Skill,Thrill, and Will: The Role of Metacognition,Interest, and Self-Control in Predicting Student Engagement in Mathematics Learning Over Time

Maintaining learning engagement throughout adolescence is critical for long-term academic success. This research sought to understand the role of metacognition and motivation in predicting adolescents' engagement in math learning over time. In two longitudinal studies with 2,325 and 207 adolescents (ages 11–15), metacognitive skills, interest, and self-control each uniquely predicted math engagement. Additionally, metacognitive skills worked with interest and self-control interactively to shape engagement. In Study 1, metacognitive skills and interest were found to compensate for one another. This compensatory pattern further interacted with time in Study 2, indicating that the decline in engagement was forestalled among adolescents who had either high metacognitive skills or high interest. Both studies also uncovered an interaction between metacognitive skills and self-control, though with slightly different interaction patterns.     

Orphan Works at Theatre Library and Information Centres: Assessing Librarians' Perceptions and Management in Spain

Currently, libraries and other information services are facing new professional challenges in relation to digitization policies and orphan works after the publication of European Directive 2012/28/EU on certain permitted uses of orphan works and Spanish Royal Decree 224/2016. This paper aims to analyse how Spanish library and information centres specialising in theatre and performing arts meet users' textual and non-textual information needs, by respecting copyright issues and being involved in a dynamic and digital environment. For this purpose, an online questionnaire, which was used as a methodological tool, was sent to library directors in February 2018. At the same time, some research questions based on orphan works and digitisation approaches are discussed in the paper, specifically in reference to graphic and audiovisual materials.     

Going the Distance for Grads: What Online Graduate Students Want from the Library

With new program additions and changes to existing graduate programs, librarians at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas were interested in investigating if students taking online courses were successful in accessing the library services and instruction. A survey was created that included all types of graduate students (fully online to fully in-person) to identify how they accessed the library and how confident they were in finding resources. The results of this survey have provided the researchers insight regarding successful strategies and where we need to improve; where distance learners are struggling more than on-campus students; and how we need to create varied approaches to disseminate library information and instruction. The study has also opened up communication and stronger collaborations with teaching faculty and instructional designers to better integrate the libraries into the curriculum. To help make findings more generalizable, the researchers aligned them with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Standards for Distance Learning Library Services.     

Spanish Teachers' Epistemological and Scientific Conceptions: Implications for teacher education1

We present the theoretical framework, the central issues, bibliographic antecedents, and most relevant results of three studies concerning Spanish teachers' epistemological and scientific conceptions. The samples analysed present a majority tendency towards an absolutist view of knowledge and an empiricist conception of science. In our view, this represents a real obstacle to constructive and active professional development. Finally, we argue the need for an epistemological education of teachers that is closely linked to the design and development of the school curriculum, and that does not reproduce the traditional academicist-type models.     

Cross-Cultural Analysis of Social Competence and Behavior Problems in Preschoolers

A multi-national study using the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Inventory (SCBE-30) was conducted to investigate preschool children's social and emotional development across cultures. A total of 4,640 children from eight participating countries, including Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States were evaluated by their preschool teachers. The main objective of the study was to validate the SCBE-30 in each country and build a cross-cultural data set for the investigation of universals, as well as cultural differences, in the development of preschool children's social competence and the frequency and type of their behavioral problems. Results provide a clear case for the structural equivalence of the SCBE-30 across all samples, for universals in the structure of early social behavior, and possibly some differences that may be attributed to culture. The pattern of gender differences found in North American samples was found to generalize across cultural contexts as preschool boys were universally reported to be significantly more aggressive and viewed as less socially competent than girls. Age differences were also found in all eight samples reflecting increasing competence in older children, however age trends in the prevalence of behavior problems were culture specific.     

Social support and parenting in poor,dangerous neighborhoods

This study investigated how stressful environmental conditions influence the relation between mothers' social support and parenting strategies, utilizing interview data from a sample of 262 poor, African American single mothers and their seventh- and eighth-grade children, as well as objective data about respondents' neighborhoods. In general, the results indicated that neighborhood conditions moderate the relation between social support and parenting behaviors. Specifically, as neighborhood conditions worsened, the positive relation between emotional support and mothers' nurturant parenting was weakened. In a similar fashion, the negative relation between instrumental social support and punishment was stronger in better neighborhoods. As the surrounding environments became poorer and more dangerous, the relation between greater instrumental support and a lower reliance on punishment was weakened. Thus, on the whole, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the positive influences of social support on parenting behavior were strained and attenuated in poorer, high-crime environments.     

Domain‐General Learning and Memory Substrates of Reading Acquisition

Prior research has demonstrated that linguistic skills and knowledge contribute to successful reading acquisition. In contrast, little is known about the influence of domain‐general learning abilities on reading. To investigate associations between general memory functions and reading during the early stages of learning to read, performance measures of word‐level reading and of declarative and procedural learning were obtained in a cohort of 140 children, annually during their first 4 years of school. We hypothesized that differences in learning task performance would relate to reading ability in the early years, when children are first learning to read. We employed a series of linear mixed effects models to test the relationships between learning abilities and reading across time. Declarative learning performance predicted reading ability in first grade, while procedural learning performance predicted reading ability in second grade. Our findings suggest that reading acquisition may depend in part on general capacities for learning.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Modelling-Oriented Workshops for Engineering Undergraduates in the Field of Thermally Activated Phenomena

Research in Science Education - Two 20-h modelling-based workshops focused on the explanation of thermally activated phenomena were held at the University of Palermo, Italy, during the Academic...