Educational Psychology Review最新文献

Mathematical word problem-solving skills are crucial for students across their lives, yet solving such tasks poses challenges for many. Therefore, understanding the characteristics of mathematical word problems that are associated with students’ performance is important. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of linguistic and numerical task characteristics associated with mathematical word problem-solving performance among elementary school-aged children (Grades 1 to 6). The systematic review was based on five electronic databases and citation searching. Reporting was conducted following The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The findings (K = 69) showed that five of the six investigated linguistic task characteristics (i.e., the position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, and lexical consistency) and one of the two numerical task characteristics (i.e., number of operations) were related (g = 0.39 to 4.26) with elementary school-aged children’s mathematical word problem-solving. However, the findings did not provide support for a general association between a familiar situational narrative or the required operation with mathematical word problem-solving. The findings highlight that elementary school-aged children especially struggle with mathematical word problems requiring realistic considerations or multiple mathematical operations, containing lexical inconsistency, and problems in which the position of the unknown is the first value. This further understanding of elementary schoolers’ word problem-solving performance may guide the design of appropriate and progressive instruction and assessment tools and steer research into the interactions within task characteristics and with individual characteristics.

Recent research has suggested that students prefer restudying over retrieval practice when learning difficult materials, despite the latter being a more effective learning strategy. The current study investigated whether an instructional intervention can improve the use of retrieval practice for both easy and difficult materials. In Experiment 1, after initial learning of each item, participants rated their perceived mental effort (PME) and judgment of learning (JOL) for each item. Then, participants chose whether to restudy or take retrieval practice for that item. The results showed that participants chose to take retrieval practice less frequently for difficult items compared to easy ones. Furthermore, participants’ ratings of PME and JOL sequentially mediated the relationship between item difficulty and their learning strategy choices. Specifically, difficult items resulted in higher levels of PME, which in turn led to lower JOL, ultimately reducing the likelihood of choosing retrieval practice. In Experiment 2, half of the participants received an instructional intervention, which revealed that while students prefer restudying for difficult items, retrieval practice benefits both easy and difficult items in long-term retention. The remaining half did not receive such intervention and were designated as the control group. The results indicated that, compared to the control group, students who received the intervention increased the odds of choosing retrieval practice for both types of materials after the intervention. The findings of this study suggest that students can be supported to use retrieval practice regardless of item difficulty.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a key competence for pre-service teachers to develop, both for their own activities as learners and for their future activities as teachers. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how pre-service teachers can be supported in acquiring SRL competence in their initial training. To reach this aim, we conducted a systematic review of SRL interventions for pre-service teachers. Sixty-six intervention studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. We explored three aspects of those SRL interventions, and how they moderate the interventions’ effectiveness: (1) the theoretical and practical underpinnings of SRL, (2) whether the intervention aimed to promote SRL learning and/or teaching of SRL, and (3) the intervention’s pedagogical characteristics and content related to the SRL professional competences. We found that the most effective SRL interventions (1) focused the training on one or two SRL areas (especially cognition and metacognition); (2) when targeted both, SRL learning and teaching of SRL, pre-service teachers’ SRL skills improved as well as their pedagogical skills; and (3) addressed direct and implicit SRL instruction, inside which self-assessment of learning and teaching practices appear as an effective pedagogical method. We derive implications from our findings for designing effective SRL interventions for prospective teachers.

The current study replicated an earlier investigation by Bouwer and van der Veen (2023) where 10 Grade 5 and 6 classrooms in the Netherlands (210 students) were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition, with treatment students evidencing improvements in the quality of their essays after practice writing argumentative essays, reading and discussing them with a small group of peers, and revising each essay based on the discussion that ensued. In the present study, 12 Grade 2 to 4 classrooms in Türkiye (383 students) were randomly assigned to this write, talk, and rewrite dialogic treatment or to a control condition. Students in the control condition practiced planning and writing the same four argumentative essays as treatment students did during the experiment, and each of these essays was shared with peers (time spent in both conditions was comparable). Control students did not, however, discuss their essay with peers or use such feedback to revise them as was done by students in the write, talk, and rewrite dialogic treatment. When the nested nature of the data and pretest scores were held constant, the quality of the argumentative posttest essays produced by students in the treatment condition evidenced greater improvement than essays written by control students. The same outcome was obtained for the length of essays (number of words) when the nested nature of the data and pretest scores were held constant. This investigation provided evidence that the write, talk, and rewrite dialogic intervention tested by Bouwer and van der Veen (2023) was effective in improving the argumentative writing of even younger students in a different country. Implications for research and practice are provided.

Well-chosen covariates boost the design sensitivity of individually and cluster-randomized trials. We provide guidance on covariate selection generating an extensive compilation of single- and multilevel design parameters on student achievement. Embedded in psychometric heuristics, we analyzed (a) covariate types of varying bandwidth-fidelity, namely domain-identical (IP), cross-domain (CP), and fluid intelligence (Gf) pretests, as well as sociodemographic characteristics (SC); (b) covariate combinations quantifying incremental validities of CP, Gf, and/or SC beyond IP; and (c) covariate time lags of 1–7 years, testing validity degradation in IP, CP, and Gf. Estimates from six German samples (1868 ≤ N ≤ 10,543) covering various outcome domains across grades 1–12 were meta-analyzed and included in precision simulations. Results varied widely by grade level, domain, and hierarchical level. In general, IP outperformed CP, which slightly outperformed Gf and SC. Benefits from coupling IP with CP, Gf, and/or SC were small. IP appeared most affected by temporal validity decay. Findings are applied in illustrative scenarios of study planning and enriched by comprehensive Online Supplemental Material (OSM) accessible via the Open Science Framework (OSF; https://osf.io/nhx4w).

Narrative recall and comprehension are important lifelong skills. While gesturing may improve recall by alleviating cognitive load, it may be differentially beneficial, depending on task and individual characteristics. While research on gesture’s effects on a variety of task modalities is burgeoning, effects on recall of narratives read aloud are under-examined. Further, emotional valence and individual differences in verbal memory may affect recall, through effects on task difficulty. If gesturing lightens cognitive load, it may be more beneficial for harder tasks, namely for narratives lacking emotional content and for individuals with poorer verbal memory. Across two studies, impacts of gesture production, emotional valence, and individual differences on narrative recall were evaluated. In Study 1, participants (N = 100) read aloud three emotive narratives (positive, negative, neutral) while either instructed to gesture or receiving no gesture instructions. Gesture production hindered recall, particularly for those with higher verbal memory. Emotion benefited recall, with enhanced recall of the negative narrative and impaired recall for the neutral narrative. In Study 2, following a measure of individual propensity to gesture, participants (N = 98) similarly read aloud three emotive narratives. Instructions to gesture hindered recall for participants with a lower propensity to gesture, and emotional narratives again saw enhanced recall relative to the neutral narrative. Propensity to gesture and verbal memory were positively associated with narrative comprehension. Results suggest instructions to produce gestures may for some individuals hinder recall for self-guided learners when studying written texts, while emotional content benefits recall.

Successful early mathematical development is vital to children’s later education, employment, and wellbeing outcomes. However, established measurement tools are infrequently used to (i) assess children’s mathematical skills and (ii) identify children with or at-risk of mathematical learning difficulties. In response, this pre-registered systematic review aimed to provide an overview of measurement tools that have been evaluated for their psychometric properties for measuring the mathematical skills of children aged 0–8 years. The reliability and validity evidence reported for the identified measurement tools were then synthesised, including in relation to common acceptability thresholds. Overall, 41 mathematical assessments and 25 screeners were identified. Our study revealed five main findings. Firstly, most measurement tools were categorised as child-direct measures delivered individually with a trained assessor in a paper-based format. Secondly, the majority of the identified measurement tools have not been evaluated for aspects of reliability and validity most relevant to education measures, and only 15 measurement tools met the common acceptability thresholds for more than two areas of psychometric evidence. Thirdly, only four screeners demonstrated an acceptable ability to distinguish between typically developing children and those with or at-risk of mathematical learning difficulties. Fourthly, only one mathematical assessment and one screener met the common acceptability threshold for predictive validity. Finally, only 11 mathematical assessments and one screener were found to concurrently align with other validated measurement tools. Building on this current evidence and improving measurement quality is vital for raising methodological standards in mathematical learning and development research.

This systematic meta-analytic review investigated the relations between achievement goals and internalizing symptoms and disorders, namely, anxiety and depression. The number of samples for each focal relationship ranged from 3 to 36. The results indicated significant effect sizes for the relations between mastery-approach goals and anxiety (r = − .10) and depression (r = − .18), as well as performance-avoidance goals and anxiety (r = .25) and depression (r = .16). A significant effect size was also found for the relation between performance-approach goals and anxiety (r = .15), and a non-significant effect size was observed for the relation between performance-approach goals and depression (r = .05). Mastery-avoidance goals were not significantly related to either anxiety (r = .08) or depression (r = − .13). Several moderators representing the conceptualization of achievement goals (e.g., theoretical model), sample characteristics (e.g., education level), and methodology- and publication-based characteristics (e.g., year of publication) were significant, and suggested avenues for future research. These findings herein have implications for intervention programs that could focus on reducing the links between achievement goals and internalizing problems.

The science of reading (SOR) refers to the sum of what we know about how people learn to read based on empirical studies across multiple disciplines. The purpose of this review was to identify research evidence to inform the SOR for multilingual learners (MLs). We reviewed 30 systematic reviews related to reading and reading instruction for MLs conducted primarily in K-5 U.S. classrooms. Results identified four broad clusters of components related to English reading comprehension as well as instructional practices and programs effective in addressing each component. Clusters included oral language, phonological awareness, decoding and oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Notably, oral language and reading skills in both MLs’ first language and in English were essential components of the SOR for MLs. Implications for theory and research as well as policy, curriculum, and instruction are provided.

Who should evaluate the originality and task-appropriateness of a given idea has been a perennial debate among psychologists of creativity. Here, we argue that the most relevant evaluator of a given idea depends crucially on the level of expertise of the person who generated it. To build this argument, we draw on two complimentary theoretical perspectives. The model of domain learning (MDL) suggests that, for novices in a domain, creativity is by-necessity self-referenced, but as expertise develops, more socially referenced creativity is possible. Relatedly, the four-C model posits four forms of creativity that fall along a continuum of social impact: mini-c, little-c, Pro-c, and Big-C. We show that the MDL implies a learning trajectory that connects the four Cs because, as socially referenced creativity develops, greater societal impact becomes available to a creator. Then, we describe four sources of evaluations that become relevant as an individual learns: judgments from the creators themselves, their local community, consumers of the idea, and finally, critics in the domain. We suggest that creators’ judgments are of essential importance for mini-c, community judgments are paramount for little-c, Pro-c requires either positive evaluations from consumers or critics, and Big-C requires both consumers and critics to evaluate an idea positively for an extended time. We identify key insights and imperatives for the field: aligning our measures (both human and AI scored) with the most relevant evaluations of ideas to support the reliability and validity of our measurements, using evaluations as feedback for learners to support the development of creative metacognition, and the importance of considering domain differences when evaluating ideas.