Showing papers in "Review of Educational Research in 1995"

Feedback and Self-Regulated Learning: A Theoretical Synthesis

Abstract: Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a pivot upon which students’ achievement turns. We explain how feedback is inherent in and a prime determiner of processes that constitute SRL, and review areas of research that elaborate contemporary models of how feedback functions in learning. Specifically, we begin by synthesizing a model of self-regulation based on contemporary educational and psychological literatures. Then we use that model as a structure for analyzing the cognitive processes involved in self-regulation, and for interpreting and integrating findings from disparate research traditions. We propose an elaborated model of SRL that can embrace these research findings and that spotlights the cognitive operation of monitoring as the hub of self-regulated cognitive engagement. The model is then used to reexamine (a) recent research on how feedback affects cognitive engagement with tasks and (b) the relation among forms of engagement and achievement. We conclude with a proposal that research on feedback and ...

Joint Book Reading Makes for Success in Learning to Read: A Meta-Analysis on Intergenerational Transmission of Literacy

Abstract: The current review is a quantitative meta-analysis of the available empirical evidence related to parent-preschooler reading and several outcome measures. In selecting the studies to be included in this meta-analysis, we focused on studies examining the frequency of book reading to preschoolers. The results support the hypothesis that parent-preschooler reading is related to outcome measures such as language growth, emergent literacy, and reading achievement. The overall effect size of d = .59 indicates that book reading explains about 8% of the variance in the outcome measures. The results support the hypothesis that book reading, in particular, affects acquisition of the written language register. The effect of parent-preschooler reading is not dependent on the socioeconomic status of the families or on several methodological differences between the studies. However, the effect seems to become smaller as soon as children become conventional readers and are able to read on their own.

Beyond a Two-Goal Theory of Motivation and Achievement: A Case for Social Goals

Abstract: Research on academic achievement motivation has increasingly focused on students’ goals. Most of that research has focused on two particular types of achievement goals: task goals and ability goals. In this review, we propose that a more thorough understanding of motivation and achievement in schools can be developed if we examine social goals—defined as perceived social purposes for academic achievement—in addition to task and ability goals. We review research on achievement goal theory, social goals, social motives, and social influences on students’ school-related attitudes and behaviors to develop hypotheses about the antecedents and consequences of social goals. In addition, we discuss ways in which the learning environment may influence students’ social goal orientations. We conclude with a discussion of seven areas for future research on the nature and function of social goals.

Cooperative Versus Competitive Efforts and Problem Solving

Abstract: The impacts of cooperative and competitive efforts on problem solving were compared. In order to resolve the controversy over whether cooperation promotes higher- or lower-quality individual problem solving than does competition, 46 studies, published between 1929 and 1993, were examined. The findings from these studies were classified in 4 categories according to the type of problem solving measured: linguistic (solved through written and oral language), nonlinguistic (solved through symbols, math, motor activities, actions), well-defined (having clearly defined operations and solutions), and ill-defined (lacking clear definitions, operations, and solutions). The 63 relevant findings that resulted were subjected to a meta-analysis for purposes of integration. Members of cooperative teams outperformed individuals competing with each other on all 4 types of problem solving (effect sizes = 0.37, 0.72, 0.52, 0.60, respectively). These results held for individuals of all ages and for studies of high, medium, ...

Reassessment of Developmental Constraints on Children’s Science Instruction

Abstract: Science curricula at the elementary school level frequently emphasize the “concrete,” with a focus on the processes of observation, ordering, and categorization of the directly perceivable. Within this approach, abstract ideas and the planning of investigations and analysis of their results are in large part postponed until higher grades. This practice stems from purported developmental constraints on children’s thinking. This article analyzes these constraints in light of the writings of Piaget, to whom they are frequently attributed, and contemporary developmental theory and research. Neither the Piagetian nor the non-Piagetian research supports the validity of these developmental assumptions. The article also identifies several intrinsic problematic aspects of this approach to children’s science, including the failure to appreciate the challenge of adequate scientific description, the liabilities of decontextualization, and the epistemological messages it conveys to children. Both Piagetian and non-Pia...

Cognitive and Noncognitive Effects of Multigrade and Multi-Age Classes: A Best-Evidence Synthesis

Abstract: Multigrade and multi-age classrooms, in which students from two or more grades are taught by one teacher at the same time, represent a significant phenomenon in our schools. This article reviews the best evidence concerning the cognitive and noncognitive effects of the multigrade classroom, which is an administrative device used to cope with declining student enrollment or uneven class sizes, and the multi-age classroom, in which children of different ages are grouped together for educational and pedagogical benefits, in elementary schools. Studies in which the cognitive or achievement effects of multigrade and single-grade classes were compared revealed no consistent differences between these two types of classroom organization (median ES = .00). Studies of the noncognitive effects of multigrade and single-grade classes also produced no consistent differences (median ES = +.10). Studies in which the cognitive or achievement effects of multi-age and single-age classes were compared indicated no difference...

English-as-a-Second-Language Learners’ Cognitive Reading Processes: A Review of Research in the United States:

Abstract: An integrative review of United States research on English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners’ cognitive reading processes suggested that, on the whole, ESL readers recognized cognate vocabulary fairly well, monitored their comprehension and used many metacognitive strategies, used schema and prior knowledge to affect comprehension and recall, and were affected differently by different types of text structures. In the main, where United States ESL readers’ processes appeared to be used differently from those of native English readers, the differences were in speed and depressed activation of selected processes. Significantly, overall, the findings from the studies suggested a relatively good fit to preexisting reading theories and views generally thought to describe native-language readers. However, the quantitative differences between processes of ESL readers and those of native English readers indicated that the preexisting theories and views might need to be revisited and elaborated to address a subse...

The Social Construction of Data: Methodological Problems of Investigating Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development

Abstract: Educational researchers have traditionally drawn on procedures and metaphors from the hard sciences to guide their thinking about methodological issues. One frequently invoked metaphor is that of the purity of data, which a researcher can contaminate through the process of investigation. This article questions the appropriateness of the purity metaphor, using a perspective provided by Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and its emphasis on a genetic method in which development is mediated by cultural tools and signs. Methodological problems emerging from this conception of the ZPD—including problems of defining research, identifying an appropriate unit of analysis, considering the relationship between evidence and telos (an optimal sense of development), and accounting for the mediational role of assessment—are reviewed. Finally, the work of Luria (1976) is examined from the neo-Vygotskian perspective developed in this article.

The Space Factor in Mathematics: Gender Differences

Abstract: The relationship of spatial and mathematical skills has been the subject of both speculation and empirical investigation. A meta-analysis of correlations of spatial and mathematical skills has found that these are not high, and that correlations of verbal and mathematical skills are higher. Many researchers have suggested that the space-math relationship may be gender-specific. The further meta-analytic results reported here show that in selected samples, math-space correlations are higher in females than in males, with the difference becoming more pronounced with greater selectivity. Because these samples are of gifted or college-bound youth, explanations which emphasize career-directed attitudes in the interplay of spatial and mathematical skills are suggested.

Percent: A Privileged Proportion

Abstract: Why is percent, a ubiquitous mathematical concept, so hard to learn? This question motivates our review. We argue that asking the question is worthwhile because percent is universal and because it forms a bridge between real-world situations and mathematical concepts of multiplicative structures. The answer involves explaining the long history of the percent concept from its early roots in Babylonian, Indian, and Chinese trading practices and its parallel roots in Greek proportional geometry to its modern multifaceted meanings. The answer also involves specifying what percent is: its meaning (fraction or ratio) and its sense (function or statistic). Finally, the answer involves understanding the privileged language of percent—an extremely concise language that has lost its explicit referents, has misleading additive terminology for multiplicative meanings, and has multiple uses for the preposition of. The answer leads to speculation, in light of previous research, concerning what can be done to teach perc...

ANOVA: A Paradigm for Low Power and Misleading Measures of Effect Size?

Abstract: Over 30 years ago, Tukey made it evident that slight departures from normality can substantially lower power when means are compared, and that a popular measure of effect size can be highly misleading. At the time there were no methods for dealing with the problem raised in Tukey’s paper, and some of the more obvious and seemingly intuitive solutions have since been found to be highly unsatisfactory. Today there are practical methods for not only dealing with the problem raised by Tukey, but also achieving more accurate confidence intervals and control over the probability of a Type I error. More generally, there are many robust and exploratory ways of comparing groups that can reveal important differences that are missed by conventional methods based on means, and even modern methods based solely on robust measures of location. This article reviews these new techniques.

Mexican American Students and Classroom Interaction: An Overview and Critique

Abstract: The failure of U. S. schools to successfully educate Mexican American students has been well documented. In this article, studies of Mexican American students and classroom interaction are reviewed and critiqued from a Vygotskian perspective. Four traditional approaches to the study of Mexican American classroom interaction were found. The research reviewed suggests that teachers can better ensure Mexican American student involvement in classroom interaction through collaborative learning techniques, acceptance and appreciation of student language use, and presentation of challenging material related to student interests. Researchers may expand our understanding of this topic through the descriptive study of Mexican American students in the mainstream, English-only secondary or college-level classroom. Topics in need of further research are identified.

Expanding the Constructivist Metaphor: A Rhetorical Perspective on Literacy Research and Practice:

Abstract: In this review we summarize some of the accomplishments and shortcomings of constructivist accounts of reading and writing activity as part of our argument for social and textual views of literacy. Arguing that reading and writing are inseparable from each other and from other modes of meaning making, we aim to foreground studies and theories that depict the rhetorical dimensions of literacy. We define rhetorical as referring to the means and circumstances through which readers and writers represent and negotiate texts, tasks, and social contexts. A rhetorical perspective on literacy research and practice calls attention to the ways in which language use crystallizes relations between readers and writers. Such a perspective also brings into focus the extent to which the ways authors position themselves within a certain social space is contingent upon (a) authority (e.g., a disciplinary community’s conventions for inquiry, the institution of school, or a writer’s expertise), (b) the purposes that bring wri...

On the Limited Presence of African American Teachers: An Assessment of Research, Synthesis, and Policy Implications

Abstract: This article responds to a recent review essay by King (1993) on the limited presence of African American teachers in American elementary and secondary education. The purpose of this response is twofold. First, it is suggested that the original work leaves some of the issues surrounding attracting and retaining elementary and secondary school teachers unaddressed, leaves some conflicting empirical work unsynthesized, and provides interpretations and policy suggestions that do not necessarily directly follow from the empirical evidence. Second, this response highlights an emerging problem in educational research. It suggests that a productive and worthwhile area of inquiry would be one in which educational researchers examine how “crises” in education emerge, how they are defined and constructed both within and outside the field of education; and how educational researchers respond to educational crises. It is hoped that these substantive and policy concerns will begin to receive additional attention from ...

Race Comparisons on Need for Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Alternative to Graham’s Narrative Review

Abstract: A box score review conducted by Graham (1994) concluded that no difference existed between Blacks and Whites on measures of need for achievement. A meta-analysis reported in this article using the same research base revealed reliable and complex race differences. Overall, Whites scored higher than Blacks on measures of need for achievement, but the race difference all but disappeared in studies conducted after 1970. As a possible explanation, the meta-analysis revealed that since 1970 samples of participants from various socioeconomic levels have been preferred and that such samples showed differences between races of only half the size of those shown for samples of participants of strictly lower socioeconomic status. The method of assessment and the age and education of participants also influenced outcomes of race comparisons. Finally, Graham concluded that the research showed a consistent pattern of more positive self-concept of ability among Blacks than Whites. The meta-analysis also found this effect...

Narrative Versus Meta-Analytic Reviews of Race Differences in Motivation: A Comment on Cooper and Dorr

Abstract: Some of the benefits and shortcomings of a meta-analytic approach to reviewing race differences in need for achievement (Cooper & Dorr, 1995) are examined and compared to the narrative approach that I adopted in a previous review on this topic (Graham, 1994). Among the benefits of meta-analysis are the calculation of effect sizes for race differences (compared to the box score method of my narrative review) and the presentation of replicable and objective procedures for organizing, describing, and comparing study characteristics. Among the perceived limitations are the meta-analyst’s reluctance to distinguish between low- and high-quality studies and an overemphasis on quantitative comparisons of substantively disparate literatures. The implications for studying race as a psychological variable are also discussed.

Narrative Versus Meta-Analytic Reviews: A Rejoinder to Graham’s Comment

Abstract: We examine Graham’s (1995) concerns about meta-analysis regarding (a) the use of poor-quality studies and (b) an overemphasis on quantitative comparisons of substantively disparate literatures. First, many meta-analysts eschew making questionable global judgments of quality so as to exclude studies on an a priori basis. Instead, they demonstrate their concern for research quality by including methods variables in a search for influences on study outcomes. Further, our meta-analysis (Cooper & Dorr, 1995) demonstrated the independence of decisions about (a) what studies to include in a review and (b) whether to use quantitative synthesis techniques by using the same evidential base Graham used for her narrative review. Second, we agree with Graham that substantively disparate literatures ought not be compared. However, we argue that literatures that might be defined as disparate for one purpose could be comparable for another. Regardless, her concern is irrelevant to our comparison of the two reviewing methods.

Narrative versus Meta-Analytic Reviews of Race Differences in Motivation: A Comment on Cooper and Dorr. Narrative versus Meta-analytic Reviews of Race and Differences in Motivation: A Rejoinder to Graham's Comment.

Abstract: Some of the benefits and shortcomings of a meta-analytic approach to reviewing race differences in need for achievement (Cooper & Dorr, 1995) are examined and compared to the narrative approach that I adopted in a previous review on this topic (Graham, 1994). Among the benefits of meta-analysis are the calculation of effect sizes for race differences (compared to the box score method of my narrative review) and the presentation of replicable and objective procedures for organizing, describing, and comparing study characteristics. Among the perceived limitations are the meta-analyst’s reluctance to distinguish between low- and high-quality studies and an overemphasis on quantitative comparisons of substantively disparate literatures. The implications for studying race as a psychological variable are also discussed.