We measured student performance on the concept of limit by promoting reflection through four agents of change: instructor, peer, curriculum and individual. It is based on Piaget's four constructs of reflective abstraction: interiorization, coordination, encapsulation, and generalization, and includes the notion of reversal, as refined into a…

Theories of learning have long emphasized the essential role of social factors in the development of early reasoning abilities. More recently, it has been proposed that the presentation of conflicting perspectives may facilitate young children's understanding of knowledge claims as potentially subjective--one of many possible representations of…

The present study aimed at identifying the attitudes of the teacher student towards including students with special needs with the ordinary ones. Also, to determine whether there are statistically significant differences between students who have studied the academic education course of children with special needs in the ordinary schools and the…

The Medical Council of India, in the recent "Vision 2015" document, recommended curricular reforms for undergraduates. Case-based learning (CBL) is one method where students are motivated toward self-directed learning and to develop analytic and problem-solving skills. An overview of thyroid physiology was given in a didactic lecture. A…

We aimed to compare reported observations, participation in, and perceptions of unprofessional behaviors across preclinical and clinical medical students using a 23-item questionnaire that asked participants whether they witnessed or participated in the behavior and considered it unprofessional. Overall, 111 preclinical ("year 3") and…

The aim of this study is to implement a new method of teaching painting which uses the Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) approach for the undergraduate art students at Tehran University. In the current study, the quasi-experimental method was used to test the hypothesis three times (pre, mid and post-tests). Thirty students from two classes…

This study looked at the effects that individual differences in prior knowledge have on student understanding in learning with multimedia in a computer science subject. Students were identified as having either low or high prior knowledge from a series of questions asked in a survey conducted at the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at…

Introduction: Here we report the results obtained in an innovative teaching experience that encourages the development of Critical Thinking skills through motivational intervention. Understanding Critical Thinking as a theory of action, "we think to solve problems", and accompanying this concept with a program aimed at teaching/learning…

In his 2007 study "Effects of Textual Enhancement and Topic Familiarity on Korean EFL Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning of Passive Form," Lee demonstrated that learners were better able to correct written sentences that contained incorrect English passive forms after exposure to texts flooded with enhanced (versus…

Concerns about the misuse of assessment results in accountability related efforts led our biology faculty to take the initiative to develop our own assessment tool for one of our introductory biology courses. Our goal was to evaluate student achievement in the course and detect methods for improving our course. We developed a pre/posttest, which…

Neurological research has demonstrated that pre-test verbal preparation improves performance. The well-tested Tower of London puzzle can assess cognitive skills of a wide age range of participants. Preschoolers who talked to themselves about future puzzle moves had greatly improved Tower of London performance over those without such preparation.…

Given the changing dynamics of society and the pressures on Extension organizations to adapt, leadership effectiveness has become a crucial element of success. The program presented here is designed to enhance individual emotional intelligence. Through in-depth engagement of the participants, they learn to apply dynamics of emotional intelligence,…

Recognizing the differences between three discrete distributions (Binomial, Hypergeometric and Negative Binomial) can be challenging for students. We present an activity designed to help students differentiate among these distributions. In addition, we present assessment results in the form of pre- and post-tests that were designed to assess the…

Background: Self-explanation, or generating explanations to oneself in an attempt to make sense of new information, can promote learning. However, self-explaining takes time, and the learning benefits of this activity need to be rigorously evaluated against alternative uses of this time. Aims: In the current study, we compared the effectiveness of…

Research has demonstrated that the use of worked-out examples to present errors has great potential for procedural knowledge acquirement. Nevertheless, the identification of errors alone does not directly enhance a deep learning process if it is not adequately scaffolded by written self-explanations. We hypothesised that in learning a professional…