Growth Expectations for Low-Achieving Students: A Reply to Yen

Yen states that "Phillips and Clarizio (1988) make a serious error in concluding that developmental standard score scales produce unrealistic expectations for growth of low-achieving students." The reply that follows argues that Yen's response is justified only if low-achieving students are tested in an inappropriate way.     

Normative Growth Expectations Must Be Realistic: A Response to Phillips and Clarizio

Phillips and Clarizio (1988) make a serious error In concluding that developmental standard score scales produce unrealistic expectations for growth of low-achieving students. The nature of their error is described in this response to their paper.     

Teachers’ beliefs about low-achieving students and higher order thinking

The goal of this study is to characterize the patterns of teachers’ beliefs regarding low-achieving students and instruction of higher order thinking. Subjects are 40 Israeli teachers. Results show that 45% of the teachers believe that higher order thinking is inappropriate for low-achieving students. Findings suggest that teachers’ beliefs in this context are related to their general theory of instruction: viewing learning as hierarchical in terms of students’ academic level was found to be related to a traditional view of learning, i.e., seeing learning as progressing from simple, lower order cognitive skills to more complex ones. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Collaborating With a Skilled Peer: The Influence of Achievement Goals and Perceptions of Partners' Competence on the Participation and Learning of Low-Achieving Students

The authors examined whether motivational goals influenced the participation and performance of low-achieving students during collaborative problem solving with a high-achieving partner. Thirty-five pairs of 4th- and 5th-grade students were randomly assigned a set of instructions designed to induce students to adopt a learning goal or a performance goal. The following day, the students were individually given a posttest on problems similar to those worked on collaboratively. The low-achieving students given learning-goal instructions performed better on the posttest problems and perceived their partner's competence as more similar to their own than did the low-achieving students given performance-goal instructions. No differences in overall amount or level of low achievers' participation during collaborative problem solving were observed. Implications of the findings for the use of peer learning in heterogeneous classrooms are discussed.     

A Comparison of the Effects of Practice Tests and Traditional Review on Performance and Calibration

The impact of practice tests on students' calibration and exam performance for multiple-choice and essay items was investigated. The participants were 59 graduate students enrolled in 1 of 2 sections (practice tests and no practice tests) of an introductory research methods in education course. Practice tests were associated with significantly lower scores on the midterm multiple-choice items and less accurate predictions and postdictions on those items. High-achieving students were more accurate in their calibrations than low-achieving students. Among low-achieving students, prediction and postdiction accuracy was significantly higher for essay than for multiple-choice items. In open-ended responses, a large percentage of students who took the practice tests indicated that they were a beneficial review strategy.     

Writing proficiency level and writing development of low-achieving adolescents: the roles of linguistic knowledge,fluency, and metacognitive knowledge

In a longitudinal design, 51 low-achieving adolescents’ development in writing proficiency from Grades 7 to 9 was measured. There were 25 native-Dutch and 26 language-minority students. In addition, the roles of (1) linguistic knowledge, (2) metacognitive knowledge, and (3) linguistic fluency in predicting both the level and development of writing proficiency were assessed. Low-achieving students improved in writing proficiency, the language-minority students more so than the native-Dutch students. Regarding the level of writing proficiency, individual differences between low achieving adolescents could be accounted for by receptive vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and speed of sentence verification, suggesting that these are important components in low-achieving adolescents’ writing. Regarding development in writing proficiency, grammatical knowledge predicted variation between low-achieving students. Explanations and educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

The evolution of socio-economic disparities in literacy skills from age 15 to age 27 in 20 countries

This study contributes to the literature by examining the evolution of socio-economic disparities in literacy skills between age 15 and 27. It uses combined cross-sectional data from the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies in 20 countries and adopts a synthetic cohort approach. In the article we examine if there are differences in the evolution of socio-economic disparities in literacy between the teenage years and young adulthood among high-achieving students (90th percentile) and among low-achieving students (10th percentile) and compare differences across education systems. We used parental education as an indicator of socio-economic status. Findings indicate that on average, disparities in literacy skills observed at age 15 widen by 15% of a standard deviation by age 27. Such increase is determined by a more pronounced growth in achievement among individuals with tertiary educated parents than among individuals whose parents did not complete tertiary education. The increase in socio-economic gaps between age 15 and 27 is more pronounced among low-achieving students. The group that improves the most between age 15 and 27 is low-achieving individuals with tertiary educated parents. We find that socio-economic differences in educational attainment, NEET status and use of skills at home and in the workplace explain a large part of socio-economic disparities in literacy achievement among young adults. Although countries with above-average disparities at age 15 tend to also display above-average disparities at age 27, we identify differences across countries.     

The cultural gap hypothesis as an explanation for the achievement patterns of Mexican-American students

This study investigated the hypothesis that the academic achievement of Mexican-American students could be explained in part by a conflict in the values of Mexican-American and Anglo-American cultures. Mexican-American and Anglo-American students, their parents, and teachers reported their adherence to traditional school values and their view of the importance of field independent behaviors to success in school. Differences in perceptions and values were observed between cultures and between high-achieving and low-achieving students. The greatest attitudinal differences were observed when high-achieving students were compared with parents and teachers. High-achieving students were less traditional in their attitudes toward school and more field independent than were parents, teachers, and low-achieving students.     

Do Students' Religion and School Absences Moderate the Effect of Ethnic Stereotypes on School-Placement Recommendations?

The results of two experiments demonstrate that preservice teachers made biased school-placement recommendations depending on student's ethnicity, which on average penalized students from an ethnic minority. Moreover, additional information that was supposed to disconfirm ethnic stereotypes (religious affiliation in Experiment 1, number of missed school days in Experiment 2) led to more high-track recommendations for low-achieving minority students and to fewer high-track recommendations for high-achieving minority students. Conversely, stereotype-disconfirming information exerted little or no influence on the recommendations for high-achieving native students but worsened recommendations for low-achieving students. The results were interpreted as being based either on subtyping (predominantly for minority Turkish students) or subgrouping (predominantly for majority German students) of ethnic stereotypes.     

An examination of achievement-related behavior of high- and low-achieving inner-city pupils

Incorporating the academic engaged time model, the present study investigated behavioral differences between high- and low-achieving inner-city children. Two hundred observations of “on-task”-“off task” behavior of 136 children within the elementary grades (1 through 6) were noted during reading and mathematics lessons. Findings suggested that high- and low-achieving inner-city children spend a large proportion of time actively engaged in academic tasks, with high achievers spending somewhat more time than low achievers. No significant developmental trends were noted, and discrepant academic attainment levels of children are discussed in terms of an “academic learning time” model.     

The impact of pay-for-percentile incentive on low-achieving students in rural China

In some accountability regimes, teachers pay more attention to higher achieving students at the expense of lower achieving students. The overall goal of this study is to examine, in this type of accountability regime, the impacts of a pay-for-percentile type scheme in which incentives exist for all students but which are larger for improving the achievement of lower achieving students. Analyzing data from a large-scale randomized experiment in rural China, we find that incentives improve average achievement by 0.10 SDs and the achievement of low-achieving students by 0.15 SDs. We find parallel changes in teacher behavior and curricular coverage. Taken together, the results demonstrate that incentive schemes can effectively address teacher neglect of low-achieving students.     

Different Gender Students' Participation in the High- and Low-achieving Middle School Questioning-orientated Biology Classrooms in Taiwan

This case study investigated gender-based differences in classroom participation through examining teacher-student interactions between a female biology teacher and two groups of middle school students, namely high achievers and low achievers. The female teacher used a questioning-orientated instructional strategy as her major teaching style which creates greater opportunities for student participation in biology learning. Classroom sessions were videotaped for one school year, then analysed for gender differences in question-and-answer patterns. The results showed that more teacher-initiated questions, teacher-directed interactions, and teacher feedback were given to males than females in both groups, but a large difference was found between the two groups of students. Girls in the low-achieving biology class (LABC) were more likely to participate at a rate comparable with their male classmates; girls answered more procedure questions and an equal percentage of process questions, called out approximately the same percentage of answers to undirected teacher-initiated questions, and received more instances of praise and follow-up questions. Contrary to what was observed in the high-achieving biology class (HABC), LABC girls initiated more questions than LABC boys.     

Integrating reciprocal teaching in an online environment with an annotation feature to enhance low-achieving students’ English reading comprehension

Reciprocal teaching (RT) has been used to improve English as Foreign Language (EFL) students’ reading comprehension in face-to-face instruction. However, little was known about how they use the RT to comprehend English texts in an online environment. This study explored how the implementation of RT strategies with the use of an annotation tool to improve low-achieving students’ English reading comprehension in an online environment. A total of 22 low-achieving EFL students participated in this study. The pre- and post- reading comprehension tests showed that the students’ English reading comprehension improved after practicing RT strategies with annotation tools. Questioning and predicating strategies were ranked as the two most useful strategies, as both promoted successful collaborative reading among students. Summarizing and clarifying were less useful than questioning and predicting strategies because the low-achieving EFL students faced language difficulties when summarizing and clarifying. The annotations supported RT strategies by (1) establishing a collaborative environment for students to discuss RT strategies any time, (2) organizing and indexing reading content in multimodal forms, and (3) helping students review and revise their comprehension.     

计算机多媒体网络教学与学生个性化自主学习培养探索

随着高等教育的大众化,更多成绩较差的学生进入高等院校或高职院校学习。对这类学校学生自主学习情况的研究还很欠缺,本文通过问卷调查的方法对武汉科技大学中南分校的计算机多媒体网络教学中心学生目前的学习状态、学习习惯和学习策略进行分析研究,探讨对学生个性化自主学习能力及习惯形成有直接影响的相关因素,并提出积极的建议。     

Predicting pre-service teachers’ intention of implementing peer assessment for low-achieving students

Despite the benefits of peer assessment, many teachers are not willing to implement it, particularly for low-achieving students. This study used the theory of planned behaviour to predict pre-service teachers’ intention to use peer assessment for low-achieving students. A total of 229 pre-service teachers in Singapore participated in the survey which consists of eight factors about peer assessment in writing: belief of knowledge source, belief of ability, belief of constructivist assessment, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behaviour control, behavioural intention, and intention for low-achieving students. Structural equation modelling was used to test hypothesized relationships of the eight factors. This study found that pre-service teachers’ beliefs about knowledge source and constructivist assessment significantly influenced their attitude towards peer assessment of writing. In addition, the attitude and perceived behaviour control were significant factors in shaping the intention of peer assessment. Lastly, pre-service teachers’ intention of implementing peer assessment for low-achieving students was influenced by both the intention of peer assessment and the belief of ability.     

Learning fractions with and without educational technology: What matters for high-achieving and low-achieving students?

Instructional design research promotes interactive and adaptive scaffolds as features of educational technology. Mathematics education research can guide elaborated fractions curricula to develop basic fraction concepts while challenging the natural number bias. Thus, we developed theory-grounded interactive material for learning fractions providing scaffolds in an eBook. Evaluating both, curriculum and scaffolds, we split 745 high-achieving and 260 low-achieving 6th graders into three groups: Scaffolded Curriculum group (using the eBook on iPads), Curriculum group (using a paper copy of our developed material), and Traditional group (using conventional textbooks). Generalized linear mixed models revealed diverse positive effects on the achievement of students in the experimental conditions: Results showed that high-achieving students did benefit from the curriculum, regardless of whether it was presented with or without scaffolds, while for low-achieving students using scaffolds was decisive. This suggests that interactive and adaptive scaffolds can support students in learning mathematical concepts, especially for low-achieving students.     

Parental Involvement as a Protective Factor During the Transition to High School

ABSTRACT

The authors investigated whether student-perceived parental involvement predicts improvement in academic, behavioral, and relational outcomes for low-achieving adolescents. With a sample of 59 racially diverse 9th-grade students, the authors measured 3 dimensions of parental involvement: direct participation, academic encouragement, and expectations for grades and attainment. Analyses revealed associations between 2 types of parental involvement and outcomes, which held after considering student gender and race. Students whose parents had higher expectations about grades and attainment had higher grade point averages and were rated as more academically engaged by their teachers. Students who reported that their parents were more academically encouraging experienced more care from their teachers. Results suggest certain types of parental involvement may be more effective than others in supporting low-achieving adolescents’ school performance.     

Mathematics achievement in high- and low-achieving secondary schools

This paper identifies the amount of variance in mathematics achievement in high- and low-achieving schools that can be explained by school-level factors, while controlling for student-level factors. The data were obtained from 2679 Iranian eighth graders who participated in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Of the total sample, 1422 and 1257 students were from high- and low-achieving schools, respectively. Two-level hierarchical linear modelling was applied. The results indicated that of the total variance in mathematics achievement, 27.95 and 6.70% were due to between-school differences in the high- and low-achieving schools, respectively. Controlling for the school-level factors, the better-performing students were those with a higher level of confidence in learning mathematics in both samples. After controlling for the student-level factors, inadequacies in school resources and school type yielded the strongest link to achievement in the high- and low-achieving schools, respectively.