ICT supporting the assessment, explanation, and reduction possibilities of severity of violence experienced by secondary pupils

Abstract

Mooij, T. (2012, 19 September). ICT supporting the assessment, explanation, and reduction possibilities of severity of violence experienced by secondary pupils. Presentation at the ‘European Conference on Educational Research’ (ECER) of the ‘European Educational Research Association’ (EERA), Cádiz, Spain.Assessment of violence can be complex for reasons of conceptual clarity and data collection. Mokken Scale Analysis can be used to improve violence assessment, whereas large-scale data gathering by ICT can support differentiated and situational measurement. Both Mokken Scaling and large-scale procedures for digital data collection and feedback to schools are used to estimate the relevance of individual pupil and contextual school variables in the explanation of severity of violence experienced by secondary school pupils. A theoretical two-level model has been developed in which personal, family and educational variables explain the severity of violence experienced by pupils as assessed by Mokken Scaling. The model is tested by doing Multiple Regression Analysis on data collected in a Dutch national survey in secondary education (N pupils=78,840; N schools=219). The results reveal that a pupil who is older, a boy, and born in the Netherlands, who feels at home in another country, does not have an intact family, is not religious, is enrolled in the highest educational track, and is getting lower marks in the school subjects Dutch and mathematics experiences more severe violence than other pupils. Relevant school variables are various composite or mean pupil variables; mean severity of violence experienced at school is most important in relative terms. The conclusion is that, in line with expectations, specific pupil and school-based variables explain the Mokken score on severity of violence experienced. ICT is used to feedback both national and school level results to the schools participating in the research