This study formed part of a project aimed at revising the instructional approach for geometrical optics in the 10th grade. The instructional intervention was based on the extensive use of a diagrammatic representation as a descriptive, explanatory, and problem-solving tool in the domain. The purpose of this study was to elicit the conceptions and representations of light propagation, image formation, and sight typical to preinstruction learners, with special attention to identifying precursors of problematic features of postinstruction students' knowledge. The premise for this study was that the difficulties students have before, during, and after traditional instruction with respect to representing optical phenomena have their origins in the fragmented prescientific knowledge constructed on the basis of experience. We believe that the difficulties persist because the key factors leading to fragmentation are not usually addressed and remedied. The main findings of the study indicate that (a) preinstruction students display some familiarity with optical systems, light propagation, and illumination patterns; (b) student-generated graphical representations describing and explaining optical phenomena display some features of formal ray tracing; (c) preinstruction students have not developed a consistent descriptive and explanatory model for light propagation; and (d) the context of sight seems to have a confounding effect on the establishment of a unified prior model for optical phenomena.

This study formed part of a project aimed at revising the instructional approach for geometrical optics in the 10th grade. The instructional intervention was based on the extensive use of a diagrammatic representation as a descriptive, explanatory, and problem-solving tool in the domain. The purpose of this study was to elicit the conceptions and representations of light propagation, image formation, and sight typical to preinstruction learners, with special attention to identifying precursors of problematic features of postinstruction students' knowledge. The premise for this study was that the difficulties students have before, during, and after traditional instruction with respect to representing optical phenomena have their origins in the fragmented prescientific knowledge constructed on the basis of experience. We believe that the difficulties persist because the key factors leading to fragmentation are not usually addressed and remedied. The main findings of the study indicate that (a) preinstruction students display some familiarity with optical systems, light propagation, and illumination patterns; (b) student-generated graphical representations describing and explaining optical phenomena display some features of formal ray tracing; (c) preinstruction students have not developed a consistent descriptive and explanatory model for light propagation; and (d) the context of sight seems to have a confounding effect on the establishment of a unified prior model for optical phenomena.

The Open Assignment Submission (OAS) is an innovative regime whereby students submit homework assignments of an appropriate nature into a designated open forum provided by the Learning Management System (LMS). Our previous research, carried out with a cohort of Education graduates, indicated possible benefits and challenges of OAS as a means of supporting assignment submission through learning from peer examples. The current paper presents a recent explorative case study into the behaviour patterns and views of 55 first year students regarding OAS, during the very early stages of the Academic Literacy course.Drawing on two main data sources (a self-report questionnaire and data of student access and submission retrieved from the course LMS records) we have found characteristic patterns of peerexample viewing, assignment submission schedules and related grades. T he OAS regime appears to provide an appreciated learning support and has a potential to promote intentional learning.

The current study is framed within an ongoing effort of probing students' attitudes and expectations about knowing and learning physics, which has driven several investigations during the past decade. The questionnaire we developed focuses on physics students' views regarding a variety of specific learning activities, which are presented by title or short description, as detailed tasks and as components of learner strategies. Our study involved 223 physics majors from 10 high schools. The results show that teacher lectures and demonstrations are seen as major contributors to developing students' physics knowledge. Students also consider traditional student initiatives (e.g., reading the textbook and solving problems) and inquiry activities, including Information Technology Based Activities (ITBA), as contributing (in varying degrees) to the development of their physics knowledge. We found that students' willingness to engage in a task was correlated with the value they attributed to it for the development of their physics knowledge. Students' views regarding different learning strategies reveal the tension they experience between the need to succeed on traditional exams versus the need for a gradual construction of a sound knowledge structure and achievement of deeper understanding. We have employed our questionnaire as a tool for assessing students' receptiveness to an instructional intervention that dealt with integrating ITBA into physics instruction and used our research findings for guiding the implementation design.

This paper presents an Academic Literacy course designed for first year students in our department. The course is based on a set of relevant reading materials and covers knowledge levels and classification systems, logical and physical library organization principles, physical and virtual search for publications, bibliographic citations and referencing methods and purposes.The paper describes two, out-of-class, activities related to the academic and public libraries in the information age. The first activity, the "Book Hunt", organizes the students' conceptions of the variety of functions being served and the impact of information technology on retrieving academic publications. Students' response to a reflective assignment dealing with concepts and impressions is described. The second activity "Visiting a public library", involves interviewing the librarian and writing a report on the structure and functions of the library. The paper discusses features of students' reports and indicates the contribution of the activities to the students' academic world view.

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Students entering the higher education instructional arena are likely to encounter various forms and levels of IT integration. Although they may be labeled "Digital Natives", these students may not know how to employ technology-based tools strategically to optimize learning experiences in university settings. As they become exposed to the affordances and challenges of employing IT for learning, they form views and concerns which are of interest to educators and researchers. One way of gaining access to the students' own perspective is to provide opportunities for students to identify issues related to IT in Academic Learning which they find relevant, formulate research questions, prepare and distribute survey questionnaires and analyze the collected data. Thus, they can probe views and behaviors of students in their own and other institutions and departments and develop a wider perspective concerning these issues. Such an opportunity is afforded by the Survey Project framed within our first year Social Science Research course. The Survey project presents a performance task that encourages students to actively integrate and apply knowledge and produce meaningful products, even at the early stages of their undergraduate studies. We will describe the instructional design and provide evidence for the instructional effectiveness, based on student products from the 2010-2011 academic years. The analysis will deal with survey topics, survey questionnaires, samples and methods of collecting data, research questions, data processing and methods of information representation. Using 6 survey samples we will show how the survey topics and questionnaire items reflect students' views and concerns related to IT in academic learning.

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