Abstracts - Earli

European countries) and the lowest in the most-segregated systems (using tracks, grade repetitionlike Austria, Belgium, Germany, …). So the strength of the relationships seems to be related to thestructure of the education system. A hypothesis for this phenomenon is that the non-cognitivevariables are based on self-reports and that students, when answering those questions, use a groupof reference (their classmates or schoolmates). In order to test this hypothesis, the mathematicsscore and the non-cognitive variables have been standardized by school, by school and by grade,and by school, by grade and by track. The results of those analyses clearly show that thisstandardization change few if anything in the comprehensive systems in which all 15 year-oldsattend the same grade, in which there is no track and the between-school variance is low. On thecontrary, in segregated systems, in which 15 year-olds are spread in different grades and tracks,this standardisation strongly impact on the strength of the correlation between cognitive and noncognitiveaspects. The data support the hypothesis of the use of a group reference and provide aninterpretation for this counter-intuitive finding that in some countries non-cognitive concepts muchmore predict cognitive performance than in others.Educational inequality between the East and the West: comparing the developed countries/regionin Eastern Asia and Western Europe on their fifteen-year-olds’ educational achievements andcareer expectationsLing Li, European University Institute, ItalyJean Pierre Verhaeghe, Department of Education, Ghent University, BelgiumThis study undertakes an evidence-based approach to compare the differences between EasternAsia and Western Europe on their 15-year-old adolescents’ educational achievements and futurecareer expectations, and how these differences are related to the educational practices in differentcountries. PISA (Programme of International Students Assessments, OECD) 2003 study databaserelated to eight countries/region in Eastern Asian and Western Europe are explored, with Japan,Korea, Hong Kong-China on one side and UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France onthe other. Three-level hierarchical models with students nested in schools and schools in countriesare used to model the outcomes. After having controlled for the impact of family background andstudents’ individual characteristics, analyses focused on the impact of general educational policiesand specific school practices on students’ outcomes. Multilevel models with randomintercepts/slopes model as well as cross-level interaction between schools and individuals areapplied so as to capture the complex reality in schools. The findings help to understandeducational effectiveness across different cultures.The power of two: Linking informatics with pedagogy in curriculum mappingMary Jane Mahony, University of Sydney, AustraliaMelinda J. Lewis, University of Sydney, AustraliaCurriculum planning and review is enhanced when descriptive data normally presented in text ornumbers is visually displayed. Semi-automated strategies informed by informatics were applied toproduce maps of curricular elements over time and across both individual subjects and wholehealth sciences undergraduate courses in a large, research-intensive university. Exploratory workused both retrospective institutional data and university teachers’ reflective expectations onassessment type, timing and preparation time. University teacher and program managersatisfaction with this approach led to current work applying the same strategies prospectively innew course curriculum planning and extending beyond assessment to include mapping graduateattributes and learning outcomes.– 538 –