This study investigated (a) mathematics achievement (Test of Academic Progress) of 589 female and 644 male, predominantly white, 9th-12th grade students enrolled in mathematics courses from four schools, controlling for mathematics background and general ability (Quick Word Test); (b) relationships to mathematics achievement, and to sex-related differences in mathematics achievement, of spatial visualization (Differential Aptitude Test), eight attitudes measured by the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales, a measure of Mathematics Activities outside of school, and number of Mathematics Related Courses and Space Related Courses taken. Complex results were obtained. Few sex-related cognitive differences but many attitudinal differences were found. Analyses of variance, covariance, correlation, and principal components analysis techniques were used. The results showed important relationships between socio-cultural factors and sex-related cognitive differences.

Sex-related defferences in mathematics achievement, spatial visualization, and affective factors

In this article, we use meta-analysis to analyze gender differences in recent studies of mathematics performance. First, we meta-analyzed data from 242 studies published between 1990 and 2007, representing the testing of 1,286,350 people. Overall, d = 0.05, indicating no gender difference, and variance ratio = 1.08, indicating nearly equal male and female variances. Second, we analyzed data from large data sets based on probability sampling of U.S. adolescents over the past 20 years: the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Effect sizes for the gender difference ranged between -0.15 and +0.22. Variance ratios ranged from 0.88 to 1.34. Taken together, these findings support the view that males and females perform similarly in mathematics.

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New Trends in Gender and Mathematics Performance: A Meta-Analysis

The increasing volume of e-mail and other technologically enabled communications are widely regarded as a growing source of stress in people's lives. Yet research also suggests that new media afford people additional flexibility and control by enabling them to communicate from anywhere at any time. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, this paper builds theory that unravels this apparent contradiction. As the literature would predict, we found that the more time people spent handling e-mail, the greater was their sense of being overloaded, and the more e-mail they processed, the greater their perceived ability to cope. Contrary to assumptions of prior studies, we found no evidence that time spent working mediates e-mail-related overload. Instead, e-mail's material properties entwined with social norms and interpretations in a way that led informants to single out e-mail as a cultural symbol of the overload they experience in their lives. Moreover, by serving as a symbol, e-mail distracted people from recognizing other sources of overload in their work lives. Our study deepens our understanding of the impact of communication technologies on people's lives and helps untangle those technologies' seemingly contradictory influences.

E-mail as a Source and Symbol of Stress

This is a half-day qualitative workshop designed for medical practitioners of Paediatrics Palliative Care Unit of USM Kubang Krian. Topics covered in the workshop include stages of qualitative research, data collection techniques, data analysis and report writing.

Qualitative research design

Despite the importance of faculty retention, there is little understanding of how demographic variables, professional and institutional worklife issues, and satisfaction interact to explain faculty intentions to leave at a national level. Using the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:1999) database, this study proposes (a) to extend our previous conceptualization and understanding of those issues that comprise the dimensions of faculty worklife, satisfaction, and intentions to leave, (b) to examine relationships between these three dimensions, and (c) to determine the extent to which demographic variables and the quality of worklife have an impact on satisfaction, and faculty members' intentions to leave. Using structural equation modeling, the findings indicate that the perceptions faculty members have of their worklife have a direct and powerful impact on their satisfaction, and subsequently their intentions to leave. That is, a combination of worklife perceptions of faculty members' professional and institutional issues and satisfaction initiates individuals' behavioral intentions and the desire to leave for another position and/or career alternative.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40197294.pdf

Faculty Members' Intentions to Leave: A National Study on Their Worklife and Satisfaction

This article investigates factors related to the intention to leave the university job among Norwegian university staff. Its main conclusions are: among staff intending to leave their institution, colleagial relations (i.e. relations between colleagues) constituted the clearest reason to leave. General job satisfaction did also rather strongly predict intention to leave. The study showed that staff who found their work less intrinsically satisfying than others more often intended to leave their institution. The salary or the economical resource situation did not influence intention to leave or stay.

Factors Predicting Staff's Intentions to Leave the University.

The aim of the present study was to examine inmates' educational motives. The participants were 467 inmates who attended education in Norwegian prisons. Three motive categories were identified: “To prepare for life upon release” (Factor 1), “social reasons and reasons unique to the prison context” (Factor 2), and “to acquire knowledge and skills” (Factor 3). Factor 1 explained more of the variance than the sum of the other factors, and educational level was not related to scores on this first factor. Inmates with long sentences were more likely than those with short sentences to start an education in prison to prepare for life upon release. Inmates with low education scored significantly higher on Factor 2 than those with high education, but significantly lower on Factor 3 than the latter group.

Prison Inmates' Educational Motives: Are They Pushed or Pulled?

Course experience, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning strategies may be considered to be important indicators of education quality. Inmates taking education in prison may also experience particular problems related to the learning environment and to their own learning difficulties. The present study investigated the level of these variables and the relationship between them among 534 inmates under education in Norwegian prisons. The results showed that the prison inmates are generally quite satisfied with the education quality, that they are highly motivated, and use appropriate learning strategies. However, many of them experience that problems such as lack of access to computer equipment and the security routines in prison interfere with their education. A structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis showed that motivational beliefs were mediators between course experience and self-regulated learning strategies. These findings were discussed with respect to improvement of the education qu...

Education of prison inmates: course experience, motivation, and learning strategies as indicators of evaluation

Norwegian elementary schoolboys showed significantly higher mathematics self-concept than girls. Boys also had a significantly higher mathematical achievement score than girls. However, controlling...

The Effect of Mathematics Self-Concept on Girls' and Boys' Mathematical Achievement:

The aim of the study was to examine the impact of geographical and cultural affiliation and learning problems on prison inmates' intentions to embark on education above their obtained level of education. Younger inmates, inmates who had reading or writing problems and inmates with less geographical and cultural affiliation to Norway were significantly more likely to report that they wished to start upper secondary school than older inmates, inmates who had no reading or writing problems and inmates with a strong affiliation to Norway. Likewise, younger inmates, inmates who had a non-Norwegian affiliation and inmates who had no problems with arithmetic or mathematics were significantly more likely than others to say that they wished to embark on university studies or other higher education.

Ole-Johan Eikeland

Papers

Factors Predicting Staff's Intentions to Leave the University.

Prison Inmates' Educational Motives: Are They Pushed or Pulled?

Education of prison inmates: course experience, motivation, and learning strategies as indicators of evaluation

The Effect of Mathematics Self-Concept on Girls' and Boys' Mathematical Achievement:

Educational Intentions Among Prison Inmates