Showing papers on "Student engagement published in 1979"

Student learning and perceptions of the academic environment

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of the organisation of curricula, teaching, and assessment on student learning and looks at the different demands which different academic environments make on their students. After a brief review of research into learning contexts in higher education, data from a course perceptions questionnaire are presented. The principal dimensions which students themselves use to characterise academic environments are identified. The perceptions of students in six departments at one British university are compared; it is concluded that students in different subject areas see themselves to be studying in markedly different environments. The results also suggest students' evaluations of the teaching and the courses in each department.

The Processes of Student Learning.

Abstract: The paper will discuss some research results on the application of recent descriptions of student learning (specifically by Pask and Marton) to students' normal academic methods of studying. The study to be discussed differs from the original studies in that it attempted to analyse a number of real working situations for a group of about 30 students, obtaining as much detail as possible on all aspects of the students' perceptions of their work in those situations. The major conclusion from the study is that students' styles and strategies of learning are context-dependent: rather than applying to individual students, dichotomised descriptions of learning are more readily applicable to students in particular learning situations. The paper will discuss some of the implications of this conclusion for further research on student learning. In particular, it may be possible to develop a hypothetical model of student learning, both to clarify existing results, and provide a framework for further research.

Conceptions of research in student learning

Abstract: Differences in approaches to research into student learning are analyzed in terms of differences in the conception of six aspects of the research process. It is argued that underlying various research strategies there is a variation in perspective (experiental or observational), description (qualitative or quantitative), conceptualization (contextual or generalized), relations of categories (internal or external), comprehension (understanding or explaining) and application of findings (technical or emancipatory). The recent quantitative increase in research on student learning is seen as being paralleled by a tendency towards a paradigmatic shift in approach.

Student Perceptions, I.Q. and Achievement.

Abstract: The study analyzes the determinants of reading achievement for 500 fourthgraders in the Wilmington, Delaware, school district. The data are an improvement over those used by past researchers because of the concurrent availability of student IQ, pretest and posttest reading scores, student perception and motivation information, and individual teacher characteristics matched with their individual students. The main results are (1) a large positive relation between achievement and the student's perception of a positive teacher attitude toward himself, and (2) a somewhat smaller, but nonetheless significant, positive effect of the student's perception of the parents' attitude toward the student's ability to succeed in life. The observed relationships suggest that earlier emphasis on more traditional teacher characteristics such as years of education and experience may have been misplaced.

Student Goals and the Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract: A large group of psychology majors (especially the very able ones) express a discrepancy between student goals and curriculum offerings.

Student learning and an independent study course

Abstract: An evaluation of an Open University course being used in a conventional university revealed a number of complex and interrelated issues relating to student learning. This paper considers some problems in researching this area and focusses on four main themes: the relationship of the student's choice of learning strategy with the requirements of the learning task (in this case a textually based independent study course); the ability of the student to adapt his learning strategy to fit the requirements of the course; the restrictions the task imposes on the possible learning strategies that can be employed; the student's view of learning and knowledge. The paper explores the interplay of these factors, with particular reference to the Open University course being studied.

Student activism in the 1970s: Transformation not decline

Abstract: This article documents the decline of 1960s-style student protest, but argues that activism is far from dead on American campuses in the 1970s. The authors find that there is a new mood in America that is reflected in current student political activity and from which have emerged new forms of student activism. The analysis suggests that as student character and mood change, so do the forms of activism students employ. The implications of this conclusion are significant in terms of evaluating past research and setting a future agenda for research on student activism.

Secondary School Participation, Institutional Socialization, and Student Achievement

Abstract: Recognition of student achievement varies from high school to high school.

A Study of Student Life: The Appraisal of Student Traditions as a Field of Research.

Abstract: Obviously, it is not necessary to point out the importance of student life in the educational process. Sociologists do not need to be reminded that the sanctions and compulsions of college life influence every student on every campus. How vigorously the undergraduate may apply himself to his academic work, what friends of both sexes he may choose, what clothes he may wear, where and what he may eat-all these, and much besides, are largely determined for him by the social heritages of the groups and subgroups of which he is a part. Impressed by the baneful influence of student traditions President Marion L. Burton, of the University of Michigan, dubbed them "the tyrants of every campus." Convinced of their power for good President David Starr Jordan, of Stanford, pronounced them "the greatest instruments of culture in college"; and President Arthur T. Hadley, of Yale, enthusiastically remarked that "at Yale the value of education is due to college life even more than to college instruction." The sociologist, of course, has no interest in taking sides in any verbalistic evaluation of so-called "college atmosphere." He may well concern himself in his choice of research projects, however, with the judgments of these leading educators who have for many years watched students in their communal life together and who have been moved to strong favorable or critical utterances. Over a million undergraduates are today being subjected to the environmental pressures of student life. What these pressures are, whence they come, and how they operate should be thoroughly assessed. These influences present a rich and challenging field

Effective Communication: The Key to Student Management:

Abstract: Four communication models that can be used by the teacher to manage classroom behavior are described on the following pages. Each model has individual differences, but more important, the author notes, are the communication skills common to all four.

Student performance in internal medicine: the effect of previous clerkship experience.

Abstract: To test the assumption that students who have completed other clerkships are likely to perform better in internal medicine, the authors undertook a prospective study of 160 senior students from two classes. Groups of students with little or no senior clerkship experience before their internal medicine clerkship were compared with groups of students who had extensive clerkship experience in disciplines other than medicine. Groups were compared with respect to ward-performance scores and scores on identical multiple-choice examinations. Neither ward-performance nor multiple-choice scores revealed differences attributable to previous clerkship experience. It is concluded that despite areas of instruction and experience which overlap between medicine and other disciplines, previous clerkship experience apparently does not have a beneficial effect on student performance in internal medicine, as measured by these two commonly used methods of evaluation.