Self-esteem and academic achievement: a comparative study of adolescent students in England and the United States

Utilizing mixed methodology, this paper investigates the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement for young adolescents within two Western cultural contexts: the United States and England. Quantitative and qualitative data from 86 North American and 86 British adolescents were utilized to examine the links between self-esteem and academic achievement from the beginning to the end of their academic year during their 11th–12th year of age. For both samples, quantitative results demonstrated that fall self-esteem was related to multiple indicators of later year academic achievement. While country differences emerge by the end of the year, math appears to have a consistent relationship with self-esteem in both country contexts. Qualitative analyses found some support for British students’ self-perceptions as more accurately reflecting their academic experience than the students from the United States.     

Academics’ job-related stress and institutional commitment in Hong Kong universities

Tertiary Education and Management - Recent developments in higher education have placed greater emphasis on performance and accountability and raised concerns about increasing levels of stress...     

Effect on development of proportional reasoning skill of physical experience and cognitive abilities associated with prefrontal lobe activity

The present study tested the hypothesis that maturing prefrontal lobes play a role in the development of proportional reasoning skill because the prefrontal lobes are involved in the inhibition of task‐irrelevant information and the representation of task‐relevant information. The hypothesis that reasoning development is in part dependent upon physical experience was also tested. Students (all males) who failed to solve a diagnostic proportions task were administered several tests of prefrontal lobe functions. The students were then randomly assigned to manipulative or verbal tutoring groups. Both groups received a series of individual testing, tutoring and testing sessions on proportional reasoning. As predicted, performance on the prefrontal lobe tasks (measures of inhibiting ability, planning ability, dissembedding ability, and working memory capacity) significantly predicted performance on proportional reasoning tasks following tutoring. Students' computational skills were not a significant predictor. Also, the manipulative group's proportional reasoning performance was significantly higher than that of the verbal tutoring group. Therefore, the present results provide support for the hypothesis that maturing prefrontal lobes and physical experience play roles in the development of proportional reasoning skill. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1171–1182, 2000     

Development of Scientific Reasoning in College Biology: Do Two Levels of General Hypothesis‐Testing Skills Exist?

The primary purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that two general developmentally based levels of hypothesis‐testing skills exist. The first hypothesized level presumably involves skills associated with testing hypotheses about observable causal agents; the second presumably involves skills associated with testing hypotheses involving unobservable entities. To test this hypothesis, a hypothesis‐testing skills test was developed and administered to a large sample of college students both at the start and at the end of a biology course in which several hypotheses at each level were generated and tested. The predicted positive relationship between level of hypothesis‐testing skill and performance on a transfer problem involving the test of a hypothesis involving unobservable entities was found. The predicted positive relationship between level of hypothesis‐testing skill and course performance was also found. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 81–101, 2000     

An End to Disabling Policies? Toward Enlightened Universal Service

This article argues that an enlightened, inclusive vision of universal service is possible by learning lessons from disability. Telecommunications policy has historically built in norms that needlessly exclude people who are regarded as having a disability and therefore being outside of the mainstream. Accordingly, universal service policies focus on availability and affordability of telecommunications services, rather than on their accessibility and functionality. The article shows how rethinking universal service through disability can lead to inclusive policies that benefit everybody.