Aplicar estrategias de gamificación implementadas en una plataforma virtual de aprendizaje como apoyo a clases presenciales, es una propuesta educativa que incrementa la motivación y compromiso en la ...realización de actividades y tareas autónomas haciendo divertido el aprendizaje. Esta propuesta se aplicó en la asignatura Programación I (P-I) de la Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas (FICA) de la Universidad Central de Ecuador (UCE), donde se evaluó el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes comparando grupos: experimental (metodología gamificada) y de control (metodología tradicional). Mediante encuestas también se valoró el curso gamificado y las estrategias empleadas que más aportaron a hacer divertido el aprendizaje. Como conclusión de la investigación se tiene que una plataforma virtual de aprendizaje gamificada hizo que los alumnos se diviertan aprendiendo a programar influyendo positivamente en su motivación por el desarrollo de actividades autónomas de aprendizaje, además que también permitió mejorar su rendimiento académico. Palabras-clave: Gamificación; e-Learning; Programación; Motivación; Actividades de aprendizaje. Applying gamification strategies implemented in a virtual learning platform as support for face-to-face classes, is an educational proposal that increases motivation and commitment in carrying out autonomous activities and tasks, making learning fun. This proposal was applied in the Programming I (PI) subject of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences (FEAS) of the Central University of Ecuador (CUE), where the academic performance of the students was evaluated by comparing groups: experimental (gamified methodology) and control (traditional methodology). Surveys also assessed the gamified course and the strategies used that contributed the most to making learning fun. As a conclusion of the research, a gamified virtual learning platform made the students have fun learning to program, positively influencing their motivation for the development of autonomous learning activities, in addition to improving their academic performance. Keywords: Gamification; e-Learning; Programming; Motivation; Learning activities.
Psychologically controlling teaching (PCT) refers to the use of intrusive behaviors that pressure students to act, think, and feel in particular ways. The goal of the present research was to examine ...the dynamics involved in PCT. Study 1 examined self-regulated learning and achievement outcomes of PCT, whereas Study 2 examined antecedents (i.e., individual and environmental pressures). In Study 1, we found that PCT was related negatively to students' use of self-regulation strategies, which, in turn, was positively related to academic achievement. Students' relative autonomy for studying played an intervening role in these associations. Findings of Study 2 revealed that both pressure from above (i.e., a pressuring school environment) and pressure from within (i.e., teachers' low relative autonomy for teaching) were related to PCT, whereas pressure from below (i.e., students' low relative autonomy for studying) was not. These associations could be accounted for by depersonalization, one component of teacher burnout. The discussion focuses on how PCT represents one aspect of the "dark side" of teaching, which is understudied in educational psychology. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Many students start college intending to pursue a career in the biosciences, but too many abandon this goal because they struggle in introductory biology. Interventions have been developed to close ...achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students and women, but no prior research has attempted to close the gap for first-generation students, a population that accounts for nearly a 5th of college students. We report a values affirmation intervention conducted with 798 U.S. students (154 first-generation) in an introductory biology course for majors. For first-generation students, values affirmation significantly improved final course grades and retention in the 2nd course in the biology sequence, as well as overall grade point average for the semester. This brief intervention narrowed the achievement gap between first-generation and continuing-generation students for course grades by 50% and increased retention in a critical gateway course by 20%. Our results suggest that educators can expand the pipeline for first-generation students to continue studying in the biosciences with psychological interventions.
A frequently observed research finding is that females outperform males on tasks of verbal and language abilities, but there is considerable variability in effect sizes from sample to sample. The ...gold standard for evaluating gender differences in cognitive ability is to recruit a large, demographically representative sample. We examined 3 decades of U.S. student achievement in reading and writing from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to determine the magnitude of gender differences (N = 3.9 million), and whether these were declining over time as claimed by Feingold (1988). Examination of effect sizes found a developmental progression from initially small gender differences in Grade 4 toward larger effects as students progress through schooling. Differences for reading were small-to-medium (d = −.32 by Grade 12), and medium-sized for writing (d = −.55 by Grade 12) and were stable over the historical time. Additionally, there were pronounced imbalances in gender ratios at the lower left and upper right tails of the ability spectrum. These results are interpreted in the context of Hyde's (2005) gender similarities hypothesis, which holds that most psychological gender differences are only small or trivial in size. Language and verbal abilities represent one exception to the general rule of gender similarities, and we discuss the educational implications of these findings.
Over the last century hundreds of studies have demonstrated that testing is an effective intervention to enhance long-term retention of studied knowledge and facilitate mastery of new information, ...compared with restudying and many other learning strategies (e.g., concept mapping), a phenomenon termed the testing effect. How robust is this effect in applied settings beyond the laboratory? The current review integrated 48,478 students' data, extracted from 222 independent studies, to investigate the magnitude, boundary conditions, and psychological underpinnings of test-enhanced learning in the classroom. The results show that overall testing (quizzing) raises student academic achievement to a medium extent (g = 0.499). The magnitude of the effect is modulated by a variety of factors, including learning strategy in the control condition, test format consistency, material matching, provision of corrective feedback, number of test repetitions, test administration location and timepoint, treatment duration, and experimental design. The documented findings support 3 theories to account for the classroom testing effect: additional exposure, transfer-appropriate processing, and motivation. In addition to their implications for theory development, these results have practical significance for enhancing teaching practice and guiding education policy and highlight important directions for future research.
Public Significance Statement
Testing (class quizzing) yields a variety of learning benefits, even though learners, instructors, and policymakers tend to lack full metacognitive insight into the virtues of testing. The current meta-analysis finds a reliable advantage of testing over other strategies in facilitating learning of factual knowledge, concept comprehension, and knowledge application in the classroom. Overall, testing is not only an assessment of learning but also an assessment for learning.
The present study aimed to examine associations between screen time, chronotype, psychosocial health, and academic achievement using mediation analysis. Academic performance was assessed by their ...teachers in each of the 7 school subjects (Japanese, mathematics, social studies, science, music, home economics/vocational technology, and physical education). Partial correlation analysis adjusted for grade, sex, and sleep duration indicated that screen time was associated with M/E score and academic performance (p < 0.05), and was slightly correlated with SDQ score (p = 0.084).
Engagement and Disaffection in the Classroom Skinner, Ellen; Furrer, Carrie; Marchand, Gwen ...
Journal of educational psychology,
11/2008, Volume:
100, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
A study of 805 4th through 7th graders used a model of motivational development to guide the investigation of the internal dynamics of 4 indicators of behavioral and emotional engagement and ...disaffection and the facilitative effects of teacher support and 3 student self-perceptions (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) on changes in these indicators over the school year. In terms of internal dynamics, emotional components of engagement contributed significantly to changes in their behavioral counterparts; feedback from behavior to changes in emotion were not as consistent. Teacher support and students' self-perceptions (especially autonomy) contributed to changes in behavioral components: Each predicted increases in engagement and decreases in disaffection. Tests of process models revealed that the effects of teacher context were mediated by children's self-perceptions. Taken together, these findings suggest a clear distinction between indicators and facilitators of engagement and begin to articulate the dynamics between emotion and behavior that take place
inside
engagement and the motivational dynamics that take place
outside
of engagement, involving the social context, self-systems, and engagement itself.
In Low-fee Private Schooling and Poverty in Developing Countries, Joanna H rm draws on primary research carried out in sub-Saharan African countries and in India to show how the poor are being failed ...by both government and private schools. The primary research data and experiences are combined with additional examples from around the world to offer a wide perspective on the issue of marketized education, low-fee private schooling and government systems. H rm offers a pragmatic approach to a divisive issue and an ideologically-driven debate and shows how the well-intentioned international drive towards 'education for all' is being encouraged and even imposed long before some countries have prepared the teachers and developed the systems needed to implement it successfully. Suggesting that governments need to take a much more constructive approach to the issue, H rm argues for a greater acceptance of the challenges, abandoning ideological positions and a scaling back of ambition in the hope of laying stronger foundations for educational development.
Constituting one in six of adult Americans over the age of 25, GED certificate holders are a major pool of underdeveloped human capital in our society. They are a resource that will be sorely needed ...as baby boomers reach retirement and the traditional pipeline of 17- to 23-year-olds falls short of filling our growing workforce needs.
This is the first book to remedy the dearth of data on this forgotten population; to present original research on these students; to describe their characteristics and motivations; and to provide proven models for identifying, retaining, and graduating this undercounted and underestimated cohort. It addresses the issue of the pipeline from GED centers to postsecondary education, and includes first-person narratives that offer vivid insights into GED learners' resilience and needs.
Students' academic motivation is malleable in nature and can change over time. Variable-centered research can detect general changes in motivational variables. Recent studies have shown that learning ...behaviors are driven by a combination of motivations, resulting in distinct motivational profiles. Person-centered studies can detect nuanced changes in students' motivation profile memberships. Examining the nature of profile shifts could be the key to support long-term development of academic motivation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how high-school students' academic motivational profiles changed across 2 academic years and how school belongingness and achievement feedback influenced their motivation profile memberships. Latent transition analysis of responses from 1,670 high-school students revealed 6 motivational profiles: amotivated, externally regulated, balanced demotivated, moderately motivated, balanced motivated, and autonomously motivated. Pairwise logistic regression results showed that high-school students' sense of school belongingness and their prior achievement level significantly predicted their motivation profile membership in the 2nd year, controlling for their 1st-year membership.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
The study identified 6 groups of high-school students who possess unique motivational characteristics, ranging from amotivated to externally regulated, balanced demotivated, moderately motivated, balanced motivated, and autonomously motivated. The results showed that the changes in high-school students' motivation were more complex than an increase or a decrease in the level of motivation. Students moved from having 1 set of motivational characteristics to another set of motivational characteristics across 2 academic years. School belongingness and prior achievement level were positively associated to motivation shifting toward more adaptive characteristics. Understanding the patterns and predictive factors of motivational change can better inform teachers and school administers to generate strategies that support students' motivation development as a whole, shifting to increasingly adaptive motivational profiles over time. As there are few longitudinal person-centered studies of motivation situated in high school settings, the current study adds to practical knowledge about the mechanism of students' motivation development at this crucial juncture in their academic career.
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