Metacognitive knowledge in children at early elementary school

In metacognition research, many studies focused on metacognitive knowledge of preschoolers or children at the end of elementary school or secondary school, but investigations of children starting elementary school are quite limited. The present study, thus, took a closer look at children’s knowledge about mental processes and strategies in early elementary school aiming to extend findings on the respective age period. Therefore, at first, a new test that can be administered in group settings and that assesses a broad concept of children’s metacognitive knowledge in early elementary school was evaluated. Furthermore, analyses on the structure of metacognitive knowledge were carried out in cross-sectional as well as longitudinal analyses. In a longitudinal design, the new test instrument was administered to 870 children at the end of first grade and again one year later (N?=?720). Item Response models were used to evaluate the construct validity of the test. Test characteristics were checked based on different fit statistics, test fairness, and discriminant validity. In summary, the test exhibited good psychometric properties. Analyses on the dimensionality of the assessed metacognitive knowledge revealed that different strategies seemed to form rather distinct dimensions of metacognitive knowledge. However, these dimensions showed a rather homogeneous development from first to second grade. Impacts of the findings on theoretical considerations and on the theoretical understanding of metacognitive knowledge and further analyses with metacognitive competence data are discussed.     

Assessment of metacognitive knowledge in students with special educational needs

This study investigated whether and, if so, how metacognitive knowledge can be assessed validly in students with special educational needs in a large-scale assessment like the German National Educational Panel Study. In total, 804 sixth-grade students including both regular school students attending the lowest track of secondary education (Hauptschule) and students with special educational needs in learning participated in the study. A scenario-based test of metacognitive knowledge focusing primarily on different aspects of strategy knowledge was implemented. In order to investigate optimal testing conditions, two conditions that varied in terms of administration mode were compared: autonomous reading as in regular test settings and a read-aloud condition. Reading speed and reasoning abilities were assessed as control variables. As expected, regular school students outperformed students with special educational needs in the metacognitive knowledge test. In addition, higher correlations between metacognitive knowledge and reading speed emerged in the autonomous reading condition compared to the read-aloud condition. Contrary to our expectations, a differential boost due to the testing accommodation of reading aloud was, however, only observed in regular students but not in students with special educational needs. The results are discussed with regard to educational and assessment-relevant approaches.     

Elterliche Bildungsaspiration und Migrationshintergrund als Prädiktoren für Schulformwechsel in der Sekundarstufe I: Ergebnisse einer Längsschnittstudie

The present study investigates the extent to which changing school forms in secondary school is dependent not only on a student’s school grades, but also on the migration status and educational aspirations of their parents. Based on a cohort (N?=?4219) of school students from one school year in Luxemburg, we were able to show that throughout the lower secondary school, the grade average played a decisive role in the move to a different school form. Furthermore, students with a migration background were shown to have similar chances as students from Luxemburg of moving upwards to a higher school form, yet were less likely to move downwards. However, this phenomenon could essentially be explained by the fact that students with a migration background are not as highly represented in the higher school forms as are students from Luxemburg. Independent of migration status and school grades, parental educational aspirations played a decisive role change between school forms. High educational aspirations facilitated the move to a higher school form, while low educational aspirations correlated with moving to a lower school form.     

The Effect of Three-Dimensional Simulations on the Understanding of Chemical Structures and Their Properties

In a series of three experimental studies, the effectiveness of three-dimensional computer simulations to aid the understanding of chemical structures and their properties was investigated. Arguments for the usefulness of three-dimensional simulations were derived from Mayer’s generative theory of multimedia learning. Simulations might lead to a decrease in cognitive load and thus support active learning. In our studies, the learning effectiveness of three-dimensional simulations was compared to two-dimensional illustrations by use of different versions of a computer programme concerning the modifications of carbon. The first and third study with freshman students of chemistry and biochemistry show that no more knowledge was acquired when participants learnt with three-dimensional simulations than with two-dimensional figures. In the second study with 16-year old secondary school students, use of simulations facilitated the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. It was concluded that three-dimensional simulations are more effective for younger students who lack the experience of learning with different visual representation formats in chemistry. In all three studies, a significant relationship between spatial ability and conceptual knowledge about the modifications of carbon was detected.     

Preservice teachers’ implicit attitudes toward students with and without immigration background: A pilot study

Minority students are often disadvantaged in school. One factor contributing to this disadvantage may be teachers’ judgments; these may, in turn, be influenced by implicit attitudes. Implicit attitudes often guide automatic behavior, which comes into play when cognitive resources are restrained. This is particularly important for preservice teachers, who lack experience in the classroom. In an affective priming task, results showed ambivalent implicit attitudes toward students with immigration background and positive implicit attitudes toward native students. Such asymmetrical implicit evaluations could bias preservice teachers’ interactions with students in the classroom. Acquiring an understanding of the influence of implicit attitudes during their academic studies might help preservice teachers counter implicit and automatic influences.     

Assessing pupils’ attitudes towards religious and worldview diversity – development and validation of a nuanced measurement instrument

ABSTRACT

In this article, we outline the development and validation of an instrument for the assessment of attitudes towards religious diversity. The instrument uses four parallel scales, which evaluate attitudes towards Muslims, Christians, Jews and towards Non-religious people. Each scale is subdivided into eight parallel profile types and tests for the acceptance of six levels of social proximity. Drawing on a sample of 281 respondents (which include Muslims, Christians, Jews, Non-religious and Other) and employing the item response theory, we examine the reliability and validity of the instrument and present first results. We found that respondents discriminated greatly between the eight profile types and made clear distinctions with regard to the proximity of social relationships. Relative to these distinctions within each religion, differences between the four groups Muslims, Christians, Jews and Non-religious appeared minimal. These findings suggest that the results of previous research which indicate scepticism towards Islam despite general respect for religious diversity could be due to stereotyping.     

Hypertext adventures: Computer-assisted teaching of technical report writing in Delft

Technical engineers consider communication and writing skills to be among the most difficult aspects of their profession. Communication courses, however, are expensive, because teaching takes place in tutorial groups in which students are given feedback regularly. A computer-assisted practical that aims at diminishing the amount of effort of the lecturer while increasing the participation of the students through interactive and user-friendly courseware is described. The program is developed in the Knowledge Pro environment (MS-Windows 3). The program consists of three modules: 1) a product module which offers examples of ideal texts and criteria for them; 2) a style module which offers information on stylistic aspects such as sentence complexity, use of examples, use of connectives, spelling etc.; 3) a process module, which offers a standard procedure for planning and outlining a technical report and an example, in the form of a (hyper)text adventure.Besides, the program offers individual advice to students who face problems during the writing process. In each module the student can opt for additional examples or exercises via buttons, menus and hypertext paths. The program has been written in the Dutch language.