Web-Teaching / Innovations in Science Education and Technology Bd.9 (PDF)

equal you probably have a poor course."

A very basic question about teaching, especially college teaching, is "can we do much anyway?" Christy Horn’s work (studies of introductory biology classes [Horn et al., 1993; Horn, 1993, 1995]) determined that the biggest fraction of lack of success can be attributed to students’ not trying! Worse yet, this problem is not localized; it is widespread at major universities. Students who do not attend classes, do not interact with the learning materials, and, therefore, have very low success rates. Horn’s work is representative of many that document the breadth of a troubling situation. Instructors can do only so much to improve their teaching before the lack of student involvement becomes a limiting factor.

There is substantial hope that successful interventions are possible, however. As one of several responses to Horn’s results, faculty have developed Web pages for student use. For example, William Glider [1996] has developed Web pages with opportunities for submitting questions, access to tutorials, access to old quizzes with answers and discussion, and enrichment materials. Questions are entered using standard HTML form elements. Glider has documented improved student learning [Horn et al., 1997]. Recently Shin [1998] suggested guidelines for instructional design that might promote students’ selfregulation. Keller [1999], originator of the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) model of motivational design, suggests ways to use this in computer-based instruction and distance education.

Puntambekar & duBoulay [1997] describe a system, Metacognition in Studying from Texts (MIST), that includes three features to foster metacognition. Their system was used more productively by high ability than low ability students, however. Self-regulation concerns the entire range of factors that affect student performance. Intelligence is a controversial construct describing factors about which teacher impact, at best, is limited. Self-regulation is something that is teachable and not especially constrained by intelligence [Symons et al., 1989]. Self-regulation accounts for the ability of persons of modest intelligence to become skilled masters of very complex tasks.

Interventions aimed at improving self-regulation are one way for teachers to impact students’ lives. According to Gregg Schraw, teaching self-regulation may be the most important thing a teacher can do for students; it may amount to empowering them to be lifelong learners. This kind of thinking pervades the community of educational psychologists studying these issues:

A new vision of education is emerging. It is one in which children are provided procedural instruction throughout their academic careers, one in which strategy instruction is at the heart of education. This reflects the belief that a major goal of schooling is to teach people how to read, write, and solve problems.
Symons et al., 1989, p. 1