European Journal of Psychology of Education最新文献

Primary school textbooks can enhance the acquisition of arithmetic word problem solving skills by offering diverse problems based on their semantic-mathematical structure with targeted reasoning aids, including schematics highlighting their mathematical structure. While certain countries, such as the USA and Singapore, have made progress in improving the problems and aids found in their textbooks through the use of specific theoretical-methodological approaches, textbooks from other countries, such as Spain, have included a very limited variety of problems, with hardly any aids to reasoning. Recently, however, two of the most widely used Spanish publishers have released textbooks that adhere to these theoretical-methodological approaches. To assess whether these textbooks progressed past their predecessors in relevant aspects related to the resolution of arithmetic word problems, we conducted an analysis of the quantity of problems and their variety in terms of semantic-mathematical structure and level of difficulty, as well as the inclusion of schematic representations of their mathematical structure. The study demonstrated improvements among textbooks when publishers adopted a theoretical framework, suggesting that a reference framework could enhance textbook design. This is particularly relevant in countries such as Spain, where there are no applicable standards or official curricula for designing textbooks related to solving arithmetic word problems.

Abstract

Non-formal learning settings like out-of-school labs provide students with insights into authentic learning situations. For example, in physics, students are engaged in experimenting as an authentic method. However, increasing the authenticity in experimentation can lead to overwhelming demands and hinder concept development and does not even need to be perceived as more authentic. We investigated the role of authenticity in experimenting in an out-of-school lab. Specifically, we explored (a) what influence the level of guidance has on students’ perceived authenticity (RQ1), (b) which references students use in their assessment judging perceived authenticity (RQ2), and (c) to what extent perceived authenticity predicts students’ learning outcomes (RQ3). To address these issues, a mixed methods study was carried out. One hundred forty-two students of seventh and eighth grade experimented in small groups and investigated the pattern that occurs when different apertures are placed between various light sources and a screen. Students were randomly assigned to one of two variants of the learning setting. In the guided experimentation group, students performed five pre-designed experiments and one freely chosen experiment, while the self-determined experimenting students freely designed all six experiments. A questionnaire was administered for perceived authenticity and interviews were conducted about the experimentation process. The learning outcome was measured with a pre- and post-test. We found no significant difference in perceived authenticity and learning outcomes of the two groups. To explain this, we conducted and analyzed interviews in terms of students’ understandings of authentic research to determine the views their authenticity judgments were based on.

In this commentary, I focus on an international, collaborative, longitudinal study of the development of elementary school students’ math motivation and performance across six countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Portugal, and Serbia. The investigators designed motivational questionnaires to assess student motivational beliefs defined quite broadly, teacher and student questionnaires to assess teacher beliefs and practices, and family questionnaires to assess parents’ beliefs and practices as well as perceptions of their children and then tested to reliability and validity of these measures across all six countries so that they could investigate both development within countries and generalizability across countries. I focus my comparative comments on the following themes that cut across the various studies: the gender, national and SES differences, the impact of teacher beliefs and practices, the impact of parents, and the testing hypotheses derived from various social cognitive motivational systems.

In this research, we examine learning within doubly authentic learning designs, which combine the sociocultural perspective that classrooms should be congruent with professional practices, along with a humanistic perspective that suggests students’ identities should be aligned with what they inquire about in class. Our work is situated in a long-term design based research effort where we have come to theorize and develop a set of specific practices around Humanistic Knowledge Building Communities (HKBCs). Based on interviews, classroom observations, learning artifacts, as well as in-class reflective diaries, we examined different ways that students negotiated their own interests and identities within a learning domain in doubly authentic HKBCs. The analysis of our data, instantiated across multiple case studies, resulted in an interest-identity-domain configuration framework that we call ENDURE. This research contributes new knowledge about the ways in which students’ inquiry interests within knowledge building communities can be supported and sustained through designed activities that foster interconnections between different aspects of their lives and what they study in school.

Many international organizations have called on governments to make inclusive schooling for children with disabilities a priority. Although the number of children with disabilities enrolled in France’s mainstream schools has doubled over the last 15 years, inclusion rates vary according to type of disability and educational stage. Another important parameter is the efficacy of inclusive schooling, which may depend on teachers’ attitudes toward working with students with disabilities. In the present study, we used measures of 440 in-service teachers’ and 135 pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education to investigate possible links between these attitudes and three variables: teacher status (pre-service vs. in-service), educational stage, and type of disability. Participants completed the Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale between January and April 2021, giving responses with respect to inclusive education in general and to five categories of disabilities. In-service and pre-service teachers had similar attitudes toward inclusive education in general, but pre-service teachers had significantly more positive attitudes than in-service teachers toward students with cognitive disabilities, sensory disabilities, and motor disabilities. Our findings suggest ways for promoting the inclusion and well-being at school of both non-typically developing and typically developing children.

Mathematics teachers’ beliefs are central to mathematics teaching and student learning. Because different aspects of motivation and affect—particularly enjoyment—primarily develop within the classroom context, examining how different teachers’ beliefs may affect student outcomes in mathematics is imperative. The current study examines teachers’ beliefs about the nature and learning of mathematics in connection to students’ motivation (i.e. intrinsic value, utility value and perceived competence) and enjoyment of mathematics across different settings by considering students’ mathematics achievement, gender and classroom composition (i.e. socioeconomic and behavioural). Data were collected from 3rd- and 4th-grade mathematics teachers (N = 686) and their students (N = 11,782) in six countries (i.e. Norway, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Estonia and Serbia). A two-level structural equation modelling technique (TSEM) (i.e. student level and classroom level) with random slopes was employed to address our research questions. The results indicate that students’ intrinsic value and perceived competence positively relate to their enjoyment of mathematics in all six countries. Teachers’ beliefs about the nature and learning of mathematics moderate the within-classroom relationship between boys and girls and the motivation and enjoyment of learning mathematics in Portugal and Norway. Unlike boys, girls consistently perceive themselves as less competent in mastering mathematics, even in primary school. Classroom socioeconomic composition had a more pronounced influence on teachers’ beliefs in Sweden, Norway and Serbia. In relation to teachers’ beliefs, classroom behavioural composition was relevant in Estonia and Sweden. In Finland and Norway, classroom composition was essential to boys’ and girls’ differential motivation and enjoyment of mathematics learning.

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) presents significant opportunities for creating authentic learning environments by accurately mirroring real-world objects, contexts, and tasks. The visual fidelity of AR content, seamlessly integrated into the real world, contributes to its perceived authenticity. Despite acknowledging AR’s positive impact on learning, scant research explores specific learning strategies within an AR context, and there’s a lack of studies linking perceived visual authenticity to these strategies. This study addresses these gaps by surveying learners using AR technology to study the human cardiovascular system, exploring perceived visual authenticity, learning outcomes, and satisfaction. Learners used either (1) AR with the self-explanation learning strategy, (2) AR with the drawing learning strategy, or (3) AR only. Analysis of variance and correlation was used for data analysis. Results indicated no significant differences in perceived visual authenticity and satisfaction among the learning strategy groups. However, groups employing learning strategies showed superior learning outcomes compared to the AR-only group. Crucially, the self-explanation learning strategy significantly enhanced knowledge gain compared to drawing and AR-only groups, indicating that self-explanation, together with the visual input from the AR-learning environment, fosters a more coherent mental representation. This increased learning efficacy was achieved while maintaining a consistent perception of visual authenticity and satisfaction with the learning material. These findings expand the current landscape of AR research by moving beyond media comparison studies.

Education researchers and practitioners have been exploring for years the key factors impacting children’s academic engagement. Still, relatively little is known about the role of children’s social cognition in their academic engagement. Accordingly, the current study focuses on the potential indirect associations between young children’s social information processing patterns (SIP) and their academic engagement through their social behaviors in class, specifically their prosocial and problem behaviors, and following by the quality of their relationship with their main kindergarten teacher. The study examines these indirect effects in one dual-pathway model which includes both a pathway from children’s competent SIP patterns to higher levels of academic engagement and from children’s aggressive SIP patterns to lower levels of academic engagement. The sample included 300 kindergarten children (151 girls; Mage = 68.76 months). Results showed that competent SIP patterns were positively linked to children’s academic engagement, which encompasses both their academic self-perceptions and their attitudes toward learning, via children’s prosocial behaviors in class and subsequently teacher–child relational closeness. In addition, aggressive SIP patterns were negatively linked to the kindergarteners’ attitudes toward learning via the children’s problem behaviors in class and subsequently teacher–child relational conflict. Results have implications for both research and practice in the understanding of the influence of social cognition, behavior, and social relationships on academic engagement for young learners.

Based on the expectancy-value perspective on identity and identity formation, this paper explores the relationship between math identity (MI) and the dimensions of motivation (i.e. intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value and perceived competence) and math achievement in primary school. An additional aim of our research was to explore these relationships in different cultural contexts and investigate potential gender and grade differences concerning MI. The participants were 11,782 primary school students from Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Portugal and Serbia. All predictors from the motivation spectrum were significant for students’ MI across the examined countries and had a stronger association with MI than math achievement. Among the motivational dimensions, intrinsic value had the strongest association with students’ MI. Boys had significantly more positive math identities than girls in Estonia, Finland, Norway and Portugal. The results showed that the grade 4 students perceived themselves less as “math persons” than their grade 3 peers in all countries.