Anastasiya A. Lipnevich

Effects of Differential Feedback on Students' Examination Performance

The effects of feedback on performance and factors associated with it were examined in a large introductory psychology course. The experiment involved college students (N = 464) working on an essay examination under 3 conditions: no feedback, detailed feedback that was perceived by participants to be provided by the course instructor, and detailed feedback that was perceived by participants to be computer generated. Additionally, these conditions were crossed with factors of grade (receiving a numerical grade or not) and praise (receiving a statement of praise or not). The task under consideration was a single-question essay examination administered at the beginning of the course. Detailed feedback on the essay, specific to individuals work, was found to be strongly related to student improvement in essay scores, with the influence of grades and praise being more complex. Generally, receipt of a tentative grade depressed performance, although this effect was ameliorated if accompanied by a statement of praise. Overall, detailed, descriptive feedback was found to be most effective when given alone, unaccompanied by grades or praise. It was also found that the perceived source of the feedback (the computer or the instructor) had little impact on the results. These findings are consistent with the research literature showing that descriptive feedback, which conveys information on how one performs the task and details ways to overcome difficulties, is far more effective than evaluative feedback, which simply informs students about how well they did.

What Students Think They Feel Differs from What They Really Feel - Academic Self-Concept Moderates the Discrepancy between Students' Trait and State Emotional Self-Reports

This study investigated whether there is a discrepancy pertaining to trait and state academic emotions and whether self-concept of ability moderates this discrepancy. A total of 225 secondary school students from two different countries enrolled in grades 8 and 11 (German sample; n = 94) and grade 9 (Swiss sample; n = 131) participated. Students’ trait academic emotions of enjoyment, pride, anger, and anxiety in mathematics were assessed with a self-report questionnaire, whereas to assess their state academic emotions experience-sampling method was employed. The results revealed that students’ scores on the trait assessment of emotions were generally higher than their scores on the state assessment. Further, as expected, students’ academic self-concept in the domain of mathematics was shown to partly explain the discrepancy between scores on trait and state emotions. Our results indicate that there is a belief-driven discrepancy between what students think they feel (trait assessment) and what they really feel (state assessment). Implications with regard to the assessment of self-reported emotions in future studies and practical implications for the school context are discussed.

How "situational" is judgment in situational judgment tests?

Whereas situational judgment tests (SJTs) have traditionally been conceptualized as low-fidelity simulations with an emphasis on contextualized situation descriptions and context-dependent knowledge, a recent perspective views SJTs as measures of more general domain (context-independent) knowledge. In the current research, we contrasted these 2 perspectives in 3 studies by removing the situation descriptions (i.e., item stems) from SJTs. Across studies, the traditional contextualized SJT perspective was not supported for between 43% and 71% of the items because it did not make a significant difference whether the situation description was included or not for these items. These results were replicated across construct domains, samples, and response instructions. However, there was initial evidence that judgment in SJTs was more situational when (a) items measured job knowledge and skills and (b) response options denoted context-specific rules of action. Verbal protocol analyses confirmed that high scorers on SJTs without situation descriptions relied upon general rules about the effectiveness of the responses. Implications for SJT theory, research, and design are discussed.

Emotional Reactions toward School Situations: Relationships with Academic Outcomes.

The current study investigated self-reported positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) in high school students (N = 451) within three academic contexts: homework, classwork/tests, and after-school activities. We examined whether context-specific emotions predicted grades, life satisfaction, and discipline records. Our findings revealed that context may be important when examining test-criterion relations, with students’ affective reactions during extracurricular activities leading to different relationships with outcomes than reported affect during homework and classwork/testing. Furthermore, we found that PA predicted student grades and satisfaction with life to a much greater extent than NA. Practical implications and future directions are discussed.

How distinctive are morningness and eveningness from the Big Five factors of personality? A meta-analytic investigation.

This study explores relations between measures of individuals’ circadian preferences and the Big Five. To this end, we compared a model of circadian preferences that acknowledges morningness (M) and eveningness (E) as separate dimensions to that of a model that places M and E on a single continuum (M-E). Analyses of 620 correlations from 44 independent samples (N = 16,647) revealed weak to modest relations between both dimensions of circadian preferences and the Big Five personality traits. The strongest observed relation was found between Conscientiousness and M (&rgr; = .37). In the next step, regression analyses revealed that personality traits accounted for between 10.9% and 16.4% of the variance in circadian preferences. Of all the Big Five dimensions, Conscientiousness exhibited the strongest unique relation with M (&bgr; = .32), E (&bgr; = −.26), and M-E (&bgr; = .32). Extraversion and Openness exhibited moderate unique relations with E (&bgr; = .23 and &bgr; = .17, respectively), whereas relations with M (&bgr; = .00 and &bgr; = .04), and M-E (&bgr; = −.05 and &bgr; = −.06) were relatively weak. Neuroticism exhibited a modest unique and negative relation with M (&bgr; = −.16), and Agreeableness was largely unrelated to all circadian preference variables. To determine whether these findings translated into anything of applied significance, we explored relations between circadian preference and academic performance. M and E incremented slightly over the Big Five factors in predicting grade-point average. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Psychosocial Skills and School Systems in the 21st Century

This book provides a comprehensive overview and in-depth analysis of research on psychosocial skills, examining both theory and areas of application. It discusses students’ psychosocial skills both as components of academic success and desired educational outcomes in grades K through 12. The book describes an organizing framework for psychosocial skills and examines a range of specific constructs that includes achievement, motivation, self-efficacy, creativity, emotional intelligence, resilience, and the need for cognition. In addition, it reviews specific school-based interventions and examines issues that concern the malleability of psychosocial skills. It addresses issues relating to the integration of psychosocial skills into school curriculum as well as large-scale assessment policies.

Psychosocial Constructs: Knowns, Unknowns, and Where do we go From Here?

In this concluding commentary, we summarize the main themes discussed by our contributors and offer ideas for future research and policy implications. We begin by describing psychosocial skills both as predictors of academic outcomes and indicators of a broader definition of academic success, raising issues that we feel may need attention in future scientific discourse. We also suggest an organizing framework for psychosocial skills that may help to condense the vast number of characteristics into a manageable set of categories. Next, we discuss specific interventions and issues that concern the malleability of psychosocial skills. Finally, we conclude this chapter—and the volume—with a set of recommendations for future educational research, policy, and practice.

Understanding Attitudes in Education

For decades researchers have been trying to identify and classify characteristics that contribute to students’ academic success. The plethora of meaningful predictors is covered in the current volume by scores of distinguished contributors, and the reader will discover that all of the suggested lists and models are in no way complete or definitive.