The influence of weekly instruction and homework time on students' academic performance

Objective Students’ use of time and its effective use are of high relevance for their learning and, because of that, this is an issue which has been placed at the core of the education debate. In the present study we intend to check whether both instruction and homework time are contributing to improve students’ competences or not. Data and methodology In order to approach this issue, we have employed Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data, focusing on 4th grade students in 58 countries. Our intention is to go beyond correlation and approach causality as much as possible so, for this purpose, we employ student fixed-effects within-students between-subjects. Results Our main findings show that weekly instruction and homework time present a null influence on students’ competences in most of the countries under analysis, while they also present a low positive one in some of them. Conclusions The most likely explanation for these results may be that TIMSS measures students’ competences, which are related to the abilities that students use in their daily life, and not to content-based knowledge, which is more related to memorisation or to mechanical tasks. Therefore, this instruction and homework time may not be helping students to improve their competences.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Are soft skills conditioned by conflicting factors? A multiobjective programming approach to explore the trade-offs

Despite the relevance of noncognitive skills (i.e. soft skills) for individual development and for certain forms of employment, they tend to be overlooked in studies centred on educational performance. This study brings an additional contribution to the growing interest on these skills by exploring their main determinants and by providing an additional understanding of how they are influenced by socio-economic and family background. To this end, a multiobjective programming model has been developed, whose coefficients are instantiated by the results of several econometric estimations, in which distinct (and conflicting) aspects of multiple soft skills are considered. Hence, by coupling econometric with multiobjective optimisation modelling approaches we provide an overarching framework for assessing the trade-offs between the different dimensions of noncognitive skills. Data from the most populated region of Spain are used. Overall, our findings highlight the trade-off between different soft skills, which are particularly conditioned by students’ gender.This work has been partly supported by FEDER funding (under Research Project PY20-00228); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (under Research Project PID2020-119471RB-I00); the Andalusian Regional Government (SEJ-645); the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under project grant UID/MULTI/00308/2020 and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (under Projects UID/MULTI/00308/2020 and UIDB/05037/2020). Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga/CBUA

Gender differences between teachers’ assessments and test based assessments. Evidence from Spain

We study the existence of a gender gap between two methods of grading student achievement in Spain, namely teachers’ assessment which measures cognitive outcomes and standardised test scores, which are consistent across Spanish schools. We use rich census information of Andalusian students attending secondary schools. Our results indicate that overall teachers’ assessment favours girls compared to the result of standardised test scores in reading and maths. On average, girls obtain 0.35 points more than boys in teacher’s assessment on a 1 to 10 scale (0.15 SD), conditional on both having the same competencies. Additionally, we have found that the gender gap is stable across different levels of students’ own ability and peers’ ability. These results are robust to a set of census social characteristics. The presence of grading disparities suggests that test scores could complement teachers’ assessment; specifically, they could be used to inform about the gender gap in assessments.We are grateful to the Consejería de Educación of the Junta de Andalucía for data support. This work has been partly supported by FEDER funding (under Research Project PY20-00228-R); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (under Research Project PID2020-119471RB-I00); the Andalusian Regional Government (SEJ-645)

The influence of weekly instruction on student’s academic performance in Spain

Students attend compulsory school lessons every week, and this time should be used in such a way that it improves students’ competences; otherwise, it may be wasted. However, although parents suppose that their children are always learning in these lessons, this might not be the case in Spain. In order to analyse whether the weekly instruction time received by Spanish students is useful for their learning or not, data from PISA 2018 for 15 year-old students have been employed. In addition, we intend to go beyond correlation by the use of student fixed-effects within-student between-subjects. With this approach, those variables which are fixed within-students might be controlled. Our results indicate that weekly instruction time does not seem to influence students’ academic performance. Many robustness checks, which split the sample according to several conditional variables, have supported these results. Building on these results, we suggest the rearrangement of students’ weekly instruction time and its efficient use in the new Spanish education law.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Do school preferences differ between mothers and fathers? International evidence from PISA

A sizeable literature – spanning education, sociology and economics – has investigated the issue of parental school preferences and school choice. A notable gap in the existing evidence base is an exploration of how such preferences differ between mothers and fathers. We present new cross-national findings on this matter, drawing on survey data collected from more than 300,000 parents across 25 countries. Our findings suggest that mothers rate the school environment – whether the school is safe and has a pleasant atmosphere – to be more important than fathers. Differences are also observed with respect to the school’s reputation and whether it has a high level of achievement. Clearer evidence of such differences emerges for industrialised Western nations than for countries that are not members of the OECD. In most countries, mothers’ and fathers’ preferences do not vary substantially between sons and daughters

Comparing parental satisfaction with their child’s school during primary and secondary education

A wide array of research has investigated the correlates and consequences of parental satisfaction with their child’s school. In brief, parents look at academic performance, but also other non-academic dimensions such as children well-being. However, the evidence exploring the changes in parental demands between primary and secondary education is still scarce. In order to address this question, we use data from PISA and PIRLS and employ OLS, including school fixed effects and students’ weights. We illustrate how there is in general a broadly consistent cross-country pattern of the results across the primary and secondary school sectors. This suggests that the overall picture one gets about parental satisfaction with school is broadly similar.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec