scholarly journals Can Students' Attitudes and Behaviors be Changed by Educational Interventions?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (29) ◽  
pp. 14-33
Author(s):  
Vidar Gynnild ◽  
John Sølve Tyssedal

This study examined engineering students’ attitudes and behaviors in a first-year Calculus course. Not  surprisingly, High School mathematics and physics grades correlated closely with self-reported Calculus grades, and a student survey conducted four years apart demonstrated almost identical attitudes and behaviors despite the introduction of a range of measures aimed to enhance learning. The better the grades, the fairer students deemed it to be, and the less of in-depth learning, the poorer the grades. The higher the ambitions, and the more active and hardworking, the better the grades. Academic success factors included an ability to keep pace with progression, and a commitment to advance learning. The minimal impact of interventions appears as surprising; however, this study brings perspectives to make sense of such data, also capable of producing greater future successes.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saiki Lucy Cheah ◽  
Lihong Huang

This study uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016 (ICCS 2016) conducted in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden (students, N=18,962; teachers, N=6,119; school principals, N=630). We look at students’ attitudes, awareness, and behavior in relation to the educational goals and pedagogical means of teachers and school leaders working toward environmental citizenship. Drawing on the pragmatic framework of John Dewey and the contemporary experiential learning model, we identify some key school conditions and pedagogical approaches to education for environmental citizenship education. Based on the whole-school approach to environmental education, we seek to understand in what ways school environment and educational practices may positively affect student attitudes and behaviors that promote environmental citizenship. The objective is to identify the extent to which the school environment and citizenship educational activities are efficacious in fostering environmental citizenship attitudes and behaviors in students.


Author(s):  
Liz Jackson ◽  
Ming Fai Pang ◽  
Emma Brown ◽  
Sean Cain ◽  
Caroline Dingle ◽  
...  

Purpose – Although researchers have identified correlations between specific attitudes and particular behaviors in the pro-environmental domain, the general relationship between young people’s development of environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors is not well understood. Past research indicates that geographic context can play a role, while social factors such as age and gender can have a more significant impact on predicting attitudes and behaviors than formal education. Few studies have systematically examined the relationships between education and environmental attitudes and behaviors among youth in Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study comparing secondary school students’ environmental attitudes and behaviors with age and related factors in two international schools and two government schools in Hong Kong. Students’ attitudes and behaviors were compared based on school type (curriculum), while the authors additionally compared the significance of social factors and attitudes on students’ behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – Attitudes were measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the NEP for Children (NEPC), the most commonly used, internationally standardized tools for investigating environmental attitudes and values of adults and young people for comparative purposes. The authors compared NEP/NEPC scores and student self-reported environmental behaviors using a short questionnaire. Findings – No significant differences were found in attitudes or behaviors based on school type. However the authors did observe a significant effect of gender and age on students’ attitudes, and a significant correlation of student attitudes in the NEP with students’ self-reports regarding air conditioning consumption. Originality/value – This study builds a foundation for cross-national studies and for evaluating the impact of curricula over time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Tara D. Hudson ◽  
Alyssa N. Rockenbach ◽  
Matthew J. Mayhew ◽  
Lini Zhang

Background One of the most influential factors shaping college students’ prosocial development—the development of attitudes and behaviors that involve positive engagement within one's community and larger society—is the peer group. Friends have an especially important influence on students’ learning and development because of the time and emotional investment friendship involves. While ample research documents the association between college students’ friendships across racial differences and the development of prosocial attitudes and behaviors, the question of whether friendships across other social boundaries may also do so remains. Purpose This study was guided by the theory of civic friendship, which posits that friendships that cross social boundaries (e.g., religion, race) can foster positive attitudes toward people of other social identity groups and a commitment to justice because of the solidarity and attention to injustice that develop within such relationships. We focused on friendships across the social boundary of worldview identity. More inclusive of secular and spiritual students than “religious identity,” “worldview identity” is defined as a student's guiding life philosophy based on religious, spiritual, and/or non-religious perspective(s). Specifically, the purpose of our study was to examine the relationship between the number of interworldview friendships in the first year on campus and one particular prosocial attitude, pluralism orientation, which reflects acceptance of and active engagement with worldview diversity. Participants We utilized Time 1 and Time 2 data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a national, longitudinal dataset comprised of 7,194 first-year students of diverse racial and worldview identities at 122 U.S. institutions. Research Design We ran a series of blocked multilevel regression models to examine the relationship between the number of interworldview friendships and pluralism orientation at Time 2, controlling for four domains of variables shown in prior literature to also be associated with pluralism orientation. Results Results revealed that, holding constant other predictors, the number of interworldview friendships in the first year on campus is positively associated with pluralism orientation. Conclusions Our results provide additional support for the particularly powerful relationship between friendship across social differences and students’ prosocial development. It is essential, therefore, that colleges and universities create conditions that will help students develop and solidify these vital relationships early in their collegiate journey. By supporting interworldview friendships among their students, colleges and universities are contributing to the creation of a more just and egalitarian society and a stronger democracy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Pooya Taheri ◽  
Philip Robbins ◽  
Sirine Maalej

Langara College, as one of the leading undergraduate institutions in the province of British Columbia (BC), offers the “Applied Science for Engineering” two-year diploma program as well as the “Engineering Transfer” two-semester certificate program. Three project-based courses are offered as part of the two-year diploma program in Applied Science (APSC) and Computer Science (CPSC) departments: “APSC 1010—Engineering and Technology in Society”, “CPSC 1090—Engineering Graphics”, and “CPSC 1490—Applications of Microcontrollers”, with CPSC 1090 and CPSC 1490 also part of the Engineering Transfer curriculum. Although the goals, scopes, objectives, and evaluation criteria of these courses are different, the main component of all three courses is a group-based technical project. Engineering students have access to Langara College’s Makerspace for the hands-on component of their project. Makerspaces expand experiential learning opportunities and allows students to gain a skillset outside the traditional classroom. This paper begins with a detailed review of the maker movement and the impact of makerspace in higher education. Different forms of makerspace and the benefits of incorporating them on first-year students’ creativity, sense of community, self-confidence, and entrepreneurial skills are discussed. This paper introduces Langara’s engineering program and its project-based design courses. Langara’s interdisciplinary makerspace, its goals and objectives, equipment, and some sample projects are introduced in this paper in detail. We then explain how the group-project component of APSC 1010, CPSC 1090, and CPSC 1490 are managed and how using makerspace improves students’ performance in such projects. In conclusion, the paper describes the evaluation of learning outcomes via an anonymous student survey.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (45) ◽  
pp. 2284-2298
Author(s):  
İlker İnan LOKURLU ◽  
Yüksel GÜNDÜZ

The aim of the survey is to express the effects of social media tools on student‟s behavior.The research is a qualitative one designed with phenomenology method.The working group of the research consists of 25 branch teachers working in secondary schools in Bursa, Yıldırım district in the 2018-2019 academic year.Participants were selected by purposeful sampling method. A semi-structured interview form consisting of five questions prepared by the researchers was used to collect data in the study.In this context, teachers were asked what their opinions were on the effects of social media on student attitudes and behaviors, the effect of social media on students 'acquisition of bad habits, the effect of social media on students' expressing their thoughts freely, the effect of social media use on students 'academic achievement, and the effect of social media use on students' socialization. When the results of the research are investigated, 19 of the teachers participating in the research expressed that social media has a minus effect on student attitudes and behaviors, 5 have both positive and negative effects, also 1 have an assertive effect;24 of them stated that social media is effective in students' adopting poor habits, 1 of them has no effect;21 of them denoted that social media had an effect on students' expressing their thoughts freely, 4 of them had no effect;11 of them stated that the use of social media has a positive effect on the academic success of the student, 11 of them have a negative effect on academic success, 3 of them can have both positive and negative effects;11 of them stated that the use of social media has no effect on socialization of students, 8 of them stated that it has an effect, and 6 of them are undecided about this issue. Keywords: Social Media, Social Media Tools, Teacher, Student.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Blazar ◽  
Matthew A. Kraft

Research has focused predominantly on how teachers affect students’ achievement on standardized tests despite evidence that a broad range of attitudes and behaviors are equally important to their long-term success. We find that upper-elementary teachers have large effects on self-reported measures of students’ self-efficacy in math, and happiness and behavior in class. Students’ attitudes and behaviors are predicted by teaching practices most proximal to these measures, including teachers’ emotional support and classroom organization. However, teachers who are effective at improving test scores often are not equally effective at improving students’ attitudes and behaviors. These findings lend empirical evidence to well-established theory on the multidimensional nature of teaching and the need to identify strategies for improving the full range of teachers’ skills.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document