Methodology and Methods of Research on the State and Causes of Academic Failure in Modern Schoolchildren

In this article, the author reveals research methods for working with underperforming students. We conducted an electronic survey (in connection with the pandemic) of students in urban schools and their parents, and each question was analyzed. As diagnostic methods for studying the state and causes of academic failure in modern schoolchildren, the author used various methods: the method of theoretical analysis of scientific, pedagogical, psychological, managerial and methodological literature on the research problem, the method of empirical research, the diagnostic method, the method of pedagogical experiment (ascertaining, forming, control and their description). The study of the reasons for academic failure was carried out in three stages, which differed both substantively and procedurally. The first stage was devoted to a questionnaire survey of students and parents of students in order to identify their interest and participation in general in the upbringing and academic performance of the child. At the second stage, the students' color world analyzer was used. And the final, third stage, contains the application of tests of school anxiety to diagnose the socio-psychological climate. The purpose of the methodology is to identify the level of anxiety in adolescents, localized in three main planes: educational activity, relationships with peers and significance in the eyes of adults and self-image. After all, adolescence is still an insufficiently mature and insufficiently socially matured person; it is a person who is at a special stage in the formation of its most important features and qualities. This stage is the borderline between childhood and adulthood.

Anxiety Reduction and Improved Concentration in Schoolchildren through Wingwave® Coaching

(1) Background: For nearly 20 years, the wingwave® method, which combines elements of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and a muscular strength test, has been used to reduce anxiety and improve relaxation in subjects. Past studies have scientifically evaluated this method in various contexts and have found it to be effective. In this study, we investigated the effects of short-term wingwave® coaching on specific anxiety parameters regarding school, concentration ability, and subjective feelings towards two self-chosen themes in schoolchildren. (2) Methods: A group of 53 schoolchildren aged 11 to 12 years were randomly divided between an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received an intervention of three wingwave® coaching sessions (one hour each). In these sessions, past and present negative feelings towards school as well as psychological resources to face future tasks in school were focused on and utilized. (3) Results: The results showed that the overall text anxiety, manifested anxiety, and dislike of school decreased significantly in the experimental group after the three coaching sessions compared to the control group. Furthermore, both concentration ability and the subjective feeling towards self-chosen subjects improved significantly in the experimental group compared to the control group. (4) Conclusions: Our results indicate that the wingwave® method is an appropriate and effective instrument to reduce school anxiety and to improve concentration performance in schoolchildren—at least in the short and medium term.

Features of physical activity and school anxiety in pupils of the secondary general education school and the cadet corps

Relevance. The relevance of the study is due to the high significance of school anxiety in the formation of psychosomatic diseases and nervous disorders. Identification of risk factors for increased anxiety, one of which is low physical activity, is important for the timely organizing of preventive measures.The aim: to assess the characteristics of physical activity and school anxiety among schoolboys of secondary school and the cadet corps.Materials and methods. The observation group consisted of 47 schoolboys studying in a secondary general school at the age of 13–16; the comparison group consisted of 140 schoolboys of the cadet corps. The comparative assessment of physical activity bases on the analysis of the physical education implementation in educational organizations and the results of a survey according to the author’s questionnaire. A comparison was made of the parameters of bioimpedance analysis (BIA) of body composition, the content of cortisol and serotonin in the blood serum, and indicators of the Phillips school anxiety test.The results. Physical activity in the school system was limited to 3 hours per week, and in the additional education system there are only 14.9 % of schoolboys who devote 6–8 hours a week to sports, which is 3 times less than in the comparison group (46.4 %). Lower values of indicators of physical activity and body composition were found in secondary school boys relative to those in cadet corps (p = 0.015–0.038). The level of cortisol in the blood serum was 1.4 times higher, and the serotonin was 1.2 times less in schoolboys of the schools comparatively to cadets (p = 0.001–0.037). In secondary school schoolboys, relative to cadets, significantly 1.9–3.9 times more often increased values were recorded for the factor general anxiety at school, frustration of the need to achieve success, fear of self-expression, fear of the situation of testing knowledge, fear of not meeting the expectations of others, problems and fears in relations with teachers and general anxiety oppositely directed correlations of weak and moderate strength were established between the frequency and duration of physical education, BIA parameters, cortisol in the blood serum and factors of school anxiety.Conclusion. The values of the factors of school anxiety schoolboys of secondary general school are higher than in boys of the cadet corps and possibly they are associated with irregularity, relatively low duration of physical activity and the degree of development of metabolically active tissues.

Absent on Absenteeism: Academic Silence on Student Absenteeism in Canadian Education

Despite mandatory school attendance policies, many students in Canada are frequently absent from school. Absenteeism is linked to numerous negative educational outcomes and is a growing educational issue internationally. This has lead universities in many countries to study the factors associated with absenteeism in order to reduce it. However, the Canadian educational discourse is largely absent on absenteeism. A review of faculty profiles revealed that no Canadian educational scholar investigates absenteeism as their primary area of research. The lack of empirical knowledge concerning student absenteeism is a contributing factor to the high levels of absenteeism evident in Canada. This article serves as a call to action for Canadian academics to research student absenteeism in order to alleviate the behaviour. Keywords: school attendance, student absenteeism, truancy, school refusal, school anxiety, school withdrawal

The Role of Junior Adolescents’ School Well-Being/Ill-Being Characteristics in School Anxiety Variations

Difficulties that junior adolescents (aged 11–13 years old) experience in terms of academic adaptation, which are indicated through school anxiety and academic wellbeing characteristics, often lead to a dramatic decrease in academic performance, behavioral problems, and deterioration of their health. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the structure of characteristics of school wellbeing/ill-being of junior adolescents and their role in variations of school anxiety, which largely define academic adaptation. In this study, based on positive psychology and a systematic approach, the level of distinctiveness of characteristics of school wellbeing is carried out with the help of comparative analysis; the factor structure of these characteristics is identified; the characteristics of wellbeing and their coordinated combinations (factors) are determined as predictors of school anxiety. The sample consisted of 120 students of the 5th–7th grades, aged M = 11.5; SD = 1.04 (49.2% girls, 50.8% boys) who attended Saratov secondary schools. To study the level of school anxiety, we used the Philips’ School Anxiety Scale (SAS), and indicators of school wellbeing were measured with the original scales developed by the authors of the study. Statistical processing of the results was carried out with regression analysis and factor analysis. The results showed that the school wellbeing of junior adolescents forms a complex structure that includes cognitive, personal, emotional, social, and psychophysiological characteristics of school life. It was found that from 16% up to 53% of the deviation of variables characterizing school anxiety is conditioned by the assessment of variables characterizing emotional states, the ability of self-regulation, cognitive capabilities, and interest in learning. The study determined a high level of tension in adolescents in the field of emotions’ self-regulation, unpleasant physical sensations at school, before and after attending school, in the course of planning their school day and reflecting on educational activities. The most powerful factors of school anxiety in junior adolescents are physical distress, low ability to self-regulate and social adaptation, lack of independence in a learning activity, and personal immaturity.

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTAL WORK AIMED TO IDENTIFY SCHOOL ANXIETY AMONG TEENAGERS

The article describes the concepts of «anxiety» and «school anxiety»: interpretation and development in psychological science. This article studies the reasons and factors of anxiety of school anxiety in teenagers. The relevance of this topic caused by an increasing number of teenagers who get increasing anxiety and experiencing negative emotions. This article identifies the level of school and personal anxiety of teenagers (5th-7th grade) and discusses possible causes of anxiety in this age group. The article presents the results of the work of a school psychologist aimed to identify the level of school anxiety: results of the ascertaining experiment, forming experiment, individual and group consultations with elements of psychological theater, aimed at reducing the high level of anxiety of teenagers. The article describes productive options for teacher-student cooperation aimed to decrease the level of anxiety among teenagers. The article explains the recommendations for formation a psychologically safe educational environment.

Coping with Negative Emotions in Younger Schoolchildren with Disabilities

The article describes theoretical approaches to understanding the emotional sphere of primary school children with disabilities. The research featured the means of relieving negative emotions in younger schoolchildren with special needs. The goal was to identify and test the possibilities of emotional relief in this category of children. The authors determined the situations that can trigger negative emotions in children with special needs during various activities. The negative manifestations of the emotional sphere resulted from the difficulties of adaptation to a school environment, increased school anxiety, and internal conflicts. The authors also conducted a series of experiments to test various methods of emotional relief and their consequences. The methods of targeted influence proved quite efficient.

SOSIALISASI PENTINGNYA KETERAMPILAN SOSIAL GURU DALAM KEGIATAN PEMBELAJARAN UNTUK MENCEGAH KECEMASAN SISWA BERSEKOLAH

ABSTRAKKecemasan bersekolah merupakan masalah yang masih dialami oleh siswa di Sekolah Dasar. Masalah ini harus dicegah karena jika dialami oleh siswa dapat mempengaruhi prestasi akademik siswa di sekolah. Proses pembelajaran yang kurang tepat dilakukan oleh guru dapat mempengaruhi munculnya masalah kecemasan bersekolah siswa. Oleh sebab itu diperlukan keterampilan sosial yang baik dari guru dalam melakukan proses pembelajaran. Berdasarkan hal tersebut, tujuan dari pengabdian ini untuk memberikan pemahaman terkait pentingnya keterampilan sosial guru dalam melakukan proses pembelajaran sesuai dengan masalah yang terjadi yaitu dapat mengurangi kecemasan bersekolah siswa. Metode yang digunakan meliputi tiga tahapan yaitu persiapan, pelaksanaan, dan evaluasi. Berdasarkan hasil dari kegiatan ini peserta sangat antusias dalam mengikuti kegiatan dan berdasarkan angket terbuka sebagai bahan evaluasi yang diberikan diperoleh hasil bahwa semua memahami materi dan dapat merefleksikan terkait pentingnya keterampilan mereka dengan pengalaman yang telah mereka lakukan.. Kata kunci: sosialisasi; keterampilan sosial; kecemasan bersekolah. ABSTRACTSchool anxiety is a problem that is still experienced by students in elementary schools. This problem must be prevented because if it is experienced by students it can affect students' academic achievement in school. The learning process that is not properly carried out by the teacher can affect the emergence of students' school anxiety problems. Therefore, good sosial skills are needed from the teacher in carrying out the learning process. Based on this, the purpose of this service is to provide an understanding of the importance of teachers' social skills in carrying out the learning process in accordance with the problems that occur, namely to reduce the school anxiety. The method in this service are preparation, implementation, and evaluation are the methods in this service. Based on the results of this activity the participants were very enthusiastic in participating in the activity and based on an open questionnaire as an evaluation material provided, it was found that all understood the material and could reflect on the importance of their skills with the experiences they had done. Keywords: sosialization; teacher sosial skills; school anxiety.

The Influence of Didactic Play on Reducing the Level of Anxiety in the Classroom

The article highlights the issues of the teacher's use of didactic games as a form of teaching organization and an effective means of preventing and reducing anxiety among younger students in the process of educational activities in the classroom. The concept of "school anxiety" is characterized. The importance of didactic games for the development of children’s ability and desire to learn, increasing their intellectual activity, enriching the experience of communicative interaction with classmates, forming a sense of camaraderie and responsibility for the team result is considered. The possibility of conducting educational games in the development of any subject content has been substantiated. Examples of didactic games for working in mathematics lessons with first-graders showing anxiety are given.