Showing papers on "Academic achievement published in 1977"

Problem Behavior and Psychosocial Development: A Longitudinal Study of Youth

Abstract: This study is the 2nd phase of a long-term program of research on problem behavior. The approach to theory testing involves a longitudinal design. The study plots trajectories of change over time in personality social environment and behavior and uses the theory to forecast important transitions--beginning to drink starting to use marijuana and becoming a nonvirgin. The book has 4 main sections: 1) an introductory chapter and a chapter describing problem-behavior theory and research design and method 2) the cross-sectional findings and their bearing on the theory 3) the longitudinal findings and 4) studies of socialization and conclusions. Using adolescents and youths in American society in the late 1960s and early 1970s this research represents a logical continuation of a long term interest in problem behavior and a recognition that what was going on among youth and in the student movement can be viewed from a problem-behavior perspective. This high school study began in the spring of 1969 with grades 7 8 and 9; by the end of the study in 1972 these participants had all made the transition from junior to senior high school of grades 10 11 and 12. Each year each participant completed a 50 page questionnaire inquiring about their drug use sexual behavior alcohol drinking and the problem behavior associated with excessive use of alcohol. Some of the major findings suggest that: 1) the prevalence of problem behaviors is substantial at the college level and while much lower sizable at the high school level; 2) personal controls appear to be most influential in relation to the set of problem behaviors motivational-instigations are next and personal beliefs are least; 3) the adolescent who is less likely to engage in problem behavior is one who values academic achievement and expects to do well academically; 4) within the distal structure the variables that indicate whether a youth is parent-oriented or peer-oriented are the most significant; and 5) the developmental changes most often measured in connection with growth trends are growth of independence decline in traditional ideology related to achievement value and society as a whole assumption of a more relativistic and tolerant morality attenuation of conventional norms and religious beliefs increase in peer influence and increase in problem behavior itself. Overall it would be an important step forward for prevention and control if problem behavior in youth came to be seen as part of the dialectic of growth.

Do Schools Make a Difference

Abstract: Parents, courts, and legislatures have been struggling to define equal educational opportunity (minimum achievement level for all? minimum growth in achievement? differential growths in achievements?). At the same time, economists, sociologists, and educators have been struggling to identify which package of school inputs is required for each type of student to equip him or her for educational growth. Most empirical attempts to identify which inputs matter have concluded that schools barely make a difference. From this conclusion has flowed a prevailing nihilism with respect to schools as an egalitarian force. We conclude, on the basis of a microeconometric examination of Philadelphia School District data, 1) that many school inputs do matter, 2) that disadvantaged students can be helped by particular types of inputs, and 3) that the use of pupil-specific data, and statistical methods appropriate to such data, account for the cheerier results of this study. Little theory, economic or otherwise, is currently available to describe the determinants of educational achievement. Casual observation, combined with the education literature, suggests that achievement (A ) is a function of a student's hard-to-disentangle genetic endowment and socioeconomic status (GSES), teacher quality (TQ), non-teacher school quality (SQ), and peer group characteristics (PG). Thus,

Symposium: learning processes and strategies—iii

Abstract: SUMMARY. Detailed information was collected by interview from a sample of 30 first-year education students, who took part in a learning experiment and described their approaches to their normal studies. It was found that the distinction between holistic and atomistic cognitive approaches was consistent over different occasions when students were asked to read and to recall their knowledge of the two texts in the experiment. This concept of cognitive approach also had a functional relationship with academic attainment, helping to explain not only examination success, but also other aspects of the students' approaches to studying.

Student Ratings of Instruction and Their Relationship to Student Learning

Abstract: Student ratings of instruction were correlated with examination performance in 72 sections of seven courses. In two of the courses, students had been randomly assigned to sections. The pattern of correlations across the courses indicated that the global ratings of teacher effectiveness and of the value of the course to students were most highly related to mean exam performance (12 out of 24 product-moment and partial correlations were 58 or above). Ratings of course objectives and organizations, and of the quality of lectures were also fairly well correlated with achievement. Ratings of other aspects of instruction, such as the teacher-student relationship or the difficulty/workload of the course, were not highly related to achievement scores.

Effects of Age, Sex, and Physical Attractiveness on Child-Peer Relations, Academic Performance, and Elementary School Adjustment.

Abstract: Effects of age, sex, and physical attractivenss for fourth- (n =56, 61% male) and sixth-grade (« =48, 50% male) children's (94% white) actual and perceived social, personal, and academic development were assessed. Subjects physical attractiveness was rated by 97 adults who viewed standardly posed photographs of them. Teachers rated subjects for academic ability and adjustment. Actual academic performance was indexed by grade point averages. Actual adjustment was measured through subsections of the California Test of Personality. Positive and negative peer relations scores were derived from peer nominations. Results were that physical attractiveness was positively related to positive peer relations, teachers' appraisals of academic ability and adjustment, and was negatively related to negative peer relations. Evidence was found for relations among physical attractiveness, grade point average, and actual adjustment. No sex or grade effects obtained. Organismic developmental notions, specifying how a child's physical attributes provide a basis of his own development, were discussed.

Teaching Styles and Pupil Progress.

Abstract: 1\ eville Bennett and his colleagues at the University of Lancaster have written an important and timely book, Teaching Styles and Pupil Progress.* Basing his conclusions on research conducted in Lancashire and Cumbrie, England, Ben nett says unequivocally that formal methods of teaching are associated with greater progress in the "basic skills" than are informal, open methods. Publication of this book in Britain

Teenage status of hyperactive and nonhyperactive learning disabled boys

Abstract: Three groups of learning disabled boys--hyperactives, normoactives, and hypoactives--were studied in grade school, reevaluated at fourteen. At follow-up, all three groups remained at disadvantage to controls on academic and cognitive measures and on complex reaction time. Half the hyperactives had experienced major conflicts with authority, and over a third of hypoactives exhibited psychologically disturbing behaviors. Mental health of normoactives appeared comparable to controls.

Intensive second language study: effects on attitudes, motivation and french achievement†

Abstract: This study examined changes in students' attitudes, motivation and French achievement during a five-week, residential, summer program. Sixty-two students were administered a battery of attitude and motivation tests as well as a test of oral French proficiency prior to, and upon completion of the course. In addition, both teacher-ratings and self-ratings of French language skills were collected at several time periods during the course. Data were analysed across the various testings for three groupings of students (i.e., beginning, intermediate, or advanced). Changes in attitudes, motivation and French proficiency were observed and the course was particularly effective in increasing student motivation to learn French and in promoting a rather rapid improve- ment in oral/aural skills. The pattern of attitude changes was more complex as both positive and negative shifts were observed. Possible implications of these findings for similar programs are discussed.

An analysis of daily report cards and parent‐managed privileges in the improvement of adolescents' classroom performance

Abstract: A daily report-card system, involving home privileges administered by parents, was developed for use with "problem" junior-high students. In Experiment I, when home privileges and parent praise were contingent on improved school conduct, classwork, daily grades, and teacher satisfaction, the school performance of three students improved considerably. In Experiment II, a similar report-card system was employed with two additional students, except only parent praise was contingent on improved school performance. Under these conditions, one of the students did not bring the report card home, and class performance did not improve until contingent home privileges were added. The school performance of the second student improved with the card and praise alone. However, there appeared to be a slow decline of classwork performance over time. For Experiment III, an instructional manual, describing the report-card program, was written for school guidance counsellors. Two guidance counsellors read the program, used it with one student each, and found that the school performance of both students improved. These results suggest that the daily report-card program with home consequences administered by parents can improve the school performance of, and teacher satisfaction about, students having considerable difficulty in school.

Begle Revisited: Teacher Knowledge and Student Achievement in Algebra.

Abstract: Begle (1972) investigated the extent to which a teacher's knowledge of algebra influences student performance. His results showed no educationally significant correlation between teacher knowledge and student performance. Moreover, Begle's findings were in accord with other studies (Copeland & Doyle, 1973; Hunkler, 1968; Hurst, 1967; Keeves, 1972; Norris, 1968; Rouse, 1967). Teacher-training programs are built on the assumption that teachers do influence student learning. Grading procedures, curriculum committees, and certifying agencies are just a few of the safeguards built into the system to ensure that teachers have measured up to a set of standards. Hence, there is a fundamental belief that teachers influence learning, but the studies above seem to indicate otherwise.

High School Context and College Selectivity: Institutional Constraints in Educational Stratification

Abstract: Does where one goes to college depend on the kind of high school attended? And what are the consequences of attending a more or less academically selective college or university? These questions are evaluated separately for college men and women using longitudinal data from a national sample of youth who were high school sophomores in 1955, and controlling for individual family background, ability, and school curriculum. For males, but not females, the social status composition of high school was found to enhance one's prospects for attending a selective institution of higher education. College selectivity, in turn, had total salutary effects on educational attainment, despite its depressant effect on undergraduate grade performance and academic

Children's Beliefs in Internal-External Control and Self-Esteem as Related to Academic Achievement

Abstract: Previous work has shown high self-esteem to be related to an internal locus of control (LOC) orientation. Both have been shown to be related to academic achievement. It was hypothesized that LOC and self-esteem are each independently related to achievement, and that these relationships may vary according to the sex of the child and the measure of achievement used. Subjects were 113 ten-year-old, fourth grade children, 60 males and 53 females. They were administered questionnaire measures of LOC and self-esteem (Nowicki-Strickland and Piers-Harris). An internal LOC orientation was significantly related to greater academic achievement and high self-esteem. Males' LOC scores were related to grade point averages and not achievement test scores, while the reverse held for females. Differential socialization of females from males might account for the lack of a relationship between grades and LOC.

The Academic Achievement of Black Students in Desegregated Schools: A Critical Review

Abstract: s International, 1970, 81-A, 5040. (Univerisity Microfilms No. 71-10, 401) McClelland, D. C. Measuring motivation in phantasy: The achievement motive. In H. Guetzkow (Ed.), Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, 1951. McPartland, J. The segregated student in desegregated schools: Final report to the Center for the Study of Social Organization of Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1968. Mosteller, F., & Moynihan, D. P. (Eds.). On equality of educational opportunity. New York: Random House, l972.(a) Mosteller, F., & Moynihan, D. P. A pathbreaking report. In F. Mosteller & D. P. Moynihan (Eds.), On equality of educational opportunity. New York: Random House, l972.(b) Nunnally, J. C. Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. Pettigrew, T. F., Useem, E. L., Normand, C, & Smith, M. S. Busing: A review of \"the evidence.\" The Public Interest, 1973, 30, 88-118. Prichard, P. N. The effects of desegregation on selected variables in the Chapel Hill school system (Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1969). Dissertation Abstracts International, 1969, 30-A, 3697. (University Microfilms No. 70-3301) (a) Prichard, P. N. Effects of desegregation on student success in the Chapel Hill schools. Integrated Education, 1969,1, 33-38. (b) St. John, N.H. Desegregation and minority group performance. Review of Educational Research, 1970, 40, 111-133. St. John, N. H. School desegregation: Outcomes for children. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1975. St. John, N. H., & Lewis, R. The influence of school racial context on academic achievement. Social Problems, 1971,19, 68-78. Samuels, J. M. Busing, reading, and self in New Haven. Integrated Education, 1972,10, 23-28. Singer, H., Gerard, H. B., & Redfearn, D. Achievement. In H. B. Gerard & N. Miller (Eds.), School desegregation. New York: Plenum Press, 1975. Smith, M. S. Equality of education opportunity: The basic findings reconsidered. In F. Mosteller & D. P. Moynihan (Eds.), On equality of educational opportunity. New York: Random House, 1972. Stallings, F. H. A study of the immediate effects of integration on scholastic achievement in the Louisville public schools. Journal of Negro Education, 1959, 28, 439-444. U. S. Commission on Civil Rights. Racial isolation in the public schools (Vol. 1). Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1967. Weinberg, M. The relationship between school desegregation and academic achievement: A review of the research. Law and Contemporary Problems, 1975, 39, 241-270. Weinberg, M. Minority students: A research appraisal. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, in press. Weinstein, E. A., & Geisel, P. N. Family decision-making over desegregation. Sociometry, 1962, 25, 21-29. Wilson, A. Educational consequences of segregation in a California community. In Appendix C-3 (Vol. 2) of U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, Racial Isolation in the Public Schools. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1967. Zdep, S. M. Educating disadvantaged urban school children in suburban schools: An evaluation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1971, 1, 173-186.

Strategies of learning and studying: recent research findings

Abstract: (1977). Strategies of learning and studying: Regent research findings. British Journal of Educational Studies: Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 225-238.

An Analysis of Students' Satisfaction with Their Academic Program.

Abstract: Postsecondary institutions are faced with many questions regarding the value and effectiveness of their academic programs, heightened by the economic milieu of education and the rise of student con...