Students' Perspectives of Same-Day Clinical Assignments: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

PubMed

Harris, Allyssa L; Stamp, Kelly D

2016-01-01

The clinical experience is essential to the nursing education process, but the process by which students are assigned patients has remained unchanged for decades. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to determine the acceptability of a same-day clinical assignment process from the perspective of pre-licensure nursing students. Students' (n = 104) perceptions of the same-day clinical assignment process were collected via focus groups. Two themes emerged that may assist educators in implementing new methods for clinical assignments.

Lights, Camera, Action! Learning about Management with Student-Produced Video Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schultz, Patrick L.; Quinn, Andrew S.

2014-01-01

In this article, we present a proposal for fostering learning in the management classroom through the use of student-produced video assignments. We describe the potential for video technology to create active learning environments focused on problem solving, authentic and direct experiences, and interaction and collaboration to promote student…

Simulated annealing algorithm for solving chambering student-case assignment problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghazali, Saadiah; Abdul-Rahman, Syariza

2015-12-01

The problem related to project assignment problem is one of popular practical problem that appear nowadays. The challenge of solving the problem raise whenever the complexity related to preferences, the existence of real-world constraints and problem size increased. This study focuses on solving a chambering student-case assignment problem by using a simulated annealing algorithm where this problem is classified under project assignment problem. The project assignment problem is considered as hard combinatorial optimization problem and solving it using a metaheuristic approach is an advantage because it could return a good solution in a reasonable time. The problem of assigning chambering students to cases has never been addressed in the literature before. For the proposed problem, it is essential for law graduates to peruse in chambers before they are qualified to become legal counselor. Thus, assigning the chambering students to cases is a critically needed especially when involving many preferences. Hence, this study presents a preliminary study of the proposed project assignment problem. The objective of the study is to minimize the total completion time for all students in solving the given cases. This study employed a minimum cost greedy heuristic in order to construct a feasible initial solution. The search then is preceded with a simulated annealing algorithm for further improvement of solution quality. The analysis of the obtained result has shown that the proposed simulated annealing algorithm has greatly improved the solution constructed by the minimum cost greedy heuristic. Hence, this research has demonstrated the advantages of solving project assignment problem by using metaheuristic techniques.

Active-learning assignments to integrate basic science and clinical course material.

PubMed

Marshall, Leisa L; Nykamp, Diane

2010-09-10

To develop, implement, and evaluate active-learning exercises requiring the integration and application of pathophysiology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and therapeutics knowledge of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis to formulate therapeutic recommendations for patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Two team-based case study exercises, one evaluating a patient with osteoarthritis and the second, a patient with rheumatoid arthritis, were developed, incorporating material and questions from pathophysiology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and therapeutics. The learning assignments were implemented in a required pharmacotherapy module. Student learning was evaluated using performance on the team-based case study exercises and on 2 examinations. A standard student course evaluation was used to assess students' impressions of the learning activity. The mean student grades for the osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis activities were 9.1 and 8.9, respectively, on a 10-point scale. The majority of students indicated that the learning exercises were more than adequate to excellent in helping students learn. The addition of active-learning activities was successful in teaching pharmacy students the knowledge needed to formulate therapeutic recommendations for patients with musculoskeletal disorders.

Biasing Influences on Test Level Assignments for Hearing Impaired Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolk, Steve

1985-01-01

Possible biasing influences of student characteristics were considered for teachers' judgments of appropriate test level assignments for about 1,300 hearing impaired special education students. Analyses indicated the presence of strong influences of race and severity of handicapping condition, as well as of sex, upon change in level assignments,…

Automated grading of homework assignments and tests in introductory and intermediate statistics courses using active server pages.

PubMed

Stockburger, D W

1999-05-01

Active server pages permit a software developer to customize the Web experience for users by inserting server-side script and database access into Web pages. This paper describes applications of these techniques and provides a primer on the use of these methods. Applications include a system that generates and grades individualized homework assignments and tests for statistics students. The student accesses the system as a Web page, prints out the assignment, does the assignment, and enters the answers on the Web page. The server, running on NT Server 4.0, grades the assignment, updates the grade book (on a database), and returns the answer key to the student.

Replicating and Extending Research on the Partial Assignment Completion Effect: Is Sunk Cost Related to Partial Assignment Completion Strength?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawthorn-Embree, Meredith L.; Taylor, Emily P.; Skinner, Christopher H.; Parkhurst, John; Nalls, Meagan L.

2014-01-01

After students acquire a skill, mastery often requires them to choose to engage in assigned academic activities (e.g., independent seatwork, and homework). Although students may be more likely to choose to work on partially completed assignments than on new assignments, the partial assignment completion (PAC) effect may not be very powerful. The…

Reforming the Eighth-Grade Student Assignment Process for the Philadelphia Public Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Michael P.

The eighth grade student assignment project, an initiative of the School District of Philadelphia, assigns students to high school academic programs based on student preferences, academic preparation, program capacity, and desegregation requirements. These programs, called small learning communities (SLCs), emphasize areas such as design and…

A Service-Based Program Evaluation Platform for Enhancing Student Engagement in Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Ye-Chi; Ma, Lee Wei; Jiau, Hewijin Christine

2013-01-01

Programming assignments are commonly used in computer science education to encourage students to practice target concepts and evaluate their learning status. Ensuring students are engaged in such assignments is critical in attracting and retaining students. To this end, WebHat, a service-based program evaluation platform, is introduced in this…

The Use of Homework Assignments in Physical Education among High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pantanowitz, Michal; Lidor, Ronnie; Nemet, Dan; Eliakim, Alon

2011-01-01

Only a few studies have examined how students and their parents perceive the contribution of homework (HW) assignments given in physical education (PE) classes to the students' development. The main objective of our study was to explore the attitude and compliance towards HW assignments in PE among Israeli high school students and their parents.…

Arsenic-based Life: An active learning assignment for teaching scientific discourse.

PubMed

Jeremy Johnson, R

2017-01-02

Among recent high profile scientific debates was the proposal that life could exist with arsenic in place of phosphorous in its nucleic acids and other biomolecules. Soon after its initial publication, scientists across diverse disciplines began to question this extraordinary claim. Using the original article, its claims, its scientific support, and the ensuing counterarguments, a two-day, active learning classroom exercise was developed focusing on the presentation, evaluation, and discussion of scientific argumentation and discourse. In this culminating assignment of a first semester biochemistry course, undergraduate students analyze the scientific support from the original research articles and then present and discuss multiple scientific rebuttals in a lively, civil classroom debate. Through this assignment, students develop a sense of skepticism, especially for the original arsenic-based life claims, and learn to clearly articulate their counterarguments with scientific support and critical reasoning. With its direct integration into first-semester biochemistry curriculum and the excitement surrounding arsenic based life, this assignment provides a robust, simple, and stimulating framework for introducing scientific discourse and active learning into the undergraduate molecular science curriculum. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(1):40-45, 2017. © 2016 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Midwifery students' evaluation of team-based academic assignments involving peer-marking.

PubMed

Parratt, Jenny A; Fahy, Kathleen M; Hastie, Carolyn R

2014-03-01

Midwives should be skilled team workers in maternity units and in group practices. Poor teamwork skills are a significant cause of adverse maternity care outcomes. Despite Australian and International regulatory requirements that all midwifery graduates are competent in teamwork, the systematic teaching and assessment of teamwork skills is lacking in higher education. How do midwifery students evaluate participation in team-based academic assignments, which include giving and receiving peer feedback? First and third year Bachelor of Midwifery students who volunteered (24 of 56 students). Participatory Action Research with data collection via anonymous online surveys. There was general agreement that team based assignments; (i) should have peer-marking, (ii) help clarify what is meant by teamwork, (iii) develop communication skills, (iv) promote student-to-student learning. Third year students strongly agreed that teams: (i) are valuable preparation for teamwork in practice, (ii) help meet Australian midwifery competency 8, and (iii) were enjoyable. The majority of third year students agreed with statements that their teams were effectively coordinated and team members shared responsibility for work equally; first year students strongly disagreed with these statements. Students' qualitative comments substantiated and expanded on these findings. The majority of students valued teacher feedback on well-developed drafts of the team's assignment prior to marking. Based on these findings we changed practice and created more clearly structured team-based assignments with specific marking criteria. We are developing supporting lessons to teach specific teamwork skills: together these resources are called "TeamUP". TeamUP should be implemented in all pre-registration Midwifery courses to foster students' teamwork skills and readiness for practice. Copyright © 2013 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Facebook-in-Action: Challenging, Harnessing and Enhancing Students Class Assignments and Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saifudin, Adam Mohd; Yacob, Aizan; Saad, Rohaizah

2016-01-01

Issues of universities students harnessing and capitalizing the usage of Facebook for their own learning capabilities and effective thinking is always the focus of education scholars, in assessing the quality class assignments and projects produced by them. Therefore, Facebook is now becoming unbearable influence since the internet activation in…

"Why bother so incredibly much?": student perspectives on PISA science assignments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serder, Margareta; Jakobsson, Anders

2015-09-01

Large-scale assessment, such as the Programme for International Assessment (PISA), plays an increasingly important role in current educational practice and politics. However, many scholars have questioned the validity and reliability of the tests and the extent to which they actually constitute trustworthy representations of students' knowledge. In the light of such critical voices the present article adopts a sociocultural perspective of human knowledge and action in order to explore the encounters between students and the science test assignments with which their knowledge is tested. Of particular interest in this study are the described "real-life situations" presented as the relevant background in which scientific literacy is assessed in PISA. According to the sociocultural theoretical onset the methodology used to approach the students' meaning making of the image of science as portrayed in the test were collaborative situations in which students work in small groups with units of PISA assignments, enabling a study of student-assignment encounters in action. The data we worked with consists of video-recordings from 71 Swedish 15-year-old students working with three released units from the PISA science test. According to our analysis, the "real-life situations" described in the test emerge as problematic in the students' meaning-making. This is demonstrated for instance by the students' positioning themselves as being different from and opposed to the fictional pictured students who appear in the backstories of the test. This article provides examples of how the scientific and academic language used by the fictional students in the assignments mediates distance and resistance among the students. The fictional students' use of strict scientific language and methods in day-to-day life situations leads them to be perceived as "little scientists" and as elite stereotypes of the scientific culture. We conclude that, by using assignments of this type, measurements of

Digital Video as a Personalized Learning Assignment: A Qualitative Study of Student Authored Video Using the ICSDR Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Laurie O.; Cox, Thomas D.

2018-01-01

Students within this study followed the ICSDR (Identify, Conceptualize/Connect, Storyboard, Develop, Review/Reflect/Revise) development model to create digital video, as a personalized and active learning assignment. The participants, graduate students in education, indicated that following the ICSDR framework for student-authored video guided…

Repeatable Writing Assignments to Enhance Student Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiebold, W. J.; And Others

1990-01-01

Discussed is the use of two short writing assignments and a peer review system in an undergraduate agronomy course to improve writing skills and the learning of agronomic principles. Provided is a course description and procedures used in the course. Student evaluation in the course is reviewed. (CW)

Explaining Students' Appraisal of Lectures and Student-Activating Teaching: Perceived Context and Student Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Struyven, Katrien; Dochy, Filip; Janssens, Steven

2012-01-01

During lectures, some students are continuously focused and attentive, whereas others tend to be bored, jittery, or inattentive. The same might happen when students are given student-activating assignments. Some students simply love one type of instruction, whereas others tend to resent it. Moreover, it is not the context itself, but the context…

Are medical students assigning proper global assessment of functioning scores?

PubMed

Warsi, Mustafa K; Sattar, S Pirzada; Din, Amad U; Petty, Frederick; Padala, Prasad R

2007-01-01

This article seeks to determine whether medical students can estimate the appropriate score for the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) compared with psychiatry residents and staff psychiatrists. The authors hypothesized that medical students' estimations of GAF scores for patients in clinical vignettes would differ from those assessed by the psychiatry residents and staff psychiatrists. The authors designed a cross-sectional confidential survey of medical students, psychiatry residents, and staff psychiatrists. Consenting participants were asked to provide demographic information and then complete the accompanying questionnaire after reading two vignettes. One of the vignettes described a depressed patient and the other a psychotic patient. The subjects were asked to estimate the GAF scores for the patients in both vignettes. Then the subjects were given the GAF scoring guide to review and were asked to re-assess their initial GAF scores for the patients in the vignettes. Medical students assigned much higher GAF scores for the patient in the vignette with less severe symptoms than the psychiatry residents and staff psychiatrists. The GAF scores of all three groups for the patient in the vignette with more severe symptoms were comparable. The ability of medical students to assign proper GAF scores needs to be studied further. Our study suggests that current 1-month rotations in psychiatry, without specific training on assigning GAF scores, may not provide medical students with enough information to assess GAF scores accurately. This might need to be addressed in psychiatry clerkships.

Students' Evaluation of Writing Assignments in an Abnormal Psychology Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Procidano, Mary E.

1991-01-01

Presents a study in which students in an abnormal psychology class rated the usefulness of drafts for two writing assignments. Reports that a research proposal was more effective than a case study in generating interest in psychology and opportunity for creativity. Concludes that writing assignments should reflect important aspects of a…

The Impact of Color-Coding Freshmen Integrated-Science Assignments on Student Achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sturdivant Allen, Anita Kay

Students in Grade 9 exhibit high rates of grade retention and absenteeism. Educators have used different strategies that will increase the achievement of those students. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship existed between student achievement and the strategy to use colored paper for Grade 9 science assignments and tests. Itten's color theory provided the theoretical framework. Itten was one of the first researchers to explore the notion that the human eye can detect wavelengths as colors and that those colors can engage and create order in the human brain. A sample of students assigned to 4 classroom teachers at one high school who volunteered to take part in the study for 18 weeks were used in this quantitative study. Teachers administered student assessments on blue, green, yellow, and white paper. Each class was assigned 1 of the 4 colors for 4.5 weeks. The classes were then assigned a different color for the same length of time until each class had exposure to all 4 colors. Physical science exams given to students in the same grade or subject were used as the dependent variable. An ANOVA indicated that the groups using blue paper scored the highest on the physical science exams; students who used white paper earned the lowest scores. When comparing all 3 groups using colored paper (all three colored paper groups combined into one group) to the white paper groups, t-test results indicated that students using any colored paper scored higher than students using white paper. Further research on the impact of colored paper on student academic performance is necessary. Implications for positive social change indicate that new knowledge about instructional tools that impact student achievement deserves more attention.

Student Assignment Information, 1984-1985. Boston Public Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boston Public Schools, MA. Dept. of Implementation.

This booklet provides parents and students with information about individual schools and programs within the Boston Public School system. The first section answers common questions about enrollment procedures, school assignments, bilingual education programs, kindergarten, transportation eligibility, family changes of address, and parent…

The use of writing assignments to help students synthesize content in upper-level undergraduate biology courses.

PubMed

Sparks-Thissen, Rebecca L

2017-02-01

Biology education is undergoing a transformation toward a more student-centered, inquiry-driven classroom. Many educators have designed engaging assignments that are designed to help undergraduate students gain exposure to the scientific process and data analysis. One of these types of assignments is use of a grant proposal assignment. Many instructors have used these assignments in lecture-based courses to help students process information in the literature and apply that information to a novel problem such as design of an antiviral drug or a vaccine. These assignments have been helpful in engaging students in the scientific process in the absence of an inquiry-driven laboratory. This commentary discusses the application of these grant proposal writing assignments to undergraduate biology courses. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Student's Lab Assignments in PDE Course with MAPLE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ponidi, B. Alhadi

Computer-aided software has been used intensively in many mathematics courses, especially in computational subjects, to solve initial value and boundary value problems in Partial Differential Equations (PDE). Many software packages were used in student lab assignments such as FORTRAN, PASCAL, MATLAB, MATHEMATICA, and MAPLE in order to accelerate…

Using Portfolio Assignments to Assess Students' Mathematical Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fukawa-Connelly, Timothy; Buck, Stephen

2010-01-01

Writing in mathematics can improve procedural knowledge and communication skills and may also help students better understand and then remember problems. The majority of mathematics teachers know that they ought to include some writing assignments in their instructional plans, but the challenge of covering the curriculum and the time required to…

The Impact of Anonymous and Assigned Use of Student Response Systems on Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poole, Dawn

2012-01-01

This study examined the impact of two approaches to use of student response systems (SRSs) on achievement in a study designed to better understand effective use of the devices. One condition was anonymous use of SRSs, in which graduate students selected a random clicker when entering the classroom. The second condition assigned devices to students…

Impact of Giving Students a Choice of Homework Assignments in an Introductory Computer Science Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fulton, Steven; Schweitzer, Dino

2011-01-01

Student assignments have long been an integral part of many university level computer science courses to reinforce material covered in class with practical exercises. For years, researchers have studied ways to improve such student assignments by making them more interesting, applicable, and valuable to the student with a goal of improving…

The effect of physical activity homework on physical activity among college students.

PubMed

Claxton, David; Wells, Gayle M

2009-03-01

This study examined the effect of using physical activity homework on physical activity levels of college students. Students in randomly assigned sections of a university health course were assigned 30 minutes of physical activity homework 3 days a week or no homework for 12 weeks. Participants completed self-reports of physical activity before the homework intervention and again at the conclusion of the 12 weeks of physical activity homework. Participants in all course sections reported significant increases in the number of days per week of moderate and vigorous physical activity. Participants in homework sections additionally showed significant increases in the days they engaged in muscular strength/endurance training and activities to manage weight. Participants in sections without homework showed a significant increase in the number of days engaged in flexibility training. Comparison of gain scores showed statistically significant increases by the homework group in the days they participated in activities designed to manage weight. Physical activity homework was deemed to be an effective method of increasing college students' levels of physical activity.

More Districts Factoring Poverty into Student-Assignment Plans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zehr, Mary Ann

2010-01-01

A growing number of school districts are trying to break up concentrations of poverty on their campuses by taking students' family income into consideration in school assignments. Some of the districts replaced race with socioeconomic status as a determining indicator after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that using race as the primary factor…

The "Post-Racial" Politics of Race: Changing Student Assignment Policy in Three School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDermott, Kathryn A.; Frankenberg, Erica; Diem, Sarah

2015-01-01

Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large…

When teacher-centered instructors are assigned to student-centered classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lasry, Nathaniel; Charles, Elizabeth; Whittaker, Chris

2014-06-01

Technology-rich student-centered classrooms such as SCALE-UP and TEAL are designed to actively engage students. We examine what happens when the design of the classroom (conventional or teacher-centered versus student-centered classroom spaces) is consistent or inconsistent with the teacher's epistemic beliefs about learning and teaching (traditional or teacher-centered versus student-centered pedagogies). We compare two types of pedagogical approaches and two types of classroom settings through a quasiexperimental 2×2 factorial design. We collected data from 214 students registered in eight sections of an introductory calculus-based mechanics course given at a Canadian publicly funded two-year college. All students were given the Force Concept Inventory at the beginning and at the end of the 15-week-long course. We then focused on six teachers assigned to teach in the student-centered classroom spaces. We used qualitative observations and the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), a self-reported questionnaire, to determine the teachers' epistemic beliefs (teacher-centered or student-centered) and how these beliefs affected their use of the space and their students' conceptual learning. We report four main findings. First, the student-centered classroom spaces are most effective when used with student-centered pedagogies. Second, student-centered classrooms are ineffective when used with teacher-centered pedagogies and may have negative effects for students with low prior knowledge. Third, we find a strong correlation between six instructors' self-reported epistemic beliefs of student centeredness and their classes' average normalized gain (r =0.91; p =0.012). Last, we find that some instructors are more willing to adopt student-centered teaching practices after using student-centered classroom spaces. These data suggest that student-centered classrooms are effective only when instructors' epistemic framework of teaching and learning is consistent with a student

The Orthographic Norm in Secondary School Students' Written Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ðordev, Ivana

2016-01-01

This paper presents the results of research conducted with the primary objective to determine in which areas secondary school students usually make orthographic mistakes when writing (official) written assignments. Starting from the hypothesis that the punctuation writing of whole and split words are areas in which secondary school students…

Psychology Students' Understanding of the Skill-Based Learning Fostered through University Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martini, Tanya S.; Rail, Ashley; Norton, Cole

2015-01-01

We examined first-year psychology majors' (N = 195) beliefs about the relevance of two types of university assignments (individual essay and group wiki) and their connection to the development of career-related skills. Students reported that assignments were only somewhat relevant to their career goals, and relevance ratings were typically…

Pairing students in clinical assignments to develop collaboration and communication skills.

PubMed

Bartges, Mali

2012-01-01

Skillful collaboration and communication among healthcare team members are associated with favorable patient outcomes. Student nurses need opportunities for supervised development of these crucial and intertwined skills. The author describes the implementation of a practice-change project for simultaneously developing collaboration and communication skills by pairing prelicensure student nurses in clinical assignments. This easily adapted strategy increases options for faculty looking to stimulate student acquisition of these professional skills.

Towards More Precise Design Guidance: Specifying and Testing the Functions of Assigned Student Roles in Online Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wise, Alyssa Friend; Saghafian, Marzieh; Padmanabhan, Poornima

2012-01-01

While assigning student roles is a popular technique in online discussions, roles and the responsibilities allocated to them have not been consistently assigned. This makes it difficult to compare implementations and generate principled guidance for role design. This study critically examined frequently assigned student roles and identified a set…

Collaborative group work: effects of group size and assignment structure on learning gain, student satisfaction and perceived participation.

PubMed

Kooloos, Jan G M; Klaassen, Tim; Vereijken, Mayke; Van Kuppeveld, Sascha; Bolhuis, Sanneke; Vorstenbosch, Marc

2011-01-01

Collaborative group sessions in Nijmegen include 15 students who work all together on a group assignment. Sometimes, the group is split-up in three and every subgroup elaborates a part of the assignment. At the end, they peer-teach each other. It is believed that the split-up enhances participation and therefore learning gain. To establish the effect of group size and structure of the assignment on the perceived participation, the satisfaction and learning gain of collaborative group sessions. In this study, 27 groups of 15 students were equally divided into: A-group: all 15 students working on the complete assignment. B-group: subgroups of 5 students working on the complete assignment. C-group: subgroups of 5 students working on a smaller part, and peer-teaching each other at the end of the group session. All students took a pre-test, a post-test and a follow-up test and completed a questionnaire. Questionnaires were analyzed with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc by multiple comparisons. Learning gain was analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA. A group size effect is observed in favor of working in subgroups. Perceived participation of the students differs between A and B (p ≤ 0.001) and between A and C (p ≤ 0.001), but not between B and C. Also, an assignment effect is found in favor of the smaller assignment combined with peer-teaching. The students' satisfaction differs between A and C (p ≤ 0.003) and between B and C (p ≤ 0.001), but not between A and B. The C-group also shows higher test results (p ≤ 0.043). The students prefer smaller groups as well as smaller assignments including peer-teaching. A possible larger learning gain of this format needs to be re-investigated.

Student Behavior and Epistemological Framing: Examples from Collaborative Active-Learning Activities in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scherr, Rachel E.; Hammer, David

2009-01-01

The concept of framing from anthropology and sociolinguistics is useful for understanding student reasoning. For example, a student may frame a learning activity as an opportunity for sensemaking or as an assignment to fill out a worksheet. The student's framing affects what she notices, what knowledge she accesses, and how she thinks to act. We…

Impact of reflective writing assignments on dental students' views of cultural competence and diversity.

PubMed

Isaac, Carol; Behar-Horenstein, Linda; Lee, Barbara; Catalanotto, Frank

2015-03-01

To respond to widespread disparities in access to oral health care, the Institute of Medicine, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), and the U.S. surgeon general have stressed that prospective dentists should become culturally competent, socially responsible practitioners. The aim of this study was to examine linguistic differences in dental students' reflective writing assignments before and after interviewing an individual who was culturally different from themselves. The authors analyzed 160 documents from 80 first-year dental students at the University of Florida in 2012. This cohort consisted of 36 male (45%) and 44 female (55%) students; 26 (32%) were from underrepresented minority (URM) groups and 54 (68%) were identified as white non-minority. Text analysis software identified word counts, categories, frequencies, and contexts. Significantly positive differences occurred for interviews between assignments 1 and 2 (p=0.005 to p<0.001) in five areas of cultural diversity. Differences were observed for Factor 1 ("important others' influence") between assignments (p<0.001), assignments by interview categories (p=0.033), and URM/majority participants by assignments by interview category (p=0.018). Factor 4 ("my social world in relation to others") was statistically different between assignments for URM/majority participants (p=0.019). Factor 5 ("wrong because") was statistically different for gender (p=0.041), suggesting that males may have experienced a rebound effect from stereotype suppression. The findings suggest that the use of reflective writing and interviews affected the students' awareness of how important others had influenced their lives and attitudes and facilitated their questioning preconceived assumptions. Reactions to coursework focusing on social and personal domains warrant further investigation.

Self-Regulated Assignment Attack Strategy: Evaluating the Effects of a Classroom-Level Intervention on Student Management of Curricular Activities in a Resource Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ness, Bryan M.; Sohlberg, McKay Moore

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a classroom-based strategy instruction package grounded in self-regulated learning. The Self-Regulated Assignment Attack Strategy (SAAS) targeted self-regulation of assignment management and related academic-behavioral variables for 6th grade students in resource support classrooms. SAAS was…

Interprofessional pharmacy observation activity for third-year dental students.

PubMed

Conway, Susan E; Smith, Winter J; Truong, Teresa H; Shadid, Jill

2014-09-01

Interprofessional learning is a key component of today's health sciences education. Within a two-course series in dental pharmacology and therapeutics, a dental curriculum was revised to provide an interprofessional activity to expose dental students to a community pharmacy setting. The objectives of this activity were to augment students' learning about drug laws and prescription writing, as well as to foster interprofessional relationships and collaboration between pharmacists and dentists. Dental students were scheduled for one-hour observations at community pharmacies on campus. Learning objectives to guide this activity focused on demonstrating community pharmacy operating procedures, identifying ways to minimize prescribing and dosing errors, and understanding how pharmacists can assist dentists in prescribing. Following the observation, students were required to submit a written assignment, which accounted for 14 percent of their course grade. All 119 dental students (100 percent) enrolled in the course for the summers of 2012 and 2013 completed the activity. The average grade on the written assignment was 96.2 out of 100. At the end of the course, students were asked to participate in an online course evaluation survey, for which response rates were 37 percent and 43 percent for 2012 and 2013, respectively. The students rated the pharmacy observation activity favorably on this course evaluation. The pharmacy observation activity provided a successful interprofessional component to the didactic pharmacy course and was well received by the dental students as well as the community pharmacists.

The Utility of Writing Assignments in Undergraduate Bioscience

PubMed Central

Libarkin, Julie; Ording, Gabriel

2012-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that engagement in a few, brief writing assignments in a nonmajors science course can improve student ability to convey critical thought about science. A sample of three papers written by students (n = 30) was coded for presence and accuracy of elements related to scientific writing. Scores for different aspects of scientific writing were significantly correlated, suggesting that students recognized relationships between components of scientific thought. We found that students' ability to write about science topics and state conclusions based on data improved over the course of three writing assignments, while the abilities to state a hypothesis and draw clear connections between human activities and environmental impacts did not improve. Three writing assignments generated significant change in student ability to write scientifically, although our results suggest that three is an insufficient number to generate complete development of scientific writing skills. PMID:22383616

Students' Understanding and Perceptions of Assigned Team Roles in a Classroom Laboratory Environment

PubMed Central

Ott, Laura E.; Kephart, Kerrie; Stolle-McAllister, Kathleen; LaCourse, William R.

2018-01-01

Using a cooperative learning framework in a quantitative reasoning laboratory course, students were assigned to static teams of four in which they adopted roles that rotated regularly. The roles included: team leader, protocol manager, data recorder, and researcher. Using a mixed-methods approach, we investigated students' perceptions of the team roles and specifically addressed students' understanding of the roles, students' beliefs in their ability to enact the roles, and whether working with assigned team roles supported the teams to work effectively and cohesively. Although students expressed confidence in their understanding of the team roles, their understanding differed from the initial descriptions. This suggests that students' understanding of team roles may be influenced by a variety of factors, including their experiences within their teams. Students also reported that some roles appeared to lack a purpose, implying that for roles to be successful, they must have a clear purpose. Finally, the fact that many students reported ignoring the team roles suggests that students do not perceive roles as a requirement for team productivity and cohesion. On the basis of these findings, we provide recommendations for instructors wishing to establish a classroom group laboratory environment. PMID:29681667

College Textbook Reading Assignments and Class Time Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aagaard, Lola; Conner, Timothy W., II.; Skidmore, Ronald L.

2014-01-01

A convenient cluster sample of 105 undergraduate students at a regional university in the midsouth completed a survey regarding their use of college textbooks, what strategies might increase the likelihood of their reading textbook assignments, and their preference for how class time was used. Descriptive analysis was conducted on the results and…

Identifying and Remediating Student Misconceptions in Introductory Biology via Writing-to-Learn Assignments and Peer Review.

PubMed

Halim, Audrey S; Finkenstaedt-Quinn, Solaire A; Olsen, Laura J; Gere, Anne Ruggles; Shultz, Ginger V

2018-06-01

Student misconceptions are an obstacle in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses and unless remediated may continue causing difficulties in learning as students advance in their studies. Writing-to-learn assignments (WTL) are characterized by their ability to promote in-depth conceptual learning by allowing students to explore their understanding of a topic. This study sought to determine whether and what types of misconceptions are elicited by WTL assignments and how the process of peer review and revision leads to remediation or propagation of misconceptions. We examined four WTL assignments in an introductory biology course in which students first wrote about content by applying it to a realistic scenario, then participated in a peer-review process before revising their work. Misconceptions were identified in all four assignments, with the greatest number pertaining to protein structure and function. Additionally, in certain contexts, students used scientific terminology incorrectly. Analysis of the drafts and peer-review comments generated six profiles by which misconceptions were addressed through the peer-review process. The prevalent mode of remediation arose through directed peer-review comments followed by correction during revision. It was also observed that additional misconceptions were elicited as students revised their writing in response to general peer-review suggestions.

Effectiveness of Hands-on and Minds-on Activities on Students' Achievement and Attitudes towards Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ates, Ozlem; Eryilmaz, Ali

2011-01-01

This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of hands-on and minds-on activities on ninth grade students' achievement in and attitudes towards simple electric circuits. The study was conducted with 130 students, 70 of which were assigned as experimental group and instructed by hands-on/minds-on activities, while the 60 were assigned as…

Computer Assisted Assignment of Students to Schools to Achieve Desegregation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago. Research Inst.

To help school districts with the task of assigning students to schools in order to achieve desegregation, the Illinois Institute of Technology has developed a system involving the use of planning techniques and computer technology that greatly simplifies the school district's job. The key features of the system are objectivity, minimum…

Assignment Choice, Effort, and Assignment Completion: Does Work Ethic Predict Those Who Choose Higher-Effort Assignments?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkhurst, John T.; Fleisher, Matthew S.; Skinner, Christopher H.; Woehr, David J.; Hawthorn-Embree, Meredith L.

2011-01-01

After completing the Multidimensional Work-Ethic Profile (MWEP), 98 college students were given a 20-problem math computation assignment and instructed to stop working on the assignment after completing 10 problems. Next, they were allowed to choose to finish either the partially completed assignment that had 10 problems remaining or a new…

Improving Geoscience Learning and Increasing Student Engagement Using Online Interactive Writing Assignments with Calibrated Peer Review.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harbor, Jon

2014-05-01

Peer review is a hallmark of the publication process for scientific research, yet it is rarely used as a pedagogical approach in university geoscience courses. Learning outcomes for university geoscience courses include content knowledge and critical thinking and analysis skills, and often include written communication of scientific issues or concepts. Because lecture and memorization is not the most effective learning approach for many students, instructors are increasingly exploring teaching approaches that involve active engagement. In this context, writing assignments that engage students in using content, constructing arguments, and critiquing other students' work are highly desirable. However, many of us struggle with extensive writing requirements in our courses because the workload associated with having the instructor provide detailed comments on writing is daunting, especially in large-enrollment courses, and organizing effective peer review by students is very challenging. Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) is a web-based program that involves students in writing and in reviewing each other's writing. It is designed to allow for more involved writing and feedback experiences with much less instructor time. Here we report on the results of a qualitative-methods analysis of narrative survey responses from students using CPR in an introductory geoscience class. In addition to an impact on the students' writing and their understanding of what goes in to effective writing, the results indicate that CPR acted as reinforcement for content learning, and an impetus for gaining a deeper understanding of content material. It allowed students to see how other students explained and analyzed content, and to check their understanding of a topic in relation to other students in the class. Not surprisingly, the instructor reported that students performed far better on exam questions that tested knowledge covered by CPR assignments.

Assessment of a Diversity Assignment in a PR Principles Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallicano, Tiffany Derville; Stansberry, Kathleen

2012-01-01

This study assesses an assignment for incorporating diversity into the principles of public relations course. The assignment is tailored to the challenges of using an active learning approach in a large lecture class. For the assignment, students write a goal, objectives, strategies, an identification of tactics, and evaluation plans for either…

Student Perceptions of the Benefits of a Learner-Based Writing Assignment in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ablin, Lois

2008-01-01

A writing assignment to increase student understanding of and interest in practical applications of organic chemistry is described. Students were required to study a pharmaceutical or other organic compound and perform a qualitative risk assessment on the chemical. Student perceptions of the benefits of the paper were generally positive. (Contains…

BTEC Integrative Assignments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foot, G. E.

1992-01-01

To equip electrical engineering students with common and transferable work skills, a program of integrative assignments was created to develop communication and teamwork skills. Discusses assignment components; the log book, a personal account of each assignment; assessment; conversion of "common skills" to competence statements, and…

Investigating the Correlation Between Pharmacy Student Performance on the Health Science Reasoning Test and a Critical Thinking Assignment.

PubMed

Nornoo, Adwoa O; Jackson, Jonathan; Axtell, Samantha

2017-03-25

Objective. To determine whether there is a correlation between pharmacy students' scores on the Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT) and their grade on a package insert assignment designed to assess critical thinking. Methods. The HSRT was administered to first-year pharmacy students during a critical-thinking course in the spring semester. In the same semester, a required package insert assignment was completed in a pharmacokinetics course. To determine whether there was a relationship between HSRT scores and grades on the assignment, a Spearman's rho correlation test was performed. Results. A very weak but significant positive correlation was found between students' grades on the assignment and their overall HSRT score (r=0.19, p <0.05), as well as deduction (a scale score of the HSRT; r=0.26, p <0.01). Conclusion. Based on a very weak but significant correlation to HSRT scores, this study demonstrated the potential of a package insert assignment to be used as one of the components to measure critical-thinking skills in pharmacy students.

The Comparison of the Impact of Storytelling and Digital Storytelling Assignments on Students' Motivations for Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kasami, Naoko

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore how a Digital StoryTelling (DST) assignment affected and changed students' motivations for learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in comparison with a StoryTelling (ST) assignment. A course entitled "Information English" was held for Japanese university students at a faculty of information…

Dynamic online peer evaluations to improve group assignments in nursing e-learning environment.

PubMed

Adwan, Jehad

2016-06-01

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the use of online peer evaluation forms for online group activities in improving group project outcomes. The investigator developed and used a web-based Google Forms® self and peer evaluation form of 2 group assignments' rubric for junior and senior nursing students. The form covered elements of the assignments including: research activity, analysis of the literature, writing of report, participation in making of presentation, overall contribution to the project, and participation in the weekly group discussions. Items were rated from 1 (did not contribute) to 5 (outstanding contribution) in addition to NA when one activity did not apply. The self and peer evaluation process was conducted twice: once after group assignment 1 and once after group assignment 2. The group assignments final products were done in the form of VoiceThread online presentations that were shared with the rest of the class reflecting the groups' work on a health informatics topic of interest. Data collected as the students completed self and peer evaluations for group assignments 1 and 2. Also, optional comments regarding member performance were collected to add contextual information in addition to ratings. Students received credit for completing the peer evaluations and the grade for the particular assignment was affected by their performance based on peer evaluations of their contributions. Students' peer evaluations showed in a color-coded spreadsheet which enabled the course faculty to view real time results of students' ratings after each assignment. The faculty provided timely and tailored feedback to groups or individuals as needed, using positive feedback and commending high performance while urging struggling individual students and groups to improve lower ratings in specific areas. Comparing evaluations of both assignments, there were statistically significant improvements among all students. The mean scores of the entire sample were

Can Students Write Their Own Textbooks? Thoughts on a New Type of Writing Assignment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frye, David

1999-01-01

Describes an assignment in an undergraduate course on Roman history for junior and senior history majors in which students create their own 15-page textbook using primary sources. Explains how each class session developed student analysis of primary sources. (CMK)

A Student-Led Feedback Protocol on Writing Assignments in a History of Mathematics Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Diana

2014-01-01

History of math courses are commonly offered in mathematics departments. Such courses naturally lend themselves to writing assignments, and a growing body of research supports writing as a means to learn mathematics. This article details two such assignments, providing an overview of the course in which they are situated, and a student-led…

A First Assignment to Create Student Buy-In in an Introductory Business Statistics Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newfeld, Daria

2016-01-01

This paper presents a sample assignment to be administered after the first two weeks of an introductory business focused statistics course in order to promote student buy-in. This assignment integrates graphical displays of data, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation analysis through the lens of a marketing analysis study. A marketing sample…

Matching School Resources and Student Needs: Scheduling and Assignment Problems in High Schools Serving At-Risk Youth. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Natriello, Gary; And Others

By studying the process by which disadvantaged and low-achieving high school students are assigned to classes and special programs, how and why disadvantaged students are placed in inappropriate programs can be understood. Reasons exist to question the assumption that students are assigned to programs rationally on the basis of information about…

Longitudinal evaluation of the importance of homework assignment completion for the academic performance of middle school students with ADHD.

PubMed

Langberg, Joshua M; Dvorsky, Melissa R; Molitor, Stephen J; Bourchtein, Elizaveta; Eddy, Laura D; Smith, Zoe; Schultz, Brandon K; Evans, Steven W

2016-04-01

The primary goal of this study was to longitudinally evaluate the homework assignment completion patterns of middle school age adolescents with ADHD, their associations with academic performance, and malleable predictors of homework assignment completion. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 104 middle school students comprehensively diagnosed with ADHD and followed for 18 months. Multiple teachers for each student provided information about the percentage of homework assignments turned in at five separate time points and school grades were collected quarterly. Results showed that agreement between teachers with respect to students assignment completion was high, with an intraclass correlation of .879 at baseline. Students with ADHD were turning in an average of 12% fewer assignments each academic quarter in comparison to teacher-reported classroom averages. Regression analyses revealed a robust association between the percentage of assignments turned in at baseline and school grades 18 months later, even after controlling for baseline grades, achievement (reading and math), intelligence, family income, and race. Cross-lag analyses demonstrated that the association between assignment completion and grades was reciprocal, with assignment completion negatively impacting grades and low grades in turn being associated with decreased future homework completion. Parent ratings of homework materials management abilities at baseline significantly predicted the percentage of assignments turned in as reported by teachers 18 months later. These findings demonstrate that homework assignment completion problems are persistent across time and an important intervention target for adolescents with ADHD. Copyright © 2015 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

"Design Your Own Disease" Assignment: Teaching Students to Apply Metabolic Pathways

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Nick

2010-01-01

One of the major focuses of biochemistry courses is metabolic pathways. Although certain aspects of this content may require a rote approach, more applied techniques make these subject areas more interesting. This article describes the use of an assignment, "Design Your Own Disease" to teach students metabolic regulation and biosignaling…

The Micropolitics of Educational Inequality: The Case of Teacher-Student Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grissom, Jason A.; Kalogrides, Demetra; Loeb, Susanna

2015-01-01

Politics of education researchers have long recognized the role of micropolitics in school decision-making processes. We argue that investigating micropolitical dynamics is key to an important set of school decisions that are fundamental to inequities in access to high-quality teachers: assignments of teachers and students to classrooms. Focusing…

Creative Writing Assignments in a Second Language Course: A Way to Engage Less Motivated Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arshavskaya, Ekaterina

2015-01-01

This article makes a case for using creative writing in a second language course. Creative writing increases students' enthusiasm for writing skills development and supports students' creativity, which is a fundamental aspect of education. In order to engage less motivated students, a series of creative writing assignments was implemented in a…

Investigating Expectations and Experiences of Audio and Written Assignment Feedback in First-Year Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fawcett, Hannah; Oldfield, Jeremy

2016-01-01

Previous research suggests that audio feedback may be an important mechanism for facilitating effective and timely assignment feedback. The present study examined expectations and experiences of audio and written feedback provided through "turnitin for iPad®" from students within the same cohort and assignment. The results showed that…

The Assignment Pack. Materials for Flexible and Open Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit, London (England).

This assignment pack is designed for students and tutors working in open, flexible, or distance learning in Britain. Each of the six sections contains the following: (1) a detailed contents page that identifies the assignment under an activity heading, an individual title, and indication of the relationship to the City and Guilds of London…

Students' Understanding and Perceptions of Assigned Team Roles in a Classroom Laboratory Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ott, Laura E.; Kephart, Kerrie; Stolle-McAllister, Kathleen; LaCourse, William R.

2018-01-01

Using a cooperative learning framework in a quantitative reasoning laboratory course, students were assigned to static teams of four in which they adopted roles that rotated regularly. The roles included: team leader, protocol manager, data recorder, and researcher. Using a mixed-methods approach, we investigated students' perceptions of the team…

Watch Out, Oprah! A Book Club Assignment for Literature Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuppa-Cornell, Kim

2003-01-01

Describes a successful practice for incorporating more novels into community college literature courses and for sparking student interest in reading. Presents a book club assignment that includes both collaborative activities and a group presentation. Considers how a book club assignment offers an effective way to include more writers into the…

Longitudinal Evaluation of the Importance of Homework Assignment Completion for the Academic Performance of Middle School Students with ADHD

PubMed Central

Langberg, Joshua M.; Dvorsky, Melissa R.; Molitor, Stephen J.; Bourchtein, Elizaveta; Eddy, Laura D.; Smith, Zoe; Schultz, Brandon K.; Evans, Steven W.

2016-01-01

The primary goal of this study was to longitudinally evaluate the homework assignment completion patterns of middle school age adolescents with ADHD, their associations with academic performance, and malleable predictors of homework assignment completion. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 104 middle school students comprehensively diagnosed with ADHD and followed for 18 months. Multiple teachers for each student provided information about the percentage of homework assignments turned in at five separate timepoints and school grades were collected quarterly. Results showed that agreement between teachers with respect to students’ assignment completion was high, with an intraclass correlation of .879 at baseline. Students with ADHD were turning in an average of 12% fewer assignments each academic quarter in comparison to teacher-reported classroom averages. Regression analyses revealed a robust association between the percentage of assignments turned in at baseline and school grades 18 months later, even after controlling for baseline grades, achievement (reading and math), intelligence, family income, and race. Cross-lag analyses demonstrated that the association between assignment completion and grades was reciprocal, with assignment completion negatively impacting grades and low grades in turn being associated with decreased future homework completion. Parent ratings of homework materials management abilities at baseline significantly predicted the percentage of assignments turned in as reported by teachers 18 months later. These findings demonstrate that homework assignment completion problems are persistent across time and an important intervention target for adolescents with ADHD. PMID:26931065

Development of Guidelines Related to Riverside Community College Nursing Student Mandatory Assignment to AIDS Patients in the Clinical Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kross, Carolyn Sue

The purpose of this study was to develop Associate Degree nursing program guidelines for Riverside Community College (RCC), in California, regarding mandatory nursing student assignment to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients, and student refusal of such assignments in a clinical setting. During the 1990 fall semester, RCC's Nursing…

Co-Teachers and Parents' Perceptions of Shortened Assignments for Learning Disabled Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutierrez, Yxstian

2013-01-01

The Individual with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) 2007, a federal special education law, states that students with disabilities requiring special education services can use accommodations or adaptations of the curriculum to access the general education curriculum. A shortened assignment, as an accommodation, can help learning disabled…

Integrating Levels of Critical Thinking into Writing Assignments for Introductory Psychology Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willis, A. Sandra

Short analytical writing exercises were designed to develop critical thinking and writing skills; stimulate creative thinking and writing; promote learning of psychological concepts; and to assess student knowledge. Design of these assignments was based on Bloom's taxonomy of multiple levels of critical thinking: recall, comprehension,…

Using student writing assignments to assess critical thinking skills: a holistic approach.

PubMed

Niedringhaus, L K

2001-04-01

This work offers an example of one school's holistic approach to the evaluation of critical thinking by using student writing assignments. Faculty developed tools to assess achievement of critical thinking competencies, such as analysis, synthesis, insight, reflection, open mindedness, and depth, breadth, and appropriateness of clinical interventions. Faculty created a model for the development of program-specific critical thinking competencies, selected appropriate writing assignments that demonstrate critical thinking, and implemented a holistic assessment plan for data collection and analysis. Holistic assessment involves the identification of shared values and practices, and the use of concepts and language important to nursing.

Instructor-Created Activities to Engage Undergraduate Nursing Research Students.

PubMed

Pierce, Linda L; Reuille, Kristina M

2018-03-01

In flipped or blended classrooms, instruction intentionally shifts to a student-centered model for a problem-based learning approach, where class time explores topics in greater depth, creating meaningful learning opportunities. This article describes instructor-created activities focused on research processes linked to evidence-based practice that engage undergraduate nursing research students. In the classroom, these activities include individual and team work to foster critical thinking and stimulate student discussion of topic material. Six activities for small and large student groups are related to quantitative, qualitative, and both research processes, as well as applying research evidence to practice. Positive student outcomes included quantitative success on assignments and robust student topic discussions, along with instructor-noted overall group engagement and interest. Using these activities can result in class time for the construction of meaning, rather than primarily information transmission. Instructors may adopt these activities to involve and stimulate students' critical thinking about research and evidence-based practice. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(3):174-177.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

Identifying and Remediating Student Misconceptions in Introductory Biology via Writing-to-Learn Assignments and Peer Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halim, Audrey S.; Finkenstaedt-Quinn, Solaire A.; Olsen, Laura J.; Gere, Anne Ruggles; Shultz, Ginger V.

2018-01-01

Student misconceptions are an obstacle in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses and unless remediated may continue causing difficulties in learning as students advance in their studies. Writing-to-learn assignments (WTL) are characterized by their ability to promote in-depth conceptual learning by allowing students to explore…

Internet Explorations: On-Line Assignments for the Introductory Public Relations Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Michael F.

This paper describes a series of assignments called "Internet Explorations," which were developed for an introductory public relations course. The three rationales for the assignments in the paper were illustration and application of course concepts to ongoing public relations activities, student exposure to communication strategies, and…

Inquiry-Based Laboratory Activities in Electrochemistry: High School Students' Achievements and Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sesen, Burcin Acar; Tarhan, Leman

2013-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the effects of inquiry-based laboratory activities on high school students' understanding of electrochemistry and attitudes towards chemistry and laboratory work. The participants were 62 high school students (average age 17 years) in an urban public high school in Turkey. Students were assigned to experimental (N =…

Evaluation of active transition, a website-delivered physical activity intervention for university students: pilot study.

PubMed

Kwan, Matthew; Faulkner, Guy; Bray, Steven

2013-04-29

While physical activity in individuals tends to decline steadily with age, there are certain periods where this decline occurs more rapidly, such as during early adulthood. Interventions aimed at attenuating the declines in physical activity during this transition period appear warranted. The purpose of the study was to test the feasibility and efficacy of a theoretically informed, website-delivered physical activity intervention aimed at students entering university. Using a quasi-experimental design, 65 participants (44 females; mean age 18.51, SD 0.91) were assigned to either an intervention (receiving website access plus weekly prompts) or comparison condition (receiving unprompted website access only), completing questionnaires at baseline and follow-up 8 weeks later. The intervention website, "Active Transition", was specifically designed to target students' physical activity cognitions and self-regulatory skills. Intervention usage was low, with only 47% (18/38) of participants assigned to the intervention condition logging into the website 2 or more times. Among the broader student sample, there were significant declines in students' physical activity behaviors (F1,63=18.10, P<.001), attitudes (F1,62=55.19, P<.001), and perceived behavioral control (F1,62 =17.56, P<.001). In comparisons between intervention users (29/65, individuals logging in 2 or more times) and non-users (36/65, individuals logging in once or not at all), there was a significant interaction effect for intervention usage and time on perceived behavioral control (F1,62=5.13, P=.03). Poor intervention usage suggests that future efforts need to incorporate innovative strategies to increase intervention uptake and better engage the student population. The findings, however, suggest that a website-delivered intervention aimed at this critical life stage may have positive impact on students' physical activity cognitions. Future studies with more rigorous sampling designs are required.

Modelling the Preferences of Students for Alternative Assignment Designs Using the Discrete Choice Experiment Methodology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennelly, Brendan; Flannery, Darragh; Considine, John; Doherty, Edel; Hynes, Stephen

2014-01-01

This paper outlines how a discrete choice experiment (DCE) can be used to learn more about how students are willing to trade off various features of assignments such as the nature and timing of feedback and the method used to submit assignments. A DCE identifies plausible levels of the key attributes of a good or service and then presents the…

[Introduction of active learning and student readership in teaching by the pharmaceutical faculty].

PubMed

Sekiguchi, Masaki; Yamato, Ippei; Kato, Tetsuta; Torigoe, Kojyun

2005-07-01

We have introduced improvements and new approaches into our teaching methods by exploiting 4 active learning methods for pharmacy students of first year. The 4 teaching methods for each lesson or take home assignment are follows: 1) problem-based learning (clinical case) including a student presentation of the clinical case, 2) schematic drawings of the human organs, one drawing done in 15-20 min during the week following a lecture and a second drawing done with reference to a professional textbook, 3) learning of professional themes in take home assignments, and 4) short test in order to confirm the understanding of technical terms by using paper or computer. These improvements and new methods provide active approaches for pharmacy students (as opposed to passive memorization of words and image study). In combination, they have proven to be useful as a learning method to acquire expert knowledge and to convert from passive learning approach to active learning approach of pharmacy students in the classroom.

Medical Students' Empathy for Vulnerable Groups: Results From a Survey and Reflective Writing Assignment.

PubMed

Wellbery, Caroline; Saunders, Pamela A; Kureshi, Sarah; Visconti, Adam

2017-12-01

As medical education curricula increasingly acknowledge the contributions of the social determinants of health to individual health, new methods of engaging students in the care of vulnerable groups are needed. Empathy is one way to connect students with patients, but little is known about how to nurture students' empathy on behalf of populations. This study examined the relationship between individual and social empathy as groundwork for cultivating students' empathy for vulnerable groups. In 2014-2015, first-year medical students completed the Social Empathy Index at the start and end of a two-semester population health course, and they completed a reflective writing assignment exploring the challenges of caring for vulnerable patients. Pre- and posttest mean survey scores were compared, and reflective writing assignments were analyzed for themes concerning social empathy. Data from 130 students were analyzed. Scores for the contextual understanding of systemic barriers domain increased significantly. There was a trend toward increased cumulative social empathy scores that did not reach statistical significance. Students' essays revealed three themes relating to individual empathy as the foundation for social empathy; civic and moral obligations; and the role of institutional practices in caring for vulnerable groups. This study extends understanding of empathy beyond care for the individual to include care for vulnerable groups. Thus, social empathy may function as a valuable concept in developing curricula to support students' commitment to care for the underserved. Educators first need to address the many barriers students cited that impede both individual and social empathy.

Promoting Discussion in Peer Instruction: Discussion Partner Assignment and Accountability Scoring Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Chih-Yueh; Lin, Pin-Hsun

2015-01-01

Peer instruction (PI) involves students answering questions and peer discussion learning activities. PI can enhance student performance and engagement in classroom instruction. However, some students do not engage in the discussions. This study proposes two mechanisms, discussion partner assignment and accountability scoring mechanisms, to form…

Student Perceptions of a Recreation Trail Assignment as a Valuable Learning Experience for Geography Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mullens, Jo Beth

2016-01-01

Charging undergraduate geography students with the task of designing a recreational trail in their local community offers an engaging experiential opportunity with potential to advance geographic learning in a real-world setting. This article presents an assignment in which students were asked to develop a recreational trail proposal for an…

In Search of the Epiphany of Homework Assignments: A Model of Evaluating Local Schools' Homework Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saam, Julie; Jeong, Taekhil

2013-01-01

Some parents and students perceived demanding homework assignments as a frequent source of grievance, particularly for those high performing students who want spare time for independent study and cultivation of talents through extracurricular activities. Teachers tended to perceive homework assignments as a meaningful extension of instruction time…

Detecting Plagiarism in MS Access Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Anil

2013-01-01

Assurance of individual effort from students in computer-based assignments is a challenge. Due to digitization, students can easily use a copy of their friend's work and submit it as their own. Plagiarism in assignments puts students who cheat at par with those who work honestly and this compromises the learning evaluation process. Using a…

Using portfolio assignment to support students individually and sustainably -There's always a first time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayer, M.

2009-04-01

The recent education of engineers, using the example of satellite geodesy at the Geodetic Institute of the University Karlsruhe (GIK, Germany), is still suffering from time pressure as well as from heavy curriculum content loading. Within this education students, where the academic teachers have to fulfill high requests from the new generation of students as well as from industry and from research institutions respectively, advanced satellite geodetic knowledge has to be transferred effectively and sustainably. In order to enable the students to train newest aspects related to satellite geodesy as well as important key competences, e.g. capacity for independent and academic work, reflection and evaluation skills, presentation skills, an innovative teaching concept was developed, tested, and evaluated. This teaching concept makes use of very different teaching techniques like portfolio assignment, project work, input from experts, jig saw, advance and post organizer. This presentation will focus on the portfolio assignment component. This teaching technique was used at the GIK during the last two years for the first time, in order to support students individually. The lessons learnt within this teaching experiment are going to be presented.

Robotics and STEM Learning: Students' Achievements in Assignments According to the P3 Task Taxonomy--Practice, Problem Solving, and Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barak, Moshe; Assal, Muhammad

2018-01-01

This study presents the case of development and evaluation of a STEM-oriented 30-h robotics course for junior high school students (n = 32). Class activities were designed according to the P3 Task Taxonomy, which included: (1) practice-basic closed-ended tasks and exercises; (2) problem solving--small-scale open-ended assignments in which the…

Moodog: Tracking Student Activity in Online Course Management Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hangjin; Almeroth, Kevin

2010-01-01

Many universities are currently using Course Management Systems (CMSes) to conduct online learning, for example, by distributing course materials or submitting homework assignments. However, most CMSes do not include comprehensive activity tracking and analysis capabilities. This paper describes a method to track students' online learning…

Teaching Historical Analysis through Creative Writing Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Janine Larmon; Graham, Lea

2015-01-01

Incorporating creative writing exercises in history courses can heighten students' critical reading and analytical skills in an active learning model. We identify and define two types of possible assignments that use model texts as their locus: centripetal, which focuses on specific context and disciplinary terms, and centrifugal, which address…

Asian Students' Perceptions of Group Work and Group Assignments in a New Zealand Tertiary Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Mingsheng; Campbell, Jacqui

2008-01-01

This study, conducted in 2005 in a New Zealand tertiary institution, examines Asian students' perceptions of the much-promulgated cooperative learning concepts in the form of group work and group assignments. Twenty-two Asian students participated in one-hour individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The study found that Asian students…

Plagiarism-Proofing Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Doug

2004-01-01

Mr. Johnson has discovered that the higher the level of student engagement and creativity, the lower the probability of plagiarism. For teachers who would like to see such desirable results, he describes the characteristics of assignments that are most likely to produce them. Two scenarios of types of assignments that avoid plagiarism are…

The Use of Influence Tactics and Outcome Valence on Goal Commitment for Assigned Student Team Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swaim, James; Henley, Amy

2017-01-01

Project teams are a mainstay in both organizations and business schools. Despite their popularity, instructors and students often express dissatisfaction regarding assigned student team projects. In this article, we examine the effects of influence tactics available to instructors (collaborative assistance and rational persuasion) and individual…

Accounting for Sustainability: An Active Learning Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gusc, Joanna; van Veen-Dirks, Paula

2017-01-01

Purpose: Sustainability is one of the newer topics in the accounting courses taught in university teaching programs. The active learning assignment as described in this paper was developed for use in an accounting course in an undergraduate program. The aim was to enhance teaching about sustainability within such a course. The purpose of this…

Developing critical thinking skills from clinical assignments: a pilot study on nursing students' self-reported perceptions.

PubMed

Marchigiano, Gail; Eduljee, Nina; Harvey, Kimberly

2011-01-01

Clinical assignments in nursing education provide opportunities for students to develop thinking skills vital to the effective delivery of patient care. The purpose of the present study was to examine students' perceived levels of confidence for using thinking skills when completing two types of clinical assignments. Clinical educators and managers are challenged to develop teaching and learning strategies that help students think critically and reflectively and transfer these skills into sound nursing practice. This study is based on the theoretical framework of critical thinking within the nursing process framework. Undergraduate nursing students (n=51) completed surveys indicating their confidence in using seven thinking skills for nursing care. Students indicated significantly more confidence when implementing the journal format as compared with the care plan format when analysing information, determining relevance, making connections, selecting appropriate information, applying relevant knowledge and evaluating outcomes. The findings of the present study propose a new approach for enhancing students' thinking skills. Journaling is an effective strategy for enhancing students' thinking skills. Nursing managers are in key organisational positions for supporting and promoting the use of the journal format and building supportive and collaborative learning environments for students to develop thinking skills for managing patient care. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Does Professor Quality Matter? Evidence from Random Assignment of Students to Professors. NBER Working Paper No. 14081

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrell, Scott E.; West, James E.

2008-01-01

It is difficult to measure teaching quality at the postsecondary level because students typically "self-select" their coursework and their professors. Despite this, student evaluations of professors are widely used in faculty promotion and tenure decisions. We exploit the random assignment of college students to professors in a large body of…

Development of Students' Critical-Reasoning Skills through Content-Focused Activities in a General Education Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fencl, Heidi S.

2010-01-01

Students in a general education science course made significant gains in scientific reasoning skills when they were taught using carefully designed hands-on activities and writing assignments. The activities required students to make use of scientific skills such as graphing, predicting outcomes under changing conditions, or designing experiments,…

Investigating Students' Use and Adoption of "With-Video Assignments": Lessons Learnt for Video-Based Open Educational Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pappas, Ilias O.; Giannakos, Michail N.; Mikalef, Patrick

2017-01-01

The use of video-based open educational resources is widespread, and includes multiple approaches to implementation. In this paper, the term "with-video assignments" is introduced to portray video learning resources enhanced with assignments. The goal of this study is to examine the factors that influence students' intention to adopt…

Ability-Grouping and Academic Inequality: Evidence from Rule-Based Student Assignments. NBER Working Paper No. 14911

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, C. Kirabo

2009-01-01

In Trinidad and Tobago students are assigned to secondary schools after fifth grade based on achievement tests, leading to large differences in the school environments to which students of differing initial levels of achievement are exposed. Using both a regression discontinuity design and rule-based instrumental variables to address…

Investigating the Correlation Between Pharmacy Student Performance on the Health Science Reasoning Test and a Critical Thinking Assignment

PubMed Central

Jackson, Jonathan; Axtell, Samantha

2017-01-01

Objective. To determine whether there is a correlation between pharmacy students’ scores on the Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT) and their grade on a package insert assignment designed to assess critical thinking. Methods. The HSRT was administered to first-year pharmacy students during a critical-thinking course in the spring semester. In the same semester, a required package insert assignment was completed in a pharmacokinetics course. To determine whether there was a relationship between HSRT scores and grades on the assignment, a Spearman’s rho correlation test was performed. Results. A very weak but significant positive correlation was found between students’ grades on the assignment and their overall HSRT score (r=0.19, p<0.05), as well as deduction (a scale score of the HSRT; r=0.26, p<0.01). Conclusion. Based on a very weak but significant correlation to HSRT scores, this study demonstrated the potential of a package insert assignment to be used as one of the components to measure critical-thinking skills in pharmacy students. PMID:28381884

The Create-a-Game Assignment and English Teaching Ability of Japanese College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kobayashi, Futoshi

2013-01-01

Japanese college students (N = 18) aspiring to become English teachers in junior or senior high schools studied several examples of educational games and created their own English games as an assignment during the last two weeks of an educational psychology course. Results indicated (1) a significant increase between pre- and post-…

The Impact of a Collaborative Wikipedia Assignment on Teaching, Learning, and Student Perceptions in a Teacher Education Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bravo, Vanessa J.; Young, Michael F.

2011-01-01

This study explored students' perceptions and behaviors of public wiki use during a collaborative Wikipedia assignment in a graduate technology and literacy education course. Results confirmed that the majority of students had an overall positive experience posting content on Wikipedia. Students learned how to use Wikipedia through collaborative…

Enhancing Mathematics Achievement of Elementary School Students through Homework Assignments Enriched with Metacognitive Questions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özcan, Zeynep Çigdem; Erktin, Emine

2015-01-01

Metacognitive enrichment has become an important component of modern mathematics instruction. This study investigates the effect of homework assignments enriched with metacognitive questions on students' mathematics achievement and homework behaviors. A quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test measures and two groups (experimental and…

Investigation of the Influence of a Writing-to-Learn Assignment on Student Understanding of Polymer Properties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finkenstaedt-Quinn, Solaire A.; Halim, Audrey S.; Chambers, Timothy G.; Moon, Alena; Goldman, R. S.; Gere, Anne Ruggles; Shultz, Ginger V.

2017-01-01

We conducted a study to examine how a writing-to-learn assignment influenced student learning of polymer behavior. In particular, we examined the role of specific content and a rhetorical framework as well as a structured writing process including peer review and revision. The student-generated writing was analyzed via a content-directed rubric.…

Creative Activities for String Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stabley, Nola Campbell

2001-01-01

Discusses how to teach improvisation, creativity, and movement to beginning music classroom students. Includes background information on teaching each concept and lesson plans to be used with beginning string students. Provides rhythm patterns, exercises, and an assignment used in the lessons. (CMK)

De-Coding Writing Assignments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simon, Linda

1991-01-01

Argues that understanding assignments is the first step toward successful college writing. Urges instructors to support students by helping them to decode assignments. Breaks down instructions into individual tasks including (1) writing an essay, (2) examining an issue, (3) reviewing articles and books, and (4) focusing on some texts. Defines each…

Variability in Clinical Integration Achieved by Athletic Training Students across Different Clinical Sport Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dodge, Thomas M.; Mazerolle, Stephanie M.; Bowman, Thomas G.

2015-01-01

Context: Clinical integration impacts athletic training students' (ATSs) motivation and persistence. Research has yet to elucidate the manner in which different clinical placements can influence clinical integration. Objective: To examine differences in the levels of clinical integration achieved by ATSs across various clinical sport assignments.…

Online Prelectures: An Alternative to Textbook Reading Assignments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadaghiani, Homeyra R.

2012-05-01

To engage students in a more meaningful discussion of course material and prompt their higher thinking skills, most instructors expect students to read the course textbook for initial exposure to the course content before class. However, as many instructors are aware, most students do not read their textbook throughout the quarter.1,2 At California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) we have adopted web-based multimedia learning modules (MLMs) as prelecture assignments to help students to prepare for the class activities. The MLMs place lecture contents into the hands and control of the learners; similar to "flipped"3 or "inverted"4 classroom approaches, this method allows students to receive key course content outside of class and apply and analyze the content actively during class. In addition to initial exposure to basic principle, the MLMs provide additional worked examples that cannot be thoroughly covered in class.

Maximizing Completion and Comprehension of Reading Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, Leanne R.

2017-01-01

The author presents self-report data from students in three upper-level undergraduate courses to illustrate the comparative effectiveness of different out-of-class assessment approaches in promoting completion and comprehension of reading assignments. Students reported agreeing or strongly agreeing that all three assignments motivated them to…

A learning activity to introduce undergraduate students to bioethics in human clinical research: a case study.

PubMed

Segarra, Ignacio; Gomez, Manuel

2014-12-01

We developed a pharmacology practicum assignment to introduce students to the research ethics and steps involved in a clinical trial. The assignment included literature review, critical analysis of bioethical situations, writing a study protocol and presenting it before a simulated ethics committee, a practice interview with a faculty member to obtain informed consent, and a student reflective assessment and self-evaluation. Students were assessed at various steps in the practicum; the learning efficiency of the activity was evaluated using an independent survey as well as students' reflective feedback. Most of the domains of Bloom's and Fink's taxonomies of learning were itemized and covered in the practicum. Students highly valued the translatability of theoretical concepts into practice as well as the approach to mimic professional practice. This activity was within a pharmacy program, but may be easily transferable to other medical or health sciences courses. © The Author(s) 2014.

Investigations of Protein Structure and Function Using the Scientific Literature: An Assignment for an Undergraduate Cell Physiology Course

PubMed Central

Mulnix, Amy B.

2003-01-01

Undergraduate biology curricula are being modified to model and teach the activities of scientists better. The assignment described here, one that investigates protein structure and function, was designed for use in a sophomore-level cell physiology course at Earlham College. Students work in small groups to read and present in poster format on the content of a single research article reporting on the structure and/or function of a protein. Goals of the assignment include highlighting the interdependence of protein structure and function; asking students to review, integrate, and apply previously acquired knowledge; and helping students see protein structure/function in a context larger than cell physiology. The assignment also is designed to build skills in reading scientific literature, oral and written communication, and collaboration among peers. Assessment of student perceptions of the assignment in two separate offerings indicates that the project successfully achieves these goals. Data specifically show that students relied heavily on their peers to understand their article. The assignment was also shown to require students to read articles more carefully than previously. In addition, the data suggest that the assignment could be modified and used successfully in other courses and at other institutions. PMID:14673490

Investigations of protein structure and function using the scientific literature: an assignment for an undergraduate cell physiology course.

PubMed

Mulnix, Amy B

2003-01-01

Undergraduate biology curricula are being modified to model and teach the activities of scientists better. The assignment described here, one that investigates protein structure and function, was designed for use in a sophomore-level cell physiology course at Earlham College. Students work in small groups to read and present in poster format on the content of a single research article reporting on the structure and/or function of a protein. Goals of the assignment include highlighting the interdependence of protein structure and function; asking students to review, integrate, and apply previously acquired knowledge; and helping students see protein structure/function in a context larger than cell physiology. The assignment also is designed to build skills in reading scientific literature, oral and written communication, and collaboration among peers. Assessment of student perceptions of the assignment in two separate offerings indicates that the project successfully achieves these goals. Data specifically show that students relied heavily on their peers to understand their article. The assignment was also shown to require students to read articles more carefully than previously. In addition, the data suggest that the assignment could be modified and used successfully in other courses and at other institutions.

A Foot in the Door: Exploring the Role of Student Teaching Assignments in Teachers' Initial Job Placements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieg, John M.; Theobald, Roddy; Goldhaber, Dan

2016-01-01

We use data from Washington State to examine two stages of the teacher pipeline: the placement of prospective teachers into student teaching assignments and the hiring of prospective teachers into their first teaching positions. We find that prospective teachers are likely to complete their student teaching near their college and hometowns but…

Single-Sex Schools, Student Achievement, and Course Selection: Evidence from Rule-Based Student Assignments in Trinidad and Tobago. NBER Working Paper No. 16817

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, C. Kirabo

2011-01-01

Existing studies on single-sex schooling suffer from biases due to student selection to schools and single-sex schools being better in unmeasured ways. In Trinidad and Tobago students are assigned to secondary schools based on an algorithm allowing one to address self-selection bias and cleanly estimate an upper-bound single-sex school effect. The…

Assessment of a simulated contraceptive prescribing activity for pharmacy students.

PubMed

Lynch, Sarah E; Griffin, Brooke L; Vest, Kathleen M

2018-02-01

The role of the pharmacist has been shifting rapidly. One example of change is the passage of legislation allowing pharmacists to independently initiate self-administered hormonal contraceptives in several states. There is no evidence of this specific topic being covered in pharmacy school curricula, and many states are requiring additional post-graduate training. This activity was designed to determine the utility of a contraceptive prescribing simulation activity for pharmacy students. Pharmacy students enrolled in a women's health elective learned about relevant state legislation and attended a clinical skills center simulation activity where they utilized an available prescribing algorithm. Students completed two scenarios and received grades based on their clinical decision-making and patient interaction skills. An electronic survey was distributed post-activity to assess student satisfaction and confidence when prescribing contraceptives. Responses and grades on the assignment were analyzed to determine the activity's utility. Students finished with median scores of 15, 14.8, and 14.5 out of 15 possible points for the three scenarios. Students reported overall satisfaction with the activity, with general agreement that the activity was realistic and made them feel like they were prepared to prescribe contraceptives. Independently initiating contraceptives is a novel practice area for pharmacists. This activity introduced students to the process of prescribing using realistic forms and scenarios. The utility of the activity was twofold - it introduced students to the changing environment of pharmacy practice and allowed students to apply their knowledge of contraceptives and women's health. Students performed well on the activity and reported high levels of satisfaction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Inquiry-Based Laboratory Activities in Electrochemistry: High School Students' Achievements and Attitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acar Sesen, Burcin; Tarhan, Leman

2013-02-01

This study aimed to investigate the effects of inquiry-based laboratory activities on high school students' understanding of electrochemistry and attitudes towards chemistry and laboratory work. The participants were 62 high school students (average age 17 years) in an urban public high school in Turkey. Students were assigned to experimental ( N = 30) and control groups ( N = 32). The experimental group was taught using inquiry-based laboratory activities developed by the researchers and the control group was instructed using traditional laboratory activities. The results of the study indicated that instruction based on inquiry-based laboratory activities caused a significantly better acquisition of scientific concepts related to electrochemistry, and produced significantly higher positive attitudes towards chemistry and laboratory. In the light of the findings, it is suggested that inquiry-based laboratory activities should be developed and applied to promote students' understanding in chemistry subjects and to improve their positive attitudes.

Gapminder: An AP Human Geography Lab Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, Kenneth H.

2012-01-01

This lesson is designed as a lab assignment for Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography students wherein they use the popular Gapminder web site to compare levels of development in countries from different world regions. For this lesson, it is important for the teacher to practice with Gapminder before giving the assignment to students. (Contains…

Enhancing Student Retention of Prerequisite Knowledge through Pre-Class Activities and In-Class Reinforcement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Ann T. S.; Olofson, Eric L.; Novak, Walter R. P.

2017-01-01

To foster the connection between biochemistry and the supporting prerequisite concepts, a collection of activities that explicitly link general and organic chemistry concepts to biochemistry ideas was written and either assigned as pre-class work or as recitation activities. We assessed student learning gains after using these activities alone, or…

Determining the relationship between students' scores using traditional homework assignments to those who used assignments on a non-traditional interactive CD with tutor helps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tinney, Charles Evan

2007-12-01

By using the book "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" by Raymond A. Serway as a guide, CD problem sets for teaching a calculus-based physics course were developed, programmed, and evaluated for homework assignments during the 2003-2004 academic year at Utah State University. These CD sets were used to replace the traditionally handwritten and submitted homework sets. They included a research-based format that guided the students through problem-solving techniques using responseactivated helps and suggestions. The CD contents were designed to help the student improve his/her physics problem-solving skills. The analyzed score results showed a direct correlation between the scores obtained on the homework and the students' time spent per problem, as well as the number of helps used per problem.

Calibrated peer review assignments for the earth sciences

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rudd, J.A.; Wang, V.Z.; Cervato, C.; Ridky, R.W.

2009-01-01

Calibrated Peer Review ??? (CPR), a web-based instructional tool developed as part of the National Science Foundation reform initiatives in undergraduate science education, allows instructors to incorporate multiple writing assignments in large courses without overwhelming the instructor. This study reports successful implementation of CPR in a large, introductory geology course and student learning of geoscience content. For each CPR assignment in this study, students studied web-based and paper resources, wrote an essay, and reviewed seven essays (three from the instructor, three from peers, and their own) on the topic. Although many students expressed negative attitudes and concerns, particularly about the peer review process of this innovative instructional approach, they also recognized the learning potential of completing CPR assignments. Comparing instruction on earthquakes and plate boundaries using a CPR assignment vs. an instructional video lecture and homework essay with extensive instructor feedback, students mastered more content via CPR instruction.

Effects of individualized assignments on biology achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kremer, Philip L.

A pretest-posttest, randomized, two groups, experimental, factorial design compared effects of detailed and nondetailed assignments on biology achievement over seven and a half months. Detailed assignments (favoring field independence and induction) employed block diagrams and stepwise directions. Nondetailed assignments (favoring field dependence and deduction) virtually lacked these. The accessible population was 101 tenth grade preparatory school male students. The 95 students enrolled in first year biology constituted the sample. Two by three ANOVA was done on residualized posttest score means of the students. Totally, the detailed students achieved significantly higher than the nondetailed students. This significantly higher achievement was only true of detailed students in the middle thirds of the deviation intelligence quotient (DIQ) range and of the grade point average (G.P.A.) range after the breakdown into upper, middle, and lower thirds of intellectual capability (ability and achievement). The upper third detailed DIQ grouping indirectly achieved higher than its peers, whereas the lower detailed DIQ third achieved lower than its peers. Thus, high capability students apparently benefit from flow and block diagrams, inductions, field independence, and high structure, whereas low capability students may be hindered by these.

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…

The Architecture of Peer Assessment: Do Academically Successful Students Make Good Teammates in Design Assignments?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucker, Richard

2013-01-01

This paper considers the relationship between architecture and construction management students' overall academic abilities (as measured by Weighted Average Marks [WAMs]), their peer ratings for contributions to team design assignments (as measured by an online Self-and-Peer-Assessment [SAPA] tool), and their specific abilities as building…

The Impact of Teacher Assigned but Not Graded Compared to Teacher Assigned and Graded Chemistry Homework on the Formative and Summative Chemistry Assessment Scores of 11th-Grade Students with Varying Chemistry Potential

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Jennifer L.

2010-01-01

The study analyzed 2005 posttest data compared to 2008 posttest data to determine student end of school year academic achievement outcomes across three academic levels (above average, average, and below average chemistry potential) and two teacher homework evaluation methods (assigned but not graded and assigned and graded) on teacher prepared…

Understanding Test-Type Assignment: Why Do Special Educators Make Unexpected Test-Type Assignments?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Hyun-Jeong; Kingston, Neal

2014-01-01

We interviewed special educators (a) whose students with disabilities (SWDs) were proficient on the 2008 general education assessment but were assigned to the 2009 alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS), and (b) whose students with mild disabilities took the 2008 alternate assessment based on alternate achievement…

The Effect of Reducing the Weight of Homework Assignments on the Mathematics Achievement of Upper Level High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortiz, Craig R.

2017-01-01

Homework varies widely in importance among both teachers and students, as well as in subject areas. In mathematics, it is generally expected that it plays a critical role in students' understanding of mathematics and will be assigned daily. However, it is also understood that whether students take homework seriously can be difficult to ascertain.…

Pulling It Together: Using Integrative Assignments as Empirical Direct Measures of Student Learning for Learning Community Program Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huerta, Juan Carlos; Sperry, Rita

2013-01-01

This article outlines a systematic and manageable method for learning community program assessment based on collecting empirical direct measures of student learning. Developed at Texas A&M University--Corpus Christi where all full-time, first-year students are in learning communities, the approach ties integrative assignment design to a rubric…

Introducing chemical biology applications to introductory organic chemistry students using series of weekly assignments.

PubMed

Kanin, Maralee R; Pontrello, Jason K

2016-01-01

Calls to bring interdisciplinary content and examples into introductory science courses have increased, yet strategies that involve course restructuring often suffer from the need for a significant faculty commitment to motivate change. Minimizing the need for dramatic course reorganization, the structure, reactivity, and chemical biology applications of classes of biological monomers and polymers have been integrated into introductory organic chemistry courses through three series of semester-long weekly assignments that explored (a) Carbohydrates and Oligosaccharides, (b) Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins, and (c) Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Nucleic Acids. Comparisons of unannounced pre- and post tests revealed improved understanding of a reaction introduced in the assignments, and course examinations evaluated cumulative assignment topics. Course surveys revealed that demonstrating biologically relevant applications consistently throughout the semesters enhanced student interest in the connection between basic organic chemistry content and its application to new and unfamiliar bio-related examples. Covering basic material related to these classes of molecules outside of the classroom opened lecture time to allow the instructor to further build on information developed through the weekly assignments, teaching advanced topics and applications typically not covered in an introductory organic chemistry lecture course. Assignments were implemented as homework, either with or without accompanying discussion, in both laboratory and lecture organic courses within the context of the existing course structures. © 2015 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Perception of Physical Activity Participation of Chinese Female Graduate Students: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yan, Zi; Cardinal, Bradley J.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Chinese female international students (CFIS) have been identified as one of the least physically active groups in the United States. In an effort to better understand this situation, this study's purpose was to examine CFIS in American higher education in terms of the meaning they assigned to physical activity and facilitators and…

Writing Assignments with a Metacognitive Component Enhance Learning in a Large Introductory Biology Course

PubMed Central

Mynlieff, Michelle; Manogaran, Anita L.; St. Maurice, Martin

2014-01-01

Writing assignments, including note taking and written recall, should enhance retention of knowledge, whereas analytical writing tasks with metacognitive aspects should enhance higher-order thinking. In this study, we assessed how certain writing-intensive “interventions,” such as written exam corrections and peer-reviewed writing assignments using Calibrated Peer Review and including a metacognitive component, improve student learning. We designed and tested the possible benefits of these approaches using control and experimental variables across and between our three-section introductory biology course. Based on assessment, students who corrected exam questions showed significant improvement on postexam assessment compared with their nonparticipating peers. Differences were also observed between students participating in written and discussion-based exercises. Students with low ACT scores benefited equally from written and discussion-based exam corrections, whereas students with midrange to high ACT scores benefited more from written than discussion-based exam corrections. Students scored higher on topics learned via peer-reviewed writing assignments relative to learning in an active classroom discussion or traditional lecture. However, students with low ACT scores (17–23) did not show the same benefit from peer-reviewed written essays as the other students. These changes offer significant student learning benefits with minimal additional effort by the instructors. PMID:26086661

Curricular Activities that Promote Metacognitive Skills Impact Lower-Performing Students in an Introductory Biology Course.

PubMed

Dang, Nathan V; Chiang, Jacob C; Brown, Heather M; McDonald, Kelly K

2018-01-01

This study explores the impacts of repeated curricular activities designed to promote metacognitive skills development and academic achievement on students in an introductory biology course. Prior to this study, the course curriculum was enhanced with pre-assignments containing comprehension monitoring and self-evaluation questions, exam review assignments with reflective questions related to study habits, and an optional opportunity for students to explore metacognition and deep versus surface learning. We used a mixed-methods study design and collected data over two semesters. Self-evaluation, a component of metacognition, was measured via exam score postdictions, in which students estimated their exam scores after completing their exam. Metacognitive awareness was assessed using the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and a reflective essay designed to gauge students' perceptions of their metacognitive skills and study habits. In both semesters, more students over-predicted their Exam 1 scores than under-predicted, and statistical tests revealed significantly lower mean exam scores for the over-predictors. By Exam 3, under-predictors still scored significantly higher on the exam, but they outnumbered the over-predictors. Lower-performing students also displayed a significant increase in exam postdiction accuracy by Exam 3. While there was no significant difference in students' MAI scores from the beginning to the end of the semester, qualitative analysis of reflective essays indicated that students benefitted from the assignments and could articulate clear action plans to improve their learning and performance. Our findings suggest that assignments designed to promote metacognition can have an impact on students over the course of one semester and may provide the greatest benefits to lower-performing students.

Automating Formative and Summative Feedback for Individualised Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Ian Robert

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the rationale behind the use of a unique paper-based individualised accounting assignment, which automated the provision to students of immediate formative and timely summative feedback. Design/methodology/approach: As students worked towards completing their assignment, the package provided…

Principals Make Assignments Matter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dougherty, Eleanor

2013-01-01

The inner-city high school in Washington, DC, that Guillaume Gendre joined as an assistant principal had a modest reputation for achievement but was nevertheless challenged to raise expectations for student work. In other schools, Gendre had used assignments--a specific kind of instructional task in which students are charged to think about an…

Articles as Assignments - Modalities and Experiences of Wikipedia Use in University Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wannemacher, Klaus

In spite of perceived quality deficits, Wikipedia is a popular information resource among students. Instructors increasingly take advantage of the positive student attitude through actively integrating Wikipedia as a learning tool into university courses. The contribution raises the question if Wikipedia assignments in university courses are suited to make complex research, editing and bibliographic processes through which scholarship is produced transparent to students and to effectively improve their research and writing skills.

When Teacher-Centered Instructors Are Assigned to Student-Centered Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasry, Nathaniel; Charles, Elizabeth; Whittaker, Chris

2014-01-01

Technology-rich student-centered classrooms such as SCALE-UP and TEAL are designed to actively engage students. We examine what happens when the design of the classroom (conventional or teacher-centered versus student-centered classroom spaces) is consistent or inconsistent with the teacher's epistemic beliefs about learning and teaching…

Using cooperative learning for a drug information assignment.

PubMed

Earl, Grace L

2009-11-12

To implement a cooperative learning activity to engage students in analyzing tertiary drug information resources in a literature evaluation course. The class was divided into 4 sections to form expert groups and each group researched a different set of references using the jigsaw technique. Each member of each expert group was reassigned to a jigsaw group so that each new group was composed of 4 students from 4 different expert groups. The jigsaw groups met to discuss search strategies and rate the usefulness of the references. In addition to group-based learning, teaching methods included students' writing an independent research paper to enhance their abilities to search and analyze drug information resources. The assignment and final course grades improved after implementation of the activity. Students agreed that class discussions were a useful learning experience and 75% (77/102) said they would use the drug information references for other courses. The jigsaw technique was successful in engaging students in cooperative learning to improve critical thinking skills regarding drug information.

From course assignment paper to publishable manuscript.

PubMed

Rew, Lynn

2012-12-01

Both undergraduate and graduate nursing students are expected to write numerous papers in their educational programs; however, most of these papers are never published. Many students and faculty lack the skills needed to convert a course assignment paper to a publishable manuscript. The purpose of this article is to describe 10 steps that can transform a course assignment paper into a publishable manuscript. These steps include outlining, clarifying the topic, clearly stating the purpose, identifying an appropriate audience, revising with faculty's feedback, querying journal editors, revising to conform to journal's author guidelines, requesting and responding to peer feedback, and finally editing and proofreading prior to submitting the manuscript. Faculty members are encouraged to make writing assignments that students can then convert to publishable manuscripts. Such publications form an essential cornerstone of professional holistic nursing.

My Favorite Assignment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hebert, Margaret; And Others

1991-01-01

Contains seven brief articles which offer assignments designed to help students perform job searches, write job application letters, answer difficult questions, write letters of resignation, alleviate fears of public speaking, use the interview effectively in the business communication, and develop listening skills. (PRA)

Developing International Managerial Skills through the Cross-Cultural Assignment: Experiential Learning by Matching U.S.-Based and International Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neiva de Figueiredo, Joao; Mauri, Alfredo J.

2013-01-01

This article describes the "Cross-Cultural Assignment," an experiential learning technique for students of business that deepens self-awareness of their own attitudes toward different cultures and develops international managerial skills. The technique consists of pairing up small teams of U.S.-based business students with small teams of…

Curricular Activities that Promote Metacognitive Skills Impact Lower-Performing Students in an Introductory Biology Course†

PubMed Central

Dang, Nathan V.; Chiang, Jacob C.; Brown, Heather M.

2018-01-01

This study explores the impacts of repeated curricular activities designed to promote metacognitive skills development and academic achievement on students in an introductory biology course. Prior to this study, the course curriculum was enhanced with pre-assignments containing comprehension monitoring and self-evaluation questions, exam review assignments with reflective questions related to study habits, and an optional opportunity for students to explore metacognition and deep versus surface learning. We used a mixed-methods study design and collected data over two semesters. Self-evaluation, a component of metacognition, was measured via exam score postdictions, in which students estimated their exam scores after completing their exam. Metacognitive awareness was assessed using the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and a reflective essay designed to gauge students’ perceptions of their metacognitive skills and study habits. In both semesters, more students over-predicted their Exam 1 scores than under-predicted, and statistical tests revealed significantly lower mean exam scores for the over-predictors. By Exam 3, under-predictors still scored significantly higher on the exam, but they outnumbered the over-predictors. Lower-performing students also displayed a significant increase in exam postdiction accuracy by Exam 3. While there was no significant difference in students’ MAI scores from the beginning to the end of the semester, qualitative analysis of reflective essays indicated that students benefitted from the assignments and could articulate clear action plans to improve their learning and performance. Our findings suggest that assignments designed to promote metacognition can have an impact on students over the course of one semester and may provide the greatest benefits to lower-performing students. PMID:29904551

Teaching Technoliteracy: Assignments Requiring Microcomputer Applications in Oral Communication Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reppert, James E.

This paper outlines methods for students in an introductory speech course at Southern Arkansas University to use microcomputers as essential research tools in class assignments. The outline is divided into seven projects, each with two objectives and a list of activities and procedures: (1) speech of introduction; (2) impromptu speech; (3)…

Using Cultural Research Assignments To Help Business Students Become More Culturally Aware.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winter, Janet K.; And Others

This paper provides some activities that can be used to acquaint business students with the cultural differences that might be encountered in international business situations. Activities described involve: (1) exposing students to cultural differences through the use of foreign art and literature; (2) requiring students to prepare a cultural…

Personal Reflection: Reflections on a Family Health History Assignment for Undergraduate Public Health and Nursing Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rooks, Ronica N.; Ford, Cassandra

2013-01-01

This personal reflection describes our experiences with incorporating the scholarship of teaching and learning and problem-based techniques to facilitate undergraduate student learning and their professional development in the health sciences. We created a family health history assignment to discuss key concepts in our courses, such as health…

Teaching Complaint and Adjustment Letters--And Tact (My Favorite Assignment).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deimling, Paula

1992-01-01

Describes a three-part assignment in which each student writes a complaint letter and an adjustment letter responding to another student's complaint letter. Discusses how the third part of the assignment--journal entries--allows students to formulate their own criteria for excellent letters based upon their reactions to the letters they receive.…

Boundaries and Student Self-Disclosure in Authentic, Integrated Learning Activities and Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booth, Melanie

2012-01-01

Faculty in higher education may find themselves reading student work or hearing students' voices in class or in online course discussion boards that reveal a lot of personal information, information that they think might be better kept private, information that may be concerning or even threatening. In their attempts to create richer learning…

Scaffolding Assignments: Analysis of Assignmentor as a Tool to Support First Year Students' Academic Writing Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silva, Pedro

2017-01-01

There are several technological tools which aim to support first year students' challenges, especially when it comes to academic writing. This paper analyses one of these tools, Wiley's AssignMentor. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework was used to systematise this analysis. The paper showed an alignment between the tools'…

A Comparison of Electronic and Paper-Based Assignment Submission and Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bridge, Pete; Appleyard, Rob

2008-01-01

This paper presents the results of a study evaluating student perceptions of online assignment submission. 47 students submitted assignments and received feedback via features within the Virtual Learning Environment Blackboard[TM]. The students then completed questionnaires comparing their experience of online submission and feedback with…

The Well-Tempered Mathematics Assignment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rishel, Thomas W.

Mathematics faculty around the United States are using writing assignments in a variety of ways. A mathematics teacher at Alma College, Michigan, has students write mathematical autobiographies, keep a reading logbook, and write letters to other students about the course, letters to instructors about the topics, or about what they do not…

Teaching Tip: Improving Students' Email Communication through an Integrated Writing Assignment in a Third-Year Toxicology Course.

PubMed

Kedrowicz, April A; Hammond, Sarah; Dorman, David C

Client communication is important for success in veterinary practice, with written communication being an important means for veterinarian-client information sharing. Effective communication is adapted to clients' needs and wants, and presents information in a clear, understandable manner while accounting for varying degrees of client health literacy. This teaching tip describes the use of a mock electronic mail assignment as one way to integrate writing into a required veterinary toxicology course. As part of this project, we provide baseline data relating to students' written communication that will guide further development of writing modules in other curricula. Two independent raters analyzed students' writing using a coding scheme designed to assess adherence to the guidelines for effective written health communication. Results showed that the majority of students performed satisfactorily or required some development with respect to recommended guidelines for effective written health communication to facilitate client understanding. These findings suggest that additional instruction and practice should emphasize the importance of incorporating examples, metaphors, analogies, and pictures to create texts that are comprehensible and memorable to clients. Recommendations are provided for effective integration of writing assignments into the veterinary medicine curriculum.

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.

The Automatic Sweetheart: An Assignment in a History of Psychology Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sibicky, Mark E.

2007-01-01

This article describes an assignment in a History of Psychology course used to enhance student retention of material and increase student interest and discussion of the long-standing debate between humanistic and mechanistic models in psychology. Adapted from William James's (1955) automatic sweetheart question, the assignment asks students to…

A Case-Study Assignment to Teach Theoretical Perspectives in Abnormal Psychology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perkins, David V.

1991-01-01

Describes an assignment that requires students to organize, prepare, and revise a case study in abnormal behavior. Explains that students employ a single theoretical perspective in preparing a report on a figure from history, literature, the arts, or current events. Discusses the value of the assignment for students. (SG)

Online Assignments in Economics: A Test of Their Effectiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennelly, Brendan; Considine, John; Flannery, Darragh

2011-01-01

This article compares the effectiveness of online and paper-based assignments and tutorials using summative assessment results. All of the students in a large managerial economics course at National University of Ireland, Galway were asked to do six assignments online using Aplia and to do two on paper. The authors examined whether a student's…

Mathematics Textbooks and the Teaching of Assigned Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donlan, Dan

This paper initially presents the results of several studies concerning what kind of writing mathematics teachers assign and what kind of writing mathematics textbooks assign. By far, report-research was the most popular type of writing assigned in the surveyed textbooks. The types of reports students were asked to write include biography,…

A Post-Final Assignment for the Methods Course: Providing an Incentive to Professional Growth for Future Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bentley, Michael L.

This paper describes J. Rosengren's post-final assignment and M. Harmin's truth signs activity that were incorporated into a secondary science methods course for preservice teachers. The strength of the post-final assignment is that it is a strategy for extending student learning past the end of a course and even beyond the initial teaching…

One of My Favorite Assignments: Automated Teller Machine Simulation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberman, Paul S.

2001-01-01

Describes an assignment for an introductory computer science class that requires the student to write a software program that simulates an automated teller machine. Highlights include an algorithm for the assignment; sample file contents; language features used; assignment variations; and discussion points. (LRW)

The "Outsider/Insider" Assignment: A Pedagogical Innovation for Teaching Cross-Cultural Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Angela Cora

2014-01-01

In this paper, I describe an innovative assignment for teaching undergraduate students cross-cultural understanding. The Outsider/Insider assignment simultaneously teaches facts about cultural difference and skills for managing cross-cultural encounters. Briefly, the assignment is to write two short papers, one in which the student describes a…

Promoting physical activity using a wearable activity tracker in college students: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Kim, Youngdeok; Lumpkin, Angela; Lochbaum, Marc; Stegemeier, Steven; Kitten, Karla

2018-08-01

This study examined the effects of utilizing a wearable activity tracker in a credit-based physical activity instructional program (PAIP) for promoting physical activity (PA) in college students. Fourteen PAIP courses in a large public university were randomly assigned into intervention (k = 7; n = 101) and control (k = 7; n = 86) groups. All courses focused on a core curriculum that covers basic exercise and behavioral science contents through lectures and activity sessions. A Misfit Flash activity tracker was provided to students in the intervention group. Objective PA assessments occurred at baseline, mid-, and end-of-semester during a 15-week academic semester. The control group showed a significant reduction in moderate- and vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA) minutes from baseline to the end-of-semester (P <.05), whereas the intervention group showed no changes in MVPA minutes over time. However, the intervention group also showed increased sedentary time and decreased time spent in light-intensity PA during the intervention period. Taken together, the present study found null effects of utilizing the wearable activity tracker in promoting PA in college students suggesting that intervention of primary using the wearable activity tracker as a behavior change strategy may not be effective to increase in PA in this setting.

An active-learning assignment involving peer-to-peer presentations to improve pharmacy students' attitudes and knowledge of dietary supplements.

PubMed

Atayee, Rabia S; Singh, Renu F; Best, Brookie M; Freedman, Beverley A; Morello, Candis M

2012-08-10

To design and implement a small-group self-guided active-learning format for a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) curriculum, and assess changes in first-year doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students' attitudes and knowledge of CAM. Students received an overview CAM lecture from a faculty member, and brief presentations with defined parameters on natural products from their peers. Based on pre- and post-intervention survey responses, the percentage of students who strongly agreed about the importance of CAM in pharmacy practice increased from 28% to 55% and the percentage of students who agreed or strongly agreed about the harmful effects of dietary supplements increased from 60% to 96%. Overall, students' attitude toward and self-assessed knowledge of dietary supplements improved significantly from pre- to post-intervention survey. Small-group self-guided learning of CAM, followed by peer presentations on dietary supplements, was successful in significantly improving pharmacy students' attitude toward and knowledge of CAM.

"Miss! I'm Done!" Finishing Craft Assignments as a Situated Activity System in Preschool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deunk, Marjolein; Berenst, Jan; de Glopper, Kees

2010-01-01

We describe the Situated Activity System of finishing craft assignments in preschool: the specific, routinized way that child and teacher jointly close the child's craft assignment, employing a specific discourse pattern. We analyzed the interactions of 14 Dutch children between 2.1 and 3.10 years old while they were finishing their craft…

Negotiating Languages and Cultures: Enacting Translingualism through a Translation Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiernan, Julia; Meier, Joyce; Wang, Xiqiao

2016-01-01

This collaborative project explores the affordances of a translation assignment in the context of a learner-centered pedagogy that places composition students' movement among languages and cultures as both a site for inquiry and subject of analysis. The translation assignment asks students to translate scholarly articles or culture stories from…

Are All Hands-On Activities Equally Effective? Effect of Using Plastic Models, Organ Dissections, and Virtual Dissections on Student Learning and Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lombardi, Sara A.; Hicks, Reimi E.; Thompson, Katerina V.; Marbach-Ad, Gili

2014-01-01

This study investigated the impact of three commonly used cardiovascular model-assisted activities on student learning and student attitudes and perspectives about science. College students enrolled in a Human Anatomy and Physiology course were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups (organ dissections, virtual dissections, or…

Student knowledge and confidence in an elective clinical toxicology course using active-learning techniques.

PubMed

Thomas, Michael C; Macias-Moriarity, Liliairica Z

2014-06-17

To measure changes in students' knowledge and confidence scores after completing an elective clinical toxicology course in an accelerated doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. Various active-learning techniques were used to create a learner-centered environment. Approximately two-thirds of the course used student-led presentations. Some of those not presenting were assigned to be evaluators, responsible for asking the presenter a question or writing quiz questions based on the presented material. Other learner-centered activities included weekly quizzes and discussions at the conclusion of each presented topic. A test instrument designed to measure students' knowledge and associated level of confidence on each item was administered at the beginning and end of the course. Students' knowledge and confidence scores increased significantly from pretest to posttest. Students' increased confidence and knowledge scores were well correlated after course completion, indicating students were better able to self-assess these areas. These findings suggest that confidence could be an additional measure of students' metacognitive skill development.

Teaching with the Case Study Method to Promote Active Learning in a Small Molecule Crystallography Course for Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Michael G.; Powers, Tamara M.; Zheng, Shao-Liang

2016-01-01

Implementing the case study method in a practical X-ray crystallography course designed for graduate or upper-level undergraduate chemistry students is described. Compared with a traditional lecture format, assigning small groups of students to examine literature case studies encourages more active engagement with the course material and…

Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Jay R.

2004-01-01

In the process of collecting assessment data in the author's introductory sociology course, he made a startling and disappointing discovery. For the most part, students simply were not bothering to read the basics version of the introductory survey textbook that he assigned. This discovery presented him with two related challenges. First, he had…

Transdisciplinary assignments in graduate health education as a model for future collaboration.

PubMed

Christie, Catherine; Smith, A Russell; Bednarzyk, Michele

2007-01-01

Transdisciplinary health care continues to be at the forefront of patient treatment in the medical arena, in part due to escalating health care costs, an increasing aging population, and the development of multiple chronic diseases. Gaining the knowledge, experience, and principles associated with transdisciplinary teamwork to successfully prepare for modern-day practice is therefore essential for individuals of various health care professions. This report describes an assignment developed and implemented to facilitate professional interaction between graduate physical therapy, nutrition, and nursing students. The objectives of this assignment were to determine through student evaluation the effects of a transdisciplinary experience on students' understanding of the role of another discipline and students' communication skills across disciplines. When evaluating the assignment, students most often remarked that they developed a greater understanding of the roles of the included disciplines and reported a significant increase in communication skills. However, some students did not concur that this assignment was effective due to the scheduling conflicts and lack of teamwork that can occur during a collaborative project. The students' reports of their experiences in completing the assignment provide valuable insights for implementing and/or updating a preparatory transdisciplinary education component in other settings. Additional research can focus on the challenges faced by the majority of the students venturing into actual health care or "real-world" settings for comparative studies.

Problem-Based Assignments as a Trigger for Developing Ethical and Reflective Competencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Euler, Dieter; Kühner, Patrizia

2017-01-01

The following research question serves as the starting point of this research and development project: How, in the context of a didactic design, can problem-based assignments trigger learning activities for the development of ethical and reflective competencies in students in economics courses? This paper focuses on the design of problem-based…

The Empathy Project: Using a Project-Based Learning Assignment to Increase First-Year College Students' Comfort with Interdisciplinarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutchison, Micol

2016-01-01

Empathy and interdisciplinarity are both concepts that are current and relevant--across professions, in research, and in academia. This paper describes a large, interdisciplinary, project-based assignment, the Empathy Project, which allows students to delve into and increase comfort and skill with interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative…

Web-Based Problem-Solving Assignment and Grading System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brereton, Giles; Rosenberg, Ronald

2014-11-01

In engineering courses with very specific learning objectives, such as fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, it is conventional to reinforce concepts and principles with problem-solving assignments and to measure success in problem solving as an indicator of student achievement. While the modern-day ease of copying and searching for online solutions can undermine the value of traditional assignments, web-based technologies also provide opportunities to generate individualized well-posed problems with an infinite number of different combinations of initial/final/boundary conditions, so that the probability of any two students being assigned identical problems in a course is vanishingly small. Such problems can be designed and programmed to be: single or multiple-step, self-grading, allow students single or multiple attempts; provide feedback when incorrect; selectable according to difficulty; incorporated within gaming packages; etc. In this talk, we discuss the use of a homework/exam generating program of this kind in a single-semester course, within a web-based client-server system that ensures secure operation.

Scientist Spotlight Homework Assignments Shift Students' Stereotypes of Scientists and Enhance Science Identity in a Diverse Introductory Science Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schinske, Jeffrey N.; Perkins, Heather; Snyder, Amanda; Wyer, Mary

2016-01-01

Research into science identity, stereotype threat, and possible selves suggests a lack of diverse representations of scientists could impede traditionally underserved students from persisting and succeeding in science. We evaluated a series of metacognitive homework assignments ("Scientist Spotlights") that featured counterstereotypical…

Light Source Matters--Students' Explanations about the Behavior of Light When Different Light Sources Are Used in Task Assignments of Optics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kesonen, Mikko Henri Petteri; Asikainen, Mervi Anita; Hirvonen, Pekka Emil

2017-01-01

In the present article, the context-dependency of student reasoning is studied in a context of optics. We investigated introductory students' explanations about the behavior of light when different light sources, namely a small light bulb and a laser, were used in otherwise identical task assignments. The data was gathered with the aid of pretest…

Educational Value Units: A Mission-Based Approach to Assigning and Monitoring Faculty Teaching Activities in an Academic Medical Department.

PubMed

Regan, Linda; Jung, Julianna; Kelen, Gabor D

2016-12-01

Increasing emphasis on revenue generation could jeopardize the fundamental notion of what it means to be faculty. Despite being a core mission, education is often marginalized in academic medical departments, and expectations of faculty effort in this area are often vague. A potential solution is mission-based budgeting (MBB), which refers to the allocation of resources based on core-mission-related priorities. From December 2012 to March 2013, the authors developed an educational value unit (EVU) system (using an MBB approach) to assign and monitor teaching activities related to the core departmental educational mission at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine. EVUs were based on learner contact time, with one EVU equal to roughly one hour of in-person time with medical students or residents. Core education faculty vetted the proposed system; educational leaders determined the total EVUs needed and assessed the impact of their equitable distribution among faculty; and faculty members selected preferences and were assigned EVU obligations. For academic year 2013-2014, 5,896 EVUs were distributed among 54 faculty. At the end of the year, complete EVU data were available for 47 faculty. Of these, only 6 failed to complete their assigned EVU obligations. All core teaching activities were covered, and educational efforts were distributed more equitably across faculty. The system is being refined, with an emphasis on incorporating learner outcome metrics, refining the teaching grid, incorporating failure to meet EVU obligations into yearly faculty evaluations, and disseminating the system to other departments and institutions.

Influence of a health-related physical fitness model on students' physical activity, perceived competence, and enjoyment.

PubMed

Fu, You; Gao, Zan; Hannon, James; Shultz, Barry; Newton, Maria; Sibthorp, Jim

2013-12-01

This study was designed to explore the effects of a health-related physical fitness physical education model on students' physical activity, perceived competence, and enjoyment. 61 students (25 boys, 36 girls; M age = 12.6 yr., SD = 0.6) were assigned to two groups (health-related physical fitness physical education group, and traditional physical education group), and participated in one 50-min. weekly basketball class for 6 wk. Students' in-class physical activity was assessed using NL-1000 pedometers. The physical subscale of the Perceived Competence Scale for Children was employed to assess perceived competence, and children's enjoyment was measured using the Sport Enjoyment Scale. The findings suggest that students in the intervention group increased their perceived competence, enjoyment, and physical activity over a 6-wk. intervention, while the comparison group simply increased physical activity over time. Children in the intervention group had significantly greater enjoyment.

Enhancing student retention of prerequisite knowledge through pre-class activities and in-class reinforcement.

PubMed

Taylor, Ann T S; Olofson, Eric L; Novak, Walter R P

2017-03-04

To foster the connection between biochemistry and the supporting prerequisite concepts, a collection of activities that explicitly link general and organic chemistry concepts to biochemistry ideas was written and either assigned as pre-class work or as recitation activities. We assessed student learning gains after using these activities alone, or in combination with regularly-integrated clicker and discussion questions. Learning gains were determined from student performance on pre- and post-tests covering key prerequisite concepts, biochemistry course exams, and student self-evaluation. Long-term retention of the material was assessed using a comprehensive exam given to a subset of the students. Our results show that using the pre-class exercises in combination with integrative questions was effective at improving student performance in both the short and long term. Similar results were obtained at both a large research institution with large class enrollments and at a private liberal arts college with moderate enrollments. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):97-104, 2017. © 2016 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Does a Combination of Metaphor and Pairing Activity Help Programming Performance of Students with Different Self-Regulated Learning Level?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hui, Tie Hui; Umar, Irfan Naufal

2011-01-01

This study aims to investigate the effects of metaphors and pairing activity on programming performance of students with different self-regulated-learning (SRL) level. A total of 84 computing students were involved in this seven-week study, and they were randomly assigned either to a group that received a combination of metaphor and pair…

Business Etiquette (My Favorite Assignment).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Cassie

1990-01-01

Describes an assignment for a business communication course in which students give an oral presentation on some aspect of business manners and etiquette, thus increasing their awareness of the impact of social graces on communication in the business setting. (SR)

Integrated Design of Basic Training, Practicum and End-of-Course Assignment Modules in the Teacher Training Degree: Perception of University Teachers, Students, and School Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torremorell, Maria Carme Boqué; de Nicolás, Montserrat Alguacil; Valls, Mercè Pañellas

Teacher training at the Blanquerna Faculty of Psychology and Educational and Sports Sciences (FPCEE), in Barcelona, has a long pedagogical tradition based on teaching innovation. Its educational style is characterised by methods focused on the students' involvement and on close collaboration with teaching practice centres. Within a core subject in the Teacher Training diploma course, students were asked to assess different methodological proposals aimed at promoting the development of their personal, social, and professional competences. In the assessment surveys, from a sample of 145 students, scores for variables very satisfactory or satisfactory ranged from 95.8 % to 83.4 % for the entire set of methodological actions under analysis. Data obtained in this first research phase were very useful to design basic training modules for the new Teacher Training Degree. In the second phase (in process), active teachers are asked for their perception on the orientation of the practicum, its connection with the end-of-course assignment, and the in-service student's incidence on innovation processes at school.

The effect of role assignment in high fidelity patient simulation on nursing students: An experimental research study.

PubMed

Weiler, Dustin T; Gibson, Andrea L; Saleem, Jason J

2018-04-01

Previous studies have evaluated the effectiveness of high fidelity patient simulators (HFPS) on nursing training; however, a gap exists on the effects of role assignment on critical thinking, self-efficacy, and situation awareness skills in team-based simulation scenarios. This study aims to determine if role assignment and the involvement level related to the roles yields significant effects and differences in critical thinking, situation awareness and self-efficacy scores in team-based high-fidelity simulation scenarios. A single factorial design with five levels and random assignment was utilized. A public university-sponsored simulation center in the United States of America. A convenience sample of 69 junior-level baccalaureate nursing students was recruited for participation. Participants were randomly assigned one of five possible roles and completed pre-simulation critical thinking and self-efficacy assessments prior to the simulation beginning. Playing within their assigned roles, participants experienced post-partum hemorrhaging scenario using an HFPS. After completing the simulation, participants completed a situation awareness assessment and a post-simulation critical thinking and self-efficacy assessment. Role assignment was found to have a statistically significant effect on critical thinking skills and a statistically significant difference in various areas of self-efficacy was also noted. However, no statistical significance in situation awareness abilities was found. Results support the notion that certain roles required the participant to be more involved with the simulation scenario, which may have yielded higher critical thinking and self-efficacy scores than roles that required a lesser level of involvement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a Brief Homework Assignment Designed to Reduce Citation Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schuetze, Pamela

2004-01-01

I evaluated a brief homework assignment designed to reduce citation problems in research-based term papers. Students in 2 developmental psychology classes received a brief presentation and handout defining plagiarism with tips on how to cite sources to avoid plagiarizing. In addition, students in 1 class completed 2 brief homework assignments in…

Bone Mineral Density Changes after Physical Training and Calcium Intake in Students with Attention Deficit and Hyper Activity Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arab ameri, Elahe; Dehkhoda, Mohammad Reza; Hemayattalab, Rasool

2012-01-01

In this study we investigate the effects of weight bearing exercise and calcium intake on bone mineral density (BMD) of students with attention deficit and hyper activity (ADHD) disorder. For this reason 54 male students with ADHD (age 8-12 years old) were assigned to four groups with no differences in age, BMD, calcium intake, and physical…

Seven Birds with One Magic Bullet: Designing Assignments that Encourage Student Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krause-Jensen, Jakob

2010-01-01

At the Danish University School of Education we have experimented with a form of assessment called "active participation". A week before each class students are given reading guidelines and questions to help them approach the texts, and on the basis of one of those questions the students each write a two-page essay. The students are…

Worth It? Findings from a Study of How Academics Assess Students' Web 2.0 Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Kathleen; Waycott, Jenny; Clerehan, Rosemary; Hamilton, Margaret; Richardson, Joan; Sheard, Judithe; Thompson, Celia

2012-01-01

Educational commentators have offered many pedagogical rationales for using Web 2.0 to support learning in higher education, and academics are being encouraged to find ways for their students to use social web technologies. Questions arise as to the value of these activities compared to more conventional assignments, and whether implementing such…

Using Clouds for MapReduce Measurement Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabkin, Ariel; Reiss, Charles; Katz, Randy; Patterson, David

2013-01-01

We describe our experiences teaching MapReduce in a large undergraduate lecture course using public cloud services and the standard Hadoop API. Using the standard API, students directly experienced the quality of industrial big-data tools. Using the cloud, every student could carry out scalability benchmarking assignments on realistic hardware,…

Detention as a Deterrent for Late Assignments: A Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conover, Pamela J.

To gauge the impact of after-school student detention on punctual completion of homework, on detained student grades, and on student self-esteem, fourth- through sixth-grade students from a school with an after-school detention policy for late or incomplete assignments were studied. Interviews were conducted with the four fourth-, fifth-, and…

Foods and Nutrition. Student Modules and Instructor's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

South Carolina State Dept. of Education, Columbia. Office of Vocational Education.

These 64 performance-based instructional modules are for the home economics content area of food and nutrition. Each module is composed of an introduction for the student, a performance objective, a variety of learning activities (reading assignments, tasks, written assignments), content information, a student self-check, recommended references,…

Pediatric Online Evidence-Based Medicine Assignment Is a Novel Effective Enjoyable Undergraduate Medical Teaching Tool

PubMed Central

Kotb, Magd A.; Elmahdy, Hesham Nabeh; Khalifa, Nour El Deen Mahmoud; El-Deen, Mohamed Hamed Nasr; Lotfi, Mohamed Amr N.

2015-01-01

Abstract Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is delivered through a didactic, blended learning, and mixed models. Students are supposed to construct an answerable question in PICO (patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome) framework, acquire evidence through search of literature, appraise evidence, apply it to the clinical case scenario, and assess the evidence in relation to clinical context. Yet these teaching models have limitations especially those related to group work, for example, handling uncooperative students, students who fail to contribute, students who domineer, students who have personal conflict, their impact upon progress of their groups, and inconsistent individual acquisition of required skills. At Pediatrics Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, we designed a novel undergraduate pediatric EBM assignment online system to overcome shortcomings of previous didactic method and aimed to assess its effectiveness by prospective follow-up during academic years 2012 to 2013 and 2013 to 2014. The novel web-based online interactive system was tailored to provide sequential single and group assignments for each student. Single assignment addressed a specific case scenario question, while group assignment was teamwork that addressed different questions of same case scenario. Assignment comprised scholar content and skills. We objectively analyzed students’ performance by criterion-based assessment and subjectively by anonymous student questionnaire. A total of 2879 were enrolled in 5th year Pediatrics Course consecutively, of them 2779 (96.5%) logged in and 2554 (88.7%) submitted their work. They were randomly assigned to 292 groups. A total of 2277 (89.15%) achieved ≥80% of total mark (4/5), of them 717 (28.1%) achieved a full mark. A total of 2178 (85.27%) and 2359 (92.36%) made evidence-based conclusions and recommendations in single and group assignment, respectively (P < 0.001). A total of 1102 (43.1%) answered student questionnaire

Ideas for the Classroom: Freshmen Assigned to Recruit New Students; Class in Art History Meets Only in a Museum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hosley, Catherine J.

1987-01-01

Three innovative ideas for college instruction include a freshman assignment to write recruitment letters to high school students with similar interests, introductory art history classes taught solely in a museum adjacent to the campus, and use of the "Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestry to combine plant identification practice with art…

An Empirical Examination of the Roles of Ability and Gender in Collaborative Homework Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Jeffrey

2010-01-01

The author investigates how ability and gender affect grades on homework projects performed by assigned pairs of students in an undergraduate macroeconomics course. The assignment grade is found to depend on the ability of both students, and the relative importance of the stronger and weaker student differs in predictable ways depending on the…

Teachers and Seating Arrangements and Assignments: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinahan, Mary P.

2017-01-01

Seating assignments and arrangements are utilized in every school classroom. This qualitative study explored the perceptions that teachers have on seating assignments and arrangements to gain a better understanding of how they make design considerations which impact their students. The questions that guide this study are: How do elementary…

Three ESL Students Writing a Policy Paper Assignment: An Activity-Analytic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yongyan

2013-01-01

How university students write from sources has been an issue of long-standing interest among researchers of advanced academic literacy. Previous research in this regard in the context of L2 writing has tended to focus on novices' textual borrowing; less attention has been given to exploring the potential light that theories from other intellectual…

Juggling and the Art of the Integrative Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunlap, Lynn; Sult, Larry

2013-01-01

When faculty study samples of student work, assignment prompts typically become part of the review. Two experienced learning community faculty from Skagit Valley College examined their students' work with three questions in mind: whether the work was grounded in disciplinary insights; whether the work leveraged disciplinary knowledge to develop…

Open-Ended Assignments and Student Responsibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brauner, Annelie; Carey, Jannette; Henriksson, Marie; Sunnerhagen, Maria; Ehrenborg, Ewa

2007-01-01

An inquiry-based laboratory course was created in an effort to increase student responsibility in learning and to improve teaching in areas related to molecular medicine. Authentic medical cases with both scientific and clinical aspects formed the basis of a project-oriented course that also included student laboratory work focused on the…

A Foot in the Door: Exploring the Role of Student Teaching Assignments in Teachers' Initial Job Placements. CEDR Working Paper. WP #2015-2.1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieg, John; Theobald, Roddy; Goldhaber, Dan

2015-01-01

We use data from Washington State to examine two distinct stages of the teacher pipeline: the placement of prospective teachers in student teaching assignments; and the hiring of prospective teachers into their first teaching positions. We find that prospective teachers are likely to complete their student teaching near their college and…

Measuring Conceptual Gains and Benefits of Student Problem Designs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandell, Eric; Snyder, Rachel; Oswald, Wayne

2011-10-01

Writing assignments can be an effective way of getting students to practice higher-order learning skills in physics. One example of such an assignment is that of problem design. One version of the problem design assignment asks the student to evaluate the material from a chapter, after all instruction and other activities are complete. The student is to decide what concepts and ideas are most central, or critical in the chapter, and construct a problem that he or she feels best encompasses the major themes. Here, we use two concept surveys (FCI and EMCS) to measure conceptual gains for students completing the problem design assignment and present the preliminary results, comparing across several categories including gender, age, degree program, and class standing.

Increased alpha band activity indexes inhibitory competition across a border during figure assignment.

PubMed

Sanguinetti, Joseph L; Trujillo, Logan T; Schnyer, David M; Allen, John J B; Peterson, Mary A

2016-09-01

Figure-ground assignment is thought to entail inhibitory competition between potential objects on opposite sides of a shared border; the winner is perceived as the figure, and the loser as the shapeless ground. Computational models and response time measures support this understanding but to date no online measure of inhibitory competition during figure-ground assignment has been reported. The current study assays electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha power as a measure of inhibitory competition during figure-ground assignment. Activity in the EEG alpha band has been linked to functional inhibition in the brain, and it has been proposed that increased alpha power reflects increased inhibition. In 2 experiments participants viewed silhouettes designed so that the insides would be perceived as figures. Real-world silhouettes depicted namable objects. Novel silhouettes depicted novel objects on the insides of their borders, but varied in the amount of hypothesized cross-border competition for figural status: In "Low-Competition" silhouettes, the borders suggested novel objects on the outside as well as on the inside. In "High-Competition" silhouettes the borders suggested portions of real-world objects on the outside; these compete with the figural properties favoring the inside as figure. Participants accurately categorized both types of novel silhouettes as "novel" objects and were unaware of the real world objects suggested on the outside of the High-Competition silhouettes. In both experiments, we observed more alpha power while participants viewed High- rather than Low-Competition novel silhouettes. These are the first results to show via an online index of neural activity that figure assignment entails inhibitory competition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Game Elements to Increase Student Engagement in Course Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Armier, David Des, Jr.; Shepherd, Craig E.; Skrabut, Stan

2016-01-01

Gamification incorporates game-elements in non-gaming situations to enhance student engagement and desired behavior. This study examined participant's willingness to take part in gamified activities where reward systems were not directly tied to course grades. Participants enrolled in a technology integration course for preservice teachers, were…

The Effects of Source, Revision Possibility, and Amount of Feedback on Marketing Students' Impressions of Feedback on an Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ackerman, David S.; Dommeyer, Curt J.; Gross, Barbara L.

2017-01-01

This study examines how three factors affect students' reactions to critical feedback on an assignment--amount of feedback (none vs. low amount vs. high amount), source of feedback (instructor-provided feedback vs. peer-provided feedback), and the situational context of the feedback (revision of paper is or is not possible). An incomplete 3 × 2 ×…

Individual Assignments and Academic Dishonesty--Exploring the Learning Conundrum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Valorie; LeBrasseur, Rolland

2008-01-01

A survey of university business professors focused on their use of individual assignments in courses and their views on cheating and its impact on student learning. Based on responses from 456 professors (37% response rate) from Ontario, Canada, it was concluded that most faculty believe that individual assignments are effective learning tools and…

The use of limericks to engage student interest and promote active learning in an undergraduate course in functional anatomy.

PubMed

Carnegie, Jacqueline A

2012-01-01

The study of anatomy is a content-dense discipline with a challenging vocabulary. A mnemonic is a series of letters, a word, a phrase, or a rhyme that students can use when studying to facilitate recall. This project was designed to promote active learning in undergraduate students studying anatomy and physiology by asking them to create limericks based on course content and then to evaluate the limericks written by their peers for learning value, accuracy, style, and adherence to limerick characteristics. Students (278 and 288, respectively, in the 2009 and 2010 sections of ANP1107) worked in groups of three to create a total of 242 limericks. Peer evaluation was accomplished in two stages using a 20-point marking rubric. In Stage 1, students were randomly divided into 10 groups (n = 23 ± 2 students) with each group member evaluating the same 12 ± 1 limericks. In Stage 2, the top 19% of limericks were reevaluated by all students so that the best three could be chosen. In each of the two years, 60% of students completed all parts of the assignment. Higher percentages (75-80%) participated in limerick writing and one of the two assessment stages. A positive association was noted between level of student participation in the limerick assignment and final course marks. Limerick creation and evaluation can be used to promote active learning by encouraging students to review functional-anatomy-based content to create limericks with good learning value and to provide valid assessments of limericks written by their peers. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.

How to Improve the Peer Review Method: Free-Selection vs Assigned-Pair Protocol Evaluated in a Computer Networking Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papadopoulos, Pantelis M.; Lagkas, Thomas D.; Demetriadis, Stavros N.

2012-01-01

This study provides field research evidence on the efficiency of a "free-selection" peer review assignment protocol as compared to the typically implemented "assigned-pair" protocol. The study employed 54 sophomore students who were randomly assigned into three groups: Assigned-Pair (AP) (the teacher assigns student works for review to student…

A New Gimmick for Assigning Absolute Configuration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayorinde, F. O.

1983-01-01

A five-step procedure is provided to help students in making the assignment absolute configuration less bothersome. Examples for both single (2-butanol) and multi-chiral carbon (3-chloro-2-butanol) molecules are included. (JN)

Quantitative evaluation of expression difference in report assignments between nursing and radiologic technology departments.

PubMed

Nishimoto, Naoki; Yokooka, Yuki; Yagahara, Ayako; Uesugi, Masahito; Ogasawara, Katsuhiko

2011-01-01

Our purpose in this study was to investigate the expression differences in report assignments between students in nursing and radiologic technology departments. We have known that faculties could identify differences, such as word usage, through grading their students' assignments. However, there are no reports in the literature dealing with expression differences in vocabulary usage in medical informatics education based on statistical techniques or other quantitative measures. The report assignment asked for students' opinions in the event that they found a rare case of a disease in a hospital after they graduated from professional school. We processed student report data automatically, and we applied the space vector model and TF/IDF (term frequency/inverse document frequency) scoring to 129 report assignments. The similarity-score distributions among the assignments for these two departments were close to normal. We focused on the sets of terms that occurred exclusively in either department. For terms such as "radiation therapy" or "communication skills" that occurred in the radiologic technology department, the TF/IDF score was 8.01. The same score was obtained for terms such as "privacy guidelines" or "consent of patients" that occurred in the nursing department. These results will help faculties to provide a better education based on identified expression differences from students' background knowledge.

Combining traditional anatomy lectures with e-learning activities: how do students perceive their learning experience?

PubMed Central

Wieser, Heike; Waldboth, Simone; Mischo-Kelling, Maria

2016-01-01

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate how students perceived their learning experience when combining traditional anatomy lectures with preparatory e-learning activities that consisted of fill-in-the-blank assignments, videos, and multiple-choice quizzes. Methods A qualitative study was conducted to explore changes in study behaviour and perception of learning. Three group interviews with students were conducted and thematically analysed. Results Data was categorized into four themes: 1. Approaching the course material, 2. Understanding the material, 3. Consolidating the material, and 4. Perceived learning outcome.  Students appreciated the clear structure of the course, and reported that online activities encouraged them towards a first engagement with the material. They felt that they were more active during in-class sessions, described self-study before the end-of-term exam as easier, and believed that contents would remain in their memories for a longer time. Conclusions By adjusting already existing resources, lectures can be combined fairly easily and cost-effectively with preparatory e-learning activities. The creation of online components promote well-structured courses, can help minimize ‘student passivity’ as a characteristic element of lectures, and can support students in distributing their studies throughout the term, thus suggesting enhanced learning. Further research work should be designed to confirm the afore-mentioned findings through objective measurements of student learning outcomes. PMID:26897012

Combining traditional anatomy lectures with e-learning activities: how do students perceive their learning experience?

PubMed

Lochner, Lukas; Wieser, Heike; Waldboth, Simone; Mischo-Kelling, Maria

2016-02-21

The purpose of this study was to investigate how students perceived their learning experience when combining traditional anatomy lectures with preparatory e-learning activities that consisted of fill-in-the-blank assignments, videos, and multiple-choice quizzes. A qualitative study was conducted to explore changes in study behaviour and perception of learning. Three group interviews with students were conducted and thematically analysed. Data was categorized into four themes: 1. Approaching the course material, 2. Understanding the material, 3. Consolidating the material, and 4. Perceived learning outcome. Students appreciated the clear structure of the course, and reported that online activities encouraged them towards a first engagement with the material. They felt that they were more active during in-class sessions, described self-study before the end-of-term exam as easier, and believed that contents would remain in their memories for a longer time. By adjusting already existing resources, lectures can be combined fairly easily and cost-effectively with preparatory e-learning activities. The creation of online components promote well-structured courses, can help minimize 'student passivity' as a characteristic element of lectures, and can support students in distributing their studies throughout the term, thus suggesting enhanced learning. Further research work should be designed to confirm the afore-mentioned findings through objective measurements of student learning outcomes.

Dual Outcomes of Psychology Assignments: Perceived Learning and Feelings of Prideful Accomplishment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pines, Harvey A.; Larkin, Judith E.; Murray, Molly P.

2016-01-01

Two studies explored properties of psychology assignments from an atypical perspective: students' own perceptions of what they learned and their emotional reactions to the assignments, specifically feelings of pride in their work. Study 1 showed that assignments vary in their likelihood of generating prideful accomplishment and identified three…

Moving beyond "Bookish Knowledge": Using Film-Based Assignments to Promote Deep Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Joann S.; Autry, Linda; Moe, Jeffry

2016-01-01

This article investigates the effectiveness of a film-based assignment given to adult learners in a graduate-level group counseling class. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four students; data analysis suggested film-based assignments may promote deep approaches to learning (DALs). Participants indicated the assignment helped them…

The Utility of Writing Assignments in Undergraduate Bioscience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Libarkin, Julie; Ording, Gabriel

2012-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that engagement in a few, brief writing assignments in a nonmajors science course can improve student ability to convey critical thought about science. A sample of three papers written by students (n = 30) was coded for presence and accuracy of elements related to scientific writing. Scores for different aspects of…

Developing Team Skills through a Collaborative Writing Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Theda Ann

2014-01-01

Employers want students who are able to work effectively as members of a team, and expect universities to develop this ability in their graduates. This paper proposes a framework for a collaborative writing assignment that specifically develops students' ability to work in teams. The framework has been tested using two iterations of an action…

Use of a Mobile Device Simulation as a Preclass Active Learning Exercise.

PubMed

Keegan, Robert D; Oliver, M Cecile; Stanfill, Teresa J; Stevens, Kevin V; Brown, Gary R; Ebinger, Michael; Gay, John M

2016-01-01

Research shows that preclass activities introducing new material can increase student performance. In an effort to engage students in an active learning, preclass activity, the authors developed a mobile application. Eighty-four nursing students were assigned a preclass reading exercise, whereas 32 students completed the preclass simulation scenario on their mobile device. All students completed the same electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) quiz 1 week following the lecture. The effects of reading or simulation on student quiz performance was evaluated with a student's paired t test, using an alpha of .05. Students completing the preclass simulation scored higher on the EFM quiz, compared with students assigned the preclass reading (85% versus 70% correct answers, p = .01). Student survey data indicated that the mobile device simulation was perceived as an engaging and desirable instructional tool. Nursing students completing the mobile device EFM preclass simulation outperformed the students who were given the traditional reading assignment. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

The Mathematics Education Debates: Preparing Students to Become Professionally Active Mathematics Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munakata, Mika

2010-01-01

The Mathematics Education Debate is an assignment designed for and implemented in an undergraduate mathematics methods course for prospective secondary school mathematics teachers. For the assignment, students read and analyze current research and policy reports related to mathematics education, prepare and present their positions, offer…

The (digital) natives are restless: designing and implementing an interactive digital media assignment.

PubMed

Voge, Catherine; Hirvela, Kari; Jarzemsky, Paula

2012-01-01

To create an opportunity for students to connect with the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses competencies and demonstrate learning via knowledge transference, the authors piloted a digital media assignment. Students worked in small groups to create an unfolding patient care scenario with embedded decision points, using presentation software. The authors discuss the assignment and its outcomes.

Influence of Student Engagement, Moods and Completed Assignments with on Normalized Gains and Growth in Reading Literature Using iPads

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hepworth, A. J.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate how engagement, mood and number of assignments completed on computerized differentiated homework using an iPad in a one-to-one mobile device environment influenced the growth index and normalized gain in reading literature benchmark assessments of students in grades five, six, and seven. Furthermore,…

A Novel Method for Assigning R, S Labels to Enantiomers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huheey, James E.

1986-01-01

Discusses ways of teaching students about how to assign R (rectus) and S (sinister) labels to enantiomers by using their hands as models. The chirality of the human hands follows the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog Rules for assigning enantiomers and infers the correct chirality of molecules shown in two-dimensional drawings. (TW)

Nursing Students' Perceptions of Participatory Action Research.

PubMed

Csiernik, Rick; O'Regan, Tony; Forchuk, Cheryl; Rudnick, Abraham

2018-05-01

This article evaluates the experience of students engaged in a participatory action research project. Nursing students were assigned to research activities addressing poverty and social inclusion in the lives of individuals with mental health issues. Focus group interviews were held with 25 students, representing 58.1% of eligible students. Themes and subthemes were categorized from the transcripts, with two overarching themes emerging: (a) aspects that worked well, and (b) aspects that could be improved. The range of activities students engaged in while assigned to the project and students' perceptions, both positive and negative, about their overall exposure to participatory action research are identified and discussed. Findings in the literature with regard to perceived benefits and limitations of participatory action research projects involving students are supported by those found in this study. Based on the findings of this study, curriculum development for an interdisciplinary graduate-level course is in process. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(5):282-286.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

Using a Learning Activity Sequence in Large-Enrollment Physical Geology Classes: Supporting the Needs of Underserved Students While Motivating Interest, Learning, and Success

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pun, A.; Smith, G. A.

2011-12-01

-enrollment department sections taught during the same period. (2) Anonymous student surveys show that: 97% of students do at least some of the assigned reading before class while 58% indicate they would not do the reading if online reading assessments were not assigned; 72% indicate post-lecture online assessments prepare them for exams; greater than 80% of students feel that they learn more in the LAS approach than with traditional instruction; 90% favor active learning in the classroom to only lecture; learning opportunities motivate 82% to attend class to participate in peer instruction and in-class exercises, even if these assignments did not contribute at all to their grade. Notably, first-generation students show disproportionately greater preference for active in-class learning. (3) Learning gains were assessed with the geoscience concept inventory (GCI) of Libarkin and Anderson (2005, J Geo Ed 53(4):395-401). Paired pre- and post-test scores (n=404) in 5 classes show an improvement from 46% to 52% (11% normalized gain), within the target goal that McConnell et al. (2008, GSA Abst Prog 41(1):49) propose for introductory geology courses that produce improved conceptual geoscience learning.

The Impact of Classroom Physical Activity Breaks on Middle School Students' Health-Related Fitness: An Xbox One Kinetic Delivered 4-Week Randomized Controlled Trial

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yli-Piipari, S.; Layne, T.; McCollins, T.; Knox, T.

2016-01-01

The aim of the study was to examine the effect of a 4-week classroom physical activity break intervention on middle school students' health-related physical fitness. The study was a randomized controlled trial with students assigned to the experiment and control conditions. A convenience sample comprised 94 adolescents (experiment group n = 52;…

Metacognition Modules: A Scaffolded Series of Online Assignments Designed to Improve Students’ Study Skills†

PubMed Central

Cardinale, Jean A.; Johnson, Bethany C.

2017-01-01

Many first-year biology students begin college with high aspirations but limited skills in terms of those needed for their success. Teachers are increasingly focused on students’ lack of metacognitive awareness combined with students’ inability to self-regulate learning behaviors. To address this need, we have designed a series of out-of-class assignments to provide explicit instruction on memory and learning. Our metacognition modules consist of six video assignments with reflective journaling prompts, allowing students to explore the relationship between the learning cycle, neuroplasticity, memory function, expert and novice thinking, and effective study strategies. By setting lessons on improving study behavior within a biological context, we help students grasp the reason for changing their behavior based on an understanding of biological functions and their application to learning. Students who complete these scaffolded journaling assignments show a shift toward a growth mindset and a consistent ability to evaluate the efficacy of their own study behaviors. In this article, we discuss the modules and student assignments, as well as provide in depth support for faculty who wish to adopt the modules for their own courses. PMID:28904648

An assessment of health behavior peer effects in Peking University dormitories: a randomized cluster-assignment design for interference.

PubMed

Yuan, Changzheng; Lv, Jun; VanderWeele, Tyler J

2013-01-01

Relatively little is known about the peer influence in health behaviors within university dormitory rooms. Moreover, in China, the problem of unhealthy behaviors among university students has not yet been sufficiently recognized. We thus investigated health behavior peer influence in Peking University dormitories utilizing a randomized cluster-assignment design. Cross-sectional in-dormitory survey. Current students from Peking University Health Science Center from April to June, 2009. Self-reported questionnaire on health behaviors: physical activity (including bicycling), dietary intake and tobacco use. Use of bicycle, moderate-intensity exercise, frequency of sweet food and soybean milk intake, frequency of roasted/baked/toasted food intake were behaviors significantly or marginally significantly affected by peer influence. Health behavior peer effects exist within dormitory rooms among university students. This could provide guidance on room assignment, or inform intervention programs. Examining these may demand attention from university administrators and policy makers.

42 CFR 433.146 - Rights assigned; assignment method.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Rights assigned; assignment method. 433.146 Section 433.146 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... Assignment of Rights to Benefits § 433.146 Rights assigned; assignment method. (a) Except as specified in...

42 CFR 433.146 - Rights assigned; assignment method.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Rights assigned; assignment method. 433.146 Section 433.146 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... Assignment of Rights to Benefits § 433.146 Rights assigned; assignment method. (a) Except as specified in...

42 CFR 433.146 - Rights assigned; assignment method.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Rights assigned; assignment method. 433.146 Section 433.146 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... Assignment of Rights to Benefits § 433.146 Rights assigned; assignment method. (a) Except as specified in...

Mini-Journals: Incorporating Inquiry, Quantitative Skills and Writing into Homework Assignments for Geochemistry and Planetary Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whittington, A. G.; Speck, A.; Witzig, S.

2011-12-01

As part of an NSF-funded project, "CUES: Connecting Undergraduates to the Enterprise of Science," new inquiry-based homework materials were developed for two upper-level classes at the University of Missouri: Geochemistry (required for Geology majors, fulfills the computing requirement by having 50% of the grade come from five spreadsheet-based homework assignments), and Solar System Science (open to seniors and graduate students, co-taught and cross-listed between Geology and Physics & Astronomy). Inquiry involves activities where the learner engages in scientifically oriented questions, gives priority to evidence in responding to questions, formulates explanations from evidence, connects explanations to scientific knowledge, and communicates and justifies explanations. We engage students in inquiry-based learning by presenting homework exercises as "mini-journal" articles that follow the format of a scientific journal article, including a title, authors, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and citations to peer-reviewed literature. The mini-journal provides a scaffold and serves as a springboard for students to develop and carry out their own follow-up investigation. They then present their findings in the form of their own mini-journal. Mini-journals replace traditional homework problem sets with a format that more directly reflects and encourages scientific practice. Students are engaged in inquiry-based homework which encompass doing, thinking, and communicating, while the mini-journal allows the instructor to contain lines of inquiry within the limits posed by available resources. In the examples we present, research is conducted via spreadsheet modeling, where the students develop their own spreadsheets. Example assignments from Geochemistry include "Trace Element Partitioning During Mantle Melting and MORB Crystallization" and "Isotopic Investigations of Crustal Evolution in the Midcontinent US". The key differences between the old and new

Trajectories of Change in University Students' General Views of Group Work Following One Single Group Assignment: Significance of Instructional Context and Multidimensional Aspects of Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wosnitza, Marold; Volet, Simone

2014-01-01

This paper examines how distinct trajectories of change in students' general views of group work over the duration of one single group assignment could be explained by multidimensional aspects of their experience and the overall instructional context. Science (336) and Education (377) students involved in a semester-long group assignment…

Unintended Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Consequences of Group Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neu, Wayne A.

2012-01-01

Pedagogical strategies can be thought of as a set of stimuli placed in students' environment to influence their cognition, affect, and behavior. The design of strategies such as group assignments and a comprehensive understanding of their consequences for students should then include an analysis of all three of these elements and the…

Written Assignments for Abnormal Psychology at Howard Community College, Fall 1988.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, James

Designed for students enrolled in an Abnormal Psychology course at Howard Community College (Maryland), this booklet explains the requirements for the course's writing assignments, which are designed to teach the skills of comparison and contrast, analysis, critical thinking, and synthesis. Following an overview of class assignments and…

Analysis of an Air Conditioning Coolant Solution for Metal Contamination Using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy: An Undergraduate Instrumental Analysis Exercise Simulating an Industrial Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baird, Michael J.

2004-01-01

A real-life analytical assignment is presented to students, who had to examine an air conditioning coolant solution for metal contamination using an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). This hands-on access to a real problem exposed the undergraduate students to the mechanism of AAS, and promoted participation in a simulated industrial activity.

48 CFR 208.7002 - Assignment authority.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... activities concerned. (b) Under the Integrated Materiel Management Program, assignments are made by the... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Assignment authority. 208.7002 Section 208.7002 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM...

48 CFR 208.7002 - Assignment authority.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... activities concerned. (b) Under the Integrated Materiel Management Program, assignments are made by the... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Assignment authority. 208.7002 Section 208.7002 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM...

48 CFR 208.7002 - Assignment authority.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... activities concerned. (b) Under the Integrated Materiel Management Program, assignments are made by the... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Assignment authority. 208.7002 Section 208.7002 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM...

48 CFR 208.7002 - Assignment authority.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... activities concerned. (b) Under the Integrated Materiel Management Program, assignments are made by the... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Assignment authority. 208.7002 Section 208.7002 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEFENSE ACQUISITION REGULATIONS SYSTEM...

The Assignment of Raters to Items: Controlling for Rater Effects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sykes, Robert C.; Heidorn, Mark; Lee, Guemin

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different modes (modalities) of assigning raters to test items. The impact on total constructed response (c.r.) score, and subsequently on total test score, of assigning a single versus multiple raters to an examination reading of a student's set of c.r. responses was evaluated for several mixed-item…

Automated Formative Feedback and Summative Assessment Using Individualised Spreadsheet Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blayney, Paul; Freeman, Mark

2004-01-01

This paper reports on the effects of automating formative feedback at the student's discretion and automating summative assessment with individualised spreadsheet assignments. Quality learning outcomes are achieved when students adopt deep approaches to learning (Ramsden, 2003). Learning environments designed to align assessment to learning…

Pediatric Online Evidence-Based Medicine Assignment Is a Novel Effective Enjoyable Undergraduate Medical Teaching Tool: A SQUIRE Compliant Study.

PubMed

Kotb, Magd A; Elmahdy, Hesham Nabeh; Khalifa, Nour El Deen Mahmoud; El-Deen, Mohamed Hamed Nasr; Lotfi, Mohamed Amr N

2015-07-01

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is delivered through a didactic, blended learning, and mixed models. Students are supposed to construct an answerable question in PICO (patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome) framework, acquire evidence through search of literature, appraise evidence, apply it to the clinical case scenario, and assess the evidence in relation to clinical context. Yet these teaching models have limitations especially those related to group work, for example, handling uncooperative students, students who fail to contribute, students who domineer, students who have personal conflict, their impact upon progress of their groups, and inconsistent individual acquisition of required skills. At Pediatrics Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, we designed a novel undergraduate pediatric EBM assignment online system to overcome shortcomings of previous didactic method and aimed to assess its effectiveness by prospective follow-up during academic years 2012 to 2013 and 2013 to 2014. The novel web-based online interactive system was tailored to provide sequential single and group assignments for each student. Single assignment addressed a specific case scenario question, while group assignment was teamwork that addressed different questions of same case scenario. Assignment comprised scholar content and skills. We objectively analyzed students' performance by criterion-based assessment and subjectively by anonymous student questionnaire. A total of 2879 were enrolled in 5th year Pediatrics Course consecutively, of them 2779 (96.5%) logged in and 2554 (88.7%) submitted their work. They were randomly assigned to 292 groups. A total of 2277 (89.15%) achieved ≥ 80% of total mark (4/5), of them 717 (28.1%) achieved a full mark. A total of 2178 (85.27%) and 2359 (92.36%) made evidence-based conclusions and recommendations in single and group assignment, respectively (P < 0.001). A total of 1102 (43.1%) answered student questionnaire, of them 898

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.

Comparison of Satisfaction, Self-Confidence, and Engagement of Baccalaureate Nursing Students Using Defined Observational Roles and Expectations versus Traditional Role Assignments in High Fidelity Simulation and Debriefing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Sheri

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to compare satisfaction, self-confidence, and engagement of baccalaureate nursing students using defined observational roles and expectations versus traditional observer role assignments in high fidelity simulation and debriefing and to evaluate student perceptions of these constructs. The NLN/Jeffries Simulation…

Basic Visual Merchandising. Second Edition. [Student's Manual and] Answer Book/Teacher's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luter, Robert R.

This student's manual that features content needed to do tasks related to visual merchandising is intended for students in co-op training stations and entry-level, master employee, and supervisory-level employees. It contains 13 assignments. Each assignment has questions covering specific information and also features activities in which students…

Python Source Code Plagiarism Attacks on Introductory Programming Course Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karnalim, Oscar

2017-01-01

This paper empirically enlists Python plagiarism attacks that have been found on Introductory Programming course assignments for undergraduate students. According to our observation toward 400 plagiarism-suspected cases, there are 35 plagiarism attacks that have been conducted by students. It starts with comment & whitespace modification as…

Scientist Spotlight Homework Assignments Shift Students' Stereotypes of Scientists and Enhance Science Identity in a Diverse Introductory Science Class.

PubMed

Schinske, Jeffrey N; Perkins, Heather; Snyder, Amanda; Wyer, Mary

2016-01-01

Research into science identity, stereotype threat, and possible selves suggests a lack of diverse representations of scientists could impede traditionally underserved students from persisting and succeeding in science. We evaluated a series of metacognitive homework assignments ("Scientist Spotlights") that featured counterstereotypical examples of scientists in an introductory biology class at a diverse community college. Scientist Spotlights additionally served as tools for content coverage, as scientists were selected to match topics covered each week. We analyzed beginning- and end-of-course essays completed by students during each of five courses with Scientist Spotlights and two courses with equivalent homework assignments that lacked connections to the stories of diverse scientists. Students completing Scientist Spotlights shifted toward counterstereotypical descriptions of scientists and conveyed an enhanced ability to personally relate to scientists following the intervention. Longitudinal data suggested these shifts were maintained 6 months after the completion of the course. Analyses further uncovered correlations between these shifts, interest in science, and course grades. As Scientist Spotlights require very little class time and complement existing curricula, they represent a promising tool for enhancing science identity, shifting stereotypes, and connecting content to issues of equity and diversity in a broad range of STEM classrooms. © 2016 J. N. Schinske 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).

An Assessment of Health Behavior Peer Effects in Peking University Dormitories: A Randomized Cluster-Assignment Design for Interference

PubMed Central

Yuan, Changzheng; Lv, Jun; VanderWeele, Tyler J.

2013-01-01

Background Relatively little is known about the peer influence in health behaviors within university dormitory rooms. Moreover, in China, the problem of unhealthy behaviors among university students has not yet been sufficiently recognized. We thus investigated health behavior peer influence in Peking University dormitories utilizing a randomized cluster-assignment design. Methods Study design: Cross-sectional in-dormitory survey. Study population: Current students from Peking University Health Science Center from April to June, 2009. Measurement: Self-reported questionnaire on health behaviors: physical activity (including bicycling), dietary intake and tobacco use. Results Use of bicycle, moderate-intensity exercise, frequency of sweet food and soybean milk intake, frequency of roasted/baked/toasted food intake were behaviors significantly or marginally significantly affected by peer influence. Conclusion Health behavior peer effects exist within dormitory rooms among university students. This could provide guidance on room assignment, or inform intervention programs. Examining these may demand attention from university administrators and policy makers. PMID:24040377

Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing Assignments. TWI Resource File.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rish, Shirley; Lapidus-Saltz, Wendy

1982-01-01

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: If you teach a composition class which is affiliated with a subject-matter course, one of the following assignments may be appropriate for your students. If, on the other hand, you teach a traditionallly constituted composition class, you might give your students the entire list with instructions to…

Undergraduates Improve upon Published Crystal Structure in Class Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horowitz, Scott; Koldewey, Philipp; Bardwell, James C.

2014-01-01

Recently, 57 undergraduate students at the University of Michigan were assigned the task of solving a crystal structure, given only the electron density map of a 1.3 Å crystal structure from the electron density server, and the position of the N-terminal amino acid. To test their knowledge of amino acid chemistry, the students were not given the…

Think, Speak, Succeed!...Applied Oral Communications Activities for High School Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turlington, Anita; Timms, Keith

This module contains speaking assignments for high school students that are taken from six different career areas. Each career section begins with a brief introduction to the career and a communications profile of the person interviewed. These pages can be copied and given to students as handouts. Each section also contains some assignments…

Undergraduates improve upon published crystal structure in class assignment.

PubMed

Horowitz, Scott; Koldewey, Philipp; Bardwell, James C

2014-01-01

Recently, 57 undergraduate students at the University of Michigan were assigned the task of solving a crystal structure, given only the electron density map of a 1.3 Å crystal structure from the electron density server, and the position of the N-terminal amino acid. To test their knowledge of amino acid chemistry, the students were not given the protein sequence. With minimal direction from the instructor on how the students should complete the assignment, the students fared remarkably well in this task, with over half the class able to reconstruct the original sequence with over 77% sequence identity, and with structures whose median ranked in the 91(st) percentile of all structures of comparable resolution in terms of structure quality. Fourteen percent of the students' structures produced Molprobity steric clash validation scores even better than that of the original structure, suggesting that multiple students achieved an improvement in the overall structure quality compared to the published structure. Students were able to delineate limiting case chemical environments, such as charged interactions or complete solvent exposure, but were less able to distinguish finer details of hydrogen bonding or hydrophobicity. Our results prompt several questions: why were students able to perform so well in their structural validation scores? How were some students able to outperform the 88% sequence identity mark that would constitute a perfect score, given the level of degenerate density or surface residues with poor density? And how can the methodology used by the best students inform the practices of professional X-ray crystallographers? Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effect of Sex Identification on Instrument Assignment by Band Directors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Christopher M.; Stewart, Erin E.

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of sex identification on the assignment of instruments to beginning band students. Participants were band directors solicited at music conferences and music education students solicited from major universities across the United States. Participants completed an online survey about instrument…

Getting the Most Out of Dual-Listed Courses: Involving Undergraduate Students in Discussion Through Active Learning Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tasich, C. M.; Duncan, L. L.; Duncan, B. R.; Burkhardt, B. L.; Benneyworth, L. M.

2015-12-01

Dual-listed courses will persist in higher education because of resource limitations. The pedagogical differences between undergraduate and graduate STEM student groups and the underlying distinction in intellectual development levels between the two student groups complicate the inclusion of undergraduates in these courses. Active learning techniques are a possible remedy to the hardships undergraduate students experience in graduate-level courses. Through an analysis of both undergraduate and graduate student experiences while enrolled in a dual-listed course, we implemented a variety of learning techniques used to complement the learning of both student groups and enhance deep discussion. Here, we provide details concerning the implementation of four active learning techniques - role play, game, debate, and small group - that were used to help undergraduate students critically discuss primary literature. Student perceptions were gauged through an anonymous, end-of-course evaluation that contained basic questions comparing the course to other courses at the university and other salient aspects of the course. These were given as a Likert scale on which students rated a variety of statements (1 = strongly disagree, 3 = no opinion, and 5 = strongly agree). Undergraduates found active learning techniques to be preferable to traditional techniques with small-group discussions being rated the highest in both enjoyment and enhanced learning. The graduate student discussion leaders also found active learning techniques to improve discussion. In hindsight, students of all cultures may be better able to take advantage of such approaches and to critically read and discuss primary literature when written assignments are used to guide their reading. Applications of active learning techniques can not only address the gap between differing levels of students, but also serve as a complement to student engagement in any science course design.

Integrating Graphing Assignments into a Money and Banking Course Using FRED

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staveley-O'Carroll, James

2018-01-01

Over the course of one semester, six empirical assignments that utilize FRED are used to introduce students of money and banking courses to the economic analysis required for the conduct of monetary policy. The first five assignments cover the following topics: inflation, bonds and stocks, monetary aggregates, the Taylor rule, and employment.…

Generalised Assignment Matrix Methodology in Linear Programming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jerome, Lawrence

2012-01-01

Discrete Mathematics instructors and students have long been struggling with various labelling and scanning algorithms for solving many important problems. This paper shows how to solve a wide variety of Discrete Mathematics and OR problems using assignment matrices and linear programming, specifically using Excel Solvers although the same…

The "Pay It Forward" Speech: Challenging Students to Become Engaged in the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenna-Buchanan, Timothy; Munz, Stevie

2014-01-01

This assignment described here serves as a meaningful way to engage students who are perhaps less involved in giving back to their own community (Galston, 2003). By engaging students in "pay it forward" experiences, this assignment can help foster a sense of active citizenship. Often political engagement is associated with acts related…

On Online Assignments in a Calculus Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jungic, Veselin; Kent, Deborah; Menz, Petra

2012-01-01

In this paper, we describe our experience with the creation and utilization of online assignments for several calculus classes at Simon Fraser University (SFU). We present our findings regarding available software by considering the needs and perspectives of the instructors, students, and administrators. We provide a list of questions that guide…

Teachers' Grading Practices: Meaning and Values Assigned

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Youyi; Cheng, Liying

2014-01-01

This study explores the meaning Chinese secondary school English language teachers associate with the grades they assign to their students, and the value judgements they make in grading. A questionnaire was issued to 350 junior and senior school English language teachers in China. The questionnaire data were analysed both quantitatively and…

Evaluating an Earlybird Scheme: Encouraging Early Assignment Writing and Revising

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Kerrie; Kauter, Katherine

2008-01-01

It is widely suggested that feedback on assignments is useful to students' learning, however, little research has examined how this feedback may be provided in large classes or the actual effects of such a scheme. We designed and implemented a voluntary "earlybird scheme" that provided detailed feedback to undergraduate Business students on a…

Student Activities. Managing Liability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Barbara; And Others

This monograph suggests ways that college or university administrations can undertake a systematic and careful review of the risks posed by students' activities. Its purpose is to provide guidance in integrating the risk management process into a school's existing approaches to managing student organizations and activities. It is noted that no…

Using Self-Recording, Evaluation, and Graphing to Increase Completion of Homework Assignments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trammel, Diana Lynn; And Others

1994-01-01

Self-monitoring procedures were effective in increasing the number of daily homework assignments completed by eight secondary level students with learning disabilities. A daily listing of all assignments given by regular classroom teachers was used. Goal setting and self-graphing of data appeared to increase self-monitoring effectiveness. (DB)

Students' Engagement in Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Group Assignments for Information Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sormunen, Eero; Tanni, Mikko; Heinström, Jannica

2013-01-01

Introduction: Information literacy instruction is often undertaken in schools as collaborative source-based writing assignments. his paper presents the findings of a study on collaboration in two school assignments designed for information literacy. Method: The study draws on the models of cooperative and collaborative learning and the task-based…

A Multifaceted Partner Presentation Assignment for Improving Educational Outcomes among College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Claire A.; Perlman, Daniel

2017-01-01

This article reports a multifaceted course assignment involving the development of information literacy skills, speed partnering, a brief team VoiceThread presentation, and peer evaluations of the presentations. The assignment was rooted in Chickering and Gamson's (1989) highly regarded principles of good educational practice, as well as the…

Integrating Internet Assignments into a Biochemistry/Molecular Biology Laboratory Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaspar, Roger L.

2002-01-01

A main challenge in educating undergraduate students is to introduce them to the Internet and to teach them how to effectively use it in research. To this end, an Internet assignment was developed that introduces students to websites related to biomedical research at the beginning of a biochemistry/molecular biology laboratory course. The basic…

What's in a Name? Exploring the Impact of Naming Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landrum, Brittany; Garza, Gilbert

2016-01-01

Past research has examined how various elements and style of a syllabus influence students' perceptions of the class. Furthermore, students' learning and grade orientations have been shown to impact academic performance and effort. We sought to add to this literature by exploring how an assignment's name might impact estimates of time to be spent…

Two Student Self-Management Techniques Applied to Data-Based Program Modification.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wesson, Caren

Two student self-management techniques, student charting and student selection of instructional activities, were applied to ongoing data-based program modification. Forty-two elementary school resource room students were assigned randomly (within teacher) to one of three treatment conditions: Teacher Chart-Teacher Select Instructional Activities…

Student-Moderated Discussion Boards in a Graduate Online Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McRay, Jeni; Goertzen, Brent; Klaus, Kaley

2016-01-01

This application brief describes a "Module Discussant" activity assigned in an online graduate-level leadership theory course. The assignment was designed to stimulate higher-level thinking, apply leadership theory to practice, and foster extensive communication among students in the online learning environment using a common learning…

The Protest as a Teaching Technique for Promoting Feminist Activism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Suzanna

An assignment about protesting was given to students in an upper-level undergraduate women's studies course to provide them with experience and skills in political protesting and to promote feminist activism. The students selected for their assignments: (1) a letter writing campaign against Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination; (2) a picket…

Use of a Scaffolded Case Study Assignment to Enhance Students' Scientific Literacy Skills in Undergraduate Nutritional Science Education: Comparison between Traditional Lecture and Distance Education Course Formats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monk, Jennifer M.; Newton, Genevieve

2018-01-01

We investigated whether the implementation of a scaffolded case study assignment could increase student perceptions of their scientific literacy (SL) skills in a third year Nutritional Science course. The change in students' SL perceptions were assessed by the completion of two surveys (administered at the start and end of the semester) consisting…

The Astronomy Workshop: Computer Assisted Learning Tools with Instructor Support Materials and Student Activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deming, Grace; Hamilton, D.; Hayes-Gehrke, M.

2006-12-01

The Astronomy Workshop (http://janus.astro.umd.edu) is a collection of interactive World Wide Web tools that were developed under the direction of Doug Hamilton for use in undergraduate classes, as supplementary materials appropriate for grades 9-12, and by the general public. The philosophy of the website is to foster student and public interest in astronomy by capitalizing on their fascination with computers and the internet. Many of the tools were developed by graduate and undergraduate students at UMD. This website contains over 20 tools on topics including scientific notation, giant impacts, extrasolar planets, astronomical distances, planets, moons, comets, and asteroids. Educators around the country at universities, colleges, and secondary schools have used the Astronomy Workshop’s tools and activities as homework assignments, in-class demos, or extra credit. Since 2005, Grace Deming has assessed several of the Astronomy Workshop’s tools for clarity and effectiveness by interviewing students as they used tools on the website. Based on these interviews, Deming wrote student activities and instructor support materials and posted them to the website. Over the next three years, we will continue to interview students, develop web materials, and field-test activities. We are targeting classes in introductory undergraduate astronomy courses and grades 11-12 for our Spring 2007 field tests. We are interested in hearing your ideas on how we can make the Astronomy Workshop more appealing to educators, museum directors, specialty programs, and professors. This research is funded by NASA EPO grants NNG04GM18G and NNG06GGF99G.

Big Data on a Smaller Scale: A Social Media Analytics Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischbach, Sarah; Zarzosa, Jennifer

2018-01-01

It is truly important for students to understand how to monitor online marketing buzz. This assignment, social media analytics, utilizes the content analysis research method to build student's in-depth understanding on how to evaluate and interpret user-generated content (UGC) to create social media campaigns. The authors adapted Resnik and…

The Relation between Academic Procrastination of University Students and Their Assignment and Exam Performances: The Situation in Distance and Face-to-Face Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yilmaz, M. Betul

2017-01-01

The relation between assignment and exam performances of the university students and their academic procrastination behaviors in distance and face-to-face learning environments was investigated in this study. Empirical research carried out both in face-to-face and online environments have generally shown a negative correlation between academic…

Mandatory coursework assignments can be, and should be, eliminated!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haugan, John; Lysebo, Marius; Lauvas, Per

2017-11-01

Formative assessment can serve as a catalyst for increased student effort and student learning. Yet, many engineering degree programmes are dominated by summative assessment and make limited use of formative assessment. The present case study serves as an example on how formative assessment can be used strategically to increase student effort and improve student learning. Within five courses of an engineering bachelor degree programme in Norway, the mandatory coursework assignments were removed and replaced by formative-only assessment. To facilitate the formative assessment, weekly student peer-assessment sessions were introduced. The main findings include an increase in student study hours and improved student performance on the examinations. Finally, interviews were conducted by an external consultant in an effort to identify key factors that attributed to the positive outcome.

A longitudinal online interprofessional education experience involving family nurse practitioner students and pharmacy students.

PubMed

Collins, Andrea; Broeseker, Amy; Cunningham, Jill; Cortes, Cyndi; Beall, Jennifer; Bigham, Amy; Chang, Jongwha

2017-03-01

Interprofessional education (IPE) continues to gain traction worldwide. Challenges integrating IPE into health profession programmes include finding convenient times, meeting spaces, and level-appropriate assignments for each profession. This article describes the implementation of a 21-month prospective cohort study pilot programme for the Master of Science in nursing family nurse practitioner (FNP) and doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students at a private university in the United States. This IPE experience utilised a blended approach for the learning activities; these students had initial and final sessions where they met face-to-face, with asynchronous online activities between these two sessions. The online assignments, discussions, and quizzes during the pilot programme involved topics such as antimicrobial stewardship, hormone replacement therapy, human papilloma virus vaccination, prenatal counselling, emergency contraception, and effects of the Affordable Care Act on practice. The results suggested that the FNP students held more favourable attitudes about online IPE and that the PharmD students reported having a clearer understanding of their own roles and those of the other participating healthcare students. However, the students also reported wanting more face-to-face interaction during their online IPE experience. Implications from this study suggest that effective online IPE can be supported by ensuring educational parity between students regarding the various topics discussed and a consistent approach of the required involvement for all student groups is needed. In addition, given the students desire for more face-to-face interaction, it may be beneficial to offer online IPE activities for a shorter time period. It is anticipated that this study may inform other programmes that are exploring innovative approaches to provide IPE to promote effective collaboration in patient care.

34 CFR 682.508 - Assignment of a loan.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Assignment of a loan. 682.508 Section 682.508 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FEDERAL FAMILY EDUCATION LOAN (FFEL) PROGRAM Federal Guaranteed Student Loan Programs...

Healthy Active Living: A Residence Community-Based Intervention to Increase Physical Activity and Healthy Eating during the Transition to First-Year University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Denver M. Y.; Bray, Steve R.; Beatty, Kevin R.; Kwan, Matthew Y. W.

2014-01-01

Objective: To examine the effects of a Healthy Active Living (HAL) community intervention on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC), and psychosocial mediators of physical activity among students transitioning into university. Methods: Sixty undergraduate students were assigned to reside in either the…

Incorporating Inquiry into Upper-Level Undergraduate Homework Assignments: The Mini-Journal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whittington, Alan; Speck, Angela; Witzig, Stephen; Abell, Sandra

2010-05-01

-style format. A detailed grading rubric was supplied with the mini-journal, with credit given for formatting, accuracy of calculation, and quality of intepretation and discussion. In the examples we present, research is conducted via spreadsheet modeling, where the students develop their own spreadsheets. The key differences between the old and new formats include (i) the active participation of the students in defining the problem that they will pursue, (ii) the open-ended nature of the inquiry, such that students need to recognize when they have enough information to answer their question, (iii) presentation of results in graphical and tabular formats, and (iv) a written discussion of their findings. Based on detailed student and instructor feedback, our conclusions are: (i) Limited inquiry is achievable in upper-level science homework assignments, and is transferable to other topics and classes (ii) Students experience discomfort on being presented with an open-ended assignment, but like the freedom to define their own homework problem (iii) Students recognize that the reading, writing and critical thinking skills employed in the minijournal format increase their understanding (iv) Students suggest a combination of minijournal and traditional homework formats in this class, or replacing midterm exams with minijournals (v) Student written comments are far more useful than Likert scale responses in assessing instructional techniques and effectiveness

An examination of eating attitudes and physical activity levels of Turkish university students with regard to self-presentational concern.

PubMed

Aşçi, F Hülya; Tüzün, Macide; Koca, Canan

2006-11-01

This study aimed to examine eating attitudes and physical activity level of young women and men university students with regard to social physique anxiety level. 482 university students participated in this study voluntarily. "Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40)", "Social Physique Anxiety Scale" and "Physical Activity Assessment Questionnaire" were used to assess the eating attitude, social physique anxiety and physical activity level of participants, respectively. Women and men participants in this study were assigned to high (HSPA) and low (LSPA) social physique anxiety groups with respect to their median scores. Men had favorable eating attitudes and higher physical activity level than women. In addition, participants in the HSPA group had unfavorable eating attitudes and higher physical activity MET values than participants in the LSPA group. On the other hand, groupxgender interaction was only significant for the eating attitudes scores but, not for physical activity level. Women in the HSPA group scored higher on the EAT-40 than men in HSPA and women and men in the LSPA groups.

Developing effective assignment feedback for an interprofessional learning module-An action research project.

PubMed

Strudwick, Ruth; Day, Jane

2015-09-01

The first year interprofessional learning module at University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is delivered to 300 students and the students' assignments are marked by 20 members of staff from different health and social care professions. We were keen to find a way to reduce any inconsistencies and work with both staff and students to ensure that the essay and subsequent feedback were useful for all involved. The aims of the project were to evaluate the current marking process and feedback sheets used for year one inter-professional learning (IPL) marking, and to develop an appropriate marking tool and feedback sheet that would enable markers to provide more consistent feedback to the students. Participatory action research was used with both students and staff members being involved. Focus group and questions were used to ascertain views about the assignment feedback. The feedback from this action learning project helped us to enhance the feedback for students. There was also an increase in engagement with the assessment and feedback process amongst both staff and students. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From Story to Analysis: Reflection and Uptake in the Literacy Narrative Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Kara Poe

2015-01-01

The literacy narrative assignment is popular with composition instructors because of the reflection it encourages in students. Previously, scholars have claimed that students demonstrate reflection in literacy narratives when they critique dominant ideologies. Largely absent, however, is research on what other elements might indicate reflection…

Assessing a traditional case-based application exercise and a student question creation exercise on student performance and perceptions.

PubMed

Tatachar, Amulya; Kominski, Carol

2017-07-01

To compare the impact of a traditional case-based application exercise with a student question creation exercise on a) student exam performance, b) student perceptions of enjoyment, competence, understanding, effort, interest in continuing participation, and interest in the subject. Subjects were 84 second-year pharmacy students in a pharmacotherapy course. The research focus was active learning involving the topic of chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorder. Student teams were randomly assigned to either case-based or student question creation exercises using PeerWise. Student performance was assessed by a pre- and posttest and on block and final exams. After completion, an online survey assessed student perceptions of both exercises. Statistically significant differences were revealed in favor of the student question creation group on enjoyment and interest in the subject matter. No statistically differences were found between the traditional case-based group and the student question creation group on gain score from pre-test to posttest. The student question creation group performed slightly better than the case-based application group on two of the five questions on the block exam but none of these differences reached statistical significance. Students randomly assigned to groups that created and reviewed questions exhibited slightly improved summative exam performance and reported significantly more positive perceptions than students engaging in a more traditional case-based learning activity. Student question creation has demonstrated potential as a useful learning activity. Despite inherent difficulties in designing studies involving educational research in a controlled environment, students who have submitted, created, rated, and answered peers' questions have overall performed well. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introducing the Action Potential to Psychology Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simon-Dack, Stephanie L.

2014-01-01

For this simple active learning technique for teaching, students are assigned "roles" and act out the process of the action potential (AP), including the firing threshold, ion-specific channels for ions to enter and leave the cell, diffusion, and the refractory period. Pre-post test results indicated that students demonstrated increased…

Teacher-Child Interaction Training: A Pilot Study With Random Assignment.

PubMed

Fernandez, Melanie A; Adelstein, Jonathan S; Miller, Samantha P; Areizaga, Margaret J; Gold, Dylann C; Sanchez, Amanda L; Rothschild, Sara A; Hirsch, Emily; Gudiño, Omar G

2015-07-01

Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT), adapted from Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), is a classroom-based program designed to provide teachers with behavior management skills that foster positive teacher-student relationships and to improve student behavior by creating a more constructive classroom environment. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate TCIT in more classrooms than previously reported in the literature, with older children than previously reported, using random assignment of classrooms to TCIT or to a no-TCIT control condition and conducting all but two sessions within the classroom to enhance feasibility. Participants included 11 kindergarten and first grade classroom teachers and their 118 students from three urban, public schools in Manhattan, with five classrooms randomly assigned to receive TCIT and six to the no-TCIT control condition. Observations of teacher skill acquisition were conducted before, during, and after TCIT for all 11 teachers, and teacher reports of student behavior were obtained at these same time points. Teacher satisfaction with TCIT was assessed following training. Results suggested that after receiving TCIT, teachers increased rates of positive attention to students' appropriate behavior, decreased rates of negative attention to misbehavior, reported significantly less distress related to student disruptive behavior, and reported high satisfaction with the training program. Our study supports the growing evidence-base suggesting that TCIT is a promising approach for training teachers in positive behavior management strategies and for improving student disruptive behavior in the classroom. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Music Activities as a Meaningful Context for Teaching Elementary Students Mathematics: A Quasi-Experiment Time Series Design with Random Assigned Control Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

An, Song A.; Tillman, Daniel A.

2015-01-01

The purpose of the current research was to examine the effects of a sequence of classroom activities that integrated mathematics content with music elements aimed at providing teachers an alternative approach for teaching mathematics. Two classes of third grade students (n = 56) from an elementary school in the west coast of the United States…

College Student Environmental Activism: How Experiences and Identities Influence Environmental Activism Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Laura A. H.

2016-01-01

College student environmental activism is one way students civically engage in addressing social issues. This study explores the environmental activism of twelve college students and how their experiences outside of college and in college influenced their activism. In addition, how students' identities influenced their approach to activism was…

Effective Schools: Teacher Hiring, Assignment, Development, and Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loeb, Susanna; Kalogrides, Demetra; Beteille, Tara

2012-01-01

The literature on effective schools emphasizes the importance of a quality teaching force in improving educational outcomes for students. In this article we use value-added methods to examine the relationship between a school's effectiveness and the recruitment, assignment, development, and retention of its teachers. Our results reveal four key…

Assessment of Student Memo Assignments in Management Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Julie Ann Stuart; Stanny, Claudia J.; Reid, Randall C.; Hill, Christopher J.; Rosa, Katie Martin

2015-01-01

Frequently in Management Science courses, instructors focus primarily on teaching students the mathematics of linear programming models. However, the ability to discuss mathematical expressions in business terms is an important professional skill. The authors present an analysis of student abilities to discuss management science concepts through…

Differences in Discipline Consequence Assignments by Ethnicity/Race, Gender, and Poverty in Texas Middle Schools: A Statewide Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Mikia J.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the extent to which differences might be present in discipline consequence assignments by student demographic characteristics in Texas middle schools. In the first investigation, the degree to which discipline consequence assignments differed by the degree of student economic…

Why IEP Teams Assign Low Performers with Mild Disabilities to the Alternate Assessment Based on Alternate Achievement Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Hyun-Jeong; Kingston, Neal

2013-01-01

The purpose of this case study was to determine teachers' rationales for assigning students with mild disabilities to alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). In interviews, special educators stated that their primary considerations in making the assignments were low academic performance, student use of extended…

Grouped to Achieve: Are There Benefits to Assigning Students to Heterogeneous Cooperative Learning Groups Based on Pre-Test Scores?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Werth, Arman Karl

Cooperative learning has been one of the most widely used instructional practices around the world since the early 1980's. Small learning groups have been in existence since the beginning of the human race. These groups have grown in their variance and complexity overtime. Classrooms are getting more diverse every year and instructors need a way to take advantage of this diversity to improve learning. The purpose of this study was to see if heterogeneous cooperative learning groups based on student achievement can be used as a differentiated instructional strategy to increase students' ability to demonstrate knowledge of science concepts and ability to do engineering design. This study includes two different groups made up of two different middle school science classrooms of 25-30 students. These students were given an engineering design problem to solve within cooperative learning groups. One class was put into heterogeneous cooperative learning groups based on student's pre-test scores. The other class was grouped based on random assignment. The study measured the difference between each class's pre-post gains, student's responses to a group interaction form and interview questions addressing their perceptions of the makeup of their groups. The findings of the study were that there was no significant difference between learning gains for the treatment and comparison groups. There was a significant difference between the treatment and comparison groups in student perceptions of their group's ability to stay on task and manage their time efficiently. Both the comparison and treatment groups had a positive perception of the composition of their cooperative learning groups.

Experiential Education on the Edge: SETI Activities for the College Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crider, Anthony; Weston, Anthony

2012-01-01

In a sophomore-level, interdisciplinary honors class, we introduced students to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence through assigned readings, student presentations, classroom discussions, and multiple experiential activities. In this paper, we present four of these novel experiential activities. In the first, students suddenly find…

Asian American Student Engagement in Student Leadership and Activism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manzano, Lester J.; Poon, OiYan A.; Na, Vanessa S.

2017-01-01

Conceptual models for understanding the ways in which Asian American students engage in leadership and activism are interrogated. The chapter provides a discussion of implications for student affairs professionals working with Asian American student leaders and activists.

The Impact of Support Services on Students' Test Anxiety and/or Their Ability to Submit Assignments: A Focus on Vision Impairment and Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datta, Poulomee; Talukdar, Joy

2017-01-01

This study investigated the influence of the support services on the test anxiety of students and/or their ability to submit assignments in each of the two disability groups, those with vision impairment and those with intellectual disability, who were placed in specialist and mainstream educational settings in South Australia. Interviews were…

Academic Incentives for Students Can Increase Participation in and Effectiveness of a Physical Activity Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeVahl, Julie; King, Richard; Williamson, Jon W.

2005-01-01

The authors sought to determine whether a greater academic incentive would improve the effectiveness and student adherence to a 12-week voluntary exercise program designed to decrease students' percentage of body fat. They randomly assigned 210 students to 1 of 2 groups with different academic reward structures. The group with the greater reward…

Student Activities in Secondary Schools: A Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Michael R., Comp.; And Others

As an aid to school principals, student activities administrators, faculty members, student leaders, instructors at teacher education institutions, and researchers interested in extraclass activities, this annotated bibliography contains hundreds of articles, pamphlets, and books published on secondary students' extracurricular activities.…

Horticulture Therapy Activities for Exceptional Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Airhart, Douglas L.; And Others

1988-01-01

The Tennessee Technological University's Program of Special Education sponsors a "Super Saturday" of enrichment activities for gifted and talented students as well as students with learning disabilities. A session on horticulture was planned and arranged by students in a class on horticultural therapy who designed learning activities of…

Exploring Students' Engineering Designs through Open-Ended Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puente, S. M. Gómez; Jansen, J. W.

2017-01-01

This paper aims at presenting the experience of the Power Conversion project in teaching students to design a proof-of-principle contactless energy transfer system for the charging of electrical vehicles. The Power Conversion is a second-year electrical engineering (EE) project in which students are to gather and apply EE knowledge to design and…

Incorporating Student Activities into Climate Change Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steele, H.; Kelly, K.; Klein, D.; Cadavid, A. C.

2013-12-01

atmospheric circulation with applications of the Lorenz model, explored the land-sea breeze problem with the Dynamics and Thermodynamics Circulation Model (DTDM), and developed simple radiative transfer models. Class projects explored the effects of varying the content of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere, as well as the properties of paleoclimates in atmospheric simulations using EdGCM. Initial assessment of student knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors associated with these activities, particularly about climate change, was measured. Pre- and post-course surveys provided student perspectives about the courses and their learning about remote sensing and climate change concepts. Student performance on the tutorials and course projects evaluated students' ability to learn and apply their knowledge about climate change and skills with remote sensing to assigned problems or proposed projects of their choice. Survey and performance data illustrated that the exercises were successful in meeting their intended learning objectives as well as opportunities for further refinement and expansion.

Assigned Positions for In-Class Debates Influence Student Opinions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lilly, Emily

2012-01-01

In-class debates are frequently used to encourage student engagement. Ideally, after researching both sides of the debate, students will form their own opinions based on what they have learned. However, in a large course of Environmental Science, opinions of students, when surveyed after the debate, were remarkably consistent with the position…

Prefrontal Neurons Encode a Solution to the Credit-Assignment Problem

PubMed Central

Perge, János A.; Eskandar, Emad N.

2017-01-01

To adapt successfully to our environments, we must use the outcomes of our choices to guide future behavior. Critically, we must be able to correctly assign credit for any particular outcome to the causal features which preceded it. In some cases, the causal features may be immediately evident, whereas in others they may be separated in time or intermingled with irrelevant environmental stimuli, creating a potentially nontrivial credit-assignment problem. We examined the neuronal representation of information relevant for credit assignment in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) of two male rhesus macaques performing a task that elicited key aspects of this problem. We found that neurons conveyed the information necessary for credit assignment. Specifically, neuronal activity reflected both the relevant cues and outcomes at the time of feedback and did so in a manner that was stable over time, in contrast to prior reports of representational instability in the dlPFC. Furthermore, these representations were most stable early in learning, when credit assignment was most needed. When the same features were not needed for credit assignment, these neuronal representations were much weaker or absent. These results demonstrate that the activity of dlPFC neurons conforms to the basic requirements of a system that performs credit assignment, and that spiking activity can serve as a stable mechanism that links causes and effects. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Credit assignment is the process by which we infer the causes of our successes and failures. We found that neuronal activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex conveyed the necessary information for performing credit assignment. Importantly, while there are various potential mechanisms to retain a “trace” of the causal events over time, we observed that spiking activity was sufficiently stable to act as the link between causes and effects, in contrast to prior reports that suggested spiking representations were

New strategies to strengthen the soil science knowledge of student during field activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benito, Marta; Hontoria, Chiquinquirá; Masaguer, Alberto; Diéguez, Carmen; Almorox, Javier; Pérez, Juana; Santano, Jesús; Mariscal, Ignacio; Gutiérrez, Jesús; Moliner, Ana

2013-04-01

Soil Science can be considered a discipline that serves as a fundamental base for other disciplines such as ecology, agronomy, plant production, etc. In order to demonstrate the relevance and connection to real world it is important to develop field and practical activities. Field activities help student to comprehend soil as part of the landscape and the natural ecosystems. These activities also help them to realize the importance of historical soil use on the quality of todaýs soil and landscapes. It is well known that fieldwork practices are essential to strengthen the soil science knowledge of students and their learning process. These fieldwork practices involve doing a physical activity rather than passively attending lectures or watching demonstrations. The simple visual and tactile observations in the field could be used to predict soil behavior and these direct observations are best made in the field. Students who learned in the field using an active work are more motivated, have more positive attitudes, and place more value in their work than those that learn passively. Therefore, when scheduling the coursework an important time is assigned to field work, which sometimes is not sufficiently profited from the standpoint of student learning taking into consideration the economic effort involved. We are aware that part of the students are simple spectators in the field so we encourage their participation by making them responsible for obtaining part of the information about the place and the types of soils that will be visited. On the other hand, we will invite the students to do some game based exercises, which are fun and force them to work in groups and to pay attention to explanations. Our objective is to present the information in a more attractive way, making the learning of soil profile description and easier task. The exercises that we propose are both field and problem-based learning to make sure that the knowledge is more memorable (non

Characterizing Student Perceptions of and Buy-In toward Common Formative Assessment Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2016-01-01

Formative assessments (FAs) can occur as preclass assignments, in-class activities, or postclass homework. FAs aim to promote student learning by accomplishing key objectives, including clarifying learning expectations, revealing student thinking to the instructor, providing feedback to the student that promotes learning, facilitating peer…

Are all hands-on activities equally effective? Effect of using plastic models, organ dissections, and virtual dissections on student learning and perceptions.

PubMed

Lombardi, Sara A; Hicks, Reimi E; Thompson, Katerina V; Marbach-Ad, Gili

2014-03-01

This study investigated the impact of three commonly used cardiovascular model-assisted activities on student learning and student attitudes and perspectives about science. College students enrolled in a Human Anatomy and Physiology course were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups (organ dissections, virtual dissections, or plastic models). Each group received a 15-min lecture followed by a 45-min activity with one of the treatments. Immediately after the lesson and then 2 mo later, students were tested on anatomy and physiology knowledge and completed an attitude survey. Students who used plastic models achieved significantly higher overall scores on both the initial and followup exams than students who performed organ or virtual dissections. On the initial exam, students in the plastic model and organ dissection treatments scored higher on anatomy questions than students who performed virtual dissections. Students in the plastic model group scored higher than students who performed organ dissections on physiology questions. On the followup exam, when asked anatomy questions, students in the plastic model group scored higher than dissection students and virtual dissection students. On attitude surveys, organ dissections had higher perceived value and were requested for inclusion in curricula twice as often as any other activity. Students who performed organ dissections were more likely than the other treatment groups to agree with the statement that "science is fun," suggesting that organ dissections may promote positive attitudes toward science. The findings of this study provide evidence for the importance of multiple types of hands-on activities in anatomy laboratory courses.

Justifying the Use of Internet Sources in School Assignments on Controversial Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mikkonen, Teemu

2018-01-01

Introduction: This study concerns students' criteria in the evaluation of Internet sources for a school assignment requiring reflections on a controversial issue. The findings are elaborated by analysing students' discursive accounts in justifying the use or non-use of sources. Method: The interview data was collected in a Finnish upper secondary…

The Impact of Science Fiction Films on Student Interest in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laprise, Shari; Winrich, Chuck

2010-01-01

Science fiction films were used in required and elective nonmajor science courses as a pedagogical tool to motivate student interest in science and to reinforce critical thinking about scientific concepts. Students watched various films and critiqued them for scientific accuracy in written assignments. Students' perception of this activity was…

25 CFR 36.43 - Standard XVI-Student activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... activities that include special interest clubs, physical activities, student government, and cultural affairs... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Standard XVI-Student activities. 36.43 Section 36.43... § 36.43 Standard XVI—Student activities. All schools shall provide and maintain a well-balanced student...

25 CFR 36.43 - Standard XVI-Student activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... activities that include special interest clubs, physical activities, student government, and cultural affairs... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Standard XVI-Student activities. 36.43 Section 36.43... § 36.43 Standard XVI—Student activities. All schools shall provide and maintain a well-balanced student...

25 CFR 36.43 - Standard XVI-Student activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... activities that include special interest clubs, physical activities, student government, and cultural affairs... 25 Indians 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Standard XVI-Student activities. 36.43 Section 36.43... § 36.43 Standard XVI—Student activities. All schools shall provide and maintain a well-balanced student...

25 CFR 36.43 - Standard XVI-Student activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... activities that include special interest clubs, physical activities, student government, and cultural affairs... 25 Indians 1 2012-04-01 2011-04-01 true Standard XVI-Student activities. 36.43 Section 36.43... § 36.43 Standard XVI—Student activities. All schools shall provide and maintain a well-balanced student...

25 CFR 36.43 - Standard XVI-Student activities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... activities that include special interest clubs, physical activities, student government, and cultural affairs... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Standard XVI-Student activities. 36.43 Section 36.43... § 36.43 Standard XVI—Student activities. All schools shall provide and maintain a well-balanced student...

Participation as Pedagogy: Student and Librarian Experiences of an Open Access Publishing Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hicks, Alison

2017-01-01

Education for Instruction Librarians has traditionally centered upon the acquisition of practical classroom skills. While this approach has merit, from a sociocultural perspective of learning, student development emerges more completely through engagement with the communal activities and values that constitute professional practices rather than…

Why Do Students Have Difficulties Completing Homework? The Need for Homework Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Jianzhong

2013-01-01

Homework is a common and widespread educational activity. Yet, as homework often takes place amidst the pull of more attractive and competing after-school activities, doing homework presents multiple challenges for many students, even for those students who find their assignments meaningful and interesting. In this article, I first examine five…

The surfacing of past assessment strategies within interdisciplinary teams when encountering an open-ended assignment in an undergraduate sustainability course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartman, K.; Dzulkifli, D. D. B.; Moynihan, M. A.; Salman, R.; Goodkin, N.

2017-12-01

267 undergraduate students in an interdisciplinary environmental sustainability course were divided into 66 groups for the duration of the semester. The formation of the groups proceeded by first assigning all of the science majors to groups in a random order. This was followed by assigning the engineering majors, the liberal arts majors, and finally the business majors in turn. After all of the students had been assigned to a group, every group had at least one engineering student and one science student. 11 groups had a liberal arts student but no business student. 26 groups had a business student but no liberal arts student. 29 groups were composed of students from all four majors. During the semester, the groups created an environmental action plan to address one of Singapore's major sustainability concerns: food. In service of the course's emphasis on interdisciplinary communication, the groups were required to create a video to support their environmental action plan. The evaluation method for the videos built on our prior work with rubrics (Hartman & Goodkin, 2016). While we provided a number of examples of videos communicating environmental action plans, students were not prescribed a particular format for their video. To the consternation of some students, the instructor deliberately left the video assessment open-ended. After the semester ended, a researcher coded all 66 videos for the food sustainability issues they identified, their proposed solutions, and their video approach. Approaches included animations, virtual handwriting/drawing, role-playing, PowerPoint presentations, and picture slideshows. Given the open-ended nature of the video project, we hypothesized that groups would converge on approaches that at least one team member was familiar with. We knew from prior work with the business school, that its students engage in role-play activities fairly frequently. Teams with a business major and without a liberal arts major adopted the role

Harnessing Students' Interest in Physics with Their Own Video Games

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Like, Christopher

2011-01-01

Many physics teachers assign projects where students are asked to measure real-world motion. One purpose of this student-centered activity is to cultivate the relevance of physics in their lives. Typical project topics may include measuring the speed of a student's fastball and calculating how much reaction time batters are given. Another student…

Student Activity Funds: Procedures & Controls.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuzzetto, Charles E.

Student activity funds may create educational opportunities for students, but they frequently create problems for business administrators. The first part of this work reviews the types of organizational issues and transactions an organized student group is likely to encounter, including establishing a constitution, participant roles,…

Using Pinterest in Undergraduate Social Work Education: Assignment Development and Pilot Survey Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Lisa R.; Hitchcock, Laurel Iverson

2017-01-01

This article describes the development, implementation, and assessment of a social media assignment using Pinterest as a tool for student engagement and professional development in two undergraduate social work courses. Twenty-one undergraduate students enrolled in Human Behavior and the Social Environment (HBSE) courses completed the assignment…

Teaching Note--Integrating a Social Justice Assignment Into a Research Methods Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mapp, Susan C.

2013-01-01

Although social justice is a core value of social work, it can be more difficult to integrate into a research methods class. This article describes an assignment developed for a BSW one-semester research class that served the dual purpose of educating students about social justice as well as qualitative research. Students were instructed to…

Neural Mechanisms of Credit Assignment in a Multicue Environment

PubMed Central

Kolling, Nils; Brown, Joshua W.; Rushworth, Matthew

2016-01-01

In complex environments, many potential cues can guide a decision or be assigned responsibility for the outcome of the decision. We know little, however, about how humans and animals select relevant information sources that should guide behavior. We show that subjects solve this relevance selection and credit assignment problem by selecting one cue and its association with a particular outcome as the main focus of a hypothesis. To do this, we examined learning while using a task design that allowed us to estimate the focus of each subject's hypotheses on a trial-by-trial basis. When a prediction is confirmed by the outcome, then credit for the outcome is assigned to that cue rather than an alternative. Activity in medial frontal cortex is associated with the assignment of credit to the cue that is the main focus of the hypothesis. However, when the outcome disconfirms a prediction, the focus shifts between cues, and the credit for the outcome is assigned to an alternative cue. This process of reselection for credit assignment to an alternative cue is associated with lateral orbitofrontal cortex. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Learners should infer which features of environments are predictive of significant events, such as rewards. This “credit assignment” problem is particularly challenging when any of several cues might be predictive. We show that human subjects solve the credit assignment problem by implicitly “hypothesizing” which cue is relevant for predicting subsequent outcomes, and then credit is assigned according to this hypothesis. This process is associated with a distinctive pattern of activity in a part of medial frontal cortex. By contrast, when unexpected outcomes occur, hypotheses are redirected toward alternative cues, and this process is associated with activity in lateral orbitofrontal cortex. PMID:26818500

Getting Students To Read Actively.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kitao, Kenji

1994-01-01

This article discusses Japanese students' difficulties in reading English, overviews some of the problems of college English textbooks, presents the results of research on the subject, and discusses characteristics of measures of readability. Teaching methods that have proven effective with Japanese students and activities for engaging students in…

Making Meaning of Student Activism: Student Activist and Administrator Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Laura M.; Mather, Peter C.

2017-01-01

College campuses have experienced a recent resurgence of student activism, particularly in response to some of President Donald Trump's executive orders as well as controversial speakers like Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulous. Student activism presents both challenges and opportunities for higher education leaders seeking to engage productively…

Spitzer - Hot & Colorful Student Activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDonald, D.; Rebull, L. M.; DeWolf, C.; Guastella, P.; Johnson, C. H.; Schaefers, J.; Spuck, T.; McDonald, J. G., III; DeWolf, T.; Brock, S.; Boerma, J.; Bemis, G.; Paulsen, K.; Yueh, N.; Peter, A.; Wassmer, W.; Haber, R.; Scaramucci, A.; Butchart, J.; Holcomb, A.; Karns, B.; Kennedy, S.; Siegel, R.; Weiser, S.

2009-01-01

In this poster, we present the results of several activities developed for the general science student to explore infrared light. The first activity involved measuring infrared radiation using an updated version of Newton's experiment of splitting white light and finding IR radiation. The second used Leslie's cube to allow students to observe different radiators, while the third used a modern infrared thermometer to measure and identify IR sources in an enclosed box. The last activity involved students making false-color images from narrow-band filter images from data sets from Spitzer Space Telescope, STScI Digitized Sky Survey and other sources. Using computer programs like Adobe Photoshop and free software such as ds9, Spot and Leopard, poster-like images were created by the students. This research is funded by the Spitzer Science Center (SSC) and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). Please see our companion poster, Johnson et al., on the science aspect of this program, and another poster on the educational aspects, Guastella et al.

Note-Taking during Discussion: Using a Weekly Reflection Assignment to Motivate Students to Learn from Their Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gravett, Emily O.

2018-01-01

The benefits of in-class discussion, a form of active learning, are well-documented; in particular, discussions allow students the opportunity to learn from their peers. Yet students often treat discussions as 'down' or 'free' time. If students are not taking notes during discussion and reviewing those notes later on, they may not be learning much…

A Coursework Support System for Offering Challenges and Assistance by Analyzing Students' Web Portfolios

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Liang-Yi; Chen, Gwo-Dong

2009-01-01

Students can practice skills and acquire knowledge by doing coursework. However, in conventional coursework activities, each student is assigned the same exercises, without considering learners' diversity. Moreover, students typically have difficulty in receiving assistance for completing their exercises after class. Therefore, some students…

Participation Motivation and Student's Physical Activity among Sport Students in Three Countries.

PubMed

Kondric, Miran; Sindik, Joško; Furjan-Mandic, Gordana; Schiefler, Bernd

2013-01-01

The main aim of this study was to examine the differences in motivation to participate in sport activities among sports students from three different countries. On a sample of 390 sports students from Slovenia, Croatia and Germany we studied what motivates an interest in being sports active. The sample was stratified across the choice to attend table tennis lessons at all three institutions and all students have completed the Participation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ). The results revealed that the latent structure of the types of sports students' motives consisted of six factors (sport action with friend, popularity, fitness & health, social status, sports events, relaxation through sports). We also found significant sex differences in motivation to participate in sport activities for all sports students from the three different countries. We did not find relevant age-based differences among the students, and this is the only initial hypothesis that we can reject. Key pointsThe potential implications of the result can be in better understanding the relationship between different motivational orientations - in particular, extrinsic motivation - and sport motivation among school-aged individuals.In the context of Self Determination Theory, students can be encouraged in developing more autonomous orientations for sport activity, rather than controlled and impersonal, especially in certain countries.Significant factors of differences have been found in motivation to participate in sport activities among sports students from three different countries and also some significant sex differences have been found in motivation to participate in sport activities for all sports students.

Self-expression assignment as a teaching approach to enhance the interest of Kuwaiti women in biological sciences.

PubMed

El-Sabban, Farouk

2008-06-01

Stimulating the interest of students in biological sciences necessitates the use of new teaching methods and motivating approaches. The idea of the self-expression assignment (SEA) has evolved from the prevalent environment at the College for Women of Kuwait University (Safat, State of Kuwait), a newly established college where the number of students is low and where students have varied backgrounds and interests and are being instructed biological sciences in English for the first time. This SEA requires each student to choose a topic among a long list of topics and interact with it in any way to produce a finished product without the interference of the course instructor. Students are told that the SEA will be graded based on their commitment, creative thinking, innovation in developing the idea, and finishing up of the chosen assignment. The SEA has been implemented in three introductory courses, namely, Biology, Introduction to Human Nutrition and Food Science, and The Human Body. Many interesting projects resulted from the SEA, and, based on an administered survey, students assessed this assignment very favorably. Students expressed their pleasure of experiencing freedom in choosing their own topics, interacting with such topics, learning more about them, and finishing up their projects. Students appreciated this type of exposure to biological sciences and expressed that such an experience enhanced their interest in such sciences.

Students' Educational Activities During Clerkship.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Sullivan, Patricia S.; And Others

1997-01-01

Logs completed by 201 medical students in third-year clerkships at nine community-based hospitals indicated students received 6.5 hours of teaching with an instructor daily, spending 4.9 more hours in clerkship-related learning. Most teaching was by full-time faculty and residents. In half their educational activities, students participated with…

Motivating Students in Fitness Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkinson, Carol; Hunter, Mike

2008-01-01

Physical educators have a responsibility to motivate students to develop personal fitness. This is a critical concept as physical education is the only part of the curriculum capable of meeting the health needs of students regarding physical activity. Current physical educators must promote fitness in ways that motivate students to engage in…

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

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sletten, Sarah Rae

2017-01-01

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…

Examining Teachers' Decisions on Test-Type Assignment for Statewide Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Hyun-jeong; Kingston, Neal

2015-01-01

Recent studies have raised concerns about the vagueness of alternate assessment eligibility guidelines, specifically, that students with mild disabilities (SWMD) have been inappropriately assigned to alternate assessment--alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). In this study, special education teachers (N = 317) were surveyed about SWMD in…

Applied and Transformed Understanding in Introductory Psychology: Analysis of a Final Essay Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Kevin M.

2010-01-01

This paper describes a case study of the impact of the introductory psychology course on students' understanding of their life experiences and course-related ideas. Student responses to a final essay assignment were analyzed to construct composites for areas of applied and transformed understanding. Results are important for psychology teachers…

Barriers to Physical Activity on University Student

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jajat; Sultoni, K.; Suherman, A.

2017-03-01

The purpose of the research is to analyze the factors that become barriers to physical activity in university students based on physical activity level. An internet-based survey was conducted. The participants were 158 University students from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Barriers to Physical Activity Quiz (BPAQ) were used to assessed the factors that become barriers to physical activity in university students. IPAQ (short form) were used to assessed physical activity level. The results show there was no differences BPAQ based on IPAQ level. But when analyzed further based on seven factors barriers there are differences in factors “social influence and lack of willpower” based IPAQ level. Based on this it was concluded that the “influence from other and lack of willpower” an inhibiting factor on students to perform physical activity.

Student seminar on smoking: A novel way to introduce different perspectives on smoking to medical students.

PubMed

Iqbal, Saima P; Rafi, Shahid; Rahman, Matiur

2013-03-01

The respiratory module at Shifa College of Medicine (SCM) is delivered in third year with emphasis on respiratory pathophysiology and respiratory medicine. Smoking as a topic was introduced to emphasize the preventive aspects of respiratory illnesses. An innovative approach to involve students in their learning was developed. To determine whether this innovation would be well received and effective for students' learning about smoking, we carried out this study. This is a one group post-test quasi-experiment. Two days were assigned for a smoking seminar. The class of 106 students was divided into 10 batches, and each batch was assigned a theme related to smoking. These themes were developed by the faculty, and each theme was related to a different perspective on smoking. A post-test questionnaire was distributed at the end of the seminar for feedback to see what aspects of students' learning were highlighted and what needed to be improved upon. Questions related to the usefulness of the activity were incorporated into the questionnaire and the students were asked to agree or disagree on a five-point Likert scale. Most (68.3%) students agreed that this activity improved their knowledge regarding smoking, and 54.8% agreed that it also helped in application of this knowledge. Improvement in presentation and counseling skills (59.8%), evidence-based medicine (47.6%), and softer skills, such as teamwork (72%) and creativity (63.4%), were also reported to be enhanced. Seminars led by the students have shown to be effective in breaking the monotony and generating an interest of the topic. Such an activity serves as a small step to make our graduates more empathic, humane, competent, and skilful.

Drafting. Technology Learning Activity. Teacher Edition. Technology Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oklahoma State Dept. of Vocational and Technical Education, Stillwater. Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center.

This packet of technology learning activity (TLA) materials for drafting for students in grades 6-10 consists of an instructor's section and student materials. The instructor's section contains background information, suggested activities, and a list of suggested resources. A lesson plan for the 8-day module includes assignments; equipment, tools,…

Physical Activity Participation and Nutrition and Physical Activity Knowledge in University Dance Students.

PubMed

Hanna, Katherine; Hanley, Anne; Huddy, Avril; McDonald, Michael; Willer, Fiona

2017-03-01

To assess participation in physical activity and knowledge of general nutrition and current public health messages about the health benefits of physical activity in university dance students, and to investigate differences between first-year and later-year students and between students in dance and dance performance course groups. This cross-sectional study recruited 67 participants from dance undergraduate degrees in a university in Australia. Nutrition knowledge was assessed using the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire. Physical activity participation and awareness of its benefits were assessed using the Active Australia Survey. Results indicate low nutrition knowledge among dance students, with 47% and 52% of responses correct in dance and dance performance students, respectively. Nutrition knowledge did not vary between students in first or later years. Self-reported participation in moderate and vigorous physical activity varied substantially and met or exceeded recommendations based upon duration and frequency for 98% of participants. However, awareness of physical activity messages varied, with dance students more likely to disagree about the level of activity needed for health benefits. Dance students report varying levels of physical activity that usually met or exceeded recommendations; however, knowledge of general nutrition and physical activity benefits was low. Improved knowledge could contribute to changes in behavior that improve health status in this population.

What Strategies Do Resistive Readers Use to Fake Their Way through School Assigned Texts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieger, Courtney M.

2012-01-01

A trend among adolescent readers is the practice of fake-reading. Fake-reading occurs when students who can read choose not to, and develop strategies to fake their way through school-assigned texts to earn good grades. This study examines four resistive readers, or fake-readers, assigned to read Neal Shusterman's "Unwind" (2007)…

Making Economic Principles Personal: Student Journals and Reflection Papers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brewer, Stephanie M.; Jozefowicz, James J.

2006-01-01

The authors address two informal writing assignments implemented in introductory economics classes. One assignment involves students writing short reflection papers, and the other assignment involves students writing short journal entries for a designated period of time. Both assignments are designed to help students realize that economics is…

Practical Business: Instructor/Student Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Napier, Deedee Stocker

Ten units on practical business are presented in this instructor and student guide. Each instructional unit contains objectives, suggested activities, information sheets, assignment sheets, transparency master, a test, and test answers. Unit topics are (1) before you buy (comparative shopping and wise purchasing techniques); (2) when things go…

Training the Next Generation: Developing Health Education Skills in Undergraduate Public Health Students at a Historically Black College and University.

PubMed

Mincey, Krista; Gross, Tyra

2017-01-01

With the looming workforce crisis, undergraduate public health students could be an important link in filling this demand. As public health continues to face challenges in the future, it is important that the future workforce is not only diverse but also trained in a manner that exposes them to real-world experiences that give them an opportunity to apply coursework to solve problems. This article outlines how a health program planning course was taught at a Historically Black College and University using assignments that promote active learning. Students were assessed on their ability to plan and implement a health activity based on a developed metric. Student and instructor reflections were collected from final assessments of the health programs by both groups. All elements of the course are discussed from course design, structure, assignments, and outcomes along with student and instructor reflections and lessons learned. Results suggest that including assignments focused on active learning are beneficial to helping students learn course material. As public health continues to change, more work needs to focus on teaching pedagogies that better prepare students to address future public health issues.

Land-Use-Planning Writing Assignment for an Environmental-Geology Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carson, Robert James; Sadd, James Lester

1991-01-01

Describes writing environmental impact statement concerning land use as assignment in geology courses. Students select area, propose land-use project, analyze available literature, choose specific site within map area for project, and write report addressing site access, water supply, liquid and solid waste disposal, mitigation of environmental…

My student body: effects of an internet-based prevention program to decrease obesity among college students.

PubMed

Lachausse, Robert G

2012-01-01

To determine the impact of My Student Body (MSB)-Nutrition, an Internet-based obesity prevention program for college students. Three hundred and twenty ethnically diverse undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: MSB-Nutrition program, an on-campus weight management course, and a comparison group. Students completed baseline and follow-up surveys regarding their nutrition and physical activity behaviors, self-efficacy, stress, attitudes, and body weight. Compared with the on-campus course and a comparison group, the MSB-Nutrition program increased fruit and vegetable consumption, reduced stress, and increased fruit and vegetable self-efficacy but had no significant effect on students' exercise self-efficacy, exercise behavior, or weight loss. The MSB-Nutrition program was effective in changing students' nutrition behaviors but had no effect on physical activity behaviors or weight loss. Suggestions for improving Internet-based interventions aimed at decreasing obesity rates among college students are offered.

Utilizing Generalizability Theory to Investigate the Reliability of the Grades Assigned to Undergraduate Research Papers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gugiu, Mihaiela R.; Gugiu, Paul C.; Baldus, Robert

2012-01-01

Background: Educational researchers have long espoused the virtues of writing with regard to student cognitive skills. However, research on the reliability of the grades assigned to written papers reveals a high degree of contradiction, with some researchers concluding that the grades assigned are very reliable whereas others suggesting that they…

Assigning Places: The Function of Introductory Composition as a Cultural Discourse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

France, Alan W.

1993-01-01

Argues for a broadening of the range of rhetorical positions to which writing students are presently assigned. Envisions current practices of composition from the political left. Proposes a rhetorical position from which writing might become a means of cultural transformation. (HB)

Using Content Reading Assignments in a Psychology Course to Teach Critical Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Camp, Debbie; Van Camp, Wesley

2013-01-01

Liberal arts students are expected to graduate college with fully developed critical reading and writing skills. However, for a variety of reasons these skills are not always as well developed as they might be--both during and upon completion of college. This paper describes a reading assignment that was designed to increase students'…

Do It Right! Requiring Multiple Submissions of Math and NMR Analysis Assignments in the Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slade, David J.

2017-01-01

The first-semester introductory organic chemistry laboratory has been adapted to include mini postlab assignments that students must complete correctly, through as many attempts as prove to be necessary. The use of multiple drafts of writing assignments is a standard approach to improving writing, so the system was designed to require drafts for…

The Value of Interactive Assignments in the Online Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florenthal, Bela

2016-01-01

The offerings of Web-based supplemental material for textbooks have been increasingly growing. When deciding to adopt a textbook, instructors examine the added value of the associated supplements, also called "e-learning tools," to enhance students' learning of course concepts. In this study, one such supplement, interactive assignments,…

Engaging Introductory Writing Students through Facebook Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lovell, Elyse D'nn; Palmer, Betsy

2013-01-01

Undergraduates' use of social networking sites has been well documented in both the popular press and in academic publications. Research suggests that students spend, on average, 30 minutes a day engaged in a predictable routine of social networking. Correspondingly, on the first author's previous campus, she had frequently observed many of the…

USE OF TRANS-CONTEXTUAL MODEL-BASED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY COURSE IN DEVELOPING LEISURE-TIME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BEHAVIOR OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

PubMed

Müftüler, Mine; İnce, Mustafa Levent

2015-08-01

This study examined how a physical activity course based on the Trans-Contextual Model affected the variables of perceived autonomy support, autonomous motivation, determinants of leisure-time physical activity behavior, basic psychological needs satisfaction, and leisure-time physical activity behaviors. The participants were 70 Turkish university students (M age=23.3 yr., SD=3.2). A pre-test-post-test control group design was constructed. Initially, the participants were randomly assigned into an experimental (n=35) and a control (n=35) group. The experimental group followed a 12 wk. trans-contextual model-based intervention. The participants were pre- and post-tested in terms of Trans-Contextual Model constructs and of self-reported leisure-time physical activity behaviors. Multivariate analyses showed significant increases over the 12 wk. period for perceived autonomy support from instructor and peers, autonomous motivation in leisure-time physical activity setting, positive intention and perceived behavioral control over leisure-time physical activity behavior, more fulfillment of psychological needs, and more engagement in leisure-time physical activity behavior in the experimental group. These results indicated that the intervention was effective in developing leisure-time physical activity and indicated that the Trans-Contextual Model is a useful way to conceptualize these relationships.

Students' Perception of Homework Assignments and What Influences Their Ideas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Letterman, Denise

2013-01-01

Authors have researched the effects of homework, but few studies have delved into the idea of students' attitude towards homework. Consequently, students' perception of homework, the principal participants, remains largely unknown. Students' experience in homework that started as early as elementary school has influenced their ideas of homework.…

Residential Construction. Technology Learning Activity. Teacher Edition. Technology Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oklahoma State Dept. of Vocational and Technical Education, Stillwater. Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center.

This packet of technology learning activity (TLA) materials for residential construction for students in grades 6-10 consists of an instructor's section and student materials. The instructor's section contains background information, suggested activities, and a list of suggested resources. A lesson plan for the 10-day module includes assignments;…

A Comparison of the Long-Term Learning Effects of Comprehensive and Topic-Specific Practice Set Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fatemi, Darius; Marley, Robert; Marquis, Linda M.

2015-01-01

The authors examined the long-term learning effects of two different practice set assignment approaches on business students' long-term learning: a comprehensive, multiple-period practice set and a topic-specific practice set. Student learning was measured longitudinally across semesters. The authors found evidence that students using a…

A General Chemistry Assignment Analyzing Environmental Contamination for the Depue, IL, National Superfund Site

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saslow Gomez, Sarah A.; Faurie-Wisniewski, Danielle; Parsa, Arlen; Spitz, Jeff; Spitz, Jennifer Amdur; Loeb, Nancy C.; Geiger, Franz M.

2015-01-01

The classroom exercise outlined here is a self-directed assignment that connects students to the environmental contamination problem surrounding the DePue Superfund site. By connecting chemistry knowledge gained in the classroom with a real-world problem, students are encouraged to personally connect with the problem while simultaneously…

Thinking Like a Psychologist Introductory Psychology Writing Assignments: Encouraging Critical Thinking and Resisting Plagiarism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wentworth, Diane Keyser; Whitmarsh, Lona

2017-01-01

Teaching the general psychology course provides instructors with the opportunity to invite students to explore the dynamics of behavior and mental processes through the lens of theory and research. Three innovative writing assignments were developed to teach students to think like a psychologist, operationalized as enhancing critical thinking,…

The Impact of Adding Online Homework Assignments to an Introduction to Physical Geology Class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brevik, Eric C.

2017-04-01

As instructors we are constantly looking for ways to improve student performance in the classroom. In an attempt to improve student performance in my GEOL 105 - Introduction to Physical Geology class, I added online homework assignments from the Pearson Mastering Geology program beginning in the Fall semester of 2014. There were several anticipated advantages to the online homework approach. If a student is struggling with a question they can get hints that don't tell them the answer, but are designed to stimulate their thinking and lead them towards the correct answer. The students also know immediately after submitting their answers which questions they got right and which were wrong, and they can go back to the wrong answers and try to determine the correct answer so they know what it is. This gives them much more rapid feedback than traditional paper homework, all of which makes this a more student-centered approach to learning. It is also my hope that the students find the online homework more interesting and interactive than paper-based homework, which I hope in turn will stimulate the students to be more likely to do the homework and take it seriously while also having some fun while doing it. As of the end of Fall semester 2016, I had been using the online homework assignments in my classes for three years. Therefore, I analyzed student performance in the three years prior to adopting the online homework and compared it to performance over the three years since adopting online homework. In the three years prior to adopting the online homework, the average grade in my classes was 73.8%; afterwards the average grade was 81.3%, for an improvement of 7.5% on average. Most of that improvement was in average test scores, which increased by 6.3% (67.4% prior to 73.6% after). The online homework did not improve the performance of the top students, but it did improve the performance of the other students. Prior to adopting the online homework, grade distribution in

Teaching Note--Student-Produced Public Service Announcements: A Project to Promote Active Learning in an Undergraduate HBSE Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinn, Andrew; Chu, Yee Han

2017-01-01

Student-produced videos are assignments that can increase students' understanding of course content. This teaching note describes how an undergraduate Human Behavior in the Social Environment I course used student-produced public service announcement videos to develop an understanding of the different life stages in humans. The advantages and…

Mutual-Choice Placement--A Humanistic Approach to Student Teaching Assignments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Easterly, Jean L.

Student teaching may be defined as a complex intermingling of roles and institutions. Few, however, would dispute that the core of student teaching is that unique relationship which occurs between two persons--the student teacher and the cooperating teacher. This relationship may be explored by examining two alternative models for matching student…

Relevance in Basic Composition: Writing Assignments for Technical Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tichenor, Stuart

Generally, students in vocational and technical colleges are in writing classes because they must be, not because they want to be. As a rule, students in basic composition classes have been more or less continually exposed to writing classes since middle school where they been asked to keep journals, read articles and short stories, and write…

Psychosocial factors underlying physical activity.

PubMed

Zhang, Juan; Middlestadt, Susan E; Ji, Cheng-Ye

2007-09-19

Given the increasing importance of obesity in China, prevention interventions encouraging physical activity by middle school students are needed. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how a rapid elicitation method can be used to identify salient consequences, referents, and circumstances about physical activity as perceived by middle school students and to provide suggestions for interventions and quantitative research. A theory-based qualitative study using a self-completion elicitation was conducted with 155 students from two middle schools in Beijing, China. Following the Theory of Planned Behavior, six open-ended questions asked students for their perceptions about performing physical activity at least 60 minutes each day: advantages of participating in physical activity; disadvantages of doing so; people who approve of participation; people who disapprove; things that make it easy; and things that make it hard. Content analysis revealed categories of salient consequences, reference groups, and circumstances. While the three most frequently mentioned advantages elicited from the students were physical health consequences (e.g., will strengthen my body (58.7%)), four of the salient advantages were not (e.g., will improve my grades (12.2%)). Parents were the most frequently mentioned social referent (42.6% as approving; 27.7% as disapproving) when students were asked who might approve or disapprove of their participation. Circumstances perceived to hinder daily physical activity included having too many assignments and not having enough time. While many of the beliefs about physical activity elicited from this study were similar to those found with students from England and the US, several were unique to these students from Beijing. The results of this qualitative research suggest that interventions to encourage physical activity among middle school students should address: perceived consequences of physical activity on academic achievement and other

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIAL CONTROL. BASIC ELECTRICITY, UNIT 3, ASSIGNMENTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SUTTON, MACK C.

THIS GUIDE IS FOR INDIVIDUAL STUDENT USE IN STUDYING BASIC ELECTRICAL FUNDAMENTALS IN ELECTRICAL-ELECTRONIC PROGRAMS. IT WAS DEVELOPED BY AN INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS SPECIALIST AND ADVISERS. THE COURSE OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF DIRECT CURRENT FUNDAMENTALS. EACH OF THE 10 ASSIGNMENT SHEETS PROVIDES THE LESSON SUBJECT, PURPOSE,…

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIAL CONTROL. BASIC ELECTRICITY, UNIT 2, ASSIGNMENTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SUTTON, MACK C.

THIS GUIDE IS FOR INDIVIDUAL STUDENT USE IN STUDYING BASIC ELECTRICAL FUNDAMENTALS IN ELECTRICAL-ELECTRONIC PROGRAMS. IT WAS DEVELOPED BY AN INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS SPECIALIST AND ADVISERS. THE COURSE OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP AN UNDERSTANDING OF DIRECT CURRENT FUNDAMENTALS. EACH OF THE 15 ASSIGNMENT SHEETS PROVIDES THE LESSON SUBJECT, PURPOSE,…

Online vs. face-to-face discussion in a Web-based research methods course for postgraduate nursing students: a quasi-experimental study.

PubMed

Campbell, Malcolm; Gibson, Will; Hall, Andy; Richards, David; Callery, Peter

2008-05-01

Web-based technologies are increasingly being used to create modes of online learning for nurses but their effect has not been assessed in nurse education. Assess whether participation in face-to-face discussion seminars or online asynchronous discussion groups had different effects on educational attainment in a web-based course. Non-randomised or quasi-experimental design with two groups-students choosing to have face-to-face discussion seminars and students choosing to have online discussions. The Core Methods module of a postgraduate research methods course. All 114 students participating in the first 2 yr during which the course teaching material was delivered online. Assignment mark for Core Methods course module. Background details of the students, their choices of modules and assignment marks were collected as part of the routine course administration. Students' online activities were identified using the student tracking facility within WebCT. Regression models were fitted to explore the association between available explanatory variables and assignment mark. Students choosing online discussions had a higher Core Methods assignment mark (mean 60.8/100) than students choosing face-to-face discussions (54.4); the difference was statistically significant (t=3.13, df=102, p=0.002), although this ignores confounding variables. Among online discussion students, assignment mark was significantly correlated with the numbers of discussion messages read (Kendall's tau(b)=0.22, p=0.050) and posted (Kendall's tau(b)=0.27, p=0.017); among face-to-face discussion students, it was significantly associated with the number of non-discussion hits in WebCT (Kendall's tau(b)=0.19, p=0.036). In regression analysis, choice of discussion method, whether an M.Phil./Ph.D. student, number of non-discussion hits in WebCT, number of online discussion messages read and number posted were associated with assignment mark at the 5% level of significance when taken singly; in combination

Tobacco abuse and physical activity among medical students

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Objective This lifestyle is mainly determined during childhood and connected with poor public prophylactic health policy. The aim of this study was to estimate physical activity and level of tobacco abuse, as well as knowledge about health behaviours, among medical students. Methods Questionnaires were completed by Polish (243) and foreign medical students (80). Results It was stated that about 20% of the students smoked cigarettes. Female students from Norway took up smoking significantly more often than other participants, whereas there were more smokers among those from Poland. There was a significantly larger percentage of smoking males from Norway than among male Polish students. The same students presented a low level of physical activity. The smallest level of physical activity was characteristic of the Polish women. Conclusion This situation requires an intensification of activities aimed at supporting pro-health lifestyles and the elimination of unfavourable effects, especially among medical students. PMID:20156733

Propelling Students into Active Grammar Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jurhill, Dennis A.

2011-01-01

"O! this learning, what a thing it is." -W. Shakespeare, "The Taming of the Shrew." The aim of this action research was to find out if active grammar involvement amongst students might lead to better results. My approach was to activate my students during grammar instruction by using cooperative learning: that is a form of…

Subject matter expert and public evaluations of a veterinary toxicology course brochure-writing assignment.

PubMed

Dorman, David C; Alpi, Kristine M; Chappell, Kimberly H

2013-01-01

Veterinary schools are increasingly developing students' communication skills, with an emphasis placed on practice conveying medical and scientific knowledge to different audiences. We describe how patient-centered written communication has been integrated into the training of veterinary students using toxicology-related preventive materials. Third-year veterinary students were given an assignment to prepare a client-focused brochure related to veterinary toxicology. Since 2010, 148 students have completed this assignment, with an average score of 93.4%. Use of a grading rubric was instituted in 2011 and resulted in a more rigorous assessment of the brochures by the course instructors. In this study, we evaluated a sample (n=6) selected from 10 brochures volunteered for further public and expert assessment. Each brochure was measured for readability and assessed with a rubric for perceived usefulness and acceptability by 12 veterinary toxicologists and 10 or 11 adult members of the public attending a college of veterinary medicine open house. Veterinary toxicologist review anticipated that the brochures would be useful for most clients, and the public reviewers confirmed this assessment. Evaluation of the brochures using set marking criteria and readability indexes showed that students had successfully targeted the chosen audiences. Feedback showed that the general public rated the sample brochures highly in terms of quality, usefulness, and interest. Completion of this study has resulted in revision of the grading rubric, an increased use of brochure examples, and additional instruction in readability assessment and brochure development, thereby improving the assignment as a learning exercise.

Race-Conscious Policies for Assigning Students to Schools: Social Science Research and the Supreme Court Cases. Committee on Social Science Research Evidence on Racial Diversity in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linn, Robert L. Ed.; Welner, Kevin G., Ed.

2007-01-01

This report summarizes and analyzes the existing body of research related to race-conscious student assignment policies, building upon the amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs filed with the Supreme Court in support of petitioners and respondents in these two cases. The National Academy of Education (NAEd) Board of Directors recognized the…

Students Active in Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brutcher, Robert

2001-01-01

Describes SAIL (Students Active in Leadership) as a school-based, youth-directed group. States that the program helps teenagers learn leadership skills by developing and implementing community service activities. SAIL finds partners with whom to collaborate among local businesses, government, and health associations, and these partners provide the…

Activites to Support and Assess Student Understanding of Earth Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prothero, W. A.; Regev, J.

2004-12-01

In order to use data effectively, learners must construct a mental model that allows them to understand and express spatial relationships in data, relationships between different data types, and relationships between the data and a theoretical model. Another important skill is the ability to identify gross patterns and distinguish them from details that may require increasingly sophisticated models. Students must also be able to express their understanding, both to help them frame their understanding for themselves, and for assessment purposes. Research in learning unequivocally shows that writing about a subject increases understanding of that subject. In UCSB's general education oceanography class, a series of increasingly demanding activities culminates in two science papers that use earth data. These activities are: 1) homework problems, 2) in-class short writing activities, 3) lab section exploration activities and presentations, and 4) the science paper. The subjects of the two papers are: Plate Tectonics and Ocean and Climate. Each student is a member of a group that adopts a country and must relate their paper to the environment of their country. Data are accessed using the "Our Dynamic Planet" and "Global Ocean Data Viewer" (GLODV) CD's. These are integrated into EarthEd Online, a software package which supports online writing, review, commenting, and return to the student. It also supports auto-graded homework assignments, grade calculation, and other class management functions. The writing assignments emphasize the construction of a scientific argument. This process is explained explicitly, requiring statements that: 1) include an observation or description of an observation (e.g. elevation profiles, quakes), 2) name features based on the observation (e.g. trench, ridge), 3) describe of features (e.g. trends NW, xxxkm long), 4) describe relationships between features (e.g. quakes are parallel to trench), 5) describe a model or theory (e.g. cartoon type

Marking Student Programs Using Graph Similarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naude, Kevin A.; Greyling, Jean H.; Vogts, Dieter

2010-01-01

We present a novel approach to the automated marking of student programming assignments. Our technique quantifies the structural similarity between unmarked student submissions and marked solutions, and is the basis by which we assign marks. This is accomplished through an efficient novel graph similarity measure ("AssignSim"). Our experiments…

Using Reflective Practice to Support Management Student Learning: Three Brief Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reilly, Anne H.

2018-01-01

Reflective practice supports critical thinking and assessment skills through analyzing one's own life experiences, and the role of reflection in learning has been long recognized. However, drawbacks of many reflective practice assignments are their broad scope and lengthy written requirements. I propose that the reflection process is robust enough…

The Use of Mobile Apps to Enhance Student Learning in Introduction to Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diliberto-Macaluso, Kristen; Hughes, Alan

2016-01-01

The current study examined the impact of mobile applications or apps on student learning in an introduction to psychology course. Students were assigned to complete a learner-centered worksheet activity on the brain and central nervous system using either an interactive 3-D Brain app or their online course textbook. We measured student learning…

Integrating the Liberal Arts and Chemistry: A Series of General Chemistry Assignments to Develop Science Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Diane M.; Chengelis Czegan, Demetra A.

2016-01-01

This paper describes assignments that have been implemented in a General Chemistry I course to promote science literacy. This course was chosen in particular because it reaches a broad audience, which includes nonscience majors. The assignment series begins with several discussions and tasks to develop information literacy, in which students find…

Student Service Learning and Student Activities--A Perfect Fit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craig, Deborah

1990-01-01

The coordination and purpose of a student service learning program fits appropriately within the mission of a student activities center. Some national associations that focus on community volunteerism are identified and the volunteer program at East Tennessee State University is described. Volunteer experiences included campus blood drive,…

Integrating Video Documentary into the Classroom: A Community Assessment Assignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levinson, Samantha G.; Caldwell, Keith; Petracchi, Helen E.; Wexler, Sandra; Engel, Rafael

2016-01-01

Community assessment is a strategy commonly taught to social work students to identify a community's strengths and challenges. This article describes the value of using video documentary as part of a community assessment assignment. We identify the advantages of using video documentary in the assessment process and the reporting of findings. We…

Student Leadership in Small Group Science Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliveira, Alandeom W.; Boz, Umit; Broadwell, George A.; Sadler, Troy D.

2014-01-01

Background: Science educators have sought to structure collaborative inquiry learning through the assignment of static group roles. This structural approach to student grouping oversimplifies the complexities of peer collaboration and overlooks the highly dynamic nature of group activity. Purpose: This study addresses this issue of…

Guidelines to Student Activity Fund Accounting. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of School Business Officials International, Reston, VA.

This booklet provides guidelines to help school business officials develop sound procedures for keeping proper accounts of and managing the money raised and spent in the course of conducting student activity programs. The booklet notes the roles of the administrators and activity advisers related to management of the student activity fund, then…

Active Learning via Student Karaoke Videos

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grossman, Gary D.; Richards, Travis

2016-01-01

We evaluated students' perceptions and reactions to an active learning Karaoke Video project in both a large (104 student) undergraduate class in Natural History of Georgia and a small graduate seminar in Fish Ecology. Undergraduate responses were evaluated with both questionnaires and triangulation interviews and graduate student responses…

Student Activism in Junior Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaddy, Dale; And Others

1970-01-01

The first article in this review examines research on student rights, administrator and faculty attitudes, and administrative remedies. The next analyzes student unrest and protest activities in terms of cause and degree, extent of government involvement, and institutional characteristics. The third article considers new and revised legislation,…

Active Students in Webinars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kolås, Line; Nordseth, Hugo; Yri, Jørgen Sørlie

2015-01-01

To ensure student activity in webinars we have defined 10 learning tasks focusing on production and communication e.g. collaborative writing, discussion and polling, and investigated how the technology supports the learning activities. The three project partners in the VisPed-project use different video-conferencing systems, and we analyzed how it…

Grouping puts figure-ground assignment in context by constraining propagation of edge-assignment

PubMed Central

Brooks, Joseph L.; Driver, Jon

2010-01-01

Figure-ground organization involves assignment of edges to a figural shape on one or the other side of each dividing edge. Established visual cues for edge-assignment primarily concern relatively local rather than contextual factors. Here we show that assignment for a locally-unbiased edge can be affected by assignment of a remote contextual edge that has its own locally-biased assignment. We find that such propagation of edge-assignment from the biased remote context occurs only when the biased and unbiased edges are grouped. This new principle, whereby grouping constrains propagation of figural edge-assignment, emerges from both subjective reports and from an objective short-term edge-matching task. It generalizes from moving displays involving grouping by common fate and collinearity, to static displays with grouping by similarity of edge-contrast polarity, or apparent occlusion. Our results identify a new contextual influence upon edge-assignment. They also identify a new mechanistic relation between grouping and figure-ground processes, whereby grouping between remote elements can constrain propagation of edge-assignment between those elements. PMID:20436200

Student-peer mentoring on a drug information response.

PubMed

Rodis, Jennifer Lin; Backo, Jennifer; Schmidt, Brittany M; Pruchnicki, Maria C

2014-03-12

To implement a student peer-mentoring program with a drug information response assignment in an introductory pharmacy practice course. Second-year student pharmacists (P2 mentors) enrolled in an independent study course were randomly assigned first-year student pharmacists (P1 mentees) to mentor on a drug information assignment. The P2 mentors provided feedback to P1 mentees' assignment drafts. The P1 mentees had the opportunity to revise the draft prior to turning in the completed assignment to course faculty members for grading. Both P1 mentees and P2 mentors agreed the mentorship improved their ability to prepare a drug information response (76% and 100%, respectively). A majority of the student pharmacists would choose to be involved in the program again. The student peer-mentoring program was successful in improving student pharmacists' perceptions of ability to compose a drug information response.

Librarian-Faculty Collaboration on a Library Research Assignment and Module for College Experience Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keyes, Anne; Barbier, Pat

2013-01-01

A librarian and faculty member collaborated on creating a library research module for students in the faculty member's college success classes to help them learn the fundamentals of information literacy. Using the assignment "My Ideal Job," the students met four or more times with the librarian in a computer classroom to learn how to do…

Student Perceptions of Online Homework in Introductory Finance Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolira, Joseph C.

2008-01-01

The author examined student perceptions concerning online homework assignments in an introductory finance class. In general, students felt that online homework was preferable to traditional homework assignments that are turned in to the instructor. In addition, students reported that the homework assignments increased their understanding of the…

Learning Gains from a Recurring "Teach and Question" Homework Assignment in a General Biology Course: Using Reciprocal Peer Tutoring Outside Class.

PubMed

Bailey, E G; Baek, D; Meiling, J; Morris, C; Nelson, N; Rice, N S; Rose, S; Stockdale, P

2018-06-01

Providing students with one-on-one interaction with instructors is a big challenge in large courses. One solution is to have students interact with their peers during class. Reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) is a more involved interaction that requires peers to alternate the roles of "teacher" and "student." Theoretically, advantages for peer tutoring include the verbalization and questioning of information and the scaffolded exploration of material through social and cognitive interaction. Studies on RPT vary in their execution, but most require elaborate planning and take up valuable class time. We tested the effectiveness of a "teach and question" (TQ) assignment that required student pairs to engage in RPT regularly outside class. A quasi-experimental design was implemented: one section of a general biology course completed TQ assignments, while another section completed a substitute assignment requiring individuals to review course material. The TQ section outperformed the other section by ∼6% on exams. Session recordings were coded to investigate correlation between TQ quality and student performance. Asking more questions was the characteristic that best predicted exam performance, and this was more predictive than most aspects of the course. We propose the TQ as an easy assignment to implement with large performance gains.

Grouping puts figure-ground assignment in context by constraining propagation of edge assignment.

PubMed

Brooks, Joseph L; Brook, Joseph L; Driver, Jon

2010-05-01

Figure-ground organization involves the assignment of edges to a figural shape on one or the other side of each dividing edge. Established visual cues for edge assignment primarily concern relatively local rather than contextual factors. In the present article, we show that an assignment for a locally unbiased edge can be affected by an assignment of a remote contextual edge that has its own locally biased assignment. We find that such propagation of edge assignment from the biased remote context occurs only when the biased and unbiased edges are grouped. This new principle, whereby grouping constrains the propagation of figural edge assignment, emerges from both subjective reports and an objective short-term edge-matching task. It generalizes from moving displays involving grouping by common fate and collinearity, to static displays with grouping by similarity of edge-contrast polarity, or apparent occlusion. Our results identify a new contextual influence on edge assignment. They also identify a new mechanistic relation between grouping and figure-ground processes, whereby grouping between remote elements can constrain the propagation of edge assignment between those elements. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://app.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

The Role of Parental Attitudes in Children's Motivation toward Homework Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madjar, Nir; Shklar, Nitzan; Moshe, Limor

2016-01-01

Completing homework assignments is part of students' daily routine. Because this task is embedded within the home environment, parents play an important role in homework-related attitudes and behaviors. Recent findings have demonstrated that effort and cognitive engagement while doing homework are better proximal predictors of positive outcomes…

Hospitality Services. Student Activity Book.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock. Home Economics Curriculum Center.

This student activity book contains pencil-and-paper activities for use in a hospitality services course focusing on the food and lodging segments of the hospitality and tourism industry. The activities are organized into 29 chapters on the following topics: hospitality services industry; professional ethics; organization/management structures in…

Students' Task Interpretation and Conceptual Understanding in an Electronics Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivera-Reyes, Presentacion; Lawanto, Oenardi; Pate, Michael L.

2017-01-01

Task interpretation is a critical first step for students in the process of self-regulated learning, and a key determinant when they set goals in their learning and select strategies in assigned work. This paper focuses on the explicit and implicit aspects of task interpretation based on Hadwin's model. Laboratory activities improve students'…

Effects of curricular activity on students' situational motivation and physical activity levels.

PubMed

Gao, Zan; Hannon, James C; Newton, Maria; Huang, Chaoqun

2011-09-01

The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the effects of three curricular activities on students'situational motivation (intrinsic motivation [IM], identified regulation [IR], external regulation, and amotivation [AM]) and physical activity (PA) levels, and (b) the predictive strength of situational motivation to PA levels. Four hundred twelve students in grades 7-9 participated in three activities (cardiovascular fitness, ultimate football, and Dance Dance Revolution [DDR]) in physical education. ActiGraph GT1M accelerometers were used to measure students' PA levels for three classes for each activity. Students also completed a Situational Motivation Scale (Guay, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2000) at the end of each class. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that students spent significantly higher percentages of time in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) in fitness and football classes than they did in DDR class. Students reported higher lM and IR toward fitness than DDR They also scored higher in IR toward fitness than football. In contrast, students displayed significantly lower AM toward fitness than football and DDR Hierarchical Linear Modeling revealed that IM was the only positive predictor for time in MVPA (p = .02), whereas AM was the negative predictor (p < .01). The findings are discussed in regard to the implications for educational practice.

Staff and Student Experiences of Dialogue Days, a Student Engagement Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asghar, Mandy

2016-01-01

This paper reports the findings from a descriptive phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of dialogue days, a student engagement activity, from the perspectives of staff and students. I suggest that dialogue days enhance the relational and emotional aspects of learning with the potential to impact on future student engagement and…

Using an alternate reality game to increase physical activity and decrease obesity risk of college students.

PubMed

Johnston, Jeanne D; Massey, Anne P; Marker-Hoffman, Rickie Lee

2012-07-01

This quasi-experimental study investigated a game intervention--specifically, an alternate reality game (ARG)--as a means to influence college students' physical activity (PA). An ARG is an interactive narrative that takes place in the real world and uses multiple media to reveal a story. Three sections of a college health course (n = 115 freshman students) were assigned either to a game group that played the ARG or to a comparison group that learned how to use exercise equipment in weekly laboratory sessions. Pre- and post-intervention measures included weight, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat (PBF), and self-reported moderate physical activity (MPA) and vigorous physical activity (VPA), and PA (steps/week). A significant group x time interaction (p = .001) was detected for PA, with a significant increase in PA for the game (p < .001) versus a significant decrease (p = .001) for the comparison group. Significant within-group increases for weight (p = .001), BMI (p = .001), and PBF (p = .001) were detected. A significant group x time interaction (p = .001) was detected when analyzing self-reported VPA, with both groups reporting decreases in VPA over time; however, the decrease was only significant for the comparison group (p < .001). No significant group differences were found for MPA. It is important that any intervention meet the needs and interests of its target population. Here, the ARG was designed in light of the learning preferences of today's college students--collaborative and social, experiential and media-rich. Our results provide preliminary evidence that a game intervention can positively influence PA within the college student population. © 2012 Diabetes Technology Society.

Prior-to-Exam: What Activities Enhance Performance?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhoads, C. J.; Healy, Therese

2013-01-01

Can instructors impact their student performance by recommending an activity just prior to taking an exam? In this study, college students were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups (study, exercise, or meditation) or a control group. Each group was given two different types of tests; a traditional concept exam, and a non-traditional…

Edge-Assignment and Figure-Ground Segmentation in Short-Term Visual Matching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driver, Jon; Baylis, Gordon

1996-01-01

Eight experiments involving 99 college students examined the role of edge-assignment in a contour matching task. Edge-matching performance was not based solely on a raw description of the edges themselves. Results suggest a pervasive tendency within the visual system to go beyond the edges toward figural shapes. (SLD)

Assigning a Thesis Project In the Two-Year Architectural Technology Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Obermeyer, Thomas

1977-01-01

The "thesis project" assigned in the sixth quarter of the eight-quarter architectural technology program at the Dakota County Area Vocational-Technical Institute in Rosemont, Minnesota, requires the students to design a building for a local public service organization or government agency. The complete project will include a program, a…

Obesogenic environmental influences on young adults: evidence from college dormitory assignments.

PubMed

Kapinos, Kandice A; Yakusheva, Olga; Eisenberg, Daniel

2014-01-01

This study utilizes a natural experiment-conditionally random dormitory assignments of first-year US college students-to investigate the influence of obesogenic environmental factors in explaining changes in weight and exercise behavior during the 2009-2010 academic year. The design addresses potential selection biases resulting from the likelihood that individuals sort into built environments that match their preferences for exercise and healthy eating. We find some evidence that the food environment, specifically access to campus dining, significantly affected the weight of female students in our study. Females assigned to dormitories where the nearest campus dining hall was closed on the weekends gained about 1lb less over the course of the year than females assigned to dormitories near dining halls that were open 7 days a week. We also find some evidence that female who lived in close proximity to a grocery store gained less weight over the course of the year. Finally, females who lived closer to campus gym reported more frequent exercise over the course of the year. We do not find significant effects of the built environment on weight changes of males in our sample, but we are cautious to draw strong conclusions from this because the male weight change in our sample was quite small. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Doing It for Themselves: Students Creating a High Quality Peer-Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galloway, Kyle W.; Burns, Simon

2015-01-01

To support our students during their study and exam preparation we have developed a novel synoptic revision exercise using the online PeerWise system. Academic staff involvement was passive after introducing the assignment to the cohort via scaffolding activities, thus generating an entirely student-led peer-learning environment for the task.…

Motivational activities based on previous knowledge of students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García, J. A.; Gómez-Robledo, L.; Huertas, R.; Perales, F. J.

2014-07-01

Academic results depend strongly on the individual circumstances of students: background, motivation and aptitude. We think that academic activities conducted to increase motivation must be tuned to the special situation of the students. Main goal of this work is analyze the students in the first year of the Degree in Optics and Optometry in the University of Granada and the suitability of an activity designed for those students. Initial data were obtained from a survey inquiring about the reasons to choose this degree, their knowledge of it, and previous academic backgrounds. Results show that: 1) the group is quite heterogeneous, since students have very different background. 2) Reasons to choose the Degree in Optics and Optometry are also very different, and in many cases were selected as a second option. 3) Knowledge and motivations about the Degree are in general quite low. Trying to increase the motivation of the students we designed an academic activity in which we show different topics studied in the Degree. Results show that students that have been involved in this activity are the most motivated and most satisfied with their election of the degree.

Student Perceptions of Social Justice and Social Justice Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torres-Harding, Susan R.; Steele, Cheronda; Schulz, Erica; Taha, Farah; Pico, Chantal

2014-01-01

Encouraging students to engage in activities that actively seek to promote social justice is a goal of many educators. This study analyzed college student perceptions around social justice and related activities in a medium-sized, urban university in the United States. Students' open-ended responses to questions assessing their perceptions of…

Effects of Students' Participation in Authoring of Multimedia Materials on Student Acquisition of Vocabulary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikolova, Ofelia R.

2002-01-01

Investigated the effects on vocabulary acquisition of student participation in authoring a multimedia institutional module. Sixty-two subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, and each group was randomly assigned to one of two treatments. Showed evidence that students learn vocabulary significantly better when they participate in the creation…

Social Media: It's What Students Do

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelm, Orlando R.

2011-01-01

In assessing the application of social media on the teaching of business communication, this article looks at MBA student use of blogs, online photo database contributions, and video contributions to YouTube channels. These assignments were part of their course activities, which included a 2-week study tour in China. The article looks at these…

Studying the Effects of Quantitatively Defined Teaching Strategies on Students in Elementary School Science Using Macro-Interaction Analysis Techniques.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penick, John E.; And Others

The effects of two patterns of teacher behavior on student behavior were investigated, using eight elementary teachers (grades 1-5) and their 250 students. The teacher behavior was conceptualized in terms of the amount of restriction placed on the activities of science students. Fifty students were randomly assigned, with equalizing restrictions…

Activity Preferences of Middle School Physical Education Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenwood, Michael; Stillwell, Jim; Byars, Allyn

2001-01-01

Investigated the physical education activity preferences of middle school students who completed a checklist featuring a variety of activities. Overall, middle school boys and girls both differed and agreed on their interests for specific activities. Most students liked basketball, bicycling, roller skating, soccer, swimming, and volleyball but…

Are Medical Students Assigning Proper Global Assessment of Functioning Scores?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warsi, Mustafa K.; Sattar, S. Pirzada; Din, Amad U.; Petty, Frederick; Padala, Prasad R.

2007-01-01

Objective: This article seeks to determine whether medical students can estimate the appropriate score for the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) compared with psychiatry residents and staff psychiatrists. The authors hypothesized that medical students' estimations of GAF scores for patients in clinical vignettes would differ from those…

Full-Contact Pedagogy: Lecturing with Questions and Student-Centered Assignments as Methods for Inciting Self-Reflexivity for Faculty and Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawley, Sara L.

2008-01-01

For this essay, the author takes as an organizing premise Jodi O'Brien and Judith A. Howard's notion of responsible authority--that "teaching is a value-based activity" in which educators should be striving to engage students in academic pursuits in order to create a moral citizenry. That is, educators need to acknowledge that they wield the power…

Curriculum Activities Guide for Severely Retarded Deaf Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Elizabeth A., Ed.

The curriculum activities guide for severely retarded deaf children describes activities appropriate for preschool and primary students (7-to-11-years-old), for intermediate and vocational students (12-to-24-years-old), or for both. Activities which incorporate the method of total communication, are focused on communications skills,…

Comparing Examples: WebAssign versus Textbook

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richards, Evan; Polak, Jeff; Hardin, Ashley; Risley, John, , Dr.

2005-11-01

Research shows students can learn from worked examples.^1 This pilot study compared two groups of students' performance (10 each) in solving physics problems. One group had access to interactive examples^2 released in WebAssign^3, while the other group had access to the counterpart textbook examples. Verbal data from students in problem solving sessions was collected using a think aloud protocol^4 and the data was analyzed using Chi's procedures.^5 An explanation of the methodology and results will be presented. Future phases of this pilot study based upon these results will also be discussed. ^1Atkinson, R.K., Derry, S.J., Renkl A., Wortham, D. (2000). ``Learning from Examples: Instructional Principles from the Worked Examples Research'', Review of Educational Research, vol. 70, n. 2, pp. 181-214. ^2Serway, R.A. & Faughn, J.S. (2006). College Physics (7^th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole. ^3 see www.webassign.net ^4 Ericsson, K.A. & Simon, H.A. (1984). Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ^5 Chi, Michelene T.H. (1997). ``Quantifying Qualitative Analyses of Verbal Data: A Practical Guide,'' The Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 6, n. 3, pp. 271-315.

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…

Journal Assignments for Student Reflections on Outdoor Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregg, Amy

2009-01-01

Recreation professionals use outdoor programs in rustic settings to promote the intellectual, physical, emotional, and professional development of their students. One important aspect of personal growth is to develop the ability to think critically about one's own learning, and journaling is one approach for achieving this goal. Outdoor programs…

Meta-cognitive student reflections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barquist, Britt; Stewart, Jim

2009-05-01

We have recently concluded a project testing the effectiveness of a weekly assignment designed to encourage awareness and improvement of meta-cognitive skills. The project is based on the idea that successful problem solvers implement a meta-cognitive process in which they identify the specific concept they are struggling with, and then identify what they understand, what they don't understand, and what they need to know in order to resolve their problem. The assignment required the students to write an email assessing the level of completion of a weekly workbook assignment and to examine in detail their experiences regarding a specific topic they struggled with. The assignment guidelines were designed to coach them through this meta-cognitive process. We responded to most emails with advice for next week's assignment. Our data follow 12 students through a quarter consisting of 11 email assignments which were scored using a rubric based on the assignment guidelines. We found no correlation between rubric scores and final grades. We do have anecdotal evidence that the assignment was beneficial.

The New Student Activism: Supporting Students as Agents of Social Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacoby, Barbara

2017-01-01

The "new student activism," as it is often called, is a hot topic in higher education as well as in the popular press and social media. As a college student in the late '60s and early '70s, a long-time student affairs professional, a scholar and practitioner of service-learning, and an academic teaching a course on social change, the…

A feedback model of figure-ground assignment.

PubMed

Domijan, Drazen; Setić, Mia

2008-05-30

A computational model is proposed in order to explain how bottom-up and top-down signals are combined into a unified perception of figure and background. The model is based on the interaction between the ventral and the dorsal stream. The dorsal stream computes saliency based on boundary signals provided by the simple and the complex cortical cells. Output from the dorsal stream is projected to the surface network which serves as a blackboard on which the surface representation is formed. The surface network is a recurrent network which segregates different surfaces by assigning different firing rates to them. The figure is labeled by the maximal firing rate. Computer simulations showed that the model correctly assigns figural status to the surface with a smaller size, a greater contrast, convexity, surroundedness, horizontal-vertical orientation and a higher spatial frequency content. The simple gradient of activity in the dorsal stream enables the simulation of the new principles of the lower region and the top-bottom polarity. The model also explains how the exogenous attention and the endogenous attention may reverse the figural assignment. Due to the local excitation in the surface network, neural activity at the cued region will spread over the whole surface representation. Therefore, the model implements the object-based attentional selection.

The Challenges of Assignment Design in Discipline-Based Freshman Writing Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilner, Arlene

2005-01-01

In this author's research, the question of whether it makes sense to think of writing primarily as a generic skill acquired increasing urgency as she gathered qualitative data for a study of the relationship between instructors' expectations in the design of writing assignments and the students' thinking as evidenced both in their essay responses…

A New "Moodle" Module Supporting Automatic Verification of VHDL-Based Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutierrez, Eladio; Trenas, Maria A.; Ramos, Julian; Corbera, Francisco; Romero, Sergio

2010-01-01

This work describes a new "Moodle" module developed to give support to the practical content of a basic computer organization course. This module goes beyond the mere hosting of resources and assignments. It makes use of an automatic checking and verification engine that works on the VHDL designs submitted by the students. The module automatically…

A study of a science-based peer reading assignment and its effects on first grade student understanding and use of describing words in science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearson, Meghan Jeanne

The first grade curriculum for science in Colorado requires students be able to use describing words to depict and compare objects and people; however, first graders struggle with using specific enough language to create strong descriptions. With science education research encouraging teachers to use alternative teaching methods to approach these challenging topics, it is important to provide teachers with resources appropriate to their students. One such alternative learning method is a reading partner. Reading partners have been shown to increase vocabulary, boost school performance, and improve self-esteem in children. This study analyzed the effectiveness of using a science-based peer reading assignment about describing words on increasing a first grader's understanding of the topic. The book required the class to work together to help the characters describe different images and characters in the book with the intent that students were engaged during the reading. In pre-interview and post-interview, students described pictures, and their responses were analyzed for quality of the describing words provided and the number of strong (specific and not opinion) describing words provided. In the post-interview, students had an overall increase in the number of strong describing words provided. The quantitative data was analyzed by comparing strong describing words used pre-reading and post-reading, and the effect size was very large. The results indicate reading the book explaining describing words that asked for student participation did increase students understanding and use of describing words.

A Student Activity on Visual Resolving Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, T. H.; Henriksen, P. N.; Ramsier, R. D.

2003-01-01

We present a simple activity in which students measure the resolving power of their eyes. The approach can be used at various levels of sophistication with students having a wide variety of skills and scientific training. We discuss our experiences using this activity with a class of non-science majors as well as with a group of pre-engineering…

Examining Students' Opinions about STEAM Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozkan, Gulbin; Topsakal, Unsal Umdu

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the opinions of students about STEAM activities. This qualitative study was conducted on the with 7th grade students (n = 37) who are studying at a public school in Istanbul. A purposeful sampling was used in this study. Nine STEAM activities were used while teaching Force and Energy unit. An evaluation…

7 CFR 760.31 - Assignment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Assignment. No assignment shall be made of any indemnity payment due or to come due under the regulations in this subpart. Any assignment or attempted assignment of any indemnity payment due or to come due under...

7 CFR 760.31 - Assignment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Assignment. No assignment shall be made of any indemnity payment due or to come due under the regulations in this subpart. Any assignment or attempted assignment of any indemnity payment due or to come due under...

7 CFR 760.31 - Assignment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Assignment. No assignment shall be made of any indemnity payment due or to come due under the regulations in this subpart. Any assignment or attempted assignment of any indemnity payment due or to come due under...

7 CFR 760.31 - Assignment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... Assignment. No assignment shall be made of any indemnity payment due or to come due under the regulations in this subpart. Any assignment or attempted assignment of any indemnity payment due or to come due under...

7 CFR 760.31 - Assignment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... Assignment. No assignment shall be made of any indemnity payment due or to come due under the regulations in this subpart. Any assignment or attempted assignment of any indemnity payment due or to come due under...

Ethical Development through Student Activities Programming.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brock, Carol S.

1991-01-01

Student activities programing, viewed as essential to the college experience, is defended by outlining some of the values and growth opportunities it provides for students. Several specific programing strategies useful as catalysts in values development are described, including values clarification exercises, multicultural programing, and…

Using complexity theory to develop a student-directed interprofessional learning activity for 1220 healthcare students.

PubMed

Jorm, Christine; Nisbet, Gillian; Roberts, Chris; Gordon, Christopher; Gentilcore, Stacey; Chen, Timothy F

2016-08-08

More and better interprofessional practice is predicated to be necessary to deliver good care to the patients of the future. However, universities struggle to create authentic learning activities that enable students to experience the dynamic interprofessional interactions common in healthcare and that can accommodate large interprofessional student cohorts. We investigated a large-scale mandatory interprofessional learning (IPL) activity for health professional students designed to promote social learning. A mixed methods research approach determined feasibility, acceptability and the extent to which student IPL outcomes were met. We developed an IPL activity founded in complexity theory to prepare students for future practice by engaging them in a self-directed (self-organised) learning activity with a diverse team, whose assessable products would be emergent creations. Complicated but authentic clinical cases (n = 12) were developed to challenge student teams (n = 5 or 6). Assessment consisted of a written management plan (academically marked) and a five-minute video (peer marked) designed to assess creative collaboration as well as provide evidence of integrated collective knowledge; the cohesive patient-centred management plan. All students (including the disciplines of diagnostic radiology, exercise physiology, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy and speech pathology), completed all tasks successfully. Of the 26 % of students who completed the evaluation survey, 70 % agreed or strongly agreed that the IPL activity was worthwhile, and 87 % agreed or strongly agreed that their case study was relevant. Thematic analysis found overarching themes of engagement and collaboration-in-action suggesting that the IPL activity enabled students to achieve the intended learning objectives. Students recognised the contribution of others and described negotiation, collaboration and creation of new collective knowledge after working

The tuskegee experiment: an introduction in ethics for pre-healthcare professional students.

PubMed

Miranda, Daniel; Sanchez, David Jesse

2014-12-01

Over the past years, professional students have had extensive exposure to clinical cases during basic science classes. With this in mind, we have taken this clinical case exposure moment to be an opportune time to introduce the ethics of working with patients during biomedical research. Our goal is to present a straightforward assignment that allows for active student research into the facts of the Tuskegee Experiment of the 1900s. The assignment provides the necessary background to allow for a student-centered discussion on the ethical issues of the events and ramifications of what happened. Thus, in educating a class on the event's happenings, one concomitantly creates a platform for meaningful discussion on the principles and ethics of patient care. We have found that an ethics-infused event such as the Tuskegee Experiment is an excellent way to introduce students to these topics.

Writing Assignments, Journals, and Student Privacy. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkinson, Edward

Nine years ago, many parents protesting the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (commonly referred to as the Hatch Amendment) accused the schools of invading student privacy in sex and drug education classes, in counseling sessions, and in English classes. Some parents testifying at hearings conducted by the United States Department of Education…

How to Assign Individualized Scores on a Group Project: An Empirical Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Bo; Ohland, Matthew W.

2009-01-01

One major challenge in using group projects to assess student learning is accounting for the differences of contribution among group members so that the mark assigned to each individual actually reflects their performance. This research addresses the validity of grading group projects by evaluating different methods that derive individualized…

Integrating evidence-based practice and information literacy skills in teaching physical and occupational therapy students.

PubMed

Boruff, Jill T; Thomas, Aliki

2011-12-01

To ensure that physical and occupational therapy graduates develop evidence-based practice (EBP) competencies, their academic training must promote EBP skills, such as posing a clinical question and retrieving relevant literature, and the information literacy skills needed to practice these EBP skills. This article describes the collaborative process and outcome of integrating EBP and information literacy early in a professional physical therapy and occupational therapy programme. The liaison librarian and a faculty member designed an instructional activity that included a lecture, workshop and assignment that integrated EBP skills and information literacy skills in the first year of the programme. The assignment was designed to assess students' ability to conduct a search independently. The lecture and workshop were successful in their objectives, as 101 of the 104 students received at least 8 out of 10 points on the search assignment. The teaching activities developed for the students in this course appear to have achieved the goal of teaching students the EBP research cycle so that they might begin to emulate it. The collaboration between the faculty member and the librarian was integral to the success of this endeavour. Future work will include the evaluation of students' long-term retention of information literacy objectives. © 2011 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2011 Health Libraries Group.

Solar Heating Systems: Student Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Joanne; And Others

This Student Manual for a Solar Heating System curriculum contains 22 units of instructional materials for students to use in a course or courses on solar heating systems (see note). For each unit (task), objectives, assignment sheets, laboratory assignments, information sheets, checkpoints (tests), and job sheets are provided. Materials are set…

Improving Student Engagement in Learning Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Nancy; And Others

Engaging students seriously in their own academic learning is a persistent difficulty for teachers. The goal of this action research project was to actively involve elementary school students in their learning. The program was implemented at three elementary schools in northern Illinois serving multicultural populations; special education…

The Effects of Collaborative Writing Activity Using Google Docs on Students' Writing Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suwantarathip, Ornprapat; Wichadee, Saovapa

2014-01-01

Google Docs, a free web-based version of Microsoft Word, offers collaborative features which can be used to facilitate collaborative writing in a foreign language classroom. The current study compared writing abilities of students who collaborated on writing assignments using Google Docs with those working in groups in a face-to-face classroom.…

Teaching Students to Engage with Evidence: An Evaluation of Structured Writing and Classroom Discussion Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blings, Steffen; Maxey, Sarah

2017-01-01

In their transition to college, students often struggle to identify and make connections between the main arguments, evidence, and empirical findings of articles from academic journals commonly assigned on political science syllabi. Which active learning techniques are most effective for teaching students to recognize and evaluate social science…

Students' Performance in Investigative Activity and Their Understanding of Activity Aims