Goal importance and students at risk of having language difficulties: an underexplored aspect of student motivation

The purpose of this study was to compare the motivational determinants of students at risk of language difficulties (in reading and spelling) and students with high language skills. Teachers' evaluations in language and mathematics at the end of the academic year constituted the dependent variable. Motivational orientations were examined using the constructs that reflect the theory of planned behavior and goal importance. Participants were 202 elementary school students-22 at risk of language difficulties and 180 with high language skills-drawn from 30 elementary schools in northern Greece. The results indicated that the two groups differed significantly, with the at-risk students exhibiting significantly lower perceptions of goal importance, intention to achieve, belief strength, outcome evaluation, and normative beliefs, and eventually scoring lower in language and mathematics at the end of the academic year. A finer analysis of students' motivational orientations was conducted using covariance structural modeling (CSM) and EQS 5.7b. The planned behavior model with goal importance produced a comparative fit index (CFI) of 1.00 in language and mathematics for the at-risk group. The respective CFIs for the high language skills group were .97 and 1.00 in language and mathematics, respectively. Although model fit was excellent across samples, different weights and signs linking motivational orientations to achievement partly explained the observed differences in language and mathematics manifested in the two groups.     

Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological awareness

A small number of studies show that music training is associated with improvements in reading or in its component skills. A central question underlying this present research is whether musical activity can enhance the acquisition of reading skill, potentially before formal reading instruction begins. We explored two dimensions of this question: an investigation of links between kindergartners’ music rhythm skills and their phonological awareness in kindergarten and second grade; and an investigation of whether kindergartners who receive intensive musical training demonstrate more phonological skills than kindergartners who receive less. Results indicated that rhythm skill was related to phonological segmentation skill at the beginning of kindergarten, and that children who received more music training during kindergarten showed improvement in a wider range of phonological awareness skills at the end of kindergarten than children with less training. Further, kindergartners’ rhythm ability was strongly related to their phonological awareness and basic word identification skills in second grade. We argue that rhythm sensitivity is a pre-cursor skill to oral language acquisition, and that the ability to perceive and manipulate time intervals in sound streams may link performance of rhythm and phonological tasks.     

A Memory-Based Approach to Anti-Spam Filtering for Mailing Lists

This paper presents an extensive empirical evaluation of memory-based learning in the context of anti-spam filtering, a novel cost-sensitive application of text categorization that attempts to identify automatically unsolicited commercial messages that flood mailboxes. Focusing on anti-spam filtering for mailing lists, a thorough investigation of the effectiveness of a memory-based anti-spam filter is performed using a publicly available corpus. The investigation includes different attribute and distance-weighting schemes, and studies on the effect of the neighborhood size, the size of the attribute set, and the size of the training corpus. Three different cost scenarios are identified, and suitable cost-sensitive evaluation functions are employed. We conclude that memory-based anti-spam filtering for mailing lists is practically feasible, especially when combined with additional safety nets. Compared to a previously tested Naive Bayes filter, the memory-based filter performs on average better, particularly when the misclassification cost for non-spam messages is high.     

The assessment of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and amotivation: Validity and reliability of the Greek version of the Academic Motivation Scale

Self‐determination theory provides an integrated conception of school‐ and academic motivation. The theory proposes a continuum comprising three types of motivation: intrinsic motivation (IM), extrinsic motivation (EM), and amotivation (AM), characterised by seven dimensions (IM = to know, to accomplish and to experience stimulation, EM = external regulation, introjection and identification, and Amotivation). The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) with Greek high school students. Two studies were conducted to examine the factorial, construct, concurrent and predictive validity of the scale along with its reliability properties. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the proposed seven‐factor structure. The scale showed satisfactory levels of internal consistency and temporal stability. Additionally, indices of the scale’s construct, concurrent, and predictive validity were in the desired direction. These findings support the use of the Greek version of the AMS for the assessment of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation.     

Assessing the difference in learning gain between a mixed reality application and drawing screencasts in neuroanatomy

Augmented, mixed, and virtual reality applications and content have surged into the higher education arena, thereby allowing institutions to engage in research and development projects to better understand their efficacy within curricula. However, despite the increasing interest, there remains a lack of robust empirical evidence to justify the mainstream acceptance of this approach as an effective and efficient learning tool. In this study, the impact of a mixed reality application focused on long spinal cord sensory and motor pathways is explored in comparison to an existing resource already embedded within an active curriculum (e.g., anatomy drawing screencasts). To assess the changes in learner gain, a quasi-randomized control trial with a pre- and post-test methodology was used on a cohort of Year 2 medical students, with both the absolute and normalized gain calculated. Similar patterns of learner gain were observed between the two groups; only the multiple-choice questionnaires were shown to be answered significantly higher with the screencast group. This study adds important empirical data to the emerging field of immersive technologies and the specific impact on short-term knowledge gain for neuroanatomy teaching, specifically that of long sensory and motor pathways. Despite the limitations of the study, it provides important additional data to the field and intends to support colleagues across the education landscape in making evidence-informed decisions about the value of including such resources into their curricula.