Blinded to science: gender differences in the effects of race,ethnicity, and socioeconomic status on academic and science attitudes among sixth graders

Little research has examined whether the effects of race or socioeconomic status (SES) on educational attitudes differ by gender, limiting knowledge of unique vulnerabilities occurring at the intersection of multiple social statuses. Using data from 182 sixth-graders, interactions between gender, race/ethnicity, and SES in predicting educational aspirations, persistence, views of science, and educational self-efficacy are examined. African American and Latino boys express more negative attitudes relative to (1) higher-SES boys, (2) White boys, and (3) girls of any race/ethnicity or level of SES. The intersection of multiple inequalities in education across the early life course is discussed.     

Evoking Knowledge and Information Awareness for Enhancing Computer-Supported Collaborative Problem Solving

Computer-supported collaboration by spatially distributed group members still involves interaction problems within the group. This article presents an empirical study investigating the question of whether computer-supported collaborative problem solving by spatially distributed group members can be fostered by evoking knowledge and information awareness, i.e., awareness of a group member with regard to both their fellow collaborators’ domain knowledge and information underlying this knowledge. The study (N = 30 triads) confirmed the efficiency of this approach by comparing (a) an experimental condition in which an environment for fostering knowledge and information awareness was provided and (b) a control condition without such an environment, with regard to communication and cooperation aspects, the quality of the group maps (needed for solving the problems), and the problem-solving performance.     

‘Now I am free’—education and human resource development in Eritrea: contradictions in the lives of Eritrean women in higher education

Human resource development as an objective of education policy in developing countries is increasingly narrowed down to its human capital component. In Eritrea, the objective of a highly centralized human resource development strategy is to produce human capital for the advancement of the nation. This instrumentalist view ignores the fact that education is not only related to one's position in a given society, but equally to the development of personal identity and new forms of agency on an individual level—thus potentially encompassing contradictions between the individual and the common good. This paper—based on the personal histories of a sample of female students at Asmara University—discusses these contradictions in terms of these women's acceptance of and resistance to the government's plan for them. It further argues that an education system geared predominantly towards the creation of human capital is bound to do so at the expense of social solidarity.     

Boys’ and girls’ educational choices in secondary education. The role of gender ideology

This study aims to explain why boys and girls in secondary education choose different educational tracks. We argue that adolescents internalise gender expectations as to what is “appropriate” male and female behaviour in their gender ideology. Gender ideology can affect educational choices by influencing (1) how adolescents evaluate their competence in certain subjects (competence beliefs), (2) what they find important in a future occupation (occupational values) and (3) what school subject they prefer right now (subject preferences). Longitudinal data collected among adolescents at age 15 and 16 (N = 1062) are used. Multinomial path models show that gender ideology shapes boys’ occupational values and subject preferences, whereas for girls it shapes their competence beliefs. Only for boys this leads to gender-stereotypical educational choices, however. Our results support the idea that gender expectations are stricter for boys than for girls and may prevent men from entering more feminine career tracks.     

Pathways,intersections and leaky pipelines: the cognitive function of metaphors for research on STEM careers

Cultural Studies of Science Education - With the present forum contribution, I respond to the paper “Discerning contextual complexities in STEM career pathways—Insights from successful...     

Cash incentives and turnover in center-based child care staff

The current study evaluates the Workforce INcentive Project (WIN), a programmatic effort to increase child care workforce stability in center- and home-based child care providers via the provision of bi-annual cash incentives based on educational attainment. Five hundred and thirteen center-based teaching staff (304 WIN and 209 comparison) and 167 center directors (93 WIN and 74 comparison) from 179 state-licensed child care centers (99 WIN and 80 comparison) participated in the study reported. Survival analyses were conducted to compare turnover rates between the WIN group and the comparison group over a 20-month period. All analyses controlled for participant satisfaction with employment, location (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural), and, where appropriate, hourly wages. Although WIN participation was generally associated with lower rates of turnover in center-based staff, when position type, educational attainment, experience in the field, and hourly wages were considered (separately and together), WIN's relationship with turnover varied widely for directors and teaching staff. Findings are discussed in terms of past research and future cash incentive programs.     

A functional look at goal orientations: Their role for self-estimates of intelligence and performance

Building on the notion that motivation energizes and directs resources in achievement situations, we argue that goal orientations affect perceptions of own intelligence and that the effect of goals on performance is partly mediated by self-estimates of intelligence. Studies 1 (n = 89) and 2 (n = 165) investigated the association of goal orientations and self-estimated intelligence in university-student samples. Study 3 (n = 164) tested an integrated model of goal orientations and self-estimated intelligence to predict school performance. Goal orientations explained 7 to 11% of the variance in self-estimated intelligence (controlling for gender, age, and psychometric intelligence). Persons with high performance-approach goals consistently overestimated and persons holding high performance-avoidance goals underestimated their intelligence. Performance goals affected academic performance indirectly via self-estimated intelligence, whereas learning goals were directly related to performance. Findings are discussed regarding their importance for the understanding of the function of motivation and ability self-perceptions for performance.     

The correspondence of public perceptions of graduates’ life chances and university departmental funding

Very little prior research has examined public perceptions of research funding and the life chances associated with various fields of study. In the present task, 315 members of the Austrian general public rated 34 higher-education courses in terms of funding cuts or increases, and the perceived life chances of graduates, respectively. The results showed a high degree of correspondence in the ratings of both questionnaires. Overall, professional and biological stream courses were rated the most favourably, whereas arts and humanities courses were rated the least favourably. Participants’ demographic variables had little influence on their decisions. The implications of these findings for the way higher education is managed and organised are discussed.     

What is not working in working memory of children with literacy disorders? Evidence from a three-year-longitudinal study

The goals of this study were to explore the deficits in working memory associated with literacy disorders (i.e. developmental disorders of reading and/or spelling) and the developmental trajectories of these working memory deficits. The performance of 28 children with literacy disorders was compared to a non-disabled control group with the same group size at five bi-annual times of measurement in a three-year-longitudinal study beginning at the end of primary school (9.5 years of age). Storage capacity and central-executive working memory were assessed in phonological and visual-spatial modalities, the latter under static and dynamic conditions. Overall, children with literacy disorders were outperformed by their typical developing peers in all phonological and in dynamic visual-spatial storage and central-executive tasks except for the static visual-spatial storage task. Results at single times of measurement revealed that the most consistent deficit was found in the storage capacity of the phonological loop. An additional central-executive impairment is supported by low backward spans. The causes for output deficits in dynamic visual-spatial tasks and good performance under static visual-spatial condition are discussed.