Preferred field of study and academic performance

This paper investigates the impact of studying the first-choice university subject on dropout and switching field of study for a cohort of students in Germany. Using detailed survey data, and employing an instrumental variable strategy based on variation in the local field of study availability, we provide evidence that students who are not enrolled in their preferred field of study are more likely to change their field, delay graduation and drop out of university. The estimated impact on dropout is particularly strong among students of low socio-economic status and is likely to be driven by lower effort and motivation.     

她们为什么不上学了?-河北某县女童辍学问题案例分析

一段时期以来 ,人们发现入学率的提高不一定就能够自然保证农村中青少年完成九年义务教育 ,辍学成为了人们普遍关注的问题。针对女童辍学问题 ,我们在河北省某县开展了深入的研究。该研究发现 ,辍学虽然不是女童的特有现象 ,但是女童辍学和女童辍学早则往往处于被忽略状态。女童辍学的原因包括 :厌学、教学质量差、离学校距离远、贫困和学校对女童教育关注程度低等综合因素。解决农村的辍学问题需要从教育本身存在的问题入手。     

农村初中学生辍学问题研究

通过对发达地区、中等发达地区和欠发达地区及少数民族地区辍学1至3年的101名初中辍学学生的调查,发现有47%的学生辍学是因为学习方面的原因,21%的学生辍学是因为家庭经济方面的原因,因为家庭发生突发事件辍学的学生占10%,其余学生辍学的原因包括师生关系、同伴关系、亲子关系不良等。可见社会、学校和家庭的不良影响是导致辍学的外部客观原因,而学生自身的心理行为问题和学业不良是导致辍学的内部主观原因;不良的同伴关系、师生关系、亲子关系是导致辍学的中介因素。因此,应加大政府支持和资助的力度,为防止辍学提供政策性支持,同时,要改善就学环境,加强学校与社区、家庭的合作,重视学习不良的学生,为防止辍学营造良好的周围环境。     

Meaningful education for returning-to-school students in a comprehensive upper secondary school in Iceland

Dropout from upper secondary education in Iceland is higher than in the neighboring countries, but varied options to re-enter school have also been on offer. This article focuses on how students, who had returned to a selected upper secondary school after having quit in one or more other schools, benefited from an innovative pedagogical approach used in the school. The article draws upon interviews, in which the interviewees expressed their pleasure with the school, reporting three main assets of its pedagogy: firstly, a supportive school ethos and student–teacher relationships expressed by the ways in which teachers worked, and also in teachers’ views towards students; secondly, an online learning platform, used by all teachers, which the students could use to structure their studies; and thirdly, the use of formative assessment and no final end-of-term examinations. This pedagogy comprises a whole school approach, and the article concludes that such a school culture and practice enables teenagers and young adults to exercise their right to re-enter academic upper secondary education, which prepares for college, rather than directing them to an industry vocational or practical study program they take little or no interest in.     

针对MOOC高辍学率现象的分析及建议

“互联网+”时代使得MOOC在国内外掀起了一场网上学习的浪潮,这场教学变革的浪潮带来的不仅有新的教学思路,许多问题也接踵而来。本文主要叙述了在MOOC课程中存在的“高辍学率”现象,这种现象在目前的大部分课程中普遍存在,但是有关平台却对这种现象无能为力。本文分析了“高辍学率”产生的主要原因,并提出了相应的解决方案,旨在提高MOOC课程质量,促进MOOC教学更好地发展。     

中职学校"隐性辍学"学生的激励教育策略

"隐性辍学"已经成为中等职业学校教育中不可忽视的问题."隐性辍学"现象的产生主要有学生自身、教师教育、学校管理和家庭影响四方面的原因.综合运用目标激励、奖罚激励、竞争激励、外部激励和内部激励等教育策略,可以合理有效地帮助"隐性辍学"学生"完整"回归课堂.     

Stability of social support during school transitions: Associations with truancy and not completing upper secondary education in normative time

Not completing upper secondary education is often presignaled by truancy from school. Student-perceived social support from family, peers, and teachers can prevent truancy and the risk of not completing education. However, prior studies have not focused on the stability of social support across school transitions. This longitudinal study of 1901 Finnish students examined the extent to which social support was stable or specific to primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools. Moreover, we examined whether support was associated with not completing upper secondary education in normative time and whether truancy mediated the relationship between support and not completing education. The analyses showed that most variance in social support was context-specific; family and peer support was related to truancy and not completing education; and truancy acted as the mediator. The findings underscored the importance of stable social support over school transitions in reducing the likelihood of truancy and not completing education.     

Perspectives of school dropouts’ dilemma in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: An ethnographic study

This research article explores the perspectives of students, administrators, teachers and parents on the UNRWA school dropouts’ dilemma in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Based on qualitative methodology, field data are grounded in two forms of data collection: one-on-one interviews with 11 dropout students; and focus group discussion interviews with students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. These stakeholders were drawn from four carefully selected UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) schools in Lebanon. The qualitative study provides ethnographic accounts of the factors underlying and motivations behind students dropping out of school in these communities. More specifically, attention is paid to important issues, including socio-economic status, school curriculum and services, family involvement, and domestic laws governing the participation of Palestinian refugees in various professions. Beyond simply listing these factors, this study amplifies the voices of students, parents, teachers, and school administrators to highlight the different and detailed ways in which such issues interact with the decision to drop out of school.     

Reasons for student dropout in an online course in a rural K–12 setting

Rural schools in the USA use online courses to overcome problems such as attracting and retaining teachers, geographic isolation, low student enrollment, and financial constraints. This paper reports on the reasons that 39% of rural high school students who enrolled in an online Advanced Placement course subsequently dropped the course. Students who dropped the course were asked to provide an email statement detailing their reasons for doing so. On-site facilitators—local staff members situated in the small rural schools where students were enrolled—also provided reasons whenever one of their students dropped the course. Results indicate that the reasons given by students and on-site facilitators for dropping the course often agreed, and tended to fall within the following five categories: scheduling and time constraints, academic rigor and motivation, technology problems, problems with online medium and lack of teacher immediacy, and parental influences.     

Exploring the influences of MOOC design features on student performance and persistence

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) face persistent challenges related to student performance, including high rates of attrition and low student achievement scores. Previous studies that have examined the performance of students in MOOCs have done so using qualitative analysis and the quantitative analysis of small samples. This study is the first to examine general course features of MOOCs on a large scale and to quantify the influences of these course features on student performance. Informed by the theory of web-based online instruction, this study used two-stage K-means clustering to analyze more than 200 MOOCs that had enrolled about 300,000 students, identifying three patterns of course features among the MOOCs. A MANOVA test and follow-up statistical tests revealed that these patterns of course features influenced the MOOCs’ dropout rates and student achievement scores to statistically different degrees. The implications of these findings are discussed.