The Role of Choice in Children's Learning: A Distinctive Cultural and Gender Difference in Efficacy, Interest, and Effort.
A cross-cultural experiment testing the effect of personal choice on learning was conducted with fifth- and sixth-graders from Canada (n = 130) and Taiwan (n = 153) using a computerized foreign language learning task. The results showed that choice had no significant impact on children's interest, e...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 17 - 30 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Canadian Psychological Association
January 2004
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=510333776&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 510333776 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0008400X FYI jtl: Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science issn: 0008400X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: January 2004 vid: 36 iid: 1 pid: 98 pub: Canadian Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 510333776 10.1037/h0087212 ppf: 17 ppct: 13 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: The Role of Choice in Children's Learning: A Distinctive Cultural and Gender Difference in Efficacy, Interest, and Effort. aug: au: D'Ailly, Hsiao su: Cross-cultural differences Choice (Psychology) Gender differences (Psychology) Concept learning sug: subj: Cross-cultural differences Choice (Psychology) Gender differences (Psychology) Concept learning ab: A cross-cultural experiment testing the effect of personal choice on learning was conducted with fifth- and sixth-graders from Canada (n = 130) and Taiwan (n = 153) using a computerized foreign language learning task. The results showed that choice had no significant impact on children's interest, effort, or learning outcome. Although comparable to their Chinese counterparts in efficacy beliefs, the Canadian children reported to be more interested but showed less effort and performed less well on the task. The Canadian boys had a lower efficacy belief and consistently showed less interest and effort than the girls; this gender gap, however, was not evident in the Chinese. Unlike the Canadians, Chinese children's effort was unrelated to efficacy beliefs or interest. When told explicitly there would be no test, Chinese children became more interested in the task but the Canadians were unaffected. Implications of these findings are discussed and further studies are suggested. Une expérience transculturelle testant les effets du choix personnel sur l'apprentissage a été menée auprès d'enfants de cinquième et sixième année du Canada (n = 130) et de Taïwan (n = 153) à l'aide d'une tâche informatisée d'apprentissage d'une langue étrangère. Les résultats ont montré que le choix n'a pas d'incidence significative sur l'intérêt, l'effort ou le résultat de l'apprentissage des enfants. Bien que les convictions d'efficacité des enfants chinois et canadiens soient comparables, les enfants canadiens se sont dits plus intéressés, mais ont montré moins d'effort et une moins bonne performance de la tàche. Les gar̨cons canadiens avaient une conviction d'efficacité plus faible et montraient de fącon constante moins d'intérêt et d'effort que les filles; cet écart entre les sexes n'était toutefois pas évident chez les enfants chinois. Contrairement aux canadiens, l'effort des enfants chinois n'était pas lié aux convictions d'efficacité ou à l'intérêt. Lorsqu'on leur disait de fącon explicite qu'il n'y aurait pas de test, les enfants chinois devenaient plus intéressés dans la tâche, mais il n'y avait pas d'effet sur les enfants canadiens. Les implications de ces conclusions font l'objet de discussion et d'autres études sont suggérées. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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