Children's self‐regulated learning profile in language and mathematics: The role of task value beliefs

This study explored the self‐regulated learning (SRL) profile of upper elementary (fifth and sixth grade) school children who were differentiated in their task value beliefs (low and high) in language and mathematics. Students' SRL profile involved their teachers' ratings of achievement outcomes and SRL behaviors. The subscale of task value beliefs from the Motivational Self‐Regulated Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was administered to the children, and their teachers completed a battery of scales and measurements concerning students' achievement and SRL behaviors. The results confirm previous evidence indicating that SRL involves high levels of motivation, metacognition, and strategic action. Furthermore, the results support the domain‐specific character of task value beliefs. Differences in teachers' evaluations about the achievement outcomes and SRL behaviors regarding the two groups of students (low and high in task value beliefs) were found significant mostly in the domain of mathematics. Students with high value beliefs in mathematics were described as more cognitively, metacognitively, and motivationally competent learners as compared to students with lower value beliefs. The results suggest that future intervention studies should focus on strengthening task value beliefs in “threatening” school subjects, such as mathematics, from the elementary school years. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Pre-service and in-service teachers' metacognitive knowledge about problem-solving strategies

The present study based on Antonietti, A., Ignazi, S., & Perego, P. (2000). Metacognitive knowledge about problem-solving methods. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 1–16 methodology with the aim to examine primary school teachers' metacognitive knowledge about problem-solving strategies. A sample of 338 in-service (172) and pre-service (166) teachers participated in the study. They were asked to give on a five-point scale frequency, efficacy, and facility estimates for the application of five problem-solving strategies in 3 kinds of problems (interpersonal, practical, and study problems). The results are in accordance with Antonietti, A., Ignazi, S., & Perego, P. (2000). Metacognitive knowledge about problem-solving methods. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 1–16 evidence. They, also, stressed the possible role of age along with work experience in the formation of beliefs about strategic behavior.     

The relationship of academic and social cognition to behaviour in bullying situations among Greek primary school children

This research explored links between cognition (both social and academic) and children's behaviour in a bullying situation (participant roles). Participants were 186 fourth to sixth grade boys and girls from four primary schools in central Greece. Six categories of social cognition (self-efficacy for assertion, self-efficacy for aggression, expectations that aggression will lead to rewards, expectations that aggression will lead to victim suffering, the value placed on rewards and the value placed on suffering in the victim) and two categories of academic cognition (self-efficacy for learning and performance and the self-regulatory strategies used while solving problems) were investigated in connection to six participant roles (bully, victim, assistant, reinforcer, defender and outsider). Results suggest that there are differential associations between cognitions and the roles that children take in bullying situations, according to gender. Academic self-efficacy combined with certain social cognitions predicted both victimisation and bullying behaviour. Self-regulatory strategies combined with social cognitions similar to victim's and bully's predicted both assistant and reinforcer behaviour, while none of the cognition measures predicted defender or outsider behaviour. Implications for interventions against bullying are briefly discussed.     

Teaching Deductive Reasoning to Pre-service Teachers: Promises and Constraints

This paper broadly addresses the question of whether university students whose major does not require expertise in logic can improve their ability in deductive reasoning by taking an introductory course in logic. In particular, our study aims to evaluate a course in deductive logic offered by one of the authors in a department of elementary education. Two experiments were conducted by using a pretest-posttest design with an experimental and a control group as well as a follow-up test after 6 months on the experimental group. The results of the analyses showed that the course mainly succeeded in strengthening students’ general logical ability in the experimental group and these gains were retained 6 months later in the follow-up test. Promises and constraints of the study are discussed in the educational context. The names of the authors are listed alphabetically.     

Academic hardiness as a moderator of the relation between perfectionism and academic procrastination in university students

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The aim of the study was to investigate the predictive value of adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism for academic procrastination in...