Leveraging on Assessment of Representational Competence to Improve Instruction with External Representations

2018 ◽  
pp. 155-176
Author(s):  
Mounir R. Saleh ◽  
Kristy L. Daniel
Keyword(s):  
External Representations ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Improve Instruction

The Instructional SEM Laboratory at Iowa State University

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 396-397
Author(s):  
L. S. Chumbley ◽  
M. Meyer ◽  
K. Fredrickson ◽  
F.C. Laabs
Keyword(s):  
Materials Science ◽  
Computer Network ◽  
Energy Dispersive Spectrometer ◽  
Computer Control ◽  
State University ◽  
Iowa State University ◽  
Internet Server ◽  
Schematic Layout ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Improve Instruction

The Materials Science Department at Iowa State University has developed a laboratory designed to improve instruction in the use of the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The laboratory makes use of a computer network and a series of remote workstations in a classroom setting to provide students with increased hands-on access to the SEM. The laboratory has also been equipped such that distance learning via the internet can be achieved.A view of the laboratory is shown in Figure 1. The laboratory consists of a JEOL 6100 SEM, a Macintosh Quadra computer that acts as a server for the network and controls the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), four Macintosh computers that act as remote workstations, and a fifth Macintosh that acts as an internet server. A schematic layout of the classroom is shown in Figure 2. The workstations are connected directly to the SEM to allow joystick and computer control of the microscope. An ethernet connection between the Quadra and the workstations allows students seated there to operate the EDS. Control of the microscope and joystick is passed between the workstations by a switch-box assembly that resides at the microscope console. When the switch-box assembly is activated a direct serial line is established between the specified workstation and the microscope via the SEM’s RS-232.

scholarly journals The Emergence of AGHE's Basic-Competencies Guidelines in Gerontology

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 553-553
Author(s):  
Robert Maiden
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Program Analysis ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Program Review ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Living Entity ◽  
Geriatric Education ◽  
Basic Competencies ◽  
Basic Competency ◽  
Improve Instruction

Abstract This presentation will explore the development of AGHE’s major contemporary contribution: AGHE’s basic-competency guidelines and their role in program review and program enhancement. The presenter will describe in detail the steps in creating objective student learning outcomes and will explore how meeting these competencies improve instruction, self-reflection, program analysis and faculty discussion and ultimately gerontology programs. These guidelines and policies embody a living entity that is always evolving. Future iterations will be anticipated and discussed. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Geriatric Education Interest Group.

scholarly journals English Language Standards in California, China and Mexico: History, Comparison, and Analysis

Interchange ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Na ◽  
Jolene Castillo Gregory ◽  
Kip Téllez
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Theoretical Orientations ◽  
Professional Educators ◽  
Learning Standards ◽  
Teaching Standards ◽  
Grammatical Accuracy ◽  
Improve Instruction ◽  
New Guidelines ◽  
Standards Movement

AbstractLearning standards have become a prominent feature for schools and school systems worldwide. Our paper describes the development of recent English teaching standards in California, China, and Mexico, as well as analyzing them for their theoretical orientations. We begin with an overview and critique of the standards movement. Our analysis of the standards in California, China, and Mexico reveals a substantial shift from a grammatical accuracy focused approach towards a communicative approach to language instruction. While this turn may be welcomed by professional educators, there are practical policy questions to be answered. We end our paper by noting additional challenges to implementing the new standards. Our general assessment is that the authors of the standards firmly believe that the new guidelines will improve instruction.

Closing the Loop in Computer Agent/Patient Communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 711-715
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Patient Centered ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Communication Techniques ◽  
Improve Instruction

While patient-centered communication supports patient self-care, providers rarely have enough time to consistently use patient- centered communication techniques. Technology has potential to support patient-centered communication, but frequently older adults prefer face-to-face communication with providers. Conversational agents (CAs) may support provider communication with older adults by emulating best practices from face-to-face communication. We investigated older adults’ response to a prototype CA communication system that served as a virtual provider and presented medication instructions using teachback, a recommended best practice that involves asking patients questions to ‘close the communication loop’. Older adults were told how to take medications by a CA who used (or did not use) teachback, and then were interviewed. Older adults were open to interacting with the CA and thought it would help support self-care. They thought the CA was a more effective teacher when using teachback and that this interactive strategy helped them remember the instructions. However, teachback did not improve instruction memory.

Chemistry instructors’ intentions toward developing, teaching, and assessing student representational competence skills

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maia Popova ◽  
Tamera Jones
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Coding Theory ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Us

Representational competence is one's ability to use disciplinary representations for learning, communicating, and problem-solving. These skills are at the heart of engagement in scientific practices and were recognized by the ACS Examinations Institute as one of ten anchoring concepts. Despite the important role that representational competence plays in student success in chemistry and the considerable number of investigations into students’ ability to reason with representations, very few studies have examined chemistry instructors’ approaches toward developing student representational competence. This study interviewed thirteen chemistry instructors from eleven different universities across the US about their intentions to develop, teach, and assess student representational competence skills. We found that most instructors do not aim to help students develop any representational competence skills. At the same time, participants’ descriptions of their instructional and assessment practices revealed that, without realizing it, most are likely to teach and assess several representational competence skills in their courses. A closer examination of these skills revealed a focus on lower-level representational competence skills (e.g., the ability to interpret and generate representations) and a lack of a focus on higher-level meta-representational competence skills (e.g., the ability to describe affordances and limitations of representations). Finally, some instructors reported self-awareness about their lack of knowledge about effective teaching about representations and the majority expressed a desire for professional development opportunities to learn about differences in how experts and novices conceptualize representations, about evidence-based practices for teaching about representations, and about how to assess student mastery of representational competence skills. This study holds clear implications for informing chemistry instructors’ professional development initiatives. Such training needs to help instructors take cognizance of relevant theories of learning (e.g., constructivism, dual-coding theory, information processing model, Johnstone's triangle), and the key factors affecting students’ ability to reason with representations, as well as foster awareness of representational competence skills and how to support students in learning with representations.

scholarly journals Investigating Indonesian EFL learners’ knowledge and use of English causative constructions

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wijaya ◽  
Evelyn Winstin
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Improve Instruction ◽  
Causative Construction

Abstract This paper explored Indonesian EFL learners’ explicit knowledge, processing, and use of English periphrastic causative constructions make, have, and get. 20 English L1 speakers and 20 Indonesian intermediate level EFL learners majoring in English Language Education at an Indonesian university took part in this study. Data were collected through a cloze task, a sentence completion task, an interpretation task, and a set of open-ended questions asking learners to provide descriptions about their knowledge of the constructions. Results showed that learners did not always use the first noun strategy to identify the agent in a passive causative construction. Also, their suppliances of the causative verbs in most items did not significantly differ from L1 speakers. However, the syntactic patterns were mostly non-target-like. They demonstrated insufficient explicit knowledge that could enable them to verbalize the formal and functional aspects underlying the constructions. Pedagogical implications along with suggestions to improve instruction are discussed.

Biochemistry instructors’ use of intentions for student learning to evaluate and select external representations of protein translation

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-803
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Bussey ◽  
MaryKay Orgill
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Bond Formation ◽  
Protein Translation ◽  
Peptide Bond ◽  
External Representation ◽  
External Representations ◽  
Peptide Bond Formation ◽  
Scientific Phenomena ◽  
Selection Of

Instructors draw on their intentions for student learning in the enactment of curriculum, particularly in the selection and presentation of external representation of scientific phenomena. These representations both create opportunities for students to experience non-experiential biochemical phenomena, such as protein translation, and constrain the possibilities for student learning based on the limited number of features depicted and the visual cues used to draw viewers attention to those features. In this study, we explore biochemistry instructors’ intentions for student learning about protein translation and how those intentions influence their selection of external representations for instruction. A series of instructor interviews were used to identify information that students need to know in order to develop a biochemically accurate understanding of protein translation. We refer to this information as the “critical features” of protein translation. Two dominant themes of critical features were identified: (1) components/structures of protein translation and (2) interactions/chemistry of protein translation. Three general components (the ribosome, the mRNA, and the tRNA) and two primary interactions (base pairing and peptide bond formation) were described by all instructors. Instructors tended to favor simpler, stylized representations that closely aligned with their stated critical features of translation for instructional purposes.

scholarly journals Learning with Friction—Students’ Gestures and Enactment in Relation to a GeoGebra Simulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Solvang ◽  
Jesper Haglund
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
School Students ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Physics Students ◽  
Digital Learning Environment ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Collaborative Learning Environment ◽  
Why Questions

AbstractThe present study contributes to the understanding of physics students’ representational competence by examining specific bodily practices (e.g. gestures, enactment) of students’ interaction and constructions of representations in relation to a digital learning environment. We present and analyse video data of upper-secondary school students’ interaction with a GeoGebra simulation of friction. Our analysis is based on the assumption that, in a collaborative learning environment, students use their bodies as means of dealing with interpretational problems, and that exploring students’ gestures and enactment can be used to analyse their sensemaking processes. This study shows that specific features of the simulation—features connected with microscopic aspects of friction—triggered students to ask what-if and why questions and consequently, to learn about the representation. During this sense-making process, students improvised their own representations to make their ideas more explicit. The findings extend current research on students’ representational competence by bringing attention to the role of students’ generation of improvised representations in the processes of learning with and about representations.

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