Socio-Family Context and Its Influence on Students’ PISA Reading Performance Scores: Evidence from Three Countries in Three Continents

This investigation set out to analyse the relation between parents’ academic qualifications, profession and role in educating their children and their children’s level of efficacy in reading at the end of the adolescent stage, in three states with different socio-cultural contexts, namely Canada, Finland and Singapore. The study is carried out in three countries with differing socio-cultural contexts and uses multilevel analysis and binary logistic regression to measure the predictive value of socio-family skills in these three countries against a range of student reading ability profiles. The results show that the parents’ academic qualifications, profession and educational role are the most influential aspect of the predictability in the variability of their children’s reading skills. Parents with a low level of education predict poor student reading ability, but when it is the mother who has a medium or high level of education, the results of the students are better than when that level is only achieved by the father. Therefore, the educational role of mothers and fathers, as shown by the interest they take in their children’s schoolwork, is a predictor of students’ reading skills, regardless of the sociocultural and academic context of the students.

The Effects of Home Literacy Environment on Children’s Reading Comprehension Development: A Meta-analysis

A rich home literacy environment (HLE) fosters students’ academic achievement. However, the link between HLE and children’s reading comprehension is unclear. This study examined the effects of HLE factors on children’s reading comprehension through a meta-analysis of 59 studies conducted between 1998 and 2018. Results of the meta-analysis indicated three main findings. First, the overall positive correlation between HLE and children’s reading comprehension was moderate (z = .32). Second, sampling area, type of home literacy resource and parental involvement styles did not show a significant interaction effect between each HLE factor and children’s reading comprehension. Third, parents’ involvement and literacy expectations of children had a significantly higher correlation with children’s reading comprehension than home literacy resources did. Findings of this study suggest that parental literacy activities involvement and parental literacy expectations contribute more to children's literacy knowledge enhancement.

Measurement Invariance of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-Second Edition (LASSI-II) across Gender and Discipline in Egyptian College Students

Validating the intended interpretations and proposed uses of tests scores is paramount for making valid inferences in educational and psychological research. Ascertaining measurement invariance for measurement instruments is an assumption for comparing means. If measurement invariance does not hold for groups of interest, comparison of means will be invalid since making valid inferences presupposes that the instrument measures the same construct across subgroups. One of the most widely used instruments for measuring learning strategies for college students is the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (second edition). The inventory has 10 subscales namely, information processing, selecting main ideas, test strategies, anxiety, attitude, motivation, concentration, self-testing, study aids, and time management with eight items for each subscale. Although it is stated that the learning and study strategies inventory is internationally adopted to measure students’ use of learning and study strategies, little is known about its measurement invariance across gender (males/females) and discipline (science/humanities) in Egyptian college students. The authors utilize an adapted Arabic version of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory administered to 522 Egyptian college students to investigate if the adopted model has measurement invariance across gender (males/females) and discipline (science/humanities). Results revealed that the effort-related activities, goal orientation, and cognitive activities model was confirmed for these students. Using multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses, results also showed that the factorial structure of the adopted model had partial measurement invariance across gender and full measurement invariance across discipline. Centers for teaching and learning at universities can use the validated instrument to measure students’ learning and study strategies across gender and discipline. More implications and suggestions for future research were also addressed.

Designing and Implementing a Bilingual Early-Literacy Program in Indigenous Mexico Villages: Family, Child, and Classroom Outcomes

Globally, there is great interest in enhancing young children’s literacy development as a route to improving worldwide literacy. To contribute to this area of interest, this paper reports findings from a multi-pronged early-literacy program designed to improve the print-knowledge of young children in Yucatec Mayan villages. The school-based Club de Lectura Solyluna provided 16 culturally relevant bilingual (Spanish/Maya) children’s books to caregivers during four workshops. The sample of 567 mothers and their preschool-aged children (n = 567) were enrolled in 28 preschool classrooms, which also received teacher trainings, children’s books, and establishment of a school-based library. Outcomes were examined with respect to overall parent participation and uptake of workshop materials, features of the home-literacy environment, and children’s gains in print knowledge in both Mayan and Spanish. The study findings show positive outcomes across all outcomes evaluated with the exception of growth in children’s Mayan print-concepts skills. The program description and findings should be of relevance to efforts to implement early-literacy programming with indigenous villages in lower- and middle-income countries.

Examining the Relationship Between Student School Burnout and Problematic Internet Use

Student burnout and Internet addiction are two of the serious problems that are common among young people. Both are connected with many negative effects on the mental functioning of adolescents. However, so far only few studies have explored these two phenomena all together. The aim of our study was to test the relationship between student burnout (SB) and internet addiction (IA). Specifically, we explored three problems: (i) sex differences in the level of student burnout and problematic Internet use among Polish late adolescents; (ii) correlations between student school burnout and its sub-dimensions and problematic Internet use indicators; (iii) the prediction power of student burnout indicators, quality of social bonds and school functioning characteristics on the level of Internet addiction and its subdimensions. The study was conducted among 230 high school students. The results of the research showed that there were no significant differences between girls and boys in the level of problematic use of the Internet, except that male students assessed their dishonesty about Internet use as higher compared to females. As expected, a higher level of school burnout indicators was significantly connected with a higher level of problematic Internet use. Additionally, school burnout (especially burnout from studying, loss of interest in school and burnout due to parental pressure) and school performance characteristics such as additional classroom lessons and low quality of classmates relationships, significantly predicted the problematic Internet use, which explained 19% of variances in the total score of internet addiction. Our findings confirmed that preventative and interventional strategies developed to reduce IA should include activities that also reduce school burnout. In reducing IA and SB we should include actions targeted not only on the adolescent’s group, but also on the school environment (teachers and schoolmates) and the family environment (parents and siblings).

Organizational Culture and Educational Innovations in Turkish Higher Education: Perceptions and Reactions of Students

With the enormous scientific and technological developments, higher education institutions are facing rapid structural, social, technological changes. Because they are considered as an important center of talent development and knowledge production and sharing for countries. To fulfill their educational, social and economic needs, higher education institutions need to respond to changing education needs, to adopt the more flexible modes of organizational culture. Organizational culture is a promotive environment which influences values, assumptions and beliefs. In an innovative culture, people can easily develop new ideas and exhibit collaboration. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between the organizational culture features and the perceptions and student reported implementation with regard to student-centered learning, collaborative learning and use of innovative educational technologies in Turkish higher education. Four universities were involved, and 894 students responded to a questionnaire comprising three groups of questions. The three groups of questions capture (i) demographic characteristics, (ii) student perceptions of organizational culture, (iii) students’ perceptions of and responses to educational innovations comprising the following scales in a survey study. The results show that features of organizational culture affect students’ perceived need for innovation, their views about innovative approaches to instruction, responsiveness to instructional innovations and the perceived implementation level of educational innovations. In addition, differences among the institutions were examined and discussed. The study concludes that hierarchical structure, lack of open communication and autonomy, workload, lack of financial resources and support are main barriers for educational innovations in Turkish universities. It also implies to understand the link between organizational culture and educational innovations in Turkish higher education context.

Intercultural Perspective on Impact of Video Games on Players: Insights from a Systematic Review of Recent Literature

The video-game industry has become a significant force in the business and entertainment world. Video games have become so widespread and pervasive that they are now considered a part of the mass media, a common method of storytelling and representation. Despite the massive popularity of video games, their increasing variety, and the diversification of the player base, until very recently little attention was devoted to understanding how playing video games affects the way people think and collaborate across cultures. This paper examines the recent literature regarding the impact of video games on players from an intercultural perspective. Sixty-two studies are identified whose aim is to analyze behavioral-change, content understanding, knowledge acquisition, and perceptional impacts. Their findings suggest that video games have the potential to help to acquire cultural knowledge and develop intercultural literacy, socio-cultural literacy, cultural awareness, self-awareness, and the cultural understanding of different geopolitical spaces, to reinforce or weaken stereotypes, and to some extent also facilitate the development of intercultural skills. The paper provides valuable insights to the scholars, teachers, and practitioners of cultural studies, education, social studies, as well as to the researchers, pointing out areas for future research.

Data Analysis: Strengthening Inferences in Quantitative Education Studies Conducted by Novice Researchers

Data analysis is a significant methodological component when conducting quantitative education studies. Guidelines for conducting data analyses in quantitative education studies are common but often underemphasize four important methodological components impacting the validity of inferences: quality of constructed measures, proper handling of missing data, proper level of measurement of a dependent variable, and model checking. This paper highlights these components for novice researchers to help ensure statistical inferences are valid. We used empirical examples involving contingency tables, group comparisons, regression analysis, and multilevel modelling to illustrate these components using the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. For every example, we stated a research question and provided evidence related to the quality of constructed measures since measures with weak reliability and validity evidence can bias estimates and distort inferences. The adequate strategies for handling missing data were also illustrated. The level of measurement for the dependent variable was assessed and the proper statistical technique was utilized accordingly. Model residuals were checked for normality and homogeneity of variance. Recommendations for obtaining stronger inferences and reporting related evidence were also illustrated. This work provides an important methodological resource for novice researchers conducting data analyses by promoting improved practice and stronger inferences.

The Effect of Mobile Learning on Learning Performance: A Meta-Analysis Study

The importance of mobile technologies in the educational process has directed the attention of many researchers to this field and has created an important body of academic research. The main purpose of this study is to determine the effect of mobile learning on students' learning performance. In this study, the meta-analysis method was employed. The literature was reviewed through different databases in order to access the relevant researches within the scope of the study. After reviewing the literature, study aspects and inclusion criteria were applied. The studies to be included in the meta-analysis were examined, and 104 studies conducted between the years of 2009 and 2019 that met the inclusion criteria were subjected to a meta-analysis. Education level, course/subject and the implementation period of the studies were determined as moderating variables. The sample of the study consists of 7,568 participants. As a result of the analysis performed according to the random effects model, the mean effect size value was calculated as 0.85 with an error of 0.07. It was determined that there was no publication bias in the meta-analysis. According to the results of the moderator analysis, it was found that the effect of mobile learning on the learning performance of the students did not change according to the education level and the implementation period, but it changed according to the course/subject. In addition to the aforementioned research results, this article also contains descriptive analysis of the results of the studies included in the meta-analysis.