The influence of students’ background on school attainment

7/29/2019 The influence of students background on school attainment

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The influence of students background on school attainment


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In the following I set out to review articles dealing with the relationship between the

background of students and their attainment levels. The articles reviewed here discuss the

background factors which account for the differences in academic achievement between

American or Australian and Far Eastern students, by comparing results of the ThirdInternational Math and Science Study (TIMSS) for students of these countries.

Mathematics is a proper basis for comparison as it is not as much culture dependent like

language learning, thus it is an appropriate approach to the universal issue of learning and

student background general terms. As a result, hopefully we can draw conclusions which

are also relevant in Hungary and devise methods which can also be applied for Hungarian

students.

It is common knowledge that the background of students has a significant influenceon their school attainment level, yet a careful scrutiny is necessary to establish which

aspects of the background of students have a key role in contributing to the students

academic achievement.

Marjoribanks (Marjoribanks, 2004) investigates the relationship between the

students backgrounds, their individual characteristics and their academic, affective and

social outcomes. He introduces a moderation-mediation model based on Bourdieus theory

of the social trajectory of individuals and Colemans concept of opportunity structures.

According to the model, the relationships among adolescents family and school

capital, individual characteristics and young adults outcomes are moderated by family

background, while social capital mediates the effects of family background on young

adults outcomes. The aim of the study is to examine whether family background

differences can be explained by differences in learning environments and individual

characteristics and, whether the relationship between this is different for students of

different backgrounds.

The survey was carried out among year 9 and 10 and 19-year-olds and 20-year-olds,

the variables measured were family background composed of family social status and

family ethnicity, social capital, both that of the family and the school. Intervening variables

were individual characteristics comprising academic achievement, academic self-concept,

educational aspirations and self confidence, and outcomes encompassing educational

attainment, subjective well-being and social engagement.

The results showed that in earlier attainment for Asian families social status does

not have as significant influence on attainment than for other young adults, their aspirations


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were less influenced by changes in attainment, as they indifferently displayed high

aspirations. in the case of later educational attainment the results were similar in that Asian

young adults still had higher attainment scores than Anglo-Australians. Moreover, Asians

scored higher in social engagement. However, results for subjective well-being were quitethe opposite, Anglo-Australian young adults scored above the mean for the sample, while

Asians were below the average, in addition students who scored high on attainment were

less satisfied in general, which is probably caused by high expectations of the students.

In his analysis Marjoribanks draws attention to the distinction between within-

family social capital and between-family social capital, the first referring to the support of

the parents, the second encompassing the relationships between families and educational

institutions and the community, which together with the high prestige of education, accountfor the higher scores of Asian students in academic achievement.

Marjoribanks suggests that between-family practices, like the sharing of resources

for the education of children, their support, encouragement and solidarity of the

community, should be integrated into student-family programs, because they are a

significant factor for the development and achievement of the students. Yet another issue to

be dealt with is the relationship between lower scores of Asian students on subjective well-

being and the high expectations of their parents.

Wang (Wang 2004) compares the results of Chinese seventh and eighth grade

students from Hong Kong and US students on mathematics achievement in the Third

International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to find out whether the better results

of Hong Kong students can be accounted for by background factors, how they are related to

mathematics achievement and finally if they are equally related for both Hong Kong and

US students.

Earlier research highlighted the differences in family values between Chinese and

US student, namely that Chinese parents have higher aspirations, they themselves have high

attainment levels and are able to help their children, moreover they encourage extra

learning outside the class. In addition, they are more likely to employ authoritarian

parenting style, they attribute their childrens failure to lack of effort and consider

education very important. On the other hand, US parents can generally be characterized by

having authoritative parenting styles, and they express satisfaction more frequently.

These aspects of family background contribute to the academic achievement of the

students, and may provide an explanation for the significantly higher scores Hong Kong


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students have, as their backgrounds are quite different in many aspects. US parents had

higher education and provided their children with more study aids, while Hong Kong

parents offered a traditional family environment, a different set of values showing a

preference for their children entering high-achieving classes, for which aim they werewilling to cut down their free time and encourage them to take extracurricular lessons.

On comparing the results of Hong Kong and US students the factors which

contributed to higher scores of the students were mainly related to the family. Hong Kong

students were advantaged in eight family background areas, while US students in only

three, in addition, Hong Kong students had lower scores in areas which hinder school

achievement, like watching TV or playing computer games. The factors which were

perceived as beneficial for the students performance were living with birth parents, thespecific expectation from the mother to go to high-achieving classes and spending extra

time to study, and those that hindered their performance were TV time, school high

absenteeism rate and skipping school.

On the whole the factors which were beneficial for all students were higher

expectations from parents, being assigned to high achieving classes, study aids, and living

with birth parents. Hong Kong students who mostly live in traditional families, who are

expected to perform well at school were to a certain degree in a privileged situation

compared to US students with respect to school achievement in mathematics.

The relevance of this study for schools and teachers lays in help it can offer in

planning the extracurricular activities for students to help them manage their time and

balance their school-related and extracurricular tasks and academic and non-academic

activities. For US students, who spend more time watching TV or playing computer games,

parents are advised to limit TV viewing and help them with their homework or encourage

their children to take part in after school programs, and indicate the value of learning and

schooling.

The article of Susan Paik (Paik 2004) similarly deals with the reasons behind

students from the East Asia, in this case Korea, outperforming US students. She also

underlines the importance of family background factors and the Confucian ethic, which

advocates the importance of the family and education, thus Koreans have a high respect for

education, and even the government supports school-family-community partnerships.

Besides, Korean students spend more time studying in school and out of school than

students of most countries.


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The research is based on TIMSS surveys and focuses on aptitude, instruction and

environment, motivation, quality of instruction, quantity of instruction, classroom climate,

home environment, peers and TV viewing and out of school time. Korean students

performed significantly better in mathematics than US students did, still US students hadhigher self-esteem. The quantity of instruction was also significantly higher for Korean

students which supported the fact that they spend more time studying in school and out of

school, and also there are less behavioral problems with Korean students. Furthermore,

even though they watch a lot of TV, Korean students watch more educational programs.

The results show that the Curriculum of the Home was the most significant variable

influencing students achievements, for instance living with a birth mother or father lead to

gaining better scores for students. Although US parents were found to be more educatedand offered more study tools, Korean students spent more time studying, took extra classes

and they were also more motivated and have well-determined goals which is one of the

main reasons for their success. The Korean educational system operating similarly to a

family, and its being in close relationship with the family and the community make it truly

efficient, it constitutes a model that is worth following.

In conclusion, the high performances of East Asian students can be accounted for by

the supportive family, and also community background, which helps them make up for

their social or economic disadvantages. The high expectations of their families makes them

extremely motivated, yet at many times they are not as satisfied with their achievements as

US students who perform well, but probably receive more positive feedback from their

families.

However, the models which East Asian countries offer have a wide range of

benefits which makes them worth considering as possible alternatives for helping our

students perform better. For instance, family-school-community partnerships could have a

major impact on childrens and their parents attitudes towards learning and school in

general, which could make them more motivated in learning, and respectively aiding the

learning process, and also improve their self-image. Through such partnerships parents,

teachers and any member of the community could help students by sharing their resources

and offering support to students, thus making use of their social capital and also expanding

it even further by creating a more complex network of valuable relationships among each

other.

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The influence of students’ background on school attainment