Jennifer Cromley | Temple University (original) (raw)

Papers by Jennifer Cromley

Self-generated questions are a central mechanism for learning, yet students' questions are of... more Self-generated questions are a central mechanism for learning, yet students' questions are often infrequent during classroom instruction. As a result, little is known about the nature of student questioning during typical instructional contexts such as listening to a lecture, including the extent and nature of student-generated questions, how students evaluate their questions, and the relations among questions, motivations, and achievement. This study examined the questions undergraduate students (N = 103) generated during 8 lectures in an introductory chemistry course. Students recorded and appraised their question in daily question logs and reported lecture-specific self-efficacy beliefs. Self-efficacy, personal interest, goal orientations, and other motivational self-beliefs were measured before and after the unit. Primary analyses included testing path models, multiple regressions, and latent class analyses. Overall, results indicated that several characteristics of student ...

Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2020

Students' success in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) cours... more Students' success in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses requires effective studying behavior, but also the motivation to enact it. Promoting students' achievement in STEM has commonly focused on either study strategies (cognitive) or motivational interventions; we hypothesized that combinations of these would be more effective. Using a learning management system (LMS) for delivery, we iteratively developed and tested the effect of different combinations of one of the four cognition-focused with one of the three motivation-focused intervention modules. Participants were 3,092 undergraduate introductory biology students tested in 10 studies at three universities over 4 years. They were randomly assigned to either a no-treatment control condition or one of the 17 conditions involving either single or combined intervention modules delivered over an entire semester. Course grades were provided by the instructor. We used meta-analytic techniques to capture the effect of students' access to the interventions on grades, and to test whether differences across experiments changed the effect size for the interventions. Averaging across the studies, the intervention had an effect of g = .30. All 10 moderators were significant: Cognitive + Motivational versus either one alone, timely access to the intervention, iterative development phase, type of cognitive or type of motivation module, the specific cognitive-motivation combination, university, academic year, semester, first versus second semester of biology, and course content. We conclude that combined interventions delivered via an LMS can meaningfully improve undergraduate students' course grades (corresponding to 6.6 percentage points on final course grade), with minimal extra work for instructors. However, these effects depended on a variety of contextual factors.

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) are effective to the extent that they can adapt to t... more Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) are effective to the extent that they can adapt to the needs of individual learners by systematically and dynamically providing scaffolding of key learning processes during learning. The ability of these environments ’ to provide adaptive, individualized instruction is derived from an understanding of how learner characteristics, system features, and the mediating learning processes interact within particular contexts. A critical aspect of providing individualized instruction is scaffolding, or instructional support in the form of guides, strategies, and tools which are used during learning to support a level of understanding that would be impossible to attain if students learned on their own. Despite our ability to provide scaffolding concerning well-structured tasks within traditional CBLEs such as intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), providing adaptive scaffolding of students’ learning about conceptually challenging domains, such as the...

Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 2021

Media reports suggest the switch to online courses due to COVID-19 has “demotivated” undergraduat... more Media reports suggest the switch to online courses due to COVID-19 has “demotivated” undergraduates. Our semester-long study of motivation for biology was in progress when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. [ABSTRACT] Media reports suggest the switch to online courses due to COVID-19 has “demotivated” undergraduates. Our semester-long study of motivation for biology was in progress when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. We analyze changes in student (N = 182) motivation from before and after. Across variables, subgroups of students changed in adaptive and maladaptive ways; some remained stable. In cross-tabulations, one significant difference was found by sex, and a number of adaptive and maladaptive differences by race and socioeconomic status (SES). Despite obvious burdens on low-SES groups, undergraduate motivation was affected positively and negatively in this sample; only some variables were related to intention to remain in STEM.

Cognitive Science, 2014

What Gaze Data Reveal About Coordinating Multiple Mathematical Representations Theodore Wills (tw... more What Gaze Data Reveal About Coordinating Multiple Mathematical Representations Theodore Wills (twills@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Thomas F. Shipley (thomas.shipley@temple.edu) Department of Psychology, 1701 North 13th Street Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Briana L. Chang (briana.chang@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Jennifer G. Cromley (jcromley@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Julie L. Booth (julie.booth@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Abstract 40 High school students were given a battery of paper and pencil tests, which collectively assessed a variety of spatial abilities, graph and table competencies, conceptual mastery of calculus, and achievement in common topics from typical precalculus and calculus courses. In addition, students completed a comp...

Calculus Expertise and Strategy Use when Comparing Multiple Representations Julie L. Booth (julie... more Calculus Expertise and Strategy Use when Comparing Multiple Representations Julie L. Booth (julie.booth@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Briana L. Chang (briana.chang@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Jennifer G. Cromley (jcromley@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Thomas F. Shipley (thomas.shipley@temple.edu) Department of Psychology, 1701 North 13th Street Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Theodore Wills (twills@temple.edu) College of Education, 1301 W. Cecil B. Moore Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA Abstract Expertise affords individuals a variety of advantages for learning and for problem solving, including competing advantages such as using automatic strategies vs. using sophisticated strategies. In the present study, high school students with varying levels of calculus expertise completed measures of conceptual und...

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Background/Context English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the K–12 s... more Background/Context English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the K–12 student population in the United States, yet they encounter substantial problems entering higher education. The gap between ELLs and non-ELLs is particularly acute for four-year college access. Research has been largely silent on ELLs’ college advancement, and we know little about what inhibits ELLs’ college access. Purpose To examine the process of ELLs’ college planning in order to determine which stages of college planning present difficulties to ELLs and why. College planning is conceptualized as consisting of five milestones: (a) aspiring to college, (b) acquiring college qualifications, (c) graduating from high school, (d) applying to college, and (e) enrolling in college. Research Design Secondary data analysis of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Only students who participated in all of the first three waves (2002, 2004, and 2006) of data collection were included (N = 12,4...

Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education

Making inferences and reasoning with new scientific information is critical for successful perfor... more Making inferences and reasoning with new scientific information is critical for successful performance in biology coursework. Thus, identifying students who are weak in these skills could allow the early provision of additional support and course placement recommendations to help students develop their reasoning abilities, leading to better performance and less attrition within biology courses.

Frontiers in Education

The Inference-Making and Reasoning in Biology (IMRB) measure is an assessment tool intended to 1)... more The Inference-Making and Reasoning in Biology (IMRB) measure is an assessment tool intended to 1) aid university personnel in advising students on course enrollment, 2) identify students in need of interventions to increase their reasoning skills and likelihood of completing STEM majors, 3) support instructors in determining growth in students’ reasoning skills, and 4) provide a measuring tool to gauge success of higher-education interventions intended to increase reasoning skills. Validity arguments for these four uses of the IMRB are provided by implementing a validity argument approach. This work exemplifies the advantages of framing validation studies within a validity argument framework.

Diagrammatic Representation and Inference

The study strategy of comparing-and-contrasting has been well validated for learning from text, b... more The study strategy of comparing-and-contrasting has been well validated for learning from text, but not from diagrams. As part of a semester-long study strategies intervention for undergraduate biology students, we created 4 short instructional videos demonstrating the strategy of comparing-and-contrasting within diagrams (CC DIA) and delivered these just before the first course exam. We hypothesized that this strategy would help students develop a deeper comprehension of the instructed biology content. Participants were 128 undergraduates in a 2nd semester introductory (molecular and cellular) biology course, who participated in exchange for extra course credit. Students who accessed our videos scored a significant 5.5% points higher on the first exam of the semester, compared to students in other conditions or non-viewers (d = .35). Our brief (approx. 10 min per week × 4 weeks) instruction in using diagrams to learn biology yielded significant gains in undergraduate achievement.

Reading Psychology

Abstract When reading scientific text, readers must draw inferences when the author does not make... more Abstract When reading scientific text, readers must draw inferences when the author does not make relations explicit; readers also need to pick up on causal relations that the author does make explicit. We collected think-aloud protocols from 86 undergraduate biology students reading 7 brief, illustrated passages about the immune system. After reading, participants typed a free recall. Both think-aloud and recall were transcribed and coded for two types of causal language—specific action verbs and explicit causal terms (forms of the word “cause”)—as well as inferences. Inferences in recalls were significantly related to action verbs picked up and during reading, as evidenced by the think-alouds. Action verbs in recalls were significantly facilitated by inferences and pick up of action verbs articulated by the participants while reading, as evidenced by the think-alouds. Explicit causal terms in recalls were significantly facilitated by pick up of action verbs while reading. Results suggest a very important role for pick-up of specific action verbs while reading, and risks associated with learners substituting vague verbs of class membership (“is a,” “has a”) for highly specific action verbs (“activates,” “binds”) when learning biology. One possible implication is that prompting students to pick up on specific action verbs while reading biology texts—in addition to making inferences during reading—could prompt more benefit from reading these types of texts.

Journal of Science Education and Technology

Drawing-to-learn is a specific learning/reading strategy studied across many domains. In response... more Drawing-to-learn is a specific learning/reading strategy studied across many domains. In response to gaps in our knowledge about drawing-to-learn, we conducted a systematic meta-analysis of the literature published since the influential 2005 Van Meter and Garner literature review. We analyzed the benefits of directed learner-generated visual representations such as sketching, drawing, or computer-assisted creation of a full or partial static image. Forty-one peer-reviewed articles were screened in, together with 9 dissertations and 2 other documents; published from 2005 to 2018, these included 53 studies and 166 effects based on 8111 participants. The overall effect of drawing-to-learn across all dependent variable types (factual, inferential, and transfer) and both types of effects—comparing different types of drawing and comparing drawing to non-drawing conditions—was a significant g = 0.69. The overall effect was significant but differed across outcomes ( g = 0.85 for factual, g = 0.44 for inferential, and g = 0.22 for transfer). Analyses across 6 moderators are presented. Not only does the literature continue to show that drawing-to-learn is better than the status quo, but directed drawing improves factual as well as inferential and transfer learning. Finally, researchers have found ways to improve drawing-to-learn instruction so that it can be even more effective than the simple directive to make a drawing.

Mathematical Thinking and Learning

Spatial skills have been shown in various longitudinal studies to be related to multiple science,... more Spatial skills have been shown in various longitudinal studies to be related to multiple science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) achievement and retention. The specific nature of this relation has been probed in only a few domains, and has rarely been investigated for calculus, a critical topic in preparing students for and in STEM majors and careers. We gathered data on paper-and-pencil measures of spatial skills (mental rotation, paper folding, and hidden figures); calculus proficiency (conceptual knowledge and released Advanced Placement [AP] calculus items); coordinating graph, table, and algebraic representations (coordinating multiple representations); and basic graph/table skills. Regression analyses suggest that mental rotation is the best of the spatial predictors for scores on released AP calculus exam questions (β = 0.21), but that spatial skills are not a significant predictor of calculus conceptual knowledge. Proficiency in coordinating multiple representations is also a significant predictor of both released AP calculus questions (β = 0.37) and calculus conceptual knowledge (β = 0.47). The spatial skills tapped by the measure for mental rotation may be similar to those required to engage in mental animation of typical explanations in AP textbooks and in AP class teaching as tested on the AP exam questions. Our measure for calculus conceptual knowledge, by contrast, did not require coordinating representations.

Science Education, 2016

We explored whether existing curricula can be adapted to increase students' skills at comprehendi... more We explored whether existing curricula can be adapted to increase students' skills at comprehending and learning from diagrams using an intervention delivered by regular middle-school teachers in intact classrooms. Ninety-two teachers in three states implemented our modified materials over six curricular units from two publishers: Holt (a reading-focused curriculum) and Full Option Science System (FOSS) (an inquiry-focused curriculum). Results were compared between two interventions-one based on selected principles of cognitive science (cognitive-science-based) that included instruction in diagram comprehension and one providing professional development in science content only (content-only)-and a business-as-usual control. We analyze posttest items involving different degrees of reliance on diagrams to show how instruction in diagram comprehension can improve comprehension of diagrams during reasoning. At the classroom level, there were significant advantages of the cognitive-science-based intervention over both content-only and business-as-usual with large effect sizes in all FOSS units (d = 0.41-0.52), but only one Holt unit (d = 0.11). Analyses by type of diagram suggested these effects were largest for transfer to diagrams from an uninstructed domain. Further analyses of high-stakes state test

In this mixed-method study, we converged product and process data to examine the effectiveness of... more In this mixed-method study, we converged product and process data to examine the effectiveness of three human scaffolding conditions in facilitating students' learning about the circulatory system and the deployment of key self-regulatory processes during a 40-minute hypermedia learning task. Undergraduate students (N = 123) were randomly assigned to one of three scaffolding conditions (adaptive content and process scaffolding [ACPS], adaptive process scaffolding [APS], and no scaffolding [NS]) and were trained to use a hypermedia environment to learn about the circulatory system. The product data revealed that the students in the ACPS condition gained significantly more declarative knowledge than did those in the other two comparison conditions. In addition, ACPS was statistically significantly associated with qualitative shifts in the students' mental models of the topic, whereas the other two conditions were not. The verbal protocol data revealed that students in the ACPS condition utilized only a few regulatory processes, engaged in help-seeking behavior, and relied on the tutor to regulate their learning. By contrast, the verbal protocol data indicated that learners in the APS condition regulated their learning by using several key monitoring activities and learning strategies, while those in the NS condition were less effective at regulating their learning and used fewer key self-regulatory processes during the activity. We propose several design principles for adaptive hypermedia learning environments based on these findings.

Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education Supporting Learning Through Intelligent and Socially Informed Technology, 2005

A body of research has demonstrated when multiple representations of content help students learn.... more A body of research has demonstrated when multiple representations of content help students learn. Few studies, however, have used process measures to understand what different cognitive processes students enact when learning from different representations. We collected pretest, posttest, think-aloud, and video data from 21 undergraduate students learning about the human circulatory system using a hypermedia encyclopedia. We measured learning as a change in a participant's mental model of the circulatory system from pretest to posttest. Students who learned more tended to spend less time in Text. While viewing Text alone, amount of learning was most strongly associated with verbalizing a smaller proportion of Feeling of Knowing, Free Search, and Selecting a New Informational Source. For Text + Diagrams, the amount of learning was most strongly associated with verbalizing a larger proportion of Inference and Self-Questioning. For Animation, the only significant variable was Summarizing. When not using the hypermedia environment, the significant variables were Feeling of Knowing, Prior Knowledge Activation, and Taking Notes. We close with implications for designing hypermedia environments for learning about complex science topics.

This study examined the role of different scaffolding instructional interventions in facilitating... more This study examined the role of different scaffolding instructional interventions in facilitating students' shift to more sophisticated mental models as indicated by both performance and process data. Undergraduate students (n=51) were randomly assigned to use of one of three scaffolding conditions (adaptive scaffolding (AS), fixed scaffolding (FS), and no scaffolding (NS))and were trained to use a hypermedia environment to learn about the circulatory system. Pretest, posttest, and verbal protocol data were collected. Findings reveal that the AS condition facilitated the shift in learners' mental models significantly more than did the comparison conditions. Participants in the AS condition regulated their learning by activating prior knowledge, monitoring their emerging understanding by using several strategies, and engaging in adaptive helpseeking. Learners in the FS and NS conditions were less effective at regulating their learning and exhibited great variability in self-regulation of their learning during the knowledge construction activity. AS participants also differed in the amount of time spend on each representation of information. An appendix describes the variables used to code the data. (Contains 4 tables and 64 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.