Gendered pathways to educational aspirations: The role of academic self-concept,school burnout,achievement and interest in mathematics and reading

The aim of this study was to examine lower secondary school students' (N = 1152) pathways to educational aspirations. The study used multi-group structural equation modelling to investigate the predictions of academic self-concept, school burnout, achievement, and interest in mathematics and reading, in relation to educational aspirations for boys and girls. While certain factors were influential for students' academic aspirations irrespective of gender, some interesting differences also emerged. Academic self-concept and interest in reading predicted educational aspirations for both groups. However, gendered pathways emerged in how achievement and interest in mathematics predicted educational aspirations. Interest in mathematics predicted girls’ educational aspirations, whereas mathematics achievement was a significant predictor for boys. School burnout had negative indirect effects through interest in reading and mathematics in both groups, but for girls, there was also a direct positive effect on educational aspirations.     

Relations between academic performance,student engagement and student burnout: A cross-lagged analysis of a two-wave study

Academic performance and student well-being are two desired outcomes of any learning and instruction process. The purpose of the present study was to test the temporal order of the relationships between academic performance and two forms of student well-being (i.e., student engagement and burnout) in a specific context. 142 psychology undergraduate students completed self-reported measures of student engagement and student burnout in two waves, during a semester. Also, we included their grades from two intermediate evaluations. Path analysis models suggested that academic grades could be considered antecedents of student engagement and student burnout, while the well-being measures cannot be considered antecedents of the academic performance. These findings provide additional knowledge regarding the relationships between academic well-being and academic performance.     

Attributional profiles: Considering multiple causal attributions for success and failure at the beginning of secondary school

Students typically perceive their successes and failures to have multiple causes. The present study examined students’ profiles of causal attributions for success and failure during the first year of secondary school. The stability of attributional profile membership was assessed across three timepoints. Furthermore, it was examined whether students characterized by different attribution profiles differed in their levels of school engagement, self-esteem, and school performance. Latent profile analyses and latent transition analyses among 657 first-year Dutch secondary school students (M_age = 12.6, SD = 0.4) identified four attributional profiles, which were similar across the three timepoints. The profiles were labelled uncontrollable failure, controllable failure, uncontrollable success, and undifferentiated. About half of the students (52 %) remained member of the same profile across the three timepoints. Students in the uncontrollable success profile reported significantly lower levels of school engagement and self-esteem, and performed less well in school compared to students in the other profiles. Students in the uncontrollable failure profile and the controllable failure profile did not differ from each other with regard to school engagement, self-esteem, and school performance. The findings suggest that attributional retraining interventions may want to shift their focus from changing uncontrollable failure attributions to changing students’ external, uncontrollable attributions for success.     

Stability of social support during school transitions: Associations with truancy and not completing upper secondary education in normative time

Not completing upper secondary education is often presignaled by truancy from school. Student-perceived social support from family, peers, and teachers can prevent truancy and the risk of not completing education. However, prior studies have not focused on the stability of social support across school transitions. This longitudinal study of 1901 Finnish students examined the extent to which social support was stable or specific to primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools. Moreover, we examined whether support was associated with not completing upper secondary education in normative time and whether truancy mediated the relationship between support and not completing education. The analyses showed that most variance in social support was context-specific; family and peer support was related to truancy and not completing education; and truancy acted as the mediator. The findings underscored the importance of stable social support over school transitions in reducing the likelihood of truancy and not completing education.     

Longitudinal inter-relations between school cultural socialization and school engagement: The mediating role of school climate

The question of whether schools should promote cultural pride and engage students in ethnic traditions is hotly contested. To contribute to this debate, this longitudinal study examined whether school cultural socialization predicted adolescents' engagement in school over time and whether this relation was mediated by school climate. Data were collected in four waves during a two-year period from 254 African American fifth-graders (53.9% males; M_age = 10.95 at Wave 1) enrolled in three public middle schools. Results revealed that African American youth who reported more school cultural socialization also had greater school engagement over time. This longitudinal relation was fully mediated by youth's perceptions of school climate. Implications for how to promote African American youth's perceptions of schools as culturally sensitive and supportive environments are discussed.     

Student school elections and political engagement: A cradle of democracy?

Studies have found that prior involvement in student politics while in school seems to be a good predictor of adult political engagement. While most studies of adults have obtained retrospective data on participation in school elections, there have been few studies of students about this activity. We contribute to this latter relatively unexplored area by reporting the results from a national survey of Australian secondary school students about the relationship between participation in school elections and future intended political engagement activities. We found that voting in school elections is positively related to feeling prepared to vote as an adult, to being committed to vote when 18, to political knowledge, and to engagement in forms of peaceful activism. Running for student government office is related to political knowledge and participation in peaceful activism. These results reinforce the findings of adult retrospective studies, and show that participation in school elections serves as a beneficial experience in the preparation of students for life as an active adult citizen. The implications of these findings for the structure and conduct of student elections in schools are discussed.     

The development of school well-being in secondary school: High academic buoyancy and supportive class- and school climate as buffers

Students experience increasing pressure to perform well and worry about their academic performance before critical school transitions. These challenges may compromise students' school well-being. Drawing on the Model of Personality and Affect for Education (Matthews et al., 2005) as well as on the Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989), we investigated the buffering role of high academic buoyancy and supportive class- and school climate against decreases in school well-being (i.e., school-related stress, anti-school attitude, and satisfaction with school) among Finnish lower secondary school students (N = 1024) from grades seven to nine. Controlling for gender, fluid intelligence, and parental education, the results of latent structural equation models indicate that academic buoyancy contributed to school satisfaction, while class- and school climate buffered against the increase of anti-school attitude. The study underlines the importance of both personal and contextual factors, contributing differently to students’ school well-being.     

The effect of class composition by gender and ability on secondary school students’ school well-being and academic self-concept: A literature review

In the field of educational effectiveness research, the influence of a class’ student body on students’ individual achievement scores has been a popular research interest for many years. Yet, few studies have focussed on the effects of class composition on students’ non-achievement outcomes, and up to now, hardly any attempts have been made to summarize the findings of previous studies on this topic by conducting a literature review. The current study tries to fill in this gap and focuses on the effects of class composition in secondary education in terms of ability and gender on students’ school well-being and academic self-concept. The results of this literature review indicate that ability grouping is beneficial for strong students’ school well-being, but rather detrimental for the school well-being of weak students. The reverse holds for students’ academic self-concept. Furthermore, our results show that single-sex classes are advantageous for girls’ school well-being and academic self-concept. As for boys, the results are inconclusive.     

Developmental trajectories of children's educational expectations in China: Contributions of academic achievement and maternal expectations

This longitudinal study examined the overall and heterogeneous developmental trajectories of children's educational expectations and the effects of children’'s previous academic achievements and maternal educational expectations on these trajectories. The educational expectations of 3868 Chinese children (1839 girls; M_age = 9.42 ± 0.52) were investigated six times from the 4th to 6th grades. Children's previous academic achievement and maternal educational expectations were also collected during the first wave. The results showed that Chinese children's educational expectations generally increased in middle childhood and could be categorized into four classes: high stable-increasing, low stable-increasing, low quickly-increasing, and high quickly-decreasing. Furthermore, maternal educational expectations have the greatest influence on the initial level of children's educational expectations, whereas previous academic achievement has the greatest impact on the increasing rate of children's expectations. In addition, both factors contribute to classifying children into a high-stable increasing class in comparison to the other three classes. The findings indicate that Chinese children increase their educational expectations in middle childhood and continually adapt their expectations mainly based on their previous achievements. These findings could advance our understanding of the development of children’s educational expectations in the middle childhood period and provide educational practitioners with prospective factors to increase children’s educational expectations.     

School context,achievement motivation,and academic engagement: A longitudinal study of school engagement using a multidimensional perspective

This longitudinal study adopts a multidimensional perspective to examine the relationships between middle school students' perceptions of the school environment (structure support, provision of choice, teaching for relevance, teacher and peer emotional support), achievement motivation (academic self-concept and subjective task value), and school engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement). Participants were from an ethnically diverse, urban sample of 1157 adolescents. The findings indicated that student perceptions of distinct aspects of the school environment contributed differentially to the three types of school engagement. In addition, these associations were fully or partially mediated by achievement motivation. Specifically, student perceptions of the school environment influenced their achievement motivation and in turn influenced all three types of school engagement, although in different ways. Moderation effects of gender, ethnicity, and academic ability were also discussed.     

Perceived school climate and school grades in secondary school students: The mediating effect of self-determined motivation

Students’ perception of school climate plays an important role in the quality of their academic experience. However, the effects of perceived school climate on self-determined academic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2020) have received little empirical attention to this day. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the role of school climate in predicting changes in self-determined academic motivation and grades in a longitudinal study with secondary school students. Participants are 957 Belgian students (girls = 52.87 %; M_age = 14.41 years, SD_age = 1.66 years) who took part in a three-wave, year-long study. Results from structural equation modeling showed that students’ positive perceptions of school climate at the beginning of the study (Time 1) were positively related to changes in self-determined academic motivation at the mid-point (Time 2), which in turn were positively associated with changes in grades by the end of the study (Time 3), over and above the effects of gender and age. These results have implications for educational psychology by suggesting that organizational aspects of the school setting can positively influence students’ academic grades through increases in the quality of their motivation over time.     

Observed lesson structure during the first year of secondary education: Exploration of change and link with academic engagement

This study investigates whether lesson structure (LS) matters and which components are important for academic engagement during the first grade of secondary education. Data from videoed lessons of 10 Dutch and 12 Indonesian teachers analyzed using an observation protocol show that six LS components are found, that between class and over measurement variability in LS is evident, and that on average LS change is not a linear function of time. Class differences over time do exist and several personal and contextual characteristics affect LS. Links between LS (student work time, reviewing and introducing new content) and academic engagement are evident.     

Democratization of secondary education in Malaysia: Emerging problems and challenges of educational reform

The democratization of education in Malaysia has come a long way since the early 1960s. In the early 1990s, the government decided to democratize secondary education in order to widen formal access to secondary education, especially at the upper secondary level. It is the contention of this paper that the widening of formal access to education may not lead to real access to education if effective measures are not put in place. It is also the contention of this paper that the democratization of education that leads to the massification of education or mass education should not be at the expense of educational quality and excellence if it wants to have a more significant impact on the actual outcomes of schooling. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part provides the background information on educational expansion that stems from the democratization of secondary education such as enrolment rates, number of schools and teachers as well as organizational adjustments. The second part examines the problems and challenges of the democratization of secondary education in relation to issues such as diverse needs of students, disciplinary problems, school dropouts, urban and rural disparity, preferential policy and educational quality and excellence. All these issues have an impact on the desirable outcomes of the democratization of secondary education as far as real access to education as well as equality and quality of education are concerned.     

The duration of compulsory education and the transition to secondary education: Panel data evidence from low-income countries

A straightforward way of keeping children in school is increasing the duration of compulsory education. Evidence of the impact of this type of policy in Western countries is abundant. However, its effectiveness has been rarely tested in low-income countries. Using panel data of low-income and lower-middle-income countries covering the period 1996–2017, this paper analyzes the impact of lengthening the duration of compulsory education on the progression of children from primary to secondary education. The empirical results show that in those countries where this policy is implemented, there is a significant increase in the share of children progressing from primary to secondary education but only in those countries where after the reform the duration of compulsory education becomes longer than the duration of primary education.     

Gender-specific trajectories of academic achievement in Chinese elementary school students: Relations with life satisfaction trajectories and suicidal ideation trajectories

This study explored heterogeneous developmental trajectories of academic achievement and their relations to trajectories of life satisfaction and trajectories of suicidal ideation among Chinese elementary school students. A sample of 547 students (55.0% boys; M_age = 9.00 years, SD = 0.76 at Time 1) completed a packet of measures on five occasions across two years, using 6-month intervals. Three distinct trajectories of academic achievement were identified: “high-stable” (86.28%), “low-increasing” (8.94%), and “low-decreasing” (4.78%). Girls demonstrated higher academic achievement than boys. Students displaying adverse developmental trends in academic achievement were more likely to show adverse trends in life satisfaction. Finally, trajectories of academic achievement and trajectories of suicidal ideation were related for girls, but not boys. Programs promoting academic achievement may require adaptations for the differing genders and start as early as elementary school.     

Co-developmental trajectories of psychological need satisfactions at school: Relations to mental health and academic functioning in Chinese elementary school students

This study explored the co-developmental trajectories of autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfactions at school and their relations to mental health and academic functioning in Chinese elementary school students. An accelerated longitudinal design was used with a sample of three cohorts (grade 3, grade 4, and grade 5) (N = 1070, 45.8% female; M_age = 9.44, SD = 0.97) on four occasions at 6-month intervals. Parallel process latent class growth models revealed five heterogeneous patterns (i.e., Congruent-moderate; Congruent-high; Congruent-low; Congruent-decreasing; Low-autonomy, High-competence and relatedness), all of which significantly associated with time-varying mental health and academic functioning indicators. The findings highlight the importance of subgroup differences and possible cultural considerations in understanding the progression of psychological need satisfactions and the need for universal screening and dynamic monitoring of students’ psychological need satisfactions at school and implementing more sophisticated interventions tailored to the unique characteristics of the relevant subgroups to promote optimal mental health and learning.     

Reassessing school effectiveness: Multi-objective value-added measures (MOVAM) of academic and socioemotional learning

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), it is imperative that American public schools assess and improve not only academic but also non-academic measures of student learning such as socioemotional skills. The policy shift towards broad-based school accountability calls for reassessing school effectiveness from whole child development perspectives and addressing potential biases and limitations of conventional value-added measures (VAM). Through multivariate multilevel analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kintergarten (ECLS-K): 2011 data, this study applies multi-objective value-added measures (MOVAM) approach to assess and improve school effectiveness for academic and socioemotional learning. The study results show different patterns of academic vs. socioemotional learning gains, and also weak correlations between school effects on the two types of learning outcomes. Nevertheless, the comparisons of academically and socioemotionally effective vs. ineffective schools imply that schools can and should improve both academic and socioemotional learning outcomes through synergistic improvement of key organizational and instructional conditions.     

Developmental relationships and school success: How teachers,parents, and friends affect educational outcomes and what actions students say matter most

The current paper explores how students’ relationships with their teachers, parents, and friends might differentially impact their academic experience and success, by presenting and integrating the results of two related studies. In the first study, survey methods and structural equation modeling are used to describe the similar and different effects that developmental relationships with teachers, parents, and friends seem to have on middle- and high-school students’ academic motivation, GPA, and perceptions of school climate. Relationships with teachers directly predicted all three outcomes at the middle school level, and motivation and school climate at the high school level. Relationships indirectly predicted high school GPA, through motivation. Student-teacher relationships, and parent-teacher relationships, also indirectly predicted middle school GPA, through motivation. Relationships with parents directly predicted only motivation in middle school. Relationships with friends directly predicted school climate at both levels. The results from Study 1 showed the central importance of teacher-student relationships on student motivation and led the research team to qualitatively look in study #2 at how teachers build relationships that motivate students and how students experience those relationships. Study 2 used student focus groups and a grounded theory, open coding approach to analysis to identify commonly occurring themes describing what practices teachers used successfully, in students’ eyes, to build strong relationships with students and boost their academic motivation. These practices focused on how teachers expressed care, provided support, challenged students to grow, shared power with them, and expanded their sense of possibilities. The mixed methods produce an overall study that uniquely captures both a global and more granular, practice-oriented view of the ways in which differing developmental relationships in young people’s lives affect their connection to and success in school.     

Parent involvement and academic outcomes among urban adolescents: examining the role of school engagement

The present study examined the extent to which parent involvement in education was directly and indirectly (via school engagement) related to academic outcomes in an effort to more fully understand the school experiences of urban adolescents. Participants (80% racial/ethnic minority; n = 108) were in grades 6, 7 or 8. In the Fall and subsequent Spring youth completed in-school surveys with items on parental involvement in education, school engagement (affective, behavioural, cognitive engagement) and perceived academic competence. Grades were obtained from official school records. Findings showed that parental involved was positively associated with behavioural and cognitive engagement, which in turn contributed to academic competence and achievement. Results underscore the importance of parental involvement in adolescents’ engagement and academic success and highlight the importance of examining the multiple components of school engagement simultaneously, as we found differential effects for affective, behavioural, and cognitive engagement on academic competence and achievement.     

How students switch on and switch off in mathematics: exploring patterns and predictors of (dis)engagement across middle school and high school

Using growth modeling, this study examined trajectories of ‘switching on’ (aspirations) and ‘switching off’ (disengagement) in mathematics across middle school and high school. In addition, guided by principles under expectancy-value theory, the study sought to determine the extent to which patterns of growth differed by motivation (self-efficacy and valuing) and socio-educational attributes (gender, language background, and achievement). The sample comprised 194 students from four schools who participated in three rounds of data collection across five academic years of their schooling, spanning middle school and high school. In the main, mathematics aspirations declined over time while mathematics disengagement increased. However, initial levels of aspirations and disengagement and their rates of change over time were impacted by motivational and socio-educational factors. Salient findings and their implications for educational assessment and practice are discussed.