Background: Adaptability regulates individuals' cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to new, unexpected and uncertain situations, but to date no study has analysed whether adaptability contemporarily favours cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of learning. Aims: This study aims to address this gap by examining (i) the direct…

Hope--a multidimensional positive motivational state--is particularly salient with adolescents in the school setting. Cognitive hope focuses on goal attainment cognitions whereas behavioral hope focuses on actions required for goal attainment. Studies rarely examine the contribution of each type of hope to adolescents' academic functioning and…

Many students struggle with decoding and implementing feedback given to them on writing assignments. Researchers and instructors have used various technologies and strategies to improve students' uptake of feedback given on written assignments, one of which is a form of video feedback called screencasting. Research has been conducted on students'…

Little is known about how specific components of working memory, namely, attentional processes including response inhibition, sustained attention, and cognitive inhibition, are related to reading decoding and comprehension. The current study evaluated the relations of reading comprehension, decoding, working memory, and attentional control in…

Little is known about how specific components of working memory, namely, attentional processes including response inhibition, sustained attention, and cognitive inhibition, are related to reading decoding and comprehension. The current study evaluated the relations of reading comprehension, decoding, working memory, and attentional control in…

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood neurobehavioral disorder, affecting approximately 5.5 million children, of which approximately 66% take ADHD medication daily. This study investigated a potential nonpharmaceutical alternative to address the academic engagement of 5th through 11th grade…

A new multidimensional measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for Adolescents (TAMA), specifically designed for U.S. adolescents in Grades 6 to 12 was developed and its psychometric properties were examined. The TAMA consists of five scales (Cognitive Interference, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behavior,…

Mathematics is an important school subject but one which often poses problems for learners. It has been found that learners do not possess the cognitive capacity to handle understanding procedures, representations, concepts, and applications at the same time. while the extent of field dependency may hold the key to one way by which the working…

This article describes research results based on multiple years of experimentation and real-world experience with an adaptive tutoring system named Wayang Outpost. The system represents a novel adaptive learning technology that has shown successful outcomes with thousands of students, and provided teachers with valuable information about students'…

Research on factors that may promote engagement is hampered by the absence of a measure of classroom-level engagement. Literature has suggested that engagement may have 3 dimensions--affective, behavioral, and cognitive. No existing engagement scales measure all 3 dimensions at the classroom level. The Classroom Engagement Inventory (CEI) was…

Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors that jeopardize their futures. Although adolescent risk-taking has long been attributed to faulty decision making, surprisingly little research has directly examined this link. This study examined the role of deliberative decision making (the tendency to consider options and consequences before making a…

Methylphenidate (MPH) often ameliorates attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behavioral dysfunction according to "indirect" informant reports and rating scales. The standard of care behavioral MPH titration approach seldom includes "direct" neuropsychological or academic assessment data to determine treatment…

The present study examined the validity of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES) [Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006a). Development and validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. "Journal of Adolescence," 29, 589-611; Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006b). Examining the relationship between low empathy and bullying. "Aggressive…

This study reports on our steps toward achieving a conceptually coherent and empirically validated learning progression for carbon cycling in socio-ecological systems. It describes an iterative process of designing and analyzing assessment and interview data from students in upper elementary through high school. The product of our development…