Prior studies indicate a link between poor academic performance and e-cigarette use in high school students (18 years and below). However, the effect of post high school education on e-cigarette use is poorly summarized in literature. The objective of the current study was to determine if there was a difference in prevalence of past 30-day e-cigarette use in a national sample of young adults due to different educational levels. Four groups of young adults were studied based on their level of education: High School Dropouts, High School Graduates/GED, Current College Students, and College Graduates. Data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study was used to assess the association between educational attainment and e-cigarette use in young adults (ages 18-24). Relative e-cigarette use was measured via a survey, along with other control variables, across the four groups. Common factors affecting use across each educational attainment group were also analyzed. It was found that e-cigarette use tended to decrease as educational attainment increased among young adults. That is, higher levels of education seemed to be a protective factor against e-cigarette use when controlled for other factors. This study expands past research on this topic to include young adults as they transition from adolescents to adults. Prior studies established a link between academic performance at the same educational level (high school). This study indicates a difference in e-cigarette use between different educational levels. This study also differentiates between e-cigarette use among High School Dropouts and High School Graduates/GED.

A growing body of research has addressed the relationship between religiousness and spirituality. In addition, recent research focuses on the variations in definition and operationalization of the two concepts. Most of this literature examines spirituality as a construct under religion. Conceptualizing those who are spiritual but non-religious has received far less attention. This study uses recent data from the General Social Surveys to assess the relationship of those who are spiritual but not religious with education and a number of socio-demographic variables. The analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between one identifying as someone who is spiritual but secular and educational attainment. Directions for future research are discussed.

The role of improved schooling has become controversial because expansion of school investment has not guaranteed improved educational outcomes. This thesis pays attention to why government investments in education have not produced the desire effects of increased educational attainment and higher enrolment rate. We show that the results depend on the methodology. We also provide evidence that the robust association between cognitive skills and economic growth reflects a causal effect of the economic benefits of effective school policy: we find that, countries that improved their cognitive skill, through different facets of school choice, autonomy and accountability over time experienced relative increases in their growth paths. We show that quality of education significantly matter for technological progress and that it is a source of divergence in OECD economies. We also analyse in a dispassionate way, voters influence on public policy especially, that pertaining to public school resource allocation, in one country India we take India because the country’s overall success story hides striking inter- and intra-state variation in literacy rates. There is suggestion that larger districts with more elected legislators and also districts with higher voter turnout benefit from greater allocation of public school resources, which in turn are expected to boost schooling outcomes. In other words, these results highlight the power of democracy in ensuring a better allocation of public school resources in our sample.

The aim of this study is to examine the long-term cognitive effects and educational outcomes of being born small-for-gestational-age (SGA). It also assesses whether the family’s attitude towards education modifies the effect of SGA on cognitive performance. A total of 9598 children born in 1953 and living in the Stockholm metropolitan area in 1963 were included in this study. Data were obtained from the Stockholm Birth Cohort. Multiple ordinary least square regressions analyses suggest that SGA children have lower mean verbal, spatial and numerical test scores than appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) children. However, these differences are small. Other results from modification analyses indicate that the effect of SGA status on cognitive performance is modified by the family’s attitude towards education. Additional logistic regression analyses suggest that the unadjusted difference in log odds of attaining higher education is largely explained by the family’s attitude towards education. The results suggest that the detrimental influences of being born SGA on some cognitive and educational outcomes are limited and may be reduced.

Thesis (MDram)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Research has shown that children are not reading books for their enjoyment anymore. Also, children living in unfavourable socio-economic circumstances are raised without any book culture. The absence of a love for reading and low levels of literacy cause children to have problems to read in order to learn. In this small-scale empirical research project with an experimental group of eighteen Grade 3 learners from a poor socio-economic community and school in the Northern Cape, the researcher sought to determine whether drama could be used as a pedagogic aid to increase the learners' joy in reading. Thus different drama methodologies were utilised over a period of three years (from Grade 3 to Grade 5), primarily to inspire learners to enjoy books and reading. The research results have shown that in the experimental group reading levels gradually improved, library membership increased, most members of the group began to read on their own and a change to a positive self-image was reported. The control group in the same school also showed an improvement in their reading levels, but not to the same extent as was noted in the experimental group. It was apparent that the dramatisation of stories as a methodology had had a significant positive impact of the lives of the experimental group. Although this was a pilot study, there is a strong indication that the results can be utilised for further research. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Navorsing het bewys dat leerders leesweerstandig geword het. Leerders uit veral ongunstige ekonomiese omstandighede word boonop nie met boeke omring wat 'n gesonde leeskultuur kan aanwakker nie. Hierdie swak leeskultuur, tesame met lae geletterdheidsvlakke, veroorsaak dat kinders probleme ervaar met lees om te leer. In hierdie kleinskaalse empiriese studie met 'n steekproef van 'n eksperimentele groep van agtien graad 3-leerders uit 'n lae sosio-ekonomiese gemeenskap in die Noord-Kaap, het die navorser drama as 'n pedagogiese hulpmiddel gebruik om vas te stel of dit kon bydra om die leerders te motiveer om leeslief te raak. Dramatisering met behulp van verskeie tegnieke en metodes is benut om die kinders te motiveer om lees te geniet en self te lees. Die resultate van hierdie empiriese studie oor 'n tydperk van drie jaar (van graad 3 tot graad 5) het getoon dat daar 'n verbetering in die meeste leerders se leesvlakke was, biblioteeklidmaatskap het toegeneem, selflees is by die meeste bewerkstellig en die selfbeeld van die kinders is in sommige gevalle verbeter. Hierdie resultate is vergelyk met 'n kontrolegroep in dieselfde skool, wie se leesvlakke wel ook oor die tydperk verbeter het, maar nie in dieselfde mate as die eksperimentele groep nie. Dit was duidelik dat die spesifieke metodes met betrekking tot voorlesing en gedramatiseerde spel van stories vir die eksperimentele groep 'n verskil gemaak het. Alhoewel hierdie slegs 'n loodsstudie was, is daar sterk aanduiding dat die resultate vir verdere navorsing gebruik kan word.

published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Migrants into European countries are often less educated than European natives. We analyse whether migrants' children are more or less likely than natives' children to achieve upward educational mobility across generations, and study differences in the factors, which contribute to differences in mobility for the two groups. We find that migrants' descendants are more often upwardly mobile (and less often downwardly mobile) than their native peers in the majority of countries studied, and show that the main factor contributing to these patterns is the education level of parents. Although a lower parental education means that their children are less likely to access the same amount of human, social and financial capital as children of more highly educated parents, migrants' descendants over the last two generations were able to make significant progress in reducing education gaps with natives.

Thesis advisor: Sara Moorman / This research looks at the ways in which mothers influence their daughter’s educational achievements and occupational aspirations. The goal is to determine whether the Role-Model Hypothesis or Grades Hypothesis explains the relationship more. According to the literature, the Role-Model Hypothesis is based on ideas of socialization and gender-role stereotypes while the Grades Hypothesis is based on the idea of transmission of social capital, which improves test scores. In order to test these hypotheses, a series of multinomial logistic regression models were run on the responses of a sample of 7,716 female students and their mothers to the Educational Longitudinal Study, (ELS) 2002, Base Year. The results provide evidence in support of the Grades Hypothesis. A mother with higher educational attainment and a more prestigious occupation is more likely to have a daughter with higher test scores, with higher test scores leading to higher expectations and aspirations by the daughter. Implications of this finding include suggestions for the need for action, policy changes, and the decline in the importance of gender theory in influencing aspirations. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis (M.A.(Educational Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between educational achievement (EA) and physical activity (PA) among rural secondary school learners based on the hypothesis that PA boasts educational achievement. The participants (n=275) (164 girls and 111 boys) aged 17-27 were selected from three rural high schools at Xihoko Circuit, Limpopo Province in South Africa. Due to mounting pressures to reach adequate yearly progress, many school officials view non-assessed activities like Physical Education (PE) and recess as unnecessary, consequently creating a case for the elimination of any subject that is not directly measured through standardized testing. This action ends up depriving learners of one of the elements that they need to do well in the classroom. Participation in PE has been found to have many benefits, such as, improved EA and health. This is the only subject that provides learners with an opportunity for PA after long hours of sitting. Most of the evidence linking PA to student achievement comes from studies looking at the impact of PE classes. Overall, there seems to be consensus among those who have studied the issue that reducing the amount of instructional time devoted to “academic” subjects in order to devote more time to PE does not harm students’ EA. On the contrary, schools that have reduced their PE time have not seen reliable improvements in student achievement. Finding a link between EA and PA may make educational leaders to re-evaluate time spent during the school day. In this study, data was collected for one month. PA data were collected by means of a self-report Youth Physical Activity Questionnaire (YPAQ), whereas data on EA were obtained through Mathematics and English tests scores. The University of Limpopo granted ethical clearance for the study and the permission to access schools was given by the Department of Education, Limpopo. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18. The results revealed a low positive correlation (r = .079) for English and (r = .086) for Mathematics. The null hypothesis was rejected as a results of the chi-square test outcome which revealed that at p< 0.05, df = 2, the c2 = 8.06 for Mathematics and c2 =147.2 for English. Since these values are greater than 5.99 chi-square statistical value, it means that the relationship between EA and PA exists, though non-significant. This has important implications for the introduction of PE in the school curriculum in the face of increasing sedentary life styles among young people and declining education performance that is plaguing our education system.

The purpose with this paper is to examine if tertiary education and democracy have an impact on economic growth. In order to decide how democratic the examined countries are the democracy index constructed by The Economist is used. Besides the two central theories the purpose is also to explain why these variables could affect growth and to examine direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects mean that one variable affects another variable which thereafter has an impact on economic growth. 34 OECD countries are compared in order to investigate whether education and democracy are strongly correlated with BNP per capita. Therefore a statistical design is used as method. The empirical results suggest that there is significant correlation between democracy and economic growth. Educational levels seem to have a very small and insignificant effect on economic growth. The empirical results also indicate that the small effect that educational levels have on growth can to a great extent be explained by corruption. This means that countries with higher educational attainment have a tendency to be less corrupt which in turn leads to higher economic growth. The significant and positive correlation between democracy and economic growth can to some extent be explained by the indirect effect which is corruption.