Cohort size effects on earnings: Differences by college major

The effects of cohort size on the starting salaries of college graduates from different areas of study are examined. Increases in the size of graduating classes relative to the population depress their starting salaries relative to other workers. The smallest negative cohort size effects are found for engineering and business graduates, while the largest are estimated for science and liberal arts graduates. Science and liberal arts graduates are more complementary with other workers or increase their human capital investments more than business and engineering graduates do in response to increases in cohort size. Either of these differences generate larger negative cohort size effects on relative earnings.     

Expanding the Foundation: Climate Change and Opportunities for Educational Research

Human-caused climate change is a dominant global challenge. Unlike other disciplines and fields, there has as yet been only limited attention to climate change in educational research generally, and in educational foundations in particular. Education is key to assisting humanity in mitigating and adapting to climate change, and educational researchers working within diverse disciplinary and methodological traditions and a broad array of research contexts need to engage in this most pressing of challenges. We argue that the field needs a new commitment to a form of educational justice appropriately scaled to the size of the challenge we face. We address this gap by reviewing current thinking on the human dimensions of climate change and summarizing what research has been conducted in the area of climate change education as a means of identifying a range of possibilities for educational research and praxis.     

Uncovering vocational students’ multiple goal profiles in the learning of professional mathematics: differences in learning strategies,motivational beliefs and cognitive abilities

Motivation to learn in vocational education is underexplored by researchers in educational psychology. Yet, teachers would profit from an understanding of the goals apprentices adopt for their learning and how these goals relate to students’ learning strategies and abilities. Using latent profile analysis, four groups were identified based on the achievement goals of 263 vocational students in their professional mathematics courses. Groups were described regarding their cognitive abilities, learning strategies and motivational beliefs. Results indicated that the inclusion of challenge-mastery and work-avoidance goals adds value to previous conceptualizations of multiple goal profiles. Significant and large differences between the profiles were found with regard to such motivational beliefs as individual interest and significant, albeit smaller, differences were found for learning strategies and cognitive abilities. The results suggest that vocational students may adopt four specific combinations of goals and that these are associated with several variables important for successful learning. Implications of the findings for vocational education are discussed.     

Reading videogames as (authorless) literature

This article presents the outcomes of research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in England and informed by work in the fields of new literacy research, gaming studies and the socio‐cultural framing of education, for which the videogame L. A. Noire was studied within the orthodox framing of the English literature curriculum at A level (pre‐university) and undergraduate (degree level) in the United Kingdom. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Firstly, students contributed to a gameplay blog requiring them to discuss their in‐game experience through the ‘language game’ of English literature, culminating in answering a question constructed with the idioms of the subject's set text ‘final examination’. Secondly, students taught their teachers to play L. A. Noire, with free choice over the context for this collaboration. Thirdly, participants returned to traditional roles to work through a set of study materials, designed to reproduce the conventions of the ‘study guide’ for literature education. Fourthly, interviews were conducted after each phase. The interviews informed a redrafting of the study materials, which are now available online for teachers. In the act of inserting the study of L. A. Noire into the English literature curriculum as currently framed, this research raises epistemological questions about ‘subject identity’, and the implications for digital transformations of texts for ideas about cultural value in schooled literacy and also the politics of ‘expertise’ in pedagogic relations.     

Comparison of Two Small‐group Learning Methods in 12th‐grade Physics Classes Focusing on Intrinsic Motivation and Academic Performance

Twelfth‐grade physics classes with 344 students participated in a quasi‐experimental study comparing two small‐group learning settings. In the jigsaw classroom, in contrast to the cyclical rotation method, teaching expectancy as well as resource interdependence is established. The study is based on the self‐determination theory of motivation, which states that the satisfaction of the ‘basic needs’ for experiencing autonomy, competence, and social relatedness is essential to promote intrinsic motivation. Regarding the experience of competence, a small effect in favour of the jigsaw classroom was found, whereas students in the cyclical rotation setting showed medium‐sized benefits in experiencing autonomy. A path analysis revealed that these opposing effects balanced each other; that is, no effect from small‐group method to intrinsic motivation was found. In contrary to the motivational variables, achievement effects depended on the underlying study topic: based on scanning electron microscopy, the cyclical rotation setting outperformed jigsaw classroom, whereas an opposed trend is observed with regard to the microwave oven learning unit. The higher interestingness of the latter learning unit was revealed as a weak mediator from study topic to academic achievement.     

Editor's Introduction

In 1993, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) challenged New York State's school financing system on the grounds that it failed to provide students sufficient opportunity for a sound basic education in New York City. CFE prevailed in 2003, after the case went before the New York Court of Appeals, and the state's funding system was determined to be unconstitutional and ordered to be altered to ensure "adequate" funding. The final decision decreed that before any remediation take place, an objective study be conducted to determine how much it would cost to provide an "adequate" education for all public school students in the state, on which this article is based. Although a professional judgment approach forms the centerpiece of the work, components of the analysis draw on other methodological tools (i.e., public engagement, expert panels, and successful schools) to further support the results. We find that for a majority of districts significantly higher levels of spending are required if the state wishes to provide a sound basic education to all public school students. Furthermore, the results show a clear negative relationship between the district-level shortfall in spending and educational outcomes across virtually all student subpopulations.