The Formation of Ability Conceptions: Developmental Trend or Social Construction?

This paper examines a growing literature on the ways in which children develop conceptions of their own and their peers’ intellectual abilities, a phenomenon we will call ability formation. We show that this literature may be integrated usefully under a recently developed theory regarding the ways in which schools construct academic ability as a reality experienced by students. We argue that this perspective offers an advance on developmental interpretations of findings in this area.

[1]  E. Payne,et al.  Education and Social Control , 1927 .

[2]  L. Frank.  The Society for Research in Child Development , 1935 .

[3]  A. Luchins,et al.  Children's attitudes toward homogeneous groupings. , 1948, The Journal of genetic psychology.

[4]  G. Simmel.  The sociology of Georg Simmel , 1950 .

[5]  Maxine Mann.  What Does Ability Grouping Do to the Self-Concept? , 1960 .

[6]  Richard Schmuck,et al.  Some Relationships of Peer Liking Patterns in the Classroom to Pupil Attitudes and Achievement , 1963, The School Review.

[7]  W. Brookover,et al.  Self-Concept of Ability and School Achievement , 1964 .

[8]  V C CRANDALL,et al.  CHILDREN'S BELIEFS IN THEIR OWN CONTROL OF REINFORCEMENTS IN INTELLECTUAL-ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT SITUATIONS. , 1965, Child development.

[9]  P. Berger,et al.  Social Construction of Reality , 1991, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.

[10]  J. Diggory.  Self-evaluation: concepts and studies , 1966 .

[11]  David C. McClelland,et al.  The anatomy of achievement motivation , 1967 .

[12]  Ann E. Boehm,et al.  Pupils' Perceptions of School Marks , 1967, The Elementary School Journal.

[13]  B. Cogswell.  Some Structural Properties Influencing Socialization , 1968 .

[14]  K. Hill,et al.  Children's Achievement Expectations and Performance as a Function of Two Consecutive Reinforcement Experiences, Sex of Subject, and Sex of Experimenter. , 1969 .

[15]  O. Brim.  American beliefs and attitudes about intelligence , 1969 .

[16]  B. Weiner,et al.  An attributional analysis of achievement motivation. , 1970 .

[17]  Emmy A. Pepitone.  Comparison Behavior in Elementary School Children , 1972 .

[18]  C. Dweck,et al.  Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children , 1973 .

[19]  J. Santrock,et al.  Effects of Social Comparison on Facilitative Self-Control in Young Children. , 1975 .

[20]  C. Dweck.  The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. , 1975 .

[21]  B. Bloom.  Human Characteristics and School Learning , 1979 .

[22]  J. Santrock,et al.  Effects of social comparison on aggression and regression in groups of young children. , 1976, Child development.

[23]  Carl Braun,et al.  Teacher Expectation: Sociopsychological Dynamics , 1976 .

[24]  D. Ruble,et al.  Social comparison between young children in achievement situations. , 1976 .

[25]  D. Ruble,et al.  Self-evaluative Responses of Children in an Achievement Setting. , 1976 .

[26]  S. Asher.  Children's Ability to Appraise Their Own and Another Person's Communication Performance. , 1976 .

[27]  K. A. Heller,et al.  A developmental study of effort and ability attributions. , 1976 .

[28]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Self-concept of ability and perceived evaluation of others: cause or effect of academic achievement? , 1977, Journal of educational psychology.

[29]  Nancy R. King,et al.  Education and Social Control , 1977 .

[30]  D. Ruble,et al.  Awareness of Social Comparison Interest and Motivations: A Developmental Study. , 1977 .

[31]  Anna Kun,et al.  Development of the Magnitude-Covariation and Compensation Schemata in Ability and Effort Attributions of Performance. , 1977 .

[32]  J. Brophy.  Child development and socialization , 1977 .

[33]  P. Blau.  Inequality and Heterogeneity: A Primitive Theory of Social Structure , 1978 .

[34]  Michael W. Apple,et al.  What Do Schools Teach , 1977 .

[35]  P. Spear,et al.  Effects of performance expectancies created by peer comparison as related to social reinforcement, task difficulty, and age of child ☆ , 1978 .

[36]  John G. Nicholls,et al.  The Development of the Concepts of Effort and Ability, Perception of Academic Attainment, and the Understanding that Difficult Tasks Require More Ability. , 1978 .

[37]  R. Debus,et al.  Persistence and the Causal Perception of Failure: Modifying Cognitive Attributions. , 1978 .

[38]  C. M. Rogers,et al.  Social comparison, multiple reference groups, and the self-concepts of academically handicapped children before and after mainstreaming. , 1978, Journal of educational psychology.

[39]  C. Dweck,et al.  An Analysis of Learned Helplessness: Continuous Changes in Performance, Strategy, and Achievement Cognitions Following Failure. , 1978 .

[40]  H. Cooper.  Pygmalion Grows Up: A Model for Teacher Expectation Communication and Performance Influence , 1979 .

[41]  J. Weisz.  Perceived Control and Learned Helplessness among Mentally Retarded and Nonretarded Children: A Developmental Analysis. , 1979 .

[42]  The Student's Perception of Ability Scale: an Instrument for Measuring Academic Self-Concept in Elementary School Children' , 1979 .

[43]  R. Weinstein,et al.  Learning About the Achievement Hierarchy of the Classroom: Through Children's Eyes. , 1979 .

[44]  H. Shaklee,et al.  Cognitive bases of development in inferences of ability. , 1979 .

[45]  P. Blumenfeld,et al.  Teaching responsibility to first graders , 1979 .

[46]  B. Weiner,et al.  A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. , 1979, Journal of educational psychology.

[47]  Susan E. Middlestadt,et al.  Student Perceptions of Teacher Interactions with Male High and Low Achievers. , 1979 .

[48]  J. Nicholls.  Development of perception of own attainment and causal attributions for success and failure in reading. , 1979, Journal of educational psychology.

[49]  R. Pittman.  Situational Referents of an Academic Setting and Locus of Control. , 1979 .

[50]  D. Entwisle,et al.  Too great expectations : the academic outlook of young children , 1979 .

[51]  W. S. Rholes,et al.  A Developmental Study of Learned Helplessness , 1980 .

[52]  Joel M. Hoffman,et al.  Children's Achievement-Related Expectancies as a Function of Academic Performance Histories and Sex. , 1980 .

[53]  Development of Children's Performance-Related Judgments. , 1980 .

[54]  J. Kasarda,et al.  Conceptualizing and Measuring the Effects of School and Schooling , 1980, American Journal of Education.

[55]  S. J. Rosenholtz,et al.  The Effect of Classroom Structure on Shared Perceptions of Ability , 1980 .

[56]  Jane A. Stallings.  Allocated Academic Learning Time Revisited, or Beyond Time on Task , 1980 .

[57]  Herbert J. Walberg,et al.  Peer group influence on educational outcomes: A quantitative synthesis. , 1981 .

[58]  L. Anderson.  Student Responses to Seatwork: Implications for the Study of Students' Cognitive Processing. , 1981 .

[59]  M. Covington,et al.  Reactions to Achievement Behavior From a Teacher and Student Perspective: A Developmental Analysis , 1981 .

[60]  Carl Simpson.  Classroom Structure and the Organization of Ability , 1981 .

[61]  D. Stipek.  Children's perceptions of their own and their classmates' ability. , 1981 .

[62]  D. Eder.  Ability Grouping as a Self-Fulfiling Prophecy: A Micro-Analysis of Teacher-Student Interaction. , 1981 .

[63]  M. Covington,et al.  As Failures Mount: Affective and Cognitive Consequences of Ability Demotion in the Classroom. , 1981 .

[64]  Qualitative evaluation : concepts and cases in curriculum criticism , 1981 .

[65]  Carl Simpson.  Classroom Organization and the Gap between Minority and Non-Minority Student Performance Levels. , 1981 .

[66]  S. J. Rosenholtz,et al.  Classroom Organization and the Perception of Ability , 1981 .

[67]  K. Brattesani.  Using Student Perceptions of Teacher Behavior to Predict Student Outcomes. , 1981 .

[68]  S. J. Rosenholtz.  Organizational Determinants of Classroom Social Power. , 1981 .

[69]  F. Murray,et al.  Structure of Children’s Reasoning About Attributes of School Success and Failure , 1982 .

[70]  Phyllis C. Blumenfeld,et al.  The Formation and Role of Self Perceptions of Ability in Elementary Classrooms , 1982, The Elementary School Journal.

[71]  J. Tammivaara.  The Effects of Task Structure on Beliefs about Competence and Participation in Small Groups. , 1982 .

[72]  Bruce G. Barnett,et al.  Student Perceptions of "Better Readers" in Elementary Classrooms , 1982, The Elementary School Journal.

[73]  A. Raviv,et al.  Consistency of Pupils' Attributions regarding Success and Failure. , 1982 .

[74]  R. Weinstein,et al.  Student Perceptions of Differential Teacher Treatment in Open and Traditional Classrooms. , 1982 .

[75]  Michael W. Apple,et al.  Education and power , 1982 .

[76]  Brian Rowan,et al.  Systems of Ability Grouping and the Stratification of Achievement in Elementary Schools. , 1983 .

[77]  B. Rollin.  The teaching of responsibility , 1983 .

[78]  Gary M. Olson,et al.  Learning and motivation in the classroom , 1983 .

[79]  Deborah J. Stipek,et al.  Children's Judgments of Their Own and Their Peers' Academic Competence. , 1984 .

[80]  J. Nicholls,et al.  The development of achievement motivation , 1984 .

[81]  D. Ruble,et al.  The Development of Achievement-related Expectancies , 2007 .