Social Support and Socioeconomic Status Predict Secondary Students' Grades and Educational Plans Indifferently Across Immigrant Group and Gender

Social support and socioeconomic status (SES) have received considerable attention in explaining academic achievement and the achievement gap between students with ethic majority and immigrant background, and between boys and girls. Using a Structural Equation Modeling approach we examine (1) if there exist a gap in school achievements between these groups, (2) whether social support and SES is associated with achievements across these groups, (3) whether social support is associated with achievements after controlling for SES, and (4) whether achievement gaps are explained by group differences in social support and SES. Self-reported cross-sectional survey and register data from 8,574 10th graders in Norway was employed. Although we found group differences in achievements, and direct associations with social support and SES, we found no group differences in these associations. Controlling for SES and other sources of social support, teachers' support remained a significant positive influence on students' school outcomes.     

Struggling to understand abstract science topics: A Roundhouse diagram-based study

This study explored the effects of Roundhouse diagram construction on a previously low-performing middle school science student's struggles to understand abstract science concepts and principles. It is based on a metacognition-based visual learning model proposed by Wandersee in 1994. Ward and Wandersee introduced the Roundhouse diagram strategy and showed how it could be applied in science education. This article aims at elucidating the process by which Roundhouse diagramming helps learners bootstrap their current understandings to reach the intended meaningful understanding of complex science topics. The main findings of this study are that (a) it is crucial that relevant prior knowledge and dysfunctional alternative conceptions not be ignored during new learning if low-performing science students are to understand science well; (b) as the student's mastery of the Roundhouse diagram construction improved, so did science achievement; and (c) the student's apt choice of concept-related visual icons aided progress toward meaningful understanding of complex science concepts.     

Personality Traits,Television Viewing,and the Cultivation Effect

This research investigates the impact of 3 personality traits—trait anxiety, sensation seeking, and psychoticism—on cultivation effects regarding perceptions of violence. A survey measuring violence prevalence estimates, personality traits, television consumption, and genre preferences was completed by 427 undergraduates. Results indicate that low trait–anxious individuals, and to a lesser extent high sensation seekers, are more susceptible to cultivation regarding personal vulnerability to crime whereas those low in psychoticism are susceptible to cultivation regarding societal violence perceptions. The worldview offered by these traits, as opposed to TV genre consumption or resonance, seems to best explain these effects.     

Becoming and Being a Specialist: anticipating and experiencing higher education English

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses a hitherto largely neglected area of academic and pedagogic research in one of the most popular subjects in higher education — English. The authors examine student‐held views of what constitutes ‘English’, focusing for part of the discussion on reading and reading logs in routine English teaching. The first part of the paper concentrates on the quality of students’ insights into reading as revealed by the novel experience of keeping a reading log. The second part of the paper places this pedagogic experience in a larger context. Here, students’ own views of English, anticipated and subsequent to arrival in higher education, are evaluated. The authors apply different theoretical constructs in both their methodology and interpretation of findings. They conclude that one significant challenge for students in higher education English today is to adjust themselves, with a balance between flexibility and coherence, to a new techno‐cultural world. This world demands the intellectual capabilities both of self‐reflection and community affiliation in an expanding disccurse called ‘English’.     

Quality enhancement for accountability and transformation: A framework for the future

This paper examines the performance of Thai public universities in terms of efficiency, using a non‐parametric approach called data envelopment analysis. Two efficiency models, the teaching efficiency model and the research efficiency model, are developed and the analysis is conducted at the faculty level. Further statistical analyses are also performed to examine the difference in performance between two types of public universities, namely the government universities and the autonomous universities. Then, the differences in efficiency between university locations and types of faculties are examined. The results indicate that the autonomous universities outperform the government universities in terms of research efficiency. In addition, the universities in provincial areas and the faculties in the health science group are efficient in terms of teaching. Recommendations are also provided for the university administrators to improve the performance of public universities in Thailand.     

The electronic mirror and emotional growth

Abstract

The article examines the use of information and communication technology to enhance the educational achievement of a group of students evidencing a variety of EBD in a mainstream school setting. It is believed that ICT will have just as important a part to play in the education of students with EBD as it will with other sensory or physical special educational needs. The article examines within-child factors which make a cognitive-behavioural approach potentially powerful. It suggests that ICT can enhance the educational experience of EBD pupils if careful attention is paid to the creation of a therapeutic teaching environment and the interaction of the student/curriculum and teacher/student interfaces. The article discusses the implementation of an integrated learning system in an inner London comprehensive school and its effects on those pupils presenting with emotionally disordered learning difficulties.     

A case for ubiquitous,integrated computing in teacher education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an integrated, laptop-based approach on pre-service teachers' computer attitudes, ability and use. Pre-post program analysis revealed significant differences in behavioural attitudes and perceived control (self-efficacy), but not in affective and cognitive attitudes. In addition, there was a significant improvement in all 10 computer ability areas (operating systems, communication, World Wide Web, word processing, spreadsheets, database, graphics, multimedia, web page design, and programming). Finally, pre-service teachers used laptop computers significantly more in a university setting than in their field placements     

The uncertain representation ranking framework for concept-based video retrieval

Concept based video retrieval often relies on imperfect and uncertain concept detectors. We propose a general ranking framework to define effective and robust ranking functions, through explicitly addressing detector uncertainty. It can cope with multiple concept-based representations per video segment and it allows the re-use of effective text retrieval functions which are defined on similar representations. The final ranking status value is a weighted combination of two components: the expected score of the possible scores, which represents the risk-neutral choice, and the scores’ standard deviation, which represents the risk or opportunity that the score for the actual representation is higher. The framework consistently improves the search performance in the shot retrieval task and the segment retrieval task over several baselines in five TRECVid collections and two collections which use simulated detectors of varying performance.