Rebeca Cerezo

Academic Goals and Learning Quality in Higher Education Students

In this paper, the relations between academic goals and various indicators that define the quality of the learning process are analyzed. The purpose was to determine to what extent high, moderate, or low levels of academic goals were positively or negatively related to effort regulation, the value assigned to academic tasks, meta-cognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, beliefs about learning control, and management of time and study environment. The investigation was carried out with a sample of 632 university students (70% female and 30% male) and mean age of 21.22 (SD=2.2).The results show that learning goals, or task orientation, are positively related to all the indictors of learning quality considered herein. Although for other kinds of goals-work-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals-significant relations were not found with all the indicators, there was a similar tendency of significant results in all cases; the higher the levels of these goals, the lower the levels of the indicators of learning quality.

Teachers' Feedback on Homework, Homework-Related Behaviors, and Academic Achievement.

ABSTRACT The authors intended to (a) identify the association between gender or grade level and teachers’ homework (HW) feedback and (b) examine the relationship between teachers’ HW feedback, HW-related behaviors (e.g., amount of HW completed), and academic achievement. Four hundred fifty-four students (Grades 5–12) participated in this study. The results showed that (a) at higher grade levels, there is a lower perceived amount of teachers’ HW feedback; (b) teachers’ HW feedback as perceived by students is positively and significantly related to the amount of HW completed and to the perceived quality of HW time management but not to the amount of time spent on HW; (c) the amount of HW completed and the perceived quality of HW time management positively and significantly predict academic achievement; and (d) teachers’ HW feedback as perceived by students has an indirect relationship with students’ academic achievement by its effect on students’ HW-related behaviors.

Homework and academic achievement across Spanish Compulsory Education

Homework (HW) is one of the most common school-related activities among parents, students and teachers. However, the need to assign HW to students has been extensively debated. The present investigation examines the relationship between specific HW variables (i.e. amount of HW completed, time spent on HW and perceived quality of HW time management) and academic achievement, while controlling for students’ gender and grade level. Participants included 454 students (ranging from 10 to 16 years of age) from three schools in northern Spain. A multivariate analyses of variance and path analyses showed that the amount of HW completed decreased with increased schooling, as did students’ perceived quality of HW time management. Data from hierarchical regression analyses completed by path analyses provided evidence that time spent on HW conjointly with perceived quality of HW time management explains how academic achievement is mediated by the amount of HW completed. These findings deepen the understanding of the complex impact of time spent on HW and on academic achievement.

Transcultural analysis of the effectiveness of a program to promote self-regulated learning in Mozambique, Chile, Portugal, and Spain

The current investigation aims at assessing the effectiveness of an intervention program designed to enhance self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies at the university level, with students from different cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. The central tool of the program is a set of letters in which a fictional first-year student describes his experiences as an SRL student. The program was implemented in four universities in different countries and continents (Portugal, Spain, Chile, and Mozambique), with an experimental group and a comparison group at each university (263 students from experimental groups and 247 from comparison groups). Findings display the effectiveness of the program in enhancing a set of motivational variables related to the study process and the use of SRL strategies. Data were consistent across the different cultural and academic contexts in which the program was implemented. The implications of these findings for university administrators and faculty are discussed.

Predicting Students' Performance: Incremental Interaction Classifiers

One of the Educational Data Mining (EDM) main aims is to predict the final students performance, analyzing their behavior in the Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Many studies make use of different classifiers to reach this goal, using the total interaction of the students. In this work we study if it is possible to build more accurate classification models in order to predict the output, analyzing the interaction in an incremental way. We study the data gathered for two years with three kinds of classifying algorithms and we compare the total interaction models with the incremental interaction models.

A survey on educational process mining

Educational process mining (EPM) is an emerging field in educational data mining (EDM) aiming to make unexpressed knowledge explicit and to facilitate better understanding of the educational process. EPM uses log data gathered specifically from educational environments in order to discover, analyze, and provide a visual representation of the complete educational process. This paper introduces EPM and elaborates on some of the potential of this technology in the educational domain. It also describes some other relevant, related areas such as intentional mining, sequential pattern mining and graph mining. It highlights the components of an EPM framework and it describes the different challenges when handling event logs and other generic issues. It describes the data, tools, techniques and models used in EPM. In addition, the main work in this area is described and grouped by educational application domains. WIREs Data Mining Knowl Discov 2018, 8:e1230. doi: 10.1002/widm.1230

Using Android Wear for Avoiding Procrastination Behaviours in MOOCs

This paper introduces a new feature for instructors to communicate with their MOOC learners via SmartWatches in a different way to the traditional e-mails in order to try to avoiding procrastination. We have developed an Android Wear-based SmartWatches application designed for receiving notifications from MOOCs, and a specific section in Google Course Builder interface that allows instructors to configure and send the messages to each user registered in the course. We have evaluated the implementation of our proposal in an Introduction to Philosophy MOOC. The number and percentage of students who did assessments on time, together with their comments in a satisfaction questionnaire present very promising results.

Effects of ADHD on writing composition product and process in school-age students

Objective: This study examined the relationship between ADHD and writing performance. Method: Students in Grades 3 to 7, 84 with ADHD and 135 age- and gender-matched controls completed a writing task (including process logs), and measures of working memory and attention. Results: Students with ADHD wrote texts of similar length but with poorer structure, coherence, and ideation. In all, 6.7% of the variance in writing quality was explained by whether or not the student had an ADHD diagnosis, after control for IQ and age-within-year, with ADHD students producing text that was less coherent, well structured, and ideationally rich, and spending less time thinking about and reviewing their text. Half of the effect on text quality could be attributed to working memory and sustained attention effects. Conclusion: ADHD has some effect on writing performance, which can, in part, be explained by working memory and attentional deficits.

Procrastinating Behavior in Computer-Based Learning Environments to Predict Performance: A Case Study in Moodle

Introduction: Research about student performance has traditionally considered academic procrastination as a behavior that has negative effects on academic achievement. Although there is much evidence for this in class-based environments, there is a lack of research on Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate student behavior in a blended learning program and specifically procrastination behavior in relation to performance through Data Mining techniques. Materials and Methods: A sample of 140 undergraduate students participated in a blended learning experience implemented in a Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning Environment) Management System. Relevant interaction variables were selected for the study, taking into account student achievement and analyzing data by means of association rules, a mining technique. The association rules were arrived at and filtered through two selection criteria: 1, rules must have an accuracy over 0.8 and 2, they must be present in both sub-samples. Results: The findings of our study highlight the influence of time management in online learning environments, particularly on academic achievement, as there is an association between procrastination variables and student performance. Conclusion: Negative impact of procrastination in learning outcomes has been observed again but in virtual learning environments where practical implications, prevention of, and intervention in, are different from class-based learning. These aspects are discussed to help resolve student difficulties at various ages.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Writing Learning Disabilities

In this chapter, a brief of three studies relating attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and writing Learning Disabilities (LD) is presented, all of them following a research line. First, we carried out an experimental study on attention and writing with normally developing students, investigating the effects of the use of a graphic organizer and a time interval register processes in writing composition. Second, we selected four samples of students, one group of students with ADHD and LD, one with ADHD without LD. The third group comprised students with LD, and the last group was made up of normally achieving students. Those groups were matched for age and educational level, and we evaluated variables of attention, working memory (first comparative study), and also the processes and the product of writing composition including the orchestration (second comparative study).