Age Appropriateness and Motivation, Engagement, and Performance in High School: Effects of Age Within Cohort, Grade Retention, and Delayed School Entry by Andrew J. Martin at the University of Sydney digs into the relative salience of age while observing three dimensions of age appropriateness. Martin’s study examined 3, 684 high school student’s academic motivation, engagement, and performance. These high school students were then monitored and later evaluated to test their age appropriateness based on the three dimensions (cohort, grade retention and delayed school entry). It was found that, generally, being older-for-cohort has negative effects, the effects of having to repeat a grade are negative, and delayed entry status came up with negative results as well. Overall, it was found that cohort, grade retention and delayed school entry all result in poor age appropriateness, motivation, engagement and performance in high school.

With Martin’s research question asking: whether or not effects of age in the terms of cohort, grade retention and delayed school entry effect age appropriateness in the terms of motivation, engagement and performance in high school? The type of data needed in order to answer such a question would be acts, behavior, or events and demographic data. I chose those two particular data types because the research method required a lot of observation but also the students grades which were supplied by the teacher. The data gathering method for this experiment would then be, ethnography and public and private records. The method of data analysis would be qualitative data as well as ordinal data, to rank the student’s grades. I, personally, found this research question to be very interesting, yet I found the results to be as I expected them to be. I enjoyed reading about a research question that would need two different types of data to answer it fully- something I have not written about until now.

Martin, Andrew J. (2006). Age Appropriateness and Motivation, Engagement, and Performance in High School: Effects of Age Within Cohort, Grade Retention, and Delayed School Entry. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 101. No. 1, pp. 1-258.