Research on Students Cognition and Cognitive Validity

Methods
Participants
BRS is a private school, located in the north of Beijing in China. Twenty high
school students of my class will participate in this research. Students are ranging from
sixteen to eighteen years old. All students in BRS are classified into different levels of
nglish as a Second !anguage class, some with Chinese native nglish teachers and
the others with American teachers, with " hours of nglish class every day. There are
#ig differences of teaching philosophies and methodologies among all teachers,
especially those from different educational #ac$grounds. All students are native
Chinese students, with essential nglish spea$ing a#ility.
Methods
All twenty students will receive a %ui& paper with items to #e assessed. All
item statements are with a '(point !i$ert scale ranging from ) *not at all true+ to '
*very true+, selected from the ,atterns of Adaptive !earning Survey *,A!S- .idgley,
/00/- .idgley et al., )112, /000+. After they complete the paper, each of them will #e
interviewed a#out their interpretation of scale items, their recall of memories relevant
to the items, and their choices of an selection that reflect their phenomenological
experience, which is a %ualitative approach to improve validity within a %uantitative
investigation. All interviews will #e recorded.
There will #e two o#vious differences with the original version of the
statements. 3ne is that the stem of classroom goal structures will #e in my English
class, and my English teacher in the teachers4 goal structures, within #oth mastery
goal structures and performance goal structures. Another difference is in the
consideration of the accuracy of students4 perceptions, with different items. All items
will #e translated into Chinese, and with their interpretations translated #ac$ to
nglish, #y the same #ilingualism expert in Chinese and nglish.
Coding Criteria
5 would maintain the same sets of coding criteria with 6os$ey */0)0+4s
research, which are item interpretation, coherent ela#oration, and congruent answer
choice.
Items Tested
,erception of Classroom 7oal Structures
This refers to students4 perceptions of the purpose for engaging in academic wor$ that
are emphasi&ed in the classroom.
.astery 7oal Structure
5n my nglish class, it4s o$ay to ma$e mista$es as long as you are learning.
5n my nglish class, how much you improve is very important.
5n my nglish class, it4s important to understand the wor$, not just memori&e it.
5n my nglish class, learning new ideas and concepts in nglish is very important.
5n my nglish class, trying hard is very important
,erformance 7oal Structure
5n my nglish class, getting good grades is the main goal.
5n my nglish class, getting the right answer is very important.
5n my nglish class, it4s important to get high scores on the tests.
,erception of Teachers4 7oals
5t refers to students4 perceptions of the goals that their teachers emphasi&e in the
classroom.
.astery 7oal Structure
.y nglish teacher thin$s it is o$ay to ma$e mista$es in nglish as long as you are
learning.
.y nglish teacher thin$s how much you improve in nglish is really important.
.y nglish teacher wants us to understand our nglish wor$, not just memori&e it.
.y nglish teacher thin$s learning new ideas and concepts in nglish is very
important.
.y nglish teacher recogni&es us for trying hard in nglish.
,erformance 7oal Structure
.y nglish teacher points out those students who get good grades as an example to
all of us.
.y nglish teacher lets us $now which students get the highest scores on a test.
.y nglish teacher tells us how we compare to other students.
*8ote9 5tems from the ,atterns of Adaptive !earning Scales ,A!S- .idgley et al.,
/000+