Annual Report 2012, Cadiz
1. Conference programme
The conference programme of Network 9 at ECER 2012 in Cádiz consisted of 40 sessions with a total number of 101 papers. Four posters were presented. The sessions attracted a varied audience due to the range of different topics presented, with 15 to 25 people attending on average. Single key sessions had more than 50 participants. With authors from 31 countries, chair persons and discussants from 7 countries, and reviewers from 17 countries, the programme of Network 9 at ECER 2012 and its organization again comprised a truly international body of researchers from Europe and beyond.
The network programme contained four symposia as well as 32 additional paper sessions.
The four symposia organized in Network 9 covered the following topics:
- Findings from International Comparative Achievement Studies (Symposium organizers: Tjeerd Plomp, Wilfried Bos, Martin Goy, Pekka Kupari and Monica Rosén) In sum, the symposium included 9 papers. The papers were organized into 4 thematic sessions.
- School Effectiveness and Development of Achievements in Primary School – Importance of Social Background, System, School and Classroom Factors (Symposium organizers: Heinz Günter Holtappels, Michael Pfeifer and Wilfried Bos) This symposium contained 2 sessions with a total number of 7 papers.
- Evaluating the Citizenship Competences of Young Adolescents in Europe: Methods, Patterns and Trends (Symposium organizer: Wolfram Schulz) This symposium included 4 papers in one thematic session.
- Multilingualism and Education: Research on Factors Influencing Achievement in the Phase of Later Language Development (Symposium organizers: Joana da Silveira Duarte and Ingrid Gogolin) This symposium included 2 papers in one thematic session.
Furthermore, the programme of Network 9 included 32 paper sessions with 79 papers on the following topics (in alphabetic order):
- Assessing Religious Education and the Implementation of Sustainable Development Education
- Assessment for Learning: The Role of Feedback and Peers
- Assessment in Higher Education (3 sessions)
- Assessment Policies and Evaluation Instruments
- Assessments in Elementary and Primary Education
- Assessments in Secondary Education: Gender Differences in Competencies and Attitudes
- Challenges in Educational Assessments (2 sessions)
- Current Issues in Developing Assessments
- Determinants of Student Achievement and Educational Segregation
- Findings from International Comparative Achievement Studies (12 sessions on different subtopics, in addition to the four symposium sessions of the same overall title listed above):
- Attitudes Towards Mathematics and Science
- Effects of Age and Grade
- Frame-of-Reference and School Composition Effects
- Issues in Equity and Inequality
- Issues in Study Design and Reporting
- Perspectives on Teaching
- Relating Achievement to Teaching, School and System Variables
- Relationships in Civic and Citizenship Education
- Relationships in Mathematics, Science and Problem Solving
- Relationships in Mathematics, Science and Reading Performance
- Relationships in Reading Performance (2 sessions)
- Individual Education Plans: Evaluating Practices and Perceptions
- Issues in Test Development and Data Modeling
- Longitudinal Assessments of Student Achievement and Attitudes
- Methodological Issues in Large-scale Assessments
- National and Regional Large-scale Assessments: Methods and Findings
- Relating National to International Large-scale Assessments
- School Monitoring and School Improvement in Different National Settings
- Teachers’ and Students’ Competencies and Attitudes
As part of cross-network activities encouraged by EERA, our network held a joint session with Network 13 (Philosophy of Education) on the topic of Challenges in Educational Assessments to follow up on a successful and enlightening earlier joint research workshop with the same network at ECER 2010 in Helsinki.
Further, Network 9 participated in conducting the Emerging Researchers’ Conference of ECER 2012 by providing mentorship for one of the paper sessions at this preconference.
The overall intake of submissions of proposals for symposia, papers and posters to Network 9 was the highest in the network’s history, with close to 150 submissions before redirections, rejections and withdrawals. The number of submissions finally to be presented in Network 9 at EERA was considerably lower, which was due to the selection process in the double blind peer review applied in Network 9 and also due to a noticeable number of authors withdrawing their submissions shortly before the conference. Lack of travel funding and the slightly “challenging” location of Cádiz in terms of travel arrangements were among the reasons given for those late withdrawals.
Please refer to the minutes of the Network Meeting and the different sections of the website of Network 9 for more details on the work and activities in Network 9.