Large-scale international studies offer researchers a rich source of data to examine the relationship among variables. Machine learning embodies a range of flexible statistical procedures to identify key indicators of a response variable among a collection of hundreds or even thousands of potential predictor variables. Among these, penalized…

This study aimed to comparatively review student-level and school-level factors affecting scientific literacy in Singapore, Italy and Turkey. Two-level hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) was applied to the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment data set. The findings show that (a) the enjoyment of science, interest in broad science…

Rather than assessing its causal effect on educational attainment, the authors of this article aim to use the concept of cultural capital to define a huge, complex and interconnected collection of educational and school strategies adopted by students and families and to examine the way that these strategies are related to school inequalities. Data…

The author examined the relationship between student engagement and academic performance, using U.S. data of the Program for International Student Assessment 2000. The sample comprised 3,268 fifteen-year-old students from 121 U.S. schools. Multilevel analysis showed that behavioral engagement (defined as effort and perseverance in learning) and…

Background: Among the factors known to influence reading development and performance, attitude toward reading is shown to be particularly critical for developing learners. Reading attitude (McKenna, 1994; McKenna et al., 1995) enhances independent reading, levels of engagement in classroom reading activities, and the amount and variety of topics…

Studies highlight that using appropriate strategies during problem solving is important to improve problem-solving skills and draw attention to the fact that using these skills is an important part of students' self-regulated learning ability. Studies on this matter view the self-regulated learning ability as key to improving problem-solving…

Background: The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 showed that Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand underperformed and were positioned in the bottom third out of 65 participating countries for mathematics, science, and reading literacies. The wide gap between these three countries and the top performing…

Educators are increasingly recognising the importance of improving students' mathematics achievement. Much of the current research focuses on the impact of instructional variables on mathematics achievement. The goal of this study was to examine the influence of less researched variables--family and student factors. Participants were 747…

This study investigates whether a common set of student attitudes and behavioral tendencies can account for academic achievement across different, especially high-performing, countries via analysis of the PISA 2009 international data set. The 13 countries examined are 5 of the top-performing Eastern countries/systems, namely Shanghai China, South…