The relationship between affective response to social comparison and academic performance in high school

The goal of the present study was to study the relationship between affective responses to social comparison and test scores among high school students. Our analyses showed that three types of responses to social comparison could be distinguished: an empathic, constructive, and destructive response. Whereas girls scored higher on empathic response, boys scored higher on destructive response. In addition, students who had a high social comparison orientation (SCO) scored higher on all three types of responses than students who expressed a low SCO. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for previous performance, a destructive response was negatively related to performance on tests for reading comprehension and mathematics. An empathic response was positively related to performance on reading comprehension only whereas a constructive response compensated the negative relationship between destructive response and reading comprehension. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Navigating complexity,culture, collaboration,and emotion: student perspectives on global justice and global justice education

Recent years have seen increasing scholarly attention to the ways in which colleges and universities might contribute to educating ‘global citizens’ who work toward addressing injustice and inequity. The present study examines the experiences and perspectives of students participating in an upper level ‘global justice inquiry’ course designed to help meet this goal. Drawing from interviews with students and reflections submitted as part of their course assessment, we explore participants’ developing understanding of global justice and their experiences of learning about this topic. This investigation reveals key issues that students highlight and with which they sometimes struggle, including the complexity of global challenges, the importance of collaboration in attempting to address such challenges, the significance of navigating cultural considerations, and the potential influence of emotion on understanding and action. Implications of these findings, including the potential value of considering these issues as threshold concepts in global justice education, are discussed.     

Counter engagement: parents refusing high stakes testing and questioning policy in the era of the common core

This study is a critical discourse analysis of the New Jersey Opt-Out Movement. In 2015, and in response to the increasing standardization of US public school instruction, and over-use of high-stakes testing, NJ parents began to refuse to allow their children to take a key end-of-the year exam, the PARCC. We employ the concepts of master and counter narratives to exam the qualitative data that was collected in an online-questionnaire, a focus group, and refusal letters. We argue that these parents have refused this exam for their children based on differing reasons, that parents effectively changed the master narrative of the PARCC to grow their movement, and their refusal letters were key in promoting a new counter narrative.     

Motivation and Engagement with Physics: a Comparative Study of Females in Single-Sex and Co-educational Classrooms

Research in Science Education - It has been argued that the establishment of single-sex classes for females can increase their motivation and participation in physics. This paper reports on...