The Development of Multiple Domains of Child and Adolescent Self-Concept: A Cohort Sequential Longitudinal Design

The development of child and adolescent self-concept was examined as a function of the self-concept domain, social/developmental/educational transitions, and gender. In two overlapping age cohorts of public school students (Ns = 936 and 984), five dimensions of self-concept were evaluated every 6 months in a manner that spanned grades 3 through 11 (representing the elementary, middle, and high school years). Domains of self-concept included academic competence, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, social acceptance, and sports competence. Structural equation modeling addressed questions about the stability of individual differences over time. Multilevel modeling addressed questions about mean-level changes in self-concept over time. Significant effects emerged with regard to gender, age, dimension of self-concept, and educational transition.     

Physical sciences and the school curriculum

The difficulties encountered by pupils and students when learning physics can often be explained by the differences that exist between their spontaneous ideas about the real world and how the scientist models this reality. How can children and adolescents be helped to better understand scientific ideas that could be of use to them? What is the role in learning and in teaching of: peer group interaction, different forms of representation (pictorial analogies, schemes, graphs), intelligent tutoring systems; etc? In this special edition there are a number of pieces of recent research of interest both to the researcher and to educator concerned with the development of knowledge and the teaching of the experimental sciences.     

The Honour of the Science Teacher: Pupils, Knowledge, and Society

This address covers several aspects of a teacher's "sense of honour." There is the professional honour we accord ourselves as members of a group who have shared working values. This is shown to be seriously at risk in today's world of distrust in all experts. Research evidence helps to show how, through practice and reconstructed autobiography, teachers develop an important functional sense of personal identity. Pupils form a large part of the content of this practitioner honour, although the teachers' relationship with them is carefully distinguished from that between parent and child. It is further argued that the teachers' pedagogic knowledge of science is, and indeed should be, closer to post-modern epistemology than to the abstract logical approach taken during the Enlightenment. The final section looks at society's changing demands on education and how this affects teaching, teachers, and their sense of honour in the tasks they undertake.     

Psychosocial Environment and Student Self-Handicapping in Secondary School Mathematics Classes: A cross-national study

Research investigating the relationship between classroom environment and self-handicapping was conducted in Australian, Canadian and British secondary schools. Perceptions of classroom environment, self-handicapping and academic efficacy were assessed by 3,602 students from 29 schools. Correlation analyses between ten classroom environment scales from the What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) questionnaire and the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) and self-handicapping were conducted with and without control for academic efficacy. Results showed that classroom environment scales accounted for appreciable proportions of variance in self-handicapping beyond that attributable to academic efficacy. Enhanced affective dimensions of the classroom environment were associated with reduced levels of self-handicapping. Commonality analyses revealed that the WIHIC scales accounted for a much greater proportion of variance in self-handicapping that did the CLES scales.     

The differential impact of academic self-regulatory methods on academic achievement among university students with and without learning disabilities

Although research on academic self-regulation has proliferated in recent years, no studies have investigated the question of whether the perceived usefulness and the use of standard self-regulated learning strategies and compensation strategies provide a differential prediction of academic achievement for university students with and without learning disabilities (LD). We developed and tested a model explaining interrelationships among self-regulatory variables and grade point average (GPA) using structural equation modeling and multiple group analysis for students with LD (n = 53) and without LD (n = 421). Data were gathered using a new instrument, the Learning Strategies and Study Skills survey. The results of this study indicate that students with LD differed significantly from students without LD in the relationships between their motivation for and use of standard self-regulated learning strategies and compensation strategies, which in turn provided a differential explanation of academic achievement for students with and without LD. These paths of influence and idiosyncrasies of academic self-regulation among students with LD were interpreted in terms of social cognitive theory, metacognitive theory, and research conducted in the LD field.     

Affect Regulation as a Mediator of Attachment and Deliberate Self‐Harm

The authors used structural equation modeling to test the mediational role of affect regulation on attachment and deliberate self‐harm in 216 undergraduates. Results suggest that affect regulation mediates the relationship between attachment and deliberate self‐harm, providing support for the theoretical importance of attachment and affect regulation in the etiology of self‐harm behaviors. Accordingly, attachment styles should be considered when providing clinical assistance to college students in an effort to improve affect regulation and to treat deliberate self‐harm.     

Multimodal Representations in Senior Biology Assessments: A Case Study of NSW Australia

This paper investigates the use of multimodal representations to assess biological understanding in the final senior secondary school public examination in New South Wales, Australia. The investigation emanates from a larger Australian study concerned with the impact of disciplinary and technological innovations on science pedagogy, particularly in molecular genetics where much knowledge is represented in modalities other than, or in conjunction with, language and traditional print-based texts and visuals. The availability of digital technologies and their affordances for the learning and teaching of senior high school Biology now makes it realistic for examiners to include multimodal representations in assessment tasks. A qualitative analysis of final-year Biology examination papers from 2001 to 2013 identified and classified the multimodal representations included in this written external examination. Findings indicate that despite the ready availability of multimodal, multimedia representations in classroom learning and curriculum materials, and evidence of students’ engagement with ICT, the high-stakes examinations make little use of such resources. A consequence of this mismatch between curriculum outcomes and assessment tools is that students may be disadvantaged because their in-depth knowledge and understanding of biological concepts is not effectively demonstrated through traditional pen-and-paper tests. A move towards a range of alternative assessment formats is one way to ensure that assessment aligns with multimodal learning in the classroom.     

Self-concept, motivation, and competence among preschoolers from maltreating and comparison families

Maltreated children are at risk for impaired cognitive and school functioning. In this study, the role that home environment, self-concept, and mastery motivation play in this relation was investigated. Thirty-six preschool children and their mothers, representing three family backgrounds (12 low-income maltreating, 12 low-income comparison, 12 middle-income comparison), were assessed in a preschool/home study. Children from maltreating families scored lower than their peers on several measures of cognitive and physical competence and on ratings of motivation. At the same time, these children significantly overrated their physical competence, and self-ratings of competence and acceptance tended to be higher (and less realistic) than those of their low-income peers. An overall difference in developmental quality of the home environment of maltreating families was largely accounted for by socioeconomic status (SES), but the tendency of these homes to be less clean and safe remained significant even after SES was controlled. Various aspects of the home environment were associated with superior task performance, but not with motivation or self-perceptions. Whereas the general home environment may affect competence, relationship factors implicated in maltreatment may be more important in shaping self-concept and motivation.