Research to guide practice and policies
An analysis of three different measures of learning styles: can learning styles be identified in adult learners?
The present research aims to explore the validity and reliability of different learning styles instruments while also exploring the agreement between them and potential implications. The study (n = 225) examined three instruments used to assess learning styles – Kolb’s learning style inventory (LSI), the learning styles questionnaire (LSQ) and the revised learning style inventory (RLSI). The study revealed that these three instruments exhibited low validity and reliability. Notably, the LSI indicated significant gender differences in learning styles, with females predominantly being convergers, a learning style less common among males. Both genders showed a preference for the reflective learning style in the LSQ. In addition, the LSQ identified multiple learning styles among a subset of participants, raising concerns about its consistency. While the LSI managed to associate learning styles with job positions, the LSQ failed to do so. The RLSI had low reliability and validity, suggesting that caution should be exercised when interpreting findings using these tools. Finally, the inter-rater reliability among these instruments was low, indicating that they might be measuring different constructs and were not able to identify the same learning style in the learner. The inconsistent results across tools raise questions about whether these inventories measure stable constructs or reflect more general tendencies. The tendency to accept vague or flattering feedback as personally meaningful i.e. Barnum effect, may further undermine their scientific value. Given the limited validity, low reliability and poor agreement across instruments, practitioners should exercise caution when interpreting results from learning style assessments. As such, learning style inventories should not be used to guide individualized instruction or employee development without further evidence. This study contributes to the ongoing debate on the validity of learning styles by evaluating multiple instruments, the first to assess these three instruments concurrently within a shared adult learner sample. Results emphasize the need to reconsider the role of learning style assessments in empirical research, particularly given the risk of cognitive biases such as the Barnum effect.
Reconceptualising Homework Standards: Insights from Educator Perspectives in Kosovo's Primary Education
This study explores the impact and implementation of standardised homework practices in primary education, focusing on teachers’ experiences and perceptions in Kosovo. The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of these standards in improving teaching efficiency, student engagement, and academic outcomes. A qualitative case study was conducted with 10 teachers from a private elementary school in Prishtina. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The study investigated how homework standards influence planning, execution, and feedback processes and the challenges faced during implementation. Findings reveal that standardised homework practices improve organization, reduce workload variability, and increase the timely completion of assignments. Teachers noted better time management, enhanced opportunities for providing feedback, and stronger collaboration with parents. Standardised practices foster student motivation and engagement while ensuring age-appropriate and manageable workloads. Despite these benefits, challenges include addressing diverse learning needs and maintaining flexibility in homework design. The study concludes that homework standardisation positively influences teaching practices and learning outcomes, offering actionable insights for improving educational policies. The study’s findings are limited by the small sample size, limiting generalisability to broader contexts. The results highlight the importance of developing evidence-based homework policies to support teachers, students, and families. By examining homework standards in an underexplored educational context, this research provides valuable insights into their role in enhancing primary education practices and policies.
TIMSS performance of Kosovar students: an analysis of teacher approaches and application in daily teaching and learning activities
A wide range of reforms to improve the teaching capacities of pre-service and in-service teachers have been carried out in Kosovo. In assessing the success of these previous interventions, large-scale assessment data is invaluable. In 2019, 4754 students from 145 schools participated in the TIMSS assessment. Results reveal that student's performance, in mathematics and science, is significantly higher when teachers are clear in their instructions, satisfied with their job, and have more teaching experience. Teacher qualifications also impact achievement, with students performing higher when the teacher only has a secondary education without a bachelor's degree. Students' higher readiness for instruction, preferences for the subjects, and confidence in their abilities are linked to higher literacy levels. Finally, TIMSS data of the 2019 study also raise questions regarding the type of homework assigned to students, the importance of experience over qualifications, and the academization of teacher preparation programs that may hinder practice.
Kosovar Students’ Performance in the 2019 TIMSS Assessment: Why School and Home Resources Drive Achievement?
Results of the TIMSS 2019 reveal that Kosovar students have lower achievement levels in both mathematics and science. In understanding this gap in achievement, it is of value to take a closer look at factors that may influence student learning. Results of this analysis reveal that factors such as home and school resources influence achievement with students who report more home resources and attend high-resource schools outperforming other groups of students. Student perceptions of their learning also shaped achievement with students performing higher when they had higher levels of confidence and preference for the subjects.
ICT and Internet Usage among Kosovar Students: The Impact of Trends on Achievement in the PISA Scales
The current analysis aims to research the impact of ICT usage on students’ achievement in the 2018 PISA assessment. The Program for International student assessment, measures the achievement of 15-year-olds in mathematics, science and reading literacy across a large number of world economies. Kosovo has participated in the PISA assessment in 2015 for the first time and for the second time in 2018. The current study will look at the achievement of over 4000 Kosovar students in reading literacy, mathematics and science and analyze trends of ICT usage among students. More specifically the analysis focused on understanding trends of ICT and internet usage of Kosovar students, such as using computers for chatting, research information, reading literacy news, learning something new, and reading emails among others. Furthermore, the study explores gender differences in usage trends, to explore if gender plays a role in such trends. Finally, the study researches the impact on performance of gender, internet access and access to computers to complete homework. The result of the current analysis provides that access to internet and having access to computers at home links to higher achievement in all PISA scales. An additional finding of this study is that Kosovar students tend to use technology and internet mainly to chat with friends, and significantly less for reading emails, learning for something new or for doing homework. Female students reported lower internet presence compared to male students, but in the meantime were the ones who outperformed in the reading literacy and science scales, suggesting that higher online presence mainly for chatting hinders learning and achievement.
Does Socioeconomic Status Influence Achievement? An analysis of the Performance of Kosovar Students on the 2015 and 2018 PISA Assessment
Socioeconomic status has long been considered an influential factor in student achievement. Similar to existing literature, results of this analysis reveal that socioeconomic status influenced student achievement in the 2015 and 2018 PISA assessments. However, the achievement gap between categories widened between 2015 and 2018. Results reveal that home possessions, school location, parental education played a role in achievement. Furthermore, students who attended private schools outperformed students in public schools, a gap that widened considerably between assessments. Results of the current analysis reveal the importance of socioeconomic factors in achievement and, the need for policy builders to mitigate this impact.
Do teacher characteristics matter? Findings from the PISA performance of Kosovar students
PISA continues to fundamentally influence educational policies and approaches globally. The present paper aims to explore the link between teacher characteristics and PISA student performance in the 2015 and 2018 assessments. Teacher characteristics such as providing feedback, showing an interest in students, providing help and assistance in most lessons are linked to higher achievement of students across all domains and years, compared to cases when teachers rarely or never show interest, provide feedback and help. Additionally, the findings showed that Kosovar students performed worse in the PISA 2018 compared to PISA 2015. While there is a small increase in reading literacy and mathematics between 2018 and 2015, this increase is not significant. The performance in science has significantly decreased in 2018, compared to 2015. Furthermore, the performance gap between public and private schools has increased significantly, by almost 100 points, with private schools continuing to perform higher across all domains.
A Review of Kosovo's 2015 PISA Results: Analysing the Impact of Teacher Characteristics in Student Achievement
In light of existing research evidence student achievement is considered to be determined to a great extent by the characteristics of teachers. With this in mind, teacher characteristics have become an important variable not only in understanding PISA scores but also in drafting new education policies. By analysing PISA results and the data from additional inventories, this paper argues that the data on teacher characteristics is inconclusive and in contrast to what literature suggests; practices and techniques that enhance student achievement in other countries are the ones that result in decreased student performance in Kosovo. Importantly, PISA was the only beginning and its findings demand additional research in order to understand how teachers are practicing, what techniques they are using and what the level of their content knowledge is. Once a better understanding of trends and developments in education institutions is gained, government structures can consider a number of practices that have yielded results for other countries. In conclusion, in light of existing results, drafting new policies without conducting extensive research on teacher characteristics in Kosovo is likely to result in failure.
Exploring achievement goals tendencies in students: the link between achievement goals and types of motivation
This research explored the link between motivation types and achievement goals. More specifically the research focuses on exploring goal endorsements among learners as well as their correlation with motivation. The sample of 600 participants was gathered among students enrolled in private (N= 156) institutions and public universities (N=444). The study was a quantitative one and utilized the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ-R) as well as the Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation scales (Lepper, Corpus, &Iyengar, 2005). The results stipulate that achievement goals are closely linked to situation factors such as university and department. Supporting the premise of fluidity of goal constructs. Ultimately, mastery approach, performance approach and performance avoidance goals did not discriminate between types of motivation, with three goals being positivelycorrelated to both types of motivation. Mastery avoidance goals were not correlated to any of the motivation types (intrinsic or extrinsic), but they showed a tendency to be negatively correlated to extrinsic motivation, a correlation that was not significant. Present research reveals that there are significant differences among participants in goal adoption according to year of study. Specifically, as expected first year students were significantly more mastery oriented than participants attending the second and third year of studies. Gender differences were also evident, with female students reporting higher levels of mastery orientation compared to male students. Finally, the inconclusive results regarding motivation types and achievement goals need future studies to reestablish the stipulated link
A study of research skills of Kosovar students: An assessment of the influence of inclusion, exclusion, ethnicity, parental education and gender
The aim of the current study is to address a gap in literature as well as explore the factors influencing the perceptions that Kosovar students hold over their research skills. To that end, the study assessed students’ perceptions on their research abilities as well as the variables which influence these perceptions, namely inclusion, exclusion, ethnicity, gender and parental education. The study employed the quantitative research approach and 303 Kosovar university students participated in the study by answering an instrument composed of three different scales measuring the variables in the study, namely the research skills scale, inclusion scale and exclusion scale. In addition the participants answered ten demographic questions. Participation in the study was on a volunteer basis and the results were analyzed with the SPSS package. . Participants in this study reported the highest levels of research skills when they reported being included in academic settings. Ethnicity was a powerful influencing variable. Participants who belonged to minority groups were the ones to report the lowest levels of abilities. Contrary to existing literature, gender did not influence perceptions on abilities. Additionally, unlike in a vast number of research studies, parental education did not influence perceptions that Kosovar students held over their research skills. This study is the first one to research skill acquisition among student populations in Kosovo; a region that is almost absent in international literature. This research presents an overview of variables predicting perceptions held by Kosovar students on their research skills with ethnicity and inclusion being detrimental to perceptions of research skills.
Digital competencies among student populations in Kosovo: the impact of inclusion, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and type of residence
Present research studies the impact of variables such as inclusion, exclusion, residence, socioeconomic status, gender and parental education on digital competences among student populations in Kosovo (N = 303). The findings reveal that in accordance with international literature inclusion and exclusion in academic settings predict levels of digital competences reported by participants. To that end students who reported being included in academic settings also reported the highest levels of digital competences. Participants who reported feeling excluded were the ones to report the lowest levels of digital competences. Socioeconomic standing was also a powerful influential variable with participants reporting low digital competences when they reported financial hardship. Similarly, participants who reported a higher socioeconomic standing reported the highest levels of digital competences. Residence was also an influential variable with participants residing in urban areas reporting the highest levels of digital competences while participants living in rural areas reported the lowest levels of skills. Finally, along with providing data from a country that is not present in international research, present study is a first one to offer information on digital competences in Kosovo and as such is important for policy building in the future.
Kosovo’s Low Performance in PISA 2015: An Explanation From a Socioeconomic Perspective
This paper will analyze the performance of Kosovar students in PISA 2015 and explain the low performance from a socioeconomic standpoint. On its first participation in this assessment, Kosovo was ranked among the three lowest achieving countries. It is the argument of this paper that parental education and home possessions, both measures of socioeconomic status, determined the performance of students in Kosovo. There is compelling evidence that links student achievement and socioeconomic factors, a link that is well established in research. PISA is the first study to link student achievement in international assessments and socioeconomic factors in Kosovo and this paper is the first one research this link in the case of Kosovo. According to the PISA results, the higher the education levels of the primary caregiver, the higher the achievement of the student. In terms of home possessions, the higher the numbers of resources (Internet, computers etc.) the higher the student achievement in mathematics, reading and science. In light of this evidence, any policy that fails to account for the impact of familial socioeconomic status will not improve the education quality in Kosovo.
Leadership Development among Universities in Kosovo: Challenges and Alternatives
This article analyses the potential impact of leadership development initiatives on the quality of higher education institutions in Kosovo. Taking into account the fact that leadership is a crucial factor in improving management and performance of institutions, it is necessary to develop and integrate it into the higher education system. Current developments in the education have proven that leadership development in universities is no longer an option, it is instead a necessity. This development takes place at the beginning of teachers' carrier and aims to assist them in developing leadership skills they need to lead schools in the future. School leaders who are considered to be successful at leading tend to make sure that their staff have access to workplace learning and training with many schools providing sets of professional learning activities which ensure the development of leadership skills. This approach emphasises tasks related with student achievements, staff performance, curriculum development and data analysis. It has been defined that the development of leadership that rests on organisation theory is hindered by numerous current challenges at the universities in Kosovo. These challenges are: lack of networking and cooperation, lack of planning and, ultimately, the lack of management and leadership skills. While higher education institutions in Kosovo face many challenges, we assume that they could enhance academic quality and overall student achievements by increasing leadership capacities. In the context of transition of the university role, the demand for leadership development is a need for carrying out university reforms and achieving educational advancement. Thus, the development of leadership skills is more a necessity than an option for higher education institutions to prepare students appropriately for the new era. It has been substantiated that practices such as multisource feedback, action learning and coaching have proven to be useful and their application could increase leadership capacities of educational institutions that are built on organisational approaches and theories concerning enhancement of their quality
Examining the Role of Socioeconomic Status, Formal and Informal Education on Political Interest Levels among University Students
Present research examines political socialization trends among student populations in Kosovo (N = 303). The study examines the variables influencing and determining political interest trends in students, initially hypothesizing that variables such as formal education and socioeconomic status will shape political interest trends. As expected, formal education settings that endorse political discussions resulted in students reporting higher rates of political interest. Surprisingly, the present study found a gender effect on political interest with female students reporting lower rates of political interest compared to male students. Since this study is the first to address the topic of political interest among students in Kosovo, it does bridge the existing gap in research. To that end, the study also addressed a gap in international literature by examining the role of informal learning. Results indicate that role models are strong agents of socialization, more specifically parents and professors were strong predictors of political interest levels in participants.
Exploring the Link between Achievement Goals, Motivation, and Parental Expectations among University Students in Kosovo
This paper sheds light on the link between achievement goals, motivation, and parental expectations in a sample of 600 students attending higher education institutions in Kosovo. Aside from exploring the stipulated link between the constructs, the research aims to discover whether cultural differences mediate expected results. The results proved that the mastery of goals positively correlates to intrinsic motivation in addition to which curiosity as a subscale of intrinsic motivation positively predicted preferences for the mastery of goals. As expected, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals, correlated to extrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation, successfully predict preferences for both types of performance goals. The data proved that among students in Kosovo, all types of goals correlated to intrinsic motivation. Achievement goals were differentiated in extrinsic motivation with mastery goals correlating rather weakly to only one subscale of extrinsic motivation.