小学生心目中的理想教师

通过对223名小学生进行问卷调查,结果发现：高年级小学生对教师的“情感素养”和“人品素养”两方面要求显著高于低年级学生;女生更看重教师的“情感素养”;与优等生相比,在中等生和后进生心目中,教师的“情感素养”和“人品素养”更重要;“教学素养”、“情感素养”、“人品素养”三个方面在小学生心目中都很重要,其中“教学素养”最为重要,其次是“情感素养”,再次是“人品素养”。     

Cognitive development in a secondary science setting

Observations were made of the progressive change in the cognitive development of 141 students over the course of their secondary education in an Australian private school. Cognitive development was measured in years 8, 10 and 12 usingBond's Logical Orerations Test. Rasch analysis of each of the data sets provided ability estimates for students in the year groups of 1993 (year 8), 1995 (year 10) and 1997 (year 12). Twenty-nine students from the year group of 1993 were tested on all three occasions. We analysed data from these 29 students in order to investigate the children's cognitive development across years 8, 10 and 12. We also examined the influence of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE)Thinking Science program on the cognitive development and scholastic achievement of these students. We found increased mental growth between years 8 and 10 for most students in theThinking Science cohort, which could not be predicted from their starting levels. There was a significant correlation between cognitive development and the scholastic achievement of these students. Although boys as a group were more advanced in cognitive development than girls in years 8 and 10, no difference was found in the rate of cognitive change based on sex up to year 10. However girls showed cognitive gains across years 10–12 which were not found in boys. The students who were new to the school also showed increased cognitive development in years 11 and 12. Students who had experienced theThinking Science course were more cognitively developed than students who joined the school after the intervention had taken place. This study supports the claim of Adey and Shayer that there is a relationship between cognitive development and scholastic achievement, even though we used different measures of cognitive development and scholastic achievement.     

GIFTED YOUTHS’ SCHOLASTIC AND OCCUPATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A longitudinal study between 1970 and 1988 of scholastic and occupational achievements of intellectually gifted youths from the Sisak‐Banija region (SR Croatia, Yugoslavia) had four stages: (1) identification (organized during the final classes of the primary school period), (2) first phase of follow up (monitored during the period of secondary school education), (3) second phase of follow up (monitored during the period of higher education), (4) third phase of follow up (monitored during the first few years of employment). Results until now show that the intellectual status of subjects has remained constantly high; all subjects completed secondary school education and 67 percent continued their studies; a high proportion of them were oriented to engineering and science; they attained much higher levels of school achievement than average; many of them were interested in scientific research and different activities in arts and sport; many of them published their works. However, the study has drawn attention to negative consequences of the absence of a social support system for gifted youth in our country.     

A quantitative analysis of the demand for higher education

This article analyses the plans of a sample of 7425 secondary school children in Greece regarding their demand for further education. A set of family, personal, geographical and school characteristics are related by means of multivariate analysis to the pupil's decision to continue or not his/her studies and to the particular institution of higher education he/she aspired entry. The maximum likelihood estimates of the yes-no pupil decision indicate the dominance of school grade as a key variable affecting plans for further study. An educational production function revealed in turn that it is mainly parents' education that relates to scholastic achievement. The article also contains empirical estimates of the relative strength of several family and school factors affecting self-selection which may make the results useful to policy makers who attempt to influence the social demand for post-secondary education.     

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES OF HIGHLY GIFTED AND ‘NORMAL’ SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

About 9,000 West German students representing the whole range of academic aptitude were examined at the beginning of their 13th school year. A general scholastic aptitude test was administered, and school marks and information on the pupils’ extracurricular interests and activities recorded. A group of highly gifted students was defined in terms of exceptional performance both in school and on the scholastic aptitude test. The extracurricular activities of this group were compared with those of the representative group. The popular hypothesis that superior cognitive giftedness and outstanding achievement in school go with an ‘impoverishment’ of extracurricular activities was not supported: In most areas a larger percentage of the highly gifted than of the reference group were actively involved. Furthermore, the range of individual activities was somewhat broader among the top students than among the representative group.     

Planning middle school schedules for improved attention and achievement

The literature describes research comparing scholastic success in the morning and afternoon in elementary and high schools. The present study examines the relationship between time of day and scholastic performance in middle school. The progress of 850 seventh and eighth grade students in academic subjects taught at different hours of the day was studied. Mean achievement, as expressed in final grades, rose moderately from morning lessons to those conducted at later hours. Significant but temporary declines in achievement were observed immediately after the 10:00 recess and again during the 13:00 lesson. Variance within classes increased sharply during the day. Previous studies attributed such changes to biological rhythms. This paper indicates that many diurnal changes in scholastic performance may be clarified by integration of concepts of biological rhythms with current theories with respect to attention level. Implications of these findings for planning daily school schedules are discussed.     

近十年影响广州市大学毕业生起薪的教育因素分析

对10790名在广州市工作的大学毕业生的起薪情况调查的结果显示,在毕业生的学历、学校、性别、专业、学用结合性、家庭住址、学习成绩、综合素质等因素中,学历对毕业生的起薪影响最大,其后依次是学校、综合素质和学习成绩,而性别、学用结合性、专业和家庭住址对起薪影响很小。研究表明,当就业竞争增加时,学校、综合素质和性别对起薪的影响作用增大。     

Cultural capital and intellectual ability as predictors of scholastic achievement: a study of Slovenian secondary school students

Cultural capital, originally a general sociological concept, has been transformed into a construct that is often applied in predicting scholastic attainment. Intellectual ability (IQ) has also been proven to be a strong, although basically psychological, predictor of educational attainment. However, these strands of research have hardly been contrasted in terms of their predictive power and in terms of their potential interaction. In the current study of Slovenian secondary school students, the results indicated that both constructs had statistically significant predictive power, both as to attainment and as to transition into type of secondary education. Results also indicated that: both constructs were fairly robust, as their predictive power remained statistically significant even after control variables were entered into the model; and they operated independently as results indicated no interaction between these constructs. The ‘return’ on cultural capital was greater for students whose parents had lower educational status.     

Teacher salaries and teacher aptitude: An analysis using quantile regressions

This study investigates the relationship between salaries and scholastic aptitude for full-time public high school humanities and mathematics/sciences teachers. For identification, we rely on variation in salaries between adjacent school districts within the same state. The results indicate that teacher aptitude is positively correlated with teacher salaries with an elasticity point estimate of 0.132. However, using quantile regressions, we find the elasticity estimates form an inverted U-shape across the scholastic aptitude distribution, and that higher aptitude teachers are more profoundly affected by the percentage of students eligible for free lunch and local street crime, while lower aptitude teachers are more profoundly affected by local education support. Furthermore, studying mathematics/sciences teachers, we find that while the elasticity estimates maintain an inverted U-shape, scholastic aptitude is not correlated with changes in salaries for the lower 40 percentiles of the aptitude distribution.     

Parental involvement in secondary education schools: the views of parents in Greece

The present study explores Greek parents’ views on parental educational involvement and its impact on adolescent scholastic and social development. Specifically, aspects of parental involvement such as the achieved objectives of current parent–school communication, the psychological climate dominating teacher–parent interactions and parents’ suggestions for improvement of current policies and practices are examined. Four hundred and seventy‐five parents participated in the study. Findings showed that family–school communication is believed to be insufficient in Greece, despite the fact that parents tend to: (1) regard their cooperation with teachers as determinative of adolescent academic and psychosocial development; (2) consider teachers to be friendly and caring; and (3) believe that secondary school provides some opportunities for constructive parental involvement. These paradoxes are discussed and explained as a result of radical changes in current social and educational values, principles and objectives.     

A whole-school approach to positive behaviour in a girls' secondary school

This article discusses the first cycle of a whole-school behaviour initiative at a girls' secondary school in Malta. The aim of the project was to develop, implement and evaluate a whole-school plan of action which promoted good behaviour and effectively responded to challenging behaviour. A three-day in-service programme at the school led to the development of a plan reached by consensus amongst the whole staff. Once it was negotiated with the students, it was put into practice, with regular and continuous monitoring by the staff and students. An evaluation half-way through the scholastic year, showed a decline in the number of exclusions from school and an overall improvement in students' behaviour. Feedback from staff, senior management and students suggested that there was more positive behaviour at the school following the introduction of the behaviour project. The article examines both the process and the outcome of the first phase of the project and concludes with at attempt to delineate the key processes which made this initiative work.     

Forms of the Equalization Model for State School Aid Apportionment

Abstract

A major assumption underlying: the interpretation of test results to pupils is that the individual receiving: the test report will use the information wisely in making: appropriate occupational choices. This study sought to determine whether test reporting: could be used to validate this assumption by observing: the status of aspiration levels among: students who made significant increases in knowledge of their scholastic ability. A pretest-posttest control group design was employed In which 41 eleventh grade public school pupils who received test reports of their scholastic ability were compared on self-knowledge and occupational aspiration level with 30 pupils who did not receive reports of their scholastic ability. Although pupils who received test reports made significant gains In self-knowledge, there were no significant changes In occupational aspiration levels. The findings suggest that information about scholastic ability only is not sufficient to bring about changes In occupational aspiration level.     

Dysthymic Symptoms,Hostility and Scholastic Achievement in a Group of High‐school Students

In order to investigate the possible relationship between dysthymic symptoms, hostility levels and scholastic achievement, the self‐rating scales, DSSI/sAD (Delusions Symptoms States Inventory/states of Anxiety and Depression) and HDHQ (Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire), were given to a group of 754 high‐school students (grades 10‐12: 387 males, 367 females) two weeks before the June examinations. Negative relationships between dysthymic symptoms and school performance were detected in both males and females. Hostility subscales were also found to be negatively related to performance, especially the extrapunitive ones. All findings were more prominent in the females.     

The mediating role of social relationships in the association of adolescents’ individual school self-concept and their school engagement,belonging and helplessness in school

It is well known that teachers frequently observe a decline in the scholastic motivation of many adolescent students, which in turn is often associated with a decline in students’ individual school self-concept. In contrast, less is known about the association between students’ individual school self-concept and school engagement, or the related concepts of school belonging and helplessness in school. The current study explored social relationships as mediators in the association between individual school self-concept and adolescents’ school engagement, belonging to school and helplessness in school in a large sample of 7th and 8th grade students (N?=?1088; M_Age?=?13.7) in secondary schools in Brandenburg, Germany. The results of two structural equation models showed that the teacher–student relationship mediated the association between individual school self-concept and school engagement, belonging to school and helplessness in school, respectively. In contrast, the student–student relationship did not mediate any of these associations.     

The relationship of school strain to school functioning and self-worth among urban African American early adolescents

Fitting the environment of a school to the developmental needs of early adolescents is particularly important for inner-city African American students who tend to drop out of school in large numbers. The present study examined the person-environment fit in terms of the relation of school strain to self-worth and three indicators of school functioning—scholastic competence, intrinsic motivation, and grade point average—among 102 subjects enrolled in an academic intervention program. Results showed a consistent relation of peer strain to self-worth during the Fall and Spring and strong relations in the Spring of strain associated with teacher relations and school demands to scholastic competence and intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, strain increased during the year, and males experienced greater peer strain than did females. Results are discussed in light of previous research on effective middle schools and the developmental needs of urban African American early adolescents. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Motivational beliefs as mediators in the association between perceived scholastic competence,self-esteem and learning strategies among Greek secondary school students

The present study investigated the links between self-motivational beliefs, perceived scholastic competence, self-esteem and learning strategies among 134 Greek junior high school students in the subject of Greek language, through self-report. A model was tested with motivational constructs as mediators between perceived scholastic competence and self-esteem on the one side and participants’ learning strategies in language on the other. Mediation analyses results showed that perceived scholastic competence predicted all learning strategies both directly and indirectly through intrinsic goal orientation and task value. Self-esteem was not found to predict learning strategies directly, but only indirectly through intrinsic goal motivation. The findings are discussed in terms of their educational implications.     

Stichwort: Kompetenzentwicklung im Grundschulalter

Keyword: Development of Competencies During Elementary School. The development of scholastic competencies is a topic discussed in the cross-section between the fields of developmental psychology, education, and educational psychology. This article will attempt an overview of the development of competencies during elementary school. After a conceptual clarification of the term competency, the focus will turn to the development of scholastic competencies at elementary school level from a development psychology perspective. Following this, the developmental changes within four basic competence domains, which are central topics of current research, are described: reading, writing, mathematics, and science. Factors affecting the development of scholastic competencies are then discussed, including individual (intelligence, prior knowledge, language) as well as environmental determinants (family, quality of instruction, classroom composition). General as well as differential changes in the four domains are described and illustrated by empirical research results.     

Gender,reasoning ability,and scholastic achievement: A multilevel mediation analysis

The present study investigated gender differences in scholastic achievement (school grades in sciences and languages) as mediated by reasoning ability in a large sample with a clustered data structure from an educational context. Whereas girls outperformed boys in languages, boys excelled in sciences and reasoning. Multilevel analyses indicated a small indirect effect of gender on school grades mediated by reasoning ability. Gender differences in sciences, but not in languages were largely explained by reasoning ability, but not by factors such as gender ratio in the classroom or mental speed. The predictive power of reasoning ability for languages, but not sciences was larger in classrooms with higher mean reasoning ability. Further, gender differences in languages, but not sciences varied significantly across classrooms. Reasoning ability appears to be important for predicting scholastic achievement in sciences, whereas languages are more affected by gender-related attributes.     

Alternative schools for troublesome secondary students

Results of a field experiment indicate that a certain kind of secondary school program reduced the disruptive behavior and improved the scholastic performance of students who were about to be suspended or expelled from their conventional schools. The research indicates that the program was demonstrably effective only with those students who were not at the outset extremely depressed and anxious. The essential characteristics of the program are described. The findings document the social psychological processes by which the program achieved its goals. Implications are drawn for a typology of delinquency; causes of delinquent and disruptive behavior; stigmatization; the possibility of an educational program being effective without the direct involvement of disruptive students' families or friends; and for some recurring questions regarding the design of alternative educational programs.     

Relationships between middle school students' science concept structure interrelatedness competence and selected cognitive and affective tendencies

An investigation was conducted to determine the relationships between Concept Structure Interrelatedness Competence (ConSIC) and 10 predictor variables of which 6 comprised a cognitive cluster and 4 made up an affective set. Data were collected from 105 middle school students and treated by way of stepwise multiple regression, linear multiple regression, and product-moment correlation techniques. The findings revealed that previous experience with concept structure interrelatedness and verbal scholastic aptitude accounted for the greatest amount of variance in predicting ConSIC. Significant positive correlations were also found between ConSIC and science achievement-course grades, scholastic aptitude-verbal, scholastic aptitude-quantitative, previous experience with concept structure interrelatedness, and self-concept of science ability. Positive significant correlations also surfaced among all of the affective variables (attitudes toward science, interest in science, science curiosity, and self-concept of science ability). Implications have been discussed in terms of classroom science teaching, science content analysis, curriculum design, and content selection.