Timothy J. Newby

Increasing preservice teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration

Abstract This study was designed to explore how vicarious learning experiences and goal setting influence preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for integrating technology into the classroom. Two hundred and eighty students, enrolled in an introductory educational technology course at a large Midwestern university, participated. Students were divided into eighteen lab sections, which were assigned to one of four conditions (three experimental and one control). Pre- and post-surveys were administered to examine participants’ self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration. Results showed significant treatment effects for vicarious experiences and goal setting on participants’ judgments of self-efficacy for technology integration. A significantly more powerful effect was found when vicarious learning experiences and goal setting were both present compared to when only one of the two factors was present. Therefore, from the perspective of teacher educators, the use of vicarious learning experiences and the incorporation of specific goals may help preservice teachers develop the confidence they need to become effective technology users within their own classrooms.

Classroom Motivation: Strategies of First-Year Teachers.

During a 16-week period, the motivational strategies used by 30 first-year elementary school classroom teachers and the on-task behaviors of their respective students were monitored. The motivational strategies were categorized as either getting attention, emphasizing relevance, building confidence, or imposing rewards and punishments. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of student age and the type, number, and ease of use of the selected strategies

Students’ Responses and Approaches to Case-Based Instruction: The Role of Reflective Self-Regulation

In this exploratory study, we examined how students with high and low levels of self-regulation responded to, and approached learning from, case-based instruction. Fifty-eight first-year veterinary students, enrolled in a case-based biochemistry laboratory course, were classified according to their precourse performances on two self-regulated learning inventories. Nine students, representing high and low levels of self-regulation, were interviewed three times during the semester to explore initial and changing responses and approaches to case-based instruction. Students’ responses are described in terms of the motivational components of case-based instruction: the interest expressed, the value students perceived in case-based instruction, as well as their confidence for leaning from the case method. Students’ approaches are described in terms of their goal orientations, evaluative lens, levels of self-awareness, openness to challenges, perceived levels of relevant knowledge, and contextual vulnerability.

Exploring Factors that Predict Preservice Teachers’ Intentions to Use Web 2.0 Technologies Using Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract This study investigated factors that predict preservice teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies in their future classrooms. The researchers used a mixed-methods research design and collected qualitative interview data (n = 7) to triangulate quantitative survey data (n = 286). Results indicate that positive attitudes and perceptions of perceived usefulness are significant predictors of preservice teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies. Additional findings indicate that preservice teachers intend to use blogs, wikis, and social networking in their future classrooms to improve student learning, student-student and student-teacher interaction, collaborative learning, student writing ability, and sharing content knowledge. Although preservice teachers intend to use Web 2.0 technologies due to these pedagogical benefits, they believe that successful use of Web 2.0 depends on the meaningful integration of these technologies with the subject being taught, learning goals, and age level of their students. This study has implications for teacher educators who are preparing preservice teachers to use Web 2.0 technologies in their classrooms.

Instructional Analogies and the Learning of Concepts.

This paper describes two studies which were designed to examine the effect of instructional analogy training on the ability to identify the application of 10 advanced physiological concepts. In the first study, 161 college students received instruction either with or without analogies. Levels of student performances were compared across three conditions: (a) concept lessons only (including definitions and examples for each concept), (b) similar concept lessons but with an analogy included for each concept, and (c) analogy concept lessons with additional prompts guiding analogy use. In the second study, immediate and delayed performance of 94 college studetns was compared between groups receiving concept lessons with and without analogies. Results showed significantly higher scores, both immediately and after the delayed period, for those students who had received the analogies. Results are discussed in terms of the prescriptive use of analogies within instructional materials and future research possibilities.

Metacognition: Relevance to instructional design

Research in the field of cognitive psychology has led to evidence that proficient learners or performers have an awareness of their own cognition that manifests itself in strategic control of behavior. These findings are of particular significance to instructional designers because of their promising impact on instructional theories and models. Instruction can be enhanced through the incorporation of metacognitive aspects in the instruction and the resultant effects on the learner should be positive in terms of motivation and overall performance.

Analogical instruction within the information processing paradigm: effective means to facilitate learning

Research on the structure of memory has led to evidence that relating unfamiliar information to that which is familiar facilitates the new materials acquisition and retention; moreover, such associations can be efficiently achieved through the use of analogies. The present paper discusses the current information processing conceptualization of memory, the processes of learning by analogy, and the overall desired outcomes of their use to acquire and retain new information. Additionally, instructional implications of how, when, and why to use analogies are discussed.

Learning abstract concepts: The use of analogies as a mediational strategy

This paper examines the differences between concrete and abstract concepts and the implications of those differences for instructional design and teaching. The use of analogies is suggested as an instructional tool in abstract concept learning. Using the published literature on concept learning and analogies, the authors examine how specific concepts are stored in and retrieved from memory, the particular problems presented in learning abstract concepts, and how analogies mediate between the vague, intangible attributes of abstract concepts and those of a more concrete nature. Finally, they present a possible instructional strategy for teaching abstract concepts.

Task motivation: Learner selection of intrinsic versus extrinsic orientations

The choice behavior of 24 college-age subjects within a computer problem-solving task was investigated as they controlled and selected problem difficulty levels which either maximized intrinsic interest or extrinsic reward. While playing a computerized version of the game “Mastermind,” subjects selected and attempted problems from a variety of difficulty levels during 18 15-minute sessions. Within selected periods of extrinsic reward availability, subjects were shown to select problems which were most efficiently solved, thus maximizing extrinsic reward; however, repeated task exposure produced selections that increased the tasks challenge levels and its subsequent intrinsic interest. Following the removal of the extrinsic rewards, subjects immediately returned to their pre-reward intervention levels of difficulty.

The caring morality and gender differences

Subjects were asked to rate 18 adjectives on a five-point scale of goodness. The items were adjectives extracted from the Bern inventory which loaded on a factor called ‘interpersonal sensitivity’ or ‘caring.’ Women (college students, ages 18 to 22 years) rated these adjectives significantly higher than male peers. Women do not consistently rate other items from the Bern inventory higher on the dimension of goodness. The results are interpreted as supporting Gilligans and Noddings theory that there is a difference in mens and womens construction of a world view.