Correlative Study between Personality Traits, Student Mental Skills and Educational Outcomes

The main purpose of this study is determining the correlations between personality traits, academic mental skills and educational outcomes using a quantitative methodology, based on a non-experimental, correlational study. In addition, the following variables are taken into consideration: gender, grade averages and school cycle. The sample is composed of 695 students: these are two institutions (middle and high school) under the provincial direction of Mediouna. In order to gather the information, participants were asked to complete the 16pf 5 questionnaire and scale measuring academic mental skills. Note that the results obtained are processed by the IBM SPSS 23 software. The results demonstrate that the 16 personality scales of the Cattell 16PF5 test and the 9 school grades have significant correlations: 77.77% of all correlations, with essentially the following factors: abstractedness, tension, emotional stability, dominance, social-boldness, vigilance and apprehension maintain (8/9) significant and positive relationships with 38.88% and low intensity (r = 0.031 to 0.0465). Additionally, mental skills (affective, cognitive and metacognitive strategies) and grades have significant correlations with 70.37% of all calculated correlations, with low, average and/or positive, negative intensities, according to each strategy with each grade of school subjects. In the end, it is necessary to make considerable efforts to better understanding the multidimensionality of school success and to ensure an effective and relevant pedagogical intervention.

Written narratives of Grade 5 learners with developmental language difficulties: A group discussion intervention study

Increased demand on a learner’s linguistic, cognitive and metacognitive abilities is expected at higher grades in schools. The application of cognitive and metacognitive strategies when learning is, however, not always automatic, therefore explicit mediation to retrieve and apply these processes appropriately, is essential. This paper aims to compare the linguistic experiences of Grade 5 learners with Developmental Language Difficulties (DLD) when writing a narrative, pre- and post-discussion intervention. The intervention approach is grounded in Feuerstein (2006) and Vygotsky’s (1934/1987) theories of cognitive development. This quantitative and qualitative study was a quasi-experimental, pre- and posttest design. The sample consisted of 10 Grade 5 learners from a remedial school. The pretest written narratives preceded the intervention phase and were followed by the posttest narratives. The macro- and microstructure of the written narratives were analysed, using an adapted framework based on Fey’s (2001) and Moonsamy’s (2009) analysis protocol. Explicit discussions on writing processes should generalise to familiar and novel tasks required in all learning situations. The findings suggest that interventions, using group discussions, were beneficial for learners with DLD where knowledge was coconstructed. Improvements in microstructure were evident while the macrostructure remained the same at post-intervention. This study contributes to evidence-based practice for learner instruction in mainstream and special needs environments.

The Effects of Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies Training on Problem-solving Skills and Self-esteem in Students

Objective: The present study aimed to explore the effects of cognitive and metacognitive strategies training on problem-solving skills and self-esteem in students. Methods: This was an experimental study with pretest-posttest and a control group design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all 11th-grade students in the second secondary school of Meshkinshahr City, Iran, in the academic year of 2016-2017. Eighty male students with low self-esteem and problem-solving skills impairments in physics were selected and randomly assigned to 3 study groups (one control group & two experimental groups) (n=20/ group). The experimental groups were trained in cognitive and metacognitive strategies. To collect the required data, the Cassidy and Lang's Problem-Solving Style Questionnaire and Coopersmith's (1967) Self-Esteem Inventory were used. The obtained data were analyzed by Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). Results: The collected results suggested that the mean posttest scores of the students in the experimental groups were significantly higher in problem-solving skills and self-esteem, compared to the control group. Conclusion: The presented cognitive and metacognitive strategies training was impactful on problem-solving skills and self-esteem in the examined students.

Listening self-efficacy beliefs, L2 listening proficiency, and listening strategy training

Self-efficacy plays an important role in language learners’ performances in language learning. Studies report that explicit teaching of strategies, self-efficacy, and better learner performance are interdependent concepts. This entails the fact that language teachers should focus on the first two in order to increase the learners’ performance. The aim of this study is to find out how teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies affect EFL learners’ performances and self-efficacy beliefs in listening comprehension tasks. Ninety students participated in this study, thirty of whom were part of the control group. Their listening self-efficacy and listening proficiency were measured before and after a four-week training. During the intervention sessions, instructors taught cognitive and metacognitive strategies in an explicit way, which included teacher modeling and teacher feedbacks. The results revealed that learners’ listening proficiency scores increased while their self-efficacy scores did not change significantly after the training. These findings led to the conclusion that low self-efficacy does not necessarily lead to low listening proficiency. Another finding was that teaching only cognitive and metacognitive strategies does not help learners with their self-efficacy in a short time period. Implications and suggestions for L2 listening are provided considering the results of the study.

The Cultivation of Chinese Learners’ English Writing Competency through Learning-oriented Assessment

This study is to empirically investigate the effect of the learning-oriented assessment on Chinese learners’ development of English writing competency. This experiment was implemented in the writing classroom among 74 English majors from a local Chinese university within one term, and the findings from the analysis of 68 pairs of qualified essays indicate a significant difference between the scores in the pretest and the posttest. Based on the fact that the participants displayed a better performance on the lexical and syntactic level in the posttest, it can be inferred that the participants have shown a tendency of being better at exerting their linguistic ability together with their topic knowledge, cognitive and metacognitive strategies to achieve the communicative goal through the learning-oriented assessment model.

A descriptive study on ESL learners’ vocabulary knowledge through cognitive and metacognitive strategies

The present research was carried out to study the cognitive and metacognitive vocabulary learning strategies of 36 ESL learners’. Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies questionnaire was used to conduct the study. The study revealed the subsequent array of cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by ESL learners. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 10 ESL learners’ who completed the questionnaire to get more reliable information about learners’ strategies with vocabulary learning. The findings indicated that ‘Using English Language Media’, ‘Verbal repetition’, ‘Take notes in class’ were the most popular strategies, whereas ‘Skip or pass new word’ and ‘Put English labels on physical objects’ were least used. The results of this paper provide many implications for English language teaching. Detailed explanations of the participants’ cognitive and metacognitive strategies were given in the discussion.

Inter-Relations among Motivation, Self-Perceived Use of Strategies and Academic Achievement in Science: A Study with Spanish Secondary School Students

The relationship between motivation and the use of learning strategies is a focus of research in order to improve students’ learning. Meaningful learning requires a learner’s personal commitment to put forth the required effort needed to acquire new knowledge. This commitment involves emotional as well as cognitive and metacognitive factors, and requires the ability to manage different resources at hand, in order to achieve the proposed learning goals. The main objectives in the present study were to analyse: (a) Spanish secondary school students’ motivation and self-perception of using strategies when learning science; (b) the nature of the relationship between motivation and perceived use of learning strategies; (c) the influence of different motivational, cognitive, metacognitive and management strategies on students’ science achievement. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was administered to 364 middle and high-school students in grades 7–11. For each participant, the academic achievement was provided by the respective science teacher. The results obtained from the Pearson product-moment correlations between the study variables and a stepwise regression analysis suggested that: (1) motivation, cognitive and metacognitive, and resource management strategies, have a significant influence on students’ science achievement; (2) students’ motivation acts as a kind of enabling factor for the intellectual effort, which is assessed by the self-perceived use of learning strategies in science; and, (3) motivational components have a greater impact on students’ performance in science than cognitive and metacognitive strategies, with self-efficacy being the variable with the strongest influence. These results suggest a reflexion about the limited impact on science achievement of the self-perceived use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and highlight the importance of students’ self-efficacy in science, in line with previous studies.