Reasoning and working memory as predictors of school grades

The present paper contributes to individual difference research in the field of working memory (WM) and reasoning and their contribution to the prediction of real-life criteria. Therefore, a broad WM test battery, a well-established measure of reasoning, and school grades were applied. It is argued that abilities as assessed with the WM component coordination are relevant for good performances at school, especially for science courses. The verbal task of the WM component storage in the context of processing was assumed to be relevant for the prediction of performance in language courses. As expected, reasoning turned out to be the best predictor of school grades. However, it was also confirmed that variance shared by coordination and reasoning can explain school performance, especially as concerns science courses. The verbal storage in the context of processing task significantly accounted for variance in language courses above and beyond reasoning. Thus, the present study provided further insights into the differential validity of different WM components.     

Cognitive ability and personality variables as predictors of school grades and test scores in adolescents

The predictive power of cognitive ability and self-control strength for self-reported grades and an achievement test were studied. It was expected that the variables use of time structure, academic procrastination, and motivational interference during learning further aid in predicting students’ achievement because they are operative in situations of school-leisure conflict. A sample of 697 eighth-graders was tested twice within the interval of a single school year (about eight months). Cognitive ability and self-control explained substantial variance of grade changes. Procrastination displayed a further portion of the variance. Personality variables were better predictors of grades, while cognitive ability showed higher variance with the achievement test. Variables tapping aspects of self-control strength have been interpreted as key determinants of learning outcomes. The findings suggest that it might be useful to identify students who are at risk, allowing these students to train their ability to shield studying from leisure distractions.     

Social competence as an educational goal: The role of the ethnic composition and the urban environment of the school

This article concerns the relationship between social–educational goals and the school context. We used a questionnaire to map the educational goals of teachers in pre-vocational education in the field of social competence, and investigated whether these goals were related to the percentage of students from ethnic-minority groups and to the urban environment of the school. The results show that all teachers, regardless of the school context, value promoting the social development of their students as an educational goal. We did not find a relationship between the context the teachers work in and the social-competence goals they aspire to in their subject. However, teachers working in a more complex school environment, in terms of both the ethnic heterogeneity of the student population and the urban environment of the school, did consider a number of social-competence goals to be less attainable for their students. The results are discussed in the light of research on the competences young people need to participate in a multi-cultural society and the implications for teachers and teaching.     

Associations of student temperament and educational competence with academic achievement: The role of teacher age and teacher and student gender

We examined associations of teacher-perceived student temperament and educational competence with school achievement, and how these associations were modified by students’ gender and teachers’ gender and age. Participants were 1063 Finnish ninth-graders (534 boys) and their 29 Mother Language teachers (all female) and 43 Mathematics teachers (17 male) from a population-based sample. All temperament and educational competence traits were associated with both grades, but more clearly with Mathematics. Boys received systematically lower Mother Language grades but higher Mathematics grades than girls. Teacher gender had no effect on school grades, while teacher age had an effect only on Mother Language.     

小学低年级学生诚信知行冲突特征及教育建议

诚信是中华民族的一项传统美德.学生诚信知行冲突的解决不仅是诚信教育的一个重要组成部分,更是诚信教育中最重要的一个环节.小学低年级学生的诚信知行冲突特征是:父、母亲学历对小学低年级学生各个维度的诚信知行冲突没有显著影响;男、女生在各个维度的诚信知行冲突水平基本一致;大部分小学低年级学生的诚信知行冲突均属于低度冲突,高诚信知行冲突均集中于对象维度;在诚实知行冲突方面,各个维度的冲突度由小到大依次是频率维度、情境约束维度、利益预期维度和对象维度;在守信知行冲突方面,各个维度的冲突度由小到大依次是情境约束维度、利益预期维度、频率维度和对象维度.在此基础上,笔者提出了提高学生认知水平,提升学生诚信能力品质,建立良好的诚信交往环境等教育建议.     

Personality traits and intelligence predict academic school grades

This study examines the extent to which personality traits and intelligence scores predict school level academic performance (AP), (British GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education; America Grade 10) in different disciplines. The participant sample consisted of approximately 250 school pupils from three schools in the South East of England. A series of hierarchical regressions were performed with participant discipline-specific subject grades being the criterion variable and demographic, as well and intelligence and personality test scores, the predictor variables. For overall grade intelligence accounted for a fifth of the variance and personality an incremental validity of 8%. Whilst a combination of intelligence, personality and sex accounted for around a quarter of the variance in all four core subjects the pattern was rather different for elected subjects. The results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of psychometric assessments of candidates at selection.     

Intrinsic motivation,perceived competence and classroom engagement as longitudinal predictors of adolescent reading achievement

This study investigated the effects of intrinsic motivation, perceived competence, classroom engagement and extrinsic motivation on reading development among youth. Using a nationally representative sample of students in the US, the researchers followed students longitudinally from fifth to eighth grade. Reading achievement was measured using composite tests of vocabulary, reading comprehension and sight-word identification. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the effect of students’ perceived intrinsic motivation and competence, as well as teacher rated classroom engagement in the 5th grade, on reading achievement in the 8th grade. Important control variables were utilised such as gender, family SES, race/ethnicity and prior reading achievement. The results showed that intrinsic motivation to read, perceived competence and engagement in 5th grade significantly predict reading achievement in 8th grade. The importance students placed upon grades also predicted reading development. Implications for promoting intrinsic motivation and strong engagement in schools are discussed.     

Economic,social and embodied cultural capitals as shapers and predictors of boys' educational aspirations

The author presents the result of a quantitative survey as a part of a larger mixed-methods study conducted across two case study schools in urban Jamaica. It focuses on Black Caribbean boys' levels of educational aspirations in relation to their economic, social, and embodied cultural capital. The study utilizes Bourdieu's notions of capital, reconceptualized to match the sociocultural context of the research and set within a critical realist metatheoretical framework. Logistic regression models, supported by participants' narratives, show boys' educational aspirations to be highly predictable by their level of capital—including dispositional beliefs held through influence of the maternal family both locally and in the Jamaican diaspora of the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada.     

Infant joint attention, temperament, and social competence in preschool children

Infant joint attention has been observed to be related to social-emotional outcomes in at-risk children. To address whether this relation is also evident in typically developing children, 52 children were tested at 12, 15, 24, and 30 months to examine associations between infant joint attention and social outcomes. Twelve-month initiating and responding to joint attention were related to 30-month social competence and externalizing behavior, even when accounting for 15-month temperament ratings, 24-month cognition and language, and demographic variables. These results suggest that, in addition to associations with language and cognition, infant joint attention reflects robust aspects of development that are related to individual differences in the emergence of social and behavioral competence in childhood.     

Educating for Adulthood or for Citizenship: social competence as an educational goal

In this article we discuss the social competence students should acquire to participate in society in an adequate manner. The focus is on social competence as an educational goal and on the question of how to evaluate the efforts of schools in enhancing the social competence of their students. First, a review study is presented of research on the social competence or pro-social development of students. Two perspectives figure in the literature on the meanings of social competence in modern society: an 'educating for adulthood' perspective and an 'educating for citizenship' perspective. Each emphasises different aspects of the social competence youngsters need to develop and follows a different line of thought in considering the task of education in enhancing social competence. In the second part of this article we select the components of social competence that should form part of the development of children and young people in a democratic society. We question what instruments are necessary to assess educational results in the field of social competence. On the basis of the review study we also analyse what type of instruments are currently available and what problems have been identified in measuring educational results in the field of social competence. The article concludes with a discussion of the normative character of the concept of social competence.     

Creativity and school grades: A case from Poland

The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between the creative abilities and the school grades of high school students in Poland. Almost six hundred (N = 589) students from 34 high schools from all over Poland participated in the study. Their creative abilities were measured by using the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), and the school results were measured by GPA. Students’ intelligence level (as measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices) and their gender were controlled. The analyses were based on OLS regressions as well as on multilevel models controlling for grouping students into classes. It was shown that creative abilities are not correlated with students’ GPA, yet the multilevel control of grouping students into classes demonstrated interesting and potentially important differences. In some schools, the relations were positive, strong and statistically significant, while in others they were non-existent or negative. The role of creative abilities for GPA was greater in larger schools and in schools located in big cities. We discuss the possible reasons for and consequences of our findings.     

Expected grades versus specific evaluations of the teacher as predictors of students' overall evaluation of the teacher

All teacher evaluation forms completed in the arts and sciences division of a large community college were analyzed at three levels: division-wide (N=9,080), in class groups (31 groups), and class averages (548 classes). Multiple regression was used to predict teacher rating from the other nine items on the form. At all levels, expected grade, with minor exceptions, was the least important predictor. Certain items relating to teacher characteristics as perceived by the students had a consistent impact on rating. They included the following: “tries to help students understand,” which was most important, “sincerely interested in students,” and “uses class time effectively.”     

Perceived school climate and school grades in secondary school students: The mediating effect of self-determined motivation

Students’ perception of school climate plays an important role in the quality of their academic experience. However, the effects of perceived school climate on self-determined academic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2020) have received little empirical attention to this day. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the role of school climate in predicting changes in self-determined academic motivation and grades in a longitudinal study with secondary school students. Participants are 957 Belgian students (girls = 52.87 %; M_age = 14.41 years, SD_age = 1.66 years) who took part in a three-wave, year-long study. Results from structural equation modeling showed that students’ positive perceptions of school climate at the beginning of the study (Time 1) were positively related to changes in self-determined academic motivation at the mid-point (Time 2), which in turn were positively associated with changes in grades by the end of the study (Time 3), over and above the effects of gender and age. These results have implications for educational psychology by suggesting that organizational aspects of the school setting can positively influence students’ academic grades through increases in the quality of their motivation over time.     

Externalizing behavior problems and interest in reading as predictors of later reading skills and educational aspirations

This study examined the developments in children’s externalizing problems and interest in reading during their first four years of school (Grades 1–4) and investigated whether this development predicted the children’s Grade 6 reading skills and educational aspirations. Data comprised (1) teachers’ ratings of externalizing problems and children’s (N = 642; 43% girls) self-ratings of their interest in reading, collected between Grades 1 and 4, and (2) measures of reading fluency and comprehension, and children’s self-reports of educational aspirations, collected at Grade 6. First, latent growth modeling showed that a higher level of externalizing problems in Grade 1 was associated with a lower concurrent interest in reading. Second, a positive association between the initial level of interest in reading and a linear change in externalizing problems indicated that children with a lower interest in reading in Grade 1 were rated by teachers as exhibiting higher levels of externalizing problems, which nonetheless declined over the course of their first four years of school more than among other children. Third, a higher initial level of externalizing problems with a linear change in these problems across Grades 1–4 was a predictor of lower subsequent educational aspirations and poorer reading comprehension in Grade 6. Analysis of the indirect effects indicated that a higher level of externalizing problems was associated with a lower concurrent interest in reading, which, in turn, was related to poorer future reading fluency and lower educational aspirations. The findings imply that problem behaviors are interlinked with academic skill development and motivation across the first six years of school.     

Life goals and academic interests as predictors of extracurricular activities of secondary school sophomores

The life goals and interests of eighth-graders were examined in relation to their reported extracurricular activities in secondary school. In 1969, 204 females and 178 males, attending three feeder schools, completed the Vocational Sentence Completion Blank, a semiprojective measure of life goals, values, quests, aspirations hopes, preferences, and concerns. For the Milwaukee Academic Interest Inventory, which measures curricular interests, the complete test records of 183 females and 150 males were available. In 1971, all subjects reported about their participation in six secondary school activities. Approximately two-thirds of the 29 VSCB categories and all 7 MAII variables were predictive at a low level of association. The statistically significant relations between eighth-grade predictors and specific extracurricular activities in the first year of secondary school seemed reasonable. Implications for adolescent development were discussed.