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Reflections on Educational Achievement

Papers in Honour of T. Neville Postlethwaite

This book is dedicated to T. Neville Postlethwaite, an outstanding scholar who in March 1995 retired from his professorship at the Institute of Comparative Education at the University of Hamburg. It contains a number of articles by authors who have accompanied him during various stages of his life and work. The contributions represent different fields of research, ranging from educational psychology to issues relevant to educational policy making. They also display a variety of different methodological approaches. This wide spectrum will help the novice educational researcher to become familiar with the classical, as well as recently developed, techniques and applications in the field of educational achievement. The expert may enjoy this anthology as an influence which T. Neville Postlethwaite has exerted both as an academic teacher and researcher.

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Contents

Torsten Husén

Thomas Neville Postlethwaite

A Doctorfather's Subjective Portrait

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Frederick F. Abrahams & Ingrid N. Sommerkorn

Promoting Gender Awareness in the Classroom

An Example from Germany

Is there a gender bias in the transmission of knowledge in coeducational institutions of learning and, if so, does coeducational schooling itself act to perpetuate unequal educational experiences for girls in relation to boys? Are teachers themselves aware of the role played by gender in their teaching and, if not, what can be done to remedy the situation? This paper addresses itself to such questions. It points out the cost, both in emotional and cognitive terms, that girls pay for having to accommodate to a male-oriented coeducational system; lower self-esteem, a more passive classroom role and discouragement in developing skills needed for employment in the upper echelons of tomorrow's technological work force. In the paper it will be then discussed a Hamburg project designed to sensitize teachers and educational administrators to gender inequities - "Netzwerk LINT". It address problems of gender awareness in teacher behavior, classroom dynamics, curricular materials and single-sex vs. coeducational settings.

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Bodo von Borries

Exploring the Construction of Historical Meaning

Cross-Cultural Studies of Historical Consciousness Among Adolescents

Historical consciousness has seldomly been compared internationally. This article presents selected results from two pilot studies conducted in nine European countries with closed items in 1992 (8th-graders), and in eight European and Non-European countries with open stimuli in 1989/92 (highschool and university students). Some methodological implications related to the problem of measuring highly culturally dependent phenomena are discussed. The findings are supplemented by some references to a representative comparison between students in East and West Germany in 1992, which rendered almost no differences in most constructs, but very heavy contrasts in the judgements of the two German states between 1949 and 1989.

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Wilfried Bos

International Summer Language Courses

Their Role in Learning to Appreciate Multiculturalism and Developing a Sense of "Europeanness"

Is there a gender bias in the transmission of knowledge in coeducational institutions of learning and, if so, does coeducational schooling itself act to perpetuate unequal educational experiences for girls in relation to boys? Are teachers themselves aware of the role played by gender in their teaching and, if not, what can be done to remedy the situation? This paper addresses itself to such questions. It points out the cost, both in emotional and cognitive terms, that girls pay for having to accommodate to a male-oriented coeducational system; lower self-esteem, a more passive classroom role and discouragement in developing skills needed for employment in the upper echelons of tomorrow's technological work force. In the paper it will be then discussed a Hamburg project designed to sensitize teachers and educational administrators to gender inequities - "Netzwerk LINT". It address problems of gender awareness in teacher behavior, classroom dynamics, curricular materials and single-sex vs. coeducational settings.

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Jörn Bruhn

Mathematics Education and Comparative Studies

Two Examples

The 'Meraner Reform' of 1905 in Germany and the IEA mathematics study of 1967 are examples of the changed perception of the meaning and uses of comparative education: a rather narrow, utilitarian approach to school practices was succeeded by successful cross-national research emphasizing its potential for extending fundamental educational knowledge on a global basis.

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Arthur Cropley

Creative Performance in Older Adults

The prevailing stereotype of the relationship between intellectual productivity and age is that there is a rapid decrease after the age of about 60. However, this view is not supported by findings from case studies or laboratory research. When attention is focused on creativity, much the same is true: there are indeed differences related to age, but creative performances are seen (under appropriate circumstances) in people of all ages. Age differences in creative performance are not due to a general deterioration, but to a combination of cognitive changes, effects of external factors such as social norms, and internal factors such as motivation and personality. Such findings suggest ways of maintaining creativity, even after retirement!

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Sabine Gruehn & Peter M. Roeder

Concomitants of Achievement in Mathematics

A Comparative Analysis

The study explores attitudinal concomitants of school achievement in a comparative perspective. It is based on data for France, Japan and the United States collected in IEA's Second International Mathematics study. Attention is directed both at the feasibility of models of trans-nationally valid relationships between variables related to achievement and at cultural specificities in such relations. Based upon separate factor analyses for the three countries, trans-nationally valid attitude scales are constructed. Path and regression analyses are performed to test and explore models of relationships between home background variables, psychological constructs and achievement with special emphasis upon the self-concept of mathematical ability and the importance of mathematics as perceived by the students.

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Annegret Harnischfeger

Fad or Reform?

The Standards Movement in the United States

For two decades, concern has risen in the United States over low student achievement and poor rankings of U.S. students in international educational studies. This led to a national call for renewal in education. In 1989, the president and the governors of the fifty states defined six national goals that are to be reached by the year 2000. A nationwide movement to define content standards with less emphasis on knowledge and more on skill building was initiated which also requires new performance assessment measures. Issues concerning national goals and content, as well as performance standards are discussed.

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Wilfried Hartmann

Different Approaches to Comparative Mother-Tongue Education (CME)

Researchers in Comparative Mother-Tongue Education are faced with the growing necessity to overcome language, culture, and school system barriers to understand the role of the subject they are dealing with in a multicultural worldwide society. On the basis of personal experience this article lists some of the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative and qualitative studies in CME, lists basic requirements for empirical studies in this field and offers a model to show the interdependency between the researcher's subjectivity, objective research competence and the research question; also a second model to guide the decision process leading to a specific approach is presented.

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John P. Keeves

The Contribution of IEA Research to Australian Education

This article considers the contribution of research undertaken as part of the IEA studies to Australian education, and in particular to educational theory, practice, policy making and the conduct of research. While there have been criticisms of the tests employed and constraints have been imposed on publication, the research carried out has gone well beyond the monitoring of student performance and has made a substantial contribution to Australian education over a period of 30 years. Areas where policy making has been influenced include retention rates, social class differences, gender differences, time and school learning, and curriculum differences between the Australian states. In addition, IEA research has contributed to the improvement of educational practice by showing the significance of student attitudes and values, an emphasis on process, opportunity to learn, time spent on homework, and class size as well as whole group instruction. Neville Postlethwaite's marked influence on this work is acknowledged.

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Dieter Kotte & Ralf Witt

Chance and Challenge

Assessing Economic Literacy

The article focusses on the possibilities as well as conceptual difficulties of an international comparative study assessing economic literacy of secondary and vocational school students. The importance of such comparisons is illustrated. Some of the major prodecural, contextual and political issues are discussed. It is argued that IEA can provide the technical and administrative support system required, if the important question is to be investigated how economic literacy differs across systems of education.

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Rosine Lambin

What can Planners Expect from International Quantitative Studies?

International quantitative research in comparative education should be an instrument employed to improve systems of education around the world and therewith the system of education in individual countries as well. This article will therefore try to answer two questions: 1. Can international quantitative research in education directly help policy makers and educational planners around the world improve their system of education, and, if so, 2. how is this likely to occur? The answers will be based on the main findings of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and, to a lesser degree, on other sources.

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Rainer H. Lehmann

Take it from the Bright and Give it to the Poor?

Some Remarks on Within-Classroom Homogeneity in Reading Achievement

It is argued in this paper that within-classroom homogeneity of achievement is an important criterion of successful instruction. Data from the German component of the International Reading Literacy Study (IEA) are investigated to demonstrate this point. 251 randomly sampled intact classrooms from grade 3 and 297 classrooms from grade 8 (total N > 11.000) are considered in the analyses. It is shown that moderate degrees of within-class heterogeneity are often associated with high average performance in primary school reading achievement. Findings from the lower secondary level are mixed. As it seems, the intention to remove disadvantages for the weaker students does not, in itself, guarantee higher achievement, nor is it necessarily linked to the motivational advantages which mixed-achievement groups can provide.

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Arieh Lewy

The Impact of Evaluation Studies

The Researcher's View

One frequently encounters claims that evaluation has little impact on the educational practice. Surveying the educational literature one may identify three types of approaches vis-à-vis this claim. The apologetic approach denies this claim or blames others for its under-utilization. The entrepreneurish approach suggests ways of increasing the utilization of evaluation findings, while epistemological approaches recommend to broaden the meaning of "impact", and demonstrate that empirical findings have a cumulative effect and jointly with other facilitating factors, they do affect action.

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Renate Nestvogel

School Education in 'Third World' Countries

Dream or Trauma?

The author describes the contradictions children in the 'Third World' face with regard to school education. She first depicts childhood in the South and then analyzes the variety of school conditions that on the one hand exclude many children from educational institutions and on the other hand create considerable hardships to many of those enrolled. The article is based on numerous school visits in various countries of Africa, Asia and Middle America in the context of consultancy work for several German developing agencies. The presentation of concrete observations aims to make the human beings visible that all too often disappear behind the abstract facts and figures predominant in many reports on 'Third World' countries.

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Andreas Schleicher

Comparability Issues in International Educational Comparisons

The diversity of education systems and differences in the structure of the governance of education make international educational comparisons very difficult. There are various parameters that affect the comparability of international educational data and data which are adequate for certain types of comparisons may reveal to be entirely inadequate for other types of comparisons. This article attempts to identify these parameters and illustrates the impact of methods of data collection on the comparability of data. Account is thereby taken of various trade-offs between comparability, coverage, uniformity, complexity, and other attributes of educational comparisons. This article concludes that there are no absolute criteria for comparability but that for an adequate use of data the knowledge of different quality-relevant properties of the data in the form of structured meta-data is an essential requirement.

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Klaus Schleicher

Trends and Current State of Environmental Education in Germany

The development and present situation of environmental education in Germany, differs from most EU countries in three ways: first, environmental awareness and education spread earlier than in most member states; second, educational concepts and approaches are extremely diversified, because educational authority rests with the 'Länder', or the regional governments, some of which care for larger school populations than several European states; third, Germany faces considerable problems after the unification, because the two former states - one with high, the other with low public awareness and environmental standards - need to be amalgamated. This article focuses on the former Federal Republic, since available information does not permit a reliable overview of the unified country. The introduction indicates the basic context of the scientific discussion. The second chapter then interrelates traditions of nature conservation and early public awareness of pollution to the growing complexity of environmental concepts till the mid-80s. With this in mind, the third chapter sketches the importance of the social environment to environmental education. This is done on two levels, including a discussion of the empirical data with regard to changes at the school level since 1985 and indications of inadequate teacher training. The final outlook points out unsolved problems in research, respective to necessary improvements in training and teaching.

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Norbert Sellin

Partial Least Squares Modeling in Research on Educational Achievement

This paper contains a discussion of partial least squares (PLS) path modeling with latent constructs as a general method for research on educational achievement. To the extent that such research requires the analysis of comparatively large and complex models under mild supplementary assumptions, PLS is an extremely flexible and powerful tool for statistical model building. The formal specification, estimation, and evaluation of PLS models is described with special emphasis on the features that distinguish PLS from other methods for path analysis. This specifically concerns distribution-free least squares estimation and distribution-free model evaluation using jackknife techniques.

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Jörn Wittern

Media Change How Schools Instruct

Instruction is impartment of information and is structurally bound to media; this is why schools should teach how to use media, including its own, in an active way, taking care not to exclude any of its forms. Information technical media alone are able to influence instruction because by using them possible methods of impartment can be determined and forms of interaction and communication can be changed. The information monopoly of schools and their claim to be the standard socialization institution for cognitive development is being contested by the media outside of schools. This is why schools should take it upon themselves to provide those skills and modes of behavior which can not be imparted by the media because they can not be performed even by new technical developments.

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Richard M. Wolf

The Role of Performance Assessment in Studies of Educational Achievement

Performance assessment, despite popular belief, has had a long history of use in education. However, that use has, by and large, been confined to the classroom. Teachers routinely use extended assignments, essays, projects, and reports not only as a way of assessing student performance but also as learning activities. Today, a number of people are advocating the use of educational achievement. There are a number of theoretical, methodological, and practical problems involved in the use performance assessment in such programs and studies. These are identified and discussed. Suggestions for how these problems may be addressed are presented. It seems that it will take some time to solve these problems.

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Wolfgang Mitter

Concluding Considerations

Approach to a Critical Laudation

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