Birgit Spinath

Akkuratheit der Einschätzung von Schülermerkmalen durch Lehrer und das Konstrukt der diagnostischen Kompetenz

Zusammenfassung: Die vorliegende Untersuchung geht den Fragen nach a) inwiefern Lehrer lern- und leistungsrelevante Merkmale von Schulern akkurat einschatzen konnen und b) ob akkuraten Lehrerurteilen uber verschiedene Akkuratheitsindikatoren und verschiedene einzuschatzende Merkmale hinweg eine generelle Fahigkeit im Sinne diagnostischer Kompetenz zugrunde liegt. Zu diesem Zweck wurden von 723 Grundschulern Intelligenzkennwerte sowie Selbstberichte uber schulische Fahigkeitsselbstwahrnehmungen, Lernmotivation und Schulangstlichkeit herangezogen. Zeitgleich waren die 43 Klassenlehrer gebeten worden, diese Schulermerkmale einzuschatzen. Es zeigte sich, dass die Einschatzungen der Lehrer fur die vier untersuchten Schulermerkmale durchschnittlich nur geringe Akkuratheit erreichten. Gegen die Annahme einer generellen Fahigkeit zur akkuraten Beurteilung der Schulermerkmale durch die Lehrer spricht, dass a) die verschiedenen Komponenten der Akkuratheit innerhalb eines Merkmals und b) gleiche Komponenten uber die...

Longitudinal Analysis of Intrinsic Motivation and Competence Beliefs: Is There a Relation over Time?.

The present study explored whether competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation for different school domains show reciprocal effects over time. A sample of 670 German elementary school pupils (M= 8.8 years, SD= 0.51) was followed over 1 year. At 4 measurement occasions, children completed self-reports on their intrinsic motivation and competence beliefs for math, German, and school in general. Latent growth models revealed that intrinsic motivation and competence beliefs decreased over time. Comparing correlational and cross-lagged structural equation models yielded only weak evidence for cross-lagged influences between the 2 constructs. Results suggest that the developmental curves of competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation might be less inextricably interwoven than frequently assumed.

Goal orientation and achievement: the role of ability self-concept and failure perception

Abstract The prediction is tested that performance goals only entail poor achievement outcomes in individuals with a low self-concept of ability (American Psychologist, 41 (1986) 1040; Psychological Review, 95 (1988) 256). In agreement with Dweck, in three experimental studies participants with performance goals showed impaired performance only when their self-perceived ability was low. Contradictory to Dweck’s predictions, in study 2 this was true although participants were not confronted with failure feedback. Finally, study 3 indicated that individuals with low self-perceived ability considered their performance more often as failures when directed towards performance goals. The consideration of self-perceived ability might clarify and help resolve contradicting research findings about effects of motivational orientation on achievement.

Implicit theories about personality and intelligence and their relationship to actual personality and intelligence

Implicit theories about the malleability of human attributes have proven to be valuable predictors of cognitions, affects, and behavior in the field of achievement motivation and social judgments (see Dweck, 1999). Implicit theories in the sense used by Dweck distinguish between the belief that human attributes are fixed (entity theory) or malleable (incremental theory). The present study examined to what extent implicit theories are related to personality and intelligence. A sample of 592 adults completed self-report measures of implicit theories and the Big Five factors of personality as well as two short forms of intelligence tests. The results support the notion that implicit theories about the malleability of personality and intelligence are largely unrelated to actual personality and intelligence. Thus, the results represent further evidence for the high discriminant validity of the implicit theories construct.

The nature and nurture of intelligence and motivation in the origins of sex differences in elementary school achievement

This study investigates the roles of intelligence and school‐related motivation in sex differences in school achievement and whether there are sex differences in the genetic and environmental influences on these variables. In a sample of 4464 9‐year‐old twins, intelligence, ablility self‐perceptions, intrinsic values and achievement scores were assessed. Girls outperformed boys in English and had better corresponding ability self‐perceptions, whereas in Math boys showed better attainment and ability self‐perceptions. For both sexes and all three domains, intelligence was the strongest predictor of achievement and ability self‐perceptions added incrementally to the prediction. Evidence of genetic influences was found for all measures but shared environmental influences were not important. These findings challenge some widely held assumptions about the development of childrens motivation. Copyright

Die Skalen zum akademischen Selbstkonzept

Wenn Personen Urteile uber ihre eigenen Fahigkeiten abgeben, dann tun sie dies entweder, ohne ausdrucklich Vergleiche vorzunehmen, oder sie verwenden dabei soziale, individuelle und kriterienbezogene Bezugsnormen. In Fragebogen zur Erfassung des akademischen Selbstkonzepts werden jedoch diese Vergleichsarten entweder gar nicht oder nicht in ausgewogener Weise thematisiert. Da die Verwendung unterschiedlicher Bezugsnormen zur Beurteilung eigener Fahigkeiten sowohl entwicklungspsychologisch als auch aus Sicht der Leistungsmotivationsforschung von grosem Interesse ist, wird ein Instrument zum akademischen Selbstkonzept vorgestellt, in dem die drei Bezugsnormen systematisch berucksichtigt werden. In drei Studien wird ein Fragebogen entwickelt und uberpruft, der Fahigkeitsurteile absolut (d.h. ohne Vergleich), sozial, individuell und kriterienbezogen erfasst. Die entwickelten Skalen (in einer Version fur Schuler der Stufen 5 bis 10 und in einer Version fur Studenten) weisen mit .74 bis .92 akzeptable bis gute Re-liabilitaten auf. Die drei Skalen, in denen Bezugsnormen thematisiert werden, konnen faktorenanalytisch identifiziert werden. Korrelationen mit anderen Selbstkonzeptfragebogen, Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung, dem Leistungsmotiv, Prufungsangst und Leistung weisen auf die konvergente und diskriminante Validitat des Verfahrens hin.

Gender differences in school success: what are the roles of students’ intelligence, personality and motivation?

Background: Education is a key variable for reaching individually and socially desired outcomes. Specifically, school grades are important admission criteria for higher education and job positions. Nowadays, in countries committed to equal opportunities, girls obtain better school grades than boys, but the reasons why girls outperform boys are not well understood. In the following, individual student characteristics (i.e. intelligence, personality, motivation) were investigated as promising candidates that may account for gender differences in school performance. Purpose: This is a review of research findings on gender differences in performance-related individual students’ characteristics. These findings may help to explain differences in boys’ and girls’ school achievement. It was hypothesised that girls are better adapted to today’s school environment because of their intelligence (general, specific), personality (Big Five) and motivation (ability self-concept, interest or intrinsic values, goal orientations). To investigate this hypothesis, we reviewed literature with respect to five questions: (1) How strongly are intelligence, personality and motivation associated with school achievement? (2) Are there mean level differences between boys and girls in these characteristics? (3) Do these characteristics show gender differences in predicting school achievement? (4) Can gender differences in these characteristics explain the association between gender and school achievement? (5) Are gender differences in these characteristics causally related to differences in boys’ and girls’ school achievement? Sources of evidence: We mainly based our review on meta-analyses and literature reviews. If no meta-analyses or reviews were available, we reported results of representative single studies, including results from our own studies. To illustrate the magnitude of gender differences, we also reported statistical parameters (correlation coefficients, effect sizes and regression coefficients). Main argument: Concerning the five research questions, we found that, first, among the characteristics investigated here, general intelligence, ability self-concepts and self-discipline were the most important predictors of school performance. Second, gender differences in students’ individual characteristics varied from non-existent (e.g. general intelligence) to strong (e.g. self-discipline). Third, there was no indication that these characteristics were differently important for boys’ and girls’ school performance. Fourth, gender differences in intelligence, personality and motivation partially mediated the association between gender and school achievement but cannot fully explain it. Fifth, whether differences in intelligence, personality and motivation cause performance differences between boys and girls remains unknown because there were no studies that have investigated this question with designs that could test for causal inferences. Conclusion: Gender differences in students’ individual characteristics contribute to a significant extent to gender differences in school performance. Taken together, the effects of gender differences in students’ individual characteristics can partially but not fully account for gender differences in school performance. Girls are somewhat better adapted to today’s school environments, especially because of their better verbal intelligence, higher Agreeableness, stronger self-discipline, as well as certain aspects of their motivation. In light of these specific differences, it is argued that changing certain aspects of school environments might help boys to better succeed in school and, thus, reduce educational inequality.

Predicting School Achievement from Motivation and Personality

Abstract. The present study aims at comparing the predictive power of motivation and broad personality traits for school performance and contributes to an understanding of the nomological network of personality. A sample of German adolescent students (N = 342 11th and 12th graders, age M = 16.94, SD = .71) gave self-reports of need for achievement, domain-specific ability self-concepts and task values in German and Math as well as the Big Five of personality. Grades in German and mathematics as well as grade-point average served as performance criteria. On a bivariate zero-order level, the motivational constructs showed the hypothesized positive associations with school achievement in Math, German, and GPA. With respect to personality, only Conscientiousness was consistently positively associated with grades, whereas Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness were either not or weakly associated with one or two out of three performance criteria. Hierarchical and stepwise regressi...

Zielorientierung und Bezugsnormorientierung: Zum Zusammenhang zweier Konzepte

Zielorientierungen und Bezugsnormorientierungen sind zwei innerhalb der Padagogischen Psychologie ausgesprochen fruchtbare Konstrukte, die sich sowohl aufgrund ihrer Entstehung als auch ihrer konkreten Inhalte sehr deutlich unterscheiden. Dennoch werden beide Konstrukte argumentativ haufig miteinander in Beziehung gebracht, ohne dass bis heute eine empirische Uberprufung dieser Beziehung erfolgte. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung uberprufen wir die Annahme, dass Personen solche Bezugsnormen bevorzugen, die zu Informationen uber das Erreichen der von ihnen verfolgten Ziele fuhren. Eine Lernzielorientierung sollte haufiger mit einer individuellen Bezugsnormorientierung einhergehen, eine Leistungszielorientierung dagegen mit einer sozialen Bezugsnormorientierung. In sechs Studien wurden die beiden Konstrukte per Fragebogen in verschiedenen Stichproben (Studierende, Elftklassler, Siebt-/Achtklassler, Viertklassler sowie Eltern) erhoben. Die Befunde stutzen die Hypothesen. Implikationen der Befunde fur die zugrunde liegenden Theorien werden diskutiert.

Strategien zur Motivationsregulation und ihre Erfassung

Zusammenfassung. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird untersucht, inwiefern eine von Wolters (1998, 1999, 2003) vorgenommene Systematisierung und ein darauf basierender Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Strategien zur Motivationsregulation auf deutsche Studierende ubertragbar sind. Zu diesem Zweck wurden drei Studien durchgefuhrt. In der ersten Untersuchung wurde 106 Studierenden eine deutsche Ubersetzung des Fragebogens vorgegeben. Es zeigte sich, dass die Faktorenstruktur und die Reliabilitaten der deutschen Ubersetzung gut mit denen des amerikanischen Originals ubereinstimmten. Die Antworten einer Substichprobe von 78 Studierenden, die auch in einem offenen Fragebogen nach ihren Motivationsregulationsstrategien befragt wurden, wiesen auf zusatzliche Strategien hin. Aus diesem Grund wurde der Fragebogen erweitert und an zwei weiteren studentischen Stichproben (N = 168 bzw. N = 87) erprobt. Wiederum erwiesen sich die psychometrischen Eigenschaften als gut. Zudem wiesen die Motivationsregulationsstrategien in erwar...