Contemporary Educational Psychology最新文献

Grounding on the situated expectancy-value theory, this study investigated stability and change in adolescent students' (N = 508) motivational profiles in mathematics (self-concept, values, costs) during the last year of comprehensive education, and how these changes relate to relevant educational outcomes (mathematics performance and aspirations) and students’ emotional distress (study-related exhaustion and depressive symptoms). Latent profile and latent transition analyses revealed four motivational profiles among students: Positively ambitious (high competence and value beliefs, low costs, T1: 34 %/T2: 32 %), Struggling ambitious (high competence and value beliefs, high costs, T1: 25 %/T2: 25 %), Indifferent (low competence and value beliefs, low costs, T1: 22 %/T2: 21 %), and Maladaptive (low competence and value beliefs, high costs, 19 %/22 %). Although some fluctuations were detected in profile memberships within the school year, most of the students (80 %) displayed stable mathematics motivation across ninth grade. Students who remained Positively ambitious also performed well, aspired for an education that required high mathematical skills, and experienced the least emotional distress, whereas students in the most negative motivational profile (Maladaptive) showed the opposite patterns. However, students who experienced high math-related costs, despite having positive value beliefs, performance, and aspirations (i.e., Struggling ambitious), also experienced one of the highest levels of study-related exhaustion and depressive symptoms. Elevated levels of exhaustion and depressive symptoms were systematically associated with negative motivational transitions in general (i.e., moving from Positively ambitious to Struggling ambitious, or from Indifferent to Maladaptive), highlighting the importance of reducing perceived study-related costs in schools and supporting students' well-being.

While teacher expectations are known to influence students’ academic achievement, they may also exert significant influences on student motivation, which is a precursor to a student’s achievement as well. A number of previous studies have demonstrated that motivation affects a student’s achievement. There is, however, a dearth of longitudinal research examining the relation between teacher expectations and students’ motivational variables. In this article, we examine the relations between teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability, students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs, and students’ mathematics-related intrinsic task-values. Our sample consisted of 796 second-grade students and their 50 teachers; the data collection was conducted at three points within a school year. Longitudinal latent change score analyses yielded three main results: First, teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability and both students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values decreased significantly in the second half of the school year. Second, regarding correlated changes, students who experienced larger increases in teacher expectations also demonstrated higher increases in competence beliefs and intrinsic task values in mathematics. Third, after controlling for students’ initial mathematics achievement, effects of teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability at the beginning of the school year on subsequent changes in students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values were revealed. Our study highlights the important role of teacher expectations in shaping students’ motivational variables, which underscores the need for teacher training programs and policy interventions aimed at increasing teachers’ awareness of their expectations and how they can foster a positive learning environment for their students.

Observational measures of teaching are scarce in the motivation literature, but are needed for furthering theoretical knowledge and recommendations for how teachers can support motivation. To inform the development of effective observational tools, particularly for STEM settings, and based on a synthesis of current practices for observing motivational teaching, video lecture recordings from three undergraduate chemistry classes were observed for evidence of instructors’ supports for students’ motivation, including autonomy support, relevance support, and enthusiasm. Four different coding procedures selected from prior research were compared using interrater reliability estimates and descriptive comparisons of observer scores with student perceptions obtained from surveys. Results indicated that even with minimal coder training, observational measures of relevance support (i.e., connections to real life, support for meaningfulness, relevance statements) and enthusiasm achieved acceptable reliability in capturing motivational teaching that also appeared to align with student perceptions. For other observational measures, results indicated a need for further development including clearer operational definitions, limiting the number of processes observers are expected to simultaneously observe, and perhaps more extensive training for coders. To increase replicability and validity, we call for and contribute to greater transparency in reporting the development and implementation of observational methods for capturing contextual supports for students’ optimal psychological functioning in school.

Given math-related fields are still highly racialized and gendered (NCSES, 2021), this study assessed: 1) whether there were racial differences in adolescents’ perceived math cost alongside expectancies and values and 2) the extent to which perceived math cost alongside expectancies and values explained yearly changes in achievement differences by race and gender. This study assessed 2,338 Black (39.4 %) and White (60.6 %) adolescents, roughly half girls (47.8 %), in the 6th to 12th grades (M = 14.71 years old, SD = 1.93, 61.7 % qualifying for free or reduced priced lunch). The results indicated that Black adolescents perceived higher costs to learning math than their White peers but value math in similar ways. Perceived math cost was the only motivational belief to explain achievement differences between Black and White girls but not boys after adjusting for socioeconomic status and grade level. In contrast, perceptions of ability beliefs explained achievement differences between Black boys and girls. These findings point to the importance of employing intersectional approaches to understand the relationship between math motivation and achievement.

The acquisition of domain-specific number knowledge and domain-general cognitive processes, including working memory, have shown to contribute to math learning and achievement. Correlational work has emphasized a reciprocal relationship between these processes; however, little is known about their relative and causal contributions to math learning. Here, we test the individual and additive benefits of playing tablet-based games targeting domain-specific and domain-general skills to improve mathematical knowledge and working memory in a diverse population of kindergarten children (N = 235, 50 % female, 45 % Hispanic/Latino, 35 % African American/Black, 21 % White, 6 % biracial/mixed race, 51 % annual household income less than $30,000). Our results provide causal evidence for the reciprocal relations between numerical knowledge and working memory. Specifically, we found that playing a working memory game led to improvements in mathematical knowledge as compared to an active control and after taking into account baseline performance. Importantly, we also found that children who played both a working memory game and a numerical knowledge game showed the most pronounced and sustained benefits in mathematical knowledge, with benefits remaining present several weeks after intervention completion. Our findings illustrate the importance of targeting both domain-general and domain-specific skills in order to maximize the benefits of interventions to improve mathematical knowledge. Yet, given the inconsistent results across various studies, we argue that it is critical to further investigate underlying mechanisms and training features, as even subtle variations seem to dramatically affect training outcomes.

Previous research indicates that readers’ prior beliefs bias comprehension of conflicting sources and the ensuing representations developed. Against this background, this study investigated how participants’ pre-existing beliefs affect their written representations based on conflicting texts about a well-established controversy. More specifically, adopting a 2 × 2 mixed GLM design and using a series of statistical procedures, the study investigated the propositional content and perspectives that L2 reader-writers adopted in their written representations based on controversial sources across summary vs. argumentation task instruction conditions. The study further investigated the participants’ emotional reactions to the conflicting texts. Results showed that perspectives that participants adopted in their written representations and the propositional content therein were biased towards their prior beliefs. Additionally, the results showed an interaction effect for task instruction and propositional content in the representations. More specifically, the argumentation task showed less of a balance in positively-biased and negatively-biased propositional content than the summary task, although attenuated by the absence of significant cross-condition differences. Furthermore, significant differences were found in the participants’ emotional reactions to the conflicting texts. Moderating effects were also found for curiosity and confusion experienced in relation to the pro-stance texts and the propositional content of the integrated representations.

Accurate self-monitoring of text comprehension is critical for effective self-regulated learning from texts. Unfortunately, it has been repeatedly shown that students’ monitoring of their text comprehension is often inaccurate, which can subsequently lead to inaccurate regulation and ineffective restudy decisions. Previous research provided evidence that completing causal diagrams at a delay after text reading (i.e., diagramming) can help to improve students’ monitoring of text comprehension. However, even after diagramming, there is still substantial room for improvement. The current studies therefore aimed to test whether providing feedback in the form of a correctly completed diagram (i.e., performance standard) would further increase students’ monitoring accuracy. In Study 1, 79 participants (aged 18–23) made judgements of learning under four conditions: I. No-Diagram (control), II. Standard-Only, III. Diagramming-Only, or IV. Diagramming + Standard. In each condition, students studied a text, made a judgement of learning before and after the experimental tasks, and completed a comprehension test at the end of each of the (overall six) trials. Results showed that only Diagramming + Standard improved monitoring accuracy and text comprehension. In Study 2, 20 undergraduate students (aged 18–23) completed the Diagramming + Standard condition while their eye movements were tracked and subsequently replayed for cued retrospective verbal reporting. The findings suggest that students used the standards to identify mistakes and improve their monitoring and text comprehension.

The current study explored individual and gendered differences in Black students’ motivation for learning mathematics using three key Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) constructs (expectancies of success, interest, and importance). It also evaluated whether math motivational profiles in 6th grade or 10th grade predicted math achievement and STEM career aspirations in 10th grade among Black students while controlling for prior math achievement. Black students (n = 408, 55% female) attending schools in a metropolitan area of Tennessee, USA and mostly from families surviving economic marginalization completed surveys and math achievement assessments across middle and high school. Latent Profile Analysis identified three profiles of math motivation in 6th grade, including a profile of high motivation across constructs, and Black girls were less likely to be in the high motivational profile than Black boys. Profile membership in 6th grade predicted 10th grade math achievement. In contrast, math motivation profiles in 6th grade did not predict STEM career aspirations in 10th grade. Parallel analyses for concurrent relations in 10th grade were similar, except that there were no gender differences in profile prevalence. Overall, findings suggest that SEVT is useful for understanding motivation and academic performance among Black students when a person-centered analytic approach is used, but more work is needed to expand the theory to understand the development of Black students’ STEM career aspirations.

Students who experience teacher warm demand (i.e., caring and high expectations) are typically more engaged and successful at school. Yet, relative to White students, students of color tend to report more distant relationships with their White teachers. Leveraging data from 179 6th–9th grade Measures of Effective Teaching project classroom videos, we tested whether teachers’ facilitation of culturally responsive social relations was associated with higher warm demand, and whether these social relations moderated associations between race and warm demand. Results showed that teachers’ promotion of culturally responsive social relations was associated with warm demand, and that this was magnified for White teachers in relation to their discipline practices. Findings suggest that taking a culturally responsive approach to facilitating classroom social relations is critical for teachers seeking to improve students’ experiences of warm demand.

Writing an integrated essay based on multiple-documents requires students to both comprehend the documents and integrate the documents into a coherent essay. In the current study, we examined the effects of summarization as a potential reading strategy to enhance participants’ multiple-document comprehension and integrated essay writing. Participants (n = 295) were randomly assigned to either summarize or reread five texts on sun exposure and radiation. They produced an integrated essay based on the texts that they read, which were scored by expert raters. Finally, the participants completed three knowledge assessments (topic, domain, general). Readers who summarized texts had lower essay scores than readers who reread the texts. However, within the summary group, summary quality was positively correlated with essay score. These findings are discussed within the context of multiple-document comprehension and writing skill.