Common Educational Practices Research Articles

Separating Myth from Reality in Education: Introduction to the Special Issue

The field of education contains a diversity of practices that are intended to facilitate learning (e.g., learning activities and pedagogical methods). Practitioners, administrators, and students also hold many beliefs about learning that guide their approach to education. Although some of thesepractices andbeliefsare supportedbyempirical findingsfrom rigorousscientific research, many others have little or no evidence to support them. In order to improve education, it is critical to identify effective practices and accurate beliefs. Correspondingly, it is also critical to correct misconceptions about ineffective practices and inaccurate beliefs. In this special issue, Educational Psychology Review examines some common practices and beliefs in education with the goal of contributing to the ongoing effort to separate myth from reality. Each article in this special issue evaluates the evidence that supports a common educational practice or belief. In addition to providing valuable information about the evidence to support specific practices or beliefs, all of the articles model an evaluation process that could be applied to other practices and beliefs. The authors begin by defining and documenting the existence of the practice or belief. Next, they delineate criteria for evaluating the efficacy of the practice or the accuracy of the belief (i.e., How can this practice or belief be evaluated experimentally? What would constitute good evidence? What evidence should be disqualified and why?). After setting up objective criteria, they describeand evaluate the evidence for and against the practice or belief. Finally, they draw conclusions based on the strength and credibility of the evidence, discuss the implications for education, and provide recommendations for future research. Using this framework, each article in the special issue addresses a unique topic relevant to current beliefs and practices about learning. Some of the articles evaluate widely held intuitive beliefs about learning that turn out to be unsupported by empirical evidence. Finn and Tauber (2015) review the literature on the pervasive and misleading effect of the fluency of cognitive processing on students’ perceptions of learning. Situations that increase the fluency or ease of processing are widely believed by students to be efficacious for learning. However, the

Uma abordagem alternativa com o uso de tecnológias no processo de ensino e aprendizagem

A relatively common practice in mathematics education is the application of various numerical exercises to procedural setting calculation, which in many situations is necessary, but not suiti-cient for understanding the conceptual meaning of the subject. Considering the limitation of this approach, we used a methodological alternative, from a didactic sequence, in order to enhance the learning of certain concepts of differential and integral calculus. The sequence was proposed and implemented in Engineering courses offered at IFES - campus Cariacica and FAESA in seeking to facilitate the understanding of the definite integral using Riemann sum. The methodology involves the identification and selection of a solid revolution, determination and mathematical modeling generating region using a mathematical software, slicing generating region, generating corresponding cylindrical disks to these slices, the calculation of volumes of several slices using a spreadsheet, the mathematical modeling of the total volume using sum and the use of definite integrals to obtain the volume. During the development work it was evident that this teaching resource promotes interactions between students, dialogue and space for discussions, showing up as a facilitator of learning concepts and methods.

Ahead of Its Time: An Innovative Obstetric Simulator in 18th Century France

The use of obstetric simulators is common practice in contemporary health care education. However, they are not a recent innovation. In the late 1700s a French midwife, Madame du Coudray, invented an obstetric simulator which she used to teach midwifery to more than 4,000 peasant women. Appointed in August 1767 by King Louis XV to teach midwifery “throughout the whole extent of the Realm,” she faced the challenge of teaching a complex scientific process to science‐illiterate students. This inspired her invention which received the endorsement of the French Surgical Academy. Using the simulator and her midwifery manual, describing the manipulations necessary to deliver an infant, she taught midwifery throughout France for 20 years. Each community where she taught was required to purchase a simulator for the local surgeons to use after she left, to train more midwives. Although she produced hundreds of them, only one exists today and is housed in Rouen, France. Made of cloth, leather, and bone, it resembles a pregnant woman from waist to knees. It includes a small baby (doll) which can be manipulated through the birth canal. How realistic is her simulator? Is it possible that she used active brain‐based learning in the 18th century? This study evaluates the simulator for fidelity (how realistic it is) and its potential for active learning. Photographs of the simulator were compared with thirty‐five quotes from the manual describing manipulations performed during delivery. Raters, with medical training, were asked to rate how feasible, on a scale from 0 to 4, it would be to conduct the manipulations on the simulator. The average rating ranged from 2.5 to 4. The interrater reliability was 94%. This study showed that the simulator has good fidelity, and could be used for active learning. No funding was received for this study.

A Profile of Giving Patterns and Donor Behavior at a Suburban Community College

Community colleges have become increasingly reliant on diversifying their revenue sources, and turning to private fund raising has become a common strategy for many of them. Although fund raising has been a common practice in higher education since its inception, it has only emerged in the two-year college sector in the past several decades. The current study sought to identify donors at a case study, suburban community college, specifically exploring giving patterns over time and testing the conceptual framework of a pyramid of giving that overlays institutional involvement and commitment with giving levels. Major infrastructure inconsistencies prevented much of the framework testing, but data were capable of creating an initial donor and giving profile for a typical community college. This profile demonstrated that board members and employees were the most loyal and consistent in making contributions, but that these gifts often were stable over time and did not increase to become major gifts. Also, private business and industry gifts were often given at the same level as individual gifts, perhaps illustrating the responsiveness and cooperation between community colleges and the local workforce.

In Pursuit of Best Practice in Physical Therapy Education

'Quality is not an act, it is a habit-AristotleThe concern about quality in physical therapist education is everywhere! The profession as a whole, particularly members of the profession committed to academic and clinical teaching roles, is engaged in several major projects to identify best practice in physical therapist education. The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Education Section, American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT), Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), and Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) have been supportive of several profession-wide projects over the past few years that will contribute to the debate surrounding best educational practice for physical therapist education. Consider the macro-level focus of several of these projects:* ACAPT supports the Benchmarks for Excellence task force, which seeks to develop quantitative and qualitative benchmarks that represent excellence in physical therapist education, against which, programs could assess themselves.* ACAPT, APTA, the Education Section, and the FSBPT collaborated to develop a shared vision for enhancing clinical education in physical therapy. A 2-year process of conferences, invited papers (published in JOPTE as a supplement in May 2014), and webinars culminated in the Clinical Education Summit in October 2014. Over 450 participants agreed on 15 recommendations that they believe represent best educational practice in physical therapist education. ACAPT will consider how to proceed with these recommendations for the profession this year.* APTA, the Education and Orthopeadic Sections, and ACAPT collaborated to fund a research project, Excellence and Innovation in Physical Therapist Education for the Twenty-First Century (PTE21). The research team has followed the research methods of former studies sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. These studies in medicine, nursing, clergy, engineering, and law focused on identifying what curricular structures, instructional practices, assessment approaches, and environmental/institutional characteristics optimally support the preparation and development of professionals in training. Preliminary data from this national study of physical therapist education in academic and clinical settings have been presented at conferences, with the final work expected to be published in 2015 and 2016.* APTA has identified the importance of quality physical therapist education through action of the 2014 House of Delegates by adopting a position statement on excellence, as well as a charge to identify best practices in clinical education. Also, APTA has charged a task force to provide strategic advice, counsel, and options to the Board of Directors regarding current and emerging issues impacting the ability of physical therapist education to produce practitioners that meet the needs of the current and evolving health care system. We are fortunate as a profession to havethe resources of these organizations and the commitment of learned colleagues to envision common and effective educational practices in the future. …

Social Networks in University Classrooms

The use of social networks is an increasingly common practice in university education. This study describes an experiment carried out with a group of pre-service teachers from a Spanish University in which Facebook was employed as a resource to develop the teaching and learning process. Specifically, it was applied as a strategy designed to improve relations among the students in the classroom. In-depth interviews were held with twenty students and their teacher to analyse the influence of this emerging technology on knowledge building and the establishing of closer links among students and between students and teachers. The results acknowledge the value of this resource, both for the teacher and the students themselves, in the following areas: classroom climate, teaching-learning process, virtual tutoring, foreign language practice and digital competence acquisition. In the final section of the article, we put forward questions and issues for future research.

‘Things fall apart so they can fall together’: uncovering the hidden side of writing a teaching award application

Teaching awards are now common practice in higher education. However, few award applicants and their writing guides have investigated their experience of writing a teaching award application, a writing process recognised as different from that required in research publication. To systematically research and analyse their personal experiences two successful Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation applicants (Robyn and Thea) and their guide (Coralie) undertook a process of self-inquiry from an autoethnographic perspective. This paper presents a narrative constructed by Coralie, Robyn and Thea to bring into one story their individual autoethnographies. This collective narrative takes the reader beyond the scholarly discussions of benefits and concerns about teaching award schemes prominent in the literature to date, to uncover a previously hidden view of award application writing. From this new viewpoint writing a teaching award application is seen as a process which moves the applicant from a position of certainty and comfort (‘homeliness’), through a period where ‘things fall apart’ as the applicant's sense of ‘unhomeliness’ (disorientation and confusion) increases, to a time where ‘things fall together’ as a newfound sense of ‘homeliness’ that represents growth in the individual as a teacher and a writer. Applicants develop a clearer understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as educators and the confidence to challenge their previous pedagogical practices. As writers they develop attitudes and skills to recognise and to set aside familiar, but limiting, writing strategies.

The perils of prescribed grade distributions: What every medical educator should know

A common practice in medical education is to create a prescribed distribution of grades, or ratings, so that only a certain percentage of students receive the highest marks. This approach typically is employed to curb grade inflation and as a means to help faculty distinguish outstanding performers. Despite the well-intentioned reasoning for using prescribed grade distributions, a number of associated problems and probable consequences may result from this practice. Thus, the purpose of this article is to discuss the assumptions underlying this potentially unwise practice, the defensibility of this evaluation practice in the high-stakes arena of medical education, and the unintended consequences that such practices and policies may have on a student body and the larger educational environment.

Teachers’ perceptions of and responses to student evaluation of teaching: purposes and uses in clinical education

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) only becomes an effective tool for improving teaching and learning when the relevant stakeholders seriously consider and plan appropriate actions according to student feedback. It is common practice in medical education to provide clinical teachers with student feedback. However, there is limited evidence about how teachers in higher education, and medical education in particular, systematically apply student feedback to improve the quality of their teaching practice. The focus of this case study was to examine clinical teachers’ perceptions of and responses to SET with respect to its purposes and uses for enhancing their teaching. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from the clinical coaches. These clinical coaches perceived the main purpose of student evaluation as quality assurance, and were moderately receptive to student feedback. Four key factors enabling or inhibiting their responses were revealed: institutional requirements, operational practices, personal biases and provision of support. Future research should further explore the interrelationships among the above factors as the core mechanism in influencing clinical teachers’ perceptions of and responses to student evaluation.

The Art of Rereading

The rote learning of texts has been a common practice in elementary education in many periods and places, but literacy training so generally consisted of memorization in the Middle Ages that those who could read and write tended to carry the contents of the same set of basic texts with them through life. Poets trained in this manner involved those texts in their writing, not as quotations, but as a technique of art whereby the recognition that what one had first learned in school was true constituted, not a form of knowledge, but a kind of comfort.

PBL and Beyond: Trends in Collaborative Learning

Building upon the disruption to lecture-based methods triggered by the introduction of problem-based learning, approaches to promote collaborative learning are becoming increasingly diverse, widespread and generally well accepted within medical education. Examples of relatively new, structured collaborative learning methods include team-based learning and just-in-time teaching. Examples of less structured approaches include think-pair share, case discussions, and the flipped classroom. It is now common practice in medical education to employ a range of instructional approaches to support collaborative learning. We believe that the adoption of such approaches is entering a new and challenging era. We define collaborate learning by drawing on the broader literature, including Chi's ICAP framework that emphasizes the importance of sustained, interactive explanation and elaboration by learners. We distinguish collaborate learning from constructive, active, and passive learning and provide preliminary evidence documenting the growth of methods that support collaborative learning. We argue that the rate of adoption of collaborative learning methods will accelerate due to a growing emphasis on the development of team competencies and the increasing availability of digital media. At the same time, the adoption collaborative learning strategies face persistent challenges, stemming from an overdependence on comparative-effectiveness research and a lack of useful guidelines about how best to adapt collaborative learning methods to given learning contexts. The medical education community has struggled to consistently demonstrate superior outcomes when using collaborative learning methods and strategies. Despite this, support for their use will continue to expand. To select approaches with the greatest utility, instructors must carefully align conditions of the learning context with the learning approaches under consideration. Further, it is critical that modifications are made with caution and that instructors verify that modifications do not impede the desired cognitive activities needed to support meaningful collaborative learning.

Linguistic and review features of peer feedback and their effect on implementation of changes in academic writing: A corpus based investigation

The inclusion of peer feedback activities into the academic writing process has become common practice in higher education. However, while research has shown that students perceive many features of peer feedback to be useful, the actual effectiveness of these features in terms of measurable learning outcomes remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the linguistic and review features of peer feedback and how these might influence peers to accept or reject revision advice offered in the context of academic writing among L2 learners. A corpus-based machine learning approach was employed to test three different algorithms (logistic regression, decision tree, and random forests) on three feature models (linguistic, review, and all features) to determine which algorithm offered the best predictive results and to determine which feature model most accurately predicts implementation. The results indicated that random forests is the most effective way of modeling the different features. In addition, the feature model containing all features most accurately predicted implementation. The findings further suggest that directive comments and multiple peer comments on the same topic included in the feedback process seem to influence implementation.

In Search of General Theory

Most subfields of research in political science are today at an intellectual plateau well short of general theory. Many have been at that plateau since about 1980. Several reasons might account for this situation, including the challenge of constructing general theory. I argue, however, that some of our must common educational and research practices also retard theoretical progress. I describe those practices and their unfortunate consequences, but also explicate a series of research strategies that would help advance our theoretical work. As a foundation for the preceding arguments, I characterize the theory-building ambitions of the discipline, our progress toward general theory, and how advances toward such theory can be mapped for any science.

Ecology, Ontology, and Pedagogy at Camp Coorong

Ecology, Ontology, and Pedagogy at Camp Coorong

The Influence of Cognitive Diversity on Group Problem Solving Strategy

Collaborative group problem solving allows students to wrestle with different interpretations and solutions brought forth by group members, enhancing both critical thinking and problem solving skills. Since problem solving in groups is a common practice in agricultural education, instructors are often put in the position of organizing student groups and facilitating group learning. Research has shown that the factors according to which teachers arrange groups hold great influence over the success experienced by a group. The purpose of this study was to examine how arranging groups by problem solving style influenced group problem solving processes. Groups made up of members with heterogeneous or homogenous problem solving styles were given a problem to solve as a class project. Focus groups were conducted with each group at the conclusion of the project to gain an understanding of how each group progressed through the problem solving process. Differences were found in how homogenous versus heterogeneous groups progressed through the problem solving process. With a greater understanding of how problem solving style influences group dynamics, agricultural educators can be more proactive when assigning student work groups, thereby enhancing students’ abilities to work interdependently when creating successful solutions.

Building a successful partnership in higher education institutions

Educational partnership becomes a common practice in higher education. This study clarifies the practices of educational partnership in higher education institutions. A model of educational partnership has been built to identify its successful factors. The five determinants to the partnership's success are the following: commitment to partnerships, curriculum and learning, quality and risk management, geographic and economic settings, and change management. This study can be guidance for those higher education institutions seeking and building successful partnership such as study abroad programme.

Beyond feedback: developing student capability in complex appraisal

Giving students detailed feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of their work, with suggestions for improvement, is becoming common practice in higher education. However, for many students, feedback seems to have little or no impact, despite the considerable time and effort put into its production. With a view to increasing its effectiveness, extensive theoretical and empirical research has been carried out into its structure, timing and other parameters. For students to be able to apply feedback, they need to understand the meaning of the feedback statements. They also need to identify, with near certainty, the particular aspects of their work that need attention. For these to occur, students must possess critical background knowledge. This article sets out the nature of that knowledge and how students can acquire it. They must appropriate for themselves three fundamental concepts – task compliance, quality and criteria – and also develop a cache of relevant tacit knowledge.

Creatività e Tic nella scuola dell'obbligo: un'inchiesta su opinioni e pratiche degli insegnanti

Creativity is a fundamental competence for developing thinking skills, one that has direct and positive effects on learning. Creativity is very often interpreted in a narrow way and is not necessarily a priority in educational practices. This article reports the opinions of 1,478 Italian teachers who took part in a European online survey on the meaning of creativity for school. The results discussed here present the teachers’ opinions and theories on creativity, the most common educational practices they follow, their use of and opinions on ICT for creative learning, and the kind of training they receive.

Teaching Biology

This book opens with scenarios of successful classrooms and teachers who have the ““gift.”” Jackson identifies the gift as a ““mindset, a disciplined way of thinking about teaching”” and details seven mastery principles that constitute this mindset. ““No one person is at the center of the classroom,”” she writes. ““The classroom is a community of learners.””?The highly appealing title encapsulates the partnership that ““mastery teaching”” forms, in which students learn to use multiple currencies that reconcile the beliefs and values that drive successful classroom collaboration. The book's introduction includes a Mastery Self Assessment and scoring guide that encourage taking an introspective look at how one teaches, an appendix with supportive tools, and a Web site, http://www.masterteachermindset.com.Jackson uses the metaphor of classroom currency to identify the value of capital (knowledge and skills) that students, who do not naturally value the classroom currency, need to acquire. Different forms of currency do not imply different levels of ability; rather, the master teacher ““should reshape the approach to instruction to capitalize on student currencies.”” Chapter 1, titled ““Start where your students are,”” suggests that a teacher with the gift ““rewards students in their own currency to help them learn to value classroom capital.”” Jackson encourages teachers to pay attention to what their students value, and to use rewards they will value.?Each chapter is devoted to one of these seven mastery principles and opens with an anecdote that illustrates common educational practice and how the mastery principle is put into practice. ““Try this”” sections are bullets that help the reader implement the mastery principle. By Chapter 2, ““Know where your students are going,”” Jackson offers a new look at standards and empowers educators to ““decide minimum evidence that students have achieved the standard”” and use the evidence of mastery in designing appropriate assessments. Jackson addresses the fear of ““dumbing down”” the curriculum by suggesting strategies that help students not fear high standards. Chapter 4 tells us to ““support your students”” in a way that ““demystifies the academic process““ and to use ““feedback to coach students toward better performance,”” working from a plan of action that guides and supports learning. A graphic organizer called the Frayer Model, in which wrong answers were assigned to the non-example quadrant, is given as a feedback example to address students' fears of giving wrong answers.The author identifies frustrations that teachers share and offers solutions for trying things differently based on substantial research (offering pertinent ideas from Robert Margano, Ken O'Conner, Jonathan Saphier, Grant Wiggins, and Jay McTighe, to name a few) and direct classroom observations. While the assessment tool itself is somewhat tedious, the mastery themes that may require more self-intervention are handled in each chapter. Mahatma Gandhi's words, ““It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity,”” introduce Jackson's sixth principle. She suggests looking at the ever-expanding curriculum with an eye to teaching skills and refocusing on quality rather than quantity. This reviewer became keenly aware that many well-intentioned teachers are enabling rather than helping students when they do all the work. Chapter 8, on the evolution from practitioner to master, emphasizes what a teacher should stop doing, a shift that ““lets kids take on most of the work of learning for themselves.””?

The Impact of Grading on the Curve: A Simulation Analysis

Grading on the curve is a common practice in higher education. While there are many critics of the practice it still finds wide spread acceptance particularly in science classes. Advocates believe that in large classes student ability is likely to be normally distributed. If test scores are also normally distributed instructors and students tend to believe that the test reasonably measures learning and that the grades are assigned fairly. Beyond an intuitive reaction, is there evidence that normally distributed test scores appropriately distinguish among student performance? Can we be sure that there is a significant correlation between test scores and student knowledge? Testing these assumptions would be difficult using actual subjects. In this paper we use mathematical models and Monte Carlo simulation to test the assumption that normally distributed grades assign the highest grades to the students who were best prepared for an exam.