Homework Assignments Research Articles

Hope into action: How clusters of hope relate to success‐oriented behavior in school

AbstractSeveral studies have found that higher hope is associated with higher academic achievement. Although scholars have asserted that this association is the result of higher hope leading to an increased likelihood that students will engage success‐oriented behaviors (e.g., participating in class, completing homework assignments), very little empirical research has been done to test this assertion. In this study, cluster analyses yielded three clusters of hope (high, average, and low) in a high school sample (N = 447) and a college sample (N = 375). Differences among hope clusters were examined across three domains of indicators—engagement, disengagement, and motivational variables—associated with success‐oriented behavior in school. Results from both samples indicated that students with higher levels of hope reported higher engagement, higher motivation, and lower disengagement, with medium to large effect sizes. These results have implications for both hope research and scaling psychosocial interventions.

Engaging students in conjecturing through homework in real analysis and differential equations

ABSTRACTIn this note, we report on an implementation of discovery-oriented problems in courses on Real Analysis and Differential Equations. We explain a type of task design that gives students the opportunity to conjecture, refute and prove. What is new is that the complexity in our problems is limited and thus the tasks can also be used in homework assignments. In addition to several concrete examples, we also discuss feedback and assessment outcomes of our students.

Preschool teachers’ self-efficacy, burnout, and stress in online professional development: a mixed methods approach to understand change

ABSTRACT This mixed methods study examines the impact of online professional development on preschool teachers’ self-efficacy, burnout, and stress. Participating teachers (n = 89) were randomly assigned into four groups: one of three treatment conditions (course-only, conference, reflective writing) or a control group. All treatment conditions received a 14-week online course on teacher-child interactions, which included regular homework assignments and community discussion boards. The conference and reflective writing conditions received additional supports. Regression analyses revealed that teachers who were in the course-only treatment condition had decreased self-efficacy and increased emotional exhaustion, a component of burnout, relative to the control group. However, teachers in the conference and reflective writing conditions did not experience such negative effects. Qualitative analyses suggest that all teachers tended to focus on personal challenges within the course, but teachers who had access to conference and reflective writing supports benefited from the availability of emotional outlets and/or opportunities for feedback

The Perception and Level of Digital Citizenship on Pre-Service Classroom Teachers

This study was aimed to determine of their perceptions and levels of digital citizenship for pre-service classroom teachers. The study was conducted with 76 senior pre-service classroom teachers at Education Faculty of B. U. The study is survey research. In this research, “The Digital Citizenship Scale” developed by Kocadağ (2012) was applied to the pre-service classroom teachers. By using open-ended questions that prepared by researchers, it was interviewed with the same students in order to making in-depth review. To determine digital citizenship levels, the frequencies, percentages, arithmetic means and standard deviations of obtained data were interpreted on the table. The data from the interviews were carried out with content analysis, which is one of the qualitative analysis methods, and had been interpreted. As a result, pre-service classroom teachers had been stated that they had no courses related with digital citizenship and its sub-dimensions during their higher education. Nevertheless, it has been found that they were correctly expressed the concept of digital citizenship. Pre-service classroom teachers have indicated that digital technologies were particularly utilized to aimed for online shopping, entering to social networking and researching of homework assignments in courses. Digital citizenship includes nine sub-dimensions that every individual should have in today’s world. The classroom teachers, that play a key role in the training of the individuals must have been trained themselves by qualified properties before the beginning of their career. It is thought that this study might be leading to further studies by training on knowledge, ability and values about digital citizenship before beginning of their service to classroom teachers.

An expert consensus on the most effective components of cognitive behavioural therapy for adults with depression: a modified Delphi study

ABSTRACTDesigning new approaches to delivering cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) requires an understanding of the key components. This study aimed to establish an expert consensus on the effective components of CBT for depressed adults. An international panel of 120 CBT experts was invited to participate in a modified Delphi study. Thirty-two experts participated in round 1; 21 also provided data in round 2. In round 1, experts rated the effectiveness of 35 content and process components. A priori rules identified components carried forward to round 2, in which experts re-rated items and final consensus items were identified. Consensus was achieved for nine content components (ensuring understanding; developing and maintaining a good therapeutic alliance; explaining the rationale for CBT; eliciting feedback; identifying and challenging avoidant behaviour; activity monitoring; undertaking an initial assessment; relapse prevention methods; homework assignments); and three process components (ensuring therapist competence; scheduling sessions flexibly; scheduling sessions for 45–60 mins). Five of the twelve components identified were generic therapeutic competences rather than specific CBT items. There was less agreement about the effectiveness of cognitive components of CBT. This is an important first step in the development of novel approaches to delivering CBT that may increase access to treatment for patients.

The impact of changing homework frequency in a computer architecture course

Formative assessment in a computer architecture course is often modeled as lab exercises and written homework. In this paper, we discuss the impact of splitting large homework assignments into dail...

“Geologic issues: Community impacts and science communication”—An introductory geoscience assignment designed to help underrepresented minority students see value in the geosciences

Responding to the need for recruitment and retention of a diverse geoscience population, we developed a capstone homework assignment for use in introductory-level geoscience courses. In this article we present “Geologic Issues: Community Impacts and Science Communication,” a place- and problem-based assignment designed using research on student learning and interest, as well as research that suggests underrepresented minority students are more likely to be attracted to science disciplines if they perceive that science can be used to help their communities. The assignment combines a socially relevant problem in a location of personal interest for each student with a short letter-writing assignment designed to help students recognize the value and applicability of the geosciences to their lives. This assignment was successfully implemented in two very different settings—a highly selective four-year college and an open-access two-year college—and to diverse populations of students in small and moderate-sized classes. Students who participated in the study reported positive influences this assignment made on their perceptions of geoscience. For example, the assignment helped them (a) realize that geoscience was pertinent to their community (100% of students); (b) feel more confident in using and communicating science (95% of students); and (c) potentially see themselves as geoscientists because of interest, perception of the value of geoscience, and learning that geoscientists can work in their communities. These results are independent of academic setting, gender, and racial and ethnic diversity, indicating that all groups of students participating in the study benefitted from the assignment.

Testing the ecological validity of faded worked examples in algebra

Faded worked examples have been used to promote problem solving performance, such as mathematics performance in many laboratory studies and short-term classroom studies. However, few studies have examined the ways educators may use fading in their own classroom on more accessible platforms that do not require programming experience. Further, few classroom studies have administered fading more than once, limiting the treatment effect. The current study examined whether faded worked examples would promote learning in a classroom. Undergraduates (N = 135) completed four homework assignments over the course of one unit in a college semester over the course of two waves of data collection. Using Canvas, homework assignments were deployed once a week for four weeks in the form of (a) faded worked examples, (b) faded worked examples with self-explanations, (c) self-explanations, and (d) business as usual. Results indicated that students in the problem-solving group outperformed those exposed to fading with self-explanation prompts but showed no difference between the fading alone or self-explanation alone condition. Findings are discussed in terms of future research.

Disruptive Behavior dan Bentuk Perlakuan Guru

DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND TEACHER TREATMENTS CONFIGURATION. This study aims to determine the theoretical concepts, acceptability, practicability, and effectiveness of guidelines for rational emotive counseling, homework assignment techniques, and confrontation techniques. This research is development research with steps: design preparation, design validation, design testing, and design revision. Questionnaire and interview methods collected data, and the data collected were analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques. The results showed: (1) Theoretically rational emotive counseling procedures homework assignment techniques and confrontation techniques include steps: showing the counselee that the problem faced is related to irrational beliefs, bringing the counselee to the opposite stage of consciousness by showing that the counselee is maintained emotional disturbances to stay active by always thinking illogically, correcting the thoughts of the counselee and leaving irrational ideas, challenging the counselee to develop rational philosophies. The difference between the two lies in the things done at each step; (2) Acceptability of rational emotive counseling guidelines for homework assignment techniques and confrontation techniques; (3) The practicality of rational emotive counseling guidelines for homework assignment techniques and confrontation techniques is very high; (4) The effectiveness of rational emotive counseling guidelines for homework assignment techniques and confrontation techniques is very high.

Efficacy of Mastery-Based Adaptive Technology in Introductory Quantitative Reasoning Course

In this study, we explored the efficacy of using Hawkes Learning, a mastery-based adaptive technology system in a freshmen level Quantitative Reasoning course at a four-year private university. Students used this competency based adaptive platform to master the content by learning the material at their own pace, then practicing the problems and finally getting certified on their homework assignments. Each topic of this system offered three intuitive modes to mastery: Learn, Practice, and Certify. We analyzed students’ performance and perceptions with this system and compared it with the previous traditional model. Our study indicated that there is no statistically significant difference between students’ performance but their perceptions towards learning have improved significantly when they used this technology. We found that most students were able to succeed in QR course with this technology and it enabled them to become better independent learners. Keywords: Mastery-Based Learning, Adaptive Technology, Digital Learning, Quantitative Reasoning, Introductory Mathematics Course DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-24-02 Publication date: August 31st 2019

Congruence of Patient Takeaways and Homework Assignment Content Predicts Homework Compliance in Psychotherapy

Homework is generally considered an essential part of psychotherapy. The present study tested the hypothesis that patients were more likely to complete homework assignments when the content of the assignments was more congruent with content the patient reported wanting to remember from the session (patient takeaways). The study relied on data collected in 541 sessions of individual naturalistic cognitive-behavioral therapy provided to 41 patients in a private practice setting and who completed a feedback form in each session that recorded the content of the homework assignments for the session, patient takeaways from the session, and homework completion. Congruence was determined by raters who evaluated the match between homework content and patient takeaways. Results of generalized linear mixed modeling showed, as predicted, that congruence between homework assignment content and takeaways was statistically significantly associated with homework compliance. This finding suggests that therapists may be able to improve homework compliance by soliciting feedback about what the client found important about the session and then assigning homework consistent with that information.

You’ve Got Mail (and Homework): Simple Strategies for Promoting Student Engagement with Prelecture Videos

The use of video productions in chemistry courses, though pedagogically beneficial, is not sufficient in and of itself. Students must also be willing to engage with these productions, especially when the videos are meant to be viewed prior to a class. Accordingly, we describe herein the implementation of two simple but effective strategies to promote student engagement with prelecture videos in a sophomore organic chemistry course. These two strategies, e-mail reminders and online homework assignments, represent easy-to-implement tools that have allowed us to achieve consistently high levels of student engagement with assigned videos.

Generating an instructional video as homework activity is both effective and enjoyable

Research with adolescent and university students has shown that after studying a text, teaching its content to a fictitious peer on camera fosters learning compared to restudying. We investigated the effects of generating a teaching video during homework in a sample of primary school students (N = 131) in comparison to restudying and summarizing. Students were provided with a text and a homework assignment over the weekend. The Restudy Condition was instructed to study the text as often as necessary. The Summarizing and Video Condition were instructed to study the text as often as necessary and to then generate a summary or teaching video about the text, respectively. Teaching on video was perceived as more enjoyable than restudying or summarizing, and improved test performance compared to restudying. Teaching on video was not more effective than summarizing; however, summarizing did not improve test performance compared to restudying, as teaching did.

A Study of Student Responses to Participation in Online Citizen Science Projects

In this study, students enrolled in a basic physics class participated in one of the online citizen science projects available on the Zooniverse website (www.zooniverse.org) as a homework assignment. They then wrote a 300–500-word reflection about their experience addressing several questions given as prompts. The analysis of the responses showed that a majority of the students enjoyed the experience saying that it was interesting, fun, and accessible. Many responses described a part of their science ideas that were either confirmed or changed by the experience. The science ideas included statements about looking for correlations among many data, the need to observe these data in order to find correlations, and the inherent uncertainty of the task and the data themselves. The ideas about science and scientific research expressed were in line with a competent view of science (Lederman, Handbook of Research on Science Education, 2, 831–879, Lederman, 2007; McComas et al., Science & Education, 7(6), 511–532, McComas, Almazroa & Clough, 1998). The insight given by this study is that participation in a citizen science project can be educationally beneficial in learning about aspects of the nature of science.

Integrating Portfolio-Assessment into the Writing Process: Does it Affect a Significant Change in Iranian EFL Undergraduates’ Writing Achievement? A Mixed-Methods Study

The paradigm shift from testing the outcome to assessing the learning of process shines a light on the alternative assessment approaches, among which portfolio-assessment has sparked researchers’ interest in writing instruction. This study aimed at investigating the effect of portfolio-assessment on Iranian EFL students’ writing achievement through the process-centered approach to writing. To this end, fifty-three sophomores, studying English translation at Islamic Azad University, Tehran Science and Research Branch, were chosen as the participants of this study. The researchers randomly divided them into two groups--an experimental and control. The experimental group received an instruction based on the four stages of the writing process--brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and editing--and underwent the portfolio-assessment. For ten weeks, the participants of the experimental group practiced reflecting on their writing through formative self-check, peer-review, and teacher-feedback on each of the stages written as homework assignments. The revised paragraphs were regarded as the final portfolio. The control group, however, received a product-based writing instruction, to which portfolio-assessment, individualized-feedback, and reflection did not adhere. The results of the quantitative data analysis showed that the students in the experimental group performed better than the students in the control group in their writing achievement. The qualitative findings also revealed the students’ positive perception toward the portfolio-assessment on the writing process. The results suggest some pedagogical implications for EFL writing instruction and assessment.

Couple Therapy and Vaginismus: A Single Case Approach

Although Vaginismus, or an involuntary contraction of the vaginal muscles, is one of the reasons sexual intercourse difficulty is relatively common in Iran, few studies have addressed it. This research is a single-case type (AB) design. Initially, a pretest was taken from all participants. The number of sessions was estimated between 4 and 6 sessions, and the duration of each session was 45–60 minutes. Couple therapy sessions were conducted by an individual with a PhD in sexual and reproductive health. An FSFI questionnaire was completed before counseling, just after counseling, and 4 weeks after the last counseling session. During each session, the therapist reviewed the homework assignments of the previous session regarding emotions, thoughts, and experiences, and at the end of each session, the therapist answered the couples' questions. We introduce and follow up on five casesof couples who suffer from Vaginismus. The mean age for females was 29.5, and for males it was 32. The mean length of marriage was more than 5 years. The FSFI score of participants improved from baseline (A) after intervention (B). The study would appear to show that this treatment format may be a cost effective intervention for couples presenting with Genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder (Vaginismus).

Adapted cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive–compulsive disorder with co-occurring autism spectrum disorder: A clinical effectiveness study

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorder commonly co-occur. Adapted cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults with autism spectrum disorder has not previously been evaluated outside the United Kingdom. In this study, 19 adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorder were treated using an adapted cognitive behavior therapy protocol that consisted of 20 sessions focused on exposure with response prevention. The primary outcome was the clinician-rated Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Participants were assessed up to 3 months after treatment. There were significant reductions on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale at post-treatment (d = 1.5), and improvements were sustained at follow-up (d = 1.2). Self-rated obsessive-compulsive disorder and depressive symptoms showed statistically significant reductions. Improvements in general functioning and quality of life were statistically non-significant. Three participants (16%) were responders at post-treatment and four (21%) were in remission from obsessive-compulsive disorder. At follow-up, three participants (16%) were responders and one (5%) was in full remission. Adapted cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults with co-occurring autism spectrum disorder is associated with reductions in obsessive-compulsive symptoms and depressive symptoms. However, outcomes are modest; few patients were completely symptom free, and treatment engagement was low with few completed exposures and low adherence to homework assignments. We identify and discuss the need for further treatment refinement for this vulnerable group.

Professional development activities for pre-service foreign language and culture teachers to build their methodological skills within test competency construct

A professional development activity is considered by the author as a means of educational and cognitive performance aimed at building pre-service foreign language and culture teachers’ methodological abilities to select test materials, analyse test items and design tests for implementing test assessment of their students’ foreign language communication competence performance outcomes. Due to the suggested professional development activities, methodological knowledge is activated and specific methodological skills of pre-service teachers to design, implement, and monitor language testing are developed. While methodological skills are formed and developed, professional development activities perform their educational, motivational, integration, developmental and assessment functions. The article substantiates and presents the classification of teacher professional development activities based on one principal criterion (the characteristics of pre-service foreign language and culture teachers’ methodological performance) and two additional criteria (place and mode of doing professional development activities). According to the criterion “the characteristics of pre-service foreign language and culture teachers’ methodological performance”, the receptive analytical, reproductive, and creative professional development activities are determined. These activities foster prospective teachers’ skills to observe, analyse, generalise, classify, reproduce, forecast, develop, present. According to the criterion “place of doing professional development activities”, classroom and homework assignments are distinguished. In accordance with the criterion “mode of doing professional development activities”, individual, paired, group (in small groups) activities are identified. The sub-types of professional development activities are determined according to the principal criterion: analysis, classification (receptive-analytical activities), addition, correction (reproductive activities), design (creative activities). The requirements for professional development activities are formulated: functionality, hands-on attitude, taking into account specific features of foreign language and culture teacher’s performance while designing, planning, and organising students’ language competence test assessment. Several examples of professional development activities are presented in the French language.

IDENTIFYING STUDENTS’ WAYS OF LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

The Mathematics study course is one of the core subjects in study programs of Technical Universities. To acquire this course successfully it is necessary to have mathematics background of sufficiently high quality. The authors of this paper recognize the difficulties first year students face due of their insufficient mathematical knowledge.Today, universities emphasize independent study work by students and allocate special time slots for this. To be successful, students need to plan their study time, use appropriate learning methods, and have motivation. Because of the significance of students’ individual work, a questionnaire was developed to research how students plan their time and activities for learning mathematics. The authors selected three focus groups of first year students at Riga Technical University (RTU), Latvian Maritime Academy (LMA), and University of Latvia (UL) to collect the data. The comparative analysis of data showed how students use the time slots allocated by institutions. The UL and RTU students on average do not fulfil this time completely, while the LMA students spend more time for learning mathematics. Students highly value individual consultations with teachers; they actively communicate with study mates to solve homework assignments; and students use information technologies in the study process.

Homework Practices of Elementary School Teachers in 4th Grade Turkish Course

This study aims to investigate the forms and frequency of homework given as part of a 4th grade Turkish course assessment in the state elementary schools in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Data were collected using a questionnaire, a homework scale and structured interviews in this mixed methods research. The study sample consisted of 61 primary school teachers who were teaching 4th grade during the 2014-2015 academic year and 51 teachers who had taught 4th grade prior to the date of the study, making a total sample of 112 teachers. Structured interviews were conducted with nine voluntary teachers who participated in the study. Results revealed that homework assignments related to reading comprehension were given significantly more frequently than homework related to speaking or presentation of materials. The teachers’ awareness on the benefits of the kinds of homework given in low frequency was determined in findings. Numerous reasons as to why homework with certain structures could not be given were discussed through structured interviews. Based on specific suggestions made by the teachers on improving the efficiency of homework, a re-evaluation of syllabus materials and a consideration for teacher training on the way homework assignments are formulated in the constructivist approach are highlighted.