British Journal of Educational Psychology最新文献

Background: In Chinese higher vocational colleges, students often underperform academically and experience burnout from studying. Developing learning self-efficacy may directly and indirectly address these challenges, and differences in learning self-efficacy between male and female students may have varying effects on their burnout.

Aims: We examined the mediating relationships between learning self-efficacy, learned helplessness and learning burnout among Chinese higher vocational college students, as well as the gender-related differences in these relationships.

Sample: An online survey collected 1045 valid responses. The sample comprised 513 male students and 532 female students, with an age range of 18-21 years.

Methods: A measurement model and multiple structural models for learning self-efficacy, learned helplessness and learning burnout were established through structural equation modelling to evaluate measurement validity and identify the mediating effects among these variables.

Results: The findings revealed that learned helplessness partially mediated the relationship between learning self-efficacy and learning burnout among higher vocational college students. Learning self-efficacy directly influenced learning burnout in male higher vocational college students, whereas learned helplessness partially mediated the relationship between learning self-efficacy and learning burnout in female higher vocational college students.

Conclusions: The findings indicate that fostering learning self-efficacy can help mitigate the impact of learned helplessness on learning burnout in female students. However, this protective effect was not observed in male students. Teachers in Chinese higher vocational colleges should implement targeted strategies, such as promoting attainable goal-setting techniques, to prevent learned helplessness from contributing to learning burnout in male students.

Background: Few studies have concurrently examined how different types of stressors influence university students' well-being through their use of coping strategies. Exploring such effects should enrich our understanding of how individuals develop strategies for coping with specific stressful situations and provide insights into the mechanisms by which different stressors impact students' well-being in higher education contexts.

Aims: This study investigated the effects of social mistreatment, academic alienation, and developmental challenge on emotional and psychological well-being via approach and avoidance coping strategies.

Sample: The participants were 293 university students in Hong Kong (mean age = 21 years).

Methods: We collected three waves of data through longitudinal student self-reports and analysed them using structural equation modelling.

Results: Social mistreatment can lead to greater use of avoidance coping. Academic alienation can lead not only to a greater reliance on avoidance coping but also less use of approach coping. Developmental challenge can increase the use of approach coping. The effects of social mistreatment on emotional and psychological well-being were mediated by the use of avoidance coping strategies. Moreover, the effects of academic alienation on emotional and psychological well-being were mediated by the use of approach and avoidance coping strategies.

Conclusions: The results of this longitudinal study indicate the need to improve teaching practices or learning environments to reduce interpersonal and academic stressors due to their negative impact on coping and well-being. The results also have implications for helping students to adopt better coping strategies and promote their well-being.

Background: Cognitive load theory is widely used in educational research and instructional design, which relies heavily on conceptual constructs and measurement instruments of cognitive load. Due to its implicit nature, cognitive load is usually measured by other related instruments, such as commonly-used self-report scales of mental effort or task difficulty. However, these concepts are different in nature, as they emphasize distinct perspectives on cognitive processing. In addition, real-world learning is more complex than simplified experimental conditions. Simply assuming that these variables will change in a monotonic way with workload may be misleading.

Aims: This study aims to examine whether these measures are consistent with each other, and to discover the neurophysiological basis underlying the potential discrepancy.

Sample: The study collected data in both a real-world (Study 1, 22 high school students in 13 math classes) and a laboratory setting (Study 2, 30 students in 6 lab-based math tasks).

Methods: In addition to self-report measures, the study also collected multimodal neurophysiological data, such as electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and photoplethysmography (PPG).

Results: The results show that although the difficulty level can be perceived with difficulty ratings, it does not lead to the corresponding level of mental effort. Only within an appropriate level of load, can we observe a positive correlation between self-report difficulty and mental effort. Neurophysiological evidence also supports the conceptual discrepancies and group differences, indicating distinct neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these 'similar' constructs.

Conclusions: These findings also emphasize the need for combining these concepts to better evaluate students' cognitive load.

Background: For over a decade, growth-oriented achievement goal constructs like potential-based goals and personal best goals have remained relatively unnoticed. This empirical study aims to highlight that goal theorists might be limiting themselves by not incorporating potential-based goals into their frameworks.

Aims: The primary objective of this research was to underscore the significant yet underappreciated role of potential-based goals in empirical studies within the 3 × 2 achievement goal framework.

Samples: The sample comprises 10,079 international undergraduate students from a Dutch university, drawn from nine cohorts spanning academic years from 2015/2016 to 2023/2024.

Methods: To validate the eight-factor measurement model of achievement goals, we employed first and second-order confirmatory factor analyses. Correlational analysis and structural equation models were utilized to explore the relationships between achievement goal measures, various learning dispositions, and academic performance.

Results: Our analysis shows that all eight goal constructs clearly distinguish and confirm both first-order and second-order factor analysis models based on approach and avoidance factors. Further analyses include obtaining correlations and structural equation prediction models, where goal setting facets predict learning mindsets, such as intelligence theories, effort beliefs, autonomous and controlled regulation, motivation, engagement, learning approaches, and performance strategies.

Conclusions: Within a system of criterion-referenced grading of courses, our findings indicate that potential-based goals play a pivotal role in exploring relationships with other learning dispositions and predicting performance. It is therefore imperative to incorporate these goals into our measurement instruments for goal frameworks, even if it means prioritizing them over other types of intrapersonal goals.

Background: The present special issue on mind, brain and education (educational neuroscience) contains four papers that employ a neuroscience-informed approach to educational phenomena, including dyslexia, academic self-concepts, bullying and the effect of mindset on learning.

Aim: This commentary positions the papers with respect to the goals and methods of educational neuroscience, placing them on a continuum of approaches from basic research to applied intervention.

Procedure: We argue that a focus on the brain matters for teachers because it increases understanding of how learning works and the factors that influence learning outcomes and student well-being without being reductionist. Constraints on learning that arise from biology sometimes seem arbitrary outside a neuroscience framework (several examples are provided). A neuroscience perspective encourages a more holistic and developmental view of learning than a narrow cognitive (memory) oriented approach. Because educational neuroscience is an inherently translational field that relies on dialogues between researchers and practitioners, we argue it is important to understand how teachers view the field and how insights from the science of learning might usefully feed into their practice. We then assess the insights, strengths and limitations of the four papers, as well as the potential that their respective lines of work offer.

Background: Learning to write the complex academic language (AL) associated with a discipline (like science) is a critical task in education, with middle school being a key developmental period. However, we need more research to guide how we assess students' learning to write AL, especially if we want to create assessment that guides more effective instruction.

Aims: We evaluated middle school students' informational writing for six different measures of AL to determine which ones were most strongly related to writing quality and were most indicative of the unique features of informational writing. We also examined which metrics were sensitive to growth across middle school.

Sample: Our sample consists of informational compositions from 285 students in Grade 5 (n = 175) and Grade 8 (n = 110) in a Midwestern state in the United States.

Methods: Path modelling was used to determine the degree to which the AL metrics are associated with writing quality and narrativity in each grade.

Results: Overall, the six measures of AL explained 70% of the variance in students' writing quality. We found that a new measure, number of long words, outperformed other more established measures at the word level and should be used in assessment of informational writing quality. We also found that automated scores at the sentence level better detected development across middle school grade levels than typical rubrics of writing quality.

Conclusion: Results provide promising avenues for the assessment of malleable aspects of AL in middle school informational writing.

Background and aims: The hypothesis that study strategies can compensate for less study time in predicting learning outcomes has often been proposed but rarely tested empirically.

Methods: In the present study, 231 university students reported their daily perceived time spent on self-study, study strategies (planning, monitoring, concentration and procrastination) and goal achievement over a 30 days period.

Results and conclusion: Results showed that both more overall perceived study time and better study strategies (better planning, monitoring, and concentration, less procrastination) predicted higher goal achievement at the end of the day. In addition, perceived study time and study strategies interactively predicted goal achievement. When students reported better planning, monitoring and concentration as well as lower procrastination, less time was needed to achieve a high goal level compared to days on which they studied less strategically. In other words, when students studied less strategically, they had to invest more time to reach a higher goal level. In addition, perceived study time and study strategies were related to students' negative affect. Negative affect was particularly high when students studied for many hours with low concentration, and it was particularly low when students studied for only a few hours and procrastinated less. Taken together, the results suggest a compensatory effect of study time and study strategies on daily goal achievement and affect, highlighting the need to teach students effective study strategies.

Background and aims: There is currently a dearth of tools to assess parents' use of effective interactive strategies for supporting early mathematics learning. One potential such strategy is sustained shared thinking. This study therefore constructed and validated a scale for measuring parents' use of sustained shared thinking during joint mathematics activities with young children, and examined its antecedents and outcomes.

Methods: Four hundred and sixty-six parents completed a questionnaire about their conceptions of mathematics teaching and learning, home practices, as well as their kindergarten children's approach and avoidance motivation to learn mathematics. Additionally, the children were tested on numeration skills.

Results and conclusion: Results showed that our new scale has three factors: exchanging ideas with children about mathematical problem-solving processes, creating a child-centred atmosphere for mathematics learning, and engaging children in mathematical thinking. Parents' uses of these three strategies were predicted by their constructivist conception of mathematics teaching and learning, and were differentially associated with the children's numeration skills, approach, and avoidance motivation to learn mathematics. Potential uses of our new scale in future home mathematics environment research are discussed.