Coming to America: challenges and difficulties faced by African student athletes

There is a considerable lack of literature on international student athletes despite the extent to which colleges and universities are increasingly relying on them to heighten the winning reputation of their sports programs. This research focuses on international student athletes from Africa. Based on interviews of 16 student athletes from seven different African countries, the range of their experiences upon entering universities in the United States, particularly their challenges, were identified. Many of the serious issues affecting the student athletes were matters related to the host environment's underestimations about the African student athletes’ desires to learn, misunderstandings about their culture and religions and other negative assumptions that undermined their academic success. We also found that the vast majority of these student athletes experienced negative stereotypes and discrimination based on their race and their region of origin.     

一种基于ASP.NET的学生管理系统设计

学生信息管理系统是伴随教育体制改革和社会信息化发展应运而生的校园信息系统。该系统旨在提高学生信息处理效率,减少数据错误,为校园搭建信息化平台而服务。本系统采用ASP.NET三层架构,使用C#语言进行开发,是一个小型模板化的信息管理系统。     

Experience and Challenge of Basic Education Development in China: Reflections on PISA 2018 Results

The outstanding performance of students in four Chinese provinces and municipalities in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 is inextricably linked to local resource support, excellent education traditions, and ongoing curriculum and teaching reform. However, deepening education reform requires attention to existing challenges, including large inter school gaps, the shortage of teachers in urban and rural areas, as well as students’ heavy schoolwork burden and low level of well-being. Therefore, several policy suggestions are proposed accordingly: gaining insight into and developing higher quality and fairer education, pursuing effective actions of education reform, and exploring innovative pathways to address educational problems.     

A systematic review of the association between social and emotional competencies and student engagement in youth

Student engagement (SE) is known as one of the most relevant predictors of academic achievement and completion. Social and emotional competencies (SECs) are well established as critical skills for healthy and adaptative youth development. This systematic review investigated the associations between SE and SECs in students aged 10–25 years. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines. Nine databases were searched for peer-reviewed literature published between 2004 and 2020. A total of 91 studies were selected, including 92879 youth students. Emotional engagement is the most studied dimension of student engagement and largely surpasses the number of studies that analysed the multidimensional SE concept. The number of studies in each of the five CASEL domains is uneven, with more studies focussing on self-management, self-awareness, and relationship skills, in association with SE. Overall, most studies showed that SECs are positively associated with SE and negatively associated with disengagement, with similar results for middle, high school and university students from different backgrounds, suggesting that educational institutions should implement social and emotional learning programmes to increase SE. Studies reporting age and gender differences with respect to SE showed unanimously higher SE values for girls and younger students. There is a clear need for studies that use the multidimensional SE concept, including university students and applying cross-cultural analyses.     

大数据分析技术在学生管理中的应用浅析

大学生是科技兴国的主力军,如何为国家培养合格的大学生是高校应有的职责,摒弃过去学生管理中的经验论,以数据为基础,采用大数据分析技术,分析判断学生的行为趋势,对学生采取差异化、精细化培养,及时解决学生学习和生活中的偏差问题,把问题解决在萌芽阶段,提升高校学生管理品质。     

Feeding back research results – Changes in principal and teacher narratives about student participation

Schools are among the most studied organizations, yet research has little influence on them. This is in part because schools often do not have an opportunity to learn from the research projects they are engaged in. In this paper, we explain the process and impact of feeding back research results to participating schools. The feedback of results related to the topic of student participation was designed in a school-specific way and expected to support school improvement processes. Accordingly, we examined changes in beliefs and school practices by analysing longitudinal qualitative interviews. Results show changes in school practices and in the perceived importance of student participation, as well as enduring beliefs that inhibited changes. The findings of this paper contribute to the discourse on data use in education and to building research-practice-partnerships.     

Effects of a data-based decision making intervention on student achievement

Data-based decision making (DBDM) is becoming important for teachers due to increasing amounts of digital feedback on student performance. In the quasi-experimental study reported here, teachers, principals, and academic coaches from 42 schools were trained for two years in using the results of half-year interim assessments for providing students with tailor-made instruction. Our results did not show any main effects of this DBDM training trajectory on student achievement but did indicate interaction effects with students’ low prior achievement levels and socioeconomic status. Teachers experience difficulties in translating student progress data into adaptive instruction in the classroom. Implications of our findings for teacher professionalization are discussed.     

Beginning teachers' experience of the workplace learning environment in alternative teacher certification programs: A mixed methods approach

Workplace learning in early entry (EE) teacher education programs has been proposed as an alternative to traditional programs and as bridging the theory-practice gap in teacher education. However, there is little empirical evidence for the underlying assumption that one can become a highly qualified teacher by merely being a teacher. This article discusses to what extent students of teaching in EE programs experience their work environment as a stimulating learning environment. The results of semi-structured interviews and an online survey suggest that schools tend to hinder rather than serve the purpose of workplace learning. Obstructions and supporting conditions are discussed.     

E-assessment of online academic courses via students' activities and perceptions

The rapid growth of online courses in higher education has led to developments in the field of e-assessment. This paper presents a study, which examined the quality of online academic courses using a multidimensional assessment of students' activities and perceptions, using educational data mining and an online questionnaire. The assessment focused on four aspects: instructional, communication, course workload and overall learning experience. The course instructional model was found well-structured. The video lectures, assignments and materials designed for the online course were the most used and contributing learning resources. However, the number of students who entered the video lectures decreased as the course progressed. Low activity was found in the discussion forums. Students perceived the course workload as low. Overall, the learning experience was high and the students were highly satisfied. These findings provide insights that may assist in improving the quality of future online courses.