Student adjustment to higher education: the role of alternative educational pathways in coping with the demands of student life

The present longitudinal study measured student adjustment to higher education, comparing 50 participants from alternative schools (Steiner, Montessori, New Schools) with 80 students from the traditional school system. We hypothesized that students from alternative schools adapt better, because of greater perceived social support, academic self-efficacy, and task-oriented coping styles. Measures were taken during the last school year (baseline characteristics), and at the beginning of the first and last terms of the first year in higher education. The quality of adjustment was assessed through academic results, and physical and psychological well-being. The following instruments were used: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger (1983), the 13-items Depression Inventory by Beck et al. (1961), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations by Endler and Parker (1990), and semi-directed interviews. Results show that students from alternative schools adjust better to higher education: they report less anxiety and depression symptoms, and show greater life satisfaction and academic achievement.     

Academic procrastination and motivation of adolescents in Turkey

This article presents a study of academic procrastination and associated motivation variables in 508 adolescents from a general secondary school in central Turkey. Girls reported higher levels of self‐efficacy for self‐regulation and predicted higher Turkish grades than boys, but there was no difference in levels of procrastination. Academic self‐efficacy was a stronger predictor of procrastination for girls than for boys, but for both groups self‐efficacy for self‐regulation was the strongest predictor of procrastination. Most participants (83%) reported spending one hour or more procrastinating per day, with writing tasks the most prone to procrastination for boys and girls. When procrastinating, Turkish adolescent boys were more likely to spend time with electronic media (watching TV, emailing, going on‐line, and, in particular, playing computer games), whereas girls were most likely to read books, magazines, and newspapers. The article concludes with implications for researchers, and also for parents and educators of adolescents.     

Managing cognitive load during document-based learning

Designers of interactive learning environments face the issue of managing the learner's cognitive load, reducing irrelevant sources while optimizing useful sources of load. I propose a conceptual framework aimed at organizing the contributions of the papers presented in this special issue. The framework identifies three main dimensions, namely individual, task and environment, which may have specific or combined effects on the amount and type of cognitive load experienced during learning activities. I summarize some of the findings presented in the special issue with respect to each of these dimensions. Then I discuss some limitations of the studies and some perspectives for further research in the domain. I emphasize the need to control learners’ level of familiarity with the task setting and environment features, not just their prior knowledge of the content area, in order to obtain reliable assessments of cognitive load and learning outcomes.     

Subspace-based spectrum estimation in innovation models by mixed norm minimization

In this paper, identification of discrete-time power spectra of multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) systems in innovation models from output-only time-domain measurements is considered.A hybrid identification algorithm unifying mixed norm minimization with subspace estimation method is proposed. The proposed algorithm first estimates a covariance matrix from measurements. A significant dimension reduction is achieved in this step. Next, a regularized nuclear norm optimization problem is solved to enforce sparsity on the selection of most parsimonious model structure. A modification of the covariance estimates in the proposed algorithm generates yet another algorithm capable of handling data records with sequentially and intermittently missing values. The new and the modified identification algorithms are tested on a numerical study and a real-life application example concerned with the estimation of joint power spectral density (PSD) of parallel road tracks.     

Analyzing learner-hypermedia interaction: An overview of online methods

In this paper we examine the potential of online methods for hypermedia research. Online methods allow the recording, analysis and interpretation of learner-hypermedia interaction. Online methods have been extensively used in cognitive research, and especially in the area of discourse processing. In the first part of the paper we examine several online methods used in discourse comprehension research. We discuss the benefits and limits of each method, and its applicability to hypermedia research. In the second part we focus on the analysis of learner-hypermedia interaction protocols. We introduce several possible approaches, as a function of the observation grain, or the precision of the events that the researcher needs to examine. We present qualitative and quantitative examples at the coarse, intermediate and fine grain and we discuss the research context in which each approach seems most appropriate. We conclude that the empirical study of learner-hypermedia interaction should comply with the general standards of empirical research, e.g., explicit hypotheses and controlled study conditions.     

Variations of stroking parameters associated with 200 m competitive performance improvement in top-standard front crawl swimmers

The aim of this study was to analyse the variations of stroking parameters (speed, stroke length, stroke rate, and stroke index) associated with the 200 m front crawl competitive performance improvement. Two races completed by 17 top swimmers were analysed in the 200 m freestyle final of French or European championships, each final being separated by two years. All the swimmers' performances were bettered in the second race (mean +/- SD: 113.44 +/- 2.50 vs 111.78 +/- 2.71 s; p < 0.01) and were associated with a significant increase of stroke rate without variation of average stroke length and stroke index values (p > 0.05). Swimmers emphasized the first part of the race, with higher speed in the first three lengths, higher stroke rate in the first two lengths and lower stroke length in the first one. Stroke length and stroke rate variations were highly correlated (r = 0.98; p < 0.05). In 11 of the 17 swimmers, the improvement was concomitant with a decrease in stroke length and an increase in stroke rate. Only one swimmer's improvement was associated with a substantial increase in stroke length. These results highlighted that stroke length and stroke index cannot be considered as the only parameters linked to improvement in a 200 m crawl in adult swimmers competing at high standard. Moreover, an increase in stroke rate associated with a slight decrease in stroke length should not be considered as ineffective, especially at top standard.     

Preferred representations and knowledge acquisition

European Journal of Psychology of Education - There are two kinds of preferential representations. They are connected on the one hand to the degree of typicality of the instance in relation to the...     

La compréhension de textes didactiques dans une situation interactive contrôlée par ordinateur

European Journal of Psychology of Education -