Children typically hold very optimistic views of their own skills but so far, only a few studies have investigated possible correlates of the ability to predict performance accurately. Therefore, this study examined the role of individual differences in performance estimation accuracy as a global metacognitive index for different monitoring and…

This study compared students' daily in-class reading quiz scores in an introductory Child Development course across five conditions: control, reading guide only, reading guide and on-line practice quiz, reading guide and on-line graded quiz, and reading guide and both types of on-line quizzes. At the beginning of class, students completed a 5-item…

Study goals and effective management of study time are both linked to academic success for undergraduates. Mastery goals in particular are associated with study enjoyment and positive educational outcomes such as conceptual change. Conversely, poor self-regulation, in the form of procrastination, is linked to a range of negative study behaviours.…

Out-of-school factors can significantly impact students' readiness to learn and thrive in school. Research confirms that larger social structures and contexts beyond the school are critical, accounting for up to two-thirds of the variance in student achievement (Coleman et al., 1966; Rothstein, 2010; Phillips, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, &…

Two studies investigated the importance of initial topic interest (i.e., expectation of interest) and tutors' autonomy-supportive or controlling instructional styles for students' motivation and performance in problem-based learning (PBL). In Study 1 (N = 93, a lab experiment), each student participated in a simulated group discussion in…

Testing long-term memory has dual benefits: It enhances learning and it helps learners discriminate what they know from what they do not know. The latter benefit, known as delayed judgment of learning (dJOL) effect, has been well documented, but in prior research participants have not been provided with test feedback. Yet when people study they…

Many teachers require their students to take cumulative exams, but there are surprisingly few studies that examine the benefits of such exams. The purpose of this study was to determine whether introductory psychology students who take cumulative exams throughout the semester would have better long-term retention than students who take a…

To help students gauge their understanding of basic concepts and encourage good study habits, we administered short online quizzes that use generic questions in the crucial first few weeks of a course. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the combination of these web quizzes with generic questions with only binary feedback (right or…

This study measured the information gathering behaviors of high school students who had taken engineering design courses as they solved a design problem. The authors investigated what types of information students accessed, its quality, when it was accessed during the students' process, and if it impacted their thinking during the activity.…

This study looks at the satisfaction of tertiary students with their institution's library services with the aim of identifying study and learning related impediments and challenges faced by students from poor backgrounds. A study of this type is important because educators need to understand that information technology adoption and implementation…

This study compared and contrasted preferences and experiences of traditional and nontraditional students. Students at a midsized state university in the southeast region of the United States were surveyed to determine the number of hours spent working off campus, hours spent studying, their preferred learning format, and current grade point…

Today's grading practices mirror those of the early 1900s, and despite myriad research suggesting they are invalid, unreliable, and a hindrance to student learning, many teachers continue detrimental practices such as using 100-point percentage scales averaging all academic and nonacademic factors together into a single grade, and using grades to…

The challenge colleges and universities encounter in the United States is retention of freshmen male college students. The National Center for Education Statistics (2012) reported that 37% of freshman males enrolled in a postsecondary institution in 2003-04 dropped out by June 2009. Unfortunately, 17% dropped-out within the first-year without…

An important recent finding is that testing improves learning and memory. In this article, the authors describe a demonstration that illustrates this principle and helps students incorporate more testing into their learning. The authors asked students to read one text using a Study-Study strategy and one text using a Study-Test strategy. One week…

Koen and Yonelinas (2010; K&Y) reported that mixing classes of targets that had short (weak) or long (strong) study times had no impact on zROC slope, contradicting the predictions of the encoding variability hypothesis. We show that they actually derived their predictions from a mixture unequal-variance signal detection (UVSD) model, which…