Understanding Of Subject Matter Research Articles

E-feedback intersections and disconnections in the interests of designers and users

Well-designed assessments allow teachers to get information about students' knowledge and the depth of their understanding of subject matter. E-learning provides many possibilities for embedded formative assessments yet also presents many challenges for programming such e-feedback. Coding e-feedback features into the software offers instructors more varied, powerful, and unobtrusive assessments but also requires particular ways of use to capitalise on these capabilities. The design of e-feedback is based upon the assumption that e-learning tasks generate participant performance data for inferences about students' knowledge and skill. The three cycles of research and design with the ETIPS online case-based learning environment summarised in this paper demonstrate that instructors may value the task offered by the e-learning resource but not its associated feedback, while students' desire for feedback can exceed the technical limits to provide it. It then discusses implications of these tensions between developers' visions for e-feedback and the realities of its use by college instructors and students.

Science and Worldviews in the Classroom: Joseph Priestley and Photosynthesis

This paper elaborates on the life and publications of Joseph Priestley, the eighteenth-century polymath. The paper outlines his particular place in the European Enlightenment; it stresses the importance of philosophy and worldview in his scientific work on pneumatic chemistry, the composition of air, and his discovery of the process of photosynthesis (or the ‘restoration of air’ as it was called at the time); finally the paper indicates ways in which Priestley’s work on photosynthesis can be utilised in the school classroom to advance the understanding of scientific subject matter, to promote an understanding of the nature of scientific procedure and methodology, and finally to evaluate some basic tenets of the European Enlightenment that Priestley so passionately advocated.

Concept mapping to support university academics’ analysis of course content

The authors’ goal in working with university academics is to support an intellectual process of close examination of instructional decisions, making explicit the rationale and intentionality underlying those decisions. Subject matter understanding is the primary point of reference in this process. The focus of the research described here is the use of an unstructured form of concept mapping to support academics in the analysis of course content as the first step in a course design process. While some academics with whom the authors have worked have been initially skeptical about concept mapping, the large majority of them, in the end, report that they value the process and what they gained from it. The findings show that the concept mapping process provided an alternate means to rethink course content, one that highlighted relationships among concepts, encouraged a view of the course as an integrated whole, and frequently provided the occasion to make explicit the types of thinking required in the course.

Creating Sociological Awareness: Public and Applied Sociology

Introduction The following review essay focuses on three books that demonstrate how the complexity of socio-cultural issues can be broken down into specific patterns of behavior and symbols that define and give meaning to human activ ity, attitudes, social structures, and gender identity. Each employs variations of applied sociological research methods combined with an approach that has recently been labeled public sociology. Sociologists for many years have successfully balanced the application of scientific rigor with sociological theory as the foundation for exploratory investigations into a range of social problems in order to create a more informed populous and to facilitate social change; public sociologists seek to reach out to multiple publics in a manner that both facilitates an understanding of sociolog ical subject matter and instills a sense of empowerment and awareness among mem bers of disenfranchised groups (Klayman 2007). Despite critics' somewhat obtuse descriptions of this hybrid sociological prac tice, public sociology incorporates the theo retical and methodological tools of the disci pline. It is not, as some would have it, a partisan unscientific enterprise (Deflem 2005). Several well-known books by public soci ologists, including Steven Fraser's (1995) The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence and the Future of America, Massey and Denton's (1993) American Apartheid and Ehrenreich's (2001) Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, influenced the popular socio political discourse at the time of their publi cation. These, as well as many other works of public sociology, have tempered the neolib eral rhetoric championing cuts in welfare and other social programs, the devastating impact of urban isolation and poverty, and stereo types of the working poor. As exemplary works of Public Sociology, these books spoke to people at both ends of the eco nomic spectrum and elucidated complex social problems.

Beyond the scientific method: Model‐based inquiry as a new paradigm of preference for school science investigations

AbstractOne hundred years after its conception, the scientific method continues to reinforce a kind of cultural lore about what it means to participate in inquiry. As commonly implemented in venues ranging from middle school classrooms to undergraduate laboratories, it emphasizes the testing of predictions rather than ideas, focuses learners on material activity at the expense of deep subject matter understanding, and lacks epistemic framing relevant to the discipline. While critiques of the scientific method are not new, its cumulative effects on learners' conceptions of science have not been clearly articulated. We discuss these effects using findings from a series of five studies with degree‐holding graduates of our educational system who were preparing to enter the teaching profession and apprentice their own young learners into unproblematic images of how science is done. We then offer an alternative vision for investigative science—model‐based inquiry (MBI)—as a system of activity and discourse that engages learners more deeply with content and embodies five epistemic characteristics of scientific knowledge: that ideas represented in the form of models are testable, revisable, explanatory, conjectural, and generative. We represent MBI as an interconnected set of classroom conversations and provide examples of its implementation and its limitations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 92:941–967, 2008

Mega‐Simulations in Negotiation Teaching: Extraordinary Investments with Extraordinary Benefits

A mega‐simulation is a complex‐negotiations teaching exercise involving complicated issues and challenging conditions that is undertaken by three or more teams of students. In this article, I draw on two decades of teaching with mega‐simulations in international business negotiation courses to discuss potential learning goals for this type of experiential exercise, effective ways to organize the experience, challenges for the instructor, and the distinctive educational benefits that justify the substantial investment of time and resources required to implement these mega‐simulations. These simulations can help students to develop greater sophistication in basic negotiation skills, become more extensively exposed to complex skill sets, and develop a deeper understanding of negotiation subject matter and complex processes than they would by conducting standard role plays. Mega‐simulations offer major opportunities for students to move to advanced levels of negotiation skill not just in international business, but in diplomacy, law, engineering, and a host of other professional arenas.

Enhancing self-regulated learning by writing learning protocols

Learning protocols are a self-guided way of writing that allows for elaboration and reflection on learning content. In an experimental study ( N = 103), we supported protocol writing with prompts to elicit important strategies as postulated by a cyclical model of self-regulated learning. Students received either (a) no prompts, (b) cognitive prompts, (c) metacognitive prompts, (d) mixed prompts without, or (e) including prompts for planning of remedial strategies. Prompting all essential sub-processes of self-regulated learning (group e) fostered students' comprehension best. Thus, with appropriate support, writing can serve as a beneficial medium helping students to self-regulate their understanding of subject matter.

SURPRISE

Abstract Surprise is of great value for learning, especially in cases where deep‐seated preconceptions and assumptions are upset by vivid demonstrations. In this essay, Jonathan Adler explores the ways in which surprise positively affects us and serves as a valuable tool for motivating learning. Adler considers how students’ attention is aroused and focused self‐critically when their subject matter–related expectations are not borne out. These “surprises” point students toward discoveries about gaps or weaknesses or false assumptions within their subject matter understanding; as a result, students become internally motivated to correct their errors and to seek better understanding, rather than merely responding to external mandates imposed by a teacher, institution, or other authority. In this essay Adler argues persuasively that the use of surprise in teaching, both as a pedagogical tool and a topic of study, offers many educational advantages and benefits for learning.

The use of language in understanding subject matter

Empirical results show that frequently the meaning of expressions used by students in expressing their understanding of subject matter does not correspond to the meaning of those expressions in the subject matter theory that the students are expected to learn. There is also often a lack of identity of meaning between the same students' use of the same expression from one use of the expression to another, in very similar contexts. The context gives a specific meaning to any expression. This variation in context and meaning is very central to the phenomena of teaching and learning. In educational research there is a need to differentiate between specific meanings expressed in conceptualizing subject matter, on the one hand, and concepts and meanings seen as parts of cognitive systems and social languages, on the other. The contextual character of the use of language is crucial to the understanding of teaching and learning and needs to be more carefully considered. The article is a discussion of the problem of varying meanings of language expressions in relation to major traditions of research, focusing on meanings and concepts within the field of learning and teaching.

The epistemological role of language use in learning: A phenomenographic intentional-expressive approach

In research on learning, one of the fundamental questions concerns issues of language and thought. A number of empirical studies have revealed the interplay between understanding of subject matter and meanings of language expressions to be more dynamic and ambiguous than is commonly acknowledged. The aim of this article is to outline an alternative intentional-expressive approach to the interplay between use of language and understanding of subject matter as a contribution to the theoretical development in research on learning. The approach is based on a conception of language that focuses on the function of learners’ language use in relation to subject matter in developing and expressing understanding. The learner is seen as an agent, and the focus is on the use of language from the learner's perspective. Four aspects of the relation between learners and subject matter are described and discussed. Conclusions concern the value of this approach as a complement and alternative to the dominant communicative and cognitive approaches to the role of language in learning.

Towards a job competency profile for agricultural extension instructors: A survey of views of experts

A project is carried out for instructors in the agricultural extension service in Esfahan. Part of the project is study, conducted to inform the process of competency profile development for the instructors. The study, reported in this contribution, focuses on views of experts about competencies needed by the instructors. The survey is based on the methodology for developing models of HRD, in which 257 key experts participated. A mix of methods was used for collecting data. The most important competencies found in this study are subject matter and business understanding, and presentation skill. The most essential outputs are presentation of instructional materials, feedback to learners and equipping learners with new competencies after the course. In this contribution, competencies and outputs are elaborated. Further research is needed regarding performance improvement as a result of the efforts of the instructors, and the views of other stakeholders on the development of the agri-clusters.

Why the changing American economy calls for twenty‐first century learning: Answers to educators' questions

While struggling with the current pressures of educational reform, some educators will ask whether their efforts make economic sense. Questioning the future makeup of the nation's workforce, many wonder how the educational system should be tempered to better prepare today's youth. This chapter answers educators' and parents' questions around the effect of fluctuations in the American economy on the future of education. The authors offer reassurance that good jobs will always be available, but warn that those jobs will require a new level of skills: expert thinking and complex communication. Schools need to go beyond their current curriculum and prepare students to use reading, math, and communication skills to build a deeper and more thoughtful understanding of subject matter. To explain the implications of the nation's changing economy on jobs, technology, and therefore education, the authors address a range of vital questions. Citing occupational distribution data, the chapter explores the supply and range of jobs in the future, as well as why changes in the U.S. job distribution have taken place. As much of the explanation for the shift in job distribution over the past several decades is due to the computerization of the workforce, the authors discuss how computers will affect the future composition of the workforce. The chapter also addresses the consequences of educational improvement on earnings distribution. The authors conclude that beyond workforce preparedness, students need to learn how to be contributing members of a democracy.

Student perceptions of their gains from a college‐level human physiology lab

Many educators consider labs to be an essential part of learning about physiology and yet few studies show what is gained from a lab. This study documents student perceptions of their academic gains from a human physiology lab. A Participant Perception Inventory (PPI) was developed by physiology faculty from a Research I University, a Master's University, and a Community College. The survey items were based on published student surveys, science education literature for lab outcomes, and college physiology lab goals found on the web. The PPI measures students’ perceptions of their practical lab skills, scientific reasoning, conceptual understanding of physiology subject matter, and science teamwork abilities. The survey was given to students in a college-level human physiology class for students in pre-health profession programs. Survey responses were gathered three times during a semester: the first week, at mid-term, and in the final week of the semester. Results show a significant increase in the students’ perception of their knowledge, experience, and confidence in all four learning areas that were surveyed. Surprisingly, even though physiology subject matter is not emphasized in this lab course, the students reported significantly higher average gains in understanding physiological concepts (36.8 ± 4.0 %) compared with practical lab skills (26.8 ± 2.8 %) scientific reasoning (23.3 ± 3.3%) and science teamwork (15.5 ± 3.0 %). As next steps we will correlate these perceptions to measured gains and assess perceived gains in the absence of lab.

Stability of response characteristics of a Delphi panel: application of bootstrap data expansion.

BackgroundDelphi surveys with panels of experts in a particular area of interest have been widely utilized in the fields of clinical medicine, nursing practice, medical education and healthcare services. Despite this wide applicability of the Delphi methodology, there is no clear identification of what constitutes a sufficient number of Delphi survey participants to ensure stability of results.MethodsThe study analyzed the response characteristics from the first round of a Delphi survey conducted with 23 experts in healthcare quality and patient safety. The panel members had similar training and subject matter understanding of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in Healthcare. The raw data from the first round sampling, which usually contains the largest diversity of responses, were augmented via bootstrap sampling to obtain computer-generated results for two larger samples obtained by sampling with replacement. Response characteristics (mean, trimmed mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence intervals) for 54 survey items were compared for the responses of the 23 actual study participants and two computer-generated samples of 1000 and 2000 resampling iterations.ResultsThe results from this study indicate that the response characteristics of a small expert panel in a well-defined knowledge area are stable in light of augmented sampling.ConclusionPanels of similarly trained experts (who possess a general understanding in the field of interest) provide effective and reliable utilization of a small sample from a limited number of experts in a field of study to develop reliable criteria that inform judgment and support effective decision-making.

Service Learning in a Community Context: Learners' Perceptions of a Challenging Training Paradigm

Motivated by societal challenges, government and university policies, as well as by the advantages of service learning for learners and communities alike, tertiary education facilitators are encouraged to create opportunities for the integration of theoretical knowledge and practical experiences by means of service learning in community projects. In this study, a thematic content analysis was used to describe learners' self-reported perceptions of service learning. From the research it became evident that the intentional integration of academic content with relevant community experiences resulted in valuable insight into the behaviour, attitudes, opinions, characteristics and expectations of the learners. An awareness of the self, a realisation of the importance of collaboration, and respect for cultural and language diversity were only a few of the outcomes illustrating the value of service learning as a way to master new knowledge, skills and characteristics in a meaningful way. Learners were able to show evidence of a deeper understanding and better application of subject matter and were able to develop problem-solving skills that promote lifelong learning.

How university teaching changes teachers: Affective as well as cognitive challenges

This paper argues that the teaching of a subject can change our understanding of what it means to know, to teach and learn that subject. It also argues that when our understanding is questioned and changes then academic work can become an emotionally charged endeavour. This paper reports on a study where, over a semester’s teaching, around two thirds of teachers changed some aspect of their scholarly thinking or practice. These teachers were teaching a range of first and second year classes, they were not new to teaching, nor were they unfamiliar with the teaching of the subject. For approximately one third, the change in understanding was not major. It involved a change in teaching practice but it did not involve the questioning of their existing understanding of subject matter. For another third, however, the change was substantial. These teachers, in some way, questioned previously taken for granted assumptions, they re-thought aspects of the structure of the discipline or the relationship of the subject to the discipline. They also revised their ideas about how to best teach that subject and what learning the subject involved. This change invariably involved anxiety and uncertainty and in some cases this was extreme. Little attention has been paid to change in teachers’ understanding of subject matter and little, or no, research has focused on the emotional impact of this change. This initial exploration of these neglected aspects of university teaching suggests a rich vein for further exploration. This paper builds on previous work that has used phenomenography to examine changes in university teachers’ understanding of subject matter taught. An analysis of metaphor is used to explore change and to tap into the rich and complex emotional experiences that accompany this change.

University teachers’ experiences of change in their understanding of the subject matter they have taught

This paper reports an analysis of qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience change in their understanding of subject matter they have recently taught. In this exploratory study, interviews with 31 ‘typical’ teachers from a range of first and second-year university subjects revealed that 20 reported no experience of change in their understanding. The reports of the 11 teachers who did experience change were used in a phenomenographic study from which five qualitatively different categories of description of change were constituted. These range from the experience of change as the adding of unproblematic knowledge to what is already known, to questioning the theoretical framework of the subject matter. The relation between the experience of change in understanding and the experience of teaching and learning for the 31 teachers was also explored. It was found that the teachers who did not experience change in their understanding were more likely to experience teaching as the transmission of knowledge, and the teachers who experienced change in their understanding, and who experienced that change as the re-interpretation or questioning of knowledge, were more likely to experience teaching as changing or developing students’ conceptions.

Implementing the "Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Program"

The Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Programtrains every student in a school in the competenciesthey need to (a) resolve conflictsconstructively and (b) make their schools safe placesin which to learn. The program is directly basedon the theory and research on constructive conflictresolution. More than 16 studies in 2 differentcountries have been conducted on the program'seffectiveness. The evidence indicates that withouttraining, children and adolescents tend to managetheir conflicts in destructive ways. When giventraining, however, they learn how to engage inintegrative negotiations and how to mediate theirschoolmates' conflicts. They maintain their abilityto do so months after the training has ended. Theyapply the learned procedures to actual conflicts inthe classroom, school, and family settings. Learningthe negotiation and mediation procedures canbe integrated with academic learning in a way thatenhances subject matter understanding.

Implementing the "Teaching Students to be Peacemakers Program"

The Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Program trains every student in a school in the competencies they need to (a) resolve conflicts constructively and (b) make their schools safe places in which to learn. The program is directly based on the theory and research on constructive conflict resolution. More than 16 studies in 2 different countries have been conducted on the program's effectiveness. The evidence indicates that without training, children and adolescents tend to manage their conflicts in destructive ways. When given training, however, they learn how to engage in integrative negotiations and how to mediate their schoolmates' conflicts. They maintain their ability to do so months after the training has ended. They apply the learned procedures to actual conflicts in the classroom, school, and family settings. Learning the negotiation and mediation procedures can be integrated with academic learning in a way that enhances subject matter understanding.

Teaching Writing in United States History

History is an important part of our American culture. It is fun to read and tell and can contribute to a student's personal experience. Too often, though, the subject is teacher-directed, lecture-oriented, focused on the most prominent individuals and events, and supplemented only by a dry, vocabulary-controlled text. Both methodology and content are too remote from the student's own experience, making the study of history monotonous at best. Just think of how inspiring history can be if the methodology is student-directed and the content focused on the daily realities of ordinary people and the places where they lived, worked, worshiped, and played. Encouraging students “to do” history should be the fundamental objective of every teacher, and there is no better way “to do” history than researching and writing it. Professional historians and educators concerned about the inadequacy, both in quality and quantity, of history taught at the secondary level have emphasized the need for more writing in the curriculum. Not only is writing essential to develop critical thinking skills, but it is also indispensable for developing the kind of knowledge and social responsibility required for constructive citizenship. Accordingly, a student's understanding of historical subject matter lies in his or her ability to explain cause-and-effect relationships, interpret the significance of past events, and clearly articulate a position and defend it.