Tipos de feedback sobre las TPC y su relación con el rendimiento académico

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia Escolar e da Educação)La literatura considera el feedback como una variable relevante en la explicación del rendimiento académico. No obstante, el feedback de las tareas para casa (TPC) ha sido escasamente estudiado. El presente estudio analiza el efecto de cinco tipos de feedback de TPC proporcionado por los profesores de inglés mediante el uso de un diseño de aleatorización por grupos (group randomized design). Participaron en la investigación treinta y cinco profesores de inglés de Educación Media seleccionados al azar a partir de una muestra intencional, los cuales también fueron asignados al azar a las diferentes condiciones de la variable feedback (i.e., Checking to know if homework was completed; answering specific questions about the homework; verbal correction on an entire homework). Durante seis semanas, una vez por semana, los profesores administraron feedback respecto a las TPC y, al final, los alumnos realizaron un examen de inglés. Los resultados obtenidos ponen de relieve que, amén de la importancia que de por sí tiene que el profesor informe a los estudiantes acerca del desempeño en sus TPC, es más importante aún la forma de hacerlo (i.e. tipos de feedback).According to literature feedback is an important explanatory variable of academic achievement. Nevertheless, research on homework feedback is sparse. The present study, having a group randomized design, analyzes the effect of five different types of homework feedback provided by teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Thirty-five elementary school teachers randomly selected participate in the study. The participants were also randomly distributed by different feedback conditions (e.g. Checking to know whether homework was completed; answering specific questions about homework; oral correction of the entire homework). For six weeks, the teachers provided homework feedback and after that time students had an English test. Findings suggest that ways of providing feedback (i.e. types of feedback) are more important than just informing the students about their homework performance.A literatura considera o feedback como importante variável explicativa do rendimento académico. Não obstante, o feedback de trabalho para casa (TPC) tem sido escassamente estudado. O presente estudo analisa o efeito de cinco tipos de feedback de TPC providenciado por professores de inglês através de um desenho de aleatorização por grupos (group randomized design). Participaram na investigação trinta e cinco professores de inglês do Ensino Básico selecionados aleatoriamente a partir de uma amostra intencional, dos quais distribuídos também aleatoriamente pelas diferentes condições de feedback (i.e., Checking to know if homework was completed; answering specific questions about the homework; verbal correction on an entire homework). Durante seis semanas, os professores administraram feedback em relação ao TPC e, no final, os alunos realizaram um teste de inglês. Os resultados sublinham que informar os alunos sobre o seu desempenho nos TPC é importante, mas é ainda mais importante a forma de o fazer (i.e. tipo de feedback)

Eliciting Maternal Subjective Expectations about the Technology of Cognitive Skill Formation

In this paper, we formulate a model of early childhood development in which mothers have subjective expectations about the technology of skill formation. The model is useful for understanding how maternal knowledge about child development affects the maternal choices of investments in the human capital of children. Unfortunately, the model is not identified from data that are usually available to econometricians. To solve this problem, we conduct a study where mothers were interviewed to elicit maternal expectations about the technology of skill formation. We interviewed a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged African‐American women. We find that the median subjective expectation about the elasticity of child development with respect to investments is between 4% and 19%. In comparison, when we estimate the technology of skill formation from the CNLSY/79 data, we find that the elasticity is between 18% and 26%. We use the model and our unique data to answer a simple but important question: What would happen to investments and child development if we implemented a policy that moved expectations from the median to the objective estimates that we obtain from the CNLSY/79 data? According to our estimates, maternal investments would go up by between 4% and 24% and the stocks of cognitive skills at age 24 months would subsequently increase between 1% and 5%. Needless to say, the impacts of such a policy would be even higher for mothers whose expectations were below the median

Validity and reliability of the Parental Homework Management Scale

Background: Prior research has shown that parents help their children manage homework (i.e. environment, time, motivation and emotion management), especially in elementary school. However, researchers have not developed and validated a scale focused on those dimensions. Method: The purpose of the present study is to validate the Parental Homework Management Scale (PHMS) for parents of elementary school children in the domain of mathematics. A sample of 2,118 parent-child dyads was split randomly into two groups to conduct the analysis in two stages: (i) exploratory factor analysis on Group 1 and (ii) confi rmatory factor analysis on Group 2. Results: PHMS is comprised of two distinct but related factors (i.e. environment-time and motivation-emotion management). Results further indicated that the PHMS was positively related to homework self-regulation and positive emotions, and negatively related to math achievement. Contrary to expectations, no relationship was found between PHMS and amount of student homework completed. Conclusions: The scale revealed good psychometric quality.Validación y fi abilidad de la escala de gestión de tareas para casa para padres. Antecedentes: investigaciones previas revelaron que los padres ayudan a sus hijos a gestionar las tareas para casa (i.e., el ambiente, el tiempo, la motivación y las emociones), especialmente en la escuela primaria. Sin embargo, la investigación no ha construido y validado una escala enfocada en esas dimensiones. Método: el presente estudio valida el Parental Homework Management Scale (PHMS) para padres de niños de escuela primaria en el dominio de las matemáticas. Una muestra de 2,118 díadas padres-hijos se dividió aleatoriamente en dos grupos para realizar el análisis en dos etapas: (i) análisis factorial exploratorio en el Grupo 1 y (ii) análisis factorial confi rmatorio en el Grupo 2. Resultados: PHMS está compuesto por dos factores distintos pero relacionados (i.e., gestión del ambiente-tiempo y de la motivación-emoción). Los resultados indicaron además que el PHMS se relacionó positivamente con la autorregulación y las emociones positivas en las tareas para casa, y se relacionó negativamente con el rendimiento en matemáticas. Contrario a las expectativas, no se encontró relación entre PHMS y la cantidad de tareas completadas por los estudiantes. Conclusiones: la escala ha revelado una buena calidad psicométrica.This work was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Portuguese Ministry of Science (UID/PSI/01662/2013). JC was supported by a PhD fellowship from the Portuguese FCT (SFRH/BD/95341/2013)

Online Homework Distraction Scale: un estudio de validación

Background: Increasingly, postsecondary students enroll in distance learning courses and complete homework online, which extends their learning opportunities regardless of where they are. Online homework requires self-control from students to cope with conventional and tech-related distractors, however research on this topic is scarce. There is a need to develop an instrument to assess online homework distractions in higher education. Method: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Online Homework Distraction Scale (OHDS) based on 612 undergraduates in China. After randomly dividing the sample into two groups, we carried out a principal component analysis (PCA) with one group and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with another group. Results: Both PCA and CFA findings indicated that tech-related distraction and conventional distraction were empirically indistinguishable for college students. Given acceptable measurement invariance, the latent factor mean was examined over gender for all participants and found that men were more distracted while doing online homework. Concerning validity evidence, in line with theoretical predictions, the OHDS was negatively related to online homework expectancy, value, effort, and time management. Conclusions: Our study provides strong evidence that the OHDS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring online homework distraction.Antecedentes: el aprendizaje online requiere del autocontrol para hacer frente a los distractores convencionales y los relacionados con las nuevas tecnologías. En la Educación Superior, existe la necesidad de desarrollar un instrumento para evaluar los distractores a la hora de realizar las tareas para casa en modo online. Método: el estudio examinó las propiedades psicométricas de la Online Homework Distraction Scale (OHDS). Participaron 612 estudiantes universitarios de China. La muestra fue dividida aleatoriamente en dos grupos. Se realizó Análisis de Componentes Principales (ACP) con un grupo y Análisis Factorial Confi rmatorio (AFC) con el otro grupo. Resultados: los resultados del ACP y del AFC indicaron que la distracción relacionada con la tecnología y la distracción convencional eran empíricamente indistinguibles. Constatada una invariancia de medida aceptable, se examinó la media del factor latente sobre el género para todos los participantes. Los hombres se distraen más que las mujeres mientras realizan las tareas online. Con respecto a la evidencia de validez, el OHDS se relacionó negativamente con la expectativa, el valor, el esfuerzo y la gestión del tiempo. Conclusiones: hay evidencia sólida de que el OHDS es un instrumento válido y fi able para medir el nivel de distracción en tareas online.- (undefined

Mapping Pilgrims’ Experience of Walking the Saint James Way Through the Lens of Self-regulation

The Way of St. James is a very well-known and ancient pilgrimage, with various routes leading pilgrims to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where the remains of Saint James are buried. Over the last few years, the experience of the pilgrimage and the growing number of pilgrims walking the Saint James Way have been attracting researchers’ attention. However, studies attempting to understand the pilgrims’ experience using a self-regulation lens are limited. Self-regulation may be defined as efforts made to manage individuals’ thoughts, emotions, and behaviours in the pursuit of long-term goals. Therefore, rooted in the self-regulation framework, this research aims to further understand the Saint James Way with a focus on the pilgrims’ experience, while stressing the three components of the model: planning, execution, and evaluation. The interviews of 32 Portuguese pilgrims aged between 16 and 52 were analysed using thematic analysis through Zimmerman’s model. Pilgrims made important considerations on the three phases of the self-regulation framework. Importantly, participants’ discourses stressed relevant elements of the process of doing a pilgrimage, placing a particular emphasis on the interest and value of the pilgrimage, strategic planning, strategy usage, metacognitive monitoring, self-assessment and, finally, self-satisfaction. Interestingly, some participants revealed superficial planning and a lack of self-monitoring strategies on the journey. The study provides new avenues for research and practical implications likely to enhance the quality of the pilgrimage by helping pilgrims and pilgrim organisers

Chemical Abundances in Field Red Giants from High-Resolution H-Band Spectra using the APOGEE Spectral Linelist

High-resolution H-band spectra of five bright field K, M, and MS giants, obtained from the archives of the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), are analyzed to determine chemical abundances of 16 elements. The abundances were derived via spectrum synthesis using the detailed linelist prepared for the SDSS III Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), which is a high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopic survey to derive detailed chemical abundance distributions and precise radial velocities for 100,000 red giants sampling all Galactic stellar populations. Measured chemical abundances include the cosmochemically important isotopes 12C, 13C, 14N, and 16O, along with Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu. A comparison of the abundances derived here with published values for these stars reveals consistent results to ~0.1 dex. The APOGEE spectral region and linelist is, thus, well-suited for probing both Galactic chemical evolution, as well as internal nucleosynthesis and mixing in populations of red giants using high-resolution spectroscopy.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 42 pages, 12 figure

The impact of three types of writing intervention on students' writing quality

Students' writing constitutes a topic of major concern due to its importance in school and in daily life. To mitigate students' writing problems, school-based interventions have been implemented in the past, but there is still a need to examine the effectiveness of different types of writing interventions that use robust design methodologies. Hence, the present study followed a longitudinal cluster-randomized controlled design using a multilevel modeling analysis with 370 fourth-grade students (nested in 20 classes). The classes were randomly assigned to four conditions: one comparison group and three writing types of writing interventions (i.e., week-journals, Self-Regulation Strategy Development (SRSD) instruction and SRSD plus Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) program using a story-tool), with five classes participating in each condition. Data supports our hypothesis by showing differences between the treatment groups in students' writing quality over time. Globally, the improvement of students' writing quality throughout time is related to the level of specialization of the writing interventions implemented. This is an important finding with strong implications for educational practice. Week-journals and writing activities can be easily implemented in classrooms and provides an opportunity to promote students' writing quality. Still, students who participated in the instructional programs (i.e., SRSD and SRSD plus story-tool) exhibited higher writing quality than the students who wrote week-journals. Current data did not find statistical significant differences between results from the two instructional writing tools.This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho. PR, JH and JC were supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, UID/PSI/01662/2013. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Development of a standardized histopathology scoring system for intervertebral disc degeneration in rat models: An initiative of the ORS spine section

Background Rats are a widely accepted preclinical model for evaluating intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and regeneration. IVD morphology is commonly assessed using histology, which forms the foundation for quantifying the state of IVD degeneration. IVD degeneration severity is evaluated using different grading systems that focus on distinct degenerative features. A standard grading system would facilitate more accurate comparison across laboratories and more robust comparisons of different models and interventions. Aims This study aimed to develop a histology grading system to quantify IVD degeneration for different rat models. Materials & Methods This study involved a literature review, a survey of experts in the field, and a validation study using 25 slides that were scored by 15 graders from different international institutes to determine inter- and intra-rater reliability. Results A new IVD degeneration grading system was established and it consists of eight significant degenerative features, including nucleus pulposus (NP) shape, NP area, NP cell number, NP cell morphology, annulus fibrosus (AF) lamellar organization, AF tears/fissures/disruptions, NP-AF border appearance, as well as endplate disruptions/microfractures and osteophyte/ossification. The validation study indicated this system was easily adopted, and able to discern different severities of degenerative changes from different rat IVD degeneration models with high reproducibility for both experienced and inexperienced graders. In addition, a widely-accepted protocol for histological preparation of rat IVD samples based on the survey findings include paraffin embedding, sagittal orientation, section thickness < 10 μm, and staining using H&E and/or SO/FG to facilitate comparison across laboratories. Conclusion The proposed histological preparation protocol and grading system provide a platform for more precise comparisons and more robust evaluation of rat IVD degeneration models and interventions across laboratories

Erratum to: Writing week-journals to improve the writing quality of fourth-graders’ compositions

The online version of the original article can be found under doi:10.1007/s11145-016-9710-4. Also available at: http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/handle/1822/54295In the original publication of the article, last author family name was spelt incorrectly as ”Rodrigues“.The correct name is provided in this erratum

Osteoinductive effects of preoperative dexamethasone in human dental pulp stem cells primary culture

Aim: The use of dexamethasone (DEX) in mesenchymal cell culture induces osteoblastic differentiation and, consequently, formation of mineralized tissues. Tissue engineering proposes the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at structural and functional regeneration of biological tissues. In this sense, cell characterization in vitro is critical to ensure the development of such techniques. Our objective was to evaluate the osteoinductive effect of DEX administered as a preoperative medication in primary cell culture of human dental pulp stem cell. Methodology: Cells from the third molar pulp were divided into two experimental groups, each with two preoperative medication protocols used in dental practice and differentiated by the intake of DEX in one of them. The assessment of proliferation, differentiation and viability through trypan blue, methylthiazol tetrazolium, and von Kossa and alizarin red assays, respectively, were held within fixed intervals: 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. Conclusion: This study has shown that DEX may influence in vitro human dental pulp stem cell behavior. Lay abstract: Dexamethasone (DEX) is often used as a preoperative drug in dental surgeries because it reduces pain and has favorable effects on other symptoms caused by the surgery. Additionally, when used in cell culture, its osteoinductor effect is observed. In vitro cell characterization is critical to ensure the development of therapeutic strategies used in tissue engineering. In this sense, this study used two preoperative medication protocols regularly used in dental practice. In Protocol A, patients did not intake DEXin Protocol B, patients took in tablets of DEX. It was possible to assess in vitro behavior of human dental pulp stem cells by applying those protocols.UNIFESP Univ Fed São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, CTCMol, Ctr Cellular & Mol Therapy, São Paulo, BrazilUNIFESP Univ Fed São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Translat Surg, Dept Surg, São Paulo, BrazilBIOFABRIS, Natl Inst Sci & Technol, Biofabricat Inst, São Paulo, BrazilHosp Ipiranga, Oral & Maxillofacial Surg Dept, São Paulo, BrazilUNIFESP Univ Fed São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, CTCMol, Ctr Cellular & Mol Therapy, São Paulo, BrazilUNIFESP Univ Fed São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Translat Surg, Dept Surg, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc