Development During Middle Childhood The Years From Six to Twelve (1984) / Chapter Skim
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7 School Children: The Middle Childhood Years
7 School Children: The Middle Childhood Years
Pages 283-334
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From page 283... ...
However, because formal schooling in the United States and many other nations frequently begins between ages 4 and 5, some of the research and theory reviewed encompasses this earlier period as well. Throughout the world the most widely recognized function of elementary schools is to provide opportunities for children to acquire at least basic competencies in reading, writing, and computation.
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From page 284... ...
In cross-national comparisons of science achievement, secondary-level American students do not perform as well as students from Japan, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, and the Federal Republic of Germany. However, data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (Walberg, 1981)
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From page 285... ...
These conclusions are based primarily on research with secondary school students. Other studies of the same genre suggest that elementary schools do have differential effects on student outcomes (Brookover et al., 1979; Edmonds, 1979; Entwisle and Hay~uk, 1982; Murnane, 1975; Rutter, 1983; Rutter et al., 1979; Summers and Wolfe, 1977)
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From page 286... ...
And in the United States, elementary schools are most often neighborhood schools, a circumstance that, for middle-cIass white students, leads to a high degree of concordance between home and school environments perhaps potentiating effects of both. For [ower-cIass and minority students, however, there is frequently a lack of congruence between home and school environments (see the section below on race and ethnicity)
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From page 287... ...
Teacher commitment to and emphasis on students' academic achievement, rewards and praise, clear goal definition, peer norms, and group cooperation influence both school climate and student outcomes (Brookover et al., 1979; Edmonds, 1979; Rutter et al., 1979~. Teacher characteristics (McDill and Rigsby, 1973; Rutter et al., 1979)
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From page 288... ...
Although this research has a number of conceptual and methodological weaknesses, this continues to be an important line of investigation. During the 1960s and early 1970s, studies focusing on the influences of teacher behaviors and expectations on children's academic achievement and self-concept began to take shape.
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From page 289... ...
examined teacher, student, and parent expectations in three elementary schools (one middle-class and two lower' class schools)
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From page 290... ...
little agreement on which teacher behaviors are important; (3) failure to conceptualize adequately the instructional process and, therefore, how these variables operate to affect reaming;
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From page 291... ...
In his theory of educational productivity, Walberg ~ 1981 ~ specified the following variables: student ability and motivation, home environment and age, quality of instruction, quantity of instruction, and class environment. Formulations of this type are significant because they acknowledge that events occur simultaneously within the classroom that might' influence learning outcomes, thus permitting us to study the possible interactive and mediating effects.
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From page 292... ...
, which is highly predictive of later school achievement, is strongly related to family background characteristics. As Barr and Dreeben (1983)
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From page 293... ...
Self-esteem and academic self-concept are both positively correlated with academic achievement (Dolan, 1978; Hare, 1980; Maruyama et al., 1981; Purkey, 1970~. However, there is little direct evidence that either self-esteem or academic self-concept has a direct causal influence on achievement.
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From page 294... ...
argued that new measures of children's perceptions of locus of control are needed that would yield subscores for different reinforcement domains. They also recommend studies of developmental changes in locus of control, including information on when children develop beliefs regarding locus of control in achievement situations, how this developmental process is affected by school experiences, and how attributions of failure affect mastery motivation.
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From page 295... ...
) Teacher behaviors may be related to changes in self-esteem (Anderson, 1982; Goodiad et al., 1979; McDill and Rigsby, 19?
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From page 296... ...
Since reading achievement is reflected in nearly all school subjects, this early placement has a lasting effect on achievement and subsequent attitudes toward school and educational attainment. Grouping in the primary grades and tracking in the intermediate grades and secondary school result in children being identified as academic winners or losers.
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From page 297... ...
These investigations have focused primarily on the effects of parental involvement, socioeconomic status, and home environment on children's cognitive and affective func .
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From page 298... ...
Even when students live in comparable neighborhoods and do not differ on traditional measures of socioeconomic status, home environment variables still explain a significant amount of achievement variance (Levine et al., 1972~. (See Maccoby, in this volume, for a discussion of family interaction pat'
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From page 299... ...
, and in Dublin (KelIaghan, 1977) to assess the degree of parental influence on academic achievement of children ages 8 and 11, respectively (Marjoribanks, 1979~.
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These behaviors are thought to serve as models that strongly influence children's acquisition of specific cognitive and affective modes, which affect their subsequent reaming and affective responses. Hess and Shipman stated (1967:58-60)
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From page 301... ...
had higher reading achievement scores than children whose parents did not listen to their oral reading on a regular basis. Child-parent centers that stress parental involvement have been particularly effective in enhancing the achievement of low-inceme inner-city minority children (Fuerst, 19771.
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From page 302... ...
Although the students in Epstein's study were beyond the elementary school level, it is reasonable to assume that the patterns exhibited by these students developed during the early school years. Additional research on the relationship offamily decisionmaking structures and school decision-making structures in the early grades may help us understand how student characteristics, home environment, and school environment affect student adjustment to school.
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From page 303... ...
RuhIand and Feld (1977) found that black and white working~ciass children did not differ in autonomous achievement motivation, which is presumably learned at home prior to school age; however, white students scored significantly higher than blacks on social comparison motivation, which is acquired during the elementary school years.
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From page 304... ...
Is this also true for elementary schools? Additional work is needed on the effects of various educational practices on parents' and students' expectations and the relationship of these to achievement and affective outcomes.
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From page 305... ...
The argument for perception of opportunity structure is more plausible for secondary school students than for elementary pupils, who are less likely to have well-formed ideas about societal barriers to social mobility. However, perceptions of the opportunity structure may influence how parents motivate their children for school achievement.
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From page 306... ...
These reseachers contend that nonmainstream children develop school-relevant cognitive strategies in the home environment before they enroll in school, but the school environment provides different types of cues for generating the use of these strategies. The children therefore exhibit a widespread inconsistency in the use of school-successful cognitive strategies.
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From page 307... ...
More qualitative studies of family life and school life are needed. SCHOOL DESEGREGATION The research generated by legal efforts to desegregate public schools has typically focused on three questions: ~ l ~ Do minority children have higher achievement in integrated schools than in segregated schools?
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From page 308... ...
Studies of the effects of ability grouping on interracial contacts and attitudes at the elementary school level would help clarify the effects of such school practices on children's attitudes and behaviors. There is promising work on team reaming (Stavin and DeVries, 1979)
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From page 309... ...
Self-Esteem, Academic Self-Concept, and Racial SeIf-~dentity Efforts to determine the impact of school desegregation on the self-image and motivation of black children have been hampered by the use of many different self-esteem measures and by differences in the conditions under which desegregation has taken place. In addition, many studies are crosssectional rather than longitudinal and attempt to assess effects after relatively short periods of time.
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From page 310... ...
This issue should be the focus of further research. Research on racial self-identity has attempted to determine the extent to which black children or other nonwhite minority children develop racial self-hatred, dominant-group preference, or rejection of their own group.
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From page 311... ...
. Academic Achievement Much attention has been given to the effects of desegregation on academic achievement (see the reviews by Bradley and Bradley, 1977; St.
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From page 312... ...
. Bilingual Instruction and Intellectual Development The majority of the studies conducted before 1962 found strong evidence for the contention that bilingual children, compared with monolingual children, were deficient in vocabulary, articulation, written composition, and grammar (Diaz, 1983:25~.
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Bilingualism and Achievement It has consistently been reported that bilingualism among middle- and upper-cIass children is not associated with educational problems. Bilingualism among lower~cIass ethnic minority children, however, is frequently associated with low levels of academic achievement.
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From page 314... ...
These studies reported that by grade 6, English-speaking children attending French-medium schools did not differ in English achievement when compared with English-speaking children attending English-medium schools, although children attending French-medium schools received no English instruction before the third or fifth grade. Children in immersion programs also acquire second-language skills equal to those of native speakers by the end of elementary school.
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From page 315... ...
What is the effect on the English achievement of bilingual children of including English-dominant or monolingual children in bilingual classes? How important is the cultural aspect of bilingual education for English achievement, self-concept, and attitudes toward school of minority-language children.?
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From page 316... ...
The areas of bilingual education and second-language acquisition have many research needs. The combination of strong political support for bilingual education from minority-language groups and support for improved foreign language instruction for English speakers should provide a climate conducive to vigorous research activity on language learning in the next decade.
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From page 317... ...
It should be noted, however, that the programs that produce superior nonachievement outcomes tend to produce smaller than average effects on academic achievement (Giaconia and Hedges, 1982:586~. However, traditional education appears to be only marginally more effective than open education for the traditional academic achievement measures.
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From page 318... ...
For example, they were less likely to have been retained in grade or to have been placed in special education classes than nonparticipants. Early education programs had a positive effect on {Q scores that lasted for 3 or 4 years, and program graduates did somewhat better on achievement tests than control subjects.
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From page 319... ...
Cohen stated that "combining racial groups with similar levels of academic achievement makes it much easier to produce equal status relationships" (1980:273~. Cohen also recommended reorganizing cIassrooms so as to minimize the continued use of reading competence as the major source of students' expectations about competence in general.
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From page 320... ...
It will also be necessary, however, to change teachers' and administrators' attitudes about instructional processes as well as about the reaming potential of minority students. Mastery learning Mastery reaming is an instructional technique based on Bloom's theory of school reaming (19761.
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From page 321... ...
For example, gender differences have been discussed primarily in the context of studies of other phenomena, yet a large portion of this chapter could have been devoted to that topic. Issues such as school desegregation and bilingual education, which appear to be fertile areas for research, are treated in greater detail.
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From page 322... ...
Finally, far too little attention has been paid to outcomes of education other than academic achievement. To gain a better perspective on school influences, researchers should also focus on social development, attitudes, and values.
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From page 323... ...
1977 The academic achievement of black students in desgregated schools. Review of Educanonal Research 47:399-499.
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From page 324... ...
Unpublished paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York. Clarke-Stewart, K.A.
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From page 325... ...
1981 The influence of direct instruction on student self-appraisals: A hierarchical analysis of treatment and aptitude-treatment interaction effects. American Educational ResearchJourna1 18:39-61.
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From page 326... ...
Final report of Phase III-B, Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study. Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, San Francisco.
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From page 327... ...
San Francisco: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development. Glass, G., Cohen, E., and Smith, M
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From page 328... ...
Holliday, B.G. 1984 Towards a structural model of teacher-child transactional processes affecting black children's academic achievement.
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From page 329... ...
1975 Relationship between academic achievement and personality characteristics: A quasilongitudinal study. American Educational Research Journal 12: 191-220.
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From page 330... ...
1976 Performance in the interdependent classroom: A field study. American Educational Research Journal 68:588-596.
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From page 331... ...
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, March. Minuchin, P.P., and Shapiro, E.K.
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From page 332... ...
1982 Desegregation as national policy: Correlates of racial attitudes. American Educational Research Journal 19:397-414.
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From page 333... ...
1979 School practices that improve race relations. American Educational Research Journal 16:169180.
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From page 334... ...
1982 The relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Psychological Bulletin 91:461-481.
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