Task motivation at the beginning and the end of a school-year

European Journal of Psychology of Education -     

Happy To Be “Me?” Authenticity,Psychological Need Satisfaction,and Subjective Well‐Being in Adolescence

Adolescents have a strong desire to “be themselves.” How does experiencing authenticity—the sense of being one's true self—influence subjective well‐being? What allows adolescents to experience authenticity? This research tests a working model of how authenticity is implicated in adolescents’ well‐being. Using survey, diary, and experimental methodologies, four studies (total N = 759, age range = 12–17) supported the main tenets of the model. Authenticity (a) enhances well‐being, (b) covaries with satisfaction of psychological needs for relatedness and competence; is caused by satisfaction of the need for autonomy; and (c) mediates the link between need satisfaction and well‐being. Authenticity is more than a powerful motive: It has robust, replicable effects on well‐being and may thus be a pervasive force in positive youth development.     

Building Latent Class Growth Trees

Researchers use latent class growth (LCG) analysis to detect meaningful subpopulations that display different growth curves. However, especially when the number of classes required to obtain a good fit is large, interpretation of the encountered class-specific curves might not be straightforward. To overcome this problem, we propose an alternative way of performing LCG analysis, which we call LCG tree (LCGT) modeling. For this purpose, a recursive partitioning procedure similar to divisive hierarchical cluster analysis is used: Classes are split until a certain criterion indicates that the fit does not improve. The advantage of the LCGT approach compared to the standard LCG approach is that it gives a clear insight into how the latent classes are formed and how solutions with different numbers of classes relate. The practical use of the approach is illustrated using applications on drug use during adolescence and mood regulation during the day.     

Will that be on the test? Perceived task demands and test performance in a classroom context

Departing from a realistic classroom context, this study focuses on the relationship between students’ perception of task demands and their learning performance. History teachers (N=20) and their 11th-grade students (N=375) rated the relative importance of sections of an instructional text on which teachers would be giving a test. In addition, test grades were collected. It was hypothesized that the degree of correspondence between ratings of individual students and those of their teacher would reflect the accurateness of students’ perception of task demands and therefore would be positively related with test grade. Multilevel analysis revealed partly support for this hypothesis. Students with higher grades more consistently showed a relative close correspondence with their teacher than students with lower grades. Nonetheless, a substantial number of students who showed a relatively close correspondence with their teacher, obtained a low test grade. This suggests that a more accurate perception of task demands did not guarantee a higher test performance.     

Students’ misconceptions of statistical inference: A review of the empirical evidence from research on statistics education

A solid understanding of inferential statistics is of major importance for designing and interpreting empirical results in any scientific discipline. However, students are prone to many misconceptions regarding this topic. This article structurally summarizes and describes these misconceptions by presenting a systematic review of publications that provide empirical evidence of them. This group of publications was found to be dispersed over a wide range of specialized journals and proceedings, and the methodology used in the empirical studies was very diverse. Three research needs rise from this review: (1) further empirical studies that identify the sources and possible solutions for misconceptions in order to complement the abundant theoretical and statistical discussion about them; (2) new insights into effective research designs and methodologies to perform this type of research; and (3) structured and systematic summaries of findings like the one presented here, concerning misconceptions in other areas of statistics, that might be of interest both for educational researchers and teachers of statistics.     

Developing Successful Readers: Building Early Comprehension Skills through Television Viewing and Listening

Developing the ability to read is a complex process involving a variety of skills, including both basic language skills and language comprehension skills. Although a balanced reading program would include the development of basic language and comprehension skills, comprehension has often been overlooked in early reading instruction. In this article, we examine recent research findings on how comprehension skills develop in young children and discuss the implications of those findings for comprehension assessment and interventions.     

Learning from texts: activation of information from previous texts during reading

Learning often involves integration of information from multiple texts. The aim of the current study was to determine whether relevant information from previously read texts is spontaneously activated during reading, allowing for integration between texts (experiment 1 and 2), and whether this process is related to the representation of the texts (experiment 2). In both experiments, texts with inconsistent target sentences were preceded by texts that either did or did not contain explanations that resolved the inconsistencies. In experiment 1, the reading times of the target sentences introducing inconsistencies were faster if the preceding text contained an explanation for the inconsistency than if it did not. This result demonstrates that relevant information from a prior text is spontaneously activated when the target sentence is read. In experiment 2 free recall was used to gain insight into the representation after reading. The reading time results for experiment 2 replicated the reading time results for experiment 1. However, the effects on reading times did not translate to measurable differences in text representations after reading. This research extends our knowledge about the processes involved in multiple text comprehension: Prior text information is spontaneously activated during reading, thereby enabling integration between different texts.     

The relationship between students’ approaches to learning and the assessment of learning outcomes

The purpose of the present study is to gain more insight into the relationship between students’ approaches to learning and students’ quantitative learning outcomes, as a function of the different components of problem-solving that are measured within the assessment. Data were obtained from two sources: the revised two factor study process questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) and students’ scores in their final multiple-choice exam. Using a model of cognitive components of problem-solving translated into specifications for assessment, the multiple-choice questions were divided into three categories. Three aspects of the knowledge structure that can be targeted by assessment of problem-solving were used as the distinguishing categories. These were: understanding of concepts; understanding of the principles that link concepts; and linking of concepts and principles to application conditions and procedures. The 133 second year law school students in our sample had slightly higher scores for the deep approach than for the surface approach to learning. Plotting students’ approaches to learning indicated that many students had low scores for both deep and surface approaches to learning. Correlational analysis showed no relationship between students’ approaches to learning and the components of problem-solving being measured within the multiple choice assessment. Several explanations are discussed.