Understanding resilience in diverse,talented students in an urban high school

This article summarizes findings from a 3‐year study of 35 economically disadvantaged, ethnically diverse, academically talented high school students who either achieved or underachieved in their urban high school. In particular, the resilience of these two groups of high ability students is explored. Comparative case study and ethnographic methods were used to examine the ways in which some academically talented students develop and/or employ strategies associated with resilience to achieve at high levels. Both risk factors and protective factors are examined to explore participants’ pathways toward either positive or negative outcomes. The results of this study suggest that some protective factors helped some academically talented students to achieve at high levels. The protective factors include supportive adults; friendships with other achieving students; opportunity to take honors and advanced classes; participation in multiple extracurricular activities both after school and during the summer; the development of a strong belief in self; and ways to cope with the negative aspects of their school and urban environment; and in some cases, their family lives. Other protective factors include students’ relationships with supportive adults and their previous participation in a gifted and talented program.

Students who underachieved had specific risk factors, such as having older siblings who dropped out of school or became involved in drugs and/or alcohol. They also appeared to have developed fewer protective factors. The combination of the presence of risk factors and the absence of protective factors may ha ve impeded the ability of some underachieving students to achieve at higher levels.     

Learning Segregation in Junior High‐Schools in Israel: Causes and Consequences

ABSTRACT

Implementation of educational integration policy in Israel creates heterogeneous student compositions in the schools. Principals and teachers who, as a result, confront instructional difficulties, and who are ambiguous about this policy and its expected efficacy, press to counter‐balance this heterogeneity by resegregating students within the school in ability‐based classes. In this paper we deal with three inter‐related topics:

1. the degree of learning segregation within integrated junior high schools in Israel;

2. several factors which may explain the degree of learning segregation; (3) the effect of learning segregation on academic outcomes: achievement (in reading and science) and subsequent school career (student placement in high school track).

In doing so, we clarify an aspect of the school principal's role and his or her indirect effect on students learning. Principals have a decisive power in the organization of learning frameworks (class structure, ability grouping etc.) within the school. Their ideas and convictions about the efficacy of integration affect the actual practices of class organization in the school. This, in turn, has an effect on learning processes within the class and evetually on students’ academic outcomes, especially on those from the weaker group.     

Are secondary school graduates prepared for the studies of natural sciences? – evaluation and analysis of the result of scientific literacy levels achieved by secondary school graduates

ABSTRACT

Background: In Slovakia, no relevant information is available about the scientific literacy levels achieved by secondary school students.

Purpose: The objective of the research was to identify the levels of scientific literacy among students in the last year of grammar school and examine to what extent this determined the subject chosen for a school-leaving exam, which is related to a student’s personal preferences, as well as to the student’s profile and preparation for university education.

Sample: The research sample consisted of 221 students from 17 grammar schools located in various regions of Slovakia.

Design and methods: To identify the level of scientific literacy, we applied the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills.

Results: The students achieved the lowest success rate in the skill focused on the identification of the research design elements and its strengths and weaknesses. A comparably low success rate was also observed in the skill focused on the justification of the conclusions based on quantitative data. Other difficulties were identified in the field of understanding the basics of statistics, thus indicating an insufficient level of mathematical literacy of the students in the abovementioned field. By contrast, the highest success rate was achieved in the skill focused on the correct application of the scientific results for social purposes.

Conclusions: At the end of secondary school studies, the scientific literacy among Slovak students is at the average level. No differences were observed in terms of gender. In terms of the subjects chosen by the students for their school-leaving exams, we observed that those students who took a school-leaving exam in Biology or Chemistry achieved significantly better results in the test. By contrast, the students who reported on Geography and Civics as the subject of their school-leaving exam achieved significantly worse results in the test.     

Safe spaces? A social-ecological perspective on student perceptions of safety in the environment of the school canteen

ABSTRACT

Background Research suggests that negative peer interactions that compromise student safety and wellbeing often occur in spaces at school that are not easily visible, not adequately monitored, overcrowded and/or relatively unstructured. In a large online survey conducted in Swedish schools by the anti-bullying organisation, Friends, a small proportion of students indicated that they felt unsafe in the school canteen and responded to a question about why they felt unsafe there. As the canteen is often reported to be a space where negative peer interactions, such as harassment, bullying and other forms of school violence, occur, but little is known about why negative peer interactions occur there, we were particularly interested in exploring why some students perceived their school canteen to be an unsafe space.

Purpose Taking a social-ecological perspective, our aim was to investigate why students reported feeling unsafe in the environment of the school canteen.

Method In order to investigate this question, we analysed 1,547 responses from students in Swedish schools in grades 3–6 (ages 9–12). The responses were from the anti-bullying organisation Friends’ online questionnaires from 2011 to 2016. In the responses, students who indicated that they felt unsafe in the school canteen explained why they felt this way. Data were analysed qualitatively, using a six-step thematic approach.

Findings The analysis identified four key themes: Space constraints, Time restrictions, The risk of social blunders and The negative actions of others. We discuss the findings in terms of the macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem.

Conclusions In matters of student safety and wellbeing, we argue that it is not only important to consider the social context, but also how that context is interconnected with environmental and structural elements.     

Achievement Effects of the Cleveland Voucher Program on High Ability Elementary School Students

Abstract

The issue of school choice and its effects on student performance have become a prevalent part of the educational landscape. This longitudinal investigation examines a group of students not typically associated with the school choice movement: high ability or “gifted” students. The study analyzed whether attending a private school through participation in the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, which is among the longest running experimental evaluations of a school voucher program in the United States, resulted in differential performance on standardized achievement tests for topperforming students. Analyses showed that no statistically or practically significant differences were found between gifted students participating in the program and control group students who attended public schools.     

Secondary school students who drop out of school in rural Pakistan: The perspectives of fathers

ABSTRACT

Background: The problem of students dropping out of school is one of the barriers to improving educational outcomes in poor and developing countries.

Purpose: This small scale, in-depth study sought to explore the phenomenon of students who drop out from secondary education, through the perspectives of fathers of such students in a rural district of Pakistan.

Method: Primary data were collected through detailed, individual interviews with 14 fathers whose sons had dropped out from secondary education. The study adopted a framework involving push and pull factors to analyse qualitatively the processes and examine the reasons for dropping out that prevailed inside and outside school.

Findings: The analysis suggested that, from the perspectives of the fathers, family poverty, poor academic performance and issues relating to teachers’ engagement with teaching at school were main factors involved in a student dropping out of school.

Conclusions: The findings from this small scale, detailed analysis of data draw attention to the issues arising from a tension in mainstream teachers’ educational roles in and beyond the school. It further highlights the need for greater investment in secondary education, in order to help to reduce rates of student drop out in the remote rural areas of Pakistan.     

The Effects of Busing and School Desegregation on Majority and Minority Student Dropout Rates

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of school desegregation by court-ordered busing on the subsequent dropout rate of majority and minority students. Using before and after busing measures of dropout rates, school records and personal interviews, this research finds majority dropout rates are not affected by desegregation procedures. While the dropout rates of bused minority students appear to be identical to those of non-bused minority students, large disparities between minority rates in various bused sectors indicate highly uneven educational experiences of bused minority students. School socio-economic composition and the expectations of teachers concerning student behavior are used to analyze the disparities, with the conclusion reached that the more favorable expectations of teachers at higher socio-economic climate schools produce lower minority student dropout rates. Desegregation produces a positive benefit for this most crucial dimension of minority student educational accomplishment, when the school to which the minority student is bused is one where teachers' expectations are positive and supportive.     

Book review

An equitable and democratised higher education system should, in principle, be permeable to the flow of populations with different social and/or cultural backgrounds, allowing access to any parts of the system. However, despite the democratisation efforts that took place in Portugal after the 1974 revolution, and although the student population is now much more diversified and heterogeneous than ever before, the particular routes to higher education still hinder the free access of students to some areas of the system.

Purpose

In this study, those different routes to higher education and the way they might influence students’ choices are analysed. Of particular interest was whether students tended to make choices based on feasibility rather than personal preference.

Sample

Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews with 60 first year students (32 female and 28 male), from universities and polytechnics, both public and private, and from three first cycle study programmes (Arts, Pharmacy and Computer Engineering) in the urban area of the city of Porto.

Design and Methods

The analysis was a small scale qualitative investigation of Portuguese students’ perceptions underlying their choices in higher education. The sample selection took into account the diversity of the student population and sought to include different student profiles to gather contrasting cases and potentially contrasting views. Data gathered through interviews (conducted in 2009/2010) were systematised by means of a content analysis technique and submitted to a codification process according to a grid of categories that emerged from the analysis of data.

Results

Findings from this small scale exploration suggest that the majority of the students interviewed chose a study programme based on preference but based their choice of institution on feasibility.

Conclusions

The study provides insights into factors that limit student access to all parts of the higher education system, namely to some selective and more prestigious institutions.     

The electronic mirror and emotional growth

Abstract

The article examines the use of information and communication technology to enhance the educational achievement of a group of students evidencing a variety of EBD in a mainstream school setting. It is believed that ICT will have just as important a part to play in the education of students with EBD as it will with other sensory or physical special educational needs. The article examines within-child factors which make a cognitive-behavioural approach potentially powerful. It suggests that ICT can enhance the educational experience of EBD pupils if careful attention is paid to the creation of a therapeutic teaching environment and the interaction of the student/curriculum and teacher/student interfaces. The article discusses the implementation of an integrated learning system in an inner London comprehensive school and its effects on those pupils presenting with emotionally disordered learning difficulties.     

Do teachers differ in the level of expectations or in the extent to which they differentiate in expectations? Relations between teacher-level expectations,teacher background and beliefs,and subsequent student performance

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have indicated that, although some teachers have substantial expectation effects on student outcomes, the effects for most teachers are only small. Furthermore, teacher expectations are associated with key pedagogical differences related to teacher beliefs about providing instruction and support for learning. The aim of this study was to explore (a) teacher-level differences in the level and differentiation of expectations, (b) associations between teacher differences in expectations and teacher background and beliefs, and (c) relationships with subsequent student performance. Secondary analyses were performed on data for 42 teachers and their students in New Zealand. The results were supportive of the notion that some teachers were differentiating more between students in their expectations than others. Teachers who differentiated more perceived students generally as more competent, but felt less related to the school team, and perceived more classroom stress. Differentiation in expectations was negatively related to end-of-year mathematics scores.     

University‐school collaboration and needs assessment in the training of student leadership and peer support in Hong Kong

One hundred seventy secondary schools in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire designed to assess their needs for leadership training of students in different domains of school activities and their endorsement of university‐school collaboration in these activities. The questionnaire also assessed the extent and degree of support and involvement that schools intended to provide in training programs and in organized school activities for students to assume leadership roles in schools. Findings indicated that schools were in need of student leaders in different student activities, especially in those less related to academic concerns. It was stressed that in providing opportunities for student leaders to continue practicing their skills in school activities, other students might eventually benefit through participation in school activities and peer support programs organized by student leaders.     

Enhancing student engagement in student experience surveys: a mixed methods study

Background

Measuring the student experience is becoming increasingly important in higher education in the UK. Student experience surveys are used as indicators of quality and form the basis of rankings of higher education institutions. They are also used by them as tools to assist their quality enhancement initiatives. However, these surveys frequently suffer from low response rates, which can reduce the reliability and usefulness of their data. The UK Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is a relatively new survey and suffers from a low response rate. As this survey is new, little is known about why students do not respond to it.

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the reasons why postgraduate students do not respond to the PTES.

Sample

Three hundred and fifty-five postgraduate taught students from four health faculties in one UK higher education institution completed an online survey. Of these, seven participated in one of two focus groups.

Design and methods

The online survey was completed both by students who completed the PTES in 2011 and those who did not. This provided us with cross-sectional data to compare both groups’ knowledge of PTES and their reasons for completing or not completing it. We used multivariate regression analysis to explore which variables were associated with response to PTES. We led two focus groups to explore the themes that emerged from the survey in more depth. This data was analysed by two researchers using thematic analysis.

Results

The cross-sectional data found that students who were not clear about the purpose of PTES were less likely to respond, independent of other potential predictor variables. Focus group data indicated that if postgraduate students felt a stronger connection to the university community they may be more likely to respond to PTES.

Conclusions

This study suggests that higher education institutions may wish to review their strategies for advertising student experience surveys to focus more on their purpose rather than their impact.     

How teacher education students cope with practicum concerns

Abstract

Student teacher stress during practicum experiences has generated interest across teacher education programs. However, there is very little research on the sources of support students draw on to help them cope with practicum stresses. This study sought data directly from the students to represent the student perspective. Students ranked their five most important sources of support for coping, and they noted the strategies they used to cope with practicum stresses. Students consistently reported that seeking support from the teacher was their primary coping strategy. This finding suggests that an effective student‐supervising teacher relationship is critical for student practicum success. Differences emerged between the most and least stressed students in terms of their reported use of coping strategies. Implications of the findings for teacher education programs are addressed.     

Effects of School Organizational Structure on Interracial Friendships in Middle Schools

Abstract

This study examined the effect of school organizational structure on interracial friendships among middle school students. Students evaluated a white friend and a black friend on a modified semantic differential scale and reported the number of their other-race friends. Responses of students in two team-structured schools were contrasted to those of students in three traditionally structured schools. Multivariate analysis revealed that the organization of a school affects number of other-race friends and that whites with even "some" black friends are more positive in their perceptions of blacks than are those who report having "almost no" black friends. Variations in the nature and extent of contact between white and black students in schools does affect the racial attitudes of whites. Black students rated white and black friends the same regardless of the organizational structure of the school.     

Photovoice as an evaluation tool for student learning on a field trip

Background: Photovoice is one method that enables an educator to view an experience from a student’s perspective. This study examined how teachers might use photovoice during an informal learning experience to understand the students’ experiences and experiential gain.

Design and methods: Participants in this study consisted of six students, three male and three female, ranging from ninth through twelfth grade at a rural Ohio high school, who attended a field trip to a biological field station for a four-day immersive science experience. Students were provided cameras to photograph what they believed was important, interesting, or significant during an immersive four-day science trip to a biological field station, individualizing their observations in ways meaningful to them, and enabling them to assimilate or accommodate the experiences to their schema.

Results: Analysis identified five positive benefits to use photovoice as an evaluation tool: teachers were provided qualitative evidence to evaluate student interaction on the field trip; teachers could evaluate the students’ photographs and captions to determine if the field trip met the learning objectives; students were empowered to approach the goals and objectives of the field trip by making the field trip personally relevant; students assimilated and accommodated the new observations and experiences to their own schema; students automatically reflected upon the learning experience as they captioned the photos.

Conclusions: Through photovoice, the teachers were enabled to qualitatively assess each student’s experience and learning from the field trip by illustrating what the students experienced and thought was significant; providing the teachers a method to evaluate all participating students, including those who are secretive or do not normally contribute to class discussions.     

Improving Outcomes for English Language Learners by Integrating Social Studies and Literacy with OCDE Project GLAD Strategies

ABSTRACT

Elementary teachers are challenged to maximize instructional time to cover standards in all content areas and to meet a wide variety of student needs including students who are not proficient in English. This action research looks at how one fourth-grade teacher improved achievement for English Language Learners by integrating social studies into the literacy block using a Project GLAD® unit and the school district Literacy Comprehension Frameworks. It describes the changes to the literacy instruction and examines the benefits to students, families, the teacher, and the school.     

Impact of a pre-college outreach programme on the academic achievements of higher education students: a case study of Chile

ABSTRACT

This research evaluated the impact on students’ academic achievements of a pre-college outreach programme implemented by a Chilean higher education institution. This programme benefits students in their last year of secondary education so they can better adapt to post-secondary education. Specifically, we assessed whether freshmen enrolled in 2017 in the institution that implemented this initiative and who attended this programme during 2016 as secondary school students performed better than students at this same institution but who did not take part in this scheme. A quasi-experimental design was applied using the method propensity score matching. The results showed that students who participated in this outreach programme had better average grades and attendance levels than those who did not take part in this initiative. In addition, it was found that this programme does not have a significant impact on student retention rates.     

The roles of teacher–student relationship quality and self-concept of ability in adolescents’ achievement emotions: temperament as a moderator

This study examined to what extent teacher–student conflict and closeness, on the one hand, and students’ self-concepts of ability in literacy and mathematics, on the other, are related to students’ achievement emotions (enjoyment, anxiety and boredom) in mathematics and literacy among Finnish early adolescents (N = 854). We also investigated the extent to which these associations are moderated by student temperament (surgency/extraversion, negative affectivity and effortful control). The results showed, after accounting for relevant covariates, that in both school subjects, teacher–student conflict was negatively related to enjoyment and positively to anxiety and boredom, whereas teacher–student closeness was positively related to enjoyment and negatively to boredom. Self-concepts of ability in both school subjects were positively related to enjoyment and negatively to anxiety, whereas the self-concept of ability was only negatively related to boredom in mathematics. Student temperament also moderated some of the associations in the literacy domain. Lower levels of conflict in the teacher–student relationship were related to higher levels of enjoyment in literacy, particularly among students who had lower levels of surgency/extraversion. Also, a closer relationship with the teacher or a lower self-concept of ability in literacy was related to higher levels of anxiety, particularly among students who had low effortful control. In the mathematics domain, the associations between the self-concept of ability and achievement emotions were somewhat stronger than in literacy, and the domain-specific associations were not dependent on student temperament.

     

Exceeding expectations: scaffolding agentic engagement through assessment as learning

Background: The active involvement of learners as critical, reflective and capable agents in the learning process is a core aim in contemporary education policy in Australia, and is regarded as a significant factor for academic success. However, within the relevant literature, the issue of positioning students as agents in the learning process has not been fully examined and needs further exploration.

Purpose: This study aims to explore ways in which aspects of self-regulated learning theory may be integrated with the concept of agentic engagement into classroom practice. Specifically, the study seeks to scaffold students’ self-assessment capabilities and self-efficacy by using a formative assessment-as-learning process. The research examines how scaffolded planning, as part of the forethought phase in the Assessment as Learning (AaL) process, influences self-regulation and student agency in the learning process.

Sample: 126 students from school years two, four and six (student age groups 7, 9 and 11 years), and 7 teachers at an independent (co-educational, non-religious) primary school in the Northern Territory, Australia, participated in the study.

Design and methods: Conducted as a one-setting, cross-sectional practitioner research study, the data sources included students’ planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers and email correspondence with teachers. The data were analysed for emerging themes and interpreted from a framework of social cognitive theory.

Findings: In this study, students were given the opportunity and support to exercise agentic engagement. Findings suggested that, in particular, students who were identified by their teachers as low-achieving and/or with poor motivation, were perceived by the teachers as exceededing expectations by demonstrating relatively greater motivation, persistence, effort and pride in their work than would be the case usually.

Conclusions: The findings from this formative AaL study suggest that AaL has the potential to help scaffold primary students’ development of assessment capabilities.