Academic expectations and actual achievements: the roles of hope and effort

This study sought to extend the research on adolescents' hope, academic expectations, and average grades. The hope theory (Snyder, Psychological Inquiry 13(4):249–275, 2002), the salutogenic paradigm (with a focus on sense of coherence (SOC) (Antonovsky 1987)), and Bandura's (Journal of Management 38(1):9–44, 2012) social learning theory (with a focus on three self-efficacy (SE) constructs: academic SE, social SE, and emotional SE), were used as an integrated conceptual framework for predicting expected and actual academic performance. The sample consisted of 289 10th grade high school students (152 girls and 137 boys). The structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis provided support for the hypothesized modified model. The results demonstrated that hopeful thinking had a direct effect on grade expectations, which, in turn, predicted academic achievement. In addition, SOC, social SE, emotional SE, and academic SE were interrelated, but only emotional SE and SOC contributed directly to hope. Academic SE predicted effort, which also contributed to hope. Thus, the relations between students' investment of effort and actual grades were predicted indirectly through hopeful thinking and grade expectations. The implications for future research and the field of educational psychology of using hope, SOC, and SE as an integrated conceptual framework for predicting academic outcomes are discussed.     

Do Teachers Consider Advice? On the Acceptance of Computerized Expert Models

The literature suggests that simple expert (mathematical) models can improve the quality of decisions, but people are not always eager to accept and endorse such models. We ran three online experiments to test the receptiveness to advice from computerized expert models. Middle- and high-school teachers (N = 435) evaluated student profiles that varied in several personal and task relevant factors. They were offered (Studies I and II), or could ask for (Study III), advice from either expert models or human advisors. Overall, teachers requested and followed advice of expert models less frequently than advice from humans. Task-relevant factors (task difficulty) seem to be more salient than personal factors for teachers’ willingness to receive advice.     

Situating Motivation

This article describes a situative approach to studying motivation to learn in social contexts. We begin by contrasting this perspective to more prevalent psychological approaches to the study of motivation, describing epistemological and methodological differences that have constrained conversation between theoretical groups. We elaborate on issues of the unit of analysis, the conceptualization of contexts, and the role of identity as a central construct. Finally, we argue that the design of learning environments and interventions to change learning environments are informed by attention to the relationships among meanings, identities, and motives in context. We illustrate our argument with examples of design-based research and design-based implementation research focused on motivation to learn in children and adults.     

Questionnaires as interventions: can taking a survey increase teachers’ openness to student feedback surveys?

Administrators often struggle in getting teachers to trust their school’s evaluation practices – a necessity if teachers are to learn from the feedback they receive. We attempted to bolster teachers’ support for receiving evaluative feedback from a particularly controversial source: student-perception surveys. For our intervention, we took one of two approaches to asking 309 teachers how they felt about students evaluating their teaching practice. Control participants responded only to core questions regarding their attitudes towards student-perception surveys. Meanwhile, treatment participants were first asked whether teachers should evaluate administrators in performance reviews and were then asked the core items about student-perception surveys. Congruent with cognitive dissonance theory, this juxtaposition of questions bolstered treatment teachers’ support for using student surveys in teacher evaluations relative to the control group. We discuss the implications of these findings with respect to increasing teacher openness to alternative evaluation approaches, and consider whether surveys show promise as a vehicle for delivering interventions.     

Negative instructor communication behaviours: exploring associations between instructor misbehaviours and the classroom learning environment

Learning Environments Research - Given the array of positive outcomes associated with building and maintaining a positive learning environment, the purpose of this study was to explore associations...     

The Function of Executive Function: Everyday Manifestations of Regulated Thinking in Preschool Settings

Executive function (EF) encompasses higher-order mental processes necessary for the conscious control of thought and action in the service of goals. Once thought not to apply to children at all, EF is now at the center of a burgeoning body of research on young children over the last 10–15 years indicating that it is a critical foundation of school readiness and performance. Despite the widely agreed relevance of EF to the transition to formal learning, findings have not yet been applied to preschool classrooms in any widespread way. Part of the reason for this is that despite general agreement on the broad definition of EF, the subdomains EF comprises—especially in early life while it is emerging—are still a matter of debate. It is therefore a challenge to bring the relevant concepts down to an even further level of granularity, i.e., specific behaviors ecologically grounded in everyday preschool interactions. We took the initial steps of this challenge by curating EF-related behaviors from the extant literature, expert and master teacher interviews, and observations in high-quality preschool classrooms into a new protocol called Preschool-Setting Executive Function. This observational system includes child behaviors as well as teacher support behaviors that encourage children’s organized, higher-order thinking. We then employed the final protocol in an additional set of classrooms to provide an initial assessment of its usefulness in identifying “EF in context.” Results indicate (1) EF and EF-support behaviors are low-frequency occurring, (2) children are more engaged in organized thinking than teachers are in the support of it, (3) teachers’ presence, especially if they are expanding play, promotes children’s real-time EF-behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of how this system may be used as a basis for future professional development to enhance teacher practice around the promotion of EF.