<p> High school students in the United States for the past century have typically taken science courses in a sequence of biology followed by chemistry and concluding with physics. An alternative sequence, typically referred to as &ldquo;physics first&rdquo; inverts the traditional sequence by having students begin with physics and end with biology. Proponents of physics first cite advances in biological sciences that have dramatically changed the nature of high school biology and the potential benefit to student learning in math that would accompany taking an algebra-based physics course in the early years of high school to support changing the sequence. Using a quasi-experimental, quantitative research design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of science course sequencing on student achievement in math and science at a school district that offered both course sequences. The Texas state end-of-course exams in biology, chemistry, physics, algebra I and geometry were used as the instruments measuring student achievement in math and science at the end of each academic year. Various statistical models were used to analyze these achievement data. The conclusion was, for students in this study, the sequence in which students took biology, chemistry, and physics had little or no impact on performance on the end-of-course assessments in each of these courses. Additionally there was only a minimal effect found with respect to math performance, leading to the conclusion that neither the traditional or &ldquo;physics first&rdquo; science course sequence presented an advantage for student achievement in math or science.</p>

<p> Research has generally demonstrated that students enrolled in developmental mathematics courses are leaving these courses without achieving conceptual understanding and transferrable knowledge and skills. Such outcomes have challenged educators to incorporate instructional strategies that have the most significant effect on the success of students in developmental education courses, in particular reform-based practices for the teaching of developmental mathematics courses based on constructivism. However, there is little or no empirical information on which of these instructional strategies and designs are being used (and by whom), as well as on the frequency of use, perceived value or importance to learning, and instructors' beliefs in their ability to use these best practices. </p><p> This cross-sectional study was intended to fill this gap by examining the role of personal teaching efficacy and perceived usefulness in determining the use of reform-based practices by instructors teaching developmental mathematics at the postsecondary level. Data was collected from 160 developmental or remedial mathematics instructors at two- and four-year regionally accredited postsecondary institutions in the United States who responded to a Web-based survey. Multiple statistical methods were applied to analyze the data, including correlation and multiple regression analyses. </p><p> Findings indicated that personal teaching efficacy and perceived usefulness each has a significant positive correlation with the use of reform-based practices, with personal teaching efficacy having the stronger correlation. In addition, only personal teaching efficacy was statistically significant for the regression model. These findings suggest that activities to support the use of reform-based practices include ways to increase instructors' beliefs in their ability to use reform-based practices. Directions for future research should continue to focus on instructors' beliefs and attitudes toward the use of reform-based practices as a means for improving developmental mathematics instruction. </p>

<p> This research utilized an interpretive, multiple-case design to explore how fourth- and fifth-grade charter school students with high-incidence disabilities experienced instruction to participate in their annual IEP meetings and how they described their experiences of their meetings. Using student interviews, observations of the instruction and IEP meetings, review of instructional materials, and researcher-developed tools for students to self-record data, the study focused on <i>students'</i> perceptions of their experiences. Specifically, this research examined factors that motivated students to participate in their IEP meetings and factors that supported and impeded their participation. </p><p> A review of the literature revealed a wide gap around research on preparation of elementary students to participate in their IEP meetings. Much of the research on how best to involve students with disabilities in their educational programming has focused on student development and training in the context of transition planning, specifically with regards to self-determination skills (e.g., problem-solving, goal-setting, self-regulation). However, researchers have suggested that students in elementary grades may require adult support and monitoring, as well as contextual practice opportunities, in order to build self-efficacy in using these skills. </p><p> Results from the research are presented separately for each student and finally compared and contrasted across students. Findings were (a) students were primarily motivated to participate in their meetings out of a need to develop competence and mastery in their academic pursuits and (b) they perceived their teachers and mothers as critical supports in their efforts. Factors found to support and impede students' participation related to: accessibility of language and content, teachers' expectations for the students' participation, level of autonomy support students received, the extent to which students perceived their voices were validated, and the extent to which students' participation focused on strengths versus deficits. </p><p> The discussion provides an analysis of motivational, support, and impediment factors through a theoretical lens that integrates self-determination theory and self-efficacy theory. The discourse highlights the importance of autonomy support to enhanced student competence and ultimately to students' more active participation in their IEP meetings. Recommendations for future research, policy, and practice are provided.</p>

<p> Colleges all over the country struggle to assist underprepared students that are admitted with inadequate writing skills. Underprepared students entering a university have decided to pursue a college education, but because they are not ready for the writing demands of college, they are assigned to developmental courses, sometimes based on a single test score. They are novice writers and have yet to master the language, discourse patterns, and critical analysis that are typical of writing in the academic domain. They typically do not identify themselves as belonging to an academic community.</p><p> The challenge of all developmental writing courses is to help the students make the transition from being novices to being more practiced. Unfortunately, most developmental writing courses focus on grammar reviews. Instead, students need to build an identity as legitimate members of an academic community, with valued voices and the skills to communicate in a new domain.</p><p> Improving students&rsquo; dialogical interactions seemed to be the key. Underprepared students may come from backgrounds where dialogical interactions, the foundation of academic thinking and writing, have not been emphasized, either at home or in school.</p><p> This study explored the experiences of novice writers in a developmental freshman writing class in which dialogical interactions were the core of student activities. In this study, students participated in guided dialogical interactions exploring complex societal issues and practicing academic discourse structures. While learning about writing, they were also actively engaged in dialogues that advanced their understanding of how academics communicate. Bakhtin (1981), a Russian literary critic in the mid-twentieth century, defined dialogism as the foundation of human experience. People learn about the world, construct identities, and learn to navigate in different and unfamiliar domains by engaging in reflective conversation with others.</p><p> Results suggest that students&rsquo; confidence for academic writing and sophistication of some dimensions of epistemic belief improved after experiencing dialogical processes.</p>

<p> This study explores the factors that shape students&rsquo; experience with instructional choices in classroom-based settings, and the role of instructional choice design in positively influencing student engagement and the development of self-regulation skills among high school students who attend an urban high school in the Mid-Atlantic Region, referred to as Aspiration High School. A range of cultural, structural and human resource factors are found to have a limiting effect on students&rsquo; experience with quality instructional choices in school, and as a result, limits their opportunities to practice and develop the self-regulation skills necessary for navigating choices at levels of complexity that mirror the world beyond school (Winne &amp; Perry, 2000; Winne &amp; Hadwin, 1998; Winne, 2001). Teachers and students of Aspiration High School were surveyed to gather insights on their experiences of and perceptions on choice in learning. Two teachers engaged in a series of collaborative lesson design cycles that involved choice-based lesson design, implementation with observation, lesson debriefs, and student work analysis, as well as pre and post student interviews and focus groups. This study identified five elements of high-quality choice designs, and argues for quality choice design as an important mechanism for cultivating learner engagement (Katz &amp; Assor, 2007), developing interventions to support self-regulatory skill development among learners, and nurturing pedagogical shifts among teachers toward more learner-centered designs and practices.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the nine-step problem design process (Hung, 2009) to design a problem based learning course. I applied a descriptive case study approach to conduct design and development research (Richey &amp; Klein, 2007). The study was conducted in the Malaysian teacher education setting. In this study, I served both as the researcher and instructional designer of the course. The instructor also involved as co-designer. The student participants were 25 preservice teachers enrolled in a video production course. Various data sources were collected such as a designer log, extant data, surveys, and interviews. The findings indicated that the nine-step problem design process was somewhat suitable in the context of this study due to conditions such as decision-making power, existing materials, lack of knowledge, unclear information of the steps, and time. Therefore, it is recommended that designers have client buy-in when deciding which design model or processes to follow and have some content expertise and experience designing problem based learning. It is also important to have subject matter expert involvement when using the steps to design problem based learning. In regards of participants&rsquo; perceptions, the instructor had positive views toward problem based learning and indicated her intention to use it again in the future. However, the instructor felt that designing problem based learning was a challenging and time-consuming task. Overall, the students found problem based learning to be interesting but challenging in terms of completing the video competition and reflection tasks. For future research, performance data such as students&rsquo; achievement and problem-solving skills should be collected to inform the effectiveness of the problems developed by using the nine-step problem design process.</p><p>

<p> The ability to solve problems in creative and innovative ways is more critical than ever in today&rsquo;s rapidly-changing society. To support these demands, the educational curricula in the U.S. and other countries adopted engineering design as a learning platform to promote students&rsquo; creativity, communication and design skills, and innovative problem-solving abilities. When using engineering design, many educators use a variety of engineering design process models. However, little is known about the problem-solving processes in terms of design cognition. Therefore, in this study, the researcher examined the problem-solving patterns of students who engage in engineering design using a cognitive pattern approach. </p><p> This study was conducted as part of the NSF-funded Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) project for elementary science students&rsquo; grades three to six. The researcher adopted the sequential analysis method to identify students' problem-solving patterns. Sequential analysis is a statistical research method to detect behavioral or psychological patterns by analyzing repeated cognitive events. The researcher sampled a total of 48 Concurrent Think-Aloud (CTA)sessions to examine the statistical significance of the sequential analysis. Two coders independently conducted data coding using Halfin&rsquo;s codes and confirmed a high range of inter-rater reliability with 97.22 % overall agreements and .86 Kappa coefficients. </p><p> The first research question aimed to identify the common cognitive strategies used by elementary science students in engineering design. The researchers pooled 48 CTA sessions to investigate the common cognitive strategies. The results indicated that the students largely concentrated on idea generation (DE) and sketching (MO) while less emphasized on questioning (QH), predicting (PR), managing (MA), and analyzing (AN). Moreover, the researcher confirmed that the upper level graders showed higher frequencies of cognitive strategies than lower graders. </p><p> The second research question aimed to investigate the common problem-solving sequential patterns of the engineering design process. After pooling the 48 CTA sessions, the researcher analyzed the statistical significances of two-event sequential patterns using GSEQ software. The statistical analysis yielded 14 significant two-event sequential patterns at the right-tailed 0.05 level and two-sided z distribution. Using the significant sequential patterns, the researcher built a pattern-based design process model. The model illustrates various iterations between the problem and solution strategies. The iterations in the problem strategies showed recursive cycles between defining the problem, analyzing, and managing. The solution focused iterations often began with questioning and proceeded to designing and modeling or designing and predicting. Moreover, the pattern model shows that managing and questioning played a key role in bridging problem and solution strategies. </p><p> The third research question was to identify how the cognitive strategies vary by design tasks. The researcher compared eight engineering design tasks used in the SLED project and confirmed that the structure of design problems was associated with the students&rsquo; problem-solving strategies. The results of data analysis showed that the participant students commonly emphasized on <i>Designing</i> and <i>Modeling</i> strategies. However, the researcher found that the modeling-driven design tasks required accurate mechanical designing lead students&rsquo; high concentrations on the <i> Modeling</i> strategy. </p><p> The last research question was to identify the differences of cognitive problem-solving patterns by design tasks. The study analyzed eight engineering design tasks and each task pooled six CTA sessions. The results confirmed that higher graders&rsquo; design tasks showed more complicated design pathways than younger graders&rsquo; design tasks. Additionally, the researcher found that each design task yielded distinct problem-solving pattern models. </p><p> Based on these results, the researcher suggested that engineering and technology educators need to highlight the multiple pathways of the engineering design process. The results showed many alternative problem-solving pathways rather than the standardized process models. The researcher also proposed that when adopting an engineering design approach in elementary curriculum, the program developers need to align its design procedure with learners&rsquo; sequential patterns of the design process. Engineering design problems provide rich opportunities to develop the cognitive abilities of young students. Additionally, the researcher encourages engineering and technology education programs to adopt multiple design process models aligned with the corresponding design problem types.</p><p>

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Yes / This article discusses the data obtained from an online survey of academic staff who are involved in module design and who are employed within one university. The survey was used as a baselining tool to explore the nature of current module design practice within the survey sample. Do academics consistently employ the pragmatic approaches recommended by educational developers and theorists or is module and curriculum development a more informally constructed process? By comparing the initial findings of this project with survey and interview data produced by evidence-based projects, this article suggests that module design practice is not set in stone and that we need a deeper analysis of the process of module and curriculum design in terms of social practice and socio-cultural theory in order to gain a deeper understanding of it.

Yes / This paper discusses some of the qualitative data obtained from a small number (23) of semi-structured interviews of academic staff who are involved in module design, and who are employed within one UK university. Analysing the interview transcripts produced eight main themes. One of these themes was the perceived pressures or constraints on design. Using verbatim responses given by the interviewees, a discussion of the data used to illustrate this theme compares the findings of this project with those from the existing literature.