Grouping students according to their abilities and promoting deeper interaction and moderation are key issues in improving computational thinking in collaborative programming. However, the distribution characteristics and evolving pathways of computational thinking in different groups have not been deeply explored. During the course of a…

Throughout a programming course, students develop various source code tasks. Using these tasks to track students' progress can provide clues to the strengths and weaknesses found in each learning topic. This practice allows the teacher to intervene in learning in the first few weeks of class and maximize student gains. However, the biggest…

This paper extends the scholarship on attainment grouping by focusing on the policy initiatives of streaming and subject-based banding (SBB) in Singapore. The study is framed by the concept of pragmatic perfectionism, which refers to the continuous and ideals-oriented drive to improve a system through practical, incremental and paradoxical…

There is an extensive international literature on different forms of ability grouping in schools, much of which describes their impact on students' academic achievement, motivation, self-concept and/or attitudes towards learning. Comparatively little research has focused on students' perspectives of these practices, while the research that has…

Educational tracking can lead to different citizenship outcomes. Most studies on the relationship between citizenship and educational track membership applied a variable-centered approach, comparing averages between tracks but not considering differences between students within a track. Person-centered approaches have shown that different…

Decades of research has documented the consequences of allocating school students into a hierarchy of classes with narrow ranges of mathematics attainment, a process known as streaming, tracking, setting, or "ability" grouping. The purported benefits of streaming are inconsistent and disputed, but the harms are clear, in particular, (1)…

Ability-grouping has been studied extensively in relation to children's academic, but not emotional and behavioral outcomes. The sample comprised 7259 U.K. children (50% male) with data on between-class and within-class ability-grouping at age 7. Peer, emotional, hyperactivity, and conduct problems were measured at ages 7, 11, and 14 years.…

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the thoughts of primary and secondary prospective mathematics teachers about educating mathematically gifted students. For this purpose, this research was conducted with 40 prospective mathematics teachers, 17 of whom were secondary mathematics prospective teachers, and 23 were primary mathematics…

Traditionally, giftedness was perceived as a fixed trait, exclusively evaluated through cognitive testing. However, contemporary perspectives view it as a dynamic and socially constructed attribute reflected in many domains. As this paradigm-shift aligns with global movements emphasizing the importance of avoiding labelling students and enhancing…

Allocating students into separate classes within a school depending on their "ability" is common in many countries. This paper presents a theoretical discussion of the practice, considering why it persists despite a long history of research emphasizing consequential problems. Our discussion identifies and critiques four possible reasons…

Differentiation in education can be seen as a means of responding to student diversity in order to meet the vision of "a school for all." Differentiation has been widely addressed within a western context, and it appears to be a versatile phenomenon as it occurs under various guises and with a variety of terms and modes of…

Tracking is the practice of grouping students into homogeneous classes based on their perceived ability or intelligence. It is a pervasive system used by school districts across the United States and, like most widely used practices, it has its proponents and opponents. Through a qualitative case study approach, this study aims to explore…

Background: Ability grouping in education is the practice of separating students into different groups or classes according to their actual or perceived ability levels. Studies of ability grouping in physical education have been few in number or broad in purpose and methodology. What is certain however is that the voices of students remain…

This erudition investigated the efficacy of two methods of instruction: Visual prompt instruction (VPTM) and Conventional Science instruction (CSTM) on the effects of homogeneous and heterogeneous ability levels' class instruction on learning outcomes in Basic Technology. The sample comprises 60 learners in junior secondary school classes randomly…

This paper studies how rewards based on class rank affect student effort and performance using a game-theoretic classroom competition model and data from the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees in the US. The paper finds that variation in the presence of strong or weak students changes the incentives and test scores of incumbent students…