Fostering self-monitoring of university students by means of a standardized learning journal—a longitudinal study with process analyses

The self-regulation of learning behavior is an important key competence for university students. In this presented study, we aimed at fostering students’ self-regulation of learning by means of a standardized learning journal. In two of four courses that were included in the study, students had to keep a structured learning diary and/or received further intervention on self-regulated learning through a weekly course. Students who received these interventions were compared to students who received no treatment whatsoever in their self-regulation and learning achievement. The study reports pre–post measures as well as process analyses. Results revealed that keeping a structured learning diary without any further intervention did not improve students’ self-regulation. Those students who only kept learning diaries even showed a decrease in their motivation. Students who kept the learning diary and at the same time received further information on self-regulation showed increases in their strategy use and their self-efficacy. However, no improvements were found for students’ academic performance. It can be concluded that in order for students to profit in keeping a structured learning diary, they should be informed on the benefits of self-monitoring to increase their motivation.     

A comparison of methods to determine maximal accumulated oxygen deficit in running

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare maximal accumulated oxygen deficit (hereafter O₂ deficit) estimated from the methods of Whipp et al. (1986 Whipp, B. J., Ward, S. A. and Wasserman, K. 1986. Respiratory markers of the anaerobic threshold. Advances in Cardiology, 35: 47–64. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]), Medbo et al. (1988 Medbo, J. I., Mohn, A. C., Tabata, I., Bahr, R., Vaage, O. and Sejersted, O. M. 1988. Anaerobic capacity determined by maximal accumulated O₂ deficit. Journal of Applied Physiology, 64: 50–60. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and Hill et al. (1998 Hill, D. W., Ferguson, C. S. and Ehler, K. L. 1998. An alternative method to determine maximal accumulated O₂ deficit in runners. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 79: 114–117. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to determine whether they agree sufficiently to be used interchangeably. Nineteen moderately to highly trained endurance runners first performed an incremental test to exhaustion for the determination of maximal oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O_2max) and peak treadmill speed, followed by six randomly ordered constant-speed tests at 95, 100, 105, 110, 110, and 120% of peak treadmill speed. All tests were separated by at least 72 h and were performed within 4 weeks. The method of Whipp produced an O₂ deficit estimate that was lower than that derived from the method of Hill or Medbo (bias ± 95% limits of agreement: ?29.6 ± 36.6 and ?26.1 ± 32.8 ml · kg^?1, respectively; P < 0.001). The O₂ deficit did not differ between the methods of Hill and Medbo (bias ± 95% limits of agreement: 3.5 ± 41.6 ml · kg^?1; n.s.). However, poor correlations (0.21 < r < 0.33; n.s.) together with wide limits of agreement between O₂ deficit estimates (70 – 80% of the mean response) clearly question using these methods interchangeably.     

The impact of school choice and public policy on segregation: Evidence from Chile

Advocates argue that vouchers can make improved educational opportunity available to disadvantaged students. Critics contend that vouchers increase the risk of stratification. Researchers have found that Chile's voucher program has lead to increased socioeconomic school segregation. What has been overlooked, however, is segregation between schools within a sector and variation within private for-profit and non-profit school sectors. I find that public schools are more likely to serve disadvantaged students than private voucher schools. I also find that disadvantaged students are more segregated among private voucher schools than among public schools. While between and within sector segregation levels vary across private voucher school types, the differences are not always consistent with theory. The data also suggest that policies can either mitigate or exacerbate the stratifying effects of educational vouchers.     

Comparison to what end? Maximizing the potential of comparative education research

This article attends to comparative education scholars’ calls for more dialogue on the contribution of theory to comparative education research. It first presents the results of a review of a small sample of articles from comparative education related journals that elicited the purposes of their comparative research strategies in terms of exploration, explanation, argument, prediction, recommendation, and theory development. The article then discusses perspectives on the potential for the use of theory to contribute to richer explanations of educational phenomena. Finally, it demonstrates how a comparative study of political socialization in Hong Kong and Mainland China led to the development of explanatory concepts of critical thinking and the application and reconceptualization of the theory of resistance to explain the formation of students’ attitudes towards the nation.     

Metacognitive ability from a theory-of-mind perspective: a cross-cultural study of students with and without hearing loss

Theory of Mind (see, e.g., Bartsch & Estes, 1996) is a concept that can help educators understand how students think about their state of mind and that of others involved in various life situations. To examine the impact of culture and the impact of hearing loss on metacognition as explained by Theory of Mind, two samples of students with and without hearing losses who were from two different cultures were compared on their ability to choose pictures representing their perspectives on specific life situations. The two groups did not differ in their metacognitive interpretations of the experiences when they were from the same culture, although students from different cultures did differ, indicating that culture may have a greater impact on metacognition as explained by Theory of Mind than hearing loss. Data collected in the present study affirmed previous research showing that students with hearing losses could make metacognitive decisions about life situations just as ably as their hearing peers from the same culture.     

Clues to Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Portrait of a Scholar

The Urban Review - The purpose of this article is to make an overlooked source of knowledge accessible to school teachers and administrators in order to challenge the prevalent discourse of...