School of Education

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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/108101
This collection contains Honours, Masters and Ph.D by coursework theses from University of Adelaide postgraduate students within the School of Education. The material has been approved as making a significant contribution to knowledge.

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Browsing School of Education by Author "Della Pietra, Jordan"

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    Relative Age Effects of South Australian Senior Secondary School Students
    (2018) Della Pietra, Jordan; School of Education
    Achievement and attainment in Secondary school is often referred to as individual academic success rather than sporting or non-academic achievement. Factors that have influence on student success are often discussed between education stakeholders. Academic achievement and attainment of Senior Secondary students are known to contribute to the increased probability of future success of these students. Relative Age Effects, the influence of student age on their academic achievements, is a contemporary factor currently being researched on an international scale. Within South Australia the recognised merit of achievement for Year 12 students is the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). This generally involves a two-stage process, where students can begin to attain ‘credits’ in a Year 10 Stage 1 subject, which contributes to the 200-credit requirement for attaining the SACE. Through analysing Relative Age Effects of student in the most common subjects (Research Project, Mathematics Applications, English Communications and Biology) for 2014 (N = 13,869), 2015 (N = 15,050) and 2016 (N = 15,101) it is possible to see if age influences South Australian students’ achievement. Other influential factors to academic achievement included gender (Male or Female) and school location (Metropolitan or Country). In 2014 the Research Project (p <0.01), Mathematics (p <0.01) and English (p <0.01) subjects resulted in statistically significant age effects, where students classified as ‘Young’ outperformed their ‘Old’ counterparts. In 2015 only two of the four subjects, the Research Project (p <0.01) and Biology (p <0.01) showed significant statistical difference between age grouped students, where, similar to 2014, the Young students outperformed the Old. Both the Research Project (p <0.01) and Mathematics (p <0.01) subjects for 2016 exhibited significant statistical difference, following the same trend as the previous years with Old students performing worse than Young students. Differences of mean achieved scores by students within these cohorts are therefore likely to be influenced by other factors such as socioeconomic status, immigration status of students and families, or teacher influence. Limitations of this study include the lack of detailed information about students, such as their socio-economic status or their work commitments are discussed within the paper. The findings offer insights into the currently limited knowledge about Relative Age Effects of students within South Australian Secondary schools.