Within-year changes in children’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations: Contextual predictors and academic outcomes

The present study was designed to investigate the nature, timing, and correlates of motivational change among a large sample (N = 1051) of third- through eighth-grade students. Analyses of within-year changes in students’ motivational orientations revealed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations decreased from fall to spring, with declines in intrinsic motivation especially pronounced for the adolescents and declines in extrinsic motivation especially pronounced for the elementary students. These changes in motivation were explained, in part, by shifts in students’ perceptions of the school goal context. Findings suggested that typical age-related declines in intrinsic motivation may be minimized by a school-wide focus on mastery goals. Finally, the potential academic consequences of students’ motivational orientations were examined with a series of hierarchical multiple regressions. Intrinsic motivation and classroom achievement appeared to influence one another in a positive and reciprocal fashion. Poor classroom performance minimally predicted higher levels of extrinsic motivation, but extrinsic motivation was not a source of low classroom grades.     

Aggregate unemployment decreases individual returns to education

Aggregate unemployment may affect individual returns to education through qualification-specific responses in participation and wage bargaining. This paper shows that an increase in regional unemployment by 1% decreases returns to education by 0.005 percentage points. This implies that higher skilled employees are better sheltered from labour market changes with respect to their jobs but they encounter larger wage changes than less skilled employees. We use representative individual data and panel variation in unemployment between German regions and employee groups. We demonstrate that our results are robust with respect to aggregation bias, time lags and potential endogeneity of the unemployment variable.     

Investigating the quality of the school technology needs assessment (STNA) 3.0: A validity and reliability study

Schools and districts should use a well-designed needs assessment to inform important decisions about a range of technology program areas. Presently, there is a lack of valid and reliable instruments available and accessible to schools to effectively assess their educational needs to better design and evaluate their projects and initiatives. The School Technology Needs Assessment (STNA) is a free, user-friendly online survey tool that meets this need for planning and formative evaluation of technology projects in educational settings. This study used existing data from a robust sample (n = 1918) of educators from across North Carolina to examine the reliability and validity of STNA. A collective review of study results including the literature review, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and internal consistently reliability analysis indicated that STNA was a high-quality instrument.     

Development research of a teachers’ educational performance support system: the practices of design, development, and evaluation

This study adopted design and development research methodology (Richey & Klein, Design and development research: Methods, strategies, and issues, 2007) to systematically investigate the process of applying instructional design principles, human–computer interaction, and software engineering to a performance support system (PSS) for behavior management in a classroom. The purpose was to examine how a proposed instructional design framework based on Ausubel’s (The psychology of meaningful verbal learning, 1963) advance organizer theoretical approach could be used to address inherent problems of technically driven PSSs. Development data were collected from a six-phase participatory rapid prototyping process using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings indicated that (a) the advance organizer concept combined with a matrix design metaphor provided an effective way to illustrate conceptual connections and relations among PSS modules and their elaborated information, (b) the system served as a reference to support participants for exchanging ideas with other teachers as well as with parents of students, and (c) the rapid prototyping process established parameters that helped the project team maintain a focus on users and collect data useful for advancing to a higher phase of system development. Potential drawbacks pertaining to the proposed design strategies and their possible corrective actions are also reported and discussed.     

What is the Relationship between Social Tact in Teacher–Pupil Exchanges and Creativity? Reconceptualising Functional Causes of Creativity in Artmaking

Art teachers are renowned for their claims that the creative properties of their senior secondary pupils' artworks occur as a result of the realisation of a creative process. Drawing on my recent ethnographic studies in senior art classrooms in Sydney, Australia, and Illinois, USA, I uncover a sociological, rather than a psychological explanation of creativity, which ironically, appears to satisfy the creative process claims of teachers. This article reveals how social tact in teacher–pupil exchanges has a function in bolstering the quality of the pupils' performances and their artworks while repressing the teacher's pedagogical role. The design and methodologies of the studies are outlined and two grounded narratives characterise cases of social tact between art teachers and pupils. A brief account is provided on the socio‐cultural framework of these studies, informed by Bourdieu's theories of the habitus, symbolic capital and misrecognition. Bourdieu's theories offer a robust conceptual apparatus which helps to explain how the sociality of classroom exchanges, with all of their ambiguities in practice, are a necessity in the realisation of creative ends.     

The importance of interplay between school-based and networked professional development: School professionals’ experiences of inter-school collaborations in learning networks

Previous literature has demonstrated that networks can be valuable sources of professional learning. In 2005 all Liverpool schools formed into ten Learning Networks with the aim of improving the quality, and entitlement of, continuing professional development (CPD) for staff as part of a whole-scale local authority initiative. The Liverpool Learning Networks Research explored professionals’ CPD experiences following this organizational change and whether it has enhanced their practice. Triangulated data, a large-scale survey and qualitative interviews conducted in 2007, seem to suggest that where professionals benefited from professional learning in a networked context, the quality of the networked CPD as well as a positive school culture and intra-school collaboration were all important contributors to the success of networked-CPD. This finding can usefully apply Turbill’s (Teacher learning for educational change. Open University Press, Buckingham, 94–114, 2002) model of professional learning to the intersection between school-based and networked-CPD, which suggests that it is at this intersection between internal and external domains that teacher learning can take place. Two scenarios, where this interplay between school-based and networked CPD is positive (enhancement) or negative (tension), are reported through five case studies of professionals underpinned by the survey data, where relevant.     

Moving PISA Results into the Policy Arena: Perspectives on Knowledge Transfer for Future Considerations and Preparations

Evidence-based policies, decisions, and practices are highly valued and underachieved in the international mathematics and science education reforms. Many in the mathematics and science education research communities lament the lack of influence that research results have on the education profession, schools, and teaching. Academic research done in isolation of end-users—with the faint hope that teachers, politicians, and bureaucrats will access and utilise these results to inform curriculum, assessment, and instruction and to influence public policy—has not worked. Some funding agencies require dissemination of research and development results to the broader political and education communities; therefore, applicants agree to these requirements without fully realizing the breadth of these demands. However, to achieve such knowledge transfer requirements, researchers need to become more (a) aware of the needs, players, and processes of ‘speaking truth to power’; (b) active in knowledge transfer and influencing public policy; and (c) alert to values and normative premises of the policy makers. This article outlines the essential principles, barriers within the academic community, international efforts, and future considerations for knowledge transfer regarding international assessments. Specific articles on PISA 2000, 2003, and 2006 included in this special issue are used to illustrate these insights into verification of curricular influences, educational opportunity and equality, regional comparisons, and direct influence on policy.     

FIRST CYCLE OF PISA (2000–2006)—INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES: RESEARCH AND POLICY DIRECTIONS

This special edition of IJMSE focuses on the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) project now that it has completed a full cycle of administration—reading, mathematics, and science—to look at ways in which PISA has been used in participating countries and with what consequences, and to identify potential research and policy directions emanating from this initiative. Articles were invited to (a) reflect international perspectives on the uses and consequences of PISA to date and (b) speculate on future directions for research, curriculum, and policy using the PISA datasets. The introductory article provides a brief overview of common aspects of PISA: Evolving definitions of reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy; technical design of the instruments and data analysis procedures; the changing emphasis of administrations; and recent research using the datasets. PISA, unlike other international assessments in reading, mathematics, and science, has provided a fresh perspective on ‘what might be’ by decoupling the assessment from mandated curricula to focus on literacies needed for a 21st century economy. This unique feature of PISA brings with it possibilities and cautions for policy makers.