Contribution to the Validation of the Expectancy-Value Scale for Primary School Students

Grounded in ‘expectancy-value’ theory, this paper reports on the psychometric properties of an instrument intended to measure students’ motivation in mathematics. The participants were 2045 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden. The Expectancy-Value Scale (EVS) was found to be suitable for early grades of primary education in measuring competence self-perceptions and subjective task values relative to the mathematics field. The results indicate a good model fit aligned with the expectancy-value theory. The EVS dimensions showed good reliability, and scalar invariance was established. However, findings also indicated high correlations between some of the EVS dimensions, which is well documented for students at this age. The findings are discussed relative to the ‘expectancy-value’ theory framework and students’ age.

Selfish genes or selfish memes: The effect of genetic relatedness versus value similarity on altruism

Two preregistered quasi-experiments disentangled the effects of selfish genes and selfish memes on participants? self-reported willingness to help in hypothetical everyday-favor and life-or-death situations. Memes were operationalized as the perceived level of similarity in important attitudes and values between the person participating in the study and a selected target person, assessed and reported by the participant. In Study 1 (N = 761), altruism was highest for siblings, and then for cousins and nonkin; greater memetic similarity was also associated with greater altruism; and the interaction between the factors was not significant. In Study 2 (N = 841), conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, altruism was highest for siblings, but the same for cousins and nonkin; the effect of memetic similarity was replicated; and the interaction term remained insignificant. Both studies controlled for a range of demographic and social relationship characteristics, suggesting a potentially relevant role of future contact probability and emotional closeness. We propose that, similarly to gene selfishness, meme selfishness can also bring about altruism: individuals would rather make a personal sacrifice to help memetically similar than dissimilar others because similar others have a higher chance of spreading the helper?s memes.

Intolerance of Uncertainty and Tendency to Worry as Mediators Between Trust in Institutions and Social Support and Fear of Coronavirus and Consequences of the Pandemic

The aim of this article is to formulate and test a model integrating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) findings regarding the importance of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and tendency to worry with findings regarding the importance of trust in institutions, other people, and social support. We assumed that trust in institutions, other people, and social support reduce fear of the coronavirus and of the consequences of the pandemic in a direct way, but also indirectly by enhancing one’s sense of control and diminishing the tendency to worry which, further, attenuates fear of the coronavirus and fear of the consequences of the pandemic. An online survey was conducted among the Serbian general population (N = 1409, 78.1% female, M = 38.82, SD = 9.24) at the end of April 2020, which included questionnaires on fear of SARS-CoV-2, fear of consequences of the pandemic, social support, trust in other people and trust in political and health institutions. The model has been validated by data from our study suggesting that it represents one possible pattern of interrelationships between social and intrapsychic variables in the pandemic situation. Results also showed that the COVID-19 related fears are related more strongly to intrapsychic variables – IU and tendency to worry – than to variables operationalizing social context relevant for coping with pandemic at the social and individual level.

The Dilemma of Inclusive Education: Inclusion for Some or Inclusion for All

In this paper, we intend to consider different understandings of inclusive education that frame current public and professional debates as well as policies and practices. We analyze two - somewhat opposing - discourses regarding inclusive education, namely, the "inclusion for some" - which represents the idea that children with special needs have a right to the highest quality education which can be delivered by specially trained staff, and the "inclusion for all" - which represents the idea that all children regarding their diverse needs should have the opportunity to learn together. To put the two discourses in a dialogical relation, we have reconstructed the inferential configurations of the arguments of each narrative to identify how the two definitions contribute to position children with and without special needs and their teachers. The results show the possibilities to bridge the two narratives, with respect to the voices they promote or silence, the power relations they constitute, and the values and practices they enact or prevent.

The relevance of a sociocultural perspective for understanding learning and development in older age

This paper proposes a sociocultural psychology approach to ageing in the lifecourse. It proposes to consider sociogenetic, microgenetic and ontogenetic transformations when studying older age. On this basis, it considers that older people's lives have two specificities: a longer life experience, and a unique view of historical transformation. The paper calls for a closer understanding of the specific and evolving conditions of ageing, and for more inclusion of older citizens in public debate and policy making.

Searching for an Integrative Theoretical Framework for Psychology: Evolutionary Psychology is Needed, But Not Sufficient

The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the reflection on a potential integrative framework for the psychological sciences based on the target paper in this special issue "Psychology: A Giant with Feet of Clay" by Zagaria, Andò & Zennaro. The paper is organized in three parts. In the first part we will discuss whether introductory textbooks provide a solid and reasonable basis for an analysis of the quality of conceptualization of key concepts in the psychology as well as whether the epistemological analysis could provide arguments for a conclusion that the psychology is a "soft(er)" science. In the second part, we will formulate our reasons why we share with Zagaria, Andò & Zennaro the conclusion that the evolutionary psychology might play a significant role in our quest for the integrative framework, but also why we are not convinced that evolutionary psychology can be integrative enough. In the third part, we are going to formulate an alternative starting point for exploration of for an integrative framework for psychological sciences and their practical applications supporting individuals and communities in their quest for a meaningful and productive existence and navigation of their future lives.

Portret nastavnika matematike u srednjoj školi: kritička analiza dominantne prakse

Polazeći od rezultata prethodnih studija o značaju uverenja nastavnika o nastavi i učenju za njihov svakodnevni rad u učionici, te rezultata koji upućuju na kompleksnost odnosa između uverenja i praksi nastavnika cilj ovog rada je da analizira nastavu matematike u srednjim školama postavljajući ove dve istraživačke tradicije u svojevrstan dijalog. Autori polaze od pretpostavke da odnos između nastavnikovog uverenja o tome na koji način treba konstruisati okruženje za učenje i svakodnevne prakse nije jednostavan i linearan, već da može značajno da varira. U pojedinim slučajevima uverenja i prakse nastavnika će biti u skladu; ponekad će prakse nastavnika izlaziti izvan okvira koje uspostavljaju uverenja; a neretko će praksa protuvrečiti demonstriranim uverenjima nastavnika. Praksa nastavnika matematike se analizira na osnovu dve konsekutivne studije koje su imale za cilj da istraže ovu kompleksnost odnosa. Rezultati ukazuju da najveći broj nastavnika matematike pripada tradicionalnoj grupi nastavnika u vezi sa shvatanjima o nastavi i učenju, ali i praksama koje se primenjuju u radu sa učenicima. Ipak, jedna grupa nastavnika uprkos prisustvu tradicionalnih uverenja, konstruiše svoju praksu tako da donekle pokušava da iskorači izvan tradicionalnog okvira u kome se nalazi. Rezultati su diskutovani uzimajući u obzir inicijalno obrazovanje nastavnika i njihov dalji profesionalni razvoj.

Dinamičko procenjivanje zone narednog razvoja testom za ispitivanje prvaka-1 (TIP-1)

Osnovni predmet rada jeste ispitivanje mogućnosti primene instrumenta TIP-1 za dinamičko procenjivanje zone narednog razvoja. U okviru istraživanja su za svako dete dobijeni podaci o zoni aktuelnog razvoja (ZAR) i, uz odgovarajuće modifikacije procedure ispitivanja, o zoni narednog razvoja (ZNR). Rezultati pokazuju da su ZAR i ZNR u pozitivnoj korelaciji (r = .50), što je veća ZAR veća je i ZNR i obrnuto, što je slabije samostalno postignuće u manjoj meri dete napreduje i u saradnji sa kompetentnijim odraslim. Rezultati su u skladu sa očekivanjima formulisanim na osnovu teorije Vigotskog, kao i sa rezultatima nekih prethodnih istraživanja. Na osnovu istraživanja definisane su i praktične preporuke za psihologe koji se bave predškolskim testiranjem zrelosti za polazak u školu.

Uticaj socio-ekonomskog statusa učenika na obrazovna postignuća: direktni i indirektni uticaji

Osnovni cilj ovog rada je da se proveri hipoteza o uticaju socioekonomskog statusa učenika (SES) na njihova obrazovna postignuća. Veliki broj istraživačkih nalaza ukazuje na pozitivnu povezanost između SES učenika i njihovih obrazovnih postignuća, uključujući i nalaze PISA studije, tj. da učenici sa višim SES u proseku imaju viša obrazovna postignuća. Rad je zasnovan na hipotezi da je uticaj SES učenika na obrazovna postignuća posredovan preko školske anksioznosti i unutrašnje motivacije, kao i preko formativnog ocenjivanja od strane nastavnika. Postavljena hipoteza implicira da će uticaj SES biti sveden na nultu vrednost kada se u strukturalni model uvedu posredujuće varijable. Analiza podataka je zasnovana na podacima PISA 2009 studije u kojoj je učestvovao reprezentativan uzorak od 4843 učenika srednjih škola u Srbiji. Rezultati pokazuju da tri posredujuće varijable objašnjavaju manji deo SES efekta. Od tri posredujuće varijable, najznačajniji posrednik je školska anksioznost – učenici sa nižim SES imaju u proseku viši nivo školske anksioznosti što utiče na smanjenje njihovih obrazovnih postignuća. Pored toga, SES učenika nema statistički značajan uticaj na unutrašnju motivaciju za školsko učenje, što ukazuje da svi učenici, bez obzira na SES, mogu da budu zainteresovani za školsko učenje. Konačno, analize pokazuju da postoji pozitivna povezanost između SES i formativnog ocenjivanja nastavnika, ali je ta povezanost veoma niska, što znači da nastavnici u srednjim školama uspevaju da primenjuju podsticajne prakse prema svim učenicima bez obzira na njihov SES. Dobijeni nalazi sugerišu da je uticaj SES na obrazovna postignuća posredovan nekim drugim faktorima, pored onih koji su ispitivani u ovom radu.

Reflective sociocultural psychology: lost and found in collaboration with funding agencies and ICT experts

This paper deals with emerging kinds of collaboration between researchers, funding agencies and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) experts. The goal of this paper is to analyze the challenges and opportunities for researchers presented by such collaborations. The analysis is based on a sociocultural approach, and leads to the following conclusions: (a) the main challenges to collaboration arise from the fact that partners' communities have different goals and use different sets of mediation tools, (b) there are different ways for researchers to cope with more powerful partners such as major funding agencies (refusing collaboration, pseudo collaboration, asymmetric collaboration, and real partnership), (c) appropriation of mediation tools developed by partners could be useful for researchers, (d) collaboration with partners could be a source of new theoretically interesting phenomenon, and (e) communication with partners who are not familiar with our routine discourses might help us to improve our own understanding.

Collaborative research, knowledge and emergence

We use the notion of emergence to consider the sorts of knowledge that can be produced in a collaborative research project. The notion invites us to see collaborative work as a developmental dynamic system in which various changes constantly occur. Among these we examine two sorts of knowledge that can be produced: scientific knowledge, and collaborative knowledge. We argue that collaborative knowledge can enable researchers to reflectively monitor their collaborative project, so as to encourage its most productive changes. On the basis of examples taken from this special issue, we highlight four modes of producing collaborative knowledge and discuss the possible uses of such knowledge.