Could disadvantaged students` academic achievements be improved through after-school learning and self-efficacy? An empirical study in Taiwan.

Abstract

Improving the academic achievements of disadvantaged students is one of the most important educational issues for many countries and regions including Taiwan. To achieve the goal, governments and non-governmental organizations in Taiwan have been allocating resources to after-school tutoring and private supplementary tutoring for the disadvantaged middle school students over the years. However, it is still uncertain whether these measures are truly effective. To determine whether disadvantaged students’ academic achievement is improved by after-school learning (including private supplementary tutoring and after-school tutoring) and self-efficacy, analysis is accomplished using the “Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty”. Some findings include: 1) nearly half of these disadvantaged students do not attend after-school learning, while their academic achievements are poorer; 2) majority of these students have lower self-efficacies, however their self-efficacies is slightly enhanced by after-school learning; 3) the higher the students’ self-efficacies are, the slightly better their academic achievements will be; 4) attending after-school learning seems to have a direct effect on the slight improvement towards the students’ academic achievements, furthermore, attending after-school learning can also indirectly affect the slight improvement of students’ academic achievements through self-efficacies; and 5) among the different types of after-school learning, private supplementary tutoring is more effective than after-school tutoring in helping disadvantaged students increase their percentage in having better academic achievements. Based on these findings, suggestions are proposed to the education authorities for future references.