Are contextual rather than personal factors at the basis of an anti-school culture? A Bayesian analysis of differences i
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Are contextual rather than personal factors at the basis of an anti‑school culture? A Bayesian analysis of differences in intelligence, overexcitability, and learning patterns between (former) lower and higher‑track students Niki De Bondt1 · Vincent Donche1 · Peter Van Petegem1 Received: 5 November 2019 / Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Research indicates that educational stratification may lead to a lower-track school culture of futility and a less academically-oriented culture among lower-track teachers, leading to both reduced study involvement and lower educational achievement among their students. This study investigated whether an anti-school culture in the lower tracks [in this study, in technical secondary education (TSE; N = 132) in comparison with general secondary education (GSE; N = 356)] has a solid basis that is supported by personal, ontological differences in intelligence and developmental potential [i.e., overexcitability, according to the theory of positive disintegration (TPD)]. In addition, this study examined the consistency of these results with differences in mathematical and verbal achievement, the use of cognitive processing and metacognitive regulation strategies, and study motivation, as well as differences in the influence of personal competence indicators on the learning approach, all suggesting contextual, educational influences. A Bayesian analysis was applied to address the problem of a frequentist approach in complex statistical models. This study does not primarily reveal competence differences between both tracks (as indicated by no substantive differences in overexcitability and intelligence between respectively former GSE and TSE students and GSE and TSE boys), but rather substantial differences in verbal and mathematical performance, as well as regulatory/ motivational problems among former TSE students, corroborating to some extent the abovementioned consequences of academic differentiation. The results are further elucidated from the perspective of self-determination theory and the TPD. Keywords Educational stratification · Learning patterns · Overexcitability within the theory of positive disintegration · Bayesian structural equation modeling · Approximate measurement invariance · Self-determination theory
* Niki De Bondt [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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1 Introduction The principal aim of tracking or ability grouping in secondary education is both to prepare students for different final competencies and to offer them a trajectory in accordance with their cognitive abilities and interests (Schafer and Olexa 1971). However, in Flanders, which represents the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, no systematic screening for intelligence or other competencies is carried out at the start of (and during) secondary education. Nor are the personal interests of the students assessed in depth at the outset. Moreover, empirical research in Belgium
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