Different Types Of Instruction Research Articles

A study of critical reasoning in online learning: application of the Occupational Performance Process Model

This study examined the effect of an online guided independent study on critical reasoning skills. Twenty-one first-semester Master of Occupational Therapy students completed an online assignment designed to facilitate application of the Occupational Performance Process Model (Fearing & Clark) and kept reflective journals. Data from the journals were analyzed in relation to the three sets of questions, question type and results of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA). This assignment appeared to be effective for enhancing awareness and use of critical reasoning skills. Differences in patterns of critical reasoning between students with high and low WGCTA scores and results of an inductive analysis of the journal entries are discussed. Future research investigating the types of feedback that effectively facilitate development of critical reasoning and whether students with high and low WGCTA scores might benefit from different types of instruction and/or feedback is recommended.

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.

Teaching high school students to use heuristics while reading historical texts.

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of different types of instruction and texts on high schools students' learning of (a) history content and (b) a set of heuristics that historians use to think critically about texts. Participants for the study were 128 male and 118 female students, ages 16 and 17 years, from 2 high schools in the western United States. Eight history classrooms were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 interventions: (a) traditional textbooks and content instruction, (b) traditional textbooks and heuristic instruction, (c) multiple texts and content instruction, or (d) multiple texts and heuristic instruction. The heuristic instruction explicitly taught sourcing, corroboration, and contextualization. Students were administered pretests on their content knowledge and their use of heuristics. After an intervention of 3 weeks, students were readministered the content knowledge and heuristics posttests. A mixed-model analysis of covariance indicated that across all conditions, students who read multiple texts scored higher on history content and used sourcing and corroboration more often than students who read traditional textbook material. Findings highlight the importance of reading multiple texts to deepen content knowledge and facilitate the use of heuristics that historians typically use.

A Web-based Tutorial May Produce the Same Cognitive Outcomes as Face to Face Instruction

A review of:
 
 Beile, Penny M. and David N. Boote. “Does the Medium Matter?: A Comparison of a Web-Based Tutorial with Face-to-Face Library Instruction on Education Students’ Self-Efficacy Levels and Learning Outcomes.” Research Strategies 20 (2004): 57-68.
 
 Objective – To determine whether library skills self-efficacy levels and learning outcomes of postgraduate education students varied with different instructional delivery methods, specifically Web-based or face to face.
 
 Design – Pre- and post-intervention survey comparing three groups receiving different types of instruction.
 
 Setting – Department of Educational Studies at a large U.S. urban university.
 
 Subjects – Forty-nine masters, doctoral, and certificate-seeking education students enrolled in one of three sections of a research methods course. There were 40 female and 9 male students.
 
 Methods – Immediately before receiving library instruction, the three student groups were asked to complete a library skills self-efficacy questionnaire, comprising 30 items designed to measure students’ perceptions of their ability to successfully perform library research. They also completed a library skills test, consisting of 20 multiple choice questions, designed to assess conceptual knowledge, knowledge of database searching, and institution-specific knowledge. The intervention groups were:
 
 Group 1 (Sixteen students) – an on-campus class that received a face to face instruction session comprised of a 70-minute demonstration of key library databases followed by an activity that allowed students to practice their skills.
 
 Group 2 (Nineteen students) – an on-campus class that received a Web-based tutorial comprised of four interactive modules, requiring an average 80 minutes to complete. 
 
 Group 3 (Nineteen students) - a Web-based class that received the same Web-based tutorial as Group 2.
 
 The survey and test were repeated six weeks after the instruction.
 
 Main results – Both self-efficacy scores and library skills test scores increased for all three groups post-intervention. Average self-efficacy levels increased from a mean of 68.88 (SD=19.92) to a mean of 91.90 (SD=16.24); library skills scores increased from an average score of 58.78 (SD=13.80) to an average of 73.16 (SD=12.65). There was no statistically significant difference between the post- intervention scores of the three groups on the library skills test. However, the Web-based students in Group 3 showed a statistically significant greater increase in self-efficacy score (78.86 to 102.36) when compared with Group 2 participants (64.74 to 83.68).
 
 Conclusion – The study provides evidence that library instruction is effective in increasing both skill levels and self-efficacy levels. It does not give a clear indication of the relative value of different modes of delivery, but it does support the contention that Web-based tutorials are at least as effective as face to face sessions. 

High School Teaching and College Expectations in Writing and Reading

These two authors report survey results about the importance secondary and postsecondary educators place on specific writing and reading skills. While differences in the value of grammar instruction between the two groups are noted, the most significant issue raised may be the different types of instruction in high school classrooms of college-bound and non-college-bound students.

Math instruction for students with special educational needs: Effects of guiding versus directing instruction

Although modern maths didactics have been implemented in most Dutch schools for primary education, there are still doubts as to whether specific elements in this approach, notably an emphasis on the role of students as actively contributing to and taking responsibility for the learning process is the most beneficial for students with special educational needs. Several researchers have focused on the strengths and weaknesses of different types of instruction, but little comparative research has been conducted, and there is a great need for empirical evidence (Kilpatrick, 2002). In this article we present results from a study, in which two types of instruction (guidinginstruction, in which the contributions of the students are central anddirectinginstruction, in which a specific solution strategy is instructed in an imposing way) are compared for two types of students with special educational needs: students with learning difficulties (MR) and students with learning disabilities (LD). As a result of the generally accepted distinction between two solution strategies for addition and subtraction up to 100, the jump strategy and the split strategy, two variants of directing instruction are distinguished: directing-jump instruction and directing-split instruction. Results will be discussed for performance on the instructed subject area (addition and subtraction up to 100), but also for performance on a near transfer task. Directing-jump instruction was found to result in the greatest progress on the instructed subject area for both types of students.

Spontaneous and reactive attributions following academic achievement

This paper describes two studies which deal with attributions following academic achievement. Study 1 investigated the influence of different types of instructions (spontaneous vs. reactive), self-concepts of ability (high vs. low), and outcomes (success vs. failure) on causal attributions in a school setting. Participants were 402 eighth to tenth graders. Students with a low self-concept of ability produced more attributions than students with a high self-concept. Under reactive conditions, students' attributions following success were in accordance with the self-consistency theory. Under spontaneous conditions, these students produced attributions in a self-serving way. Furthermore, success evoked more attributions than failure. In Study 2, 160 university students worked on an unfamiliar task (a computer-simulated dynamic system). The results supported the assumption that students spontaneously generate attributions to raise or at least preserve their self-esteem.

The Role of Input in Second Language Acquisition

The present study investigates the combined effects of different amounts of comprehension-based and form-focused instruction on skill-based proficiency and knowledge of grammatical structures of beginner-level efl students. Specifically, the study addresses the following research questions : 1) Does a basically comprehension-based program of instruction supported by form-focused instruction help beginner-level efl learners improve/develop their listening, reading and writing abilities more than a basically form- focused program of instruction? 2) Does a basically form-focused program of instruction help beginner-level efl learners improve their knowledge of grammatical structures more than a basically comprehension-based program of instruction? One experimental and one control group, each containing 20 lycee prep level Turkish efl students, participated in the study. The subjects in the experimental and control groups were randomly selected from among lycee prep classes in two different schools. The experimental group enrolled in a program of comprehension-based instruction supported by form- focused instruction; whereas, the control group enrolled in a basically form-focused program of instruction. Both the experimental and control groups had 29 hours of efl instruction per week for 36 weeks. Different instruments were used to see the effects of these two different types of instruction on their reading, listening, writing skills and knowledge of grammatical structures. At the end of the fourth month, both groups were given the listening, reading and writing components of the Key English Test (ket) and the grammar component of the Oxford Placement Test. At the end of the eighth month, they were given the Preliminary English Test (pet) and another version of the grammar component of the Oxford Placement Test. The results indicated that the program of comprehension-based efl instruction supported by form-focused instruction was more effective than a basically form-focused program of instruction in helping beginner-level students develop their listening, reading, and writing skills as well as their knowledge of grammatical structures.

Instructions for Motor Learning: Differential Effects of Internal Versus External Focus of Attention

The effects of different types of instructions on complex motor skill learning were examined. The instructions were related either to the participant's own body movements (internal focus) or to the effects of those movements on the apparatus (external focus). The hypothesis tested was that external-focus instructions would be more beneficial for learning than internal-focus instructions. In Experiment 1, the participants (N = 33) performed slalom-type movements on a ski-simulator. The instructions referred to the way in which force should be exerted on the platform that the participant was standing on. The instructions given 1 group of participants referred to the performers' feet (internal focus), whereas the instructions given another group referred to the wheels of the platform, which were located directly under the feet (external focus). The control group was given no focus instructions. All participants practiced the task on 2 consecutive days and performed a retention test on Day 3. Compared with the effects of internal-focus instructions and no instructions, the external-focus instructions enhanced learning. Internal-focus instruction was not more effective than no instructions. In Experiment 2, an attempt was made to replicate the differential effects of external-versus internal-focus instructions with a different task (balancing on a stabilometer). Consistent with Experiment 1, instructing learners (N = 16) to focus on 2 markers on the platform of the stabilometer (external focus) led to more effective learning than instructing them to focus on their feet (internal focus), as measured by a retention test after 2 days of practice. Practical and theoretical implications of those results are discussed.

Cooperative quizzes in the anatomy and physiology laboratory: a description and evaluation.

Physiology educators read journals, such as this one, to gather ideas about curriculum and instruction. Most articles focus on curriculum (i.e., what is taught), but this paper will focus on instruction (i.e., how curriculum is implemented). Just as there are different types of curricula, there are different types of instruction. The most common strategy is lecture. Lectures are extremely efficient for delivering large amounts of information in a short period of time. A common laboratory strategy is discovery or inquiry-based learning (i.e., giving students tools, cognitive and physical, to deduce new information via investigations). A third instructional strategy is the use of cooperative learning. Proper conditions are required for each instructional strategy, and problems arise when the wrong combinations are put together. This paper will describe how a cooperative learning environment can be created in the anatomy and physiology laboratory through the use of cooperative quizzes. It will include a brief introduction to the pedagogical theory behind cooperative learning and an evaluation of the effectiveness of quizzes compared with more traditional methods.

TREATMENT ACCEPTABILITY AND “FAKING GOOD”: ARE STAFF TELLING US WHAT THEY THINK WE WANT TO HEAR?

Treatment acceptability refers to how acceptable various treatment alternatives are to individuals who are subjected to and who implement those treatments. While treatment-acceptability research increases in popularity, some have questioned its usefulness. In particular, Schwartz and Baer (1991) question whether staff might be telling us what we want to hear, analogous to the phenomenon of test-takers “faking good” while taking personality tests. In this study, we sought to investigate the possibility of such bias in treatment-acceptability ratings. Direct-care staff at a large residential facility were presented with a clinical vignette and five treatment options to rate. They also received three different types of instructions (standard, “fake good,” and “prompted honesty”) designed to determine whether biases in ratings would appear. Results indicate that, under these conditions, staff do not fake good, i.e., there were no differences across instructional conditions. Collapsing across conditions, staff did differ in their ratings on the five treatment alternatives. Reasons for current results and suggestions for further research are discussed.

TREATMENT ACCEPTABILITY AND “FAKING GOOD”: ARE STAFF TELLING US WHAT THEY THINK WE WANT TO HEAR?

Treatment acceptability refers to how acceptable various treatment alternatives are to individuals who are subjected to and who implement those treatments. While treatment-acceptability research increases in popularity, some have questioned its usefulness. In particular, Schwartz and Baer (1991) question whether staff might be telling us what we want to hear, analogous to the phenomenon of test-takers “faking good” while taking personality tests. In this study, we sought to investigate the possibility of such bias in treatment-acceptability ratings. Direct-care staff at a large residential facility were presented with a clinical vignette and five treatment options to rate. They also received three different types of instructions (standard, “fake good,” and “prompted honesty”) designed to determine whether biases in ratings would appear. Results indicate that, under these conditions, staff do not fake good, i.e., there were no differences across instructional conditions. Collapsing across conditions, staff did differ in their ratings on the five treatment alternatives. Reasons for current results and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Attempts to Improve English L2 Pronunciation: The Variable Effects of Different Types of Instruction

This study compared the pronunciation of targeted vocabulary items in spontaneous speech by 23 adult Chinese L1 learners of L2 English grouped into four different conditions reflecting current pedagogical practices: (a) traditional drilling activities, (b) self‐study with tape recordings, (c) interactive activities, and (d) a no‐intervention control condition. One hundred and twenty native‐speaking listeners judged whether there was improvement or deterioration in pronunciation before and at two separate times subsequent to each of the four conditions. Because none of the results appeared to overwhelmingly favor one teaching technique, we included a discussion of the range of patterns of change brought about by the four input types. We also present arguments for a more serious consideration of the complex effects potentially involved when setting out to modify a learner's L2 pronunciation.

Attempts to Improve English L2 Pronunciation: The Variable Effects of Different Types of Instruction

Attempts to Improve English L2 Pronunciation: The Variable Effects of Different Types of Instruction

Temporal learning in [formula omitted]- and 6-year-old children: Role of instructions and prior knowledge

The present study investigates effects of different types of instructions (high-rate, interval, and minimal) during training with a fixed-interval schedule as a function of prior acquired temporal knowledge. A pretest was used to assess 4 1 2 - and 6-year-old children's ability to understand the temporal parameters of a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement. The results as a whole show that the control exerted by instructions given by the experimenter or elaborated by the subjects themselves on fixed-interval performance of young children depends on the interaction of two factors: development of verbal self-control skills and mastery of knowledge required by the rules forming the instructions.

Style and substance in social desirability scales

The purpose of the present study was to examine the nature of a social desirability measure under two different types of instructions for filling out personality questionnaires in an occupational selection setting. 1230 male applicants for public vehicle driving licences were administered Cattett's 16PF and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. One was given standard instructions for filling out these questionnaires; the second was given special instructions designed to reduce social desirability response bias. Social desirability was indexed by the Lie scale of the EPQ. Based on Eysenck's theorizing concerning the meaning of the Lie scale, the following hypothesis was tested: the factorial location of the Lie scale in the personality domain will differ under the two forms of instructions. It should appear separately from other personality factors under the standard instructions, whereas under the special instructions it should be subsumed under the personality factor which measures conformity. The results supported this hypothesis. The discussion focuses on the meaning of the Lie scale under conditions that elicit social desirability bias and on the role of special instructions in reducing this bias.

The effects of type of knowledge upon human problem solving in a process control task

The question of what the operator of a dynamic system needs to know was investigated in an experiment using PLANT, a simulation of a generic dynamic production process. Knowledge of PLANT was manipulated via different types of instruction, so that four different groups were created: (1) minimal instructions only; (2) minimal instructions and guidelines for operation (procedures); (3) minimal instructions and dynamic relationships (principles), and (4) minimal instructions and procedures and principles. Subjects controlled PLANT in a variety of situations that required maintaining production while also diagnosing familiar and unfamiliar failures. Despite the fact that these manipulations resulted in differences in subjects' knowledge, as assessed via a written test at the end of the experiment, instructions had no effect on achievement of the primary goal of production or on subjects' ability to diagnose unfamiliar failures. However, those groups receiving procedures controlled the system in a more stable manner. Possible reasons for the failure to find an effect are presented, and the implications of these results for operator training and aiding are discussed.

The Effects of Level of Knowledge upon Human Problem Solving in a Process Control Task

The question of what the operator of a dynamic system needs to know was investigated in an experiment using PLANT, a generic simulation of a process. Knowledge of PLANT was manipulated via different types of instructions, so that four different groups were created: 1) Minimal instructions only; 2) Minimal instructions + guidelines for operation (Procedures); 3) Minimal instructions + dynamic relationships (Principles); 4) Minimal instructions + Procedures + Principles. Subjects then controlled PLANT in a variety of familiar and unfamiliar situations. Despite the fact that these manipulations resulted in differences in subjects' knowledge as assessed via a written test at the end of the experiment, instructions had no effect upon achievement of the primary goal of production; however, those groups receiving Procedures controlled the system in a more stable manner. Principles had no apparent effect upon subjects' performance. There was no difference between groups in diagnosis of unfamiliar events.

An Examination of the Responses to a Multivalue Logic Test

Summary Test responses to a standardized reasoning test (the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Subtest 1) were examined. Ss read narrative material and evaluated proposed conclusions as true (T), probably true (PT), insufficient data (ID), probably false (PF), or false (F). Logically, different standards should be used for definite (T and F) and probabalistic (PT, ID, and PF) conclusions. However, Ss responses to probable items (e.g., PF) indicate that they treated the probable items as midpoints between insufficient data items (ID) and definite items (e.g., F). Study 1 was based on archival data, the test results of 82 male executives (mean age 36.5). Study 2 was based on an experiment examining test responses of 41 male and female university students (mean age 19.4) given different types of instructions. The second study was conducted to ensure the generality of Study 1 results.

The Effects of Instruction in Sentential Logic on Selected Abilities of Second- and Third-Grade Children

The main purpose of the study was to determine the effect of different types of instruction on the logical abilities of children. Sixteen classes, eight Grade 2 and eight Grade 3, were randomly assigned to four treatments (three experimental and one control)--two classes per treatment at each grade level. Class size was 25. The instruction in logic was provided once a week, approximately 50 minutes, for 13 weeks. The analysis of variance from three different posttests indicated that instruction has positive effects on certain logical abilities (p = .05). It would appear that children could profit by such instruction as early as the second grade.