Geneva D. Haertel

Toward a Knowledge Base for School Learning

The purpose of this article is to identify and estimate the influence of educational, psychological, and social factors on learning. Using evidence accumulated from 61 research experts, 91 meta-analyses, and 179 handbook chapters and narrative reviews, the data for analysis represent over 11,000 relationships. Three methods—content analyses, expert ratings, and results from meta-analyses—are used to quantify the importance and consistency of variables that influence learning. Regardless of which method is employed, there is moderate to substantial agreement on the categories exerting the greatest influence on school learning as well as those that have less influence. The results suggest an emergent knowledge base for school learning. Generally, proximal variables (e.g., psychological, instructional, and home environment) exert more influence than distal variables (e.g., demographic, policy, and organizational). The robustness and consistency of the findings suggest they can be used to inform educational policies and practices.

Socio‐psychological Environments and Learning: a quantitative synthesis

Abstract To estimate the sign and size of correlations between student perceptions of social‐psychological environments of their classes and learning outcomes, 734 correlations from 12 studies on 823 classes in eight subject areas were analyzed. These represented a total of 17,805 students in four nations. A total of 31 of 36 hypotheses, theoretically‐derived in 1969 were supported. Learning outcomes and gains are positively associated with Cohesiveness, Satisfaction, Task Difficulty, Formality, Goal Direction, Democracy, and the Material Environment and negatively associated with Friction, Cliqueness, Apathy, and Disorganization. Jack‐knifed regression equations show that the magnitudes of the correlations depend on specific scales, level of aggregation, and nation but not on sample size, subject matter, domain of learning outcome (cognitive, affective, or behavioral), or statistical adjustments for ability and pretests.

Psychological Models of Educational Performance: A Theoretical Synthesis of Constructs

This paper reviews eight theories or models presenting holistic conceptions of student learning in classroom settings (Bennett, 1978; Bloom, 1976; Bruner, 1966; Carroll, 1963; Cooley & Leinhardt, 1975; Gagné, 1974; Glaser, 1976; Harnischfeger & Wiley, 1976). To be included, a model or theory was required to describe variables important to the performance of individual learners or single instructional tasks. Most models also derived implications for the organization of curriculum and/or group instruction. Following discussions of the eight models, major constructs posited by different theorists are cross-tabulated and related to factors of the model of educational productivity (Walberg, 1980).

Educational Psychology's First Century

Educational psychology mediates between the disciplines of psychology and education. Scholars have seldom agreed on a single definition of the field but have incorporated knowledge from several areas. The discipline of educational psychology was fostered primarily in the United States by such eminent psychologists as William James, Edward L. Thorndike, and James McKeen Cattell. Over the past century, several philosophical and scientific movements influenced the field, the most recent example being cognitive theory. In 1990, the first extensive citation analysis was conducted, illustrating the fields increasing maturity and diversity. Educational psychologists have many opportunities to shape policy during the current period of national educational reform

Early Adolescent Sex Differences in Science Learning: Evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress

Data from the 1976 NAEP Science Assessment were used to explore sex differences in science learning and its determinants with controls for ethnicity and parental socioeconomic status. The sample was composed of 2,349 13-year-olds. Scales measuring science learning and five related factors were related to sex, race, and SES in three-way analyses of variance and covariance. While no sex difference in science learning was found, a sex-specific trend in science motivation was detected. For males, increased motivation was found with higher levels of SES (parental education). A number of other differences among ethnic and SES groups are significant.

Continuing Motivation in Science for Early and Late Adolescents

This study examined the classroom environment correlates of continuing motivation in science for national samples of early and late adolescents. Controlling for achievement in science and student background characteristics, measures of the quality of the classroom social environment, and the utility of science content and classes had significant positive regression weights in both samples with continuing student interest and participation in voluntary science activities. The extent to which teachers, rather than students, controlled the learning environment was negatively associated with continuing motivation. Significant interactions were found between level of achievement in science and two dimensions of the classroom environment. For early adolescents the utility of science content and classes had its strongest positive influence on continuing motivation in science for students at the relatively highest levels of science achievement. A similar interaction was found for the older adolescent sample between science achievement and class morale.

Probing a Model of Educational Productivity in Science with National Assessment Samples of Early Adolescents

To test a psychological theory of educational productivity and to explore the usefulness of the National Assessment of Educational Progress data for secondary analysis for policy purposes, the science achievement scores of 2,346 13-year-old students were regressed on indexes of their Socio-economic Status, Motivation, Quality (of instruction), Class (social psychological environment), and Home conditions. All these productivity factors are significant in the ordinary multiple regressions when controlled for one another and Race and Gender, and the equation coefficients conform closely in sign and magnitude to theoretical values derived from the Cobb-Douglas theory of national economic productivity. Under a stringent probe, however, the Class social-psychological environment appears as the only unequivocal cause of science learning in the data.

Toward a Knowledge Base: Why, How, for Whom?

We thank Henry Levin and the editorial board for devoting an unprecedented number of pages of the Review of Educational Research to a single article. We are also grateful to the commentators for their extensive responses to our work. With only one eighth the space to reply, we will respond to the most strongly and frequently voiced questions of the commentators: Why synthesize? How to synthesize? Can research inform practice? Before turning to these, it may be useful to ask an initial question.

Individual and School-Level Correlates of the Educational Aspirations of Older Adolescents

AbstractThis paper explores the individual and contextual effects of schools on the educational aspirations of a national sample of older adolescents. With individual student traits held constant, school-level contextual variables contributed little to the explanation of postsecondary school plans to graduate from college (R2 increase = .012). However, with individual-level student ethnicity, family background, and academic achievement held constant, a measure of classroom morale was positively and significantly associated with educational aspiration. This extends the well-documented link between class environment and learning to educational aspirations.