The Role of Social–Emotional Mediators on Middle School Students’ Academic Growth as Fostered by an Evidence‐Based Intervention

The authors describe a school counselor intervention delivered to a predominantly Hispanic group of 193 7th‐grade students. Using multilevel modeling, the authors found that participation resulted in greater rates of academic achievement, particularly in math and for students who pretested at lower achievement levels. Results indicated an indirect effect on math achievement for the executive functioning constructs of plan and organize and task completion, but no executive functioning mediators were found for reading or feelings of connectedness.     

Longitudinal pathways between mental health difficulties and academic performance during middle childhood and early adolescence

There is a growing appreciation that child functioning in different domains, levels, or systems are interrelated over time. Here, we investigate links between internalizing symptoms, externalizing problems, and academic attainment during middle childhood and early adolescence, drawing on two large data sets (child: mean age 8.7 at enrolment, n = 5,878; adolescent: mean age 11.7, n = 6,388). Using a 2‐year cross‐lag design, we test three hypotheses – adjustment erosion, academic incompetence, and shared risk – while also examining the moderating influence of gender. Multilevel structural equation models provided consistent evidence of the deleterious effect of externalizing problems on later academic achievement in both cohorts, supporting the adjustment‐erosion hypothesis. Evidence supporting the academic‐incompetence hypothesis was restricted to the middle childhood cohort, revealing links between early academic failure and later internalizing symptoms. In both cohorts, inclusion of shared‐risk variables improved model fit and rendered some previously established cross‐lag pathways non‐significant. Implications of these findings are discussed, and study strengths and limitations noted.

Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject?

• Longitudinal research and in particular developmental cascades literature make the case for weaker associations between internalizing symptoms and academic performance than between externalizing problems and academic performance.
• Findings vary in terms of the magnitude and inferred direction of effects. Inconsistencies may be explained by different age ranges, prevalence of small‐to‐modest sample sizes, and large time lags between measurement points.
• Gender differences remain underexamined.

What does this study add?

• The present study used cross‐lagged models to examine longitudinal associations in age groups (middle child and adolescence) in a large‐scale British sample.
• The large sample size not only allows for improvements on previous measurement models (e.g., allowing the analysis to account for nesting, and estimation of latent variables) but also allows for examination of gender differences.
• The findings clarify the role of shared‐risk factors in accounting for associations between internalizing, externalizing, and academic performance, by demonstrating that shared‐risk factors do not fully account for relationships between internalizing, externalizing, and academic achievement. Specifically, some pathways between mental health and academic attainment consistently remain, even after shared‐risk variables have been accounted for.
• Findings also present consistent support for the potential impact of behavioural problems on children's academic attainment.
• The negative relationship between low academic attainment and subsequent internalizing symptoms for younger children is also noteworthy.

     

Teaching by Convincing: Strategies of Argumentation in Lectures

The aim of this article is to show the argumentative component in the discourse of teachers. This is done on the basis of an analysis of the argumentative strategies used by teachers during the first class of a university course in order to increase their discourse efficiency. The analysis of the corpus studied shows that in such a session teachers use argumentative strategies in order to control the social distance which separates them from students. In doing so, they make a double movement, one of distancing and one of approximation, with the aim of achieving a balance which permits them to consolidate their authority in the eyes of the students and, at the same time, present an accessible and well-disposed image to them.     

中小学生家庭管教状况与心理健康、学业成就的相关研究

主要探讨中小学生家庭管教状况与心理健康水平、学业成就的关系。从珠海市有代表 性的中小学校随机选取学生487人,其中小学生96人,中学生391人,分别测定其家庭管教状况、心 理健康状况与学业成绩,然后对这三者的关系进行分析。结果表明,非正常的家庭管教方式对学生 心理健康有显著的负面影响,其中严格型、矛盾型、积极拒绝型与消极拒绝型对中小学生心理健康负 面影响较为严重;中小学生家庭管教状况、心理健康水平对其学业成就的影响程度不同。     

Behavior Problems, Academic Skill Delays and School Failure Among School-Aged Children in Foster Care: Their Relationship to Placement Characteristics

We describe the level of behavior problems, academic skill delays, and school failure among school-aged children in foster care. We also examine how behavior problems are associated with academic problems, and explore how these outcomes are related to children's placement characteristics. Foster parent and child home interviews, as well as teacher telephone interviews were conducted from a randomly selected sample of 302 children aged 6 through 12 years living in out-of-home placement. Interviews included standardized screening measures. Results showed that 27% of the children scored in the clinical range for a behavior problem, and 34% were rated as having at least one behavior problem in the classroom. Twenty-three percent of the children had severe delays in reading or math, 13% had repeated a grade, and 14% had a history of school suspension and/or expulsion. Behavior problems by foster parent report were related to child suspension and/or expulsion from school, but were not associated with severe academic delays or grade retention. Placement characteristics were only sometimes related to these outcomes. Future studies examining the mental health and educational needs of this population should take into account the child's sociodemographic and placement characteristics.     

Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation in Schools: A Reconciliation

This article explores the nature of the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in schools, and in particular examines critically the assertion that these processes are necessarily antagonistic. The weight of evidence suggests that rewards in the form of school grades and the focus of many students on doing well, gradewise, need not necessarily interfere with learning for its own sake. Educational implications of these findings are considered. One such implication is that focusing on students' interests can be a valuable motivational strategy.     

心理因素对高中生学业成就的影响

采用问卷法和量表法考察了原有知识、学习策略、智力与非智力因素等心理因素对高中生学业成就的影响程度及其作用机制。结论如下:(l)高中生的主要心理因素与学业成就之间均呈显著的正相关;(2)原有知识、学习策略和非智力因素是导致高中生学业成就出现差异的直接影响因素。原有知识的影响程度明显高于学习策略和非智力因素;(3)智力通过原有知识对学业成就发挥重要的间接影响;(4)非智力因素还通过原有知识对学业成就有显著的间接影响。     

动机因素、学习策略、智力水平对学生学业成就的影响

以１１９名高中学生为被试,测量研究了动机因素、学习策略、智力水平对学生学业成就的影响。结果表明,自我效能、内在动机、掌握目标、学习策略、智商分数与学业成就呈显著的正相关,外在动机、业绩目标与学业成就呈显著的负相关。智商分数、学习策略、动机因素与学业成就存在着因果关系,智商分数（β＝０.４７６）、学习策略（β=０．２２０）、自我效能（β＝０.２０７）、掌握目标（β＝０．１８５）对学业成就有显著的回归效应,并直接影响学业成就。而内在动机（β＝０．１８４）通过直接影响学习策略而间接影响学业成就。     

Self-regulation, motivation, and math achievement in middle school: Variations across grade level and math context

The current study examined grade level, achievement group, and math-course-type differences in student self-regulation and motivation in a sample of 880 suburban middle-school students. Analysis of variance was utilized to assess group differences in student self-regulation and motivation, and linear regression analysis was used to identify variables that best predicted students' use of regulatory strategies. A key finding was that although seventh graders exhibited a more maladaptive self-regulation and motivation profile than sixth graders, achievement groups in seventh grade (high, moderate, low) were more clearly differentiated across both self-regulation and motivation than achievement groups in sixth grade. The pattern of achievement group differences also varied across math course type, as self-regulation and motivation processes more consistently differentiated achievement groups in advanced classes than regular math courses. Finally, task interest was shown to be the primary motivational predictor of students' use of regulatory strategies during math learning. The study highlights the importance of identifying shifting student motivation and self-regulation during the early middle school years and the potential role that context may have on these processes.     

Working memory and individual differences in mathematics achievement: A longitudinal study from first grade to second grade

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between working memory and individual differences in mathematics. Working memory measures, comprising the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the central executive, were administered at the start of first grade. Mathematics achievement was assessed 4 months later (at the middle of first grade) and 1 year later (at the start of second grade). Working memory was significantly related to mathematics achievement in both grades, showing that working memory clearly predicts later mathematics achievement. The central executive was a unique predictor of both first- and second-grade mathematics achievement. There were age-related differences with regard to the contribution of the slave systems to mathematics performance; the visuospatial sketchpad was a unique predictor of first-grade, but not second-grade, mathematics achievement, whereas the phonological loop emerged as a unique predictor of second-grade, but not first-grade, mathematics achievement.