School closures and educational attainment in Ethiopia: Can extra classes help children to catch up?

School closures impact children's attainment adversely, but understanding the effects of closures on children's attainment in lower-income countries is still limited. Addressing this deficit, this study examines how past school closures have impacted children's educational attainment in Ethiopia. The study uses individual student-level data from the Young Lives School Survey and standardised test scores in mathematics and language recorded at the start and end of the school year to model children's attainment. Multiple regression with propensity score matching is used to analyse how attainment over the school year is impacted by school closures for a matched sub-sample of 4842 students. The effectiveness of additional classes to make up for lost learning is also evaluated. Past school closures have had a detrimental effect on attainment in mathematics, but not literacy. Extra classes, specifically those that families do not pay for, have helped children in the past to recuperate lost learning and could serve this function post-Covid-19. Inequalities in learning outcomes, measured by Gini coefficients in educational attainment, are widened by school closures. Applying these results to the extensive school closures under Covid-19 furthers our understanding of the likely effects on academic attainment and can inform policy to mitigate the impact.     

Developing a System for Describing Teaching

If only 49.9% of the women's Division I college athletic teams are coached by women (Acosta &; Carpenter, 1985a), then based on extrapolation it seems that women hold about 25% of all Division I coaching positions. Although a few researchers have investigated the reasons for this skewed gender ratio, they have used the individual model that assumes the worker shapes the workplace. In contrast, this author attempts to explain male domination of the profession using an organizational model based on the assumption that the structure of the workplace shapes the worker. This model is the basis for Kanter's (1977) theory in which she identifies three structural determinants of the workplace that shape gender differentiated work behavior. This author explores the shape of these determinants—opportunity, power, and proportion in the coaching profession—to determine how they may affect the number of females who enter and leave the coaching profession. The discussion of each determinant is accompanied by suggestions for restructuring the workplace to make the climate more favorable for women coaches.     

Toward a 3-P Model of Workplace Learning: a Literature Review

The interest in research focusing on learning taking place at work, through work and for work has considerably increased over the past two decades. The purpose of the paper is to review and structure this wide and diverse research field. A tentative holistic model—the 3-P model of workplace learning—is presented, in relation to which the following six lines of research are identified: (1) studies describing the nature of workplace learning, (2) research on work identities and agency in workplace learning, (3) studies on the development of professional expertise, (4) analyses of competence development in education–work contexts in vocational education and training as well as in higher education, (5) research on communities of practice, and (6) research on organisational learning. The research lines and the holistic 3-P model should be seen as analytic tools for understanding the diversity in workplace learning research. They may also serve as a kind of map for individual researchers, helping them to locate their main areas of interest in this broad field of research and to outline research designs for future studies.     

Perceiving school performance as instrumental to future goal attainment: Effects on graded performance

Three studies examined the perception among college students that school performance is instrumental to future goal attainment. Study 1, an exploratory study involving free report goal assessments, indicated that perceived instrumentality (PI) is a subjectively salient aspect of college students’ achievement motivation. Study 2 provided evidence for the structural distinctiveness of PI from self-efficacy, task value, and the achievement goals, and also demonstrated that PI prospectively predicts unique variance in graded performance beyond that accounted for by these motivational variables. Study 3 demonstrated that PI prospectively predicts unique variance in graded performance independently of future time orientation. We argue that a comprehensive understanding of the purposes underlying classroom achievement behavior requires consideration of how school performance may be perceived as instrumental to the attainment of valued life goals.     

The social stratification of the German VET system

Germany is widely known for its vocational education and training (VET) system and its dual apprenticeship system in particular. What is often overlooked, however, is the vertical stratification within the German VET system. This is the focus of this study. Our analysis shows that the VET system, like the German school system, is highly stratified, resulting in large differences in labour market opportunities. We elaborate on three dimensions of vertical stratification: VET system vs. higher education, fully qualifying vs. prevocational VET programmes and segmentation of the fully qualifying VET programmes by educational attainment and career prospects. All three stratification dimensions are closely linked to school attainment and thereby to social origin.     

Variables Affecting the Participation in Individual Development

Workers across the country are being asked to acquire more information at an increasing rate in response to technological, structural, and new product and process changes occurring in the workplace. Organizations continue to struggle with understanding the capabilities and capacity of their workforce and are making critical investments in building expertise. But how do organizations engage people in this development effort? This paper proposes three critical variables that affect an individual's participation in the development process. Proposed variables are: 1) individual expertise, 2) system stability, and 3) the acceptance for the need for improvement. The paper reviews the theories that support the proposed variables in terms of influencing learning participation, and it concludes by pointing out implications for human development practitioners. It identifies where further research is needed in gaining greater insight into understanding this complex issue.     

Social reproduction in Vietnam: Educational attainment,employment, and skills usage

Education can be seen as a social structure that reproduces existing levels of social, economic, and cultural distributions. Using Vietnam as a case study, this paper seeks to examine how these theories hold up in a socio-political and socio-economic context that has been less examined, specifically in one of the few remaining single-party socialist countries that advocates Communism. The findings suggest prior levels of social stratification are predictive of educational attainment, and educational attainment is predictive of employment. Higher educational attainment is also predictive of having occupations in economic sectors with less repetitive work and more autonomy.     

“Simultaneous immersion”: How online postgraduate study contributes to the development of reflective practice among public service practitioners

This paper examines how the process of engaging simultaneously in study and work – through online distance-based study – affects students’ capacity to apply their learning in and for the workplace. The paper takes as its starting point the importance of extending notions of “educational effectiveness” beyond course-based attainment to encompass the impact of learning within the workplace. It explores the interface between study and work, focusing on the case of online postgraduate programmes in public management at the University of York. It finds that simultaneous immersion in study and work can create the conditions for “public reflection” that underpin work-based learning and that a key factor is the student-practitioner's ability to mobilise “episodic power.” The paper suggests ways in which existing approaches to online postgraduate learning might be enhanced in order to capitalise on these conditions of simultaneous immersion.     

Differentiation and work: inequality in degree attainment in U.S. higher education

While much stratification research has focused on understanding the patterns and consequences of differentiation, previous studies have not considered similarly important variation in students’ trajectories through higher education, and particularly their participation in the labor market. Results from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1997 (NLSY97) indicate that degree completion in a differentiated system of higher education is related to students’ employment patterns. Students who begin their educational journeys in community colleges as well as students from less advantaged family backgrounds are more likely to dedicate longer hours to paid employment, which has negative consequences for degree attainment. Employment patterns contribute to gaps in degree completion among students from different family backgrounds and to a lesser extent to inequality in degree completion between students beginning postsecondary education in community colleges vs. 4-year institutions. A more complex set of patterns is revealed when examining the relationship between employment, family background, and degree attainment across different institutional types and educational credentials. These findings highlight the importance of developing a more comprehensive understanding of inequality in educational attainment by considering the relationship between differentiation and work.     

Family Background,Individual and Environmental Influences,Aspirations and Young Adults' Educational Attainment: A follow-up study

In this follow-up study of an earlier investigation (Marjoribanks, 2002a), relationships were examined between adolescents' educational aspirations and young adults' educational attainment, after taking into account measures of family background, individual characteristics and proximal learning settings. Data were collected as part of a longitudinal survey of Australian youth (3772 females and 3476 males). The findings from the two analyses suggest that: (a) family background, individual characteristics and proximal learning settings combine to have large associations with adolescents' aspirations, and these aspirations have the largest relationship with young adults' eventual educational attainment; and (b) there are ethnic group differences in the linear and curvilinear nature of relationships involving measures of individual characteristics, adolescents' educational aspirations and young adults' educational attainment. An 'aspiration 2 attainment 2 background' model is proposed to examine the ongoing and different interactions between aspirations and academic outcomes for students from various family backgrounds.     

Student engagement with feedback and attainment: the role of academic self-efficacy

Abstract

Academic self-efficacy, the belief that one can achieve desired academic goals plays an important role in learning. This study aimed to determine the extent to which academic self-efficacy mediates relationships between students’ perceptions of feedback and their academic attainment. An opportunity sample of 232 students (123 female) in their first year of higher education reported their academic self-efficacy and evaluated their assessment experience, including the perceived quantity and quality of feedback and the extent to which this feedback elicited an active response. Positive associations were observed between academic attainment and students’ confidence that they could achieve their desired grades and adopt appropriate study behaviours. A negative association was identified between attainment and confidence to talk about their studies. Attainment was not related to the perceived quantity or quality of feedback, but did bear a significant association with the reported use to which feedback was put. Positive associations were generally identified between academic self-efficacy and perceptions of feedback. Path models revealed that inter-relationships were best represented by a model wherein academic self-efficacy mediated links between students’ perceptions of feedback and academic attainment. The findings highlight the need to incorporate characteristics of the individual into an understanding of student engagement with feedback.     

医学博士生创新行为驱动因素结构模型研究——基于探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析的方法

采用自编《医学博士生创新行为驱动因素》问卷,运用问卷法、探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析等方法,构建并验证二阶一因素一阶四因素的高校医学博士生创新行为驱动因素结构模型。研究表明,博士生创新行为驱动因素具有可靠性和有效性,其基本结构由防御、理解、结合和获得4个因子（维度）构成。研究为高校（学科）实践和评价研究生创新管理提供理论依据和实证工具。     

Study of factors preventing children from enrolment in primary school in the Republic of Honduras: analysis using structural equation modelling

Studies have investigated factors that impede enrolment in Honduras. However, they have not analysed individual factors as a whole or identified the relationships among them. This study used longitudinal data for 1971 children who entered primary schools from 1986 to 2000, and employed structural equation modelling to examine the factors themselves as well as the relationships between their components and educational attainment. Findings indicate that reduced educational attainment is not necessarily the result of repetition or dropout. Low educational attainment occurs due to impediments in access to school, absenteeism, or overage, as this leads to a child suddenly leaving school.     

Students' Visualization of Metallic Bonding and the Malleability of Metals

This study investigated the mental representations of metallic bonding and the malleability of metals held by three male students aged 14–15 (Year 10) who were attending a Hong Kong school. One student was selected by their chemistry teacher as representing each of the highest, the medium, and the lowest level of attainment in chemistry in a school that admitted students of average general attainment. The students were interviewed and their understandings probed through their provision of drawings and their interpretation of the diagrams that had been previously used by their teacher. Dual coding theory was used to interpret the relative significance of visual and verbal input and the interaction between the two for their understanding. There was evidence that students relied on verbal recall in providing their initial understandings and showed an appreciation of the nature of the structural components of the electron-sea model of metallic bonding. However, they varied in terms of their appreciation of the electrostatic force which was responsible for the malleability of metals. The study suggests that a clearer understanding of the electrostatic force involved can be attained when students experience visual and verbal representations simultaneously, a conclusion supported by dual coding theory. Principles for good practice in using diagrams in teaching are discussed.     

Rethinking the learning space at work and beyond: The achievement of agency across the boundaries of work-related spaces and environments

This paper focuses on the notion of the learning space at work and discusses the extent to which its different configurations allow employees to exercise personal agency within a range of learning spaces. Although the learning space at work is already the subject of extensive research, the continuous development of the learning society and the development of new types of working spaces calls for further research to advance our knowledge and understanding of the ways that individuals exercise agency and learn in the workplace. Research findings suggest that the current perception of workplace learning is strongly related to the notion of the learning space, in which individuals and teams work, learn and develop their skills. The perception of the workplace as a site only for work-specific training is gradually changing, as workplaces are now acknowledged as sites for learning in various configurations, and as contributing to the personal development and social engagement of employees. This paper argues that personal agency is constructed in the workplace, and this process involves active interrelations between agency and three dimensions of the workplace (individual, spatial and organisational), identified through both empirical and theoretical research. The discussion is supported by data from two research projects on workplace learning in the United Kingdom. This paper thus considers how different configurations of the learning space and the boundaries between a range of work-related spaces facilitate the achievement of personal agency.     

Learning Through Apprenticeship: Belonging to a Workplace, Becoming and Being

The transition from school to work, in the form of a trade-based apprenticeship, is one with a long history. Recent socio-historical changes include increased use of technology, the changing nature of work and shifting patters in the employment market are influencing both the apprenticeship journey and its destination. In this article, the contemporary apprenticeship experience is described and explored using the metaphoric phases consisting of belonging to a workplace, becoming a baker and eventually being a baker. These phases are derived from a longitudinal case study of 13 baking apprentices as they entered bakery work mainly by happenstance and began to belong to the workplace; became bakers through various processes of skill acquisition, knowledge consolidation, dispositional transformation and occupational identity formation; and continued to be bakers, with many attaining a strong sense of vocation and identification with bakers’ occupation. An updated understanding of apprenticeship may inform the development of entry pathways into apprenticeship; improve workplace learning opportunities; and widen the means for recognition and certification of skill/knowledge attainment and dispositional transformation.     

An empirical basis for linking social and emotional learning to academic performance

There is general agreement about the benefits of school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions in relation to children and young people’s social-emotional competence, mental health, and academic achievement. However, we know little about the theorized mechanisms through which SEL leads to improved academic outcomes. The current study is the first to present an integrative model (derived from the SEL logic model) using a 3-wave (annual assessment, T1, T2, T3) longitudinal sample of 1626 (51% boys, n = 832) 9–12-year-old students (M = 9.17, SD = .31 at baseline) attending 45 elementary schools in England, drawn from a major randomized trial of a universal SEL intervention (the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies curriculum; PATHS). Using structural equation modeling that accounted for within-time covariance, data clustering, gender and prior academic attainment, we examined the temporal relations between social-emotional competence (T1), school connectedness (T2), mental health difficulties (T2), and academic attainment (T3). It was hypothesized that social-emotional competence would directly and indirectly influence academic attainment through school connectedness and mental health difficulties. Our analyses also examined whether these hypothesized relations varied as a function of intervention exposure (PATHS versus usual provision). The theorized model was partially supported. Social-emotional competence at T1 exerted a significant influence on school connectedness and mental health difficulties at T2. However, the latter was the only significant predictor and mediator of academic attainment at T3 after controlling for gender and prior academic performance. Students with greater social-emotional competence at T1 were reported to experience fewer mental health difficulties at T2, and this in turn predicted higher academic attainment at T3. Intervention exposure did not markedly influence the magnitude or statistical significance of these identified pathways. Collectively, these findings indicate some possible revisions to our current understanding regarding the role of social-emotional competence in promoting academic attainment, as its contribution appears to lay primarily in buffering the adverse effects of mental health difficulties.     

Stigma and stratification limiting the math course progression of adolescents labeled with a learning disability

Learning disability (LD) designations may produce stigma by masking the real causes of learning differences, altering perceptions, and legitimizing stratification. This study uses data on adolescents and their teachers from The Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to show the negative effect of LD designations on adolescents' math course attainment is partially mediated by disparities in adolescents' earlier math course placements, and teachers' more negative attributions and expectations. Results indicate addressing low achievement through LD designations may reproduce disadvantage through stigma and stratification.     

How an orientation to learning influences the expansive–restrictive nature of teacher learning and change

This study examined teachers’ learning situated in a school to reveal factors that support and hinder learning in the workplace. The investigation analyzed teachers’ orientation to learning, examining beliefs, practices, and experiences about teachers’ learning in relation to change in the workplace. A hypothesis is that teacher learning and change is complex and unable to be fully understood outside of practice. Evidence is provided on the factors and forms of learning activities that appear to strengthen an expansive learning environment and those which contribute to a more restrictive learning environment. A distinctive finding was that teachers’ orientation to learning is related to self-reported change. Another promising finding with the potential of better understanding the interrelated combination of how teachers’ beliefs, practices, and workplace factors influence change was related to dissonance for learning. The implications for practice involved determining how to continue to support and strengthen an expansive workplace learning environment.     

The Effects of Self-Efficacy,Motivation to Transfer,and Situational Constraints on Transfer Intentions and Transfer of Training

An important dimension of training effectiveness relates to how well skills learned during training are transferred to the workplace. The current study examines the effects of several individual characteristics (Self-efficacy, Motivation to Transfer, Training Reactions, Goals for Transfer, and Commitment to Transfer Goal) and Situational Constraints on perceived Transfer Success. LISREL VII (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989) was used to determine the fit of a mediated effects model of how the variables would affect transfer success. Self-efficacy and Motivation to Transfer were found to be significantly related to transfer intentions (Goal for Transfer and Commitment to Transfer Goal), while Goal for Transfer and Commitment to Transfer Goal were positively related to Transfer Success. The implications of these results for maximizing the transfer of training are discussed.