Building a metacognitive model of reflection

An increased value is being placed on quality teaching in higher education. An important step in developing approaches to better instruction is understanding how those who are successful go about improving their teaching. Thus, several years ago we undertook a program of research in which the concept of reflection provided the frame of reference. We envisaged reflection as a process of formative evaluation, and also saw links between reflection and metacognition. What we have documented and analyzed in detail are the reflective processes of six university professors in their day-to-day planning, instructing and evaluating of learners. The result is a metacognitive model and coding scheme that operationalize the process of reflection. Both provide a language for describing reflection and therefore a way to think about how to improve teaching. In this paper, we describe the research and the model and the contributions they make to our understanding of teacher thinking in higher education.     

Scaffolding learning of language structures with visual-syntactic text formatting

The current study examines the effects of digital scaffolding on the English literacy of fourth- and sixth-grade students. A total of 1085 native English-speaking and language minority students from 25 treatment classes and 20 control classes across three school districts participated in this study for one school year. Treatment students read their English language arts and social studies text in visual-syntactic text format (VSTF) on their laptops and control students read the regular block format of the textbook either on their laptops or in print. Observations and interviews revealed that VSTF reading facilitated instruction processes and student learning in reading activities. The results of California Standard Tests (CST) before and after the treatment revealed that sixth-graders who received syntactic scaffolding outperformed control students on the composite CST score. In particular, reading in VSTF benefited the treatment students in three CST sub-categories: word analysis, written conventions and writing strategies. This study suggests that future research should investigate instructional strategies that support reading and writing development of adolescents, including at-risk students, using syntactic scaffolding.     

Decision-making skills and deliberate practice in elite association football referees

We examined sport expertise as a function of role. In study 1, referees were better than players in a video-based decision-making task. This provides evidence that there are role-specific skills within one domain or sport. In study 2, we examined the training activities that could be influential in the development of skills in sports officials. Elite association football (soccer) referees retrospectively reported time spent in and perceptions of training activities for three periods: their first year of formal refereeing, 1998 (before formal training programmes were available), and the current year (2003). This allowed us to examine an area of skill with a limited culture of practice, where performance simulations with direct feedback are usually not feasible. The results showed that referees specialize early and, as they develop, they engage in greater volumes and types of training. Competitive match refereeing is considered a relevant activity for skill acquisition that does not fit Ericsson and colleagues' (1993) original definition of deliberate practice. Our findings indicate that actual performance is a significant activity for skill acquisition and refinement.     

Stressors in elite sport: a coach perspective

We examined the varying performance and organizational stressors experienced by coaches who operate with elite athletes. Following interviews with eleven coaches, content analysis of the data revealed coaches to experience comparable numbers of performance and organizational stressors. Performance stressors were divided between their own performance and that of their athletes, while organizational stressors included environmental, leadership, personal, and team factors. The findings provide evidence that coaches experience a variety of stressors that adds weight to the argument that they should be labelled as "performers" in their own right. A variety of future research topics and applied issues are also discussed.     

Initial Communication with and Attitudes toward International Students: Testing the Mediating Effects of Friendship Formation Variables

From the theoretical perspectives of intergroup contact, predicted outcome value (POV), and similarity-attraction, this study examined U.S. host nationals’ (N = 342) communicative behaviours in a recent initial encounter with an international student and attitudes toward the student’s cultural group as a whole. Testing of two models indicated the significant sequential mediator effects of perceived similarity-social attraction and POV-social attraction between communication variables (e.g. amount of communication exchange in both models, self-disclosure in model 1, and information seeking in model 2), and intergroup attitudes (e.g. behavioural attitudes). Findings in general demonstrated that contact effects in the intercultural context varied according to specific measures of communication, the mediating mechanisms, and intergroup attitudes.