Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse von PISA 2012 / Synthèse des résultats de PISA 2012

in SCRIPT; EMACS (Eds.) PISA 2012. Nationaler Bericht Luxemburg (2013)

Mädchen und Jungen

in SCRIPT; EMACS (Eds.) PISA 2012. Nationaler Bericht Luxemburg (2013)

A multitrait-multimethod study of assessment instruments for Complex Problem Solving

in Intelligence (2013), 41

Effects of impoverished environmental conditions on working memory performance

in Memory (2013), Mar 26. [Epub ahead of print]

This cross-cultural study investigates the impact of background experience on four verbal and visuo-spatial working memory (WM) tasks. Eighty-four children from low income families were recruited from the ... [more ▼]

This cross-cultural study investigates the impact of background experience on four verbal and visuo-spatial working memory (WM) tasks. Eighty-four children from low income families were recruited from the following groups: (1) Portuguese immigrant children from Luxembourg impoverished in terms of language experience; (2) Brazilian children deprived in terms of scholastic background; (3) Portuguese children from Portugal with no disadvantage in either scholastic or language background. Children were matched on age, gender, fluid intelligence, and socioeconomic status and completed four simple and complex span tasks of WM and a vocabulary measure. Results indicate that despite large differences in their backgrounds and language abilities, the groups exhibited comparable performance on the visuo-spatial tasks dot matrix and odd-one-out and on the verbal simple span task digit recall. Group differences emerged on the verbal complex span task counting recall with children from Luxembourg and Portugal outperforming children from disadvantaged schools in Brazil. The study suggests that whereas contributions of prior knowledge to digit span, dot matrix, and odd-one-out are likely to be minimal, background experience can affect performance on counting recall. Implications for testing WM capacity in children growing up in poverty are discussed. [less ▲]

Do teacher judgments of student intelligence predict life outcomes?

in Learning and Individual Differences (2013), 27

Kompetenzerwerb in Bezug auf das sozioökonomische und kulturelle Umfeld

in SCRIPT; EMACS (Eds.) PISA 2012. Nationaler Bericht Luxemburg (2013)

Educational Assessment Meets Usability: Equal Chances for Conducting Computer-Based Concept-Maps

in Herrington, Jan; Couros, Alec; Irvine, Valerie (Eds.) EdMedia World Conference on Educational Media & Technology 2013 (2013)

This paper describes how usability affects the usage of a computer-based assessment (CBA) instrument. The aim of our current study is twofold: a) the development of a usability improved CBA instrument ... [more ▼]

This paper describes how usability affects the usage of a computer-based assessment (CBA) instrument. The aim of our current study is twofold: a) the development of a usability improved CBA instrument (ISO 9241-11, 1998; ISO 9241-210, 2010) within the framework of human-computer interaction (HCI) and b) the comparison and evaluation of two concept map applications in regards to the impact that usability has on the assessment interaction. In this study we developed and evaluated two CBA concept map applications. We assessed 60 students aged between 16 and 18 who were asked to conduct concept maps on two different versions of the same knowledge assessment instrument. We observed significant differences regarding two out of three usability criteria of the ISO standard definition: efficiency and satisfaction of the students. Our findings highlight that usability influences the assessment interaction and therefore the chances of the assessment taker to work (successfully) through the assessment. [less ▲]

Prädiktoren der Sekundarschulempfehlung in Luxemburg: Ergebnisse einer Large-Scale-Untersuchung

in Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft (2013), 16

Mit dieser Studie wurde anhand einer Stichprobe von 2925 Schülern aus luxemburgischen Grundschulen geprüft, inwieweit die Leistungen von Schülern luxemburgischer Grundschulen und Merkmale ihres sozialen ... [more ▼]

Mit dieser Studie wurde anhand einer Stichprobe von 2925 Schülern aus luxemburgischen Grundschulen geprüft, inwieweit die Leistungen von Schülern luxemburgischer Grundschulen und Merkmale ihres sozialen Hintergrundes Eingang finden in die Sekundarschulempfehlungen, die am Ende ihrer Grundschulzeit ausgesprochen wurden. Zur Analyse des Gewichts unterschiedlicher Prädiktoren für die Sekundarschulempfehlung wurde ein Zweiebenenmodell der logistischen Regression verwendet. Im Wesentlichen ergaben sich folgende Befunde: Schulnoten und Ergebnisse aus standardisierten Schulleistungstests stellten die stärksten Prädiktoren für die Sekundarschulempfehlung dar. Nach den individuellen Schülerleistungen war der Elternwunsch der stärkste Prädiktor für die Sekundarschulempfehlung. Darüber hinaus hingen sowohl die Nationalität als auch der sozioökonomische Status der Schüler mit der Sekundarschulempfehlung zusammen. Selbst bei Kontrolle ihrer schulischen Leistungen erhielten Schüler mit Migrationshintergrund seltener eine Empfehlung für den höchsten Schulzweig als Schüler ohne Migrationshintergrund. Ein hohes Klassenleistungsniveau führte bei Kontrolle der individuellen Leistungen seltener zu Empfehlungen für den höchsten Schulzweig als ein niedriges Klassenleistungsniveau. [less ▲]

Efeitos de contextos ambientais desfavoráveis na memória operacional

Poster (2012, October)

Há um crescente número de estudos indicando que o desempenho em tarefas de memória operacional (MO) depende fortemente do conhecimento e experiência prévios. Poucos estudos, entretanto, têm explorado ... [more ▼]

Há um crescente número de estudos indicando que o desempenho em tarefas de memória operacional (MO) depende fortemente do conhecimento e experiência prévios. Poucos estudos, entretanto, têm explorado diretamente o papel do ambiente social no desenvolvimento de habilidades de MO.Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar o impacto da experiência escolar e linguística do indivíduo em tarefas de MO verbal e visual. [less ▲]

Attentional shifts induced by uninformative number symbols modulate neural activity in human occipital cortex

in Neuropsychologia (2012), 50

Number processing interacts with space encoding in a wide variety of experimental paradigms. Most intriguingly, the passive viewing of uninformative number symbols can shift visuo-spatial attention to ... [more ▼]

Number processing interacts with space encoding in a wide variety of experimental paradigms. Most intriguingly, the passive viewing of uninformative number symbols can shift visuo-spatial attention to different target locations according to the number magnitude, i.e., small/large numbers facilitate processing of left/right targets, respectively. The brain architecture dedicated to these attention shifts associated with numbers remains unknown. Evoked potential recordings indicate that both early and late stages are involved in this spatio-numerical interaction, but the neuro-functional anatomy needs to be specified. Here we use, for the first time, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate attentional orienting following uninformative Arabic digits. We show that BOLD response in occipital visual regions is modulated by the congruency between digit magnitude (small/large) and target side (left/right). Additionally, we report higher BOLD responses following large (8, 9) compared to small (1, 2) digits in two bilateral parietal regions, yielding a significant effect of digit magnitude. We propose and discuss the view that encoding of semantic representations related to number symbols in parietal cortex leads to shifts in visuo-spatial attention and enhances visual processing in the occipital cortex according to number-space congruency rules. [less ▲]