Associations between school climate and student life satisfaction: resilience and bullying as mediating factors

Learning Environments Research - Because adolescent life satisfaction is associated with important affective, behavioural and health-related outcomes during both adolescence and later life,...     

Teachers’ views of their school climate and its relationship with teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study, in part, was to confirm the factor structure of the School-Level Environment Questionnaire, which assesses six school climate factors that can be considered important for improving schools. The study also tested a research model of the relationships between the school climate, teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The participants included 781 Western Australian high-school teachers in 29 schools. When the data were analysed by means of structural equation modelling, teacher self-efficacy and teacher job satisfaction were both related to school climate dimensions and there was also a relationship between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. These results provide practical information for improving school climate and suggest that it is worthwhile for school principals to consider factors within the school climate and how they might be enhanced.     

Investigating the use of student perception data for teacher reflection and classroom improvement

This article reports a study involving: (1) developing and validating a learning environment instrument, (2) investigating whether reflection on feedback generated using the instrument led to improvements in the learning environment and (3) examining how teachers used the feedback. For the new learning environment instrument, validity was supported for a sample of 10,345 secondary students over 3 years (2,042 students in 2008, 4,467 in 2009 and 3,836 in 2010). To investigate whether reflection on feedback from this instrument led to improvements in the learning environment, multivariate analysis of variance and effect sizes were used to examine pre–post differences. Statistically significant improvements in students’ views of the learning environment were found for 8 of the 11 scales. Finally, we examined how teachers used the student feedback. Of the 459 teachers, 45 focus teachers used the feedback as part of a formal action research approach involving entries in reflective journals, written reports, discussions and participation at a forum. These data were analysed to provide an overview of the ways in which the information was used, and to provide a more detailed account of the journey of one of the teachers.     

Hyperactive or “activity hyper”: Helping young children attend in appropriate environments

Why is it that young children can attend to activities at free play but have trouble paying attention during circle time? Children can be in constant motion during large group activities, but yet attend for long periods of time at the block center or while playing with puzzles. Teachers may make the premature judgment that certain children are “hyperactive,” when they may actually be “activity hyper.”     

Improving learning environments through whole-school collaborative action research

Learning Environments Research - The focus of professional learning on activities has changed to internal growth or change among teachers. Our 3-year whole-school collaborative action research was...     

Relationships between learning environments and self-efficacy in primary schools and differing perceptions of at-risk students

Learning Environments Research - Because students who are considered to be at-risk of academic failure are more likely to experience a range of serious outcomes both at school and later in life, it...     

Does policy influence the commercialization route? Evidence from National Institutes of Health funded scientists

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical test of the commercialization route chosen by university scientists funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the NIH and how their chosen commercialization path is influenced by whether or not the university technology transfer office is involved. In particular, the paper identifies two routes for scientific commercialization. Scientists who select the TTO route by commercializing their research through assigning all patents to their university TTO account for 70% of NCI patenting scientists. Scientists who choose the backdoor route to commercialize their research, in that they do not assign patents to their university TTO, comprise 30% of patenting NCI scientists. The findings show a clear link between the commercialization mode and the commercialization route. Scientists choosing the backdoor route for commercialization, by not assigning patents to their university to commercialize research, tend to rely on the commercialization mode of starting a new firm. By contrast, scientists who select the TTO route by assigning their patents to the university tend to rely on the commercialization mode of licensing.     

Investigating Relationships Between Learning Environment Perceptions,Motivation and Self-Regulation for Female Science Students in Abu Dhabi,United Arab Emirates

Research in Science Education - The global lack of student motivation towards learning science and gender imbalance in STEM careers provided the impetus for this study, which had two key aims: (1)...     

Assessing students’ perceptions of their learning environment in science classes in the United Arab Emirates

Learning Environments Research - As part of major education reform efforts underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), teachers have been introducing cooperative teaching methods in their science...