Parental involvement and academic achievement among elementary and middle school students

Asia Pacific Education Review - This study investigates the associations between parental involvement and academic achievement across three criteria: school level (elementary and middle school),...     

高中生成就动机与学业情绪、学业成绩的关系研究

为探讨高中生成就动机与学业情绪、学业成绩的关系,采用问卷对285名高中生进行调查.结果显示,趋近动机(Ms)与积极学业情绪和学业成绩呈正相关,且对两种积极学业情绪和学业成绩均有正向预测作用,对消极低唤醒学业情绪有负向预测作用;回避动机(Mf)与积极学业情绪和学业成绩呈负相关,而与消极学业情绪呈正相关,并能正向预测消极低唤醒学业情绪,负向预测积极低唤醒学业情绪和学业成绩.积极低唤醒情绪和消极低唤醒情绪在成就动机和学业成绩之间起部分中介效应,积极高唤醒情绪只在趋近动机和学业成绩间部分中介效应.     

An intervention program for promoting deaf pupils' achievement in mathematics

Our past research identified two aspects of deaf children's functioning that places them at risk for underachievement in mathematics. The first is their reduced opportunities for incidental learning, and the second is their difficulty in making inferences involving time sequences. This article examines the effectiveness of an intervention program to promote deaf children's numeracy that was designed to deal with these two factors. The design involved a comparison of 23 deaf pupils participating in the project with a baseline group formed by 65 deaf pupils attending the same schools in the previous year. The project pupils were tested before and after the intervention on the NFER-Nelson Age Appropriate Mathematics Achievement Test. The intervention was delivered by the teachers during the time normally scheduled for mathematics lessons. The project pupils did not differ from the baseline group at pretest but performed significantly better at posttest. They also performed at posttest better than expected on the basis of their pretest scores, according to norms provided by the NFER-Nelson Age Appropriate Mathematics Test for assessing the progress of hearing pupils. We conclude that the program was effective in promoting deaf pupils' achievement in numeracy.     

QuickSmart: a basic academic skills intervention for middle school students with learning difficulties

QuickSmart is a basic academic skills intervention designed for persistently low-achieving students in the middle years of schooling that aims to improve the automaticity of basic skills to improve higher-order processes, such as problem solving and comprehension, as measured on standardized tests. The QuickSmart instructional program consists of three structured, teacher- or teacher aide-directed, 30-minute, small-group lessons each week for approximately 26 weeks. In this study, 42 middle school students experiencing learning difficulties (LD) completed the QuickSmart reading program, and a further 42 students with LD took part in the QuickSmart mathematics program. To investigate the effects of the intervention, comparisons were made between the reading and mathematics progress of the intervention group and a group of 10 high-achieving and 10 average-achieving peers. The results indicated that although the standardized reading comprehension and mathematics scores of QuickSmart students remained below those of comparison students, they improved significantly from pretest to posttest. In contrast, the standardized scores of comparison students were not significantly different from pretest to posttest. On measures of response speed and accuracy gathered using the Cognitive Aptitude Assessment System (CAAS), QuickSmart students were able to narrow the gap between their performance and that of their high- and average-achieving peers. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of interventions that emphasize the automaticity of basic academic skills for students with learning difficulties.     

Promoting science motivation in American Indian middle school students: an intervention

U.S. national data show that American Indians earn lower math and science scores than other ethnic/racial groups. In the current study, a brief, self-affirmation intervention was aimed at increasing science motivational beliefs in American Indian middle school students (n?=?212, M_age?=?12.7 years). Students, each read a biography of a successful scientist who was matched to them on both ethnicity and gender; ethnicity but not gender; gender but not ethnicity; or no match. Students then wrote a short essay describing traits they shared with the scientist. Pre- and post-intervention science self-efficacy, individual interest, and goal orientations were measured to assess intervention efficacy immediately following the intervention and one week later. Results revealed no benefits of the intervention in increasing motivational beliefs for students in any experimental condition. We discuss the fragile fidelity of self-affirmation interventions and conditions that might be necessary for intervention success.     

Relations of middle school students' perceptions of family and school contexts with academic achievement

The purposes of this study were to examine the relations of both family and school contexts on students' academic achievement and to explore the mediating effects of students' perceptions of their motivations and academic self‐competence between the family and school contexts and achievement. Participants were 230 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade students. Students' perceptions of parenting style (demandingness and responsiveness), parental involvement (parental values and involvement in school functions), teaching style (teacher control and responsiveness), and school atmosphere (school responsiveness and supportive social environment) significantly predicted their school achievement; however, students' motivations and self‐competence mediated the relations between students' contexts and their academic achievement. Furthermore, parental values, teacher responsiveness, school responsiveness, and supportive social environment predicted students' motivations and academic competence above and beyond parenting style, parental involvement, and teacher control. The importance of students' supportive relationships and the internalization of the messages conveyed to them underscore the need for a contextual view by school psychologists when consulting with parents and education staff regarding achievement concerns. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The effect of an instructional intervention on middle school english learners' science and english reading achievement

This study examined the effect of a quasi‐experimental project on fifth grade English learners' achievement in state‐mandated standards‐based science and English reading assessment. A total of 166 treatment students and 80 comparison students from four randomized intermediate schools participated in the current project. The intervention consisted of on‐going professional development and specific instructional science lessons with inquiry‐based learning, direct and explicit vocabulary instruction, integration of reading and writing, and enrichment components including integration of technology, take‐home science activities, and university scientists mentoring. Results suggested a significant and positive intervention effect in favor of the treatment students as reflected in higher performance in district‐wide curriculum‐based tests of science and reading and standardized tests of oral reading fluency. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 987–1011, 2012     

初三学生自我效能感与数学学业成绩的相关研究

文章通过对初三学生自我效能感与数学学业成绩之间的关系进行研究,得出了如下研究结果:1.初中生数学学习自我效能感在性别上差异不显著;2.初中生数学学习自我效能感与数学学业成绩之间显著正相关。     

What contributes to low achievement of middle school students: Evidence from multigroup structural equation modeling

The authors' purpose was to examine the degree to which low achievement is related to ontogenetic factors (i.e., personal psychological traits expressed as attention and depression) or microsystemic factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, parenting, relationship with peers and teachers), using a total of 721 middle school students in South Korea. Based on the percentile rank, low-achieving students (bottom 15%; n = 323) and high-achieving students (top 15%; n = 398) were grouped, and a multigroup structural equation modeling was employed to determine which ecological factor(s) contribute to predict low achievement of middle school students. Results from multigroup structural equation modeling showed that 3 of the 6 ecological and ontological factors had significant direct or indirect effect on low achievement: socioeconomic status (direct effect), attention (direct effect), parenting (indirect effect). The findings are discussed in terms of the intertwined influences of ecological factors on low achievement, finally leading to the discussion on the limitations and future directions for research.     

Incremental beliefs of ability,achievement emotions and learning of Singapore students

This study investigated the relationships of students’ incremental beliefs of math ability to their achievement emotions, classroom engagement and math achievement. A sample of 273 secondary students in Singapore were administered measures of incremental beliefs of math ability, math enjoyment, pride, boredom and anxiety, as well as math classroom attention and disruption. In addition, students’ end-of-year math achievement scores were collected from school records. The hypothesised mediation model was supported in structural equation modelling analysis. Incremental beliefs of math ability were associated positively with math enjoyment and pride, and negatively with math boredom and anxiety. Achievement emotions fully mediated the relationships of incremental beliefs of math ability to classroom engagement and math achievement. Incremental beliefs of math ability were associated positively with classroom attention through math enjoyment and pride, negatively with classroom disruption through math anxiety and positively with math achievement through the two outcome-related emotions, math pride and anxiety. The findings and implications are discussed in the academic context of Singapore.     

开展中学生心理咨询初探

学校心理咨询工作是一个复杂的动态的开放系统，这个系统由教师、学生和心理咨询方式等相互联系的要素所构成。了解中学生对心理咨询的心态和行为，并采取相应的方式，将会促进中学生心理咨询工作健康发展。     

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.     

中学生英语学习情况微探

英语是高考的重要科目,所以很多家长都很重视孩子的英语学习,但是英语学习要掌握正确的方式方法,方能达到事半功倍的效果。     

运用化学史培养中学生的科学素质

阐述了化学学科发展过程中偶然性与必然性的内在联系 ,进而探讨了在中学化学教学中运用化学史培养中学生科学素质的必要性、可能性及重要意义 ,并指出了化学史教育在中学化学教学中起的作用     

利用网络媒体促进中学生综合素质提高的研究

中学生群体的猎奇心理、参与意识比较强烈，其兴趣爱好呈现分化状态，需求具有个性化的特点。利用网络媒体促进未成年人的健康发展是当前教育研究的重要课题。本文基于此，从长尾理论的角度出发来分析网络媒体在中学生综合素质提高中该如何发挥作用。     

The effect of relative age on achievement in middle school

To determine the relationship between relative age and achievement in middle school, standardized math and reading scores for a sample of middle-class, suburban middle school students (N = 933) were examined. Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference among relative age groups in only one area, sixth-grade reading, F(2, 146) = 3.1, p < .05. There was no main effect for gender and no interaction between age and gender in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. When the birth month of students who had repeated one or more grades was examined, it was revealed that a large percentage of these students would have been the youngest in the class when beginning school. Results suggest that a relationship between relative age and achievement may exist in the lower grades but diminishes or disappears by seventh or eighth grade because of the retention of a larger proportion of the youngest children.     

Response to intervention with secondary school students with reading difficulties

The authors summarize evidence from a multiyear study with secondary students with reading difficulties on (a) the potential efficacy of primary-level (Tier 1), secondary-level (Tier 2), and tertiary-level (Tier 3) interventions in remediating reading difficulties with middle school students, (b) the likelihood of resolving reading disabilities with older students with intractable reading disabilities, (c) the reliability, validity, and use of screening and progress monitoring measures with middle school students, and (d) the implications of implementing response to intervention (RTI) practices at the middle school level. The authors provide guidance about prevailing questions about remediating reading difficulties with secondary students and discuss future directions for research using RTI frameworks for students at the secondary level.     

Perfectionism differences in gifted middle school students

Perfectionism has been cited as a major characteristic associated with children and adolescents who have been identified as gifted and talented. This study explored grade level, birth order, and gender differences among 391 students in three gifted and talented programs. The students completed an adaptation of the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. A2 × 3 × 3 between subject multivariate analysis revealed that females expressed more concern than males about organization, while males reported stronger parental expectations. First born adolescents reported higher parental criticism and expectations than youngest children. Females' concerns about making mistakes increases from grade 6 to grade 8 while the pattern for males fluctuated insignificantly. Patterns of parental criticism varied between males and females from grade 6 through grade 8.     

Multidimensional perfectionism in a sample of middle school students: An exploratory investigation

In this exploratory study, 185 middle school students were administered the Almost Perfect Scale‐Revised and the Behavioral Assessment System for Children‐Self Report. Self‐reported grade‐point average was also obtained. Students who established high personal standards but nonetheless recognize their limitations (adaptive perfectionists) reported significantly higher (i.e., more positive) scores on a number of academic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal variables. However, the perceived inability for some students to consistently meet their high standards (maladaptive perfectionists) was significantly and negatively related to perceptions of school and family relationships, and greater emotional distress. Implications of these findings and future research and clinical suggestions are provided. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 677–689, 2003.