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!

danitv@hotmail.com

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