The influence of school tracking systems on educational expectations: a comparative study of Austria and Italy

School tracking is usually criticised as a mechanism for social and cultural reproduction. Evidence from the literature shows a significant effect of early tracking on social inequality. Some studies also show that early tracking has a negative effect on the probability of completing higher education. This study uses PISA 2009 data and the propensity score matching technique to compare the effect of academic and vocational tracks on students' educational expectations and whether the effect varies across different socio-economic status in Austria, a country with an early tracking system, and Italy, a country with a later tracking system. The results show that students in Italy have significantly higher educational expectations for academic tertiary degrees than students in Austria. However, the findings do not show any evidence that the effect of tracking on expectations varies by students' socio-economic status in either country. The findings suggest that a later tracking system is associated with higher probabilities of having academic educational expectations; however, this finding should be interpreted with caution as the higher education and vocational education systems are different between the two countries, as well as the valuation of tertiary degrees in the labour market.     

The Effect of Learner-Generated Drawing and Imagination in Comprehending a Science Text

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of imagination and learner-generated drawing on comprehension, reading time, cognitive load, and eye movements, and whether prior knowledge moderated the effects of these two strategies. Sixty-three undergraduate students participated in a pretest-posttest between-subjects study with the independent variable being the instructional strategies with three levels (learner-generated drawing vs. imagination vs. repeated reading). The results revealed that, compared to repeated reading, learner-generated drawing fostered learners' comprehension when their prior knowledge was relatively low. Moreover, when asked to read the science text after the intervention, learners who were previously engaged with imagination spent significantly more time reading the text, and fixated longer and more frequently than those in the repeated reading condition.     

Development of moral reasoning in situational and cultural contexts

ABSTRACT

This article examines relationships between children and youths’ judgments and their justifications of truth telling and verbal deception, in situational and cultural contexts. Han Chinese, Euro-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians, seven- to 17-years of age were presented competitive scenarios in which protagonists told either lies to protect, or truths to harm, various levels of collectivity. Participants evaluated protagonists’ statements, using a 7-point scale, and justified their judgments. Cultural variations in moral evaluations emerged among the three groups of participants. Older Chinese participants reflected significant collective cultural values in their judgements; by contrast, Euro-Canadians identified more individualistically; and Chinese-Canadians demonstrated notable variability between these perspectives in their judgments. The article enhances understanding of situational and cultural sources in the development of moral reasoning within a sociocultural framework.     

Teacher–Student Interactions in Korean High School Science Classrooms

This paper provides a preliminary picture of teacher–student interaction in Korean senior high schools. In order to do this, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was translated into Korean and administered to 439 students (99 science-independent stream students, 195 science-oriented stream students and 145 humanities stream students). Based on the results from this survey, interviews with some students and teachers were also carried out and three science classrooms were also observed. It was found that the teacher–student interactions in Korean senior high school science classrooms reflect the general image of the youth-elder relationship in society as well as the senior high school's unique nature – portraying a scene of directing teachers and obeying students. It was also found that students experience unique interactions in their science classrooms with their particular teachers. It was considered that this difference comes from the overlapping of a teacher's personal characteristics with the nature of a stream (e.g., curriculum, expectation towards the students in that stream). This article reports part of a larger study conducted with Korean senior high school students and teachers. The aim of the main study was to investigate three different aspects of the high school science classroom environments in Korea, namely, the degree of implementation of constructivism, the pattern of teacher–student interactions, and the learning environment in laboratory classes. Based on the realisation that teacher–student interactions have not been systematically dealt with especially at the senior high school level in Korea, this article pays particularly attention to this aspect. The intention was also to provide useful insights for improving the current situation in senior high school science classrooms in Korea.     

Defining,Assessing, and Promoting E‐Learning Success: An Information Systems Perspective*

This research advances the understanding of how to define, evaluate, and promote e‐learning success from an information systems perspective. It introduces the E‐Learning Success Model, which posits that the overall success of an e‐learning initiative depends on the attainment of success at each of the three stages of e‐learning systems development: system design, system delivery, and system outcome. To study this model, an online version of an undergraduate quantitative methods core course for business students is developed using a prototyping strategy. Four cycles of development are traced, each comprised analysis, design, implementation, testing, and enhancement. Findings from the study confirm the validity of using the proposed success model for e‐learning success assessment. In addition, an action research methodology is also found to be a valuable impetus for promoting e‐learning success through an iterative process of diagnosing, action planning, action taking, evaluating, and learning.     

Comparing Institutional Relationships with Academic Departments: A Study of Five Academic Fields

Research in Higher Education - Any effort to understand academic departments would be facilitated by a better understanding of its relationship between its two larger spheres: the institution and...     

Thriving in-between the cracks: Deleuze and guerilla science teaching in Singapore

The radical philosophies of difference articulated by Deleuze and Guattari are just beginning to impinge the field of education although less so within science education. One common thread among the numerous concepts and neologisms (especially the rhizome) that have been coined is the necessity for thinking and acting in what they call ‘experimental’ modes, which shifts our focus onto the eternal process of becoming rather than merely (re)producing states of being. I reflect upon these seemingly utopian ideas in the light of recent educational changes in Singapore aimed at preparing competent citizen–workers for the knowledge economy and globalization. In particular, this paper shows how one elementary science teacher adopted guerilla tactics while negotiating these sometimes conflicting transitions in policies. I argue that neither mandated, top-down reforms nor drastic experimentation by individuals alone are most productive but rather working in the ephemeral in-between spaces of the rhizome, which Deleuze and Guattari had all long championed.

Conceptualising education quality in Zambia: a comparative analysis across the local,national and global discourses

Building on the Education for All movement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development re-emphasises quality education as a discrete goal. Contextualising the discussion surrounding this goal in Zambia, this study examines how education quality is conceptualised by educational stakeholders at local, national, and global levels. Triangulating teacher survey and interview data with policy documents from the government of Zambia and UNESCO, we found simultaneous convergence and divergence regarding the concepts of education quality espoused at each level. Convergence was shown in the critical influence of the economic tradition within education and the perceived role of schools in fostering resilient individuals and communities. Divergence was observed through the varying meanings assigned to similar concepts and the dissimilar influences of the humanistic and organisational management traditions at different levels. We discuss the implications of our findings for fostering collective efforts among key partners toward the achievement of quality education in Zambia.     

Stigmatised learners: mature-age students negotiating university culture

Research on the socially-situated nature of learning shows how practices and identities are affected by participation in communities, but very little is known about how mature-age students experience the relational dynamics of university. Based on data from a qualitative study of first-year students, we consider written accounts by older learners to examine how they negotiate the culture of higher education. We found that mature-age students encounter a university culture dominated by younger students, who draw separating boundaries between the social and the academic and stigmatise older students because of their academic practices. Drawing on Lave and Wenger’s learning theory, we examine the way mature-age students negotiate the process of becoming legitimate members of the learning community, and the resistance they face in doing so. Knowing how mature-age students learn, and how to support them, depends on examining their negotiation of university culture, as well as their differing aspirations and needs.