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It is well established that the number of males studying psychology in the UK, both at A-level and on degree courses, is disproportionately low compared to females. There is a paucity of research, however, which discusses how psychology is viewed by this group. The present study employed focus groups with 35 pre-tertiary males (some of whom were studying psychology and some of whom were not) to discuss their perceptions of the discipline in terms of its scientific status and gendered associations with females. A thematic analysis revealed that participants positioned psychology as 'a sort' of science, with a diverse subject base, much of which was not considered appropriate or relevant for males to study. The implications of this are discussed in terms of the inherent challenges it reveals in attracting men to study psychology, debating what could be done to make the discipline more appealing to males.

In this contribution to the Widening Participation Special Issue of Psychology Teaching Review we consider our experiences in education as people who can't spell using an auto-ethnographic methodology (Sparkes, 2007), specifically, evocative auto-ethnography (Anderson, 2006) and guided by a social constructionist approach to identity (Burr, 1995). We consider how we have become the people we are through the ways others have responded to the Dyslexic or Dyslexic type aspects of ourselves. We start with Paul ruminating about life in education as a terrible speller. We then move on to explore Stella's experiences as a Dyslexic student and on into the early days of her academic career. We finish conversationally by questioning each other about the significance of our experiences and their implications both for education and the social construction of identity. The overall aim of this article is to ask teachers who are intolerant of poor spellers to take a more supportive approach, mindful of the impact they can have. We also seek to support University students who suffer at the hands of their teachers and important others on account of their Dyslexic type symptoms. The students will know who they are as they will have been labelled so many times but we do worry that the teachers may not be able to identify themselves, such are the power relations inherent in the social construction of identity (Phoenix, 2007). (Contains 2 figures.)

This three-year longitudinal study explored the approach to study and academic performance of a group of male psychology undergraduates. In induction week, 112 new psychology students completed the survey. Later in the year, some of the males were interviewed in small groups. Performance was measured from marks at the end of Years 1 and 3. In Year 1, compared with their female contemporaries, male respondents had higher self-esteem (p less than 0.01), expected higher marks (p less than 0.001) and anticipated performing better than their peers (p less than 0.05). In interviews, males described themselves as being less motivated and less organised than females, but did not consider this a problem. The only difference in marks showed males doing worse in coursework at Year 1 (p less than 0.05). However, significantly more males failed to complete the course. These findings are set in the context of concerns about under achievement of males and discussed in relation to research into transition to university. (Contains 5 tables.)

Introduction: The objective of this research study was to establish interdependence relationships between cognitive learning strategies, motivational strategies toward study and academic stress, as variables of the Competency Model for Studying, Learning and Performing under Stress (SLPS), in a group of professional examination candidates. Method: Participating were a total of 179 candidates who sought to obtain posts as primary school teachers. The variables were measured using previously validated self-reports. The study design was linear ex post-facto, with inferential analyses (ANOVAs and MANOVAs). Results: The results showed very significant, positive interdependence relationships between cognitive learning strategies and motivational strategies toward study. In addition, very significant, negative relationships were found between motivational strategies toward study and academic stress. However, direct interdependence relationships did not appear between cognitive learning strategies and academic stress. Discussion: These results show that subjects with a high level of cognitive learning strategies used more motivational strategies toward study than subjects with a medium level, and these in turn used more motivational strategies than subjects with a low level. Moreover, they also show that subjects high in motivational strategies toward study suffered less academic stress than the medium and low subjects in this variable. Consequently, the results suggest that these variables are interrelated, and that both cognitive and motivational strategies can be worked on, not only as support for study, but also as prevention of academic stress and its negative effects, especially in highly stress-prone contexts.

Introduction: Research has shown that students do not like student presentations, yet a case can be made for them. This study seeks to understand the effects that presentations have on students. Method: Within an action research framework, two repeated-measures studies were completed, one with students undertaking assessed presentations the other with those doing non-assessed presentations. Respondents completed both measures of the Views on Teaching, Learning and Assessment questionnaire (VTLA, derived from Sander et al., 2000) at the start and at the end of each study. All respondents completed the Academic Behavioural Confidence scale (ABC, Sander & Sanders 2003) at the start of each study but its second measurement was taken when only part of each cohort had undertaken a presentation. Results: In the assessed presentation study, students who had done their presentations showed an overall increase in ABC, (p less than 0.05) indicating improved confidence. No such increase was found after the non-assessed presentation. In both studies, students showed significant increases in their responses to items on the ABC that related to public speaking, (p less than 0.05). The VTLA revealed that experiencing presentations as a teaching method can help students feel more positive about them and able to acknowledge benefits of presenting than they did prior to this experience. It also confirmed that students find presentations daunting and some have some concerns about learning from peers. Discussion: The different responses in the two studies may have been influenced by the way that presentations were integrated into modules at different levels. However, it would seem that the experience of presentations might raise student confidence in their own abilities although it is less likely to change their views of the prospect of presenting. (Contains 9 tables.)

Previous research has shown that university students, when asked to rank different methods of learning and assessment tend to rate student presentations unfavorably. There are though, sound reasons for constructing learning situations around student presentations, resulting in presentations being an integral part of our psychology degree over the last ten years. However, the course has experienced a considerable rise in the number of students during the same period, making it much harder to create meaningful opportunities for student presentations. In spite of this growth, the team considered ways in which presentations can remain within the course and systematically evaluated their effectiveness. Whilst data show that students may find the experience stressful and that they have some concerns about the quality of their learning, these concerns, we believe are more than outweighed by the advantages, which are discussed at length. Students' retrospective reflections on courses that have been designed around student presentations give a much more favorable view of this learning method than that given through hypothetical ratings. (Contains 6 tables.)

Introduction: The 3P and DEDEPRO Models predict interactive relationships among "presage," "process," and "product" variables through teaching and learning of self-regulation. The DEDEPRO Model has established different possibilities for interaction between student characteristics of self-regulation and external characteristics of regulatory teaching. The aim of this investigation is empirical validate the model of four interaction types. Method: The sample included 765 undergraduate students from two universities in the south of Spain. Using an ex post-facto design, the date collection was obtained from three validated instruments: Self-regulation scale (SRQ), the Scales for Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Process (ATLP-S) and the Academic Behaviour Confidence (ABC) scales at two different points in time. Academic performance was evaluated through the final grade for each subject area. Multivariate Analyses were used and from Structural Equation Modelling was used to explore possible causal relationships. Results: Results offer evidence for a consistent, four-fold interaction typology and empirical causal model, thus giving significant confirmation of the proposed rational model. As predicted, the most significant of these interactions was the student's self-regulation with regulatory instruction. Conclusion: The best type of interaction is high personal self-regulation with a highly regulated teaching-learning process, yielding high performance and academic confidence.

Introduction: Research with the Academic Behavioural Confidence scale using European students has shown that students have high levels of confidence in their academic abilities. It is generally accepted that people in more collectivist cultures have more realistic confidence levels in contrast to the overconfidence seen in individualistic European and North American countries. This research was designed to see if the more realistic confidence level in collectivist countries would be mirrored in Mexican students' academic confidence scores. Method: The Academic Behavioural Confidence scale was validated in the Mexican university system with a sample of 97 undergraduates at a large autonomous university and the findings contrasted with pre-existing data from 2685 European students. Results: The results suggest that a reduced 14 item scale comprising the same 4 subscales, Grades, Studying, Verbalising and Attendance is the statistically preferable model for both the Mexican and European data. Using the mean confidence levels for the modified subscales, it was found that the Mexican psychology students had significantly higher Grades and Verbalising confidences than their European counterparts. Discussion and Conclusion: This contra-prediction finding is considered against the literature from cultural and cross cultural psychology which suggests that people in Collectivist cultures like Mexico have more connected attitudes to their lives and thus would show lower but more realistic self-confidence. Further research to establish the cross cultural validity of the ABC scale is discussed. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 2 footnotes.)

Introduction: The main goal of this study is to evaluate the psychometric and assessment features of the Scale for the "Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Process, Student Version" (ATLP-S), for both practical and theoretical reasons. From an applied point of view, this self-report measurement instrument has been designed to encourage student participation in the daily assessment of how the teaching-learning process occurs. From a theoretical point of view, this 30-item scale was initially developed with rational criteria, inspired by the most common curriculum models; in addition, we propose to empirically validate the instrument. Method: A total sample of 1250 Spanish university students and 275 university students from the UK participated in the assessment. The analyses made to assess its reliability, internal validity (exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis), and external validity (correlations and MANOVAs). Results and Discussion: We can be considered adequate and have proved to be powerful enough to define relations with other variables--learning approach, or teaching and learning experiences--in the sample with Spanish and UK versions of the instruments. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)

Introduction: The current panorama of Higher Education reveals a need to improve teaching and learning processes taking place there. The rise of the information society transforms how we organize learning and transmit knowledge. On this account, teaching-learning processes must be enhanced, the role of teachers and students must be evaluated, and new ICT methodologies must be tried out. The DEDEPRO[R] model makes significant methodological and technological contributions toward this end. Method: A total of 728 male and female students and their teachers, from the Universities of Almeria, Granada (Spain) and UWIC, Cardiff (UK) participated in this educational experience. A quasi-experimental type design was used, with a non-equivalent control group. The ETL Questionnaire (Housell, Entwistle & colls, 2001) and IATLP Scales (De la Fuente & Martinez, 2004) were used for evaluation. The intervention made use of the DEDEPRO methodology and web utilities TLPA (De la Fuente & Trujillo, 2005) and Pleyade (De la Fuente & Martinez, 2004), both derived from this model. Results: Multivariate analyses showed in both questionnaires a significant interaction effect towards improvement of "Group x Time," both with respect to regulated teaching (professor) and self-regulated learning (students). Discussion: Usefulness of the methodology and web tools drawn from the DEDEPROTM Model is discussed, as well as possibilities for generalization. (Contains 3 tables and 6 figures.)

Action research studies in the United Kingdom with Open University students have shown that students come to distance education courses with variable expectations of the levels of service and support they will receive from their tutors. It has been further suggested that a specific expectations-led quality assurance process that enables the sharing of these expectations before a course starts could be of mutual benefit to the student and the tutor, as well as generally improving the overall quality of tutor support provided by the distance learning organisation. This process, it is argued, would be appreciated by the students, have beneficial effects on student satisfaction with tutor support, reducing student drop-out and increasing course completion rates. Could such a process that asks tutors to collect student expectations before a course begins be instituted effectively into a distance learning organisation and how would students and tutors respond to it? This paper reports on a large-scale project carried out by Oscail (the Irish National Distance Education Centre) aimed at developing and testing how students and tutors valued being involved in just such an Open and Distance Learning expectations-led quality assurance process. In the study reported here, all 96 tutors on an Oscail B.A. distance learning programme were asked two weeks before their course began to circulate the student expectations questionnaire to the 950 students on their tutorial lists. Tutors were asked to collect the questionnaires, reflect on the expectations of the students and consider how their tutorial practice and student support might change as a result of the exercise. Tutor and student views on the effectiveness of the exercise were also gathered through questionnaires and focus group meetings. The findings suggested that the majority of students and tutors involved in the study did see the value of the process and that it did help tutors (especially newly appointed ones) consider and respond to the type of support students hoped to receive. The practice of issuing student expectation questionnaires has now been embedded in Oscail introductory courses. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Introduction: This paper reports a preliminary study into the commitment and academic confidence of male students in undergraduate psychology, prompted by our own observations of the performance of male students and the literature on sex differences in education. Method: Using an analytical survey, level 1 psychology students at a new university in South Wales, UK, were asked to complete the Academic Behavioural Confidence scale (Sander and Sanders, 2003) and a second scale, You And Your University Study, designed specifically for this investigation. The findings from a selective sample (n=72), with male students outnumbered 1:6 by the female students, are presented. Results: The data show that when asked to rate the importance of the academic studies and the non-academic side of university life, the male students tended to give lower ratings to their studies than to the non-academic side, whereas the reverse was the case for the female students. Some students, particularly female students, who did rate the non-academic side of university life as the more important reported the need to build a strong and secure social network to support them through their studies. No differences in overall academic confidence were found, contrary to predictions, although there were some individual statement differences. Conclusion: The data suggest that male students may be at a disadvantage through their attitude or approach to their academic studies, compounding the problems of being in a minority. Further research is being done to explore these preliminary findings. (Contains 4 tables.)

Studied the expectations and preferences of undergraduates with regard to teaching, learning, and assessment. Responses of 395 undergraduates at British universities showed that students expected to be taught by formal and interactive lectures but preferred to be taught by interactive lectures and group-based activities. (SLD)

An analysis of Open University (UK) students' expectations about various aspects of their tutoring focused on their attitudes toward teaching methods and their perceptions of a good lecturer. Seven tables present results. This research supports the view that tutoring can be improved through tutors' reflections on content and delivery style based on student feedback. (AEF)