TY - JOUR
T1 - Nature, nurture, and perceptions of the classroom environment as they relate to teacher-assessed academic achievement
T2 - A twin study of nine-year-olds
AU - Walker, Sheila O.
AU - Plomin, Robert
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the parents of the twins in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) for making this study possible. TEDS is supported in general by program grant G9424799 from the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom, and this work on school environments is supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD44454).
Copyright:
Copyright 2006 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2006/8/1
Y1 - 2006/8/1
N2 - Although prior research has examined children's perceptions of the classroom environment as related to academic achievement, genetically sensitive designs have not been employed. In the first study of its kind for the primary school classroom environment, data were collected for 3,020 pairs of nineyearold identical and fraternal twin pairs in same and different classrooms on their perceptions in six domains: social integration, opportunity, adventure, general satisfaction, negative affect, and teachers. Data were also collected for teacherassessed academic achievement (ACH). Modest genetic influence was found for children's perceptions of the classroom environment: an average of .33, .06, .25, .27, .19, and .20 of the variance, respectively. Nonshared environment played a more influential role, accounting for an average of .58, .78, .64, .60, .69, and .65 of the variance, respectively. Negative affect, adventure, social integration, and opportunity were significantly, albeit modestly, associated with ACH. Results suggest that perceptions of the classroom environment are driven primarily by childspecific experiences, and that such perceptions, although experientially important, are less important for ACH.
AB - Although prior research has examined children's perceptions of the classroom environment as related to academic achievement, genetically sensitive designs have not been employed. In the first study of its kind for the primary school classroom environment, data were collected for 3,020 pairs of nineyearold identical and fraternal twin pairs in same and different classrooms on their perceptions in six domains: social integration, opportunity, adventure, general satisfaction, negative affect, and teachers. Data were also collected for teacherassessed academic achievement (ACH). Modest genetic influence was found for children's perceptions of the classroom environment: an average of .33, .06, .25, .27, .19, and .20 of the variance, respectively. Nonshared environment played a more influential role, accounting for an average of .58, .78, .64, .60, .69, and .65 of the variance, respectively. Negative affect, adventure, social integration, and opportunity were significantly, albeit modestly, associated with ACH. Results suggest that perceptions of the classroom environment are driven primarily by childspecific experiences, and that such perceptions, although experientially important, are less important for ACH.
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U2 - 10.1080/01443410500342500
DO - 10.1080/01443410500342500
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33746839263
SN - 0144-3410
VL - 26
SP - 541
EP - 561
JO - Educational Psychology
JF - Educational Psychology
IS - 4
ER -