Pupils’ self-perceptions: the role of teachers’ judgment controlling for big-fish-little-pond effect

This article aims to study the relationship between teachers’ judgment and pupils’ self-perceptions controlling for the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). Three studies were conducted among third-grade pupils. Study 1 (n?=?585) focused on pupils’ perceptions of their scholastic competence. Teachers’ judgment and BFLPE were found to have an independent relation with pupils’ self-perceived scholastic competence. Study 2 (n?=?660) replicated the same results of study 1. Study 3 (n?=?683) extended the analysis to other domains of self-perception identified by Harter (Child development, 53, 87–97, 1982). The results showed that the relation with the BFLPE was significant only for pupils’ self-perceived scholastic competence. They also showed that the teachers’ judgment was related to two other domains of self-perception (behavioral conduct and peer acceptance) but was not directly related to pupils’ global self-worth.     

Social comparison and cognitive performance: A descriptive approach in an academic context

Eighty pupils of different academic levels (i.e. strong vs weak) were asked to make estimations about the different subjects taught at school. Gathered post-experimentally, the data allow specification of the relation to intelligence in which each school subject stands for the two different types of subjects. Evaluations of the significations accorded to performances in the different disciplines were also obtained. In accordance with expectations, analysis of these estimations reveals that pupils in a failure situation have an “original” conception of the field of academic comparison. However, the data obtained show that this originality (i.e. this social differentiation) stays within the dominant value system which sets the confines of the field of academic comparison. Taken in conjunction with more experimental results reported elsewhere, these estimations suggest that the cognitive attitude adopted by subjects towards an object of knowledge (here academic) can, in certain conditions, be formed independently of the social significations associated with this object but not independently of the nature of the social insertion which subjects undergo at the time of this interaction.     

Learning outcomes in professional contexts in higher education

With the policy of developing a, transparent and competitive European higher education sector, learning outcomes (LOs) are attributed a foundation stone role in policy and curriculum development. A premise for their implementation is that they bear fundamental similarities across national, institutional or professional/disciplinary contexts. In contrast, detractors suggest that LOs cannot communicate precisely across programmes or national boundaries. With this as a backdrop, this article analyses how LOs are used to communicate what students are to learn and the extent to which their use drives standardisation. The analysis is based on a case study of how LOs are formulated in study programme documents in two professional education programmes in Norway and the UK. The findings indicate that LOs can be considered to drive standardisation through the same presentation using bullet points. The study also finds that LOs are framed in different ways in the two countries and within the different study programmes and in a web of interconnected documents. This ‘local’ structural use of LOs disrupts their ‘foundation stone’ role as a vehicle for standardisation and weakens the establishment of sameness across institutions and nations.     

Using Smartphones as Experimental Tools—a Follow-up: Cognitive Effects by Video Analysis and Reduction of Cognitive Load by Multiple Representations

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Mobile devices (smartphones or tablets) as experimental tools (METs) offer inspiring possibilities for science education, but until now, there has been...     

The social context of human learning: Some prospects for the study of socio-cognitive regulations

Numerous studies conducted by social, cognitive, and educational psychologists suggest that learning, cognitive functioning and development, and education are fundamentally embedded in a complex social matrix. Recent studies have demonstrated the influence on cognitive performances of several basic social variables, including evaluative pressure, group membership, situations of personal or categorical social comparison, and the academic value of the task. These findings clearly point out the necessity of considering the autobiographical dimension of the individual to explain this influence, an idea which is clearly consistent with other results obtained in studies on scholastic self-schemas. The present paper shows that the influence of the social context of cognition cannot be explained unless it is viewed from a sociocognitive perspective which considers the autobiographical memory of the individual.     

Teacher-chameleons: the glue in the alignment of teacher practices and learning in policy

This article investigates how learning outcomes, a concept inspired by an Anglo-Saxon curriculum approach, are expressed in policy documents, with an emphasis on expectations articulated to teachers. Developments in education policy for the last two decades reflect a widespread expansion of learning outcome orientation in curricula and assessment in most of the modern world. These developments have led to changes in how education is governed and practised, and this makes it necessary to form critical concepts to understand how curricula are formed and functioned today. The research questions of the study are: How is learning outcome-oriented policy defined in key policy documents and what are the implications of these policies for the teaching profession? The topic is investigated through a document content analysis of key policy documents. A complex picture of teachers emerges in which they are to be both controlled and autonomous. The study also identifies a strong belief in ‘alignment between teachers’ competences and practices and students’ life opportunities. The findings indicate that the policies move back and forth between different parameters for describing teachers and teaching, and as such, teachers must be able to adapt as chameleons in the context of each policy.     

An integrative model of scholastic judgments: Pupils’ characteristics, class context, halo effect and internal attributions

This article proposes a model that integrates some of the determinants of scholastic judgment. The model is based on the assumption that a teacher’s judgment in a particular discipline is influenced by different variables: the pupil’s actual performance in the discipline, his/her actual performance in other disciplines (halo effect), the average performance of the class in the discipline (class context effect), the pupil’s individual characteristics such as whether he/she has ever repeated a grade and the teacher’s perception of the pupils’ causal explanations. Furthermore, the model proposes that a teacher’s perceptions are related to the pupil’s spontaneous expression of causality, which in turn is influenced by the pupil’s knowledge of the social value of causal explanations. In order to test the validity of the proposed model, the authors conducted a study in a real classroom setting on a population of 663 pupils from 38 classes (3rd grade) and their respective teachers. Path analyses showed that the theoretical model fit the data to a satisfactory extent. However, a comparison of the fit indexes of the theoretical model and two alternative models (one nonhierarchical and one hierarchical) showed that the initial theoretical model could be significantly improved by additional paths.     

Helping students build competences in physical education: theoretical proposals and illustrations

In the French education system, the current curriculum for students from the primary to the end of secondary school is structured around the notion of key competence. A competence can be defined as an integrated and stable network of knowledge and know-how, with normative behaviors, procedures and types of reasoning. However, without a theoretical conceptualization of building and mobilization processes, the components of a competence are considered as isolated and not interconnected. In the health and physical education (HPE) setting, too few empirical studies have analyzed how teachers would contribute to the development of student’s competence. The aim of this forward-looking article grounded on an experiential and cultural framework consists in clarifying and illustrating a conceptualization of the dynamics of development of competences among students considering the teacher activity. This theoretical framework seems to offer heuristic possibilities for the examination of teaching and learning practices which contribute to the development of the key competences, particularly when a competence is read as an experience that integrates multiple dimensions. Based on audio-video recording of PE lessons and self-confrontation interviews with the teacher and a student, the results of the present study strengthen the criticism of the definition of competence emphasizing the relevance to adopt a holistic approach corresponding to the articulation of intertwined resources (i.e. motor, methodological and social) students allocate to act in PE groups. Furthermore, the results show that the competence building depends on various roles students have the opportunity to play in PE (i.e. observer, tutor). Finally, our results underline the importance of identifying the specific characteristics of the teacher activity designed to structure the learning environment to train students to acquire new competences transferable in society.     

Social anxiety with peers in 9- to 14-year-olds. Developmental process and relations with self-counsciousness and perceived peer acceptance

Social anxiety in the peer groups is currently viewed as typical of early adolescence. This awkwardness with peers is supposedly a consequence of the of the multiple changes occuring during this period. Nevertheless, empirical evidence regarding the development of social anxiety with peers, as well as its psychological correlates, is scarce. To shed light on these issues, a total of 508 French fourth-to-ninth-graders completed questionnaires assessing their perception of social anxiety with peers. They assessed also various aspects of their self-consciousness and perceived peer acceptance, because we hypothesized that these two social cognitive dimensions were correlated — positively and negatively respectively — with social anxiety. Within each of these three general domains, several more specific variables were considered. Specifically, inward and outward self-consciousness were distinguished. Overall, a decreasing tendency with age was observed for social anxiety and inward self-consciousness, although the participants increasingly perceived thewselves to be neglected by their peers. Correlational analyses suggested that inward self-consciousness, outward self-consciousness, and perceived peer acceptance contribute independently to social anxiety.