As the number of college students studying science continues to grow, it is important to identify variables that predict their success. The literature indicates that motivation and learning strategy use facilitate science success. Research findings show these variables can change throughout a semester and differ by performance level, gender and ethnicity. However, significant predictors of performance vary by research study and by group. The current study looks beyond the traditional predictors of grade point averages, SAT scores and completion of advanced placement (AP) chemistry to consider a comprehensive set of variables not previously investigated within the same study. Research questions address the predictive ability of motivation constructs and learning strategies for success in introductory college chemistry, how these variables change throughout a semester, and how they differ by performance level, gender and ethnicity. Participants were 413 introductory college chemistry students at a highly selective university in the southeast. Participants completed the Chemistry Motivation Questionnaire (CMQ) and Learning Strategies section of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) three times during the semester. Self-efficacy, effort regulation, assessment anxiety and previous achievement were significant predictors of chemistry course success. Levels of motivation changed with significant decreases in self-efficacy and increases in personal relevance and assessment anxiety. Learning strategy use changed with significant increases in elaboration, critical thinking, metacognitive self-regulation skills and peer learning, and significant decreases in time and study management and effort regulation. High course performers reported the highest levels of motivation and learning strategy use. Females reported lower intrinsic motivation, personal relevance, self-efficacy and critical thinking, and higher assessment anxiety, rehearsal and organization. Self-efficacy predicted performance for males and females, while self-determination, help-seeking and time and study environment also predicted female success. Few differences in these variables were found between ethnicity groups. Self-efficacy positively predicted performance for Asians and Whites, and metacognitive self-regulation skills negatively predicted success for Other students. The results have implications for college science instructors who are encouraged to collect and utilize data on students’ motivation and learning strategy use, promote both in science classes, and design interventions for specific students who need more support.

Darbo autorius Rima Miglinienė Darbo tema Darbo rinkos mokymo programų įgyvendinimo edukacinių technologijų tyrimas Alytaus PRC Darbo rengimo vieta Lietuvos žemės ūkio universitetas. Profesinės pedagogikos ir psichologijos katedra. Kaunas, 2008 metai. Darbo apimtis 57 psl. Lentelių, paveikslų ir priedų skaičius 20 lentelių, 22 paveikslai, 3 priedai Naudotų literatūros šaltinių skaičius 41 Tyrimo objektas Darbo rinkos mokymo programų dalyvių edukacinės technologijos ir jų realizavimas. Tyrimo metodai Literatūros šaltinių analizė; Anketinė apklausa, skirta įvertinti besimokančiųjų atsakomybės prisiėmimą už mokymąsi bei mokymosi poreikių nustatymui.(sukurta tyrėjo pagal (Teresevičienė, Gedvilienė, Zuzevičiūtė, 2006)) Mokymosi stilių tyrimas (pagal David Kolb metodiką). Tyrimo rezultatai Įvertinus tyrimo rezultatus galima teigti, kad Alytaus PRC taikomos edukacinės (pedagoginės) technologijos atitinka besimokančiųjų poreikius. Suaugę besimokantieji pagal darbo rinkos mokymo programas yra skatinami kurti savo mokymosi strategijas, skatinama jų mokymosi motyvacija. Pasitvirtino tik antroji tyrimo hipotezės dalis (besimokantieji nekuria savo mokymosi strategijos). Jiems yra priimtina mokytojo sukurta mokymosi strategija. Tyrimais patvirtinta pirmoji hipotezės dalis (besimokantieji jaučiasi atsakingi už mokymąsi). Tarp besimokančiųjų vyrauja refleksyvaus stebėjimo mokymosi būdas ir išradingas mokymosi stilius. / Author of the work: Rima Miglinienė Topic of the work: Research of realization technoligies according to labour market teaching programmes in Alytus vocational training centre Preparation place of the work: Lithuania’s University of Agriculture. Departament of professional pedagogics and psychology Kaunas, 2008. Span of the work: 57 pages Work consists: 20 tables, 22 pictures, 3 annexes. Sources of the literature: 41 Object of the research: Educational technoligies and their realization with participants of labour market teaching programmes Methods of the research: Analysic of the sources of literature; Anestionaire for estimating students learning responsibility and determing their learning responsibility and determing their learning needs (created by the researcher according to Teresevičienė, Gedvilienė, Zuzevičiūtė, 2006); Research of learning styles (according to David Kolb’s methodics). Results of the reseach: The results of the research show possibility to state that educational (pedagogical) technologies in AVTC corespond to the needs of the students. Grown up learners who study according to the labours market teaching programmes are stimulated to create their own learning programmes and to motivate their learning. The research hypothesis affirmed only the second part. Student don’t create their own learning strategies. They accept the learning strategies created by a teacher. The first part wasn’t proved. Students feel responsibility... [to full text]

In this mixed-methods study I report on a three-part investigation related to reading intervention at Grade 1 in one Ontario school board during the 2009-2010 school year. First, I report the results that Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) had on the reading outcomes for all Grade 1 students (n = 436) in terms of sex, aboriginal status, and at-risk status. Second, I use progress monitoring benchmark data to show how students unresponsive to instruction may have benefitted from additional instruction generated from monthly data-informed In-School Team meetings. Third, I report on educators’ perceptions of how monthly data-informed In-School Team meetings influenced their knowledge, confidence, and willingness to plan additional reading interventions for students persistently at-risk for reading failure. Findings indicate that compared to previous years, when PALS was not used, students in this study made significantly greater gains in reading scores. Boys made similar gains to girls, First Nations students made similar gains to non First Nations students, and at-risk students closed the achievement gap slightly with their typically-achieving peers. For students who did not make adequate progress in reading throughout the year a logistic regression analysis of the data indicates that the best predictor of at-risk status is not a student’s sex or First Nations status, but their letter sound fluency and word identification fluency scores at the beginning of the school year. Findings also indicate that the slope of improvement in reading scores for nonresponders begins to increase once In-School Team meetings begin. Educators’ perceptions of how the monthly In-School team meetings influenced practice differed according to the perceived role that each held of his or her position, and according to the level of involvement, training, and access that each had to the data used in this study. The more professional development that educators had in the theory, use, and application of progress monitoring data the more likely they were to report that they were willing to use it to inform their practice. Likewise, the more access that educators had to the data in terms of collecting, viewing, and interpreting it, the more likely they were in reporting knowledge, confidence, and willingness to use it to plan additional interventions for students. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-13 10:03:09.664

This study, entitled “Understanding the Choice of Chinese Graduate Students’ English Learning Strategies in a Canadian Context,” explores the English learning strategies employed by six graduate students from China after their arrival in Canada, and documents and analyses changes in their learning strategies. These Chinese students encountered a change of language context because when in the unilingual Chinese environment they spoke Mandarin and upon their arrival in Canada, they were obligated to use English to communicate with Canadians and other international students. These students employed different English learning strategies in the Canadian context from what they were accustomed to in China. Thus, the researcher’s central objective in this study is to discover and document those changes in learning strategies and to investigate the factors accounting for the changes. In the process, the researcher aims to fill a gap in research exploring the learning strategies of Chinese students in foreign contexts, and create valuable new knowledge to benefit prospective Chinese international students, policy makers at the international universities, and English educators in China. The theoretical framework of this research is the qualitative co-constructivism paradigm along with narrative inquiry. Semi-structured interviews were used as the primary method of collecting data in this study, beginning with individual interviews, and followed by a focus group interview. The data collected through the interviews showed that the six participants’ reliance on the memory and cognitive strategies employed in China were abandoned in favor of utilization of compensation strategies and social strategies after moving to Canada. Furthermore, these participants were more open to making mistakes and taking risks during interactions with others in English. Moreover, these participants made these changes mainly because they desired to use the English-speaking environment in Canada to improve English proficiency. An important finding of my research is that their immersion in the English-speaking environment inspired these participants to employ different English learning strategies that led to significant improvement in their English proficiency.

The purpose of this study was to understand the differences of conscious constructive responses and shifting strategies with the goal of understanding reading comprehension while reading nonfiction, fiction, and poetry texts. This naturalistic diagnostic study uses a think-aloud methodology. The study examines verbal, retrospective, and recall reports from fifteen seventh-graders of varying reading abilities; good, average, and weaker from one private school in the Midwest. After collecting a total of ninety verbal reports in three sessions, verbal reports were scored according to level of conscious constructive responses. Retrospective reports were scored for shifting utilization. Recall reports were scored to identify a reading comprehension score that was correlated with strategies. Based on these results, it was evident that conscious constructive responses existed with seventh-grade readers regardless of ability and text type. There were differences between utilization with text type, but little differences with ability level. Shifting strategies were evident with seventh graders, but there were no significant differences when text type and ability level were taken into consideration. Two conscious constructive responses, relating text to text and relating text to prior knowledge, correlated with recall scores demonstrating an increase in reading comprehension. Two shifting strategies, making liberal interpretations and looking for useful information significantly improved reading comprehension. Findings support the model of constructively responsive reading (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). / Department of Elementary Education

This study explores patterns of language learning strategies and the degree of tolerance of ambiguity of Korean Naval Academy midshipmen. The subjects, 377 midshipmen, were divided into three groups according to class, major, and proficiency, and the results were analyzed by group. The study also sought to find out relationships between motivation, attitude, language learning strategies, and tolerance of ambiguity. For the study, the Strategy Inventory Language Learning (SILL for ESL/EFL) developed by Oxford (1990a) and the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale by Ely (1995) were used, along with items about motivation and attitude toward language learning.It was found that the language learning strategy mean and tolerance of ambiguity mean were not high overall. The proficiency levels showed significant mean differences: the high proficiency level students showed a significantly higher mean use of language learning strategies and tolerance of ambiguity than did the low and mid proficiency level students. With respect to class levels, there were no significant mean differences relating to language learning strategies. The seniors' mean of tolerance of ambiguity, however, was significantly higher than that of the other class levels. For major, there were no significant differences in the use of language learning strategies and tolerance of ambiguity. Correlations between tolerance of ambiguity and language learning strategies were significant and positive, although modest.The midshipmen's means of motivation and attitude were comparatively high. It was also found that while motivation showed a strong correlation with language learning strategies, attitude showed a strong correlation with tolerance of ambiguity. Through the analysis of six open questions, in addition, it confirmed that the Korean midshipmen generally did not use active strategies in learning English, although high proficiency level students used more than the mid or low proficiency ones. / Department of English

Lernende sind zunehmend herausgefordert ihren Lernprozess selbstständig zu steuern, zu organisieren und zu gestalten. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht von diesen Erwartungen aus und fragt nach den kreativen Prozessen in der Lerntätigkeit. Dazu wird eine kritische Prüfung von Lerntheorien hinsichtlich ihrer Berücksichtigung von Kreativität und Materialität unternommen. Durch Entwicklung eines Designbegriffs, der die scheinbar selbstverständlichen Techniken und Strategien im Lernalltag als Alltagsdesign erfasst, wird ein wenig berücksichtigtes Forschungsgebiet eröffnet, das in qualitativen Untersuchungen medienübergreifend analysiert wird. Die verschiedenen Aspekte des Alltags­designs in der Lerntätigkeit – die Einrichtung des Arbeitsplatzes, das Aufgabenmanagement, die Aufbewahrung und die Verarbeitung von Lernmaterial werden detailliert beschrieben und analysiert. Resultat ist eine gegenstandsbezogene Theorie des Alltags­designs in der Lerntätigkeit, die einen Beitrag zum Verständnis von Wissensarbeit als materiale Praxis liefert. / This thesis is a contribution to current debates about technology enhanced learning – namely “web 2.0” and “e-learning 2.0” where learners are expected to be active creators of knowledge. The figure of the learner as creative designer is addressed in this work, which concentrates on learners’ individual activity. The focus on the individual contrasts with many current studies about learning which center on collaborative aspects in knowledge building. First a review of learning theories is undertaken to examine their contributions to questions of materiality and creativity in learning activities. Turning to design research, a notion of design as practice is developed, which here complements and enhances current learning theories. Adopting notions of “use” and “user” the everydayness of design is reconstructed, leading to a conceptualization which is suitable to everyday activities of learners. From this everyday design perspective, the research question is formulated: How is learning activity accomplished as design activity? This question is tackled through several ethnographically oriented studies that focus on the individual everyday practices of students in their natural working environments. The analysis of the ethnographic data is developed using a Grounded Theory approach. A descriptive story is developed that analyzes arrangements of workplaces and objects, storage and task management, and the production of personal learning material as design. From these concepts four core aspects of everyday design in learning activities are developed: The design of the environment, “becoming designed”, designing oneself, and designing the design process. A model of the everyday design process is proposed which reveals both its creative and persistent side. The notion of everyday design in learning activities is an important concept to understand learners’ difficulties in knowledge building and to advance the development of learning strategies.

Traditionally, geometry at school starts on a formal level, largely ignoring prerequisite skills needed for formal spatial reasoning. Ignoring that geometry has a sequential and hierarchical nature causes ineffective teaching and learning. The Van Hiele theory postulates learner progression through levels of geometry thinking, from a Gestalt-like visual level through increasing sophisticated levels of description, analysis, abstraction, and proof. Progression from one level to the next does not depend on biolog~caml aturation or development only, but also on appropriate teachingllearning experiences. A higher thinking level is achieved through the application of a series of learning phases, consisting of suitable learning activities. The teacher plays an important facilitating role during this process. In accordance with the social cognitive learning perspective on self-regulated learning, geometry learners must direct their thoughts and actions while completing activities in order for effective learning to take place. Learners can be described as being selfregulated to the degree that they are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active in their own learning. The social cognitive theory assumes that students enter learning activities to acquire knowledge, learning how to solve' problems and completing learning activities. Self-regulated learners are aware of strategic relations between self-regulatory processes and learning outcomes and feel self-efficacious about using strategies. Self-regulation is similar to metacognitive awareness, which includes task and personal knowledge. Self-regulated learning requires that learners understand task demands, their personal qualities, and strategies for completing a task. A Van Hiele-based geometry learning and teaching program was designed (with a problem solving context in mind) and implemented in four Grade 7 classes (133 learners) at two schools. The study investigated factors and conditions influencing the effective learning and teaching of spatial concepts, processes and skills in different contexts. Results suggest that the implementation of a Van Hiele based geometry learning and teaching program in a problem solving context had a positive effect on the learners' concentration, when working on academic tasks, and level of geometric thought. The higher levels of geometric thought included higher categories of thought within these levels. Learners who completed the program reasoned on a higher level, ,gave more complete answers, demonstrated less confusion, and generally exhibited higher order thinking skills than their counterparts who did not take part in the program. The only prerequisite' is that the teacher should consistently teach from a learner-centered approach as the program will deliver little or no advantages if the program is presented in a teacher-centered content-based context. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.

This research was undertaken to determine the influence of a video class system on the strategic teaching and learning of school mathematics. A literature investigation served as a frame of reference for the planning, execution and assessment of the empirical investigation. Some of the approaches which have the greatest influence on the learning of school mathematics, namely the behaviourist, cognitive and constructivist approaches, are described and, where necessary, critically assessed. Factors which influence the learning of school mathematics are discussed in an interrelated manner and are used to identify the features of the strategic learning of school mathematics. It is then attempted to determine how teaching should take place to enable the strategic learning of school mathematics. To reach this objective, different approaches to the teaching of mathematics are discussed, based on approaches to the learning of mathematics, and the influence of these on the teaching of school mathematics is determined, based on the literature investigation. Different factors which influence the teaching of mathematics are identified and used to describe the characteristics of the effective teacher, who teaches mathematics for the strategic learning of the subject. The empirical investigation involved a quantitative as well as a qualitative investigation. In the quantitative investigation an actual experimental design with a pre-test and post-tests was used. Video recordings were made with one experimental group (video recording class) and delivered (played back) with another experimental group (video delivery class). The control group received conventional mathematics teaching. A quantitative field investigation was undertaken by means of an adapted LASSI-HS to establish the influence of the video class system used in the investigation on the study and learning strategies of the learners. In this way the influence on the strategic learning of mathematics could be determined. At the same time the influence of the video class system on the mathematics performance of the learners was established, in order to determine the extent of success of the use of the video class system. A qualitative investigation by means of an observation schedule, together with the analysis of video recordings of mathematics lessons, was used to determine the influence of the video class system on the teaching of mathematics. The video class system did not have a negative or a positive influence on the performance of either the video recording classes, the video delivery classes or the control classes of the schools who participated in the research. Neither did the video class system have a positive or a negative influence on the use of learning and study strategies (concerning mathematics) of the different class groups who participated in the research. That means that the video class system did not negatively influence strategic learning in learners who may use it. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

The objective with this research was to establish the correlation between problem solving and the teaching and learning of mathematics in grade 4. The results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed that South Africa is behind other countries in terms of the teaching and learning of mathematics, especially with regard to problem solving. Because problem solving is an integral part of the teaching and learning of mathematics, a literature study was conducted (1) to investigate the learning of school mathematics and (2) to describe the manner in which problem solving can take place in the classroom. The learning of school mathematics was studied by focusing on different approaches to the learning of mathematics. The constructionist approach to learning was identified as the appropriate approach towards learning, which correlates with outcomes-based education (OBE) and with the approach currently taught in South African schools. Factors which contribute towards the meaningful learning of school mathematics, namely mathematical knowledge and skills, meta-cognition, learning strategies and tasks and assignments in mathematics, have been discussed. The role of problem solving in the learning of mathematics was studied by means of a possible problem-solving model which may be developed together with the learners. The teaching of problem solving was investigated by referring to the planning of a problem-based lesson and attention was paid to the learning content of the lesson and the planning of the teaching-learning activities. Together with the learners a problem-solving model was developed for the teaching of problem solving. The implementation of the teaching of problem solving was described with reference to the use of big-group presentations as well as problem solving in small groups. Attention was also paid to problem solving, and the use of different assessment techniques was discussed. The empirical investigation was done by means of a case study, and the focus was firstly on the influence of problem solving on the learning of mathematics, and secondly on the manner in which problem solving may be taught. Information was collected during the qualitative investigation by using a questionnaire which was completed by the learners, as well as an interview and observation schedule. The class work, homework and group work books of the learners were studied and transcribed. Video recordings were made of the learners' participation in the big group, small groups and written work, and the transcribed information was used to make deductions about the teaching of problem solving to the learners. From the empirical investigation it became clear that there is a correlation between problem solving and the teaching and learning of mathematics. Problem solving may be taught to learners by means of a problem-solving model, although this does not necessarily result in successful problem solving by all learners. While learners are solving problems, they are also learning mathematical concepts and acquiring and applying mathematical skills. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.