A Cross-grade Comparison to Examine the Context Effect on the Relationships Among Family Resources, School Climate, Learning Participation, Science Attitude, and Science Achievement Based on TIMSS 2003 in Taiwan

This study aimed to examine whether the relationships among family resources, school climate, learning participation, science attitude, and science achievement are different between primary school students and junior high school students within one educational system. The subjects included 4,181 Gra...

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Published inInternational journal of science education Vol. 34; no. 14; pp. 2089 - 2106
Main Authors Chen, Shin-Feng, Lin, Chien-Yu, Wang, Jing-Ru, Lin, Sheau-Wen, Kao, Huey-Lien
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Routledge 01.09.2012
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Comparative Analysis
Comparative studies
Context Effect
Educational Environment
Elementary School Students
Foreign Countries
Grade 4
Grade 8
Junior High School Students
Learning
Learning participation
Likert Scales
Participation
School Activities
School environment
Science Achievement
Science Curriculum
Science education
Scientific Attitudes
Structural Equation Models
Student attitudes
Student participation
Taiwan
Teacher Student Relationship
TIMSS
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
Taiwan
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Summary:This study aimed to examine whether the relationships among family resources, school climate, learning participation, science attitude, and science achievement are different between primary school students and junior high school students within one educational system. The subjects included 4,181 Grade 4 students and 5,074 Grade 8 students who participated in TIMSS 2003 in Taiwan. Using structural equation modeling, the results showed that family resources had significant positive effects for both groups of learners. Furthermore, a context effect for the structural relationship between school climate, learning participation, and science achievement was revealed. In the primary school context, Grade 4 students who perceived positive school climate participated in school activities more actively, and had better science performance. However, in the secondary school context, learning participation had a negative impact and led to lower science achievement. The implications about this result in relation to the characteristics of the two educational contexts in Taiwan were further discussed.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ISSN:0950-0693
1464-5289
DOI:10.1080/09500693.2012.701352