How Schools Affect Student Well-Being: A Cross-Cultural Approach in 35 OECD Countries

A common approach for measuring the effectiveness of an education system or a school is the estimation of the impact that school interventions have on students’ academic performance. However, the latest trends aim to extend the focus beyond students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills, and to consider aspects such as well-being in the academic context. For this reason, the 2015 edition of the international assessment system Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) incorporated a new tool aimed at evaluating the socio-emotional variables related to the well-being of students. It is based on a definition focused on the five dimensions proposed in the PISA theoretical framework: cognitive, psychological, social, physical, and material. The main purpose of this study is to identify the well-being components that significantly affect student academic performance and to estimate the magnitude of school effects on the wellbeing of students in OECD countries, the school effect being understood as the ability of schools to increase subjective student well-being. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the responses of 248,620 students from 35 OECD countries to PISA 2015 questionnaires. Specifically, we considered non-cognitive variables in the questionnaires and student performance in science. The results indicated that the cognitive well-being dimension, composed of enjoyment of science, self-efficacy, and instrumental motivation, as well as test anxiety all had a consistent relationship with student performance across countries. In addition, the school effect, estimated through a two-level hierarchical linear model, in terms of student well-being was systematically low. While the school effect accounted for approximately 25% of the variance in the results for the cognitive dimension, only 5–9% of variance in well-being indicators was attributable to it. This suggests that the influence of school on student welfare is weak, and the effect is similar across countries. The present study contributes to the general discussion currently underway about the definition of well-being and the connection between well-being and achievement. The results highlighted two complementary concerns: there is a clear need to promote socioemotional education in schools, and it is important to develop a rigorous framework for well-being assessment. The implications of the results and proposals for future studies are discussed.Spain Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities PSI2017-85724-P2E Estudios, Evaluaciones e Investigacion, S.

Application of the health assessment questionnaire disability index to various rheumatic diseases

Purpose\ud \ud To investigate whether the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) can serve as a generic instrument for measuring disability across different rheumatic diseases and to propose a scoring method based on item response theory (IRT) modeling to support this goal.\ud \ud Methods\ud \ud The HAQ-DI was administered to a cross-sectional sample of patients with confirmed rheumatoid arthritis (n = 619), osteoarthritis (n = 125), or gout (n = 102). The results were analyzed using the generalized partial credit model as an IRT model.\ud \ud Results\ud \ud It was found that 4 out of 8 item categories of the HAQ-DI displayed substantial differential item functioning (DIF) over the three diseases. Further, it was shown that this DIF could be modeled using an IRT model with disease-specific item parameters, which produces measures that are comparable for the three diseases.\ud \ud Conclusion\ud \ud Although the HAQ-DI partially functioned differently in the three disease groups, the measurement regarding the disability level of the patients can be made comparable using IRT methods\u

European Competition Policy in International Markets

International audienceChanges in the institutional, technological and economic environment raise new challenges to the European competition policy. In this context, it is timely for European authorities to appraise the external dimension of the European competition policy as well as its articulation with current internal reforms. Globalisation can increase the costs of monitoring and seriously reduce the ability of European authorities to tackle cross-border anti-competitive conducts. In addition, conflicts are exacerbated by industrial policy motivations. As it is unlikely that the sole application of the territoriality and extraterritoriality principles to competition rules could yield an optimal international competition system, globalisation calls for higher levels and types of cooperation. Given that bilateral cooperation and especially the implementation of comity principles could be of no value when laws or interests are sources of international conflicts, three main paths could be therefore encouraged: The continuous harmonization of rules through the joint action of OECD and ICN; the higher cooperation in the confidential information exchange; the establishment of global anti-trust institutions. Although WTO is legitimate in judging questions related market access and entry barriers, it is less equipped to assess international hard core cartels or M&A reviews. As a substitute for WTO, a multilevel system, like the EU system, could be promoted. For political and pragmatic reasons, it could be composed in a first step of a hard core of countries like the EU, Japan and the U.S. It could be associated with the creation of an international Court of Justice for competition. In addition to these external reforms, some internal reforms could be required. Competition authorities have to develop further competition advocacy to give a higher priority to competition issues in other EU policies and national regulation. A parallel and complementary reform could consist in making the European competition agency independent from State Members' interference

Au-delà du cadre scolaire : l'enquête internationale sur l'alphabétisation des adultes (EIAA)

Grisay Aletta. Au-delà du cadre scolaire : l'enquête internationale sur l'alphabétisation des adultes (EIAA). In: La Lettre de la DFLM, n°19, 1996/2. pp. 25-28

Comment une personne atteinte d’une déficience mentale légère se représente-elle les exclusions qu’elle vit ?

Notre mémoire s’inspire d’une expérience vécue avec des personnes touchées par une déficience mentale. Les lectures, les rencontres, et les projets réalisés dans le cadre d’un stage à « l’Essentiel » nous ont amené à réfléchir sur la place de la personne déficiente mentale au sein de la société. Le point de départ de notre recherche vient d’une observation : notre société veut intégrer les différences et garantir la protection de tous ses citoyens. Néanmoins, lorsque l’on côtoie des adultes atteints d’une déficience mentale nous remarquons qu’ils veulent « être perçu comme tout le monde », mais qu’en réalité ils sont traités différemment. Nous avons voulu comprendre quelle place occupe la personne déficiente mentale au sein de notre société et plusieurs étapes nous ont amenés à saisir celle-ci. L’histoire du handicap, le projet actuel d’inclusion de la personne déficiente mentale, le mécanisme global d’exclusion et les exclusions objectives et subjectives vécues montrent que la personne déficiente se situe dans un entre-deux : entre l’acceptation et le rejet. La littérature qui s’intéresse au sujet permet de saisir le quotidien des citoyens touchés par une déficience mentale. Néanmoins, peu d’études interrogent les personnes déficientes « elles-mêmes », sur la réalité « qu’elles vivent ». Les recherches se focalisent essentiellement sur les perceptions des éducateurs, des parents, des membres de la famille, des personnes extérieures au milieu du handicap. C’est suite à ce constat que notre question de recherche s’est concrétisée : « comment la personne déficiente mentale se représente-t-elle l’exclusion qu’elle vit ? » Nous avons choisi de réaliser une étude qualitative basée sur des entretiens pour répondre à notre question de recherche. Ces entretiens, menés avec des membres du « Mouvement Personne D’abord », ont donné la parole aux personnes déficientes mentales légères. Les témoignages recueillis montrent que les participants se rendent compte de l’exclusion qu’ils vivent et veulent participer plus à la société.Mémoire de master [120] en sciences psychologiques, Université catholique de Louvain, 201

What are the main cross-national studies?

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