Academic Attitudes,Expectations, and Achievement

Scholars Who Teach: The Art of College Teaching: Edited by Steven M. Cahn: Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1978, Cloth $14.95, Paper $7.95, 246 pages. Reviewed by Marilyn L. Schaefer.

Support for Teaching at Major Universities: Edited by Stanford C. Ericksen with John A. Cook.: Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, Fall, 1979. $3.00. Reviewed by Kurt F. Geisinger.     

教师支持、学业自我效能感与中小学生学业成绩的关系：元分析结构方程模型

本研究利用元分析与结构方程模型相结合的方法,综合分析了教师支持、学业自我效能感与中小学生学业成绩的152项独立研究结果,随机效应模型结果表明:教师支持、学业自我效能感与学业成绩显著正相关,教师支持与学业自我效能感显著正相关。调节分析发现,城乡调节了教师支持、学业自我效能感与学业成绩的关系。元分析结构方程模型结果发现,教师支持不仅直接影响学业成绩,而且通过学业自我效能感产生间接影响。这一结果为教师支持和学业自我效能感能预测学业成绩提供了有力的证据,表明该理论模型在中小学生群体中的普遍适用性。     

A Structural Equation Model of Parental Involvement,Motivational and Aptitudinal Characteristics,and Academic Achievement

The authors used the structural equation model (SEM) approach to test a model hypothesizing the influence of parental involvement on students' academic aptitudes, self-concept, and causal attributions, as well as the influence of the 3 variables on academic achievement. The theoretical model was contrasted in a group of 12- to 18-year-old adolescents (N = 261) attending various educational centers. The results indicate that (a) parental involvement had a positive and significant influence on the participant's measured characteristics; (b) causal attribution was not causally related to self-concept or academic achievement when the task involved finding causes for success, but, self-concept and causal attributions were found to be significantly and reciprocally related when the task involved finding causes accounting for failure; (c) self-concept was statistically and predominantly causally related to academic achievement, but not vice versa; and (d) aptitude and self-concept accounted for academic achievement, although the effect of self-concept was predominant. These results suggest that in adolescence, cognitive-affective variables become crucial in accounting for academic behavior.     

中学生学习压力、成就目标与学业成绩的关系研究

运用问卷对686名中学生进行调查，探索学习压力、成就目标与学业成绩的关系。结果发现：对于掌握目标组，掌握目标对学业成绩起正向直接作用，学习压力起负向直接作用，成绩目标通过学习压力对学业成绩起负向间接作用。对于成绩目标组，成绩目标通过学习压力对学业成绩存在间接消极作用，掌握目标通过学习压力对学业成绩存在间接积极作用。     

父母教育卷入与小学生学业成绩的关系——教育期望和学业自我效能感的共同调节作用

本研究以379名四到六年级小学生为被试,采用问卷法考察了小学生自我报告的教育期望、学业自我效能感及其父母报告的教育卷入行为,并通过学校获得小学生的学业成绩。结果发现,小学生教育期望、学业自我效能感均对其学业成绩有显著的正向预测作用,且教育期望、学业自我效能感与父母教育卷入的三阶交互作用显著。对三阶交互作用的进一步分析发现:(1)当小学生学业自我效能感较高且教育期望较高时,父母教育卷入对学业成绩有负向预测作用;(2)当小学生学业自我效能感较高但教育期望较低时,父母教育卷入对学业成绩有正向预测作用;(3)当小学生学业自我效能感较低时,无论其教育期望高或低,父母教育卷入对学业成绩均无显著预测作用。上述研究结果表明,小学生的学业自我效能感水平牵制了其教育期望是否在父母教育卷入与学业成绩的关系间起调节作用。     

Social Acceptance,Academic Achievement,and Academic Aptitude Among High School Students

Abstract

While evaluating a project designed to improve certain skills and motivation of disadvantaged tenth graders, the authors developed a unique scoring system for measuring college interest with the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (OIS) Form DD. This system permits the user to obtain a single score which if obtained from both pretest and posttest administrations attempts to measure change in interest toward college related occupations. In effect, it is anticipated that this would reflect change in interest in pursuing a college education.     

Parents' Attitudes Towards Science and their Children's Science Achievement

Although countries worldwide are emphasizing the importance of science education for technological development and global economic competition, comparative findings from standardized international student assessments reveal a huge gap in science scores between developed and developing countries. Certain developed economies too have made little progress in raising science achievement over the past decade. Despite school improvement being placed high on the policy agenda, the results of such actions have been poor. Therefore, there is a need to explore additional ways in which science achievement can be enhanced. This study focuses on the family and examines whether parents' attitudes towards science (how much they value science and the importance they place on it) can influence their children's science achievement. Individual- and school-level data are obtained from the Program for International Student Assessment 2006 survey for 15 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. Hierarchical linear modelling is employed to estimate the equations. The findings indicate that parents' attitudes towards science have a positive and statistically significant effect on science achievement, after controlling for other important student- and school-level variables. Moreover, students from poor backgrounds appear to benefit from more positive parental science attitudes as much as students from high socioeconomic status, such that equality of student achievement is not affected. This study recommends that schools and teachers encourage parents to play a more pro-active role in their children's science education, as well as educate parents about the importance of science and strategies that can be adopted to support their children's science learning.     

Secondary School Students' Attitudes Towards Science

Four hundred and fifty‐one students' attitudes towards science were investigated. Two types of instruments (questionnaire and Attitude Scale) were used to collect the data. The results show that the students in general hold a favourable attitude towards science; male students have more positive attitude towards science than female students; the type of school (science‐school, single‐sex school or general secondary school) attended have an effect on the students' attitudes to science. The low enrollment in science is not due to the lack of interest or negative attitudes to the subject but may be due to some other variables that need to be investigated.     

Perceived School and Neighborhood Safety, Neighborhood Violence and Academic Achievement in Urban School Children

Community and school violence continue to be a major public health problem, especially among urban children and adolescents. Little research has focused on the effect of school safety and neighborhood violence on academic performance. This study examines the effect of the school and neighborhood climate on academic achievement among a population of 3rd–5th grade students in an urban public school system. Community and school safety were assessed using the School Climate Survey, an annual City-wide assessment of student’s perception of school and community safety. Community violence was measured using the Neighborhood Inventory for Environmental Typology, an objective observational assessment of neighborhood characteristics. Academic achievement was measured using the Maryland State Assessment (MSA), a standardized exam given to all Maryland 3rd–8th graders. School Climate Data and MSA data were aggregated by school and grade. Objective assessments of neighborhood environment and students’ self-reported school and neighborhood safety were both strongly associated with academic performance. Increasing neighborhood violence was associated with statistically significant decreases from 4.2 to 8.7% in math and reading achievement; increasing perceived safety was associated with significant increases in achievement from 16 to 22%. These preliminary findings highlight the adverse impact of perceived safety and community violence exposure on primary school children’s academic performance.     

初中生感恩、学习投入与学业成就的关系研究

使用青少年感恩量表、学习投入量表对邯郸市189名初中生进行了问卷调查,分析初中生感恩、学习投入和学业成就三者之间的关系.结果显示:感恩、学习投入与学业成就存在显著正相关,并且感恩与学习投入能够显著正向预测学业成就;学习投入在感恩与学业成就之间存在中介效应.     

Psychological Maladjustment and Academic Achievement: A Cross-Cultural Study of Japanese, Chinese, and American High School Students

American, 1,633 Chinese, and 1,247 Japanese eleventh-grade students, 5 indices of maladjustment included measures of stress, depressed mood, academic anxiety, aggression, and somatic complaints. Asian students reported higher levels of parental expectation and lower levels of parental satisfaction concerning academic achievement than their American peers. Nevertheless, Japanese students reported less stress, depressed mood, aggression, academic anxiety, and fewer somatic complaints than did American students. Chinese students reported less stress, academic anxiety, and aggressive feelings than their American counterparts, but did report higher frequencies of depressed mood and somatic complaints. High academic achievement as assessed by a test of mathematics was generally not associated with psychological maladjustment. The only exception was in the United States, where high achievers indicated more frequent feelings of stress than did low achievers.     

Modifying Negative Attitudes Towards School Work Through Group Contingencies

Teaching a class of secondary school students can be either an exciting or a frustrating experience. Some students tend to be enthusiastic and self-motivated when engaged in certain learning tasks, but the evidence for poor motivation and a lack of enthusiasm is also present. The task of teaching demands that we should not lose sight of the fact that one of our primary responsibilities is to provide effective academic instruction in our classrooms. When we encounter some classroom problems such as negative attitudes towards school work, we should therefore not dismiss the difficulties as insurmountable, nor should we assume that because of their age, behaviour modification procedures will not be effective for secondary school students.     

中学生学习策略、学习动机与学业成就的相关研究

本研究以833名中学生为被试,采用相关分析、多元回归分析以及路径分析等方法测量研究了学习策略、内部动机对学业成就的影响。结果表明:(1)内部动机、学习策略与学业成就呈显著的正相关,外部动机与学业成就呈负相关;内部动机、外部动机均与学习策略呈显著的正相关。(2)学习策略与学习动机对学业成就存在显著的回归效应,其中学习策略直接影响学业成就,学习动机一方面直接影响学业成就,另一方面又通过影响学习策略的使用而间接影响学业成就;(3)学习策略对学业成就的解释为24.1%,学习动机对学业成就的解释为16.2%,学习动机对学习策略的解释为22.2%。     

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).     

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.     

一种学业成绩评定综合体系的结构模型

高等学校目前的学业成绩评定模式存在很多问题,应建立起将学习结果与学习过程综合考虑,对学业成绩进行定性评定与量化考核相结合的综合体系;同时,还要对各种学业成绩评定进行元评价,以及时对学业成绩评定进行反思、调整,从而不断促进教学质量的提高.