Philip Abrami

• Professor
• Concordia University

Independent music teaching is steeped in centuries of tradition and engages millions of students worldwide. Nevertheless, the work of independent music teachers has been scarcely noticed as an area worthy of research. Consequently, the purpose of this research study was to ascertain an understanding of the characteristics and professional practices...

Although hundreds of thousands of young people take weekly music lessons the world over, many students do not remain engaged in these lessons. This lack of engagement may be the result of the isolation students experience when practising between lessons, underdeveloped skills for self-regulated learning (SRL), or a lack of connection between classi...

The purpose of the study was to describe the experiences of students, parents, and teachers engaged in one-on-one instrumental or vocal instruction. Three self-report surveys explored parental values, musical progress, the teacher-student relationship, the practice environment, teachers’ views on student self-regulation, students’ practising habits...

The purpose of this research study was to gain some initial understanding of the characteristics and professional practices of contemporary studio music teachers in preparation for a national survey of Canadian studio music teachers. A survey of closed- and open-ended questions was placed in the con- ference bags at the biennial conference of the C...

The body of research examining self-regulation in musical practice and instruction has grown extensively over the past two decades. Empirical evidence indicates that students with higher levels of self-regulation are more likely to develop strong performance skills and experience fulfillment as musicians. In order to develop the self-regulatory beh...

The body of research examining self-regulation in musical practice and instruction has grown extensively over the past two decades. Empirical evidence indicates that students with higher levels of self-regulation are more likely to develop strong performance skills and experience fulfillment as musicians. In order to develop the self-regulatory beh...

The current paper examined the effects of A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All (ABRA), a web-based literacy programme developed by the the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia University, on primary school children in Hong Kong. The participants were 249 Primary 1 s...

The purpose of the present study was to learn about the characteristics of independent music teachers, their beliefs about music teaching, and their studio practices. A self-report survey included questions about the teachers’ (a) background experiences, (b) pedagogical approaches, (c) use of digital technologies, and (d) professional development p...

The purpose of the study was to examine types of parental involvement associated with independent music lessons. A self-report survey was designed to explore parent characteristics, parental goals, students’ musical progress, the teacher–student relationship, the practice environment, and parent behaviours during practice sessions. The extent to wh...

The purpose of the study was to examine students’ experiences of independent music lessons, and to ascertain what factors predicted enjoyment and success, especially those predictors arising from self-regulation learning theory. A self-report survey was used to gather data on student demographics, practising habits, musical skills, achievements, an...

Critical thinking (CT) is purposeful, self-regulatory judgment that results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanations of the considerations on which that judgment is based. This article summarizes the available empirical evidence on the impact of instruction on the development and enhancement of critical thinki...

The purpose of the study was to determine how music teachers respond to DREAM, a virtual space for exchanging information about digital learning tools. The research determined how teachers experienced DREAM during beta testing in terms of (a) navigation, (b) search and browse functions, and (c) quality of resources. Data were collected from over 80...

The present paper reports a cluster randomized control trial evaluation of teaching using ABRACADABRA (ABRA), an evidence-based and web-based literacy intervention (http://abralite.concordia.ca) with 107 kindergarten and 96 grade 1 children in 24 classes (12 intervention 12 control classes) from all 12 elementary schools in one school district in C...

Recent research into how individuals achieve their musical goals has been enriched by studies investigating music practice through the lens of self-regulation, or the goal-orientated planning, cyclical adaptation, and reflection of an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions. The article aims to review the available empirical evidence in order t...

This article reports on the results of a representative sample meta-analysis that explored the effects of interactive versus didactic pedagogy using computer-assisted instruction on measures of academic achievement. A systematic literature search revealed 40 studies, from which 55 effect sizes were extracted. The random effects model of analysis of...

The research presented here is a continuation of a line of inquiry that explores the impacts of an electronic portfolio software called ePEARL, which is a knowledge tool designed to support the key phases of self-regulated learning (SRL)—forethought, performance, and self-reflection—and promote student learning. Participants in this study were 21 t...

In many western countries, identifiable populations of children read below age-expectations, and the need for effective interventions remains pressing. Indigenous populations across the globe tend to have reading outcomes lower than comparative general populations. This is a critical issue in Australia's Northern Territory where Indigenous students...

This report describes a cluster randomized control trial (RCT) intervention study of the effectiveness of the ABRACADABRA (ABRA) Web-based literacy system using a classroom-level RCT intervention with 1,067 children in 74 kindergarten and Grade 1 or Grade 1/2 classrooms across Canada. The authors closely followed the CONSORT criteria for executing...

The trend towards using research knowledge to improve policies and practices is on the rise. However, despite considerable effort and notable progress in recent years, it seems that school practitioners continue to make little use of research and it is not clear what conditions would facilitate or obstruct this use. This review focuses exclusively...

This chapter focuses on the impact of a change in the use of a learning management system (LMS) at one university. Survey data captured faculty members' viewpoints on the transition from one LMS to another, specifically, their dispositions toward technology and change, preparation and prior experiences, need for support, and access to available res...

The effectiveness of a web-based reading support tool, ABRACADABRA, to improve the literacy outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students was evaluated over one semester in several Northern Territory primary schools in 2009. ABRACADABRA is intended as a support for teachers in the early years of schooling, giving them a friendly, game and evid...

This article presents the findings of a study on the use of an electronic portfolio (EP) in 16 elementary classrooms across Canada. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected to understand how teachers used EPs in their classrooms, to what extent they integrated the EP into their practice, and the factors influencing their use. Using expec...

This study evaluated the relative effects of Tier II computer-assisted tutoring in small groups (Team Alphie) and one-to-one tutoring provided to struggling readers in 33 high-poverty Success for All (SFA) schools. In this year-long study, struggling readers in the Team Alphie schools were tutored in groups of 6. In the control schools, students we...

The reading performance of poor and minority children is far below that of more advantaged children in most developed countries. Several comprehensive school reform strategies have been found to significantly improve children's achievement but more effective, replicable models are needed to significantly reduce reading gaps. This article describes...

This paper describes a two-part study. The first part of the study documents the experiences of nine school-based artists who took part in a six-day professional development workshop on ecology and the arts at an off-grid wilderness facility. The course was designed to increase artist-educators’ awareness of issues surrounding energy use and consum...

The authors of the articles in this special issue of Computers in Human Behavior explore the nature of support in gStudy, a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment, especially from the perspective of the theory of self-regulation [e.g., Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attainment of self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M...

This study explored how teacher variations in use of a web-technology of known effectiveness, affected growth in literacy. Teachers used ABRACADACABRA (ABRA) (http://grover.concordia.ca/abra/version1/abracadabra.html), in Grade 1 Language Arts classes. Children (N = 60) across three classrooms were exposed to ABRA activities and a control class fol...

Our research aims to improve online discussion forums. We focus on aiding the retrieval of archival material, helping participants build upon one another's ideas, and encouraging participants to write "weaving" messages that connect ideas and summarize the discourse. We have developed Marginalia, software that adds the ability to highlight and crea...

In this chapter the authors summarize the design, development, testing, and dissemination of the Learning Toolkit-currently a suite of three highly interactive, multimedia tools for learning. ABRACADABRA is early literacy software designed to encourage the development of reading and writing skills of emerging readers, especially students at-risk of...

This meta-analysis of the experimental literature of distance education (DE) compares different types of interaction treatments (ITs) with other DE instructional treatments. ITs are the instructional and/or media conditions designed into DE courses, which are intended to facilitate student–student (SS), student–teacher (ST), or student–content (SC)...

This study reports a randomized controlled trial evaluation of a computer-based balanced literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA (http://grover.concordia.ca/abra/version1/abracadabra.html). Children (N = 144) in Grade 1 were exposed either to computer activities for word analysis, text comprehension, and fluency, alongside shared stories (experimental g...

Inattention is often associated with reduced response to reading intervention. This study explored attention as a predictor of individual variation in response to a free-access Web-based literacy intervention, ABRACADABRA (http://abralite.concordia.ca) in typical Grade 1 children. A randomized control design was used to contrast two interventions,...

This study explores whether two computer-based literacy interventions – a ‘synthetic phonics’ and an ‘analytic phonics’ approach produce qualitatively distinct effects on the early phonological abilities and reading skills of disadvantaged urban Kindergarten (Reception) children. Participants (n=53) were assigned by random allocation to one of the...

The Learning Toolkit (LTK) is a suite of three highly interactive, web-based tools for learning. One of the tools, the electronic portfolio called ePEARL, is used to promote self-regulation, comprehension, writing, and other forms of communication. In this paper we describe how ePEARL was used by a class of Grade 5 students in an elementary school...

Critical thinking (CT), or the ability to engage in purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, is widely recognized as an important, even essential, skill. This article describes an ongoing meta-analysis that summarizes the available empirical evidence on the impact of instruction on the development and enhancement of critical thinking skills and dispos...

This article presents a randomized experiment evaluating a computer-assisted tutoring program. The software program, Alphie's Alley, provides reading tutors with assessment and planning tools and performance support. It provides students with animated presentations and engaging activities. In a yearlong study involving 25 schools using the Success...

Sometime during the second half of almost all college and university courses offered in North America, a brief ritual occurs. Students take out their sharpened pencils (number two lead, if you please) and quickly answer a series of multiple choice questions covering a range of issues about the course and their instructor. Student rating forms often...

Abstract Based on the volumes,of research demonstrating the cognitive and affective benefits of cooperation, small group strategies are increasingly being implemented in classrooms. However, in order for learning to be enhanced in the small group environment, there has to be clearer understanding of the complex dynamics that operate when students w...

This study investigates personal and setting characteristics, teacher attitudes, and current computer technology practices among 764 elementary and secondary teachers from both private and public school sectors in Quebec. Using expectancy- value theory, the Technology Implementation Questionnaire (TIQ) was developed; it consists of 33 belief items...

This lead article for the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology explores directions for research and development on electronic portfolios, which are digital containers capable of storing visual and auditory content; software for which may also be designed to support a variety of pedagogical processes and assessment purpos...

This lead article for the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology explores directions for research and development on electronic portfolios, which are digital containers capable of storing visual and auditory content; software for which may also be designed to support a variety of pedagogical processes and assessment purpos...

This study applied expectancy theory to integrate the numerous and disparate explanations that researchers and educators have proposed to account for teacher resistance to implementing cooperative learning as an educational innovation. The cooperative learning implementation questionnaire (CLIQ) contained 48 items grouped under three broad motivati...

This paper serves as the introduction to a collection of 8 projects and a commentary seeking to understand and promote complex learning using technology. Selective evidence on the current state of technology for learning in schools is summarized along with numerous recommendations. Key issues associated with the uses of technology to promote comple...

This study quantitatively synthesized the empirical research on the effects of social context (i.e., small group versus individual learning) when students learn using computer technology. In total, 486 independent findings were extracted from 122 studies involving 11,317 learners. The results indicate that, on average, small group learning had sign...

This study examined how goal orientation and interest together affected students' use of learning strategies. Ninety-three Grade 11 students participated in this study. This study was a 2 x 2 between-groups factorial using a post-test-only control group design. There were two independent variables, Goal orientation and Interest. There were three de...

This chapter critically examines five issues surrounding the use of student evaluations of teaching for summative decisions: current practices, validity concerns, improving the reporting of results, improving the decision-making process, and incorporating validity estimates into the decision-making process. The author proposes that we can improve j...

In this rejoinder, Abrami organizes his comments around two themes: statistical and measurement issues and applicability and usefulness issues. He concludes that his earlier suggestions for improving judgments about teaching effectiveness can accomplish their objectives.

This study investigates why some university students appear motivated to learn via computer conferencing (CC) whereas others do not, exploring the correlations of three key aspects of student motivation—reasons for engaging in academic learning (goal orientation), beliefs that they can acquire the ability to use CC (self-efficacy), and beliefs that...

Lou, Abrami, Spence, Poulsen, Chambers, and d'Apollonia (1996) reported the findings from a quantitative review showing generally positive but variable effects of within-class grouping on pupil achievement and other outcomes. Replying in the National Institute Economic Review (July 1998), Prais argued for whole-class teaching claiming that we mis-s...

Many colleges and universities have adopted the use of student ratings of instruction as one (often the most influential) measure of instructional effectiveness. In this article, the authors present evidence that although effective instruction may be multidimensional, student ratings of instruction measure general instructional skill, which is a co...

Slavin (1996) reconciles apparently conflicting theoretical perspectives on cooperative learning and achievement and describes areas in need of additional research. We critique Slavin's position on the underlying mechanisms of cooperative learning and raise three questions: What affects motivation and learning in cooperative groups? Is there (coope...

Observation of student interactions has gained increasing attention as researchers attempt to examine the processes by which learning occurs when students work in cooperative small groups. This paper compares and contrasts two methods we used to collect and analyze observations of cooperative learning: the running record and time‐sampling with a st...

Two studies explored the effects of cooperative and individualistic structures on student learning and attitudes in a simulated distance education environment. In Study 1, 117 male and female college students were randomly assigned to complete a case study assignment online for a business strategies course either with a partner or alone. In Study 2...

Describes two studies that explored the effects of cooperative and individualized structures on college student learning and attitudes in a simulated distance education environment. Highlights include computer-mediated communication, gender differences, differences between distance education and traditional instruction, and future research needs. (...

We explored the relationship between student perceptions of social interdependence and social support. Attitudinal responses to the Classroom Life Instrument (Johnson & Johnson, 1983; Johnson, Johnson, & Anderson, 1983; Johnson, Johnson, Buckman, & Richards, 1985) were gathered in Canada from four classes totaling 123 eighth-grade students learning...

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of manipulating group size and exposure time on achievement in a computer learning situation keeping in mind the practical constraints of limited computer resources that teachers presently face. Two hundred and fifiy-four subjects from Grades 5 and 6 were divided into groups of one, two, or fo...

Investigated the effects of group size and exposure time in the use of a commercially prepared tutorial program or drill-and-practice software by 168 fifth and sixth graders. Found that exposure time was related to students' scores on posttests. Results suggested a need to examine allocated time in microcomputer learning situations. (LB)

This field investigation examined the relationship between prior achievement (high vs average vs low), individual outcome (success vs failure), team outcome (success vs failure) and students' achievement and academic perceptions. 190 students in 7 elementary school classes learned mathematics for 5 wks with the Teams-Games-Tournaments cooperative l...

The proper use of student ratings to evaluate teaching is the subject matter of this paper. In particular, two divergent views are contrasted: the multidimensional view of evaluation and the unidimensional. Marsh (Int. J. Ed. Res., 1987, v.11, pp. 253–388) is the most outspoken advocate of the multidimensional view of evaluation based on factor sco...

Investigated the validity of student ratings of instructional effectiveness by exploring the relations among student ratings, course performance, and the perceived attitude similarity of students and their instructors. 349 college students enrolled in 22 classes first rated instructor effectiveness on a 28-item rating form and then rated their own...

Problems with previous factor analytic studies on effective college instruction include: lack of theoretical rationale for item selection; use of incorrect units of analysis; lack of student randomization to classes; failure to control for setting effects; and low content and construct validity. (Author/MSE)

This catalogue briefly describes the following 12 systems for student ratings of instruction in higher education: (1) Purdue Cafeteria System (Cafeteria); (2) Course Faculty Instrument (CFI); (3) Arizona Course/Instructor Evaluation Questionnaire (CIEQ); (4) Endeavor Instructional Rating System (Endeavor); (5) University of Washington Instructional...

Simonson, Schlosser and Hanson (1999) argue that a new theory called "equivalency theory" is needed to account for the unique features of the "teleconferencing" (synchronous) model of DE that is prevalent in many North American universities. Based on a comprehensive meta-analysis of the comparative literature of DE (Bernard, Abrami, Lou, Wozney, Bo...

ABRACADABRA, A Balanced Reading Approach for Canadians Designed to Achieve Best Results for All (http://grover.concordia.ca/ABRA/php2006/ abracadabra.html), is a reading intervention being developed by the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP). This website implements a scientifically based balanced reading curriculum in a digital...

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