Top-performing Students Research Articles

Analyzing Learning Strategies of Top-Performing Students in English Speaking Classes at Junior High School in Indonesia

Analyzing Learning Strategies of Top-Performing Students in English Speaking Classes at Junior High School in Indonesia

Do team-based written or video explanations of course content enhance accounting students’ knowledge, communication, and teamwork skills?

This study explores students’ knowledge, communication, and teamwork skills development when using team-based explanations, in either written or video mode, during an assessment for learning in a competency-based accounting education context. Both modes of team-based explanation, written or video, seem to enhance conceptual and transfer knowledge among weaker and moderate-performing students. When viewed as an interconnected and indivisible process, the video explanation mode appears more beneficial for top-performing students’ conceptual knowledge development than the written explanation mode. The team-based video explanation mode also appears to be the preferred method for developing teamwork skills, while both modes are perceived as beneficial for developing communication skills. Overall, the video mode of a team-based explanation assessment for learning appears to be the favored choice, as it facilitates whole-class knowledge development while also allowing greater opportunities for students’ teamwork and communication skills development in a competency-based education context.

왜 다시 EBS인가?

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, concerns about learning loss and the soaring expenses of private education have become prominent social issues. In light of these concerns, the government is actively exploring strategies to enhance the integration of EBS lectures into the College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT). While previous studies have primarily focused on the initial impact of the 2010 college entrance exam policy, there remains a lack of research on the dynamic effects of the policy over time. Firstly, in order to estimate the effect of EBS lectures on the reduction in private education expenses, we employ the Correlated Random Effects approach - Panel Tobit Model along with other panel data models, using data from high school students in the Seoul Education Longitudinal Study (SELS). Additionally, we evaluate the outcome of EBS lectures compared to other educational goods such as school achievement.
 The results indicate that, except for the early stages of policy implementation, EBS lectures have significantly reduced private education expenses and positively influenced academic achievement in math and English courses. However, a continuous decline in EBS lecture participation rates and the preference of top-performing students for private education seem to diminish the overall impact of the policy. Accordingly, policy responses addressing these issues should be considered to maximize the effectiveness of the EBS lecture policy.

The Anatomy of Hardware Reverse Engineering: An Exploration of Human Factors During Problem Solving

Understanding of microchips, known as Hardware Reverse Engineering (HRE), is driven by analysts’ problem solving. This work sheds light on these hitherto poorly understood problem-solving processes. We propose a methodology addressing the problem of HRE experts being unavailable for research. We developed a training enabling students to acquire intermediate levels of HRE expertise. Besides one expert, we recruited eight top-performing students from this training for our exploratory study. All participants completed a realistic HRE task involving the removal of a copyright protection mechanism from a hardware circuit. We analyzed 2,445 log entries by applying an iterative open coding and developed a detailed hierarchical problem-solving model. Our exploration yielded insights into problem-solving strategies and revealed that two intermediates solved the task with a comparable solution time to the expert. We discuss that HRE problem solving may be a function of both expertise and cognitive abilities, and outline ideas for novel countermeasures.

A Study on the Profiles of Arabic Translation-Translator Candidates in Turkish Higher Education

Translation, an ancient activity, has only been acknowledged as an independent discipline since the 1970s. Translation Studies was introduced as a program in Turkish higher education in the 1980s, with English translation and interpreting programs being the first to emerge. It was not until 2011 that the first program for training Arabic translators and interpreters was established at Kırıkkale University. Subsequently, the same program was introduced in nine other universities. In this study, we explore the profiles of prospective Arabic translators and interpreters in ten Turkish universities offering undergraduate-level programs for Arabic translation and interpreting, focusing on various aspects such as gender, geographical location, educational background, high school type, academic ranking, foreign language test scores, program preferences, and post-graduation plans. Our findings indicate that female students show a greater inclination towards the program, with one-third of the students choosing the program in their city. Arabic translator-interpreter candidates mostly originate from the Central Anatolian Region, with one-third being recent graduates and another third being experienced ones. More than half of the students who enrolled in the program graduated from Imam-Hatip High School, and top-performing students are less inclined to select this program. On average, a language test score of forty-six is required for admission to the program. Finally, we found that students who completed the program often preferred programs related to Arabic language teaching and literature.

Early prediction of medical students' performance in high-stakes examinations using machine learning approaches

IntroductionSince the advent of medical education systems, managing high-stakes exams has been a top priority and challenge for all policymakers. However, considering machine learning (ML) techniques as a replacement for medical licensing examinations, particularly during crises such as the COVID-19 outbreak, could be an effective solution. This study uses ML models to develop a framework for predicting medical students' performance on high-stakes exams, such as the Comprehensive Medical Basic Sciences Examination (CMBSE). Material and methodsPrediction of students' status and score on high-stakes examinations faces several challenges, including an imbalanced number of failing and passing students, a large number of heterogeneous and complex features, and the need to identify at-risk and top-performing students. In this study, two major categories of ML approaches are compared: first, classic models (logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbors (KNN)), and second, ensemble models (voting, bagging (BG), random forests (RF), adaptive boosting (ADA), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), and stacking). ResultsTo evaluate the models' discrimination ability, they are assessed using a real dataset containing information on medical students over a five-year period (n = 1005). The findings indicate that ensemble ML models demonstrate optimal performance in predicting CMBSE status (RF and stacking). Similarly, among the classic regressors, LR exhibited the highest root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) (0.134) and coefficient of determination (R2) (0.62), whereas the RF model had the highest RMSD (0.077) and R2 (0.80) overall. Furthermore, Anatomical Sciences, Biochemistry, Parasitology, and Entomology grade point average (GPA) and grades demonstrated the strongest positive correlation with the outcomes. ConclusionComparing classic and ensemble ML models revealed that ensemble models are superior to classic models. Therefore, the presented framework could be considered a suitable alternative for the CMBSE and other comparable medical licensing examinations.

Compulsory class attendance versus autonomy

We estimate the effect of an increased autonomy policy for higher-performing students on short- and longer-term school outcomes. We exploit an institutional setting with high demand for autonomy. Identification comes from a nationwide natural experiment that allowed higher-achieving students to miss 44 percent more classes with parental approval. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach, we find that allowing higher-achieving students to skip more classes increases their performance in subjects that matter for university admission and improves the quality of their enrolled college degree. Top-performing students and students in more academically diverse classrooms demand more autonomy when it is offered.

An online flipped classroom approach improves the physiology score and subsequent course scores of the top-performing students.

The online flipped classroom (OFC) has emerged as a new teaching method in universities worldwide, which combines asynchronous and synchronous online learning. OFC differs from the traditional flipped classroom as it does not involve face-to-face interaction between teachers and students. Instead, the class meeting is conducted online, and it is focused on active and collaborative learning (e.g., discussion rather than lecturing). To evaluate the effectiveness of the Physiology OFC, we compared it with online live teaching (OLT) offered in the same school and semester. We analyzed the exam scores of the Physiology course as well as the scores for other courses offered in the same semester and after the Physiology course. We categorized the top 27% of the exam takers as high-achieving students and the bottom 27% as low-achieving students. Our analysis found no statistically significant difference between OFC and OLT in terms of overall exam scores for all students. However, high-achieving students in OFC scored higher on the total exam score and short answer questions, but the score of case study questions (CSQs) of low-achieving students was lower. Furthermore, students in OFC scored higher in Medical Immunology and courses dominated by logical thinking such as Pharmacology and Diagnostics than students in OLT. In conclusion, our findings suggest that OFC can achieve the same teaching effectiveness as OLT, with a more positive impact on high-achieving students. The positive impact extends beyond the Physiology course to other courses where logical thinking is critical. However, the lower performance of low-achieving students in CSQs highlights the need for further research to determine the reasons for their lower performance and potential strategies to improve their learning outcomes.NEW & NOTEWORTHY An online flipped classroom approach achieved the same teaching effect as online live teaching but had a more positive impact on high-achieving students. The positive impact was not only in Physiology but also in subsequent courses where logical thinking prevailed. However, for low-achieving students, the effect of online live teaching was better.

Test scores and economic growth: update and extension

ABSTRACT Research indicates that education quality – measured by test scores in international student surveys – predicts economic growth. In this paper, we extend previous findings up to 2016 and analyse test scores of upper-secondary school students only. We find that the positive relationship between growth and test scores holds in both cases. The share of top-performing students exhibits a stronger correlation with economic growth than does the share of students who meet basic requirements.

Authoritarian Mothering Experiences of Top-Performing Senior High School Students in the Philippines: Impact on Psychological, Emotional, and Social Health

Parental influence is critical in shaping a child's growth and development. This phenomenological study examines the authoritarian mothering experiences of 15 top-performing Senior High School students in the Philippines and their psychosocial and emotional well-being. The data were analyzed thematically following the in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that the majority of informants were dissatisfied with the effectiveness of authoritarian parenting. This is because authoritarian mothering is detrimental to their health. The informants were experiencing psycho-emotional distress due to their exhaustion from their authoritarian mothers' constant pressure and rigid attitude. When it came to social relationships, authoritarian mothers lacked involvement in their children's psycho-emotional lives. The findings of this study could be used to develop effective mothering practices that balance academic success and the health of top-performing students.

COVID-19, college academic performance, and the flexible grading policy: A longitudinal analysis

I use an unbalanced panel of over 11,000 academic records spanning from Spring 2017 to Spring 2020 to identify the difference in effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across lower- and higher-income students’ academic performance. Using difference-in-differences models and event study analyses with individual fixed effects, I find a differential effect by students’ pre-COVID-19 academic performance. Lower-income students in the bottom quartile of the Fall 2019 cumulative GPA distribution outperformed their higher-income peers with a 9% higher Spring 2020 GPA. This differential is fully explained by students’ use of the flexible grading policy with lower-income ones being 35% more likely to exercise the pass/fail option than their counterparts. While no such GPA advantage is observed among top-performing lower-income students, in the absence of the flexible grading policy these students would have seen their GPA decrease by 5% relative to their counterfactual pre-pandemic mean. I find suggestive evidence that this lower performance may be driven by lower-income top-performing students experiencing greater challenges with online learning. These students also reported a higher use of incompletes than their higher-income peers and being more concerned about maintaining (merit-based) financial aid.

Can virtual replace in-person coaching? Experimental evidence on teacher professional development and student learning

Virtual communication holds the promise of enabling low-cost professional development at scale, but the benefits of in-person interaction might be difficult to replicate. We report on an experiment in South Africa comparing on-site with virtual coaching of public primary school teachers. After three years, on-site coaching improved students’ English oral language and reading proficiency (0.31 and 0.13 SD, respectively). Virtual coaching had a smaller impact on English oral language proficiency (0.12 SD), no impact on English reading proficiency, and an unintended negative effect on home language literacy. The top-performing students consistently benefited most. Classroom observations show that on-site coaching improved teaching practices, while virtual coaching led to larger crowding-out of home language teaching time. Implementation and survey data suggest technology itself was not a barrier to implementation, but rather that in-person contact enabled more accountability and support.

Test Scores and Economic Growth: Update and Extension

Research indicates that education quality – measured by test scores in international student surveys – predicts economic growth. In this paper, we extend previous findings up to 2016 and analyse test scores of upper-secondary school students only. We find that the positive relationship between growth and test scores holds in both cases. The share of top-performing students exhibits a stronger correlation with economic growth than does the share of students who meet basic requirements.

Supplemental Material for Top-Performing Math Students in 82 Countries: An Integrative Data Analysis of Gender Differences in Achievement, Achievement Profiles, and Achievement Motivation

Supplemental Material for Top-Performing Math Students in 82 Countries: An Integrative Data Analysis of Gender Differences in Achievement, Achievement Profiles, and Achievement Motivation

Hyperautomation to Increase Effectiveness of Student Online Learning Behavior

Vietnamese higher education has been dealing with increasing student enrollment and that will likely continue for some time. Employers are reporting not being satisfied with the quality of workers they are getting from the pool of university graduates and want employees to be more autonomous. Likewise, students also need to learn how to study more independently outside of the classroom. To help students develop the skills they need, higher education institutions should put the burden of learning onto the student rather than on the already overloaded teaching staff. Social modeling, from social cognitive theory, can be combined with technology to change student learning-related behavior as this randomized control trial with 309 undergraduate students shows. The behaviors which were under study included student interactions with the university’s learning management system (LMS). Comparing the interactions with the LMS between the treatment and control groups shows a weekly report can be successful in motivating students to change their behavior. With the recent worldwide requirement of remote learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic, students will naturally interact with the LMS more than before. This will provide additional data to the system allowing clearer identification of the behaviors that lead to top-performing students.

Trends in Cognitive Skill Inequalities by Socio-Economic Status across Canada

In this article, we document the trends in cognitive skills gaps across Canada. We use Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test scores over seven cycles, from 2000 to 2018, to provide an exhaustive portrait of the trends in the test score distribution over time and the score gaps by parental socio-economic status (SES). We find that the achievement gap between top-performing students (90th percentile) and students facing challenges (10th percentile) is large and represents more than four years of schooling. We also show that socio-economic differences in PISA scores for reading, mathematics, and science are large but generally stable over time. There are variations in SES score gaps by province, a proxy for the extent of inequality of opportunities, but these variations are not large.

Applying a ‘glonacal’ framework: the education choices of academically elite students in Singapore in relation to state scholarships

ABSTRACT This study is an attempt at better understanding the education choices of top-performing students in elite schooling. It applies a ‘glonacal’ framework (Maxwell 2018, “Changing Spaces – The Reshaping of (Elite) Education Through Internationalisation.” In Elite Education and Internationalization: From the Early Years Into Higher Education, edited by C. Maxwell, U. Deppe, H. Kruger, and W. Helsper, 347–367. London: Palgrave Macmillan.) and focuses on the case of academically elite students who have graduated from an elite secondary school in Singapore, and their attitudes toward a scheme of undergraduate state scholarships. Drawing on life history interviews and focus group discussions with such individuals, I uncover how Singaporean informants portrayed aspirations of moving abroad for university education, and of returning to Singapore, commensurate with the state’s strategy of tying them to the local through contractual bonds. Their characterisation of the scholarship in terms of ‘comfort’ and ‘stability’ must be contextualised within a nationalistic regime linking an elitist education system via scholarships to the local sphere of social and political power. The discussion serves to demonstrate relations between transnational mobility, the school and the local political economy, and how these have an influence on student subjectivities regarding education choices.

The (In)significance of Race in Singapore’s Immigration Context: Accounts of Self-Differentiation by Academically Elite Students

ABSTRACT In order to counter low birthrates, the Singapore state recruits top-performing students from China and Vietnam with scholarships to augment the local talent pool. Another criterion is that most immigrants must be ethnically Chinese, so as to fit into Singapore’s majority racial group. This study examines whether and how race (or other factors) might contribute to (dis)affiliation amongst academically elite students in Singapore. Drawing on life history interviews and focus group discussions with top-performing students in Singapore, I investigate how informants engaged in self-differentiation. Instead of race, informants positioned themselves and others along a Singaporean/non-Singaporean polarity, using nationality and time of entry as markers of cultural and structural difference. Chinese linguistic practices were perceived as deficits and impediments to being localised amongst them. The state’s assumption—that immigrants can fit in locally just because they fit official racial categories—does not consider how cultural practices are re-valued when transported to a different space.

Academic achievement, and cyber-bullying and cyber-victimization among middle- and high-school students in Vietnam

ABSTRACT Rates of Internet usage among Vietnamese students have been estimated to be high and consequently, risk for cyber-bullying and cyber-victimization also may be high. However, current research in this area is limited, with the two primary studies of cyber-bullying among Vietnamese students based on short questionnaires (three and four items) and limited samples (i.e., from one school, and from two schools in the same city). A more comprehensive assessment thus is important in order to more precisely define the magnitude of the problem and to more accurately identify culturally relevant risk factors. In the present study, 1,040 Vietnamese 6th through 12th-grade students from 4 schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were assessed using the Revised Cyber Bullying Inventory. Results indicated that 7.1% of participants were victims of cyber-bullying only, 4.7% were initiators of cyber-bullying only, and 11.3% were both initiators of cyber-bullying and victims of cyber-bullying; thus, about one-fourth of the sample was involved in maladaptive online behaviors. Academic achievement was significantly related to levels of cyber-bullying but not cyber-victimization, with top-performing students showing significantly higher levels of cyber-bullying than all other students. Implications of these results are discussed.

The education of an educator.

My students were taking midterms when my phone erupted with urgent messages. “Student is having a panic attack,” texted a teaching assistant. I ran out of my office, down a flight of stairs and found the student—a pupil in my 350-person organic chemistry class—lying motionless on the ground outside the exam hall. “I can't move my fingers, head, or legs,” she cried. “I don't know what's happening to me.” My mind raced as she slipped in and out of consciousness. I asked a bystander to call 911 and held the student's hand, reassuring her that help was on the way. “Did my exam really trigger a panic attack?” I asked myself. “Why am I not prepared to deal with a situation like this?” ![][1] ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “I think of [my students] as flowers—different flowers with different needs.” It was my first time teaching the course. But I knew that the subject was challenging for my undergraduate students. I also knew that the course had a reputation for doling out few A's. This was a source of stress for premed students in particular, who feared that a low grade in organic chemistry would keep them from getting into medical school. I had no idea that my exam could elicit a full-blown panic attack, though. The saving grace that day was another student, who had emergency medical training and rushed over to help. She led the student through a series of breathing exercises that calmed her down and helped her regain the use of her limbs. Afterward, I asked her what happened. “I panicked when I was reading the questions,” she said. My heart sank, wondering whether I could have done anything to prevent this. The following day, I was scheduled to lecture to the same class. I knew that I had to address what had happened during the midterm. I didn't want to infringe on the student's privacy by mentioning her. So, I started by saying: “I want to take some time today to talk about something important. How many of you think that this is a weed-out course?” Half of my students raised their hands gingerly. “I'm sorry to hear that,” I continued. “I want you all to know that I do not consider any of you to be weeds; you all deserve to be here.” I flashed a slide of flowers in various shapes and hues—a stark contrast from the chemical structures I'd shown in past lectures. I smiled at my students and said: “I think of you as flowers—different flowers with different needs. You may not bloom at the same time, but you will bloom! You may not do well in a midterm exam, but you will learn from your mistakes and do better on the final exam. I believe this. I believe in you.” From that point on, my office hours were packed. Previously, only a few top-performing students had come, but the new batch included students who were struggling as well as those who were first-generation college attendees. Some asked about lecture topics and study strategies; others opened up about personal issues—family health problems, impostor syndrome, depression—that they'd been struggling with. I was amazed that a simple, frank discussion in lecture could make such a difference. We educators shouldn't need a crisis to remind us of our students' emotional needs. But it took a crisis to transform my approach to teaching. I now make a point of talking about mental health at the outset of every course, giving the students my “flower” speech and mentioning places where they can go for extra support. Before exams, I ask my students to use digital clickers to rate their current mental health and I share the results onscreen, which helps students realize that they're not alone in feeling stressed. Finally, I do my best to learn my students' names. This may seem like a small thing, and it's challenging in such a large class. But I've found that they feel valued—and are more likely to ask me for help—when I put in the effort to recognize them as unique individuals. [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif