Finding the correlation between serious games based on multiple intelligences and the improvement of concentration and attention in students with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] and Specific Learning Disability [SLD].
Serious Games and Their Effect on Improving Attention in Students with Learning Disabilities
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The effect of ‘serious’ games on focus and attention Using the Tree of Intelligences (ToI) method, based on Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, serious games such as Cuibrain and Boogies Academy have improved the attention and concentration of students with ADHD and SLD. “Video games are increasingly used in the field of special education to support well-being, social skills, independent living, and inclusion in varied samples of students with special needs such as autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, and giftedness [8–11].” In other studies, serious games offer a fun learning environment for students that are often motivationally challenging. The authors also shared a study done by Garmen et al. showing that both serious games used in the study, called Boogies Academy and Cuibrain, also showed reduced anxiety levels in participants and an increasing level of self-concept after using both games as intervention. Because there is an increase in technology use in education, it has shaped the learning platforms we offer students. How can we then utilize this shift to improve cognitive processes?
The benefits of using serious games for students A quasi-experimental study with an experimental and control group was used. The 44 participants were aged 6-16 with either ADHD or SLD. Each participant completed 28 sessions (Two 10-minute sessions per week). Performance and observation measures (questionnaires for parents) were used to compare the attention profiles of both groups. Boogies Academy (6-10) was used for younger participants, and Cuibrain with the older participants (11-16). “This study was conducted in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association, named Declaration of Helsinki, which establishes the ethical principles for research involving humans [41].” After the study, the control group was also exposed to the intervention.
The results of the study confirm previous research that there is a potential for serious games to improve performance in attention and concentration. The authors’ study noticed the most significant increase in variables was performance accuracy. There was an improvement in accuracy, concentration, and the total effectiveness of the test. The value of technology and games in Learning As technology and video games have become essential in learning, the article implores educators and schools to consider using serious games based on multiple intelligences as an intervention to help students with ADHD and SLDs increase attention, concentration, and problem-solving skills. Based on performance measures, the results showed a general improvement in accuracy and concentration for both experimental and control groups. According to the parent questionnaire, there was no evidence to support that attention and concentration symptoms were reduced overall. Still, there is definite evidence of concentration and accuracy in the game improving after the sessions. “Previous research has highlighted the existence of a low correspondence between the scores of children and adolescents in traditional performance tests and the difficulties observed in various areas of daily life functioning, such as school or home, reported by different informants—particularly parents and teachers [44–48]. ” Overall, both games offer the potential to improve attention variables.
Notable Quotes “With respect to attentional variables assessed by means of performance measures (D2), the results indicated a general improvement in both the experimental and control groups after the intervention, with a general increase in concentration and accuracy.” “The main conclusion arising from these findings is the need to broaden the study of educational video games and their possible benefits to different cognitive variables and diverse populations, especially those with difficulties in the automation or control of cognitive processes, such as attention.” “These results invite consideration of the applicability of boosting different intelligences, talents or unique abilities through educational video games as an important bridge to improving areas of deficit, in this case, attention in students with learning disabilities.”
Personal Takeaway
The correlation between serious games and increased attention and concentration in students with ADHD and SLD allows educators to widen their repertoire regarding intervention. There are considerations for using these games based on multiple intelligences to improve areas of deficits-particularly the attention-of SLD students. According to Gardner’s theory, student strengths can be built up to counteract attention challenges. Serious games can either be incorporated into classrooms as the transition time to hone problem-solving skills or be used as reinforcements to strengthen attention and concentration at the end of the day. It would be great to see the transfer of concentration and attention from these games to classroom performance.
Nika Espinosa
Article Summarized:
García-Redondo, García, Areces, Núñez, & Rodríguez. (2019). Serious Games and Their Effect Improving Attention in Students with Learning Disabilities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(14), 2480. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142480
There exists much debate about the effects of digital technology environments on children. The study aimed to determine whether or not the use of an educational app can positively impact preschoolers’ attention development.
A connection to the Theory of Multiple Intelligence
Howard Gardner’s widely embraced Theory of Multiple Intelligences, though a subject of much criticism, might provide a valuable segue into how technological classrooms adopt similar scaffolds for encouraging diversity in the varying degrees of student strengths, development rates, and preferences for learning. Further, there continues to be mounting evidence for how gamification elements might serve to motivate and engage learners. Elements leading to this success are clearly stated goals, self-choice, and immediate feedback. Gamification allows for all three.
Neumann & Neumann (2013) suggest how previous studies’ conclusions on computer-based tasks, serious video games, or digital cognitive training games can be used as scaffolding tools to assist with children’s cognitive development.
Developing sustained attention in children
171 children between the ages of 3 and 4 years old were divided into experimental and control groups for a quasi-experimental study. The children were all from a northern city in China and the income and parents’ education levels from the school were in the average range of the city. The experimental group used an educational tablet app twice a week for 12 weeks in an effort to examine their sustained attention and attention orientation speed. Building on previous findings, educational digital apps could promote attention development in young children. The researchers believe their first hypothesis was proven, that tablet training with an educational app can foster sustained attention development in young children. However, their second hypothesis two – that tablet training with an educational app could accelerate young children’s attention orientation development – was inconclusive.
Sustained, but not gained
The results indicated that children in the experimental group had significantly longer fixation duration than that of the control group after 12 weeks of training using the app. However, the results did not provide evidence for accelerating the children’s orientation development. According to the study, attention in young children can be sustained but not necessarily gained from the use of technology apps. Yet, the researchers believe the outcomes show how educational game-based tablet apps lead to positive attention development in young children. The results of the study serve to reinforce previous research that children as young as 4 years old can have improvements in sustained attention with intervention.
Aside from limiting media usage, a suggestion for practice is allowing students to complete one task before moving on to another. This requires setting up an expectation for how many tasks, activities, or games children are engaged with, as this will allow for greater ease in student completion.
Notable Quotes:
“The study suggests more collaboration between educational organizations and software companies to create appropriate educational apps with built-in, routine school activities, and appropriate features for preschool students to operate, play, learn, and practice.”
“The main purpose of the study is to examine the effect of using an educational serious game in preschools on young children’s attention development. A preschool classroom has an environment full of visual, aural, or other distractions. Many empirical studies (Axelsson et al., 2016; Del Moral et al., 2015; Falloon, 2013; Neumann, 2014, 2018; Ramos & Melo, 2018; Walczak & Taylor, 2018) proceed with cognition, literacy, numeracy, and other digital interventions in school or classroom environments for the best ecological validity.“
“On the basis of the feedback from classroom teachers and children, a qualified, children-friendly app can play an important role in young children’s learning process… This implies that the school and the government should establish appropriate tablet- assisted educational serious game learning activities in preschool curricula. However, factors such as age, settings, children’s development level, teacher’s familiarity on an app content, and features have to be considered in the introduction of new technology. This requires evaluations and personal use experiences from educators and practitioners.”
Personal Takeaway
As an educator, the one element in the study that resonated most was the need for diversification of methods for how students might access learning. The tablet app provided for a range of activities, including video, drawings, nursery rhymes, and games versus a more traditional approach. Though evidence continues to be compiled for the positive effects of technology, the authors indicated how technology should be intentionally used and in balance. This aligns with my experiences in the classroom but also with years as a boarding school faculty house parent. The nature of this research centering on such young children and the introduction of technology only emphasizes the gravitas of intentionality
Matt Piercy
Summarized Article:
Wen Liu, Liting Tan, Dan Huang, Nan Chen & Fang Liu (2021) When Preschoolers Use Tablets: The Effect of Educational Serious Games on Children’s Attention Development, International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 37:3, 234-248, DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2020.1818999
If you asked me two years ago while I was in Teacher’s College what my dream job would be, I would have replied without hesitation…”Easy! A High School English teacher.” From a high schooler with a passion for reading to an undergraduate student taking English courses on everything from comics & cartoons to Shakespeare and dystopian narratives, I thrived in teaching placements where I was assigned to an English classroom. There was no better feeling than doing a read-aloud as a class and seeing a student engaged in a book for the first time all year or witnessing students discuss how a novel sparked their interest in a social justice issue and what they were going to do to get involved…or so I thought. This was before I had experienced a MARIO classroom. My first teaching position was as a High School Learning Support Associate. Correct, I did not accept a job as an English teacher and instead moved across the world to take a job in an area that I had no prior experience in (shocking, I know!). However, I would soon come to realize that this seemingly nonsensical decision would significantly change my career trajectory. It was in this learning support role that I was fortunate to be introduced to the MARIO Framework as my colleagues used the framework on a daily basis within the department and my mentor was in fact a highly-certified MARIO Educator. As I started to orient myself around campus and gain a better picture of what my new roles and responsibilities would be as an associate, I took time to observe my mentor in action. It was during this time of observation that a few things stood out to me about a MARIO classroom:
Students were willing to share about themselves as learners and individuals.
Within the first few minutes of class, students were sharing about their days, speaking honestly about what was going well and what was challenging, as well as openly sharing their authentic feelings, everything from tired and bored to nervous and excited. Until then, I had never met students who were so aware of their feelings and needs, let alone who were comfortable sharing these with a teacher (and sometimes their classmates) without fear of judgment.
Students were excited to become improved versions of themselves.
I witnessed students running into class practically bursting at the seems to share about their grade on a recent test, yet at the same time, would acknowledge that they crammed their studying and wanted to use the Pomodoro studying technique for their next assessment to improve their academic performance. What high school student gets excited about studying!?
Students were reflective thinkers and independent problem-solvers.
Students were describing situations and identifying actionable next steps that would bring them an appropriate conclusion with only subtle prompting from the teacher. Students were not being enabled, but rather empowered to find their own solutions.
Over the course of the semester, I became more confident in the use of the framework and began to co-lead some of the learning conversations alongside my mentor. Here, I witnessed powerful student transformations unlike anything else I had seen before and formed strong, trustful student-teacher relationships. As January rolled around, my one-year contract was halfway done, and it was time to make a decision. Do I stay in this role? Or do I leave and try to start my journey as an English teacher? If you are reading this letter, I guess it is obvious that I chose to stay. While there are a whole host of reasons that contributed to this decision, put simply, I could not imagine being in a job that did not allow me to put students first. In a MARIO classroom, students are everything. The conversations I have with my learners, the lessons that I create, and the celebrations and moments of growth they have, are all a result of what my students tell me is meaningful to them and my willingness to listen and respond appropriately.
Now, two years later, I have made the decision to leave. However, I am not leaving to become an English teacher (although I still love supporting students in their English classes) or because I do not enjoy what I do, but rather to further my career in special education as a full-time Learning Support Teacher because I love it so much. My colleagues can attest to the fact that I say “I love my job” at least once a day, and no, this is not an exaggeration. I love that student voices can shine and that I can have a genuinely student-driven classroom. I love that every day is different because students help inform what we discuss and what we learn. I love that parents/guardians notice tangible growth in their children. I love that students are excited about their learning and want to participate in the learning process after seeing and celebrating their own improvements. I love that I am part of a group of educators who are dedicated to improving their practice to best serve students. I love that I have a job that I enjoy so much that it makes it hard to leave the amazing students and colleagues who I have come to know. While I am sad that this chapter is closing, I could not be more excited to start my new position and continue to work at a job that I truly love for many more years to come. Thank you, MARIO, for helping me fall in love with an avenue of teaching that was never even on my radar.
“Don’t offer a lecture to a person who needs a hug” – Funmi Iyanda
Dear fellow educators,
As I write, it is nearing the end of the much-needed summer break after our third COVID teaching year. This pandemic has brought about so much hand-wringing stress and disorienting change to those in our line of work; I’ve ceased to think in terms of ‘years AD’ and am now measuring the passage of time in ‘years PP’ (post-pandemic). As in, “Maybe in 4 PP we’ll be teaching face-to-face for the whole year.” Or, “I wonder if I’ll be able to visit my friends in Tasmania/Beijing/Romania by 5 PP.” It would be comical if this were the plot of a new dystopian Netflix show and all the characters were shuffling around in hazmat suits; as it is, I can’t watch those shows anymore, because they all hit too close to home.
There have been moments in the last three years where all of my international teaching experience, parenting experience, life experience pre-Covid seemed to mean very little in the face of the volatility, instability, and ambiguity of the lives we were now forced to lead. Students have melted down in my office and refused to return to school for weeks. Colleagues have suffered distressing outbursts in staff meetings. My own mental well-being and that of my children is something I have to keep in careful balance every day, lest we all spiral into a Very. Bad. Place. A lot of the time it feels like I’m walking on a tightrope with my feet in flippers.
So, as I look toward the start of the new academic year, what can I carry forward in my teaching practice in ‘4 PP’?
Meticulously planned provocations, an exciting array of extracurricular activities, rigorous assessments designed with three levels of differentiation—all of these things mean nothing if we don’t first recognize that our learners are still in a state of chronic trauma. We need to stop and address their traumatized brains first; only then can we expect them to be ready for academic learning.
Our autonomic nervous systems have evolved to respond to stress in three different ways. On the less adaptive end of the continuum are the fight/flight and freeze responses. The extreme pressures that have come from lengthy isolation and the constant threat of loss—loss of income, loss of freedoms, loss of loved ones—has made many of us more likely to resort to these more primitive responses, through no choice of our own.
The third, more evolved response to stress is our ability to lean on those close to us for support and security. This is known as our social engagement system, which is developed through consistent empathic treatment from humans around us, and the single most important factor in soothing a brain that has become susceptible to fight/flight or freeze is human-to-human connection. The act of having someone listen to us, validate our feelings, and work with us to solve problems has proved to be highly effective in activating this type of response and forms the basis of many existing therapeutic approaches.
Of course, every student deals with trauma differently—some to a greater or lesser degree than others. Learners whose brains have become more prone, over prolonged hardship, to default to fight/flight or freeze tend to demonstrate the most maladaptive classroom behaviors. This can be incredibly challenging, especially when our own autonomic nervous systems are overburdened. But here’s the bottom line; knowing where the behavior is coming from is hugely consequential. When we handle our students’ emotional dysregulation in a way that is compassionate and solutions-oriented, we also soothe ourselves, because it allows us to be more consistent in our interactions and promotes positive relationships between us and our learners.
This is why I strongly believe that my training in The MARIO Framework could not have come at a more opportune time. I already knew from experience that children and young people need meaningful connections in order to learn, but MARIO has shown me how to operationalize this concept in the classroom through one-to-one learning in a way that is both flexible and powerful.
When you start having structured, intentional one-to-one sessions with students, one thing is absolutely guaranteed; your relationships with each of them will be deepened. Once I began to truly listen to my learners, they opened up in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated and told me things about their lives that I never would have known otherwise. Some of this can certainly be intense. There have been disclosures that made me run to our child protection officer as soon as class was over. With that said, there is a real comfort in knowing that I am able to forge connections with a child or young person that contributes, in a tangible way, to their long-term well-being.
My students’ post-pandemic mental health has been, and continues to be, a significant worry. As with all things in special education, there is no quick fix for this. And as a school year wears on and anxiety over IEP goals mounts, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to muscle through academic skill-building to the detriment of my learners’ emotional needs. Nevertheless, being able to implement The MARIO Approach in my classroom and understanding why those high-impact strategies work has been my port in the storm these past couple of years. I know that as long as I stay focused on my one-to-one relationships with my students, we’ll be able to get each other through.
With affection and gratitude,
Akane
Knowledge construction refers to the ways that students solve problems and construct their own understanding of concepts, phenomena, and situations. In other words, how students learn. The current understanding of knowledge construction in game-based learning environments is limited. While studies have linked the adoption of mobile serious games (digital games for learning) and improvements in learning performance and student engagement few have conclusively shown an improvement in learning outcomes.
The authors wanted to specifically examine what knowledge-construction behaviors are exhibited by elementary school students when using serious games and how these behaviors differ across academic performance levels.
The Phases of Knowledge Construction
Academics in the field typically divide knowledge construction behavior into phases or types. The IAM model used by the researchers follows the following five phases: 1) sharing or comparing of information about problems 2) discovery and exploration of dissonance or inconsistency among ideas 3) negotiation of meaning or co-construction of knowledge 4) testing and modification of proposed syntheses or co-construction; 5) agreement statements, or applications of newly constructed meanings. Typically, knowledge construction behaviors are low among elementary school students since they are still developing self-regulation skills and have relatively weaker abstract thinking abilities.
Skills Necessary for Knowledge Construction
The study had 83 participants in classes across third, fifth, and sixth grade in an urban public elementary school in Beijing, China. All participants had more than two years of prior mobile technology-enhanced classroom learning experience. The authors and researchers developed an app that would provide a “personalized, game-like and task-driven self-paced learning environment” about the Chinese mid-Autumn festival to collect the needed data. The app was implemented as a self-paced learning material for four weeks and participants were encouraged to go explore in classes. Teachers were present in the room but did not deliver any lectures.
Performance groups were decided based on participants’ overall accuracy rates when using the app, the high-performing group included the top 25% of students, while the low-performing group the bottom 25%. Differences between the two groups were then analyzed. “The students showed a clear capacity to regulate their learning in a mobile serious game environment.” They demonstrated agency, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation skills. “Results also indicated that, if coupled with feedback, a simple game-like design can empower children to construct their knowledge independently.”
The data also illustrated an interesting difference between the two performance groups. The low-performing group rarely studied or re-studied learning material after they answered a question incorrectly. Whereas the high-performing group tended to go back to try to renegotiate meaning and re-constructed knowledge to modify errors in previous understandings. The low-performing group also tended to watch learning materials repeatedly, getting stuck in a negotiating-of-meaning cycle as they tried different answers again and again.
Creating Systems To Identify Learning Patterns
Students can self-regulate their learning, as early as elementary school, without intervention by teachers. However, low-performing students may need to adjust their learning strategies around self-monitoring and self-evaluation when in self-paced environments. Designers of such technology can facilitate this by creating systems that can identify certain learning patterns and alert users about them. In addition, they could add app features that facilitate social interaction so that students can engage in collective and shared regulation of learning.
Notable Quotes:
“One limitation of empirical measurement of learning-behavior patterns is that it cannot capture how students learn in technology-enhanced environments.”
“To engage in technology-enhanced self-regulated learning effectively individuals must be able to make reasonable determinations of what, when, and how to learn.”
“…when students used self-monitoring record forms right after they started their learning and before they completed it, their learning outcomes and motivation both increased.”
Personal Takeaway
Students, regardless of age, are capable of self-regulated learning and can construct knowledge through independent self-paced learning. Given that self-regulation and self-directed learning is a continuum, educators may still need to provide support to some students. This could be achieved through explicit instruction in self-monitoring and self-evaluation skills to aid the student in reflecting on their learning process.
Ayla Reau
Summarized Article:
Sun, Z., Lin, CH., Lv, K. et al. Knowledge-construction behaviors in a mobile learning environment: a lag-sequential analysis of group differences. Education Tech Research Dev 69, 533–551 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-09938-x.
Within American school districts, there is a call to reimagine what inclusive education looks like to respond to the overall need for equity. As a means to initiate this transformation, the study seeks to assess the current understandings of inclusive education amongst a triad of stakeholders (school administrators, special educators and general educators) in order to outline next steps for creating inclusive schools.
Inclusive Practices in Planning Professional Development Opportunities
School administrators play a significant role in ensuring that all stakeholders in the school commit to equity, including all staff, parents/guardians, and students. Thus, when planning professional development opportunities, school leadership must carefully consider how both general and special educators can be collaboratively involved in professional learning contexts regarding inclusive practices. However, it is also important to acknowledge that it takes time for inclusive practices to become institutionalized (5 or more years) and administrators should be prepared to encounter some level of resistance given the disruptions to the status quo, including but not limited to shifts in power dynamics, established practices, and the role of the teacher as an expert to a learner. All members of the school community must be willing to grow, experiment, and learn in order to initiate positive changes in the area of inclusion.
Feedback From General Educators vs Special Educators
Ricci, Scheier-Dolberg, & Perkins’ study surveyed K-12 administrators, special educators, and general educators from 21 U.S. schools across 9 districts in Southern California and Las Vegas areas. The participants worked in both charter and public schools. Through the collection of written responses to a series of questions, the researchers were able to identify emerging themes that served as part of their qualitative analysis. The study revealed that all stakeholders agreed that inclusive education prioritizes focusing on every learner as an individual, emphasizing practices that are centered around relationship building, providing appropriate accommodations and modifications, and meeting the needs of all learners. However, special educators were amongst the most to comment on this theme as important compared to general educators and administrators. Other significant themes that arose from the results included: a focus on the school, focus on the content, focus on instruction, focus on providing support for teachers, focus on personal characteristics, and a focus on collaboration.
Collaboration Needed Between Different Departments in a School
As discussed in the article, “collaboration between administrators, general educators, and special educators is needed to understand the frames of reference (e.g. the beliefs, values, experiences, and expectations that affect how individuals perceive and react to situations) that each stakeholder brings to the school and how these assets can be leveraged to promote inclusive practices.” Ricci et al. highlight that schools must move away from the idea that inclusion is the sole responsibility of special educators, but rather that inclusion is a shared practice across the school community. Thus, professional development opportunities that encourage stakeholders to reflect on their own practices and see inclusion through the perspectives of one another must be provided to achieve the goal of fully inclusive schools.
Notable Quotes:
“We believe that it is important to cast aside this rigidity in role-based responsibilities to move all stakeholders toward taking ownership for all aspects of schooling and for all students. This calls for special educators to become content experts as well, just as general educators should increase their skills in differentiation of instruction for all learners.”
“Despite the importance of collaboration among stakeholders for promoting inclusive practices, it is noteworthy that focus on collaboration with others was the theme least often mentioned. This finding lends itself to the question of who is ‘in charge’ of collaboration? This highlights the importance of administrators taking a stronger lead in facilitating crucial conversations between general and special educators to promote inclusive practices at their school sites.”
“Our schools are in urgent need of transformational leadership approaches that bring all adults in a school building together to seek solutions to barriers to teaching and learning for all students, regardless of ability.”
Personal Takeaway
As a special educator, collaboration is a key part of providing effective support for my learners. Working in partnership with administrators, general educators, educational professionals, students, and their families, creates the strong foundation needed to support positive learning outcomes. Therefore, as the article suggests, providing increased professional development opportunities for various stakeholders to exchange ideas and practices regarding inclusion will likely strengthen the overall inclusivity of the school community, positively impacting student performance and wellbeing. As special educators, we must advocate for inclusion and help to create a space for members of our school communities to embark on this professional learning journey alongside us — a point strongly emphasized in Ricci et al’s. article.
Taryn McBrayne
Summarized Article:
Ricci, L., Scheier-Dolberg, S., & Perkins, B. (2022). Transforming triads for inclusion: understanding frames of reference of special educators, general educators, and administrators engaging in collaboration for inclusion of all learners, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(5), 526-539, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2019.1699609.
The question of how learners’ motivation influences their academic achievement and vice versa has been the subject of intensive research due to its theoretical relevance and important implications for the field of education. This study shows how influential theories of academic motivation have conceptualized reciprocal interactions between motivation and achievement, and the kinds of evidence that support this reciprocity.
Mediating Factors Between Motivation and Achievement
Motivation and emotion can be a difficult line to draw. Both of these concepts can interact, although emotions are depicted as more temporary than motivation. For instance, certain emotions can either enhance or obstruct motivation. Just like how there have been studies on the relationship between motivation and student achievement, there are recent studies on the reciprocal relationship between emotions and student achievement.
There are several mediating factors between motivation and achievement. When effort is measured as quality of learning (e.g., selecting adaptive goals, adopting higher-quality learning strategies, etc.), there is some evidence for a positive link between academic achievement and effort. However, when effort is measured as a quantity of learning (such as study time, practice time, time-on-task, persistence, etc.), this relationship seems either weak or only significant after controlling for quality of learning. Another mediating factor can be self-regulation, as some theories suggest motivation only leads to the decision to act.
Finding of Studies Performed on Motivation and Achievement
Most studies (this article summarized multiple studies) investigating the reciprocal relationship between motivation and achievement have measured motivation through questionnaires probing academic self-concept (e.g., the Academic SelfDescription Questionnaire by Marsh & O’Neill, 1984). The studies interpreting the connection between motivation and achievement lack a causal relationship. In almost every study investigating reciprocal motivation and achievement relations, the need for experimental designs, in which either motivation or achievement is manipulated, is raised as a suggestion for future research.
The Influence of Motivation on Achievement
All the theories examined suggested that there are positive influences of motivation on achievement and vice versa. There is also a very strong relationship between motivation and student achievement. One of the hardest problems to solve is the lack of studies that allow for firm causal inferences. While there are studies that lack a controlled variable, there are other studies that do have a causal effect but consist of a third or hidden variable.
Notable Quotes:
“This led to a research agenda consisting of the following recommendations for future studies on the relationship between motivation and performance: (1) include multiple motivation constructs (on top of ASC), (2) investigate behavioral mediators, (3) consider a network approach, (4) align frequency of measurement to expected change rate in intended constructs and include multiple time scales to better understand influences across time-scales, (5) check whether designs meet the criteria for measuring causal, reciprocal inferences, (6) choose an appropriate statistical model, (7) apply alternatives to self-reports, (8) consider various ways of measuring achievement, and (9) strive for generalization of the findings to various age, ethnic, and sociocultural groups.”
“We argued that the strongest support for causal claims on motivation-achievement relations would be studies manipulating either motivation or achievement at one time point and studying the effects on motivation-achievement interactions across subsequent time points.”
“…there might be culture-dependent or population-specific pathways connecting the relationship between motivation and achievement.”
Summarized Article:
Vu, T., Magis-Weinberg, L., Jansen, B. R. J., van Atteveldt, N., Janssen, T. W. P., Lee, N. C., van der Maas, H. L. J., Raijmakers, M. E. J., Sachisthal, M. S. M., & Meeter, M. (2022). Motivation-Achievement Cycles in Learning: a Literature Review and Research Agenda. Educational Psychology Review, 34(1), 39–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09616-7.
Summarized By: Michael Ho
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The number of students with registered disabilities enrolling in colleges and universities across the United States is continuing to increase, speaking to the myriad of improvements and advancements in technology, legislation, and treatment over the past few decades. Such advances have resulted in the creation of more inclusive learning environments for individuals with disabilities and have improved overall access to higher education. However, students with disabilities continue to face barriers when it comes to integrating in postsecondary institutions. Campus counseling centers have been suggested as a positive way to provide support for students with disabilities who are experiencing academic and/or psychological distress, yet little is known about the use or effectiveness of these services. O’Shea et al.’s (2021) study serves to close this research gap by determining the effectiveness of campus-based individual counseling for students with disabilities.
To disclose disabilities, or not?
While there is an overall hesitation for students to disclose their disability to their college/university, the impact of social and structural stigmatization on students’ reluctance to disclose may be more pronounced for students with certain types of disabilities. On U.S. campuses, psychiatric disabilities (commonly including disorders such as depression, bipolar, anxiety, or schizophrenia) continue to be the largest and fastest growing sub-category of disability amongst college students (Americans With Disabilities Act, 2018), and yet are also often surrounded by the most stigma.
Research indicates that “students with disabilities are at a higher risk in comparison to their peers of experiencing mental health issues on campus, including increased rates of anxiety, academic distress, suicidality, and self-injury (Coduti et al., 2016).” Such statistics further emphasize the need for accessible and high-quality support services on campus.
The Chinese education context is characterized by high-stakes testing and exam systems and more authoritative teaching styles. This highly competitive system has caused unique features of depression in Chinese students. Meta-analyses suggest that contrary to the gender differences reported in Western cultures for Chinese primary and middle school students there are no significant gender differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms. The great value that Chinese culture places on interpersonal harmony also means that the quality of interpersonal relationships exerted a stronger impact on depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents than in their western counterparts.
The importance of teacher autonomy support
This research is based on a 3-year longitudinal study. Data was collected as part of a large-scale educational assessment of all schools in the Mentou-gou School District, which is located in the western area of Beijing, China. In total, 1613 4th-grade students from 25 primary schools and 1397 7th-grade students from 14 middle schools were recruited during the baseline assessment in 2014. Tracking the same group of students, a second and third assessment was implemented in 2015 and 2016. “The results of this study revealed that for both the primary and middle school samples, teacher autonomy support and teacher–student relationships consistently buffered the students’ depressive symptoms over time.” These findings align with the conclusions from previous studies.
The importance of teacher-student relationships
Gender differences were only present in the primary school sample, with females having a lower initial score that increased significantly over time, compared to the male students whose scores declined over time. In middle school, depressive symptoms increased significantly with a similar rate of change regardless of gender, although females still maintained a higher baseline. The authors suggest that this is different from the Western cultural context (where female students were more likely to show a higher rate of increased depressive symptoms than their male peers) because of Chinese cultural influences. Female students who are more likely to follow and obey rules would receive more positive feedback from teachers and parents, and Chinese females typically academically outperform their male peers at this age, both of which could act as protective factors.
Students who had higher socioeconomic backgrounds reported lower levels of depressive symptoms. This finding is consistent with current research.
“The study confirmed the significant effects of teachers’ autonomous and supportive strategies on reducing students’ depressive symptoms in both primary and middle school.” In China, studies have found that interpersonal stress significantly predicted the depression levels of Chinese pupils. This implies that teacher-student relationships are an especially crucial factor in students’ development in a Chinese context, with a higher potential impact to offset students’ depressive symptoms.
Notable Quotes:
“As indicated by this study, establishing a harmonious and autonomy-supportive school environment could benefit students in many ways and might reduce the potential risks of psychological problems. This implication is particularly meaningful in the schooling context, where the general teaching styles are less autonomy supportive.”
“Therefore, schools should provide teachers with training programmes regarding need-supportive teaching strategies and enhance teachers’ awareness of the importance of mental health.”
“To empower students with more autonomy, teachers could provide students with opportunities to express their thoughts and make choices, show concern for students’ negative emotions, and use noncontrolling language during instruction. In addition, teachers could improve students’ sense of relatedness by listening, expressing care, and being available during difficulties.”
Personal Takeaway:
This study serves as further research on the importance of positive student-teacher relationships and the benefits it has for teaching and learning as well as meeting a student’s developmental, emotional and academic needs. It also highlights the benefits of promoting student autonomy in the learning process. When students are given voice and choice they are more empowered, engaged, and connected to the learning environment, ultimately having positive impacts on both their academic and mental-wellbeing.
Ayla Reau
Summarized Article:
Zhang, D., Jin, B., & Cui, Y. (2021). Do teacher autonomy support and teacher–student relationships influence students’ depression? A 3-year longitudinal study. School Mental Health: A Multidisciplinary Research and Practice Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09456-4
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The prevalence of depression among adolescents and early adolescents in China has received more attention in recent years. Few studies have examined the influence of both autonomy and relatedness support combined as a protective and corrective effect on depression. The authors find the Chinese context a “strong testing ground for the universal importance of the combined impacts of autonomy and relatedness support on depression.” The authors examine the trends in depression in a 3-year longitudinal study investigating the impacts of teacher autonomy and support and teacher-student relationships on students’ depressive symptoms.
How teachers can help students
Some studies have shown that teacher autonomy support can act as a protective factor against student depression. In a teaching context, this means providing students with choice, providing rationale for tasks, showing respect and allowing the expression of negative effects.
Again studies have indicated that positive teacher-student relationships act as a protective factor against student depressive symptoms, including enhancing students’ social competence.
The Chinese education context is characterized by high-stakes testing and exam systems and more authoritative teaching styles. This highly competitive system has caused unique features of depression in Chinese students. Meta-analyses suggest that contrary to the gender differences reported in Western cultures for Chinese primary and middle school students there are no significant gender differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms. The great value that Chinese culture places on interpersonal harmony also means that the quality of interpersonal relationships exerted a stronger impact on depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents than in their western counterparts.
The importance of teacher autonomy support
This research is based on a 3-year longitudinal study. Data was collected as part of a large-scale educational assessment of all schools in the Mentou-gou School District, which is located in the western area of Beijing, China. In total, 1613 4th-grade students from 25 primary schools and 1397 7th-grade students from 14 middle schools were recruited during the baseline assessment in 2014. Tracking the same group of students, a second and third assessment was implemented in 2015 and 2016. “The results of this study revealed that for both the primary and middle school samples, teacher autonomy support and teacher–student relationships consistently buffered the students’ depressive symptoms over time.” These findings align with the conclusions from previous studies.
The importance of teacher-student relationships
Gender differences were only present in the primary school sample, with females having a lower initial score that increased significantly over time, compared to the male students whose scores declined over time. In middle school, depressive symptoms increased significantly with a similar rate of change regardless of gender, although females still maintained a higher baseline. The authors suggest that this is different from the Western cultural context (where female students were more likely to show a higher rate of increased depressive symptoms than their male peers) because of Chinese cultural influences. Female students who are more likely to follow and obey rules would receive more positive feedback from teachers and parents, and Chinese females typically academically outperform their male peers at this age, both of which could act as protective factors.
Students who had higher socioeconomic backgrounds reported lower levels of depressive symptoms. This finding is consistent with current research.
“The study confirmed the significant effects of teachers’ autonomous and supportive strategies on reducing students’ depressive symptoms in both primary and middle school.” In China, studies have found that interpersonal stress significantly predicted the depression levels of Chinese pupils. This implies that teacher-student relationships are an especially crucial factor in students’ development in a Chinese context, with a higher potential impact to offset students’ depressive symptoms.
Notable Quotes:
“As indicated by this study, establishing a harmonious and autonomy-supportive school environment could benefit students in many ways and might reduce the potential risks of psychological problems. This implication is particularly meaningful in the schooling context, where the general teaching styles are less autonomy supportive.”
“Therefore, schools should provide teachers with training programmes regarding need-supportive teaching strategies and enhance teachers’ awareness of the importance of mental health.”
“To empower students with more autonomy, teachers could provide students with opportunities to express their thoughts and make choices, show concern for students’ negative emotions, and use noncontrolling language during instruction. In addition, teachers could improve students’ sense of relatedness by listening, expressing care, and being available during difficulties.”
Personal Takeaway:
This study serves as further research on the importance of positive student-teacher relationships and the benefits it has for teaching and learning as well as meeting a student’s developmental, emotional and academic needs. It also highlights the benefits of promoting student autonomy in the learning process. When students are given voice and choice they are more empowered, engaged, and connected to the learning environment, ultimately having positive impacts on both their academic and mental-wellbeing.
Ayla Reau
Summarized Article:
Zhang, D., Jin, B., & Cui, Y. (2021). Do teacher autonomy support and teacher–student relationships influence students’ depression? A 3-year longitudinal study. School Mental Health: A Multidisciplinary Research and Practice Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09456-4
Listen to this article
00:00
While there are many studies out there that examine the general intrinsic motivation for physical activity, little research has been done on emotions as a crucial factor in understanding student motivation in a PE setting. By considering the students’ subjective emotional experiences, a more holistic understanding of physical activity behavior change and why students are not getting enough daily physical activity can be better understood.
The levels of physical activity in school-aged children
In Germany, only 22.4% of girls and 29.4% of boys aged 3 to 17 reach the WHO guideline of physical activity, and their physical activity significantly decreases from age 3 to 17. Therefore, a deeper understanding of emotions among students during physical activity will better inform what is triggering their regular physical activity during leisure time. In addition, the control-value theory of learning and achievement emotions serves as an appropriate and established theoretical framework, as it presents antecedents and outcomes of emotions in school settings.
The benefits of perceived autonomy supports in student self-efficacy
The sample consisted of 1030 student participants between 11 and 18 years who attended Grades 6 to 10 of the German Mittelschule, which is a type of school with the lowest educational level among secondary schools in Germany. 408 participants were female (39.6%), and 622 participants were male (60.4%). Whether or not the PE teacher was perceived to be providing cognitive autonomy and organizational autonomy supports positively predicted students’ academic self-efficacy in PE.
Furthermore, the students’ academic self-efficacy in PE positively predicted their enjoyment in PE, which had a negative effect on their anxiety in PE. The intrinsic value that students identified in PE also positively predicted students’ enjoyment and negatively predicted their anxiety.
The students’ enjoyment in PE was a positive predictor of their physical activity during leisure time.
Finally, perceived cognitive autonomy support provided by the PE teacher positively predicted students’ physical activity in leisure time via students’ PE-related academic self-efficacy, intrinsic value, enjoyment and anxiety.
Creating positive emotional experiences
If students are provided the opportunity to influence their learning environment, they tend to have higher action-control expectancies and assign more relevance to their PE class. PE can be seen as a potentially powerful platform for the promotion of leisure-time physical activity, especially if it is conducted in a way that evokes regular positive achievement emotions in students while keeping negative ones on a minor level. This study suggests a substantial potential of emotional experiences in PE as a powerful predictor of physical behavior outside of school.
Notable Quotes:
“Positive emotional experiences in PE could be seen as a main factor to increase physical activity in a lifelong perspective and could thus help students to improve their overall health.”
“PE teachers have the opportunity to create positive emotional experiences for students and to reduce the experience of negative emotions by use of autonomy-supportive teaching strategies.”
“PE exhibits the potential to affect students’ thoughts and feelings related to PE in leisure time and thus is a promising starting point for children and adolescents with regard to an active lifestyle in the long term.”
Personal Takeaway:
As special educators, we tend to focus on our students’ core subjects. We may easily forget the importance of PE and how emotions can play a big role in their motivation to do well in their physical activity. The findings of this study allow me to attend to the students’ emotional experience during physical activity in recess and PE classes. It will also allow me to use autonomy-supportive teaching strategies by considering the environment and creating opportunities in the classroom for physical activities they enjoy.
Michael Ho
Summarized Article:
Zimmermann, J.; Tilga, H.; Bachner, J.; Demetriou, Y. The Effect of Teacher Autonomy Support on Leisure-Time Physical Activity via Cognitive Appraisals and Achievement Emotions: A Mediation Analysis Based on the Control-Value Theory. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 3987. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083987
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