Perceived service quality-loyalty path: A PAKSERV based investigation of international students enrolled in business schools in Thailand

We aim to examine the international student perceived service quality of Business Schools located in Thailand to link it with their intentions to remain loyal. The survey based approach is adopted to collect data from 300 international students enrolled in various business schools in Thailand. All the dimensions of PAKSERV except Personalization are found to positively contribute to student satisfaction, which strongly leads to their loyalty to business schools. This is the first study which validates the PAKSERV scale in a business school context while collecting data from international students – investigating their perceptions of service quality to link it to their loyalty to business schools. The findings call for investment in faculty and process development to improve the international student perceptions of business schools located in Thailand. The findings will help Thai higher education policymakers specifically to improve student perceived service quality in order to attract and retain international students.     

Student perceptions of personalised learning: development and validation of a questionnaire with regional secondary students

This project sought to evaluate regional students’ perceptions of their readiness to learn, assessment processes, engagement, extent to which their learning is personalised and to relate these to academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. It also examined teachers’ perceptions of students’ readiness to learn, the assessment process, engagement, and the extent to which students’ learning is personalised. The sample involved students in years 7–10 from six Victorian secondary schools. An instrument Personalised Learning Environment Questionnaire (PLQ) was developed to measure students’ perceptions of the factors effecting the implementation of Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs). It employed the latest scales to assess a range of PLP indicator variables, with all scales modified for use in an Australian context, and the total number of items kept to a minimum. Only scales more sensitive to PLPs were used to minimise the length of the instrument. There were three outcome variables: academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. The PLPs were assessed through scales that assess several contributing, distinct dimensions: selfdirected learning readiness, personal achievement, goal orientation, learning environment, personalised teaching and learning initiatives, curriculum entitlement and choice, and perceptions of assessment for learning. The trail PLQ was administered to 220 students, resulting in a 19 scale questionnaire with three or four items per scale. This paper reveals good data to model fit for the majority of items and each scale had good reliability. The paper describes the analytic techniques and results, how the instrument was refined and identifies common and uncommon student perceptions based on a post hoc analysis. The main study consisted of 2,407 students from four schools in the Bendigo Education Plan. They responded to this refined 19 scale version of the PLQ that was developed from the trial PLQ. All scales had satisfactory internal consistency reliability.     

Unfairness in access to higher education: a 11 year comparison of grade inflation by private and public secondary schools in Portugal

Fairness in access to HE is unarguably a subject of paramount importance. Wherever a student’s secondary school scores are relevant for access to HE, grade inflation practices may jeopardize fair access. Pressures for high grading are common in the context of educational consumerism and competition between schools and students. However, they are not equally distributed across different types of schools, given that they have distinct relationships with the State and the market, and work with distinct populations. Specifically, the schools that are more subject to market pressures (namely private schools) are, in principle at least, the ones with more incentives to inflate their students’ grades. This paper presents an empirical study based on a large, 11 years database on scores in upper secondary education in Portugal, probing for systematic differences in grade inflation practices by four types of schools: public schools, government-dependent private schools, independent (fee-paying) private schools, and specially funded public schools in disadvantaged areas (TEIP schools). More than 3 million valid cases were analysed. Our results clearly show that independent private schools inflate their students’ scores when compared to the other types of schools. They also show that this discrepancy is higher where scores matter most in competition for HE access. This means that—usually wealthier—students from private independent schools benefit from an unfair advantage in the competition for the scarce places available in public higher education. We conclude discussing possible solutions to deal with such an important issue.     

Mentors in life and at school: impact on undergraduate prote´ge´ perceptions of university mission and values

University undergraduates (84 women, 80 men: M age=19.1 years old) reported school mission and value perceptions, life and/or school mentor relationships, and social desirability tendencies. No significant social desirability effect was obtained. Prote´ge´s with mentors at school and in life (n=52) reported greater cognitive and informational support but equal rates of emotional and tangible support plus modeling of appropriate behaviors as prote´ge´s with mentors from life alone (n=55). Furthermore, prote´ge´s with a mentor in life and at school stated stronger perceptions of their institution's educational mission, a greater sense of campus altruism, and a commitment to lifelong engagement in education than prote´ge´s with mentors from life alone or students with no mentor (n=48). Implications for developing school‐based mentorship initiatives which augment life‐based mentor programs may enhance student understanding of a university's mission and its values are discussed.     

Classroom Learning Environments in Urban Elementary,Middle, and High Schools

The purpose of the present study was to investigate student gender, subject area, and grade level differences in students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment. Over 13,000 students from 96 urban elementary, middle, and high schools that served predominantly minority students completed a modified version of the Classroom Environment Scale (CES) and the Instructional Learning Environment Questionnaire (ILEQ). Female students generally reported higher scores for their perceptions of the learning environment than did male students. There were very few differences by subject area, but there were many statistically and educationally significant differences by grade level. In general, middle school classes had less favorable perceptions of their learning environment than did either elementary or high school classes.     

Authority Structure,Classroom Openness and Student Outcomes

The effects of open education on student outcomes were investigated using classroom authority structure analysis. It was maintained that student outcomes are contingent on the congruence between formal and informal authority structure. The former is determined by the educational policy of the school, while the latter reflects pupils’ ratings of teacher readiness to share classroom decision making with them. A Student Decision Making Scale was devised to assess shared authority as perceived by students. Three open elementary schools with 274 students in 10 classes, and two comparable traditional schools with 224 students in nine classes were included in the present sample. Results indicated that more congruent authority structure was related to higher reading comprehension and vocabulary attainment, as well as to lower social desirability scores. This was true both when (a) shared authority was higher at the formal as well as the informal level (open schools with high shared authority in the classroom), and (b) shared authority was lower at the formal and the informal level (traditional schools with little authority shared in class).     

High school identity climate and student identity development

This research investigated whether schools characterized by high school students as being rich in identity promoting features contribute to student identity development. A theoretical model posited that student perceptions of teachers as caring role models and their school as cultivating the whole student will foster student exploration and confidence about future identity development. Hypothesized mediators of these effects were student perceptions of a positive social climate, of experiencing meaningful studies and of affirmation of their agency and exploration. Participants were 2787 male and female students from the Jewish public-religious sector in Israel in 152 classes of 25 high schools. Results indicated that (a) schools with identity promoting features contribute to student identity development, (b) teachers as role models is a more potent variable than teacher caring in predicting student identity development and (c) experiencing meaningful studies is an especially important contributor to student exploration and identity confidence.     

The Relationship Between Students’ Perceptions of “Good Practices for Undergraduate Education” and the Paradigmatic Development of Disciplines in Course-Taking Behavior

Our study uses data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education to interrogate the affinity disciplines hypothesis through students’ perceptions of faculty use of six of Chickering and Gamson’s (AAHE Bull 39(7):3–7, 1987) principles of good practice for undergraduate education. We created a proportional scale based on Biglan’s (J Appl Psychol 57(3):195–203, 1973) classification of paradigmatic development (with higher scores on the scale corresponding to students taking a higher proportion of courses in ‘hard’ fields compared to ‘soft’ fields), our study tests differences by the paradigmatic development of the disciplines or fields in which students take their courses within the first year of college. Our findings suggest that as paradigmatic development increases (toward a higher proportion of courses taken in hard disciplines), student perceptions of both faculty use of prompt feedback and faculty use of high expectations/academic challenge decrease, while student perceptions of cooperative learning increase. Further, no statistically significant differences were found between the paradigmatic development of fields in which students’ take their courses and students’ perceptions of faculty use of student-faculty contact, active and collaborative learning, or teaching clarity and organization. This study replicates the findings from Braxton et al. (Res High Educ 39(3):299–318, 1998) using student-level rather than faculty-level reports of faculty use of good teaching practices.     

Are effective or meritorious schools meretricious?

Data on student achievement gain in a large urban school district during the 1984–85 school year were analyzed to identify schools with achievement consistently higher or lower than schools with similar student and school characteristics. Before calculating gain scores, students were grouped with others of the same sex, ethnicity, initial grade level, and initial achievement level. After residuals for students who were above or below similar students were summed and averaged for reading and math at each grade, school-level regression analysis was used to further control for student and school characteristics. Results indicated that schools with reading gains one standard deviation above the mean had average raw scores less than two items higher than the district average on the sixty-item reading test, while schools with math gains this large had raw scores little more than one item higher than the average on the 44-item math test. In addition, examination of data on schools with residual (combined) reading and math gain scores 1.5 or more standard deviations above the average showed that after taking account of student background information and salient school characteristics, only one elementary school among 173 and no secondary school among 71 had unusually high achievement scores. Implications are discussed regarding efforts to identify and reward meritorious schools which allegedly have improved achievement more than other similar schools.     

Funds of High School to College Knowledge: Exploring Low-Income Student Perceptions of College Writing

This narrative study tracks low-income student perceptions of college writing. The study uses the Funds of Knowledge theoretical framework to suggest that underperforming high schools—like diverse households and families—socialize students into bodies of knowledge that are academically relevant regardless of whether or not they resemble institutional standards. Findings indicate that students are socialized to perceive college writing in ways that stigmatize high school knowledge and reduce postsecondary opportunity.     

Rethinking Universal Suspension for Severe Student Behavior

Driven by a combination of concern for historically high suspension rates and substantial disproportionalities in suspension use, a recent wave of education reforms encourages schools to reduce their use of suspensions for student behavior management. Both academic and political discourse has focused on the extensive use of suspension for relatively minor behavioral infractions, with an implicit assumption or explicit articulation that suspension could still be used for severe infractions. This article tests that assumption, providing evidence that reductions in suspensions for severe infractions may produce positive impacts without harming school safety.

Using data from high schools in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), 2007–2014, we examine how declines in school reliance on suspensions for severe infractions are associated with changes in academic performance, attendance, and student reports of school climate for all students in the school. Recognizing the substantial methodological difficulty in obtaining impact estimates, we exploit a series of official and unofficial policy-induced changes to suspension practice, using school and student fixed effects models with extensive controls to reduce potential sources of bias in the estimates.

We find the reduction in out-of-school suspension for severe infractions was associated with small but statistically significant increases in student test scores, consequential attendance improvements (beyond the impact of fewer days suspended), and heterogeneity in changes to students' perceptions of school safety. Test score impacts are concentrated in racially diverse schools and those with low baseline suspension use. Attendance impacts are driven by schools predominantly serving African American students (which also had the highest baseline suspension rates); these schools also had large, significant improvements in perceptions of school climate.     

Grade Placement of High-School Biology

Abstract

Using 35 elementary schools (3,350 fourth and sixth grade students), 10 secondary schools (3,613 eight and eleventh grade students), and 1,145 teachers, this study presents data summarizing the relationships between student' perceptions of "verified" principal competencies and selected school climate indices and outcome variables. The results indicated that there is a general tendency for positive teacher attitudes towards various dimensions of the school and working environment and higher student standardized achievement test performance to be associated with students' reports of a low frequency of interaction with die principal. A student "independence factor" was hypothesized to account for these results, with the implication being that principal/student interaction is minimized in schools where teacher and student attitudes are positive and student achievement is high. In addition, effective principal performance in dealing with student misbehavior was highly and positively associated with school average daily attendance at the secondary level. Supplementary analyses indicated that teacher and student attitudes "mediating" the school environment were relatively independent for both elementary and secondary samples. General support was found for higher correlations between student assessments of principal competencies and school environment measures than with student performance measures.     

MEASUREMENT OF CHANGE IN THE MEANING OF WRITING IN FRESHMAN ENGLISH

This study had a two‐fold purpose: first, to determine whether a measurable change in the meaning of the word writing could occur during a writing course; and second, to measure meaning rather than merely student attitudes toward writing. To satisfy these purposes, a semantic differential was administered to students in both regular and developmental classes in a two‐year campus at the beginning and the end of the 10‐week term. The scale measured the meaning of the term writing according to three dimensions: evaluation, activity, and potency. Scores were compared for each student and for each class of students. A significant increase occurred in the activity dimension for students in the regular classes by the end of the term; however, their evaluative rating decreased. Developmental students showed no change. Correlations with other measures of student performance were performed: final grades in the writing course, high school G.P.A., and verbal SAT scores. Regular students’ final grades correlated positively with the evaluation dimension of writing, and their verbal SAT scores correlated positively with the activity and potency dimensions. An inverse correlation was obtained between the developmental students’ verbal SAT scores and their evaluative rating. All correlations were stronger by the end of the term. Implications for writing teachers are discussed. Use of this instrument for measuring change in students’ perceptions of writing is recommended.     

Exploring the social ecological model based on national student achievements: extracting educational leaders’ role

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the effect of internal school factors such as school violence and class size, and external school factors such as family socio-economic resources on student math achievements, based on the social ecological model, eliciting an integrative approach. Data were collected from an Israeli national database, using average percentage scores for each school. The scores were based on results from 20,979 students in 191 junior high schools participating in the study. The study findings showed that in addition to low violence at school, family socio-economic status, including private math tutoring and computer-based math learning at home, predicted high math achievements. School violence partially mediated the relationship between sector and student achievements in math, while family socio-economic status partially mediated the relationship between district and student achievements in math. Our integrative model results may help school leaders to design policy to increase school effectiveness and reduce gaps among districts and sectors. The findings may encourage school leaders to strengthen the relations between schools and students’ homes in order to influence students’ activities there, especially in areas with low socio-economic status, to conduct school activities to reduce school violence, and increase computer-based learning in students’ homes.     

Students’ perceptions of the academic environment and approaches to studying in British postgraduate business education

Recent research on student learning in higher education has identified clear associations between variations in students’ perceptions of the academic environment and variations in their study behaviour. This study investigated a general theoretical model linking students’ demographic characteristics, perceptions and study behaviour with measures of outcome, and in particular, compared three accounts of the causal relationship between perceptions and study behaviour. Data were obtained from 469 postgraduate students at six British business schools. Path analysis was used to assess the causal relationships among the students’ age and gender, their scores on the Course Experience Questionnaire, their scores on the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory and their ratings of general satisfaction with their programmes. This yielded evidence for the causal efficacy of most of the paths identified in the general theoretical model. In particular, as in the case of students taking more traditional academic subjects, there exists a bidirectional causal relationship between variations in students’ perceptions of the academic environment and variations in their study behaviour.     

Does high school quality matter? Evidence from admissions data

This paper examines the effect of attending elite private high school on college placement using admissions data from the most selective high school in a large metropolitan area. To overcome omitted variable bias, we limit the sample to admitted applicants and control directly for the scores assigned by admissions based on in-depth analyses of the applicants and their families. In addition, we control for a wide set of covariates including student and family characteristics and entrance exam scores. Results indicate that attending selective private high school rather than other public and private high schools causes students to attend more selective universities. Effects are driven by gains for girls and students from lower-income neighborhoods.     

A comparison of actual and preferred classroom environments as perceived by science teachers and students

This study of perceptions of classroom environment is distinctive in that, first, it made use of two instruments (the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire and Classroom Environment Scale) which have had very little use in prior science education research and, second, it involved assessment not only of student perceptions of actual environment, but also of student perceptions of preferred environments and teacher perceptions of actual environment. Administration of these instruments to a sample of 2175 junior high school students in 116 classes revealed that the environment scales exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity in each of the three forms (student actual, student preferred, and teacher actual), and that there were some fascinating systematic differences between the profiles of environment scale scores obtained for the different forms. In particular, it was generally found that students preferred a more favorable classroom environment then was perceived as being actually present and that teachers perceived the environment of their classes more favorably than did students in the same classrooms.     

Classroom learning environment and motivation towards mathematics among secondary school students in Uganda

This article reports a study of secondary students’ perceptions of mathematics classroom learning environment and their associations with their motivation towards mathematics. A sample of 81 students (19 male and 62 female) in two schools were used. Student perceptions of the classroom environment were assessed using a modified What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire. Associations between student perceptions of the learning environment and motivation towards mathematics were examined using simple correlation and multiple regression analyses. The results of the t tests for independent samples indicated a statistically significant difference in student perceptions between different school types. Student perceptions on some of the modified WIHIC scales were statistically significantly associated with student motivation. The results suggest that teachers wishing to improve student motivation towards mathematics, in general, should emphasise the learning environment dimensions that are assessed by the WIHIC. The findings have implications for teachers of mathematics and head teachers, particularly those in secondary schools.     

Teacher-student classroom interactions among science students of different sex and cultural background

The purpose of this study was to determine associations between science students' perceptions of their interactions with their teachers, the cultural background of students and their attitudinal and cognitive achievement outcomes. A sample of 3,215 students from 158 secondary school science classes in 43 schools completed a survey including the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), an attitude to calss scale, an enquiry skills scale and questions relating to cultural background. The sample was chosen in order tobe representative, though only coeducational classes were used in order to permit an unconfounded test of sex differences. Statistical analyses confirmed the reliability and validity of the QTI for secondary school science students. Generally, the dimensions of the QTI were found to besignificantly associated with student attitude scores. In particular, students' attitude scores were higher in classrooms in which students perceived greater leadership, helping/friendly, and understanding behaviours in their teachers. Correlations between cognitive achievement and interpersonal behaviour were not as strong, but there were positive associations with cooperative behaviours and negative associations with oppositional behaviours. Females perceived their teachers in a more positive way than did males and students from an Asian background tended to perceive their teachers more positively than those from the other cultural groups identified in the study.     

The importance of teacher–student interpersonal relationships for Turkish students’ attitudes towards science

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between Turkish high school students’ perceptions of their science teachers’ interpersonal behaviour and their attitudes towards science. Students’ perceptions of the teacher–student interpersonal relationship were mapped with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), which uses two relational dimensions: influence and proximity. Data on Students’ subject‐related attitudes were collected with the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA). A total of 7484 students (Grades 9 to 11) from 278 science classes (55 public schools) in 13 major Turkish cities participated in the study. Multilevel analyses of variance indicated that influence was related with student enjoyment, while proximity was associated with attitudes towards inquiry and with enjoyment.