653 research outputs found
The effects of Preparing for Life as a University Student (PLUS) on student achievement, persistence, & integration
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the Preparing for Life as a University Student (PLUS) transition program on student achievement, persistence, and integration. The mixed design study was conducted at a highly selective, coeducational, mid-sized university. Three cohort groups were combined as the treatment group and compared statistically to a closely matched sample of non-PLUS students. Focus groups with PLUS participants were also held.;Two research questions investigated whether there was a significant difference in academic achievement and persistence between PLUS participants and non-PLUS students after the first and second semesters. The remaining three research questions addressed PLUS participants\u27 perceptions of the impacts of PLUS on integration patterns and of the impact of integration on academic achievement and persistence. Statistical analyses showed that there was a significant difference in mean GPAs after the second semester and a significant difference between mean numbers of credits earned after the first and second semesters. Analysis of focus group responses showed that participation in PLUS positively impacted academic and social integration. Furthermore, responses indicated that integration positively impacted achievement and participants\u27 will to persist.;The results suggest that there are advantages to taking the course in PLUS. The results also suggest that strong peer and student-faculty relationships are crucial to student success. Recommendations are made for further studies that analyze achievement and persistence rates beyond the first two semesters of matriculation. The researcher also suggests that future research designs should include comparative analyses of various summer transition programs
The influence of school and teaching quality on children’s progress in primary school
This report investigates the way school and classroom processes affect the cognitive
progress and social/behavioural development of children between the ages of 6 (Year 1)
and 10 (Year 5) in primary schools in England.
The research is part of the larger longitudinal study of Effective Pre-School and Primary
Education (EPPE 3-11) funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families
(DCSF) that is following children’s cognitive and social/behavioural development from
ages 3 to 11 years. The EPPE 3-11 study investigates both pre-school and primary
school influences on children’s attainment, progress and social/behavioural
development. This report describes the results of quantitative analyses based on a subsample
of 1160 EPPE children across Year 1 to 5 of primary education. The research
builds on the earlier analyses of children’s Reading and Mathematics attainments and
social/behavioural outcomes in Year 5 for the full EPPE 3-11 sample (see Sammons,
2007a; 2007b), by investigating relationships between children’s outcomes and
measures of classroom processes, collected through direct observation of Year 5
classes in 125 focal schools chosen from the larger EPPE 3-11 data set. The analyses
also explore patterns of association between children’s outcomes and broader measures
of overall school characteristics derived from teacher questionnaires and Ofsted
inspection reports for this sub-sample of schools
Tracking pupil mobility over the pre-school and primary school period: evidence from EPPE 3-11
This report describes the ‘tracking’ of the EPPE 3-11 sample and then goes on to
examine the possible influence of mobility on EPPE 3-11 children’s cognitive progress
and social/behavioural development over both the pre-school and primary school period.
In the present research ‘mobility’ is defined as having changed pre-school or school
centre at least once.
The aims of the research are:
• To determine possible means of reducing attrition in a longitudinal sample - tracking
• To identify any likely predictors of mobility, that is, whether mobile individuals share
any defining characteristics;
• To investigate the effects of mobility when predicting children’s cognitive and
social/behavioural outcomes, controlling for other background factors;
• To investigate the effects of children’s mobility in terms of the academic effectiveness
of the schools attended and to which children moved
Relationships between pupils’ self-perceptions, views of primary school and their development in Year 5
The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education Project 3-11 (EPPE 3-11) is a largescale longitudinal study of the impact of pre-school and primary school on children’s
developmental outcomes, both cognitive and social/behavioural. The study has been
following children from the start of pre-school (at age 3 years plus) through to the end of
primary school. Previous reports have focused on the educational and
social/behavioural outcomes of the EPPE 3-11 sample at the end of Year 5 (age 10) and
progress from the end of Year 1 (age 6) to the end of Year 5 (age 10) in primary school
(Sammons et al., 2007a; 2007b). The research also explored the predictive power of a
wide variety of child, parent, and family characteristics on attainment and development,
including the Early years home learning environment (HLE) during the years of preschool and aspects of the later HLE during Key stage 1 of primary school (Sammons et
al., 2002; 2003; Sylva et al., 2004).
This research builds on earlier reports (Sammons et al., 2007a; 2007b) by investigating
relationships between children’s outcomes in Year 5 and aspects of pupils’ selfperceptions and their views of primary school, measured in Year 5 (age 10) and in Year
2 (age 7) of primary school, controlling for background characteristics. These measures
have been derived from a self-report instrument completed by EPPE 3-11 children. The
analyses explored associations between children’s progress and development over time
and their self-perceptions and views of primary school
Pupils' self-perceptions and views of primary school in year 5
The Effective Pre-School and Primary Education 3-11 (EPPE 3-11) project investigates the impact of preschool, primary school and family on a range of outcomes for a national sample of approximately 2,800
children in England between the ages of 3 and 11 years. This Research Brief presents findings on pupils’
Self-perceptions (‘Enjoyment of school’, ‘Anxiety and Isolation’, ‘Academic self-image’ and ‘Behavioural
self-image’) and their views of different features of primary school (‘Teachers’ support for pupils’ learning’,
‘Headteacher qualities’ and ‘Positive social environment’) in Year 5. The analyses involved two steps: first,
differences in pupils’ Self-perceptions and Views of primary school measured at Year 5 were explored, in
relation to child, family and Home Learning Environment (HLE) characteristics. Second, the relationships
between pupils’ Self-perceptions and their Views of primary school and educational outcomes and
progress, both cognitive (Reading and Mathematics) and social/behavioural (‘Self-regulation’,
‘Hyperactivity’, ‘Pro-social’ and ‘Anti-social’ behaviour) were investigated. The analyses also explored
pupils’ Self-perceptions measured at a younger age (Year 2) and how they relate to children’s later
cognitive and social/behavioural outcomes in Year 5 and progress from Year 1 to Year 5
Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber thinning and the homo-interface model: Influence of Mo back contact and 3-stage process on device characteristics
Thinning the absorber layer is one of the possibilities envisaged to further decrease the production costs of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) thin films solar cell technology. In the present study, the electronic transport in submicron CIGSe-based devices has been investigated and compared to that of standard devices. It is observed that when the absorber is around 0.5 μm-thick, tunnelling enhanced interface recombination dominates, which harms cells energy conversion efficiency. It is also shown that by varying either the properties of the Mo back contact or the characteristics of 3-stage growth processing, one can shift the dominating recombination mechanism from interface to space charge region and thereby improve the cells efficiency. Discussions on these experimental facts led to the conclusions that 3-stage process implies the formation of a CIGSe/CIGSe homo-interface, whose location as well as properties rule the device operation; its influence is enhanced in submicron CIGSe based solar cells
Superscaling in inclusive electron-nucleus scattering
We investigate the degree to which the scaling functions derived
from cross sections for inclusive electron-nucleus quasi-elastic scattering
define the same function for different nuclei. In the region where the scaling
variable , we find that this superscaling is experimentally realized
to a high degree.Comment: Corrected previously mislabeled figures and cross references; 9
pages, 4 color figures, using BoxedEPS and REVTeX; email correspondence to
[email protected]
Extended Superscaling of Electron Scattering from Nuclei
An extended study of scaling of the first and second kinds for inclusive
electron scattering from nuclei is presented. Emphasis is placed on the
transverse response in the kinematic region lying above the quasielastic peak.
In particular, for the region in which electroproduction of resonances is
expected to be important, approximate scaling of the second kind is observed
and the modest breaking of it is shown probably to be due to the role played by
an inelastic version of the usual scaling variable.Comment: LaTeX, 36 pages including 5 color postscript figures and 4 postscript
figure
Nuclear model effects in Charged Current neutrino--nucleus quasielastic scattering
The quasielastic scattering of muon neutrinos on oxygen 16 is studied for
neutrino energies between 200 MeV and 1 GeV using a relativistic shell model.
Final state interactions are included within the distorted wave impulse
approximation, by means of a relativistic optical potential, with and without
imaginary part, and of a relativistic mean field potential. For comparison with
experimental data the inclusive charged--current quasielastic cross section for
-- scattering in the kinematical conditions of the LSND
experiment at Los Alamos is also presented and briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, two-column format. Accepted as brief report in
Phys. Rev.
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