Socio cultural factors: Studies revealed that children from low Socio Economic Status do not perform well compared to middle income group children. Children from middle socio economic status respond more to verbal rewards while low socio economic status children to concrete rewards; this could be one of the reasons for their disinterest for academic achievement.
Language: This is another factor that influences child’s school performance. Even if the child has the potential to learn, due to change of medium of instruction he tends to do poorly.
Family variables: Parent’s qualification, status, attitude, expectations, parental assistance, transport and conveyance are found to be some of the important family variables. Parents of higher qualification, good economic status, positive attitude towards academics and adequate involvement in children’s academics, high expectations on children’s abilities tend to support their children’s academic performance. Family environment: family involvement, quality time spent with the young children has significant impact on their cognitive capability.
Learning environment / classroom variables: these include facilities such as seating arrangements, number of children, learning material, visual aids, philosophy of education etc. Children from good physical facilities, adequate teaching and learning material in the school, good philosophy of education, ideal teacher and children ratio in their schools show good academic performance.
Tutorial assistance and area of residence – rural, urban and tribal. The children who are taking tutorial assistance tend to perform more in their academics than children who are not taking assistance. The children from urban areas may perform better than rural and tribal areas due to various opportunities.
Teacher variables: include experience, attitude, quality of teaching and mode of teaching.
Personal variables of students: Attitude, interest, aptitude, motivation, health, intelligence, gender etc.
Intelligence: In general, intelligence tends to be positively correlated with school achievement; still many bright children do poor school work while some children with average intelligence do extremely well. The relationship of creativity to intelligence is even more complex because a high I.Q. is not required for high creativity.
Achievement motivation: Is an important ingredient in school success. Studies done by psychologists revealed that who emphasized success in stories were described as being high in need for achievement. Children who score high on achievement motivation do better in a variety of academic tasks. They are more persistent, more likely to reach a solution on a problem solving task than low achievers. More likely to continue to work at tasks even when there is no external pressures. It is generally assumed that academic motivation is not inborn but is learnt from parental actions and attitudes.
Levels of aspiration (expectation about success / failure): It depends upon the past experiences. Children met with failures tend to set goals either much too high / low. Fears and anxieties associated with failures make them unrealistic about their abilities. Studies indicated that failure oriented persons tend to choose high tasks and rise up to that level and lower it after success.
Creativity: It is the mental ability of the child, where he expresses his thoughts and ideas. It is the ability to generate different ideas, to think of alternate use for familiar objects and alternate solutions to problems. Creativity is very important for high academic performance as problem solving capacities require creative opportunities at home and school.
Cognitive skills / variables: Reasoning, problem solving ability, creativity, and understanding of arithmetic relationships, perceptual ability, logical thinking, verbal fluency, comprehension level and written expression will affect the academic performance of the children.
Participants