The effectiveness of advance organiser model on students’ academic achievement in learning work and energy

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the advance organiser model (AOM) on students’ academic achievement in learning work and energy. The design of the study was quasi-experimental pretest–posttest nonequivalent control groups. The total population of the study was 139 students of three sections in Endabaguna preparatory school in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. Two sections with equivalent means on the pretest were taken to participate in the study purposely and one section assigned as the experimental group and the other section assigned as the control group randomly. The experimental group was taught using the lesson plan based on the AOM, and the control group was taught using the lesson plan based on the conventional teaching method. Pretest and posttest were administered before and after the treatment, respectively. Independent sample t-test was used to analyse the data at the probability level of 0.05. The findings of the study showed that the AOM was more effective than the conventional teaching method with effect size of 0.49. This model was also effective to teach male and female students and objectives namely understanding and application. However, both methods were equally important to teach work and energy under the objective knowledge level.     

Faith conquers all? Demographic and psychological resources and their associations with academic performance among religious college students

ABSTRACT

Evidence on the association of religiosity and academic attainment is consistent, thus suggesting additional factors intervene in this relationship. We proposed and tested a model with two concepts from the field of positive psychology: psychological capital and psychological resilience. We hypothesised that these mediate the association between religiosity, demographic variables and academic achievement. We tested the model in a sample of 119 senior students in a Catholic university in Poland. The results partially supported the model; both psychological capital and psychological resilience mediated the association between religiosity and academic attainment but in different directions. Among the demographic variables, only age associated directly with achievement. The results are discussed in light of the existing evidence and positive psychology theory.     

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.     

Toward a Positive Psychology of Academic Motivation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to integrate constructs from positive psychology with constructs from motivation theories that have received most of the attention in studies of academic motivation. Achievement goals, expectancy beliefs, and value were predictive of the positive psychology variables. Task goals were associated positively with optimism and with invitations, whereas performance-avoid goals were associated negatively with optimism and perceived authenticity. Expectancy and value constructs were associated positively with optimism, perceived authenticity, and invitations. Positive psychology variables were stronger in high-achieving students than in low-achieving students; boys had stronger perceived authenticity than girls did. Findings indicate that constructs drawn from positive psychology can help explain academic motivation and achievement.     

Expanding the Nomological Network of Work Avoidance: Antecedents and Consequences Across Contexts

Abstract

Work avoidance, or the goal to reduce effort in an achievement context, is related to disengagement and may offer insight into disengaged students and employees. To shed light on this issue, we investigated the antecedents of work avoidance in academic and work contexts to distinguish it from mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. Two samples of employed college students (N?=?207, N?=?233) completed questionnaires about their jobs and in one sample about their introductory psychology class. Across both contexts, proposed antecedents of alienation, low need for achievement, and perceiving one’s competence needs as not being met predicted work avoidance. Work avoidance also accounted for additional variance when combined with achievement goals to predict citizenship behaviors, perceiving work/classwork as meaningless and wanting to leave/quit.     

Needs for Achievement

Measures of needs for achievement and variety seeking were obtained from students who chose an honors program of independent research during their junior and senior college years and from students with equivalent high grades who chose not to be in honors. The measures of need for achievement from the California Personality Inventory (CPI) and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) both correlated significantly with choice of an honors curriculum. Scores on the Zukerman Sensation-Seeking scale (SS-scale) and grade point average (GPA) did not correlate with choice of an honors curriculum.     

Recency of Secondary School Mathematical Preparation as an Influence on First-Year College Mathematics Achievement

Abstract

A random sample of four hundred college freshman mathematics students with comparable high school mathematical preparation was selected from 1,435 students. The test group included 126 members who had not attempted a mathematics course during their last year in high school, designated as Group N, and 263 members who had received mathematical credit during their last year, designated as Group Y. Statistical treatment of data for each group indicated that the SAT mathematical aptitude scores, CEEB (Level I) mathematical achievement scores, and achievement in first-year college mathematics courses was greater for Group Y at the .01 level of confidence. The achievement comparison was based on an analysis of covariance procedure with SAT Mathematical scores, CEEB Mathematical scores, and sex of student used as adjusting variables.     

A One-Month Experiment in Teaching Context Aids in Fifth Grade

Abstract

Thirty pairs of first- and second-grade children were matched on; (a) race, (b) sex, (e) socio-economic level, (d) type of classroom assignment, (e) age, (f) mental ability, and (g) reading achievement. Each pair consisted of a once-retained first grader and a never-retained second grader. The children were white, low socio-economic slow learners from urban areas. Metropolitan Achievement Test scores for 1062, 1062, and 1064 were used as a measure of the reading and arithmetic achievement gain of the two groups over the two-year period of the study.

The test for matched pairs, using the data on the 20 matched pairs, showed both the reading and arithmetic achievement gain of the promoted group to be significantly greater than that of the non promoted group during the first year of the study. An analysis of variance, using the data on the 24 matched pairs whose achievement scores were available the second year of the study, showed both the reading and arithmetic achievement gain of the promoted group to be significantly greater than that of the non promoted group over the two-year period of the study. It was concluded that nonpromotion was not an aid to achievement.     

Humanistic Psychology and Morality

Abstract:

The place of the encounter group within the framework of humanistic psychology is examined and an assessment of the moral significance of the humanistic psychology movement and the encounter group technique is attempted. Some contemporary moral objections to the technique, and to its implied moral dangers, are outlined and answered.     

Academic Outcomes of Ability Grouping Among Junior High School Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

Ability grouping is supposedly undesirable because it leads to deficits in academic self-concept and academic achievement. However, it appears to be justifiable for its improvement of teaching and learning in schools, perhaps more so in a collectivist culture. In view of the paucity of data examining the controversy in Hong Kong, the authors collected data from 2,720 junior high school students with a random sampling procedure and obtained teachers' reports about the students' subsequent academic achievement, ability grouping, and the ability level of the class. The authors maintained students' past academic achievement as a control variable in predicting their subsequent academic achievement and self-concepts. Results revealed no significant detrimental effect caused by the ability-grouped class and the ability level of the ability-grouped class. Rather, students in classes that were more homogeneous according to past academic achievement tended to have significantly higher subsequent academic achievement and self-esteem. Results revealed no variation attributable to each student's gender and IQ in the effects of ability grouping.     

Formal operations as predictor of university academic achievement

Abstract

In view of the postulated relationship between Piaget's theory of formal operations and academic achievement, this article investigates the extent to which university students in possession of proportional and combinatorial reasoning would perform in an educational psychology graduate course at the University of Transkei. The findings show that those who had the concepts of proportional and combinatorial reasoning significantly outperformed those who had not attained formal operations. This is a clear demonstration that pursuit of academic studies at university subsumes the acquisition of formal operations.     

Effects of Peer-Led Online Asynchronous Discussion on Undergraduate Students' Cognitive Achievement

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of peer leadership on students' cognitive achievement in online asynchronous discussions. Undergraduate students from a large online course were randomly assigned into groups for four asynchronous discussions, with each group having two to three peer leaders. Results of the mixed-method analysis revealed that the quality of student leaders' lower-order cognitive achievement in online discussion was significantly better than that of student responders. Student leaders' higher-order cognitive level achievement in online discussion had at least the same quality as that of student responders. Moreover, both students' higher-order and lower-order cognitive achievement in discussions had positive and moderate correlation with students' course achievement. Further study should focus on methods to maximize student responders' cognitive achievement in online peer-led discussions.     

Development of and Reasons for Vocational Choices of Adolescents through the High-School Years

Abstract

To determine whether ability grouping or random grouping is the most effective in producing academic achievement in mathematics, 204 enlisted airmen at the USAF Academy Preparatory School were divided into two equivalent subgroups. Each subgroup was sectioned randomly for one mathematics sequence and according to ability for a second. Subgroup grade averages were compared using the two-tailed t-test. For a standard curriculum, the randomly sectioned group surpassed the ability sectioned group (5 percent level); and for the sequence with differentiation by acceleration, the ability sectioned group surpassed the randomly sectioned group (0.1 percent level). This indicates that it is not so much the method of grouping but rather what is done for a given group that affects achievement.     

Developing Research Skills for the Future Workplace through Interdisciplinary Near-Peer Mentoring

Abstract

Experiential learning is touted as an effective way of imparting research skills. This suggests that master’s students undergoing training in research psychology should be exposed to managing projects and supervising interdisciplinary research teams and projects before entering the workplace. The Department of Psychology and Department of Town and Regional Planning at a South African university developed a near-peer mentoring programme in which the psychology master’s students mentored undergraduate urban planning students who were writing their final-year research reports. Focus group discussions with the psychology students about their experiences of the programme were analysed using phenomenography. The psychology students experienced their role as mentor in five hierarchical variations. The first four were seen as challenging, while the benefits were only experienced at the highest level of the hierarchy. Lessons learnt from the mentoring relationship that mirror certain workplace research skills are discussed followed by recommendations for improving the mentoring programme.     

Involvement and growth of students in three academic programs

The purpose of this study was to provide further evidence on potential determinants of college student involvement in curricular and cocurricular campus activities, particularly on the importance of student enrollment in three academic programs. The study focused on how students in two special academic programs—an honors program and a transition program to assist academically disadvantaged students adjust to college—as well as students in the regular curriculum become engaged in a variety of experiences and how their quality of effort (involvement) in the activities is related to student growth and development. The relationship between level of student activity and achievement supports the claims of previous research that involvement contributes to students' development and gains in intellectual and interpersonal areas. However, the strength of relationship between student effort and gain varied for the three groups. Overall, the honors and transition students appeared to get more for their effort than did the regular students.     

A Comparison of Audio-Tutorial Lecture Methods of Teaching

Abstract

The study to determine if concepts of school law could be effectively taught, using simulated materials presented audio-tutorially, to preservice teachers. A senior class of 219 students at Iowa State University was randomly divided into two groups. One group was taught school law concepts utilizing the traditional lecture method of instruction, the other was subjected to the A-T style of instruction. A pretest and posttest was administered to each group and the growth of each group over time was determined. The experimental (A-T) group showed a significantly greater (.01 level of confidence) increase in achievement than did the traditional group. Three factors and their interactions were considered in the experiment: achievement level of the student; possible student teaching experience, and group assignment. The only significant factor was group assignment, indicating that teaching technique was responsible for the difference in the learning rate of the two groups.     

Developing Critical Thinking in the Current Events Class

Abstract

The investigation tested the effectiveness of machine instruction in the teaching of spelling to a sample of fifty-four second- and third-grade students. All subjects were located in the same school, and groups were formed on the basis of spelling achievement matching. The analysis of variance statistical technique was employed in the treatment of the data. Although no differences were found in main effects (i.e., machine versus teacher), a differential (Interaction) effect was found at the .002 level of confidence. Further analysis revealed that: (1) on the third-grade level, the machine had proved more effective (.01 level of confidence) than the traditional method, and (2) on the second-grade level the traditional method had produced significantly more achievement (above the .01 level) than the machine method. The strength of the reversal is strongly suggestive of an age level below which this type of machine instruction loses its effectiveness.     

Families,Schools, and Children’s School Achievement: A Study Based on Rural Regions in China Gansu Province

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the impact of school factors on student achievement due to differences in family backgrounds. Based on the principle of diminishing effects of school investment in children’s achievement, this study built a model that includes individual characteristics, family characteristics, and school characteristics. Family and school variables were incorporated into the model. The subjective effort in children’s individual study and family investment and effort in education were controlled. Using data on elementary school children from 20 counties in Gansu Province, this study found that parents’ level of education and family income and indices of school quality have a significant positive relationship to children’s achievement. However, an increase in school investment will shrink the score differences caused by differences in children’s family backgrounds. The policy implications are that increased educational investment in impoverished rural areas has an even more significant positive effect on the achievement of children from disadvantaged family backgrounds.     

A controlled field study of the use of coloured overlays on reading achievement

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of using Irlen coloured overlays on reading rate, accuracy, fluency and comprehension under regular class conditions, with class teachers instigating the study and conducting the assessment. All subjects in grade 3 at Whitney and McKinley Elementary schools were screened for symptoms of Irlen syndrome, with 31 subjects identified at Whitney and 40 subjects identified at McKinley. The effects on reading achievement were investigated under conditions of immediate use and delayed use, with one group (Whitney) provided optimum coloured overlays for 3 months and the other group (McKinley) delayed treatment for 3 months. The effects were then assessed for a further three months with both groups.

After three months of use of overlays, the Whitney group demonstrated a significant improvement in reading achievement with mean gains in grade equivalence scores of between 1 year 2 months and 1 year 7 months. However, between the three to six month period of use, the gains for the Whitney group reached a plateau, with no significant improvement in reading achievement. The McKinley group had negligible gains in reading achievement during the first 3 months without the use of overlays, but significant gains during the 3 month to 6 month phase with the use of overlays, which ranged from 1 year 8 months to 2 years 8 months. It was suggested that the reported reduction in print and background distortions may improve accuracy of word recognition and allow attention to be directed more to the meaning of what is being read than to word recognition thus enhancing reading comprehension. The plateau effect identified for the Whitney group between 3 and 6 months could be related to the fact that after 3 months of overlay use, many students had reached grade level in reading achievement.