Academic Motivation of Elementary School Children in Two Educational Approaches — Innovative and Traditional

Background. While the current literature provides valuable insight into how school climate perceptions and student motivation impact academic achievement, research examining the mediating efects of motivation in the linking of an innovative educational system, school climate, and achievement is limited. Tis study considers the potential of the El’konin–Davydov system of developmental education as a basis for educational innovation. Self-determination theory is applied as a useful theoretical framework that allows for consideration of both the intensity and the quality of academic motivation. Objective. Te study examines a model that illustrates the role of intrinsic and different types of extrinsic motivation in linking the El’konin–Davydov system of developmental education (DE) and school climate to the academic achievement of elementary schoolchildren. Design. Participants were 345 third and fourth graders drawn from four public schools in Moscow, with some (N = 192, 2 schools) educated in the traditional system and others (N = 153, 2 schools) in one that follows the DE system. A cross-sectional design was implemented. Results. Students in the DE system showed signifcantly lower external motivation for all three subscales (Parents, Teachers, General) and perceived school climate more favorably. Structural equation modeling showed that the hypothesized model ft the data well, supporting the hypothesis that student external motivation plays a mediating role in linking educational system (innovative vs. traditional) with academic achievement. Students’ autonomous motivation was shown to play a mediating role in linking positive perceptions of school climate with academic achievement. Conclusion. Te elementary school students from developmental education classes compared to their peers from traditional education classes demonstrate more positive profle of academic motivation including lower external motivation, more positive attitude towards school and study; however, the two groups do not difer in the level of intrinsic, identifed, and introjected motivations

Dispositional Gratitude as a Mediator in the Influence of Life Goals on Psychological Well-Being

Background. Solving practical problems to support the psychological well-being of youth determines the relevance of the research of its psychological factors. Objective. The aim is to test the assumption that dispositional gratitude mediates the influence of internal and external life aspirations (goals) on well-being on a sample of Russian high school students. Sample. 5,635 high school students (grades 10–11) from 422 schools in Yakutia aged 16 to 18 years (M = 16.81, SD = 0.68), 41% of them boys. Methods. An empirical study was conducted with the use of psychological questionnaires: Gratitude Scale by M. McCullough, R. Emmons and J. Tsang, the non-verbal scale Attitude to Study and Life, the Myself scale from MSLSS by E.S. Huebner, and the short version of Aspirations Index by T. Kasser and R. Ryan. Correlations, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling were used for data analysis. Results. It is shown that psychological well-being of high school students is directly related to gratitude, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic life aspirations. In turn, gratitude, associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic goals, mediates relations between well-being and life aspirations. The indirect effect of intrinsic goals on well-being is positive, while such effect of the extrinsic ones is negative. Conclusion. The results of the study indicate the important role of gratitude as a mediator of the relations between life aspirations and psychological well-being in adolescence. The findings can be used to plan interventions to improve well-being of youth through the development of dispositional gratitude and increased focus on internal goals

USE OF PARALLEL AND FACET ASSIGNMENTS IN THE SYSTEM OF DISTANT LEARNING “MOODLE”

The paper describes features and advantages of parallel and facet tests and tasks, their implementation in various popular learning management systems. Principles of functioning and advantages of developed module for LMS Moodle are described. The developed module implements facet approach and allows further development

Values and Moral Foundations as a Basis for Attitude toward Mentally Retarded People in Students

An important factor of the successful integration of mentally retarded people is the readiness of the society to accept such people as equal members. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the attitude toward mentally retarded people depends on values and moral factors. The sample comprised 169 students of technical college and pedagogical university. The attitude toward mentally retarded people was measured using a modified version of Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory (MRAI-R by Antonak & Harth), values were tested using Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-R2 by Schwartz), and moral foundations were measured using Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ by Graham et al.). We elaborated modified Russian version of MRAI-R, showed its factor structure and good psychometric properties. The main moral factor of the attitude toward mentally retarded people was the importance of fairness: the higher it is the higher is the readiness to diminish the social distance with the mentally retarded. The importance of authority was associated with the low approval of inclusive education for the mentally retarded. The most important predictor of the attitude toward mentally retarded people was gender: girls demonstrated a more positive attitude towards the mentally retarded

USE OF REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AS TEMPLATES IN FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE OPEN ANSWER QUESTIONS

The article describes problems in automated students testing using open-form questions with substantial amount of correct answers. Authors propose using of regular expressions as correct answer patterns. The problem of automatic hint generation during training tests is examined as well. To resolve this problem authors propose a matching string generation method, extending partial match from learner’s attempt. It is possible to give next correct character and next correct lexeme hints. The paper describes a solution in the form of a question type plugin for the popular e-learning system Moodle

AUTOMATIC DETERMINING OF TOKEN SEQUENCE ERRORS IN RESPONSES TO OPEN ANSWER QUESTION IN MOODLE LMS

The paper reviews the problem of automatic analysis, grading and hinting to the student in the questions, where correct answer must be the correct sentence in the target language in which order of words (tokens) is important. Proposed solution consists of combination of lexical analysis and editing distance analysis. Proposed solution was implemented as a CorrectWriting question type to a popular Moodle LMS. Such question type is useful when teaching programming languages and English as foreign language

Diagnosing Moral Foundations: Testing of the Russian Version of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire

Introduction. The Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), developed on the basis of J. Haidt’s moral foundations theory, has become a popular tool for studying morality. The questionnaire contains five scales corresponding to moral foundations – namely, harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Despite moderate reliability of the scales, the technique can be instrumental in identifying moral foundations of social stereotypes and political beliefs in Russian samples, as well as in developing Russian instruments for diagnosing individuals’ morality. This study presents the psychometric characteristics of the MFQ Russian version and provides new evidence of the relationship between moral foundations and other variables. Methods. To verify the validity of the proposed MFQ Russian version, we employed the Portrait Values Questionnaire (S. Schwartz) and the Short Dark Triad questionnaire (M. S. Egorova et al.) for measuring Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) was employed for evaluating respondents’ tendency to social desirability (E. N. Osin’s adaptation). Socio-demographic characteristics were identified using a special questionnaire. Results. Testing the modified version of the questionnaire on a sample comprised of 354 individual participants showed a moderate reliability of five primary scales (0.62–0.68) and a good reliability of secondary scales (0.79–0.84). The factor structure of the MFQ Russian version demonstrated a satisfactory level of matching the original technique. The respondents’ answers reflected a moderate level of social desirability. The scales of moral foundations and secondary scales (‘ethics of autonomy’ and ‘ethics of community’) showed the expected relationship with values, negative personality traits, religiosity, and gender. Discussion. The unique outcome of pilot testing of the MFQ Russian version was the demonstration of a direct relationship between the individualizing and uniting moral foundations. All other results are in good agreement with the predictions of moral foundations theory and with the conclusions of previous studies

DEFINITION OF TYPOS IN ANSWER OF STUDENT IN KNOWN CORRECT ANSWER

The paper describes method of typo detection in the answers for the questions with open answers. In such questions we know one or several correct answers defining relatively small dictionary of correct words contrasting the usual case of looking for typos in arbitrary text. This fact allows using more complex analysis methods and finding more possible typos, such as extra or missing separators. A typo correction module for the Correct Writing question type (for Moodle LMS) was developed using proposed methods

THE PLANETARY QUARANTINE PROBLEM AND ITS SUBSTANTIATION ON THE BASIS OF THE RESULTS OF EXOBIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS

The RF SRC – Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, has developed Biorisk hardware to study the effects of long-term exposure of dormant forms of various organisms to outer space and completed experiments on the Russian Module of the International Space Station. The first experiment was performed using spores of bacteria (Bacillus) and fungi (Penicillium, Aspergillus and Cladosporium) housed in 3 boxes that were exposed to outer space for 7, 12 or 18 months. It was for the first time demonstrated that bacterial and fungal spores could survive an exposure to outer space during the time period comparable with the duration of a return mission to Mars. Moreover, the microbial strains proved viable and highly active. The second experiment was expanded by flying, in addition to the above spores, dormant forms of higher plants, insects, lower crustaceans and vertebrates. The 31-month experiment showed that, in spite of harsher than in the first study temperatures, some specimens remained viable and capable of further multiplication. In summary, our experiments provided evidence that not only bacterial and fungal spores but also dormant forms of organisms that reached higher levels of evolutionary development had the capability to survive a long-term exposure to outer space. This observation suggests that they can be transferred on outer walls of space platforms during interplanetary missions. Our findings are of great scientific interest as well as of huge importance for the development of planetary quarantine concepts related to future space exploration missions

To Stay or to Leave: The Role of School, Family, and Prosocial Goals in Migration Intentions of Russian High School Students

Background. Migration intentions are extremely common among modern youth practically all around the globe. They do not always result in actual migration, but they should definitely be considered as an important indicator for the society, since the potential loss of the most valuable human resources entails long-term consequences for the development of a country or region. This study aims to examine the system of psychological factors that determine the desire of young people to stay in their region. It also addresses the previously discovered paradoxical association between migration intentions and subjective well-being. Objective. To analyze the psychological determinants of the intention not to leave the home region, and its association with relationship satisfaction, personal goals, subjective well-being, and academic achievement of high school students. Design. The cross-sectional study design was used. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among Russian high school students from urban and rural schools (N = 5,635). Results. The study found that the most important psychological predictors of the intention to stay, to study, and work in their home city/region are community contribution goals and psychological factors that characterize the immediate social environment, which include satisfaction with school and teachers, and family support. Controlling for these variables, migration intentions do not correlate with subjective well-being. Conclusion. These findings suggest that considering the quality of interpersonal relationships allows deepening the understanding of migration intentions sources of high school students. The study also contributes to understanding the complex relationship among migration intentions, subjective well-being, and academic achievement