Session Information
11 SES 01 A, Quality of Student’s Performance
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
This paper examines the potential effects of school social mix on student academic achievement in Mathematics and Science at primary level. Findings from several international studies show a significant relationship between student academic performance and socioeconomic status (SES), with students from low SES generally performing less well and more likely to leave school early (e.g. Eamon 2005; Hochschild 2003). Research also shows that schools differ considerably in their student outcomes, even after taking into account students' ability and family background. School factors include school structure, composition, size and climate, or "general atmosphere" (Crosnoe et al. 2004; Teddlie and Stringfield 1993; Mortimore et al. 1988). While many studies such as these point to the importance of examining both the student-level and the classroom context, or school learning environment, as determinants of children's progress (Willms 2010), they have tended to focus on outcomes rather than processes and have tended to adopt largely atheoretical approaches. As a result, it is difficult to determine the precise proecsses explaining any impact of social mix. This paper addresses three main research questions: 1. Do students in working-class schools make less academic progress in Mathematics and Science than those in mixed or middle-class schools? 2. Does a teacher's instructional role (for example, in terms of time management, use of higher order questioning, and assessment methods) vary according to the social mix of students in the classroom? 3. What is the relationship between the learning environment created at the school level and the social mix of students in the school? Using recently-acquired cross-national data from the European ADDITION study of primary school effectiveness, this paper examines students' perceptions of teachers' instructional behaviour and school context and the effects of these classroom- and school-factors on their achievement in Mathematics and Science. The study was based on the dynamic model of educational effectiveness (Creemers and Kyriakides 2008), a multilevel model comprising four different levels, i.e. student, classroom, school, and system. The student- and classroom- levels focus on the teaching and learning situation and are based on the roles of the two principal actors, i.e. teachers and students. The model contains eight factors relating to these two levels, i.e. orientation, structuring, questioning, teaching-modelling, application, management of time, teacher role in making the classroom a learning environment, and assessment. These eight teacher/student factors have been found to be associated with student outcomes (e.g., Brophy and Good 1986; Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Seidel and Shavelson 2007). The influence of school-level factors on the teaching/learning situation is represented in school policies; the system-level comprises formal mechanisms of the educational system, especially through national/regional education policy.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Brophy J. and Good, T. (1986). Teacher behavior and student achievement. In M.C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed.). New York: McMillan. Creemers, B.P.M. and Kyriakides, L. (2008). The dynamics of educational effectiveness: A contribution to policy, practice and theory in contemporary schools. London: Routledge. Crosnoe, R., M. Kirkpatrick Johnson, and G.H. Elder Jr. (2004). School size and the interpersonal side of education: An examination of race/ethnicity and organizational context. Social Science Quarterly 95(5): 1259-1274. Eamon, M. (2005). Social-demographic, school, neighbourhood, and parenting effects on academic achievement of Latino young adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 34(2): 163-175. Hochschild, J. (2003). Social class in public schools. Journal of Social Issues 59(4): 821-840. Kyriakides, L. and Creemers, B.P.M. (2008). Using a multidimensional approach to measure the impact of classroom level factors upon student achievement: A study testing the validity of the dynamic model. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 19(2), 183-205 Mortimore, P. (1998). The road to improvement: Reflections on school effectiveness (Contexts in Learning Series). Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger Muijs, D. and Reynolds, D. (2001). Effective teaching: Evidence and practice. London: Sage. Seidel, T. and Shavelson, R.J. (2007). Teaching effectiveness research in the past decade: The role of theory and research design in disentangling meta-analysis results. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 454-499. Teddlie, C. and Stringfield, S. (1993). Schools make a difference: Lessons learned from a ten year study of school effects. New York: Teachers College Press. Willms, D. (2010). School composition and contextual effects on student outcomes. Teachers College Record 112 (4): 1008-1037.
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