scholarly journals Practise makes perfect: developing critical thinking and writing skills in undergraduate science students

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hall
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
The Impact

Successful undergraduate students are required to demonstrate critical thinking and writing skills in their final year dissertation, but the early years of some science degrees may not fully prepare them for this challenge.  This study investigated the value of earlier engagement with scientific literacy skills by assessing the impact of rehersing critical thinking and extended writing skills earlier in the degree programme.  This paper reports a small-scale study of a single cohort of students on BSc (Hons.) Biomedical Sciences degree schemes at a research-intensive university and describes quantitative analysis of students' performance in two research-driven writing tasks at different stages of the degree: a literature review in Year 2 and a research dissertation in the final year.  The results of this study support the comcept that earlier exposure to extended writing tasks requiring scientific literacy skills is beneficial to students whose final year project has similar literature-based format; the experience of completing the literature review appears particularly valuable in improving the academic performance of weaker students.

How to Use Parody and Humour to Teach Digital Literacy

2016 ◽  
pp. 423-435
Author(s):  
Luis Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Young People ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
The Impact

Based on the assumption digital literacy needs a practical approach and actions, this chapter presents an initiative that intends to develop digital skills in a very creative way. Considering the challenge educators (for instance, teachers or librarians) face to promote digital literacy skills especially to young people in a very engaging way, some training was developed to create a possible answer to that problem. This chapter discusses the impact of that initiative that highlights the potential of humour and parody that we can find on digital media to teach digital literacy. According to some attendants, this approach was creative, engaging and built in their minds alternative paths to explore digital literacy and critical thinking.

3Rs PROJECT-ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION IN SCIENTIFIC LITERACY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candan Kafalı ◽  
Bengü Bozlar
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Animal Experimentation ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Good Science ◽  
Learning Scenarios

<p>Many medicinal and toxic compounds are tested on animals before they are declared safe for human use, animals are also used in basic and applied research. But this can be costly, it can cause suffering to animals, and the results do not always to translate successfully to humans. The 3Rs project build learning activities for secondary school pupils to introduce the principles of the 3Rs - the Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal experiments. Students will develop their critical thinking and science literacy skills by exploring topics such as ethics in science, how the European Union is protecting the welfare of laboratory animals, and what high-tech non-animal tools are available as alternatives. These six learning scenarios related the 3R principle are available for secondary school teachers in the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), organised by the European Schoolnet Academy. One of the learning scenarios prepared within the scope of this project is "Animal Experimentation in Scientific Literacy".</p><p>Aim of this learning scenario;</p><ul><li>Students can illustrate the relation between science and society on an ethical and philosophical base.</li> <li>Students can create answers on sustainability problems concerning animal welfare.</li> <li>Students can think critically about emotions vs facts about animals used in science.</li> <li>Students can formulate well-built arguments in a critical debate.</li> </ul><p>To implement this learning scenario;</p><p>Teacher starts with a presentation that describes good science, bad science, pseudoscience and fake news. Good science, bad science/fake news are explained with cases, and discussed with pupils. For instance, these are the subjects of astrology, anti-vaccination, flat world beliefs etc. The topic of animal experimentation and animal welfare is presented to pupils as the subject of the lesson. Pupils are divided into five groups to make literature review about animal experimentation and animal welfare.</p><p>Each group research one of the questions below;   </p><ul><li>Do scientists need animals in science?</li> <li>How animals are affected by experiments in laboratories?</li> <li>What are pros and cons of animal experimentation in science?</li> <li>What could be the alternatives instead of animals inexperimentation?</li> <li>What are ethics in animal experimentation?</li> </ul><p>Each group make literature review and discuss their compiled knowledge by a presentation with other pupils in the classroom. Afterwards, pupils carry out their own research in the school environment and create an online survey to collect data related with their research question about 3Rs and animal experimentation. They implement the survey at the school. They collect data and create a graph for each question. They interpret data and make a conclusion. Pupils evaluate their work according to sample size large, groups represented by the sample and whether the questions are neutral in regards to good science.</p><p>All in all, this learning scenario aims pupils to come by an experience on how good science works and how to avoid bad science and fake news, and improve their scientific literacy skills by the awareness of animal use in science.</p>

scholarly journals Peer Feedback in Writing through Georgian EFL Undergraduate Students’ Eyes

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam MERKVILADZE
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Peer Feedback ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Subject

Throughout the years educators, educational experts, teachers and tutors have been in the constant search of effective ways of teaching and assessing writing. The views about assessment of writing have encountered changes over the years. Therefore, feedback has become one of the fundamental aspects of teaching and learning writing. Peer feedback is one of the special ways to share the knowledge about writing and at the same time to contribute to creating the learner-oriented classroom environment within which students become active participants of their own path of learning writing. The primary objective of the present study is to investigate Georgian higher educational institutions’ (HEIs’) undergraduate EFL students’ perception of peer feedback and its role in the process of developing their writing skills. The findings of the present study show that peer feedback is appealing for the learners, since they believe it develops their critical-thinking and self-reviewing skills and gives them the sense of active participation. However, the present research has also revealed that the elements of friendship-related bias need special attention and should be the subject of further research in that field. 

scholarly journals Impact of Teachers’ Feedback in Improving Students’ Writing Skills: A Study of Tertiary Level Students in Dhaka

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-139
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Convenience Sampling ◽  
Giving Feedback ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Method Approach

This study sought to investigate the impact of teachers’ feedback in improving students' writing skills. Feedback is perhaps the most widely used method for responding to students’ writing. While various studies have investigated the effectiveness of providing error correction, there has been relatively little research in Bangladesh incorporating the impact of teachers' feedback in improving students’ writing skills. Supporting Vygotsky's concept of ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ a mixed-method approach was used to collect data. The data was analyzed in both numerical and descriptive manner. 90 undergraduate students were chosen for this research using convenience sampling. The major findings indicate that students find multiple benefits of feedback and have a positive attitude towards receiving feedback but the feedback they receive is not clear, specific, well explained, and immediate. This study finds that teacher-student conferencing is the feedback that students prefer the most. Finally, some suggestions are given to improve feedback quality for enhancing the writing skills of tertiary-level students in Bangladesh. This study will help teachers have a better understanding of giving feedback to improve the writing skills of EFL students. It will also facilitate educational administrators and policymakers.

scholarly journals Technology-Driven Solutions to Prompt Conversation, Aid Communication and Support Interaction for People With Dementia and Their Caregivers: A Systematic Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria Hoel ◽  
Carine Mendom Feunou ◽  
Karin Wolf-Ostermann
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Conversation Partner ◽  
Person With Dementia ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background The impact of dementia on communication capabilities can result in difficulties in social interactions and between people with dementia and their conversation partner, as initiating and maintaining conversations becomes increasingly challenging. The role of technology in promoting social health and participation for people with dementia is increasing, but the usage on technological devices as a third party in social interactions to enhance communication quality is still in its infancy. The objective of this literature review is to provide a comprehensive description of technology-driven interventions for people with dementia and their conversation partners to enhance communication and facilitate positive social interactions. Methods A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO, where titles and abstracts were screened by two researchers independently. The reference lists of initially identified papers were hand-searched for further relevant studies. Quality appraisal of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.Results Twenty-six papers were included., where the most common technologies to facilitate communication and interactions were tablet-computers (n=11), social robots (n=7) and PCs (n=4). By analyzing the impacts of the device(s) on social interaction and communication, five major themes emerged: i) increased interaction; ii) better understanding of the person with dementia; iii) improved conversational quality; iv) reducing pressure on the conversation partner; and v) a conversational platform.Conclusion While the majority of the included studies are small-scale, they indicate promising findings on the potential of technology in helping dyads to interact in a way that relieves strain on the caregiver, enhances the relationship and engages people with dementia in social activities. Rigorous investigation using standard, comparable measurements is needed to demonstrate the effects of technological solutions, taking on the perspective on caregiving dyads as an entity rather than looking at outcomes for one member of the dyad in isolation.

scholarly journals Teaching Writing in EAP Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viorica Condrat
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Process Development ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Discourse Community ◽  
State University ◽  
Efl Students

Academic writing is a particular type of scholarly interaction which signals the writer’s affiliation to a specific discourse community. Developing academic writing skills should become a priority for higher education. This paper describes a small-scale study which investigates the role of blogging in developing academic writing skills in undergraduate students. Blogging is viewed as a platform where the scholarly interaction between members of the same discourse community can take place. The paper is based on the survey data and observation during the experiment conducted at Alecu Russo Balti State University of Moldova. It reports on how EFL students reacted to the use of blogs for academic writing tasks. The findings suggest that students seem to have a positive attitude to blogging pointing out to such benefits as: enhanced self-efficacy, awareness of the writing process, development of reader awareness, increased responsibility for the quality of the writing. We argue that blogging can yield significant improvement in undergraduate students’ academic writing.

scholarly journals Avaliação da linguagem oral e escrita no pré-escolar e nos primeiros anos de escolaridade

2021 ◽  
pp. 40-53
Author(s):  
Joana Batalha ◽  
Maria Lobo ◽  
Antónia Estrela ◽  
Bruna Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Reading And Writing

In this article, we present an assessment instrument aimed at diagnosing oral language and reading and writing skills in children attending pre-school (5 years) and the early years of primary school. The instrument was mainly designed for the school context, and it was developed in collaboration with kindergarten educators and primary teachers who participated in PIPALE - Preventive Intervention Project for Reading and Writing, a project which is integrated in the National Program for the Promotion of School Success. The instrument covers the assessment of phonological and syntactic awareness, comprehension of syntactic structures, early literacy, and reading and writing skills (word reading, word and sentence writing, text comprehension, and text production). Besides offering a detailed description of the structure and tasks of the instrument, the present study includes the results of the first implementation of this tool to a total of 495 students in pre-school, first grade and second grade. The results show significant differences between the three groups (pre-school, first grade and second grade) in phonological awareness (identification of initial syllable, initial phoneme and final rhyme) and between the younger groups and the second graders in syntactic awareness (acceptability judgement task) and early literacy skills. As for reading and writing skills, the results show better performance in reading tasks than in writing tasks, a strong significant correlation between phonological awareness and word reading and word writing, and between literacy skills and word reading and writing. We also found a milder correlation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension, as well as text writing. These results suggest that the instrument is effective for an early diagnosis and early intervention of reading and writing skills.

Why are strangers trusted more during trade fairs? A literature review on the conceptual model of general trust formation

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minjiang Jia ◽  
Chunlin Wan
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Trade Fair ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
General Trust ◽  
Trust Formation ◽  
Trust Propensity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Business To Business

Purpose Considering that low-level general trust may hinder communication, this study aims to detect the factors that can influence general trust between exhibitors and visitors during business-to-business trade fairs. Design/methodology/approach Based on a literature review and stakeholders’ behavior analysis, a conceptual model of general trust formation between exhibitors and visitors is proposed. Findings The preconditions of strangers’ general trust patterns mainly include their early experience regarding trust, institutional trust in the environment and trust propensity. Stakeholders’ treatment, trust transfer, on-site restraints, reward and punishment expansion and on-site personnel arrangement may facilitate the formation of general trust between exhibitors and visitors. Research limitations/implications This paper is a conceptual article that requires further investigation to verify the main factors that influence general trust and the impact of general trust on other trust components between exhibitors and visitors. Practical implications Organizers, exhibitors and visitors should pay attention to participants’ selection, supervision, self-discipline and personnel management before and during trade fairs. International and small-scale, especially new trade fairs in developed and developing countries, must consider additional measures to improve general trust. Originality/value The existing literature has not focused on general trust in the trade fair context. In this paper, research on network and relationship marketing is further deepened in terms of a specific trust type. The interactions between stakeholders before and during fair may promote general trust among participants than in other settings, which partially explains why trade fair (even other two-sided markets) can increase social capital.

The effect of critical viewing on the critical writing skills of the translation studies students

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 88-113
Author(s):  
Dilara Demirbulak ◽  
Kübra Bodur
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Main Component ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Essay Test

Developing translation students’ critical writing skills is an important issue in academia since they are expected to be critical thinkers and contribute to the field of study. The most important precursor of critical writing is critical reading which is an active, probing, and recursive approach to interpret and use the information and ideas from the text. Meanwhile, keeping in mind the vast explosion of mass media products and technology, critical viewing is unavoidable serving the same purpose of hard-copy texts. Moreover, in recent years, the role of literature as the main component and material of its original texts has accelerated as a teaching of critical thinking and writing rather than a final goal. This paper aims to examine the effect of critical viewing and reading of literary texts on the critical writing skills of undergraduates of the Department of Translation and Interpreting. “Ennis - Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test”, designed by Ennis and Weir in 1985, was used to identify the impact of critical viewing and reading on critical writing skills. In this quasi-experimental study ANOVA, Kruskal- Wallis, and T-test were used to analyze the impact of critical viewing and reading on the critical writing skills of the 30 undergraduates.

scholarly journals Use of a Scaffolded Case Study Assignment to Enhance Students’ Scientific Literacy Skills in Undergraduate Nutritional Science Education: Comparison between Traditional Lecture and Distance Education Course Formats

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Jennifer M Monk ◽  
Genevieve Newton
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Traditional Lecture ◽  
Online Distance Education ◽  
Nutritional Science

We investigated whether the implementation of a scaffolded case study assignment could increase student perceptions of their scientific literacy (SL) skills in a third year Nutritional Science course.  The change in students’ SL perceptions were assessed by the completion of two surveys (administered at the start and end of the semester) consisting of questions probing a range of SL criteria relevant to undergraduate students.  Additionally, we determined if the change in student perceived SL over the semester i) was related to their learning approach (i.e. deep versus surface approaches), as assessed by the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire-2 (R-SPQ-2F), and ii) differed between course format, that is, in-class traditional lecture (LEC) and online distance education (DE).  The LEC students (n=179) showed improvements in all ten SL outcomes assessed over the course of the semester, whereas the DE students (n=71) showed improvements in only six of the ten parameters assessed, however, the DE course started with a higher assessment of baseline SL capabilities.  Additionally, the overall change in perceived SL capabilities was not associated with learning approach (i.e. surface or deep) in either class format.  These data demonstrate that case-based learning assignments can promote students perceived SL capabilities in both traditional lecture and distance education course formats.  

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