Factors Influencing Academic Achievement of Taitung County lementary School Students ~ Difference between Children of Foreign Spouses, Aborigine tudents,and Han Students

• Main Authors: Chen Chen-Hsin, 陳振新
• Other Authors: Chen Shu-Li
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55py34

碩士 === 國立臺東大學 === 區域政策與發展研究所 === 95 === Abstract Past studies on children of foreign spouses are limited to the exploration of their unique family backgrounds, problems in living and learning adaptation. Studies on their academic achievement are lacking, and are deserving of study and emphasis. Therefore, this study mainly explores the differences in academic achievement between minorities (children of foreign spouses and aborigine students) and students of Han descent. This study mainly uses as its research subjects all fifth grade students who are children of foreign spouses in Taitung County. In order to further compare ethnic differences, when sampling schools, a fifth grade class is also selected to be compared; the total sample consists of 824 students who are divided into three ethnic groups, children of foreign spouses, aborigine students and students of Han descent. In terms of research tools, this study uses grades of “Taitung County Basic Academic Aptitude Exam in 2006 Academic Year” as the performance benchmarks for the Chinese and mathematics subjects of the participating students. This study also revises Huang Yi-chih’s “Student Survey on Learning and Living Conditions” in order to understand the family background, cultural capital, social capital, and financial capital characteristics of students. The main findings of this study are: 1. There is a difference between the academic achievements of students in different ethnic groups. There is no obvious difference between the academic achievements of Han students and children of foreign spouses, but their grades are much better than aborigine students. This shows that in Taitung County, children of foreign spouses did not have the worst academic performance. Of which, the children of Chinese spouses have the best academic performance of all ethnic groups. 2. There are significant differences between academic achievements of students in different areas of Taitung County with different levels of urbanization; the academic achievement of students in the urban areas of Taitung is better than that of students in rural Taitung. 3. After controlling the family background and intermediary variables, the difference in grades between the ethnic groups and regions was significantly decreased, showing that the differences in grades in terms of ethnic groups and regions are largely caused by the intermediary variables and family backgrounds. The main influencing factors are as follows: (1) In terms of cultural capital, “negative culture,” such as smoking or chewing betel nut have significant negative effects on grades, and grades are lowered through “negative interaction with teachers.” (2) Among the social capital variables, “parental expectations of performance” and “parental expectations of education” have significant positive influences on grades, and “negative interaction with teachers” has a significant negative influence on grades (3) In terms of financial capital, “having a computer,” and having a “personal desk” have significant positive influences on grades. (4) In terms of family background, higher the family’s socioeconomic status represented by the parents’ education, father’s occupation, and family income, higher the “parental expectations of performance” and the likelihood of “having a computer,” which have significant positive effects on grades. Undesirable family structures such as incomplete families or large numbers of siblings dilute familial resources, thus there is a lower chance to “have a computer,” a higher chance of “helping to work,” which significantly and negatively impact grades.