Correlation between student satisfaction and grades: A case of mistaken causation?

The correlation between grades of instruction and student satisfaction has been interpreted as providing support for a grading leniency bias model; that is, easy graders receive better evaluations than hard graders because they are easy graders. Two alternative models that explain the correlation of grades with satisfaction are delineated. A student characteristics model (student motivation) is contrasted with the grading leniency bias model in 2 studies. Study 1 considered between-class relationships among grades, satisfaction, performance, and student motivation for the IDEA (Instructional Development and Effectiveness Assessment System) data from several thousand college and university classes across the US. Study 2 considered within-class relationships among grades, satisfaction, performance, and motivation for 19 large university classes. Both studies demonstrate that the relationship between grades and student satisfaction might be viewed as a welcome result of important causal relationships among other variables rather than simply as evidence of contamination due to grading leniency. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal and cross-cultural validation of the belief-discrepancy reasoning construct.

Conducted 2 studies to validate the construct of belief-discrepancy reasoning, or the judgments people make about others who disagree with them. In Study 1, 83 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders were assessed and then retested 1 yr later. Assessment was conducted with an objective, standardized forced-choice scale of belief discrepancy. Ss heard a recording of a dilemma as well as a peer's solution, one that contradicted the S's. Longitudinal trends were significant. The trends supported a 4-stage sequence of level 0 (not understanding that one can judge a disagreeing other), Level 1 (intolerance toward the other), Level 2 (total open-mindedness toward the other), and Level 3 (a willingness to judge the other as good or bad with more information about the other's belief). There was a faster rate of growth for the children (Grades 1 and 4) than for the adolescents (Grades 7 and 10). In Study 2, 34 4th and 7th graders from Kinshasa, Zaire were administered a belief-discrepancy scale. There were significant differences between the grades favoring the 7th graders. Implications for belief-discrepancy reasoning development are discussed. Results support the theory that the intolerance construct is developmental and has stagelike features. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causality, agency, and control beliefs in East versus West Berlin children: A natural experiment on the role of context.

Beliefs about factors that affect school performance (means-ends or causality beliefs) and about self-efficacy and control (agency and control beliefs) were assessed in 313 East Berlin children before unification and in 516 West Berlin children (all in Grades 2–6) shortly after unification. Multiple-group analyses of mean and covariance structures yielded 2 major differences: (1) East Berlin Ss showed lower agency and control beliefs than West Berlin Ss and (2) their agency and control beliefs were more highly correlated with school grades than West Berlin Ss', with strong correlations already emerging in East Berlin 2nd graders. Findings were consistent with differences between East and West Berlin school systems. East Berlin regulations emphasized public performance feedback and public self-evaluation and enforced unidimensional teaching strategies. Results point to a risk factor for development in East Berlin children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential trends in law grades of minority and nonminority law students.

Studied 3-yr trends in the law averages awarded to nonminority students and to 2 principal minority groups—Black students and Chicano students—in 2 sets of law schools that enrolled more than 900 Black students and more than 300 Chicano students. In 18 of 21 law schools, Black students showed greater improvement than White students when 3rd-yr grades were compared with 1st-yr grades. In 10 of 21 schools the improvement of Black students was significantly greater, statistically, than that of White students. Chicano students, who generally showed less prior educational disadvantage than Black students, exhibited differential improvement in 6 of 9 schools, but a statistically significant improvement in only 1 school. Various reasons for the differential improvements in grades are considered, including statistical artifacts (ceiling and floor effects, changes in criterion reliability, and unequal units of measurement in the grading of minority and nonminority students) and substantive factors such as course selection patterns, differences in the academic demands of each law school year, and support systems available to disadvantaged students. The implications of the findings are discussed for counseling students, for academic dismissal and probation policies, and for the study of effective institutional support services. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's comprehension of family role portrayals in televised dramas: Effects of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and age.

578 middle and lower socioeconomic status (SES), Black and White children in Grades 2, 5, and 8 participated in 2 fully-crossed replications of the same design. They viewed 1 of 2 edited television dramas that portrayed either a White middle-class family (Study 1) or a Black working-class family (Study 2) in similar conflict resolution situations. Ss' comprehension of central (plot-essential) and peripheral content and their inferences about actors' emotions and causes of action were assessed. Memory for content was age-related in both studies. However, in Study 1, middle-SES 2nd graders viewing the middle-class family show scored higher than lower-SES 2nd graders. In Study 2 lower-SES 2nd graders who viewed the working-class family show achieved higher scores than their middle-class counterparts. There were no SES effects among 5th- and 8th-grade participants and no consistent effects of ethnicity at any age. Additional analyses indicated that congruence between televised characters and settings and viewers' own experiences, as indicated by SES, facilitated 2nd graders' processing of program content. Implications of age-related processing skills for social effects of TV are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning to read and spell in Persian: A cross-sectional study from Grades 1 to 4.

We investigated the reading and spelling development of 140 Persian children attending Grades 1–4 in Iran. Persian has very consistent letter–sound correspondences, but it varies in transparency because 3 of its 6 vowel phonemes are not marked with letters. Persian also varies in spelling consistency because 6 phonemes have more than one orthographic representation. We tested whether lexicality effects—an advantage of words over nonwords—would be affected be reading transparency and spelling consistency. We found that children became more efficient readers and spellers across grades, with the greatest growth occurring between Grades 1 and 2. For reading, lexicality effects were present with transparent words starting in Grade 2, but lexicality effects with opaque words were not yet present in Grade 4. As expected, the size of transparency effects for reading decreased across grades. For spelling, however, there was no lexicality effect for either consistent or inconsistent words. Moreover, consistency effects were large and did not decrease systematically across grades. Most interesting from a developmental perspective was the finding that both reading transparency and spelling polygraphy affected reading as well as spelling in Grades 1 and 2, but the word characteristics had differential effects as a function of literacy task in Grades 3 and 4. This pattern highlights the vulnerability of children's representations and processes during the early phases of acquisition as well as the rapidity with which representations and processes become specialized as a function of the literacy task at hand. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Black and White children's use of standard English at 7, 9, and 12 years of age.

A Berko-type task, requiring an S to derive the present, plural, possessive, and time extension forms of nonsense syllables, was re-administered to 64 Black and White 7th graders previously tested in Grades 2 and 4. Results indicate (a) linguistic convergence for all Ss between 4th and 7th grades on possessive, time extension, and plural tasks and (b) linguistic divergence between Black and White Ss over time on the present tense task. It is emphasized that findings be interpreted with caution because of the effect of nonrandom attrition (44%) on the longitudinally collected data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting behaviors and the occurrence and co-occurrence of adolescent depressive symptoms and conduct problems.

This study of 388 adolescents found a significant covariation between the elevated depressive symptoms and conduct problems. Observer ratings of family interaction indicate that (a) parents of 10th graders with and without later adjustment problems differed in their parenting behaviors when the adolescents were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades; (b) parents of 10th graders with elevated conduct problems were more hostile than parents of 10th graders with elevated depressive symptoms when the adolescents were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades; (c) parents of 10th graders with both elevated depressive symptoms and conduct problems were the most hostile and the least warm when these adolescents were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. Observed parenting behaviors predicted the occurrence and co-occurrence of these adjustment problems among 10th graders after controlling for 7th grade (Time 1) depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowing what to remember and forget: a developmental study of cue memory in intentional forgetting

These experiments are the first to investigate children's encoding and use of information about a memory cue in Bjork's (1972) intentional forgetting task. In Experiment 1, children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 and college students were given cues to either remember or forget after the presentation of each picture. Recall and recognition tests of pictures and cues followed. The procedure in Experiment 2 was identical to that in Experiment 1 except that the list of presentation pictures was altered for some children (Grades 3 and 4) and adolescents (Grades 8 and 9) so that remember and forget cues were associated with particular taxonomic categories. In Experiment 3, the testing component was modified so that children (Grades 2, 3, and 4) and college students were asked to recall only the cue associated with each picture. The results indicated that (1) children as young as second graders encode the cue associated with each picture, although to a lesser extent than do college students, (2) much improvement in intentional forgetting is still occurring during adolescence, (3) only adults adequately cluster their recall by cue, (4) associating remember and forget cues with items from different categories does not increase the differentiation between cues, and (5) eliminating picture recall and recognition has minimal effects on the magnitude of cue judgments. These results suggest that children's difficulties on intentional forgetting tasks stem, at least in part, from their poorer encoding of information about whether an item should be remembered or forgotten.     

Genetic and environmental influences on academic achievement trajectories during adolescence.

Most studies have considered the effects of particular characteristics on academic achievement individually, which means that little is known about how they function together. Using the population-based Minnesota Twin Family Study, the authors investigated the effects of child academic engagement (interest, involvement, effort), IQ, depression, externalizing behavior, and family environmental risk on academic achievement (reported school grades) from ages 11 through 17. Hierarchical linear growth curve modeling showed main effects on initial reported Grades for all variables, and IQ mitigated the deleterious effects of family risk and externalizing. Only engagement affected change in Grades through adolescence. Influences on initial Grades were strongly genetically influenced, associated primarily with IQ, engagement, and externalizing behavior. Shared environmental influences on initial Grades linked engagement, IQ, and family risk. Genetic influences on change in Grades were substantial, but they were not associated with the academic, family risk, and mental health covarying factors. These results indicate that age 11 achievement and change in achievement through adolescence show systematic patterns and document the existence of individual differences in the commonly shared developmental experience of adapting to the school environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic intrinsic motivation in elementary and junior high school students.

Investigated in 3 studies the significance of academic intrinsic motivation (AIM) for children's education. Ss for Studies 1–3 were 77 4th graders and 64 7th graders; 260 Ss in Grades 4–7; and 166 White middle-class Ss in Grades 5–8, respectively. Ss were administered an AIM inventory and an inventory of academic anxiety (AA). As predicted, AIM was found to be significantly and positively correlated with Ss' school achievement and perceptions of academic competence and negatively correlated with AA. Findings support the view that AIM is differentiated into school subject areas and is also a general orientation toward school learning. Relations between motivation and perception of competence and anxiety were differentiated by subject area, whereas achievement was more pervasively related to general motivation. Mathematics motivation, however, emerged as a unique predictor of mathematics achievement. The significance of AIM as differentiated into subjects and as a general orientation is discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions of ability and motivation in a natural setting.

Examined the effects of different patterns of student performance on teachers' attributions of ability and motivation in a school setting. 415 6–8th graders and 17 teachers served as Ss. Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test scores and grades affected attributions of ability and motivation in an additive fashion. In contrast to F. Heider's (see PA, Vol 33:971) proposition, attributions of ability and motivation had a positive relationship when performance was controlled. Teachers had greater confidence in their attributions when performances were extreme, particularly in a positive direction. Although consistency in performance between test scores and grades did not affect their confidence, teachers were more confident when students' grades were consistent with the teachers' perceptions of the children's ability. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Experimental Test of Five Process Models for Subtraction.

This study is concerned with processes used by second- and fourth-grade children in solving single-digit subtraction problems. Five possible models of the solution process were evaluated by fitting observed reaction times to the linear regression predicted by each model. Most second graders and all fourth graders were best fit by a model in which the child either counted down from the larger number or counted up from the smaller, depending on which procedure required the fewest steps. In addition, there was a decrease between Grades 1 and 2 in the time taken for each step in the procedure. The results suggest a developmental trend in which children moved from a fixed algorithmic model to a more heuristic one involving judgment and estimation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two self-control procedures in the reduction of targeted and nontargeted anxieties.

Compared the effects of relaxation as self-control and a self-control variant of systematic desensitization (SD) in reducing targeted (test anxiety) and nontargeted anxieties with those of wait-list and no-treatment expectancy controls; 12 male and 57 female undergraduates were Ss. Immediately following counseling and at follow-up, groups given relaxation as self-control and SD both reported significantly less debilitating test anxiety and significantly more facilitating test anxiety than controls. In a stressful analog testing condition, self-control groups reported significantly less worry, emotionality, and state test anxiety than controls. While no performance differences were found in the analog situation, relaxation as self-control and modified SD Ss had significantly higher psychology grades than the no-treatment expectancy group. Grades of the wait-list group were not significantly different from those of other groups. The relaxation as self-control group showed reduction and maintenance on both measures of nontargeted anxiety relative to the controls. The modified SD group showed posttreatment reduction on both nontargeted anxiety measures but maintenance on only one. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory organization during children's repeated recall.

Presented a list of categorically related words to 20 2nd graders and 20 6th graders in a memory test. Multiple recall tests followed the initial presentation of words so that changes in memory organization could be assessed over recall attempts. Ss in both grades remembered many new words on later recall trials that they had not remembered on Trial 1. The proportions of new words recalled and the retrieval characteristics of these words were similar in both grades. Younger Ss, however, forgot many words during repeated recall, and older Ss did not. Different patterns of forgetting were correlated with different types of organizational strategies. Second graders recalled words in a sequential, rote manner with few transformations or rearrangements of words. Sixth graders, on the other hand, actively constructed larger categories or chunks of words over recall attempts. The spontaneous reconstruction of remembered information by 6th graders is interpreted as a manifestation of constructive memory-monitoring skills. Some potential advantages of a repeated recall paradigm for developmental research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity and change in early school engagement: Predictive of children's achievement trajectories from first to eighth grade?

Premises about the effects of early engagement on achievement were investigated with 383 children who were followed from ages 5.5 to 13.5. Change and continuity in behavioral (cooperative-resistant classroom participation) and emotional (school liking-avoidance) engagement were assessed during Grades 1-3 and were examined within variable- and person-oriented analyses as antecedents of scholastic progress from Grades 1 to 8. Findings corroborated the premises that change as well as continuity in early school engagement is predictive of children's long-term scholastic growth. Compared to children who participated cooperatively in classrooms, those who became increasingly resistant across the primary grades displayed lesser scholastic growth. Among children who manifested enduring engagement patterns, those who exhibited a combination of higher behavioral and emotional engagement across the primary grades made greater academic progress than those who displayed lower levels of these two forms of engagement. Overall, the results of this investigation were consistent with the school engagement hypothesis and extend what is known about the predictive contributions of early school engagement to children's achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What makes a girl (or a boy) popular (or unpopular)? African American children's perceptions and developmental differences.

Open-ended questions were used to obtain narrative accounts of what makes a girl (or a boy) popular (or unpopular) at school. The participants were 489 African American students in Grades 1, 4, and 7 recruited from high-risk inner-city neighborhoods. Appearance and self-presentation were mentioned the most in Grades 4 and 7. Prosocial characteristics were especially relevant for popularity in Grade 1, as were studentship in Grade 4 and peer affiliations in Grade 7. Deviant behaviors were nominated for popularity more frequently in Grade 7 than in the younger grades and more for boys' popularity than for girls'. The mean deviance scores were negative in all grade levels, suggesting a normative peer culture. Male groups in Grade 7 showed significant homophily in reports of deviant behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of ego development.

Using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development, 32 lower-class and lower-middle-class 12th graders (Group A) who had been given the test by A. Blasi (1971) as 6th graders were retested. The relationship between ego development and vocational attitudes and plans was also examined using a vocational choice questionnaire and the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). To increase sample size, an additional 23 12th graders (Group B) were also administered the 3 measures. Results of statistical analyses show an increase at the .0005 level between 6th and 12th grades. Among Group A, sex differences at both grade levels were not significant; however, among Group B, girls had significantly higher ego levels than boys. In addition, ego development was significantly related to vocational maturity but not to reasons for vocational choices. Ego levels for 6th and 12th graders were significantly lower than those of middle- and upper-class Ss of comparable ages tested in other studies, suggesting a significant relation between ego development and socioeconomic status. Results are seen as evidence for the developmental nature of the ego, and support the sequentiality hypothesis, which suggests that stages follow in an invariant order. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School experiences predicting changes in self-esteem of sixth- and seventh-grade students.

The impact of school experiences on students' self-esteem was estimated using a longitudinal study of sixth- and seventh-grade students. Self-esteem was measured in the fall and spring of each year, at three levels—global, academic, and discipline specific. A multiple regression analysis assessed the impact of grades, school climate, teacher evaluations of work habits and social habits, awards and participation during the year, and student ratings of teachers on self-esteem changes from fall to spring. In all tests, school climate and evaluations by teachers had significant effects on self-esteem. Grades were more important for discipline-specific self-esteem than for global or academic self-esteem. The influences were not constant from year to year, which suggests the importance of specific teachers and specific experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)