A latent profile analysis of college students’ achievement goal orientation

Achievement goal research has grown increasingly complex with the number of proposed goal orientations that motivate students. As the number of proposed goal constructs proliferates, a variety of data analytic challenges have emerged, such as profiling students on different types of goal pursuit as well as evaluating the relationships of multiple goal pursuit with different educational outcomes. The purpose of the current article is to showcase the advantages of using latent profile analysis (LPA) over other traditional techniques (such as multiple regression and cluster analysis) when analyzing multidimensional data like achievement goals. Specifically, we review the advantages of LPA over traditional person- and variable-centered analyses and then provide a critical look at three different conceptualizations of goal orientation (2-, 3-, and 4-factor) using LPA.     

Topoi and literary interpretation: The effects of a critical reading and writing intervention on high school students’ analytic literary essays

Literary scholars use specific critical lenses called topoi (Fahnestock & Secor, 1991) to read literature and write their interpretations of these texts. Literary topoi are used in the discourse of modern college literature classrooms (Wilder, 2002) and are associated with higher grades in students’ literature classes ( [Wilder, 2002] and [Wilder, 2005] ). However, research shows that high school students are generally unable to justify their literary interpretations (Marshall, 2000). In this study, six high school students were taught a strategy to recognize and use topoi to form an interpretation of literature, and then write an argument to support that interpretation. Three of the students were taught to recognize repeated examples of single patterns of symbolism and imagery that support a theme, i.e., the ubiquity topos. The other three were taught to recognize opposing patterns of symbolism and imagery that support a theme, i.e., the paradox topos. All participants were then taught to form arguments based on the topoi, to utilize direct quotations to back their arguments, and to write “tie-in sentences” that link the quotations to the writers’ arguments. Instruction about these topoi resulted in higher quality argumentative essays that provided more textual evidence to support their literary interpretations.     

A review and evaluation of the internal structure and consistency of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory

ABSTRACT

This study presents a review from 39 studies that provide evidence for the structural validity and internal consistency of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI). In addition to this review, we evaluate many alternative factor structures on a sample of 267 first- and second-year chemistry faculty members participating in a professional development, a sample of instructors for which the ATI was originally designed. A total of 26 unique factor structures were evaluated. Through robust checking of assumptions, compilations of existing evidence, and new exploratory and confirmatory analyses, we found that there is greater evidence for the structural validity and internal consistency for the 22-item ATI than the 16-item ATI. Additionally, evidence supporting the original two-factor and four-factor structures proposed by the ATI authors (focusing on information transmission and conceptual change) were not reproducible and while alternative models were empirically viable, more theoretical justification is warranted. Recommendations for ATI use and general comments regarding best practices of reporting psychometrics in educational research contexts are discussed.     

多维度研究三十年发展综述和方法详介

鉴于国内尚无系统论述多维度分析法理论和实施方法的文献,本文介绍了多维度分析法的起源、理论基础和创新之处,综述了三十年来多维度分析法在语域变异、学术语篇变异、方言和性别语言变异、历时语域变异和跨语言变异等多个语言学领域的应用和发展趋势,并详细讲解了多维度分析法的操作方法。本文对多维度分析法的系统阐述有望推动和促进国内多维度研究在多个语言学研究领域的应用和发展。     

College students’ conceptions of context-aware ubiquitous learning: A phenomenographic analysis

The purpose of this study was to explore students’ conceptions of context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning). The students participated in a u-learning exercise using PDAs equipped with RFID readers. The data were collected from individual interviews with each of the students by a trained researcher, and the responses of the interviewees were further analyzed using the phenomenographic method. The analysis revealed five categories of conceptions of u-learning, including “u-learning as the application of technology,” “u-learning as a platform for attaining information,” “u-learning as a timely guide,” “u-learning as increase of knowledge” and “u-learning as active learning.” There conceptions are viewed as a hierarchy, from less advanced to more sophisticated. An in-depth analysis of the students’ conceptions of learning indicated that students held multiple conceptions of u-learning. This study further suggests that inquiry practices (such as allowing open-ended exploration for the learning topic) should be addressed in u-learning activities, as these practices may foster more sophisticated conceptions of u-learning.     

A Bourdieusian rebuttal to Bourdieu’s rebuttal: social network analysis,regression, and methodological breakthroughs

Abstract

Bourdieu carved out a distinctive analytical niche for his reflexive sociology. His epistemological tool of field analysis, sometimes coupled with statistical correspondence analysis, is particularly powerful when deciphering the matrix of objective structures and subjective structures within social spaces (field) where agents vie for positions (capital), strategise dispositions (habitus), and negotiate practices. When grappling with the inner workings of the social world and the logic of practice within the social world, Bourdieu favours his field theory over network theory and considers correspondence analysis to be superior to regression analysis. In this paper, I argue that Bourdieu’s canonical theory-laden analytical framework does not exclude other methodological approaches. Indeed, Bourdieu himself argues against ‘methodological monotheism’. I therefore make an attempt to develop a Bourdieusian approach to Social Network Analysis (SNA) and regression analysis, despite Bourdieu’s explicit rebuttal to these methodological schools. To this end, I first review Bourdieu’s rebuttal to network analysis and regression analysis. I then tentatively incorporate SNA and regression into Bourdieu’s analytical framework. This is followed by an example of using SNA and regression in Bourdieusian research conducted in a Chinese educational context. In this vein, I engage with a Bourdieusian rebuttal to Bourdieu’s rebuttal.     

The effect of class composition by gender and ability on secondary school students’ school well-being and academic self-concept: A literature review

In the field of educational effectiveness research, the influence of a class’ student body on students’ individual achievement scores has been a popular research interest for many years. Yet, few studies have focussed on the effects of class composition on students’ non-achievement outcomes, and up to now, hardly any attempts have been made to summarize the findings of previous studies on this topic by conducting a literature review. The current study tries to fill in this gap and focuses on the effects of class composition in secondary education in terms of ability and gender on students’ school well-being and academic self-concept. The results of this literature review indicate that ability grouping is beneficial for strong students’ school well-being, but rather detrimental for the school well-being of weak students. The reverse holds for students’ academic self-concept. Furthermore, our results show that single-sex classes are advantageous for girls’ school well-being and academic self-concept. As for boys, the results are inconclusive.     

Teaching supply chain risk management in the COVID‐19 Age: A review and classroom exercise

The COVID‐19 pandemic has undoubtedly affected every corner of the world in 2020. It has also emphasized the importance of managing supply chain risk and developing an agile supply chain. Supply chain management instructors will likely want to introduce risk management concepts and strategies into their courses to raise their students' sensitivity to the impact of supply chain disruptions. Unfortunately there is currently a dearth of coverage of supply chain disruptions and risk management in the major supply chain management text books as well as in the broader library of supply chain management pedagogical research publications. To help to close this gap in the literature for instructors, we have developed a reading and set of related discussion questions and exercises that detail the causes of the shortage in toilet paper during the pandemic and short‐ and long‐term strategies to make the supply chain more resilient in the future. By focusing on a disruption students likely experienced first‐hand, they can develop a more nuanced understanding of the complexity and interconnectedness of supply chain functions in providing products and services to customers.     

Meta‐analysis and mega‐analysis: A simple introduction

Statistical methods are increasingly being used to integrate findings from the ever‐expanding universe of empirical research. Meta‐analysis encompasses various techniques for synthesizing summary statistics, and mega‐analysis pools raw data across studies. This paper offers an introduction to meta‐analysis and mega‐analysis that complements the study of analysis of variance (ANOVA). After a brief conceptual discussion, we provide simple numerical examples.     

Environmental and sustainability education policy research: a systematic review of methodological and thematic trends

This paper reports on a systematic literature review of policy research in the area of environmental and sustainability education. We analyzed 215 research articles, spanning four decades and representing 71 countries, and which engaged a range of methodologies. Our analysis combines quantification of geographic and methodological trends with qualitative analysis of content-based themes. Significant findings included temporal spikes in published policy research occurring in the mid-1970s, late 1990s, and after 2005, as well as geographic under-representation of Africa, South and Central America, Eastern Europe, and North and West Asia. The majority of articles reviewed were non-empirical; empirical articles overwhelmingly focused on teaching and learning directives, rather than exploring the complexity of policy development or enactment. We conclude our analysis by describing key research gaps as highlighted by the review and propose directions for moving forward policy research in environmental and sustainability education. In particular, we suggest greater research attention to critical policy theory and methodology, issues of intersectionality, and climate change education policy research. By outlining in greater detail the policy research that has been undertaken to date, the review provides a platform for a broadened diversity of policy studies in environmental and sustainability education.     

A methodological review of systematic literature reviews in higher education: Heterogeneity and homogeneity

The field of higher education research has bourgeoned in the past decades, addressing a wide range of topics. Being in a rapidly expanding and interdisciplinary field of research, higher education scholars have demonstrated exigency for aggregating research findings to map the research landscape, identify future research directions, and bridge the research-practice divide. In this connection, systematic literature reviews have been carried out to consolidate research findings. With a proliferation of systematic literature reviews in higher education, the aim of this meta, methodological review is to provide a state-of-the-art systematic literature review methodologies in the field of higher education. Adhering to the exploratory nature of this study, this review analyses systematic literature reviews published in 16 top-tiered international journals in higher education (n = 160). Through qualitative research synthesis using thematic analysis and informed by grounded theory, a methodological framework comprising six stages and 20 steps is developed, which might help to instigate methodological dialogue between researchers when it comes to conducting systematic literature reviews. A handy checklist for conducting and evaluating systematic literature reviews in higher education is created.     

Fostering citizenship in China's move from elite to mass higher education: An analysis of students’ political socialization and civic participation

This study examines the patterns and interplay of college students’ political orientations and socialization toward citizenship and civil society in the Chinese sociopolitical context, alongside China's move to mass higher education. Data were collected from a nationwide survey conducted in 12 Chinese universities in 2007. The analytic framework is adapted from the classic comparative studies on civic culture pioneered by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. The policy implications and conclusions made by this paper suggest alternative ways for higher education institutions as civic actors to nurture active citizenship learning, to foster students as reflective and open-minded social agents, and to facilitate the growth of vibrant civil society.     

Research Trends in Science Education from 2008 to 2012: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals

This paper presents the third study of research trends in science education. In this review, a total of 990 papers published in the International Journal of Science Education, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and Science Education from 2008 to 2012 were analyzed. The results indicate that in the recent five years (2008–2012), the top three research topics in the published papers were those regarding the context of students' learning, science teaching, and students' conceptual learning. The changes in the most popular research topics in the past 15 years also evidentially indicate shifts in the journals' preferences and researchers' interest. For example, in 2003–2007, context of students' learning replaced students' conceptual learning, which was the most published research topic from 1998 to 2002. The research topic of students' learning contexts continued to rank the first in 2008–2012. Moreover, there was an increasing trend of research papers regarding science teaching from 1998 to 2012. The analysis of highly cited papers revealed that research topics such as argumentation, inquiry-based learning, and scientific modeling were recently highlighted by science educators. In recent 15 years, productive researchers' publications also focused on the topics about context of students' learning, science teaching, and students' conceptual learning.     

Intertextual content analysis: an approach for analysing text-related discussions with regard to movability in reading and how text content is handled

Reading and discussing texts as a means for learning subject content are regular features within educational contexts. This paper presents an approach for intertextual content analysis (ICA) of such text-related discussions revealing what the participants make of the text. Thus, in contrast to many other approaches for analysing conversation that focus essentially on the interaction per se, ICA takes the text as its starting point. Drawing on the concept of text movability and systemic-functional cohesion analyses, the approach combines a reader’s perspective and a text perspective to show the participants’ reception of the text, and also what and how text content is brought into the conversation and how it is handled. In the paper, ICA is described with regard to its theoretical underpinnings, usage and utility. It is suggested that the approach provides educational researchers with an analytical tool that allows detailed ICAs of text-related classroom discussion. Findings may ultimately lead to pedagogical implications with a bearing on classroom practice.     

SCIIENCE: The creation and pilot implementation of an NGSS-based instrument to evaluate early childhood science teaching

This paper describes the development, testing and implementation of the Systematic Characterization of Inquiry Instruction in Early LearNing Classroom Environments (SCIIENCE). The SCIIENCE instrument was designed to capture best practices outlined in the National Research Council's Framework for K-12 Science Education as they occur within a science lesson. The goals of the SCIIENCE instrument are to (a) assess the quality of science instruction in PK-3 classrooms, (b) capture teacher behaviors and instructional practices that engage students in the lesson, promote scientific studies, encourage higher-level thinking, and (c) provide a feedback mechanism for guiding professional development of PK-3 teachers. Science educators can apply this instrument to teacher behaviors and use the data to improve classroom inquiry instructional methodology.     

Validity evidence for the Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ) in evaluations of quality learning: A systematic critical literature review

The use of the Experiences of Teaching & Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ) for the evaluation of learning quality in higher education has been expanding during the last decade, thus a review of the instrument’s validity evidence is warranted. The design of the study was a systematic critical literature review. We evaluated the strength of the validity evidence of 17 included studies with a quality appraisal framework reflecting current standards for educational testing. The evidence supporting the central validity assumptions of the ETLQ scales is currently weak to moderate and incomplete. Thus, caution against the uncritical use of ETQL scores for high-stakes educational decisions is warranted. The appraisal framework used was useful for creating an overview of the evidence. However, attention to more general aspects of study quality, and consensus deliberations with three to four raters was also important for sufficiently reliable appraisal of the evidence.     

A systematic review of self‐regulation strategies to improve academic outcomes of students with EBD

Self‐regulatory interventions have demonstrated numerous benefits for helping improve the academic performance of students. The purpose of this review was to report on the effectiveness and focus of academic self‐regulation interventions for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. Thirty‐six studies published in 35 papers and involving 189 participants met inclusionary criteria. Overall, self‐regulation interventions showed moderate/medium effect size gains [percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) 75%; standard mean difference (SMD) 2.27; Tau‐U 0.81] across academic subject areas. When assessing the effectiveness of self‐regulation interventions for addressing specific academic content areas, the largest ES gains were observed in reading (PND 93%; SMD 2.13; Tau‐U 0.94), although medium/moderate ES gains were observed in math (PND 71%; SMD 2.08; Tau‐U 0.70) and writing (PND 83%; SMD 2.57; Tau‐U 0.91). Self‐regulated strategy development, self‐monitoring interventions and strategy instruction were the predominant types of self‐regulation techniques implemented by researchers. There was evidence to support a claim of the generalisation and maintenance of findings. Implications, limitations and areas for future research are discussed.