Gender differences in writing self-beliefs of elementary school students.

The authors investigated the nature of gender differences in the writing self-beliefs of elementary school students in Grades 3, 4, and 5 (N?=?363). Girls were judged superior writers, but there were no gender differences in writing self-efficacy after controlling for writing aptitude. However, girls expressed that they were better writers than were other boys or girls in their class or in their school to a greater degree than did boys. Only writing self-efficacy beliefs and aptitude predicted writing performance in a path model that included writing apprehension, self-efficacy for self-regulation, and perceived usefulness of writing. Self-efficacy mediated the effects of aptitude and self-efficacy for self-regulation on performance. Writing self-concept was higher and apprehension lower for students in Grade 3 than in Grade 5. Data were consistent with A. Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory and suggest that boys and girls may use a different metric when responding to traditional self-efficacy scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inner-city African American parental involvement in elementary schools: Getting beyond urban legends of apathy.

Parental involvement in schools is a national priority for both educators and researchers to promote the successful schooling of contemporary youth. Contemporary parental involvement research has produced some promising findings, but parental involvement efforts with inner-city African Americans are currently limited by problems of research methodology and program foci. Certain research studies do, however, demonstrate that inner-city African American parents have responded positively to parental involvement programs that emphasize themes of empowerment, outreach, and indigenous resources. Based on these three promising themes, the authors propose practical strategies for increasing inner-city African American parental involvement as a means of increasing parental participation and school success among inner-city African American families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of the relative effectiveness of NCTM standards-based interventions for low-achieving urban elementary students.

The effects of 2 instructional methods, problem solving and peer collaboration, were evaluated for enhancing mathematics achievement, academic motivation, and self-concept of 104 low-achieving 3rd and 4th graders. Students were assigned randomly to 1 of 4 conditions: control, problem solving, peer collaboration, and problem solving?+?peer collaboration. Students in all conditions met twice weekly for 30-min mathematics sessions over a 7-week period. Results indicate that problem-solving students performed significantly higher than their counterparts who did not receive problem solving on measures of computation and word problems and reported higher levels of academic motivation, academic self-concept, and social competence. Students who participated in peer collaboration scored higher on measures of computation and word problems and reported higher levels of academic motivation and social competence than did students who did not participate in peer collaboration. No significant interaction effect was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschool predictors of narrative writing skills in elementary school children.

This study examined the preschool predictors of elementary school narrative writing skills. The sample included 65 typically developing African American children, ranging in age from 5.0 to 5.5 years, and was 44.6% male. Targeted preschool predictors included measures of phonological processing, core language abilities, prereading skills, and early writing concepts assessed during the spring or summer, just before beginning kindergarten. Using hierarchical linear modeling, findings showed that core language abilities, prereading skills, and maternal education at preschool significantly predicted the level of writing in Grades 3–5, but only core language abilities and prereading skills significantly predicted the rate of growth in writing. When kindergartners were separated into low and high readers, and low and high core language abilities, a significant pattern of widening differences emerged between the groups over time. These findings point to core language abilities, prereading skills, and maternal education assessed at kindergarten entry as critical predictors of later narrative writing skills, and they suggest the importance of including such measures when screening for written language problems in early kindergarten and early elementary school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing a readable writing approach to text revision.

A readable writing approach to text revision was evaluated in 5 experiments with 1,169 17–20 yr old males. Revision involved use of word lists and the application of a syntax rule. It resulted in a reduction of 6 grade levels in the readability score. The revisions failed to produce practical improvements in comprehension on several reading-to-do tasks. Meaningful improvements in comprehension were achieved only for low-ability readers on a reading-to-learn task when vocabulary was simplified. Results are interpreted in terms of cognitive-processing requirements. The inadequacies of readability formulas and guidelines as a means of controlling the production of text are discussed, and an alternative, transformer approach is advocated. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Math anxiety in elementary and secondary school students.

We assessed math anxiety in 6th- through 12th-grade children (N?=?564) as part of a comprehensive longitudinal investigation of children's beliefs, attitudes, and values concerning mathematics. Confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for two components of math anxiety, a negative affective reactions component and a cognitive component. The affective component of math anxiety related more strongly and negatively than did the worry component to children's ability perceptions, performance perceptions, and math performance. The worry component related more strongly and positively than did the affective component to the importance that children attach to math and their reported actual effort in math. Girls reported stronger negative affective reactions to math than did boys. Ninth-grade students reported experiencing the most worry about math and sixth graders the least. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowledge of text coherence and expository writing: A developmental study.

Attempted to relate coherence in the expository writing of 4th graders, 8th graders, and college students to their knowledge of the requirements of global coherence in expository texts. Ss performed a sentence-identification task designed to assess such knowledge and wrote 2 expository essays. Significant positive correlations were found between sentence identification and 3 measures of the rated coherence of the Ss' essays. With 1 exception, these correlations remained significant when grade was partialed out. Morever, performance on the sentence-identification and essay tasks improved from 4th to 8th grade. Scores on a holistic measure of essay coherence also improved through college age. Thus, it is likely that over a wide age range, knowledge of the requirements of global coherence in expository essays is a factor in one's ability to produce a coherent essay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of acoustic climate inside high schools in comparison with elementary schools

One hundred seventy four inpatients of a psychosomatic hospital were examined with the revised version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-R, as well as further measures of emotionality, somatization, psychopathology and personality. A significant association was found between TAS alexithymia and the number of somatoform symptoms. This association, however, disappeared when it was corrected for the possible impact of depression. The factor 1 of the TAS (ability to describe feelings to others) correlated significantly with the use of negative emotional words. Thus TAS alexithymics do not use less, but more emotional words, especially words describing negative feelings. The validity of factor 2 (externally oriented thinking) seems to be low. TAS alexithymia may measure specific aspects of depression or general distress.     

Executive control in the revising of students with learning and writing difficulties.

This study examined the role of executive control in the revising difficulties of 5th- and 6th-grade students with writing and learning problems. Procedural support was provided in carrying out executive processes by teaching students to use a routine that ensured that the separate elements of the revising process were coordinated and occurred in a regular way. The processing burden involved in revising was further reduced by limiting the types of evaluative and tactical decisions students made. In comparison to their normal approach to revising, procedural support made the process of revising easier for the participating students and increased the number of nonsurface revisions that improved text. Students' difficulties with revising, however, were not due solely to problems with executive control; they were generally indifferent to the possible concerns of their audience, overemphasized form, and struggled with the separate elements underlying revising. Implications for instruction were addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family characteristics and elementary school achievement in an urban ghetto.

Investigated the relationships of sex, father absence, family size, and birth order to factor scores representing "general academic achievement" in a sample of 149 urban black ghetto 5th graders. Significant main effects were found for sex (with girls showing higher achievement levels than boys) and family size (with the highest achievement in small families). A significant Birth Order * Family Size interaction was found: Firstborn Ss did best in small families, lastborn Ss did best in intermediate (4-5 children) families, and there was no birth order differentiation in large families. No significant effect on achievement was found for father absence. (18 ref.) (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)     

Growth of reading vocabulary in diverse elementary schools: Decoding and word meaning.

The authors charted growth of reading vocabulary for first- through fourth-grade students at three dissimilar elementary schools: School A, a suburban school enrolling White students who spoke standard English; School B, an inner-city school enrolling Black, dialect-speaking students; and School C, a semirural school enrolling economically disadvantaged, dialect-speaking Asian/Pacific students. Multiple-choice and interview tests showed rapid growth of reading vocabulary to an impressive size for all students. However, mainstream (School A) students had larger reading vocabularies, decoded more words, and knew more word meanings than the disadvantaged students at Schools B and C. The gap between mainstream and disadvantaged students was largest for infrequent words. The data suggest that direct instruction in decoding and/or individual word meanings could play a limited role in assisting minority students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students.

There is considerable concern that the majority of adolescents do not develop the competence in writing they need to be successful in school, the workplace, or their personal lives. A common explanation for why youngsters do not write well is that schools do not do a good job of teaching this complex skill. In an effort to identify effective instructional practices for teaching writing to adolescents, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of the writing intervention literature (Grades 4-12), focusing their efforts on experimental and quasi-experimental studies. They located 123 documents that yielded 154 effect sizes for quality of writing. The authors calculated an average weighted effect size (presented in parentheses) for the following 11 interventions: strategy instruction (0.82), summarization (0.82), peer assistance (0.75), setting product goals (0.70), word processing (0.55), sentence combining (0.50), inquiry (0.32), prewriting activities (0.32), process writing approach (0.32), study of models (0.25), grammar instruction (- 0.32). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Black students in medical schools

This paper presents an assessment and comparison of two groups of black medical students and the problems they confronted in medical school. Data were obtained from a sample of blacks who attended medical school during the years 1971 to 1974 and from black physicians who graduated from medical school in 1970 or before. A comparison of the two groups revealed statistically significant differences in the impact of others on the decision to enter medicine and in the sources of financial support; also the data suggest differences in perceived discrimination and in the time at which the individual decided to become a physician. The information from the 1971-1974 group illuminates the type and intensity of problems they encountered and the importance of various programs designed to aid black medical students. Overall, the findings of this study indicate a need for new efforts to recruit and to retain black students in medical schools.     

Teaching elementary school students to identify story themes.

An instructional program focused on story theme was administered to 2nd and 3rd graders (high-, average-, and low-achieving students, including some with disabilities) in a high-poverty school. Compared with more traditional instruction, the program improved theme comprehension and the identification of instructed themes when they appeared in new stories. However, the program did not help students apply a theme to real-life situations or identify and apply noninstructed themes. Findings indicated that at-risk children (at all achievement levels, including those with disabilities) were able to achieve some degree of abstract, higher order comprehension when given instruction that combined structured lessons, a strategy, and discussion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extended mnemonic instruction with learning disabled students.

Divided 64 learning disabled (LD) 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students into 24 instructional groups that were assigned at random to mnemonic and control conditions. Instructional groups were administered 3 daily lessons on dinosaurs in counterbalanced order. The lessons involved vocabulary on dinosaurs, attributes of dinosaurs, and reasons for dinosaur extinction. Mnemonic groups were taught the information using keyword and pegword techniques. Control instructional groups were taught the same information using the principles of direct instruction, including teacher-directed questioning, choral group responding, fast instructional pacing, and cumulative review. A test was given after each lesson on that lesson's content. On the 4th day, all Ss were given production and identification tests on the content of all 3 lessons. Results indicate that mnemonic groups outperformed control groups on the immediate and delayed tests. In addition, control Ss' responses revealed significantly more intralist intrusions than did those of mnemonic Ss. No meaningful trend across days of instruction was observed for either condition. Findings suggest that mnemonic instruction is a versatile and effective instructional technique for LD students. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of goal setting and strategy use on the writing performance and self-efficacy of students with writing and learning problems.

This study examined the effects of goal setting on the essays of 7th- and 8th-grade students with writing and learning disabilities. Participants wrote 3 essays, responding to a different goal for each. One half of the students used a strategy to facilitate goal attainment. Goals were designed to increase either the number of reasons supporting a paper's premise or the number of counterarguments refuted by the writer, or both. Papers written in response to goals were longer, included more supporting reasons, and were qualitatively better than essays written by students in the control condition. Students were also more likely to refute counterarguments when assigned a goal that focused on this specific element. Strategy use enhanced performance only when students were responding to a goal to refute more counterarguments. Students' writing self-efficacy was not influenced by goal setting or strategy use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between the discourse knowledge and the writing performance of elementary-grade students.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 101(2) of Journal of Educational Psychology (see record 2009-04640-012). The DOI published was incorrect. The correct DOI for this article is provided in the erratum.] This study examined whether discourse knowledge about various forms of writing predicted young developing writers' (Grade 2 and Grade 4 students) story writing performance once 4 writing (handwriting fluency, spelling, attitude toward writing, advanced planning) and 3 nonwriting (grade, gender, basic reading skills) variables were controlled. It also examined whether Grade 4 students (18 boys, 14 girls) possessed more discourse knowledge than Grade 2 students (18 boys, 14 girls). Students wrote a story and responded to a series of questions designed to elicit their declarative and procedural knowledge about the characteristics of good writing in general and stories in particular as well as their knowledge about how to write. Five aspects of this discourse knowledge (substantive, production, motivation, story elements, and irrelevant) together made a unique and significant contribution to the prediction of story quality, length, and vocabulary diversity beyond the 7 control variables. In addition, older students possessed greater knowledge about the role of substantive processes, motivation, and abilities in writing. Findings support the theoretical propositions that discourse knowledge is an important element in early writing development and that such knowledge is an integral part of the knowledge-telling approach to writing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High school students as mental health aides in the elementary school setting.

Offered more relevant experiences to 15 underachieving high school students by training them to work with 23 maladapted primary graders. Teachers' ratings of children's behavior indicated program children improved more than 27 matched controls, a finding supported by aides' ratings of improvement in program children. Aides felt the program helped their understanding of children, and they perceived it as better than other school activities. These findings, together with the positive reaction of school personnel to the program, testify to its effectiveness and feasibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Screening for emotional and behavioral risk among students with limited English proficiency.

Students with limited English proficiency (LEP) make up one of the fastest growing segments of the student population; however, LEP status is often related to poor academic and behavioral outcomes. Teacher-reported behavioral rating scales can be informative measurements to screen and identify students at risk for behavioral and emotional problems. Given the focus on early identification and the changing demographics in schools, it is important to research the validity of screening instruments, as well as more comprehensive assessments, among LEP students. Items on a teacher-rated screener and a comprehensive behavioral rating scale were evaluated for invariance across two language groups. Results showed that the majority of items could be considered invariant across groups. This study also examined how behavioral ratings on invariant measures differed at the mean level between LEP and non-LEP students. LEP students were rated as having more learning problems and fewer adaptive skills; no significant differences were found for internalizing and externalizing problems. Results highlight the need for further research on this topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)