Fostering reading comprehension in fifth grade by explicit instruction in reading strategies and peer tutoring

Background: Research reveals that explicit reading strategies instruction and engaging students in interaction about texts promote students' reading comprehension ability. The present intervention study combines both aspects. Aims: The study examines the educational benefits of explicit reading strategies instruction, followed by practice in (a) teacher‐led whole‐class activities (STRAT), (b) reciprocal same‐age (STRAT + SA), or (c) cross‐age peer tutoring activities (STRAT + CA) on fifth graders' reading comprehension achievement. Sample: Twenty‐two fifth‐grade teachers and their 454 students from 19 different schools throughout Flanders (Belgium) participated. Method: A quasi‐experimental pretest post‐test retention test design was used with three experimental (STRAT, STRAT + SA, and STRAT + CA) and a matched control group. The experimental interventions were implemented during an entire school year. Results: Multilevel analysis revealed that the STRAT and STRAT + CA condition made a significantly larger pretest to retention test progress than the control group. The significant major progress was especially situated from pretest to post‐test, during which the intervention took place. Concerning the STRAT + SA condition no significant differences with regard to the control group were detected. Pairwise comparisons of the experimental conditions indicated that the STRAT + CA condition's progress from pretest to retention test also exceeded the STRAT + SA condition's advancement significantly. Conclusion: The study corroborated the efficacy of the STRAT and STRAT + CA conditions' interventions as feasible tools to enhance fifth graders' reading comprehension achievement.     

Example‐based learning: Effects of model expertise in relation to student expertise

Background. Worked examples are very effective for novice learners. They typically present a written‐out ideal (didactical) solution for learners to study. Aims. This study used worked examples of patient history taking in physiotherapy that presented a non‐didactical solution (i.e., based on actual performance). The effects of model expertise (i.e., worked example based on advanced, third‐year student model or expert physiotherapist model) in relation to students' expertise (i.e., first‐ or second‐year) were investigated. Sample. One hundred and thirty‐four physiotherapy students (61 first‐year and 73 second‐year). Methods. Design was 2×2 factorial with factors ‘Student Expertise’ (first‐year vs. second‐year) and ‘Model Expertise’ (expert vs. advanced student). Within expertise levels, students were randomly assigned to the Expert Example or the Advanced Student Example condition. All students studied two examples (content depending on their assigned condition) and then completed a retention and test task. They rated their invested mental effort after each example and test task. Results. Second‐year students invested less mental effort in studying the examples, and in performing the retention and transfer tasks than first‐year students. They also performed better on the retention test, but not on the transfer test. In contrast to our hypothesis, there was no interaction between student expertise and model expertise: all students who had studied the Expert examples performed better on the transfer test than students who had studied Advanced Student Examples. Conclusions. This study suggests that when worked examples are based on actual performance, rather than an ideal procedure, expert models are to be preferred over advanced student models.     

Effects of self‐explanation as a metacognitive strategy for solving mathematical word problems1

Abstract: This study examined how a metacognitive strategy known as self‐explanation influences word problem solving in elementary school children. Participants were 79 sixth‐graders. They were assigned to one of three groups: the self‐explanation group, the self‐learning group, or the control group. Students in each group performed a ratio word problem test and a transfer test. The results showed that students in the self‐explanation group outperformed students in the other two groups on both the ratio word problem test and on the transfer test. In addition, high explainers who generated more self‐explanations relating to deep understanding of worked‐out examples outperformed low explainers on both ratio word problem and transfer tests. The self‐explanation effect is discussed.     

Evaluating change in attitude towards mathematics using the ‘then‐now’ procedure in a cooperative learning programme

Background: Tertiary students' attitudes to mathematics are frequently negative and resistant to change, reflecting low self‐efficacy. Some educators believe that greater use should be made of small group, collaborative teaching. However, the results of such interventions should be subject to assessments of bias caused by a shift in the frame of reference used by students in reporting their attitudes. Aims: This study was designed to assess whether traditional pretest‐post‐test procedures would indicate positive changes in mathematics attitude during a programme of cooperative learning, and whether an examination of any attitudinal change using the ‘then‐now’ procedure would indicate bias in the results due to a shift in the internal standards for expressing attitude. Sample: Participants were 141 undergraduate students enrolled in a 12‐week statistics and research design component of a course in educational psychology. Method: Using multivariate procedures, pretest, post‐test, and then‐test measures of mathematics self‐concept and anxiety were examined in conjunction with a cooperative learning approach to teaching. Results: Significant positive changes between pretest and post‐test were found for both mathematics self‐concept and mathematics anxiety. There were no significant differences between the actual pretest and retrospective pretest measures of attitude. The results were not moderated by prior level of mathematics study. Conclusion: Conclusions about the apparent effectiveness of a cooperative learning programme were strengthened by the use of the retrospective pretest procedure.     

Assessing changes in performance and monitoring processes in individual and collaborative tests according to students' metacognitive skills

This study assessed students' test performances and metacognitive processes in real classroom settings. Psychology undergraduates were categorised according to their metacognitive skills (high vs. low) and had their test performances and monitoring processes in two different types of tests (multiple-choice and short-answer tests) compared in individual and collaborative test conditions. Students' test preparation practices, attributions, and regulatory processes during test-taking were also compared by using open-ended questions. In the collaborative tests, three types of metacognitive pairings were made (high/high vs. high/low vs. low/low). Results showed that: (1) in individual tests, high-metacognitive students presented better performance and higher confidence levels due to their more effective test preparation practices and regulatory skills; (2) Differences in performance and confidence levels due to metacognitive skills disappear when students take tests collaboratively; (3) Over time, collaborative testing had particular positive effects on the low/low metacognitive pairings. Results are discussed focusing on their educational implications.     

Understanding students' motivation in project work: A 2×2 achievement goal approach

Background The project work (PW) initiative was launched in 2000 by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, to encourage application of knowledge across disciplines, and to develop thinking, communication, collaboration, and metacognitive skills. Although PW has been introduced for a few years, few studies have examined the motivation of students in PW, especially with the use of the recently proposed 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Aim To use a cluster analytic approach to identify students' achievement goal profiles at an intra‐individual level, and to examine their links to various psychological characteristics and perceived outcomes in PW. Sample Participants were 491 Secondary 2 students (mean age=13.78, SD = 0.77) from two government coeducational schools. Method Cluster analysis was performed to identify distinct subgroups of students with similar achievement goal profiles. One‐way MANOVAs, followed by post hoc Tukey HSD tests for pairwise comparisons were used to determine whether there was any significant difference amongst clusters in terms of the psychological characteristics and perceived outcomes in PW. Results Four distinct clusters of students were identified. The cluster with high achievement goals and the cluster with moderately high goals had the most positive psychological characteristics and perceived outcomes. In contrast, the cluster with very low scores for all four achievement goals had the most maladaptive profile. Conclusio The study provides support for the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework, and demonstrates that multiple goals can operate simultaneously. However, it highlights the need for cross‐cultural studies to look into the approach–avoidance dimension in the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework.     

Teachers' and students' verbal behaviours during cooperative and small‐group learning

Background. Teachers play a critical role in promoting interactions between students and engaging them in the learning process. This study builds on a study by Hertz‐Lazarowitz and Shachar (1990) who found that during cooperative learning teachers' verbal behaviours were more helpful to and encouraging of their students' efforts while during whole‐class instruction, their verbal behaviours tended to be more authoritarian, rigid, and impersonal. Aim. This study seeks to determine if teachers who implement cooperative learning engage in more facilitative learning interactions with their students than teachers who implement group work only. The study also seeks to determine if students in the cooperative groups model their teachers' behaviours and engage in more positive helping interactions with each other than their peers in the group work groups. Samples. The study involved 26 teachers and 303 students in Grades 8 to10 from 4 large high schools in Brisbane, Australia. Methods. All teachers agreed to establish cooperative, small‐group activities in their classrooms for a unit of work (4 to 6 weeks) once a term for 3 school terms. The teachers were audiotaped twice during these lessons and samples of the students' language, as they worked in their groups, were also collected at the same time. Results. The results show that teachers who implement cooperative learning in their classrooms engage in more mediated‐learning interactions and make fewer disciplinary comments than teachers who implement group work only. Furthermore, the students model many of these interactions in their groups. Conclusions. The study shows that when teachers implement cooperative learning, their verbal behaviour is affected by the organizational structure of the classroom.     

Providing grade one students with multiple spelling strategies: Comparisons between strategy instruction,strategy instruction with metacognitive information,and traditional language arts

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether providing first-grade students with multiple strategy instruction plus metacognitive information would improve their spelling performances relative to providing them with strategy instruction or traditional language arts activities alone. Students in the strategy conditions received explicit instruction in the use of phonetics, imagery, and analogy. Students in the strategy condition with metacognitive information were also provided with information about when and where to use each spelling strategy. The remaining students completed traditional language arts activities. Students' spelling performances were assessed prior to, immediately after and 14 days after instruction using a dictation test, the Developmental Spelling Test, and a writing sample. For the dictation test, students who received multiple strategy instruction with metacognitive information out-performed those who received strategy instruction alone or completed language arts activities, with no differences between students' performances in the latter conditions. All students' performances improved on the Developmental Spelling Test and writing samples as a function of time. The authors concluded that even young students are able to acquire a repertoire of effective spelling strategies if they are provided with explicit instruction that includes metacognitive information.     

An effective metacognitive strategy: learning by doing and explaining with a computer‐based Cognitive Tutor

Recent studies have shown that self‐explanation is an effective metacognitive strategy, but how can it be leveraged to improve students' learning in actual classrooms? How do instructional treatments that emphasizes self‐explanation affect students' learning, as compared to other instructional treatments? We investigated whether self‐explanation can be scaffolded effectively in a classroom environment using a Cognitive Tutor, which is intelligent instructional software that supports guided learning by doing. In two classroom experiments, we found that students who explained their steps during problem‐solving practice with a Cognitive Tutor learned with greater understanding compared to students who did not explain steps. The explainers better explained their solutions steps and were more successful on transfer problems. We interpret these results as follows: By engaging in explanation, students acquired better‐integrated visual and verbal declarative knowledge and acquired less shallow procedural knowledge. The research demonstrates that the benefits of self‐explanation can be achieved in a relatively simple computer‐based approach that scales well for classroom use.     

Optimism and Attributional Retraining: Longitudinal Effects on Academic Achievement,Test Anxiety,and Voluntary Course Withdrawal in College Students1

A longitudinal study examined how optimism and attributional retraining (AR) influenced 256 first‐year college students' test anxiety, cumulative academic achievement, and course persistence in college over an academic year. Students' optimism was assessed at the start of the academic year and they were assigned to either an AR or no‐AR (control) condition. Measures of students' test anxiety, cumulative grade point average, and voluntary course withdrawal were obtained at the end of the academic year. Results suggest that although high optimism was an academic risk factor among students who did not receive AR, high‐optimism students who did receive the AR cognitive intervention benefited from its effects to a greater extent than did low‐optimism students.     

Training family therapy students in conceptual and observation skills relating to the therapeutic alliance: an evaluation

This paper describes a training intervention to develop students' conceptual and observation skills relating to the therapeutic alliance (TA) in family therapy. An evaluation methodology was developed and piloted. The knowledge and observation skills of family therapy students pre‐ and post‐training were assessed in comparison to a non‐intervention group of experienced clinicians. Students' mean scores on the knowledge measure improved significantly from 43 per cent to 74 per cent (p<0.001) and on the observation test from 43 per cent to 65 per cent, although this failed to reach statistical significance (p=0.08). There were no significant changes in the clinicians' scores over the same period. The clinicians' knowledge was higher initially, but the students had caught up after six months. In conclusion, training students in conceptual and observational skills relating to the therapeutic alliance may have a measurable effect. A ‘stepwise’ methodology for demonstrating the relationship between training in TA and outcomes for families is proposed.     

Cooperative learning in third graders' jigsaw groups for mathematics and science with and without questioning training

Background. There is much support for using cooperative methods, since important instructional aspects, such as elaboration of new information, can easily be realized by methods like ‘jigsaw’. However, the impact of providing students with additional help like a questioning training and potential limitations of the method concerning the (minimum) age of the students have rarely been investigated. Aims. The study investigated the effects of cooperative methods at elementary school level. Three conditions of instruction were compared: jigsaw, jigsaw with a supplementary questioning training and teacher‐guided instruction. Sample. Nine third grade classes from three schools with 208 students participated in the study. In each school, all the three instructional conditions were realized in three different classes. Method. All classes studied three units on geometry and one unit on astronomy using the assigned instructional method. Each learning unit comprised six lessons. For each unit, an achievement test was administered as pre‐test, post‐test and delayed test. Results. In the math units, no differences between the three conditions could be detected. In the astronomy unit, students benefited more from teacher‐guided instruction. Differential analyses revealed that ‘experts’ learned more than students in teacher‐guided instruction, whereas ‘novices’ were outperformed by the students in the control classes. Conclusions. Even third graders used the jigsaw method with satisfactory learning results. The modest impact of the questioning training and the low learning gains of the cooperative classes in the astronomy unit as well as high discrepancies between learning outcomes of experts and novices show that explicit instruction of explaining skills in combination with well‐structured material are key issues in using the jigsaw method with younger students.     

What my parents make me believe in learning: The role of filial piety in Hong Kong students' motivation and academic achievement

Chinese students are well‐known for their academic excellence. However, studies that explore the underlying mechanism of how cultural factors relate to the motivational process and academic achievement of Chinese students have been limited. This study aimed to examine the role of filial piety in shaping Chinese students' theories of intelligence so as to obtain a clearer understanding of the process by which parent–child connectedness is linked to Chinese students' academic achievement. A sample of 312 university students in Hong Kong were assessed concerning their filial piety beliefs, theories of intelligence and academic achievement. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that different filial piety beliefs relate to students' academic achievement by shaping different theories of intelligence. Reciprocal filial piety beliefs were found to facilitate an incremental view of intelligence, which in turn contributes to students' academic achievement. Authoritarian filial piety beliefs were shown to be associated with an entity view of intelligence, which consequently deteriorates students' academic achievement. Cultural views of motivational processes can shed light on how motivational beliefs are developed as a product of cultural or socialization processes, which, in turn, contribute to students' academic success.     

Generality of creativity across performance domains

The existence of general creative‐thinking skills was investigated. In the first study, 50 eighth‐grade students wrote poems, stories, mathematical equations, and mathematical word problems, all of which were rated for creativity by experts. When the effects of IQ reading achievement, and math achievement were controlled through multiple regression analyses, creativity scores on the four tasks were not correlated. This suggests that general creative‐thinking skills did not contribute to creative performance in these different tasks. Subjects also responded to a brief verbal fluency test. Scores on this test correlated significantly with story‐writing creativity (r = .34) but not with the other three tasks. Three follow‐up studies were conducted with second‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade students, and adults. These studies also produced no significant correlations among creativity ratings of various products.     

Metacognitive monitoring and control processes involved in primary school children's test performance

Background Within the context of students' self‐regulated learning, the interplay between learners' individual characteristics and the context of testing have been emphasized for assessing learning outcomes. Aims The present study examined metacognitive monitoring and control processes in elementary schoolchildren's test taking behaviour and explored the impacts of these metacognitive skills for the accuracy and the quantity of test performance. Sample and methods A total of 133 participants from third and fifth grade did a cloze test about a previously learned science topic, gave confidence judgments for every answer, and were then allowed to cross‐out answers if they wished. Two different mock scoring schemes for test performance were compared with a control group. Results Results revealed well‐developed monitoring skills indicating that by the age of 9 children can reliably distinguish between correct and incorrect answers. As for control skills, 11‐ and 12‐year‐olds proved to be better able to improve their test performance by selectively withdrawing answers that would have been incorrect than the 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds. Conclusions The study offers evidence for the impact of metacognitive processes in students' learning outcomes and documents strategic behaviour during test taking, as well as developmental progression in the involved skills.     

The effects of cooperative learning on trait emotional intelligence and academic achievement of Spanish primary school students

Increasing the students' academic achievement in the international evaluation arena is a challenge for our country, and cooperative learning and emotional intelligence may be a solution for this problem. The link between cooperative learning, emotional intelligence, and academic achievement has been poorly studied so far. The objective of the present investigation was to examine the influence of cooperative learning on trait emotional intelligence and academic achievement. The methodology used was a quasi-experimental design with pre/post-measurements and experimental/control groups. The participants were primary education students (n = 692) and teachers (n = 24) from eight public schools in Madrid, Spain. The instruments used were the Emotional Quotient-Youth Version questionnaire and internal and external assessment tests. Our results indicated that cooperative learning improved scores of one dimension of trait emotional intelligence, change adaptability, and students' academic achievement (Mathematics and Spanish Language). We discussed the possible implications of these outcomes for educational practice.     

Motivation for Reading and Upper Primary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Reading in Kenya

This study examined primary school students' reading motivation and performance on the standardized exam. Participants included 901 seventh and eighth grade students from Kenya. There were 468 females and 433 males. Contrary to previous studies, results showed reading challenge and aesthetics, but not efficacy, predicted reading achievement, indicating reading motivation may not influence achievement similarly across cultures. Gender differences were found in reading achievement but not motivation, an indication of a complex relationship between reading motivation and achievement. Students who read mostly for compliance and recognition did poorly in reading. Eighth graders did better in both reading motivation and achievement.     

Learning styles: Self‐reports versus thinking‐aloud measures

Background: Learning styles are often assessed through students' self‐reports on instruments such as Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS). Recent research, however, has questioned the adequacy of questionnaires for the assessment of learning styles. Aims: The objective of this paper is to evaluate methods of learning style assessment as a means for identifying students at risk. Therefore, the ILS as a self‐report instrument will be compared with the students' actual study processes, assessed through the thinking‐aloud method. Sample: In the first study 1,060 students from the Technical University of Delft participated. Thirty‐three of them were selected on the ILS for participation in the second study. Method: The ILS was administered to the 1,060 participants and their study results (GPA and credit points) were collected. Next, the selected 33 participants studied a technical text while thinking aloud. Knowledge acquisition was measured by means of a post‐test. Thinking‐aloud protocols were analysed on frequencies of study activities, thus representing process measures of learning styles. Results: The ILS proved to be a rather weak predictor of study results in Study 1. Results from Study 2 show hardly any correspondence between ILS and study process measures, although principal component structures of both measures were highly similar. Furthermore, study process measures outweighed the ILS in the prediction of study results (post‐test, GPA and credit points). Conclusions: Learning style theory was confirmed by results on the study process measures. The assessment of learning styles through self‐report instruments such as the ILS, however, should be reconsidered.