Educational psychology

This qualitative case study investigated how six National Board Certified secondary mathematics teachers integrate knowledge of students into their practice to create socio- academic spaces for learning. Individual audiotaped interviews were utilized to generate data about what knowledge these teachers had of their students, how they gathered this knowledge, and how this knowledge of students influenced their decisions related to curriculum and instruction. The data were used to form an understanding of the nature and function of the socio- academic spaces that teachers create in planning for and delivering instruction. The study revealed that as teachers interact independently with the curriculum, they create spaces for analysis and reflection. In addition, as they interact with their students around the curriculum, they create spaces for their students to practice, to make connections, to communicate, and to apply and experience math.

An intrinsic case study was conducted to understand what helps Early Care and Education (ECE) English as a Second Language (ESL) students to enroll in a customized ECE ESL course at a local state college and what barriers may hinder their success in the course. This research examined whether the following were either motivators or barriers or both in ECE ESL participants enrolling in an ECE ESL customized course: course design and delivery, student support systems, student self-motivation, student self- efficacy, time and schedule commitment, instructor and student relationship, availability of resources, and level of classroom involvement. The results revealed that the students were highly motivated to enroll and complete the course successfully. Across the board, there was (1) a sense of gratitude from the participants for being afforded an opportunity to learn the English language, (2) evidence of knowledge of their future goals, and (3) their knowledge that learning English was their first step in achieving their goals.

The present study evaluated three instructional methods for solving algebra word problems. The instructions consisted of either an example, a set of procedures, or both the example and procedures. The procedures were rules designed to aid in solving word problems. The example was a worked-out solution to a word problem that was representative of the test problems. The subject's task was to study the instructional material and then generate the equations needed to solve the subsequent test problems. The test problems differed from the example by either 0, 1, 2, or 3 transformations. The results showed that subjects in the example and example-plus-procedure groups performed the best but the difference between these two groups was not significant. The procedures alone were relatively ineffective. A mathematical model is proposed to explain how the performance was influenced by the three types of instructional material and four levels of transformation.

This study examines whether there are any significant differences between accounting students enrolled in Internet-based courses and accounting students attending campus-based courses in terms of self-efficacy, academic goal, anxiety, gender, and self-assessment of performance. The study is motivated by the many calls for research to apply social cognitive theory to determine factors of motivation and consequently success of accounting students in an online education environment. Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) is used to develop the hypotheses tested in the current study. Three groups of hypotheses were developed. The first group of hypotheses tests the relationships among academic self-efficacy, computer self-efficacy, Internet self-efficacy, and academic goal. The second group of hypotheses tests the relationships among academic self-efficacy, computer self-efficacy, Internet self-efficacy, computer anxiety, Internet anxiety, gender and instruction mode. The third group of hypotheses tests the relationships among academic self-efficacy, academic goal, computer self-efficacy, Internet self-efficacy, computer anxiety, Internet anxiety, gender, instruction mode and self-assessment of performance. The study's results support the hypothesis that Internet self-efficacy is a significant predictor of whether accounting students will enroll in campus-based courses or Internet-based courses when they have the choice of instruction mode. The results also indicate that gender is a significant predictor of instruction mode. Moreover, the results indicate that academic self-efficacy is a significant predictor of accounting students' academic goals. Finally, the results indicate that computer self-efficacy, Internet self-efficacy, academic goal, academic self-efficacy, computer anxiety, and Internet anxiety are significant predictors of accounting students' self-assessment of performance.

This researcher conducted an investigation concerning the effects of learning-style responsive versus traditional staff development on community college professors' achievement in and attitudes toward alternative instructional strategies. This study involved 84 faculty from three community colleges in Florida. Participants were voluntary and experienced both a learning-style responsive workshop and a traditional workshop through a counter balanced, reversed measures design. Objectives for each workshop focused on one learning-style method, thereby exposing participants to content about learning styles while using learning-style strategies to deliver the material. The average participant was a Caucasian female between the ages of 40-49 years old who taught in the Arts and Sciences. The Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) (Dunn, Dunn and Price, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1996) was used as the self-report instrument to identify the participants' learning-styles. The Semantic Differential Scale (SDS) (Pizzo, 1981) was used to assess the participants' attitudes toward the two instructional approaches in contrast with each other. A researcher-developed instrument called The T-Hart Achievement Test (THART) served as a pre- and posttest assessment consisting of multiple-choice questions based on the objectives of the staff development workshop. Each group reported a statistically more positive attitude following the learning-styles experimental workshop regardless of the method used. This finding supported the hypothesis that participants receiving staff development through their learning-style preference evidence significantly higher attitudinal test scores than participants receiving traditional staff development. There was no statistical difference in the knowledge or achievement on treatment concepts and practices learned by participants when the Programmed Learning Sequence (PLS) method was used. There was, however, a statistically significant difference in the achievement of the community college faculty when Learning-Style Small Group Techniques (SGT) were applied. This finding supports the experimental hypothesis that participants receiving learning-style responsive staff development will evidence significantly higher mastery of knowledge of workshop concepts and practices as measured by achievement-test scores than participants receiving traditional staff development. There was also a statistical difference in achievement by age when using the Small Group Techniques (SGT) learning-style method than when using the Programmed Learning Sequence (PLS) strategy.

High school biology classes traditionally follow a lecture format to disseminate content and new terminology. With the inclusive practices of No Child Left Behind, the Common Core State Standards, and end-of-course exam requirement for high school diplomas, classes include a large range of achievement levels and abilities. Teachers assume, often incorrectly, that students come to class prepared to listen and take notes. In a standard diploma, high school biology class in a separate school for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, five students participated in a single-subject, alternating treatment design study that compared the use of regular pens and digital pens to take notes during 21 lecture sessions. Behavior measures were threefold between the two interventions: (a) quantity of notes taken per minute during lectures, (b) quantity of notes or notations taken during review pauses, and (c) percent of correct responses on the daily comprehension quizzes. ... However, the differences were minor, and recommendations are made for specific training in note-taking, the pause strategy, and digital pen fluency which may produce different results for both note-taking and quiz scores.