About this Research Topic

Background

Academic achievement is a main topic in psychological research. Research on academic achievement is increasingly necessary for the light of existing data on drop-out rates and the students' level of competences, according to the results of international performance measurement programs. All this shows the need to analyze the factors involved in the academic performance of students, in order to influence them and thus ensure, as far as possible, more effective education and appropriate to current needs.

It is necessary to provide a definition and current questions about academic performance, as well as the question of the measurement of academic performance (performance tests, school grades ...). There are several international programs for measuring academic performance (PISA, Others such as PIRLS or TIMSS). The analyses of these contributions would allow us to analyze the different possibilities of evaluating academic achievement, the Cross-national evaluation, etc.

It is also of great importance to have a deep understanding of the methodological approaches for the analysis of factors associated with academic performance, considering the structural models on variables associated with academic performance, longitudinal analyses of academic achievement, multilevel models of mediation/moderation, Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling, etc.

On the other hand, synthesis and meta-analysis studies would provide highly relevant information on the factors that make the greatest contribution to the explanation of academic performance at all educational levels (primary education, secondary education, and higher education).

Finally, an aspect related to academic performance that should have a place in this Research Topic is underachievement and low achievement. This topic covers the establishment of some operational definitions of these constructs, the description of the possible methods of identification of this type of student, the analysis of the characteristics they present and of course, the study of how to reverse the underachievement and how to achieve the optimization of academic performance.

This Research Topic is, therefore, a broad and multidisciplinary response to the issue of academic performance, and in response to the needs of current education, trying to answer questions such as:

What are the factors of greatest impact on academic performance in the different educational levels?
Which methodological approaches are the most powerful to analyze and respond to current challenges in the understanding of academic performance?
What can we learn from the International academic achievement measurement programs?
What characteristics have the underachieving students and how can we help them?

This Research Topic encourages submissions that address current issues raised by the research on academic achievement, both from the theoretical and methodological point of view, and that may generate new insights in this field.
Recommended subjects may include, but are not limited to, the following:

· Definition of academic achievement
· Measurement of academic achievement
· Factors associated with academic achievement: methodological approaches (theoretical and research models: structural models, reciprocal effects, longitudinal models, mediation/moderation/ instrumental variables, multilevel models... )
· International academic achievement measurement programs (PISA, etc.)
· Synthesis studies. Meta-analysis on academic achievement
· Low performance and underachievement

Keywords: Academic Achievement, Underachievement, Performance test, Measurement Programs, Performance

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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