Pathways from socioeconomic status to early academic achievement: The role of specific executive functions

The study explored the role of children?s (N = 193) individual differences and parental characteristics at the beginning of the first year of schooling in predicting students? attainment of academic standards at the end of the year. Special attention was paid to children?s personality as perceived by the teachers? assistants. Along with parents? education, parenting practices and first-graders? cognitive ability, the incremental predictive power of children?s higher-order (robust) personality traits was compared to the contribution of lower-order (specific) traits in explaining academic achievement. The specific traits provided a somewhat more accurate prediction than the robust traits. Unique contributions of maternal authoritative parenting, children?s cognitive ability, and personality to academic achievement were established. The ratings of first-graders? conscientiousness (a higher-order trait) improved the prediction of academic achievement based on parenting and cognitive ability by 12%, whereas assistant teacher?s perceived children?s intelligence and low antagonism (lower-order traits) improved the prediction by 17%.

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Longitudinal relationship between early academic achievement and executive function: Mediating role of approaches to learning

Contemporary Educational Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.06.010 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 171-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jihyun Sung ◽

Kandauda A.S. Wickrama

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Executive Function ◽

Approaches To Learning ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Early Academic Achievement

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The Academic Achievement of Secondary Students in Bangladesh: Assessing the Role of Socioeconomic Status, School Attributes, and Academic Activities

Education Research International ◽

10.1155/2021/5360672 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Ferdousi Jahan Oyshi ◽

Sadia Sharmin Suhi ◽

Afsana Sultana ◽

Nusrat Jahan ◽

Md. Tanvir Hossain

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Secondary School ◽

Secondary Students ◽

Secondary School Students ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Self Regulation ◽

School Students ◽

Academic Activities

This study was aimed at assessing the role of socioeconomic status (SES), school attributes (SA), and academic activities (AA) in the academic achievement of secondary school students in Bangladesh. Data were collected by administering a self-administered questionnaire from 1,043 secondary school students using a multistage cluster random sampling. Hierarchical regression suggested that religion significantly but negatively influenced the academic achievement of secondary students, while SES, teacher-student ratio, performance, and education system significantly predicted the academic achievement, although the latter had a negative impact. Besides, self-regulation and communication also showed a substantial role in determining good academic achievement. Policymakers should pay attention to the SES composition of schools and their quality and mode of education, and certain regulatory activities to achieve quality and all-inclusive education in Bangladesh.

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EDITORIAL

Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools ◽

10.1017/jgc.2017.13 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 262-263

Author(s):

Susan Colmar

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Working Memory ◽

Executive Functions ◽

Self Concept ◽

Classroom Engagement ◽

Relative Efficacy ◽

Relative Paucity ◽

Effective Interventions

I am pleased to introduce a paper for our Applied Practices’ section of the journal, which is entitled Working Memory Interventions with Children: Classrooms or Computers? As one of the authors of this paper, with my colleague Kit Double, I can confirm that its scope is to examine what types of interventions for working memory in children currently exist, their relative efficacy in impacting working memory itself, as well as academic achievement, self concept and classroom engagement. Importantly, we explore the relative paucity of effective interventions, despite current rhetoric about the importance of working memory as a key part of executive functions. The role of attention factors, which are critical to working memory being used appropriately, is also examined. I recommend this paper to you all to challenge your preconceptions and to realistically evaluate what you can and should consider when advising about working memory as part of your practice.

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