Sense of Challenge,Threat, Self-Efficacy,and Motivation of Students Learning in Virtual and Blended Courses

Feelings of threat, challenge, motivation, self-efficacy, and transactional distance reflect students’ struggles with the learning process. This study examined the relationship between students’ subjective feelings about the learning process in virtual and blended courses (VC and BC). This is a mixed-method study. The sample included 484 students from two academic institutions in Israel. The study found a connection between students’ subjective feelings about the learning process in VC and BC and feelings of threat/challenge, motivation, and self-efficacy. We found differences between students in different years of study and between those studying in various fields of study.     

Children Hold Leaders Primarily Responsible,Not Entitled

Do children construe leaders as individuals whose position of power entails primarily more responsibility or more entitlement, compared with nonleaders? To address this question, 5-year-old children (n = 128) heard a story involving a hierarchical dyad (a leader and a nonleader) and an egalitarian dyad (two nonleaders), and then assessed protagonists’ relative contributions to a collaborative endeavor (Experiments 1 and 2) or relative withdrawals from a common resource pool earned jointly (Experiment 3). Children expected a leader to contribute more toward a joint goal than its nonleader partner, and to withdraw an equal share (not more) from a common pool. Children thus gave evidence that they construed leaders as more responsible, rather than more entitled, relative to nonleaders.