scholarly journals Impact of Practicing Mindful Breathing in Class

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lakshmi Rajkumar ◽  
Christine Dubowy ◽  
Ahmad Khatib
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Test Anxiety ◽  
Consistent Difference ◽  
Deep Breathing ◽  
Course Performance ◽  
Contemplative Practices ◽  
Breathing Techniques ◽  
Improve Student Performance ◽  
Exam Stress

Many community college students experience high levels of stress due to the demands of coursework and stressors outside of the classroom. Contemplative practices such as deep breathing can reduce stress and increase focus, but students may not be familiar with or feel that they have time to engage in these practices. We hypothesized that introducing students to mindful breathing in our accounting and biology classes would help students manage stress during the semester, reduce test anxiety, and improve student performance.   To test this hypothesis, we introduced some sections of our courses to mindful breathing techniques such as square breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and victorious breathing and set aside time at the start of each class to allow students to engage in these practices. At the end of the semester, we surveyed students to assess their past and present experiences with contemplative practices and their perceptions of the benefits of mindful breathing. We also asked students to rate their levels of exam stress and to rate the general feelings of stress they experienced during the semester, comparing their responses with responses from students in control sections that were not introduced to mindful breathing. The survey results indicated that mindful breathing was a new practice to some students and a familiar practice to others. Most students felt that the practice of deep breathing at the start of each class helped them reduce stress, develop a sense of connectedness, and improve focus. However, there was no consistent difference in self-reported exam stress or general stress between students in sections with and without in-class contemplative breathing. There was also no difference in course performance, as reflected by overall course grade, between sections with and without in-class contemplative breathing. Although it was not the focus of this study, we observed that in-class contemplative breathing practice seemed to improve the learning environment and helped build trusting relationships with students.   

scholarly journals Mixed results from a multiple regression analysis of supplemental instruction courses in introductory physics

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249086
Author(s):  
Eric Burkholder ◽  
Shima Salehi ◽  
Carl E. Wieman
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Physics Education ◽  
Supplemental Instruction ◽  
Biology Education ◽  
Introductory Physics ◽  
Physics Education Research ◽  
Course Performance ◽  
Improve Student Performance ◽  
Math Preparation ◽  
Positive Effect

Providing less prepared students with supplemental instruction (SI) in introductory STEM courses has long been used as a model in math, chemistry, and biology education to improve student performance, but this model has received little attention in physics education research. We analyzed the course performance of students enrolled in SI courses for introductory mechanics and electricity and magnetism (E&M) at Stanford University compared with those not enrolled in the SI courses over a two-year period. We calculated the benefit of the SI course using multiple linear regression to control for students’ level of high school physics and math preparation. We found that the SI course had a significant positive effect on student performance in E&M, but that an SI course with a nearly identical format had no effect on student performance in mechanics. We explored several different potential explanations for why this might be the case and were unable to find any that could explain this difference. This suggests that there are complexities in the design of SI courses that are not fully understood or captured by existing theories as to how they work.

An Exploratory Study of the Online Learning Environment

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia J. Khanlarian ◽  
Rahul Singh
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
It Use ◽  
Environment Impact ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Improve Student Performance ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Relevant Factors ◽  
Significant Factors

ABSTRACT Web-based homework (WBH) is an increasingly important phenomenon. There is little research about its character, the nature of its impact on student performance, and how that impact evolves over an academic term. The primary research questions addressed in this study are: What relevant factors in a WBH learning environment impact students' performance? And how does the impact of these factors change over the course of an academic term? This paper examines and identifies significant factors in a WBH learning environment and how they impact student performance. We studied over 300 students using WBH extensively for their coursework, throughout a semester in an undergraduate class at a large public university. In this paper, we present factors in the WBH learning environment that were found to have a significant impact on student performance during the course of a semester. In addition to individual and technological factors, this study presents findings that demonstrate that frustration with IT use is a component of the learning environment, and as a construct, has a larger impact than usefulness on student performance at the end of a course. Our results indicate that educators may benefit from training students and engaging them in utility of co-operative learning assignments to mitigate the level of frustration with the software in the WBH learning environment and improve student performance.

The Value of Handwritten Notes: A Failure to Find State-Dependent Effects When Using a Laptop to Take Notes and Complete a Quiz

2020 ◽  
pp. 009862832097989
Author(s):  
Roni M. Crumb ◽  
Ryan Hildebrandt ◽  
Tina M. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Note Taking ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Improve Student Performance ◽  
Teaching Implications

Background: Many students use laptops in the classroom to take notes; however, even when laptops are used for the sole purpose of taking notes they can negatively impact academic performance. Objective: The current study examined state-dependent effects, and the potential for a match in note taking and quiz taking methods to improve quiz performance. Method: Participants were placed into a congruent (take notes by hand and complete the quiz by hand or take notes using a laptop and complete an online quiz) or an incongruent condition (take notes by hand and take an online quiz or take notes using a laptop and complete the quiz by hand). Results: The results revealed that participants who took notes by hand performed better on the quiz overall, and better on conceptual questions, then students who took notes using a laptop. We failed to find evidence for state-dependent effects. Conclusions: The current study suggests that taking notes by hand may improve how students encode material, and result in higher quality external storage used by students when studying for quizzes. Teaching Implications: Reinforcing the notion that taking notes by hand may benefit quiz performance for lecture-style information and could improve student performance in class.

Refining Learned Repertoire for Percussion Instruments in an Elementary Setting

2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald M. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Dependent Measure ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Orff Schulwerk ◽  
Rehearsal Strategies ◽  
Percussion Instruments ◽  
Improve Student Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine teaching effectiveness in an elementary music setting using student achievement as a dependent measure. Because Orff Schulwerk instruction is one of the most prevalent pedagogies in elementary music education, this study examined the rehearsal strategies of recognized Orff Schulwerk teachers as they worked to refine learned repertoire for percussion instruments. Eight instructors and their upper elementary students were videotaped in four regular rehearsals each. Systematic analyses of rehearsal frames in which teachers were working to improve student performance revealed fast teacher pacing and a predominance of instructional directives that were procedural (e.g., where to begin playing) rather than musical (e.g., how to perform more accurately or expressively). The majority of students' performance problems were related to precision, often caused by rushing the underlying pulse. Instructional targets were most often related to technique. Students successfully accomplished proximal goals in 63 % of the performance trials in which the targets were verbalized by the teacher prior to performance and in 74 % of the performance trials when the targets were verbalized by the teachers while students were playing. Students were most successful when teachers used clear, explicit directives and positive modeling.

scholarly journals The Impact of Social Media & Messaging Application Utilization to the Learning Effectiveness (Higher Education Learning Effectiveness Through Social Media & Messaging Application)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 2112-2116
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Research Result ◽  
Research Unit ◽  
Learning Effectiveness ◽  
Improve Student Performance ◽  
Media Messaging ◽  
The Impact

Indonesian internet users reached 143,26 Million in 2017, most of them used internet for accessing messaging and social media application. We argue that usage of messaging and social media can give positive impact to the learning process. Our research method using questionnaire to collect data, research conduct in Private University in Jakarta, and student as our research unit analysis. The second year’s research shows that optimization of social media application and messenger services to improve student performance can be done by knowing the most common social media application and messenger services that used by student, socialize the process to increase number of participation, utilization of features of the application, continuous improvement, and communication about method’s success story that can attracts lecturer and students to apply and keep improve the more effective method and learning process. This research result can be use by the lecturer or educator to improve education through social media application and messenger.

To shelter or unshelter? An analysis of international students’ experience in introductory communication courses

2021 ◽  
pp. 174549992110596
Author(s):  
Aayushi Hingle ◽  
Rochelle Davidson Mhonde ◽  
Melissa Broeckelman-Post
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Public Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Group Presentation ◽  
Course Performance ◽  
Significant Interaction Effect ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
The Public ◽  
Significant Difference

The purpose of this study was to assess the degree to which sheltered versus unsheltered contexts of introductory communication courses impact communication skill development and overall learning outcomes for international students. Specifically, this study examined the following outcome variables: public speaking anxiety, engagement, communication mindset, communication efficacy, and student performance to investigate whether it is beneficial to sheltered international students in introductory courses. Results showed that there was no significant difference between groups for the public speaking anxiety, student engagement, or overall course performance, except for the final group presentation performance. However, there was a significant interaction effect for communication mindset and communication efficacy; students in sheltered sections saw increases in these outcomes over the course of the semester, while unsheltered students experienced the opposite.

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