Health,lifestyle, family and school factors in adolescence: predicting adult educational level

Background

Education fundamentally shapes an individual's life chances and social status. Duration and level of education are associated with people's incomes, socio-economic status, living standard, lifestyle and the respect and esteem they enjoy. Failure to fulfil educational potential may have long-term consequences for later occupational and social life, as well as creating problems for society at large.

Purpose

The aim of this prospective follow-up study was to investigate which health, lifestyle, family and school factors in adolescence had the strongest impact on educational level attained in adulthood.

Sample

The original study population included all 9th-grade school pupils aged 16 years attending secondary school in spring 1983 in Tampere, Finland (n = 2269). Subjects were followed up at 32 years of age in 1999 (n = 1471).

Design and methods

In 1983, 2194 pupils (96.7%) with a mean age of 15.9 years (SD 0.3 years) completed questionnaires during school hours. The questionnaire included questions about psychological and somatic health, lifestyle, family background, school factors and life events. In 1999, postal questionnaires were sent to the same study population when they were 32 years old. The follow-up questionnaire included basically the same questions about health and lifestyle as in adolescence and age-appropriate versions of questions about social relations and life events. Education was measured by the highest level of attained education. The follow-up cohort totalled 2091 persons (92%), and the response rate was 70.3% (n = 1471). The univariate associations between independent variables in adolescence and attained educational level in adulthood were analysed using the χ² test, and Student's t-test where appropriate. Multivariate logistic regression analyses using forward stepwise procedure were used to determine which factors in adolescence had the strongest impact on adult educational level.

Results

Several health, lifestyle, family and school factors in adolescence were univariately associated with educational attainment in adulthood. Multivariate analyses showed that, in both genders, low school achievement and manual class of origin were the strongest predictors of low educational level in adulthood. Additional significant predictors among females were poor perceived health status, spending less leisure-time on hobbies and more on dating, and among males, poor relationships with teachers and heavy drinking.

Conclusions

Mid-adolescence is an important period for future educational life trajectory. Based on our study results, more attention should be paid to adolescents with school difficulties, unhealthy lifestyle and poor perceived health. It is also important to promote educational equality in relation to family background.     

Students at risk: Students' general study orientations and abandoning/prolonging the course of studies

The purpose of the study was twofold. Firstly, we aimed at distinguishing groups of students with differing general orientations to university studies. Secondly, our goal was to establish a connection between orientations and students' intentions to discontinue their studies as well as their actual absences. The participants of the study were all the first year students of a multi-disciplinary Finnish university. A questionnaire was used including the Inventory of General Study Orientations (IGSO) and questions about students' motives for entrance and intentions to discontinue their studies. Archive data from the university's student register were also utilised to examine study orientations' connections with actual absences and study success.Students were divided into three study orientation groups: study-oriented students, work-life oriented students, and non-committed students. Students' intentions to discontinue their studies were related according to their study orientation. It was found that students who intended to change their major subject or to abandon their studies altogether belonged most often to the group of non-committed students. The same was true concerning students' actual absences during the first two years of studying. Regarding the study success as measured by study credits and grades, work-life oriented students obtained the best result.     

Motivational orientations in work

The rapid development in working life during recent decades has changed the structures of work organisations and expectations of employees’ work. Differing forms of professional employment and different types of organisational environments likely promote different types of motivational patterns in workers. The aim of this study was to apply a systemic motivational orientation model, originally developed for the educational context, to study work motivation. Altogether, 584 persons, from 11 organisations, representing work with different levels of knowledge intensity, responded to the questionnaire. The key finding is that rapidly changing, increasingly complex, and fundamentally networked organisations are challenging environments for worker motivation. For some employees, these environments open opportunities for intellectually inspiring activities and continuous learning in socially encouraging environments. However, for many high level employees, not only is working in these environments an intrinsically motivated flow-like experience, but also they are emotionally demanding and anxiety generating environments with conflicting duties and roles.     

Mastery Learning in Theory and in Practical Innovation

Lahdes, E. 1983 Mastery Learning in Theory and Practical Innovation. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 27, 89‐107. Mastery learning strategies represent a bold attempt to develop an ‘encouraging’ theory and practice of teaching. It has a theoretical and philosophical foundation, as a result of which mastery learning stands out from many other more narrowly‐based innovatory schools of thought. In this article main traits of the theory are sketched as well as some of its main relations to other educational innovatory approaches. Against this background a Finnish school experiment is presented in which the experimental group's curriculum followed the principles of mastery learning theory. The positive results are discussed as well as the mastery learning strategy's advantages and the practical difficulties restricting its usage in schools.     

ViLLE – collaborative education tool: Designing and utilizing an exercise-based learning environment

Automatically assessed exercises with immediate feedback can be a powerful tool for enhancing the effectiveness of education. In this article, we discuss the design and implementation of a collaborative learning tool called ViLLE. The design is based on experiences gathered from a previously developed and thoroughly researched visualization tool. Based on our earlier results and current educational theories, we developed four design principles upon which ViLLE is constructed. ViLLE includes various different exercise types which were designed to assist in the learning of computer science, mathematics and other subjects. It also supports different learning and teaching methods, such as pair programming and peer review. To justify the development of a new environment, we present four diverse case studies where ViLLE was utilized successfully: programming education, high school matriculation exam, elementary school mathematics and student counseling at university level. The results obtained from the studies seem to confirm that ViLLE can be used effectively to enhance student motivation and to improve student performance in various heterogeneous educational setups.