Talented athletes and academic achievements: a comparison over 14 years

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the academic achievements of 200 talented athletes in 1992/1993 and 200 in 2006/2007, aged 14–16 years. When compared with the national average, the athletes in 2006/2007 attended pre‐university classes more often (χ² = 57.001, p<.05). Of the 2006/2007 athletes, a higher percentage participated in pre‐university programs compared with that of athletes in 1992/1993 (χ² (1, n = 400) = 32.003, p<.05), whereas the national averages showed stability (χ² = .325, p>.05). Investigating self‐regulation appears relevant, as talented athletes may have developed a high sense of self‐regulation in sports, which may enable them to optimally profit from their self‐regulatory skills in their academics.     

Visual representations of the internet in greek school textbooks and students’ experiences

Our research is concerned with the visual representations found in textbooks used for the teaching of the Internet in Greek secondary schools. Visualization, as both the product and the process of creation, interpretation and reflection upon pictures and images, is considered here to be very important, as it is the only way students gain insight into the nature and function of the Internet, its size, complexity and invisibility. Initially, we attempted to analyze and reflect upon school textbooks’ visual interpretations of the Internet. A scheme of categories of visual representations has been identified and reveals the characteristics of the textbooks’ representations as well as their limitations. Sketch-comics and computer snap-shots are the more popular types of Vrep, although a considerable number of them cannot be characterized as accurate and few of them have an explanatory or complementary function in terms of the content presented in the text. We have also explored the impact on students’ readings of two visual representations in one of the textbooks, used without any caption or textual information. The phenomenological aspects of the VRep seem to attract students’ attention and create obstacles in conceptualizing the main idea conveyed in both representations, but when the field of ICT is implied and not clearly portrayed in the VRep, students face serious problems in recognizing the phenomenon. It seems that it is difficult for an image on its own to paint a thousand words.     

The equity impact of public finance of private education provision in Côte d’Ivoire

The equity effects of public subsidization of private schools in Côte d’Ivoire are analyzed. The subsidy per student in private (and public) schools increases as one goes to higher household per capita expenditure groups. Students from families in the highest expenditure quartile receive twice the subsidy received by students from families in the lowest quartile, compared to four times more in the case of students attending public schools. However, the subsidy system is relatively progressive in the case of private school attendance as there is a clear tendency for the share of family education expenditure covered by subsidies to decline as one goes to higher quartiles.     

Trajectories of Physical Discipline: Early Childhood Antecedents and Developmental Outcomes

This study examined childhood antecedents and developmental outcomes associated with trajectories of mild and harsh parental physical discipline. Interview, questionnaire, and observational data were available from 499 children followed from ages 5 to 16 and from 258 children in an independent sample followed from ages 5 to 15. Analyses indicated distinct physical discipline trajectory groups that varied in frequency of physical discipline and rate of change. In both samples, family ecological disadvantage differentiated the trajectory groups; in the first sample, early child externalizing also differentiated the groups. Controlling for early childhood externalizing, the minimal/ceasing trajectory groups were associated with the lowest levels of subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior in both samples and with parent–adolescent positive relationship quality in the second sample.     

1, 2, 3, 4: Infusing Quantitative Literacy into Introductory Biology

Biology of the twenty-first century is an increasingly quantitative science. Undergraduate biology education therefore needs to provide opportunities for students to develop fluency in the tools and language of quantitative disciplines. Quantitative literacy (QL) is important for future scientists as well as for citizens, who need to interpret numeric information and data-based claims regarding nearly every aspect of daily life. To address the need for QL in biology education, we incorporated quantitative concepts throughout a semester-long introductory biology course at a large research university. Early in the course, we assessed the quantitative skills that students bring to the introductory biology classroom and found that students had difficulties in performing simple calculations, representing data graphically, and articulating data-driven arguments. In response to students'' learning needs, we infused the course with quantitative concepts aligned with the existing course content and learning objectives. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by significant improvement in the quality of students'' graphical representations of biological data. Infusing QL in introductory biology presents challenges. Our study, however, supports the conclusion that it is feasible in the context of an existing course, consistent with the goals of college biology education, and promotes students'' development of important quantitative skills.     

Authentic school partnerships for enabling inclusive education in Hong Kong

Education reform towards a whole school approach to catering for diversity within Hong Kong government schools has seen the initiation of several strategies to support mainstream schools in this transition. One of these approaches is the use of a resource school model. Special and mainstream schools in Hong Kong are being invited to establish themselves as resource support hubs for partner mainstream schools. This paper investigates how this model is being implemented by considering one of each type of resource school. Three broad themes have emerged that relate to the type of support being offered and sought: the school ethos and culture of the partner schools; and management issues. The effectiveness of a resource model is evaluated for its use in Hong Kong.     

Initial Evidence on the Influence of College Student Engagement on Early Career Earnings

Using data from three waves of longitudinal surveys of the 2001 freshman cohort of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program, this study examined linkages between student engagement in college activities and early career earnings in the labor market. The results indicated that social engagement was positively related to early career earnings of college graduates while academic engagement was not. When considering students who majored in STEM fields versus those in non-STEM fields, results showed academic engagement to be positively related to early career earnings for non-STEM students but slightly negatively related to earnings in the labor market for STEM students. Social engagement was positive for graduates in the STEM fields but not significant for non-STEM students. Altogether, results show a complex relationship between student engagement and early career earnings. Implications for research and institutional policy are discussed.