Education Commons^™

A Study Of The Impact Of Small-Group And Whole-Group Discussion On The Critical Thinking Dispositions Of Community College English Composition Ii Students, Mechel M. Albano

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The area of critical thinking skills has been one of concern for many professionals working in the field of higher education (Nicholas & Raider-Roth, 2016; Shim & Walczak, 2012). The purpose of this study was to provide these professionals with sound pedagogical tools that can be used to assist college students in developing their critical thinking skills and dispositions. Using a sample of 34 English Composition II students from a community college in the Southeast, the researcher employed a pre-test/post-test comparison group design to compare the effects of small-group discussion of higher-order questions to the effects of whole-group discussion on …

Making Pictures, Writing About Pictures, Discussing Pictures And Lecture-Discussion As Teaching Methods In Art History, Jari M. Martikainen

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

This article discusses making pictures, writing about pictures, discussing pictures, and lecture-discussion as methods of teaching art history in Finnish Upper Secondary Vocational Education and Training (Qualification in Visual Expression, Study Programmes in Visual and Media Art Photography). A total of 25 students majoring in Visual Expression participated in the research by studying art history using picture-based–visual and verbal–methods and reflecting on their learning experiences. This article introduces the concept of ‘contextual subject-related didactics,’ by which conceptions of contemporary art history, together with the objectives and aims of the curriculum, guide the choice of teaching methods. The article argues that …

Inquiry Based Learning From The Learner’S Point Of View: A Teacher Candidate’S Success Story, Caroline Johnson Caswell, Derek J. Labrie

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The goal of this paper is to review current research on Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and shed some light, from a student's perspective, on the challenges and rewards of this pedagogy. The first part of the article provides an extensive review of the literature on IBL. The second part focuses on one student's experiences in an IBL classroom.

In particular, a graduate secondary mathematics student reflects upon his experiences in a college mathematics class where the instructor implemented an Inquiry Based Learning model. His experience is validated by current research on IBL educational methodology which structures the classroom environment for …

Inclusive Teaching Strategies: An Evaluation Of Course Structure And Summative Assessment In Introductory Biology, Oluwaseun O. Agboola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several active learning strategies have been used when increasing the structure of a course as increasing course structure has been known to improve student learning in introductory STEM courses. Much has been studied on the value of frequent formative assessment; however, few studies have evaluated the effective modes of delivering summative assessment. This study examines the use of summative assessment as an inclusive teaching practice to improve first generation college student success in introductory biology and also uses faculty surveys to find out how instructors structure their introductory biology course and why they are structured that way. Final exams were …

Building Data And Information Literacy In The Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum, Yasmeen Shorish, Barbara A. Reisner

Yasmeen Shorish

The Literature and Seminar sequence at James Madison University has been used to develop the chemistry information literacy skills of chemistry majors for over four decades. These courses have been continually updated to emphasize information literacy skills for the twenty-first century. This chapter describes the methods that have been developed to improve chemical, data and general information literacy at a large, public, primarily undergraduate institution. The focus of the first semester course, described in this chapter, is on skill building rather than teaching specific resources. It is a model of integration and collaboration between chemistry faculty and chemistry librarians. Changes …

Various Forms Of Student Engagement And Student Learning, Dan Richard, Melissa Newberry

Dan Richard

Previous research indicates that student engagement is multi-dimensional. Numerous engaged or active learning strategies (e.g., think-pair-share, problem-based learning, interactive games) emphasize some dimensions of student engagement but not others. The current project assesses the learning impact of a diversity of active learning strategies employing various dimensions of student engagement within three sections of a course in Social Psychology. Direct assessment of student performance on multiple-choice exams as well as indirect assessment of student preferences for learning activities will be addressed. In this session, participants will review original research on student engagement, receive examples of course activities, evaluate these activities on …