Connections between learning experience,study behaviour and academic performance: a longitudinal study

Background:?Whilst past studies have established the joint influence of student learning experience and study behaviour on academic achievement, few attempts have been made to determine their causal ordering in a longitudinal framework.

Purpose:?This study explored the reciprocal relationship between learning experience and study behaviour, and examined their relative impact on university students' academic performance.

Sample:?Participants were 396 undergraduate students from a university in Hong Kong (191 men, 205 women).

Design and methods:?Students' learning experience and study behaviour were evaluated using the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI). A two-wave cross-lagged structural model was constructed to examine the reciprocal effects between learning experience and study behaviour measured over a 12-month period.

Results and conclusions:?The findings showed that after controlling for previous academic achievement, student learning experience measured at Time 1 exerted significant influence on study behaviour measured at Time 2, and study behaviour measured at Time 1 also exerted significant impact on learning experience at Time 2. Both constructs were significantly predictive of current academic performance.

Conclusions:?Results from this study outlined linkages between learning experience and study behaviour in influencing academic achievement. As the current study is based on students from a single university, further studies with different student populations are recommended. The implications of fostering motivation and enhancing university learning experience are discussed.     

Initial mental graphemic representation acquisition and later literacy achievement in children with language impairment: a longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between the ability to quickly acquire initial mental graphemic representations (MGRs) in kindergarten and fourth grade literacy skills in children with typical language (TL) and children with language impairment (LI). The study is a longitudinal extension of a study conducted by Wolter and Apel in which kindergarten children with LI and TL were administered early literacy measures as well as a novel written pseudoword task of MGR learning (spelling and identification of target pseudowords). In the current study (4 years later), the authors administered reading and spelling measures to 37 of the original 45 children (18 children with LI, 19 children with TL). The children with LI performed significantly lower than their peers with TL on all fourth grade literacy measures. For both groups, kindergarten initial MGR acquisition ability significantly related to fourth grade real-word reading and spelling. For the children with LI, kindergarten initial MGR acquisition ability also related to fourth grade pseudoword decoding and reading comprehension. Collectively, the findings suggest that initial MGR learning in kindergarten is an essential skill that may uniquely relate to later literacy abilities.     

Testosterone during pregnancy and gender role behavior of preschool children: a longitudinal,population study

Levels of testosterone (T) and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) were measured in blood samples from pregnant women and related to gender role behavior in 342 male and 337 female offspring at the age of 3.5 years. Gender role behavior was assessed using the Pre-School Activities Inventory, a standardized measure on which a parent indicates the child's involvement with sex-typical toys, games, and activities. Levels of T, but not SHBG, related linearly to gender role behavior in preschool girls. Neither hormone related to gender role behavior in boys. Other factors, including the presence of older brothers or sisters in the home, parental adherence to traditional sex roles, the presence of a male partner in the home, and maternal education, did not relate to gender role behavior in this sample and did not account for the relation observed between T and behavior. Although other, unmeasured factors may explain the relation, the results suggest that normal variability in T levels prenatally may contribute to the development of individual differences in the gender role behavior of preschool girls.     

Correlates of mastery-related behavior: a short-term longitudinal study of infants in their second year

The present study examined correlates of mastery-related behavior across the infant's second year of life. Maternal control style was quantified on a control to support-of-autonomy continuum, infant-mother attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation, and mastery-related behavior was observed in a toy play session at 12 and 20 months. Infants whose mothers were supportive of their autonomy displayed greater task-oriented persistence and competence during play than did infants of more controlling mothers; securely attached and avoidant infants tended to exhibit greater persistence at tasks than anxious-ambivalent babies, and ambivalent babies were the most negative in affect.     

Effects of parenting style and preschool experience on children's verbal attainment: Results of a British longitudinal study

In order to assess the relative strengths of mothers' education, parenting styles, and children's experience of preschool in predicting children's verbal attainment scores, this study made use of data derived from a cohort of children born in England, Wales, and Scotland in March of 1946 (N = 5,362). The parenting styles of cohort members have been studied from the time members' firstborn children were 4 years old. Tests administered when these second-generation children were 8 years old assessed children's abilities in vocabulary, reading, and sentence completion. Although preschool experience was an independent and significant predictor of verbal attainment scores, its power was small when compared with mothers' education. In addition, preschool attendance had no significance in predicting the scores of children whose mothers were relatively understimulating.     

Layers of experience: Forms of representation in a Waldorf school classroom

During the lesson block in a Waldorf sixth-grade classroom studying mediaeval history, the teacher presented content in a variety of ways, such as oral story-telling, creative writing, drawing, music, singing, and group-recitation. The teacher based her selection of forms of representation on the children's stage of development. According to the philosophical foundation of Waldorf education, anthroposophy, students in the sixth-grade are in the stage of middle-childhood, when feeling, imagination, and experience are the strongest factors in learning. The variety of forms of representation the teacher selected to present content to this group of students created multiple layers of experience intended to reflect these developmental and philosophical beliefs.     

Background knowledge and the construction of a situational representation from a diagram

Comprehension of a diagram requires viewers to construct from its graphic constituents a mental representation that captures the situational entities and relationships referred to by the diagram. However, this implies viewers possess appropriate background knowledge concerning the depicted situation. Meteorologists' and non-meteorologists' mental representations were investigated using a three-stage card sorting task during which subjects generated hierarchical groupings of the graphic elements of an Australian weather map diagram. Cluster analysis indicated that the two subject groups differed fundamentally in the basis of their sorting behaviour. Subjects' justifications of the groupings suggested that non-meteorologists' mental representation of the diagram elements was primarily based upon domain-general, visuospatial characteristics whereas in meteorologists' representations, these characteristics were subservient to a domain-specific, situational interpretation of the graphic array. The findings indicate that background knowledge deficiencies may make it difficult for learners beginning study of a domain to construct suitable mental representations from domain-related diagrams.     

The experience of pregnancy: a hermeneutical/phenomenological study

The aim of this study was to describe women''s experience of pregnancy. The setting was the Alternative Birth Center at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden, from 1996 to 1997. Anonymous diaries were written by 12 women and analyzed using a hermeneutical/phenomenological approach. The essential structure and interpretation of women''s experience of pregnancy can be expressed as “transition to the unknown,” which includes three themes: (1) meeting one''s life situation, (2) meeting something inevitable, and (3) preparing for the unknown.The essential structure and interpretation of women''s experience of pregnancy can be expressed as “transition to the unknown” …     

Effects of public day-care: a longitudinal study

119 Swedish children were followed from their first year of life up to the age of 8. Most could be classified according to (a) type of day-care they had experienced during their first 7 years of life and (b) time of first entrance into day-care. At 8 years, the children were tested with aptitude tests and rated by their teachers on school performance and social and personal development. Hierarchical regression analyses and MANCOVAs were used in the statistical treatment. Time of entrance into day-care predicted children's cognitive and socioemotional development, controlling for sex and home background. Children with early day-care (entrance before the age of 1) were generally rated more favorably and performed better than children with late entrance or home care. There was a tendency for early center care to predict a more favorable outcome than other care.     

The development of learning patterns of student teachers: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Research on learning pattern development during pre-service teacher education is scarce. In a cross-sectional (study 1) and longitudinal study (study 2) the development of learning patterns of student teachers is analysed. Participants in study 1 were 646 first-year and 350 third-year student teachers enrolled in an initial pre-service teacher education programme. 236 student teachers participated in study 2. Vermunt’s’ Inventory of Learning Styles was used to assess differences in learning patterns. By examining intra-individual changes in learning patterns we expected to find developmental trends within learning patterns. Results show that meaning oriented learning increases over time and undirected learning decreases. Some learning patterns are however more subject to change than others. The development of learning patterns was found to be relative and dependent on the learning pattern which students have already mastered in the first-year of a teacher education programme.     

The knowledge base and text recall: Evidence from a short-term longitudinal study

In a short-term longitudinal study, we investigated how domain-specific knowledge in soccer influences the amount of text recall and comprehension in elementary school and junior high school children of high and low overall aptitudes. Both level of soccer knowledge and overall aptitude were varied in a factorial design. Third, fifth, and seventh grade children were given several measures of text recall and comprehension and were retested on these measures about 1 year later. Performance was more a function of soccer knowledge than of aptitude level.     

Consistency and development of prosocial dispositions: a longitudinal study

The issue of whether there is consistency in prosocial dispositions was examined with a longitudinal data set extending from ages 4 to 5 years into early adulthood (N = 32). Spontaneous prosocial behaviors observed in the preschool classroom predicted actual prosocial behavior, other- and self-reported prosocial behavior, self-reported sympathy, and perspective taking in childhood to early adulthood. Prosocial behaviors that were not expected to reflect an other-orientation (i.e., low cost helping and compliant prosocial behavior) generally did not predict later prosocial behavior or sympathy. Sympathy appeared to partially mediate the relation of early spontaneous sharing to later prosocial dispositions. The results support the view that there are stable individual differences in prosocial responding that have their origins in early childhood.     

Systems learning with a conceptual representation: a quasi-experimental study

In this paper, we share results from a classroom intervention that used a conceptual representation to support reasoning about ecosystems. Engaging students in modeling allows them to make their ideas visible while being malleable and available for discussion, which enables students to make meaning out of systems. Further, the Components-Mechanisms-Phenomena (CMP) conceptual representation was designed to enable students to construct coherent mental models. Following our intervention, students deepened their understanding of ecosystem dynamics when compared to students who engaged in traditional instruction without use of the CMP conceptual representation. We discuss our results in terms of data that helped guide the design of the intervention and we describe a theoretical perspective that can be used to guide future instruction.     

The flight from experience to representation: Seeing relational complexity in teacher education

Gaining access to the inherent relational complexity of teaching/learning situations is essential to learning to teach. As teacher educators our work with prospective teachers indicates that opportunities to develop the capacity for relational knowing are increasingly being denied and dismissed. Specifically, we are concerned with what we perceive to be a flight from the experience of relational complexities, demanding constant discernment in the concrete situated dimensions of teaching and learning, into representative certainty and singularity in ways of seeing, thinking, and doing in classrooms. This paper documents this concern and explores the consequences of such disregard.     

The effect of task in deaf readers' graphophonological processes: a longitudinal study

This article reports on an investigation of graphophonological processes in deaf readers of French over a 1-year period. Deaf readers are known to have a phonological deficit compared to hearing peers, and conclusions from studies on this question are often conflicting. Among the different types of phonological processing, we can identify graphophonological processes based on correspondences between the oral and the written language. In this investigation, we evaluated graphophonemic and graphosyllabic processes using, in each case, two different tasks varying in their degree of cognitive constraints (CC- vs. CC+). Nineteen 11 year-old deaf students were compared to younger normal readers of the same reading level (RA, n = 17) and to normal readers of the same age (CA, n = 20). Two variables were considered in the analyses: accuracy and response latency. Results show that deaf readers do process written items at the graphophonological level and that graphophonological processes are related to reading ability. Also, results indicate main effects of task (CC- vs. CC+), time (T1 vs. T2), and group. In general, deaf participants' performances are comparable to those of RA and differ from those of CA. Results are discussed within the framework of the study of phonology in deaf readers and its relation to reading acquisition.     

The development of reading speed in Italians with dyslexia: a longitudinal study

The development of reading speed in Italian children with dyslexia was estimated using individualized growth curves for a group of 38 children with dyslexia tested longitudinally from the second to the eighth grade and compared with typical readers. Their reading speed development followed a linear trend of .3 syllables per second per grade, approximately half the increment observed in typical children reading a passage and similar to typical children's reading of nonword lists. These findings give support to the deficit hypothesis versus the lag hypothesis and to reading speed as the core deficit in dyslexia with transparent orthographies.