Session Information
09 SES 07 C, Assessing the Relations of Student and Teacher Variables in Mathematics Classrooms
Paper Session
Contribution
1. Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of teacher and student gender and teacher age on the associations between teacher-perceived temperament, educational competence (EC; i.e., cognitive ability, motivation, and maturity) and school grades in Mother language (ML) and Mathematics (Math) in a population-based sample of Finnish Secondary School students taken from “The Finnish Study of Temperament and School Achievement” (FTSA).
2. Theoretical framework
Student temperament has been found to be an influential factor in predicting school success and academic outcomes measured by both standardized achievement tests and teacher-rated school grades (Martin, 1989; Author et al., 2010a). In addition to direct effects, temperament has been shown to moderate learning in many situations by either facilitating or impeding certain learning strategies, learning processes and successful completion of tasks. Consequently, temperament extends its significant effects to student classroom behaviour (Orth & Martin, 1994), student-teacher interaction (Rudasill & Rimm-Kaufman, 2009), teachers’ attitudes and expectations toward students (Martin, 1989) and even teachers’ instructional strategies and other educational decisions (Keogh, 1989). However, what is still unclear is the interactive effect of student and teacher gender and teacher age in the association between student teacher-perceived temperament and school grades. In the present study we focused on this question.
Although there are currently several competing theories and definitions of temperament (see Goldsmith, Buss, Plomin, Rothbart, Thomas, Chess, Hinde & McCall, 1987), a consensus exists that temperament refers to a biologically based, innate behavioural style, which becomes evident in early childhood and is rather stable over different situations and times (Goldsmith et al., 1987). Temperament is seen as raw material that forms an emotional basis and core for the later development of personality.
Teachers’ perceptions of student temperament consist of three factors related to a teachable and ideal model student (Keogh, 1989). The first, “task orientation”, is composed of activity, persistence and distractibility. The second factor, “personal-social flexibility”, refers to approach, positive mood and adaptability. The third factor, “reactivity”, consists of negative mood, intensity of response and high reactivity. The previous research has shown that students with low temperamental task orientation, low EC, low personal-social flexibility, and high reactivity have been perceived as less capable and less teachable by their teachers and as receiving lower school grades (Author et al., 2010a).
The subject and its specific task demands also influence how student temperament affects in learning. Temperament has been found to be slightly more related to ML than Math (Martin, 1989) although contrary findings also exist (Maziade, Cote, Boutin, Boudreault & Thivierge, 1986). Because of these inconsistent findings, investigating the possible differential influence between ML and Math is relevant and worthwhile.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Author et al. (2010a). [details removed for peer review]. DiLalla, L. F., Marcus, J. L., & Wright-Phillips, M. V. (2004). Longitudinal effects of preschool behavioral styles on early adolescent school performance. Journal of School Psychology, 42, 385-401. Goldsmith, H. H., Buss, A. H., Plomin, R., Rothbart, M. K., Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Hinde, R. A., & McCall, R. B. (1987). Roundtable: What is temperament? Four approaches. Child Development, 58, 505-529. Keogh, B. K. (1989). Applying temperament research to school. In G. A. Kohnstamm, J. E. Bates, & M. K.Rothbart (Eds.), Temperament in childhood. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Martin, R. P. (1989). Activity level, distractibility, and persistence: Critical characteristics in early schooling. In G. A. Kohnstamm, J. E. Bates, & M. K. Rothbart (Eds.), Temperament in childhood (pp. 451-462). Chichester, England. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Martin, R. P., & Bridger, R. C. (1999). The Temperament Assessment Battery for Children –Revised: A tool for the assessment of temperamental traits and types of young children. Unpublished manual. Maziade, M., Cote, R., Boutin, P., Boudreault, M., & Thivierge. J. (1986). The effect of temperament on longitudinal academic achievement in primary school. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 25, 692-696. Orth, L. C., & Martin, R. P. (1994). Interactive Effects of Student Temperament and Instruction Method on Classroom Behavior and Achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 32 82), 149-166. Rudasill, K. M., & Rimm-Kaufman, S. E. (2009). Teacher-child relationship quality: The roles of child temperament and teacher-child interactions. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24, 107-120. Windle, M., & Lerner, R. M. (1986). Reassessing the dimensions of temperamental individuality across the life span: the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R). Journal of Adolescent Research, 1, 213-230.
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