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A multitude of research shows that the secondary education (SE) outcomes relate with university academic achievement (AA). More research is needed on SE outcomes subject-specifically. We examined the relationship between the Finnish matriculation examination (ME) results and AA, study success (grades) and study progress (credits), of educational sciences students (N = 1,214) who were pursuing a three-year bachelor's degree in 2007–2017. The overall ME results explained 15% of the variance in study success and less than 1% in study progress. Success in mother tongue, mathematics, psychology and health education in the ME along with 1st- and 2nd-year study success related positively with higher study success throughout the three years. For the 3rd-year study progress, the results were more mixed, and progress in the 1st and 2nd year was statistically significant compared to the ME results. In conclusion, it is recommended to consider subject-specific ME outcomes regarding student admissions and curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an exploratory study aiming to add to the scarce research exploring the enhancement of 21st century skills across the undergraduate years of Education student. Data were collected from 329 undergraduates (96% females), who learned at Ashkelon Academic College, Israel. 103 students (31%) were at the beginning of the freshman year, 102 students (31%) were at the end of the second school year, and 123 students (38%) were at the end of the graduation and final school year. The 21st century skills were assessed using a 32 Likert-type item questionnaire about 21st century skills. Results indicated of positive relations between all 21st century skills, and between undergraduates' matriculation examination grades and all these skills, except for ICT. Significant differences in 21st century skills were found between freshman year and advanced years. 21st century skills mastery was higher in advanced years compared to freshman year. Educational implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Fluent transitions to higher education are a common concern, especially in highly selective Finnish teacher education (TE). This study examined the fit between the matriculation examination (ME) results and the selection criteria applied in TE. We studied the accepted applicants in Finland in 2013–2015 (n = 5116), and both the accepted and rejected applicants at the University of Oulu in 2015 (n = 2170). Among the accepted applicants, the ME typically consisted of mother tongue, advanced syllabus English, basic syllabus mathematics, psychology, and health education. The various selection criteria did not directly differentiate the applicants with respect to the ME. The two strongest predictors in the ME for acceptance to TE were the choice of and performance in advanced syllabus mathematics and psychology. The results are discussed in light of selection criteria and TE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of AFinLA:n vuosikirja is the property of Suomen Soveltavan Kielitieteen Yhdistys and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives This paper presents the comparison of various approaches to the issue of access to higher education for adult learners in European countries. In particular, it indicates two systems of learners' skills evaluation, similar in way of organization but opposite in obtained results. The first one is Finnish and second one Polish Matriculation Examination system, regarded as the Entrance Exams to university level education. Both systems are presented in perspective of learners of schools for adults, mostly young people who have drop out of the youth system. The main goal of this paper is to indicate the difficulties faced by learners of upper secondary schools for adults, especially in Poland. The difficulties causing that door to higher education are closed in front of these learners. Material and methods The analyses take into account secondary data from examination sessions 2015-2018, provided by the Polish Central Examination Board and the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board. Results While in reference to students of youth schools from Finland and Poland we can say in some approximation the examination results are similar, for adult school learners the distribution is fundamentally different. When in Finland 10% candidates do not pass the mathematics exam, in Poland corresponding indicator is 7 times larger. Conclusions Presented results indicate Polish adult formal education urgently needs the help. The modifications are necessary. Maybe not the change of organization of matriculation examination, but certainly the reconstruction of learning/teaching process in secondary schools for adults.

The bilingual process is widely observed among many people and many cultures. Out of the many different forms of bilingualism, the form of bilingualism that most often appears is the subsequent one, being the result of learning a second language in school settings. When developing this type of bilingualism, both the language competences of language teachers and the quality of their teaching talent are very important. In order to assess this type of interdependence, a study that focuses on the teachers' skills and competences, on the one hand, and the impact L2 teachers have on students, on the other hand, was designed. The study involved 50 teachers and 100 students taught by them, all of them attending vocational secondary schools in southern Poland. All participants of the study (i.e. both the teachers and the students) were to answer six verification questions included in the Matura exam 2018. The results obtained during the research indicate the existence of an interdependence between the actual level of proficiency of foreign language (FL) teachers and the final level of L2 proficiency presented by their students. Generally, the students led by language teachers with a higher overall level of communicative competence showed an overall better command of English in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent reforms in the Croatian national educational system due to the Republic of Croatia’s accession to the European Union have as one focus to raise the level of critical thinking required by students. An important component of national education is the high stakes matriculation or ‘matura’ examinations. A study was made of biology examinations in both the countries of Australia and the Republic of Croatia. The comparison aimed to determine the level of critical thinking demanded based on the questions in the examination. This analysis of examination questions relied on the presumption of consequential validity of high stakes examinations; matriculation papers, where, if demanded by the examination, students will adopt certain skills, in this case, critical thinking. A hierarchical critical thinking taxonomy was subsequently developed based on similar taxonomies in existing literature to research the questions in the matriculation examination papers of biology in Australia and the Republic of Croatia respectively. The examination questions were classified according to this taxonomy and the results are displayed according to the level of critical thinking demanded in these examination papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the Author analyses all EU-related tasks in Polish matriculation exam in civic education from the years 2010–2019. The empirical material also includes the rules for assessing tasks’ solutions and exam reports. The level of civic knowledge of young people is not high, but the knowledge about EU-related issues is even worse (it was confirmed that in each type of matriculation exam results of the EU-related tasks were in general lower than the average result of the entire exam in civic education). The analysis also demonstrates that the population of those who pass the „new exam” exam in civic education is qualitatively weaker than the population of those who pass the „old exam”, however, in the EU-related tasks these differences are smaller than the difference in the results of both exam’s formulas (it was confirmed that generally the level of solutions of EU-related tasks in the „new exam” is lower than in the „old exam”, but to a lesser extent than the difference between the average results of these both types of exams).

Issues concerning access to higher education are seen differently in various European education systems. In some of them, the paths leading to the desired college or university can be wide, in others difficult to reach or very bumpy. Learners of schools for adults represent a particular group vulnerable to difficulties in accessing higher education. For these learners, the accomplishment of the entrance examination requirements is not always equally achievable as for youth schools students. This paper presents the comparison of various approaches to the issue of access to higher education for adult learners in European countries. In particular, it indicates two systems of learners' skills evaluation, similar in way of organization but opposite in obtained results. The first one is Finnish and the second one Polish Matriculation Examination system, regarded as the Entrance Exams to university level education. Both systems are presented in from the perspective of learners of schools for adults, mostly young people who have dropeed out of the youth system. The analyses take into account secondary data from examination sessions 2015-2018, provided by the Polish Central Examination Board and the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board. The main goal of this paper is to indicate the difficulties faced by learners of upper secondary schools for adults, especially in Poland. The difficulties causing that door to higher education are closed in front of these learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Przegląd Europejski is the property of University of Warsaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural is the property of Sociedad Espanola para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

People who exploit their strengths flourish; they are not only engaged with their goals, but also to their well-being and the content of life. In this study, interest focused on the high-achieving students in the Finnish general upper secondary education, in other words, on straight-A graduates’ characteristic strengths. This was a narrative study in which the data were obtained through written narratives and narrative interviews among 14 Finnish straight-A graduates. The data were analyzed with narrative analyzing methods. Ten typical strengths found and further categorized into three key dimensions were: (1) the thirst of knowledge and passion for learning, (2) fortitude and authenticity, and (3) love. This study implied that the youth’s school paths and well-being actively increased their own characteristic strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study identified and examined the characteristics of some selected empirical studies on validity of UME in Nigeria. It investigated the effect of sample size on the selected studies with a view to establishing the validity of the reported coefficients of the studies. The study made use of an ex-post facto design. Statistical data from 30 empirical studies were purposely selected from internet and manual searching of journal. Psychometric meta-analytic method was used to code the different study characteristics while chi square for focused and diffused tests were used to compare and combine the study outcomes. The results showed that the Weighted Mean Fisher (WZr) and Mean Fisher (Zr) were the same (WZr)=(Zr) = 0.39 indicating that study characteristics of the selected empirical studies did not affect the validity of UME in terms of type of publications outlets, statistical measure, study coverage and year of publication. The effect size of published articles was significantly different from unpublished theses. (X2=5.421 p<0.05). However Weighted mean by sample size was greater than Mean Fisher WZr = 0.497> Zr=0.39. The implication of this is that the heterogeneity of the effect sizes of the empirical studies was influenced by the sample sizes. The study concluded that the validity of UME was relatively low (r = 0.375) and the variation in the results of the empirical studies on UME was as a result of differences in their sample sizes and not because of study methods or time of publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cognitive competence remain stable and dominant predictor of educational achievement. • The role of motivational beliefs in predicting educational achievement becomes stronger when adolescents advance on their educational path. • The Finnish LTL framework illustrates the development of cognitive competencies and motivational beliefs throughout secondary education. • Learning-enhancing beliefs were more dominant for girls whereas detrimental-to-learning beliefs were more dominant for boys. • Agency: effort was the only motivational belief that predicted students' Finnish/Swedish high-stake exam scores with cognitive competence. The Finnish Learning to learn framework comprises cognitive competencies and motivational beliefs, which both have shown to be associated with academic success in different educational settings. However, studies of the stability and development of these constructs across six year long secondary education are scarce. In addition, this study investigates the predictive power of learning to learn constructs on achievement in the high-stakes Finnish matriculation examination. Following a sample of Finnish students (N = 2712, 55 % girls, aged 13–19) from lower secondary to general upper secondary education, this study found that Finnish the learning to learn construct and the relations between its components hold rather stable over the years. However, while cognitive competence improves and shows strong rank order stability during adolescence, learning-enhancing motivational beliefs show a downward trajectory and detrimental-to-learning beliefs somewhat opposite one, found in other studies. Gender differences were found in both students' motivational beliefs and in in their achievement in the matriculation examination. The role of motivational beliefs, especially effort belief, becomes stronger when adolescents grow older and advance on their educational path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]