scholarly journals Facets of primary and secondary school students' wellbeing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis of Austrian and Italian educational policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
Denis Francesconi ◽  
Barbara Gross ◽  
Evi Agostini
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
School Systems ◽  
School Students ◽  
Educational Structures

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the limits of current social and educational structures. In most countries, COVID-19 has compromised the wellbeing of students, but also of their families and teachers. During the first wave of the pandemic, school systems all over the world had to respond quickly and appropriately to the systemic shock it represented, and countries put a variety of different policy measures in place to tackle its extensive impact. The theoretical framework adopted in this paper is a critical perspective and the policy framework is the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); it provides a qualitative analysis of selected educational policies deployed by Italy and Austria to support the wellbeing of school pupils. The two countries deployed different education governance and emergency management strategies, in particular during the first wave of the pandemic. We applied our theoretical and policy frameworks to qualitative content analysis of educational policy documents from February to the end of August 2020, aiming to evaluate the responses to crisis of different education systems and potentially to support their improvement. The overall research question was: How did educational policies in Italy and Austria support students' wellbeing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic? The results confirm that the Italian and Austrian systems had different strategies to support wellbeing and put different initiatives in place. However, educational policies in both countries, and especially Italy, had a stronger focus on the physical wellbeing of individual students during the period under study, and tended to neglect social wellbeing. The paper concludes by reflecting on the opportunities presented by this emergency for school systems to position wellbeing (in the broader sense of eudaimonic wellbeing) at the centre of educational policy

scholarly journals Child Poverty and Food Scheme in Rural South African Schools: The Prospects and Limits Towards Improving the Emotional Well-Being of The Elementary School Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (08) ◽  
pp. 1852-1859
Author(s):  
Felix Ifeanyichukwu Okoye ◽  
Prince Amartey Mensah
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
South African ◽  
Elementary School Students ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The research examines the impact of poverty on the emotional well-being of elementary school students in South African rural communities. In order to understand this phenomenon, the study investigates the question on: how does poverty affect the emotional well-being of elementary school students in South Africa? The non-empirical study explores the literature from related studies to answer the research question. The literature review critically examines the effect of poverty on the emotional well-being of children, as well as the strategies used by the government to alleviate the poverty impact at rural school children. The strategies were found to have implementation deficiencies which enables the researcher to argue on the importance of improving the implementation strategies. The   finding also reveals that despite the government’s interventions to curb the problem of child poverty, yet there are policy implementation “gaps” here and there. The study recommends more study and consistent evaluation of the respective policy framework. It also recommends that the socio-economic status of people leaving in the rural area should be improved and the affected students should be engaged, and proper development response should be executed to guarantee a sustainable food security. Finally, more study and consistent evaluation of the feeding-scheme programme or policy is a sinequanon. The recommendation for Covid-19 is added for publication purposes.

scholarly journals Physical Computing Strategy to Support Students’ Coding Literacy: An Educational Experiment with Arduino Boards

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1830
Author(s):  
Chih-Chao Chung ◽  
Shi-Jer Lou
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Program Design ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Control Group ◽  
School Students ◽  
Physical Computing ◽  
Technical High School ◽  
Experimental Group

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of introduction of the physical computing strategy of Arduino Boards in a program design course on coding literacy and the effectiveness of the application in technical high school students. This study selected two classes of twelfth-grade students enrolled in a program design course at a technical high school in Southern Taiwan as the samples. One class was the control group (43 students), and the other was the experimental group (42 students). During the 18-week course, the control group carried out a DBL (design-based learning) programming project, and the experimental group carried out the DBL programming project using the physical computing strategy of Arduino boards. Pre- and posttests and a questionnaire survey were carried out, while ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) was used for evaluation purposes. In the course, students in the experimental group were randomly selected for semi-structured interviews to understand their learning status and to perform qualitative analysis and summarization. This study proposed the physical computing strategy of Arduino boards, featuring staged teaching content, practical teaching activities, and real themes and problem-solving tasks. The results show that the coding literacy of students in the different teaching strategy groups was significantly improved. However, in the Arduino course on DBL programming, the students in the experimental group had a significantly higher learning efficiency in coding literacy than those in the control group. Moreover, according to the qualitative analysis using student interviews, Arduino boards were found to improve students’ motivation to learn coding and to aid in systematically guiding students toward improving their coding literacy by combining their learning with DBL theory. Thus, Arduino technology can be effectively used to improve students’ programming abilities and their operational thinking in practically applying programming theories.

scholarly journals Are Cross-Border Classes Feasible for Students to Collaborate in the Analysis of Energy Efficiency Strategies for Socioeconomic Development While Keeping CO2 Concentration Controlled?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1584
Author(s):  
Roberto Araya ◽  
Pedro Collanqui
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Concept Maps ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
School Students ◽  
Improve Energy Efficiency ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Science Classes

Education is critical for improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 concentration, but collaboration between countries is also critical. It is a global problem in which we cannot isolate ourselves. Our students must learn to collaborate in seeking solutions together with others from other countries. Thus, the research question of this study is whether interactive cross-border science classes with energy experiments are feasible and can increase awareness of energy efficiency among middle school students. We designed and tested an interactive cross-border class between Chilean and Peruvian eighth-grade classes. The classes were synchronously connected and all students did experiments and answered open-ended questions on an online platform. Some of the questions were designed to check conceptual understanding whereas others asked for suggestions of how to develop their economies while keeping CO2 air concentration at acceptable levels. In real time, the teacher reviewed the students’ written answers and the concept maps that were automatically generated based on their responses. Students peer-reviewed their classmates’ suggestions. This is part of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) education project on energy efficiency using APEC databases. We found high levels of student engagement, where students discussed not only the cross-cutting nature of energy, but also its relation to socioeconomic development and CO2 emissions, and the need to work together to improve energy efficiency. In conclusion, interactive cross-border science classes are a feasible educational alternative, with potential as a scalable public policy strategy for improving awareness of energy efficiency among the population.

Violence committed and victimization in courtship in adolescents: Does gender matter?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
E A Villegas Vázquez ◽  
J C Leyva Chipol ◽  
K C Cervantes Gómez ◽  
S I Valencia Almeida ◽  
F G Márquez Celedonio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
School Students ◽  
History Of ◽  
Del Rio

Abstract Introduction Within the current context in our Mexico, major states of violence for women have been manifested on a daily basis without having any more reason than being female. Veracruz is the first place in feminicides in Mexico with a rate of 3.44 per 100 thousand women. Research question: What is the intensity of the violence committed and victimization in the courtship of young students of the Upper Middle level in the Veracruz - Boca del Río area, according to their gender? Material and Methods A cross-sectional, prospective, observational and analytical study was carried out from December to February 2020. Middle-high school students from the Veracruz-Boca del Río region were included, who had a dating relationship and were excluded those who did not accept to participate. The variable “violence committed and victimization in courtship” was quantified with the CADRI instrument. The spss v22 software was used, Sudent's T was calculated for independent samples, with statistical significance p < 0.05. Results 741 students were included. There was a prevalence of violence committed of 86.2% and victimization of 89.2%. Of the total number of students who suffered and committed violence, women occupy 66.3% and 66.7% respectively. There is a difference in the intensity of violence between women and men in verbal-emotional violence (4.5 ± 4.2 vs. 3.4 ± 3.4), physical violence (0.6 ± 1.3 vs. 0.36 ± 3.6) and violence in general (5.7 ± 5.7 vs 4.3 ± 4.8) (p < 0.05), while victimization scores do not make a difference between both genders (p > 0.05). The history of psychological and sexual violence in previous relationships, as well as sexual violence in daily life are more frequent in the female sex (p < 0.05) Conclusions The violence generated is more intense in women, however, they also have a history of having suffered violence more frequently in previous relationships and in their daily lives. Key messages Women suffer more aggressions at different stages of their lives, which may increase the risk to tolerate aggressions or be more aggressive or suffer mental health problems. We must study if the violence generated by women is a response to a previous aggression from their boyfriend.

Challenges of being new to Canada: considerations for physical activity

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberley D. Curtin ◽  
Christina C. Loitz ◽  
Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere ◽  
Ernest Nene Khalema
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Multicultural Health

Immigrants to Canada are less likely to be physically active compared with non-immigrants, and the interrelations between personal and environmental factors that influence physical activity for immigrants are largely unexplored. The goal of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how the experience of being new to Canada impacts opportunities and participation in physical activity. Two focus group interviews with immigrants to Canada were conducted. The first group ( n=7) included multicultural health brokers. The second group ( n=14) included English as a second language students. Qualitative content analysis was used to determine three themes consistent with the research question: transition to Canadian life, commitments and priorities, and accessibility. Discussion was framed using a social ecological model. Implications for practice and policy are suggested including enhanced community engagement, and organizational modifications. Overall, the development and implementation of physical activity policies and practices for newcomers to Canada should be centered on newcomers’ perspectives and experiences.

Negotiating the Global and National: Immigrant and Dominant-Culture Adolescents’ Vocabularies of Citizenship in a Transnational World

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (11) ◽  
pp. 2589-2625 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Myers ◽  
Husam A. Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Research Question ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
School Students ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
National Debate

Background/Context The current national debate over the purposes of civic education is largely tied to outdated notions of citizenship that overlook its changing nature under globalization. Civic education is based on a legalistic understanding of citizenship that emphasizes patriotism and the structures and functions of government. This study examined adolescents’ civic beliefs and affiliations, drawing on theories of transnational and global citizenship. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose was to examine diverse adolescents’ vocabularies of citizenship, a concept that captures the tensions in their civic beliefs and affiliations. Their vocabularies were explored in terms of two topics at the intersection of national and global affiliations: universal human rights and global citizenship. The central question asked was: How do adolescents from immigrant backgrounds understand the tensions between national and global civic affiliations, and do they differ from dominant-culture adolescents’ understandings? Setting The research setting was the Pennsylvania Governor's School for International Studies, a 5-week summer program for high school students that emphasizes current scholarship and skills in international affairs, cultural studies, and foreign language. Research Design A mixed-method case study design was employed to collect detailed and rich data on the students’ beliefs about citizenship. Findings/Results The findings showed that the students from immigrant backgrounds favored universal positions and were the only students to call attention to national economic inequalities. In contrast, a majority of the dominant-culture students gave a more central role to national affiliations. However, over half of the students switched between universal and nationally oriented positions for the issues of global citizenship and human rights. It is argued that these switches represent a strong indication of the tensions in civic affiliations in light of globalization. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings presented here suggest that the question of either national- or global-oriented civic education makes little sense. This research suggests that differentiated forms of civic education are needed if all youth will have access to full citizenship and the range of civic affiliations needed in the world. Two approaches for reconceptualizing civic education are proposed: Civic education curricula should focus on the intersection of national with global issues and affiliations, and civic education should address, in addition to civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge, a conscious effort to help adolescents build flexible and multiple civic identities.

After the Blackbird Whistles: Listening to Silence in Classrooms

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 2833-2849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Schultz
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
School Students ◽  
Student Talk ◽  
The Individual

Background/Context Students spend a large part of their time in schools in silence. However, teachers tend to spend most of their time attending to student talk. Anthropological and linguistic research has contributed to an understanding of silence in particular communities, offering explanations for students’ silence in school. This research raised questions about the silence of marginalized groups of students in classrooms, highlighting teachers’ role in this silencing and drawing on limited meanings of silence. More recently, research on silence has conceptualized silence as a part of a continuum. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this project was to review existing literature and draw on two longitudinal research studies to understand the functions and uses of silence in everyday classroom practice. I explore the question, How might paying attention to the productivity of student silence and the possibilities it contains add to our understanding of student silence in educational settings? Silence holds multiple meanings for individuals within and across racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. However, in schools, silence is often assigned a limited number of meanings. This article seeks to add to educators’ and researchers’ tools for interpreting classroom silence. Research Design The article is based on two longitudinal qualitative studies. The first was an ethnographic study of the literacy practices of high school students in a multiracial high school on the West Coast. This study was designed with the goal of learning about adolescents’ literacy practices in and out of school during their final year of high school and in their first few years as high school graduates. The second study documents discourses of race and race relations in a postdesegregated middle school. The goal of this 3-year study was to gather the missing student perspectives on their racialized experiences in school during the desegregation time period. Conclusions/Recommendations Understanding the role of silence for the individual and the class as a whole is a complex process that may require new ways of conceptualizing listening. I conclude that an understanding of the meanings of silence through the practice of careful listening and inquiry shifts a teacher's practice and changes a teacher's understanding of students’ participation. I suggest that teachers redefine participation in classrooms to include silence.

scholarly journals Gender Advantages and Gender Normality in the Views of Estonian Secondary School Students

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiiu Kuurme ◽  
Gertrud Kasemaa
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
School Life ◽  
School Students ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Central Condition

Abstract The aim of the study on Estonian secondary school students was to obtain an overview of the gender-related views and experiences of the everyday school life by students, and to analyse the school-related factors in the development of gender roles and gender-related expectations. We view gender equality as a central condition for social sustainability. In the article, we focus on the perceptions and interpretations of the so-called normal boy and girl and the advantages of both genders at school. We analyse the experiences and the views of young people regarding their gender positioning in everyday school life vis-à-vis their views on gender equality. The survey used in the study consisted of 50 questions, mainly open-ended. It was conducted in 10 basic and secondary schools in grades 7, 9, 10 and 12, with a total number of 649 respondents. The open answers were analysed by applying the method of thematic qualitative content analysis. The findings reveal that the perceived advantages of both genders at school and the behaviour considered as normal at school are strongly related to traditional gender stereotypes. At the same time, students claim that they are primarily people with equal opportunities. We conclude that the belief in the ideology of gender equality outweighs personal gender-related experiences.

scholarly journals High School Students Voice Regarding School-based Physical Activity: Perceived Barriers and Facilitating Factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Dubuc ◽  
Seira Fortin-Suzuki ◽  
Sylvie Beaudoin ◽  
Felix Berrigan ◽  
Sylvain Turcotte
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
School Students ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Physical Activity Interventions ◽  
School Based ◽  
Facilitating Factors

Objective: To contribute to the development of tailored school-based physical activity interventions, in this study, we aimed to identify the perceived facilitating factors and barriers of high school students toward their physical activity in the school environment. Methods: A total of 139 students from 4 different high schools completed an online questionnaire comprising open-ended questions on their perceived facilitating factors and barriers toward their physical activity at school. Thereafter, 100 of these students participated in one of the 16 focus groups designed to deepen students’ responses regarding their perceived facilitating factors and barriers. Qualitative content analysis was performed to classify data according to the Social-Ecological Model. Results: Through questionnaires, students mostly identified intrapersonal elements as facilitating factors and barriers to their practice of physical activity, as opposed to institutional factors during the focus groups. Girls strongly valued the characteristics of the interventions and of the involved school stakeholders. Conclusions: Our results allow us to qualify the current understanding of high school students’ perceived facilitating factors and barriers toward school-based physical activity and strengthen the relevance of surveying students prior to the development and implementation of physical activity interventions.

scholarly journals Positive Classroom Management: Effects of Disruption Management Climate on Behaviour and Satisfaction with Teacher // Clima positivo de gestión del aula: efectos del clima de gestión de la disrupción en el comportamiento y en la satisfacción con el profesorado

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Simón ◽  
Jesús Alonso-Tapia
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Disruption Management ◽  
Disruptive Behaviour ◽  
School Students ◽  
Study Analyse ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Perceived Change

This study analyse the role of disruption management strategies and its effects, in interaction with the classroom motivational climate (CMC), on the decrease of disruptive behaviour and on the perception of teaching quality. For this purpose, the Disruption Management Climate Questionnaire (DMCQ) was developed. A total of 827 Secondary-School students formed the sample. To validate the DMCQ, confirmatory factor and regression analyses were realised. Children’s attribution to teacher’s coping strategies of decrease in disruptive behaviour, and of perceived change in satisfaction with teacher’s work as an index of teaching quality, were used as external criteria. Results support hypotheses related to DMCQ structure, and to its role as predictor of the degree of disruption decrease, but not the hypothesis related to satisfaction with teachers’ work, that depends mainly on CMC. These results underlie the importance of acting on DMCQ and CMC components to favour the teacher practices.

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