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.     

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.     

Remediating misconception on climate change among secondary school students in Malaysia

Existing studies report on secondary school students’ misconceptions related to climate change; they also report on the methods of teaching as reinforcing misconceptions. This quasi-experimental study was designed to test the null hypothesis that a curriculum based on constructivist principles does not lead to greater understanding and fewer misconceptions on acid rain, global warming, greenhouse effect, and ozone layer depletion than the traditional Malaysian curriculum. For this purpose, two classes from two different schools were randomly assigned to experimental (N?=?35) and control condition (N?=?38). Following the intervention, an ANCOVA with pre-test as the covariate showed statistically significant differences in understanding for all four topics; additional interviews with randomly selected students from experimental and control group further underscore the findings. Implications are discussed.     

Does secondary school size make a difference?: A systematic review

There is a vast body of literature on school size but comparatively few high quality empirical studies comparing outcomes in schools of different sizes. This systematic review synthesizes the results of the published research from 31 studies on the effects of secondary school size from OECD countries since 1990. Overall the directions and patterns of effect vary for different outcomes. For pupil attainment measured by exam results, and for attendance, larger schools appear to do better up to some optimal school size but estimates of this point or range are insufficiently precise to be useful. The implications of different school sizes on student behaviours are equivocal, but teachers and pupils at smaller schools are more likely to have a positive perception of their ‘school environment’. Costs per pupil appear to decrease as school size increases. The results of the review suggest that there is little empirical evidence to justify policies that aim to ‘change’ or mandate particular school sizes. However, given the evidence that there do appear to be optimal sizes for some outcomes, stakeholders should be made aware that dramatic changes in a school's size may change the characteristics of a school's learning environment.     

School belonging and math attitudes among high school students in advanced math

This study used the Trends in International Math Science (TIMSS) 2015 Advanced data from nine countries to examine the relationship between students’ sense of school belonging and their attitudes towards mathematics, and the extent to which student gender moderated these relationships. Results showed that students’ sense of school belonging emerged as a statistically significant, positive predictor of students’ liking and valuing of mathematics. For most countries, no significant moderating effect of student gender was observed. However, among Portuguese students, the relationship between students’ sense of school belonging and each attitude measure was stronger for males than for females.     

五年制师范生历史学习动机现状及激发的策略研究

历史学科是五年制师范的基础学科,在调查中发现目前五年制师范生历史学习动机匮乏,存在着诸多的阻碍因素。调查的基础上本文结合学习动机的相关理论和教学实践,从教师基本素质的提升、学生内驱力的激发、外部驱动力的创造等方面提出激发和维持学生良好历史学习动机的策略,以提高实际的历史学习效果。     

The relation of social skills and school climate of diversity to children's life satisfaction: The mediating role of school connectedness

The present study examined the role of school connectedness in mediating the relations of social skills and school climate of diversity (SCD) to life satisfaction (LS) among school‐aged children. This study also investigated whether there is any gender difference in relationships. Participants included 873 elementary school students in Grades 4 through 6. The results of the structural equation modeling supported the partial mediating role of school connectedness, indicating that social skills and SCD lead to LS both directly and indirectly through enhanced school connectedness. Multigroup analysis demonstrated that the direct path from the SCD to LS was significant only for boys, while other paths are invariant across gender. Implications are addressed for school‐based interventions to promote school connectedness and LS.     

高中生生物学习动机与成绩的关系研究

通过调查高中生生物学习动机的现状,将其与学生的生物成绩作相关性分析,得出二者相关系数为R=0.228,同时发现此系数在不同成绩段的学生之间具有差异性;学生的内部学习动机对成绩的影响起主要作用,最后根据调查结果提出三条建议来培养与激发学生的生物学学习动机。     

初中生理科课程学习动机与学习策略的调查研究

采用问卷调查形式,研究了初中生学习理科课程的学习动机与学习策略的发展情况.经过标准比数据处理,结果发现初中生在理科课程学习中内、外动机是相互促进的,二者对学习策略的影响都很显著.学习理科课程时监控策略运用最多,而精加工策略运用水平不高,这可能与传统的教学方式有关.     

Improvements in school climate associated with enhanced health and welfare services for students

School improvement initiatives are needed to better meet the needs of underprivileged students, to reduce underachievement and to break a continuing cycle of disadvantage. This article describes part of a school improvement initiative in New Zealand that provided additional funding for school nurse and social worker services in nine secondary schools with the most disadvantaged students in New Zealand. It describes the nature and delivery of services provided by the social workers in these schools. In addition, the article reports changes over time in staff and student views about school climate including a comparison with non-participating schools of similar socioeconomic status. The findings indicated that school climate is a useful intermediate measure of the effectiveness of school improvement initiatives. There were significant improvements in staff views about school climate over time, with staff views about school climate becoming more favourable on scales measuring Improvements in the Last 12 Months and Support for Ethnic Diversity compared to eight non-participating schools. Student views were more favourable on scales measuring Satisfaction with School, Support for Achievement and Support for Ethnic Diversity, compared to the non-participating schools.     

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.     

School climate: perceptual differences between students,parents, and school staff

Research suggests that school climate can have a great impact on student, teacher, and school outcomes. However, it is often assessed as a summary measure, without taking into account multiple perspectives (student, teacher, parent) or examining subdimensions within the broader construct. In this study, we assessed school climate from the perspective of students, staff, and parents within a large, urban school district using multilevel modeling techniques to examine within- and between-school variance. After adjusting for school-level demographic characteristics, students reported worse perceptions of safety and connectedness compared to both parent and staff ratings (all p < 0.05). Parents gave the lowest ratings of parental involvement, and staff gave the lowest ratings of academic emphasis (ps < 0.05). Findings demonstrate the importance of considering the type of informant when evaluating climate ratings within a school. Understanding how perceptions differ between informants can inform interventions to improve perceptions and prevent adverse outcomes.     

Low expectations equal no expectations: Aspirations,motivation, and achievement in secondary school

Underachievement and failure to complete school have long-term negative consequences for students. Aspirations regarding completion of secondary school that predict achievement outcomes are related to factors amenable to intervention. This study investigates relationships between academic achievement and self-reported educational aspirations, motivation, affiliation with peers and teachers, and attributions. Survey participants were 5369 Year 10 and Year 11 students at 19 nationally representative secondary schools in New Zealand, and available achievement records were sourced for 2439 Year 11 students. Survey data were factor analyzed followed by further examination of relationships across demographic factors, self-reported aspirations, motivational factors (Doing My Best and Doing Just Enough), attributions, and interpersonal affiliations (Teacher and Peer). For Year 11 students, relationships between different factors and subsequent achievement were also analyzed. Students who indicated no aspiration to complete a school qualification were indistinguishable from those with low or moderate aspirations, and the analyses supported only two divergent groups comprising students with either low or high aspirations to complete qualifications. Aspirations were significantly related to different patterns of motivation, affiliation, and attributions predictive of academic achievement. Students of different ethnicity and gender also fell unequally across the two groups. These results suggest that promoting low or even moderate expectations and aspirations for student achievement may actually reinforce lower academic achievement. Instead, teachers and schools should communicate high expectations to prevent school failure and effective interventions to enhance student outcomes.     

Achievement goals and school achievement: The transition to different school tracks in secondary school

During the transition from elementary school to secondary school, in Germany, students are assigned to different school tracks, academic or non-academic, that differ markedly in compositional and institutional characteristics, e.g., the level of cognitive activation and performance standards are higher in academic tracks than in non-academic tracks. Currently, there is a lack of research examining the changes in achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) and in the association between achievement goals and school achievement during the transition to these different school tracks. There were 1646 students who participated in a large-scale, three-wave longitudinal study from Grade 4 to Grade 6. While results revealed only slight differences between the two school tracks, the three types of achievement goals declined over time. In elementary school mastery-approach goals were positively and performance-approach goals negatively associated with school grades. After the transition to secondary school mastery-approach goals predicted school grades positively, whereas performance-approach goals negatively influenced achievement (academic track). Overall, the results indicate that between-school-tracking plays a minor role for the development of achievement goals and the relation between goals and achievement.     

Mathematics motivation and engagement: an independent evaluation of a complex model with Australian rural high school students

Most traditional models of academic motivation focus on a small number of specific factors. However, the Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES) (Martin, 2007b Martin, A.J. 2007b. The motivation and engagement scale, Sydney, , Australia: Lifelong Achievement Group.  [Google Scholar]) includes a fairly comprehensive range of perspectives on general student motivation. The current study set out (a) to provide an independent test of the proposed 11-factor structure of the MES for boys and girls when (b) applied to high school mathematics in Australia (N = 1014; Years 7 to 11). It also examined (c) the covariation of different facets of motivation and engagement with gender, year level, and scholastic achievement. The hypothesised 11-factor model fit reasonably well across gender, and there was clear evidence of specificity to maths compared to English achievement. Some gender and grade effects were observed as well. The study provides support for the value of the Martin model and its instrument. It also extends our knowledge of student motivation to mathematics in Australian rural high schools.     

Achievement goals,academic self-concept,and school grades in mathematics: Longitudinal reciprocal relations in above average ability secondary school students

This study examined the longitudinal reciprocal relations between academic self-concept, achievement goals (i.e., performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery), and achievement (i.e., self-reported grades) in mathematics. The research aim was twofold. First, we examined the confound hypothesis, which states that performance-approach goals do not feature any incremental validity in predicting achievement over and above students' competence perceptions (i.e., academic self-concept). In addition, we expanded research on the confound hypothesis by also investigating performance-avoidance and mastery goals. Second, we investigated the predictive validity of all three achievement goals for changes in academic self-concept. Seven hundred sixty-nine students (50.78% female) attending the highest track of the German three-tier secondary school system participated in three waves of measurement in Grades 5, 6, and 8. Our findings confirmed the confound hypothesis: Performance-approach goals did not explain achievement over and above academic self-concept. The same findings applied to performance-avoidance and mastery goals. Furthermore, performance-approach goals were positively related to academic self-concept changes, whereas performance-avoidance goals showed a negative relation to academic self-concept changes over time. Mastery goals were not associated to changes in academic self-concept. Academic self-concept and achievement showed positive reciprocal relations. To conclude, our results point to complex relations between achievement goals, academic self-concept, and academic achievement over time.     

School motivation: A comparison between Kenya and Italy

The authors compare school motivation in Kenya and Italy, two countries that differ in terms of socioeconomic conditions, structure of the school system, and access to education. Free primary education is indeed a recent attainment for Kenyan students. The participants, 449 Kenyan and 480 Italian students, 9–14 years old and attending Grades 4–8, were asked to complete a questionnaire about learning motivation. A factor analysis revealed that school motivation can be described by five dimensions in both contexts: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, academic self-concept, causal attribution, and amotivation. Differences between countries and lower (Grades 4–5) and higher (Grades 6–8) grades emerged: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and academic self-concept were found to be higher in Kenyan than in Italian students, whereas amotivation was lower. Moreover, only Italian students showed less intrinsic motivation and more amotivation in higher grades than in the lower ones.     

Academic dishonesty among Hong Kong secondary school students: application of theory of planned behaviour

The theory of planned behaviour was used to examine academic dishonesty among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Participants were 386 students in Forms 1–3 (Grades 7–9). Attitudes toward cheating, perceived behavioural control, and moral obligation were positively related to the intention to cheat, but only the subjective norm against cheating was significantly related to self-reported cheating behaviour. The subjective norm was both a predictor of self-reported cheating and a moderator of the relationship between the intention to cheat and self-reported cheating: the intention predicted the behaviour only when the subjective norm against cheating was perceived to be weak.     

Relations between the comprehension of connectives and school performance in primary school

The comprehension of connectives, which still develops across primary school age, is an important facet of academic language proficiency. We investigated relations between the comprehension of connectives and school performance in primary school. Drawing on two cohorts with a total of 294 students and two measurement points either in Grades 2 and 3 (Cohort 1; n = 139) or in Grades 3 and 4 (Cohort 2; n = 155), we found positive effects of children's performance on a newly developed test on the comprehension of connectives on reading comprehension and mathematics one year later while considering, amongst others, the families' socioeconomic status, children's nonverbal cognitive abilities, and receptive grammar. Overall, data showed even more pronounced effects of the comprehension of connectives on test scores compared to school grades. Results are discussed with respect to the specific importance of the comprehension of connectives for school performance in primary school.     

A preliminary research on middle school students’ academic subjective well-being and its major influential factors

This study is conducted with self-developed questionnaire on 910 middle school students, aimed at describing middle school students’ academic subjective well-being and exploring its influential factors. Results show that (1) Academic subjective well-being of middle school students is generally low and there exist differences in different schools and grades. Students from non-key middle schools have lower academic subjective well-being than those from the key schools. Grade 2 students in both junior and senior middle schools have the lowest academic subjective well-being. (2) Factors directly affecting middle school students’ academic subjective well-being are academic experience and the present academic achievements · · with the former playing a major role. (3) Factors indirectly influencing middle school students’ academic subjective well-being are social pressure and expected academic achievements, both of which influence students’ academic subjective well-being through students’ academic experience or their present academic achievements. __________ Translated from Educational Research and Experiment, 2004:4