IS education – An Empirical Study Of Individually Assigned Homework

There is a general agreement that homework plays an important role in students\u27 learning. We argue that without examining and re-examining the potential benefits of homework assignments and whether they are achieved, we miss the opportunity to support students\u27 learning. In this paper we describe an instructional tactic of individually assigned homework that promotes and strengthens individual learning processes. The method was originally developed to cope with the relatively high IS students\u27 failing rate. We describe the study that accompanied the employment of this tactic in a Computer Architecture course and describe respective quantitative and qualitative results. For the first time ever no student failed the course and an increase in students\u27 motivation and learning accountability was observed. We compare the results to a previous study we conducted using the same tactic and discuss the implication of our results for IS education

Characteristics of a cognitive tool that helps students learn diagnostic problem solving

Three related studies replicated and extended previous work (J.A. Danielson et al. (2003),Educational Technology Research and Development, 51(3), 63–81) involving the Diagnostic Pathfinder (dP) (previously Problem List Generator [PLG]), a cognitive tool for learning diagnostic problem solving. In studies 1 and 2, groups of 126 and 113 veterinary students, respectively, used the dP to complete case-based homework; groups of 120 and 199, respectively, used an alternative method. Students in the dP groups scored significantly higher (p = .000 and .003, respectively) on final exams than those in control groups. In the third study, 552 veterinary students responding to a questionnaire indicated that the dP’s gating and data synthesis activities aided learning. The dP’s feedback and requirement of completeness appear to aid learning most

Family-focused treatment for childhood depression: model and case illustrations

Although the evidence base for treatment of depressive disorders in adolescents has strengthened in recent years, less is known about the treatment of depression in middle to late childhood. A family-based treatment may be optimal in addressing the interpersonal problems and symptoms frequently evident among depressed children during this developmental phase, particularly given data indicating that attributes of the family environment predict recovery versus continuing depression among depressed children. Family-Focused Treatment for Childhood Depression (FFT-CD) is designed as a 15-session family treatment with both the youth and parents targeting two putative mechanisms involved in recovery: (a) enhancing family support, specifically decreasing criticism and increasing supportive interactions; and (b) strengthening specific cognitive-behavioral skills within a family context that have been central to CBT for depression, specifically behavioral activation, communication, and problem solving. This article describes in detail the FFT-CD protocol and illustrates its implementation with three depressed children and their families. Common themes/challenges in treatment included family stressors, comorbidity, parental mental health challenges, and inclusion/integration of siblings into sessions. These three children experienced positive changes from pre- to posttreatment on assessor-rated depressive symptoms, parent- and child-rated depressive symptoms, and parent-rated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These changes were maintained at follow-up evaluations 4 and 9 months following treatment completion.K23 MH101238 - NIMH NIH HHS; R01 MH082856 - NIMH NIH HHS; R01 MH082861 - NIMH NIH HH