Fidelity as a precondition for integrity in grading academic achievement

If a grade is to be trusted as an authentic representation of a student’s level of academic achievement, one of the requirements is that all the elements that contribute to that grade must qualify as achievement, and not be something else. The implications of taking this proposition literally turn out to be far reaching. Many elements that are technically non‐achievements are routinely incorporated into grades and thereby act as contaminants. A variety of credits and penalties are often included with the intention of helping shape student behaviours or improve their learning. Reversing the situation has ramifications not only for assessment and grading practices but also for the ways in which curriculum and teaching are conceptualised, designed and engaged in.     

Soft skills in higher education: importance and improvement ratings as a function of individual differences and academic performance

Three UK studies on the relationship between a purpose‐built instrument to assess the importance and development of 15 ‘soft skills’ are reported. Study 1 (N = 444) identified strong latent components underlying these soft skills, such that differences between‐skills were over‐shadowed by differences between‐students. Importance and improving ratings on these skills predicted academic performance and accounted for the effects of personality on academic performance. Study 2 replicated the structure of the soft skills inventory and associations with academic performance in a larger sample (N = 1309). Examination of mean differences across faculties (humanities, life sciences, hard sciences) revealed higher soft skills ratings in ‘softer’ courses. Study 3 (N = 87) incorporated an IQ measure, which was found to be negatively related to importance ratings on soft skills. Results highlight the cohesive structure of beliefs concerning various non‐academic skills and their significant links to educationally relevant individual differences. Theoretical, methodological and applied implications are considered.     

Attitudes toward teachers as a function of student academic self-concept

The evaluative dimensions students used in assessing their academic self-concept were correlated with judgmental dimensions students utilized in evaluating teachers by means of a stepwise multiple regression analysis. All students evaluated themselves as students in terms of academic skill and ability, interpersonal effectiveness, and quality of scholastic involvement. College students also evaluated themselves on self-confidence and style of intellectual inquiry, while high school students evaluated themselves on their tolerance. All students judged teachers on the dimensions of student/teacher rapport, communicative style, instructional style, and stimulation. Dimensions of student academic self-concept were significantly related to students' judgments of teaching: student interpersonal effectiveness was found to be the most significant overall predictor of high school students' attitudes toward teachers, whereas a student's assessment of his academic abilities was the major predictive variable among college students. Student sex was not a significant predictor of students' attitudes toward teachers except for the dimension of student/teacher rapport among college students, with females rating teachers significantly higher on this dimension than males.     

Early word decoding ability as a longitudinal predictor of academic performance

This study, using a longitudinal design with a Swedish cohort of young readers, investigates if children’s early word decoding ability in second grade can predict later academic performance. In an effort to estimate the unique effect of early word decoding (grade 2) with academic performance (grade 9), gender and non-verbal cognitive ability were controlled for in hierarchical regression models. Results show that even after accounting for these factors, word decoding successfully predicted subject marks as well as attendance in advanced courses and language classes. The authors conclude that children’s early ability to decode words could be an important factor for predicting performance in school and, thus, stress the importance for schools to investigate children’s early word decoding ability.     

Relations between student learning patterns and personal and contextual factors and academic performance

This study was aimed at clarifying relations between the way students learn and personal, contextual and performance variables. Students from seven different academic disciplines completed the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS). Besides, data about their age, gender, academic discipline, prior education and exam performance were gathered. Regression and correlations analyses were used to analyse the data. The results showed that students learning patterns were indeed associated with personal and contextual factors such as academic discipline, prior education, age and gender, but that the different learning patterns had different sources. Second, students learning patterns proved to explain an important part of the variance in their academic performance. However, the results also revealed that exams as usually used in the first years of higher education hardly capitalise on students use of critical, analytical and concrete processing strategies.     

Prediction of academic performance prior to intersections within a multi-tiered school system

Diagnostic information is a centrepiece of educational decision making. Far-reaching decisions like placements within multi-tiered school systems may have a huge long-term impact on the achieved level of education. Therefore, such decisions should be substantiated or complemented by objective and prognostically valid information. To this end, we assessed academic self-concept, reading comprehension, orthographic abilities, and geometric and problem-solving skills prior to the selection of subsequent school forms in Grade 4 in order to model the pedagogical decisions of the teachers (Lenhard, Hasselhorn, & Schneider, 2011 Lenhard, W., Hasselhorn, M., & Schneider, W. (2011). Kombiniertes Leistungsinventar zur allgemeinen Schulleistung und für Schullaufbahnempfehlungen in der vierten Klassen (KLASSE 4) [Combined performance inventory for the determination of school performancy and schooling recommendations in Grade 4]. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe. [Google Scholar]). The article describes the longitudinal results of an independent sample of 76 students and how well their academic performance was predicted 18?months later by the psychometric approach compared to teacher recommendations. Standardized tests had a high prognostic validity and predicted the choice of higher educational levels in subsequent school years. Teachers were more successful in determining grouping decisions for students with lower educational attainments.     

Study persistence and academic achievement as a function of the type of competing tendencies

In order to understand and predict students’ achievement and persistence at learning activities, many contemporary motivational models consider how much students are motivated for their school work. However, students’ achievement and persistence might not only be affected by their amount of study motivation, but also by the motivation to engage in competing alternative activities, as suggested three decades ago by Atkinson and Birch in their “Dynamics of Action” (1970). Building on this line of theorizing, the present contribution indicates that it is not only instructive to consider the level of students’ motivation for these competing activities, but also the type of activities they engage in, that is leisure vs. working activities. Two studies demonstrated that whereas time spent on working activities is inversely related to study motivation, attitude, persistence and academic achievement, such relationships were not found for leisure time engagement. Spending some time on leisure time activities does not interfere with optimal learning.     

Assessing Proctors: solving problems in grading student performance in a peer support system

This article discusses the nature of the proctoring peer support system in use in the School of Philosophy at the University of Leeds and the problem of assessment that was faced when the School decided to offer participation in this scheme as a module that counted towards the degree classification of the students involved as proctors. In particular, the problem of whether a form of written work could be an appropriate assessment method is addressed and a solution is suggested.     

Study time and test performance as a function of test expectations

Study time and test performance change as a function of subjects expecting either open questions or a multiple-choice test on the contents of a history text. After studying a first history text, the subjects immediately received a test consisting of either open questions or multiple-choice items. They were led to expect the same type of test on a second text. Study time on Text 2 was self-paced, and the type of test was either the expected or unexpected one (either open questions or a multiple-choice test). The main hypothesis was confirmed that subjects consider open questions a more demanding test than a multiple-choice test. Accordingly, subjects expecting open questions on Text 2 used more study time and performed better on both types of test than did subjects expecting a multiple-choice test. Internal analyses revealed that the differences on study time and test achievement between the two expectation conditions occurred only when the subjects were thoroughly acquainted with the processing requirements of the learning material and its expected test.     

一阶系统性能测试的理论与实验研究

系统的传递函数、时间响应以及频率特性分析是系统分析的主要内容,而一阶系统又是研究较多的一类控制系统。该文以直流电动机和无源滤波网络2个典型的一阶系统为例,讨论了传递函数、系统的时间响应以及频率特性分析方面的内容,并结合仿真软件Matlab,对直流电动机系统的传递函数和无源滤波网络的频率特性进行了仿真分析。通过该项综合实验,可以锻炼学生的实际动手能力和运用计算机进行仿真分析的能力。     

Exploring the relationship among learning patterns,personality traits,and academic performance in freshmen

Providing information about how 1st-year students learn may help colleges plan actions aimed at increasing students' persistence in higher education programs. This research aims to assess 1st-year students' academic performance, using a path analysis to establish inter-correlations among students' personality traits, learning patterns, high school achievement, and objectively measured outcomes. Participants included 509 freshmen from different academic disciplines. Results show a causality relations model in which Conscientiousness positively influences Sequential and Precise learning patterns as well as academic performance. The path model also confirms Extraversion as a negative antecedent of the Technical learning pattern. It is argued that knowing students is a primary step to putting them in a position to become an active part of the learning process.     

招生改革形式下高职院校招生宣传的调查与思考

由于生源数量急剧减少,加剧了高职院校间生源竞争的压力,招生宣传在招生工作中的地位更加突出。通过对招生现状的调查,分析现阶段高职院校招生宣传的状况,寻求应对措施。     

Exploring coping and optimism as predictors of academic burnout and performance among university students

This study examined the relationship between coping strategies, dispositional optimism, academic burnout and academic performance using structural equation modelling. Data were collected from a sample of 532 Spanish undergraduate students. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires including the LOT-R to assess optimism, CSI for the measurement of coping (adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies), and MBI-SS to evaluate academic burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy). Academic performance was evaluated by the grade point average (GPA). The results showed that academic burnout was directly and positively associated with maladaptive coping but directly and negatively explained by adaptive coping. In addition, emotional exhaustion was significantly and negatively predicted by optimism. Finally, academic performance was significantly predicted by academic burnout. In conclusion, the findings suggest that both adaptive coping and optimism help to prevent academic burnout and, therefore, positively affect academic performance. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed.     

Degree performance as a function of discipline studied,parental occupation and gender

Degree performance in England and Wales was investigated as a function of social class and gender for several disciplines of study. Three performance criteria were considered: FIRST class; GOOD, and COMPETENT. The findings are complex, and some of them conflict with widely held class and gender stereotypes. Women performed better than men at the FIRST class and/or GOOD criteria, in all professional disciplines and in biological sciences. At the FIRST and GOOD criteria women performed best relative to men in biological content areas, next best in physical and mathematical content areas and worst in humanities content areas. A similar ordering of content areas was obtained when comparing students of lower class origins with those of upper and middle class origins. At the COMPETENT criterion, women performed better than men; and students of lower social class origins performed better than students of upper and middle social class origins. There was a trend, particularly marked in the humanities, for women to perform less well at the FIRST class criterion than would have been predicted by their achievements at the GOOD criterion. The implications of these patterns for theories of group differences in excellent academic performance and for educational policy are discussed.     

平衡计分卡(Balanced Scorecard)新的效绩评价和战略管理系统

平衡计分卡作为新兴的效绩评价系统,在美国应用已近十年。它弥补了传统效绩评价偏重财务指标的不足,增加了评价企业长期成功驱动因素的新指标。从财务、客户、内部业务和学习成长等多角度全面衡量企业效绩,并帮助管理者将组织的战略目标转化为实施的具体指标。着重阐述平衡计分卡的起源、特点、结构和应用及发展趋势。