Understanding motivational structures that differentially predict engagement and achievement in middle school science

Middle school has been documented as the period in which a drop in students’ science interest and achievement occurs. This trend indicates a lack of motivation for learning science; however, little is known about how different aspects of motivation interact with student engagement and science learning outcomes. This study examines the relationships among motivational factors, engagement, and achievement in middle school science (grades 6–8). Data were obtained from middle school students in the United States (N?=?2094). The theoretical relationships among motivational constructs, including self-efficacy, and three types of goal orientations (mastery, performance approach, and performance avoid) were tested. The results showed that motivation is best modeled as distinct intrinsic and extrinsic factors; lending evidence that external, performance based goal orientations factor separately from self-efficacy and an internal, mastery based goal orientation. Second, a model was tested to examine how engagement mediated the relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors and science achievement. Engagement mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and science achievement, whereas extrinsic motivation had no relationship with engagement and science achievement. Implications for how classroom practice and educational policy emphasize different student motivations, and in turn, can support or hinder students’ science learning are discussed.     

Institutional and technical constraints on faculty gross productivity in American doctoral universities

Scholars disagree about the manner and extent of environmental structuring of university activities. This study supports arguments that the environment highly structures the relationships between faculty and the academic products of undergraduate instruction, graduate instruction, and research. Multiple correlation coefficients exceeded 90 percent for regressions of faculty size on counts of undergraduate and graduate enrollments and published articles for all universities classified as Research I or II or Doctoral I or II, demonstrating how constrained is doctoral faculty gross productivity in doctoral universities in the United States. Possible institutional and technical constraints are discussed. The regressions reveal economies of scale and economies of scope for some mixes of faculty academic activities, but not for others. Implications on productivity are explored for university type, control, and science emphasis. A typology for productivity studies is also outlined.     

Childhood sexual abuse, attachment, and trauma symptoms in college females: the moderating role of attachment

OBJECTIVE: The present study tests a model linking attachment, childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and adult psychological functioning. It expands on previous work by assessing the degree to which attachment security moderates the relationship between a history of child sexual abuse and trauma-related symptoms in college females. METHOD: Self-reports of attachment, childhood sexual abuse, and adult psychological functioning were obtained from 324 female undergraduate students attending a Southeastern U.S. university. Separate analyses were conducted examining the potential moderating role for close-adult, parent-child, and peer attachment styles. RESULTS: In this sample, 37.7% of participants reported sexually abusive experiences prior to age 16. History of child sexual abuse was consistently associated with higher levels of trauma-related symptoms and lower levels of attachment security in close-adult, parent-child, and peer relations. Additionally, attachment security was consistently associated with trauma-related symptoms. Close-adult, parent-child, and peer attachment differentially moderated trauma-related symptoms. Specifically, in peer relationships, the strength of the relationships between attachment measures and trauma symptoms were greater for CSA survivors than for non-abused participants. The opposite pattern of results was found for attachment in parental and close-adult relationships. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that attachment security in peer and parent relationships protects against the negative effects of CSA, while only weak, marginally significant protective effects were observed for close-adult relationships. Only modest support was found for the conceptualization of attachment as a moderator of the relationship between CSA and trauma-related symptoms. However, the results suggest that attachment security at least partially protects against negative CSA outcomes.     

Faculty and online education as a mechanism of power

This study uses a critical perspective to examine how online education is used in brick-and-mortar institutions as a mechanism through which power is exercised by and against professors who teach online. Based on a larger study of 25 professors and administrators at four institutions, this work focuses on the experiences of 12 professors. Foucault’s conceptualization of power framed our interpretation of interviews conducted with these professors. Our findings suggest online education enhanced faculty autonomy and visibility, but that it was also used to control faculty members, and for some professors, it was used to alter their professional identities.     

The effects of token reinforcement versus cognitive behavior modification on learning-disabled students' math skills

The effects of token reinforcement, cognitive behavior modification, and direct instruction on learning-disabled students' math skills were compared. Math skills were measured by 2-minute classroom timings of basic addition and subtraction problems, and the Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test. Treatment was provided to 94 students for 4 weeks in daily 1-hour sessions. Significant differential gain between treatment and direct instruction groups in achievement test scores was found, F(4, 182) = 4.03, p<.01. Token reinforcement and cognitive behavior modification were found to be equally effective. All three groups improved with 2-minute classroom timings, F(2, 91) = 8.53,p<.001. Retention of skills for both treatments was maintained over a 2-week no-treatment period. Teachers' social validity ratings indicated differences between the two treatments relative to student behaviors and teacher roles. It is concluded that token reinforcement and cognitive behavior modification are equally effective techniques to remediate learning-disabled students' math achievement, and both are superior to direct instruction in some cases.     

Characteristics of the College Geometry Course for Preservice Secondary Teachers

Based on 30 syllabi and 108 questionnaire responsesfrom randomly selected U.S. colleges and universities,college geometry courses were analyzed with respect tocontent, pedagogy, and assessment. About 40% of thecourses start with elementary axioms and emphasizeEuclidean geometry or a mix of Euclidean andnon-Euclidean geometry; 23% employ a survey approach;and 20% employ an analytic or projective geometryapproach. In about 63% of the courses, the instructorlectures most or all of the time; in 36% of thecourses a substantial amount of class time is devotedto group work; and about 27% of the courses reflectnearly all the characteristics of good mathematicsteaching as defined by the NCTM Professional TeachingStandards. In most courses, in-class examinations,homework, and a final examination are the primaryevaluation tools; in about half of the courses atleast one alternative assessment contributes to thefinal grade. Common characteristics are evident butwide diversity exists also. A typical geometry coursedid not emerge from the data.     

The Relation of Affect to Attention and Learning in Infancy

The relation of positive affect to attention and learning was examined in 5-, 7-, and 9-month-olds (N = 84). Affect and attention were assessed while the infants inspected a photograph. Affect was rated globally, for overall mood, and specifically, for amount of time smiling. Attention was indexed by the duration of the infant's longest (or peak) look, a measure previously linked to differential cognitive performance. At all ages, positive affect (shown by approximately half the infants) was associated with long look durations and slower learning, as assessed on a task in which infants learned to distinguish a familiar face from a series of novel faces. By contrast, neutral affect was associated with short looks and faster learning. Affect and look duration had synergistic effects, in that learning was faster than expected for infants who displayed both short looks and neutral affect. These findings are compatible with adult research that links positive affect to less analytical processing, and provide the first evidence that affect may be associated with the speed of processing differences implicated in short and long looking.