How is it possible to create and continuously improve a quality learning environment for our students? We present our one-year course on engineering thermodynamics as a case study in which we investigate the learning environment based on a competency model from the students' perspective. Based on the analysis of our course structure and exam…

Much of the learning that college students engage in today occurs in unsupervised settings, making effective self-regulated learning techniques of particular importance. We examined the impact of task difficulty and supervision on whether participants would follow written instructions to use repeated testing over restudying. In Study 1, we found…

There is widespread belief that test-taking ability is an influential component of academic success distinct from domain knowledge and comprehension. Most of today's college students took many more tests over the course of their primary and secondary education than students of previous generations, and also participated in regular training to…

Despite evidence that self-regulated learning ability is a strong predictor of academic achievement, effective learning and study strategies remain largely underutilized by students in higher education. In a time of extreme nursing shortage when prelicensure programs are operating at capacity, implications for course failure reach far beyond the…

A nursing program has had difficulty from the years 2015-2022 consistently meeting the national pass rate requirement during students' first attempts taking the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perceptions of recent traditional and nontraditional nursing…

This study examined the effects of bottom-up instruction (BI) on a high-stakes listening test for second language (L2) listeners and compared these effects with those of strategy instruction (SI) in relation to their proficiency levels. Two intact classes (48 L2 listeners) of different L2 listening proficiency levels received five weeks of BI and…

Students in a gateway college science course were assigned to two instructional conditions: explanation-only or augmented instruction. In the explanation-only condition, students wrote explanations for six excerpts from their textbook. The augmented-instruction condition wrote explanations on only four of the excerpts, with the other two serving…

This study investigated the effects of two different planning time conditions (i.e., operational [20 s] and extended length [90 s]) for the lecture listening-into-speaking tasks of the "TOEFL iBT"® test for candidates at different proficiency levels. Seventy international students based in universities and language schools in the United…

Academic self-efficacy is mostly construed as specific; task-specific, course-specific or domain-specific. Previous research in the Danish university context has shown that the self-efficacy subscale in the Motivated Strategies for Leaning Questionnaire is not a single scale, but consists of two separate course- and activity-specific scales; the…

For students to be successful in higher education, they need not only have motivation and sufficient intellectual ability, but also a wide range of study skills as well as the metacognitive ability to determine when a change in strategy is needed. We examined whether first-year undergraduates with dyslexia (N = 100) differ from peers without…

Making inferences about a test taker's language ability has been a concern for language testers. Defining language ability in a speaking test is made difficult because the construct involves factors within and beyond the test taker. One underlying factor is the use of strategies. This study probes test takers' strategic processes and their use in…

In foreign language instruction, students are often exposed to computer-mediated testing in international exams and language courses; however, regular classrooms are not equipped with computer labs to offer a lesson coherent with that testing procedure. To fill this gap, mobile-assisted language learning emerges as a portable option for…

This paper introduces a new integrated post-exam assessment model known as the exam autopsy. Grounded in metacognitive principles of reflective practice, students are provided with three sources of evaluative insight (from self, instructor, and peer) as they seek to analyze the root cause of their exam performance and formulate an action plan for…

Considerable evidence indicates that self-efficacy, task value, anxiety, and the use of language learning strategies are related. However, there is currently an insufficient understanding about their relations in high-stakes testing contexts. The author aimed to investigate how well social factors, test value, anxiety, test performance, and…

The purpose of this study was to compare high- and low-achieving undergraduate college students on selfefficacy, test anxiety, and self-reported test-taking ability. Eighty students from 2 sections of educational psychology course participated in the study; complete data were collected for 76 students. Before taking their first exam, students…