Higher Academic Achievement Research Articles

The Impact of Family Economic Situation and Parents' Educational Expectations on Academic Performance of Junior High School Students

Under the new curriculum reform, an assessment and examination system adapted to the concept of quality education has been established. Academic performance remains the most direct way of reflecting students academic achievement, and the family is one of the most crucial elements influencing childrens performance, with parental expectations influencing the home education environment. This paper examines the influence of family economic conditions as a factor and parents educational values as a factor of cultural perceptions on their educational expectations. A study was done on the effects of family economic conditions and parental expectations on junior high school students academic achievement. Using information from the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS) (2012-2016), this paper analyzes, through OLS regression, whether the influence of factors such as family economic level on junior high school students achievement changes as time changes. That is, the desire for children to receive higher levels of education has a significant positive effect on childrens current achievement ranking; the childs gender as male significantly improves current achievement ranking. The paper shows that the widening income gap raises parents educational expectations for their children by increasing their material aspirations. However, the effect of family income on junior high school students achievement was not significant; only parental expectations of education level and gender had a significant effect on achievement.

How college-student academic undermatch affects students: Quasi-experimental evidence on multifaceted student outcomes

Undermatching is a phenomenon in which students attend institutions that are less selective than the ones they could enroll given their academic credentials. Recent research suggests that undermatching may harm student development during college. However, there have been few comprehensive analyses of the causal relationship of undermatching and multifaceted college experience. Using college student longitudinal data from Beijing, China, we provide new quasi-experimental evidence on the effects of academic undermatch. This study extends the existing literature by focusing on a wide variety of student outcomes during college years, including learning motivation, behavior and academic performance, psychological attitudes and mental health, interpersonal relationships and involvement, and college satisfaction. Employing the exogenous admissions reform as the instrumental variable for undermatching, we find that undermatching predicts better academic performance and self-evaluation, but worse social relationships and college satisfaction. The results suggest that, although undermatched students are usually higher academic achievers than their college peers, they lack group identity and are not socially involved in college life.

The Effect of Augmented Reality Technology on Primary School Students’ Achievement, Attitudes Towards the Course, Attitudes Towards Technology, and Participation in Classroom Activities

The research aims to investigate the impact of augmented reality (AR) technologies developed within the framework of primary school students’ on student achievement, attitudes towards the course, attitudes towards technology, and participation in classroom activities. The contents of AR-based learning materials have been developed by 4th-grade teachers and writers within the context of the existing curriculum. The study process was carried out based on the instructional design model. The research was performed in conjunction with the quasi-experimental design among the experimental designs of quantitative research methods. Using the cluster random sampling method, students in the experimental and control groups were selected among 11 primary schools. The findings indicate that contrary to the students in the control group, the students in the experimental group had higher academic achievement and participation in classroom activities, and also their attitudes to the course and applied technology were more positive. Moreover, concerning the experimental group students, a positive and significant correlation between their academic achievements, attitudes towards the course, attitudes towards technology, and their participation and participation in classroom activities have been observed.

The dark side of detracking: Mixed-ability classrooms negatively affect the academic self-concept of students with low academic achievement

The labeling hypothesis argues that mixed-ability classrooms foster the academic self-concept of students with low academic achievement because they lose their negative track branding. The contrast hypothesis presents the opposing view that mixed-ability classrooms expose students with low academic achievement to higher achieving peers, thus harming their self-concept due to social comparisons. The present study used data from two detracking school reforms (NStudy1 = 78,330 students, NStudy2 = 2,202 students) and employed a cohort-control design to compare cohorts before detracking with cohorts after detracking. In both studies, students with low academic achievement had a lower self-concept in untracked cohorts than in the tracked ones. However, the self-concept of students with high academic achievement did not differ between the cohorts. Our study highlights potential side effects of detracking school reforms that might result from students with low academic achievement being exposed to unfavorable social comparison processes.

Countering Student Alienation and Anxiety with Team Formation in the Classroom

The way students communicate with each other and with faculty have dramatically changed through the years. Increased use of e-mail and texting has diminished face-to-face interaction. Consequently, students are experiencing a sense of isolation, increased anxiety, and an inability to connect with each other as well as with their professors. Team formation in the accounting classroom was considered to examine the impact on students’ course grade. The goal was to determine the effect of team formation on the students’ overall course experience. The academic and personal implications were determined by an examination of students’ grades, observation of teams, and interviews with team members. Students were organized into teams of 5 to 6 students and participated in team activities throughout the semester. Team activities included class presentations, in-class assignments, homework, and organized exam preparation/review sessions. Two entry-level accounting classes were examined and compared to their counterparts who studied exclusively in an individual learning environment. The classes in which team formation was implemented resulted in higher academic achievement; increased student passing rate, increased class attendance, and decreased number of student withdrawals. Observations noted included friendlier class environment, increased student to student as well as student to professor interaction, and heightened awareness of other cultures. Interviews with team members echoed sentiments of increased self-confidence, lower levels of stress, and deeper understanding of learned material.

Identifying Factors Contributing to Students’ Obstacles in Comprehending Recount Text

This research was conducted to find out the difficulties faced by students in understanding recount text, and the factors that cause these difficulties. To obtain data in this study, the researcher used two data collection techniques, namely observation and interview. Observation is used to collect data in class during the teaching learning process. Interview is intended to identify the causes of the students’ obstacles in understanding recount text. There were 6 students at eleventh grade of SMAN 1 Nisam who were used as subjects in this research. 2 students who have high academic achievement, 2 medium and 2 low. The result showed that they had many difficulties in understanding recount text, both internal and external factors. The internal factor is the lack of motivation. Besides, they also have difficulties in understanding the sentence structure in recount text. In addition, they also lack of vocabulary mastery, it makes them difficult and take a long time to understand a text in English. The external factors that cause their difficulties in understanding English texts are the lack of attention from their parents towards their achievement, especially towards English achievement. They also only have a little time to learn and practice English at their home because they are busy with other activities. The lack of supporting facilities such as English reading materials and dictionaries, it is also one of the factors causing students’ difficulties in understanding recount text.

Revealing EFL Students’ Perception towards the Implementation of Kahoot! in Learning Narrative Text at the Secondary School Level

Information and communication technology development has been massive in the last decades. This development allows teachers to utilize internet based applications such as Kahoot! as a learning tool. This present study was conducted to reveal the perception of secondary level students about the use of Kahoot! in learning narrative text. The participants of this study are 66 students of a junior high school in Sidoarjo. The study uses the quantitative method to collect and analyze the data. This study shows that students see Kahoot! in a positive way. They find Kahoot! as a learning tool that may help them improve their activities in class with an engaging environment, resulting in higher academic achievement.

Development and validation of a computer program for measuring emotional awareness in German-The geLEAS (German electronic Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale).

Emotional awareness is the ability to identify, interpret, and verbalize the emotional responses of oneself and those of others. The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) is an objective performance inventory that accurately measures an individual's emotional awareness. LEAS assessments are typically scored manually and are therefore both time consuming and cognitively demanding. This study presents a German electronic scoring program for the LEAS (geLEAS), the first non-English computerized assessment approach of the LEAS. Data were collected from a healthy German community sample (N = 208). We developed a modern software for computerizing LEAS scoring, an open-source text-based emotion assessment tool called VETA (Verbal Emotion in Text Assessment). We investigated if the software would arrive at similar results as hand scoring in German and if emotional awareness would show similar associations to sociodemographic information and psychometric test results as in previous studies. The most frequently used scoring method of the geLEAS shows excellent internal consistency (α = 0.94) and high correlations with hand scoring (r = 0.97, p < 0.001). Higher emotional awareness measured by the geLEAS is associated with female gender, older age, and higher academic achievement (all p < 0.001). Moreover, it is linked to the ability to identify emotions in facial expressions (p < 0.001) and more accurate theory of mind functioning (p < 0.001). An automated method for evaluating emotional awareness greatly expands the ability to study emotional awareness in clinical care and research. This study aims to advance the use of emotional awareness as a clinical and scientific parameter.

PRACTICING CREATIVE THINKING AND ITS RELATION TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Creativity is essential for survival and it is the path to progress and prosperity. Their creativity, innovation, invention and leadership measure the progress and development of nations.Creative thinking is one of the finest and highest skills and abilities that should be acquired by students in all different academic levels. The main objective of this study is to disclose the extent of practicing creative thinking and its relationship to academic achievement among students of the Jordan University of Science and Technology. The study was conducted on a sample of 1159 male and female students, who were chosen randomly. The study involved the following main question: To what extent are students of Jordan University of Science and Technology practicing creative thinking? It also contained three hypotheses: 1) There is a significant difference of practicing creative thinking among the students of Jordan University of Science and Technology due to gender; 2) There is a significant difference of practicing creative thinking among students of Jordan University of Science and Technology due to academic year; 3) There is a significant correlation between practicing creative thinking among students of Jordan University of Science and Technology and academic achievement. The results of the study indicated that students of Jordan University of Science and Technology are practicing creative thinking at a moderate level reaching 2.96 at Likert scale. Moreover, it revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in the level of practicing creative thinking due to gender favoring male students. A close relationship between the level of practicing creative thing and academic achievement was found, where 20% of the research sample having high academic achievement showed moderate level of practicing creative thinking.

Bullying as Determinant of Academic Performance. A Case Study for the Community of Madrid Using Administrative Data

ABSTRACT Bullying is a problem that affects children and teenagers around the world and its repercussions can endure throughout adult life. The main objective of this research is to study the incidence of bullying on the academic performance of students in schools in the Madrid Region. The databases used are those of Competency Tests, a census evaluation carried out on all 10th grade students in Madrid during the year 2017 (almost 32.000 students). To analyze these data, we carry out a multilevel methodological approach to identify the quantitative association of bullying with academic performance and to estimate the probability that performance is affected by the level of bullying that exists in the school. The results indicate that bullying has a negative correlation with all the competencies evaluated and that bullying can affect students with low or high academic achievement in different ways, depending on what competency is evaluated.

การศึกษาผลจัดกิจกรรมการเรียนรู้วิชาดาราศาสตร์และอวกาศของนักเรียนระดับประถมศึกษาโดยใช้การเรียนรู้แบบร่วมมือ

This research used collaborative learning management model in organizing astronomy learning activities to develop learning outcomes and teamwork for primary school. There were two objectives of the study as. 1) To study the results of cooperative learning activities in astronomy, in knowledge and self-evaluation on the astronomy activity., 2) To compare the learning achievement before and after organizing collaborative learning activities. The samples in this study were grade 4–6 students of the Demonstration School. The Instrument in dependent study was learning activities in astronomy at the elementary level that used collaborative learning. The collected data were. 1) The characteristic of working as teamwork. The result yielded that the students who were receiving collaborative learning by the self-assessment survey they had teamwork skills. The overall score was 91.93/125. The average score was 3.57. The standard deviation was 1.08 which was very high level. Most of the students 32.64% reported they moderately work as team meanwhile 27.73% of them regularly work as team. For the remaining, 24% of them. Sometimes work as team 11.64% and 4% of them rarely and never work as team respectively. 2) Fourty multiple choices learning achievement test were administrated measured before and after the experiment or a single group, measured 2 times. The data were analyzed by T-tests dependent. The research results found that students who received collaborative learning get higher academic achievement, which significantly higher than the pre-test at .05 level, statistical of (t = 14.36).

Do Popular Students have Outstanding Academic Achievement and Academic Attitude?

Social status is has been shown to influence school functioning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of popularity on academic achievement and academic attitude in Chinese high schools. This paper examined the relation between popularity and academic achievement and academic attitude in a Chinese high school with 16 girls and 14 boys by using correlation analysis and linear regression analysis. The inconsistent result indicates that both sociometric popularity and perceived popularity are positively associated with high academic achievement. Only sociometric popularity is highly associated with better academic attitude. The findings reflect different academic cultures and values in varied cultures and highlight the importance of popularity in academic success.

Ecological contexts associated with early childhood curiosity: Neighborhood safety, home and parenting quality, and socioeconomic status.

Curiosity is an important social-emotional process underlying early learning. Our previous work found a positive association between higher curiosity and higher academic achievement at kindergarten, with a greater magnitude of benefit for children with socioeconomic disadvantage. Because characteristics of the early caregiving and physical environment impact the processes that underlie early learning, we sought to examine early environmental experiences associated with early childhood curiosity, in hopes of identifying modifiable contexts that may promote its expression. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 4,750 children from the United States, this study examined the association of multi-level ecological contexts (i.e., neighborhood safety, parenting quality, home environment, and center-based preschool enrollment) on early childhood curiosity at kindergarten, and tested for moderation by socioeconomic status. In adjusted, stratified models, children from lower-resourced environments (characterized by the lowest-SES tertile) manifested higher curiosity if they experienced more positive parenting, higher quality home environments, and if they lived in "very safe" neighborhoods. We discuss the ecological contexts (i.e., parenting, home, and neighborhood environments) that are promotive of early childhood curiosity, with an emphasis on the role of the neighborhood safety and the "neighborhood built environment" as important modifiable contexts to foster early childhood curiosity in lower-resourced families.

The Effects of the School-Family-Community Partnerships on Students' Outcomes

이 연구의 목적은 학교 주체의 협력 활동이 학생의 인지적, 정의적 성취 변화에 어떤 교육적 효과를 갖는지 분석하는 것이다. 나아가 학교의 사회자본이 학생의 인지적, 정의적 성취 격차에 미치는 가정배경의 영향을 완화시키는 효과가 있는지를 확인하였다. 이를 위해 경기교육종단연구(Gyeonggi Education Panel Study)의 4차년도(2015년)~6차년도(2017년)자료를 활용하여 3-수준 다층 성장모형(Multilevel Growth Model)으로 분석하였다. 분석결과, 학부모 참여와 지역사회 연계 활동이 중학교 1학년의 인지적, 정의적 성취에 정적으로 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 학부모의 참여가 높은 학교일수록 학업성취 수준이 높았으며, 학교가 지역사회와 밀접히 연계하여 학교 교육과정을 운영하는 학교일수록 학생들의 자기효능감이 더 높은 것으로 나타났다. 하지만, 학교 내 교사 간 협력은 학생의 인지적, 정의적 성취에 유의미한 효과를 갖지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 지역사회와 유기적으로 협력하면서 교육과정을 운영하는 학교는 학년이 올라감에 따라 변화되는 학업성취의 수준을 더 높여주는 효과가 있었고, 자기효능감의 감소폭을 완화해주는 효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 그러나, 학교 주체의 협력 활동은 가정배경이 학생의 인지적, 정의적 성취에 미치는 영향을 감소시킬 만큼 효과가 크지는 않았다. 이러한 결과를 토대로 학생의 인지적, 정의적 성장을 위한 교육 주체의 교육과정 참여 및 가정배경에 따른 교육격차를 감소하기 위한 방안에 대해 논하였다.This study examined how the School-Family-Community Partnerships affect changes in students' cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. It also investigated whether increasing social capital in schools reduced educational gaps due to family background. The three-level growth curve model was applied using the 4th through 6th Gyeonggi Education Panel (2015−2017). The results showed that parental involvement and community engagement had significant effects on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes of first grade middle school students. Schools with a higher degree of parental involvement tended to have higher academic achievement. Students in schools with a close connection to their communities in curriculum implementation were likely to have a higher level of self-efficacy than their counterparts. In particular, the connection with the local community had a significant positive effect on students’ growth. Students in schools with a close connection to their communities were also likely to improve academic achievement and inhibit self-efficacy deterioration compared to those in schools with a poor connection. However, such cooperation did not lead to a reduction in the educational gap due to family background. In addition, the cooperation of teachers had no significant effect on students' outcomes, either. The concluding section discusses how to improve school−family−community partnerships in the implementation of school curriculum and how to reduce the educational gap caused by family background.

공간헤도닉모형을 이용한 일반고 교육성취 특성 및 지역 매개효과에 따른 주택가격 영향

This study empirically analyzed the effect on housing prices according to the academic achievement of general high schools and the regional mediating effect using the spatial hedonic model. The main empirical analysis results are as follows. First, accessibility to general high schools had a positive effect on local apartment prices regardless of the type. It was found that the preferred high school type, which had the highest college entrance rate, had a greater influence. Second, a prestigious high school was more preferred when it comes to the type of high school closest to the apartment. This result seems to be due to the recognition that consumers in the local housing market place high value on the status of local prestigious high schools, and that there are many students with excellent grades in prestigious high schools. Consequently, there may be less incidence of juvenile delinquency, creating a positive effect on the residential environment around the school. Third, it was found that in an area where the regional effect on housing price is high, the closer an apartment is to a prestigious high school, the higher the apartment price can get. Through these results, this study confirmed that the characteristics of general high school academic achievement have a clear influence on apartment prices and that these influences appear differentially by region.

Psychosocial Determinants of the Need for Cognition in Individuals with High Academic Achievements

The aim of the research was to verify what factors determine the level of the need for cognition (NFC) in students and doctoral students with high academic achievements. The project involved 207 participants: 102 individuals with high achievements and 105 without great scientific successes. The following tools were used: the Questionnaire of the Need for Cognition (in Polish adaptation), the Formal Characteristics of Behavior – Temperament Questionnaire Revised Version, the Popular Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire and the Questionnaire of Retrospectively Perceived Parental Attitudes. Research results indicate that in people with high academic achievement, emotional intelligence, activity and perceived mother’s inconsistency positively influence the need for cognition. In the comparison group, emotional intelligence is a positive predictor of NFC and the perceived attitude of father’s inconsistency is a negative predictor of NFC.

The Impact of COVID-19 Confinement on Substance Use and Mental Health in Portuguese Higher Education Students

The mental health of higher education students is a constant concern, and the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 has intensified this concern. The social measures imposed to control and minimize the disease have led, among other things, to the reconfiguration of higher education students' academic life habits, which has naturally altered their emotional balance, mental health, and substance abuse. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study assesses the influence of higher education students' personal characteristics on their (self-reported) use of addictive substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and pharmaceutical drugs) before and during their first compulsory confinement in Portugal, as well as its relationship with mental health. An online questionnaire was applied between 15 April and 20 May 2020, to students from various study cycles of higher education institutions in one region of Portugal (northern area of Alentejo), which included the Mental Health Inventory in its reduced version (MHI-5) and questions (constructed by the authors) on personal characterization and on the use of addictive substances before and during confinement. The convenience sample included 329 mostly female health care students between the ages of 18 and 24. In our results, we found a statistically significant decrease in tobacco, alcohol, and drug use; however, there was an increase in tobacco use among older students and an increase in anxiolytic use among students with higher academic achievement and among students who exhibited more active social behavior in the period prior to confinement. Students who took anxiolytics during confinement had higher MHI-5 scores and students who used the most addictive substances during confinement had lower MHI-5 scores than the other students.

Prevalence of infection with Trichomonas vaginalis in Tikreet city, Salah Al-Deen province

During the period from November 2008 till the end of February 2009, the present study was carried on. A total of 105 vaginal and uterine specimens, of married females attended Tikreet teaching Hospital and private laboratories in Tikreet city, was collected and examined. The examination results revealed that 24 women were infected (22.86%). The highest prevalence of infection (35.00%) was in the age group 16-20, with absence of infection in the women aged more than 41 year. It has been observed that the highest prevalence of infection (13.33%) was recorded in the illiterate women, and recorded lower prevalence of infection (0.95%) in women with higher academic achievement. Also, recorded the highest prevalence of infection in rural women (15.24%) compared with women in urban (7.62%). Also, in the present study noted a relationship between the infection with pregnancy and the number of children, the results show that the highest prevalence of infection (7.62%) were in the women without children, whereas the lower prevalence of infection (3.80%) were among the women have six children. Also, the highest prevalence of infection (20.00%) were in the women has not use contraception, compared with women used contraceptive materials. It has been observed the irritation and inflammation in the sites of infection with thick, yellowish-green and foul smell secretions with red blood cells, pus and epithelial cells.

Assessment of Learning Approaches of Saudi Dental Students Using the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the learning approaches of undergraduate dental students in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which an electronic questionnaire using the Biggs Revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) was completed by 222 undergraduate dental students from 1st year to 5th year. R-SPQ-2F contains 20 items to measure learning approaches through a structural model contrasting deep and surface learning. Results: The mean value of the deep approach was higher among 4th- and 5th-year students than among 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-year students. The mean values of the surface approach in male subjects and subjects with lower grade point averages were statistically significantly higher than those of the deep approach. Conclusion: This study highlights that dental students have a greater tendency to adopt the surface approach in their preclinical years and in the 3rd year when they experience a transition to clinical training. A deep approach to learning was mostly adopted among 4th- and 5th-year dental students. The surface approach was higher among male than female students. Students who used a deep approach had higher academic achievement than students who used a surface approach.

Global Health Competencies and Educational Needs for Nursing Students in South Korea

Despite the increasing demand for global health education, relatively few global health courses currently are offered in Korea. This mixed-methods study examined the need for global health competency and global health education experience for nursing students. A survey of 208 nursing students was conducted from May 2020 to August 2020, and three focus groups were conducted with 12 nursing students. The average score of global health nursing competencies was 2.8 ± 0.7 on a scale ranging from 1 to 4. Female, higher academic achievement, fluent English, and higher global health education experience had a significant effect on global health competency. The most influential factor was more experience with global health education. Nursing students' perceptions and educational needs related to global health education were classified into four subthemes. The development of global health education programs for nursing students is needed. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(2):75-82.].