'I just sit there': shyness as an emotional and behavioural problem in school

Shyness is not unlike many psychological constructs in that it connotes a rich cluster of behaviours, cognitions, feelings and bodily reactions. But when adolescents' shyness creates keen sensitivity to cues of being rejected, preventing them from speaking up for their rights and expressing their own opinions, thereby encouraging self-consciousness and excessive preoccupation with their emotions, it becomes a problem for both these adolescents and their surroundings. This paper presents 10 adolescents' experiences of being shy in a school context to such a degree that it is regarded as being a behavioural and emotional problem. In light of elements from an existential-phenomenological understanding, challenges and remedial measures for these adolescents as well as their peers and teachers are discussed. Finally, focus will be placed on how teachers can promote good relationships and working environments and in this manner prevent shyness from becoming a behavioural and emotional problem in school.     

Assembling,disassembling and reassembling ‘youth services’ in Austerity Britain

This paper moves from a reading of processes that are transforming public services in ways that amount to a dismantling of the welfare state in the UK. In order to interrogate these processes, the paper focuses on ‘youth’ and ‘youth services’. Framed by an analysis of the aggressive disinvestment of ‘austerity’, we take up Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the assemblage as a tool to map and understand the apparently disparate factors or components that come together to produce a ‘youth service assemblage’ and its disassembly and reassembly. As we do this we demonstrate the usefulness of assemblage as way of encountering the productivity of relations across components and avoiding an account that over-states the force or scope of ‘policy’. The paper concludes that by analysing in terms of assemblage, new challenges for thinking about politics emerge, in particular the limits of thinking in terms of a resistant political subject and the need to engage ambiguity.     

First things first: anger management group work in a mainstream high school setting

In an attempt to support the emotional development and behavioural choices of young students in grades 7–10, a six session therapeutic group programme was devised – culminating in a written manual to enable future replication of the programme. This pilot programme was introduced as a once-weekly, morning session aimed at prioritising a student’s need for emotional regulation in an attempt to support academic learning outcomes. Specifically, the group programme provided a five-stage understanding of the cycle of anger, with an additional session allocated for case studies and review. This article seeks to describe the pilot intervention – specifically the therapeutic content – such that it can be replicated elsewhere. Informed by cognitive behavioural therapy, attachment theory and systems theory, the programme sought to respond to the similar needs of multiple students within a time efficient and age-appropriate format.     

Empirical research: Challenges and impulses for Islamic religious education

ABSTRACT

The following article describes how empirical research can give new impulses to Islamic religious education. These impulses could lead to a reconciliation of the Islamic religious heritage with the fast-changing reality of Muslims in non-Muslim countries and societies. Due to the presence of Muslim children in public schools and the urgent question of their religious education, as an academic discipline, Islamic religious pedagogy (Islamische Religionspädagogik) has acquired a pioneering role among the various Islamic theological disciplines. On a scientific level, it has already taken its first steps in the scientific landscape in Germany and Austria and has established diverse references to modern science. Islamic religious pedagogy, as a young scientific discipline, necessarily requires empirical research to provide sound foundations for the quality of Islamic religious education and for a better understanding of religious educational processes. This calls for a dialogue between empirical educational research and theology and cannot be achieved based on purely theoretical assumptions.     

Theory-based assessment in environmental education: a tool for formative evaluation

This article reports on the development of a theory-informed assessment instrument for use in evaluating environmental education programs. The instrument involves coding learners’ brief reflective writing on five established educational and social psychological constructs that correspond to five important goals of environmental education: promoting learners’ perceived relevance of environmental content, sense of personal and collective responsibility for sustainability, knowledge of environmental content, readiness for environmental action, and identity exploration around environmental questions. The article describes the development of the instrument and its use for coding the reflective writing of 242 early adolescents who participated in a large-scale environmental education program.     

The phenomenon of becoming religious among secular pupils at high schools in Israel

The phenomenon of adopting a religious lifestyle is growing worldwide in general and in Israel in particular. In the Israeli context, the transition from a secular lifestyle to a religious one is defined as “repentance”. Sociologists define the repentant as someone who has changed his or her beliefs, opinions and behaviours in the direction of the religious-ritualistic establishment. The aim of this research was to examine the attitudes of homeroom teachers in secular state high schools towards the phenomenon of becoming religious among their students. A qualitative methodology was employed for gathering and analysing the data. The findings show that most of the teachers (79%) claimed that the phenomenon of becoming religious is taking place in their classes to some degree or other. Most of the teachers mentioned the features of adolescence (forming an identity, seeking meaning, and peer influence) as the main reasons for becoming religious. At this era of radicalisation, teachers, with the support of the entire education system, are expected to provide a suitable response to those adolescents seeking their way, and help them navigate their path.     

Perspectives on Conceptualizing Developmentally Appropriate Sexuality Education

Despite recognition of the importance of a developmentally appropriate approach to sexuality education, there is little direct guidance on how to do this. This study employed in-depth interviews with experienced sexuality educators and developers of sexuality education materials to identify how this concept is understood and applied in the field. Developmentally appropriate sexuality education was conceptualized consistently across interviews to include (a) addressing developmentally relevant topics, (b) adapting content to cognitive development, (c) accommodating developmental diversity, and (d) facilitating the internalization of sexual health messages. However, these views fell short of incorporating the breadth of knowledge offered by adolescent development research.     

Self-esteem and academic achievement: a comparative study of adolescent students in England and the United States

Utilizing mixed methodology, this paper investigates the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement for young adolescents within two Western cultural contexts: the United States and England. Quantitative and qualitative data from 86 North American and 86 British adolescents were utilized to examine the links between self-esteem and academic achievement from the beginning to the end of their academic year during their 11th–12th year of age. For both samples, quantitative results demonstrated that fall self-esteem was related to multiple indicators of later year academic achievement. While country differences emerge by the end of the year, math appears to have a consistent relationship with self-esteem in both country contexts. Qualitative analyses found some support for British students’ self-perceptions as more accurately reflecting their academic experience than the students from the United States.     

初中生积极心理品质培养研究

培养初中生的积极心理品质是初中积极心理健康教育的核心和任务。本文根据初中生身心发展特点以及我国目前初中生积极心理品质发展的现状,提出了初中生应重点培养的九项积极心理品质：爱、信念希望、友善、谦虚、执着、创造力、真诚、宽容和领导力。最后,本文提出了初中生积极心理品质培养的五项策略,并结合青春期亲子关系问题例举了培养“爱”品质的活动案例。     

青少年有氧能力的测量、评价与应用研究

通过文献资料法和实验法相结合,探讨了国外青少年有氧能力测量与评价的发展过程与现状,并应用有氧能力测评指标20m往返跑对上海市城区7-17岁在校学生进行测试,了解上海城区青少年有氧能力成绩现状,通过与国外报道数据的比较研究了解上海城区青少年有氧能力水平的差异,为我国青少年心肺耐力的测评研究提供参考。