Admission Groups and Academic Performance: A Study of Marginal Entrants in the Selection to Higher Education

The purpose of this paper is to study whether Swedish admission policies successful in selecting the best-performing students. The Swedish universities select students based on two different instruments, which each form a separate admission group. A regression model is recommended to estimate the achievement differences for the marginally accepted students between the admission groups and is applied to a sample of 9024 Swedish university entrants in four different fields of education. Marginally accepted students in the group selected by school grades on average perform better than students accepted by an admission test, suggesting that a small reallocation of study positions towards the grade admission group may increase overall academic achievement. However, the achievement difference appears to vary concerning university programme selectivity. We found that increasing selection by grades in less competitive programmes would improve overall achievement, while we do not find any effect for highly competitive programmes.

Edukacja wczesnoszkolna versus język łaciński — podręczniki

The article presents three coursebooks on the Latin language, published in years 2006–2018 in Poland. The author examines the advantages and disadvantages of the books and wonders if they may be used as teaching materials during early school education, i.e. in primary school, grades 1–3.

Generic Skills, Academic Achievement, and Means of Improving the Former

In Canada, in general – and in the Province of Ontario in particular – academics, employers, and government agencies are concerned with the low generic skill levels of university students and graduates. The assumption is that such deficiencies detract from academic and job success. Despite this concern, in Canada, research has not focused on potential links between objectively measured generic skills and grades recorded in administrative records. In view of this lacuna, the current research has two objectives. First, to assess the net effect of objectively measured generic skills on academic achievement as recorded in administrative records. Second, to determine the efficacy of an online course dedicated to the development of generic skills. Overall, I found that generic skills were better predictors of students’ achievement than high school grades used in admission processes; the relationship between high school grades and generic skill levels was weak; students’ generic skill levels did not improve over time; and an online course devoted to increasing students’ generic skills was effective in boosting skills to an acceptable level. Accordingly, if they are concerned with academic achievement, universities in Ontario and in other jurisdictions in which students are admitted to university primarily based on their secondary school grades might make the development of generic skills a priority; however, unless such skills are demanded across the curriculum, they will atrophy.

Representation of spatial design in teaching of art culture od III and IV grades of primary education

The subject of this paper is the application of sculptural studies in the primary school. The goal of the research is to examine and determine the prevalence of the application of techniques in the primary school grades. The problem of the research is whether the teaching of art studies is realized according to the current curriculum in the primary school grades III and IV. The sample consists of 214 students and 10 teachers. The research methods selected for deriving relevant conclusions are: descriptive method, theoretical analysis method, historical method. Results obtained through a survey questionnaire, related to the surveyed teachers, about whether they represent fields of art equally in their art classes, are that they answered in the representation of 100%, as well as the majority of students (96.26%) who answered affirmatively to the same question. In answering the question what the most art classes are about, the majority of students (82.71%) answered drawing, while the remaining 18.69% answered that they usually paint.According to the students, the areas of art are not equally represented in teaching, as shown by the results of a survey conducted among teachers. With this paper, it has been determined that is not fulfilled or equally represented in the art studies. And that the two fields of art, drawing and painting, are the most represented, while the often left out or insufficiently processed, continue to introduce students to other techniques.

Reaching Higher? Horizontal Stratification in the Educational Careers of Immigrant Descendants

Educational expansion raises the influence of sorting across fields of study for children’s future life chances. Yet, we have little knowledge about horizontal stratification in the educational careers of children of immigrant parents, who often are positively selected on education relative to non-migrants in their origin country despite having comparatively low levels of absolute schooling. This paper examines the educational careers of immigrant descendants relative to majority children using Norwegian administrative data. We find that most immigrant descendants of non-Western origin experience substantial ethnic disadvantages in early school grades and have a lower likelihood of completing upper secondary education. However, they also have a higher probability of entering higher education, and they select more prestigious and better-paying fields of study. The ethnic penalty in school grades and upper secondary school completion disappears when adjusting for parental years of education, likely because immigrant parents are positively selected from their origin country. However, parental selectivity provides little insight into immigrant children’s high ambitions later in their educational careers. Overall, our findings reveal a complex pattern where immigrant descendants overcome early disadvantages at school by making increasingly ambitious choices as they progress through the educational system.

Machine Learning Bias in Predicting High School Grades: A Knowledge Perspective

This study focuses on the machine learning bias when predicting teacher grades. The experimental phase consists of predicting the student grades of 11th and 12thgrade Portuguese high school grades and computing the bias and variance decomposition. In the base implementation, only the academic achievement critical factors are considered. In the second implementation, the preceding year’s grade is appended as an input variable. The machine learning algorithms in use are random forest, support vector machine, and extreme boosting machine. The reasons behind the poor performance of the machine learning algorithms are either the input space poor preciseness or the lack of a sound record of student performance. We introduce the new concept of knowledge bias and a new predictive model classification. Precision education would reduce bias by providing low-bias intensive-knowledge models. To avoid bias, it is not necessary to add knowledge to the input space. Low-bias extensive-knowledge models are achievable simply by appending the student’s earlier performance record to the model. The low-bias intensive-knowledge learning models promoted by precision education are suited to designing new policies and actions toward academic attainments. If the aim is solely prediction, deciding for a low bias knowledge-extensive model can be appropriate and correct. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01298 Full Text: PDF

Isolated oral clefts and school grades: population-based cohort study from Norway

ObjectiveTo compare school grades of adolescents in Norway born with isolated cleft with those of their unaffected peers.DesignPopulation-based cohort study.SettingNorway.PatientsA total of 347 419 individuals born in Norway between 1986 and 1992, including 523 isolated cleft cases which were identified using data from Norway’s two treatment centres. Individuals were followed from birth through compulsory school.Main outcome measuresGrade point average (GPA) from middle school graduation (around the age of 16). Specific subject grades were also investigated.ResultsUsing a grade scale from 1–6, the observed mean GPA for the reference group was 3.99. Both cleft lip only (CLO) and cleft lip with cleft palate (CLP) had a mean GPA similar to the reference group (adjusted GPA differences from the reference with 95% CIs of 0.06 (−0.04 to 0.16) and −0.08 (−0.19 to 0.03), respectively). Cleft palate only (CPO) had a marginally lower GPA (adjusted GPA difference: −0.18 (−0.28 to −0.08)). These comparisons were consistent across specific subjects. Overall, the evidence suggests a larger difference in GPA between cases and controls in males compared with females. Females with CLO even had a higher estimated GPA than females in the reference group (adjusted GPA difference: 0.19 (0.013 to 0.36)). Grades were similar regardless of laterality of cleft lip (CLO or CLP).ConclusionIn Norway, individuals born with isolated CLO or CLP did not have lower average school grades when graduating from middle school. Individuals born with isolated CPO had marginally lower grades.

Socio-Emotional Competencies and School Performance in Adolescence: What Role for School Adjustment?

There is growing evidence in the literature of positive relationships between socio-emotional competencies and school performance. Several hypotheses have been used to explain how these variables may be related to school performance. In this paper, we explored the role of various school adjustment variables in the relationship between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades, using a weighted network approach. This network approach allowed us to analyze the structure of interrelations between each variable, pointing to both central and mediatory school and socio-emotional variables within the network. Self-reported data from around 3,400 French vocational high school students were examined. This data included a set of interpersonal socio-emotional competencies (cognitive and affective empathy, socio-emotional behaviors and collective orientation), school adjustment measures (adaptation to the institution, school anxiety, self-regulation at school, and self-perceived competence at school) as well as grades in mathematics and French language. The results showed that self-regulation at school weighted the most strongly on the whole network, and was the most important mediatory pathway. More specifically, self-regulation mediated the relationships between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades.

Evaluation of Diagrams in Science Textbooks for Middle school in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: تقييم الرسوم التوضيحية في كتب العلوم للمرحلة المتوسطة في المملكة العربية السعودية

The aim of the current research is to determine the extent to which the images, drawings and tables included in science textbooks for all middle school grades meet the textbooks standards, which are: (appropriateness of the shape's position to the concept, clarity and attractiveness of the colors, titles, size, realism, density of shapes, clarity, adequacy of number). To achieve the research goal the descriptive analytical approach was used, The research ppopulation consisted of all science textbooks for middle school (6) textbooks of the edition (2019). The results showed that the highest standard for images is: (titles) by (69%), and the highest standards for drawings are: (appropriateness of the shape's position to the concept, clarity and attractiveness of the colors, titles, density of shapes, clarity) by (40%), while the highest standard for tables is: (realism) by (16%). As for the least applicable standard in the images is (size) by (46%), and the least applicable standards in the drawings are (appropriateness of the shape's position to the concept, clarity and attractiveness of the colors) by (27%), and the least standards that applies to the tables are (clarity and attractiveness of the colors, and appropriateness of the shape's position to the concept) by (7%). In light of the results, it was recommended that attention should be paid to image standards (size, clarity and realism), as well as the need to pay attention to drawings standards (appropriateness of the shape's position to the concept, clarity and attractiveness of the colors, titles, density of shapes, clarity, and adequacy of number), as well as the need to pay attention to tables standards (appropriateness of the shape's position to the concept, clarity and attractiveness of the colors, titles, density of shapes, clarity, and adequacy of number) in science textbooks for the middle school.