Staying on track: behavioral engagement of at-risk and non-at-risk students in post-secondary vocational education

Behavioral disengagement from school is a proximal predictor of dropout. Therefore, the enhancement of behavioral engagement is a useful point of entry for dropout prevention. In this study, we examine the behavioral engagement of at-risk and non-at-risk students in Dutch senior vocational education (SVE), a sector confronted with high dropout rates. Using multilevel regression analyses, we assess the role of students’ background characteristics and perceived fit with the school environment in their behavioral engagement. Findings indicate that students in highly urbanized areas are significantly less engaged in school. The perceived proportion of autonomous work is most prominently correlated to students’ behavioral engagement. Whereas in general SVE students are more engaged if their program requires little autonomous work from students, engineering students appear to favor autonomous work forms.     

Learning in Workplace Simulations in Vocational Education: a Student Perspective

In vocational education, workplace simulations (WPS) have been implemented to ensure a better connection between the educational setting and the labour market. Moreover, WPS are supposed to motivate students and promote self-directed learning. So far, however, not much is known about the way students experience these WPS. The aim of the present exploratory case study was to investigate students’ perceptions and preparedness for WPS and explore what factors they perceive to be relevant for their learning in these simulations. Forty students from three different pre-vocational secondary schools participated. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was used to examine the qualitative data. The results revealed that authentic WPS can increase student motivation and engagement. Learner characteristics regarded as relevant in WPS were motivation, responsibility, independence and discipline. For students, the presence and guidance of the teacher played an essential role in their working and learning effectively. They felt limited in making choices to direct their own learning. Assessment criteria were not transparent enough for students. Concluding, we found that students perceived factors closely related to self-regulated and self-directed learning to be relevant for their learning; however, these learning activities and processes have not yet been sufficiently promoted and supported in the investigated vocational schools. The study highlights design dilemmas for vocational practice and offers indications in how to match both learning environmental characteristics and teacher support tailored to learners’ needs.     

A conceptual framework for analysing the impact of influences on student engagement and learning

The notion that ‘customer satisfaction’ should be the ultimate measure of quality provision of any service organization is often accepted in the higher education context. However, measuring the quality of an educational institution based on students’ satisfaction is insufficient as it diverts the focus from student development, advancement and growth to an affective evaluation of the service. More appropriate measures of quality of higher education institutions are student engagement and learning. This study describes the likely impact of perceived overall quality of higher education institutions on student engagement. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, it draws attention to the importance of higher education institution quality as the main institutional-level determinant of student engagement and, second, it suggests a comprehensive multilevel conceptual framework for its empirical testing.     

Making the connection: The role of social and academic school experiences in students' emotional engagement with school in post-secondary vocational education

This study examines the emotional engagement with school of a diverse sample of 909 students in post-secondary vocational education in the Netherlands. Using multilevel regression analysis, we assess the role of students' background characteristics and school experiences, and their interaction, in students' emotional engagement with school. At-risk students do not report lower levels of emotional engagement, except for students using (soft)drugs. While Dutch dropout prevention focuses on fostering a sense of belonging through enhancing teacher–student relationships, we do not find a significant role of perceived support from school staff in students' sense of belonging. A good relationship with classmates is more important to engage students in post-secondary vocational education. Perceiving an academic fit is most prominently related to the emotional engagement of vocational students, indicating that a sense of belonging should not only be defined in social, but also in academic terms.     

Examining Educational Climate Change Technology: How Group Inquiry Work with Realistic Scientific Technology Alters Classroom Learning

This study with 79 students in Montreal, Quebec, compared the educational use of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) global climate model (GCM) to climate education technologies developed for classroom use that included simpler interfaces and processes. The goal was to show how differing climate education technologies succeed and fail at getting students to evolve in their understanding of anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC). Many available climate education technologies aim to convey key AGCC concepts or Earth systems processes; the educational GCM used here aims to teach students the methods and processes of global climate modeling. We hypothesized that challenges to learning about AGCC make authentic technology-enabled inquiry important in developing accurate understandings of not just the issue but how scientists research it. The goal was to determine if student learning trajectories differed between the comparison and treatment groups based on whether each climate education technology allowed authentic scientific research. We trace learning trajectories using pre/post exams, practice quizzes, and written student reflections. To examine the reasons for differing learning trajectories, we discuss student pre/post questionnaires, student exit interviews, and 535 min of recorded classroom video. Students who worked with a GCM demonstrated learning trajectories with larger gains, higher levels of engagement, and a better idea of how climate scientists conduct research. Students who worked with simpler climate education technologies scored lower in the course because of lower levels of engagement with inquiry processes that were perceived to not actually resemble the work of climate scientists.     

Student voice: Which supportive parental behaviours first-generation immigrant students in Australia find beneficial

There is considerable evidence that parents/guardians play an important role in their children's education. The supportive behaviours of parents have important implications for children's learning. However, most research in this area has focused primarily on the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and parents. One area that thus remains relatively under-studied is student perspectives on what constitutes beneficial parental supports. This research explores two case studies: one with primary school students, the other with secondary students. Both studies interviewed students from former-refugee and non-English speaking backgrounds who had recently settled with their families in Australia. The students were asked to reflect on supportive behaviours of their parents/guardians relating to their education. Findings suggest that despite many barriers, parents demonstrated high levels of support for their children's education. By foregrounding student voice, this study identifies several types of parental behaviours that students find most helpful for effective learning. These include: affirmation, role-modelling, backup supports, conversations and discussions, encouragement and advice, and decision-making and problem-solving. Students’ responses suggest that slightly different sets of behaviours may be required at primary and secondary levels. This study highlights the types of supportive parental behaviours which schools could encourage, to help parents maximise the impacts of their supports for students, so these students are enabled to achieve effective learning and—more broadly—educational and career aspirations.     

Learning with and from: positioning school students as advisors in pre-service teacher education

This article reports on an innovative pedagogical approach within the Learning Partnerships program in which school students help to ‘teach the teachers’ within pre-service teacher education. Classes of school students join with classes of pre-service teachers to provide input on how teachers can enhance school students’ engagement and wellbeing. The article draws on data collected from 125 students (aged 13–16) and 120 pre-service teachers in these workshops. Findings generated from a mixed methods study combining pre-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 38, Teachers: 33) and post-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 69, Teachers: 15) and post-workshop surveys (n = Students: 96; Teachers: 101) demonstrated that the workshops were mutually beneficial for both students and pre-service teachers. Participants found that workshopping together enhanced their belief in the possibility of positive student–teacher relationships. The pre-service teachers reported greater confidence in communicating with young people about the issues that affect student engagement and wellbeing. The school students reported that they were more willing to use teachers as a source of help. Implications include the need for increased attention to a ‘third space’ for learning in teacher development which provides opportunity for learning with and from young people about how to foster their engagement and wellbeing.     

Students’ Learning Performance and Transitions in Different Learning Pathways to Higher Vocational Education

To improve students’ transitions between successive educational levels, continuing learning pathways are being designed and implemented in many countries. This study was carried out to examine the effects of the Green Lycea (GL) as critical cases of continuing learning pathways in vocational education in The Netherlands. The GL were compared with a traditional pathway (pre-vocational secondary education and secondary vocational education offered as separate programmes) in terms of students’ learning performance and transitions. GL students and comparable students following the regular pathway yielded the same mean final exam scores for four core subjects in the first phase of their educational programmes, despite the fact that GL students took this exam one year earlier than regular students because of the acceleration of the learning trajectory in the GL programme. Regarding the students’ transitions, the GL and the traditional pathway yielded comparable percentages of students who either did or did not obtain a pre-vocational secondary education diploma; For the GL, however, the percentage of students who proceeded in secondary vocational education was higher. To conclude, it seems to be possible to improve students’ transitions between successive educational levels (with their learning performance being an important precondition) through continuing learning pathways such as the GL. In this regard, GL design characteristics as described and examined in this study can be valuable ingredients for continuing learning pathways internationally as well.     

Being (Dis)Engaged in Educationally Purposeful Activities: The Influences of Student and Institutional Characteristics

The self-reported experiences of 50,883 undergraduates at 123 institutions were analyzed using a multinomial hierarchical model to identify individual and institutional characteristics associated with varying levels of student engagement in educationally purposeful activities. Parental education and student academic preparation were positively associated with higher levels of engagement. White students were generally less engaged than students from other racial and ethnic groups whereas men were more likely to be either disengaged or highly engaged compared with women. Students at public institutions and research universities were less engaged than their counterparts at private colleges and other institutional types. Individual student perceptions of certain aspects of the institutional environment affected engagement in complicated ways.     

Teachers and students' divergent perceptions of student engagement: recognition of school or workplace goals

In extant research, the concept of student engagement refers to individual behavioural patterns and traits. Recent research indicates that engagement not only should be related to the individual but also should be anchored in the social context. This ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training school responds to the need for more knowledge on this theme by exploring the social dynamics of engagement perceptions. Results show that teachers and students held diverging perceptions of student engagement that rested on educational goals as well as goals related to the perceived future work settings. The misrecognition of the students' perception of engagement had direct negative consequences for student performance and school attachment. The implications of the findings are discussed in detail.     

The development of student teachers’ professional identity

This study focuses on student teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity. The respondents are students enrolled in a three‐year course in secondary education teaching at bachelor level. Questionnaires were filled out by first‐year, second‐year and third‐year students from two colleges. The questionnaire included four scales: commitment to teaching, professional orientation, task orientation and self‐efficacy. In the first five months of the first‐year course, a shift in students’ task orientation was observed: students developed a more pupil‐centred view on teaching. Practical experience with classroom teaching again caused a shift: students focused less on the subject matter, on maintaining order in the classroom, on the long‐term educational qualification targets and self‐efficacy decreased. Students with work placement experience developed a more ‘realistic’ view of learning and teaching compared to students without this experience. A final important difference in professional identity is based on students’ gender: while male students tend to attach more importance to discipline in the classroom, their female counterparts focus more on student involvement.     

Engagement,conduct of life and dropouts in the Danish vocational education and training (VET) system

This study provides support for the idea that school engagement is a central concept when trying to understand the dropout process. One of the strengths of this concept is that it involves understanding dropping out as a process, rather than as an event. However, the concept of school engagement also presents a number of problems. It tends to be functionalistic in nature: Processes of students’ school engagement and disengagement are partly the consequences of institutional initiatives – for example, how teachers act or how the school environment is organised. Furthermore, mainstream dropout researchers formulate the concept of engagement both simplistically and mechanistically by seeing engagement as something that the students possess to varying degrees. Inspired by critical psychology, this study includes a different concept of student engagement: We must take the students’ life conduct as the point of departure when approaching their school engagement and decision to drop out. The theoretical claims in the paper are substantiated by empirical results from 160 interviews with vocational educational and training (VET) students in the Danish VET system, and this paper will show how school engagement is closely related to the events in the other contextual settings of students’ lives.     

The Mediating Effects of Student Engagement on the Relationships Between Academic Disciplines and Learning Outcomes: An Extension of Holland’s Theory

This research examined the relationships among students?? academic majors, levels of engagement, and learning outcomes within the context of Holland??s person?Cenvironment theory of vocational and educational behavior. The study focused on the role of student engagement as a mediating agent in the relationships between academic majors and student learning. Drawing on data from a stratified random sample of 20,000 seniors who participated in the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement, results revealed that students?? academic majors were significantly related to levels of engagement and learning outcomes. Student engagement was also significantly related to learning outcomes. Students?? academic majors generally were not indirectly related to learning outcomes through levels of engagement. An important exception to this result was found for students in Enterprising environments where indirect relationships among Enterprising disciplines and Enterprising learning outcomes were positive, statistically significant, and substantially larger than the direct relationship.     

农村中职学校语文学困生情感特征及转化策略

中职学生语文学习困难是较普遍的现象,它阻碍了学生健康和全面发展,困扰中职教育,影响教学效果。该文作者总结了中职语文教学经验,在语文教学理论和教育心理学理论的指导下,选取80名中职语文学困生作为样本,把他们与20名语文学优生进行比较分析,归纳总结农村中职语文学困生的情感特征,提出了培养学生情感和教育转化的策略。     

Homework assignments to enhance student engagement in secondary education

Secondary school teachers often complain that their students show a disengaged attitude in class. Students do not prepare for lessons, they show a passive attitude towards classroom activities and they have a limited awareness of their own learning process. Based on a pilot study, four homework assignments were designed, implemented, and evaluated to stimulate students to prepare for history lessons and subsequently show a more engaged attitude and involvement in classroom activities. Two groups of, in total 50, 11th grade students of pre-university education participated in one group pre- post-test design. Data on student engagement in class is gathered by class observation: time on task, their level of activity, and amount and variety of questions students asked. Students’ motivation and perceived learning outcomes are measured by means of a self-report: Three of the four homework assignments (jigsaw, preparing analytical skills, and the fragmented assessment) showed increase in student engagement compared to the baseline of the first two classes. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Evaluation of a pedagogical model for student engagement in learning activities

Current research suggests that student engagement with academic schoolwork in secondary school classrooms is often insufficient. This issue is of relevance because student engagement is a prerequisite for acquiring knowledge and skills and is also a mediator of achievement and important life outcomes. In response to this, the present study evaluates a pedagogical model for stimulating student engagement in learning activities in secondary school contexts through an action research approach. This model is composed of five facilitators of engagement that, when considered in both the design and implementation of learning activities, can potentially contribute to stimulating behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in such activities. Nineteen Year 9 students of Spanish from a state school in England, their teacher and the researcher participated in two long-term, learning activities designed using the proposed pedagogical model. Data were collected over two school terms through qualitative student self-reports, interviews with students and their teacher and the researcher’s journal. Thematic analyses were used to examine the effects of the learning activities on student behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. The results seem to confirm that the application of the proposed pedagogical model could help promote thorough student engagement in learning activities. Findings also suggest that failing to support the model’s facilitators of engagement may have detrimental effects on overall student engagement in learning activities. The study contributes to the improvement of student engagement with academic schoolwork internationally by proposing an assessed pedagogical solution that could be implemented by secondary school teachers with relative ease.     

Factors affecting student engagement in HEIs - it is all about good teaching

The passive role of students in their learning and education and the absence of student engagement in higher education institutions (HEIs) are quite common in many higher education institutions in developing countries. The main objective of the research presented in this paper is to explore the influential factors on student engagement in HEIs in the situational frame where student engagement and active learning and teaching do not have a long tradition. To answer our research questions, we conducted a survey with 279 undergraduate students from four universities in Libya. Our findings show that the availability and active usage of the university’s ICTs resources, the university’s reputation and teachers’ activating influence on students most efficiently predict student engagement in HEIs. The role of teachers and their competencies to use active learning techniques are perceived to be very influential in promoting student engagement.     

Which students need accommodations the most,and to what extent are their needs met by regular upper secondary school? A cross-sectional study among students with special educational needs

The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to identify factors associated with a high level of accommodation needs in school activities among students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular upper secondary education; and (2) to investigate the extent to which schools have met students’ perceived accommodation needs. Accommodation needs and their provision in school activities were assessed with the School Setting Interview for 484 students with SEN. Students’ mean age was 17.3 years and 50% did not have a diagnosis. A logistic regression analysis revealed that a high level of school absence, studying a vocational programme, and a neuropsychiatric disorder were associated with a high level of accommodation needs. In the majority of school activities, about 50% of students had not received any accommodation despite an experienced need for support. About 30% of students perceived a need for support even though they had been provided with accommodations, and around 25% stated they were satisfied with received accommodations. Regular upper secondary school students with SEN are insufficiently provided with accommodations to satisfactorily participate in education. Specific student characteristics, e.g. high level of school absence, should receive special attention when investigating and accommodating students’ needs for support in school activities.     

Independent learning – what we do when you’re not there

Independent learning is one of the cornerstones of UK higher education yet it is poorly understood by students and is seen by politicians as a poor substitute for face to face teaching. This paper explores students’ understandings, approaches and experiences of independent learning and how they may become more effective independent learners. This large scale qualitative study, funded by the HEA, included students-as-researchers, independent learning diaries, and student-led interviews. Findings suggest that students initially use low level reinforcing and organising skills and in later stages of their courses develop higher level extending and applying skills. Clearer guidance, clearer tasks and in-course support are amongst the students’ recommendations for enhancing independent learning. However the most powerful influence on their independent learning was the support, collaboration and advice of other (more experienced) students in non-assessed scenarios. These findings have implications for staff involved in induction, student support, curriculum design and for staff and officers in Students’ Unions.