Searching for the impact of teacher behavior on promoting students’ cognitive and metacognitive skills

This study investigates the impact of teaching factors on students’ cognitive and metacognitive achievement in mathematics. Written tests and the “Metacognitive Skills and Knowledge Assessment” tool were administered to grade 4 and 5 students (n = 924) at the beginning and end of the school year 2013-2014. A student questionnaire was used for measuring teaching factors. Multilevel SEM analyses revealed a reciprocal relationship between students’ cognitive and metacognitive skills. All teaching factors of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness were found to be associated with mathematics achievement but only four factors (modeling, assessment, questioning, and dealing with misbehavior) were associated with two aspects of metacognition (i.e. prediction and evaluation). Implications of findings are drawn.     

The Graduate,the Globetrotter and the Good Samaritan: adolescent girls’ visions of themselves in early adulthood

Adolescent aspirations have been extensively researched, particularly in the contexts of higher education and the workforce. This paper extends research by exploring how the educational and career aspirations of rural adolescent girls relate to their other future goals. It demonstrates how exploring aspirations, both within and outside of the contexts of higher education and the workforce, enables a deeper understanding of various adolescent aspirations and the interconnections between them. This paper draws on a qualitative study with adolescent girls living in the Cradle Coast region of Tasmania-a rural and remote region where access to a wide range of educational resources and experiences is limited in comparison to those available in metropolitan centres. The paper responds to recent participation policy in Australia that implies young people from rural locations are lacking in aspiration. The article demonstrates that despite rurality, the girls in this study have many aspirations, including those for higher education. It discusses how having many and quite varied aspirations influences the girls’ decision making and planning around their futures. The paper shows that it is the balancing of many future goals that influences educational and career decision-making, rather than low aspirations.     

The effect of a middle grades STEM initiative on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes

This study is an evaluation of a STEM initiative in one school district with five participating middle schools. I used two quasi-experimental methods including instrumental variables and inverse propensity score weights to test the effect of the initiative on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Overall, students at STEM schools demonstrated lower science achievement (p < .05). Subgroup analyses showed that Limited English Proficient students at STEM schools demonstrated increased reading achievement and fewer unexcused absences (p < .001). Black students demonstrated increased grit (p < .01), and Hispanic students demonstrated increased control and relevance in learning (p < .001).     

‘Power,regulation and physically active identities’: the experiences of rural and regional living adolescent girls

Drawing on interpretations of Foucault's techniques of power, we explored the discourses and power relations operative between groups of girls that appeared to influence their participation in Physical Education (PE) and outside of school in sport and physical activity (PA) in rural and regional communities. Interviews and focus groups were conducted in eight secondary schools with female students from Year 9 (n = 22) and 10 (n = 116). Dominant gendered and performance discourses were active in shaping girls’ construction of what it means to be active or ‘sporty’, and these identity positions were normalised and valued. The perceived and real threat of their peer's gaze as a form of surveillance acted to further perpetuate the power of performance discourses; whereby girls measured and (self) regulated their participation. Community settings were normalised as being exclusively for skilled performers and girls self-regulated their non-participation according to judgements made about their own physical abilities. These findings raise questions about the ways in which power relations, as forged in broader sociocultural and institutional discourse–power relations, can infiltrate the level of the PE classroom to regulate and normalise practices in relation to their, and others, PA participation.     

Tears for girls and teeth for boys: the influence of gender on children’s depiction of sadness and anger in their drawings

Up to now, very few studies investigated the influence of gender on the depiction of emotions in children’s drawings. However, the literature on emotions reveals differences between boys and girls in various kinds of tasks (e.g. recognising emotional facial expressions, understanding an emotional situation, etc.). Therefore, we examined the impact of gender on the depiction of sadness and anger. We took into account children’s gender but also the gender of the character expressing the target emotion. Forty-four boys and forty-seven girls aged 7–8 and thirty-six boys and fifty-three girls aged 9–10 were asked to listen to stories where the main character (either a male or a female) was feeling sad or angry and then to draw the facial cues corresponding to the target emotion. Two methods were used to rate the drawings: judges assessed the correct vs. incorrect depiction of the two target emotions and a content analysis was then conducted on the correct drawings so as to reveal the type of facial cues used by children. By showing the major influence of children’s gender on their depiction of sadness and anger, our findings offer promising lines of research in educational and clinical settings.     

Kazzies,DBTs and Tryhards: categorisations of style in adolescent girls’ talk

One aspect of the work that adolescent girls do in creating and maintaining friendship networks with each other, the process of including some girls and excluding others, is explored using an ethnomethodological framework of analysis. Three adolescent schoolgirls in Australia talk about themselves and the other girls in their school. A close examination of this talk reveals a hierarchy of style categorisations which resonate with the socio‐economic and ethnic composition of the three main feeder areas to the school. The girls rank their own ‘original’ style, which is avant‐garde and eclectic, over the mass‐produced, imitative fashions‐of‐the‐moment displayed by members of other style groups.

By social closure Weber means the process by which social collectivities seek to maximise rewards by restricting access to resources and opportunities to a limited circle of eligibles. This entails the singling out of certain social or physical attributes as the justificatory basis of exclusion. (Parkin, 1979, p. 44)     

Beneficial effects of self-affirmation on motivation and performance reduced in students hungry for others’ approval

Researchers have suggested that the self-affirmation intervention may motivate students to approach a challenging task and improve their performance. However, we posited that self-affirmation may not be beneficial for students whose self-esteem is based more on others’ approval (i.e., having high others’ approval contingencies of self-worth; OACSW). This is because the main motive for undertaking a challenging task among high OACSW students may be to obtain others’ approval and increase self-esteem. Being self-affirmed may increase high OACSW students’ sense of self-integrity, satisfying this motive, and thus cause them to perceive a lower value in undertaking the task. Consequently, high OACSW students would be less inclined to undertake the task and would not perform more favorably on it after being self-affirmed. In support of this hypothesis, the results of Experiment 1 (value affirmation) and Experiment 2 (attribute affirmation) showed that for high school students who did not receive self-affirmation, OACSW tended to be positively associated with their tendencies to confront a challenging task and their performance. However, for self-affirmed participants, the positive relationships between OACSW and both their tendencies to confront the task and performance flattened, and even went negative, mainly through a reduction of perceived value in confronting the task. Potential underlying mechanisms and implications are discussed.     

Lie-telling as a mode of antisocial action: Children’s lies and behavior problems

Despite the fact that lie-telling is a common concern among parents, clinicians, and professionals, there has been little systematic investigation of the lies that children tell in relation to their problematic behaviors, nor of other social factors that may influence this relation. This study explored the relation between children’s problem behaviors and their lie-telling in two studies. The first examined whether children would tell an antisocial lie to an unfamiliar adult to conceal cheating behavior. The second analyzed the relation between children’s problem behaviors, parenting styles, and the frequency of lies reported by parents over two weeks at home. Results suggest that children with higher levels of behavior problems are more likely to tell an antisocial lie to an unfamiliar adult and have a higher frequency of parent-reported lies. Results also indicate that parenting approaches moderate the relation between behavior problems and the frequency of lies that parents report.     

The effect of increasing written approval on Italian students’ academic performance in higher education

Increasing teacher verbal approval has been shown to produce both increased pupil “on-task” behaviour and academic achievement. The present study aimed to address gaps in current knowledge about the effect of different kinds of teacher approval, other than verbal approval, on students’ performance. An exploratory study, followed by an experimental study, was conducted with Italian undergraduate psychology students in order to investigate the effect of written approval on their academic performance. The results indicate that, whilst there is some suggestion that students appreciated receiving increased written approval comments on their work, the receipt of such comments was accompanied by poorer academic performance than that of a control group. Possible explanations are presented.     

The effect of an informal science intervention on middle school girls’ science affinities

This study investigates the impact of an informal science outreach programme built around theories of identity formation and self-efficacy on middle school girls’ science affinities. A lottery-based, randomised control trial was used to identify programme effects on four science affinity outcomes: science interests, efficacy with science, science attitudes, and science identity. A multivariate analysis of variance demonstrated that programme participants scored higher than their control group peers on weighted composite of post-programme affinity indicators. These results suggest that informal science education may offer a venue through which to support the formation of science identities and efficacy in girls. Implications for including psychosocial support elements into science classroom pedagogy and science education standards are discussed.     

Capabilities and the global challenges of girls’ school enrolment and women’s literacy

The education Millennium Development Goals have been highly influential on the priorities for education and concentrated policy efforts on numbers of girls enrolled in public sector schools offering basic education. This focus has been justified by human capital calculations of the social rates of return to basic schooling. This concern with quantities has met criticism from more qualitative researchers concerned with understanding not only why girls are not enrolled in school, but also why they may be irregular attenders and poor performers in public examinations even if they are enrolled. Alongside the efforts to achieve the education Millennium Development Goals have been initiatives to improve adult women’s literacies, often combined with an empowerment objective. This paper uses Sen’s capability approach to argue that improving deliberative processes is relevant for the well-being of girls and women of all ages.     

‘Life is a tightrope’: reflections on peer group inclusion and exclusion amongst adolescent girls and boys

Feeling part of one’s peer group is of crucial importance for most middle adolescents. Drawing on empirical research in different schools, this paper explores the components of exclusion in relation to gender, the consequences for those excluded by their peers, and the kinds of strategies engaged in by girls and boys in order to attain peer group acceptance.     

An examination of the relative age effect in developmental girls’ hockey in Ontario

The relative age effect (RAE) suggests that athletes may be provided with greater opportunities for success depending on the position of their birthdate in a sport’s selection year. While the effect has been well established in men’s sports, less is known about women’s sports. This study examined the RAE in developmental girls’ hockey in Ontario. Relative age, player position, age division, and level of play were provided by the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association for 36,555 registrants. Older players were over-represented, and younger players under-represented across all age divisions and levels of play. This suggests that the RAE is present in developmental girls’ hockey, the magnitude of which varies with level of play and player position.     

Children’s first manifestations of cognitive control in the early years school: the importance of the educational situation and materiality

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Executive functions (EFs) embrace a range of cognitive control processes that allow us to control and direct our own behavior, thoughts, and emotions...     

Do `Skills Beget Skills'? Evidence on the effect of kindergarten entrance age on the evolution of cognitive and non-cognitive skill gaps in childhood

We use exogenous variation in the skills that children have at the beginning of kindergarten to measure the extent to which “skills beget skills” in this context. Children who are relatively older when they begin kindergarten score higher on measures of cognitive and non-cognitive achievement at the beginning of kindergarten. Their scores on cognitive assessments grow faster during kindergarten and first grade. However, after first grade the scores of younger entrants catch up. We find no evidence that the growth in non-cognitive measures differs between older and younger entrants. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that schools are not the cause of the younger students’ faster growth after first grade.     

Harsh parenting and adolescent aggression: Adolescents’ effortful control as the mediator and parental warmth as the moderator

Although researchers have examined the potential contribution of harsh parenting to child aggression, they have rarely explored how one parent’s harsh discipline could interact with warmth by another parent to affect child aggression. We sought to clarify whether the impact of harsh parenting by one parent on child effortful control could be buffered by warmth of the other parent, further reducing the likelihood of child aggression. 867 adolescents were chosen from two public middle schools situated in Jinan, the provincial city in Northern China. Data were gathered with adolescents reporting effortful control, their parents reporting harsh parenting, and their classmates nominating aggressive peers. A moderated mediation model was used to test the mediating and moderating hypotheses. Results indicated that adolescent effortful control partially mediated the relation of harsh fathering to adolescent aggression and completely mediated the relation of harsh mothering to adolescent aggression. Moreover, harsh fathering was only negatively associated with effortful control among adolescents with low maternal warmth and harsh mothering was only negatively associated with effortful control among adolescents with low paternal warmth, thus lowering the risk for aggression. The main conclusion is that harsh parenting by one parent could only indirectly impact on adolescent aggression via the mediator of effortful control only for adolescents with low warmth by the other parent. Our findings add to extant understandings on how different parenting practices by both parents may interact to influence children’s aggressive behaviors.     

Effects of biology teachers’ professional knowledge and cognitive activation on students’ achievement

This study examined the effects of teachers’ biology-specific dimensions of professional knowledge – pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and content knowledge (CK) – and cognitively activating biology instruction, as a feature of instructional quality, on students’ learning. The sample comprised 39 German secondary school teachers whose lessons on the topic neurobiology were videotaped twice. Teachers’ instruction was coded with regard to cognitive activation using a rating manual. Multilevel path analysis results showed a positive significant effect of cognitive activation on students’ learning and an indirect effect of teachers’ PCK on students’ learning mediated through cognitive activation. These findings highlight the importance of PCK in preservice biology teachers’ education. Items of the rating manual may be used to provide exemplars of concrete teaching situations during university seminars for preservice teacher education or professional development initiatives for in-service teachers.     

Science teachers’ perceptions of the appeal of science subjects to boys and girls

Science teachers’ perceptions of the type of subject that appeals to 14 year old pupils were investigated using bi‐polar semantic differential rating scales. It was found that science teachers believe that boys and girls prefer significantly different subject characteristics. Teachers’ beliefs about the subject characteristics preferred by boys are closer to the perceived characteristics of school science, as judged on the same semantic differential scales, than is the case for girls. Teachers perceive the characteristics of school science to be much less attractive to girls. A comparison between the responses from groups of science teachers and pupils revealed that teachers believe that boys’ and girls’ preferences for subject characteristics are more dissimilar than they actually are. Girls’ preferences are closer to those of boys and to the characteristics associated with school science than teachers realize.     

Exploring French adolescents’ and adults’ comprehension of the greenhouse effect

The aim of the present study was to gain an insight into French young people’s conceptual development regarding the greenhouse effect. Because this effect cannot be directly manipulated, we can assume that its conceptualization is mainly shaped through the sharing of information. Eighty French students from Grade Seven through to adulthood responded to statements in a questionnaire on the greenhouse effect’s causes, consequences and solutions. Unlike in previous studies, participants were asked to justify their choices, as some of the statements were quite complex. Results showed that performances improved with grade, mainly between Grade Nine and adulthood, although participants continued to have a weaker grasp of the causes of the greenhouse effect than of its consequences and solutions. Participants’ justifications also showed that they misunderstood some of the statements.