Predicting academic achievement and cognitive ability from child and parent perceptions of ability.

• Author / Creator

  Kennedy, Kathleen E

• Cognitive ability is the best predictor of academic achievement however, a large proportion of the variance with respect to academic achievement remains unexplained. Research has recently focused on motivational variables such as ability perceptions in an effort to better understand the unexplained variance in academic achievement. Past studies have demonstrated the importance of self-perceptions of ability in the prediction of academic achievement above and beyond general cognitive ability in multiple academic domains. Similarly, parents’ perceptions of their child’s ability have been shown to be a powerful predictor of the academic achievement. No studies, however, have examined both and parent perceptions of ability across a variety of domains yet. Therefore, the present study aimed to address past limitations and thereby systematically examine the extent to which children’s self-perceptions of ability and parents’ perceptions of their child’s ability in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, overall academic achievement and cognitive ability predicted their objectively measured ability in these areas. A sample of 23 children and their parents completed self and parent perception of ability questionnaires. Results indicated children were only able to accurately predict their own reading ability whereas parents were able to accurately predict their child’s ability in the areas of writing, math, overall academic achievement, and general cognitive ability. Future research should consider including teacher perceptions of ability as a separate valuable source of information with respect to a child’s academic achievement. In practice, perhaps having parents foster their child’s perception of their own ability will enhance the child’s self-perception and ultimately allow the child to reach their academic potential.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Academic Achievement
  • Cognitive Ability
  • Motivations
  • Self-Perceptions of Ability

• Graduation date

  Fall 2017

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3XP6VH6C

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.