The Positive Effects of Different Factors that Affect Students Achievement - Term Paper Example

Running head: Factors affecting Performance Factors affecting Performance achievement is akey goal and objective of all educational institutions. There are several internal and external factors that influence student achievement. The paper explores the topic from different angles and using accredited scholarly journals. The paper looks at positive student engagement in the classroom which is a main factor that results to high student achievement. It also considers other factors such as the influence of teachers on students achievement, class size, motivation, family attitudes, peers influence, gender, school culture, as well as environmental factors. The research concludes that all these factors play a major role in determining a student’s achievement in school. Introduction All educational institutions have the aim of promoting student achievement. There are different factors that positively or negatively affect the achievement of students. These include social, economic, environmental and political factors. In students’ achievement, different individuals have to pull forces to ensure that the process is successful. These individuals include teachers, parents and students. This paper analyses the positive effects of different factors that affect students’ achievement. A student’s achievement is influenced by several factors such as class size, family, motivation, teacher’s attitudes, a school’s culture and gender and therefore teachers should put these factors into perspective when teaching. Individual factors that affect students’ achievement Engagement of Students in the learning process Gross (2009) argues that student engagement in learning is an important factor in their success (Gross, 2009). Students can engage in the learning process through submission of assignments and agreeing to teachers instructions. Another form of students’ engagement in the learning process is class attendance. A teacher acts as a guide towards students’ engagement in class. The teacher should, therefore, design a strategy through which students can continuously participate in the learning process. One way through which a teacher can ensure student’s participation is by identifying individual differences among his learners. Use of questions and answers has been identified as one of the best method of engaging students in the process of learning (Capel & Whitehead, 2010). This method targets improving the learning capability of students and, teachers are encouraged to focus more on open ended questions. Such questions encourage thinking and hence enable students to achieve better results even if the students do not answer the questions (Kim, 2010). Teachers who ensure effective engagement of the students experience less problems in managing their classes. Students’ interests can be boosted through application of different resources that interest students (Gross, 2009). These include practical work in the classroom and learning objectives that require the students to participate. This leads to motivation which is an important factor in improving the performance of the student. Role of motivation to students’ achievement Motivation of students has always led to high achievement among learners. There are two major types of motivation that help to promote achievement in students. These are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation mainly involves a student’s drive or desire towards learning. Intrinsic motivation helps a student in defining the importance of achieving highly academically. This type of motivation mainly depends on a student’s goal. There are those students who work hard in their schoolwork with an aim of having a good career in future. Such students will, therefore, put more efforts towards achievement of this goal. Extrinsic motivation comes from the external environment of the learners. Individuals who promote this type of motivation can be teachers, parents and other students. A teacher can promote extrinsic motivation in a learner by constantly reinforcing good character. Reinforcement can be done through offering incentives like sweets, books or pens (Gross, 2009). A teacher can also motivate students who perform well by offering them gifts to ensure that they maintain their performance. Poor performers on the other hand, can be encouraged to perform well by constantly complimenting them whenever they make an improvement. Students will be encouraged to work harder if they are motivated and thus it is important that teachers ensure all students, despite their performance, are motivated (Liu, 2010). Students who are motivated perform better than their counterparts who are uninterested in class work (Gambrell, 2011). Teachers should ensure that students enjoy both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation so as to provide the best outcome. The ability to motivate students is considered a strength that improves the effectiveness of the teacher. Teachers’ effectiveness towards students’ achievement Students’ performance can be used to assess a teachers’ competence. Most competent teachers are believed to produce high performers while the less competent ones produce underachievers. High achievement emanates from teacher effectiveness. Effectiveness of a teacher is defined through his attitude to the teaching process, his teaching habits and motivation of students. Teachers are required to have a positive attitude towards students and the learning process. Teachers with a positive attitude towards students tend to motivate them towards achieving their goals. To attract students’ attention, a teacher is required to make his or her class exciting. This can be done through creation of an exciting social environment. Learners ought to be allowed to freely associate with each other in class during a learning process. Allowing learners to interact provides them with space to share ideas and thus learn from one another. In ensuring high achievement among learners, teachers should set targets for their learners. These targets should be achievable and should at the same time consider individual differences. Setting of student’s targets helps in defining teachers’ expectations from students. Teachers are in the best position to understand how their students behave and what they can achieve. This helps them to determine what the students are capable of achieving at the end of every learning process. Gifted and talented students should get higher targets than average students (Walters, 1956). The positive attitude from the teachers plays a role in student development. Teachers’ attitudes towards students Teachers’ attitudes towards students help in determining students’ performance. Teachers with negative attitudes towards students are likely to produce students with low grades. A negative attitude can be considered behavior that inhibits the development or learning of the child. Such behaviors by teachers lead to students being unmotivated and thus, are likely to lead to poor results by the student. Some teachers develop negative attitudes to students with disabilities of those who perform poorly (Levins, Bornholt, & Lennon, 2005). Research has shown that some teachers tend to develop a negative attitude towards students from low social classes leading to poor performance among these individuals (Mangin, 2010). On the other hand, teachers with a positive attitude towards students are likely to produce students who are high achievers. Positive attitude refers to the interest shown by the teacher to motivate and help the student to learn. This kind of attitude enhances a student’s learning ability and motivates him to work harder. A good example of a positive attitude by the teacher may be to compliment poor performers whenever they improve their performance and making sure that they help the students improve their grades. Although the attitude of the teacher is vital in student development, it is important to understand that there are other factors that play a role in student performance including social issues. Socio-economic factors that affect students’ achievement Contribution of one’s family towards achievement Family plays a vital role in determining students’ achievement. However, Kellaghan (2003) argues that one’s family should not determine his or her academic performance. Sam Redding (2001) supports this idea by stating that, students from poor backgrounds can achieve highly academically through motivation from their parents. Some individuals still oppose this idea by saying that one’s background helps in determining performance. This is in the sense that, those from a high social class can easily access resources that promote learning unlike those from a low social class. Students raised by a single parent, according to research, perform poorly than those raised by both parents. This is because they are likely to be easily influenced by their peers to engage in bad behaviors (Schleicher, 2011). The education of the parent is also an important factor in the performance of the student. Schleimer (2011) holds that parent education plays a major role in students’ achievement. Students’ from educated parents would tend to emulate them. Due to this, such students tend to actively participate in learning while those from uneducated parents lack motivation on the need for hard work. Parents who are successful academically and economically act as role models to their children. Parents can also influence their children’s achievement through their parenting styles. There are different types of parents. These include the authoritative, the authoritarian, the permissive and the uninvolved. Authoritative parents demand certain expectations from the children but they are flexible in responding to the needs of the child. Authoritarian parents demand that children live in a certain way and they leave no avenue for flexibility. Permissive parents support their children but do not demand anything from them while uninvolved parents do not respond to the needs of their children and do not, in turn, demand anything from them (Kang & Moore, 2011). Students with authoritative parents perform better than those with permissive, uninvolved and authoritarian parents. This is because authoritative parents encourage their children to be responsible in everything they do (Schleicher, 2011). Class size Class size is another major contributing factor towards students’ achievement. Educators have identified that small class sizes help in acquiring high achievements among students. According to research, a class size has both negative and positive effects to student’s achievement. They, therefore, propose that institutions should embrace small class sizes to ensure that students achieve highly. This is because there will be no strain on learning resources. Moreover, students from disadvantaged backgrounds will have easy access to the resources. Debate has always risen on the effectiveness of a small class size, some arguing that small classes are not in any way related to students’ achievement. The advocates of this point of view are economists who hold that establishing small classes is more expensive than acquiring high achievement among learners and, therefore, educators should only focus on students’ achievement and ignore class sizes (Conan, 2011). According to Gross (2009), good performance witnessed in private schools is due to small class sizes that allow easy access of students to resources. Small class sizes allow easier interactions of learners and teachers. The students can easily ask for clarity in the areas that they do not understand. On the other hand, large classes do not allow students to interact with each other; therefore, teamwork is rarely promoted (Gross, 2009). Due to lack of funds to attend improved schools, students from low social classes attend poorly funded schools, which are mostly made of large classes. Consequently, students from small classes achieve highly than those from large classes. In large classes, teachers tend to assign work in groups to reduce work load. This is likely to result in peer influences in the groups. Peer influence Walters (1956) agrees that peers have a great influence on students’ achievement. Those students who associate with performing students tend to improve their performance compared to those who associate with low performers. Parents can help in promoting positive peer influence by keeping strong ties with their children. Research shows that students who have strong ties with their parents are less likely to be influenced negatively by their peers. Teachers can also help in monitoring the kind of relationships that students have in school. This prevents emergence of unruly students who would lead others to poor performance. Some students attain academic excellence by emulating their peers. This means that students are motivated by other students’ performance and therefore work towards outshining each other. Students who are rejected in a certain group are likely to perform poorly because they might feel inadequate or inferior (Walters, 1956). Rejection of individuals in a certain group leads to low self-esteem. Influence of gender Both genders should be given equal educational opportunities so as to ensure achievement among students. Research shows that girls have been denied equal opportunities in education compared to boys. Women, in general, have faced discrimination in many social aspects. They only started to enjoy equal rights with men recently. The stereotype that women perform better in some areas and vice versa has been strengthened by various events. A study by Bidin and Jusoff (2009) found that an English test between male and female students produced different mean results (Bidin & Jusoff, 2009). Such studies lead to the conclusion that girls are weaker than boys when it comes to education. In most cases, this bias makes girls lose hope and confidence, believing that men are meant to perform better than them. It is also important to note that such biases create a culture of success or failure in a school. How schools’ culture affects students’ achievement A school’s culture helps in determining students’ performance. Schools are encouraged to promote a reading culture. This culture can be promoted through different methods. Schleicher (2010) observes that, students learn better by emulating others. Therefore, schools should create reading role models that help students in learning. Teachers should show students the need for reading by actively participating in different learning processes. Another method of promoting a reading culture among learners is by use of reading commercials (Schleicher, 2011). In order to achieve success in this, learners should have a positive attitude towards a reading culture. Students with a positive attitude towards this culture achieve highly than those with a negative attitude. As schools develop and evolve, they create a culture that is associated with the school. If a school is associated with good student performance, then a culture of success is established. The opposite is also true. Students who attend these schools have a mindset of success and their performance is likely to be inline with the school culture. Skilled teachers and staff have a great influence on the creation of this culture. The role of staff development Staff development is another major contributor to student’s achievement. Staff development mainly entails teachers training with an aim of improving efficiency. Teachers should, therefore, be encouraged to retrain in order to acquire new skills and knowledge that helps in content delivery. According to McCollum (2009), teachers need certain skills to promote learning. Furthermore, persistence among teachers is very important as it promotes unity between the students and the teachers (McCollum, 2009). This is one of the environmental factors that aid students in school. Environmental factors Students should have a favorable environment that promotes learning. Educational institutions should be located in a quiet environment. Such an environment promotes concentration in the classroom and serves to instill the reading culture in students. Noise in the school or near the school can distract students leading to poor performance by the students. Students should also be able to access the schools easily. This means that there should be a good transport system to save time. Schools should also be located in safe places away from wild animals that can harm students (Gross, 2009). All these factors lead to student improvement. Conclusion The main aim of this paper was to identify factors leading to improvement in student performance. These factors included motivation, environment, family and teacher attitudes. Most of the factors have been found to have a direct impact on the performance of a student and thus, it is important that tutors and parents be aware of these factors. Although all these factors play a crucial role, it has also been noted that the student must also be interested in learning in order to improve his chances of success. Many other factors such as parenting styles should also be considered to ensure that students record better performances. Performance in schools has been a major issue and it is, therefore, important for all stakeholder to ensure that all factors that may influence performance are recognized and given due attention. It would be interesting, for example, to note what effect reduced classroom sizes would have on teacher motivation. References Bidin, S., & Jusoff, K. (2009). The Influence of Gender and Social Economic Status on Boarding School Students English Language Performance. Canadian Social Science , 5 (5), 41-47. Capel, S., & Whitehead, M. (2010). Learning to Teach Physical Education in the Secondary School: A Companion to School Experience. New York: Taylor & Francis. Conan, N. (2011, March 29). School Founder Says Class Size Doesnt Matter. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134956184/school-founder-says-class-size-doesnt-matter Gambrell, L. B. (2011). 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