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Eric.ed.gov – The Development of Mathematical Self-Concept during College: Unique Benefits for Women in Math-Intensive Majors? ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: While previous research has outlined factors that can be used to predict academic self-concept among college students, much of this research pays little attention to how self-concept develops differently for unique subgroups of students. This paper examines the development of mathematical self-concept during college for four groups of students who entered college with significantly different levels of math confidence: (1) men in math-intensive majors; (2) women in math-intensive majors; (3) men in non-math-intensive majors; and (4) women in non-math-intensive majors. Data are examined from surveys of over 14,000 college freshmen at 191 institutions who were followed up 4 years after college entry. Regression analyses describe how the factors contributing to the development of math self-concept differentiate among the four groups and suggest how women who persist in… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – How Much Do Study Habits, Skills, and Attitudes Affect Student Performance in Introductory College Accounting Courses?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Background: Financial accounting is a skills course which to a large extent can be best learned through deliberate practice. Teachers implement this by continuously assigning homeworks, encouraging good study habits, asking students to budget time for studying, and generally exhorting students to “work hard”. Aims: This paper examines the impact of “study habits, skills, and attitudes” (SHSAs) on the performance of students in an introductory financial accounting college course. Sample: 395 2nd year business students in a Philippine university. Method: Data related to variables found to have influenced accounting performance in previous researches as well as SHSA variables are collected through student survey and school records. They are treated as independent variables using multiple regression analysis, with the accounting course final grade as the dependent variable. The… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Using VoiceThread for Communication in Mathematics Writing

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: ‘This action research study was conducted on a fourth grade rural classroom in Orange County, N.Y. for the purpose of determining if the use of the VoiceThread program will affect student performance in mathematics writing. A baseline of student performance on this measure was administered in the fall of 2010 using the NYS Holistic rubric of a 3 point total value as provided from the NYS 2009 4th grade Math Test. Four questions on varying topics were pulled from the same test as the rubric mentioned here. In addition, a graphic organizer was utilized to support organization of student thoughts on the problem. A survey was administered to the students at the end of this study which demonstrated positive attitudes towards the use of graphic organizers and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Self-Report and Academic Factors in Relation to High School Students’ Success in an Innovative Biotechnology Program

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Biotechnology constitutes one of the most challenging, cutting-edge, and rapidly growing fields in science today. Both the practical implications and the hands-on nature of this “modern science” make the topic of biotechnology an attractive addition to the high school science curriculum. The current study is the first of its kind to explore how student characteristics and biotechnology course outcomes relate to one another. Results indicated that students’ general attitudes about science and their overall math skills predicted success across a number of measures, including both self-reported skill ratings as well as the more traditional measures of course grade and exam score. The results also demonstrated the association between skill, as measured through self-reported proficiency ratings, and achievement on an articulation exam. It documented the relation between skills… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Student Academic Performance Outcomes of a Classroom Physical Activity Intervention: A Pilot Study

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Physical activity is beneficial to children’s health, yet academic pressures limit opportunities for students throughout the school day. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a classroom PA intervention on student academic performance outcomes. Intervention participants (n = 15) received daily PA breaks. Reading and mathematics fluency, PA, grades, and standardized test scores were collected. Effects of the intervention were examined using mixed-design ANOVAs. Intervention students had significantly higher reading fluency and mathematics scores post-intervention and higher means for standardized reading and mathematics scores as well as grades. Short bouts of PA are important for improving CBM math and reading fluency scores. Classroom teachers should be encouraged to devote time during academic learning to incorporate PA. Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – The Role of Advanced High School Coursework in Increasing STEM Career Interest

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Several avenues are open to students who wish to study advanced science or mathematics in high school, which include Advanced Placement courses and teacher-designed courses unaffiliated with organized programs. We employ a retrospective cohort study of 4,691 nationally representative college students at 34 randomly selected, colleges and universities to examine the relationship between taking advanced high school courses and students’ interest in pursuing a STEM career, while controlling for prior interests and experiences. We are able to distinguish between those students choosing to take an additional year in a science or math subject from those taking Advanced Placement (AP), which is most commonly taken as a second year course, but is increasingly taken as a first year course. We find that the number of years of a… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Oregon MESA: Improving Grades in Science and Mathematics

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Oregon Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) focuses its afterschool programs with middle and high school students on inventions that address key problems in developing countries, such as sustainable lighting, water transportation, water filtration, and prosthetics. With the support of a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, MESA expanded its afterschool program to four Salem-Keizer Public Schools middle schools in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years. The goal of this expansion was to help underrepresented minority and low income students achieve scholastic success, leadership skills, and social support for college enrollment through (1) afterschool STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs led by teachers from the school served; (2) science and technology competitions; (3) family involvement and advocacy; and (4) mentorship by local college students. At the request… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Giving a Little Help to Girls? Evidence on Grade Discrimination and Its Effect on Students’ Achievement. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1341

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper tests if gender-discrimination in grading affects pupils’ achievements and course choices. I use a unique dataset containing grades given by teachers, scores obtained anonymously by pupils at different ages, and their course choice during high school. Based on double-differences, the identification of the gender bias in grades suggests that girls benefit from a substantive positive discrimination in math but not in French. This bias is not explained by girls’ better behavior and only marginally by their lower initial achievement. I then use the heterogeneity in teachers’ discriminatory behavior to show that classes in which teachers present a high degree of discrimination in favor of girls are also classes in which girls tend to progress significantly more than boys, during the school year but also during… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Critical Consciousness and Schooling: The Impact of the Community as a Classroom Program on Academic Indicators

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The present study investigates the extent to which a program guided by the principles of critical pedagogy, which seeks to develop “critical consciousness,” is associated with the improved academic performance of students attending a low-performance middle-school in Buffalo, New York. The students were enrolled in an in-school academic support program called the “Community as Classroom”, which used critical project-based learning to show students how to improve neighborhood conditions. The study found that the Community as Classroom program bolstered student engagement as reflected in improved attendance, on-time-arrival at school, and reduced suspensions. Although class grades did not improve, standardized scores, particularly in Math and Science, dramatically improved for these students from the lowest scoring categories. We suspect that given increased student engagement and dramatically improved standardized test scores,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Who Repeats Algebra, and How Does Initial Performance Relate to Improvement When the Course Is Repeated?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The information provided in this report shows how students perform when they repeat algebra I and how the level of improvement varies depending on initial course performance and the academic measure (course grades or CST scores). This information can help inform decisions and policies regarding whether and under what circumstances students should repeat the course. The study examined four research questions: (1) How many students repeat algebra I after taking it for the first time?; (2) How do student characteristics (such as race/ethnicity, gender, grade 7 math performance and initial algebra I performance) relate to the likelihood of repeating algebra I?; (3) How well do students perform when they repeat algebra I compared with the first time they took the course?; and (4) How does that difference… Continue Reading