1,720,979 research outputs found
Effects of critical thinking on multiple-document comprehension
No full textThe purpose of this study was to test the relationships between critical thinking, prior topic knowledge and beliefs, and multiple-document comprehension through a path analysis approach. The participants were 281 Italian undergraduate students. Participants first completed a rational-experiential inventory, a critical thinking skills test, a prior topic knowledge test, and a prior topic beliefs test. Then, they were asked to read six documents on the topic of flu vaccination. After reading the texts, students were asked to write an argumentative essay on the topic as a measure of multiple-document comprehension. The hypothesized model fit the data well. Results confirmed that argumentation quality after reading six documents with different perspectives on the topic is associated with different critical thinking skills in stronger- versus weaker-belief readers. In weaker-belief readers, multiple-document comprehension was associated with deduction skills, whereas in stronger-belief readers, multiple-document comprehension was associated with hypothesis-testing skills. Both theoretical and educational implications of the results are discussed
Promoting intercultural competence in study abroad students
Full text linkUniversities have been promoting study abroad programmes for a long time to improve intercultural competence. However, the mere exposure to cultural differences while studying abroad does not ensure intercultural competence, unless study abroad students’ reflective processes are explicitly targeted. The article presents the results of a short intervention grounded in the problem-based approach aimed at improving intercultural competence in study abroad students. Students were assigned to three conditions: a video-log condition (in which they have to narrate a critical incident occurred to them), a reflection-induced video-logs (in which they were prompted to reflect on the video-logs produced), and an active control condition. The reflection-induced video-log intervention improved students’ perceived proficiency in Italian and perceived opportunities for cultural reflection, but it did not contribute to improve students’ applicable and conceptual knowledge of intercultural competence
Learning from text, video, or subtitles: A comparative analysis
No full textThe present study investigated the influence of media (text, video, or subtitled video) on students' learning outcomes. Past studies have raised concerns about the effectiveness of learning from online videos over content-equivalent texts. Moreover, subtitled videos place additional demands on learning. Two-hundred and forty-seven undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a text, video, or subtitled-video condition, in a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest design. The topic assigned was stem cells. Literal, inferential, and transfer questions were used to assess comprehension and learning outcomes. Results from the study confirmed the substantial equivalence of all conditions in immediate comprehension. Conversely, results confirmed the disadvantage of subtitled videos for deep learning outcomes
Highlighting and highlighted information in text comprehension and learning from digital reading
Full text linkBackground: Digital texts are progressively becoming the medium of learning for students, but research has indicated that students tend to process information more superficially while reading on screen. It is therefore relevant to examine what strategies can support digital text comprehension.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of highlighting—both learner generated and experimenter provided—when reading digitally.
Methods: University students (N=170) were randomly assigned to the condition of learner-generated highlighting, experimenter-provided highlighting, or control. Reading outcomes were measured as literal and inferential text comprehension, transfer of knowledge, and metacognitive calibration of comprehension performance at immediate and delayed post-tests. Individual differences in prior knowledge, cognitive reflection, and reading self-efficacy were taken into account. The quality of the information highlighted by students in the condition of active highlighting was also measured.
Results. From linear mixed-effects models, the main effect of condition did not emerge for any of the outcomes. However, an interactive effect of condition and cognitive reflection emerged for literal text comprehension that favored readers in the condition of experimenter-provided highlighting with higher ability to resist automatic thinking. Inferential text comprehension, transfer of knowledge, and calibration of performance were only predicted by cognitive reflection or reading self-efficacy. Finally, the quality of information highlighted significantly contributed to students’ literal text comprehension and transfer of knowledge in the learner-generated highlighting condition.
Takeaways: Active highlighting is not effective per se during digital reading. The “amplification” effect of already highlighted text and higher cognitive reflection suggests that readers who are more able to resist automatic thinking may also invest more effort in the task, taking more advantage of the provided support. Even if active highlighting may not be effective per se compared to other reading conditions, what students highlight contributes to literal text comprehension and their learning from text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Tempo sacro e tempo profano nella modernità
No full textLa modernità nasce come rivendicazione di un’autonomia secolare del tempo profano, che in molti casi è letta come la legittimazione di una libertà indiscriminata del soggetto. La linea che fonda l’autonomia del soggetto sulla sua padronanza del tempo profano, come unico tempo secolare della emancipazione umana, si trasforma progressivamente in una forma di dominio antropocentrico della natura e della storia, legittimato in nome di una ragione illuministica “forte”. In tale contesto la distinzione fra tempo “sacro” e tempo “profano” tende a trasformarsi in vera e propria separazione, all’interno della quale la radicalizzazione fideistica, indotta dalla Riforma protestante, cerca di riabilitare l’idea di una autenticità cristiana nella ordinarietà del vivere comune, ponendo le premesse per una progressiva privatizzazione del tempo della fede
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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