Bruce W. Tuckman

Teaching Learning Strategies to Increase Success of First-Term College Students

In this study, the authors examined the effect of taking a learning strategies course on grade point average, retention, and graduation rate of 351 first-year students over their first 4 terms in comparison with 351 matched non–course takers. The course taught 4 learning strategies and 8 substrategies to help students overcome procrastination, build self-confidence, take responsibility, learn from lecture and text, prepare for exams, write papers, and manage their lives. First-year students who took the course in their first term had statistically significantly higher grade point averages in each of their first 4 terms. They also demonstrated statistically significantly higher retention rates and were six times more likely to be retained. In addition, they had statistically significantly higher graduation rates than did their matched controls. In particular, graduation rates were 50% higher for students initially in academic difficulty. These findings reveal the value of teaching learning strategies to first-year students by means of a structured course based on educational psychology. This research holds potential importance for other universities and colleges seeking to improve the performance and persistence of first-year students.

A performance comparison of motivational self-believers and self-doubters in competitive and individualistic goal situations☆

This study compared the performance of students lacking belief in their self-regulatory capability to complete a course-related, item-writing, extra-credit task (self-doubters) to those possessing self-confidence (self-believers), or in-between (self-unsure), in competitive and individualistic goal situations. In the competitive situation, only a fixed percentage of students could receive grade bonuses, while any student who exceeded preset criteria could in the individualistic one. One hundred and twenty-six students were classified by tertiles as self-doubters, self-believers, and self-unsure based on self-confidence ratings for writing test questions on assigned chapters. Self-believers earned significantly more extra-credit points than self-doubters overall. A significant interaction reflected self-doubters doing considerably worse and the self-unsure doing better in the competitive situation than the individualistic one, while self-believers performed equally in either situation. Self-doubters appeared more productive in the situation where preset evaluation criteria assured a payoff for effort expended.

Development of the Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess college students’ efficacy beliefs for conceptual change and to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Participants were 692 students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized single factor structure of Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire providing evidence for the construct validity. Evidence for concurrent validity also is provided. On the basis of the evidence provided in this study, the questionnaire appears to produce valid and reliable scores for college students. With the use of the questionnaire, conceptual change researchers might be able to better assess the relationship between students’ efficacy beliefs and the change in their conceptual understandings of various science concepts.