Test-Taking Strategy as a Mediator between Race and Academic Performance

被引:4
作者
Dollinger, Stephen J. [1 ]
Clark, M. H. [2 ]
机构
[1] So Illinois Univ, Dept Psychol, Carbondale, IL 62901 USA
[2] Univ Cent Florida, Orlando, FL 32816 USA
关键词
Test-taking strategy; Race; Academic performance; Vocabulary; COGNITIVE-ABILITY; AFFIRMATIVE-ACTION; ETHNIC-DIFFERENCES; COLLEGE-STUDENTS; TEST-WISENESS; SELF-ESTEEM; INTELLIGENCE; VALIDITY; ACHIEVEMENT; DISIDENTIFICATION;
D O I
10.1016/j.lindif.2012.03.010
中图分类号
G44 [教育心理学];
学科分类号
0402 ; 040202 ;
摘要
The issue of race differences in standardized test scores and academic achievement continues to be a vexing one for behavioral scientists and society at large. Ellis and Ryan (2003) suggested that a portion of the cognitive-ability test performance differences between White/Caucasian-American and Black/African-American college students could be attributed to the greater use of ineffective test-taking strategies by the latter group. We replicated and extended their findings by using three outcomes-exam scores in a single academic course, self-reported GPA, and a measure of verbal abilities. Ellis and Ryan reported that the variance in cognitive-ability test performance explained by race dropped by 48% (i.e., from 21% originally to 11%) when controlling for the mediator, ineffective test-taking strategies. Our results were less dramatic, but also indicated that ineffective test-taking strategies accounted for 19% to 25% of the variance originally explained by race. In addition, reminiscent of the disidentification effect, supplementary analyses showed that academic/intellectual self-perceptions correlated with the criterion measures but only for White participants. These results suggest that a portion of the race difference on test scores might be accounted for by test-taking strategies. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:511 / 517
页数:7
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