HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPORTANCE AND USE OF ANALYTIC STRATEGIES IN ACADEMIC DECISION MAKING (METACOGNITION)
Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to investigate the decision-making behavior of high school juniors as evidenced by their perception of the importance and use of select analytic strategies in the completion of six academic tasks, as indicated on the Student Academic Analytical Decison-Making Behavior Scale (SAADMBS). Baretta's Seven Analytical A's--(A.1) Axiologicals, (A.2) Axiomatics, (A.3) Alternatives, (A.4) Architectures, (A.5) Allocations, (A.6) Actions, (A.7) Appraisals--provided the framework for this analysis. The subjects consisted of 300 high school juniors from two suburban high schools. The distribution of the 84 responses from each student was reported and analyzed by using the statistical technique of a multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures. Academic track, sex, school, task and strategy were among the factors analyzed. The distribution of responses indicated that: (1) On the Importance scale of the SAADMBS, the strategies A.2 (Axiomatics), concerning the givens in a situation, and A.6 (Actions), concerning the action in implementing a decision, were in the high "often" important category. Strategies A.7 (Appraisals), concerning evaluation; A.4 (Architectures), concerning planning; A.5 (Allocations), concerning allocating human and material resources; and A.1 (Axiologicals), concerning values, were in the medium "often" important category. Finally, strategy A.3 (Alternatives), concerning the options in making decisions, was in the "seldom" important category. (2) Responses on the Extent of Use scale of the SASDMBS revealed a discrepancy in the students' perception of the importance of the strategies and their reported use. Specifically, Axiomatics (A.2) were ranked in the low range of the "often" used category; Axiologicals (A.1), Appraisals (A.7), and Allocations (A.5) were also ranked in the low "often" used category; and Architectures (A.4) and Alternates (A.3) were ranked as "seldom" used. Additionally, major findings indicated that: (a) academic track and sex affected students' perception of the importance of analytic strategies; (b) sex affected the student's perception of the use of the analytic strategies; (c) the academic task and the analytic strategy affected the students' perception of the importance and use of analytic strategies; and (d) significant interactions were found among such variables as academic track, sex, strategy, and task on both the Importance and Extent of Use scales of the SAADMBS.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
GARAN, JUDITH ANN, "HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPORTANCE AND USE OF ANALYTIC STRATEGIES IN ACADEMIC DECISION MAKING (METACOGNITION)" (1985). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8508115.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8508115
