Educational Psychology ConCepts, ReseaRCh and Challenges

edited by ChRistine M. Rubie-davies

Educational Psychology: Concepts, Research and Challenges

Research in educational psychology has had a huge impact in terms of enhancing understanding and challenging thinking about teachers and learners. Educational Psychology: Concepts, Research and Challenges brings together the latest research across many areas of educational psychology, introducing and reporting on the most effective methodologies for studying teachers and learners and providing overviews of current debates within the field. With chapters from international authors, this academic text or advanced level textbook provides theoretical overviews and research findings from across the field including: • • • • • • • •

Teaching and learning Research methods Motivation and instruction Curriculum – reading, writing, mathematics Cognition Special Educational Needs and behaviour management Sociocultural and socioemotional perspectives Assessment and evaluation.

Educational psychology has historically had a focus on students with particular learning needs. This book provides a discussion of the gradual movement toward inclusion and the possibility of developing a more cohesive and potentially more effective education system for all students. It also presents recent research into effective behaviour management and illustrates specific and valuable techniques employed in applied behaviour analysis. The contributors also deliver analysis on the motivation of students and how home and society in general can contribute towards constraining or enhancing student learning. This book is a must-read for academics, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students who recognize the substantial contribution of educational psychology to increasing our understanding of students and their learning, teachers and their teaching. Christine M. Rubie-Davies is currently Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Educational Psychology: Concepts, Research and Challenges

Edited by Christine M. Rubie-Davies

This first edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2011 Christine M. Rubie-Davies, for selection and editorial material. Individual chapters, the contributors. The right of Christine M. Rubie-Davies to be identified as author of the editorial material and of the authors for their individual chapters has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Typeset in Galliard by Keystroke, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Educational psychology : concepts, research and challenges / edited by Christine Rubie-Davies. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Educational psychology–Research. 2. Education–Research– Methodology. I. Rubie-Davies, Christine M. LB1051.E3616 2011 370.15–dc22 2010020809 ISBN13: 978–0–415–56263–8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–56264–5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–83888–4 (ebk)

Contents

List of figures List of tables Notes on contributors Foreword

vii viii ix xiii

JULIE DOCKRELL

Introduction

1

CHRISTINE M. RUBIE-DAVIES

1

Research methods in education: contemporary issues

8

LOTTIE THOMSON AND ANGELIKA ANDERSON

2

What is this lesson about? Instructional processes and student understandings in writing lessons

18

HELEN S. TIMPERLEY AND JUDY M. PARR

3

Reading: the great debate

36

TOM W. NICHOLSON AND WILLIAM E. TUNMER

4

Writing in the curriculum: a complex act to teach and to evaluate

51

JUDY M. PARR

5

The curriculum: developing multiplicative thinking and reasoning in mathematics

68

JENNIFER M. YOUNG-LOVERIDGE

6

How research in educational psychology has contributed to instructional procedures: the case of cognitive load theory RENAE LOW, PUTAI JIN, AND JOHN SWELLER

87

vi Contents

7 Assessment and evaluation

102

JOHN A. HATTIE AND GAVIN T.L. BROWN

8 Motivation, learning and instruction

118

MICHAEL TOWNSEND

9 Teacher expectations and beliefs: influences on the socioemotional environment of the classroom

134

CHRISTINE M. RUBIE-DAVIES AND ELIZABETH R. PETERSON

10 Managing classroom behaviour: assertiveness and warmth

150

JANE E. PROCHNOW AND ANGUS H. MACFARLANE

11 Applied behaviour analysis: contributions to New Zealand educational psychology

167

DENNIS ROSE AND JOHN CHURCH

12 Reconceptualizing special education

184

DON BROWN AND DENNIS MOORE

13 Children’s friendships: real and imaginary

200

TOM W. NICHOLSON AND MICHAEL TOWNSEND

14 Atypical behaviour development: preschool hyperactivity and parent–child relationships

215

LOUISE J. KEOWN

15 Family literacy practices and the promise of optimization: a Vietnamese study

229

THANH-BINH TRAN, STUART McNAUGHTON AND JUDY M. PARR

16 Societal and cultural perspectives through a Te Kotahitanga lens

249

MERE BERRYMAN AND RUSSELL BISHOP

17 Conclusion: some potential influences of educational psychology on educational research

268

JOHN SWELLER AND CHRISTINE M. RUBIE-DAVIES

Index

271

Figures

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 15.1

The solution to the multiplication problem: 23 3 37 using a dotty array by student B6 Multiple solutions for 72 4 4 using hand-drawn area models A number line model showing a repeated addition strategy for the multiplication problem: 9 3 9 Representations showing the structure of 2 3 5 (left-hand side) and 5 3 2 (right-hand side) A drawing to show the solution to the problem: 2 4 –41 asking how many groups of one quarter are in two? (eight) Percentage of students at stages on the number framework for the multiplicative domain (above: initial and below: final) Family storybook reading as a collaborative activity

72 73 73 74 75 80 234

Tables

2.1 2.2 2.3 5.1 5.2 5.3

10.1 10.2 15.1 15.2 15.3

16.1

16.2

Teachers’ lesson aims and students’ understanding of them Teachers’ explicitness when sharing mastery criteria and students’ understanding of criteria Instances of teachers’ oral feedback and feed-forward and students’ understanding New Zealand’s number framework for the domain of multiplication/division Different problem structures for problems involving multiplication and division Percentages of students at stages on the number framework for the domain of multiplication/division as a function of timing (initial and final) and school decile Macfarlane and Prochnow’s bases for contexts of behaviour Guiding developments in classroom management Ten picture storybook reading techniques Total frequencies of reading techniques used by the parents with three target books: baseline and intervention Mean scores of receptive and expressive vocabulary and comprehension all six children gained from three books across phases Numbers of students on Year 11 rolls and numbers and percentages of students on Year 11 rolls gaining NCEA Level 1 at Te Kotahitanga schools in 2005 and 2006, with percentagepoint and percentage increases between these years, by ethnicity The percentage point increase for Year 11 students by ethnicity, gaining NCEA Level 1 in Te Kotahitanga schools compared with a national decile-weighted cohort of schools from 2005 to 2006

24 26 28 70 76

81 152 154 237 241

243

258

259

Contributors

Angelika Anderson is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She teaches in the areas of developmental and behavioural psychology. Her research interests include developmental disabilities, evidence-based practice and inclusive education with a focus on interventions in a behavioural paradigm. Mere Berryman is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato. Her role enables her to build on research aimed at supporting educators to work more effectively with Ma¯ori students and their families in a range of education settings. Russell Bishop is foundation Professor for Ma¯ori Education at the University of Waikato, Hamilton. He is currently project director for Te Kotahitanga, a large New Zealand Ministry of Education project that seeks to improve the educational achievement of Ma¯ori students through the implementation of a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. Don Brown is Director of the Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour programme at Victoria University, Wellington. He was formerly Chief Psychologist and Director Special Education with the New Zealand Department of Education, and is a Fellow of the New Zealand Psychological Society. His research interests are in teacher professional development. Gavin T.L. Brown is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Psychological Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. His research focuses on cross-cultural differences in teacher and student responses to and understandings of educational assessment. John Church is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury. His research interests include the measurement of behaviour change, the experimental analysis of behaviour and behaviour change, instructional processes, origins of antisocial development and effective responses to behaviour problems and learning difficulties in children. John A. Hattie is a Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. His research interests include research methodology, structural equation modelling,

x Contributors

self-concept and models of teaching and learning. John is the Director of asTTle and of the Visible Learning Laboratories. Putai Jin is a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. His research interests are self-regulated learning, stress and research methods. His publications appear in outlets such as Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Educational Psychology, and Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Louise J. Keown is a Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Development in the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. She is a developmental psychologist whose research interests focus on the influence of parenting on young children’s social and behavioural development, with particular emphasis on preschool behaviour problems. Renae Low is a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. Her research interest is in educational psychology for learning and teaching. Her findings have been published in international academic journals such as the Journal of Educational Psychology. Angus H. Macfarlane is Professor of Ma¯ori Research at the University of Canterbury. In 2003, he was awarded the inaugural Research Fellowship by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, and the following year he received a Tohu Kairangi award, a citation for academic achievement in Ma¯ori education. Stuart McNaughton is Professor of Education at the University of Auckland and Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre. His research focuses on literacy and language development including processes of education, socialization and culture, and on the design of effective instruction and educational programmes for culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Dennis Moore is the Professor in Educational Psychology at Monash University. He is an educational psychologist with long-standing research interests in how we might better teach children with special needs, and how we can better support their parents and teachers. Dennis has published widely in these areas. Tom W. Nicholson is a Professor of Education at Massey University, New Zealand, who specializes in literacy and child development. He advises the government on national standards and is a member of the International Reading Association Hall of Fame. Judy M. Parr is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research interests focus on optimizing literacy development, particularly writing. Classroom practice, assessment and the nature of knowledge for teachers of writing are her areas of specialization. Elizabeth R. Peterson is a Senior Lecturer in the Psychology Department at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include the psychology of

Contributors xi

individual differences, the development of educational beliefs and cognitive styles. Elizabeth mainly focuses on the factors and processes that lead to the development of successful well-rounded students. Jane E. Prochnow is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Educational Studies at Massey University. Her research interests include learners’ emotional and behavioural disorders, the problems associated with including learners with behavioural disorders in the classroom, and the relationship between reading and behavioural disorders. Dennis Rose is a Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. His research is mostly concerned with children’s learning and behaviour, usually within a behaviour analytic methodology. His most recent research is a series of studies on fluency. Christine M. Rubie-Davies is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland with expertise in teacher expectations and the social psychology of the classroom. She is a recipient of a National Tertiary Teaching Award and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. John Sweller is an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of New South Wales. His research is associated with cognitive load theory. The theory is a contributor to both research and debate on issues associated with human cognition, its links to evolution by natural selection, and the instructional design consequences that follow. Lottie Thomson is a Registered Psychologist and a Senior Lecturer in the Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour Programme at Victoria University of Wellington. Her research focus is teacher professional development, collaborative consultation and evidence based practice. Helen S. Timperley is Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on how to promote professional and leadership learning in schools. She has published numerous research articles in both these areas in international journals and has written five books on her specialty research areas. Michael Townsend is Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education, Massey University (Auckland campus). His research interests in learning and instruction span cognitive, social and motivational dimensions of classrooms. Thanh-Binh Tran is a Researcher in the Woolf Fisher Research Centre at the University of Auckland. She is also a Lecturer in educational and developmental psychology and pedagogy. Her research interests are early literacy, partnership with families, individual activity and shared activity. William E. Tunmer is Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at Massey University. He received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from the

xii Contributors

University of Texas at Austin in 1979. His research focuses on literacy development, reading difficulties, and intervention strategies. Professor Tunmer is currently Associate Editor of Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Jennifer M. Young-Loveridge is an Associate Professor in Mathematics Education and Human Development at the University of Waikato. She received her PhD in Applied Psychology from the University of Toronto in 1983. Her research interests include the development of mathematical thinking, teachers’ mathematical pedagogical content, and learners’ perspectives on mathematics learning.

Foreword

During my time as editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology I had the opportunity to review over 500 submissions. Needless to say they were varied in content, approach and theoretical acumen. There were, during this period, submissions and reviews from researchers in New Zealand. I was introduced to new areas of work, impressed by the clarity of the thinking and intrigued by the ways in which the academics there used their particular contexts to address the issues that were central to educational psychology. So it gives me great pleasure to write a foreword for this creative and exciting collection of chapters grounded in research from New Zealand. This pleasure is enhanced by the opportunity I had to gain a deeper understanding of the New Zealand context, and research carried out, during a recent visit to Auckland. There are many challenges for education in the twenty-first century. This collection, located within the discipline of educational psychology and informed by the unique experiences and opportunities afforded in the New Zealand context, provides a distinctive approach to some of these challenges. The chapters present studies and approaches to analyses that are relevant to researchers across the globe. There are three central premises which underpin this collection: (1) accessibility; (2) addressing current challenges in educational research; and (3) contextualizing learning and the learner. In the past 100 or so years we have become skilled at assessing pupils’ needs but are still challenged in creating successful learning environments. Effective teaching and learning are central to educational change, a key international objective. Central to effective teaching and learning is robust research in the field of educational psychology. Yet research by academics which is only considered by academics has limited impact for teachers and pupils in real-world settings. The research needs to be accessible to practitioners and students as well as the academic community. This collection aims to do exactly that. State of the art research is presented in an accessible way which should support the understanding of students as well as that of more experienced professionals. Researchers in the field of educational psychology must also be prepared to tackle issues that have, for different reasons, not been consistently addressed. It is all too easy to follow a particular research trajectory and in so doing miss new and

xiv Foreword

important challenges. Yet, if students are to learn effectively and efficiently, we need to address both ways to support learning and development and to identify potential barriers. The contributors to this volume have confronted this challenge. The book contains chapters that address issues relating to the reliability and validity of assessments, critical if we wish to use these to guide teaching and learning, motivation and thinking and reasoning. To have ecological validity, research needs to be informed by different learning environments and different groups of learners. Students can be empowered in different ways. The New Zealand context offers a particular window on these issues and is addressed through the innovative work carried out with Ma¯ori students. Work of this kind can help us review our attitudes and practices towards minority groups. I have learnt a significant amount from my contact with the researchers in New Zealand. I trust that by reading chapters in this book you will also gain from their expertise, and that this may help in further developing research in educational psychology. Julie Dockrell Professor of Psychology and Special Needs Institute of Education, London

Introduction Christine M. Rubie-Davies

This book was designed to bring together a range of fields within educational psychology, thus making them accessible to academics, graduate students and teachers (especially those returning to graduate study) within one volume. It is anticipated that this book will make a major contribution to the field of educational psychology since the reader can locate recent research and understandings in several theoretical areas rather than having to read through a large number of separate volumes on each topic. This is rare at the graduate level and above and so this volume will be welcomed by researchers, students and teachers alike. The book provides a synthesis of educational psychology research across the various specialties. More advanced educational psychology books often have a narrow focus on a specific area, such as cognitive psychology or developmental psychology, or are based on specific educational theories such as goal theory. This book is intended to provide a broader coverage of educational domains than current books focused on classroom practice (e.g. those related to classroom management or the reflective teacher) or those with a specialized theoretical focus (e.g. cognitive dissonance theory). Because the book includes a wide range of educational psychology domains, it will challenge the thinking of readers across the various fields but can also provide a springboard for more intense study in particular areas or provide a quick reference point for current research across the broad spectrum of educational psychology. It may also provide an opportunity for readers to consider how theories in one educational psychology domain relate to theoretical understandings in another. Moreover, teachers will be encouraged to closely examine their instructional practices in light of the findings presented in this volume since most chapters skilfully link the research findings with classroom practice. Graduate students will be exposed to a range of potential topics for further research in the various fields of educational psychology because the book reveals the depth and breadth of topics within educational psychology that are available for further specialized study. In addition, because the chapters are written by leading academics in their respective areas, students can be guided to appropriate methodologies for their own future studies. For academics, the book brings together very recent research in several educational psychology fields and draws extensively on a broad range of international findings.

Research in educational psychology has had a huge impact in terms of enhancing understanding and challenging thinking about teachers and learners. Educational Psychology: Concepts, Research and Challenges brings together the latest research across many areas of educational psychology, introducing and reporting on the most effective methodologies for studying teachers and learners and providing overviews of current debates within the field. With chapters from international authors, this academic text or advanced level textbook provides theoretical overviews and research findings from across the field including: • • • • • • • •

Teaching and learning Research methods Motivation and instruction Curriculum – reading, writing, mathematics Cognition Special Educational Needs and behaviour management Sociocultural and socioemotional perspectives Assessment and evaluation.

Educational psychology has historically had a focus on students with particular learning needs. This book provides a discussion about the gradual movement toward inclusion and the possibility of developing a more cohesive and potentially more effective education system for all students. It also provides recent research into effective behaviour management and presents specific and valuable techniques employed in applied behaviour analysis. The contributors also deliver analysis on the motivation of students and how home and society in general can contribute towards constraining or enhancing student learning. This book is a must-read for academics, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students who recognize the substantial contribution of educational psychology to increasing our understanding of students and their learning, and of teachers and their teaching. Christine M. Rubie-Davies is currently Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. EdUCATioNAL PSyChoLogy Cover image: Photolibrary

ISBN 978-0-415-56264-5

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