Webquest Design Strategies: A Case Study Measuring the Effect of the Jigsaw Method on Students’ Personal Agency Beliefs, Engagement, and Learning

As higher education in the United States has experienced a proliferation of internationalization activities, there has been a steady stream of studies directed at understanding institutional rationales for internationalization. Further, an emerging body of research seeks to understand faculty motivations of international involvement. However, scant attention has been devoted to understanding the role of personal agency beliefs in facilitating faculty international engagement. This study, part of a larger project, draws on in-depth interviews with fifteen faculty to address this topic. The findings show that strong efficacy beliefs and positive perceptions about organizational context are strong influences on faculty behavior relative to international engagement.

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Perceptions of Personal Agency and Infant Attachment: Toward a Life-Span Perspective on Competence Development

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/016502548500800402 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 377-406 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Martin E. Ford ◽

Ross A. Thompson

Keyword(s):

Life Span ◽

Competence Development ◽

Personal Agency ◽

Older Children ◽

Behavioral Correlates ◽

Infant Attachment ◽

Research Issues ◽

Agency Beliefs ◽

Competent Functioning ◽

Personal Agency Beliefs

Because perceptions of personal agency are important contributors to behavioral regulation, they play a significant role in promoting and maintaining competent functioning. Yet, thus far, these processes have been studied almost exlusively in older children and adults. Our discussion sketches the outlines of a life-span approach to the study of competence development by considering the emergence of personal agency beliefs in the infancy and toddler years and their importance to early developmental achievements. After presenting a general framework for conceptualizing personal agency beliefs and an overview of the research with older groups relevant to this framework, studies of the origins of perceived effectance and their motivational consequences in infancy are reviewed. Next we propose that individual differences in the security of attachment and their sequelae can be viewed as reflecting, in part, variations in perceptions of personal agency among infants and toddlers, a view which also suggests important new directions in attachment theory and research. Finally, we outline research issues concerning the generality and stability of personal agency beliefs, their behavioral correlates at different ages, and their overall role in a general life-span theory of competence development.

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