Human Development & Quantitative Methodology

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2248

The departments within the College of Education were reorganized and renamed as of July 1, 2011. This department incorporates the former departments of Measurement, Statistics & Evaluation; Human Development; and the Institute for Child Study.

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Third Grade Students' Writing Attitudes, Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Achievement
    (2012) Williams, Heather Michelle; Wigfield, Allan; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In order to become successful members of society in the United States, students must be able to write effectively. However, many students are unwilling or unable to write by the time they leave high school. Two major factors linked to writing performance include writing attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs. The first objective of this research is an investigation of the effectiveness of an intervention designed to improve writing attitudes, self-efficacy beliefs, and achievement. The second objective is an examination of the relation between those constructs. Participants were given the Writing Attitude Survey, a writing skills self-efficacy scale, and a short writing assessment. Further, 50% of the participants participated in an intervention designed to increase positive writing attitudes, self-efficacy beliefs, and achievement. The study found a significant positive relation between writing self-efficacy and attitudes. The intervention was found to have no effect on the self-efficacy, attitudes, or performance of participants.
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    The Effects of Constructs of Motivation that Affirm and Undermine Reading Achievement Inside and Outside of School on Middle School Students' Reading Achievement
    (2009) Coddington, Cassandra Shular; Wigfield, Allan; Guthrie, John T; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to examine whether motivation for reading was multidimensional in two respects. First, central constructs were drawn from three major theories of motivation. Second, versions of each construct were formulated that were expected to correlate positively with achievement (affirming); and versions of each construct were formulated that were expected to correlate negatively with achievement (undermining). The goal of the study was to determine whether these reading motivation constructs were relatively independent and whether the multiple motivations contributed to predicting achievement. Constructs of motivation were derived from Self-Determination Theory (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991), Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1977, 2001) and Social Goals (Wentzel, 2002, 2004). Constructs of motivation that affirm reading achievement and constructs of motivation that undermine reading achievement were both examined. These constructs included, intrinsic motivation, avoidance, self-efficacy, perceived difficulty, prosocial interactions, and antisocial interactions. This study also investigated student motivations for reading for two reasons, school and outside school. Participants were 247 seventh grade students from two middle schools in a mid-Atlantic state. Students completed four measures, including the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Comprehension test, a measure of inferencing ability, a motivation questionnaire for school reading, and a motivation questionnaire for outside school reading. Reading/Language Arts grades were also obtained for all students. Four objectives were addressed through the results of six research questions. Factor analyses results supported the discussion of motivation as a multidimensional construct. Three factors emerged when examining the three constructs of motivation that affirm achievement and the three constructs of motivation that undermine achievement. In addition, factor analyses results supported the perspective that undermining motivations are uniquely predictive of achievement and not simply negatively valenced affirming motivations. Two factors emerged when analyzing the affirming and undermining constructs of motivation in theoretical pairs. Regression analyses indicated that undermining motivations are predictive of achievement even when affirming motivations have been taken into account statistically. Some differences in these results for the school and outside school constructs are discussed. Significance of the findings was discussed in terms of the theoretical importance of the simultaneous functioning of multiple motivations for reading among adolescent students.
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    Learning with hypermedia: Examining cognitive, motivational, and contextual factors
    (2007-04-17) Moos, Daniel Charles; Azevedo, Roger; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Think-aloud, pretest, posttest, and self-efficacy data collected from 85 undergraduates were used to examine factors related to learning with hypermedia. Participants, randomly assigned to either the No Scaffolding (NS) condition or Conceptual Scaffolding (CS) condition, were given 30 minutes to learn about the circulatory system with hypermedia. Participants in the NS condition received an overall learning goal during the hypermedia learning task, while participants in the CS condition received five guiding questions in addition to the same overall learning goal during the hypermedia learning task. There are four findings from this study. First, results from the pretest and posttest indicated that prior domain knowledge significantly predicted both declarative and conceptual knowledge learning outcomes with hypermedia. Second, results from the self-report self-efficacy questionnaire indicated that while self-efficacy significantly fluctuated during learning, the provision of conceptual scaffolds was not related to this fluctuation. Third, results from a think-aloud protocol indicated that self-efficacy significantly predicted monitoring and planning processes, but not strategy use during the hypermedia learning task. Fourth, results from a think-aloud protocol also indicated that self-regulatory processes (particularly processes related to monitoring) significantly predicted conceptual and declarative learning outcomes. Educational and scientific implications are discussed.