Homework assignments, consequences, and classroom performance in social studies and mathematics

Elementary school students who frequently answered questions incorrectly in class were given daily homework assignments in social studies and math, but they rarely completed the assignments accurately and their classroom performance in social studies and math was only slightly better than when they did not have homework assignments. However, consequences provided for accurate completion of homework assignments increased the number of students completing homework and the accuracy with which homework assignments were completed. Further, assignments of homework with consequences for accuracy were associated with more accurate classroom performance.     

The relationship of academic self-efficacy to class participation and exam performance

This study examined the relationship of academic self-efficacy to engagement in class discussion and performance on major course exams among students (N = 165) in an undergraduate human development course. Cluster analysis was used to identify three levels of academic self-efficacy: high (n = 34), medium (n = 91), and low (n = 40). Results indicated that high, medium, and low academic self-efficacy all significantly predicted levels of student participation and exam performance, but the directionality of group placement on the academic measures was different for students at the high self-efficacy level versus those at the low and mid self-efficacy levels. Cluster analysis was also used to divide students into high, medium, and low grade-point average (GPA). These groups did not differ significantly on either self-efficacy or class participation but did differ on exam performance. Within GPA levels, self-efficacy was most strongly related to class participation and exam performance at the highest level of GPA and least related at the lowest level of GPA.     

Classroom discourse and the distribution of student engagement

Research in the social psychology of achievement motivation stresses the contribution of the classroom motivational context to problems of student engagement among low achieving students. This analysis contributes to that literature through a focused analysis of English and language arts instruction during the middle school years. Using data from the Partnership for Literacy Study the author investigates the relationship between classroom evaluation during question and answer sessions and two forms of student engagement, participation in classroom discourse, and student effort on classroom and homework assignments. When teachers focus on provoking student thought and analysis, and postpone evaluation during question and answer sessions by engaging in dialogic instruction, levels of student effort are more evenly distributed among students. Moreover, the relationship between levels of initial achievement and student effort is weaker in classrooms where teachers incorporate elements of dialogic instruction into question and answer sessions. However, dialogic instruction had no effect on the distribution of participation in classroom discourse itself.     

Using student-managed interventions to increase homework completion and accuracy

We examined the effectiveness of self-managed individual and group contingency procedures in improving the completion and accuracy rates of daily mathematics homework assignments. A group of sixth-grade students having homework difficulties in mathematics were selected for the study. There was substantial improvement in the amount of homework completed over baseline for a majority of the students, whereas the results for accuracy were mixed. Students who participated in the self-management training made significant gains on standardized measures of academic achievement and curriculum-based measures of classroom performance. Parents also reported significantly fewer problems associated with homework completion following the intervention. Students who were allowed to select their own performance goals made superior improvements in the number of homework assignments returned compared to students who were given a specified goal by the classroom teacher. Parents, subjects, and the classroom teacher responded positively on consumer satisfaction measures following termination of the study.     

General knowledge monitoring as a predictor of in‐class exam performance

Background. Current theories of self‐regulated learning predict a positive link between student monitoring accuracy and performance: students who more accurately monitor their knowledge of a particular set of materials are expected to more effectively regulate their subsequent study of those materials, which in turn should lead to higher test performance. Aims. The present study further explored the link between monitoring accuracy and performance by investigating whether monitoring of one set of materials would predict performance on a different set of materials. Sample. The participants were college students (N= 379) enrolled in an educational psychology course. Method. Students’ monitoring accuracy was measured at the start of the semester; the monitoring task involved materials that were not related to class content (i.e., general knowledge vocabulary) and that were related to class content (i.e., terms from educational psychology). Target performance was students’ scores on the final exam. Results. Monitoring accuracy significantly predicted student performance on the final exam, even when the monitoring task and final test were based on materials from different content domains. Also, the class‐related (vs. unrelated) materials in the monitoring task did not improve the predictive validity of monitoring accuracy, suggesting a limited role for domain specificity in the relationship between monitoring skill and performance. Conclusions. This study establishes a critical link between general monitoring accuracy and exam performance within a classroom setting.     

THE EFFECTS OF PEER TUTORING WITH GROUP CONTINGENCIES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS1

Improving the academic performance of college students who do not demonstrate mastery of course material is a major concern in traditional and nontraditional systems of instruction, where students may drop out, take incompletes, or continue to perform at low levels. The present study examined within-course peer tutoring as a potential solution. Twenty-one undergraduate students enrolled in a three-credit introductory course in Educational Psychology served as subjects. The class met one and a half hours each weekday for five weeks. Five students withdrew from the course and one student was placed on independent study before assignments to experimental conditions were made. The primary source materials were portions of Skinner's Technology of Teaching, plus two additional articles. The material was divided into nine equal units, each unit accompanied by study objectives. Nine one-hour essay exams were administered, one every other class day. Two review days were scheduled before a cumulative final was administered. Students could score a total of 20 points on each exam and the final. If a student scored 90% or better on an exam a score of 10 was earned. If a student scored 80% to 90%, a score of eight was awarded, and so on. A total score of 90 of 100 possible points at semester's end earned a student an “A”, 80 a “B”, and so on. The study consisted of three phases: Baseline I, Intervention, and Baseline II. Baseline I: after an initial introductory class, three lectures were presented—one for each unit. Each lecture day was followed by an exam day. Intervention: following the third exam, students were rank ordered and divided into high, medium, and low levels of performance on the basis of their raw scores on the previous three exams, and assigned to a paired or independent group. This assignment procedure resulted in three high-low pairs, three middle-middle pairs, two high-middle pairs, three low-independent students, and two middle-independent students. If, and only if, both students in a pair met a 90% mastery criterion on an exam did each receive five bonus points for the exam(s) reaching the criterion. The bonus points were used to offset points lost on the cumulative final. If both students in a pair met the 90% mastery criterion for units 4, 5, and 6, the pair received an automatic score of 10 on the cumulative final and had the two review days off. Other students who studied independently received identical payoffs if they met the same mastery criterion. The previous lecture time was used for inclass study. Baseline II: Baseline I procedures were reinstituted for the final three units. The test scores are the independent and paired students are shown in Figure 1. Compared to baseline, performance during peer tutoring improved for every student paired with a high partner, and not for those students who studied independently. Between-group comparisons suggest that the effective variables were related to the tutoring or its combination with the group contingency. However, the opportunity for intergroup discussion about treatment procedures and unequal assignment of subjects to the tutored and independent groups make conclusions about the between-group portion of the experiment tentative. Half to two-thirds of the students in each performance category viewed the peer-tutoring procedure favorably, and two-thirds or more reported that the procedure was effective in improving academic performance. Proportionately fewer students assigned to independent study found that procedure effective or viewed it favorably. It appears that pairing students with others who do better on tests and rewarding them for their combined performance results in considerable improvement in the performance of lower-level students.     

A Humanistic and Experiential Approach to Personal Development

A community junior college made humanistic concepts and experiential methods the bases for a personal development course which was staffed by professional counselors. The course was designed to permit flexibility in content and class activities which were directed toward the personal growth and intellectual development of individual students, each with unique needs. Small, unstructured discussion groups and individual papers and projects were deliberately placed outside the grading context to encourage active student involvement. The experimental course was evaluated in regard to such questions as the following: Can humanistic and value-oriented course content stimulate intellectual development and personal growth on the part of junior college students? Are didactic and experiential methods compatible in a classroom setting? Can counselors teach and maintain effectiveness as student personnel workers?     

Longitudinal evaluation of the importance of homework assignment completion for the academic performance of middle school students with ADHD

The primary goal of this study was to longitudinally evaluate the homework assignment completion patterns of middle school age adolescents with ADHD, their associations with academic performance, and malleable predictors of homework assignment completion. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 104 middle school students comprehensively diagnosed with ADHD and followed for 18 months. Multiple teachers for each student provided information about the percentage of homework assignments turned in at five separate time points and school grades were collected quarterly. Results showed that agreement between teachers with respect to students assignment completion was high, with an intraclass correlation of .879 at baseline. Students with ADHD were turning in an average of 12% fewer assignments each academic quarter in comparison to teacher-reported classroom averages. Regression analyses revealed a robust association between the percentage of assignments turned in at baseline and school grades 18 months later, even after controlling for baseline grades, achievement (reading and math), intelligence, family income, and race. Cross-lag analyses demonstrated that the association between assignment completion and grades was reciprocal, with assignment completion negatively impacting grades and low grades in turn being associated with decreased future homework completion. Parent ratings of homework materials management abilities at baseline significantly predicted the percentage of assignments turned in as reported by teachers 18 months later. These findings demonstrate that homework assignment completion problems are persistent across time and an important intervention target for adolescents with ADHD.     

Using System-Wide Trust Theory to Make Predictions About Dependence on Four Diagnostic Aids

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether performance on a subsequent exam was affected when two lessons were as similar as possible except that one was presented in class and the other was presented online. In a hybrid course, half of the lessons were presented in the classroom as narrated Power Point presentations and half of the lessons were presented online as narrated Power Point presentations. Online student–teacher interaction took place in a chatroom. Furthermore, for each question on the midterm or final examination, the students had answered a pre-lesson and post-lesson question, integrated with the appropriate lesson, which queried the same fact statement as the exam question. Students performed better on post-lesson questions asked in class than post-lesson questions asked online. They also performed better on exam questions on classroom lessons than exam questions on online lessons. The results support the conclusion that social interaction aids learning.     

Effects of the contingency for homework submission on homework submission and quiz performance in a college course

Effects of the contingency for submission of homework assignments on the probability of assignment submission and on quiz grades were assessed in an undergraduate psychology course. Under an alternating treatments design, each student was assigned to a points condition for 5 of 10 quiz-related homework assignments corresponding to textbook chapters. Points were available for homework submission under this condition; points were not available under the no-points condition. The group-mean percentage of homework assignments submitted and quiz grades were higher for all chapters under the points condition than in the no-points condition. These findings, which were replicated in Experiment 2, demonstrate that homework submission was not maintained when the only consequences were instructor-provided feedback and expectation of improved quiz performance.     

The Effect of Response Cards on Participation and Weekly Quiz Scores of University Students Enrolled in Introductory Psychology Courses

Increasing student participation in college classrooms is an overlooked yet socially valid endeavor. The present study attempted to increase student participation, accuracy of responding, and weekly quiz scores, by incorporating student response-cards. Measures of social validity were also addressed. One hundred twenty university students in two sections of an introductory course served as participants. An augmented incomplete ABA reversal design was used to compare the effects of review questions with and without response-cards. Results suggest that response cards can increase participation as well as measures of learning, in this case quiz scores. Also, students rated the intervention positively on a consumer satisfaction rating scale. In addition to improving rates of student participation and quiz scores, response-cards positively impacted both students and the instructor's subjective experience in the classroom.     

A comparison of collaborative and traditional instruction in higher education

Although collaborative instructional techniques have become popular in college courses, it is unclear whether collaborative techniques can replace more traditional instructional methods. We examined the efficacy of collaborative courses (in-class, collaborative activities with no lectures) compared to traditional lecture courses (in-class, instructor-led presentations) in four sections of introductory psychology. Most other aspects of the courses remained constant, including the professor, assignments, and exams. The collaborative learning condition resulted in significantly lower quiz and exam scores in addition to lower self-reported satisfaction with the course and the instructor than the traditional lecture condition. Moreover, students were no more likely to be satisfied with the social environment in the collaborative condition. Our results suggest that collaborative techniques may be a way to enhance professorial lectures but should not be used to replace them entirely. Further research should explore the ratio of collaborative to traditional techniques that is most beneficial for college student learning.     

Mindfulness,anxiety, and high-stakes mathematics performance in the laboratory and classroom

Mindfulness enhances emotion regulation and cognitive performance. A mindful approach may be especially beneficial in high-stakes academic testing environments, in which anxious thoughts disrupt cognitive control. The current studies examined whether mindfulness improves the emotional response to anxiety-producing testing situations, freeing working memory resources, and improving performance. In Study 1, we examined performance in a high-pressure laboratory setting. Mindfulness indirectly benefited math performance by reducing the experience of state anxiety. This benefit occurred selectively for problems that required greater working memory resources. Study 2 extended these findings to a calculus course taken by undergraduate engineering majors. Mindfulness indirectly benefited students’ performance on high-stakes quizzes and exams by reducing their cognitive test anxiety. Mindfulness did not impact performance on lower-stakes homework assignments. These findings reveal an important mechanism by which mindfulness benefits academic performance, and suggest that mindfulness may help attenuate the negative effects of test anxiety.     

The effectiveness of collaborative story building and telling in facilitating group cohesion in a college classroom setting

This study tested the notion that the construction and telling of a collaborative group story would facilitate the development of group cohesion within the context of an actual classroom setting over the duration of the course. Participants were 125 students in 8 classes (4 experimental, 4 control) of a group psychotherapy course that focused on the principles and techniques of cognitive behavior therapy in conjunction with psychodrama techniques. Results showed significantly higher cohesion scores in the experimental condition compared to the control condition, suggesting that collaborative story building and telling is a viable strategy for improving group cohesion.     

The Effectiveness of Collaborative Story Building and Telling in Facilitating Group Cohesion in a College Classroom Setting

Abstract

This study tested the notion that the construction and telling of a collaborative group story would facilitate the development of group cohesion within the context of an actual classroom setting over the duration of the course. Participants were 125 students in 8 classes (4 experimental, 4 control) of a group psychotherapy course that focused on the principles and techniques of cognitive behavior therapy in conjunction with psychodrama techniques. Results showed significantly higher cohesion scores in the experimental condition compared to the control condition, suggesting that collaborative story building and telling is a viable strategy for improving group cohesion.     

Method,MacIntyre, and Pedagogy: Inviting Students to Participate in Theology as a Living Conversation

Teaching theology within academic institutions with confessional commitments and theologically conservative students requires holding together, in creative tension, two pedagogical goals. The challenge is to promote rigorous academic inquiry by encouraging student openness to engagement with perspectives that challenge their own beliefs while simultaneously constructing a course that is experienced as a safe space where students do not feel their personal faith is under attack. This essay presents the argument that a methodological framework for introductory theology courses informed by Alasdair MacIntyre's reflections on the nature of living traditions holds great promise for achieving these objectives. The essay will also describe how a creative extended analogy drawn from the game of basketball facilitates student comprehension of this initially abstract intellectual framework. Finally, the essay will offer some representative examples of student participation in course online discussion forums in order to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach for student learning.     

父母婚姻质量对小学生家庭作业努力影响的追踪研究:亲子亲合的中介作用

本研究探讨了父母婚姻质量对小学生家庭作业努力的影响,以及亲子亲合在父母婚姻质量与小学生家庭作业努力之间的中介作用。采用婚姻质量问卷、亲子亲合问卷、作业努力问卷对四个地区625名小学生及其家长进行了为期九个月的三次追踪研究。结果表明:(1)三次测量的父母婚姻质量、亲子亲合、小学生家庭作业努力两两之间存在显著相关;(2)交叉滞后分析显示,父母婚姻质量通过亲子亲合对小学生家庭作业努力产生影响。研究揭示了父母婚姻关系和亲子亲合对小学生家庭作业努力的影响及其作用机制,研究结果对父母参与小学生家庭作业具有启发和指导意义。     

The teacher's role in promoting collaborative dialogue in the classroom

Background Research on student‐led small‐group learning in schools going back nearly four decades has documented many types of student participation that promote learning. Less is known about how the teacher can foster effective groupwork behaviours. Aims This paper reviews research that explores the role of the teacher in promoting learning in small groups. The focus is on how students can learn from their peers during small‐group work, how teachers can prepare students for collaborative group work, and the role of teacher discourse and classroom norms in small‐group dialogue. Method Studies selected for review focused on student‐led small‐group contexts for learning in which students were expected to collaborate, reported data from systematic observations of group work, and linked observational data to teacher practices and student learning outcomes. Results and conclusions This review uncovered multiple dimensions of the teacher's role in fostering beneficial group dialogue, including preparing students for collaborative work, forming groups, structuring the group‐work task, and influencing student interaction through teachers' discourse with small groups and with the class. Common threads through the research are the importance of students explaining their thinking, and teacher strategies and practices that may promote student elaboration of ideas.     

How ‘other people matter’ in a classroom-based strengths intervention: Exploring interpersonal strategies and classroom outcomes

Interventions that identify and develop character strengths have been shown to benefit well-being, academic engagement and achievement. Strengths research within positive psychology has focused primarily on individual outcomes with less attention on group or relationships effects. This study (N?=?193) examined the effect of a classroom-based strengths intervention on class cohesion and friction, relatedness, engagement, well-being and strengths use. A six-session programme was trialled with 9–12-year-old students. Students learned to recognise strengths and practised strengths-related goal setting. At three-months post-test, multi-level modelling indicated that intervention group participants scored significantly higher on class cohesion and relatedness need satisfaction, and lower on class friction than the non-randomised control group. Programme participants also reported higher levels of positive affect, classroom engagement, autonomy need satisfaction and strengths use. School-based strengths interventions may influence individual perceptions of class climate, engagement and student relatedness in addition to individual well-being.