Challenging discourses of aspiration: The role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education

Raising the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds progressing to higher education has been a key policy objective for successive governments in the UK since the late 1990s. Often this has been conceptualised as a problem with their ‘aspirations’, with the solution being seen as the provision of ‘aspiration‐raising’ activities to promote higher education to those thought to have the potential to progress. Recent large‐scale studies cast strong doubt on this hypothesis by demonstrating that aspirations are not generally low, that different social groups have similar levels of aspiration and that school attainment accounts for nearly all the differences in participation rates between social groups. This article draws on data from a national project exploring efforts to widen participation across two generations of practitioner‐managers in England, focusing on their conceptualisations of the field and their constructions of ‘successful’ activities. It uses the lens of ‘possible selves’ (Markus & Nurius, 1986 ) to argue that too much policy emphasis has been placed on the aspirations of young people, rather than either their academic attainment or their expectations, which are shaped by the normative expectations of the adults surrounding them. In addition, the more expansive concepts of widening participation that were present a decade ago have become less common, with a shift towards activities with a clear role in institutional recruitment rather than social transformation. The article concludes with alternative suggestions for policy and practice.     

The effect of adolescents' sports clubs participation on self-reported mental and physical conditions and future expectations

Abstract

Sports clubs create conditions for people of all ages to pursue a healthy lifestyle through exercise in sports and attend to constructive pedagogical work which creates much value for society. This study investigates the relationship between adolescents' sports clubs participation and self-reported mental and physical conditions and future expectations. The participants were 10,987 pupils in the final three years of their compulsory education in Iceland (aged 14–16 years). The participants completed questionnaires administered to students in the classroom relating to health and behaviour. The results indicate that participation in sports clubs influences adolescents positively; adolescents who work hard at sport not only believe they are in better mental and physical condition, they also believe they can succeed in other areas such as their studies. Sports clubs promote positive influence on adolescents' mental and physical conditions and their future expectations toward work and happiness. It can be concluded that participation in organised sports clubs affects the participants in a positive way.     

Reflections on the Use of the RTE Model in Physical Education

Abstract

Research on teacher effectiveness (RTE) using process-product design is a relative newcomer in the area of educational research and an infant in the realm of physical education. The “ideal” model for RTE postulated by cognitive domain researchers from the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center specified six requirements for such research including measures of outcome, teacher behavior, and other influencing factors; a model of classroom processes; data collection procedures; and analysis techniques. This paper discusses procedures and problems related to application of the model where the outcome was psychomotor. Specific topics of discussion include utilizing practice time, providing feedback, defining teaching, measuring teacher mastery, selecting the learning task, utilizing the experimental teaching unit (ETU) approach, and using observation systems. The knowledge base in the acquisition of motor skill must be translated into language for the practitioner. To accomplish this translation, it is necessary to identify teacher behaviors that facilitate learning within given contexts for a specified task or tasks. Such identification will be possible when additional research provides refinement in the model and a sound foundation of knowledge. This research endeavor was an early step in the refinement process.     

Voluntary sports clubs as ‘schools of democracy’? Critique of German sports science

ABSTRACT

In Western societies, modern sports have always been subjected to diverse expectations of social benefits. One especially bold and frequently repeated claim is that voluntary sports clubs serve as ‘schools of democracy’. Based on a pragmatist framework of critique, the present study provides the first comprehensive map of evidence on this subject from German sports science, revealing limitations in the content, research methodologies, and democratic theories of past studies. Based on the shortcomings identified in the established concept of democracy underlying past research, an alternative theory is proposed, rooted in John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy of democracy. The final outcome is essentially alternative ‘schools of democracy’, basically prepared to be tested in further empirical studies.     

接受理论在语文教学中的应用

接受美学(又称接受理论)是本世纪六十年代后兴起的文学研究方法,这一理论将读者的接受和影响作为研究中心,一反以作家作品为研究中心的传统方法。本文试图运用接受学的理论于语文教学,从一个新的视点探索提高学生语文水平的途径。     

Mexican-American Students’ Perceptions of Teachers’ Expectations: Do Perceptions Differ Depending on Student Achievement Levels?

This exploratory study examines the learning beliefs of high and low achieving, low-income Mexican-American students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 ninth grade students. The qualitative analysis shows that students’ perceptions of their teachers’ expectations of a “good” student or a “not so good” student did not differ along achievement lines. However, the students’ perceptions about what it means to be a good student differentiated the low-achievers from the high-achievers. This study’s findings may be used to inform educators about Mexican-American students’ orientation towards school and learning, in hopes for creating more equitable educational settings where all students achieve to their fullest potential.

The relation between teacher-set performance goals and students’ mathematical achievement

The relation between teacher-set performance goals for 361 individual students and these students’ mathematics achievement was investigated. High performance goals were found to strongly relate to student performance, with an effect size of d = 0.80. The performance goals were set by the teachers at the end of a step-by-step procedure, consisting of initial teacher expectations, the use of data, and team input. This procedure was expected to decrease negative expectancy bias. Higher teacher performance goals than teachers’ initial expectations, so-called positive changes, were positively associated with the performance of initially low achievers. Initially high achievers, for whom the teachers made a positive change, performed worse than comparable students for whom initial expectation and final goal were the same.     

Teacher expectation effects on need-supportive teaching,student motivation,and engagement: a self-determination perspective

ABSTRACT

Previous research has shown that teachers differentiate their behaviour based on their expectations of students. Self-determination theory (SDT) makes explicit how teacher behaviour relates to students’ motivation and engagement, namely, via need-supportive teaching. In the present study, we combined both research traditions and examined associations of teacher expectations with need-supportive teaching and thereby students’ motivation and engagement. Two-hundred-and-seventy-six secondary school students and their teachers (N?=?11) completed questionnaires. The results indicated that teacher expectations were moderately but positively associated with students’ intrinsic motivation and engagement, and negatively with amotivation. These relationships were fully mediated, although with small effect sizes, by need-supportive teaching. These findings highlight the value of combining research on teacher expectations and SDT, to gain further understanding of how teacher expectations may cause teachers to provide more need support to some students than to others, thereby affecting students’ motivation and engagement.     

What motivates high-school students to pursue STEM careers? The influence of public attitudes towards science and technology in comparative perspective

This study examines the degree of association between students’ STEM occupational expectations and between-country differences in public attitudes toward science and technology (S&T). This study focuses on public attitudes among two different populations: students and adults. Three-level Hierarchical Generalised Linear Models are employed to analyse large-scale international data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results reveal that public attitudes toward S&T are positively associated with students’ expectations around pursuing STEM careers. Further analyses reveal that the positive association between public attitudes toward S&T and STEM career expectations remains consistent across gender, but that this association varies across performance levels. The positive association between public attitudes toward S&T and STEM career expectations is stronger for low achievers in science than for high achievers. These results advance the scholarly understanding of the ways in which social factors may be associated with students’ choices in pursuing STEM occupations.