British Journal of Educational Psychology最新文献

Background: Executive functions (EFs) are critical in school and closely linked to academic achievement and learning-related behaviours (LRBs). LRBs encompass the ability to adapt to school demands, including concentration, adherence to rules, and autonomy.

Aims: This correlational study aimed to examine the mediating role of LRB in the association between EF and academic achievement in the first year of primary school.

Sample and method: Ninety-five first graders underwent a performance-based EF assessment, involving tasks related to working memory and inhibition. Concurrently, they completed literacy and math tasks, while their teacher provided reports on their LRBs.

Results: The results indicate that depending on the specific EF component or learning domain considered, diverse patterns emerge. Nevertheless, the findings consistently show that EFs are directly and indirectly associated with learning outcomes, with the mediating influence of LRBs.

Conclusions: These results emphasize the importance of supporting EF development into early education curricula.

Background: Research on the role of the physical school environment in areas other than educational psychology has documented the benefits of exposure to nature for cognitive and emotional functioning. Positive effects have been indicated not only after a break in nature in mentally fatigued students but also in students who did not have depleted mental resources when performing cognitive tasks in a green area.

Aims: We investigated the impact of the physical school environment during a single lesson. We also considered psychophysiological self-regulation as a possible moderator of the relationship between environment and learning.

Sample: We used data from 101 sixth and seventh graders for self-reported variables. Data about psychophysiological self-regulation, measured as resting cardiac vagal tone, was available for 83 students.

Method: In a within-participants research design, we compared the effects of a lesson in the classroom and a lesson in a green urban park close to the school - featuring numerous trees of different sizes, with lush foliage - on participants' affective state, perception of the environmental quality, and conceptual learning.

Results: After the lesson in nature, students reported more positive affect and perceived the park as a higher quality environment compared with the indoor classroom. Students with higher cardiac vagal tone learned more in nature, whereas this individual characteristic did not play a role in the classroom environment.

Conclusion: Passive exposure to nature during a school lesson has a positive affective impact and may also be beneficial for conceptual learning in combination with a higher ability to flexibly adapt to environmental demands.

Background: Youth with neurodevelopmental disorders are at risk for school failure, but little is known about the contextual factors influencing academic achievement.

Aims: Drawing on a bioecological system framework, we examined how ADHD and autism, parental educational attainment and aspects of the parent-child relationship influence educational achievement at the end of primary school, and to what extent these factors have independent as opposed to interactive effects on educational achievement.

Sample: A total of 12,477 twins born 1994-2005 from Sweden.

Methods: ADHD and autism were assessed at age nine with a structured telephone interview with parents. Among participants, n = 996 and n = 249 met screening criteria for ADHD and autism, respectively. At age 15, data on parent-child relationships and parental educational attainment were gathered. Children's school grades and eligibility for upper secondary school were obtained from a register, and used as main outcome measures. Multiple regression models with interaction terms were used to explore if the effects of family-related factors differed in students with or without ADHD or autism.

Results: ADHD or autism was associated with low academic achievement, as were all the family-related variables in multiple regression models (all p < .005). However, there was no statistical evidence (all p > .005) that the influence of family-related variables differed (i.e., were either less or more important in the prediction of educational achievement) in students with or without ADHD or autism.

Conclusions: Results were in keeping with a bioecological model of non-interacting multiple risks for educational underachievement in students with ADHD and/or autism.

Background: On computation items, young girls tend to use algorithmic approaches more than boys do. However, it is unclear whether these patterns persist as students progress into adulthood.

Aims: In two independent studies using different measures, we examine gender differences in computation strategy use in adolescents (Study 1) and adults (Study 2). We explore factors that might explain differences, and whether they relate to gender differences in math performance.

Samples: Study 1 uses data from students at a U.S. public high school (n = 213; 54.5% female). Study 2 uses data from U.S. adults (n = 810; 58.6% women).

Methods: Participants completed computation items, math performance measures and measures commonly found to relate to both gender and math. The unique relations between algorithm use, gender and math performance were examined while accounting for key covariates.

Results: Girls and women used an algorithm more often than their male counterparts, as did people with lower mental rotation skills and higher teacher-pleasing tendencies (Study 1) and higher test anxiety (Study 2). After including covariates, the gender difference in algorithm use decreased in Study 1 but not in Study 2. Across both studies, girls and women, and those who use algorithms more, had lower performance on problem-solving measures, as did those with higher teacher-pleasing tendencies and lower confidence (Study 1) and lower math anxiety (Study 2).

Conclusions: Gendered patterns in algorithm use within older samples and the negative relation of algorithm use with math performance point to the need for renewed focus on developing children's computational approaches.

Background and aims: This study examined preschool-aged children's attention to text in video, and whether it may be related to their developing orthographic knowledge. SAMPLE 1: Study 1 showed 66 children videos that included text. Method Children's attention to the video was measured using eye-tracking, and their recognition of orthographic patterns within the video was tested after viewing. Results During viewing, children attended to the text 6% of the time it was available. However, children who both had pre-existing letter knowledge and attended to the text in the video were able to identify the written words. SAMPLE 2: A second study extended these findings to a younger age group (n = 59).

Method: In Study 2, we also showed children an unrelated storybook that incorporated the target words from the videos and measured attention to that storybook.

Results: Results again showed little attention to text, but some recognition of written words for those who did attend. Study 2 also showed that children who recognized the written words from the video attended more to those words in a different context.

Conclusion: Overall results suggest a relationship between letter knowledge, attention and developing orthographic knowledge.

Background: Despite a growing body of research demonstrating that control and value appraisals predict students' experiences of boredom, less attention has been paid to appraisals arising from specific learning situations and their consequences for students' emotional responses.

Aims: In the present study, we disentangled students' individual differences from their momentary learning experiences to examine appraisal-boredom relations, including their reciprocal effects.

Methods: We analysed experience-sampling data from N = 95 secondary school students who provided repeated ratings of their comprehension, interest, and boredom during eight lessons over two consecutive curricular weeks. The data were examined using multilevel structural equation modelling with cross-lagged relations for students' momentary experiences.

Results and conclusions: We found that higher interest was consistently associated with lower boredom. In contrast, comprehension showed a more complex pattern. Boredom due to overchallenge appeared to stem from stable individual differences, whereas boredom resulting from underchallenge emerged from students' momentary comprehension. Finally, analyses of reciprocal relations revealed that boredom experienced toward the end of a lesson predicted decreases in students' subsequent comprehension and interest, highlighting the potential for downwards spirals of disengagement within the classroom context.

Background: Creative thinking has been widely recognized as a potential contributor to improved academic performance. However, this association has not been systematically confirmed across culturally diverse societies.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between creative thinking and adolescents' academic performance, and to examine the moderating role of two cultural dimensions from the Minkov-Hofstede model: individualism-collectivism and flexibility-monumentalism.

Methods: Using data from the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2022), multilevel analyses were conducted based on responses from 376,130 adolescents across 48 countries/regions.

Results: The analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between creative thinking and academic performance on a global scale. Furthermore, this relationship was moderated by cultural values: in more individualistic societies, the academic benefits of creative thinking were stronger in reading, math and science; in more flexible societies, creative thinking was more strongly associated with math performance only.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of considering both individual factors and broader sociocultural contexts when examining adolescents' academic performance.

Background: Social-emotional (SEL) skills play a crucial role in promoting children's academic performance and mental health. However, the use of self-reported questionnaires may reveal discrepancies between students' self-assessments and adults.

Aims: This study investigated potential differences in the perceptions of SEL skills in Arabic and their relation to academic achievements.

Sample and method: Arabic-speaking students, their parents and teachers across third, fifth, seventh and ninth grades using a 33-item questionnaire.

Results: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant discrepancies between groups (parents>students>teachers), regardless of grade level. Moreover, correlations between self-reports and students' academic scores were stronger for teachers compared to the others. Interestingly, these correlations decreased across groups until the ninth grade, at which point only teachers maintained significant correlations. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis further demonstrated that only teachers' self-reports significantly predicted students' academic scores regardless of grade level.

Conclusion: The results are discussed in relation to theoretical and pedagogical implications, as well as previous findings, emphasizing the need for a standardized multi-informant questionnaire.