The Role of Social Goals in Students’ Academic Help Seeking and Help Giving Among Peers

This study examined the role of social achievement goals in academic help giving among peers within a high school. Students (n = 794) filled out surveys assessing their social goals, how often they are asked for help by their peers, and the type of help they gave to peers (instrumental vs. expedient). Controls included students’ grade point average, popularity, and personal help seeking preferences. Results demonstrated positive benefits of social development goals on students’ reports of how often they were asked for help and type of help given to their peers and negative impacts of social demonstration-avoidance goals on help giving. The findings complement achievement goal theory and provide a more comprehensive understanding of academic help seeking

The role of goal structures and peer climate in trajectories of social achievement goals during high school

Students’ social goals—reasons for engaging in interpersonal relationships with peers—are consequential for students’ interactions with their peers at school and for their well-being. Despite the salience of peer relationships during adolescence, research on social goals is generally lacking compared with academic goals, and it is unknown how these social goals develop over time, especially among high school students. The aim of the study was to assess trajectories of students’ social goals and to determine how relevant individual and contextual variables predicted initial levels and trajectories of students’ social goals. Participants were 9th through 12th grade students (N = 526) attending a U.S. high school. Students filled out surveys of their social goals (social development, social demonstration-approach, and social demonstration-avoidance) 6 times across 2 school years. Nonlinear growth curve analyses and piecewise growth curve analyses were used to assess trajectories of social goals across time. Students’ initial levels of social goals differed based on their gender, grade level, prior achievement, and perceptions of classroom goals structures and peer climate. Furthermore, despite substantial stability over time, the shapes of these goal trajectories were predicted by students’ gender, grade level, and perceptions of classroom goal structures and peer climate. In particular, students who perceived an increase in performance-avoidance classroom goals maintained higher demonstration social goals and decreased in developmental social goals over time, and students who perceived an increase in positive peer climate decreased in demonstration-avoidance social goals. Implications and directions for future research on social goals are discussed

Students’ interpersonal connections with peers and staff at the start of higher education

Establishing positive social relationships is important for students’ success and retention in higher education (HE). This can be especially challenging during the transition into HE since students often move to a larger educational setting and need to build relationships with new peers and staff. Research is needed to better understand social connections during this critical time, including the role of demographics, curricular and extracurricular participation, and how peer and staff connections predict academic achievement. Surveys of 290 first-year students at a large US public university assessed with whom students were interacting, how often, for what reasons, and with what modes of communication. Results include a detailed description of students’ interpersonal connections at the transition into HE, differences by demographics, curricular, and extracurricular participation, and the associations between students’ patterns of relationships and their academic achievement

Examining the factor structure of the teachers’ sense of efficacy scale with Malaysian samples of in-service and pre-service teachers

This study examined the factor structure of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) with a sample of Malaysian in-service (n=191) and pre-service (n=122) teachers. The longform (24 items) of the TSES was tested using two plausible rival models, the one-factor model, and the theoretically-driven three-factor model. Results from confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the baseline three-factor model had a better fit. Standardized factor loadings, standard errors, inter-correlations between factors and reliability coefficients for each factor are reported together with the goodness of fit indices. Minor revisions to improve the fit of the scale for Malaysian teachers are recommended. The TSES scale and the conceptualisation of teacher efficacy are discussed in terms of the cultural and educational context of Malaysia. This study advances the use of the TSES for measuring teachers’ sense of efficacy by demonstrating its factor stability within the Malaysian context

Students' Peer Relationships, Social and Academic Goals, and Academic Achievement: A Social Network Analysis Approach.

A multiwave study examined how high school students’ peer relationships impact with their academic motivation, social motivation, and academic achievement. Students’ motivation was framed in terms of Achievement Goal Theory and their peer relationships were measured using social network analysis. The three overarching research objectives were: 1) to describe the dynamic nature of the high school peer social networks and students’ academic and social motivation, 2) to understand the relationships and predictive influence among students’ academic goals, social goals, peer network position, and academic achievement across the school year, and 3) to examine the impact of peers’ academic goals, social goals, and academic achievement on students’ own goals and achievement. Students (n = 851) at a U.S. Midwestern public high school completed surveys at three time points: the beginning, middle, and end of the 2010-2011 school year. Results demonstrated that students’ academic goals, social goals, network position, and academic achievement changed across the school year and that there were several grade level, gender, and race differences. Structural equation models provided evidence that academic and social variables served as both predictors and outcomes, supporting the notion that these processes and outcomes are reciprocally influential. Students’ social goals stood out as especially important for influencing positive changes in social network position and academic achievement across the school year. Academic achievement also emerged as an important predictor of change in students’ academic goals, social goals, and social network position. Furthermore, changes in students’ academic goals, social goals, and academic achievement were predicted by the average levels of motivation and achievement of the peers with whom they regularly interacted at school. The present study thus provided a comprehensive demonstration of the importance of peers for students’ academic development. Future research and implications for educational practice are discussed.PHDEducation and PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97959/1/kamakara_1.pd

Social goals in context: Asian students

This chapter provides a critical review of Asian students’ social goals, including salient cultural values in Asian contexts that may influence students’ approaches to social relationships, research on students’ social goals across different Asian countries, and differences in Asian and non-Asian students’ social goals. This synthesis provides insights into why some Asian students may adopt specific social goals, the complex ways in which Asian students’ social goals may be associated with academic goals, and the impact of social goals on academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal outcomes. The chapter concludes with measurement issues in this area and recommendations for future research

Does higher education foster critical and creative learners? An exploration of two universities in South Korea and the USA

This paper describes two studies that explore students' beliefs about critical and creative learning at two universities, and considers the implications of those beliefs in comparison to the universities' stated education goals. One is a mixed method study of students at a top university in Korea, and the second is a comparative study between the Korean university and a United States (US) university. The first study found that both high-achievers and the general population at a top Korean university perceived their critical and creative abilities as lower than their receptive learning abilities, and that higher achievers were neither more critical nor creative than lower achievers. The second study finds that the Korean university students, compared to US students, were more likely to rate their receptive learning ability as higher than their critical and creative learning abilities. Comparisons across year of higher education (HE) suggest that Korean students' perceptions did not significantly change with respect to year in school, while US students' perceptions of critical learning abilities significantly increased across school years. Results are discussed with respect to the impact of culture, epistemological beliefs, and HE instruction on critical and creative learning

Likened to “a boiled egg”: a new framework for understanding Chinese postgraduate taught students’ transitional experience

International students make significant contributions to the UK and Chinese international students represent the largest body of overseas students in the UK. Although previous studies have examined different aspects of this cohort, an in-depth and comprehensive investigation of the experience of Chinese postgraduate taught students is seemingly very limited. This research employed a longitudinal design and conducted 34 interviews with the facilitation of photograph- and diagram-elicitation techniques. With a phenomenological focus, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, an inductive approach, was employed for the data analysis of this research investigation. Nine superordinate themes emerged to capture academic, social, linguistic and psychological aspects of students’ experience as well as motivations prior to their experience and expectations subsequent to their journey. This research offers a holistic framework of student experience by illustrating various emerging needs in different layers and highlighting English proficiency and social connections as two influential factors on other elements of student experience

A conceptual enquiry into communities of practice as praxis in international doctoral education

Undertaking a PhD entails diverse and multi-faceted challenges as doctoral researchers enter a distinct academic culture that requires transition to a new level and threshold of learning – with both knowledge acquisition and production at the core. While doctoral researchers are expected to secure different dimensions of knowledge, which necessitates meaningful ‘dialogue’ with experts, the colossal task is still ironically associated with isolated doctoral experience and somewhat limited postgraduate supervision provision. With the extra concerns typically confronting the international doctoral cohort, the pressure tends be intensified, and may lead to psychological well-being concerns. Nevertheless, there is evidence from the literature that highlights the often unacknowledged forms of learning opportunities and support mechanisms via community participation. By employing communities of practice as the main framework, this conceptual paper exemplifies the crucial role played by these communities – how these communities serve to scaffold doctoral researchers’ academic progress, support their psychological adjustments, and reinforce the crucial, but perhaps limited, formal doctoral support provision. By featuring effective examples of educational praxis via these communities, our paper offers a holistic understanding of formal and informal infrastructures as part of the wider doctoral ecology with a view to achieving a more holistic and meaningful doctoral experience