Self-Report is Indispensable to Assess Students’ Learning

Self-report is required to assess mental states in nuanced ways. By implication, self-report is indispensable to capture the psychological processes driving human learning, such as learners’ emotions, motivation, strategy use, and metacognition. As shown in the contributions to this special issue, self-report related to learning shows convergent and predictive validity, and there are ways to further strengthen its power. However, self-report is limited to assess conscious contents, lacks temporal resolution, and is subject to response sets and memory biases. As such, it needs to be complemented by alternative measures. Future research on self-report should consider not only closed-response quantitative measures but also alternative self-report methodologies, make use of within-person analysis, and investigate the impact of respondents’ emotions on processes and outcomes of self-report assessments.   &nbsp

Mind and body in students' and teachers' engagement: New evidence, challenges, and guidelines for future research

Background and Aims Traditionally, research in educational psychology has neglected the physiological foundations of motivation, emotion, engagement, and learning. Recent studies have made substantial progress to more fully consider physiological processes, as documented in the contributions to this special issue. In this commentary, I summarize their findings, discuss strengths and weaknesses, and outline directions for future research. Results The studies showcase how physiological indicators can be integrated in research in educational psychology. The resulting findings document links between cardiovascular, electrodermal, and hormonal parameters as well as physical activity and a range of mental and behavioral processes in educational settings. Together, they attest to the critical role of physiological processes in students’ and teachers’ engagement. However, most of the studies used small samples and correlational designs, and not all of the findings were consistent. Future Directions To inform theory and practice in evidence-based ways, we need to make further headway in building a cumulative, coherent knowledge base. To this end, it may be helpful to more precisely specify the status of physiological indicators; secure construct symmetry of physiological, mental, and behavioral variables; use causal designs and within-person analysis; include sufficiently powered samples of participants and measurement occasions; employ multiple indicators and assessments to increase reliability and specificity; define the time windows and lags of assessments that are suited to capture physiological processes and their functions; and consider the role of socio-cultural contexts

Emotions in Reading and Learning from Texts: Progress and Open Problems

Reading texts can prompt intense emotions, and these emotions profoundly influence learning from texts. I first discuss the findings from the eight studies reported in this special issue. The studies represent pivotal advances in research on reading. Focusing on learning from science texts, they show that different emotions and different types of text influence reading in different ways. Furthermore, they document how the interplay of emotions, text features, and reading processes impacts knowledge acquisition, conceptual change, and attitude change. I then outline core directions for future research. We need to (a) expand current theories to adequately explain the multiple links between emotions, cognitive processes, and motivational processes during reading; (b) use causal designs to disentangle the cause-effect relations linking these processes to antecedents and outcomes, including reciprocal causation; (c) complement between-person designs with intra-individual analysis; (d) use dynamic measurement and multichannel indicators to capture emotional processes; and (e) investigate the generalizability of current findings across diverse groups of learners and sociocultural contexts

Teachers need more than knowledge: Why motivation, emotion, and self-regulation are indispensable

It is plausible to assume that teachers need motivation, emotions, and self-regulation to teach and promote students’ learning. However, as documented in this special issue, extant research is inconsistent and has documented weak effects of these teacher variables at best. I discuss possible reasons for this paradoxical failure to more fully document the importance of motivation, emotion, and self-regulation. Specifically, in addition to conceptual problems, research has focused too much on using between-person designs, variables with truncated distributions and reduced variance, and samples from single Western countries. To better understand the effects of teacher variables on student outcomes, we need to (1) develop and test more fine-grained theoretical models explaining the mechanisms mediating these effects, (2) complement between-teacher research by within-teacher studies, and (3) examine teacher-student processes across cultural and historical contexts. Collaboration with other disciplines may be needed, including economics, sociology, political science, computer science, and history

Attachment working models as unconscious structures: An experimental test

Internal working models of attachment (IWMs) are presumed to be largely unconscious representations of childhood attachment experiences. Several instruments have been developed to assess IWMs; some of them are based on self-report and others on narrative interview techniques. This study investigated the capacity of a self-report measure, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), and of a narrative interview method, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985), to measure unconscious attachment models. We compared scores on the two attachment instruments to response latencies in an attachment priming task. It was shown that attachment organisation assessed by the AAI correlates with priming effects, whereas the IPPA scales were inversely or not related to priming. The results are interpreted as support for the assumption that the AAI assesses, to a certain degree, unconscious working models of attachment

The Achievement Pride Scales (APS).

A growing body of research focuses on the self-conscious achievement emotion pride. However, studies investigating the relations of different types of achievement pride with individual antecedents, such as frames of reference, achievement goals, and achievement values, are largely lacking. This work describes a theoretical model designed to extend and clarify the study of achievement pride and introduces the Achievement Pride Scales (APS), which assess two types of pride, namely self-based pride and social comparison-based pride. The results document the reliability and internal validity of the scales. External validity is demonstrated in terms of relations with students’ frames of reference, achievement goals, and values. More specifically, whereas self-based pride was positively related to individual frames of reference and individual achievement values, social comparison-based pride was positively related to social frames of reference, performance-approach goals, and social achievement values. Implications for future research on achievement pride are discussed

Adaptive Motivation and Emotion in Education: Research and Principles for Instructional Design

Students frequently experience various types of motivation and emotion that contribute to their engagement and learning. However, translating research on motivation and emotion into educational practice and policy has so far been limited. To facilitate greater synergy among research, practice, and policy, this overview addresses educationally relevant motivation and emotion. This summary discusses different forms of motivation or emotion, their relevant theoretical basis, evidence on how they relate to academic engagement and learning, and potential classroom supports for adaptive motivation and emotion. The article concludes with five instructional design principles that can guide educators and policymakers in promoting adaptive student motivation and emotion: (a) support students’ feelings of competence, (b) enhance autonomy, (c) use personally relevant and active tasks, (d) emphasize learning and de-emphasize social comparison, and (e) encourage feelings of belonging

Students\u27 Emotions for Achievement and Technology Use in Synchronous Hybrid Graduate Programmes: A Control-Value Approach

Synchronous hybrid delivery (simultaneously teaching on-campus and online students using web conferencing) is becoming more common; however, little is known about how students experience emotions in this learning environment. Based on Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of emotions, the dual purpose of this study was first to compare synchronous hybrid students who attend online versus on-campus in terms of control, value, emotions and perceived success and second to compare students’ degree of emotional activation in the domains of programme achievement and technology use. Survey data from 101 graduate business students revealed that online students reported significantly higher levels of technology-related anger, anxiety and helplessness. Furthermore, in compar- ison to their on-campus counterparts, online students more clearly separated their emotions in terms of programme achievement and technology use. Emotions related significantly to students’ perceived success for both programme achieve- ment and technology use, and mediated the effects of control and value appraisals on perceived success