Gaming is related to enhanced working memory performance and task-related cortical activity
Gaming experience has been suggested to lead to performance enhancements in a wide variety of working memory tasks. Previous studies have, however, mostly focused on adult expert gamers and have not included measurements of both behavioral performance and brain activity. In the current study, 167 adolescents and young adults (aged 13–24 years) with different amounts of gaming experience performed an n-back working memory task with vowels, with the sensory modality of the vowel stream switching between audition and vision at random intervals. We studied the relationship between self-reported daily gaming activity, working memory (n-back) task performance and related brain activity measured u…
Sixth Graders’ Use of Technologies in Learning, Technology Attitudes and School Well-Being
1.IntroductionAlthough the Finnish educational system has gotten plenty of global attention as one of the best in the world (Sahlberg, 2014), it still faces many challenges (EU Parliament, 2015). For instance, the PISA results are diminishing, especially in rural areas and among boys (OECD, 2013). Even worse, Finnish adolescents were ranked very low on their liking for school (OECD, 2013). Consequently, reforms in teacher education and school have been suggested by emphasizing 21st Century skills, student-activating methods, inquiry-, project-, problem- and phenomenon-based learning (EU Parliament, 2015).The new national core curriculum also emphasizes on using digital technologies in schoo…
The Development of Teachers' and Their Students' Social and Emotional Learning During the “Learning to Be Project”-Training Course in Five European Countries
This study was funded by a project Learning to Be: Development of Practices and Methodologies for Assessing Social, Emotional and Health Skills within Education Systems (#4120034) in the framework of Erasmus+ KA3 program (582955-EPP-1-2016-2-LT-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY). We are also grateful for funding by the Academy of Finland (#308352) and Finnish Strategic Research Council (#327242).
Selecting students for medical school: What predicts success during basic science studies? A cognitive approach
This study focuses on differences between multiple-choice science tests and a learning-from-text (LFT) test, and how these tests predict success in basic medical studies. The subjects (N = 503) were applicants to the Helsinki University Medical Faculty. All of them had to take an entrance examination in order to be considered for admission to a 6-year study programme combining medical school and graduate studies. The entrance examination consisted of three traditional multiple-choice science tests and one LFT test, the latter designed to measure deep-level processing of text. A follow-up study was conducted in order to see how the different tasks were related to the grades and pace of study…
Una nueva mirada a la formación en eficacia docente de Gordon (TET): Un estudio-intervención en el aprendizaje social y emocional del profesorado
Introducción.. En este estudio exploramos el desarrollo de las habilidades de aprendizaje social y emocional (SEL) de los docentes, mediante el uso de MET [Maestros Eficaz y Técnicamente preparados] (Gordon Training International) como intervención con dos grupos de docentes. También quisimos abordar el modelo de Gordon desde la perspectiva de la psicología educativa moderna. Los efectos de la intervención MET sobre los docentes fueron examinados utilizando el modelo de Kirkpatrick y Kirkpatrick (2006), ya que consideramos importante observar diversos aspectos de los resultados de la intervención, incluyendo las reacciones, el conocimiento, la aplicación del conocimiento (habilidades) y el …
Media multitasking is associated with distractibility and increased prefrontal activity in adolescents and young adults.
The current generation of young people indulges in more media multitasking behavior (e.g., instant messaging while watching videos) in their everyday lives than older generations. Concerns have been raised about how this might affect their attentional functioning, as previous studies have indicated that extensive mediamultitasking in everyday life may be associated with decreased attentional control. In the current study, 149 adolescents and young adults (aged 13-24 years) performed speech-listening and reading tasks that required maintaining attention in the presence of distractor stimuli in the othermodality or dividing attention between two concurrent tasks. Brain activity during task pe…
The Development of the Dealing with Challenging Interaction (DCI) Method to Evaluate Teachers’ Social Interaction Skills
The Dealing with Challenging Interaction (DCI) method was developed to measure social interaction skills of teacher study groups. The participants were 70 teachers from three schools. The inter-rater agreement, Cohen’s kappa, varied between 0.57- 1.00. The discriminant validity was supported by a cluster analysis differentiating between the skilful and less skilful teachers. The results of the supplementary instrument were equivalent to the cluster analysis maintaining criterion oriented validity of the method developed. The DCI appeared to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring teachers’ social interaction skills. Peer reviewed
The role of daily autonomous and controlled educational goals in students’ academic emotion states: An experience sampling method approach
The present study examines antecedents of university students' academic emotions (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002) in the context of self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2000), using realtime assessment and intra-individual analyses. We investigated whether daily autonomous and controlled-motivated educational goals predicted students' academic emotions. University students (N = 55) completed smartphone diaries over 14 consecutive days. The two-week intensive longitudinal data were organized in a hierarchical three-level structure, with situations (Level 1) nested within days (Level 2) nested within students (Level 3). Students' goal motivation was assessed in morning quest…
Is Student Motivation Related to Socio-digital Participation? A Person-oriented Approach
5th ICEEPSY International Conference on Education & Educational Psychology in Kyrenia Cyprus (Oct 22-25, 2014)/ guest editors: Zafer Bekirogullari, Melis Minas. There is a hypothesized gap between the technology-mediated practices of adolescents and school, hindering student motivation and well-being. This study examined how students’ school motivation is associated with ICT-use. Previous research has shown that achievement goal orientations are related to students’ academic and emotional functioning. Simultaneously, adolescents engage in various socio-digital activities on a daily basis. Our aim is to integrate these two approaches to examine whether students with different motivational pr…
Lessons learned on student engagement from the nature of pervasive socio‐digital interests and related network participation of adolescents
The rise of modern socio-digital technologies has fundamentally changed the everyday environments in which young people communicate with each other and cultivate interests. To gain a more sophisticated understanding of this phenomenon, this study provides in-depth, qualitative insights into adolescents’ experiences of their socio-digital developmental ecologies. The 15 interview participants were recruited based on a previously conducted questionnaire. The semi-structured theme interview addressed the socio-digital aspects of the participants’ interest-driven behaviours and related networks with the aid of participant-generated egocentric maps. The data not only qualitatively enrich the pic…
Process-and context-sensitive research on academic knowledge practices
The Contextual Activity Sampling System (CASS) methodology and CASS-Query tools have been developed for the investigation of learning and working practices. The CASS-methods and tools provide contextualized data that allow the analyzing and modeling of within-person changes across time. This paper describes a pilot study with 3G mobiles used by eight engineering students. Students answered questionnaires concerning their ongoing study projects, academic emotions, and collaboration, with a mobile phone five times a day for a period of two weeks (70 queries per person). Variation in their emotions were examined by time-series analysis. Students were also interviewed before and after the CASS-…
Young adults' online shopping addiction : The role of self‐regulation and smartphone use
Online shopping addiction can be defined as an Internet-based behavioural addiction which may lead to economic problems. Even though shopping is increasingly common through mobile devices, the effects of smartphone use on online shopping addiction are underexamined. Following a survey of 1000 18 to 29-year-olds in Finland, we examined young adults' online shopping addiction and economic problems from the perspective of self-regulation and problems in regulating smartphone use. The results indicated that low self-regulation in an online environment facilitates online shopping addiction, which further leads to dissatisfaction toward personal money management through indebtedness. Moreover, we…
Writing as a Learning Tool: An Introduction
This introductory chapter begins with a brief historical account of the writing-to-learn movement, emphasising especially the significance of the cognitive revolution for the development of both teaming research and writing research. The next section considers those theories of the writing process which have had the most profound impact on writing-to-learn, theories of writing as problem solving. Further on, theories and views of learning are discussed as essential determinants of approaches to writing as a learning tool. it is emphasised that current constructivist and social constructivist views imply the use of writing activities requiring transformations of knowledge, social interaction…
The role of study engagement in university students' daily experiences: A multilevel test of moderation
The present study investigated the dynamic nature of students' daily experiences and general study engagement using intra-individual assessment. More specifically, we examined individual differences in the relationship between university students' task-specific value and situational emotions and, further, whether first-year study engagement would moderate this association during the first two years of studies. Intra-individual state assessments were conducted via mobile phone-based experience sampling method (ESM) during participants' first (N = 72) and second (N = 56) academic years, resulting in 3089 and 2912 fully completed state questionnaires. In both years, students were asked five ti…
A new approach for estimating a nonlinear growth component in multilevel modeling
This study presents a new approach to estimation of a nonlinear growth curve component with fixed and random effects in multilevel modeling. This approach can be used to estimate change in longitudinal data, such as day-of-the-week fluctuation. The motivation of the new approach is to avoid spurious estimates in a random coefficient regression model due to the synchronized periodical effect (e.g., day-of-the-week fluctuation) appearing both in independent and dependent variables. First, the new approach is introduced. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to examine the functioning of the proposed new approach in the case of small sample sizes. Third, the use of the approac…
‘Ain't nothin' like the real thing’. Motivation and study processes on a work-based project course in information systems design
Background. Advocates of the project method claim that project-based learning inspires student learning. However, it has been claimed that project-based learning environments demand quite a bit of self-regulation on the part of the learner. Aims. Consequently, it was tested whether students scoring low in self-regulation of learning experienced ‘friction’, an incompatibility between student self-regulation and the demands posed by the learning environment. This would be manifest in cognitive processing and motivation. Samples. The target group consisted of 58 mainly third-year Finnish university students taking a mandatory project course in information systems design. During the project cou…
The development of teachers’ responses to challenging situations during interaction training
The qualitative changes in teachers’ responses in challenging situations were analysed during a four-day Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET) course, which aimed at improving teachers’ interpersonal dynamics with pupils, parents and colleagues. The participants were 21 teachers from one elementary and 23 teachers from one secondary school attending a TET course in Finland. Qualitative abductive content analysis was used to classify the data. Frequencies based on this analysis were also looked at. After TET the teachers described the behaviour of their pupils and expressed their feelings and the actual consequences of that behaviour, instead of using generalized labels and subjective interpr…
School burnout and engagement profiles among digital natives in Finland: a person-oriented approach
AbstractApplying a person-oriented approach, this study set out to examine what profiles of school engagement and school burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, inadequacy) can be identified among elementary school children at age 12, a generation also often referred to as the generation of digital natives. We compared the group memberships in their use of socio-digital technologies and related functioning as we expected to find a gap between some digital natives and current educational practices which do not include socio-digital technology in feelings of cynicism towards school. Latent profile analysis identified five groups: Engaged (50%) students, who formed the majority; Stressed (4%) stu…