Predicting practicum success

US-China

Education Review

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Volume 4, Number 2, February 2014 (Serial Number 33)

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US-China Education Review

A Volume 4, Number 2, February 2014 (Serial Number 33)

Contents Educational Practice

An Application of the Instructional Leadership Model at Schools in the Kachin Area of Myanmar 71

Khun Seng, Nathara Mhunpiew

Curriculum and Teaching

Predicting Teacher Candidates’ Success in Their Final School Practicum 77

Kim Calder Stegemann

The Study of the Learning Styles of Social Sciences Education Teacher Candidates

According to Different Variables 87

Sayime Erben Keçici, Elif Nur Bozer

The Effects of the Experiential Learning Strategy on Secondary School Students’

Achievement in Biology 96

Josephine Nwanneka Okoli, Okechukwu Sunday Abonyi

Social Media as Reflective Practice in Community Colleges 102

Margaret Shu-Mei Sass

Opportunities for Learning Support in Interactive E-learning Environments,

in Particular in the Fields of Mathematics and Physics 106

György Molnár, Dávid Sik

Teaching Mathematical Research 113

Jonny B. Pornel

The Basic Idea and Implementation Strategy of Effective Teaching 119

Jiang Xin-sheng, Fang Shuai

Junior Science Project—Developing Attention and Concentration Skills to Nurture a

Sustainable Learning of Natural Sciences 126

Flora Teixeira e Costa, Helena Pratas, Ana Paramés

The Effect of Different Feedback Methods Impact the Learning of Novice Badminton Forehand Serve in Fifth Grade Students 130

Chih-Yi Weng

US-China Education Review A, ISSN 2161-623X February 2014, Vol. 4, No. 2, 71-76

An Application of the Instructional Leadership

Model at Schools in the Kachin

Area of Myanmar

Khun Seng

The Kachin Central Education Leading Committee,

Myitkyina, Myanmar

Nathara Mhunpiew

Assumption University of Thailand,

Bangkok, Thailand

The model is created to develop instructional leadership with the purpose of promoting the quality of teaching and

learning and students’ achievement at schools in the Kachin area of Myanmar. Therefore, a development of an

instructional leadership model will be applied to prepare the Kachin students for the 21st century. Thus, five

projects, namely: (a) motivation for teachers and students; (b) managing teaching and learning; (c) developing

collaborative culture; (d) relationship with other countries and inside the country; and (e) professional development

for headmasters and teachers are created as an application of the model. The application is expected to prepare

students from the present situation to reach the 21st century paradigm within three years.

Keywords: instructional leadership model, the Kachin area of Myanmar, the 21st century

Introduction

The Kachin schools are situated in the northern part of Myanmar under the administration of the Kachin

Independence Organization (KIO). Centralization still dominates school administration in these areas, because

all school policies, including instruction, are controlled by the education officers and central education

department. Traditionally, management style is based on listening to the superior due to respect, and the

involvement of teachers and parents is limited in making decisions for schools. In addition, the Kachin schools’

leaders do not provide much instructional leadership due to being busy with teaching. This indicates that the

Kachin schools’ leaders might not know that instructional leadership develops vision of instruction; builds

relationship with teachers, students, parents, and other schools; empowers teachers for innovative instructions;

enriches teachers with new theories of instruction; and encourages teachers to provide feedback and share

practices (Jone, 2010). There are some other issues, such as poor instructional strategy and limited teaching and

learning materials, impair students’ achievement at schools in the Kachin area of Myanmar. Thus, students

work for just completing courses that focus on memorization rather than critical and creative thinking. Students,

on the other hand, have low motivation to learn in school because of families’ financial difficulty and

environment, in which educational incentive is poor. Furthermore, teaching profession is seen as a poor job in

the Kachin area of Myanmar, because those who depend on this profession have difficulties in surviving with

Khun Seng, Ph.D., director, The Kachin Central Education Leading Committee. Nathara Mhunpiew, Ph.D., lecturer, Graduate School of Education, Assumption University of Thailand.

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their salaries. This also makes teachers to have low motivation to their jobs. These are the main reasons that the

schools are unable to promote students’ achievement at schools in the Kachin area of Myanmar.

Theories and Researches Related

The instructional leadership model was created by relying on Transformational Leadership Theory and

Instructional Leadership Theory.

Transformational Leadership

Bass (1985) defined that transformational leadership includes the practices that enhance the level of

awareness about the importance and value of specified results. This leadership theory emphasizes actions and

process of behaviors that promote the motivation of followers to perform beyond what is usually expected of

them. Besides, this kind of leadership gives attention to the needs of followers and helps them reach their

highest potentialities (Northouse, 2010). Four factors of transformational leadership are applied for developing

the model: 1. Idealized influence is that followers are dragged and dominated positively by the leader who has

high moral standards and ethical behavior. As a result, leaders with idealized influence have a charisma and

provide followers with a sense of mission (Greiman, Larson, & Olander, 2007); 2. Inspirational motivation is

used by leaders who communicate with high expectations to followers through providing them with motivation

to commit to a shared vision of the organization. In practice, leaders apply symbols and heartfelt requests to

focus on followers’ efforts to obtain more than they would in their own self-interest (Northouse, 2010); 3.

Intellectual stimulation is shown by transformational leaders, and it includes that leaders should support

followers to be creative and innovative in problem-solving skills. This type of leadership encourages followers

to challenge their own beliefs and values (Greiman et al., 2007); and 4. Individualized consideration is that

leaders provide a supportive condition for their followers and show individualized consideration when they

perform as coaches and mentors, and motivate followers to reach their own goals and potential (Greiman et al.,

2007).

Instructional Leadership

Instructional leaders are paramount in promoting the quality of teachers’ instruction, the students’

achievement, and the degree of performance in school (Chell, 2011). They work with teachers in the

improvement of instruction by providing a school culture where all teachers and parents, including school

leaders, can work together for the best knowledge about student learning, and leadership in instructional

matters must be emerged from both teachers and school leaders (Woolfolk & Hoy, 2009).

As school leaders have responsibility for supporting the best instructional practices, they should shape a

partnership with teachers with the primary purpose of promoting teaching and learning (Woolfolk & Hoy,

2009), because the focus on student learning; instructional leadership includes direct or indirect behaviors that

affect teacher instruction and the results of student learning (Gupton, 2010). This suggests that instructional

leaders may be required to spend time in classroom as colleagues and engage teachers in conversations about

learning and teaching and to work with teachers in the improvement of instruction by providing a school

culture and condition where teachers can learn from each other for the improvement of teaching quality

(Woolfolk & Hoy, 2009). However, schools’ outcomes are shown better, including students’ test scores

obtained if school leaders spend more time on school management activities (Wilson, 2011). Consequently, the

instructional leadership is enlarged to pay attention to both instructional and non-instructional tasks by


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balancing the administrative role and instructional role. Besides, viewing leadership in terms of what it enables

others to do will be effective in promoting student achievement. Meanwhile, the characteristics of instructional

leadership is as a facilitative leadership that empowers others and a more effective approach in engaging staff

(MacNeill, Cavanagh, & Silcox, 2003).

An Application of Instructional Leadership Model

The model is taken from Seng (2013), which has one circle and five arrows (see Figure 1). The circle

which is surrounded by arrows represents the final outcome of this model, and the five arrows indicate the

issues that need to be developed in the Kachin schools in order to obtain the final outcome of student

achievement. The objectives of applying instructional leadership model in the Kachin schools are to help: (a)

promoting motivation of teachers and students; (b) promoting the quality of teaching and learning and changing

paradigm of teacher-centered to student-centered; (c) reducing power distance and sharing leadership matters

together by headmasters and teachers; (d) promoting student achievement; (e) increasing the involvement of all

stakeholders, including parents in teaching and learning; (f) preparing students for the 21st century and

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) community; and (g) promoting professional development of

teachers and headmasters.

Figure 1. An instructional leadership model for schools in the Kachin area of Myanmar.

In order to achieve the objectives of this model and to tackle problems in the Kachin schools, the

application of this model will be conducted by five projects as follows.

Project (1): Motivation for Teachers and Students

Purpose: Motivation intends to strengthen teachers to have more passion on their jobs and to help them

reach their highest potentialities. Besides, motivation aims to increase students’ learning and to provide

students with opportunities to initiate and direct their own learning.


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Time: The time needed for this project is one year.

Benefit: The project can be beneficial to schools, teachers, and students.

Activities: Activities include providing teachers enough salaries and incentives, using new approaches and

innovative ways of dealing school issues, designing school programs in terms of students’ interests and needs,

and giving students positive feedbacks and opportunities to initiate and direct their own learning.

Evaluation: This can be conducted by distributing, for example, questionnaires to teachers and students,

and by conducting meeting for evaluation if necessary.

Possible difficulty: Financial difficulty might be encountered to provide teachers with enough salaries.

Project (2): Managing Teaching and Learning

Purpose: This project aims to promote the quality of teaching and learning, to provide students with the

21st century skills and knowledge, and to prepare students for the 21st century outcome.

Time: This project will need one year.

Benefit: This project can be mainly beneficial to students and teachers, including schools.

Activities: Activities include upgrading curricula and instruction, using the 21st century skills and

knowledge in supporting teaching and learning, evaluating objectives of teachers, giving teachers a clear

responsibility for coordinating curricula, and supporting technology and up-to-date instructional materials to

promote the quality of teaching and learning.

Evaluation: This could be done by assessing students’ knowledge and skills, including teachers’

competencies in teaching.

Possible difficulty: Supporting technology and up-to-date instructional materials might be difficult for the

Kachin schools.

Project (3): Developing Collaborative Culture

Purpose: This project aims to reduce power distance, to increase sharing leadership matters, and to obtain

more collaboration in promoting the quality of teaching and learning.

Time: The time needed for this project is about six months.

Benefit: This project can be beneficial to school leaders and teachers, including students.

Activities: Activities include establishing multiple forms of teams, involving all teachers in decision

making, creating autonomous and positive team working environment, and increasing the involvement of all

stakeholders.

Evaluation: This can be done by distributing feedback forms to teachers and stakeholders and conducting

meeting for evaluation.

Possible difficulty: The Kachin schools’ leaders and teachers may not be accustomed to sharing leadership

matters and collaborating school works due to long-term dominance of high power distance.

Project (4): Relationship With Other Countries and Inside the Country

Purpose: This project intends not only to promote the relationship of school, but also to increase the

relationship with other institutions, experts, and educators.

Time: The time needed for this project is about one year.

Benefit: The project can be beneficial to schools, school leaders, and teachers.

Activities: Activities include linking between different countries, making educational network, and using

media, up-to-date technology, and two-way communication with teachers and all stakeholders of the school.


75

Evaluation: Conducting meeting and reviewing relationship can be done for evaluation.

Possible difficulty: Language barrier and using media and up-to-date technology might be difficult for the

Kachin schools.

Project (5): Professional Development for Headmasters and Teachers

Purpose: This project aims to promote the professional development of teachers and headmasters and to

enhance student achievement.

Time: Time needed for this project is three years.

Benefit: The project can be beneficial to headmasters and teachers, including students.

Activities: Activities include promoting the abilities of headmasters and teachers, giving training for

up-to-date skills and knowledge, developing headmasters to have high morality and ethics, sending teachers for

further study, supporting professional materials and resources, and facilitating technology for searching new

knowledge.

Evaluation: This includes assessing the competency of teachers and headmasters and looking at the

schools’ outcomes.

Possible difficulty: The financial and material supports might be difficult for the Kachin schools.

Conclusions

The activities that described in the five projects are the priority of improvement according to the needs of

the Kachin schools, and the rest of improvements are already developed in the Kachin schools. These

improvements are maintained as a continuous improvement for the Kachin schools. The five projects can be

accomplished within three years in the Kachin schools. This means that if the Kachin schools conduct the five

projects properly, they can prepare students from the present situation to the 21st century paradigm within three

years. Besides, the objectives of applying this model can be achieved and the problems in the Kachin schools

can be obviated by conducting the five projects as previous mentioned. In addition, the five projects, such as

motivation for teachers and students, managing teaching and learning, professional development for

headmasters and teachers, developing collaborative culture, and relationship with other countries and inside the

country are the priorities of development for the Kachin schools, and they are also the characteristics of

instructional leadership. This suggests that if the Kachin schools apply the model successfully, student

achievement is expected to be increased accordingly (Gupton, 2010; Sharma & Roy, 1996; Weber, 1996;

Woolfolk & Hoy, 2009; Blasé, 2004; Northouse, 2010).

References Bass, M. B. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, N.Y.: The Free Press. Blasé, J. (2004). Handbook of instructional leadership: How successful principals promote teaching and learning. Thousand Oaks,

C.A.: Corwin Press. Chell, J. (2011). Introducing principals to the role of instructional leadership: A summary of a master’s project. Retrieved

February 2, 2011, from http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/research/leadership/95-14.htm#toc Greiman, C. B., Larson, G. T., & Olander, R. K. (2007). Preferred leadership style of agricultural education teachers: An

expression of epistemological beliefs about youth leadership development. Journal of Agricultural Education, 48(4), 93-105. Gupton, L. S. (2010). The instructional leadership toolbox: A handbook for improving practice. London: Crown A Sage

Company. Jones, D. R. (2010). Leadership quadrant D leadership practices. New York, N.Y.: International Center for Leadership in

Education.


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MacNeill, N., Cavanagh, R., & Silcox, S. (2003). Beyond instructional leadership: Towards pedagogic leadership. Retrieved from http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/mac03415.pdf

Northouse, G. P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. London, U.K.: Sage Publications. Seng, K. (2013). A development of instructional leadership model for schools in the Kachin area of Myanmar (Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand). Sharma, B., & Roy, J. A. (1996). Aspects of the internationalization of management education. Journal of Management

Development, 15(1), 5-13. Weber, J. (1996). Leading the instructional program. In S. Smith., & P. Piele (Eds.), School leadership (pp. 253-278). Eugene,

Oregon: Clearinghouse of Educational Management. Wilson, D. (2011). The importance of educational leadership and policy: In support of effective instruction. Orlando, F.L.: Center

for Innovative Education and Prevention and BrainSMART, Inc.. Woolfolk, A. H., & Hoy, K. W. (2009). Instructional leadership: A research-based guide to learning in schools. New York, N.Y.:

Pearson.


Predicting Teacher Candidates’ Success in

Their Final School Practicum

Kim Calder Stegemann

Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, Canada

Every year, the teacher education program at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) deals with teacher candidates

who are unsuccessful in their final school practicum. To tease out potential factors of success and failure, we have

collected and analyzed scores on the four intake components: incoming grade point average (GPA), letter of intent,

writing sample, and interview. Through statistical analyses, we have determined a number of significant

relationships, among these being a connection between intake interview scores and success on the practicum. These

findings have influenced our intake procedures and methods of mentoring, scaffolding, and supporting our teacher

candidates throughout our 2-year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) program.

Keywords: pre-service teacher education, admission procedures, predicting practicum success

Introduction

Teacher education programs have an enormous responsibility to produce the most qualified and

dedicated teachers to meet the challenging needs of children in today’s public schools. For the benefit of

school-aged children, teacher education programs must act as “gatekeepers” (Caskey, Peterson, & Temple,

2001), recruiting the most capable students and denying those whom are unsuitable for the profession

(Kosnik, Brown, & Beck, 2005). Some of the impetus for this practice has come from the No Child Left

Behind Act in the United States, which calls for heightened teaching standards and initiates means to

increase the number of trained teachers (particularly to teach in difficult-to-staff schools) (Boyd, Grossman,

Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2008). In order to fulfill these objectives, teacher education programs must

continually re-evaluate their intake procedures, program effectiveness, and graduating criteria

(Darling-Hammond & Baratz-Snowden, 2007). The Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) program at TRU

(Thompson Rivers University) has undertaken such a review process. One particular component of this

re-evaluation is to determine the intake factors which best predict success in the field experience (practicum).

In this paper, the author described the intake process and reported on the relationships between these scored

intake measures and practicum scores.

To begin with, the author discussed teaching standards and the necessary skills, attitudes, and knowledge

for incoming teacher candidates. She followed this with an overview of intake practices in Canada, with

particular reference to teacher education programs in the far western provinces. She also included findings from

previous studies that identified relationships between intake variables and student teaching success. Then, she

Kim Calder Stegemann, Ph.D., assistant professor, Faculty of Human, Social, and Educational Development, School of

Education, Thompson Rivers University.

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described the study and its findings. Finally, she concluded with a discussion of proposed changes to intake

procedures, teacher candidate supports, and areas for future research.

Literature Review

Teaching Standards—Essentials for Success as a Beginning Teacher

Various provincial ministries of education have outlined the necessary skills, attitudes, and knowledge that

pre-service teachers must demonstrate upon graduation from a teacher education program. While there is not

always consensus about these criteria, common themes include commitment to students and student learning,

teaching practice, leadership, and on-going professional development (Ontario College of Teachers, 1999;

British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2012). Casey and Childs (2007) synthesised these qualities into four

areas: content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge (how children learn, lesson planning, assessment, and

instructional strategies), pedagogical skills (putting the pedagogical knowledge into practice, which requires

communication skills), and attitudes (caring, fairness, enthusiasm, dedication to teaching, and motivation).

While teacher education programs should address these areas by providing course work and field

experiences that develop these skills, attitudes, and knowledge bases, some would argue that potential teacher

candidates must possess certain knowledge and dispositions before entering a program. As Denner, Salzman,

and Newsome (2001) pointed out, there was limited time in teacher training programs to develop and change

attitudes and values unless applicants already possessed some of the necessary dispositions. Therefore, a new

teacher graduate is the product of both the learning and experience acquired during the program and

dispositions and knowledge which they bring into the training program. In order to graduate the most capable

teachers (vis-à-vis contemporary teaching standards), teacher education programs must carefully select

candidates and then provide a rich program that will develop and enhance the necessary skills, attitudes, and

knowledge bases. It continues to be a challenge for researchers to identify reliable and efficient methods of

assessing personal qualities, dispositions, and aptitudes (Caskey et al., 2001).

Current Intake Procedures and Predictive Value

Mikotovics and Crehan (2002) found that most B.Ed. programs use grade point average (GPA) as the

primary entrance determiner. Some institutions also include one or all of the following: a written essay

component (Casey & Childs, 2007; Caskey et al., 2001), an interview (Malvern, 1991), and/or letters of

reference (Caskey et al., 2001). Four of the five largest universities in Alberta and British Columbia

(Universities of Calgary, Edmonton, British Columbia, and Victoria) use GPA as the primary requirement for

admission. Supporting materials, such as letter of intent, reference letters, and list of experience with children

may also be required to complete the application. For these large institutions, the sheer volume of applicants

prohibits more in-depth intake procedures, such as interviews or scoring of the supporting materials.

Various researchers have determined the statistical predictive value of different intake components. Single

factors, such as GPA or academic achievement alone, have been found by some researchers to be poor

predictors of success in the practicum (Lawrence & Crehan, 2001; Salzman, 1991) or of future teaching success

(Byrnes, Kiger, & Shechtman, 2003). Byrnes et al. (2003) and Haberman (1987) reported a strong relationship

between intake interviews and success on the practicum. Caskey et al. (2001) found that reference letters and a

writing sample were related to overall teaching success (r = 0.40 and 0.30 respectively). In some cases, a

combination of intake variables predicted success on the field experience component of the B.Ed. program. For


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example, Caskey et al. (2001) accounted for 38% of the variance of success on the practicum combining four

different intake scores (correlations: overall application, r = 0.03; group problem solving activity, r = 0.20;

GPA, r = 0.11; personal statement, r = 0.16). Still, other researchers have identified relationships between

intake factors and specific aspects of teaching skills, which are evaluated during the field experience. For

example, Salzman (1991) found that only planning was significantly related to GPA (r = 0.22), while classroom

procedures and interpersonal skills had insignificant correlations (r = 0.19 and 0.13 respectively). Calder’s

(2010) study reported that a model combining interview scores, GPA, and letter of intent accounted for

approximately 21% of the variance.

In summary, teacher education programs strive to select candidates who are best suited for a career in

teaching. Intake procedures must be rigorous and effectively identify those qualities that will lead to attainment

of teaching standards. While many education programs in Western Canada use GPA as the primary criterion for

admission, numerous studies have revealed that various factors can, to differing degrees, better predict success

in student teaching. In some cases, these factors are correlated with only specific aspects of the practicum

experience, such as planning or classroom management.

The B.Ed. program at TRU has undertaken a review of its program and intake procedures with the goal of

graduating the most highly qualified students to enter the teaching profession. In this paper, the author

examined the relationship between intake variables (GPA, letter of intent, interview, and spontaneous writing

sample) and various teaching skills and dispositions measured on the final field experience/practicum

(communication, planning, instruction, assessment and evaluation, management, professionalism, reflection,

and writing).

Methods

Design and Participants

This paper (based on a larger study) utilizes correlation and regression analyses for data collected at the

beginning and near the end of the 2-year post-degree B.Ed. program at TRU. This program has an elementary

school focus and admits approximately 50 teacher candidates per year. The majority of students are from local

area or surrounding school districts and municipalities with an average age at entry of 28 years. Twenty-six

percent of the teacher candidates have dependents at home and the gender balance is 20:80 (male:female),

which has remained relatively stable since 2003. The majority of our teacher candidates have subject majors in

social studies (53%) and English (26%). Science and Fine Arts are the next two largest groups (10% and 7%

respectively). The data sample includes over 200 graduates from 2008-2011 graduation years.

Data Collection

Data were collected at three different points during the program: intake, during the program, and upon

graduation.

Intake. Applicants are evaluated based on four components: undergraduate GPA (minimum 2.7 for

required courses), letter of intent, spontaneous writing sample, and a panel interview (Letters of references and

100 hours of experience with school-aged children are not scored, but must be acceptable in order for the

application to be considered further). The letter of intent is a 300-word essay, in which a student states his/her

reasons for entering the teaching profession and also describes a significant experience that he/she had with a

school-aged child. The letter of intent is evaluated for both content and writing quality, each worth five points


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and scored by two reviewers (typically full-time faculty) using a scoring rubric. When there is a difference of

over two points (out of 10) between reviewers, a third reviewer evaluates the letter of intent and a composite

average is calculated.

Applicants are invited on-campus to participate in a panel interview and complete a spontaneous writing

sample. The interview is approximately 15 minutes in duration, during which a panel of a mix of three teachers

and university instructors or field supervisors pose seven questions (five points each). The questions include

topics that reflect the dispositions and skills reflected in the British Columbia teaching standards (British

Columbia Ministry of Education, 2012), as well as key values of this program—interest and care of children,

interpersonal skills, flexibility, and attitudes toward diversity. Each panel member scores every

question/response using a pre-set scoring rubric. Where there are discrepancies of over two points per question,

panel members consult to explain their reasoning. At that point, each member may adjust their score; however,

this is not necessary. A final score is still calculated by averaging the scores from all the three panel members

(Panel members and those scoring the letter of intent participate in training sessions prior to the application

review process. The interview training includes role-playing to practice using the scoring rubric).

After the interview, applicants then proceed to the spontaneous writing task where they are presented with

a scenario and are asked to respond in approximately 500 words within a 40-minute time frame. The scenario

typically requires the applicants to present arguments for two sides of a current issue in education. Then, two

faculty members using a rubric that evaluates both content and writing mechanics, each worth five points, score

the writing sample. Where there is a discrepancy of over two out of 10 points overall, a third evaluator scores

the sample and an average is calculated.

Since this program began in 2003, different formulae were used to calculate final scores and rank

candidates. For several years, a weighting of GPA (40%) and letter of intent, interview, and spontaneous

writing sample (60%) was used. Most recently, based on Calder’s findings (2010), the weighting was adjusted

to interview (40%) and GPA, letter of intent, and spontaneous writing sample (60%). This change was made

because that the interview was correlated with more aspects of practicum success than any other intake

measures.

During the program. During the first semester, students were surveyed to collect information about the

number of hours per week, they participate in paid employment, as well as ask about the number of dependents

in their care. Other data are collected after the extended practicum, which is in the fourth and final semester of

the program. Each faculty mentor completes a scoring sheet, which quantifies a student’s skill in eight areas: (a)

communication and relationships with students; (b) planning (unit and lesson planning, daily preparation); (c)

instructional skills; (d) effective use of assessment and evaluation; (e) classroom management; (f)

professionalism (code of conduct, deportment); (g) reflective practice; and (h) writing. Each area is scored out

of five points for a total possible score of 40 points (total score (T)). The first five skills—which are more

skill-based and specific to instruction (skills sub-score (SK))—are subtotalled out of 25 and the last

three—related to professional dispositions (PD)—are subtotalled out of 15. The scoring sheet is for research

purposes only; teacher candidates never see the form and the information does not become part of their student

files. The skills and dispositions on the scoring sheet mirror the actual final practicum evaluation form that is

used to determine if a teacher candidate has the minimum competencies to “pass” the practicum.

Graduation. Teacher candidates must complete an exit portfolio and presentation as a requirement of

graduation. The registrar’s office provides the final calculated GPA for each teacher candidate.


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Data Analysis and Results

Correlation

The first step of the analysis was to convert all raw scores to standard scores and then determine the

correlation between the various data points (see Table 2) (Table 1 lists the descriptive statistics of the raw

scores). There were a number of significant relationships. GPA was significantly positively correlated to the

letter of intent (r = 0.155, p = 0.025, and n = 210), spontaneous writing sample (r = 0.293, p = 0.000, and n =

211), and one specific teaching skill—planning (r = 0.195, p = 0.0063, and n = 196). The letter of intent was

significantly related to the spontaneous writing sample (r = 0.292, p = 0.000, and n = 210) and the instructional

skills (r = 0.188, p = 0.009, and n =195) component of the practicum scoring sheet.

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics

Data point N Min. Max. X (SD) Skewness (SE) Kurtosis (SE)

GPA/4.33 211 2.45 4.18 3.21 (0.36) 0.41 (0.17) -0.50 (0.33)

Letter of intent/16 210 7.20 16 12.57 (1.68) -0.38(0.17) -0.04 (0.33)

Spontaneous writing/5 211 1.88 5 3.60 (0.66) 0.05 (0.17) -0.36 (0.33)

Interview/10 210 4.50 10 7.67 (1.07) -0.17 (0.17) 0.08 (0.33)

Communication 196 2 5 4.18 (0.71) -0.36 (0.17) -0.62 (0.35)

Planning 196 1 5 4.12 (0.90) -0.76 (0.17) -0.07 (0.35)

Instructional skills 196 1 5 4.06 (0.79) -0.54 (0.17) 0.16 (0.35)

Assessment 196 1 5 3.88 (0.80) -0.44 (0.17) 0.48 (0.35)

Management 196 1 5 3.99 (0.87) -0.57 (0.17) -0.08 (0.35)

Professionalism 149 3 5 4.45 (0.62) -0.66 (0.20) -0.51 (0.40)

Reflection 149 2 5 4.27 (0.74) -0.70 (0.20) -0.18 (0.40)

Writing 149 1 5 4.09 (0.81) -0.71 (0.20) 0.57 (0.40)

Total/40 (T) 149 16 40 33.01 (4.71) -0.71(0.20) 0.56 (0.40)

Five key skills/25 (SK) 199 8 25 20.32 (3.34) -0.69 (0.17) 0.45 (0.35)

Professional dispositions/15 (PD) 149 7 15 12.82 (1.71) -0.76 (0.20) 0.49 (0.40)

Of particular interest was the relationship between the spontaneous writing sample and writing skills

demonstrated during the practicum. The B.Ed. program has kept the spontaneous writing component of the

intake procedure, despite its labour-intensive nature, in order to ensure a minimum level of writing competency.

As well, the writing skills component was added to the practicum scoring sheet in 2009. Like other teacher

training programs (i.e., Denton, Davis, Capraro, Smith, Beason, Graham, & Strader, 2007), we continually have

teacher candidates who enter the program with high GPAs but do not demonstrate commensurate written

expression skills in course or field work. The statistically significant relationship between these two measures

(spontaneous writing sample and the writing skills portion of the practicum scoring sheet) helps to support the

reliability and validity of the spontaneous writing component of the intake protocol (r = 0.162, p = 0.049, and n

= 149).

As reported by Calder (2010), the interview has the most statistically significant relationships to practicum

skills, above all other intake variables. In the current analysis, the interview was positively related to

communication (r = 0.186, p = 0.009, and n = 195), instruction (r = 0.152, p = 0.034, and n = 195), class


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management (r = 0.216, p = 0.002, and n = 195), and professionalism (r = 0.181, p = 0.028, and n = 149). The

interview was also significantly related to the SK practicum skills sub-score (total out of 25) (r = 0.194, p =

0.007, and n = 195). Interestingly, however, the interview had negative relationships with reflection, writing

skills, and GPA, although, none was statistically significant.

Predictive Power

The next analysis was to determine the predictive power of intake variables to specific aspects of the

practicum and the sub-score (SK and PD) and overall score (T) (see Table 2). Several models were

statistically significant but had limited predictive power. All of these models had individual coefficients with

significant predictive power; however, the interview variable was the only coefficient appearing in all

significant models. For example, the interview was the only significant coefficient in the model using GPA,

letter of intent, interview, and spontaneous writing scores for predicting success on classroom management

(p = 0.004) and the combined SK (p = 0.009). This model was statistically significant to predict classroom

management (p = 0.032) and SK (p = 0.035), however, the variance was only 5% in each case (R2 = 0.054

and 0.053 respectively). In addition to the interview, GPA and letter of intent were significant or

near-significant coefficients when predicting planning (GPA, p = 0.011; interview, p = 0.057) and

instructional skills (letter of intent, p = 0.034; interview, p = 0.043). Both formulae were statistically

significant (p = 0.043 and 0.014 respectively), for planning and instructional skills with the power ranging

from 5%-6% (R2 = 0.051 and 0.064 respectively). Removing any combination of GPA, letter of intent, or

spontaneous writing sample, did not significantly improve the predictive power of the models. For example,

without the letter of intent and spontaneous writing variables, the power to predict planning skills increased

from 5% to 6%, with both GPA and the interview being significant coefficients (p = 0.012 and 0.026

respectively).

The last analysis was to try different weighting formulae (see Table 2). Recall that our program currently

uses a weighting formula of interview (40%) and GPA, letter of intent, and spontaneous writing sample (60%).

The current analysis accounted for only 5% of the variance when predicting the combined SK sub-score (p =

0.000), with both groupings—interview (40%) and the GPA/letter of intent/spontaneous writing (60%)—being

statistically significant coefficients (p = 0.000 and 0.005 respectively). Increasing the weighting of the

interview to 60% and lowering the other components to 40% yielded a statistically significant formula to

predict success on the five key practicum skills (SK), but did not increase the predictive power (5%). Finally,

we increased the weighting of the interview to 80% and lowered the remaining combined measures to 20%.

This resulted in numerous statistically significant models to predict individual component sub-scores (SK and

PD), and the total practicum score (T) (as with the 60-40 weighting), however, the predictive power was not

improved.

Summary

A review of the various correlations confirmed the relationship of several intake data points to specific

aspects of the practicum. GPA was significantly related to success in planning and the letter of intent, which are

significantly related to instructional skills. The spontaneous writing sample was significantly correlated to

writing skills demonstrated during the practicum. The interview had numerous significant

relationships—communication, planning, instruction, class management, and with the SK sub-score. Both the

interview and GPA were significant predictive coefficients in many of the statistically significant models and


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accounted for up to 6% of the variance, particularly when predicting SK, planning, and instructional skills (with

the letter of intent and spontaneous writing sample removed). Grouping and changing the weighting of the

intake variables did not improve the predictive power of any of the formulae.

Table 2

Regression Analysis—Z Scores

Model Dependent variable R2 Significance Significant coefficients

1. GPA Letter of intent Spontaneous write Interview

Planning 0.051 0.043 GPA, p = 0.011; Interview, p = 0.057#

Instruction 0.064 0.014 Letter of intent, p = 0.034; Interview, p = 0.043

Classroom management 0.054 0.032 Interview, p = 0.004

SK 0.053 0.035 Interview, p = 0.009

2. GPA Interview

Planning 0.058 0.004 GPA, p = 0.012; Interview, p = 0.026

Instruction 0.043 0.017 Interview, p = 0.020

Classroom management 0.034 0.043 Interview, p = 0.013

SK 0.047 0.010 Interview, p = 0.007

3. Interview (40%) GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write (60%)

SK 0.046 0.000 Interview 40%, p = 0.000; GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 60%, p = 0.005

PD 0.027 0.002 GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 60%, p = 0.001

T 0.018 0.018 GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 60%, p = 0.023

4. Interview (60%) GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write (40%)

Communication 0.022 0.001 Interview 60%, p = 0.000

Planning 0.043 0.000 Interview 60%, p = 0.000; GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 40%, p = 0.001

Instruction 0.054 0.000 Interview 60%, p = 0.000; GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 40%, p = 0.000

Assessment 0.016 0.008 Interview 60%, p = 0.000

Classroom management 0.036 0.000 Interview 60%, p = 0.000

Writing 0.042 0.000 GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 40%, p = 0.000

SK 0.046 0.000 Interview 60%, p = 0.000; GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 40%, p = 0.000

PD 0.027 0.000 GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 40%, p = 0.001

T 0.018 0.018 GPA/letter of intent/spontanteous write 40%, p = 0.023

Note. # indicates data approaching significance have been included.

Discussion

All of the intake variables are related to some aspects of teaching skills and dispositions, as measured

during the final practicum. First, we note that three out of the four measures that we currently use to determine

entrance into our program are related to each other. For example, GPA is related to both the letter of intent and

the spontaneous writing sample. One would expect the letter of intent to be related to GPA, since students can

prepare the letter in the same way that they might for essays writing during a university course (they would


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draft, edit, and revise their work prior to submission). The relationship between GPA and the spontaneous

writing sample is unexpected. However, our experience has been that teacher candidates may have high GPAs

entering our program and still have difficulty with written assignments, particularly those assignments that do

not allow for numerous edits and revisions (similar to Wilde, Kreamelmeyer, & Buckner, 2009). The

spontaneous writing sample captures a teacher candidate’s basic writing abilities, which may not be evident

when a piece of writing has been edited using a word processor. The letter of intent is also related to the

spontaneous writing sample, which is also unexpected for the same reason as above. Consistent with Calder’s

previous findings (2010), the interview is not significantly related to any of the other three intake measures

(GPA, letter of intent, or spontaneous writing sample). Therefore, one can assume that the interview is

assessing quite different skills than the other three variables.

It could be suggested that one or more GPA, letter of intent, and spontaneous writing sample be eliminated

from the intake procedure, because of the apparent redundant nature. Most institutions would be loathe,

however, to eliminate GPA as a screening measure for two reasons: 1. It is an easy way to select applicants; and

2. GPA is typically viewed as an indication of student ability to succeed in an academic environment. Though

GPA is important to predict planning skills in the practicum, its importance in the intake process should

continue to be minimized. Since GPA and the spontaneous writing sample are significantly correlated, one

could argue that they are likely measuring very similar skills. If so, they are repetitious and one should be

removed, likely the spontaneous writing sample. However, the spontaneous writing sample is related to the

writing skills demonstrated on the practicum. Given the concerns that we have had over the years about the

weak writing skills of many of our teacher candidates, we vote to keep the spontaneous writing sample for the

time being. The letter of intent is related to instructional skills, which may have something to do with

dispositions and attitudes that are communicated by the letter of intent. Combined, the GPA, letter of intent,

and spontaneous writing sample, along with the interview, result in a statistically significant predictive model.

Therefore, each variable has some merit. In order to increase predictive power, we must consider what other

variables contribute to the range in teacher candidates’ performance on the practicum. In addition, we must

continue to improve the reliability of the letter of intent and spontaneous writing measures (Marso & Pigge,

1991), as well as the practicum scoring sheet (Lawrence & Crehan, 2001). This may include refining the

scoring rubrics, utilizing computerized assessment methods, or extending training for those individuals who

score the written intake materials. Faculty mentors have recommended adding “self-confidence” and “work

ethic” categories to the practicum scoring sheet, which may better reveal the personal and dispositional

components that are necessary to be a successful and effective teacher. At the moment, these components are

subsumed under professionalism.

The interview is clearly an important component of our intake process, having numerous relationships to

various aspects of the practicum. There is debate about the reliability of interviews (Caskey et al., 2001;

Harrison, 2002); however, our interview process appears to provide valuable information for our admission

process. Therefore, we will continue its use and the training program provided to our interviewers. One area

that does warrant further examination is the alignment of the interview questions with program values. We

continue to refine the questions in order to best assess those dispositions necessary for applicants to bring to the

program. We also note the significance of the interview to reflect the professionalism of our program and the

importance of the teaching profession, in general (Harrison et al., 2002). In a related study, we found that


85

applicants feel that the interview sets a tone for our program, demonstrating the rigor and significance of their

career choices (Freed-Garrod & Calder Stgemann, 2011).

Conclusions

The purpose of this paper was to identify those intake variables that are the best predictors of success on

the final practicum, and therefore success in the teaching profession. If teacher education programs can admit

the candidates most likely to succeed, they serve to increase the population of highly qualified new teachers and

also reduce the incidence—and associated time and costs—of teacher candidates who experience significant

difficulty or do not complete the practicum. While we will continue to use the four intake measures for future

admissions, we will further examine other intake variables and student demographics (such as age, gender,

prior experience with children, and subject specialisation) to determine how they align with teaching standards

and their influence on the final practicum experience.

References Boyd, D., Grossman, P., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2008). How changes in entry requirements alter the teacher

workforce and affect student achievement. Education Finance and Policy, 1(2), 176-216. British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2012). Standards for the education, competence and professional conduct of

educators in British Columbia. Retrieved from http://www.bcteacherregulation.ca/documents/AboutUs/Standards/edu_ stds.pdf

Byrnes, D. A., Kiger, G., & Shechtman, Z. (2003). Evaluating the use of group interviews to select students into teacher-education programs. Journal of Teacher Education, 54(2), 163-172.

Calder, K. J. (2010, May). Predicting practicum success—Identifying variables which contribute to performance on the extended practicum. Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CATE), Montreal, Que.

Casey, C. E., & Childs, R. A. (2007). Teacher education program admission criteria and what beginning teachers need to know to be successful teachers. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 67, 1-24.

Caskey, M., Peterson, K., & Temple, J. (2001). Complex admissions selection procedures for graduate pre-service teacher education program. Teacher Education Quarterly, 28(4), 7-21.

Darling-Hammond, L., & Baratz-Snowden, J. (2007). A good teacher in every classroom: Preparing the highly qualified teachers our children deserve. Educational Horizons, 85(2), 111-132.

Denner, P. R., Salzman, S. A., & Newsome, J. D. (2001). Selecting the qualified: A standards-based teacher education admission process. Journal of Personal Evaluation in Education, 15(3), 165-180.

Denton, J. J., Davis, T. J., Capraro, R. M., Smith, B. L., Beason, L., Graham, B. D., & Strader, R. A. (2007). Examination of applicant profiles for admission into and completion of an online secondary teacher certification program. Washington, D.C.: Department of Education. ED 495929.

Freed-Garrod, J., & Calder Stegemann, K. J. (2011, May). The power of the intake interview for B.Ed. program admission. Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CATE), Fredericton, N.B..

Haberman, M. (1987). Recruiting and selecting teachers for urban schools. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED2929 42

Harrison, J. A., McAfee, H., & Caldwell, A. (2002, November). Examining, developing, and validating the interview for admission into the teacher education program. Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Region Association for Teacher Educators, Hot Springs, A.R..

Kosnik, C., Brown, R., & Beck, C. (2005). The pre-service admissions process: What qualities do future teachers need and how can they be identified in applicants? New Educator, 1(2), 101-123.

Lawrence, A., & Crehan, K. D. (2001, April). A study on the validity evidence of the Pre-professional Skills Test (PPST) as a screening device for entrance into teacher education programs. Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Seattle.


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Malvern, D. (1991). Assessing the personal qualities of applicants to teacher training. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 17(2-3), 239-253.

Marso, R. N., & Pigge, F. L. (1991, October). The identification of academic, personal, and affective predictors of student teaching performance. Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Educational Research Association, Chicago, I.L..

Ontario College of Teachers. (1999). Standards of practice for the teaching profession. Retrieved from http://www.oct.ca/public/ professional-standards/standards-of-practice

Salzman, S. (1991, February). Selecting the qualified: Predictors of student teacher performance. Paper presented at The Annual Meeting of the Association of Teacher Educators, New Orleans, L.A..

Wilde, J., Kreamelmeyer, K., & Buckner, B. (2009). Construction, administration and validation of our written and oral language assessment in an undergraduate teacher education programme. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34(5), 595-602.


The Study of the Learning Styles of Social Sciences

Education Teacher Candidates According

to Different Variables

Sayime Erben Keçici, Elif Nur Bozer

Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey

The aim of the present study is to investigate the learning styles of social sciences education teacher candidates

with respect to their genders and types of academic program. The study is a descriptive research conducted in the

spring term of the academic year 2012-2013. The sample of the study consists of a total of 413 undergraduate

students who studied at the Social Sciences Education Department of the Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education at

Necmettin Erbakan University. Pask’s Learning Style Inventory was used in order to determine the learning styles

of the students included in the sample. The analysis of the data obtained in the study was carried out by using the

t-test statistical analysis. The results show that the gender of the social sciences education teacher candidates was

not an effective factor in determining their learning styles (p > 0.05), whereas the type of their academic programs

was an effective factor in their learning style preferences (p < 0.05).

Keywords: learning style, teacher candidates, social sciences education, Learning Style Inventory

Introduction

The question of how an individual acquires knowledge becomes an issue along with he/she reaching the

school age and starting to receive education in a systematic way. Every individual has a different physiological,

psychological, and cognitive structure. This difference brings along different learning styles. Özbay (2006)

explained this diversity among students as “Students have different learning needs and styles. For this reason,

students cannot equally benefit from teaching activities”. Accordingly, it can be said that one of the most

important problems that teachers are confronted with in an education-teaching environment is finding a solution

for the learning inequalities that arise from individual differences in their classrooms. In order to solve this

problem, it is considered a necessity to know that each student has a unique learning style and to create learning

environments that are appropriate to this style.

Individual differences represent the changes created by certain personal characteristics of individuals in

learning environments. It is necessary to be able to comprehend and take into consideration that individual

differences occur in all education and teaching environments as a natural result of the existence of different

individuals. Each student constitutes a diverse and unique personality within the classroom. The teacher should

Sayime Erben Keçici, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Ahmet Kelesoglu Educational

Faculty, Necmettin Erbakan University. Elif Nur Bozer, M.S. candidate, research assistant, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Ahmet Kelesoglu Educational

Faculty, Necmettin Erbakan University.

DAVID PUBLISHING

D

LEARNING STYLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCES EDUCATION TEACHER CANDIDATES

88

be aware of this fact.

Studies on learning styles are based on the idea that individual differences bring richness in the learning

environment (Gencel, 2007). According to Fidan (1996), the basic learning-teaching process is effective in

studies on education, and it aims to render learning easy, productive, and convenient for all students. In order to

achieve this aim, it is necessary to know the learning style of each student and accordingly implement new

approaches and modern teaching methods in learning-teaching activities with the help of the developing and

changing technologies. The characteristics of students are highly important in learning. For this reason, it is

required to determine the features of the environment where knowledge is taught to individuals, the method and

materials used by the teacher, and the characteristics of the students. Being successful at school depends on the

active participation of students in learning and providing students with equal opportunities in education. If the

personal characteristics of a student can be determined, the most suitable learning style to that individual can

also be found out (Güven & Özbek, 2007).

Learning Styles

Students do not perceive the events that occur in their environments in the same way. For example, some

students deal with events through isolating them from their environments, whereas some others interpret events

within the environment they occur. On the other hand, as there are differences of perception among individuals,

there are also differences among the events in terms of the processes of discussing, processing, and thinking

(Çaycı, 2007). Students’ cognitive and psychological differences and various types of skills, attitudes, and

values create a rich diversity in education and learning environments. These differences among students also

affect the processes they follow for learning and the steps they form within these processes. This

aforementioned situation is also valid for teachers and teacher candidates. For this reason, if it aims to create

behavioral change in students in the desired direction, not only the learning styles of students need to be

determined and teaching should be realized in accordance with the findings, but also the teachers should know

their teaching styles and adapt themselves to their students. The differences that arise among students generally

refer to learning styles.

Various definitions have been provided for learning styles. Some of these definitions are as follows:

According to Spoon and Schell (1998), learning styles are ways that individuals use in collecting,

organizing, and changing the data while transforming the data into meaningful information. Learning styles

affect an individual’s selection of the things to be learnt, desire for learning, and his/her attitude towards

learning contexts.

Ulgen (1997) stated that learning styles are related to conditions of learning and the preferences of an

individual throughout the learning process.

According to Kolb (1984), a learning style is a method which is personally preferred in receiving and

processing information (as cited in Gencel, 2006).

Felder and Silverman (1988) defined learning styles as the means through which students receive and

process information. Pask’s (1976) holistic/serialist information processing styles also refer to the same

concept.

Based on all these definitions, learning style can be defined as personal characteristics and preferences

which expose learning individuals’ ways of perceiving their education-teaching environments, how these

individuals interact with this environment, and how they react to information.


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Research on learning styles started in the 1940s and found a wide area of use in the 1970s. Since the 1940s,

numerous models focusing on learning styles have been proposed by researchers. Some of these are: Gregorc’s

learning styles model, Dunn’s learning styles model, McCarthy’s 4MAT system, and Kolb’s learning styles

model. These learning style models are those that emphasize the cognitive dimension and focus on perceiving,

processing, and storing information. According to Guild (1998), there are three different learning styles that are

widely used by educators. The first approach of these is the concept of personal awareness. In fact, this case is

mentioned in all learning style theories. However, certain education researchers, like Gregorc, emphasized this

concept more than the others. The second approach is the curriculum design and application to teaching

processes. When it is known that individuals learn through different processes, it is possible to implement

multiple teaching models. This approach was adopted by certain researchers, such as Kolb, McCarthy, and

Butler. The third approach is the diagnostic view. The key learning style factors of individuals are identified

and these elements are matched with possible teaching programs and materials that are prepared based on

individual differences. Rita Dunn, Kenneth Dunn, Marie Carbo, and Gordon Pask can be stated among those

who adopted this approach (Babadoğan, 2000; Başıbüyük, 2004; Peker, 2003; Ekici, 2003). As a basis, the

learning styles that individuals possess provide information regarding how their learning environments need to

be.

It is necessary to use the appropriate learning style determination method among those classified above in

order to provide a better education and teaching.

Pask’s Holistic and Serialist Styles

A review of the related literature presented in Turkish shows that there are numerous studies on Kolb’s

learning styles (Çağıltay & Tokdemir, 2004; Hasırcı, 2006; Tuna, 2008; Çaycı & Ünal, 2007). Witkin’s

field-dependent and field-independent cognitive learning styles (Altun, 2003; Demirkan, 2007; Somyürek &

Yalın, 2007) and Dunn and Dunn’s learning styles were also discussed in the literature (Babadoğan, 2009).

What draws attention at this point is that there is no study on Pask’s holistic and serialist styles in the related

literature.

While Witkin was studying on field-dependent and field-independent cognitive learning styles in the US,

Pask was studying on the same topic in Britain and named field-dependent and field-independent cognitive

styles as holistic and serialist (Ford, 2000).

Pask and Scott (1972) conducted a set of experiments based on different subject areas regarding the

learning of complicated academic topics and observed that individuals used one of the two basic approaches in

learning (Ford, 2000; Ford & Chen, 2001). The individuals referred to as holistic by Pask and Scott (1972) are

learners who access learning through a global approach. These are individuals who at the beginning of the

learning process primarily examine the connections between different topics and create a wide conceptual

framework within which they place details afterwards. Serialists are individuals with a local learning approach

who examine one thing at a time, focus on different topics one by one in an order, and afterwards connect these

topics in a logical way. For these individuals, the big picture occurs and emerges towards the end of the

learning process (Ford, 2000). Individuals who are defined as versatile by Pask bear both holistic and serialist

characteristics. While serialists continuously go back and forth between theory and practice during the learning

process, holistic individuals work on either theory or practice and combine theory and practice through the end

of the learning process only when it is highly necessary for learning (Ford, 2000; Ford & Chen, 2000; Ford,


90

Wilson, Foster, Ellis, & Spink, 2002). To summarize:

1. Holistic individuals possess a global, top-down approach and can perform more than one task at the

same time (simultaneous processing);

2. Serialist individuals possess a local, bottom-up approach and performs tasks in order (serial processing)

(Sadler-Smith & Smith, 2004, p. 402).

Being on the edge of holistic or serialist styles pathologically (Entwistle, 1977, p. 233):

1. Causes holistic individuals to take decisions in a haste in cases of the existence of inadequate data;

2. Causes serialists not to be able to see the whole with a point of view that perceives the whole.

Several studies report that Pask’s holistic and serialist structures belong to a more general and wider

holistic/analytic cognitive style family (Brumby, 1982; Coan, 1994; Fowler, 1980; Miller, 1987; Riding and

Cheema, 1991, as cited in Ford, 2000). Besides, observations put forth that Witkin’s field-dependent and

field-independent styles correspond to Pask’s holistic-serialist styles. However, the number of empirical studies

on this topic is not sufficient (Ford, 2000).

In this respect, Pask’s Learning Style Inventory represents an important theoretical model in terms of how

the learner selects and cognitively uses information. In this context, the aim of the present study was

determined as to examine the learning styles of social sciences education teacher candidates according to

holistic and serialist variables, and the sub-problems were stated as follows:

1. What are the dominant learning styles that teacher candidates possess?

2. (a) Is there a significant relationship between the dominant learning styles of teacher candidates and

their genders?

(b) Is there a significant relationship between the dominant learning styles of teacher candidates and

their academic programs (day or evening program)?

Method

Model of the Study

The study has a survey model. Survey models are research approaches that aim to describe a past or

current state in the form it exists (Karasar, 2000).

Study Group

A total of 413 teacher candidates consisting of 167 males and 246 females who studied at the Social

Sciences Education Department of the Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education at Necmettin Erbakan University

in the academic year of 2012-2013 participated in the study. Two hundred and eleven of the participants

attended to day classes and 202 attended to evening classes.

Data Collection Tool and Data Analysis

The Learning Style Inventory developed by Pask and Scott (1972) was used in order to determine the

dominant learning styles of students that participated in the study, which was conducted in the spring term of

the academic year of 2012-2013. Pask’s Learning Style Inventory presents the most appropriate learning style

for individuals. Furthermore, two different learning styles (holistic/serialist) are described in this inventory. The

dominant learning style that the students possess is determined according to the scores they got from the items

in the inventory.

Pask’s Learning Style Inventory was translated into Turkish and applied on 725 teacher candidates


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studying at different departments of Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education at Necmettin Erbakan University in

the spring term of the academic year of 2012-2013. As in other adaptation studies conducted in Turkey

(Dağhan & Akkoyunlu, 2011; Büyüköztürk, 2004), some items were excluded from the scale due to cultural

differences. The scale consists of two dimensions as “holistic” and “serialist”. The scale includes 22 items, 11

of which represent the serialist dimension and the other 11 of which represents the holistic dimension. As the

result of the factor analysis conducted on the scale, all the items that existed in the original form of the scale

were included, but items 10 and 18 were excluded because of having factor loads lower than 0.30, and items 4,

9, 15, and 17 were excluded since they did not exist in their dimensions within the original scale. The

two-factor structure of the original scale was taken into consideration and through the analysis conducted in the

study, the scale was classified into two primary factors in accordance with its original form. The scale describes

the 45.23% of the total variance. These variances might arise from the social, economic, cultural, and

geographical differences. This view may serve as a resource for new studies.

The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for the general scale, holistic, and serialist dimensions were

respectively found as 0.78, 0.77, and 0.82. Accordingly, it can be said that the reliability of the scale was at a

desired level (Tavşancıl, 2005). Furthermore, the reliability of the scale was examined also through the

test-retest method. For this aim, the scale was applied on 48 students at a four-week interval, and the correlation

between the results obtained in the two applications was compared. Accordingly, correlation coefficient that

was calculated for the first and second dimensions was found as 0.99. Thus, it can be said that the reliability

coefficient obtained through test-retest method was reasonably high.

The analysis of the data regarding the sub-problems of the study was performed by using the t-test. The

t-test is a statistical approach which is used for determining whether there is a significant difference between

the means of two data sets.

Findings

Findings Regarding the First Sub-problem

The analysis of the data regarding the first sub-problem of the study revealed the dominant learning styles

possessed by students, which are presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Comparison of Holistic and Serialist Learning Styles

Learning style N X SD T P

Holistic 413 22.19 6.72 1.060 0.289

Serialist 413 21.64 7.99

The comparison of the holistic and serialist learning styles possessed by the teacher candidates was

conducted using the independent t-test. The results show that there was no significant difference between the

means of the scores that teacher candidates obtained for holistic and serialist learning styles (p > 0.05).

Furthermore, it was found that the teacher candidates had substantially low holistic and serialist learning style

scores (X holistic = 22.19; and X serialist = 21.64).

Findings Regarding Section (a) of the Second Sub-problem

The findings regarding whether there was a significant relationship between the dominant learning styles

of teacher candidates and their genders are presented in Table 2.


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The differences between learning styles with respect to gender were examined by using the independent

samples t-test. According to the results of the t-test, the mean scores of teacher candidates for holistic and

serialist learning styles were not significantly different with respect to gender (p > 0.05). The mean scores

which female and male teacher candidates obtained for their learning styles were reasonably close to each

other.

Table 2

Study of Learning Styles in Terms of Gender

Learning style Gender N X SD T P

Holistic Male 167 21.95 7.12

-0.604 0.546 Female 246 22.35 6.44

Serialist Male 167 22.29 8.20

1.361 0.174 Female 246 21.20 7.84

Findings Regarding Section (b) of the Second Sub-problem

The findings showing whether there was a significant relationship between the dominant learning styles of

the students and the type of their academic programs are presented in Table 3.

Table 3

Study of Learning Styles in Terms of Academic Program Type

Learning style Program type N X SD T P

Holistic Evening 202 21.84 5.42

-1.042 0.298 Day 211 22.53 7.76

Serialist Evening 202 20.62 6.16

-2.554 0.011 Day 211 22.62 9.34

The differences between learning styles according to program type were examined by using the

independent samples t-test. According to the results of the t-test, there was no significant difference between

the holistic learning style mean scores of teacher candidates with respect to academic program type (p > 0.05),

whereas a significant difference was observed between the serialist learning style mean scores with respect to

academic program type (p < 0.05). The serialist learning style mean scores of students attending to day

programs were found to be significantly higher compared to the scores of students attending to evening

programs.

Conclusions and Discussion

Since it is known that individual characteristics affect learning, they are frequently examined in the studies

focusing on individual difference variables that affect learning while creating learning-teaching environments

and developing materials. In the present study, the learning styles possessed by teacher candidates were

examined according to holistic and serialist variables.

The results of the study showed that social sciences education teacher candidates possessed low level

holistic (X = 22.19) and serialist (X = 21.64) learning styles. A review of the related literature reveals the results

of the studies that provided findings partially similar to this finding of the present study. In a study conducted

to determine the learning styles of students studying at the Department of Primary Education with respect to

different variables (grammatically incorrect), Entwistl (2001) stated that the serialist learning style showed a


93

significant difference, whereas such a difference was not observed in terms of the holistic learning style. The

reason for the lack of a significant difference between the holistic and serialist learning styles of students might

be based on the fact that the teaching provided to the students was not organized within the scope of these

learning styles. What is important at this point is that instructors and the teacher candidates who will be

assigned to teaching jobs should first determine the dominant learning styles of their students, then use the

teaching approaches, methods, and techniques that are appropriate to the determined styles, and finally,

implement different evaluation techniques by taking these characteristics into consideration.

Gender is one of the most evaluated variables in research studies. In the present study, it was found that

the gender of social sciences education teacher candidates was not an effective factor in determining their

learning styles. The mean scores that female and male teacher candidates obtained from the Learning Style

Inventory were found to be close to one another. The finding that there was no significant difference between

the learning style preferences of teacher candidates with respect to gender shows that the preferences and

priorities of the candidates regarding learning were not affected by their genders. A review of the literature

shows that there are studies that both provid results similar to those obtained in the present study (Clump &

Skogsbergboise, 2003; Güven & Kürüm, 2007; Koçakoğlu, 2010; Sara, 2010) and there were also certain

studies that obtained different results (Orr, Park, Thomsons, & Thomsons, 1999; Tuna, 2008; Yalız & Erişti,

2009). At this point, the primary reasons for the difference of the study results can be stated as that there are not

many theories regarding learning styles, different theories were used in the studies, although the same variables

were examined in the studies, the characteristics of the study groups were different from one another.

Another finding obtained in the study shows that academic program type was effective on learning style

preferences. The serialist learning style mean scores of teacher candidates attending to day programs were

found to be significantly higher compared to those teacher candidates attending to evening classes. It is possible

to find similar and different results in the related literature. Lehmann (2010) and Entwistl (2001) stated that

program type was a significant factor in learning style preferences, whereas in a study conducted on primary

education teacher candidates in Brasilia, De Souza (2004) found that there was no statistically significant

difference between the learning styles of the students in terms of their program types.

The following suggestions can be made for future research in line with the findings obtained in the present

study. Studies can be conducted to compare the learning styles of students with respect to the teaching

approaches, methods, and techniques used in the programs and the academic success of the students. Besides,

integrative studies can be performed through comparing the results of similar studies conducted on different

undergraduate programs, and studies can be conducted to determine the teaching methods and techniques and

evaluation techniques that students prefer with respect to their learning styles and compare these two cases.

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The Effects of the Experiential Learning Strategy on Secondary

School Students’ Achievement in Biology

Josephine Nwanneka Okoli

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

Okechukwu Sunday Abonyi

Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria

This study investigated the effects of the experiential learning strategy on secondary school students’ achievement

in biology. The study employed a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. The sample for the

study comprised of 74 senior secondary school class one students from two intact classes in Anambra State of

Nigeria. The treatment group was taught biology using the experiential learning strategy while the control group

was taught the same concepts in biology using the expository strategy. Two research questions and three null

hypotheses guided the study. A Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used to collect data for the study. Data were

analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The study revealed that

experiential learning is superior to the conventional expository strategy in enhancing students’ achievement in

biology.

Keywords: experiential learning, achievement, biology, expository, intact classes

Introduction

Effectiveness in the teaching and learning of biology in schools has remained a focal point of research

efforts for many years. There has been a gradual paradigm shift in biology education from transmission of

biological information to the processes by which biological knowledge is acquired. Emphasis in biology

education, therefore, is now on students’ involvement in their own learning through active participation in the

learning process. In this way, students will be able to connect the biological facts, theories, and principles they

have learnt in biology classrooms to real purposes and practices in the world in which they live. To achieve this,

appropriate opportunities should be provided during biology instructions for students to learn from direct

experiences through manipulation of materials and engaging in science processes. This method of learning is

referred to as experiential learning. An experiential learning classroom is characterized by students’ active

participation in the learning process so that learning becomes interactive, cooperative, and collaborative

(Experiential Learning, n.d.). In such a classroom, students are provided opportunities to make discoveries and

gain first-hand knowledge through observation and experimentation rather than learning or reading about others

people’s experiences (Moon, 2004).

Experiential learning focuses on the learning process for the individual and can exist with or without a

teacher or facilitator (Klob, 1999). Experiential learning is in contrast to rote didactic learning that is popular

with most biology teachers. Most biology teachers are pre-occupied with verbal instructions (through lecturing,

Josephine Nwanneka Okoli, Ph.D., Department of Science Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Okechukwu Sunday Abonyi, Ph.D., professor, Department of Science Education, Ebonyi State University.

DAVID PUBLISHING

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THE EFFECTS OF THE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING STRATEGY

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exposition, discussions, and questioning) and neglect concrete sensory experiences which give meaning to

words.

With the recognition that science is more than just a subject at school to impact knowledge and skills

adopted from yesterday’s approaches, it has become very obvious that approaches aimed at integrating

sustainable learning and live science be emphasized in our science instructions. This will facilitate the

acquisition of the 21st century skills, not only for sustainable and responsibly citizenship, but also for a career

in an increasing science and technology driven world society. Although experiential learning is said to expose

the learners to real life situations in classrooms, its efficacy for biology instruction has not yet been explored

empirically in our conventional classrooms. This study therefore focused on the exploration of the effects of

experiential learning on secondary school students’ achievement in biology.

The Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to explore the effects of experiential learning on secondary school

students’ achievement in biology. Specifically, the study explored:

1. The effects of experiential learning on students’ achievement in biology;

2. The effects of experiential learning on the mean achievement of male and female students in biology;

3. Interaction effects of methods and gender on students’ mean achievement in biology.

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Research questions of this study are as follows:

1. What is the effect of experiential learning on the mean achievement scores of secondary school students

in biology?

2. What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology concepts using the

experiential learning strategy?

The following three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance:

Ho1: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught biology concepts

by the experiential learning strategy and students taught the same concepts using the expository method of

teaching;

Ho2: There is no significant difference (p < 0.05) in the mean achievement scores of male and female

students taught biology concepts using the experiential learning strategy;

Ho3: There is no significant interaction effect between teaching method and gender on students’

achievement in biology.

Methods

A quasi-experimental research of the pre-test and post-test non-equivalent control group design was used

for the study. The study was conducted in senior secondary schools in Awka urban area of Anambra state in

Nigeria. The sample consisted of 74 senior secondary year I (SSI) biology students (34 males and 40 females)

drawn from two co-educational secondary schools. In each school, one intact class of SSI was randomly

sampled by balloting and all the students in the two intact classes were used for the study. One of the two

schools was designated the experimental school and the other the control school. The experimental school was

assigned the experiential learning strategy while the control school was assigned the expository method of


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teaching. The experimental group consisted of 18 boys and 20 girls (N = 38), while the control group consisted

of 16 boys and 20 girls (N = 36).

The instrument used for data collection was the Biology Achievement Test (BAT). BAT was a 25-item

achievement test developed by the researchers based on the following biology topics: skeleton and supporting

tissues in animals; types of skeleton; structure and functions of different bones of the skeletal system of small

mammals, like rat; different bones of the skeletal system of large mammals, like goat, sheep, and cattle;

different bones of the human skeleton, their structure and functions; and how to process skeletons of small

mammals.

Experimental Procedure

The regular biology teachers in the selected schools were used for the study. The teacher in the

experimental school was trained on how to conduct instructions in biology using experimental learning strategy.

The teacher in the experimental school involved the students in preparing bones and skeletons from small

mammals, like rat, rabbit, and guinea pig. In addition, the students in the experimental school were given

individual projects involving processing different bones of large mammals, like goats, sheep, or cattle from the

abattoir, preparing a skeleton of a rat or a rabbit. In general, the students were made to learn by doing. The

students were then taught different bones of the skeletal system using the bones they collected and the skeleton

they prepared. During the lesson, the students interacted among themselves, with the teacher and with the

instructional materials they had produced themselves. The students in the control schools were taught using the

already preserved bones and the commercially produced skeleton in the biology laboratory. BAT was

administered as pre-test before treatment and as post-test at the end of treatment. Research questions were

answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.05 using

Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA).

Results

Research Questions

Research question 1: What is the effect of experiential learning on the mean achievement scores of

secondary school students in biology?

Data obtained in both the pre- and post- tests for the treatment and control groups were used to answer this

research question. In order to correct for initial equivalent in the two groups, adjusted mean (considering both

the pre- and post- test scores) was employed in the analysis. Summary of the results is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Mean Achievement and Standard Deviation Scores of Students in BAT Due to Teaching Method

Teaching method Statistic Mean achievement Mean difference

Experiential learning Adjusted mean 71.21

20.68

SD 9.96

Expository method

Adjusted mean 50.53

SD 9.60

N 3.60

Table 1 shows that the mean achievement score of students taught biology concepts using the experiential

learning strategy was 71.21, while those taught the same biology concepts using the expository method had a


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mean achievement score of 50.53. This shows a mean difference of 20.68 in favour of the experiential learning

group.

Research question 2: What are the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology

concepts using the experiential learning strategy?

The researcher also employed adjusted mean to correct check errors that may arise as a result of the initial

equivalence among the males and females in the treatment group. Summary of the results is presented in Table 2.

Table 2 Mean Achievement and Standard Deviation Scores of Male and Female Students in BAT Due to Teaching Methods and Gender

Teaching method Statistic Achievement test scores

Male Female Mean difference

Experiential learning X 74.78 68.00

6.78 SD 7.77 10.78

Table 2 shows that the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught biology concepts

using the experiential learning strategy were 74.78 and 68.00 respectively. The gender difference in mean score

for the experiential group was 6.78, in favour of the male students.

Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught biology concepts

by the experiential learning strategy and students taught same concepts using the expository method of

teaching.

Data collected from the treatment and control groups in both the pre- and post- tests were subjected to

ANCOVA. Summary of the results is presented in Table 3.

Table 3

ANCOVA on Students’ Achievement Due to Teaching Method (N = 74)

Source of variation Sum of squares df Mean sum of square F calculated value F critical value

Covariates 218.899 1 218.899 2.434 -

Pre-test 218.899 1 218.899 2.434 -

Main effect 8,326.400 2 4,163.200 46.298 -

Method 7,555.541 1 7,555.541 84.023 3.98

Table 3 shows that F calculated value (84.023) is greater than the F critical value (3.98) at an alpha level

of 0.05, therefore, there is a statistically significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students

taught biology concepts using the experiential learning strategy and those taught the same concept using the

expository method. This shows that the mean score for students taught using the experiential learning strategy

(M = 71.21) was significantly higher than the mean score of those taught with the expository method (M =

50.53).

Ho2: There is no significant difference (p < 0.05) in the mean achievement scores of male and female

students taught biology concepts using the experiential learning strategy.

Data collected (both pre- and post- tests) for the control group only for males and females were used to

test this hypothesis using ANCOVA. Summary of the results is presented in Table 4.

Table 4 shows that the F calculated value (2.279) is less than the critical value (4.11) at 95% confidence


100

level implying that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of male and female students

taught using the experiential learning strategy. This implies that the mean score for male students taught using

the experiential learning strategy (M = 74.78) and that of female students taught using the same experiential

learning strategy (M = 68.00) do not differ significantly.

Table 4

ANCOVA on Achievement of Male and Female Students in the Experiential Learning Group

Source of variation Sum of squares df Mean square F calculated value F critical value

Covariates 358.280 1 358.280 4.035 -

Pre-test 358.280 1 358.280 4.035 -

Main effect 202.365 1 222.365 2.279 -

Gender 202.365 1 222.365 2.279 4.11

Explained 560.645 2 280.322 3.157 -

Residual 3,107.671 35 88.791 - -

Total 3,668.316 37 99.144 - -

Ho3: There is no significant interaction effect between teaching method and gender on students’

achievement in biology.

Data collected from the treatment and control groups for both the pre- and post- tests were subjected to

ANCOVA to determine the significance of interaction between methods and gender. Summary of the results is

presented in Table 5.

Table 5 ANCOVA on the Interaction Effect Between Teaching Methods and Students’ Gender on Achievement

Source of variation Sum of squares df Mean square F calculated value F critical value

Covariates 218.899 1 218.899 2.434 -

Pre-test 218.899 1 218.899 2.434 - 2-way interactions (gender and method)

53.453 1 53.453 0.594 3.98

Explained 8,598.751 4 2,149.688 23.906 -

Residual 6,204.613 69 89.922 - -

Total 14,803.365 73 202.786 - -

Table 5 shows that the F calculated value is 0.594, while the critical value is 3.98 at an alpha of 0.05. As

such, there is no significant interaction between method and gender on students’ mean achievement in biology.

Discussion

The results of this study showed that the experiential learning strategy enhanced male and female students’

achievement in biology more than the expository method of teaching. This showed that involving the students

in “hand-on, mind-on” scientific activities enabled them to understand the biology concepts better than they

would if they were just given verbal information. In this study, students produced mammalian bones from rats

and rabbits participate in sorting, classifying, identifying, and labeling the bones of these small mammals and

also bones from the abattoir. In addition, the students related each bone (bone type) to its function. All these

experiences enable the students in the experimental group to learn the “skeletal system” in animals better than

the students in the control group who were given verbal instructions on the “skeletal system” and shown

samples of different types of bones.


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These findings are in agreement with what the great Greek philosopher and teacher Aristotle who once

said, “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them”. Experiential learning is

learning by doing, hence, the biology students in the experiential learning group excelled. The study also

showed that the experiential learning strategy can enhance achievement in biology for both male and female

students.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The experiential learning strategy has been found from this study to be an effective instructional strategy

in biology. Experiential learning provides an excellent opportunity for students to gain real-world experiences

while learning biology.

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made:

1. Biology teachers should adopt the experiential learning strategy as an effective strategy for teaching

biology to secondary school students;

2. Curriculum planners should incorporate experiential learning as an approach for effective teaching of

biology in secondary schools;

3. The various science teacher education programmes in colleges of education and universities should

incorporate the experiential learning strategy into their various teacher education programs so as to prepare

teachers on how to conduct instructions in biology using the experiential learning strategy;

4. The federal and state governments should equip the schools with relevant biology equipment needed for

conducting experiential learning in schools.

References Ali, A. (2004, September 22nd-25th). Curriculum innovation, instructional material production and utilization. A keynote paper

presented at The National Conference, organized by CUDIMAC, University of Nigeria. Experiential Learning. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Wikipedia online. Retrieved January 30, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Experiential_learning Kolb, D. A. (1999). Experiential learning theory. Retrieved January 30, 2013, from http://www.d.umn.edu/kgilbert Maduabum, M. A. (2006). Sex differences in attitude towards science and achievement in science in Nigeria: An analysis of 12

years of research. Journal of Technical and Science Education, 2(1&2), 63-71. Moon, J. (2004). A handbook of reflection and experiential learning theory and practice. London: Routle Ridge Falmer. Nzewi, U. M. (2005). Students’ cognitive achievement in senior secondary. Proceedings of The 47th Annual Conference of the

Science Teachers Association of Nigeria, Nigeria.


Social Media as Reflective Practice in Community Colleges

Margaret Shu-Mei Sass

Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

This article discusses the implementation of social media tools within the curriculum to support reflection in

community college courses that incorporate service-learning. With most service-learning projects being team-based,

reflective practice is significant for self-analysis and critical thought when dealing with peers and community

members. Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are common tools available on the Internet that provide reflective

opportunities for community college students to encourage a deeper understanding of their coursework as well as a

more profound knowledge about their community.

Keywords: service-learning, Twitter, blogging, Facebook, social media, reflection

Introduction

Social media is taking the world by storm through Twitter, blogging, Facebook, Second Life, Google+,

and other interactive sites. Hogan and Quan-Haase (2010) defined social media as a “two-way interaction with

an audience, beyond any specific recipient” (p. 310). This definition can be broken down into “one-way media

and two-way media. Like one-way media, information is the broadest from one source to an (potentially

unknown) audience. Like two-way media, individuals can react and respond to this communication through the

same channels” (Hogan & Quan-Haase, 2010, p. 310). In social media, messages can be dispersed among a few

individuals to millions. For example, in Facebook, members can invite people to view their messages. Their

“friends” can be a handful of people to a much larger audience. This gives the writer the opportunity to limit

his/her exposure in cyberspace. With Twitter, members’ postings can be seen by the entire world so long as

they are “following” you. The tweeter does not have to grant a follower permission to follow as Facebook

requires.

As many forms of social media are created and dispersed on the Internet, there is a strong possibility that

higher education will follow the trend. There are many advantages of social media. Increased communication

among classmates and teachers, variety in the classroom, and additional ways to learn are some of the positive

assets. Quan-Haase (2008) claimed that those who communicate online actually communicate even more when

not on the Internet. Some research has shown a positive relationship between the use of such social media sites

and how much students are engaged in their school as college clubs (Heiberger & Harper, 2008; Higher

Education Research Institute (HERI), 2007). However, many instructors fail to understand the value of social

media in higher education. There can be a learning curve which may cause instructors to deviate from using

these tools. Students as well may struggle using social media as a learning tool when they lack knowledge and

experience regarding Internet activities (Finger, Sun, & Jamieson-Proctor, 2010).

Margaret Shu-Mei Sass, J.D., Ed.D., assistant director of service-learning, Center of Instructional Excellence, Purdue

University.

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Service-Learning Within Community Colleges

With the rise of tuition on a yearly basis, students must seek other forms of higher education. Students can

save money by completing basic core classes and then transferring to a university to complete their bachelor’s

degrees. Others prefer to attend two years and finish their associate’s degrees. Community colleges will

continue to grow at an exceedingly high rate. As with this increase enrollment, a diverse population comes with

it (Franco, 2002). Several new students are non-traditional, as several are beyond the typical age most

commonly associated with college freshmen. In fact, students may have a very busy schedule outside of the

classroom involving full-time parenting and full-time work.

With such a variety of students, scholars have a chance to implement different types of teaching styles and

complementing curriculum to increase students’ knowledge base that fits non-traditional and traditional

students. A popular form of learning that colleges have embraced is experiential learning. Service-learning is a

form of experiential learning that ties academia to the community, allowing students to through their volunteer

services and practices that they might not have been exposed to otherwise.

In community colleges, it can be somewhat challenging for students to fulfill service-learning, usually due

to the amount of hours. Juggling full-time jobs and full-time families, those priorities triumph the class and its

required activities. However, an instructor can accommodate a student’s busy schedule while fulfilling his/her

own obligations as a teacher. Service-learning can be project-based, in which students are placed in groups with

the goal of completing a community service project. This not only enhances interpersonal communication and

skills, but also allows them to comprehend and understand their relationship with the community. Both

experiences may create a new attitude of social responsibility that students will further develop at the college

and beyond.

Social Media Tools

Many people think social media as a younger generation phenomenon, by which individuals post what

they ate that evening to their political views on world hunger. To a certain degree, that is true, but social media

can be much more academic then perhaps thought by scholars. Social media tools allow students to learn about

the current events of many disciplines in real time. They also allow an opportunity for students to reflect and

share among their peers or even the world if chosen. According to Quan-Haase (2008), one of the fastest

growing concepts of communication is online. Additional research shows that students that are more active

with social media sites are directly related to being active in their schools (Heiberger & Harper, 2008). Perhaps,

it is time for more community colleges to embrace the idea of social media tool integration into the classroom

as a form of teaching and learning.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most widely known and utilized social media tools. By December 2011, Facebook

had 845 million monthly active users and 483 million daily active users (Facebook Press, 2012). Facebook is

used for a plethora of activities, including marketing and keeping friends and family up to date. However,

colleges and universities are becoming more involved with Facebook by having their own Facebook sites. This

is also an opportunity for students to promote their service-learning courses and invite others to participate.

Blogging

With over three million active bloggers, blogging is a very popular form of reflection. Technorati currently


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tracks 70 million blogs (Chopra, 2011). In the United States, 12 million Americans maintain blogs while 57

million Americans actually read them (Chopra, 2011). Blogging is considered as a form of journal writing

where people can read or be invited to read their blogs. According to Williams and Jacobs (2004), blogs are

used as information about something that is personal, newsworthy, or focused on a specific topic. Many people

choose to blog, because they want to share their thoughts. In the academic world, many scholars choose to blog

about what they teach or publish. However, instructors can incorporate this powerful tool as a reflective

practice in service-learning. Students can join several blog sites that are free, such as http://www.blogger.com

or http://www.blogspot.com. Once they join, they can follow classmates’ blogs and respond to what they are

writing about. Instructors can use this as a form of journaling about the project itself. The journal entries can be

focused on their projects, their thoughts and issues, and an opportunity to learn other perspectives. Another

advantage of blogging is creating a strong interpersonal relationship with other students in the classroom.

Sometimes, a classroom setting does not offer students opportunities to enhance peer relationships as a

blogging site may encourage (Powazeck, 2002).

Twitter

Twitter is growing increasingly fast with 200 million plus “tweets” per day and one million connected to

Twitter (Twitter Press, 2011). Twitter can be somewhat of a challenge for those who like to write more on

Facebook. Twitter users can only use 140 characters in their post, including spaces. However, this can be most

advantageous for instructors. For example, an instructor can tweet an article to his/her class and ask students to

summarize their thoughts through a Twitter response. This encourages critical thinking and conclusive thought.

Scholars have found Twitter to be extremely beneficial in classrooms. According to Junco, Heiberger, and

Loken (2011), Twitter increased grade point average and productivity for students and teachers.

We feel that Twitter provides the best of both worlds by: (a) being able to contact students in a familiar and widely used environment; (b) the ability to provide short, concise messages that students can either follow or disregard; and (c) the power of email and other full service applications with the ability to link out to the external environment, and with added convenience and flexibility. (Laffey, Lowe, & Gandy, 2011, p. 188)

For logistic purposes, Twitter can be a tool to keep the groups organized and on task with the community

service project.

The key to Twitter is continuous dialogues. If no one uses it, one cannot learn from it. Perhaps, a reflective

project would not occur every day, but there are numerous activities where Twitter can be of daily practice. It

can be simple chit-chat among members, discussing what they recently did for the project or when to meet next.

It is also instantaneous and creates a more mobile learning environment, especially for those who are

bombarded with other responsibilities outside of the academic world.

Conclusions

This article illustrates the numerous opportunities to incorporate social media tools within service-learning

projects. However, any class can incorporate these tools to facilitate reflection and interpersonal dialogue

among team members and classmates. Facebook is an effective way to create group cohesiveness for a

service-learning project as well as provide information about the nonprofit agency to friends and family.

Twitter provides up-to-date information for class members as well as a time to reflect and summarize thoughts

in 140 characters. Even with blogging, this Internet device encourages reflection and creativity on the students’


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part. They can reflect about their projects and create a visually attractive site to support their words and

thoughts. Ideally, if instructors pursue applying social media tools within a service-learning course, they should

provide guidance on how to use these social media tools correctly and effectively, so students can learn from

the experience.

References Chopra, P. (2008) Amazing blogging statistics. Retrieved October 13, 2011, from http://nuvvo.com/lesson/3854-amazing-blogg

ing-statistics Dunlap, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2009). Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social presence. Journal of

Information Systems Education, 20(2), 129-135. Facebook Press. (2012). Newsroom. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://www.newsroom.fb.com/ Finger, G., Sun, P. C., & Jamieson-Proctor, R. (2010). Emerging frontiers of learning online. Adult Learning in the Digital Age:

Perspectives on Online, 1. Franco, R. W. (2002). The civic role of community colleges: Preparing students for the work of democracy. Journal of Public

Affairs, 6, 119-138. Hatcher, J. A., & Bringle, R. G. (1997). Reflection: Bridging the gap between service and learning. College Teacher, 45(4),

153-158. Heiberger, G., & Harper, R. (2008). Have you facebooked Astin lately? Using technology to increase student involvement. Using

emerging technologies to enhance student engagement. In R. Junco, & D. M. Timm (Eds.), New directions for student services (pp. 19-35). San Francisco, C.A.: Jossey-Bass.

Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). (2007). HERI. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from http://heri.ucla.edu/index.php Hogan, B., & Quan-Haase, A. (2010). Persistence and change in social media. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30(5),

309-315. Junco, R., Heiberger, G., & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of

Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119-132. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00387.x Laffey, D., Lowe, B., & Gandy, A. (2011). Social media: Past, present and future. A review of the literature. Paper presented at

The 15th Annual AMS World Marketing Congress, Reims, France. Powazeck, D. M. (2002). Design for community: The art of connecting real people in virtual places. Indianapolis: New Riders. Quan-Haase, A. (2008). University students’ local and distant social ties: Using and integrating modes of communication on

campus. Information, Communication & Society, 10, 671-693. Twitter Press. (2011). Twitter blog. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from http://www.blog.twitter.com Williams, J. B., & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian

Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247.


Opportunities for Learning Support in Interactive

E-learning Environments, in Particular in the

Fields of Mathematics and Physics

György Molnár, Dávid Sik

Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

The development of information and communication technology (ICT) and e-learning forms is defined both by

ubiquitous computing and the technical-social attributes of virtual learning space. This space can be characterized

as organic learning environment, while its educational theory is based on e-learning. It gives multiple

opportunities to exploit the dimensions of time and space, providing both asynchronous and synchronous learning

forms. In 2012, Budapest University of Technology and Economics’s (BME), Faculty of Natural Sciences, the

teachers working at institutes of mathematics and physics created the BME Alfa online practice surface. This

initiative was intended to help the students prepare for entry tests required to be taken by some departments. Only

after they have passed the tests, the students would be able to enroll to desired majors. Thus, the students were

able to participate in the creation and management of the e-learning environment in question. This paper will give

an account of the process how the questions were prepared and uploaded. Later, it will examine the usability of

the system and the scope of ICT used. Through the presentation of the BME Alfa functions, the characteristics of

the modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment (Moodle) system can be acknowledged as well. Both

the courses of mathematics and physics departments will be introduced. The main function of the e-learning

environment is the downloadable curriculum, topic orientated tests, forums, chat, and a mock examination. The

paper will then go on to usability issues of the environment and an online survey conducted among students. In

spite of the small percentage of students surveyed because of a lack of time (only 30 out of 300), we can state that

the received results were worth analyzing. Finally, according to the analysis and conclusions, future development

plans and guidelines are presented.

Keywords: virtual learning environment, modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment (Moodle),

e-learning, informal learning

Introduction

The development of information and communication technology (ICT) and e-learning forms is defined

both by ubiquitous computing and the technical-social attributes of virtual learning space. This space can be

characterized as organic learning environment, while its educational theory is based on e-learning. It gives

György Molnár, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Technical Education, Budapest University of Technology and

Economics. Dávid Sik, teaching assistant, Department of Technical Education, Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

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multiple opportunities to exploit the dimensions of time and space, providing both asynchronous and

synchronous learning forms (Benedek, 2008).

In 2012, Budapest University of Technology and Economics’ (BME), Faculty of Natural Sciences, the

teachers working at institutes of mathematics and physics created the BME Alfa online practice surface. This

initiative was intended to help the students prepare for entry tests required to be taken by some departments.

Only after they have passed the tests, the students would be able to enroll to desired majors.

The authors focus on this new learning aid, especially on new possibilities, tasks, and innovation it

represents. Interest is taken both in students learning affinities and attitudes.

After necessary preliminary conciliations, it was made possible for the authors to take part in the project

of creating the BME Alfa online practice surface. The previous title of the project was “Mathematics and

Physics for High School Students” (Retrieved from http://tinker.eik.bme.hu/moodle/). Soon, we started the

procedure of manually uploading the test questions into an online data bank.

The Creation of Records

During the summer and autumn of 2012, we uploaded 355 test questions into the physics database. All

together, there are 1,082 test questions available in printed form. This means that one third of the projected

task has already been completed.

The home page of BME Alfa is available at https://alfa.bme.hu/ (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Home page of BME Alfa.

The question recording was a manual process, but we are working on an automated mode as well. We

received the test questions via e-mail in scanned form. The images were clear, so we were able to apply

optical character recognition (OCR). The process was successful, and digital questions records were created.

After this, we had to proofread the test questions. In the field of physics, it is extremely important not to

make any error in the texts or equations. The inaccurate characters for example were replaced by word


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processor’s automated process of change. After the corrections had been accepted, we started uploading the

records.

Our information technology (IT) staff developed a program which made it possible to upload all the

records into the modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment (Moodle)-based BME Alfa page.

Most of the questions were multiple-choice types. At the admin page, there were several fields for question

and answer input, so we had to assign the correct answer for each question. Also, an option was added to skip

any question. The general rule was that the correct answer was worth a point. When a wrong answer was

given, half a point was subtracted, while skipping a question left the result unchanged (Csákány, Rácz, &

Ruppert, 2012).

Another type of questions uploaded to the Moodle system was based on calculus. In this case, the

process, as it turned out, was much more complicated, so for now on, the record of these questions was put on

hold. This type differs from the multiple choices in several aspects. In the text, there are interactive variables,

so each student would get a personalized data set. These variables are generated by the system according to

the parameters given. This is a really useful function, because every time the test is taken, the student would

basically have to use the same formula. This helps to learn how practical mathematical and physical

knowledge should be used (Molnár, 2007; Vágvölgyi, 2012). Figures 2 presents the Web pages of test

questions.

Figure 2. Web page of test questions.

These test questions built the foundation of mathematics and physics database of BME Alfa. Several

courses at the faculty were linked to the database. The parameters given by the teachers established the right

ratio of question as they were systematized into categories according to their topics. These questions built the

ground of mock exams, which could be taken by students at their convenience and discretion.

Students’ Supervision

The first trial run of the system was unsuccessful as the server could not handle the load. In spite of the


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initial failure, the BME Alfa online practice surface is progression towards its goal. The senior high school

students will soon able to practice for their entry exams in the fields of mathematics and physics. On the

second occasion, filled tests were successful in the students. Figure 3 shows one of the filled tests on the

Website.

Figure 3. A screenshot of a filled test of mathematics.

The work required real cooperation. Every topic had an appointed lead whose task was to report on the

progress during the regular meetings.

Moodle—The Engine and Structure of the Page

The e-learning environment was provided by the Moodle. This environment provides several

opportunities for interaction. The main advantage of Moodle is that the three key factors involved in the

learning process—the student, the teacher, and the curriculum can meet independently of time and space.

Moodle provides an environment where the interactive functions of learning can be exploited. Students can

read textbooks and download additional articles and interesting materials. They can easily communicate with

fellow students or with their teachers using forums or chat. They can ask questions, consult or solve tasks in a

workgroup. The Moodle environment provides a glossary of definitions and a Wiki function—a system

similar to Wikipedia, where students can generate content. Finally, exams can be performed by taking online

tests.

Within the BME Alfa, two courses are available for public. These are the mathematics and physics

practice surfaces. It is required to register in order to reach them. It is possible to expand the system and add

further courses, for example, competitions, academic courses, and examinations. The courses are divided into


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topic-related curriculum, mock questions, and forums. It is possible to take both courses at the same time as

the system supports multi-tab browsing (Molnár, 2011).

Topics in mathematics include: algebra; trigonometry; geometry; functions; equations; and word

problems (Figure 4 shows the example on the topic of Trigonometry).

Topics in physics include: mechanics; thermodynamics; electricity; optics; modern physics; and

gravitation.

Figure 4. Web page of Trigonometry.

Survey on Efficiency and Future Perspectives of BME Alfa

In September 2012, a student paper was written on the topic of new e-learning environments and their

efficiency. The work was aided and supervised by the teachers working at the Department of Technical

Education.

In order to write the paper, it was required to examine the system extensively. It was done both from the

perspectives of developers and administrators. The later was possible due to the statistics, the visitors, and

download logs. The most important perspective was the users’ point of view. We tested the usability, the

ergonomics, and the functions, searching for advantages and errors at the same time.

The survey on efficiency and future perspectives of BME Alfa was conducted with the use of Google

Forms. The link of the survey was sent to those who had applied for admission to BME, and registered on the

interactive page (see Figure 3).

From the 300 surveyed users, 30 replied due to the short deadline, so we had to work with this amount of data.

Questionnaire

In the questionnaire, respondents were asked to mark their previous knowledge, type of education, and

interests in fields of mathematics and physics. As the BME provides tuition free preparation courses for the


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ones who apply for admission, we were interested in that if they took part in any of them and what was their

opinion about their effectiveness. The following questions examined the results of their first test, namely, the

placement exam in mathematics and physics.

We were also interested in the usability of the page. The respondents were first asked to tell their

opinions about the framework, and then, the two different practicing surfaces.

We also surveyed the time spent on the pages, furthermore, the date of registration and last use were also

important information. Finally, the efficiency was surveyed according to the users’ satisfaction rate.

When asking about the two practice surfaces, we enquired about the prerequisite knowledge, how much

it took to prepare, how difficult the test questions were, whether they were sufficient or not, how much time

was spent during preparations, and whether the uploaded theoretical summaries were helpful.

Summary and Evaluation

After the results had been processed, they were presented as diagrams with simple statistical methods

(see Figure 5). The analysis showed that there is a significant teaching-learning potential hidden in the BME

Alfa system. It helped us see what strategic ways of development the system should take. There is a linear

relationship between the time spent on the page and the test results, and there was no significant difference in

the aspect of gender. The participants of the survey lacked the test answers and sometimes found the level of

difficulty too easy.

Figure 5. Results of preliminary tests.

The survey results confirmed that there was a visible progress thanks to the use of practice surface. The

biggest potential of the system stands in successful preparation for entry level tests. It can also prevent delays

and postponements, both characteristics of higher education. We can state that it is justifiable to continue

observing the efficiency of the system in the long run.

References Benedek, A. (Ed.). (2008). Digitális pedagógia: Tanulás IKT környezetben (Digital pedagogy—Learning in digital (ICT)

environment) (pp. 10-20). Budapest: Typotex Publischer.


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Csákány, A., Rácz, É., & Ruppert, L. (2012). BME Alfa—interaktív matematika és fizika gyakorlófelület középiskolásoknak (BME Alpha—Interactive math and physics practice area for secondary school students). Teaching Mathematics and Informatics ConferencePécs, 1, 20-22.

Molnár, G. (2007). New ICT tools in education-classroom of the future project. Proceedings of The Fourth International Conference on Informatics, Educational Technology and New Media in Education (pp. 332-339), Sombor, Szerbia.

Vágvölgyi, C. (2012, November 16). Tanulásirányítás és a tanulói teljesítmények követése a Moodle 2-ben (Learning management and tracking of student performance in Moodle 2). Paper presented at The E-learning Fórum, Budapest, Hungary.


Teaching Mathematical Research

Jonny B. Pornel

University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo City, Philippines

This study aimed to determine an effective way of teaching mathematical research to high school students. It

studied the experiences of two mathematics teachers, one from Nishinomiya city, Hyogo prefecture, Japan, and the

other one from Quezon city, Philippines. Their students won in local and international competitions, had presented

papers in mathematical conferences, and published several papers in proceedings, magazines, and refereed journals.

The successes they met in doing it show that it is possible to teach mathematical research to high school students.

The result of the study is important in transforming traditional mathematical education to one that promotes lifelong

learning in mathematics.

Keywords: mathematics, teaching, research

Introduction

Self-confidence built on success is the most important objective of the mathematics curriculum

(Everybody Counts, 1989, p. 45). Mathematics teachers have always considered understanding of mathematical

concepts as a more important goal than knowing or being skilled (Dreyfus, 1991). Simple knowing of a fact

does not give the learner an overall view of the concept. Mechanical skill alone does not give students the

flexibility that is very important in dealing with varied and complex situations. Understanding can be thought

as a higher manifestation of knowing and an important compliment of mechanical skills.

Despite of this, mathematics instructions are mostly geared toward the development of mathematical

knowledge or skills. Mathematics instruction, in all levels from elementary school through university courses,

is mostly taught as what can be called rituals: “Do this, then do this, then do this…” and “Teachers … will

typically accept the correctly-performed rituals as enough success for the time being” (Davis, 1988, as cited in

Dreyfus, 1991). These exemplify the point of Dreyfus (1991), as he said, “… What most students learn in their

mathematics courses is to carry out a large number of standardized procedures, cast in precisely defined

formalisms, and for obtaining answers to clearly delimited classes of exercise questions”.

Mathematics is being taught almost solely as a fixed formalism using the “definition—theorem—proof”

approach contrary to the natural way mathematics is created, propagated, or even understood. This approach

denies the contention of Davis and Hersh (1986) that mathematics is a human activity and that the

formal-logical account is only a fiction.

The author wishes to thank Prof. Tadashi Takahashi of the Graduate School of Cultural Studies and Human Science of Kobe University, Kobe City, Japan, as well as the Ministry of Education, Science , Sports and Culture of the Japanese government for making it possible for the author to underwent the In-Service Teacher Training Program in Japan that consequently led to this study.

Jonny B. Pornel, M.Ed., assistant professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas.

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The ultimate results of this phenomenon are students with considerable amount of mathematical

knowledge but incapable of using much of such knowledge because they lack the working methodology of the

mathematicians (Dreyfus, 1991). The skill of the mathematicians referred to is different from the mechanical

skill that most students developed. The former skill will help the learner tackle new problems with old

mathematical tools. It can only be acquired from various experiences of success and failure in tackling varying

problems, especially problems previously unknown to the learner.

Teaching mathematical research will transform mathematics teaching and would teach students not only

how to receive knowledge, but also how to produce one. This kind of mathematics pedagogy is an important

skill in the 21st century world, where knowledge doubles every few years and where research skill is vital. By

conducting mathematical research, the learner gains the needed experience that will help develop mathematical

maturity. There are clear differences between the research process and the learning process, for instance, the

difference in the abilities of the learner and the researcher. But similarities between the learning process and the

research process also exist. One of these is that, in both cases, the individual involved has to mentally

manipulate, investigate, and find out about objects and about which his/her knowledge is very partial and

fragmented (Dreyfus, 1991).

Doing mathematical research is difficult and complicated even for professionals, and much more for

students. However, if students experience doing mathematical research, then, they will gain much in terms of

experience and self-esteem. Not the false self-esteem that comes from solving mundane exercises, but the

true self-esteem that comes from true accomplishment. In the words of Krauthammer (1990), “The pursuit of

good feeling in education is a dead end. The way to true self-esteem is through real achievement and real

learning”.

To learn how to teach mathematical research to high school students, this paper studied the methods of Dr.

Ryohei Miyadera and Mr. Arnaldo Chua in teaching mathematical research. Dr. Miyadera is a mathematics

teacher in Kwansei Gakuin Senior High School, Kobe city, Hyogo prefecture, Japan. He was a classmate of the

researcher in Kobe University, Kobe city, Japan and in correspondences signified intention to disseminate his

methods. He taught mathematical research in elective mathematics classes he had. In the course of teaching

these classes, he was able to involve students in interesting mathematical researches, some of which were

collaborating with him even though they are university students already and are not directly under his class. His

collaborative works with students produced many scientific papers, and three of those papers were presented in

international conferences of mathematics in Canada and Japan. Three papers have been published in the

proceedings of international conferences, one in math magazines in Italy, one in online math magazine, and one

in online mathematical math puzzle.

Mr. Chua, on the other hand, taught the fourth-year honors class in Quezon City Science High School and

he integrated mathematical investigation in his add-on subject. Although, he termed it mathematical

investigation, the results were really good researches. One of the papers of his students won the 1st prize in the

4th National Science and Mathematics Congress in Olongapo city, Philippines and a Bronze award in the 23rd

MOSTRATEC—International Science and Technology Exhibition held in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil. Also, the

journal Intersection, the official publication of the Philipine Council of Mathematics Teacher Educators

(MATHED) Inc., devoted one issue of the journal (Volume 10, Number 1, 2009) to publishing the students’

worthwhile researches.


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Problems of the Study

This study aimed to determine an effective way of teaching mathematical research to high school students.

Specifically, it aimed to answer the following questions:

1. How to initiate the creative process in mathematical research class?

2. How to structure the activities and content of a class on mathematical research?

3. What support and logistics must be provided to students in a mathematics research class to ensure

efficient activities?

4. How to overcome the formalism of mathematical research?

The answers to these questions were determined through in-depth interviews, observation, and

documentary analysis.

Results

Ibe (2009) contended that it is never too early to start researching and publishing and that high school

students can do research on “simple but titillating questions and mathematics”. That is, they can do it with

“gentle and persuasive prodding from their teacher”. The following discussions outlined how the two educators,

Dr. Miyadera and Mr. Chua persuaded and prodded their students to do mathematical research.

Initiating the Creative Process

When asked about how he initiated the creative process, Dr. Miyadera answered that he usually gives

examples of some researches that are interesting to students, such as mathematical analysis of games. Also,

when he was working on a computer program of the research, he would show it to the students and would tell

them to tinker on it, encouraging them to change some parameters to create something new.

He always emphasizes that students should look for something new and interesting. He once discussed

with students about the results of Japanese Baseball League, and one student suggested that they would look

into US Major League results and whether the probability of winning the major league is fair.

Mr. Chua, on the other hand, gave his students hands-on investigation activities which he “took from the

book Investigating Math by the Mathematical Association of Western Australia” (Chua, 2009, p. 3). For a topic

to investigate, he encouraged students to search in the library and on the Internet.

Dr. Miyadera stated that creativity is one of the strengths of students, and he even claimed that

professional researchers would benefit in working with students because of their creativity. This trait is an

essential factor in mathematical research when new ideas are formulated in a manner previously unknown to

the mathematical community (Ervynch, 1991).

When asked whether Dr. Miyadera really believed that there are a lot of things a teacher can do with high

school students, his answer was a resounding “Yes”. He explained that they have “very fresh mind and do not

know much about math”. This remark brought to mind the words of Dreyfus and Eisenberg (1996, p. 280), “It

takes extreme flexibility to rid one’s thinking of commonly made assumptions on the way to great

mathematical discoveries”. Much advancement in mathematics and science in general has been delayed

because of inflexible thought patterns and beliefs.

One may ask whether students, as claimed by Dr. Miyadera, could really manifest mathematical creativity,

not only general creativity, when they expectedly have limited mathematical backgrounds. Then, one must take

note the words of Ervynch (1991, p. 44), “In order that mathematical creativity should be activated, there is no


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need to have a formal theory at one’s disposal; the most active part of creativity acts at the intuitive level in a

spirit of regeneration and renovation”.

Dr. Miyadera’s confidence on the students is not baseless theoretically. Greer (1996) contended that

students are more competent than teachers might realize and may well know quite a lot even before any

systematic instruction is given. Teachers need though to develop students’ confidence in their competency by

respecting their ideas, because only when they have confidence will they try hard to construct knowledge by

themselves.

The students inexperienced (“do not know much about math”—Dr. Miyadera) in the field can also work

for the advantage of the research, as shown in a study by researchers at Northwestern University who sought to

compare successful teams with less successful ones and figure out exactly how they differed in composition of

members. They examined some academic researchers from different academic fields and artistic teams behind

Broadway musicals. Success of an academic research team was judged by the citations made of their research

papers, and the musical teams were judged by the length of time that the musical was shown. The result of the

study showed that successful teams have two common traits, one of which is that teams have a mixture of

experienced people and neophytes of the field (Guterl, 2005).

Content and Activities

When asked whether he has a fixed program, content, or syllabus for the course, Dr. Miyadera answered

that he has none. This might seem radical, but it is necessary if they have to discover new things. When

teachers are obligated to cover a certain amount of topics, they tend to focus on teaching the concepts and

devote only a little time to the discovery or inquiry part. And if the course content is long, they may even do

without the discovery or inquiry aspect.

For the activities, the students were given sample studies and other interesting things as have been

discussed in the previous section. Thus, they devoted their time to exploring the topics they are researching or

listening to the teacher or other students discussed other researches. The students spent a lot of times looking at

graphs that they created for their research and searching for new patterns. When they find one, they would

present it to the teacher for evaluation. These activities they do repeatedly until they can come up with

interesting results worthy to be investigated or published.

On the strategy of Mr. Chua, he discussed proving techniques and strategies that will help the students in

their mathematical investigations during the first quarter of the school year. He also discussed topics he deemed

would enrich their knowledge but would unlikely be learned by students in the usual high school mathematics

like Diophantine equations, AM-GM inequality, congruence, and pigeonhole principles (Chua, 2009). Only in

the later part of the semester would the students group themselves and come up with their own problems for

mathematical investigation. He also held local math congress “to give them (students) the chance to defend

their math investigation orally” (Chua, 2009, p. 3).

Supports and Logistics

Dr. Miyadera mostly provided insights, foresights, and technical support to the students. There are times

that students did not recognize the significance of their findings, so he had to explain to them the importance of

those discoveries in the mathematics community.

Dr. Miyadera also gave them moral support whenever they meet hardship in the course of research,

especially in the part where they try to prove their results. He told them that to be recognized as major


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contributor of the research and that their research might be more welcomed by the professional mathematicians,

they need to work on the proof.

For beginning researchers and teachers, Dr. Miyadera suggested the use of Mathematica © software since

it has a lot of tools that can easily be used by people who have no sophisticated knowledge of programming.

With it or other computer algebra system, the students can easily visualize the problems. Edwards (1987) (as

cited in Tall, 1991) stated that, with computers, it has become easy for researchers to test hypotheses and

compile data that could have been very hard for them before to gather without computer support. Dreyfus

(1991) stated that:

Computers can served as heuristic tools for mathematicians and mathematics students in much the same way as a microscope serves the biologist: If the tool is directed onto interesting phenomena and correctly focused, it may show an unexpected picture often a visual one of the phenomena under study and thus lead to new ideas, to the recognition of heretofore unknown relationships. (p. 30)

The visualization of the data may help the students see more clearly the relationships that may have been

vague at the most when seen otherwise. The use of the visualization tools had made the exploration process in

Dr. Miyadera’s class a sort of a game or entertainment. This fact may had proved beneficial since it is

recognized theoretically that mathematical creativity is more fruitful when the mind relates ideas in a manner of

quiet and unforced contemplation (Ervynch, 1991).

Mr. Chua, on the other hand, used guided discovery approach to support his students. “When a problem is

posed, I led the class to the right direction of solution through skilful questioning” (Chua, 2009, p. 3). He also

encouraged them to work together using cooperative learning strategy.

Overcoming the Formalism

Proving has been considered as important part of many mathematical undertakings, much more so with

research. To overcome the students’ difficulties of proving difficult formula, Miyadera’s students wrote

programs that will show that the formula was true for the first n numbers. Usually, they made n as big as

possible to be assured that what they had has a big probability to be true. This is beneficial to the students since

they find it easier than proving it with the usual rigorous way. This may seem cheating, but actually more

beneficial, since the students will learn to love the research and mathematics while they are nurturing their

mathematical prowess. When they developed the love, the perseverance will just follow later.

On the part of Mr. Chua, he discussed “Basic strategies, like pattern searching, drawing diagrams, working

backward, solving simpler related problems, divide and conquer, making lists and tables, counting techniques,

and finite differences” for the first quarter of the school year (Chua, 2009, p. 2). He also discussed methods of

proof, like mathematical induction, direct reasoning, and contradiction.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Based on the theoretical review and the practices of Dr. Ryohei Miyadera and Mr. Arnaldo Chua, it is

concluded here that teaching mathematical research to high school students is feasible and advantageous. The

approaches taken by these two educators are theoretically sound and are recommended for application and

further exploration. Other researchers might find other ways to improve Miyadera’s and Chua’s approaches.

The author is encouraging other mathematics educators and researchers to study the approaches and will

welcome any offer of collaborative study on this regard.


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References Chua, A. I. (2009). My ventures on mathematical investigations. Intersection, 10(1), 2-4. Davis, P. J., & Hersh, R. (1986). The mathematical experience. Boston: Birkhauser. Dreyfus, T. (1991). Advanced mathematical thinking process. In D. Tall (Ed.), Advanced mathematical thinking. Dordrecth, The

Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publisher. Dreyfus, T., & Eisenberg, T. (1996). On different facets of mathematical thinking. In R. J. Stenberg, & T. Ben-Zeev (Eds.), The

nature of mathematical thinking (pp. 253-284). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ervynch, G. (1991). Mathematical creativity. In D. Tall (Ed.), Advanced mathematical thinking. Dordrecth, The Netherlands:

Kluwer Academic Publisher. Everybody Counts. (1989). A report to the nation on the future of mathematics education. Washington, D.C.: National Academy

Press. Greer, B. (1996). Theories of mathematics education: The role of cognitive analysis. In L. P. Steffe et al. (Eds.), Theories of

mathematical Learning. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Guterl, F. (2005, May 9). True teamworks. Newsweek, pp. 46-47. Ibe, M. D. (2009). Note from the editor. Intersection, 10(1), 1. Krauthammer, C. (1990, February 5). Education: Doing bad and feeling good. Time Magazine, p. 78. Tall, D. (1991). The psychology of advanced mathematical thinking. In D. Tall (Ed.), Advanced mathematical thinking (pp. 3-21).

Dordrecth, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publisher.


The Basic Idea and Implementation Strategy

of Effective Teaching

Jiang Xin-sheng, Fang Shuai

Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China

Quality is the lifeline of classroom teaching. Effective teaching is an important form to improve the quality of

classroom teaching. It is a kind of form that teachers and students complete learning tasks together according to

teaching objectives. It is a kind of form which promotes common development between teachers and students. It is

a kind of form which focuses on the process of acquirement of students’ knowledge. It is a kind of form which pays

much attention to the efficiency of classroom teaching. It is also a kind of form which keeps an eye on the all-round

development of all students. Careful preparation is the precondition of effective teaching, reasonable instructional

design is the basis of effective teaching, scientifically, classroom organization is the guarantee of the

implementation of effective teaching, and instant teaching reflection is the motive force of sustainable development

of effective teaching.

Keywords: effective teaching, feature, implementation strategy

Introduction

Quality is the lifeline of teaching. To improve the quality of teaching, at first, we must ensure the

efficiency of classroom teaching. Because effective teaching may be teaching of high quality. What is effective

teaching? What are the obvious characteristics of effective teaching? What is the standard measure of effective

teaching? How should we conduct classroom teaching effectively or efficiently? These are questions which

every educator can not avoid.

The Basic Conception of Effective Teaching

The Significance of Effective Teaching

The significance of effective teaching is the common development between teachers and students.

According to Yang, Wu, and Li (2008):

Effective teaching means that on the basis of objective laws of teaching activities, teachers use minimal time, effort, and material resources to obtain the best possible teaching effectiveness, and so as to achieve specific educational goals and meet the demand of social and personal educational value. (p. 28)

Basic Education Curriculum Reform Outline points out that:

The paper was supported by Social Science Fund Project of Hunan province “Research on Effective Classroom Teaching Strategy Under the Perspective of Students”, and the project approval number is: 11 JD.

Jiang Xin-sheng, Ph.D., associate professor, School of Education Science, Hunan Normal University. Fang Shuai, M.A. candidate, School of Education Science, Hunan Normal University.

DAVID PUBLISHING

D

THE BASIC IDEA AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY OF EFFECTIVE TEACHING

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Students are the masters of learning and teachers are learning organizers, guiders, and collaborators. The embodiment of teaching in the classroom of “three centers” of Herbart is from the perspective of teachers’ teaching. It emphasizes the use of teaching strategies and realizes the effects of teaching through the effectiveness of the teaching process. These are the teaching pursuit of many teachers. From the perspective of students’ learning, the main body of students is veritable. The effective and vital teaching concentrates on students and services for the sustainable development of the students. Effective classroom teaching is conducive to the growth of students teaching. (Wang & Xie, 2009, p. 28)

Yu (2006) pointed out:

The effectiveness of classroom teaching is that students gain and improve a lot through classroom teaching activities. In the aspect of cognition, students can be from can not understand to understanding, from ignorant to knowing more, and from can not do to knowing how to do. In the aspect of emotion, students can be from dislike to like, from hate to love, and from indifference to being interested in it. In perspective of professional, effectiveness means that students can get development through classroom teaching. (p. 34)

It is biased that if we talk about teaching only in the perspective of teaching or learning, and then, discuss

the topic of effective teaching. “Teaching is the unity of the teachers’ teaching and students’ learning” (Zhong

& Zhang, 2001, p. 272). In the strict sense, it can not be called teaching if we do not take teachers’ teaching and

students’ learning into account. Sun (2010) argued that:

The classroom teaching is an important place for the development of teachers and students, the feeling and experience of teachers and students in the teaching process is not only about whether teaching power is strong, but also about the meaning of life of teaching activities. Whether both teachers and students can achieve success in the teaching progress and whether they both feel the vigor and vitality of the teaching are undoubtedly the important index for determining effectiveness of classroom teaching. (p. 154)

Therefore, effective teaching is not a one-way information transmission, but the subject which is a

two-way communication between teachers and students, and finally points to the common development and

benefits of teachers and students.

The Aim of Effective Teaching: Achieving the Established Goals

School education is an aimed, systematic, or organized activity to cultivate humans. There are always

some expected results to be met when the teaching activities are carried out. These expected results are the

basic indicators to determine the validity of teaching. Long and Chen (2005) stated that:

An effective teaching is to achieve a “good teaching” characterized by advanced teaching ideals and integrated with the use of all teaching strategies and teaching arts, thus, turning ideals into a process in which teachers and students are coordinated and further developing the relations. (p. 60)

It can be concluded that classroom instruction is effective if students play an active role through classroom

instruction, including having acquired knowledge, accessing to basic skills and techniques, forming a good

habit and a positive attitude of learning, and making inquiries. A teaching goal is realized through classroom

instruction. The relationship between classroom teaching and education goals resembles the link among

nutrition, reproduction, and physiology—a most fundamental and vital link. Teaching activities must be carried

out firmly based on the teaching aims of each lesson. Every word the teacher speaks, every look, every gesture,

and every word he/she writes on the blackboard, and every teaching activity and material should reflect the

teaching goal. The goal is the soul of the whole teaching process and every minute in class matters with

behaviors of students and teachers. If teachers and students fail to accomplish their learning tasks respectively

and cannot meet the requirements of teaching aims, thus, affecting the teaching goals. Despite that this type of


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classroom teaching in some way has some validity, it is still inefficient. Of course, a teaching target cannot

constrain itself in cognitive areas, namely, the spread of knowledge and intelligence training. Rather more

attention should be paid on shaping students’ character. Through classroom instruction, students can not only

learn systematic cultural and scientific knowledge, but also develop their intelligence, emotion, and attitude of

life, values, and good moral character. Only by doing so can students develop in a sound and all-round way.

Key to Effective Teaching: Focusing on the Process of Obtaining Knowledge

Sun (2010) pointed out that:

Teaching itself is a system consisting of many elements and a dynamic and ever-changing process. There are complex links in the course of the process, between different elements, between elements and the system, and between the system and the outside environment. (p. 154)

The function of a teaching is becoming complex and diverse due to various factors. A teaching process is

conditional. “A real effective teaching is not about teaching knowledge from books but stimulating individual

characters” (Wang, 2011). Apart from focusing on whether or not students have acquired the knowledge and

skill, we should pay closer attention to the interaction between students and teachers, self-learning process, and

how they respond to peers in cooperation, their enthusiasm, emotional feelings, and thinking process, in other

words, the focus is on how students learn and how knowledge is acquired. By understanding how students

discuss, communicate, cooperate, think, and draw conclusions, we can better know how students obtain

knowledge. Only students who have “internalized” knowledge are the real masters of knowledge, so are the

“internalized” feelings. From this perspective, the yardstick to judge if one class is valid or not is more than the

legibility of the teacher’s writing, the elegance of him/her, or a good control of time. It is more important to

know the communication and interaction with students, how much students respond, and whether the

interaction is effective. Therefore, the standard to judge a successful class should not only be based on the

expected results but the process and method toward achieving such results. The reason is that:

It does not matter a student’s development whether or not a teaching task can be achieved, what matters most is to help students learn by themselves and be innovative, this is the driving force for a student’s development as well as the improvement of the teaching method. ( Zhong & Zhang, 2001, p. 278)

The Value Orientation of Effective Teaching: Focusing on Classroom Effectiveness

Efficiency refers to the ratio of inputs and outputs in economics. It gets higher with less inputs and more

outputs, and the efficiency gets lower with more inputs and less outputs. Effective teaching is a reflection of

pursuit of efficiency, effectiveness, and a value concept in education. Throughout the period of industrialization,

the aim of reform in classroom teaching is to promote teaching efficiency, improve teaching results, and

enhance teaching effectiveness. “An effective teaching is consistent with the rules of teaching, it should be

effective and efficient” (Liu, 2007). Speed, safety, and earnings are three key factors of an effective teaching

that should be considered. The core concept of a new curriculum reform is “all for the development of

students” (Yu, 2007). The effectiveness of teaching, after a period of teaching practice, can only be measured

by how much progress students have made. Unlike production effectiveness, teaching effectiveness is not

determined by how much teachers have taught, rather, it is decided by how much students have obtained. In

other words, teaching effectiveness has nothing to do with the fact that whether a teacher has finished his/her

teaching tasks or how he/she performed in class, the only measurement is the learning outcome of students: Did


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they learn well? Did they obtain something? It is how much the students have learnt and how much the students

have improved that have the final say. Yang, Wu, and Li (2008) pointed out:

An inefficient teaching is the case that students get nothing or feel bored though the teacher had a hard attempt. Similarly, if students had a hard time in learning and barely improved despite the teacher’s hard attempt, it is another inefficient teaching. (p. 20)

Effective teaching can help students learn in an effective way. It can be done either directly or indirectly.

Students can learn better, quicker, and deeper with the direct instruction from the teacher, which is a direct

approach. An indirect way is that students can grasp the essence of learning, improve themselves, and master

the way knowledge is obtained without any more guidance from the teacher.

The Ultimate Goal of Effective Teaching: Focusing on the Overall Development of Students

“An effective teaching is ultimately inseparable from promoting students’ all-round development” (Zhong,

2007). Compared with the previous individual-oriented teaching, the most obvious advantage of teaching as a

whole class lies in the fact that it improves teaching efficiency by emphasizing on the overall performance of a

class and paying less attention to individual differences. Particularly under the guidance of college entrance

examination, teachers are too often tilting themselves on promising students and neglecting many other

students. This can not be called effective teaching. According to the outline for the reform of basic education

curriculum, teachers should be student-oriented, pay attention to students’ individual differences, meet

individual learning needs, and contribute to individual development. In order to put these ideas into practice,

we should find a balanced approach by taking the intellectual level, intelligent potential, and family background

into account. Therefore, based on the needs of the majority, we can respect individual character, take care of

differences, and provide a best suitable teaching solution for every individual, thus, promoting their overall

development to the full extent. It should be noted that there still exists the practice of examination-centered

teaching or teaching for the exam’s sake. This practice overlooks the cultivation of learning ability and

increases the workload of students, as a result, students fail to develop other qualities. This is an inefficient

teaching.

Strategy of Implementing Effective Teaching

“A teaching process is a yield process with inputs of teaching resources and a period of teaching stages”

(Liu, 2007). It is a complex organic body to achieve the expected goals and to test whether it is truly effective

involve many folds of factors.

Carefully Preparing Teaching Plan: A Prerequisite for Effective Teaching

It is often said that if you want to succeed, you must get fully prepared beforehand. This is true with

teaching too. If a teacher prepares quite enough and has a well-thought-out plan, he/she can handle it well in

class as if coming out of natural communication. The question is what an effective teaching plan is. The authors

believe that a teacher should have a thoroughly grasp of three aspects, namely, curriculum goals, the textbook,

and students. That is to say, a teacher should prepare a lesson in accordance with the curriculum standards,

contents, and characteristics of the textbook to be used as well as the composition of students. In addition, a

teacher should also prepare the way to present the lecture, he/she must be clear of the students’ personalities

and his/her own teaching style. Therefore, when a teacher is preparing, he/she needs to bear in mind the

following questions related to students: 1. Have the students got any idea of background knowledge of a new


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lesson? 2. How familiar do they know about them? 3. Which parts of the knowledge have the students been

familiar with? 4. Which ones need additional explanation in class? 5. What are the things that need the

teacher’s guidance and what are the things that students can manage themselves? 6. Is the topic of this lesson

close to life and how does the teacher inspire the students’ interest? and 7. What are the questions to lead the

students think step by step and different students can get the answer following their own thinking? Only when a

teacher answers all the above questions can he/she readjust and optimize the teaching goal and strategy to

benefit as many students and ultimately improve teaching efficiency.

Elaborate Instructional Design: The Basis of Effective Teaching

Classroom teaching is a kind of activity which has strong purpose. To obtain a better teaching

effectiveness and improve the quality of teaching, teachers must presuppose. It is the basic requirements of

teaching. Teaching will lose target without presupposition. Everything is too much of a good thing. Too much

presupposition can easily lead to a lifeless classroom teaching. If the entire class is conducted in accordance

with the teachers’ presupposition, the initiative and enthusiasm of students will be restricted. It will affect the

development of students eventually. Teaching philosophy of new curriculum reform advocated that students in

independent study take the initiative to construct their own knowledge system. The process of teaching is open

and the aim is flexible. In an open learning atmosphere, teachers and students develop curriculum resources

together to make the classroom a generated one. Therefore, effective teaching requires that teachers consider

both presupposition and generation in the teaching process. If there is no presupposition, teaching is easy to

deviate from the text. This kind of generation is invalid. But if it emphasizes presupposition too much, the

classroom teaching is easily trapped in rigidity, and it is bad for the development of students. Without

presupposition and generation, the class is irresponsible and lifeless. Professor Qi-quan Zhong (2004) discussed

the dialectical relationship between presupposition and generation with a brilliant metaphor. As he said:

Teaching materials and teaching plans are just plays, and teaching is the real performance. If you want to act wonderfully, it requires the director to play a unique interpretation and actors’ creation of the role. Therefore, in the implementation of curriculum, teachers should not only be faithful to “original”, but also make necessary adjustments, correction, and even bold creation according to the specific situation. (Zhong, 2004, p. 146)

Presupposition is the premise and generation is the key. Presupposition and generation are the two wings

of classroom teaching, and both are very significant. If teachers carry out teaching in accordance with

presupposition completely, students’ learning autonomy will be ignored, and the classroom will be trapped in

dullness. But if teachers pursue the instant generation in class too much, it will appear “the disturbance”

phenomenon, for lacking of the effective control and guide. Therefore, teachers should see presupposition and

generation in a rational view and make presupposition flexible, so that it can adopt unexpected generation to

ensure the effectiveness of classroom teaching.

Organize Class Scientifically: The Guarantee of Effective Teaching

The key of effective teaching is teacher, who is the instructor of knowledge and the executor of teaching.

Scientific and rational organization of teaching in classroom embodies a teacher’s teaching ability and has

become an important guarantee of effective teaching. In particular, firstly, teaching should arouse learning

interest and motivation of students on the basis of the desire of learning. That is to say, only when the students

are rather willing to learn than considering learning as a dull thing will they cooperate with teacher’s teaching,

then, effective learning is produced. Secondly, let students decide their goals. In other words, teachers should


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make students to know what to learn and the degree of learning. Only in this way can students consciously and

actively participate in classroom activities. Thirdly, teaching should be in a way that is easy to understand for

students. Teaching is like a drama or movie, which should have not only a bottleneck, but also have ups and

downs. Therefore, teachers can use some classroom teaching techniques, such as repetition, simple and cadence

way of teaching. If a teacher does not have these techniques in lecture, then, even he/she teaches very hard, it is

also impossible to have good teaching effect. At last, it should reflect the principle of democracy and equality

in the teaching process. A good teaching effect often occurs under the atmosphere of democracy and equality.

If a teacher loses the respect, trust, and love to students, and the democracy and harmony, it will be impossible

to achieve ideal teaching effects.

Reflections on Teaching Process: Driving Force for an Effective Teaching

“Reflective teaching” is one of the major ways to promote teachers’ professional development, which is

also a most basic, feasible, and the most practical and effective way to improve the quality of teaching. Posner,

an American scholar, had presented a formula describing the professional growth of teachers: Experience +

Reflection = Growth, noting that “Experience without reflective could be a narrow one, if teachers merely

content to gain experience without in-depth experience, their professional development would be greatly

hampered”. Professor Ye Lan has pointed out, “A teacher who writes lesson plans might not necessarily be a

great teacher, unless he/she keeps writing plans for three years”. It is obvious that “reflective teaching” will

play a very important role in promoting teachers by improving teaching strategies, continuously improving

their level of education, so as to better improve the quality of education. Socrates said, “A life without

reflections is not worth living”. Teaching also needs teachers’ teaching behavior on their own thinking and

research, on their own to review problems in the teaching, constantly testing themselves using the standards,

finding problems and shortcomings in teaching, and the pursuit of legitimacy of the whole process of teaching.

It is required that teachers should reflect on their own behavior on a daily basis, and constantly ask themselves:

Which teaching approach is effective? Does my teaching work? Any other more effective strategies? What

teaching methods can attract students? For inadequate teaching, what is the reason? Are inspirations from

teachers appropriate or reasonable? and so on. Teachers can write down the problems, make any necessary

revision and supplement, redesign the teaching plan so as to avoid weaknesses and draw lessons from it.

Reflective teaching is something that helps the teachers’ progress. Teaching behaviors of teachers are through

reflection on their own, by summarizing advantages and disadvantages of teaching success, mirroring the whole

teaching process through the review, analysis, and scrutiny to form consciousness and self-monitoring ability of

self-reflection, self-quality constantly enrich, enhancing teaching capacity, making teaching efficient, thereby,

improving the quality of teaching.

Conclusions

As a common bilateral activity between teachers and students, the ultimate purpose of teaching is to the

all-round development of students. To promote students’ all-round development in different degrees is the

effective teaching. Teacher is the implementer of teaching, teachers’ subjective initiative effect on teaching

results cannot be ignored. Therefore, in order to increase the effectiveness of teaching, we should not only pay

attention to the teaching process and the development of the students, but great importance should be attached

to the teaching reflection of teachers and improving teachers’ teaching ability.


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References Liu, L. M. (2007). Abroad study of effective teaching theory. Modern Education of Primary and Secondary Schools, 5. Long, B. X., & Chen, X. (2005). The refactoring of concept of effective teaching and theoretical thinking. Journal of Hunan

Normal University Education Sciences, 4, 40. Sun, S. (2010). Influence factors of functional orientation of classroom teaching and the judgement of effectiveness of classroom

teaching. Journal of Southwest University (Social Science Edition), 4, 154. Wang, C. J., & Xie, L. M. (2009). On the teachers’ foundation of effective teaching. Journal of Tianjin Normal University (Basic

Education Edition), 1, 28. Wang, Y. M. (2011). Sociological questions of “effective teaching”. Education Science, 4, 20. Yang, Y., Wu, P., & Li, J. H. (2008). Environmental design of informationization of effective teaching. Information Technology

Education in China, 12, 20. Yu, W. S. (2006). The exploration of effectiveness of classroom teaching. Education Comments, 6, 46. Yu, W. S. (2007). Effectiveness is the lifeblood of the classroom teaching. Education in Jiangxi Province, 31. Zhong, Q. Q. (2004). Introduction to curriculum and teaching (p. 146). Shanghai, China: East China Normal University Press. Zhong, Q. Q. (2007). The value of the study on “effective teaching”. Journal of Education Research, 6, 31. Zhong, Q. Q., & Zhang, H. (2001). Reform of basic education curriculum (Trial). Shanghai, China: East China Normal University

Press.


Junior Science Project—Developing Attention and

Concentration Skills to Nurture a Sustainable Learning of

Natural Sciences

Flora Teixeira e Costa, Helena Pratas

Centro de Estudos e Investigação Aplicada;

Instituto Superior de Educação e Ciências, Lisboa, Portugal

Ana Paramés

Instituto Superior de Educação e Ciências,

Lisboa, Portugal

Junior Science Project is a research focused on a strategy that is being implemented to prepare elementary students

to better learn natural sciences. It intends to slowly involve children starting in the 1st grade into the critical

thinking and scientific method, taking into account science as a practice that includes a structured body of concepts

which can explain and predict observable phenomena, a way of thinking and a body of skills. These skills, for

instance, attention and concentration are specific and yet simultaneously universally essential to any intellectual

sustainable development. The project wishes to provide innovative didactic resources and to promote a teacher’s

friendly alternative strategy to initiate students into the scientific methodology. This research aims to develop skills

to be used on natural science lessons in elementary school, while, other suitable approaches consider that science

lessons in elementary school are to provide ideal opportunities to develop skills on children. The Junior Science

Project is being implemented in two 1st grade classrooms of 11 children each at two urban private educational

institutions in Oporto, Portugal—Horizonte College and Luso French College.

Keywords: critical thinking, science didactics in elementary school, skills development

Introduction

The most recent investigation on science didactics showed the necessity to develop scientific skills on

children in the early stages of development aiming at a gradual involvement with experimental sciences (Harlen,

2011; Johnston & Al-Shuaili, 2011; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2009;

Osborne & Dillon, 2008; Davies, Jindal-Snape, Collier, Digby, Hay, & Howe, 2013). The future will require

young scientific workers not only to have a good degree of scientific and technological knowledge (Rocard,

Csermely, Jorde, Lenzen, Walberg-Henriksson, & Hemmo, 2007), but also have skills, such as creativity,

communication skills, critical thinking, the ability to propose innovative problem-solving solutions, and the

capacity to interpret data (National Research Council (NRC), 2012; OECD, 2012).

Acknowledgement: The authors would like to express their deepest thanks to teacher Leonor Pacheco from Horizonte College and teacher Sara Couto from Luso-French College.

Flora Teixeira e Costa, Ph.D., researcher, Centro de Estudos e Investigação Aplicada (CEIA); Instituto Superior de Educação e Ciências (ISEC).

Helena Pratas, Ph.D., researcher, CEIA; senior lecturer, Department of Education, ISEC. Ana Paramés, Ph.D. candidate, lecturer, Department of Education, ISEC.

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Researchers, like Osborne and Dillon (2008), identified the necessity that the European Union (EU)

governments develop policies that enable to recognize and develop skills in what respects to citizens’ scientific

literacy. The document entitled Evolution of Student Interest in Science and Technology (OECD, 2006),

identifies teaching methodologies as one of the reasons for children’s indifference towards science. So, it has

become relevant to the contribution of innovative strategies to develop curiosity and interest to learn science

(Millar, 2009; Science Community Representing Education (SCORE), 2009).

While many other approaches consider science lessons in primary school to provide ideal opportunities to

develop skills on children, Junior Science Project and methodology consider the problem in a reverse way. The

main issue is to first develop skills on children, initiating at six years old, and starting by attention and

concentration, and then, making use of them in the study of science curriculum areas. As McNeill (2011) stated,

elementary science needs to engage students in scientific inquiry in which students support claims with evidence,

construct arguments, and consider alternative explanations, it seems like a common sense that if the referred

skills are well developed, the probability to success is raised. Junior Science offers a methodical and systematic

strategy to develop attention and concentration in the first year of intervention.

Structure of the Project

The Junior Science Project research (Costa, Pratas, & Estrada, 2012) has a main investigation question: To

what extent does the development of skills, such as curiosity, attention, concentration, and team work, stimulate

the learning process of the scientific methodology on six years old children?

Context and participants: The project is being accomplished in a 1st grade classroom at an urban female

private school, Horizonte College and also in a 1st grade classroom at an urban private school, Luso French

College, in Oporto, Portugal. The sample consists of 11 students of each classroom, 10 of them are six years old

at the present time.

The participation in this study is part of the selected activities offered by the institution to its children in the

academic year 2013-2014. This process is taking place once a week, always in the same schedule, during 45

minutes, and implemented always by the same field researcher.

Methodology for Collecting Data

The data were collected from direct observation of children during the performance of the planned junior

science tasks, answers, and comments to proposed questions, drawings, and comments to drawings. It is also a

source of data from the non-participant observation of a class given by the children’s teacher, always at the same

hour each week, as well as structured interviews with the teacher and informal conversations.

Another source of data is informal conversation with Junior Science students.

The Junior Science Plan

Interventions of Junior Science Project have been designed having two guiding principles: 1.

Simplicity—There is no need for any special materials, too complicated or expensive. The instructional activities

written for teachers or instructors are very easy to understand by the instructor and very easy to explain to the

children. The instructional activities are adapted to the cognitive development of the intervened children; and 2.

Repetition—The number of interventions for each skill/ability is varied and with smooth growing complexity.


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Discussion

The programme for the 1st grade is outlined next: theme, number of interventions for each theme, and

respective goals. Junior Science starts to work initially mainly with games.

Theme 1: “What is a scientist?”. Four interventions. The goal is to understand the idea children have about

science and a scientist. Where does he/she works? what can be the special characteristics of a scientists? In this

intervention, important ideas are passed to scholars, for instance, the concept that scientists study all the created

nature, the world that surrounds us, the difference between the imagination and the reality, and also the idea

that a scientist always tells the truth otherwise science can not be done.

Theme 2: “The questions scientists make”.

Theme 3: “Attention and concentration”. Fifteen interventions.

Junior Science works with children initially with games designed by us specially to develop attention and

concentration skills. A parallel side effect is that time and space concepts also worked.

A set of nine games was created, developed, implemented, readapted, and again implemented. Children

enthusiastically learn each new game and are impatient to improve their performance. These games can be

designed to be used on a tablet device, for instance, but we consider it not to be a good idea because children

have to contact real things, touch and smell the real world.

Because of the strong co-operation with the primary teacher of Horizonte College in a parallel stage, small

tasks are asked to be done in school context every day. These small tasks are discussed with the teacher.

The first task to be accomplished in a normal classroom routine was to write the date in a different colour

that the teacher would announce very rapidly every day. On the first day, three children asked the teacher to

repeat the instruction, the same number of questions was posed on the second day of the experience, and on the

third day, no more questions were posed.

It could be noticed and was surprisingly stressed by the teacher that this was a better performance that she

was expecting taking into account her experience in teaching.

The teacher shared her concern with the Junior Science Project field researcher about the need her six years

old students had for 10 minutes every morning at the beginning of each class, to enter the room, put things in

order, and start to pay attention. “Could this time be reduced?”, she asked. “Yes! It was a good challenge”. A

game was imagined aiming at this goal.

The game proposed to children was named “The colour game”. Scholars received a series of 22 coloured

pieces of paper, 12 small plastic bags, and three small envelops. The game conducted to introduce the coloured

piece into the plastic bag or into the envelop following the instructions given by the field researcher as faster as

they could without having a second chance to hear the instruction and without losing themselves.

Each instruction was given after 10 seconds and never in any series, all the coloured fragments of paper were

used. An example of a series is as follows: “Yellow plastic, brown plastic, blue envelop, green plastic, blue

plastic, black plastic, white envelop, yellow plastic, brown plastic, green plastic, blue plastic, black plastic, black

envelop, blue plastic, yellow plastic, and brown plastic”.

After two sessions playing, it was proposed to children to incorporate into their attitude at the beginning of

each class the purpose of the game by using the smallest amount of time they could to enter into the classroom,

put things in order, and start to pay attention. It was verified that during the first 15 days (the first day included),

the time needed reduced 70%, and after two months, the result still is valid.


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Conclusions

The goal of any scientific education research is to enrich children’s natural interest in scientific knowledge

(Klahr, Zimmerman, & Jirout, 2011). Junior Science Project has started recently, about one year and a half, but in

spite of it at this point of the research, the small changes on students’ intervened behaviour seem to indicate that

the project is useful and has a positive effect on children’s performance in the classroom. As it was said, a set of

nine games was created, developed, implemented, readapted, and again put into practice. These games could be

designed to be used, for instance, on a tablet device, but we consider it not to be a good idea, because children

have to contact real things, touch and smell the authentic world. We intend to proceed with the research and to

publish further results.

References Costa F., Pratas, H., & Estrada, R. (2012). Junior science—Nurturing children’s natural interest in scientific knowledge.

Proceedings of The 1st Virtual International Conference (pp. 1162-1164), Slovakia. Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P., & Howe, A. (2013). Creative learning enviorenments in education: A

systematic literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 80-91. Harlen, W. (2011). Why is learning science important in primary schools? In W. Harlen (Ed.), ASE guide to primary science

education (pp. 2-9). Hatfield, U.K.: Association for Science Education. Johnston, A. H., & Al-Shuaili, A. (2001). Learning in the laboratory: Some thoughts from the literature. University Chemistry

Education—Royal Society of Chemistry, 5(2), 42-51. Klahr, D., Zimmerman C., & Jirout J. (2011). Educational interventions to advance children’s scientific thinking. Science, 333,

971. McNeill, L. K. (2011). Elementary students’ views and explanation, argumentation, and evidence, and their abilities to construct

arguments over the school year. Journal of Research Science Teaching, 48(7), 793-823. Millar, R. (2009). Analyzing practical activities to assess and improve effectiveness: The practical activity analysis inventory

(PAAI). York: Centre for Innovation and Research in Science Education, University of York. Retrieved from http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/educ/research/ResearchPaperSeries/index.htm

National Research Council (NRC). (2012). A framework for K-12 science. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php? record_id=13165&page=R1

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2006). Evolution of student interest in science and technology (Policy Report). Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/30/36645825.pdf

OECD. (2009). The PISA 2009 assessment framework: Key competencies in reading, mathematics and science. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/11/40/44455820. pdf

OECD. (2012). The PISA 2015 assessment framework: Key competencies in reading, mathematics and science. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/ pisa2015draftframeworks.htm

Osborne, J., & Dillon, J. (2008). Science education in Europe: Critical reflections. London, U.K.: The Nuffield Foundation. Rocard, M., Csermely, P., Jorde, D., Lenzen, D., Walberg-Henriksson, H., & Hemmo, V. (High Level Group on Science

Education). (2007). Science education now: A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe. Bruxelas: European Comission. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/report-rocard-on-scienceeducation_ en.pdf

Science Community Representing Education (SCORE). (2009). Getting practical: A framework for practical science in schools. Retrieved from http://www.scoreeducation.org/downloads/practical_work/framework.pdf


The Effect of Different Feedback Methods Impact

the Learning of Novice Badminton Forehand

Serve in Fifth Grade Students

Chih-Yi Weng

Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the variation between different feedback methods to learning of novice

badminton players’ forehand serve. Thirty-six fifth grade students who were inexperienced in forehand serve were

selected as subjects. Via skill pre-test, they were divided into four groups, which were verbal feedback group,

verbal and physical assistance feedback group, verbal and video tape feedback group, and the control group. Each

group included nine students (average 11.26 ± 0.43 years old in age, average 145.26 ± 6.59 cm in height). The

experiment was conducted during a five-day period, with sessions of 30 minutes each day using 120 balls. After the

fifth day of the experiment, the post-test would be held and the retention test would be proceeded in the following

week. The results were analyzed by two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) mixed designs of the Power of

Advanced Statistical Windows 18.0. Tested to acquire the difference in skill of performance and learning during

different test time and feedback methods, the significant level was α = 0.05. The conclusions of this study can be

made as follows: 1. Each type of feedback can improve the skill of the forehand serve in novice players’

performance; 2. Each type of feedback has a positive impact on novice players’ learning of the forehand serve; 3.

All feedbacks for the beginners’ forehand serve learning do not show remarkable differences; and 4. The decision

of the feedback type should be selected by the complexity of movement learning.

Keywords: verbal and physical assistance, verbal and video tape, skill of performance, forehand serve

Introduction

As early as Thorndike (1931) clearly pointed out, learning has to rely on feedback, but it does not promote

learning with only practice. Schmidt (1988) also pointed out that practice and feedback are two important

variables that affect motor learning. The feedback display plays a very important role in motor learning. In the

field of physical education, teacher feedback is an important strategy, and the effective teachers’ feedback is an

important factor in achieving effective teaching. Therefore, an important task of physical education with

addition to the explicit statement of teaching objectives and teaching content need to have a clear explanation

and demonstration of the correct action essentials. Among the appropriate use of feedback, information is the

most important factor (Keh, 1992) to help learners achieve the goal of learning motor skills.

Internal feedback type and external feedback type contain two kinds of feedback, intrinsic feedback and

external feedback. Intrinsic feedback is for learners in the process of skill learning through their own feeling of

Chih-Yi Weng, Ed.D., associate professor, Physical Education Office, Providence University.

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receiving, such as auditory, tactile, visual, awareness of their skills, and performance. External feedback, also

known as the enhancement of human factors. These feedbacks come from teachers, students, or other media

after the execution of the action results or process quality. Teaching through oral communication and

videotapes is the basis for the next motor skills to be improved. External feedback can be divided into two

categories: (a) informed of the results (KR), see or hear the results after the completion of the action; and (b)

informed of performance (KP) is a method for performing skills, a sense that is understood about the

performance of correctness (Jian, 2007).

External feedback of the study design has different types of feedback on the effect of motor learning, for

instance, verbal feedback, action demonstrations, speaking with self-image, speaking in conjunction with

standard images, and comprehensive feedback. There are still many uncertainties, and most studies focused on

the possibility of visual and auditory feedback in the form of motor skill learning (Guadagnoli, Holcomb &

Davis, 2002; Hand & Sidaway, 1994; Magill & Schoenfelder-Zohdi, 1996) as tactile feedback form (physical

guidance or assistance) got less attention.

However, the scene can be found in teaching elementary school students in the learning level hit forehand

serve, time and space on the ball angled somewhat difficult to master, there are often rackets that can not touch

the ball, resulting in ineffective learning of forehand serve. In this case, the physical assistance feedback will be

able to get good results. Jhuo (1998) also pointed out that, in physical education, the proper use of the limb

guided skills guides the student body to do the movements, to ensure the correctness of the action, and can

enhance the action of space and time to a kinesthetic awareness extent. In today’s multimedia technology, the

way of visual feedback has been what domestic researchers used. Most of the findings support the visual

feedback and can effectively improve motor skills and performance. However, research on the visual feedback

used in the sport of badminton is long overdue. Therefore, this study hopes to explore how different feedback

methods, such as verbal feedback, verbal and physical assistance feedback, verbal and video tape feedback, and

the control group, influence the learning of badminton beginners’ forehand serve skills, to enhance their level

hit forehand serve and bring relevant information for teaching in physical education and future research.

Method

Sample and Procedures

The participants were 18 boys and 18 girls of elementary fifth grade students as billiard beginners who

have no badminton forehand serve learning experience through measured and pre-test scores less than 20 points.

Based on the skills pre-test scores, the boys’ and girls’ ability grouping of the S-shaped, and strive to

homogeneity among the groups’ skill level, and then, by drawing lots. Four groups (N = 36) were randomly

assigned to verbal feedback group, verbal and physical assistance feedback group, verbal and video tape

feedback group, and the control group, with an average age of approximately 11.26 ± 0.43 years old and with

an average height of 145.26 ± 6.59 cm. The demographic data of the study participants are shown in Table 1. In

the stage of the experiment, different experimental groups were treated with the experimental manipulation of

different ways, each study participant was required to carry out 30 minutes of 120-ball one-on-one forehand

serve teaching every day. Before exercise, grip teaching the decomposition action essentials demonstration and

description (ready position, the racket swing, the end of the action) and × 10 practice swings shoot. At the end

of the teaching, the 120-ball forehand serve feedback groups (the control group did not give feedback message),

each feedback time for 15 seconds, each time not more than two or more feedback. After the end of the fifth


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day of practice, skills were immediately tested. One week later, each study participant also processing the

retention test for the effect of practice.

Table 1

The Demographic Data of the Study Participants

Groups Number of sample Height (cm) Age (years)

Mean SD

Verbal and physical assistance feedback group 9 Height Age

147.58 6.07

11.37 0.48

Verbal and video tape feedback group 9 Height Age

141.17 6.95

11.33 0.50

Verbal feedback group 9 Height Age

146.14 5.79

11.22 0.44

The control group 9 Height Age

146.15 6.67

11.13 0.33

Measures

Forehand serve action checklist score sheet. The forehand serve action checklist score sheet was

adopted from Teaching in Badminton Methods and Assessment (Yang & Huang, 2007). Recommendations of

badminton experts and scholars were referenced in compiling test items, so that every item complies with the

research purpose. Therefore, forehand serve action checking score sheet is tested with expert validity. This

forehand serve action checking score sheet includes the motions of processing: ready position, the racket swing,

the end of the action, and the whole ball quality. The researcher not only used it as a teaching content and

feedback checklist, but also used it to assess participants’ skills and performance by two raters.

Forehand serve swing ace target. The purpose of forehand serve is to assault opponents and shorten the

reaction time of the opponent, so the swing level is faster and closer to the court, which is the end of the line.

This is a good forehand serve swing. Based on the above characteristics, this score target designed a total of

five score standard area of a line divided from the baseline of the court, which is to take a distance of 60 cm in

arcs connecting end line, and this is the first score standard area. The second score from the standard area to the

centerline of the court, which is in turn increments of 40 cm, and so on to the five score standard area. The first

standard area has the score of 10 points and the second to fifth standard areas have decremented score by two

points, this tool is validated by the level of the two groups validity up to significant difference (t (38) = 9.05*, p

< 0.05); two groups of test-retest reliability were 0.94 and 0.97, which confirmed this target as effective test

tools.

This study of the forehand serve practice and testing methods is the same. The participants stand at the

right side of the court, hitting the score targets and recording the forehand serve strike test scores. The test is at

the same time throughout the video to provide two raters as a source for action scoring. This study utilized

forehand serve swing ace target and forehand serve action checklist score sheet at the same time, for evaluation

of study participants’ skill performance. The researcher invited two badminton coaches to serve as the study

raters and hit a forehand service motion checking score. Use this score to watch the test movie score to improve

the reliability and validity of this experiment. The two raters pre-test, post-test, and retain the consistency of the

test, via the Pearson’s Product-Related Test with 0.74*, 0.84*, and 0.79* (p < 0.01). This shows a significant

correlation between the two raters, which indicates that the two raters were rating with the same standards.


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Data Analysis

The design of this study is divided into A and B two-factor experiment, factor A “feedback” is divided

into four groups: verbal and physical assistance feedback group (a1), verbal and video tape feedback group (a2),

the verbal feedback group (a3), and the control group (a4); Factor B “test phase” is divided into three tests:

skills pre-test (b1), skills post-test (b2), and skills retention test (b3). This study is 4 × 3 two-factor mixed

design Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). We used Power of Advanced Statistical Windows 18.0 of the

statistical program for data analysis. ANOVA mixed design to test the effects and learning effects of different

feedback in the different testing skills during the performance difference. Up to a significant difference, to

further test the simple main effect. Up to another significant difference, least significant difference (LSD) post

hoc comparisons to test it, the level of significance sets at α = 0.05.

Results

Based on the forehand serve action checklist score and forehand serve swing ace target score, the

researcher used two-factor mixed design ANOVA to analyze the three different feedback modes with different

test periods of effect the forehand serve skill learning.

Different Feedback Modes With Different Test Periods Difference—Comparative Analysis

Table 2 shows different feedback modes of statistically significant differences in level (F (3, 32) = 6.20, p

< 0.05); they also reached statistically significant difference level (F (2 different test periods, 64) = 215.95, p <

0.05); different feedback modes with different test period interaction part of the level of statistically significant

difference (F (6, 64) = 9.20, p < 0.05), they need further test of simple main effect of different feedback modes

with different test period. From Table 3, in a different part of the test period, verbal and physical assistance

feedback group (F (2, 64) = 77.90, p < 0.05), verbal and video tape feedback group (F (2, 64) = 92.47, p <

0.05), verbal feedback group (F (2, 64) = 64.33, p < 0.05), and the control group (F (2, 64) = 8.85, p < 0.05) are

statistically significantly different, it is necessary to LSD post hoc comparison test.

Table 2 Different Feedback Modes With Different Test Periods of Two-Factor Mixed Design Variance Analysis Summary

Sources of variation SS df MS F

Different feedback modes 5195.33 3 1731.77 6.20*

Different test periods 21761.35 2 10880.67 215.95*

Test period × feedback 2782.05 - 463.67 9.20*

Group 12149.33 96 126.55 -

Between subjects 8924.74 32 278.89 -

Residuals 3224.59 64 50.38 -

Note. *p < 0.05.

The Different Test Periods LSD Post Hoc Comparison Analysis

The post-test and retention test scores of the verbal and physical assistance feedback, verbal and video

tape feedback, and verbal feedback groups were significantly better than the pre-test results; latter test scores

better than the retention test scores, but there is no significant difference between the two. Displayed via the

three groups after five days of experimental manipulation feedback manner, regardless of the effect of the skill

performance or skill learning, individually good results also confirmed that the three different feedback


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methods are effective to promote badminton forehand serve skills.

Different Feedback Modes in Different Test Period—The Skill Performance Results and Learning

Effects Analysis

Table 3 can be learned in different ways to give section, there was no statistically significant difference in

the pre-test phase (F (3, 96) = 0.00, p < 0.05), confirmed that at the start of this experiment, four groups have

the same homogeneous; in some stages of the post-test (F (3, 96) = 10.09, p < 0.05), statistically significant

difference was confirmed after the experimental treatment skills among the four groups’ different performance

results in the post-test stage, LSD post hoc comparison test; reaching a statistically significant difference in the

retention test phase (F (3, 96) = 10.90, p < 0.05) confirmed that after experimental treatment among the four

groups in the test, phase of skill learning reserved different, which need to LSD post hoc comparison test.

Table 3

Three Ways to Give Different Test Period Simple Main Effect Analysis Summary

Simple main effects SS df MS F

Different test periods

Verbal and physical assistance feedback group 7849.55 2 3924.77 77.90*

Verbal and video tape feedback group 9318.29 2 4659.14 92.47*

Verbal feedback group 6482.88 2 3241.44 64.33*

The control group 892.66 2 446.33 8.85*

Residuals 3224.59 64 50.38 -

Different feedback modes

Pre-test 2.30 3 0.76 0.00

Post-test 3833.44 3 1277.81 10.09*

Retention test 4141.63 3 1380.54 10.90*

Residuals 12149.33 96 126.55 -

Note. *p < 0.05.

Different Feedback of LSD Post Hoc Comparisons Analysis

The scores of verbal and video tape feedback, verbal and physical assistance feedback, and verbal

feedback groups were significantly better both in the post-test and retention test than the control group; verbal

and video tape feedback group is superior to verbal and physical assistance group, but there is no significant

difference among the three groups; verbal and physical assistance group is better than the verbal feedback

group, but there is no significant difference between the two groups. This shows that the three experimental

groups, except the control group, had better skill performance after feedback message.

Discussion

Different Feedback in Different Test Periods—the Skill Performance Results and the Learning Effects

Part of the test period, via two-factor mixed design ANOVA test, the statistics showed that the four groups

had statistically significant differences in different test periods, through the LSD post hoc comparisons, it was

found that the post-test and retention test scores of the four groups are significantly better than the pre-test

scores, and then, by measuring achievement and retention tests, there was no significant difference between the

four groups after five consecutive days of teaching and practicing the skills. According to Magill and

Schoenfelder-Zohdi’s (1996) study, it was concluded that KP feedback information can effectively promote the

effect of sports performance and learning effects. Although, as early as Thorndike (1931) clearly pointed out


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that learning has to rely on feedback, only practice does not promote learning, but the participants of the control

group of this study were beginners involved in the teaching and practice of these skills. Capability with other

groups is quite low, so the effect of the performance of motor skills through the teaching and practice will still

have a significant growth and reach statistical significant difference in teaching with good results in the present

study. Schmidt (1988) pointed out that practice and feedback that affect motor learning are two important

variables, the control group may also improve the performance by the practice of motor skills.

Different Feedback Type Differences in the Skill Performance Results and Learning Effect

Among the groups discussed the effect of differences in skill performance. Among the groups in the

skill performance results of the post-test stage, through the LSD post hoc comparisons, it was found that verbal

and video tape feedback, verbal and physical assistance feedback, and verbal feedback groups are significantly

better than the control group; verbal and video tape feedback group is significantly better than verbal and

physical assistance feedback group and verbal feedback group, but there was no significant difference among

the three groups; verbal and physical assistance group is better than the verbal feedback group, but there was no

significant difference between the two groups.

By comparing different feedback modes, it can be clearly found that the skill performance results, the

three experimental groups were significantly better than the control group, confirming that in the process of

learning motor skills, in addition to the practice itself for learning benefits, valid and appropriate feedback

message is also one of the important variables that influence learning (Keh, 1992). It also shows that the

learning process of forehand serve skills to give appropriate feedback messages has a positive effect on motor

skill performance.

In the present study, the participants of the three experimental groups have better skill performance than

the control group that did not provide feedback message, this result is in accordance with Magill and

Schoenfelder-Zohdi’s (1996) findings. The study pointed out that it is better to offer KP action, but in addition

to no demonstration and no KP group had poor performance, there was no significant difference in the other

three groups. Hand and Sidaway (1994) also pointed out that KP performance is better than the absence of

feedback information on the correctness of motor skills and scores. Other relevant findings are supported to

provide feedback information, which can effectively promote motor skill performance results (Guadagnoli,

Holcomb, & Davis, 2002; Kernodle & Carlton, 1992).

Through the results of this study, it was found that verbal and video tape feedback, the study participants

were found that some of the similarities and differences with their images from the standard action of teachers,

and supported by teachers speaking guide direction for improvement, but also from action of video tape to see

the results of the performance of motor skills continuously revised, thus, contributing to the performance of

motor skills. The researchers believe that, for starters, they can see their own mistakes and compare the

movement through vedio, which is of considerable help for learning. Magill and Schoenfelder-Zohdi’s (1996)

findings also supported the argument, as the study pointed out, watching a video demonstration is better than

the verbal guidance motor performance, and that the observed action demonstration to promote the

coordination of complex motor skills learning. In the learning phase error detection for action (Darden, 1999).

Compare the natural effect of learning does help to provide visual feedback in a timely manner of imitation

learning of motor skills.

Adams, Gopher, and Lintern (1977) also believed that visual feedback can help the details of the action in


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the execution of the action. For beginners in the study, the action must take advantage of external messages

clues to correct and improve their wrong actions. It was found that educators who provide learners to perform

action images for feedback and to compare this visual message with the standard model action, will be able to

help to provide learners with enough time to judge their own errors (Schmidt & Wrisberg, 2000).

Hand and Sidaway (1994) concluded that only to watch the screening of the tape is not enough, with the

verbal guidance of KP is of great help. Kernodle and Carlton (1992) also proposed that a single observation of

the self-action message is not enough to be matched by other important messages, such as verbal guidance can

be encouraged to improve skills. Jian (2007) also mentioned that the accuracy of the verbal motion correction

performance feedback to enhance the skills is not enough; learners need to see the demonstration or watch

video tapes action showing other feedback information in order to effectively help their accurate learning.

Visible during visual feedback still need to cooperate with external feedback messages to be supplemented,

which will have the best results. The results of this study show that the verbal and video tape feedback group

watches the video for their own image, compares the standard of coaches’ actions, and includes teachers’ verbal

help can effectively enhance the badminton forehand serve skill performance.

Provide verbal and physical assistance feedback, combined with the guidance and assistance of the action

operation through the verbal, to help study participants experience dropped with the racket hitting time of the

action, to promote the participants in the action on the operation of space and time so that study participants can

get more successful experience, enthusiasm, and motivation to improve learning. The study participants can

learn new motor skills with no relevant prior experience, although, they could understand the desire of teachers

is to convey the message, but the physical is not be able to operate, the verbal language and physical assistance

guide become very important, and enhance the skill performance results. Xia’s (1999) study also supported the

argument of this study. The study pointed out that the teachers guide the way through the physical in the

billiard teaching allows students to experience batting time and space with, so as to enhance athletic

performance. Jhuo (1998) also pointed out that in physical education, the proper use of the limb guided skills to

guide the student body to do movements and to ensure that the action during the execution is in order can

enhance the action of space and time kinesthetic awareness extent. Display verbal and physical assistance

feedback messages are also effective to promote badminton forehand serve motor skill performance. Follow-up

study will further explore the physical assistance feedback billiard project with higher complexity of motor

skills.

Among the groups compared the effect of differences in learning motor skills. Among the groups in

the retention test phase of skill learning, via LSD post hoc comparisons, by measuring the same stage with the

above skills, it was found that verbal and video tape feedback, verbal and physical assistance feedback, verbal

feedback, these three groups had higher test scores than the control group; verbal and video tape feedback

group was superior to the verbal and physical assistance feedback group and verbal feedback group, but there

was no significant difference among the three groups; verbal and physical assistance feedback group had higher

test scores than the verbal feedback group, but there was no significant difference between the two groups.

These learning effect results show that the three experimental groups in the retention test stage had

significantly higher test scores than the control group. It approved that providing feedback message is a way to

effectively enhance the effect of learning motor skills, although there was no significant difference among

verbal and video tape feedback, verbal and physical assistance feedback, and verbal feedback groups. Cratty

(1973) pointed out that regarding the effect of learning motor skills, there is a more important determinant than


137

the practice conditions, such as constant practice that operation. Lin (1996) also proposed that about the

retention effect, over-learning is the best way. According to their arguments, the most important factors to

affect the retention effect are the practice conditions, practice operation, and amount of practice.

After one week of physical exercise of the three groups of study participants, the notch of the memory

trace will slowly go away, and the rate of loss will have different results with the amount of feedback

information or feedback type. Three groups of study participants in this study were given proper exercise of the

conditions and the amount of practice, while providing the performance of the three groups of different types of

study participants, each group of study participants in the depth of learning and memory board memory traces

different, but the three groups’ forehand serve learning is adequately skill learning.

Yang, Wu, Chen, and Syu (2006) argued that the verbal feedback group on the effectiveness of learning

and retention effect is better than the other two groups, the display that provides verbal and video tape feedback

on the volleyball skill learning is of great help. This also supports the argument of Schmidt and Lee (1999),

who proposed that visual feedback is the impact of important variables of motor learning and confirmed that

verbal and visual feedback can effectively enhance the learning effect of badminton forehand serve motor skills.

The same effect as the performance of the skills, verbal and physical assistance group combined with verbal

and physical on the action operation guidance and assistance of a richer action message, verbal feedback is a

single message, so physical assistance feedback is of considerable importance in the billiard teaching.

The results can be found in the badminton forehand serve skill performance or learning effects section, the

study participants accepted feedback messages, and different forms of feedback can promote badminton

forehand serve skills. Follow-up research will continue to explore that the badminton complex motor skills also

have the same effect, but also can be combined with a more diverse way of feedback to be explored in order to

clarify the different forms of feedback to different motor skills.

Conclusions and Suggestions

Based on the results and the discussion of this study, the conclusions and suggestions can be made as

follows:

1. Feedback effectively promote badminton beginners’ forehand serve skill performance results;

2. Providing feedback to badminton beginners’ forehand serve skills is helpful;

3. There was no significant difference in the feedback for beginners’ forehand serve skill learning;

4. The type of feedback should be chosen depending on the complexity of the learning motor skills;

5. Whether the same results for the higher complexity badminton skill learning;

6. Combined with a more diverse way of feedback to investigate the effect of tactile feedback.

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