Browsing by Subject "Learning -- Evaluation"
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Item A comparison of inductive and deductive teaching strategies utilizing graphing calculator capabilities(Texas Tech University, 1993-05) Strait, GlynnaPredating the computer by centuries has been the art and language of mathematics and man's attempts to master its facts, skills, and concepts. This mastery has depended not only on the sufficiency of the mathematics, but also on the teaching strategies of the instructor and the learning skills of the student. To know well the subject to be taught is not sufficient for teaching it well. Teaching implies more than stating knowledge--it implies learning. Learning is an act of the student. To develop an effective strategy for teaching mathematics, therefore, begins with an understanding of learning. Learning involves fact and skill learning and conceptual understanding. Psychologists have differed in their beliefs on the interaction of these. Some psychologists believe that understanding provides the basis for skills; while others believe that skills precede understanding. This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of two teaching strategies. The deductive teaching strategy was in the sequence of rule, examples, practice. The inductive teaching strategy was in the sequence of examples, rule, practice. The research questions concerned the college algebra student using a graphing calculator in a function and analytic geometry unit of college algebra. The questions asked if the inductive and deductive teaching strategies would result in similar levels of achievement of facts and procedural skills while the inductive group acquired a significantly higher level of understanding of the concepts and a significantly different attitude toward mathematics, calculators, and instructional method. The hypotheses were tested at a community college in West Texas. Two classes with 50 subjects total participated. A pretest/posttest design was utilized. Results from the achievement posttest were analyzed with an analysis of covariance with the pretest as covariate. The attitude survey was treated qualitatively. Results from the study suggest no significant difference in procedural skill or conceptual understanding, but higher factual knowledge with deductive teaching strategy.Item A validation study of an instrument designed to measure metacognition of problem solving(Texas Tech University, 1997-05) Sigler, Ellen AvaMetacognition is the ability to monitor, regulate, and control any cognitive enterprise (Flavell, 1993). This construct may be the key to understanding learning differences and learning difficulties experienced by many individuals. It has been noted (Wong, 1994) that learning disabled students have problems applying and utilizing effective strategies in many learning situations and that metacognitive strategies are a key to remediating their problems. There are many instruments available for measuring metacognition. One method utilizes a structured interview. However, the psychometric soundness and the validity of these instruments have not always been evaluated. This study analyzed some properties of one of the instruments utilized in current research. This instrument was the Swanson, Christie and Rubadeau (1993) interview-style questionnaire which was designed to measure metacognition of general problem solving. A multiple-choice exam designed to assess knowledge of classical problem solving theory and the structured interview used by Swanson, et al. (1993) were used to assess metacognitive ability. Forty-three participants were used in this study: 21 professors and 22 graduate students in the fields of psychology and educational psychology. Overall, the Swanson instrument has some problems in parts of the instrument, which was demonstrated through the ranking task developed in this study. The experts in the field of problem solving theory did agree on many of the response rankings amongst themselves, however even when their rankings had consistency, few questions matched the responses from the Swanson instrument. This information adds to the body of knowledge for the development of an improved instrument designed to measure metacognition. This allows for the evaluation of individuals' capabilities in this area and advances the study of metacognitive processes.