scholarly journals Modifying Harmful Beliefs About Academic Setbacks: An Attribution Retraining Intervention for African-American Middle School Students at Risk for Academic Failure

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Erin N. Cue ◽  
April Z. Taylor

Ongoing reports of the achievement gap suggest the need for effective interventions that can increase motivation and academic outcomes for African-American youth. This study describes a 3-week evidence-based attribution retraining intervention designed to alter harmful beliefs associated with academic failure among African-American middle school students. Guided by attribution theory, the lessons in the intervention were designed to help students modify maladaptive attributions for academic failure and understand that positive academic outcomes could be obtained through increased preparation and effort. Participants included 64 6th graders identified as low achieving who were randomly assigned to either a treatment or wait-list control group. Results showed significant increases in adaptive attributions and decreases in maladaptive attributions for the treatment group compared to the control group. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Author(s):  
Surabhi Negi ◽  
Sunita Magre

Cyber bullying is the unwise use of technology to harm and humiliate an individual or group over the Internet. The purpose of this article is to test the effectiveness of the cyber bullying sensitisation program (CBSP) to reduce the level of cyber bullying behaviour among middle school students. The sample was restricted to adolescents as they are the ones who are most exposed and vulnerable in the cyber space. A quasi-experimental pre-post design with intervention was adopted for the study. The participants of the study were comprised of 186 middle school students from two private schools in India. The experimental group had 94 participants while control groups had 92 participants. Statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between pre- and post-test scores in the experimental group. No significant difference was found between the experiment and control group before the program, suggesting that the program was effective in helping students in reducing cyber bullying behaviour. The implications for prevention and intervention programs were discussed.


1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra V. Turner ◽  
Michael L. Land

This study investigated the effect of learning Logo on middle-school students' understanding of specific mathematical concepts and on their level of cognitive development. Students in the Logo Group ( n = 91) learned Logo for one hour a week for sixteen weeks as part of their regular mathematics curriculum. The Control Group ( n = 90) did not participate in the Logo program but received the full allotted time for their regular mathematics curriculum. No significant differences were found between the two groups in their understanding of mathematics concepts or in their growth in cognitive development. However, among the students in the Logo Group, those who learned the most Logo gained significantly more than those who learned a minimal amount of Logo both in their understanding of the mathematics concepts and in their level of cognitive development. When the High Logo group was compared to the Control Group, and also to a matched subset of the Control Group, there were large differences in favor of the High Logo group, but the results were not significant. The findings of this study suggest that cognitive development, achievement in mathematics, and achievement in Logo programming all share a common factor and that students who do well in one area are also likely to do well in the other two areas.


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