scholarly journals Undergraduate Students’ Conceptual Understanding on Abstract Algebra

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
. Risnanosanti ◽  
Yuriska Destania
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Abstract Algebra

scholarly journals Learning with Leaflet of Electronegativity (LoEN): Enhancing Students' Understanding on Electronegativity, Chemical Bonding, and Polarity

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68
Author(s):  
E. Erlina ◽  
C. Cane ◽  
D. P. Williams
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Chemical Bonding ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Classroom Discussion ◽  
Paired Sample ◽  
Full Color ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Relationship

Previous research has reported that many high-school and undergraduate students have difficulty explaining the relationship between polarity and electronegativity even though they may be familiar with the concept of polarity. This study aims to address these misconceptions using a leaflet and assess its effectiveness using questionnaires and concept testing.  A simple, colorful printable leaflet was produced and distributed to students in Indonesia. The Leaflet on Electronegativity (LoEN) provided students with an overview of the theoretical basis of the concepts and guidance on applying these principles. The leaflet format is cheap and easy to mass-produce, which is an important factor given the limited access to other types of appropriate learning resources in Indonesia. The leaflet formed the basis of a classroom discussion activity. Visualization is known to play an important role in constructing students' conceptual understanding, so the leaflet made extensive use of diagrams to explain relevant concepts. The leaflet was printed in full color to make it visually appealing and facilitate student learning. Students were tested before and after learning with the LoEN. A Paired-sample t-test using SPSS is used to compare the pretest and posttest scores to measure the effectivity of the LoEN.A statistically significant improvement in scores (p = 0.000) was achieved, which indicates that using the LoEN in the classroom helps students understand the topic. Also, students' positive responses signify that the LoEN provides an engaging way to learn the concepts.

Blended Learning & the Redesign of Psyc 100

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bawks Jordan ◽  
Sammy Boggs
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Group Learning ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Small Group Learning ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Traditional Lecture ◽  
Learning Labs ◽  
Course Material

A great deal of research has shown that lectures with large class sizes struggle to promote active learning resulting in poor knowledge acquisition and retention as well as limited conceptual understanding. Based on the benefits observed for blending learning models and small group learning in the literature, Introductory Psychology (Psyc 100) at Queen’s has recently undergone a massive redesign with the goal of improving the student experience.The structure of Psyc 100 has been changed from 3 hours of traditional lecture a week to 1 hour of lecture, 1 hour of online learning, and 1 hour of learning lab per week. The goal of this redesign is to increase student engagement through learning labs, grant more freedom to pursue the course material via interactive online tasks, and delve deeper into exciting and relevant topics with more in-depth lectures.The labs are specially designed with a student-centered approach that helps learners to engage with fellow students and the material through group discussions, quizzes, games, and debates. Upper year students majoring in Psychology comprise approximately 2/3 of the tutorial facilitators for these labs, which provide undergraduate students with an important opportunity to take a more active role in the Psychology department and develop a love for teaching.We will present the research behind this redesign, demonstrate how it has been incorporated into the new Psyc 100 curriculum, and share our experiences as student facilitators through the ongoing refinement of the course.

Explicit versus implicit similarity – exploring relational conceptual understanding in organic chemistry

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 924-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Graulich ◽  
Sebastian Hedtrich ◽  
René Harzenetter
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Substitution Reactions ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Large Molecules ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Research And Teaching

Learning to interpret organic structures not as an arrangement of lines and letters but, rather, as a representation of chemical entities is a challenge in organic chemistry. To successfully deal with the variety of molecules or mechanistic representations, a learner needs to understand how a representation depicts domain-specific information. Various studies that focused on representational competence have already investigated how learners relate a representation to its corresponding concept. However, aside from a basic connectional representational understanding, the ability to infer a comparable reactivity from multiple different functional groups in large molecules is important for undergraduate students in organic chemistry. In this quantitative study, we aimed at exploring how to assess undergraduate students’ ability to distinguish between conceptually relevant similarities and distracting surface similarities among representations. The instrument consisted of multiple-choice items in four concept categories that are generally used to estimate the reactivity in substitution reactions. This exploratory study shows that the item design for assessing students’ conceptual understanding influences students’ answering patterns. Insights and pitfalls gained from this investigation and future directions for research and teaching are provided.

A Digital Game for Undergraduate Calculus

2022 ◽  
pp. 645-661
Author(s):  
Yu-Hao Lee ◽  
Norah E. Dunbar ◽  
Keri Kornelson ◽  
Scott N. Wilson ◽  
Ryan Ralston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Digital Game ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Behavioral Tracking ◽  
Calculation Skills ◽  
Game Condition

This study has two goals: first, to investigate the effectiveness of using a digital game to teach undergraduate-level calculus in improving task immersion, sense of control, calculation skills, and conceptual understanding, and second, to investigate how feedback and visual manipulation can facilitate conceptual understanding of calculus materials. One hundred thirty-two undergraduate students participated in a controlled lab experiment and were randomly assigned to either a game-playing condition, a practice quiz condition, or a no-treatment control condition. The authors collected survey data and behavioral-tracking data recorded by the server during gameplay. The results showed that students who played the digital game reported highest task immersion but not in sense of control. Students in the game condition also performed significantly better in conceptual understanding compared to students who solved a practice quiz and the control group. Gameplay behavioral-tracking data was used to examine the effects of visual manipulation and feedback on conceptual understanding.

Usability evaluation of 3-D visualisations augmented by cartoons for teaching solids and crystal structures in chemical engineering

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Konstadina Dalacosta ◽  
Evangelia. A. Pavlatou
Keyword(s):  
Crystal Structures ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Zinc Sulphide ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Digital Material

In chemical engineering, undergraduate students often have to face the highly demanding process of understanding concepts from the microscopic level (e.g., ionic crystals such as zinc sulphide or covalent lattice crystals diamond, graphite, graphene etc.) and then explain with certain physical–chemical properties their macroscopic behaviour. Therefore, the main idea was to construct a specifically designed educational material that focusses on the benefits of viewing visualisations to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of solids and crystal structures augmented by cartoons, and evaluate its usability. The interactive ‘cartoons’ agents were developed from scratch, giving them freedom of movement and realism at the same time. A research was conducted in the School of Chemical Engineering in Greece (National Technical University of Athens), evaluated the usability of the digital material and the contribution of the 3-D visualisations and the cartoons agents in the understanding of such high-cognitive load concepts.Keywords: Cartoons, 3-D visualisations, crystal structures, chemical engineering.

scholarly journals Undergraduate Students’ Difficulties in Conceptual Understanding of Derivation

2014 ◽  
Vol 143 ◽  
pp. 358-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nourooz Hashemi ◽  
Mohd Salleh Abu ◽  
Hamidreza Kashefi ◽  
Khadijeh Rahimi
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding

scholarly journals The impact of visualization on flexible Bayesian reasoning

2017 ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Böcherer-Linder ◽  
Andreas Eichler ◽  
Markus Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
Base Rate ◽  
Bayesian Reasoning ◽  
Unit Square ◽  
Tree Diagram ◽  
Statistical Graph ◽  
The Impact

There is wide consensus that visualizations of statistical information can support Bayesian reasoning. This article focusses on the conceptual understanding of Bayesian reasoning situations and investigates whether the tree diagram or the unit square is more appropriate to support the understanding of the influence of the base rate, which is introduced as being a part of flexible Bayesian reasoning. As a statistical graph, the unit square reflects the influence of the base rate not only in a numerical but also in a geometrical way. Accordingly, in two experiments with undergraduate students (N = 148 and N = 143) the unit square outperformed the tree diagram referring to the understanding of the influence of the base rate. Our results could inform the discussion about how to visualize Bayesian situations and has practical consequences for the teaching and learning of statistics.

A Digital Game for Undergraduate Calculus

2019 ◽  
pp. 206-227
Author(s):  
Yu-Hao Lee ◽  
Norah E. Dunbar ◽  
Keri Kornelson ◽  
Scott N. Wilson ◽  
Ryan Ralston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Digital Game ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Behavioral Tracking ◽  
Calculation Skills ◽  
Game Condition

This study has two goals: first, to investigate the effectiveness of using a digital game to teach undergraduate-level calculus in improving task immersion, sense of control, calculation skills, and conceptual understanding, and second, to investigate how feedback and visual manipulation can facilitate conceptual understanding of calculus materials. One hundred thirty-two undergraduate students participated in a controlled lab experiment and were randomly assigned to either a game-playing condition, a practice quiz condition, or a no-treatment control condition. The authors collected survey data and behavioral-tracking data recorded by the server during gameplay. The results showed that students who played the digital game reported highest task immersion but not in sense of control. Students in the game condition also performed significantly better in conceptual understanding compared to students who solved a practice quiz and the control group. Gameplay behavioral-tracking data was used to examine the effects of visual manipulation and feedback on conceptual understanding.

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