On Motivation,Ability, and the Perceived Situation in Science Test Performance: A Person-Centered Approach With High School Students

This research examined between-group differences in test-related perceptions, engagement, and performance; and within-group predictors of science performance among groups of high school students characterized by different patterns of science motivation. Patterns of motivation were derived from Dweck's (1986) typology and were used to classify students as mastery oriented, ego oriented, helpless, or "unclassified by such a typology." Groups were then compared on their efficacy for performing successfully on science multiple-choice tests, constructed response tests, and performance assessments; their beliefs about the validity of each test format; and their actual performance on multiple-choice and constructed response items. Group differences in gender composition, test perceptions and engagement, and performance were found. Results are discussed in terms of Snow's (1994) theory of aptitude complexes and their relation to individual differences in performance.     

The relationship among college science student achievement,engaged time,and personal characteristics

The relationships among college student science achievement, engaged time (observed and perceived), and personal characteristics of academic aptitude, reasoning ability, attitude toward science, and locus of control were investigated. Measures of personal characteristics were obtained from the subjects (N= 76) of a private, liberal arts junior college before observations began in the lecture classes for the quarter. Instruments used to measure personal characteristics were Scholastic Aptitude Test, Test of Logical Thinking, Test of Scientific Attitude, and Leven-son's Multidimensional View of Locus of Control. Based on a random selection procedure, student engaged time was observed at least ten times for 11 lectures. Achievement tests were constructed and validated for the biology classes. Data were analyzed by multiple regression procedures. The average achievement scores were positively related to academic aptitude and reasoning ability. Positive relationships were found between observed engaged time and academic aptitude and a negative relationship was found between observed engaged time and reasoning ability. Also a positive relationship was found between perceived engaged time and achievement. Pearson product-moment correlations between achievement and observed engaged time were significant as were the correlations between perceived engaged time and achievement. Measure of engaged time (observed and perceived) were also related to each other. The study's data indicate that students who were observed to be engaged were low in reasoning ability or high in academic aptitude. Those who perceived themselves as being engaged achieved more. College instructors who have knowledge of student academic aptitude and reasoning ability may use this knowledge to improve achievement. Engaged time measures were significantly related to achievement, which indicates an instructor should endeavor to keep the students as engaged as possible to enhance achievement. Students who are engaged or pay attention or perceived they are engaged or paying attention during lecture classes achieve more than students who are observed as nonengaged or perceive themselves as nonengaged.     

Self-efficacy beliefs and the writing performance of entering high school students

Path analysis was used to test the influence of writing self-efficacy, writing apprehension, and writing aptitude on the essay-writing performance of 181 ninth-grade students. A model that also included gender accounted for 53% of the variance in performance. As hypothesized, both aptitude and students' self-efficacy beliefs had strong direct effects on performance. Aptitude also had a strong direct effect on self-efficacy, which largely mediated the indirect effect of aptitude on performance. Self-efficacy had a strong direct effect on apprehension, which, in turn, had a modest effect on performance. Girls and boys did not differ in aptitude or performance, but girls reported lower writing self-efficacy. Native English-speaking Hispanic students had lower aptitude and performance scores, lower self-efficacy, and higher apprehension. Results support the hypothesized role of self-efficacy in Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The upward Brain drain and a myth

Abstract

A recent article on education in China succeeded in giving a fresh tweak to the arguments concerning whether aptitude or achievement testing is more likely to promote equality of educational opportunity. In ‘The Diploma Disease’ Ronald Dore expounded the view that aptitude testing is to be preferred for selection purposes on the grounds that it gives more weight to ‘innate potential’ (his term) than does achievement testing which produces results more affected by quality of schooling, an influence which is all too variable, especially in emerging countries. Although shot through with considerable ambivalence, Dore's view could still be instrumental in persuading educational and political authorities in those countries that aptitude testing will do what he says it will do ‐ ‘make for greater equality of educational opportunity and be more effective in mobilizing all available talent’. And even if these authorities have never set eyes on Dore's book, there is sufficient evidence that some of them are acting as if they had taken Dore's view on board for it to be worth re‐opening the question. It is argued here that Dore's position cannot be supported.     

Theoretical Frameworks of Performance‐Based Models

The purpose of this article is to highlight theories that support the functions of performance‐based design models and to discuss the implications of integrating divergent models into the system‐oriented human performance technology (HPT) and performance improvement (PI) disciplines. HPT, PI, and instructional systems design (ISD) share a systems framework, along with the influence of common theories such as performance theory, learning theory, adult learning, cognitive psychology, and behavioral psychology (Foshay, Villachica, & Stepich, 2014). This article focuses on the role of theory as a tool in the practitioner's toolbox and as a connection point when working with teams and organizations that have different theoretical orientations. Performance‐based ISD models are discussed, including Robinson and Robinson's (1989) Training for Impact, Brethower and Smalley's (1998) Performance‐Based Instruction, and Bradford and Boler's (2015) Horizon Model. Allen and Sites's (2012) successive approximation model (SAM) retains elements of ADDIE as a process, but the model is iterative rather than systematic in design.     

Mapping Students' Lives: Children's Geographies,Teaching and Learning

The relatively new field of children's geographies builds on the theoretical foundations of human geography, critical geography, and spatial theories to examine the places and spaces children inhabit and create. This article reviews four major themes in children's geographies relevant to education: exclusion and agency, the social construction of childhood, children's geographies across the globe, and children's spaces beyond the classroom. Children's geographies' unique perspective on the spatial experiences of young people offers new ways to understand issues in education theory, pedagogy, and practice.     

李大钊马克思主义建党理论的渊源、贡献及其启示

马克思、恩格斯关于无产阶级建党学说的经典论述,以及列宁根据俄国实际发展了的布尔什维克化建党理论,是李大钊推进马克思主义建党理论中国化的理论渊源。李大钊于国家民族危难之际,大力介绍、研究、传播马克思主义思想,结合中国社会状况和斗争实际,对经典作家的建党理论进行灵活运用,进而成功地继承发展和创新了马克思主义建党理论。探究李大钊推进马克思主义建党理论中国化的历史过程及其贡献,对于当前和今后思考如何在实践中坚持和发展马克思主义,如何认识理论与实践的关系,如何借鉴世界大党、老党的执政经验教训以推进自身建设等,仍然有着重要的时代启示和现实借鉴价值。     

Competences,Learning Theories and MOOCs: Recent Developments in Lifelong Learning

Our societies have come to be known as knowledge societies in which lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important. In this context, competences have become a much discussed topic. Many documents were published by international organisations (UNESCO, World Bank, European Commission) which enumerated 21^st century key competences. The field of learning theories has also experienced advances. Findings from neuroscience have promoted a new understanding of what really happens in the brain when we learn. At the same time, the fact that learning increasingly takes place in virtual communities led George Siemens (2004) to propose connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age. Similarly, Roberto Carneiro (2010) suggested a theory he called generativism which aims at describing collaborative learning with digital technologies and open educational resources. These theories might be better able to describe and explain lifelong learning than classical learning theories. In the field of digital technologies, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently received a great deal of attention. While Siemens suggested connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs) as the ideal platform for connectivist learning, other forms of MOOCs were also developed. These MOOCs have spread at a breath-taking pace in the last few years, although it is far from clear to what extent they are based on principles from learning theories and really support learning. These developments will be presented and discussed with respect to their relevance for lifelong learning as an integral part of man's quest for meaning.     

A Traumatic Reading of Twentieth-Century Rhetorical Theory: The Belgian Holocaust,Malines, Perelman,and de Man

In this essay, I seek to read the rhetorical theories set forth by Belgians Chaïm Perelman and Paul de Man as responses to the Holocaust. To accomplish this aspiration, I draw from Dominick LaCapra's framework for the analysis of trauma and its expression in historical and theoretical texts. Reading the rhetorical theories of Perelman and de Man, two of the most prominent of the twentieth century, through a lens of trauma theory allows critics to see them as post-war efforts to deal with the implications of the absence of meaning, the murder and loss of 25,257 Belgian Jews, Fascism, genocide, and de Man's collaboration with the Nazis. I argue that Perelman's rhetoric theory better “works-through” the Belgian Holocaust than the one offered by de Man because it offers a vision of reason that can yield justice and places collaborators in the “grey zone” of totalitarian societies and logical positivism, thereby offering de Man partial absolution for his endorsement of the German occupation and anti-Semitism. De Man's rhetorical theory appears to act out the Belgian Holocaust, for it rehearses the act of deconstruction, does not name its traumatic exigence, lacks the theoretical resources to deal with the material past, fails to offer better choices for the present, or provide a vision of the future. Reading rhetorical theories as responses to the exigences of trauma calls for a reconsideration of the contexts and motives driving the creation of the major rhetorical theories of the twentieth century, including those of Heidegger and Grassi.     

Hypothesis testing in students: Sequences,stages, and instructional strategies

Six sequences in the development of hypothesis-testing conceptions are proposed, involving (a) interpretation of the hypothesis; (b) the distinction between using theories and testing theories; (c) the consideration of multiple possibilities; (d) the relation of theory and data; (e) the nature of verification and falsification; and (f) the relation of truth and falsity. An alternative account is then provided involving three global stages: concrete operations, formal operations, and a postformal “metaconstructive”stage. Relative advantages and difficulties of the stage and sequence conceptualizations are discussed. Finally, three families of teaching strategy are distinguished, which emphasize, respectively: (a) social transmission of knowledge; (b) carefully sequenced empirical experience by the student; and (c) self-regulated cognitive activity of the student. It is argued on the basis of Piaget's theory that the last of these plays a crucial role in the construction of such logical reasoning strategies as those involved in testing hypotheses.     

Competency, capability, complexity and computers: exploring a new model for conceptualising end-user computer education

Notions of competency have dominated the computer education literature, and have underpinned Competency‐Based Training (CBT) in information technology at all levels of education and training. The emergence of counter‐narratives underpinned by the capability movement, have as yet had minimal impact on practice in computer education. New discourses in educational theory and practice which are founded on non‐linear approaches to learning and teaching provide added impetus to engage in the competency/capability debate, and re‐examine our approaches to computer education. This paper explores complexity theories and demonstrates how complexity's pedagogical implications can lead to new models for understanding computer learning and teaching. A new model for conceptualising end‐user computer education is presented that was derived from a three‐year action research initiative with pre‐service teachers.     

Incorporating motivation into multimedia learning

What is the role of motivation in multimedia learning? Cognitive theories of multimedia learning tend to focus on instructional methods aimed at reducing extraneous processing (such as highlighting the essential material) or managing essential processing (such as breaking a lesson into parts), whereas motivational theories tend to focus on instructional methods aimed at fostering generative processing (such as adding appealing graphics or challenging scenarios). Moreno's (2005) cognitive affective theory of learning from media is intended to better incorporate motivation and metacognition into theories of multimedia learning, helping to extend or clarify Mayer's (2009) cognitive theory of multimedia learning and Sweller's (Sweller, Ayres, & Kaluga, 2011) cognitive load theory. The research presented in this special section examines motivating instructional features intended to promote generative processing—such as adding appealing graphics (Magner, Schwonke, Aleven, Popescu, & Renkl, 2013; Plass, Heidig, Hayward, Homer, & Um, 2013) or challenging scenarios (D'Mello, Lehman, Pekrun, & Graesser, 2013). Overall, motivational features can improve student learning by fostering generative processing as long as the learner is not continually overloaded with extraneous processing or overly distracted from essential processing.     

Contrasting Ohlsson's Resubsumption Theory With Chi's Categorical Shift Theory

Ohlsson's proposal of resubsumption as the dominant process in conceptual, or nonmonotonic, change presents a worthy challenge to more established theories, such as Chi's theory of ontological shift. The two approaches differ primarily in that Ohlsson's theory emphasizes a process of learning in which narrower, more specific concepts are subsumed by more general, abstract categories through recognition of similarities, whereas Chi's theory emphasizes the dissociation of overly general categories through the recognition of differences. We examine the evidence for both theories and consider the educational implications of each. Overall, though subsumption almost certainly plays a role in nonmonotonic change, we maintain, on the basis of evidence from cognitive science and developmental psychology, that dissociation accounts for a greater portion of the re-representational processes underpinning changes in the structure of learner's knowledge.     

Hans Freudenthal: A mathematician on didactics and curriculum theory

The main ideas in the work of Hans Freudenthal (1905-1990), the Dutch mathematician and mathematics educator, related to curriculum theory and didactics are described. Freudenthal's educational credo, 'mathematics as a human activity', is explored. From this pedagogical point of departure, Freudenthal's criticism of educational research and educational theories is sketched and fleshed out. Freudenthal's approaches to mathematics education, developmental research and curriculum development can be seen as alternatives to the mainstream 'Anglo-Saxon' approaches to curriculum theory.     

Children's Metacognition About Reading: issues in Definition,Measurement, and Instruction

Metacognition has become a popular term in theories of cognitive development and reading. What children know about the goals, tasks, and strategies of reading can influence how well they plan and monitor their own reading. Despite the appeal of metacognition and the emphasis on executive management of reading, there have been relatively few empirical studies that measure or promote children's metacognition about reading. This article briefly reviews some key studies of children's knowledge about reading and identifies some difficulties in defining and measuring metacognition. An Index of Reading Awareness (IRA) is offered as an informal assessment of metacognition derived from both theory and empirical data that can be used to measure children's understanding of reading comprehension processes. Data are presented illustrating that the instrument is sensitive to developmental and instructional differences in children's metacognition about reading. It is argued that the usefulness of the term metacognition depends on the development of both formal and informal tests of children's knowledge about reading and effective instruction that promotes metacognition.     

女性主义教育学视野中的教师专业发展

女性主义教育学是西方20世纪80年代以来兴起的一股学术思潮。它对教师专业发展提出了新的研究视角与内涵:从个人生活史出发研究教师专业发展,关怀伦理是新时期对教师人文素质的新要求,教师专业发展必须包括教师的非理性精神的成长。这为教师专业成长提供了新的视野。     

Enriching the Theoretical Horizons of Phenomenography,Variation Theory and Learning Studies

The aim of this article is to introduce some theoretical frameworks which may develop the research going on within phenomenography and variation theory. Central concepts from the epistemological and cognitive theories of Charles S. Peirce, Niklas Luhmann and Margaret Boden are presented and their implications for phenomenography and variation theory are discussed. Peirce's concept of the semiotic triad clarifies the interrelations of conceptions, their linguistic expressions and their meanings or referents. Luhmann's concepts of primary and secondary distinctions point out an implicit hierarchy of dimensions of variation. Boden's notion of conceptual spaces as grounds for explorative and transformative creativity points to the relevance and value of becoming familiar with the conceptional spaces of the outcomes of phenomenographic studies. Finally, I point to the possibility of including the notion of a “hidden curriculum” of the discipline as an implicit dimension of variation in classroom studies based on variation theory.     

论教师专业发展的后现代转向

教师发展是世界教育改革与发展的重要课题.近年各种后现代教育理论对教师专业发展提出了新的解读,特别指出:自主发展是教师专业发展的新内涵,叙事研究是教师专业发展研究的新视角,关怀伦理是新时期教师专业发展的新的伦理要求,以及个体知识是教师专业发展的新知识构成,它为教师专业发展带来了新的启示.