‘Better policies for better lives’?: constructive critique of the OECD’s (mis)measure of student well-being

ABSTRACT

Facing increasing critique that PISA focuses too narrowly on cognitive achievement and human/knowledge capital, the OECD has recently shifted some of its focus to student happiness. The 2017 Students’ Well-Being report distinguishes between ‘happy schools’ and ‘unhappy schools’, showing that among students who combined high performance and life satisfaction, northern European countries topped the charts. Meanwhile, students in East Asian countries including Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea registered the lowest ‘life satisfaction’ scores among all participating countries. This piece points out some of the problems inherent in the OECD’s recent turn to happiness, problematizing the OECD yardstick of life satisfaction. Attempting to keep the critique constructive, we suggest that the OECD may want to consider using alternative metrics, then briefly highlight one developed in East Asia from different first assumptions: the Interdependent Happiness Scale. In conclusion we flag, but cannot answer, some related educational questions concerning policy, pedagogy, and priorities for the future.     

Academic Achievement and Perceptions of the Learning Environment in Virtual and Traditional Secondary Mathematics Classrooms

This study identified pre-entry variables related to course completion and noncompletion in university online distance education courses. Four hundred and sixty-four students who were enrolled in online distance education courses participated in the study. Discriminant analysis revealed six pre-entry variables were related to retention, including cumulative grade point average, class rank, number of previous courses completed online, searching the Internet training, operating systems and file management training, and Internet applications training. Results indicate prior educational experience and prior computer training may help distinguish between individuals who complete university online distance education courses and those who do not.     

Revisiting primary school dropout in rural Cambodia

Previous studies on school dropout in Cambodia often used data from subjects after they already dropped out or statistics from education-related institutions. Using data from children in two rural provinces before they dropped out, this study examines four main factors in order to identify their influence on primary school dropout in Cambodia. Results from logistic regression analysis revealed that some predictors on individual, family, and school factors were found to be statistically significant to predict the odds of dropout in both grades 1 and 5, whereas poverty and child labor could not be detected, though they have been frequently cited as major predictors in the literature of school dropout in Cambodia as well as developing countries.     

An Evaluation of Public Library Websites: Describing Children's Services in Japan

ABSTRACT. This study is the first to investigate the amount and type of information about children's services described in Japanese public library websites, with particular reference to the Web pages intended for children, and the extent to which usability is taken into account in the design of these websites. Further, the study analyzes what kinds of content are more prevalent in children's services as described in Japanese public library websites in comparison with the actual delivery of these services. Finally, the study considers the usability of children's Web pages from the perspectives of how easy they are to read and understand.     

Relations Between Students’ Mathematics Anxiety and Motivation to Learn Mathematics: a Meta-Analysis

Educational Psychology Review - The current meta-analysis examined the association between K-12 students’ motivation to learn mathematics and mathematics anxiety, and explored the effects of...