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Given the significant role that academic self-concept plays in students' learning, understanding the psychological processes involved in its formation continues to be an important focus of enquiry. There is strong empirical support for two major models of academic self-concept (ASC) formation: the big-fish-little-pond (BFLP) model and the internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model), models which emphasise the roles of social and dimensional comparisons in ASC development. The present study aimed to contribute to an emerging body of evidence on the validity of a model that integrates the predictions of the BFLP and I/E models into a unified framework. Models were tested in the domains of reading and mathematics using data from a nationally representative sample of 4166 grade 6 students in 220 classes in Ireland. Central predictions of the BFLP and I/E models held when tested in combination. Specifically, individual achievement in one domain had a significant positive effect on self-concept in that domain and a negative effect on self-concept in the other domain. Additionally, class-level achievement in a given domain was negatively related to self-concept in that domain, after accounting for the effect of individual achievement. Findings support the hypothesis that social and dimensional comparisons have effects on the academic self-concepts of primary school children.

Background: There is increasing recognition of the contribution of affective factors such as motivation to the development of reading competence. Reading activity is theorised to mediate associations between motivation and achievement, but this has been tested empirically only rarely. Method: This study employed structural equation modelling to test a hypothesised model of relations between the reading self-concept, intrinsic motivation, activity and achievement of a sample of 4,067 grade 6 students in Ireland and to explore whether the relations were moderated by gender or socioeconomic status (SES). Results: Intrinsic motivation and self-concept were significantly associated with reading activity, which, in turn, significantly predicted reading achievement. Girls had higher intrinsic motivation and reading activity than boys, but there was no gender difference in reading self-concept. High-SES students had higher reading self-concept, intrinsic motivation and activity than low-SES and medium-SES students. The strength of the associations among the constructs under study did not vary by gender or SES. Conclusions: Findings suggest that efforts aimed at increasing students' intrinsic reading motivation may lead to increased reading activity and reading competence, irrespective of gender or SES.

Ideologies on linguistic variation among teachers of the Irish language are the focus of this article. Participants completed an experiment in which they responded to speech samples representing traditional dialectal varieties in the Irish‐speaking communities (the Gaeltacht) and a sample representing the Irish of new speakers outside the Gaeltacht (the post‐Gaeltacht). When participants directly rate the speech varieties, the traditional Gaeltacht samples are rated significantly more positively than the post‐Gaeltacht sample. However, the post‐Gaeltacht new speaker variety is on top for standardness. When participants rate the speakers' characteristics, a more levelled, destandardised value system is also evident. The results are related to the official regimentation of Irish today, where authority is increasingly nebulous and negotiable. The results illustrate how teacher ideologies can develop in late modernity, whether in a minority context, in a context where authority is based on authenticity and a dialect ideology is established, or where language transmission occurs largely through education and substantial numbers of new speakers use the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]