Search

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

The aim of the study was to assess the scale of various interrupted schooling trajectories among Polish youth, and to identify the differences and similarities between students following these trajectories and their reasons for interrupting education. In a dataset of 5,414 young Polish adults, we identified 343 (6.3%) learners who left upper-secondary school at least once and followed one of four interrupted schooling trajectories: school non-completion, school switching non-completion, school switching completion and ISCED 3 graduates' non-completion. They differed from non-interrupted learners in the type of first attended upper-secondary school, gender and socio-economic status, although the pattern of differences varied depending on the trajectory. We also observed differences between interrupted trajectories in the above-mentioned characteristics, as well as in reasons for leaving or switching school, which gives evidence of heterogeneity among interrupted learners. This heterogeneity appeared also in groups usually analysed together, such as early school leavers, which should be taken into account in future studies. Moreover, the analyses showed important similarities between the school non-completion trajectory, which is usually covered in studies, and the ISCED 3 graduates' non-completion trajectory, which to date remained unrecognised. The results served as a basis for policy recommendations.

This study inquired into the effect of single-sex schooling on achievement of female adolescents. It used national examination data of 4,787 Polish female students (10 cohorts) attending single-sex and co-educational Catholic schools. We tested two sets of partially contradictory predictions derived from two different theoretical models explaining how and why achievement of female students in the two types of school may differ. The results of cross-classified random-effects regression models showed that after controlling for initial student and school differences female adolescents attending all-girls schools scored higher on the lower-secondary school exam in science and the humanities in comparison to those who attended co-educational schools. However, the difference was statistically significant only for science. The results were fully consistent with neither of the two adopted theoretical models, although provided more support for the one drawing upon peer effects. Although the effect of 17% of the exam scores standard deviation could be considered small, it appeared in the results of a high-stakes exam. Since the examination results were the main criterion for admission to the next-stage school, attending an all-girls school might significantly affect future educational career and job opportunities of young women.