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Although the support provided by extended family members to university students has recently been more investigated, it is rarely considered as an element worthy of analysis in its own right. Situated in an international context, this literature review provides a map of research on the support of extended family members to university students and links research to university practitioners and policy makers as a way to promote diversity. The argument is that by facilitating students' support networks, more effective diversity policies can be implemented at the institutional level. Employing the concepts of extended family, funds of knowledge and social support, the review identifies social support that achieves positive outcomes and support which outcomes are less effective. Selected articles (22) were classified, synthesised and analysed by the author. The paper discusses the role of extended families in relation to four sub-groups of students: traditional; non-traditional; international and dropout. The review shows that: a) social support is a cultural-based practice; b) research emphasises positive effects of social support; c) research tends to focus on ethnic minorities, and d) there is an unclear separation between parental and the support provided by extended family members. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for further research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on what has happened since Elliott (“Dynamic Assessment in Educational Settings: Realising Potential”, 2003) in those applications of dynamic assessment that he considered. There continues to be two broad applications, one, largely researcher led, and the other, largely practitioner led, although there are examples of researcher–practitioners. Since Elliott, arguably, it is now relatively easy both to reach consensus over constructs and assessment processes and also to mutually respect differences through clarity over professional and assessment purposes. There is a fuller account than Elliott provided of educational psychologists’ practice in the UK, which partly serves to highlight the difference in purpose and imperative to research and evaluate outcomes that persists for researchers and practitioners. The paper concludes by arguing that the premise in Elliott’s title of “realising potential” was always contestable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although in recent years, researchers have shown increasing interest in achievement-related emotions, academic boredom included, still the vast majority of the studies that have been carried out on the issue, so far, employed solely or primarily quantitative methods, were largely confined to the field of psychology and were conducted in a limited number of countries. The purpose of this work is to bridge the gap in the literature by presenting a case from an Eastern/Central European country (Poland), based on the qualitative mode of data collection and processing. The paper offers a detailed sociological description and alanysis of university students' behavours when bored in class applying the taxonony of boredom coping strategies proposed in the relevant literature. The study also introduces the notion of classroom social morphology and its relationship with the employment of various boredom coping strategies and also readdresses the concept of class-related anticipatory boredom and the idea of educational burnout experienced by some students at the end of their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storyboarding is one common strategy used in teaching young people digital media. This paper argues that in adolescents' literacy practices, they engage in production on the go. The metaphor is described in this paper to put forward the argument that storyboarding can be a retrospective and redundant literacy activity in adolescents' school literacy practices when it is not their inherent practice to engage in a two-step process in digital media production, i.e., design intended to precede production. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of New Literacy Studies, this study adopts an ethnographic perspective to gain insights into 10 14-year-old Chinese adolescents' literacy practices in Singapore. Data for this paper were collected over a period of eight months from participant observations, with video-and-audio recordings, semi-structured and in-depth text-elicited group and individual interviews, the adolescents' research diaries and artefacts from their literacy practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether and in what ways young people's perceptions and experiences of higher education (HE) can facilitate the transmission within their social networks of social capital both upwardly (from child to parent) and horizontally (from sibling to sibling), and thus can potentially provide bridging capital to family members, especially in families with little or no prior experience of HE. It utilises data from a project that explored the embedded nature of decision-making about HE amongst a group of 'potentially recruitable' adults and their wider networks. The study researched 16 networks, and the resultant sample of 107 individuals included six teenagers and 15 young people in their twenties. The paper concludes that, despite the general emphasis within existing theoretical approaches to network capital on the downward transmission of social capital, the educational experiences of younger generations can be critical in shaping the perceptions of other (including older) network members, albeit not always in ways that encourage formal educational participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, drawing upon a recent study of youth post-compulsory educational and occupational decision-making, argues for a culturalist perspective to understand the persistence of class-based inequalities within VET. The paper begins by outlining two broadly distinct perspectives within current research into youth: an 'individualist' approach influenced by the work of Ulrich Beck and a 'culturalist' approach influenced by Pierre Bourdieu. Findings from the author's own study of a sample of AVCE students are then employed to interrogate the explanatory utility of these two perspectives. The students, working-class high achievers, exhibited a strong subjective sense of choice and individual responsibility combined with a tacit sense of class voiced in discourses that constructed a 'practical' rather than 'academic' self and which actively resisted the value of higher education. It is concluded from this that a Bourdieu-influenced culturalist methodology offers the greatest potential to understand how class-based educational identities may interrelate with apparently individualised identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines aspects and predictors of actual and hidden dropout among immigrant students in general, and among Israeli students of Ethiopian origin, in particular. A hidden dropout is a student who is often absent from school or physically in class but is passive and does not actively take part in the learning process. The subject of this study derives from research evidence showing that the dropout rates of Israeli adolescents of Ethiopian origin are higher than those of their peers who are not of Ethiopian origin. We investigated differences between normative learners, hidden dropout youth and adolescents who are disengaged from the educational system. The predictors included perceived discrimination, social support and collective identities; 374 adolescents of Ethiopian origin completed self-report questionnaires. The major findings show that the hidden dropouts group was characterised by a pattern of high parental encouragement but a lack of support from teachers. Implications of the results, both for theory and for practice, are discussed, followed by suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical and systematic review of 52 articles published from 2000 to 2012 about research conducted in Turkey concerning adolescents’ social and emotional learning needs. In correspondence with international research, articles were examined across three categories in which adolescent needs could be addressed by educational programmes. The categories examined were attitudes toward self and others, positive social behaviours, and social skills. In conclusion, we summarise several trends along with gaps that researchers need to address to derive stronger implications for policy-making and for curriculum development that links more directly with social and emotional learning in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent studies about young people suggest a need to change the way researchers and policy-makers have traditionally understood the concepts of youth, transitions to adulthood, educational participation and the need for young people's voice to be heard. For many young women the taken-for-granted features of everyday life such as family, social, education and paid work are the priorities in their lives. Yet those priorities are frequently masked in large-scale studies, resulting in homogenising the diversity of young people's experiences and abstracting educational engagement from other parts of their lives. The study reported in this paper approaches the issue of young women's construction and defining of their identities in interaction with the broad institutional milieu that is part of their everyday experiences. This approach seeks to understand this lived experience through the use of photo-narratives. The paper explores a rationale for this approach in methodological and ethical terms. It allows for an exploration of the complexity of young women's multiple identities and the changing nature of young people's engagement with post-compulsory senior secondary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L2 acquisition is a complicated process in which many parameters intertwine. Reported strategy use in L2 learning has been extensively researched in relation to factors that are likely to determine it, such as positive attitudes towards English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. In this paper, we investigated another potential determinant of reported strategy use, international orientation, based on the concepts of international posture [Yashima, T. (2009). International posture and the ideal L2 self in the Japanese EFL context. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.),Motivation, language identity and the L2 self(pp. 144–163). Bristol: Multilingual Matters] and ideal L2 self (Dörnyei, Z. (2005).The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], alongside attitudinal factors (importance and enjoyment of learning) and environmental factors (parents’ EFL knowledge). Based on quantitative data from 329 Greek secondary school students, we employed confirmatory factor analysis to test whether international orientation fully or partially mediates intended learning effort as illustrated by strategy use. We concluded that international orientation partially mediates parents’ EFL knowledge, as assessed by their children, and attitudes to language learning to predict motivated strategy use. We discuss pedagogical implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the quality of school life (QSL) of two ‘model pupils’ in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, Finland and Korea, and investigates students’ views on the central aspects of QSL (general satisfaction, peer relations and teacher–student relations) using PISA 2012 data. It also seeks to interpret how specific institutional and sociocultural aspects are linked to QSL. The analyses show that Finnish and Korean adolescents’ views on QSL are less positive compared with the OECD average; Finnish adolescents’ views on QSL are more positive than those of Korean adolescents regardinggeneral satisfactionandpeer relationsbut are not clearly related toteacher–student relations. Since Finnish and Korean adolescents’ views on QSL partly differ from those of their Nordic and East Asian counterparts, the distinct Nordic or East Asian image of QSL could not be revealed in the study. This article proposes that QSL demands more attention in the era of ‘rankings and benchmarked educational models’, with consideration to the universality and uniqueness of institutional, sociocultural and historical factors of one’s own and others’ schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Discusses changes in the educational policy for 14-19 year-old students which began in 1980 in Great Britain. Description of the 14-19 education and training system; Organization and funding structure; Stages of development of a national 14-19 education system; Establishment of a national qualifications framework; Expectations and planning for the 14-19 phase education.

This paper outlines a study which investigated the experience of six male adolescent refugees during their transfer and adaptation to a secondary school in the UK. The research used a qualitative design. The approach adopted was Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The data generated three superordinate themes which reflected the participants’ sense of being in need of help during the early stages of their transfer, their process of adapting to school and developing a sense of belonging in this context, and their overriding need for safety. These themes are explored in relation to existing research and implications for practice are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Writing in 1927, five leading scholars and administrators of the Australian schooling systems published a book entitled Education in Australia: a comparative study of the educational systems of the six Australian states. These authors wrote of Australian education in a time of great optimism, and one of the key areas of reform they addressed was the introduction of forms of post-primary schooling for a ‘problem’ population of 12–15-year-olds who were not attracted to, or staying with, the high school curriculum which led towards university study. Through the lens of Education in Australia, this paper undertakes a genealogical exploration of the way the adolescent emerged as an object of school reforms in the early twentieth century and shows that these reforms were articulated with discourses of race, social efficiency, science and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

READ 180 is a reading program primarily designed for both struggling readers and English language learners (ELLs) in the United States. In this paper, we report findings from a qualitative study that investigated how four adolescent ELLs responded to using READ 180, particularly in relation to their cultural needs. Findings from the study showed that READ 180 provided some culturally responsive interaction and activities, principally in terms of thematic units, but was unable to respond to the unique cultural needs and background knowledge of each ELL to facilitate reading development. We discuss the implications of these findings for culturally responsive pedagogy and curriculum planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on family involvement in the education of teenagers at risk of dropping out from compulsory secondary school. A questionnaire was completed by 131 Spanish and Cypriot families with children at six schools - three in each country. The questionnaire investigated: (1) parental perceptions of their children's activities in their free time; (2) academic expectations for their children; (3) parental concern regarding their children's education; and (4) parent-teacher interactions. Descriptive measures and t-test comparative analyses between Spain and Cyprus were undertaken. Results show that these families have an encouraging attitude towards their teenagers. Nonetheless, significant statistical differences between Spanish and Cypriot parents suggest that the Spanish families have a more protective parenting style than the Cypriot families. The study points to the lack of support for these families as regards advice and stimulation for their children at home, and to the need to promote school-family partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' lack of sex education training has been widely regarded as a barrier to delivery, but very few in-service programmes have been evaluated. This paper evaluates the teacher training component of a theoretically-based behavioural sex education programme for 13-15-year-olds called SHARE. It combines data from participant observation, in-depth interviews, questionnaires and lesson observations. The teachers found the training very valuable, particularly in relation to collegiate support, familiarisation with the SHARE pack and reducing discomfort. The two main objectives of the training programme that were congruent with teachers' perceived needs were fulfilled: to make teachers more comfortable and confident to deliver sex education and to prepare them to deliver the SHARE pack. However, the introduction of social-psychologically informed skills based exercises, radically different to those normally followed, was the least successful aspect of the training, as one might predict from previous research on in-service training. This might suggest that theoretically based, behavioural health education programmes might be best delivered by specialist staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an introduction the May 2001 issue of “Sociological Focus,” which tackles religion in the United States. It presents six analyses. The first examines the persistence of the Protestant Establishment, while documenting changes in the religious makeup of the country's cultural and power elite. Two other studies explore the ways in which local congregations such as Promise Keepers both reflect and produce American culture. There are also studies on parents' role in the transmission of religious identity and moral norms. Finally, one article shows how religion affects a teenager's academic achievement.

This study assessed the short-term impact of a one-week intervention for 10–15-year-old boys from the Baltic Sea region. The intervention addressed the cognitive dimension of character growth using 'taught' and 'caught' elements. The mixed-methods study used a quasi-experimental quantitative approach (pretest and posttest questionnaires) and qualitative methods (open questions, interviews). The results support the short-term benefits of the intervention on adolescents' character growth mind-set and practical knowledge and points to the importance of near-peers' modeling, personal coaching conversations, and self-reflection for virtue growth. The study may be relevant for providers of extra-school activities promoting youngsters' character growth. Further research directions are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how adolescents interact with multimodal texts across shifting contexts, including social, academic, and digital ones. The author considers the ability of teens to articulate the boundaries and fluidity of multiple discourse systems and to maneuver across and within them with ease. The author further explores pedagogical implications, including shifting power dynamics occurring in schools. A new model for schooling is suggested, which incorporates multiple discourses and promotes a new term, "relational neteracy." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The negative form ain't has been regarded as one of the most typical non-standard features of modern English. Although traditionally highly stigmatised, it is widely present in most geographical and social varieties, both in British and in American English. In fact, the linguistic changes that this contracted negative has undergone have been extensively researched; however, its variation and use have received much less attention. This paper is concerned with the analysis of ain't in the speech of British English teenagers on the basis of the COLT corpus. It starts by considering its origin and development. It then describes not only the syntactic functions that ain't fulfils in teenagers' language but it also considers the sociological factors that condition this grammatical feature and its pragmatic meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most effective remedy for the treatment of teenagers' declining willingness to engage with fiction in the classroom is a change of both books and methods. The paper argues for a replacment of time-honoured school classics by five recent US-American works which deal with issues target readers of today can identify with much more easily. It also outlines a number of student-centred activities which put greater emphasis on a creative and productive tackling of fiction than ritualised interpretation traditionally does. The novels are briefly characterised in a number of dominant features (plot, location, language) and are then used for demonstrating classroom activities which allow for individual, pair and group work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I investigate the beliefs of privileged adolescents about their obligations to those contending with hunger and poverty as well as the impact of 'trolley problems' upon these adolescents' beliefs. To consider the attitudes of the young adults in this study, I draw upon their student writing from a course on social issues as well as survey and interview data collected at the start and conclusion of this course. I found that, for the privileged adolescents in this study, their consideration of a particular trolley problem actually decreased their sense of responsibility for countries and individuals contending with hunger and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on academic teams which promote cross-curricular applications in middle school that improve learning outcomes in the U.S. The middle school concept was conceived more than 40 years ago to more appropriately focus on the developmental needs of young adolescents, both cognitive and affective. Several reasons which explain the inefficient use of team meeting time are discussed. The paper also discribes the middle school team project which was part of a larger district initiative.

The article describes the processes used and the lessons learned from creating an after school drama club that taught urban middle school students about the role that young adolescents had during the Civil Rights movement in the southern part of the U.S. The paper tells the story of what the middle school students learned about young adolescent involvement in the civil rights movement. It also describes future lessons to be learned by teachers and students about themselves while working with some issues related to culture, class, and history.

Ethnic identity is central to many contemporary discussions of belonging and assimilation of migrant-origin youth. Studies typically focus on a single minority identity. Identity theory implies, however, that individuals may hold multiple ethnic identities, or none, and these may find expression to a greater or less extent depending on context. Using a nationally representative, longitudinal study of Dutch teenagers, we investigate the role of classroom ethnic composition in shaping multiple ethnic identity expression. Framing identity choices as a relational process, we show that the number of ethnic identities that children with a migrant-origin background choose is greater for those students who are exposed to a more ethnically diverse context, while less diverse classrooms foster ethnic identification with no or fewer minority groups. Classification of migrant-origin students with a single (minority) ethnicity may thus be an oversimplification of ethnic identity, even for those from a single country of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of teachers, parents, and friends in stimulating the development of societal interest among adolescents. It assesses the extent teachers can compensate for societal interest differences among adolescents that arise due to socioeconomic differences. The YeS panel study is used, with 587 students aged 13–18 assessed annually over a six-year period (2010–2015) and uses latent growth curve modeling (LGCM). Our findings indicate that awareness-raising by each of the three groups contributes to the development of societal interest among adolescents, with teachers being the most influential socializing agent. Teachers were more influential societal interest development among adolescents from less privileged homes, confirming our hypothesis that schools can compensate for societal interest differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The needs and group practices of adolescents have great impact on public spaces. Further understanding how and why they value certain environments is instrumental to better integrate their perspective in the design and management of our landscapes, as well as in raising environmental awareness and fostering sustainable attitudes and practices. We present the findings of a workshop on landscape preference carried out with a secondary school in the suburbs of Madrid. With participants between the ages of 11 and 16, photo-based Q methodology in combination with qualitative data allowed for the identification of groups sharing similar viewpoints, general trends, as well as exploring the structure and meaning behind consensus and disagreement photographs. Findings show overall positive valorisation towards green spaces, especially those where urban greenery is combined with recognizable architectural elements. Familiarity with the landscape type seems to encourage positive rankings, and preference towards well-known cultural sites manifests at older ages. Among the wide array of photo-elicitation techniques devoted to the assessment of landscape preference, photo-based Q methodology has seldom been used. However, this intuitive, effective, and inexpensive technique can be carried out in short and enjoyable sessions, showing great potential to be applied in geographical and environmental education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the individual and contextual effects of schools on the educational aspirations of a national sample of older adolescents. With individual student traits held constant, school-level contextual variables contributed little to the explanation of postsecondary school plans to graduate from college (R2 increase = .012). However, with individual-level student ethnicity, family background, and academic achievement held constant, a measure of classroom morale was positively and significantly associated with educational aspiration. This extends the well-documented link between class environment and learning to educational aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first year of university is often considered challenging and difficult for students who are adjusting to different academic and social demands. In this context, teacher-student interactions can play a crucial role in fostering student motivation, engagement in learning, a sense of belonging to the university and academic persistence. Although the benefits of teacher-student interactions have been researched, to date few studies have examined in-depth the characteristics, role and value of these interactions from students' perspectives in the Australian higher education context. Through semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the experiences of 21 undergraduate students who reflected on their interactions with teaching staff (lecturers and tutors) in the first year, particularly the type and frequency of interactions they had with teachers and the influences these interactions had on their learning and engagement in the subject as well as the broader university. Overall, students reported that the majority of interactions were positive and helpful in influencing their engagement in learning. However, the benefits of their interactions with teachers were not perceived to extend beyond the classroom to help them develop a sense of belonging to the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'competence' has gained traction in recent years because of its power in informing broader educational objectives, such as readiness for transition to later educational stages. The responsibility for developing competencies in learners is increasingly laid onto educational institutions via accountability arrangements. As a result, competency frameworks are value-laden and motivated by interrelated purposes including construct definition, the development of assessment criteria, and workplace readiness. The present article introduces a methodological approach for constructing a competency framework that accounts for these underpinning motivations. The present article first introduces three binary distinctions that developers can utilise in making structural decisions on a competency framework: binary vs continuum; atomistic vs holistic, and context-specific vs context-general. We argue that decisions made by developers in terms of the three binary distinctions influence their additional responsibilities in order to achieve a high degree of utility for practitioners using a competency framework. The decisions regarding framework purpose and its structural features inform the alignment between the intended constructs being targeted and a framework's use. The present article then focuses on a worked example in relation to one competency area that commonly resides within a competency framework – collaboration. We conclude that conceptual and structural alignment can help inform a competency framework's validation process, by enabling more specific usage claims to be articulated that can form the basis of empirical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have a strong effect on the teaching-learning process in higher education. However, specific research on the factors that affect students´ satisfaction and their perceptions of learning outcomes derived from Moodle use is still scarce. Therefore, this study uses the theoretical underpinnings of the Technology Acceptance Model and the Information Systems Success model to contribute to the existing literature in two respects, focusing on the Moodle usage context. First, it analyses the relative impact of pre-acceptance and other e-learning quality-related variables as predictors of students´ satisfaction. Second, it investigates whether communicativeness and students' satisfaction are both determining factors of students´ perceived learning outcomes. The proposed relationships were tested with a partial least squares (PLS) regression technique, using survey data from 151 undergraduate business students at University of Cantabria (Spain). The findings reveal that information quality is the most relevant predictor of students´ satisfaction, while satisfaction is the most relevant determining factor of perceived learning outcomes. Moreover, the effect of communicativeness on perceived learning outcomes could be very dependent on the educational context, e.g. blended versus virtual learning. These findings can help instructors to implement Moodle efficiently, and suggest the need to develop friendly courses with up-to-date and structured learning materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of international returnees is increasing in emerging economies. However, very little has been known about their career development in their home country. This study explored how Vietnamese returnees from Australia developed their career after returning to Vietnam. The study deployed a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews with 15 returnees of Australian universities. The findings revealed the returnees faced a range of barriers hindering their career progression amongst which 'the rigid working culture' was the most significant and 'stereotyped perceptions about Australian qualifications' was an emerging issue due to recent changes in economy and society in Vietnam. The findings revealed three main strategies that the returnees utilised to negotiate their employability including being 'navigator', being 'rebels, and being 'retreatist'. The findings also revealed that there was not a simple answer to whether Australian education outcomes were useful and applicable in Vietnam or not because the usefulness and application were determined by the extent to which the returnees could be able to use their overseas skills and knowledge. The study provided insights about constraints and opportunities in the home market and enrich the current literature about the returnee phenomenon. These insights would support international students to better support their plans for career development upon their return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this empirical study was to explore the extent and the determinants of management accounting practices' (MAPs) adoption in UK universities. In this vein, the current study serves as a 'stock-take', first reference study for future studies investigating the effects and impact of HE funding changes on accounting systems and practices in universities. In order to contribute to understanding the determinants of MAPs' adoption in the UK HE sector, a theoretical framework consisting of contingency theory, institutional theory and particular organisational attributes was adopted. A questionnaire survey was distributed to all 125 UK universities, of which eventually fifty-nine fully completed questionnaires, which represents 47% of all UK universities, were collected. Almost all institutions have implemented MAPs relating to cost determination and financial control, and information for management planning and control. The regression analysis concludes in a final model, which includes only seven of the initial twenty-nine variables. Prospector strategy orientation, innovative culture, trialability, mimetic and normative institutional factors and type of university are determined as the predictors of enhanced MAPs in UK universities. The findings of the current study are useful for consideration when looking into adopting new management accounting practices at Higher Education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the major learning style preferences and worldviews of members of the generation Y or contemporary 17- to 19-year-olds when they come to libraries' information literary classes. Positive outlook toward technology; Orientation toward images; Desire for customized experiences and choices; Thresholds for boredom; Unwillingness to memorize; Opportunities for active learning.

While multiple valid measures exist for assessing outcomes of environmental education (EE) programs, the field lacks a comprehensive and logistically feasible common instrument that can apply across diverse programs. We describe a participatory effort for identifying and developing crosscutting outcomes for Environmental Education in the twenty-first Century (EE21). Following extensive input and debate from a wide range of EE providers and researchers, we developed, tested and statistically validated crosscutting scales for measuring consensus-based outcomes for individual participants in youth EE programs using confirmatory factor analysis across six unique sites, including two single-day field trip locations, four multiday residential programs and one science museum in the United States. The results suggest that the scales are valid and reliable for measuring outcomes that many EE programs in the United States can aspire to influence in adolescent participants, ages 10–14. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2006, Udaan—a school-based adolescent education program in Jharkhand, India—was the only at-scale state-run program in the country. To determine factors that contributed to Udaan's scale-up and longevity, this study drew information from programmatic reports and interviews with the Centre for Catalyzing Change staff. Key factors for Udaan's success included an enabling policy environment, a willing government that supported and operationalized the program, a knowledgeable and committed NGO partner, sustained funding, and a commitment to constant improvement through evaluation. Udaan provides an example of a well-designed, implemented, and evaluated school-based adolescent health program that has been operating at scale over a sustained period. Other programs in India and elsewhere can benefit from learning from Udaan's experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined prospective associations between poverty, gender, and school dropout in a large community sample of South African adolescents (baseline:n = 3515, follow-up:n = 3401, 57% female, age range at baseline: 10–17 years, mean age at baseline = 13.45). School dropout was defined as being enrolled in school at baseline assessment but no longer enrolled in school at follow-up assessment. Poverty was measured at baseline assessment using an index of access to the eight highest socially perceived necessities for South African children and adolescents. Demographic characteristics including child gender and age, province, and urban versus rural location were recorded at baseline assessment and controlled for in the analysis. As predicted, higher poverty scores (AOR = 2.01,p < .001) were associated with increased odds of school dropout 1 year later. Gender was not a significant predictor of school dropout (AOR = 1.56,p = .07) but did interact with poverty (AOR = 0.66,p = .04) in predicting school dropout. However, our initial hypothesis that the impact of poverty on school dropout would be stronger for girls than boys was not supported. Instead, results indicated that while girls were at elevated risk of school dropout at low and mean levels of poverty, at high levels of poverty this gender difference was no longer evident. Findings suggest that vulnerable boys should not be neglected in policies to improve retention in education in contexts of extreme poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents analyses of documents from special schools in Sweden for students in the care of social welfare who have been assessed with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The aim is to use actor-network theory to analyse how blame and critique are handled in individual educational plans, and how responsibilities are produced in interactions between human and non-human actors. The documentation can be read as a materialised network that produces a distributed responsibility; the network is stabilised by accepting and recognising differences between actors. The template headings for each actor enable different translations of the network and make it possible for responsibilities to be distributed between students, parents, social service officers and teachers, thereby reducing the risk of conflicts. While the network provides opportunities for students to become learners, it is silent on the topic of adults’ responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The middle level classroom presents unique challenges to educators who strive to provide opportunities that acknowledge learner diversity in terms of social, cognitive, physical, and emotional development. This is confounded even further within inclusive middle-school classrooms where the responsibility to differentiate instruction is even more critical. One way to meet the needs ofallstudents is through cooperative grouping. Through cooperative grouping, middle-level educators can differentiate instruction and promote active learning by leveraging the naturally social nature of young adolescents. In this article, the authors present research on cooperative grouping as well as several considerations for effectively designing and implementing cooperative grouping for middle-level learners in an inclusive setting. Suggestions and examples with regard to group size, membership, group structure and roles, and classroom management and clear expectations are provided. Additionally, the four-clue group strategy is presented as a specific instructional method to support effective group learning experiences in the inclusive middle-level classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This case study examines features and processes of a sixth grade teacher (Jane) utilizing text sets as a tool for facilitating critical thinking. Jane’s strong vision and student-centered beliefs informed her use of various texts to teach language arts as she worked to address demands of the Common Core State Standards. Text sets promoted multiple perspectives and fit with her beliefs about student empowerment. Despite contextual constraints, Jane used professional judgment to apply her learning from professional development to design and implement instruction. Findings support the idea that teachers need autonomy when choosing multiple texts across genres as well as effective strategies to engender critical thinking. Results can help guide further inquiry into types of teaching and classroom environments that facilitate or impede critical thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on calls to raise the minimum age for leaving school in Great Britain. An overview of the laws and systems established for required school attendance for teenagers is given in both a contemporary and historical context. The author asserts that such a change in the educational system would be both more complex and more time consuming than its general advocates would admit. Additional issues surrounding the underlying problem of youth educational motivation are mentioned, citing the need to advocate among young people the need for educational services rather than simply raising the required minimum limits.

Drawing on sociocultural and related theories, 4 questions examined career and educational aspirations and expectations among 24 immigrant Latina/o early adolescents and their parents as predictors of students’ grades. First, adolescents’ career aspirations and expectations were correlated, and both parents and adolescents held educational aspirations that exceeded their expectations. Second, most adolescents and parents held congruent educational aspirations. Third, congruence between students’ career and educational aspirations was uncommon. Fourth, parents’ educational aspirations and adolescents’ career–education congruence predicted students’ grades. Discussion highlights students’ ongoing reconciliation between aspirations and academic skills and multiple ways immigrant Latino parents contribute to their adolescents’ future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the impact of housing conditions on the educational outcomes of young persons in Switzerland. We focus on children aged 15–19, who are potentially enrolled in or graduates of high school or vocational training programs, and young adults aged 20–24, who are potentially students in or graduates of university or other tertiary institutions. Housing conditions are characterized in three ways: whether the parents rent or own the dwelling, the type of dwelling (house or apartment), and a measure of crowding (occupants per room). We find that the density of residents in the dwelling is the only influential housing characteristic. Crowding directly affects the outcomes of children aged 15–19 and presumably indirectly affects the outcomes of young adults given that admission to university study requires completion of high school. None of the other housing characteristics affects children’s outcomes. In particular, homeownership is not statistically significant in any of our estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Number sense is one's ability to understand what numbers mean, perform mental mathematics, and look at the world and make comparisons. Researchers show instruction that teaches children how to classify numbers, put numbers in sequence, conserve numbers effectively, and count builds their number sense skills. Targeted instruction that teaches children to count in a flexible manner increases number knowledge, therefore improves number sense. A common manner of providing targeted instruction for children who have mathematics difficulties is called explicit instruction. Explicit instruction that utilizes objects and pictures teaches conceptual and procedural knowledge for specific mathematical skills. Researchers show explicit instruction improves mathematical skills which range from place value to algebra equations for students who have mathematic difficulties. The purpose of this case study was to explore and investigate if further research should be conducted on the use of explicit instruction to teach young children counting skills that lead to flexibility with numbers. Results and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We seek to understand how bilingual adolescent students leverage multiple languages and modes in digital composition. Using a translingual and multimodal perspective of composition, this study reports on the distinct communicative affordances associated with four students’ multimodal codemeshing practices. Through analysis of students’ digital products and retrospective design interviews, we found that students meshed linguistic and modal resources to engage multiple audiences, convey multidimensional and nuanced meanings, and (re)voice their subjects’ experiences. We conclude with pedagogical implications for practitioners seeking to incorporate students’ multilingual and multimodal meaning-making resources in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emphasis on schools' providing reading materials for students at home is very much on the primary school years, when the skill of reading is being acquired. Little consideration has been given to the impact of curtailing school-mediated access to books beyond this point. Regular recreational reading offers a wide range of benefit, and is essential for supporting ongoing literacy development. Without easy access to books, it can be readily surmised that capacity for regular engagement in reading can be limited. This article adds to the body of research supporting the benefit of student access to books in the home, linking access to books in the home with improved attitudes toward and frequency of engagement in recreational book reading, particularly in boys. It also provides analysis of data on students' access to books in the home, as well as discussing alternative avenues of access to books, such as the library and devices. The implications of the findings are explored, with educators ultimately urged to support increased access to self-selected home reading materials through the secondary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the use of art class as a means to engage adolescents in meaning making. Topics discussed include a high school photography class for teenage girls, the ways in which art materials relate to meaning making, and the use of life experiences in art to increase meaning making for the students. The use of the scaffolding teaching method, the responses of students to meaning making, and the narrative photography series "Miss Butterfly" created by photographer Shadi Ghadirian are also examined.

This article presents some unexpected findings from a study of the upper secondary school voucher system in Sweden. This publicly funded but relatively unregulated quasi-market offers a large number of alternatives to teenagers choosing an education. The choice situation is relatively complex and the stakes are high, but the youths themselves find the decision unproblematic. A possible explanation for this is that the future upper secondary students mistake information for knowledge. In lack of knowledge they follow a norm of conformity according to their outer circumstances. This leads youths from different socioeconomic groups to experience different choice situations and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]