In this study we modelled possible causes and consequences of student burnout and engagement on academic efficacy and dropout intention in university students. Further we asked, can student engagement protect against the effects of burnout? In total 4,061 university students from Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Finland, Serbia, and Macao SAR, Taiwan participated in this study. With the data collected we analyzed the influence of Social Support, Coping Strategies, and school/course related variables on student engagement and burnout using structural equation modeling. We also analyzed the effect of student engagement, student burnout, and their interaction, on Academic Performance and Dropout Intention. We found that both student engagement and burnout are good predictors of subjective academic performance and dropout intention. However, student burnout suppresses the effect of student engagement on these variables. This result has strong implications for practitioners and administrators. To prevent student dropout, it is not enough to promote student engagement—additionally, and importantly, levels of student burnout must be kept low. Other variables such as social support and coping strategies are also relevant predictors of student engagement and burnout and should be considered when implementing preventive actions, self-help and guided intervention programs for college students.

Academic engagement describes students' involvement in academic learning and achievement. This paper reports the psychometric properties of the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) with a sample of 3992 university students from nine different countries and regions from Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. The USEI operationalizes a trifactorial conceptualization of academic engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive). Construct validity was assessed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients. Weak measurement invariance was observed for country/region, while strong measurement invariance was observed for gender and area of graduation. The USEI scores showed predictive validity for dropout intention, self-rated academic performance, and course approval rate while divergent validity with student burnout scores was also evident. Overall, the results indicate that the USEI can produce reliable and valid data on academic engagement of university students across the world.

In Finland, the national Core Curriculum for Basic Education defines the learning objectives along with the numerical grade to be given for good competence in each school subject in the final phase of basic education. While serving as a guideline for schools and teachers, it should also ensure an objective evaluation of all students in Finland. In this paper, we take a closer look at the equality of student assessment in Finland in the light of student performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009. This study investigates the relationship between the grades given to students in mother tongue and literature at different schools and the same students' reading literacy performance in PISA 2009. The results are presented as a map produced using a method called kriging (McCoy and Johnston 2001). Kriging is a geostatistical interpolation method based on the statistical relationship among measured points' spatial autocorrelation. In this case, the method produces contour maps illustrating areal differences for educational variables. The contour maps and related analysis indicate that teachers tend to adjust their grading practices to the general competence level of their class or school rather than strictly following the national curriculum guideline for student assessment. This may lead to local variations in terms of students' school grades as indices of learning achievement and becomes evident when contrasted with an external, nationwide reference point, such as their reading literacy performance in PISA 2009.

Early childhood education and care is a current interest in many countries. Many international studies have highlighted the importance of high-quality early education environments where learning and play are integrated. Studies show that these types of learning environments have a positive impact on children’s future prospects and overall development. Critical curriculum steering documents from Finland and Brazil form the basis of this study and can similarly be shown to define the quality of these environments, as well as providing definitions of playful learning in these differing cultural contexts. A content analysis explores patterns of the cultural and pedagogical difference of definition. This descriptive comparison permitted similarities and differences between the countries with regard to play to emerge. In this article, the authors explore what these different cultural and pedagogical definitions of play and playful learning are and what they might mean. The article thus makes a methodological contribution to a broader discussion of comparative studies of national curricula in early childhood education with specific regard to children’s engagement, learning and development in and through play. The theoretical conclusions are, however, more tentative, but the authors suggest some innovative ways to conceptualise cultural and pedagogical differences in play by making an analogy with Wittgenstein’s analysis of games in his Philosophical Investigations.

Learning should not be hindered or restricted in any way even if a child comes from a poor family, has an immigrant background, is raised by a single parent or has limited resources at home. This is something that most of today's successful educational systems have understood, and the different systems have found various ways to allocate resources so as to level the playing field (OECD 2016). In this paper we take a closer look at the family related background factors, parental perception of student's early skills and their connection to student's later educational outcome. Important factors affecting children's educational outcomes across the world include family's socioeconomic and cultural status (Authors 2014; Yamamoto and Holloway 2010) and how parents are involved in their child's education (Christenson 2004; Fantuzzo et al. 2000), but also what type of expectations the families have towards their child (Siraj-Blatchford 2010). Further, parents provide their child with a broad mathematical and early literacy input. What type of an input this is, is of importance, since early years mathematical knowledge is clearly Abstract Family-related factors, like parent's educational level, their values and expectations have a significant impact on child's early skills and later educational outcomes. Further, parents provide their child, alongside with other learning environments, a broad mathematical and early literacy input. This study investigates the relationship between family-related socioeconomic and other factors like, parental education, amount of books at home, parental attitudes towards mathematics and science, parental perception of child's early skills and student's later academic achievement. This is studied in the light of the Finnish data collected for Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015. The results are presented with the help of a geospatial method called Kriging that reveals regional variance. The results indicate that familyrelated background variables have different effects on child's later achievement in mathematics across Finland. The results suggest, that some areas in Finland are better in 'levelling the playing field' for children and minimising the effect of family related variables on educational outcomes than others.