The Effectiveness of Workbooks in the Elementary School Reading Program

Abstract

The study examined relations between ethclass group membership, the achievement syndrome of families, and the cognitive performance of 850 11-year-old Australian children from six ethclass groups. A semi- structured interview schedule was constructed to assess parents’ achievement orientations, press for English, press for dependence, educational and occupational aspirations, and individualistic-collectivistic value orientations. Standardized tests were used to measure children’s intelligence and performance in mathematics, word knowledge, and word comprehension. The results support the proposition that if children from different cultural groups are found to be characterized by distinct patterns of cognitive scores, then the groups are characterized by distinct patterns of family learning environments. Also, the findings suggest that some of the achievement syndrome measures may act as threshold variables so that until certain levels of particular environment measures are attained, other family processes may have limited associations with children’s cognitive performance.     

Intelligence beliefs,goal orientations and children’s academic achievement: does the children’s gender matter?

This study evaluated how gender is related to children’s intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and academic achievement and whether there are gender differences in how intelligence beliefs and goal orientations are related to academic achievement. The participants, 362 seventh grade students (55.8% girls; Mage = 13.20, SD = .57 years), completed measures regarding their intelligence beliefs and goal orientations at the beginning of the second semester and the grades were collected at the end of the semester. Girls reported higher scores on incremental belief, mastery goal and higher achievement but lower levels of performance avoidance compared to boys. The relations between intelligence beliefs and academic achievement were fully mediated by both performance goals. Further, there were no gender differences in the associations among intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and achievement. The findings reveal that goal orientations are a mechanism that might explain why intelligence beliefs are linked with academic achievement in early adolescence.     

Three Factors of School Achievement

Abstract

In an attempt to examine the structure of achievement measures used in public school systems, assessments of achievement at different points in the child's academic career were obtained for a sample of 671 students. A factor analysis of 21 achievement variables yielded a clearly defined three-factor structure. The factors emerging from this analysis were: (1) Objective Achievement defined by all the intelligence measures and most of the standard achievement test scores; (2) Early Citizenship defined by early measures of citizenship and marks; and (3) High School Achievement defined primarily by 9th and 12th grade marks. From this analysis, it would appear that children are assessed relatively independently on each of these three factors as they proceed through their school career.     

The Relationship between Intelligence,Approaches to Learning and Academic Achievement

Three different tests of intelligence and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students were administered to 89 Norwegian undergraduate psychology students. The purpose was to investigate the relationship between intelligence, approaches to learning and academic achievement. Factor analysis supported a one-factor solution of the three intelligence tests as an expression of general intelligence. No relationship between general intelligence and approaches to learning was observed. The WAIS vocabulary test of intelligence and the surface approach to learning were negatively correlated. The WAIS vocabulary test of intelligence and the surface approach to learning predicted academic achievement. A curvilinear relationship between surface approach and academic achievement was observed. Multiple regression analysis showed interaction effects between deep-strategic and surface-strategic approaches to learning as predictors of academic achievement. The findings support the construct validity of approaches to learning due to its independence of intelligence.     

Intelligence and Achievement: A Behavioral Genetic Perspective

Understanding the etiology and relationship between standardized intelligence and academic achievement tests is essential, given their ever-increasing role in American education. Behavioral genetic studies have examined the genetic and environmental etiology of intelligence, academic achievement, and their relationship. Results suggest that genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental influences have an impact on intelligence and academic achievement. Behavioral genetic studies also suggest that the importance of genes may vary as a function of age. Other studies suggest that genes drive the correlation and that the nonshared environment drives the discrepancy between measures of intelligence and achievement. Implications for the identification of intellectually and academically relevant environmental influences are discussed.     

A Comparison of the Wisc Patterns of Male Retarded and Non-Retarded Readers

Abstract

This study examined the influence of achievement motivation and mental ability upon complex discovery learning and incidental learning under two different incentive conditions: an achievement incentive, where the explicit incentive was the successful accomplishment of the learning task and involved only knowledge of results; and an extrinsic-incentive represented by a monetary reward for good performance. One hundred ninety-five subjects were classified as either high or low (median split) on the basis of their scores on each of two measures, one for intelligence and one for achievement motivation. Subsequently, subjects were assigned at random to one of two incentive groups and the learning task administered. Data provided by the learning measures, and time scores, as determined by the amount of time the subjects expended on the task, were analyzed by means of a three factorial analysis of variance. The results both support and contradict past research evidence.     

The reciprocal relations among basic psychological need satisfaction at school,positivity and academic achievement in Chinese early adolescents

This study examined the reciprocal relations among basic psychological need satisfaction at school (BPNSS), positivity, and academic achievement in Chinese early adolescents, using a six-wave longitudinal design. A total of 712 students from Grades 7 in China (M_age = 12.92 years, 375 girls) completed measures of BPNSS and positivity in the middle of three consecutive semesters. Students exam scores for Chinese, mathematics, and English courses were obtained from school records at the end of each semester. Structural equation modeling indicated that: (a) BPNSS directly predicted academic achievement and vice versa; (b) positivity directly predicted academic achievement but not vice versa; (c) BPNSS directly predicted positivity and vice versa; (d) BPNSS indirectly predicted academic achievement via positivity; and (e) academic achievement indirectly predicted positivity via BNPSS. The findings are helpful for understanding how BPNSS and positivity temporally interrelate with academic outcomes from a positive youth development perspective.     

School Adjustment in Sixth Graders: Parenting Transitions, Family Climate, and Peer Norm Effects

This study examined whether sixth graders' (mean age = 11.86 years) adjustment to the school context (assessed by grades, achievement scores, and disruptive behavior) was affected by factors from both the family context (represented by students' reports of the number of parenting transitions experienced as well as current levels of supervision, acceptance, autonomy granting, and conflict in the family) and the peer context (represented by students' perceptions of peer norms supporting academic excellence). School adjustment was related to the number of parenting transitions experienced, family climate, and peer norms as well as to higher-order relations involving family climate and peer norms such that ( a ) high grade point averages occurred at only moderate levels of family supervision, ( b ) achievement scores were positively related to supervision at only low levels of family autonomy granting, and ( c ) grade point average was positively related to peer norms at only high levels of family acceptance.     

Relations among Epistemological Beliefs,Academic Achievement,and Task Performance in Secondary School Students

Students with differing profiles of epistemological beliefs—their beliefs about personal epistemology, intelligence, and learning—vary in thinking, reasoning, motivation, and use of strategies while working on academic tasks, each of which affect learning. This study examined students’ epistemological beliefs according to gender, school orientation, overall academic achievement, and performance on two differently structured academic tasks. Epistemological beliefs in fixed and quick ability to learn, simple knowledge, and certain knowledge differed significantly as a function of gender, school orientation, and levels of academic achievement. These beliefs, particularly the belief in simple knowledge, significantly predicted overall performance and reflective judgment scores on the ill‐structured task but not on the well‐structured task. Implications concerning the relations among epistemological beliefs, reflective judgment, gender, school orientation, task structure, and achievement are discussed.     

Early Shared Reading,Socioeconomic Status,and Children’s Cognitive and School Competencies: Six Years of Longitudinal Evidence

This study explored longitudinal associations between early shared reading at 2 to 3 years of age and children’s later academic achievement. It examined the mediating role of children’s vocabulary and early academic skills, and the moderating effects of family’s socioeconomic status. Data were drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 4,768). Academic achievement was assessed at 8 to 9 years of age via standardized national test scores of literacy and mathematics achievement. Results indicated that early shared reading was associated with children’s academic achievement directly and indirectly through receptive vocabulary and early academic skills. Also, the frequency of early shared reading predicted the outcome measures, over and above other home learning activities. Associations were stronger among low and middle socioeconomic status groups compared to the high socioeconomic status group. We conclude that shared reading offers unique opportunities for adults to teach young children new words and concepts.     

An Experiment in the Teaching of General Psychology

Abstract

This study involves investigation of the relationships between a number of sociological background variables (including general categories of Social Class, Family Structure, Sibling Structure, and Religion) and school achievement at various periods in the child's academic career. The twelve achievement variables were organized into categories of Intelligence, Objective Achievement, Early Citizenship, High School Achievement, and After School Aspirations. The data was obtained from school files for 663 high-school graduates in a Midwestern city.

Using a regression analysis, significant relationships between sociological variables and achievement were examined. Each relationship was further investigated with the variables of socio-economic status and intelligence held constant in order to eliminate the effects of these two well-known predictive variables.     

Concurrent and predictive validity of the WISC-R,McCarthy Scales,Woodcock-Johnson,and academic achievement

Twenty-six normal first-grade children (M = 7.0 years) were administered the WISC-R, the McCarthy Scales, and the Woodcock-Johnson Scales of Cognitive Ability. Two years later, their levels of academic achievement were determined by way of the WRAT and global teacher ratings of classroom performance. Pearson intercorrelations among the summary indices of the three intellectual measures were significant and uniformly high (rang. 77-.95). Correlations between first-grade ability scores and third-grade achievement measures also were significant (range .64-.90), suggesting strong predictive validity for each of the cognitive instruments. Though not significantly so, the correlations between the Woodcock-Johnson and achievement tended to be the highest. The results indicate that all three intellectual measures are appropriate for predicting later academic achievement in young school-aged children.     

Reflection-impulsivity as a predictor of children's academic achievement

To examine the implications of differences in reflection-impulsivity for later academic achievement, 70 children were administered the Matching Familiar Figures test (MFF) in grade 4 and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) in grades 4, 5, and 6. Children identified as reflective based on grade 4 MFF performance scored significantly higher on the CTBS achievement battery at all grade levels than those classified as impulsive. However, the 2 groups did not differ on the grade 5 or grade 6 achievement measures when scores were adjusted for initial differences in grade 4 CTBS. Similarly, while each of the continuous variables MFF error score and MFF response latency was significantly predictive of grade 5 and grade 6 achievement test scores, neither of the MFF variables significantly improved the prediction of academic performance when current level of achievement was statistically accounted for. Sex differences in the relations between the MFF variables and the achievement measures were identified; MFF error score was more strongly related to later academic achievement for boys than for girls, while MFF response latency was a better predictor of academic achievement for girls than for boys.     

A Longitudinal Study in Mathematics Attitude

Abstract

Educators have expressed concern about the relationship of mathematics attitude and mathematics achievement. The present investigation examined the relationships between mathematics attitude and mathematics achievement over a 6-year period from the late elementary to the late secondary school level. The subjects were 607 students from an above average socio-economic suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. They were tested in the spring of 1960 with a mathematics attitude instrument and were retested in the spring of 1966. Measures of achievement in mathematics were available at both grade levels. Using a .05 level of significance the results showed a significant positive correlation between the elementary attitude scores and the secondary attitude scores. In addition significant positive correlations existed between all measures of attitude and achievement.     

Stressors,family environment and coping styles as predictors of educational and psychosocial adjustment in Palestinian children

This study investigated the contributions of child and parents’ sociodemographics, daily stressors, family environment, and coping strategies, to academic achievement, cognitive functioning and aggression in a sample of 600 children at the intermediate grade levels from Gaza Strip. Each of the predictor variables exhibited a different pattern of relations with the outcome domains. Although the study highlights the negative consequences of stress on children’s development, certain daily stressors had a positive effect. Optimal family relationships predicted better developmental outcomes. More emphasis on personal growth, control and organisation in the family predicted less optimal child development except for personal growth and achievement. More reliance on positive coping and less reliance on negative coping is associated with better academic achievement. The clinical and research implications of the findings are discussed.     

Why Don’t Smart Teens Have Sex? A Behavioral Genetic Approach

Academic achievement and cognitive ability have been shown to predict later age at first sexual intercourse. Using a sample of 536 same-sex twin pairs who were followed longitudinally from adolescence to early adulthood, this study tested whether relations between intelligence, academic achievement, and age at first sex were due to unmeasured genetic and environmental differences between families. Twins who differed in their intelligence or their academic achievement did not differ in their age at first sex. Rather, the association between intelligence and age at first sex could be attributed entirely to unmeasured environmental differences between families, whereas the association between academic achievement and age at first sex could be attributed entirely to genetic factors.     

Temperamental task orientation: Relation to high school and college educational accomplishments

To evaluate the role of temperamental task orientation in adolescents' academic success, we examined its relation to educational accomplishments in high school and college using longitudinal data. Participants (N = 110) were assessed at 15, 16, and 17 years of age with a follow-up at 24 years. Adolescent self-report and parent reports of task orientation at 16 were used to predict high school and college GPA, SAT scores, perseverance in college, and degree attainment. Task orientation related to high school GPA and accounted for variance above and beyond SES and IQ in predicting high school and college GPA. An interaction emerged between IQ and task orientation: increasing levels of task orientation were associated with higher GPA for students with higher intelligence, but not for those with relatively lower intelligence. These findings highlight the contribution of non-intellective factors to academic achievement in secondary and post-secondary education.     

Students classified as LD and the college foreign language requirement: a quantitative analysis

This study was conducted to determine whether students classified as learning disabled (LD) who were permitted to substitute courses for the college foreign language (FL) requirement at one university would display significant cognitive and academic achievement differences when grouped by level of discrepancy between IQ and achievement, by discrepancy between achievement according to different measures, and by level of performance on phonological-orthographic processing measures, on the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), and in FL courses. Results showed that there were no differences among students with different levels of discrepancy (i.e., < 1.0 SD, 1.0-1.49 SD, and > 1.50 SD) on MLAT and American College Testing (ACT) scores, graduating grade point average (GPA) or college FL GPA. Results also showed that among students who scored below versus at or above the 25th percentile on phonological-orthographic processing measures, there were no differences on measures of IQ, ACT, MLAT, and GPA, as well as most measures of academic achievement. Implications for the use of the LD label to grant FL course substitutions or waivers, use of the MLAT in the diagnostic and course substitution/waiver process, and the validity and reliability of traditional criteria for the classification as LD are discussed.     

Prenatal Caloric Intake and the Development of Academic Achievement Among U.S. Children From Ages 5 to 14

Few studies have examined the relation between maternal caloric intake during pregnancy and growth in child academic achievement while controlling for important confounding influences. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the current study examined the effects of reduced prenatal caloric intake on growth in scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test from ages 5 to 14. While models controlling for within‐family covariates showed that prenatal caloric intake was associated with lower reading and mathematical achievement at age 5, models controlling for between‐family covariates (such as maternal IQ) and unobserved familial confounders revealed only a statistically significant association between siblings differentially exposed to prenatal caloric intake and mathematical achievement at age 5.     

Parental Occupation and Academic Achievement of High School Students in India

Abstract

To study the relationship of parental occupation with academic achievement of the students, the Progressive Matrices Test was administered to 1359 randomly selected high-school students (age range 14-17 years) studying in 22 urban and six rural secondary schools in the Lucknow district. Data for parental occupation and marks in the high-school examination were also collected. It was observed that there was positive relationship between the level of parental occupation and mean high-school marks. Analysis of variance showed that the differences in the mean achievement scores of the students belonging to different occupational groups were statistically significant (F = 32.50 p<.01). Analysis of covariance showed that this relationship held good even when intelligence as measured by Progressive Matrices Test was held constant (F = 24.34 p<.01).