Personality Predictors of Academic Achievement in Gifted Students
Personality Predictors of Academic Achievement in Gifted Students

Author: Sakhavat Mammadov (Ph.D.)

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13:

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This quantitative study investigated the predictive role of the Big Five personality traits on academic achievement and its mediation by self-efficacy in self-regulated learning and academic motivation within the sample of gifted students (N = 161). The ACT or ACT Explore scores were used as a measure of academic achievement. The first question asked about the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and all other measured variables. Agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were found to have significant associations with the ACT/ACT Explore composite and subtest scores. The second research question asked if personality, motivation, and self-regulatory efficacy differed by grade and gender. The results revealed that middle school students scored significantly higher than high school students on extraversion. Female students scored higher on neuroticism and lower on extraversion compared to their male counterparts. In addition, female students had more controlled type of motivation than male students. The third question was about the interplay between personality traits, self-regulatory efficacy, academic motivation, and academic achievement. Self-regulatory efficacy, controlled motivation, and autonomous motivation were hypothesized to serve as mediators in the relationships between personality traits and academic achievement. Of the Big Five traits, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness were presented in the path analysis model. All three personality traits had direct effects on academic achievement. The indirect effects of these traits through specific pathways were estimated. The present study contributes to the research field by revealing important relationships between specific constructs that have been suggested by personality, social cognitive, and self-determination theories. Academic motivation and self-regulatory efficacy established as important mediators of the association between Big Five personality traits and academic achievement. These findings suggest that educators should be aware of their students' different personality traits. Educators play an important role in promoting self-regulated learning (Peeters et al., 2014) and fostering intrinsic motivation and task engagement (Reeve, 2002). They should be trained to enhance students' efficacy by developing their self-regulatory skills through internalization of effective strategies for learning. In addition, teachers should learn how to be more autonomy supportive with students. Educational leaders have a key responsibility to make these happen effectively. They should give proactive attention to these requirements and ensure that their teachers are well-equipped to integrate self-regulatory and motivational resources into the school curriculum.

The Great Debate
The Great Debate

Author: Harrison J. Kell

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2019-07-26

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 3039211676

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There are many different theories of intelligence. Although these theories differ in their nuances, nearly all agree that there are multiple cognitive abilities and that they differ in the breadth of content they are typically associated with. There is much less agreement about the relative importance of cognitive abilities of differing generality for predicting important real-world outcomes, such as educational achievement, career success, job performance, and health. Some investigators believe that narrower abilities hold little predictive power once general abilities have been accounted for. Other investigators contend that specific abilities are often as—or even more—effective in forecasting many practical variables as general abilities. These disagreements often turn on differences of theory and methodology that are both subtle and complex. The five cutting-edge contributions in this volume, both empirical and theoretical, advance the conversation in this vigorous, and highly important, scientific debate.

Intelligence and Personality
Intelligence and Personality

Author: Janet M. Collis

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1135671745

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This volume brings together leading researchers in a major new effort to bridge the historical gap between the domains of ability and personality. The result is a remarkable collection of chapters analyzing critical issues at the interface--style, structure, process, and context. Contributors address: * intelligence and its relation to temperament and character-hierarchical models of cognition and personality; judgmental data in personality research; and structural issues in ability and personality; * intelligence and conation-goal theories; the role of conation in the learning environment; motivation and arousal; * intelligence and style-stylistic preferences; the role of disposition; cognitive style and its measurement; test taking style; and * intelligence and personality in context-regularities of functioning; contextual effects in cultural variation; control and consistency; the concept of "successful intelligence."

Noncognitive psychological processes and academic achievement
Noncognitive psychological processes and academic achievement

Author: Jihyun Lee

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 1317278178

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It is becoming increasingly clear that non-cognitive psychological processes are important for students’ school achievement, even to the point where their influence may be stronger than that exerted by the parents, teachers, or the school atmosphere itself. Non-cognitive psychological variables refer to varieties of self-beliefs and goal orientations – such as anxiety, confidence, self-efficacy, and self-concept – which are often seen as dispositional and motivational in nature. It is particularly important to highlight the role that confidence and self-efficacy play in school achievement, as these two self-beliefs are related to metacognitive processing – the awareness of what you know and what you do not know. Self-concept, meanwhile, tends to exert its influence on an individual’s choice of tertiary level courses. This book suggests that by focusing on students’ self-beliefs, the education system may be in a position to improve cognitive performance, since individual students’ self-beliefs may be more malleable than the cognitive processes involved in acquiring academic knowledge. Focusing on these non-cognitive psychological processes is also likely to be more effective in improving performance than system-wide interventions involving changes in policy for both public and private sector educators. This book will be useful to educational researchers, school leaders, administrators, counsellors, and teachers, in guiding students’ attitudes towards learning and school performance. It will also provide students in psychology and education with broad and nuanced insights into the drivers of school achievement. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Psychology.

The Science of Interest
The Science of Interest

Author: Paul A. O'Keefe

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 331955509X

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This exceptional volume analyzes the intricate roles interest plays in cognition, motivation and learning, and daily living, with a special focus on its development and maintenance across life domains. Leading experts discuss a spectrum of interest ranging from curiosity to obsession, and trace its functions in goal-setting, decision-making, self-regulation, and performance. New research refines the current knowledge on student interest in educational settings and the social contexts of interest, with insights into why interest levels change during engagement and in the long run. From these findings, contributors address ways to foster and nurture interest in the therapy room and the classroom, for optimum benefits throughout life. Among the topics covered: · Embedding interest within self-regulation. · Knowledge acquisition at the intersection of situational and individual interest. · The role of interest in motivation and engagement. · The two faces of passion. · Creative geniuses, polymaths, child prodigies, and autistic savants. · The promotion and development of interest. A robust guide to a fascinating area of study, The Science of Interest synthesizes the field’s current knowledge of interest and indicates future directions. Its chapters contribute depth and rigor to this growing area of research, and will enhance the work of researchers in education, psychologists, social scientists, and public policymakers.

Encyclopedia of Human Behavior
Encyclopedia of Human Behavior

Author:

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2012-01-31

Total Pages: 2475

ISBN-13: 0080961800

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The Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, Second Edition, Three Voluime Set is an award-winning three-volume reference on human action and reaction, and the thoughts, feelings, and physiological functions behind those actions. Presented alphabetically by title, 300 articles probe both enduring and exciting new topics in physiological psychology, perception, personality, abnormal and clinical psychology, cognition and learning, social psychology, developmental psychology, language, and applied contexts. Written by leading scientists in these disciplines, every article has been peer-reviewed to establish clarity, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. The most comprehensive reference source to provide both depth and breadth to the study of human behavior, the encyclopedia will again be a much-used reference source. This set appeals to public, corporate, university and college libraries, libraries in two-year colleges, and some secondary schools. Carefully crafted, well written, and thoroughly indexed, the encyclopedia helps users—whether they are students just beginning formal study of the broad field or specialists in a branch of psychology—understand the field and how and why humans behave as we do. Named a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association's Choice publication Concise entries (ten pages on average) provide foundational knowledge of the field Each article features suggested further readings, a list of related websites, a 5-10 word glossary and a definition paragraph, and cross-references to related articles in the encyclopedi Newly expanded editorial board and a host of international contributors from the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

Predicting Students' Academic Performance in College Using a New Non-cognitive Measure
Predicting Students' Academic Performance in College Using a New Non-cognitive Measure

Author: Sui Huang

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13:

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Abstract: There have been voluminous studies upon the potential predictive power of students' non-cognitive attributes such as self-confidence, motivation and student's interaction with institutions on their collegiate performance. While much effort have been put towards identifying the utilities of these attributes, little endeavors have been made to design a concise yet precise composite measure of all the collegiate performance-related non-cognitive attributes. Such measure could be beneficial not just to the future research studies about non-cognitive correlates of students' academic performance in college; it could also be more than informative to the admission officials in higher institutions. The initial intent of this study was to develop an instrument to measure relevant non-cognitive drivers of students' academic performance in college. A Meta analysis was conducted to guide the selection of non-cognitive constructs to include in the proposed instrument. Academic self-efficacy and achievement motivation were the two constructs that were shown to be significantly correlated with students' academic performance in college across research studies. Considering the momentum that student engagement is acquiring in evaluating the quality of higher institutions and predicting students' success in college, the author also included student engagement as one of the constructs to measure. Items were created for each of the aforementioned constructs by reviewing, selecting and revising the existing measures. Face and content validity were established through expert reviews. A forty item initial survey were sent out electronically in two mid-west higher institutions. 497 responses from two Ohio higher institutions were collected. Reliability of the proposed instrument was initially established based on Cronbach's alpha. Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory as well as Exploratory Factor Analysis were conducted in the refinement of the instrument. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was utilized to validate the construct validity of the final survey, which was consist of the 20 selected items from the initial survey. A structural equation exploration was conducted after establishing the reliability and validity of the proposed survey with the intent of studying the added values of non-cognitive attributes on students' cumulative GPA in college after controlling for the influence of their prior success, which was measured by their high school GPA and SAT scores. Two hypothesized models were tested and compared. Results indicated that students' non-cognitive constructs (i.e. Academic self-efficacy, achievement motivation and student engagement) have significant influence on students' cumulative GPA in college while not taking into account their prior academic success. However, when students' prior academic success was included as covariate in the model, most of the aforementioned non-cognitive attributes were no longer significant predictors of their academic performance in college, which in other words could be interpreted that the aforementioned students' non-cognitive constructs are, to some degree, proxies of their prior academic success, which ultimately influence their performance in college.