Swedish student perceptions of achievement practices: The role of intelligence.

The role of intelligence and motivational constructs in school achievement is well attested. Beliefs and attitudes about assessment (including classroom assessment, homework and tests) can be adaptive within a self-regulation of learning framework. However, the role of intelligence upon the student and parent coping with school assessment practices is less well known. This paper examines responses of Swedish Grade 6 (modal age 13) students ( N  = 4749) participating in the Education Through Follow-up (ETF) project to four cognitive tests and survey items concerning achievement demands. Their responses were integrated with parent perceptions of grading and school pressure. Robust factors for intelligence, student perceptions, and parental perceptions were found and introduced into a structural equation model with intelligence as the predictor. The well-fitting SEM model showed that intelligence had statistically significant predictions on all four student and three parent perceptions factors, of which two predicted student factors. However, only one prediction was substantive; intelligence on coping with school demands (β = 0.48). Although not allowing for causal inference, the results support the claim that general cognitive abilities act as a predictor of self-regulating capability of coping with school demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]