Comparing Assessment Methods of Attribute Importance in Teachers’ Decisions: The Importance of Different Criteria for Tracking Recommendations after Primary School

• Published in: Education sciences 2021-10, Vol.11 (10), p.566
• Main Authors: Lintorf, Katrin, van Ophuysen, Stefanie, Osipov, Igor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Education; attribute importance; Bias; Cognitive Psychology; Comparative Analysis; Consumers; Decision Making; dominance analysis; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Evaluation Criteria; Family Characteristics; Foreign Countries; German; Grade 4; Grades (Scholastic); Immigration; Information Processing; judgment and decision making; Learning; Mathematics Achievement; Memory; Methods; Parent Child Relationship; Parents; Prediction; Regression (Statistics); Researchers; Resistance (Psychology); School Districts; school track; Secondary Education; Secondary Schools; Social Desirability; Socioeconomic Background; Student Characteristics; Students; Study Habits; Teaching Methods; Track System (Education); tracking recommendation; Values; Vocational Education
• ISSN: 2227-7102; 2227-7102
• DOI: 10.3390/educsci11100566

The importance of different criteria for tracking recommendations is usually inferred using regression weights as a cross-student measure. The few studies that have applied alternative approaches or differentiated between student groups sometimes reach different conclusions. According to research on judgment and decision making (JDM), different methods operationalize different facets of importance. Given this, we investigate whether the importance of criteria for tracking recommendations depends on a direct vs. indirect operationalization (regression weights vs. ratings). A total of 181 teachers selected four students from their most recent fourth-grade class using a 2 × 2 design (certain vs. uncertain qualification for the Realschule (vocational track) vs. the Gymnasium (academic track)). Then, they reported on the level and the importance of predetermined criteria for each student. Contrary to JDM research, we found few method-related differences, but striking differences between cases with a certain vs. an uncertain qualification. For the latter, the importance of the criteria is more homogeneous, the regression prediction is less successful and the importance varies with the dependent variable in the regression (actual recommendation vs. perceived qualification). We conclude that further research should focus on uncertain cases rather than method-related differences and suspect that, in uncertain cases, the formation of the recommendation is a multistage decision process.