European Journal of Psychology of Education最新文献

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.

The current study analysed the relationships between socio-economic status, migration background, and non-cognitive factors and PISA reading and mathematics achievement. The results from multi-level analyses on Sweden’s PISA survey from 2018 indicate that both mathematics achievement and reading achievement are affected by SES, migration background, reading abilities, growth mindset, and the ability to master the content. Between-school level differences are explained by reading motivation and the mother’s educational level. Our findings stress the importance of both socio-demographic, socio-economic, and non-cognitive factors such as reading self-concept and growth mindset for both mathematics achievement and reading achievement.

Understanding math and the ability to use math in various situations can greatly contribute to a successful life. Different math skills are of importance for understanding and supporting math ability. In addition, math interest may influence math ability. We investigated the relationship between math conceptual and procedural skills, their development over time, and the relation to math interest in Grades three and five. Participants in the study were Estonian students (N = 855), who were in Grade three (2019/2020) during the first testing and in Grade five (2021/2022) during the second testing. Students completed math competence testing which consisted of procedural and conceptual skill tasks and a questionnaire about math interest. Both person- and variable-oriented approaches were used in the analyses. Students’ math conceptual and procedural skills in Grades three and five were moderately related to each other. Furthermore, based on latent profile analysis, three profiles of skills were identified in both grades, distinguishing between students with low, average, and high levels of skills in both skills, with the exception of an approximately average-skill group in Grade five that had low conceptual skills but average procedural skills. Students were likely to remain in similar-skill groups for both Grades three and five. Lastly, there was a significant difference in math interest in Grade three among the groups with stable low, stable average, and stable high skills from Grades three to five. Fostering interest in math may be beneficial for achieving a high level of math proficiency. Future research should prioritize the integration of person-oriented methods into studies aimed at enhancing understanding of math skill development.

This research investigates the role of reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) in statistics education among two distinct samples of undergraduate psychology students. In Study 1, 318 students in a third-year statistics course completed self-report measures of RST, anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy concerning the study of statistics. In Study 2, 577 students from first-, second-, and third-year statistics courses participated. Controlling for age and gender, both studies found students who were high in goal-drive persistence reported lower statistics anxiety, higher statistics self-efficacy and more favourable attitudes toward learning statistics, while students who were high in the tendency to avoid threat reported higher statistics anxiety. Those with a more sensitive behavioural inhibition system reported greater statistics anxiety and less favourable attitudes, in Study 2 but not Study 1. Results indicate that RST dimensions account for as much as 23% of additional variance in statistics anxiety, 18% in statistics self-efficacy, and 11% in attitudes, after controlling for age and gender. These studies highlight the utility of RST dimensions, notably goal-drive persistence, threat sensitivity, and behavioural inhibition, in providing critical information as to personality differences among students that need to be considered when developing programs targeting statistics anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy.

This study aimed to ascertain the contribution of children’s effortful control (EC) to math achievement by testing the mediational involvement of math anxiety. Participants were 704 children (367 girls) aged between 7 and 12 years (M = 9.43, SD = 1.23). Children’s EC was measured by parent’s report, math anxiety was assessed through self-report, whereas math achievement was evaluated by performance on standard math tests. The models tested involved EC higher-order factor or specific EC components (activation control, attentional focusing, and inhibitory control). The results showed that activation control, attentional focusing, and EC higher-order factor contributed to math performance directly and through the mediation of math anxiety. Inhibitory control did not yield a significant effect on math performance. The findings suggest that children with higher dispositional effortful self-regulation tend to experience lower levels of math anxiety, with positive effects on math performance.

Media literacy has been gaining traction as a part of higher education curricula to support learning as educational institutions are recognizing the importance of developing students’ media literacy skills. However, students’ emotional reactions towards media literacy can be vastly different and, in turn, may impact their perception of truth and credibility of mixed media messages. In this study, we explored 68 non-health professions university students’ unique emotional profiles towards media literacy. We further examined whether students with different emotional profiles would differ in their credibility ratings (truthfulness, trustworthiness, and believability) of media messages that were drawn from mainstream and fake news sources. We also investigated the relationship between emotion profiles and emotional reactions towards mainstream versus fake news messages. We employed a probabilistic, latent clustering approach, latent profiling analysis (LPA), to generate latent categories of emotion profiles. LPA revealed four distinct emotion profiles that students endorsed: (1) low emotions, (2) moderate emotions, (3) high negative emotions, and (4) high positive emotions towards learning media literacy. Additional findings revealed that students with a low emotional profile tended to rate all media messages as more truthful, trustworthy, and believable than other emotion groups. Moreover, we identified that students in the moderate emotions and high negative emotions group rated fake messages with more positive emotions. This study offers insight towards the significance of understanding how emotions towards media literacy can impact the outcomes of media perception. This is an important step that will encourage educators to develop more engaging media literacy instruction and interventions.

The present study investigated multilevel models posited to predict student approaches to homework. Participants were 1,072 middle school students in China. Results revealed that deep and surface approaches were positively associated with performance-approach. Furthermore, deep approach to homework was associated negatively with homework cost, yet positively with mastery-approach, homework expectancy, and prior knowledge. Surface approach to homework was associated positively with homework cost and parent education, yet negatively with homework expectancy and mastery-approach. Females were less likely to use surface approach to homework than males. At the class level, surface approach to homework was negatively associated with parent education. Implications for homework practice and future investigation are discussed in terms of these results.