Contemporary Educational Psychology最新文献

Theories of learning emphasize the importance of both the cognitive and affective state of the learner. The current study focused on children’s affective reactions to corrective feedback during mathematics problem solving. Eighty-seven elementary school children (M age = 7.6 years, 41% female, 68% White) solved mathematical equivalence problems during an online video call and received trial-by-trial feedback on their answers. Trained researchers used children’s facial expressions, tone of voice, and verbal statements to quantify their positive and negative affect on each trial. Overall, children tended to express more positive affect than negative affect. However, negative affect was more prominent when the child was incorrect and received negative feedback, and higher negative affect was associated with lower accuracy and lower persistence on the task. These results provide novel empirical evidence for the role of emotions during children’s STEM learning in a non-evaluative context.

Despite the benefits of afterschool programs, we know very little about what motivates adolescents to attend and what costs they might associate with doing so. Situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT) proposes that expectancy for success, value, and cost perceptions are motivational beliefs that are important precursors to students’ engagement in such programs, and thus may shape the extent to which students can benefit from them. Accordingly, we examined profiles of expectancy, value, and cost beliefs associated with afterschool program participation in a sample of middle school students (N = 197) in an urban context. We then examined profiles for their relations to student demographics (gender, grade, race/ethnicity), achievement (English and Math grades), and program attendance. Latent profile analyses yielded three profiles: a moderate-low mixed motivation profile, a high cost and mixed motivation profile, and a positively motivated with moderate effort cost profile, thus uniquely contributing to the literature by describing the nature and incidence of how multiple motivational beliefs co-occur among groups of students in afterschool spaces. Subsequent analyses revealed that the positively motivated with moderate effort cost profile was associated with higher program attendance rates than the other two profiles. These results extend the theoretical knowledge base by exploring students’ expectancies, values, and costs in an informal educational context and have important implications for afterschool educators and policymakers.

Video-based learning plays an increasingly important role and thus the optimal design of video-based learning materials attracts the attention of scientists and practitioners alike. In this context, producers of educational videos often include a talking head in their videos, although theory (e.g., cognitive theory of multimedia learning) also suggests potential disadvantages for this format. Since talking heads attract a lot of visual attention, further empirical research is necessary to investigate whether a talking head can hinder learning, especially presented next to graphic-based learning content. To address this research gap, we conducted two online experiments to investigate the effects of a talking head in educational videos with narrated slides (short slideshow lectures) on learning outcomes (i.e., factual knowledge acquisition) and participants’ subjective ratings of the learning material (e.g., perceived learning). In Experiment 1 (N = 96), we varied whether the instructor’s talking head was present or absent in the videos as a between-factor, and whether the visual content on the slides was graphic-based (pictures, diagrams, maps) or text-based (bullet points) as a within-factor (slide type). In Experiment 2 (N = 184), we additionally varied as a between-factor whether the contents appeared sequentially or statically all at once (presentation type). Our results showed that the talking head did not affect learning outcomes, regardless of slide type and presentation type of the videos suggesting that the inclusion of a talking head offers neither clear advantages nor disadvantages. Potential explanations for the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

This study examined the heterogeneity in the co-developmental trajectories of reading and math performance (i.e., parallel changes in the initial scores and growth patterns) and identified the number, size and shape of the co-developmental trajectory across elementary and middle schools. In addition, this investigation focused on how an early childhood dysregulation profile (DP; indexed by a high co-occurrence of emotional, behavior, and attention problems) was associated with distinct co-developmental trajectories of reading and math performance. Specifically, we examined whether early childhood DP level can predict (a) membership assignment into each distinct co-development group and (b) variability in initial scores and changes in growth with each distinct co-development group. Participants were 784 academically at-risk students (47 % girls) predominantly from low socioeconomic status families who were recruited in first grade (Mean age = 6.57 years) and followed annually through the final year of middle school (ninth grade). Results revealed two distinct co-developmental trajectories of reading and math performance, including (a) a lower initial reading (higher increasing) and higher initial math (lower increasing) class (85.3 %) and (b) a lower initial math (higher increasing) and higher initial reading (lower increasing) class (14.7 %). Our results provided evidence for the compensatory pattern of co-developmental trajectories, indicating initial lower skills grow at a faster rate than the initial high. Further, early childhood DP was not associated with the membership assignment for these two distinct classes, which means that regardless of children’s early DP level, they have equal chances to be assigned to each of the classes. However, children with higher parent and teacher-reported DP in first grade demonstrated lower initial scores and a slower improvement rate in both classes after controlling for kindergarten literacy skills, gender, ethnicity, intelligence, socioeconomic status, and grade retention. Our study findings demonstrated (a) substantial heterogeneity in the co-developmental trajectories of reading and math performance across elementary and middle school ages; and (b) the importance of promoting self-regulation beginning in early childhood, especially for academically at-risk children in families facing economic challenges.

As researchers and school leaders increasingly recognize the importance of teachers’ emotions for both teachers and students, it is imperative that researchers document teachers’ affective experiences using ecologically valid methodologies. In this study, we use the experience sampling method to explore the momentary emotions of 238 teachers in two suburban school districts in the Northeast region of the United States. Using 1443 momentary affective reports, we report patterns in affect that emerged across the full sample of teachers, including the types of emotions teachers experienced most frequently and most intensely, as well as variance in momentary affective experiences, both within and across teachers. We consider ways in which professional role, professional activity, and affective appraisals relate to teachers’ momentary affective experiences, and conclude with a discussion of implications for future research and practice.

Mindset—beliefs about the malleability of intelligence—has been traditionally conceptualized as an individual-level construct. The present study adapts, proposes, and applies a bioecological model to examine how learners perceive the intelligence mindset beliefs possessed by important socializing agents—parents, teachers, and peers—and whether and how these perceived mindset beliefs shape individuals’ own understanding of intelligence and intelligence mindset. Inductive coding of focus group data from 42 undergraduate students in the United States revealed six themes reflecting the dynamic interplay between person and context: (1) Definitions of intelligence reflect resource, force, and demand characteristics, (2) Students largely endorse growth mindset beliefs, but not unconditionally, (3) Supports and supportive environments shape intelligence mindset, (4) Individual differences in perspective taking shape perceptions of intelligence mindset, (5) The impact of age and generational status on intelligence mindset depends on socializing agent, and (6) Identity markers shape student perceptions of intelligence and intelligence mindset. Findings demonstrate the utility in applying a bioecological model for the study of mindset and point to new directions for examining the synergistic impact of person-context interactions on student motivation, learning, and achievement.

Prior research has reported signs of low engagement in the early stages of schooling. The present study assessed the effectiveness of a school-based intervention that promotes cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement in elementary school children through a story tool. The study followed a cluster-randomized design with 259 fourth graders nested in 12 classes; the classes, not the individuals, were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. Both groups were assessed in four waves in two measures for each engagement dimension. Data were analyzed with a multilevel approach. Findings show that the intervention enhanced students’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Still, there is a delay before the intervention program exhibits a beneficial effect.

Moreover, gender discrepancies were found. Before the intervention, girls showed higher cognitive and emotional engagement, but boys exhibited higher emotional engagement after the intervention. In addition, current results indicate that the program benefited the boys more than the girls. Finally, there was no evidence that the engagement outcomes differed depending on the parent’s educational level. Findings provide valuable information for future research and educational practice.

Scaffolding features that provide multimodal support for the pronunciation and meaning of words are increasingly common in digital reading environments. These vocabulary scaffolds are intended to aid the accurate pronunciation and understanding of individual words in context, thus supporting both vocabulary development and comprehension of text. However, the evidence on their efficacy remains inconclusive. The present study adds to the evidence base by examining: 1) whether child characteristics predict the use of vocabulary scaffolds; 2) whether the use of vocabulary scaffolds is associated with reading comprehension performance; and 3) whether the association between the use of scaffolds and reading comprehension is modulated by child and/or item characteristics. A large cohort (N ∼ 120,000) of 5- to 8-year-old children in the United States interacted with a gamified digital reading environment with embedded vocabulary scaffolds, thereby generating a large observational dataset of user log files. Confirmatory analyses with Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) indicated that children with lower literacy skills, beginning readers, girls, and bilingual students were more likely to use the scaffold. Overall, the use of scaffolds was associated with better reading comprehension performance. The association between the use of scaffolds and reading comprehension was modulated by both child and item characteristics. We conclude that vocabulary scaffolds may be promising tools to facilitate reading comprehension and reduce performance differences amongst diverse learners in digital reading environments. Educational implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The current study investigated how changes in psychological (cognitions and emotions) and physiological (cortisol concentrations) threat/challenge responses develop over the course of a presentation and whether initial intensity levels and their changes are related to self-efficacy and presentation performance. Based on the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), 123 students held video-recorded presentations about their dream job, which were evaluated by three raters. Selfefficacy was measured before the TSST, saliva cortisol concentrations and psychological threat and challenge responses three times during the TSST. Data were analyzed with latent growth modeling. Threat and cortisol increased during the presentation, while challenge decreased. The growth curve coefficients of challenge correlated negatively with the respective coefficients of threat. Also, initial intensity of challenge responses correlated positively with corresponding cortisol concentrations. Higher self-efficacy was associated with higher initial intensity of challenge responses, lower corresponding concentrations of cortisol, and a smaller cortisol increase, but neither with the growth curve coefficients of threat responses nor with presentation performance. Better performance was associated with lower initial intensity of threat and a smaller increase in cortisol. Threat responses and increasing cortisol concentration appear to inhibit presentation performance, while self-efficacy may strengthen challenge responses and reduce corresponding levels of cortisol concentration as well as its increase.

Achievement goal theory has evolved since introduced about 40 years ago. One of its newer variants is the goal complex model. It assumes that each achievement goal (i.e., performance or mastery) can be pursued for many reasons and, more provocatively, that the goal’s effects depend partly on why it is pursued. Clearly, the first task for this area is to identify likely goal pursuit reasons, develop and validate a measure of reasons, and chart the influence of those reasons. Progress remains limited, however. Nearly all studies have considered only a small set of reasons suggested predominantly by self-determination theory, overlooking several other plausible reasons. Nor is there an established measure of goal pursuit reasons. To overcome those limitations, the current study validated and tested a new goal complex measure that includes several additional goal pursuit reasons, both personal (e.g., pride) and social (e.g., to make close others proud, or to help or serve others) in nature. Two culturally distinct samples of university students – one from the USA (n = 400), the other from Thailand (n = 404) – completed the measure with performance goals in mind and then reported a diverse array of educational outcomes. Their results converge for the most part. In each sample, the new measure proved to have good structural validity and psychometric properties. Several goal complexes, including the new social ones, showed unique and often desirable relationships with outcomes, too. The findings raise several research directions and implications for achievement goal theory.