Using College Admission Test Scores to Clarify High School Placement. Leading Indicator Spotlight

Science.gov (United States)

Flug, Susanna

2010-01-01

In "Beyond Test Scores: Leading Indicators for Education," Foley and colleagues (2008) define leading indicators as those that "provide early signals of progress toward academic achievement" (p. 1) and stress that educators "need leading indicators to help them see the direction their efforts are going in and to take…

What Do Test Scores Really Mean? A Latent Class Analysis of Danish Test Score Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munk, Martin D.; McIntosh, James

2014-01-01

Latent class Poisson count models are used to analyze a sample of Danish test score results from a cohort of individuals born in 1954-55, tested in 1968, and followed until 2011. The procedure takes account of unobservable effects as well as excessive zeros in the data. We show that the test scores...... of intelligence explain a significant proportion of the variation in test scores. This adds to the complexity of interpreting test scores and suggests that school culture and possible incentive problems make it more di¢ cult to understand what the tests measure....

Health and Academic Achievement: Cumulative Effects of Health Assets on Standardized Test Scores Among Urban Youth in the United States*

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Ickovics, Jeannette R.; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Peters, Susan M.; Schwartz, Marlene; Gilstad-Hayden, Kathryn; McCaslin, Catherine

2014-01-01

Background The Institute of Medicine (2012) concluded that we must “strengthen schools as the heart of health.” To intervene for better outcomes in both health and academic achievement, identifying factors that impact children is essential. Study objectives are to (1) document associations between health assets and academic achievement, and (2) examine cumulative effects of these assets on academic achievement. Methods Participants include 940 students (grades 5 and 6) from 12 schools randomly selected from an urban district. Data include physical assessments, fitness testing, surveys, and district records. Fourteen health indicators were gathered including physical health (eg, body mass index [BMI]), health behaviors (eg, meeting recommendations for fruit/vegetable consumption), family environment (eg, family meals), and psychological well-being (eg, sleep quality). Data were collected 3-6 months prior to standardized testing. Results On average, students reported 7.1 health assets out of 14. Those with more health assets were more likely to be at goal for standardized tests (reading/writing/mathematics), and students with the most health assets were 2.2 times more likely to achieve goal compared with students with the fewest health assets (both p student health may also improve academic achievement, closing equity gaps in both health and academic achievement. PMID:24320151

Longitudinal analysis of the effect of academic failure tolerance on academic achievement fluctuation in medical school students.

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Chae, Su Jin; Kim, Miran; Chang, Ki Hong

2016-03-01

Academic failure tolerance (AFT) is one of the important psychological concepts in education, but its applications in medical education are rare. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of academic failure tolerance on academic achievement fluctuation among medical school students using a longitudinal research design. The subjects were 43 medical students who responded to the AFT test. This study analyzed the longitudinal data of achievement scores up to the 2nd academic year (2012-2013) among students who were divided into academic achievement improvement and decline groups. Comparing the improvement and decline groups' mean academic achievement fluctuation scores demonstrated that behavior and preferred task difficulty showed high scores whereas feeling scores were lower in the improvement group (pimportant basis for enhancing academic achievement among medical students.

The Reliability and Validity of Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory Scores in Academically Talented Adolescents

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Worrell, Frank C.; Mello, Zena R.

2007-01-01

In this study, the authors examined the reliability, structural validity, and concurrent validity of Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) scores in a group of 815 academically talented adolescents. Reliability estimates of the purported factors' scores were in the low to moderate range. Exploratory factor analysis supported a five-factor…

Science Teacher Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy as Predictors of Students' End-of-Instruction (EOI) Biology I Test Scores

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Angle, Julie; Moseley, Christine

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare teacher efficacy beliefs of secondary Biology I teachers whose students' mean scores on the statewide End-of-Instruction (EOI) Biology I test met or exceeded the state academic proficiency level (Proficient Group) to teacher efficacy beliefs of secondary Biology I teachers whose students' mean scores on the…

Do Test Scores Buy Happiness?

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McCluskey, Neal

2017-01-01

Since at least the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, standardized test scores have served as the primary measures of public school effectiveness. Yet, such scores fail to measure the ultimate goal of education: maximizing happiness. This exploratory analysis assesses nation level associations between test scores and happiness, controlling…

Predicting United States Medical Licensure Examination Step 2 clinical knowledge scores from previous academic indicators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monteiro KA

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Kristina A Monteiro, Paul George, Richard Dollase, Luba Dumenco Office of Medical Education, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA Abstract: The use of multiple academic indicators to identify students at risk of experiencing difficulty completing licensure requirements provides an opportunity to increase support services prior to high-stakes licensure examinations, including the United States Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE Step 2 clinical knowledge (CK. Step 2 CK is becoming increasingly important in decision-making by residency directors because of increasing undergraduate medical enrollment and limited available residency vacancies. We created and validated a regression equation to predict students’ Step 2 CK scores from previous academic indicators to identify students at risk, with sufficient time to intervene with additional support services as necessary. Data from three cohorts of students (N=218 with preclinical mean course exam score, National Board of Medical Examination subject examinations, and USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK between 2011 and 2013 were used in analyses. The authors created models capable of predicting Step 2 CK scores from academic indicators to identify at-risk students. In model 1, preclinical mean course exam score and Step 1 score accounted for 56% of the variance in Step 2 CK score. The second series of models included mean preclinical course exam score, Step 1 score, and scores on three NBME subject exams, and accounted for 67%–69% of the variance in Step 2 CK score. The authors validated the findings on the most recent cohort of graduating students (N=89 and predicted Step 2 CK score within a mean of four points (SD=8. The authors suggest using the first model as a needs assessment to gauge the level of future support required after completion of preclinical course requirements, and rescreening after three of six clerkships to identify students who might benefit from

Predicting occupational personality test scores.

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Furnham, A; Drakeley, R

2000-01-01

The relationship between students' actual test scores and their self-estimated scores on the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI; R. Hogan & J. Hogan, 1992), an omnibus personality questionnaire, was examined. Despite being given descriptive statistics and explanations of each of the dimensions measured, the students tended to overestimate their scores; yet all correlations between actual and estimated scores were positive and significant. Correlations between self-estimates and actual test scores were highest for sociability, ambition, and adjustment (r = .62 to r = .67). The results are discussed in terms of employers' use and abuse of personality assessment for job recruitment.

The Influence of MCAT and GPA Preadmission Academic Metrics on Interview Scores

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Gay, Steven E.; Santen, Sally A.; Mangrulkar, Rajesh S.; Sisson, Thomas H.; Ross, Paula T.; Zaidi, Nikki L. Bibler

2018-01-01

Medical school admissions interviews are used to assess applicants' nonacademic characteristics as advocated by the Association of American Medical Colleges' Advancing Holistic Review Initiative. The objective of this study is to determine whether academic metrics continue to significantly influence interviewers' scores in holistic processes by…

Exploring a Source of Uneven Score Equity across the Test Score Range

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Huggins-Manley, Anne Corinne; Qiu, Yuxi; Penfield, Randall D.

2018-01-01

Score equity assessment (SEA) refers to an examination of population invariance of equating across two or more subpopulations of test examinees. Previous SEA studies have shown that score equity may be present for examinees scoring at particular test score ranges but absent for examinees scoring at other score ranges. No studies to date have…

A Study on Variables that Affect Class Scores of Primary Education Students in Placement Test

OpenAIRE

Yavuz, Mustafa

2010-01-01

This study aims to determine the variables that predict class scores which are obtained by adding 70 % of the Placement Test (PT) scores of the primary education sixth and seventh grade students who took it for the first time in the 2007-2008 academic year within the framework of the system of passing to secondary education reorganized by the MNE, 25 % of their end-of-the-year passing grades. The study is of general survey model. The study group consists of students who took the PT in the 200...

COMPUTER TESTING AS A METHOD FOR ESTIMATION OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF STUDENTS ON BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY IN MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petushok N. E.

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Background. Assessment of students' knowledge is one of the key tasks of any educational system. The aim of the study is to identify the significance of testing in a multipurpose system of means of assessing students' knowledge. Material and methods. Statistic analysis of the relationship of the results of computer testing, the examination score and the average annual score. Results. A positive correlation was revealed between all pairs of the compared indicators. For students of the Faculty of General Medicine high strength of relationship was noted for the average annual score ↔ examination score and testing ↔ examination score. For students of the Medical Faculty for International Students, the tendencies of interdependence of the indicators are similar, the strength of relationship is less pronounced. Conclusions. Computer testing should be used in complex with other tools of assessment of academic achievements.

Test Scores, Class Rank and College Performance: Lessons for Broadening Access and Promoting Success.

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Niu, Sunny X; Tienda, Marta

2012-04-01

Using administrative data for five Texas universities that differ in selectivity, this study evaluates the relative influence of two key indicators for college success-high school class rank and standardized tests. Empirical results show that class rank is the superior predictor of college performance and that test score advantages do not insulate lower ranked students from academic underperformance. Using the UT-Austin campus as a test case, we conduct a simulation to evaluate the consequences of capping students admitted automatically using both achievement metrics. We find that using class rank to cap the number of students eligible for automatic admission would have roughly uniform impacts across high schools, but imposing a minimum test score threshold on all students would have highly unequal consequences by greatly reduce the admission eligibility of the highest performing students who attend poor high schools while not jeopardizing admissibility of students who attend affluent high schools. We discuss the implications of the Texas admissions experiment for higher education in Europe.

The academic penalty for gaining weight: a longitudinal, change-in-change analysis of BMI and perceived academic ability in middle school students.

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Kenney, E L; Gortmaker, S L; Davison, K K; Bryn Austin, S

2015-09-01

Worse educational outcomes for obese children regardless of academic ability may begin early in the life course. This study tested whether an increase in children's relative weight predicted lower teacher- and child-perceived academic ability even after adjusting for standardized test scores. Three thousand three hundred and sixty-two children participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort were studied longitudinally from fifth to eighth grade. Heights, weights, standardized test scores in maths and reading, and teacher and self-ratings of ability in maths and reading were measured at each wave. Longitudinal, within-child linear regression models estimated the impact of a change in body mass index (BMI) z-score on change in normalized teacher and student ratings of ability in reading and maths, adjusting for test score. A change in BMI z-score from fifth to eighth grade was not independently associated with a change in standardized test scores. However, adjusting for standardized test scores, an increasing BMI z-score was associated with significant reductions in teacher's perceptions of girls' ability in reading (-0.12, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.23, -0.03, P=0.03) and boys' ability in math (-0.30, 95% CI: -0.43, -0.17, Pmaths ability (-0.47, 95% CI: -0.83, -0.11, P=0.01). From fifth to eighth grade, increase in BMI z-score was significantly associated with worsening teacher perceptions of academic ability for both boys and girls, regardless of objectively measured ability (standardized test scores). Future research should examine potential interventions to reduce bias and promote positive school climate.

Test Anxiety and Academic Procrastination Among Prelicensure Nursing Students.

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Custer, Nicole

Test anxiety may cause nursing students to cope poorly with academic demands, affecting academic performance and attrition and leading to possible failure on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN®). Test-anxious nursing students may engage academic procrastination as a coping mechanism. The Test Anxiety Inventory and the Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students were administered to 202 prelicensure nursing students from diploma, associate, and baccalaureate nursing programs in southwestern Pennsylvania. Statistically significant correlations between test anxiety and academic procrastination were found. The majority of participants reported procrastinating most on weekly reading assignments. Students with higher grade point averages exhibited less academic procrastination.

Raising test scores vs. teaching higher order thinking (HOT): senior science teachers' views on how several concurrent policies affect classroom practices

Science.gov (United States)

Zohar, Anat; Alboher Agmon, Vered

2018-04-01

This study investigates how senior science teachers viewed the effects of a Raising Test Scores policy and its implementation on instruction of higher order thinking (HOT), and on teaching thinking to students with low academic achievements.

Validating the Interpretations and Uses of Test Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Kane, Michael T.

2013-01-01

To validate an interpretation or use of test scores is to evaluate the plausibility of the claims based on the scores. An argument-based approach to validation suggests that the claims based on the test scores be outlined as an argument that specifies the inferences and supporting assumptions needed to get from test responses to score-based…

The C.L.E.A.R. Score: a new comprehensive assessment method for academic physicians in military medical centers.

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Buller, Jerome L; Tetteh, Hassan A

2012-07-01

Evaluation of medical officer performance is a critical leadership role. This study offers a comprehensive evaluation system for military physicians. The Comprehensive Assessment equation (COMPASS equation), a modified Cobb-Douglas equation, was developed to evaluate academic physicians. The COMPASS equation assesses military physicians within five comprehensive dimensions: (1) Clinical (2) Leadership, (3) Educational (4) Administrative, and (5) Research productivity excellence to yield a composite "C.L.E.A.R. Score." The COMPASS equation's fidelity was tested with a cohort of military physicians within the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Capital District Region and a C.L.E.A.R. score was calculated for individual physicians. Mean C.L.E.A.R score was 53.6 +/- 28.8 (range 10.1-98.5). The responsiveness of the model was tested using two hypothetical physician models: "low-performing-faculty" and "super-faculty," and calculated C.L.E.A.R. scores were 6.3 and 153.4, respectively. The C.L.E.A.R. score appears to recognize and assess the performance excellence of military physicians. Weighting measured characteristics of the COMPASS equation can be used to promote organizational priorities. Thus, leaders of military medicine can communicate institutional priorities and inculcate them through use of the COMPASS equation to reward and recognize the activities of military medical officers that are commensurate with institutional goals.

Prediction of true test scores from observed item scores and ancillary data.

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Haberman, Shelby J; Yao, Lili; Sinharay, Sandip

2015-05-01

In many educational tests which involve constructed responses, a traditional test score is obtained by adding together item scores obtained through holistic scoring by trained human raters. For example, this practice was used until 2008 in the case of GRE(®) General Analytical Writing and until 2009 in the case of TOEFL(®) iBT Writing. With use of natural language processing, it is possible to obtain additional information concerning item responses from computer programs such as e-rater(®). In addition, available information relevant to examinee performance may include scores on related tests. We suggest application of standard results from classical test theory to the available data to obtain best linear predictors of true traditional test scores. In performing such analysis, we require estimation of variances and covariances of measurement errors, a task which can be quite difficult in the case of tests with limited numbers of items and with multiple measurements per item. As a consequence, a new estimation method is suggested based on samples of examinees who have taken an assessment more than once. Such samples are typically not random samples of the general population of examinees, so that we apply statistical adjustment methods to obtain the needed estimated variances and covariances of measurement errors. To examine practical implications of the suggested methods of analysis, applications are made to GRE General Analytical Writing and TOEFL iBT Writing. Results obtained indicate that substantial improvements are possible both in terms of reliability of scoring and in terms of assessment reliability. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Academic Locus of Control, Tendencies Towards Academic Dishonesty and Test Anxiety Levels as the Predictors of Academic Self-Efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Yesilyurt, Etem

2014-01-01

Many studies have focused on finding the level of effect that academic locus of control, tendencies towards academic dishonesty, and test anxiety levels have had on academic self-efficacy, and providing a separate explanation ratio for each. The relationship among the effects of the academic locus of control, tendencies towards academic…

Subjective Well-Being, Test Anxiety, Academic Achievement: Testing for Reciprocal Effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Steinmayr, Ricarda; Crede, Julia; McElvany, Nele; Wirthwein, Linda

2015-01-01

In the context of adolescents' subjective well-being (SWB), research has recently focused on a number of different school variables. The direction of the relationships between adolescents' SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety is, however, still open although reciprocal causation has been hypothesized. The present study set out to investigate to what extent SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety influence each other over time. A sample of N = 290 11th grade students (n = 138 female; age: M = 16.54 years, SD = 0.57) completed measures of SWB and test anxiety in the time span of 1 year. Grade point average (GPA) indicated students' academic achievement. We analyzed the reciprocal relations using cross-lagged structural equation modeling. The model fit was satisfactory for all computed models. Results indicated that the worry component of test anxiety negatively and GPA positively predicted changes in the cognitive component of SWB (life satisfaction). Worry also negatively predicted changes in the affective component of SWB. Moreover, worry negatively predicted changes in students' GPA. Directions for future research and the differential predictive influences of academic achievement and test anxiety on adolescents' SWB are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes.

Subjective Well-Being, Test Anxiety, Academic Achievement: Testing for Reciprocal Effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricarda eSteinmayr

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In the context of adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB, research has recently focused on a number of different school variables. The direction of the relationships between adolescents’ SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety is however still open although reciprocal causation has been hypothesized. The present study set out to investigate to what extent SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety influence each other over time. A sample of N = 290 11th grade students (n = 138 female; age: M = 16.54 years, SD = 0.57 completed measures of SWB and test anxiety in the time span of one year. Grade Point Average (GPA indicated students’ academic achievement. We analyzed the reciprocal relations using cross-lagged structural equation modeling. The model fit was satisfactory for all computed models. Results indicated that the worry component of test anxiety negatively and GPA positively predicted changes in the cognitive component of SWB (life satisfaction. Worry also negatively predicted changes in the affective component of SWB. Moreover, worry negatively predicted changes in students’ GPA. Directions for future research and the differential predictive influences of academic achievement and test anxiety on adolescents’ SWB are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes.

Test anxiety and cardiovascular responses to daily academic stressors.

Science.gov (United States)

Conley, Kristen M; Lehman, Barbara J

2012-02-01

Routine academic events may cause stress and produce temporary elevations in blood pressure. Students who experience test anxiety may be especially prone to cardiovascular activation in response to academic stress. This study drew on self-reported stress and ambulatory blood pressure measurements provided by 99 undergraduate participants (30% men, mean age=21 years) who participated over 4 days. Posture, activity level, recent consumption and the previous same-day reading were considered as covariates in a series of hierarchical linear models. Results indicate elevations in systolic blood pressure at times of acute academic stressors; neither diastolic blood pressure nor heart rate was linked with academic stress. In addition, those participants higher in test anxiety exhibited especially pronounced elevations in systolic blood pressure during times of acute academic stress. This research suggests that everyday academic stressors are linked with temporary increases in blood pressure and that test anxiety may contribute to these elevations. Test anxiety has implications for future academic and job success, and cardiovascular responses to everyday stress may contribute to health problems later in life. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Test/score/report: Simulation techniques for automating the test process

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Hageman, Barbara H.; Sigman, Clayton B.; Koslosky, John T.

1994-01-01

A Test/Score/Report capability is currently being developed for the Transportable Payload Operations Control Center (TPOCC) Advanced Spacecraft Simulator (TASS) system which will automate testing of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) and Mission Operations Center (MOC) software in three areas: telemetry decommutation, spacecraft command processing, and spacecraft memory load and dump processing. Automated computer control of the acceptance test process is one of the primary goals of a test team. With the proper simulation tools and user interface, the task of acceptance testing, regression testing, and repeatability of specific test procedures of a ground data system can be a simpler task. Ideally, the goal for complete automation would be to plug the operational deliverable into the simulator, press the start button, execute the test procedure, accumulate and analyze the data, score the results, and report the results to the test team along with a go/no recommendation to the test team. In practice, this may not be possible because of inadequate test tools, pressures of schedules, limited resources, etc. Most tests are accomplished using a certain degree of automation and test procedures that are labor intensive. This paper discusses some simulation techniques that can improve the automation of the test process. The TASS system tests the POCC/MOC software and provides a score based on the test results. The TASS system displays statistics on the success of the POCC/MOC system processing in each of the three areas as well as event messages pertaining to the Test/Score/Report processing. The TASS system also provides formatted reports documenting each step performed during the tests and the results of each step. A prototype of the Test/Score/Report capability is available and currently being used to test some POCC/MOC software deliveries. When this capability is fully operational it should greatly reduce the time necessary

Adaptive testing with equated number-correct scoring

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Linden, Willem J.

1999-01-01

A constrained CAT algorithm is presented that automatically equates the number-correct scores on adaptive tests. The algorithm can be used to equate number-correct scores across different administrations of the same adaptive test as well as to an external reference test. The constraints are derived

ITC Guidelines on Quality Control in Scoring, Test Analysis, and Reporting of Test Scores

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Allalouf, Avi

2014-01-01

The Quality Control (QC) Guidelines are intended to increase the efficiency, precision, and accuracy of the scoring, analysis, and reporting process of testing. The QC Guidelines focus on large-scale testing operations where multiple forms of tests are created for use on set dates. However, they may also be used for a wide variety of other testing…

The Implementation of Role-Playing Model in Principles of Finance Accounting Learning to Improve Students’ Enjoyment and Students’ Test Scores

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L. Saptono

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This research is a classroom action research. The goal of conducting this research is to improve students’ enjoyment level and their test scores by implementing role-playing method. The research is conducted in Accounting Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University at odd semester on academic year 2010/2011. The participants were divided into two classes. The first class was the class that got the treatment, while the second class was the control class. The result of the study showed that there was an improvement of students’ enjoyment level and test scores in the class which implemented role-playing method.

The Impact of an Academic Integrity Module and Turnitin® on Similarity Index Scores of Undergraduate Student Papers

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Ballard, Iva B.

2013-01-01

In this quasi-experimental 2 x 2 factorial design study, the impact of an academic integrity module and Turnitin® on undergraduate student similarity index scores was investigated. Similarity index scores were used to measure suggested plagiarism rates of student papers. A purposive sample consisting of 96 undergraduate education students enrolled…

Summary of Score Changes (in other Tests).

Science.gov (United States)

Cleary, T. Anne; McCandless, Sam A.

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores have declined during the last 14 years. Similar score declines have been observed in many different testing programs, many groups, and tested areas. The declines, while not large in any given year, have been consistent over time, area, and group. The period around 1965 is critical for the interpretation of…

The design of a postgraduate test of academic literacy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

As a consideration in the design of a test of academic literacy, the face validity of such a test is determined by its perceived suitability and usefulness in addressing the literacy requirements of specific academic contexts. This article focuses on one such a literacy context: that of postgraduate academic literacy at a South ...

The family, neuroscience, and academic skills: An interdisciplinary account of social class gaps in children's test scores.

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Potter, Daniel; Mashburn, Andrew; Grissmer, David

2013-03-01

Current explanations of social class gaps in children's early academic skills tend to focus on non-cognitive skills that more advantaged children acquire in the family. Accordingly, social class matters because the cultural resources more abundant in advantaged families cultivate children's repertories and tool kits, which allow them to more easily navigate social institutions, such as schools. Within these accounts, parenting practices matter for children's academic success, but for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Alternatively, findings from current neuroscience research indicate that family context matters for children because it cultivates neural networks that assist in learning and the development of academic skills. That is, children's exposure to particular parenting practices and stimulating home environments contribute to the growth in neurocognitive skills that affect later academic performance. We synthesize sociological and neuroscience accounts of developmental inequality by focusing on one such skill-fine motor skills-to illustrate how family context alters children's early academic performance. Our findings support an interdisciplinary account of academic inequality, and extend current accounts of the family's role in the transmission of social inequality. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Relationship between the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Scores and Academic Success of International Master's Students

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Arcuino, Cathy Lee T.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine if the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are related to academic success defined by final cumulative grade point average (GPA). The data sample, from three Midwestern universities, was comprised of international graduate students who…

Data-driven efficient score tests for deconvolution hypotheses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langovoy, M.

2008-01-01

We consider testing statistical hypotheses about densities of signals in deconvolution models. A new approach to this problem is proposed. We constructed score tests for the deconvolution density testing with the known noise density and efficient score tests for the case of unknown density. The

Admission Scores as a Predictor of Academic Success in the Fiji School of Medicine

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Ezeala, Christian C.; Swami, Niraj S.; Lal, Nilesh; Hussain, Shagufta

2012-01-01

Secondary education in Fiji ends with the Form 7 examination. Predictive validity for academic success of Form 7 scores which form the basis for admission into the Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery programme of the Fiji School of Medicine was examined via a cohort of 129 students. Success rates for year 1 in 2008, 2009, and 2010 were 90.7…

The Relationship between Test Anxiety and Academic Performance of Students in Vital Statistics Course

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shirin Iranfar

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Test anxiety is a common phenomenon among students and is one of the problems of educational system. The present study was conducted to investigate the test anxiety in vital statistics course and its association with academic performance of students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. This study was descriptive-analytical and the study sample included the students studying in nursing and midwifery, paramedicine and health faculties that had taken vital statistics course and were selected through census method. Sarason questionnaire was used to analyze the test anxiety. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicated no significant correlation between test anxiety and score of vital statistics course.

Critical combinations of radiation dose and volume predict intelligence quotient and academic achievement scores after craniospinal irradiation in children with medulloblastoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Merchant, Thomas E; Schreiber, Jane E; Wu, Shengjie; Lukose, Renin; Xiong, Xiaoping; Gajjar, Amar

2014-11-01

To prospectively follow children treated with craniospinal irradiation to determine critical combinations of radiation dose and volume that would predict for cognitive effects. Between 1996 and 2003, 58 patients (median age 8.14 years, range 3.99-20.11 years) with medulloblastoma received risk-adapted craniospinal irradiation followed by dose-intense chemotherapy and were followed longitudinally with multiple cognitive evaluations (through 5 years after treatment) that included intelligence quotient (estimated intelligence quotient, full-scale, verbal, and performance) and academic achievement (math, reading, spelling) tests. Craniospinal irradiation consisted of 23.4 Gy for average-risk patients (nonmetastatic) and 36-39.6 Gy for high-risk patients (metastatic or residual disease >1.5 cm(2)). The primary site was treated using conformal or intensity modulated radiation therapy using a 2-cm clinical target volume margin. The effect of clinical variables and radiation dose to different brain volumes were modeled to estimate cognitive scores after treatment. A decline with time for all test scores was observed for the entire cohort. Sex, race, and cerebrospinal fluid shunt status had a significant impact on baseline scores. Age and mean radiation dose to specific brain volumes, including the temporal lobes and hippocampi, had a significant impact on longitudinal scores. Dichotomized dose distributions at 25 Gy, 35 Gy, 45 Gy, and 55 Gy were modeled to show the impact of the high-dose volume on longitudinal test scores. The 50% risk of a below-normal cognitive test score was calculated according to mean dose and dose intervals between 25 Gy and 55 Gy at 10-Gy increments according to brain volume and age. The ability to predict cognitive outcomes in children with medulloblastoma using dose-effects models for different brain subvolumes will improve treatment planning, guide intervention, and help estimate the value of newer methods of irradiation. Copyright © 2014

Subjective Well-Being, Test Anxiety, Academic Achievement: Testing for Reciprocal Effects

OpenAIRE

Steinmayr, Ricarda; Crede, Julia; McElvany, Nele; Wirthwein, Linda

2016-01-01

In the context of adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB), research has recently focused on a number of different school variables. The direction of the relationships between adolescents’ SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety is, however, still open although reciprocal causation has been hypothesized. The present study set out to investigate to what extent SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety influence each other over time. A sample of N = 290 11th grade students (n = 138 female...

The relationship between academic self-concept, intrinsic motivation, test anxiety, and academic achievement among nursing students: mediating and moderating effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Khalaila, Rabia

2015-03-01

The impact of cognitive factors on academic achievement is well documented. However, little is known about the mediating and moderating effects of non-cognitive, motivational and situational factors on academic achievement among nursing students. The aim of this study is to explore the direct and/or indirect effects of academic self-concept on academic achievement, and examine whether intrinsic motivation moderates the negative effect of test anxiety on academic achievement. This descriptive-correlational study was carried out on a convenience sample of 170 undergraduate nursing students, in an academic college in northern Israel. Academic motivation, academic self-concept and test anxiety scales were used as measuring instruments. Bootstrapping with resampling strategies was used for testing multiple mediators' model and examining the moderator effect. A higher self-concept was found to be directly related to greater academic achievement. Test anxiety and intrinsic motivation were found to be significant mediators in the relationship between self-concept and academic achievement. In addition, intrinsic motivation significantly moderated the negative effect of test anxiety on academic achievement. The results suggested that institutions should pay more attention to the enhancement of motivational factors (e.g., self-concept and motivation) and alleviate the negative impact of situational factors (e.g., test anxiety) when offering psycho-educational interventions designed to improve nursing students' academic achievements. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Teaching and Academic Standards Today.

Science.gov (United States)

Handleman, Chester

1980-01-01

Reviews the decline of educational standards as reflected in national test scores and discusses four pedagogic causes for this decline: the abandonment of written tests in favor of objective, true/false testing techniques; nonpunitive grading and attendance policies; excessive use of technology in the classroom; and academic grade inflation. (JP)

A comparative study on undergraduate students' academic motivation and academic self-concept.

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Isiksal, Mine

2010-11-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate Turkish and American undergraduate students' academic motivation and academic self-concept scores regarding the years that they spent in university. The analysis was based on 566 (284 Turkish, 282 American) undergraduate students where, Academic Motivation Scale and Academic Self-Concept Scale were used as measuring instruments. The results showed that there was a statistical significant effect of nationality and number of years spent in university on undergraduate students' intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and self-concept scores. Turkish students had higher intrinsic scores whereas American students had higher extrinsic scores and more positive academic-self concept compared to Turkish partners. Regarding grade level, senior students from both cultures had higher intrinsic motivation and academic self-concept scores compared to other grade levels. In terms of extrinsic motivation, there is steady decline in American students' scores as grade level increases. On the other hand, Turkish undergraduates' extrinsic scores decrease in the second year but increase in the third and fourth year of university education. Results were discussed by taking into consideration the social and cultural differences between two nations.

A Human Capital Model of Educational Test Scores

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McIntosh, James; D. Munk, Martin

Latent class Poisson count models are used to analyze a sample of Danish test score results from a cohort of individuals born in 1954-55 and tested in 1968. The procedure takes account of unobservable effects as well as excessive zeros in the data. The bulk of unobservable effects are uncorrelated...... with observable parental attributes and, thus, are environmental rather than genetic in origin. We show that the test scores measure manifest or measured ability as it has evolved over the life of the respondent and is, thus, more a product of the human capital formation process than some latent or fundamental...... measure of pure cognitive ability. We find that variables which are not closely associated with traditional notions of intelligence explain a significant proportion of the variation in test scores. This adds to the complexity of interpreting test scores and suggests that school culture, attitudes...

Test anxiety, perfectionism, goal orientation, and academic performance.

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Eum, KoUn; Rice, Kenneth G

2011-03-01

Dimensions of perfectionism and goal orientation have been reported to have differential relationships with test anxiety. However, the degree of inter-relationship between different dimensions of perfectionism, the 2 × 2 model of goal orientations proposed by Elliot and McGregor, cognitive test anxiety, and academic performance indicators is not known. Based on data from 134 university students, we conducted correlation and regression analyses to test associations between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, four types of goal orientations, cognitive test anxiety, and two indicators of academic performance: proximal cognitive performance on a word list recall test and distal academic performance in terms of grade point average. Cognitive test anxiety was inversely associated with both performance indicators, and positively associated with maladaptive perfectionism and avoidance goal orientations. Adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism accounted for significant variance in cognitive test anxiety after controlling for approach and avoidance goal orientations. Overall, nearly 50% of the variance in cognitive test anxiety could be attributed to gender, goal orientations, and perfectionism. Results suggested that students who are highly test anxious are likely to be women who endorse avoidance goal orientations and are maladaptively perfectionistic.

Facilitating the Interpretation of English Language Proficiency Scores: Combining Scale Anchoring and Test Score Mapping Methodologies

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Powers, Donald; Schedl, Mary; Papageorgiou, Spiros

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to develop, for the benefit of both test takers and test score users, enhanced "TOEFL ITP"® test score reports that go beyond the simple numerical scores that are currently reported. To do so, we applied traditional scale anchoring (proficiency scaling) to item difficulty data in order to develop performance…

The Truth about Scores Children Achieve on Tests.

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Brown, Jonathan R.

1989-01-01

The importance of using the standard error of measurement (SEm) in determining reliability in test scores is emphasized. The SEm is compared to the hypothetical true score for standardized tests, and procedures for calculation of the SEm are explained. (JDD)

Testing a Model of the Relationship of Demographic, Affective, and Fitness Variables to Academic Achievement among Non-Science Majors at an Independent University

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Dutra, Andrew Martin

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of specific attributes of college students to their academic achievement at an independent university in central Florida. Academic achievement was measured as the numeric score on the final exam in a survey-of-science course (EDS 1032) required for non-science majors. Attribute sets included personological, affective, and fitness variables. A hypothesized diagram of the direct and indirect effects among these attributes relative to academic achievement was developed and tested using data collected Spring 2014 from 168 students in four sections of EDS 1032 at Florida Institute of Technology. Multiple regression results revealed that 19% of the variance in a students' academic achievement was due to the influence of these three sets of research factors; this was found to be statistically significant. The results of mediation analyses also indicated that three variables had significant direct effects on academic achievement, namely gender, number of academic credits, and sports motivation. In addition, gender had a significant indirect effect on academic achievement via stress, and the number of academic credits had a significant indirect effect on academic achievement via sports motivation. These findings indicated that female students scored roughly six points higher than male students on this final exam. Also, gender's influence on academic achievement was partially attributable to the student's level of stress (e.g., male students with high levels of stress had lower grades on this final exam than female students with the same level of stress). In addition, it was found that students taking more academic credits were likely to score higher on this final exam than those students taking fewer credits. Further, as students' level of sports amotivation increased, the strength of the relationship between the number of student academic credits and academic achievement decreased. These results support Self

Academic and Occupational Performance: A Quantitative Synthesis.

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Samson, Gordon E.; And Others

1984-01-01

A synthesis of results from 35 studies of the association between academic and occupational performance in various fields indicated that academic indicators such as grades and test scores account for only 2.4 percent of the variance in occupational performance criteria such as income, job satisfaction, and effectiveness ratings. (Author/BW)

Ranking Different Stakeholder-Driven Definitions of Academic Quality

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Shouba, Derek

2017-01-01

Americans are increasingly concerned about academic quality (Hauptman & Kim, 2009). This concern about academic quality is a product of the relative decline of the American economy, American Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test scores, American baccalaureate attainment rates, and various other indicators of national…

Premorbid functioning of patients with first-episode nonaffective psychosis: a comparison of deterioration in academic and social performance, and clinical correlates of Premorbid Adjustment Scale scores.

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Monte, Ralph C; Goulding, Sandra M; Compton, Michael T

2008-09-01

Motivated by a previous study among male veterans [Allen, D.N., Frantom, L.V., Strauss, G.P., van Kammen, D.P., 2005. Differential patterns of premorbid academic and social deterioration in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophr. Res. 75, 389-397], the present analysis examined: (1) patterns of premorbid academic and social functioning during childhood, early adolescence, and late adolescence, and (2) associations between these premorbid functioning dimensions and a number of clinical variables. Data on premorbid functioning were collected using the Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS) in 95 hospitalized first-episode patients. Analyses were similar to those conducted by Allen and colleagues (2005). Deterioration was evident in both academic and social functioning from childhood to early adolescence, along with a pronounced/accelerated deterioration in academic functioning from early adolescence to late adolescence, occurring in both male and female patients. Age at onset of prodromal symptoms was predicted by childhood/early adolescent/late adolescent academic functioning scores, and age at onset of psychotic symptoms was significantly associated only with childhood academic functioning. Severity of negative symptoms was predicted by childhood and late adolescent social functioning scores, and severity of general psychopathology symptoms was predicted by late adolescent academic functioning, as well as childhood and late adolescent social functioning scores. Consistent with prior findings, deterioration in premorbid functioning appears to be more pronounced in the academic than social dimension of the PAS. Some PAS scores are predictive of ages at onset of prodrome/psychosis and severity of psychotic symptoms. Ongoing research on premorbid adjustment in schizophrenia may have implications for future prevention goals.

Cognitive Determinants of Academic Performance in Nigerian Pharmacy Schools

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Sansgiry, Sujit S.; Ukwe, Chinwe V.

2015-01-01

Objective. To evaluate cognitive factors that might influence academic performance of students in Nigerian pharmacy schools. Methods. A cross-sectional, multi-center survey of Nigerian pharmacy students from 7 schools of pharmacy was conducted using 2 validated questionnaires measuring cognitive constructs such as test anxiety, academic competence, test competence, time management, and strategic study habits. Results. Female students and older students scored significantly better on time management skills and study habits, respectively. Test anxiety was negatively associated with academic performance while test competence, academic competence, and time management were positively associated with academic performance. These 4 constructs significantly discriminated between the lower and higher performing students, with the first 2 contributing to the most differences. Conclusion. Test and academic competence, test anxiety, and time management were significant factors associated with low and high academic performance among Nigerian pharmacy students. The study also demonstrated the significant effects of age, gender, and marital status on these constructs. PMID:27168614

Cognitive Determinants of Academic Performance in Nigerian Pharmacy Schools.

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Ubaka, Chukwuemeka M; Sansgiry, Sujit S; Ukwe, Chinwe V

2015-09-25

Objective. To evaluate cognitive factors that might influence academic performance of students in Nigerian pharmacy schools. Methods. A cross-sectional, multi-center survey of Nigerian pharmacy students from 7 schools of pharmacy was conducted using 2 validated questionnaires measuring cognitive constructs such as test anxiety, academic competence, test competence, time management, and strategic study habits. Results. Female students and older students scored significantly better on time management skills and study habits, respectively. Test anxiety was negatively associated with academic performance while test competence, academic competence, and time management were positively associated with academic performance. These 4 constructs significantly discriminated between the lower and higher performing students, with the first 2 contributing to the most differences. Conclusion. Test and academic competence, test anxiety, and time management were significant factors associated with low and high academic performance among Nigerian pharmacy students. The study also demonstrated the significant effects of age, gender, and marital status on these constructs.

Raising Test Scores vs. Teaching Higher Order Thinking (HOT): Senior Science Teachers' Views on How Several Concurrent Policies Affect Classroom Practices

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Zohar, Anat; Alboher Agmon, Vered

2018-01-01

Purpose: This study investigates how senior science teachers viewed the effects of a Raising Test Scores policy and its implementation on instruction of higher order thinking (HOT), and on teaching thinking to students with low academic achievements. Background: The study was conducted in the context of three concurrent policies advocating: (a)…

Reducing test anxiety and improving academic self-esteem in high school and college students with learning disabilities.

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Wachelka, D; Katz, R C

1999-09-01

Test anxiety seems like a benign problem to some people, but it can be potentially serious when it leads to high levels of distress and academic failure in otherwise capable students. Because test anxiety is common in older students with learning disabilities (LD), it is surprising that little research has been done on ways to reduce the distress these students experience in test situations. In this study, we used a randomized pretest-posttest control group design to examine the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral treatment for reducing test anxiety and improving academic self-esteem in a cohort (N = 27) of high school and college students with learning disabilities (LD). All of the students participated voluntarily. They were enrolled in classes for students with learning problems. Before the study began, they complained of test anxiety and showed an elevated score on the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI). Eleven students (85%) completed the 8-week long treatment, which consisted of progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, self-instruction training, as well as training in study and test-taking skills. Results showed significant improvement in the treated group which was not evident in an untreated control group (N = 16). Compared to the control group, the treated group showed significant reductions in test anxiety on the TAI, as well as improvement in study skills and academic self-esteem as measured by the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, and the school scale of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. These results extend the generality of similar studies on reducing test anxiety and improving academic self-esteem in younger students. They also suggest that relief from test anxiety can be expected fairly quickly when cognitive-behavioral methods are used. Additional implications and methodological limitations of the study are discussed.

WEB-BASED ADAPTIVE TESTING SYSTEM (WATS FOR CLASSIFYING STUDENTS ACADEMIC ABILITY

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Jaemu LEE,

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT has been highlighted as a promising assessment method to fulfill two testing purposes: estimating student academic ability and classifying student academic level. In this paper, we introduced the Web-based Adaptive Testing System (WATS developed to support a cost effective assessment for classifying students’ ability into different academic levels. Instead of using a traditional paper and pencil test, the WATS is expected to serve as an alternate method to promptly diagnosis and identify underachieving students through Web-based testing. The WATS can also help provide students with appropriate learning contents and necessary academic support in time. In this paper, theoretical background and structure of WATS, item construction process based upon item response theory, and user interfaces of WATS were discussed.

Critical Combinations of Radiation Dose and Volume Predict Intelligence Quotient and Academic Achievement Scores After Craniospinal Irradiation in Children With Medulloblastoma

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Merchant, Thomas E., E-mail: thomas.merchant@stjude.org [Division of Radiation Oncology, St. Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee (United States); Schreiber, Jane E. [Department of Psychology, St. Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee (United States); Wu, Shengjie [Department of Biostatistcs, St. Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee (United States); Lukose, Renin [Division of Radiation Oncology, St. Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee (United States); Xiong, Xiaoping [Department of Biostatistcs, St. Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee (United States); Gajjar, Amar [Department of Oncology, St. Jude Children' s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee (United States)

2014-11-01

Purpose: To prospectively follow children treated with craniospinal irradiation to determine critical combinations of radiation dose and volume that would predict for cognitive effects. Methods and Materials: Between 1996 and 2003, 58 patients (median age 8.14 years, range 3.99-20.11 years) with medulloblastoma received risk-adapted craniospinal irradiation followed by dose-intense chemotherapy and were followed longitudinally with multiple cognitive evaluations (through 5 years after treatment) that included intelligence quotient (estimated intelligence quotient, full-scale, verbal, and performance) and academic achievement (math, reading, spelling) tests. Craniospinal irradiation consisted of 23.4 Gy for average-risk patients (nonmetastatic) and 36-39.6 Gy for high-risk patients (metastatic or residual disease >1.5 cm{sup 2}). The primary site was treated using conformal or intensity modulated radiation therapy using a 2-cm clinical target volume margin. The effect of clinical variables and radiation dose to different brain volumes were modeled to estimate cognitive scores after treatment. Results: A decline with time for all test scores was observed for the entire cohort. Sex, race, and cerebrospinal fluid shunt status had a significant impact on baseline scores. Age and mean radiation dose to specific brain volumes, including the temporal lobes and hippocampi, had a significant impact on longitudinal scores. Dichotomized dose distributions at 25 Gy, 35 Gy, 45 Gy, and 55 Gy were modeled to show the impact of the high-dose volume on longitudinal test scores. The 50% risk of a below-normal cognitive test score was calculated according to mean dose and dose intervals between 25 Gy and 55 Gy at 10-Gy increments according to brain volume and age. Conclusions: The ability to predict cognitive outcomes in children with medulloblastoma using dose-effects models for different brain subvolumes will improve treatment planning, guide intervention, and help

Critical Combinations of Radiation Dose and Volume Predict Intelligence Quotient and Academic Achievement Scores After Craniospinal Irradiation in Children With Medulloblastoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merchant, Thomas E.; Schreiber, Jane E.; Wu, Shengjie; Lukose, Renin; Xiong, Xiaoping; Gajjar, Amar

2014-01-01

Purpose: To prospectively follow children treated with craniospinal irradiation to determine critical combinations of radiation dose and volume that would predict for cognitive effects. Methods and Materials: Between 1996 and 2003, 58 patients (median age 8.14 years, range 3.99-20.11 years) with medulloblastoma received risk-adapted craniospinal irradiation followed by dose-intense chemotherapy and were followed longitudinally with multiple cognitive evaluations (through 5 years after treatment) that included intelligence quotient (estimated intelligence quotient, full-scale, verbal, and performance) and academic achievement (math, reading, spelling) tests. Craniospinal irradiation consisted of 23.4 Gy for average-risk patients (nonmetastatic) and 36-39.6 Gy for high-risk patients (metastatic or residual disease >1.5 cm 2 ). The primary site was treated using conformal or intensity modulated radiation therapy using a 2-cm clinical target volume margin. The effect of clinical variables and radiation dose to different brain volumes were modeled to estimate cognitive scores after treatment. Results: A decline with time for all test scores was observed for the entire cohort. Sex, race, and cerebrospinal fluid shunt status had a significant impact on baseline scores. Age and mean radiation dose to specific brain volumes, including the temporal lobes and hippocampi, had a significant impact on longitudinal scores. Dichotomized dose distributions at 25 Gy, 35 Gy, 45 Gy, and 55 Gy were modeled to show the impact of the high-dose volume on longitudinal test scores. The 50% risk of a below-normal cognitive test score was calculated according to mean dose and dose intervals between 25 Gy and 55 Gy at 10-Gy increments according to brain volume and age. Conclusions: The ability to predict cognitive outcomes in children with medulloblastoma using dose-effects models for different brain subvolumes will improve treatment planning, guide intervention, and help estimate

The accessibility of the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS: Student perceptions

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Rambiritch, Avasha

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the results of a questionnaire administered to students who wrote the Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS between 2008 and 2010. The purpose of the questionnaire was to elicit information and reactions from test takers about the test. The paper begins by contextualising the problem of student success in higher education, outlining, as well, how a test such as TALPS can contribute positively to student success, before focusing specifically on the voices of the test takers in order to determine how accessible TALPS is to them. This contribution from the test takers is an important one, especially because responsible test developers cannot work in isolation, removed from those affected by the use of test scores. Applied linguists should strive to ensure that the tests they design and use are fair, socially acceptable, and have positive effects. This paper will illustrate that these concerns become important when one works within a framework that challenges test developers to consider questions related to every aspect of the test. In employing a framework that incorporates a concern for the empirical analyses of a test, as well as a concern for the social dimensions of language testing, one is compelled to give a voice to those often ignored, but most affected by the use of the test scores: the test takers. The data gathered will give test developers valuable insight into the feelings and opinions of test-takers.

Late intellectual and academic outcomes following traumatic brain injury sustained during early childhood.

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Ewing-Cobbs, Linda; Prasad, Mary R; Kramer, Larry; Cox, Charles S; Baumgartner, James; Fletcher, Stephen; Mendez, Donna; Barnes, Marcia; Zhang, Xiaoling; Swank, Paul

2006-10-01

Although long-term neurological outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained early in life are generally unfavorable, the effect of TBI on the development of academic competencies is unknown. The present study characterizes intelligence quotient (IQ) and academic outcomes an average of 5.7 years after injury in children who sustained moderate to severe TBI prior to 6 years of age. Twenty-three children who suffered inflicted or noninflicted TBI between the ages of 4 and 71 months were enrolled in a prospective, longitudinal cohort study. Their mean age at injury was 21 months; their mean age at assessment was 89 months. The authors used general linear modeling approaches to compare IQ and standardized academic achievement test scores from the TBI group and a community comparison group (21 children). Children who sustained early TBI scored significantly lower than children in the comparison group on intelligence tests and in the reading, mathematical, and language domains of achievement tests. Forty-eight percent of the TBI group had IQs below the 10th percentile. During the approximately 5-year follow-up period, longitudinal IQ testing revealed continuing deficits and no recovery of function. Both IQ and academic achievement test scores were significantly related to the number of intracranial lesions and the lowest postresuscitation Glasgow Coma Scale score but not to age at the time of injury. Nearly 50% of the TBI group failed a school grade and/or required placement in self-contained special education classrooms; the odds of unfavorable academic performance were 18 times higher for the TBI group than the comparison group. Traumatic brain injury sustained early in life has significant and persistent consequences for the development of intellectual and academic functions and deleterious effects on academic performance.

Relationship between cognitive function and prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Decrease in intrinsic motivation is a common complaint among elementary and junior high school students, and is related to poor academic performance. Since grade-dependent development of cognitive functions also influences academic performance by these students, we examined whether cognitive functions are related to the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation. Methods The study group consisted of 134 elementary school students from 4th to 6th grades and 133 junior high school students from 7th to 9th grades. Participants completed a questionnaire on intrinsic academic motivation. They also performed paper-and-pencil and computerized cognitive tests to measure abilities in motor processing, spatial construction, semantic fluency, immediate memory, short-term memory, delayed memory, spatial working memory, and selective, alternative, and divided attention. Results In multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for grade and gender, scores of none of the cognitive tests were correlated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in elementary school students. However, low digit span forward test score and score for comprehension of the story in the kana pick-out test were positively correlated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in junior high school students. Conclusions The present findings suggest that decrease in capacity for verbal memory is associated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation among junior high school students. PMID:21235802

Relationship between cognitive function and prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in adolescents

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Fukuda Sanae

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Decrease in intrinsic motivation is a common complaint among elementary and junior high school students, and is related to poor academic performance. Since grade-dependent development of cognitive functions also influences academic performance by these students, we examined whether cognitive functions are related to the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation. Methods The study group consisted of 134 elementary school students from 4th to 6th grades and 133 junior high school students from 7th to 9th grades. Participants completed a questionnaire on intrinsic academic motivation. They also performed paper-and-pencil and computerized cognitive tests to measure abilities in motor processing, spatial construction, semantic fluency, immediate memory, short-term memory, delayed memory, spatial working memory, and selective, alternative, and divided attention. Results In multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for grade and gender, scores of none of the cognitive tests were correlated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in elementary school students. However, low digit span forward test score and score for comprehension of the story in the kana pick-out test were positively correlated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in junior high school students. Conclusions The present findings suggest that decrease in capacity for verbal memory is associated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation among junior high school students.

Relationship between cognitive function and prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Mizuno, Kei; Tanaka, Masaaki; Fukuda, Sanae; Imai-Matsumura, Kyoko; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2011-01-14

Decrease in intrinsic motivation is a common complaint among elementary and junior high school students, and is related to poor academic performance. Since grade-dependent development of cognitive functions also influences academic performance by these students, we examined whether cognitive functions are related to the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation. The study group consisted of 134 elementary school students from 4th to 6th grades and 133 junior high school students from 7th to 9th grades. Participants completed a questionnaire on intrinsic academic motivation. They also performed paper-and-pencil and computerized cognitive tests to measure abilities in motor processing, spatial construction, semantic fluency, immediate memory, short-term memory, delayed memory, spatial working memory, and selective, alternative, and divided attention. In multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for grade and gender, scores of none of the cognitive tests were correlated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in elementary school students. However, low digit span forward test score and score for comprehension of the story in the kana pick-out test were positively correlated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation in junior high school students. The present findings suggest that decrease in capacity for verbal memory is associated with the prevalence of decrease in intrinsic academic motivation among junior high school students.

Challenges of using Hospital Information Systems by nurses: comparing academic and non-academic hospitals.

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Ahmadian, Leila; Dorosti, Nafise; Khajouei, Reza; Gohari, Sadrieh Hajesmaeel

2017-06-01

Hospital Information Systems (HIS) are used for easy access to information, improvement of documentation and reducing errors. Nonetheless, using these systems is faced with some barriers and obstacles. This study identifies the challenges and the obstacles of using these systems in the academic and non-academic hospitals in Kerman. This is a cross-sectional study which was carried out in 2015. The statistical population in this study consisted of the nurses who had been working in the academic and non-academic hospitals in Kerman. A questionnaire consisting of two sections was used. The first section consisted of the demographic information of the participants and the second section comprised 34 questions about the challenges of HIS use. Data were analyzed by the descriptive and statistical analysis (t-test, and ANOVA) using SPSS 19 software. The most common and important challenges in the academic hospitals were about human environment factors, particularly "negative attitude of society toward using HIS". In the non-academic hospitals, the most common and important challenges were related to human factors, and among them, "no incentive to use system" was the main factor. The results of the t-test method revealed that there was a significant relationship between gender and the mean score of challenges related to the organizational environment category in the academic hospitals and between familiarity with HIS and mean score of human environment factors (pinformation systems are the factors related to the human environment and the human factors. The results of this study can bring a good perspective to the policy makers and the managers regarding obstacles of using HISs from the nurses' perspective, so that they can solve their problems and can successfully implement these systems.

Improving Scores on the IELTS Speaking Test

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Issitt, Steve

2008-01-01

This article presents three strategies for teaching students who are taking the IELTS speaking test. The first strategy is aimed at improving confidence and uses a variety of self-help materials from the field of popular psychology. The second encourages students to think critically and invokes a range of academic perspectives. The third strategy…

Improving personality facet scores with multidimensional computer adaptive testing

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Makransky, Guido; Mortensen, Erik Lykke; Glas, Cees A W

2013-01-01

personality tests contain many highly correlated facets. This article investigates the possibility of increasing the precision of the NEO PI-R facet scores by scoring items with multidimensional item response theory and by efficiently administering and scoring items with multidimensional computer adaptive...

Differences in motivations and academic achievement

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Luis Fernando Gamboa

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This paper provides new evidence on the effect of pupils’ self-motivation on academic achievement in science across countries. By using the OECD´s Programme for International Student Assessment 2006 (PISA 2006 test, we find that self-motivation has a positive effect on students’ performance. Instrumental Variables Quantile Regression is used to analyze the existence of different estimated coefficients over the scores distribution, allowing us to deal with the potential endogeneity of self-motivation. We find that the impact of intrinsic motivation on academic performance depends on the pupil’s score. Our findings support the importance of designing focalized programs for different populations that foster their motivation towards learning.

Etnic background and academic performance in Colombia

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Andrés Sanchez-Jabba

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In Colombia, students from an ethnic group have a lower academic achievement with respect totheir non-ethnic peers in standardized test scores on math and language. This gap is persistentat a state level, especially in high ethnic density states. Using information from the state academictest (SABER 11, this study corroborates the existence of an academic gap between ethnicand non-ethnic students and, additionally, decomposes it in factors related to observable characteristics,such as family and school; and non-observable factors. The methodology proposed byBlinder and Oaxaca applied to quantile regression is used in order to determine the existence oftest score gaps throughout the distribution of academic performance. Results indicate that forstates where there is a statistically significant gap, a sizeable portion of it is attributed to nonobservablefactors. Nonetheless, at distinct levels of academic performance, the gap size and theextent to which it can be attributed non-observable factors vary according to the state

An application of belief-importance theory in the domain of academic achievement.

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Petrides, K V; Frederickson, Norah

2011-03-01

BACKGROUND. Belief-importance (belimp; Petrides, 2010a,b) theory posits that personality traits confer on the individual a propensity to perceive convergences and divergences between their belief that they can attain goals and the importance that they place on these goals. The theory suggests that these convergences and divergences have important implications for affect, motivation, and action. AIMS. To test belimp theory using performance-based criteria relating to academic achievement and constructs from the personality domain. SAMPLES. Two hundred and forty-two students, of whom 121 were male and 117 were female (4 unreported). They were approximately 18 years old at the time of testing. METHODS. Data were collected on the belief and importance of academic achievement, the Giant Three personality dimensions, and trait emotional intelligence (trait EI). Academic achievement was operationalized via Key Stage 3 and A-level assessment results. RESULTS. Four hypotheses concerning academic achievement were tested and confirmed, with the Motivation quadrant scoring higher than the other three belimp quadrants (Hubris, Depression, and Apathy). Four hypotheses concerning personality were tested, of which two were confirmed, with the Hubris quadrant scoring highest on psychoticism and the Depression quadrant scoring highest on neuroticism. Four hierarchical regressions demonstrated the incremental validity of the belief and importance belimp coordinates over the Giant Three personality dimensions in the prediction of academic achievement. CONCLUSIONS. The results are encouraging for belimp theory and complement similarly supportive findings in Petrides (2010b,c). ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

The Effect of Mock Tests on Iranian EFL learners’ Test Scores

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Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The effect of using tests in test preparation courses has been subject to debate. While some scholars such as Yang and Badger (2015 believe it is a cause of positive washback effect, others argue that this issue is tentative and context-bound (Green, 2007. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of using Mock tests in International English Language Testing System (IELTS preparation courses on students’ overall IELTS scores. Fifty one IELTS students were selected non-randomly through the quota sampling approach out of 76 students at Mahan Language Institute in Birjand, Iran.  These participants were distributed into Group 1 (n=25 and Group 2 (n=26. A complete IELTS test was administered to ensure that the Groups were homogeneous and to serve as pretest. After 10 sessions of intervention, a different IELTS test was administered as posttest. The results of between subject analysis through independent samples t-test revealed that using Mock tests in the IELTS preparation courses can positively affect the participants scores on IELTS exam. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Test Anxiety and Academic Performance among Undergraduates: The Moderating Role of Achievement Motivation.

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Balogun, Anthony Gbenro; Balogun, Shyngle Kolawole; Onyencho, Chidi Victor

2017-02-13

This study investigated the moderating role of achievement motivation in the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance. Three hundred and ninety three participants (192 males and 201 females) selected from a public university in Ondo State, Nigeria using a purposive sampling technique, participated in the study. They responded to measures of test anxiety and achievement motivation. Three hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results showed that test anxiety had a negative impact on academic performance (β = -.23; p motivation had a positive impact on academic performance (β = .38; p motivation significantly moderated the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance (β = .10; p students' achievement motivation.

Self-concept of academic ability as a function of sex, age, and academic achievement among African adolescents.

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Mboya, M M

1998-08-01

This study examined (a) sex and age variations for scores on Self-concept of Academic Ability and academic achievement among 244 African adolescents attending a coeducational high school and (b) correlations between scores on Self-concept of Academic Ability and academic achievement by sex and age. No significant sex differences were found, but there were significant age differences on the Self-concept scores and measures of English, science, and history but not in mathematics. A significant positive correlation was found between Self-concept scores and academic achievement for boys and girls and in all age groups, but the magnitude of the correlations with achievement in mathematics was stronger among boys than among girls.

Seasonal Dynamics of Academic Achievement Inequality by Socioeconomic Status and Race/Ethnicity

Science.gov (United States)

Quinn, David M.; Cooc, North; McIntyre, Joe; Gomez, Celia J.

2016-01-01

Early studies examining seasonal variation in academic achievement inequality generally concluded that socioeconomic test score gaps grew more over the summer than the school year, suggesting schools served as "equalizers." In this study, we analyze seasonal trends in socioeconomic status (SES) and racial/ethnic test score gaps using…

Student Academic Performance Outcomes of a Classroom Physical Activity Intervention: A Pilot Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heather ERWIN

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Physical activity is beneficial to children’s health, yet academic pressures limit opportunities for students throughout the school day. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a classroom PA intervention on student academic performance outcomes. Intervention participants (n=15 received daily PA breaks. Reading and mathematics fluency, PA, grades, and standardized test scores were collected. Effects of the intervention were examined using mixed-design ANOVAs. Intervention students had significantly higher reading fluency and mathematics scores post-intervention and higher means for standardized reading and mathematics scores as well as grades. Short bouts of PA are important for improving CBM math and reading fluency scores. Classroom teachers should be encouraged to devote time during academic learning to incorporate PA

Reporting Diagnostic Scores in Educational Testing: Temptations, Pitfalls, and Some Solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Sinharay, Sandip; Puhan, Gautam; Haberman, Shelby J.

2010-01-01

Diagnostic scores are of increasing interest in educational testing due to their potential remedial and instructional benefit. Naturally, the number of educational tests that report diagnostic scores is on the rise, as are the number of research publications on such scores. This article provides a critical evaluation of diagnostic score reporting…

Academic success or failure in nursing students: results of a retrospective observational study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lancia, Loreto; Petrucci, Cristina; Giorgi, Fabio; Dante, Angelo; Cifone, Maria Grazia

2013-12-01

Nursing student academic failure is a phenomenon of growing international interest, not only because of its economic impact but also because it negatively affects the availability of future nurses in different healthcare systems. To recruit the students with the highest probability of academic success, an open challenge for universities is to recruit students who have previously demonstrated superior scholastic aptitudes that appear to be associated with a greater likelihood of academic success. Documenting the relationship between the selection methods used when selecting nursing students and academic failure will contribute to the international debate concerning the optimisation of the selection strategies. The principal aim of this study was to investigate the role in predicting nursing student academic success of (1) the upper-secondary diploma grades and (2) the score obtained by students in the nursing degree program admission test. A retrospective observational study was conducted. Five cohorts of nursing students, matriculated in consecutive academic years from 2004 to 2008, in an Italian bachelor's degree program were observed retrospectively. Overall, 61.2% of the 1006 considered students concluded their degree within the legal duration allowed for the nursing degree. Students who failed were those who had lowest grades associated with their upper-secondary diploma coursework (p=0.000) and were male (p=0.000). The grades associated with the upper-secondary diploma coursework, unlike the admission test score, correlates positively with the final degree grade and the average value of degree program examination scores. No correlation was found between the upper-secondary diploma coursework grades and the scores obtained in the test for the nursing degree program admission test (r=-0.037). These results suggest that upper-secondary diploma coursework grades are a parameter that should receive great consideration, especially in cases where there are planned

A process dissociation approach to objective-projective test score interrelationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Bornstein, Robert F

2002-02-01

Even when self-report and projective measures of a given trait or motive both predict theoretically related features of behavior, scores on the 2 tests correlate modestly with each other. This article describes a process dissociation framework for personality assessment, derived from research on implicit memory and learning, which can resolve these ostensibly conflicting results. Research on interpersonal dependency is used to illustrate 3 key steps in the process dissociation approach: (a) converging behavioral predictions, (b) modest test score intercorrelations, and (c) delineation of variables that differentially affect self-report and projective test scores. Implications of the process dissociation framework for personality assessment and test development are discussed.

A prognostic scoring system for arm exercise stress testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Yan; Xian, Hong; Chandiramani, Pooja; Bainter, Emily; Wan, Leping; Martin, Wade H

2016-01-01

Arm exercise stress testing may be an equivalent or better predictor of mortality outcome than pharmacological stress imaging for the ≥50% for patients unable to perform leg exercise. Thus, our objective was to develop an arm exercise ECG stress test scoring system, analogous to the Duke Treadmill Score, for predicting outcome in these individuals. In this retrospective observational cohort study, arm exercise ECG stress tests were performed in 443 consecutive veterans aged 64.1 (11.1) years. (mean (SD)) between 1997 and 2002. From multivariate Cox models, arm exercise scores were developed for prediction of 5-year and 12-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and 5-year cardiovascular mortality or myocardial infarction (MI). Arm exercise capacity in resting metabolic equivalents (METs), 1 min heart rate recovery (HRR) and ST segment depression ≥1 mm were the stress test variables independently associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by step-wise Cox analysis (all pstatistic of 0.81 before and 0.88 after adjustment for significant demographic and clinical covariates. Arm exercise scores for the other outcome end points yielded C-statistic values of 0.77-0.79 before and 0.82-0.86 after adjustment for significant covariates versus 0.64-0.72 for best fit pharmacological myocardial perfusion imaging models in a cohort of 1730 veterans who were evaluated over the same time period. Arm exercise scores, analogous to the Duke Treadmill Score, have good power for prediction of mortality or MI in patients who cannot perform leg exercise.

Student academic performance outcomes of a classroom physical activity ıntervention: A pilot study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heather Erwin

2012-06-01

Full Text Available A Physical activity is beneficial to children’s health, yet academic pressures limit opportunities for students throughout the school day. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a classroom PA intervention on student academic performance outcomes. Intervention participants (n=15 received daily PA breaks. Reading and mathematics fluency, PA, grades, and standardized test scores were collected. Effects of the intervention were examined using mixed-design ANOVAs. Intervention students had significantly higher reading fluency and mathematics scores post-intervention and higher means for standardized reading and mathematics scores as well as grades. Short bouts of PA are important for improving CBM math and reading fluency scores. Classroom teachers should be encouraged to devote time during academic learning to incorporate PA.

Divided attention of adolescents related to lifestyles and academic and family conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mizuno, Kei; Tanaka, Masaaki; Fukuda, Sanae; Imai-Matsumura, Kyoko; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2013-05-01

Development of the ability to divide attention is of crucial importance in the transitional period from elementary to junior high school. The relationship between divided attention and the prevalence of fatigue or low academic motivation is observed in junior high school students. In order to clarify the factors underlying decreased ability to divide attention, we examined the relationships between divided attention, as assessed by the kana pick-out test, lifestyle factors, and academic and family conditions in junior high school students. The study group consisted of 158 healthy 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-grade level junior high school students. Each participant performed the kana pick-out test and questionnaires dealing with lifestyle factors (nocturnal sleeping hours on school days, breakfast, exercise, watching television, and spending time with family members), and academic and family conditions (good friendships at school and praise from family members when participants showed good academic performance). On multiple regression analyses adjusted for grade and gender, scores on the kana pick-out test were positively associated with spending time with family members. In addition, the comprehension score of the kana pick-out test was positively associated with having breakfast every day and praise by family members. The score was negatively associated with watching television. The present findings suggest that the ability to divide attention is independently associated with good lifestyles and academic and family conditions in junior high school students. Copyright © 2012 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ten Years in the Academic Integrity Trenches: Experiences and Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, Doug; Nau, S. Zaung; Symons, Christine

2016-01-01

In 2016, our university launched its Academic Integrity Program (AIP) in order to promote and protect academic integrity. All commencing students must complete this online AIP within 14 days of starting their course. Satisfactory completion of this module with a test score of 80% is required before students can access their course materials.…

Demographic Factors and Communal Mastery as Predictors of Academic Motivation and Test Anxiety

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Ünal-Karagüven, M. Hülya

2015-01-01

Academic motivation and test anxiety have been still adduced for low performance of students by educators. To know the factors that have an effect on students' academic motivation and test anxiety levels can be helpful to improve students' academic performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of demographic variables and…

What do educational test scores really measure?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McIntosh, James; D. Munk, Martin

Latent class Poisson count models are used to analyze a sample of Danish test score results from a cohort of individuals born in 1954-55 and tested in 1968. The procedure takes account of unobservable effects as well as excessive zeros in the data. The bulk of unobservable effects are uncorrelate......, and possible incentive problems make it more difficult to elicit true values of what the tests measure....

Increased correlation coefficient between the written test score and tutors' performance test scores after training of tutors for assessment of medical students during problem-based learning course in Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaiprakash, Heethal; Min, Aung Ko Ko; Ghosh, Sarmishtha

2016-03-01

This paper is aimed at finding if there was a change of correlation between the written test score and tutors' performance test scores in the assessment of medical students during a problem-based learning (PBL) course in Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional observational study, conducted among 264 medical students in two groups from November 2010 to November 2012. The first group's tutors did not receive tutor training; while the second group's tutors were trained in the PBL process. Each group was divided into high, middle and low achievers based on their end-of-semester exam scores. PBL scores were taken which included written test scores and tutors' performance test scores. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the two kinds of scores in each group. The correlation coefficient between the written scores and tutors' scores in group 1 was 0.099 (pcorrelation coefficient in the group where tutors received the PBL training reinforces the importance of tutor training before their participation in the PBL course.

Academic performance of opposite-sex and same-sex twins in adolescence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juel Ahrenfeldt, Linda; Petersen, Inge; Johnson, Wendy

2015-01-01

confirm a masculinizing effect of a male co-twin regarding for instance perception and cognition it remains unclear whether intra-uterine hormone transfer exists in humans. Our aim was to test the potential influences of testosterone on academic performance in OS twins. We compared ninth-grade test scores...... not provide evidence for a masculinization of female twins with male co-twins with regard to academic performance in adolescence....... and teacher ratings of OS (n=1812) and SS (n=4054) twins as well as of twins and singletons (n=13,900) in mathematics, physics/chemistry, Danish, and English. We found that males had significantly higher test scores in mathematics than females (.06-.15 SD), whereas females performed better in Danish (.33...

Entry-Level Placement Scores for the 1996-97 Academic Year.

Science.gov (United States)

Padron, Eduardo J.

This memorandum reviews the implementation of new, state-mandated placement criteria at Florida's Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC). The first section focuses on placement criteria for degree-seeking students, indicating that MDCC uses scores on the Florida College Entry-Level Placement Test for making placement decisions in reading, writing,…

Team-Based Learning in a Community Health Nursing Course: Improving Academic Outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Miles, Jane M; Larson, Kim L; Swanson, Melvin

2017-07-01

Population health concepts, such as upstream thinking, present challenging ideas to undergraduate nursing students grounded in an acute care orientation. The purpose of this study was to describe how team-based learning (TBL) influenced academic outcomes in a community health nursing course. A descriptive correlational design examined the relationship among student scores on individual readiness assurance tests (iRATs), team readiness assurance tests (tRATs), and the final examination. The sample included 221 nursing students who had completed the course. A large positive correlation was found between iRAT and final examination scores. For all students, the mean tRAT score was higher than the mean iRAT score. A moderate positive correlation existed between tRAT and final examination scores. The study contributes to understanding the effects of TBL pedagogy on student academic outcomes in nursing education. TBL is a valuable teaching method in a course requiring the application of challenging concepts. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(7):425-429.]. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

Effects of white noise on Callsign Acquisition Test and Modified Rhyme Test scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Blue-Terry, Misty; Letowski, Tomasz

2011-02-01

The Callsign Acquisition Test (CAT) is a speech intelligibility test developed by the US Army Research Laboratory. The test has been used to evaluate speech transmission through various communication systems but has not been yet sufficiently standardised and validated. The aim of this study was to compare CAT and Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) performance in the presence of white noise across a range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). A group of 16 normal-hearing listeners participated in the study. The speech items were presented at 65 dB(A) in the background of white noise at SNRs of -18, -15, -12, -9 and -6 dB. The results showed a strong positive association (75.14%) between the two tests, but significant differences between the CAT and MRT absolute scores in the range of investigated SNRs. Based on the data, a function to predict CAT scores based on existing MRT scores and vice versa was formulated. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: This work compares performance data of a common speech intelligibility test (MRT) with a new test (CAT) in the presence of white noise. The results here can be used as a part of the standardisation procedures and provide insights to the predictive capabilities of the CAT to quantify speech intelligibility communication in high-noise military environments.

ANOVA Analysis of Student Daily Test Scores in Multi-Day Test Periods

Science.gov (United States)

Mouritsen, Matthew L.; Davis, Jefferson T.; Jones, Steven C.

2016-01-01

Instructors are often concerned when giving multiple-day tests because students taking the test later in the exam period may have an advantage over students taking the test early in the exam period due to information leakage. However, exam scores seemed to decline as students took the same test later in a multi-day exam period (Mouritsen and…

Test Anxiety and Academic Delay of Gratification

Science.gov (United States)

Bembenutty, Hefer

2009-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between college students' willingness to delay gratification, motivation, self-regulation of learning, and their level of test anxiety (N = 364). Academic delay of gratification refers to students' postponement of immediately available opportunities to satisfy impulses in favor of pursuing academic…

The Effect of Pretest Exercise on Baseline Computerized Neurocognitive Test Scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Pawlukiewicz, Alec; Yengo-Kahn, Aaron M; Solomon, Gary

2017-10-01

Baseline neurocognitive assessment plays a critical role in return-to-play decision making following sport-related concussions. Prior studies have assessed the effect of a variety of modifying factors on neurocognitive baseline test scores. However, relatively little investigation has been conducted regarding the effect of pretest exercise on baseline testing. The aim of our investigation was to determine the effect of pretest exercise on baseline Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) scores in adolescent and young adult athletes. We hypothesized that athletes undergoing self-reported strenuous exercise within 3 hours of baseline testing would perform more poorly on neurocognitive metrics and would report a greater number of symptoms than those who had not completed such exercise. Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. The ImPACT records of 18,245 adolescent and young adult athletes were retrospectively analyzed. After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, participants were dichotomized into groups based on a positive (n = 664) or negative (n = 6609) self-reported history of strenuous exercise within 3 hours of the baseline test. Participants with a positive history of exercise were then randomly matched, based on age, sex, education level, concussion history, and hours of sleep prior to testing, on a 1:2 basis with individuals who had reported no pretest exercise. The baseline ImPACT composite scores of the 2 groups were then compared. Significant differences were observed for the ImPACT composite scores of verbal memory, visual memory, reaction time, and impulse control as well as for the total symptom score. No significant between-group difference was detected for the visual motor composite score. Furthermore, pretest exercise was associated with a significant increase in the overall frequency of invalid test results. Our results suggest a statistically significant difference in ImPACT composite scores between

IELTS and Academic Success in Higher Education: A UAE Perspective

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Kevin Schoepp

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This study compares the relationship between International English Language Testing System (IELTS entrance scores and academic success as defined by general education program GPA for students at a federal university in the United Arab Emirates in order to reflect upon regional English language proficiency entrance requirements. It focuses on one group of students, direct entry students who have bypassed the English language foundation program with an overall IELTS 6.0 or greater and were admitted straight into the baccalaureate program. Students were grouped according to their IELTS proficiency levels: 6.0, 6.5 or ≥7.0. Measures of central tendency for overall GPA and academic-stream-specific GPA, along with the overall IELTS and the corresponding sub-scores were calculated. To test the statistical significance of any mean score GPA differences that existed between the 3 IELTS groups, a One-Way ANOVA was calculated. Based on the statistical analyses, the IELTS ≥7.0 group appears to have achieved a meaningful threshold for academic success in that they have consistently outperformed the other direct entry students. This finding corresponds to international entrance-requirement standards for non-native speakers of English.

The Effect of Mock Tests on Iranian EFL learners’ Test Scores

OpenAIRE

Hossein Khodabakhshzadeh; Reza Zardkanloo

2016-01-01

The effect of using tests in test preparation courses has been subject to debate. While some scholars such as Yang and Badger (2015) believe it is a cause of positive washback effect, others argue that this issue is tentative and context-bound (Green, 2007). Therefore, this study investigated the effect of using Mock tests in International English Language Testing System (IELTS) preparation courses on students’ overall IELTS scores. Fifty one IELTS students were selected non-randomly through ...

Practice Tests for the TOEFL iBT

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Stirling, Bruce

2012-01-01

Practice Tests for the TOEFL iBT contains four TOEFL tests, with answer keys. Perfect for self-study and classrooms. Each TOEFL iBT Practice Test...* reflects the design of the official TOEFL internet-based test* tests academic English-language proficiency expected of university students in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland and England* provides extra practice before you take the official TOEFL iBT* will help you identify those areas of academic English you need to improve for a higher TOEFL iBT score* will give you an unofficial, TOEFL iBT range score within

Biering-Sorensen test scores in coal miners

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tekin, Y.; Ortancil, O.; Ankarali, H.; Basaran, A.; Sarikaya, S.; Ozdolap, S. [Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Zonguldak (Turkey)

2009-05-15

Biering-Sorensen test is an isometric back endurance test. Biering-Sorensen test scores have varied in different cultural and occupational groups. The aims of this study were to collect normative data on Biering-Sorensen holding times, to determine the discriminative ability of the Biering-Sorensen test in Turkish coal miners, and to examine the association between Biering-Sorensen test result and functional disability. One hundred and fifty male coal miners participated in this study. Trunk extensor muscle strength was measured using the Biering-Sorensen test. Oswestry disability index was used to measure the functional disability level of low back pain. The mean Biering-Sorensen holding time for the total subject group was 107.3 {+-} 22.5 s. The mean time of Biering-Sorensen test of the subjects with and without low back pain were 99.9 {+-} 19.8 and 128.6 {+-} 15.2 s, respectively. The difference between the subjects with and without low back pain was statistically significant (p < 0.001). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between Oswestry functional disability score and Biering-Sorensen holding time (R = -0.824, p < 0.001). Turkish coal miners have low mean back extensor endurance holding times. Biering-Sorensen test had a good discriminative ability in our study group. Trunk muscle strength has a significant effect on the disability level of low back pain. Thus trunk muscle endurance training exercise therapy may be effective for the reduction of disability in patients with low back pain.

Comparison of academic performance of twins and singletons in adolescence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Kaare; Petersen, Inge; Skytthe, Axel

2006-01-01

deviations for twins and singletons (8.02 v 8.02 and 1.05 v 1.06) despite the twins weighing on average 908 g (95% confidence interval 886 to 930 g) less than the singletons at birth. Controlling for birth weight, gestational age at birth, age at test, and parents' age and education confirmed the similarity......OBJECTIVES: To determine whether twins in recent cohorts show similar academic performance in adolescence to singletons and to test the effect of birth weight on academic performance in twins and singletons. DESIGN: Follow-up study. SETTING: Denmark. PARTICIPANTS: All twins (n=3411) and a 5% random...... sample of singletons (n=7796) born in Denmark during 1986-8. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Test scores in ninth grade (age 15 or 16), birth weight, gestational age at birth, parents' age, and parents' education. RESULTS: Ninth grade test scores were normally distributed, with almost identical mean and standard...

The relationship between school absence, academic performance, and asthma status.

Science.gov (United States)

Moonie, Sheniz; Sterling, David A; Figgs, Larry W; Castro, Mario

2008-03-01

Children with asthma experience more absenteeism from school compared with their nonasthma peers. Excessive absenteeism is related to lower student grades, psychological, social, and educational adjustment. Less is known about the relationship between the presence of asthma and the academic achievement in school-aged children. Since students with asthma miss more days from school, this may negatively impact their academic achievement. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships between absenteeism, presence of asthma, and asthma severity level with standardized test level performance in a predominantly African American urban school district. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of 3812 students (aged 8-17 years) who took the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) standardized test during the 2002-2003 academic year. After adjustment for covariates, a significant inverse relationship was found between absenteeism and test level performance on the MAP standardized test in all children (F = 203.9, p achievement between those with and without asthma (p = .12). Though not statistically different, those with persistent asthma showed a modestly increased likelihood of scoring below Nearing Proficient compared with those with mild intermittent asthma (adjusted odds ratio = 1.93, 95% confidence intervals = 0.93-4.01, p = .08). A negative impact of absenteeism on standardized test level achievement was demonstrated in children from an urban African American school district. Children with asthma perform the same academically as their nonasthma peers. However, those with persistent asthma show a trend of performing worse on MAP standardized test scores and have more absence days compared with other students. More research is warranted on the effects of persistent asthma on academic achievement.

Peer-Mentoring Program and Academic Atmosphere

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Sri Endah Kusmartini

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Management of Sriwijaya State Polytechnic believes that peer-mentoring program has positive effects on students’ academic success. Moreover, it is also believed that good academic atmosphere should be developed. In line with these, researchers tried to investigate whether peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere correlated significantly to students’ writing achievement partially and simultaneously. The research was conducted in English Department, Sriwijaya State Polytechnic with 60 samples taken randomly. Measures of Peer-mentoring Program and Academic Atmosphere were used sequentially to measure peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere as perceived by the students. Meanwhile, writing score was used to find out writing achievement of the students. The hypotheses were tested by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression. The results showed that peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere as perceived by the students correlated significantly towards students’ writing achievement partially and simultaneously. Therefore it is recommended to continue the programs.

Increased correlation coefficient between the written test score and tutors’ performance test scores after training of tutors for assessment of medical students during problem-based learning course in Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heethal Jaiprakash

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper is aimed at finding if there was a change of correlation between the written test score and tutors’ performance test scores in the assessment of medical students during a problem-based learning (PBL course in Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional observational study, conducted among 264 medical students in two groups from November 2010 to November 2012. The first group’s tutors did not receive tutor training; while the second group’s tutors were trained in the PBL process. Each group was divided into high, middle and low achievers based on their end-of-semester exam scores. PBL scores were taken which included written test scores and tutors’ performance test scores. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the two kinds of scores in each group. The correlation coefficient between the written scores and tutors’ scores in group 1 was 0.099 (p<0.001 and for group 2 was 0.305 (p<0.001. The higher correlation coefficient in the group where tutors received the PBL training reinforces the importance of tutor training before their participation in the PBL course.

Satisfaction and Academic Engagement among Undergraduate Students: A Case Study in Istanbul University

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Burcu Ozge Özaslan Caliskan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Academic engagement used to refer to the extent to which students identify with and value schooling outcomes, and participate in academic and non-academic school activities. This study aims to investigate the academic engagement and satisfaction from the school among the university students. The data is taken from the undergraduate students in School of Transportation & Logistics in Istanbul University. We used a questionnaire that consisted of two parts. First part of the questionnaire is about to measure the students’ academic engagement that is improved by Schaufeli et al. Second part of the questionnaire is about to measure the students’ satisfaction from the school. K-means cluster analysis is used to determine two groups of students, group the students in to two clusters based on their school satisfaction scores. We named these two groups as “satisfied” and “unsatisfied” students. Secondly we investigate the relationships between the satisfaction scores and the academic engagement. By means of T Test we investigate whether the academic engagement differs between the clusters that are determined according to the students’ satisfaction scores. Finally we found that academic engagement differs according to the identified clusters.

Relating children's attentional capabilities to intelligence, memory, and academic achievement: a test of construct specificity in children with asthma.

Science.gov (United States)

Annett, Robert D; Bender, Bruce G; Gordon, Michael

2007-01-01

The relationship between attention, intelligence, memory, achievement, and behavior in a large population (N = 939) of children without neuropsychologic problems was investigated in children with mild and moderate asthma. It was hypothesized that different levels of children's attentional capabilities would be associated with different levels of intellectual, memory, and academic abilities. Children ages 6-12 at the eight clinical centers of the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) were enrolled in this study. Standardized measures of child neuropsychological and behavioral performance were administered to all participants, with analyses examining both the developmental trajectory of child attentional capabilities and the associations between Continuous Performance Test (CPT) scores and intellectual functioning, and measures of memory, academic achievement, and behavioral functioning. Findings demonstrated that correct responses on the CPT increase significantly with age, while commission errors decrease significantly with age. Performance levels on the CPT were associated with differences in child intellectual function, memory, and academic achievement. Overall these findings reveal how impairments in child attention skills were associated with normal levels of performance on measures of children's intelligence, memory, academic achievement, and behavioral functioning, suggesting that CPT performance is a salient marker of brain function.

Approval Motive and Academic Behaviors: The Self Reinforcement Hypothesis

Science.gov (United States)

Matell, Michael S.; Smith, Ronald E.

1970-01-01

Testing of college students in differing conditions as to performance being relevant to academic achievement goals revealed that under hgih relevance conditions scores on the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale were unrelated to test performance. Under low relevant conditions, the need for approval was highly related to performance in high…

Gender, Stereotype Threat and Mathematics Test Scores

OpenAIRE

Ming Tsui; Xiao Y. Xu; Edmond Venator

2011-01-01

Problem statement: Stereotype threat has repeatedly been shown to depress womens scores on difficult math tests. An attempt to replicate these findings in China found no support for the stereotype threat hypothesis. Our math test was characterized as being personally important for the student participants, an atypical condition in most stereotype threat laboratory research. Approach: To evaluate the effects of this personal demand, we conducted three experiments. Results: ...

Academic Efforts and Study Habits among Students in a Principles of Macroeconomics Course.

Science.gov (United States)

Okpala, Amon O.; Okpala, Comfort O.; Ellis, Richard

2000-01-01

Students in a macroeconomics course (n=132) were compared on grade point average, academic efficacy, credit hours accumulated, and study hours/habits. Academic efficacy and study habits significantly explained achievement. The amount of study time had no significant impact. Scholastic Assessment Test scores and credit hours explained achievement…

NBME subject examination in surgery scores correlate with surgery clerkship clinical experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Jonathan A; Vigneswaran, Yalini; Gabryszak, Beth; Fogg, Louis F; Francescatti, Amanda B; Golner, Christine; Bines, Steven D

2014-01-01

Most medical schools in the United States use the National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examinations as a method of at least partial assessment of student performance, yet there is still uncertainty of how well these examination scores correlate with clinical proficiency. Thus, we investigated which factors in a surgery clerkship curriculum have a positive effect on academic achievement on the National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examination in Surgery. A retrospective analysis of 83 third-year medical students at our institution with 4 unique clinical experiences on the general surgery clerkship for the 2007-2008 academic year was conducted. Records of the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scores, National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examination in Surgery scores, and essay examination scores for the groups were compared using 1-way analysis of variance testing. Rush University Medical Center, Chicago IL, an academic institution and tertiary care center. Our data demonstrated National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examination in Surgery scores from the group with the heavier clinical loads and least time for self-study were statistically higher than the group with lighter clinical services and higher rated self-study time (p = 0.036). However, there was no statistical difference of National Board of Medical Examiners Subject Examination in Surgery scores between the groups with equal clinical loads (p = 0.751). Students experiencing higher clinical volumes on surgical services, but less self-study time demonstrated statistically higher academic performance on objective evaluation, suggesting clinical experience may be of higher value than self-study and reading. Copyright © 2014 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health and Academic Achievement: Cumulative Effects of Health Assets on Standardized Test Scores among Urban Youth in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Ickovics, Jeannette R.; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Peters, Susan M.; Schwartz, Marlene; Gilstad-Hayden, Kathryn; McCaslin, Catherine

2014-01-01

Background: The Institute of Medicine (2012) concluded that we must "strengthen schools as the heart of health." To intervene for better outcomes in both health and academic achievement, identifying factors that impact children is essential. Study objectives are to (1) document associations between health assets and academic achievement,…

A study of time management: the correlation between video game usage and academic performance markers.

Science.gov (United States)

Anand, Vivek

2007-08-01

This study analyzes the correlation between video game usage and academic performance. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and grade-point average (GPA) scores were used to gauge academic performance. The amount of time a student spends playing video games has a negative correlation with students' GPA and SAT scores. As video game usage increases, GPA and SAT scores decrease. A chi-squared analysis found a p value for video game usage and GPA was greater than a 95% confidence level (0.005 video game usage also returned a p value that was significant (0.01 video games may have a detrimental effect on an individual's GPA and possibly on SAT scores. Although these results show statistical dependence, proving cause and effect remains difficult, since SAT scores represent a single test on a given day. The effects of video games maybe be cumulative; however, drawing a conclusion is difficult because SAT scores represent a measure of general knowledge. GPA versus video games is more reliable because both involve a continuous measurement of engaged activity and performance. The connection remains difficult because of the complex nature of student life and academic performance. Also, video game usage may simply be a function of specific personality types and characteristics.

Academic achievement and creative thinking in Souh African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective. To assess whether the capacity for creative thinking among medical students is related to academic advancement. Design, setting, subjects, outcome measures. A timed word association test standardised and scored to assess the tendency for creative thinking was administered to 22 development programme ...

Relationship between procrastination and academic performance among a group of undergraduate dental students in India.

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Lakshminarayan, Nagesh; Potdar, Shrudha; Reddy, Siddana Goud

2013-04-01

Procrastination, generally defined as a voluntary, irrational delay of behavior, is a prevalent phenomenon among college students throughout the world and occurs at alarmingly high rates. For this study, a survey was conducted of 209 second-, third-, and fourth-year undergraduate dental students of Bapuji Dental College and Hospital, Davangere, India, to identify the relationship between their level of procrastination and academic performance. A sixteen-item questionnaire was used to assess the level of procrastination among these students. Data related to their academic performance were also collected. Spearman's correlation coefficient test was used to assess the relationship between procrastination and academic performance. It showed a negative correlation of -0.63 with a significance level of pprocrastination scores performed below average in their academics. In addition, analysis with the Mann-Whitney U test found a significant difference in procrastination scores between the two gender groups (pprocrastination and vice versa.

Screening for Behavioral Risk: Identification of High Risk Cut Scores within the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS)

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Kilgus, Stephen P.; Taylor, Crystal N.; von der Embse, Nathaniel P.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to support the identification of Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS) cut scores that could be used to detect high-risk students. Teachers rated students across two time points (Time 1 n = 1,242 students; Time 2 n = 704) using the SAEBRS and the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System…

Physical Fitness Is Longitudinally Associated With Academic Performance During Childhood and Adolescence, and Waist Circumference Mediated the Relationship.

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Lima, Rodrigo Antunes; Larsen, Lisbeth Runge; Bugge, Anna; Andersen, Lars Bo

2018-03-10

The current investigation aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between physical fitness and academic performance over 3 years in adolescents. A secondary aim was to determine to what extent waist circumference mediated the association between physical fitness and academic performance. For the current study, 1020 students from first grade [mean age: 7.87 (0.34) y] to fifth grade [mean age: 11.87 (0.37) y] were monitored annually for 3 years (2010-2013). Physical fitness was assessed using the Andersen test, 5 × 5-m shuttle run, jump height, and grip strength tests and by constructing a composite score combining all 4 fitness tests. Academic performance was assessed by national standardized tests in Danish language and math. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the relationships between these variables. The Andersen test (standardized β = 0.15 SD), shuttle run (β = -0.18 SD), jump height (β = 0.10 SD), and the fitness composite score (β = 0.23 SD) were positively associated with academic performance over 3 years. In addition, waist circumference partially mediated the association between physical fitness and academic performance. Thus, physical fitness abilities should be stimulated during childhood and early adolescence because of their positive association with academic performance.

The Weighted Airman Promotion System: Standardizing Test Scores

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2008-01-01

u th o ri ze d Top 3/E6 ratio, inventory 1401206040 100 70 130 5R 2F 2G 3N 2M 2A 4J 4C 4P 4T 4B 1W 2T 3P 1T 4A 2S 5J 1A 1S1C 6F 4N 7S 4R 4E 1N 3A 3V...System: Standardizing Test Scores AFHRL convened a panel to identify the relevant factors to consider, and then sit as a promotion board and rank...Costs If the Air Force decided to standardize test scores, there would be three basic types of costs: implementation costs, marketing costs, and

A Case for Improved Reading Instruction for Academic English Reading Proficiency

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Glenn Ole Hellekjær

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents a study of the academic reading proficiency in English of 217 senior level Norwegian upper secondary school students who upon graduation are considered qualified for higher education. Testing with an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Reading Module revealed that two thirds of the 178 respondents with ordinary EFL courses did not achieve the equivalent of the IELTS Band 6 score minimum that is usually required for admission to British and Australian universities. In comparison, two thirds of a sample of 39 respondents with a single, sheltered Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL subject achieved a Band 6 score or better. Closer analysis indicates that the poor test scores can be attributed to weaknesses in current English as a Foreign Language (EFL instruction where reading is neglected, where students do not learn to adjust how they read to reading purpose, and where they do not learn how to handle unfamiliar words to avoid disrupting the reading process. The article ends with suggestions on how to improve EFL instruction, in Norway and elsewhere.

Music Achievement and Academic Achievement: Isolating the School as a Unit of Study

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Frey-Clark, Marta

2015-01-01

Music participation and academic achievement have long been of interest to educators, researchers and policy makers. The literature is replete with studies linking music participation to higher state assessment scores, grade point averages, and Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) scores. If students from quality music programs academically…

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEASURES OF ACADEMIC MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT IN COLLEGE. FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT.

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CORTES, JUAN B.; AND OTHERS

THE VARIABLE, ACADEMIC MOTIVATION (N AC), WAS MEASURED BY A PROJECTIVE TEST. A SCORING MANUAL WITH HIGH INTER-SCORER RELIABILITY WAS ALSO PREPARED. THE 1964 FRESHMAN CLASS OF GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY (N EQUALS 957) PARTICIPATED IN THE STUDY. ACADEMIC MOTIVATION CORRELATED POSITIVELY AND SIGNIFICANTLY FOR BOTH MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS WITH GRADE POINT…

Academic Identity Status, Goal Orientation, and Academic Achievement among High School Students

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Hejazi, Elaheh; Lavasani, Masoud Gholamali; Amani, Habib; Was, Christopher A.

2012-01-01

The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between academic identity status, goal orientations and academic achievement. 301 first year high school students completed the Academic Identity Measure and Goal Orientation Questionnaire. The average of 10 exam scores in the final semester was used as an index of academic…

The remote, the mouse, and the no. 2 pencil: the household media environment and academic achievement among third grade students.

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Borzekowski, Dina L G; Robinson, Thomas N

2005-07-01

Media can influence aspects of a child's physical, social, and cognitive development; however, the associations between a child's household media environment, media use, and academic achievement have yet to be determined. To examine relationships among a child's household media environment, media use, and academic achievement. During a single academic year, data were collected through classroom surveys and telephone interviews from an ethnically diverse sample of third grade students and their parents from 6 northern California public elementary schools. The majority of our analyses derive from spring 2000 data, including academic achievement assessed through the mathematics, reading, and language arts sections of the Stanford Achievement Test. We fit linear regression models to determine the associations between variations in household media and performance on the standardized tests, adjusting for demographic and media use variables. The household media environment is significantly associated with students' performance on the standardized tests. It was found that having a bedroom television set was significantly and negatively associated with students' test scores, while home computer access and use were positively associated with the scores. Regression models significantly predicted up to 24% of the variation in the scores. Absence of a bedroom television combined with access to a home computer was consistently associated with the highest standardized test scores. This study adds to the growing literature reporting that having a bedroom television set may be detrimental to young elementary school children. It also suggests that having and using a home computer may be associated with better academic achievement.

Teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of an urban health sciences curriculum in closing the Black-White test score gap: A participatory case study

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Prince, Joan Marie

1999-12-01

Over the past years, progress in Black academic achievement, particularly in the area of science, has generally slowed or ceased. According to the 1994 NAEP assessment, twelfth-grade Black students are performing at the level of White eighth-grade students in the discipline of science (Department of Education, 1996). These students, in their last year of required schooling, are about to graduate, yet they lag at least four years behind their white counterparts in science achievement. Despite the establishment and implementation of numerous science intervention programs, Black students still suffer from a disparate gap in standardized test score achievement. The purpose of this research is to investigate teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of an urban sciences intervention tool that was designed to assist in narrowing the Black-White science academic achievement gap. Specifically, what factors affect teachers' personal sense of instructional efficacy, and how does this translate into their outcome expectancy for student academic success? A multiple-case, replicative design, grounded in descriptive theory, was selected for the study. Multiple sources of evidence were queried to provide robust findings. These sources included a validated health sciences self-efficacy instrument, an interview protocol, a classroom observation, and a review of archival material that included case study participants' personnel files and meeting minutes. A cross-comparative analytic approach was selected for interpretation (Yin, 1994). Findings indicate that teachers attribute the success or failure of educational intervention tools in closing the Black-White test score gap to a variety of internal and external factors. These factors included a perceived lack of both monetary and personal support by the school leadership, as well as a perceived lack of parental involvement which impacted negatively on student achievement patterns. The case study participants displayed a depressed

Predicting academic success among deaf college students.

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Convertino, Carol M; Marschark, Marc; Sapere, Patricia; Sarchet, Thomastine; Zupan, Megan

2009-01-01

For both practical and theoretical reasons, educators and educational researchers seek to determine predictors of academic success for students at different levels and from different populations. Studies involving hearing students at the postsecondary level have documented significant predictors of success relating to various demographic factors, school experience, and prior academic attainment. Studies involving deaf and hard-of-hearing students have focused primarily on younger students and variables such as degree of hearing loss, use of cochlear implants, educational placement, and communication factors-although these typically are considered only one or two at a time. The present investigation utilizes data from 10 previous experiments, all using the same paradigm, in an attempt to discern significant predictors of readiness for college (utilizing college entrance examination scores) and classroom learning at the college level (utilizing scores from tests in simulated classrooms). Academic preparation was a clear and consistent predictor in both domains, but the audiological and communication variables examined were not. Communication variables that were significant reflected benefits of language flexibility over skills in either spoken language or American Sign Language.

The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory Related to Academic Achievement and School Behavior. Interim Research Report # 23.

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Rubin, Rosalyn; And Others

Scores on the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were related to scores on achievement and intelligence tests, and to socioeconomic level and to teachers' ratings of student behavior, in order to test the hypothesis that student self esteem would have a positive effect on academic achievement. There was a small but statistically significant…

Technology Mediated Instruction and its Effect on Cognitive Scaffolding, motivation and Academic Performance in EFL Context

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Sepideh Berenji

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Technology mediated learning brings together the users with shared interests. This method makes learners informally engaged in language learning. This study intended to investigate the effect of technology mediated instruction on cognitive scaffolding, academic performance and motivation. Employing a quasi-experimental research, 80 learners from two intact classes at Islamic Azad University, Osku Branch were selected as the experimental and control groups. Telegram as a tool was used in the experimental group, while the control group received traditional way of instruction. Critical ethnography approach was implemented to consider the amount of cognitive scaffolding. To measure the students’ motivational level in both groups, Course Interest Survey (CIS was administered at the end of the semester. The total average score for each group was calculated. To compare students’ academic achievement, their average scores in the final academic test were considered. An Independent samples t-test in was used to compare the mean scores. The results indicated that technology mediated learning brought about cognitive scaffolding and the students in the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of motivation and academic achievement. The results of the study suggest that to bring about academically successful students, practitioners should use technology mediated instruction.

Relationship of academic success of medical students with motivation and pre-admission grades.

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Luqman, Muhammad

2013-01-01

To determine predictive validity of pre-admission scores of medical students, evaluate correlation between level of motivation and later on academic success in a medical college. Analytical study. Foundation University Medical College, Islamabad, from June to August 2011. A non-probability convenience sampling of students of 1st to final year MBBS classes was done after obtaining informed consent. These students filled out 'Strength of Motivation for Medical School' (SMMS) questionnaire. The data of pre-admission grades of these students along with academic success in college according to examination results in different years were collected. The correlation between the pre-admission grades and score of SMMS questionnaire with their academic success in medical college was found by applying Pearson co-efficient of correlation in order to determine the predictive validity. Only 46% students revealed strong motivation. A significant, moderate correlation was found between preadmission scores and academic success in 1st year modular examination (0.52) which became weaker in various professional examinations in higher classes. However, no significant correlation was observed between motivation and academic success of medical students in college. Selecting medical students by pre-admission scores or motivation level alone may not be desirable. A combination of measures of cognitive ability criteria (FSc/pre-admission test scores) and non-cognitive skills (personality traits) is recommended to be employed with the use of right tools for selection of students in medical schools.

Parent-child acculturation profiles as predictors of Chinese American adolescents' academic trajectories.

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Kim, Su Yeong; Wang, Yijie; Chen, Qi; Shen, Yishan; Hou, Yang

2015-06-01

Acculturation plays a critical role in the adjustment of Asian Americans, as a large proportion of them are immigrants in the US. However, little is known about how acculturation influences Asian American adolescents' academic trajectories over time. Using a longitudinal sample of 444 Chinese American families (54% female children), the current study explored the effect of mothers', fathers', and adolescents' individual acculturation profiles and parent-child acculturation dissonance on adolescents' academic trajectories from 8th to 12th grade. Academic performance was measured by grade point average (GPA), and by standardized test scores in English language arts (ELA) and Math every year. Latent growth modeling analyses showed that adolescents with a Chinese-oriented father showed faster decline in GPA, and Chinese-oriented adolescents had lower initial ELA scores. Adolescents whose parents had American-oriented acculturation profiles tended to have lower initial Math scores. These results suggest that Chinese and American profiles may be disadvantageous for certain aspects of academic performance, and bicultural adolescents and/or adolescents with bicultural parents are best positioned to achieve across multiple domains. In terms of the role of parent-child acculturation dissonance on academic trajectories, the current study highlighted the importance of distinguishing among different types of dissonance. Adolescents who were more Chinese-oriented than their parents tended to have the lowest initial ELA scores, and adolescents experiencing more normative acculturation dissonance (i.e., who were more American-oriented than their parents) had the highest initial ELA scores. No effects of parent-child acculturation dissonance were observed for GPAs or standardized Math scores. Altogether, the current findings add nuances to the current understanding of acculturation and adolescent adjustment.

Parent-Child Acculturation Profiles as Predictors of Chinese American Adolescents’ Academic Trajectories

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Kim, Su Yeong; Wang, Yijie; Chen, Qi; Shen, Yishan; Hou, Yang

2014-01-01

Acculturation plays a critical role in the adjustment of Asian Americans, as a large proportion of them are immigrants in the U.S. However, little is known about how acculturation influences Asian American adolescents’ academic trajectories over time. Using a longitudinal sample of 444 Chinese American families (54% female children), the current study explored the effect of mothers’, fathers’, and adolescents’ individual acculturation profiles and parent-child acculturation dissonance on adolescents’ academic trajectories from 8th to 12th grade. Academic performance was measured by Grade Point Average (GPA), and by standardized test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math every year. Latent growth modeling analyses showed that adolescents with a Chinese-oriented father showed faster decline in GPA, and Chinese-oriented adolescents had lower initial ELA scores. Adolescents whose parents had American-oriented acculturation profiles tended to have lower initial Math scores. These results suggest that Chinese and American profiles may be disadvantageous for certain aspects of academic performance, and bicultural adolescents and/or adolescents with bicultural parents are best positioned to achieve across multiple domains. In terms of the role of parent-child acculturation dissonance on academic trajectories, the current study highlighted the importance of distinguishing among different types of dissonance. Adolescents who were more Chinese-oriented than their parents tended to have the lowest initial ELA scores, and adolescents experiencing more normative acculturation dissonance (i.e., who were more American-oriented than their parents) had the highest initial ELA scores. No effects of parent-child acculturation dissonance were observed for GPAs or standardized Math scores. Altogether, the current findings add nuances to the current understanding of acculturation and adolescent adjustment. PMID:24820295

Generalization of the Lord-Wingersky Algorithm to Computing the Distribution of Summed Test Scores Based on Real-Number Item Scores

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Kim, Seonghoon

2013-01-01

With known item response theory (IRT) item parameters, Lord and Wingersky provided a recursive algorithm for computing the conditional frequency distribution of number-correct test scores, given proficiency. This article presents a generalized algorithm for computing the conditional distribution of summed test scores involving real-number item…

Online pre-race education improves test scores for volunteers at a marathon.

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Maxwell, Shane; Renier, Colleen; Sikka, Robby; Widstrom, Luke; Paulson, William; Christensen, Trent; Olson, David; Nelson, Benjamin

2017-09-01

This study examined whether an online course would lead to increased knowledge about the medical issues volunteers encounter during a marathon. Health care professionals who volunteered to provide medical coverage for an annual marathon were eligible for the study. Demographic information about medical volunteers including profession, specialty, education level and number of marathons they had volunteered for was collected. A 15-question test about the most commonly encountered medical issues was created by the authors and administered before and after the volunteers took the online educational course and compared to a pilot study the previous year. Seventy-four subjects completed the pre-test. Those who participated in the pilot study last year (N = 15) had pre-test scores that were an average of 2.4 points higher than those who did not (mean ranks: pilot study = 51.6 vs. non-pilot = 33.9, p = 0.004). Of the 74 subjects who completed the pre-test, 54 also completed the post-test. The overall post-pre mean score difference was 3.8 ± 2.7 (t = 10.5 df = 53 p online education demonstrated a long-term (one-year) increase in test scores. Testing also continued to show short-term improvement in post-course test scores, compared to pre-course test scores. In general, marathon medical volunteers who had no volunteer experience demonstrated greater improvement than those who had prior volunteer experience.

Productive knowledge of collocations may predict academic literacy

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Van Dyk, Tobie

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The present study examines the relationship between productive knowledge of collocations and academic literacy among first year students at North-West University. Participants were administered a collocation test, the items of which were selected from Nation’s (2006 word frequency bands, i.e. the 2000-word, 3000-word, 5000-word bands; and the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000. The scores from the collocation test were compared to those from the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (version administered in 2012. The results of this study indicate that, overall, knowledge of collocations is significantly correlated with academic literacy, which is also observed at each of the frequency bands from which the items were selected. These results support Nizonkiza’s (2014 findings that a significant correlation between mastery of collocations of words from the Academic Word List and academic literacy exists; which is extended here to words from other frequency bands. They also confirm previous findings that productive knowledge of collocations increases alongside overall proficiency (cf. Gitsaki, 1999; Bonk, 2001; Eyckmans et al., 2004; Boers et al., 2006; Nizonkiza, 2011; among others. This study therefore concludes that growth in productive knowledge of collocations may entail growth in academic literacy; suggesting that productive use of collocations is linked to academic literacy to a considerable extent. In light of these findings, teaching strategies aimed to assist first year students meet academic demands posed by higher education and avenues to explore for further research are discussed. Especially, we suggest adopting a productive oriented approach to teaching collocations, which we believe may prove useful.

A National Study of the Relationship between Home Access to a Computer and Academic Performance Scores of Grade 12 U.S. Science Students: An Analysis of the 2009 NAEP Data

Science.gov (United States)

Coffman, Mitchell Ward

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between student access to a computer at home and academic achievement. The 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dataset was probed using the National Data Explorer (NDE) to investigate correlations in the subsets of SES, Parental Education, Race, and Gender as it relates to access of a home computer and improved performance scores for U.S. public school grade 12 science students. A causal-comparative approach was employed seeking clarity on the relationship between home access and performance scores. The influence of home access cannot overcome the challenges students of lower SES face. The achievement gap, or a second digital divide, for underprivileged classes of students, including minorities does not appear to contract via student access to a home computer. Nonetheless, in tests for significance, statistically significant improvement in science performance scores was reported for those having access to a computer at home compared to those not having access. Additionally, regression models reported evidence of correlations between and among subsets of controls for the demographic factors gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Variability in these correlations was high; suggesting influence from unobserved factors may have more impact upon the dependent variable. Having access to a computer at home increases performance scores for grade 12 general science students of all races, genders and socioeconomic levels. However, the performance gap is roughly equivalent to the existing performance gap of the national average for science scores, suggesting little influence from access to a computer on academic achievement. The variability of scores reported in the regression analysis models reflects a moderate to low effect, suggesting an absence of causation. These statistical results are accurate and confirm the literature review, whereby having access to a computer at home and the

Role of Social Well-Being and Academic Vitality in Predicting the Academic Motivation in Nursing Students

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Abbasi M.

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Aims: Due to the studentship stressful factors and challenging clinical conditions and internship, the nursing students undergo emotional exhaustion and academic burnout. The outcomes might, also, negatively affect their academic engagement and functions. The aim of this study was to explain the academic motivation of the nursing students based on the social welfare and vitality.  Instrument & Methods: In the correlational study, the nursing students of Arak University of Medical Sciences were studied in the academic year 2014-15. 210 students were selected via available sampling. Data was collected using academic motivation, Kees social welfare, and academic vitality questionnaires. Data was analyzed by SPSS 18 software using Pearson correlation and multivariate regression tests. Findings: The total mean scores of social welfare, academic motivation, and academic vitality were 98.68±13.21, 40.55±5.98, and 18.58±7.58, respectively. There were significant and positive correlations between social welfare and academic motivation (r=0.183; p<0.001 and the subscales including emotional motivation (r=0.103; p<0.048 and cognitive motivation (r=0.154; p<0.003. Due to the lack of any correlation between academic vitality and academic motivation and its sub-scales, the academic vitality could not predict the academic motivation. Nevertheless, the social welfare could predict 33% of the variance of academic motivation. Conclusion: The social welfare plays an important role to determine the academic motivation of nursing students. Nevertheless, academic vitality plays no role. 

Breakfast Intake and Composition is Associated with Superior Academic Achievement in Elementary School Children

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Ptomey, Lauren T.; Steger, Felicia L.; Schubert, Matthew M.; Lee, Jaehoon; Willis, Erik A.; Sullivan, Debra K.; Szabo-Reed, Amanda N.; Washburn, Richard A.; Donnelly, Joseph E.

2016-01-01

Objective To determine if breakfast consumption or content affects academic achievement measured by standardized tests. Methods Baseline data was collected in fall of 2011 from 698 students (50.5% female, age=7.5±0.6 yrs.) living in the state of Kansas. Academic achievement was assessed using three components from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-III). Prior to taking the WIAT-III, participants completed a breakfast recall of all the foods and drinks consumed that morning, which was analyzed using NDS-R. WIAT-III scores were compared between breakfast and non-breakfast consumers in a sample (n=162) matched for age, sex, race, education level of both parents, household income, BMI, and cardiovascular fitness, and Pearson correlations were calculated from all breakfast eaters (n=617) between test performance and components of the breakfast. Results When compared to non-breakfast consumers, the breakfast consumers had significantly higher scores in all three WIAT-III components (all pbreakfast consumers, servings of fruit juice were negatively correlated with reading comprehension and fluency standard score and mathematics standard score (both pbreakfast consumption and the content may be associated with improved standardized test performance in elementary school students. PMID:26697955

The Effects of Curriculum Integration on the Academic Achievement of Secondary Career and Technical Students

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Jones, Patricia Anders

2012-01-01

Using a causal-comparative design, this quantitative study investigated whether or not the curriculum integration of academic subjects with career and technical education classes affected secondary students' academic performance as assessed by scores on standardized tests. The purposive sample was drawn from students in Trade and Industry classes…

Locus of control, test anxiety, academic procrastination, and achievement among college students.

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Carden, Randy; Bryant, Courtney; Moss, Rebekah

2004-10-01

114 undergraduates completed the Internal-External Locus of Control scale, the Procrastination Scale, and the Achievement Anxiety Test. They also provided a self-report of their cumulative GPA. Students were divided into two groups by a median-split of 10.5, yielding an internally oriented group of 57 and an externally oriented group of 57. The former students showed significantly lower academic procrastination, debilitating test anxiety, and reported higher academic achievement than the latter.

The Relationship between Receptive and Expressive Subskills of Academic L2 Proficiency in Nonnative Speakers of English: A Multigroup Approach

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Pae, Hye K.; Greenberg, Daphne

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between receptive and expressive language skills characterized by the performance of nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English in the academic context. Test scores of 585 adult NNSs were selected from Form 2 of the Pearson Test of English Academic's field-test database. A correlated…

Academic level and student’s faculty as factors of test anxiety among undergraduates in Nigeria

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Samuel E. Oladipo

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Test anxiety as a prominent problem among students has been a focus of study for decades now, with studies focusing more on such factors as age, gender and study habit in relation to test anxiety. There is a dearth of literature in respect of such factors as academic level and student’s faculty in relation to test anxiety among undergraduates. The focus of the present study therefore, was to investigate academic level and students’ faculty as factors predicting test anxiety among undergraduates in Nigeria. Using simple random sampling technique, a total of 197(126 males and 71 females undergraduates participated in the study. Their ages ranged from 16 to 30years (M=21.6,SD=2.68.Four hypotheses were tested with Pearson Product moment correlation and Multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that academic level and students’ faculty had no correlation with test anxiety. Moreover, the result of the multiple regression analysis showed that academic level and students’ faculty have no independent and joint influence on test anxiety. It was concluded that irrespective of student’s academic level and faculty, test anxiety is unavoidable. Other factors might be responsible for student test anxiety especially among undergraduates Nigeria. It is therefore recommend that more research should be conducted in this area so as to determine the salient factors that predict test anxiety.

Academic performance of children born preterm: a meta-analysis and meta-regression.

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Twilhaar, E Sabrina; de Kieviet, Jorrit F; Aarnoudse-Moens, Cornelieke Sh; van Elburg, Ruurd M; Oosterlaan, Jaap

2017-08-28

Advances in neonatal healthcare have resulted in decreased mortality after preterm birth but have not led to parallel decreases in morbidity. Academic performance provides insight in the outcomes and specific difficulties and needs of preterm children. To study academic performance in preterm children born in the antenatal steroids and surfactant era and possible moderating effects of perinatal and demographic factors. PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO were searched for peer-reviewed articles. Cohort studies with a full-term control group reporting standardised academic performance scores of preterm children (Academic test scores and special educational needs of preterm and full-term children were analysed using random effects meta-analysis. Random effects meta-regressions were performed to explore the predictive role of perinatal and demographic factors for between-study variance in effect sizes. The 17 eligible studies included 2390 preterm children and 1549 controls. Preterm children scored 0.71 SD below full-term peers on arithmetic (pacademic performance (p=0.006). Preterm children born in the antenatal steroids and surfactant era show considerable academic difficulties. Preterm children with bronchopulmonarydysplasia are at particular risk for poor academic outcome. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Using Raters from India to Score a Large-Scale Speaking Test

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Xi, Xiaoming; Mollaun, Pam

2011-01-01

We investigated the scoring of the Speaking section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM] Internet-based (TOEFL iBT[R]) test by speakers of English and one or more Indian languages. We explored the extent to which raters from India, after being trained and certified, were able to score the TOEFL examinees with mixed first languages…

Academic Performance in Adolescence after Inguinal Hernia Repair in Infancy: A Nationwide Cohort Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Tom G; Pedersen, Jacob K; Henneberg, Steen Winther

2011-01-01

for inguinal hernia repair in infancy and subsequent academic performance. METHODS:: Using Danish birth cohorts from 1986-1990, we compared the academic performance of all children who had undergone inguinal hernia repair in infancy to a randomly selected, age-matched 5% population sample. Primary analysis...... compared average test scores at ninth grade adjusting for sex, birth weight, and paternal and maternal age and education. Secondary analysis compared the proportions of children not attaining test scores between the two groups. RESULTS:: From 1986-1990 in Denmark, 2,689 children underwent inguinal hernia...... repair in infancy. A randomly selected, age-matched 5% population sample consists of 14,575 individuals. Although the exposure group performed worse than the control group (average score 0.26 lower; 95% CI, 0.21-0.31), after adjusting for known confounders, no statistically significant difference (-0...

Group differences in the heritability of items and test scores

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wicherts, J.M.; Johnson, W.

2009-01-01

It is important to understand potential sources of group differences in the heritability of intelligence test scores. On the basis of a basic item response model we argue that heritabilities which are based on dichotomous item scores normally do not generalize from one sample to the next. If groups

Performance on large-scale science tests: Item attributes that may impact achievement scores

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Janet Victoria

Significant differences in achievement among ethnic groups persist on the eighth-grade science Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). The WASL measures academic performance in science using both scenario and stand-alone question types. Previous research suggests that presenting target items connected to an authentic context, like scenario question types, can increase science achievement scores especially in underrepresented groups and thus help to close the achievement gap. The purpose of this study was to identify significant differences in performance between gender and ethnic subgroups by question type on the 2005 eighth-grade science WASL. MANOVA and ANOVA were used to examine relationships between gender and ethnic subgroups as independent variables with achievement scores on scenario and stand-alone question types as dependent variables. MANOVA revealed no significant effects for gender, suggesting that the 2005 eighth-grade science WASL was gender neutral. However, there were significant effects for ethnicity. ANOVA revealed significant effects for ethnicity and ethnicity by gender interaction in both question types. Effect sizes were negligible for the ethnicity by gender interaction. Large effect sizes between ethnicities on scenario question types became moderate to small effect sizes on stand-alone question types. This indicates the score advantage the higher performing subgroups had over the lower performing subgroups was not as large on stand-alone question types compared to scenario question types. A further comparison examined performance on multiple-choice items only within both question types. Similar achievement patterns between ethnicities emerged; however, achievement patterns between genders changed in boys' favor. Scenario question types appeared to register differences between ethnic groups to a greater degree than stand-alone question types. These differences may be attributable to individual differences in cognition

Behavior problems and children’s academic achievement: A test of growth-curve models with gender and racial differences

Science.gov (United States)

Kremer, Kristen P.; Flower, Andrea; Huang, Jin; Vaughn, Michael G.

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal association between externalizing and internalizing behavior and children’s academic achievement, particularly in terms of whether these variables varied as a function of gender and race. Data pertaining to externalizing and internalizing behavior, academic achievement, gender, and race from three waves of the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 2028) were used. Results indicate that behavior problems had a negative relationship with academic performance and some of these associations endured over time. Externalizing behavior impacted reading scores more negatively for females compared to males at baseline, but the impact of externalizing behavior on long-term reading outcomes did not vary by gender. Externalizing behavior impacted reading scores more negatively for Black children than White children at multiple points in time. Differences between males, females, Black, and White children concerning behavior and achievement are explained. Implications, limitations, and ideas for future research are also presented. PMID:28529397

Undirected learning styles and academic risk: Analysis of the impact of stress, strain and coping.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimatian, Stephen; Lloyd, Sara; Berger, Jeffrey; Steiner, Lorraine; McKay, Robert; Schwengal, Deborah

2017-01-01

Learning style inventories used in conjunction with a measure of academic achievement consistently show an association of meaning directed learning patterns with academic success, but have failed to show a clear association of undirected learning styles with academic failure. Using survey methods with anesthesia residents, this study questioned whether additional assessment of factors related to stress, strain, and coping help to better define the association between undirected learning styles and academic risk. Pearson chi squared tests. 296 subjects were enrolled from eight institutions with 142 (48%) completing the study. American Board of Anesthesiologists In Training Examinations (ITE) percentiles (ITE%) were used as a measure of academic achievement. The Vermunt Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) was used to identify four learning patterns and 20 strategies, and the Osipow Stress Inventory-Revised (OSI-R) was used as a measure of six scales of occupational stress, four of personal strain, and four coping resources. Two learning patterns had significant relationship with ITE scores. As seen in previous studies, Meaning Directed Learning was beneficial for academic achievement while Undirected Learning was the least beneficial. Higher scores on Meaning Directed Learning correlated positively with higher ITE scores while higher Undirected and lower Meaning Directed patterns related negatively to ITE%. OSI-R measures of stress, strain and coping indicated that residents with Undirected learning patterns had higher scores on three scales related to stress, and 4 related to strain, while displaying lower scores on two scales related to coping. Residents with higher Meaning Directed patterns scored lower on two scales of stress and two scales of strain, with higher scores on two scales for coping resources. Low Meaning Directed and high Undirected learning patterns correlated with lower ITE percentiles, higher scores for stress and strain, and lower coping resources

Undergraduate Medical Academic Performance is Improved by Scientific Training

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lili; Zhang, Wei; Wu, Chong; Liu, Zhongming; Cai, Yunfei; Cao, Xingguo; He, Yushan; Liu, Guoxiang; Miao, Hongming

2017-01-01

The effect of scientific training on course learning in undergraduates is still controversial. In this study, we investigated the academic performance of undergraduate students with and without scientific training. The results show that scientific training improves students' test scores in general medical courses, such as biochemistry and…

Breakfast Intake and Composition Is Associated with Superior Academic Achievement in Elementary Schoolchildren.

Science.gov (United States)

Ptomey, Lauren T; Steger, Felicia L; Schubert, Matthew M; Lee, Jaehoon; Willis, Erik A; Sullivan, Debra K; Szabo-Reed, Amanda N; Washburn, Richard A; Donnelly, Joseph E

2016-01-01

To determine whether breakfast consumption or content affects academic achievement measured by standardized tests. Baseline data were collected in fall of 2011 from 698 students (50.5% female, age = 7.5 ± 0.6 years) living in the state of Kansas. Academic achievement was assessed using 3 components from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-III). Prior to taking the WIAT-III, participants completed a breakfast recall of all foods and drinks consumed that morning, which was analyzed using Nutrition Data System for Research (NDS-R). WIAT-III scores were compared between breakfast and non-breakfast consumers in a sample (n = 162) matched for age, sex, race, education level of both parents, household income, body mass index (BMI), and cardiovascular fitness, and Pearson correlations were calculated from all breakfast eaters (n = 617) between test performance and components of the breakfast. When compared to non-breakfast consumers, the breakfast consumers had significantly higher scores in all 3 WIAT-III components (all p breakfast consumers, servings of fruit juice were negatively correlated with reading comprehension and fluency standard score and mathematics standard score (both p breakfast consumption and the content may be associated with improved standardized test performance in elementary school students.

Writing apprehension and academic procrastination among graduate students.

Science.gov (United States)

Onwuegbuzie, A J; Collins, K M

2001-04-01

Academic procrastination has been associated with both fear of failure and task aversiveness. Researchers have reported that most undergraduate and graduate students delay academic tasks. Among the latter, a large proportion report procrastination in writing term papers. Such procrastination may originate from and lead to anxiety about writing so the present purpose was to investigate the relationship between scores on Daly and Miller's 1975 Writing Apprehension Test and on the two dimensions, i.e., fear of failure and task aversiveness, of Solomon and Rothblum's 1984 Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students. Participants were 135 graduate students of varied disciplinary backgrounds. Correlations between writing apprehension and academic procrastination stemmed from fear of failure (29) and task aversiveness (.41). Implications are discussed.

Longitudinal Test of a Social Cognitive Model of Academic and Life Satisfaction

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Singley, Daniel B.; Lent, Robert W.; Sheu, Hung-Bin

2010-01-01

The authors tested a social cognitive model of academic and overall life satisfaction in a sample of 769 university students. The predictors, drawn from Lent's unifying perspective on well-being and psychosocial adjustment, included social cognitive (academic self-efficacy, goal progress, social support) and personality (trait positive affect)…

Testing the applicability of the SASS5 scoring procedure for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A study was undertaken between 29th January and 17th February 2004 to test the applicability of the South African Scoring System Version 5 (SASS5) scoring and calculation procedure in nutrient-enriched palustrine wetlands in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Four reference wetlands and three dairy-effluent ...

Evaluating the Predictive Validity of Graduate Management Admission Test Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Sireci, Stephen G.; Talento-Miller, Eileen

2006-01-01

Admissions data and first-year grade point average (GPA) data from 11 graduate management schools were analyzed to evaluate the predictive validity of Graduate Management Admission Test[R] (GMAT[R]) scores and the extent to which predictive validity held across sex and race/ethnicity. The results indicated GMAT verbal and quantitative scores had…

Stress and suicidal ideation among adolescents having academic difficulty

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Priti Arun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Academically typically achieving adolescents were compared with students having academic difficulty on stress and suicidal ideas. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 75 academically typically achieving adolescents were compared with 105 students with academic difficulty and 52 students with specific learning disability (SLD. Academic functioning was assessed using teacher's screening instrument, intelligence quotient, and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences index for SLD. Stress and suicidal ideas were assessed using general health questionnaire, suicide risk-11, and Mooney Problem Checklist (MPC. Appropriate statistical methods were applied. Results: Three groups were comparable on age, gender, mother's working status, being only child, nuclear family, self-reported academic decline, and type of school. About half of adolescents reported psychological problems on General Health Questionnaire (mean score >3 in all the groups. Academically typically achieving adolescents showed higher stressors in peer relationships, planning for future and suicidal ideation compared to adolescents with academic difficulty. Adolescents face stress regarding worry about examinations, family not understanding what child has to do in school, unfair tests, too much work in some subjects, afraid of failure in school work, not spending enough time in studies, parental expectations, wanting to be more popular, worried about a family member, planning for the future, and fear of the future. Significant positive correlation was seen between General Health Questionnaire scores and all four subscales of MPC. Suicidal ideas showed a negative correlation with MPC. Interpretations and Conclusions: Adolescents experience considerable stress in multiple areas irrespective of their academic ability and performance. Hence, assessment and management of stress among adolescents must extend beyond academic difficulties.

Effects of Test Media on Different EFL Test-Takers in Writing Scores and in the Cognitive Writing Process

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Zou, Xiao-Ling; Chen, Yan-Min

2016-01-01

The effects of computer and paper test media on EFL test-takers with different computer familiarity in writing scores and in the cognitive writing process have been comprehensively explored from the learners' aspect as well as on the basis of related theories and practice. The results indicate significant differences in test scores among the…

The Relationship between Learning Style, Test Anxiety and Academic Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Yazici, Kubilay

2017-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between social studies pre-service teachers' (SSPTs) learning style, test anxiety and academic achievement. A total of 315 SSPTs participated in the study. Data were collected using Turkish versions of Grasha-Reichmann learning style scale (GRLSS) and test anxiety scale (TAS) by Spielberger.…

Brain Gym To Increase Academic Performance Of Children Aged 10-12 Years Old ( Experimental Study in Tembalang Elementary School and Pedalangan Elementary School Semarang)

Science.gov (United States)

Marpaung, M. G.; Sareharto, T. P.; Purwanti, A.; Hermawati, D.

2017-02-01

Academic performance becomes an important determinant of individual quality. it is determined by the function of affective, cognitive, psychomotor, and intelligence. Brain gym can improve learning processes and integrate all areas that related to the learning process. To prove the effect of brain gym towards academic performance of children aged 10-12 years. This study was a quasy experiment study with one group pre and post test design. Samples (n=18 male=7 and female=11) were taken from five and six grader and conducted in Tembalang and Pedalangan Elementary School, Semarang. Pretest were administered, followed by brain gym, and post test administered in the end of study. The measurement of Intelligence Quotient pre and post test using Culture Fair Intelligence Test Scale 2. Among the 18 subjects (male=7 and female=11) the average of academic performance and IQ score after brain gym showed improvement. The Improvement of IQ score with Culture Fair Test Scale 2 was analyzed by Dependent T test showed significant results (p=0,000). The improvement of Bahasa score was analyzed by Wilcoxon test showed significant results (p=0,001), an unsignificant result were shown in Mathematics p=0,079 and natural sciences p=0,306. Brain gym can increase academic performance of children aged 10-12 years old.

Does breastfeeding contribute to the racial gap in reading and math test scores?

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Kristen E; Huang, Jin; Vaughn, Michael G; Witko, Christopher

2013-10-01

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of divergent breastfeeding practices between Caucasian and African American mothers on the lingering achievement test gap between Caucasian and African American children. The Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, beginning in 1997, followed a cohort of 3563 children aged 0-12 years. Reading and math test scores from 2002 for 1928 children were linked with breastfeeding history. Regression analysis was used to examine associations between ever having been breastfed and duration of breastfeeding and test scores, controlling for characteristics of child, mother, and household. African American students scored significantly lower than Caucasian children by 10.6 and 10.9 points on reading and math tests, respectively. After accounting for the impact of having been breastfed during infancy, the racial test gap decreased by 17% for reading scores and 9% for math scores. Study findings indicate that breastfeeding explains 17% and 9% of the observed gaps in reading and math scores, respectively, between African Americans and Caucasians, an effect larger than most recent educational policy interventions. Renewed efforts around policies and clinical practices that promote and remove barriers for African American mothers to breastfeed should be implemented. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Validation of new prognostic and predictive scores by sequential testing approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nieder, Carsten; Haukland, Ellinor; Pawinski, Adam; Dalhaug, Astrid

2010-01-01

Background and Purpose: For practitioners, the question arises how their own patient population differs from that used in large-scale analyses resulting in new scores and nomograms and whether such tools actually are valid at a local level and thus can be implemented. A recent article proposed an easy-to-use method for the in-clinic validation of new prediction tools with a limited number of patients, a so-called sequential testing approach. The present study evaluates this approach in scores related to radiation oncology. Material and Methods: Three different scores were used, each predicting short overall survival after palliative radiotherapy (bone metastases, brain metastases, metastatic spinal cord compression). For each scenario, a limited number of consecutive patients entered the sequential testing approach. The positive predictive value (PPV) was used for validation of the respective score and it was required that the PPV exceeded 80%. Results: For two scores, validity in the own local patient population could be confirmed after entering 13 and 17 patients, respectively. For the third score, no decision could be reached even after increasing the sample size to 30. Conclusion: In-clinic validation of new predictive tools with sequential testing approach should be preferred over uncritical adoption of tools which provide no significant benefit to local patient populations. Often the necessary number of patients can be reached within reasonable time frames even in small oncology practices. In addition, validation is performed continuously as the data are collected. (orig.)

Validation of new prognostic and predictive scores by sequential testing approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nieder, Carsten [Radiation Oncology Unit, Nordland Hospital, Bodo (Norway); Inst. of Clinical Medicine, Univ. of Tromso (Norway); Haukland, Ellinor; Pawinski, Adam; Dalhaug, Astrid [Radiation Oncology Unit, Nordland Hospital, Bodo (Norway)

2010-03-15

Background and Purpose: For practitioners, the question arises how their own patient population differs from that used in large-scale analyses resulting in new scores and nomograms and whether such tools actually are valid at a local level and thus can be implemented. A recent article proposed an easy-to-use method for the in-clinic validation of new prediction tools with a limited number of patients, a so-called sequential testing approach. The present study evaluates this approach in scores related to radiation oncology. Material and Methods: Three different scores were used, each predicting short overall survival after palliative radiotherapy (bone metastases, brain metastases, metastatic spinal cord compression). For each scenario, a limited number of consecutive patients entered the sequential testing approach. The positive predictive value (PPV) was used for validation of the respective score and it was required that the PPV exceeded 80%. Results: For two scores, validity in the own local patient population could be confirmed after entering 13 and 17 patients, respectively. For the third score, no decision could be reached even after increasing the sample size to 30. Conclusion: In-clinic validation of new predictive tools with sequential testing approach should be preferred over uncritical adoption of tools which provide no significant benefit to local patient populations. Often the necessary number of patients can be reached within reasonable time frames even in small oncology practices. In addition, validation is performed continuously as the data are collected. (orig.)

Motivation and academic achievement in medical students.

Science.gov (United States)

Yousefy, Alireza; Ghassemi, Gholamreza; Firouznia, Samaneh

2012-01-01

Despite their ascribed intellectual ability and achieved academic pursuits, medical students' academic achievement is influenced by motivation. This study is an endeavor to examine the role of motivation in the academic achievement of medical students. In this cross-sectional correlational study, out of the total 422 medical students, from 4th to final year during the academic year 2007-2008, at School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 344 participated in completion of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM), comprising 43 items and measuring eight aspects of motivation. The gold standard for academic achievement was their average academic marks at pre-clinical and clinical levels. Data were computer analyzed by running a couple of descriptive and analytical tests including Pearson Correlation and Student's t-student. Higher motivation scores in areas of competition, effort, social concern, and task were accompanied by higher average marks at pre-clinical as well as clinical levels. However, the latter ones showed greater motivation for social power as compared to the former group. Task and competition motivation for boys was higher than for girls. In view of our observations, students' academic achievement requires coordination and interaction between different aspects of motivation.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The Longitudinal Value of Local Cut Scores Using State Test Data

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Peter M.; Van Norman, Ethan R.; VanDerHeyden, Amanda

2017-01-01

We used existing reading (n = 1,498) and math (n = 2,260) data to evaluate state test scores for screening middle school students. In Phase 1, state test data were used to create a research-derived cut score that was optimal for predicting state test performance the following year. In Phase 2, those cut scores were applied with future cohorts.…

A weighted generalized score statistic for comparison of predictive values of diagnostic tests.

Science.gov (United States)

Kosinski, Andrzej S

2013-03-15

Positive and negative predictive values are important measures of a medical diagnostic test performance. We consider testing equality of two positive or two negative predictive values within a paired design in which all patients receive two diagnostic tests. The existing statistical tests for testing equality of predictive values are either Wald tests based on the multinomial distribution or the empirical Wald and generalized score tests within the generalized estimating equations (GEE) framework. As presented in the literature, these test statistics have considerably complex formulas without clear intuitive insight. We propose their re-formulations that are mathematically equivalent but algebraically simple and intuitive. As is clearly seen with a new re-formulation we presented, the generalized score statistic does not always reduce to the commonly used score statistic in the independent samples case. To alleviate this, we introduce a weighted generalized score (WGS) test statistic that incorporates empirical covariance matrix with newly proposed weights. This statistic is simple to compute, always reduces to the score statistic in the independent samples situation, and preserves type I error better than the other statistics as demonstrated by simulations. Thus, we believe that the proposed WGS statistic is the preferred statistic for testing equality of two predictive values and for corresponding sample size computations. The new formulas of the Wald statistics may be useful for easy computation of confidence intervals for difference of predictive values. The introduced concepts have potential to lead to development of the WGS test statistic in a general GEE setting. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Validity of GRE General Test scores and TOEFL scores for graduate admission to a technical university in Western Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmermann, Judith; von Davier, Alina A.; Buhmann, Joachim M.; Heinimann, Hans R.

2018-01-01

Graduate admission has become a critical process in tertiary education, whereby selecting valid admissions instruments is key. This study assessed the validity of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test scores for admission to Master's programmes at a technical university in Europe. We investigated the indicative value of GRE scores for the Master's programme grade point average (GGPA) with and without the addition of the undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and the TOEFL score, and of GRE scores for study completion and Master's thesis performance. GRE scores explained 20% of the variation in the GGPA, while additional 7% were explained by the TOEFL score and 3% by the UGPA. Contrary to common belief, the GRE quantitative reasoning score showed only little explanatory power. GRE scores were also weakly related to study progress but not to thesis performance. Nevertheless, GRE and TOEFL scores were found to be sensible admissions instruments. Rigorous methodology was used to obtain highly reliable results.

The Performance of the Upper Limb scores correlate with pulmonary function test measures and Egen Klassifikation scores in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ha Neul; Sawnani, Hemant; Horn, Paul S; Rybalsky, Irina; Relucio, Lani; Wong, Brenda L

2016-01-01

The Performance of the Upper Limb scale was developed as an outcome measure specifically for ambulant and non-ambulant patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and is implemented in clinical trials needing longitudinal data. The aim of this study is to determine whether this novel tool correlates with functional ability using pulmonary function test, cardiac function test and Egen Klassifikation scale scores as clinical measures. In this cross-sectional study, 43 non-ambulatory Duchenne males from ages 10 to 30 years and on long-term glucocorticoid treatment were enrolled. Cardiac and pulmonary function test results were analyzed to assess cardiopulmonary function, and Egen Klassifikation scores were analyzed to assess functional ability. The Performance of the Upper Limb scores correlated with pulmonary function measures and had inverse correlation with Egen Klassifikation scores. There was no correlation with left ventricular ejection fraction and left ventricular dysfunction. Body mass index and decreased joint range of motion affected total Performance of the Upper Limb scores and should be considered in clinical trial designs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Academic integrity in the online learning environment for health sciences students.

Science.gov (United States)

Azulay Chertok, Ilana R; Barnes, Emily R; Gilleland, Diana

2014-10-01

The online learning environment not only affords accessibility to education for health sciences students, but also poses challenges to academic integrity. Technological advances contribute to new modes of academic dishonesty, although there may be a lack of clarity regarding behaviors that constitute academic dishonesty in the online learning environment. To evaluate an educational intervention aimed at increasing knowledge and improving attitudes about academic integrity in the online learning environment among health sciences students. A quasi-experimental study was conducted using a survey of online learning knowledge and attitudes with strong reliability that was developed based on a modified version of a previously developed information technology attitudes rating tool with an added knowledge section based on the academic integrity statement. Blended-learning courses in a university health sciences center. 355 health sciences students from various disciplines, including nursing, pre-medical, and exercise physiology students, 161 in the control group and 194 in the intervention group. The survey of online learning knowledge and attitudes (SOLKA) was used in a pre-post test study to evaluate the differences in scores between the control group who received the standard course introduction and the intervention group who received an enhanced educational intervention about academic integrity during the course introduction. Post-intervention attitude scores were significantly improved compared to baseline scores for the control and intervention groups, indicating a positive relationship with exposure to the information, with a greater improvement among intervention group participants (pacademic integrity in the online environment. Emphasis should be made about the importance of academic integrity in the online learning environment in preparation for professional behavior in the technologically advancing health sciences arena. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All

Relative Merits of Four Methods for Scoring Cloze Tests.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, James Dean

1980-01-01

Describes study comparing merits of exact answer, acceptable answer, clozentropy and multiple choice methods for scoring tests. Results show differences among reliability, mean item facility, discrimination and usability, but not validity. (BK)

Mentoring perception and academic performance: an Academic Health Science Centre survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Athanasiou, Thanos; Patel, Vanash; Garas, George; Ashrafian, Hutan; Shetty, Kunal; Sevdalis, Nick; Panzarasa, Pietro; Darzi, Ara; Paroutis, Sotirios

2016-10-01

To determine the association between professors' self-perception of mentoring skills and their academic performance. Two hundred and fifteen professors from Imperial College London, the first Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) in the UK, were surveyed. The instrument adopted was the Mentorship Skills Self-Assessment Survey. Statement scores were aggregated to provide a score for each shared core, mentor-specific and mentee-specific skill. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to evaluate their relationship with quantitative measures of academic performance (publications, citations and h-index). There were 104 professors that responded (response rate 48%). There were no statistically significant negative correlations between any mentoring statement and any performance measure. In contrast, several mentoring survey items were positively correlated with academic performance. The total survey score for frequency of application of mentoring skills had a statistically significant positive association with number of publications (B=0.012, SE=0.004, p=0.006), as did the frequency of acquiring mentors with number of citations (B=1.572, SE=0.702, p=0.030). Building trust and managing risks had a statistically significant positive association with h-index (B=0.941, SE=0.460, p=0.047 and B=0.613, SE=0.287, p=0.038, respectively). This study supports the view that mentoring is associated with high academic performance. Importantly, it suggests that frequent use of mentoring skills and quality of mentoring have positive effects on academic performance. Formal mentoring programmes should be considered a fundamental part of all AHSCs' configuration. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

The Mediating Effect of Listening Metacognitive Awareness between Test-Taking Motivation and Listening Test Score: An Expectancy-Value Theory Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jian

2017-01-01

The present study investigated test-taking motivation in L2 listening testing context by applying Expectancy-Value Theory as the framework. Specifically, this study was intended to examine the complex relationships among expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, listening metacognitive awareness, and listening test score using data from a large-scale and high-stakes language test among Chinese first-year undergraduates. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating effect of listening metacognitive awareness on the relationship between expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score. According to the results, test takers' listening scores can be predicted by expectancy, interest, and listening anxiety significantly. The relationship between expectancy, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score was mediated by listening metacognitive awareness. The findings have implications for test takers to improve their test taking motivation and listening metacognitive awareness, as well as for L2 teachers to intervene in L2 listening classrooms.

The Mediating Effect of Listening Metacognitive Awareness between Test-Taking Motivation and Listening Test Score: An Expectancy-Value Theory Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jian Xu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The present study investigated test-taking motivation in L2 listening testing context by applying Expectancy-Value Theory as the framework. Specifically, this study was intended to examine the complex relationships among expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, listening metacognitive awareness, and listening test score using data from a large-scale and high-stakes language test among Chinese first-year undergraduates. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating effect of listening metacognitive awareness on the relationship between expectancy, importance, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score. According to the results, test takers’ listening scores can be predicted by expectancy, interest, and listening anxiety significantly. The relationship between expectancy, interest, listening anxiety, and listening test score was mediated by listening metacognitive awareness. The findings have implications for test takers to improve their test taking motivation and listening metacognitive awareness, as well as for L2 teachers to intervene in L2 listening classrooms.

The Dental Hygiene Aptitude Tests and the American College Testing Program Tests as Predictors of Scores on the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination.

Science.gov (United States)

Longenbecker, Sueann; Wood, Peter H.

1984-01-01

Scores from the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE) served as the criterion variable in a comparison of the predictive validity of the Dental Hygiene Aptitude Tests (DHAT) and the ACT Assessment tests. The DHAT-Science and Verbal tests combined to produce the highest multiple correlation with NBDHE scores. (Author/DWH)

Academic skills in the long term after epilepsy surgery in childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Puka, Klajdi; Smith, Mary Lou

2016-09-01

We evaluated the progression of academic skills in a cohort of patients who underwent, or were considered for, epilepsy surgery in childhood, four to eleven years before. The few existing studies that have evaluated cognitive function in the long term after surgery have examined intelligence and memory. Participants were 97 patients with childhood-onset intractable epilepsy; 61 had undergone resective epilepsy surgery. Participants completed standardized tests of reading, spelling, arithmetic, and intelligence at baseline and, on average, 7years after. Surgical patients were additionally assessed one year postsurgery. At baseline and long-term follow-up, 61% and 69% of patients, respectively, scored at least one standard deviation below normative data in at least one academic domain. Evaluation of change over time while controlling for IQ showed that arithmetic scores were lower at long-term follow-up in comparison with those at baseline among all patient groups, whereas reading and spelling scores remained unchanged. Few advantages were associated with seizure control. Multiple regression analyses found that older age at surgery, cessation of antiepileptic medications, improved IQ, and low baseline scores were independently associated with improvement in some academic domains among all patient groups. We found that arithmetic scores were lower at long-term follow-up, suggesting a lack of ongoing development or deterioration in skills. Reading and spelling scores remained stable suggesting that patients made gains in abilities at a rate expected for their increase in age; this finding contrasts with recent short-term outcome studies identifying significantly lower scores over time in these areas. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contributions of Hamstring Stiffness to Straight-Leg-Raise and Sit-and-Reach Test Scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Naokazu; Hirata, Kosuke; Kimura, Noriko; Miyamoto-Mikami, Eri

2018-02-01

The passive straight-leg-raise (PSLR) and the sit-and-reach (SR) tests have been widely used to assess hamstring extensibility. However, it remains unclear to what extent hamstring stiffness (a measure of material properties) contributes to PSLR and SR test scores. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the relationship between hamstring stiffness and PSLR and SR scores using ultrasound shear wave elastography. Ninety-eight healthy subjects completed the study. Each subject completed PSLR testing, and classic and modified SR testing of the right leg. Muscle shear modulus of the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus was quantified as an index of muscle stiffness. The relationships between shear modulus of each muscle and PSLR or SR scores were calculated using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients. Shear modulus of the semitendinosus and semimembranosus showed negative correlations with the two PSLR and two SR scores (absolute r value≤0.484). Shear modulus of the biceps femoris was significantly correlated with the PSLR score determined by the examiner and the modified SR score (absolute r value≤0.308). The present findings suggest that PSLR and SR test scores are strongly influenced by factors other than hamstring stiffness and therefore might not accurately evaluate hamstring stiffness. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Manual for Scoring the Test of Directed Imagination.

Science.gov (United States)

Veldman, Donald J.; And Others

A scoring manual for the Directed Imagination Test, a projective technique wherein the subject is instructed to write four fictional stories (four minutes are allowed for each) about teachers and their experiences, is presented. The manual provides detailed instructions for rating each story by fifteen dimensions relevant to teacher education…

Academic self-concept, autonomous academic motivation, and academic achievement : mediating and additive effects

OpenAIRE

Guay, Frédéric; Ratelle, Catherine; Roy, Amélie; Litalien, David

2010-01-01

Three conceptual models were tested to examine the relationships among academic self-concept, autonomous academic motivation, and academic achievement. This allowed us to determine whether 1) autonomous academic motivation mediates the relation between academic self-concept and achievement, 2) academic self-concept mediates the relation between autonomous academic motivation and achievement, or 3) both motivational constructs have an additive effect on academic achievement. A total of 925 hig...

Behavioral Indexes of Test Anxiety in Mathematics among Senior High School Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DANIEL MACÍAS-MARTÍNEZ

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The study of Mathematics has been and is still a source of frustration and anxiety for a large number of students. The purpose of this study was to inquire systematically upon levels of test anxiety through behavioral and physiological procedures before and after a Math test, in 205 senior high school students. Academic worries were assessed by means of a computerized task based on the emotional version of the Stroop paradigm designed ex profeso to measure school anxiety (Hernández-Pozo, Macías & Torres, 2004. The Stroop task was administered, along with recordings of blood pressure and pulse, before and after the first Math test of the course. Academic general scores were inverse to the behavioral anxiety level, however the best Math scores were associated to middle levels of behavioral anxiety. Contradictory findings between academic performance in Math and global score, and the apparent lack of gender difference in anxiety measured through behavioral procedures suggests the need to review the generality of previous assertions relating academic performance inversely with levels of anxiety of high school students.

Ancient science of yogic life for academic excellence in university students.

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Tikhe, Sham Ganpat; Nagendra, H R; Tripathi, Neeraj

2012-01-01

Academic excellence is essential to provide opportunities for students to work together to improve their understanding of concepts in their academic core. Academic excellence helps students to teach problem-solving and collaborative learning strategies. The objective of this study was to assess Guna (personality traits) in students undergoing Yoga Instructor's Course (YIC). In all, 68 YIC students with a mean age of 28.03 ± 9.38 years participated in this single group pre-post study. The Personality Inventory data were collected before (pre) and after (post) the YIC. Means, standard deviations, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used for analyzing the data with the help of SPSS 16. The data analysis showed 11.33% decrease (P balanced personality trait) scores. This study suggests that YIC can result in the improvement of Sattva Guna (balance personality trait) among students, thus paving the way for their academic excellence.

Effect of gender and nutritional status on academic achievement and cognitive function among primary school children in a rural district in Malaysia.

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Hamid, Jan J M; Amal, Mitra K; Hasmiza, H; Pim, C D; Ng, L O; Wan, Manan W M

2011-08-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between gender, birth weight, nutritional status, and iron status of children with their academic performance and cognitive function. Two hundred and forty-nine children, seven to nine years of age, were recruited by systematic sampling from six primary schools in a rural area in Malaysia. Cognitive function was assessed by using Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (R-CPM). Academic performance of the children was recorded from their school final examination results in four subjects including Malay language, English, Mathematics, and Science. Birth weight was recorded from the birth certificate, and nutritional status was determined by weight-for-age z score and height-for-age z score. Girls had a significantly higher score in all the academic tests, but a lower cognitive score compared to boys. Nutritional status was found to be correlated significantly with academic performance. Academic and cognitive function scores were also found to be correlated significantly with birth weight, parents' education, and family income. In a multivariate analysis, gender remained the significant predictor of academic function, and iron status and haemoglobin were the significant predictors of cognitive function, after controlling for other variables. The study showed that girls performed better academically than boys in rural Malaysia. Nutritional status, parents' education and family income could be additional modifiable factors to improve academic performance of the children. More attention is needed to improve academic achievements of boys at their early school years.

AP Trends: Tests Soar, Scores Slip--Gaps between Groups Spur Equity Concerns

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Cech, Scott J.

2008-01-01

More students are taking Advanced Placement tests, but the proportion of tests receiving what is deemed a passing score has dipped, and the mean score is down for the fourth year in a row. Data released here this week by the New York City-based nonprofit organization that owns the AP brand shows that a greater-than-ever proportion of students…

Validity of GRE General Test Scores and TOEFL Scores for Graduate Admission to a Technical University in Western Europe

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Zimmermann, Judith; von Davier, Alina A.; Buhmann, Joachim M.; Heinimann, Hans R.

2018-01-01

Graduate admission has become a critical process in tertiary education, whereby selecting valid admissions instruments is key. This study assessed the validity of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test scores for admission to Master's programmes at a technical university in Europe. We investigated the indicative value of GRE scores for the…

The Formalization of Fairness: Issues in Testing for Measurement Invariance Using Subtest Scores

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Molenaar, Dylan; Borsboom, Denny

2013-01-01

Measurement invariance is an important prerequisite for the adequate comparison of group differences in test scores. In psychology, measurement invariance is typically investigated by means of linear factor analyses of subtest scores. These subtest scores typically result from summing the item scores. In this paper, we discuss 4 possible problems…

Multiple intelligences and alternative teaching strategies: The effects on student academic achievement, conceptual understanding, and attitude

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Baragona, Michelle

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactions between multiple intelligence strengths and alternative teaching methods on student academic achievement, conceptual understanding and attitudes. The design was a quasi-experimental study, in which students enrolled in Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, a developmental biology course, received lecture only, problem-based learning with lecture, or peer teaching with lecture. These students completed the Multiple Intelligence Inventory to determine their intelligence strengths, the Students' Motivation Toward Science Learning questionnaire to determine student attitudes towards learning in science, multiple choice tests to determine academic achievement, and open-ended questions to determine conceptual understanding. Effects of intelligence types and teaching methods on academic achievement and conceptual understanding were determined statistically by repeated measures ANOVAs. No significance occurred in academic achievement scores due to lab group or due to teaching method used; however, significant interactions between group and teaching method did occur in students with strengths in logical-mathematical, interpersonal, kinesthetic, and intrapersonal intelligences. Post-hoc analysis using Tukey HSD tests revealed students with strengths in logical-mathematical intelligence and enrolled in Group Three scored significantly higher when taught by problem-based learning (PBL) as compared to peer teaching (PT). No significance occurred in conceptual understanding scores due to lab group or due to teaching method used; however, significant interactions between group and teaching method did occur in students with strengths in musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and spatial intelligences. Post-hoc analysis using Tukey HSD tests revealed students with strengths in logical-mathematical intelligence and enrolled in Group Three scored significantly higher when taught by lecture as compared to PBL. Students with

Student Academic Performance Outcomes of a Classroom Physical Activity Intervention: A Pilot Study

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Heather ERWIN; Alicia FEDEWA; Soyeon AHN

2012-01-01

Physical activity is beneficial to children’s health, yet academic pressures limit opportunities for students throughout the school day. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a classroom PA intervention on student academic performance outcomes. Intervention participants (n=15) received daily PA breaks. Reading and mathematics fluency, PA, grades, and standardized test scores were collected. Effects of the intervention were examined using mixed-design ANOVAs. Intervention st...

Correlation of nutritional status with academic achievement in adolescents

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Sinurat, R. S.; Sembiring, T.; Azlin, E.; Faranita, T.; Pratita, W.

2018-03-01

Malnutrition is considered a problem that limits learning ability (cognitive function), which is related to poor academic achievement results. This study aimed to determine the relationship of nutritional status with academic achievement in adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 126 junior high school students ranging from 12 to 15 years in Batubara, North Sumatra in January 2015. Nutritional status is determined by weight for height. Academic achievement was recorded from the final results of their school exams. The value of intelligence quotient (IQ) was assessed by using the Aptitude Test. Data were then analyzed by using Spearman correlation and Chi-Square test. In conclusion, there was no significant difference between nutritional status with IQ score (p=0,540) but showed a significant relationship (p=0.003) between normal nutritional status with the total value of the report card with positive weak correlation strength (r=0.342). There was also a significant difference (p=0.020) and moderate positive correlation (r=0.541) between overweight with academic achievement based on mathematics.

Do medical students’ scores using different assessment instruments predict their scores in clinical reasoning using a computer-based simulation?

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Fida M

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Mariam Fida,1 Salah Eldin Kassab2 1Department of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain; 2Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt Purpose: The development of clinical problem-solving skills evolves over time and requires structured training and background knowledge. Computer-based case simulations (CCS have been used for teaching and assessment of clinical reasoning skills. However, previous studies examining the psychometric properties of CCS as an assessment tool have been controversial. Furthermore, studies reporting the integration of CCS into problem-based medical curricula have been limited. Methods: This study examined the psychometric properties of using CCS software (DxR Clinician for assessment of medical students (n=130 studying in a problem-based, integrated multisystem module (Unit IX during the academic year 2011–2012. Internal consistency reliability of CCS scores was calculated using Cronbach's alpha statistics. The relationships between students' scores in CCS components (clinical reasoning, diagnostic performance, and patient management and their scores in other examination tools at the end of the unit including multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, objective structured clinical examination (OSCE, and real patient encounters were analyzed using stepwise hierarchical linear regression. Results: Internal consistency reliability of CCS scores was high (α=0.862. Inter-item correlations between students' scores in different CCS components and their scores in CCS and other test items were statistically significant. Regression analysis indicated that OSCE scores predicted 32.7% and 35.1% of the variance in clinical reasoning and patient management scores, respectively (P<0.01. Multiple-choice question scores, however, predicted only 15.4% of the variance in diagnostic performance scores (P<0.01, while

Undergraduate medical academic performance is improved by scientific training.

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Zhang, Lili; Zhang, Wei; Wu, Chong; Liu, Zhongming; Cai, Yunfei; Cao, Xingguo; He, Yushan; Liu, Guoxiang; Miao, Hongming

2017-09-01

The effect of scientific training on course learning in undergraduates is still controversial. In this study, we investigated the academic performance of undergraduate students with and without scientific training. The results show that scientific training improves students' test scores in general medical courses, such as biochemistry and molecular biology, cell biology, physiology, and even English. We classified scientific training into four levels. We found that literature reading could significantly improve students' test scores in general courses. Students who received scientific training carried out experiments more effectively and published articles performed better than their untrained counterparts in biochemistry and molecular biology examinations. The questionnaire survey demonstrated that the trained students were more confident of their course learning, and displayed more interest, motivation and capability in course learning. In summary, undergraduate academic performance is improved by scientific training. Our findings shed light on the novel strategies in the management of undergraduate education in the medical school. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(5):379-384, 2017. © 2017 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Propensity score matching in estimating the effect of managerial education on academic planning behavior. Study design: a cross-sectional study

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Nguyen Huy V

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In many academic settings teaching a particular topic is applied to every student enrolled in the same academic year, it is a difficult task for researchers to design a randomized control group study. This research aimed to estimate the effect of teaching management and planning on increasing academic planning behavior (APB, using propensity score matching (PSM. Methods In a cross-sectional survey utilizing a self-reported structured questionnaire on a systematic random sample of 421 students in Hanoi Medical University, one of the eight medical schools in Vietnam, this evaluation study adopted regression procedures to assess model fit, then PSM to create a matched control group in order to allow for evaluating the effect of management education. Results The study showed both direct and indirect effects of the education on behavior. After PSM to adjust for the possible confounders to balance statistically two groups - with and without management education, there is statistically a significant difference in APB between these two groups, making a net difference of 18.60% (p Conclusions The study provided theoretical as well as practical implications to guide the design of the education and evaluation of teaching.

Usability Testing of an Academic Library Web Site: A Case Study.

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Battleson, Brenda; Booth, Austin; Weintrop, Jane

2001-01-01

Discusses usability testing as a tool for evaluating the effectiveness and ease of use of academic library Web sites; considers human-computer interaction; reviews major usability principles; and explores the application of formal usability testing to an existing site at the University at Buffalo (NY) libraries. (Author/LRW)

Explaining the black-white gap in cognitive test scores: Toward a theory of adverse impact.

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Cottrell, Jonathan M; Newman, Daniel A; Roisman, Glenn I

2015-11-01

In understanding the causes of adverse impact, a key parameter is the Black-White difference in cognitive test scores. To advance theory on why Black-White cognitive ability/knowledge test score gaps exist, and on how these gaps develop over time, the current article proposes an inductive explanatory model derived from past empirical findings. According to this theoretical model, Black-White group mean differences in cognitive test scores arise from the following racially disparate conditions: family income, maternal education, maternal verbal ability/knowledge, learning materials in the home, parenting factors (maternal sensitivity, maternal warmth and acceptance, and safe physical environment), child birth order, and child birth weight. Results from a 5-wave longitudinal growth model estimated on children in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development from ages 4 through 15 years show significant Black-White cognitive test score gaps throughout early development that did not grow significantly over time (i.e., significant intercept differences, but not slope differences). Importantly, the racially disparate conditions listed above can account for the relation between race and cognitive test scores. We propose a parsimonious 3-Step Model that explains how cognitive test score gaps arise, in which race relates to maternal disadvantage, which in turn relates to parenting factors, which in turn relate to cognitive test scores. This model and results offer to fill a need for theory on the etiology of the Black-White ethnic group gap in cognitive test scores, and attempt to address a missing link in the theory of adverse impact. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

A Maturing Global Testing Regime Meets the World Economy: Test Scores and Economic Growth, 1960-2012

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Kamens, David H.

2015-01-01

This article considers the growth of the international testing regime. It discusses sources of growth and empirically examines two related sets of issues: (1) the stability of countries' achievement scores, and (2) the influence of those national scores on subsequent economic development over different time lags. The article suggests that…

Sleep disorder among medical students: relationship to their academic performance.

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Abdulghani, Hamza M; Alrowais, Norah A; Bin-Saad, Norah S; Al-Subaie, Nourah M; Haji, Alhan M A; Alhaqwi, Ali I

2012-01-01

Medical students are exposed to a significant level of pressure due to academic demands. Their sleep pattern is characterized by insufficient sleep duration, delayed sleep onset, and occurrence of napping episodes during the day. To examine the prevalence of sleep disorder among medical students and investigate any relationship between sleep disorder and academic performance. This is a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire-based study. The participants were medical students of the first, second, and third academic years. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was also included to identify sleep disorder and grade point average was recorded for academic performance. There were 491 responses with a response rate of 55%. The ESS score demonstrated that 36.6% of participants were considered to have abnormal sleep habits, with a statistically significant increase in female students (p = 0.000). Sleeping between 6-10 h per day was associated with normal ESS scores (p = 0.019) as well as the academic grades ≥ 3.75. Abnormal ESS scores were associated with lower academic achievement (p = 0.002). A high prevalence of sleep disorder was found in this group of students, specifically female students. Analysis of the relationship between sleep disorder and academic performance indicates a significant relationship between abnormal ESS scores, total sleeping hours, and academic performance.

The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire: score validity among medicine residents.

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Cook, David A; Thompson, Warren G; Thomas, Kris G

2011-12-01

The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) purports to measure motivation using the expectancy-value model. Although it is widely used in other fields, this instrument has received little study in health professions education. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of MSLQ scores. We conducted a validity study evaluating the relationships of MSLQ scores to other variables and their internal structure (reliability and factor analysis). Participants included 210 internal medicine and family medicine residents participating in a web-based course on ambulatory medicine at an academic medical centre. Measurements included pre-course MSLQ scores, pre- and post-module motivation surveys, post-module knowledge test and post-module Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) scores. Internal consistency was universally high for all MSLQ items together (Cronbach's α = 0.93) and for each domain (α ≥ 0.67). Total MSLQ scores showed statistically significant positive associations with post-test knowledge scores. For example, a 1-point rise in total MSLQ score was associated with a 4.4% increase in post-test scores (β = 4.4; p motivation and satisfaction. Scores on MSLQ domains demonstrated associations that generally aligned with our hypotheses. Self-efficacy and control of learning belief scores demonstrated the strongest domain-specific relationships with knowledge scores (β = 2.9 for both). Confirmatory factor analysis showed a borderline model fit. Follow-up exploratory factor analysis revealed the scores of five factors (self-efficacy, intrinsic interest, test anxiety, extrinsic goals, attribution) demonstrated psychometric and predictive properties similar to those of the original scales. Scores on the MSLQ are reliable and predict meaningful outcomes. However, the factor structure suggests a simplified model might better fit the empiric data. Future research might consider how assessing and responding to motivation could enhance

Psychometric Properties of Raw and Scale Scores on Mixed-Format Tests

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Kolen, Michael J.; Lee, Won-Chan

2011-01-01

This paper illustrates that the psychometric properties of scores and scales that are used with mixed-format educational tests can impact the use and interpretation of the scores that are reported to examinees. Psychometric properties that include reliability and conditional standard errors of measurement are considered in this paper. The focus is…

Self-reports on students' learning processes are academic metacognitive knowledge

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Cristiano Mauro Assis Gomes

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The current study postulates that students' self-reported perceptions on their academic processes are a type of metacognition: academic metacognitive knowledge (AMcK. We investigated, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM, three hypotheses: (a AMcK explains the variance of factor scores of students' learning approaches (SLA and academic motivation (AM; (b AMcK is distinct from working metacognition (WMC; and (c AMcK has incremental validity, beyond WMC, on the explanation of general academic achievement (GAA variance. Two tests (indicators of WMC and two scales (indicators of AMcK were administered to 684 ten-to-eighteen-year-old Brazilian children and adolescents. Annual grades in Math, Portuguese, Geography and History were used as indicators of GAA. The results show that none of the three hypotheses can be refuted.

Academic Outcome Measures of a Dedicated Education Unit Over Time: Help or Hinder?

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Smyer, Tish; Gatlin, Tricia; Tan, Rhigel; Tejada, Marianne; Feng, Du

2015-01-01

Critical thinking, nursing process, quality and safety measures, and standardized RN exit examination scores were compared between students (n = 144) placed in a dedicated education unit (DEU) and those in a traditional clinical model. Standardized test scores showed that differences between the clinical groups were not statistically significant. This study shows that the DEU model is 1 approach to clinical education that can enhance students' academic outcomes.

Admissions Criteria as Predictors of Academic Performance in a Three-Year Pharmacy Program at a Historically Black Institution

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Parmar, Jayesh R.; Purnell, Miriam; Lang, Lynn A.

2016-01-01

Objective. To determine the ability of University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy’s admissions criteria to predict students’ academic performance in a 3-year pharmacy program and to analyze transferability to African-American students. Methods. Statistical analyses were conducted on retrospective data for 174 students. Didactic and experiential scores were used as measures of academic performance. Results. Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT), grade point average (GPA), interview, and observational scores combined with previous pharmacy experience and biochemistry coursework predicted the students' academic performance except second-year (P2) experiential performance. For African-American students, didactic performance positively correlated with PCAT writing subtests, while the experiential performance positively correlated with previous pharmacy experience and observational score. For nonAfrican-American students, didactic performance positively correlated with PCAT multiple-choice subtests, and experiential performance with interview score. The prerequisite GPA positively correlated with both of the student subgroups’ didactic performance. Conclusion. Both PCAT and GPA were predictors of didactic performance, especially in nonAfrican-Americans. Pharmacy experience and observational scores were predictors of experiential performance, especially in African-Americans. PMID:26941432

Prepharmacy predictors of success in pharmacy school: grade point averages, pharmacy college admissions test, communication abilities, and critical thinking skills.

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Allen, D D; Bond, C A

2001-07-01

Good admissions decisions are essential for identifying successful students and good practitioners. Various parameters have been shown to have predictive power for academic success. Previous academic performance, the Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT), and specific prepharmacy courses have been suggested as academic performance indicators. However, critical thinking abilities have not been evaluated. We evaluated the connection between academic success and each of the following predictive parameters: the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) score, PCAT score, interview score, overall academic performance prior to admission at a pharmacy school, and performance in specific prepharmacy courses. We confirmed previous reports but demonstrated intriguing results in predicting practice-based skills. Critical thinking skills predict practice-based course success. Also, the CCTST and PCAT scores (Pearson correlation [pc] = 0.448, p critical thinking skills in pharmacy practice courses and clerkships. Further study is needed to confirm this finding and determine which PCAT components predict critical thinking abilities.

The role of sleep in predicting college academic performance: is it a unique predictor?

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Taylor, Daniel J; Vatthauer, Karlyn E; Bramoweth, Adam D; Ruggero, Camilo; Roane, Brandy

2013-01-01

Few studies have looked at the predictability of academic performance (i.e., cumulative grade point average [GPA]) using sleep when common nonsleep predictors of academic performance are included. This project studied psychological, demographic, educational, and sleep risk factors of decreased academic performance in college undergraduates. Participants (N = 867) completed a questionnaire packet and sleep diary. It was hypothesized that low total sleep time (TST), increased sleep onset latency, later bedtimes, later wake times, and TST inconsistency would predict decreased academic performance. The most significant predictors of academic performance were high school GPA, standardized test scores (i.e., SAT/ACT), TST, time awake before arising (TWAK), TST inconsistency, and the quadratic terms of perceived stress (PSS) and TST.

Optimal Scoring Methods of Hand-Strength Tests in Patients with Stroke

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Huang, Sheau-Ling; Hsieh, Ching-Lin; Lin, Jau-Hong; Chen, Hui-Mei

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal scoring methods for measuring strength of the more-affected hand in patients with stroke by examining the effect of reducing measurement errors. Three hand-strength tests of grip, palmar pinch, and lateral pinch were administered at two sessions in 56 patients with stroke. Five scoring methods…

Approaches to Learning and Hispanic Children's Math Scores: The Moderating Role of English Proficiency

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Bumgarner, Erin; Martin, Anne; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

2013-01-01

Accumulating evidence suggests that children's approaches to learning (ATL) at kindergarten entry predict their academic achievement years later. However, the gains associated with ATL may be diminished for Hispanic immigrant children, many of whom are English language learners (ELLs). We tested whether ATL predicted math scores in a sample of…

Academic Effort and Achievement in Science: Beyond a Gendered Relationship

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Adamuti-Trache, Maria; Sweet, Robert

2013-12-01

This study employs the 2004 School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP) data to examine whether academic effort manifested by greater investments in school and homework does result in higher literacy scores in science for Canadian students. The study compares four gender-immigrant profiles: Canadian-born males, immigrant males, Canadian-born females, and immigrant females on their scores on teacher-assigned grades in science and on the SAIP science literacy test, and across a range of dispositions, beliefs, and behaviors suggested in the literature as predictive of achievement in science. Study findings show that Canadian-born students, particularly boys, have higher performance in the science literacy test despite their lower achievement in the science classroom and the least investments of time in doing science homework. In contrast, immigrant female students demonstrate the highest academic effort and achievement in science courses which are not matched by similar results in the science literacy test. We discuss these results in relation to different socialization experiences with science and technology that limit female and immigrant students' abilities to transfer knowledge to new situations that have not been learned in the classroom.

Is the admission test for a course in medicine a good predictor of academic performance? A case-control experience at the school of medicine of Turin.

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Migliaretti, Giuseppe; Bozzaro, Salvatore; Siliquini, Roberta; Stura, Ilaria; Costa, Giuseppe; Cavallo, Franco

2017-12-01

The usefulness of university admission tests to medical schools has been discussed in recent years. In the academic year 2014-15 in Italy, several students who failed the admission test appealed to the regional administrative court ('Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale'-TAR) requesting to be included, despite their test results, and all were admitted to their respective courses. The existence of this population of students generated a control group, in order to evaluate the predictive capacity of the admission test. The aim of the present work is to discuss the ability of university admission tests to predict subsequent academic success. The study involved 683 students who enrolled onto the first year of the degree course in medicine in the academic year 2014-15 at the University of Turin (Molinette and San Luigi Gonzaga colleges). The students were separated into two categories: those who passed the admission test (n1=531) and those who did not pass the admission test but won their appeal in the TAR (n2=152). The validity of the admission test was analysed using specificity, sensitivity, positive and negative likelihood ratios (LH+, LH-), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, area under the ROC curve (AUC), and relative (95% CI). The results showed that the admission test appeared to be a good tool for predicting the academic performances in the first year of the course (AUC=0.70, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.76). Moreover, some subject areas seemed to have a greater discriminating capacity than others. In general, students who obtained a high score in scientific questions were more likely to obtain the required standards during the first year (LH+ 1.22, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.25). Based on a consistent statistical approach, our study seems to confirm the ability of the admission test to predict academic success in the first year at the school of medicine of Turin. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All

Testing statistical significance scores of sequence comparison methods with structure similarity

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Leunissen Jack AM

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the past years the Smith-Waterman sequence comparison algorithm has gained popularity due to improved implementations and rapidly increasing computing power. However, the quality and sensitivity of a database search is not only determined by the algorithm but also by the statistical significance testing for an alignment. The e-value is the most commonly used statistical validation method for sequence database searching. The CluSTr database and the Protein World database have been created using an alternative statistical significance test: a Z-score based on Monte-Carlo statistics. Several papers have described the superiority of the Z-score as compared to the e-value, using simulated data. We were interested if this could be validated when applied to existing, evolutionary related protein sequences. Results All experiments are performed on the ASTRAL SCOP database. The Smith-Waterman sequence comparison algorithm with both e-value and Z-score statistics is evaluated, using ROC, CVE and AP measures. The BLAST and FASTA algorithms are used as reference. We find that two out of three Smith-Waterman implementations with e-value are better at predicting structural similarities between proteins than the Smith-Waterman implementation with Z-score. SSEARCH especially has very high scores. Conclusion The compute intensive Z-score does not have a clear advantage over the e-value. The Smith-Waterman implementations give generally better results than their heuristic counterparts. We recommend using the SSEARCH algorithm combined with e-values for pairwise sequence comparisons.

Longitudinal relations among inattention, working memory, and academic achievement: testing mediation and the moderating role of gender

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Sarah A. Gray

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Behavioral inattention, working memory (WM, and academic achievement share significant variance, but the direction of relationships across development is unknown. The aim of the present study was to determine whether WM mediates the pathway between inattentive behaviour and subsequent academic outcomes.Methods. 204 students from grades 1–4 (49.5% female were recruited from elementary schools. Participants received assessments of WM and achievement at baseline and one year later. WM measures included a visual-spatial storage task and auditory-verbal storage and manipulation tasks. Teachers completed the SWAN behaviour rating scale both years. Mediation analysis with PROCESS (Hayes, 2013 was used to determine mediation pathways.Results. Teacher-rated inattention indirectly influenced math addition fluency, subtraction fluency and calculation scores through its effect on visual-spatial WM, only for boys. There was a direct relationship between inattention and math outcomes one year later for girls and boys. Children who displayed better attention had higher WM scores, and children with higher WM scores had stronger scores on math outcomes. Bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals for the indirect effects were entirely below zero for boys, for the three math outcomes. WM did not mediate the direct relationship between inattention and reading scores.Discussion. Findings identify inattention and WM as longitudinal predictors for math addition and subtraction fluency and math calculation outcomes one year later, with visual-spatial WM as a significant mediator for boys. Results highlight the close relationship between inattention and WM and their importance in the development of math skills.

Identifying High Academic Potential in Australian Aboriginal Children Using Dynamic Testing

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Chaffey, Graham W.; Bailey, Stan B.; Vine, Ken W.

2015-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of dynamic testing as a method for identifying high academic potential in Australian Aboriginal children. The 79 participating Aboriginal children were drawn from Years 3-5 in rural schools in northern New South Wales. The dynamic testing method used in this study involved a…

Academic ethical awareness among undergraduate nursing students.

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Cho, Ok-Hee; Hwang, Kyung-Hye

2017-01-01

Academic ethical awareness is an important aspect especially for nursing students who will provide ethical nursing care to patients in future or try to tread the path of learning toward professional acknowledgement in nursing scholarship. The purpose of this study was to explore academic ethical awareness and its related characteristics among undergraduate nursing students. This study commenced the survey with cross-sectional, descriptive questions and enrolled convenient samples of 581 undergraduate nursing students from three universities in South Korea. It was investigated with structured questionnaires including general characteristics and academic ethical awareness related. Ethical considerations: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at National University. Academic ethical awareness was the highest regarding behaviors violating the respect or confidentiality of patients and cheating on exams, while it was the lowest for inappropriate behaviors in class. From the result of general characteristics difference, male students showed higher score than female students in relative; first-year students showed higher score than other year students; the higher score was rated from students who were highly satisfied with their major than the other not satisfied with their major; and students with low academic stress showed higher ethical awareness score than persons with higher stress. Personal behaviors were rated with low ethical awareness in relative, but items related to public rules and actual effects on patients or others were rated with higher score. Nursing satisfaction and academic stress are main factors on ethical awareness. To improve overall ethical awareness level of nursing students, it is required to provide more education about the importance of personal behaviors in class and need to improve the understanding of how it will be connected with future situation and effect.

Examining the impact of integrating physical activity on fluid intelligence and academic performance in an elementary school setting: a preliminary investigation.

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Reed, Julian A; Einstein, Gilles; Hahn, Erin; Hooker, Steven P; Gross, Virginia P; Kravitz, Jen

2010-05-01

To examine the impact of integrating physical activity with elementary curricula on fluid intelligence and academic achievement. A random sample of 3rd grade teachers integrated physical activity into their core curricula approximately 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week from January 2008 to April 2008. Noninvasive fluid intelligence cognitive measures were used along with State-mandated academic achievement tests. Experimental Group children averaged close to 1200 pedometer steps per integration day, thus averaging 3600 steps per week. Children in the Experimental Group performed significantly better on the SPM Fluid Intelligence Test. Children in the Experimental Group also performed significantly better on the Social Studies State mandated academic achievement test. Experimental Group children also received higher scores on the English/Language Arts, Math and Science achievements tests, but were not statistically significant compared with Control Group children. Children classified in Fitnessgram's Healthy Fitness Zone for BMI earned lower scores on many of the SPM Fluid Intelligence components. This investigation provides evidence that movement can influence fluid intelligence and should be considered to promote cognitive development of elementary-age children. Equally compelling were the differences in SPM Fluid Intelligence Test scores for children who were distinguished by Fitnessgram's BMI cut points.

Academic Performance in Adolescence after Inguinal Hernia Repair in Infancy: A Nationwide Cohort Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Tom G; Pedersen, Jacob K; Henneberg, Steen W

2011-01-01

for inguinal hernia repair in infancy and subsequent academic performance. METHODS:: Using Danish birth cohorts from 1986-1990, we compared the academic performance of all children who had undergone inguinal hernia repair in infancy to a randomly selected, age-matched 5% population sample. Primary analysis...... found no evidence that a single, relatively brief anesthetic exposure in connection with hernia repair in infancy reduced academic performance at age 15 or 16 yr after adjusting for known confounding factors. However, the higher test score nonattainment rate among the hernia group could suggest...... repair in infancy. A randomly selected, age-matched 5% population sample consists of 14,575 individuals. Although the exposure group performed worse than the control group (average score 0.26 lower; 95% CI, 0.21-0.31), after adjusting for known confounders, no statistically significant difference (-0...

Preoptometry and optometry school grade point average and optometry admissions test scores as predictors of performance on the national board of examiners in optometry part I (basic science) examination.

Science.gov (United States)

Bailey, J E; Yackle, K A; Yuen, M T; Voorhees, L I

2000-04-01

To evaluate preoptometry and optometry school grade point averages and Optometry Admission Test (OAT) scores as predictors of performance on the National Board of Examiners in Optometry NBEO Part I (Basic Science) (NBEOPI) examination. Simple and multiple correlation coefficients were computed from data obtained from a sample of three consecutive classes of optometry students (1995-1997; n = 278) at Southern California College of Optometry. The GPA after year two of optometry school was the highest correlation (r = 0.75) among all predictor variables; the average of all scores on the OAT was the highest correlation among preoptometry predictor variables (r = 0.46). Stepwise regression analysis indicated a combination of the optometry GPA, the OAT Academic Average, and the GPA in certain optometry curricular tracks resulted in an improved correlation (multiple r = 0.81). Predicted NBEOPI scores were computed from the regression equation and then analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (roc) and statistic of agreement (kappa) methods. From this analysis, we identified the predicted score that maximized identification of true and false NBEOPI failures (71% and 10%, respectively). Cross validation of this result on a separate class of optometry students resulted in a slightly lower correlation between actual and predicted NBEOPI scores (r = 0.77) but showed the criterion-predicted score to be somewhat lax. The optometry school GPA after 2 years is a reasonably good predictor of performance on the full NBEOPI examination, but the prediction is enhanced by adding the Academic Average OAT score. However, predicting performance in certain subject areas of the NBEOPI examination, for example Psychology and Ocular/Visual Biology, was rather insubstantial. Nevertheless, predicting NBEOPI performance from the best combination of year two optometry GPAs and preoptometry variables is better than has been shown in previous studies predicting optometry GPA from the best

The Effect of Cooperative Learning Methods on Academic Success in Social Studies Course

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Mehmet ŞENTÜRK

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to determine the effect of Jigsaw and Ask Together Learn Together technique used in the application of cooperative learning model on the academic success of social studies of 6th degree students. Experimental research design, including pretest and post-test, was used in the study. Work group of the study consisted of 54 6th grade students studying in three different classes of a secondary school in Trabzon between 2015-2016 school years. The study was conducted with two experimental groups and one control group. The related unit was taught via the related techniques for four weeks with experimental groups. Academic Success Test (AST was used as data collection tool of the study. The pre-test and post test scores of experimental and control groups from AST were analysed by using ANOVA and ANCOVA. According to the AST pre-test and posttest results of research groups, there was no significant difference between pre-test and posttest scores of Jigsaw and Ask Together Learn Together technique students in experimental groups, while significant difference was measured between experimental groups and control group.

Examining the Use of Web-Based Tests for Testing Academic Vocabulary in EAP Instruction

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Dashtestani, Reza

2015-01-01

Interest in Web-based and computer-assisted language testing is growing in the field of English for academic purposes (EAP). In this study, four groups of undergraduate EAP students (n = 120), each group consisted of 30 students, were randomly selected from four different disciplines, i.e. biology, political sciences, psychology, and law. The four…

Burnout, quality of life, motivation, and academic achievement among medical students: A person-oriented approach.

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Lyndon, Mataroria P; Henning, Marcus A; Alyami, Hussain; Krishna, Sanjeev; Zeng, Irene; Yu, Tzu-Chieh; Hill, Andrew G

2017-04-01

The aim of this study was to identify burnout and quality of life profiles of medical students and determine their associations with academic motivation and achievement on progress tests using a person-oriented approach. Medical students (n = 670) in Year 3 to Year 5 at the University of Auckland were classified into three different profiles as derived from a two-step cluster analysis using World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF scores and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory scores. The profiles were used as independent variables to assess differences in academic motivation and achievement on progress tests using a multivariate analysis of co-variance and repeated measures analysis of co-variance methods. The response rate was 47%. Three clusters were obtained: Higher Burnout Lower Quality of Life (n = 62, 20%), Moderate Burnout Moderate Quality of Life (n = 131, 41%), and Lower Burnout Higher Quality of Life (n = 124, 39%). After controlling for gender and year level, Higher Burnout Lower Quality of Life students had significantly higher test anxiety (p motivation (p students are associated with differences in academic motivation and achievement over time.

Relationships between spatial activities and scores on the mental rotation test as a function of sex.

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Ginn, Sheryl R; Pickens, Stefanie J

2005-06-01

Previous results suggested that female college students' scores on the Mental Rotations Test might be related to their prior experience with spatial tasks. For example, women who played video games scored better on the test than their non-game-playing peers, whereas playing video games was not related to men's scores. The present study examined whether participation in different types of spatial activities would be related to women's performance on the Mental Rotations Test. 31 men and 59 women enrolled at a small, private church-affiliated university and majoring in art or music as well as students who participated in intercollegiate athletics completed the Mental Rotations Test. Women's scores on the Mental Rotations Test benefitted from experience with spatial activities; the more types of experience the women had, the better their scores. Thus women who were athletes, musicians, or artists scored better than those women who had no experience with these activities. The opposite results were found for the men. Efforts are currently underway to assess how length of experience and which types of experience are related to scores.

Test anxiety in medical school is unrelated to academic performance but correlates with an effort/reward imbalance.

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Hahn, Henry; Kropp, Peter; Kirschstein, Timo; Rücker, Gernot; Müller-Hilke, Brigitte

2017-01-01

During their early years at medical school, students repeatedly criticize their workload, time constraints and test associated stress. At the same time, depressiveness and anxiety among first and second year medical students are on the rise. We therefore hypothesized that test anxiety may be related to depressiveness and considered cognitive and academic performances as confounders for the former and psychosocial distress for the latter. A whole class of 200 second year students was invited to participate in the study. Anxiety as a trait, depressiveness, crystallized intelligence, verbal fluency and psychosocial distress were assessed using validated tests and questionnaires. Acute state anxiety and sympathetic stress parameters were measured in real life situations immediately before an oral and a written exam and paired tests were used to compare the individual anxieties at the various time points. Previous academic performances were self-reported, the results of the impending exams were monitored. Finally, correlations were performed to test for interrelatedness between academic performances and the various personal, cognitive and psychosocial factors. Acute test anxiety did not correlate with depressiveness nor did it correlate with previous nor impending academic performances nor any of the expected confounders on academic performance. However both, depressiveness and test anxiety strongly correlated with the perceived imbalance between efforts spent and rewards received. Moreover, anxiety as a trait not only correlated with acute state anxiety before an exam but was also significantly correlated to the feeling of over-commitment. Depressiveness during the early years of medical school seems unrelated to test anxiety and academic performance. Instead, it strongly correlated with the psychosocial distress emanating from attending medical school and points at a perceived imbalance between efforts spent and rewards received.

Large-Scale Academic Achievement Testing of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students: Past, Present, and Future

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Qi, Sen; Mitchell, Ross E.

2012-01-01

The first large-scale, nationwide academic achievement testing program using Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford) for deaf and hard-of-hearing children in the United States started in 1969. Over the past three decades, the Stanford has served as a benchmark in the field of deaf education for assessing student academic achievement. However, the…

Effects of team-based learning on perceived teamwork and academic performance in a health assessment subject.

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Park, Hyung-Ran; Kim, Chun-Ja; Park, Jee-Won; Park, Eunyoung

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of team-based learning (a well-recognized learning and teaching strategy), applied in a health assessment subject, on nursing students' perceived teamwork (team-efficacy and team skills) and academic performance (individual and team readiness assurance tests, and examination scores). A prospective, one-group, pre- and post-test design enrolled a convenience sample of 74 second-year nursing students at a university in Suwon, Korea. Team-based learning was applied in a 2-credit health assessment subject over a 16-week semester. All students received written material one week before each class for readiness preparation. After administering individual- and team-readiness assurance tests consecutively, the subject instructor gave immediate feedback and delivered a mini-lecture to the students. Finally, students carried out skill based application exercises. The findings showed significant improvements in the mean scores of students' perceived teamwork after the introduction of team-based learning. In addition, team-efficacy was associated with team-adaptability skills and team-interpersonal skills. Regarding academic performance, team readiness assurance tests were significantly higher than individual readiness assurance tests over time. Individual readiness assurance tests were significantly related with examination scores, while team readiness assurance tests were correlated with team-efficacy and team-interpersonal skills. The application of team-based learning in a health assessment subject can enhance students' perceived teamwork and academic performance. This finding suggests that team-based learning may be an effective learning and teaching strategy for improving team-work of nursing students, who need to collaborate and effectively communicate with health care providers to improve patients' health.

Race, Poverty and SAT Scores: Modeling the Influences of Family Income on Black and White High School Students' SAT Performance

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Dixon-Roman, Ezekiel J.; Everson, Howard T.; McArdle, John J.

2013-01-01

Background: Educational policy makers and test critics often assert that standardized test scores are strongly influenced by factors beyond individual differences in academic achievement such as family income and wealth. Unfortunately, few empirical studies consider the simultaneous and related influences of family income, parental education, and…

Emotional intelligence, perceived stress and academic performance of Sri Lankan medical undergraduates

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P. Ranasinghe

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Previous research has shown that higher Emotional Intelligence (EI is associated with better academic and work performance. The present study intended to explore the relationship between EI, perceived stress and academic performance and associated factors among medical undergraduates. Methods This descriptive cross-sectional research study was conducted among 471 medical undergraduates of 2nd, 4th and final years of University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Students were rated on self administered Perceived Stress Scale (PSS and Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SEIT. Examination results were used as the dichotomous outcome variable in a logistic regression analysis. Results Females had higher mean EI scores (p = 0.014. A positive correlation was found between the EI score and the number of extracurricular activities (r = 0.121, p = 0.008. Those who were satisfied regarding their choice to study medicine, and who were planning to do postgraduate studies had significantly higher EI scores and lower PSS scores (p <0.001. Among final year undergraduates, those who passed the Clinical Sciences examination in the first attempt had a higher EI score (p <0.001 and a lower PSS score (p <0.05. Results of the binary logistic-regression analysis in the entire study population indicated that female gender (OR:1.98 and being satisfied regarding their choice of the medical undergraduate programme (OR:3.69 were significantly associated with passing the examinations. However, PSS Score and engagement in extracurricular activities were not associated with ‘Examination Results’. Conclusions Higher EI was associated with better academic performance amongst final year medical students. In addition a higher EI was observed in those who had a higher level of self satisfaction. Self-perceived stress was lower in those with a higher EI. Enhancing EI might help to improve academic performance among final year medical

Emotional intelligence, perceived stress and academic performance of Sri Lankan medical undergraduates.

Science.gov (United States)

Ranasinghe, P; Wathurapatha, W S; Mathangasinghe, Y; Ponnamperuma, G

2017-02-20

Previous research has shown that higher Emotional Intelligence (EI) is associated with better academic and work performance. The present study intended to explore the relationship between EI, perceived stress and academic performance and associated factors among medical undergraduates. This descriptive cross-sectional research study was conducted among 471 medical undergraduates of 2nd, 4th and final years of University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Students were rated on self administered Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SEIT). Examination results were used as the dichotomous outcome variable in a logistic regression analysis. Females had higher mean EI scores (p = 0.014). A positive correlation was found between the EI score and the number of extracurricular activities (r = 0.121, p = 0.008). Those who were satisfied regarding their choice to study medicine, and who were planning to do postgraduate studies had significantly higher EI scores and lower PSS scores (p <0.001). Among final year undergraduates, those who passed the Clinical Sciences examination in the first attempt had a higher EI score (p <0.001) and a lower PSS score (p <0.05). Results of the binary logistic-regression analysis in the entire study population indicated that female gender (OR:1.98) and being satisfied regarding their choice of the medical undergraduate programme (OR:3.69) were significantly associated with passing the examinations. However, PSS Score and engagement in extracurricular activities were not associated with 'Examination Results'. Higher EI was associated with better academic performance amongst final year medical students. In addition a higher EI was observed in those who had a higher level of self satisfaction. Self-perceived stress was lower in those with a higher EI. Enhancing EI might help to improve academic performance among final year medical student and also help to reduce the stress levels and cultivate

Divorce, approaches to learning, and children's academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis of mediated and moderated effects.

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Anthony, Christopher J; DiPerna, James Clyde; Amato, Paul R

2014-06-01

Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) were used to test the hypothesis that approaches to learning (ATL) mediates the link between parental divorce and academic achievement. Fixed effects regression was utilized to test for mediation, and subsequent moderation analyses examining gender and age at time of divorce also were conducted. Results indicated that divorce was associated with less growth in test scores and that ATL mediated 18% and 12% of this association in reading and mathematics respectively. Parental divorce also was associated with larger negative effects for children who experienced divorce at an older age as well as for girls' mathematics test scores. These findings contribute to the understanding of the impact of parental divorce on children's academic achievement and underscore the importance of focusing on the variability of child outcomes following parental divorce. Copyright © 2014 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tacit knowledge: A refinement and empirical test of the Academic Tacit Knowledge Scale.

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Insch, Gary S; McIntyre, Nancy; Dawley, David

2008-11-01

Researchers have linked tacit knowledge to improved organizational performance, but research on how to measure tacit knowledge is scarce. In the present study, the authors proposed and empirically tested a model of tacit knowledge and an accompanying measurement scale of academic tacit knowledge. They present 6 hypotheses that support the proposed tacit knowledge model regarding the role of cognitive (self-motivation, self-organization); technical (individual task, institutional task); and social (task-related, general) skills. The authors tested these hypotheses with 542 responses to the Academic Tacit Knowledge Scale, which included the respondents' grade point average-the performance variable. All 6 hypotheses were supported.

A New Look to a Classic Issue: Reasoning and Academic Achievement at Secondary School.

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez-Veiga, Isabel; Vila Chaves, José O; Duque, Gonzalo; García Madruga, Juan A

2018-01-01

Higher-order thinking abilities such as abstract reasoning and meaningful school learning occur sequentially. The fulfillment of these tasks demands that people activate and use all of their working memory resources in a controlled and supervised way. The aims of this work were: (a) to study the interplay between two new reasoning measures, one mathematical (Cognitive Reflection Test) and the other verbal (Deductive Reasoning Test), and a third classical visuo-spatial reasoning measure (Raven Progressive Matrices Test); and (b) to investigate the relationship between these measures and academic achievement. Fifty-one 4th grade secondary school students participated in the experiment and completed the three reasoning tests. Academic achievement measures were the final numerical scores in seven basic subjects. The results demonstrated that cognitive reflection, visual, and verbal reasoning are intimately related and predicts academic achievement. This work confirms that abstract reasoning constitutes the most important higher-order cognitive ability that underlies academic achievement. It also reveals the importance of dual processes, verbal deduction and metacognition in ordinary teaching and learning at school.

A New Look to a Classic Issue: Reasoning and Academic Achievement at Secondary School

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez-Veiga, Isabel; Vila Chaves, José O.; Duque, Gonzalo; García Madruga, Juan A.

2018-01-01

Higher-order thinking abilities such as abstract reasoning and meaningful school learning occur sequentially. The fulfillment of these tasks demands that people activate and use all of their working memory resources in a controlled and supervised way. The aims of this work were: (a) to study the interplay between two new reasoning measures, one mathematical (Cognitive Reflection Test) and the other verbal (Deductive Reasoning Test), and a third classical visuo-spatial reasoning measure (Raven Progressive Matrices Test); and (b) to investigate the relationship between these measures and academic achievement. Fifty-one 4th grade secondary school students participated in the experiment and completed the three reasoning tests. Academic achievement measures were the final numerical scores in seven basic subjects. The results demonstrated that cognitive reflection, visual, and verbal reasoning are intimately related and predicts academic achievement. This work confirms that abstract reasoning constitutes the most important higher-order cognitive ability that underlies academic achievement. It also reveals the importance of dual processes, verbal deduction and metacognition in ordinary teaching and learning at school. PMID:29643823

A New Look to a Classic Issue: Reasoning and Academic Achievement at Secondary School

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel Gómez-Veiga

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Higher-order thinking abilities such as abstract reasoning and meaningful school learning occur sequentially. The fulfillment of these tasks demands that people activate and use all of their working memory resources in a controlled and supervised way. The aims of this work were: (a to study the interplay between two new reasoning measures, one mathematical (Cognitive Reflection Test and the other verbal (Deductive Reasoning Test, and a third classical visuo-spatial reasoning measure (Raven Progressive Matrices Test; and (b to investigate the relationship between these measures and academic achievement. Fifty-one 4th grade secondary school students participated in the experiment and completed the three reasoning tests. Academic achievement measures were the final numerical scores in seven basic subjects. The results demonstrated that cognitive reflection, visual, and verbal reasoning are intimately related and predicts academic achievement. This work confirms that abstract reasoning constitutes the most important higher-order cognitive ability that underlies academic achievement. It also reveals the importance of dual processes, verbal deduction and metacognition in ordinary teaching and learning at school.

The Academic, Personality, and Physical Outcomes of Only Children in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Falbo, Toni; Poston, Dudley L., Jr.

1993-01-01

Surveyed 4,000 third and sixth graders and their parents and teachers, from 4 Chinese provinces. Found that, although only children scored higher on tests of verbal ability, were taller, and weighed more than firstborn and later born children, other measures of academic and personality development were similar between the groups. (MDM)

Do academic knowledge brokers exist? Using social network analysis to explore academic research-to-policy networks from six schools of public health in Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Jessani, Nasreen S; Boulay, Marc G; Bennett, Sara C

2016-06-01

The potential for academic research institutions to facilitate knowledge exchange and influence evidence-informed decision-making has been gaining ground. Schools of public health (SPHs) may play a key knowledge brokering role-serving as agencies of and for development. Understanding academic-policymaker networks can facilitate the enhancement of links between policymakers and academic faculty at SPHs, as well as assist in identifying academic knowledge brokers (KBs). Using a census approach, we administered a sociometric survey to academic faculty across six SPHs in Kenya to construct academic-policymaker networks. We identified academic KBs using social network analysis (SNA) in a two-step approach: First, we ranked individuals based on (1) number of policymakers in their network; (2) number of academic peers who report seeking them out for advice on knowledge translation and (3) their network position as 'inter-group connectors'. Second, we triangulated the three scores and re-ranked individuals. Academic faculty scoring within the top decile across all three measures were classified as KBs. Results indicate that each SPH commands a variety of unique as well as overlapping relationships with national ministries in Kenya. Of 124 full-time faculty, we identified 7 KBs in 4 of the 6 SPHs. Those scoring high on the first measure were not necessarily the same individuals scoring high on the second. KBs were also situated in a wide range along the 'connector/betweenness' measure. We propose that a composite score rather than traditional 'betweenness centrality', provides an alternative means of identifying KBs within these networks. In conclusion, SNA is a valuable tool for identifying academic-policymaker networks in Kenya. More efforts to conduct similar network studies would permit SPH leadership to identify existing linkages between faculty and policymakers, shared linkages with other SPHs and gaps so as to contribute to evidence-informed health policies. © The

The HAT Score-A Simple Risk Stratification Score for Coagulopathic Bleeding During Adult Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

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Lonergan, Terence; Herr, Daniel; Kon, Zachary; Menaker, Jay; Rector, Raymond; Tanaka, Kenichi; Mazzeffi, Michael

2017-06-01

The study objective was to create an adult extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) coagulopathic bleeding risk score. Secondary analysis was performed on an existing retrospective cohort. Pre-ECMO variables were tested for association with coagulopathic bleeding, and those with the strongest association were included in a multivariable model. Using this model, a risk stratification score was created. The score's utility was validated by comparing bleeding and transfusion rates between score levels. Bleeding also was examined after stratifying by nadir platelet count and overanticoagulation. Predictive power of the score was compared against the risk score for major bleeding during anti-coagulation for atrial fibrillation (HAS-BLED). Tertiary care academic medical center. The study comprised patients who received venoarterial or venovenous ECMO over a 3-year period, excluding those with an identified source of surgical bleeding during exploration. None. Fifty-three (47.3%) of 112 patients experienced coagulopathic bleeding. A 3-variable score-hypertension, age greater than 65, and ECMO type (HAT)-had fair predictive value (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.66) and was superior to HAS-BLED (AUC = 0.64). As the HAT score increased from 0 to 3, bleeding rates also increased as follows: 30.8%, 48.7%, 63.0%, and 71.4%, respectively. Platelet and fresh frozen plasma transfusion tended to increase with the HAT score, but red blood cell transfusion did not. Nadir platelet count less than 50×10 3 /µL and overanticoagulation during ECMO increased the AUC for the model to 0.73, suggesting additive risk. The HAT score may allow for bleeding risk stratification in adult ECMO patients. Future studies in larger cohorts are necessary to confirm these findings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Video game-based exercise, Latino children's physical health, and academic achievement.

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Gao, Zan; Hannan, Peter; Xiang, Ping; Stodden, David F; Valdez, Verónica E

2013-03-01

There is a paucity of research investigating the effects of innovative physical activity programs on physical health and academic performance in the Latino population. To examine the impact of Dance Dance Revolution [DDR]-based exercise on Latino children's physical fitness and academic achievement. A repeated-measures crossover design was used. In Year 1, Grade-4 students were assigned to the intervention group and offered 30 minutes of exercise (DDR, aerobic dance) three times per week. Grade-3 and Grade-5 students made up the comparison group and were offered no structured exercise at school. In Year 2, the Grade-4 students were again assigned to the intervention, whereas Grade-5 and Grade-6 students were in the comparison group. Assessments were conducted with 208 Latino school children. The baseline measures included time to complete a 1-mile run, BMI, and reading and math scores. Data were collected again 9 months later. Overall, data were collected in 2009-2011 and analyzed in 2012. Data yielded significant differences between the intervention and comparison groups in differences in 1-mile run and math scores in Year 1 and Year 2. The results also revealed net differences in the intervention versus comparison group scores on the 1-mile run for Grade 3 (p<0.01). Additionally, children's yearly pre-test and post-test BMI group changes differed (χ(2)((2)) = 6.6, p<0.05) only for the first year of intervention. The DDR-based exercise intervention improved children's cardiorespiratory endurance and math scores over time. Professionals should consider integrating exergaming at schools to achieve the goals of promoting a physically active lifestyle and enhancing academic success among Latino children. Copyright © 2013 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A knowledge-based theory of rising scores on "culture-free" tests.

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Fox, Mark C; Mitchum, Ainsley L

2013-08-01

Secular gains in intelligence test scores have perplexed researchers since they were documented by Flynn (1984, 1987). Gains are most pronounced on abstract, so-called culture-free tests, prompting Flynn (2007) to attribute them to problem-solving skills availed by scientifically advanced cultures. We propose that recent-born individuals have adopted an approach to analogy that enables them to infer higher level relations requiring roles that are not intrinsic to the objects that constitute initial representations of items. This proposal is translated into item-specific predictions about differences between cohorts in pass rates and item-response patterns on the Raven's Matrices (Flynn, 1987), a seemingly culture-free test that registers the largest Flynn effect. Consistent with predictions, archival data reveal that individuals born around 1940 are less able to map objects at higher levels of relational abstraction than individuals born around 1990. Polytomous Rasch models verify predicted violations of measurement invariance, as raw scores are found to underestimate the number of analogical rules inferred by members of the earlier cohort relative to members of the later cohort who achieve the same overall score. The work provides a plausible cognitive account of the Flynn effect, furthers understanding of the cognition of matrix reasoning, and underscores the need to consider how test-takers select item responses. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Correlation among High School Senior Students' Test Anxiety, Academic Performance and Points of University Entrance Exam

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Karatas, Hakan; Alci, Bulent; Aydin, Hasan

2013-01-01

Test anxiety seems like a benign problem to some people, but it can be potentially serious when it leads to high levels of distress and academic failure. The aim of this study is to define the correlation among high school senior students' test anxiety, academic performance (GPA) and points of university entrance exam (UEE). The study group of…

Association between substandard classroom ventilation rates and students' academic achievement.

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Haverinen-Shaughnessy, U; Moschandreas, D J; Shaughnessy, R J

2011-04-01

This study focuses on the relationship between classroom ventilation rates and academic achievement. One hundred elementary schools of two school districts in the southwest United States were included in the study. Ventilation rates were estimated from fifth-grade classrooms (one per school) using CO(2) concentrations measured during occupied school days. In addition, standardized test scores and background data related to students in the classrooms studied were obtained from the districts. Of 100 classrooms, 87 had ventilation rates below recommended guidelines based on ASHRAE Standard 62 as of 2004. There is a linear association between classroom ventilation rates and students' academic achievement within the range of 0.9-7.1 l/s per person. For every unit (1 l/s per person) increase in the ventilation rate within that range, the proportion of students passing standardized test (i.e., scoring satisfactory or above) is expected to increase by 2.9% (95%CI 0.9-4.8%) for math and 2.7% (0.5-4.9%) for reading. The linear relationship observed may level off or change direction with higher ventilation rates, but given the limited number of observations, we were unable to test this hypothesis. A larger sample size is needed for estimating the effect of classroom ventilation rates higher than 7.1 l/s per person on academic achievement. The results of this study suggest that increasing the ventilation rates toward recommended guideline ventilation rates in classrooms should translate into improved academic achievement of students. More studies are needed to fully understand the relationships between ventilation rate, other indoor environmental quality parameters, and their effects on students' health and achievement. Achieving the recommended guidelines and pursuing better understanding of the underlying relationships would ultimately support both sustainable and productive school environments for students and personnel. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Structural Modeling on the Relationship between Basic Psychological Needs, Academic Engagement, and Test Anxiety

Science.gov (United States)

Maralani, Farnaz Mehdipour; Lavasani, Masoud Gholamali; Hejazi, Elahe

2016-01-01

Some of the key issues in educational psychology are the way of students' engagement at school, controlling anxiety, and academic achievement. In line with that, the purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship between variables that are basic psychological needs, academic engagement, and test anxiety with regard to structural…

A Latent Class Approach to Estimating Test-Score Reliability

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van der Ark, L. Andries; van der Palm, Daniel W.; Sijtsma, Klaas

2011-01-01

This study presents a general framework for single-administration reliability methods, such as Cronbach's alpha, Guttman's lambda-2, and method MS. This general framework was used to derive a new approach to estimating test-score reliability by means of the unrestricted latent class model. This new approach is the latent class reliability…

Computerized scoring algorithms for the Autobiographical Memory Test.

Science.gov (United States)

Takano, Keisuke; Gutenbrunner, Charlotte; Martens, Kris; Salmon, Karen; Raes, Filip

2018-02-01

Reduced specificity of autobiographical memories is a hallmark of depressive cognition. Autobiographical memory (AM) specificity is typically measured by the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT), in which respondents are asked to describe personal memories in response to emotional cue words. Due to this free descriptive responding format, the AMT relies on experts' hand scoring for subsequent statistical analyses. This manual coding potentially impedes research activities in big data analytics such as large epidemiological studies. Here, we propose computerized algorithms to automatically score AM specificity for the Dutch (adult participants) and English (youth participants) versions of the AMT by using natural language processing and machine learning techniques. The algorithms showed reliable performances in discriminating specific and nonspecific (e.g., overgeneralized) autobiographical memories in independent testing data sets (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve > .90). Furthermore, outcome values of the algorithms (i.e., decision values of support vector machines) showed a gradient across similar (e.g., specific and extended memories) and different (e.g., specific memory and semantic associates) categories of AMT responses, suggesting that, for both adults and youth, the algorithms well capture the extent to which a memory has features of specific memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Correlation among academic stress, academic burnout, and academic performance in nursing and paramedic students of Qom University of Medical Sciences, Iran

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hamid Asayesh

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Learning is a stressful experience of human life; reduced adaption to stressors causes academic burnout which is a reason for academic failure among students. This study investigated the correlation among academic stress, academic burnout, and academic performance in nursing and paramedic students of Qom University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 264 nursing and paramedic students were randomly selected. Demographic characteristics checklist, academic burnout questionnaire, and academic stress scale were used to gather data, and grade point average was considered to be the indicator of academic performance. Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The level of significance was considered to be p<0.05. Results: The mean score for students' academic burnout was 28.52±15.84. Univariate regression analysis showed that the students' employment, years of education, academic performance, and all academic stress subscales had a significant correlation with academic burnout. According to multivariate regression analysis, having a field of study-related occupation was a protective factor and academic stress a risk factor for academic burnout. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that a large proportion of students experienced academic burnout, and students with higher levels of stress experienced more severe academic burnout and had poorer performance. Therefore, training ways to cope with stress can cause reduction in academic burnout and improvement of performance.

Robust joint score tests in the application of DNA methylation data analysis.

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Li, Xuan; Fu, Yuejiao; Wang, Xiaogang; Qiu, Weiliang

2018-05-18

Recently differential variability has been showed to be valuable in evaluating the association of DNA methylation to the risks of complex human diseases. The statistical tests based on both differential methylation level and differential variability can be more powerful than those based only on differential methylation level. Anh and Wang (2013) proposed a joint score test (AW) to simultaneously detect for differential methylation and differential variability. However, AW's method seems to be quite conservative and has not been fully compared with existing joint tests. We proposed three improved joint score tests, namely iAW.Lev, iAW.BF, and iAW.TM, and have made extensive comparisons with the joint likelihood ratio test (jointLRT), the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test, and the AW test. Systematic simulation studies showed that: 1) the three improved tests performed better (i.e., having larger power, while keeping nominal Type I error rates) than the other three tests for data with outliers and having different variances between cases and controls; 2) for data from normal distributions, the three improved tests had slightly lower power than jointLRT and AW. The analyses of two Illumina HumanMethylation27 data sets GSE37020 and GSE20080 and one Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC data set GSE107080 demonstrated that three improved tests had higher true validation rates than those from jointLRT, KS, and AW. The three proposed joint score tests are robust against the violation of normality assumption and presence of outlying observations in comparison with other three existing tests. Among the three proposed tests, iAW.BF seems to be the most robust and effective one for all simulated scenarios and also in real data analyses.

Application of Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling to Evaluate the Academic Motivation Scale

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Guay, Frédéric; Morin, Alexandre J. S.; Litalien, David; Valois, Pierre; Vallerand, Robert J.

2015-01-01

In this research, the authors examined the construct validity of scores of the Academic Motivation Scale using exploratory structural equation modeling. Study 1 and Study 2 involved 1,416 college students and 4,498 high school students, respectively. First, results of both studies indicated that the factor structure tested with exploratory…

A Western Dietary Pattern Is Associated with Poor Academic Performance in Australian Adolescents

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Anett Nyaradi

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate cross-sectional associations between dietary patterns and academic performance among 14-year-old adolescents. Study participants were from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine Study. A food frequency questionnaire was administered when the adolescents were 14 years old, and from the dietary data, a ‘Healthy’ and a ‘Western’ dietary pattern were identified by factor analysis. The Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (WALNA results from grade nine (age 14 were linked to the Raine Study data by The Western Australian Data Linkage Branch. Associations between the dietary patterns and the WALNA (mathematics, reading and writing scores were assessed using multivariate linear regression models adjusting for family and socioeconomic characteristics. Complete data on dietary patterns, academic performance and covariates were available for individuals across the different analyses as follows: n = 779 for mathematics, n = 741 for reading and n = 470 for writing. Following adjustment, significant negative associations between the ‘Western’ dietary pattern and test scores for mathematics (β = −13.14; 95% CI: −24.57; −1.76; p = 0.024 and reading (β = −19.16; 95% CI: −29.85; −8.47; p ≤ 0.001 were observed. A similar trend was found with respect to writing (β = −17.28; 95% CI: −35.74; 1.18; p = 0.066. ANOVA showed significant trends in estimated means of academic scores across quartiles for both the Western and Healthy patterns. Higher scores for the ‘Western’ dietary pattern are associated with poorer academic performance in adolescence.

Accelerated Desensitization and Adaptive Attitudes Interventions and Test Gains with Academic Probation Students

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Driscoll, Richard; Holt, Bruce; Hunter, Lori

2005-01-01

The study evaluates the test-gain benefits of an accelerated desensitization and adaptive attitudes intervention for test-anxious students. College students were screened for high test anxiety. Twenty anxious students, half of them on academic probation, were assigned to an Intervention or to a minimal treatment Control group. The Intervention was…

An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and Cognitive/Academic Performance among Adolescents

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Ting-Kuang Yeh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This exploratory study examines the relationship between cardiometabolic risk factors (blood pressure, waist circumference, BMI, and total cholesterol and cognitive/academic performance. In this study, 1297 Taiwanese tenth-grade volunteers are recruited. Scores from the Basic Competency Test, an annual national competitive entrance examination, are used to evaluate academic performance. Cognitive abilities are accessed via the Multiple Aptitude Test Battery. The results indicate that systolic blood pressure is significantly, negatively associated with academic performance, both in male and female subjects. BMI and waist circumference are associated with verbal reasoning performance with an inverse U-shaped pattern, suggesting that both low and high BMI/waist circumference may be associated with lower verbal reasoning performance.

Emotional intelligence score and performance of dental undergraduates.

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Hasegawa, Yuh; Ninomiya, Kazunori; Fujii, Kazuyuki; Sekimoto, Tsuneo

2016-09-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and undergraduate dental students' ability to deal with different situations of communication in a clinical dentistry practical training course of communication skills. Fourth-year students in 2012 and in 2013 at the Nippon Dental University School of Life Dentistry at Niigata participated in the survey. The total number of participating students was 129 (88 males and 41 females). The students were asked to complete the Japanese version of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test in communication skills. Female students tended to have significantly higher EI score than males. The EI score in the group with high-grade academic performers was higher than in the low-grade group. The influence of EI on academic performance appeared to be mainly due to the students' ability to accurately perceiving emotions and to their ability to understand emotional issues. The importance of EI may also lie in its ability to parse out personality factors from more changeable aspects of a person's behavior. Although further studies are required, we believe that dental educators need to assume the responsibility to help students develop their emotional competencies that they will need to prosper in their chosen careers. In our conclusion, dental educators should support low achievers to increase their levels of self-confidence instead of concentrating mainly on improving their technical skill and academic performance. This may lead to upgrading their skills for managing emotions and to changing their learning approach.

Organized leisure-time sport participation and academic achievement in preadolescents.

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Sævarsson, Elvar Smari; Svansdottir, Erla; Sveinsson, Thorarinn; Asgeirsdottir, Tinna Laufey; Arngrimsson, Sigurbjorn Arni; Johannsson, Erlingur

2017-12-01

The aims of this study were to study the correlation between lifestyle-related factors, such as organized leisure-time sport participation (OLSP), cardiorespiratory fitness, and adiposity, and academic achievement among preadolescents. A cross-sectional study involving 248 nine-year-old school children was carried out. OLSP was self-reported with parental assistance, categorized as ≤ 1× a week, 2-3× a week, and ≥ 4× times a week or more. Academic achievement was estimated with results from standardized test scores in Icelandic and math. Cardiorespiratory fitness was estimated using a maximal cycle ergometer test. The sum of four skinfolds was used to estimate adiposity. Tests of between-subjects effect indicated that OLSP significantly correlated with achievement in math only (F(2,235) = 3.81, p = 0.024). Further analysis showed that the two less active groups had significantly lower scores in math compared to the most active group with OLSP ≥ 4× times a week or more (2-3× times a week, unstandardized coefficient (b) = -4.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) [-7.09, -1.07]; ≤ 1× a week, b = -3.84, 95% CI [-7.59, -0.08]), independent of sex, age, maturity level (age to/from peak height velocity), family structure, and parental education. Neither cardiorespiratory fitness nor adiposity significantly correlated with academic achievements. The study's result indicates that frequent (four times per week or more often) sport participation is not harmful but may be beneficial to learning. However, further intervention-based study of this topic is needed to determine if this relationship is causal.

Just as smart but not as successful: obese students obtain lower school grades but equivalent test scores to nonobese students.

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MacCann, C; Roberts, R D

2013-01-01

The obesity epidemic in industrialized nations has important implications for education, as research demonstrates lower academic achievement among obese students. The current paper compares the test scores and school grades of obese, overweight and normal-weight students in secondary and further education, controlling for demographic variables, personality, ability and well-being confounds. This study included 383 eighth-grade students (49% female; study 1) and 1036 students from 24 community colleges and universities (64% female, study 2), both drawn from five regions across the United States. In study 1, body mass index (BMI) was calculated using self-reports and parent reports of weight and height. In study 2, BMI was calculated from self-reported weight and height only. Both samples completed age-appropriate assessments of mathematics, vocabulary and the personality trait conscientiousness. Eighth-grade students additionally completed a measure of life satisfaction, with both self-reports and parent reports of their grades from the previous semester also obtained. Higher education students additionally completed measures of positive and negative affect, and self-reported their grades and college entrance scores. Obese students receive significantly lower grades in middle school (d=0.83), community college (d=0.34) and university (d=0.36), but show no statistically significant differences in intelligence or achievement test scores. Even after controlling for demographic variables, intelligence, personality and well-being, obese students obtain significantly lower grades than normal-weight students in the eighth grade (d=0.39), community college (d=0.42) and university (d=0.31). Lower grades may reflect peer and teacher prejudice against overweight and obese students rather than lack of ability among these students.

America's Mediocre Test Scores: Education Crisis or Poverty Crisis?

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Petrilli, Michael J.; Wright, Brandon L.

2016-01-01

At a time when the national conversation is focused on lagging upward mobility, it is no surprise that many educators point to poverty as the explanation for mediocre test scores among U.S. students compared to those of students in other countries. If American teachers in struggling U.S. schools taught in Finland, says Finnish educator Pasi…

Admission interview scores are associated with clinical performance in an undergraduate physiotherapy course: an observational study.

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Edgar, Susan; Mercer, Annette; Hamer, Peter

2014-12-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between admission interview score and subsequent academic and clinical performance, in a four-year undergraduate physiotherapy course. Retrospective observational study. 141 physiotherapy students enrolled in two entry year groups. Individual student performance in all course units, practical examinations, clinical placements as well as year level and overall Grade Point Average. Predictor variables included admission interview scores, admission academic scores and demographic data (gender, age and entry level). Interview score demonstrated a significant association with performance in three of six clinical placements through the course. This association was stronger than for any other admission criterion although effect sizes were small to moderate. Further, it was the only admission score to have a significant association with overall Clinical Grade Point Average for the two year groups analysed (r=0.322). By contrast, academic scores on entry showed significant associations with all year level Grade Point Averages except Year 4, the clinical year. This is the first study to review the predictive validity of an admission interview for entry into a physiotherapy course in Australia. The results show that performance in this admission interview is associated with overall performance in clinical placements through the course, while academic admission scoring is not. These findings suggest that there is a role for both academic and non-academic selection processes for entry into physiotherapy. Copyright © 2014 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Power and sample size evaluation for the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel mean score (Wilcoxon rank sum) test and the Cochran-Armitage test for trend.

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Lachin, John M

2011-11-10

The power of a chi-square test, and thus the required sample size, are a function of the noncentrality parameter that can be obtained as the limiting expectation of the test statistic under an alternative hypothesis specification. Herein, we apply this principle to derive simple expressions for two tests that are commonly applied to discrete ordinal data. The Wilcoxon rank sum test for the equality of distributions in two groups is algebraically equivalent to the Mann-Whitney test. The Kruskal-Wallis test applies to multiple groups. These tests are equivalent to a Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel mean score test using rank scores for a set of C-discrete categories. Although various authors have assessed the power function of the Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests, herein it is shown that the power of these tests with discrete observations, that is, with tied ranks, is readily provided by the power function of the corresponding Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel mean scores test for two and R > 2 groups. These expressions yield results virtually identical to those derived previously for rank scores and also apply to other score functions. The Cochran-Armitage test for trend assesses whether there is an monotonically increasing or decreasing trend in the proportions with a positive outcome or response over the C-ordered categories of an ordinal independent variable, for example, dose. Herein, it is shown that the power of the test is a function of the slope of the response probabilities over the ordinal scores assigned to the groups that yields simple expressions for the power of the test. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Implications of Family Size and Birth Order for Test Scores and Behavioral Development

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Silles, Mary A.

2010-01-01

This article, using longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, presents new evidence on the effects of family size and birth order on test scores and behavioral development at age 7, 11 and 16. Sibling size is shown to have an adverse causal effect on test scores and behavioral development. For any given family size, first-borns…

Malaria with neurological involvement in Ugandan children: effect on cognitive ability, academic achievement and behaviour

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Bangirana Paul

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Malaria is a leading cause of ill health and neuro-disability in children in sub-Saharan Africa. Impaired cognition is a common outcome of malaria with neurological involvement. There is also a possibility that academic achievement may be affected by malaria with neurological involvement given the association between cognitive ability and academic achievement. This study investigated the effect of malaria with neurological involvement on cognitive ability, behaviour and academic achievement. Methods This prospective case-control study was carried out in Kampala City, Uganda between February 2008 and October 2010. Sixty-two children with a history of malaria with neurological involvement were followed up and given assessments for cognitive ability (working memory, reasoning, learning, visual spatial skills and attention, behaviour (internalizing and externalizing problems and academic achievement (arithmetic, spelling and reading three months after the illness. Sixty-one community controls recruited from the homes or neighbouring families of the cases were also given the same assessments. Tests scores of the two groups were compared using analysis of covariance with age, sex, level of education, nutritional status and quality of the home environment as covariates. This study was approved by the relevant ethical bodies and informed consent sought from the caregivers. Results Children in the malaria group had more behavioural problems than the community controls for internalizing problems (estimated mean difference = -3.71, 95% confidence interval (CI, = -6.34 to -1.08, p = 0.007. There was marginal evidence of lower attention scores (0.40, CI = -0.05 to 0.86, p = 0.09. However, excluding one child from the analyses who was unable to perform the tests affected the attention scores to borderline significance (0.32, CI, = 0.01 to 0.62, p = 0.05. No significant differences were observed in other cognitive abilities or in academic

Cluster (school) RCT of ParentCorps: impact on kindergarten academic achievement.

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Brotman, Laurie Miller; Dawson-McClure, Spring; Calzada, Esther J; Huang, Keng-Yen; Kamboukos, Dimitra; Palamar, Joseph J; Petkova, Eva

2013-05-01

To evaluate the impact of an early childhood, family-centered, school-based intervention on children's kindergarten academic achievement. This was a cluster (school) randomized controlled trial with assessments from pre-kindergarten (pre-k) entry through the end of kindergarten. The setting was 10 public elementary schools with 26 pre-k classes in 2 school districts in urban disadvantaged neighborhoods serving a largely black, low-income population. Participants were 1050 black and Latino, low-income children (age 4; 88% of pre-k population) enrolled in 10 schools over 4 years. Universal intervention aimed to promote self-regulation and early learning by strengthening positive behavior support and effective behavior management at home and school, and increasing parent involvement in education. Intervention included after-school group sessions for families of pre-k students (13 2-hour sessions; co-led by pre-k teachers) and professional development for pre-k and kindergarten teachers. The outcome measures were standardized test scores of kindergarten reading, writing, and math achievement by independent evaluators masked to intervention condition (primary outcome); developmental trajectories of teacher-rated academic performance from pre-k through kindergarten (secondary outcome). Relative to children in control schools, children in intervention schools had higher kindergarten achievement test scores (Cohen's d = 0.18, mean difference = 2.64, SE = 0.90, P = .03) and higher teacher-rated academic performance (Cohen's d = 0.25, mean difference = 5.65, SE = 2.34, P = .01). Early childhood population-level intervention that enhances both home and school environments shows promise to advance academic achievement among minority children from disadvantaged, urban neighborhoods.

Effects of an Intelligent Web-Based English Instruction System on Students' Academic Performance

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Jia, J.; Chen, Y.; Ding, Z.; Bai, Y.; Yang, B.; Li, M.; Qi, J.

2013-01-01

This research conducted quasi-experiments in four middle schools to evaluate the long-term effects of an intelligent web-based English instruction system, Computer Simulation in Educational Communication (CSIEC), on students' academic attainment. The analysis of regular examination scores and vocabulary test validates the positive impact of CSIEC,…

Effect of yoga on academic performance in relation to stress

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Kauts Amit

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Academic performance is concerned with the quantity and quality of learning attained in a subject or group of subjects after a long period of instruction. Excessive stress hampers students′ performance. Improvement in academic performance and alertness has been reported in several yogic studies. Aims and Objectives: The main objective of the study was to assess the effect of yoga on academic performance in relation to stress. Materials and Methods: The study started with 800 adolescent students; 159 high-stress students and 142 low-stress students were selected on the basis of scores obtained through Stress Battery. Experimental group and control group were given pre test in three subjects, i.e., Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. A yoga module consisting of yoga asanas, pranayama, meditation, and a value orientation program was administered on experimental group for 7 weeks. The experimental and control groups were post-tested for their performance on the three subjects mentioned above. Results: The results show that the students, who practiced yoga performed better in academics. The study further shows that low-stress students performed better than high-stress students, meaning thereby that stress affects the students′ performance.

A score based on screening tests to differentiate mild cognitive impairment from subjective memory complaints

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Fábio Henrique de Gobbi Porto

2013-09-01

Full Text Available It is not easy to differentiate patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI from subjective memory complainers (SMC. Assessments with screening cognitive tools are essential, particularly in primary care where most patients are seen. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of screening cognitive tests and to propose a score derived from screening tests. Elderly subjects with memory complaints were evaluated using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE and the Brief Cognitive Battery (BCB. We added two delayed recalls in the MMSE (a delayed recall and a late-delayed recall, LDR, and also a phonemic fluency test of letter P fluency (LPF. A score was created based on these tests. The diagnoses were made on the basis of clinical consensus and neuropsychological testing. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to determine area under the curve (AUC, the sensitivity and specificity for each test separately and for the final proposed score. MMSE, LDR, LPF and delayed recall of BCB scores reach statistically significant differences between groups (P=0.000, 0.03, 0.001 and 0.01, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity and AUC were MMSE: 64%, 79% and 0.75 (cut off <29; LDR: 56%, 62% and 0.62 (cut off <3; LPF: 71%, 71% and 0.71 (cut off <14; delayed recall of BCB: 56%, 82% and 0.68 (cut off <9. The proposed score reached a sensitivity of 88% and 76% and specificity of 62% and 75% for cut off over 1 and over 2, respectively. AUC were 0.81. In conclusion, a score created from screening tests is capable of discriminating MCI from SMC with moderate to good accurancy.

Achievement test performance in children conceived by IVF.

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Mains, L; Zimmerman, M; Blaine, J; Stegmann, B; Sparks, A; Ansley, T; Van Voorhis, B

2010-10-01

Long-term follow-up studies of children conceived by IVF are limited. We examine academic performance on standardized tests [Iowa Tests of Basic Skills/Educational Development (ITBS/ITED)] of children conceived by IVF. Parents of children 8-17 years of age at the onset of the study (March 2008) who were conceived by IVF at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and living in the state of Iowa were contacted by mail. Parents completed questionnaires on their child's health and education and parental education. ITBS/ITED scores from school grades 3-12 were obtained on IVF children and a group of anonymous children matched by grade, year, gender and school district. Scores were analyzed using linear mixed models. Four hundred and ninety-seven couples were contacted. Two hundred and ninety-five couples (463 children) agreed to participate (59.4% of parents), with ITBS/ITED scores available on 423 children (91.4% of participants). IVF children scored higher than the national mean (P divorce and child's BMI. Cryopreservation, length of embryo culture and method of insemination did not affect scores. IVF children scored higher on standardized tests than their matched peers, suggesting that IVF does not have a negative effect on cognitive development. However, long-term follow-up of IVF children is still limited. Further research should be performed on the effect of multiple gestation on academic performance.

Comparison of Social Skills, Mental Health and Academic Performance in Children with Divorced, Divorcing and Intact Parents

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حسین قمری گیوی

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to compare social skills, mental health and academic performance in children with divorced, divorcing and intact parents. The study sample included 481 children with divorced parents and 419 children with divorcing parents, who were matched to 500 children with normal parents. The participants responded to the Matson's Social Skills Scale and Goldenberg's Mental Health Questionnaire. To assess the academic performance GPA was used. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA and Scheffe post hoc test. The Findings showed that children with divorced and divorcing parents had more average scores of the components of physical symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, depression and general mental disorder than those of children with normal parents. Also children with divorcing parents had more scores in components of social dysfunction, depression and general mental disorder than children with divorced parents had. Social skills scores and academic performance in children with normal parents were higher than those of divorced parents’ children and children with divorced parents had higher scores than children with divorcing parents. Hence, due to the harm and the conesquences of divorce on children, strategies for minimalizing these conesquences should be planed.

The role of chronotype, gender, test anxiety, and conscientiousness in academic achievement of high school students.

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Rahafar, Arash; Maghsudloo, Mahdis; Farhangnia, Sajedeh; Vollmer, Christian; Randler, Christoph

2016-01-01

Previous findings have demonstrated that chronotype (morningness/intermediate/eveningness) is correlated with cognitive functions, that is, people show higher mental performance when they do a test at their preferred time of day. Empirical studies found a relationship between morningness and higher learning achievement at school and university. However, only a few of them controlled for other moderating and mediating variables. In this study, we included chronotype, gender, conscientiousness and test anxiety in a structural equation model (SEM) with grade point average (GPA) as academic achievement outcome. Participants were 158 high school students and results revealed that boys and girls differed in GPA and test anxiety significantly, with girls reporting better grades and higher test anxiety. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between conscientiousness and GPA (r = 0.17) and morningness (r = 0.29), respectively, and a negative correlation between conscientiousness and test anxiety (r = -0.22). The SEM demonstrated that gender was the strongest predictor of academic achievement. Lower test anxiety predicted higher GPA in girls but not in boys. Additionally, chronotype as moderator revealed a significant association between gender and GPA for evening types and intermediate types, while intermediate types showed a significant relationship between test anxiety and GPA. Our results suggest that gender is an essential predictor of academic achievement even stronger than low or absent test anxiety. Future studies are needed to explore how gender and chronotype act together in a longitudinal panel design and how chronotype is mediated by conscientiousness in the prediction of academic achievement.

Analysis of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model on Academic Performance of English Language Learners

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Ingram, Sandra W.

This quantitative comparative descriptive study involved analyzing archival data from end-of-course (EOC) test scores in biology of English language learners (ELLs) taught or not taught using the sheltered instruction observation protocol (SIOP) model. The study includes descriptions and explanations of the benefits of the SIOP model to ELLs, especially in content area subjects such as biology. Researchers have shown that ELLs in high school lag behind their peers in academic achievement in content area subjects. Much of the research on the SIOP model took place in elementary and middle school, and more research was necessary at the high school level. This study involved analyzing student records from archival data to describe and explain if the SIOP model had an effect on the EOC test scores of ELLs taught or not taught using it. The sample consisted of 527 Hispanic students (283 females and 244 males) from Grades 9-12. An independent sample t-test determined if a significant difference existed in the mean EOC test scores of ELLs taught using the SIOP model as opposed to ELLs not taught using the SIOP model. The results indicated that a significant difference existed between EOC test scores of ELLs taught using the SIOP model and ELLs not taught using the SIOP model (p = .02). A regression analysis indicated a significant difference existed in the academic performance of ELLs taught using the SIOP model in high school science, controlling for free and reduced-price lunch (p = .001) in predicting passing scores on the EOC test in biology at the school level. The data analyzed for free and reduced-price lunch together with SIOP data indicated that both together were not significant (p = .175) for predicting passing scores on the EOC test in high school biology. Future researchers should repeat the study with student-level data as opposed to school-level data, and data should span at least three years.

The achievement impact of the inclusion model on the standardized test scores of general education students

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Garrett-Rainey, Syrena

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of general education students within regular education classes to the achievement of general education students in inclusion/co-teach classes to determine whether there was a significant difference in the achievement between the two groups. The school district's inclusion/co-teach model included ongoing professional development support for teachers and administrators. General education teachers, special education teachers, and teacher assistants collaborated to develop instructional strategies to provide additional remediation to help students to acquire the skills needed to master course content. This quantitative study reviewed the end-of course test (EoCT) scores of Grade 10 physical science and math students within an urban school district. It is not known whether general education students in an inclusive/co-teach science or math course will demonstrate a higher achievement on the EoCT in math or science than students not in an inclusive/co-teach classroom setting. In addition, this study sought to determine if students classified as low socioeconomic status benefited from participating in co-teaching classrooms as evidenced by standardized tests. Inferential statistics were used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the achievements of the treatment group (inclusion/co-teach) and the control group (non-inclusion/co-teach). The findings can be used to provide school districts with optional instructional strategies to implement in the diverse classroom setting in the modern classroom to increase academic performance on state standardized tests.

Alcohol consumption, sleep, and academic performance among college students.

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Singleton, Royce A; Wolfson, Amy R

2009-05-01

Three independent lines of inquiry have found associations between alcohol use and academic performance, sleep and academic performance, and alcohol use and sleep. The present study bridges this research by examining the links among alcohol use, sleep, and academic performance in college students. Personal interview surveys were conducted with a random sample of 236 students (124 women) at a liberal arts college. The interviews measured alcohol consumption, gender, academic class, weekday and weekend bedtimes and rise times, and daytime sleepiness; 95% of the sample granted permission to obtain grade-point average (GPA) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores from official college records. Ordinary least squares regressions showed that alcohol consumption was a significant predictor of four sleep patterns: the duration of sleep, the timing of sleep, the difference between weekday and weekend nighttime sleep hours (oversleep), and the difference between weekday and weekend bedtimes (bedtime delay). Women and students with late sleep schedules were more apt to report daytime sleepiness. SAT score was the strongest predictor of GPA. However, gender, alcohol consumption, sleep duration, and daytime sleepiness also were significant predictors when other variables were controlled. In addition to alcohol's direct relationship with GPA, mediational analysis indicated that alcohol had indirect effects on sleepiness and GPA, primarily through its effect on sleep schedule. The findings show how alcohol use among college students is related to sleep-wake patterns and further support the connection between alcohol use and grades.

Academic performance in adolescents born after ART-a nationwide registry-based cohort study.

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Spangmose, A L; Malchau, S S; Schmidt, L; Vassard, D; Rasmussen, S; Loft, A; Forman, J; Pinborg, A

2017-02-01

Is academic performance in adolescents aged 15-16 years and conceived after ART, measured as test scores in ninth grade, comparable to that for spontaneously conceived (SC) adolescents? ART singletons had a significantly lower mean test score in the adjusted analysis when compared with SC singletons, yet the differences were small and probably not of clinical relevance. Previous studies have shown similar intelligence quotient (IQ) levels in ART and SC children, but only a few have been on adolescents. Academic performance measured with standardized national tests has not previously been explored in a complete national cohort of adolescents conceived after ART. A Danish national registry-based cohort including all 4766 ART adolescents (n = 2836 singletons and n = 1930 twins) born in 1995-1998 were compared with two SC control cohorts: a randomly selected singleton population (n = 5660) and all twins (n = 7064) born from 1995 to 1998 in Denmark. Nine children who died during the follow-up period were excluded from the study. Mean test scores on a 7-point-marking scale from -3 to 12 were compared, and adjustments were made for relevant reproductive and socio-demographic covariates including occupational and educational level of the parents. The crude mean test score was higher in both ART singletons and ART twins compared with SC adolescents. The crude mean differences were +0.41 (95% CI 0.30-0.53) and +0.45 (95% CI 0.28-0.62) between ART and SC singletons and between ART and SC twins, respectively. However, the adjusted mean overall test score was significantly lower for ART singletons compared with SC singletons (adjusted mean difference -0.15 (95% CI -0.29-(-0.02))). For comparison, the adjusted mean difference was +2.05 (95% CI 1.82-2.28) between the highest and the lowest parental educational level, suggesting that the effect of ART is weak compared with the conventional predictors. The adjusted analyses showed significantly lower mean test scores in mathematics

Investigating the Predictive Validity of "TOEFL iBT"® Test Scores and Their Use in Informing Policy in a United Kingdom University Setting. "TOEFL iBT"® Research Report. TOEFL iBT-30. ETS Research Report. RR-17-41

Science.gov (United States)

Harsch, Claudia; Ushloda, Ema; Ladroue, Christophe

2017-01-01

The project examined the predictive validity of the "TOEFL iBT"® test with a focus on the relationship between TOEFL iBT scores and students' subsequent academic success in postgraduate studies in one leading university in the United Kingdom, paying specific attention to the role of linguistic preparedness as perceived by students and…

A physical function test for use in the intensive care unit: validity, responsiveness, and predictive utility of the physical function ICU test (scored).

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Denehy, Linda; de Morton, Natalie A; Skinner, Elizabeth H; Edbrooke, Lara; Haines, Kimberley; Warrillow, Stephen; Berney, Sue

2013-12-01

Several tests have recently been developed to measure changes in patient strength and functional outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU). The original Physical Function ICU Test (PFIT) demonstrates reliability and sensitivity. The aims of this study were to further develop the original PFIT, to derive an interval score (the PFIT-s), and to test the clinimetric properties of the PFIT-s. A nested cohort study was conducted. One hundred forty-four and 116 participants performed the PFIT at ICU admission and discharge, respectively. Original test components were modified using principal component analysis. Rasch analysis examined the unidimensionality of the PFIT, and an interval score was derived. Correlations tested validity, and multiple regression analyses investigated predictive ability. Responsiveness was assessed using the effect size index (ESI), and the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was calculated. The shoulder lift component was removed. Unidimensionality of combined admission and discharge PFIT-s scores was confirmed. The PFIT-s displayed moderate convergent validity with the Timed "Up & Go" Test (r=-.60), the Six-Minute Walk Test (r=.41), and the Medical Research Council (MRC) sum score (rho=.49). The ESI of the PFIT-s was 0.82, and the MCID was 1.5 points (interval scale range=0-10). A higher admission PFIT-s score was predictive of: an MRC score of ≥48, increased likelihood of discharge home, reduced likelihood of discharge to inpatient rehabilitation, and reduced acute care hospital length of stay. Scoring of sit-to-stand assistance required is subjective, and cadence cutpoints used may not be generalizable. The PFIT-s is a safe and inexpensive test of physical function with high clinical utility. It is valid, responsive to change, and predictive of key outcomes. It is recommended that the PFIT-s be adopted to test physical function in the ICU.

Effects of Didactic Instruction and Test-Enhanced Learning in a Nursing Review Course.

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Tu, Yu-Ching; Lin, Yi-Jung; Lee, Jonathan W; Fan, Lir-Wan

2017-11-01

Determining the most effective approach for students' successful academic performance and achievement on the national licensure examination for RNs is important to nursing education and practice. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare didactic instruction and test-enhanced learning among nursing students divided into two fundamental nursing review courses in their final semester. Students in each course were subdivided into low-, intermediate-, and high-score groups based on their first examination scores. Mixed model of repeated measure and two-way analysis of variance were applied to evaluate students' academic results and both teaching approaches. Intermediate-scoring students' performances improved more through didactic instruction, whereas low-scoring students' performances improved more through test-enhanced learning. Each method had differing effects on individual subgroups within the different performance level groups of their classes, which points to the importance of considering both the didactic and test-enhanced learning approaches. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(11):683-687.]. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

Allele-sharing models: LOD scores and accurate linkage tests.

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Kong, A; Cox, N J

1997-11-01

Starting with a test statistic for linkage analysis based on allele sharing, we propose an associated one-parameter model. Under general missing-data patterns, this model allows exact calculation of likelihood ratios and LOD scores and has been implemented by a simple modification of existing software. Most important, accurate linkage tests can be performed. Using an example, we show that some previously suggested approaches to handling less than perfectly informative data can be unacceptably conservative. Situations in which this model may not perform well are discussed, and an alternative model that requires additional computations is suggested.

Head to head: The role of academic competition in undergraduate anatomical education.

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Van Nuland, Sonya E; Roach, Victoria A; Wilson, Timothy D; Belliveau, Daniel J

2015-01-01

Competition is a key element in many educational games and is often adopted by educators in an effort to motivate and excite their students. Yet, the use of academic competition in educational institutions remains the subject of much debate. Opponents argue that academic competition causes an increase in student anxiety and divides their attention. However, if the contexts of academic competition are defined, could the inclusion of a game-like competition in a university course be a viable and beneficial method of engaging students? Students (n = 67) were recruited from an undergraduate human anatomy course at Western University. Using a crossover design, students were exposed to a competitive tournament either at the time of their first term test or second term test. The anatomical knowledge of participating students was assessed prior to the start of the study using a baseline anatomy test. Following treatment with an online competitive anatomy tournament, student's term test grades and final course grades were analyzed. Both the second term test scores (F(2,64) = 3.743, P = 0.029) and overall course grades (F(2,64) = 3.356, P = 0.041) were found to be significantly different (P < 0.05) for individuals in the competitive group when compared to their non-competing peers. As suggested by the literature where organized competition in the classroom correlates to improved academic performance, this study uncovered significant results pertaining to increased academic performance resulting from participating in tournament-based competition. In light of these positive results, further exploration of the effects of academic competition on student performance across age brackets and disciplines is warranted. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.

Identifying genetic marker sets associated with phenotypes via an efficient adaptive score test

KAUST Repository

Cai, T.

2012-06-25

In recent years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and gene-expression profiling have generated a large number of valuable datasets for assessing how genetic variations are related to disease outcomes. With such datasets, it is often of interest to assess the overall effect of a set of genetic markers, assembled based on biological knowledge. Genetic marker-set analyses have been advocated as more reliable and powerful approaches compared with the traditional marginal approaches (Curtis and others, 2005. Pathways to the analysis of microarray data. TRENDS in Biotechnology 23, 429-435; Efroni and others, 2007. Identification of key processes underlying cancer phenotypes using biologic pathway analysis. PLoS One 2, 425). Procedures for testing the overall effect of a marker-set have been actively studied in recent years. For example, score tests derived under an Empirical Bayes (EB) framework (Liu and others, 2007. Semiparametric regression of multidimensional genetic pathway data: least-squares kernel machines and linear mixed models. Biometrics 63, 1079-1088; Liu and others, 2008. Estimation and testing for the effect of a genetic pathway on a disease outcome using logistic kernel machine regression via logistic mixed models. BMC bioinformatics 9, 292-2; Wu and others, 2010. Powerful SNP-set analysis for case-control genome-wide association studies. American Journal of Human Genetics 86, 929) have been proposed as powerful alternatives to the standard Rao score test (Rao, 1948. Large sample tests of statistical hypotheses concerning several parameters with applications to problems of estimation. Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 44, 50-57). The advantages of these EB-based tests are most apparent when the markers are correlated, due to the reduction in the degrees of freedom. In this paper, we propose an adaptive score test which up- or down-weights the contributions from each member of the marker-set based on the Z-scores of

Academic Achievement from Using the Learning Medium Via a Tablet Device Based on Multiple Intelligences in Grade 1 Elementary Student.

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Nuallaong, Winitra; Nuallaong, Thanya; Preechadirek, Nongluck

2015-04-01

To measure academic achievement of the multiple intelligence-based learning medium via a tablet device. This is a quasi-experimental research study (non-randomized control group pretest-posttest design) in 62 grade 1 elementary students (33 males and 29 females). Thirty-one students were included in an experimental group using purposive sampling by choosing a student who had highest multiple intelligence test scores in logical-mathematic. Then, this group learned by the new learning medium via a tablet which the application matched to logical-mathematic multiple intelligence. Another 31 students were included in a control group using simple random sampling and then learning by recitation. Both groups did pre-test and post-test vocabulary. Thirty students in the experimental group and 24 students in the control group increased post-test scores (odds ratio = 8.75). Both groups made significant increasing in post-test scores. The experimental group increased 9.07 marks (95% CI 8.20-9.93) significantly higher than the control group which increased 4.39 marks (95% CI 3.06-5.72) (t = -6.032, df = 51.481, p learning from either multiple intelligence-based learning medium via a tablet or recitation can contribute academic achievement, learningfrom the new medium contributed more achievement than recitation. The new learning medium group had higher post-test scores 8.75 times than the recitation group. Therefore, the new learning medium is more effective than the traditional recitation in terms of academic achievement. This study has limitations because samples came from the same school. However, the previous study in Thailand did notfind a logical-mathematical multiple intelligence difference among schools. In the future, long-term research to find how the new learning medium affects knowledge retention will support the advantage for life-long learning.

Comparing the Effects of Elementary Music and Visual Arts Lessons on Standardized Mathematics Test Scores

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King, Molly Elizabeth

2016-01-01

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to compare the effect elementary music and visual arts lessons had on third through sixth grade standardized mathematics test scores. Inferential statistics were used to compare the differences between test scores of students who took in-school, elementary, music instruction during the…

History of Childhood Maltreatment and College Academic Outcomes: Indirect Effects of Hot Execution Function

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Marilyn C. Welsh

2017-07-01

Full Text Available College students who report a history of childhood maltreatment may be at risk for poor outcomes. In the current study, we conducted an exploratory analysis to examine potential models that statistically mediate associations between aspects of maltreatment and aspects of academic outcome, with a particular focus on executive functions (EF. Consistent with contemporary EF research, we distinguished between relatively “cool” EF tasks (i.e., performed in a context relatively free of emotional or motivational valence and “hot” EF tasks that emphasize performance under more emotionally arousing conditions. Sixty-one male and female college undergraduates self-reported childhood maltreatment history (emotional abuse and neglect, physical abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ, and were given two EF measures: (1 Go-No-Go (GNG test that included a Color Condition (cool; Neutral Face Condition (warm; and Emotion Face condition (hot, and (2 Iowa Gambling Task (IGT, a measure of risky decision making that reflects hot EF. Academic outcomes were: (1 grade point average (GPA: first-semester, cumulative, and semester concurrent with testing, and (2 Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ. Correlational patterns suggested two EF scores as potential mediators: GNG reaction time (RT in the Neutral Face condition, and IGT Block 2 adaptive responding. Indirect effects analyses indicated that IGT Block 2 adaptive responding has an indirect effect on the relationship between CTQ Total score and 1st semester GPA, and between CTQ Emotional Abuse and concurrent GPA. Regarding college adaptation, we identified a consistent indirect effect of GNG Neutral Face RT on the relationship between CTQ Emotional Neglect and SACQ total, academic, social, and personal–emotional adaption scores. Our results demonstrate that higher scores on a child maltreatment history self-report negatively predict college academic

Learning skills and academic performance in children and adolescents with absence epilepsy.

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Talero-Gutiérrez, C; Sánchez-Torres, J M; Velez-van-Meerbeke, A

2015-03-01

Although cognitive and learning disorders have been described in patients with epilepsy, very few studies focus on specific disorders such as absence epilepsy. The aim of this study was to evaluate learning skills and academic performance in children and adolescents with absence epilepsy. Observational case-control study. Cases were chosen from the Central League against Epilepsy's clinic in Bogotá, Colombia. Controls were selected from a private school and matched with cases by age, school year, and sex. Medical history, seizure frequency, antiepileptic treatment, and academic performance were assessed. Academic abilities were tested with Batería de Aptitudes Diferenciales y Generales (BADyG) (a Spanish-language test of differential and general aptitudes). Data were analysed using Student t-test. The sample consisted of 19 cases and 19 controls aged between 7 and 16. In 15 patients, seizures were controlled; all patients had received antiepileptic medication at some point and 78.9% were actively being treated. Although cases had higher rates of academic failure, a greater incidence of grade retention, and more therapeutic interventions than controls, these differences were not significant. Similarly, there were no significant differences on the BADyG test, except for the immediate memory subcategory on which cases scored higher than controls (P=.0006). Children treated pharmacologically for absence epilepsy, whose seizures are controlled, have normal academic abilities and skills for their age. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Relationships between milk consumption and academic performance, learning motivation and strategy, and personality in Korean adolescents.

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Kim, Sun Hyo; Kim, Woo Kyoung; Kang, Myung-Hee

2016-04-01

A healthy diet has been reported to be associated with physical development, cognition and academic performance, and personality during adolescence. This study was performed to investigate the relationships among milk consumption and academic performance, learning motivation and strategies, and personality among Korean adolescents. The study was divided into two parts. The first part was a survey on the relationship between milk consumption and academic performance, in which intakes of milk and milk products and academic scores were examined in percentiles among 630 middle and high school students residing in small and medium-sized cities in 2009. The second part was a survey on the relationships between milk consumption and learning motivation and strategy as well as personality, in which milk consumption habits were collected and Learning Motivation and Strategy Test (L-MOST) for adolescents and Total Personality Inventory for Adolescents (TPI-A) were conducted in 262 high school students in 2011. In the 2009 survey, milk and milk product intakes of subjects were divided into a low intake group (LM: ≤ 60.2 g/day), medium intake group (MM: 60.3-150.9 g/day), and high intake group (HM: ≥ 151.0 g/day). Academic performance of each group was expressed as a percentile, and performance in Korean, social science, and mathematics was significantly higher in the HM group (P learning strategy total," "testing technique," and "resources management technique" scores (P learning strategy total, class participation technique, and testing technique showed significantly positive correlations (P academic performance (Korean, social science, and mathematics) in Korean adolescents. In male high school students, particularly, higher milk intake frequency was positively correlated with learning motivation and strategy as well as some items of the personality inventory.

“Making our job hospitable” – Assessment of job-crafting behavior among dental academic faculty in South India

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V Siva Kalyan

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Employees are regularly offered opportunities to make their work more appealing and rewarding. These opportunities might be as simple as making fine changes to their daily tasks to boost happiness and to connect with more people at vocation. Hence, an attempt is made to assess job-crafting behavior among the dental academic faculty. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among dental academic faculty from five dental colleges. Job Crafting Questionnaire (JCQ was used to assess the job-crafting behavior. Mean scores were calculated for different domains of JCQ. Gender differences were analyzed using Student's “t-” test and one-way ANOVA to test the difference between different academic positions of the faculty members. Results: A total of 228 dental faculty members with a mean age of 34.43 ± 6.13 years participated in the study. The mean value of job-crafting behavior was found to be highest among female faculty (60.07 ± 8.38 and professors (61.35 ± 8.30. Male faculty scored higher in task-crafting domain and female faculty scored higher in both cognitive- and relational-crafting domains. The professors scored highest in all the three domains of job-crafting behavior as compared to that of senior lecturers and readers. Conclusion: Job crafting is an effectual workplace intervention, where employees assume an active role in shaping their work experience to enhance their job satisfaction and well-being. The overall score of job-crafting behavior was found to be highest among both professors and female faculty members. Male faculty members scored higher in task-crafting domain. With regard to individual domains, the participants scored highest in cognitive crafting followed by task and relational crafting.

Emotional intelligence and academic performance in first and final year medical students: a cross-sectional study.

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Chew, Boon How; Zain, Azhar Md; Hassan, Faezah

2013-03-27

Research on emotional intelligence (EI) suggests that it is associated with more pro-social behavior, better academic performance and improved empathy towards patients. In medical education and clinical practice, EI has been related to higher academic achievement and improved doctor-patient relationships. This study examined the effect of EI on academic performance in first- and final-year medical students in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study using an objectively-scored measure of EI, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Academic performance of medical school students was measured using continuous assessment (CA) and final examination (FE) results. The first- and final-year students were invited to participate during their second semester. Students answered a paper-based demographic questionnaire and completed the online MSCEIT on their own. Relationships between the total MSCEIT score to academic performance were examined using multivariate analyses. A total of 163 (84 year one and 79 year five) medical students participated (response rate of 66.0%). The gender and ethnic distribution were representative of the student population. The total EI score was a predictor of good overall CA (OR 1.01), a negative predictor of poor result in overall CA (OR 0.97), a predictor of the good overall FE result (OR 1.07) and was significantly related to the final-year FE marks (adjusted R(2) = 0.43). Medical students who were more emotionally intelligent performed better in both the continuous assessments and the final professional examination. Therefore, it is possible that emotional skill development may enhance medical students' academic performance.

Assessment of preclinical students’ academic motivation before and after a three-day academic affair program

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Aung, Myo Nyein; Somboonwong, Juraiporn; Jaroonvanichkul, Vorapol; Wannakrairot, Pongsak

2015-01-01

Background Medical students’ motivation is an important driving factor for academic performance, and therefore medical teachers and educators are often highly interested in this topic. This study evaluated the impact of an academic affair program upon preclinical year medical students’ motivation to study. Design and methods An intervention study was conducted using a pretest-posttest study design. A total of 296 preclinical year medical students who had just passed their first year and were about to attend their second year at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, participated in the study. The intervention comprised of dialogues for personality development, pictorial expression in groups, as well as small group lectures delivered by senior students giving information on how to prepare for the forthcoming classes. Students’ academic motivation was measured before and after the intervention program, applying the transculturally translated Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). Cronbach’s alpha of Thai version AMS was 0.8992. The average scores in seven scales of AMS were compared between the pre- and posttest results, using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The differences were confirmed by using the multivariate analysis of variance. Results Students’ academic motivation increased after participation in the three-day academic program. There was also a significant increase in introjected extrinsic motivation, which can enhance the students’ self-esteem and feeling of self-worth (PAmotivation level declined significantly (P<0.001). The change of academic motivational constructs before and after the intervention was altogether significant (P=0.036, multivariate analysis of variance). Conclusion After experiencing a three-day intervention, the new students’ motivation advanced along the continuum of self-determination toward autonomous motivation. Therefore, it is considered to be worthwhile conducting an academic intervention to

Academic self-concept, learning motivation, and test anxiety of the underestimated student.

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Urhahne, Detlef; Chao, Sheng-Han; Florineth, Maria Luise; Luttenberger, Silke; Paechter, Manuela

2011-03-01

BACKGROUND. Teachers' judgments of student performance on a standardized achievement test often result in an overestimation of students' abilities. In the majority of cases, a larger group of overestimated students and a smaller group of underestimated students are formed by these judgments. AIMS. In this research study, the consequences of the underestimation of students' mathematical performance potential were examined. SAMPLE. Two hundred and thirty-five fourth grade students and their fourteen mathematics teachers took part in the investigation. METHOD. Students worked on a standardized mathematics achievement test and completed a self-description questionnaire about motivation and affect. Teachers estimated each individual student's potential with regard to mathematics test performance as well as students' expectancy for success, level of aspiration, academic self-concept, learning motivation, and test anxiety. The differences between teachers' judgments on students' test performance and students' actual performance were used to build groups of underestimated and overestimated students. RESULTS. Underestimated students displayed equal levels of test performance, learning motivation, and level of aspiration in comparison with overestimated students, but had lower expectancy for success, lower academic self-concept, and experienced more test anxiety. Teachers expected that underestimated students would receive lower grades on the next mathematics test, believed that students were satisfied with lower grades, and assumed that the students have weaker learning motivation than their overestimated classmates. CONCLUSION. Teachers' judgment error was not confined to test performance but generalized to motivational and affective traits of the students. © 2010 The British Psychological Society.

Intelligence and Academic Achievement With Asymptomatic Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection.

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Lopez, Adriana S; Lanzieri, Tatiana M; Claussen, Angelika H; Vinson, Sherry S; Turcich, Marie R; Iovino, Isabella R; Voigt, Robert G; Caviness, A Chantal; Miller, Jerry A; Williamson, W Daniel; Hales, Craig M; Bialek, Stephanie R; Demmler-Harrison, Gail

2017-11-01

To examine intelligence, language, and academic achievement through 18 years of age among children with congenital cytomegalovirus infection identified through hospital-based newborn screening who were asymptomatic at birth compared with uninfected infants. We used growth curve modeling to analyze trends in IQ (full-scale, verbal, and nonverbal intelligence), receptive and expressive vocabulary, and academic achievement in math and reading. Separate models were fit for each outcome, modeling the change in overall scores with increasing age for patients with normal hearing ( n = 78) or with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) diagnosed by 2 years of age ( n = 11) and controls ( n = 40). Patients with SNHL had full-scale intelligence and receptive vocabulary scores that were 7.0 and 13.1 points lower, respectively, compared with controls, but no significant differences were noted in these scores among patients with normal hearing and controls. No significant differences were noted in scores for verbal and nonverbal intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and academic achievement in math and reading among patients with normal hearing or with SNHL and controls. Infants with asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection identified through newborn screening with normal hearing by age 2 years do not appear to have differences in IQ, vocabulary or academic achievement scores during childhood, or adolescence compared with uninfected children. Copyright © 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Sexual victimization history predicts academic performance in college women.

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Baker, Majel R; Frazier, Patricia A; Greer, Christiaan; Paulsen, Jacob A; Howard, Kelli; Meredith, Liza N; Anders, Samantha L; Shallcross, Sandra L

2016-11-01

College women frequently report having experienced sexual victimization (SV) in their lifetime, including child sexual abuse and adolescent/adult sexual assault. Although the harmful mental health sequelae of SV have been extensively studied, recent research suggests that SV is also a risk factor for poorer college academic performance. The current studies examined whether exposure to SV uniquely predicted poorer college academic performance, even beyond contributions from three well-established predictors of academic performance: high school rank, composite standardized test scores (i.e., American College Testing [ACT]), and conscientiousness. Study 1 analyzed longitudinal data from a sample of female college students (N = 192) who were assessed at the beginning and end of one semester. SV predicted poorer cumulative end-of-semester grade point average (GPA) while controlling for well-established predictors of academic performance. Study 2 replicated these findings in a second longitudinal study of female college students (N = 390) and extended the analyses to include follow-up data on the freshmen and sophomore students (n = 206) 4 years later. SV predicted students' GPA in their final term at the university above the contributions of well-established academic predictors, and it was the only factor related to leaving college. These findings highlight the importance of expanding the scope of outcomes of SV to include academic performance, and they underscore the need to assess SV and other adverse experiences on college campuses to target students who may be at risk of poor performance or leaving college. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Citizen Science: The Small World Initiative Improved Lecture Grades and California Critical Thinking Skills Test Scores of Nonscience Major Students at Florida Atlantic University.

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Caruso, Joseph P; Israel, Natalie; Rowland, Kimberly; Lovelace, Matthew J; Saunders, Mary Jane

2016-03-01

Course-based undergraduate research is known to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics student achievement. We tested "The Small World Initiative, a Citizen-Science Project to Crowdsource Novel Antibiotic Discovery" to see if it also improved student performance and the critical thinking of non-science majors in Introductory Biology at Florida Atlantic University (a large, public, minority-dominant institution) in academic year 2014-15. California Critical Thinking Skills Test pre- and posttests were offered to both Small World Initiative (SWI) and control lab students for formative amounts of extra credit. SWI lab students earned significantly higher lecture grades than control lab students, had significantly fewer lecture grades of D+ or lower, and had significantly higher critical thinking posttest total scores than control students. Lastly, more SWI students were engaged while taking critical thinking tests. These results support the hypothesis that utilizing independent course-based undergraduate science research improves student achievement even in nonscience students.

Linguistic Features of Humor in Academic Writing

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Stephen Skalicky

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A corpus of 313 freshman college essays was analyzed in order to better understand the forms and functions of humor in academic writing. Human ratings of humor and wordplay were statistically aggregated using Factor Analysis to provide an overall Humor component score for each essay in the corpus. In addition, the essays were also scored for overall writing quality by human raters, which correlated (r = .195 with the humor component score. Correlations between the humor component scores and linguistic features were examined. To investigate the potential for linguistic features to predict the Humor component scores, regression analysis identified four linguistic indices that accounted for approximately 17.5% of the variance in humor scores. These indices were related to text descriptiveness (i.e., more adjective and adverb use, lower cohesion (i.e., less paragraph-to-paragraph similarity, and lexical sophistication (lower word frequency. The findings suggest that humor can be partially predicted by linguistic features in the text. Furthermore, there was a small but significant correlation between the humor and essay quality scores, suggesting a positive relation between humor and writing quality. Keywords: humor, academic writing, text analysis, essay score, human rating

Academic Achievement and Risk Factors for Adolescents with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Middle School and Early High School.

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Zendarski, Nardia; Sciberras, Emma; Mensah, Fiona; Hiscock, Harriet

Examine academic achievement of students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during the early high school period and identify potentially modifiable risk factors for low achievement. Data were collected through surveys (adolescent, parent, and teacher) and direct assessment of Australian adolescents (12-15 yr; n = 130) with ADHD in early high school (i.e., US middle and high school grades). Academic achievement outcomes were measured by linking to individual performance on the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, direct assessment of reading and math, and teacher report of academic competence. Linear regression models examined associations between adolescent, parent/family, and school factors and NAPLAN domain scores. Students with ADHD had lower NAPLAN scores on all domains and fewer met minimum academic standards in comparison with state benchmarks. The poorest results were for persuasive writing. Poor achievement was associated with lower intelligence quotient across all academic domains. Adolescent inattention, bullying, poor family management, male sex, and attending a low socioeconomic status school were associated with lower achievement on specific domains. Students with ADHD are at increased academic risk during the middle school and early high school period. In addition to academic support, interventions targeting modifiable factors including inattention, bullying, and poor family management may improve academic achievement across this critical period.

Test and Score Data Summary for TOEFL[R] Internet-Based and Paper-Based Tests. January 2008-December 2008 Test Data

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Educational Testing Service, 2008

2008-01-01

The Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM], better known as TOEFL[R], is designed to measure the English-language proficiency of people whose native language is not English. TOEFL scores are accepted by more than 6,000 colleges, universities, and licensing agencies in 130 countries. The test is also used by governments, and scholarship and…

Use of Standardized Test Scores to Predict Success in a Computer Applications Course

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Harris, Robert V.; King, Stephanie B.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to see if a relationship existed between American College Testing (ACT) scores (i.e., English, reading, mathematics, science reasoning, and composite) and student success in a computer applications course at a Mississippi community college. The study showed that while the ACT scores were excellent predictors of…

Do foreclosures affect Boston public school student academic performance?

OpenAIRE

Bradbury, Katharine L.; Burke, Mary A.; Triest, Robert K.

2013-01-01

Foreclosures have well-documented adverse consequences for families living in or owning properties undergoing foreclosure and on surrounding neighborhoods, but they may also have other costs. This policy brief summarizes our research on the impact of mortgage foreclosures on academic performance among Boston public school students. The data show that students who live at an address that experiences a foreclosure tend to score substantially lower on standardized tests (math and English) and al...

A Comparison of the Approaches of Generalizability Theory and Item Response Theory in Estimating the Reliability of Test Scores for Testlet-Composed Tests

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Lee, Guemin; Park, In-Yong

2012-01-01

Previous assessments of the reliability of test scores for testlet-composed tests have indicated that item-based estimation methods overestimate reliability. This study was designed to address issues related to the extent to which item-based estimation methods overestimate the reliability of test scores composed of testlets and to compare several…

Clock Drawing Test and the diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment: can more detailed scoring systems do the work?

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Rubínová, Eva; Nikolai, Tomáš; Marková, Hana; Siffelová, Kamila; Laczó, Jan; Hort, Jakub; Vyhnálek, Martin

2014-01-01

The Clock Drawing Test is a frequently used cognitive screening test with several scoring systems in elderly populations. We compare simple and complex scoring systems and evaluate the usefulness of the combination of the Clock Drawing Test with the Mini-Mental State Examination to detect patients with mild cognitive impairment. Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 48) and age- and education-matched controls (n = 48) underwent neuropsychological examinations, including the Clock Drawing Test and the Mini-Mental State Examination. Clock drawings were scored by three blinded raters using one simple (6-point scale) and two complex (17- and 18-point scales) systems. The sensitivity and specificity of these scoring systems used alone and in combination with the Mini-Mental State Examination were determined. Complex scoring systems, but not the simple scoring system, were significant predictors of the amnestic mild cognitive impairment diagnosis in logistic regression analysis. At equal levels of sensitivity (87.5%), the Mini-Mental State Examination showed higher specificity (31.3%, compared with 12.5% for the 17-point Clock Drawing Test scoring scale). The combination of Clock Drawing Test and Mini-Mental State Examination scores increased the area under the curve (0.72; p Drawing Test did not differentiate between healthy elderly and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment in our sample. Complex scoring systems were slightly more efficient, yet still were characterized by high rates of false-positive results. We found psychometric improvement using combined scores from the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clock Drawing Test when complex scoring systems were used. The results of this study support the benefit of using combined scores from simple methods.

Social jetlag negatively correlates with academic performance in undergraduates.

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Haraszti, Réka Ágnes; Ella, Krisztina; Gyöngyösi, Norbert; Roenneberg, Till; Káldi, Krisztina

2014-06-01

Discrepancies between sleep timing on workdays and weekends, also known as social jetlag (SJL), affect the majority of the population and have been found to be associated with increased health risk and health-impairing behaviors. In this study, we explored the relationship between SJL and academic performance in a sample of undergraduates of the Semmelweis University. We assessed SJL and other sleep-related parameters with the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ) (n = 753). Academic performance was measured by the average grade based on weekly test results as well as scores acquired on the final test (n = 247). The average mid-sleep point on free days in the Hungarian sample fits well the regression line plotted for longitudes within the Central European Time Zone and chronotypes, confirming that sunlight has a major impact on chronotype. Multivariate analysis showed negative effect of SJL on the weekly average grade (p = 0.028, n = 247) during the lecture term with its highly regular teaching schedules, while this association disappeared in the exam period (p = 0.871, n = 247) when students had no scheduled obligations (lower SJL). We also analyzed the relationship between the time of the weekly tests and academic performance and found that students with later sleep times on free days achieved worse in the morning (p = 0.017, n = 129), while the inverse tendency was observed for the afternoon test-takers (p = 0.10, n = 118). We did not find significant association between academic performance and sleep duration or sleep debt on work days. Our data suggest that circadian misalignment can have a significant negative effect on academic performance. One possible reason for this misalignment is socially enforced sleep times.

Learned Helplessness, Test Anxiety, and Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Analysis.

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Fincham, Frank D.; And Others

1989-01-01

Examines the stability of individual differences in test anxiety and learned helplessness of 82 children in third grade and later in fifth grade. Results indicate that teacher reports of helplessness had the strongest and most consistent relation to concurrent achievement and to achievement test scores two years later. (RJC)

The Effect of Individualized Instruction System on the Academic Achievement Scores of Students

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Ferhat Bahçeci

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A web-based learning portal offering individualized learning was developed by utilizing rule-based knowledge representation and artificial intelligence techniques of expert systems in order to reduce the uncertainties of learning to minimum and to construct an intelligent tutoring system. This portal offers individualized learning content based on the individual’s level of cognitive knowledge. In order to determine the effects of the developed system on the student achievement, the system was tested in an 8-week-long study on the students of Software Engineering Department of Technology Faculty. The pretest-posttest control group experimental design was used in the study. The experimental group received education with Individualized Instruction Portal while the control group received education in traditional learning environment. Academic achievement test was used as the data collection tool. In order to test the research hypotheses, data obtained from the data collection tools were analysed in terms of frequency, percentages, and dependent-independent t-test with statistical software program. Based on the results, no significant differences were found between the groups in terms of the pretest. On the other hand, significant differences were found between experimental and control group in terms of the posttest. It was concluded that individualized learning portal had positive effect on the students’ learning when used in combination with traditional learning environment.

Association Between Undergraduate Performance Predictors and Academic and Clinical Performance of Osteopathic Medical Students.

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Agahi, Farshad; Speicher, Mark R; Cisek, Grace

2018-02-01

Medical schools use a variety of preadmission indices to select potential students. These indices generally include undergraduate grade point average (GPA), Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores, and preadmission interviews. To investigate whether the admission indices used by Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine are associated with the academic and clinical performance of their students. Associations between the prematriculation variables of undergraduate science GPA, undergraduate total GPA, MCAT component scores, and interview scores and the academic and clinical variables of the first- and second-year medical school GPA, Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination-USA (COMLEX-USA) Level 1 and Level 2-Cognitive Evaluation (CE) total and discipline scores, scores in clinical rotations for osteopathic competencies, COMLEX-USA Level 2-Performance Evaluation passage, and match status were evaluated. Two-tailed Pearson product-moment correlations with a Bonferroni adjustment were used to examine these relationships. The traditional predictors of science and total undergraduate GPA as well as total and component MCAT scores had small to moderate associations with first- and second-year GPA, as well as COMLEX-USA Level 1 and Level 2-CE total scores. Of all predictors, only the MCAT biological sciences score had a statistically significant correlation with failure of the COMLEX-USA Level 2-Performance Evaluation examination (P=.009). Average interview scores were associated only with the osteopathic competency of medical knowledge (r=0.233; n=209; P=.001), as assessed by clerkship preceptors. No predictors were associated with scores in objective structured clinical encounters or with failing to match to a residency position. The data indicate that traditional predictors of academic performance (undergraduate GPA, undergraduate science GPA, and MCAT scores) have small to moderate association with medical school grades and

Does academic assessment system type affect levels of academic stress in medical students? A cross-sectional study from Pakistan

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Madiha Ali

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Stress among medical students induced by academic pressures is on the rise among the student population in Pakistan and other parts of the world. Our study examined the relationship between two different systems employed to assess academic performance and the levels of stress among students at two different medical schools in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A sample consisting of 387 medical students enrolled in pre-clinical years was taken from two universities, one employing the semester examination system with grade point average (GPA scores (a tiered system and the other employing an annual examination system with only pass/fail grading. A pre-designed, self-administered questionnaire was distributed. Test anxiety levels were assessed by The Westside Test Anxiety Scale (WTAS. Overall stress was evaluated using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS. Results: There were 82 males and 301 females while four did not respond to the gender question. The mean age of the entire cohort was 19.7±1.0 years. A total of 98 participants were from the pass/fail assessment system while 289 were from the GPA system. There was a higher proportion of females in the GPA system (85% vs. 59%; p<0.01. Students in the pass/fail assessment system had a lower score on the WTAS (2.4±0.8 vs. 2.8±0.7; p=0.01 and the PSS (17.0±6.7 vs. 20.3±6.8; p<0.01, indicating lower levels of test anxiety and overall stress than in students enrolled in the GPA assessment system. More students in the pass/fail system were satisfied with their performance than those in the GPA system. Conclusion: Based on the present study, we suggest governing bodies to revise and employ a uniform assessment system for all the medical colleges to improve student academic performance and at the same time reduce stress levels. Our results indicate that the pass/fail assessment system accomplishes these objectives.

The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Students` Academic Achievements in General EFL Classes

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Sepideh Berenji

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Emotional Intelligence, the ability to be aware of, understand, and express oneself, the ability to be aware of, understand, and relate to others, the ability to deal with strong emotions, and the ability to adapt to change and solve problems of a social or personal nature, can be considered an important factor in learning a language as it enhances the verbal fluency which is the ultimate goal in FLL. The present study intended to consider the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic performance in Osku-Iran Islamic Azad University`s EFL classes. For this purpose, 110 undergraduate EFL sophomore and junior students participated in this study. First, in the middle of the term they were required to complete Bar-On (1997 Emotional Intelligence Inventory and their EI scores were computed based on the guidelines Bar-On (1997 provided. At the end of the term the academic course final exam was administered to the students to achieve their academic mean score which was computed out of 20. After that the degree of correlation between EI and academic mean score was found. It became evident that there is no meaningful relationship between total EI score and academic mean score but there is a meaningful and positive relationship between some sub-scales of emotional intelligence and academic mean score. Therefore, material developers and syllabus designers are required to take emotional factors into account when they want to design syllabuses or make materials ready for teaching.

Racial Differences in Mathematics Test Scores for Advanced Mathematics Students

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Minor, Elizabeth Covay

2016-01-01

Research on achievement gaps has found that achievement gaps are larger for students who take advanced mathematics courses compared to students who do not. Focusing on the advanced mathematics student achievement gap, this study found that African American advanced mathematics students have significantly lower test scores and are less likely to be…

The Relationship of High School Students in Inclusive Settings: Emotional Health and Academic Achievement

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Wilson, Carolyn H.; Stith-Russell, Lafawndra S.

2010-01-01

Academic success has become increasingly important in determining future quality of life. Many educational programs and institutions at various levels stress the need for students to score well on standardized tests and other methods of evaluation, in order to demonstrate their knowledge of various concepts and skills. The relationship between…

Evaluation of Academic Performance, Academic Motivation, Hope for the Future and Life Satisfaction of Pharmacy Students of a Medical School

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Armaghan Eslami

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background: This study sought to investigate the evaluation of academic achievement, academic motivation and hope for the future and life satisfaction of Pharmacy Students of the Medical Sciences University of Ahvaz and their relationship with the school years passed.Methods: The samples in this study were all pharmacy students studying in the College of Pharmacy, the Medical University of Ahvaz in the year 93-94. Moreover, standard questionnaires were used by this study for collecting data. In order to collect data with regard to hope, life satisfaction, motivation and academic satisfaction, the questionnaire of Snyder hope Scale (1991, Satisfaction with Life Scale questionnaire (SWLS, lepper motivation scale (2005 and Bahrani and Jokar questionnaire (1378 were used respectively.Moreover, data on Academic performance were acquired using the score of the students and the number of students dropping out in each entry and the data were analysed by using SPSS 20.Results: The results did not indicate any significant different in an investigation of five class of students and from four variables of hope, Academic motivation, academic achievement, life satisfaction. But contrast test for combined group showed that academic motivation and academic performance in freshmen students are significantly higher than the other four inputs.Third-year students possess less Academic motivation than other students.Senior students' Academic performance was also significantly lower than of students from other school years.Conclusion: freshmen students face challenges of the new environment, and this affects their academic performance. Besides in the third year of pharmacy school curriculum, pharmacy students pass the basic exam and the main pharmaceutical courses start for them, this might be the reason that their intrinsic motivation increase.  

Does Socioeconomic Status Explain the Relationship between Admissions Tests and Post-Secondary Academic Performance?

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Sackett, Paul R.; Kuncel, Nathan R.; Arneson, Justin J.; Cooper, Sara R.; Waters, Shonna D.

2009-01-01

Critics of educational admissions tests assert that tests measure nothing more than socioeconomic status (SES) and that their apparent validity in predicting academic performance is an artifact of SES. The authors examined multiple large data sets containing data on admissions and related tests, SES, and grades showing that (a) SES is related to…

TOEFL iBT Speaking Test Scores as Indicators of Oral Communicative Language Proficiency

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Bridgeman, Brent; Powers, Donald; Stone, Elizabeth; Mollaun, Pamela

2012-01-01

Scores assigned by trained raters and by an automated scoring system (SpeechRater[TM]) on the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT[TM] were validated against a communicative competence criterion. Specifically, a sample of 555 undergraduate students listened to speech samples from 184 examinees who took the Test of English as a Foreign Language…

Assessing and Improving L2 Graduate Students' Popular Science and Academic Writing in an Academic Writing Course

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Rakedzon, Tzipora; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2017-01-01

This paper reports a study using a quasi-experimental design to examine whether an academic writing course in English can improve graduate students' academic and popular science writing skills. To address this issue, we designed pre- and post-assessment tasks, an intervention assessment task and a scoring rubric. The pre- and post-assessment tasks…

Association between the gait pattern characteristics of older people and their two-step test scores.

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Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki; Ogata, Toru

2018-04-27

The Two-Step test is one of three official tests authorized by the Japanese Orthopedic Association to evaluate the risk of locomotive syndrome (a condition of reduced mobility caused by an impairment of the locomotive organs). It has been reported that the Two-Step test score has a good correlation with one's walking ability; however, its association with the gait pattern of older people during normal walking is still unknown. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the associations between the gait patterns of older people observed during normal walking and their Two-Step test scores. We analyzed the whole waveforms obtained from the lower-extremity joint angles and joint moments of 26 older people in various stages of locomotive syndrome using principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA was conducted using a 260 × 2424 input matrix constructed from the participants' time-normalized pelvic and right-lower-limb-joint angles along three axes (ten trials of 26 participants, 101 time points, 4 angles, 3 axes, and 2 variable types per trial). The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between the scores of the principal component vectors (PCVs) and the scores of the Two-Step test revealed that only one PCV (PCV 2) among the 61 obtained relevant PCVs is significantly related to the score of the Two-Step test. We therefore concluded that the joint angles and joint moments related to PCV 2-ankle plantar-flexion, ankle plantar-flexor moments during the late stance phase, ranges of motion and moments on the hip, knee, and ankle joints in the sagittal plane during the entire stance phase-are the motions associated with the Two-Step test.

Validity and reliability of Abbreviated Mental Test Score (AMTS) among older Iranian.

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Foroughan, Mahshid; Wahlund, Lars-Olof; Jafari, Zahra; Rahgozar, Mehdi; Farahani, Ida G; Rashedi, Vahid

2017-11-01

Cognitive impairment is common among older people and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of the Persian version of the Abbreviated Mental Test Score (AMTS) as a screening tool for dementia. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional study. One hundred and one older adults who were members of Iranian Alzheimer Association and 101 of their siblings were entered into this study by convenient sampling. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, criteria for diagnosing dementia and the Mini-Mental State Examination were used as the study tools. The gathered data were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U-test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and the receiver-operating characteristic. The AMTS could successfully differentiate the dementia group from the non-dementia group. Scores were significantly correlated with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnosis for dementia and Mini-Mental State Examination scores (P < 0.001). Educational level (P < 0.001) and male sex (P = 0.015) were positively associated with AMTS, whereas (P < 0.001) was negatively associated with AMTS. Total Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.90. The scores 6 and 7 showed the optimum balance between sensitivity (99% and 94%, respectively) and specificity (85% and 86%, respectively). The Persian version of the AMTS is a valid cognitive assessment tool for older Iranian adults and can be used for dementia screening in Iran. © 2017 Japanese Psychogeriatric Society.

Large-scale academic achievement testing of deaf and hard-of-hearing students: past, present, and future.

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Qi, Sen; Mitchell, Ross E

2012-01-01

The first large-scale, nationwide academic achievement testing program using Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford) for deaf and hard-of-hearing children in the United States started in 1969. Over the past three decades, the Stanford has served as a benchmark in the field of deaf education for assessing student academic achievement. However, the validity and reliability of using the Stanford for this special student population still require extensive scrutiny. Recent shifts in educational policy environment, which require that schools enable all children to achieve proficiency through accountability testing, warrants a close examination of the adequacy and relevance of the current large-scale testing of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This study has three objectives: (a) it will summarize the historical data over the last three decades to indicate trends in academic achievement for this special population, (b) it will analyze the current federal laws and regulations related to educational testing and special education, thereby identifying gaps between policy and practice in the field, especially identifying the limitations of current testing programs in assessing what deaf and hard-of-hearing students know, and (c) it will offer some insights and suggestions for future testing programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Academic performance in adolescents born after ART—a nationwide registry-based cohort study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Spangmose, Anne Lærke; Malchau, Sara; Schmidt, Lone

2017-01-01

singletons and ART twins. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Missing data on educational test scores occurred in 6.6% of adolescents aged 15–16 years for the birth cohorts 1995–1997, where all of the children according to their age should have passed the ninth grade exam at the time of data retrieval......STUDY QUESTION Is academic performance in adolescents aged 15–16 years and conceived after ART, measured as test scores in ninth grade, comparable to that for spontaneously conceived (SC) adolescents? SUMMARY ANSWER ART singletons had a significantly lower mean test score in the adjusted analysis...... are based on national data, our findings can be applied to other populations. The findings of this paper suggest that a possible small negative effect of parental subfertility or ART treatment is counterbalanced by the higher educational level in the ART parents. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST...

A general equation to obtain multiple cut-off scores on a test from multinomial logistic regression.

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Bersabé, Rosa; Rivas, Teresa

2010-05-01

The authors derive a general equation to compute multiple cut-offs on a total test score in order to classify individuals into more than two ordinal categories. The equation is derived from the multinomial logistic regression (MLR) model, which is an extension of the binary logistic regression (BLR) model to accommodate polytomous outcome variables. From this analytical procedure, cut-off scores are established at the test score (the predictor variable) at which an individual is as likely to be in category j as in category j+1 of an ordinal outcome variable. The application of the complete procedure is illustrated by an example with data from an actual study on eating disorders. In this example, two cut-off scores on the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) scores are obtained in order to classify individuals into three ordinal categories: asymptomatic, symptomatic and eating disorder. Diagnoses were made from the responses to a self-report (Q-EDD) that operationalises DSM-IV criteria for eating disorders. Alternatives to the MLR model to set multiple cut-off scores are discussed.

Do scores on three commonly used measures of critical thinking correlate with academic success of health professions trainees? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Ross, David; Loeffler, Kim; Schipper, Shirley; Vandermeer, Ben; Allan, G Michael

2013-05-01

To determine whether the three commonly used measures of critical thinking correlate with academic success of medical professionals in training. The search for English-language articles (from 1980 to 2011) used Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library on Ovid, Proquest Dissertations, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, PsychINFO, and references of included articles. Studies comparing critical thinking with academic success among medical professionals were included. Two authors performed study selection independently, with disagreement resolved by consensus. Two authors independently abstracted data on study characteristics, quality, and outcomes, with disagreement resolved by a third author. Critical thinking tests studied were the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI), and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. Correlation coefficients were pooled in meta-analysis. The search identified 557 studies: 52 met inclusion for systematic review, 41 of which were meta-analyzed. Critical thinking was positively correlated with academic success, r=0.31 (95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.26, 0.35), with a moderate statistical heterogeneity (I=67%). In subgroup analysis, only student type had statistical significance for correlation, although bias was likely due to low numbers for some student types. In direct comparison, using studies that employed two critical thinking tests, the CCTDI (r=0.23, 95% CI 0.15, 0.30) was significantly inferior (PCritical thinking was moderately correlated with academic success of medical professionals in training. The CCTDI was inferior to the CCTST in correlating with academic success.

Physical fitness and academic performance in primary school children with and without a social disadvantage.

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de Greeff, J W; Hartman, E; Mullender-Wijnsma, M J; Bosker, R J; Doolaard, S; Visscher, C

2014-10-01

This study examined the differences between children with a low socioeconomic status [socially disadvantaged children (SDC)] and children without this disadvantage (non-SDC) on physical fitness and academic performance. In addition, this study determined the association between physical fitness and academic performance, and investigated the possible moderator effect of SDC. Data on 544 children were collected and analysed (130 SDC, 414 non-SDC, mean age = 8.0 ± 0.7). Physical fitness was measured with tests for cardiovascular and muscular fitness. Academic performance was evaluated using scores on mathematics, spelling and reading. SDC did not differ on physical fitness, compared with non-SDC, but scored significantly lower on academic performance. In the total group, multilevel analysis showed positive associations between cardiovascular fitness and mathematics (β = 0.23), and between cardiovascular fitness and spelling (β = 0.16), but not with reading. No associations were found between muscular fitness and academic performance. A significant interaction effect between SDC and cardiovascular fitness was found for spelling. To conclude, results showed a specific link between cardiovascular fitness and mathematics, regardless of socioeconomic status. SDC did moderate the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and spelling. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

School accountability and the black-white test score gap.

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Gaddis, S Michael; Lauen, Douglas Lee

2014-03-01

Since at least the 1960s, researchers have closely examined the respective roles of families, neighborhoods, and schools in producing the black-white achievement gap. Although many researchers minimize the ability of schools to eliminate achievement gaps, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) increased pressure on schools to do so by 2014. In this study, we examine the effects of NCLB's subgroup-specific accountability pressure on changes in black-white math and reading test score gaps using a school-level panel dataset on all North Carolina public elementary and middle schools between 2001 and 2009. Using difference-in-difference models with school fixed effects, we find that accountability pressure reduces black-white achievement gaps by raising mean black achievement without harming mean white achievement. We find no differential effects of accountability pressure based on the racial composition of schools, but schools with more affluent populations are the most successful at reducing the black-white math achievement gap. Thus, our findings suggest that school-based interventions have the potential to close test score gaps, but differences in school composition and resources play a significant role in the ability of schools to reduce racial inequality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Source Country Differences in Test Score Gaps: Evidence from Denmark

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Rangvid, Beatrice Schindler

2010-01-01

We combine data from three studies for Denmark in the PISA 2000 framework to investigate differences in the native-immigrant test score gap by country of origin. In addition to the controls available from PISA data sources, we use student-level data on home background and individual migration histories linked from administrative registers. We find…

Coverage of Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina, Pannonica et Adriatica in Elsevier's CiteScore index: a new tool for measuring the citation impact of academic journals.

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Poljak, Mario

2017-03-01

In December 2016, Elsevier launched a new tool that helps measure the citation impact of academic journals, called the CiteScore index. The CiteScore index values for 2015 confirmed the status of Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina, Pannonica et Adriatica (Acta Dermatovenerol APA) as the leading journal in dermatology and sexually transmitted infections in the region. Sixty-five articles published in Acta Dermatovenerol APA from 2012 to 2014 received a total of 77 citations in 2015, resulting in a CiteScore index value of 1.18 for the journal. More than half of the articles published from 2012 to 2014 received at least one citation in 2015. Acta Dermatovenerol APA performed well in all three categories listed because it is ranked 384th out of 1,549 journals in the category General Medicine (75th percentile), 53rd out of 122 journals in the category Dermatology (56th percentile), and 142nd out of 246 journals in the category Infectious Diseases (42nd percentile).

Trait procrastination among dental students in India and its influence on academic performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Madhan, Balasubramanian; Kumar, Cholleti Sudheer; Naik, Eslavath Seena; Panda, Sujit; Gayathri, Haritheertham; Barik, Ashish Kumar

2012-10-01

Trait procrastination is believed to be highly prevalent among college students and detrimental to their educational performance. As the scenario among dental students is virtually unknown, this study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of trait procrastination among dental students and to analyze its influence on their academic performance. A total of 174 fourth-year dental students from three dental colleges in India voluntarily completed the Lay's Procrastination Scale-student version (LPS). The mean percentage marks scored in the subsequent final university examinations were used as a measure of academic performance. The descriptive statistics were computed to evaluate the prevalence of significant procrastination (LPS score ≥60). Mann-Whitney U test and multiple linear regressions were used to assess the influence of age and gender on procrastination severity, and the latter was again used to analyze the association between procrastination severity and academic performance. The results indicated that 27 percent (n=47) of the students exhibited a significant extent of trait procrastination; neither age nor gender affected its severity (pProcrastination had a significant and negative impact on the academic performance of the student (beta=-0.150, p=0.039). These findings highlight the need for active measures to reduce the causes and consequences of procrastination in dental education.

How do parent expectations promote child academic achievement in early elementary school? A test of three mediators.

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Loughlin-Presnal, John; Bierman, Karen L

2017-09-01

Using a longitudinal mediation framework and a low-income sample, this study had 2 aims: (a) to model bidirectional associations between parent academic expectations and child academic outcomes from first through fifth grade, and (b) to explore 3 mediators of parental influence: parent involvement in child schooling, child learning behaviors, and child perceived academic competence. Participants included 356 children and their caregivers (89% mothers) recruited from Head Start centers (58% European American, 25% African American, 17% Latino). At each time point (grades 1, 2, 3, 5), parents rated their academic expectations, teachers rated parent involvement and child learning behaviors, and children rated their self-perceptions of their academic competence. Bidirectional longitudinal associations emerged between parent academic expectations and child academic outcomes. Child learning behaviors mediated this association from first to third grade, whereas child perceived academic competence mediated from second to fifth grade. Parallel cross-lagged models replicated these findings with child academic outcomes assessed using a test of reading achievement and teacher ratings of academic performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of correcting for prematurity on cognitive test scores in childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson-Ching, Michelle; Pascoe, Leona; Doyle, Lex W; Anderson, Peter J

2014-03-01

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that test scores should be corrected for prematurity up to 3 years of age, but this practice varies greatly in both clinical and research settings. The aim of this study was to contrast the effects of using chronological age and those of using corrected age on measures of cognitive outcome across childhood. A theoretical model was constructed using norms from the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition; the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition Australian; and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children, Fourth Edition Australian. Baseline scores representing different levels of functioning (70, below average; 85, borderline; and 100, average) were recalculated using the normative data for ages 6 months to 16 years to account for 1, 2, 3 and 4 months of prematurity. The model created depicted the difference in standardised scores between chronological and corrected age. Compared with scores corrected for prematurity, the absolute reduction in scores using chronological age was greater for increasing degree of prematurity, younger ages at assessment and higher baseline scores and was substantial even beyond 3 years of age. However, the pattern was erratic, with considerable fluctuation evident across different ages and baseline scores. Chronological age results in a lowering of scores at all ages for preterm-born subjects that is greater in the first few years and in those born at earlier gestational ages. Whether or not to correct for prematurity depends upon the context of the assessment. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2014 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

The Effects of Group Members' Personalities on a Test Taker's L2 Group Oral Discussion Test Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Ockey, Gary J.

2009-01-01

The second language group oral is a test of second language speaking proficiency, in which a group of three or more English language learners discuss an assigned topic without interaction with interlocutors. Concerns expressed about the extent to which test takers' personal characteristics affect the scores of others in the group have limited its…

Higher IELTS Score, Higher Academic Performance?\\ud The Validity of IELTS in Predicting the Academic Performance\\ud of Chinese Students

OpenAIRE

Yen, Dorothy; Kuzma, Joanne

2009-01-01

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is widely accepted as a reliable means of assessing whether candidates are ready to study or train in the medium of the English language. It consists of four key parts: reading, speaking, listening and writing. Before enrolling onto any HE programmes at the University of Worcester, international students are required to take the IELTS exam and obtain a\\ud score of 6.0 and above, indicating a satisfactory command of English. However, de...

Standardised test protocol (Constant Score) for evaluation of functionality in patients with shoulder disorders

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ban, Ilija; Troelsen, Anders; Christiansen, David Høyrup

2013-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The Constant Score (CS), developed as a scoring system to evaluate overall functionality of patients with shoulder disorders, is widely used but has been criticised for relying on an imprecise terminology and for lack of a standardised methodology. A modified guideline was therefore...... differences. One of the authors of the modified CS approved both the English and the Danish test protocol. CONCLUSION: A simple test protocol of the modified CS was developed in both English and Danish. With precise terminology and definitions, the test protocol is the first of its kind. We suggest its use...

Critical Consciousness and Schooling: The Impact of the Community as a Classroom Program on Academic Indicators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Gavin Luter

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The present study investigates the extent to which a program guided by the principles of critical pedagogy, which seeks to develop critical consciousness, is associated with the improved academic performance of students attending a low-performance middle-school in Buffalo, New York. The students were enrolled in an in-school academic support program called the Community as Classroom, which used critical project-based learning to show students how to improve neighborhood conditions. The study found that the Community as Classroom program bolstered student engagement as reflected in improved attendance, on-time-arrival at school, and reduced suspensions. Although class grades did not improve, standardized scores, particularly in Math and Science, dramatically improved for these students from the lowest scoring categories. We suspect that given increased student engagement and dramatically improved standardized test scores, teacher bias might be the cause of no improvements in class grades. We conclude that critical pedagogy, which leads to increased critical consciousness, is a tool that can lead to improved academic performance of students. Such a pedagogy, we argue, should be more widely used in public schools, with a particular emphasis on their deployment in Community Schools.

Students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences: Academic Year 2015-2016

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Khadijeh Jamshidi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Academic satisfaction is considered one of the most important factors affecting academic achievement among students. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between academic satisfaction and academic achievement among students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted with 346 student participants using stratified random sampling. The research instrument included the Student Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Academic Performance Rating Scale, and student grade point average (GPA. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. A 0.05 significance level was used for statistical tests. Results: The mean score of academic satisfaction among students was 50.7 ± 9.8 and the academic satisfaction level was moderate in 46.2% of the students. Comparing the academic satisfaction level in different fields of study, students in health (58.5%, nursing (67.5%, and paramedics (51.1% reported a moderate satisfaction level and students in midwifery (84.2%, pharmacology (53.5%, medicine (69.3%, and dentistry (55.5% recorded a high satisfaction level (P < 0.05. There was also a significant and positive correlation between academic satisfaction and academic achievement (P = 0.001, r = 0.02. Conclusion: Academic satisfaction among the 46.2% students that reported a moderate level was far from the ideal level. The relationship between academic satisfaction and academic achievement also indicated that creating motivation among students and increasing their levels of satisfaction could provide the grounds for academic achievement among them as much as possible.

Impact of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on Situational Judgement Test performance.

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Schripsema, Nienke R; van Trigt, Anke M; Borleffs, Jan C C; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

2017-05-01

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are increasingly implemented in medical school admissions. In this paper, we investigate the effects of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on SJT performance. The SJT was part of the selection process for the Bachelor's degree programme in Medicine at University of Groningen, the Netherlands. All applicants for the academic year 2015-2016 were included and had to choose between learning communities Global Health (n = 126), Sustainable Care (n = 149), Intramural Care (n = 225), or Molecular Medicine (n = 116). This choice was used as a proxy for vocational interest. In addition, all graduate-entry applicants for academic year 2015-2016 (n = 213) were included to examine the effect of previous academic experience on performance. We used MANCOVA analyses with Bonferroni post hoc multiple comparisons tests for applicant performance on a six-scenario SJT. The MANCOVA analyses showed that for all scenarios, the independent variables were significantly related to performance (Pillai's Trace: 0.02-0.47, p performance on three scenarios (p performance on two scenarios (p performance, as was previous academic experience. Gender and age were related to performance on SJT scenarios in different settings. Especially the first effect might be helpful in selecting appropriate candidates for areas of health care in which more professionals are needed.

Test Anxiety & Its Relation to Perceived Academic Self-Efficacy among Al Hussein Bin Talal University Students

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sa'ad alzboon, Habis

2016-01-01

This study aimed to identify the degree of perceived academic self-efficacy and the relationship nature between test anxiety and perceived academic self-efficacy among students of Al Hussein Bin Talal University (AHU). Moreover, to identify the degree of available statistical significance differences that are attributed to gender, college and…

Medical student psychological distress and academic performance.

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Dendle, Claire; Baulch, Julie; Pellicano, Rebecca; Hay, Margaret; Lichtwark, Irene; Ayoub, Sally; Clarke, David M; Morand, Eric F; Kumar, Arunaz; Leech, Michelle; Horne, Kylie

2018-01-21

The impact of medical student psychological distress on academic performance has not been systematically examined. This study provided an opportunity to closely examine the potential impacts of workplace and study related stress factors on student's psychological distress and their academic performance during their first clinical year. This one-year prospective cohort study was performed at a tertiary hospital based medical school in Melbourne, Australia. Students completed a questionnaire at three time points during the year. The questionnaire included the validated Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), as well as items about sources of workplace stress. Academic outcome scores were aggregated and correlated with questionnaire results. One hundred and twenty six students participated; 126 (94.7%), 102 (76.7%), and 99 (74.4%) at time points one, two, and three, respectively. 33.1% reported psychological distress at time point one, increasing to 47.4% at time point three. There was no correlation between the K10 scores and academic performance. There was weak negative correlation between the GHQ-28 at time point three and academic performance. Keeping up to date with knowledge, need to do well and fear of negative feedback were the most common workplace stress factors. Poor correlation was noted between psychological distress and academic performance.

Relationships between academic performance, SES school type and perceptual-motor skills in first grade South African learners: NW-CHILD study.

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Pienaar, A E; Barhorst, R; Twisk, J W R

2014-05-01

Perceptual-motor skills contribute to a variety of basic learning skills associated with normal academic success. This study aimed to determine the relationship between academic performance and perceptual-motor skills in first grade South African learners and whether low SES (socio-economic status) school type plays a role in such a relationship. This cross-sectional study of the baseline measurements of the NW-CHILD longitudinal study included a stratified random sample of first grade learners (n = 812; 418 boys and 394 boys), with a mean age of 6.78 years ± 0.49 living in the North West Province (NW) of South Africa. The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration-4 (VMI) was used to assess visual-motor integration, visual perception and hand control while the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, short form (BOT2-SF) assessed overall motor proficiency. Academic performance in math, reading and writing was assessed with the Mastery of Basic Learning Areas Questionnaire. Linear mixed models analysis was performed with spss to determine possible differences between the different VMI and BOT2-SF standard scores in different math, reading and writing mastery categories ranging from no mastery to outstanding mastery. A multinomial multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between a clustered score of academic performance and the different determinants. A strong relationship was established between academic performance and VMI, visual perception, hand control and motor proficiency with a significant relationship between a clustered academic performance score, visual-motor integration and visual perception. A negative association was established between low SES school types on academic performance, with a common perceptual motor foundation shared by all basic learning areas. Visual-motor integration, visual perception, hand control and motor proficiency are closely related to basic academic skills

Assessment of preclinical students' academic motivation before and after a three-day academic affair program.

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Aung, Myo Nyein; Somboonwong, Juraiporn; Jaroonvanichkul, Vorapol; Wannakrairot, Pongsak

2015-01-01

Medical students' motivation is an important driving factor for academic performance, and therefore medical teachers and educators are often highly interested in this topic. This study evaluated the impact of an academic affair program upon preclinical year medical students' motivation to study. An intervention study was conducted using a pretest-posttest study design. A total of 296 preclinical year medical students who had just passed their first year and were about to attend their second year at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, participated in the study. The intervention comprised of dialogues for personality development, pictorial expression in groups, as well as small group lectures delivered by senior students giving information on how to prepare for the forthcoming classes. Students' academic motivation was measured before and after the intervention program, applying the transculturally translated Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). Cronbach's alpha of Thai version AMS was 0.8992. The average scores in seven scales of AMS were compared between the pre- and posttest results, using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The differences were confirmed by using the multivariate analysis of variance. Students' academic motivation increased after participation in the three-day academic program. There was also a significant increase in introjected extrinsic motivation, which can enhance the students' self-esteem and feeling of self-worth (Pmotivation toward accomplishment increased significantly (Pacademic milestones, and a step ahead of autonomous motivation. Amotivation level declined significantly (Pacademic motivational constructs before and after the intervention was altogether significant (P=0.036, multivariate analysis of variance). After experiencing a three-day intervention, the new students' motivation advanced along the continuum of self-determination toward autonomous motivation. Therefore, it is considered to be worthwhile

Opportunity to learn: Investigating possible predictors for pre-course Test Of Astronomy STandards TOAST scores

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Berryhill, Katie J.

As astronomy education researchers become more interested in experimentally testing innovative teaching strategies to enhance learning in introductory astronomy survey courses ("ASTRO 101"), scholars are placing increased attention toward better understanding factors impacting student gain scores on the widely used Test Of Astronomy STandards (TOAST). Usually used in a pre-test and post-test research design, one might naturally assume that the pre-course differences observed between high- and low-scoring college students might be due in large part to their pre-existing motivation, interest, experience in science, and attitudes about astronomy. To explore this notion, 11 non-science majoring undergraduates taking ASTRO 101 at west coast community colleges were interviewed in the first few weeks of the course to better understand students' pre-existing affect toward learning astronomy with an eye toward predicting student success. In answering this question, we hope to contribute to our understanding of the incoming knowledge of students taking undergraduate introductory astronomy classes, but also gain insight into how faculty can best meet those students' needs and assist them in achieving success. Perhaps surprisingly, there was only weak correlation between students' motivation toward learning astronomy and their pre-test scores. Instead, the most fruitful predictor of TOAST pre-test scores was the quantity of pre-existing, informal, self-directed astronomy learning experiences.

Academic burnout and eating disorder among students in Monash University Malaysia.

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Kristanto, Tommy; Chen, Won Sun; Thoo, Yin Yin

2016-08-01

This study examined the prevalence of academic burnout and the relationship between academic burnout and eating disorder among Monash university students for a period of one year. One hundred and thirty-two participants were recruited for the study via advertisement. They were invited to complete three instruments, namely Demographic Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey (MBI-SS) and Three Factor Eating Questionnaire-Revised 18-item (TFEQ-18). In addition, anthropometric measurements such as weight, height, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage and waist circumference were taken. All data were collected at baseline and after 6-8weeks. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis and Bonferroni pairwise comparison tests were performed using Stata version 13. The prevalence of academic burnout after 6-8weeks was revealed to be 17.4% and 73.5% respectively for moderate and high level of academic burnout respectively. Emotional eating (EEat) scores were significantly different over levels of academic burnout after 6-8weeks (p=0.0103) while no significant differences was observed in other subscales such as cognitive restraint (CR) and uncontrolled eating (UE). These findings evidenced partial associations between academic burnout and eating disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual Differences in Digit Span, Susceptibility to Proactive Interference, and Aptitude/Achievement Test Scores.

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Dempster, Frank N.; Cooney, John B.

1982-01-01

Individual differences in digit span, susceptibility to proactive interference, and various aptitude/achievement test scores were investigated in two experiments with college students. Results indicated that digit span was strongly correlated with aptitude/achievement scores, but did not indicate that susceptibility to proactive interference…

Investigating Arabic Academic Vocabulary Knowledge Among Middle School Pupils: Receptive Versus Productive Knowledge.

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Makhoul, Baha

2017-08-01

The current study attempted to investigate the development of Arabic academic vocabulary knowledge among middle-school Arabic native speakers, taking into account the socioeconomic status of the Arab population in Israel. For this purpose, Arabic academic word list was developed, mapping the required academic words that are needed for adequate coping with informational texts as appearing in the different content areas text-books. Six-hundred Arabic speaking middle school pupils from the different areas in Israel, representing the different Arab subgroups: general Arab community, Druze and Bedouins, have participated in the current study. Two academic vocabulary tests, including receptive and productive academic vocabulary evaluation tests, were administrated to the students across the different age groups (7th, 8th and 9th). The results pointed to no significant difference between 7th and 9th grade in academic vocabulary knowledge. In contrast, significant difference was encountered between the different Arab sub-groups where the lowest scores were noted among the Bedouin sub-group, characterized by the lowest SES. When comparing receptive and productive academic vocabulary knowledge between 7th and 9th grade, the results pointed to improvement in receptive academic knowledge towards the end of middle school but not on the productive knowledge level. In addition, within participants' comparison indicated a gap between the pupils' receptive and productive vocabulary. The results are discussed in relation to the existing scientific literature and to its implication of both research and practice in the domain of Arabic literacy development.

Family and academic performance: identifying high school student profiles

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Alicia Aleli Chaparro Caso López

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to identify profiles of high school students, based on variables related to academic performance, socioeconomic status, cultural capital and family organization. A total of 21,724 high school students, from the five municipalities of the state of Baja California, took part. A K-means cluster analysis was performed to identify the profiles. The analyses identified two clearly-defined clusters: Cluster 1 grouped together students with high academic performance and who achieved higher scores for socioeconomic status, cultural capital and family involvement, whereas Cluster 2 brought together students with low academic achievement, and who also obtained lower scores for socioeconomic status and cultural capital, and had less family involvement. It is concluded that the family variables analyzed form student profiles that can be related to academic achievement.

Effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on childhood academic outcomes: contrasting maternal and paternal associations in the ALSPAC study.

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Rosa Alati

Full Text Available The impact of low-to-moderate levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy on child cognitive outcomes has been of recent concern. This study has tested the hypothesis that low-to-moderate maternal alcohol use in pregnancy is associated with lower school test scores at age 11 in the offspring via intrauterine mechanisms.We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, a birth cohort study based in the South West of England. Analyses were conducted on 7062 participants who had complete data on: maternal and paternal patterns of alcohol use in the first trimester and at 18 weeks' gestation, child's academic outcomes measured at age 11, gender, maternal age, parity, marital status, ethnicity, household crowding, home ownership status and parental education. We contrasted the association of mother's alcohol consumption during pregnancy with child's National Curriculum Key Stage 2 (KS2 test scores with the association for father's alcohol consumption (during the time the mother was pregnant with child's National Curriculum Key Stage 2 (KS2 test scores. We used multivariate linear regression to estimate mean differences and 95% confidence intervals [CI] in KS2 scores across the exposure categories and computed f statistics to compare maternal and paternal associations.Drinking up to 1 unit of alcohol a day during pregnancy was not associated with lower test scores. However, frequent prenatal consumption of 4 units (equivalent to 32 grams of alcohol on each single drinking occasion was associated with reduced educational attainment [Mean change in offspring KS2 score was -0.68 (-1.03, -0.33 for maternal alcohol categories compared to 0.27 (0.07, 0.46 for paternal alcohol categories]. Frequent consumption of 4 units of alcohol during pregnancy may adversely affect childhood academic outcomes via intrauterine mechanisms.

Exercise and Academic Achievement in Children: Effects of Acute Class-Based Circuit Training

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Dickinson Ben D.

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose. For schools, the increasingly imposed requirement to achieve well in academic tests puts increasing emphasis on improving academic achievement. While treadmill exercise has been shown to have beneficial effects on cognitive function and cycling ergometers produce stronger effect sizes than treadmill running, it is impractical for schools to use these on a whole-class basis. There is a need to examine if more ecologically valid modes of exercise might have a similar impact on academic achievement. Circuit training is one such modality shown to benefit cognitive function and recall ability and is easily operationalised within schools. Methods. In a repeated measures design, twenty-six children (17 boys, 8 girls aged 10-11 years (mean age 10.3; SD ± 0.46 years completed the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT 4 at rest and following 30 minutes of exercise. Results. Standardised scores for word reading were significantly higher post exercise (F(1,18 = 49.9, p = 0.0001 compared to rest. In contrast, standardised scores for sentence comprehension (F(1,18 = 0.078, p = 0.783, spelling (F(1,18 = 4.07, p = 0.06 mathematics (F(1,18 = 1.257, p = 0.277, and reading (F(1,18 = 2.09, p = 0.165 were not significantly different between rest and exercise conditions. Conclusions. The results of the current study suggest acute bouts of circuit based exercise enhances word reading but not other areas of academic ability in 10-11 year old children. These findings support prior research that indicates acute bouts of exercise can selectively improve cognition in children.

Construction of an Exome-Wide Risk Score for Schizophrenia Based on a Weighted Burden Test.

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Curtis, David

2018-01-01

Polygenic risk scores obtained as a weighted sum of associated variants can be used to explore association in additional data sets and to assign risk scores to individuals. The methods used to derive polygenic risk scores from common SNPs are not suitable for variants detected in whole exome sequencing studies. Rare variants, which may have major effects, are seen too infrequently to judge whether they are associated and may not be shared between training and test subjects. A method is proposed whereby variants are weighted according to their frequency, their annotations and the genes they affect. A weighted sum across all variants provides an individual risk score. Scores constructed in this way are used in a weighted burden test and are shown to be significantly different between schizophrenia cases and controls using a five-way cross-validation procedure. This approach represents a first attempt to summarise exome sequence variation into a summary risk score, which could be combined with risk scores from common variants and from environmental factors. It is hoped that the method could be developed further. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/University College London.

A theoretical model of continuity in anxiety and links to academic achievement in disaster-exposed school children.

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Weems, Carl F; Scott, Brandon G; Taylor, Leslie K; Cannon, Melinda F; Romano, Dawn M; Perry, Andre M

2013-08-01

This study tested a theoretical model of continuity in anxious emotion and its links to academic achievement in disaster-exposed youth. An urban school based sample of youths (n = 191; Grades 4-8) exposed to Hurricane Katrina were assessed at 24 months (Time 1) and then again at 30 months (Time 2) postdisaster. Academic achievement was assessed through end of the school year standardized test scores (~31 months after Katrina). The results suggest that the association of traumatic stress to academic achievement was indirect via linkages from earlier (Time 1) posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms that predicted later (Time 2) test anxiety. Time 2 test anxiety was then negatively associated with academic achievement. Age and gender invariance testing suggested strong consistency across gender and minor developmental variation in the age range examined. The model presented advances the developmental understanding of the expression of anxious emotion and its links to student achievement among disaster-exposed urban school children. The findings highlight the importance of identifying heterotypic continuity in anxiety and suggest potential applied and policy directions for disaster-exposed youth. Avenues for future theoretical refinement are also discussed.

The impact of research-based learning on student’s academic performance and motivation

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Sumbawati, M. S.; Anistyasari, Y.

2018-01-01

Undergraduate students often have difficulty in finding the updated research topic for their undergraduate thesis. This is due to students have less knowledge about research in a particular field because they are less familiar with scientific articles. This work, therefore, proposed an implementation of research-based learning and measured students’ academic performance and motivation. The study is conducted in four stages which are the plan, do, check, and act. Research-based learning is conducted based on its syntax. Paper and pencil test is then performed to measure students’ academic achievement and a survey is devoted to determining students’ academic motivation. The results show that most students obtain satisfied score and they feel comfortable to join a class with research-based learning.

Relationship between Academic Stress and Suicidal Ideation: Testing for Depression as a Mediator Using Multiple Regression

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Ang, Rebecca P.; Huan, Vivien S.

2006-01-01

Relations among academic stress, depression, and suicidal ideation were examined in 1,108 Asian adolescents 12-18 years old from a secondary school in Singapore. Using Baron and Kenny's [J Pers Soc Psychol 51:1173-1192, 1986] framework, this study tested the prediction that adolescent depression mediated the relationship between academic stress…

Pediatric residents' learning styles and temperaments and their relationships to standardized test scores.

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Tuli, Sanjeev Y; Thompson, Lindsay A; Saliba, Heidi; Black, Erik W; Ryan, Kathleen A; Kelly, Maria N; Novak, Maureen; Mellott, Jane; Tuli, Sonal S

2011-12-01

Board certification is an important professional qualification and a prerequisite for credentialing, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) assesses board certification rates as a component of residency program effectiveness. To date, research has shown that preresidency measures, including National Board of Medical Examiners scores, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society membership, or medical school grades poorly predict postresidency board examination scores. However, learning styles and temperament have been identified as factors that 5 affect test-taking performance. The purpose of this study is to characterize the learning styles and temperaments of pediatric residents and to evaluate their relationships to yearly in-service and postresidency board examination scores. This cross-sectional study analyzed the learning styles and temperaments of current and past pediatric residents by administration of 3 validated tools: the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, and the Felder-Silverman Learning Style test. These results were compared with known, normative, general and medical population data and evaluated for correlation to in-service examination and postresidency board examination scores. The predominant learning style for pediatric residents was converging 44% (33 of 75 residents) and the predominant temperament was guardian 61% (34 of 56 residents). The learning style and temperament distribution of the residents was significantly different from published population data (P  =  .002 and .04, respectively). Learning styles, with one exception, were found to be unrelated to standardized test scores. The predominant learning style and temperament of pediatric residents is significantly different than that of the populations of general and medical trainees. However, learning styles and temperament do not predict outcomes on standardized in-service and board examinations in pediatric residents.

Spinal appearance questionnaire: factor analysis, scoring, reliability, and validity testing.

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Carreon, Leah Y; Sanders, James O; Polly, David W; Sucato, Daniel J; Parent, Stefan; Roy-Beaudry, Marjolaine; Hopkins, Jeffrey; McClung, Anna; Bratcher, Kelly R; Diamond, Beverly E

2011-08-15

Cross sectional. This study presents the factor analysis of the Spinal Appearance Questionnaire (SAQ) and its psychometric properties. Although the SAQ has been administered to a large sample of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) treated surgically, its psychometric properties have not been fully evaluated. This study presents the factor analysis and scoring of the SAQ and evaluates its psychometric properties. The SAQ and the Scoliosis Research Society-22 (SRS-22) were administered to AIS patients who were being observed, braced or scheduled for surgery. Standard demographic data and radiographic measures including Lenke type and curve magnitude were also collected. Of the 1802 patients, 83% were female; with a mean age of 14.8 years and mean initial Cobb angle of 55.8° (range, 0°-123°). From the 32 items of the SAQ, 15 loaded on two factors with consistent and significant correlations across all Lenke types. There is an Appearance (items 1-10) and an Expectations factor (items 12-15). Responses are summed giving a range of 5 to 50 for the Appearance domain and 5 to 20 for the Expectations domain. The Cronbach's α was 0.88 for both domains and Total score with a test-retest reliability of 0.81 for Appearance and 0.91 for Expectations. Correlations with major curve magnitude were higher for the SAQ Appearance and SAQ Total scores compared to correlations between the SRS Appearance and SRS Total scores. The SAQ and SRS-22 Scores were statistically significantly different in patients who were scheduled for surgery compared to those who were observed or braced. The SAQ is a valid measure of self-image in patients with AIS with greater correlation to curve magnitude than SRS Appearance and Total score. It also discriminates between patients who require surgery from those who do not.

The effects of modeling instruction on high school physics academic achievement

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Wright, Tiffanie L.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether Modeling Instruction, compared to traditional lecturing, is an effective instructional method to promote academic achievement in selected high school physics classes at a rural middle Tennessee high school. This study used an ex post facto , quasi-experimental research methodology. The independent variables in this study were the instructional methods of teaching. The treatment variable was Modeling Instruction and the control variable was traditional lecture instruction. The Treatment Group consisted of participants in Physical World Concepts who received Modeling Instruction. The Control Group consisted of participants in Physical Science who received traditional lecture instruction. The dependent variable was gains scores on the Force Concepts Inventory (FCI). The participants for this study were 133 students each in both the Treatment and Control Groups (n = 266), who attended a public, high school in rural middle Tennessee. The participants were administered the Force Concepts Inventory (FCI) prior to being taught the mechanics of physics. The FCI data were entered into the computer-based Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). Two independent samples t-tests were conducted to answer the research questions. There was a statistically significant difference between the treatment and control groups concerning the instructional method. Modeling Instructional methods were found to be effective in increasing the academic achievement of students in high school physics. There was no statistically significant difference between FCI gains scores for gender. Gender was found to have no effect on the academic achievement of students in high school physics classes. However, even though there was not a statistically significant difference, female students' gains scores were higher than male students' gains scores when Modeling Instructional methods of teaching were used. Based on these findings, it is recommended

Assessing the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and academic performance of medical students

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Rajasingam, Uma; Suat-Cheng, Peh; Aung, Thidar; Dipolog-Ubanan, Genevieve; Wei, Wee Kok

2014-12-01

This study examines the association between emotional intelligence and its influence on academic performance on medical students to see if emotional intelligence emerges as a significant influencer of academic achievement. The instrument used is the Trait-Meta Mood Scale (TMMS), a 30-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure an individual's perceived emotional intelligence (PEI). Participants are required to rate the extent to which they agree with each item on a 5-point Likert scale. The TMMS consists of three subscales - Attention to Feelings (which measures the extent to which individuals notice and think about their feelings, Clarity (which measures the extent to which an individual is able to discriminate among different moods) and Mood Repair (related to an individual's ability to repair/terminate negative moods or maintain pleasant ones). Of special interest is whether high scores in the Clarity and Repair subscales correlate positively with academic performance, and whether high scores on the Attention subscale, without correspondingly high scores in the Clarity and Mood Repair subscales, correlates negatively with academic performance. Sample population includes all medical students (Years 1-5) of the MD program in UCSI University, Malaysia. Preliminary analysis indicates no significant relationship between overall TMMS scores and academic performance; however, the Attention subscale is significantly correlated to academic performance. Therefore even though PEI has to be ruled out as an influencer on academic performance for this particular sample, the fact that Attention has a significant relationship with academic performance may give some insight into the factors that possibly influence medical students' academic performance.

IELTS and Academic Success in Higher Education: A UAE Perspective

OpenAIRE

Kevin Schoepp; Dawn Garinger

2016-01-01

This study compares the relationship between International English Language Testing System (IELTS) entrance scores and academic success as defined by general education program GPA for students at a federal university in the United Arab Emirates in order to reflect upon regional English language proficiency entrance requirements. It focuses on one group of students, direct entry students who have bypassed the English language foundation program with an overall IELTS 6.0 or greater and were adm...

Assessment of preclinical students’ academic motivation before and after a three-day academic affair program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aung MN

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Myo Nyein Aung,1 Juraiporn Somboonwong,2 Vorapol Jaroonvanichkul,1 Pongsak Wannakrairot3 1Medical Education Unit, 2Quality Management Division and Department of Physiology, 3Academic Affairs Division, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, ThailandBackground: Medical students’ motivation is an important driving factor for academic performance, and therefore medical teachers and educators are often highly interested in this topic. This study evaluated the impact of an academic affair program upon preclinical year medical students’ motivation to study.Design and methods: An intervention study was conducted using a pretest-posttest study design. A total of 296 preclinical year medical students who had just passed their first year and were about to attend their second year at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, participated in the study. The intervention comprised of dialogues for personality development, pictorial expression in groups, as well as small group lectures delivered by senior students giving information on how to prepare for the forthcoming classes. Students’ academic motivation was measured before and after the intervention program, applying the transculturally translated Academic Motivation Scale (AMS. Cronbach’s alpha of Thai version AMS was 0.8992. The average scores in seven scales of AMS were compared between the pre- and posttest results, using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The differences were confirmed by using the multivariate analysis of variance.Results: Students’ academic motivation increased after participation in the three-day academic program. There was also a significant increase in introjected extrinsic motivation, which can enhance the students’ self-esteem and feeling of self-worth (P<0.001. Moreover, intrinsic motivation toward accomplishment increased significantly (P<0.001. This is related to the enjoyment of passing academic milestones, and a step

Profiling first-year students in STEM programs based on autonomous motivation and academic self-concept and relationship with academic achievement.

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Van Soom, Carolien; Donche, Vincent

2014-01-01

The low success rate of first-year college students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs has spurred many academic achievement studies in which explanatory factors are studied. In this study, we investigated from a person-oriented perspective whether different motivational and academic self-concept profiles could be discerned between male and female first-year college students in STEM and whether differences in early academic achievement were associated with these student groups. Data on autonomous motivation, academic self-concept, and early academic achievement of 1,400 first-year STEM college students were collected. Cluster analyses were used to distinguish motivational profiles based on the relative levels of autonomous motivation and academic self-concept for male and female students. Differences in early academic achievement of the various profiles were studied by means of ANCOVA. Four different motivational profiles were discerned based on the dimensions of autonomous motivation (A) and academic self-concept (S): students scoring high and respectively low on both dimensions (HA-HS or LA-LS), and students scoring high on one dimension and low on the other (HA-LS or LA-HS). Also gender differences were found in this study: male students with high levels of academic self-concept and autonomous motivation had higher academic achievement compared to male students with low levels on both motivational dimensions. For female students, motivational profiles were not associated with academic achievement. The findings partially confirm the internal and external validity of the motivational theories underpinning this study and extend the present insights on identifying subgroup(s) of at risk students in contemporary STEM programs at university level.

Profiling First-Year Students in STEM Programs Based on Autonomous Motivation and Academic Self-Concept and Relationship with Academic Achievement

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Van Soom, Carolien; Donche, Vincent

2014-01-01

The low success rate of first-year college students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs has spurred many academic achievement studies in which explanatory factors are studied. In this study, we investigated from a person-oriented perspective whether different motivational and academic self-concept profiles could be discerned between male and female first-year college students in STEM and whether differences in early academic achievement were associated with these student groups. Data on autonomous motivation, academic self-concept, and early academic achievement of 1,400 first-year STEM college students were collected. Cluster analyses were used to distinguish motivational profiles based on the relative levels of autonomous motivation and academic self-concept for male and female students. Differences in early academic achievement of the various profiles were studied by means of ANCOVA. Four different motivational profiles were discerned based on the dimensions of autonomous motivation (A) and academic self-concept (S): students scoring high and respectively low on both dimensions (HA-HS or LA-LS), and students scoring high on one dimension and low on the other (HA-LS or LA-HS). Also gender differences were found in this study: male students with high levels of academic self-concept and autonomous motivation had higher academic achievement compared to male students with low levels on both motivational dimensions. For female students, motivational profiles were not associated with academic achievement. The findings partially confirm the internal and external validity of the motivational theories underpinning this study and extend the present insights on identifying subgroup(s) of at risk students in contemporary STEM programs at university level. PMID:25390942

Teaching-Learning Conceptions and Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Test Anxiety

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Bas, Gökhan

2016-01-01

The current research aimed at examining the mediating role of test anxiety in the relationship between teaching-learning conceptions and academic achievement. The correlation investigation model was adopted in this research. The participants of the research were volunteering teachers (n = 108) and students (n = 526) from five different high…

ACER Mathematics Profile Series: Number Test. (Test Booklet, Answer and Record Sheet, Score Key, and Teachers Handbook).

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Cornish, Greg; Wines, Robin

The Number Test of the ACER Mathematics Profile Series, contains 30 items, for each of three suggested grade levels: 7-8, 8-9, and 9-10. Raw scores on all tests in the ACER Mathematics Profile Series (Number, Operations, Space and Measurement) are converted to a common scale called MAPS, a major feature of the Series. Based on the Rasch Model,…

Resilience amid Academic Stress: The Moderating Impact of Social Support among Social Work Students

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Scott E. Wilks

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between academic stress and perceived resilience among social work students, and to identify social support as a protective factor of resilience on this relationship. A conceptual model of moderation was used to test the role of social support as protective. Methods: The sample consisted of 314 social work students (BSW=144; MSW=170 from three accredited schools/programs in the southern United States. Voluntary survey data were collected on demographics and constructs of academic stress, family support, friend support, and resilience. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to show the composite impact of demographic and model factors on the resilience outcome. Moderation was tested using a traditional regression series as guidelines of moderation with continuous variables. Path analyses illustrated main effects and moderation in the study’s conceptual model. Results: The sample reported moderate levels of academic stress and social support, and a fairly high level of resilience. Academic stress negatively related to social support and resilience. Social support positively influenced resilience. Academic stress accounted for the most variation in resilience scores. Friend support significantly moderated the negative relationship between academic stress and resilience. Conclusion: The current study demonstrated the likelihood that friend support plays a protective role with resilience amid an environment of academic stress. Implications for social work faculty and internship agency practitioners are discussed.

Research on the Academic Benefits of the Advanced Placement Program

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Russell T. Warne

2017-01-01

Full Text Available With more than 3 million participants per year, the Advanced Placement (AP program is one of the most popular programs in the United States for exposing high-achieving high school students to advanced academic content. Sponsored by the College Board, the AP program provides a framework in which high school teachers can teach introductory college-level courses to high school students. These students then take one of 34 standardized tests at the end of the year, and students who score well on their course’s AP test can receive college credit from their university in which they later enroll. Despite the popularity of the AP program, remarkably little independent research has been conducted on the academic benefits of AP. In this article, I summarize the state of knowledge about the academic benefits of AP. Previous research and descriptive data indicate that AP students outperform non-AP students on a variety of academic measures, but many other aspects of the program are poorly understood, partially due to variability across AP subjects. These aspects include the causal impact of AP, which components of the program are most effective in boosting academic achievement, and how students engage with the AP program. I also conclude by making suggestions for researchers to use new methodologies to investigate new scientific and policy questions and new student populations to improve the educational scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of the AP program.

Providing Transparency and Credibility: The Selection of International Students for Australian Universities. An Examination of the Relationship between Scores in the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT), Final Year Academic Programs and an Australian University's Foundation Program

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Lai, Kelvin; Nankervis, Susan; Story, Margot; Hodgson, Wayne; Lewenberg, Michael; Ball, Marita MacMahon

2008-01-01

Throughout 2003-04 five cohorts of students in their final year of school studies in various Malaysian colleges and a group of students completing an Australian university foundation year in Malaysia sat the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT). The ISAT is a multiple-choice test of general academic abilities developed for students whose…

Linear-rank testing of a non-binary, responder-analysis, efficacy score to evaluate pharmacotherapies for substance use disorders.

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Holmes, Tyson H; Li, Shou-Hua; McCann, David J

2016-11-23

The design of pharmacological trials for management of substance use disorders is shifting toward outcomes of successful individual-level behavior (abstinence or no heavy use). While binary success/failure analyses are common, McCann and Li (CNS Neurosci Ther 2012; 18: 414-418) introduced "number of beyond-threshold weeks of success" (NOBWOS) scores to avoid dichotomized outcomes. NOBWOS scoring employs an efficacy "hurdle" with values reflecting duration of success. Here, we evaluate NOBWOS scores rigorously. Formal analysis of mathematical structure of NOBWOS scores is followed by simulation studies spanning diverse conditions to assess operating characteristics of five linear-rank tests on NOBWOS scores. Simulations include assessment of Fisher's exact test applied to hurdle component. On average, statistical power was approximately equal for five linear-rank tests. Under none of conditions examined did Fisher's exact test exhibit greater statistical power than any of the linear-rank tests. These linear-rank tests provide good Type I and Type II error control for comparing distributions of NOBWOS scores between groups (e.g. active vs. placebo). All methods were applied to re-analyses of data from four clinical trials of differing lengths and substances of abuse. These linear-rank tests agreed across all trials in rejecting (or not) their null (equality of distributions) at ≤ 0.05. © The Author(s) 2016.

Publication and research productivity among academic librarians in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study examined the pattern of research and publication among academic librarians. Descriptive survey design was adopted .Proportionate sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 57 academic librarians in 4 university libraries in southeast of Nigeria. Aquestionaire was used in data collection. Mean scores ...

Decision making under internal uncertainty: the case of multiple-choice tests with different scoring rules.

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Bereby-Meyer, Yoella; Meyer, Joachim; Budescu, David V

2003-02-01

This paper assesses framing effects on decision making with internal uncertainty, i.e., partial knowledge, by focusing on examinees' behavior in multiple-choice (MC) tests with different scoring rules. In two experiments participants answered a general-knowledge MC test that consisted of 34 solvable and 6 unsolvable items. Experiment 1 studied two scoring rules involving Positive (only gains) and Negative (only losses) scores. Although answering all items was the dominating strategy for both rules, the results revealed a greater tendency to answer under the Negative scoring rule. These results are in line with the predictions derived from Prospect Theory (PT) [Econometrica 47 (1979) 263]. The second experiment studied two scoring rules, which allowed respondents to exhibit partial knowledge. Under the Inclusion-scoring rule the respondents mark all answers that could be correct, and under the Exclusion-scoring rule they exclude all answers that might be incorrect. As predicted by PT, respondents took more risks under the Inclusion rule than under the Exclusion rule. The results illustrate that the basic process that underlies choice behavior under internal uncertainty and especially the effect of framing is similar to the process of choice under external uncertainty and can be described quite accurately by PT. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.

An Analysis of Cross Racial Identity Scale Scores Using Classical Test Theory and Rasch Item Response Models

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Sussman, Joshua; Beaujean, A. Alexander; Worrell, Frank C.; Watson, Stevie

2013-01-01

Item response models (IRMs) were used to analyze Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS) scores. Rasch analysis scores were compared with classical test theory (CTT) scores. The partial credit model demonstrated a high goodness of fit and correlations between Rasch and CTT scores ranged from 0.91 to 0.99. CRIS scores are supported by both methods.…

The Impact of Correction for Guessing Formula on MC and Yes/No Vocabulary Tests' Scores

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abdollah baradaran

2009-10-01

Full Text Available A standard correction for random guessing (cfg formula on multiple-choice and Yes/Noexaminations was examined retrospectively in the scores of the intermediate female EFL learners in an English language school. The correctionwas a weighting formula for points awarded for correct answers,incorrect answers, and unanswered questions so that the expectedvalue of the increase in test score due to guessing was zero. The researcher compared uncorrected and corrected scores on examinationsusing multiple-choice and Yes/No formats. These short-answer formats eliminatedor at least greatly reduced the potential for guessing the correctanswer. The expectation for students to improve their grade by guessingon multiple-choice and Yes/No format examinations is well known. The researcher examined a method for correcting for random guessing (cfg " no knowledge" on multiple- choice and Yes/No vocabulary examinations by comparing application and non-application of correction for guessing (cfg formula on scores on these examinations. It was done to determine whether the test takers really knew the correct answer, or they had resorted to a kind of guessing. This study represented a unique opportunity to compare scores from multiple-choice and Yes/No examinations in a settingin which students were given the same number of questions ineach of the two format types testing their knowledge over thesame subject matter. The results of this study indicated that the significant differences were highlighted between the subjects' scores when cfg formula was applied and when it was not.

Academic procrastination, emotional intelligence, academic self-efficacy, and GPA: a comparison between students with and without learning disabilities.

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Hen, Meirav; Goroshit, Marina

2014-01-01

Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students' academic success. Research findings suggest that it is related to lower levels of self-regulated learning and academic self-efficacy and associated with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions and has been found to be associated with academic self-efficacy and a variety of better outcomes, including academic performance. Students with learning disabilities (LD) are well acquainted with academic difficulty and maladaptive academic behavior. In comparison to students without LD, they exhibit high levels of learned helplessness, including diminished persistence, lower academic expectations, and negative affect. This study examined the relationships among academic procrastination, EI, and academic performance as mediated by academic self-efficacy in 287 LD and non-LD students. Results indicated that the indirect effect of EI on academic procrastination and GPA was stronger in LD students than in non-LD students. In addition, results indicated that LD students scored lower than non-LD students on both EI and academic self-efficacy and higher on academic procrastination. No difference was found in GPA.

Association testing for next-generation sequencing data using score statistics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skotte, Line; Korneliussen, Thorfinn Sand; Albrechtsen, Anders

2012-01-01

computationally feasible due to the use of score statistics. As part of the joint likelihood, we model the distribution of the phenotypes using a generalized linear model framework, which works for both quantitative and discrete phenotypes. Thus, the method presented here is applicable to case-control studies...... of genotype calls into account have been proposed; most require numerical optimization which for large-scale data is not always computationally feasible. We show that using a score statistic for the joint likelihood of observed phenotypes and observed sequencing data provides an attractive approach...... to association testing for next-generation sequencing data. The joint model accounts for the genotype classification uncertainty via the posterior probabilities of the genotypes given the observed sequencing data, which gives the approach higher power than methods based on called genotypes. This strategy remains...

Abstracting Sequences: Reasoning That Is a Key to Academic Achievement.

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Pasnak, Robert; Kidd, Julie K; Gadzichowski, K Marinka; Gallington, Debbie A; Schmerold, Katrina Lea; West, Heather

2015-01-01

The ability to understand sequences of items may be an important cognitive ability. To test this proposition, 8 first-grade children from each of 36 classes were randomly assigned to four conditions. Some were taught sequences that represented increasing or decreasing values, or were symmetrical, or were rotations of an object through 6 or 8 positions. Control children received equal numbers of sessions on mathematics, reading, or social studies. Instruction was conducted three times weekly in 15-min sessions for seven months. In May, the children taught sequences applied their understanding to novel sequences, and scored as well or better on three standardized reading tests as the control children. They outscored all children on tests of mathematics concepts, and scored better than control children on some mathematics scales. These findings indicate that developing an understanding of sequences is a form of abstraction, probably involving fluid reasoning, that provides a foundation for academic achievement in early education.

Child academic achievement in association with pre-pregnancy obesity and gestational weight gain.

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Pugh, Sarah J; Hutcheon, Jennifer A; Richardson, Gale A; Brooks, Maria M; Himes, Katherine P; Day, Nancy L; Bodnar, Lisa M

2016-06-01

Recent data suggest that children of mothers who are obese before pregnancy, or who gain too much weight during pregnancy, may be at an increased risk of cognitive impairments. Mother-infant dyads enrolled in a birth cohort study in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1983-1986), were followed from early pregnancy to 14 years postpartum (n=574). Math, reading and spelling achievements were assessed at ages 6 and 10 years using the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised, and at age 14 years using the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Screener. Self-reported total GWG was converted to gestational age-standardised z-scores. Generalised estimating equations were used to estimate the effects of GWG and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) on academic achievement at 6, 10 and 14 years, while adjusting for maternal race, child sex, parity, employment, family income, maternal intelligence, maternal depression, pre-pregnancy BMI (in GWG models only) and the home environment. The mean (SD) BMI was 23.4 (5.7) kg/m(2) and the mean (SD) GWG reported at delivery was 14.4 (5.9) kg. There was a significant non-linear association between pre-pregnancy BMI and an offspring's academic achievement. At 6, 10 and 14 years, an offspring's academic scores were inversely associated with pre-pregnancy BMI beyond 22 kg/m(2). High GWG (>1 SD) was associated with approximately 4-point lower reading (adjusted β (adjβ) -3.75, 95% CI -7.1 to -0.4) and spelling scores (adjβ -3.90, 95% CI -7.8 to -0.2), compared with GWG -1 to +1 SD. Future studies in larger and socioeconomically diverse populations are needed to confirm maternal weight and weight gain as causal determinants of a child's academic skills, and whether this effect persists into adulthood. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Relationship between academic performance and affective changes during the first year at medical school.

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Del-Ben, Cristina Marta; Machado, Vanessa Foresto; Madisson, Mariani Mendes; Resende, Tamara Lovatto; Valério, Fernando Passador; Troncon, Luiz Ernesto De Almeida

2013-05-01

Entering medical school may be associated with changes in the students' life, which can affect academic motivation and impair academic performance. This work aimed at measuring longitudinally academic motivation, anxiety, depression and social adjustment in first-year medical students and determining the relationships between these variables and academic performance, as measured mainly by grades on regular exams. Eighty-five first-year medical students (age: 17-25 years) were included after giving informed consent. Beck's Anxiety (BAI) and Beck's Depression (BDI) Inventories, the self-reported Social Adjustment Scale (SAS-SR) and the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) were applied two months after admission and at the end of the academic year. BAI scores increased throughout the year (7.3 ± 6.6 versus 28.8 ± 6.7; p 0.10). SAS-SR subscales scores remained stable, except for a decreasing pattern for leisure/social life (1.8 ± 0.4 versus 2.1 ± 0.4; p motivation to know (22.2 ± 4.5 versus 19.7 ± 5.5; p academic performance and the global scores for any of the scales except for the SAS-SR subscale for academic life (r = -0.48, p academic year, first-year medical students showed increased anxiety, decreased academic motivation and a maladjusted leisure/social life, which however does not seem to affect academic achievement.

What factors determine academic achievement in high achieving undergraduate medical students? A qualitative study.

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Abdulghani, Hamza M; Al-Drees, Abdulmajeed A; Khalil, Mahmood S; Ahmad, Farah; Ponnamperuma, Gominda G; Amin, Zubair

2014-04-01

Medical students' academic achievement is affected by many factors such as motivational beliefs and emotions. Although students with high intellectual capacity are selected to study medicine, their academic performance varies widely. The aim of this study is to explore the high achieving students' perceptions of factors contributing to academic achievement. Focus group discussions (FGD) were carried out with 10 male and 9 female high achieving (scores more than 85% in all tests) students, from the second, third, fourth and fifth academic years. During the FGDs, the students were encouraged to reflect on their learning strategies and activities. The discussion was audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed qualitatively. Factors influencing high academic achievement include: attendance to lectures, early revision, prioritization of learning needs, deep learning, learning in small groups, mind mapping, learning in skills lab, learning with patients, learning from mistakes, time management, and family support. Internal motivation and expected examination results are important drivers of high academic performance. Management of non-academic issues like sleep deprivation, homesickness, language barriers, and stress is also important for academic success. Addressing these factors, which might be unique for a given student community, in a systematic manner would be helpful to improve students' performance.

Perception of difficulty and glucose control: Effects on academic performance in youth with type I diabetes.

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Potts, Tiffany M; Nguyen, Jacqueline L; Ghai, Kanika; Li, Kathy; Perlmuter, Lawrence

2015-04-15

To investigate whether perceptions of task difficulty on neuropsychological tests predicted academic achievement after controlling for glucose levels and depression. Participants were type 1 diabetic adolescents, with a mean age = 12.5 years (23 females and 16 males), seen at a northwest suburban Chicago hospital. The sample population was free of co-morbid clinical health conditions. Subjects completed a three-part neuropsychological battery including the Digit Symbol Task, Trail Making Test, and Controlled Oral Word Association test. Following each task, individuals rated task difficulty and then completed a depression inventory. Performance on these three tests is reflective of neuropsychological status in relation to glucose control. Blood glucose levels were measured immediately prior to and after completing the neuropsychological battery using a glucose meter. HbA1c levels were obtained from medical records. Academic performance was based on self-reported grades in Math, Science, and English. Data was analyzed using multiple regression models to evaluate the associations between academic performance, perception of task difficulty, and glucose control. Perceptions of difficulty on a neuropsychological battery significantly predicted academic performance after accounting for glucose control and depression. Perceptions of difficulty on the neuropsychological tests were inversely correlated with academic performance (r = -0.48), while acute (blood glucose) and long-term glucose levels increased along with perceptions of task difficulty (r = 0.47). Additionally, higher depression scores were associated with poorer academic performance (r = -0.43). With the first regression analysis, perception of difficulty on the neuropsychological tasks contributed to 8% of the variance in academic performance after controlling for peripheral blood glucose and depression. In the second regression analysis, perception of difficulty accounted for 11% of the variance after

English language proficiency and academic performance: A study of a medical preparatory year program in Saudi Arabia.

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Kaliyadan, Feroze; Thalamkandathil, Nazer; Parupalli, Srinivas Rao; Amin, Tarek Tawfik; Balaha, Magdy Hassan; Al Bu Ali, Waleed Hamad

2015-01-01

All medical schools in Saudi Arabia have English as the primary official medium of instruction. Most of the high school education, however, is delivered in Arabic and hence the transition to an English based learning environment tends to be difficult for some students. Our study aims to correlate English language proficiency with academic performance among medical students in their preparatory year. A cross-sectional study design was used. Test scores of 103 preparatory year students (54 female and 49 male) were analyzed after the students completed an English language course and medical introductory course in their preparatory year. The total score obtained in the English course assessment was compared to each component of the medical content assessment. A significantly positive correlation (Spearman's Rho, at 0.01 levels) was seen between the scores of the English exam and the written exam (P English exam score was not obtained for the other components of the medical assessment, namely; student assignments, presentations and portfolios. English language proficiency is an important factor in determining academic proficiency of medical students in our college at the preparatory year level.

Effects of Analytical and Holistic Scoring Patterns on Scorer Reliability in Biology Essay Tests

Science.gov (United States)

Ebuoh, Casmir N.

2018-01-01

Literature revealed that the patterns/methods of scoring essay tests had been criticized for not being reliable and this unreliability is more likely to be more in internal examinations than in the external examinations. The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of analytical and holistic scoring patterns on scorer reliability in…

The Relative Age Effect and Its Influence on Academic Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro, Juan-José; García-Rubio, Javier; Olivares, Pedro R

2015-01-01

The policy of school organisation for grouping students in the same academic year is based on date of birth. The differences in the experiences and maturation of older students involve a relatively better performance in academic settings, which is known as the relative age effect (RAE). This effect is more important the younger the student is. The goal of this study is to identify the connections of influence that RAE, socioeconomic status (SES), and type of institution have on academic performance in a school population of eighth graders. The study is based on a population-based, representative sample of 15,234 8th graders (50.4% female; average age = 13.61 years) in the 2011 National System of Quality Assessment in Education Survey (SIMCE) from Chile. The SIMCE for global academic performance consists of 4 tests: reading, mathematics, social studies, and science. All tests consist of multiple-choice and closed questions. In addition, in order to have the information of general academic performance, an extra variable expressing the average score of each student was created. Also, the SIMCE includes additional variables for the evaluation process such as SES or type of school. Students were assigned to one of five age groups in terms of date of birth (G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5), in which students belonging to G1 are the oldest and students belonging to G5 are the youngest. The results achieved in the structural equation modelling indicate a good global fit. Individual relationships show significant effects of the three variables observed on academic performance, although SES received the highest values. The influence of RAE took place both in the full sample and sub-samples composed according to the SES and academic performance, showing higher values for students with lower scores. Although the influence of RAE decreases when SES is controlled, its effect is still significant and contributes to additionally explain the performance. The RAE remains, even with residual

The Relative Age Effect and Its Influence on Academic Performance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan-José Navarro

Full Text Available The policy of school organisation for grouping students in the same academic year is based on date of birth. The differences in the experiences and maturation of older students involve a relatively better performance in academic settings, which is known as the relative age effect (RAE. This effect is more important the younger the student is. The goal of this study is to identify the connections of influence that RAE, socioeconomic status (SES, and type of institution have on academic performance in a school population of eighth graders.The study is based on a population-based, representative sample of 15,234 8th graders (50.4% female; average age = 13.61 years in the 2011 National System of Quality Assessment in Education Survey (SIMCE from Chile. The SIMCE for global academic performance consists of 4 tests: reading, mathematics, social studies, and science. All tests consist of multiple-choice and closed questions. In addition, in order to have the information of general academic performance, an extra variable expressing the average score of each student was created. Also, the SIMCE includes additional variables for the evaluation process such as SES or type of school. Students were assigned to one of five age groups in terms of date of birth (G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5, in which students belonging to G1 are the oldest and students belonging to G5 are the youngest.The results achieved in the structural equation modelling indicate a good global fit. Individual relationships show significant effects of the three variables observed on academic performance, although SES received the highest values. The influence of RAE took place both in the full sample and sub-samples composed according to the SES and academic performance, showing higher values for students with lower scores. Although the influence of RAE decreases when SES is controlled, its effect is still significant and contributes to additionally explain the performance.The RAE remains, even

The interplay between academic performance and quality of life among preclinical students.

Science.gov (United States)

Shareef, Mohammad Abrar; AlAmodi, Abdulhadi A; Al-Khateeb, Abdulrahman A; Abudan, Zainab; Alkhani, Mohammed A; Zebian, Sanderlla I; Qannita, Ahmed S; Tabrizi, Mariam J

2015-10-31

The high academic performance of medical students greatly influences their professional competence in long term career. Meanwhile, medical students greatly demand procuring a good quality of life that can help them sustain their medical career. This study examines validity and reliability of the tool among preclinical students and testifies the influence of their scholastic performance along with gender and academic year on their quality of life. A cross sectional study was conducted by distributing World Health Organization Quality of Life, WHOQOL-BREF, survey among medical students of year one to three at Alfaisal University. For validity, item discriminate validity(IDV) and confirmatory factor analysis were measured and for reliability, Cronbach's α test and internal item consistency(IIC) were examined. The association of GPA, gender and academic year with all major domains was drawn using Pearson's correlation, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, respectively. A total of 335 preclinical students have responded to this questionnaire. The construct has demonstrated an adequate validity and good reliability. The high academic performance of students positively correlated with physical (r = 0.23, p student scored higher than female peers in physical and psychological health. This study has identified a direct relationship between the academic performance of preclinical students and their quality of life. The WHOQOL-BREF is a valid and reliable tool among preclinical students and the positive direction of high academic performance with greater QOL suggests that academic achievers procure higher satisfaction and poor achievers need a special attention for the improvement of their quality of life.

[Relationship between unipedal stance test score and center of pressure velocity in elderly].

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigo Antonio, Guzmán; Rony, Silvestre; Francisco Aniceto, Rodríguez; David Andrés, Arriagada; Pablo Andrés, Ortega

2011-01-01

Frequent falls are one of the most important health problems in the elderly population. The unipedal stance test (UPST), asses postural stability and is used in fall risk measures. Despite this, there is little information about its relationship with posturographic parameters (PP) that characterizes postural stability. Center of pressure velocity (CoPV) is one of the best PP that describes postural stability. The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between UST score and CoPV in elderly population. A sample of 38 healthy elderly subjects where divided in two groups according to their UPST score, low performance (LP, n=11) and high performance (HP, n=27). The correlation between UPST score and COP mean velocity (CoPmV), recorded from a posturographic test, was analyzed between both groups. An inverse correlation between UPST score and CoPmV was found in both groups. However, this was higher in the LP group (r=-0.69, P=.02) compared to the HP (r=-0.39, P=.04). Based on the results of this investigation, it may be concluded that the achievement on UPST has an inverse relationship with CoPmV, especially in subjects with low performance in the UPST. Copyright © 2010 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Linkage analysis in nuclear families. 2: Relationship between affected sib-pair tests and lod score analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Knapp, M; Seuchter, S A; Baur, M P

1994-01-01

It is believed that the main advantage of affected sib-pair tests is that their application requires no information about the underlying genetic mechanism of the disease. However, here it is proved that the mean test, which can be considered the most prominent of the affected sib-pair tests, is equivalent to lod score analysis for an assumed recessive mode of inheritance, irrespective of the true mode of the disease. Further relationships of certain sib-pair tests and lod score analysis under specific assumed genetic modes are investigated.

Association between Eating Behavior and Academic Performance in University Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Valladares, Macarena; Durán, Elizabeth; Matheus, Alexis; Durán-Agüero, Samuel; Obregón, Ana María; Ramírez-Tagle, Rodrigo

2016-01-01

To determine the association between academic performance and eating behavior in university students in Chile. A total of 680 college students, 409 (60%) women and 271 (40%) men, were randomly recruited and the mean age of the entire sample was 26. The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), which evaluates 3 dimensions of eating behavior-cognitive restriction (limiting own intake), uncontrolled eating (inclination to eat), and emotional eating (control of food intake in the context of negative emotions)-was used. Academic performance was measured by the grade point average (GPA) and was associated with eating behavior. Women had significantly higher scores in the "emotional eating" dimension than men (p = 0.002). The eating behavior analysis showed that female students with higher GPAs (above 5.5) had statistically significantly lower uncontrolled eating scores (p = 0.03) and higher cognitive restriction scores (p = 0.05) than women with lower academic performance (below 5.5). There were no significant associations between eating behavior and academic performance in men. A positive association between eating behavior and academic performance was observed in female university students in Chile. Further studies are needed to explore the causes of this association and determine how to improve the nutritional habits of this population.

Good-quality diet in the early years may have a positive effect on academic achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Nyaradi, Anett; Li, Jianghong; Foster, Jonathan K; Hickling, Siobhan; Jacques, Angela; O'Sullivan, Therese A; Oddy, Wendy H

2016-05-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between early diet and academic performance during childhood. Participants were from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study (n = 2287). Frequency of consumption of food and beverages was collected at the one-, two- and three-year follow-ups, using a 24-hour food recall. Diet scores were developed from the number of eating occasions. The Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (WALNA) data from grades five (age 10) and seven (age 12) were linked to the Raine study using The Western Australian Data Linkage System. The association between diet scores and WALNA scores was assessed using multivariate linear regression models. A higher (i.e. better quality) diet score at one year of age was associated with significantly higher scores in mathematics, reading, writing and spelling at both grades five and seven. Associations were observed between a higher diet score at two years and academic scores for mathematics, writing and spelling at grade seven. Higher dairy consumption at ages one, two and three, and higher fruit consumption at age one were associated with higher academic scores at all ages. Quality of early diet may be a predictor for later academic achievement. ©2015 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Use of social media platforms for improving academic performance at Further Education and Training colleges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Godwin P. Dzvapatsva

2014-11-01

Objectives: The aim of the project was to investigate the use of: (1 a knowledge portal for verifying the quality of assessments by lecturers and (2 social media to increase contact time with FET college students in an attempt to improve their academic performance. Method: The NC(V level 3 student test scores for 2011 were compared to those of 2012. In addition to the test scores, students also received a questionnaire so as to determine their perceptions on social media usage. Lecturers also received a questionnaire on their perception of the knowledge portal. Results: The data collected from seven lecturers and 38 students indicated a 35% (from 30% – 65% improvement in academic performance after the introduction of the interventions, that is social media and a knowledge portal; an indication of the importance of electronic media in enhancing learning. Conclusion: The research offered FET lecturers an additional method for learning and teaching in that they could use the knowledge portal to set up quality assessments for the students and social media to increase contact learning time.

Impact of Answer-Switching Behavior on Multiple-Choice Test Scores in Higher Education

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Ramazan BAŞTÜRK

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The multiple- choice format is one of the most popular selected-response item formats used in educational testing. Researchers have shown that Multiple-choice type test is a useful vehicle for student assessment in core university subjects that usually have large student numbers. Even though the educators, test experts and different test recourses maintain the idea that the first answer should be retained, many researchers argued that this argument is not dependent with empirical findings. The main question of this study is to examine how the answer switching behavior affects the multiple-choice test score. Additionally, gender differences and relationship between number of answer switching behavior and item parameters (item difficulty and item discrimination were investigated. The participants in this study consisted of 207 upper-level College of Education students from mid-sized universities. A Midterm exam consisted of 20 multiple-choice questions was used. According to the result of this study, answer switching behavior statistically increase test scores. On the other hand, there is no significant gender difference in answer-switching behavior. Additionally, there is a significant negative relationship between answer switching behavior and item difficulties.

Do Standardized Tests Penalize Deep-Thinking, Creative, or Conscientious Students?: Some Personality Correlates of Graduate Record Examinations Test Scores

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Powers, Donald E.; Kaufman, James C.

2004-01-01

The objective of the study reported here was to explore the relationship of Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test scores to selected personality traits--conscientiousness, rationality, ingenuity, quickness, creativity, and depth. A sample of 342 GRE test takers completed short personality inventory scales for each trait. Analyses…

The effect of neighborhood context on children's academic achievement in China: Exploring mediating mechanisms.

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Lei, Lei

2018-05-01

Along with the economic reforms, rapid urbanization, and the growth of a free land market, Chinese cities witness new forms of neighborhood poverty and increasing residential segregation by social class, migration status, and housing tenure. But little is known about the consequences of the growing social-spatial differentiation for children's educational achievement in China. Using national-scale survey data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2010, this study examines the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and children's test scores in urban China, and explores the mechanisms through which neighborhood environment is associated with children's academic achievement. The results show that neighborhood SES is positively associated with children's verbal and math test scores after accounting for myriad individual and family characteristics. The relationship between neighborhood SES and test scores is partially explained by neighborhood educational institutions and collective socialization. Peer contagion, neighborhood social organization, or neighborhood physical environment do not explain this relationship. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Breakup Effects on University Students' Perceived Academic Performance

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Field, Tiffany; Diego, Miguel; Pelaez, Martha; Deeds, Osvelia; Delgado, Jeannette

2012-01-01

The Problem: Problems that might be expected to affect perceived academic performance were studied in a sample of 283 university students. Results: Breakup Distress Scale scores, less time since the breakup and no new relationship contributed to 16% of the variance on perceived academic performance. Variables that were related to academic…

Academic Outcomes in Individuals With Childhood-Onset Epilepsy: Mediating Effects of Working Memory.

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Danguecan, Ashley N; Smith, Mary Lou

2017-08-01

Academic difficulties are common in children with epilepsy, although little is known about the effect of various seizure-related and cognitive variables. Given that persistent seizures may negatively impact academics, and that working memory is predictive of academic abilities, we examined the effects of recent seizures and working memory on word reading, spelling, and arithmetic in pediatric epilepsy. We hypothesized that persistent seizures would be associated with lower working memory ability, which would in turn result in poorer academic performance. Our sample consisted of 91 children with epilepsy being treated at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, who underwent neuropsychological testing between 2002 and 2009 to help determine surgical candidacy. Four to 11 years later, follow-up testing was conducted on both surgical (n=61) and non-surgical (n=30) patients. Seizure status was defined by the presence or absence of seizures within the preceding 12 months. 5000 bias-corrected bootstrap resamples with replacement were used to calculate the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the indirect effect of seizure status on academics through working memory, controlling for baseline academic functioning. Persistent seizures were associated with reduced working memory, which was in turn associated with lower reading (B=-4.64, 95% CI [-10.21, -1.30]), spelling (B=-7.09, 95% CI [-13.97, -2.56], and arithmetic scores (B=-8.04, 95% CI [-13.66, -3.58] at follow-up. For children with intractable epilepsy, working memory deficits present a significant barrier to the development of academic skills. Working memory interventions may be a helpful adjunct to academic remediation in this population to facilitate academic progress. (JINS, 2017, 23, 594-604).

The relationship between gross motor skills and academic achievement in children with learning disabilities.

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Westendorp, Marieke; Hartman, Esther; Houwen, Suzanne; Smith, Joanne; Visscher, Chris

2011-01-01

The present study compared the gross motor skills of 7- to 12-year-old children with learning disabilities (n = 104) with those of age-matched typically developing children (n = 104) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Additionally, the specific relationships between subsets of gross motor skills and academic performance in reading, spelling, and mathematics were examined in children with learning disabilities. As expected, the children with learning disabilities scored poorer on both the locomotor and object-control subtests than their typically developing peers. Furthermore, in children with learning disabilities a specific relationship was observed between reading and locomotor skills and a trend was found for a relationship between mathematics and object-control skills: the larger children's learning lag, the poorer their motor skill scores. This study stresses the importance of specific interventions facilitating both motor and academic abilities. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CaPTHUS scoring model in primary hyperparathyroidism: can it eliminate the need for ioPTH testing?

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Elfenbein, Dawn M; Weber, Sara; Schneider, David F; Sippel, Rebecca S; Chen, Herbert

2015-04-01

The CaPTHUS model was reported to have a positive predictive value of 100 % to correctly predict single-gland disease in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, thus obviating the need for intraoperative parathyroid hormone (ioPTH) testing. We sought to apply the CaPTHUS scoring model in our patient population and assess its utility in predicting long-term biochemical cure. We retrospective reviewed all parathyroidectomies for primary hyperparathyroidism performed at our university hospital from 2003 to 2012. We routinely perform ioPTH testing. Biochemical cure was defined as a normal calcium level at 6 months. A total of 1,421 patients met the inclusion criteria: 78 % of patients had a single adenoma at the time of surgery, 98 % had a normal serum calcium at 1 week postoperatively, and 96 % had a normal serum calcium level 6 months postoperatively. Using the CaPTHUS scoring model, 307 patients (22.5 %) had a score of ≥ 3, with a positive predictive value of 91 % for single adenoma. A CaPTHUS score of ≥ 3 had a positive predictive value of 98 % for biochemical cure at 1 week as well as at 6 months. In our population, where ioPTH testing is used routinely to guide use of bilateral exploration, patients with a preoperative CaPTHUS score of ≥ 3 had good long-term biochemical cure rates. However, the model only predicted adenoma in 91 % of cases. If minimally invasive parathyroidectomy without ioPTH testing had been done for these patients, the cure rate would have dropped from 98 % to an unacceptable 89 %. Even in these patients with high CaPTHUS scores, multigland disease is present in almost 10 %, and ioPTH testing is necessary.