Low Performers Research Articles

Examining the contextual factors of science effectiveness: a machine learning-based approach

ABSTRACT This research intended to identify key contextual factors that synergistically influence high- and low-performing students’ science outcomes by drawing upon a dynamic model of educational effectiveness. The dataset, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015, consisted of 79,963 science scores for secondary students (49,924 high performers at proficiency Level 6 and 30,039 low performers at proficiency Levels 1a and 1b) from 53 countries/economies along with students’ and school principals’ responses to the PISA questionnaires. By applying a support vector machine (SVM) and SVM-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) sequentially, this study successfully (a) identified 30 key factors of the total 127 contextual factors at the school, classroom, and student levels that synergistically differentiate high and low achievers and (b) provided evidence to support the validity of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness by recognizing the multidimensionality of the contextual factors.

Repaying the Debt: An Examination of the Relationship between Perceived Organizational Support and Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior by Low Performers

Drawing on social exchange theory, we examine the conditions under which employees’ good intentions motivate them to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and the psychological mechanism behind this behavioral decision. Findings from a time-lagged field study and a scenario study indicate (1) an interactive effect between perceived organizational support and employee performance on UPB; (2) that low performers who perceive high levels of organizational support are more likely to engage in UPB; and (3) that feelings of indebtedness to the organization mediate the interactive effect on UPB. Therefore, the paper highlights the importance of conditional factors in motivating UPB by combining employee ‘good intentions’ and ‘disadvantageous situations’ to understand the UPB decision process. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications.

English

Grain morphology affects the weight of grain which ultimately affects grain yield in wheat. Several morpho-physiological traits influence grain morphology. To assess the diversity for morpho-physiological traits and to characterize wheat for grain morphology, a collection comprising of 60 wheat varieties were explored. The ANOVA showed significant differences between varieties for all the parameters except grain thickness, peduncle length, and plant height. Descriptive statistics indicated that the collection of germplasm contained enough variability for the traits under consideration. Grain architectural traits showed positive significant correlations with most of the metric traits suggesting several criteria for indirect selection of traits like grain yield. A positive significant correlation of WUE was observed with grain morphology traits viz: grain width, grain size, grain thickness and grain volume. While 1000 grain weight, water use efficiency, grain length, grain width, grain size, grain thickness and grain volume showed positive significant correlation with grain yield. Principal component analysis extracted seven significant PCs having a cumulative variance of 78.87%. This variation was quite encouraging to initiate a breeding program to improve grain morphology and morpho-physiological traits. The PC1 indicted that grain width, unproductive water use, grain area size, and grain volume were the most diverse traits. In PC2, the maximum positive contribution towards variation was shown by the grain area, grain length and grain volume. The cluster analysis grouped varieties into seven clusters of high, medium, and low performance based on morphology and grain architecture traits. This classification might help in the selection of high and low performing varieties and could be used as parents in hybridization program. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers

The Effect of Prior Performance Information on Leniency in Subjective Performance Evaluation

This paper examines whether supervisors’ leniency in subjective performance evaluation is influenced by the prior performance information of subordinates. While prior studies have used proxies for leniency based on aggregate objective performance level or median of subjective scales, I develop the proxy for leniency at the performance measure level based on prior performance level which is found to be more relevant to the current subjective performance score. I analyze archival performance evaluation data of multiple state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Korea over multiple time periods which enables me to develop the new definition of leniency. Utilizing this data set, I empirically find that lenient rating persists over time, and that larger (smaller) amount of leniency is applied to low (high) prior performers and harshly (leniently) evaluated performers in the previous period. The results have important implications for understanding the incentives of raters which differ with respect to their previous performance information.

The Invisible Cage: Workers’ Reactivity to Opaque Algorithmic Evaluations

Existing research has shown that people experience third-party evaluations as a form of control because they try to align their behavior with evaluations’ criteria to secure more favorable resources, recognition, and opportunities from external audiences. Much of this research has focused on evaluations with transparent criteria, but increasingly, algorithmic evaluation systems are not transparent. Drawing on over three years of interviews, archival data, and observations as a registered user on a labor platform, I studied how freelance workers contend with an opaque third-party evaluation algorithm—and with what consequences. My findings show the platform implemented an opaque evaluation algorithm to meaningfully differentiate between freelancers’ rating scores. Freelancers experienced this evaluation as a form of control but could not align their actions with its criteria because they could not clearly identify those criteria. I found freelancers had divergent responses to this situation: some experimented with ways to improve their rating scores, and others constrained their activity on the platform. Their reactivity differed based not only on their general success on the platform—whether they were high or low performers—but also on how much they depended on the platform for work and whether they experienced setbacks in the form of decreased evaluation scores. These workers experienced what I call an “invisible cage”: a form of control in which the criteria for success and changes to those criteria are unpredictable. For gig workers who rely on labor platforms, this form of control increasingly determines their access to clients and projects while undermining their ability to understand and respond to factors that determine their success.

Conformity and Soft Skills as Determinants of Alternatively Credentialed Non-College Graduate Hireability

Despite targeting technical skills, vocational school graduates earn less than college graduates. This paper presents evidence that conformity selection and perceived skill gaps explain differences in hireability. Microdata from the United States reveal a perceived soft skill deficit for alternatively credentialed noncollege graduate (ACNG) labor. Conformity is also important, but the direction of effect is heterogenous by employer type. Conformity and perceived skill gaps explain about one-third of the hireability variance. Perceived soft skill gaps explain more hireability variance than widely recognized factors like the industry of occupation. Opposite conventional explanation, results suggest that conformity reduces hireability on average. Respondents tend to perceive ACNG candidates as an even mix of high and low performers. Evidence favors employer risk aversion toward labor productivity as a preferred explanation of low ACNG demand. The conclusion incorporates discussion of public misperception on vocational school costs and suggests activities to reduce unconscious bias

Associations of Performance-Based Functional Assessments and Adverse Outcomes in CKD.

The comparative utility of performance-based functional assessments in predicting adverse outcomes in CKD is unknown. To examine their relative utility, we examined three performance-based functional assessments in an observational cohort of patients with CKD. We recruited 350 participants with stage II-V, predialysis CKD. Participants were administered three performance-based functional assessments: Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), Modified Mini-Mental Status Exam (M3SE), and Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Scores were dichotomized on the basis of the median and combined into a summary score. Outcomes included 50% GFR reduction, ESKD, and death. We used Cox proportional hazards to assess the association of performance-based functional assessments with outcomes. Compared with high performers, low SPPB performers had the highest adjusted rate of death, ESKD, or 50% reduction in GFR (HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.28 to 2.99). Low SPPB had the strongest association with death when adjusted for multiple covariates (HR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.36 to 4.34). M3SE performance was not associated with any adverse outcome. None of the performance-based functional assessments were associated with ESKD, but a low IADL score was associated with a lower hazard ratio for ESKD or 50% decline GFR (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.24 to 1.00). Low SPPB score was the strongest predictor of death and all adverse outcomes as a composite. Future trials should determine if outcomes for patients with CKD who have poor physical performance and low SPPB scores are improved by targeted interventions. Safe Kidney Care Cohort Study, NCT01407367.

Is motorcycle e-hailing welfare improving?

The proliferation of motorcycle e-hailing platforms in Indonesia is regarded by many as exerting myriads of benefits for the wider society as its consumers and its driver-partners. However, such online platforms have disrupted their traditional sector counterparts—the offline motorcycle ridesourcing. This paper gauges the impact of motorcycle e-hailing services using the difference-in-difference (DiD) framework using 422 respondents' data from 11 train stations in Jakarta. We provide welfare comparisons between the two groups of motorcycle ridesourcing (offline and online ridesourcing) at two distinct periods: before and after the advent of motorcycle e-hailing platforms. Our results suggest that, first, online drivers who enlisted themselves into the online platforms had come from the lower segments of the offline drivers' income distribution. Second, we also find that the online drivers exhibit higher levels of net income and hourly income than offline drivers, while the job satisfaction levels of these drivers remain unchanged. Third, we find strong indications that, after the proliferation of ridesourcing platforms, offline drivers' incomes have been well reduced even lower than the low performers of offline drivers before the treatment. Finally, while it is economically rational for offline drivers to join the online platforms, this paper has identified several barriers that potentially hamper them in doing so.

Student Preferences Impact Outcome of Flipped Classroom in Dental Education: Students Favoring Flipped Classroom Benefited More

Many reports in dental education showed that student learning improved with the flipped classroom method. However, there are few reports that describe how different subsets of students may benefit from the flipped classroom. In this study, we investigated how students’ preference for the flipped classroom impacted their learning outcome. We used a flipped classroom module on the physiology of the autonomic nervous system taught to year one Doctor of Dental Surgery students to test the hypothesis that students who favored the flipped classroom performed better on assessment quizzes. The module was composed of pre-class activity, out-of-class assignment, in-class discussion, and two in-class quizzes. Quiz 1 was given after students self-studied the foundational content online through the pre-class activity, and Quiz 2 was at the end of the module. Students filled out a survey to report learning experiences and preferences. Fewer students scored below 75% on Quiz 2 than on Quiz 1. Students’ self-evaluated understanding of content significantly improved after finishing the assignment and discussion compared to finishing the pre-class activity alone. Moreover, students who preferred to learn through the flipped classroom scored higher in Quiz 2. Students with higher overall grades in the course preferred the flipped classroom more than low performers. Our results indicated that students favoring the flipped classroom method spent more time on the assignment, understood the content better, and performed better on assessments than students who prefer traditional lectures.

Quantifying warfighter performance during a bounding rush (prone-sprinting-prone) maneuver

A single sacrum mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU) was employed to analyze warfighter performance on a bounding rush (prone-sprinting-prone) task. Thirty-nine participants (23M/16F) performed a bounding rush task consisting of four bounding rush cycles. The sacrum mounted IMU recorded angular velocity and acceleration data were used to provide estimates of sacral velocity and position. Individual rush cycles were parsed into three principal movement phases; namely, the get up, sprint, and get down phases. The timing of each phase was analyzed, averaged for each participant, and compared to the overall rush cycle time using regression analysis. A cluster analysis further reveals differences between high and low performers. Get down time was most predictive of bounding rush performance (R2 = 0.75) followed by get up time (R2 = 0.58) and sprint time (R2 = 0.40). Comparing high and low performers, the get down time exhibited nearly twice the effect on mean rush cycle time compared to get up time (effect size of −2.61 to −1.46, respectively). Overall, this IMU-based method reveals key features of the bounding rush that govern performance. Consequently, this objective method may support future training regimens and performance standards for military recruits, and parallel applications for athletes.

Examining the relationship between emotion variability, self-regulated learning, and task performance in an intelligent tutoring system

Prior research has focused extensively on how emotion tendencies (e.g., duration, frequency, intensity, and valence) affect students’ performance, but little is known about emotion variability (i.e., the fluctuations in emotion states) and how emotion variability affects performance. In this paper, emotion variability was examined among 21 medical students in the context of solving two patient cases of different complexity with BioWorld, a computer-based intelligent tutoring system. Specifically, we examined the influences of task complexity on emotion variability, emotion variability in self-regulated learning (SRL) phases, and the differences in emotion variability between high and low performers. We found that students’ emotion variability varies depending on the SRL phases (i.e., forethought, performance, and self-reflection) and task complexity. High performing students had smaller emotion variability than low performers across the three SRL phases, but the differences in emotion variability were not statistically significant. Moreover, emotion variability in the forethought phase contributed most to high performance when compared to the emotional variability in the performance and self-reflection phases. This study advances theoretical development about emotion variability and provides insights that help explain the mixed results that existed in extant literature.

Discriminatory ability of milestones: An analysis of milestone variability by obstetrics and gynecology subspecialty

Background: Little evidence exists regarding Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) milestone discriminatory ability. This short report describes variability in milestone scores by category to determine their utility in discerning high and low performers in a single Obstetrics and Gynecology residency. Methods: A Clinical Competency Committee (CCC) design was implemented with four subcommittees, each responsible for a predetermined milestones subset: Obstetrics, Gynecology, Ambulatory Practice, and Professional Activities. Milestone scores for 44 residents per year over four biannual evaluation cycles (2014-2016) were evaluated, for a total of 176 independent evaluations. Results: Findings indicate that discriminatory ability, assessed by variability between resident scores, differed by subcommittee. Subcommittees that were primarily tasked with evaluating clinical- and procedural-based milestones demonstrated lower discriminatory ability among trainees. Conclusion: Greater Professional Activity milestone variability indicates better differentiation; future research should determine correlation of these findings with other professionalism performance metrics and novel intervention strategies.

Home assessment of visual working memory in pre-schoolers reveals associations between behaviour, brain activation and parent reports of life stress.

Visual working memory (VWM) is reliably predictive of fluid intelligence and academic achievements. The objective of the current study was to investigate individual differences in pre-schoolers' VWM processing by examining the association between behaviour, brain function and parent-reported measures related to the child's environment. We used a portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy system to record from the frontal and parietal cortices of 4.5-year-old children (N=74) as they completed a colour change-detection VWM task in their homes. Parents were asked to fill in questionnaires on temperament, academic aspirations, home environment and life stress. Children were median-split into a low-performing (LP) and a high-performing (HP) group based on the number of items they could successfully remember during the task. LPs increasingly activated channels in the left frontal and bilateral parietal cortices with increasing load, whereas HPs showed no difference in activation. Our findings suggest that LPs recruited more neural resources than HPs when their VWM capacity was challenged. We employed mediation analyses to examine the association between the difference in activation between the highest and lowest loads and variables from the questionnaires. The difference in activation between loads in the left parietal cortex partially mediated the association between parent-reported stressful life events and VWM performance. Critically, our findings show that the association between VWM capacity, left parietal activation and indicators of life stress is important to understand the nature of individual differences in VWM in pre-school children.

The (Unequal) Interplay Between Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills in Early Educational Attainment

Cognitive and noncognitive skills are key indicators of educational success and merit. However, even when accounting for inequalities in skill formation by family socioeconomic status (SES), a wide SES-gap in college enrolment remains. According to the compensatory advantage hypothesis, SES-gaps in educational transitions are largest among cognitively weak students, but little is known on mechanisms. It has long been argued that noncognitive traits such as effort and motivation might be at least as important as cognitive skills over the status-attainment process, and these skills might interact by being complements or substitutes. Thus, I test whether advantaged students substitute low cognitive skills in test scores by high returns to conscientiousness—rated by teachers— in the transition to academic secondary schools. I draw data from the German National Educational Panel Study to study a cohort of students from Grades 1 to 5, when early tracking is enforced. I estimate linear probability models with school fixed-effects and moderation. To account for measurement error, I also use composite latent skills across elementary education. I report three main findings: (a) High-SES students at the same level of cognitive and noncognitive skills than low-SES schoolmates are more likely to attend the academic track bridged to college; (b) in line with the compensatory hypothesis, these SES-inequalities are largest among low cognitive performers; (3) cognitively weak students from high-SES families get the highest educational returns to conscientiousness in comparison to high cognitive performers or low-SES peers, validating the skill substitution hypothesis. These findings challenge the liberal conception of merit as the sum of ability plus effort in assessing equal opportunity in education.

A rational model of the Dunning-Kruger effect supports insensitivity to evidence in low performers.

Evaluating one's own performance on a task, typically known as 'self-assessment', is perceived as a fundamental skill, but people appear poorly calibrated to their abilities. Studies seem to show poorer calibration for low performers than for high performers, which could indicate worse metacognitive ability among low performers relative to others (the Dunning-Kruger effect). By developing a rational model of self-assessment, we show that such an effect could be produced by two psychological mechanisms, in either isolation or conjunction: influence of prior beliefs about ability or a relation between performance and skill at determining correctness on each problem. To disentangle these explanations, we conducted a large-scale replication of a seminal paper with approximately 4,000 participants in each of two studies. Comparing the predictions of two variants of our rational model provides support for low performers being less able to estimate whether they are correct in the domains of grammar and logical reasoning.

Understanding High Performance in Late Second Language (L2) Acquisition—What Is the Secret? A Contrasting Case Study in L2 French

Adult L2 acquisition has often been framed within research on the Critical Period Hypothesis, and the age factor is one of the most researched topics of SLA. However, several researchers suggest that while age is the most important factor for differences between child and adult SLA, variation in adult SLA is more dependent on social and psychological factors than on age of onset. The present qualitative study investigates the role of migratory experience, language use/social networks, language learning experience, identity and attitudes for high performance among Swedish L1 French L2 users in France. The study constitutes an in-depth thematic analysis of interviews with six high-performing individuals and four low-performing individuals. The main results show that the high performers differ from the low performers on all dimensions, except for attitudes towards the host community. High performers are above all characterized by self-reported language aptitude and an early interest in languages, which appears to have led to rich exposure to French. Also, they exhibit self-regulatory behaviors and attribute importance to being perceived as a native speaker of French—both for instrumental and existential reasons.

Why Are Firms with Lower Performance More Volatile and Unpredictable? A Vulnerability Explanation of the Bowman Paradox

This study investigates the negative relationship between firm risk and accounting performance known in the strategy field as the Bowman paradox, which has been generally attributed to differences across firms in their willingness to take risk. Most research to date relies on the behavioral theory of the firm to suggest that underperformers take greater risks to increase their performance to their reference point. As an alternative explanation, we suggest that the Bowman paradox may result from the inherent vulnerability of low performers to negative external shocks. Our panel analysis of 2,681 U.S. firms from 1980 to 2010 confirms that firms with lower performance within their industry are more affected by negative shocks to the economy. The asymmetric vulnerability of low performers to external events makes their overall accounting performance more volatile and difficult to predict by market analysts, even if all firms have a similar attitude toward risk taking and capabilities to manage change. Our vulnerability explanation is also supported by our empirical analysis of the 2008 global financial crisis as a natural experiment. Furthermore, we find strong evidence of a negative risk–return relationship using different methods to control for their endogeneity.

Leveraging process data to assess adults’ problem-solving skills: Using sequence mining to identify behavioral patterns across digital tasks

This paper illustrates how process data can be used to identify behavioral patterns in a computer-based problem-solving assessment. Using sequence-mining techniques, we identify patterns of behavior across multiple digital tasks from the sequences of actions undertaken by respondents. We then examine how respondents’ action sequences (which we label “strategies”) differ from optimal strategies. In our application, optimality is defined ex-ante as the sequence of actions that content experts involved in the development of the assessment tasks identified as most efficient to solve the task given the range of possible actions available to test-takers. Data on 7462 respondents from five countries (the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States) participating in the Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environment (PSTRE) assessment, administered as part of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), indicate that valuable insights can be derived from the analysis of process data. Adults who follow optimal strategies are more likely to obtain high scores in the PSTRE assessment, while low performers consistently adopt strategies that are very distant from optimal ones. Very few high performers are able to solve the items in an efficient way, i.e. by minimizing the number of actions and by avoiding undertaking unnecessary or redundant actions. Women and adults above the age of 40 are more likely to adopt sub-optimal problem-solving strategies.

Process analysis of teachers’ self-regulated learning patterns in technological pedagogical content knowledge development

Self-regulated learning (SRL) has a predictable and instrumental effect on learning complicated knowledge. This study investigates the role of SRL in acquiring technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), an important aspect of teachers' effective technology use. The present study identified several regulatory procedural patterns used by teachers in the context of their TPACK achievements. A computer-based context, nBrowser, was used to facilitate teachers lesson planning around technology usage. Teachers log file data were analyzed using process mining approaches. Findings indicate that high TPACK performers are more likely to perform self-regulative activities (e.g., monitoring) in developing TPACK compared to the low performers. Higher TPACK performers are more goal-oriented, demonstrate more monitoring and are more iterative in using all SRL processes in contrast to low performers who only partially regulate their problem solving. Such findings support previous research. This study adopts a novel approach for understanding the relations between SRL and TPACK. It offers opportunities to examine how teachers enact SRL as they move from the beginning to later stages of designing lessons and provides insights to researchers who study SRL in TPACK domains. Furthermore, the findings can assist educational designers in developing interventions for promoting TPACK development by concentrating on teachers’ SRL abilities.

Improving surgical quality in low-income and middle-income countries: why do some health facilities perform better than others?

BackgroundEvidence on heterogeneity in outcomes of surgical quality interventions in low-income and middle-income countries is limited. We explored factors driving performance in the Safe Surgery 2020 intervention in Tanzania’s Lake...