Search

Students' learning experiences shape their perceptions of effective learning practices, and these perceptions affect the effort and approaches students engage in when in a learning environment. The type of learning environment students engage with may vary across disciplines, therefore students' perceptions may be domain-specific. Data for this study were students' discipline-specific perceptions of effective course structures and activities for chemistry and humanities and their general epistemic beliefs. The responses (N = 532) across three courses were grouped as either constructivist or instructivist learning approaches and then reported as a ratio. A step-wise regression was used to determine domain-specific differences in the students' responses, and the association to epistemic beliefs and perceptions of learning. Results revealed disciplinary differences in students' perceptions of learning. Understanding students' perceptions of learning have implications for students' future enrollment, effort towards learning, and approaches to learning within different courses.

To understand instruction during the spring 2020 transition to emergency distance learning (EDL), we surveyed a sample of instructors teaching undergraduate EDL courses at a large university in the southwest. We asked them how frequently they used and how confident they were in their ability to implement each of nine promising practices, both for their spring 2020 EDL course and a time when they previously taught the same course face-to-face (F2F). Using latent class analysis, we examined how behavioral frequencies and confidence clustered to form meaningful groups of instructors, how these groups differed across F2F and EDL contexts, and what predicted membership in EDL groupings. Results suggest that in the EDL context, instructors fell into one of three profiles in terms of how often they used promising practices: Highly Supportive, Instructor Centered, and More Detached. When moving from the F2F to EDL context, instructors tended to shift "down" in terms of their profile--for example, among F2F Highly Supportive instructors, 34% shifted to the EDL Instructor Centered profile and 30% shifted to the EDL More Detached Profile. Instructors who reported lower self-efficacy for EDL practices were also more likely to end up in the EDL More Detached profile. These results can assist universities in understanding instructors' needs in EDL, and what resources, professional development, and institutional practices may best support instructor and student experiences.

Help seeking is a key component of many systems of self-regulated learning (SRL). Prior research has noted how motivational and other aspects of SRL relate to students' engagement in help seeking and endorsement of types of help seeking (i.e., adaptive, expedient, and avoidant). This study examines specific antecedents to help seeking--monitoring accuracy, perceived need for help, and value for help seeking--as both domain-general (between students) and domain-specific (within students) aspects of help seeking in a sample of upper elementary students. Drawing on self-reports, teacher-reports, and assessments, results show that antecedents' relations with help seeking vary at the level of measurement (within or between students), type of reporter (student vs. teacher), and characterization of help (adaptive vs. expedient). Results present a complicated picture of students' classroom help seeking, supporting some theoretical links and laying the stage for further study of help seeking across contexts among elementary students.

Cognitive, numeracy, and motivational factors have been implicated in math achievement. However, few studies have investigated these factors simultaneously and in middle childhood, limiting our understanding of the relative contributions of these factors during an important developmental period. The current study investigated how one numeracy, four cognitive, and three motivational factors predicted math performance in 525 third, 771 fourth, and 465 fifth grade students, and whether these relations changed by grade and the type of math measured. Participants completed the California Standards Test (CST; Educational Testing Service, 2014) in Spring 2012 and Spring 2013 to assess math performance, and a battery of numeracy, cognitive, and motivational measures in Spring 2013. Separate multilevel regressions predicting 2013 CST performance were conducted for each grade, and z scores were used to compare the coefficients between grades. Results showed that updating and math expectancy were related to broad-level math performance for all grades. Further, numeracy and shifting were most predictive of math performance for younger grades, whereas math expectancy was most predictive for older grades across a range of math content. The results suggest that numeracy, cognitive, and motivational factors all relate to math performance when these three types of factors are considered, with numeracy, updating, shifting, and math expectancy showing the most reliable relations depending on grade. The relations between factors and math types may also have implications for interventions aiming to improve specific types of math.

Teachers' attitudes and beliefs play an important role in their integration of digital games in the classroom thus the transformative potential of game-based learning. In this study, we adapt the Technology Acceptance Model to examine elementary teachers' acceptance of a digital mathematics game and investigate antecedents to their intention to use the game to teach mathematics. The hypothesized extension of Technology Acceptance Model includes redefined factors in the context of game use during mathematics instructions (perceived ease of use, attitude towards game use, perceived usefulness for mathematical learning), a social factor (environmental support), and specified outcome factors depending on orientations (game-driven intention, mathematics-driven intention). Using survey data from 304 elementary teachers in the USA, the findings confirm associations within the adapted model, including direct links from attitudes and environmental support towards intentions to use the digital game and indirect links from perceived ease of use and usefulness. Implications for acceptance theories and teaching practices to use digital games are discussed.

To understand instruction during the spring 2020 transition to emergency distance learning (EDL), we surveyed a sample of instructors teaching undergraduate EDL courses at a large university in the southwest. We asked them how frequently they used and how confident they were in their ability to implement each of nine promising practices, both for their spring 2020 EDL course and a time when they previously taught the same course face-to-face (F2F). Using latent class analysis, we examined how behavioral frequencies and confidence clustered to form meaningful groups of instructors, how these groups differed across F2F and EDL contexts, and what predicted membership in EDL groupings. Results suggest that in the EDL context, instructors fell into one of three profiles in terms of how often they used promising practices: Highly Supportive, Instructor Centered, and More Detached. When moving from the F2F to EDL context, instructors tended to shift “down” in terms of their profile—for example, among F2F Highly Supportive instructors, 34% shifted to the EDL Instructor Centered profile and 30% shifted to the EDL More Detached Profile. Instructors who reported lower self-efficacy for EDL practices were also more likely to end up in the EDL More Detached profile. These results can assist universities in understanding instructors’ needs in EDL, and what resources, professional development, and institutional practices may best support instructor and student experiences.

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic presented a threat to student learning and motivation. Suspension of achievement testing created a barrier to understanding the extent of this threat. Leveraging data from a mathematics learning software as a substitute assessment, we found that students had lower engagement with the software during the pandemic, but students who did engage had increased performance. Students also experienced changes in motivation: lowered mathematics expectancy, but also lower emotional cost for mathematics. Results illustrate the potential and pitfalls of using educational technology data in lieu of traditional assessments and draw attention to access and motivation during at-home schooling.

Khan Academy is a large and popular open educational resource (OER) with little empirical study into its impact on student achievement in mathematics when used in schools. In this study, we examined the use of Khan Academy as a mathematics intervention among seventh grade students over a 4-week period versus a control group. We also compared differences between students who had supplemental mathematics instruction and those who had not. In both cases, we found no statistically significant differences in student test scores. Khan Academy has several internal metrics used to track student performance and use. We found significant relationships between these metrics and student test scores in this study. Khan Academy and other OER provide access to information and knowledge to large numbers of the population. This research adds to the discourse methods by which Khan Academy and other OER may affect learners.

Identifying which early mathematics skills have the largest effects on later mathematics achievement has important implications. However, regression-based estimates often rely on untested assumptions: (a) Scores on different mathematics skills reflect unique constructs, and (b) other factors affecting early and later mathematics achievement are fully controlled. We illustrate a process to test these assumptions with a sample of third and fourth graders who completed measures of mathematics skills, working memory and motivation, and standardized mathematics and English language arts tests. Factor analyses indicated that mathematics skills largely reflect the same underlying construct. The skills that loaded highest on the general factor most predicted both later mathematics and English language arts, even after adjusting for working memory and motivation. Findings suggest that relations between earlier mathematics and later achievement largely reflected more general factors that contribute to children's learning. We discuss the importance of establishing construct validity in correlational studies.

Self-beliefs are important determinants of student choice and success (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) and are informed by student educational experiences, such as prior success with a task (Bandura, 1986). The potential for Computer-Based Interventions as self-belief-supporting learning environments is examined in this study, focusing on the mathematics software, Spatial Temporal (ST) Math. ST Math includes elements theorized to support student self-beliefs, including informative feedback and a self-pacing structure. Using a randomized control trial, we find that students who play ST Math have higher mathematics self-beliefs than their control counterparts, and that ST Math operates through self-beliefs to positively influence achievement. ST Math's impact on student self-beliefs is strongest for those students who had lower mathematics achievement scores.

This study uses data from an urban school district to examine the relation between students' motivational beliefs about mathematics and high- versus low-stakes math test performance. We use ordinary least squares and quantile regression analyses and find that the association between students' motivation and test performance differs based on the stakes of the exam. Students' math self-efficacy and performance avoidance goal orientation were the strongest predictors for both exams; however, students' math self-efficacy was more strongly related to achievement on the low-stakes exam. Students' motivational beliefs had a stronger association at the low-stakes exam proficiency cutoff than they did at the high-stakes passing cutoff. Lastly, the negative association between performance avoidance goals and high-stakes performance showed a decreasing trend across the achievement distribution, suggesting that performance avoidance goals are more detrimental for lower achieving students. These findings help parse out the ways motivation influences achievement under different stakes.

Student self-regulated learning (SRL) is theorized to draw upon cognitive resources such as executive functions (EF) in support of planning, monitoring, and control processes in the service of academic goals. Prior work has demonstrated connections between direct measures of EF and reports of regulation behaviors, but this has not been frequently extended using an SRL framework to classroom behaviors and resulting school achievement. We find relations between inhibition and shifting elements of EF and teacher reports of SRL and links between both and student achievement on standardized tests and classroom grades in mathematics and language arts. We also find that links between EF and math achievement are partially mediated through SRL. Our results suggest that aspects of EF can support or may be a bottleneck for SRL and thus academic achievement, and as such, they have implications for cognitive and educational interventions.

Abstract: Fifty-two low performing schools were randomly assigned to receive Spatial-Temporal (ST) Math, a supplemental mathematics software and instructional program, in second/third or fourth/fifth grades or to a business-as-usual control. Analyses reveal a negligible effect of ST Math on mathematics scores, which did not differ significantly across subgroups defined by prior math proficiency and English Language Learner status. Two years of program treatment produced a nonsignificant effect. Publication of evaluation results from large-scale real-world supplemental mathematics instructional implementations such as this one can provide a realistic view of the possibilities, costs, and limitations of this and other computer aided instruction supplemental interventions.

Help seeking is a key component of many systems of self‐regulated learning (SRL). Prior research has noted how motivational and other aspects of SRL relate to students' engagement in help seeking and endorsement of types of help seeking (i.e., adaptive, expedient, and avoidant). This study examines specific antecedents to help seeking—monitoring accuracy, perceived need for help, and value for help seeking—as both domain‐general (between students) and domain‐specific (within students) aspects of help seeking in a sample of upper elementary students. Drawing on self‐reports, teacher‐reports, and assessments, results show that antecedents' relations with help seeking vary at the level of measurement (within or between students), type of reporter (student vs. teacher), and characterization of help (adaptive vs. expedient). Results present a complicated picture of students' classroom help seeking, supporting some theoretical links and laying the stage for further study of help seeking across contexts among elementary students. Practitioner points: Student‐level self‐regulated learning and performance characteristics were related to student help seeking.Those students who were lower performers and noted a need for help were less likely to engage in positive help‐seeking behaviors.Improving students' monitoring ability and students' perception of the value of help seeking may improve positive help seeking and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty-two low performing schools were randomly assigned to receive Spatial-Temporal (ST) Math, a supplemental mathematics software and instructional program, in second/third or fourth/fifth grades or to a business-as-usual control. Analyses reveal a negligible effect of ST Math on mathematics scores, which did not differ significantly across subgroups defined by prior math proficiency and English Language Learner status. Two years of program treatment produced a nonsignificant effect. Publication of evaluation results from large-scale real-world supplemental mathematics instructional implementations such as this one can provide a realistic view of the possibilities, costs, and limitations of this and other computer aided instruction supplemental interventions.