Lynn A. Wilss

Peer mentoring for first‐year teacher education students: the mentors’ experience

Universities worldwide are developing peer mentoring programmes to assist first‐year students’ transition into university life. Awareness of the mentees’ experiences in the mentoring programme – the successes and challenges – contributes to ongoing planning for successful transition for first‐year students. Also, understanding the mentors’ experiences can contribute to the success of the programme and, more importantly, can lead to strong self efficacy for the mentors. This qualitative study appraises a mentoring programme for first‐year undergraduate students from the mentors’ perspective. The mentors’ experiences, both positive and negative, are discussed and a relational model of mentoring is presented. The results of this inquiry have implications for the development of future mentoring programmes, particularly in terms of mentor recruitment and preparation, if first‐year students are to be effectively oriented and supported in their transition to university study.

Cognition and Recreational Computer Games: Implications for Educational Technology

Contemporary research has indicated that students enjoy playing computer games. As a consequence, recreational computer games are becoming an increasingly significant part of students lives. At the same time, use of educational software in schools is increasing. It has been proposed that playing recreational computer games may facilitate cognitive processes such as forming complex mental representations and making inferences. In this study, a qualitative approach was adopted to determine the cognitive processes students engaged in while playing recreational computer games. This was conducted with a view to determining the validity of incorporating computer game features into educationa software. Twenty-one high school students participated. Results indicated that players practiced complex cognitive processes such as interpreting explicit and implicit information, inductive reasoning, metacognitive analysis, and problem solving.

Hospice patients' views on research in palliative care

Background: This project was conducted to investigate whether the concerns that researchers have about including terminally ill patients in research were shared by a sample of terminally ill patients.

A longitudinal study of learning for a group of Indigenous Australian university students : dissonant conceptions and strategies

Conceptions of learning andstrategies used by 15 indigenous students inthree Australian universities were studiedlongitudinally over three years. Their academicachievements were good, but at a high cost interms of time and effort. In spite of the factthat almost half of the students expressedhigher-order (qualitative) conceptions oflearning in the first year and more in thesecond and third years, all of the studentsreported using highly repetitive strategies tolearn. That is, they did not vary their way oflearning, reading or writing in the beginningof their studies and less than half of them didso at the end of the three years. It is arguedthat encountering variation in ways of learningis a prerequisite for the development ofpowerful ways of learning and studying.

Experience of dying: concerns of dying patients and of carers.

Background: Terminally ill patients frequently express concerns about what dying will be like: how their bodies may change as disease progresses, how medication may alter the effect of these changes and whether and how their preferences will be respected as they become more ill.

An analysis of young children's strategies and use of devices for length measurement

Abstract This is a study of the strategies and length measuring devices used by a simple of 70 children in years 1, 2, and 3 in two suburban schools in Brisbane in low to medium and high socioeconomic areas, respectively. Each child was interviewed and videotaped while undertaking tasks in the second and fourth term of the four-term school year. They were given a range of materials to use and asked to explain their procedures as they worked. The teachers were interviewed to determine the procedures that they were introducing in class. The overall developmental sequence was a peak in use of arbitrary devices1 in Year 2, a high interest in use of standard conventional devices in all years although at first they were often used as arbitrary devices or incorrectly, with a significant increase in use in Year 3, and a significant increase in understanding of the length measuring process over the 3 years. These results are in conflict with the normal recommended curriculum sequence and are considered from the perspective of the demand they might make on capacity to process information.

Sequential development of algebra knowledge : a cognitive analysis

Learning to operate algebraically is a complex process that is dependent upon extending arithmetic knowledge to the more complex concepts of algebra. Current research has shown a gap between arithmetic and algebraic knowledge and suggests a pre-algebraic level as a step between the two knowledge types. This paper examines arithmetic and algebraic knowledge from a cognitive perspective in an effort to determine what constitutes a pre-algebraic level of understanding. Results of a longitudinal study designed to investigate students’ readiness for algebra are presented. Thirty-three students in Grades 7, 8, and 9 participated. A model for the transition from arithmetic to pre-algebra to algebra is proposed and students’ understanding of relevant knowledge is discussed.

Analysis of primary school children’s abilities and strategies for reading and recording time from analogue and digital clocks

Sixty-seven children in Grades 1–3 and 66 children in Grades 4–6 were tested for their ability to read and record analogue and digital times. The children in Grades 4–6 were asked to describe their strategies. A sequence of time acquisition was proposed, based on a recent theory of cognitive development and the literature. This was: hour, half hour, quarter hour, five minute, and minute times. Times after the hour would be more difficult and digital times would be learned sooner. The sequence was confirmed for Grades 1–3; irregularities occurred in Grades 4–6. Some implications are drawn for the teaching of time.

Representations and strategies for subtraction used by primary school children

This study investigated the representations and strategies for subtraction used by a sample of 65 students, in Years 4 to 6, in two Brisbane primary schools. Children were presented individually with operations represented symbolically and as word problems. They were asked to solve tasks and explain their procedures. Teachers of the 65 students were interviewed to determine their objectives and strategies. The results of the study show in decreasing order of frequency, use of materials, mental, then written strategies in all Years. Use of recalled facts increased and of calculators decreased over the Years. The results are discussed in terms of information-processing capacity and teaching.