Herbert J. Walberg

What Influences Learning? A Content Analysis of Review Literature.

AbstractThis paper reported a comprehensive “meta-review” and synthesis of research on variables related to learning, including both cognitive and affective schooling outcomes. A conceptual framework was developed encompassing 228 items related to school learning, organized a priori into 30 scales within six categories. Search and selection procedures yielded 179 selected handbook and annual review chapters, commissioned papers, and other authoritative reviews. Content analysis yielded over 3,700 ratings of the strength of influence of the variables on learning. The variables confirmed the primacy of student, classroom, home, and community influences on learning relative to more distal policy variables such as state and district characteristics. Additionally, the variables also highlighted the importance of metacognition, classroom management, quantity of instruction, classroom interactions and climate, and the peer group.

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.

School Size, Characteristics, and Outcomes

To investigate school size effects for secondary schools, 18 school outcomes, including the average scores on state-developed tests, student retention, suspensions, postschool employment, and college attendance for 293 public secondary schools in New Jersey were regressed on 23 school characteristics, including district socioeconomic status and percentages of students from low-income families; school size and number of schools within each district; and teacher characteristics encompassing salaries, degree status, and years of experience. District socioeconomic status and the percentage of students from low-income families in the school were the most influential and consistent factors related to schooling outcomes. School size was the next most consistent and was negatively related to outcomes. This finding corroborates previous research conducted primarily on public elementary school and suggests that smaller school districts and smaller schools, regardless of socioeconomic status and grade level, may be more efficient at enhancing educational outcomes.

Learning as a Function of Time

AbstractMeasures of instructional time are grouped into four ranges-years, days, hours, and minutes-and the strength of the association to outcomes is reviewed within each grouping. Time predicts learning outcomes at a modest level in most of the research, but with exceptions. The use of composite or precise indicators of time-on-task and the use of content-specific outcome measures seem to strengthen the correlational evidence. Complexities such as diminishing returns, the existence of optimum amounts of time, the proper unit of analysis, and the question of causality imply that true experimental designs would clarify the nature of the relationship. The need to include time as one factor in a theory of educational productivity is presented.

The Effects of Homework on Learning: A Quantitative Synthesis.

This paper synthesizes empirical studies of homework and of various homework strategies on the academic achievement and attitude of elementary and secondary students. A computer search yielded 15 p...

Comparative Effects of Computer-Assisted Instruction: A Synthesis of Reviews

This article critically examines the literature reviews of computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Its purpose is to synthesize what is known about CAI at all levels of implementation. Sixteen reviews, three traditional and thirteen quantitative, are compared and evaluated. Results of the synthesis indicated that typical effect of CAI is to raise outcome measures moderately by 0.42 standard deviation units. Thus, the effect of CAI is to place the average student using it at the 66th percentile of the control group distribution.

Motivation and Achievement: A Quantitative Synthesis

To estimate the typical correlation between motivation and educational achievement, the correlations from a calibration sample of 22 studies and a validation sample of 18 studies were analyzed using analysis of variance and regression techniques. Motivation factors were restricted to general, academic, or mathematics self-concept, locus of control, and achievement motivation; achievement outcome measures included achievement and ability tests and grade point indices. For grades 1–12, 232 uncorrected observed correlations showed a mean of .338 indicating 11.4 percent of the variance accounted for in achievement by motivation. Eight variables in a regression model accounted for 39% of the variance in the magnitude of the correlations. Grade level emerged as the only significant student characteristic; motivation and achievement were more highly correlated in students in later grades.

The Impact of Leisure-Time Television on School Learning: A Research Synthesis

To integrate empirical findings concerning the impact of leisure time television viewing on student achievement in grades K-12, 274 correlations were assembled or calculated from 23 educational and psychological review articles, doctoral dissertations, statewide assessments, national surveys, articles from refereed journals, technical reports, books, and unpublished papers. For each study, characteristics of the sample, type of outcome, quality of the study, method of collecting viewing data, mean hours of viewing, and strength and direction of observed relationships were coded. The overall correlation of hours of televiewing and achievement is negative but small (–.05). Regardless of the sample size, year and location of the research, the effect remains consistent. The overall effect, however, is not constant across the range of viewing times. The effects are slightly positive for up to 10 hours of viewing a week, but beyond 10 hours the effects are negative and increasingly more deleterious until viewing time reaches 35 to 40 hours, beyond which additional viewing has little effect. Females and high IQ children are more adversely affected than other groups.

A structural model of science achievement.

Walbergs (1981) nine-factor productivity model was tested with a national probability sample of 3,116 adolescents. A three-wave longitudinal design incorporated data from students, teachers, and parents to construct a latent-variable model of science achievement

4: Psychology of Learning Environments: Behavioral, Structural, or Perceptual?

Before overviewing the purpose and parts of this chapter, it may be helpful to mention the general features of the three models of learning process that are contrasted in the discussion (Figure 1). In the behavioral model the teacher presents stimuli to the student, observes or psychometrically assesses the responses, and selectively reinforces them by reward and punishment. In the structural model, the preprogrammed development of internal mechanisms mainly determines the course of learning; the teacher stimulates the maturation of these mechanisms, draws them out, or provides the environment in which they can be acted upon or be concretized. The perceptual model allows for behavioral and structural mechanisms but holds that the students con-