Showing papers in "British Journal of Educational Psychology in 1975"

Boredom at school.

Abstract: Summary. The absence of theories of boredom is argued to be a gap both in psychology and education. A model of boredom is put forward as a basis for specifying predisposing factors and possible consequences. For the child in school, the model has the character of a positive feedback loop that is maintained in unstable equilibrium by external forces until such time as he can leave school. A secondary analysis of data from the national sample of Young School Leavers (Morton-Williams and Finch, 1968) provides support for almost all the hypotheses tested.

Subject Preference and Choice in Co-Educational and Single-Sex Secondary Schools.

Abstract: Summary The subject preferences and subject choices of 1,204 pupils in 19 secondary schools were investigated Sex-linked polarisation of subject preferences were more marked in co-educational than in single-sex schools An investigation of the effect of attitudes towards teachers showed a relationship between liking for teacher and subject preference, but not subject choice The results are discussed in relation to the current reorganisation of secondary schools along co-educational, as well as comprehensive, lines

Imagery Instructions and the Comprehension of Text.

Abstract: Summary. 119 fifth- and sixth-grade children read a 20-paragraph text, with half of the groups receiving a test immediately after reading. One week after learning, all children were given a delayed test. The tests measured both verbatim and semantic recall of questions seen during the initial reading. Half of the children received instructions to form mental pictures of the text events during learning. The remaining half of each group were merely told to read carefully. Control groups read only text or only text-related questions. Analysis of the pooled delay scores showed a decided superiority for learners receiving imagery instructions. The instructed children also recalled more semantic than verbatim test items. These data indicate that using image instructions with text material increases the amount of content remembered over time.

Pupil behaviour in junior classrooms

Abstract: Summary. The nature of children's behaviour in six informal junior school classrooms was examined using an observation schedule modelled on Medley's Personal Record of School Experiences. The classes were unstreamed, the children sat in small groups and there was a high incidence of private teacher talk to small groups and individual children. The observer focused on children one at a time using a time sampling procedure and recorded his observations by multiple coding. Children spent about a third of their time interacting with other children and rather more than half the lesson out of contact with everyone. Despite a low incidence of teacher contact children were predominantly involved in their work.

Presentation variables and students' activities in meaningful learning

Abstract: Summary. TWO experiments were conducted in which first-year students were asked to read a passage of prose under different conditions, chosen to represent realistic study strategies. In the first experiment 86 students were allocated to three main conditions of reading, copying and summarising. The summarising activity, contrary to expectations, did not lead to greater recall than reading alone. The results of the second experiment, in which some of the 96 students read the material and others listened to it, indicated that the requirement to undertake recording activities has a negative effect upon learning only in circumstances whereby such a requirement imposes constraints upon learners' strategies.

Cultural differences in children's concepts of reading and writing

Abstract: Summary. Previous research has indicated that children enter the task of learning to read in a state of cognitive confusion regarding the function and nature of the task. The present investigation was addressed to the hypothesis that cultural differences in home background are an important influence in the development of children's understanding of the purpose of writing and their concepts of the language units employed in the written code. 92 non-Indian Canadian children at kindergarten were compared with 72 kindergarten pupils from two Indian bands in which there is no tradition of literacy and a poverty of experiences of writing and formal concern with language analysis. On all five measures used the Indian children scored significantly lower. They were less able to recognise literacy activities, less cognisant of their purpose, and had poorer technical knowledge of units of speech and writing.

A typology of teaching styles in primary schools

Abstract: Summary. Differences in teaching styles have conventionally been described in terms of ill-defined dichotomies. The aim of the present study was to provide a more adequate representation of teaching practices by creating a typology based on the self-reported strategies of primary school teachers. 1,258 third and fourth year teachers completed a questionnaire, and the resultant information was cluster analysed. Twelve teaching styles were extracted. Although the usual poles of informal and formal styles were apparent, most teachers appeared to adopt intermediate styles, incorporating elements of both informal and formal strategies. Evidence regarding the validity of the clusters is presented.

Educational psychology: its scope and limits

Abstract: Summary. An examination of current textbooks of educational psychology and educational research suggests that the scientific paradigm has been accepted too readily. This article explores the way in which the ‘territory’ of educational research has been defined and limited, by assumptions about scientific methods of enquiry and objective forms of measurement. It is argued that the reductionism found in current psychological explanations of the teaching-learning process has prevented fuller, and more realistic, descriptions in which the whole social context of teaching is considered, in terms of rules which govern what happens in classrooms.

Decision rules for teaching strategies in primary schools: personality-treatment interactions.

Abstract: Summary. A mathematical task was used among 432 junior school pupils in a search for personality-teaching strategy interactions. Factors of sex, ability, anxiety, extraversion, model and teaching strategy were incorporated into a replicated design. An inductive, learner-centred exploratory strategy and a deductive teacher-centred supportive strategy each employed the same mathematical models. There was no evidence of strategy-ability or strategy-extraversion interactions but the strategy-anxiety interaction was significant. Linear functions, relating the retained learning outcome to anxiety score, were used as the basis of decision rules for differential instruction. Pupils at the lower end of the anxiety range may be assigned to the exploratory strategy and those at the upper end of the range to the supportive strategy if advantage is taken of the disordinal nature of the observed interaction. The consistency of a negative linear relationship between outcome and anxiety for the exploratory strategy contrasted with the complex pattern associated with the supportive strategy. In the latter case, linear functions of differing sign afforded predictability for subgroups of introverts and extraverts and for subgroups of low ability and high ability children. When all data were combined for the supportive strategy, however, a non-linear relationship was revealed.

Music and test anxiety: further evidence for an interaction.

Abstract: Summary. This study investigated the existence of an interaction between music and anxiety, with the hypothesis that highly test anxious subjects would perform better in a test-like situation when background music was present than when the more usual condition of silence prevailed. 162 final year Diploma of Education and third year B.Ed, students completed Sarason's Test Anxiety Scale. Three experimental conditions were used in which students were required to study a 1,500-word passage for 10 minutes. The conditions were silence, music as the students entered and music throughout. The second group showed the highest scores on a test of the material learned.

Interaction analysis in informal classrooms: a critical comment on the flanders' system

Abstract: Summary. Recent attempts to use Flanders' FIAC system to observe teacher-pupil interactions in primary school classrooms had indicated severe limitations in this approach. The method is useful in a formal situation, but it contains an implicit ‘Theory of instruction.’ If this technique is applied to those informal classrooms whether primary or secondary, in which the teaching-learning situation is defined more in terms of interpersonal communication than of transmission of information, the coded observations will miss out the very processes which define informal methods. Alternative procedures of observation should be adopted to take account of the context within which teachers talk to pupils and hence to assess the meaning of an interaction, as well as recording its occurrence.

The other observer in a perspectives task.

Abstract: Summary. In Piaget and Inhelder's ‘three-mountains’ task a doll is used as ‘the other observer.’ The present experiment was conducted to investigate whether children's performance in this perspectives task would be improved if the observer was a person. Two matched groups of 20 children (mean age 6:10) were asked to select the views of another observer from a number of vantage points. A doll was used as the observer for one group and the experimenter for the other. In the experimenter group the mean correct response score was significantly higher and the mean egocentrism score significantly lower than in the doll group. This result suggests that egocentrism is not necessarily a fundamental characteristic of the young child's thinking but may result from, or be increased by, experimental design.

Personality characteristics of syllabus-bound and syllabus-free sixth-formers

Abstract: Summary. 218 upper sixth-formers at three West Riding schools were given a battery of tests and questionnaires designed to investigate relationships between personality and syllabus-boundness/syllabus-freedom. A 20-item inventory was developed and used to isolate groups of 28 sylbs and 31 sylfs. In terms of Cattell's 16PF, the sylbs were found to be significantly more conservative, controlled, conscientious and persistent, shy and cautious, and practical, and somewhat more sober, apprehensive, and group dependent. The sylbs were also found to be more dogmatic on Rokeach's scale and the suggestion is made that sylbism may be an aspect of dogmatism. In contrast to previous research, no evidence was found to link syllabus-orientation to convergence/divergence. Sylbs were found to be more conscientious in their study habits and to do better in O-level examinations.

Guessing the answer on objective tests

Abstract: Summary. Using data obtained as part of the cross-cultural IEA study on academic standards, the tendency of particular pupils to guess on multiple-choice tests was measured using an index proposed by Ziller. The amount of guessing was found to increase with the amount of reading material each item contained. English school pupils appear to be more inclined to guess than are pupils in most other Western countries. Guessing is more frequent in the public sector of education than in the independent sector. Among 14-year-olds, boys were slightly, but consistently, more likely to guess than girls. This sex difference was not apparent among children aged 10.

Confirmation of a general factor of effectiveness‐motivation by individual tests

Abstract: Summary. Following the finding of a general factor in the 11 areas of function covered by the Stott-Sharp Effectiveness-Motivation Scale for pre-school children, five individual tests exploring various aspects of effectiveness motivation were devised. These were applied to two samples of 4-year-old children (N=82). All five tests correlated positively with the E-M Scale, and all except one test correlated with the others at a generally satisfactory level of significance. These results were held to confirm the existence of a motivational factor which has been named effectiveness.

Vernacular test instructions in relation to cognitive task behaviour among highland children of papua new guinea

Abstract: Summary. Analysis of results of tests of cognitive development in Papua New Guinea children indicated that membership of different language/culture groups was an important source of variance. Three groups each of 48 children were selected from one language culture group and equated for age and sex. Two groups weremade up of school children, equated for school experience; the third group had no school experience. One group of school children was tested in English, the language of the school; the other two groups were tested in the vernacular common to all three groups. Three tasks were used: an equivalence grouping of pictures, a class inclusion test, and conservation of length. All three tests were chosen because there were language differences between English and the vernacular in labelling the components of the task. Significant differences were found between the groups in their performance on the tasks. These differences were related both to amount of school experience and language of testing but the latter was, by far, the more significant.

The contrast effect in the selection interview

Abstract: Summary. An experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of preceding interviewees' performance on the assessment of a third candidate's interview. Mock interviews of candidates applying for medical school were recorded on video-tape, and were rated by 60 subjects. A highly significant contrast effect was obtained, but it accounted for only 11 per cent of total decision variance. A candidate's own standard of performance is by far the most important factor determining his rating. The contrast effect is most influential in the assessment of candidates of intermediate performance, but it is suggested that one group of researchers may have over-estimated its importance.

Pre-school mentally handicapped children.

Abstract: Summary. Information was collected on 150 mentally handicapped children who were under 5. Many of the children had additional handicaps and all showed marked retardation in their physical, social, play and language development. The majority of parents expressed a willingness to take part in a parental involvement project. Their main concerns were with the child's speech and language development and in coping with management problems. The implications of these findings for services provided for these parents and children is discussed.

Predilection for generalising and abstracting

Abstract: Summary. This study reports the development of a sentence preference test designed to contrast tendencies to abstract, generalise and particularise in thinking. Certain terms carry both general and abstract meanings. Using such words in sentences bringing out these differing meanings provides an indication of readiness to use abstractions and generalisations. A variety of samples of secondary school pupils in the age range 11+ to 16 years were used to provide evidence of reliability and validity, and also to trace changes with age of responses to the sentences. The results confirm earlier work with a word test which showed that tendencies both to generalise and abstract increase during adolescence. The potentialities of the technique are discussed in relation to language usage and comprehension and to higher level thinking processes required during secondary school and afterwards in higher education.

Personality, mode of assessment and student achievement

Abstract: Summary. The EPI was administered to 136 full-time postgraduate Diploma in Education students. The relationships between personality, choice of method of assessment and achievement in four theory courses were investigated. Significant differences were found in each course favouring assessment totally by essay work (P < .05). In Theory of Education a significant interaction was found between neuroticism and assessment option, and in Educational Sociology extraverts achieved more highly than their relatively introverted peers. The hypotheses that introverts are more successful in structured courses and extraverts more so in relatively unstructured ones were tested and found to be supported.

Performance on two Reasoning Tasks in Relation to Intelligence, Divergence and Interference Proneness.

Abstract: Summary. In this study performance on reasoning tasks commonly used in psychological experiments was compared with scores on tests of convergent and divergent thinking. The relations between performance on a deductive and an inductive task, and scores on the AH5, Uses of Objects and Stroop tests were investigated in 38 first-year undergraduates. The results showed a positive correlation between performance on the deductive task and AH5 scores, a negative correlation between performance on the inductive task and scores on the Uses of Objects test, and a negative correlation between AH5 and Stroop scores. Implications for an analysis of the two reasoning tasks were discussed.

Skills of Analysis and Synthesis in the Early Stages of Reading.

Abstract: Summary. An examination was made of the ‘actions’ of early reading—analysis and synthesis—within the modalities of sound alone and sound with sight. The relative difficulty of these skills for a sample of forty 5 and 6-year-old children was established through an assessment of their performance of four different tasks of analysis or synthesis involving four word lists of equal difficulty. Purely auditory synthesis was found to be considerably easier than any other skill; analysis involving both sound and sight was found to be by far the most difficult.

Creativity and achievement in Nuffield physics.

Abstract: Summary. Tests of creativity, intelligence and attitude towards science were administered to a group of 110 pupils who were also candidates for the Nuffield ordinary level physics examination. No support was found for the hypothesis that creativity would be related to performance in Nuffield Physics of which the most important correlate was general intelligence. Verbal and figural creativity emerged as separate factors and verbal creativity was found to be weakly related to verbal intelligence.

Laterality and Reading Attainment.

Abstract: Summary. 60 children with reading ages 18 months or more below their chronological ages, were compared with a control group of the same size who had average or above average reading ages. Both groups completed a laterality questionnaire relating to different aspects of perception and handedness. Inconsistencies in the different aspects of laterality were found, making connections between laterality and attainment more complex than has previously been assumed. However, showing a complete set of unilateral characteristics was still the best predictor of reading attainment, while using either hand, being ‘left eared’ and mixtures of eye and hand usage were associated with retarded reading.

The factorial structure of wechsler's preschool and primary scale of intelligence at successive age levels

Abstract: Summary. A factor analysis of the correlation matrix for the subtests of WPPSI was carried out for each of the age groups between 4 and 6½ years. The data were obtained from the WPPSI standardisation samples. In each analysis, three factors were extracted and two of these, after equimax rotation, were found to give patterns of loadings which were similar for all age groups. The rotated factors were identified as verbal intelligence, space performance and comprehension. Order analysis of the same data tended to support the notion that these factors could be also arranged into a circular order along with various tests of WPPSI. Using a likelihood ratio test for the Guttman ‘circumplex’ structure, the correlation matrix for the 4-year age group was analysed and the result provides clear support for the postulated circular arrangement of the tests. The circumplex ordering of WPPSI suggests a systematic ordering according to the law of neighbouring variables and is found to be more parsimonious and less subjective in interpreting than the results emerging from the traditional factor analysis.

Replicative studies in hierarchical learning of graphical interpretation skills

Abstract: Summary. Three important deficiencies of learning hierarchy validation studies—inadequate scope, inappropriate validation technique and lack of replicative data—were identified, and substantially resolved in the construction and replicate validation of a comprehensive network of graphical interpretation skills. The two parallel validation studies involved 204 grade 8 students in Queensland and 212 grade 8 students in South Australia, both groups containing approximately equal numbers of male and female students. The results in both validation studies were relatively consistent, substantiating the postulated learning hierarchy and thus providing further supportive evidence for Gagne's model of hierarchical learning.

University students: attainment and sport.

Abstract: Summary. The extent to which 230 university students following a one-year psychology course were ‘active’ (i.e., competitively or recreatively involved) in sport or ‘non-participant’ was compared with their scores on measures of personality, attitude, social class, sex, previous school involvement in sport, and attainment in university course work. Active students were, on average, more stable and extraverted, more likely to have been active in sport at school and were equally successful in course-work as non-participant students.

Personality differences between both intended and actual social sciences and engineering majors

Abstract: Summary. The Maudsley Personality Inventory was used in a search for personality differences between 139 social science and 328 engineering upperclassmen. Social science majors scored significantly higher than the engineers on the neuroticism scale. A second study of 454 high school seniors showed that those who indicated a preference for a social science major also scored significantly higher on neuroticism than high school seniors who wanted to major in engineering. The results were interpreted to mean that social science and engineering attract different types of people. The over-representation of social science majors and under-representation of engineers in radical political groups was discussed from the point of view of the personality factors influencing the choice of majors.