An Examination of College Students' Problem‐Solving Self‐Efficacy,Academic Self‐Efficacy,Motivation, Test Performance,and Expected Grade in Introductory‐Level Economics Courses

This study investigated whether self‐efficacy influenced students’ educational outcomes in introductory‐level economics courses. First, this study investigated the correlations between problem‐solving self‐efficacy, academic self‐efficacy, and motivation. Second, this study investigated whether problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy served as predictors of students’ motivation, test performance, and expected grade. Correlational analyses suggest that problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy are correlated with student motivation. Results show that problem‐solving self‐efficacy was a predictor of student motivation and test performance. Academic self‐efficacy and problem‐solving self‐efficacy were also predictors of their expected grade. Implications and future directions for economics education are also discussed.     

Migrant preschool children's school readiness and early elementary school performance

Little is known about the early educational performance of children in migrant farmworker families. The authors examined the school readiness and early school success of 289 four-year-old preschool children of migrant families attending Redlands Christian Migrant Association centers. Children's school readiness was assessed and public school records were used for longitudinal follow-up. Children improved on age-4 school readiness domains, and although some struggled with emergent English literacy, many performed well on school readiness measures and later coursework. Children quickly became proficient in oral English, and had above-average school attendance. Many scored low on high-stakes tests; however, typically well enough for grade promotion. Students in the sample were comparable to similar students in poverty. School teachers and administrators should have high expectations for students from migrant families because many of them do stay in the public school system, and appear to be quite resilient despite many challenges they face.     

Fathers' Infant‐Directed Speech in a Small‐Scale Society

When speaking to infants, mothers often alter their speech compared to how they speak to adults, but findings for fathers are mixed. This study examined interactions (N = 30) between fathers and infants (M_age ± SD = 7.8 ± 4.3 months) in a small‐scale society in Vanuatu and two urban societies in North America. Fundamental frequency (F₀) and speech rate were measured in infant‐directed and adult‐directed speech. When speaking to infants, fathers in both groups increased their F₀ range, yet only Vanuatu fathers increased their average F₀. Conversely, North American fathers slowed down their speech rate to infants, whereas Vanuatu fathers did not. Behavioral traits can vary across distant cultures while still potentially solving similar communicative problems.     

The continuing politics of mistrust: performance management and the erosion of professional work

For the past two decades schools and teachers in New Zealand and elsewhere have been the subject of and subjected to intense public scrutiny of their performance and professional activities. In effect, policy solutions have cast teacher and school performance as a ‘problem’ to be solved/resolved via the intervention of the State. Consequently, the policy remedy has been the introduction of audit mechanisms such as systems of performance management to define, regulate and control teaching and teachers. That is, the State has directly intervened in the professional work and activities of teachers based on the flawed assumption that teachers cannot be trusted and therefore require the intervention of the State and its agencies to ensure their performance is aligned with organisational objectives. And while one of the hallmarks of a profession and professional practice is adherence to a set of prescribed standards, performance management has rendered teachers accountable to the State, not professional peers. And, as this article outlines, this has served to de‐professionalise teaching and teachers’ work.     

Changing resistant audience attitudes using social judgment theory’s “anchor” point perspectives

Courses: Public Speaking, Business and Professional Communication, Persuasion, or any other skill-based oral communication course.

Objectives: Students will practice the development and demonstration of persuasive arguments in this single-class social judgment theory activity to improve their ability to change resistant audience attitudes.     

Failing at Remediation? College Remedial Coursetaking,Failure and Long-Term Student Outcomes

Research in Higher Education - Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite...     

Quick,incidental word learning in educational media: all contexts are not equal

Educational technology research and development - Classic studies of educational media have demonstrated that children can engage in quick, incidental word learning on the basis of a single...     

Implications of Prelecture Material on Cognitive Load and Instructional Effectiveness in Cross‐Disciplinary IS Education: The Nexus of Benford's Law and SQL

For some time, there has been a call for cross‐disciplinary teaching within the business disciplines. With the rise of data and analytics, there is an opportunity for cross‐disciplinary teaching by integrating technology throughout the business curriculum. However, many business professors have little experience in cross‐disciplinary teaching. We hope to rectify this by introducing an approach that uses prelecture material to prepare students for learning concepts and terms that are not core to the focal class. In a study that combines Structured Query Language (SQL) coding with an audit principle called Benford's Law, we analyze the impact of adding prelecture material about Benford's Law on student's cognitive load, knowledge gained, and instructional efficiency. Results indicate that students who received a prelecture on Benford's Law outperformed the control group in performance measures related to Benford's Law, and that the instructional efficiency on Benford's Law was also higher for the treatment group. We did not find any significant differences in cognitive load between the two groups, nor did the treatment group perform significantly better when tested on the SQL concepts. We conclude that cross‐discipline teaching is a fine balance between each discipline and communicating to students the importance of both disciplines is key.