Using HLM to Explore the Effects of Perceptions of Learning Environments and Assessments on Students’ Test Performance

The study examines the role that perceptions or impressions of learning environments and assessments play in students’ performance on a large-scale standardized test. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to test aspects of the Learning Errors and Formative Feedback model to determine how much variation in students’ performance was explained by students’ and school principals’ perceptions of learning environments and assessments. Results from sequential HLM testing indicated that students’ but not principals’ perceptions explained a significant, although modest, amount of the total variation in students’ test performance. These results suggest that when students perceive learning environments to be safe and valuable, and positive assessment activities to be taking place, they tend to perform better on standardized tests than when they perceive learning environments and assessment activities otherwise. These findings provide a rationale for investigating the variables that can help improve students’ perceptions in order to enhance their test performance.     

Helping or Hovering? The Effects of Helicopter Parenting on College Students’ Well-Being

Parental involvement is related to many positive child outcomes, but if not developmentally appropriate, it can be associated with higher levels of child anxiety and depression. Few studies have examined the effects of over-controlling parenting, or “helicopter parenting,” in college students. Some studies have found that college students of over-controlling parents report feeling less satisfied with family life and have lower levels of psychological well-being. This study examined self-determination theory as the potential underlying mechanism explaining this relationship. College students (N = 297) completed measures of helicopter parenting, autonomy supportive parenting, depression, anxiety, satisfaction with life, and basic psychological needs satisfaction. Students who reported having over-controlling parents reported significantly higher levels of depression and less satisfaction with life. Furthermore, the negative effects of helicopter parenting on college students’ well-being were largely explained by the perceived violation of students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy and competence.     

The Effects of Alternate Forms of Performance Feedback on Elementary-Aged Students’ Oral Reading Fluency

Within the context of a brief experimental design, the current study examined the effects of providing two different types of performance feedback, performance feedback on words read correctly (PFWC) and performance feedback on words read incorrectly (PFWI), on the oral reading fluency of six elementary-aged students. For all of the participants, PFWI resulted in higher levels of oral reading fluency than PFWC. In addition, for a majority of the participants, PFWC resulted in lower levels of oral reading errors than PFWI. These results suggest that providing students with performance feedback on the number or words read correctly may enhance the reading fluency of students experiencing reading difficulties. The implications of these results for intervention selection are discussed.     

Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Students’ Career and College Readiness: A Survey of Professional School Counselors

Grounded in Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory and Savickas’s (2011) career construction theory, this study examined school counselors’ beliefs about whether they can perform specific tasks related to supporting students’ career and college readiness. A national sample of school counselors (N = 2,047) completed the School Counselor Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Student Career and College Readiness Scale (Baker, Parikh-Foxx, & Martinez, 2017). Findings from a survey research design indicated that the extent of related training and the challenges associated with implementation of career service delivery were of concern to participants. Recommendations for training, practice, and further research are presented.     

Effects of Fourth and Second Graders’ Cross-Age Tutoring on Students’ Spelling

A quasi-experimental study examined some effects of cross-age tutoring on fourth grade tutors' and second grade tutees' ability to spell accurately and correct errors on their own rough drafts. Half of the participating tutors were trained in tutoring skills; half were not. All participants were given pre- and post-assessments. On dictated writing assessments, second graders improved significantly, although fourth graders did not. On a free writing assessment, both second and fourth graders had significant gain scores. Observations during tutoring sessions showed benefits for both tutors and tutees.     

American and Chinese Students’ Calibration of Comprehension and Performance

In the present study we examined the ability of American and Chinese undergraduate students to calibrate their understanding of textbook passages translated into their native languages. Students read a series of texts and made predictions of their understanding of each text as well as the number of questions they would be able to answer correctly. Students also made postdictions of their test performance. Chinese students were significantly better than American students in calibrating their understanding of passages and predicting how many comprehension items they would answer correctly. Chinese students also outperformed American students on comprehension tests. All students were able to make more accurate postdictions of comprehension test scores than predictions. Results are related to possible instructional differences between American and Chinese students. Several possible directions for future research are discussed.     

Does the Quality of Academic Life Matter for Students’ Performance,Loyalty and University Recommendation?

The quality of academic life (QAL) is concerned with all the general feelings of satisfaction of a student who experiences university. For universities, academic staff, public managers and policy makers, the fundamental question is how the measures and management of this construct can be improved in order to render a better service to students. Based on a sample of 726 students from all Portuguese State universities, we test a structural model that allows us to evaluate the impact of QAL on students’ academic performance (SAP) along with loyalty and willingness to recommend the university. In the analysis of all groups, the results reveal that QAL has a positive and significant, although not robust, influence on SAP. That positive influence is ratified, however, in the multi-group analysis for the 2nd and 3rd Study Cycles, through obtaining significant and robust empirical evidence. The results also show that QAL is a good predictor of loyalty and university recommendation.     

Effects of Training and Environment on Graduate Students’ Self-Rated Knowledge and Judgments of Responsible Research Behavior

Training programs, departmental/disciplinary norms, and individual factors (e.g., personality traits) have been hypothesized to influence (un)ethical behavior. This exploratory study surveyed graduate students from a single university in the American Southeast. Relationships were examined among 496 participants’ individual characteristics, training, self-rated knowledge and decision-making skills in research conduct, and judgments of ethically questionable vignettes. Key findings include the increased likelihood of unethical action by students in online programs, a negative relationship between age and unethical actions, and a negative relationship between agreeableness and reports that a peer would take an unethical action. Graduate training was unrelated to judgments of ethicality.     

The Effects of Competition on Improvisers’ Motivation,Stress, and Creative Performance

We explored how competition affects the quality of musical improvisation, as well as the intrinsic motivation and stress reported by improvisers. Amateur musicians improvised on a keyboard in one of two conditions: induced competition and no competition. Employing the consensual assessment technique, improvisations were assessed for creativity and technical goodness by 10 expert judges. Findings indicate that improvisations were judged as more creative under competitive than non-competitive conditions. Moreover, improvisers in the competition condition were more intrinsically motivated, as well as more stressed, than improvisers in the no competition condition. The creativity and technical goodness dimensions of improvisations were positively related to each other. The findings are discussed in light of the intense debate over the effects of extrinsic motivators on intrinsic motivation and creativity and offer mechanisms through which competition may affect creative performance as well as discuss the role of stress in affecting motivation and creativity.     

Effects of an Online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Intervention on Children’s Quality of Life

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The present study examined if an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)–based online intervention for parents had indirect effects on their...     

Taiwanese College Students’ Perceptions of Plagiarism: Cultural and Educational Considerations

The present study investigates Taiwanese college students’ perceptions of plagiarism. Specifically, this study seeks to explore how perceptive students pursuing higher education in Taiwan are in recognizing plagiaristic writing, in what terms they perceive source use in writing as appropriate and inappropriate, and view why plagiarism occurs. The study included 30 high- and 30 low-achieving students selected out of 396 students in English writing classes at a university in Taiwan. Drawing upon evidence from a writing exercise and individual interviews with these 60 Taiwanese college students, the present study identified a variety of reasons why students may plagiarize. Most of the students participating in the study had some basic understanding of plagiarism. They had some familiarity with the Western notion of plagiarism, but based on the writing exercise, more often than not they were not able to recognize plagiarism when it actually occurred. Students’ understanding was generally, but not entirely, consistent with their source use behavior. More than half of the students considered that plagiarism is a cultural issue. However, there are also other factors that may lead to plagiarism. Finally, recommendations in terms of writing pedagogy are made.     

Instructional Effects on Word Association Commonality in High and Low “Schizophrenic” College Students

In an attempt to assess the ability of normal Ss to give uncommon word associations and of “schizophrenic” Ss to give common ones, the effects of three types of instruction on the word association performance of 144 college students were measured. All Ss, including those with valid MMPI profiles suggestive of schizophrenia were able to increase their response commonality under instructions to give the word “most people” would give, and to decrease their commonality under instructions to give a word “no one else” would give, relative to the free association condition. Though Ss with high MMPI Schizophrenia scores produced more original associations under all conditions, there was an apparent floor effect on the production of popular responses under the “no one else” instructions.     

Relationship Factors’ Impact on Condom Use Among College Students

Research indicates that a number of college students are at risk for HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, and unplanned pregnancy as a result of their sexual behaviors. Specific behaviors placing college students at risk include having sex with multiple partners, poor communication about safer sex practices with their sexual partners and not using condoms consistently and correctly when engaging in sexual activity. The purpose of this paper is to identify potential differences in safer sex practices and factors that influence condom use among college students. A four-page, 18-item survey was developed to determine participants’ condom use and the impact of relationship status and other demographic factors on condom use. Analyses revealed that the number of lifetime vaginal sexual partners and participants’ sex influenced condom use. There were no significant differences in relationship status, duration, trust, honesty and condom use. These findings should be considered with designing interventions to increase condom use among college students.     

The Study of College Students’ Beliefs in China

Pastoral Psychology - The beliefs of college students is an important issue that is followed closely by the Government of China (GOC). In recent years, the GOC increasingly has encouraged the...     

Do Mindsets Shape Students’ Well-Being and Performance?

“Mindsets (or implicit theories) are people’s lay beliefs about the nature of human attributes, such as intelligence or personality”. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is an unchangeable trait, whereas those with a growth mindset think of it as a malleable quality that can be increased and developed. This study explored the relationships among growth mindset, wellbeing, and performance in a sample of 1,240 students from a multi-campus private university located in 18 states across Mexico. Our results indicated that individuals who scored high in growth (vs. fixed) mindset showed increased levels of wellbeing and also performed better in school. Furthermore, we found that wellbeing mediated the relationship between growth mindset and performance and that the effect of growth mindset on grades was higher among younger students. These findings have interesting implications for psychology and education.     

College Students’ Affective Distress: The Role of Expectation Discrepancies and Communication

The discrepancy between college students’ performance and parents’ expectations may be related to college students’ affective distress. Further, the role that parent–college student communication reciprocity may play in the context of these discrepancies has not been examined. As a result, this study examined parent–college student expectation discrepancies and communication reciprocity as predictors of college students’ affective distress (i.e., anger, depression, and anxiety). Results of this study suggest that college student–parent expectation discrepancies, communication reciprocity, and college students’ affective distress (i.e., anger, depression, and anxiety) are interrelated significantly. Further, results from the hierarchical regressions conducted for this study suggest that college students’ perception of their communication reciprocity with their parents may be a more important predictor of college students’ depression and anxiety in the context of the expectation discrepancies examined in this study. These findings underscore the importance of teaching communication skills to college students and their parents as a means of diminishing the deleterious effects of perceiving one another inaccurately.