Disciplinary climate and opportunity to learn (OTL) are considered as effectiveness-enhancing factors that can improve mathematics achievement. In this study, we investigated whether the school-level aggregation of student-reported OTL could yield reliable and valid measures, and then explored the relationships among disciplinary climate, OTL, and…

We examined Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and the size of cross-cultural performance differences in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 mathematics data before and after application of propensity score matching. The mathematics performance of Indonesian, Turkish, Australian, and Dutch students on released items was…

This study investigates the multivariate relationships among socioeconomic factors, special education coverage (SEC), and reading across countries participating in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Three socioeconomic factors were considered: (a) gross national income per capita, (b) income inequality via the Gini index, and…

Since there is limited research on the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model in educational contexts, the current cross-national comparison study aimed to investigate how non-cognitive factors, specifically, the TPB model components, affect students' math outcomes in USA and their peers in three other countries, Germany,…

Many arguments have been advanced in the context of the predictive correlation between learning strategies and reading achievement. There is insufficient understanding, however, of the subtle ways in which different types of learning strategies (i.e. memorisation, elaboration and control strategies) function in facilitating students' reading…

The article reports the results of a cross-country educational research project that uses quantitative methods to identify school leadership practices and contextual characteristics that contribute to explain student achievement in Chile, considering international comparisons. The results question previous evidence about a common repertoire of…

This study examines the data of students from Finland (n = 8,829) and Turkey (n = 4,848) who participated in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The purpose of this study is to discern whether the use and availability of information and communication technologies (ICT) at home and at school have a differential impact on…

Teachers' classroom behaviors and their effects on student learning have received significant attention from educators, because the quality of instruction is a critical factor closely tied to students' learning experiences. Based on a theoretical model conceptualizing the quality of instruction, this study examined the characteristics of…

Devaluing an academic domain is a potential means of alleviating the psychological discomfort that results from the inconsistency of a low domain-specific self-concept of ability and great value attached to the domain. Such motivated devaluation of a domain is expected to be stronger in cultural contexts that promote a relatively greater focus on…

The purpose of this study is to examine relationships among the such variables as socioeconomic status, math self-efficacy, anxiety, and mathematics achievement using structural equation modeling. A sample group of 8,806 students from England, Greece, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the USA participated in the PISA 2012. To show how much…

Background: Influence of external factors in general, and socioeconomic background factors in particular, on traditional reading performance has been extensively researched and debated. While traditional reading is well investigated in this respect, there is a lack of studies on equity aspects related to digital reading achievement, in spite of…

Extensive support for the seemingly paradoxical negative effects of school- and class-average achievement on academic self-concept (ASC)-the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE)--is based largely on secondary students in Western countries or on cross-cultural Program for International Student Assessment studies. There is little research testing the…

The purpose of the current study is to explore the effects of learning strategies on Mathematical Literacy (ML) of students in higher and lower achieving countries. To address this issue, the study utilizes PISA2002 data to conduct a multi-level analysis (HLM) of Hong Kong and Israel students. In PISA2002, Israel was rated 31st in Mathematics,…

A large body of research has demonstrated a big-fish--little-pond effect (BFLPE) by showing that equally able students have lower academic self-concepts in high-ability schools than in low-ability schools. Although the BFLPE generalizes across many countries, it varies significantly between countries. The reasons for this variation are still…

In international achievement studies, questionnaires typically ask about the presence of particular household assets in students' homes. Responses to the assets questions are used to compute a total score, which is intended to represent household wealth in models of test performance. This study uses item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis…