The Quality of Content Analyses of State Student Achievement Tests and Content Standards

This article examines the reliability of content analyses of state student achievement tests and state content standards. We use data from two states in three grades in mathematics and English language arts and reading to explore differences by state, content area, grade level, and document type. Using a generalizability framework, we find that reliabilities for four coders are generally greater than .80. For the two problematic reliabilities, they are partly explained by an odd rater out. We conclude that the content analysis procedures, when used with at least five raters, provide reliable information to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners about the content of assessments and standards.     

Student conscientiousness,self‐regulated learning,and science achievement: An explorative field study

This explorative field study examined the mediating role of self‐regulated learning (SRL) in the relationship between the personality trait of conscientiousness, SRL, and science achievement in a sample of junior high school students. Over the course of an entire academic year, data on enacted SRL were collected each week for 52 eighth‐grade students in the context of an inquiry‐based ecology project. Data were also collected on personality traits, self‐reported study strategies, science project achievement, and grade point average. Findings show significant relationships between conscientiousness, SRL, and achievement. As hypothesized, conscientiousness was shown to significantly impact academic achievement in the inquiry‐based course, mediated by enacted SRL. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Measures of international collaboration in scientific literature: Part I

Research evaluating models of scientific productivity require coherent metrics that quantify various key relations among papers as revealed by patterns of citation. This paper focuses on the various conceptual problems inherent in measuring the degree to which papers tend to cite other papers written by authors of the same nationality. We suggest that measures can be given a degree of assurance of coherence by being based on mathematical models describing the citation process. A number of such models are developed.     

The Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect for Academic Self-Concept, Test Anxiety, and School Grades in Gifted Children

This study reports data extending work by Marsh and colleagues on the “big-fish-little-pond effect” (BFLPE). The BFLPE hypothesizes that it is better for academic self-concept to be a big fish in a little pond (gifted student in regular reference group) than to be a small fish in a big pond (gifted student in gifted reference group). The BFLPE effect was examined with respect to academic self-concept, test anxiety, and school grades in a sample of 1020 gifted Israeli children participating in two different educational programs: (a) special homogeneous classes for the gifted and (b) regular mixed-ability classes. The central hypothesis, deduced from social comparison and reference group theory, was that academically talented students enrolled in special gifted classes will perceive their academic ability and chances for academic success less favorably compared to students in regular mixed-ability classes. These negative self-perceptions, in turn, will serve to deflate students' academic self-concept, elevate their levels of evaluative anxiety, and result in depressed school grades. A path-analytic model linking reference group, academic self-concept, evaluative anxiety, and school performance, was employed to test this conceptualization. Overall, the data lend additional support to reference group theory, with the big-fish-little-pond effect supported for all three variables tested. In addition, academic self-concept and test anxiety were observed to mediate the effects of reference group on school grades.     

Coping mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and academic achievement

Research examining the relationships between performance measures of emotional intelligence (EI), coping styles, and academic achievement is sparse. Two studies were designed to redress this imbalance. In each of these studies, both EI and coping styles were significantly related to academic achievement. In Study 1, 159 community college students completed the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping scales. Collectively, the coping variables significantly mediated the relationship between EI and grade point average (GPA) for Emotion Perception, Emotion Facilitation of Thought and Emotion Management (but not for Emotional Understanding). Problem-focused coping was the only single significant mediator, mediating the relationship between emotion management and GPA (but not other branches and GPA). In Study 2, 293 middle school students completed the Situational Test of Emotion Management for Youths (STEM-Y) and scales measuring the same three coping strategies. In this study, the coping variables again significantly mediated the relationship between emotion management and GPA. Once again, problem-focused coping was a significant mediator. Collectively, these results suggest that better educational outcomes might be achieved by targeting skills relating to emotion management and problem-focused coping.     

Teaching the Concept of Desert Ecosystem

Summaries

English

In order to test the possibilities of the desert as an educational resource for ecosystem study a development programme was started at the Institute for Desert Research in Israel in 1972. The objectives of the investigation were:

(1) To study the structure and function of a loessial plain and rocky hill‐top ecosystem in the Negev desert highlands.

(2) To develop an ecology course for teaching the concept of the desert ecosystem. The course should demonstrate the structure, function and methodology of desert‐ecosystem investigation.

(3) To evaluate the ability of high school, teachers’ training college and university students for modelling and analysing desert ecosystems.

The investigation showed that the teaching of a field‐oriented ecology course in a relatively simple ecosystem improves students’ understanding of principles and concepts of system ecology and assists them in the use of investigatory systems approach. Participants were able to choose the main entities which compose the system, define the relationship between them, specify the mechanisms by which changes in the system take place, and to model and analyse the system.     

Violence among high school students in Thailand: Cultural perspectives

The objectives of this study were to explore the prevalence and severity of violent behavior among high school students in Thailand, in relation to their family, peers, school and neighborhoods. The sample consisted of 2897 youths. Seven scales were used to measure violence. Males were found to be more violent than females, and the strongest predictor of own violence was violence in the youth's environment, followed by peer effects and personal characteristics. The results indicate that besides some unique influences, which could explain emphasis or differences in type, range and frequency of violent behaviors among Thai youth, compared with youth from other cultures, risk factors for youth violence reported in Western studies are applicable also to Thai youths. The results were interpreted in light of the cultural characteristics of Thailand.