scholarly journals Effects of Pairing on the Relationships between Motivation and Task Performance in an Interactive Task

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. p451
Author(s):  
Katsuyuki Konno ◽  
Tsutomu Koga ◽  
Atsumi Yamaguchi

This study investigates how learners’ own motivational variables are related to task performance and how learners’ task performance is influenced by their partners’ motivational variables in an interactive task. A total of 28 Japanese first year university students engaged in a computer mediated, decision making task, and the number of words produced and turns taken during the task was counted as their task performance. Questionnaires were administered to measure eight motivational dispositions related to the task. Correlation analyses were used to examine the relationships between task motivation and performance. The results showed that (a) learners’ task motivation was positively correlated with task performance, suggesting a positive role of task motivation in performing a task and (b) learners’ task performance was negatively correlated with the interlocutors’ task motivation, except for the highly motivated pairs, which implied limited effects of pair work. This study finally provides some pedagogical and future implications.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Chamine ◽  
Barry S. Oken

Objective. Stress-reducing therapies help maintain cognitive performance during stress. Aromatherapy is popular for stress reduction, but its effectiveness and mechanism are unclear. This study examined stress-reducing effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function using the go/no-go (GNG) task performance and event related potentials (ERP) components sensitive to stress. The study also assessed the importance of expectancy in aromatherapy actions.Methods. 81 adults were randomized to 3 aroma groups (active experimental, detectable, and undetectable placebo) and 2 prime subgroups (prime suggesting stress-reducing aroma effects or no-prime). GNG performance, ERPs, subjective expected aroma effects, and stress ratings were assessed at baseline and poststress.Results. No specific aroma effects on stress or cognition were observed. However, regardless of experienced aroma, people receiving a prime displayed faster poststress median reaction times than those receiving no prime. A significant interaction for N200 amplitude indicated divergent ERP patterns between baseline and poststress for go and no-go stimuli depending on the prime subgroup. Furthermore, trends for beneficial prime effects were shown on poststress no-go N200/P300 latencies and N200 amplitude.Conclusion. While there were no aroma-specific effects on stress or cognition, these results highlight the role of expectancy for poststress response inhibition and attention.



Author(s):  
A.V. Shishkin ◽  
◽  
L.A. Bekhovykh

The article shows the role of the student scientific society in attracting students to research work at the university. On the example of the student scientific society "Geosphere" of the Department of Geodesy, Physics and Engineering Structures of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering of the Altai State Agrarian University, a mechanism for involving first-year students in research work is presented. The structure, organization, directions and forms of work of the circle, the main projects being implemented, are also given, an assessment of the results of its activities and the most significant achievements are given. The positive role of the student scientific society in increasing the effectiveness of research work of students at the university is noted.



2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fátima Faya Cerqueiro ◽  
Ana Martín-Macho Harrison

The integration of clickers in Higher Education settings has proved to be particularly useful for enhancing motivation, engagement and performance; for developing cooperative or collaborative tasks; for checking understanding during the lesson; or even for assessment purposes. This paper explores and exemplifies three uses of Socrative, a mobile application specifically designed as a clicker for the classroom. Socrative was used during three sessions with the same group of first-year University students at a Faculty of Education. One of these sessions—a review lesson—was gamified, whereas the other two—a collaborative reading activity seminar, and a lecture—were not. Ad-hoc questionnaires were distributed after each of them. Results suggest that students welcome the use of clickers and that combining them with gamification strategies may increase students’ perceived satisfaction. The experiences described in this paper show how Socrative is an effective means of providing formative feedback and may actually save time during lessons.



2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Kormos ◽  
Yvonne Préfontaine

The present mixed-methods study examined the role of learner appraisals of speech tasks in second language (L2) French fluency. Forty adult learners in a Canadian immersion program participated in the study that compared four sources of data: (1) objectively measured utterance fluency in participants’ performances of three narrative tasks differing in their conceptualization and formulation demands, (2) a questionnaire on their interest, task-related anxiety, task motivation, and perceived success in task-completion, (3) an interview in which they elaborated on their perceptions of the tasks, and (4) subjective ratings of their performances by three native speakers. Findings showed the cognitive demands of tasks were associated with learners’ affective responses to tasks as well as objective and subjective measures of fluency. Furthermore, task-related anxiety and perceived success in task completion were the most important affective factors associated with fluent task performance, whereas interest and task motivation were correlated with native speakers’ fluency ratings. These results are discussed in terms of how task design and implementation can contribute to enhanced task motivation and performance in the classroom.



2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kuschmierz ◽  
Anna Beniermann ◽  
Alexander Bergmann ◽  
Rianne Pinxten ◽  
Tuomas Aivelo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular, meaningful comparisons across European countries, with their varying cultural backgrounds and education systems, are rare, often include only few countries, and lack standardization. To address these deficits, we conducted a standardized European survey, on 9200 first-year university students in 26 European countries utilizing a validated, comprehensive questionnaire, the “Evolution Education Questionnaire”, to assess evolution acceptance and knowledge, as well as influencing factors on evolution acceptance. Results We found that, despite European countries’ different cultural backgrounds and education systems, European first-year university students generally accept evolution. At the same time, they lack substantial knowledge about it, even if they are enrolled in a biology-related study program. Additionally, we developed a multilevel-model that determines religious faith as the main influencing factor in accepting evolution. According to our model, knowledge about evolution and interest in biological topics also increase acceptance of evolution, but to a much lesser extent than religious faith. The effect of age and sex, as well as the country’s affiliation, students’ denomination, and whether or not a student is enrolled in a biology-related university program, is negligible. Conclusions Our findings indicate that, despite all their differences, most of the European education systems for upper secondary education lead to acceptance of evolution at least in university students. It appears that, at least in this sample, the differences in knowledge between countries reflect neither the extent to which school curricula cover evolutionary biology nor the percentage of biology-related students in the country samples. Future studies should investigate the role of different European school curricula, identify particularly problematic or underrepresented evolutionary concepts in biology education, and analyze the role of religious faith when teaching evolution.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elizabeth Marie Chinlund

<p>This study comprised an investigation of the longitudinal achievement of New Zealand first-year undergraduate students (n=967) who transitioned to their degrees through the Certificate of University Preparation (CUP) programme at Victoria University of Wellington between 2008 and 2012 and the role of preparation and engagement on their achievement. Certain student behaviours, development of study skills, importance of academic challenge, and emphasis on academic support were all correlated with later university achievement. Although engagement is a highly acclaimed concept, its links to achievement were unsubstantiated. Using linear regressions, students' academic perseverance and their achievement in CUP each uniquely predicted first-year university degree programme achievement. CUP students' university achievement was higher than mainstream students with similar secondary school achievement, based on a statistical model of achievement that accounted for the relative difficulty of achieving each result. These findings indicate that the CUP programme was effective in preparing learners to access and achieve in university.</p>



2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-372
Author(s):  
Andy Chung ◽  
Graham Harding ◽  
Joonhong Kim ◽  
Koot Van Wyk

Three aspects prompted this study: why are females in first year university in a countryside campus performing better than males as opposed to high school where the reverse is the case? Why are there waves of performance increases semester by semester? Why is there in the second semester always an increase in performance over the first semester? For this matter the researchers took a number of participants in total over the period 2012-2016, namely 3,963 students in Freshman English at a countryside campus (Sangju) for Kyungpook National University as their target. In the year 2016, only the first semester was calculated in this research. Three aspects were considered as far as data is concerned: attendance variables, grade variables and gender. Performances were always better in the second semester over the first and females almost always outperformed the males. What also came up as secondary considerations, are questions whether the environment like nature and the role of ‘table- talk’ of parents reverberating or not the GDP of the country over the period may have had an effect on the students. It was found when the GDP went up the students’ performance took a break but when the GDP is low the students increased their focus and performed better as their grades indicated. These last aspects were just mere observations and should be carried out with further investigation elsewhere. The attendance of females was always showing better attendance results than males for Freshmen at Sangju Campus, South Korea. While the GDP dropped and rose through the years investigated, the attendance of the students did not display a serious rise and fall but remained almost unchanged.





Identity ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazumi Sugimura ◽  
Noriko Shimizu


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