Piecewise Growth Mixture Model With More Than One Unknown Knot: Application of Reading Ability Development

• In Event: 16.047 - Longitudinal Studies of Students' Educational Outcomes

Abstract

The present study extends the piecewise growth mixture model (PGMM) with an unknown knot into the situation with more than one knot. In applying such a model into practice, a publicly dataset Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K) was used. Results showed that the PGMM with more than one knot could be used in the reading development study. The changing points were at Grade 1 (γ1 = 1.14) and later in Grade 3 (γ1 = 3.87) respectively. Meanwhile, results indicated that different groups had different growth patterns, and teachers should pay special attention to the lower group who not only had slower growth but also were hard to catch up with the normal children.

Authors

• Yuan Liu, Southwest University

• Hongyun Liu, Beijing Normal University