ERIC Number: EJ721277
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Dec
Pages: 29
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-4985
EISSN: N/A
Achievement and Affect in OECD Nations
Williams, Trevor; Williams, Kitty; Kastberg, David; Jocelyn, Leslie
Oxford Review of Education, v31 n4 p517-545 Dec 2005
A statistical relationship between student affect and student achievement is routinely observed--students who like a particular subject also tend to do well in that subject. Theory suggests that the underlying causality is a mutual influence relationship in which affect influences, and is influenced by, achievement. Published analyses, however, usually assume a unidirectional influence--affect influences achievement. To the extent that the latter assumption is an over-simplification, as theory suggests it is, then current understandings of the importance of affect for achievement are probably in error to some degree. The analyses reported here take a position consistent with theory to model the underlying causality of the relationship between affect and achievement as bidirectional. To this end, the present analyses formulate a non-recursive structural equation model which specifies affect and achievement as influences on each other. This model is estimated separately for each of 23 nations, 19 of which are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). All 23 nations participated in the OECD-sponsored Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a programme whose focus is national achievement levels in populations of 15-year-olds. The results of these analyses lend support to the proposition that affect and performance exist in a mutual influence relationship, though the nature of this relationship varies between countries.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Academic Achievement, Elementary Secondary Education, Student Evaluation, Structural Equation Models, Affective Objectives, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - General
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Program for International Student Assessment
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A