Grades In German Research Articles

A fresh look: testing the internal/external frame of reference model with frame-specific academic self-concepts

Background Students' self-concepts play an important role in explaining achievement-related behaviour. According to the internal/external frame of reference model (I/E Model), students use two frames of reference to form their mathematical and verbal self-concepts. The model predicts that external comparisons will lead to a positive association, and internal comparisons to a negative association, between mathematics and verbal self-concepts. A test of these predictions is possible by asking students to rate their mathematical/verbal ability in relation to that of other students (external self-concept) or to their own ability in other subjects (internal self-concept). However, recent studies using this approach were unsuccessful in assessing self-concepts based on the internal comparison process. Purpose The present study is a new attempt to test the central assumptions of the I/E Model with frame-specific self-concepts in order to explain the process of self-concept formation. Sample A total of 674 students from 25 German secondary school classes (grades 7 – 10) participated in the study. 373 of the participants were female. Design and methods The students reported their most recent grades in mathematics and German. Frame-specific self-concepts were assessed via questionnaires. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results The analyses of the data support the assumptions of the I/E Model. Positive effects of achievement on the corresponding external self-concepts and negative effects of achievement on the non-corresponding internal self-concepts were found. A strong negative relationship between the internal self-concept factors shows that the operationalization of the internal comparison process was successful. Conclusions These results contribute to a better understanding of how students form self-concepts.

Can Aptitude for German Be Predicted?

Most teachers would be glad to know at the beginning of the year what grades the students seated in front of them were going to get at the end. That tall boy: will he be my brightest student, or a troublemaking failure? Which of these kids, whose names I don't yet know by heart (though I soon will), will be the good learners who make my year worthwhile? Which the depressing laggards? If teachers knew these things, they could take steps accordingly: prepare enrichment for the best students and remedial work for the poorest, perhaps exchange some students with another teacher. They could avoid some of the discouragement and frustration that misplaced students inevitably cause. The way classes are chosen at present, by accidental assignment, the teacher doesn't find out about his students until too much of the school year has passed for any changes to be made. Is it utopian to think we can know, before he starts, how well a student will learn German? Yes, it is unrealistic to expect to know precisely what grade each student will get a year hence. But it is quite within reason to expect some clues, like this student will probably be good, that one probably fair, and that one probably poor. There is a test which does this. Here is how it was used in three schools during the 1965-66 school year.1 At the beginning of the school year, the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery was given to all ninth graders about to begin German: 122 of them. The aptitude scores were not disclosed to the teachers, who proceeded to teach first-year German as they normally do. At the end of the year, the final grades were collected. The point was to match the aptitude scores against the final grades. Of the 122 students who started, 113 were left at the end; their aptitude scores and final grades are shown in Table 1. How well did the aptitude test predict the students' final grades? The table shows that the students who got the highest aptitude scores (stanine 9, 8, and 7) also got high grades in German; mainly A's and B's. Those who got the lowest aptitude scores (stanine 1, 2, and 3) got poor or failing grades in German; there were no A's among them, and only one B. The middle aptitude