Final Examination



Final Examination

Introduction

How can internet-based instruction be designed and adapted to help students with different learning styles grasp important science concepts? Are there ways of defining and measuring these differences that instructors without much background in educational psychology might find easier to apply than some of the better-known examples? How can a better understanding of student characteristics help instructors and instructional designers prioritize further development?

Not all students learn in the same way. This fact presents a challenge that makes teaching interesting and unpredictable. Recent advances in electronic media and use of the internet have provided educators with previously unimagined opportunities to individualize instruction to meet student needs. Twigg (2001) suggested that one way to determine whether new technologies for teaching and learning are in fact making a significant difference would be to evaluate their effectiveness for different kinds of learners. She suggested that learning materials should be evaluated in terms of their impact on students' learning strategies and that evaluation should be more research-based.

For the field of learning disabilities, the increasing number of native-Spanish speakers has led to increasing concerns over the identification of appropriate assessment practices and effective instructional strategies for ELL. Nevertheless, minimal research has focused on examining effective teaching strategies for ELL with learning disabilities (LD) when compared to the amount of research dedicated to issues related to the identification of appropriate assessment practices. Minimizing this gap in the literature is important given the low educational attainment of ELL and the increasing emphasis on selecting strategies that are scientifically based (ED., 2002). Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS; Fuchs, Fuchs, Mathes, & Simmons, 1997) is one strategy previously established as effective for native English-speaking students with LD in general education classrooms (Fuchs et al., 1997) that may also have potential for ELL with LD.

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies

Deciding how learner characteristics will be defined and measured can be difficult. There are a number of competing theories and measurement tools. Each makes a worthwhile contribution to our understanding of learners and each has supporters and critics, but some are easier to grasp and apply than others, especially by instructors without much background in psychology or educational research. (A good place for nonspecialists to start getting more familiar with the terms might be an online database compiled by Kearsey [2005], located at http://tip. psychology.org [verified 1 Feb. 2006], but knowing and applying them are two different things.)

Student characteristics might best be measured with an instrument with a good deal of research and testing behind it, but at least part of the evaluation should be designed specifically for the content and context in which it is being used. One way of looking at impact is to ask whether students use the new instructional technology in ways that seem likely to improve their learning. In other words, what kind or level of learning processes or strategies do they use? Do they report using strategies likely to increase their understanding and ability to apply the learning, or do they go for short-term academic survival or achievement ...