Learning and Individual Differences最新文献

Numerous motivation theories have been posited over the years that provide understanding about students' learning. More recently, educational researchers have drawn from social-emotional motivation literatures to further inform understanding of students' functioning. To date, however, work has yet to comprehensively consolidate understanding from these different approaches. The aim of this article is to integrate understanding that is evident across motivation and social-emotional conceptualizing to articulate a more unified model of students' academic and social-emotional functioning within academic contexts: the Academic and Social-Emotional Flourishing Framework (ASEFF). In this article, we introduce the framework, its conceptual underpinnings, and include a review of emerging research providing support for its tenets. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Educational relevance and implications statement

Our article brings together understanding from theories across academic and social-emotional domains to present the Academic and Social-Emotional Flourishing Framework (ASEFF). The framework provides understanding about the connections among academic and social-emotional factors, and how these are linked with students' outcomes at school and beyond.

Based on the prosocial classroom model, this three-level meta-analysis synthesizes the associations between early childhood educators' (ECEs) social-emotional competence (SEC) and their well-being, teacher-student relationships, classroom management, social-emotional learning (SEL) implementation, student SEC, and organizational outcomes. Fifty-one studies with 511 effect sizes were included (N = 19,738). The results of random effect models revealed that ECEs' SEC was directly associated with positive well-being, close teacher-student relationships, effective classroom management, successful SEL implementation, and favorable organizational outcomes. These associations were largely invariant across teacher work experience, educational level, cultural background, and study design, although they were sporadically moderated by SEC components, teacher age, and quality of study. ECEs' SEC was not significantly related to students' overall SEC, but to students' social skills. Taken together, these findings support and advance the prosocial classroom model and highlight the importance of enhancing ECEs' SEC in fostering positive teacher, student, classroom, and organizational outcomes.

Developing solution strategies, effortful procedures that students employ to solve a specific problem, is an important mathematical goal. Studies have documented intraindividual strategy variability and its significance for learning, but only some have addressed the interindividual strategic diversity across students within a classroom. This study analyzed classroom strategy diversity using assessments of 527 kindergartens to 2nd-grade students. Latent growth modeling analysis revealed that the best fit was a spline model featuring two phases of linear growth with different growth rates (i.e., one in Kindergarten, the other from Kindergarten spring to second grade). A growth mixture modeling analysis demonstrated that only one latent class existed within the data, which supports the homogeneity of the identified growth trajectory among students. We also analyzed the relations of their learning to the interindividual strategy diversity in their classrooms via a multilevel latent growth model. The results showed that early encouragement of student-generated strategies and later guidance toward research-based effective strategies most supported mathematical growth. This finding aligned with the previous work regarding classroom strategic diversity.

Educational relevance and implications statement

Developing solution strategies is an important mathematical goal. Do children benefit from being in classrooms using diverse strategies or a smaller range of efficient strategies? Does this depend on children's phase of learning? We found that early encouragement of student-generated strategies followed by later guidance toward research-based effective strategies most supported mathematical growth.

Previous evidence suggests that early self-regulation is related to the development of scientific literacy (SL) at preschool and primary school age. However, how (emotionally neutral) executive functions and the more emotion-related facets of self-regulation associate with early SL development remains largely unexplored. Drawing on data from 1,931 children and their parents from a German longitudinal cohort study, the study analysed various facets of self-regulation and unravelled their associations to early SL development at the ages of 5 to 7, while controlling for important child and family factors. The results indicated that inhibitory control and phonological working memory are related to SL at both ages. Furthermore, the effect of these facets on later SL remained significant even after controlling for earlier SL, while the effect of children's parent-reported effortful control on later SL at age 7 was completely mediated by earlier SL at age 5.

Based on 138 Hong Kong kindergarten children (70 boys; age: M ± SD = 4.98 ± 0.33 years) followed from the second kindergarten year to the end of the third year, the present study aims to identify kindergarten children at risk for dyscalculia and investigate their early general cognitive and numerical precursors. Using latent class growth modeling, four groups of children were identified with differing trajectories of mathematical skill development. A group of children with poorest mathematical performance and thus at high risk for dyscalculia were compared with their peers with average achievement. Poor number line and number word comparison skills made unique contributions to the identification of children at risk for dyscalculia when general cognitive skills and demographic variables were added to the model. Identifying children at risk for dyscalculia in kindergarten and understanding their risk factors can help address their learning needs at a young age.

Educational relevance and implications statement

In this study, we identified a group of children with poorest mathematical performance and thus at high risk for dyscalculia in kindergarten. We found that number word comparison and number line estimation skills predicted the identification of children at risk for dyscalculia. These two tasks can serve as quick screening tools to identify children at risk for dyscalculia in kindergarten. Subsequently, teachers and educators can deliver appropriate interventions to help these children improve their number word comparison and number line estimation skills in early years and prevent them from developing dyscalculia later on.

This study investigates the relationship between empathy, problem construction, and creative problem solving. It is suggested that empathy may enhance creativity by encouraging individuals to consider others' perspectives when defining ambiguous and ill-defined problems. The study presents a real-world problem scenario to 220 participants across two surveys via an online platform. Participants were asked to generate problem restatements and one solution, which were evaluated on originality and quality by trained raters. Participant empathy was measured in a follow-up survey one week later. The results showed that empathy had a significant positive relationship with problem construction quality and originality. Moreover, problem construction quality and originality were found to mediate the relationship between empathy and solution quality and originality, respectively. The study contributes to the creativity literature by illuminating the role of empathy in the problem construction process and providing further evidence of the importance of personality to creative problem solving.

Educational relevance and implications statement

This study examined the influence of empathy on problem construction and creative problem solving via the presentation of a real-world problem scenario. The results revealed that empathy had a significant positive relationship with problem construction quality and originality. Problem construction quality and originality were each shown to mediate the relationship between empathy and solution quality and originality, respectively. The results of this study contribute to creativity literature by providing a deeper understanding of the individual difference characteristics that affect the problem construction process and creative problem solving as a whole. An important implication from this study is that educators, parents, and organizational leaders should be aware of the importance of empathy in defining and constructing the problem and encourage approaching problems from multiple perspectives.

This study investigated how motivational factors contribute to math performance through the ecological model within exceptionally high and low achieving student populations. Using PISA 2018 data, a model including three layers of the ecological model were constructed to examine the ecological background of math performance for each group: exceptionally low & high achievers. Employing structural equation modeling, the results revealed that high math performance was ecologically associated with factors: attitudes towards competition, growth mindset, motivation to master tasks, self-efficacy, teacher enthusiasm, teacher feedback, teacher support, value of school, and parents' emotional support. However, low math performance was related to a wider range of factors, including the aforementioned variables, as well as enjoyment of reading and learning goals. This research emphasizes a practical viewpoint that suggests using different interventions to maximize the potential of students in various positions on the math ability spectrum since the factors differ in explaining mathematically high and low performance.

Educational relevance and implications statement

In this study, we investigated motivation related factors that affect students with both high and low achievements in mathematics. Our results indicate that the factors associated with math performance differ between high and low achievers. This highlights the significance of need for differentiated educational strategies to maximize the potential of students across the math ability spectrum. This differentiation between the two groups may help in developing a tailored approach, enabling educators to promote a learning environment that is both inclusive and effective.

Effort is crucial for academic performance and varies by gender. However, it is not clear at what age nor under what circumstances gender differences in effort arise. Using behavioral measures of executive function from 799 fifth-grade students, we find no gender differences in cognitive effort in the absence of rewards. However, boys exert more effort than girls when materially incentivized. Adding a status incentive on top of material rewards does not further increase the gender gap. According to expectancy-value theory, the degree to which incentives moderate the gender effect may depend on ability. We find that while low-ability girls work as hard as high-ability girls when no incentives are present, low-ability boys tend to disengage from effortful tasks. High-ability girls increase effort more than low-ability girls when material incentives are added, and high-ability boys increase effort more than low-ability boys when status incentives are added.

Our study seeks to answer the question of what the impact of creativity is on teenage Hungarian L2 learners' performance in a written argumentative and narrative task. Ninety-five participants at an intermediate level of language proficiency wrote a story based on six unrelated pictures and an argumentative essay in English. Participants also completed the Megújított Barkóczy-Klein Kreatív Potenciálteszt (MKB, Revised Barkóczy-Klein Creative Potential test). A latent variable analysis using structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationship between two latent components of creativity: adaptivity (estimated by scores of elaboration, resistance to early closure and abstractness of title) and innovation (estimated by creative fluency and originality scores) and the latent variable of L2 writing which was estimated by rating scores of five assessment criteria. The results show that the argumentative essays of L2 learners characterized by high levels of creative fluency and originality demonstrated lower levels of writing quality. On the other hand, the argumentative essays of participants who scored higher on the adaptation aspects of creativity were more highly rated.

Existing predictive learning analytics models have exclusively relied on aggregate data which not only have obfuscated individual differences but also made replicability and generalizability difficult. This study takes a radical departure and uses a person-specific approach to predicting and explaining students' self-regulation (SRL). A person-specific approach entails developing a predictive model for each individual using their own data (i.e., idiographic, single-subject or N = 1). We also use explainable and interpretable artificial intelligence (AI) models that allow us to identify the variables that explain students' SRL and guide data-informed decisions. Our study has shown that idiographic single-subject models are tenable, informative, and can accurately capture the individualized students' SRL process. Predictions varied vastly across students regarding accuracy and predictors. The traditional average model did not match any student regarding the predictors' order. These findings are a testament that the “average” is rare and often does not represent any individual student. The variability in our study has shown that no single model can accurately and reliably capture all students. To account for the unique learning processes of individual students, idiographic methods could provide a solution.

Educational relevance statement

Individualized artificial intelligence is feasible and reliable and can help understand each person using their own data. Using idiographic models, we can deliver solutions that are precise, accurate and interventions that are more likely to work.