Métodos cuantitativos para el registro de procesos y contextos en la investigación educativa

Los avances tecnológicos y metodológicos permiten formular nuevas preguntas de investigación fundamentales y aplicar nuevos diseños de estudios en la investigación educativa. Este artículo revisa los métodos emergentes empleados para el registro de los procesos de aprendizaje y enseñanza en el tiempo —las secuencias de eventos de aprendizaje— que tienen lugar en contextos múltiples. Para este fin, se emplean los conceptos de investigación nomotética e ideográfica utilizando el cubo de Cattell (1952), que identifica a las personas, las variables y el tiempo como las tres dimensiones clave para describir diseños de estudios. En la investigación educativa es importante tener en cuenta una cuarta dimensión —el contexto— dadas las estructuras anidadas (p. ej. díadas alumno- profesor, relaciones entre pares, grupos de alumnos, aulas, profesores y colegios) en las que se produce el aprendizaje y la enseñanza. Existen varios métodos cuantitativos que permiten a los investigadores: a) determinar la calidad de la medición (p. ej. el análisis de factores, los modelos de respuesta a ítems), b) en secuencias de puntos temporales (p. ej. modelos autorregresivos), c) en estructuras multinivel complejas (p. ej. modelos multinivel, modelos de efectos aleatorios), empleando también estimadores sólidos en estudios de n pequeña (p. ej. modelos bayesianos). Se invita a los investigadores en educación a diseñar estudios apropiados para modelos multinivel con datos clasificados jerárquicamente o con clasificación cruzada, y a pensar en términos de procesos de aprendizaje intraindividuales.Open Access Technological and methodological advances enable new substantive research questions to be posed, and new study designs to be implemented, in educational research. In this paper I review emerging methods relevant for capturing learning and teaching processes over time —the sequences of learning events— which take place in multiple contexts. To do so, the concepts of nomothetic and ideographic research are traced through the use of Cattell’s (1952) cube, posing persons, variables and time as the three key dimensions for determining study-designs. For educational research, a fourth dimension —context— is important to consider given the nested structures (e.g. student-teacher dyads, peerrelations, student-groups, classrooms, teachers, and schools) learning and teaching occurs in. Several developments of quantitative methods enable researchers to a) establish quality of measurement (e.g. factor analysis, item response models), b) across sequences of time-points (e.g. autoregressive models), c) in complex multilevel structures (e.g. multilevel models, random effects models), also using estimators which are robust for small-n studies (e.g. Bayesian models). Educational researchers are encouraged to design studies fitting multilevel models for hierarchically and cross-classified data, and to think in terms of intraindividual learning processes

Physical activity predicts task-related behaviour, affect and tiredness in the primary school classroom: A within-person experiment.

AIM We investigated the dose-response relationship between acute physical activity (PA) intensity during physical education (PE) lessons (dose), and task behaviour and learning experiences in the classroom after PE (response), and mediation effects of acute PA on-task behaviour via learning experiences. METHOD A total of 78 children (Mage  = 9.30 years; 43 females) took part. Participants reported learning experiences (tiredness, positive and negative affect) during one afternoon per week for 6 weeks. Their task behaviour was observed (on-task, active off-task and passive off-task) during two classroom lessons. Between the classroom lessons, they took part in a PE lesson, with experimentally induced PA intensity (low, medium and high). Accelerometers were worn for 24 h leading up to and during every intervention afternoon. Participants completed self-reports three times per classroom lesson, both before and after PE. Intra- and interindividual differences in PA, task behaviour and learning experiences were analysed with multilevel structural equation models. RESULTS Moderate PA directly increased on-task behaviour and reduced passive off-task behaviour, whereas light PA increased active off-task behaviour and reduced on-task behaviour. We found no direct effects of vigorous PA or mediated effects of any PA intensity on-task-related behaviour. However, a greater positive affect during PE indirectly led to more on-task and less passive off-task behaviour. Regularly active children reported less tiredness in the classroom. CONCLUSION PE lessons can increase on-task behaviour and reduce both passive and active off-task behaviours. Positive affect and tiredness are indirectly involved in the impact of PA on task-related behaviour. The greatest benefits were found for moderate PA and for PE lessons, which left children feeling positive. Moreover, regular participation in moderate-to-vigorous PA leads children to feel less tired during school lessons

Exploring children’s exposure to voice assistants and their ontological conceptualizations of life and technology

Digital Voice Assistants (DVAs) have become a ubiquitous technology in today’s home and childhood environments. Inspired by (Bernstein and Crowley, J Learn Sci 17:225–247, 2008) original study (n = 60, age 4–7 years) on how children’s ontological conceptualizations of life and technology were systematically associated with their real-world exposure to robotic entities, the current study explored this association for children in their middle childhood (n = 143, age 7–11 years) and with different levels of DVA-exposure. We analyzed correlational survey data from 143 parent–child dyads who were recruited on ‘Amazon Mechanical Turk’ (MTurk). Children’s ontological conceptualization patterns of life and technology were measured by asking them to conceptualize nine prototypical organically living and technological entities (e.g., humans, cats, smartphones, DVAs) with respect to their biology, intelligence, and psychology. Their ontological conceptualization patterns were then associated with their DVA-exposure and additional control variables (e.g., children’s technological affinity, demographic/individual characteristics). Compared to biology and psychology, intelligence was a less differentiating factor for children to differentiate between organically living and technological entities. This differentiation pattern became more pronounced with technological affinity. There was some evidence that children with higher DVA-exposure differentiated more rigorously between organically living and technological entities on the basis of psychology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study exploring children’s real-world exposure to DVAs and how it is associated with their conceptual understandings of life and technology. Findings suggest although psychological conceptualizations of technology may become more pronounced with DVA-exposure, it is far from clear such tendencies blur ontological boundaries between life and technology from children’s perspective

A comparative analysis of predictors of teacher self‐efficacy in student engagement, instruction and classroom management in Nordic, Anglo‐Saxon and East and South‐East Asian countries

Going beyond previous studies, we investigated differential effects of teacher self-efficacy (TSE) across the three basic dimensions of educational equality in student engagement, instructional strategies and classroom management in East and South-East Asian, Anglo-Saxon and Nordic country clusters in a cross-cultural analysis. It was found that all three domains of TSE show different patterns of associations in relation to teacher, classroom, principal and school predictors across the three country clusters. Most variation occurred within the classroom and principal predictors, whereas the teacher and school predictors were more homogeneously related to the three country clusters and the three domains of TSE. However, there were more similarities between the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon clusters than the East and South-East Asian clusters and any of the other two. Cultural values, as found in the GLOBE study and by Hofstede, were used as a cultural framework to interpret the differences occurring in the country clusters

Sibling effects on problem and prosocial behavior in childhood: patterns of intrafamilial "contagion" by birth order

We investigated longitudinal relations between siblings' problem and prosocial behavior, measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, among different sibship sizes in the UK's Millennium Cohort Study. We identified 3436 families with two children and 1188 families with three children. All children (cohort members and their older sibling [OS]) had valid data on behavior at two time points (in 2004 and 2006). Using structural equation model, we found that for internalizing and externalizing problems, OSs (MOS1 = 6.3 years, MOS2 = 9.1 years at T1) exerted a dominant effect on younger siblings (Mage = 3.12 years at T1; 49.7% boys) across sibship sizes. For prosocial behavior, there was OS dominance in two-child families and youngest sibling dominance in three-child families

Context and Implications Document for: A comparative analysis of predictors of teacher self‐efficacy in student engagement, instruction and classroom management in Nordic, Anglo‐Saxon, and East and South‐East Asian countries

This guide accompanies the following article: Sina Fackler, Pamela Sammons, Lars-Erik Malmberg; A comparative analysis of predictors of teacher self-efficacy in student engagement, instruction and classroom management in Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, and East and South-East Asian countries, Review of Education

Sibling effects on problem and prosocial behavior in childhood: Patterns of intrafamilial "contagion" by birth order

We investigated longitudinal relations between siblings' problem and prosocial behavior, measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, among different sibship sizes in the UK's Millennium Cohort Study. We identified 3436 families with two children and 1188 families with three children. All children (cohort members and their older sibling [OS]) had valid data on behavior at two time points (in 2004 and 2006). Using structural equation model, we found that for internalizing and externalizing problems, OSs (MOS1  = 6.3 years, MOS2  = 9.1 years at T1) exerted a dominant effect on younger siblings (Mage  = 3.12 years at T1; 49.7% boys) across sibship sizes. For prosocial behavior, there was OS dominance in two-child families and youngest sibling dominance in three-child families

Students’ observed engagement in lessons, instructional activities, and learning experiences

In order to expand previous intraindividual studies of student engagement we investigated students' observed engagement (i.e., on- and off-task behaviour), instructional activities (i.e., teacher-led whole class, individual work, pair-work, student-teacher interaction, assessment, and ”other”), and self-reported learning experiences (cognitive engagement, difficulty, competence, emotional engagement, positive and negative emotions), within lessons during one calendar week. Eighteen fourth and fifth grade target students (Mage=10.1, SD=0.44) were observed every 30 sec during two to four lessons each day for five school days (engagement and instructional activities), on average 66.05 times per lesson (SD=19.16, Range=15-80, nobs=14,994) between 9-18 lessons during a week. Simultaneously, students provided 1-3 electronic questionnaire self-reports per lesson (Mself_report=35.1, SD=12.6, Range=19-52, nself_report=631). We regressed observed engagement (0 = off-task, 1 = on-task) on self-reported learning experiences using 3-level (time-points nested in lessons, nested in students) Bayesian logistic regression models in brms. Observed engagement diminished during lessons, and was predicted by higher cognitive engagement, and instructional activities. As compared to teacher-led instruction, engagement was higher during individual tasks, teacher-supported tasks, and assessments. Overall self-reported and observed engagement within lessons converged, supporting their use in intraindividual research

Exploring the roles of academic, personal, and cultural demands and resources in immigrant students' motivation, engagement, and achievement

Background The present investigation applied the academic and cultural demands-resources (ACD-R) framework to better understand the academic development of immigrant high school students. Aims Analyses sought to test the hypothesized contribution of academic demands (e.g., learning-disrupted teaching) and resources (e.g., autonomy-supportive teaching), personal demands (e.g., fear of failure) and resources (e.g., adaptability), and cultural demands (e.g., discrimination) and resources (e.g., cultural confidence) in predicting motivation (self-efficacy, valuing)—and, in turn, the extent to which motivation predicted academic outcomes in the forms of engagement (persistence, non-attendance) and performance (achievement). Sample Drawing on PISA (2018) data, the sample comprised 4886 immigrant students: 3329 from Australia and 1557 from New Zealand. Method Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was first conducted to ascertain the psychometric properties of the study's measures and then the central analyses employed structural equation modelling (SEM) to test hypothesized paths. Results After demonstrating good CFA fit, SEM revealed that particularly salient (at p < 0.001) demand and resource predictors of motivation were: warmth-supportive teaching (positively), fear of failure (negatively), adaptability (positively), discrimination (negatively), cultural communication skills (positively), and cultural confidence (positively). Also, self-efficacy and valuing significantly predicted persistence (positively) and non-attendance (negatively), while self-efficacy also significantly predicted achievement (positively). Conclusions The hypothesized ACD-R process is a viable means to understand immigrant students’ academic experience and to offer some fruitful direction for supporting their academic development

Students’ mathematics self-efficacy: a scoping review

Students’ mathematics self-efficacy (MSE) is strongly associated with learning behaviours and performance, and students’ future career choices. In our scoping review, we screened what substantive foci (conceptualization, directionality and role of MSE, change in MSE, and situational specificity of MSE) have been posed and which methodological approaches (participants, analytical methods, data sources, and congruence of measures) have been used in recent (2018–2022) studies of MSE. Studies of MSE were clearly in the mathematics domain with 21 of 49 included studies exploring specific mathematics areas. The key focus was on strength of MSE. International databases (i.e., PISA) have enabled broad generalization, while in-depth qualitative studies enable minute situation-specificity. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies using hierarchically nested designs (i.e., students in classrooms) enable us to draw conclusions at both individual, classroom, and school levels. The current state-of-the-art indicates methodological advancement is rapid and we are likely to see further methodological-substantive synergies in the field of MSE in future studies. We see the potential and need for future mixed-methods studies that continue the focus on MSE as a multidimensional and dynamic concept. Careful consideration of the theoretical background of the construct of MSE continues to be important to bring the field forward