Search results for: 0239-6858 in All Content

Territorial inequity in the decentralised education system of educational inputs. Evidence from Poland

Przestrzenne nierówności oferty edukacyjnej w zdecentralizowanym systemie oświaty. Przypadek Polski

Author(s): Mikołaj Herbst,Anna Wojciuk / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2014

Keywords: decentralization of education; local governments; inequality; teaching time; teacher wage

Decentralisation of education, as for any other public service, is associated with the risk of increasing spatial inequality with respect to the inputs and the quality of the service. Most countries try to prevent a rise in inequality by establishing national standards for educational services and through redistribution of financial resources for neutralisation of the effect of an uneven local tax base. This study investigates the effectiveness of these measures in Poland. Using panel data at a municipal level, it was shown that, despite the various compensatory instruments employed by central government, the local tax base significantly influences local spending on lower secondary schools. Average teaching time and additional services offered to students in the poorest with the most affluent Polish municipalities were compared. The findings showed that teaching time in the rich and poor local school systems did not significantly vary. There was no significant difference in the mean teacher hourly wage. The more affluent and poorer municipalities do however differ with respect to individual support and additional services offered to students.

Interventions for reduction of stereotype threat in the school environment

Interwencje redukujące zagrożenia stereotypem w środowisku edukacyjnym

Author(s): Dariusz Drążkowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2014

Keywords: academic performance; intervention; social psychology; stereotype threat

Stereotyping can impede student educational achievement. This article describes intervention intended to reduce its threat in the school environment. The first part of this article explains how stereotypy threatens students from three angles: those threatened by stereotypy, development of the threat and its negative consequences. The article presents interventions to combat stereotyping. Four types are discussed: targeted on society and school, behaviour of teachers, test conditions and focused on students. Results demonstrate effective, often very simple and inexpensive solutions to reduce the threat of stereotype to students.

Application of composite indicators and nonparametric methods to evaluate and improve the efficiency of the technical universities

Wykorzystanie wskaźników złożonych i metod nieparametrycznych do oceny i poprawy efektywności funkcjonowania wyższych uczelni technicznych

Author(s): Andrzej Szuwarzyński,Bartosz Julkowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2014

Keywords: economics of education; Data Envelopment Analysis; composite indicators; efficiency; technical universities

Publicly funded universities, like commercial organizations, are obliged to ensure their efficiency. This article presents a model to measure and assess the relative efficiency of technical universities. The analysis was performed using publically available data from 2011 for 18 universities using the composite indicators method and the SBM Data Envelopment Analysis model. Fourteen indicators for efficiency were defined in the five areas of the university performance: research, teaching, scientific staff development, quality of teaching processes and public funding. Inefficient units were identified, based on their calculated efficiency scores and the directions for change to allow them to reach greater efficiency were suggested. Methods used to assess efficiency allowed the combined effect of all relevant factors to be taken into account which described the basic operations of the university.

Estimating the effect of class size on academic achievement by ex post facto experiment

Szacowanie wpływu liczebności klasy na osiągnięcia edukacyjne uczniów z wykorzystaniem eksperymentu ex post facto

Author(s): Maciej Koniewski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2012

Keywords: sociology of education; class size effect; academic achievement measurement; quasi-experimental research

The analyses of influence of class size on academic achievement used data from study conducted in 2006 by the Regional Examination Board in Cracow (Poland). The variables explaining the achievements of lower secondary school pupils were identified using regression analysis. The model explains 71% of variance of exam results. These variables were used to identify statistical twins. Their assignment to the experimental and control group was performed in three ways: by stratification using Mahalanobis distance, matching one-to-many and one-to-one using k-means method. The last method proved the most successful. The effect of class size on student outcomes proved statistically insignificant. However, pupils from classes with below 23 pupils achieved higher mean scores than their peers from larger classes by 0.039 standard deviation.

Assessment of inhibitory control in children from 3 to 11 years

Pomiar kontroli hamowania testem sortowania kart dla dzieci

Author(s): Sławomir Jabłoński,Izabela Kaczmarek,Katarzyna Kaliszewska-Czeremska,Anna Izabela Brzezińska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2012

Keywords: cognitive psychology; developmental psychology; Children Cart Sort; inhibitory control; Dimensional Change Cart Sort; executive functions

The paper presents theory and design of Children Card Sort (CCS). The authors created the CCS as a standard method of psychological assessment of executive functions development. Design of the CCS is based on the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) commonly used in scientific research with children. The tool was tested in a pilot study with 49 children aged 3–11. The results showed a similar pattern of scores as in the DCCS to give a good starting point to design a final version of the CCS.

Keywords: history; chronology; chronological thinking; lower secondary school exam; history teaching; lower secondary school

Jak sprawdzane jest myślenie chronologiczne?

Author(s): Jakub Lorenc,Krzystzof Mrozowski,Aleksandra Oniszczuk,Jacek Staniszewski,Klaudia Starczynowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2012

Keywords: history; chronology; chronological thinking; lower secondary school exam; history teaching; lower secondary school

Chronological thinking is an indispensable tool to structure a historical narrative and to give meaning to a sequence of events. It is not a natural skill, so the conscious inclusion of tasks stimulating that skill in teaching is crucial. It is important to appropriately test students’ chronological skills by means of well-constructed examination tasks administered at the conclusion of subsequent stages of education. The authors discuss tasks that assess chronological thinking included in contemporary exam papers in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Russia, the USA and the United Kingdom. The tasks included in Polish arts and humanities exam papers at the lower secondary school level in the years 2002–2011 and the first history paper (2012) are then analysed. The final section presents the results of a survey to test the chronological thinking of lower secondary school students carried out by the Educational Research Institute.

English lesson from the perspective of third-grade students of lower secondary school

Lekcja języka angielskiego z perspektywy uczniów klas trzecich gimnazjów

Author(s): Agata Gajewska-Dyszkiewicz,Katarzyna Kutyłowska,Filip Kulon,Katarzyna Paczuska,Ludmiła Rycielska,Magdalena Szpotowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2012

Keywords: foreign language teaching; communicative approach; European Survey on Language Competences; EFL classroom

The International Standard Classification of Education ISCED: the standard from Sevrès or Satan’s trick?

Międzynarodowa Standardowa Klasyfikacja Wykształcenia ISCED: wzorzec z Sevrès czy wymysł Szatana?

Author(s): Zbigniew Sawiński / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2012

Keywords: education; ISCED; inter-country comparative research; European Social Survey

The aim of the ISCED classification was to compare educational resources in different countries. One of the reasons why the classification fails is that it does not reflect the specific characteristics of educational systems in individual countries and as a result creates an oversimplified image of the role of education in contemporary societies. In Poland, the national classification provides a better tool than the ISCED for specifying the role of education, which is demonstrated by the results of the 2010 European Social Survey. The advantage of national classification over the ISCED follows from the fact that it takes changes and reforms in the Polish educational system into consideration. These empirical results speak for supplementing standards with national classifications for education which allow specific characteristics of education systems to be taken into account in inter-country comparison. This would be a step towards functional harmonisation, a concept abandoned after the year 2000 which was replaced with methodological rigor. In the discussion possible reasons are outlined for why researchers find using the ISCED more appropriate for their countries than constructing their own instruments.

Card sorting as a method for cognitive flexibility assessment in 3 to 8 year old children

Sortowanie kart jako metoda badania giętkości poznawczej u dzieci w wieku 3–8 lat

Author(s): Sławomir Jabłoński,Izabela Kaczmarek,Katarzyna Kaliszewska-Czeremska,Marzenna Zakrzewska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2013

Keywords: cognitive psychology; developmental psychology; Dimensional Change Card Sort; Children Card Sort; executive function; cognitive flexibility; task-switching; perseveration

Two parallel versions of Children Card Sort (CCS) designed by the authors on the basis of the Dimensional Children Card Sort (DCCS) are presented. Both of these versions of CCS have been standardized for application in the investigation of child executive functioning. In the pilot study, 41 healthy children aged 3–8 were tested and the reliability of both types of CCS investigated. The validity of a method for calculating final scores for different aspects of CCS was also tested. The research confirmed the reliability of both versions of CCS and showed the need for new procedures to calculate final scores. Theoretical foundations of the card sort method, commonly used in the research of child executive functions are described and the concepts of inhibitory control, memory, conceptual reasoning and theories of complexity are discussed. Since none of these concepts are commonly accepted to explain the processes underlying card sorting the authors suggest interpretation of CCS as a measure of cognitive flexibility.

Measurement of mathematics teachers' competence

Pomiar kompetencji nauczycieli matematyki

Author(s): Monika Czajkowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2013

Keywords: maths teacher; teacher competence

In many countries, including Poland, attention has been focussed on teacher training and in-service training for the teaching of mathematics over recent years. Research has been initiated to identify the relationship between teacher competence and knowledge and skills of their students. This article reviews research conducted in different European countries.

Social trust in education in Poland and European countries, 2002–2010

Zaufanie społeczeństwa do edukacji w Polsce i w krajach europejskich

Author(s): Zbigniew Sawiński / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2013

Keywords: education; social trust; legitimacy; European Social Survey

Social trust in education is at least partly rooted in the legitimacy of the principal institutions which organise the social order, such as the political system, democracy and economy. Easton formulated the theoretical justification for this hypothesis in the 1960s, while empirical confirmation was delayed until the first decade of this century, when the data was collected in the European Social Survey. The results of ESS confirmed the hypothesis that trust in education is influenced by the legitimacy of the more fundamental state institutions but the mechanisms of this effect vary across Europe. In countries where schools are autonomous and control over them is located at community level, trust in education becomes independent from social support for the state. However, in countries where education is considered to be a government agency, strongly shaped by political goals, people tend to evaluate education together with other state institutions. The ESS data also provide insight into factors determining trust in education at the level of the individual. Surprisingly, the lowest degree of trust was shown by the upper classes, including the educated, whom the education system had benefited most. This is not conducive to the involvement of such people in countries that are building their educational resources.

Early media education in the family. Determinants for parental media mediation

Wczesna edukacja medialna w rodzinie. Uwarunkowania rodzicielskich form mediacji korzystania z mediów

Author(s): Anna Kołodziejczyk / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2013

Keywords: psychology; media mediation; media use; young child; family

Article discusses the problem of the parental informal educational role in the use of media by young children. The aim of the research was to identify the determinants for active and passive media mediation. Based on interviews with parents of 313 children aged from six months to six years and six months, it was found that during this period the frequency of active mediation increases. Active mediation depends on the size of the family in which a child is growing up. Parents’ belief about positive media effects promotes viewing together with children. The frequency of passive media mediation is lower, the more family screen-media are a regular part of the child’s environment. Active and passive media mediation are more frequently applied by parents that are more aware of potential negative media effects.

The effect of school entrance age on academic performance

Wiek startu szkolnego a osiągnięcia w nauce w okresie wczesnoszkolnym

Author(s): Krzysztof Konarzewski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2013

Keywords: education; academic achievement; birth date effect; relative age effect; TIMSS

The study investigated the relationships between school achievement and pupil age at entry into first grade and age relative to the class. Data from 101 519 grade 4 pupils were selected from TIMSS 2011 achievement data in mathematics and science, collected from national samples of 25 European countries. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the effect of class relative age was greater than the effect of grade relative age and it was significantly higher in younger than older classes. Average achievement (especially in science) was better in older classes.

Psychometric models in diagnostic measurement

Modele psychometryczne w pomiarze diagnostycznym

Author(s): Artur Pokropek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2013

Keywords: educational measurement; exams; IRT; mathematics; DINA model; latent traits models; diagnostic model; diagnostic measurement

In this article basic types of psychometric models useful in diagnostic educational measurement are presented. Particular attention is paid to a new measurement category for Polish educational psychometric models, referred to as statistical diagnostic models or cognitive diagnostic models. One of the cognitive diagnostic models: DINA was described and applied to Polish examination data (the mathematics part of the upper secondary mathematical-science exam). The article shows the benefits and limitations of the approach as an educational diagnostic measurement.

Possible models of interpretation of a poem Justice, by Jan Twardowski at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels

O możliwych modelach szkolnej interpretacji tekstu poetyckiego i kompozycji wypowiedzi na przykładzie wiersza Jana Twardowskiego „Sprawiedliwość”

Author(s): Angelika Matuszek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2013

Keywords: literature; didactics of literature; Jan Twardowski; analysis; interpretation poetry; text composition

The question of analysis and interpretation of poems, as they function in school reality, has been the subject of research since the mid-twentieth century. How students analyse and interpret poems and what methods and techniques of interpretation they apply to understand poems are the subject of this article. Based on the work of students of primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools the researcher tries to discover the methods used by young people in the interpretation of the poem. Almost every method was discovered in all schools and differences were related to frequency, method and content of interpretation.

Validity of screening for risk of specific learning disabilities in reading and spelling with the use of the Educational Prognosis Scale

Trafność Skali prognoz edukacyjnych jako narzędzia do przesiewowej diagnozy specyficznego zaburzenia uczenia się czytania i pisania

Author(s): Katarzyna Wiejak,Grażyna Krasowicz-Kupis,Wojciech Błaszczak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2016

Keywords: screening; risk of dyslexia; specific learning disorder; assessment validity

The purpose of this article is to assess the validity of screening, as performed by teachers, for the risk of specific learning disabilities . The diagnosis of specific learning disabilities at the earliest possible stage of a child’s development is a prerequisite for intervention success, which can prevent or limit future school difficulties. The condition of a good screening according to evidence based assessment is the use of tools with high psychometric properties, based on current theoretical and empirical data. In this article we describe the SPE IBE Educational Prognosis Scale and research demonstrating the validity of this tool. The results of observations of teachers were compared with measurements made by specialists using standardized tests of reading and writing. The results of the analysis show that teachers can accurately identify children at risk of specific learning disabilities.

Gender differences in the predictive validity of student achievement indicators from lower secondary school

Trafność prognostyczna wskaźników osiągnięć gimnazjalnych względem wyników maturalnych dziewcząt i chłopców

Author(s): Karolina Świst,Paulina Skórska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2016

Keywords: educational research; predictive validity; gender; hierarchical linear modeling; grading

In this article, we discuss the gender differences in the predictive validity of students’ Matura results. We use the achievement indicators (school grades, grade point average and standardized exam results) from lower secondary school as predictors of success on the Matura exams. Due to a number of psychological, socio-cultural and other factors, achievement indicators may function differentially according to gender. Thus, we hypothesize that the predictive validity itself may differ for girls and boys. We analyzed two cohorts of students – the first one took the exam at the end of lower secondary school in 2011 and the Matura in 2014, the second one took its exams in 2012 and 2015. We conducted the analysis using hierarchical linear modeling and ability level estimated within the IRT paradigm. The results show the differential functioning of achievement indicators according to gender and domain tested (mathematics and literacy). Combining exam results and school grades is the best strategy to predict the Matura’s results; however, the differences in the predictive validity between girls and boys is negligible.

An overview of research testing relationships between spatial abilities of pupils’ and students’ competencies of exact sciences

Przegląd badań nad związkami zdolności przestrzennych z kompetencjami z nauk ścisłych uczniów i studentów

Author(s): Dariusz Drążkowski,Krzysztof Piątkowski,Jakub Szwedo,Marcin Jadwiżyc / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2017

Keywords: cognitive abilities; training of spatial abilities; abilities in the exact sciences; spatial abilities

Spatial abilities are one of the strongest determinants of achievement in the exact sciences. The aim of the article is to present and systematise the most recent research on the links between the level of spatial abilities and performance in science. In the first part of the article, we define the types of spatial abilities. Then we present the determinants of spatial abilities. In the following parts of the article, we discuss the results of the research showing the relationship between the level of spatial abilities and competences in the exact sciences. At the end of the article, we present empirically verified methods for developing spatial abilities among students. The results of the studies described in the article show how to improve the achievements of students in the exact sciences through the development of spatial abilities.

Do teachers participate in lifelong learning? Competencies and the educational activities of teachers

Czy nauczyciele uczą się przez całe życie? Kompetencje i aktywność edukacyjna nauczycieli

Author(s): Barbara Worek,Magdalena Jelonek,Marcin Kocór / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2017

Keywords: sociology of education; professional development of teachers; skills; skills development; lifelong learning

This paper examines teachers’ involvement in improving and developing their skills. The analysis is based on data from the study of Human Capital in Poland. However, the main analysis is complemented by a detailed comparison of indicators of teachers’ professional development activities included in other studies (TALIS, PIAAC and research on teachers’ time and working conditions). The first part of the paper defines the concept of teachers’ professional development used in the analysis, followed by an identification of the developmental functions and factors that may affect its effectiveness. The next part of this paper presents a self-assessment of teachers’ and other professionals’ skills results based on the study of Human Capital in Poland. Then, the basic indicators of teachers’ professional development from four various studies are discussed, identifying the methodological approaches and specificity of each. The last part of the paper presents a broader discussion on the results of the study of Human Capital relating to the professional development activities undertaken by teachers.

The significance of student age variance in estimating value added measures for Polish lower secondary schools

The significance of student age variance in estimating value added measures for Polish lower secondary schools

Author(s): Aleksandra Jasińska-Maciążek / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

Keywords: educational value added; EVA validity; birthday effect; age effects; early school entry; delayed school entry; grade retention; gains in school achievements

Research shows that there are at least four age related factors correlated with the level of school achievement and improvement: month of birth, early or delayed school entry and grade retention. Educational value added (EVA) measures are used in the evaluation of school effectiveness. They are estimated from relative increases in achievement. However, Polish EVA models do not include student age, which may bias the calculated indicators. This article presents findings from a study estimating the magnitude of this bias for Polish lower secondary schools over four years (2010–2013). The results demonstrated that the inclusion of student age only slightly changed EVA estimates. The bias caused by omitting age in recent years seems, therefore, rather minor.