Time: Tuesday, 27/Aug/2024: 17:15 - 18:45 Session Chair: Ana María Mejía-Rodríguez |
Location: Room 013 in ΧΩΔ 02 (Common Teaching Facilities [CTF02]) [Ground Floor] Cap: 60 |
Paper
Finnish Language Utilisation Rate and Mathematics Learning Outcomes of Students with Immigrant Background in Finland
Tampere University, Finland
Presenting Author:The role of immigrants has become increasingly important in the developed countries’ population structure. The integration of immigrants into the society requires among other things education of the younger generations, which creates possibilities for succeeding in future work life. However, students’ immigrant background has in research often been associated with weaker educational achievement, which poses problems also for educational equality. The PISA studies have revealed that in international comparison, the difference between students with immigrant background and the native students is among the largest in Finland. It has been speculated that immigrant students’ lacking skills in the language of teaching could be reflected on their performance also in other areas of assessment, but there is only little evidence supporting this claim. Schnepf (2007) compared the differences between native and immigrant students in 10 countries based on PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS data, showing that in the USA, continental Europe and the UK, the performance gaps were largely explained by lacking language skills. However, there is little previous research on the relationship between the language utilisation rate and performance in assessments. Many studies support the hypothesis that language utilisation rate at home and with peers is associated with better learning outcomes (Brenneman, Morris & Israelian 2007; Dronkers & van der Velden 2013; Hannover et al. 2013; Levels, Dronkers & Kraaykamp 2008), but some studies have not found a link between them (Agirdag, Jordens & van Houtte 2014; Agirdag & Vanlaar 2016).
The aim of this study was to explore the effect of Finnish language utilisation rate on mathematics performance for immigrant students in Finland. The research questions were:
1. Do native students and students with immigrant background differ from each other in the mathematical thinking and reading, and the time spent on tasks?
2. How does the Finnish language utilisation rate explain the mathematical thinking performance of students with immigrant background, when their reading skills, time spent on tasks and gender are taken into account?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used
We used the data from one large municipality in Finland (N=942). We assessed 6th grade students’ performance in reading and mathematical thinking. We asked students which languages they used with their parents and siblings, and calculated language utilisation rate index based on the answers. Students’ reading skills were assessed by a curricular test developed by professionals working on the national curricular sample-based assessments. The items were first scored as correct/incorrect, and the total score was transformed into percentages of correctly solved items. Mathematical thinking was measured by an adaptive test consisting of two types of items. After four anchor items, the test adapted to students' performance level by selecting more difficult or easier items from a large item bank calibrated on earlier data from more than 10 000 students using Item Response Modelling. The test ended when the predefined accuracy rate was reached, or the student had completed 20 items. An estimate of the students' proficiency level was calculated and rescaled to a scale, in which 500 points was the average performance level in the calibration data. We analysed the results using multiple-group linear regression models in Mplus 8.0.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings
The results show that children of international families (2,5 generation), and native students performed clearly better in adaptive mathematical thinking tasks than 1st and 2nd generation immigrant students. In contrast to previous research, the Finnish language utilisation rate did not predict their results in the test. The strongest predictor of mathematical thinking was the time spent on tasks, followed by reading skills. In group analyses, reading skills predicted mathematical thinking only for the native students and 2nd generation immigrant students. In terms of reading skills, it is noteworthy that the level of proficiency in the language of instruction has been found to be related to mathematical competence, but in this study, reading predicted mathematical thinking only in some subgroups.
In the future, it would be important to delve deeper into the underlying causes of the performance gap to promote equal opportunities for students with immigrant background in Finnish society. The results of this study suggest that the Finnish language utilisation rate is not related to mathematical thinking skills. In the future, more attention should be paid to the importance of peer learning in language learning, for example by examining the relationship between the use of Finnish with friends and the ability of students with immigrant background in different subjects. Such an approach would help to get a broader picture of the relationship between language utilisation rate and learning outcomes. This study was relevant because it added to the knowledge on the relationship between language utilisation rate and learning outcomes. The results also confirmed the view that time spent on tasks is a stronger explanatory factor than the mere level of proficiency in the language of instruction in school.
References
Agirdag, O., Jordens, K., & van Houtte, M. (2014). Speaking Turkish in Belgian primary schools: Teacher beliefs versus effective consequences. Bilig: Journal of Social Sciences of the Turkish World 70 (3), 7–28. https://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.430345
Agirdag, O. & Vanlaar, G. (2016). Does more exposure to the language of instruction lead to higher academic achievement? A cross-national examination. International Journal of Bilingualism 22 (1), 123–137. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1367006916658711
Brenneman, M. H., Morris, R. D. & Israelian, M. (2007). Language preference and its relationship with reading skills in English and Spanish. Psychol. Schs. 44 (2), 171–181. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20214
Dronkers, J., & van der Velden, R. (2013). Positive but also negative effects of ethnic diversity in schools on educational achievement? An empirical test with cross-national PISA data. In Windzio M. (eds.) Integration and Inequality in Educational Institutions. New York: Springer, 71–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6119-3_4
Hannover, B., Morf, C. C., Neuhaus, J., Rau, M., Wolfgramm, C. & Zander-Musić, L. 2013. Immigrant adolescents' self-views and school success. J Appl Soc Psychol 43 (1) 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00991.x
Levels, M., Dronkers, J., & Kraaykamp, G. 2008. Immigrant children’s educational achievement in western countries: Origin, destination, and community effects on mathematical performance. American Sociological Review 73 (5), 835–853. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240807300507
Schnepf, S.V. (2007). Immigrants’ educational disadvantage. An examination across ten countries and three surveys. Journal of Population Economics, 20 (3), 527–545.
Paper
Socio-demographic Correlates of Performance on a Spelling Test Among Sixth Grade Students With Spelling Difficulties
University of the Aegean, Department of Primary Education
Presenting Author:The ability to spell is a gradually developing, long, and complex process. It is directly linked to language skills, phonological, grammatical, and semantic awareness, cognitive functions (intelligence, perception, and memory), and metacognitive skills (Diamanti et al., 2014). Spelling ability is documented as a composite skill that is rather laborious to acquire and which is an essential part of writing (Oakley & Fellowes, 2016)
Some children experience great difficulty as compared to their peers in learning to spell; these children typically have difficulty learning to read as well. It is important to have a good understanding of these complexities in order to comprehend how children learn to spell and why some children have severe difficulties with this process. Theories about how children learn to spell need to account for the full spectrum of patterns, as do theories about why some children have difficulty in spelling and how we can assist them(Treiman, 2017b, 2017a).
The correlation between intelligence, language problems, and spelling is well established in research (Smith et al., 2016) and demonstrates that general intelligence and phonological awareness contribute to the acquisition of reading and spelling skills in children (Siddaiah & Padakannaya, 2015; Zarić et al., 2021).
Research findings suggest that there may be other unknown environmental factors contributing to spelling, such as family environment, neighborhood school, print exposure, environmental toxins, nutrition, the number of siblings, experiences such as visits to the library, and the number of books in the home (Lewis et al., 2018).
This study explores the correlation between students’ performance on a spelling test and specific socio-demographic characteristics, such as gender, father’s and mother’s occupation, who helps them with homework, the degree of satisfaction with their school performance, their parents’ degree of satisfaction with their school performance, difficulties they face in school subjects (reading, writing, arithmetic), essays, tests (oral and written), and use of leisure time.
Research in Greece investigating the development of spelling ability in individuals with and without LD seems limited; however, in recent years in Greece, there has been interest in the linguistic factors related to the development of spelling ability as well as in the analysis of spelling errors of students with and without LD (Protopapas et al., 2013)
In particular, the research hypotheses were:
Η1: The gender of students with spelling difficulties will correlate with their spelling performance.
Η2: Parents’ occupation (father and mother) will correlate with spelling performance.
Η3: The satisfaction of children with spelling difficulties with their school progress will correlate with their spelling performance.
Η4: Perceived parents’ satisfaction with school progress will correlate with their spelling performance.
Η5: Children’s perceived difficulties in school subjects (dictation, reading, writing, arithmetic), essay writing, and oral or written assessments (tests) will correlate with performance in spelling.
Η6: The use of free time will correlate with performance.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used
The study presents the pilot findings of a large-scale survey.
Participants
The sample consisted of 225 children: 111 (49.3%) boys and 114 (50.7%) girls. The average age of the children in the sample is 11.5 years, with the average age of boys being only two months older than girls. All the children attended the 6th grade of the primary school on the island of Rhodes: 50.2% of them attended school in the city of Rhodes, and 49.8% attended school in the semi-urban and rural areas.
Instruments
The following instruments were utilised to collect data for the study:
1) A self-report of two sections, to obtain socio-demographic data and family characteristics.
2) The DWT is a passage-spelling test. It is an age-appropriate passage with morphological variety developed by Zachos and Zachos in 1998 (Zachos & Zachos, 1998)..
Procedure and data analysis
Data collection took place in the school years 2017–20. The questionnaires were administered to the students by their teacher. Data analysis was based on descriptive statistics and the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests for independent samples.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings
The study showed that there was a correlation between students’ performance on the spelling test and the demographic variables: gender, mother’s occupation, reading help, children’s satisfaction with school performance, parents’ satisfaction with school performance, reading difficulties, spelling difficulties, essay difficulties, arithmetic difficulties, oral difficulties, writing difficulties, and leisure time use.
Especially, the study indicated that most students scored high in spelling errors. Moreover, the study revealed statistically significant differences between children’s spelling performance in the DWT test and the following demographic variables: Gender, mother’s occupation, reading assistance, children’s satisfaction with school performance, parents’ satisfaction with school performance, reading difficulties, spelling difficulties, exposure difficulties, arithmetic difficulties, oral difficulties, writing difficulties, and leisure time utilisation. Students who had a tutor at home or another person for help made more spelling errors compared to students who had no help. Children who were dissatisfied with their own or their parents’ performance in school made a higher number of spelling mistakes. At the same time, children who reported having difficulties (a few to too many) in reading, spelling, composition, arithmetic, speaking, and writing made more spelling errors. Finally, students who stated that they go to their country house in their free time and students with fewer extracurricular activities made more spelling mistakes.
The present study shows that certain socio-demographic characteristics are correlated with students’ spelling attainment. These findings emphasise both that children’s spelling ability is a complex process involving a variety of factors and that each student should be considered individually. In conclusion, the research highlights the need to consider socio-demographic factors in terms of teaching, educational reforms, and changes in issues of spelling: learning and dealing with spelling difficulties.
References
Diamanti, V., Goulandris, N., Stuart, M., & Campbell, R. (2014). Spelling of derivational and inflectional suffixes by Greek-speaking children with and without dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 27(2), 337–358. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9447-2
Oakley, G., & Fellowes, J. (2016). A closer look at spelling in the primary classroom. Primary English Teachers Association Australia.
Siddaiah, A., & Padakannaya, P. (2015). Rapid automatized naming and reading: A review. Psychological Studies, 60(1), 70–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-014-0280-8
Smith, B. L., Smith, T. D., Taylor, L., & Hobby, M. (2016). Relationship between Intelligence and Vocabulary: Perceptual and Motor Skills. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.100.1.101-108
Treiman, R. (2017a). Learning to spell: Phonology and beyond. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 34(3–4), Article 3–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2017.1337630
Treiman, R. (2017b). Learning to spell words: Findings, theories, and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 21(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2017.1296449
Paper
Participation in ECE in Kosovo: (Re-)migration and Acquired Cultural Capital as a Resource for the Participation of ECE Institutions
Universität Graz, Austria
Presenting Author:Research shows that returns of people that fled can positively influence post-war recoveries on country (Wahba 2021). Education is argued to be of special relevance for post-war recoveries in general. Attendance of children early childhood education (ECE) can play an important role for individuals and society, as participation is in general associated with a positive language, cognitive, and social development supporting a more successful educational career (e.g. Melhuish et al., 2015) and specifically important for the well-being in conflict zones (e.g. Osmanli et al., 2021). Disparities in ECE attendance, according to Boudon's work (1974), can be understood as the result of an interplay of the situation of the family (as supportive factors or barriers) and rational educational decisions. Apart from location and availability (e.g. Sixt 2013), disparities in attendance in ECE are often found with regard to, economic and cultural capital of parents (e.g. Adema et al. 2016) and for immigration countries also the migrant status of families (e.g. Müller et al. 2014). For conflict contexts, the role remigration plays for attendance in ECE and further trajectories has not been well researched.
In this article we therefore analyze the role remigration and war-related international connectivity plays for attendance in ECE in the Kosovan context. For more than 30 years Kosovo is classified as a crisis region, with different phases of war and stability, causing at least 4 different big waves of dynamic war- and crisis-related migration and remigration movements ( Hajdari and Krasniqi 2021). Studying inequalities in ECE attendance is of particular interest as children affected by big migrations waves in the 1990ies are now parents and in Kosovo (like in many conflict regions), with the exception of the preschool-year (age 5-6), non-compulsory, highly privatized and regional differences in availability can be found (Gjelaj et al., 2018). As studies reports on the risk of remigration to Kosovo in terms of reintegration, unemployment, economic situation (Möllers et al. 2017) as well as mental health and the associated loss of quality of life (Lersner et al. 2008) negative primary origin effects can be expected. However, when migration or war-related international personal encounter positively influenced parental acquisition of cultural and social capital (Farrell, Mahon and Mcdonagh, 2012) positive influence, in terms of educational aspiration and insights into the value of ECE, positive secondary origin effects seem plausible.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used
To analyze disparities in patters of attendance in ECE related to war-caused migrations we use data from home survey and student questionnaire of the TIMSS 2019 for Kosovo (Foy and LaRoche 2020) were the parents and the 4th Grade students themselves (nstudents= 4496; average age was 9.9) also reported on early learning. As remigration was not asked in the survey specifically, we look at 2 indicators to analyze patterns of ECE attendance (min. 3 years, 60 %): Immigration to Kosovo (at least one family member born outside of Kosovo, 8 %) and language practice in families (Every day communication between mother and child in English, German, Italian or French language, 21 %). As these languages are not spoken in Kosovo but major emigration countries, we find it plausible to assume that language competences have been acquired as part of a migration related experience. We calculated logistic regression analysis on EC attendance using the IEA IDB Analyzer, which allows for weighting and correct estimation of standard errors, given the complex sampling of the study.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings
We find no significant difference in ECE attendance in relation to the immigration of at least one member of the nuclear family. Migration-relevant linguistic family practices are associated with a 2.6 times higher chance of attending ECE, and significant effects remain even when controlling for education and occupational status of parents. Disparities related to educational and economic capital of families can also be confirmed. The indicator language practice in the families, also appears as an independent explanatory factor in explaining achievement differences in mathematics in the fourth grade, and remains significant when controlling for economic and cultural capital as well as aspirations. The study is having a number of limitations, starting with the instrumentation and the nature of the survey data. The strength lies in the utilization of representative large-scale data for a conflict context, where data is scares. The results indicated that (re-)migration by itself, may not be supportive for ECE attendance in crisis contexts. Only when war- and crisis-related migration or opportunities for global encounters support the acquisitions of cultural capital, positive effects for educational decisions of parents can be expected. Obviously, additional qualitative studies and better instrumentation for surveys are needed to further look into when and how war-related migration can be considered a strengthen factor for early childhood education. Supportive findings, would support and emphasis the importance’s of providing high quality education for displaced people also for post-war recovery and educational opportunities of next generations.
References
Publication bibliography
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Boudon, R. (1974). Education, opportunity, and social inequality: Changing prospects in Western society. Wiley series in urban research. New York, NY: Wiley.
Farrell, M., Mahon, M. & McDonagh, J. (2012). The rural as a return migration destination. European Countryside, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.2478/v10091-012-0012-9
Foy, P. & LaRoche, S. (2020). Estimating Standard Errors in the TIMSS 2019 results. In M. O. Martin, M. von Davier & I. V. Mullis (Hrsg.), TIMSS-2019-MP-Technical-Report (14.1-15.1). TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Bost College and International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
Gjelaj, M., Rraci, E. & Bajrami, K. (2018). Pre-school Education in Kosovo. Available online at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334896051_PRE-SCHOOL_EDUCATION_IN_KOSOVO, checked on 09/15/2022
Hajdari, L. & Krasniqi, J. (2021). The economic dimension of migration: Kosovo from 2015 to 2020. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00923-6
Lersner, U. von, Elbert, T. & Neuner, F. (2008). Mental health of refugees following state-sponsored repatriation from Germany. BMC psychiatry, 8, 88. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-8-88
Melhuish, E., Ereky-Stevens, K., Petrogiannis, K., Ariescu, A., Penderi, E., Rentzou, K., Tawell, A., Slot, P., Broekhuizen, M. & Leseman, P. (2015). A review of research on the effect so Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Available online at https://ecec-care.org/fileadmin/careproject/Publications/reports/new_version_CARE_WP4_D4_1_Review_on_the_effects_of_ECEC.pdf, checked on 12/22/2022.
Möllers, J., Traikova, D., Herzfeld, T. & Bajrami, E. (2017). Study on rural migration and return migration in Kosovo. Available online at http://hdl.handle.net/10419/168315, checked on 11/25/2022.
Müller, N., Strietholt, R. & Hogrebe, N. (2014). Unlgeiche Zugänge zum Kindergarten. In K. Drossel, R. Strietholt & W. Bos (Hrsg.), Empirische Bildungsforschung und evidenzbasierte Reformen im Bildugnswegsen (S. 33–46). Waxmann.
Osmanli, N., Babayev, A., Rustamov, I., & Munir, K. (2021). Emotional and behavioral problems of 7-11 year old children in war-torn nagorno – karabakh region in Azerbaijan. European Psychiatry, 64(S1). https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.1670
Sixt, M. (2013). Wohnort, Region und Bildungserfolg. Die strukturelle Dimension bei der Erklärung von regionaler Bildungsungleichheit. In R. Becker & A. Schulzer (Eds.), Bildungskontexte: Strukturelle Voraussetzungen und Ursachen ungleicher Bildungschancen (pp. 483–510). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
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