ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Changes in Calendars in the Ancient World as a Tool to Teach the Development of Astronomy
Author: Cohen, Ariel
Date: 2018-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Astronomy,Teaching Methods,Introductory Courses,Science Instruction,Foreign Countries,Biblical Literature,Judaism,Christianity,Time,Accuracy,Measurement,Change,Catholics,Religious Factors

When teaching an introductory science survey course to college students learning astronomy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, we have devoted four hours to teaching the history of astronomy as a fruitful strategy to introduce important concepts surrounding the development of general scientific knowledge throughout history. In order to illustrate the impact of improved accuracy of astronomical measurements, we propose using the example the development of the calendars and, in particular, the widespread Hebrew calendars used throughout the adjacent Millennia of B.C. and A.C. The changes in the several determinations of the Hebrew calendar are demonstrated based on Babylonian and Jewish documents as well as works by al-Khwarizmi from the 9th century AD, found in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, in Patna India. Our experience suggests that the teaching of calendar development and evolutions demonstrates the interconnectedness between scientific endeavors and social-religious traditions.
Mental Models of Groundwater Residence: A Deeper Understanding of Students&apos; Preconceptions as a Resource for Teaching and Learning about Groundwater and Aquifers
Author: Arthurs, Leilani A.
Date: 2018-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Water,College Students,Concept Formation,Earth Science,College Science,Science Instruction,Questionnaires,Scientific Concepts,Visualization,Schemata (Cognition),Semi Structured Interviews

There is a growing need for public understanding about groundwater resources. Knowing what groundwater and aquifers are is fundamental to understanding more complex issues such as groundwater quality and availability. However, groundwater and related concepts are among the topics that instructors most struggle to teach. Although constructivist theories suggest that students' preconceptions or misconceptions can be used as teaching tools, the question about exactly how remains. A resource perspective on this question states the first step involves understanding students' preconceptions. To gain a deeper understanding of college students' pre-instructional mental models about groundwater residence, 215 students enrolled in introductory-level environmental geoscience courses taught at two large US state universities were surveyed. An open-ended questionnaire asked participants to draw and label a concept sketch. Follow-up interviews asked participants to elaborate upon their concept sketches. Eight categories of mental models emerged from the analysis of the collected data. These results were interpreted through the lens of cognitive schema theory, which generated to four patterns of mental models. These patterns emphasize key aspects of students' pre-instructional mental models about groundwater residence. Instructors can use this information to design instructional activities about groundwater and aquifers using a resource perspective.
Astronomy and Science Student Attitudes (ASSA): A Short Review and Validation of a New Instrument
Author: Bartlett, Sophie
Date: 2018-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Astronomy,College Students,College Science,Attitude Measures,Factor Analysis,High School Students,Secondary School Science,Student Interests,Self Efficacy,Aspiration,Relevance (Education),Teacher Role,Foreign Countries

A new survey for measuring students' astronomy and science attitudes that has been validated for use with high school students (with a future intent to expand to middle school and university) is presented. We initially present a short review of instruments in the literature that attempt to measure attitudes in astronomy together with the difficulties encountered in measuring these by researchers in the subsequent analyses of results. To illustrate this, we present an example from an Astro101-level university course to display the problems with the current, most commonly used, astronomy attitude instrument. We then present the initial design and the Factor Analysis of a new instrument designed to address the deficiencies of this existing instrument from a sample of students in a high school-level astronomy education project. The factors identified by this instrument include: Interest in Astronomy, Interest in Science Outside of School, Practical Work in Science, Teacher's Actions in science, Perceptions of Ability in Science, Future Aspirations in Science, Benefits of Science, and Personal Relevance of School Science, all of which possess high internal response consistency and construct validity.
Agency and Intermediate Phase Writing in a Farm School
Author: Hill, Margaret A.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Rural Schools,Rural Education,Language of Instruction,English,African Languages,Writing Instruction,Elementary School Students,Visualization,Teaching Methods,Writing Workshops,Prewriting

Against a background that raises problems associated with the classification of languages in current South African curriculum policy, this article describes a programme based on a visual approach to writing, implemented in a farm school. The medium of instruction was English. The home languages of the teachers and learners were Afrikaans and isiXhosa. Sociocultural perspectives congruent with those of New Literacy Studies influenced the design of the writing programme. The school management had identified a serious deficit in intermediate phase (Grades 4-6) learners' ability to perform beyond typical responses to rote learning. The brief given to the literacy coach by the school management was to develop their ability to use English -- the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) of the school -- expressively, to help them to construct original texts and to improve their mastery of the conventions of text. The management's main aim was to promote the learners' agency in their use of English, as it had come to see this ability as crucial to academic progress in higher Grades and to success in tertiary education. The literacy coach implemented a visual approach to composing original texts. Key successes were evident in the variety, volume and literary quality of the learners' texts, which exceeded expectations specified in the National Curriculum Statement applicable at the time.
Writing Skills and Strategies of Bilingual Immigrant Students Learning Greek as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language
Author: Griva, Eleni
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Writing (Composition),Greek,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Bilingualism,Metacognition,Immigrants,Writing Skills,Writing Strategies,Screening Tests,Writing Tests,Student Attitudes,Classification,Writing Processes,Teaching Methods,Foreign Countries

The present study was concerned with eliciting information about the problems that bilingual or immigrant students' encounter and the strategies that they employ whilst writing in Greek as a second language (GL2) and in English as a foreign language (EFL). The sample consisted of a total of 32 bilingual students, aged between 10 and 12 from Albanian, Russian and Georgian families. The study followed a qualitative and quantitative method of data collection and analysis: (1) a screening writing test was used for student selection and their categorisation into skilled and less skilled writers; (2) student think-aloud reports and retrospective interviews were used to collect data whilst students were writing in GL2 and EFL. The findings indicated that the skilled bilingual writers held a much broader and complex view of their own writing process and showed more strategic knowledge compared to less-skilled writers. In particular, they were more flexible in using both cognitive and metacognitive strategies and employed a wider range of more 'elaborated' strategies. In contrast, the less-skilled writers had a more limited knowledge of the writing task, and they adopted lower-level processes and strategies. However, they had adequate awareness of their own writing problems related to word level, and they employed certain compensation strategies to overcome writing weaknesses. Some suggestions are made about the creation of educational and teaching conditions for developing bilingual students' linguistic cognitive and metacognitive skills and expanding opportunities for them to become autonomous writers.
Integration of Sources in Academic Writing: A Corpus-Based Study of Citation Practices in Essay Writing in Two Departments at the University of Botswana
Author: Ramoroka, Boitumelo T.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Academic Discourse,Citations (References),Essays,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Computational Linguistics,College Students,Verbs,Teaching Methods,Language Usage,Writing Instruction

The ability to cite sources appropriately is an important feature of academic writing. Academic writers are expected to integrate ideas of others into their texts and take a stance towards the reported material as they develop their arguments. Despite this importance, research has shown that citation presents considerable difficulties for students, particularly non-native English speakers. Such difficulties include using citations effectively in writing and understanding them in reading, expressing one's voice and signalling citations in writing so that there is a clear distinction between one's ideas and those derived from source materials. This study investigates the types of reporting verbs used by students to refer to the work of others and the extent to which they evaluate the work of others in their writing. It draws from a corpus of approximately 80,000 words from essays written by students in two departments at the University of Botswana (Botswana). The findings show that students used more informing verbs, associated with the neutral passing of information from the source to the reader, without interpreting the information cited, compared with argumentative verbs (which signify an evaluative role). The results of the study underscore the importance of teaching reporting verbs in the English for academic purposes classroom and making students aware of their evaluative potential.
Influence of Pre-Question and Genre-Based Instructional Strategies on Reading
Author: Fola-Adebayo, Titi J.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Instruction,Reading Strategies,Pretests Posttests,Randomized Controlled Trials,Questionnaires,Reading Comprehension,Reading Achievement,Foreign Countries,Reading Tests,Undergraduate Students,Teaching Methods,Reading Attitudes,Verbal Ability,Gender Differences

This study investigated the influence of Pre-question and genre-based instructional strategies on science undergraduates' achievement in, and attitude to, reading. Using purposive sampling, two specialised universities in Nigeria were selected and stratified sampling was employed in assigning students to research groups based on gender and performance in a verbal ability test. Two hundred and eighty-five students participated in the study. Pre-post randomised block experimental design was used with three experimental groups and one control group. The experimental procedure involving Pre-question, genre-based instruction and a combination of Pre-question and genre-based instructional strategies were used for the experimental groups for four weeks whilst the control group received normal teacher input. Data were collected through a Reading Comprehension Achievement Test and Students' Attitude Questionnaire. Qualitative data, obtained from videotapes of classroom interactions, were subjected to conversation and interaction analyses and quantitative data were analysed with Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicate that although there was no significant main effect of instructional strategy on students' achievement in reading comprehension, there was significant main effect of instructional strategy on students' attitude to reading (F[subscript (3,231)] = 30.9; p &lt; 0.05). Findings from the qualitative enquiry revealed that female students were more voluble and assertive in their responses probably because of the need to resist male domination whilst male students used discourse strategies to affirm their authority. The study indicated that the combination of pre-question and genre-based approach was the most effective in enhancing the students' attitude to reading. Reading is one of the most useful of the Language Arts skills which learners need for academic reasons and for lifelong learning. The globalised world demands that the second language student of science and technology demonstrates competence in reading materials in his specialist area in order to participate fully in his discourse community.
Developing Early Readers: Patterns in Introducing Critical Reading Skills and Strategies to South African Children
Author: Combrinck, Celeste
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Reading Instruction,Critical Reading,Reading Strategies,Elementary School Students,Grade 4,Reading Achievement,Achievement Tests,International Assessment,Reading Tests,Family Literacy,Reading Skills,Scores,Home Instruction

This study draws on the preProgress in International Reading Literacy Study (prePIRLS) 2011 data. It aims to illustrate the effect of early home literacy activities and the early introduction of reading skills and strategies in the school setting on reading literacy achievement amongst South African Grade 4 learners across the 11 official languages. South African learner performance is consistently poor across a variety of international assessment programmes. The prePIRLS 2011 study results place South African Grade 4 learners' results substantially below the international centre point of 500 at 461 (SE = 3.7). As part of the reading achievement assessment, prePIRLS 2011 gathered background information in the form of learner, parent, teacher and school questionnaires. This study investigates two aspects as reported by parents and school principals of Grade 4 learners: firstly, parents of Grade 4 learners reported in the Learning to Read survey (or Parent Questionnaire) on the frequency with which early home literacy activities were conducted in the home before the learner commenced schooling. Secondly, principals of learners reported on the grade level (from Grade 1 to Grade 4 and beyond) at which a number of critical reading skills and strategies were introduced to learners. Fourteen such skills are identified, ranging from basic skills to skills with increased complexity. This study links the frequency of early home literacy activities, as reported by Grade 4 learners' parents, and the introduction of the 14 reading skills, as reported by school principals, to learner achievement scores in the prePIRLS 2011 assessment.
Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies of University of Botswana English as Second Language Students of Different Academic Reading Proficiencies
Author: Magogwe, Joel M.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Metacognition,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Reading Strategies,Language Proficiency,Foreign Countries,Student Attitudes,College Freshmen,Social Sciences,Language of Instruction

This study explored metacognitive awareness level of University of Botswana students in the Faculty of Social Sciences. It also considered the more recent research focusing on the role of metacognitive awareness in reading and how it relates to proficiency. The following questions are addressed: (1) What are the self-reported reading proficiencies of the University of Botswana students? (2) Are the University of Botswana students aware of their metacognitive reading strategies? (3) What kind of metacognitive reading strategies are frequently used? (4) Is there a difference in metacognitive awareness of reading strategies used by high- and low-proficiency students respectively? The Survey of Reading Strategies Questionnaire (SORS) developed by Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002), and the semi-structured interview technique were used to collect data for this study. The findings indicate that University of Botswana English as Second Language (ESL) students reported high reading proficiency and high use of metacognitive strategies, but there was no vast difference in terms of proficiency. Students who reported their proficiency as high had an edge over low-proficiency ones mainly because their management and monitoring of reading was guided more by the goals they have set themselves than by the tests and assignments they were supposed to write.
Visualizing Data to Support Judgement, Inference, and Decision Making in Learning Analytics: Insights from Cognitive Psychology and Visualization Science
Author: Alhadad, Sakinah S. J.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Visualization,Data Analysis,Evaluative Thinking,Statistical Inference,Decision Making,Cognitive Psychology,Research Methodology,Cognitive Processes,Design,Research Design

Understanding human judgement and decision making during visual inspection of data is of both practical and theoretical interest. While visualizing data is a commonly employed mechanism to support complex cognitive processes such as inference, judgement, and decision making, the process of supporting and scaffolding cognition through effective design is less well understood. Applying insights from cognitive psychology and visualization science, this paper critically discusses the role of human factors -- visual attention, perception, judgement, and decision making -- toward informing methodological choices when visualizing data. The value of visualizing data is discussed in two key domains: (1) visualizing data as a means of communication; and (2) visualizing data as research methodology. The first applies cognitive science principles and research evidence to inform data visualization design for communication. The second applies data- and cognitive-science to deepen our understanding of data, of its uncertainty, and of analysis when making inferences. The evidence for human capacity limitations -- attention and cognition -- are discussed in the context of data visualizations to support inference-making in both domains, and are followed by recommendations. Finally, how learning analytics can further research on understanding the role data visualizations can play in supporting complex cognition is proposed.
Exploring Relationships between Reading Attitudes, Reading Ability and Academic Performance amongst Primary Teacher Trainees in Swaziland
Author: Lukhele, Beatrice B. S.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Reading Attitudes,Elementary School Teachers,Preservice Teachers,Student Attitudes,Preservice Teacher Education,Correlation,Reading Skills,Academic Achievement,Vocabulary,English (Second Language),Questionnaires,Tests

In this research study, relationships between attitudes to reading, reading ability, vocabulary and academic performance were investigated. The data were gathered and triangulated from an attitude questionnaire, an author and magazine recognition test, as well as from reading comprehension and academic test performance of 84 first- and third-year students studying for a Primary Teacher's Diploma at a College in Manzini, Swaziland. The results suggest that whilst there is no relationship between reading attitudes and reading ability, there is some relationship between reading ability and academic performance. The statistical analyses further indicate a relationship between reading and vocabulary ability of the participants. The findings have grave implications regarding attitudes to reading, reading ability and academic performance for a professional cadre that is expected to be influential in the academic lives of impressionable primary school children in an English as Second Language (ESL) context.
Metrics for Discrete Student Models: Chance Levels, Comparisons, and Use Cases
Author: Bosch, Nigel
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Models,Comparative Analysis,Prediction,Probability,Recall (Psychology),Simulation,Measurement,Evaluation Methods,Interrater Reliability,Accuracy

Metrics including Cohen's kappa, precision, recall, and F[subscript 1] are common measures of performance for models of discrete student states, such as a student's affect or behaviour. This study examined discrete model metrics for previously published student model examples to identify situations where metrics provided differing perspectives on model performance. Simulated models also systematically showed the effects of imbalanced class distributions in both data and predictions, in terms of the values of metrics and the chance levels (values obtained by making random predictions) for those metrics. Random chance level for F[subscript 1] was also established and evaluated. Results for example student models showed that over-prediction of the class of interest (positive class) was relatively common. Chance-level F[subscript 1] was inflated by over-prediction; conversely, maximum possible values for F[subscript 1] and kappa were negatively impacted by over-prediction of the positive class. Additionally, normalization methods for F[subscript 1] relative to chance are discussed and compared to kappa, demonstrating an equivalence between kappa and normalized F[subscript 1]. Finally, implications of results for choice of metrics are discussed in the context of common student modelling goals, such as avoiding false negatives for student states that are negatively related to learning.
&apos;Not Waiting for the Initiative to Arrive&apos;: Teachers Promoting and Sustaining Reading
Author: Hendricks, Monica
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Reading Motivation,National Curriculum,Curriculum Development,Faculty Development,Educational Improvement,Educational Finance,Recreational Reading,Literacy,Teacher Education Programs,Alumni,Interviews

The phases of post-apartheid curriculum reform starting with Curriculum 2005, to the revisions ushered in by the National Curriculum Statements and the recent Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements display a trend toward increasing prescription in terms of content to be taught and allocation of curriculum time per subject, both of which are useful. In order to prepare school teachers for these ongoing curriculum reforms and an increased assessment burden, the national and provincial Education Departments have held regular workshops and provided bursaries for teachers to embark on academic studies in their teaching field. In addition, estimates are that non-governmental sources have spent R1 billion annually since 1994 on school improvement and teacher development programmes.