Comparisons of Self‐Efficacy,Mood, Effort,and Hope Between Students with Learning Disabilities and Their Non‐LD‐Matched Peers

The goals of this study were to compare self‐perceptions of self‐efficacy, mood, effort, and hope between 123 adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) and a group of 123 Non‐LD peers, who were matched for their level of academic performance and gender, and to explore the relations between measures of self‐perception and achievement. The results showed that students with LD reported lower academic self‐efficacy and lower social self‐efficacy. They also rated their mood as more negative and reported lower levels of hope and less investment of effort in their academic work. At the same time, no significant differences were found for emotional self‐efficacy in comparison to the Non‐LD peer group. In addition, among students with LD who were successful in their studies, a subgroup continued to report low levels of hope. The results demonstrated that even when the academic performance of students with LD is similar to their Non‐LD peers, their specific and global self‐perceptions continue to reflect their distress. It is not clear if these results represent past difficulties, day‐to‐day struggles, and/or future worries. Resilience models are proposed and research limitations are specified.     

University students setting goals in the context of autonomy,self‐efficacy and important goal‐related task engagement

In this study, the authors attempted to examine the roles of trait autonomy, trait self‐efficacy, important goal‐related task engagement and gender in predicting whether undergraduate university students are willing to set difficult goals. One hundred and thirty‐six undergraduate communications students from the North‐Eastern USA completed an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to create the multiple item variables. The relationships were examined using structural equation modelling. As predicted, results revealed that trait autonomy indirectly and positively predicted setting difficult goals through trait self‐efficacy and a person’s willingness to engage in important tasks. A willingness to take on important goal‐related tasks and self‐efficacy beliefs was associated with those who reported a readiness to set difficult goals. Results suggest that before males engage in challenging goal attainment they must perceive themselves as self‐efficacious, whereas females are inspired by tasks that are important to them. If the tasks are important, by implication, so are the goals, notwithstanding their difficult nature. In the ‘Discussion’ section, we suggest implications for team‐based learning.     

Measuring Students' Self‐Efficacy for Communication

Design students are asked to regularly communicate their ideas to a diverse audience. Students' abilities may be affected by their perceived self‐efficacy, the perception of abilities to perform a task. Because self‐efficacy is conceived of as context‐specific, it is vital to consider self‐efficacy as it specifically relates to design studios and the communication within that context, rather than to look at generalised self‐efficacy for communication. To that end, this article explains the development and validation of measures of students' perceived self‐efficacy for communicating in both formal (critique) and informal (studio working time) design circumstances. Using data from students at two institutions, the measures were found to be reliable; these results were further supported through their relationship to previously validated measures. The development of these measures and the results from pilot data provide insight into students' perceptions of their communication abilities that may be beneficial to educators seeking to help design students communicate competently.     

Is the Poor Performance of Self‐Worth Protective Students Linked with Social Comparison Goals?

Students motivated to protect self‐worth perform poorly in situations that threaten to reveal low ability while performing well in situations that involve little threat to self‐worth. One factor contributing to their poor performance is thought to be their orientation towards social comparison goals (goals that have to do with vindicating their ability relative to others rather than pursuing mastery). In the present study, 96 undergraduate students who were either high or low in self‐worth protection were exposed to either success or failure feedback and subsequently primed to pursue either social comparison or mastery goals. For students high in self‐worth protection, the negative effects of either failure or social comparison goal priming is sufficient to give rise to poor performance. However, only when success is combined with mastery goal priming is a positive achievement outcome evident. The requirements of best practice approaches to encouraging students to adopt mastery‐orientated behaviours are discussed.     

A CASE FOR SELF‐ASSESSMENT BASED ON RECENT STUDIES OF STUDENT LEARNING

An account of an experiment in self‐assessed learning where the lecturer used his authority to give his students responsibility for their own assessment. Students were expected to set their own goals, week‐by‐week, and prepare a self‐assessment, which was open to questioning and discussion by other members of the group, but which involved only the individual student in the final decision.

The difficulties encountered are clearly stated, but the final judgment is that only such methods can achieve deep processing in Higher Education. It is also argued that conventional methods of evaluation are inappropriate for this style of learning.     

校园心理剧在高职学生心理健康教育中的应用———以晋中职业技术学院为例

高职学生作为大学生中的一个特殊群体,很多学生存在自卑敏感,学习动力不足等心理问题。校园心理剧作为一种全新的团体心理治疗方法,非常符合这一群体学生的心理需要。在高职院校中推广普及校园心理剧,可以促进高职学生心理的自我成长和完善,达到助人自助的目的,而且对于有效提高高职院校心理健康教育水平有非常重要的意义。本文以晋中职业技术学院近五年校园心理剧的创作与实践为例,提出在高职学生心理健康教育中广泛开展校园心理剧活动的作用与应注意的问题。     

Self‐assessment in university assessment of prior learning procedures

Competency‐based university education, in which lifelong learning and flexible learning are key elements, demands a renewed vision on assessment. Within this vision, Assessment of Prior Learning (APL), in which learners have to show their prior learning in order for their goals to be recognised, becomes an important element. This article focuses on a first step in APL, namely students’ self‐assessment of their prior learning before entering university education. The main aim of the presented study is to examine the suitability of the use of self‐assessment in APL. First, in an explorative study, the main sources for self‐assessment are derived and the relation between sources and domain of study is investigated. Second, in a pre‐test post‐test research design, the hypothesis that students’ self‐assessment of prior learning related to a course changes after studying a domain‐specific course is tested. Pre‐test results reveal that students indicate that they have prior knowledge related to the chosen university programme. In general, this prior learning is obtained from study experience, work experience, books, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, TV, radio, film or video. A relation is found between the type of source and the university programme. The hypothesis that students change their self‐assessment after a study period could not be confirmed. Based on these results, it is concluded that self‐assessment in APL might be a suitable tool. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Classroom management as method and manner

We describe two case studies of experienced teachers whose classroom-management approaches, whilst quite different, appear seamless and in agreement with classroom manner and with the goals and desires they have for their students. We examine classroom management, manner, beliefs about classroom life and moral and intellectual goals for students, and classroom behaviour that directly informs students of expectations for virtuous conduct. The data include classroom observation and videotapes, and interviews with teachers. In developing these case studies, we join with the recent trend toward a more holistic view of the teacher and his or her conduct. The case studies focus on who a teacher is, what a teacher believes and how these beliefs are manifest in the teacher's conduct.     

Motivational influences on school‐prompted interest

Some argue that the goal of education is to influence out‐of‐school learning activity, yet little research exists on how teachers can help students develop an interest in a topic and continue to pursue that interest outside of school. The current study tested classroom context variables from self‐determination theory (teachers’ autonomy support) and from achievement goal theory (teachers’ mastery goals) that may predict students’ school‐prompted interest above and beyond students’ mastery goals and self‐efficacy. Survey data were collected from 178 high school students in 15 mathematics classes. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that students’ perceptions of a teacher who focuses on mastery goals account for little variance above and beyond students’ own motivation, whereas perceived teachers’ autonomy support emerged as a significant predictor. While the results are correlational and do not support causal claims, they suggest that teachers who support student autonomy might foster school‐prompted interest.     

Moral development,transformative learning,and the dialogical self

Attempts to find positive new directions for moral education now face a number of well‐recognized challenges, including those relating to the rise of commodification and the virtualization of experience. It is argued that there is now a need for innovative approaches that move beyond the traditional frameworks of critical thinking and ethical reasoning, and that encourage the development of moral dispositions and personal conscience. One crucial limitation of traditional approaches lies in their reliance on a monological interpretation of self‐reflection that emphasizes objective impressions of the self. It is proposed that only a dialogical model of self‐reflection that recognizes the presence of competing self‐impressions is fully consistent with the kinds of authentic self‐reflection and critical questioning that are required for the develc pment of moral conscience. The emerging dialogical model of the self is also compatible with an approach to moral conduct grounded in the idea of an ‘ethics without ethics’ in which dispositions to act for the good of the community become the focal goals. It is argued that the dialogical model of the self supports a dynamic view of selfhood and identity through which the subject is encouraged to recognize its own complexity and vulnerability, rather than external principles, as the basis for moral responsibility and action. In practical terms, the dialogical model supports the idea of engaging students in activities in which they are encouraged to monitor their own thoughts, feelings, and actions, rather than in activities which perpetuate objective, monological modes of self‐thematization.     

From the canciÓn de protesta to the nueva trova, 1965-85

A grounded theory was developed to describe the processes of self‐understanding of a group of Chinese women graduate students who were studying in the United States at the time of the research. A basic psychological process, reweaving a fragmented self, was identified from interviews with 20 Chinese women graduate students. Reweaving a fragmented self included three sub‐processes: weaving self, fragmenting self and reweaving self, as occurred across two chronological phases, being women students in their homeland and becoming international women students in a new land. Categories and codes explain and support each of the processes. The implications of this research are theoretical and practical. It contributes to the critical theories of women’s selves in a cultural context by exploring the ways in which these Chinese women graduate students negotiated critical cultural elements in their self‐understanding. It also contributes to American higher education by enhancing educators’ understanding of the diversity of these women students’ experiences, expectations and desires and providing them with information on these students’ self‐understanding.     

浅谈如何与学生进行有效的沟通

现代的大学生具有很强的独立性和自主性,他们有自己的观点,有自己的主张,自尊心较强。而高校辅导员作为学生思想上的引导者、专业上的指导者,生活上的关心者,对学生的学习、为人处事、今后的工作,起着至关重要的作用。但是现在的学生对辅导员缺乏信任,戒备心较强,这很不利于辅导员工作的开展。只有我们能够与学生进行有效的沟通以后,学生愿意接受我们的时候,我们才能有的放矢的开展好辅导员工作,使得我们能够圆满的完成辅导员的神圣职责的同时,也能使我们的学生有更好的发展。     

Group work at university: significance of personal goals in the regulation strategies of students with positive and negative appraisals

This paper examines the mediating role of students’ goals in group work at university. Research on cooperative and collaborative learning has provided empirical support for the cognitive, motivational and social benefits of group work but the antecedents of motivation and ongoing management of emerging motivational and socio‐emotional issues have received less attention. A theory of self‐regulation that incorporates students’ personal goals and perceptions of context, combined with a sociocultural perspective on co‐regulation of individuals and contexts, can help understand why and how some groups resolve their social challenges while others are less successful. An empirical study highlighted the mediating role of students’ goals in their appraisals of group assignments, perceptions of various aspects of the contexts, and in turn regulation strategies to achieve their goals. Qualitative differences were found in the regulation strategies of students with positive and negative appraisals.     

Accuracy of students' self‐assessment and their beliefs about its utility

The purpose of the two studies presented here was to evaluate the accuracy of students' self‐assessment ability, to examine whether this ability improves over time and to investigate whether self‐assessment is more accurate if students believe that it contributes to improving learning. To that end, the accuracy of the self‐assessments of 3588 first‐year students enrolled in a post‐secondary institution was studied throughout a semester during which each student made approximately 80 self‐assessments about his or her own learning process. These self‐assessments were then compared with multiple judgements by peers and tutors. The overall correlations between the scores of self‐, peer and tutor assessments suggest weak to moderate accuracy of student self‐assessment ability. The findings also reveal an ability effect; students judged as more academically competent were able to self‐assess with higher accuracy than their less competent peers. Comparing the accuracy of student self‐assessment averaged over four consecutive periods indicates that the accuracy does not improve over time. In a second study, a questionnaire aimed at eliciting student's beliefs about the effects of self‐assessment on their learning was administered to 936 first‐year students. Based on their responses, sub‐groups of students were identified: those who either believed in the usefulness of self‐assessment or did not. Results suggest that there is no significant association between student beliefs about the utility of self‐assessment and the accuracy of their self‐assessments.     

The decision to enter higher education: The case of polytechnic sociology students

This paper examines the decision to enter higher education by students who entered British polytechnic degree courses in sociology/social studies. It is concerned with the extent to which occupational considerations affect the decision to enter and with relating these findings to theories of occupational choice. The paper commences with an examination of three models of occupational choice and summarises the findings of studies that have focused on the entry into higher education and occupational decision-making. The results of our own study, based on questionnaire and interview data, indicate that occupational considerations are of limited importance in the decision to enter sociology/social studies courses at polytechnics. Rather our data favours a model emphasizing the role of socio-cultural background of home and school creating expectations for higher education. Data on past decisions which affect educational careers indicated that entry into higher education was seen in terms of an automatic process rather than a conscious decision made for particular goals. In our population there was, however, a small vocationally oriented group who differed from other students, in which females and those under 18 years of age were over-represented, and who were predominantly from two colleges which offered vocational training in their courses. Our results, we conclude, lend support to a fortuitous model of occupational choice in respect of the decision to enter higher education. Expectations derived from socio-cultural backgrounds of the students were more important in determining entry than conscious occupational goals.The research on which the paper is based is located in the Department of Social Science, Polytechnic of the South Bank, and supported by the Social Science Research Council.Work on this project has also been carried out by Dr I. C. Cannon and Ms. A. Scambler. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Standing Conference of The Sociology of Further Education, London, June 1975.     

How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies

Abstract

First-year university students’ underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students’ perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students’ perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers’ classes. Findings highlight that fostering students’ academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers’ goals of developing learners’ academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective ‘card’ played by teachers to nurture students’ appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.     

Using achievement goal-based personalized motivational feedback to enhance online learning

Current online learning approaches are sometimes criticized for a “one- size- fits -all” approach and insufficient feedback, which may result in low levels of satisfaction and high dropout rates. To mitigate these shortcomings, we implemented a set of principles for designing personalized motivational feedback based on students’ achievement goals. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was used to collect data. The results indicated students who received this feedback demonstrated significantly higher levels of motivation and satisfaction. However, their performance scores were not significantly higher than students in the control group. Post-interviews showed this personalized feedback helped students regulate their learning goals and behaviors and thus improved their learning. The evidence suggests this personalized feedback may benefit learning by improving motivation. While its effect on performance outcomes was not significant, we speculate that more complex factors may have obscured any performance effect.

     

Executive Function Coaching for College Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: A New Approach for Fostering Self‐Determination

Given growing numbers of college students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or learning disabilities (LD), it is important to understand why these students choose ADD (“executive function”) coaching to enhance their academic success when more traditional forms of campus support already offer this help. Fifty‐four undergraduates with ADHD and/or LD participated in a study of their experiences with coaching. To better understand students’ perspectives on the manner in which coaching helped them minimize executive function challenges while addressing academic goals, a purposive sample of seven of these students participated in two interviews. All seven described highly self‐determined approaches to goal attainment that they associated with coaching. These students also reported that, in contrast to traditional campus services, coaching focused primarily on supporting their emerging autonomy, helping them develop and manage their executive function skills and promoting their self‐efficacy and confidence about future success. Findings are linked to recommendations for additional research and service delivery options.     

Facebook and classroom group work: A trial study involving University of Botswana Advanced Oral Presentation students

In the 21st century, the use of information technology in the classroom is advancing rapidly, especially in higher education. The Internet, through social networking, has made it possible for students to learn and teachers to teach outside the classroom walls. Facebook in particular has made it possible for students to interact and communicate with their teachers and among themselves about their progress and about the problems they encounter in learning. Yet, limited research exists on the use of Facebook in education in Sub‐Saharan Africa more especially in Botswana. This is in spite of the observation that Sub‐Saharan Africa is the fastest growing Internet population with a growth of more than 2500% between 2000 and 2011. This study therefore set out to examine (1) the students' interest in using Facebook to facilitate group work activities in the Advanced Oral Presentation Skills course; (2) whether the students interact and communicate using Facebook on matters relating to the Advanced Oral Presentations course; (3) whether the students benefitted from using Facebook for learning advanced oral presentation skills; and (4) what challenges the students encountered when using Facebook in the Advanced Oral Presentations course. In this trial study, students were allocated groups and assigned to conduct their group activities via Facebook. Although this was optional, more than 80% of the groups opted for Facebook and less than 20% chose to do their group work traditionally. A follow‐up evaluation of the experiment was done through a questionnaire and interviews. The findings suggest that Facebook could facilitate student communication and interaction about group assignments.     

Understanding the dynamics of motivation in socially shared learning

The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the dynamics of motivation in socially shared learning from both individual and group perspectives. Higher education students’ motivation was analysed in the context of collaborative learning tasks, applying quantitative and qualitative methods. The research questions were: (1) what kind of motivations and task-specific goals do individual students have and (2) how do they combine their motivations as a group in socially shared learning? Three- to five-member groups of university students (n = 99) were observed as they worked with three different collaborative learning tasks in an educational psychology class. The experiment included differently organised conditions for collaboration, ranging from face-to-face situations to virtual collaboration situations which were perceived as motivationally and emotionally challenging. Self-reports and video-tapings were collected. The results show that the students who studied in face-to-face settings reported significantly more learning goals and fewer performance goals during the collaborative tasks than the students in the virtual group. Therefore, the collaborative process of volunteer face-to-face groups was analysed qualitatively and an attempt was made, by observing their shared motivation, to uncover the reasons why they achieved their learning goals.