Kajsa Yang Hansen is a Professor in Education at the Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg. She earned her PhD in Education Science in 2003 at the same affiliation under the supervision of Professor em. Jan-Eric Gustafsson. Yang Hansen’s research interest lies in educational quality and equity in Sweden and across different education systems. She focuses on the mechanisms behind the intensified educational inequity and school segregation across time and countries. She has led and conducted several research projects financed by the Swedish Research Council, investigating, among other things, the consequences of school reforms to educational equity in Swedish schools; the compensatory effect of different school systems on educational equity; trend in the opportunity to learning. In the recent year, she has extended her research interests in social-cognitive factors of achievement motivation to deepening the understanding of individual differences in school outcomes. Yang Hansen’s methodological interest lies in the advanced psychometric methods, such as Structural Equation Modeling technique with latent variable, multilevel analysis, growth curve modeling and mixture modeling.
Over the past six decades, the ILSA has changed the landscape of Swedish student assessment in ma... more Over the past six decades, the ILSA has changed the landscape of Swedish student assessment in many positive ways; however, it also has identified several areas of problems. In this chapter, we start with a general introduction of Swedish compulsory education system, followed by a retrospective view of the ILSA studies in Sweden, their benefits and drawbacks. This set the scene for student assessment within the framework of ILSA in Sweden today. Further, we elaborate upon the strength and weakness of Swedish grading system and national test system relating to educational quality and equity. While the national assessment systems failed to provide valid information about the trend in academic achievement, ILSA has functioned as an external support monitoring academic outcomes and educational equity over time. We present examples to illustrate the strength in the ILSA studies. Finally, we extend our perspective to the future possibilities and directions that ILSA can contribute to quality assurance in Swedish school system in general and student assessment in particular.
Changes in the variances of school marks and SES and ethnic background effect between schools and... more Changes in the variances of school marks and SES and ethnic background effect between schools and individuals : a multi-level multi-group analysis.
Grounded in ‘expectancy-value’ theory, this paper reports on the psychometric properties of an in... more Grounded in ‘expectancy-value’ theory, this paper reports on the psychometric properties of an instrument intended to measure students’ motivation in mathematics. The participants were 2045 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden. The Expectancy-Value Scale (EVS) was found to be suitable for early grades of primary education in measuring competence self-perceptions and subjective task values relative to the mathematics field. The results indicate a good model fit aligned with the expectancy-value theory. The EVS dimensions showed good reliability, and scalar invariance was established. However, findings also indicated high correlations between some of the EVS dimensions, which is well documented for students at this age. The findings are discussed relative to the ‘expectancy-value’ theory framework and students’ age.
This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequ... more This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequality in student performance. We were interested in studies of explanatory variables that are amenable to educational policy interventions. To identify such publications, we developed a comprehensive search strategy and conducted an electronic search based on six databases. We also manually searched two existing hand-picked reviews. After duplicates were removed, the search resulted in 814 references, of which a total of 35 studies met the eligibility criteria. The included studies investigated diverse topics such as learning environments inside and outside of school, educational expenditure, teacher education, autonomy, accountability, differentiation, and competition from private schools. Most studies are descriptive in nature and their findings are sometimes ambiguous. Despite these limitations, we tentatively conclude that the opportunity of choice reinforces inequality. Measures that target social selection can be effective.
This paper attempts to demonstrate the usefulness of the linkage data from two international larg... more This paper attempts to demonstrate the usefulness of the linkage data from two international large-scale assessment studies, Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013 (TALIS) 2013 and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012, in examining the effects of schools. Data from seven educational systems are used to link, and four critical issues with five selection criteria are applied to the data selected. The linking dataset facilitates the investigation of mathematics performance while considering individual learner characteristics, mathematics teacher variables in the classroom environment and the school-level variables. We extend the new avenue of research by developing a linked database geared to the specific mathematics teaching and learning domain to reflect the school mathematics educational environment. The case study using Singapore linkage data demonstrated the feasibility and potential of exploring school effectiveness. In Singapore, schools with teach...
This report attempts to explain the conceptual and technical base when linking two international ... more This report attempts to explain the conceptual and technical base when linking two international large-scale assessment studies set up by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013 (TALIS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment 2012 (PISA). The linking procedure facilitates the investigation of mathematics performance at the student, teacher and school level and shed light on the effectiveness and efficiency of school systems when it comes to mathematics education. Data from eight national contexts: Australia, Finland, Latvia, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Singapore and Spain are used to link TALIS and PISA. International large-scale assessments have the potential to boost multi-level research that fits state-of-the-art educational effectiveness models. But - as tackled in the present technical paper - this potential is often flawed by the methodological difference in the study design. The present technical report presented solutions, procedures, strategies to develop overarching databases that link datasets from earlier studies; more specifically PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013. The report analyzed characteristics about the instruments, the variable frameworks, and especially the specific sampling strategies. The report emphasized four critical aspects in the context of merging datasets: - Looking for a shared student variables value: TALIS-PISA Link 2013 and PISA 2012 can be linked by looking at data from 15-year-old students and their mathematics teachers. - Looking for a shared anchor variable to link the data sets: the link between the TALIS and PISA data set depends on a shared school ID. This implies that - in view of the analyses - data should be aggregated at the school level. - A time gap was observed in the administration of the two performance indicator studies; that again differed on the hemisphere where the study was set up: teacher work experience was used to look for a valid choice to sample teachers that were actually teaching to the students in the PISA sample. - Not all teachers in both studies were relevant to be linked to students’ PISA mathematics performance: a five-step sample selection procedure was adopted to identify the relevant mathematics teachers whose data can be used in the merged database to be linked to student achievement. Taking into account four critical issues and applying five selection criteria, 3473 teachers, teaching to 31548 students in 1115 schools have been selected. At a technical level, further checks were needed to screen the original dataset and to apply corrections. The newly available dataset forms a promising basis to study theoretical models about the relationship between student, teacher and school-level variables.The report can potentially stimulate future research studies endeavours to advance the understanding of multilevel perspectives of PISA students’ mathematics learning outcome in various national contexts building on the educational effectiveness dynamic model
Over the past six decades, the ILSA has changed the landscape of Swedish student assessment in ma... more Over the past six decades, the ILSA has changed the landscape of Swedish student assessment in many positive ways; however, it also has identified several areas of problems. In this chapter, we start with a general introduction of Swedish compulsory education system, followed by a retrospective view of the ILSA studies in Sweden, their benefits and drawbacks. This set the scene for student assessment within the framework of ILSA in Sweden today. Further, we elaborate upon the strength and weakness of Swedish grading system and national test system relating to educational quality and equity. While the national assessment systems failed to provide valid information about the trend in academic achievement, ILSA has functioned as an external support monitoring academic outcomes and educational equity over time. We present examples to illustrate the strength in the ILSA studies. Finally, we extend our perspective to the future possibilities and directions that ILSA can contribute to quality assurance in Swedish school system in general and student assessment in particular.
Changes in the variances of school marks and SES and ethnic background effect between schools and... more Changes in the variances of school marks and SES and ethnic background effect between schools and individuals : a multi-level multi-group analysis.
Grounded in ‘expectancy-value’ theory, this paper reports on the psychometric properties of an in... more Grounded in ‘expectancy-value’ theory, this paper reports on the psychometric properties of an instrument intended to measure students’ motivation in mathematics. The participants were 2045 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden. The Expectancy-Value Scale (EVS) was found to be suitable for early grades of primary education in measuring competence self-perceptions and subjective task values relative to the mathematics field. The results indicate a good model fit aligned with the expectancy-value theory. The EVS dimensions showed good reliability, and scalar invariance was established. However, findings also indicated high correlations between some of the EVS dimensions, which is well documented for students at this age. The findings are discussed relative to the ‘expectancy-value’ theory framework and students’ age.
This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequ... more This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequality in student performance. We were interested in studies of explanatory variables that are amenable to educational policy interventions. To identify such publications, we developed a comprehensive search strategy and conducted an electronic search based on six databases. We also manually searched two existing hand-picked reviews. After duplicates were removed, the search resulted in 814 references, of which a total of 35 studies met the eligibility criteria. The included studies investigated diverse topics such as learning environments inside and outside of school, educational expenditure, teacher education, autonomy, accountability, differentiation, and competition from private schools. Most studies are descriptive in nature and their findings are sometimes ambiguous. Despite these limitations, we tentatively conclude that the opportunity of choice reinforces inequality. Measures that target social selection can be effective.
This paper attempts to demonstrate the usefulness of the linkage data from two international larg... more This paper attempts to demonstrate the usefulness of the linkage data from two international large-scale assessment studies, Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013 (TALIS) 2013 and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012, in examining the effects of schools. Data from seven educational systems are used to link, and four critical issues with five selection criteria are applied to the data selected. The linking dataset facilitates the investigation of mathematics performance while considering individual learner characteristics, mathematics teacher variables in the classroom environment and the school-level variables. We extend the new avenue of research by developing a linked database geared to the specific mathematics teaching and learning domain to reflect the school mathematics educational environment. The case study using Singapore linkage data demonstrated the feasibility and potential of exploring school effectiveness. In Singapore, schools with teach...
This report attempts to explain the conceptual and technical base when linking two international ... more This report attempts to explain the conceptual and technical base when linking two international large-scale assessment studies set up by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013 (TALIS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment 2012 (PISA). The linking procedure facilitates the investigation of mathematics performance at the student, teacher and school level and shed light on the effectiveness and efficiency of school systems when it comes to mathematics education. Data from eight national contexts: Australia, Finland, Latvia, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Singapore and Spain are used to link TALIS and PISA. International large-scale assessments have the potential to boost multi-level research that fits state-of-the-art educational effectiveness models. But - as tackled in the present technical paper - this potential is often flawed by the methodological difference in the study design. The present technical report presented solutions, procedures, strategies to develop overarching databases that link datasets from earlier studies; more specifically PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013. The report analyzed characteristics about the instruments, the variable frameworks, and especially the specific sampling strategies. The report emphasized four critical aspects in the context of merging datasets: - Looking for a shared student variables value: TALIS-PISA Link 2013 and PISA 2012 can be linked by looking at data from 15-year-old students and their mathematics teachers. - Looking for a shared anchor variable to link the data sets: the link between the TALIS and PISA data set depends on a shared school ID. This implies that - in view of the analyses - data should be aggregated at the school level. - A time gap was observed in the administration of the two performance indicator studies; that again differed on the hemisphere where the study was set up: teacher work experience was used to look for a valid choice to sample teachers that were actually teaching to the students in the PISA sample. - Not all teachers in both studies were relevant to be linked to students’ PISA mathematics performance: a five-step sample selection procedure was adopted to identify the relevant mathematics teachers whose data can be used in the merged database to be linked to student achievement. Taking into account four critical issues and applying five selection criteria, 3473 teachers, teaching to 31548 students in 1115 schools have been selected. At a technical level, further checks were needed to screen the original dataset and to apply corrections. The newly available dataset forms a promising basis to study theoretical models about the relationship between student, teacher and school-level variables.The report can potentially stimulate future research studies endeavours to advance the understanding of multilevel perspectives of PISA students’ mathematics learning outcome in various national contexts building on the educational effectiveness dynamic model
Uploads
Papers by Kajsa Yang Hansen