Is the homogenous grouping of students by ability conducive to learning for all students alike, or does it affect students of different ability levels differently? To address this question, I compare the distributions of math performance for students between Grade 8 and Grade 4 across countries with different levels of between-classroom ability grouping, controlling for country-level unobserved heterogeneity using a fixed-effects model. Homogeneous grouping, relative to heterogeneous grouping, is found to have no significant impact on mean performance, but it does increase performance inequality by benefiting the high achievers at the expense of the low achievers.Keywords: Classroom homogeneity; Ability grouping; Tracking; Math performance; Fixed-effects model; TIMSSUma questão sensível que importa aprofundar.
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João Marques passando os olhos por... terrear.blogspot.com
Classroom homogeneity and the distribution of student math performance
http://terrear.blogspot.com/2009/11/classroom-homogeneity-and-distribution.html
November 8 2009, 9:26am | Comments »
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João Marques passando os olhos por... terrear.blogspot.com
Origins and Consequences of Schools’ Organizational Culture for Student Achievement
http://terrear.blogspot.com/2009/09/origins-and-consequences-of-schools.html
Xavier DumayGIRSEF, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL)Purpose: Most studies on the impact of school culture focus only on teachers’ average perceptions and neglect the possibility that a meaningful increment to the prediction of school effectiveness might be provided by the variance in teachers’ culture perceptions. The objectives of this article are to (a) better understand how teachers’ collective decision making and principal’s leadership are related to the schools’ culture homogeneity and (b) test the moderating role of the schools’ culture homogeneity on the relationship between four cultural scales and the schools’ mathematics achievement. Method: The sample of this study consisted of 2,595 students nested in 52 schools and 125 classes from the French-speaking community of Belgium. Students performed two mathematics achievement tests and answered a self-reported questionnaire on their backgrounds. All the teachers (n = 817) of the 52 schools answered a self-reported questionnaire dealing with the principal’s leadership, school culture, and teacher collegiality. Hypotheses are tested using correlation, regression, and hierarchical regression analyses. Research Findings: First, it was found that culture homogeneity is positively associated with (a) the principal’s transformational leadership (TL) and (b) the teachers’ collective decision making relative to pedagogical aspects. Second, it was shown that the impact of TL on culture homogeneity is partially mediated by teachers’ collective decision making. Third, the analyses found no moderation effect of culture homogeneity on the relationship between cultural values and students’ achievement but did show partial evidence of such an effect in specific groups of schools (with low or high socioeconomic status composition). Implications: This study provides a deeper understanding of how social arrangements and leadership processes within schools contribute to the emergence of collective cultural values. But the results also shed light on the weak associations between cultural values and student achievement, even when considering an appropriate definition and conceptualization of the school culture.Key Words: school culture • school effect • values • homogeneity • interactions • student achievementThis version was published on October 1, 2009Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 4, 523-555 (2009)DOI: 10.1177/0013161X09335873Fonte
- Tags:
- Cultura
- escola
- resultados
- homegeneidade
September 20 2009, 4:23pm | Comments »
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