Guidelines For Instruction Research Articles

IS GAISE EVIDENT? COLLEGE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STATISTICS CLASSES AS “ALMOST NOT MATH”

The connection between mathematics and statistics is an important aspect in understanding college students’ learning of statistics because studies have shown relationships among mathematics attitudes and performance and statistics attitudes. Statistics attitudes, in turn, are related to performance in statistics courses. Little research has been done on college students’ perceptions of their mathematics and statistics experiences. To fill this gap, a phenomenographical study of 12 college students with self-identified negative attitudes about statistics was conducted to understand their perceptions of their previous mathematics and statistics classes. An integrated approach to data analysis was conducted in two phases. First, themes emerged from an inductive analysis. Second, the six recommendations from the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report (2005) were used as a priori categories as an organizing framework for coding the data. Themes that emerged from the researchers’ analysis of the data were changing attitudes about statistics, defining the nature of statistics, seeking help, and blaming the teacher. The GAISE recommendations did not appear to be realized in the statistics classes taken by these students in various programs of study. Implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for further research are suggested. In understanding students’ experiences from their perspectives, statistics educators can improve pedagogy and student learning. First published May 2017 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

GAISE 2016 PROMOTES STATISTICAL LITERACY

In the 2005 Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE), statistical literacy featured as a primary goal. The 2016 revision eliminated statistical literacy as a stated goal. Although this looks like a rejection, this paper argues that by including multivariate thinking and – more importantly – confounding as recommended topics in introductory statistics, statistical literacy has in fact been accepted if not promoted. The adoption of the new guidelines will greatly advance students’ statistical literacy: the ability to read and interpret statistics relevant to consumers and decision makers. First published May 2017 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

Un-packaging Manuscript Preparation and Review Guidelines for Curriculum and Instruction and Research Papers

INTRODUCTIONIn November 2015 the Journal of Geoscience Education Editorial Board met to review and discussed the criteria for curriculum and instruction (CI teaching approaches; professional development; or outreach to schools or the general public. We welcome innovations targeted at any grade level that are used in either formal or informal settings. All C&I papers must be grounded in appropriate educational literature, and must provide evidence of how the proposed innovation meets its learning goals. The following criteria should be met:1. Title: The title sets the stage for the paper. It informs the reader about the topic of the paper. Specific to C&I papers, the title should describe the type of educational innovation and the setting where it was implemented.2. Abstract: The paper must include an informational abstract of no more than 250 words that summarizes the purpose of the educational innovation, what takes place during the innovation, the data that supports the effectiveness of the innovation, and ''lessons learned'' that could help readers implement the innovation elsewhere. It is a succinct summary of the paper itself, rather than an introduction to the paper.3. Purpose and Learning Goals: The purpose of the educational innovation is clearly explained. Where appropriate, this includes learning goals stated in terms of what participants should know or be able to do after completing the activity, program, course, or other intervention. …

Designing Education for Professional Expertise Development

ABSTRACTHow to facilitate learning by novices (students) on their road to expertise has attracted the attention of a vast number of researchers in cognitive and educational psychology as well in the field of learning and instruction. Although many studies have investigated the phenomenon of expertise development, the implications of the findings for instruction are scattered throughout the literature. This article reports the results of a systematic literature review of 37 studies on expertise development. Using Tynjälä's Integrative Pedagogy Model as an organising framework, the implications for educational practice described in these studies are presented as 10 instructional principles. This study takes a step towards translating expertise development research into guidelines for instruction. Implications for future research are discussed.

A theory-informed, process-oriented Resident Scholarship Program

BackgroundThe Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires residency programs to provide curricula for residents to engage in scholarly activities but does not specify particular guidelines for instruction. We propose a Resident Scholarship Program that is framed by the self-determination theory (SDT) and emphasize the process of scholarly activity versus a scholarly product.MethodsThe authors report on their longitudinal Resident Scholarship Program, which aimed to support psychological needs central to SDT: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. By addressing those needs in program aims and program components, the program may foster residents’ intrinsic motivation to learn and to engage in scholarly activity. To this end, residents’ engagement in scholarly processes, and changes in perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness were assessed.ResultsResidents engaged in a range of scholarly projects and expressed positive regard for the program. Compared to before residency, residents felt more confident in the process of scholarly activity, as determined by changes in increased perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Scholarly products were accomplished in return for a focus on scholarly process.ConclusionsBased on our experience, and in line with the SDT, supporting residents’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness through a process-oriented scholarship program may foster the curiosity, inquisitiveness, and internal motivation to learn that drives scholarly activity and ultimately the production of scholarly products.

Technology-enhanced stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education

Over the past decade, STEM education has received increasing attention and also has been widely recognized as one of the major emphases in contemporary science education reform movements. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) involves the study of, and coherent integration among, various academic disciplines, especially the four cardinal disciplines of STEM. It has been advocated that STEM education could provide an opportunity for students to develop increasingly important 21st Century skills, such as complex problem solving, communication, and collaboration (Bybee 2010). Therefore, STEM education is becoming even more important in preparing students for work in the technologically advanced world and is vital for the nation’s competitiveness in the global economy (Breiner et al. 2012). In recent years, many STEM-related instructional materials, curricula, and guidelines for instruction are emerging. While most of the initial attempts in STEM education addressed one or more of the STEM subjects separately, there are increasing advocates for emphasizing connections between or among the subjects in STEM education (Honey et al. 2014). As a result of the prior lack of integration, a great diversity of foci and contexts are often found in STEM-related research. The research contexts of some STEM-related studies may only involve one of the STEM

The Levels of Conceptual Understanding in Statistics (LOCUS) Project: Results of the Pilot Study

The Levels of Conceptual Understanding in Statistics (LOCUS) project (NSF DRL-111868) has created assessments that measure conceptual (rather than procedural) understanding of statistics as outlined in GAISE Framework (Franklin et al., 2007, Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education, American Statistical Association). Here we provide a brief overview of the LOCUS project and present results from multiple-choice items on the pilot administration of the assessments with data collected from over 3400 students in grades 6-12 across six states. These results help illustrate students’ understanding of statistical topics prior to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Using the four components of the statistical problem-solving process outlined in the GAISE Framework, middle and high school students tended to perform better on questions assessing Formulate Questions and Collect Data; both groups also tended to perform relatively worse on the Analyze Data questions.

Teachers’ Uses of a Learning Trajectory in Student-Centered Instructional Practices

The growing national attention to students’ learning trajectories (LTs) renews the opportunity to explore the ways that teachers may use students’ thinking in their instruction. In this article, we examine teachers’ learning of two frameworks, one for students’ thinking in a particular domain and one for broad student-centered instructional practices, in the context of an elementary grades mathematics professional development setting. As a part of a retrospective analysis of a design experiment, we analyzed 19 lessons of teachers who participated in 60 hr of professional development designed to support their learning of one LT and one framework about student-centered instructional practices. Our findings describe the ways in which teachers brought together these frameworks to enact instructional practices that elicit and use students’ mathematical thinking in classroom instruction. We conclude by arguing that LTs can serve as a referent for student-centered instructional practices, bridging guidelines for student-centered instruction with domain-specific understandings of students’ thinking for teachers.

Taking a Chance in the Classroom: A Classroom Project for Generation Z

The Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE): College Report recommends using real data in introductory statistics courses to provide context and authenticity to re...

Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education(GAISE): ExtendingGAISEInto Nursing Education

Statistics coursework is usually a core curriculum requirement for nursing students at all degree levels. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) establishes curriculum standards for academic nursing programs. However, the AACN provides little guidance on statistics education and does not offer standardized competency guidelines or recommendations about course content or learning objectives. Published standards may be used in the course development process to clarify course content and learning objectives. This article includes suggestions for implementing and integrating recommendations given in the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) report into statistics education for nursing students.

Teaching Reading: Why the “Fab Five” should be the “Big Six”

The Report of the National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) identified five key elements that were critical to the development of reading, and these have been widely accepted by educational jurisdictions as providing definitive guidelines for early reading instruction. This paper presents a case for the inclusion of oral language and early literacy experiences as an additional and foundational element. The pervasive influence of a child’s early experiences on future reading achievement must be understood if teachers are to maximise the opportunities of all children to become independent readers.

Self-Management of Wellness and Illness in an Aging Population

In this chapter, we review the last 10 years of literature on self-management of illnesses (acute/episodic and chronic) and wellness (e.g., health promotion). We focus on health self-management in the context of an aging population, wherein middle-aged adults are more likely to be managing wellness activities and older adults are often managing both maintenance of health and chronic illnesses. The critical issues related to self-management of health are discussed, including those imposed by health care demands and those stemming from individual differences in general abilities (e.g., motor, perception, cognition) and socioemotional characteristics. The dynamic relationship between theory and practice is highlighted. Health care demands reflect the nature of the illness or wellness activity and include managing comorbidities, symptoms, and medications; engaging in health promotion activities (e.g., exercise, diet); the required use of health technologies; the need for health-related information; and coordination of the care network. Individual differences in motor, perceptual, and cognitive abilities, as well as in the severity and complexity of the illness and the consequent demands, also impact how a person self-manages health. Cognitive abilities, such as decision making, knowledge, literacy (i.e., general, health, and e-health literacy), and numeracy are particularly implicated in the process of managing one’s own health and are especially important in the context of an aging population; therefore we give these cognitive abilities special attention in this chapter. Socioemotional characteristics, and attitudes and beliefs about one’s health, impact an individual’s self-management of health as well, impacting his or her motivation and goal-setting behaviors. Moreover, we discuss literature on interventions that have been used to improve self-management of health, and we examine the potential for technology. We conclude with guidelines for technology design and instruction, and discuss emerging themes.

Investigating the relationship between college students’ acceptance of evolution and tree thinking understanding

Recent research suggests a relationship between understanding of macroevolutionary principles (such as phylogenetics) and acceptance of evolution in biology majors. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively investigate the relationship between ability to interpret phylogenetic trees (tree thinking) and acceptance of evolutionary theory for 92 university non-science majors before and after a general education biology course. We found that the majority of students taking the course held strong religious affiliations but were still open to having their mind changed and accepted evolution as a valid scientific theory. Students started and ended the course with a relatively high acceptance of evolutionary theory, but the nature of their acceptance changed significantly and we documented several such shifts. Additionally, we found a significant increase in students’ tree thinking understanding after instruction and a slight, but significant, correlation between evolution acceptance and tree thinking understanding. Our investigation demonstrated that targeted evolution instruction using a tree thinking approach may alter students’ acceptance of evolution, even if the students initially hold strong anti-evolution ideas. By learning how college students understand and develop ideas about evolution using a visual approach, we can better target areas of confusion and begin forming guidelines for effective evolution instruction.

Validation of Scores From a New Measure of Preservice Teachers’ Self-efficacy to Teach Statistics in the Middle Grades

The influential Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) expect students to start statistics learning during middle grades. Thus teacher education and professional development programs are advised to help preservice and in-service teachers increase their knowledge and confidence to teach statistics. Although existing self-efficacy instruments used in statistics education focus on students, the Self-Efficacy to Teach Statistics (SETS) instrument measures a teacher’s efficacy to teach key CCSSM statistical topics. Using the results from a sample of n = 309 participants enrolled in a mathematics education or introductory statistics course, SETS scores were validated for use with middle grades preservice teachers to differentiate levels of self-efficacy to teach statistics. Confirmatory factor analysis using the Multidimensional Random Coefficient Multinomial Logit Model supports the use of two dimensions, which exhibit adequate reliabilities and correspond to the first two levels of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education adopted by the American Statistical Association. Item and rating scale analyses indicate that the items and the six-category scale perform as intended. These indicators suggest that the SETS instrument may be appropriate for measuring preservice teacher levels of self-efficacy to teach statistics.

Barcoding Life's Matrix: Translating Biodiversity Genomics into High School Settings to Enhance Life Science Education

Barcoding Life's Matrix: Translating Biodiversity Genomics into High School Settings to Enhance Life Science Education

How well do the NSF Funded Elementary Mathematics Curricula Align with the GAISE Report Recommendations?

Statistics and probability have become an integral part of mathematics education. Therefore it is important to understand whether curricular materials adequately represent statistical ideas. The Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) report (Franklin, Kader, Mewborn, Moreno, Peck, Perry, & Scheaffer, 2007), endorsed by the American Statistical Association, provides a two-dimensional (process and level) framework for statistical learning. This paper examines whether the statistics content contained in the NSF funded elementary curricula Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, Math Trailblazers, and Everyday Mathematics aligns with the GAISE recommendations. Results indicate that there are differences in the approaches used as well as the GAISE components emphasized among the curricula. In light of the fact that the new Common Core State Standards have placed little emphasis in statistics in the elementary grades, it is important to ensure that the minimal amount of statistics that is presented aligns well with the recommendations put forth by the statistics community. The results in this paper provide insight as to the type of statistical preparation students receive when using the NSF funded elementary curricula. As the Common Core places great emphasis on statistics in the middle grades, these results can be used to inform whether students will be prepared for the middle school Common Core goals.

Redesigning a Large Introductory Course to Incorporate the GAISE Guidelines

In 2005, the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) college report described several recommendations for teaching introductory statistics. This paper discusses how a large multi-section introductory course was redesigned in order to implement these recommendations. The experience described discusses the key sections of the GAISE report and sheds light on the challenges that must be overcome in putting them in place. The result is a course which addresses both the “how to” and big picture of statistics.

A survey on the current status of burn rehabilitation services in China

BackgroundIn China, there is a very long history of burn wound treatment, but the specialised burn care units were set up only from 1958. With more than 50 years of practice, great achievements have been made in burn wound care and operations in the country. However, in terms of burn rehabilitation, the development appears to be slow. In order to determine the current status of burn rehabilitation services in China, a survey was conducted to various burn centres in China. MethodsA comprehensive survey was conducted as well as to collect data related to (1) the admissions and staffing of the burn centres; (2) availability of rehabilitation services, number and educational background of specialised personnel dedicated in burn rehabilitation therapy; and (3) the difficulties leading to the lag of the burn rehabilitation services. The survey was sent to the chiefs of 87 burn centres via e-mail and they were requested to fill out the survey questionnaire and to send it back. For those who did not respond within 1 month, a reminder was sent. ResultsThere are totally 39 (44.8%) burn centres responding to our survey. These centres were geographically distributed in nearly 70% of the administrative provinces in China; hence, the results could well represent the current burn care system. Most centres have recognised the importance of rehabilitation therapy and remarkable improvements of outcome in burn patients have been achieved. There are a very huge number of burn patients that need rehabilitation therapy, but most centres face the problems of shortage of rehabilitation therapists, which apparently could lead to the difficulties in delivering a quality rehabilitation programme for patients. Although the time of rehabilitation therapy is instituted far earlier than before, it is still not widely accepted in the acute burn care stage. There are more specialists joining the burn centre and becoming members of the professional burn team. However, professional education and training in the burn specialty appear to be sparse. There is room for improvement. Problems that impede the progress of rehabilitation therapy are: lack of rehabilitation knowledge in medical staff as well as the public, the shortage of specialised personnel and relatively low educational background of this team, lack of standard guidelines for rehabilitation treatment instructions and lack of funding from the government. ConclusionAfter 20 years of clinical practice, rehabilitation concepts are well accepted and many forms of rehabilitation techniques are carried out in most burn centres that responded to the survey. Yet, the results also indicate that there is a short history of rehabilitation practice among the burn centres. There is a burning need to enhance the development of rehabilitation services so as to meet the demands of management of severely burned patients in China. Some suggestions are made to improve the current burn rehabilitation services which would include: (1) provide rehabilitation education programmes for burn surgeons, therapists, nurses, as well as patients, families and the public; (2) set up standard guidelines for clinical instruction of rehabilitation therapy; (3) build an interdisciplinary burn team; (4) more investigation and research on the physical and psychological outcomes of burn patients; and (5) implement administrative measures in terms of staffing, funding and offering insurance to burn survivors.

Learning Strategies and Vocabulary Knowledge of EFL Sixth and Ninth Grade Learners

Lexical knowledge is an important predictor of second language learning. The present study focuses on aspects of lexical knowledge of Korean elementary (6th grade) and middle school learners (9th grade) in connection to learning strategies, that is, with regard to vocabulary learning and by investigating the learners' preferred English medium of interest. The learners were asked to complete questionnaires for information on vocabulary learning strategies, and were tested with receptive and productive vocabulary levels test to assess their vocabulary knowledge. One-way ANOVA was conducted to note differences between the different vocabulary learning strategy groups, and multiple regression was employed to select predictors of learners' receptive and vocabulary knowledge. While the learners did not favor public education (school lessons), private lessons indicated to be the dominant means of learning English among the 6th graders with larger vocabulary sizes; the use of the vocabulary workbook indicated to be a useful resource for the 9th graders. Although movies were popularly viewed by most of the learners, it was the learners who had been reading books in English that seemed to have obtained larger vocabulary sizes. The findings provide guidelines for vocabulary instruction in Korean elementary and middle school contexts.

Bridging the Gap Between Hospital and Home

Advanced cardiovascular interventions and an aging population contribute to the growing prevalence of patients with heart failure (HF). Improved medical management, while decreasing mortality, has increased morbidity and cost, with a majority of expense related to preventable hospitalizations. Evidence-based guidelines for discharge instruction, when successfully administered, reduce readmission rates in high-risk HF patients, leading to improved quality of life and economic savings. Unfortunately, effective delivery is complex and time consuming, placing a high demand on already overworked bedside nurses. Failure to provide complete discharge instructions results in nonadherence to treatment regimens and lack of essential follow-up, the most commonly identified reasons for acute HF exacerbations and readmissions. To improve quality of care, hospitals need to adopt a new model that incorporates delivery of intensive, 1-on-1 education to high-risk HF patients during the hospital stay with continuing support, guidance, and education throughout the transition from hospital to home. This can be achieved through implementation of a 2-tiered model that incorporates a risk-assessment tool with utilization of a HF nurse educator. The simple, evidence-based bedside screening tool will allow medical-surgical nurses to quickly identify and refer HF patients at high risk of readmission to a HF nurse educator. With an advanced degree and specialized training, the nurse educator is responsible for providing in-depth discharge teaching and bridging the gap from hospital to home. The end result is improved self-management, increased quality of life, reduced hospital admissions, and an associated decrease in societal costs of HF.