Why learning environment matters? An analysis on how the learning environment influences the academic motivation,learning strategies and engagement of college students

Learning Environments Research - The current work focused on how the learning environment of college students influenced their academic motivation, choice of learning strategies, and level of...     

The relationship between engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning and students’ course experiences

While there has been a good deal of discussion about the scholarship of teaching and learning, and models have been developed to understand its scope, the effects on students’ learning of academics engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning are unclear. In the context of initiatives to develop the scholarship of teaching and learning in a large research‐intensive university in Australia, this paper discusses the relationship between faculty performance on a set of scholarly accomplishments in relation to teaching and learning from 2002 to 2004, and changes in students’ course experiences from 2001 to 2005. The paper provides evidence of the relationship between the scholarship of teaching and learning and students’ course experiences and demonstrates the effectiveness of institutional strategies to encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning.     

Does self-determination predict the school engagement of four different motivation types in adolescence?

In order to enhance our understanding of inter-individual differences in scholastic motivation, this study examined if self-determination predicts the school engagement of four different motivation types (MT) in a large sample of adolescent students (N = 1088) from Brandenburg, Germany: (1) peer-dependent MT, (2) teacher-dependent MT, (3) peer-and-teacher-dependent MT and (4) peer-and-teacher-independent MT. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), the four types were first compared on latent variables (perceived self-determination and school engagement) and then, a latent multigroup SEM was conducted to test whether self-determination (competence, relatedness and autonomy) would predict emotional and behavioural school engagement separately by MT. The findings underscore the relevance of the typology as well as important inter-individual differences in the association between students’ psychological needs (competence, relatedness and autonomy) and their school engagement.     

The effects of college students’ positive thinking,learning motivation and self-regulation through a self-reflection intervention in Taiwan

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a self-reflection intervention on college (college in this article refers to university-level education) students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation in Taiwan. One hundred and two college students were selected to participate in an 18-week intervention forming the experimental group (EG) which emphasized providing main lecture, role-play, self-reflection activity, group discussion and group work. Another 179 college students from two other courses were selected as a comparison group. This study showed that supportive, resourced discussion with peers and instructor, self-reflection activities and assignment as a facilitative agent improved the EG students’ positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation. In addition, three structural equation models revealed that positive thinking had a strong and direct relation to Taiwanese college students’ pretest learning motivation (β?=?.85) and self-regulation (β?=?.77); learning motivation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β?=?.86) and self-regulation (β?=?.81); and self-regulation had a strong and direct relation to students’ pretest positive thinking (β?=?.83) and learning motivation (β?=?.86). Instructional implications and research recommendations are discussed.     

Undergraduate students’ earth science learning: relationships among conceptions,approaches, and learning self-efficacy in Taiwan

In the area of science education research, studies have attempted to investigate conceptions of learning, approaches to learning, and self-efficacy, mainly focusing on science in general or on specific subjects such as biology, physics, and chemistry. However, few empirical studies have probed students’ earth science learning. This study aimed to explore the relationships among undergraduates’ conceptions of, approaches to, and self-efficacy for learning earth science by adopting the structural equation modeling technique. A total of 268 Taiwanese undergraduates (144 females) participated in this study. Three instruments were modified to assess the students’ conceptions of, approaches to, and self-efficacy for learning earth science. The results indicated that students’ conceptions of learning made a significant contribution to their approaches to learning, which were consequently correlated with their learning self-efficacy. More specifically, students with stronger agreement that learning earth science involves applying the knowledge and skills learned to unknown problems were prone to possess higher confidence in learning earth science. Moreover, students viewing earth science learning as understanding earth science knowledge were more likely to adopt meaningful strategies to learn earth science, and hence expressed a higher sense of self-efficacy. Based on the results, practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The role of students’ interests in self-regulated learning: The relationship between students’ interests, learning strategies and causal attributions

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between students’ interests, their use of certain specific learning strategies and causal attributions which they made for their academic achievement. In this manner, we attempted to explore the relationships between some important variables from three different, but connected phases of self-regulated learning: the forethought phase (interests), the performance control phase (learning strategies) and the self-reflective phase (causal attributions). Results confirmed the presumption that learning strategies could be a potential mediator in the relationship between students’ interests and their academic achievement. Also, results indicate that the causal dimension of controllability could have a partial mediating role between students’ academic achievement and their interests. Generally, our findings indicate a dynamic and cyclical nature of learning process — interest is an integral part of this process and it could be conceptualized as both a consequence and an antecedent of cognitive aspects of learning.     

The roles of engagement and competition on learner’s performance and motivation in game-based science learning

Educational technology research and development - In a game-based learning (GBL) environment for seventh-grade students, this study investigated the impact of competition, engagement in games, and...     

The relationship between classroom quality and students’ engagement in secondary school

Student engagement has been identified as an influential mediator between classroom interactional quality and adolescent learning outcomes. This study examined the relationship between classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms. Three dimensions of classroom quality (emotional, organisational and instructional support) and the dimension of student engagement were observed in nine classrooms using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Self-ratings of behavioural engagement were provided by 181 Finnish secondary school students along with their teachers’ ratings of classroom-level student engagement. The results showed, first, that there was variation in both classroom quality and student behavioural engagement between the classrooms. Second, classroom organisational support was associated with observed and with teacher- and student-rated engagement, and instructional support was associated with student-rated and observed engagement. Third, emotional support did not have a direct effect on student engagement but contributed to student engagement indirectly via organisational and instructional support. There were no gender differences with respect to self-reported engagement. Class size had a positive effect on teacher-rated engagement. The results demonstrated specific associations between the domains of classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms.     

The impact of e-learning,gender-groupings and learning pedagogies in biology undergraduate female and male students’ attitudes and achievement

Education and Information Technologies - This study aimed to compare female and male students’ attitudes and achievements within different learning settings determined by e-learning and...     

The effect of flipped learning on EFL students’ writing performance,autonomy, and motivation

Education and Information Technologies - Though flipped learning has positively impacted teaching English writing, its usefulness in developing students’ English writing performance,...     

Middle school students’ learning of mechanics concepts through engagement in different sequences of physical and virtual experiments

ABSTRACT

Physical and virtual experimentation are thought to have different affordances for supporting students’ learning. Research investigating the use of physical and virtual experiments to support students’ learning has identified a variety of, sometimes conflicting, outcomes. Unanswered questions remain about how physical and virtual experiments may impact students’ learning and for which contexts and content areas they may be most effective. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined eighth grade students’ (N?=?100) learning of physics concepts related to pulleys depending on the sequence of physical and virtual labs they engaged in. Five classes of students were assigned to either the: physical first condition (PF) (n?=?55), where students performed a physical pulley experiment and then performed the same experiment virtually, or virtual first condition (VF) (n?=?45), with the opposite sequence. Repeated measures ANOVA’s were conducted to examine how physical and virtual labs impacted students’ learning of specific physics concepts. While we did not find clear-cut support that one sequence was better, we did find evidence that participating in virtual experiments may be more beneficial for learning certain physics concepts, such as work and mechanical advantage. Our findings support the idea that if time or physical materials are limited, using virtual experiments may help students understand work and mechanical advantage.     

Teachers’ estimates of their students’ motivation and engagement: being in synch with students

Being aware of, monitoring and responding constructively to students’ signals of motivation and to students’ signals of engagement represent two important teaching skills. We hypothesised, however, that teachers would better estimate their students’ engagement than they would estimate their students’ motivation. To test this hypothesis, Korean high-school teachers rated three aspects of motivation and four aspects of engagement for each student in their class, while students completed questionnaires to provide referent self-reports of these same aspects of their motivation and engagement. Multi-level analyses showed that, after statistically controlling for the potentially confounding information of student achievement, teachers’ engagement estimates corresponded significantly to their students’ self-reports while their motivation estimate did not. These findings validate teachers’ skill in inferring their students’ classroom engagement and lead to the recommendation that teachers monitor classroom engagement to be in synch with their students during instruction.     

The dynamics of learning engagement and its relationship with teachers’ classroom practices in primary school

The current study was part of a larger project which examined teachers’ classroom practices and relationships with students’ learning engagement in primary-school education in Estonia. The focus was the role of autonomy supportive and structured teaching on learning engagement. Two primary-school teachers and their 46 students were selected for this study. The aim of the study was to explore how teachers’ classroom practices influence students’ learning engagement over two years during grade two and grade four of the educational system. Three trained observers rated classroom practices and students self-reported learning engagement. The results highlight primary students’ high-learning engagement, and did not confirm an expectation that low-autonomy-supportive teaching results in low-learning engagement in primary school.     

The effects of parental involvement on students’ academic self‐efficacy,engagement and intrinsic motivation

This research examined whether various dimensions of parental involvement predicted 10th‐grade students’ motivation (engagement, self‐efficacy towards maths and English, intrinsic motivation towards maths and English) using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS 2002). Results showed that both parents’ educational aspiration for their children and school‐initiated contact with parents on benign school issues had strong positive effects on all five motivational outcomes. On the contrary, parent–school contact concerning students’ school problems was negatively related to all five motivational outcomes investigated in the study. Additionally, parental advising positively predicted students’ academic self‐efficacy in English as well as intrinsic motivation towards English, and family rules for watching television were positively linked to students’ engagement and intrinsic motivation towards both English and maths.     

Do nontask interactions matter? The relationship between nontask sociability of computer supported collaborative learning and learning outcomes

While technological improvements of the computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) have been substantial, its nontask social aspect has not received proportional attention. This study investigates the notion of nontask sociability of CSCL, and identifies its relationship with the students' learning outcomes using the case of an Australian postgraduate programme. Learning outcome is defined as a multiple variable consisting of pedagogical affect, student's interest and perceived learning. Five items were identified for operationalising the nontask sociability. These are ‘finding help’, ‘sense of appealing’, ‘sense of boringness’, ‘sense of interactivity’ and ‘sense of frustration’. In addition, a strong relationship was revealed between nontask sociability and learning outcomes which implies that further attention needs to be given to the nontask aspect of the CSCL interactions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are then discussed.     

The impact of game-based learning (GBL) on students’ motivation,engagement and academic performance on an Arabic language grammar course in higher education

Education and Information Technologies - The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of game-based learning (GBL) on students’ motivation, engagement and academic performance on an...     

Self-regulated learning: the role of motivation,emotion, and use of learning strategies in students’ learning experiences in a self-paced online mathematics course

Enrollment in online remedial mathematics courses has increased in popularity in institutions of higher learning; however, students unskilled in self-regulated learning (SRL) find online remedial mathematics courses particularly challenging. We investigated the role of SRL, specifically motivation, emotion, and learning strategies, in students’ learning experiences in a remedial online mathematics course. With an online survey of 229 college students, we found that student motivation explained a small portion of variance in achievement; whereas student motivation and emotion explained a significant portion of variance in satisfaction. In addition, significant differences in motivation and emotion were found in passing and nonpassing students; however, learning strategies did not influence student achievement and satisfaction. Implications for teaching and learning in self-paced online remedial mathematics courses are discussed.     

eVALUate: an evaluation instrument for measuring students’ perceptions of their engagement and learning outcomes

In the current climate in Australian higher education, quality assurance in university teaching is a priority. In particular, the introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) has refocused attention on universities’ internal student evaluation survey instruments. This paper reports the development, validation and implementation of a new unit survey instrument which prompts students to reflect on what helps their achievement of unit learning outcomes, and to report their levels of motivation, engagement and overall satisfaction with a semester‐long course or unit of study. The instrument (eVALUate) was created from precepts reported in the research literature, current practices in evaluating teaching, and sound quality assurance practices appropriate to a university outcomes‐focused education paradigm.     

The roles of writing knowledge,motivation, strategic behaviors,and skills in predicting elementary students’ persuasive writing from source material

Reading and Writing - A core tenet of the model of domain learning is that learning is shaped by cognitive and motivational forces. In writing, these catalysts include learners’ knowledge,...     

The complexity of the learning and teaching of EFL among Swedish‐minority students in bilingual Finland

In Finland, English is widely visible outside the school context, above all in the area of entertainment and mass media, and is no longer regarded as a foreign language in the old sense of the word. Among Swedish‐minority students in Finland, the dominant status of English in various mass media leads to positive attitudes towards English among students and provides strong motivation to acquire the language. This paper considers whether the incidental learning of English taking place outside the classroom results in the same kind of proficiency as that resulting from formal classroom learning.