Introductory Undergraduate Course Research Articles

The Effect of Class Attendance and Lecture Notes on Learning Outcomes

At many large universities it is conventional to deliver undergraduate introductory economics courses in a large lecture hall. However, not surprisingly, casual empiricism suggests that rates of student absenteeism are significantly greater in a large lecture format than in a smaller classroom setting. A compounding factor is that numerous empirical studies have established a significant negative relation between absenteeism and student performance. This study investigates the relation between absenteeism, the use of instructor provided online lecture notes, and student performance. The findings are that on average instructor lecture notes are not a substitute for class attendance. However, for some learning styles they can be a substitute, but for most learning styles they are not.

Design of Tutorial Activities and Homework Assignments for a Large-Enrollment Introductory Course in Control Systems

This paper presents an integrated design for an undergraduate introductory course control systems at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). The core features consist in combining traditional lecture and student led tutorials with weekly homework assignments which have been designed to encourage continuous learning efforts through a review of previous tutorial sessions and a preview on forthcoming lectures. The homework concept is implemented via an open source e-learning platform. A portable DC motor, available through the university library system, serves as an experimental setup, which is tightly integrated into lecture, tutorials and homework. Details on the implementation of the proposed design are given and it is evaluated based on data, which is e.g. collected by evaluation forms completed by students at the end of term.

Student-focused undergraduate laboratory development: position control of a printer head

We discuss the development of laboratories for our introductory undergraduate control course. Specifically we discuss the development of, and modifications to, a laboratory rig for printer head control. The rig is cheap and versatile. The laboratory reinforces the effects of PID tuning on a second order system in closed-loop. Students have been involved at all stages of the development and have directed the work. The result is a highly successful laboratory package that has been received with enthusiasm.

Teaching About Climate Change in the Business Curriculum: An Introductory Module and Resource List

Business managers are increasingly engaged with climate change issues, but pedagogy on climate change in the business curriculum is in its infancy. The author addresses the need for greater integration of climate change knowledge in the business curriculum by describing a teaching module for an undergraduate introductory business course and providing a comprehensive list of resources for teaching about climate change at all levels in the business curriculum.

THE PROCESS OF PHYSICS TEACHING ASSISTANTS’ PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT

This study explored the process of physics teaching assistants’ (TAs) PCK development in the context of teaching a new undergraduate introductory physics course. Matter and Interactions (M&I) has recently adopted a new introductory physics course that focuses on the application of a small number of fundamental physical principles to the atomic and molecular nature of matter. The purpose of this study is to describe how the PCK of physics TAs in the M&I course was developed and enacted. Data collection began during the TA preparation workshop that was held before the semester and continued during the recitation and laboratory classes that the TAs taught during the semester. Through a qualitative, multiple case study research design, data were collected from multiple sources: non-participant observations, digitally recorded video, semi-structured interviews, TAs’ written reflections, and researchers’ field notes. Data analysis consisted of cross-case and within-case analyses. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. After data analysis, 2 main themes emerged related to the development of TA’s PCK: (a) TAs’ PCK developed from propositional knowledge to personal practical knowledge and (b) the process of knowledge development consisted of 3 phases: accepting, actualizing, and internalizing. The results of this study will not only contribute to the quest to identify the nature of professional knowledge of science teaching but also help guide preparation for innovative introductory physics courses and other college level science courses in the future.

Peer Learning and Support of Technology in an Undergraduate Biology Course to Enhance Deep Learning

This study offers an innovative and sustainable instructional model for an introductory undergraduate course. The model was gradually implemented during 3 yr in a research university in a large-lecture biology course that enrolled biology majors and nonmajors. It gives priority to sources not used enough to enhance active learning in higher education: technology and the students themselves. Most of the lectures were replaced with continuous individual learning and 1-mo group learning of one topic, both supported by an interactive online tutorial. Assessment included open-ended complex questions requiring higher-order thinking skills that were added to the traditional multiple-choice (MC) exam. Analysis of students’ outcomes indicates no significant difference among the three intervention versions in the MC questions of the exam, while students who took part in active-learning groups at the advanced version of the model had significantly higher scores in the more demanding open-ended questions compared with their counterparts. We believe that social-constructivist learning of one topic during 1 mo has significantly contributed to student deep learning across topics. It developed a biological discourse, which is more typical to advanced stages of learning biology, and changed the image of instructors from “knowledge transmitters” to “role model scientists.”

Threshold Concepts and Conceptions

This article explores how insights from the broader education literature on threshold concepts and conceptions can be applied to improve the teaching of undergraduate introductory management courses. The authors propose that these courses are underpinned by the threshold conception, or “underlying game,” that management is a practice informed by theory. This threshold conception is both troublesome and transformative for novice management students. Using the redesign of the undergraduate introductory management course the authors teach as an exemplar, they demonstrate how student learning can be improved by designing learning activities and assessment that help students “see” the threshold conception that connects management theory and practice.

Da física clássica à moderna: o simples toque de uma sirene

Este artigo apresenta a construção de um experimento com menor custo possível para demonstrar conceitos essenciais de quantização de energia, modelo corpuscular da luz e condução de eletricidade em sólidos aos alunos do terceiro ano de Ensino Médio, auxiliando de forma significativa na explanação de tópicos de física moderna. A proposta segue que o trabalho realizado não só irá contribuir na explanação de tais conteúdos, mas poderá despertar o interesse à investigação científica bem como entender como a física moderna está presente no cotidiano. O modelo construído é apenas uma proposta para explanação de conteúdos abordados no Ensino Médio, visto que, poderá ser utilizado pelo docente em aulas introdutórias em cursos de graduação. O modelo segue outros estágios de aprimoramento para linhas de pesquisa mais investigativas aos alunos de graduação em física.

Combining Crisis Management and Evidence-Based Management

Natural disasters, such as floods, provide teachable moments for students to learn about crisis management. The authors argue that evidence-based management offers a pedagogical tool for leveraging these teachable moments to deepen student learning about the management challenges of crisis situations. An emerging area in management education, evidence-based management involves using best available scientific evidence as the basis for management decision making and practice. Using data from 782 student assignments in an undergraduate introductory management course, the authors show how combining crisis management and evidence-based management in an assignment task in the aftermath of the 2010-2011 Queensland floods in Australia deepened student learning of general and crisis management concepts and increased students’ engagement in learning an evidence-based management approach.

Public Scholarship Student Projects for Introductory Environmental Courses

This paper presents a model project for introductory undergraduate courses that develops students as citizens contributing scholarship to public discussions of environmental issues. In this field-based project, students actively and independently engage with an environmental issue and present their project experience to a relevant public forum. In two implementations of the project, we find that the project succeeds at each of five goals: exposing students to public scholarship, connecting course material to environmental issues and students' lives, giving students experience with professional environmental work, building student enthusiasm and, finally, providing the public with insights from students' scholarship.

Promoting Student Metacognition

Imagine yourself as the instructor of an introductory undergraduate biology course. Two students from your course independently visit your office the week after the first exam. Both students are biology majors. Both regularly attend class and submit their assignments on time. Both appear to be eager, dedicated, and genuine students who want to learn biology. During each of their office hours visits, you ask them to share how they prepared for the first exam. Their stories are strikingly different (inspired by Ertmer and Newby, 1996). During office hours, Josephina expresses that she was happy the exam was on a Monday, because she had a lot of time to prepare the previous weekend. She shares that she started studying after work on Saturday evening and did not go out with friends that night. When queried, she also shares that she reread all of the assigned textbook material and made flashcards of the bold words in the text. She feels that she should have done well on the test, because she studied all Saturday night and all day on Sunday. She feels that she did everything she could do to prepare. That said, she is worried about what her grade will be, and she wants you to know that she studied really hard, so she should get a good grade on the exam. Later in the week, Maya visits your office. When asked how she prepared for the first exam, she explains that she has regularly reviewed the PowerPoint slides each evening after class since the beginning of the term 4 weeks ago. She also read the assigned textbook pages weekly, but expresses that she spent most of her time comparing the ideas in the PowerPoint slides with the information in the textbook to see how they were similar and different. She found several places in which things seemed not to agree, which confused her. She kept a running list of these confusions each week. When you ask what she did with these confusions, she shares that she

Collaborative Group Testing (CGT): Perceptions of Students in a Biotechnology Course for Non‐Majors

Collaborative group testing (CGT) is an assessment approach where individuals work together on examinations to discuss questions and formulate responses together. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the benefits of using CGT in an introductory undergraduate biotechnology course for non‐majors. This study compared students’ scores on group tests vs. individual tests and how peer communication within groups affected students’ perceptions of CGT. Participants included 115 students enrolled in a large biotechnology course focused on the scientific background of biotechnology applications relevant to citizens. Surveys were given after Exams 1 and 2 to explore student ideas about peer communication. There were significantly higher exam scores on the group exam questions compared to individual questions for Exams 1, 2 and 3 (p < .001, N = 115). Students rated group and personal participation (3.64/3.55 and 4.09/3.96 during Exams 1 and 2, respectively) in group discussions. A majority of students reported that the ability to communicate was the biggest advantage of collaborative group testing. They were also able to recognize their role and the role of their peer groups in the quality of the experience. Findings suggest that collaborative group testing can be used as a novel, alternative assessment strategy in college classrooms by allowing students to work and communicate together effectively.

Using Student Learning and Development Outcomes to Evaluate a First-Year Undergraduate Group Video Project

Students in an interdisciplinary undergraduate introductory course were required to complete a group video project focused on nutrition and healthy eating. A mixed-methods approach to data collection involved observing and rating video footage of group work sessions and individual and focus group interviews. These data were analyzed and used to evaluate the effectiveness of the assignment in light of two student learning outcomes and two student development outcomes at the University of Minnesota. Positive results support the continued inclusion of the project within the course, and recommend the assignment to other programs as a viable means of promoting both content learning and affective behavioral objectives.

Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry by Hans Boersma

71 Book Reviews not simply mean “work of the people,” and the difference between having a right to grace and having a right to the rites of the Church faithfully enacted (the baptized faithful, we learn, possess the latter but not the former). The rest of the book devotes a chapter to each of the seven sacraments , with the chapter on the Eucharist understandably being as twice as long as the others. The book evinces a strong desire on the author’s part to communicate the Church’s timeless teachings on her sacraments, but it brings the reader up to speed on recent magisterial documents as well. Liturgy 101 is also sensitive to the contemporary context: formulae from both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite are quoted and analyzed, and prevalent abuses and errors, such as the overuse of general absolution and dissenting theologies of sin, are gently corrected. Throughout the work, Van Slyke is careful to tailor his words to the non-specialist without sacrificing accuracy, and he covers not only the bare essentials of each sacrament (matter, form, minister, and recipient) but its underlying theology. The latter he finds principally in the “sacramentals” surrounding each sacrament, that is, the non-essential ceremonial elements instituted by the Church for the celebration or conferral of this or that sacrament . Finally, reflecting the series’ pastoral focus, each chapter ends with two helpful sections: Discussion Questions and Further Reading. Liturgy 101: Sacraments & Sacramentals is an ideal and succinct primer on sacramental theology and the basic facts that every Catholic should know about the seven visible channels of invisible grace instituted by Christ for our sanctification. I can easily envision its use in a wide variety of venues, from high school and introductory undergraduate courses to RCIA to private study. Michael P. Foley Baylor University Waco, Texas Hans Boersma Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2011 xii + 206. Paperback. $20. Liturgical and sacramental theologians frequently bemoan the loss of rituality among people in late modern society. The narrative of these theologians goes something like this. No longer practiced in the rituals of field and table, liturgical ritual has become foreign to the human subject. As a salve for the loss of rituality, it is necessary 72 Antiphon 16.1 (2012) to turn to the foundations of ritual in order to develop a ritual imagination ; hence, the turn to ritual studies in liturgical theology. This analysis leaves me, for the most part, unimpressed. After all, even an amateur anthropologist can discern traces of ritual within American society, ranging from the yearly celebration of Thanksgiving to the pomp and circumstance of college football. Perhaps something more complex is afoot. In Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry, Hans Boersma provides one such diagnosis in his description of the loss of a sacramental ontology. By sacramental ontology he means the “link between heaven and earth that allowed premodern Christians to see God’s own truth, goodness, and beauty in the world around them” (x). An evangelical Christian and professor at Regent College in Vancouver, Boersma spent a year reading the nouvelle theologians. The result of this inquiry appeared in an earlier, 336-page tome entitled Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford University Press, 2009). Heavenly Participation is a popular adaptation of the 2009 volume, yet shares the methodological approach of ressourcement practiced by nouvelle théologie. The book consists of two parts influenced by the exitus/reditus motif common to patristic literature. In Part One, the exitus, Boersma presents a narrative of both the weaving and fraying of the sacramental tapestry. According to the author, early Christians had a deep sense of the sacramental quality of existence. That is, they recognized that the world is a sign that participates in the reality of God (24). The Augustinian, and for Boersma, Platonist-Christian synthesis found its source in the christology of the Fathers, including Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nyssa. This claim, developed in chapter two, is essential to the remainder of the book. Sacramental ontology, emerging from christology, is the foundation of all Christian teaching on God, human nature, the Church...

The Present of Things Future: Reflections on Teaching About Aging to Students in Their Twenties

Organized around three course objectives are six activities/assignments the author has found useful in promoting affective learning outcomes in introductory courses on aging. The intent in developing these approaches was to address particular postures toward aging and the aged often displayed by students in their late teens and early twenties. In addition to describing these activities and assignments, the author reflects on student feedback in terms of the promise these activities and assignments hold for enabling students to more clearly discern their personal futures as older adults, and for motivating them to make changes in their present lives that will ensure successful aging in the future. Compared to the experience of teaching human development courses where the content centers on the first two decades of life, faculty who teach introductory undergraduate courses on aging often encounter student postures that require special pedagogical approaches. The term ―postures‖ refers collectively to a host of beliefs and attitudes about aging and the aged. In this paper, I share some of these approaches in the form of class activities and assignments that students have said in retrospect were thought-provoking and impactful. These activities and assignments are organized around three course objectives: Future time perspective and personal futurity, ageism and expectations about aging, and life course variability resulting from socio- historical influences. Admittedly, these are not the only course objectives undergirding an introductory course on aging, but they represent objectives designed to promote affective learning outcomes and address particular postures held by many students who have not yet celebrated their 25th birthday. Course Objective #1: Fostering a Sense of Personal Futurity

An evolving recommender-based framework for virtual learning communities

This article presents a recommender framework to provide personalised suggestions for learners taking introductory undergraduate courses. The framework utilises memory-based collaborative filtering algorithm combined with an imbedded web crawler to update learning material. The process of providing recommendation is divided into four steps: learner model extraction, neighbourhood formation, top-N recommendation presentation, and material update. The framework was implemented and has been successfully tested on real learners taking an introductory mathematics course. The learners of the course were divided into two groups. One of the groups, control group, was taught the material of the course using the traditional face-to-face approach. However, the students in the other group, experimental group, had the advantage to use the framework. The performance of the learners in both groups was tested and the results showed that the learners in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group.

Integrating Teaching and Research in Undergraduate Biology Laboratory Education

Integrating Teaching and Research in Undergraduate Biology Laboratory Education

Pedagogical Benefits of Mini Writing Assignments in Teaching Principles of Economics

A mini writing project on economics concepts is developed for undergraduate introductory economics courses. The design of the mini-paper format ensures all students receive the same level of workload regardless the variety of assigned topics. The match of each mini-paper topic to its relevant final exam questions allows us to test the hypothetical benefits of such assignments for learning the relevant course contents. This research design has several advantages as compared to earlier empirical studies on pedagogical values of active learning. The results provide robust evidence of learning benefits of the mini writing assignments. The benefits do not differ significantly for students of different educational backgrounds or among students rendered with various paper marks but appear stronger for students from the science faculty.

A Conceptual Framework for Organizing Active Learning Experiences in Biology Instruction

Introductory biology courses form a cornerstone of undergraduate instruction. However, the predominantly used lecture approach fails to produce higher-order biology learning. Research shows that active learning strategies can increase student learning, yet few biology instructors use all identified active learning strategies. In this paper, we present a framework to design biology instruction that incorporates all active learning strategies. We review active learning research in undergraduate biology courses, present a framework for organizing active learning strategies, and provide clear implications and future research for designing instruction in introductory undergraduate biology courses.

A Platform-Independent Learning Tool for Power System Analysis Concepts

A software visualization tool is developed to help in teaching core power systems analysis problems in introductory undergraduate courses. The power system analysis concepts visualization tool consists of simulation applications that focus on three problems: load flow, economic dispatch, and unit commitment. It incorporates user-friendly effective graphical interfaces that aid students in acquiring deeper understanding of the power system problems and developing the analytical skills needed in industry. The learning tools are implemented in C# language for platform-independence to increase accessibility. Evaluation of the visualization tool shows very encouraging results.