Does evaluating peer assessment accuracy and taking it into account in calculating assessor’s final score enhance online peer assessment quality?

Education and Information Technologies - Peer assessment has an important role in teaching and learning nowadays. However, the existing techniques tend to be limited due to a lack of a suitable...     

Unifying different theories of learning: theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The main aim of this research study was to test out a conceptual model encompassing the theoretical frameworks of achievement goals, study processing strategies, effort, and reflective thinking practice. In particular, it was postulated that the causal influences of achievement goals on academic performance are direct and indirect through study strategies, effort, and reflective thinking. Furthermore, the effects of study strategies on academic performance are hypothesised to be direct and indirect through reflective thinking practice. Participants were 298 (182 females, 116 males) university students. Likert‐response questionnaires were used and data were analysed by means of latent variables approaches. The results provided moderate support for the hypothesised conceptual model. Achievement goals had no direct effects on academic performance, whereas study strategies and reflective thinking directly influenced performance. Mastery goals directly influenced deep processing and effort, whereas performance avoidance and work avoidance influenced surface processing and effort. A one‐way MANOVA indicated, with the exception of understanding, no statistical significance between males and females in the variables. This evidence is theoretically significant as it highlights the mediating mechanism of study strategies and reflective thinking and, more importantly, amalgamates different theoretical frameworks within one study.     

Assessment of creative writing in Vietnamese primary education

The teaching and assessment of essay writing at primary schools throughout Vietnam is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training. The analytical error-recognition method of assessment, however, does not facilitate direct interpretation of students’ writing competence. In this study, which involved samples of Grade 5 students in five provinces in Vietnam, a combination of traditional and partial credit scoring rubrics was developed to enable data analysis using the Rasch model. Based on such analysis, a continuum of writing ability at Grade 5 level was identified and a mastery level defined in terms of writing skills. The study has implications for possible changes in future assessment and marking schemes.     

Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the Counselor Skills Personal Development Rating Form

The authors completed an exploratory factor analysis of the scores of 248 counselors‐in‐training on the Counselor Skills Personal Development Rating Form (CSPD‐RF; M. B. Wilbur, 1991). Participants' counseling program was accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs at a midsize western university. The authors of the CSPD‐RF hypothesized that the CSPD‐RF measured 2 factors: (a) personal development and (b) skills development. Factor analysis yielded 4 factors (Emotional Sensitivity, Basic Listening Skills, Multicultural Skills, and Influencing Skills), accounting for 58.4% of the total variance, thus providing some support for the construct validity of the CSPD‐RF.     

Achieving Optimal Best: Instructional Efficiency and the Use of Cognitive Load Theory in Mathematical Problem Solving

We recently developed the Framework of Achievement Bests to explain the importance of effective functioning, personal growth, and enrichment of well-being experiences. This framework postulates a concept known as optimal achievement best, which stipulates the idea that individuals may, in general, strive to achieve personal outcomes, reflecting their maximum capabilities. Realistic achievement best, in contrast, indicates personal functioning that may show moderate capability without any aspiration, motivation, and/or effort expenditure. Furthermore, our conceptualization indicates the process of optimization, which involves the optimization of achievement of optimal best from realistic best.In this article, we explore the Framework of Achievement Bests by situating it within the context of student motivation. In our discussion of this theoretical orientation, we explore in detail the impact of instructional designs for effective mathematics learning as an optimizer of optimal achievement best. Our focus of examination of instructional designs is based, to a large extent, on cognitive load paradigm, theorized by Sweller and his colleagues. We contend that, in this case, cognitive load imposition plays a central role in the structure of instructional designs for effective learning, which could in turn influence individuals’ achievements of optimal best. This article, conceptual in nature, explores varying efficiencies of different instructional approaches, taking into consideration the potency of cognitive load imposition. Focusing on mathematical problem solving, we discuss the potentials for instructional approaches to influence individuals’ striving of optimal best from realistic best.     

Comparing balance and inverse methods on learning conceptual and procedural knowledge in equation solving: a cognitive load perspective

We examined the use of balance and inverse methods in equation solving. The main difference between the balance and inverse methods lies in the operational line (e.g. +2 on both sides vs ?2 becomes +2). Differential element interactivity favours the inverse method because the interaction between elements occurs on both sides of the equation for the balance method but only on one side of the equation for the inverse method. In an experimental study, 63 students (mean age = 13) were randomly allocated to either balance or inverse group to undertake a pre-test, study an instruction sheet, complete acquisition equations, sit for a post-test and a concept test. Procedural knowledge was assessed on performance on practice equations and post-test, whereas conceptual knowledge was assessed on performance on the concept test. The inverse group outperformed the balance group on practice equations but not the post-test. Both the balance and inverse groups scored higher on the inverse concept test than the balance concept test. Positive association between performance on procedural knowledge and performance on conceptual knowledge was found for the inverse group but not the balance group. Overall, the evidence obtained indicates a number of educational implications for implementation.     

Relations between goals,self‐efficacy,critical thinking and deep processing strategies: a path analysis

Research exploring students’ academic learning has recently amalgamated different motivational theories within one conceptual framework. The inclusion of achievement goals, self‐efficacy, deep processing and critical thinking has been cited in a number of studies. This article discusses two empirical studies that examined these four theoretical orientations from both cross‐sectional (N = 279 participants) and longitudinal (N = 264 participants) perspectives. In particular, achievement goals are hypothesised to exert direct and indirect effects on academic performance via self‐efficacy, study processing strategies and critical thinking. Path analysis was used to test and analyse the hypothesised conceptual models. Results from SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.72 provided good support for the hypothesised structural relationships. Students’ academic performance outcomes, for example, are determined directly by deep processing and work‐avoidance goals. Results from Study 2 indicate mastery goals and self‐efficacy, mastery goals and critical thinking and deep processing and critical thinking operate in a reciprocal manner. In general, the evidence established from both studies contributes theoretically and methodologically.     

Informational sources,self-efficacy and achievement: a temporally displaced approach

Personal self-efficacy is an important theoretical orientation that helps to explain students’ learning and academic achievements. One area of research inquiry has involved the four major sources of information and their predictive effects on self-efficacy. As an extension for examination, the purpose of our investigation was to explore the interrelations between antecedents (e.g. enactive performance accomplishment), self-efficacy beliefs and academic achievement of elementary school students. Our research conceptualisation, unlike previous cross-sectional studies, entails a time displacement between sources of information (Time 1) and self-efficacy (Time 2 and Time 3) and between self-efficacy and academic achievement in science learning (Time 4). Three hundred and thirty-two (152 girls and 180 boys) third and fourth grade students from three government schools participated in this study. Likert-scale inventories were used to measure informational sources and self-efficacy beliefs. Structural equation modelling yielded evidence that supports, in part, our conceptual model. Only enactive performance accomplishment and vicarious experience exerted positive temporally displaced effects on self-efficacy. Self-efficacy at both Time 2 and Time 3 also contributed to the prediction of academic achievement.     

Theoretical constructs that explain and enhance learning: a longitudinal examination

One important line of inquiry in educational psychology involves the study of change of individuals' cognitive-motivational processes. The conjunctive use of longitudinal data with latent growth curve modeling procedures has, for example, allowed researchers to identify initial levels and to trace trajectories of theoretical variables such as self-efficacy over time. The study reported in this article proposed a conceptual model that depicted relations between a deep-learning approach, mastery goals and self-efficacy over time. A final sample of 195 second-year university students (100 females, 95 males) took part in this three-wave panel study. We used various inventories to test the initial states and rates of change of the three aforementioned constructs. As an a posteriori analysis, we included prior academic achievement as a possible predictor of change. The results ascertained from our analyses indicate an increase in growth of a deep-learning approach, mastery goals and self-efficacy across the two-year period. Importantly, a posteriori results accentuated the role of prior academic achievement as a predictor of the initial level of personal self-efficacy.     

Promoting the Purchase of Textbooks in the Vietnamese Higher Education Sector

Higher education textbooks sales account for a significant portion of the overall book market. This study makes an important contribution to the extant literature by examining students’ purchase of original textbooks in a developing market, Vietnam. Notably, it seeks to investigate why students do not purchase original textbooks as well as the difference in purchase behavior between different groups of students. The findings reveal that some key obstacles to students’ purchase behavior include high prices, insufficient availability, low perceived value, and the emergence of pirated textbooks. Another notable finding is that senior students who are female tend to purchase more textbooks. In light of these findings, marketing strategies are suggested for publishers, bookstores and universities who aim to promote the sales and consumption of original textbooks.