‘Becoming your best’: student perspectives on community in the pursuit of aspirations

Achieving equitable schooling outcomes for young people living in communities of low socio-economic status is a prominent issue that assumes focus in educational policy, theory and practice both in Australia and internationally. This paper draws upon the narratives of five secondary school students living in the northern urban fringe of Adelaide in South Australia, a region that is characterised by socio-economic challenge (Prosser et al. in Connecting lives and learning: Renewing pedagogy in the middle years, 2010). Specifically, the participants’ understandings and perspectives about community are used to examine their aspirations through the analysis of qualitative data obtained from a focus group, visual methods, a storying activity and semi-structured interviews. Discussion on students’ construction and pursuit of aspirations is framed by Appadurai’s (Culture and public action: 59–84, 2004, p. 67) conceptualisation of aspiration as a cultural capacity influenced by one’s social, cultural and economic contexts. This paper demonstrates that students from low socio-economic backgrounds have aspirations for their future which are influenced by their schooling experiences and the positive trust relationships they develop with teachers in community. As such, connections between place and learning are highlighted as critical factors in achieving more equitable schooling outcomes. The research identifies factors in ‘community’ that shape young people’s aspirations and ways in which young people can be supported in navigating toward their aspirations.     

The perceived role of the Teach For America program on teachers’ long-term career aspirations

In urban school systems, the percentage of teachers that leave the profession is disproportionally high. Part of the driving force for this high rate of teacher turnover are alternative certification programmes, like Teach For America (TFA) which recruits teachers only for a short-term teaching commitment. This study contributes a novel perspective on these teachers’ decision to stay or exit the classroom after this two-year commitment by analysing extensive open-ended qualitative interviews with 30 TFA participants in Los Angeles. Within this sample, a majority enter the programme without viewing teaching as a long-term career option, though they are willing to extend their initial two-year teaching commitment for several years, though not much longer after that. Only a minority of these teachers entered TFA as a means of becoming long-term classroom teachers. No teachers changed their long-term career plans as a result of their participation in TFA. Implications are discussed.     

Influence of academic self-regulation,critical thinking,and age on online graduate students’ academic help-seeking

Academic help-seeking is an invaluable learning strategy that has not yet received much attention in the distance education research literature. The asynchronous nature of distance education and many online courses presents an inherent roadblock to help-seeking. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of academic self-regulation, critical thinking, and age on online graduate students’ help-seeking. Results indicate that these variables did significantly influence help-seeking, and that as self-regulation and critical thinking increased so did help-seeking. However, as age increased, help-seeking decreased. These results and implications for practice are discussed.     

Influence of input acoustic power on regenerator's performance

Performance of a pulse tube cooler significantly depends on the efficient operation of its regenerator. Influence of input acoustic power on regenerator's performance is simulated and analyzed with simple harmonic analysis method. Given regenera-tor's dimensions and pressure ratio,there is an optimal input acoustic power for achieving a highest coefficient of performance,due to a compromise between relative time-averaged total energy flux in regenerator and relative acoustic power at regenerator's cold end. Additionally,optimal dimensions of regenerator are also estimated and presented for different input acoustic powers. The computed optimal diameter obviously increases with increase of input acoustic power,while the optimal length decreases slightly,and as a result,a larger input acoustic power requires a smaller aspect ratio (length over diameter).     

Differential effect of university entrance score on first-year students’ academic performance in Portugal

The main goal of this study is to show that the association between university entrance score and first-year students’ academic performance varies randomly across courses after controlling for students’ sociodemographic, schooling trajectory and motivational variables. The sample consists of 2697 first-year students who were enrolled in 54 courses at a Portuguese public university in 2015/16. Multilevel modelling of academic performance suggests that 34% of variability in grade point average is due to differences among courses and that 80% of such variability is explained by the field of study, whether the university is the student’s first choice, and the student’s gender, age and parents’ level of education. In addition, the results corroborate that the university entrance score is the strongest predictor of first-year academic performance.     

Book matters: The effect of Cocky’s Reading Express on student performance

The literature argues that children are more likely to succeed academically if they acquire strong reading skills and a love of reading at a young age. In this paper, I evaluate an early childhood literacy program, Cocky’s Reading Express (CRE), to understand how reading events at school and the gifts of books impact learning. Combining the CRE visit records with administrative student data, I find that CRE leads to 0.02–0.03 of a standard deviation increase in statewide English Language Arts test scores among low-income students one year after the visit and find suggestive evidence that CRE improves the math scores for subgroups of students in poverty. In particular, the CRE effect varies based on locality and access to reading materials, with a larger effect on students residing in metropolitan areas or close to public libraries. However, the positive effects on low-income students diminish over time; CRE does not show impacts on the scores of students from better-off families either.     

Care in academia: an exploration of student parents’ experiences

While student parents now represent a significant proportion of the higher education population in England, this group has been given limited consideration in policy circles. Using a social constructivist and feminist theoretical framework, this paper draws on a research project investigating the role of higher education policies in supporting student parents in England. It focuses on findings from 40 interviews conducted with student parents enrolled on university programmes. It shows that, in the context of the default construction of the university student as carefree, student parents often describe their experience of navigating academia as a struggle, in which time-related, financial, health and emotional problems prevail. However, the stories they tell also emphasise the benefits associated with their dual status. By doing so, they resist the discourse of deficit typically applied to ‘non traditional’ students and produce a counter-discourse that disturbs the long-lived binary opposition between care and academia.     

The effect of increasing written approval on Italian students’ academic performance in higher education

Increasing teacher verbal approval has been shown to produce both increased pupil “on-task” behaviour and academic achievement. The present study aimed to address gaps in current knowledge about the effect of different kinds of teacher approval, other than verbal approval, on students’ performance. An exploratory study, followed by an experimental study, was conducted with Italian undergraduate psychology students in order to investigate the effect of written approval on their academic performance. The results indicate that, whilst there is some suggestion that students appreciated receiving increased written approval comments on their work, the receipt of such comments was accompanied by poorer academic performance than that of a control group. Possible explanations are presented.     

The influence of grandparents’ social class on children’s aspirations

Social class mobility from grandparent to grandchild is a relatively neglected topic. Grandparents today are often healthier and more active, and have longer relationships with their grandchildren than in previous generations. We used data from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study (n = 8570) to investigate the influence of maternal and paternal grandparents’ social class on the aspirations of children at age seven. Using path analysis and controlling for family income, mother’s and father’s education, lone motherhood, and child’s ethnicity and gender, we found very small direct effects from the paternal grandmother’s social class to the grandchild’s classed aspirations, and small, indirect effects, via parents’ class, of grandparents’ class on child’s classed aspirations. Multi-group analyses found few differences by ethnicity and gender. There was no evidence that, at this age, mixed-class parentage raises the aspirations of working-class children (the ‘sunken middle-class’ hypothesis).     

The impact of student composition on schools’ value-added performance: a comparison of seven empirical studies

In many countries, policy makers struggle with the development of value-added indicators of school performance for educational accountability purposes and in particular with the choice whether school context measured in the form of student composition variables should be included. This study investigates differences between 7 empirical studies that have looked at changes in value-added indicators through the inclusion of school composition variables. Differences were found in the strength of the association between Type A (student-level covariates) and Type B (student- and school-level covariates) school effect models in various regions, varying between 0.74 and 0.99 for secondary education. Important differences were found between the estimate of a school’s effectiveness by using a Type A or a Type B value-added model in secondary education in The Netherlands, Belgium, Chile, and Australia and in US and UK primary education. However, few differences were found in other cases.     

The role of engagement and academic behavioral skills on young students’ academic performance—A validation across four countries

The aim of this study is to validate an instrument measuring students’ academic behavioral skills and engagement—skills identified as vital for student achievement. We inspect the reliability and validity of the survey with respect to item fit, factorial structure, relations with academic performance, and the fairness of the items across student groups. The fairness analyses are critical to making valid comparisons between groups and across countries. Data comprising 8520 grade 10 students from four countries were analysed using item response theory. We found that both scales were multidimensional, acted fairly across students’ gender, country, immigrant-, and socio-economic background (after removing four items), and were positively and significantly correlated with self-reported and performance-based academic performance.     

Influence of input acoustic power on regenerator＇s performance

Performance of a pulse tube cooler significantly depends on the efficient operation ofits regenerator. Influence of input acoustic power on regenerator＇s performance is simulated and analyzed with simple harmonic analysis method. Given regenerator＇s dimensions and pressure ratio, there is an optimal input acoustic power for achieving a highest coefficient of performance, due to a compromise between relative time-averaged total energy flux in regenerator and relative acoustic power at regenerator＇s cold end. Additionally, optimal dimensions of regenerator are also estimated and presented for different input acoustic powers. The computed optimal diameter obviously increases with increase of input acoustic power, while the optimal length decreases slightly, and as a result, a larger input acoustic power requires a smaller aspect ratio （length over diameter）.     

Judgments of self-perceived academic competence and their differential impact on students’ achievement motivation, learning approach, and academic performance

Using path analysis, the present study focuses on the development of a model describing the impact of four judgments of self-perceived academic competence on higher education students’ achievement goals, learning approach, and academic performance. Results demonstrate that academic self-efficacy, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, academic self-concept, and perceived level of understanding are conceptually and empirically distinct self-appraisals of academic competence which have a different impact on student motivation, learning, and academic performance. Furthermore, the current study suggests that students reflecting high scores on the four measures of self-perceived competence, are more persistent, more likely to adopt mastery and/or performance approach goals, less anxious, process the learning material at a deeper level, and achieve better study results. However, this study also warns that high self-perceived competence (e.g., perceived level of understanding), if not accompanied by a mastery goal orientation, can turn into overconfidence resulting in lower persistence levels and poorer study results.     

From ‘academic concern’ to work readiness: student mobility,employability and the devaluation of academic capital on the year abroad

This article suggests that a process of de-academisation is discernible in the way the Erasmus year abroad is promoted, organised, supervised and evaluated. The article argues that rather than being a product of students’ consumerist rationalities, this process is produced within the conditions of the managerialised and under-resourced university. This process is underpinned by institutional discourses and practices that devalue academic capital, in line with the employability agenda and the corporate critique of higher education as outdated and too abstract for the real world. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Ireland, the article uses a Bourdieusian lens to examine the de-academisation of study abroad and the field–habitus clash experienced by participants. Finally, the article draws attention to the implications of this neutralisation of academic capital in a context where academic credentials are increasingly devalued in the labour market.     

Gendered pathways from academic performance,motivational beliefs,and school burnout to adolescents’ educational and occupational aspirations

This study examined Finnish 9th-graders’ (N = 966) pathways to educational and occupational aspirations considering two academic domains: mathematics and reading. Multi-group structural equation models were conducted to investigate how domain-specific performance and motivational beliefs (self-concept and interest), and more general school burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and inadequacy) relate to boys' and girls' aspirations. Performance in both domains was related to girls' educational aspirations, but only mathematics was linked to boys' aspirations. Positive within-domain relations from girls' motivational beliefs were also found, but their reading self-concept was negatively linked to their math-related occupational aspirations. For boys, only math-related motivational beliefs were associated with their aspirations. Lastly, school burnout was both directly and indirectly linked to students' aspirations. Overall, the study demonstrated the importance of including several factors when investigating students’ aspired educational degrees and occupational plans and, also, the added value of examining educational and occupational aspirations across academic domains.     

Instructors’ perspectives on the utility of student ratings of instruction

This study investigates instructors’ attitudes about student ratings of instruction. The sample consisted of 357 instructors at a major Canadian university, where student evaluation is carried out in all courses at the end of each term. Instructors tend to agree that the student rating practice is an acceptable means of assessing institutional integrity, and is useful to administrators in making summative decisions. However, they consider the student evaluations only marginally valuable in their impact on enhancing instruction. Implications for the development of student ratings are discussed.     

Architecture students’ perceptions of their learning environment and their academic performance

Scholars have agreed that the way in which students perceive their learning environments influences their academic performance. Empirical studies that focus on architecture students, however, have been very scarce. This is the gap that an attempt is filled in this study. A questionnaire survey of 273 students in a school of architecture in Nigeria provided data for this pilot study. The perceptions of the students were best defined by the involvement of the students in their studies, the perceived support, and conduciveness of the learning environment. The students’ perceptions of their learning environment varied with their years of study, age and gender. Their perceptions of inflexibility of schedule, positive assessment, and fairness influenced the overall grades of students. The results suggests which aspects of learning environment that can be manipulated by architectural educators to improve the performance of their students. The study of the learning environment of architecture students still appears to be relatively unexplored. The value of this study therefore lies in its exploration of the perceptions of the learning environment from the point of view of students.     

Psychological determinants of university students’ academic performance: An empirical study

This study utilises an integrated conceptual model of academic performance which captures a series of psychological factors: cognitive style; self-theories such as self-esteem and self-efficacy; achievement goals such as mastery, performance, performance avoidance and work avoidance; study-processing strategies such as deep and surface learning; and effort. We investigate a group of first-year university undergraduates taking a course in business statistics at a British university. The results show a significant causal path of the form: self-esteem→ self-efficacy→ mastery→ effort→ performance. We conclude that the strengthening of any of the elements in this path would have beneficial effects on students’ academic performance and discuss various approaches to pedagogy, primarily assessment and feedback, to achieve this goal.     

Influence of Co-membership on Teacher’s Coauthoring on Student’s Narratives

This paper examines the specific research question of how co-membership in discourse style and life experience influences teacher’s coauthoring on student’s narratives in the ESL teaching and learning context in the United States. As a case study,a specific student’s classroom narratives are transcribed and analyzed. The research findings indicate that a shared discourse style and an overlap in life experience between the teacher and the student will exert positive influence on the teacher’s coauthoring on the student’s narratives. Above all,sharing the same discourse style makes it possible for the teacher to recognize the rhythm of the student’s narratives,to detect the moments when the student needs interactional support and offer help,and to quickly notice a potential ending of the student’s narrative and expand it with open-ended questions and comments. In addition,an overlap in life experience makes it possible for the teacher to go deep into the student’s narratives by contributing specific and concrete thoughts rather than responding with superficial ideas.     

Influence of Co-membership on Teacher’s Coauthoring on Student’s Narratives

This paper examines the specific research question of how co-membership in discourse style and life experience influ-ences teacher’s coauthoring on student’s narratives in the ESL teaching and learning...