Designing Supportive School Environments

Summary

There is no question that all students, especially those with serious emotional disturbance, benefit from a predictable, consistent, well-organized, and safe school environment. The purpose of this paper is to describe and illustrate an effective approach that has had positive results in achieving such a school environment. Specifically, the paper describes how to achieve effective ecological arrangements and common area routines across the school environment. In addition, we present a case study with preliminary results.     

An Exploratory Study Examining Teen Dating Violence,Acculturation and Acculturative Stress in Mexican-American Adolescents

Abstract

Little is known about dating violence in Mexican-American adolescents. This exploratory study examines 82 Mexican and Mexican-American high school students' experiences with and attitudes about dating violence, and the relationship of these experiences and attitudes to acculturation and acculturative stress. Medium acculturated adolescents (as measured by language preference), compared with high and low acculturated adolescents, had less tolerant attitudes towards dating violence. In addition, acculturative stressors (e.g., conflicted ethnic identity, family acculturation conflict) generally related to more tolerant attitudes and higher rates of perpetration of dating violence. The pattern of results suggest that dating violence is a problem among Mexican-American adolescents and that acculturation and acculturative stress are important factors to consider in the context of dating violence.     

Alcoholism and the family in peru: The impact of an alcoholic on teenagers' perceptions of the family

Abstract

We studied Peruvian high school students' perceptions of their family environment when a member of their household had a significant problem with alcohol using specialized forms of both the Family Environment Scale (FES) and the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (SMAST). Of our sample of 218 high school students in Lima, Peru, 91.7% lived in a household in which a member had a significant problem with alcohol as defined by the family form of the SMAST. Also, when the alcoholic individual was a member of the nuclear family, the high school students perceived their families as less cohesive, less well organized, and with a lesser ability to express themselves. These family perceptions are similar to those found in American high school students who live with an alcoholic family member. Possible epidemiologic and family implications of these findings are discussed.     

Balancing securitisation and education in schools: teachers’ agency in implementing the Prevent duty

ABSTRACT

Since the introduction of the Prevent duty across the UK, schools have had to balance the need to fulfil their responsibilities under the duty – often understood to include monitoring and surveillance – with their ultimate purpose to educate their students. This positions teachers within a particular set of tensions about their own beliefs about education, their values, and their roles and relationships with young people and communities. This article draws on interviews with classroom teachers and members of school leadership teams from 10 schools, in order to compare how teachers have understood and responded to those tensions. The article will focus on the various ways in which teachers frame the policy, and the ways in which they exercise agency in their responses. Drawing on an ecological approach to theorising teacher agency our data reveals how teachers develop different responses to anti-extremism policy depending on their role; their school contexts; and their own beliefs. Whilst in some important regards the statutory Prevent duty has ‘closed down’ some options, nevertheless teachers exercise agency to interpret and enact policy and, when translating the policy into a curriculum context, also make ‘leaps’ of interpretation as concepts such as fundamental British values are turned into lessons.     

Unattainable educational goals: Disengagement,reengagement with alternative goals,and consequences for subjective well-being

IntroductionIs it always positive, in terms of well-being, to be highly committed to one's goals? Even if giving up on goals is most often seen as an undesirable response to difficulties, some researchers have begun to demonstrate the benefits of goal disengagement and reengagement with another goal when faced with unattainable goals.ObjectiveThis study aims to test the impact of goal commitment, goal disengagement and goal reengagement on several indicators of well-being in the higher education context, where in first year, a relatively large proportion of students may perceive their initial educational goal as unattainable.MethodSome 357 students with secondary school leaving qualifications were surveyed in a first wave of data collection; 186 of these also participated in a second wave.ResultsResults show that the positive impact of goal commitment on well-being disappears, or even becomes negative, when the goal is perceived as unattainable. Moreover, disengagement from an unattainable goal was found to have beneficial effects on self-mastery. However, this disengagement was not enough to reduce depressive feelings; it must be accompanied by reengagement with an alternative goal.ConclusionThese results are discussed and proposals for future research are put forward.     

Reflective Writing: Enhancing Students Cognitive Complexity Through Ethics Education

ABSTRACT

Counselors will inevitably encounter ethical dilemmas. Since they are expected to practice within the code of ethics, the skills to make an appropriate decision are necessary. It is generally agreed that the best place to start this training is in graduate school. More than a standard didactic approach is desired to address student attitudes, values, and beliefs while developing cognitive complexity. Creative approaches can address the specialized goals inherent in ethics education. This article reviews the use of a reflective writing assignment to guide students’ exploration of their values and beliefs when confronted with a value based ethical dilemma. The students’ writings demonstrate an increase in cognitive complexity because of this assignment.     

Career Preparation and Choices of Fundamental Christian School Students

Abstract

Forty years ago, Alan Peshkin began his study of fundamental independent Baptist Christian schools. With time, further insight can be gained on the outcomes of the students from these schools. Despite possessing employer-desired character traits, fundamental Christian school students were expected to earn few academic or career achievements. The purpose of this study is to determine if Peshkin’s expectations became reality. Thirty-five former Christian school students were surveyed anonymously regarding career preparation and choices. All survey participants have completed some higher education. Over one-fourth of the participants earned at least one graduate degree and an additional one-third of participants hold at least one bachelor’s degree. Survey participants have chosen a wide range of career paths.     

Questions and Answers in The Practice of Family Therapy,Vol. II

Abstract

This paper describes an attempt to influence school atmosphere through a large group in an elementary school. Another goal was to increase the students’ feeling of responsibility for the school environment through training in democratic processes. A third goal was to explore how applicable the group dynamics of the large group are for 1st to 6th graders. Method: All students and school staff met in a weekly large group for five consecutive weeks. Results/conclusion: The level of participation steadily increased during the five sessions, and clearly 1st to 6th graders were able to make use of the large group method. Positive changes in school atmosphere occurred and may even have had a long-term effect. The understanding of democratic processes increased.     

The Role of Public Education in Place-Remaking: From a Retrospective Walk Through my Hometown to a Call to Action

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the role of public education in the process of place-remaking that relies on a false separation between teaching and issues of race, politics, and power. I construct a historical case study of my hometown that presents a counter narrative, presented by students, of race and legacy in the context of a public school and the surrounding community. Building upon a walk-as-method approach, I illustrate the confluence of historical, racialized narratives that are discoverable at the scale of the city but invisible within the walls of the school. I conclude with an in-progress professional code of ethical teaching and research practice for the learning sciences. These commitments are intended to support and protect students (and all young people in our communities) from bearing sole responsibility for critical stances based on their identities and histories-in-place.     

Increasing Anger Log Use During School Among Middle School Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

ABSTRACT

Although anger management programs often promote the use of anger logs as an alternative to aggressive behavior, researchers have not studied whether or not these programs actually increase anger log use. Thus, this study examines the impact of In Control, a classroom-based curriculum with 10 weekly 30-minute sessions, on the frequency of anger log use between sessions. Study participants were all of the students attending a middle school for emotional/behavioral disorders. Twenty-seven students received the In Control program, and 19 equivalent students did not. While anger logs were visibly available in all of the classrooms, the students who received the In Control program completed significantly more logs between sessions than did the nonprogram students. During a 4-month follow-up, the 19 program students who received monthly booster sessions continued to fill out significantly more logs than did the nonprogram students. These findings suggest that In Control can increase the use of a log to record anger-provoking episodes by middle school students with serious emotional/behavioral disorders, both in between training sessions and during follow-up, if booster sessions are provided.     

An Analysis of Alternative Means of Measuring Student Achievement Prior to a Scheduled School Break

Abstract

This study investigated the hypothesis that examining student performance one time in spring is an adequate method of assessing the effects of long summer breaks or the potential need for an extended school year. We examined the performanceand progressof students with learning disabilities and students with mild mental handicaps in mathematics computation at two points in time in spring. Results indicated that both types of students made gains in performance in mathematics computation until the end of the academic school year. However, students with mild mental handicaps continued to make slight increases in progress throughout the entire spring while students with learning disabilities experienced a decline in progress. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Second language learning in elementary and high school students

Abstract

A cross-sectional approach covering an age range of 10 years was used to compare the developmental changu in picture naming md number naming of 77 high scbool md 74 elementary students who came from Germany to Sweden. For the two different groups of students, length of residcoce in Swedcn was the main independent variable and reaction time on simple naming tasks of pictures and numbers in German and Swedish was the dependent variable. The results provide evidence that elementuy school students achieved a balanced form of bilingualism 2 years earlier than high school students on the picture naming task. Naming two-digit numbers was shown to be a relatively difficult task for elementary school children, as indiated by markedly prolonged response times. Despite this fact, after about 4 years of residence in Sweden, both groups of students reached language ballaced on this task in that they showed identical response times in both languages. The results on the picture naming task were taken as support for the optimal age hypothesis.     

Measuring goal involvement in specific achievement situations: Development and validation of a 6-goal questionnaire

IntroductionCurrently, there is a growing interest regarding the dynamics of achievement goals and its consequences on motivational patterns, which urges researchers to focus more and more on states of goal involvement.ObjectiveBased on Elliot, Murayama, and Pekrun's (2011) 6-goal framework, this research aimed to develop and validate a state-like form French Achievement Goal Involvement Questionnaire (FAGIQ-6).MethodFirst, a 40-item preliminary version was created. Its clarity was assessed among 152 French undergraduate students. Then, its factorial structure was tested using confirmatory factor analyses on data collected among 439 French junior high school students. Finally, regression analyses on data collected among 317 other junior high school students were used to test how the instrument relates to constructs known to be related to the different achievement goals.ResultsThe structure of the FAGIQ-6 included 18 items that were deemed clear and that were organized into six factors (task-approach, self-approach, other-approach, task-avoidance, self-avoidance, and other-avoidance). Regression analyses showed that: Perceived competence positively predicted all approach goals and task-avoidance; an entity theory of ability positively predicted other-referenced goals; an incremental theory of ability positively predicted all task and self goals; task-approach and self-approach positively predicted intrinsic motivation and task absorption; approach goals and task-avoidance positively predicted intrinsic motivation; and other-avoidance positively predicted anxiety.ConclusionThe FAGIQ-6 can reliably measure goal involvement in specific achievement situations and thus enables new avenues of research on the dynamics of achievement goals.     

Ecological Design-Based Research for Computer Science Education: Affordances and Effectivities for Elementary School Students

Abstract

This article integrates an ecological approach and design-based research in computer science education research by following the simultaneous development of a computer programming environment and curriculum for elementary school age children over 2-1/2 years. We studied the alignment of the affordances provided by the programming environment and curriculum with the effectivities of students in 4th through 6th grade (9-12 years old). We used the computer science concept of initializing as a tracer idea and both qualitative and quantitative data to identify mismatches between the affordances provided by our programming environment and the learners’ effectivities. These included requisite mathematical skills, confusion between resetting and setting up, and incorrectly assuming that features of the programming environment conveyed information. We then describe how we addressed the mismatches by removing or adding functionality to the programming environment, adding signifiers, adapting the curriculum to include scaffolding related to the effectivities, or removing activities.     

An explanation of the hard-easy effect in studies of realism of confidence in one's general knowledge

Abstract

Recent ecological approaches to realism of confidence in general knowledge (Gigerenzer, Hoffrage & Kleinbolting, 1991; Juslin, in press) argue that people are well-calibrated to their natural environments. Both the overconfidence phenomenon and the hard-easy effect are explained as consequences of informal experimenter-guided selection of almanac items, selection that changes the validity of the cues used by the subjects for selection of answers to the items. The paper presents the ecological approach and reports an experiment showing that: (1) when the objects of judgement are selected randomly from a natural environment, people are well-calibrated; (2) when more and less difficult item samples are created by selecting items with more and less familiar contents, i.e. in a way that does not affect the validity of the cues, no hard-easy effect is observed, and people are well-calibrated both for hard and easy item samples. These results, predicted by the ecological approach, provide further support for the ecological approach to realism of confidence.     

Learning climate,academic competence,and anxiety during the transition to middle school: Parental attachment as a protective factor

IntroductionThe contribution of the learning climate and attachment security to students’ academic competence and anxiety symptoms during the middle school transition has not been examined.ObjectivesThe main purpose of this prospective study was to examine the complementary contributions of these two contextual determinants. A second goal was to test the moderating effect of attachment security perceived by students in the relationship between the learning climate and both outcomes (academic competence, anxiety symptoms).Method and resultsParticipants were 627 students in Grade 6 (54% girls). Latent structural modeling analysis revealed that a mastery climate predicted higher levels of perceived academic competence perceived in the first year of middle school, although attachment security to the mother in Grade 6 predicted perceived academic competence and anxiety symptoms in the first year of middle school. A moderating effect was found, in which greater attachment security to the mother appeared to lessen the relationship between a performance climate and anxiety symptoms during the middle school transition.ConclusionThe results suggest that attachment security to the mother predicts perceived academic competence and anxiety symptoms during the middle school transition. Additionally, attachment security to the mother can moderate the potentially harmful effects of a learning climate emphasizing social comparison and performance on anxiety.     

A Cluster Analytic Investigation of Victimization Among High School Students

ABSTRACT

Victimization experiences of 504 racially diverse high school students were evaluated. Questionnaires assessed sexual harassment victimization, psychological and physical abuse in dating relationships, peer victimization, childhood sexual abuse, school belonging, and psychological functioning. Results showed that 70% of students had been sexually harassed by peers during the past year, 40% had experienced physical dating violence, 66% had been victimized by emotional abuse in dating relationships, and 54% had been bullied. A cluster analysis of victimization measures revealed heterogeneity in victimization experiences; five distinct groups of students emerged. Individuals who had experienced multiple forms of victimization tended to have lower psychological well-being and a diminished sense of school belonging. Results are discussed in terms of implications for clinical and school interventions.     

HOW ELEMENTARY STUDENTS REFERRED FOR COMPENSATORY READING INSTRUCTION PERFORM ON SCHOOL‐BASED MEASURES OF WORD RECOGNITION,FLUENCY, AND COMPREHENSION

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine how elementary students referred for compensatory remedial reading services performed on several key reading process variables: total word recognition errors while reading brief passages, significant or meaning‐changing errors, comprehension, and reading rate. In order to maximize ecological validity, the students were assessed by the school‐based reading specialist/teacher using assessment materials normally used in diagnostic evaluations of students referred for compensatory reading instruction. Although performance across all variables was below instructional levels for students’ assigned grades, both word recognition variables and comprehension approached instructional levels. Reading rate alone was consistently and significantly below several previously identified standards of performance. We feel that poor performance in rate may be an indicator of fluency problems (including automaticity in word recognition and text phrasing). Suggestions for instruction to overcome difficulties in fluency were presented.     

Project Destiny

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders present significant challenges to educators and community professionals in contemporary practice. At the same time, parents of middle school students experience parenting as a difficult time period that is laden with a variety of feelings. A central strategy for assisting both parents and professionals during this developmental period is to work collaboratively with one another. This sharing of ideas and strategies is helpful in attaining goals for students that are usually not met in the absence of cooperative team work. Furthermore, the recommended direction for service provision for these youth is to work through a coordinated, interagency approach across the community.

This paper presents the first year's methods and initial findings from Project Destiny, a three year study that is attempting to enhance the knowledge and strategies of professionals, parents and community teams for working with middle school students having emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD). Initial results from the project's work in three communities suggest that teachers at the middle schools have been interested and able in acquiring new knowledge and skills for working with the youth. These gains were evident in self-evaluations completed by the teachers. Additionally, 60% of parents of youth with EBD were recruited and participate regularly in parent support and advocacy groups. Efforts to integrate the project with local interagency teams have been somewhat less successful due to the current political and economic climate that has eliminated essential resource personnel on local teams. The Project Destiny model has merit for further replication and further analysis of student performance and will be completed in the final year of the project.     

Do students with different motives for physical education respond differently to autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching?

ObjectivesThis study examined whether the effects of autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching in physical education depend on students' motivation.DesignA preliminary, cross-sectional study relied on questionnaires administered to teachers. The main study involved an experimental design with students.MethodsIn the preliminary study, 95 teachers reported on their beliefs regarding the effectiveness of autonomy supportive and controlling teaching styles for students with different motivational profiles. In the main study, 320 students completed a questionnaire on motivation and were then randomly assigned to an experimental condition in which they watched video-based vignettes of either an autonomy-supportive or a controlling style. After the experimental induction, students completed questionnaires on need satisfaction, need frustration, engagement, and oppositional defiance.ResultsTeachers tend to believe that autonomy support and control work best for students scoring high on, respectively, autonomous and controlled motivation. The main study, however, showed that the moderating role of student motivation in the effect of teaching style was limited. The few interactions obtained suggested that even students with poor quality motivation report that they would benefit from an autonomy-supportive approach and suffer from a controlling approach. Students in the autonomy-supportive, relative to the controlling, condition reported more engagement and less oppositional defiance, effects that were mediated by need satisfaction and frustration.ConclusionsAll students, independent of their motivational regulations when entering the experiment, reported that they would be more engaged and would show less oppositional defiance when they would interact with an autonomy-supportive instead of a controlling teacher during PE.