Does the socioeconomic positioned neighbourhood matter? Norwegian adolescents’ perceptions of barriers and facilitators for physical activity

Background and aims: A higher proportion of adolescents from lower socioeconomic position families tend to be less physically active than their counterparts from higher socioeconomic position families. More research is needed to understand the causes of these differences, particularly the influence of the neighbourhood environment. This qualitative study aims to explore how adolescents and their parents from higher and lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods perceive the social, organisational and physical environment influencing adolescents’ physical activity behaviours. Method: We conducted six semi-structured focus groups with 35 13–14-year-olds and eight interviews with some of their parents. The interviewees were recruited from one higher and two lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods in Oslo, Norway. Theme-based coding was used for analysis, and the results discussed in light of an ecological framework. Results: The results indicate that factors like social norms in a neighbourhood could shape adolescents’ physical activity behaviour, and a social norm of an active lifestyle seemed to be an essential facilitator in the higher socioeconomic neighbourhood. Higher availability of physical activity and high parental engagement seemed to facilitate higher physical activity in this neighbourhood. In the lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods, the availability of local organised physical activity and volunteer engagement from parents varied. Programmes from the municipality and volunteer organisations seemed to influence and be essential for adolescents’ physical activity behaviour in these neighbourhoods. Conclusions: The results illustrate the complexity of behaviour and environment interaction, and a limitation in explaining the phenomenon by focusing primarily on the individual level rather than an ecological perspective.

Rethinking of The Zone of Proximal Development: The Role of Parental Engagement in Children's Language Learning Skills

The present research investigated the efficacy of parent engagement in children's learning and achievement in the English language. It is emphasized that adult guidance in foreign language learning cannot necessarily play an influential role in children's zone of proximal development (ZPD). It seems that parents or adults should enjoy relative linguistic skills, while in Vygotsky's theory, there is ambiguity over some concepts such as adult guidance characteristics.The statistical society consisted of sixty Iranian children ranging from 9 to 10, divided randomly into three groups of experimental 1, experimental 2, and control. Children received face-to-face education while Telegram was used for their parents. The research results showed significantly more learning, skill training, parent involvement, and shared activities between children and parents in the experimental1 and experimental 2 groups compared to the control group. Moreover, a positive correlation is found between parent involvement and children's achievement in all three groups. The results also showed that parents' involvement and teaching involvement, and language skills had the most influence on parents' involvement. Furthermore, teaching engagement to parents had the most significant influence on children's activities. In addition, children's activities and language skill training had the most influence on their learning.

Randomized Control Trials with Schools: Handling Real-World Practicalities and Problems

There is a need for more evidence-based research in education and research involving the use of randomized control trials (RCTs) to examine the efficacy of interventions. However, the difficulty of conducting interventional research in educational settings is often less acknowledged. This article provides practical examples of the issues encountered when implementing a cognitive science informed intervention and the solutions that were successfully implemented. This article will also highlight the importance of designing a multifaceted intervention while considering the cost of the intervention itself, especially when working with hard-to-reach families. It is helpful to make use of existing classroom resources in the intervention to lower costs. Additionally, being consistent and attentive to the developmental stage of the children and supporting parental engagement are two aspects that are crucial to the implementation of the intervention. Researchers would benefit from conducting workshops and public engagement events and can use these opportunities to provide practical strategies about how to support the development of children’s skills in the home environment. In-person interactions are key as parents can ask any questions that they may have, and it can help to dispel any mistrust that they may have with the research process. The article also provides suggestions for building the researcher-practitioner relationship from study onset, including being flexible and accommodating towards the changes in the school context and communicating effectively with teachers. Lastly, the article outlines the benefit of using scaffolding, positive reinforcement, and play-based learning over the course of the intervention to support child outcomes.

ONLINE LEARNING IN PANDEMIC - AN ANALYSIS OF PARENTAL PERSPECTIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than 1.6 billion children and youth to be out of school in 161 countries. The crisis has highlighted flaws in educational programs while also providing opportunities to reshape schooling. Climate change, technological disruptions, and globalized communication are all increasing the likelihood of such crises. These issues have given rise to doubts and debates regarding the dilution of the educational systems and dubiousness being felt by the parents regarding the same. As a result of the transition of homes into classrooms, parental engagement and parental involvement have emerged as major influencing factors of online education. As parents are the major stakeholders in the online educational format. They have always played an important role in their children's education. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the parent's position has shifted dramatically. Parents now bear a significant amount of responsibility for their children's education. This has given rise to conflicting emotions in the parents regarding the dilution of the education system and more importantly the onus of child’s education shifting to the parents thereby reducing the responsibility of the schools and teachers. Often parents have been heard expressing their resentment at the reconfigured roles and responsibilities caused by the shift. The present study intends to focus in their perspectives on online education. The present study attempts to understand the dilemma being faced by the parents.

Covid 19 and Stress among Students

In today's culture, there are numerous factors that may act as a stress catalyst, making stress a big aspect of one's life. Covid-19 has wrought tremendous havoc all over the planet. Stress isn't just an issue for adults; it's also growing more common among children of all ages. Proper stress management is incredibly difficult to achieve since parents do not have the time to adequately care for their children. Most people assume that stress can only be caused by a traumatic event, but the fact is that tension may also be caused by a good experience. There are numerous causes of student stress that can lead to stress in a student's life, including misbehavior between the student and the teacher, which can lead to increased tension and stress. A lack of parental engagement also led in attacks on all pupils. Children in general do not pay attention to their eating habits, making them more vulnerable to stress in general. Inadequate sleep is also a source of stress, and students all over the world suffer as a result. Students' capacity to manage stress is hit or miss.

Distance Education and Parental Role, in Italy. Evidence-Based Reflections from an International Survey, after the First Lockdown

This paper presents the analysis of the data from the International Covid-19 Impact on Parental Engagement Study (ICIPES) 2020, an international survey investigating the ways in which parents and caregivers were able to build capacity to engage with children’s learning during the period of social distancing arising from the global Covid-19 pandemic. The survey was coordinated by the University of Bath and involved 23 partner countries, among which the “IUL- Italian University Line” representing Italy. The domains investigated were parental engagement; school support for parents and children; home-schooling and family life balance, and confidence in the use of technology. The pandemic has shown several obstacles that families had to face daily in their attempt to educate their children, especially in a period where no previous models could be taken as a reference point. Therefore, it represents a unique historical opportunity for researchers and policymakers to understand all the lessons learnt from this global emergency and work closely with families, to support them inengaging with children’s learning. The Authors of this contributions, as well as the other partners worldwide, believe that school-family relations are far from being collaborative and supportive, especially in certain age levels, and that much needs to be done to co-design learning opportunities bearing in mind a more ecological vision, with formal, informal and non-formal learning occasions be intertwined and interconnected. In sight of the abovementioned framework, the analysis shown in this paper focuses on the Italian data set.

Behind Successful Refugee Parental Engagement: The Barriers and Challenges

This two-year study examined the barriers and challenges encountered by refugee parents as they negotiate their children’s successful transition into a new school system. The researchers sought to determine what can be learned from parent and educator experiences of these obstacles in order to optimize parent–teacher collaboration for refugee families. Contextualized within a LEAD (Literacy, English and Academic Development) program in an urban centre in Western Canada, the study triangulated data from focus groups comprising Syrian and Iraqi Arabic-speaking families, teachers, and settlement workers. The data were qualitatively analyzed by incorporating Epstein’s six types of parental involvement, a culturally responsive model accounting for parental engagement within the context of home-school-community collaboration (Epstein & Sheldon, 2006). From this model, the researchers make recommendations that include province-wide initiatives to support leadership and teacher training, mandated programming to support refugee and immigrant youth, and the establishment and expansion of board and in-school settlement best practices province-wide.

Teaching and Learning in COVID-19 Lockdown in Scotland: Teachers’ Engaged Pedagogy

This paper reports on a study of teachers’ perceptions of teaching and learning in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of engaged pedagogy and the ideas of bell hooks. It aimed to explore the different ways that teachers experienced teaching and learning during this time and the impact this may have had on teacher identity. Sixty teachers and head teachers were interviewed using MS Teams in the period April-June, 2020. For this paper, 18 transcripts were analyzed by members of the research team. Four key themes emerged from the interview data: Working from home, parental engagement, teacher identity, and changes in pedagogy. Each of these themes were discussed in terms of concepts such as engaged pedagogy, agency, self-actualization, recognition and boundary transgression situated in the work of bell hooks. The idea of boundaries wove itself throughout our data as teachers expressed how the transgression of boundaries was occurring in multiple, and often contradictory, ways in pedagogical, professional, institutional and personal spaces and systems. We see in our data evidence of a shift in practice not just in the way teachers are ‘doing’ education but also, perhaps, in the way that teachers are ‘being’ as educators as they adapt to different ways of knowing. This study provides a unique exploration of a time and space in Scotland during 2020. However, the themes and understandings that emerged are of relevance to educators internationally. Schools across the world were impacted by various lockdowns imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and teachers faced a common set of challenges that were resolved via re-negotiation and recognition of individual and collective agency to create new pedagogies.

Primary school staff perspectives of school closures due to COVID-19, experiences of schools reopening and recommendations for the future: A qualitative survey in Wales

School closures due to the COVID-19 global pandemic are likely to have a range of negative consequences spanning the domains of child development, education and health, in addition to the widening of inequalities and inequities. Research is required to improve understanding of the impact of school closures on the education, health and wellbeing of pupils and school staff, the challenges posed during face-to-face reopening and importantly to identify how the impacts of these challenges can be addressed going forward to inform emerging policy and practice. This qualitative study aimed to reflect on the perspectives and experiences of primary school staff (pupils aged 3–11) in Wales regarding school closures and the initial face-to-face reopening of schools and to identify recommendations for the future. A total of 208 school staff completed a national online survey through the HAPPEN primary school network, consisting of questions about school closures (March to June 2020), the phased face-to-face reopening of schools (June to July 2020) and a return to face-to-face education. Thematic analysis of survey responses highlighted that primary school staff perceive that gaps in learning, health and wellbeing have increased and inequalities have widened during school closures. Findings from this study identified five recommendations; (i) prioritise the health and wellbeing of pupils and staff; (ii) focus on enabling parental engagement and support; (iii) improve digital competence amongst pupils, teachers and parents; (iv) consider opportunities for smaller class sizes and additional staffing; and (v) improve the mechanism of communication between schools and families, and between government and schools.