The Knowledge,Volition and Action Programme in Singapore: the effects of an experimental intervention programme on high ability achievement

This study hypothesises that non‐achieving behaviour of gifted adolescents in Singapore may be attributed to a lack of knowledge, volition and action on the part of the gifted. As such, an educational intervention programme, Knowledge/Volition/Action, was devised to teach pupils knowledge of the self, volition, consultation, time management and stress management. All subjects were gifted pupils in a secondary one cohort in three premier schools hosting the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). Experimental subjects (n = 57) and control subjects (n = 57) were matched by age, gender, school, class, race, socio‐economic status, academic and non‐academic achievement before being randomly selected and randomly assigned to groups. The effects of the intervention on academic and non‐academic achievement were reported using paired t‐tests. Interestingly, the intervention programme was found to be effective in augmenting the non‐academic rather than the academic achievement of the experimental group.     

The relationship among achievement goals,standardized test scores,and elementary students’ focus in school

The study examined whether an academic, social, or both an academic and social focus might relate with achievement goals and academic achievement. Participants were 412 urban elementary school students. Results suggest that students with an academic focus toward school have more mastery‐approach and less mastery‐avoid achievement goals. Academic achievement (standardized test scores) did not relate with boys’ or girls’ focus toward school. These findings suggest that academic motivation, but not achievement, correspond with self‐perceptions of school as being a place to learn or school as a place for social interactions.     

Positive and Negative Self‐Perceptions: Is There a Cyclical Relationship Between Teachers' and Students' Perceptions of Effort,Strategy Use,and Academic Performance?

This study was part of a larger research program designed to investigate how effort interacts with strategy use to mediate the academic performance of successful students with learning disabilities (LD) and how teachers' and students' perceptions influence these relationships. The sample consisted of 46 students with LD and 46 matched students without LD and their seven teachers from Grades 6–8. A self‐report survey was used to obtain an index of students' perceptions of their effort, strategy use, academic struggles, and academic competence. Our findings indicated that students with LD with positive academic self‐perceptions were more likely to work hard and to use strategies in their schoolwork than were students with LD who had negative academic self‐perceptions. Teachers viewed students with LD who had positive academic self‐perceptions as working equally hard and attaining similar levels of academic competence as their peers without LD. In marked contrast, students with LD who had negative academic self‐perceptions were judged by their teachers as making limited effort in school and achieving at a below‐average level in comparison with their peers. Findings suggested a cyclical relationship between students' self‐perceptions and their teachers' judgments and supported the notion of a reciprocal strategy‐effort interaction.     

Academic self‐concept among business students in a recruiting university: definition,measurement and potential effects

This study sought to devise a parsimonious instrument for evaluating academic self‐concept (ASC) among British‐born students entering ‘mass‐market’ (post‐1992) universities that cater for diverse and ‘non‐traditional’ intakes. Three major facets of ASC were found to be particularly relevant to these students: self‐belief in one’s academic competence; self‐appreciation of one’s personal worth as a student (independent of ability‐related considerations); and self‐connection with being an undergraduate.     

Academics or executives? Continuity and change in the roles of pro‐vice‐chancellors1

The leadership roles of pro‐vice‐chancellors (PVCs) in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have evolved markedly over the last three decades while universities have been encouraged to shift towards more executive styles of leadership and decision‐making. The change does not only reflect changing institutional needs, however, but an accommodation of deeper historical continuities around institutional autonomy and academic values. Most PVCs are drawn from the ranks of professors; typically have an Oxbridge, London or big civic background; and most are male. The role gains authority through influence, rather than command, and depends on academic experience and credibility to be effective. PVCs maintain a complex corporate‐academic web balancing two, sometimes contradictory, roles: one firmly academic, concerning cross‐institutional responsibility for core academic values and mission; the other more bureaucratic or executive, focusing on the burgeoning demands of accountability. The research cautions against a simple model of executive leadership. Understanding the needs of academic leadership and the contours of its practices remains paramount.     

ACADEMIC SELF‐EFFICACY AMONG JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN GHANA: EVALUATING FACTOR STRUCTURE AND MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE ACROSS GENDER

Self‐efficacy is a universal construct, but few validated measures exist for researchers in developing countries to use in assessing youths’ perceptions of their ability to achieve academic success. This study examined the cross‐cultural suitability and psychometric properties of an academic self‐efficacy scale (ASES) adapted for the Ghanaian context. ASES construct validity was assessed with a sample of 4,289 Ghanaian junior high‐school students and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Invariance testing assessed the scale's measurement equivalence by gender and temporal stability of gender equivalence. The ASES is a valid, reliable one‐dimensional scale for assessing young Ghanaians’ perceptions of their academic capabilities, and it works equally well across genders. As adapted, ASES is a valid scale with utility for researchers examining predictors and effects of academic self‐efficacy. The ASES has important implications for decisions regarding investment in programs aimed at improving academic self‐efficacy of youth, both in sub‐Saharan Africa and the increasingly diverse American public schools.     

Increasing struggling learners’ self‐efficacy: what tutors can do and say

Self‐efficacy is essential to motivation and learning. Compared to students with weak self‐efficacy for academics, students with strong self‐efficacy have higher motivation, make greater effort, persist longer, and achieve more. Unfortunately, struggling learners with weak self‐efficacy often avoid academic tasks or give up prematurely, reducing the likelihood of academic success. Because tutoring usually occurs in one‐to‐one or small group situations, adult tutors are in an excellent position to enhance struggling learners’ self‐efficacy which, in turn, can improve academic outcomes. To achieve this, tutors need to understand the importance of self‐efficacy, its sources, and how to strengthen weak or flagging self‐efficacy. To assist tutors in strengthening learners’ self‐efficacy, this article discusses (a) the importance and sources of self‐efficacy, (b) instructional principles derived from these sources, and (c) topics for future research.     

Tales of the 50‐somethings: selective schooling,gender and social class

Through a discourse of diversity, specialism, equality and choice, selective schooling is again on the UK education agenda. A previous selection policy operated between 1944 and 1964. The argument that some children are more suited to a vocational education and others to an academic one is evident now and then. This paper focuses on the life‐histories of four ‘50‐something’ women sent to ‘bilateral’ schools in Bristol, England. With children from the same primary school or street, they found themselves on differing sides of a divide between grammar and secondary‐modern education. The paper explores the practices through which White working class children received contrasting experiences of the same school, where different gendered‐classed identities, aspirations and expectations were constructed. The co‐existence of firmly separated grammar and modern streams within one school allows an analysis of everyday practices of selective schooling, of the means by which one was constantly constructed against the other.     

Adjustment to university and academic performance: brief report of a follow‐up study

This study presents data that extend an earlier analysis of predictors of academic performance from one to three years. None of the adjustment and other psychosocial variables (help‐seeking, academic motivation, self‐esteem, perceived stress and perceived academic overload) could predict success at university at the end of three years of study. The only significant predictor was academic performance at the end of the first year of study.     

The Morphing of Academic Practice: Unbundling and the Rise of the Para‐academic

Teaching, research and service are the three conventional elements of academic practice, recognised on an international basis. However, evidence suggests that academic practice is rapidly disaggregating, or ‘unbundling’, as a result of a variety of forces including the massification of national systems, the application of technology in teaching and increasing specialisation of academic roles to support a more centralised and performative culture. This article will present an analysis of these changes linked to the emergence of the ‘para‐academic’: staff who specialise in one element of academic practice. This includes the ‘up‐skilling’ of professional support staff and the ‘deskilling’ of academic staff. The implications of this change for the quality of the student experience and the sustainablity of academic citizenship are considered.     

Higher Education,Academic Communities,and the Intellectual Virtues

Because higher education brings members of academic communities in direct contact with students, the reflective higher education student is in an excellent position for developing two important intellectual virtues: confidence and humility. However, academic communities differ as to whether their members reach consensus, and their teaching practices reflect this difference. In this essay, Ward Jones argues that both consensus‐reaching and non‐consensus‐reaching communities can encourage the development of intellectual confidence and humility in their students, although each will do so in very different ways.     

FORMATIVE,INFORMATIVE, AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG CURRICULUM‐BASED MEASUREMENT OF READING,CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT,AND READING PERFORMANCE

This study explored the relationships among formative curriculum‐based measures of reading (CBM‐R), student engagement as an extra‐academic indicator of student motivation, and summative performance on a high‐stakes reading assessment. A diverse sample of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade students and their teachers responded to questionnaires about student engagement in academic tasks. These questionnaires were collected about the same time as fall CBM‐R oral reading fluency and maze screening tasks. Results indicated that fall student and teacher reports of engagement and a composite score of reading competence derived from CBM‐R screening tests uniquely predicted student performance on year‐end standardized reading tests. Profile analyses indicated that student engagement was associated with better reading performance among students with low competence, suggesting that engagement may be particularly important for increasing student performance for struggling readers. Implications for interventions targeting both student motivation, as well as reading skill development, are discussed.     

Student conscientiousness,self‐regulated learning,and science achievement: An explorative field study

This explorative field study examined the mediating role of self‐regulated learning (SRL) in the relationship between the personality trait of conscientiousness, SRL, and science achievement in a sample of junior high school students. Over the course of an entire academic year, data on enacted SRL were collected each week for 52 eighth‐grade students in the context of an inquiry‐based ecology project. Data were also collected on personality traits, self‐reported study strategies, science project achievement, and grade point average. Findings show significant relationships between conscientiousness, SRL, and achievement. As hypothesized, conscientiousness was shown to significantly impact academic achievement in the inquiry‐based course, mediated by enacted SRL. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ASSESSING TERTIARY STUDENTS IN AN EDUCATION FACULTY: RHETORIC AND REALITY

This paper focuses on the reported use of literature‐based essays (i.e., essays that draw upon established literature in their construction) in assessing students within an Education Faculty in an Australian University. Interviews with academic staff and with students were used to explore how literature‐based essays were used in the context of the assessment program for the unit (subject) and how such assessment tasks were viewed by academic staff and their students. The reported use of literature‐based essays is evaluated in terms of three criteria for sound assessment derived from the literature and the perceptions of academic staff and their students are compared in relation to each criterion. It is concluded that a number of the academic staff within the Education Faculty displayed significant shortcomings in their theoretical knowledge of assessment and that their use of literature‐based assessments frequently failed to meet one or more of the requirements for an adequate assessment program at tertiary levels.     

Academic self‐concept,gender and single‐sex schooling

This article assesses gender differences in academic self‐concept for a cohort of children born in 1958 (the National Child Development Study). It addresses the question of whether attending single‐sex or co‐educational schools affected students' perceptions of their own academic abilities (academic self‐concept). Academic self‐concept was found to be highly gendered, even controlling for prior test scores. Boys had higher self‐concepts in mathematics and science, and girls in English. Single‐sex schooling reduced the gender gap in self‐concept, while selective schooling was linked to lower academic self‐concept overall.     

Stories from school: dyslexia and learners' voices on factors impacting on achievement

Students with dyslexia often experience low self‐esteem and, linked with this, low academic achievement. Our research, commissioned by the Higher Education Academy, was carried out by academics in two universities, one in the south‐west of England and one in the north‐west, over 2009–2010. It set out to address ‘transitions and questions of “access” to higher education for students with identified disabilities’. While we accessed interesting material in this area we were also impressed by the wealth of material provided by our respondents with dyslexia on their school experiences, in particular factors that had impacted on their self‐esteem and academic achievement. Thus this article, while not an intended outcome from our work on matters of transition to higher education, emerges as a story telling a rich and illuminating tale of student success and failure and lifting the curtain on factors impacting on self‐esteem and academic achievement for students with dyslexia at school.     

An Examination of College Students' Problem‐Solving Self‐Efficacy,Academic Self‐Efficacy,Motivation, Test Performance,and Expected Grade in Introductory‐Level Economics Courses

This study investigated whether self‐efficacy influenced students’ educational outcomes in introductory‐level economics courses. First, this study investigated the correlations between problem‐solving self‐efficacy, academic self‐efficacy, and motivation. Second, this study investigated whether problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy served as predictors of students’ motivation, test performance, and expected grade. Correlational analyses suggest that problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy are correlated with student motivation. Results show that problem‐solving self‐efficacy was a predictor of student motivation and test performance. Academic self‐efficacy and problem‐solving self‐efficacy were also predictors of their expected grade. Implications and future directions for economics education are also discussed.     

Load and academic attainment in two business schools

In this paper the relationship between academic load (the number of modules attempted) and academic performance is investigated in a Scottish and an Australian university. An engagement approach to academic integration is employed, in which there is feedback between load and performance, and in which there is scope for diminishing returns to the study of additional modules once loads become high. The results indicate that full‐time students reduced module load in response to information on academic performance. At the Scottish business school many non‐traditional students had taken up opportunities to enter university under the UK government's drive to widen participation. In that school load reduction was undertaken at twice the rate of the Australian business school. For women, reductions from full‐time loads by one or two modules appear rational in that better average marks result. There are indications that status as a widening participation entrant, the learning and assessment environment, the funding regime and rest‐of‐life demands have influences on load reduction and on academic performance.     

Teachers’ experiences of a single‐sex initiative in a co‐education school

Argued to ‘raise boys’ grades’ and ‘boost boys’ academic achievement’, single‐sex classes in coeducation schools is one strategy among a plethora aimed at raising standards. This paper explores the experiences of teachers in one coeducation post‐primary school that sought to raise academic performance, particularly among boys, and to improve classroom behaviour by introducing single‐sex classes. Funded by a local Education and Library Board the evaluation took place almost four years after the strategy was introduced and in a climate of increasing teacher concern with the effectiveness of the strategy. The methods involved a questionnaire survey to all teachers in the school and one‐to‐one and small group interviews with teachers responsible for teaching single‐sex classes. Contrary to its stated aims, the majority of teachers believe that, since the introduction of single‐sex classes, academic performance and classroom behaviour have deteriorated. Findings are discussed in terms of teachers’ perceptions of the strategy and the importance organizational and contextual factors have on shaping teachers’ attitudes to new initiatives.