The students self-perception of skills by social background
Dani TorrentsI Conferencia Ibérica de Sociología de la Educación
Lisboa, 9-11th July 2015
Financial Support from I+D CSO2013-44540-P of Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Ministry.
Research frame
• Different educational attainment by social background.
• Importance of choice points. Pass to post-compulsory level.
• One possible mecanism:– Different background, same skills: different
perception? Two relevant debates: • Beliefs: are constructed rationally? • Beliefs: act in rational choice?
Research frame
• Elements that could explain this difference in self-perception.
• Could explain different educational choices?
Possible causes Consecuences
Bush effect, teachers & parents motivation, engagement, linguistic codes
Different self-confidence
Uncompleted information, RRA, cognitive bias
Different risk perceived
Our research
• The research we are carrying out (r+d+i of the Ministry of Education) titled Educational choices and post-compulsory paths of youth. International comparative analysis in a crisis context. 2014-2016 period. ISCY Project.
• Longitudinal study.
• 27 public and private schools of Barcelona. 1.764 last-compulsory year students interviewed between February and June of 2014.
Model of analysis
• Dimensions of skills self-perception– Speculum self-ranking: the teacher ranking
they think would do in the class-group. • “How would your teacher rate you as a student?”
– Performance expectative: the results they think will get at the end of the course. • “How well do you expect to do in your studies this year?”
Model of analysis
• Independent variables: – Social background: two levels:
• One or two parents with university studies.
• No parents with university studies.
– Objective skills: arithmetic mean of Catalan and Mathematics qualifications in a standardized governmental exam.
Model of analysis
Skills self-perception
Speculum self-ranking
Performance expectative
Objective Skills
Social background
H1
H2
Hypothesis
• Self-perception do not match necessarily with “objective” skills. – Same skills, different self-perception.
• This missmatch could be explained in part by social background.
Results
• Missmatch between skills and self-perception:
Value %One of the top students 201 11,5%
An above-average student 509 29,1%
An average student 911 52,1%
A studen who doesn’t do well 127 7,3%
Total 1748 100%
“How would your teacher rate you as a student?”
Results
• Missmatch between skills and self-perception:
“How well do you expect to do in your studies this year?”
Value %I expect to obtain very good results: excellent and notable
301 17,2%
I expect to obtain good results: notable and good
677 38,7%
I expect to pass 604 34,5%I expect to obtain poor results: few fails 142 8,1%
I expect to obtain very poor results: much fails
27 1,5%
Total 1751 100%
Results
• Missmatch between skills and self-perception:
“How do you think you will finish this course?”
Value %
I won’t pass. 7 0,4%
I will pass but probabily without graduate.
20 1,2%
I will pass with graduate. 1541 88,9%
I don’t know. 166 9,6%
Total 1734 100%
Results
• Missmatch between skills and self-perception:
Relation between reflexive self-ranking and skills.
300
334
500
546
Results
• Missmatch between skills and self-perception:
Relation between results expectatives and skills.
501
546
333
302
Results
• Reflexive self-ranking by social background
283
241
149
127
249
251
176
169
Results
• Results expectative by social background
281
242
149
129
250
251
175
169
Conclusions
• Doesn’t exist a perfect correlation between skills and self-perceptions.– Despite there is not a clear relation, we can
observe a trend to overestimation.
• For a same level of skills, different self-perception between social backgrounds.– Overestimation for high social background.– Underestimation for low social background.
Thank you!
Results • Missmatch between skills and self-perception:
Exam qualification for each self-perceptionMean SD
One of the top students 80,6 12,1An above-average student 77,7 14,4An average student 72,5 14,6A studen who doesn’t do well 72,8 14,5
I expect to obtain very good results: excellent and notable
83,1 12,1
I expect to obtain good results: notable and good 76,2 14,4
I expect to pass 70,4 14,6I expect to obtain poor results: few fails 71,6 14,5
I expect to obtain very poor results: much fails 72,6 15,6
Total 75,1 100%
Results
• Reflexive self-ranking by social background
University background No-university background
Mean SD Mean SD
One of the top students 85,1 11,8 74,6 18,9
An above-average student 81,0 12,6 73,6 16,5
An average student 76,6 11,6 69,0 14,9
A studen who doesn’t do well
78,2 12,9 67,7 15,7
Total 79,2 12,4 70,7 16,0
Results
• Results expectative by social background
University background No-university background
Mean SD Mean SDI expect to obtain very good results: excellent and notable
85,5 9,6 78,8 15,1
I expect to obtain good results: notable and good
79,3 11,8 72,6 16,1
I expect to pass 74,7 13,3 67,4 14,9I expect to obtain poor results: few fails
75,4 12,6 68,5 15,4
I expect to obtain very poor results: much fails
79,5 14,6 69,8 14,4
Total 79,2 12,5 70,8 15,8
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