The Role of Students’ Home Language in Science Achievement: A multilevel approach

The present study aimed to identify the role of both student- and school-level characteristics in primary school students’ achievement in the science curriculum. As societies become more culturally and linguistically diverse, many students enter the classroom with a home language that is different from the language of instruction used at school. This study takes into account both the home language and literacy in the language of instruction in relation to student achievement in science subjects. Questionnaires, reading performance tests, and science achievement tests were administered to 1,761 fourth-grade students from 67 schools across Flanders (Belgium). Multilevel hierarchical regression analyses show that the home language and literacy in the language of instruction play an important role in science achievement at the student level, next to gender and socioeconomic status. Students with a home language that is different from the language of instruction experience difficulties with science subjects. Moreover, the higher students’ performance on reading comprehension and self-assessed proficiency in the language of instruction, the higher their score on science achievement tests. At the school level, a school's teachability expectations are one of the key factors related to students’ science achievement. Limitations of this study and future directions for research are discussed.     

Undergraduate students’ attitudes towards mistakes in learning and academic achievement

The objective of the present study was to better understand a relatively under-researched topic, namely, undergraduate students’ attitudes towards mistakes and how their attitudes relate to academic achievement. A series of online surveys were administered to a sample of 207 first- and second-year undergraduate students. Using structural equational modelling, a hypothesised model was proposed to evaluate the following four research questions: (1) What is the effect of students’ trust in their instructor on students’ achievement goals? (2) What is the relationship between students’ achievement goals and their attitudes towards mistakes? (3) Is students’ attitudinal behaviour towards mistakes predictive of their perception of feedback? (4) Is students’ openness to discussing mistakes (ODM) and attitudinal behaviours predictive of their academic achievement? Both direct and indirect effects were found. Direct effects indicated that students’ trust in their instructor predicted achievement goals, students’ achievement goals differentially predicted attitudes towards mistakes, students’ ODM predicted perceptions of feedback, and students’ attitudinal behaviours predicted academic achievement. Students’ trust in their instructor and achievement goals had indirect effects on students’ achievement.     

全球化背景下的学生学业成就比较研究——TIMSS和PISA

国际数学和科学成就趋势研究(Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study,TIMSS)和国际学生评价项目(Programme for International Student Assessment,PISA)是两项著名的国际学生学业成就比较研究,参与国家多达数十个,对全球的教育具有广泛的影响。为了使国内的教育工作者更好地了解和利用这两个项目的研究成果,本文将对这两个项目基本情况加以介绍,并着重分析两者在测评目的、理论模型、测评工具上的异同。     

An interactive model of parents’ involvement and their children’s functioning in school

This study examined relationships between Parents’ involvement as related to their Identification and Alertness and to four students’ variables Attitudes toward school, Social adjustment, Self-efficacy and Academic achievements. Social adjustment was the most dominant variable and served as a mediator between self-efficacy and achievements. Parental involvement had significant, direct and positive relations with social adjustment but negative with academic achievements. Findings indicate a weakening of the relationships between parents’ involvement, identification, and alertness and children’s variables compared to the relationships between children’s variables. Educational staff and parents must create useful communication channels for helping children cope with the challenges of their social and media world.     

Do Different Levels of Inquiry Lead to Different Learning Outcomes? A comparison between guided and structured inquiry

Although the effects of open inquiry vs. more didactic approaches have been studied extensively, the effects of different types of inquiry have not received as much attention. We examined the effects of guided vs. structured inquiry on secondary students' learning of science. Students from three schools in north-eastern Thailand participated (N?=?239, Grades 7 and 10). Two classes in each school were randomly assigned to either the guided or the structured-inquiry condition. Students had a total of 14–15 hours of instructions in each condition. The dependent measures were science content knowledge, science process skills, scientific attitudes, and self-perceived stress. In comparison to the structured-inquiry condition, students in the guided-inquiry condition showed greater improvement in both science content knowledge and science process skills. For scientific attitudes and stress, students in one school benefited from guided inquiry much more than they did from structured inquiry. Findings were explained in terms of differences in the degree to which students engaged effortfully with the teaching material.     

The relationship between inquiry-based teaching and students’ achievement. New evidence from a longitudinal PISA study in England

Inquiry-based science teaching involves supporting pupils to acquire scientific knowledge indirectly by conducting their own scientific experiments, rather than receiving scientific knowledge directly from teachers. This approach to instruction is widely used among science educators in many countries. However, researchers and policymakers have recently called the effectiveness of inquiry approaches into doubt. Using nationally-representative linked survey and administrative data we find little evidence that the frequency of inquiry-based instruction is positively associated with teenagers’ performance in science examinations. This finding is robust to the use of different measures of inquiry, different measures of attainment, across classrooms with varying levels of disciplinary standards and across gender and prior attainment subgroups.     

评估科学素养 培育关键能力——OECD／PISA科学素养之构想、设计与评估

科学素养被认为是21世纪公民生活和工作所必须具备的关键能力的核心,而培养学生的科学素养就成了教育的重要使命之一,如何测评学生的科学素养也因此成了研究的重点。本文试图通过介绍欧洲经济合作与发展组织的“国际学生评价项目”对科学素养的界定和评估框架,为评价学生的综合能力提供借鉴。     

How is formative assessment related to students’ reading achievement? Findings from PISA 2009

Drawing on the programme for international student assessment 2009 US data-set, this study examines the relationship between formative assessment and students’ reading achievement using a structural equation modelling approach. We find that formative assessment is positively related to students’ reading achievement directly and indirectly (through teacher–student relationship and attitude towards reading) for all students. The direct relationship between formative assessment and reading achievement is significantly stronger for Black students than for White students, whether or not student socio-economic status (SES), gender and school mean SES are controlled for. The total relationship (the direct plus the indirect relationship) between formative assessment and reading achievement also appears to be stronger for Black students than for White students; however, the difference is not statistically significant whether or not we control for covariates. No significant difference is found between White and Hispanic students in terms of the direct and the total relationship between formative assessment and reading achievement. Using a nationally representative data-set, this study provides empirical evidence that formative assessment is positively related to students’ reading achievement in general. In addition, this study provides preliminary evidence to show the potential of formative assessment to help reduce achievement gaps between Black and White students. The implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.     

Adolescent students’ grit: Do parents’ grit and educational expectations matter?

Despite the widespread enthusiasm towards grit, little attention has been paid to how stable grit remains over time and what contextual factors can predict longitudinal changes in grit. The present study investigated adolescent students’ grit and its change over one year. We employed nationally representative longitudinal data from a sample of Korean adolescent students (N = 2,590) and their parents (N = 2,590). Specifically, we evaluated the temporal stability of student grit, parent grit and educational expectations as determinants of student grit, and the relative importance of student grit in predicting academic achievement compared to academic self-concept. Results of autoregressive cross-lagged modeling revealed that grit was fairly stable over one year. In addition, parents’ grit and educational expectations for students’ educational attainment emerged as significant predictors of longitudinal changes in students’ grit. Finally, when students’ academic self-concept was controlled, students’ grit was not predictive of their academic achievement. Implications and areas of future research are presented and discussed.