Past research has indicated that there is a negative relationship between victimization and self-worth. Furthermore, children with movement problems such as developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are considered at risk of both victimization and low self-worth. This study investigated the relationship between peer-victimization and self-worth in…

Background: Recent research on the influence of presentation format on the effectiveness of multimedia instructions has yielded some interesting results. According to cognitive load theory (Sweller, Van Merri?nboer, & Paas, 1998) and Mayer's theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001), replacing visual text with spoken text (the modality effect)…

Background: According to the optimal stimulation theory and the delay aversion hypothesis, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience difficulties when they are confronted with low levels of stimulation and delay, respectively. Aim: This study investigated the activity level of children with ADHD during waiting…

Background: Research on the relationship between cognitive skills and mathematical problem solving is usually conducted on adults or on participants with acquired deficits associated with brain injury (e.g. Cipolotti, 1995; Cohen, Dehaene, & Verstichel, 1994; McCloskey, 1992). Aims: In these studies we wanted to make a contribution to the field…

Background: An important aim of educational psychology is to account for the difficulties in cognitive strategy maintenance. Possible explanations may be found in developmental studies concerning the interdependence of knowledge accessibility and strategy use, and in current achievement goal models which assume that individuals with a learning…

Background: High levels of behaviour problems are found in children with language impairments, but less is known about the level and nature of language impairment in children with severe behavioural problems. In particular, previous data suggest that at primary age, receptive impairments are more closely related to behaviour problems, whereas…

Background: Studies on argument have found that participants tend to prefer explanations to evidence. This apparent bias toward explanation has been qualified recently by research that has found it to diminish with the availability of evidence. Aim: This study examines the use of explanation versus evidence in the context of argumentation with…

While reviews abound on theoretical topics in educational psychology, it is rare that we examine our field's instrumentation development, and what effects this has on educational psychology's evolution. To repair this gap, this paper investigates and reveals the implications of software technologies for researching and theorizing about core issues…

Objectives: To assess teachers' emotional expression about pupils using the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) and coding procedures for parental expressed emotion (EE). To compare EE for disruptive and non-disruptive pupils. Method: Twenty-one teachers provided speech samples for both a disruptive and a non-disruptive pupil in their class selected…

This study compared the effects of two information presentation formats on learning to solve problems in electrical circuits. In one condition, the split-source format, information relating to procedural aspects of the functioning of an electrical circuit was not integrated in a circuit diagram, while information in the integrated format condition…

Background: Although considerable research has examined beliefs and learning outcomes (e.g. Schommer, 1990, 1993a, 1993b; Schommer & Dunnell, 1997), little has looked at the relationship between beliefs and the actual learning process. Aims: This research examines the relationship between beliefs about learning and knowledge, and reports of…

Background: Previous research suggests that children with specific comprehension difficulties have problems with the generation of inferences. This raises important questions as to whether poor comprehenders have poor comprehension skills generally, or whether their problems are confined to specific inference types. Aims: The main aims of the…

Background: In recent decades, two lines of research, phenomenographic and meta-cognitive, have examined students' approaches and epistemological beliefs about learning. To date there has been very little research describing the change in epistemological beliefs in European secondary students, or analysing interrelationships between…

Background: This paper presents results from the first wave of a longitudinal study examining the effects of various psychosocial variables on scholastic achievement and behaviour at school. Aims: The main aim is to investigate the nature and strength of the effects of major individual difference dimensions on important outcome variables at school…

Background: Carrying out whole tasks is often too difficult for novice learners attempting to acquire complex skills. The common solution is to split up the tasks into a number of smaller steps. The number of steps must be optimized for efficient and effective learning. Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate the relation between the number of…