Use of Social Emotional Learning Skills to Predict Future Academic Success and Progress Toward Graduation

This study evaluated the degree to which a range of social emotional learning skills—academic self-efficacy, academic motivation, social connections, importance of school, and managing psychological and emotional distress and academic stress— could be used as an indicator of future academic outcomes. Using a sample of 4,797 from a large urban school district, we found that high school students classified as performing in the lowest 25% of their grade reported lower social emotional skills than students classified in the top 25% of academic performers by the end of the 8th grade. Two variables, perceived importance of attending college and psychological and physical stress, accounted for nearly 26% of the variance in cumulative high school GPA after controlling for 9th-grade GPA. Finally, the results indicated that a combination of 5 social emotional learning subscales effectively discriminated between students making positive progress towards high school graduation and those identified as having dropped out of or failed more than 14% of their courses.     

School engagement and parental involvement: the case of cross-border students in Singapore

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the mutual relationship between school engagement of cross-border students (CBS) from Malaysia in Singapore and parental involvement in education. Focus-group interviews were conducted with school personnel, CBS and their non-local counterparts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation. The cross-border student group comprises diverse ethnicity and most of them are highly competitive and successful in engaging in the whole educational selection process from the beginning to their exit point. This paper argues that education for the CBS represents both a unique socio-cultural phenomenon in the two Asian societies and a manifestation of a widely shared pragmatic value of educational returns. The findings reveal that the nature of CBS engagement with schools is characterized by voluntary assimilation and is rewarded by the meritocratic system of Singapore.     

Understanding Early Elementary Children's Conceptual Knowledge of Plant Structure and Function through Drawings

This study examined children''s drawings to explain children''s conceptual understanding of plant structure and function. The study explored whether the children''s drawings accurately reflect their conceptual understanding about plants in a manner that can be interpreted by others. Drawing, survey, interview, and observational data were collected from 182 students in grades K and 1 in rural southeastern United States. Results demonstrated the children held a wide range of conceptions concerning plant structure and function. These young children held very simple ideas about plants with respect to both their structure and function. Consistent with the drawings, the interviews presented similar findings.