Inequality of Opportunity in School Education: the Role of Territorial Factors

This study measures the impact of spatial factors on the educational achievements of Russian students. According to the theory of equal opportunities, individual achievements depend on two groups of determinants: uncontrollable circumstances and one’s own efforts. Inequality of achievements produced by inequality of effort is treated as ethically acceptable, while inequality arising from circumstances is unfair and therefore must be compensated. The research is based on the data of the International Program for the Assessment of Educational Achievements of Students (PISA), wave 2018. Multilevel regression modeling was applied. A two-level model was used, in which the first level is that of the student, while the second level is regional. The calculations showed that anywhere from 14 to 16% of the variance in Russian students’ academic achievements is attributed to interregional irregularities. We learned that controlling for socio-economic status, lack of staff and material support in the school, type of area in which the school is located, and gender of the student make it possible to slightly reduce the role of regional differences, though it still remained significant. To a certain extent the impact of regional factor can be explained by variations in the influence of family background, school characteristics and gender across regions. The estimation of regional random effects allowed for identifying both the leaders and the outsiders in terms of the availability and quality of school education. Calculations have shown that the leaders and outsiders are practically the same in regards to all three areas of literacy.

Advanced Training of Teachers of Mathematics and Computer Science on the Basis of a Team Approach to Eliminate Methodological Defi ciencies in the Implementation of a Criteria-Based Assessment of Students’ Educational Achievements

The widespread introduction of a criterion system for evaluating the educational results of schoolchildren is an actual and significant direction of the development of domestic education. The article is devoted to the problem of eliminating methodological deficits of teachers in the development of criteria assessment tools for the current control of subject results of teaching mathematics and computer science in primary and high school. The article describes the method of organizing advanced training of teachers of mathematics and computer science on the basis of a team approach that contributes to the practical implementation of the intra-school system of current control of students ' academic achievements on a criterion basis. The article presents an approach to the implementation of an additional professional training program for teachers of mathematics and computer science on the basis of "team training", focused on the development of professional skills necessary for conducting procedures for the current control of subject learning outcomes, the Department of Mathematical Education and Computer Science of St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.

CRITERIA BASED INTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF STUDENTS IN TEACHING ENGLISH

This article presents theoretical and practical aspects of Criteria-Based Assessment of students’ educational achievements and it shows systematic implementation of internal and external assessment at colleges. The content of the article is divided into two sections. The first section presents the theoretical part, principles and connection of criteria-based assessment with the curriculum. The second section shows approaches to criteria-based assessment, improved after the application of the Integrated Model of Criteria-Based Assessment. The article of criteria-based assessment of students’ educational achievements is intended for use at colleges.

How to improve online assessment procedures in high school?

At present blended learning provides an opportunity to get an education regardless of external circumstances, such as pandemics and quarantine. Still, increasing student motivation to master new material and level of acquisition of knowledge is one of the challenges faced by teachers as the field of teaching online is subject to constant changes. This study aimed to elaborate the model of enhanced assessment in an e-learning course “General English” when teaching English as a second language at university to increase student educational achievements. The effectiveness of the model of enhanced assessment in the learning process was measured with the methodology for calculating statistical indicators of the quality of education: knowledge quality, level of student proficiency, progress, and average grade. The results of the initial and final control of the statistical indicators of the quality of education showed a significant difference between the control and the experimental groups. It is concluded that the replacement of formal types of assessment with the model of enhanced assessment is the key to increasing student educational achievements.

USE OF ENHANCED FEEDBACK IN AN ELECTRONIC LEARNING COURSE “FUNDAMENTALS OF MOLECULAR PHYSICS AND THERMODYNAMICS”

Background: Being an essential part of the educational process, blended learning still faces some problems concerning the interaction between teachers and students. They include a decrease in the level of knowledge and in the number of graduates as students experience a lack of live communication with the teacher, lack of sufficient experience of independent work, lack of interactive assessment. Aim: This study aimed to elaborate the model of enhanced feedback in an e-learning course, “Fundamentals of Molecular Physics and Thermodynamics,” to increase student educational achievements. Methods: The effectiveness of the model of enhanced feedback in the learning process was measured with the methodology for calculating statistical indicators of the quality of education: knowledge quality, level of student proficiency, progress, and average grade. To measure the emotional and evaluative attitude of students to educational activities and interaction with the teacher in an electronic course, a test-questionnaire satisfaction with learning activity was employed. Results and Discussion: the results of the initial and final control of the statistical indicators of the quality of education including knowledge quality, level of student proficiency, progress, and average grade in students showed a significant difference between the control and the experimental groups. At the end of the semester, the difference in knowledge quality was 23%, student proficiency level – 13%, progress – 3.5%, average grade – 0.6 scores. The analysis of student satisfaction with the learning process also confirms an increase in satisfaction with the learning process and with the interaction with the lecturer. Thus, the experimental methodology contributes to a significant improvement in the learning process results. Conclusions: The experiment demonstrated that replacing formative assessment with the model of enhanced feedback raises student educational achievements and compensates for lack of live communication with the teacher.

Analysis of the external context of educational organizations that significantly affects educational outcomes in regional education management systems

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the contradiction between the presence of common strategic objectives for the education development to ensure the competitiveness of Russian schoolchildren in international comparative studies and the lack of a mechanism that allows one to objectively assess the differences between educational organizations due to the peculiarities of the student body and the characteristics of the territory where they are located. The research purpose is to form a list of characteristics that are consistent with international and Russian monitoring studies and forms of statistical reporting, making it possible to identify educational organizations operating in different socio-economic conditions. Materials and methods. The study was carried out on the databases of the results of monitoring studies and procedures for assessing the quality of general education in the Tomsk region. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to assess the statistical significance of differences in data. Research results. An information base has been formed, including aggregated socio-economic characteristics correlated with the educational achievements of the student body from 273 general education organizations of the Tomsk region (data as of 2019). The revealed statistically significant differences (p<0.001) between small, rural and urban educational organizations will make it possible to objectively analyze the educational achievements of a particular educational organization, specifically identify deficiencies and effective management practices, as well as coordinate the socio-economic policy of the Tomsk region. Discussion and conclusion. The agreement of the list of socio-economic characteristics with international studies initiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will allow regional education authorities, regardless of participation in international comparative studies, to calculate a quantitative index reflecting educational advantages or disadvantages due to external factors relating to the educational organization. The index calculation in Russian practice is a new urgent task, which is difficult and resource-intensive without special software tools.

The parallel convergence of income and educational achievements: joint distribution dynamics

Human capital is an important factor of economic growth. Previous studies show that convergence patterns of income and education differ on a regional level. The purpose of this article is to verify whether there is statistical relationship between the patterns of educational achievements convergence and income convergence processes in Poland on the regional and local level. The paper describes and applies an innovative way for the formal verification of similarities in convergence patterns on the basis of transition matrices and kernel density estimation. The analysis is performed on Polish data for educational achievements (lagged exam results of 15-year old pupils) and income per capita worker on the regional and local level for the period 2003–2015. Despite the occurrence of (weak) convergence for both phenomena, each has a different course. Therefore, the processes of the income convergence and educational achievements convergence in Poland were not parallel.

Natural scientific literacy in biology assignments formed by the teacher

The article is devoted to the actual problem of independent construction by teachers of tasks for the formation and assessment of the formation of natural science literacy within the content of the school biology course. Natural science literacy is a component of functional literacy – the central concept of the modern approach to determining educational achievements in the world practice of research of educational systems of different countries. The purpose of the article is to present the results of the study of identifying problems and approaches to the design of tasks aimed at the formation of natural science literacy within the framework of the educational subject “biology”. For this purpose, the concepts of tasks for the formation and assessment of the formation of natural science literacy in the framework of the PISA study are considered, as well as strategies for constructing such tasks are developed. The paper provides an example of step-by-step implementation of the developed strategies, author’s tasks with detailed characteristics of the questions. Based on the results of the study, conclusions were formed that it is possible to distinguish a sequence of actions for designing tasks and the availability of these actions for teachers. The experience of designing tasks will have a positive impact on the efficiency of including tasks in the educational process.

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE STUDENTSON ON THE SUBJECTS OF REGIONAL RATING OF QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Рассматриваются результаты анализа муниципальных исследований учебных достижений обучающихся по русскому языку и математике из учреждений, входящих в состав регионального рейтинга оценки качества деятельности образовательной организации. Исследование педагогических условий функционирования школ, отмеченных в рейтинге, позволяет определить возможные причины низких результатов обучающихся при высоком рейтинге образовательных организаций. В исследовании удалось сопоставить среднюю бальную оценку по русскому языку и математике в 6-9 классах с рейтинговым местом школ и установить ряд причин их несоответствия. The article considers the results of the analysis of municipal studies of educational achievements of students in the Russian language and mathematics of institutions that are part of the regional rating for assessing the quality of educational organizations. The study of the pedagogical conditions of the functioning of schools marked in the rating allows us to determine the possible reasons for the low results of students with a high rating of educational organizations. The study compared the average score in Russian language and mathematics in grades 6-9 with the ranking of schools and established a number of reasons for their discrepancy.