How Changes in Students' Goal Orientations Relate to Outcomes in Social Studies

Do students tend to set similar types of goals throughout the school year, or do their goal orientations shift over time? If students become more oriented toward mastery or performance over the course of the year, do they improve in their academic achievement, have a more positive affect toward class, and develop the cognitive propensities that their teachers might hope for? A diverse sample of 9th- and 10th-grade world history students (N = 917) participated in a study addressing these questions. Substantial changes occurred in students' mastery- and performance-goal orientations. Increases in mastery-goal orientation were positively related, whereas increases in performance-goal orientation were unrelated to the following outcomes: world history knowledge, social studies grade, interest, course satisfaction, social perspective taking, and historical empathy

The social side of school: Why teachers need social psychology

Teaching and learning are fundamentally social enterprises. In attempting to understand, explain, and predict social behavior, social psychologists have amassed scores of empirically-grounded, fundamental principles. Yet, many such principles have yet to be applied to classrooms despite the social nature of these settings. This article illustrates how infusing novel concepts from social psychology into teachers’ repertoires holds untapped potential to improve their pedagogy, ability to motivate students, and capacity to enrich students’ understanding of subject matter. This article first examines three domains of social psychology – social cognition, influence/persuasion, and interpersonal relations – and illustrates how applications of principles from each domain could benefit classrooms. Next, two exemplars are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of past interventions that are rooted in social psychological principles. Finally, pathways through which teacher educators can introduce new social psychological concepts and applications to teachers are explored

Making social studies social: Engaging students through different forms of social perspective taking

People are intrinsically motivated to connect to others socially. One of the most important mechanisms in fostering social relationships is social perspective taking (SPT) – our capacity to discern the thoughts and feelings of others. Thus, students in social studies classrooms might be motivated to engage with their subject either through taking the perspectives of their peers in class (interpersonal SPT) or through taking the perspectives of the historical and cultural figures they are studying (academic SPT). This article first provides a theoretical overview of the contrasts and similarities between these two forms of SPT. Next, it describes three examples of how these two forms of SPT might be implemented in teaching social studies

A New Perspective on Perspective Taking: A Multidimensional Approach to Conceptualizing an Aptitude

Social perspective taking (SPT) is thought to be important in its own right and is often associated with other important skills, such as interpersonal conflict resolution. Thus, it is critical for researchers to systematically understand SPT and how it relates to other valued educational outcomes. In particular, a complete understanding of SPT might assist educational psychologists to apply this knowledge in school settings to improve the effectiveness of students’ social interactions. Previous research on SPT, however, has conceptualized it as a unidimensional construct leaving scholars with an insufficient understanding of this aptitude. To best understand SPT, a multidimensional approach should include assessments of personal characteristics (including the propensity and the ability to engage in SPT) and features of the situation (including features of the SPT task and the larger context). Using Snow’s conceptualization of aptitudes as a framework, this article illustrates the problems with treating SPT as a unidimensional construct, defines SPT as a complex aptitude, and provides a taxonomy to develop our understanding of SPT and to guide future research in this area. The taxonomy organizes and reviews the existing literature that relates personal and situational characteristics to SPT aptitude. Where research has not yet been conducted, this article hypothesizes how these characteristics will relate to SPT aptitude

Anchoring and Adjusting in Questionnaire Responses

When ordering items on attitude/opinion questionnaires, do survey designers bias respondents’ answers by the mere act of choosing to organize their survey in a particular way? We hypothesize that, under specific frequently-occurring conditions, respondents employ an anchoring and adjusting strategy in which their response to an initial survey item provides a cognitive anchor from which they (insufficiently) adjust in answering the subsequent item. Three experiments indicate that respondents anchor and insufficiently adjust in certain situations, anchoring and adjusting leads to higher inter-item correlations between adjacent items, and these inflated correlations can (spuriously) increase the reliability estimate of the scale that they comprise and affect the resultant correlations with other measures. These effects are not consistently accounted for by a “superior memory search” explanation. In organizing their surveys, researchers may wish to combat this bias by intermixing items designed for different, but related constructs

Using the Theory of Satisficing to Evaluate the Quality of Survey Data

Increasingly colleges and universities use survey results to make decisions, inform research, and shape public opinion. Given the large number of surveys distributed on campuses, can researchers reasonably expect that busy respondents will diligently answer each and every question? Less serious respondents may 'satisfice,' i.e., take short-cuts to conserve effort, in a number of ways-choosing the same response every time, skipping items, rushing through the instrument, or quitting early. In this paper we apply this satisficing framework to demonstrate analytic options for assessing respondents' conscientiousness in giving high fidelity survey answers. Specifically, we operationalize satisficing as a series of measurable behaviors and compute a satisficing index for each survey respondent. Using data from two surveys administered in university contexts, we find that the majority of respondents engaged in satisficing behaviors, that single-item results can be significantly impacted by satisficing, and that scale reliabilities and correlations can be altered by satisficing behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of identifying satisficers in routine survey analysis in order to verify data quality prior to using results for decision-making, research, or public dissemination of finding

Measure twice, cut down error: A process for enhancing the validity of survey scales

For years psychologists across many subfields have undertaken the formidable challenge of designing survey scales to assess attitudes, opinions, and behaviors. Correspondingly, scholars have written much to guide researchers in this undertaking. Yet, many new scales violate established best practices in survey design, suggesting the need for a new approach to designing surveys. This article presents six steps to facilitate the construction of questionnaire scales. Unlike previous processes, this one front-loads input from other academics and potential respondents in the item-development and revision phase with the goal of achieving credibility across both populations. Specifically, the article describes how a (1) literature review and (2) focus group/interview data can be (3) synthesized into a comprehensive list to facilitate (4) the development of items. Next, survey designers can subject the items to (5) an expert review and (6) cognitive pretesting before executing a pilot test

The Social Perspective Taking Process: Strategies and Sources of Evidence in Taking Another’s Perspective

Background/Context: Research indicates that social perspective taking – the capacity to discern the thoughts and feelings of others – plays a role in many important outcomes in schools. Despite the potential benefits for students and educators, little is known about social perspective taking as a process. Purpose/Research Question: If educational researchers are ultimately to design interventions to help improve the perspective taking capacities of those in schools, they need to fully understand the underlying process, i.e., how social perspective taking actually happens. Particularly important is the need to understand: What strategies individuals use and what sources of evidence they draw from when they take the perspective of others? Participants: To investigate this question, a sample of 18 adults from an array of different professions (who were nominated as adept perspective takers) and 13 high school students (who were nominated as struggling with social perspective taking) participated in the study. Research Design: Participants completed in-depth interviews and a think-aloud protocol as part of this mixed-method, exploratory study. The interviews and think-alouds were coded for the type of social perspective taking strategy participants employed and for the sources of evidence they relied on, respectively. Findings: Results indicated that participants relied on 12 different types of SPT strategies and drew from seven different sources of evidence when discerning others’ thoughts and feelings. Conclusions/Recommendations: These findings provide foundational knowledge that lays groundwork for ultimately developing approaches to teach social perspective taking. At a practical level, these findings provide options for students’ and educators’ to experiment with as they attempt to take the perspective of one another

How an artificially intelligent virtual assistant helps students navigate the road to college

Comprend des références bibliographiquesDeep reinforcement learning using convolutional neural networks is the technology behind autonomous vehicles. Could this same technology facilitate the road to college? During the summer between high school and college, college-related tasks that students must navigate can hinder successful matriculation. We employ conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently support thousands of would-be college freshmen by providing personalized, text message–based outreach and guidance for each task where they needed support. We implemented and tested this system through a field experiment with Georgia State University (GSU). GSU-committed students assigned to treatment exhibited greater success with pre-enrollment requirements and were 3.3 percentage points more likely to enroll on time. Enrollment impacts are comparable to those in prior interventions but with substantially reduced burden on university staff. Given the capacity for AI to learn over time, this intervention has promise for scaling personalized college transition guidance