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In the present study, we examined the relationships between motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, task value, and control of learning beliefs) and use of metacognitive learning strategies among teacher education students in Uganda. The sample comprised of 649 students selected from seven universities. Data were collected using several scales from the modified Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. Task value and self-efficacy independently and significantly predicted students’ reported use of metacognition. Students’ self-reported self-efficacy and task value explained 38% of the variance in their use of metacognition. The evidence suggests interventions aimed at improving teacher education students’ metacognitive skills to focus on enhancing their efficacy and value beliefs.
Change in test-taking motivation and its relationship to test performance in low-stakes assessments
(2017)
Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of low-stakes assessments (i.e., assessments without direct consequences for the test-takers) are being used to evaluate the quality of educational systems. Internationally, research has shown that low-stakes test results can be biased due to students’ low test-taking motivation and that students’ effort levels can vary throughout a testing session involving both cognitive and noncognitive tests. Thus, it is possible that students’ motivation varies throughout a single cognitive test and in turn affects test performance. This study examines the change in test-taking motivation within a 2-h cognitive low-stakes test and its association with test performance. Based on expectancy-value theory, we assessed three components of test-taking motivation (expectancy for success, value, and effort) and investigated its change. Using data from a large-scale student achievement study of German ninth-graders, we employed second-order latent growth modeling and structural equation modeling to predict test performance in mathematics. On average, students’ effort and perceived value of the test decreased, whereas expectancy for success remained stable. Overall, initial test-taking motivation was a better predictor of test performance than change in motivation. Only the variability of change in the expectancy component was positively related to test performance. The theoretical and practical implications for test practitioners are discussed.
The current study investigates two types of cultural diversity approaches at school, namely (1) fostering equality and (2) promoting cultural pluralism. Adopting a mixed-methods design, this study assesses teachers' (n = 207) and students' (n = 1,644) self-reported perceptions of descriptive norms and evaluates school practices and artefacts in the physical and virtual environment of 22 secondary schools in south-west Germany. Results showed that in all schools under investigation teachers and students perceived descriptive norms fostering mostly equality. A wide variety of practices and artefacts was found, revealing a third distinct cultural approach leaning towards endorsing the majority culture. Different practices and artefacts were linked to an emphasis on equality, cultural pluralism, and endorsing the majority culture. Implications for educational policy, as well as applied diversity research, are discussed.
Although the general development of mathematical abilities in primary school has been the focus of many researchers, the development of place value understanding has rarely been investigated to date. This is possibly due to the lack of conceptual approaches and empirical studies related to this topic. To fill this gap, a theory-driven and empirically validated model was developed that describes five sequential conceptual levels of place value understanding. The level sequence model gives us the ability to estimate general abilities and difficulties in primary school pupils in the development of a conceptual place value understanding. The level sequence model was tried and tested in Germany, and given that number words are very differently constructed in German and in the languages used in South African classrooms, this study aims to investigate whether this level sequence model can be transferred to South Africa. The findings based on the responses of 198 Grade 2-4 learners show that the English translation of the test items results in the same item level allocation as the original German test items, especially for the three basic levels. Educational implications are provided, in particular concrete suggestions on how place value might be taught according to the model and how to collect specific empirical data related to place value understanding.
In this intervention study, we investigated how we could teach university students who were majoring in education to teach reading strategies. The goal of the study was to analyze whether and to what extent students would benefit from the intervention with respect to their own learning. Did their own reading skills improve after they attended the intervention? The sample consisted of n = 61 students who were assigned to one of two conditions: (a) an adaption of reciprocal teaching; and (b) a control group that was not taught how to teach reading strategies. The evidence-based teaching method used in the intervention condition consisted of three elements: modeling, scaffolding, and repeated practice. Training success was assessed in a pre-posttest control group design with standardized reading comprehension and reading speed tests. To compare the development of the students in the two conditions, repeated measures ANOVAs were used. At posttest, intervention students outperformed control students in reading comprehension as well as in reading speed.
The goal of this research was to highlight the role social regulatory processes play in making students’ teamwork in reciprocal teaching (RT) groups (a classroom activity in which students take the teacher’s role in small group reading sessions) effective. In addition to teamwork quality, we expected peer feedback to be a key factor in enhancing students’ reading comprehension achievements. Because previous research (Schünemann et al. in Contemp Educ Psychol 38:289–305, 2013) has shown that procedures of self-regulated learning (SRL) augment the effects of RT methods, we further assumed that such procedures would promote the quality of students’ collaborative efforts. In a cluster-randomized trial, students in 12 fifth-grade classes practiced a strategic approach to reading either in a RT condition or in a RT + SRL condition. In one of the 14 sessions, students’ interactive behavior was videotaped. Strategy use and reading comprehension were assessed at pretest, posttest, and maintenance. Performance differences between conditions were reliable only at maintenance. A multilevel mediation analysis showed that relative to RT students, RT + SRL students were better able to provide their teammates with informative feedback and organize their group work in a task-focused manner. Only feedback quality mediated the sustainability of treatment effects on strategy use and reading comprehension. In essence, this research suggests that effective reading comprehension trainings should integrate explicit instruction and practice in reading strategies, SRL, and focus on supportive peer processes in small groups with extensive instruction and practice in peer feedback.
In two cross-sectional questionnaire studies with N = 2,931 German students, aged between 12 and 17 years (M = 14.1, SD = 0.5), we investigated the relation between students’ bullying behavior and their personal belief in a just world (BJW). We considered students’ personal experience of teacher justice as a possible mediator in this relation and investigated whether the students’ experiences of their teachers’ classroom management explained bullying behavior in addition to personal BJW and teacher justice, while statistically controlling for sex and school type. In both studies, multilevel modeling results showed that the more students endorsed personal BJW and the more they evaluated their teachers’ behavior toward them personally as being just, the less likely they were to report that they bullied others. The students’ personal experience of teacher justice mediated the association of personal BJW with bullying. Furthermore, the students’ personal experience of classroom management significantly predicted bullying in addition to personal BJW and teacher justice. The observed relations were mainly significant at the individual level. The pattern of results persisted when we controlled for school type and when we considered student sex as a moderator. We discussed the adaptive functions of BJW and implications for future school research and practice.
The purpose of this study is to examine whether teacher enthusiasm and classroom management self efficacy are related to classroom mastery orientation and student motivation. We used data from 803 students in grades 9 and 10 (53.3% girls) and their mathematics teachers (N = 41; 58.5% men). Student perceived teacher enthusiasm was related to classroom mastery orientation as well as to intrinsic value and cost at the student level. Teacher-reported self-efficacy was related to classroom mastery orientation at the classroom level. At both the individual and the classroom level, classroom mastery orientation was related to attainment and utility value.