Student Attitudes Toward School, Behavior, Academic Performance - Essay Example

The academic success of a student depends on numerous positive and negative factors. An overabundance of negative factors present in a student’s life may place them at risk for facing a number of difficulties such as academic failure, withdrawing from school, and exhibiting certain behavioural problems that may result in a lower quality of home and school life. These risk factors can include ethnic or minority status, low socioeconomic standing, and family level of education attainment. Another significant risk factor involves whether or not the student exhibits any physical, behavioural, or emotional disabilities.

All of these dynamics may combine to compromise the student’s chances of receiving a quality education in a free and public school.It is also important to consider other potential barriers to academic achievement. The risk factors here involve a student’s lack of motivation, self-perception, and the interaction that takes place between teachers and other school staff. Rollins and Valdez (2006) found that student perceptions of how they will perform in school determine their academic success.

Perception is defined to include all processes associated with the recognition, transformation, and organization of sensory information (Little, 1999).The perception theory defines perception as images that exist where and when the mind perceives them (Carr, 1918). Carr proposed that images are not the whole reality of what is seen, but the reality is duration, and the images are a selection within this duration.  Perception, on the other hand, is derived throughout this period of reality (Carr, 1918).

  Perception is an external awareness of two objects, the mind and absolute space, at that moment (Carr, 1918).  Thus, what students see at any given time sends a message to their mind that what they have seen is the truth.