Investigating the effectiveness of professional development on high school physics teachers\u27 conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics, instructional practices, and the conceptual growth of their students

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a physics professional development program on secondary science teachers\u27 conceptual knowledge of Newtonian mechanics, instructional practices and the conceptual growth of their students. The University of Northern Iowa Physics Institute enabled a group of twenty-one Iowa high school and middle school science teachers to complete the physics coursework required to obtain the State of lowa 7-12 Grade Physics Teaching endorsement. The Institute provided experiences to improve physics content knowledge and proficiency of constructivist methodologies for teaching high school physics. Twelve Institute participants completed a two-year program during the 2002 and 2003 summers, and nine completed one of the two years. Background information, pre-test and post-test physics conceptual assessments and other data were collected from participants throughout the Institute. Participants collected pre and post-test conceptual assessment data from their students during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 academic years. Initial and final conceptual assessments and two years of student assessment data revealed the Institute\u27s influence on participants\u27 and students\u27 conceptual understanding of Newtonian Mechanics. Participants\u27 previous physics and mathematics education correlated with learning and their continued conceptual understanding. The results show that participants who had completed at least six physics semester hours prior to the UNI-PI were most successful, therefore indicating physics background is necessary for participants involved in a future PI structured similar in content and focus as the UNI-PI. Participants\u27 journal reflection notes and instructional surveys revealed instructional practice improvements due to the Institute. Results indicated the Institute positively affected the majority of participants\u27 physics conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics and instructional practices. Although limitations and confounding factors prevented a thorough evaluation of the UNI Physics Institute\u27s affect upon participants\u27 students\u27 conceptual knowledge, participants\u27 students performed at levels suggesting greater knowledge gain compared to test results published in the literature. Overall, the UNI-Pi indicated a positive benefit and this investigation provided suggestions for future improvements to the program

Evoking excellence with special undergraduate programmes:a German-Dutch comparison

This presentation compares the two main gifted education programmes for undergraduate students in the Netherlands and Germany. The programmes were evaluated and will be compared in terms of the institutions involved, the educational objectives pursued, the nature of support provided to the students, and the anticipated effects (Netherlands), respectively the achieved effects (Germany). The Dutch study focuses on the Sirius Program established by the Dutch government which invited universities to submit their own plans for the promotion of student excellence. The successful applications are analysed with respect to the above mentioned criteria. The German study focuses on the ideational support means, which is a varied enrichment programme provided by several national foundations that is supported with money and guidelines by the German government. The scholarship recipients were interviewed in large online surveys ( N1 = 2379 and N2 = 1614). Both programmes are endowed with public funding and thus are shaped by political objectives. Also, both programmes are conducted by non-governmental institutions: universities in the Netherlands, and basically political, religious and social foundations in Germany. Thus, the presentation provides insights in theory and practice of gifted undergraduate education in both countries. The discussion will address the impact of political objectives and organizational structures on the reality of gifted education. Strategies for educators to accumulate scientific knowledge about gifted education, about evidence-based goals and about real life limitations will be provided. The different evaluation methods will be discussed in order to find out the best practice for research

Disentangling objective characteristics of learning situations from subjective perceptions thereof, using an experience sampling method design

This article proposes a study design developed to disentangle the objective characteristics of a learning situation from individuals’ subjective perceptions of that situation. The term ‘objective characteristics’ refers to the agreement across students, whereas ‘subjective perceptions’ refers to inter-individual heterogeneity. We describe a novel strategy for assessing and disentangling objective situation characteristics and subjective perceptions thereof, propose methods for analyzing the resulting data, and illustrate the procedure with an example of a first study using this design to examine situational interest in 155 university students. Situational interest was assessed nine times per weekly lecture with three measurement time points per person and a rotated multi-group schedule. Assessments took place over the course of an entire semester of ten weeks. One of the advantages of the proposed design is that ‘objective’ group agreements can be disentangled from subjective deviations from the group’s average at each of the nine measurement time points per weekly lecture. Furthermore, the proposed design makes it possible to study the development of both subjective and objective parameters across the time span of one weekly lecture and an entire semester, while the burden for each person is kept relatively low with three beeps per lecture

In-the-moment profiles of expectancies, task values, and costs

This study focuses on the situational heterogeneity of motivation by investigating in-the-moment profiles of expectancies, task values, and costs within learning situations during a university lecture. In a sample of 155 undergraduate students followed across one semester we examined the occurrence of six hypothesized profiles, situational profile change, and the associations of situational motivation profiles with students’ dispositional motivation. Results of multilevel latent profile analysis revealed three profiles with symmetric levels of expectancies, values, and costs (reflecting high, medium, and low motivation situations), and one profile reflecting motivating but costly situations. Furthermore, situational profiles were associated with students’ motivational dispositions at beginning and end of the semester, and partly related to changes in these dispositions during the semester

Leidenschaft als Konstrukt der Motivationspsychologie. Konzeptualisierung, Messung, inter-individuelle Variabilität und langfristige Stabilität

This thesis focuses on the psychological construct of passion for activities, particularly on the conceptualization, measurement, stability and inter-individual variability of passion. A first paper reviews the literature about passion and related constructs and suggests a new definition of passion as an individual’s coinciding desire and commitment towards an activity. The second paper of this thesis suggests a scale for the assessment of desire, commitment, and further more specific components of passion. This paper reports the psychometric properties, reliability and validity of the new scale, and tests central assumptions of the definition proposed in the first paper. The third paper investigated the relation of passion to specific facets of personality, particularly the sensitivity to reward and positive trait affectivity. Finally, the fourth paper investigated the stability of passion among adolescents across a period of two years, and disentangles the extents to which situation-specific and person-specific influences account for the observed variance in passion. The main findings of this thesis are: 1. Most psychological definitions of passion coincide in defining passion as a multifaceted construct that describes an individuals’ coinciding experience of desire and commitment towards an activity, including the feeling of strong approach motivation, high arousal affect, continuous action plans pertaining to the activity, identification with the activity, and long-term goals referring to the activity. 2. Commitment is a central component of passion. The conducted studies support the definition of passion as coincidence of commitment and desire for activities. 3. The newly developed com.pass scale is a valid and reliable measure for the assessment of commitment, desire, and further specific components of passion. 4. Individuals differ in the degree to which they report feeling passionate about a particular activity. In a number of samples, two homogeneous groups of 1) highly passionate individuals and 2) lowly passionate individuals were found. 5. In contrast, the dual model of passion from Vallerand et al. (2003) was not supported in the studies of this thesis. There were strong correlations between the subscales of harmonious and obsessive passion. There were no homogeneous groups of either harmonious or obsessive individuals. Instead, the individuals’ scores for these subscales of the dual model passion scale were either both high or both low. 6. Passion is positively correlated with affect- and reward-related personality traits, particularly with the sensitivity to reward and positive trait affectivity. 7. The likelihood of a person to experience many or few passionate situations (meaning the coincidence of commitment and desire) remains stable across a period of two years during adolescence both in terms of mean-level and rank-order stability. 8. Differences between everyday life activities account for 80% of the variance in momentary passion (meaning the coincidental experience of commitment and desire in a given situation). About 20% of the variance in passion are due to relatively stable inter-individual differences. This thesis contributes to the psychology of motivation an integration of previously separated research lines, definitions and measurements and new insights regarding situational and person-specific determinants for long-term commitment and affect-intense approach motivation towards activities.Diese Dissertation handelt von dem psychologischen Konstrukt Leidenschaft für Aktivitäten, und beschäftigt sich insbesondere mit der Konzeptualisierung, Messung, Stabilität und inter-individuellen Variabilität von Leidenschaft. Die Arbeit wurde als kumulative Dissertation in englischer Sprache verfasst. Das bedeutet, statt einer Monographie handelt es sich bei dieser Arbeit um eine Darlegung vier einzelner Zeitschriftenartikel, die durch eine Allgemeine Einleitung und eine allgemeine Diskussion ergänzt und verbunden werden. Der erste Artikel fasst theoretisch die Literatur zum psychologischen Konstrukt Leidenschaft zusammen und schlägt als Schlussfolgerung aus dieser Literaturschau eine neue Definition von Leidenschaft vor. Darin wird Leidenschaft definiert als das Zusammentreffen von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation („Desire“) hinsichtlich einer Aktivität bzw. Domäne und Bindung an eine Aktivität bzw. Domäne („Commitment“). Der zweite Artikel schlägt eine Skala für die Messung dieser und weiterer spezifischer Leidenschaftskomponenten vor. Dieser Artikel berichtet messtechnische Eigenschaften der Items, sowie Reliabilität und Variabilität der Skala und testet zentrale Annahmen der im ersten Artikel vorgeschlagenen Definition von Leidenschaft. Der dritte Artikel untersucht Zusammenhänge zwischen Leidenschaft und spezifischen Persönlichkeitsfacetten, insbesondere den Merkmalen Belohnungssensitivität und dispositionaler positiver Affektivität. Der vierte Artikel untersucht die Stabilität von Leidenschaft über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren in einer Stichprobe U.S.-amerikanischer Jugendlicher mit Hilfe eines längsschnittlichen Experience Sampling Method Ansatzes. Zudem berichtet dieser Artikel, in welchem Maße das momentane Erleben von Leidenschaft in bestimmten Situationen durch situationsspezifische und personenspezifische Merkmale erklärt wird. Die Hauptbefunde dieser Dissertation lauten: 1. Die meisten psychologischen Definitionen von Leidenschaft stimmen darin überein, dass sie Leidenschaft als facettenreiches Konstrukt definieren, welches das gleichzeitige Erleben von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation („Desire“) und Bindung an eine Aktivität („Commitment“) beschreibt und durch die folgenden weiteren Merkmale charakterisiert wird: kontinuierliche Handlungspläne in Bezug auf die Aktivität, Identifizierung mit der Aktivität, und Verfolgung langfristiger Ziele in Bezug auf diese Aktivität. 2. Das Konstrukt Commitment bildet eine zentrale Komponente von Leidenschaft. Die im Rahmen dieser Dissertation durchgeführten Studien stützen die Definition von Leidenschaft als Zusammentreffen von Commitment und affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation. 3. Die neuentwickelte Com.pass-Skala ist ein reliable und valides Instrument zur Messung von Commitment, affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation, und weiterer spezifischer Komponenten von Leidenschaft. 4. Individuen unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich des Ausmaßes, in dem sie berichten, Leidenschaft für bestimmte Aktivitäten zu empfinden. In mehreren Studien dieser Dissertation fanden sich jeweils zwei homogene Gruppen, erstens eine Gruppe hoch leidenschaftlicher Personen, und zweitens eine Gruppe wenig leidenschaftlicher Personen. 5. Dagegen werden zentrale Annahmen des Dualen Leidenschaftsmodells von Vallerand und Kollegen (2003) durch die Ergebnisse der Studien dieser Dissertation in Frage gestellt. So waren die Subskalen der beiden Leidenschaftstypen harmonische und obsessive Leidenschaft stark miteinander korreliert, und es fanden sich keine Gruppen vorwiegend harmonisch leidenschaftlicher bzw. vorwiegend obsessiv leidenschaftlicher Personen. Anders als von Vallerand und Kollegen angenommen weisen die meisten Personen gleichermaßen hohe bzw. niedrige Werte in beiden Leidenschaftstypen auf. 6. Leidenschaft ist positiv korreliert mit affekt- und belohnungsbezogenen Persönlichkeitseigenschaften, vor allem den Merkmalen Belohnungssensitivität und dispositionaler positiver Affektivität. 7. Der Anteil von leidenschaftlich erlebten Situationen (operationalisiert als gleichzeitiges Erleben von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation und Commitment in einer Situation) an allen Alltagssituationen bleibt recht stabil über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren, und zwar sowohl hinsichtlich der Rangreihenstabilität als auch hinsichtlich der Stabilität des personenübergreifenden Mittelwerts. 8. Unterschiede zwischen Alltagssituationen erklären 80% der Varianz im Auftreten von „momentanem leidenschaftlichen Erleben“ (operationalisiert als gleichzeitiges Erleben von affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation und Commitment in einer Situation). Dementsprechend werden etwa 20% der Varianz durch Unterschiede zwischen Personen erklärt. Diese Dissertation bereichert die Leidenschaftsforschung durch um eine neue Definition und Skala sowie neue Einsichten zu personenspezifischen und situationsspezifischen Korrelate langfristigen Commitments und affektintensiver Annäherungsmotivation. Darüber hinaus ist es ein wichtiges Anliegen dieser Arbeit, bisher disparate Forschungslinien miteinander zu integrieren, beispielsweise die Gemeinsamkeiten der disparaten aber ähnlichen Forschungsarbeiten zum psychologischen Konstrukt der Leidenschaft zu integrieren, als auch die bisher getrennten Forschungen zu den Konstrukten Leidenschaft und Commitment miteinander zu verbinden, sodass die Einsichten einer Forschungsrichtung für die jeweilig andere nutzbar werden

Does anxiety in science classrooms impair math and science motivation? - Gender differences beyond the mean level

Peer reviewe

Direct evidence for linguistic influences in two-digit number processing

Language-specific differences in number words influence number processing even in non-verbal numerical tasks. For instance, the unit-decade compatibility effect in two-digit number magnitude comparison (compatible number pairs [42_57: 42]) was shown to be influenced by the inversion of number words (e.g., in German the number word for 42 is zweiundvierzig [literally: two-and-forty]). In two studies, we used articulatory suppression to investigate whether previously observed cross-linguistic differences in two-digit number processing are indeed driven by differences in number word formation. In a two-digit number comparison task, German- and English-speaking participants had to identify the larger of two numbers presented in Arabic digits. In Study 1, participants performed the same task twice, with and without articulatory suppression. In Study 2, the percentage of within-decade filler items (36_39) was manipulated additionally. As expected, in both studies between-group differences in the compatibility effect disappeared under articulatory suppression irrespective of the percentage of fillers included. Furthermore, paralleling results of previous studies including 33% or less filler items, we found that the compatibility effect was larger in German compared to English speakers in the 20% filler condition. However, this pattern was reversed in the 50% filler condition in both studies. Thus, results provide first direct evidence for influences of verbal number word formation on symbolic number processing. Moreover, these new findings suggest that linguistic influences and those of cognitive control processes associated with characteristics of the stimulus set interact in symbolic number processing

Direct evidence for linguistic influences in two-digit number processing

© 2018 American Psychological Association. Language-specific differences in number words influence number processing even in nonverbal numerical tasks. For instance, the unit-decade compatibility effect in two-digit number magnitude comparison (compatible number pairs [42_57: 4 2]) was shown to be influenced by the inversion of number words (e.g., in German the number word for 42 is zweiundvierzig [literally: two-and-forty]). In two studies, we used articulatory suppression to investigate whether previously observed cross-linguistic differences in two-digit number processing are indeed driven by differences in number word formation. In a two-digit number comparison task, German- and English-speaking participants had to identify the larger of two numbers presented in Arabic digits. In Study 1, participants performed the same task twice, with and without articulatory suppression. In Study 2, the percentage of within-decade filler items (36_39) was manipulated additionally. As expected, in both studies between-groups differences in the compatibility effect disappeared under articulatory suppression irrespective of the percentage of fillers included. Furthermore, paralleling results of previous studies including 33% or less filler items, we found that the compatibility effect was larger in German compared with English speakers in the 20% filler condition. However, this pattern was reversed in the 50% filler condition in both studies. Thus, results provide first direct evidence for influences of verbal number word formation on symbolic number processing. Moreover, these new findings suggest that linguistic influences and those of cognitive control processes associated with characteristics of the stimulus set interact in symbolic number processing

Two Sides of the same Coin: Do the Dual ‘Types’ of Passion Describe Distinct Subgroups of Individuals?

The fact that harmonious and obsessive passion are called ‘types of passion’ (Vallerand, 2012; Vallerand et al., 2003) suggests that they describe subgroups of individuals. This study takes a person-oriented approach to examine groups of individuals with distinct profiles of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP). The aim of the study was to investigate whether HP and OP describe types in the sense of distinct groups of individuals with different passion profiles (intra-individual constellations), or if HP and OP are instead two constructs with distinct outcomes but possible alignment within individuals. Toward this aim, we analyzed four different samples (N total = 1149) of German and Brazilian adolescents and young adults. Using HP and OP as classification indicators, we compared three different classification procedures in terms of the resulting groups. We found that the previously applied classification based on z-scores of HP and OP was misleading, because it classified individuals as ‘obsessive’ who had reported higher HP than OP when responding to the original response scale. Alternative classification based on raw scores and cluster analyses revealed that most individuals experienced either co-occurring high HP and OP, or co-occurring low HP and OP, whereas the assumed mainly obsessive group was not found in any of our four samples. The general degree of passion rather than the distinction between harmonious and obsessive individuals accounted for inter-individual differences in passion, and related constructs such as dispositional approach motivation, and affect. The findings were replicated in all four samples. This person-oriented approach gives novel and unique insights about inter-individual differences and intra-individual variation that can be easily overlooked or misunderstood in merely variable-oriented approaches, which prevail in prior research. Implications for the research on passion and pitfalls of z-scores in profile analyses are discussed