Strategies for reading comprehension in elementary school students: Their use and relations with students’ motivation and emotions

Στην εργασία εξετάζονται οι στρατηγικές που αναφέρουν ότι χρησιμοποιούν μαθητές δημοτικού προκειμένου να επιτύχουν καλή κατανόηση ενός κειμένου και οι σχέσεις τους με κίνητρα και συναισθήματα των μαθητών. Συμμετέχοντες ήταν 172 μαθητές της Ε΄ και της Στ΄ τάξης δημοτικού από σχολεία επαρχιακής πρωτεύουσας. Οι μαθητές συμπλήρωσαν τρεις κλίμακες αυτο-αναφοράς που αξιολογούσαν τις στρατηγικές που χρησιμοποιούν κατά την κατανόηση κειμένων, τις προσδοκίες αυτο-αποτελεσματικότητάς τους σχετικά με την αναγνωστική κατανόηση και την ευχαρίστηση που αισθάνονται από την ενασχόληση με δραστηριότητες κατανόησης κειμένου. Από την ανάλυση κύριων συνιστωσών του ερωτηματολογίου των στρατηγικών αναδείχθηκαν τρεις παράγοντες στρατηγικών: «Βαθιάς Επεξεργασίας», «Ανακεφαλαίωση Κύριων Νοημάτων», και «Εντοπισμού και Οργάνωσης Νοημάτων». Οι αναφορές των μαθητών έδειξαν ότι, από τις τρεις αυτές κατηγορίες στρατηγικών, λιγότερο χρησιμοποιούνται οι στρατηγικές βαθιάς επεξεργασίας. Αν και βρέθηκαν σημαντικές συσχετίσεις της αναφερόμενης χρήσης στρατηγικών τόσο με τις προσδοκίες αυτο-αποτελεσματικότητας των μαθητών, όσο και με την ευχαρίστηση από την ενασχόληση με έργα αναγνωστικής κατανόησης, παρατηρήθηκε ότι η ευχαρίστηση των μαθητών εξηγούσε μεγαλύτερο μέρος της διακύμανσης της χρήσης στρατηγικών σε σύγκριση με την αυτο-αποτελεσματικότητα, ιδιαίτερα των στρατηγικών βαθιάς επεξεργασίας. Τα ευρήματα συζητούνται υπό το πρίσμα της αξιοποίησής τους μέσα στη σχολική τάξη. This study investigated elementary school students’ reports for the strategies they use in order to achieve reading comprehension and their relations with students’ motivation and emotions. Participants were 172 5th and 6th grade students from public city schools. The students answered to three different self-report scales: a scale regarding the strategies they use during text comprehension, a scale regarding their self-efficacy in reading comprehension, and a scale regarding the enjoyment they feel while dealing with reading comprehension tasks. The principal components analysis revealed that the reported strategies are organized around three factors: “Deep processing”, “Reviewing main points”, and “Detecting and organizing ideas”. Descriptive statistics showed that strategies for deep processing are reported to be used less by the participant students in comparison to the rest two groups of strategies. Both students’ self-efficacy in text comprehension and reported enjoyment were significantly correlated with their reported strategy use, though the correlations were from low to medium level. Students’ enjoyment while dealing with text comprehension tasks explained a larger part of the variance of the reported strategy use in comparison to self-efficacy. The findings are discussed with a focus on practical implications for learning and teaching

Motivational and affective determinants of self-regulatory strategy use in elementary school mathematics

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between elementary students' reported use of self-regulatory strategies in mathematics and their motivational and affective determinants. Participants of the study were 344 fifthand sixth-grade Greek students. Students were asked to complete self-reported measures regarding the strategies they use to self-regulate mathematics learning, their achievement goals in relation to mathematics, their self-efficacy concerning mathematics learning and achievement, the value they attribute to mathematics as a subject domain and their enjoyment of mathematics learning. Structural equation modelling confirmed a mediation model, that is, students' mathematics self-efficacy, value beliefs about mathematics and enjoyment mediated the effects of achievement goals on reported strategy use. Results are discussed in terms of implications for elementary students' self-regulated learning skills

Teaching self-regulation strategies with SOLVE IT to two students with learning disabilities: Effects on mathematical problem-solving performance

International audience1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether teaching self-regulation strategies via "Solve it" to students with learning disabilities could affect their problem-solving performance in mathematics. The mathematical problems involved four mathematical operations with natural and decimal numbers. Also, the present study investigated the effect of "Solve it" instruction on students' self-efficacy and value related to mathematics. It was a single-subject design with a pre-test, four repeated post-tests and a maintenance test. The results indicated that the students' problem-solving performance was improved and their self-efficacy and value attributed to mathematics were increased

Adaptation of the Students' Motivation Towards Science Learning (SMTSL) questionnaire in the Greek language

The present study aimed at adapting in the Greek language the Students' Motivation Towards Science Learning (SMTSL) questionnaire developed by Tuan, Chin, and Shieh (INT J SCI EDUC 27(6): 639-654, 2005a) into a different cultural context, a different age group, that is, in university students and with a focus on physics learning. Three hundred and fifty Greek student teachers participated in the study. The original instrument consisted of 35 items allocated in six scales: self-efficacy, use of active learning strategies, science learning value, performance goals, achievement goals, and learning environment stimulation. The instrument's internal consistency was acceptable and comparable to previous studies' reports. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied on the data in order to test an a priori hypothesis regarding the SMTSL's factorial structure based on previous studies' findings. The results of the study showed that the six-factor conceptual model of students' motivation proposed by the SMTSL applies in this different cultural setting and in this group of university students with reference to physics learning. Along with the six distinct motivational constructs confirmed, students' motivational beliefs were also explained by a general motivational construct assumed to be at their basis. Suggestions for further improvement of the Greek version of the SMTSL are also discussed