The effect of effort grading on learning

In the fall of 2004, Benedict College – a Historically Black College in Columbia, SC – began enforcing a new grading policy called Success Equals Effort (SE²). Under this policy, students taking freshman and sophomore level courses were assigned grades that explicitly rewarded not only content learning (“knowledge” grade) but also measures of effort (“effort” grade). This paper examines the effects of effort grading using two stage least squares and fixed effect estimates. I find evidence of a strong positive correlation between “effort” grades and “knowledge” grades. Under some restrictions this relationship can be interpreted as “effort” producing “knowledge”.     

Learning from video: Factors influencing learners' preconceptions and invested mental effort

Explored in this article are factors that influence learners' preconceptions of television, the mental effort they invest in processing a video-based lesson, and their achievement. It is proposed that learners' preconceptions of the effort required by a medium directly influence the amount of effort they invest in processing a lesson presented through that medium, and that the amount of mental effort learners invest in a mediated lesson influences the quantity and quality of the information they gain from the lesson. Factors that influence learners' preconceptions and mental effort include the characteristics of the media, the characteristics of the task, and the characteristics of the learners. Research findings regarding learners' preconceptions of television and the mental effort expended in processing a video-based lesson are reviewed. Practical implications and issues for future research that arise from the literature are identified.     

Comparisons of achievement, effort, and self-perceptions among students with learning disabilities and their peers from different achievement groups

This study compared the social-emotional implications of academic achievement for students with and without learning disabilities (LD) and identified predictors of effort investment. Students with LD showed lower levels of achievement, effort investment, academic self-efficacy, sense of coherence, positive mood, and hope, and higher levels of loneliness and negative mood. When compared to peers without LD (n = 447) at four different academic achievement levels, students with LD showed higher achievement than the low-average group, but their social-emotional profiles were similar to the low and low-average groups. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that achievement, academic self-efficacy, negative mood, and hope predicted effort investment for students with LD. These results demonstrated the importance of hope in understanding the functioning of students with LD.     

不同产地金银花挥发性成分的研究

对不同产地金银花挥发性化学成分进行研究.采用同时蒸馏萃取法(SDE)提取金银花的挥发油.经气相色谱-质谱联用技术鉴定各色谱峰的化学成分,用峰面积归一化确定各化学成分相对含量.实验选用的6产地金银花样品中,辽宁、宁夏、安徽、江西金银花的相同成分相对较多,但在相对百分含量上仍有较大差异;山东、云南金银花挥发油含量及类别较其它地区差异性较大.辽宁、安徽金银花挥发性成分中苯乙醇相对含量最高,分别为17.07％和15.75％;宁夏、江西金银花挥发性成分中棕榈酸相对含量最高,分别为23.46％和11.58％;山东金银花挥发性成分中柠檬烯相对含量最高为16.83％;云南金银花挥发性成分中3,7-二甲基-1,6-辛二烯-3-醇相对含量最高为29.13％.     

英语学习过程中的心理问题探讨

心理健康教育越来越受到重视。学生在英语学习过程中出现焦虑恐惧、自信心不足、缺乏冒险精神等心理健康问题。产生问题的原因在于英语学习动机不端正、缺乏毅力、性格内向、学习注意力不集中、缺乏远大理想等。应从认识学习重要性、培养毅力、树立信心等方面入手,减少学习压力,真正调动学生的英语学习热情。     

Effects of performance feedback valence on perceptions of invested mental effort

We investigated whether the valence of performance feedback provided after a task, would affect participants’ perceptions of how much mental effort they invested in that same task. In three experiments, we presented participants with problem-solving tasks and manipulated the presence and valence of feedback between conditions (no, positive, or negative feedback valence), prior to asking them to rate how much mental effort they invested in solving that problem. Across the three experiments–with different problem-solving tasks and participant populations–we found that subjective ratings of effort investment were significantly higher after negative than after positive feedback; ratings given without feedback fell in between. These findings show that feedback valence alters perceived effort investment (possibly via task perceptions or affect), which can be problematic when effort is measured as an indicator of cognitive load. Therefore, it seems advisable to measure mental effort directly after each task, before giving feedback on performance.     

Effective investment in women's futures: Schooling with learning

Women's schooling has long been regarded as one of the best investments in development. Yet countries vary widely in the extent to which a year of schooling conveys useful skills and knowledge and hence schooling and education cannot be treated as synonyms. Using two different cross-nationally comparable data sets which contain measures of schooling, assessments of literacy, and life outcomes for more than 50 countries we show the association of women's education, defined as schooling and the acquisition of literacy, with four life outcomes (fertility, child mortality, empowerment, and financial practices) is much larger than the standard estimates of the gains from schooling alone. In our preferred instrumental variables (IV) estimates, that correct for the attenuation bias induced by measurement error, the gain from education is more than 3 times larger than the standard OLS estimates of gains from schooling alone. While our results are not causal estimates, if anything like our results are true in the causal pathways whereby schooling and learning lead to improvements in women's well-being this implies the estimates of the costs and benefits of expansions in grade attainment versus improving learning need to be adjusted accordingly.     

Learning from split-attention materials: Effects of teaching physical and mental learning strategies

Learners learn more from spatially separated text and pictures after they have been instructed to physically integrate these sources than without such an instruction. We investigated whether instructing learners to mentally integrate textual and pictorial information would yield similar results. Eighty-seven participants studied a picture with accompanying text about an electrical circuit. Text and picture were presented as spatially separated sources or in an integrated format. In the separated format, participants were instructed to use (1) a mental learning strategy, (2) a physical learning strategy, or (3) no learning strategy. Participants in the separated condition using a mental learning strategy and the integrated condition obtained higher recall and comprehension (but not causal inference) performance than participants in the separate conditions with the physical- or no learning strategy. This indicates that instructing learners to mentally integrate spatially separated text and pictures when studying split-attention material can be an effective learning strategy.     

Investigating learning from informal sources: Listening to conversations and observing play in science museums

The knowledge that pupils bring to science lessons can come from many sources, including some that are deliberately educative and some that contain scientific information, although education is not necessarily their primary purpose. Museums provide a useful setting to investigate the process of learning from informal sources; samples of data obtained from listening to groups of people as they interact with different types of exhibit in the British Museum (Natural History), and from systematic observation of pupils investigating phenomena in the Discovery Room at the Parc de la Villette, illustrate the information that can be obtained.

     

The differential impact of observational learning and practice-based learning on the development of oral presentation skills in higher education

The present study focuses on the design and evaluation of an innovative instructional approach to developing oral presentation skills. The intervention builds on the observational learning theoretical perspective. This perspective is contrasted with the traditional training and practice approach. Two sequencing approaches – learners starting with observational learning versus learners starting with practice opportunities only – were compared. It was hypothesised that learners starting with observational learning would outperform learners in the practice only condition. The results suggest a significant differential impact on development of oral presentation skills. This impact of the observational learning training approach is only found in a limited number of evaluation criteria. Results additionally suggest that students are highly motivated to learn this type of skill. Interaction effects between student characteristics and instructional interventions were not significant.     

Teaching strategies and differential effectiveness across learning contexts: Evidence from PISA 2012

Modern educational theories emphasise effectiveness enhancing factors at the classroom level and differential effectiveness for sub-groups of students and across different learning contexts. Theoretical developments, however, are generally based on national evidence and have been criticised for lacking cross-cultural perspectives. This study used PISA 2012 data to examine how subject-specific teaching strategies related to mathematics performance of students across education systems whilst considering curvilinear associations and interactions with the socio-economic and instructional context. The results provide consistent evidence of a positive curvilinear relationship between cognitive activation strategies and mathematics performance. The association tends to be stronger in schools with a positive disciplinary climate and for students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds, but not in every education system. Teacher-directed strategies are positively related to mathematics performance, but the association tends to become negative for high levels of teacher-directed instruction. Associations of student-oriented strategies with mathematics performance are inconsistent. The cross-national evidence contributes to the knowledge base of educational theory.     

Dynamic mental models in learning science: The importance of constructing derivational linkages among models

We present a theory of learning in science based on students deriving conceptual linkages among multiple models which represent physical phenomena at different levels of abstraction. The models vary in the primitive objects and interactions they incorporate and in the reasoning processes that are used in running them. Students derive linkages among models by running a model (embodied in an interactive computer simulation) and reflecting on its emergent behaviors. The emergent properties they identify in turn become the primitive elements of the more abstract, derived model. We describe and illustrate derivational links among three models for basic electricity: a particle model, an aggregate model, and an algebraic model. We then present results of an instructional experiment in which we compared high school students who were exposed to these model derivations with those who were not. In all other respects, both groups of students received identical instruction. The results demonstrate the importance of enabling students to construct derivational linkages among models, both with respect to their understanding of circuit theory and their ability to solve qualitative and quantitative circuit problems. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 806–836, 1999     

Behavioral and associative effects of differential outcomes in discrimination learning

The role of the reinforcer in instrumental discriminations has often been viewed as that of facilitating associative learning between a reinforced response and the discriminative stimulus that occasions it. The differential-outcome paradigm introduced by Trapold (1970), however, has provided compelling evidence that reinforcers are also part of what is learned in discrimination tasks. Specifically, when the availability of different reinforcing outcomes is signaled by different discriminative stimuli, the conditioned anticipation of those outcomes can provide another source of stimulus control over responding. This article reviews how such control develops and how it can be revealed, its impact on behavior, and different possible mechanisms that could mediate the behavioral effects. The main conclusion is that differential-outcome effects are almost entirely explicable in terms of the cue properties of outcome expectancies—namely, that conditioned expectancies acquire discriminative control just like any other discriminative or conditional stimulus in instrumental learning.     

Mental effort and video-based learning: The relationship of preconceptions and the effects of interactive and covert practice

Recommendations for the design of interactive video materials are often based on the premise that interactive video may overcome learners' preconceptions of television as “easy.” This study investigated learner preconceptions of the difficulty of interactive video, instructional television, and television, and examined the effects of actively or covertly responding to practice questions on perceived mental effort, recall, and inferences. Seventy-one undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing their preconceptions of the difficulty of the three media, received their treatment, completed a questionnaire assessing perceived mental effort, then completed a recall and inference posttest. Before the lesson, the learners perceived it to be significantly easier to learn from interactive video than from instructional television and television, and significantly easier to learn from instructional television than from television. There were no significant differences in the mental effort ratings or inference scores among the three groups. The interactive video group recalled significantly more information than the television group. Possible reasons for findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

The effects of deeper learning opportunities on student achievement: Examining differential pathways

This study investigates relations between cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal opportunities, noncognitive outcomes, and student achievement in 1,096 students from 20 high schools (10 Deeper Learning [DL] network, 10 control) who participated in the Study of DL (SDL). DL is an umbrella term used to encompass the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills and knowledge that students need to be successful in school and the workforce. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test a theoretical model that hypothesizes plausible pathways between DL opportunities to interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cognitive outcomes. Further, a multigroup structural equation modeling examined differences in these relations between DL and matched nonnetwork schools. Cognitive and intrapersonal opportunities were related to both interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes. Further, cognitive opportunities were indirectly related to student achievement through interpersonal outcomes. Similar patterns of relations were found in DL and control schools. This study helps to build a stronger understanding of how types of DL opportunities and strategies can best develop the complex skills that students need to be successful in school and can also be used to inform future intervention designs and research studies.     

不同家庭背景的大学新生心理健康状况之差异研究

目的:考察不同家庭生活背景的大学新生心理健康状况的差异,为有针对性地开展大学新生的心理健康教育提供参考依据.方法:采用"症状自评量表"(SCL—90)对某地方高校新生做心理健康状况调查,从家居环境(城镇或农村)、子女构成(是否独生子女)、家庭关系状况、家庭收入状况、母亲文化程度、母亲职业类型等家庭背景因素对大学新生的心理健康状况做差异研究.结果:家住城镇学生的心理健康水平大大高于农村学生(P<0.001);独生子女学生的心理比非独生子女学生更健康(P<0.001);家庭的人际关系越和谐,学生的心理健康水平越高(P<0.001);家贫学生在抑郁、焦虑、敌对等方面比家庭收入较高的学生严重(P(0.01);学生的心理健康问题严重性与母亲职业类型、母亲文化程度息息相关(P<0.001),母亲职业类型越好、文化程度越高,学生的心理健康水平越高.结论:大学新生的心理健康状况依家庭背景因素的不同而呈现显著差异,大学心理健康教育要加强家庭联系,针对差异作出合适的对策.