The Contribution of Executive Functions to Academic Achievement in Gifted Children: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Present study was conducted to analyze the differences in the intrinsic motivation of the high and low academic achievers. Sample (n = 600) of the study was comprised of high academic achievers (n= 300; male=150, female= 150) and low academic achievers (n= 300; male= 150, female= 150). Age range of the participants was 17-19 years. Sample of the high and low academic achievers was collected through purposive sampling technique from different male and female colleges of Hyderabad city of Pakistan. Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was used for data collection. t-tests were computed to measure the differences in the intrinsic motivation of the high and low academic achievers and gender differences in the motivation of high and low achievers. Findings revealed significant differences in the intrinsic motivation of the high and low academic achievers and more tension in the low academic achievers. High achiever females found more competent, consider studies more useful and take some more pressure of completing academic tasks than the male high achievers.

In the twenty first century, education plays a very crucial role in human development. Some people acquire high academic achievement through education. The present study accounts the difference in self-esteem and self-efficacy in relation to high and low academic achievement and gender difference among the graduate students. The study consist 100 students, 50 high academic achievements (divided into 25 male & 25 female) and 50 low academic achievements (divided into 25 male & 25 female) as a sample. The subjects were selected through random sampling method in the age range of 21 to 25 years. For the purpose of data collection self-esteem scale by Sing and Srivastav (2008) and Self-efficacy scale by Mathur and Bhatnagar (2012) are used. Mean, SD and t value are used for statistical analysis of data. The conclusions of the present study are: (l)There is significant difference in selfesteem. High academic achievement students are higher in self-esteem than the low academic achievements students. (2) There is significant difference in self-etficacy. High academic achievement students are higher in selfefficacy than the low academic achievements students. (3) There is a significant gender difference in self-esteem. Male students are higher in self-esteem than the female students. (4) There is a significant gender difference in self efficacy. Male students are higher in self-efficacy than the female students.

Resilience is essential for students to resist adversity, and low academic achievers (LAA) may experience more challenges in resilience development than high academic achievers (HAA). This study aimed to compare resilience between LAA and HAA and to analyse the effects of protective factors in order to inform social work practices. This study analysed 1125 school‐aged subjects derived from a large survey conducted in 23 districts/counties in eight provinces in mainland China. We ran independent sample t‐tests to compare resilience between LAA and HAA, ran linear regression models to analyse the effects of internal and external protective factors on resilience, and tested the mediation effects of the protective factors. This study found that LAA were less resilient and more vulnerable to adversity than HAA. Internal protective factors helped to explain resilience, two main subfactors of which—self‐efficacy and confidence—fully mediated the effects of academic performance and resilience. External protective factors did not significantly impact resilience. We propose service strategies to enhance self‐efficacy and confidence in LAA in order to improve their resilience in social work practices.

Does resilience potential in higher education mature into success or does it remain merely a promise of success due to rising social inequality? We studied curricular and extracurricular learning of students with outstanding academic achievement who entered higher education despite their disadvantage of social background (= students with resilience potential). A student survey database compiled in the research project “Higher Education for Social Cohesion – Cooperative Research and Development in a Cross-border Area” (HERD) (HURO/0901/253/2.2.2.) in 2012 was analyzed. Students of three Eastern Hungarian higher education institutions were surveyed (N = 1205). Students with resilience potential were identified in the intersection of two groups of variables: social background and input academic achievement. We have conducted a cluster analysis, which has resulted in the identification of students with resilience potential and other researched groups: drifters (low social background and low input academic achievement), beneficiaries (high social background and high academic achievement) and indifferent prodigals (high social background and low academic achievement). To sum up our results, the students with resilience potential only use higher education to fulfill curricular requirements, and hit a ceiling, compared to the beneficiaries, when it comes to the student year mining, meaningful extracurricular activities. Thus social inequalities crawl through these invisible channels into higher education and beyond.

Autoestima, funcionalidad familiar y rendimiento escolar en adolescentes

This study was focused on language learning in terms of reading motivation and comprehension as well as with language learning strategies in relation to academic achievement of college students at the Visayas State University (VSU). The first set of respondents composed of forty-eight (48) Bachelor of Arts in English Language (AB-EL) students took a reading comprehension test and answered a reading motivation survey adopted from Wigfield and Guthrie (1997). The second set of respondents composed of thirty-one (31) Spch 11 (Speech Communication) students answered a survey on language learning strategies adopted from Oxford (1990). The study followed a descriptive survey design. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Spearman's Rho was also used for correlation analyses. With regard to the reading motivation and comprehension of the AB-EL students, results showed that among the 11 aspects of the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ), three of them emerged as having a significant relationship with reading comprehension. These are "challenge", "compliance" and "reading work avoidance". "Challenge" is positively correlated while "Compliance" and "Reading Work Avoidance" are negatively correlated to reading comprehension. This result implies that those who feel challenged while engaging in the reading selection have a higher level of reading comprehension. However, those who read because they are required to do so have a lower reading comprehension than those who read because they choose to do so. Also, those who tend to read to escape from work have a lower level of reading comprehension. Therefore, one's reading motivation can in a way affect his or her reading comprehension. Among the three factors that have a significant relationship with reading comprehension, "Compliance" is considered to be the most influential to students' reading comprehension. Therefore, reading to accomplish a requirement has a greater negative effect on the students' reading comprehension than reading to have an excuse to escape from work. It is disadvantageous because reading for the sake of completing or accomplishing a requirement or task is not the ideal expectation when someone reads for comprehension. Reading for comprehension embodies everything from meaning-making to experiential learning. Meanwhile, with regard to the language learning strategies in relation to the academic achievement of Spch 11 students, findings revealed that only Affective Strategies correlate with the students' academic achievement ("good" to "very good"). This implies that all the other language learning strategies covering Memory, Cognitive, Compensation, Metacognitive, and Social are independent to the respondents' academic achievement. Therefore, this study concludes that the affective factors have something to do with one's language learning strategy. Affective strategies tend to have a powerful influence on the techniques to help students control their emotions, attitude, motivation, and values, thus facilitating one's language learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate junior high school students' perceptions of the characteristics of effective English teachers. The focuses included: (1) junior high school students' general perceptions about English teacher characteristics, (2) whether gender has an effect on the perceptions, and (3) whether students with different academic achievement perceive differently in terms of characteristics for effective English teachers. This study was conducted via a questionnaire with 198 junior high school students in Tainan area. The data came from students' responses to a 50-item questionnaire, classifying into instructional competence, personality, and teacher-student relationship, and were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. The findings of the study indicated that students generally perceived teachers' personality and teacher-student relationship as more important characteristics than those of instructional competence. Being enthusiastic in teaching, friendly, open-minded, respecting students and caring about students were the most important characteristics of effective English teachers. Although mastering English was considered as an important characteristic, conducting lessons in English was not in favor. Moreover, female students considered the characteristics of personality and teacher-student relationship significantly more important than male students. Female students also rated significantly higher on characteristics such as motivating students to learn English and being familiar with the English culture whereas male students perceived respecting students and being ethical more important for effective English teachers. A significant variation was also found on the teacher-student relationship among students with high, middle and low academic achievement. Students with high academic achievement considered characteristics of teacher-student relationship more important than students with low academic achievement.

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between ninth grade students’ symbol sense behaviors, algebraic thinking skills and academic achievement. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research approach known as case study design was employed. A total of three students studying in a high school in Gümüşhane province constituted the study group of the research. In the study, considering the opinions of the mathematics teacher conducting the course and the academic achievement levels of the students in the mathematics course, one student from each achievement level was selected as low, medium and high academic achievement level. The data were acquired from five research inquiries in the literature and adapted in line accordance with expert perspectives. The data were analyzed using thematic coding with an analysis table prepared in line with expert opinions. Students with high achievement level showed symbol sense behaviors at the desired level by using symbols in a flexible and fluent way, while students with low and medium achievement level could not exhibit symbol sense behaviors at the desired level. Students with high academic achievement have advanced algebraic thinking skills. The algebraic thinking skill behaviors of students with low academic achievement are more in the form of rote stereotyped signs. As a result, students' algebraic thinking skills and symbol sense behaviors were found to be compatible with their academic achievement levels. In addition, it was concluded that there was a positive relationship between algebraic thinking skills and symbol sense behaviors.

This study compared three commonly used methods of measuring recognition memory (single-item, embedded-item, and multiple-choice tests) under conditions in which the targets and distractors were the same for all tests. The multiple-choice test resulted in higher recognitions and lower false recognitions than the other two tests. High academic achievers had higher recognition scores than low achievers on all tests, but the interaction between achievement level and type of test showed the high achievers to have lower false recognitions only under the multiple-choice test. Significant correlations between word assessment characteristics of the targets (associative frequency, associative reaction time, and pronunciability) and recognition scores were discussed in the context of corresponding correlations with free recall.

Background and aims: Familial, socioeconomic and educational factors are important determinants of the prevalence and incidence of obesity in children; low physical activity levels and faulty eating habits in addition to these factors. The aim of this study was to determine in Chilean children, the association between body mass index (BMI), abdominal obesity, physical activity (PAH) and eating (EH) habits with academic achievement of educational institution they attend.Methods: A representative sample of 26 schools classified with high, medium and low achievement in the SIMCE tests was randomly chosen in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. The sample consisted of 878 school-age children ( elementary and middle level ) who in 2009 gave the SIMCE (Education Quality System Measurement from the Ministry of Education) tests. BMI, waist perimeter (WP) and physical and eating habits were measured. WHO growth standards, USA reference and habits test “ad hoc” were used we determined BMI z scores, abdominal obesity and quality of habits respectively.Results: Abdominal obesity prevalence was significantly highest (p < 0.05) in children attending to low and medium ( 39.3%) than children to high (32.3%)academic achievement schools. BMI and WC were significantly highest (p < 0.05) in females attending to low and medium than females of high academic achievement schools, without difference in males. Academic achievement showed a directly association (p< 0.02) with EH and inversely (p < 0.004) association with PAH.Conclusions: In Chilean children, obesity, Physical and eating habits are associated with academic achievement.

Reading and writing are the most basic, most central and the most essential part of learning (Bryant & Bradley, 1983). The National Institute of Child Health & Human development (NICHD) considers reading failure to reflect a national public health problem (Lyon, 2013). Grapheme Phoneme Association (GPA) skill (phonics) is one of the early precursors of reading disability (Justice & Kaderavek, 2004) and is poorer in reading disabled children (Nicholson, 1992). The aim of the present study was to explore the capability of Grapheme Phoneme Association of High Academic Achievers (HAA) - children who scored more than 75 percentile marks and Low Academic Achievers (LAA) - children who scored below 35 percentile marks. The GPA checklist was made which consisted of 21 known phonemes and graphemes divided into three sets (Set I, II and III), each set consisting of seven graphemes. Each grapheme was randomly associated with an arbitrary phoneme. A significant difference between the mean scores of HAA and LAA was found in the GPA task. The Grapheme- Phoneme association checklist can be used to identify reading disability as early as possible and will be helpful for early intervention in reading disability.

The present research aimed at to measure the relationship between anxiety and aspiration among academic achievers. A purposive sample consisted of 200 students with average age 15 years of both gender; 100 female students (high academic achievers =50, low achievers = 50) and 100 male students ( high academic achievers = 50, low academic achievers= 50)were taken from Higher secondary schools of Abbottabad. Taylor manifest anxiety scale (Taylor & Spence,1953) along with Study-Habit Scale( Ansari,1983) were administered on the sample. Results showed satisfactory reliability that is .747 and .836 for the both scales respectively. Analysis of results revealed that the pattern of achievement of a student depends on his/her aspiration level and anxiety has association with level of aspiration in students. Study further highlighted that achievers tend to have considerably higher achievement scores have higher aspiration as the result of perceived high anxiety. Students with low achievement scores have lower aspiration as the result of perceived high anxiety. Least-square line of Regression with achievement status as the outcome of aspiration and anxiety as the predictor variable indicated good model of fit showed that results indicate there was positive significant relationship between students' high level of academic achievement and anxiety. The study filled some identified gapes in literature and tries to stress the need for more research on this topic.

Low academic achievement as a predictor of test anxiety in secondary school students

Value-added assessments have become a reasonable and accepted assessment method for education and teaching. Mathematics reading ability is an important ability in mathematics learning which provides a prerequisite for solving mathematical problems. With the aim of uncovering the effects of mathematics reading ability on the continuous development of mathematics learning, this study focuses on the value added to students' mathematics reading ability as well as their mathematics performance. From a longitudinal perspective, we collected academic achievement data for 463 s-grade students, including their scores on their mathematics reading ability, which were then used a developed measurement tool. Building on Weiss's "Theory of Change", the students were divided into four categories: high academic achievement and high value-added, low academic achievement and high value-added, low academic achievement and low value-added, and high academic achievement and low value-added. Finally, we discussed the impact of the students' reading abilities in mathematics on their overall achievement. This study reveals a close correlation between mathematics reading skills and value-added performance. Higher scores in mathematics reading indicate higher value-added levels. For students with initially high scores, their mathematics reading skills greatly contributed to their high value-added performance.

This study was motivated by the low emotional intelligence and academic achievement of students in SD Takhassus al-Quran Kalibeber Wonosobo . Theory of this study is emotional intelligence theory from Daniel Goleman. This study aims to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement of students grade VI B SD Takhassus Al-Quran Kalibeber Wonosobo . The methode used in this study was mixed method with sequential exlanatory design. Data collection techniques used were emotional intelligence and self-regulated learning scales, observation, and interview, data analysis techniques used analysis correlate bivariate. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between emotional intelligence (X) and academic achievement (Y) as evidencedby the result of interview which showed that student who has high emotional intelligence has high academic achievement too. The student who has low emotional intelligence has low academic achievement too.