It is well established that the activity of producing a text is a complex one involving three main cognitive processes: Planning, translating, and revising. Although these processes are crucial in skilled writing, beginning and developing writers seem to struggle with them, mainly with planning and revising.
To trace the development of the high-level writing processes of planning and revising, from Grades 4 to 9, and to examine whether these skills predict writing quality in younger and older students (Grades 4–6 vs. 7–9), after controlling for gender, school achievement, age, handwriting fluency, spelling, and text structure.
Participants were 381 students from Grades 4 to 9 (age 9–15).
Students were asked to plan and write a story and to revise another story by detecting and correcting mechanical and substantive errors.
From Grades 4 to 9, we found a growing trend in students' ability to plan and revise despite the observed decreases and stationary periods from Grades 4 to 5 and 6 to 7. Moreover, whereas younger students' planning and revising skills made no contribution to the quality of their writing, in older students, these high-level skills contributed to writing quality above and beyond control predictors.
The findings of this study seem to indicate that besides the increase in planning and revising, these skills are not fully operational in school-age children. Indeed, given the contribution of these high-level skills to older students' writing, supplementary instruction and practice should be provided from early on.
Personality is reliably associated with academic performance, but personality measurement in primary education can be problematic. Young children find it difficult to accurately self-rate personality, and dominant models of adult personality may be inappropriate for children.
This meta-analysis was conducted to determine the validity of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality for statistically predicting children's academic performance.
Literature search identified 12 reports, with cumulative sample sizes ranging from 4,382 (19 correlations) to 5,706 (23 correlations) for correlations with Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness respectively.
Hunter–Schmidt random-effects meta-analysis was used, and moderators were tested using sample-weighted regression.
When compared with self-rated measures, adult-rated Conscientiousness and Openness were more strongly correlated with academic performance, but adult-rated Agreeableness was less strongly correlated. Q-set-based assessments had lower validity, which appeared to explain moderating effects of rating source. Moderating effects were not found for age, year of education (grades 1–7), or language within which the study was conducted.
Conscientiousness and Openness had two of the strongest correlations with academic performance yet reported, comparable with previous meta-analytic correlations of academic performance with instructional quality, cognitive ability, and feedback. The FFM appears to be valid for educational research with children. Openness, which has no counterpart in models of children's temperament, should be further researched with children. Future research should examine the measurement of childhood personality, its relationship with intelligence, the extent to which it is malleable in primary education, and its causal relationship with academic performance.
A four-wave longitudinal study tested the demands–resources model in the school context.
To examine the applicability of the demands–resources to the school context.
Data of 1,709 adolescents were gathered, once during the transition from comprehensive to post-comprehensive education, twice during post-comprehensive education, and once 2 years later.
The hypotheses were supported, path analysis showing that study demands were related to school burnout a year later, while study resources were related to schoolwork engagement. Self-efficacy was positively related to engagement and negatively to burnout. School burnout predicted schoolwork engagement negatively 1 year later. Engagement was positively related to life satisfaction 2 years later, while burnout was related to depressive symptoms. Finally, burnout mediated the relationship between study demands and mental health outcomes.
The demands–resources model can usefully be applied to the school context, including the associations between school-related burnout and engagement among adolescents. The model comprises two processes, the energy-depleting process and the motivational process.
Is it possible to reach performance equality between boys and girls in a science class? Given the stereotypes targeting their groups in scientific domains, diagnostic contexts generally lower girls' performance and non-diagnostic contexts may harm boys' performance.
The present study tested the effectiveness of a mastery-oriented assessment, allowing both boys and girls to perform at an optimal level in a science class.
Participants were 120 boys and 72 girls (all high-school students).
Participants attended a science lesson while expecting a performance-oriented assessment (i.e., an assessment designed to compare and select students), a mastery-oriented assessment (i.e., an assessment designed to help students in their learning), or no assessment of this lesson.
In the mastery-oriented assessment condition, both boys and girls performed at a similarly high level, whereas the performance-oriented assessment condition reduced girls' performance and the no-assessment condition reduced boys' performance.
One way to increase girls' performance on a science test without harming boys' performance is to present assessment as a tool for improving mastery rather than as a tool for comparing performances.
Children with diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently have reading problems. To date, it is not clear whether poor reading is associated with both inattention and hyperactivity and also whether poor reading comprehension is the result of poor word reading skills or more general language comprehension weaknesses.
We report two studies to examine how reading and listening comprehension skills are related to inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.
Separate groups of 7- to 11-year-olds participated in each study.
In both studies, we used teacher ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity to identify three groups at risk of ADHD: poor attention, high hyperactivity, poor attention and high hyperactivity, and also same-age controls. In Study 1, we explored how inattention and hyperactivity predicted reading after controlling for non-verbal IQ and vocabulary. In Study 2, we compared listening and reading comprehension in these groups.
Poor attention was related to poor reading comprehension, although the relation was partially mediated by word reading skill (Study 1). Groups with high hyperactivity had weak listening comprehension relative to reading comprehension (Study 2).
These results indicate that the reading comprehension problems of children with attention difficulties are related to poor word reading and that listening comprehension is particularly vulnerable in children at risk of ADHD.
The awareness of the formal structure of language has been widely studied in the literature but less in a bilingualism context. Even less with second-language learners (SLL) who are acquiring their second language (L2) and are not considered as bilinguals.
This study aimed at providing an investigation of young SLL's skills in phonological, morphological and syntactic awareness.
Ninety-five French first graders participated in our study. Children were divided into two groups: monolinguals versus SLL of German (i.e., L1 = French, L2 = German).
Both groups completed two phonological tasks (i.e., phonological categorization and deletion). They also completed four morphological tasks evaluating their morphological awareness on two distinct aspects (i.e., affixes and compounds). Finally, they were evaluated on a syntactic awareness task.
The main findings highlighted a bilingual superiority for compounds morphological and syntactic awareness but not for affixes morphological and phonological awareness.
The second-language learning advantage was observed on dimensions distinguishing the two languages (i.e., compounds morphology and syntax) but not on shared affixes morphological and phonological dimensions. Thus, results are discussed in light of languages' characteristics and bilingualism proficiency.
There is burgeoning research within educational psychology on both epistemic cognition and multiple-documents literacy, as well as on relationships between the two constructs.
To examine relationships between epistemic cognition concerning the justification of knowledge claims and sourcing and argumentation skills.
Participants were 51 Norwegian undergraduates.
Three dimensions of justification were identified in think-aloud protocols based on students' reading of six documents presenting conflicting claims on the controversial scientific issue of cell phone radiation and health risks: justification by authority, personal justification and justification by multiple sources. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the unique predictability of these dimensions for essay performance after removing variance associated with prior knowledge about the topic of the documents.
After controlling for topic knowledge, justification by multiple sources uniquely predicted students' sourcing and argumentation in essays that they wrote after reading the documents, with students trying to justify knowledge claims by corroborating across several sources of information more likely to include explicit source citations, link sources and contents, and display better, more integrated argumentation in their essays.
Findings are considered in the light of a theoretical framework for multiple-documents literacy adapted to the domain of science, and both theoretical and educational implications are discussed.
Academic buoyancy is students' capacity to successfully overcome setback and challenge that is typical of the ordinary course of everyday academic life. It may represent an important factor on the psycho-educational landscape assisting students who experience difficulties in school and schoolwork.
This study investigated the role of academic buoyancy in the achievement and cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement of (1) students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and (2) ‘regular’ (or ‘general’) students residing in the same classrooms and schools. The study also sought to extend prior research into academic buoyancy by including previously neglected and potentially influential factors such as personality and socio-economic status.
Participants were n = 87 high school students with ADHD, n = 3374 non-ADHD peers, and n = 87 randomly drawn non-ADHD students.
Survey-based data were analysed using multigroup (ADHD, non-ADHD, randomly weighted non-ADHD) multivariate (multiple independent/covariate and dependent variables) path analysis.
The findings revealed a significant and positive association between academic buoyancy and outcomes for students with ADHD that generalized to non-ADHD groups. On occasion where academic buoyancy effects differed between the groups, effects favoured students with ADHD. Furthermore, academic buoyancy explained significant variance in outcomes for both groups of students after covariates (age, gender, parent education, language background, socio-economic status, personality) were entered.
It is concluded that there is merit in widely promoting and fostering academic buoyancy among ADHD and non-ADHD students alike – and that academic buoyancy explains variance in outcomes beyond major intrapersonal factors such as personality, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and the like.
A good deal of evidence indicates that students' motivational beliefs and attitudes play a critical role in their academic success. Research studies on how motivational factors may help determine whether students remain in high school or drop out, however, are relatively few. More specifically, there is a lack of research examining the dynamics of whether students' motivational beliefs from earlier in high school might be used to predict their status as a dropout in their final year.
The aim of the present study was to examine the mediating role of students' educational expectations in linking students' school motivation to their dropout status by utilizing a nationally representative dataset.
The present study used data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002). The final sample consisted of 16,194 students, with approximately 54% White, 13% Black, 16% Hispanic, and 10% Asian students, and the rest were Native American, Hawaiian, multiracial, or of other races.
Structural equation modelling was employed to conduct the mediational analysis.
The results of the present study demonstrated that the relationships between student ability beliefs in math and English and student behaviour of dropping out were fully mediated by students' educational expectations. The results also revealed that student intrinsic value in math and English had significant indirect relations with student behaviour of leaving school through students' educational expectations.
The results of this study suggest that explanations for student dropout status that rely solely on students' social background and school behaviours without considering their motivation are incomplete. The study expands the extant research by showing possible pathways that motivate students to persist in high school. These pathways are specifically rooted in students' ability beliefs and intrinsic interest in learning through their relationships with students' expectations for their education.
There is evidence that learners may adopt different kinds of achievement goals: mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach, and performance avoidance. In higher education, this evidence has mainly come from young people who have recently gone straight from secondary education to higher education. However, higher education is increasingly populated by older students, and it has been theorised that the relationship between goals and achievement might be very different for adult learners.
The aim of the present study was to examine whether the relationships between achievement, drop-out rate, and goal orientation observed for non-adult populations are mirrored in adult learners.
The Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) was administered to adult learners taking courses by distance learning.
Respondents were 195 men and 586 women between the ages of 19 and 87.
The results confirmed the reliability of the 2 × 2 version of the AGQ for this distinctive population. As in previous studies of younger students, mastery-approach goals were unrelated to attainment, performance-approach goals tended to facilitate attainment, and performance-avoidance goals tended to impair attainment. In addition, mastery-avoidance goals tended to impair students' attainment and also increased the likelihood that they would drop out of their course altogether.
The achievement-goal framework is as appropriate for understanding influences on attainment in adult learners as it is in younger students. Adult learners may be more sensitive to the deleterious effects of adopting mastery-avoidance achievement goals.
Experience in non-school contexts can shape and reshape students' motivation and mediate their learning in school. Outside-school physical activity may provide students with an extensive cognitive and affective foundation and influence their motivation in physical education. Although a trans-contextual effect of physical education has been explored, very little empirical research has examined the impact from outside-school context to physical education.
Using self-determination theory and a hierarchical model of motivation, this study was designed to examine the association between participation in organized outside-school physical activity programmes and self-determination process in physical education.
Participants included 545 9th graders (305 males and 240 females, age range = 14–16 years, mean age = 14.66 years) enrolled in required physical education classes in three suburban high schools in a large Midwest metropolitan area in the United States.
Self-determination variables were measured using relevant instruments, and information on organized outside-school physical activity experiences was gathered in a survey. Structural equation modelling analyses were conducted.
Students who participated in organized outside-school physical activity programmes displayed overall higher motivation; however, the strength of associations among the self-determination variables (i.e., pathways from perceived autonomy support to relatedness, from autonomy to competence, and from self-determined motivation to in-class physical activity engagement) was stronger for their non-participant counterparts.
There are dynamic relationships between participation in organized outside-school physical activity programmes and self-determination process in physical education. Physical educators need to identify, appreciate, and instructionally address individual students' differences during teaching and learning.
Compulsory school entrance age and admission policies differ across countries and educational systems, and there is a continuing debate on the question whether and how the age at school entry affects various student outcomes.
This study explored the relation between school entrance age and school achievement among students attending fourth (ages 10–11) and eighth (ages 14–15) grade of Croatian primary schools.
Participants were 44,479 fourth- and 43,338 eighth-grade students from all Croatian primary schools. Students were divided into groups of younger and older school entrants based on the difference between the year of birth and the year of school entry.
Differences in school achievement between students who were younger and those who were older when they entered school in subjects covered by the curriculum for respective grades were examined among fourth- and eighth-grade students. Two achievement measures were used for each subject–objective test results obtained during a national examination and final school marks appointed by teachers.
Among fourth-grade students, older school entrants on average performed slightly better than the younger ones in all the subjects, irrespective of the achievement measure used. However, these differences in achievement are very small, and the effect of school entrance age on achievement is very weak. In the eighth-grade sample, younger and older school entrants did not differ in their achievement in the majority of subjects.
Students who are older when they enter school perform slightly better than their older classmates in the lower grades of primary school, but these differences in achievement are very small and are probably no longer present by the end of primary schooling.
Academic self-efficacy, when operationalized as mastery over domain-specific knowledge, has been found to be a predictor of academic achievement and emotions. Although academic emotions are also a predictor of academic achievement, there is limited evidence for reciprocal relations with academic achievement.
To examine whether academic self-efficacy, when operationalized as confidence in study-related skills and behaviours, is also a predictor of academic achievement and emotions and to test reciprocal relations between academic emotions and achievement.
Two hundred and six first-year undergraduate students.
Academic self-efficacy was measured at the beginning of the first semester and learning-related emotions (LREs) at the beginning of the second semester. Academic performance was aggregated across assessments in semester one and semester two.
Self-efficacy in study-related skills and behaviours predicted: (1) better semester one academic performance and (2) more pleasant and fewer unpleasant LREs at the beginning of the second semester directly and (3) indirectly through semester one academic performance. Reciprocal relations between academic performance and emotions were supported, but only for pleasant emotions.
Self-efficacy in study-related skills was the critical academic self-efficacy variable in this study. It may play an important role in maintaining challenge appraisals to maintain pleasant emotions and better academic performance. Accordingly, practitioners in higher education may wish to consider the value of assessing and developing students' self-efficacy in relation to their independent study skills.
Learning to read is very challenging for Hong Kong children who learn English as a second language (ESL), as they must acquire two very different writing systems, beginning at the age of three. Few studies have examined the role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels, oral language proficiency, and L1 tone awareness in L2 English reading among Hong Kong ESL kindergarteners.
This study aims to investigate L1 and L2 phonological awareness and oral language proficiency as predictors of English reading among children with Chinese as L1.
One hundred and sixty-one typically developing children with a mean age of 5.16 (SD=.35) selected from seven preschools in Hong Kong.
Participants were assessed for English reading, English and Chinese phonological awareness at different levels, English oral language skills, and letter naming ability.
Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both oral language proficiency and phonological awareness measures significantly predicted L2 word reading, when statistically controlled for age and general intelligence. Among various phonological awareness units, L2 phonemic awareness was the best predictor of L2 word reading. Cross-language transfer was shown with L1 phonological awareness at the tone level, uniquely predicting L2 word reading.
The present findings show the important role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels (rime and phoneme) and oral language proficiency in the course of L2 reading development in Chinese ESL learners. The significant contribution of L1 tone awareness to L2 reading suggests that phonological sensitivity is a general competence that ESL children need to acquire in early years. The findings have significant implications for understanding L2 reading development and curriculum development.
A number of studies report that few questions are asked in classrooms and that many of them are shallow questions.
This study investigates the way in which reading goals determine questioning on scientific texts. Reading goals were manipulated through two different tasks: reading for understanding versus reading to solve a problem.
A total of 183 university students.
In the first and third questioning experiments, the participants read two short texts. Students in one condition were instructed to understand the texts, whereas in the alternative condition they had to read texts to solve a problem. Students were instructed to write down any questions they might have about the texts. The questions were categorized according to the type of underlying obstacle: associative, explanatory, or predictive. The second experiment used a think-aloud methodology to identify the mental representations generated by the students.
The two questioning experiments show that the questions asked depend on the reading goals. Significantly more explanation questions were asked in the understanding condition than in the problem-solving condition. Also, the two conditions were found to have a different influence on the generation of association and explanation questions. Very few prediction questions were asked in either condition. The think-aloud experiment revealed that the mental representations attempted by readers under the two conditions were indeed different. In conclusion, the experiments showed that, given a certain textual input, readers' questions depend on the reading goals associated with tasks.
Self-explanation, or generating explanations to oneself in an attempt to make sense of new information, can promote learning. However, self-explaining takes time, and the learning benefits of this activity need to be rigorously evaluated against alternative uses of this time.
In the current study, we compared the effectiveness of self-explanation prompts to the effectiveness of solving additional practice problems (to equate for time on task) and to solving the same number of problems (to equate for problem-solving experience).
Participants were 69 children in grades 2–4.
Students completed a pre-test, brief intervention session, and a post- and retention test. The intervention focused on solving mathematical equivalence problems such as 3 + 4 + 8 = _ + 8. Students were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: self-explain, additional-practice, or control.
Compared to the control condition, self-explanation prompts promoted conceptual and procedural knowledge. Compared to the additional-practice condition, the benefits of self-explanation were more modest and only apparent on some subscales.
The findings suggest that self-explanation prompts have some small unique learning benefits, but that greater attention needs to be paid to how much self-explanation offers advantages over alternative uses of time.
There is a growing body of research on situational interest (SI). Yet, we still know relatively little about how SI is supported in the classroom and the academic benefits of SI.
The current study investigated (1) contextual antecedents of SI; (2) potential benefits of SI for academic outcomes; and (3) SI as a mediator of classroom practices to academic outcomes.
Participants were 126 male and female adolescents (mean age = 14.6 years) who took part in a science course during a 3-week residential summer programme for talented adolescents.
Participants completed self-report measures prior to the start of the summer programme and at the end of the programme. Summer programme instructors completed ratings of students' engagement during the programme.
Multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate the three study aims. After controlling for initial individual interest, perceived choice, instructor approachability, and course connections to real life were statistically significant predictors of SI during the summer programme, with varying associations observed based on the form of SI (triggered, maintained-feeling, and maintained-value). SI was positively related to individual interest and perceived competence in science at the end of the programme as well as teacher-rated engagement; SI also mediated the associations of classroom practices with these outcomes.
Results suggest that classroom practices shape SI. In turn, SI supports motivation and engagement. Moreover, differentiated antecedents and outcomes of the three sub-components of SI were identified, highlighting the utility of this three-component approach for studying SI.
Young children's speech is typically more linguistically sophisticated than their writing. However, there are grounds for asking whether production of cohesive devices, such as verb-phrase anaphora (VPA), might represent an exception to this developmental pattern, as cohesive devices are generally more important in writing than in speech and so might be expected to be more frequent in children's writing than in their speech.
The study reported herein aims to compare the frequency of children's production of VPA constructions (e.g., Mary is eating an apple and so is John) between a written and a spoken task.
Forty-eight children participated from each of two age groups: 7-year-olds and 10-year-olds.
All the children received both a spoken and a written sentence completion task designed to elicit production of VPA. Task order was counterbalanced.
VPA production was significantly more frequent in speech than in writing and when the spoken task was presented first. Surprisingly, the 7-year-olds produced VPA constructions more frequently than the 10-year-olds.
Despite the greater importance of cohesion in writing than in speech, children's production of VPA is similar to their production of most other aspects of language in that more sophisticated constructions are used more frequently in speech than in writing. Children's written production of cohesive devices could probably be enhanced by presenting spoken tasks immediately before written tasks. The lower frequency of VPA production in the older children may reflect syntactic priming effects or a belief that they should produce sentences that are as fully specified as possible.
A large proportion of students identify statistics courses as the most anxiety-inducing courses in their curriculum. Many students feel impaired by feelings of state anxiety in the examination and therefore probably show lower achievements.
The study investigates how statistics anxiety, attitudes (e.g., interest, mathematical self-concept) and trait anxiety, as a general disposition to anxiety, influence experiences of anxiety as well as achievement in an examination.
Participants were 284 undergraduate psychology students, 225 females and 59 males.
Two weeks prior to the examination, participants completed a demographic questionnaire and measures of the STARS, the STAI, self-concept in mathematics, and interest in statistics. At the beginning of the statistics examination, students assessed their present state anxiety by the KUSTA scale. After 25 min, all examination participants gave another assessment of their anxiety at that moment. Students' examination scores were recorded. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test relationships between the variables in a multivariate context.
Statistics anxiety was the only variable related to state anxiety in the examination. Via state anxiety experienced before and during the examination, statistics anxiety had a negative influence on achievement. However, statistics anxiety also had a direct positive influence on achievement. This result may be explained by students' motivational goals in the specific educational setting.
The results provide insight into the relationship between students' attitudes, dispositions, experiences of anxiety in the examination, and academic achievement, and give recommendations to instructors on how to support students prior to and in the examination.
Peer victimization is associated with increased internalizing problems and reduced school adjustment. Research into the main effect and the buffering effect of social support on these internalizing problems has produced inconsistent findings, and none has tested the buffering effect of social support on school adjustment. Moreover, recent studies have underlined the importance of taking various sources of social support into account.
This study aims to test the relationships between peer victimization and school disaffection, the moderation effect of parental, peer and teacher social support, and the mediation effect of depression.
Four hundred seventh and eighth graders participated in this study.
Students filled out a questionnaire assessing peer victimization, depression, academic self-efficacy, school disaffection, and perceived social support from parents, peers, and teachers.
Peer victimization was negatively associated with self-efficacy and positively associated with school disaffection. Regression analyses showed a main negative effect of social support (especially teacher support) on depression and school disaffection and a positive effect on self-efficacy. No significant interactions emerged between victimization and social support or between sources of social support. Path analyses indicated that the effects of victimization on self-efficacy and school disaffection were fully mediated by depression, but that the effects of social support are partially independent of depression. Multigroup analyses indicated that these relationships were parallel among boys and girls.
The results of this study are consistent with the main effect model of social support. They also highlight the importance of teacher support for school adjustment.
Background. Research in higher education on the effects of student-centred versus lecture-based learning environments generally does not take into account the psychological need support provided in these learning environments. From a self-determination theory perspective, need support is important to study because it has been associated with benefits such as autonomous motivation and achievement.
Aim. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of different learning environments on students’ motivation for learning and achievement, while taking into account the perceived need support.
Sample. First-year student teachers (N= 1,098) studying a child development course completed questionnaires assessing motivation and perceived need support. In addition, a prior knowledge test and case-based assessment were administered.
Method. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design was set up consisting of four learning environments: (1) lectures, (2) case-based learning (CBL), (3) alternation of lectures and CBL, and (4) gradual implementation with lectures making way for CBL.
Results. Autonomous motivation and achievement were higher in the gradually implemented CBL environment, compared to the CBL environment. Concerning achievement, two additional effects were found; students in the lecture-based learning environment scored higher than students in the CBL environment, and students in the gradually implemented CBL environment scored higher than students in the alternated learning environment. Additionally, perceived need support was positively related to autonomous motivation, and negatively to controlled motivation.
Conclusions. The study shows the importance of gradually introducing students to CBL, in terms of their autonomous motivation and achievement. Moreover, the study emphasizes the importance of perceived need support for students’ motivation.
Background. Teachers’ professional vision includes the ability to apply general pedagogical knowledge about components of effective teaching and learning to reason about significant features of classroom practice. It requires teachers to (a) describe, (b) explain, and (c) predict classroom situations. Although the acquisition of underling knowledge can be considered as a key element of university-based teacher education programmes, to date, there has been little empirical research on teacher candidates’ development of professional vision.
Aims. This study aims to improve understanding of how different university-based courses in teaching and learning impact the development of professional vision.
Sample. Participants were teacher candidates (N= 53) attending the same teacher education programme at a German university. They were enrolled in one of three different compulsory courses in teaching and learning, lasting one semester.
Methods. In a pre-test–post-test design, participants’ declarative knowledge about teaching and learning was measured with a test, professional vision with the online tool Observer. Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance were conducted.
Results. Teacher candidates in all three courses showed significant gains both in declarative knowledge and professional vision. Patterns of results differed depending on the course attended. A video-based course with a focus on effective teaching resulted in highest gains in prediction of the consequences of observed events for student learning processes, which is the highest level of knowledge transfer.
Conclusion. The development of professional vision is a strongly knowledge-guided process. In line with their content and aims, university-based courses can enhance teaching-relevant knowledge for teacher candidates.
Background. Development of socio-emotional competencies is key to children's successful social interaction at home and at school.
Aims. This study examines the efficacy of a UK primary school-based intervention, the Pyramid project, in strengthening children's socio-emotional competencies.
Sample. Participants were 385 children from seven schools in two UK cities. All children were aged 7–8 years and in school Year 3. Children were screened for socio-emotional difficulties through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997) and a multi-agency meeting of relevant professionals before being allocated to attend a Pyramid Club intervention (n= 103) or a comparison group (n= 282).
Method. A 2 × 2 mixed-model design was used: group (intervention group vs. comparison group) × 2 time points (pre- vs. 12 weeks post-intervention) with repeated measures on the time factor to investigate the impact of the Pyramid Year 3 intervention. Teachers completed the SDQ-T4-16 for all children pre- and post-intervention to measure participants’ socio-emotional health status.
Results. As measured by the two SDQ difficulty sub-scales of Emotional and Peer problems and the SDQ strength sub-scale of Prosocial behaviour, post-intervention improvements in the Pyramid attendee group were of greater magnitude than those of the comparison group.
Conclusions. The Pyramid project intervention improves the socio-emotional health of vulnerable children through promoting positive outcomes as well as reducing socio-emotional deficits. These findings further support the inclusion of a salutogenic approach in promoting children's socio-emotional well-being.
Background. A sequential analysis of classroom discourse is needed to investigate the conditions under which the triadic initiation-response-feedback (IRF) pattern may host different teaching orientations.
Aim. The purpose of the study is twofold: first, to describe the characteristics of classroom discourse and, second, to identify and explore the different interactive sequences that can be captured with a sequential statistical analysis.
Method. Twelve whole-class activities were video recorded in three Italian primary schools. We observed classroom interaction as it occurs naturally on an everyday basis. In total, we collected 587 min of video recordings. Subsequently, 828 triadic IRF patterns were extracted from this material and analysed with the programme Generalized Sequential Query (GSEQ).
Results. The results indicate that classroom discourse may unfold in different ways. In particular, we identified and described four types of sequences. Dialogic sequences were triggered by authentic questions, and continued through further relaunches. Monologic sequences were directed to fulfil the teachers' pre-determined didactic purposes. Co-constructive sequences fostered deduction, reasoning, and thinking. Scaffolding sequences helped and sustained children with difficulties.
Conclusions. The application of sequential analyses allowed us to show that interactive sequences may account for a variety of meanings, thus making a significant contribution to the literature and research practice in classroom discourse.
Background. Research is needed to explore conceptual change in relation to achievement goal orientations and depth of processing.
Aims. To address this need, we examined relations between achievement goals, use of deep versus shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change learning using a think-aloud protocol.
Sample and Method. Seventy-three undergraduate students were assessed on their prior knowledge and misconceptions about Newtonian mechanics, and then reported their achievement goals and participated in think-aloud protocols while reading Newtonian physics texts.
Results. A mastery-approach goal orientation positively predicted deep processing strategies, shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change. In contrast, a performance-approach goal orientation did not predict either of the processing strategies, but negatively predicted conceptual change. A performance-avoidance goal orientation negatively predicted deep processing strategies and conceptual change. Moreover, deep and shallow processing strategies positively predicted conceptual change as well as recall. Finally, both deep and shallow processing strategies mediated relations between mastery-approach goals and conceptual change.
Conclusions. Results provide some support for Dole and Sinatra's (1998) Cognitive Reconstruction of Knowledge Model of conceptual change but also challenge specific facets with regard to the role of depth of processing in conceptual change.
Background. In separate studies and research from different perspectives, five factors are found to be among those related to higher quality outcomes of student learning (academic achievement). Those factors are higher self-efficacy, deeper approaches to learning, higher quality teaching, students’ perceptions that their workload is appropriate, and greater learning motivation. University learning improvement strategies have been built on these research results.
Aim. To investigate how students’ evoked prior experience, perceptions of their learning environment, and their approaches to learning collectively contribute to academic achievement. This is the first study to investigate motivation and self-efficacy in the same educational context as conceptions of learning, approaches to learning and perceptions of the learning environment.
Sample. Undergraduate students (773) from the full range of disciplines were part of a group of over 2,300 students who volunteered to complete a survey of their learning experience. On completing their degrees 6 and 18 months later, their academic achievement was matched with their learning experience survey data.
Method. A 77-item questionnaire was used to gather students’ self-report of their evoked prior experience (self-efficacy, learning motivation, and conceptions of learning), perceptions of learning context (teaching quality and appropriate workload), and approaches to learning (deep and surface). Academic achievement was measured using the English honours degree classification system. Analyses were conducted using correlational and multi-variable (structural equation modelling) methods.
Results. The results from the correlation methods confirmed those found in numerous earlier studies. The results from the multi-variable analyses indicated that surface approach to learning was the strongest predictor of academic achievement, with self-efficacy and motivation also found to be directly related. In contrast to the correlation results, a deep approach to learning was not related to academic achievement, and teaching quality and conceptions of learning were only indirectly related to achievement.
Conclusions. Research aimed at understanding how students experience their learning environment and how that experience relates to the quality of their learning needs to be conducted using a wider range of variables and more sophisticated analytical methods. In this study of one context, some of the relations found in earlier bivariate studies, and on which learning intervention strategies have been built, are not confirmed when more holistic teaching–learning contexts are analysed using multi-variable methods.
Background and Aims. The literature documents fewer classroom mastery goal structures in secondary school compared to elementary. However, little is known about how personal achievement goals may influence classroom goal structures. This is especially true at the level of pre-service teachers. Our objective was to investigate if pre-service teachers’ personal goals predicted their intended classroom goal structures.
Sample. Participants were 125 elementary and 175 secondary school pre-service teachers from two Western Canadian universities.
Method. Structural equation modelling was used to examine if the structural relationships and latent means of personal and intended classroom goal structures differed for elementary and secondary school pre-service teachers.
Results. The results revealed that personal goals predicted the goal structures that pre-service teachers intended to establish; however, the relationships and means differed between elementary and secondary school pre-service teachers. Specifically, personal mastery-approach goals positively predicted classroom mastery goals much more strongly at the elementary than the secondary level. Furthermore, elementary pre-service teachers had significantly higher latent mean scores on personal mastery-approach goals than their secondary counterparts.
Conclusions. It seems possible that the currently documented differences between classroom goal structures noted for elementary compared to secondary school may be based on the personal goals endorsed as pre-service teachers. The results are further discussed in terms of alignment with research on practising teachers’ personal and classroom goals and implications for teacher education.
Background. The equiprobability bias is a tendency for individuals to think of probabilistic events as ‘equiprobable’ by nature, and to judge outcomes that occur with different probabilities as equally likely. The equiprobability bias has been repeatedly found to be related to formal education in statistics, and it is claimed to be based on a misunderstanding of the concept of randomness.
Aims. The aim of the present study was to examine whether experimenting with random generators would decrease the equiprobability bias.
Sample. The participants were 108 psychology students whose performance was measured either immediately after taking part in a training session (n= 55), or without doing any training exercises (n= 53).
Method. The training session consisted of four activities. These included generating random sequences of events, and learning about the law of large numbers. Subsequently, the participants were tested on a series of equiprobability problems, and a number of other problems with similar structure and content.
Results. The results indicated that the training successfully decreased the equiprobability bias. However, this effect was moderated by participants’ cognitive ability (i.e., higher ability participants benefitted from the training more than participants with lower cognitive ability). Finally, the training session had the unexpected side effect of increasing students’ susceptibility to the representativeness heuristic.
Conclusions. Experimenting with random generators has a positive effect on students’ general understanding of probability, but the same time it might increase their susceptibility to certain biases (especially, to the representativeness heuristic). These findings have important implications for using training methods to improve probabilistic reasoning performance.
Despite the recent evidence for a multi-component nature of both visual imagery and creativity, there have been no systematic studies on how the different dimensions of creativity and imagery might interrelate.
The main goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between different dimensions of creativity (artistic and scientific) and dimensions of visualization abilities and styles (object and spatial). In addition, we compared the contributions of object and spatial visualization abilities versus corresponding styles to scientific and artistic dimensions of creativity.
Twenty-four undergraduate students (12 females) were recruited for the first study, and 75 additional participants (36 females) were recruited for an additional experiment.
Participants were administered a number of object and spatial visualization abilities and style assessments as well as a number of artistic and scientific creativity tests.
The results show that object visualization relates to artistic creativity and spatial visualization relates to scientific creativity, while both are distinct from verbal creativity. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that style predicts corresponding dimension of creativity even after removing shared variance between style and visualization ability. The results suggest that styles might be a more ecologically valid construct in predicting real-life creative behaviour, such as performance in different professional domains.
The construct of field independence (FI) remains one of the most widely cited notions in research on cognitive style and on learning and instruction more generally. However, a great deal of confusion continues to exist around the definition of FI, its measurement, and the interpretation of research results, all of which have served to limit our understanding of and practice in education.
This study reviews research evidence on FI and highlights key issues to frame a more informed agenda for future research.
Caution needs to be exercised over the interpretation of the evidence around FI and field dependence (FD). In tests measuring FI only, it is inappropriate to use the term FD. FI is clearly correlated with measures of spatial ability; however, whether FI is just a measure of perceptual and more specifically spatial ability is a matter of debate. Furthermore, whether FI is just a cognitive ability or a cognitive style is not the central issue, as both can be developed. FI has a significant relationship with aspects of working memory and with other variables. It is especially important in the management and interpretation of complex cognitive tasks.
Field independence has an important role to play in the navigation of the complex and information-rich learning environments of the 21st century. It is therefore important to move beyond the present narrow focus on FI as a style or trait by acknowledging, embracing, and exploring the complexity of the interaction between individual and contextual variables.
Intellectual style, an encompassing term for such constructs as learning style, teaching style, teaching approach, and thinking style, refers to one's preferred way of processing information. For the past several decades, whether or not there is a need for a match between teachers’ teaching styles and students’ learning styles has been the focal point for debate among researchers, educators, and the general public.
The preliminary objective of this research was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Preferred Teaching Approach Inventory (PTAI). The research's primary objective was to re-examine the concept of ‘style match’ through testing the predictive power of students’ thinking styles for their preferred teaching approaches.
Data were collected from two samples of university students, one each from Shanghai, mainland China (N = 236), and Hong Kong (N = 123).
Participants provided the required demographic information and responded to two self-report inventories: the Thinking Styles Inventory – Revised II and the PTAI.
Acceptable reliability and good validity were found for the PTAI. All of the eight multiple regressions indicated that students’ thinking styles significantly contributed to their preferences for teachers’ teaching approaches. These contributions varied by gender among the Shanghai students and by academic discipline among the Hong Kong students.
Students, especially Shanghai female students and Hong Kong natural science students, are open to teaching approaches that do not precisely match their thinking styles. The concept of ‘style match’ requires new understanding. Findings have implications for research and education.
Although the evidence in support of the variability of students' learning strategies has expanded in recent years, less is known about the explanatory base of these individual differences in terms of the joint influences of personal and contextual characteristics.
Previous studies have often investigated how student learning is associated with either personal or contextual factors. This study takes an integrative research perspective into account and examines the joint effects of personality, academic motivation, and teaching strategies on students' learning strategies in a same educational context in first-year higher education.
In this study, 1,126 undergraduate students and 90 lecturers from eight professional bachelor programmes in a university college participated.
Self-report measures were used to measure students' personality, academic motivation, and learning strategies. Students' processing and regulation strategies are mapped using the Inventory of Learning Styles. Key characteristics of more content-focused versus learning-focused teaching strategies were measured. Multivariate multi-level analysis was used to take the nested data structure and interrelatedness of learning strategies into account.
Different personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) and academic motivation (amotivation, autonomous, and controlled motivation) were found to be independently associated with student learning strategies. Besides these student characteristics, also teaching strategies were found to be directly associated with learning strategies.
The study makes clear that the impact of teaching strategies on learning strategies in first-year higher education cannot be overlooked nor overinterpreted, due to the importance of students' personality and academic motivation which also partly explain why students learn the way they do.
Our interest in perceived self-regulation of learning arose in the context of educational reform. After decades of stability, the Finnish high school system underwent reform in the 1990s, with a significant emphasis being placed on promoting student self-regulation of learning.
The purposes of the study were (1) to evaluate changes in the mean level of perceived self-regulation throughout high school and (2) to evaluate the nature of the developmental relations between achievement, perceived self-regulation, and personal interest.
The participants consisted of 245 systematically sampled high school students from a mid-sized Finnish city.
T tests for paired samples were employed to assess changes in the level of personal interest and perceived self-regulation. Analysis of the developmental relations was carried out within a structural equations modelling framework.
The main result was that perceived self-regulation at the beginning of high school predicted not only scholastic achievement at the end of high school over and above prior achievement, but also subsequent personal interest. Additionally, following an international trend, the level of perceived self-regulation decreased from the first to third year of study.
The study has important theoretical and practical implications. First, the results suggest that perceived self-regulation and personal interest are only partially explained by achievement. Second, it appears that perceived self-regulation drives personal interest, not the other way around. Finally, ways for teachers and schools to sustain perceived self-regulation throughout the high school years are discussed.
A re-analysis of several university-level interview studies has suggested that some students show evidence of a deep and stable approach to learning, along with other characteristics that support the approach. This combination, it was argued, could be seen to indicate a disposition to understand for oneself.
To identify a group of students who showed high and consistent scores on deep approach, combined with equivalently high scores on effort and monitoring studying, and to explore these students' experiences of the teaching–learning environments they had experienced.
Re-analysis of data from 1,896 students from 25 undergraduate courses taking four contrasting subject areas in eleven British universities.
Inventories measuring approaches to studying were given at the beginning and the end of a semester, with the second inventory also exploring students' experiences of teaching. K-means cluster analysis was used to identify groups of students with differing patterns of response on the inventory scales, with a particular focus on students showing high, stable scores.
One cluster clearly showed the characteristics expected of the disposition to understand and was also fairly stable over time. Other clusters also had deep approaches, but also showed either surface elements or lower scores on organized effort or monitoring their studying.
Combining these findings with interview studies previously reported reinforces the idea of there being a disposition to understand for oneself that could be identified from an inventory scale or through further interviews.
Background. It is often claimed that psychology students’ attitudes towards research methods and statistics affect course enrolment, persistence, achievement, and course climate. However, the inter-institutional variability has been widely neglected in the research on students’ attitudes towards research methods and statistics, but it is important for didactic purposes (heterogeneity of the student population).
Aims. The paper presents a scale based on findings of the social psychology of attitudes (polar and emotion-based concept) in conjunction with a method for capturing beginning university students’ attitudes towards research methods and statistics and identifying the proportion of students having positive attitudes at the institutional level.
Sample. The study based on a re-analysis of a nationwide survey in Germany in August 2000 of all psychology students that enrolled in fall 1999/2000 (N= 1,490) and N= 44 universities.
Methods. Using multilevel latent-class analysis (MLLCA), the aim was to group students in different student attitude types and at the same time to obtain university segments based on the incidences of the different student attitude types.
Results. Four student latent clusters were found that can be ranked on a bipolar attitude dimension. Membership in a cluster was predicted by age, grade point average (GPA) on school-leaving exam, and personality traits. In addition, two university segments were found: universities with an average proportion of students with positive attitudes and universities with a high proportion of students with positive attitudes (excellent segment).
Conclusions. As psychology students make up a very heterogeneous group, the use of multiple learning activities as opposed to the classical lecture course is required.
Background. Vocational interests play a central role in the vocational decision-making process and are decisive for the later job satisfaction and vocational success. Based on Ackerman's (1996) notion of trait complexes, specific interest profiles of gifted high-school graduates can be expected.
Aims. Vocational interests of gifted and highly achieving adolescents were compared to those of their less intelligent/achieving peers according to Holland's (1997) RIASEC model. Further, the impact of intelligence and achievement on interests were analysed while statistically controlling for potentially influencing variables. Changes in interests over time were investigated.
Sample. N= 4,694 German students (age: M= 19.5, SD= .80; 54.6% females) participated in the study (TOSCA; Köller, Watermann, Trautwein, & Lüdtke, 2004).
Method. Interests were assessed in participants’ final year at school and again 2 years later (N= 2,318).
Results. Gifted participants reported stronger investigative and realistic interests, but lower social interests than less intelligent participants. Highly achieving participants reported higher investigative and (in wave 2) higher artistic interests. Considerable gender differences were found: gifted girls had a flat interest profile, while gifted boys had pronounced realistic and investigative and low social interests. Multilevel multiple regression analyses predicting interests by intelligence and school achievement revealed stable interest profiles. Beyond a strong gender effect, intelligence and school achievement each contributed substantially to the prediction of vocational interests.
Conclusions. At the time around graduation from high school, gifted young adults show stable interest profiles, which strongly differ between gender and intelligence groups. These differences are relevant for programmes for the gifted and for vocational counselling.
Background. Research has shown how academic emotions are related to achievement and to cognitive/motivational variables that promote achievement. Mediated models have been proposed to account for the relationships among academic emotions, cognitive/motivational variables, and achievement, and research has supported such mediated models, particularly with negative emotions.
Aims. The study tested the hypotheses: (1) self-regulation and the positive academic emotions of enjoyment and pride are positive predictors of achievement; and (2) enjoyment and pride both moderate the relationship between self-regulation and achievement.
Sample. Participants were 1,345 students enrolled in various trigonometry classes in one university.
Methods. Participants answered the Academic Emotions Questionnaire-Math (Pekrun, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2005) and a self-regulation scale (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991) halfway through their trigonometry class. The students’ final grades in the course were regressed to self-regulation, positive emotions, and the interaction terms to test the moderation effects.
Results and Conclusions. Enjoyment and pride were both positive predictors of grades; more importantly, both moderated the relationship between self-regulation and grades. For students who report higher levels of both positive emotions, self-regulation was positively associated with grades. However, for those who report lower levels of pride, self-regulation was not related to grades; and, for those who reported lower levels of enjoyment, self-regulation was negatively related to grades. The results are discussed in terms of how positive emotions indicate positive appraisals of task/outcome value, and thus enhance the positive links between cognitive/motivational variables and learning.
Background. Feedback is one of the most powerful tools, which teachers can use to enhance student learning. It appears difficult for teachers to give qualitatively good feedback, especially during active learning. In this context, teachers should provide facilitative feedback that is focused on the development of meta-cognition and social learning.
Aims. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the existing knowledge about feedback and to give directions to improve teacher feedback in the context of active learning.
Sample. The participants comprised 32 teachers who practiced active learning in the domain of environmental studies in the sixth, seventh, or eighth grade of 13 Dutch primary schools. A total of 1,465 teacher–student interactions were examined.
Methods. Video observations were made of active learning lessons in the domain of environmental studies. A category system was developed based on the literature and empirical data. Teacher–student interactions were assessed using this system.
Results. About half of the teacher–student interactions contained feedback. This feedback was usually focused on the tasks that were being performed by the students and on the ways in which these tasks were processed. Only 5% of the feedback was explicitly related to a learning goal. In their feedback, the teachers were directing (rather than facilitating) the learning processes.
Conclusions. During active learning, feedback on meta-cognition and social learning is important. Feedback should be explicitly related to learning goals. In practice, these kinds of feedback appear to be scarce. Therefore, giving feedback during active learning seems to be an important topic for teachers’ professional development.