Contemporary Educational Psychology最新文献

Writing is a multifaceted skill, recruiting varied cognitive processes that involve working memory, attention shifting and inhibition, also known as executive functioning (EF). Despite emerging research examining associations between EF and handwritten composition, the mediating role of transcription skills on the relation between EF and text composition remains underexplored. Even less is understood about the nature of these potential mediation mechanisms in keyboard-based text composing, a writing modality that is becoming pervasive during the first years of schooling. This study investigated whether the automaticity of inscription skills (handwriting and keyboarding) and spelling mediate the relation between children’s EF and text composition across two modes (paper and keyboard-based text composing) on a sample of 544 Year 2 Australian children. Assessments of EF, inscription skills, spelling, and text composition were measured concurrently. Indirect pathways were tested via structural equation modelling. Findings indicated that across text composition modes, handwriting automaticity, keyboarding automaticity and spelling mediated the relationship between children’s EF and writing composition (i.e., compositional fluency and quality). The findings of this study extend current understanding of associations between cognitive processes and text composition in the junior years by examining keyboard-based text composing.

The importance of intertextual integration in current information societies has led to extensive research on how to foster students' integration competence. Although teachers have a central role in promoting integration skills, research into their perceptions of intertextual integration tasks is still scarce. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore language arts teachers' views on the epistemic aims and evaluation criteria of intertextual integration. Fifty-four language arts teachers were asked to evaluate three integrated essays, supposedly written by students, that reflected typical violations of key integration quality criteria. In addition, they responded to open-ended questions about intertextual integration aims and evaluation criteria. Teachers successfully identified only about a third of the integration quality criteria violations that were embedded in the essays. Nonetheless, they collectively raised diverse evaluation criteria that addressed content selection and understanding, argumentation quality, source use and intertextuality, structure and organization, and language sophistication. Teachers' most prevalent aims were related to information processing and to the development of learners’ reading and writing skills. However, teachers also referred to knowledge-building goals. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed interrelations between teachers' perceptions of evaluation criteria and their integration aims. Overall, these findings demonstrate that language arts teachers have rich multiple-text integration task models. At the same time, they suggest that many teachers might not perceive intertextual integration as an opportunity for knowledge building and for developing learners’ critical thinking. The results of this study can inform professional development efforts to support instruction of intertextual integration.

Media multitasking refers to simultaneous engagement in two activities, or the act of switching between multiple activities, of which at least one is a media activity. Based on this definition, we had 134 Norwegian undergraduates read four partly conflicting documents on sun exposure and health on a computer in order to write a report on the issue, with half of the participants (randomly assigned) receiving and reading short, authentic social media messages on a smartphone while reading the documents, and the other half reading the documents without being sent any such messages. Further, we manipulated what participants did after reading each document paragraph, with half of the participants (randomly assigned) briefly summarizing the main idea of each paragraph in writing, and the other half just rereading each paragraph. Participants’ integrative processing (i.e., cross-text elaboration strategies) were assessed with a task-specific self-report measure immediately after reading all four documents, and their comprehension of the documents was assessed by analyzing their written reports in terms of their ability to elaborate and integrate information within and across the perspectives discussed in the documents. Results indicated that social media multitasking on a smartphone disturbed both the integrative processing and the integrated understanding of the documents, with main idea summarization mitigating or counteracting these negative effects of multitasking. However, when controlling for working memory, reading comprehension skills, and prior knowledge, integrative processing was not found to mediate the effect of multitasking on integrated understanding of the documents. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed.

The belief that students learn best when instruction matches students’ preferred modality-specific learning style (i.e., visual, auditory, or kinesthetic) is not supported by empirical research. Yet, the learning styles neuromyth remains pervasive, including within teacher education programs. The purpose of the current study was to explore the extent to which various text-related scaffolds (i.e., purpose for reading, during reading prompts, and refutation text structure) shifted 221 undergraduate teacher candidates’ beliefs and knowledge about the learning styles neuromyth from before reading to after reading, and to investigate the durability of these shifts at a delayed posttest. Across all intervention conditions, teacher candidates demonstrated beliefs change and a shift in pedagogical knowledge immediately after the intervention, with a slight overall shift back to supporting learning styles two months later. Individuals given the purpose of reading to change their beliefs had lower beliefs in learning styles at posttest and greater pedagogical knowledge at delayed posttest, especially when reading a text with more refutational elements. Summarizing during reading had a positive impact on beliefs at posttest. Contrary to previous studies, there were no main effects of refutation text, and no effect of any scaffolds on text comprehension. Findings have implications for the knowledge revision literature, including understanding nuances between teacher candidates’ beliefs and pedagogical knowledge.

Substantial evidence revealed that morphological awareness could contribute to reading achievement in different alphabetic languages among children with and without reading difficulties. However, as the most spoken non-alphabetic language, there is a paucity of available research on Chinese reading development and impairment. This research focused on evaluating two potential intervening variables through the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. Compounding awareness, homophone awareness, homograph awareness, in addition to reading ability including character recognition, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were assessed in this research. Controls of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) were also included in the model. Participants were 200 second-grade students with reading difficulties in Chinese mainland . Path analysis revealed that morphological awareness made a direct contribution to reading comprehension beyond all other variables and this relationship was mediated by character recognition and vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, two indirect pathways showed a significant difference in this study. The distinctive role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension for Chinese children with reading difficulties and the potential reasons for the significant effect difference between the two indirect pathways were discussed at the end of the study.

Across two studies, we explore how teachers’ creative self-beliefs and self-regulation drive their creativity when faced with complex projects. In Study 1, 173 teachers reported on the most creative project they carried out last year and provided data on their creative self-beliefs (confidence and centrality of creativity) and self-regulation when pursuing projects. Creative self-beliefs were positively associated with the likelihood of obtaining more creative outcomes, both directly and indirectly, by strengthening teachers’ self-regulation. Moreover, highly innovative projects were unlikely if teachers’ beliefs and self-regulation were low. A latent profile analysis demonstrated three different approaches to carrying out and managing creative projects, resulting in varying levels of creativity in the final projects. These findings were extended and elaborated in a mixed-method Study 2, involving 16 teachers who participated in an intensive 10-week, microlongitudinal diary study and in-depth interviews. This study demonstrated that creative self-regulation allowed the teachers to plan and monitor their actions more effectively, resulting in more creative products. We discuss the role of self-beliefs and self-regulation in teachers’ creative agency and recommend future studies and practical interventions.

Readers build a mental representation of text during reading. The coherence building processes readers use to build a mental representation during reading is key to comprehension. We examined the effects of self-explanation on coherence building processes as undergraduates (n = 51) read five complementary texts about natural selection and completed a post-reading measure of topic knowledge. Participants generated constructed responses (verbal protocols) while reading. We varied the use of constructed response prompt (self-explain vs. think-aloud) and constructed response format (typed vs. oral) to examine their impact on the quality of readers’ constructed responses and their coherence building processes (i.e., cohesion). Participants who received self-explanation instructions had higher quality constructed responses than participants who received think-aloud instructions, regardless of whether responses were typed or spoken aloud. Natural Language Processing (NLP) analyses indicated that participants who were prompted to self-explain generated more cohesive responses than those who were prompted to think-aloud. Participants who received self-explanation instructions had more coherent mental models during reading and typing was related to more cohesive responses when participants were asked to self-explain. Participants whose constructed responses were more lexically cohesive during reading had better performance on the post-reading test.

Although both teacher-student relationship (TSR) and peer relationship (PR) have been found important for the development of students’ classroom engagement, little research has been done regarding the joint operations of these two factors. Guided by a developmental systems framework, this study examined longitudinal between-person and within-person associations between TSR/ PR and classroom engagement in a sample of 784 low-achieving students in the first three years of elementary school. A multidimensional approach was used to distinguish positive and negative dimensions of TSR, as well as peer liking and disliking. At the between-person level, results showed that students’ classroom engagement was positively predicted by positive TSR and PR liking and was negatively predicted by negative TSR and PR disliking. Both positive and negative TSR interacted with PR disliking at the between-person level, such that the associations between positive/negative TSR and classroom engagement were stronger for students with lower levels of PR disliking. At the within-person level, changes in classroom engagement were associated with contemporaneous year-to-year changes in positive/negative TSR and PR disliking. No within-person level interaction effects were found. Cross-level interaction showed that the effects of within-person negative TSR on classroom engagement were stronger for students with lower overall levels of PR disliking. Findings highlighted the importance of using a multilevel multidimensional approach to understand the joint operations of TSR and PR in the development of classroom engagement in low-achieving students in early elementary school.

Parents involve in children’s homework in qualitatively different ways. However, these qualitative aspects are usually understood in separate manners. This longitudinal study identified a unifying framework of constructive versus unconstructive involvement to grasp different qualitative aspects of parents’ homework involvement holistically. We also examined the implications of parents’ constructive versus unconstructive involvement for children’s academic and emotional functioning over time, with attention to parental involvement in two contrasting homework contexts where children showed helplessness or mastery. Chinese mothers (N = 370; M_age = 40.50 years, SD = 3.17) and their fourth graders (N = 370; 54.9 % girls; M_age = 9.90, SD = 0.33) participated in a two-wave longitudinal study spanning nine months. Confirmatory Factor Analyses identified a unifying framework of mothers’ constructive (featuring positive emotions, autonomy support, and mastery-oriented teaching) versus unconstructive involvement (featuring negative emotions, control, and performance-oriented teaching). Mothers involved more unconstructively and less constructively when children showed helplessness (vs. mastery). Mothers’ constructive involvement predicted children’s enhanced academic and emotional functioning over time, while mothers’ unconstructive involvement predicted children’s dampened academic functioning over time, with the associations mainly being significant in children’s helpless homework context. These findings highlight optimizing parents’ homework involvement quality, particularly when children face learning challenges.