Examining Science Achievement in Chile: A Multilevel Model Approach

This study employed data from the 2015 Chilean sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment to examine the factors that influence science achievement and factors that may reduce the gender gap in science achievement. Our research was guided by Eccles’ Expectancy-Value Theory, which focused on motivational factors that influence gender differences in students’ achievement choices and performance. Our results indicate that socioeconomic status (SES), motivation, enjoyment of science, expected occupational status, school SES, and class size are related to higher science achievement. Also, anxiety was negatively associated with science achievement. Implications for Chilean policymakers and school administrators to improve Chilean girls’ science achievement are discussed.

The Relationship Between Attitude Toward Science and Academic Achievement in Science: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Science education is attracting increasing attention and many researchers focus on the issue about the attitude-achievement relationship in science, but there is still no consistent conclusion. By using a three-level meta-analytic approach, the aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between attitude toward science and academic achievement in learning science among primary and secondary school students, and to explore if some study characteristics could have contributed to the inconsistent findings with regard to this relationship as observed in the research literature. A total of 37 studies with 132 effect sizes involving a total of 1,042,537 participants were identified. The meta-analytic results revealed that there was an overall positive and moderate relationship between attitude toward science and learning achievement in science (r = 0.248, p < 0.001). The results further found that this association was moderated by the type of attitude and larger effect sizes were shown in self-efficacy than in interest, societal relevance of attitude toward science, and mixed attitude. Moreover, the effect sizes of studies with unstandardized measure to assess science achievement were larger than those with standardized measure. Possible explanations for these findings and its implications for future research directions were also discussed in this review.

Identifying Turkish students’ profiles of using information and communication technologies and its relationship with their academic achievement: A latent class analysis approach

In this study, 15-year-old Turkish students’ profiles of using ICT at home and at school were identified, and the extent to which these profiles were associated with their academic achievement was determined. Moreover, the study investigated the effects of the students’ age of first usage of digital device and internet, their gender and their parents’ education level on the students’ ICT usage profiles. In the study, by using Latent Class Analysis, Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 Turkey data were analyzed ( n = 6890). According to the findings obtained in the study, it was revealed that the students who used ICT resources at high level at home and at school constituted the smallest class (8% of the sample). The students whose mothers’ levels of education were high and those who were male had a higher probability of being a member of the high-level ICT user class. In addition, the students who started using their first digital devices and the Internet at later ages were less likely to be a member of the class using high-level ICT. Finally, the students in the high-level ICT user class had low mathematics, reading, and science achievement scores.

THE EFFECT OF REACT STRATEGY ON ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: A MIXED RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

There is a contradiction in the literature about the effect of REACT strategy on science achievement. This study aims to resolve this contradiction by determining the effect of REACT strategy on student science achievement and the factors affecting this strategy by integrating findings obtained from both qualitative and quantitative studies. The study was conducted using a mixed-research synthesis by including 19 quantitative and 10 qualitative studies. Data obtained from quantitative findings were combined using a meta-analysis method, and data from qualitative findings were combined using a thematic synthesis method. It was attempted to explain the variance between studies included in the meta-analysis by using analytic themes derived from the thematic synthesis. As a result of the meta-analysis, teaching based on the REACT strategy was found to have a strong effect on science achievement (ES = 1.041, 95% CI: 0.7876 to 1.2948). The thematic synthesis yielded four descriptive themes, “teaching-learning process in the REACT strategy”, “learning outcomes in the REACT strategy”, “limitations of the REACT strategy”, and “recommendations for practice”. Teaching based on the REACT strategy was found to contribute largely to the learning process and learning outcomes. Some limitations were found in practice, and recommendations were determined to address these limitations. Keywords: contextual teaching, mixed research synthesis, REACT strategy, science education

Impact of Some Demographic and Organizational Variables on Grade Eight Science Students’ Performance

This study examined the impact of some demographic and organizational variables (gender, school type, and parental involvement) on the performance of Grade 8 students in the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assessment in Abu Dhabi, Emirate. The study employed a mixed-method design to determine if, and to what extent, these factors affected how the students performed in the assessment. The population for the present study comprised male and female students from 68 public and private schools (35 all-boys and 33 all-girls schools). The study sample consisted of 3400 students (1750 boys and 1650 girls) and 40 parents who were put in 4 focus groups and interviewed to triangulate the results of the quantitative data. The results of the 2015 TIMSS assessment showed that demographic factors, gender, and parental involvement had no significant effect on the students’ performance. However, the type of school (private or public) was found to be statistically significant in predicting students’ performance, as private school students performed better than their public-school counterparts. The findings of the qualitative data were aligned with the results of quantitative data to some extent. The overall findings were then discussed in the context of the recent Science Education reform initiated by the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Education. Keywords: TIMSS, science achievement, gender, region, school type, parental involvement