Mediating Role of School Variables in Anticipating Blocks and ConsequencesCreativity among Rural Adolescents

Each developmental stage upholds new and its own unique competency requirements,challenges, struggles and opportunities for personal human growth. When an individual isin their early adolescence phase, his/her creativity is greatly influenced by its surroundingsand school environment is one of those crucial factors. Hence, the present study wasplanned to explore the mediating role of school environment in students’ blocks andconsequences creativity. The primary data was collected from 300 academically bright ruralyoung adolescents. Z-test and ANOVA were administered to discover the influence ofindependent variables (school environment) on the dependent variables (blocks andconsequences creativity). Results elucidated significant differences in blocks fluency,consequences originality and consequences creativity across school type, academic classand teaching method employed by the teachers. Blocks flexibility had significant differencesacross school type and academic class. Blocks originality was observed to have significantdifferences across academic class and consecutive academic record. It was revealed thatblocks creativity had significant differences across all the independent variables.Consequences fluency of the students had significant differences across school type,academic class and consecutive academic record.

What Explains Vietnam’s Exceptional Performance in Education Relative to Other Countries? Analysis of the Young Lives Data from Ethiopia, Peru, India and Vietnam

Vietnam’s strong performance on the 2012 and 2015 PISA assessments has led to interest in what explains the strong academic performance of Vietnamese students. Analysis of the PISA data has not shed much light on this issue. This paper analyses a much richer data set, the Young Lives data for Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, to investigate the reasons for the strong academic performance of 15-year-olds in Vietnam. Differences in observed child and household characteristics explain 37-39% of the gap between Vietnam and Ethiopia, while observed school variables explain only about 3-4 additional percentage points (although an important variable, math teachers’ pedagogical skills, is not available for Ethiopia). Differences in observed child and household characteristics explain very little of the gaps between Vietnam and India and between Vietnam and Peru, yet one observed school variable has a large explanatory effect: primary school math teachers’ pedagogical skills. It explains about 10-12% of the gap between Vietnam and India, raising the overall explained portion to 14-21% of the gap. For Peru, it explains most (65-84%) of the gap.

Influence of Age and School Type on Reform Practices Performed by School Heads

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of implementing reform practices and their resulting stress and to explore the influence of age, gender, school type and tracking type on performing reform practices and the perceived stress in implementing reforms among school leaders. A quantitative research design was used with respondents sampled from among senior high school heads. The data were analysed using multinomial logistic regression to examine the influence of demographic (age and gender) and school variables (school type and tracking type) on implementing reform and its perceived stressfulness. The findings showed that on implementing reforms and its inherent stressfulness, a majority of school heads ‘always’ perform reform duties and a greater proportion reported high-stress levels in implementing reforms from 'somewhat causes’ stress to ‘causes great’ stress. Regarding demographic and school variables, age was a significant negative predictor of implementing reforms, indicating that younger heads were more likely to perform reform functions than older heads while school type significantly influences stress level in implementing reforms, implying that heads in boarding schools were more likely to experience higher stress levels in implementing reforms than heads in day schools. The authors recommended continuous in-service training for school heads, the practice of distributive leadership style and provision of infrastructure to phase out the double-track (shift system) in some schools. Received: 4 June 2020 / Accepted: 20 August 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021

Psychometric Examination of the Abbreviated Version of the Dual School Climate and School Identification Measure-Student (SCASIM-St15) in a Sample of Chilean Adolescents

School climate is a multidimensional construct that has been related to a series of psychological, social, and school variables. The dual school climate and school identification measure-student (SCASIM-St) is a measure that has a multidimensional factor structure, with four first-order factors and a second-order factor, plus an independent factor that evaluates school identification. However, the SCASIM-St is long, with 38 items measuring school climate. The first objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of reliability and validity of the abbreviated version of the dual school climate and school identification measure-student (SCASIM-St-15), for use in contexts with time limitations or for explanatory studies that need to apply multiple instruments simultaneously. The second objective was to analyze the degree of invariance for the groups: sex, type of education, and age. The sample was made up of 2,044 students of both sexes (49.1% women and 50.9% men), with a mean age of 14.64 (SD = 0.718), representing 27 secondary schools in Chile. The results indicated that the SCASIM-St15 presents adequate indicators of reliability and construct validity. Evidence of external criterion validity confirmed significant associations with the Attitudes to Institutional Authority in Adolescence Scale measure. The results of the factorial invariance analysis indicate that the SCASIM-St15 remains stable up to the level of metric invariance for the variable sex and the level of scalar invariance for the variables type of education and age. The study concluded that despite the significant decrease in the number of items, the SCASIM-St15 measures school climate in a reliable and valid way, without losing its theoretical and conceptual robustness.

A Multidimensional and Multilevel Examination of Student Engagement and Secondary School Teachers’ Use of Classroom Management Practices

Student engagement is a multidimensional construct influenced by complex student, classroom, and school factors. Although prior research has examined various dimensions of student engagement, few studies have adopted a multilevel approach to simultaneously incorporate observational measures of classroom practices with student and school factors. The current study examined the association between student self-reported affective and behavioral engagement ( n = 26,849 students) and observed instructional and behavioral classroom management practices within 401 classrooms in 54 high schools. We employed three-level hierarchical linear modeling and included student, classroom, and school variables. Results indicated that observed teacher use of positive behavior supports was positively and significantly associated with student reports of active engagement in the same classroom. Implications for improving teachers’ classroom management practices to promote student engagement are considered.

Principals’ Perceptions of Education Equity: A Mindset for Practice

In an effort to define a principal education equity mindset, we initially identified six essential attributes of the construct and attempted empirically to confirm our definition by gathering a combination of quantitative and qualitative data from 128 principals. We found variations in the expression of the mindset attributes and commitment by principals to create conditions that support success for all students. In addition, we exposed two unanticipated attributes and variations on attribute commitment. The principals’ personal, professional, and school variables were associated with significant differences in the mindset attributes. We provide a discussion of our findings, implications for practice, and directions for future research.