Marcy P Driscoll

Florida State University | FSU · Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems

It all started when I decided to attend Mount Holyoke, a women’s college. Although she didn’t admit it until years later, my mother was horrified. She couldn’t imagine herself choosing the road less traveled, an environment that was all-women, and she questioned how I would learn the social skills necessary to survive in a world full of men. I had...

A short series of slides + annex. The document served to inform a round table discussion on ‘An Increasingly More Interesting Complex Learning Landscape.’ The hour-long discussion took place over breakfast on April 24, 2014, during the ISD@FSU conference at the Florida State University Conference Center in Tallahassee, Florida. Those not present at...

A mixed-methods study was conducted to examine the effects of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy training on learners' achievement, motivation and strategy use in a web-enhanced College Success course at a community college in southeast US. It was found that training assisted with students' overall course performance and accomplishment of long-...

This paper is intended to help faculty review committees, department chairs, and university administrators make effective use of personal statements that faculty members include in annual evaluations, third-year reviews, and promotion and tenure reviews. Personal statements can benefit the faculty who create the statements as well as faculty and ad...

The articles published in four prominent distance education journals between 1997 and 2002 were categorized and the references cited were tallied. The study provides an opportunity to examine research topics, methods, and citation trends. The results can be used to review current research trends and to explore potential research directions.

The articles published in four prominent distance education journals between 1997 and 2002 were categorized and the references cited were tallied. The study provides an opportunity to examine research topics, methods, and citation trends. The results can be used to review current research trends and to explore potential research directions. (Contai...

What learning conditions are necessary to effectively support the knowledge-building enterprise in a learning community? To answer this question, the case-study method was employed to investigate collaborative knowledge building in a graduate level course designed to incorporate specific constructivist learning principles. These principles included...

In this paper, we review the current state of research paradigms in the field of instructional technology from the perspective of research standards and paradigms recommended by Leslie J. Briggs in the early 1980s. Our analysis of articles published in Educational Technology Research and Development from 1992 to 1996 revealed that relatively few re...

This paper focuses on learning as a systemic phenomenon in an environmental context. In this view, it is argued that learning can and must be studied as it occurs in learners, teachers, and the learning environments teachers create as they make adjustments to better accommodate to students' needs. In today's emphasis on student-cente red instructio...

Semiotics, or the study of signs, has much to offer the field of performance technology. In this paper, we examine the process of analysis and illustrate how semiotic theory can inform the way a performance problem is approached, analyzed, and understood. We argue that a semiotic approach to analysis can reveal meanings that would otherwise remain...

Problem solving, by definition, involves achieving new understanding in unfamiliar contexts, and is critical to all aspects of life, especially in the educational and scientific arenas. Students learn from many experiences to develop a repertoire of abilities, including the use of logic, which enable them to spontaneously transfer their problem-sol...

This study took an in-depth look at the natural use of the textbook in a middle school science classroom. Whereas previous research has concentrated primarily on what students learn when they read segments of text and the extent to which teachers use textbooks in class, this study examined how the teacher and students used the textbook during instr...

In this study, 153 students enrolled in an undergraduate biology class for nonmajors were randomly assigned to one of four immediate corrective feedback conditions commonly used in computer-based instructional situations. In addition, the types of errors made by learners during instruction were analyzed and compared across groups. Dependent variabl...

This study examined the relationship between discrimination error (determined by content analysis and tryout data) and confidence of response (determined by self report). Subjects were 63 undergraduate students enrolled in a biology class for nonmajors who received classroom expository information and read a text on the topic before they completed...

In fundamental agreement with Cunningham's overall thesis, we attempt in this paper to articulate what an educational semiotic might look like on a practical level. For educational psychologists, it should mean an increased awareness of the limited, localized world views offered by current models of cognition and an increased attentiveness to alter...

Current models of instructional design assume that concepts are (a) classifying rules, (b) components of a more complex network or schema in memory, and (c) evaluated/taught by classification performance. Based on current research and theory, however, concepts should be viewed as conceptual tools rather than classification rules. Concepts may be sc...

Discusses the role of semiotics in instructional systems research, and examines the implications that a semiotic perspective yields for the research training provided to students in instructional systems. Research perspectives and methodologies are described, including differences in qualitative and quantitative research, and data analysis is discu...

This study examined whether the criteria for mastering unit quizzes in a mastery-oriented course should increase, decrease, or remain fixed across units. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatments, one in which mastery criteria on unit quizzes gradually increased, a second in which mastery criteria gradually decreased, and a third i...

This study investigated the effect of an innovative method for presenting coordinate definitions on learning defined concepts. A text that arranged definitions and examples of seven coordinate concepts in a tree-like diagram was contrasted with a text that arranged these same definitions and examples in a standard textbook format. In addition, this...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of various mastery criteria on student performance and attitude in a course in which mastery learning strategies were employed. Undergraduates in an introductory course in educational psychology were randomly assigned to one of three treatments—one in which mastery criteria gradually increased...

Two studies were conducted to extend the application and explore the parameters of the concept tree and rational set generator instructional design techniques. The first study was conducted with high school English students. Results indicated that students who studied the concept tree performed no differently on the classification tests than studen...

Discusses development of rational set generator--an overall method for creating a rational set of examples to teach concepts and evaluate student knowledge levels--which combines formulas for creating examples measuring discrimination and generalization. Also discussed are results of a study to test the efficacy of a rational set generator. (MBR)

This book on competency-based instruction (CBI) is organized around three topics: (1) teachers deciding what their students should learn; (2) teachers teaching it well; and (3) teachers checking to see if students have learned it. Chapter 1, "A Matter of Accomplishment," gives an overview of competency-based instruction. Chapter 2, "Worthwhile Obje...

The purpose of this paper is to describe a series of university research courses designed to prepare students to plan and conduct high quality instructional systems research. These courses serve to introduce students to some important research questions facing the field and to some of the traditional and non-traditional methodologies used to examin...

Effective mentoring is crucial in helping tenure-earning faculty make informed decisions about the development of their teaching, research and original creative work, 4 and service. Tenured faculty members can also benefit from effective mentoring. Expectations for faculty performance should not exceed the level of support the university provides t...

Success as a university faculty member is dependent on having a clear understanding of how to combine the elements of teaching, research and original creative work, and service in a way that makes the best use of the time and resources available. Faculty members are expected to make substantive contributions to the learning of their students and to...

Effective teaching is an important element of the work of faculty members. Periodic evaluation can provide: a) reinforcement of good teaching, b) data for faculty review committees, c) recommendations for enhancing instruction, and d) assessment and intervention data for teaching improvement plans. The department chair is responsible for ensuring t...