Praise and criticism have long been reported as central feedback designs in academic writing, yet their relative influences on students' reception have not been fully investigated. This study employed six feedback statements (2 valences * 3 writing areas) and collected students' (N = 56) ratings of each statement's perceived comprehension and…

Working collaboratively in groups can positively impact performance and student engagement. Intelligent social agents can provide a source of personalized support for students, and their benefits likely extend to collaborative settings, but it is difficult to determine how these agents should interact with students. Reinforcement learning (RL)…

Feedback information can be a powerful influence on learning, yet there is currently insufficient understanding of the cognitive mechanisms responsible for these effects. In this exploratory study, students (N = 279) received teacher feedback on a practice exam paper, and a few days later we assessed the amount and type of feedback information…

Research on gamification's effects in educational environments has been a growing domain in recent years. As research has demonstrated the power of gamified systems to effectively motivate learners in educational settings, it has also become clear that not all individuals are motivated in the same way, or to the same extent, by the same gamified…

Using quantitative approach, this paper investigates whether parental involvement play any role in improving students' academic performance at the tertiary levels in the Ghanaian context utilizing primary data and a standard statistical method known as ordinary least squares regression. A total sample of 613 students from Kwame Nkrumah University…

Purpose: Communication plays an important role in health decisions and behaviors. Friends and family exert influence through communication and, when considering smoking, this is particularly salient among those friends and family who smoke. Guided by primary socialization theory and integrated behavioral model, the present study examined the…

Studies on positive emotions in language learning have increased over the years. However, gratitude, a moral virtue, which may have a novel effect in learning a foreign language, remains underexplored in applied linguistics. This paper aims to know the antecedents of gratitude and its constructs in English as a foreign language context. Nineteen…

Research on praise, in support of a growth mindset, has overwhelmingly focused on children. We explored how praise influences performance in college students. Colleges are often challenged to respond to students' established mindsets in the face of increasingly demanding coursework. Specifically, we examined how fear of failure may alter the…

This research investigates the role of reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) in statistics education among two distinct samples of undergraduate psychology students. In Study 1, 318 students in a third-year statistics course completed self-report measures of RST, anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy concerning the study of statistics. In Study…

Previous research has indicated that students' academic engagement is related to their emotional support from teachers. However, there is scarce evidence on how teacher emotional support relates to students' academic engagement. Given the potential role of positive academic emotions in learning, this study investigated the mediating role of…

The present retrospective, descriptive, and quasi-experimental study aimed to explore students' perceptions of traditional teaching combined with gamified and nongamified e-tests for postlecture reinforcement. Midterm knowledge retention and academic performance were also analyzed. The study was conducted from February 2021 to May 2022, involving…

Background: An increasing number of undergraduate positive psychology courses offer students a holistic view of the broader discipline of psychology. Even short-term participation in positive psychology activities as part of a taught course may improve psychological well-being and lower stress. However, there is a dearth of qualitative evidence on…

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown took the world by surprise, forcing the trimming of the school curriculum and institutions of higher learning to urgently adopt online platforms to continue teaching and learning. This article is a case study that explores the use of a social media platform, WhatsApp, to improve peer learning…

The purpose of this non-experimental study was to examine doctoral graduates' satisfaction with the mentoring provided by their dissertation chairs. The relationships between doctoral students and their dissertation chairs can positively or negatively influence a doctoral student's dissertation journey. The researcher developed and validated a…

Retention is a universal issue for institutions of higher education in the United States. Students face many challenges in the transition to college, which can contribute to a student's decision to transfer. On top of the traditional obstacles faced by college freshmen, student-athletes encounter additional stressors associated with competing in…