Evaluating the impact of the Erasmus programme: skills and European identity

The primary purpose of this study lies in the evaluation of what students acquire from studies abroad in the context of credit mobility, in terms of competence development and personal growth, compared with that gained by students completing their study or internship in their home country. A pre-post test design, with both an experimental group and a control group, was employed for students participating in the Erasmus programme and those continuing their regular course of study at their home university. The findings obtained suggest that study abroad programmes have a positive impact on the perception of university students. The highest values among Erasmus students in terms of outcomes were attributed to cultural enhancement, personal development and foreign language proficiency. Study abroad has, furthermore, a Europeanising impact inasmuch as it affects the self-identity of students.     

Exzellenz durch Internationalität

Like excellence, internationality has evolved into a key concept for German universities. This article reconstructs the manifold genesis of internationality as a principle for stratificatory claims on the basis of science policy documents. At the levels of student exchange, researcher mobility, and university cooperation, three changes are elaborated upon: the transition from the medieval universitas of the nationes to the national university, the increasing competitive orientation of a concept of internationality based on cooperation and cultural exchange, and the transformation of internationality under the auspices of excellence. At the same time, it will be shown how international understanding, exchange, and competition as guiding principles of an internationalization discourse are enacted differently in varying historical contexts. It will be demonstrated that internationality as a sign of excellence becomes a strategy for universities to position themselves as superior in their respective fields.     

Wer liegt am Ende der Grundschulzeit vorn?

The number of students enrolled in private schools has been growing continuously in the past years, especially in elementary schools. There is a variety of reasons for this development. Among other expectations, parents anticipate a superior education for their children and hope for bigger academic success. However, empirical results on the effectiveness of private schools are inconsistent and ambiguous, partly because many studies used cross-sectional data. Longitudinal studies investigating the development of elementary school students are especially lacking.The present study compares academic achievement gains of students enrolled in public schools to students who learned in the so-called BIP-creativity elementary schools. BIP schools are private schools that aim to promote the development of the talent, intelligence and personality of their students. This study investigates the development of students in mathematics, reading and orthography over a 4-years period.As the group of BIP-students is selected in terms of their socio-economic background, analyses were run in two ways. First, multilevel analyses controlling for student and class characteristics were performed. Second, a Propensity Score Matching based on school enrollment data was used in order to select a comparable group of students from public schools. Each BIP-student was matched to a student from the public schools that had a comparable socio-economic background and similar cognitive characteristics. Neither multilevel analyses nor mean comparisons of the matched samples could reveal any differences between the two groups of students in the three domains of academic achievement at the end of fourth grade.     

Die PISA-Studien: Ihre Präsentation und Interpretation im Lichte der Evidenzbasierung

This paper investigates the presentation and interpretation of PISA results by educational researchers, whereby the topics Development of student performance in international comparison, Social background and competence acquisition, Acquisition of competencies of students with a migration background and Identification of a risk group were selected for analysis. The findings indicate that the presentation and interpretation of PISA results by educational researchers do not provide a solid basis for evidence-based educational policy: the researchers present different and partially contradictory interpretations, as well as various and partial incompatible recommendations. Moreover, particular results are not robust, and concerning some research areas the embedding into competing findings is not offered. In view of this analysis, the paper closes with a skeptical appraisal regarding the concept of evidence-based educational policy.     

Exploring the orientations of international students in Mexico: differences by region of origin

This study examined the dispositions, experiences, and expectations of international students in a developing country to understand the increasing phenomenon of reverse student flows and the role of the political economy in international student mobility. Students’ dispositions, experiences and expectations—referred here collectively as “orientations”—served as the guiding framework for this study. Data were drawn from survey responses from 279 international students at universities throughout Mexico and analyzed to explore the orientations among students from Europe, Latin America and North America. Findings showed significant differences among international students’ dispositions, experiences, and expectations by these geographical regions of origin. In a broader context, this research addressed the important role of developing countries as not only senders but also receivers of international students. This research also demonstrated the ways that the political economy shape the orientations of students studying abroad.     

A holistic approach to international students, institutional habitus and academic literacies in an Irish third level institution

This qualitative study examines the interplay between academic staff and international students with regard to developing academic literacies at university. Higher education has traditionally responded to increasing student diversity with the expectation that students will conform to institutional norms or habitus. In this context international students arrive with cultural capital which may not fit such norms, and would benefit from developing their academic literacy, as indeed would home students given an increasingly diverse student body in Irish higher education. Findings reveal a gap between academics expectations and international students’ capabilities. Academic staff remained within the remit of the research in contrast to the 22 international students who were interviewed. They did not separate the totality of their campus experience from academic literacy practices. These ranged from uncertainty around writing in another language to a mismatch between diversity management in class and students’ own expectations. International students found difficulty to making friends on campus which could benefit their integration into the academic literacy practices of their respective disciplines. Findings point towards a whole institution response to student diversity which transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.     

Individuelle und kontextuelle Prädiktoren des Fachwissenserwerbs zum Internen Rechnungswesen im Hochschulstudium

In our study, we examine some theoretically relevant personal factors as predictors of students’ acquisition of knowledge of management accounting, a key area of business and economics studies in higher education. We modeled and assessed business and economics students’ knowledge of management accounting in Germany using an internationally proven accounting test that has been translated and adapted and comprehensively validated for higher education in Germany. A review of the international literature showed that potential predictors might include not only learning opportunities students have used during and prior to higher education, but also students’ socio-cultural background and gender. These factors were assessed in a survey of 1012 students studying at 23 institutions of higher education. Not surprisingly, a multilevel analysis confirmed that among the learning opportunities a course in management accounting has the greatest effect on students’ knowledge of management accounting. But when other potential predictors are controlled, completion of a commercial vocation training prior to university studies shows a positive effect, as well.     

全球学生流动的特点、影响因素与趋势

本文在联合国教科文组织、经合组织和美国国际教育协会2018年发布的全球学生流动数据基础上，结合相关文献，探究了全球学生流动的特点、影响因素与趋势。研究发现：全球学生流动呈现出流入流出区域较为集中、硕博层次流动比例高、STEM领域流动性强等特点；全球学生流动受到政策、经济和教育等方面因素的影响；其趋势表现为美英两国的国际学生增速放缓，加澳两国有望成为接收国际学生的新增长极，东亚和东非的学生流动性将有所提高。建议评估影响国际学生选择的可能因素，加快和扩大教育对外开放，建设留学教育强国。     

Schulformwechsel im zweigliedrigen Schulsystem

This study focuses on students who change from the academic to the non-academic school track after grade 7 (probationary year) in Berlin. We examined which individual student characteristics (e.?g., performance, school biography, family background) predict school change after the probationary year. We were particularly interested as to whether there are secondary effects of social background, after controlling for differences in performance. Our analyses were based on data from a study which included a whole cohort of school track changers (N?=?754) who were compared with students that remained at the academic track (N?=?1470). In order to predict the change of school type, multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results revealed significant differences between both groups regarding all observed characteristics. Performance-related characteristics were the best predictors of track change. After controlling for these characteristics, no further significant effects for other predictors were observable (i.?e., no secondary effects of social background were present).     

Optimierung einer videobasierten Lerngelegenheit im Problem Based Learning Format durch Cognitive Tools. Eine Interventionsstudie mit Lehramtsstudierenden

The following study aims to explore whether a video- and problem-based learning (PBL) environment can be improved using cognitive tools. Our hypothesis is that direct instructions in a PBL setting enhance pre-service teachers’ learning outcomes in classroom management. To answer this research question, we implemented a pre-post-design within which we assigned 237 master students to two learning environments: Classic problem-based learning (PBL), where students acquired central theoretical concepts and empirical findings on dealing with disruptions in groups (n = 113) or instructed problem-based learning (I-PBL), where students received extensive theoretical instructions (n = 124) during the first two seminar sessions. In the framework of a longitudinal self-report assessment we found that (1) teacher self-efficacy in the subscales “student engagement”, “instruction” and “classroom management competencies” increased in students of both groups. The highest increase was found in classroom management competencies. (2) In the evaluation with an objective measure students participating in the I?PBL group showed greater knowledge than students in the PBL group (multiple-choice test), and (3) regarding motivational processes students in the PBL group reported a higher degree of identification than students in the I?PBL group.     

Negotiating differences: cosmopolitan experiences of international doctoral students

Drawing on the literature on international student experiences and identities, this study discusses theories of identity from a social constructionist perspective. ‘Identification’ is the preferred term to describe a dynamic process through which students negotiate the meaning of their identities in different societies and communities. Based on interviews with 35 international doctoral students from two graduate schools in Germany, the article illustrates the significance of international mobility for education when external ‘differences’ are appreciated and contribute to cosmopolitan imaginations and when internal differences are created in relation to ‘Others’ in the host society. The article contributes to the literature on international student mobility by providing a fine-grained analysis of student identification, showing how the discourse of difference is used as a double strategy.     

Financing student flows: The effects of recent policy trends

Rapid growth during the 1970s in the number of foreign students, led several countries to introduce quotas or differential fees to regulate or restrict foreign student enrolments. An analysis of the effects of full-cost fees, introduced in Britain in 1980, shows that this caused a reduction in the number of students, particularly from developing countries, but since 1983 a policy of targeted scholarships has helped to redress the balance. Many countries are now reassessing the costs and benefits of foreign students and developing new policies, to ensure that both sending and receiving countries benefit from increased student mobility.     

Students as global citizens: strategies for mobilizing studies abroad

Universities globally are increasingly seeking to improve the international mobility of their students. There are several latent benefits that accrue to a university whose students and staff actively participate in international exchange programs. Essentially this can lead to an increase in the university's international reputation, opportunities for benchmarking against best practices, capacity to develop international relationships, diversity of student population with all the benefits that accrue from diversity, and access to potential recruitment markets. In this paper we review extant literature to elicit the range of practical factors that play a role in the decision of students to study abroad. We also discuss results from a recent survey among Australian students that revealed their preferences for international work placements.     

大学生国际流动对人力发展和全球理解的贡献

在高等教育国际化的进程中 ,大学生国际流动已经从无组织或自发的行为进入到有组织的形式 ,并且也已经成为各国经济竞争的一个重要方面。本文考察了全球范围内大学生流动的趋势 ,并重点以欧盟的依拉斯玛斯计划为例 ,分析了大学生国际流动的重要作用 ,以及阻碍大学生国际流动的因素与可能的解决方案。研究表明 ,大学生国际流动有助于人力的发展和全球的相互理解 ,应当进一步推动大学生的国际流动。     

‘What's a fixed‐term exclusion,Miss?’ Students' perspectives on a disciplinary inclusion room in England

Marginalised students in education are often formally excluded and further disadvantaged by school disciplinary approaches. This leads to school behaviour codes not being followed by students. This result is often linked to individualised student disciplinary responses. Further, formal student exclusion from schools remains a controversial international practice driven by eclectic government policy. Yet there is limited research on student perspectives within debates on the value of interventions designed to reduce fixed‐term exclusion and promote children's participation in education. This study, by Gwen Gilmore of the College of Education at Victoria University, Melbourne, presents the perspectives of five Year 8 and 9 students who participated in a disciplinary inclusion room designed to reduce fixed‐term exclusion in a secondary school located in England. The research methodology is framed by a cultural historical activity theory approach, and mixed methods reported include document analysis and student interviews. Students stated that the disciplinary inclusion room enabled them to continue their learning and that this discipline model complemented the processes of education. These students' perspectives challenge recent narratives on disciplinary provision and provide possibilities for schools to consider how discipline can be organised towards practices that are more inclusionary and potentially educative.     

Fees,flows and imaginaries: exploring the destination choices arising from intra-national student mobility

ABSTRACT

Are intra-national student flows driven by the same forces as international student mobility? This paper addresses this question by analysing cross-border student mobility in the UK. The paper identifies four principles that one might expect to drive the destination choices of students from Scotland enrolling in English universities. Following a statistical analysis of student destination choices, it is argued that cross-border moves from Scotland to England are stimulated by some of the same global forces as international student mobility (such as a desire to accumulate cultural capital), but in terms of destination choice the imaginaries held by Scottish students of ‘good’ places to study in England to accumulate cultural capital are constructed differently from the imaginaries of international students.     

Opposite Sides of the Same Coin? Exploring the Connections between School Absenteeism and Student Mobility

ABSTRACT

Mobile students and absent students are important subsets of at-risk students in schools and districts nationwide. As such, student mobility and school absenteeism are two challenges in K-12 education with significant policy and equity implications. Although both issues are at the nexus of schooling and society and there is an apparent overlap in the attributes of these student subgroups, school absenteeism and student mobility are often discussed in separate conversations. This article connects the two disparate literatures in hopes of forging stronger ties that may benefit policymakers, researchers, educators, and students. The limited empirical evidence is mixed but suggests that school absenteeism and student mobility are correlated and absenteeism plays a small mediating role in the relationship between student mobility and student outcomes. The reasons underlying student mobility and student absenteeism are interrelated but not all reasons are common. The overlapping causes of student mobility and chronic absenteeism indicate that economic and social circumstances are important underlying factors. In particular, poverty is a key shared reason for missing or switching schools. Although both phenomena contribute to disparities in educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes, this study posits that changing schools and missing school provide instructive examples of how inequality in society may be reproduced in districts and schools. Recommendations to address both phenomena and directions for future research are discussed.     

Zwischen Schule und Universität: Argumentation in der Mathematik

Several studies show that university students in Germany still have problems in reasoning mathematically although this already should be fostered at high school since the implementation of standards for school mathematics. Mathematical argumentation is a core competence and highly important, especially in academic mathematics. To foster mathematical argumentation at the beginning of university studies, competence models are needed which give more detailed insights in the skills that are necessary for reasoning. As mathematical argumentation is a complex process, especially at the higher secondary level or at university, many little steps are needed to complete a competence model for argumentation at the secondary–tertiary transition gradually. A possible step can be to initially identify several aspects of mathematical argumentation competence that influence the reasoning quality. The empirical basis for identifying those aspects is a cross-sectional study with 439 engineering students who participate in a transition course in mathematics. We address the following questions: (1) how is the quality of student’s reasoning? (2) Which kind of arguments do students use? (3) What resources do students who reasoned correctly use for solving the problems? (4) Does the content of the tasks play an important role? The results show a great influence of the content on the reasoning quality, especially if the content is abstract or concrete. Argumentation quality of students decreases with an increasing level of abstraction of the content. Furthermore, the results reveal that students often use routines for solving the problems. That indicates that procedural approaches still play an important role in school mathematics. If procedures could be used for solving the tasks, students are more successful. Competence models for mathematical argumentation at the beginning of the tertiary level should, therefore, include these factors.     

Time well spent? Temporal dimensions of study abroad and implications for student experiences and outcomes under the UK Turing Scheme

This paper reflects on the importance of ‘time spent’ in understanding the international student experience. Short-term mobility programmes (involving stays of between 1 week and 2 months) attracting less privileged students, such as the relatively new Turing Scheme in the United Kingdom, have been hailed as a potential ‘solution’ to the fact that, traditionally, wealthier individuals have been far more likely to engage in study abroad. However, we do not yet know how short-term and longer duration programmes compare in terms of the value they confer to students (in relation to their experiences and outcomes). How likely is it that short-term mobility at undergraduate level is as valuable, according to different measures, as mobility lasting 6 months to several years (as with degree mobility)? This paper reviews some of the evidence to date on shorter duration mobility, addressing how value in international study is constructed and conferred and how this relates to ‘time spent’. The paper concludes by arguing that the picture is mixed: although short-term mobility will be beneficial to students, those engaging in longer term exchanges (usually more privileged students) are likely to derive greater benefits.