Effective Instructional Strategies Research Articles

The Effects of Instructional Strategies, College Division, and Gender on Students’ Performance in College Algebra at a University in South Texas

College Algebra courses have often served as gatekeepers to advancement toward a bachelor’s degree for many undergraduate students in colleges and universities all over the United States. As College Algebra is a core requirement for graduation, it is very important that fail and drop rates for this course be minimized. The ability to pass this class has a direct influence on 4-year/6-year graduation rates as well as retention rates for undergraduate students. Research has been carried out throughout the United States in attempts to tackle this issue. The present study was designed to explore the differences in final grades in College Algebra courses regarding different instructional strategies, college division and gender. Test findings indicated that the performance of college students as measured by final grade in College Algebra courses was significantly different among diverse instructional strategies. In addition, the performance of college students as measured by final grade in College Algebra courses was not significantly different in each college division or gender for different instructional strategies. Findings provided useful information for increasing student retention in college mathematics courses. Students will be more likely to learn and retain mathematical knowledge when diverse approaches for teaching and learning mathematics are applied.

Supporting grocery shopping for students with intellectual disability:a preliminary study

Purpose: Decades of research exist supporting various types of self-operating prompting systems, including picture, audio and video to help students with disabilities acquire skills, especially to teach life skills. While many facets of life skills are important to target for instruction for secondary students with intellectual disability, one receiving declining attention is grocery shopping.Method: Using a single subject alternating treatment design with two high school students with intellectual disability, the authors analysed the impact of three self-operating prompts systems – picture, audio and video – on students’ successful selection of grocery items, independence in completing the task (i.e., percent of steps not prompted), and task completion time.Results: Results showed video prompting to be most successful prompting system for both students for selecting grocery items. However, independence and task completion time varied significantly for the students across the prompting systems.Conclusions: It is important to match the correct prompting system to individual students’ skills, needs and preference, but also to balance efficiency – both for educators and students.Implications for RehabilitationVideo prompting is an effective instructional strategy, but must be considered in light of time and skill to create the video prompts as well as social stigmatization of use in natural community settings.It is important to match the correct prompting system to each student, but also to balance efficiency – both for educators and students.

Influence of Web Based Cooperative Learning Strategy and Achiever Motivation on Student Study Outcome

The research aimed at examining the effect of instructional strategy (web-based STAD and text-based STAD) and achiever motivation toward student learning outcomes. The research implied quasi-experimental design with nonequivalen control group factorial version. The subjects were undergraduated students of Information Systems of academic year 2014/2015 at STIKOM Surabaya. Two groups were involved in the investigation with which amounts to 67 students, comprised of 34 students for the experimental class and 33 students for grade control. The collected data were statistically processed using analysis of variance techniques (ANOVA) two paths using a significance level of 0,05. The results of this research indicate that there is a difference in outcome study of Organization Behavior courses is significant between groups of students who studied with a web-based STAD type cooperative instrutional strategies and textual STAD type cooperative strategies. Based on the findings of this research, researchers suggest implementing STAD tipe cooperative of instructional strategy, with simultaneously (complementary) between the web-based and text-based in the form of blended learning.

Enhancing literacy practices in science classrooms through a professional development program for Canadian minority-language teachers

ABSTRACTLiteracy in the Science Classroom Project was a three-year professional development (PD) program supporting minority-language secondary teachers’ use of effective language-based instructional strategies for teaching science. Our primary objective was to determine how teacher beliefs and practices changed over time and how these were enacted in different classrooms. We also wanted to identify the challenges and enablers to implementing these literacy strategies and practices at the classroom, school, and district levels. Data collection involved both qualitative and quantitative methodologies: student questionnaires; interviews with teachers, principals, and mentor; and focus groups with students. The findings suggest that the program had an impact on beliefs and practices commensurate with the workshop participation of individual teachers. These language-enhanced teacher practices also had a positive impact on the use of talking, reading and writing by students in the science classroom. Finally, continuing PD support may be needed in certain jurisdictions for strengthening minority-language programs given the high teacher mobility in content-area classrooms evident in this study.

Learning from video modeling examples: Content kept equal, adults are more effective models than peers

Learning from (video) modeling examples in which a model demonstrates how to perform a task is an effective instructional strategy. The model-observer similarity (MOS) hypothesis postulates that (perceived) similarity between learners and the model in terms of age or expertise moderates the effectiveness of modeling examples. Findings have been mixed, however, possibly because manipulations of MOS were often associated with differences in example content and manipulations of (perceived) expertise confounded with age. Therefore, we investigated whether similarity with the model in terms of age and putative expertise would affect cognitive and motivational aspects of learning when the example content is kept equal across conditions. Adolescents (N = 157) watched a short video in which a peer or adult model was introduced as having low or high expertise, followed by two video modeling examples in which the model demonstrated how to troubleshoot electrical circuit problems. Results showed no effects of putative expertise. In contrast to the MOS hypothesis, adult models were more effective and efficient to learn from than peer models.

Analysis of the Effectiveness of Instructional Strategies for Construction Management Students

AbstractThis study seeks to identify the most suitable strategies to promote effective learning for construction management students and to boost instructors’ knowledge concerning the choice of appropriate strategies. Twenty-two instructional strategies, identified through a comprehensive literature review, were assessed based on students’ perceptions as determined by a questionnaire. Data from the returned valid questionnaires were examined and tested with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a structural equation model (SEM). The EFA extracted five strategies: web-enhanced instructional strategy, traditional learning instructional strategy, activity-based learning instructional strategy, relational learning instructional strategy, and student-centered learning instructional strategy. The results of the SEM show that student-centered strategies having the strongest standardized regression path coefficient of 0.93 were considered the most effective learning instructional strategies by the students. Based...

Effective Instructional Methods and Strategies for Teaching Art History

Effective Instructional Methods and Strategies for Teaching Art History Dickson Adom, Saeed Adam, Osafo Agyemang Abstract The performances of students in Art History evaluation and external examinations show a great decline in scores attained in various Second Cycle and Tertiary institutions across Africa. The interest in the study of Art History on the part of learners has dwindled and this canker has even found itself among some tutors of the subject. The study was therefore carried out to find the causes of the decline in the interest and performances of students in Art History with the view of developing and recommending some time-tested instructional methods and strategies that can boost both the interest and performances of students in Art History. The researchers obtained the data for the research via semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation and under the qualitative research approach. Descriptive research method and Document Analysis were the research methods utilized in this study. The Data analysis spiral was adopted for analyzing the data accrued. The study thus contends that effective instructional methods and strategies for teaching art history can boost the interest of teachers and students in Art history while reflecting positively on learning outcomes. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijaah.v4n2a4

Quasi Experimental Non Randomized Study on Effectiveness of Instructional Strategy on Knowledge, Practice and Quality of Life of Head and Neck Cancer Patients Receiving Radiotherapy in Selected Cancer Research Institute, Uttarakhand

The cancer is a disease of cell in which the normal mechanism of the control of growth and proliferation has been altered. Annually, nearly 3 million people die of cancer in India. The Indian Council of Medical Research said in 2016 the total number of new cancer cases is expected to be around 1.45 million and the figure is likely to reach nearly 1.73 million new cases in 2020. Over 0.736 million people are expected to succumb to the disease in 2016 while the figure is estimated to shoot up to 0.88 million by 2020. Data also revealed that only 12.5 percent of patients come for treatment in early stages of the disease. Purpose: The Purpose was to educate the patients with Head and Neck Cancer undergoing radiation therapy about management of side effects to improve their quality of life. Method: A Quantitative research approach with Quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design. The study was conducted in selected Cancer Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Consecutive sampling technique was used for data collection from 60 Head and neck cancer patients by using Structured Knowledge interview schedule, structured self-reported practice checklist and EORTCH & N35 QLQ. Result: The mean post-test knowledge score in experimental group was 18.70 ± 3.06 which was significantly higher than the control group 11.50 ± 5.00. The mean post-test practice score in experimental group was 16.40 ± 1.86 which was significantly higher than the control group 10.00 ± 3.01. There was significant improvement in the Quality of Life of the patients in experimental group in different phases of radiation therapy. In multiple item scales- Pain (0.014 on 8th day and <0.001 on 16th day), swallowing (<0.001 on 16th day), sense problems (0.019 on 8th day and 0.020 on 16th day), speech problem (0.058 on 8th day and 0.041 on 16th day), social contact (0.005). In single item scale teeth (0.019 on 8th day), opening mouth (<0.001 on 16th day), dry mouth (<0.001 on 16th day), sticky saliva (0.040 on 8th day and <0.001 on 16th day), felt ill (0.017 on 16th day). Moderately positive correlation was found between post-test knowledge & practice score. Conclusion: The instructional strategy was effective in increasing knowledge, practice of Head and Neck cancer patients and also improving their Quality of life.

Strategies for Increasing Reading Comprehension Skills in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of the Literature

Abstract As the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) being prepared for statewide assessment rises, there is increased demand for effective instructional strategies to improve reading comprehension scores in these students. The authors synthesized the findings of 15 studies, which included 88 school-aged students identified with ASD The studies were conducted between 1989 and 2015. Findings indicate that Direct Instruction (DI) and graphic organizers have positive effects, while cooperative learning, anaphoric cueing, and question generation show promise. Electronic supported text shows little to no effect on reading comprehension measures in students with ASD. Keywords: autism, autism spectrum disorder, cooperative learning, direct instruction, reading comprehension, reading instruction, reading strategies ********** Reading comprehension is the act of gaining meaning from print. It is a complex task that requires the integration and coordination of numerous high-level cognitive processes, necessitating active reader engagement (Cain, Oakhill & Bryant, 2004; Garcia-Madruga, et al., 2013; Nation, Adams, Bowyer-Crane, & Snowling, 1999; Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). Reading comprehension continues to be an area of weakness for students with ASD, though it is considered to be an essential component of developing literacy (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), 2000). It is now thought that as many as 70% of individuals with ASD have average to above average intelligence (Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2005), but levels of reading comprehension for students with ASD have been reported as significantly lower than peers, even when groups are matched for reading accuracy and IQ (Brown, Oram-Cardy, & Johnson, 2013; Frith & Snowling, 1983). As with other individuals with disabilities, performance on reading comprehension tasks is correlated to individual's verbal ability (Snowling & Frith, 1986), however, there are factors related to reading comprehension that are unique to individuals with ASD. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, as well as restricted, repetitive, stereotyped patterns of behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In the 2012-2013 school year, there were 498,000 students aged 3-21 years in the US receiving educational services for Autism under IDEA. This represents an average annual increase of over 36,000 students since the 2002-2003 school year when 137,000 students were receiving services in this category (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). Some individuals with ASD will be dependent on life-long support and care, while others perform at levels comparable with their typically developing peers in academic settings and go on to graduate from college (Estes, Rivera, Bryan, Cali, & Dawson, 2011). Although individuals with ASD share common characteristics, they also exhibit a wide range of capabilities and strengths Many higher-functioning, school-aged children with ASD are placed in classrooms with typically developing peers and are working toward similar academic goals in the general education curriculum (Estes et al., 2011). Impaired reading comprehension, especially when paired with normative reading accuracy, has been reported as a specific area of deficit for individuals with ASD (Nation, Clarke, Wright, & Williams, 2006). That is, individuals with ASD often are able to read text fluently without substantial comprehension of what they have read. Individuals with ASD also show mild deficits in semantic knowledge (Brown et al., 2013). A correlation does exist between semantic knowledge and reading comprehension and this may impact reading comprehension for some individuals with ASD. Saldana & Frith (2007) demonstrated that individuals with ASD could make inferences when a limited amount of text is presented, but had difficulty when integrating specific knowledge with a global text. …

Students’ perspectives of using cooperative learning in a flipped statistics classroom

&lt;p class="imported-"&gt;Statistics has been recognised as one of the most anxiety-provoking subjects to learn in the higher education context. Educators have continuously endeavoured to find ways to integrate digital technologies and innovative pedagogies in the classroom to eliminate the fear of statistics. The purpose of this study is to systematically identify students’ perspective of using cooperative learning in a flipped statistics classroom by utilising Q-methodology, which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Forty-five students who had participated in a 16 week course were interviewed and asked to rank 30 statements according to their relative importance. Three distinctly different factors that represented groups of participants with similar views were extracted. All groups identified cooperative learning as an effective instructional strategy in flipped classrooms. It is concluded that students’ concerns were reflected in these multiple perspectives; therefore, individual levels of support should be provided.&lt;/p&gt;

Testing the model-observer similarity hypothesis with text-based worked examples

abstractExample-based learning is a very effective and efficient instructional strategy for novices. It can be implemented using text-based worked examples that provide a written demonstration of how to perform a task, or (video) modelling examples in which an instructor (the ‘model’) provides a demonstration. The model-observer similarity (MOS) hypothesis predicts that the effectiveness of modelling examples partly depends on the degree to which learners perceive the models to be similar to them. It is an open question, however, whether perceived similarity with the person who created the example, would also affect learning from text-based worked examples. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to investigate whether MOS would also play a role in learning from worked examples. In Experiment 1 (N = 147), students were led to believe via pictures and a short story that the worked examples were created by a male or female peer student. Males showed higher performance and confidence, but no effects of MOS on learning were found. In Experiment 2 (N = 130), students were led to believe that a peer student or a teacher created the examples. Again, no effects of MOS were found. These findings suggest that the perceived origin of text-based worked examples is not important for learning.

Individualised Resources: Definition and Efficiency in the Russian EFL Classroom

In order to plan lessons that include effective instructional strategies, it is critical for teachers to be aware of student aptitudes, personality variables, learning strategies, interests, aspirations and talents. This paper presents a way for Russian teachers to improve their student’s speaking abilities when learning foreign languages, called individualised resources, which are based on the concept of individualisation. Individualised resources are designed to help students to actively participate in the learning process, contribute to their productivity of learning and compensate for missing abilities when mastering foreign languages. In order to verify the effectiveness of this educational tool, qualitative and quantitative indicators were applied to experimental teaching. The findings illustrate how the approach enhanced the students’ speaking abilities in terms of purposefulness, richness of speech content and logical progression of speech. We concluded that the students’ mastering of these qualities, using individualized resources, did improve and that this type of training is sufficient to shape speaking skills when teaching English.

Comparing Teacher-Provided and Computer-Assisted Simultaneous Prompting for Vocabulary Development With Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

In this study, the effects of teacher-provided simultaneous prompting and computer-assisted simultaneous prompting for teaching content-area vocabulary words to students who are deaf or hard of hearing were compared using a multiple probe across behaviors with an embedded alternating treatments design. Participants included three second-grade students at a residential school for the deaf in the southeastern United States. Results were mixed, with teacher- and computer-based instruction being equally effective for two students while only teacher-provided instruction was effective for one student who had concomitant disabilities. Social validity surveys for students indicated all three preferred learning vocabulary with the computer. The study extends the literature showing that simultaneous prompting may be an effective instructional strategy for students who are deaf or hard of hearing and that computer-assisted simultaneous prompting may be a useful tool to provide independent learning opportunities for some students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Implications for classroom instruction and directions for further research are discussed.

Effects of Instructional Strategies and Proficiency Levels on Students’ Achievement

Effects of Instructional Strategies and Proficiency Levels on Students’ Achievement

Humane Education for Students with Visual Impairments: Learning about Working Dogs

Introduction This study examined the effect of an animal-assisted humane education course on the knowledge of students about caring for dogs physically and psychologically and making informed decisions about dog ownership, including working dogs. Method This collaborative action-research study employed case study design to examine the effect of an eight-week animal-assisted humane education course on the knowledge and skills of four secondary students with visual impairments. Two independent raters applied constant comparative analysis for all of the following data sources: pre- and postintervention interviews, pre- and postintervention tests, videotaped observations, and field notes. Findings were determined for individual students and the class as a whole. Results The greatest gains made by students included learning how to greet, feed, play with, obtain, and pay for dogs; they also learned about appropriate equipment and the roles of working dogs. Effective instructional strategies included assessing prior knowledge and experience with dogs, practicing skills, using tactile techniques, using routines and repetition, and correcting misconceptions. Discussion Findings indicate that although students did not master all of the knowledge and skills taught in the course, they became more knowledgeable about care and ownership of dogs. Limitations of this study are the small sample size and short intervention time. Future research may feature longer intervention periods and make connections between humane education, orientation and mobility, and the core content areas of science and mathematics. Implications for practitioners Students with visual impairments must be provided with experiences with different types of working dogs. Ample time should be given to explore equipment and to practice skills that are essential to responsible care and ownership of dogs.

An exploration of problem posing-based activities as an assessment tool and as an instructional strategy.

BackgroundProblem posing, the generation of questions by learners, has been shown to be an effective instructional strategy for teaching–learning of complex materials in domains such as mathematics. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of problem posing in two dimensions. Firstly, we present how problem posing can result in unfolding of knowledge and hence how it can be used as an instructional strategy. Then we present another problem posing-based activity as an assessment tool in an Introductory Programming course (CS1).MethodTo explore the potential of problem posing as an instructional strategy, we conducted field studies in the two CS application courses (Data Structures (DS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)), in which we provided a semi-structured problem posing situation to students. We performed inductive qualitative research and development the questions generated by students using grounded theory-based qualitative data analysis technique. To explore the potential of problem posing as an assessment tool, we conducted a field study in CS1 wherein we employed another problem posing (PP)-based activity in a large class for assessing the learning of computational thinking concepts in an introductory programming course and analysed how performance in traditional assessment tools (quiz score) is related with performance in our non-traditional assessment tool (quality of problems posed during a problem posing activity).ResultsFrom the studies in DS and AI courses we found that students pose questions and unfold knowledge using seven strategies — Apply, Organize, Probe, Compare, Connect, Vary, and Implement. From the field study performed in the CS1 course we found that the quality of the problems posed (difficulty level) were mostly aligned to the traditional assessment results in the case of novice learners but not in the case of advanced learners.

The scope of language teaching studies

The scope of language teaching studies is wide and varied. This is because language teaching is complex and involves an array of interacting factors. Similarly, studies in this field have been addressing diverse issues, ranging from describing and understanding what goes on in the classroom to the examination of the effects of various types of instruction on learning to the study of the qualities and characteristics of the teacher and the learner as well as the various classroom settings in which instruction takes place. Studies of language teaching also include examination of strategies that aid not just learning but also processing or retaining various forms of linguistic knowledge obtained through instruction, including both written and spoken knowledge. Language Teaching Research has been publishing studies in all these domains. The six articles published in this issue of the journal fall into two of the categories described above. While three of them examine the effect of instructional strategies on learning outcomes, the other three focus on specific techniques that help learners process or retain information. In what follows, I will briefly summarize and then comment on the results and contributions of these studies. Hinenoya and Lyster report a quasi-experimental study that investigates the effect of instruction on learning the English definite article the by Japanese second language (L2) learners. They compared two types of instruction, one that was more linguistic, focusing on the as a grammatical structure to identify a referent, and the other that was more conceptual, drawing on the notion of schemata and mental space in interpreting the meaning of the article. Overall, the results showed an advantage for the more conceptually oriented instruction. The effects of the two types of instruction were also mediated by the nature of the article used. This study demonstrates the potential effectiveness of an approach to teaching English articles not typically used by teachers, but this type of instruction merits further investigation. Nakata’s and Rassaei’s studies focus on the role of feedback. Feedback is an important aspect of second language classroom instruction, and its examination has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. Nakata addressed the important issue of the timing of feedback (immediate versus delayed) and its effect on L2 vocabulary learning among Japanese learners of English. The study also examined whether the effect of timing was mediated by the frequency of practice and also lag to test (i.e., the period between the final 591391 LTR0010.1177/1362168814591391Language Teaching ResearchNassaji research-article2015

Effects of story mapping on third-grade students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of story mapping on the reading comprehension scores, on-task behaviors, and attitudes of third- -grade students (N = 6) with ADHD. Students’ reading grade equivalencies were assessed before and after the study. The teacher-researcher compared two other achievement measures before and during story mapping to assess growth. The practical difference in scores as calculated with Cohen’s d revealed that story mapping was successful in improving students’ comprehension. On tests from the reading basal, students’ scores improved an average of 16.00%, while tests from a computerized reading program improved 20.00%. Students exhibited on-task behavior 79.33% of the time and positive attitudes 82.33% of the time during the intervention. The implications of this study are important in determining effective instructional strategies to promote the active engagement of students and combat the core symptoms of ADHD.

Promoting Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Learning to Use Formative Assessment for Life Science Instruction

To support elementary students’ learning of core, standards-based life science concepts highlighted in the Next Generation Science Standards, prospective elementary teachers should develop an understanding of life science concepts and learn to apply their content knowledge in instructional practice to craft elementary science learning environments grounded in students’ thinking. To do so, teachers must learn to use high-leverage instructional practices, such as formative assessment, to engage students in scientific practices and connect instruction to students’ ideas. However, teachers may not understand formative assessment or possess sufficient science content knowledge to effectively engage in related instructional practices. To address these needs, we developed and conducted research within an innovative course for preservice elementary teachers built upon two pillars—life science concepts and formative assessment. An embedded mixed methods study was used to evaluate the effect of the intervention on preservice teachers’ (n = 49) content knowledge and ability to engage in formative assessment practices for science. Findings showed that increased life content knowledge over the semester helped preservice teachers engage more productively in anticipating and evaluating students’ ideas, but not in identifying effective instructional strategies to respond to those ideas.

Learner Perception, Expected Competence, and Satisfaction of Team-Based Learning in Korean Nursing Students.

: The purpose of this study was to describe learner perception, expected competence, and factors influencing satisfaction with team-based learning in a nursing course. Four-hour TBL sessions were given in a structured three-phase sequence for a cohort of 139 second-year nursing students. TBL was found to be an effective instructional strategy inducing team learning and self-directed learning. Nursing educators should improve TBL quality by focusing on the student team learning process.