AbstractContemporary education increasingly involves a blended learning environment, which consists of a combination of offline and online delivery methods. Blended learning environments can motivate students to learn, but designing motivating blended learning environments is challenging and can result in environments that demotivate students. This conceptual article proposes a blended learning design that helps practitioners to design motivating blended learning environments. According to self-determination theory, students are motivated to learn when their three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are supported. Competency-based education (CBE) is intended to support students’ basic psychological needs. We have constructed design guidance for CBE programmes that help practitioners to design a combination of offline and online delivery methods that (1) give students choices in time and place to support their need for autonomy, (2) adapt to students’ competency levels to support their need for competence, and (3) stimulate students’ relationship building with peers and teachers to support their need for relatedness. Although the design guidance is tentative, practitioners can experiment with it to design blended learning environments that motivate students to learn.

AbstractHybrid flexible learning is a mechanism for providing flexible learning to both online and on-campus students. Synchronous HyFlex teaching uses both technology and pedagogy to connect both groups within the same cohort. It is gaining popularity in higher educational institutions, but it also can create challenges associated with pedagogy, including technology, acoustics, and logistics. Finding solutions to these challenges is an organisational imperative for institutions aiming to address them. This article provides an overview of a mechanism for reviewing and problem solving as it relates to hybrid flexible teaching. A conceptual overview is detailed, building on previous literature; and experience from implementation, and rooted in a learning environments context, is described. The unique contribution of the study is demonstrated through the framework for resolving and understanding problems to provide solutions within the specific example of hybrid learning, which has not been analysed or considered in this way before. Example case studies are provided and considered, with an emphasis on practical real-world solutions (rooted in literature and evidence) that are likely to be useful to fellow practitioners.

AbstractStrong and consistent findings suggest that a positive school climate is related to improved student outcomes. However, assessment of the school climate rarely considers the environmental fit (or misfit) between individuals' actual or lived experiences and their preferred environment. This study drew on a person-environment fit perspective to examine whether: students’ experiences of the school climate (actual environment) differed from their views of their ideal school climate (preferred environment); the views of the actual and preferred environment differed between schools; and the actual–preferred discrepancy (as a measure of the environmental fit) was related to student wellbeing, resilience and reports of bullying. The results from the analysis of data collected from 993 upper primary school students suggest that outcomes were enhanced when the perceived environment more closely matched the preferred environment. Our study’s findings support using a person-environment fit perspective alongside a socio-ecological approach to inform strategic decisions for school improvement efforts.

AbstractIncreasing awareness of the consequences of bullying leads to efforts to address deficiencies in the learning environments in which bullying occurs. This study explored factors that determine the learning environment and their influence on bullying experiences at two universities in Norway. The study employed a cross-sectional design involving 438 students. Students’ perceptions of various learning environment variables were correlated with their experiences of various negative behaviours and victimisation using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that students’ perceptions of the universities’ general learning environments are inversely associated with various negative behaviour constructs and victimisation, and the results are notable among bachelor students and married and cohabiting people. The study shows that an improvement, mainly in the universities’ general learning environment, relative to the validated variables, would reduce the occurrence and experience of bullying.

AbstractResearch at the secondary school level provides compelling evidence to suggest that a positive school climate is related to improved health, wellbeing, and cognitive outcomes for students. In response to these findings, school systems around the world are mandating the collection of school climate data in schools. However, reviews of the literature indicate that there are relatively few instruments that provide evidence to support translation and criterion validity and assess the school climate from the perspectives of primary school students; and all of them were considered unsuitable or problematic for our purposes. To overcome this gap in the literature, this article describes the development and validation of a school climate survey designed to assess primary school students’ perceptions of school climate. Evidence to support translation validity is provided through data collected at various stages of the development process. Further, data collected from a sample of 1193 primary school students (years 3 to 6) were analysed to provide evidence to support convergent, discriminant concurrent, and predictive validity. The survey and evidence of its psychometric properties are significant for researchers, schools, and education systems seeking to assess primary school students’ perception of the school climate.