Can you only diagnose what you know? The relation between teachers\u27 self-regulation of learning concepts and their assessment of students\u27 self-regulation

Self-regulation of learning (SRL) positively affects achievement and motivation. Therefore, teachers are supposed to foster students\u27 SRL by providing them with strategies. However, two preconditions have to be met: teachers need to diagnose their students\u27 SRL to take instructional decisions about promoting SRL. To this end, teachers need knowledge about SRL to know what to diagnose. Only little research has investigated teachers\u27 knowledge about SRL and its assessment yet. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify teachers\u27 conceptions about SRL, to investigate their ideas about how to diagnose their students\u27 SRL, and to test relationships between both. To this end, we developed two systematic coding schemes to analyze the conceptions about SRL and the ideas about assessing SRL in the classroom among a sample of 205 teachers. The coding schemes for teachers\u27 open answers were developed based on models about SRL and were extended by deriving codes from the empirical data and produced satisfactory interrater reliability (conceptions about SRL: κ = 0.85, SE = 0.03; ideas about assessing SRL: κ = 0.63, SE = 0.05). The results showed that many teachers did not refer to any regulation procedure at all and described SRL mainly as student autonomy and self-directedness. Only few teachers had a comprehensive conception of the entire SRL cycle. We identified three patterns of teachers\u27 conceptualizations of SRL: a motivation-oriented, an autonomy-oriented, and a regulation-oriented conceptualization of SRL. Regarding teachers\u27 ideas about assessing their students\u27 SRL, teachers mainly focused on cues that are not diagnostic of SRL. Yet, many teachers knew about portfolios to register SRL among students. Finally, our results suggest that, partly, teachers\u27 ideas about assessing SRL varied as a function of their SRL concept: teachers with an autonomy-oriented conceptualization of SRL were more likely to use cues that are not diagnostic of SRL, such as unsystematic observation or off-task behavior. The results provide insights into teachers\u27 conceptions of SRL and of its assessment. Implications for future research in the field of SRL will be drawn, in particular about how to support teachers in diagnosing and fostering SR among their students

Reading persuasive texts affects preservice teachers\u27 beliefs about cultural diversity in the classroom

Research has suggested that teachers’ beliefs toward culturally diverse classrooms are affected during teacher education. Text reading, as one of the major learning activities in initial teacher education, is supposed to affect teachers’ educational concepts and beliefs. We conducted two experiments to test the impact of reading a positively or negatively oriented persuasive text about diversity on preservice teachers’ belief change. In Study 1 (N = 42), we found that belief change varied significantly as a function of the direction of the text condition, and that the reading of the texts led to a significantly stronger belief change if the text was in alignment with participants’ prior beliefs. Study 2 (N = 57) revealed a middle-sized but nonsignificant moderator effect for prior knowledge (p = .08, ηp 2 = .06), suggesting that participants with more prior knowledge were less likely to be persuaded by the text. The results provide new insights into factors that may affect the development of preservice teachers’ diversity beliefs. (DIPF/Orig.

Fostering pre-service teachers\u27 theoretical knowledge application. Studying with and without text-based cases

As knowledge derived from scientific theory can be helpful for teachers to reflect on their everyday teaching, universities have the challenging task of teaching this knowledge in such a way that pre-service teachers are able to apply it to their later teaching. Case-based learning has emerged as a promising method to foster pre-service teachers\u27 scientific knowledge application throughout university teacher education. However, surprisingly, empirical evidence for its effectiveness as compared to more traditional instructional interventions in teacher education is still inconclusive, partly being due to constraints concerning the employed comparison groups. The present quasi-experimental study (conducted in the field of classroom management) investigated the effect of studying exactly the same theoretical content with and without text-based cases on scientific knowledge application (as measured by a vignette test) in a sample of 101 pre-service teachers. Although the study found a small advantage for the case-based learning group, it demonstrated that scientific knowledge application may also be effectively fostered in a more traditional instructional course. The findings and their implications are discussed against the background of cognitive theories on inert knowledge and how to prevent it in teacher education. (DIPF/Orig.

Using Insights From Sports Psychology to Improve Recently-Qualified Doctors' Self-Efficacy While Managing Acutely Unwell Patients

Problem: Doctors experience a range of negative reactions when managing acutely unwell patients. These may manifest as emotions or behaviors. Without appropriate coping strategies, these emotions and behaviors can impede optimal clinical performance, which directly affects patient care. Athletes use performance enhancing routines (PERs) to minimize the effect of their negative emotions and behaviors on competitive performance. The authors investigated whether PERs could similarly improve recently qualified doctors’ emotional and behavioral control while managing acutely unwell patients and whether the doctors perceived any effect on clinical performance.Approach: Twelve doctors within 2 years of graduation from medical school recruited from 2 sites in Sheffield and Chesterfield, United Kingdom implemented PERs using the PERFORM (Performance Enhancing Routines For Optimization of Readiness using Metacognition) model over a 4-month period between April and December 2017. The doctors’ perceptions of PERFORM’s effect on their ability to manage patients was evaluated using self-reported mixed-methods data, including think aloud commentaries, semi-structured interviews, and self-efficacy scores.Outcomes: Doctors reported that PERFORM improved their ability to control negative emotions or behaviors during an acutely unwell patient in situ simulation, showing a statistically significant improvement in self-efficacy scores (P = .003, effect size = 0.89). Qualitative data revealed perceived improvement in aspects of clinical performance such as enhanced knowledge recall and decision making. These performance attributes appeared to positively impact interprofessional relationships and patient care. Doctors individualized their PERs and supported the wider implementation of PERFORM in health care education.Next Steps: This is the first study to employ individualized PERs based on sports psychology in a medical context. The PERFORM model could be introduced into existing acute patient management courses to provide emotional regulation coaching alongside clinical skills training. Further research might investigate PERFORM’s effect in other environments where emotional and behavioral control is paramount, such as surgery

What is a task? An ideomotor perspective

Although multitasking has been the subject of a large number of papers and experiments, the term task is still not well defined. In this opinion paper, we adopt the ideomotor perspective to define the term task and distinguish it from the terms goal and “action”. In our opinion, actions are movements executed by an actor to achieve a concrete goal. Concrete goals are represented as anticipated sensory consequences that are associated with an action in an ideomotor manner. Concrete goals are nested in a hierarchy of more and more abstract goals, which form the context of the corresponding action. Finally tasks are depersonalized goals, i.e., goals that should be achieved by someone. However tasks can be assigned to a specific person or group of persons, either by a third party or by the person or the group of persons themselves. By accepting this assignment the depersonalized task becomes a personal goal. In our opinion, research on multitasking needs to confine its scope to the analysis of concrete tasks, which result in concrete goals as anticipated sensory consequences of the corresponding action. We further argue that the distinction between dual- and single-tasking is dependent on the subjective conception of the task assignment, the goal representation and previous experience. Finally, we conclude that it is not the tasks, but the performing of the tasks, i.e. the actions that cause costs in multi-tasking experiments

Disentangling the respective contribution of task selection and task execution in self-directed cognitive control development

peer reviewedTask selection and task execution are key constructs in cognitive control development. Yet, little is known about how separable they are and how each contributes to task switching performance. Here, 60 4- to 5-year olds, 60 7- to 8-year olds, and 60 10- to 11-year olds children completed the double registration procedure, which dissociates these two processes. Task selection yielded both mixing and switch costs, especially in younger children, and task execution mostly yielded switch costs at all ages, suggesting that task selection is costlier than task execution. Moreover, both task selection and execution varied with task self-directedness (i.e., to what extent the task is driven by external aids) demands. Whereas task selection and task execution are dissociated regarding performance costs, they nevertheless both contribute to self-directed control

Teachers matter for metacognition : facilitating metacognition in the primary school through teacher-pupil interactions

Despite the ubiquity of Structured Thinking Activities (STAs) throughout primary school education in the UK and beyond, little is known about the ways that activities such as learning logs are used to support pupils to think about and manage their own thinking (i.e., engage with metacognition). Here we investigated how pupils engaged with STAs throughout a school year by conducting an in-depth case study of one Scottish primary four classroom, examining factors that facilitated and/or inhibited pupil metacognition. By triangulating data from participant observation, interviews and document analysis, we found that pupils were often un-motivated to engage with STAs, with responses provided during written and oral activities typically revealing superficial references to classroom topics of interest. Whilst factors such as the classroom culture and the timing of activities were found to influence pupil engagement with STAs, observational data indicated that teacher-pupil interactions are essential for eliciting metacognition from pupils (i.e., via discussions that occurred as part of the STAs). Our findings suggest that teachers play a critical role in encouraging elaboration from pupils in relation to descriptions of their own thinking and learning, particularly when pupils’ initial responses are broad or superficial. We discuss the critical importance of teacher talk for metacognition, emphasising the ‘dual role’ that teachers must play when facilitating metacognition within the classroom.PostprintPeer reviewe

Unpacking the intertemporal impact of self-regulation in a blended mathematics environment

With the arrival of fine-grained log-data and the emergence of learning analytics, there may be new avenues to explore how Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) can provide a lens to how students learn in blended and online environments. In particular, recent research has found that the notion of time may be an essential but complex concept through which students make (un)conscious and self-regulated decisions as to when, what, and how to study. This study explored distinct clusters of behavioural engagement in an online e-tutorial called Sowiso at different time points (before tutorials, before quizzes, before exams), and their associations with self-regulated learning strategies, epistemic learning emotions, activity learning emotions, and academic performance. Using a cluster analysis on trace data of 1035 students practicing 429 online exercises in Sowiso, we identified four distinct cluster of students (e.g. early mastery, strategic, exam-driven, and inactive). Further analyses revealed significant differences between these four clusters in their academic performance, step-wise cognitive processing strategies, external self-regulation strategies, epistemic learning emotions and activity learning emotions. Our findings took a step forward towards personalised and actionable feedback in learning analytics by recognizing the complexity of how and when students engage in learning activities over time, and supporting educators to design early and theoretically informed interventions based on learning dispositions

The effects of activating prior topic and metacognitive knowledge on text comprehension scores

Background Research on prior knowledge activation has consistently shown that activating learners' prior knowledge has beneficial effects on learning. If learners activate their prior knowledge, this activated knowledge serves as a framework for establishing relationships between the knowledge they already possess and new information provided to them. Thus far, prior knowledge activation has dealt primarily with topic knowledge in specific domains. Students, however, likely also possess at least some metacognitive knowledge useful in those domains, which, when activated, should aid in the deployment of helpful strategies during reading. Aims In this study, we investigated the effects of both prior topic knowledge activation (PTKA) and prior metacognitive knowledge activation (PMKA) on text comprehension scores. Samples & Methods Eighty-eight students in primary education were randomly distributed amongst the conditions of the 2 × 2 (PTKA yes/no × PMKA yes/no) designed experiment. Results Results show that activating prior metacognitive knowledge had a beneficial effect on text comprehension, whereas activating prior topic knowledge, after correcting for the amount of prior knowledge, did not. Conclusions Most studies deal with explicit instruction of metacognitive knowledge, but our results show that this may not be necessary, specifically in the case of students who already have some metacognitive knowledge. However, existing metacognitive knowledge needs to be activated in order for students to make better use of this knowledge

Adolescent Self-Organization and Adult Smoking and Drinking over Fifty Years of Follow-Up:The British 1946 Birth Cohort

Variations in markers of adolescent self-organization predict a range of economic and health-related outcomes in general population studies. Using a population-based birth cohort study we investigated associations between adolescent self-organization and two common factors over adulthood influencing health, smoking and alcohol consumption. The MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the British 1946 birth cohort) was used to test associations between a dimensional measure of adolescent self-organization derived from teacher ratings, and summary longitudinal measures of smoking and alcohol consumption over the ensuing five decades. Multinomial regression models were adjusted for sex, adolescent emotional and conduct problems, occupational social class of origin, childhood cognition, educational attainment and adult occupational social class. With all covariates adjusted, higher adolescent self-organization was associated with fewer smoking pack years, although not with quitting; there was no association with alcohol consumption across adulthood (none or heavy compared with light to moderate). Adolescent self-organization appears to be protective against smoking, but not against heavy alcohol consumption. Interpretation of this differential effect should be embedded in an understanding of the social and sociodemographic context in which these health behaviours occur over time