Virtual Reality Simulations in Science Education

This study examines the role of virtual reality (VR) in the promotion of writing with greater complexity and lexical density. Using a combination of neuroimaging and traditional measures, the author characterizes differences in writing complexity and lexical density scores across four different pedagogical modalities: VR alone, VR followed by a textbook reading, textbook reading followed by VR, and textbook reading alone. Middle school students recruited from a rural middle school in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States responded to two prompts related to science content found in VR environments and a textbook. The authors hypothesized that exposure to a virtual environment prior to responding to the writing prompts would enhance both argumentative and summative writing products, when compared to participants who only had access to the textbook experiences. Participants who were exposed to the VR environment then had access to a textbook demonstrated significantly greater writing complexity and lexical density scores than those who had VR alone, or access to the text alone.

Disclosing Cultural Contents in English Textbook Reading Passages for Junior High School

Textbooks have an important role in English language learning to provide information about the English language and interrelated cultures. This research aimed to find cultural contents which refer to cultural dimensions and cultural categories in 34 reading passages. Generating Qualitative Content Analysis, this research attempted to disclose the cultural dimensions and cultural categories embedded in the textbook reading passages. The coding system was done by means of QCAmap App. With regards to cultural dimensions, this research found patterns of the occurrence of the dimension were dominated by the dimension of Practices. Then it is followed by dimension of Perspectives, dimension of Products, dimension of Persons and dimension of Communities respectively. Furthermore, this study found that the highest percentage of cultural categories is Target Culture (35%). It is followed by Universality across Culture (26%), International Culture (24%) and Intercultural Interaction (15%). However, the researcher did not find the occurrence of Source Culture in the 34 reading passages in Next Move 1 Students’ Book.

Using Precourse Formative Written Testing in a Pharmacology Class Greatly Increases Medical Students’ Performance in Final Written Summative Tests

We wanted to test the progress of medical students at our university in a pharmacology course. The formal teaching was given as lectures to the full class of students. We gave the very same written test of multiple-choice (MC) questions (single best choice) to third-year medical students before and after a one semester course of basic pharmacology. The initial voluntary test (containing 30 MC questions) was taken by 79% of the eligible students (n = 147), a week before pharmacology lectures had started. Defining a passing grade of 60% of right answers, only 2% of the students passed the test. The range was between 5 and 21 points. The final, now obligatory, written test at the end of the course (one week after the last lecture in pharmacology) was taken by all students in the semester (n = 179) and was passed by 95%, of students, again defined by the same passing score. Here, the points obtained ranged from 12 to 29. Over the time of the semester, the attendance in the lectures dropped dramatically to less than 10% of the students. Hence, progress tests are useful, but they hardly measure the gain in knowledge through attendance in the pharmacology lecture (the intervention); they also measure other sources of knowledge, such as textbook reading or memorizing only the initial questions and looking up the answers.

The Effect of Smartphone Addiction, Achievement Motivation, and Textbook Reading Intensity on Students’ Academic Achievement

<h1>This study investigates the effect of smartphone addiction, achievement motivation, and textbook reading intensity on academic achievement. This quantitative study involved 720 students from two public universities. The cluster random sampling technique and three psychological scales namely Smartphone Addiction Scale, Achievement Motivation Scale, and Reading Textbook Intensity Scale were employed for data collection. The data were analyzed using path analysis technique. The study found that (i) smartphone addiction and achievement motivation directly affect the intensity of reading academic textbooks, and (ii) smartphones addiction, achievement motivation, and the intensity of reading academic textbooks directly affect the academic achievement. Although the intensity of reading academic textbook mediated the effect of smartphone addiction on academic achievement, it did not mediate the effect of achievement motivation on academic achievement.</h1>

Students as Co-Producers of Queer Pedagogy

Responding to concerns about a textbook reading that students perceived as heteronormative, cisnormative, and antifeminist, we formed a partnership between students and faculty to reflect on the situation and to workshop ways to move forward. Our discussions were informed by our situation: a public HBCU in North Carolina, a state that had been in the headlines for anti-LGBT legislation. Many students reported that prior to our work they had not felt they had power to challenge the authoritative nature of texts in a classroom, even when they found those texts to be incorrect or inappropriate. This project empowered students to work with faculty and the publisher to change the textbook itself as well as the way certain rhetorical content was taught in our institution.