Contemporary Educational Psychology最新文献

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.

This study examines how students’ self-regulation, as an individual difference factor, guides their use of informational help-seeking resources when learning from multiple text. We further examine the extent to which engagement in help-seeking is associated with comprehension ratings and multiple text task performance. In this study, students were able to access two types of help-seeking resources during multiple text use: vocabulary aids and conceptual aids. We found students to frequently access help-seeking resources. Moreover, while accessing of help-seeking aids and comprehension ratings during multiple text use directly impacted task performance, students’ self-regulation, as an individual difference factor, was only found to have a significant direct effect on comprehension ratings. Additional direct and indirect relations and implications for future research on students’ self-regulated learning from multiple texts are discussed.

Growing and diversifying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional communities is critically important. According to the Process Model of Mentoring Interactions, two areas of research can be leveraged in pursuit of this goal: mentoring and self-regulated learning (SRL). This study examined the mediating role of learning strategies in explaining how implicit theories of intelligence (mindset) and mentoring support predict academic achievement among university students (operationalized as highest degree attained). Participants (N = 1,094) were from historically underrepresented backgrounds pursuing an undergraduate STEM degree from one of 38 universities across the U.S. Longitudinal data were collected via biannual surveys (fall, spring semesters) to assess academic mindset, faculty mentoring, learning strategy use, and highest degree attained (measured by National Student Clearinghouse graduation/enrollment data). Parallel processes latent growth-curves in a structural equation modeling framework were used to test the mediating role of strategy use on academic achievement. Results showed that reported strategy use was stable over time and mediated the relationship between faculty mentoring support and highest degree attained. Both having a faculty mentor as an undergraduate (vs. not) and higher quality of mentor support predicted higher strategy use, which in turn predicted higher degree attainment. Mindset was unrelated to strategy use or academic achievement. This study is one of the first to empirically demonstrate one process by which mentoring leads to greater academic achievement: via students’ use of SRL strategies.

The effectiveness of automated formative feedback highly depends on student feedback engagement that is largely determined by learners’ cognitive and motivational resources. Yet, most studies have only investigated either cognitive resources (e.g., mental effort), or motivational resources (e.g., expectancy-value-cost variables). The purpose of this study is to examine the development (indicated by time) and relationship of 1) cognitive, 2) affective, and 3) behavioral feedback engagement as a function of cognitive and motivational resources in a computer-based learning environment with automated formative feedback. Data was collected from N = 330 German B.Ed. Elementary Education students who worked four consecutive sessions on summarizing texts. Previously invested mental effort (t − 1) affected situational expectancy and cost but not situational value. 1) Cognitive feedback engagement was positively associated with previous performance but neither associated with cognitive nor motivational resources. 2) Affective feedback engagement was positively associated with intrinsic value and negatively associated with situational expectancies, invested mental effort and previous performance. 3) Behavioral feedback engagement was positively associated with situational expectancies and invested mental effort. This study contributes to the understanding of student’s cognitive and motivational structures when engaging with automated formative feedback.

In this study we examined interindividual differences in intraindividual development of reading self-concept, intrinsic value, and importance value between grade 5 and grade 9 from a situated expectancy-value theory perspective. Growth mixture modelling with data from 1507 (49% girls) secondary school students from Germany indicated four developmental trajectories. We labelled these trajectories: Increasing Values (n = 83, 6%); Declining Importance Value (n = 251, 17%); Declining Values (n = 444, 29%); and Declining Self-Concept and Values (n = 729, 48%). The likelihood of following the Increasing Values or the Declining Values trajectory was lower for girls than boys. Furthermore, students following the Declining Self-Concept and Values trajectory had higher SES than students following the other three trajectories. Students following the Declining Self-Concept and Values trajectory had the highest reading comprehension in grade 5, although this advantage declined by grade 9. Our findings suggest that students may benefit from interventions that support intrinsic value, particularly at the start of secondary school.