TY - JOUR A1 - Kretschmann, Julia A1 - Westphal, Andrea A1 - Vock, Miriam T1 - Does it pay to be one of the oldest in class? BT - Relative age effects on academic self-concept, peer relations, and teacher judgments in German primary schools JF - Learning and instruction : the journal of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction N2 - Several studies have revealed that older students in a year group reach higher achievement scores than younger students in that group. But less is known about how students' relative age in class relates to their self-perception of academic achievement, their social acceptance in class and to how teachers judge their abilities. Therefore, we examined relative age effects within class on students' academic self-concept, peer relations, grades, and teachers' secondary school recommendation. Analyses were based on a sample of N = 18,956 German fourth graders, who had never been retained or accelerated. We applied multilevel regression to control for covariates at the individual and classroom level. There were no substantial relative age effects within class across any of the outcomes, except for a small advantage for the youngest in their reading self-concept. Our findings therefore contradict the common assumption that younger students in class are disadvantaged compared to their older classmates. KW - Relative age effects KW - Month of birth KW - Academic self-concept KW - Peer KW - relations KW - Teacher judgments Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101463 SN - 0959-4752 SN - 1873-3263 VL - 74 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Westphal, Andrea A1 - Kretschmann, Julia A1 - Gronostaj, Anna A1 - Vock, Miriam T1 - More enjoyment, less anxiety and boredom BT - How achievement emotions relate to academic self-concept and teachers' diagnostic skills JF - Learning and individual differences : a multidisciplinary journal in education N2 - Students' achievement emotions are critical in their academic development. Therefore, teachers need to create an emotionally positive learning environment. In the light of this, the present study investigated the connection between students' enjoyment, anxiety, boredom and, in the first case, students' academic self-concept and, in the second, teachers' diagnostic skills. The third part of our study examined whether this link would be moderated by students' academic self-concept. Our sample comprised N = 1803 eighth-grade students who reported their achievement emotions and evaluated the diagnostic skills of both their German and mathematics teachers. Hierarchical models indicated that students experience more enjoyment and less anxiety and boredom if teachers exhibit better diagnostic skills. The role of teachers' diagnostic skills in relation to students' emotions was in part moderated by the students' self-concept. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for effective teaching. KW - Achievement emotions KW - Diagnostic skills KW - Instructional quality KW - Academic self-concept KW - Multilevel modeling Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2018.01.016 SN - 1041-6080 SN - 1873-3425 VL - 62 SP - 108 EP - 117 PB - Elsevier B.V. CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jonkmann, Kathrin A1 - Becker, Michael A1 - Marsh, Herbert W. A1 - Lüdtke, Oliver A1 - Trautwein, Ulrich T1 - Personality traits moderate the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect of academic self-concept JF - Learning and individual differences N2 - Equally able students have lower academic self-concepts in high-achieving classrooms than in low-achieving classrooms. This highly general and robust frame of reference effect is widely known as the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE; Marsh, 1987). This study contributes to research aiming to identify moderators of the BFLPE by investigating the effects of students' personality (i.e. Big Five traits and narcissism). Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the moderator hypotheses, drawing on data from a large sample of N= 4973 upper secondary track students (M age = 19.57). Consistent with a priori predictions, the negative effect of school-average achievement (the BFLPE) interacted significantly with narcissism. Students high in narcissism experienced smaller BFLPEs than did students with low or average levels of narcissism. The statistically significant effect for neuroticism acted in the opposite direction. The study illustrates how personality moderates frame of reference effects that are central to self-concept formation. KW - Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect KW - Academic self-concept KW - Moderation KW - Personality Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.07.020 SN - 1041-6080 VL - 22 IS - 6 SP - 736 EP - 746 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -