Shelley Yeo

First‐year university science and engineering students’ understanding of plagiarism

This paper is a case study of first‐year science and engineering students’ understandings of plagiarism. Students were surveyed for their views on scenarios illustrating instances of plagiarism in the context of the academic work and assessment of science and engineering students. The aim was to explore their understandings of plagiarism and their judgement about the seriousness of each incident, and to shed light on the decisions they might make in response to such situations. The data indicated that although students could provide sound definitions of plagiarism, they did not always appreciate the scope of class‐based activity that constitutes plagiarism. Some examples of plagiarism were regarded as less serious than others, and in contradiction with the institution’s policy. Students also generally favoured more lenient penalties than provided for by policy. The purpose of the study was to ascertain first‐year students’ developmental needs in relation to academic honesty, plagiarism and appropriate acknowledgement of others’ work.

Introductory thermal concept evaluation: Assessing students' understanding

We describe a pen and paper instrument designed to provide a measure of a range of student beliefs about thermal phenomena. The trial version, administered to 478 high school and university students aged 15–18 years, was able to distinguish belief changes in two populations, year 11 and first-year university physics students. We have used the revised instrument as a pre-test and post-test for evaluating students’ conceptual change following instruction. The instrument, called the Thermal Concept Evaluation, is appended.

eVALUate: An Evaluation Instrument for Measuring Students' Perceptions of Their Engagement and Learning Outcomes.

In the current climate in Australian higher education, quality assurance in university teaching is a priority. In particular, the introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) has refocused attention on universities’ internal student evaluation survey instruments. This paper reports the development, validation and implementation of a new unit survey instrument which prompts students to reflect on what helps their achievement of unit learning outcomes, and to report their levels of motivation, engagement and overall satisfaction with a semester‐long course or unit of study. The instrument (eVALUate) was created from precepts reported in the research literature, current practices in evaluating teaching, and sound quality assurance practices appropriate to a university outcomes‐focused education paradigm.

Student and Teacher Perceptions of the Use of Multimedia Supported Predict–Observe–Explain Tasks to Probe Understanding

This paper discusses student and teacher perceptions of a new development in the use of the predict–observe–explain (POE) strategy. This development involves the incorporation of POE tasks into a multimedia computer program that uses real-life, digital video clips of difficult, expensive, time consuming or dangerous scenarios as stimuli for these tasks. The program was created by the first author to be used by pairs of secondary physics students to elicit their conceptions of force and motion and encourage discussion about these views. In this computer learning environment, students were required to type full sentence responses that were recorded by the computer for later analysis by the researcher. Other data sources for this study included audio and video recordings of student discussions, interviews with selected students and their teachers, classroom observations, and student questionnaires. This paper will report on some findings from the study, focussing on student and teacher perceptions of the computer-mediated POE tasks. The findings have implications for the effective use of multimedia to enhance meaningful learning in science classrooms.

What do students really learn from interactive multimedia? A physics case study

Interactive multimedia is promoted as an effective and stimulating medium for learning science, but students do not always interact with multimedia as intended by the designers. We discuss students’ interactions with an interactive multimedia program segment about projectile motion in the context of long jumping. Qualitative data were collected using a video camera and split-screen recorder to record each student’s image, voice, and student–program interactions. Left to themselves, students’ interactions were superficial, but when asked to explain their observations of projectile motion illustrations, they were observed to retain common intuitive conceptions. Only following researcher intervention did students develop an awareness of abstract aspects of the program. These results suggest that, despite interactivity and animated graphics, interactive multimedia may not produce the desired outcome for students learning introductory physics concepts.

Evaluation of a Process and Proforma for Making Consistent Decisions about the Seriousness of Plagiarism Incidents.

Abstract Procedures for responding consistently to plagiarism incidents are neither clear‐cut nor easily implemented and yet inequitable treatment is intrinsically unfair. Classifying the seriousness of a plagiarism incident is problematic and penalties recommended for a given incident can vary greatly. This paper describes the development and testing of a classification framework for determining the degree of seriousness of a plagiarism incident using four criteria each on a continuum from least to most serious, and then classification into three overall levels. The classification scheme was trialled with academics using hypothetical plagiarism cases. Results suggest that the four criteria are useful and useable, and can assist in decision‐making, but that professional development for staff will be required to further improve consistency. The trial also revealed the knowledge and thinking processes of academics that might lead to inconsistent decisions.

Evaluation of Students' Understanding of Thermal Concepts in Everyday Contexts

The aims of this study were to determine the underlying conceptual structure of the thermal concept evaluation (TCE) questionnaire, a pencil-and-paper instrument about everyday contexts of heat, temperature, and heat transfer, to investigate students’ conceptual understanding of thermal concepts in everyday contexts across several school years and to analyse the variables—school year, science subjects currently being studied, and science subjects previously studied in thermal energy—that influence students’ thermal conceptual understanding. The TCE, which was administered to 515 Korean students from years 10–12, was developed in Australia, using students’ alternative conceptions derived from the research literature. The conceptual structure comprised four groups—heat transfer and temperature changes, boiling, heat conductivity and equilibrium, and freezing and melting—using 19 of the 26 items in the original questionnaire. Depending on the year group, 25–55% of students experienced difficulties in applying scientific concepts in everyday contexts. Years of schooling, science subjects currently studied and physics topics previously studied correlated with development of students’ conceptual understanding, especially in topics relating to heat transfer, temperature scales, specific heat capacity, homeostasis, and thermodynamics. Although students did improve their conceptual understandings in later years of schooling, they still had difficulties in relating the scientific concepts to their experiences in everyday contexts. The study illustrates the utility of using a pencil-and-paper questionnaire to identify students’ understanding of thermal concepts in everyday situations and provides a baseline for Korean students’ achievement in terms of physics in everyday contexts, one of the objectives of the Korean national curriculum reforms.