Co-development of math anxiety,math self-concept,and math value in adolescence: The roles of parents and math teachers

Despite the well-documented negative implications of math anxiety on math learning, a scarcity of theory-guided, long-term longitudinal research limits knowledge about how math anxiety develops over time. Guided by the Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions (Pekrun, 2006), the present study addresses this gap by examining (1) how math anxiety develops in tandem with the development of control and value appraisals across secondary schooling, and (2) how these three constructs co-develop in relation to characteristics of home and school contexts. We used growth mixture modeling to investigate how math anxiety, math self-concept (a frequently examined indicator of control appraisal), and math utility value (one dimension of math value) develop in parallel in a sample of 3116 adolescents, who were assessed annually across middle and high school. We identified three trajectory classes: a stable class, characterized by stably modest math anxiety, high math self-concept, and high math utility value, a linear change class, characterized by increasing math anxiety and decreasing math self-concept and utility value, and a fluctuating class, characterized by curvilinear changes in math anxiety, math self-concept, and math utility value. Parental academic support and teacher bias differentiated the stable class from the fluctuating class at the transition to middle school, and from the linear change class at the transition to high school. Our findings point to the heterogeneous contributions of control and value appraisals towards the development of math anxiety and highlight the importance of investigating multiple dimensions of the socio-ecological context at different stages of math anxiety development.     

Meta-analysis on the relation between acculturation and academic performance: Testing the immigrant paradox

This meta-analysis is designed to test the immigrant paradox hypothesis, which argues that first-generation immigrant students tend to outperform their more acculturated peers. We aim to unpack the complex relation between acculturation and academic performance among immigrant-origin students with attention to methodological and demographic moderators. The review includes 79 independent samples generated from 54 studies, representing 89,827 students (M = 646.24, SD = 862.93) with a mean age of 13.26 (SD = 5.16). We found an overall main effect of 0.04, (p < .001), suggesting a significant, positive correlation between acculturation and academic performance. However, given the significant variation among studies, focused moderator analyses revealed the importance of critical methodological (e.g., type of acculturation measure used, type of academic indicator used, and type of publication) and demographic (e.g., developmental stage, race/ethnicity, urbanicity) factors that moderate the relation between acculturation and school achievement. These results suggest the opposite of the immigrant paradox, that is second-generation (or more acculturated) students seem to perform better than their first-generation (or less acculturated) peers. Moderation analysis, however, revealed that acculturation seems to have no effect on grades, while having a positive effect on test scores. Finally, we found a positive relation between acculturation and academic performance in studies conducted with children and adolescents, but not for young adults.     

道德价值实现:假设、悖论与智慧

人类迄今文本伦理思想的对象都是人的“利己心”,具有假设价值论的特征。经验主义在肯定和高扬人的“利己心”的同时,运用假设的方式将道德价值实现引向尊重社会道德规则;德性主义贬斥人的“利己心”,力图以假设的道德本体权威将道德价值实现诉诸于人们的“自警”和“自觉”,由此而构成一种整体性的假设体系,在其指导下,社会道德规则具有虚拟的形式主义倾向,道德价值实现的结果必然出现道德悖论。中国传统儒学本质上是德性主义的义务论,克服其引起普遍化道德悖论的弊端,需要在道德权利与道德义务、价值判断与逻辑判断相统一的意义上倡导道德智慧。     

Academic self-efficacy and academic self-concept: Reconsidering structural relationships

The current study investigates (1) whether academic (e.g. math) self-efficacy and academic self-concept represent two conceptually and empirically distinct psychological constructs when studied within the same domain, (2) the nature of the relationship existing between both self-constructs, (3) their antecedents, and (4) their mediating and predictive qualities for background variables such as gender and prior knowledge and outcome variables such as math performance, math interest, and math anxiety. Results indicate that (1) math self-efficacy and math self-concept do indeed represent conceptually and empirically different constructs, even when studied within the same domain, (2) students' academic self-concept strongly influences their academic self-efficacy beliefs, (3) academic self-concept is a better predictor (and mediator) for affective–motivational variables, while academic self-efficacy is the better predictor (and mediator) for academic achievement. These findings underpin the conceptual and empirical differences between both self-constructs as suggested by Bong and Skaalvik [Bong, M., &; Skaalvik, E.M. (2003). Academic self-concept and self-efficacy: How different are they really?. Educational Psychology Review, 15, 1–40.].     

The negative effect of school-average ability on science self-concept in the UK,the UK countries and the world: the Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect for PISA 2006

Research on the relation between students’ achievement (ACH) and their academic self-concept (ASC) has consistently shown a Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect (BFLPE); ASC is positively affected by individual ACH, but negatively affected by school-average ACH. Surprisingly, however, there are few good UK studies of the BFLPE and few anywhere in the world based on science self-concept (S-ASC). Addressing this substantive limitation in existing research with data from PISA 2006, we extend new multigroup doubly-latent multilevel structural equation models – a substantive-methodological synergy. BFLPE predictions for S-ASC are supported for: the total international sample; the total UK sample; each of the four UK countries considered separately. The BFLPE was marginally larger in the UK than the international sample. However, consistent with the selective nature of school systems in the UK, the BFLPE was larger in Northern Ireland and, to a lesser extent, England than in Scotland or Wales.     

Memories of math: Narrative predictors of math affect,math motivation,and future math plans

This mixed-methods study focuses on narratives that undergraduates tell about pivotal moments (i.e., turning points) in their prior history with math. A key objective was to examine whether these turning points would be associated with participants’ current math affect, math motivation, and future plans with math. Undergraduate participants (N = 210) completed quantitative measures assessing math anxiety, math self-expectancy, and math value, and also wrote narratives about a turning point with math and their future math plans. Thematic analysis revealed four themes in the math turning point narratives: (1) redemption, (2) contamination, (3) consistently positive, and (4) consistently negative. Quantitative analyses indicated that participants who wrote consistently positive narratives reported significantly lower math anxiety and higher math self-expectancy and math value relative to participants who wrote other types of narratives. Further, participants who wrote consistently negative turning point narratives were more likely to indicate that they would avoid math in the future. These results suggest that an individual’s memory of their early math experiences can color their math affect, math motivation, and plans for pursuing math in the future, even years after the experience has occurred. Implications for math education are discussed.     

Children's emotions in math problem solving situations: Contributions of self-concept,metacognitive experiences,and performance

This study examined 1) experiences of six discrete emotions ‒ joy, pride, contentment, worry, shame, hopelessness ‒ after solving a math problem of students aged 10–12 years, and 2) the contribution of self-concept, metacognitive experiences (feeling of difficulty and feeling of success) and performance on emotions experienced after the task, controlling for gender and emotions experienced before the task. Results indicated a decrease in joy and contentment after problem solving. Performance did not contribute to emotions apart from hopelessness. The influence of performance on hopelessness was mediatized by metacognitive experiences. Self-concept contributed to joy, pride and shame but its influence became non-significant when we controlled for metacognitive experiences. Feeling of success mediatized the effect of self-concept on joy, pride and shame. Metacognitive experiences were also found to be important predictors of all emotions except worry. The need for new paradigms to study emotions in education is discussed.     

The effects of using ticks and crosses on academic self-concept

Behaviour, including academic performance, can be influenced by implicit primes; and both objective performance and subjective ratings are susceptible to priming effects. Here, we report a new priming effect on academic self-ratings. Participants twice completed a measure of academic self-concept. In the first session, they all used circles to answer questions regarding their own perceived academic ability. In the second session, half of the participants answered with ticks (often used to indicate a correct answer in academic feedback) and the other half with crosses (often used to indicate an incorrect answer in academic feedback). Participants who used crosses had significantly lower academic self-ratings compared to the first session. No such reduction in academic self-rating was observed in participants who used ticks. Moreover, response mode only affected the academic self-concept, and self-ratings regarding physical self-concept were unaffected by response mode. None of the participants reported awareness of the response mode manipulation.     

Computer-related self-concept: The impact on cognitive achievement

Teaching and learning in outreach laboratories is suitable for completion of multiple hands-on experiences of students. Digital contents may support and further enrich individual haptic experiences. Nevertheless, individual variables such as computer-related self-concepts are supposed to intervene with the cognitive learning success within this context. This potential interrelationship was a major focus of our study completed in an outreach laboratory where an eLearning module specifically was integrated into a hands-on centered gene-technology module. By monitoring cognitive knowledge levels and simultaneously applying the computer-related self-concept of 162 German students (11th grade), an increase in knowledge became apparent independently of individual computer-related self-concepts. This missing relationship exemplarily fosters the assumption that computer-supported learning may suite every student regardless of computer-related self-concept scores.     

Alleviating or exacerbating disadvantage: does school attended mediate the association between family background and educational attainment?

ABSTRACT

Opportunities for social mobility are generated by education systems designed to alleviate the effects of social origin by providing equality of opportunities and resources. The persistence of the strong association between socioeconomic status (SES) and child’s educational achievement and attainment suggests that social origin continues to play an integral role in the educational outcomes of successive generations of Australians. Sociologists draw on a range of theoretical perspectives to explain this association including Bourdieu’s cultural and social capital theories. Using data collected by the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth 2009 (LSAY09) project, I examine the associations between student SES, school SES and two outcome variables: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score and university enrolment. The results indicate that low SES students attending high SES schools perform better on PISA tests than low SES students attending low SES schools. After controlling for PISA score, low SES students were less likely than their high SES peers to enrol at university. Furthermore, students attending low SES schools were less likely than their peers attending high SES schools to enrol at university, net of their individual SES and their PISA scores.     

The relationship between math anxiety and math achievement in young children is mediated through working memory,not by number sense,and it is not direct

Math anxiety is considered a predictor of math achievement, although the cognitive mechanism whereby math anxiety impairs math achievement is unclear. The paper presents the results of cross-sectional (N = 241) and longitudinal (N = 369) studies conducted among early school-aged children on the cognitive mechanism whereby math anxiety impairs math achievement. The following hypotheses were tested: (1) math anxiety directly affects math achievement; (2) in accordance with processing efficiency and attentional cognitive theories, math anxiety indirectly affects math achievement through working memory; (3) in accordance with the cognitive deficit model, math anxiety indirectly affects math achievement through number sense. The results mostly confirm the mediating role of working memory and undermine the mediating role of number sense and the direct path in the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement. Because previous studies undertaken in adults show the direct path from math anxiety to math achievement and the role of symbolic number processing in explaining the relationship between the two, the methodological and developmental aspects of the obtained results are discussed in the paper.     

The use (and misuse) of PISA in guiding policy reform: the case of Spain

In 2013 Spain introduced a series of educational reforms explicitly inspired by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 results. These reforms were mainly implemented in secondary education – based upon the assumption that this is where Spain's educational problems lie. This paper questions this assumption by attempting to identify the point where Spanish children fall behind young people in other developed countries. Specifically, by drawing data from multiple international assessments, we are able to explore how cross-national differences in reading skills change as children age. Consideration is given to both the average level of achievement and the evolution of educational inequalities. Our conclusion is that policy-makers have focused their efforts on the wrong part of the education system; educational achievement is low in Spain (and educational inequalities large) long before children enter secondary school. This study therefore serves as a note of caution against simplistic interpretation of the PISA rankings.     

The education of migrant children in Shanghai: The battle for equity

The PISA success of Shanghai has aroused open challenge and debate about whether the city is a “model of equity”. There have been heated debates about the education of migrant children in Shanghai. This paper analyses publicly accessible policy papers and literature to provide a contextualised interpretation of the major progress and ongoing challenges surrounding the education of migrant children in Shanghai. The paper shows the structural inequalities affecting migrant families and their children. It refers to central as well as local government policies and the constraints these policies face. The analysis shows that Shanghai remains riddled with ongoing challenges that may have been obscured by the PISA success.     

Teaching strategies and differential effectiveness across learning contexts: Evidence from PISA 2012

Modern educational theories emphasise effectiveness enhancing factors at the classroom level and differential effectiveness for sub-groups of students and across different learning contexts. Theoretical developments, however, are generally based on national evidence and have been criticised for lacking cross-cultural perspectives. This study used PISA 2012 data to examine how subject-specific teaching strategies related to mathematics performance of students across education systems whilst considering curvilinear associations and interactions with the socio-economic and instructional context. The results provide consistent evidence of a positive curvilinear relationship between cognitive activation strategies and mathematics performance. The association tends to be stronger in schools with a positive disciplinary climate and for students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds, but not in every education system. Teacher-directed strategies are positively related to mathematics performance, but the association tends to become negative for high levels of teacher-directed instruction. Associations of student-oriented strategies with mathematics performance are inconsistent. The cross-national evidence contributes to the knowledge base of educational theory.     

The innovation paradox: a selective review of the literature on action learning and innovation

This paper explores selective literatures in the two fields of action learning and innovation, and seeks insights into the processes of, and connections between, innovation, engagement and implementation. We searched the action learning articles for references to innovation, beginning with the work of Revans, who highlights the innovation paradox, which becomes a key theme of this paper. We searched the very large innovation literature for references to innovation as a learning process and as a factor in organisational learning. The paper surveys the factors said to enable innovation, and briefly outlines some inhibitors, before considering Revans’ contribution to thinking about innovation. This is followed by a consideration of developments in action learning and innovation since Revans. The findings suggest that paradox theory is a useful way of thinking about innovation, conceived of as a practical problem involving resistances and frequent failures of implementation and adoption, and also propose action learning as a means of working with and addressing paradox. A limitation of this study is its lack of empirical data. Further research could usefully interrogate examples of innovation practices and ask such questions as to why innovation remains so elusive, and how innovative capacities and capabilities can be developed and enhanced.     

The relative importance of predictors of math and science achievement: An opportunity–propensity analysis

In the present study, the authors propose a new framework that integrates literature on achievement, supports the testing of novel hypotheses, and stresses the importance of examining a large number of factors in the same study. This framework assumes that high achievement is a function of three categories of factors: (a) opportunity factors (e.g., coursework), (b) propensity factors (e.g., prerequisite skills, motivation), and (c) distal factors (e.g., SES). A secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Educational Study (NELS:88) using hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling revealed that 58–81% of the variance in achievement was explained by family variables and specific opportunity and propensity factors. The findings are discussed in terms of their potential implications for intervention efforts.     

The relationship between teacher self-concept,teacher efficacy and burnout

Teacher self-concept and efficacy have been investigated with burnout separately, while the two self-beliefs might work together to impact burnout. Guided by a model of the cyclical nature of teacher efficacy, we aimed to extend previous work on self-perceived predictors of teacher burnout by simultaneously investigating teacher self-concept and efficacy to detect the possibility of teacher efficacy being a mediator between teacher self-concept and burnout as well as whether such relationship remains constant across all groups of teachers with different gender and teaching experience. A sample of 1892 teachers across seven Chinese geographical regions completed a self-reported questionnaire addressing self-concept, efficacy, burnout and demographic variables. Structural equation modelling indicated that teacher self-concept influenced the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment via teacher efficacy. Further multi-group analysis suggested that this mechanism worked equally across different gender and teaching experience groups. With a non-western teacher sample, teacher efficacy was found to work as a mediator between teacher self-concept and burnout. The finding especially contributes to the knowledge in the teacher efficacy literature. The integrated relationship should be further explored in other cultures.     

The role of reading self-concept and home literacy practices in fourth grade reading comprehension

This study examined the relationships among reading comprehension, reading self-concept, and home literacy environment (HLE) in a sample (n = 67) of fourth grade children enrolled in an urban school district. Children’s reading comprehension, word reading, and verbal ability were assessed using standardized measures. Reading self-concept was assessed with a child-administered survey that is comprised of three subscales (i.e., competence in reading, perception of ease with reading, attitude towards reading). Information on child and family literacy practices was collected via a questionnaire administered to parents of participating children. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses demonstrated that all three reading self-concept subscales were positively related to reading comprehension after controlling for verbal ability and word reading skills, and aspects of HLE were positively related to aspects of reading self-concept. The findings support the inclusion of psychosocial and family literacy measures in future studies designed to investigate the process of reading comprehension for children beyond the primary grades.

Discriminant and incremental validity of self-concept and academic self-efficacy: a meta-analysis

Two studies examined the discriminant and incremental validity of self-concept and academic self-efficacy. Study 1, which meta-analysed 64 studies comprising 74 independent samples (N?=?24,773), found a strong mean correlation of .43 between self-concept and academic self-efficacy. The domains of self-concept and self-efficacy, and the domain matching between them, moderate the strength of the correlation between self-concept and academic self-efficacy. Global self-concept was associated with weaker correlations than were academic and subject-specific self-concept. Academic self-efficacy had higher incremental validity than self-concept. Study 2, which examined data-sets from Programme for International Student Assessment 2000, 2003 and 2006, found that the mean correlation ranged from .31 to 54. Self-concept sometimes had higher incremental validity than academic self-efficacy. The higher incremental validity of self-concept may result from the wording and domain of self-concept measure as well as specificity matching between self-concept and academic achievement.     

The I of students with ID or SEBD: A systematic literature review of the self-concept of students with ID or SEBD

With the trend towards inclusive education, today there are many different school settings in which students with an intellectual disability (ID) or social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) are educated. According to the Social Comparison Theory of Festinger, educational contexts influence the self-concept development of these students. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of literature over the last 20 years focusing on the self-concept of students with ID or SEBD in different school settings, in relation to typically developing peers and the relationship between self-concept and various variables. The results of the 15 articles identified for this review mainly indicate neutral self-concept scores. Studies focus primarily on students with ID and on the social and academic dimensions of self-concept. Students in special education tend to score slightly more positive than students in other school settings and students with ID or SEBD report a more negative self-concept than typically developing peers. Most variables included in the studies show no correlation with self-concept. Findings also revealed difficulties in the feasibility of comparison between studies due to statistical shortcomings and lack of clarification in the identified articles. Future directions for self-concept research are discussed comprehensively.