Candice Stefanou

Supporting Autonomy in the Classroom: Ways Teachers Encourage Student Decision Making and Ownership

In addition to classroom activities, teachers provide personal and instructional supports meant to facilitate the developing sense of student autonomy. In this article, we offer a way of thinking about autonomy-supportive practices that suggests that such practices can be distinguished at a featural level and that different practices may in fact have different outcomes in terms of student classroom behavior. Specifically, we propose that autonomy support can be manifested in the classroom in at least 3 distinct ways: organizational autonomy support (e.g., allowing students some decision-making role in terms of classroom management issues), procedural autonomy support (e.g., offering students choices about the use of different media to present ideas), and cognitive autonomy support (e.g., affording opportunities for students to evaluate work from a self-referent standard). We offer vignettes of teachers in their classes to illustrate our proposition that autonomy support may be carried out on several planes and may produce different outcomes. Whereas organizational autonomy support may encourage a sense of well-being and comfort with the way a classroom functions and procedural autonomy support may encourage initial engagement with learning activities, cognitive autonomy support may foster a more enduring psychological investment in deep-level thinking.

DEVELOPING MOTIVATION AND COGNITIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES THROUGH AN UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING COMMUNITY

This study describes the effects on student motivation and cognitive learning strategies of an approach involving an undergraduate learner-centered community of learners approach to instruction. Six learning communities were created using the following objectives: integrated courses, active and collaborative learning, and opportunities for learning through information technology and library resources. Instructors attended ten workshops designed to assist them in developing the learning communities according to the objectives of the program. Results indicate significant changes in motivation and cognitive strategy use by the end of participation in the learning community. Within the motivation subscales, students in the learning communities reported significantly higher levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, more internal control of their learning, and self-efficacy, along with significantly lower levels of test anxiety and task value. Within the learning strategies subscales, students reported increases in their use of rehearsal strategies, organization strategies, critical thinking, time management, and the use of peer learning and help-seeking behaviors.

Self-regulation and autonomy in problem- and project-based learning environments

Investigations of the relationships between contexts in which learning occurs and students’ behaviours, cognitions and motivations may further our understanding of how instruction is related to students’ development as self-regulated learners. In this study, student self-regulated learning strategies in problem-based learning and project-based learning environments were examined to determine whether student self-regulation outcomes differed depending on the instructional design. Quantitative results showed that student motivations and behaviours were not statistically different in the two settings. Differences in cognitions associated with self-regulated learning were, however, observed in the two settings, with students in the project-based environments reporting higher levels of elaboration, critical thinking and metacognition. In addition, students in the project-based courses reported higher perceived autonomy support, or the degree to which they perceived their instructors provided them with supportive opportunities to act and think independently compared to students in the problem-based courses. These findings indicate that different non-traditional student-centred learning environments may support different outcomes related to self-regulated learning.

Effects of classroom assessment on student motivation in fifth-grade science

Abstract Researchers have suggested that assessment has the potential to affect learner behavior in terms of cognitive strategy use and motivation. The authors attempted to provide an understanding of the nature of the effect of particular assessment types on motivation. Students in 3 5th-grade science classes were exposed to 3 different classroom assessment conditions: traditional paper-and-pencil tests, a laboratory task format of assessment, and a performance assessment Measures of attitudes about science, goal orientation, and cognitive engagement (J. L. Meece, P. C. Blumenfeld, & R. K. Hoyle, 1988) were used. Analyses indicate a significant effect attributable to assessment type on goal orientation only, with the traditional paper-and-pencil tests and the performance assessments fostering more task-focused orientations than the laboratory tests.

Unifying Theories of Learning and Economic Decision Making.

Knowledge plays an important role in the process of growth by choosing the right things to do (supporting the selection systems of technologies) and by doing the right things better (the understanding and execution of an implemented technology). Two fundamental challenges to the process are: (i) how one acquires more knowledge, and (ii) how one translates the knowledge gained into action. These are shared issues for learning theorists and economists. Both learning theorists and economists recognize that there are constraints on learning leading to the way the knowledge is managed over time. Both fields are interested in cognitive growth, how it happens and how best to manage it to enhance outcomes. This paper seeks to explicate the points of intersection between cognitive and economic sciences so that the shared concepts and language can be used in a meaningful way to start the dialogue between the two fields as we enhance our understanding of learning and decisions to learn. This is accomplished by focus...