Language Focus for Genetics and Molecular Biology Students

2011 ◽  
pp. 98-115
Author(s):  
Brett Andrew Lidbury
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Assessment Performance

This chapter examines the role of scientific language comprehension and confidence for senior undergraduate students in Genetics and Molecular Biology, and the impact of language-centred learning strategies to assessment outcomes. A number of online and tutorial language exercises and strategies are described that were designed to promote scientific language competence and subsequent genetics learning. The effect of these interventions was analysed through grade and assessment performance comparisons with earlier traditionally taught Genetics cohorts. While no significant grade improvements were found for cohorts taught via language, deeper statistical analysis revealed that motivation to adopt new learning strategies was crucial for best student performance. Language was found to be most influential for middle range performing students. Despite at least a year of tertiary education, students still had difficulty interpreting some everyday words in a science context. The study also encourages a greater evaluation of student motivation in adopting new learning techniques.

Language Focus for Genetics and Molecular Biology Students

2013 ◽  
pp. 1474-1493
Author(s):  
Brett Andrew Lidbury
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Assessment Performance

This chapter examines the role of scientific language comprehension and confidence for senior undergraduate students in Genetics and Molecular Biology, and the impact of language-centred learning strategies to assessment outcomes. A number of online and tutorial language exercises and strategies are described that were designed to promote scientific language competence and subsequent genetics learning. The effect of these interventions was analysed through grade and assessment performance comparisons with earlier traditionally taught Genetics cohorts. While no significant grade improvements were found for cohorts taught via language, deeper statistical analysis revealed that motivation to adopt new learning strategies was crucial for best student performance. Language was found to be most influential for middle range performing students. Despite at least a year of tertiary education, students still had difficulty interpreting some everyday words in a science context. The study also encourages a greater evaluation of student motivation in adopting new learning techniques.

Evaluating a Genetics Concept Inventory

2013 ◽  
pp. 29-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicia Zhang ◽  
Brett Andrew Lidbury
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Concept Inventory ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Genetics Learning ◽  
Assessment Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
Performance Comparisons

This chapter examines the reliability and validity of a subset of the Genetics concept inventory (S. Elrod) to discriminate good students from poor performing students in the undergraduate units Genetics and Molecular Biology taught at the University of Canberra, Australia. These two units went through a series of reforms since 2005. These reforms included the implementation of a number of online and tutorial language exercises and strategies designed to promote scientific language competence and subsequent genetics learning. The effect of these interventions was analyzed through grade and assessment performance comparisons with earlier traditionally taught Genetics cohorts as well using the genetic concept inventory. The genetic concept inventory questions used at the University of Canberra have been found to be reliable and valid according to a number of statistical tests.

Evaluating a Genetics Concept Inventory

2011 ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
Felicia Zhang ◽  
Brett Andrew Lidbury
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Concept Inventory ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Genetics Learning ◽  
Assessment Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
Performance Comparisons

This chapter examines the reliability and validity of a subset of the Genetics concept inventory (S. Elrod) to discriminate good students from poor performing students in the undergraduate units Genetics and Molecular Biology taught at the University of Canberra, Australia. These two units went through a series of reforms since 2005. These reforms included the implementation of a number of online and tutorial language exercises and strategies designed to promote scientific language competence and subsequent genetics learning. The effect of these interventions was analyzed through grade and assessment performance comparisons with earlier traditionally taught Genetics cohorts as well using the genetic concept inventory. The genetic concept inventory questions used at the University of Canberra have been found to be reliable and valid according to a number of statistical tests.

scholarly journals Differences in Metacognitive Regulation in Introductory Biology Students: When Prompts Are Not Enough

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. ar15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Dangremond Stanton ◽  
Xyanthe N. Neider ◽  
Isaura J. Gallegos ◽  
Nicole C. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Metacognitive Knowledge ◽  
Introductory Biology ◽  
Undergraduate Biology ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Metacognitive Development ◽  
Metacognitive Regulation ◽  
Introductory Biology Course

Strong metacognition skills are associated with learning outcomes and student performance. Metacognition includes metacognitive knowledge—our awareness of our thinking—and metacognitive regulation—how we control our thinking to facilitate learning. In this study, we targeted metacognitive regulation by guiding students through self-evaluation assignments following the first and second exams in a large introductory biology course (n = 245). We coded these assignments for evidence of three key metacognitive-regulation skills: monitoring, evaluating, and planning. We found that nearly all students were willing to take a different approach to studying but showed varying abilities to monitor, evaluate, and plan their learning strategies. Although many students were able to outline a study plan for the second exam that could effectively address issues they identified in preparing for the first exam, only half reported that they followed their plans. Our data suggest that prompting students to use metacognitive-regulation skills is effective for some students, but others need help with metacognitive knowledge to execute the learning strategies they select. Using these results, we propose a continuum of metacognitive regulation in introductory biology students. By refining this model through further study, we aim to more effectively target metacognitive development in undergraduate biology students.

scholarly journals Measuring supports from learning assistants that promote engagement in active learning: evaluating a novel social support instrument

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dania Hernandez ◽  
Gema Jacomino ◽  
Uma Swamy ◽  
Krista Donis ◽  
Sarah L. Eddy
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Supports ◽  
Informational Support ◽  
Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽  
Appraisal Support ◽  
Instrument Measuring ◽  
Support Students

Abstract Background Active learning supports student performance, but can be challenging to implement in large courses. The Learning Assistant (LA) Program is a growing intervention to support students in large active learning classrooms. This program places advanced undergraduates who have training in pedagogical methods in active learning classrooms to interact with and support students during in-class activities. LAs increase student performance, but the mechanism behind this is still unclear. Social support is a promising framework to help elucidate the types and extent of assistance LAs provide to students and begin exploring the “how” behind LAs effectiveness. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument measuring undergraduate students’ perceptions of the social supports for active learning available to them in the classroom. This instrument was based on both the broader social support literature and the literature on what factors encourage students to engage deeply in active learning. To provide initial evidence of validity, the instrument was completed in six sections of General Chemistry I at one R1 university. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to determine the internal structure of the instrument. Then the instrument’s relationship to engagement in active learning was evaluated as another form of validity evidence. Results These analyses best supported a three-factor instrument that included five items representing supportive feedback provided during active learning (appraisal support), eight items representing emotional support during active learning, and six items representing the communications of norms and values related to active learning (informational support). All three factors were individually correlated with three measures of engagement. In regression analyses with all three factors measured together, only informational support predicted changes in two of the three measures of engagement. Conclusions This study supports the use of the Perception of Social Supports for Active Learning (PSSALI) instrument to understand students’ perceptions of the supports they are receiving to engage in active learning in chemistry courses. One implication of this work is that in order to increase engagement, learning assistants should clearly communicate the value of active learning and the classroom norm of active participation.

scholarly journals Pain, Culture and Pedagogy: A Preliminary Investigation of Attitudes Towards “Reasonable” Pain Tolerance in the Grassroots Reproduction of a Culture of Risk

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412098809
Author(s):  
Paul K. Miller ◽  
Sophie Van Der Zee ◽  
David Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Pain Perception ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Pain Tolerance ◽  
Total N ◽  
Sporting Culture ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Relationship

In recent years a considerable body of psychological research has explored the relationship between membership of socio-cultural groups and personal pain perception. Rather less systematic attention has, however, been accorded to how such group membership(s) might influence individual attitudes towards the pain of others. In this paper, immersion in the culture of competitive sport, widely regarded as being exaggeratedly tolerant of risky behaviours around pain, is taken as a case-in-point with students of Physical Education (PE) in tertiary education as the key focus. PE students are highly-immersed in competitive sporting culture both academically and (typically) practically, and also represent a key nexus of cross-generational transmission regarding the norms of sport itself. Their attitudes towards the pain that others should reasonably tolerate during a range of activities, sporting and otherwise, were evaluated through a direct comparison with those of peers much less immersed in competitive sporting culture. In total, N=301 (144 PE, 157 non-PE) undergraduate students in the UK responded to a vignette-based survey. Therein, all participants were required to rate the pain (on a standard 0-10 scale) at which a standardised “other” should desist engagement with a set of five defined sporting and non-sporting tasks, each with weak and strong task severities. Results indicated that PE students were significantly more likely to expect others to persevere through higher levels of pain than their non-PE peers, but only during the sport-related tasks – an effect further magnified when task severity was high. In other tasks, there was no significant difference between groups, or valence of the effect was actually reversed. It is argued that the findings underscore some extant knowledge about the relationship between acculturated attitudes to pain, while also having practical implications for understanding sport-based pedagogy, and its potentially problematic role in the ongoing reproduction of a “culture of risk.”

Anxiety in reading and listening English as a foreign language in Chinese undergraduate students

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 719-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Wing-Yin Chow ◽  
Hey Tou Chiu ◽  
Simpson W. L. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Behavioral Correlates ◽  
Listening Anxiety ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Chinese Undergraduates ◽  
Efl Learning

This study tested relationships between foreign language (FL) reading and listening anxiety and learner variables in English as a foreign language (EFL). It tested links between foreign language anxiety (FLA) and its cognitive, affective and behavioral correlates in English (i.e. language learning strategies, learning motivation, and performance). Three-hundred-and-six Chinese undergraduates learning EFL were administered the measures via a questionnaire. Regression analyses indicated that EFL performance and EFL motivation were key factors that uniquely predicted EFL reading and listening anxiety. However, the role of EFL learning strategies was not significant after the effects of EFL performance and EFL motivation were controlled for. Despite this, mediation analyses revealed that EFL learning strategies had a significant indirect effect on EFL reading performance and listening anxiety levels with EFL learning motivation as a mediator. This suggests its secondary role in affecting FL anxieties. These findings provide important implications regarding assessment of students’ FL anxiety level as well as identification of and intervention for those with FL difficulties. These findings have extended past studies by highlighting the relative importance of these cognitive, affective and behavioral correlates on Chinese undergraduates’ EFL anxiety in specific domains.

scholarly journals Prediction of Student Performance in Academic and Military Learning Environment: Use of Multiple Linear Regression Predictive Model and Hypothesis Testing

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasi Z. Khan ◽  
Sarim Al Zubaidy
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Physical Training ◽  
Multiple Regression Model ◽  
Academic Risk ◽  
Learning Capability ◽  
Specific Discipline ◽  
Marine System ◽  
Course Load ◽  
Military College

The variance in students’ academic performance in a civilian institute and in a military technological institute could be linked to the environment of the competition available to the students. The magnitude of talent, domain of skills and volume of efforts students put are identical in both type of institutes. The significant factor is the physical training, students undergo in a military college. It is important to couple the dominating factor which is academic perceivable effort under a different environment with each students learning capability. This paper determine whether there is a relationship between students’ performance and influencing factors like academic aptitude, military or physical training, and the time spent on training need analysis (TNA) modules. A sample of 242 first year- undergraduate students from four different engineering programs (Marine, System, Civil, and Aeronautical) at Military College was used to explore this relationship. The multiple regression model used for predicting the students’ performance is adequate for independent variables of aptitude test score, time spent in physical training, and time spent in TNA modules. The values of R2 indicate that at least one of the predictor variables contributes to information for the prediction of the students’ performance. The model makes it possible to predict moderately the possibility of attrition in engineering program. This study verifies that military academy has a very defined and directed core engineering course load and TNA course load which every student must take. Therefore, choice of specific discipline have less impact than at civilian institutions. The early detection of students at academic risk is a useful instrument that can help to design mentoring strategies right from the end of admission process. 

An Empirical Study on Vocabulary Learning Strategies by Jordanian FFL University Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-315
Author(s):  
Reem Ibrahim Rabadi ◽  
Batoul Al-Muhaissen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Vocabulary Learning Strategies ◽  
High Level ◽  
Individual Strategies

Abstract This study explores the use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) by Jordanian undergraduate students majoring French as a Foreign Language (FFL) at Jordanian universities. The vocabulary learning strategies (Memory, Determination, Social, Cognitive, and Metacognitive) were used in this study following Schmitt’s taxonomy. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire containing 37 items adapted from Schmitt’s (1997) Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) administered to 840 FFL undergraduates randomly selected from seven Jordanian universities. The descriptive analysis showed that the participants of the study regardless of their year of study were medium strategy users overall. The results revealed that Memory strategies were the most frequently employed strategies, whereas the Social strategies were the least frequently used ones. Although the participants were medium strategy users, the results of the VLSQ disclosed that some individual strategies were employed at a high level. Accordingly, detecting these strategies will be beneficial to language instructors to improve effective vocabulary teaching techniques and to motivate language learners to use them more frequently.

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