning to enhance Indonesian Junior High School Student's Physics Literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feranie, Selly; Efendi, Ridwan; Karim, Saeful; Sasmita, Dedi

2016-08-01

The PISA results for Indonesian Students are lowest among Asian countries in the past two successive results. Therefore various Innovations in science learning process and its effectiveness enhancing student's science literacy is needed to enrich middle school science teachers. Literacy strategies have been implemented on health technologies theme learning to enhance Indonesian Junior high school Student's Physics literacy in three different health technologies e.g. Lasik surgery that associated with application of Light and Optics concepts, Ultra Sonographer (USG) associated with application of Sound wave concepts and Work out with stationary bike and walking associated with application of motion concepts. Science learning process involves at least teacher instruction, student learning and a science curriculum. We design two main part of literacy strategies in each theme based learning. First part is Integrated Reading Writing Task (IRWT) is given to the students before learning process, the second part is scientific investigation learning process design packed in Problem Based Learning. The first part is to enhance student's science knowledge and reading comprehension and the second part is to enhance student's science competencies. We design a transformation from complexity of physics language to Middle school physics language and from an expensive and complex science investigation to a local material and simply hands on activities. In this paper, we provide briefly how literacy strategies proposed by previous works is redesigned and applied in classroom science learning. Data were analysed using t- test. The increasing value of mean scores in each learning design (with a significance level of p = 0.01) shows that the implementation of this literacy strategy revealed a significant increase in students’ physics literacy achievement. Addition analysis of Avarage normalized gain show that each learning design is in medium-g courses effectiveness category according to Hake's classification.

[An experience applying the teaching strategies of cooperative learning and creative thinking in a mental-health nursing practicum for undergraduates at a technical college].

PubMed

Huang, Yu-Hsien; Lin, Mei-Feng; Ho, Hsueh-Jen; Chang, Lu-Na; Chen, Shiue

2015-04-01

Lack of knowledge and experience is prevalent in undergraduate students who are taking their clinical practicum for mental-health nursing. This issue negatively affects the learning process. This article shares an experience of implementing a practicum-teaching program. This program was developed by the authors to facilitate the cooperative learning and clinical care competence of students. A series of multidimensional teaching activities was designed by integrating the strategies of peer cooperation and creative thinking to promote group and individual learning. Results indicate that the program successfully encouraged the students to participate more actively in the learning process. Additionally, the students demonstrated increased competence in empathetic caring toward patients, stronger friendship relationships with peers, and improved self-growth. The authors hope this teaching program provides a framework to increase the benefits for students of participating in clinical practicums and provides a teaching reference for clinical instructors.

Knowing Me, Knowing Who? Getting to Know Your Students' Preferred Learning Style

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Julian A.; Banks, Aaron L.; Carlisle, Cynthia S.

2004-01-01

Recognizing each student's preferred learning style not only enhances the teaching and learning experience, but helps make the gymnasium a fun place to learn new skills and be physically active. This article addresses three objectives that form a pedagogical strategy with the potential to "get to know" the students in a more personal way. First,…

Making mLearning Work: Utilizing Mobile Technology for Active Exploration, Collaboration, Assessment, and Reflection in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Mercedes; Baird, Derek E.

2007-01-01

The convergence of mobile technologies into student-centered learning environments requires academic institutions to design new and more effective learning, teaching, and user experience strategies. In this article we share results from an mLearning design experiment and analysis from a student survey conducted at the National College of Ireland.…

Fab! or Drab?: Increasing the Effectiveness of Teaching and Learning in Summer Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omelicheva, Mariya Y.

2012-01-01

This article reviews the pitfalls and benefits of teaching and learning in summer school and identifies the lack of student interest as the key factor affecting the effectiveness of learning in the summer. The primary goal of this research is to investigate the impact of active learning strategies on generating student interest and improving their…

Inquiry-Based Learning Using Everyday Objects: Hands-On Instructional Strategies That Promote Active Learning in Grades 3-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarado, Amy Edmonds; Herr, Patricia R.

This book explores the concept of using everyday objects as a process initiated both by students and teachers, encouraging growth in student observation, inquisitiveness, and reflection in learning. After "Introduction: Welcome to Inquiry-Based Learning using Everyday Objects (Object-Based Inquiry), there are nine chapters in two parts. Part 1,…

Improving Learning through Interventions of Student-Generated Questions and Concept Maps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Jack W.; Chew, Stephen L.

2008-01-01

Using the principles of the scholarship of teaching and learning, we evaluated 2 learning strategies to determine if they could improve student exam performance in general psychology. After the second of 3 exams, we gave students the option of participating in a specific learning activity and assessed its impact using the third exam. In Study 1,…

Students' perceptions of clinical teaching and learning strategies: a Pakistani perspective.

PubMed

Khan, Basnama Ayaz; Ali, Fauziya; Vazir, Nilofar; Barolia, Rubina; Rehan, Seema

2012-01-01

The complexity of the health care environment is increasing with the explosion of technology, coupled with the issues of patients' access, equity, time efficiency, and cost containment. Nursing education must focus on means that enable students to develop the processes of active learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking, in order to enable them to deal with the complexities. This study aims at identifying the nursing students' perceptions about the effectiveness of utilized teaching and learning strategies of clinical education, in improving students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. A descriptive cross sectional study design was utilized using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected from 74 students, using a questionnaire that was developed for the purpose of the study and analyzed using descriptive and non-parametric statistics. The findings revealed that demonstration was the most effective strategy for improving students' skills; reflection, for improving attitudes; and problem based learning and concept map for improving their knowledge. Students' responses to open-ended questions confirmed the effectiveness of these strategies in improving their learning outcomes. Recommendations have been provided based on the findings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A randomized controlled trial of an online, modular, active learning training program for behavioral activation for depression.

PubMed

Puspitasari, Ajeng J; Kanter, Jonathan W; Busch, Andrew M; Leonard, Rachel; Dunsiger, Shira; Cahill, Shawn; Martell, Christopher; Koerner, Kelly

2017-08-01

This randomized-controlled trial assessed the efficacy of a trainer-led, active-learning, modular, online behavioral activation (BA) training program compared with a self-paced online BA training with the same modular content. Seventy-seven graduate students (M = 30.3 years, SD = 6.09; 76.6% female) in mental health training programs were randomly assigned to receive either the trainer-led or self-paced BA training. Both trainings consisted of 4 weekly sessions covering 4 core BA strategies. Primary outcomes were changes in BA skills as measured by an objective role-play assessment and self-reported use of BA strategies. Assessments were conducted at pre-, post-, and 6-weeks after training. A series of longitudinal mixed effect models assessed changes in BA skills and a longitudinal model implemented with generalized estimating equations assessed BA use over time. Significantly greater increases in total BA skills were found in the trainer-led training condition. The trainer-led training condition also showed greater increases in all core BA skills either at posttraining, follow-up, or both. Reported use of BA strategies with actual clients increased significantly from pre- to posttraining and maintained at follow-up in both training conditions. This trial adds to the literature on the efficacy of online training as a method to disseminate BA. Online training with an active learning, modular approach may be a promising and accessible implementation strategy. Additional strategies may need to be paired with the online BA training to assure the long-term implementation and sustainability of BA in clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Teaching Strategies for Value Education in Social Studies: A Theoretical Position.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fraenkel, Jack R.

The systematic design of appropriate teaching strategies to bring about desired values is crucially important, and badly needed, in social studies education. Teachers cannot leave the accomplishment of affective objectives to chance or to learning activities planned mainly for cognitive goals. Examples of an affective strategy that develops…

Teaching Spelling: Which Strategies Work Best.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angelisi, Mary Ann

In a third-grade classroom, a 3-week-long study was conducted on the pros, cons, and effects of three particular spelling strategies and activities. By focusing on two specific spelling strategies--phonemic awareness and word identification--the study hoped to indicate that conventional rote learning, drilling, and memorization do not help…

Coping Styles, Homework Compliance, and the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, David D.; Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan

1991-01-01

Factor analysis of Self-Help Inventory from 307 outpatients receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy for affective disorders revealed 3 factors that assessed frequency of active coping strategies use when depressed, helpfulness of strategies, and willingness to learn new strategies. Frequency and Helpfulness scales were not correlated with patient…

Validation of the Self-Regulation Strategy Inventory-Parent Rating Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lubin, Audrey Ruth

2015-01-01

The current dissertation gathered empirical evidence of convergent and predictive validity for the Self-Regulation Strategies Inventory-Parent Rating Scale (SRSI-PRS), which measures parents' perception of their child's use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies during mathematics activities. The SRSI-PRS, which is part of the larger SRSI…

An Investigation of Individual Variability in Brain Activity During Episodic Encoding and Retrieval

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

variability in mnemonic strategy use is, at least in part, related to the extensive variability observed in brain activity patterns. While a number of...1 AN INVESTIGATION OF INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY IN BRAIN ACTIVITY DURING EPISODIC ENCODING AND RETRIEVAL C.L. Donovan*, and M.B. Miller Department of...strategy measures for predicting differences in brain activity patterns during a learning and memory task and to compare their predictive value to other

Leadership Perspectives on Operationalizing the Learning Health Care System in an Integrated Delivery System

PubMed Central

Psek, Wayne; Davis, F. Daniel; Gerrity, Gloria; Stametz, Rebecca; Bailey-Davis, Lisa; Henninger, Debra; Sellers, Dorothy; Darer, Jonathan

2016-01-01

Introduction: Healthcare leaders need operational strategies that support organizational learning for continued improvement and value generation. The learning health system (LHS) model may provide leaders with such strategies; however, little is known about leaders’ perspectives on the value and application of system-wide operationalization of the LHS model. The objective of this project was to solicit and analyze senior health system leaders’ perspectives on the LHS and learning activities in an integrated delivery system. Methods: A series of interviews were conducted with 41 system leaders from a broad range of clinical and administrative areas across an integrated delivery system. Leaders’ responses were categorized into themes. Findings: Ten major themes emerged from our conversations with leaders. While leaders generally expressed support for the concept of the LHS and enhanced system-wide learning, their concerns and suggestions for operationalization where strongly aligned with their functional area and strategic goals. Discussion: Our findings suggests that leaders tend to adopt a very pragmatic approach to learning. Leaders expressed a dichotomy between the operational imperative to execute operational objectives efficiently and the need for rigorous evaluation. Alignment of learning activities with system-wide strategic and operational priorities is important to gain leadership support and resources. Practical approaches to addressing opportunities and challenges identified in the themes are discussed. Conclusion: Continuous learning is an ongoing, multi-disciplinary function of a health care delivery system. Findings from this and other research may be used to inform and prioritize system-wide learning objectives and strategies which support reliable, high value care delivery. PMID:27683668

ASPECT: A Survey to Assess Student Perspective of Engagement in an Active-Learning Classroom

PubMed Central

Wiggins, Benjamin L.; Eddy, Sarah L.; Wener-Fligner, Leah; Freisem, Karen; Grunspan, Daniel Z.; Theobald, Elli J.; Timbrook, Jerry; Crowe, Alison J.

2017-01-01

The primary measure used to determine relative effectiveness of in-class activities has been student performance on pre/posttests. However, in today’s active-learning classrooms, learning is a social activity, requiring students to interact and learn from their peers. To develop effective active-learning exercises that engage students, it is important to gain a more holistic view of the student experience in an active-learning classroom. We have taken a mixed-methods approach to iteratively develop and validate a 16-item survey to measure multiple facets of the student experience during active-learning exercises. The instrument, which we call Assessing Student Perspective of Engagement in Class Tool (ASPECT), was administered to a large introductory biology class, and student responses were subjected to exploratory factor analysis. The 16 items loaded onto three factors that cumulatively explained 52% of the variation in student response: 1) value of activity, 2) personal effort, and 3) instructor contribution. ASPECT provides a rapid, easily administered means to measure student perception of engagement in an active-learning classroom. Gaining a better understanding of students’ level of engagement will help inform instructor best practices and provide an additional measure for comprehensively assessing the impact of different active-learning strategies. PMID:28495936

Curriculum Design of a Flipped Classroom to Enhance Haematology Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porcaro, Pauline A.; Jackson, Denise E.; McLaughlin, Patricia M.; O'Malley, Cindy J.

2016-06-01

A common trend in higher education is the "flipped" classroom, which facilitates active learning during class. The flipped approach to teaching was instituted in a haematology `major' class and the students' attitudes and preferences for the teaching materials were surveyed. The curriculum design was explicit and involved four major components (1) the preparation of the students; (2) the weekly pre-class work; (3) the in-class active learning strategies and (4) closing the learning loop using formative quizzes. Each of these components is discussed in detail and was informed by sound pedagogical strategies. Several different sources of information and several freely available software tools to engage the students are discussed. Two iterations are reported here, with improved pass rate for the final examination from 47 to 48 % in the traditional class to 56-65 % in the flipped classroom approach. The majority of students (93 and 89 %) came to the class prepared, after viewing the screencasts and engaged fully with the activities within the face-to-face time. The students perceived that solving case studies (93 %) was the most beneficial activity for their learning and this was closely followed by the production of essay plans (71 %). The majority of students recommended that this approach be repeated the following year (69 and 75 %).

The Engagement Tree: Arts-Based Pedagogies for Environmental Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Susan

2018-01-01

This case study reports on an arts-based project called "Tree-Mappa," one that sought to engage primary-school children in learning about their local environment through significant trees. Pedagogical approaches featured the use of arts-based strategies as the means for activating cognitive and affective responses and learning. The frame…

Integrating LMSs in the Educational Process: Greek Teachers' Initial Perceptions about LAMS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papadakis, Spyros; Dovros, Nikos; Paschalis, Giorgos; Rossiou, Eleni

2012-01-01

E-learning with the use of Learning Management Systems, has been increasingly adopted in Primary, Secondary and Higher Education with the expectation to increase students' motivation and infuse activity-centred learning strategies with various educational benefits. This study has investigated the initial perceptions of Greek teachers about the…

SELF (Supports for Early Learning Foundations): A Non-Directed Model Demonstration Project. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Holly

This final report describes achievements and activities of Project SELF (Supports for Early Learning Foundations), a federally funded project in New Mexico which developed, evaluated, and replicated an innovative model that provides strategies for early interventionists and families to support early learning foundations. The project identified…

Implementation of Ptechls Modules in Rural Malaysian Secondary School: A Needs Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alias, Norlidah; DeWitt, Dorothy; Siraj, Saedah; Rahman, Mohd Nazri Abdul; Gelamdin, Rashidah Begum; Rauf, Rose Amnah Abd

2014-01-01

Research has shown that the strategy of matching learning style with certain technology enhances students' learning experience. This study seeks to identify the learning styles among students in a rural secondary school, based on the Felder Silverman Model (1988) which comprises four dimensions (visual/verbal, active/reflective, sequential/global,…

An Entrance to Exit Polling: Strategies for Using Exit Polls as Experiential Learning Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Michael J.; Robinson, Tony

2012-01-01

Engaging students in the design, administration, and postelection analysis of an exit poll can be an excellent experiential learning activity. Lelieveldt and Rossen (2009) argue that exit polls are a "perfect teaching tool" because they provide students with a cooperative (rather than competitive) learning experience; help students…

Student Motivations as Predictors of High-Level Cognitions in Project-Based Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stolk, Jonathan; Harari, Janie

2014-01-01

It is well established that active learning helps students engage in high-level thinking strategies and develop improved cognitive skills. Motivation and self-regulated learning research, however, illustrates that cognitive engagement is an effortful process that is related to students' valuing of the learning tasks, adoption of internalized goal…

Relationship between Learning Strategies and Goal Orientations: A Multilevel Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kadioglu, Cansel; Uzuntiryaki-Kondakci, Esen

2014-01-01

Problem Statement: Motivation plays an important role in explaining students' academic achievement. In an effort to explain students' purposes for learning and the reasons they engage in a learning activity, different achievement goal models (dichotomous, trichotomous, and 2x2) have been proposed over time. The present study aimed to extend…

Personalisation for All: Making Adaptive Course Composition Easy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dagger, Declan; Wade, Vincent; Conlan, Owen

2005-01-01

The goal of personalised eLearning is to support e-learning content, activities and collaboration, adapted to the specific needs and influenced by specific preferences of the learner and built on sound pedagogic strategies. One of the major challenges to the mainstream adoption of personalised eLearning is the complexity and time involved in…

Pedagogical Strategies for Work-Based Learning. IEE Working Paper No. 12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Katherine L.; Moore, David Thornton

Fourteen school-to-work programs characterized by strong work-based learning components and solid employer involvement were examined in a 3-year study to identify pedagogical factors associated with successful work-based learning programs. The main data collection activities were as follows: site visits to the 15 programs to interview faculty,…

Situated Learning in Adult Education. ERIC Digest No. 195.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stein, David

In the situated learning approach, knowledge and skills are learned in contexts that reflect how knowledge is obtained and applied in everyday situations. As an instructional strategy, situated cognition is a means for relating subject matter to learners' needs and concerns. Four major premises guide the development of classroom activities for…

Community-Based Learning. Adding Value to Programs Involving Service Agencies and Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cumming, Jim

Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

Methods and Strategies: What's the Story?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipsitz, Kelsey; Cisterna, Dante; Hanuscin, Deborah

2017-01-01

This column provides ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month's issue discusses using the 5E learning cycle to create coherent storylines. The 5E learning cycle provides an important framework to help teachers organize activities. To realize the full potential of the 5E framework for student learning, lessons must also…

Implementing Strategies of Cooperation for Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation towards English Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zapata, Julian Esteban

2007-01-01

This action research paper dealt with how to increase motivation towards English language learning through cooperative work in a public school in Medellín, Colombia. It was necessary to explore the concepts of teachers' beliefs, social teaching, collaborative and cooperative learning, to understand the conditions and activities that favored…

Effect of Cooperative Learning Strategy on Students' Acquisition and Practice of Scientific Skills in Biology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chatila, Hanadi; Al Husseiny, Fatima

2017-01-01

Recent research findings have shown that cooperative learning improves students' thinking skills as it allows them to communicate actively with each other (Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 2014). Therefore, cooperative learning has been proposed by many educators to be implemented in classrooms to produce lifelong learners and critical thinkers…

Acid-Base Learning Outcomes for Students in an Introductory Organic Chemistry Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoyanovich, Carlee; Gandhi, Aneri; Flynn, Alison B.

2015-01-01

An outcome-based approach to teaching and learning focuses on what the student demonstrably knows and can do after instruction, rather than on what the instructor teaches. This outcome-focused approach can then guide the alignment of teaching strategies, learning activities, and assessment. In organic chemistry, mastery of organic acid-base…

Tetrahedral Models of Learning: Application to College Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nist, Sherrie L.

J. D. Bransford's tetrahedral model of learning considers four variables: (1) learning activities, (2) characteristics of the learner, (3) criterial tasks, and (4) the nature of the materials. Bransford's model provides a research-based theoretical framework that can be used to teach, model, and have students apply a variety of study strategies to…

Mathematics for Young Learners: 60 Games & Activities for Ages 3 through 7.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellerby, Richard S.

By studying and practicing metacognition, teachers and parents are instilling positive attitudes toward learning by teaching how-to-learn skills that prepare children for assessing their own thinking about learning as they become more and more developmentally prepared. This book stresses the strategies for thinking in mathematical terms without…

Explorers of the Universe: Metacognitive Tools for Learning Science Concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alvarez, Marino C.

1998-01-01

Much of school learning consists of rote memorization of facts with little emphasis on meaningful interpretations. Knowledge construction is reduced to factual knowledge production with little regard for critical thinking, problem solving, or clarifying misconceptions. An important role of a middle and secondary teacher when teaching science is to aid students' ability to reflect upon what they know about a given topic and make available strategies that will enhance their understanding of text and science experiments. Developing metacognition, the ability to monitor one's own knowledge about a topic of study and to activate appropriate strategies, enhances students' learning when faced with reading, writing and problem solving situations. Two instructional strategies that can involve students in developing metacognitive awareness are hierarchical concept mapping, and Vee diagrams. Concept maps enable students to organize their ideas and reveal visually these ideas to others. A Vee diagram is a structured visual means of relating the methodological aspects of an activity to its underlying conceptual aspect in ways that aid learners in meaningful understanding of scientific investigations.

Do job demands and job control affect problem-solving?

PubMed

Bergman, Peter N; Ahlberg, Gunnel; Johansson, Gun; Stoetzer, Ulrich; Aborg, Carl; Hallsten, Lennart; Lundberg, Ingvar

2012-01-01

The Job Demand Control model presents combinations of working conditions that may facilitate learning, the active learning hypothesis, or have detrimental effects on health, the strain hypothesis. To test the active learning hypothesis, this study analysed the effects of job demands and job control on general problem-solving strategies. A population-based sample of 4,636 individuals (55% women, 45% men) with the same job characteristics measured at two times with a three year time lag was used. Main effects of demands, skill discretion, task authority and control, and the combined effects of demands and control were analysed in logistic regressions, on four outcomes representing general problem-solving strategies. Those reporting high on skill discretion, task authority and control, as well as those reporting high demand/high control and low demand/high control job characteristics were more likely to state using problem solving strategies. Results suggest that working conditions including high levels of control may affect how individuals cope with problems and that workplace characteristics may affect behaviour in the non-work domain.

Utilizing constructivism learning theory in collaborative testing as a creative strategy to promote essential nursing skills.

PubMed

Duane, Barbara T; Satre, Maria E

2014-01-01

In nursing education, students participate in individual learner testing. This process follows the instructionist learning theory of a system model. However, in the practice of nursing, success depends upon collaboration with numerous people in different capacities, critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and the ability to communicate with others. Research has shown that collaborative testing, a constructivism learning activity and a form of collaborative learning, enhances students' abilities to master these areas. Collaborative testing is a clear, creative strategy which constructivists would say supports the socio-linguistic base of their learning theory. The test becomes an active implementation of peer-mediated learning where individual knowledge is enhanced through problem solving or defense of an individual position with the collaborative method. There is criticism for the testing method's potential of grade inflation and for students to receive grade benefits with little effort. After a review of various collaborative testing methods, this nursing faculty implemented a collaborative testing format that addresses both the positive and negative aspects of the process. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Semantic-gap-oriented active learning for multilabel image annotation.

PubMed

Tang, Jinhui; Zha, Zheng-Jun; Tao, Dacheng; Chua, Tat-Seng

2012-04-01

User interaction is an effective way to handle the semantic gap problem in image annotation. To minimize user effort in the interactions, many active learning methods were proposed. These methods treat the semantic concepts individually or correlatively. However, they still neglect the key motivation of user feedback: to tackle the semantic gap. The size of the semantic gap of each concept is an important factor that affects the performance of user feedback. User should pay more efforts to the concepts with large semantic gaps, and vice versa. In this paper, we propose a semantic-gap-oriented active learning method, which incorporates the semantic gap measure into the information-minimization-based sample selection strategy. The basic learning model used in the active learning framework is an extended multilabel version of the sparse-graph-based semisupervised learning method that incorporates the semantic correlation. Extensive experiments conducted on two benchmark image data sets demonstrated the importance of bringing the semantic gap measure into the active learning process.

Coordinated prefrontal-hippocampal activity and navigation strategy-related prefrontal firing during spatial memory formation.

PubMed

Negrón-Oyarzo, Ignacio; Espinosa, Nelson; Aguilar, Marcelo; Fuenzalida, Marco; Aboitiz, Francisco; Fuentealba, Pablo

2018-06-18

Learning the location of relevant places in the environment is crucial for survival. Such capacity is supported by a distributed network comprising the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, yet it is not fully understood how these structures cooperate during spatial reference memory formation. Hence, we examined neural activity in the prefrontal-hippocampal circuit in mice during acquisition of spatial reference memory. We found that interregional oscillatory coupling increased with learning, specifically in the slow-gamma frequency (20 to 40 Hz) band during spatial navigation. In addition, mice used both spatial and nonspatial strategies to navigate and solve the task, yet prefrontal neuronal spiking and oscillatory phase coupling were selectively enhanced in the spatial navigation strategy. Lastly, a representation of the behavioral goal emerged in prefrontal spiking patterns exclusively in the spatial navigation strategy. These results suggest that reference memory formation is supported by enhanced cortical connectivity and evolving prefrontal spiking representations of behavioral goals.

Analysis of mathematical literacy ability based on goal orientation in model eliciting activities learning with murder strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wijayanti, R.; Waluya, S. B.; Masrukan

2018-03-01

The purpose of this research are (1) to analyze the learning quality of MEAs with MURDER strategy, (2) to analyze students’ mathematical literacy ability based on goal orientation in MEAs learning with MURDER strategy. This research is a mixed method research of concurrent embedded type where qualitative method as the primary method. The data were obtained using the methods of scale, observation, test and interviews. The results showed that (1) MEAs Learning with MURDER strategy on students' mathematical literacy ability is qualified, (2) Students who have mastery goal characteristics are able to master the seven components of mathematical literacy process although there are still two components that the solution is less than the maximum. Students who have performance goal characteristics have not mastered the components of mathematical literacy process with the maximum, they are only able to master the ability of using mathematics tool and the other components of mathematical literacy process is quite good.

Promoting Learning by Inquiry Among Undergraduates in Soil Sciences: Scaffolding From Project-based Courses to Student-Staff Research Grants by the National Research Agency in Oman

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Ismaily, Said; Kacimov, Anvar; Al-Maktoumi, Ali

2016-04-01

Three strategies in a soil science undergraduate programme with inquiry-based learning (IBL) principles at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, are presented. The first strategy scaffolds courses into three phases: with direct instructional guidance, structured IBL, and finally, guided to open IBL. The second strategy involves extra-curricular activities of undergraduates, viz. conducting workshops on soils for pupils in grades 7-9 with their teachers. The third strategy promotes the teaching-research nexus through collaboration between the undergraduates and faculty within a student-supporting, government-funded programme through 1-year long research grants of up to 5,500 US/project. The efficiency of the strategies was evaluated by students' evaluations of courses and instructors and questionnaire-based surveys. Statistics of students' responses in teaching evaluations of IBL courses showed a significantly higher level of satisfaction compared with regular courses taught in the department and college. In surveys of other constituencies of the program, viz. the secondary schools, more than 90% of respondents "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that they had learned new information/secrets about soils. The indicators of success in the third strategy are: winning a highly competitive grant and, moreover, earning an even more competitive annual national award for the best executed research project. The two top graduates of the IBL soil programme progressed into the MSc programme with the university and national scholarships. Key words: inquiry based learning, soil science undergraduate program, scaffold of courses, outreach activities, teaching-research nexus, evaluation of program's efficiency

Who's Minding the Store? A Guide for Educators Working with School-Based Enterprises. Activities and Strategies for Creating and Operating Innovative and Productive Learning Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larson, Rick

Intended for educators who work with or plan to establish a school-based enterprise (SBE) in their school, this guide provides tools and strategies to establish and operate an SBE that provides a context for students to learn a range of academic and career-oriented skills. Section 1 suggests steps educators can take to help their enterprise--an…

Rapid learning in visual cortical networks.

PubMed

Wang, Ye; Dragoi, Valentin

2015-08-26

Although changes in brain activity during learning have been extensively examined at the single neuron level, the coding strategies employed by cell populations remain mysterious. We examined cell populations in macaque area V4 during a rapid form of perceptual learning that emerges within tens of minutes. Multiple single units and LFP responses were recorded as monkeys improved their performance in an image discrimination task. We show that the increase in behavioral performance during learning is predicted by a tight coordination of spike timing with local population activity. More spike-LFP theta synchronization is correlated with higher learning performance, while high-frequency synchronization is unrelated with changes in performance, but these changes were absent once learning had stabilized and stimuli became familiar, or in the absence of learning. These findings reveal a novel mechanism of plasticity in visual cortex by which elevated low-frequency synchronization between individual neurons and local population activity accompanies the improvement in performance during learning.

A New Approach to Teaching Biomechanics Through Active, Adaptive, and Experiential Learning.

PubMed

Singh, Anita

2017-07-01

Demand of biomedical engineers continues to rise to meet the needs of healthcare industry. Current training of bioengineers follows the traditional and dominant model of theory-focused curricula. However, the unmet needs of the healthcare industry warrant newer skill sets in these engineers. Translational training strategies such as solving real world problems through active, adaptive, and experiential learning hold promise. In this paper, we report our findings of adding a real-world 4-week problem-based learning unit into a biomechanics capstone course for engineering students. Surveys assessed student perceptions of the activity and learning experience. While students, across three cohorts, felt challenged to solve a real-world problem identified during the simulation lab visit, they felt more confident in utilizing knowledge learned in the biomechanics course and self-directed research. Instructor evaluations indicated that the active and experiential learning approach fostered their technical knowledge and life-long learning skills while exposing them to the components of adaptive learning and innovation.

Strategies for Teaching in a Block-of-Time Schedule.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hackmann, Donald G.; Schmitt, Donna M.

1997-01-01

Offers suggestions for developing creative instructional approaches in time-blocked classes. Teachers should continuously engage students in active learning, include group activities to encourage student participation, incorporate activities addressing multiple intelligences, use creative thinking activities, move outside the classroom, employ…

Ten-Structure as Strategy of Addition 1-20 by Involving Spatial Structuring Ability for First Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salmah, Ummy; Putri, Ratu Ilma Indra; Somakim

2015-01-01

The aim of this study is to design learning activities that can support students to develop strategies for the addition of number 1 to 20 in the first grade by involving students' spatial structuring ability. This study was conducted in Indonesia by involving 27 students. In this paper, one of three activities is discussed namely ten-box activity.…

Active Bodies/Active Brains: The Relationship between Physical Engagement and Children's Brain Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevens-Smith, Deborah A.

2016-01-01

Educators often struggle daily with the issue of how to engage students for learning. Many instructional strategies are devoted to the concept of engagement to keep students interested and on task to enhance learning, but defining the term is difficult. Engagement may involve a combination of terms that relates to the effort of students when they…

Active Learning Strategies to Teach Renal-Cardiovascular Integration with High Student-to-Teacher Ratios

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brands, Michael W.; Schumacher, Lori

2009-01-01

To address the challenge of increasing opportunities for active learning into a medical physiology course with 190 students enrolled, we chose an integrated approach. This was facilitated by the availability of a patient simulator facility at the School of Nursing at the Medical College of Georgia, and an 20-min simulation of acute hemorrhage on…

Exploring the Impact of Role-Playing on Peer Feedback in an Online Case-Based Learning Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ching, Yu-Hui

2014-01-01

This study explored the impact of role-playing on the quality of peer feedback and learners' perception of this strategy in a case-based learning activity with VoiceThread in an online course. The findings revealed potential positive impact of role-playing on learners' generation of constructive feedback as role-playing was associated with higher…

Making a Difference. A Resource Pack for People Who Want To Become More Active Citizens.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dadzie, Stella, Comp.; Turner, Cheryl, Ed.

This document, which is a resource pack for individuals in the United Kingdom who want to become more active citizens, consists of information for group leaders and five learning modules. The section for group leaders contains the following: basic tips on leading a group; strategies for overcoming barriers to learning; glossary; and overview of…

Improving the interpersonal competences of head nurses through Peplau's theoretical active learning approach.

PubMed

Suhariyanto; Hariyati, Rr Tutik Sri; Ungsianik, Titin

2018-02-01

Effective interpersonal skills are essential for head nurses in governing and managing their work units. Therefore, an active learning strategy could be the key to enhance the interpersonal competences of head nurses. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Peplau's theoretical approach of active learning on the improvement of head nurses' interpersonal skills. This study used a pre-experimental design with one group having pretests and posttests, without control group. A total sample of 25 head nurses from inpatient units of a wellknown private hospital in Jakarta was involved in the study. Data were analyzed using the paired t-test. The results showed a significant increase in head nurses' knowledge following the training to strengthen their interpersonal roles (P=.003). The results also revealed significant increases in the head nurses' skills in playing the roles of leader (P=.006), guardian (P=.014), and teacher/speaker (P=.015). Nonetheless, the results showed no significant increases in the head nurses' skills in playing the roles of counselor (P=.092) and stranger (P=.182). Training in strengthening the interpersonal roles of head nurses significantly increased the head nurses' knowledge and skills. The results of the study suggested the continuation of active learning strategies to improve the interpersonal abilities of head nurses. Furthermore, these strategies could be used to build the abilities of head nurses in other managerial fields. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Learning Pedagogy in Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harlow, Danielle B.; Swanson, Lauren H.; Dwyer, Hilary A.; Bianchini, Julie A.

2010-10-01

We report on an adapted version of the Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum. A unique aspect of PET is its inclusion of special activities that focus on Learning about Learning (LAL) in which undergraduates analyze videos of children talking about science and explicitly consider the nature of science. To create a course that intentionally linked science content, children's ideas, and strategies for science instruction, we augmented the existing LAL activities with discussions about teaching, and added activities focused on LAL from companion curricula such as Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PSET) and Learning Physical Science (LEPS). To compensate for the additional time on LAL, we reduced the content activities to only those that directly supported LAL activities. We found that students made significant gains on the CLASS and expressed beliefs about teaching consistent with the PET pedagogy.

A Web-Based Learning Support System for Inquiry-Based Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Dong Won; Yao, Jingtao

The emergence of the Internet and Web technology makes it possible to implement the ideals of inquiry-based learning, in which students seek truth, information, or knowledge by questioning. Web-based learning support systems can provide a good framework for inquiry-based learning. This article presents a study on a Web-based learning support system called Online Treasure Hunt. The Web-based learning support system mainly consists of a teaching support subsystem, a learning support subsystem, and a treasure hunt game. The teaching support subsystem allows instructors to design their own inquiry-based learning environments. The learning support subsystem supports students' inquiry activities. The treasure hunt game enables students to investigate new knowledge, develop ideas, and review their findings. Online Treasure Hunt complies with a treasure hunt model. The treasure hunt model formalizes a general treasure hunt game to contain the learning strategies of inquiry-based learning. This Web-based learning support system empowered with the online-learning game and founded on the sound learning strategies furnishes students with the interactive and collaborative student-centered learning environment.

Measuring strategies for learning regulation in medical education: scale reliability and dimensionality in a Swedish sample.

PubMed

Edelbring, Samuel

2012-08-15

The degree of learners' self-regulated learning and dependence on external regulation influence learning processes in higher education. These regulation strategies are commonly measured by questionnaires developed in other settings than in which they are being used, thereby requiring renewed validation. The aim of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the learning regulation strategy scales from the Inventory of Learning Styles with Swedish medical students (N = 206). The regulation scales were evaluated regarding their reliability, scale dimensionality and interrelations. The primary evaluation focused on dimensionality and was performed with Mokken scale analysis. To assist future scale refinement, additional item analysis, such as item-to-scale correlations, was performed. Scale scores in the Swedish sample displayed good reliability in relation to published results: Cronbach's alpha: 0.82, 0.72, and 0.65 for self-regulation, external regulation and lack of regulation scales respectively. The dimensionalities in scales were adequate for self-regulation and its subscales, whereas external regulation and lack of regulation displayed less unidimensionality. The established theoretical scales were largely replicated in the exploratory analysis. The item analysis identified two items that contributed little to their respective scales. The results indicate that these scales have an adequate capacity for detecting the three theoretically proposed learning regulation strategies in the medical education sample. Further construct validity should be sought by interpreting scale scores in relation to specific learning activities. Using established scales for measuring students' regulation strategies enables a broad empirical base for increasing knowledge on regulation strategies in relation to different disciplinary settings and contributes to theoretical development.

Case studies and role play: learning strategies in nursing.

PubMed

Cogo, Ana Luísa Petersen; Pai, Daiane Dal; Aliti, Graziella Badin; Hoefel, Heloísa Karnas; Azzolin, Karina de Oliveira; Busin, Lurdes; Unicovsky, Margarita Ana Rubin; Kruse, Maria Henriqueta Luce

2016-01-01

to report professors' experience in a public university of Southern region of Brazil using case studies and role play as learning strategies for nursing care of hospitalized adults. learning experience report from the Nursing Care of Adults I class of nursing undergraduate course. the development of case studies and role play considered health care needs from epidemiological profile of chronic noncommunicable diseases morbidity and mortality, nursing as an assisting method, and social aspects of hospitalized individuals. Role play planning was made by creating a stage in laboratory of practices and dialogues comprising students and professors interaction. case studies and role play encouraged students to active search for learning and brought theory closer to real health care situations.

Creative teaching method as a learning strategy for student midwives: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Rankin, Jean; Brown, Val

2016-03-01

Traditional ways of teaching in Higher Education are enhanced with adult-based approaches to learning within the curriculum. Adult-based learning enables students to take ownership of their own learning, working in independence using a holistic approach. Introducing creative activities promotes students to think in alternative ways to the traditional learning models. The study aimed to explore student midwives perceptions of a creative teaching method as a learning strategy. A qualitative design was used adopting a phenomenological approach to gain the lived experience of students within this learning culture. Purposive sampling was used to recruit student midwives (n=30). Individual interviews were conducted using semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions to gain subjective information. Data were transcribed and analyzed into useful and meaningful themes and emerging themes using Colaizzi's framework for analyzing qualitative data in a logical and systematic way. Over 500 meaningful statements were identified from the transcripts. Three key themes strongly emerged from the transcriptions. These included'meaningful learning','inspired to learn and achieve', and 'being connected'. A deep meaningful learning experience was found to be authentic in the context of theory and practice. Students were inspired to learn and achieve and positively highlighted the safe learning environment. The abilities of the facilitators were viewed positively in supporting student learning. This approach strengthened the relationships and social engagement with others in the peer group and the facilitators. On a less positive note, tensions and conflict were noted in group work and indirect negative comments about the approach from the teaching team. Incorporating creative teaching activities is a positive addition to the healthcare curriculum. Creativity is clearly an asset to the range of contemporary learning strategies. In doing so, higher education will continue to keep abreast of the needs of graduating students in a complex and rapidly changing professional environment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transitions in Learning: Evidence for Simultaneously Activated Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldin-Meadow, Susan; And Others

Children rarely cite more than one strategy when asked to explain how they solved a particular arithmetic problem, hence their verbal explanations will not necessarily reveal whether they have considered multiple strategies on that problem. However, previous work has shown that, when asked to explain their performance on a task, children often use…

The neuroscience of learning.

PubMed

Collins, John W

2007-10-01

Significant advances have been made in understanding the neurophysiological basis of learning, including the discovery of mirror neurons and the role of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) responsive element binding (CREB) protein in learning. Mirror neurons help us visually compare an observed activity with a remembered action in our memory, an ability that helps us imitate and learn through watching. Long-term potentiation, the Hebb rule, and CREB protein are associated with the formation of long-term memories. Conversely, protein phosphatase 1 and glucocorticoids are neurophysiological phenomena that limit what can be learned and cause forgetfulness. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences contends that different areas of the brain are responsible for different competencies that we all possess to varying degrees. These multiple intelligences can be used as strategies for improved learning. Repeating material, using mnemonics, and avoiding overwhelming stress are other strategies for improving learning. Imaging studies have shown that practice with resultant learning results in significantly less use of brain areas, indicating that the brain becomes more efficient. Experts have advantages over novices, including increased cognitive processing efficiency. Nurses are in a unique position to use their understanding of neurophysiological principles to implement better educational strategies to provide quality education to patients and others.

University Students with Dyslexia: A Qualitative Exploratory Study of Learning Practices, Challenges and Strategies.

PubMed

MacCullagh, Lois; Bosanquet, Agnes; Badcock, Nicholas A

2017-02-01

People with dyslexia are vastly under-represented in universities (Katusic et al., , Richardson & Wydell, ; Stampoltzis & Polychronopoulou, ). This situation is of concern for modern societies that value social justice. This study was designed to explore learning experiences of university students with dyslexia and factors that could contribute to their success. Thirteen students with dyslexia and 20 non-dyslexic peers were interviewed about their university learning experiences using a semi-structured qualitative approach. Students with dyslexia described engaging in learning activities intensively, frequently and strategically. They reported challenges and strengths relating to study skills, lectures, assessments, technology and support services. They also described helpful strategies including self-directed adaptive techniques, provisions from lecturers and assistance from the university. These findings suggest that students with dyslexia experience broad challenges at university, but helpful strategies may be available. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Facilitating behavioral learning and habit change in voice therapy--theoretic premises and practical strategies.

PubMed

Iwarsson, Jenny

2015-12-01

A typical goal of voice therapy is a behavioral change in the patient's everyday speech. The SLP's plan for voice therapy should therefore optimally include strategies for automatization. The aim of the present study was to identify and describe factors that promote behavioral learning and habit change in voice behavior and have the potential to affect patient compliance and thus therapy outcome. Research literature from the areas of motor and behavioral learning, habit formation, and habit change was consulted. Also, specific elements from personal experience of clinical voice therapy are described and discussed from a learning theory perspective. Nine factors that seem to be relevant to facilitate behavioral learning and habit change in voice therapy are presented, together with related practical strategies and theoretical underpinnings. These are: 1) Cue-altering; 2) Attention exercises; 3) Repetition; 4) Cognitive activation; 5) Negative practice; 6) Inhibition through interruption; 7) Decomposing complex behavior; 8) The 'each time-every time' principle; and 9) Successive implementation of automaticity.

A guided note taking strategy supports student learning in the large lecture classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanamatayarat, J.; Sujarittham, T.; Wuttiprom, S.; Hefer, E.

2017-09-01

In higher education, lecturing has been found to be the most prevalent teaching format for large classes. Generally, this format tends not to result in effective learning outcomes. Therefore, to support student learning in these large lecture classes, we developed guided notes containing quotations, blank spaces, pictures, and problems. A guided note taking strategy was selected and has been used in our introductory physics course for many years. In this study, we investigated the results of implementing the guided note taking strategy to promote student learning on electrostatics. The samples were three groups of first-year students from two universities: 163 and 224 science students and 147 engineering students. All of the students were enrolled in the introductory physics course in the second semester. To assess the students’ understanding, we administered pre- and post-tests to the students by using the electrostatics test. The questions were selected from the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism (CSEM) and some leading physics textbooks. The results of the students’ understanding were analyzed by the average normalized gains (). The value of each group was 0.61, 0.55, and 0.54, respectively. Furthermore, the students’ views on learning with the guided note taking strategy were explored by using the five-point rating scale survey. Most students perceived that the strategy helped support their active learning and engagement in the lectures.

Teaching and Learning in a University Classroom: A Norwegian Case Study on Students' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Postholm, May Britt

2007-01-01

This article focuses on student activity and how students experience learning. A teaching programme was both led and researched by the one teacher. The article describes a master's level teaching programme and presents the data collection strategies used by the teacher-researcher and presents learning viewed from the students' perspective. The…

Is Library Database Searching a Language Learning Activity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bordonaro, Karen

2010-01-01

This study explores how non-native speakers of English think of words to enter into library databases when they begin the process of searching for information in English. At issue is whether or not language learning takes place when these students use library databases. Language learning in this study refers to the use of strategies employed by…

Problem-Based Learning in the Educational Psychology Classroom: Bahraini Teacher Candidates' Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razzak, Nina Abdul

2012-01-01

There was a concern from faculty at Bahrain Teachers' College that undergraduate Bahraini students lack the necessary competencies needed for success in educational contexts that are conducive to active, student-centered learning. It was decided that the students be introduced to a problem-based learning (PBL) strategy in one of their educational…

Methods and Strategies: Literacy in the Learning Cycle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Everett, Susan; Moyer, Richard

2009-01-01

Trade books can be used in all phases of the learning cycle to support effective teaching and learning. Romance and Vitale (1992) found that texts and other nonfiction science books can be effective tools for teaching reading, as the science activities give learners a purpose for their reading. In this article, the authors share ways to…

Effects of a Peer Competition-based Mobile Learning Approach on Students' Affective Domain Exhibition in Social Studies Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Chang, Shao-Chen

2016-01-01

One of the important and challenging objectives of social studies courses is to promote students' affective domain exhibition, including learning interest, positive attitudes and local culture identity. In this paper, a location-aware mobile learning approach was proposed based on a competition strategy for conducting local cultural activities in…

Photographs Generate Knowledge: Reflections on Experiential Learning In/Outside the Social Work Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonnycastle, Marleny M.; Bonnycastle, Colin R.

2015-01-01

Building active learning strategies into courses can be risky, but the benefits to students often outweigh the concerns, as in the case presented here. The process began as an attempt to employ experiential learning, through the use of photovoice, to enhance the teaching of an undergraduate social work research course. In later courses it…

Supporting Teachers in Vietnam to Monitor Preschool Children's Wellbeing and Involvement in Preschool Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenaerts, Filip; Braeye, Sarah; Nguyen, Thi Lan Huong; Dang, Tuyet Anh; Vromant, Nico

2017-01-01

Vietnam is promoting active teaching and learning as a key strategy to enhance children's learning in preschools. This change depends largely on building the capacities of teachers to implement child-centered education in practice and handover the initiative for learning to children. Vietnamese teachers need to be better equipped with pedagogical…

Hopping into Economics: First Graders Learn about Economics through an Easter Theme.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Gaylene

A 3-month study unit introducing first grade students to economics through an Easter theme is outlined in five sections. Sections 1 and 2 describe rationale, goals, and learning objectives. Section 3 provides learning activities. A wide range of instructional strategies is used to teach the basic economic concepts of want, need, scarcity,…

A Strategy to Join Adaptive and Reputation-Based Social-Collaborative E-Learning, through the Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Marsico, Maria; Sterbini, Andrea; Temperini, Marco

2013-01-01

The educational concept of "Zone of Proximal Development", introduced by Vygotskij, stems from the identification of a strong need for adaptation of the learning activities, both traditional classroom and modern e-learning ones, to the present state of learner's knowledge and abilities. Furthermore, Vygotskij's educational…

Embedding Research in a Field-Based Module through Peer Review and Assessment for Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicholson, Dawn T.

2011-01-01

A case study is presented of embedding research in a final year undergraduate, field-based, physical geography module. The approach is holistic, whereby research-based learning activities simulate the full life cycle of research from inception through to peer review and publication. The learning, teaching and assessment strategy emphasizes the…

Self-Regulation in the Learning Process: Actions through Self-Assessment Activities with Brazilian Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Punhagui, Giovana Chimentão; de Souza, Nadia Aparecida

2013-01-01

Learning a foreign language is, among other factors, based on the perception of one's own development and on undertaking strategies for greater communicative competence, which are founded in autonomous procedures that span the necessity for greater responsibility. As learning a language demands constant study, even after the school period--when…

The Use of Team-Based Learning as an Approach to Increased Engagement and Learning for Marketing Students: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chad, Paul

2012-01-01

Marketing educators are often faced with poor preclass preparation by students, declining student interest in attending classes as the semester progresses, and student complaints regarding previous bad experiences with team assessment activities. Team-based learning (TBL) is an innovative teaching strategy using semiformalized guidelines aimed to…

The Genius of Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, John

2017-01-01

Genius Hour is a time built into the school day or week to enable students to actively create their learning rather than passively consume it. During the time set aside for Genius Hour, students choose what they will learn about, the strategies they will use to learn it, the pace of their work, the materials and resources they will use, and the…

The use of an active learning approach in a SCALE-UP learning space improves academic performance in undergraduate General Biology.

PubMed

Hacisalihoglu, Gokhan; Stephens, Desmond; Johnson, Lewis; Edington, Maurice

2018-01-01

Active learning is a pedagogical approach that involves students engaging in collaborative learning, which enables them to take more responsibility for their learning and improve their critical thinking skills. While prior research examined student performance at majority universities, this study focuses on specifically Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for the first time. Here we present work that focuses on the impact of active learning interventions at Florida A&M University, where we measured the impact of active learning strategies coupled with a SCALE-UP (Student Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies) learning environment on student success in General Biology. In biology sections where active learning techniques were employed, students watched online videos and completed specific activities before class covering information previously presented in a traditional lecture format. In-class activities were then carefully planned to reinforce critical concepts and enhance critical thinking skills through active learning techniques such as the one-minute paper, think-pair-share, and the utilization of clickers. Students in the active learning and control groups covered the same topics, took the same summative examinations and completed identical homework sets. In addition, the same instructor taught all of the sections included in this study. Testing demonstrated that these interventions increased learning gains by as much as 16%, and students reported an increase in their positive perceptions of active learning and biology. Overall, our results suggest that active learning approaches coupled with the SCALE-UP environment may provide an added opportunity for student success when compared with the standard modes of instruction in General Biology.

The neural correlates of strategic reading comprehension: cognitive control and discourse comprehension.

PubMed

Moss, Jarrod; Schunn, Christian D; Schneider, Walter; McNamara, Danielle S; Vanlehn, Kurt

2011-09-15

Neuroimaging studies of text comprehension conducted thus far have shed little light on the brain mechanisms underlying strategic learning from text. Thus, the present study was designed to answer the question of what brain areas are active during performance of complex reading strategies. Reading comprehension strategies are designed to improve a reader's comprehension of a text. For example, self-explanation is a complex reading strategy that enhances existing comprehension processes. It was hypothesized that reading strategies would involve areas of the brain that are normally involved in reading comprehension along with areas that are involved in strategic control processes because the readers are intentionally using a complex reading strategy. Subjects were asked to reread, paraphrase, and self-explain three different texts in a block design fMRI study. Activation was found in both executive control and comprehension areas, and furthermore, learning from text was associated with activation in the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC). The authors speculate that the aPFC may play a role in coordinating the internal and external modes of thought that are necessary for integrating new knowledge from texts with prior knowledge. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Optimisation of GaN LEDs and the reduction of efficiency droop using active machine learning

DOE PAGES

Rouet-Leduc, Bertrand; Barros, Kipton Marcos; Lookman, Turab; ...

2016-04-26

A fundamental challenge in the design of LEDs is to maximise electro-luminescence efficiency at high current densities. We simulate GaN-based LED structures that delay the onset of efficiency droop by spreading carrier concentrations evenly across the active region. Statistical analysis and machine learning effectively guide the selection of the next LED structure to be examined based upon its expected efficiency as well as model uncertainty. This active learning strategy rapidly constructs a model that predicts Poisson-Schrödinger simulations of devices, and that simultaneously produces structures with higher simulated efficiencies.

Applying learning theories and instructional design models for effective instruction.

PubMed

Khalil, Mohammed K; Elkhider, Ihsan A

2016-06-01

Faculty members in higher education are involved in many instructional design activities without formal training in learning theories and the science of instruction. Learning theories provide the foundation for the selection of instructional strategies and allow for reliable prediction of their effectiveness. To achieve effective learning outcomes, the science of instruction and instructional design models are used to guide the development of instructional design strategies that elicit appropriate cognitive processes. Here, the major learning theories are discussed and selected examples of instructional design models are explained. The main objective of this article is to present the science of learning and instruction as theoretical evidence for the design and delivery of instructional materials. In addition, this article provides a practical framework for implementing those theories in the classroom and laboratory. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Moving toward Cognitive Alignment: Effective Data Provides Feedback Teachers Can Use to Make Adjustments in Learning Activities that Result in Standards Alignment with Content and Cognitive Rigor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manthey, George

2005-01-01

The most effective teaching strategies require higher order thinking, but the most used strategies seem to involve lower order thinking. If a comparison could be made between the cognitive rigor of the content standards that students are to be learning and the cognitive rigor of the actual work students are doing, then these kind of data are…

Teaching torque with 5E learning strategy: an off-center disk case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balta, Nuri

2018-01-01

In this paper, five simple demonstrations with an off-center disk that can be easily constructed and demonstrated in science class are described along with the 5E learning strategy. These demonstrations can be used to help students develop an understanding of the relationship between the centre of mass and torque. These STEM activities are appropriate for high school or first-year college physics, and are expected to engage students during physics courses.

How to Improve the Mastery of Students’ Concept on Photosynthesis Topic?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulfa, K.; Anggraeni, S.; Supriatno, B.

2017-09-01

The PPDP learning strategy in this research is the acronym of Practicum method, Presentation-discussion method, Demonstration method, and Presentation-discussion method. This study aims to describe the effect of applying PPDP learning strategies to mastery of high school students’ concepts on photosynthesis topic. The research method is a weak experiment, with the research design “The One-Group Pretest-Postetst Design”. The implementation of the study involved 35 students in one of the high schools in the city of Palembang. The research instrument used is in the form of test equipment, assessment rubric and questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 24 Program. The statistical result showed that PPDP learning strategy had an effect on improving conceptual and Effective on the achievement of the value on the minimum criteria set by the school. This is due to the transformation of knowledge from hands-on to minds-on through the discovery of facts about the concept of photosynthesis. This fact leads to the construction of further understanding through cognitive sharing when the activities of the discussions formed similarity and consolidation of the concept of photosynthesis intact. In addition, demonstration activities also cause students’ logic of thinking to develop through observation of factors that may affect the rate of photosynthesis. This PPDP learning strategy can be utilized by teachers in explaining photosynthetic topic.

Skill Development in Experimental Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bagán, Héctor; Sayós, Rosa; García, José F.

2015-01-01

Experimental courses offer a good opportunity to work with competences, promoting the incorporation of strategies oriented towards motivating students to actively involve in the learning process, promoting reflexive learning and developing generic skills. This study presents different ways of developing and evaluating some important general…

[Flipped classroom as a strategy to enhance active learning].

PubMed

Wakabayashi, Noriyuki

2015-03-01

This paper reviews the introduction of a flipped class for fourth grade dentistry students, and analyzes the characteristics of the learning method. In fiscal 2013 and 2014, a series of ten three-hour units for removable partial prosthodontics were completed with the flipped class method; a lecture video of approximately 60 minutes was made by the teacher (author) and uploaded to the university's e-learning website one week before each class. Students were instructed to prepare for the class by watching the streaming video on their PC, tablet, or smartphone. In the flipped class, students were not given a lecture, but were asked to solve short questions displayed on screen, to make a short presentation about a part of the video lecture, and to discuss a critical question related to the main subject of the day. An additional team-based learning (TBL) session with individual and group answers was implemented. The average individual scores were considerably higher in the last two years, when the flipped method was implemented, than in the three previous years when conventional lectures were used. The following learning concepts were discussed: the role of the flipped method as an active learning strategy, the efficacy of lecture videos and short questions, students' participation in the class discussion, present-day value of the method, cooperation with TBL, the significance of active learning in relation with the students' learning ability, and the potential increase in the preparation time and workload for students.

Learning strategy is influenced by trait anxiety and early rearing conditions in prepubertal male, but not prepubertal female rats.

PubMed

Grissom, Elin M; Hawley, Wayne R; Bromley-Dulfano, Sarah S; Marino, Sarah E; Stathopoulos, Nicholas G; Dohanich, Gary P

2012-09-01

Rodents solve dual-solution tasks that require navigation to a goal by adopting either a hippocampus-dependent place strategy or a striatum-dependent stimulus-response strategy. A variety of factors, including biological sex and emotional status, influence the choice of learning strategy. In these experiments, we investigated the relationship between learning strategy and anxiety level in male and female rats prior to the onset of puberty, before the activational effects of gonadal hormones influence these processes. In the first experiment, prepubertal male rats categorized as high in trait anxiety at 26days of age exhibited a bias toward stimulus-response strategy at 28days of age, whereas age-matched females exhibited no preference in strategy regardless of anxiety level. In the second experiment, male and female rats were separated from their dams for either 15 or 180min per day during the first 2weeks of life and tested on a battery of anxiety and cognitive tasks between 25 and 29days of age. Prolonged maternal separations for 180min were associated with impaired spatial memory on a Y-maze task in both prepubertal males and females. Furthermore, prolonged maternal separations were linked to elevated anxiety and a bias for stimulus-response strategy in prepubertal males but not females. Alternatively, brief separations from dams for 15min were associated with intact spatial memory, lower levels of anxiety, and no preference for either learning strategy in both sexes. These results provide evidence of sex-specific effects of trait anxiety and early maternal separation on the choice of learning strategy used by prepubertal rodents. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cortical regions recruited for complex active-learning strategies and action planning exhibit rapid reactivation during memory retrieval.

PubMed

Voss, Joel L; Galvan, Ashley; Gonsalves, Brian D

2011-12-01

Memory retrieval can involve activity in the same sensory cortical regions involved in perception of the original event, and this neural "reactivation" has been suggested as an important mechanism of memory retrieval. However, it is still unclear if fragments of experience other than sensory information are retained and later reactivated during retrieval. For example, learning in non-laboratory settings generally involves active exploration of memoranda, thus requiring the generation of action plans for behavior and the use of strategies deployed to improve subsequent memory performance. Is information pertaining to action planning and strategic processing retained and reactivated during retrieval? To address this question, we compared ERP correlates of memory retrieval for objects that had been studied in an active manner involving action planning and strategic processing to those for objects that had been studied passively. Memory performance was superior for actively studied objects, and unique ERP retrieval correlates for these objects were identified when subjects remembered the specific spatial locations at which objects were studied. Early-onset frontal shifts in ERP correlates of retrieval were noted for these objects, which parallel the recruitment of frontal cortex during learning object locations previously identified using fMRI with the same paradigm. Notably, ERPs during recall for items studied with a specific viewing strategy localized to the same supplementary motor cortex region previously identified with fMRI when this strategy was implemented during study, suggesting rapid reactivation of regions directly involved in strategic action planning. Collectively, these results implicate neural populations involved in learning in important retrieval functions, even for those populations involved in strategic control and action planning. Notably, these episodic features are not generally reported during recollective experiences, suggesting that reactivation is a more general property of memory retrieval that extends beyond those fragments of perceptual information that might be needed to re-live the past. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Systems Approach to Scaffold Communication Skills Development

PubMed Central

Er, Nelson L.

2008-01-01

Objectives To implement a communication skills development (CSD) system and evaluate its effectiveness in a clinical communications course. Design Students conducted baseline interviews and wrote SOAP notes, and based on faculty, patient, self- and peer assessments, set goals for improvement of their communication skills. Students participated in various activities to scaffold their learning, several of which took place in a web-based environment to enhance access and function for both students and faculty members. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. Assessment Students' communication skills improved as evidenced by assessment scores. Student and faculty comments offered additional evidence of the effectiveness of standardized patient interviews, learning strategies, and assessment methods. Conclusion The CSD system effectively integrated various types of learning activities and feedback processes. The use of scaffolding strategies appeared to enhance the development of students' communication skills. PMID:18483601

Exploring medical student learning in the large group teaching environment: examining current practice to inform curricular development.

PubMed

Luscombe, Ciara; Montgomery, Julia

2016-07-19

Lectures continue to be an efficient and standardised way to deliver information to large groups of students. It has been well documented that students prefer interactive lectures, based on active learning principles, to didactic teaching in the large group setting. Despite this, it is often the case than many students do not engage with active learning tasks and attempts at interaction. By exploring student experiences, expectations and how they use lectures in their learning we will provide recommendations for faculty to support student learning both in the lecture theatre and during personal study time. This research employed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Three focus groups, consisting of 19 students in total, were used to explore the experiences of second year medical students in large group teaching sessions. Using generic thematic data analysis, these accounts have been developed into a meaningful account of experience. This study found there to be a well-established learning culture amongst students and with it, expectations as to the format of teaching sessions. Furthermore, there were set perceptions about the student role within the learning environment which had many implications, including the way that innovative teaching methods were received. Student learning was perceived to take place outside the lecture theatre, with a large emphasis placed on creating resources that can be taken away to use in personal study time. Presented here is a constructive review of reasons for student participation, interaction and engagement in large group teaching sessions. Based on this are recommendations constructed with the view to aid educators in engaging students within this setting. Short term, educators can implement strategies that monopolise on the established learning culture of students to encourage engagement with active learning strategies. Long term, it would be beneficial for educators to consider ways to shift the current student learning culture to one that embraces an active learning curriculum.

An efficient cardiac mapping strategy for radiofrequency catheter ablation with active learning.

PubMed

Feng, Yingjing; Guo, Ziyan; Dong, Ziyang; Zhou, Xiao-Yun; Kwok, Ka-Wai; Ernst, Sabine; Lee, Su-Lin

2017-07-01

A major challenge in radiofrequency catheter ablation procedures is the voltage and activation mapping of the endocardium, given a limited mapping time. By learning from expert interventional electrophysiologists (operators), while also making use of an active-learning framework, guidance on performing cardiac voltage mapping can be provided to novice operators or even directly to catheter robots. A learning from demonstration (LfD) framework, based upon previous cardiac mapping procedures performed by an expert operator, in conjunction with Gaussian process (GP) model-based active learning, was developed to efficiently perform voltage mapping over right ventricles (RV). The GP model was used to output the next best mapping point, while getting updated towards the underlying voltage data pattern as more mapping points are taken. A regularized particle filter was used to keep track of the kernel hyperparameter used by GP. The travel cost of the catheter tip was incorporated to produce time-efficient mapping sequences. The proposed strategy was validated on a simulated 2D grid mapping task, with leave-one-out experiments on 25 retrospective datasets, in an RV phantom using the Stereotaxis Niobe ® remote magnetic navigation system, and on a tele-operated catheter robot. In comparison with an existing geometry-based method, regression error was reduced and was minimized at a faster rate over retrospective procedure data. A new method of catheter mapping guidance has been proposed based on LfD and active learning. The proposed method provides real-time guidance for the procedure, as well as a live evaluation of mapping sufficiency.

Technology enhanced learning for occupational and environmental health nursing: a global imperative.

PubMed

Olson, D K; Cohn, S; Carlson, V

2000-04-01

One strategy for decreasing the barriers to higher education and for increasing the competency and performance of the occupational and environmental health nurse in the information age is technology enhanced learning. Technology enhanced learning encompasses a variety of technologies employed in teaching and learning activities of presentation, interaction, and transmission to on campus and distant students. Web based learning is growing faster than any other instructional technology, offering students convenience and a wealth of information.

Evaluation of Online Learning Modules for Improving Physical Activity Counseling Skills, Practices, and Knowledge of Oncology Nurses.

PubMed

Karvinen, Kristina H; Balneaves, Lynda; Courneya, Kerry S; Perry, Beth; Truant, Tracy; Vallance, Jeff

2017-11-01

To examine the effectiveness of online learning modules for improving physical activity counseling practices among oncology nurses. 
. Randomized, controlled trial.
. Online.
. 54 oncology nurses.
. Oncology nurses were randomly assigned to the learning modules group or control group. The learning modules group completed six online learning modules and quizzes focused on physical activity for cancer survivors, general physical activity principles, and motivational interviewing.
. Percentage of cancer survivors counseled, self-efficacy for physical activity counseling, knowledge of physical activity, and perceived barriers and benefits of physical activity counseling.
. Analyses of covariance revealed no significant difference between the learning modules and control groups in the percentage of cancer survivors that oncology nurses counseled. Significant differences were found in self-efficacy for physical activity counseling and perceived barriers to physical activity counseling at postintervention. 
. The online learning intervention tested in this study improved some parameters of physical activity counseling but did not increase the percentage of cancer survivors that oncology nurses counseled. Additional pilot work is needed to refine the intervention.
. This study suggests the potential utility of an evidence-based online learning strategy for oncology nurses that includes information on physical activity and its benefits in cancer survivorship. The findings offer a framework on how to implement physical activity counseling skills in oncology nursing practice.

A Bridge to Active Learning: A Summer Bridge Program Helps Students Maximize Their Active-Learning Experiences and the Active-Learning Experiences of Others

PubMed Central

Cooper, Katelyn M.; Ashley, Michael; Brownell, Sara E.

2017-01-01

National calls to improve student academic success in college have sparked the development of bridge programs designed to help students transition from high school to college. We designed a 2-week Summer Bridge program that taught introductory biology content in an active-learning way. Through a set of exploratory interviews, we unexpectedly identified that Bridge students had developed sophisticated views of active learning, even though this was not an explicit goal of the program. We conducted an additional set of semistructured interviews that focused on active learning and compared the interviews of Bridge students with those from non-Bridge students who had been eligible for but did not participate in the program. We used the constant comparative method to identify themes from the interviews. We found that Bridge students perceived that, because they knew how to approach active learning and viewed it as important, they benefited more from active learning in introductory biology than non-Bridge students. Specifically, Bridge students seemed to be more aware of their own learning gains from participating in active learning. Compared with the majority of non-Bridge students, the majority of Bridge students described using a greater variety of strategies to maximize their experiences in active learning. Finally, in contrast to non-Bridge students, Bridge students indicated that they take an equitable approach to group work. These findings suggest that we may be able to prime students to maximize their own and other’s experiences in active learning. PMID:28232588

Defining the requisite knowledge for providers of in-service professional development for K--12 teachers of science: Refining the construct

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tucker, Deborah L.

Purpose. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to refine, using a Delphi study process, the four categories of the theoretical model of the comprehensive knowledge base required by providers of professional development for K-12 teachers of science generated from a review of the literature. Methodology. This grounded theory study used data collected through a modified Delphi technique and interviews to refine and validate the literature-based knowledge base required by providers of professional development for K-12 teachers of science. Twenty-three participants, experts in the fields of science education, how people learn, instructional and assessment strategies, and learning contexts, responded to the study's questions. Findings. By "densifying" the four categories of the knowledge base, this study determined the causal conditions (the science subject matter knowledge), the intervening conditions (how people learn), the strategies (the effective instructional and assessment strategies), and the context (the context and culture of formal learning environments) surrounding the science professional development process. Eight sections were added to the literature-based knowledge base; the final model comprised of forty-nine sections. The average length of the operational definitions increased nearly threefold and the number of citations per operational definition increased more than twofold. Conclusions. A four-category comprehensive model that can serve as the foundation for the knowledge base required by science professional developers now exists. Subject matter knowledge includes science concepts, inquiry, the nature of science, and scientific habits of mind; how people learn includes the principles of learning, active learning, andragogy, variations in learners, neuroscience and cognitive science, and change theory; effective instructional and assessment strategies include constructivist learning and inquiry-based teaching, differentiation of instruction, making knowledge and thinking accessible to learners, automatic and fluent retrieval of nonscience-specific skills, and science assessment and assessment strategies, science-specific instructional strategies, and safety within a learning environment; and, contextual knowledge includes curriculum selection and implementation strategies and knowledge of building program coherence. Recommendations. Further research on the use of which specific instructional strategies identified in the refined knowledge base have positive, significant effect sizes for adult learners is recommended.

Similarities and differences between the brain networks underlying allocentric and egocentric spatial learning in rat revealed by cytochrome oxidase histochemistry.

PubMed

Rubio, S; Begega, A; Méndez, M; Méndez-López, M; Arias, J L

2012-10-25

The involvement of different brain regions in place- and response-learning was examined using a water cross-maze. Rats were trained to find the goal from the initial arm by turning left at the choice point (egocentric strategy) or by using environmental cues (allocentric strategy). Although different strategies were required, the same maze and learning conditions were used. Using cytochrome oxidase histochemistry as a marker of cellular activity, the function of the 13 diverse cortical and subcortical regions was assessed in rats performing these two tasks. Our results show that allocentric learning depends on the recruitment of a large functional network, which includes the hippocampal CA3, dentate gyrus, medial mammillary nucleus and supramammillary nucleus. Along with the striatum, these last three structures are also related to egocentric spatial learning. The present study provides evidence for the contribution of these regions to spatial navigation and supports a possible functional interaction between the two memory systems, as their structural convergence may facilitate functional cooperation in the behaviours guided by more than one strategy. In summary, it can be argued that spatial learning is based on dynamic functional systems in which the interaction of brain regions is modulated by task requirements. Copyright © 2012 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mirror neuron system and observational learning: behavioral and neurophysiological evidence.

PubMed

Lago-Rodriguez, Angel; Lopez-Alonso, Virginia; Fernández-del-Olmo, Miguel

2013-07-01

Three experiments were performed to study observational learning using behavioral, perceptual, and neurophysiological data. Experiment 1 investigated whether observing an execution model, during physical practice of a transitive task that only presented one execution strategy, led to performance improvements compared with physical practice alone. Experiment 2 investigated whether performing an observational learning protocol improves subjects' action perception. In experiment 3 we evaluated whether the type of practice performed determined the activation of the Mirror Neuron System during action observation. Results showed that, compared with physical practice, observing an execution model during a task that only showed one execution strategy does not provide behavioral benefits. However, an observational learning protocol allows subjects to predict more precisely the outcome of the learned task. Finally, intersperse observation of an execution model with physical practice results in changes of primary motor cortex activity during the observation of the motor pattern previously practiced, whereas modulations in the connectivity between primary and non primary motor areas (PMv-M1; PPC-M1) were not affected by the practice protocol performed by the observer. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Event-related brain potentials in memory: correlates of episodic, semantic and implicit memory.

PubMed

Wieser, Stephan; Wieser, Heinz Gregor

2003-06-01

To study cognitive evoked potentials, recorded from scalp EEG and foramen ovale electrodes, during activation of explicit and implicit memory. The subgroups of explicit memory, episodic and semantic memory, are looked at separately. A word-learning task was used, which has been shown to activate hippocampus in H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography studies. Subjects had to study and remember word pairs using different learning strategies: (i) associative word learning (AWL), which activates the episodic memory, (ii) deep single word encoding (DSWE), which activates the semantic memory, and (iii) shallow single word encoding (SSWE), which activates the implicit memory and serves as a baseline. The test included the 'remember/know' paradigm as a behavioural learning control. During the task condition, a 10-20 scalp EEG with additional electrodes in both temporal lobes regions was recorded from 11 healthy volunteers. In one patient with mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy, the EEG was recorded from bilateral foramen ovale electrodes directly from mesial temporal lobe structures. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated off-line and visual and statistical analyses were made. Associative learning strategy produced the best memory performance and the best noetic awareness experience, whereas shallow single word encoding produced the worst performance and the smallest noetic awareness. Deep single word encoding performance was in between. ERPs differed according to the test condition, during both encoding and retrieval, from both the scalp EEG and the foramen ovale electrode recordings. Encoding showed significant differences between the shallow single word encoding (SSWE), which is mainly a function of graphical characteristics, and the other two strategies, deep single word (DSWE) and associative learning (AWL), in which there is a semantic processing of the meaning. ERPs generated by these two categories, which are both functions of explicit memory, differed as well, indicating the presence or the absence of associative binding. Retrieval showed a significant test effect between the word pairs learned by association (AWL) and the ones learned by encoding the words in isolation of each other (DSWE and SSWE). The comparison of the ERPs generated by autonoetic awareness ('remember') and noetic awareness ('know') exhibited a significant test effect as well. The results of behavioural data, in particular that of the 'remember/know' procedure, are evidence that the task paradigm was efficient in activating different kinds of memory. Associative word learning generated a high degree of autonoetic awareness, which is a result of the episodic memory, whereas both kinds of single word learning generated less. AWL, DSWE and SSWE resulted in different electrophysiological correlates, both for encoding as well as retrieval, indicating that different brain structures were activated in different temporal sequence.

Introducing active learning pedagogy into a technical and vocational education and training academy in Kurdistan, Iraq

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dickson, Martina; Ladefoged, Svend Erik

2017-10-01

This article focuses on a teaching methodology project which investigated issues of teaching quality at a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) academy in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. The academy was established in 2012 to provide unemployed youth with TVET, particularly workplace-relevant training. A needs analysis showed that the academy's teachers were mainly skilled in technical content areas rather than in pedagogy. Perhaps as a result, predominantly teacher-centred approaches to teaching were observed. However, teaching and learning in TVET, by its very definition, must consider active learning and practical training as core to its vocational purpose. Moreover, technical and pedagogical skills are intrinsically linked, since a teacher cannot effectively pass on technical skills without the necessary pedagogical skills to do so. It is on this premise that the authors of this article based their project, which was designed for the purpose of upgrading the teachers' pedagogical skills to incorporate more active learning strategies and practical work. Comparison of observation logs and feedback sessions at the conclusion of their project provided evidence that whilst some of the teachers' pedagogical skills had shifted towards using more dynamic teaching strategies, interviews strongly indicated that there was also some reluctance to incorporate active learning. In their conclusion, the authors suggest that the insights gained from this project could be further empirically examined in a larger, multi-institutional study.

Using targeted active-learning exercises and diagnostic question clusters to improve students' understanding of carbon cycling in ecosystems.

PubMed

Maskiewicz, April Cordero; Griscom, Heather Peckham; Welch, Nicole Turrill

2012-01-01

In this study, we used targeted active-learning activities to help students improve their ways of reasoning about carbon flow in ecosystems. The results of a validated ecology conceptual inventory (diagnostic question clusters [DQCs]) provided us with information about students' understanding of and reasoning about transformation of inorganic and organic carbon-containing compounds in biological systems. These results helped us identify specific active-learning exercises that would be responsive to students' existing knowledge. The effects of the active-learning interventions were then examined through analysis of students' pre- and postinstruction responses on the DQCs. The biology and non-biology majors participating in this study attended a range of institutions and the instructors varied in their use of active learning; one lecture-only comparison class was included. Changes in pre- to postinstruction scores on the DQCs showed that an instructor's teaching method had a highly significant effect on student reasoning following course instruction, especially for questions pertaining to cellular-level, carbon-transforming processes. We conclude that using targeted in-class activities had a beneficial effect on student learning regardless of major or class size, and argue that using diagnostic questions to identify effective learning activities is a valuable strategy for promoting learning, as gains from lecture-only classes were minimal.

Using Targeted Active-Learning Exercises and Diagnostic Question Clusters to Improve Students' Understanding of Carbon Cycling in Ecosystems

PubMed Central

Maskiewicz, April Cordero; Griscom, Heather Peckham; Welch, Nicole Turrill

2012-01-01

In this study, we used targeted active-learning activities to help students improve their ways of reasoning about carbon flow in ecosystems. The results of a validated ecology conceptual inventory (diagnostic question clusters [DQCs]) provided us with information about students' understanding of and reasoning about transformation of inorganic and organic carbon-containing compounds in biological systems. These results helped us identify specific active-learning exercises that would be responsive to students' existing knowledge. The effects of the active-learning interventions were then examined through analysis of students' pre- and postinstruction responses on the DQCs. The biology and non–biology majors participating in this study attended a range of institutions and the instructors varied in their use of active learning; one lecture-only comparison class was included. Changes in pre- to postinstruction scores on the DQCs showed that an instructor's teaching method had a highly significant effect on student reasoning following course instruction, especially for questions pertaining to cellular-level, carbon-transforming processes. We conclude that using targeted in-class activities had a beneficial effect on student learning regardless of major or class size, and argue that using diagnostic questions to identify effective learning activities is a valuable strategy for promoting learning, as gains from lecture-only classes were minimal. PMID:22383618

Development of a Health Education Program to Promote the Self-Management of Cystic Fibrosis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartholomew, L. Kay; And Others

1991-01-01

Social learning theory formed the basis of a program to develop self-management skills in cystic fibrosis patients. Strategies for practical learning activities for patients and their families included goal setting, reinforcement, modeling, skill training, and self-monitoring. (SK)

Preventing information overload: cognitive load theory as an instructional framework for teaching pharmacology.

PubMed

Kaylor, Sara K

2014-02-01

Nursing students are challenged by content-laden curricula and learning environments that emphasize testing outcomes. Likewise, educators are challenged to support student-centered learning in a manner that encourages students to connect and act upon their personal motivations. This article describes the use of cognitive load theory (CLT) as an instructional design framework for an undergraduate pharmacology for nursing course. Guided by the principles of CLT, four instructional strategies were used in this course: (a) opening review activities, (b) providing students with lecture notes, (c) a "Top Five" prototype approach, and (d) deciphering "Need to Knows" from "Nice to Knows." Instructional style and strategies received positive student feedback and were found to promote a student-centered environment and active learning. On the basis of this feedback, cognitive load theory may be a successful and effective framework for undergraduate pharmacology and other nursing courses, thus assisting students and educators alike in overcoming obstacles imposed on learning environments. Copyright 2014, SLACK Incorporated.

Internationalization of Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antelo, Absael

2012-01-01

Strategies used by institutions of higher learning for the internationalization of research represent a new reality in their operations. Universities actually use a variety of strategies to achieve some degrees of campus internationalization and their activities are limited to exchanges of students, faculty, and academic staff. Few institutions…

Nursing rounds as a pedagogical strategy: anchoring theory to practice in gerontological nursing.

PubMed

Perry, J; Paterson, B L

2005-03-01

There is considerable concern among nursing educators that baccalaureate nursing students' ageist attitudes about the elderly and the lack of understanding of the praxis of nursing care of older adults is not significantly changed by classroom lectures or discussions. Although there is general agreement that working with an experienced practitioner may positively impact on nursing students' perceptions and knowledge about the nursing care of older adults, the clinical learning experiences in this field are often uneven and problematic. In the paper, the authors present a strategy, an adaptation of traditional bedside rounds, in which students are invited to become members of a learning community in the nursing care of older adults. Based on the theory of situated learning by Lave and Wenger, the strategy entails nursing students' active involvement with skilled practitioners in the three phases of the strategy, i.e., orientation, adaptation, and integration. The authors describe how the strategy was implemented in one school of nursing. They conclude with an invitation for faculty and practitioners to further refine and assess this strategy.

Beginnings: Beginning Musical Strategies with Social Implications for Level V Middle School Students in Baltimore County, Maryland.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teske, Patricia W.

This document presents strategies developed for teaching learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, or intellectually limited middle school students in the music classroom. The proposed strategies are designed to meet the following criteria: (1) the musical activities are to be musically appropriate for middle school adolescents; (2) each activity…

Flipping my environmental geochemistry classroom using Team-Based Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffith, E. M.

2016-02-01

Recent studies indicate that active learning disproportionately benefits STEM students from disadvantaged backgrounds and women in male-dominated fields (Lorenzo et al., 2006; Haak et al., 2011). Freeman et al. (2014) went so far as to suggest that increasing the number of STEM graduates could be done, at least in part, by "abandoning traditional lecturing in favor of active learning". Motivated in part by these previous studies and working at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, I decided to flip my environmental geochemistry course, using Team-Based Learning (TBL) - an instructional strategy for using active learning in small groups (Michaelsen et al., 1982). The course is taught over a 3 hour long class period (once a week) with a mix of upper division undergraduate and graduate students from environmental science, geology, engineering, chemistry, and biological sciences. One of the major learning outcomes of my course is that students "will be able to explain and discuss environmental geochemical data and its significance with their peers." This is practiced each class period throughout the course using TBL, where both undergraduate and graduate students learn from each other and uncover misconceptions. It is essentially one version of a flipped classroom where the students' experience changes from acquiring course content in the classroom to applying course content in the classroom in teams. I will share an overview of the teaching and learning strategy and my experience as well as examples of activities done in the classroom. Cited references: Freeman et al. (2014) PNAS 111: 8410-8415; Haak et al. (2011) Science 332: 1213-1216; Lorenzo et al. (2006) Am J Phys 74: 118-122; Michaelsen et al. (1982) Organ Behav Teaching 7: 13-22.

Avoiding the Attendance Slump: Strategies to Maximize Learning Time in June. A TASC Resource Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traill, Saskia; Brohawn, Katie

2014-01-01

The After-School Corporation (TASC) works to build education enrichment into an expanded school day because extra time spent in engaging learning activities leads to better outcomes in school and beyond. There's one month, however, when students in many schools lose learning time: June. In 2013, NYC elementary and middle schools saw their average…

Significant Learning Experiences for English Foreign Language Students (Experiencias significativas para estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becerra, Luz María; McNulty, Maria

2010-01-01

This action research examines experiences that students in a grade 10 EFL class had with redesigning a grammar-unit into a topic-based unit. Strategies were formulating significant learning goals and objectives, and implementing and reflecting on activities with three dimensions of Dee Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning: the human…

Are Dewey's Ideas Alive and Well in New Zealand Undergraduate Education? Kiwi Case Studies of Inquiry-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Steen, Billy

2008-01-01

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is an approach that could be used by undergraduate educators that appears to meet the suggestions by Dewey to integrate students' interests and experiences with content knowledge. The IBL approach has been described as "a range of strategies used to promote learning through students' active, and increasingly…

Peer-Assisted Learning in School Physical Education, Sport and Physical Activity Programmes: A Systematic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkinson, Kate. A.; Naughton, Geraldine; Benson, Amanda C.

2014-01-01

Background: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is a teaching strategy utilised in both the general classroom and physical education. Through the interaction with same-age or cross-age peers, learning can occur across various domains. Purpose: This review aimed to identify school-based PAL interventions and assess the tutor training provided, as well as…

Learning Styles of the Special Needs Student (K-6). Instructor's Manual. Project: Least Restrictive Environment. MCC Inservice Training for Regular Classroom Teachers. Year III, 1980-1981.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Elizabeth

The instructor's manual considers the inservice training topic of special needs students' learning styles and their implications for regular class teachers. Activities are described to help participants understand modality learning and informal tests to determine modality strengths. Teaching strategies for auditory and visual weaknesses are…

Analysis of the Use of Twitter as a Learning Strategy in Master's Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feliz, Tiberio; Ricoy, Carmen; Feliz, Sálvora

2013-01-01

The present study analyses the use of Twitter in the course Social Media and Digital Learning, taught as part of a master's programme at Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (Spain). The main purpose of the use of this resource was to develop a learning community. This was implemented through the micro design of activities. A mixed…

Using comprehension strategies with authentic text in a college chemistry course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cain, Stephen Daniel

College science students learn important topics by reading textbooks, which contain dense technical prose. Comprehension strategies are known to increase learning from reading. One class of comprehension strategies, called elaboration strategies, is intended to link new information with prior knowledge. Elaboration strategies have an appeal in science courses where new information frequently depends on previously learned information. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an elaboration strategy in an authentic college environment. General chemistry students read text about Lewis structures, figures drawn by chemists to depict molecules, while assigned to use either an elaboration strategy, namely elaborative interrogation, or another strategy, rereading, which served as a placebo control. Two texts of equal length were employed in this pretest-posttest experimental design. One was composed by the researcher. The other was an excerpt from a college textbook and contained a procedure for constructing Lewis structures. Students (N = 252) attending a large community college were randomly assigned to one of the two texts and assigned one of the two strategies. The elaborative interrogation strategy was implemented with instructions to answer why-questions posed throughout the reading. Answering why-questions has been hypothesized to activate prior knowledge of a topic, and thus to aid in cognitively connecting new material with prior knowledge. The rereading strategy was implemented with instructions to read text twice. The use of authentic text was one of only a few instances of applying elaborative interrogation with a textbook. In addition, previous studies have generally focused on the learning of facts contained in prose. The application of elaborative interrogation to procedural text has not been previously reported. Results indicated that the more effective strategy was undetermined when reading authentic text in this setting. However, prior knowledge level was identified as a statistically significant factor for learning from authentic text. That is, students with high prior knowledge learned more, regardless of assigned strategy. Another descriptive study was conducted with a separate student sample (N = 34). Previously reported Lewis structure research was replicated. The trend of difficulty for 50 structures in the earlier work was supported.

Effective, Active Learning Strategies for the Oceanography Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dmochowski, J. E.; Marinov, I.

2014-12-01

A decline in enrollment in STEM fields at the university level has prompted extensive research on alternative ways of teaching and learning science. Inquiry-based learning as well as the related "flipped" or "active" lectures, and similar teaching methods and philosophies have been proposed as more effective ways to disseminate knowledge in science classes than the traditional lecture. We will provide a synopsis of our experiences in implementing some of these practices into our Introductory Oceanography, Global Climate Change, and Ocean Atmosphere Dynamics undergraduate courses at the University of Pennsylvania, with both smaller and larger enrollments. By implementing tools such as at-home modules; computer labs; incorporation of current research; pre- and post-lecture quizzes; reflective, qualitative writing assignments; peer review; and a variety of in-class learning strategies, we aim to increase the science literacy of the student population and help students gain a more comprehensive knowledge of the topic, enhance their critical thinking skills, and correct misconceptions. While implementing these teaching techniques with college students is not without complications, we argue that a blended class that flexibly and creatively accounts for class size and science level improves the learning experience and the acquired knowledge. We will present examples of student assignments and activities as well as describe the lessons we have learned, and propose ideas for moving forward to best utilize innovative teaching tools in order to increase science literacy in oceanography and other climate-related courses.

Enhancing active learning in microbiology through case based learning: experiences from an Indian medical school.

PubMed

Ciraj, A M; Vinod, P; Ramnarayan, K

2010-01-01

Case-based learning (CBL) is an interactive student-centered exploration of real life situations. This paper describes the use of CBL as an educational strategy for promoting active learning in microbiology. CBL was introduced in the microbiology curriculum for the second year medical students after an orientation program for faculty and students. After intervention, the average student scores in CBL topics were compared with scores obtained in lecture topics. An attempt was also made to find the effect of CBL on the academic performance. Student and faculty perception on CBL were also recorded. In a cross sectional survey conducted to assess the effectiveness of CBL, students responded that, apart from helping them acquire substantive knowledge in microbiology, CBL sessions enhanced their analytic, collaborative, and communication skills. The block examination scores in CBL topics were significantly higher than those obtained for lecture topics. Faculty rated the process to be highly effective in stimulating student interest and long term retention of microbiology knowledge. The student scores were significantly higher in the group that used CBL, compared to the group that had not used CBL as a learning strategy. Our experience indicated that CBL sessions enhanced active learning in microbiology. More frequent use of CBL sessions would not only help the student gain requisite knowledge in microbiology but also enhance their analytic and communication skills.

Impact of Adding Internet Technology on Student Performance and Perception of Autonomy in Fundamentals of Electronics Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosero-Zambrano, Carlos Andrés; Avila, Alba; Osorio, Luz Adriana; Aguirre, Sandra

2018-04-01

The coupling of the traditional classroom instruction and a virtual learning environment (VLE) in an engineering course is critical to stimulating the learning process and to encouraging students to develop competencies outside of the classroom. This can be achieved through planned activities and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), resources designed to complement students' autonomous learning needs. A quantitative analysis of students' academic performance using final course grades was performed for a fundamentals of electronics course and we examine students' perception of their autonomy using surveys. The students' progress and attitudes were monitored over four consecutive semesters. The first began with the design of the intervention and the following three consisted in the implementation. The strategy was focused on the development of course competencies through autonomous learning with ICT tools presented in the VLE. Findings indicate that the students who did the activities in the VLE showed an increase in performance scores in comparison with students who did not do them. The strategy used in this study, which enhanced perceived autonomy, was associated with a positive effect on their learning process. This research shows that a technology-enhanced course supported by ICT activities can both improve academic performance and foster autonomy in students.

An active, collaborative approach to learning skills in flow cytometry.

PubMed

Fuller, Kathryn; Linden, Matthew D; Lee-Pullen, Tracey; Fragall, Clayton; Erber, Wendy N; Röhrig, Kimberley J

2016-06-01

Advances in science education research have the potential to improve the way students learn to perform scientific interpretations and understand science concepts. We developed active, collaborative activities to teach skills in manipulating flow cytometry data using FlowJo software. Undergraduate students were given compensated clinical flow cytometry listmode output (FCS) files and asked to design a gating strategy to diagnose patients with different hematological malignancies on the basis of their immunophenotype. A separate cohort of research trainees was given uncompensated data files on which they performed their own compensation, calculated the antibody staining index, designed a sequential gating strategy, and quantified rare immune cell subsets. Student engagement, confidence, and perceptions of flow cytometry were assessed using a survey. Competency against the learning outcomes was assessed by asking students to undertake tasks that required understanding of flow cytometry dot plot data and gating sequences. The active, collaborative approach allowed students to achieve learning outcomes not previously possible with traditional teaching formats, for example, having students design their own gating strategy, without forgoing essential outcomes such as the interpretation of dot plots. In undergraduate students, favorable perceptions of flow cytometry as a field and as a potential career choice were correlated with student confidence but not the ability to perform flow cytometry data analysis. We demonstrate that this new pedagogical approach to teaching flow cytometry is beneficial for student understanding and interpretation of complex concepts. It should be considered as a useful new method for incorporating complex data analysis tasks such as flow cytometry into curricula. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Millennial Students' Preferred Methods for Learning Concepts in Psychiatric Nursing.

PubMed

Garwood, Janet K

2015-09-01

The current longitudinal, descriptive, and correlational study explored which traditional teaching strategies can engage Millennial students and adequately prepare them for the ultimate test of nursing competence: the National Council Licensure Examination. The study comprised a convenience sample of 40 baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in a psychiatric nursing course. The students were exposed to a variety of traditional (e.g., PowerPoint(®)-guided lectures) and nontraditional (e.g., concept maps, group activities) teaching and learning strategies, and rated their effectiveness. The students' scores on the final examination demonstrated that student learning outcomes met or exceeded national benchmarks. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

Engaging Stakeholders From Volunteer-Led Out-of-School Time Programs in the Dissemination of Guiding Principles for Healthy Snacking and Physical Activity.

PubMed

Folta, Sara C; Koomas, Alyssa; Metayer, Nesly; Fullerton, Karen J; Hubbard, Kristie L; Anzman-Frasca, Stephanie; Hofer, Teresa; Nelson, Miriam; Newman, Molly; Sacheck, Jennifer; Economos, Christina

2015-12-24

Little effort has focused on the role of volunteer-led out-of-school time (OST) programs (ie, enrichment and sports programs) as key environments for the promotion of healthy eating and physical activity habits among school-aged children. The Healthy Kids Out of School (HKOS) initiative developed evidence-based, practical guiding principles for healthy snacks, beverages, and physical activity. The goal of this case study was to describe the methods used to engage regional partners to understand how successful implementation and dissemination of these principles could be accomplished. HKOS partnered with volunteer-led programs from 5 OST organizations in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to create a regional "learning laboratory." We engaged partners in phases. In the first phase, we conducted focus groups with local volunteer program leaders; during the second phase, we held roundtable meetings with regional and state program administrators; and in the final phase, we conducted additional outreach to refine and finalize implementation strategies. Implementation strategies were developed based on themes and information that emerged. For enrichment programs, strategies included new patch and pin programs that were consistent with the organizations' infrastructure and usual practices. For sports programs, the main strategy was integration with online trainings for coaches. Through the engagement process, we learned that dissemination of the guiding principles in these large and complex OST organizations was best accomplished by using implementation strategies that were customized, integrated, and aligned with goals and usual practices. The lessons learned can benefit future efforts to prevent obesity in complex environments.

[Construction and Application of Innovative Education Technology Strategies in Nursing].

PubMed

Chao, Li-Fen; Huang, Hsiang-Ping; Ni, Lee-Fen; Tsai, Chia-Lan; Huang, Tsuey-Yuan

2017-12-01

The evolution of information and communication technologies has deeply impacted education reform, promoted the development of digital-learning models, and stimulated the development of diverse nursing education strategies in order to better fulfill needs and expand in new directions. The present paper introduces the intelligent-learning resources that are available for basic medical science education, problem-based learning, nursing scenario-based learning, objective structured clinical examinations, and other similar activities in the Department of Nursing at Chang Gung University of Science and Technology. The program is offered in two parts: specialized classroom facilities and cloud computing / mobile-learning. The latter includes high-fidelity simulation classrooms, online e-books, and virtual interactive simulation and augmented reality mobile-learning materials, which are provided through multimedia technology development, learning management systems, web-certificated examinations, and automated teaching and learning feedback mechanisms. It is expected that the teaching experiences that are shared in this article may be used as a reference for applying professional wisdom teaching models into nursing education.

20 CFR 664.460 - What are work experiences for youth?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

....460 What are work experiences for youth? (a) Work experiences are planned, structured learning... adjustment, and other transition activities; (7) Entrepreneurship; (8) Service learning; (9) Paid and unpaid... age 18. Local program operators may choose, however, to use this service strategy for eligible youth...

20 CFR 664.460 - What are work experiences for youth?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

....460 What are work experiences for youth? (a) Work experiences are planned, structured learning... adjustment, and other transition activities; (7) Entrepreneurship; (8) Service learning; (9) Paid and unpaid... age 18. Local program operators may choose, however, to use this service strategy for eligible youth...

Strategies to Support Students' Mathematical Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jung, Hyunyi

2015-01-01

An important question for mathematics teachers is this: "How can we help students learn mathematics to solve everyday problems, rather than teaching them only to memorize rules and practice mathematical procedures?" Teaching students using modeling activities can help them learn mathematics in real-world problem-solving situations that…

Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kame'enui, Edward J., Ed.; Baumann, James F., Ed.

2012-01-01

This highly regarded work brings together prominent authorities on vocabulary teaching and learning to provide a comprehensive yet concise guide to effective instruction. The book showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms. Instructional activities and games…

Sociocultural Learning Theory in Practice: Implications for Athletic Training Educators

PubMed Central

Peer, Kimberly S.; McClendon, Ronald C.

2002-01-01

Objective: To discuss cognitive and sociocultural learning theory literature related to athletic training instructional and evaluation strategies while providing support for the application of these practices in the didactic and clinical components of athletic training education programs. Data Sources: We searched Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and Education Abstracts from 1975–2001 using the key words social cognitive, sociocultural learning theory, constructivism, and athletic training education. Current literature in the fields of educational psychology and athletic training education provides the foundation for applying theory to practice with specific emphasis on the theoretic framework and application of sociocultural learning theory strategies in athletic training education. Data Synthesis: Athletic training educators must have a strong fundamental knowledge of learning theory and a commitment to incorporate theory into educational practice. We integrate literature from both fields to generate practical strategies for using sociocultural learning theory in athletic training education. Conclusions/Recommendations: Social cognitive and sociocultural learning theory advocates a constructive, self-regulated, and goal-oriented environment with the student at the center of the educational process. Although a shift exists in athletic training education toward more active instructional strategies with the implementation of competency-based education, many educational environments are still dominated by traditional didactic instructional methods promoting student passivity. As athletic training education programs strive to increase accountability, educators in the field must critically analyze teaching and evaluation methods and integrate new material to ensure that learning is maximized. PMID:12937534

Teaching strategies in the learning of highest common factor and lowest common multiple

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halim, N. L. A.; Li, H.-C.; Shahrill, M.; Prahmana, R. C. I.

2017-12-01

The main purpose of this study is to improve students’ understanding of Highest Common Factor (HCF) and Lowest Common Multiple (LCM). Several alternative teaching strategies were integrated in the Year 7 lessons involving 20 students from one secondary school in Brunei Darussalam. The categories identified in the teaching strategy were the application of group work, embedding real-life problems, using presentations and the traditional drilling practice method. An open-ended survey was disseminated to collate the students’ feedback, and among the questions posed was in relation to the different types of lesson activities utilised within each of the teaching strategies. Although 55% of the students preferred the traditional drilling practice on the calculation of HCF and LCM, mainly due to the ease of the task as opposed to activities involving real-life problems, the findings also indicated that most students favour sharing their ideas in a healthy competition learning style between each other or between the groups.

Understanding the Factors That Support the Use of Active Learning Teaching in STEM Undergraduate Courses: Case Studies in the Field of Geoscience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iverson, Ellen A. Roscoe

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors that support the adoption of active learning teaching strategies in undergraduate courses by faculty members, specifically in the STEM disciplines related to geoscience. The focus of the study centered on the context of the department which was identified as a gap in evaluation and…

Performance in physiology evaluation: possible improvement by active learning strategies.

PubMed

Montrezor, Luís H

2016-12-01

The evaluation process is complex and extremely important in the teaching/learning process. Evaluations are constantly employed in the classroom to assist students in the learning process and to help teachers improve the teaching process. The use of active methodologies encourages students to participate in the learning process, encourages interaction with their peers, and stimulates thinking about physiological mechanisms. This study examined the performance of medical students on physiology over four semesters with and without active engagement methodologies. Four activities were used: a puzzle, a board game, a debate, and a video. The results show that engaging in activities with active methodologies before a physiology cognitive monitoring test significantly improved student performance compared with not performing the activities. We integrate the use of these methodologies with classic lectures, and this integration appears to improve the teaching/learning process in the discipline of physiology and improves the integration of physiology with cardiology and neurology. In addition, students enjoy the activities and perform better on their evaluations when they use them. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Arts-Based Learning: A New Approach to Nursing Education Using Andragogy.

PubMed

Nguyen, Megan; Miranda, Joyal; Lapum, Jennifer; Donald, Faith

2016-07-01

Learner-oriented strategies focusing on learning processes are needed to prepare nursing students for complex practice situations. An arts-based learning approach uses art to nurture cognitive and emotional learning. Knowles' theory of andragogy aims to develop the skill of learning and can inform the process of implementing arts-based learning. This article explores the use and evaluation of andragogy-informed arts-based learning for teaching nursing theory at the undergraduate level. Arts-based learning activities were implemented and then evaluated by students and instructors using anonymous questionnaires. Most students reported that the activities promoted learning. All instructors indicated an interest in integrating arts-based learning into the curricula. Facilitators and barriers to mainstreaming arts-based learning were highlighted. Findings stimulate implications for prospective research and education. Findings suggest that arts-based learning approaches enhance learning by supporting deep inquiry and different learning styles. Further exploration of andragogy-informed arts-based learning in nursing and other disciplines is warranted. [J Nurs Educ. 2016;55(7):407-410.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

Learn before Lecture: A Strategy That Improves Learning Outcomes in a Large Introductory Biology Class

PubMed Central

Moravec, Marin; Williams, Adrienne; Aguilar-Roca, Nancy

2010-01-01

Actively engaging students in lecture has been shown to increase learning gains. To create time for active learning without displacing content we used two strategies for introducing material before class in a large introductory biology course. Four to five slides from 2007/8 were removed from each of three lectures in 2009 and the information introduced in preclass worksheets or narrated PowerPoint videos. In class, time created by shifting lecture material to learn before lecture (LBL) assignments was used to engage students in application of their new knowledge. Learning was evaluated by comparing student performance in 2009 versus 2007/8 on LBL-related question pairs, matched by level and format. The percentage of students who correctly answered five of six LBL-related exam questions was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in 2009 versus 2007/8. The mean increase in performance was 21% across the six LBL-related questions compared with <3% on all non-LBL exam questions. The worksheet and video LBL formats were equally effective based on a cross-over experimental design. These results demonstrate that LBLs combined with interactive exercises can be implemented incrementally and result in significant increases in learning gains in large introductory biology classes. PMID:21123694

PBL and beyond: trends in collaborative learning.

PubMed

Pluta, William J; Richards, Boyd F; Mutnick, Andrew

2013-01-01

Building upon the disruption to lecture-based methods triggered by the introduction of problem-based learning, approaches to promote collaborative learning are becoming increasingly diverse, widespread and generally well accepted within medical education. Examples of relatively new, structured collaborative learning methods include team-based learning and just-in-time teaching. Examples of less structured approaches include think-pair share, case discussions, and the flipped classroom. It is now common practice in medical education to employ a range of instructional approaches to support collaborative learning. We believe that the adoption of such approaches is entering a new and challenging era. We define collaborate learning by drawing on the broader literature, including Chi's ICAP framework that emphasizes the importance of sustained, interactive explanation and elaboration by learners. We distinguish collaborate learning from constructive, active, and passive learning and provide preliminary evidence documenting the growth of methods that support collaborative learning. We argue that the rate of adoption of collaborative learning methods will accelerate due to a growing emphasis on the development of team competencies and the increasing availability of digital media. At the same time, the adoption collaborative learning strategies face persistent challenges, stemming from an overdependence on comparative-effectiveness research and a lack of useful guidelines about how best to adapt collaborative learning methods to given learning contexts. The medical education community has struggled to consistently demonstrate superior outcomes when using collaborative learning methods and strategies. Despite this, support for their use will continue to expand. To select approaches with the greatest utility, instructors must carefully align conditions of the learning context with the learning approaches under consideration. Further, it is critical that modifications are made with caution and that instructors verify that modifications do not impede the desired cognitive activities needed to support meaningful collaborative learning.

Team-building activities as strategies for improving community-university partnerships: lessons learned from Nuestro Futuro Saludable.

PubMed

Ndulue, Uchenna; Peréa, Flavia C; Kayou, Bashier; Martinez, Linda Sprague

2012-01-01

Collaboration characterized by mutual capacity building, asset sharing, and tangible outcomes that work to further health equity are central tenets of community-based participatory (CBPR) approaches to research. Such efforts require the establishment, development, and maintenance of trusting relationships between community and institutional stakeholders. The objective of the strategies discussed here was to strengthen a community-academic partnership by facilitating communication and empowering project partners. Team-building activities and experiential exercises were intentionally utilized with project stakeholders to clarify roles and responsibilities, provide alternative avenues for authentic communication, and share power. Team-building activities can be effective in promoting CBPR partnerships when utilized appropriately. Through the course of the partnership building process, best practices emerged for utilizing experiential learning exercises to enhance partnership dynamics. Team-building activities provide a useful tool for developing supportive environments that encourage open dialogue.

Transforming a sequence of microbiology courses using student profile data.

PubMed

Buxeda, R J; Moore, D A

2000-05-01

A study was performed in the General Microbiology and Industrial Microbiology courses to increase research awareness at an early stage of the educational process and to establish collaboration between students in an Industrial Microbiology program and industry. In both courses, the professor helped students determine their learning styles and then used these data to design activities in order to accomplish the above objectives. In both the treatment and the control sections, students learned about strategies to optimize learning based on their learning styles. A cooperative learning format was introduced to promote active learning and team-building skills. The diverse learning styles data profile was used by students during cooperative learning activities for effective team integration. In the General Microbiology course, a mentor-mentee structure was introduced to expose students to research in microbiology by visiting research facilities on campus. This structure was an addition to the regular curriculum, which meets American Society for Microbiology curriculum recommendations. The results suggest an increase in interest in research by students. In the Industrial Microbiology course, a strategy was introduced to establish collaboration with industry in which students visit the workplace and identify microbial processes, microbiologist roles, and skills needed by microbiologists. Evaluation of these topics using pre- and posttest data indicates a significant increase in acquired knowledge relevant to daily workplace environments with the reformed course. In both courses, students gain information early in their academic experience to help them consider participation in research experiences while providing them with real-world experience toward the end of their academic careers, when they see the need for it.