Effort Tracking - Research

 

Background

Dr Robin Nagy's work on measuring and tracking high-school students' effort began over 15 years ago as a means to make learning visible and accountable for students of all abilities. Effort Tracking evolved in a school-based context, utilising an improvement science practice-based approach (Nagy, 2016) with three effort criteria emerging. Michael Fullen (2011) tells us that practice leading theory is far more effective than the other way around, and Dr Nagy's doctoral research (Nagy, 2024) focused on the exploration and verification of the theoretical multidimensional effort construct based on this tripartite structure, which was then empirically tested and validated (Nagy et al., 2022).

 

Tripartite Effort Construct (Nagy, Martin, & Collie, 2022)

Multidimensional effort has been found to have a tripartite structure comprising Operative Effort (action-based effort), Cognitive Effort (brain-based effort), and Social-Emotional Effort (person-based effort).

Tripartite Effort Construct
The Three Dimensions of Academic Effort (adapted from Nagy, Martin, and Collie, 2022)

 

Publications

  1. Nagy, R. P. (2024). The Role of Effort in High School Students’ Academic Development: A Longitudinal Perspective in Mathematics and English [Doctoral dissertation, University of New South Wales]. UNSW Works. http://dx.doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/30422.
  2. Nagy, R. P., Martin, A. J., & Collie, R. J. (2023). It’s time to measure students’ effort at school. In ‘Education Review’, January 31, https://www.educationreview.com.au/2023/01/its-time-to-measure-students-effort-at-school-opinion.
  3. Nagy, R. P., Martin, A. J., & Collie, R. J. (2022). Disentangling motivation and engagement: Exploring the role of effort in promoting greater conceptual and methodological clarity. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 1045717. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1045717 also published in Frontiers Research Topics Series, https://doi.org/10.3389/978-2-8325-3437-3.
  4. Nagy, R. P. (2018). Tracking and Visualising Student Effort: A Practical Analytics Tool for Student Engagement. Companion Proceedings 8th International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK18) pp.319-324 Conference Proceedings http://solaresearch.org/uploads/LAK18_Companion_Proceedings.pdf.
  5. Nagy, R. P. (2017). Tracking and visualising student effort: A practical analytics tool for student engagement. In L. Rosman (Ed.), Excellence in professional practice conference 2017: Case studies of practice (pp. 53–62). Australian Council for Educational Research. https://www.acer.org/files/EPPC_Case_Study_Digital.pdf.
  6. Nagy, R. P. (2016). Tracking and visualizing student effort: Evolution of a practical analytics tool for staff and student engagement. Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(2), 165–193. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2016.32.8.
  7. Nagy, R.P. (MANSW(2) 2014) Student Motivation and a Focus on Effort. The Mathematical Association of New South Wales Journal ‘Reflections’, Vol 39 (4), pp. 12-15. ISSN 0156-7799. PrintPost 212564/0004. Sydney: ATC Printing Pty Ltd. Conference Edition.

Research Awards and Scholarships

  1. 2024 Excellent Research Presentation Award, Australian Association of Research in Education [AARE] Motivation and Learning Special Interest Group [SIG].
  2. 2021-2024 Waratah PhD Scholarship, New South Wales [NSW] Department of Education.
  3. 2020-2024 PhD Scholarship, Australian Government Research Training Scheme [RTS].
  4. 2021 Most Innovative PhD Research in New South Wales (NSW) Award, New South Wales Institute of Educational Research [NSWIER].
  5. 2017Outstanding Session Award, Australian Council for Educational Research [ACER] Excellence in Professional Practice Conference [EPPC].

Presentations

  1. Nagy, R. P. Collie, R. J., & Martin, A. J. (2024, December 2). An investigation into the role of academic effort in students’ mathematics achievement: A multi-informant investigation employing complementary variable- and person-centred analyses [Individual Paper presentation]. AARE24: Australian Association for Research in Education Conference 2024, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
  2. Nagy, R.P. (2024, December 2) Effort Tracking: Using Teacher and Student Ratings of Academic Effort in Motivational Goal-Setting Conversations at High School [ICT Demonstration] AARE24: Australian Association for Research in Education Conference 2024, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
  3. Nagy, R. P. Collie, R. J., & Martin, A. J. (2024, October 14). How is students’ academic effort associated with mathematics achievement? A multi-informant investigation employing complementary variable- and person-centred analyses. Seminar Presentation to The Quantitative Methods Hub, Department of Education, Oxford University, UK.
  4. Nagy, R.P. (2023, August 26) Effort Tracking: Using teacher and student ratings of students’ effort in goal-setting conversations [ICT Demonstration] EARLI23: The 20th Biennial European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) Conference 2023, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.
  5. Nagy, R. P., Martin, A. J. & Collie, R. J. (2023, August 22). The role of effort in students’ mathematics development: Investigating its predictors and outcomes [Individual Paper presentation]. EARLI23: The 20th Biennial European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) Conference 2023, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.
  6. Nagy, R. P., Collie, R. J., & Martin, A. J. (2023, August 20). An investigation into students’ effort in English classrooms: a multilevel latent profile analysis [Individual Paper presentation]. JURE23: The 27th Annual Junior Researchers of EARLI (JURE) Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction 2023, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.
  7. Nagy, R. P. Martin, A. J. & Collie, R. J. (2023, August 03). The role of students’ multidimensional effort: A multilevel study of antecedents and consequences [Poster presentation]. APA23: American Psychological Association (APA) 131st Annual Convention 2023, Washington D.C., USA.
  8. Nagy, R. P. (2023, July 4). The role of high-school students’ effort in their academic development in English classes [Individual Paper presentation]. UNSW ADA HDR Conference 2023, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
  9. Nagy, R. P. Collie, R. J., & Martin, A. J. (2023, June 1). Exploring student effort profiles in English learning and links with achievement [Individual Paper presentation]. EdMeas23: Sydney Educational Measurement and Assessment Symposium 2023, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
  10. Nagy, R. P. (2022, October 21) NSW Institute for Educational Research Conference – An investigation into students’ effort and achievement gains.
  11. Nagy, R. P. (2022, May 23)  Introducing Effort Tracking at St Paul’s Grammar School [Keynote]. AHISA Directors of Studies Conference (Arden School, Sydney).