Search results for "Development"
showing 10 items of 26949 documents
Why do boys and girls perform differently on PISA Reading in Finland? The effects of reading fluency, achievement behaviour, leisure reading and home…
2017
The present study examined gender gap in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Reading and mediators of the gender gap in a Finnish sample (n = 1,309). We examined whether the gender gap in PISA Reading performance can be understood via the effects of reading fluency, achievement behaviour (mastery orientation and task-avoidant behaviour) or the amount of time spent with leisure reading and homework. Girls outperformed boys in all measures except for achievement behaviour. The models explaining PISA Reading were not different: For boys and girls, reading fluency, mastery orientation, leisure book reading and homework explained the variance in PISA Reading scores. The gender ef…
Perceived Social Support, School Engagement and Satisfaction with School
2017
Abstract There is evidence that social support from families, peers and teachers has an influence on student engagement, academic success, and satisfaction with school. The aim of this work is to use structural equations to analyze the effects of the perceived academic support and the school engagement on the satisfaction with school. A battery of measurement tools was administered to 2028 Angolan students aged between 14 and 22 years (mean = 17.4; SD = 2.3). The results show the influence of the perceived academic support of teachers, family, and peers on the satisfaction with school using the school engagement as mediating variable. The perception of peer support does not show a predicti…
Reading comprehension, word reading and spelling as predictors of school achievement and choice of secondary education
2008
Abstract The main aim of this study was to find out what kind of factor model of written language skills could be created on the basis of tests of reading accuracy and fluency, spelling and reading comprehension, and how the written language skills factor and school achievement predict choice of secondary education and what effects gender, special education support and socio-economic background have on this prediction. Altogether 1700 students were assessed with two word-level reading tests and word- and pseudo-word-spelling tests and by a reading comprehension test. Remaining data were elicited with a questionnaire. The findings showed that a latent written language skills factor could be …
The role of achievement strategies on literacy acquisition across languages
2011
Abstract We examined the importance of children’s achievement strategies in different literacy outcomes in three languages varying in orthographic consistency: Chinese, English, and Greek. Eighty Chinese-speaking Taiwanese children, 51 English-speaking Canadian children and 70 Greek children were assessed on measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, reading fluency, and spelling. The children’s use of a task-focused versus task-avoidant achievement strategy in the classroom context was rated by their teachers. The results indicated that the teacher-rated task-focused behavior was a significant predictor of spelling and to a lesser extent of reading fluency and that its e…
How Comprehensive School Students Perceive their Psychosocial School Environment
2010
The aim of this study was to describe students’ perceptions of their psychosocial school environment and to examine the associations between such perceptions and students’ perceived school performance. Our analyses were based on data from the Health Behaviour in School‐Aged Children 2006 study, involving responses by Finnish students from grades 7 and 9. The results indicated that students’ perceptions of their school environment were fairly positive, but that a remarkably large proportion of the students reported negative attitudes towards school. School engagement, school strain, and teacher‐student relations were found to be the most influential predictors in the psychosocial school envi…
A Validation of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in Finnish Kindergartens
2010
Research Findings: This study examined the validity and reliability of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; R. C. Pianta, K. M. La Paro, & B. K. Hamre, 2008) in Finnish kindergartens. A pair of trained observers used the CLASS to observe 49 kindergarten teachers (47 female, 2 male) on two different days. Questionnaires measuring teachers' efficacy beliefs, exhaustion at work, and classroom interactional style (i.e., affection, behavioral control, and psychological control) were completed by the teachers. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that when the item measuring Negative Climate was excluded, the 3-factor solution assuming three positively correlated latent factors (i.e.…
Students' Perception of School and Their Smoking and Alcohol Use: A Cross-National Study
2000
The objective of the paper is to study how 15 year old students' perceptions of the psychosocial environment in their schools, defined as student autonomy, teacher support, student support and demands, relate to smoking and alcohol use. Data from 15 year old students in Finland and Norway are included (n=2.816), using structural equation modelling to test theoretical models. The best model fitting the data shows that low student autonomy, low teacher support, student support and inadequate demands are significantly associated with health compromising behaviours directly, and indirectly through students' satisfaction with school. Low student autonomy is the strongest predictor of the four. T…
Professional learning and agency in an identity coaching programme
2016
This article addresses the professional learning that occurred in an identity coaching programme. The arts-based programme aimed to enhance the participants’ professional learning, notably through helping them to process their professional identities. Professional learning was seen as resourced by the participants’ professional agency, and by the promotion of such agency. Through interviews, we investigated what the participants perceived they had learnt during the programme, and the potential differences in learning outcomes between professional groups from university and hospital contexts. The findings showed that the programme was perceived as a rich learning arena in the domains of the …
Secondary Students’ Sensory Preferences and Their Influence on Science Academic Achievement
2021
Evidence has been found that some students seem to have learning obstacles associated with particular sensory preferences when dealing with instructional materials. Therefore, knowing students’ sensory preferences could help teachers improve instructional resources. Our objectives were: (1) to describe Secondary students’ sensory preferences according to gender and age; (2) to analyse the possible association between students’ sensory preferences and their general academic achievement in science. We conducted a synchronic, cross-sectional descriptive study in a sample of 582 male and female students from 7th to 11th grade using the VARK questionnaire. There was a significant predominance of…
RELEVANCE OF INDICATORS OF SOCIAL EMOTIONAL HEALTH IN DIFFERENT SAMPLES OF ADOLESCENCE
2021
The aim of this research was to determine whether there are statistically relevant differences in Michael J. Furlong's concept of socio-emotional health with meta construct Covitality (SEV factor) between teenage and youth selections, gender, and nationalities in different schools. The participants of the research were 593 respondents from Latvia, aged 11-19 years. Out of the total selection of participants (N=593) there were 318 teens (M=13.01, SD=.84), of them 151 boys and 167 girls; the other group of 274 young people (M=15.85, SD = 1.02), consisted of 132 males and 142 females. To measure the positive aspects of the mental health, A Socio-emotional Health Survey was used (Social Emotion…