Home background and achievement at GCE A-Level: New evidence for A-Level geography in Jamaica and England
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Sep. 1988
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Abstract
This article considers the importance of home background for the achievement of students in A'Level geography in Jamaica and England. The measurement of home background is discussed, and details are given concerning the construction of a series of individual variables and a composite factor of home background. Evidence is then presented to suggest that home background, whether measured by a composite factor or by a series of individual variables, has no important association with achievement. This suggests that achievement at the A'Level stage may have more similarity (in terms of the importance of the home background of students) with achievement in higher education, than with the normal pattern of achievement in schooling up to the age of 15-16 years. Jamaican students were disadvantaged in terms of school influence, and cognitive and family background, but they had high mean scores on all the study orientation variables. The main factor associated with A'Level attainment in England was study orientation with cognitive ability also being involved. Empirical evidence was produced to support an hypothesized relationship between spatial ability and practical geography