Chronotype And Time Of Day Do Not Influence Mathematical Achievement İn Standardised Tests, But Impact On Affect – Results From A Field Experiment
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Abstract
Morning chronotypes have a higher academic achievement. In addition, laboratory studies showed synchrony effects between chronotype and test scores with morning people having a higher test score when tested in the morning and that evening people having higher test score in the afternoon. Field experiments are scarce. We developed a cross-over design and applied two different tests at two different time points during school days. A total of 90 (47 boys, 43 girls) pupils from four different 9th grade classrooms. We used the Composite Scale of Morningness, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and two parallelized mathematics tests that had the same content and the same scoring (test A, test B). There was no general effect of time of day (test scores: morning 12.21 ± 2.41; noon: 11.89 ± 2.14; t=1.105; p=0.272). There were no correlations between test scores and the continuous CSM scores, nor were there differences between chronotype classifications, and thus, no synchrony effect. Positive Affect increased between morning and noon in all three chronotypes. Morning types had a higher positive affect than evening types during the morning (F=7.974, p=0.001) and at noon (F= 4.561, p=0.013; Figure 2). Negative Affect remained stable in morning types and evening types but changed significantly in neither types. Negative Affect was not different between the chronotypes (morning: F=0.063, p=0.965; noon: F=0.756, p=0.473). Negative Affect was positively related to test scores in mathematics but only in the morning (morning test: r=0.25, p=0.02; noon test: r=-0.032, p=0.775). We strongly emphasize that there should be more experimental field studies in schools to shed light on this topic before making suggestions for teaching and learning
Keywords
Abstract
Morning chronotypes have a higher academic achievement. In addition, laboratory studies showed synchrony effects between chronotype and test scores with morning people having a higher test score when tested in the morning and that evening people having higher test score in the afternoon. Field experiments are scarce. We developed a cross-over design and applied two different tests at two different time points during school days. A total of 90 (47 boys, 43 girls) pupils from four different 9th grade classrooms. We used the Composite Scale of Morningness, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and two parallelized mathematics tests that had the same content and the same scoring (test A, test B). There was no general effect of time of day (test scores: morning 12.21 ± 2.41; noon: 11.89 ± 2.14; t=1.105; p=0.272). There were no correlations between test scores and the continuous CSM scores, nor were there differences between chronotype classifications, and thus, no synchrony effect. Positive Affect increased between morning and noon in all three chronotypes. Morning types had a higher positive affect than evening types during the morning (F=7.974, p=0.001) and at noon (F= 4.561, p=0.013; Figure 2). Negative Affect remained stable in morning types and evening types but changed significantly in neither types. Negative Affect was not different between the chronotypes (morning: F=0.063, p=0.965; noon: F=0.756, p=0.473). Negative Affect was positively related to test scores in mathematics but only in the morning (morning test: r=0.25, p=0.02; noon test: r=-0.032, p=0.775). We strongly emphasize that there should be more experimental field studies in schools to shed light on this topic before making suggestions for teaching and learning
Keywords
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