Measuring Socioeconomic Status at the School Level

Why is there an increased need for quantitative indicators of student socioeconomic status at the school level? What alternative approaches have been used to measure SES? Can principals accurately estimate the SES distribution of their student populations? How do their estimates correlate with other indexes o f family SES?     

Dimensions of Socio-economic Status and their Relationship to Mathematics and Science Achievement at Individual and Collective Levels

Applying two-level structural equation modelling techniques, the current study examined the dimensionality of socio-economic status (SES) and its relationship with mathematics and science performance at student and school levels. Data were drawn from population 2 (13-year-olds) of 17 countries in the Third International Mathematics and Science study (TIMSS). A set of items about the ownership of household materials was used to measure the dimensions of SES. For most of the countries, a general economic dimension and a cultural dimension were identified at the student level. The cultural dimension had the greatest impact on students' mathematics and science achievement. At the school level, however, only a general economic dimension was found in most countries. This dimension was interpreted to represent community wealth. It was found to be highly related to school mean maths-science achievement, except for the countries where an additional cultural dimension is identified. This cultural dimension can be interpreted as the community cultural resources and atmosphere, and is strongly related to average school mathematics and science achievement. The current study confirmed that the ownership of a set of household materials can be used as SES indicators in exploring its multifaceted feature at both individual and school levels. A similar model structure is found in different countries by applying these indicators, despite the fact that the content of the set of household possessions is different. The findings show that the latent structure of SES at individual level is different from that at the school level, and that SES dimensions have different effects on mathematics and science achievement at individual and school levels.     

Measuring Socioeconomic Status in Studies of Child Development

Income is more difficult to measure fully and accurately than occupation. Detailed occupational codes may be mapped into standard socioeconomic scales, and occupational status is related to other variables in much the same way as repeated or long-term measures of income. For these reasons, whether or not an attempt has been made to measure income, the measurement of socioeconomic status may be improved by ascertaining the occupation (and industry) of a job held by 1 or both parents. Income and household composition are preferable to the official poverty line in classifying economic standing, and housing tenure is a simple and powerful measure of economic consumption. Wherever possible, paternal as well as maternal education should be ascertained. However well they are measured, race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status do not capture all of the effects of family background.     

Some Practical Guidelines for Measuring Youth's Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status

This short paper provides some guidelines to help researchers in child and adolescent development procure the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic information that will best determine how to assign youngsters to ethnic or SES groups. These guidelines are necessarily general. They will need to be adapted thoughtfully by each investigator because, as is generally true, how to define a measure depends intimately on the nature of the research problem. In preparing these guidelines, we have taken into account current practice at the Bureau of the Census, research traditions developed by sociologists who have mainly been concerned with adults, and challenges posed by the changing character of the U.S. population and its family forms. We are extremely grateful to the many social scientists listed below who have contributed so generously to our thinking, but especially to Robert Hauser. Naturally, any errors or opacities that remain are our responsibility.     

道德的个人与邪恶的群体--尼布尔对个人道德和群体道德的区分

莱因霍尔德·尼布尔是美国最杰出的基督教神学家,也是新正统神学的代表人物.由于他与卡尔·巴特、爱弥尔·布鲁纳等人的共同努力,使以保罗、奥古斯丁、马丁·路德等为主要代表的基督教传统教义在一个充满危机的时代得以重新阐明,并能够与当代的先进知识分子对话.尼布尔本人所倡导的基督教现实主义是美国基督教伦理学的主导潮流,活动于这一时期的政治哲学家、伦理学家以及致力于正义实践的社会活动家无不深受此运动的影响.坚持个人道德和群体道德的严格区分是尼布尔对基督教伦理学的一大贡献,也是基督教现实主义的基本主张.这一区分标志着尼布尔与自由主义神学的分裂,也成为尼布尔批驳自由主义、和平主义等学说的理论依据.     

试论个人与集体的关系

本文从集体概念的界定出发，分析了个人与集体关系的多重怀和层次性特征；从空间、时间、内容及形式等几个方面分析了个人与集体冲突关系的表现；阐述了马克思恩格斯真实的集体的理论，以及这一理论对正确处理社会主义市场经济条件下个人与集体关系的重要指导意义。     

低社会经济地位与儿童发展

社会经济地位是根据个体获取或控制有价值资源而对其进行的层级排名，低社会经济地位会对儿童的身体健康、认知发展、情绪适应和行为问题等产生消极影响，中介模式与调节模式两种理论对这些影响的机制进行了解释。政府和全社会都要积极行动起来，以促进低社会经济地位儿童的健康成长与发展。     

Coding Classroom Interactions for Collective and Individual Engagement

This article characterizes “engagement in science learning” from a sociocultural perspective and offers a mixed method approach to measuring engagement that combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) and social network analysis (SNA). Conceptualizing engagement from a sociocultural perspective, the article discusses the advantages of a mixed methodological approach, and specifically how mixed methods can expand and enrich our understanding of engagement in certain science learning situations. Through this sociocultural viewpoint, engagement is defined as meaningful changes in disciplinary discourse practice, which captures the dialectical relationship between the individual and collective. The combined use of CDA and SNA integrates an individual's relative position in a group with her situated language use.     

Individual and Collective Leadership in School Science Departments

Given that the subject department is recognised by subject specialist teachers as the central and immediate unit of organization in secondary schools it is surprising that so little attention has been paid by researchers to the leadership dynamics within science departments. The leadership dynamics within the science departments of two contrasting school contexts were explored dialectically in this study. The structure ∣ agency and individual∣collective dialectics guided our interpretation of data from lesson observations, interviews and questionnaire responses, especially as they related to teachers' preparation of units of work (i.e., planned curriculum). As well as recognising thin coherence in teachers' responses we identify contradictions in teachers' perceived and enacted leadership roles, and perceptions of influences on curriculum planning and teaming within the two science departments. Throughout the article we disrupt traditional individualistic leadership discourses and suggest possibilities for more widespread application of an individual | collective leadership dialectic in school science departments.     

Causal Learning Across Culture and Socioeconomic Status

Extensive research has explored the ability of young children to learn about the causal structure of the world from patterns of evidence. These studies, however, have been conducted with middle-class samples from North America and Europe. In the present study, low-income Peruvian 4- and 5-year-olds and adults, low-income U.S. 4- and 5-year-olds in Head Start programs, and middle-class children from the United States participated in a causal learning task (N = 435). Consistent with previous studies, children learned both specific causal relations and more abstract causal principles across culture and socioeconomic status (SES). The Peruvian children and adults generally performed like middle-class U.S. children and adults, but the low-SES U.S. children showed some differences.     

Construction of Collective and Individual Knowledge in Argumentative Activity

In this article, we elaborate methodologies to study construction of knowledge in argumentative activities. For this purpose, we report on a quasi-empirical study on construction of knowledge through successive argumentative activities on a controversial issue. A group of 120 fifth grade students participated in successive argumentative activities; some activities involved individuals and some involved collectives. According to a first methodology, construction of knowledge was measured through arguments/outcomes produced. We developed tools for evaluating changes in individual and collective arguments. In the study, we showed the generally beneficial effect of argumentative activities on collective and individual arguments/outcomes. The significant discrepancies between collective and individual arguments suggested that individual students only partly internalized the collectively constructed arguments. We developed a qualitative methodology to refine this hypothesis as well as other hypotheses concerning the interpretation of the quantitative study. The integration of the quantitative and qualitative methodologies for studying argumentation helped identify several mechanisms of construction of knowledge in argumentative activities. In particular, it brought new light on the mediating role of representational tools such as Argumentative Maps or Pro-Con tables.     

在线协作学习中的集体责任与个体生成角色

文章结合社会网络分析法、内容分析法和统计分析法,通过实证研究分析了在线协作学习中集体责任和个体生成角色的发展动态,及其对知识建构过程的协同促进作用。研究结果表明,在线协作学习过程中,集体责任的三个特征(参与意识、协同交互、均衡发展)与个体生成角色(探究引申、知识促进、知识整合、探究管理)的分布形态之间存在相互促进、动态演进的复杂关系,且两者共同影响协作对话本质。探讨在线协作学习中集体责任与个体生成角色之间的关系,有助于创设在线协作学习环境,并为知识建构提供策略性参考。     

左翼文学：从个人书写群体到集体书写群体

左翼学团体学表达所选择的组织原则和基本形式，是以无产阶级的阶级利益为核心．以集体主义精神表现本阶级的整体风貌。左翼学负载的多是无产阶级这一新生社会力量所能聚集能量的展示，其叙事本身留给学的不过是这一时期社会历史过程的投影。作家的创作意识集体性地为一种精神所召唤而无视个体生命意识的张扬。非个性的书写方式，作品人物由貌似不同的个体构成的“公共自我”整体，都是阶级内部作家个体高度紧张的共同使命感扩张的结果。然而，从历史语境来看，它不仅仅是学表达的话语方式问题，更重要的是学话语权问题。     

Measurement Invariance of Socioeconomic Status Across Migrational Background

Socioeconomic status (SES) is often used as control variable when relations between academic outcomes and students' migrational background are investigated. When measuring SES, indicators used must have the same meaning across groups. This study aims to examine the measurement invariance of SES, using data from TIMSS, 2003. The study shows that a latent SES variable has the same meaning across sub-populations with Swedish and non-Swedish background. However, the assumption of scalar invariance was rejected, which is essential for estimation of differences in latent means between groups. Comparisons between models assuming different degrees of scalar invariance indicated that models allowing partial scalar invariance should not be used when comparing latent variable means across groups of students with different migrational backgrounds.     

关于勾蓝瑶社会经济状况演进的分析

湖南省江永县勾蓝瑶寨是一个有着千年历史的瑶族村落,在相当长的时期中,是一个比较稳定的微型社会,遗存丰富、民俗独特、内部结构完整。其人口变迁、自我管理、自然经济状况的演进以及数量众多的风雨桥、民居、城墙、寺庙等,为研究者进行人类学、历史学、社会学、建筑学等相关研究,提供了一个完整的活标本。我们通过入户走访、实地勘察、查阅文献等方式,接触到了族谱、碑刻、私人文字记载等资料,认为地理环境和外部行政力量是影响当地社会发展的重要因素;对于未来的发展,则应在加强资源整合、扩大宣传力度、完善配套设施、引进投资方等方面做出更多努力。     

Measuring and Predicting Individual Differences in Executive Functions at 14 Months: A Longitudinal Study

This study of 195 (108 boys) children seen twice during infancy (Time 1: 4.12 months; Time 2: 14.42 months) aimed to investigate the associations between and infant predictors of executive function (EF) at 14 months. Infants showed high levels of compliance with the EF tasks at 14 months. There was little evidence of cohesion among EF tasks but simple response inhibition was related to performance on two other EF tasks. Infant attention (but not parent-rated temperament) at 4 months predicted performance on two of the four EF tasks at 14 months. Results suggest that EF skills build on simpler component skills such as attention and response inhibition.     

如何强化农民对农村集体资源的主体性地位

由于传统意识的束缚和农村自治制度的不足,目前农村集体资源的管理还处于非常混乱的局面,难以实现其应有的市场价值。本文将探讨如何完善农村民主管理制度,强化农民对集体资源的主体性地位,以实现广大群众对集体资源的平等权利和农村资源的效益最大化。     

Measurement Characteristics of the lEA Reading Literacy Scales for 9- and 10-Year-Olds at Country and Individual Levels

This article presents an approach for studying measurement characteristics of instruments designed for comparative studies of educational achievement. It presents a reanalysis of data from 22 countries and 73,818 9- and 10-year-old students from the IEA reading literacy study. Using 2-level confirmatory factor analysis procedures derived by Muthén (1990, 1994), it is demonstrated how the overall variance in performance on items from 3 domains—-Documents, Narrative Prose, and Expository Text—may be decomposed into multiple latent sources of variance at country and individual levels. For the Documents items, a 1-factor model was fitted at both levels. For Narrative Prose and Expository Text items, 2 latent variables (a general dimension of reading performance and a factor capturing high versus low performance on passages towards the end of the tests) were fitted at both country and individual levels. For the Documents dimension, estimates of country scores were close to those of the original analysis; however, for performance in the Narrative Prose and Expository Text domains, differences between the original analysis and the reanalysis were noted for many countries.