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1.
Emer Smyth 《牛津教育评论》2018,44(1):37-55
AbstractYoung people in Irish schools are required to choose whether to sit secondary exam subjects at higher or ordinary level. This paper draws on a mixed methods longitudinal study of students in 12 case-study schools to trace the factors influencing take-up of higher level subjects within lower secondary education. School organisation and process are found to shape the extent to which young people actually have a ‘choice’. Streaming practices, which are more prevalent in schools serving socio-economically disadvantaged communities, constrain the degree of choice young people have over their subject levels, with those in lower stream classes usually allocated to ordinary level. Even where schools have mixed ability base classes, schools influence access to higher level subjects. In the middle-class and socially mixed schools, teachers are more likely to expect and encourage all students to take higher level. In contrast, in working-class schools there are sharp declines in the proportion taking higher level subjects as they approach the national exam taken at the end of lower secondary education. Early decisions about not pursuing higher level are found to have long-term consequences. The findings contribute to our understanding of how curriculum differentiation reinforces social class differences in educational pathways. 相似文献
2.
Helen Wildy 《Educational studies》2004,30(2):99-112
In this study we explored how the science department shaped the relationship between a science department head, Mr Greg, and a teacher, Ms Horton, as they grappled with their expectations of, and responsibilities for, teaching and leadership in the daily life in the department. We found that, from their life histories and their positions in the department, Mr Greg and Ms Horton have developed different values and visions that shape the ways they construct their work, particularly in relation to the place of subject matter, goals for students, teamwork, roles and responsibilities and accountability. Although both shared a commitment to their students and to their subject, Mr Greg saw his contribution in subject organizational terms and Ms Horton saw hers in personal student terms. Orderliness and stability were important to the department head whereas Ms Horton valued spontaneity and innovation. Collaboration was Mr Greg's method of achieving the business of the department; working alone allowed Ms Horton the freedom and flexibility she needed. Accountability for Mr Greg was framed in organizational terms; Ms Horton was more concerned with the learning that took place in her classroom. Our case study looks at the range and intensity of the forces shaping the work of teachers and the way they organize themselves at work. We argue that, if we wish to continue to improve teaching and learning, particularly in secondary schools, we need to know a great deal more about the forces that operate in subject departments. 相似文献
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There has been a disturbing decline in the take-up of physics within second-level education in Ireland since the early nineties. Here, an analysis is presented of the main factors influencing the take-up of physics from the perspective of secondary school teachers. The database underpinning the analysis is based on a comprehensive survey of teacher opinion in Irish schools conducted in December 2004. The sample included all such schools in Ireland and was directed at school principals, senior cycle physics teachers, and junior cycle science teachers. The data reveal that most senior cycle physics teachers in Ireland do not possess a ‘physics-dominated’ primary degree, are dissatisfied with the technical back-up available to them and their students, consider that many of their students lack the basic mathematical skills needed for physics, believe their students are not adequately informed about career opportunities in physics, and feel students are disadvantaged in regard to grade points in the leaving certificate examination compared with most other subjects. These findings echo those of a previous report by the Government Task Force on the Physical Sciences and lend renewed urgency to the necessity of implementing a comprehensive action programme to reverse the decline in physics take-up before it impacts negatively on the Irish economy. 相似文献
5.
《Africa Education Review》2013,10(4):696-712
ABSTRACTStudent network is a teaching strategy introduced as cooperative learning to all educational levels above the upper primary schools (grade 5 and above) in Ethiopia. The study was, therefore, aimed at investigating to what extent the student network in Ethiopia is actually practiced in line with the principles of cooperative learning. Consequently, data collected from 156 secondary and 315 upper primary school teachers revealed that the student network is rarely practiced in line with the principles of cooperative learning. And this was found with statistically significant differences between the upper primary and secondary schools. The upper primary schools seem better in practicing the student network in line with the principles of cooperative learning than the secondary school. Accordingly, the study concluded that, albeit the student network remained a canon strategy to improve students’ learning in Ethiopia and its practices are supposedly recommended to be in line the principles of cooperative learning, challenges related to parents, students, school administration and teachers seem to cripple its smooth practice in line with the cooperative learning principles. 相似文献
6.
Low post-compulsory science enrolments for secondary students have been a growing concern across the Western world. Research
has examined factors relating to science curricula and students’ attitudes about science, but parental views of science education
remain largely unexplored in Australia. Because parents have a strong role in shaping their children’s subject selection and
career choices, in this pilot study we sought to explore parental attitudes about science education. Results from focus interviews
and a survey of 132 Indigenous and non-Indigenous parents demonstrated, for the first time, that regional parents believe
the study of society and the environment (SOSE) is a better preparation than science for their children’s understanding of
socio-scientific issues. Most parents were unclear as to the nature of scientific literacy, believing science as it is currently
taught in primary schools, not to be relevant to their children’s needs. Structural equation modelling using the survey data
confirmed prior researchers’ claims and extended ideas about the likely interplay of parental attitudes and beliefs influencing
their support of science study for their children. The results highlight an urgent need to explore such parental views across
Australia. 相似文献
7.
Christina Wikström 《Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice》2005,12(2):125-144
This study investigates empirically the mechanisms behind the increasing grade point averages in Swedish upper secondary schools. Four hypotheses are presented as plausible explanations; improved student achievements, student selection effects, strategic behaviour in course choices, and lowering of grading standards. The analysis is based on extensive data, and focuses on grades and test scores from upper secondary school graduates over a 6‐year period. The result shows that the increase in grade point averages cannot be explained by better achievements, selection effects or course choices, which means that standards have been lowered, which is interpreted here as grade inflation. The grade inflation is most likely an effect of the leniency in the grading system in combination with pressure for high grading, related to the upper secondary school grades’ function as an instrument for selection to higher education. 相似文献
8.
Ludger Wößmann 《Peabody Journal of Education》2013,88(2-3):473-497
This article reviews evidence from four international student achievement tests on the effects on student performance of competition from privately managed schools, schools' freedom to make autonomous decisions, and accountability introduced by external exit exams. The multivariate cross-country regressions are performed at the level of individual students and control for extensive family and school background information. The results reveal that students perform better in countries with more competition from privately managed schools, in countries where public funding ensures that all families can make choices, in schools that have freedom to make autonomous process and personnel decisions, where teachers have both freedom and incentives to select appropriate teaching methods, where parents take interest in teaching matters, and where school autonomy is combined with external exams that provide an information basis allowing for well-informed choices and holding schools accountable for their autonomous decisions. 相似文献
9.
In recent decades, Norwegian schools have experienced increased cultural diversification among students. Growing heterogeneity in origin and culture may enhance the risk of student marginalisation, segregation and exclusion. In response to these challenges, this paper examines students’ intercultural empathy and, particularly, how schools can develop their intergroup empathy to support social inclusion. Theoretically, we applied an inclusive citizenship perspective. The study draws primarily on quantitative data gathered from paper questionnaires collected from 1006 students in two upper secondary schools and three lower secondary schools. We explored the antecedents of intercultural empathy among the students using regression analyses. First, we found that there are substantial differences between the scores of boys and girls on intercultural empathy. Second, we found that information on culture and diversity was a predictor of certain aspects of intercultural empathy. Third, a variety of school variables were applied to explore possible ways to support student intercultural empathy, which showed moderate associations with intercultural empathy. Fourth, variables measuring students’ perceptions of human rights implementation in school were also moderately associated with aspects of intercultural empathy. The results and their implications for teaching are discussed. 相似文献
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Fairness in access to HE is unarguably a subject of paramount importance. Wherever a student’s secondary school scores are relevant for access to HE, grade inflation practices may jeopardize fair access. Pressures for high grading are common in the context of educational consumerism and competition between schools and students. However, they are not equally distributed across different types of schools, given that they have distinct relationships with the State and the market, and work with distinct populations. Specifically, the schools that are more subject to market pressures (namely private schools) are, in principle at least, the ones with more incentives to inflate their students’ grades. This paper presents an empirical study based on a large, 11 years database on scores in upper secondary education in Portugal, probing for systematic differences in grade inflation practices by four types of schools: public schools, government-dependent private schools, independent (fee-paying) private schools, and specially funded public schools in disadvantaged areas (TEIP schools). More than 3 million valid cases were analysed. Our results clearly show that independent private schools inflate their students’ scores when compared to the other types of schools. They also show that this discrepancy is higher where scores matter most in competition for HE access. This means that—usually wealthier—students from private independent schools benefit from an unfair advantage in the competition for the scarce places available in public higher education. We conclude discussing possible solutions to deal with such an important issue. 相似文献
12.
Per Anderhag Patrik Emanuelsson Per-Olof Wickman Karim Mikael Hamza 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(18):3141-3160
It is commonly argued that socio-economic inequalities can explain many of the differences in achievement and participation in science education that have been reported among countries and among schools within a country. We addressed this issue by examining (a) the relationship between variables associated with socio-economic background and application frequencies to the Swedish Natural Science Programme (NSP) in upper secondary school and (b) whether there are lower secondary schools in Sweden that seem to compensate for these variables. Data from Statistics Sweden (SCB) covering the whole population of 106,483 ninth-grade students were used to calculate the probability for each student to apply to the NSP. Our results indicate that the variables, such as parental educational level and grades, have explanatory power, but with varying effect for different subpopulations of students. For example, grades in mathematics have a greater impact than grades in science for females' choice of the NSP. The opposite holds for male students. Out of 1,342 schools, 158 deviated significantly from predicted, that is, the students in these schools applied to the NSP in greater or lesser extent than expected. The number of deviating schools is greater than predicted by pure random variation. This suggests that variables of socio-economic background are only a partial explanation of the application frequencies, and that the deviation needs to be investigated further. Our findings suggest that in order to understand why schools deviate positively and so compensate for the socio-economic background of their students, we need to study their practices more closely. 相似文献
13.
This study investigated girls’ attitudes towards science in Kenya. It was carried out with 120 girls from four secondary schools in the Eastern province of Kenya. These were an urban single-sex (SS) and co-educational (Co-Ed) school and a rural SS and Co-Ed school. Different schools were chosen in order to explore whether there are any differences in attitudes in SS and Co-Ed schools and in schools in rural and urban areas. The methodology included the use of both questionnaires and focus group interviews. The main aim was to gain insight into the extent and depth of students’ attitudes towards science. The findings of the study showed that the majority of Kenyan girls who participated in the study have a favourable attitude towards science. Girls in SS schools were found to have a more favourable attitude than those in Co-Ed schools, while girls in rural area schools were found to find science more relevant than those in urban schools. It emerged from this study that the attitudes of Kenyan girls are influenced by their perceptions of the relevance of science, enjoyment of studying science, perceptions of the suitability of science for a career, and their perceptions of subject difficulty. 相似文献
14.
Gary N. Marks 《School Effectiveness & School Improvement》2013,24(3):397-414
The bulk of public debate on education focuses on schools and school differences. Ideally, the characteristics of schools that add value to student performance can be identified and implemented for other schools. However, such scenarios assume that school effects are sizable, stable across cohorts, and consistent across subject areas. This study tests these assumptions by analysing school effects in both primary and secondary schools in 5 achievement domains with administrative data from almost all government school students in Victoria, Australia. Gross school effects are reasonably large but show only moderate stability. However, in net progress models which control for prior achievement, school effects are substantially smaller, display only low levels of stability across cohorts, and are not consistent across achievement domains. Therefore, it is difficult to identify schools that consistently increase (or decrease) student performance across subject areas beyond that expected by students’ intake characteristics, most notably prior student performance. Other policy goals are recommended. 相似文献
15.
In this paper we examine students' views about the interpretation of experimental data within a specified science context. A written survey was completed by 731 science students drawn from upper secondary schools and universities in five European countries. An additional 19 upper secondary science students were interviewed individually after they had completed the survey. A minority of students emphasized the role of models in the interpretation of the data, despite the emphasis placed on theoretical models within the survey text. A substantial proportion of respondents focused on the quantity and quality of the data to be interpreted. Post-survey interviews showed that many students had difficulty in articulating a view concerning the role of theoretical models. Our data support previous studies, typically involving younger respondents, which have found that science students tend not to recognize the role of theoretical models in the interpretation of data. 相似文献
16.
Colin Power 《Research in Science Education》1979,9(1):75-84
Conclusion The results in this study provide some evidence indicating that there are no major problems confronting students in transition
in the schools sampled so far as science is concerned. The majority of students enjoy science at both levels, and, contrary
to popular belief, there is no sharp drop off in student attitude as the year wears on.
The maintenance of student satisfaction and positive attitudes seem to be related to the nature of the curriculum materials
used and the quality of the interpersonal relationship between teacher and pupils. It would appear that in the open-area high
schools involved in this study, the materials used (largely A.S.E.P.) and the identification of the teacher with the school
and the students were more conducive to student satisfaction than those in use in the more conventional schools.
That relatively few of the environmental measures used were found to be associated with student outcomes is a little puzzling.
One suspects that in part the reasons may lie in the limitations of the instrument and in part in the lack of variance in
student attitudes towards science across the transition period. A careful analysis of what actually happens in science lessons
and interviews with the participants reveals that whereas most students are satisfied, the reasons for this satisfaction are
as rich and varied as the patterns of adaptation utilized by students in transition. 相似文献
17.
An important criticism of high-stakes testing policies – policies that reward or sanction schools based on their students’ performance on standardized tests – is that they provide schools with an incentive to focus on those subjects that play a role in the accountability system while decreasing attention to those subjects that are not part of the program. This paper utilizes a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of Florida's high-stakes testing policy on student proficiency in the low-stakes subject of science. We confirm prior results that students in schools facing more immediate sanctions under the policy made substantial gains in the high-stakes subjects of math and reading. Contrary to the crowding-out hypothesis, we find that students in these schools made substantial achievement gains in the low-stakes subject of science as well. 相似文献
18.
Socioeconomic Gaps in Academic Achievement Within Schools: Are They Consistent Across Subject Areas?
Xin Ma 《Educational Research and Evaluation》2013,19(4):337-355
Few studies have examined the correlates of within-school socioeconomic gaps in academic achievement corresponding to subject areas across schools. This study addressed this limitation with data from the New Brunswick School Climate Study (N = 6,883 students from 148 schools) which contained measures on academic achievement in four subject areas (mathematics, science, reading, and writing) as well as student and school background characteristics. Results of multivariate, multilevel analyses showed that within-school socioeconomic gaps were similar between reading and writing as well as between mathematics and science. Furthermore, the interrelationships of within-school socioeconomic gaps in academic achievement corresponding to the four subject areas across schools were not much influenced by student background characteristics (gender, Native status, number of parents, and number of siblings) and characteristics of school context and climate (school size, school mean SES, disciplinary climate, academic expectation, and parental involvement). 相似文献
19.
Peter Davies 《牛津教育评论》2019,45(1):1-31
We present an analysis of A-level subject choices at around age 16 for a cohort of students in English schools who completed their studies in 2014. We examined both the National Pupil Database and a unique rich dataset on the subject preferences and subsequent choices between the ages of 16 and 18 (i.e. GCSE and A-level). We found substantive differences between students’ preferences and actual choices of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ post-16 subjects (i.e. A-level). These differences were strongly associated with falsification of students’ expectations of examination grades taken at age 16 (i.e. GCSE) in the core subjects of English and mathematics. The sizes of these falsification effects were much larger than other significant associations such as gender, ethnicity, and social class. This suggests that subject choices are not rigidly framed by stable individual preferences and they are therefore open to influence from new information, persuasion, and opportunities. 相似文献
20.
We have followed a group of students in the potential pipeline for science through their last years of upper secondary school and in the context of a university mentorship program. The student group is defined by their choice of Mathematics at A-level which is mandatory for admission to tertiary STEM education in Denmark. Rich data (repeated interviews, questionnaires (pre-and post-) and observations) from 14 target students have been collected. Using Late Modern identity theory as a lens, we have analysed students’ identity narratives in order to establish their trajectories in relation to university in general, and towards science studies and science careers in particular. We find that the diversity of students’ educational identity narratives can be characterized and their trajectories understood in terms of a Four Factor Framework comprising: general identity process orientations (reflecting, committing, exploring), personal values, subject self-concepts and subject interests. In various ways these constructs interact and set the range and direction of the students’ searches for future education and careers. Our longitudinal study suggests that they have enough permanence to enable us to hypothesize more or less secured paths of individual students to tertiary science (or other areas of academia). 相似文献