The transition to first year chemistry: student, secondary and tertiary educator’s perceptions of student preparedness

Student preparedness is an essential component of transition to university influenced by a broad suite of attributes including academic aptitude, prior knowledge, self-efficacy, self- confidence and a complex assortment of...

Choking under pressure: Does it get easier with age? How loneliness affects social monitoring across the life span

Previous experimental work showed that young adults reporting loneliness performed less well on emotion recognition tasks (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy [DANVA-2]) if they were framed as indicators of social aptitude, but not when the same tasks were framed as indexing academic aptitude. Such findings suggested that undergraduates reporting loneliness possessed the social monitoring skills necessary to read the emotions underlying others’ facial expressions, but that they choked under social pressure. It has also been found that undergraduates reporting loneliness have better recall for both positive and negative social information than their non-lonely counterparts. Whether those effects are evident across different age groups has not been examined. Using data from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Loneliness Experiment that included participants aged 16–99 years ( N = 54,060), we (i) test for replication in a larger worldwide sample and (ii) extend those linear model analyses to other age groups. We found only effects for participants aged 25–34 years: In this age group, loneliness was associated with increased recall of negative individual information, and with choking under social pressure during the emotion recognition task; those effects were small. We did not find any such effects among participants in other age groups. Our findings suggest that different cognitive processes may be associated with loneliness in different age groups, highlighting the importance of life-course approaches in this area.

EXPRESS: Gender (Still) Matters in Business School

This research documents systematic gender performance differences (GPD) at a top business school using a unique administrative dataset and survey of students. The findings show that women’s grades are 11% of a standard deviation lower in quantitative courses than those of men with similar academic aptitude and demographics, and men’s grades are 23% of a standard deviation lower in nonquantitative courses than those of comparable women. The authors discuss and test for different reasons for this finding. They show that a female instructor significantly cuts down GPD for quantitative courses by raising the grades of women. In addition, female instructors increase women’s interest and performance expectations in these courses and are perceived as role models by their female students. These results provide support for a gender stereotype process for GPD and show that faculty can serve as powerful exemplars to challenge gender stereotypes and increase student achievement. The authors discuss several important implications of these findings for business schools and for society.

Las Ingenierías en el Centro Universitario de los Lagos-U DE G: La realidad en números

A long time has passed since the Aztecs demonstrated Mexican talent in different areas of engineering, so much so that today the field has diversified exponentially, the University of Guadalajara was no exception and in the particular case of the University Center of Los Lagos (CULAGOS), the offer has expanded, from traditional options such as Industrial Engineering to Biochemical Engineering or Industrial Administration Engineering. However, the novelty does not exempt reality and the problem even without effective solution, is the low terminal efficiency. The number of students admitted cycle after cycle is not reflected in the number of discharges. In the present work, the data of entrance to the different Engineering offered by the CULAGOS were analyzed, from its creation in the year 2004 to the present, the minimum and maximum scores obtained in the Academic Aptitude Test and its relation were taken into account with the number of graduates, as a possible cause for low terminal efficiency. The results obtained after tabulation and statistical analysis show a correlation between the entrance scores and the terminal efficiency.

Validación de un modelo de cuatro estrategias de resolución de ítems de razonamiento en una prueba estandarizada de selección/Validation of a Four-Strategies Model for Solving Reasoning Items in a Standardized Selection Test

<p><em><strong>Español</strong></em></p><p>La premisa de este estudio consiste en que un modelo cognitivo permite a las personas mejorar el desempeño en la resolución de preguntas de una prueba estandarizada donde el uso de estrategias tiene un papel crucial. El propósito de la investigación fue validar un modelo cognitivo con cuatro estrategias definidas por jueces expertos con base en los procesos de respuesta que subyacen a ítems de la Prueba de Aptitud Académica de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). Se realizaron ocho entrevistas semiestructuradas a estudiantes de la UCR, quienes estaban cursando el primer año en esta institución y se aplicaron las técnicas de reporte verbal para obtener evidencias de los procesos de respuesta de los ítems. Se analizaron los reportes para comprobar la correspondencia entre el marco de las estrategias definidas previamente por jueces expertos y las respuestas dadas por los participantes. Los resultados indicaron que los participantes siguieron las estrategias propuestas para la solución de las situaciones planteadas por los jueces; por tanto, los ítems son indicadores de los procesos subyacentes a estas estrategias. Estos hallazgos abren la posibilidad de implementar investigaciones con atributos presentes en cada estrategia propuesta de este estudio, que posibiliten predecir las puntuaciones de la prueba en el rendimiento académico en la UCR.</p><p><em><strong>English</strong></em></p><p>The premise of this study is that a cognitive model can increase students’ performance for solving items on a standardized test, where strategies play a crucial role. The purpose of the study is to validate a cognitive model with four strategies defined by expert judges based on the response processes that underlie the items of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) Academic Aptitude Test. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with first-year students at UCR and the techniques of verbal reporting were applied to gather evidence of the items’ response processes. The reports were analyzed to verify the correspondence between the framework of the strategies previously defined by expert judges and the answers given by the participants. In light of the results, it was concluded that the participants followed the proposed strategies for solving the situations posed, and, therefore, the items are indicators of the processes underlying these strategies. The results open the possibility of implementing research with attributes present in each strategy proposed in this study, which will allow predicting test scores in academic performance at the UCR.</p>

Tests of Scholastic Aptitude Cover Reasoning Facets Sufficiently

This study explores how reasoning facets relate to tests of scholastic aptitude and to academic performance. Intelligence test scores and academic aptitude test scores from freshman students in science (n = 284) and economics (n = 359) as well as subsequent grades from their first year in college were used to analyze structural equation models. The direct influence of reasoning facets on academic performance is fully mediated by academic aptitude test scores. Numeric abilities dominate the aptitude tests’ predictive power. Verbal reasoning explains a significant amount of aptitude test score variance in science but not in economics. The mediation analysis suggests that verbal, numeric, and figural reasoning are covered sufficiently by the aptitude tests.

Autorreportes verbales en voz alta para la identificación de procesos de razonamiento en pruebas estandarizadas / Verbal Self-reporting to Identify Reasoning Processes in Standardized Tests

<p>Los estándares actuales, para la evaluación de la calidad psicométrica de las pruebas psicológicas y educativas, estipulan que una de las evidencias requeridas que justifican las inferencias derivadas de la aplicación de un test se refiere a las estrategias para contestar a los ítems que lo componen. Por lo tanto, el objetivo del presente artículo se propone presentar los resultados de una investigación, que consistió en la ejecución de entrevistas semiestructuradas a un conjunto de 15 estudiantes universitarios de primer ingreso, cuyos reportes orales fueron analizados con el objetivo de fundamentar un conjunto de estrategias para contestar los ítems verbales de la Prueba de Aptitud Académica de la Universidad de Costa Rica, que habían sido identificadas previamente. Los resultados indican que efectivamente los participantes emplearon las estrategias propuestas, lo cual constituye una evidencia de gran importancia sobre las habilidades de razonamiento que se miden con los ítems verbales de la Prueba de Aptitud Académica. Finalmente, se concluye con una discusión sobre los resultados acerca de la utilidad de los autorreportes verbales que recaban evidencias de validez para un test y sobre futuras investigaciones en esta línea.</p><p> </p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Abstract Current standards for assessing the psychometric quality of psychological and educational tests stipulate that one indication required to justify the inferences derived from the application of a test are those related to answering strategies for the test items. Thus, this article presents the results of a study that involved the execution of semi-structured interviews with a group of 15 college freshmen, whose oral reports were analyzed to provide support for a set of strategies to answer previously identified verbal items from the “Academic Aptitude Test” (Prueba de Aptitud Académica) at the Universidad de Costa Rica. The results indicate that participants actually used the proposed strategies, which is important evidence about the reasoning skills measured by the Prueba de Aptitud Académica verbal items. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the results, the usefulness of verbal self-reports to gather evidence for test validity and future research along these lines.</p>