Multidimensional Perspective about Resistors Association in Electric Circuits: Part I - Investigating Non-Scientific Conceptions and Instructional Materials / Perspectiva multidimensional sobre a associação de resistores em circuitos elétricos: Parte I - Investigando concepções não científicas e materiais instrucionais

The main goal is evaluating and analyzing non-scientific conceptions and learning difficulties in electric circuits. Reflections and instructional considerations will be admitted among researches in literature and some textbooks focusing topological representation. The study was carried out prioritizing the main concepts of equivalent resistance and association between resistors, including the perception of foundational and auxiliary concepts. A verifying of causal elements for intuitive reasoning on series and parallel circuits were analyzed. Is was found that understandings involve a complex linguistic and symbolic context. They had showed essential for bringing out a perspective about multidimensional representation. Findings characterize this as an active area where confusions appear when non-conventional diagrams are explored or due the visual homogeneity in textbooks, didactic choices or scientific books.

Pattern Transformations: Supporting Learning of Symbolic Representations Among TVET Trainees

Symbolic representations are a form of language that is routinely used in technical communications. Trainees in Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) are thus, expected to master symbolic representations concurrently with skills acquisition.  Electrical circuit diagram is an example of symbolic representations in use to communicate information on the components and working concepts of an electrical circuit.  Mastering symbolic representations in circuit diagram however, can be challenge to some which often lead to miscommunications and poor job performance. Problems are further compounded when trainees need to learn symbols associated with abstract concepts. Inability to master the “symbols language†if remain unchallenged will impact subsequent learning. Appropriately designed instructional materials to address learning of symbolic representations are thus crucial. The aim of this paper is to assess the efficacy of two instructional materials for learning symbolic representations and electrical concepts. A quasi-experimental study with three groups of TVE trainees participated in this study. One group used the existing learning materials (control) while the other two groups used specifically designed pattern transformation materials that are available in two media, print-based and video-based materials. Overall, both experimental groups achieved greater learning on symbolic representations and concepts compared to the control group. Equivalent status was also observed among the experimental groups. This indicates that pattern transformation materials irrespective of media used can be effective at learning symbolic representations in electrical related content

Investigating the impact of pedagogical agent gender matching and learner choice on learning outcomes and perceptions

abstract: The similarity attraction hypothesis posits that humans are drawn toward others who behave and appear similar to themselves. Two experiments examined this hypothesis with middle-school students learning electrical circuit analysis in a computer-based environment with an Animated Pedagogical Agent (APA). Experiment 1 was designed to determine whether matching the gender of the APA to the student has a positive impact on learning outcomes or student perceptions. One hundred ninety-seven middle-school students learned with the computer-based environment using an APA that matched their gender or one which was opposite in gender. Female students reported higher program ratings when the APA matched their gender. Male students, on the other hand, reported higher program ratings than females when the APA did not match their gender. Experiment 2 systematically tested the impact of providing learners the choice among four APAs on learning outcomes and student perceptions. Three hundred thirty-four middle-school students received either a pre-assigned random APA or were free to choose from four APA options: young male agent, older male agent, young female agent, or older female agent. Learners had higher far transfer scores when provided a choice of animated agent, but student perceptions were not impacted by having the ability to make this choice. We suggest that offering students learner control positively impacts student motivation and learning by increasing student perceptions of autonomy, responsibility for the success of the instructional materials, and global satisfaction with the design of materials.NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in COMPUTERS & EDUCATION. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in COMPUTERS & EDUCATION Volume 67, September 2013, Pages 36–50 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.02.00

Effect of incremental pattern transformation strategy on academic achievement, job task performance and learning satisfaction among vocational trainees

Acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge is often challenging especially when the content deals with symbolic representations whereas not limited to memorizing the symbol but also requires a learner to have multiple factual knowledge associated with the real representation. The aim of this study was to test the effect of using incremental pattern transformation materials (iOST) – theoretically grounded materials - on conceptual and procedural knowledge acquisition among vocational trainees. The iOST was designed to enhance trainees’ learning of symbolic representations in electrical circuit diagrams. The quasi-experimental design method was used with 110 vocational trainees who were taking the vehicle air conditioning course from two vocational training centres. Trainees were divided into three groups, two treatment groups (assigned to paper-based iOST and animation-based iOST) and one control group. The duration of study was six weeks. Pre-test and post-test were used for assessing academic achievement, while practical test and a questionnaire were used for job task performance and learning satisfaction respectively. The ANCOVA, Chi-Square Test and Mann-Whitney U Test were used to test for differences between groups on academic achievement, job task performance and learning satisfaction respectively while the Spearman's rank-order correlation method was used to assess associations between learning satisfaction, conceptual and procedural knowledge. The results show that the experimental groups are better on academic achievement (effect size = .329) and job task performance (effect size = .657) with both groups exhibiting high learning satisfaction. The findings indicate that the iOST materials (irrespective of media) are effective in promoting learning of symbolic representation and support the acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge for better task performance. The findings also suggest that, appropriately designed learning materials can support learning and job performance

2017-18 Graduate Bulletin

After 2003 the University of Dayton Bulletin went exclusively online. This copy was downloaded from the University of Dayton\u27s website in March 2018.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/bulletin_grad/1048/thumbnail.jp

1986-1987 Bulletin

Volume LXXXXVII, Number 1 Scanned from the copy held in the Registrar\u27s Office.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/bulletin_grad/1023/thumbnail.jp

2016-17 Graduate Bulletin

After 2003 the University of Dayton Bulletin went exclusively online. This copy was downloaded from the University of Dayton\u27s website in March 2018.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/bulletin_grad/1047/thumbnail.jp