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From asking to observing. Behavioural measures of socio-emotional and motivational skills in large-scale assessments

Author

Listed:
  • Francesca Borgonovi

    (UCL Social Research Institute, United Kingdom)

  • Alessandro Ferrara

    (Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Italy)

  • Mario Piacentini

    (Directorate for Education and Skills, France)

Abstract

Socio-emotional and motivational skills are routinely measured using self-reports in large-scale educational assessments. Measures exploiting test-takers’ behaviour during the completion of questionnaires or cognitive tests are increasingly used as alternatives to self-reports in the economics of education literature. We use cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence to evaluate if behavioural measures can provide unbiased measures of socio-emotional and motivational skills to be used in empirical research using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We find that behavioural measures capture important aspects of students’ academic profiles: some are importantly associated with contemporaneous performance and educational attainment. However, these measures are only limitedly correlated among themselves and have low correlations with self-report measures of the same constructs. Moreover, behavioural measures have different levels of stability over time and sensitivity to design considerations. These results suggest that more research is needed before measures of students’ behaviour on a cognitive test can be used as valid indicators of socio-emotional and motivational skills.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesca Borgonovi & Alessandro Ferrara & Mario Piacentini, 2020. "From asking to observing. Behavioural measures of socio-emotional and motivational skills in large-scale assessments," DoQSS Working Papers 20-19, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    • Handle: RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2019
    as

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    File URL: http://repec.ioe.ac.uk/REPEc/pdf/qsswp2019.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    3. Tim Kautz & James J. Heckman & Ron Diris & Bas ter Weel & Lex Borghans, 2014. "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," OECD Education Working Papers 110, OECD Publishing.
    4. Pau Balart & Matthijs Oosterveen, 2019. "Females show more sustained performance during test-taking than males," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Socio-emotional and motivational skills; cross-country; PISA; large-scale assessments; behavioural measures; self-reports; education.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education

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