Search

This paper exploits the sharp escalation of violence in Colombia in the 1980s associated with the emergence of drug cartels to provide novel evidence on the long-run effects of violence exposure throughout the life-course, on children's educational attainment and academic achievement using administrative data. I find that, a higher homicide rate in early-childhood is associated with a higher probability of school dropout and conditional on completing high school, lower scores on a national end-of-high school exam. Results are robust to several falsification tests, and analyses of potential sources of selection bias. I provide supportive evidence that changes in fetal, child, and adolescent health outcomes are important potential mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the particularities of the educational policies of the Popular Unity. To answer this question, the context has been recreated and the main issues and conflict of these policies are explored. This objective is original because most of the investigations on this regard have studied the logic of the groups that fought to govern the country, have highlighted the differences between the educational projects of past governments or have evidenced the controversies surrounding the Unified National School. To achieve this answer, the study carried out an exhaustive review of the main primary and secondary sources in this matter [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who benefits when economic costs to the pursuit of higher education are diminished? Can such reforms advance the educational trajectory of historically marginalized groups, including women and indigenous people, or are historic social inequalities replicated in the use of new opportunities? The 2016 Ley de Gratuidad in Chile presents a unique opportunity to examine who benefits and how when the state provides a policy guaranteeing free higher education at participating universities. Given the systematic biases and cultural norms faced by women and indigenous people in Chile and the broad design of the state-led policy, the educational reform constitutes an important test of the extent to which lowering costs can facilitate education across an economically and socially diverse population. Leveraging data from two waves of a household survey, this paper finds that educational attainment, measured in the number of years of schooling achieved by respondents, is significantly higher for those who receive such a benefit, consistent with the design and intent of the policy. More surprisingly, these increases in years of education occur for women and indigenous people, even though no programmatic element emphasizes these groups. The results suggest that state financing is significantly associated with promoting higher education in the population and that women, the poor, and indigenous people are significant beneficiaries of this effect despite the social and cultural barriers in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a comment from the author on the work of Mark Ashton, commenting the former's article "Education for Capability: A Critique." Views on conceptual analysis; Concept of a person's capability to fulfill his tasks and responsibilities; Discovery of a hidden message in the author's work in what Ashton cites as a highly satirical passage.

This article is an extension of a work in progress paper originally presented at the conference FiE 2020, Frontiers in Education by (Schirichian et al., 2020), as a result of Schirichian’s master’s in science dissertation. It studies the relations between academic performance, protection factors, life at university, and personal characteristics to understand how they influence students’ academic success in undergraduate engineering programs in Brazil. In this challenging environment, several students overcome these issues and graduate, which indicates that some protection structures allow students to face challenging situations and be successful in their studies. Current research studied the relationships between academic performance, self-efficacy, causal attributions, personal characteristics, and life at university, with a group of 30 students. Models were studied by combining the different variables and aspects evaluated in the research, and the findings show relationship between academic performance and: 1) self-efficacy, causal attributions, and personal characteristics (such as leisure activities, living with their parents, or college accommodations) and those who attended private schools during basic education; 2 protection factors self-efficacy and causal attributions with advancing in the program and the time of enrolment in the university; and 3) the dimensions initiation and persistence, success/internality and failure/internality, indicating that those who perceive themselves as playing a major role in their academic journey tend to have better outcomes. Further results show the influence of social inequalities, particularly for those students who declared themselves brown and who conducted their basic education in public schools (which are generally of lower quality than private ones in Brazil). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful understudies are understudies who perform much preferable scholastically over their companions. While advantages to are being a successful understudy, for example, getting additional help from instructors, they likewise experience interesting difficulties like expanded recurrence of harassing. A large part of the exploration on this gathering of understudies depends on quantitative investigations led on members of Caucasian plummet. It is proposed that getting a superior comprehension of these successful understudies could be accomplished by figuring out their encounters through a subjective methodology. A singular's encounters and discernments can be impacted by social factors and directing examination with an Asian populace would assist better with understanding how factors which are all the more unequivocally accentuated in Asian culture, for example, obedient devotion and acquiescence to guardians add to the encounters of Asian successful understudies Education is viewed as basic for the advancement of the people, yet additionally for the improvement of local area and country. To achieve upgrades in all perspectives, and use present day and creative procedures and techniques, people need to produce mindfulness and improve their instructive abilities. The primary reason for this examination paper is to figure out the elements that impact the scholarly presentation of the understudies in auxiliary schools in India. In optional schools, there are various variables inside school and outside school that impact the scholastic presentation of the understudies. The fundamental regions that have been considered incorporate, factors impacting the scholarly exhibition of the understudies, scholastic execution and huge number of understudies in class, parental and related factors connecting with scholastic accomplishment, commitment of school factors towards the scholastic presentation of understudies, impact of destitution on scholastic accomplishment of understudies and different reasons for low scholarly accomplishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, international and national test results have been unfavorable for Mexico's educational system, turning the spotlight on teachers' quality. This problem has also occurred in the public teaching entrance examination and calls into question the efficiency of the initial training provided by Mexican normal schools. This paper intends to study the relationship between a student community's social origin and academic performance in three normal school sites in Sonora. It analyzes a cohort of 268 students through the five cultural capital types that, as variables, contribute to exploring academic performance. Besides, it determines the social origin of the students through K-means clustering. Through an analysis of the Pearson correlation coefficient, the results show that the student's family, school, and economic capitals are associated with academic performance. Afterward, a linear regression analysis was carried out where the highest Beta value was for the school capital variable. In conclusion, in a framework of social inequality, the school and economic capitals take part in the educational achievement of students who are being trained as teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: International achievement studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have an increasing influence on education policy worldwide. The use of such data can provide a basis for evidence-based policy-making to initiate educational reform. Finland, a high performer in PISA, is often cited as an example of both efficient and equitable education. Finland’s teachers and teacher education have not only garnered much attention for their role in the country’s PISA successes, but have also influenced education policy change in England. Main argument: This article argues that the Finnish model of teacher education has been borrowed uncritically by UK policy-makers. Finnish and English philosophies of teacher preparation differ greatly, and the borrowing of the Finnish teachereducationmodel does not fit within the teachertrainingviewpoint of England. The borrowed policies, thus, were decontextualised from the wider values and underpinnings of Finnish education. This piecemeal, ‘pick “n” mix’ approach to education policy reform ignores the fact that educational policies and ‘practices exist in ecological relationships with one another and in whole ecosystems of interrelated practices’. Thus, these borrowed teacher preparation policies will not necessarily lead to the outcomes outlined by policy-makers in the reforms. Sources of evidence: Two teacher preparation reforms in England, the University Training Schools (outlined in the UK Government’s 2010 Schools White Paper,The Importance of Teaching) and the Master’s in Teaching and Learning (MTL), are used to illustrate the problematic nature of uncritical policy borrowing. This article juxtaposes these policies with the Finnish model of teacher education, a research-based programme where all candidates are required to complete a Master’s degree. The contradictions exposed from this analysis further highlight the divergent practices of teacher preparation in England and Finland, or the disparate ‘ecosystems’. Evidence of educational policy borrowing in other settings is also considered. Conclusions: Both the MTL and the White Paper reforms overlook the ‘ecosystem’ surrounding Finnish teacher education. The school-based MTL contrasts with the research-based Finnish teachers’ MA. Similarly, the University Training Schools scheme, based on Finnish university-affiliated, teaching practice schools, contrasts heavily with the rest of the White Paper reforms, which contradict the philosophies and ethos behind Finnish teacher education by proposing the move of English teacher preparation away from the universities. The analysis highlights the uncritical eye through which politicians may view international survey results, looking for ‘quick fix’ options instead of utilising academic evidence for investigation on education and education reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent times, teaching human anatomy suffered great changes as an increasing number of mobile devices and due applications (apps) were available to users. This paper aims to perform a systematic review on the characteristics of the most downloaded apps as well as on the impact of such apps in academic performance. A systematic review was performed using databases MEDLINE, Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science. The keywords included combinations of word related to the use of apps in human anatomy teaching: "anatomy", "mobile applications", "medical education" and "education". Selected apps belong to Apple iOS system. Initially, 184 papers were identified and 6 remained after selection criteria. Out of the 240 most downloaded apps, 12 (5%) are anatomy specific and free. Nine of these included the major human systems and organs and 3 of them were dedicated to specific tissues (muscles, bone or muscle and bones). Despite a large availability of apps, there is a small scientific production on the usability of human anatomy apps and on their effect on academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 300 natural disasters affected more than 140 million people in 2014 (Guha-Sapir, Below, and Hoyois 2016). Little is known about the impact of natural disasters on student achievement, an important input into later growth and development. This paper examines the impact of severe flooding on student achievement. By using a difference-in-differences strategy, I exploit the severe flooding in Thailand in 2011 as a natural experiment to measure its effect on the national examination, the O-net. I combine the school-level O-net examination scores from the National Institute of Educational Test Service (NIETS) with school specific data from the Ministry of Education for the academic year 2006-2013. The variation in the impact of the severe flooding allows me to estimate the impact of the flood on the O-net examination scores, a proxy for student academic achievement. The estimates suggest that the flood had a negative and significant effect on all test scores for grade 6, except for social studies. In addition, for grade 9 the flood had a negative and significant effect on all test scores. But, for grade 12 the flood had no significant effect on test scores, except for social studies. The absolute sizes of the change in test score as a result of the flood range from 0.03 to 0.11 standard deviations, depending on the subject and level. My work provides the first empirical evidence of the adverse impact of severe flooding on student achievement. My results suggest that additional support is needed to lower the adverse impact of severe flooding on highstakes examinations like the O-net examination, because researchers found that a decrease in test scores can lead to lower educational attainment and earnings (Ebenstein, Lavy, and Roth 2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study of teaching a programming language in a C programming course by having students assemble and program a low-cost mobile robot. Writing their own programs to define the robot’s behavior raised students’ motivation. Working in small groups, students programmed the robots by using the control structures of structured programming. Over the course, there was a significant improvement in students’ academic performance and motivation. The approach took into account four of the motivational factors that feature in the ARCS model: 1) attention; 2) relevance; 3) confidence; and 4) satisfaction. The main achievements of the approach were to be able to: 1) catch and hold students’ attention throughout the course; 2) increase students’ confidence in the learning process; 3) achieve a high student satisfaction level with their acquired skills; and 4) demonstrate to students the practical usefulness of the knowledge they had learned. This paper also determines the extent to which this strategy was effective in meeting the teaching goals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The analysis of the effects of education have traditionally focused on income (the monetary effects), whilst other non-monetary effects of education (such as those on the use of time), have received less attention. This paper analyses the effects of education on individuals' use of their leisure time in Spain, using data from the Spanish Time Use Survey. It fi nds a close relation between education and the dedication of time to cultural activities, sports and reading books and the press. It also fi nds that a higher educational attainment does not automatically increase participation in all the leisure activities considered as beneficial. The effects, according to an institutionalist perspective, will be derived from social environment and individual's values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have demonstrated the existence of simple, unidimensional socioeconomic gradients in body mass index (BMI). However, in the present paper we move beyond such traditional analyses by simultaneously considering multiple demographic and socioeconomic dimensions. Using the Spanish National Health Survey 2011–2012, we apply intersectionality theory and multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) to analyze 14,190 adults nested within 108 intersectional strata defined by combining categories of gender, age, income, educational achievement and living situation. We develop two multilevel models to obtain information on stratum-specific BMI averages and the degree of clustering of BMI within strata expressed by the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). The first model is a simple variance components analysis that provides a detailed mapping of the BMI disparities in the population and measures the accuracy of stratum membership to predict individual BMI. The second model includes the variables used to define the intersectional strata as a way to identify stratum-specific interactions. The first model suggests moderate but meaningful clustering of individual BMI within the intersectional strata (ICC = 12.4%). Compared with the population average (BMI = 26.07 Kg/m2), the stratum of cohabiting 18-35-year-old females with medium income and high education presents the lowest BMI (-3.7 Kg/m2), while cohabiting 36-64-year-old females with low income and low education show the highest BMI (+2.6 Kg/m2). In the second model, the ICC falls to 1.9%, suggesting the existence of only very small stratum specific interaction effects. We confirm the existence of a socioeconomic gradient in BMI. Compared with traditional analyses, the intersectional MAIHDA approach provides a better mapping of socioeconomic and demographic inequalities in BMI. Because of the moderate clustering, public health policies aiming to reduce BMI in Spain should not solely focus on the intersectional strata with the highest BMI, but should also consider whole population polices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Educational achievement peer effects are estimated for Australian school students • The transition from primary to secondary school is exploited for identification • Peer effects estimates are based only on peers from different primary schools • Small but positive and statistically significant average peer effects are found • There is also a shining light effect which is strongest for middle achieving students. Abstract This paper presents estimates of achievement-related peer effects on school students' literacy using data from national test scores, across multiple literacy measures and student cohorts, for the population of public secondary school students in Years 7 and 9 (aged 12/13 and 14/15 years) in the Australian state of Victoria. Identification is achieved via individual fixed effects and by distinguishing between secondary school peers who attended the same primary school as the individual and those who did not. Estimates of peer effects are based on the new peers, whose primary school achievement could not have been affected by the individual. The results provide strong evidence for the existence of peer effects, with small but positive and statistically significant effects from having higher-achieving peers on average and from having a higher proportion of very high-achieving peers. Further, it is individuals in the middle of the ability distribution who benefit most from having high achieving peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of talented women from senior academic positions has partly resulted from a lower number of published papers and the accompanying reduced visibility of female compared to male scientists. The reasons for these gender-differences in authorship is unclear. One potential reason is a bias in the editorial and review process of scientific journals. We investigated whether patterns of authorship and editorial outcome were biased according to gender and geographic location in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Such potential bias may contribute to inequality in the field. We found patterns of gender differences in authorship, but this was unrelated to the editorial decision of whether to publish the manuscript. Female first-authors (the lead role) were six times less likely to be named as the corresponding author than male first-authors, and female first-authors were more likely to be displaced as corresponding authors by female co-authors than were male first-authors. We found an under-representation of female first- and last-authors compared to baseline populations of members of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (which publishes the Journal of Evolutionary Biology) and of Evolutionary Biology faculty at the world top-10 universities for the Life Sciences. Also, manuscripts from Asia were five times more likely to be rejected on the final decision, independent of gender. Overall our results suggest that the peer review processes we investigated at the Journal of Evolutionary Biology are predominately gender-neutral, but not neutral to geographic location. Editorial gender-bias is thus unlikely to be a contributing factor to differences in authorship in this journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of school closure in the Chilean market-oriented educational system. Between 2002 and 2011 the system exhibited a large turnover: 1282 schools closed -roughly one-tenth of the current stock- and 2350 new schools entered, mostly private-voucher schools. We use a large panel of administrative data, which contains individual students’ academic achievement and socio-demographic characteristics, to estimate some of the potential educational costs of this dynamics. We identify a causal effect of school closures on school dropouts and grade retention. School closure increases the probability of high-school dropout between 49 and 68% (1.8 and 2.5 percentage points). Also, school exit implies between 3.9 and 4.4 percentage points increase in the probability of grade retention in fifth grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents several methods for motivating students taking a power system protection (PSP) course. The paper reviews the laboratory activities developed for the PSP course at Curtin University, Australia; these methods are applicable and can be used for PSP course instruction at any institution. These activities were developed to improve the learning experience of the electrical engineering undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in this course. Initially, the PSP course at Curtin University consisted of lectures and tutorials accompanied by two sessions of software-based simulations and one session of laboratory demonstration. To motivate the students, several computer-based simulations and practical laboratory experiments were developed. PSCAD and ETAP power system analysis software tools are introduced and used to demonstrate the performance and coordination of different protection relays from steady-state and dynamic points of view. Also, a practical setup composed of a LabVolt power system simulator and industrial relays is used to carry out several practical experiments. The experiments help students observe the performance of protection systems for transformers and induction motors during faults and abnormal operating conditions. Finally, the concept of relay testing and commissioning is introduced by relay standalone experiments using a secondary injection relay test set. The results of these activities were evaluated according to the students’ satisfaction, comments, total scores, and interest in PSP. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is common knowledge that boys fall behind in school performance, and UK policy makers have addressed this issue in the past decade. In fact, they seem committed to narrowing gender gaps of any kind. This paper asks whether actual progress has been made in reducing the degree to which boys fall behind, and also whether gender differences in subject preference have changed in the period 2001 to 2013. Using an analysis of British secondary-education exam data and a comparison with data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), it is concluded that no progress has been made: Boys attained fewer top grades in nearly all school subjects. Further, boys and girls continue to choose elective school subjects along traditional interest lines. The problem of boys falling behind is obscured by the finding that grades of all children have risen considerably in this period.However, a comparison of Mathematics and English exam grades with PISA data suggests that this rise is due to grade inflation, not real improvement. The paper closes with recommendations for solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the Ka Hikitia Māori education policy and its subsequent influence in effecting system change towards Māori students' achievement. It discusses how a Request for Proposal to the Ministry of Education's Building on Success was conceptualised to support English-medium secondary schools across New Zealand to address this policy. The result, Kia Eke Panuku, is a professional learning and development response that works with Strategic Change Leadership Teams to create culturally responsive and relational contexts for learning, focused on Māori students enjoying and achieving educational success as Māori. It is argued that neither a political mandate for change nor a set of learned strategies by school personnel will truly bring about a changed reality for Māori students. Rather the reform must be led by transformative leaders who are driven by both the moral imperative to change and a keen sense of urgency to see this happen in our schools for Māori students and their home communities. The major issues raised in this paper, and the solutions that have been reached thus far, can help inform others who are trying to raise the participation, inclusion and achievement of students who may currently be marginalised from formal education settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to studies from the United States and English Canada, student achievement gaps grow over the summer months when children are not attending school, but summer literacy interventions can reduce those gaps. This paper presents data from a quasi-experiment conducted in eight Ontario French language school boards in 2010, 2011 and 2012 for 682 children in grades 1-3. Growth in literacy test scores between June and September are compared for 361 attendees of summer literacy programs and 321 control students. Summer program recruits initially had lower prior literacy scores and grades, and tended to hail from relatively disadvantaged social backgrounds. Yet, summer programs narrowed those pre-existing gaps. Effect sizes from a variety of regression and propensity score matching models ranged from .32 to .58, which is quite sizeable by the standards of elementary school interventions and summer programs. Effects were stronger among students whose parents reported not speaking French exclusively at home. Our paper considers learning opportunity theory in light of the "non-traditional" student in Ontario French language schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way teachers assess in classroom impact over cognitive and socio-affective development of the students. This paper aims to determine the relationship between the teacher's evaluation to their students, and the academic achievement of their students in four specific areas: Linguistic Competence, Mathematical Competence, Scientific Competence, and Social and Citizenship Competence. To reach our aim, this paper made a special analysis with the data of the Spanish General Diagnostic Evaluation -2009- to 28,708 students, and 1341 teachers of 887 schools. The use of Multilevel Model Analysis with three levels shows the impact of each evaluation strategy on the four competencies studied. Our study confirms those teachers who prepare exams after each lesson, give homework, review notebooks, and value the interest and participation of students in classroom do better. On the other side, we have found an inverse relationship between prepare quarterly exams and the skill development of the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper estimates the effect of students’ position in the classroom register on their academic performance. We use a unique dataset from Poland which contains information on the academic outcomes of students in the humanities, science and mathematics lower secondary school exams as well as the position students occupy in their classroom register. We find that students whose names are recorded near the end of the class list have lower performance than those students whose names are recorded near the beginning of the list. The effect appears to be larger for performance in the humanities exam, and for low-achieving boys who attend large classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper's objective is to define a theoretical approach to building a conceptual model of empiric research into behaviour of students in relation to learning and factors shaping it, variables and indicators of this model, present the results of the nationwide study revealing the behaviour of students in relation to learning and the content of learning reinforcement in the context of the present-day Russia. As an empirical research method the questionnaire survey was used. Based on the analysis of empirical data the nature of changes in academic performance of students depending on the grade was demonstrated, the role of external and internal factors fostering learning and the mechanism of their impact was described. High significance of interest and motivation as factors driving students' academic performance was determined and the probabilistic performance model was built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature has linked chronotype and sleep to school performance. Chronotype is under the control of the circadian clock and refers to sleep timing and diurnal preferences. Chronotype changes with age and is latest during adolescence, giving rise to a mismatch between the (late) circadian clock and the (early) school clock. In general, evening (late) chronotypes obtain lower grades. School performance is influenced by many other factors, such as motivation, intelligence, and conscientiousness. Some of these factors also relate to chronotype. The present paper reviews the literature on the relationship between chronotype and school performance, with the aim of suggesting hypotheses about the mechanisms behind this complex phenomenon and exploring solutions for an optimized school system. Based on the literature reviewed, we hypothesize that chronotype has both a direct and an indirect effect on school performance. The indirect effect is mediated by factors such as conscientiousness, learning/achieving motivation, mood, and alertness. In addition, time of day of testing plays an important role since the chronotype effect on grades is strongest in the morning and disappears in the afternoon. Strategies to decrease the mismatch between the adolescent circadian clock and the school clock could involve light interventions to advance the students' sleep timing, delays in school starting times, and rearrangements of test schedules (tests later in the day). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between civil conflict and educational achievement in Colombia. We use multilevel analysis to deal adequately with the hierarchical structure of the data and an instrumental variables approach to tackle the possibility of bias associated with endogeneity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to understand the relationship between civil conflict and educational achievement in exit examinations through the use of multilevel analysis. The results show that the relationship between the intensity of the conflict and performance on exit examinations is not as straightforward as it may seem at first glance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the question of how to use project-based learning to increase student performance and satisfaction in a power electronics course addressing the topics of dc/dc and dc/ac converters, the assembly of a dc/dc converter, and the use of a commercial speed drive. A detailed presentation of the methodology is shown, and the results are analyzed by comparison to previous academic years and by satisfaction surveys. The new course design applies the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy to have students learn the theory of converters, solve problems, and perform simulations, before carrying out projects that solve real-world problems, such as the power converter for a competition solar vehicle (2014/15 course) and power converters for an air conditioner with inverter technology (2015/16 course). Rubrics were used to evaluate the students’ work reports and the simulations. The project deliverables are presented and assessed in two design reviews, the first version covering the design and an open loop simulation, and the second covering the closed loop simulation and verification of specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gender differences in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines are widespread in most OECD countries and mathematics is the only subject where girls tend to underperform with respect to boys. This paper analyses the gender gap in math test scores in Italy, which is one of the countries displaying the largest differential between boys and girls, according to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We use data from an Italian national level learning assessment, involving children in selected grades from second to tenth, and analyse the gender gap in mathematics test scores using OLS, school fixed effects, quantile regression, metric free and dynamic pseudo-panel models. Our results show that girls systematically underperform boys, even after controlling for an array of individual and family background characteristics. The average gender gap increases with children's age, is larger among top performing children, and girls keep losing ground relative to boys when progressing in the education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Socioeconomically deprived children are at increased risk of ill-health associated with sedentary behavior, malnutrition, and helminth infection. The resulting reduced physical fitness, growth retardation, and impaired cognitive abilities may impede children’s capacity to pay attention. The present study examines how socioeconomic status (SES), parasitic worm infections, stunting, food insecurity, and physical fitness are associated with selective attention and academic achievement in school-aged children. Methodology: The study cohort included 835 children, aged 8–12 years, from eight primary schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The d2-test was utilized to assess selective attention. This is a paper and pencil letter-cancellation test consisting of randomly mixed letters d and p with one to four single and/or double quotation marks either over and/or under each letter. Children were invited to mark only the letters d that have double quotation marks. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed via the 20 m shuttle run test and muscle strength using the grip strength test. The Kato-Katz thick smear technique was employed to detect helminth eggs in stool samples. SES and food insecurity were determined with a pre-tested questionnaire, while end of year school results were used as an indicator of academic achievement. Principal findings: Children infected with soil-transmitted helminths had lower selective attention, lower school grades (academic achievement scores), and lower grip strength (all p<0.05). In a multiple regression model, low selective attention was associated with soil-transmitted helminth infection (p<0.05) and low shuttle run performance (p<0.001), whereas higher academic achievement was observed in children without soil-transmitted helminth infection (p<0.001) and with higher shuttle run performance (p<0.05). Conclusions/Significance: Soil-transmitted helminth infections and low physical fitness appear to hamper children’s capacity to pay attention and thereby impede their academic performance. Poor academic achievement will make it difficult for children to realize their full potential, perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty and poor health. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a perception among native born parents in the USA that the increasing number of immigrant students in schools creates negative peer effects on their children. In North Carolina, there has been a significant increase in immigrants, especially those with limited English language skills. Recent data suggests that North Carolina has the eighth largest English-language learner (ELL) student population and over 60 % of immigrants are from Latin America and the Caribbean. While past research suggests negative though negligible peer effects of Limited English (LE) students and black students on the achievement of other students, potential peer effects of students from Latin America in general have not been considered. In this paper, we attempt to identify both LE student and Latin American (LA) student peer effects by separately utilizing fixed effects methods that allow us to deal with the potential selectivity across time and schools. On average, we find no evidence of negative peer effects of LE students on females and white students but note small negative effects on average on males and black students. We also find that, holding constant other factors, an increase in the share of LA students does not create negative peer effects on native students' achievement. Rather, it is the limited English language skills of some of these students that lead to small, negative peer effects on natives. JEL Classification: I20, I21, J15, J24. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The juxtaposition of education and social mobility is based on the proposition that education plays an important role in mobility. This is particularly true in Malaysia as selection of students into premium classes, boarding schools, universities, for scholarships and for employment is still predominantly based on academic achievement. In an article featured by a national newspaper, the Prime Minister of Malaysia was quoted as saying that one of the government's achievements is in creating an environment of substantial social mobility and that the education system has enabled children to lead better lives than their parents. Is this sentiment, that education increases social mobility vis-à-vis to lead better lives, shared by the direct stakeholders of education, namely the school students? This paper sets out to investigate the perceptions of students in selected national primary and secondary schools in four states in Malaysia. A questionnaire survey consisting of eleven constructs was conducted to elicit responses on whether education allows them to lead better lives. A total of 331 school students in 9 primary schools and 297 school students in 8 secondary schools in Selangor, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak were randomly selected and surveyed. Findings reveal that there are significant differences in mean scores between rural and urban schools in terms of the role of education in increasing knowledge, expanding potentials, achieving ambition and becoming useful people. Between Sabah and Sarawak with Peninsular Malaysia, significant differences in mean scores are recorded in the constructs that education helps to improve class position, expanding potentials, securing better jobs and achieving ambitions. More interestingly, in a comparison between primary and secondary schools, results reveal that there are significant differences in mean scores on the constructs that education helps to increase knowledge, realize potential, obtain higher salaries, have more comfortable lives, achieve ambition, be loved by family, be loved by teachers and be loved by friends, with primary schools recording higher mean scores in all of these constructs. Does this mean that students become dis-illusioned as they go up the schooling ladder? Implications of results will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper contributes to the important but small body of research on the role of private schools in Indian education. It uses a household dataset from India with a rich set of household covariates and student performance data on reading, writing, and mathematics. For both rural and urban India the results from regression analyses indicate that private school students perform better on tests controlling for covariates. In both contexts, however, the private school benefit becomes largely, statistically, insignificant after conducting multivariate analysis on data balanced using the propensity score matching technique. The paper also makes an initial attempt to identify ‘low-fee’ private schools; within the regression framework it finds that children in such schools may perform no better than their public school counterparts. The data and methods used in this paper are not without limitations; however these analyses call into question the claim that private school effect may be unequivocally positive and highlights the potential heterogeneity in private school performance in the Indian context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Entrepreneurship education is considered one of the key instruments that increases the entrepreneurial attitudes of potential entrepreneurs. The Malaysian government has made tremendous efforts in promoting entrepreneurship education by improving the current policy on entrepreneurship education, providing various entrepreneurship programs to increase the number of young entrepreneurs, and highlighting the need to empower entrepreneurship education among graduates of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). However, despite the policies implemented by the Malaysian government, studies done on the effectiveness of policy implementation are still lacking. This paper therefore aims to examine the achievements of the Strategic Plan on Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (2013-2015) on promoting entrepreneurial education in Malaysian HEIs. The achievements were measured through Key Performance Indicators that were developed by the Ministry of Education. A set of questionnaires has been adapted and modified from the list of Key Performance Indicators. The questionnaire consists of 6 sections that represent the six thrusts in the Strategic Plan on Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (2013-2015). 20 set of questionnaires were distributed to the respondents from the Entrepreneurship Centers in 20 public Malaysian HEIs via emails. Completed data was collected from 10 respondents who represent 10 public HEIs in Malaysia. Some data was also retrieved from the Ministry of Education's database to provide a thorough analysis of the key performance indicators (KPIs). Findings of this study noted that four out of six thrusts, including the first thrust, which is to empower the Entrepreneurship Center in every HEI, the second thrust, which is to provide holistic and well-planned entrepreneurial education and programs, the fourth thrust, which is to enhance the competency of HEIs' entrepreneurship trainers and facilitators, and the sixth thrust, which is to increase the effect of the implementation of HEIs' entrepreneurial education and development, have been successfully achieved. Meanwhile, the other two thrusts that include the third thrust, which is to empower entrepreneurial development programs, and the fifth thrust, which is to provide a conducive environment and ecosystem for entrepreneurship development, have failed to be achieved. Overall, it has been shown that the efforts taken by the Malaysian government in promoting entrepreneurship education among HEI graduates still require some improvement. Therefore, it is important for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to join hands in making sure that the current policies and programs as well as the curriculum and content on entrepreneurship are improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects upon the nature of a target-setting and mentoring scheme in an 11-16 school in England, through a series of retrospective interviews with students who continued into further education. It considers the extent to which the initiative impacted both upon students' formal academic achievement at 16+ and upon the subsequent longer-term aspirations of these students. Interviews with students who achieved considerable 'value-added' in their GCSE examinations suggested that the impact of mentoring was strongest amongst those students who came from homes where there was less expectation of them participating in further and higher education, and that this effect was not differentiated according to gender. The paper suggests that longer-term transformation of students' aspirations, and the challenging of gendered course and career stereotypes, will only be achieved if schools adopt a more holistic and proactive approach to careers education and to widening participation for their students, and that the absence of such proactivity will limit the longer-term gains initiated by successful mentoring activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the effect of school and student characteristics on academic performance. Using data for 2002, the paper applies stochastic frontier techniques to estimate the level of technical efficiency of a sample of 4,542 public and private schools. Our findings indicate that both school and student characteristics have a positive and significant effect on academic performance. It appears that private schools are more efficient due to a more favourable environment since, on average, they receive students from higher income families. However, assuming a similar environment, differences in effi- ciency levels between private and public schools tend to disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provisions of the Higher Education Act (2004) have renewed interest in widening participation research. Therefore, this paper explores the development of this scholarly field, primarily in the United Kingdom, by examining major trends in the study of higher education. Political debates related to higher education, the prevailing structure of the sector and predominant sociological perspectives have largely shaped the empirical and theoretical concerns of widening participation research. These delimiting factors have resulted in incomplete accounts of the barriers to higher education, which do not fully explore the relationship between students' social characteristics, learning experiences and university careers. Furthermore, contemporary research runs the risk of reinventing the wheel and replicating the mistakes of the past, since there has been a collective act of forgetfulness with respect to earlier contributions. In contrast, this paper provides guidelines to facilitate a holistic agenda for future widening participation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the research presented in this paper is to contribute to our knowledge about problem solving in mathematics. My purpose in this paper is to compare, from this point of view, two very different institutions in the French tertiary education system, with the intention to interpret the chronic inequality of performance in problem solving between populations of mathematics students coming from these institutions. Problem solving knowledge and skills are not an explicit objective of teaching and their development depends largely on the student's private mathematical activity. This hypothesis is the reason why the inquiry aims at comparing mathematics students' ways of working as they study in both institutions. The results of the research are interpreted, on the institutional level, as effects of differences between the two teaching systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines notions of 'educational time' with particular reference to the work of Basil Bernstein. It focuses closely on the 1967 Plowden report as a particularly appropriate policy case study to demonstrate how different constructions of time can exist within the same document. It then develops educational models originally mapped out by Bernstein, arguing that a full understanding of the areas of consensus and conflict among these models is vital if we are to understand how teaching professionals think about the future. The paper addresses the following questions: How does time affects education? What influence does this have on educational outcomes? How does this relate to public policy initiatives? Assuming a tacit, collective understanding of time and the future can undermine the very policy intentions a government might be seeking to promulgate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first university-level library schools were opened during the last quarter of the 19th century. The number of such schools has gradually increased during the first half of the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, both in the USA and elsewhere. As information has gained further importance in scientific endeavors and social life, librarianship became a more interdisciplinary field and library schools were renamed as schools of library and information science/ information studies/ information management/information to better reflect the range of education provided. In this paper, we review the major developments in education for library and information science (LIS) and the impact of these developments on the curricula of LIS schools. We then review the programs and courses introduced by some LIS schools to address the data science and data curation issues. We also discuss some of the factors such as "data deluge" and "big data" that might have forced LIS schools to add such courses to their programs. We conclude by observing that "data" has already triggered some curriculum changes in a number of LIS schools in the USA and elsewhere as "Data Science" is becoming an interdisciplinary research field just as "Information Science" has once been (and still is). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a research initiated in the period 2014-2015 at a rural school in Constanta, Romania. The research pursued achievement an investigation on the correlation between learning styles and academic performance of students. The research revealed the following: the student acquires information, interacts with the colleagues and the teachers, participates actively in solving of the various learning tasks, if used two or all learning styles. The teacher, as an educational advisor, has an important role in identifying educational experiences to optimize students' learning opportunities. The small group of subjects is an evident shortcoming of this research, but we intend to extend it to a larger number of subjects, from a greater number of schools, both rural and urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer programming is notoriously difficult to learn. To this end, regular practice in the form of application and reflection is an important enabler of student learning. However, educators often find that first-year B.Sc. students do not readily engage in such activities. Providing each student with a programmable robot, however, could be used to facilitate application and reflection since, potentially, robots facilitate engaging learning experiences while providing immediate and intuitive feedback. This paper explores whether an introductory course centered upon programming personal robots in preparation for an end-of-course event day—a Robot Olympics—can help students to, first, engage in programming practice more frequently and, second, improve the quality of their code. A survey was conducted to examine the students' programming practice behavior, and students' final coursework submissions were also reviewed for aspects of program quality. The findings from this cohort were compared to a reference group from a previous cohort that shared similar learning objectives and entry requirements, but had focused on Web programming instead of using robots. The results reveal statistically significant increases in programming practice compared to the reference group. Furthermore, being enrolled in the course that culminated in the Robot Olympics was a significant predictor of two aspects of program quality: functional coherence and sophistication. This suggests that robot-centered courses can promote engagement with, and enhance some aspects of, programming practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are many determinants of parental involvement. Parental involvement in children's education can take a number of forms, both within the home and in school, suggesting that parental involvement is a very complex activity. The aim of this paper is to provide information about parental involvement in their children's learning activities and schoolwork, as well as to provide information about a possible correlation between active and passive forms of parental involvement in Serbia. The method of this study is analytical and descriptive. Data collection for the survey was conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2011/12. This study is based on the data collected from 1,028 parents of 586 children aged 6.5-10.5, who attended two state elementary schools in Belgrade, Serbia. The results show a high level of parental involvement and correlation between active and passive forms of involvement. Parents report a high level of involvement in children's education. Most parents report the passive form of involvement (encouraging children to study and to do homework), rather than the active form (provide help with the homework). The results may suggest that parental involvement is a general construct and that parents who are interested in their child's education are involved both actively and passively. This can also suggest that children's academic achievement in Serbia depends both on active and passive parental involvement and that a good measure of both can yield good results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the Teacher Self-efficacy Scale, short version, and the School Collective Beliefs Scale adaptation and search of validities evidences process. After the semantic-cultural adaptation process, this study was composed by 380 educators from the public educational system in the state of São Paulo. The teacher self-efficacy scale, composed by 12 items, was organized into three factors. The School Collective Efficacy scale, composed by 12 items, was structured into two factors. Such adaptations, through the exploratory factor analysis yielded similar factor structure to the original scales, showed good evidence for variance explained, and internal consistency. Convergent validity was verified by the significant correlation between self-efficacy and collective efficacy. Criteria validity was verified through significant correlations between these beliefs and school performance. It is suggested to increase the sample size to confirm these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT School attainment is generally believed to be correlated positively with participation in adult learning. The paper explores evidence from Northern Ireland that suggests an inverse relationship is also possible under certain circumstances. In Northern Ireland high school attainment co-exists with low participation in adult learning. The paper considers evidence suggesting that the existence of strong social networks, shared norms and value, and a high level of trust may be a contributory factor to this divergent pattern. While there is a strong social concensus around the academic schooling of young people in Northern Ireland, this 'social capital' both provides an alternative to formal participation in adult learning and a legitimation for low aspirations among adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the complexity of West Indian pupils' adaptations to school Their situation is such that ability, hard work and a commitment to academic achievement may not be sufficient in the struggle for academic success West Indian pupils face the additional barrier of staff ethnocentrism, which must be handled without reinforcing the widespread belief that they represent a challenge to teachers' authority The size of this task is examined through the use of detailed case studies of pupils drawn from ethnographic research in a single multi-ethnic inner-city Comprehensive The paper describes the strategies which allowed one West Indian pupil to succeed academically, whilst a group of his peers experienced increasingly conflictual teacher-pupil relations which culminated in academic failure and, in one case, expulsion from the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses individual-level data to present new evidence on the impact of discrimination, class, family structure, and culture on black schooling. That evidence is used to reconsider several of the important conclusions of Lieberson's (1980) analysis of schooling. The paper confirms Lieberson's conclusions about the relative importance of economic well-being and the unimportance of family structure. When family background is controlled, Lieberson's conclusions concerning grade attainment in the early years of the century are confirmed. However, the use of the early attainment data to study the importance of cultural factors is complicated by an understanding of child labor opportunities. Measures of school performance less affected by that complication are offered. Finally, the appendix questions the evidence for Lieberson's contention that changes in the relative position of blacks were especially great in the 1925-35 birth cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last five years, maritime education in Croatia underwent changes in programmes, possible educational paths and students' structure. This paper analyses the recent trends in maritime education in Croatia with particular references to enrolment and graduation processes at higher Maritime Education and Training (MET) institutions. The aim was to examine the students' structure developments and the correlation between recent economical fluctuations in Croatia and attractiveness of seafaring among young people. The authors have examined data gathered from two higher MET institutions in Zadar and Rijeka from 2010 to 2014. The results of the research have shown that GDP fluctuations i.e. the economic situation in the state has an influence on the enrolment at higher MET institutions. Furthermore, the results have shown that grammar school graduates and those from other four-year vocational schools are starting to choose seafaring as their profession increasingly. Today, in both cities, traditionally oriented to seafaring, students enrolled at higher MET institutions who graduated from maritime schools are significantly in the minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and analyzes the current status of Secondary Education in Chile. Wide coverage, mediocre performances and social inequity are revealed within a context of tradability and prominence of private institutions. Performance-Based Agreements for the improvement of teacher education at a university level are highlighted as of their novel nature. These instruments put the objectives of each University with those of the State into alignment through negotiated processes within the framework of formal contracts setting “Performances of Excellence”. These represent profound changes in both the outcomes and impacts of the quality of teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion about teacher quality in Chile through two approaches: (a) one based on estimates of the value added by teachers or teacher effect on students' learning, gauged by exploring the role of teachers' characteristics and the context in which they work (school and municipality); and (b) another which seeks to predict student performance using context variables and teacher characteristics. Hierarchical linear models were used in both analyses. The data came from Chile's National Teacher Evaluation System, from the Education Quality Measurement System and the National System of Municipal Information. The sample includes a higher proportion of the poorest and richest schools compared to the total population. The results show instability in the estimation of the teacher effect, adjusting different models that incorporate control variables gradually. The analysis of students' scores shows that, among contextual variables, the school is more important than the municipality for the prediction and that, at the teacher level, only participation in professional development programs is statistically significant, with no evidence supporting the value of experience and initial education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and analyzes the current status of Secondary Education in Chile. Wide coverage, mediocre performances and social inequity are revealed within a context of tradability and prominence of private institutions. Performance-Based Agreements for the improvement of teacher education at a university level are highlighted as of their novel nature. These instruments put the objectives of each University with those of the State into alignment through negotiated processes within the framework of formal contracts setting “Performances of Excellence". These represent profound changes in both the outcomes and impacts of the quality of teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]