Accentuate the Positive: The Relationship Between Positive Explanatory Style and Academic Achievement of Prospective Elementary Teachers

This research examines 480 current event-explanation units using the CAVE technique (Schulman, Castellon, & Seligman, 1989) to note the relationship between positive and negative explanatory style and achievement of prospective early childhood and upper elementary female teachers. This study fou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of research in childhood education 2006-09, Vol.21 (1), p.53-63
Main Author: Boyer, Wanda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Children & youth
Early Childhood Education
Education
Educational Environment
Elementary School Teachers
Elementary school teaching
Evaluation
Females
Job Performance
Learning
Learning Processes
Learning Strategies
Lifelong Learning
Minority & ethnic groups
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement
Preservice Teachers
Speech Skills
Stress Management
Student Motivation
Teacher Response
Teaching
Teaching Methods
Young Children
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Summary:This research examines 480 current event-explanation units using the CAVE technique (Schulman, Castellon, & Seligman, 1989) to note the relationship between positive and negative explanatory style and achievement of prospective early childhood and upper elementary female teachers. This study found a significant positive relationship between explanatory style for positive events and academic performance in stressful scenarios. Surprisingly, optimism and pessimism in one's explanatory style for negative events was found to have no significant relationship to academic performance. An important implication of these findings is that the quality of our attributions for positive events, not negative events, helps to sustain performance levels in demanding situations. Interventions for enhancing explanatory style therefore should focus on the positive.
ISSN:0256-8543
2150-2641
DOI:10.1080/02568540609594578