How effectively do 8th-grade students control their learning activities with respect to the difficulty of the learning-goal and the available time for learning?

This study investigated how 8th graders control their learning activities with respect to the difficulty of learning-goals (difficult vs. easy) and available time for learning (long vs. short). We examined children\u27s learning activities in four different experimental conditions: (1) difficult-goal & short-time, (2) easy-goal & short-time, (3) difficult-goal & long-time, (4) easy-goal & long-time. As a result, in all 4 conditions, children chose items that they judged as difficult for their target items to learn. As for the study time, regardless of the learning conditions, there were no correlations between the children\u27s ratings for difficulty and allocated study-time. In three conditions ((2), (3), (4)), they spent the longest time not on the items judged as worse, but on the most difficult items. These results suggested that 8th graders could not effectively change their learning activities according to the different learning conditions. Yet, they did effectively control their learning activities by allocating study-time according to the \u22region of proximal learning.\u2

How does the level of task-orientation determine the process or students questioning in elementary school class?

The purpose of this research was to investigate how the level of task orientation determines the process of students questioning in elementary school class. We examined the process of students\u27 questioning in the class through teacher studens discussion (34 6th graders, a female homeroom teacher). Children\u27s ratings on this class arrangement indicated, so as planned for this type of classes, that teaching materials were perceived as unfamiliar and requiring more thinking and the class as providing an atmosphere in which every child would accept others opinions and could participate actively. Although we expected that this arrangement of the class would facilitate children\u27s spontaneous question-generation and asking, it turned out that children rarely did. A further analysis showed that children with higher task-orientation experienced the more perplexed feelings and generated questions for the teacher and classmates, but asked the more question only to their classmates than those with lower task orientation

The relationship about metacognitive monitoring and control in the more effective study-time allocation

We reviewed three dominant models (\u22discrepancy reduction model\u22, \u22hierarchical system model\u22, and \u22region of proximal learning model\u22) about study-time allocation. Each of these models has suggested that a relationship between metacognitive monitoring and control was important in the more effective study-time allocation. However, the three model\u27s suggestion has lacked the function of designer in the behavior of a learner, then their models are not sufficient to clarify the relationship. In the case of the learners regulated their allocation of study time, they took account into not just their degree of learning but other aspects [e.g., difficulty of goal (difficult vs. easy) and available time for learning (long vs. short)]. Thus, we claimed that the importance of the measurement, learner\u27s thinking of their learning condition will suggest the process of effective study time allocation. By introrducing the learner as designer viewpoint, many uncovered issues (e.g., developmental change, restructuring his/her learning condition) could be clarified

Developmental changes in children\u27s beliefs in the relative influences of environment, heredity, and intention as determinants of the formation of psychological and physical characteristics

This study investigated developmental changes in children\u27s beliefs about the effects of environment, heredity, and intention as determinants of the formation of psychological and physical characteristics. 120 children from 2nd to 6th grades engaged in a revised switched-at-birth task. As for psychological characteristics (kindness, smartness), we generally found that children thought that nurture is a more dominant determinant of kindness. In particular, 4th graders begin to recognize that while nature has little effect on smartness, intention does have relatively powerful effects on smartness. On the other hand, children in all grades believed that physical characteristics are strongly determined by nature. Further analyses on children\u27s beliefs about the relative influences of environment, heredity, and intention revealed that 2nd to 4th graders, if prompted to think more, could come up with more than one factor as determinants of psychological and physical characteristics. This might suggest that it would be difficult for them to think of multiple factors spontaneously

Dose predisposition of realizing personal/intellectual aspects of self and others in interpersonal perception facilitate understanding the determinants of personality/intellectual traits?

The purpose of this study was to investigate developmental processes of forming and changing the beliefs about the origin of personality and intellectual traits (e.g., personality and/or intellectual trait is determined by the heredity). The hypothesis examined in this study was that realizing the psychological aspects of self and other people in daily interpersonal perception-trait inference through the behavior observation-results in getting the information about the origin of the psychological traits-causal inference-promoting gradual change and refinement of the beliefs. 29 participants (1st to 3rd graders) solved \u22Grid technique\u22 of the Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955) for measuring the degree of realizing the psychological aspects in daily interpersonal perception. The results indicated that 1st graders as well as 2nd and 3rd graders realize psychological aspects. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that children with sophisticated beliefs about the origin of traits, compared to others, have showed relatively high degree of realizing the psychological aspects

Microstructure and mechanical properties of high-manganese-containing high-speed twin-roll cast Al-Mn-Si alloy strips and their cold-rolled sheets

Al-Mn based alloys with high-manganese content are expected to have improved mechanical properties due to solid solution hardening and/or dispersion hardening. However, the increase of Mn solubility of the alloy is difficult by using the conventional DC casting. In order to solve this problem, in the present study, we focused on the twin-roll casting method which is characterized by high cooling rates. Several kinds of high Mn-containing Al-Mn-Si alloy strips were fabricated by using a vertical-type high-speed twin-roll caster equipped with a pair of water-cooled copper rolls. Direct temperature measurement of the liquid melt during the casting was also performed. The alloy strips of various compositions containing up to 4 Mn and 2 Si (wt%) were successfully obtained. By observing the microstructure of the cross section of the strip, we found the characteristic solidified structure. The solidified structure consisted of three layers. Two solidified shells with a columnar dendrite structure grew from the roll surfaces toward the strip center. In the mid-thickness region, the band structure consisting of equiaxed dendrites and globular grains was observed between the solidified shells. Very fine primary particles were observed in the matrix near the strip surface, while, relatively coarse particles with blocky and needle-like shape were observed in the central band of the as-cast strip. The electric conductivity measurement was performed for the as-cast strips. Mn solubility in Al matrix was estimated from the obtained values. The estimated Mn solubility in the Al-2Mn-xSi strips was between 1.5 ~ 1.8wt% Mn. It was over 1.43wt%Mn for the Al-4Mn-xSi strips. We found that the Mn solubility of the as-cast strips was considerably high. The strips were cold-rolled to the sheets and then annealed at various conditions. They were subjected to the tensile tests, and the effects of solid solution hardening and dispersion hardening are discussed