School bullying,subjective well-being,and resilience

The aim of the current study was to examine the role of resilience in the victimization experiences of students and their subjective well-being as well as to explore gender and age-related effects. Initially, 558 students (52.15% male) from grades 6 to 10 participated in the study completing The Student Aggression and Victimization Questionnaire, The Mental Health Continuum, and the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale. One-hundred and twenty-seven (22.8%) students were excluded from the final analysis, as they did not report any victimization experience during the past 3 months. Males in all year levels reported higher levels of well-being and resilience compared with females. No gender differences were found in victimization experiences. Languishing students were found to be at higher risk of experiencing serious victimization. Resilience was not found to moderate the effects of victimization on mental health, but a higher level of resilience appeared to be related to more positive well-being for boys and younger students. Limitations of the study and implications for anti-bullying interventions are briefly discussed.     

Irrelevant information: Some effects on children's problem-solving

Children of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 years of age were given simple, social-matching problems. Two conditions were employed: each involved verbal presentation but in one (Condition V) no concrete representation was involved while in the other (Condition M) models were also used. Within each condition, information was provided which was (a) sufficient, (b) superfluous, (c) irrelevant or which displayed a combination of these characteristics. For all age groups, the problems containing only irrelevant information were the most difficult, although Condition M enhanced the performance of younger children while depressing that of 7- and 9-year-olds. The results were interpreted as supporting the view that a major source of difficulty for the child may lie in selecting the appropriate referent. Some inferences are drawn regarding the abilities of children to cope with ambiguity.     

Attribution of Career Facilitators by Eminent Women from Canada and Finland

Highly successful contemporary women from two countries, Canada and Finland, were surveyed in an attempt to identify the elements in their lives that facilitated or prevented their achievement level. This work is exploratory research into the similarities among factors that promote female achievement. The overall purpose was to expand our understanding of female talent development applicable to contemporary girls and women despite their national origin. In total, 1553 Canadians and 424 Finns, listed in a Who's Who biographical publication of each country were invited to participate. There were 827 respondents from Canada and 280 from Finland who chose to participate in the study. Data were collected by means of a written questionnaire dealing with career development. The two sample sets were then compared by their responses to the demographic questions. The two groups were very similar as to birth order, education, marital status and motherhood. Main results show that in recalling their past, the eminent women reported that their own qualities and personal convictions were the primary reasons for attainment of prominence or fame. Both Finns and Canadians also gave considerable credit to the close members of their families. Spouses and parents were reported as supplying much encouragement and support. Professors/instructors/coaches, school teachers, colleagues and friends were also seen as encouragers. Both groups of women identified the same five factors as being most detrimental to their careers: stereotypical attitudes of others, being female, children, availability of childcare, and parents' socioeconomic status. Findings are discussed in the light of the available research literature, and implications for educating gifted females are proposed.     

The enactment of literacy curriculum policy by early childhood teachers in two Australian schools

Since the early 2000s, literacy education has become an area of intense focus in Australian education policy, positioned to have a role in Australia's pursuit of enhanced international competitiveness in the “global knowledge economy”. Policy called for improvements in literacy outcomes, monitored by mandated annual assessments, and policy statements recognised the need to establish solid literacy foundations in early childhood to facilitate learning, and desired improvements, in later years. This article is derived from a larger study that investigated the production and enactment of literacy curriculum policy by early childhood teachers in Australian schools. It focuses on the school level within the State of Western Australia, presenting findings derived from thematic and critical discourse analysis of participant interview and documentary data collected in two case‐study schools. Comparative analysis revealed that literacy curriculum policy processes in both case‐study schools were focused on achieving improved test results in mandated testing regimes. This was impacting upon literacy curriculum in the early childhood years of schooling, in Australia deemed to involve children up to 8 years of age, in many, possibly adverse, ways. These findings may offer insights in other contexts about literacy curriculum policy processes that are focused on enhancing competitive positioning.     

Mandated Psychological Assessments for Suicide Risk in a College Population: A Pilot Study

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of a protocol mandating psychological assessment of college students exhibiting specific signs of suicide risk and/or nonsuicidal self-harm. Thirty-seven current and former students who had been documented as at risk completed a structured interview in person or by phone. Outcomes suggest this protocol identifies students at risk for suicide, with 27% having made an attempt at some point in their lives and 50% having been suicidal at the time the report was written. The majority of participants endorsed the value of this intervention.     

Students with Self-identified Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (si-SEND): Flourishing or Languishing!

Students’ wellbeing is an essential component of their ability to function well, not only at school but also in all life domains. Many studies have investigated student wellbeing. However, empirical studies about the wellbeing of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are scarce. Furthermore, many studies have adopted a deficit view of wellbeing and mental [ill]-health. This study adopted a more positive perspective. We administered a questionnaire assessing social-emotional and psychological wellbeing, global self-concept, resilience, bullying, mental ill-health and school satisfaction to 1930 students, aged 13–15 years, who were attending seven mainstream schools in South Australia. Of those students, 172 self-identified as having SEND. Results showed significant differences, with students who self-identified with SEND not faring as well as other students on all measures. In particular, just over one third (39.9%) of students who self-identified as having SEND reported that they were flourishing, compared with just over half (57.6%) of the students who did not indicate that they had special needs. The findings indicate that more attention needs to be given to designing and implementing supports to improve the wellbeing and school satisfaction of students who self-identify as having SEND.     

Improving teaching self-efficacy for teachers in inclusive classrooms in Hong Kong

This study investigated changes in teacher self-efficacy for inclusive practice using a mixed method research design. Participants were 417 in-service teachers in Hong Kong taking a 1-week basic teacher-training course about inclusive education. Data were collected pre and post participation in the course using the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices Scale (TEIP). A series of five in-depth focus-group interviews provided greater clarification of the perceptions and efficacy issues of teachers. The best predictors to participants’ teaching self-efficacy were confidence in teaching students with special education needs (SEN) and knowledge of legislation and policies for inclusive practice. From the focus-groups, results demonstrated a more positive attitude change towards students with SEN with a number of essential factors emerging as highly beneficial for inclusive teaching in Hong Kong (i.e. caring and love, school environment and curriculum adaption). The discussion considers the role of short training programmes as an appropriate means to improving self-efficacy for teaching within inclusive classrooms in Hong Kong.     

School Counselor Preparation in Kenya: Do Kenyan School Counselors Feel Adequately Prepared to Perform Their Roles?

School counselor training in Kenya is a relatively new phenomenon. This study examined Kenyan school counselors’ perceptions of the adequacy of their preparedness to perform their roles within the school setting. The survey was administered to 105 school counselors in four counties. The findings revealed that Kenyan school counselors perceived themselves as being adequately prepared; however, participants revealed deficiencies in their preparation and ability to deal with a wide range of student issues. Implications of these findings to the training of school counselors and counselor training programs are discussed.     

Cross-language transfer of reading skills: an empirical investigation of bidirectionality and the influence of instructional environments

Reading and Writing - The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children’s second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their...     

Academic vocabulary and reading comprehension: exploring the relationships across measures of vocabulary knowledge

Reading and Writing - This study examined the relationship between knowledge of academic vocabulary and reading comprehension in data contributed by 5855 middle school students. Each student...