TY - GEN A1 - Westphal, Andrea A1 - Vock, Miriam A1 - Kretschmann, Julia T1 - Unravelling the relationship between teacher-assigned grades, student personality, and standardized test scores T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The Big Five personality traits play a major role in student achievement. As such, there is consistent evidence that students that are more conscientious receive better teacher-assigned grades in secondary school. However, research often does not support the claim that students that are more conscientious similarly achieve higher scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests. Based on the Invest-and-Accrue Model, we argue that conscientiousness explains to some extent why certain students receive better grades despite similar academic accomplishments (i.e., achieving similar scores in domain-specific standardized achievement tests). Therefore, the present study examines to what extent the relationship between student personality and teacher-assigned grades consists of direct as opposed to indirect associations (via subject-specific standardized test scores). We used a representative sample of 14,710 ninth-grade students to estimate these direct and indirect pathways in mathematics and German. Structural equation models showed that test scores explained between 8 and 11% of the variance in teacher-assigned grades in mathematics and German. The Big Five personality traits in students additionally explained between 8 and 10% of the variance in grades. Finally, the personality-grade relationship consisted of direct (0.02 | β| ≤ 0.27) and indirect associations via test scores (0.01 | β| ≤ 0.07). Conscientiousness explained discrepancies between teacher-assigned grades and students’ scores in domain-specific standardized tests to a greater extent than any of the other Big Five personality traits. Our findings suggest that students that are more conscientious may invest more effort to accomplish classroom goals, but fall short of mastery. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 719 KW - Big Five KW - student personality KW - teacher-assigned grades KW - grading practice KW - conscientiousness KW - mathematics KW - German KW - secondary school Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-523024 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 12 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schmidt, Hendrikje A1 - Felisatti, Arianna A1 - Aster, Michael von A1 - Wilbert, Jürgen A1 - Moers, Arpad von A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Neuromuscular Diseases Affect Number Representation and Processing BT - An Exploratory Study T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) both are rare genetic neuromuscular diseases with progressive loss of motor ability. The neuromotor developmental course of those diseases is well documented. In contrast, there is only little evidence about characteristics of general and specific cognitive development. In both conditions the final motor outcome is characterized by an inability to move autonomously: children with SMA never accomplish independent motoric exploration of their environment, while children with DMD do but later lose this ability again. These profound differences in developmental pathways might affect cognitive development of SMA vs. DMD children, as cognition is shaped by individual motor experiences. DMD patients show impaired executive functions, working memory, and verbal IQ, whereas only motor ability seems to be impaired in SMA. Advanced cognitive capacity in SMA may serve as a compensatory mechanism for achieving in education, career progression, and social satisfaction. This study aimed to relate differences in basic numerical concepts and arithmetic achievement in SMA and DMD patients to differences in their motor development and resulting sensorimotor and environmental experiences. Horizontal and vertical spatial-numerical associations were explored in SMA/DMD children ranging between 6 and 12 years through the random number generation task. Furthermore, arithmetic skills as well as general cognitive ability were assessed. Groups differed in spatial number processing as well as in arithmetic and domain-general cognitive functions. Children with SMA showed no horizontal and even reversed vertical spatial-numerical associations. Children with DMD on the other hand revealed patterns in spatial numerical associations comparable to healthy developing children. From the embodied Cognition perspective, early sensorimotor experience does play a role in development of mental number representations. However, it remains open whether and how this becomes relevant for the acquisition of higher order cognitive and arithmetic skills. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 718 KW - spatial-numerical associations KW - numerical processing KW - mathematics KW - child development KW - embodied cognition KW - neuromuscular disease KW - spinal muscular atrophy KW - Duchenne muscular dystrophy Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-522312 SN - 1866-8364 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lazarides, Rebecca A1 - Lauermann, Fani T1 - Gendered Paths Into STEM-Related and Language-Related Careers BT - Girls’ and Boys’ Motivational Beliefs and Career Plans in Math and Language Arts T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Women are often underrepresented in math-intensive fields like the physical sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. By comparison, boys relative to girls are less likely to strive for jobs in social and human-services domains. Relatively few studies have considered that intra-individual comparisons across domains may contribute to gendered occupational choices. This study examines whether girls’ and boys’ motivational beliefs in mathematics and language arts are predictive of their career plans in these fields. The study focusses on same domain and cross-domain effects and investigates bidirectional relations between motivational beliefs and career plans. Data for this study stem from 1,117 ninth and tenth graders (53.2% girls) from secondary schools in Berlin, Germany. Findings show systematic gender differences in samedomain effects in mathematics: girls’ comparatively lower mathematics self-concept and intrinsic value predicted a lower likelihood of striving for a math-related career. Crossdomain effects were not related to gender-specific career plans, with only one exception. Girls’ lower levels of intrinsic value in mathematics corresponded to a higher likelihood of striving for a career in language-related fields, which subsequently predicted lower levels of intrinsic value in mathematics. This finding points to a need to address both genderspecific motivational beliefs and gender-specific career plans in school when aiming to enhance more gender equality in girls’ and boys’ occupational choices. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 565 KW - gendered motivational beliefs KW - career plans KW - mathematics KW - language arts KW - dimensional comparison Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-436341 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 565 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kucian, Karin A1 - Zuber, Isabelle A1 - Kohn, Juliane A1 - Poltz, Nadine A1 - Wyschkon, Anne A1 - Esser, Günter A1 - von Aster, Michael G. T1 - Relation between mathematical performance, math anxiety, and affective priming in children with and without developmental dyscalculia T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Many children show negative emotions related to mathematics and some even develop mathematics anxiety. The present study focused on the relation between negative emotions and arithmetical performance in children with and without developmental dyscalculia (DD) using an affective priming task. Previous findings suggested that arithmetic performance is influenced if an affective prime precedes the presentation of an arithmetic problem. In children with DD specifically, responses to arithmetic operations are supposed to be facilitated by both negative and mathematics-related primes (= negative math priming effect). We investigated mathematical performance, math anxiety, and the domain-general abilities of 172 primary school children (76 with DD and 96 controls). All participants also underwent an affective priming task which consisted of the decision whether a simple arithmetic operation (addition or subtraction) that was preceded by a prime (positive/negative/neutral or mathematics-related) was true or false. Our findings did not reveal a negative math priming effect in children with DD. Furthermore, when considering accuracy levels, gender, or math anxiety, the negative math priming effect could not be replicated. However, children with DD showed more math anxiety when explicitly assessed by a specific math anxiety interview and showed lower mathematical performance compared to controls. Moreover, math anxiety was equally present in boys and girls, even in the earliest stages of schooling, and interfered negatively with performance. In conclusion, mathematics is often associated with negative emotions that can be manifested in specific math anxiety, particularly in children with DD. Importantly, present findings suggest that in the assessed age group, it is more reliable to judge math anxiety and investigate its effects on mathematical performance explicitly by adequate questionnaires than by an affective math priming task. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 684 KW - developmental dyscalculia KW - mathematics KW - affective priming KW - calculation KW - arithmetic KW - anxiety KW - gender KW - children Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-460671 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 684 ER -