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Despite the numerous lifelong benefits associated with continued leisure reading, adult reading habits are steadily declining (Statistics Canada, 2019). The purpose of this study was to understand ...

Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) is a prominent theory on student motivation. To add to the growing research in this area, we investigated students within a large, mandatory course outside of the STEM areas, to examine perceptions of success utilizing an EVT lens. The aim of our study was twofold. First, to examine students' open-ended responses about what makes them feel successful. Second, to determine if students’ indorsement of expectancy, value, and control could predict their feelings of success. The study consisted of 210 students who completed an online questionnaire with items related to demographics, EVT components, and questions about their success in the course. Deductive coding was utilized to examine their feelings of success based on the EVT components. Regression analysis was utilized to predict perceptions of success. Students identified several components of their course that were associated with expectancy, value, and cost. Students' perceptions of success were positively predicted by expectancy and negatively predicted by cost while value was not a significant predictor. Our results speak to the importance of expectancy, value, and cost when designing large, mandatory courses. We provided several recommendations for instructors when designing courses, and also highlight limitations and future research directions.

Professional development (PD) is one way to maintain or increase teacher effectiveness in any number of domains. However, PD comes in many formats and with a wide range of evidence on its effective...

Evidence generally supports a positive association between growth mindset and academic outcomes, even if the experimental evidence for growth mindset interventions is somewhat more tenuous. From an applied perspective, the concept of growth mindsets has grown in popularity with a proliferation of materials readily available to teachers and school administrators. The purpose of this multi-method study was to explore elementary students’ (ages 6-12) understanding of growth mindset messaging created by their school and teachers, and its association with students’ emotions. The results showed that students were positively impacted by the growth mindset messaging, both in school and when facing challenges outside of school. Their emotions were largely positive, with the exception of frustration, which participants associated equally with a growth and a fixed mindset. Results are discussed in relation to Mindset Theory broadly as well as in regards to school- and teacher-initiated mindset messages.

Academic success is an important issue as employers are looking for individuals with a postsecondary education. But there are many important indicators of success besides grades. We conceptualized academic success at postsecondary as grade point average, acquisition of knowledge and skills, and overall satisfaction and examined how each conceptualization was predicted by student characteristics (perceived academic ability and drive to achieve) and experiences (academic and social integration). Using a 1-year longitudinal design, we found that perceived academic ability had a positive direct effect on grade point average and acquisition of knowledge and skills but not satisfaction, whereas drive had no direct relationships with the outcomes. Academic integration positively predicted all three indicators of success grades, but social integration was not associated with grades. Indirect effects were also noted. Our discussion highlights actions that postsecondary institutions can take to support students and considers how researchers should conceptualize student success.

Growth and fixed mindset messaging is gaining popularity. In our pilot study, we examine the mindsets of students with learning disabilities (LD) to determine how their self-beliefs relate to this messaging. Our results demonstrate that students with LD endorse growth mindsets more than fixed mindsets which is consistent with their peers without LD. Moreover, in their comments about being a student with LD, participants highlight important components of growth mindset messaging. However, some comments may reflect a false-growth mindset wherein students are only focused on effort and not the additional resources required for growth. We provide directions for future research.

Although many studies have examined reasons for sexting among young people, few have taken into account the underlying motivations associated with different reasons and how that may be associated with divergent positive or negative outcomes. This study addressed this gap by employing Self-determination Theory to assess how autonomous and controlled motivations for sexting were related to subjective well-being and relationship quality among emerging adults. Online survey data from 267 emerging adults (72 men, 195 women) ages 18-25 who had sent sexually explicit images or videos of themselves through electronic means to a committed partner were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Autonomous and controlled motivations for sexting were significantly related to pleasant affect, with autonomous motivation predicting more pleasant affect and controlled motivation predicting less pleasant affect. Autonomous motivations for sexting were related to enhanced relationship quality, whereas controlled motivations for sexting were related to decreased relationship quality. Neither form of motivation had a statistically significant relationship with unpleasant affect or life satisfaction. These results demonstrate that the quality of motivations for sexting among emerging adults in committed relationships may contribute to different outcomes, particularly in terms of relationship quality. Implications for counselors, educators, and practitioners working with emerging adults who sext are discussed.

Background Previous research has shown that pre-service teachers have low responsibility for student motivation and feel underprepared to deal with motivational issues. As an extension, researchers have designed interventions to shift teachers' beliefs about motivation or equip them with approaches to instruction, but never both. Aims Following best practices for motivation interventions, we created a one-session online intervention and tested its efficacy to shift pre-service teachers' self-reported beliefs and approaches to instruction to be more supportive of student motivation. The intervention included priming, materials designed for mindsets and/or for approaches to instruction, a consolidation activity, and take-home materials. Sample A convenience sample of 384 pre-service teachers from one Canadian university participated. Methods We embedded an experimental design into multiple sections of a required assessment course. After completing a pre-test, participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: beliefs-only, approaches-only, combined beliefs and approaches, or control. After completing the online module, students received a lecture on assessment practices and motivation. Results The results from our MANCOVA showed that pre-service teachers who participated in the beliefs-only condition reported increased levels of responsibility for student motivation, more growth mindset beliefs, and less fixed mindset beliefs than participants in the other conditions. The approaches-only condition did not influence self-reported mastery or performance approaches to instruction and the combined condition had no effect on beliefs or approaches. Conclusions We discuss the implications for educating pre-service teachers about student motivation and suggest that beliefs and approaches to instruction need to be addressed separately.

In March 2020, university students had to adjust to remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This abrupt change likely impacted students��� motivation, engagement, and perceptions of success and cheating. We used a single survey to collect retrospective self-report data from a convenience sample of Canadian undergraduate students (n = 98) about their motivation, engagement, and perceptions of success and cheating before COVID-19 and then in remote learning. Students' achievement goals, engagement, and perceptions of success all significantly decreased, while their perceptions of cheating increased. Moreover, we used regression analyses to examine associations amongst achievement goals and engagement, perceptions of success, and cheating concerns. The most consistent association was that mastery-approach goals were positively associated with more engagement and higher perceptions of success. An interesting effect for performance-avoidance goals and perceptions of success also emerged. Achievement goals were unrelated to cheating. Students in large classes and who were originally concerned about cheating became more concerned about cheating in remote learning conditions. Our study provides information to researchers and instructors about how achievement goals relate to student outcomes across learning conditions. By extension, we provide timely recommendations for instructors as they continue to wrestle with how to deliver their courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preservice teachers can be considered simultaneously students and teachers and therefore likely have both academic and professional goals. However, once in a professional program, predicting profes...

Most of what researchers know about the challenges students with learning disabilities (LDs) experience during postsecondary education is based on experiences during face-to-face learning on campus. Less is known about challenges students with LD face during learning online—the mode of instruction students had to navigate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of our research was to examine the lived experience of undergraduate students with LD during their first full semester of online instruction as a result of the pandemic. We interviewed six students in Western Canada and used a phenomenological approach to analyze their experiences. Overall, we extracted six main themes from their interviews. Two of these themes, (a) the broad impact of having LD and (b) accommodations during COVID-19, were specific to being a student with LD. The remaining four themes were more generally related to their overall student experience: (c) online learning is different, (d) the role of others, (e) emotional impact, and (f) resilience and perseverance. We discuss these results in terms of recommendations for future research and teaching in online learning environments.

This study examined the scoring errors across three widely used achievement tests (Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement–Second Edition [KTEA-2], Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Achievement–Third Edition [WJ-III], and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Third Edition [WIAT-III]) by novice examiners. A total of 114 protocols were evaluated for differences between the measures on the frequency and type of scoring errors. Within-measure analyses were also conducted to identify particular composites or subtests that might be more prone to error. Among the three measures, the WIAT-III was found to have the most scoring elements and was, therefore, the measure most susceptible to errors in scoring. Irrespective of the measure, more errors occurred on composites requiring greater examiner inference and interpretation, similar to previous studies on the propensity of scoring errors on cognitive measures. Results are discussed in relation to assessment fidelity and to assessment training practices.

Teachers assume personal responsibility in four domains: student motivation, student achievement, relationships with students, and the quality of their own teaching. In all existing research, pre-service and practicing teachers score lowest in the motivation domain. This may be because some teachers view motivation as a shared responsibility or one that is contingent on external factors. Thus, the purpose of this research was to examine pre-service teachers��� reflections on two different perspectives on personal responsibility for student motivation - one that reflected high internal unmitigated responsibility and one that reflected shared and contextualized responsibility. Pre-service teachers watched two video vignettes, and then reflected on the perspectives in an open-ended written format. The descriptive statistics confirmed that responsibility for motivation was the lowest of the four domains. Moreover, the percentage pre-service teacher felt responsible for student motivation predicted which video vignette they selected. Thematic analysis of pre-service teachers��� reflection revealed four themes that give insight to how pre-service teachers make sense of responsibility for student motivation: people responsible, external factors, strategies to support motivation, and emotions. The results are discussed in light of methodological, theoretical, and practical implications.

Helping junior high and high school students remain interested in science increases the chance that they will pursue careers in science. However, there are many different ways to trigger or sustain interest. Utility-value writing assignments represent a type of motivation intervention that has consistently demonstrated a positive effect on students��� interest and performance in science. In this paper, we describe expectancy-value theory as the framework giving rise to utility-value interventions and review evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Then we provide educators with concrete steps for writing and scoring utility-value writing assignments.

Cognitive and linguistic components related to spelling and writing in English as a second language (ESL) and native-English speaking (EL1) third graders were examined. ESL and EL1 children performed similarly on rapid naming, phonological awareness (PA), verbal short-term and working memory, reading fluency, single-word spelling, text spelling, handwriting fluency, and paragraph writing fluency tasks, and on writing quality indices. ESL children scored lower on vocabulary, syntactic awareness and decoding fluency measures. PA predicted single-word spelling for EL1 and PA and rapid naming predicted single-word spelling for ESL. PA and rapid naming contributed to text level spelling across groups. Rapid naming and syntactic awareness predicted writing quality (content and structure) for ESL children, but syntactic awareness and oral vocabulary predicted writing quality for EL1. Transcription predicted overall writing achievement for ESL, but transcription, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness were all important to overall writing ability for EL1. Results are discussed in relation to the componential model of writing in a first or a second language.

Pre-service and practicing teachers feel responsible for a range of educational activities. Four domains of personal responsibility emerging in the literature are: student achievement, student motivation, relationships with students, and responsibility for ones own teaching. To date, most research has used variable-centered approaches to examining responsibilities even though the domains appear related. In two separate samples we used cluster analysis to explore how pre-service (n = 130) and practicing (n = 105) teachers combined personal responsibilities and their impact on three professional cognitions and their wellbeing. Both groups had low and high responsibility clusters but the third cluster differed: Pre-service teachers combined responsibilities for relationships and their own teaching in a cluster we refer to as teacher-focused responsibility; whereas, practicing teachers combined achievement and motivation in a cluster we refer to as student-outcome focused responsibility. These combinations affected outcomes for pre-service but not practicing teachers. Pre-service teachers in the low responsibility cluster reported less engagement, less mastery approaches to instruction, and more performance goal structures than the other two clusters.

Attention to general and trauma-relevant threat was examined in individuals with clinical and subthreshold symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants' eye gaze was tracked and recorded while they viewed sets of four images over a 6-s presentation (one negative, positive, and neutral image, and either a general threat image or a trauma-relevant threat image). Two trauma-exposed groups (a clinical and a subthreshold PTSD symptom group) were compared to a non-trauma-exposed group. Both the clinical and subthreshold PTSD symptom groups attended to trauma-relevant threat images more than the no-trauma-exposure group, whereas there were no group differences for general threat images. A time course analysis of attention to trauma-relevant threat images revealed different attentional profiles for the trauma-exposed groups. Participants with clinical PTSD symptoms exhibited immediate heightened attention to the images relative to participants with no-trauma-exposure, whereas participants with subthreshold PTSD symptoms did not. In addition, participants with subthreshold PTSD symptoms attended to trauma-relevant threat images throughout the 6-s presentation, whereas participants with clinical symptoms of PTSD exhibited evidence of avoidance. The theoretical and clinical implications of these distinct attentional profiles are discussed.