Concours de maister ou ecole doctorale2010-2011

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1.) Influences of Math Tracking on Seventh-Grade Students’ Self-Beliefs and Social ComparisonsThe authors of this atrlcie are Donna Chiu, Yodit Beru, Erin Watley, Selam Wubu, Emma Simson, Robin Kessinger, Anahi Rivera, Patrick Schmidlein, and Allan Wigfield. The authors are all affiliated with the University of Maryland.The subjects of this study were 11 and 12 year old seventh grade students from one school. In order to participate in the study, a release form had to be signed by the guardians and returned to the school. Out of the 295 students in the school, only 173 of them returned forms.The results of this study were gathered based on a 7 question survey. Each question was carefully crafted to give information on students’ self-esteem and self-concept.Of the 173 total students, 86 were male and 87 were female.The study found that students compare their achievement with other students in their same track more frequently than they compare to students in other tracks. One of the major concerns at the beginning of the study was whether students in the lower level classes had lower self esteem because of their track. As the study found, it is not what track they were in but the grades they received that caused lower self-esteem. The study also revealed that when students compared themselves to students in other tracks they more frequently compared upward (to students in a higher level track).The authors point out that their research is based on one grade level in one school and is thus not enough to determine if these results would carry from school to school, grade to grade. Additional studies using various grade levels at various locations would be needed to clearly advocate either for or against the use of tracking.Chiu, D., Beru, Y., Watley, E., Wubu, S., Simson, E., Kessinger, R., . . . Wigfield, A. (2008). Influences of math tracking on seventh-grade students' self-beliefs and social comparisons. Journal of Educational Research, 102(2-), 125-136.2.) The role of academic achievement growth in school track recommendationsDaniel H. Caro is associated with the IEA Data processing and research center, in Hamburg Germany. Jenny Lenkeit is affiliated with the University of Hamburg, Germany., along with Knut Schwippert. Rainer Lehmann is affiliated with the university of Humboldt in Berlin Germany.The subjects of this study were students in Berlin at the beginning of grade 4 and the end of grades 5 and 6. By the end of the study, there were 2242 students whose data could be analyzed.Data was gathered from ELEMENT, a German study on academic achievement, socioeconomic status, and demographic information. The data were analyzed to find the effect of socioeconomic and demographic variables on academic growth. They were also examined to determine what effect, if any, achievement, growth, SES, gender, and migration background had on the track that was recommended by the teachers at the end of Grade 6.The study concluded that students exhibiting large academic growth are more likely to be recommended for a higher track than students performing consistently at a given achievement level.It was also concluded that family SES impacts math achievement levels and growth especially when coupled with parental education. In lower SES areas, parents have commonly completed a lower level of schooling. A direct relationship was found between SES/parental education and initial achievement/growth of students. There is thus a connection between SES and which level track a student is placed on due to the effect SES has on achievement levels.Finally track recommendations based on grades and teacher recommendation are brought into question. If we look at two students of the same ability level but one student is in a class with a higher mean and one is in a class with a lower mean, the student in the lower class will appear (statistically) to be more deserving to enter the higher level track.Caro, D. H., Lenkeit, J., Lehmann, R., & Schwippert, K. (2009). The role of academic achievement growth in school track recommendations. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 35(4), 183-192.3.) The Best Predictors of Success in Developmental Mathematics CoursesThe author of this atrlcie is Pansy Waycaster, professor of mathematics at Virginia Highlands Community College. The study utilized 364 students from Virginia Highlands Community College enrolled in MTH03 and MTH04, developmental algebra classes. Subjects were broken into subgroups based on whether they live on or off campus, their gender, and which term(s) they were enrolled in the courses.The author designed this study to determine whether the placement exams used by the college were accurately placing students in appropriate courses. Students who scored well on the COMPASS and ASSET tests were allowed to register for higher level classes. Students with poor scores on these assessments were placed in developmental algebra courses to strengthen their skills before moving to college level classes.The conclusions of the study were that while additional research was needed, some type of change in the placement protocol for this particular college is needed. Students were “forced� to register for MTH03 but the enrollment in MTH04 was significantly lower even though students were “required� to complete this class as well. Additionally the results of the COMPASS test were found to be somewhat inaccurate in placing students in developmental courses. Core final exam scores failed to match up with the predictions made through the COMPASS results. The ASSET placement test obtained results contrasting drastically from that of the COMPASS on several occasions.While this atrlcie is unrelated to the “tracking� I was researching, it did force me to think in a new direction. What assessments are used to place students in specific tracks in schools that use tracking? Are the tools being utilized to streamline students giving accurate results? Waycaster, P. (2004). The best predictors of success in developmental mathematics courses. Inquiry, 9(1)