The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of readers' misconceptions on text comprehension. College students with misconceptions in science were asked to read and recall a text that contradicted their misconceptions. Students with no misconceptions served as the control group. Both online (think-aloud, reading times) and offline…

This study investigated the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance in 4,000 undergraduate and 1,414 graduate students and found a significant but small inverse relationship between test anxiety and grade point average (GPA) in both groups. Low-test-anxious undergraduates averaged a B+, whereas high-test-anxious students…

In Study 1, teachers identified 6th-grade students (N = 844) as having 1 of 3 help-seeking behavioral tendencies in the classroom: avoidant, appropriate, or dependent. More students were identified as having appropriate (65%) than avoidant (22%) or dependent (13%) help-seeking tendencies. Student self-reports of help avoidance were in line with…

This paper describes an exploratory pilot research project, aimed at investigating occupational stress amongst educational psychologists. It investigated three areas: educational psychologists' perceptions of their own stress levels, sources of stress and possible work conditions, which may reduce stress levels. Data was collected via…

As an educational psychologist taking up a therapeutic role in schools following a traumatic event I have struggled to make sense of what happens. This paper is structured around three metaphors that are informed by psychoanalytic thinking, which work both at the individual level and the systemic level. These metaphors have helped me objectify the…

This study investigated the impact of different aspects of the circle of friends (CoF) intervention. A naturalistic sample of 14 primary-aged children with a range of special educational needs were involved, seven of whom were followed-up a term later, to assess medium-term impact. The whole-class meeting was found to be effective in increasing…

Effective and efficient assessment is essential to support school improvement, the progress of individual pupils and teachers' classroom management. A group of educational psychologists used the items for measuring pupils emotional and behavioural development found in "Supporting school improvement: Emotional and behavioural development" (2001) to…

Research into the long-term effects of language delay reflects an increasing concern that many childrens needs are not being met by current early years educational practice. This paper reports on a twopart intervention designed to improve language skills within a nursery setting. In the first part of the intervention, a directly taught small group…

The field of styles presents three major controversial issues: styles as value-laden versus value-free, styles as traits versus states, and styles as different constructs versus similar constructs with different labels. We address these issues by proposing an integrative model of styles--the Threefold Model of Intellectual Styles--which divides…

The Animation Tutor[TM] is a curriculum project that uses software to supplement instruction in courses such as intermediate algebra. Its purpose is to ground mathematical reasoning in concrete experiences through the use of interactive animation and the virtual manipulation of objects. This article summarizes how the project has progressed from…

Parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education. However, student motivation as an academic outcome of parental involvement has only recently been investigated. The purpose of this article is to show how parent involvement is related to students' motivation. Studies of students from…

Traditionally, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has focused on instructional methods to decrease extraneous cognitive load so that available cognitive resources can be fully devoted to learning. This article strengthens the cognitive base of CLT by linking cognitive processes to the processes used by biological evolution. The article discusses recent…

Who are the people who become positive educational leaders? This essay presents WICS as a model of positive educational leadership. WICS stands for "w"isdom, "i"ntelligence, "c"reativity, "s"ynthesized. Each of these elements is asserted to constitute one of the elements of educational leadership. Regrettably, our society is organized around a…

Previously, Robinson, McKay, Katayama, and Fan (1998) examined women's involvement in six educational psychology journals ("American Educational Research Journal," "Contemporary Educational Psychology," "Educational Psychologist," "Educational Psychology Review," "Journal of Experimental Education," and "Journal of Educational Psychology") from…

This article explores learner-generated drawing, a strategy in which learners construct representative illustrations in support of learning goals. Both applied and empirical literature is reviewed with the purpose of stimulating research on this strategy. Clear from this review is the gap that exists between prescriptive readings on…