Development of a measure of receptivity to instructional feedback and examination of its links to personality

CRediT authorship contribution statement: Anastasiya A. Lipnevich: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - original draft. Kalina Gjicali: Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing. Mustafa Asil: Formal analysis. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Peer reviewedPostprin

Mathematics Attitudes and Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications to Large-scale Assessment Data, and Examinations of Multigroup Invariance

Academic performance is predicted by a multitude of demographic, contextual, cognitive, and noncognitive constructs. The noncognitive factors of achievement in mathematics that have previously been explored in depth are study skills, collaborative problem-solving, confidence, self-efficacy, and personality traits (Kyllonen, 2012). Limited applied research has explored the predictive value of noncognitive factors such as attitudes and beliefs in mathematics achievement – even though attitudes towards mathematics are a promising avenue for understanding the variability in mathematics achievement. The current research uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain high school students’ performance in mathematics in a series of three studies. Two pressing needs in the field are addressed through this work: first, to obtain a valid and comprehensive measure of mathematics attitudes, and second, to use a framework that highlights the relations among students’ attitudinal beliefs (behavioral, normative, control), intentions, learning behaviors, and mathematics performance using nationally representative assessment data. Study 1 was a psychometrics study aimed at the construction and validation of a measure of students’ attitudes towards mathematics using situational judgement tests (SJTs). Results indicated that the SJT-based measure of attitudes incrementally predicted variability in mathematics report card grades over and above the self-report measure of attitudes and important student demographic characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity, current participation in mathematics extra-curricular activities and clubs, and the intention to pursue a STEM major in higher education. Study 2A used the TPB framework to examine links between student attitudes and mathematics performance using the United States sample of the PISA 2012 large-scale assessment. Results indicated that between 20% to almost 60% of the variability in academic outcomes (i.e., intentions to pursue mathematics, work ethic in mathematics, and mathematics performance) were explained by the attitude determinants (i.e., attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) and important student demographic characteristics. Additionally, results showed that there were positive relations among attitudes towards mathematics and control beliefs on academic outcomes of interest (e.g., intentions to pursue mathematics, math-related behaviors, mathematics performance) and negative relations between social pressures and the academic outcomes examined. Further, Study 2B explored differences in the mathematics attitude-mathematics achievement relation moderated by the intersectionality of student gender and race/ethnicity. Results indicated measurement invariance of attitudinal constructs across groups but no support for structural invariance for the relations between attitude-behavior-performance. With a few exceptions, whereas predominantly ethnic/racial minority groups had a more positive attitude towards mathematics and indicated higher mathematics work ethic than White males, their mathematics achievement lagged behind the national average. Results further indicated that a negative relation between perceived social pressures and intentions to pursue mathematics for Black/African American males and Hispanic females, whereas that same relation was positive for Asian males. Several of these discrepancies by student demographic characteristics were found across mean differences in latent attitudinal constructs and structural relations of the TPB framework, which implies that the strength of the attitude-achievement relation cannot be generalized and may have been misunderstood by prior research. This generally suggests that there is support for the attitude-achievement paradox in the domain of mathematics such that for historically disadvantaged racial/ethnic minority groups (i.e., Black/African American and Hispanic students), having a positive attitude does not directly translate into higher mathematics achievement. Explanations for the varying attitude-achievement relations across groups are explained through a social-cognitive and sociocultural lens. Overall, implications of these research studies include: (1) the applicability of an attitude-behavior framework in educational research for understanding academic performance; (2) the importance of control beliefs and self-efficacy beliefs on predicting mathematics work ethic (e.g., paying attention in class, completing homework, studying for math exams) and subsequent mathematics performance; (3) the use of low-fidelity simulations for educational measurement; (4) the emphasis that student background and demographic characteristics should be accounted for when examining the strength of the attitude-achievement relation in future research; (5) that applied interventions, such as embedding applied occupational examples in instruction by delivering career-relevant instruction, may be utilized to promote students’ attitudes, which may have positive indirect effects on their mathematics achievement; (6) providing positive, practical experiences to alter students’ attitudes towards mathematics through noticing how mathematics is worthwhile for career chances and future study, especially for racial minority groups; and (7) adapting classroom sociomathematical norms to alleviate social pressures and provide instructional support, especially for minority adolescents who are at risk for having low-self efficacy beliefs for mathematics at onset, and particularly for Black/African-American males and Hispanic females

ملاحظات المعلمين على التعلّم الاجتماعي العاطفي للمتعلمين: دليل القياس النفسي لتقييم البرامج التعليمية في حالات الطوارئ

يتطلب التقييم الصارم لبرامج التعلم الاجتماعي والعاطفي استخدام التدابير التي توفر معلومات موثوقة وصحيحة حول الاختلافات ذات المعنى في المهارات العاطفية الاجتماعية للأطفال عبر مجموعات العلاج والمراقبة، بالإضافة إلى التغييرات بمرور الوقت. في السياقات المتأثرة بالصراع والأزمات، القليل من التدابير يمكن أن توفر الأدلة المطلوبة لدعم استخدامها في تقييمات البرامج، مما يحد من قدرة الجهات المعنية على تحديد ما إذا كان البرنامج يعمل، ومدى نجاحه، ولمَن. إن ملاحظة المعلمين للتعلم العاطفي الاجتماعي للمتعلمين، والمعروفة باسم TOOLSEL، تبشر بمعالجة هذه الفجوة. TOOLSEL عبارة عن استبيان لتقرير المعلم حول سلوك الأطفال كما هو ملاحظ في إعدادات الفصول الدراسية الطبيعية. يتم استخدامه لتقييم مجموعة من الكفاءات الاجتماعية والعاطفية والسلوكية والمعرفية بين الأطفال في سن المدرسة الابتدائية في البيئات الهشة والمتأثرة بالصراع. في هذه المقالة، باستخدام بيانات من عينة من 3,661 طفلاً سوريًا لاجئًا كانوا مسجلين في مدارس حكومية لبنانية رسمية وكان بإمكانهم الوصول إلى برنامج دعم علاجي غير رسمي، فإننا نقدم أدلة على سلامة القياس النفسي لـ TOOLSEL. نقدم دليلًا تجريبيًا على موثوقية TOOLSEL وصلاحيته، وأن TOOLSEL هيأ مهارات التعلم الاجتماعية والعاطفية للأطفال اللاجئين السوريين بطرق غير متحيزة وقابلة للمقارنة عبر مجموعات العلاج ونوع الجنس والعمر والوقت. نقدم أيضًا توصيات لاستخدام TOOLSEL، بما في ذلك طرق تحسين جدواه وموثوقيته وصلاحيته

What’s on the syllabus? An analysis of assessment criteria in first year courses across US and Spanish universities.

This study examined differences in the assessment criteria used by the USA and Spanish university instructors to assign course grades. The US sample included two hundred and fifty course syllabi (159 from universities and 91 from 4-year colleges) developed by randomly selected instructors from five academic disciplines (education, math, science, psychology, and English). Spanish data set included 175 syllabi, chosen from the national database from the same five domains. The results revealed that university instructors employed a number of criteria when assigning course grades, with the US instructors relying equally on process and product criteria, and Spanish instructors using a higher proportion of product indicators. We also found that self- and peer assessment were used scarcely between the two countries and that no syllabi employed progress criteria. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications are discussed along with avenues for further research.pre-print388 K

Teachers’ Observations of Learners’ Social and Emotional Learning: Psychometric Evidence for Program Evaluation in Education in Emergencies

يتطلب التقييم الصارم لبرامج التعلم الاجتماعي والعاطفي استخدام التدابير التي توفر معلومات موثوقة وصحيحة حول الاختلافات ذات المعنى في المهارات العاطفية الاجتماعية للأطفال عبر مجموعات العلاج والمراقبة، بالإضافة إلى التغييرات بمرور الوقت. في السياقات المتأثرة بالصراع والأزمات، القليل من التدابير يمكن أن توفر الأدلة المطلوبة لدعم استخدامها في تقييمات البرامج، مما يحد من قدرة الجهات المعنية على تحديد ما إذا كان البرنامج يعمل، ومدى نجاحه، ولمَن. إن ملاحظة المعلمين للتعلم العاطفي الاجتماعي للمتعلمين، والمعروفة باسم TOOLSEL، تبشر بمعالجة هذه الفجوة. TOOLSEL عبارة عن استبيان لتقرير المعلم حول سلوك الأطفال كما هو ملاحظ في إعدادات الفصول الدراسية الطبيعية. يتم استخدامه لتقييم مجموعة من الكفاءات الاجتماعية والعاطفية والسلوكية والمعرفية بين الأطفال في سن المدرسة الابتدائية في البيئات الهشة والمتأثرة بالصراع. في هذه المقالة، باستخدام بيانات من عينة من 3,661 طفلاً سوريًا لاجئًا كانوا مسجلين في مدارس حكومية لبنانية رسمية وكان بإمكانهم الوصول إلى برنامج دعم علاجي غير رسمي، فإننا نقدم أدلة على سلامة القياس النفسي لـ TOOLSEL. نقدم دليلًا تجريبيًا على موثوقية TOOLSEL وصلاحيته، وأن TOOLSEL هيأ مهارات التعلم الاجتماعية والعاطفية للأطفال اللاجئين السوريين بطرق غير متحيزة وقابلة للمقارنة عبر مجموعات العلاج ونوع الجنس والعمر والوقت. نقدم أيضًا توصيات لاستخدام TOOLSEL، بما في ذلك طرق تحسين جدواه وموثوقيته وصلاحيته