A cross-national analysis of the student- and school-level factors affecting the demand for private tutoring

Private tutoring has become a worldwide phenomenon, yet there is little empirical evidence for the main factors leading the demand for private tutoring across nations. Using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study of 2003, this study classified the countries into four different groups according to the proportion of student participation in private tutoring and student achievement. Then, the study explored student- and school-level factors influencing the demand for private tutoring. From the HGLM analysis, the results revealed that the demand for private tutoring in Korea and Taiwan, which have higher participation rates in private tutoring and high-school-quality levels, is mostly explained by student-level variables (educational aspirations, instrumental motivation, self-confidence, and father’s education) and school context variables (the community size and school SES). Meanwhile, the demand for private tutoring in the Philippines and Romania, both of which have high incidences of private tutoring and low-school-quality levels, varies widely among schools, and many of the school process variables (e.g., the use of remedial classes, amount of school homework, frequency of tests, and the use of grouping by ability) account for the relationships with private tutoring.     

ORIENTATIONS TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION: UNDERSTANDING THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO PD OUTCOMES ACROSS MULTIPLE PROJECTS

Given the large investment in teacher professional development (PD), further understanding of the factors that impact PD success is needed. In a previous study, the authors established a framework for categorizing PD projects using the notion of orientations. A PD orientation is comprised of project characteristics that drive the PD design and implementation for that project. In this study, we applied this orientation framework to 14 science and mathematics PD projects and examined the relationship between projects of differing orientations and PD outcomes (e.g. perceived improvement in teaching practices). The results provide support for the value of the framework and demonstrate that PD projects with different orientations exhibit differing participant outcomes. This study also provides evidence of the value of this research framework for understanding how PD implementation characteristics are related to PD outcomes, as well as points to the value of a “balanced” orientation where both content and pedagogy are addressed in equal parts.     

Research software citation in the Data Citation Index: Current practices and implications for research software sharing and reuse

The aim of this study is to explore the phenomenon of research software citation and, in particular, to draw attention to the increasing importance of this form of citation in scholarly communication. This research sheds light on the current status of formal software citation that is captured by citation databases. Data for the study were gathered from more than 67,000 research software records available in public repositories indexed by Clarivate Analytics’ Data Citation Index (DCI). The metadata characteristics of the indexed records and citation data were then analyzed. Research software was rarely cited in the DCI, suggesting that the documented reuse of research software rarely occurs or is not well documented. Institutional repositories attracted few citations and had low rate of citation. It proved impossible, however, using the available data to isolate specific identifiers that can promote formal software citation. The findings presented here offer insights into research software citation that will be of interest to funding agencies, publishers, researchers, and research organizations.     

Looking back at “our science” and “our history”: an exploration of Korean preservice science teachers’ encounters with East Asian history of science

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Despite the long-standing interest among science educators in using history of science in science teaching, little has been discussed around whether and how...     

Trends in Autism Research: A Systematic Journal Analysis

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disability for which prevalence rates continue to increase. Persons with ASD vary widely in both severity of disability and services required. Therefore it is important to identify trends in research and evaluate progress in the field. The current study uses a journal analysis to evaluate research over a 12 year period in three prominent autism focused research journals: Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Findings include identification of trends in research designs, sample characteristics, and interventions.     

Pushbutton-activated microfluidic cartridge as a user-friendly sample preparation tool for diagnostics

Microfluidic technologies have several advantages in sample preparation for diagnostics but suffer from the need for an external operation system that hampers user-friendliness. To overcome this limitation in microfluidic technologies, a number of user-friendly methods utilizing capillary force, degassed poly(dimethylsiloxane), pushbutton-driven pressure, a syringe, or a pipette have been reported. Among these methods, the pushbutton-driven, pressure-based method has a great potential to be widely used as a user-friendly sample preparation tool for point-of-care testing or portable diagnostics. In this Perspective, we focus on the pushbutton-activated microfluidic technologies toward a user-friendly sample preparation tool. The working principle and recent advances in pushbutton-activated microfluidic technologies are briefly reviewed, and future perspectives for wide application are discussed in terms of integration with the signal analysis system, user-dependent variation, and universal and facile use.     

Affective and motivational factors of learning in online mathematics courses

We investigated what factors would be related to students' achievement in mathematics courses offered at a virtual high school. This was an attempt to understand why some succeed and some do not as well as to suggest what should be done to help with student success. Seventy‐two students responded to a self‐report survey on motivation (ie, self‐efficacy, intrinsic value), mathematics achievement emotions (ie, anxiety, anger, shame, hopelessness, boredom, enjoyment, pride), and cognitive processes (ie, cognitive strategy use, self‐regulation). A three‐step hierarchical multivariate regression was employed to examine which of the factors predict student achievement. Results showed that motivation accounted for approximately 13% of the variance in student achievement and self‐efficacy was the significant individual predictor of student achievement. However, when achievement emotions were added to the analysis, self‐efficacy failed to predict student achievement and emotions accounted for 37% of the variance in student achievement. Cognitive strategy use and self‐regulation did not explain any additional variance in the final scores. Findings are discussed and implications for future research and development are also suggested.     

The relationship between university student learning outcomes and participation in social network services,social acceptance and attitude towards school life

Educators try to use social network services (SNSs) in their teaching because they are regarded as beneficial to student learning. However, little research to date has empirically investigated whether the use of an SNS increases university student learning outcomes. A total of 730 university students in the capital area of South Korea participated in the present study. Based on social learning theory, we developed a general structural model that included SNS participation (SP) as an exogenous variable and a range of endogenous variables: cognitive domain learning outcomes, affective domain learning outcomes, social domain learning outcomes, social acceptance (SA) and attitude towards university life (AT). The study results confirmed that the model adequately explained causal relationships between student learning outcomes and SA, AT and SP. SA was identified as a key variable because of its direct effect on learning outcomes. However, SP was considered more important because of its large indirect effects on all learning outcomes through both SA and AT.     

The effects of childhood abuse on symptom complexity in a clinical sample: Mediating effects of emotion regulation difficulties

The purpose of the present study was to first examine whether childhood abuse predicts symptom complexity, as indicated by the number of clinically elevated scales on the MMPI-2 in an adult clinical sample. Secondly, we investigated whether emotion regulation difficulties mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and symptom complexity. A total of 162 adult outpatients not presenting with psychotic symptoms completed the Korean Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (K-CTQ), Life Events Checklist (LEC), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and Korean Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). Partial correlation analysis results indicated that after controlling for the presence of adulthood trauma, childhood abuse was associated with more symptom complexity, or more clinically elevated scales on the MMPI-2. Furthermore, structural equation modeling results showed that emotion regulation difficulties partially mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and symptom complexity. These findings indicate that individuals who had experienced childhood abuse evidence simultaneous presentation of diverse clinical symptoms.     

Exploring Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Understanding of the Essential Features of Inquiry-Based Science Teaching Using Evidence-Based Reflection

This study explored preservice elementary teachers' and their mentors' understanding of the essential features of inquiry-based teaching through the use of evidence-based reflection. The web-based video analysis tool (VAT) system was used to support preservice teachers' and mentors' evidence-based reflection during field experiences. Major data sources included VAT reflections and individual interviews. Data analysis indicated that the preservice teachers had been involved in various activities designed to support their understanding of inquiry features in a science methods class; they did not implement all of the features in their actual teaching. Both preservice teachers and mentors had difficulty connecting appropriate inquiry features to each teaching episode, which indicates their lack of understanding of inquiry. Both the preservice teachers and mentors had different levels of understanding for each feature. That is, they tended to understand certain features better than others. They interpreted each feature of inquiry-based science teaching too broadly. They also either had a teacher-centered view or tended to focus on issues unrelated to science teaching.