Economic Social Cultural Status Research Articles

Exploring the relationship between process data and contextual variables among Scandinavian students on PISA 2012 mathematics tasks

Given the ongoing development of computer-based tasks, there has been increasing interest in modelling students’ behaviour indicators from log file data with contextual variables collected via questionnaires. In this work, we apply a latent regression model to analyse the relationship between latent constructs (i.e., performance, speed, and exploration behaviour) and contextual variables among Scandinavian students (i.e., Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) during their completion of three interactive mathematics tasks in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to investigate whether a factor model is adequate for explaining the relationship between extracted process indicators from log files and students’ performance on the three items; (2) to evaluate whether measurement invariance holds for the three analysed countries; and (3) to determine how well contextual variables [i.e., a student’s background, availability, use of information and communication technology (ICT) resources, and learning conditions for mathematical literacy] correlate with the model’s latent constructs. Our findings reveal that a three-factor CFA model is well-suited to the analysed data and that a weak measurement invariance model performs best. By including contextual variables in the modelling, we also highlight the differences in Scandinavian students’ profiles. Specifically, higher economic social cultural status (ESCS) consistently led to higher math proficiency across all three countries. Norway did not show any gender differences in math proficiency, response time, or exploration behaviours. Experience with math tasks at school led to more exploration behaviours across all three countries. Swedish and Norwegian students who had more experience with pure math tasks at school were likely to obtain higher mathematics achievement scores and tended to interact more frequently with the testing platform when answering the three math items. When Danish students had higher ICT scores (i.e., more ICT resources available at school and home), they had lower response accuracy. There was, however, no effect of ICT on the three factors among Swedish and Norwegian students. Finally, we also discuss the implications and limitations of this study.

A closer look at US schools: What characteristics are associated with scientific literacy? A multivariate multilevel analysis using PISA 2015

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of US schools associated with two measures of scientific literacy (content knowledge and “procedural and epistemic” knowledge) using the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. Because outcomes are nested within students, and students within schools, a multivariate three‐level modeling method was employed. About 21% of the total variance in science performance lies between schools, indicating that school characteristics are important in predicting scientific literacy. The results revealed clearly significant and positive relationships of the student‐level variables of grade, enjoyment, motivation, and economic/social/cultural status (ESCS) with both measures of science literacy, after controlling for school factors. A significant gender difference is seen in science content knowledge in favor of males. At the school level, the results from the full model suggest that school ESCS, climate, and school type are significant predictors of all students' performance. Surprisingly, school size, teaching experience, professional development (PD) participation, and science‐specific resources are not found to contribute significantly to achievement. Considerable variability is also evident among schools on student performance in both science knowledge domains as a result of school variables. For both low‐ and mid–high‐achieving students, the most significant school factor is school mean ESCS. PD participation and school climate are significantly associated with student performance only for the average and high‐performing groups. This paper can inform policymakers, researchers, and educators on how US schools can be supported to improve science learning.

Student characteristics and PISA science performance: Portugal in cross-national comparison

Problem Statement: PISA 2006 indicates that Portuguese students’ performance in science, although improving, is still lower than in most OCDE countries. What is the role of student characteristics, interests, gender and economic, social, cultural, status (ESCS) on scientific literacy scores? How does Portugal compare with some other selected countries? Purpose of Study: The study compares Portuguese students’ performance in PISA 2006 scientific literacy with that of students from the OECD, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece, and the USA. The study also examines students’ science interests, self-efficacy and beliefs about their own competences. Furthermore, the study identifies which student variables may help to explain performance in science. Research Methods: Our data are selected from the PISA 2006 student: (a) science performance and (b) interests and beliefs measured by the student questionnaire. In order to answer our research questions, we performed secondary analyses using hierarchical linear modeling. The 2006 PISA sample in Portugal consisted of 5109 students in 173 schools, all between the ages of 15;3 and 16;2. Findings: Change-in-score coefficients in the fitted model indicate that the ESCS effect is strongest in the USA, Finland and UK. The school-wide ESCS effect is superior to that of student ESCS and is a performance factor for all countries with the exception of Finland. Mean differences in performance tend to favor boys but, in several countries, gender does not contribute a significant change in score in the fitted models. For all countries, the general value of science, enjoyment of science and science self- efficacy are positively associated with performance. A negative association between personal value of science and performance was observed. The association of “participation in non-school science activities” with performance is either negative or non-significant. Conclusions: The constellation of associated factors differs from country to country but a few of these factors stand out as cross-nationally valid. Knowledge of both kinds of factors can be useful for the improvement of teaching/learning systems. Cross-national factors can simplify general models while the country-specific factors can help identify and target local concerns. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Retention and science performance in Portugal as evidenced by PISA

Problem Statement: The question of academic retention has emerged as a powerful discourse in educational policy in Portugal. International assessment programs, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), have fueled the controversy, and retention rates are sometimes implicated as an underlying cause for the generally poor performance observed. Purpose of Study: The data from PISA 2006 provide an opportunity to examine this question with a large sample of 15-year-old students. We report associations between retention and science performance, an analysis of the characteristics of retained students, and a hierarchical linear model of the effect of retention on performance, controlling for economic-social-cultural status (ESCS). Research Methods: The 2006 PISA sample in Portugal consisted of 5109 students in 173 schools, all between the ages of 15years 3 months and 16years 2 months. Missing data resulted in 5013 usable cases for this study. Since PISA has no single variable to indicate a student's status as —retained at least once‖ or —never retained‖, the first step was to operationalize retention with the available data. Mean analyses were based on 80 weighted replicas of 5 plausible values of science performance and its sub-domains. Findings: Portugal is among the PISA participants with highest retention. Only 4 (of 57) PISA participants revealed a higher proportion of the age-based sample attending the 7th grade. Students who were retained at least one year differ systematically, on several social dimensions, from those not retained. The retained are more likely to be boys, immigrants, in public schools, from small towns and villages, and of lesser economic means. Mean performance in science is directly associated with the number of student retentions (though this is confounded with other variables). Being retained is a more powerful predictor of science performance than is ESCS. Conclusions: Retention practices in Portugal are outside de norms of other OECD countries. Neither curriculum nor teaching practice seem implicated in the poor science results observed in Portugal. Low performance is a partial artifact of age-based sampling coupled with high retention. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.