Stuart A. Karabenick

Cognitive Processing of Self-Report Items in Educational Research: Do They Think What We Mean?.

Techniques emerging from the considerable research on cognitive aspects of survey methodology include various forms of probing and cognitive interviewing. These techniques are used to examine whether respondents interpretations of self-report items are consistent with researchers assumptions and intended meanings given the constructs the items are designed to measure. However, although informal procedures are common, such developments have not been systematically applied in educational research. We describe how information derived from the systematic application of cognitive pretesting can contribute to determining the validity—designated cognitive validity—of self-report items. Examples are presented from prominent motivation-related instruments that assess real-world instructional practices, mastery classroom goal structure, and student self-efficacy. The implications and pragmatics of adopting this approach are discussed.

Measuring situational interest in academic domains

Three studies were conducted to develop and validate scores on a new measure appropriate for assessing adolescents’ situational interest (SI) across various academic settings. In Study 1 (n = 858), a self-report questionnaire was administered to undergraduates in introductory psychology. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) supported a three-factor model that differentiated between interest generated by (a) the presentation of course material that grabbed students’ attention (triggered-SI), (b) the extent to which the material itself was enjoyable and engaging (maintained-SI-feeling), and (c) whether the material was viewed as important and valuable (maintained-SI-value). CFA analyses in Study 2 (n = 284) and Study 3 (n = 246) also supported the three-factor situational interest model for middle and high school students in mathematics. Moreover, situational interest was shown to be distinct from individual interest and was a statistically significant predictor of change in individual interest across the school year.

Perceived Teacher Support of Student Questioning in the College Classroom: Its Relation to Student Characteristics and Role in the Classroom Questioning Process.

College students perceptions of their teachers support of student questioning (SQ) was examined. Perceived teacher support had significant and consistent relationships with students motivational tendencies and strategy use typical of self-regulated learners. Perceived teacher support affected the likelihood of SQ by influencing whether students had a question to ask and their level of inhibition. Students perceived high levels of support, which does not account for the low incidence of SQ in college classrooms. Agreement between student perceptions and teacher self-reports suggested that creating opportunities for questions and providing high quality answers are important dimensions of teacher support. The possible self-fulfilling consequences of perceived teacher support is discussed

Taking Teacher Responsibility Into Account(ability): Explicating Its Multiple Components and Theoretical Status

Accountability systems have important implications for schooling. Missing from discussions about their implementation, however, are ways they affect teacher responsibility. Responsibility has been insufficiently explicated in the education literature, including its impact on teacher motivation, emotion, and behavior. We propose that a multidimensional approach is required to capture the complexity of teacher responsibility and describe the extensive connections between teacher responsibility and existing psychological frameworks. Directions for future research and implications for teachers’ professional lives are discussed.

Relation of Perceived Instructional Goals and Incentives to College Students' Use of Learning Strategies.

AbstractClass emphasis on learning goals and incentive structures and their relationship to students’ use of learning strategies were examined. Students in 54 college classes (N = 1,037) rated the perceived importance of mastery and performance goals, and of competitive, individualistic, and cooperative incentive structures. In general, the classes stressed learning course content, individual performance outcomes, and collaboration more than interstudent ability comparisons. The students in classes with greater emphasis on collaboration and less emphasis on grades were more likely to use higher order learning strategies of elaboration and critical thinking. The findings suggest that goals and incentives affect strategy use, although the relationships could have resulted from the instructors’ relative emphasis on goals and incentives and their facilitation of the students’ use of learning strategies.

Religious Fundamentalism among Young Muslims in Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Religious fundamentalism is conceived as a distinctive set of beliefs and attitudes toward ones religion, including obedience to religious norms, belief in the universality and immutability of its principles, the validity of its claims, and its indispensability for human happiness. Surveys of Egyptian and Saudi youth, ages 18 25, reveal that respondents with higher levels of fundamentalism are more likely to rely on religious authorities as the source of knowledge about the sociopolitical role of Islam, support religious law, be fatalistic, and feel insecure. They are also less likely to watch TV. Saudi females are more fundamentalist than males, but in Egypt, the opposite held true. Country-specific effects are present, and there are implications for future research.

Using Value-Added Models to Measure Teacher Effects on Students’ Motivation and Achievement

Value-added (VA) models measure teacher contributions to student learning and are increasingly employed in educational reform efforts. Using data from 35 seventh-grade teachers and 2,026 students across seven schools, we employ VA methods to measure teacher contributions to students’ motivational orientations (mastery and performance achievement goals) and their mathematics performance. The analysis suggests less variation in teachers’ contributions to students’ achievement goals than mathematics achievement. However, during a time when most students’ mastery motivation is declining sharply, a one standard deviation increase in teacher contributions to student mastery orientation is associated with a 40% smaller decline in student mastery goals. Teacher mastery contributions are also associated with gains in a student’s seventh-grade mathematics achievement (d = .11). In addition to using VA measures to focus on improving student achievement, these measures can be used to orient teachers, schools, and districts on the enhancement of students’ motivation to learn.

Immigrant Arab adolescents in ethnic enclaves: physical and phenomenological contexts of identity negotiation.

Ecologically embedded social identity theories were used to examine the risk and protective factors associated with the identity negotiation and adjustment of recent immigrant Arab (IA) adolescents to the United States residing in ethnic enclaves. Yemeni, Lebanese, and Iraqi 8th-graders (n = 45) from 4 ethnic enclave schools participated in focus-group interviews. In-depth analyses of interviews revealed that living in an ethnic enclave enhanced IA adolescents feelings of belonging to the community. However, the new immigrant status coupled with country of origin determined the permeability of intergroup boundaries with well-established Arab and Arab American peers. Their identity negotiations and social identity salience (national, religious, and pan-Arab) were informed by transitional experiences from home to host country and the prevailing political and cultural tensions between the two, recognition of national hierarchy within the Arab community, perceptions of discrimination by the larger society, changed educational aspirations consequent to immigration, and current physical (school and community) and phenomenological contexts. Findings suggest that current theoretical perspectives should be extended to incorporate phenomenological representations of past spaces and places not currently occupied to understand adolescents multifaceted identity.

Becoming Successful Readers: A Volunteer Tutoring Program for Culturally Diverse Students.

In 1996 President Clinton established the America Reads Challenge Act (1997), which included a commitment that every child will read independently and well by the end of third grade. This initiative was predicated on links between achievement and poverty (Riley, 1996, 2002) and that children reading below grade level in the early grades perform more poorly in subsequent grades (Clay, 1985; Juel, 1996; Stanovich, 1986). Responding to this challenge, we report evidence that a structured volunteer tutoring program successfully increased culturally diverse students reading/writing performance in six elementary schools in Southeast Michigan. Specifically, the objectives of the volunteer tutoring program were to increase the reading performance of culturally diverse students, improve students attitudes toward reading, and evaluate the programs overall efficacy.

Shades of White: Identity Status, Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Xenophobia

Social identity, cultural socialization, intergroup contact hypothesis and group threat theories were used to examine White middle school adolescents beliefs and attitudes toward Middle Eastern peers (Chaldeans). Ten focus group interviews in each of five Midwestern schools supported the hypothesized relationships between White majority/minority status in school and the saliency and centrality of White identity, awareness of their disadvantaged position in school, feelings of exclusion and dissonance, exhibition of in-group favoritism and out-group bias. Group threat factors predicating xenophobia for adolescents differ from those identified for adults. Group threat that precipitated White adolescents xenophobic reactions toward Chaldean adolescents, including the rigidity of boundaries between the two groups, concerns about aggression and being outnumbered by Chaldeans, fear of loneliness and loss of friends, and differential treatment by teachers. Numerical minority status and the subjective perceptions of numerical minority status in the absence of factual numerical minority status were important predictors of xenophobia.