Original scientific paper
Prediction of Educational Achievements of Primary School Pupils in the Republic of Croatia
Toni BABAROVIĆ
orcid.org/0000-0003-0838-3205
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Josip BURUŠIĆ
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Marija ŠAKIĆ
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine to what extent school
achievement at the end of primary schooling could be
determined by certain student characteristics and
characteristics of their environment, teachers, teaching
process, school and school principal. The sample included
44,801 students from 842 regular primary schools. School achievement was measured by objective exams in Croatian,
English, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography and History
and explored for each subject separately. Multiple regression
analyses were conducted with student results on the exams
as criterion variables and student characteristics, teacher and
teaching process characteristics, and school and principal
characteristics as predictors. The results of multiple
regression analyses showed that 5.3% to 15.9% variance of
knowledge in different subjects could be accounted for by
student characteristics, while teacher and teaching process
characteristics explained 0.2% to 1.1%, and school and
principal characteristics 0.2% to 0.8% of additional variance.
At the student level significant predictors were gender,
parents’ education and family structure. At the teacher level
significant predictors were teacher’s gender, qualification
and continuity of teaching the same students, while
significant predictors at the school level were school size and
founder, personnel competence and principal’s experience.
The problem of measurement and conceptualization of
academic achievements is discussed in the context of the
obtained results.
Keywords
school achievement; external evaluation of education; primary schools
Hrčak ID:
42592
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2009.
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