An investigation of the effects of the formal reporting process on primary students' self-efficacy.
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
Subjects: Self-efficacy.; School children -- Ontario.; Report cards -- Ontario.; Report cards -- Ontario -- Psychological aspects.; School children -- Rating of -- Ontario.; Grading and marking (Students) -- Ontario.
Description: This study examines the self-efficacy of a group of Grade One students in an urban public school in Ontario both before they received their first report card, and after the report card process, including the parent-teacher interview. Students rated the strength of their learning self-efficacy in seven school subjects on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 representing the strongest self-efficacy. The subjects targeted by this study are, Reading, Writing, Science, Gym, Music, Art and the Number Sense and Numeration strand from Mathematics.The findings add to our understanding of self-efficacy of young students, an age group for which there is limited previous research data available. Although the generalizability of the findings is limited, the findings for this study indicate that Grade One students differentiated learning self-efficacy by subject, that their self-efficacy changed during the Grade One year, and that the students' self-efficacy beliefs appear to be influenced by a variety of factors, such as parents, teachers, gender, and the students' awareness and beliefs about letter grades.This study also collected anecdotal comments from the students, teachers, and parents to examine the meaning made from letter grades on Grade One students' report cards.The findings also identify a significant gap between what teachers intended the report card letter grades to communicate and what the parents and students understood, indicating the need for the development of greater assessment, evaluation and reporting expertise among teachers, as well as the need to reconsider the way we report primary students' achievement in Ontario.
Notes: Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2109.