Differentiation of Learning Processes within Ability Groups

Abstract

This paper describes a mediational model for conceptualising the relationship between individual differences and academic achievement and presents the results of a study concerning some predictions of that model. According to this model, intervening or mediating variables mediate between stable personological traits (e.g. mental abilities) and task performance. Mediating variables are thus transitory and situation‐specific to some degree, and in academic tasks, are represented by the learning process complex, which consists of motives and strategies for learning. The mediational model predicts that students’ information processing abilities will help determine the number and the nature of learning processes differentiated within the learning process complex. Results conform to the model's predictions, indicating that (1) as students’ processing abilities increase, they show greater learning process differentiation and (2) for students intermediate in differentiation, the learning processes that do emerge are dependent upon which processing abilities they possess. These results are discussed with respect to their implication for the mediation model and for strategy instruction.