PTAM 2015-2 | Identifying effective learning environments – Part II

ABSTRACTS

Which person variables predict how people benefit from True-False over Constructed Response items?
Stella Bollmann, Eva Böbel, Moritz Heene & Markus Bühner

Abstract
The aim of this study was the investigation of the variable Benefit from TF, which we assumed to be additionally measured when using True-False instead of Constructed Response tests. Subjects who benefit from True-False have an advantage over other subjects in answering Multiple Choice or True-False exams. We expected it to be related to partial knowledge and examined its relation to other personal abilities and traits in a total of n = 106 psychology students. They completed a statistics exam in Constructed Response and True-False format and benefit items were defined as those to which the associated constructed response answer was not correct. Additionally, verbal intelligence and Big 5 measures were obtained. Results confirm the existence of the person variable Benefit from TF and its relation to partial knowledge. Furthermore, benefiters differed from others in conscientiousness and openness to experience variables. However, contrary to expectations, they did not differ in verbal IQ.

Keywords: Multiple Choice, True-False, partial knowledge

Stella Bollmann, PhD
Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
Department Psychologie
Leopoldstr. 13
80802 Munich, Germany
stella.bollmann@psy.lmu.de

Parental goal orientations for their kindergarten children: Introducing the Nuremberg Parental Goal Orientation Scales (NuPaGOS)
Marold Reutlinger, Anke Ballmann, Wilma Vialle, Zhitian Zhang & Albert Ziegler

Abstract
This study introduces the Nuremberg Parental Goal Orientation Scales (NuPaGOS) which were designed to measure kindergarten children’s parents’ goal orientations for their children. The postulated four goal orientations are learning goal orientation, performance goal orientation, well-being goal orientation and fear of over-demanding orientation. We expected that the four factors underlie a g-factor. The hypothesis concerning the structure of the goal orientations was confirmed in a study with 203 parents of kindergarten children. Correlational analyses with validation variables provide initial evidence for the concurrent and discriminant validity of the NuPaGOS.

Keywords: parental goal orientation, kindergarten children, learning goal orientation, performance goal orientation

Marold Reutlinger
Chair of Educational Psychology and Excellence Research
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Regensburger Straße 160
90478 Nuremberg, Germany
marold.reutlinger@fau.de

Measurement of optimal learning environments: Validation of the parents’ attitudes towards self-regulated learning scale
Julia Steinbach & Heidrun Stoeger

Abstract
Parents` attitudes towards self-regulated learning and their influence on children`s learning behavior have been a rather neglected area of research. One reason for this is very likely the lack of a suitable measurement instrument. We adapted a measurement instrument designed to assess primary teachers` attitudes towards self-regulated learning for use with parents and validated it on a sample of 664 parents and their primary-school children. The instrument measures parents’ attitudes towards various cognitive and metacognitive strategies that have been shown to be particularly effective in self-regulated learning processes of primary-school children. In a first step, the factor structure and the theoretical appropriateness of the instrument was verified via a confirmatory factor analysis. In a second step, the validity of the scale was tested with a structural equation model. Parents` attitudes towards self-regulated learning predicted how they facilitated the learning environment of their children; we measured parents` learning-environment facilitation with two scales: parental autonomy support during learning and setting up children`s homework workspaces. The path between attitudes towards self-regulated learning and learning-environment facilitation was mediated by parents` self-efficacy regarding learning support. The criterion variable, parents` learning-environment facilitation, then, in turn, predicted students` school achievement as assessed with grades and a standardized test. These initial results suggest that the adapted instrument is useful for assessing parents` attitudes towards self-regulated learning and that these attitudes seem to influence the kind of learning environment parents create.

Keywords: self-regulated learning, attitudes, parents` learning-environment facilitation, parents, learning strategies

Julia Steinbach, PhD
Faculty of Psychology, Education, and Sport Science
University of Regensburg
93040 Regensburg, Germany
julia.steinbach@ur.de

Diagnosing resources for effective learning via teacher and parent checklists
Bettina Harder, Susanne Trottler, Wilma Vialle & Albert Ziegler

Abstract
Checklists are an economical form of diagnostic instruments and are therefore well suited to support decision making on individual fostering of students in every day school life. We developed a teacher and a parent checklist based on the theory of educational and learning capital (Ziegler & Baker, 2013), that is, assessing the students` resources for learning. A study with 5th to 8th graders demonstrated the checklists` diagnostic properties. Overall, the teacher ratings of students` capitals proved to be reliable, objective and highly valid while parent ratings turned out to be less valid. Implications and possibilities of practical usage are discussed.

Keywords: educational capital, learning capital, giftedness, checklist, teacher, parent

Albert Ziegler, PhD
Chair of Educational Psychology and Excellence Research
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Regensburger Straße 160
90478 Nuremberg, Germany
albert.ziegler @fau.de

Validation study of the Questionnaire of Educational and Learning Capital (QELC) in Israel
Nurit Paz-Baruch

Abstract
The Actiotope Model of Giftedness regards giftedness as a product of the interaction between the individual and the environment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity of the Question-naire of Educational and Learning Capital (QELC) on 187 primary school students from Israel and to examine whether the educational and learning capitals of the students are associated with general intelligence and academic achievement. In the study correlations were found between social, infrastructural, didactic, organismic, actional, episodic and attentional capitals. No correlations were found, however, between general intelligence and other subscales of the QELC. The results of reliabilities and the two-factor CFA model affirmed the validity of the educational and learning capital using the Hebrew version of QELC.

Keywords: giftedness, actiotope, QELC, general intelligence, academic achievements

Dr. Nurit Paz-Baruch
Department of Education
RANGE Center (Research and Advancement of Giftedness and Excellence)
University of Haifa
Haifa, 34080, Israel
nuritb1@hotmail.com

Musical elite gymnasia as learning environments and settings for personality development in secondary students? The case of musical self-concept
Eva Susanne Fritzsche, Wolfgang Pfeiffer & Stephan Kröner

Abstract
Elite gymnasia with a main focus on musical education are special institutional learning environ-ments for the students attending those schools: Their curricula differ considerably from those of non-specialized schools regarding the emphasis that is placed on musical activities. Thus, if effects of intensive musical education on personality development proposed in musical education research are to be found, then examining students from such elite schools seems pertinent. However, beyond institutional impact, effects of variables from the students’ individual learning environment are to be expected. Thus, reanalysing data from Bernecker, Haag and Pfeiffer (2006), we investigated effects of both the institutional and the individual learning environment on different facets of the self-concept of ability with n = 509 students from 91 classes including class-levels 5 to 10 (corresponding to an age of 10 to 16 years). Classes were located either at musical elite gymnasia providing intensive musical education and including the opportunity to participate in an internationally recognised choir or at non-specialized gymnasia without such an elite musical profile. As expected, multilevel analyses revealed strong effects of school type (i.e., institutional effects) on musical activities. However, in line with Schellenberg (2006), our results did not provide evidence either for substantial institutional effects on the musical self-concept, or for such effects on the academic or general self-concept. Rather, variance in self-concept facets could better be explained via aspects of the individual learning environment or by personal characteristics like school grades or the intrinsic value of musical activities. The implications for potential effects of attending a musical elite gymnasium on personality development as well as avenues for further research are discussed.

Keywords: learning environment, music education, self-concept, musical activities

Dr. Eva Susanne Fritzsche
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Regensburger Straße 160
90478 Nuremberg, Germany
eva.fritzsche@fau.de

A constructive error climate as an element of effective learning environments
Gabriele Steuer & Markus Dresel

Abstract
Although making errors while learning is common, it is also frequently perceived by students as something negative, shameful and experienced as a potential threat to self-worth. These perceptions often prevent students from regarding errors as learning opportunities. The result is that the potential to learn from them – which is inherent to errors – is not being realized. However, a favorable error climate can support learning from errors and hence foster learning progress. Based on earlier work our intent was to analyze the factor structure of classroom’s error climate (Steuer, Rosentritt-Brunn, & Dresel, 2013). A second aim was to explore different error climate patterns. Finally, we were interested in the interrelations between error climate and student performance in mathematics. These aspects were investigated in a study with N = 1,525 students from 90 classrooms in German secondary schools in the subject of mathematics. Results were consistent with the presumed factor structure of error climate. Moreover, the results showed a set of three clusters of classrooms with distinct error climates. These clusters additionally support the assumption that differentiating separate  error climate subdimensions is important. Furthermore the analyses revealed interrelations between error climate and achievement in mathematics. Here as well, a set of specific subdimensions seems to be related to learning from errors at school.

Keywords: error climate, dealing with errors, classroom environment, achievement

Dr. Gabriele Steuer
Department of Psychology
University of Augsburg
Universitaetsstrasse 10
86159 Augsburg, Germany
gabriele.steuer@phil.uni-augsburg.de