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Computational thinking (CT) is seen as a key competence of the 21st century and different countries have started to integrate it into their compulsory school curricula. However, few indications exist on how to assess CT in compulsory school. This review analyses what tools are used to assess CT in European schools and which dimensions are assessed. We analysed 26 studies carried out in K-12 between 2016 and 2020 in Europe. The results indicate that 18 different tools have been used and they can be categorized into five groups: questionnaires, tests/tasks, observations, interviews and analysis of products. From the tools we analysed, more than 50 dimensions were assessed and the vast majority of those were closer to programming skills rather than CT per se. Based on these results it seems that a common operational definition of CT, a competence model that indicates which competences students should reach at which age, and a tool that allows all different facets of CT to be assessed are currently missing.

International student mobility has been rising as a global phenomenon in the last few decades, while its impact could be various in different contexts. For the European Union (EU), studying in another EU member country could be regarded as an important factor for the solidarity and integrity of the Union. The current study elaborates on the role of studying abroad regarding the attitudes of people toward immigration in the EU. It shows that people who are studying in an EU member country, belonging to higher social classes and from EU15 countries, are more likely to have positive attitudes toward immigration. But after controlling several socio-demographic variables studying abroad still contributes positively to the attitudes of EU citizens toward immigration. Accordingly, current study provides promising pieces of evidence on the social contribution of studying abroad for both future research and policymakers.

Several studies have been published on disengaged test respondents, and others have analyzed disengaged survey respondents separately. For many large-scale assessments, students answer questionnaire and test items in succession. This study examines the percentage of students who continuously engage in disengaged responding behaviors across sections in a low-stakes assessment. The effects on calculated scores of filtering students, based on their responding behaviors, are also analyzed. Data of this study came from the 2015 administration of PISA. For data analysis, frequencies and percentages of engaged students in the sessions were initially calculated using students' response times. To investigate the impact of filtering disengaged respondents on parameter estimation, three groups were created, namely engaged in both measures, engaged only in the test, and engaged only in the questionnaire. Next, several validity checks were performed on each group to verify the accuracy of the classifications and the impact of filtering student groups based on their responding behavior. The results indicate that students who are disengaged in tests tend to continue this behavior when responding to the questionnaire items in PISA. Moreover, the rate of continuity of disengaged responding is non-negligible as can be seen from the effect sizes. On the other hand, removing disengaged students in both measures led to higher or nearly the same performance ratings compared to the other groups. Researchers analyzing the dataset including achievement tests and survey items are recommended to review disengaged responses and filter out students who are continuously showing disengaged responding before performing further statistical analysis.

Context: Existing studies have explored the association between workplace training and wages suggesting that training participation may have a positive association with wages. However, we still know very little about whether this association varies between men and women. Through its potential positive association with wages, training may balance wage differences between men and women. In addition, the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution. Differences in the association between training participation and wages for men and women across the earnings spectrum may offer an explanation as to why the discrepancy in female/male earnings is larger at some point of the wage distribution compared to others. Approach: Using data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and unconditional quantile regression, this paper examines whether the association between workplace training and wages differs between men and women at different points of the wage distribution across 14 European countries. To partly control for endogeneity in training participation, detailed measures of cognitive skills have been included in the models. Findings: Findings show gender differences in the association between training and wages across the wage distribution. In most countries, results indicate larger training coefficients for women than men at the lower end of the wage spectrum whereas they are larger for men at the top. This pattern holds across most countries with the only exception of Liberal ones, where women benefit less than men across the entire wage spectrum. Conclusions: The findings of this work reveal that distributional variations in returns to workplace training follow a similar pattern across industrialized countries, despite their different institutional settings. Moreover, differences in training coefficients of men and women at different parts of the wage distribution suggest that training could reduce gender wage differences among low earners and potentially widen the gap in wages among individuals at the top of the wage distribution.

This study explores the role of the welfare state in reducing young people not being in education, employment, or training (NEET)s across 15 European countries. Using data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in combination with the Social Expenditure Database, we conducted cross-national analysis to reveal whether the increase in public social spending moderates the risk of being NEET at a young adult age, especially for socially disadvantaged young people. Our results highlighted that the rise of one percentage point of public social spending per gross domestic product, including social expenditure on education, active labor market, and unemployment, is significantly associated with decreasing the odds of being NEET. Furthermore, these social expenditures appeared to lower the NEET risk given socially disadvantaged backgrounds suggesting that young people with low educational levels, whose parents have low educational attainment levels, non-immigrant families, and females are likely to benefit given the robust social protection system. These findings suggest that public social spending may be an effective investment in promoting the social involvement of young people from socially disadvantaged background.

Across Europe, educational institutions are essential in assisting exploration of politics, culture and history, and the use of creative arts appears crucial to supporting this aim. This article reports on Creative Connections, a multi-partner research project that facilitated exchanges for young people to explore their European identities using online art galleries and blogging technologies. Their multimodal conversations revealed an openness to consider artworks as sources of knowledge and experience. Participants did not focus on the nationality of the artist, but concentrated on the relationship that the subject matter of the work had with their own concerns. Anxiety related to populism, exclusive nationalism, social inequality and new forms of labour appeared to impact young European citizens' relationships and their perceptions of democracy.

In this study, we investigated factors predictive of disconnection, or not being in education, employment, or training (NEET), among young adults with at least a 2-year college degree. We also explored the extent to which disconnection influences civic participation and well-being among NEETs with and without college degrees. The authors used 2012 and 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) for 29 countries, including the United States, along with US 2012 data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Results highlight that college-educated individuals whose parents have low levels of educational attainment actually have a higher likelihood of becoming NEET relative to college-educated individuals whose parents are more highly educated. Study findings also emphasize the influence of economic and geographic differences (country-level for OECD and county-level for United States) on NEET rates, in addition to the extent to which mothers have a higher likelihood and fathers have a lower likelihood of being NEET relative to their childless peers and the influence of country-level family leave policies on the odds of being NEET across the OECD. College field of study also emerges as an important influence on disconnection across the 29 OECD countries in the study, but not in the United States separately. Finally, comparing results for college-educated NEETs and NEETs without degrees, we found that higher education appears to reduce the likelihood of community disengagement and reports of poor health among NEETs across the OECD countries. However, this is not the case within the United States where NEETs are less likely to be engaged in their communities and more likely to describe themselves as in poor health regardless of their educational attainment.

Education is the core of the factors that improved people for a better lifestyle and increases the level of society' development. Quality education is one of the most vital goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to actualizing these factors. Using relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA), which have three interrelated substages, this current paper computes the educational economy efficiency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries bearing in mind the characteristics related to SDGs. The contribution of our study is the use of a novel approach to computing the educational economy efficiency using relational network DEA with GAMS. Even though some interesting differences reveal in the efficiency of the countries, the findings show that countries with high-efficiency scores are clustered around countries like Latvia, Slovenia, and Korea.

According to recommendations of the UN Secretary General's Global Education First Initiative, countries and regions require a number of structural changes if they are to implement educational policies and practice based on global citizenship education, and to promote respect and responsibility across cultures. In this paper, we present the first results of a three-year project to compare existing educational policies, strategies and school curricula in ten European Union (EU) countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, UK) to ascertain the current level of such structural changes. Through a comparative policy analysis, we investigated whether, to what extent, and how global citizenship education is integrated within primary school curricula. The article focuses on national governmental agencies--specifically two main bodies in each country, the ministries of foreign affairs and education--and their political discourses. We argue that the gap between the two traditions, with separate approaches, purposes, concepts and bureaucracies, represents a strategic political challenge for the introduction of global citizenship education in primary schools.

A unique challenge for organizations is in leading diverse, dispersed teams whose members are motivated to work independently, but are willing to collaborate. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how nuanced variations in motivational patterns influences the relationship between work satisfaction and virtual team effectiveness. A sequential, mixed methods design was used to analyze and explain the moderating effects of motivational orientation on this relationship. In the first, quantitative phase, participating virtual team members completed an online survey with items comprising the five motivation source scales from the Motivation Sources Inventory, work satisfaction, and eleven variables measuring utilization of virtual team effectiveness attributes from the Virtual Teams Survey. Seven hypotheses were tested, with support found for three of the hypotheses. Work satisfaction and utilization of the virtual team effectiveness attributes were found to be positively correlated. Support was also found for hypotheses that the relationship between work satisfaction and utilization of the virtual team effectiveness attributes will be stronger for virtual team members (VTMs) with low self-concept external and / or moderate or high goal internalization patterns. In the second, qualitative phase, follow-up interviews were conducted to support and provide rationale for the quantitative results. Qualitative analysis of interviews revealed three major themes focused on concerns regarding team leadership, organizational support, and technology. Viewed in context with the quantitative results, the themes suggest that work satisfaction may be improved for most VTMs, regardless of motivation pattern, by strengthening leadership, aligning rewards with goals, and enhancing the technology used for team communication.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this work is to explore which factors impact on the adoption of the flipped classroom in vocational education to pave the way for the schools which want to apply this model. Background: Although various experiences in the use of the flipped classroom have been reported in recent years in the literature, fewer efforts have been done on how to implement this model from a pedagogical standpoint. The factors that influence its adoption have not been studied in depth, at least not in a global way. These factors include the use of technology and teaching methodologies active in the classroom, the trend towards innovation of teachers and schools, and whether teachers have the necessary ICT training and infrastructures. Moreover, although the results of many experiences in Higher Education have been published, this is not so for other levels of education, such as vocational schools. Methodology: A quantitative research method was used by constructing a questionnaire. The questionnaire included open questions in order to obtain qualitative information, which enriched the results obtained. Descriptive and factor analysis was used to analyze data, within the framework of the project FlipIT!--Flipped Classroom in the European Vocational Education", ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership (2015-1-HU01-KA202-013555) funded by the European Union, with the participation of Hungary, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Spain. The research sample includes 625 teachers (434 from Spain, 121 from Hungary and 61 from the Czech Republic) from schools participating or somehow associated to the project. Contribution: An empirically validated framework of the factors influencing the adoption of the flipped classroom approach in schools was obtained. This framework can guide the curriculum design of flipped classroom model courses for vocational education teachers. Findings: Empirically validated factors for the adoption of the flipped classroom in technical schools are presented. In addition, descriptive analysis results from a sample of 625 vocational education teachers confirmed that the countries involved in the survey fulfill the factors needed for the adoption of the flipped classroom in vocational education schools. Another important result is that, according to the surveyed teachers, the flipped classroom is a strongly practice-oriented method very suitable for vocational education. Recommendations for Practitioners: The framework here presented can guide the curriculum design of flipped classroom model courses for vocational and technical education teachers and allow schools to know the factors to review and improve in order to use the model. Recommendations for Researchers: This study is a first step toward determining the factors needed for the adoption of the flipped classroom model in vocational and technical schools. More studies using alternative data sources and methods are needed to obtain a definite model to support this adoption since FC has proved to be a very successful model for motivating students. We hope these results pave the way for schools who want to adopt the FC model and for focusing teaching training on the competences that this work detected. Impact on Society: Recently, we are witnessing an important debate about the future of education at every level. Different innovative methodologies have emerged in a search for more motivating and effective ways to learn, as well as to develop in our students the so-called 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication and collaboration, creativity, and information, media and technology skills. The flipped classroom approach can help to improve vocational education by changing traditional classes and teaching students other important soft skills, such as teamwork and collaboration, reflection, digital skills, and self-study. Future Research: The model is currently being implemented in schools in Spain, Hungary, and the Czech Republic using the results obtained here under the framework of the European project "FlipIT!-Flipped Classroom in the European Vocational Education", ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership (2015-1-HU01-KA202-013555). After checking the criteria obtained in the framework for each of the participating schools, as a first step, an online course has been created using the competences obtained in this framework, both pedagogical and ICT. Once the course is completed, the teachers will carry out a pilot project to use the model. We hope the framework is useful to other researchers in order to implement the model in other countries and extend it with other criteria to obtain a validated international framework. This study is a first step toward determining the factors needed for the adoption of the flipped classroom model in technical schools. More studies using alternative data sources and methods are needed to obtain a definite model to support this adoption since FC has proved to be a very successful model for motivating students. We hope these results pave the way for schools who want to adopt the FC model and for focusing teacher training on competences.

Background: Data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) revealed that countries systematically differ in their respondents' literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments skills; skill levels also vary by gender, age, level of education or migration background. Similarly, systematic differences have been documented with respect to adults' participation in education, which can be considered as a means to develop and maintain skills. From a psychological perspective, motivation to learn is considered a key factor associated with both skill development and participation in (further) education. In order to account for motivation when analyzing PIAAC data, four items from the PIAAC background questionnaire were recently compiled into a motivation-to-learn scale. This scale has been found to be invariant (i.e., showing full weak and partial strong measurement invariance) across 21 countries. Methods: This paper presents further analyses using multiple-group graded response models to scrutinize the validity of the motivation-to-learn scale for group comparisons. Results: Results indicate at least partial strong measurement invariance across gender, age groups, level of education, and migration background in most countries under study (all CFI > 0.95, all RMSEA < 0.08). Thus, the scale is suitable for comparing both means and associations across these groups. Conclusions:Results are discussed in light of country characteristics, challenges of measurement invariance testing, and potential future research using PIAAC data.

Recently, the "Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency" (2012) have funded programmes designed to advance European citizenship and citizen competences through education. This paper reports on the findings from one project, Creative Connections, designed to encourage the "voices" of young people in exploring European identities. Children (aged 9-16) in 25 schools in six European Union (EU) countries (UK, Finland, Spain, Czech Republic, Portugal and Ireland) developed artworks that explored perceptions of European citizenship. Their art was posted on a secure website and they discussed images with peers using automatic online translated blogs. The project facilitated representations of identity/belonging using a range of media. However, some artworks suggested that children were alienated from "Europe", particularly EU responses to global austerity. This paper uses the theory of "precarity" to examine the ways in which the children expressed their concerns. Some artworks suggest that recent economic and political decisions have had the effect of challenging a sense of shared European citizenship; they resist a positive sense of identification with Europe and demonstrate fear for their future based on their current lives. This indicates that the EU's educational goals to promote citizenship competences may require revision to account for the challenges of contemporary societies.