Education Commons^™

En Route To Lifelong Learning? Academic Motivations, Goal Orientations And Learning Conceptions Of Entering First-Year Engineering Students, Jonathan Stolk, Katherine Chen, Robert Martello, Roberta Herter, Taylor Lobe, Boris Taratutin

Robert Martello

Although lifelong learning is among the most critical skills required of today's engineering graduates, the complex processes through which individuals develop the attitudes, beliefs, and skills of lifelong learners remains unclear. Instructors have only begun to understand the impacts of academic background, institutional climate, and pedagogy on students' development of the motivations and learning strategies characteristic of lifelong learners. In this ongoing mixed-methods investigation, we draw on existing motivation and self-regulated learning theories to examine how undergraduate students at a small private college and a large public university become more self-directed as they progress through the first two years of …

En Route To Lifelong Learning? Academic Motivations, Goal Orientations And Learning Conceptions Of Entering First-Year Engineering Students, Jonathan Stolk, Katherine Chen, Robert Martello, Roberta Herter, Taylor Lobe, Boris Taratutin

Jonathan Stolk

Although lifelong learning is among the most critical skills required of today's engineering graduates, the complex processes through which individuals develop the attitudes, beliefs, and skills of lifelong learners remains unclear. Instructors have only begun to understand the impacts of academic background, institutional climate, and pedagogy on students' development of the motivations and learning strategies characteristic of lifelong learners. In this ongoing mixed-methods investigation, we draw on existing motivation and self-regulated learning theories to examine how undergraduate students at a small private college and a large public university become more self-directed as they progress through the first two years of …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of Male At-Risk Sixth, Seventh And Eighth Grade Students' Perceptions Toward Reading, Jason Douma

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions that male at-risk sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' possess toward reading at a small rural public school district in Michigan. Male at-risk students was generally defined as students below grade level in reading based on their STAR reading assessment. Male students may have developed certain perceptions toward reading based their continual struggle with reading and teacher practices, such as grouping strategies, throughout their academic lifetime. To discover the essence of male at-risk sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' perceptions data collection was gathered through surveys, interviews and explanations …

Designing Games To Motivate Student Cohorts Through Targeted Game Genre Selection, Penny De Byl, Jeffrey Brand

Jeffrey Brand

The objective of this chapter is to develop guidelines for targeted use of games in educational settings by presenting a typology of learning styles, motivations, game genres, and learning outcomes within disciplinary student cohorts. By identifying which academic outcomes best align with the motivations and learning styles of students and which game genres are best suited to those motivations and outcomes, the authors elucidate a typology to assist serious game designers’ and educators’ pursuits of games that both engage and instruct. The result will guide the implementation of games in the classroom by linking game genre and game mechanics with …

Black Students' Perspectives On Academic Success, Melanie-Anne P. Atkins

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates the academic achievement of Black high school students. It employs a theoretical framework of social constructivism grounded in anti-racism to conduct five case studies of achieving black Canadian high school students to examine how these students managed to achieve in the midst of a system that predicts their failure. I asked three questions: (1) What factors do achieving black Canadian high school students identify as being helpful to their academic achievement? (2) How do these students perceive their racial identities? (3) What is the significance of these students’ racial identity at school? I found that these students …

Enhancing The Calibration Accuracy Of Adult Learners: A Multifaceted Intervention, Antonio P. Gutierrez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present study employs the Nelson and Narens Model of Metacognition (NNMM) to examine the influence of metacognitive strategy training and extrinsic incentives on performance, level of confidence, and the calibration accuracy of undergraduate students' metacognitive judgments within a pretest/posttest experimental design. Calibration of performance is crucial because it allows learners to engage in appropriate comprehension monitoring during a learning episode. As metacognition implies, those individuals who are better calibrators can more adequately adapt to the demands of the situation (monitoring), and thereby better prepare for learning episodes that are similar in format or content (control). Consequently, this aids in …

Can A Pedagogical Agent Help Reduce Mathematics Anxiety?, Q. Wei, Yanghee Kim

Yanghee Kim

No abstract provided.

The L2 Motivational Self System Of Korean Efl Students: Cross-Grade Survey Analysis, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

Due to the increase in international trade, mass transportation, and information technology, the role of English as a global language has changed, and conventional EFL/ESL motivation needs paradigmatic reconstruction. This study compares Dörnyei’s (2009) recent proposal of a second language (L2) motivational self-system with Gardner’s (1985) socio-educational model by investigating 2,783 Korean students’ English learning motivation from Grades 3 through 12 in 14 different schools. The cross-grade survey results indicated that Korean EFL learners’ motivational intensity showed a curvilinear pattern, which means their motivation consistently decreased until Grade 9 but increased from Grades 10 to 12. A series of regression …

Predictors Of Science Success: The Impact Of Motivation And Learning Strategies On College Chemistry Performance, Shari B. Obrentz

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

As the number of college students studying science continues to grow, it is important to identify variables that predict their success. The literature indicates that motivation and learning strategy use facilitate science success. Research findings show these variables can change throughout a semester and differ by performance level, gender and ethnicity. However, significant predictors of performance vary by research study and by group. The current study looks beyond the traditional predictors of grade point averages, SAT scores and completion of advanced placement (AP) chemistry to consider a comprehensive set of variables not previously investigated within the same study. Research questions …

The Effects Of Mind Mapping Activities On Students' Motivation, Brett D. Jones, Chloe Ruff, Jennifer Dee Snyder, Britta Petrich, Chelsea Koonce

Education Faculty Publications

We examined how students‟ motivation differed when they participated in three different types of mind mapping activities: one activity that was completed individually outside of class time, one that was completed individually in class with the instructor available for help, and one that was completed in class with other students and the instructor available for help. Using the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation (Jones, 2009) as a framework, we implemented a concurrent mixed methods design using identical samples whereby the quantitative component was dominant over the qualitative component. Participants included 40 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course at …

Implicit Beliefs About Writing: A Task-Specific Study Of Implicit Beliefs, Kyle R. Perry

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated students’ implicit beliefs about a writing task. Implicit beliefs are defined as the unconscious cognitive constructs that influence motivation, behavior, and affect (Bruning, Dempsey, Kauffman, & Zumbrunn, 2011). Studies regarding implicit beliefs are applied to many constructs, ranging in specificity from domain-general beliefs such as epistemological beliefs (Schommer, 1990) to domain-specific beliefs such as reading (Schraw & Bruning, 1999). In the present study, implicit beliefs about a specific writing task are compared to implicit beliefs about intelligence, demographic information, and participants’ educational background experiences. Research is reviewed pertaining to a variety of studies of implicit beliefs. One …

The Role Of Student Gender For Determining The Impact Of A Pedagogical Agent, Yanghee Kim, J. Lim

Yanghee Kim

This study was to understand how male and female teenage students reacted differently to the presence of a pedagogical agent (an animated human-like character) in a computer-based algebra-learning environment. The study first examined, in classroom experiments, if learner gender would be a determining factor for the effectiveness of a pedagogical agent on learner attitudes and learning. Next, in-depth interviews inquired into the two groups of students’ perspectives of their agent’s role for their learning and affect.

Deliberate Practice In Professional Speaking Expertise, Helen Lie

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore expertise development in professional speaking from the perspective of deliberate practice. A convenience sample of 10 elite and 12 experienced professional members of the National Speakers Association participated in 30-60 minute phone interviews in which they described behaviors and activities that contributed to their skill development in speaking and what factors motivated them to pursue excellence in their craft. The group of elite subjects averaged 62.9 years of age (SD = 8.03) and 34.9 years (SD = 7.78) of professional speaking experience. The experienced group had an average age of 53.3 years …

Applied Cognition In Reading: An Analysis Of Reading Comprehension In Secondary School Students, Joshua A. Cuevas

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

This research sought to add to a body of knowledge that is severely underrepresented in the scientific literature, reading comprehension in secondary students. Chapter 1 examines the current state of literacy in the nation’s public schools and the consequences that arise if students leave high school with inadequate reading skills. It discusses the neurological processes involved with reading and posits that independent silent reading (ISR) combined with scaffolding techniques may prove to be an effective method for addressing reading comprehension. The review also analyzes the components believed to be essential to reading, including vocabulary development, prior knowledge and background information, …

A Conceptual Model Of Career Development To Enhance Academic Motivation, Nancy Creighton Collins

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop, refine, and validate a conceptual model of career development to enhance the academic motivation of community college students. To achieve this end, a straw model was built from the theoretical and empirical research literature. The model was then refined and validated through three rounds of a Delphi study. The Delphi study solicited the opinions of students who had successfully completed community college programs.

Three research goals guided this study: (1) identify the components of modern motivation theory that apply to the academic motivation of community college students, (2) identify key components of …

Turning Points: Stories Of How Students Get Beyond Antipathy Toward An Academic Course, Cheryl Lynn Morse

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the narratives of 10 students who began an academic course with strong negative attitudes but finished the course with strong positive attitudes. In the beginning of the course, each student exhibited one of these three tendencies: apathetic, compliant, or disillusioned; however, by the end of the course, they exhibited a transformed disposition. This study attempts to answer the question of what the turning points were for their transformation and how they made the change. The findings of this study were that regardless of individual tendencies, the ability to exercise agency was …

Nurturing Young Students' Writing Knowledge, Self-Regulation, Attitudes, And Self-Efficacy: The Effects Of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (Srsd), Sharon Zumbrunn

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of implementing the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of instruction (Graham & Harris, 2005; Harris & Graham, 1996) on the writing skills and writing self-regulation, attitudes, self-efficacy, and knowledge of 6 first grade students. A multiple-baseline design across participants with multiple probes (Kazdin, 2010) was used to test the effectiveness of the SRSD instructional intervention. Each participant was taught an SRSD story writing strategy as well as self-regulation strategies. All students wrote stories in response to picture prompts during the baseline, instruction, independent performance, and maintenance phases. Stories were assessed …

Writing Motivation Of Students With Specific Language Impairments, Kyle Lee Brouwer

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study was designed to compare the writing motivation of students with specific language impairments with their non-disabled peers. Due to the cognitive and linguistic demands of the writing process, students with language impairments face unique difficulties during the writing process. It was hypothesized that students with specific language impairments will be more likely to report lower levels of perceived writing competence and be less autonomously motivated to write. Students in grades 3-5 in 11 schools (33 with specific language impairments, 242 non-disabled peers) completed self-report measures, designed from a Self-Determination Theory perspective, which measured the degree that students are …

Implicit Theories Of Ability Of Grade 6 Science Students: Relation To Epistemological Beliefs And Academic Motivation And Achievement In Science, Jason Chen, Frank Pajares

Articles

We investigated (a) the associations of implicit theories and epistemological beliefs and their effects on the academic motivation and achievement of students in Grade 6 science and (b) the mean differences of implicit theories, epistemological beliefs, and academic motivation and achievement as a function of gender and race/ethnicity (N = 508). Path analysis revealed that an incremental view of ability had direct and indirect effects on adaptive motivational factors, whereas fixed entity views had direct and indirect effects on maladaptive factors. Epistemological beliefs mediated the influence of implicit theories of ability on achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy, and science achievement. Results …

Improving Retention For Principles Of Accounting And Elementary Statistics Students: Ultra-Short Tutorials Designed To Motivate Effort And Improve Performance, Carol Springer Sargent

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

This dissertation reports on two supplemental instruction implementations in courses with high failure rates. In study one, 27 ultra-short on-line tutorials were created for Principles of Accounting II students (N = 426). In study two, 21 tutorials with a similar design were created for Elementary Statistics students (N = 1,411). Accounting students were encouraged by their instructor to use the resource, but statistics students only saw a brief demonstration by the researcher. Neither course gave students credit for using the tutorials. In study one, 71.4% of the accounting students used the tutorials. Students who used the tutorials had dramatically lower …

Exploring The Complexities Of Learning Motivation In Pre-Service Teacher Education Students: A Grounded Theory Approach, Kristin K. Grosskopf

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative, grounded-theory study investigated learning motivation differences among three achievement groupings of undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nine students participated in in-depth interviews that explored their reasons for pursuing their degree, their learning experiences in a university setting, their perceptions about meaningful learning experiences, and the nature of factors that both enhance and challenge their learning motivation. Participant responses conveyed strategies and conditions that were coded and analyzed, and a theoretical model was developed describing causal conditions that underlie students’ motivation to learn, phenomena that arose from those …

Toward Creating Computer-Based Math Learning Favoring High-School Females, Yanghee Kim

Yanghee Kim

Research indicates that teenage females prefer to work and perform better at the learning environment that supports frequent interactions and allows them to build relationships with others. This paper will introduce a computer-based algebra-learning environment MathGirls equipped with pedagogical agents (digital life-like characters) that simulate real-world social interactions and relations. The goal of MathGirls is to help young women of high-school age build positive attitudes toward and self-efficacy in math learning through this simulated social context. To investigate the efficacy of MathGirls, a classroom experiment was conducted with 83 high-school females. The experiment examined the effects of agent attributes (female …

Literacy Center Initiative, Sandra G. Flank

Cornerstone 2 Reports : Community Outreach and Empowerment Through Service Learning and Volunteerism

Literacy Center Initiative

Sister Delaney (Associate Professor and Director of The Center for Literacy Enrichment at Pace)

Mohana Mukherjee (Graduate Assistant)

School of Education

Initial Plan: Select a student to be the pilot pupil, analyze his needs, engage him in interesting topics on the website, record his progress on a weekly basis, and interact with his guardians to record his performance at home.

Future Plans: Broadening the target audience at the Literacy Center, a number of courses in teaching of reading at both the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as exploring a course in Literacy and Technology for the …

Motivation And Learning In Mathematics Pre-Service Teachers, Kelly Almeida

Honors Scholar Theses

Based on a review of literature of conceptual and procedural knowledge in relation to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the purpose of this study was to test the relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Thirty-eight education students with a mathematics focus (elementary or secondary) in their junior, senior, or fifth year completed a survey with a Likert scale measuring their preference to learning (conceptual or procedural) and their motivation type (intrinsic or extrinsic). Findings showed that secondary mathematics focused students were more likely to prefer learning mathematics conceptually than elementary mathematics focused students. However, secondary and …

Creating Pedagogical Agents As Social Models In An Online Learning Environment Mathgirls, Yanghee Kim, B. Xu, A. Sharif

Yanghee Kim

This paper introduces the learning environment MathGirls for high school girls learning fundamentals of algebra. Grounded in social cognitive theories of learning, MathGirls utilizes pedagogical agents to create a girl-friendly virtual learning environment. The design constituents of pedagogical agents are reviewed. These constituents are likely to influence building agent/learner relations. The agent design and system architecture of the MathGirls environment are developed to integrate some of the design constituents. Empirical findings from MathGirls deployment in classrooms support the efficacy of the presence of pedagogical agents in shaping affective and cognitive characteristics of the learner. The paper concludes with the discussions …

Student Motivation And Attitude Towards Virtual Versus Traditional Learning Based On Cognitive Styles, Wacheerapan Kaewprapan, Surachai Suksakulchai

EDU-COM International Conference

The purpose of this study was to identify differences in student motivation and attitude in relation to cognitive styles between two types of instruction (virtual and traditional). The study‘s participants were 40 first-year students enrolled in the Metal Technology Department at Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon Thailand. All students were doing a virtual reality module within one course and traditional lecture within another. The students completed a cognitive style test (Group Embedded Figures Test) which classified students as either field-dependent (FD) or field-independent (FI). Students also completed a questionnaire designed to measure motivation and attitude. The sample included 20 …

Motivation And Performance In Computer Science: Test Of An Integrative Theory, Katherine A. Selgrade

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to design and empirically test a parsimonious integrative motivation theory. The theory integrates aspects of expectancy theory, social cognitive theory, goal-setting theory, and commitment theory. The theory was tested with 170 undergraduate, students in an introductory computer science (CS) course.

The study tested relationships among the following variables: CS self-efficacy, mathematics ability, affective commitment to the CS class, goal orientation, effort, and performance. The study also tested the interactive effects of effort and ability on performance. Structural equation modeling was used to test the measurement model and a series of nested structural models. Findings …

Mathgirls: Toward Developing Girls’ Positive Attitude And Self-Efficacy Through Pedagogical Agents, Yanghee Kim, Q Wei, B Xu, Y Ko, V Ilieva

Yanghee Kim

MathGirls is a pedagogical-agent-based environment designed for high-school girls learning introductory algebra. Since females are in general more interested in interactive computing and more positive about the social presence of pedagogical agents, the environment provides a girl-friendly social learning environment, where pedagogical agents encourage the girls to build constructive views of learning math. This study investigated the impact of agent presence on changes in the girls’ math attitude, their math self-efficacy, and their learning; on the girls’ choice of their agents; and, on their perceptions of agent affability. The results revealed that the girls with an agent developed a more …

Pedagogical Agents As Learning Companions: The Role Of Agent Competency And Type Of Interaction, Yanghee Kim, Amy L. Baylor, Pals Group

Yanghee Kim

This study was designed to examine the effects of the competency (low vs. high) and interaction type (proactive vs. responsive) of pedagogical agents as learning companions (PALs) on learning, self-efficacy, and attitudes. Participants were 72 undergraduates in an introductory computer-literacy course who were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: Low-Proactive, Low-Responsive, High-Proactive, and High-Responsive. Results indicated a main effect for PAL competency. Students who worked with the high-competency PAL in both proactive and responsive conditions achieved higher scores in applying what they had learned and showed more positive attitudes toward the PAL. However, students who worked with the low-competency …

Life Values And Approaches To Learning: A Study Of University Students From Confucian Heritage Cultures, Bobbie Matthews

Shannon Research Press

This study seeks to examine the principles that guide the lives of students from East Asia who come to Australia to study. The more specific purpose is to investigate the values and approaches to learning that are important in the lives of Asian tertiary students and to examine changes that may occur when students come from East Asia in order to pursue their education in Australia.