Instruction time and student achievement: The moderating role of teacher qualifications

Recent evidence suggests a positive effect of the quantity of instruction on student achievement. In this paper, I focus on the interaction between the quantity and the quality of instruction. Using international TIMSS data, I exploit within-student between-subject variation. I find that on average, an additional hour of instruction time leads to an increase of 0.03 standard deviations in students’ test scores across all countries. Importantly, these effects of instruction time are significantly larger for students with better qualified teachers, resulting in an increase in test scores of 0.04 to 0.05 standard deviations. While on average, instruction time has no significant effect in developing countries, it increases test scores by 0.02 standard deviations when taught by a high-qualified teacher also in developing countries.     

The influence of individual- and class-level fairness-related perceptions on student satisfaction

This study advances two contributions to the study of student evaluations of teaching: (a) a multilevel conceptualization that allows for the simultaneous analysis of individual- and class-level correlates of evaluations and (b) an application of recent social/organizational psychology theory and research on fairness. Thus, this study examined the relative influence of individual- and class-level perceptions of fairness and expected grades on students’ satisfaction with their instructors and with their grades. Multilevel regression showed that, at the individual level, grade satisfaction was significantly related to perceived fairness of the instructor’s grading procedures, the perceived fairness of the expected grades, and the expected grades themselves; instructor satisfaction was significantly related to perceptions of the fairness of grading procedures, the fairness of instructor–student interactions, and the fairness of the expected grades. At the class level, instructor satisfaction was significantly influenced by the average perception of the fairness of interactions. The implications for research on student ratings are discussed.     

The commuter student and student satisfaction

This study examined the variables associated with student satisfaction on a commuter campus. A sample of 38 classes was used and resulted in 782 undergraduates responding to questionnaires. The variables included were: age, student level, student's grade, perception of educational benefits, and satisfaction with college experience. A causal model was built and tested in order to determine the direct and indirect effects of these variables upon student satisfaction. While the student level had a negative influence upon satisfaction, both age and grade had a moderate effect upon student satisfaction. The perception of educational benefits seemed to be the most critical variable in predicting student satisfaction.     

生源地信用助学贷款政策给国家助学贷款带来的可能影响

2007年5月中央政府出台新的高校学生资助政策,把生源地助学贷款纳入国家助学贷款体系试点推广。校园地和生源地助学贷款的互相替代政策会改变贷后管理主体,给校园地和生源地助学贷款市场带来大的波动,进而影响整个国家助学贷款体系的稳定。应由当地信用社负责生源地信用助学贷款的贷后管理,高校参与协助监督;谨慎变动两种助学贷款条款,促进助学贷款市场整体稳健发展。     

论学生社团在校园文化中的作用

学生社团在管理方式和规模限制上都显得比较宽泛,吸纳的学生人数也比较多;在形式上,学生们根据共同爱好,自发组织、自我教育、自我服务,体现了更多的自主性。因此,学生社团以其影响的广泛性、参与者的自愿性以及活动方式的多样性和活动效果的有效性,在校园文化中的影响力也日益彰显,发挥着独有的作用。     

Community violence and early childhood language development: The moderating role of maternal efficacy and satisfaction

This paper estimates the acute effect of community-level homicides on early childhood language development and explores the moderating role of maternal efficacy and satisfaction in Chile. It uses data from the 2017 wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey of Chilean Children (N = 1194, M_age: 52.8 months, 52% girls). Children in municipalities with homicides 1 month before the Peabody Picture Vocabulary assessment scored between 0.18 and 0.41 SDs lower compared to children in the same municipality but for whom homicides happened after the assessment. On average, higher maternal satisfaction appears to have a protective effect, though it dissipates in the most violent municipalities. Evidence that higher maternal efficacy protects children from the negative effects of violence is inconclusive.     

Predicting national direct student loan defaults: The role of personality data

The purpose of this study was to determine if National Direct Student Loan defaulters could be differentiated from payers by using information available at the time the loan is made. Data from 686 repayers and 192 nonpayers were analyzed. It was found that a combination of five student characteristics was all that was needed to accurately predict which students would not repay their loans. The combination of factors which proved to have predictive value in order of importance were: grade point average at the time of the loan, ACT composite score, OPI complexity scale, the OPI anxiety level scale, and the size of the loan. The most striking outcome was that personality measures have strong predictive value in identifying future defaulters. Further validation of these findings is underway.     

Evaluating student satisfaction - restricting lecturer professionalism: outcomes of using the UK national student survey questionnaire for internal student evaluation of teaching

Abstract

In the neo-liberal context of a UK university, responding to student feedback in order to raise student satisfaction levels is important in improving National Student Survey (NSS) scores. This article focuses on the impact of a UK university’s new student feedback questionnaire - for individual modules - which used the NSS questions. The research draws on survey data (N?=?101) to identify lecturers’ views and three student focus groups. The outcomes raised issues relating to performativity, professionalism and ‘provision’, the latter defined as the university’s contract with each student, including the aspects that affect the student learning experience but are beyond the lecturers’ control, for example, class sizes and timetables. The results indicate that by recognising the impact of provision university managers may be better able to develop systemic improvements to student experience and (in the UK) a corresponding uplift in NSS and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) results. The article puts forward a model linking performativity, professionalism and provision to the relationships between university managers, academics and students. This model could enrich understandings of professionalism and performativity, extend the range of issues affecting student experience in SETs and support data analysis in future research studies.     

The influence of national and organizational culture on the use of performance improvement interventions

This exploratory study examined the influence of national and organizational culture on the use of various performance improvement interventions. Data on intervention use were collected from practitioners in the United States and South Asia. Results revealed that orientation programs, organizational communication, instructor‐led training, and performance appraisals were among the most used interventions in both the United States and South Asia. Findings also indicated that factors such as organization size, location of headquarters, learning and development budget, and reporting structure are related to the use of interventions. Practitioners in South Asia predominantly had expertise in disciplines such as human resources, while those in the United States had experience in instructional design and human performance technology. These differences may influence the development and implementation of instructional and noninstructional interventions.     

Predicting student progression: The influence of race and other student and institutional characteristics on college student performance

In this study of college student retention and progression, significant differences were found between black and white student cohorts in terms of their attrition rates, overall progression rates (defined as length of time to graduate), and tendency to follow the prescribed progression pattern (sophomore in the second year, junior in the third year, senior in the fourth year, and graduate after the fourth year). However, multiple regression analyses show that racial differences disappear when the effects of other student and institutional characteristics are statistically controlled. Therefore, colleges and universities would do well to rethink special retention and counseling programs designed especially to serve minority group students.     

国防教育在高等医学院校学生素质教育中的作用

新时期对医学人才的要求,决定了必须加强医学生的综合素质教育。国防教育是教育事业的重要组成部分．它有利于提高医学生的思想道德素质、人文素质、心理素质以及心理素质。医学院校应从进一步完善制度,推进国防教育课程建设;大力宣传国防政策;创新教育形式,积极开设第二课堂等方面提高医学生素质。     

Antisocial classroom communication: Instructor influence and interactional justice as predictors of student aggression

The present study investigated potentially destructive instructor and student communication. In particular, it examined the relationships between instructor use of antisocial behavior alteration techniques (BATs), student perceptions of instructor interactional justice, and students' likelihood of indirectly aggressing against their instructors. Results indicate that student perceptions of instructors' use of antisocial BATs and instructor interactional injustice predicted increased student indirect aggression. In addition, student perceptions of instructor antisocial BAT use and interactional justice were negatively correlated and interactional justice was a stronger predictor of student indirect aggression than was instructor antisocial BAT use.     

An international comparison investigating the relationship between national culture and student achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between national culture and student achievement. Using Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions and the two dimensions from the World Values survey, we conducted multiple regressions to determine the most significant predictors of student achievement as measured by the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment in reading, mathematics, and science. Our analyses found that the most significant predictors of student achievement on all three student outcome included the following cultural dimensions based on two different frameworks: (1) a culture’s focus on fostering long-term orientation to include emphasis on perseverance to achieve future-oriented results and (2) a culture’s focus on secular-rational values vs. traditional values. In addition, findings indicate that when mapped geographically, similar patterns emerge among the two cultural dimensions.     

How student beliefs about knowledge and knowing influence their satisfaction with assessment and feedback

Students’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing frame how they interpret their educational experience and their approaches to, and perspectives on, learning, teaching and assessment. This paper draws on previous research identifying the ways of knowing of undergraduates on entry to a UK post-92 university, findings from which confirm the prevalence of absolute beliefs in which knowledge is viewed as certain, uncontested and students are largely authority-dependent. Student perspectives on assessment and feedback are explored based on thematic analysis of student responses within two main categories of beliefs, absolute/dualist versus contextual/pluralist. The paper teases out the implications of these perspectives for students’ satisfaction with their assessment and feedback experience in the context of today’s increasingly market-orientated higher education environment. Findings demonstrate that student perspectives on, and satisfaction with, assessment and feedback are strongly intertwined with their beliefs on knowledge and teaching. Students holding absolute/dualist beliefs considered ‘good’ assessment and feedback practice to entail clear and unambiguous assessment tasks, criteria and standards along with the receipt of unequivocal and corrective feedback. The paper concludes that faced with assessment tasks that move beyond established facts and demonstrable theories it may only be students who view knowledge as relative and mutable that will likely be satisfied with their assessment and feedback experience.     

Studying and Working: A national study of student finances and student engagement

Tertiary Education and Management - A key determinant of the new relationship between students and universities in Australia is the changing nature of higher education funding arrangements and the...     

Improving teaching capacity to increase student achievement: The key role of communication competences in Higher Education

The educational model based on competences established under the unifying framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), has brought new challenges and threats for educational institutions at university level, who now have to adapt, update and face up to this new educational paradigm. This paper addresses the competences from two different perspectives; the first relating to the level reached by the student through university training received; and the second concerning the level required by labour market in the profession studied. The empirical analysis was performed using nonparametric statistics on a sample of 236 individuals, following the methodology of the Tuning project. The results support the existence of differences between the two blocks of analysed competences, as well as the importance of communication competences and the relationships of competences related to communication with all other competences with highest differences. This point to a course of action based on these competences, especially communication competences, as a way for working on improving the competence results in higher education.