Factors that influence pre-service teachers' persistence

This study investigated the role of various factors in pre-service teachers' persistence. Using a sample of U.S. pre-service teachers (N = 1365) from 256 institutions, the study explored the joint effect of predictors that influence their persistence including student engagement, demographic characteristics, prior achievement, college grades, and institutional characteristics. Results from multilevel logistic models indicated that campus environment engagement was a weak but positive predictor of persistence, those with higher grades were more likely to persist, and male and minority pre-service teachers were less likely to persist. Implications include implementing evidence-based programs to improve campus environment and support at-risk candidates.     

Relationship between perceptions of classroom climate and institutional goal structures and student motivation,engagement and intention to persist in college

Disengagement and a lack of motivation have been found to be the major reasons for student drop out from higher education. In order to broaden our understanding of institutional and personal factors associated with intention to complete a college degree, this investigation examined the relationship between students’ perceptions of classroom climate and institutional goal structures and their motivational orientation, engagement and intention to persist in college. Data was collected from first-year students (N = 1778) enrolled in an institution of higher education near Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicate that perceptions of classroom climate and institutional goal structures have significant associations with students’ motivational orientations and levels of engagement and contribute to intention to persist in college.     

Pathways to Prevention: Improving Nonresident African American Fathers' Parenting Skills and Behaviors to Reduce Sons' Aggression

This study describes a test of the Fathers and Sons Program for increasing intentions to avoid violence and reducing aggressive behaviors in 8‐ to 12‐year‐old African American boys by enhancing the parenting skills satisfaction and parenting behaviors of their nonresident fathers. The study included 158 intervention and 129 comparison group families. Structural equation model results indicated that the intervention was effective for improving fathers' parenting skills satisfaction, which was positively associated with sons' satisfaction with paternal engagement. Sons' paternal engagement satisfaction was positively associated with their intentions to avoid violence. Although aggressive behaviors were lower for comparison group sons, the intervention effectively reduced sons' aggressive behaviors indirectly by enhancing fathers' parenting behaviors. Support for family‐centered youth violence prevention efforts is discussed.     

Direct and indirect effects of online learning on distance education

This paper presents an exploratory study that investigates the effects of online learning on distance education students in an open university context. Two hypotheses are posited: (1) a direct relationship exists between students’ involvement in online learning and distance learning outcomes, and (2) an indirect relationship exists between these two domains via the mediating variable of an institutional Transactional Presence (TP), that is, a student's sense of the availability of and connectedness with an educational institution. Student learning achievement, satisfaction and intent‐to‐persist are used as indicators of outcomes of distance learning. The analysis of data garnered from 285 distance students reveals multifaceted relationships between students’ engagement in online learning, their perceptions of institutional TP and the three learning outcome variables. Besides the findings, the paper will discuss factors affecting students’ engagement in online learning in relation to different requirements, that is, optional or compulsory online use as well as the level of the course (undergraduate or postgraduate).     

A typology of students in intermediate vocational education and training programmes based on student engagement factors,sociodemographic characteristics and intentions of dropping out

The main objective of this article is to define a typology of students enrolled in intermediate vocational education and training programmes in Spain. Students were first placed in groups based on various factors related to engagement. Then, their sociodemographic characteristics were analysed. Finally, the intentions of dropping out were considered in each of the groups. The results obtained describe a typology of students consisting of five groups with different levels of engagement. Each of the groups is associated with distinct sociodemographic characteristics and shows notable differences with regards to intentions of leaving their studies. The results of this research can serve to detect and prevent drop‐outs that take place at this level by identifying at‐risk profiles and creating more adequate approaches and interventions.     

A Teacher Educator Learns How to Learn from Mistakes: Single and Double-loop Learning for Facilitators of In-service Teacher Education

Professional development intended to change teachers' teaching practices is often unsuccessful. This article explores a case set in a developing country. Although some researchers have attributed failure to factors that are external to the teacher educators involved, this study explores the role that teacher educators themselves may play in instances of limited success. The first author used self-study to explore how his framing of his facilitation role created a defensive rather than an open-to-learning professional development experience. Through engagement with the literature of Argyris and Schön, he began to realise how, despite his best intentions, his actions communicated a persuasive and controlling sub-text. This article documents how, with commentary from the second author, he learned to learn from his mistakes in order to act more consistently with the collaborative values he espoused. His double-loop learning enabled him to understand teachers' reluctance to change and to experiment with teachers in the use of more child-centred pedagogy. The article suggests how teacher educators could become more aware of their theories of action and of the implications for fostering the learning of teachers within developing countries.     

Stable or situated understandings of adolescent reading engagement across readers and raters

Teachers' skill in inferring students' reading motivation influences their ability to provide responsive literacy instruction. Yet, studies show that convergence between students' and teachers' reports of students' affective experience with reading is moderate to poor. The present study, with a sample of 140 students, and 15 middle school teachers, examined the convergence across different rater reports (teachers, students, and research observers) of reading motivation and behavioral engagement in daily reading activities as well as the factors that explain teachers' perceptions of students' daily behavioral engagement with reading. Results indicate that there was no correlation between teacher or research observer reports with student ratings. However, teachers' perceptions of students' behavioral engagement in reading was explained by stable as well as situated student indicators of reading engagement. Additional measures to help teachers more easily detect shifts in motivation as a function of classroom practices are discussed.     

Evaluating engagement with graduate outcomes across higher education institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Our research addressed two aims: to develop a systematic way to evaluate institutional engagement with graduate outcomes and to explore such engagement in higher education institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand. An online survey was completed by 14/29 institutions with nine follow-up interviews to gather information on institutional engagement with graduate outcomes. Using a Maturity Modelling approach with indicators of planning, systems, delivery, assessment, evaluation and professional development support for graduate outcomes, we assessed the level of engagement in each institution. Results revealed patchy engagement across the polytechnic and university sectors. There was strong engagement with the planning, systems and delivery of graduate outcomes, particularly in the polytechnic sector, but much lower engagement with their assessment and evaluation, and overall, weak engagement with professional development support for graduate outcomes. Some mechanisms for promoting engagement with graduate outcomes were external drivers, a teaching-focused culture, strong leadership from the top and enabling structures. Our findings can inform institutional policies and practices in order to support not only compliance, but more importantly engagement with the graduate outcome agenda to improve the student learning experience.     

Up or down and out? A systemic analysis of young people's educational pathways in the youth justice system in England and Wales

Many young people in the youth justice system in England and Wales are educationally marginalised and systemic barriers to their engagement with education persist. This article presents an analytical framework for understanding how education and youth justice practices shape young people's educational pathways during their time in the youth justice system with the aim of understanding the systemic dynamics that encourage or impede young people's engagement with education. It draws on data from a case study of 32 young people who were serving either a community or a custodial sentence under the supervision of one youth offending team in England and Wales. Using as analytical starting points Bourdieu's and Wacquant's conceptualisations of competing dynamics within the ‘bureaucratic field’ of state governance and Hodkinson's careership theory, this article discusses the interplay between exclusionary and inclusionary interests operating within and between the agencies of education and youth justice and the extent to which they play a role in sustaining young people's involvement in education or compounding their educational and social marginalisation.     

You can’t ignore us: what role does family play in student engagement and alienation in a Ghanaian university?

Much of the existing literature on student engagement focuses on what happens within the higher education environment or what the institution has direct control over, restricting understanding of how issues outside of the institution affect engagement. This paper argues that efforts to improve student engagement should be broadened to incorporate issues relating to the family. It employed a case study design in order to develop a broad and more in-depth understanding of how family influences the amount of time and effort students invest in their learning in a large public university in Ghana. It was established that engagement is influenced by family expectation, financial and social support, as well as monitoring of students’ academic performance. The unique contribution of the study is that it broadens current understandings of engagement because it adds an aspect that has not been highlighted in current work on engagement, making a case for institutions to work more with families to get a broader understanding of challenges students face in order to provide comprehensive support.     

Leadership and students’ academic success: mediating effects of self-efficacy and self-determination

When exploring the effects of leadership on students, most studies have focused on either how leadership affects the students’ academic outcomes or how it contributes to their personal development. This study merged both approaches and aimed to measure the mediating effects of self-efficacy and self-determination among leadership, students’ intentions to persist and GPA. A Structural Equation Analysis was applied to a data-set of 1009 students from 39 countries to examine these relationships. The results showed a full mediating effect of academic self-efficacy between leadership and students’ intentions to persist and between leadership and GPA, and revealed a full mediating effect of self-determination through autonomy and relatedness constructs between leadership and intention to persist. This result implies that even though leadership does not directly affect students’ academic outcomes, it enhances their confidence and motivation, which provides them with the inner drive to aim high, persevere and achieve their goals. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed.     

Testing a model linking environmental hope and self-control with students' positive emotions and environmental behavior

ABSTRACT

This study examined a moderated mediation model with 254 Israeli junior high school students, hypothesizing that students' environmental hope would simultaneously mediate the relationship between their engagement in school-based environmental activities (green engagement) and their environmental behavior as well as their positivity ratio, but that students' self-control skills would moderate these mediation processes. The results showed that engagement was linked to self-reported pro-environmental behavior, as well as experiencing more positive than negative emotions. Multigroup structural equation modeling indicated that the model provided a good fit to the data, and rigorous bootstrap analysis confirmed the simultaneous mediating role of environmental hope—but only for students with high self-control skills. The limitations and implications of the findings are discussed, and future directions are presented.     

Variations on the use of cases in social work and teacher education

The recent proliferation of testing policies in the US has raised concerns about the consequences of ‘teaching to the test’. Current studies of teaching and testing document patterns of teacher resistance and accommodations to external tests, but often fail to examine how these patterns influence teachers' and students' engagement with curricular texts. This study develops an inter‐textual perspective to specify the discursive processes through which one external test entered into classroom tasks and talk about a novel in four urban high schools. The study illustrates how efforts to raise standards through testing policies can result in limiting students' opportunities to construct understandings of curricular texts and of the social ideas at their core.     

Undergraduate students who are required to withdraw from university: The role of ethnicity

A large body of international research focuses on identifying reasons why students do not ‘persist’ (Tinto, 2006 ) within higher education. Little research has focused on students whose leaving is non‐voluntary and where narratives of ‘persistence’ are therefore not as pertinent. This paper seeks to refocus some of the attention onto the distinct group of students who do not elect to leave their studies but who are, instead, required to withdraw; such students leave under ‘Academic fail’ and ‘Exclusion’ categories. More specifically, it explores the relationship between student leavers’ ethnicity and their likelihood of being required to withdraw. Utilising a large dataset comprising UK‐domiciled undergraduate students enrolled to take a degree within an English higher education institution in 2010/11, it finds that most groups of Black and Minority Ethnic students are more likely to be required to withdraw than White students. Ethnicity exerts an independent impact on a student's likelihood of being required to withdraw, when other background and on‐course characteristics are controlled for, but this impact varies by disciplinary area. It is suggested that these findings implicate factors within the higher education sector itself as key drivers in the process that leads to students being required to withdraw. Lessons are drawn out for those tasked with managing the student experience within higher education.     

Model of blogging structure for intercultural communication environments in higher education

It is often observed that most international students are less likely to express their opinions in class. The lack of communicative engagement has negative impacts on students' academic performance. The objective of this article was to explore a range of possible explanations for international students' lack of engagement in class discussions and to seek a way to model how an e-tool could be applied to make international students more comfortable communicating. The present study viewed that those students' communication problems are induced by the following multiple factors: a sense of belonging to a minority, cultural difference, and communication apprehension. Blogs were thus suggested to enhance those students' communication contexts. An ideal model of blogging interactions between students and teachers was theoretically proposed.     

Countering Youth's Negative Stereotypes of Teens Fosters Constructive Behavior

Adolescence can be a time of unconstructive behavior for many youth. This research examined if an intervention countering youth's stereotypes of teens as irresponsible fosters their constructive behavior. In two experimental intervention studies (Ns = 124 and 319) with seventh graders, stereotypes of teens as irresponsible were described as inaccurate portrayals; youth then provided their own observations of teens acting responsibly. Youth in this counterstereotyping intervention (vs. the control) held higher intentions for academic engagement and performed better on an academic task (i.e., a word-search puzzle). Over the 3 days following the intervention, their academic engagement was higher. Youth's risk taking was also reduced. Redirecting youth to see teens as responsible has the potential to provide a foundation for flourishing.     

A framework for enabling graduate outcomes in undergraduate programmes

Our research aim was to determine what enables engagement with graduate outcomes in tertiary institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand. We used a mixed methods approach comprising a survey sent to all tertiary institutions, follow-up interviews with 10 academic leaders and eight case studies of good practice of programmes engaged with graduate outcomes across four institutions. Using a general inductive approach, analysis of the academic leader interviews generated five categories of enablers: external drivers, structural/procedural, development, student achievement and contextual enablers. Combining these enablers led to an integrating framework for institutional engagement in the development of graduate outcomes. Drawing on wider datasets from the survey, interviews and cases studies, relevant strategies were identified that staff and students perceived influenced the development of graduate outcomes. The framework and the associated strategies adopt a ‘whole-of-institution’ approach, which is inclusive of programmes, staff and students and their individual histories, traditions, cultures and purposes thus allowing for each institution’s unique characteristics.     

Social media in higher education: understanding how colleges and universities use Facebook

This study provides an understanding of the current social media landscape for higher education institutions. While it is recognized that consistency in school branding across all communications with stakeholders is important to attract and retain students, relatively little work has been done to determine specifically what type of content should be included in a school’s social media campaign, nor has there been an investigation as to the relative frequency of the content. The authors use content analysis to examine Facebook posts from 66 top US colleges and universities and engagement from their constituents on these posts. Results show that there are significant differences in engagement received on posts across institution type. Additionally, media type and posting frequency are factors that contribute to engagement. This study provides direction on how university social media managers can better manage their social media content to improve engagement and increase the reach of their posts.     

Differences in educational outcomes of African American students from different socioeconomic backgrounds

This research tested a structural equation model of educational outcomes for three socioeconomic status (SES) groups of African American students enrolled in a community college. The structural model, which was based on a variant of Tinto's (1987) model, contained two exogenous constructs, educational intentions/commitment and external commitments, and three endogenous constructs, academic integration, social integration, and educational outcomes. The study demonstrated that higher levels of academic and social engagement had positive direct effects on educational outcomes for all students regardless of SES background. Other paths that were supported included the positive direct effects of educational intentions/commitment on academic and social integration and the negative impact of external commitments on social integration. Significant structural differences were not present in the measurement of model constructs or the process of educational outcomes among lowest, lower to middle, and middle to upper SES groups.