Gifted Chinese girls get the best mix of family processes to bolster their math achievement

Effective Parental Influence: Academic home climate linked to children's achievement

“…It is very interesting to note that one of the first studies to uncover such a finding was Epstein in 1983. In this study, Epstein tabulated the minutes that parents helped with homework and reported negative correlations for reading achievement (r ¼ 7.180) and math achievement (r ¼ 7.195). Our own national and international studies (Burke, 2002;Burke, Verna, & Campbell, 2004;Campbell, 1994;Campbell & Uto, 1994;Campbell & Wu, 1994;Candia, 2004;Flouris, Calogiannakis Hourdakis, Spiridakis, & Campbell, 1994;Koutsoulis, 1995;Koutsoulis & Campbell, 2001;Lenz, 1999;O'Connor, 1997;Pitiyanuwat & Campbell, 1994) consistently show negative correlations between a help factor and reading and math achievement. Children in families using higher levels of help have lower achievement.…”

“…Our data regarding pressure indicate that effective families do not use fear to motivate their children. In several studies, we found that low levels of parental pressure were associated with high achievement (Burke, 2002;Burke et al, 2004;Campbell, 1994;Campbell & Uto, 1994;Campbell & Wu, 1994;Flouris et al, 1994;Candia, 2004;Koutsoulis, 1995;Koutsoulis & Campbell, 2001;Lenz, 1999;O'Connor, 1997;Pitiyanuwat & Campbell, 1994;Sarcona-Navarra, 2007). Our qualitative work uncovered 26 pressure recipes that were being used by parents to defuse or lower the pressure.…”

Gender Gap Linked to Differential Socialization for High-Achieving Senior Mathematics Students

“…The combination of help, homework, and the mathematics selfconcept were interesting to analyze. Parents gave fifth-and sixth-grade girls more help than boys in one large U.S. study (Campbell & Mandel, 1990) and in three international studies (Campbell & Uto, 1994;Campbell & Wu, 1994; Flouris, Calogiannakis-Hourdakis, Spiridakis, . The extra help was not given because the girls lacked ability.…”

The teaching of mathematics in Chinese elementary schools

“…hypothesis could account for the remarkable mathematical performance shown by Chinese children. Numerous comparative studies were conducted to explore the possible cause of high-level achievement of Chinese children, and it was found that their everyday experience influenced mathematical learning intensively (Campbell & Wu, 1994;Fang, Tong & Liu, 1988, 1990Stevenson & Stigler, 1992).…”