A systematic review of the association between social and emotional competencies and student engagement in youth

Student engagement (SE) is known as one of the most relevant predictors of academic achievement and completion. Social and emotional competencies (SECs) are well established as critical skills for healthy and adaptative youth development. This systematic review investigated the associations between SE and SECs in students aged 10–25 years. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines. Nine databases were searched for peer-reviewed literature published between 2004 and 2020. A total of 91 studies were selected, including 92879 youth students. Emotional engagement is the most studied dimension of student engagement and largely surpasses the number of studies that analysed the multidimensional SE concept. The number of studies in each of the five CASEL domains is uneven, with more studies focussing on self-management, self-awareness, and relationship skills, in association with SE. Overall, most studies showed that SECs are positively associated with SE and negatively associated with disengagement, with similar results for middle, high school and university students from different backgrounds, suggesting that educational institutions should implement social and emotional learning programmes to increase SE. Studies reporting age and gender differences with respect to SE showed unanimously higher SE values for girls and younger students. There is a clear need for studies that use the multidimensional SE concept, including university students and applying cross-cultural analyses.     

‘Last goal wins’: re/engaging women of a ‘forgotten’ age through football?

This paper explores the physical activity experiences of a group of women based in England, and who are over the age of 30. This particular age group represent a ‘forgotten’ age, that is, they are largely ignored in academic scholarship, policy and physical activity provision. The paper explores how this group of women ‘re/engaged’ in physical activity after a sustained period of inactivity. The study is situated in a weekly football initiative (Monday Night Footy) based in the north of England, managed and organised by a group of women for women to train and play five-a-side football. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and the use of photo-biographical boards with 11 women, all of whom are regular participants to the football sessions. We use a middle ground feminist lens and Archer's notion of ‘fr/agility’ to help make sense of the women's experiences. From these women's stories three key findings emerge: (a) Biographies of (in)activity – the ways in which relationships with physical activity can be characterised by fractures and fissures despite seemingly positive early physical activity experiences; (b) Pathways of re/engagement – the motives and enablers to these women once again participating in physical activity after a sustained absence; and (c) Monday Night Footy as a space for re/engagement – the ways in which this context contributes to these women's continued involvement in football and broader physical activity. The paper concludes by offering policy makers and physical activity providers with some recommendations alongside considerations for future research.     

A typology of student reading engagement: Preparing for response to intervention in the school curriculum

This study seeks to develop a typology of students’ reading engagement through secondary analysis of international sampled survey data. It aims at providing research-based evidences informing teachers how to help readers advance in reading performance. It hopes that when students complete junior secondary schooling (Grade 7–9) at age 15, more students can read happily, widely and skillfully. After establishing that Fondness for reading, Aspiration for reading, and Good at reading are three pertinent facets of reading engagement affecting reading literacy performance, the effects of variables pertaining to these facets are examined using Macao-China data drawn from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 Reading Literacy Study. The present study adopts a person-centered approach to arrive at a typology of eight latent clusters of students, each of which is identified with specific reading engagement characteristics. Response to reading intervention can then be proposed to help successive cohorts of junior secondary students enhance their reading literacy performance.     

Exploring children’s perspectives of engagement with their carers using factor analysis

Positive engagement between a child and carer in out-of-home care is understood to have long-term benefits for children who have experienced abuse or neglect. This study analysed data from the ‘Views of Children and Young People in Foster Care 2009′ survey of 937 children in out-of-home care in Queensland, Australia, to identify factors that supported or hindered engagement between a child and carer. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural regression were used. Findings suggest that children’s engagement with their carer is influenced by a range of internal and external factors including child characteristics, the care experience, contact with biological parents, and placement trajectory. Child engagement is important because it is central to positive outcomes such as placement stability in out-of-home care. Implications for policy and practice include the need for a structural response that supports building and maintaining positive child-carer relationships.     

Problem-based learning as a facilitator of conceptual change

We investigated whether problem-based learning (PBL) can foster conceptual change. Students were randomly assigned to a PBL, lecture-based, or self-study group, all receiving instruction about the topic of Newtonian laws. Conceptual change was measured from pre- to immediate post-test (directly after instruction) and from immediate post-test to delayed post-test after one week. Results showed that the PBL-group outperformed both the lecture and the self-study group on the immediate post-test. This result supported the hypothesis that PBL can increase the likelihood of conceptual change. The PBL group also outperformed both other groups at the delayed post-test after one week; the decline in conceptual change from immediate to delayed post-test was similar for all three groups. Findings are discussed in terms of cognitive engagement.     

Parental perspectives on nurture groups: the potential for engagement

Nurture groups have been identified as supportive and potentially effective provision for young people with troubled patterns of social, emotional and behavioural development, and a specific literature has emerged in relation to understanding their functioning. The work outlined here derives from an exploratory study by Valerie Taylor, a senior educational psychologist in Staffordshire, and Anthea Gulliford, from the University of Nottingham, describing and analysing the relationship between nurture group working and children's behaviour as perceived by adults involved, using qualitative approaches. Drawing upon grounded theory methods, the investigation commenced with an exploration of the relationship between nurture group attendance and children's behaviour. The grounded theory which emerged encompassed a strong vein of data relating to what could be described as parental engagement. It is this strand which is explored here, and consideration is given to the potential for facilitation of the home–school dialogue in the nurture group context, with reference to commentaries regarding parental participation and home–school engagement.     

Attributional profiles: Considering multiple causal attributions for success and failure at the beginning of secondary school

Students typically perceive their successes and failures to have multiple causes. The present study examined students’ profiles of causal attributions for success and failure during the first year of secondary school. The stability of attributional profile membership was assessed across three timepoints. Furthermore, it was examined whether students characterized by different attribution profiles differed in their levels of school engagement, self-esteem, and school performance. Latent profile analyses and latent transition analyses among 657 first-year Dutch secondary school students (M_age = 12.6, SD = 0.4) identified four attributional profiles, which were similar across the three timepoints. The profiles were labelled uncontrollable failure, controllable failure, uncontrollable success, and undifferentiated. About half of the students (52 %) remained member of the same profile across the three timepoints. Students in the uncontrollable success profile reported significantly lower levels of school engagement and self-esteem, and performed less well in school compared to students in the other profiles. Students in the uncontrollable failure profile and the controllable failure profile did not differ from each other with regard to school engagement, self-esteem, and school performance. The findings suggest that attributional retraining interventions may want to shift their focus from changing uncontrollable failure attributions to changing students’ external, uncontrollable attributions for success.     

领导风格与员工敬业度的关系研究简

员工敬业度作为影响企业成败的关键因素之一,得到越来越多的学者的研究关注.在回顾总结前人对于员工敬业度的基础上引入领导风格变量,通过调查问卷的形式,运用方差分析、回归分析等统计方法,探讨管理者的领导风格对于员工敬业度的影响,对于企业从管理者的角度找出最适于提高员工敬业度的领导风格,增强企业在市场中的竞争力具有重要的价值和意义.