Differential Item Functioning Analyses investigates whether individuals with same ability in different groups also show similar performance on an item. In matching the individuals of the same ability, most of the methodologies use total scores of the tests which are usually constructed to be unidimensional. th purpose of the present study is evaluating the PISA 2003 mathematics literacy items through the use of DIF methodology which uses a multidimensional approach in matching students instead of single total score, improve the matching for DIF analyses. In the study factor structure of the tests will be determeined via both exploratory and confirmatory analyses in a complimentary fashion. then DIF analyses conducted using Logistic regression (LR) and Mantel -Haenszel methods.Analyses showed that the matching criterion improved when multivariate analyses were used. the number of DIF items was decreased when the matching criterion is defined based on multiple criterion scores such as mathematical literacy and problem solving scores or two different mathematical literacy subtest score. In addition, qualitative reviews and examination of the distribution of DIF items by content categories, cognitive demands, item types,item text, visual-spatial factors and linguistic properties of items were analyzed to explain the differential performance. Curriculum, cultural and translation differences were the main criteria for the qualitative analyses of DIF items. The results imply that curriculum and translation differences in items might be causing the DIF across Turkish and English versions of the tests.

International students are becoming a more and more attractive group for tourism agencies, and for those responsible for regional development, some study is warranted to explore how one may effectively recognize their preferences, wants, needs, and constraints to draw their attention towards the destination or to experience tourism firm’s offerings specially in this research about their perception about risk, safety and security during their travelling. Perception of risk, safety and security of a tourist destination may create a broader platform of preferences, and associated constraints. Perceived risk is defined as a consumer’s perception of the overall negativity of a course of action based upon an assessment of the possible negative outcomes and the likelihood that those outcomes will occur. Tourism, exclusively international tourism, is highly delicate to safety and security issues. It is one of the enterprise most exposed to changes in the world stage that may produce alteration in tourist behavior. A clearer perceptive of the traveler’s decision-making process and the role of intervening variables are compulsory, notably respecting travel inhibitors, such as risk perception, to assist develop enhanced destination development or recovery strategies. Constructing conditions for tourists to feel safe before and during the trip may be demanding to the success of a destination competing internationally. The current study attempts to fill a gap by exploring risk perceptions of individual international students who engaged in tourism and try to explore the concerned safety measure among them. The findings revealed that the most common risk perception and endeavors were transportation, fraudulent behavior of locals towards tourists, losing valuables, health issues and sexual harassment. However, the international students with experience with travelling themselves gave the safety and security precautions needed to minimize these risks. The safety and security features involve avoiding informal sectors, taking care of personal belongings, being always cautious about the situation happening around, educating themselves about the destination they are visiting, proper health care and proper authority to report any mishaps. After this research it could be understood that international student tourist is concerned about their safety and they would improve the situation of risk they perceive if given the chance to.

台灣是一個追求高等教育的理想學習地點，本研究藉由文獻整理歸納出以下幾點： 一、台灣提供優質的學術環境; 二、擁有豐富的文化遺產; 三、合理的學費; 四、多樣的獎學金申請機會; 五、優良以及安全的生活環境; 六、實惠且可靠的醫療系統; 七、良好的華語學習環境; 八、在台灣留學有助於未來的學習規劃以及工作機會。 本研究探討影響國際學生選擇來台灣就讀的因素，並運用追蹤資料(Panel data) 分析2006~2015年共10年的數據來了解台灣地區社會經濟的環境因素如何影響國際學生選擇學習目的地城市的決策指標，進一步分析出哪些因素特質影響了一個城市區域對於國際學生的吸引力。 結果顯示，國際學生總數在學院數量，失業率，高等教育比例，教育支出比例，醫療機構數量和犯罪率等方面都有達到統計顯著性。另外，分析顯示，國際學位生與非學位學生之間有不同的統計顯著性。 / Taiwan is an ideal study destination for several reasons. According to the literature reviewed in this research, the reasons are the following: Taiwan provides a high-quality academic environment, rich cultural heritage, reasonable tuition, generous scholarships, excellent living environment with a high level of safety, an affordable and reliable medical system, a good environment to learn Mandarin Chinese, and studying in Taiwan is helpful for both further study and future careers. This research was conducted in order to find out what factors influence international students' immigration to Taiwan to study. In this research, the investigation is carried out to find out how the environment affects international students' decision-making process and conducting with panel data analysis to find out from 2006~2015 what factors determine a students' destination city to study in Taiwan. The results indicate that the total number of the international students have statistical significance on the categories of Number of Colleges and Universities, Unemployment Rate, Higher Education Ratio, Education Expenditures Ratio, Number of Medical Care Institutions and General Crime Rate. The analysis indicated that there are different statistically significant results between the degree students and the non-degree students.

Cette thèse propose une analyse de cent entretiens biographiques menés auprès de jeunes ressortissants de l’ancienne URSS, nés principalement dans les années 1980-1990 et – pour deux tiers d’entre eux – devenus étudiants d’établissements d’études supérieures en France. La migration étudiante depuis la Russie vers la France est ainsi son objet principal d’investigation, précisé en comparant les cas de Russes mobiles internationalement et de ceux qui n’avaient pas connu – au moment de l’enquête – d’expérience d’études à l’étranger. La comparaison mobilité/non-mobilité fait ressortir les conditions qui amènent à souhaiter un voyage d’études dans un autre pays, ainsi que les actions qui s’effectuent pour sa mise en œuvre. La notion de carrière migratoire, constituée de trois phases – conception, préparation du départ, séjour –, est dans un premier temps mobilisée afin de montrer d’une part que ce n’est pas avec l’arrivée dans un pays étranger que la migration commence, mais avec la préparation du départ – cette dernière, si elle aboutit, étant la phase clé de la carrière –, et d’autre part que la migration doit être comprise comme une action, que les descriptions de contextes permettant de migrer ne suffisent pas à expliquer et qui demande ainsi à être analysée le plus finement possible. Dans un second temps, le terme de socialisation est proposé pour rendre compte de l’espace social de possibilité de concevoir et réaliser un départ étudiant à l’étranger. La distribution inégale des compétences en langues étrangères en Russie contemporaine est mise en évidence, ainsi que le processus – nommé « socialisation à l’étranger » – de formation des représentations quant aux pays occidentaux, faisant souhaiter un départ. Enfin, quelques dispositions sont repérées – comme la disposition volontaire ou la disposition au dilettantisme – qui autorisent à concevoir et à réaliser le départ étudiant ; les processus de constitution desdites dispositions sont reconstruits, permettant de constater à la fois une relative hétérogénéité et une sélectivité du recrutement d’étudiants internationalement mobiles. Cette thèse constitue un apport à la sociologie des migrations, ainsi qu’aux études sur la Russie. Avec son terrain national, peu étudié et associé à un ensemble de stéréotypes – répandus y compris dans le monde scientifique –, elle ambitionne aussi de contribuer à la sociologie de la socialisation, soucieuse de saisir des mécanismes généraux de la formation et de la transformation des individus dans la société. / This thesis presents an analysis of a hundred biographical interviews with young people from the former USSR, born mainly in the 1980-1990s, two thirds of them having become students at the higher educational establishments in France. Thus, student migration from Russia to France is the main object of research, specified by comparing the cases of internationally mobile Russians and those who – at the moment of the investigation – did not have any experience of studying abroad. The comparison between mobility and non-mobility has revealed the conditions which make one want to study abroad, as well as actions undertaken to implement it. The notion of migratory career, which comprises three stages, namely design, preparation of departure, and stay, is on the one hand used to show that, first, it is not with the arrival in a foreign country that migration starts, but with the preparation for departure – this stage, if successful, being the crucial stage in the career – and second, that migration must be understood as an action that routine exposure of contexts allowing to migrate is not sufficient to explain and thus requires to be described as precisely as possible. On the other hand, the term socialization is suggested to explain the social space that enables one to conceive and implement student departure abroad. The unequal access to foreign language skills in contemporary Russia is highlighted, as well as the process – named “foreign socialization” – of the formation of representations about western countries, which makes one wish to depart. Finally, a number of dispositions, such as voluntary or amateur dispositions, are outlined that allow to conceive and implement the departure, and the processes of their appearance are retraced, allowing at the same time to reveal a relative heterogeneity and selectivity of recruitment of internationally mobile students. This thesis provides a contribution to the sociology of migration, as well as to Russian studies. Having a national field that remains little studied and associated with a number of stereotypes, widespread in the scientific world as well, it has an ambition to contribute to the sociology of socialization, which cares to capture general mechanisms of the formation and transformation of individuals in the society. / Настоящая диссертация предлагает анализ ста биографических интервью с выходцами из бывшего СССР, родившимися преимущественно в 1980-1990 годах и – в случае двух третьих опрошенных – ставших студентами высших учебных заведений во Франции. Студенческая миграция из России во Францию представляет, таким образом, главный объект исследования данной работы, уточненный с помощью сравнения случаев русских студентов, обучающихся или обучившихся за рубежом, и тех, среди их сверстников и соотечественников, кто не имел – в момент интервью – подобного опыта. Сопоставление мобильность/не мобильность позволило выявить условия, которые способствуют формированию желания учиться в другой стране, а также действия, которые предпринимаются для осуществления этого желания. Понятие «карьеры» (Беккер, Гоффман, Дармон), состоящей из трех фаз – концепция, приготовление отъезда, пребывание в другой стране –, использовано в первой части диссертации с целью показать, что, с одной стороны, миграция начинается не с прибытия за границу, а с приготовления отъезда – данная фаза является, в случае ее успешного завершения, ключевой фазой миграционной карьеры – и что, с другой стороны, миграция должна быть понята как действие, требующее отдельного детального анализа, и для изучения которого описания национального или интернационального контекста не являются достаточными. Во второй части термин «социализация» (Бурдье, Дармон, Лаир) предложен для того, чтобы выявить социальное пространство, позволяющее задумать и осуществить студенческую миграцию. Неравный доступ к изучению иностранных языков в современной России упомянут с этой целью, а также процесс возникновения представлений о загранице, которые содействуют зарождению желания мигрировать. Описаны, наконец, роль и формирование других социальных качеств, часто натурализированных или психологизированных опрошенными («воля» и т.д.) и благоприятствующих реализации студенческой миграции. Оставаясь селективным, социальное пространство последней является, таким образом, относительно разнородным.Данная диссертация представляет собой вклад в социологию миграции и в изучение России. Эмпирический материал о студентах и молодых специалистах из России, страны недостаточно изученной и ассоциирующейся с рядом стереотипов, в том числе и в научном мире, позволяет также обогатить размышления о механизмах формирования и трансформации человека, члена общества.

This longitudinal qualitative research case study analyzed how international students in their first semester at an intensive English program (IEP) managed their English language learning experiences while transitioning to a new academic learning environment. Their experiences of cultural and educational transition were viewed through the lens of self-regulatory learning habits and behavior. Three linguistically and internationally diverse students who identified as highly self-regulated learners through Likert-scale questionnaire responses were interviewed at the beginning, middle, and end of their first semester at a large university-affiliated IEP in the western part of the US. The three students came from Central America (Spanish speaking), Sub-Saharan Africa (Malagasy & French speaking), and Asia (Mandarin Chinese speaking). Semi-structured interviews yielded data about what self-regulated learning (SRL) principles and practices the students brought with them to the IEP and which SRL principles and practices were maintained, newly developed, or not used throughout their first semester. Data collected from the semi-structured interviews about their transition experiences were organized and analyzed within a six-dimensional model of SRL that included how students managed their motives, in-class and out-of-class learning methods, time, physical environments, social environments, and language performance. Implications for researchers, administrators, and teachers are discussed, including the role of resilience as an important self-regulated learning practice for language learners.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Global citizenship is conceptualized within a neoliberal agenda and oppressive geopolitics of knowledge that furthers social inequities and unsustainability. Despite critiques and attempts to reframe global citizenship to achieve social justice and human rights aims, it is still masked in neoliberal and mono-epistemological terms as <em>global competence</em>. It is vital to explore possibilities of global citizenship <em>becoming</em> that can challenge neoliberal hegemony and the growing ethnocentric and ultra-nationalist thinking. This inquiry was conceptualized, within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space, to explore the <em>being</em> and <em>becoming</em> of six South Asian female international students engaged in activism and the bearing it has on global citizenship. My co-researchers negotiated their dynamic identities and were influenced by multiple discourses as they shuttled between various places and spaces. In this inquiry, I examine autobiographical roots that illuminate my research puzzles and phenomena of interest and engage with South Asian female international students as they negotiate their personal, educational, and activist experiences. I analyze their lived experiences based on Ikeda’s perspective on global citizenship, informed by ideas of <em>sōka</em> or “value-creating” education and Buddhist-humanism. The research texts based on the livings and tellings of my participants are represented dialogically in culturally relevant ways, such as <em>chai pe charcha</em> or “conversations over tea.” From a narrative global citizenship perspective, these stories are examples of ‘creative coexistence’ and ‘value creation’ and offer a means to reimagine global citizenship from the standpoint of interconnectedness and interdependence.</p>

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / Secondary analyses of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) commonly characterize relationships between variables of interest using correlations. However, the accuracy of correlation estimates is impaired by artefacts such as measurement error and clustering. Despite advancements in methodology, conventional correlation estimates or statistical models not addressing this problem are still commonly used when analyzing ILSA data. This dissertation examines the impact of both the clustered nature of the data and heterogeneous measurement error on the correlations reported between background data and proficiency scales across countries participating in ILSA. In this regard, the operating characteristics of competing modeling techniques are explored by means of applications to data from PISA 2012. Specifically, the estimates of correlations between math self-efficacy and math achievement across countries are the principal focus of this study. Sequentially employing four different statistical techniques, a step-wise model refinement approach is used. After each step, the changes in the within-country correlation estimates are examined in relation to (i) the heterogeneity of distributions, (ii) the amount of measurement error, (iii) the degree of clustering, and (iv) country-level math performance. The results show that correlation estimates gathered from two-dimensional IRT models are more similar across countries in comparison to conventional and multilevel linear modeling estimates. The strength of the relationship between math proficiency and math self-efficacy is moderated by country mean math proficiency and this was found to be consistent across all four models even when measurement error and clustering were taken into account. Multilevel multidimensional mixture IRT modeling results support the hypothesis that low-performing groups within countries have a lower correlation between math self-efficacy and math proficiency. A weaker association between math self-efficacy and math proficiency in lower achieving groups is consistently seen across countries. A multilevel mixture IRT modeling approach sheds light on how this pattern emerges from greater randomness in the responses of lower performing groups. The findings from this study demonstrate that advanced modeling techniques not only are more appropriate given the characteristics of the data, but also provide greater insight about the patterns of relationships across countries. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This study asks, “How can international educational exchange contribute to more peacefulsocieties?” To test the first two steps in a proposed causal pathway, this paper hypothesizes thatstudents from non-democratic countries who study in a democratic country will 1) have more favorable views toward human rights than students who have not studied in a democratic country; and 2) be more likely to advocate for human rights protections in their home country than students who have not studied in a democratic country. Utilizing a natural experiment design, this study did not find support for either hypothesis when comparing international students who had studied in the United States with those who were unable to due to Covid-19. There were, however, statistically significant differences in political activism levels for the variables of socio-economic status and previous experience in a democratic country before university. This suggests that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who study in a democratic country may ultimately secure more politically influential careers in their home country due to the theory of cultural capital. As these students are more likely to support political activism, they may use their influence to advocate for improved human rights protections, contributing to more peaceful societies.