Online Learning is a Rollercoaster: Postsecondary Students With Learning Disabilities Navigate the COVID-19 Pandemic

Most of what researchers know about the challenges students with learning disabilities (LDs) experience during postsecondary education is based on experiences during face-to-face learning on campus. Less is known about challenges students with LD face during learning online-the mode of instruction students had to navigate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of our research was to examine the lived experience of undergraduate students with LD during their first full semester of online instruction as a result of the pandemic. We interviewed six students in Western Canada and used a phenomenological approach to analyze their experiences. Overall, we extracted six main themes from their interviews. Two of these themes, (a) the broad impact of having LD and (b) accommodations during COVID-19, were specific to being a student with LD. The remaining four themes were more generally related to their overall student experience: (c) online learning is different, (d) the role of others, (e) emotional impact, and (f) resilience and perseverance. We discuss these results in terms of recommendations for future research and teaching in online learning environments.

The Impact of Autonomous and Controlled Sexting Motivations on Subjective Well-being and Relationship Quality

Although many studies have examined reasons for sexting among young people, few have taken into account the underlying motivations associated with different reasons and how that may be associated with divergent positive or negative outcomes. This study addressed this gap by employing Self-determination Theory to assess how autonomous and controlled motivations for sexting were related to subjective well-being and relationship quality among emerging adults. Online survey data from 267 emerging adults (72 men, 195 women) ages 18-25 who had sent sexually explicit images or videos of themselves through electronic means to a committed partner were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Autonomous and controlled motivations for sexting were significantly related to pleasant affect, with autonomous motivation predicting more pleasant affect and controlled motivation predicting less pleasant affect. Autonomous motivations for sexting were related to enhanced relationship quality, whereas controlled motivations for sexting were related to decreased relationship quality. Neither form of motivation had a statistically significant relationship with unpleasant affect or life satisfaction. These results demonstrate that the quality of motivations for sexting among emerging adults in committed relationships may contribute to different outcomes, particularly in terms of relationship quality. Implications for counselors, educators, and practitioners working with emerging adults who sext are discussed.

Just a Little Healthy Competition: Teacher Perceptions of Competition and Social Comparison in the Classroom

The use of competition to motivate students is common but debated. The purpose of the study was: (a) to examine to whom teachers attribute the common emphasis on competition and (b) to explore the reasons teachers give to minimize competition or not in their classrooms. Teachers attribute the focus on competition least to teachers and then increasingly to students, principals, parents, and school boards. Teachers who try to minimize competition identify the importance of learning and individualization, and those who do not, promote competition as healthy and helpful. Results are discussed in terms of classroom practices and future research.

I Just Have to Try Harder: Examining the Mindsets of Students with LD

Growth and fixed mindset messaging is gaining popularity. In our pilot study, we examine the mindsets of students with learning disabilities (LD) to determine how their self-beliefs relate to this messaging. Our results demonstrate that students with LD endorse growth mindsets more than fixed mindsets which is consistent with their peers without LD. Moreover, in their comments about being a student with LD, participants highlight important components of growth mindset messaging. However, some comments may reflect a false-growth mindset wherein students are only focused on effort and not the additional resources required for growth. We provide directions for future research.

The impact of COVID-19 triggered changes to instruction and assessment on university students' self-reported motivation, engagement and perceptions

During the northern hemisphere Winter 2020 academic term, university students had to adjust to remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This abrupt change provided a unique opportunity to examine students’ motivation, engagement and perceptions of success and cheating under two learning conditions, namely traditional and remote. We used a single survey to collect retrospective self-report data from a convenience sample of Canadian undergraduate students (n = 98) about their motivation, engagement and perceptions of success and cheating before COVID-19 and then in remote learning. Students' achievement goals, engagement and perceptions of success all significantly decreased, while their perceptions of cheating increased. Moreover, we used regression analyses to examine associations amongst achievement goals and engagement, perceptions of success and cheating concerns. Mastery-approach goals were positively associated with more engagement and higher perceptions of success. Achievement goals were unrelated to cheating. Students in large classes and who were originally concerned about cheating became more concerned about cheating in remote learning conditions. Our study provides information to researchers and instructors about how achievement goals relate to student outcomes across learning conditions. By extension, we provide timely recommendations for instructors as they continue to wrestle with how to deliver their courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supporting pre-service teachers' motivation beliefs and approaches to instruction through an online intervention

BACKGROUND

Previous research has shown that pre-service teachers have low responsibility for student motivation and feel underprepared to deal with motivational issues. As an extension, researchers have designed interventions to shift teachers' beliefs about motivation or equip them with approaches to instruction, but never both.

AIMS

Following best practices for motivation interventions, we created a one-session online intervention and tested its efficacy to shift pre-service teachers' self-reported beliefs and approaches to instruction to be more supportive of student motivation. The intervention included priming, materials designed for mindsets and/or for approaches to instruction, a consolidation activity, and take-home materials.

SAMPLE

A convenience sample of 384 pre-service teachers from one Canadian university participated.

METHODS

We embedded an experimental design into multiple sections of a required assessment course. After completing a pre-test, participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: beliefs-only, approaches-only, combined beliefs and approaches, or control. After completing the online module, students received a lecture on assessment practices and motivation.

RESULTS

The results from our MANCOVA showed that pre-service teachers who participated in the beliefs-only condition reported increased levels of responsibility for student motivation, more growth mindset beliefs, and less fixed mindset beliefs than participants in the other conditions. The approaches-only condition did not influence self-reported mastery or performance approaches to instruction and the combined condition had no effect on beliefs or approaches.

CONCLUSIONS

We discuss the implications for educating pre-service teachers about student motivation and suggest that beliefs and approaches to instruction need to be addressed separately.

Common Examiner Scoring Errors on Academic Achievement Measures

This study examined the scoring errors across three widely used achievement tests (Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement–Second Edition [KTEA-2], Woodcock–Johnson Tests of Achievement–Third Edition [WJ-III], and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Third Edition [WIAT-III]) by novice examiners. A total of 114 protocols were evaluated for differences between the measures on the frequency and type of scoring errors. Within-measure analyses were also conducted to identify particular composites or subtests that might be more prone to error. Among the three measures, the WIAT-III was found to have the most scoring elements and was, therefore, the measure most susceptible to errors in scoring. Irrespective of the measure, more errors occurred on composites requiring greater examiner inference and interpretation, similar to previous studies on the propensity of scoring errors on cognitive measures. Results are discussed in relation to assessment fidelity and to assessment training practices.

Combinations of Personal Responsibility: Differences on Pre-service and Practicing Teachers' Efficacy, Engagement, Classroom Goal Structures and Wellbeing

Pre-service and practicing teachers feel responsible for a range of educational activities. Four domains of personal responsibility emerging in the literature are: student achievement, student motivation, relationships with students, and responsibility for ones own teaching. To date, most research has used variable-centered approaches to examining responsibilities even though the domains appear related. In two separate samples we used cluster analysis to explore how pre-service (n = 130) and practicing (n = 105) teachers combined personal responsibilities and their impact on three professional cognitions and their wellbeing. Both groups had low and high responsibility clusters but the third cluster differed: Pre-service teachers combined responsibilities for relationships and their own teaching in a cluster we refer to as teacher-based responsibility; whereas, practicing teachers combined achievement and motivation in a cluster we refer to as student-outcome focused responsibility. These combinations affected outcomes for pre-service but not practicing teachers. Pre-service teachers in the low responsibility cluster reported less engagement, less mastery approaches to instruction, and more performance goal structures than the other two clusters.

Attention to threat images in individuals with clinical and subthreshold symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder

Attention to general and trauma-relevant threat was examined in individuals with clinical and subthreshold symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants' eye gaze was tracked and recorded while they viewed sets of four images over a 6-s presentation (one negative, positive, and neutral image, and either a general threat image or a trauma-relevant threat image). Two trauma-exposed groups (a clinical and a subthreshold PTSD symptom group) were compared to a non-trauma-exposed group. Both the clinical and subthreshold PTSD symptom groups attended to trauma-relevant threat images more than the no-trauma-exposure group, whereas there were no group differences for general threat images. A time course analysis of attention to trauma-relevant threat images revealed different attentional profiles for the trauma-exposed groups. Participants with clinical PTSD symptoms exhibited immediate heightened attention to the images relative to participants with no-trauma-exposure, whereas participants with subthreshold PTSD symptoms did not. In addition, participants with subthreshold PTSD symptoms attended to trauma-relevant threat images throughout the 6-s presentation, whereas participants with clinical symptoms of PTSD exhibited evidence of avoidance. The theoretical and clinical implications of these distinct attentional profiles are discussed.