黄冈市重点中学和普通中学高一学生数学学习特征比较

本研究采用“国际学生能力评估计划（PISA）”的学生调查问卷,对黄冈市重点中学和普通中学的535名学生的数学学习特征进行调查与分析,旨在探讨重点中学和普通中学学生数学学习特征的差异性。结果发现：重点中学的学生与普通中学的学生相比具有更加浓厚的数学学习兴趣、更强烈的学习动机、更积极的自我概念和自我效能感以及低水平的焦虑体验,并且他们更擅长运用各种学习策略。黄冈市高中一年级学生的数学学习特征在性别上存在着显著差异。     

Evaluating item response theory linking and model fit for data from PISA 2000–2012

ABSTRACT

Based on concerns about the item response theory (IRT) linking approach used in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) until 2012 as well as the desire to include new, more complex, interactive items with the introduction of computer-based assessments, alternative IRT linking methods were implemented in the 2015 PISA round. The new linking method represents a concurrent calibration using all available data, enabling us to find item parameters that maximize fit across all groups and allowing us to investigate measurement invariance across groups. Apart from the Rasch model that historically has been used in PISA operational analyses, we compared our method against more general IRT models that can incorporate item-by-country interactions. The results suggest that our proposed method holds promise not only to provide a strong linkage across countries and cycles but also to serve as a tool for investigating measurement invariance.     

Is the United States losing its status as a reference point for educational policy in the age of global comparison? The case of South Korea

This paper seeks to contribute to recent comparative discussions about the shift of traditional referential points as a result of new global governance by the OECD through PISA. In doing so, the authors investigate whether the lower PISA rankings of the US have resulted in the shifting of its referential status in South Korea. For the purposes of analysis, media representation of US education in South Korea is analysed by using two disparate newspapers from two time periods: three years before the first PISA release in 2001 and three years after 2009. This paper uses media discourses as primary data, but it also considers other complementary data such as policy documents and government policy statements on education. Recently, global governance through comparative data has become more significant, but the results of this study suggest that one should be careful about oversimplification. The results of this study imply that the pattern of external referencing in media representation hinges on historical, political, and cultural experiences rather than purely evidence-based discourses, at least in the case of South Korea.     

Setting Standards for English Foreign Language Assessment: Methodology,Validation, and a Degree of Arbitrariness

Cut‐scores were set by expert judges on assessments of reading and listening comprehension of English as a foreign language (EFL), using the bookmark standard‐setting method to differentiate proficiency levels defined by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Assessments contained stratified item samples drawn from extensive item pools, calibrated using Rasch models on the basis of examinee responses of a German nationwide assessment of secondary school language performance. The results suggest significant effects of item sampling strategies for the bookmark method on cut‐score recommendations, as well as significant cut‐score judgment revision over cut‐score placement rounds. Results are discussed within a framework of establishing validity evidence supporting cut‐score recommendations using the widely employed bookmark method.     

Experience and Challenge of Basic Education Development in China: Reflections on PISA 2018 Results

The outstanding performance of students in four Chinese provinces and municipalities in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 is inextricably linked to local resource support, excellent education traditions, and ongoing curriculum and teaching reform. However, deepening education reform requires attention to existing challenges, including large inter school gaps, the shortage of teachers in urban and rural areas, as well as students’ heavy schoolwork burden and low level of well-being. Therefore, several policy suggestions are proposed accordingly: gaining insight into and developing higher quality and fairer education, pursuing effective actions of education reform, and exploring innovative pathways to address educational problems.     

SOLO水平层次与PISA的评估等级水平比较研究

SOLO是一种源于皮亚杰发展阶段论的评测工具,其初衷是为了诊断并改进教学。PISA则是生发于实践并得以大规模运用的评测工具,其评价目的是为了进行国际比较。通过对SOLO水平层次与PISA评估等级水平之间的比较分析发现,SOLO各层次水平特征与PISA多数评估等级的陈述有着内在一致性。     

Material resources,school climate,and achievement variations in the Philippines: Insights from PISA 2018

Educational reform programs usually institute systemwide changes. However, this assumption of similar school problems mask variations between schools and students. The 2018 Philippine PISA data (n = 7233) reveal salient variations in academic achievement that happen between schools and among students. Between schools, material resource and school climate problems have different origins and influence depending on school type and location, while among students, gender and socioeconomic status act as predictors but fail to fully explain the variation. This has implications for school-specific investments for material resource and school climate improvement, and student-specific interventions that detect and instruct those who are lagging behind.     

European Standards in Russian Higher Education and the Role of English: a case study of the National University of Science and Technology,Moscow (MISiS)

This article considers the current changes in Russian universities, especially moves towards a more outward-looking, international approach, driven in particular by the Bologna Process. It is noted that the speed of change has been uneven, with many institutions slow to embrace reform. The situation at the National University of Science and Technology, Moscow (MISiS) is taken as an example of an institution where reform is moving ahead rapidly. The role of English teaching is examined as a driver of change. Research that informs the reforms is reported and the wider impact of English language teaching on academic quality and institutional culture is described and evaluated.     

专业视野中的PISA

近来,国际学生评估项目(PISA)备受国内外关注。PISA项目缘于发达国家对基础教育质量的反思,是一项以改善教育政策为导向的跨国测试研究。本文解读了PISA测试独创的素养及其内涵结构,探究了PISA研究试图解释的学生素养形成与学生个人参与及学习策略间的关系,分析了PISA研究试图发现的学生素养与家庭影响、学校均衡、教育公平的关系。本文认为,公平而卓越正在成为发达国家和国际组织衡量基础教育质量的新尺度;多维度、多学科、重数据与国际参照已经成为教育研究与教育评价的重要发展方向;教育政策的制定应该建立在研究、数据和证据的基础上。     

Heterogeneity Analysis on the Influence of the Supply of Teachers on the Academic Performance of 15-Year-Old Students: Based on PISA 2018 Samples from Four Provinces and Municipalities in China

The quantitative and qualitative supply of teachers has a significant influence on student academic performance. Based on the samples collected from four provinces and municipalities in China for the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018, this study analyzes the effects of the supply of teachers on the academic performance of 15-year-old students through a hierarchical linear model (HLM) as well as a quantile regression model. The study has found that the shortage of teachers and the proportion of teachers with a master’s degree significantly affect student academic performance, and the supply of teachers with higher degrees has a decreasing marginal benefit on student academic performance; its best marginal benefit on student academic performance is achieved when the proportion of teachers with a master’s degree reaches about 75%. For students in different academic performance subgroups, the marginal benefit of an increase in the proportion of teachers with a master’s degree in schools is higher for “top students” than for “students with learning difficulties.” In terms of the difference between urban and rural areas, the shortage of teachers in rural schools is more prominent than that in urban schools, and teachers with higher degrees tend to cluster in core cities. The marginal benefit of an increase in the proportion of teachers with a master’s degree is higher for improving student academic performance in rural areas. Therefore, it is recommended to design a policy of differentiated compensatory earnings for rural teachers, and efforts should be enhanced to promote programs for supporting high-quality teachers. In addition, the allocation of teachers should follow the principle of “differentiated equity,” and more differentiated teaching strategies should be adopted for students with different academic abilities.     

Policy Formulation and Networks of Practice in European eLearning: the emergence of a European E-Learning Area

This article discusses the emergence of a European E-Learning Area (EELA) as a consequence of three factors that can be observed in the e-learning developments over the past decade. The first factor consists of the carving of a policy sector in e-learning via formal instruments such as the eLearning Programme, the Lifelong Learning Programme and an array of other e-learning policy stipulations embedded in larger policy instruments at European level (e.g. Framework Programme). The second factor is represented by the mainstreaming of e-learning activities, both through formal and informal measures across multiple domains. Finally, the proliferation and consolidation of interlinked networks of practice as incubators of e-learning innovation and sharing of expertise act as the third factor in the shaping of EELA. The conceptualisation of EELA is substantiated through an analysis of the European e-learning policy documentation and the findings of a questionnaire distributed to the coordinators of projects under the eLearning Programme. In light of the findings, theoretical and practical implications for EELA as a nascent policy domain are explored and offered as a basis for further debate on this theme.     

Revisiting the Wittgensteinian legacy: perspectives on representational and non-representational language-games for educational history and theory

Debates in science seem to depend on referential language-games, but in other senses they do not. Language works in more complex ways, even in work that purports to be purely scientific. This article investigates the scope and limitations of language-games in educational history and theory. The study addresses concepts and pictures as examples of how language can work in theoretical, philosophical and historiographical interpretation. Attention is drawn to the legacy of Wittgensteinian insights, which highlights the “pictorial form”; thus the article deals with the problems that occur when our “picturing” of reality is forgotten, which led to the particular turn educational research has taken nowadays. This forgetting distracts the attention from the kind of research that is required to do justice to the educational field. From his stance, it is argued that though some kind of correspondence theory will always be part of the objectivity to which educational research aspires, there is no need to limit such a theory to a naive form of it. Instead, a broadened notion of correspondence theory can be offered where the various levels and language-games that are involved can be taken into account.     

The high performance of Dutch and Flemish 15-year-old native pupils: explaining country differences in math scores between highly stratified educational systems

This paper aims to explain the high scores of 15-year-old native pupils in The Netherlands and Flanders by comparing them with the scores of pupils in countries with the same highly stratified educational system: Wallonia, the German Länder, the Swiss German cantons, and Austria. We use the data from the Programme for International Pupil Assessment (PISA) 2006 together with the specific PISA data of Germany and Switzerland. We apply a multilevel model that takes into account the individual-, curriculum-, and system-level features in these highly stratified educational systems. The high scores of the Dutch pupils can be explained by the size of The Netherlands' vocational sector. The high Flemish scores can be partly explained by the high curriculum mobility. Central exit exams are not a good explanation of the high Dutch scores. Despite being limited to highly stratified systems, we still find educational policies and arrangements to have significant effects on the educational performance of pupils.     

Diverse aims,challenges and opportunities for assessing outdoor learning: a critical examination of three cases from practice

In this article, we consider the term ‘assessment’, its relationship to ‘evaluation’ and the implications for outdoor learning in the light of changing educational policy on assessment in England. A small-scale empirical study of how assessment was practised by two primary teachers on a residential trip and two further cases in practice are used to examine how emphases in assessment are shaped by contexts. Finally, we reflect on how conceptual frameworks that integrate planning, pedagogy and assessment might support assessment and evaluation practice in outdoor learning in a new era of apparent ‘freedom’ for teachers.     

Mobile Assisted Chinese Learning as a Foreign Language: An Overview of Publications between 2007 and 2019

This paper presents a critical overview of studies on mobile assisted language learning (MALL) in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) during the period 2007-2019. In the review, keyword and reference searches were conducted to identify and select empirical studies during the review period. Thematic and frequency analyses were employed on the data. This identified methodological trends and research outcomes in the reviewed studies. As shown in the results, most of the reviewed studies used qualitative methods to examine the effect of mobile CFL learning on formal learning in higher education settings. These studies document the positive impact that mobile technology has on CFL learning. Their attention is primarily on the use of mobile learning in Chinese vocabulary acquisition, language skill development and mobile seamless learning. Suggestions are provided for further research to support continuous mobile assisted CFL teaching and learning.     

Inclusivity,participation and collaboration: Learning in interactive groups

ABSTRACT

Background: Interaction, participation and collaboration are thought to be important factors for supporting successful second or foreign language learning. The use of Interactive Groups (IGs) is regarded as helpful in creating the conditions in which interaction, participation and collaboration are increased to create effective dialogic learning. However, there is limited understanding of the role of IGs in supporting second or foreign language learning.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to explore the opportunities that IGs generated for supporting interaction, participation and collaboration in a situation where students were learning English as a foreign language.

Method: A communicative methodology was used to collect and analyse observational and interview data from three classrooms where teaching and learning was organised through IGs, each in a different school in Spain involved in Schools as Learning Communities: Successful Educational Actions (SEAs). Across the three classrooms, there were 58 students, three teachers and 14 volunteers, whose role was to support and encourage communication. The schools served low SES communities. We conducted eight classroom observations and 17 semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed qualitatively.

Findings: The thematic analysis suggested that, in the classrooms that were studied, there was evidence that participants and observers felt that IGs promoted effective conditions for the inclusive participation of all learners, created a favourable climate for collaborative interactions regarding the target language and raised learning expectations for all students. In addition, the contribution of the volunteers was identified as crucial to the successful functioning of the IGs.

Conclusion: This small scale, qualitative study highlights the potential for IGs to create favourable conditions for the learning of English and other languages as a foreign language. More extensive studies are needed to determine the best way to use IGs for the teaching and learning of foreign languages in other contexts.     

Usages and impacts of the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in elementary classrooms: case study of Swedish municipality schools

During recent years, many schools have started to implement information and communication technologies (ICTs)-based learning devices (such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and active boards) in the classroom settings in order to increase learning outcomes. The aim of this study is to find which activities and outcomes are evident in the usages of computing devices and how those devices aid elementary-level students in their learning activities. The study includes five overt participant observations at some schools in a Swedish municipality including unstructured interviews and explains the findings through activity theory and the Alberta Education Framework for Student Learning . The major activities found were dealing with the (1) educational application assignments, (2) storytelling, (3) report writing and (4) practical interaction assignments. We concluded that ICTs aid students in becoming more concentrated, focus driven, engaged and amused, thus learning becomes more interesting.     

Participatory pedagogy in an open educational course: challenges and opportunities

This article presents an empirical study of an open educational course in an online peer-to-peer university (P2PU). P2PU is a nonprofit organization offering free educational opportunities. Focus is on how peers are part of creating course content in a Web 2.0 environment. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have evolved into two different pedagogical directions: content-based xMOOCs and connectivist cMOOCs. cMOOCs emphasizing learning in networks developed informally, where learners are part of creating course content, resemble P2PU`s vision. We investigated processes of interaction in co-creation of tasks in an open educational course and what opportunities and challenges emerge. We employed template analysis for coding data. We report two different processes of interaction between users and organizers: problem identification and co-creation of tasks. This study contributes to understanding a new model of teaching and learning through scrutinizing participation in an open educational course and explores implications for the learning experience.     

Structure and agency in learning: a critical realist theory of the development of capacity to reflect on academic practice

Theories of learning typically downplay the interplay between social structure and student agency. In this article, we adapt a causal hypothesis from realist social theory and draw on wider perspectives from critical realism to account for the development of capacity to engage in reflection on professional practice in academic roles. We thereby offer a theory of professional learning that explores how social and cultural structures and personal emergent powers combine to ensure variation in the emergence of such reflective capacity. The influence of these factors on professional learning is mediated through reflexive deliberation and social interaction, with the exercise of one's personal powers specifically identified as a stratum of social reality. We consider further the role of concerns, intention and attention in professional learning, drawing together issues that are rarely considered within the same theory. We thus offer a comprehensive account of professional learning, showing how a focus on structure and agency increases the explanatory power of learning theory.     

The Integration of Common Core and Response to Intervention: Supporting Vulnerable Readers in a Time of Sophisticated Standards

The Common Core State Standards and Response to Intervention are significant contemporary educational initiatives that have emerged largely in isolation from one another. We argue that an integration of these initiatives is beneficial. We trace the independent development of these two initiatives and offer suggestions for how they might fruitfully transact, fully supporting vulnerable readers in their efforts to master sophisticated standards. Results from a school implementing these initiatives as an integrated whole are discussed.