Sequence Of Courses Research Articles

Teaching computer hardware design using commercial CAD tools

A project currently being implemented that is aimed at significantly enhancing the computer hardware design experience provided to undergraduate students through the use of industrial-grade CAD tools is discussed. A set of tools has been carefully chosen that can be used in a sequence of courses. The tool set is versatile and flexible and enables a designer to use different tools for different portions of a system design and then integrate the various parts together and simulate the overall system. Besides teaching logic design using MSI TTL components, instructors are able to use CAD tools for designing with PLDs, describing modules in VHDL, developing microcode, and designing microprocessor-based systems.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Writing Mode in the Articulation of Language and Literature Classes: Theory and Practice

ACCORDING TO THE FALL, 1989, MLA NEWSletter, one of the most pressing issues facing language departments today involves the need for articulation between levels of study. This call for improved sequencing of courses derives largely from the less-than-satisfactory situation at many colleges and universities, where students seem to experience difficulty moving successfully from one level to the next, more specifically when moving from the study of language itself at the lower-division level to the study of literary and other texts at the upperdivision level (16: p.43). That is, students who apparently do well in their language classes often seem to be at a loss when faced with the demands of upper-division courses. Of all language skills, however, writing is frequently the source of greatest unhappiness among professors and students alike. And unsatisfactory student performance in this area causes both groups to question the appropriateness of intermediate-level composition skills preparation in terms of upper-division expectations. How to achieve effective articulation between

SYSTEMS SCIENCE EDUCATION AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, POMONA

The Institute for Advanced Systems Studies offers a Minor to interested undergraduate students from all majors and a Certificate Program to postgraduate students in Comparative Systems Analysis. The Institute's 17 transdisciplinary courses use sixty systems isomorphics (structures, patterns, processes and mechanisms common to many systems) and an equal number of systems analytical techniques as the learning material for the sequence of courses. The concepts and techniques are developed using detailed case studies of each from a full range of the conventional natural sciences including the impact of systems science on society, ethics and philosophy. Courses are designed and delivered by task forces of Institute Fellows from fourteen different university departments. A trilogy of new courses has been proposed as an innovative Integrated Science General Education Program for 100 incoming Honors-level students from other Colleges of the University. Theoretical systems research, applied systems projects, and the academic systems curriculum are tightly coupled so that progress in any one synergistically contributes to progress in the others.

Comparing the medical school curricula followed by students in an independent study program and a traditional one

This 1988 retrospective study examined the medical school curricula followed by students from two classes using two curricular styles at one medical school. By consulting school records, the authors ascertained the courses actually taken, the number of weeks that students actually devoted to them, and the sequence of courses, both for those students following an independent-study curriculum and for those following a traditional one. These data were compared with the corresponding data concerning the traditional curriculum requirements to determine whether the curricula the students actually followed, in either style, showed any marked difference from the required curriculum. The findings showed that the curricula followed by the independent-study students deviated considerably from both the requirements of the traditional curriculum and also the actual curricula followed by the students using the traditional curriculum, who almost never chose to deviate from the requirements. The independent-study students showed considerable intragroup variation in the ways they organized their curricula, most commonly in eliminating selected formal clerkship or specialty medicine courses, or altering the duration of clerkships. Elective coursework was substituted for formal clerkship experiences in the majority of cases where clerkship courses were eliminated.

Spanish-Language Newspapers in the Classroom

Finding the most appropriate Spanish text for the advanced intermediate level (fourth-year high school or fourth-semester college) has always been difficult. The students have had enough grammar and they know how to read with a dictionary, but they still lack oral proficiency and are not ready for unedited literary readings. Moreover, many at this level are in the last of a sequence of courses, and may never take a formal Spanish class again. It is therefore crucial to present them with material in good, contemporary Spanish that is vocabulary-building, topical, interesting, and culturally informative. The only thing that I have found to meet all these requisites is the daily newspaper. I discovered this almost by accident when I handed out to my students in a fourth-semester class a few copies of El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish section of the Miami Herald that comes free by request with the English edition. I wanted the students to observe the kind of news that El Nuevo Herald carries, but to my surprise they had little trouble, beyond vocabulary, in reading the articles assigned; and, most surprising of all, they continued to read unassigned sections of the newspaper on their own outside of class. Some even took their copy home to show their parents that they were indeed using their acquisition of Spanish in an accountable

Evaluation of Health Assessment Skills

This article presents the reliability and validity data on a checklist used to evaluate health assessment skills. In 1982, the nurse practitioner faculty at a large midwestern university acknowledged that health assessment skills were basic to the preparation of all nurses and made the decision to require these skills for entry into the graduate program. Because of the varying ways in which health assessment skills are acquired, the faculty saw the need to standardize the expected level of performance. An objective, three-page instrument to measure student competence in performing and recording a health history and physical examination for a client of any age is administered prior to beginning the nurse practitioner sequence of courses. The 91 objective items for this instrument are based on the traditional outline for writing up a client history and physical examination. Criteria for the items are located in an accompanying manual. The student achieves a "Yes" rating on an item if all the components of the item are performed and written according to the criteria. Reliability of the tool was assessed by 12 faculty members who participated in a simulated evaluation. The tool has been used to evaluate the skills of 165 nurses. Of these, 149 nurses were enrolled in a continuing education course, and 16 nurses tested out of a health assessment course.

Inservice education of high school computer science teachers

This paper describes an inservice retraining program for high school computer science teachers Since computer science teacher certification is a recent development, most of these teachers were trained in another field. This project consisted of a sequence of courses which taught the core principles of computer science to these teachers.

Proficiency and school‐college articulation

The study of a foreign language must appear to some students like a cross-country journey in which roads suddenly turn into railroads, bridges do not reach their banks, and roadmaps do not reflect reality. Few travelers will reach their goal, just as few students in our educational system have become really proficient in a language. The casualties are numerous and varied: the learners who pass from the foods and festivals teacher to the passionate grammarian; the juniors who must wait until college to continue language study because advanced courses are not offered; the first year college students whose placement scores require them to start over in the 101 class; the college seniors who cannot student teach because they cannot pass a proficiency test. One of the principle causes of such problems is the lack of articulation in the foreign language curriculum. Articulation is defined here as the effective coordination of a sequence of courses leading to a desired competence, particularly where the sequence crosses institutional boundaries. Coordination must apply to the goals of instruction, the content, the methods, and the contiguity of the courses in the sequence. Perhaps no other school subject has needed good articulation more, and enjoyed it less, than foreign languages.

Retraining high school teachers to teach computer science—observations on the first course

This paper discusses the authors' experience in teaching the first of four courses which comprise a sequence of courses especially constructed to retrain junior and senior high school teachers to teach Computer Science. A description of the goals of the project and details about this first course serve as a springboard for discussing how the objectives were met. Also included is a brief analysis of how teachers with various backgrounds fared and some suggestions for others desiring to teach a similar course.

The Foreign Language Requirement: An Alternative Program

ABSTRACT For various reasons, some college‐level students experience great difficulty in fulfilling their foreign language requirement. This paper reports on a new program at Boston University which 1) identifies students with severe language learning problems, and 2) offers an alternative sequence of courses designed to help these students achieve foreign language learning success. MLAT pre‐ and post‐test scores indicate significant increases in language aptitude after completion of the first semester of the new course sequence.

The current status of general education for teachers

AbstractA more rigorow general education sequence of courses in the liberal arts at the college level is necessary to strengthen teacher preparation—that is, within the confines of the baccalaureate.

A statistical analysis of the effect of discrete mathematics on the performance of computer science majors in beginning computing classes

During the 1983-84 academic year, the University of Scranton instituted an experimental two semester discrete mathematics course for freshman students majoring in computer science. Approximately one-third of them were enrolled in this sequence while the remaining freshmen were enrolled in a traditional algebra-calculus mathematics sequence. At the end of the academic year the records of the freshman computer science majors were examined to see if there was any difference in performance between those who took discrete mathematics and those who did not. There is a strong indication that students who take discrete mathematics make higher grades in computer science than do the students who take the algebra-calculus sequence of courses. There is no indication that students who take discrete mathematics are more (or less) likely to change majors during the freshman year than those who take a traditional mathematics course.

The ADE Ad Hoc Committee on the English Curriculum: A Progress Report

A new, articulated curriculum ... must replace the cluttered sequence of courses which today is some times called 'English' (Flynt 32). Despite the famil iar tone and sentiment of that statement, its author is not William J. Bennett. It appears, rather, in a PMLA article written over twenty-two years ago by another fed eral official, Ralph C. M. Flynt, then the associate com missioner for educational research and development, US Office of Education. As Thomas Wilcox observed

MS/OR Education: Meeting the New Demands on MS Education

The evolution of the field of management science and the new demands on it call for a new look at the MS curriculum. Courses that offer greater contact with real-world problems are needed, and curriculums that reflect the widespread use of computers and softwares must be offered, not, however, at the expense of theory. The MS curriculum should be designed to incorporate all these components in an appropriate sequence of courses. Management sciences (MS) consists of both scientific detail and real-world applicability. Thus, there are two opposite domains in MS that Geoffroin calls “the world of action and affairs and the world of ideas and study”. The opposition of the two is vividly demonstrated in the controversy over approaches to MS education.

High-Ability Women and Men in Undergraduate Mathematics and Chemistry Courses

Using samples of college students of very high ability and strong academic background, sex differences in performance and perceptions of performance in introductory chemistry and mathematics courses were studied. Considerable differences favoring men were found, and these appeared to be due primarily to differences in mathematics background. In addition, female high school role models and general attitudes about women’s mathematical ability were found to have little effect on performance. While women were not less likely than men to continue the sequences of courses studied, they were nevertheless much less likely to major in the natural sciences and engineering, preferring the life sciences instead when they chose technical majors. The evidence suggests that women’s weaker mathematics background and the poorer course performance it produced were responsible for this outcome.

High-Ability Women and Men in Undergraduate Mathematics and Chemistry Courses

Using samples of college students of very high ability and strong academic background, sex differences in performance and perceptions of performance in introductory chemistry and mathematics courses were studied. Considerable differences favoring men were found, and these appeared to be due primarily to differences in mathematics background. In addition, female high school role models and general attitudes about women’s mathematical ability were found to have little effect on performance. While women were not less likely than men to continue the sequences of courses studied, they were nevertheless much less likely to major in the natural sciences and engineering, preferring the life sciences instead when they chose technical majors. The evidence suggests that women’s weaker mathematics background and the poorer course performance it produced were responsible for this outcome.

SEMIOLOGIC ANALYSIS OF A NEW PHYSICIAN ROLE

New technologies have altered the way medicine is practiced. We propose that the influence of these new technologies in medicine may best be understood using the semiologic concepts of syntagm and association as developed by Roland Barthes. A syntagm is a linear sequence of associations which make a logical statement. For example the sequence of courses on a menu forms a syntagm; the listed choices for a particular course form an association. A classic syntagm which epitomizes medical practice is the sequence of associations: history, physical exam, differential diagnosis, diagnostic plans, therapeutic plans, outcome assessment. Older independent technologies such as the present illness, stethoscope, chemical analyses, and x-ray, strengthen this syntagm because the contributions as associations do not have clinical meaning until they have been incorporated into a complete syntagm by a physician. Newer interactive technologies such as 2-D echocardiogram or insulin pump can rapidly acquire data for sequential analysis by a computer or skilled operator which (who) can then achieve the desired outcome (euglycemia, cardiac diagnosis). The physician's role in the classic syntagm as synthesizer of independent associations is usurped by this new interactive technology. Thus, many physicians who primarily manage technologies participate in a new syntagm--patient-data base, interactive technology, interaction outcome--resulting in a different role model than that created by the classic syntagm. Recognition of new physician roles has implications for physician training, man power assessments, and self-understanding.

Diverse Sequence of Courses Focuses on Problem-Solving

Diverse Sequence of Courses Focuses on Problem-Solving

Computer-based management systems

Much has been written regarding the need for students majoring in information systems to take a sequence of courses in communications, both oral and written. Most curricula relegate this important area to electives. This curriculum in Computer-based Management Systems (CMS) addresses this issue in a straightforward manner by incorporating courses in humanities and technical communications as part of the major requirements. The curriculum and facilities supporting the curriculum are discussed.

Validation of the M.A.A. tests as predictors of success in algebra/trig sequence of courses

Three tests published by the Mathematics Association of America were administered during the first week of classes to students enrolling in algebra, pre‐calculus algebra, and trigonometry classes. Scores were correlated with grades using eta and Pearson correlations. Eta coefficients were significant for all classes. The Pearson correlations were significant for the two algebra courses but not for the trigonometry course. It was concluded that the algebra tests were valid as predictors of course grade but no support was found for the validity of the trigonometry test.