Developing elementary science skills: Instructional effectiveness and path independence

We explore the immediate and longer term consequences of different types of instruction about a central topic in middle school science: the “Control of Variables Strategy” (CVS). CVS represents the procedural and conceptual basis for designing simple, unconfounded experiments, such that unambiguous causal inferences can be made. CVS appears to be what has been called a “developmentally-secondary” process, because even though infants and pre-schoolers can make simple causal inferences from data, middle school children do poorly at CVS unless they receive instruction on this important topic in the science curriculum. In this study, 72 third, fourth, and fifth-grade students were taught CVS via two instructional methods located at extreme points on the direct-to-discovery spectrum with respect to the amount of guidance, information, support, teacher control, and feedback provided during training. Our design included near- and far-transfer measures (at 1 week, 3 months and 3 years). There were two primary outcomes, both of which replicated and partially extended earlier work by Klahr and Nigam (2004) [Klahr, D., & Nigam, M. (2004). The equivalence of learning paths in early science instruction: Effects of direct instruction and discovery learning. Psychological Science, 15, 661–667] First, at each of the three grade levels, many more children learned CVS in the explicit condition than in the exploration condition. Second, but equally important, what students learned was a better predictor of far transfer than the way that they learned.     

关于高校的实验与实践教学：基于教育心理学理论的思考

对于高校教育,运算学习方法多指实验、实践和学生科研活动,学生通过从事的实验、实践和科研活动来实现陈述性知识向程序性知识的转化,学习评价应着重考核学生对知识的理解和运用所学知识去解决问题的能力。本文阐述了突出实验／实践训练的高校教学设计的设想,并强调了应将各种教学实验类型有机地组合,给予学生先进、实用的实验技术的训练,以及在实验／实践教学中运用交互式的教学方法。     

Comparing Brief and Extended Wait-Time During Small Group Instruction for Children with Challenging Behavior

This preliminary study compared brief (1 s) and extended (4 s) wait-time on response opportunities, academic responses, accuracy, and disruptive behavior of two children with challenging behavior during small group instruction. Brief wait-time increased children’s response opportunities, academic responses, and accuracy in comparison to extended wait-time. Though variable, brief wait-time also decreased children’s disruptive behavior. Findings differ from previous research, which found performance improvements with extended wait-time for children with moderate to profound cognitive disabilities. Limitations of the study and future research suggestions are discussed.     

样例类型与解释方式对初中生数学概率问题解决的效果

为考察样例类型与解释方式对初中生数学概率问题解决的促进作用,实验1随机选取初中生90名,比较正确样例组、正误样例组、对照组的学习效果,实验2随机选取另外90名初中生,比较有教学解释、有自我解释与无解释的正误样例组的即时与延时测试学习效果,研究发现:(1)正误样例学习效果显著好于正确样例;(2)有解释的正误样例学习效果显著好于无解释的正误样例;(3)与有教学解释的正误样例学习效果相比,有自我解释的正误样例学习效果显著且更持久。     

英语阅读策略培训对非英语专业本科生的影响*

旨在探讨英语阅读策略培训对非英语专业本科生英语阅读策略使用情况以及英语成绩的影响。对非英语专业大学生进行了一学期的英语阅读策略培训,使用几次英语阅读测试和自编的英语阅读策略调查问卷对实验组和对照组进行前后测。研究结果发现:(1)英语阅读策略培训能有效提高学生英语阅读策略的使用频率,帮助他们取得更好的阅读成绩;(2)与高水平学习者相比,中、低水平学习者可从策略培训中获得更大的收益。     

EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY-BASED,VIDEOTAPE, AND FLASH CARD INSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY-REFERENCED SIGHT WORDS ON STUDENTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

Community-referenced sight words and phrases were taught to adolescents with mild and moderate mental retardation using three instructional methods in two locations. Words were presented on flash cards in a school setting, on videotape recordings in a school setting, and on naturally occurring signs in the community. During each session, participants were taught one third of the words in each of these conditions and were then tested at the community sites. A constant prompt delay procedure was used to promote stimulus control to the experimenter's cue initially and then to transfer control to the textual stimuli used for training. A multiple baseline across participants design was employed. Results showed rapid acquisition of the community-referenced sight words in all three training conditions and generalization from the flash card and videotape conditions to the community sites.     

Teaching reading to disabled readers with language disorders: A controlled evaluation of synthetic speech feedback

In a long-term study two groups of language and reading impaired students ( N = 15 + 15) were reading with the aid of segmented speech-feedback in a computerized program. One group received feedback that was simultaneously segmented visually and auditorily into syllables, the other received feedback by letter names. In both groups subjects were expected to synthesize segments into words and to compare their synthesis to whole word feed-back subsequently provided by the computer. They worked for half a lesson (approximately 20 minutes) a day for a total of 40 days. During this period, the experiment groups progressed more in reading than a control group of age and reading-level-matched students ( N = 35) who received traditional remedial instruction. The group in the syllable condition gained slightly more in non-word reading and in syllable segmentation than did the letter group. Differences in gains in reading abilities were not explained by differences in age, but to some extent by initial level of phoneme and syllable awareness. Future applications of the speech-feedback system are discussed.     

智慧技能的一般教学模型与实验验证

该文给出了智慧技能的一般教学模型 ,将智慧技能的教学分为两个主要阶段 :陈述性编码阶段、程序性编码阶段。为验证此模型在教学实践中的可行性 ,在课堂教学情境中进行了模拟实验。选取同一所学校初二年级的四个班学生共 2 2 2人 ,随机安排四个班分别接受“欧姆定律”四种教案的教学 :发现式新教案、发现式旧教案、接受式新教案、接受式旧教案 ,随后进行迁移能力测验 ,结果表明采用新教案组织教学 ,即按上述模型控制好影响智慧技能的一些关键因素 ,将更利于学生获取智慧技能。     

The Effects of Response Repetitions on Sight Word Acquisition for Students with Mild Disabilities

Single response learning trials, defined in terms of the three-term contingency model, were compared with repeated response learning trials. The purpose of Study 1 was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of single and repeated response learning trials on sight word remediation. In Study 1, one single response learning trial having one response opportunity per word was compared to one repeated response learning trial having five response opportunities. In Study 2, three single response trials were compared to three repeated response trials. In both studies, the training conditions were compared using an alternating treatments design. Measuring the cumulative number of sight words mastered showed the training conditions equally effective. However, measuring (a) the mean duration of training sessions, (b) the cumulative frequency of words mastered per session duration, (c) the mean number of training sessions per word required for mastery, and (d) the training time per mastered word showed that the single response condition was more efficient. Discussion focuses on the need to include training data when determining best practices for teaching.     

The Importance of Overt Responding in Programmed Instruction Even with Added Incentives for Learning

Among the fundamental tenets of programmed instruction is the requirement of overt responding. Past research has not determined when this tenet holds true. We systematically replicated the work of Tudor (1995) by showing that overt responding in computer-based instruction improves learning, even when there is an incentive that might be thought to improve learning enough to mask the effect of overt responding. Subjects were exposed to both read-only and overt-response materials. One group received course-related, bonus points based on posttest performance, whereas the other group received points simply for participation. Within-subject comparison showed greater performance increases when overt responding was required, regardless of the point incentive. No significant differences were found between groups.