“ACCENTUATION EFFECTS” OF DISSIMILAR ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS: An Application and Exploration of Holland's Theory

This longitudinal study of college students found accentuation of initial group differences among academic subenvironments for Artistic abilities of both male and female students and for Enterprising abilities of male students. It also showed that male and female students in Artistic subenvironments-for whom Artistic abilities and interests were each of the two gender groups' initially prominent characteristic-increased still further in score on the Artistic abilities and interest scale over four years of college; and parallel results were found for male students in Enterprising subenvironments in terms of Enterprising abilities and interests. Moreover, both male and female students initially high on Artistic and Enterprising abilities and interests gained more on these attributes if they entered congruent academic subenvironments (Artistic and Enterprising subenvironments, respectively) than if they entered any of the other subenvironments. Whereas these findings support Holland's theory, other data (primarily for Investigative and Social abilities and interests of students) were either less supportive or unsupportive of Holland's theory. Some implications of these results are discussed.     

Working Memory and Children’s Mathematical Skills: Implications for mathematical development and mathematics curricula

This study examined the contributions of the different components of the working memory (WM) model to a range of mathematical skills in children, using measures of WM function that did not involve numerical stimuli. A sample of 148 children (78 Year 3, mean age 8 years and 1 month, and 70 Year 5 pupils, mean age 9 years and 10 months) completed WM measures and age‐appropriate mathematics tests designed to assess four mathematical skills defined by the National Curriculum for England. Visuo‐spatial sketchpad and central executive, but not phonological loop, scores predicted unique variance in children’s curriculum‐based mathematical attainment but the relative contributions of each component did not vary much across the different skills. Subsequently, the mathematics data were re‐analysed using cluster analysis and new performance‐related mathematics factors were derived. All three components of WM predicted unique variance in these performance‐related skills, but revealed a markedly distinct pattern of associations across the two age groups. In particular, the data indicated a stronger role for the visuo‐spatial sketchpad in the younger children’s mathematics performance. We discuss our findings in terms of the importance of WM in the development of early mathematical ability.     

Dropouts and turnover: The synthesis and test of a causal model of student attrition

The purpose of this research is to investigate the determinants of student attrition in institutions of higher education. A causal model was developed which synthesized research findings on turnover in work organizations and on student attrition. Questionnaires were distributed to university freshmen (N = 1,171). The data was analyzed using multiple regression and path analysis. The regressions produced anR ² = .36 for females and .27 for males. Findings indicate that three surrogate measures for pay were significantly related to intent to leave for both sexes and that the theories and determinants developed in research on turnover are useful in studies of student attrition.Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 1979.