Showing papers on "Academic achievement published in 1972"

How Effective Is Schooling? A Critical Review and Synthesis of Research Findings.

Abstract: The results of a critical survey of research on educational effectiveness, performed to assess the current state of knowledge regarding the determinants of educational outcomes, are reported. An input-output approach was used to analyze the relationship between the amounts of various resources provided to students and the educational outcomes. Other approaches used were the process approach, the organizational approach, the evaluation approach, and the experimental approach. It was found that school resources are ,'r.)t consistently important, and that the role of peer-group influences is complex. Major implications of the research include the following; (1) Research has not identified a variant of the existing system ,chat is consistently related to students' educational outcomes; (2) Increasing expenditures on traditional educational practices is not likely to improve educational outcomes substantially; and (3) There seem to be opportunities for significant reduction of redirection of educational expenditures without deterioration in educational outcomes. (For related document, see ED 058 473.) (Author/CR)

Personal Causation Training in the Schools1

Abstract: Black elementary school teachers received personal causation training and designed and implemented classroom exercises for their sixth and seventh grade classes. Results of this field experiment showed increased motivation of teachers and students, enhanced academic achievement of students and students' perceptions of being treated as Origins. The Origin-Pawn variable was found to mediate between personal causation and academic achievement.

Expectations and the Educational Environment

Abstract: The concept of an "expectancy effect," as a determinant of educational outcomes, has been receiving much attention during the past several years. Beginning with the popularization of the Rosenthal and Jacobson studies (1968a, 1968b), educators have been engaged in a flurry of activity to ensure that pupils will not be deprived of learning opportunities, due to teachers' biases. Countless teachers, administrators, and school board members have discussed the problem, as have concerned parents. And for those who consider standardized test results as worse than useless, the definitive piece of evidence has been found. Teachers must not know the IQ scores of their pupils. In the research community, there has also been a flurry of activity. The Rosenthal and Jacobson studies have been attacked as being methodologically incorrect, overinterpreted, and not adequate in terms of identifying the teacher behaviors which produce higher or lower achievement results in pupils perceived as bright or dull, respectively (e.g. Snow, 1969; Elashoff & Snow, 1971; Thomdike, 1968). In addition, numerous researchers have attempted to replicate the major finding, that teacher's knowledge of pupil ability affects his treatment of the pupil, and ultimately, the pupil's further achievement. Among them are published studies by Jose and Cody (1971), Fleming and Anttonen (1971), Claiborn (1969), and Rubovits and Maehr (1971). Very few have succeeded in finding support for the "expectation hypothesis." The attempts at replication are well-summarized by the concluding remarks of one such study. "No significant differences were found in IQ, achievement, students' grades or behavior, and no differences were observed in teacher behavior." In addition, "The

Does Intelligence Cause Achievement?: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis

Abstract: The literature of cognitive development has produced two opposing models of mental growth. One holds that the acquisition of concrete mental skills causes the later development of higher order organizational schema or rules. The contrasting model postulates a progression in which the initial acquisition of larger schema results in the increased capacity to acquire new concrete skills. While both probably operate to some extent, an attempt was made in this research to determine the preponderant developmental sequence. The scores of 5,495 students who had taken intelligence and achievement, tests in both fourth and sixth grades were analyzed through the use of the cross-lagged panel correlation technique. For students of suburban schools (N = 3,994), the abstract-to-concrete causal sequence predominated, while among inner-city school children, the opposite held. The specific causal relationships between skills assessed on the various subscales of the tests employed, the value of the cross-lagged panel correlation technique in causal analysis, and an extensive methodological examination and qualification of this analytic model are presented.

A Study of Our Nation's Schools.

Abstract: DOCUMENT RESUME

Personality and academic attainment

Abstract: Summary. Research using the scales developed by Eysenck and Cattell is reviewed at school level and in higher education. The results suggest an age effect in which academic success at primary school is linked to stable extra-version, while success at university is associated with introversion. This simple pattern is, however, complicated by a variety of interactions which indicate that the relationships may differ with intellectual level, with type of institution and with the subject being studied. There is also a suggestion that the style of teaching may affect the relationships between personality and attainment. Finally, evidence on the stability of scores on the JEPI is used to question the direction of causality normally assumed in the interactions.

Test Anxiety and Study Habits

Abstract: The relationship of facilitating (AAT+) and debilitating (AAT-) test anxiety and study habits was studied. Students with low AAT— scores have more effective study habits and avoid delaying academic tasks. This suggests that test anxious Ss’ (high AAT-) test performance is partially affected by ineffective pre-examination behavior.

The relation of internal-external control to academic performance.

Abstract: MESSER, STANLEY B. The Relation of Internal-External Control to Academic Performance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1972, 43, 1456-1462. Children who perceived their academic performance as contingent on their own effort and abilities (internals) were compared on school grades and on tests of academic achievement with children who viewed their school performance as due to luck or the whims of others (externals). Internals were shown to have higher grades and achievement test scores than externals even when IQ and cognitive impulsivity were statistically controlled. Boys who took credit for their academic successes and girls who accepted blame for their failures were those most likely to have higher grades and higher achievement test scores.

School quality and the black-white achievement gap

Abstract: Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that schools have a substantial effect on the differential. The majority of the expansion of the achievement gap with age occurs between rather than within schools, and specific school and peer factors exert a significant effect on the growth in the achievement gap. Unequal distributions of inexperienced teachers and of racial concentrations in schools can explain all of the increased achievement gap between grades 3 and 8. Moreover, non-random sample attrition for school changers and much higher rates of special education classification and grade retention for blacks appears to lead to a significant understatement of the increase in the achievement gap with age within the ECLS and other data sets.

The relationship of visualization skills to achievements in freshman chemistry

Abstract: Describes a study of the relationship of visualization skills to achievements in freshman chemistry and its results.

Teachers' Marks, Achievement Test Scores, and Aptitude Relations with Respect to Social Class, Race, and Sex.

Abstract: Obtained the records of 443 7th graders on the California Test of Mental Maturity, Metropolitan Achievement Tests, and teachers' grades. These records were then correlated with Ss' sex, race (black or white), and social class (advantaged or disadvantaged). Results indicate that over all, standardize

Communication of Teacher Expectations and Their Effects on Achievement and Attitudes of Secondary School Students

Abstract: Effects of teacher expectancies upon student behavior were investigated by giving teachers data indicating that certain average ability students were intellectually superior. Dependent measures were the Category System of Observations, which measured teacher-student interaction; academic achievement tests given during the first and ninth weeks of school; and measures of six school related attitudes. Using a pretest?posttest design, only change in teacher-student interaction was significant, the interaction becoming more positive, with more time being spent with the ostensibly superior student. Implications for research and the classroom are discussed, including the suggestion that positive student behavior shapes teacher behavior. EXTENSIVE research by Rosenthal and his associates (9) supports the existence of an ex perimenter effect in behavioral research. Accord ing to Rosenthal, such effects are present when experimenters tend to obtain results consistent with their expectations. Pitt (6) and Flowers (4) have applied the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy to the educational setting and have reported that a teacher's expectations about a student's ability level may affect the student's classroom perform ance. Further, Rosenthal and Jacobson (10) reported significant changes in the reported IQ's of first and second grade students as the result of the teacher expecting the "special pupils" to "bloom" intellectually. Rosenthal and Jacobson (10) investigated the amount of time teachers spent with students as a possible explanation for performance differ ences and found no significant difference between the amount of time teachers spent with experi mental and control students. They concluded it was not the amount of time spent with the chil dren which led to the differences in their rates of intellectual development, but rather the quality of the interaction. Two methodological points should be made regarding Rosenthal and Jacobson's investigation of the time variable. First, the time measure con sisted of the teacher's subjective estimation of time spent with a student following the comple tion of the study. This method of assessment is clearly susceptible to distortion. Secondly, Chap pie (2) in a series of earlier studies did not differentiate between amount of time spent inter acting and quality of the interaction. An analy sis of the quality and quantity of teacher student interaction should attempt to clarify this relationship.

Locus of Control, Interpersonal Trust and Academic Achievement

Abstract: The present study examined the relationship of locus of control, interpersonal trust and academic performance of 133 college students. Internality and trust were significantly negatively related to...