• No results found

1957 XVII 623 - 627

4. Ames, R. 1975 QE ill

35.

the pupil, if the pupil succeeded.

These studies have several common characteristics. All the studies created artificial situations in a laboratory to teach one or two children for a short period of time (a maximum of thirty minutes). In studies conducted separately by Johnson et al1

2· 3

Beckman and Brandt et al the pupils were fictitous and the subjects did not even see them. In other studies, the subjects could see the pupils but did not interact with them. In addition, the studies by Ames

4

and Brandt et al

5

the subjects were college stud~nts who did not have any teaching experience.

Another area where extensive studies had been done with respect to academic performance is the prediction of academic success. In general however, most of these studies have concerned themselves with the rela.tionships between college grades and such factors

---

---1. Johnson, T. et al: "Some determinants and consequences of teacher's perception of causation" Journal of Educational Psychology

1964 55 237 - 246.

2. BeCkman, L.

1973

.QE Ci t.

3.

Brandt et al 1975 QE Cit ,

as high school grades, special aptitudes, various achievement tests and academic aptitude test scores. Cobb1 employed a correlational

design with behavioural categories serving as predictors and standardised achievement test scores as criteria. Separate correlational and regression analyses were performed for:

(a) the total group of subjects (b) male and female subsamples, and

(c) high and low socio-economic status subsamples.

The study conducted by Hall et a12 included a set of

regression analysis in which a measure of attention was included as a predictor of standardised achievement test scores. Separ-ate analyses were done for mathematics and reading achievement and for data collected in the fall and spring. No significant relations were reported for the attention measure.'

With the work of Mckinney et a13 a set of 12 composite

behavioural categories was formed from 27 discrete categories served as predictors within regression analysis.

1. Cobb, J.: "Relationship of discrete classroom behaviours to fourth-grade academic achievement" Journal of Educ(3,tionalPsychology, 1972

§l 74 - 80.

2. Hall, V. et a1.: "Attention and achievement exhibited by black and whi te :-:,:1-,-1')1boys" Journal of Educational Psychology 1977 6, '115 - 120.

3. Mckinney et a1.: "Relationship between classroom behavrour and academic achdevcmerrt" Journal of Educa.tional Psychology,

1975 iI 198 - 203.

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37.

A composite achievement index based on standardised test scores served as criterion. Three separate regression equations were calculated; one using behaviour collected in the fall to predict fall achievement, one using behaviour collected in the spring to predict spring achievement, and one using behaviour collected in the fall to predict spring achievement.

On the other hand Perkins1 used frequencies within

12

behaviour categories as depended variables within a set of t - tests.

This involved the following comparisons for each of the

12

categories;

underachieving with achieving boys, underachieving with achieving girls and underachieving with achieving pupils (male and female combined).

The achievement groups were formed on the basis of teachers grades and IQ scores.

The relationship between pupil attention scores and reading achievement were examined by Samuels and Turnure2 using anCllysisof variance and correlational analysis. Reading achievement was

measured in terms of performance on a word recognition task. In the

---1. Perkins, H.: "Classroom behaviour ::md underachievement"

American Educational Research Journal.

1965

2 1 - 12.

2. Samuels, S. &Turnure, J.: "Attention and reading achievement

in first grade boys and girls" Journal of Educational Psychology,

1974 66 29 - 32

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study of SolI and Devine1 a set of behavioural categories served as predictors of standardised achievement test scores within correlational and regression analyses.

A survey of these studies reveals some patterns with

respect to behaviour-achievement relations. Positive relations between measures of pupil attention and pupil performance appear with some consistency, while generally negative relations appear between measures of pupil inattention (e.g. inattention, looking around, distractible behaviour) and performance measures. Further, teacher-pupil interaction measures reflecting level of academic activity (e.g. pupil-initiated work contacts, vOlunteering)

relate positively to performance •. Those teacher-pupil interaction variables which reflect teacher attention to the pupil show rather more complex relations with achievement. While negative teacher

contacts (e.g. criticisms, behavioural warnings) generally relate negatively to achievement, positive types of attention (e.g. teacher initiated work interactions) show more variable relations with

All of these studies were descriptive intent, that is, they achievement.

were designed to generate data on the degree of association between

1. Soli, S. & Devine, V.: "Behavioural correlates of achievement - A look at high and low achievers"; Journal of Educational Psychology 1976 68

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39.

behavioural categories and achievemento Unfortunately, the researchers did not go far enough in the sense that no efforts were made to directly assess the behaviour - achievement linkso

Factors other than behavioural change could have produced the achievement gains observed in the experimental subjectso The survey of these studies reveals that, at best, only moderate degrees of association have been established between classroom behaviours and academic achievemento Further, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding factors which mediate the behaviour - achievement relations and considerable uncertainty regarding the nature of these relations. It is therefore necessary to generate studies with respect to behav i.ourwhich are associated with achievement and also to factors mediating the behaviour - achievement relations.

Not only that different researchers have reported different degrees of correlation between measures of ability and those of academic performance but most often the reported degree of correlation is als~so unstable that no genuine inference can be based on it. For instance, Gupta (1971)1reported that ability and performance are related to the degree of only 0038 (N

=

50)0

.---1. Gupta, Vo: "The relations of neuroticism extraversion intelligence and persistence to educational at.t.adrrtrnent.v , ~al of Psychological Researches 1971 15 86 - 870

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When interpreted with the help of its S. Er (0.143) this degree of correlation has a range from minus 0.04 to plus 0.80.

The following causes of disagreement among researchers

on the issue of academic performance stand out from previous researches.

(1) Different researchers differed in the issue of measures of academic performance. Some based their measures of

performance on the scores obtained on the standardisod tests of academic achievement, others used grade-point

average and in most of the studies, examination marks based on essay-type of tests were used.

(2) Different researchers have differed in using different kinds of statistical and theoretical assumptions. Some statisti-cians like Bloomers and Lindquist1 are of the view that measures of academic performance ,pertaining to different

subjects of curriculum are additive when coverted into standard scores, whereas some psychometricians like Gulford2

held that only those measures which are perfeclty correlated with each other are additive.

From the studies reviewed so far, individual differences

among pupils in terms of measured abilities, educational background,

---1. Bloomers, P. & Lindquist, E.: Elementary Statistical Methods in Psychology and Education. Oxford Book Co.

Calcutta 1960.

2. Guilford, J. P.: Psychometric Methods; McGraw Hill Book Co. Inc.

New York 1954.

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41.•.

socir.-economic and family characteristics, goals and aspirutions, attitudes towards learning etc. exist and influence differentially students' gradeso And, as long as the school reward system is based on grades in subjects and courses, the continued study of student characteristics as they relate to performance is necessaryo It follows that anything which can be done to

improve poor academac performance will contribute to individual and social accomplishment and well being. The present study, therefore, is an attemct to improve poor academic performance in a group of Nigerian secondary school pupils using two group counselling strategies which will be compared with each other and with a control situationo

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A Conceptual Scheme for Poor Academic Performance In Schools

Until now, attention has been focussed upon the s~ecjfication of the conditions under which poor academic performance occurs and upon the delineation of the individual charactersir.ics, especially those involving educational and,institutional commitments that are needed to account for the vnriation of differing types of low achiever, a behaviour among differing individualsg One can now turn to the specification of the lcngitudina~ process of interactions by which difering individuals came to perform poorly in a school.

This theoretical model of poor academi,cperformance diagranliu0d

in Figure 1 argues that the procesS of pCJor academic performance can be viewed as a longitudinal process of interactions between

the individual and the academic and social systems of the institution during which a person's experiences in those sy~tems (as measured by his n~tive ~ structural integration) continually modify his goal, and institutional commitments in ways which lead to in

~sistence poor academic performance.

Individuals enter institutions with a variety of attributes (e.g. sex, ability),,. pre-school experiendes (eog. academic and social attainments) and family bac:kgrounds. (e.go social status

J

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43.

attributes, value climates, expecta.tional climates), each of which has direct and indirect .impact.supon performance in

schoo l.s, More importantly, these backgrounds, charact.erLstLcs and individual attributes also influence the development of the

educational expectations and commitments the individual brings with him into the school env.i.ronment.,It is those '002.1s and

institutional commitments that are both important l~;r\2dictors of and reflections of the person's experiences, his dis···

appointments and satisfaction in that institutional 2nvironmcnt.

Given individual characteristics, prior exper-Iences and commitments, the model argues that it is the individual's integration into the academic and social systems of the school that most directly relates to his performance in a school.

Given prior levels of goal and institutional commitment, it is the person's normative and structural integration into the academic and social systems, that lead to new levels of

commitment. Other things being equal, the higher the d,,;gree of integration of the individual into the school systems, the greater will be his commitment to the specific institution and to the goa~ of school compl~tl~Q.

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I Famil'}:---l

i

Background

!-!--Individual---, Attri0ut0sl~ - -'!

--...--.

/

lpre-'Seconda~y

I

Schooling

A CONC]::~TU_NL!3CHJ:~tA fQiU2QQILj\C:-= ':2£';"~1'~.P.hPJ.7~ORl~1i:0i(;:I;:

Commitments

I

r- . .-.,

1 ~ Goal r

t __

~O~it~~_r

r--- --.-- --- ---Institutional lCommitment

.~!~ .

~ademic System

. i

r

[

- --. -- -. I

..

-

.._- ..,,-.~.--.- .,

Grade Performance

./

r-

I~tell-~ct~~i

I

,Development

t ; .___ I

i.."

I

i--~ 0

~:

1_--- 1

. --~~

• / f

_i

Peer-Group.

Interactions

-----,----- ---.!

.---_

, ...

_-

.

School Int~ractions

I ---

---l- .. - - - - - -- .- _.

- --- -- --.- -j

i

Social System

Figure 10

. . -;---- r-'

F.cao.2mlC ' integration ),!

social.

-:I

~_~t~~~at~~_

Commitments

I -

Go~i

--t C~m_i tment

I

I

I I

··:·l

1

I t Ul-:'tit~tio~~l

.f ~ CornmitEent

f .--.

----_-0

--- --:t- - ---- -

-,

r

~ .

! ----:.

-".-.--.

---,.

'.'

. I

AcademicPoor 1

i f Ferformant~

I

...-.--. .,..-- ..-~..---..-:

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I

45.

In the final analysis, it is the interplay between

the individual's commitments to the goal of school completion and his commitment to the institution that deb:rmines whether or not the individual performs poorlyo Presumably either low goal commitment or low institutional commitment can lead to poor academic performanceo Largely, The result of the pupils

experience in the academic domain may lead to low performanee.

Intellectual Factors As Predictors -~·-Ot--Ac~dernIC Performance

Before turIling to the literature en the relationship

between intellectual ability and academic performance, one needs, first to discuss the meaning of intelligenceo The issues

surrounding this question are quite complex and have been subject to controversy for a long timeo It would requjre a very extended treatment to explore them adequatelyo For this, reason, a summary of the few of the maLn points shall only be done ,

Most people would agree that intelligence and ability tests

measure dimensions of prOblem-solving capacityo However, there is much less agr(:ement regarding the source-s of this capacity.

Theoretical positions on this t.opLc can be summarised under three headings:- First is the position th~t the intelligence test score

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is an index of inherited ability; second is the environmentalist view that intelligence is largely a product of cultural factors, and finally, there is the opinion that intelligence level is determined by the interaction of hereditary and environmental factors. The last position now has the support of most social scientists, although this orientation includes two factions, one maintaining that environment is relatively more important and

the other, that hereditary is more significant.

While the question is not fully resolved at present, it is clear that inherited ability is only one factor determining an intelligence test score. The various factors that may be influential have been described by Goslin1.

"A person's test score reflects a ~umber of different factors •••• The major variables are the individuals inherited potential both in terms of (1) general intelligence and (2) specific capacities for training plus the environment in which the organism has developed.

With t he general category of environmental influences are the effects of (3) the individual's cultural background (4) his formal training experience (school and the like) (5) his experiences with similar tests and (6) his

general health".

1. Goslin, D.: The search for Ability: Standardised testing in social Perspective. Russel Sage Foundation;

New York 1963 151 - 152.

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47.

Whatever may be the relative importance of these factors in determining ability scores, success in school requires, in part certain cognitive skills. Horeovcr, these skills are measured, to a significant degn~e by intelligence tcsts, For this reason , these tests are moderately successful in predicting ~cademic perf ormance.

Studies that use ability measures to predict academic peL'-formance exhibit considerable variation" A major respect in which studies vary, is in their concern with global as against multidimensional prediction.. This distinction is applicable 't.o the criteria of acaoenuc performance as well as to the predictors .•

By global predictors or criteria wh~t is r.:::ferrcd-to,is the use of a~S'tngle, ()verall me<isure of·ability and/or aCudemic performance;

while multi~ensional ~redictors or criteria refer to the use of a number of specific dimensions of ability and/or performance .•

Another kind of variation in the research Lnvo.Ivns sex

composition of study samples. Some studies use all male samples;

some use all females; others are md.xed , ....iithinthe last group, some~trol this factor by reporting findings separately for eaCh

SQ){. and oth€c~ do- ~.

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The research shows that the best predictions are obtained from mUltiple correlations in which a batt.-:ryof intellective variables is used to predict th~ overall grade-point average.

Studies using a global ability measure to predict overall school performance obtain somewhat lower correlation. In both types of studies, the single best predictor of'performance at the post secondary school level is the secondary school academic recordo However, thi.sis due in part to the fact that secondary school grades are determined by many factors in addition to measured intellectual ability. The results of studies using differential prediction aopr-oach are not consistent primarily because much of the research is not compar~leo

C~ all educational levels, the highest correlations are

obtained ror the secondary school level; the post secondary school level ranks next, and the graduate level is lowest. Data for elementary scheol pupils are too scarce to allow a meaningful generalisation. The greater association between ability and performance in secondary school as compared with other levels is probably the result of the wider ability distribution at the

level.

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49.

Cronbach 1 reported one study in which C~rrelations between

intelligence and grades were 0.55. Travers2 found that correlations between intelligence and grades ran between 0.50 and 0.75 at the primary school levels. GOU9h3 obtained correlations of from 0.62 to 0.80 with three samples of secondary school seniors Carter4

found correlations of about 0.60 for three samples.

These studies suggest that for the pos~-secondary school level, ability and grades are correlated at about 0.60. This is somewhat higher than the findings for the post secondary school level where the average correlation is about 0.50. In all

probability this difference is due primarily to the wider range of ability at the secondary school level. At the post secondary

1. Cronbach, l. J.~ Essentials of Psychological Testing, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1949.

2. Travers, R. W.: "Significant research on the prediction of academic success"; The Measurement of Student Adjustment and Achievement Univ. of Michigan Pres.

1949.

3. Gough, H.: "What determines the academic achievement of high school students?"; Journal of Educational Research 1953 46 321 - 331.

4. Carter, H.: "Improving the prediction of school achievement by use of the California study Methods Survey";

Educational Administration and Supervision 1959

45 255 - 260

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50.

school level, admission procedures tend to eliminate those of low ability. As the ability ranges become narrower, correlations with performance are likely to decrease ,

"''hilemany studies do not present; data separately for males and females those that do find that correlations between

ability and performance are higher for femaleso This finding holds mainly for the secondary school and post secondary school

levelsD At other levels the datd are too few to allow on assessment of sex difference.

Some of the issues described here are pertinent to this studYD In the first place insufficient research has been done in this area in this country; and because of this, findings on these levels are less definite. Second, the failure of many studies to analyse data separately for males and females hinders comparability among investigationso Mere research, therefore is needed in which sex differences are assessed and in which the reasons for these differences are examinedo

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Non-intellective Fect.or s As Predictors of

~

.~~-~--~-~-:--~-

Academic Performance

-~---Although ability measures are presently the best single type of predictor, they account for less than half

of the variations in academic performance.. Thus, one is led to a cons i.deratLon of non--intellective factors.. In this connection many investigators study academic perf'crmance by focusing upon personc.litycharacteristics as explanatory varLabl.es, The

review is or-qani.sed around a listing of specific personality .;:~-, vRri~bleso In the literature these are usually selected through common sense or a hunch that they might be related to academic performance rather than on the basis of a 'systematicpersonality theory .•

Some vari,bles seem to refer to motivational stages; these include anxiety, achievement motivation, l~vel of interest in different content areas, and the like.. A second type involves what might be termed personality "style".. Illustr-~tivefactors are factors such as degrl'!eof Lndependence, impulse control and introversion.. A third factor, which involves tll.e ~n.:i..tivelevel, is the self--concept..Still, other factors, such as m("~e":t ()f

study habits, seem to point more directly to the behavioural level-Finally some studies focus upon manifesta~ion of pathology to

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account for achievement. Examples are inventories of adjustment, such as "Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory" and clinical instruments such as "Rorschach". Because the emphases in the literature are so eclectic, it is difficult to organise this

review in terms of a systematic classification of personality factors.

In fact to do so would create a misleading sense of orderliness in the literature.

Two basic methods of analysis are used in the studies of personality variables. First, the correlational method is

used to assess the degree of relationship between the personality factor and academic performance. In studies using this method, ability is controlled either by means of.partial correlational analysis or by multiple correlation in which the contribution of a personality variable to a battery of intellective factors is assessed. By the second technique, performance is studied by comparing groups of high and low achievers and assessing possible personality differences between such groups. Most of the studies surveyed assess the relationship between a single personality variable

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and academic performance.

53.•

Measurement of Academic Performance

The value of any measurement of academic performance must be judged ultim.::>.telyin terms of the extent to which the measurement reveals information leading to a more intelligent prediction or control of the behaviour of studentso Commonly, however, teachers neither apply this criterion directly to their instruments nor to their measuring acit.ivityo Instead, in measuri.nq academic

performance, they either consciously or unconsciously accept a chain of assumptions \"hich stom from and pn:;sumably, may be justified either logically or experimentally, as supporting this ultimate purpose , The soundness of acaderrd.c performance measurement and its usefulness to education is, therefore, contigent on the validity of a set of assumptions which are implicit in t:esting These

are;-(1) Current measurement of academic performance ass~ that, the value of a learning experience is indicated by

increased ability (skill or knowledge) to cope with some situations or class situationso

(2) Current measurement of academfc performance assumes that the value of a learning experience is indicated by gro\~h in those directions toward which the learning (or teaching)

act.Lvd.t.Les are .:;pecificallypointedo

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