EXPRESS: Dispositional and Situational Predictors of Coping with Violated Achievement Expectations

Most students experience expectation violations during their academic career, such as unexpected failed tests. However, contradictory evidence does not always result in expectation change (accommodation). Expectations often persist through stronger efforts to fulfil the expectation (assimilation) or ignoring the discrepancy (immunization). Our study addresses possible situational and dispositional predictors that may be decisive influences on the use of the three coping strategies. We conducted an experimental study with n = 439 students who experienced an expectation violation in an achievement test. Dispositional coping tendencies, valence of expectation violation, and the interaction of valence and degree of expectation violation were found to predict situational coping. Furthermore, higher need for cognitive closure predicted stronger accommodation, and a large degree of expectation violation predicted stronger immunization. Thus, our study provides initial evidence on which situational and dispositional factors predict coping with expectation violations in an educational context. Expectation violation in a performance context mainly resulted in stronger efforts to protect positive achievement expectations.

Subtle discrimination: do stereotypes among teachers trigger bias in their expectations and widen ethnic achievement gaps?

Ethnic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, such as test scores, are a core issue of educational research. While the role of student and family factors in the formation of such disparities is well established, existing studies fail to draw a similarly clear picture of how teachers contribute to ethnic and racial achievement gaps. In contrast to previous studies, which focussed on the consequences of rather blatant forms of discrimination, such as in teachers’ grading practices, this study investigates rather subtle processes that might result in discrimination of ethnic and racial minority students. In particular, I address stereotypes among teachers and analyse if they induce bias in their achievement expectations for ethnic minority school beginners. Additionally, I analyse if such bias results in a self-fulfilling prophecy and contributes to ethnic achievement gaps at the end of first grade. Multilevel regressions applied to a sample of 1007 children and 64 teachers in German primary schools reveal that different teachers internalize distinct stereotypes regarding ethnic achievement gaps and the achievement-related attributes of ethnic minority students. I also find that teachers with more negative stereotypes expect lower mathematics and reading achievements for ethnic minority students at the beginning of first grade. However, although I replicate the finding that inaccurate teacher expectations result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, I find no statistically significant effects of teacher stereotypes on ethnic differences in the development of students’ reading and mathematical skills throughout first grade.

Professional success and satisfaction in the career development

En este artículo se estudia una serie de variables vinculadas al desarrollo profesional de trabajadores jóvenes y adultos desde un enfoque de género. Se analizan las percepciones de mujeres y hombres trabajadores respecto al éxito profesional subjetivo de sus carreras, dentro del contexto español, atendiendo a la satisfacción e identificación de patrones de género. Se combina una metodología cuantitativa y cualitativa (enfoque mixto), aplicando un cuestionario a una muestra de 205 trabajadores, así como entrevistas a una submuestra de 32 personas. Los resultados permiten describir una marcada dualidad en la percepción de la progresión de la carrera, la satisfacción laboral y las expectativas de logro, en relación con el género, pero también con la edad. Las barreras percibidas en el desarrollo profesional presentan igualmente patrones diferenciados. Se derivan implicaciones prácticas, a fin de mejorar las estrategias de orientación de las carreras de trabajadoras y trabajadores tomando en cuenta esta realidad. This paper examines a series of variables related to the profesional development of young and adult workers from a gender perspective. It analyses, within the Spanish context, how working women and men subjectively perceive their professional success, paying attention to the identification and following of gender patterns. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies are combined in a mixed approach that uses a questionnaire (given to a sample of 205 workers) and interviews (with a subsample of 32 individuals). Their results enable us to describe a marked duality in the perception of career progression, job satisfaction and achievement expectations in relation to gender but also age. The barriers perceived in professional development also present differentiated patterns. Practical implications are derived with a view to improve career guidance strategies for working women and men, taking this reality into account.

Recommendations from the North Star State

Administrators in America’s rural school districts are uniquely challenged to meet increased achievement expectations despite decreasing resources. Mandated reform initiatives, population decline, and the complex formulas used to distribute tax-based funding have disproportionately affected rural schools. In this mixed-methods study, researchers first surveyed K-12 administrators and then conducted focus groups across six regions in Minnesota to determine the nature of the challenges specific to rural administrators and to document their perceived needs for interventions, training, and policy changes. The study identified two categories of common concern: student achievement and fiscal management. Within the category of student achievement, administrators identified four areas of need for assistance: testing and adequate yearly progress, achievement for all, staff and professional development, and data analysis. Within the category of fiscal management, needs for assistance included balancing budgets and transportation/sparsity policy. Analysis of the data gathered indicates statewide implications for professional development and policy review.

Admission Criteria for MBA Programs

This paper reports a review of studies on admission criteria for MBA programs. The method consisted in a literary review based on a systematic search in international databases (Emerald, ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest Education Journals, ProQuest European Business, ProQuest Science Journal, ProQuest Research Library, ProQuest Psychology Journals, ProQuest Social Science Journals and Business Source Complete) of studies published from January 1990 to December 2013, which explore the academic performance of students or graduates of MBA programs. A quantitative review was performed. Results show that most researchers studied relations between GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) and UGPA (Undergraduate Grade Point Average) as predictors of GGPA (Graduate Grade Point Average). On the other hand, work experience and personal traits (such as personality, motivation, learning strategies, self-efficacy beliefs and achievement expectations) and their relation with GGPA had been less studied, and results are not consistent enough to consider them valid predictors of student performance at this time.

Evaluación de los intereses básicos académico profesionales de los estudiantes de secundaria

RESUMENEste trabajo se enmarca en el contexto del estudio de los intereses profesionales de los estudiantes de secundaria en dos momentos críticos para la elección de continuidad de estudios: cuarto de ESO y segundo de Bachillerato. Nos presenta la distribución del área vocacional de interés preferente de una muestra de 1250 estudiantes, entendida como aquella en la que el estudiante encuentra los estudios o profesión que le gustaría realizar en un futuro próximo. Analiza el efecto sobre los intereses profesionales de las variables de decisión vocacional, expectativas vocacionales de logro y etapa.ABSTRACTThis work is framed in the context of the study of the professional interests of the secondary students in two critical moments for the election of continuity of studies: when concluding the obligatory secondary and when finishing the high school This work present the distribution of the vocational area of the preferable interest of the 1250 students sample, defined as that in which the student finds the studies or profession that he would like to carry out in a next future. It also analyzes the effect on the professional interests of the variables of vocational decision, vocational achievement expectations and stage.

Parental Absence, Academic Competence, and Expectations in Latino Immigrant Youth

Academic outcomes as a function of parental absence were examined among 268 newly immigrant Latino youth from Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba. Participants experienced parental absence as a result of divorce, parental death, and serial migration. Students who experienced parental absence reported lower achievement expectations. Parental death, prolonged parental absence, and serial migration negatively affected the academic competence and expectations of students. The extent to which parental absence related to competence and expectations through potential mediating factors was assessed with structural equation modeling. Overall, the model was able to explain some of the relationship between parental absence and the academic competence and expectations of these Latino immigrant students.