Abstracts - Earli

N 931 August 2007 16:00 - 17:20Room: 4.95Paper SessionAttitudesChair:Márta Fülöp, Psychological Institute of MTA, HungaryStudents’ attitude towards school subjects and its correlations to other school relevant factorsResults from a Hungarian large-scale longitudinal surveyRita Kelemen, University of Szeged, HungaryMária B. Németh, University of Szeged, HungaryCsaba Csíkos, University of Szeged, HungaryBenő Csapó, University of Szeged, HungaryThis study plans to monitor the changes in Hungarian students’ attitudes towards different schoolsubject using data form a nationwide representative longitudinal survey. The research aims atpresenting general nationwide tendencies as well as correlations between attitudes andachievement factors on classroom and individual level. In accordance with results from previous(cross-sectional) studies, it is hypothesized that (1) there is a negative change in attitudes duringthe school years, (2) there are relevant differences among students’ groups in the strength ofcorrelations between attitudes and achievement, and (3) correlation between attitude andachievement varies significantly across school subjects. The samples of the survey included 270classes of 13 schools in two age groups: 13- (N=3530) and 17-year-old (2418) students. Thesample was representative for the corresponding populations with respect to territorial coverage,gender and socio-cultural background. The longitudinal study has one measurement point in eachyear. The first year was 2004, so by the time of the conference the first three years’ data will beavailable. A questionnaire was administered to the students containing items on attitudes andsocial-economic background variables. The attitude towards school subjects was measured on a 5-point scale. It has been revealed that there is a general negative tendency in attitudes during theschool years. There are subjects towards which negative attitudes were observable in eachpopulation of students. It has been revealed on classroom-level that the more positive attitude ismeasured towards a subject the stronger correlation is observable between achievement andattitude in that subject. Our longitudinal study enables investigating causal relationships betweenan individual’s attitude change and the individual’s school achievement.The influence of school attitudes, achievement, and educational intentions on school completionand university participationSeik Toon Khoo, Australian Council for Educational Research, AustraliaJohn Ainley, Australian Council for Educational Research, AustraliaAn important review of school engagement called for‘longitudinal research that explores themediating processes between behavioural and emotional disengagement and dropping out’(Fredericks et al, 2004). This paper uses structural equation modelling of longitudinal data from11,685 students from 300 schools followed over five years to investigate relationships betweenstudent background, school attitudes, achievement in literacy and numeracy, educational intentionsand subsequent participation in post-compulsory education. It examines the direct and mediatedinfluences of school attitudes and achievement on school completion and university participation.– 741 –