The Relation Between the Evaluation of Primary and Secondary School

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The Relation between the Evaluation of primary and secondary school students in mathematics with the student’s Choice of type of school (day school or evening school) and the Role of students’ Gender

KAPELOU EKATERINI, KOKKALIDIS STAVROS Omirou 34, Irakleio Attikis, Greece [[email protected], [email protected]] 2000 Mathematics Subject Classiﬁcation. 19K

Abstract In previous years more often the students dropped out the compulsory education because of social factors. Researches have supported this case. In our country, researches (Drettaki 1993) [1] have shown that factors as the record of students in the various stages of education influence the abandonment of compulsory school. It also has shown that the student’s abilities in mathematics influence them in order to continue their studies. 1 Introduction The European frame has sustained significant cultural, social, political, techno- logical and economic changes. Societies lose their cohesion. These facts influenced every individual’s right to education, training and employment to the extent that more and more individuals, social teams - even entire regions - are excluded from the practices of social integration. Research of the international organism Eurostat (1996) reports that an important percentage (15%) of Europe’ population has been marginalized economically and socially because of unemployment. That enough times results from this population’s insufficient qualifications. In the countries of the European Union the du- ration of compulsory education oscillates from 8 - 10 years. After the establishment of compulsory education in all countries of EU, the rates of attendance in the education were increased considerably. In 1995 researches (Baltas G), declared that 20 millions young Europeans (on school age) did not acquire the minimal educational qualifications. According to the relative research (Drettaki 1993,Stathopoulou & Chaviaris 2006) an important factor - that also connected with the premature inter- ruption of study and the abandonment of school - is the difficulty that the children faced with Mathematics. In an OVE research (1996), an important number of students that interrupted the school, declared weakness in the course of mathematics. Others researches have shown (Raty & Snellman, 1995) that the teachers’ opinions about the students’ knowledge in mathematics, influence them about their abilities (Leder, Pearn, Brew & Bishop, 1997) for farther education. When the students decide to continue their compulsory studies there are significant reasons that seems to influences their decisions about the type of school (day or evening school).More specifically their teachers’ as their own opinions about their knowledges in mathematics during the primary school, seem to influence the children about the choice

1 of the type of high school. In our country (Greece) the experience and the research have sown that the ”weak” and ”middle” students prefer an evening than a day school to keep on their studies. This conclusion arises from the students’ decla- ration that an evening school is more easily for their learning abilities. We also would underlined that the same research (OECD 1996) seemed that the students were not interrupting so often their education in the regions where functioned an evening high school or an evening Lyceum. This presentation is part of a wider study which aimed to investigate social and educational factors that inﬂuenced students dropping out of school in the Dodecanese islands of Greece. 2 Argument In our research project in order to study the interaction between mathematics education and school failure in Dodecanese Islands we followed four phases performance (Kalavassis et al., 2005; Kafoussi Chaviaris, 2006; Stathopoulou & Chaviaris, 2006): 1. registration and elaboration of educational data and conditions in the Do- decanese islands and the performance of the population in school mathematics 2. criteria of choice and selection of the student’s population from evening high schools (gymnasium and lyceum) for more deep research with structured questioner, 3. criteria of choice and selection of students as case-study according to their personal school-routes with semi-structured interviews, 4. comparison of the results of the data elaboration, of the questioners and of the semi-structured interviews, to investigate the students’ development in mathematics education and the relation with school failure in each case. For the purpose of this conference we focus on a part of second phase of this research which was carried out in 344 evening school students - 204 from gymnasium (high school) and 140 from lyceum (senior high school). More speciﬁcally six factors are interrelated: a. The students’choice about the school type (day or evening high school) b. Students’Evaluation from ”others” in mathematics during the primary school. c. The students’ choice about the school type (day or evening Lyceum) d. Students’ self-evaluation in mathematics during the primary school e. The role of students’ gender for the choice of type of high school f. The role of students’gender for the choice of type of Lyceum The interrelations that will be discussed are axb (table 1), axd (table 2), cxb (table 3), cxd (table 4), exa (table 5), fxa (table 6). evaluation from ”others” choice about the school type in mathematics during the primary school Day high school Evening high school W eak 23(24%) 24(21%) Middle 24(26%) 58(50%) Good 47(50%) 34(29%) total 94(100%) 116(100%) Table 1: Distribution of the relation between the students’ choice about the

2 school type (day or evening high school) and the students’ evaluation in mathematics from ”others” during the primary school. In table 1 we can see that: a) From the 94 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to a day high school, the 47 (50%) declared that they had evaluated - by ”others” - in primary school mathematics as ”good”. From the remaining students the 24 (26%) had evaluated as ”weak” and the 23(24%) as ”middle”. We underline that the big majority 47(50%) of the students who decided to continue their compulsory education to a day high school declared that they had evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”good” students. b) From the 116 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening high school, the 58 (50%) declared that they had evaluated - by ”others” - in primary school mathematics as ”middle”. From the remaining students the 24 (21%) had evaluated as ”weak” and the 34(29%) as ”good”. We underline that the big majority 58(50%) of the students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening high school declared that they had evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”good” students. self-evaluation from ”others” choice about the school type in mathematics during the primary school Day high school Evening high school W eak 20(11%) 16(14%) Middle 91(53%) 72(63%) Good 62(36%) 27(23%) total 173(100%) 115(100%) Table 2: Distribution of the relation between the students’ choice about the school type (day or evening high school) and the self-evaluation in mathematics during the primary school In table 2 we can see that: a) From the 173 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to a day high school, the 91(53%) declared that they had self-evaluated in primary school mathematics as ”middle”. From the remaining students the 20 (11%) had self-evaluated as ”weak” and the 62 (36%) as ”good”. We underline that the big majority 91(53%) of the students who decided to continue their compulsory education to a day high school declared that they had self-evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”middle” students. b) From the 115 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening high school, the 72 (63%) declared that they had self-evaluated in primary school mathematics as ”middle”. From the remaining students the 16 (14%) had self-evaluated as ”weak” and the 27(23%) as ”good”. We underline that the big majority 72(63%) of the students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening high school declared that they had self-evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”middle” students.

3 evaluation from ”others” choice about the school type in mathematics during the primary school Day Lyceum Evening Lyceum W eak 4(16%) 12(15%) Middle 13(52%) 30(36%) Good 8(32%) 40(49%) total 25(100%) 82(100%) Table 3: Distribution of the relation the relation between the students’ choice about the school type (day or evening Lyceum) and the students’ evaluation in mathematics from ”others” during the primary school. In table 3 we can see that: a) From the 25 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to a day Lyceum, the 13 (52%) declared that they had evaluated - by ”others” - in primary school mathematics as ”middle”. From the remaining students the 4 (16%) had evaluated as ”weak” and the 8 (32%) as ”good”. We underline that the big majority 13(52%) of the students who decided to continue their education to a day Lyceum declared that they had evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”middle” students. b) From the 82 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening Lyceum, the 40 (49%) declared that they had self-evaluated in primary school mathematics as ”good”. From the remaining students the 12 (15%) had self-evaluated as ”weak” and the 30(36%) as ”middle”. We underline that the big majority 40(49%) of the students who decided to continue their education to an evening Lyceum declared that they had self-evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”good” students. evaluation from ”others” choice about the school type in mathematics during the primary school Day Lyceum Evening Lyceum W eak 1(4%) 9(11%) Middle 11(45%) 43(52%) Good 12(50%) 30(37%) total 24(100%) 82(100%) Table 4: Distribution of the relation between the students’ choice about the school type (day or evening Lyceum) and self-evaluation in mathematics during the primary school In table 4 we can see that: a) From the 24 students who decided to continue their education to a day Lyceum, the 12(50%) declared that they had self-evaluated in primary school mathematics as ”good”. From the remaining students the 11 (45%) had self-evaluated as ”middle” and the 62 (36%) as ”weak”. We underline that the big majority 12(50%) of the students who decided to continue their education to a day Lyceum declared that they had self-evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”good” students. b) From the 82 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening lyceum, the 43 (52%) declared that they had self-evaluated in primary school mathematics as ”middle”. From the remaining students the 9 (11%) had self-evaluated as ”weak” and the 30(37%) as ”good”. We underline that the big majority 43(52%) of the students who decided to continue their education to an

4 evening Lyceum declared that they had self-evaluated (in primary school mathematics) as ”middle” students. gender choice about the school type

Day high school Evening high school Male 115(68%) 64(54%) F emale 53(32%) 54(46%) total 168(100%) 118(100%) Table 5: Distribution of the relation between students’ gender and their choice about type of high school (day or evening school) In table 5 we can see that: a) From the 168 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to a day high school, the boys were the big majority (68b) From the 118 students who decided to continue their compulsory education to an evening high school, the boys were the big majority 64 (54We underline that in both instances (day or evening high school) the big majority was the boys. gender choice about the school type

Day Lyceum Evening Lyceum Male 9(37%) 45(56%) F emale 15(63%) 36(44%) total 24(100%) 81(100%) Table 6: Distribution of the relation between students’ gender and their choice about type of Lyceum (day or evening school) In table 6 we can see that: a) From the 24 students who decided to continue their education to a day Lyceum, the girls were the big majority 15(63%) instead of the boys that were 9 (37%) b) From the 81 students who decided to continue their education to an evening Lyceum, the boys were the big majority 45 (56%) instead of the girls that were 36 (44%). We underline that in this instance (Lyceum) the big majority of the girls decided to continue their studies in a day school, instead of the big majority of the boys they decided to continue their studies in an evening school. 3 Conclusions According to tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 which have been presented above and many researchers’ estimation, it has been underlined that the students’ evaluation, self-evaluation in primary school mathematics and their gender inﬂuenced their decisions about the school type. More speciﬁcally from our research results students who had self-evaluated and evaluated by ”others” as ”weak” or ”middle” in primary school mathematics and as well as the boys more often had chosen the evening school in order to continue their education. [1] 1) Drettaki, M., The abandon of the obligatory education and the factors that relate with it. Grigoris, Athens (in Greek), 1993. [2] 2)(Eurostat, The unemployment in Europe,1996, In OVC, The Students who Abandon their) Studies in High School and their Requirements for Vocational Education,1996, Greece. [3] 3)Baltas G, With numbers and percentages, Economic Postman, Greek newsmagazine, 1995, page 101, (in Greek)

5 [4] 4)Stathopoulou, C. Chaviaris, P. School failure and mathematics education in Dode- canese Islands: a case study, in International Conference 2006 New Zealand [5] VE (Organization of Vocational Education) - Pedagogic Institute, The students who abandon their studies in high school and their needs for Vocational Education, Athens (in Greek), 1996 [6] 6)Raty, H., Snellman, L., On the social fabric of intellingence. In Paper on Social Representations, 4, 177-185, 1995 [7] 7)Leder, G. C., Pearn, C., Brew, C., Bishop, A. J., I’d like to be really good at mathematics,Publisher: Internet, 1997 [8] 8)OECD, The OECD jobs. Study: Evidence and Explanations. Ch.7: ”Skills and com- petences” 1994. In OVC, The Students who Abandon their Studies in High School and their Requirements for Vocational Education 1996, Greece [9] 9)Kalavassis, F., Kokkalidis, S., Stathopoulou, C. Skoumpourdi, C. Student’s school route elaboration as a parameter for school performance research approach: the case of Dodecanese Islands (Pythagoras), in National Conference ”School and Family” 2005. Page 141, Ioannina (in Greek) [10] 10)Kafoussi, S. Chaviaris, P. (under consideration), Mathematics education and school failure: a method to study this relation, poster for 30th PME International Conference 2006 Prague