Reducing Measurement Error in Student Achievement Estimation

The achievement level is a variable measured with error, that can be estimated by means of the Rasch model. Teacher grades also measure the achievement level but they are expressed on a different scale. This paper proposes a method for combining these two scores to obtain a synthetic measure of the achievement level based on the theory developed for regression with covariate measurement error. In particular, the focus is on ordinal scaled grades, using the SIMEX method for measurement error correction. The result is a measure comparable across subjects with smaller measurement error variance. An empirical application illustrates the method.     

教师课堂教学行为对学生学业成绩的影响:一个跨文化研究

教师一向被认为是影响学生学业成绩的重要因素。本研究采用第三次国际数学和科学研究TIMSS2003中的数据,以学生数学成绩为因变量,教师课堂教学行为为自变量,使用多层线性回归的方法,比较了美国、瑞典、日本和香港这四个国家(地区)教师课堂教学行为对学生学业成绩的影响。研究结果发现,教师特定的行为因素,教学的准备、对作业的重视、对考试的重视、对推理和问题解决的重视、电脑的使用确实能有效影响美国和瑞典的学生成绩,但对两个亚洲国家(地区)没有影响;教师的性别、教龄、教育水平、所学专业和教师资格再次被证实对学生成绩没有显著影响;学生的家庭和自身的因素(如学生年龄、性别、完成作业的时间,对数学的自信和对数学的评价)能够对学生成绩产生重要影响。     

大学生的国家科技成就刻板印象

利用信号检测论的方法对130名大学生的国家科技成就刻板印象进行研究。结果发现,被试对中国近现代及当代科技成就判断标准的自然对数值显著高于对中国古代、美国近现代及当代科技成就判断标准的自然对数值(p<0.001),同时,被试对中国古代、美国近现代及当代科技成就的判断标准自然对数值没有显著差异(p>0.05),从而证明了大学生群体中明显存在着国家科技成就刻板印象。进一步的含义表明,大学生对中国古代科技成就依然保持绝对的自信,对中国近现代及当代科技成就的自卑并没有显著改变。在被试对2005年中国科技竞争力在全球的排名进行估计时,高估的人数显著多于低估的人数(p<0.001),从而表明,大学生对中国当前及未来科技成就的自信心开始建立。     

The Role of Life Satisfaction in Predicting Student Engagement and Achievement

Much research has investigated how individual components of subjective well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect) influence adolescent functioning. Little is known, however, about how the third component of subjective well-being (SWB), life satisfaction, contributes to positive adolescent outcomes when investigated simultaneously with positive and negative emotions. The current study extends Lewis et al.’s (J Psychoeduc Assess 27:397–408, 2009. doi:10.1177/0734282908330571) work by considering the incremental validity of life satisfaction (LS) relative to negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) as predictors of student engagement and achievement in a sample of middle school students. Results indicated LS provided incremental validity over affective states in predicting student engagement and some aspects of academic achievement. Gender also moderated these relationships. Practitioners are encouraged to include all components of SWB in assessments, especially when trying to understand students’ school functioning.     

Student Inquiry in a Physics Class Discussion

There is a long, rich history of arguments for the importance of involving students in a process of inquiry. For many instructors, however, promoting student inquiry is a difficult agenda to pursue for two reasons. First, there is often tension for instructors between concerns for this agenda and more traditional concerns for the correctness and completeness of students' understanding. Second, it is not easy to recognize when productive student inquiry is taking place. For a teacher in class, what is valuable about the students' participation at any given moment may not be as obvious as what is flawed and ambiguous in their arguments. For this article, I analyze a short excerpt from a high school physics class discussion to consider the value of the students' work as inquiry and to illustrate a teacher's negotiation of the tension between inquiry and traditional content-oriented concerns. In this way, I try to discover the beginnings of science in what the students say and do, rather than to apply criteria from a particular model of scientific reasoning. This exploration for students' knowledge and abilities is offered both as an approach to research on student inquiry and as a mode of instructional practice to support that inquiry.     

A Method of Comparing Student Achievement Levels at Different Colleges

Mean ability levels as measured by high school rank and scholastic aptitude test scores were computed for freshman classes at 38 colleges in Minnesota. The mean grade-point averages achieved by these freshman classes were also obtained. By comparing mean ability level with mean grade-point, a “difficulty index” was computed for each college. The validity of the index was tested by using it to predict differences in grades achieved by students who transferred from one college to another and comparing such predicted grades with those actually achieved after transfer. Difficulty indexes computed by this method predicted differences in mean grade-point averages of transfer students with surprising accuracy.     

The Role of Student Processing of Feedback in Classroom Achievement

This study focused on students' processing of feedback during regular classroom instruction. Students in two high-school computer programming classes were observed and asked to give retrospective reports of their thoughts during feedback episodes. Feedback episodes consisted of the teacher explaining test answers to the class after her grading and returning tests to students. The data showed that students' attention to feedback on missed, but not on correct, items was significantly related to course achievement and that this relationship was moderated by content knowledge. A qualitative analysis of retrospective reports revealed the diversity of ways of processing feedback and suggested two mechanisms that led to withdrawal of attention to feedback. One was the student's perception that he or she could not understand feedback and the other was dwelling on the negative affect produced by making errors.     

Linking Teacher Instruction and Student Achievement in Mathematics: The Role of Teacher Language

Although high-quality early educational environments are thought to be related to the growth of children’s skills in mathematics, relatively little is known about specific aspects of classroom instruction that may promote these abilities. Data from a longitudinal investigation were used to investigate associations between teachers’ language while teaching mathematics and their students’ growth in mathematical skill during the 2nd grade. Specifically, the extent to which mathematics lessons included cognitive-processing language (CPL)—instruction that is rich in references to cognitive processes, metacognition, and requests for remembering—was related to changes in students’ math achievement. Demonstrating the role of the language of instruction, the findings indicated that children whose 2nd-grade teachers included greater amounts of CPL during instruction evidenced greater growth in math fluency and calculation than did their peers whose teachers employed lower levels of CPL.     

Reading Achievement and Science Proficiency: International Comparisons From the Programme on International Student Assessment

Students need to develop scientific literacy in order to participate fully as citizens, community members, and in the globalized economy. But what is the relationship between scientific literacy and reading literacy? Three international data sets from the Programme on International Student Assessment (PISA) were used to calculate correlations between scientific literacy and reading literacy for 15-year-old students. Mean correlations at the individual student level across countries were .840 for the PISA 2000 data set, .805 for the PISA 2003 data set, and .819 for the PISA 2006 data set. In all three data sets, this correlation varied among countries, and the reading-science relationship was weakest in countries with low country mean reading scores. Three possible interpretations are discussed, favoring the interpretation that knowledge and skills that drive higher reading comprehension also drive higher science achievement.     

学生感知的班级人际和谐及其与社会行为的关系

采用问卷调查法,对443名小学四、五年级和初一、二年级学生进行调查,探讨学生自我感知到的班级人际和谐状况及其与社会行为的关系。结果表明:(1)学生对班级人际和谐各维度的感知上存在显著的性别差异,而年级差异主要体现在班级组织上。(2)在男生组中,不同社会测量地位学生在班级人际和谐的同伴关系和班级组织上有显著的差异。而在女生组中,不同社会测量地位学生在班级人际和谐的各个维度上均无显著性差异。(3)学生感知到的班级人际和谐与亲社会行为之间存在显著正相关,学生感知到的人际和谐与攻击行为之间相关不显著,感知到的同伴人际和谐与儿童的羞怯-敏感性有显著负相关。     

Timely Completion of Class Requirements: Effects of Student and Faculty Gender

Male and female students have displayed different reactions to the gender of their faculty. This research was designed to explore whether biases exist early in the school term. Students unfavorable attitudes toward instructors were measured by the extent to which they delayed completing a course requirement: participation in a subject pool. Students scheduled a date upon which to participate in a research study. Discrepancies between their scheduled and their actual participation dates reveal that male students delayed their requirement (a) more when their instructors were female than when they were male, and (b) more than female students when the instructors were female. Supporting data suggest that the delayed completion time reflects lower evaluations of female faculty. Discussion focuses on implications in academic settings.     

A Multivariate Analysis of Selected Class Characteristic and Student Rating of Instruction

This study examined the relationship between selected class characteristics and student ratings of instructors. A large number of classes (N = 1247)and students (over 33,000) a t a large Midwestern University provided the data for this study. The results indicated that the class characteristics that had the strongest influence on the results of instructor ratings were the grades expected by students and the percentage of students in the class taking the course as an elective.     

The Impact of Size of Cooperative Group on Achievement,Social Support,and Self-Esteem

The effect of cooperative learning in pairs and groups of 4 and in individualistic learning were compared on achievement, social support, and self-esteem. Sixty-two Italian 7th-grade students with no previous experience with cooperative learning were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for ability, gender, and self-esteem. Students participated in 1 instructional unit for 90 min for 6 instructional days during a period of about 6 weeks. The results indicate that cooperative learning in pairs and 4s promoted higher achievement and greater academic support from peers than did individualistic learning. Students working in pairs developed a higher level of social self-esteem than did students learning in the other conditions.     

Reading Intervention in Middle and High Schools: Implementation Fidelity,Teacher Efficacy,and Student Achievement

This study investigated teachers’ efficacy and implementation in the context of a supplemental intervention for struggling adolescent readers. It examined teachers’ efficacy at the start of their intervention training and investigated relationships among teachers’ efficacy, implementation, and students’ reading progress. The efficacy and implementation of 9 sixth-grade teachers and 11 ninth-grade teachers were compared, and student achievement gains were explored. Sixth-grade teachers had higher levels of efficacy, while ninth-grade teachers had higher levels of implementation. Findings indicated teacher efficacy was positively related to students’ reading comprehension and overall reading achievement. Implementation was positively related to students’ growth in vocabulary.     

Linkages of School Structural and Socioenvironmental Characteristics to Parental Satisfaction With Public Education and Student Academic Achievement

This study examined school climate's relation to the sociodemographic composition of the school student population, school structural characteristics, parental involvement, classroom support in learning, parental satisfaction with public education, and student academic achievement all together at one time in a sample of 122 elementary schools. Parental satisfaction was best predicted by parental perceptions of a safe school and positive climate, followed by the school's informing parents of their child's educational progress and empowering parents. Student performance on a standardized achievement was best predicted by the percentage of students in the Free and Reduced Meals program, parental perceptions of a safe school, and parental involvement. Study results are discussed in terms of two general levels (school and classroom) and types (task support and interpersonal support) of the school's social environment.     

中学班级环境与学生学业成绩的关系

本文以<我的班级>为测量工具,对珠三角地区某三个初级中学365名学生为被试,探讨初中班级环境的特点及其与学生学业成绩的关系.结果表明:师生关系与语文、数学、英浯这三科的成绩呈显著的正相关;师生关系、同学关系对学生学业成绩有显著的正向预测作用;学习负担与学生学习成绩呈显著的负相关.     

Incorporating Student Mobility in Achievement Growth Modeling: A Cross-Classified Multiple Membership Growth Curve Model

Multiple membership random effects models (MMREMs) have been developed for use in situations where individuals are members of multiple higher level organizational units. Despite their availability and the frequency with which multiple membership structures are encountered, no studies have extended the MMREM approach to hierarchical growth curve modeling (GCM). This study introduces a cross-classified multiple membership growth curve model (CCMM-GCM) for modeling, for example, academic achievement trajectories in the presence of student mobility. Real data are used to demonstrate and compare growth curve model estimates using the CCMM-GCM and a conventional GCM that ignores student mobility. Results indicate that the CCMM-GCM represents a promising option for modeling growth for multiple membership data structures.