Dealing With Item Nonresponse in Large‐Scale Cognitive Assessments: The Impact of Missing Data Methods on Estimated Explanatory Relationships

Competence data from low‐stakes educational large‐scale assessment studies allow for evaluating relationships between competencies and other variables. The impact of item‐level nonresponse has not been investigated with regard to statistics that determine the size of these relationships (e.g., correlations, regression coefficients). Classical approaches such as ignoring missing values or treating them as incorrect are currently applied in many large‐scale studies, while recent model‐based approaches that can account for nonignorable nonresponse have been developed. Estimates of item and person parameters have been demonstrated to be biased for classical approaches when missing data are missing not at random (MNAR). In our study, we focus on parameter estimates of the structural model (i.e., the true regression coefficient when regressing competence on an explanatory variable), simulating data according to various missing data mechanisms. We found that model‐based approaches and ignoring missing values performed well in retrieving regression coefficients even when we induced missing data that were MNAR. Treating missing values as incorrect responses can lead to substantial bias. We demonstrate the validity of our approach empirically and discuss the relevance of our results.     

Latinx* popular culture imaginaries: examining Puerto Rican children’s social discourses in interpreting telenovelas

Abstract

In this paper, we present a collaboration project within one urban Puerto Rican classroom, focused on constructing a critical literacy inquiry curriculum grounded in the students’ out-of-school literacy practices in their communities, including their experiences with media and popular culture. We focused on a critical literacy and media inquiry unit centered on the students’ self-selected subject of the telenovela. Here, we examine one student’s work to highlight two overarching findings: (1) the visibility of the students’ complex understanding of the media landscapes in telenovelas, particularly the construction of dominant social discourses across telenovela worlds, and (2) the ways that bringing children’s mediatized cultural imaginaries in their creative work supports an approach to literacy in classrooms, where explorations of discourses of power emerge from the students’ knowledge. In order to articulate how children actively examine and construct discourses across multiple social worlds, we examine these findings using the Four Resource Model, and elements of discourse analysis, as theoretical and analytical frameworks, focusing on the construction of identities, worlds and meanings in relation to the social discourses of telenovelas.     

New Approaches to University in Spain: Academic Change,Creative Dimensions and Ethical Commitment in the Establishment of the European Higher Education Area

This paper discusses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), its creation, its guidelines, and its inherently innovative potential. It looks closely at the theoretical proposals, the innovative regulations and institutional practices in the process of academic change that relate to teaching, research and management. It also describes the emergence of creative processes in quality assurance and methodological renewal. These bring new professional challenges and educational opportunities to the fore; challenges which raise ethical issues for those involved in these approaches to universities in Spain and the European Union.     

ekstasis@cyberia

Elvis presided over the birth of a great new means of expression, one of three such flowerings in America since World War II. The second was television from broadcast to cable to music videos. The third is the net.

(Katz, Wired, pp. 10–14)

The lived meaning of space, time, and subjectivity has been radically altered by electronic technologies in an experience that may be described, and cannot be denied/

(Dery, Flame Wars, 1994, p. 19)

     

Reproduction and transformation of inequalities in schooling: the transformative potential of the theoretical constructs of Bourdieu

This article is concerned with the theoretical constructs of Bourdieu and their contribution to understanding the reproduction of social and cultural inequalities in schooling. While Bourdieu has been criticised for his reproductive emphasis, this article proposes that there is transformative potential in his theoretical constructs and that these suggest possibilities for schools and teachers to improve the educational outcomes of marginalised students. The article draws together three areas of contribution to this theme of transformation; beginning by characterising habitus as constituted by reproductive and transformative traits and considering the possibilities for the restructuring of students’ habitus. This is followed by a discussion of cultural capital and the way that teachers can draw upon a variety of cultural capitals to act as agents of transformation rather than reproduction. The article concludes by considering the necessity of a transformation of the field to improve the educational outcomes of marginalised students.     

Humanizing and conducive to learning: an adolescent students’ perspective on the central attributes of positive relationships with teachers

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify central attributes of positive relationships with teachers from the adolescent students’ perspectives that could help delineate the meaning of student–teacher connectedness while exploring to what extent its main attributes were similar or different in England and Spain. As part of the EU-funded project “Well-being among European youth: The contribution of student-teacher relationships in the secondary-school population”, we conducted focus groups in England and Spain with 42 students aged 11 to 18 years. Using a bottom-up approach for thematic analysis, we identified two main attributes that were linked to positive relationships with teachers as seen by our participating students from England and Spain: humanizing relationships, in which the students are acknowledged and respected as individuals and feel understood and supported by their teachers; and relationships conducive to learning, encompassing aspects such as a perception of a genuine commitment with their learning on the part of the teachers, a positive classroom management, and teachers motivating students. This study contributes to the conceptualization of student–teacher connectedness and provides useful insights for teachers and educational professionals. In addition, the study findings pointed to the importance of power and authority dynamics in student–teacher relationships that foster or undermine connectedness, and they revealed some cross-cultural differences in the role of emotions in the class, two important aspects which deserve further attention in future research.

     

Coverage and citation impact of oncological journals in the Web of Science and Scopus

This paper reviews a number of studies comparing Thomson Scientific’s Web of Science (WoS) and Elsevier’s Scopus. It collates their journal coverage in an important medical subfield: oncology. It is found that all WoS-covered oncological journals (n = 126) are indexed in Scopus, but that Scopus covers many more journals (an additional n = 106). However, the latter group tends to have much lower impact factors than WoS covered journals. Among the top 25% of sources with the highest impact factors in Scopus, 94% is indexed in the WoS, and for the bottom 25% only 6%. In short, in oncology the WoS is a genuine subset of Scopus, and tends to cover the best journals from it in terms of citation impact per paper. Although Scopus covers 90% more oncological journals compared to WoS, the average Scopus-based impact factor for journals indexed by both databases is only 2.6% higher than that based on WoS data. Results reflect fundamental differences in coverage policies: the WoS based on Eugene Garfield’s concepts of covering a selective set of most frequently used (cited) journals; Scopus with broad coverage, more similar to large disciplinary literature databases. The paper also found that ‘classical’, WoS-based impact factors strongly correlate with a new, Scopus-based metric, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), one of a series of new indicators founded on earlier work by Pinski and Narin [Pinski, G., & Narin F. (1976). Citation influence for journal aggregates of scientific publications: Theory, with application to the literature of physics. Information Processing and Management, 12, 297–312] that weight citations according to the prestige of the citing journal (Spearman’s rho = 0.93). Four lines of future research are proposed.     

Teaching statistics through the Real Estate Data Analyzer software

This paper presents the operation of the educational software, Real Estate Data Analyzer, to teachers and future teachers. It is a specific software that allows students carry out complete statistical analysis projects on the characteristics of the buildings that surround them.     

Evaluation of the double-deficit hypothesis subtype classification of readers in Spanish

The double-deficit hypothesis acknowledges both phonological processing deficits and serial naming speed deficits as two dimensions associated with reading disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine these two dimensions of reading as they were related to the reading skills of 29 Spanish average readers and poor readers (mean age 9 years 7 months) who met the criteria for either single phonological deficit (PD), double deficit (DD), or no deficit. DD children were the slowest readers and had the weakest orthography processing skills. No significant differences were found between PD and DD groups on word and pseudoword reading. Word reading and reading comprehension skills were average or above average in the three studied groups. As in previous studies in transparent orthographies, word reading was not a salient problem for Spanish poor readers, whereas for the DD group, reading speed and orthographic recognition skills were significantly affected.     

Measuring college students' reading comprehension ability using cloze tests

Recent investigations challenge the construct validity of sustained silent reading tests. Performance of two groups of post‐secondary students (e.g. struggling and non‐struggling) on a sustained silent reading test and two types of cloze test (i.e. maze and open‐ended) was compared in order to identify the test format that contributes greater variance in reading comprehension. One hundred participants were recruited from students enrolled in a preparatory course for a high‐stakes statewide reading examination. Our results suggest that all three measures have good concurrent validity. There was no evidence that open‐ended cloze performance was more related to verbal ability than any other reading measure. Maze performance did the best job at discriminating between our struggling and non‐struggling readers. Implications for reading comprehension assessment in post secondary‐aged adults are discussed.