Homework assignment and student achievement in OECD countries

By using data from 16 OECD countries who participated in TIMSS 2007, this paper analyzes the effect of assigning homework on student achievement. The identification rests on within-student variation in homework across subjects in a sample of students who have the same teacher in both mathematics and science. Unobserved teacher and student characteristics are conditioned out of the model by applying a difference-in-difference approach. We find a modest, but statistically significant effect of homework.

The Influence of Student Achievement on Teacher Turnover

Evidence on teacher behavior is essential for the understanding of the performance of school systems. In this paper we utilize rich data to study the teachers’ quit decision in Norway. We distinguish between decisions to move between public schools within school districts, to another school district in the same labor market region, across labor market regions, and whether to leave public schools. The results indicate that the quit propensity to all four destinations is negatively related to student performance. The result is qualitatively independent of whether student performance is measured by exam results or teacher graduation.teacher turnover, student achievement, family status, non-pecuniary factors

Property Taxation as a Determinant of School District Efficiency

Recent theoretical contributions have emphasized the favorable incentive effects of property taxation. The object of this paper is to confront these theories with Norwegian data on student performance. The institutional setting in Norway is well suited to analyzing the effects of property taxation because we can compare school districts with and without property taxation. In addition, we focus on an alternative incentive mechanism - competition between school districts. The empirical results indicate that students in school districts that levy residential property taxes perform better at the national examination than students in comparable school districts. Strategic interaction in school quality is present, but the magnitude of the interaction effect is modest.Student achievement;efficiency;property taxation;competition;spatial auto-regressive model

Quasi-Experimental Estimates of the Effect of Class Size on Achievement in Norway

Using a comprehensive administrative database we exploit independent quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of class size on student achievement in Norway. The first method is based on a maximum class size rule in the spirit Angrist and Lavy (1999). The second method exploits population variation as first proposed by Hoxby (2000). The results of both methods (and of variations on these methods) are very similar and cannot reject that the class size effect is equal to zero. The estimates are very precise; we can rule out effects as small as 1.5 percent of a standard deviation for a one student change in class size during three years in a row.class size, educational production

Financial incentives and study duration in higher education

The current paper investigates to which extent students in higher education respond to financial incentives by adjusting their study behavior. Students in Norway who completed certain graduate study programs between 1991 and 1995 on stipulated time were entitled to a restitution (of approximately 3,000 USD) from the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the fraction of students graduating on time during the reform period increased by 10 percent, relative to a base probability of about 25 percent. The estimated effect for fully treated students (students who were aware of the reform from the start of their studies) is much higher, at 50 percent.

Searching for the fantastic: an Australian case

Fantasy is the ability of the imagination to visualize and textualize non-existent worlds as real. It is an escape to an imaginary present or past, but often expresses direct criticism of the real world or moral issues. The relation between fantasy literature and myth, the fairytale, and legends is highly complex. Is fantasy and the fantastic just the strange and unknown, and what is its purpose? Is it only imaginary worlds that can be defined as such and what is the role of the reader/listener in interpreting these texts as fantasy? This article will discuss what we mean by fantasy literature in relation to a recent collection of novellas, Legends of Australian Fantasy, their use of myth and its literary expression

Nudging – a critical analysis of nudging as climate change adaptation strategy

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the challenges with using nudge as a climate change adaptation strategy. This was done by applying the theoretical concepts of adaptation as a socio-political process, more precisely by focusing on authority, knowledge, and subjectivity. The study is a qualitative approach, based on a document analysis of selected literature discussing nudge and behavioral public policy generically and/or related to climate change/sustainability issues. Relating to authority, this study found that nudge strategies are extensively spread globally but are predominantly found in western English-speaking countries. Especially western formal organizations, both governments and international (development/aid) organizations, have initiated nudge projects globally. As policy tool nudge should be considered as a soft governmental steering tool to change behavior, and must be combined with other stronger, more regulatory instruments. Relating to the concept of knowledge, the inherent choice architecture in nudge theory and practice and the ideal of scientific evidence-based knowledge was criticized for being a too limited approach to address larger societal problems. In regard to subjectivities, this study found substantial ethical issues that relate to the hidden and potentially manipulative features of nudges. This study also indicate that the ethical issues represent a severe democratic problem due to nudging being contradictory to empowerment and participation by individuals. The challenges with using nudge as a climate change adaptation strategy were identified at two levels: individual and systemic. At individual level, particularly ethical issues are considered to be most prominent. At systemic level, nudge strategies are discussed as a soft governmental policy tool, considered as an inadequate or a modest contribution to address the complexity and seriousness of climate change problems

Classical analogies for the force acting on an impurity in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the hydrodynamic forces acting on a small impurity moving in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate at non-zero temperature. The condensate is modelled by the damped-Gross Pitaevskii (dGPE) equation and the impurity by a Gaussian repulsive potential coupled to the condensate. For weak coupling, we obtain analytical expressions for the forces acting on the impurity, and compare them with those computed through direct numerical simulations of the dGPE and with the corresponding expressions for classical forces. For non-steady flows, there is a time-dependent force dominated by inertial effects and which has a correspondence in the Maxey-Riley theory for particles in classical fluids. In the steady-state regime, the force is dominated by a self-induced drag. Unlike at zero temperature, where the drag force vanishes below a critical velocity, at low temperatures the impurity experiences a net drag even at small velocities, as a consequence of the energy dissipation through interactions of the condensate with the thermal cloud. This dissipative force due to thermal drag is similar to the classical Stokes' drag. There is still a critical velocity above which steady-state drag is dominated by acoustic excitations and behaves non-monotonically with impurity's speed.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary movies available at: https://cloud.ifisc.uib-csic.es/nextcloud/index.php/s/AFzw6JxNW77DT6

Pacific Studies: Quo Vadis?

Looking back to the past this paper discusses why Pacific studies and in particular Australasian studies became an area of interest in tertiary education in Europe. What subject areas initiated these studies, and how do past legacies shape the present? With cutbacks in higher education over the past two decades the future of interdisciplinary studies and the humanities looks bleak. At the same time due to global business and increased political communication across borders there is a vibrant interest in and need for such studies among businesses and students. For most Europeans the literature of settler countries, with their European legacy, makes access to ways of thought and culture easier than studies of countries with other mythological backgrounds. In today’s multicultural environment such studies can provide knowledge for an understanding of other cultures and increase tolerance of the ‘other’. Area studies have relevance to our situation in Europe with increased migrancy, not least as a result of Schengen and EU regulations