Teachability and School Achievement : Is Student Temperament Associated with School Grades?
Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: School achievement has far-reaching consequences for the educational pathways and later life trajectories of youth. It determines a student s success or failure in being eligible for further studies, and consequently, career opportunities later on. Student temperament (i.e., an individual s unique and innate tendency to approach and react to the environment) and teachability (i.e., a teacher s perception of the attributes of an ideal model student) have been shown to be influential factors in predicting school success and academic outcomes measured by both standardized achievement tests and teacher-rated school grades. Consequently, student temperament has also been associated with student-teacher interactions, teacher expectations and educational decisions regarding a given student. The purpose of the study was to examine how teachers perceive the innate temperament of students in the school context and whether teachers perceptions of student temperament are associated with their perceptions of students educational competence (EC) (i.e., cognitive ability, motivation and maturity) and teachability. In addition, the study aimed to determine whether teacher-perceived temperament, EC and teachability are related to student school achievement in terms of teacher-assigned school grades in Mathematics (Math) and Mother Language (ML). Teacher and student gender and teacher age were examined as moderating variables in the association between teacher-perceived temperament and school achievement. The subjects were Finnish ninth grade adolescents (n = 3212) and their Math and ML teachers (n = 221) derived from a population-based sample of Finnish upper-comprehensive schools. Teacher-rated student temperament was assessed using age-appropriately formed scales from the Temperament Assessment Battery for Children Revised (TABC-R) and the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R). EC was assessed with three subscales covering cognitive ability, motivation, and maturity developed for the current study. Both teacher-rated and self-rated student teachability was assessed using the results of the factor analysis examined for the current data. The respective school grades were taken from the students latest school reports for Math and ML. The main findings were as follows: (1) teacher-perceived student innate temperament, EC, and teachability explained a rather high proportion of teacher-assigned student school grades; (2) teachers ratings seemed to vary systematically by their gender, age and student gender; (3) the variance between teacher-rated and self-rated temperament could be explained by teacher-ratings and self-ratings measuring different concepts and explaining different variance; and (4) on the basis of findings 1-3, teachers perceptions of student innate temperament could bias their assigning of grades. The results suggest a need for more consideration regarding the prevailing assessment practice in the Finnish educational system, where the student learning process and lesson activity are central. Furthermore, the findings suggest that future teacher training should take into account temperament-conscious education. Keywords: temperament, school achievement, teacher-rated, teachability, educational competence
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Sari Mullola
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1543002458