The Effects of Group-Based Context Personalization on Learning Outcomes and Motivation

The rise of online course enrollments in higher education has highlighted the need to establish and validate effective online instructional strategies focused on improving learning outcomes and affective responses towards instruction. One such strategy, group-based context personalization, frames instructional materials within contexts relevant to shared interests among groups of students. This study sought to investigate the effects of group-based context personalization on learning outcomes and motivation towards the instruction when materials were contextualized based on a learner’s academic major. This study employed a true experimental design to explore the effects of group-based context personalization on learning outcomes and motivation for 20 undergraduate fashion merchandising majors enrolled in a four-year institution in the East Central Region of the U.S. Participants were randomly assigned to either the personalization or non-personalization group. The personalization group received an online unit on fair use and copyright contextualized with fashion merchandising examples, while the non-personalization group received the same instructional materials but with general, education-related examples. Both groups completed Keller’s (2010) Instructional Materials Motivation Survey and a posttest that consisted of recall, general transfer, and fashion merchandising-related transfer questions. This study found no significant between-groups differences on learning outcomes or motivation towards the instruction, though the within-groups posttest performance on general education questions did approach significance over performance on fashion merchandising transfer questions. Suggestions for future research and implementation of group-based context personalization instructional strategies are provided

Explaining Math Achievement;Personality, Motivation, and Trust

This study investigated the statistical significance of student trust next to the well-tested constructs of personality and motivation to determine whether trust is a significant predictor of course achievement in college math courses. Participants were 175 students who were taking undergraduate math courses in an urban public university. The Mini-Markers (Saucier, 1994), an adapted Student Trust Survey (Barnes, Adams & Forsyth, 2004, April), and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & McKeachie, 1991) were used to measure students\u27 Big-Five personality factors, trust in their math instructor, and motivational beliefs and strategies for their learning and performance in one of the math courses they were taking during Spring 2009. Students reported their semester in college, gender and ethnicity their final math grades and math class size information were collected from the university at the end of the semester and their math course group was determined based on the categorization made by the university\u27s math department. The data were analyzed using bivariate correlations, independent samples t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression models. The Conscientiousness factor correlated significantly with students\u27 final math grades, explaining 6 unique variance in students\u27 grades. Students\u27 trust in their math instructor also correlated significantly with their final math grades, contributing another 6 unique variance to the prediction of students\u27 grades. Students\u27 task value, self-efficacy beliefs, test anxiety, and effort regulation were all significantly correlated with their final math grades, and when these were added in the final prediction model, the significant effects of the Conscientiousness factor and student trust on students\u27 grades became non-significant. This showed that students\u27 motivated strategies for learning completely mediated the relationship between students\u27 Conscientiousness factor, trust, and their final math grades. The final prediction mod

Explaining Math Achievement;Personality, Motivation, and Trust

This study investigated the statistical significance of student trust next to the well-tested constructs of personality and motivation to determine whether trust is a significant predictor of course achievement in college math courses. Participants were 175 students who were taking undergraduate math courses in an urban public university. The Mini-Markers (Saucier, 1994), an adapted Student Trust Survey (Barnes, Adams & Forsyth, 2004, April), and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & McKeachie, 1991) were used to measure students\u27 Big-Five personality factors, trust in their math instructor, and motivational beliefs and strategies for their learning and performance in one of the math courses they were taking during Spring 2009. Students reported their semester in college, gender and ethnicity their final math grades and math class size information were collected from the university at the end of the semester and their math course group was determined based on the categorization made by the university\u27s math department. The data were analyzed using bivariate correlations, independent samples t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression models. The Conscientiousness factor correlated significantly with students\u27 final math grades, explaining 6 unique variance in students\u27 grades. Students\u27 trust in their math instructor also correlated significantly with their final math grades, contributing another 6 unique variance to the prediction of students\u27 grades. Students\u27 task value, self-efficacy beliefs, test anxiety, and effort regulation were all significantly correlated with their final math grades, and when these were added in the final prediction model, the significant effects of the Conscientiousness factor and student trust on students\u27 grades became non-significant. This showed that students\u27 motivated strategies for learning completely mediated the relationship between students\u27 Conscientiousness factor, trust, and their final math grades. The final prediction mod

Learning of Research Methods in Psychology: The Influence of Affective, Behavioural and Cognitive Factors

A major part of learning in psychology concerns research methods. Research methods provide a basis to the vast majority of both transferable and subject-specific skills required in a psychology degree, and research methods core modules are required in all British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited psychology courses in the UK. Existing literature acknowledges that university students find courses in research methods particularly challenging. However, most of the research to date has focused on evaluating the outcomes of research methods learning, with few studies addressing the development of research methods learning. In a series of three studies, this thesis applied a holistic approach to explore how affective, behavioural and cognitive components shape students' research methods learning journeys. As little research has explored the role of affect in the learning of research methods, a particular emphasis on emotions was placed, with the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2019) being at the core of the thesis. Study 1 was a mixed-methods study consisting of two surveys (N=106) and two focus groups (N=7) exploring students' expectations, experiences, and feelings towards research methods at the beginning of their journey. The results suggested that learning approaches, motivations, self-efficacy, and a range of emotions can have important influences on students' learning processes and supported the need to explore these components together. Study 2 built on these findings and explored students' learning journeys through the research methods curriculum longitudinally across three-time points within two academic years. Drawing on both observational (N=239) and self-reported (N=158) data from the same learning experience, this study examined the influence and development of achievement emotions, learning approaches, motivations, self-regulation, self-efficacy, activity in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and attendance on the learning of research methods. The findings supported the application of the control-value theory, with emotions seen as crucial to learning and deactivating negative emotions (boredom and hopelessness) appearing especially detrimental to students' research methods learning trajectories. The study highlighted the usefulness of VLEs as a learning tool with online engagement explaining 13% of the variance in research methods grades. Lastly, Study 3 provided deeper qualitative insights into students' learning by interviewing 15 students at the end of their journey, with three learning typologies identified: (1) Learning by interest and understanding, (2) Learning by guidelines and practice, (3) Apprehensive Learning Attitude. This study's results indicated both differences and similarities in psychology students' learning journeys, with students differing in their approach and attitudes while sharing similar struggles. Taken together, this research showed that many affective, cognitive and behavioural variables influence research methods learning journeys. The influence of emotions is highlighted as especially crucial to learning, with the predictive role of VLE engagement and activities also emphasised. This thesis offers proposals on how the literature on achievement emotions and the emerging field of learning analytics (Siemens, 2013) could be combined and applied in higher education. Further recommendations apply to the design of teaching and learning environments that combat specifically deactivating negative emotions and incorporate active learning tools and technologies

How affective-motivational variables and approaches to learning predict mathematics achievement in upper elementary levels

The relationship between students' motivation and attitudes towards mathematics, the approaches to learning they use, and their achievement in mathematics has been widely documented in middle school and further academic levels. However, the empirical research in earlier educational stages remains scarce. This study analyzed the predictive value of affective-motivational variables and deep and surface approaches to learning on mathematics achievement in a sample of 524 upper elementary students. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the predictors of mathematics achievement. Mathematics enjoyment positively predicted mathematics achievement and age and the use of the surface approach to learning negatively predicted mathematics achievement. The variables in the model explained 21.3% of the variance in mathematics achievement. Mean differences in the affective-motivational variables and approaches to learning occurred between students with very high and very low achievement in Mathematics, yielding further evidence of important differences between the achievement extremes

EFFECT OF FLIPPED CLASSROOM APPROACH ON MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS MATH MOTIVATION AND MATH ANXIETY IN INDIA

The purpose of this experimental posttest-only study was to determine the effect of the flipped classroom approach (FCA) instructional strategy on motivational orientations of middle school students in math in India. The research questions focused on the effect of FCA on students value component (intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value), expectancy component (self-efficacy and control beliefs), and affective component (test anxiety). These variables were measured using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ).Two intact sections of eighth-grade students (n=66) from a private K-12 school in India participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: using FCA (videos from Khan Academy) and not using FCA to teach the same mathematics topic. At the end of the one-week long study, two surveys were administered to participants in both groups: the demographic survey and the MSLQ.Statistical analyses using two MANOVAs and a one-way ANOVA showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of students value component, expectancy component, or affective component. The limitations of this study focus on the duration of the study, study design, use of self-reported survey, and limited sample size. Additionally, with this being the first known study of its kind, it can be argued that further research studies on the topic might be warranted before forming a conclusion on the use of FCA on student motivation

FDM preparation of bio-compatible UHMWPE polymer for artificial implant

Due to its properties of high wear, creep resistance, high stiffness and strength, Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) was developed to eliminate most metallic wear in artificial implant, which conventionally found in stainless steel, Cobalt Chromium (Co-Cr) and Titanium (Ti) alloys. UHMWPE has an ultra-high viscosity that renders continuous melt-state processes including one of the additive manufacturing processes, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) ineffective for making UHMWPE implant. Attempt to overcome this problem and adapting this material to FDM is by blending UHMWPE with other polyethylene including High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polyethylene-Glycol (PEG) which provide adequate mechanical properties for biomedical application along with the improvement in extrudability. It was demonstrated that the inclusion of 60% HDPE fraction has improved the flowability of UHMWPE in MFI test and showing adequate thermal stability in TGA