Achievement motivation and child rearing in different social contexts

This study explores the relationship between achievement motivation at school and child rearing practices. It aims is to discover what aspects of rearing practices differentiate higher and lower motivated pupils and whether these aspects vary with the specificity of life contexts (SES, area of residence) or with the subject gender. Six variables (family life structuring, autonomy, authoritarianism, child acceptance, expectation of success and locus of causality) were assessed through a questionnaire administered to 288 mothers of sixth graders selected from a population of about 4500 pupils. Results show that the more motivated children live in more rigidly structured families than the less motivated. They have less autonomy, with the exception of rural girls from a high SES and urban girls from a low SES who have more autonomy than the less motivated ones. Internal locus of causality is associated with higher motivation in pupils of both sexes from an average SES, in boys from high SES and in girls from a low SES; and with a lower motivation in boys from a low SES and girls from a high SES. No meaningful association was observed between motivation and child acceptance, authoritarianism or success expectation. These results point to the usefulness of research to explore the differential influences of social context and individual gender on the relationship between child rearing practices and pupil’s achievement motivation.     

The Primary School Child's Language of Emotions

Plutchik's theory of emotion states that primary emotions, namely joy, acceptance, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, expectation and disgust, are experienced by all individuals from birth. Literature claims that primary school children (aged 9‐12 years) are capable of verbalising emotions. This research outlines the steps taken to identify a language of emotions which is understood and used by primary school children to express emotional experience. A sample of 444 English‐speaking, white boys and girls aged 9‐12 years was used. As a result, verbal statements were identified as being part of the child's language pertaining to the emotions of joy, anger, fear, sadness and interest. The children showed less agreement about statements expressing disgust, acceptance and surprise.     

The Relationship of Effective Schools Indicators and Changes in the Social Distribution of Achievement

ABSTRACT

This study focused on school effectiveness in terms of changes in the distribution of achievement across socio‐economic status (SES) for a cohort of 9700 students as they progressed from grade 1 to grade 3. The achievement/SES link was operationalized as the standardized mean difference in achievement (EFFSIZE) between samples of high and low SES students for 165 schools. EFFSIZE measures in reading and mathematics were analyzed in an hierarchical linear model which allowed an assessment of the impact of 13 school characteristics on initial (grade 1) status and, more importantly, on trends over time. The results indicate that, on the average, low SES students are at an initial disadvantage relative to their high SES peers in both subjects and that the difference widens across the first three grades. True school variance in slopes was found in mathematics but not reading, a result consistent with previous research. The school characteristics, which included six indicators based on the effective schools literature, were found to be ineffective predictors of these growth parameters.     

School effects and ethnic,gender and socio-economic gaps in educational achievement at age 11

There are long-standing achievement gaps in England associated with socio-economic status (SES), ethnicity and gender, but relatively little research has evaluated interactions between these variables or explored school effects on such gaps. This paper analyses the national test results at age 7 and age 11 of 2,836 pupils attending 68 mainstream primary schools in an ethnically diverse inner London borough. The groups with the lowest educational achievement and poorest progress were both Black Caribbean and White British low SES pupils. White British middle and high SES pupils made substantially more progress than White British low SES pupils, significantly increasing the SES gap over time. However low and high SES Black pupils made equally poor progress age 7–11. School effects on pupil progress were large, but there was no evidence of differential school effectiveness in relation to SES, ethnicity or gender. Low SES pupils in the more effective schools performed significantly better than high SES pupils in the less effective schools, but all pupils (both low and high SES) benefit from attending the more effective schools and so these schools do not eliminate the SES gap. The limits to change that may be achieved by schools alone are discussed.     

Student and school SES,gender, strategy use,and achievement

A multilevel mediated regression model was fit to Programme for International Student Assessment achievement, strategy use, gender, and family‐ and school‐level socioeconomic status (SES). Two metacognitive strategies (i.e., understanding and summarizing) and one learning strategy (i.e., control strategies) were found to relate significantly and positively to achievement. These strategies were used more by females and students attending higher SES schools. In contrast, males and students attending lower SES schools tended to use a greater number of learning strategies that did not relate to achievement, including memorization and elaboration. In addition, the strategies that did not relate to achievement were used more frequently by students from higher SES families. The findings suggest that schools, as opposed to families, may be the primary vehicle for developing effective strategy use practices for students and thus, targeted interventions may be particularly useful for male students attending low SES schools.     

Investigation of the science achievement models for low and high achieving schools and gender differences in Turkey

A science achievement model was separately investigated for students in low and high achieving schools (LAS and HAS) in Turkey. Then, gender differences based on variables that significantly contributed to each achievement model were investigated. The student-level variables that were under investigation for multiple regression analyses include attitudes toward science, epistemological beliefs, metacognition, views on science teaching, and socioeconomic status (SES). The science achievement scores of students on a nationwide exam were used to measure science achievement. Both for LAS and HAS, two schools were selected. Results were reported for 241 and 320 students in LAS and HAS, respectively. According to the results, self-concept in science, knowledge of cognition, SES, importance of science, gradual learning, and views on lab work significantly contributed to the science achievement model in LAS. On the other hand, self-concept in science, SES, gradual learning, studying, and learning science in school significantly contributed to the science achievement model in HAS. Results also revealed that girls outperformed boys on knowledge of cognition and importance of science in LAS. Moreover, girls scored higher than boys on gradual learning and studying in HAS. According to these findings, implications for science education were discussed.     

Perceptual influence of psychoeducational reports

In the present study, teachers read fictitious psychoeducational reports that interpretively were consistent, inconsistent, or absent with respect to a child's diagnostic label. On a perceptual expectation questionnaire, teachers indicated both their perceptions of the child and their confidence in these perceptions, after reading a cumulative folder and again after reading a psychoeducational report. Although the reports differed by just one or two interpretive statements, results revealed that teacher perceptions of child characteristics changed in an adaptive direction for the school performance clusters of general adjustment, academic skill, and learning approach, while report interpretation negatively influenced ratings for intellectual capacity. Further, the type of diagnostic label provided in the cumulative folder was an important variable in determining the perceptual effect of the report's interpretation, since different patterns of teacher perception and their confidence in these perceptions were observed for LD, BD, or EMH labels.     

Preschool Quality Effects on Learning Behavior and Later Achievement in Germany: Moderation by Socioeconomic Status

This study investigates whether children’s preschool experiences are associated with later achievement via enhanced learning behaviors using data from a German longitudinal study following children (N = 554) from age 3 in preschool to age 8 in second grade. There were two main findings. First, results suggest that more positive learning behaviors at school entry mediate effects of teacher–child interactions in preschool on second-grade achievement. Second, these effects varied by parental socioeconomic status (SES) indicating that low-SES children benefited the most. The findings highlight the role of preschool classroom environments in shaping the school readiness of children with socioeconomic risk factors.     

Preservice teachers’ attitudes,attributions, and stereotypes: Exploring the disadvantages of students from families with low socioeconomic status

In many educational systems, students from families with low socioeconomic status (SES) often score lower in academic achievement than their high SES peers. Even though this effect is well-documented and research on teachers’ stereotypical beliefs and attitudes is steadily increasing, the studies so far did not specifically focus on students’ SES. In the current study, we explored preservice teachers’ implicit attitudes and their stereotypical and prejudiced beliefs toward low SES students as well as their causal attributions for the low educational success of low SES students. Results showed that teachers had negative implicit attitudes toward low SES students and that they more strongly associated competences and good learning and working habits with high SES students. The correlations highlighted the role that stereotypes play in causal attributions. Participants who more strongly associated low SES with competence and good working and learning behaviors were less likely to endorse internal attributions but were more likely to emphasize external attributions. Hence, when preservice teachers see low SES students as having high ability, they also strongly view the educational system as a source of the disadvantages that low SES students experience in school.     

The effects of school-based parental involvement on academic achievement at the child and elementary school level: A longitudinal study

Policymakers view parental involvement (PI) as a crucial component of school reform efforts, but evidence of its effect on student achievement is equivocal. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort dataset, we examined the long-term impact on student- and school-level achievement of three types of school-based PI: PI to help an individual's own child (private-good PI), PI to improve the school (public-good PI), and PI through peer networking. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that all three types raised student-level achievement in mathematics but only private-good PI was associated with reading achievement. Public-good PI and parent networking boosted school-level achievement. Public- and private-good PI were more strongly associated with student-level mathematics achievement for high socioeconomic status (SES) students; aggregated private-good PI was more strongly related to school-level achievement in low-SES schools. These results provide empirical evidence about the effectiveness of school-based PI, but also suggest a need for schools to explore more effective ways to leverage the social capital of low-SES families.     

Cultural Variability in Parent and Child Achievement Attributions: A study from Hong Kong

The primary aim of the present study was to investigate whether variations exist in child and parent attributions in predicting child academic achievement within a culture and between cultures. Participants were 158 students and their parents from three different primary schools in Hong Kong, including one British international school consisting of students who are predominantly from a British background and two Chinese public schools each with a distinct SES profile. This paper extends the findings of previous research whereby Western parents attribute their child’s success to ability and Chinese parents attribute their child’s success to effort. Additionally, this study found that the Chinese children’s attributions differed according to the SES catchments of their schools; children from higher SES were inclined to attribute success to effort. The results are discussed in terms of parent and child attributions’ prediction of child’s academic achievement within Hong Kong’s family demographic.     

The impact of socioeconomic status on parental factors in promoting academic achievement in Chinese children

Children from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to experience lower academic achievement than children from middle-SES families. This discrepancy can be attributed to a range of parental factors. The present study tested: (1) the extent to which academic achievement in three core subjects differs between children from low- and middle-SES backgrounds; (2) the differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement across the two groups; and (3) the mediating role of parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement in explaining how SES influences children’s academic achievement. The sample consisted of 184 primary students with low SES and 165 primary students with middle SES from mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. Results revealed significant differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, child engagement, as well as academic achievement in Chinese and English subjects between the low-SES and middle-SES groups. Our findings also suggest that parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement may be important mediators in the relationship between SES and academic achievement.     

Beliefs and Achievement: A Study of Black, White, and Hispanic Children

School achievement among black, white, and Hispanic elementary school children was investigated, and efforts were made to study the beliefs about academic achievement of the children and their mothers. A total of approximately 3,000 first, third, and fifth graders enrolled in 20 schools in the Chicago metropolitan area were given achievement tests in mathematics and reading. Black and Hispanic children performed at a significantly lower level than white children, but at fifth grade ethnic differences in mathematics scores were no longer significant when mothers' education was statistically controlled. This was not the case in reading, where differences were found after controlling for the effects of mothers' education. Interviews with subsamples of approximately 1,000 mothers and children revealed greater emphasis on and concern about education among minority families than among white families. Black and Hispanic children and mothers evaluated the children and their academic abilities highly; they were positive about education and held high expectations about the children's future prospects for education. Mothers of minority children and teachers in minority schools believed more strongly than white mothers and teachers in the value of homework, competency testing, and a longer school day as means of improving children's education.     

The ADHD label,analogue methodology,and participants' geographic location on judgments of social and attentional skills

Two hundred fifty‐nine preservice teachers at a medium‐sized university in the Southwest participated in the current study. The participants were randomly assigned to a labeled condition, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or nonlabeled condition, and were presented a vignette in one of three forms: a written case study, a video clip, or a written case study with a video clip. The vignette described an elementary school aged child displaying disruptive behavior, while the video portrayed a similar aged child exhibiting disruptive behavior in the classroom. Following the presentation of the vignette, participants made judgments about the child's social skills and attentional skills by completing an examiner‐made rating scale. There was a significant main effect for the label condition on judgments of attention; participants in the labeled condition made significantly more negative judgment than did those in the nonlabeled condition. There were also significant main effects for the participants' high school location and vignette treatment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 221–234, 2004.     

Alleviating or exacerbating disadvantage: does school attended mediate the association between family background and educational attainment?

ABSTRACT

Opportunities for social mobility are generated by education systems designed to alleviate the effects of social origin by providing equality of opportunities and resources. The persistence of the strong association between socioeconomic status (SES) and child’s educational achievement and attainment suggests that social origin continues to play an integral role in the educational outcomes of successive generations of Australians. Sociologists draw on a range of theoretical perspectives to explain this association including Bourdieu’s cultural and social capital theories. Using data collected by the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth 2009 (LSAY09) project, I examine the associations between student SES, school SES and two outcome variables: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score and university enrolment. The results indicate that low SES students attending high SES schools perform better on PISA tests than low SES students attending low SES schools. After controlling for PISA score, low SES students were less likely than their high SES peers to enrol at university. Furthermore, students attending low SES schools were less likely than their peers attending high SES schools to enrol at university, net of their individual SES and their PISA scores.     

Assets,economic opportunity and toxic stress: A framework for understanding child and educational outcomes

A large body of evidence indicates that socioeconomic status (SES) is a strong predictor of school achievement, college graduation and child outcomes in general. Better developmental and health outcomes are strongly associated with family assets, income and education. We introduce a model incorporating a range of theoretical and empirical literature about the relationships between a household's socio-economic position, household interactions, and child educational outcomes. The intention is to illustrate how these frequently cited factors are exacerbated and aligned by stress or difficult environments which cause long-term challenges for children in high-risk circumstances. Finally, we modify the model to illustrate the dynamic nature of these relationships, highlighting how the developmental trajectory of a child who lives with toxic stress might differ from a comparable child with social supports in a situation of low or tolerable stress.     

Socioeconomic status, self-efficacy, and mathematics achievement in Australia: a secondary analysis

Previous studies have shown that both student and school socioeconomic status (SES) are strongly associated with student outcomes, but less is known about how these relationships may vary for different students, schools and nations. In this study we use a large international dataset to examine how student SES, school SES and self-efficacy are associated with mathematics performance among 15-year-old students in Australia. We found that increases in school SES are consistently associated with substantial increases in achievement in mathematics and this phenomenon holds for all groups, regardless of their individual SES. Furthermore, our findings show that the association of school SES with maths achievement persists even when subject-specific self-efficacy is taken into account. However, our findings also suggest modest differences among student groups disaggregated by these factors. In particular, the association between maths achievement and school SES appears moderately stronger for students with higher levels of self-efficacy compared with their peers with lower self-efficacy. Furthermore, among students with similar levels of self-efficacy, the association between maths achievement and school SES tends to be stronger for lower SES students than for their more privileged peers. From these findings, we highlight the importance of the Australian case for comparable systems of education, and provide a discussion of policy implications and strategies for mitigating the influence of school socioeconomic composition on academic achievement more generally.     

The impact of school SES composition on science achievement and achievement growth: mediating role of teachers’ teachability culture

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have shown that schools’ socioeconomic-status (SES) composition has an impact on the academic performance of pupils. Less attention has been given to the explanation of this effect. This study examined whether the teachability culture among the school staff (teachers’ collective beliefs about how teachable their pupils are) mediated the school SES effect on science achievement and achievement growth. Multilevel analyses were conducted with data from 1,761 pupils and 1,255 teachers across 66 primary schools in Flanders. First, the analyses indicated that there was a positive association between school SES composition and teachability culture: Even after controlling for cognitive ability and performance of pupils, there was a more pessimist culture in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools. Second, the association between school SES and academic performance was explained/mediated by the teachability culture. However, no school effects or mediation effects were found for achievement growth as the covered period of academic growth was too short.     

Private tutoring intensity in schools: a comparison between high and low socio-economic schools

Private tutoring (PT) is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In Israel too, about a third of elementary school students participate in PT. Based on sociological and school quality considerations, we examined school characteristics that are associated with PT intensity at school. The data encompassed a random state wide sample of 389 Israeli elementary schools collected by the Ministry of Education in 2012. The results showed that in high school socioeconomic status (SES) schools the percentage of students who participated in PT was higher compared to low SES schools. In high SES, schools with high PT intensity were characterized by high school achievements whereas in low SES, schools were characterized with low school achievements. PT seems to be a factor that increases the social distinction between high and low SES schools. In Israel, PT seems to create distinct ‘school enclaves’ that reproduce social inequality.     

Prediction of School Outcomes Based on Early Language Production and Socioeconomic Factors

Early differences in family SES, child language production, and IQ were related to outcomes in early elementary school in the present prospective, 10-year longitudinal study. In a prior study of family interactional variables associated with language learning, major differences in parenting (i.e., time, attention, and talking) were found to be associated with differences in child productive vocabulary between 7 to 36 months of age, and child IQ, favoring higher-SES parents. Lower-SES children were exposed less often than higher-SES children to diverse vocabulary through their parents' attention and talking, and they were prohibited from talking more often. In the current study, 32 children involved in the earlier study were repeatedly assessed between 5 to 10 years of age, while in kindergarten through third grade. Results indicated that SES-related differences in child language prior to school were predictive of subsequent verbal ability, receptive and spoken language, and academic achievement assesed on standardized tests in kindergarten through grade 3. However, none of the predictor variables were related to direct measures of elementary schooling. When combined with a composite SES indicator, early child language production significantly increased the variance accounted for in the prediction of elementary language and academic competencies in each subsequent year in elementary school. Implications are discussed in terms of the stability of performance on language and academic performance measures of children who entered school with different early language learning experiences, and the need to consider early home- and school-based intervention designed to prevent or ameliorate these trends.