School Cohesion Research Articles

Establishment of new wintering areas in herring co-occurs with peaks in the ‘first time/repeat spawner’ ratio

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 409:189-198 (2010) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08620 Establishment of new wintering areas in herring co-occurs with peaks in the ‘first time/repeat spawner’ ratio Geir Huse1,*, Anders Fernö1,2, Jens Christian Holst1 1Institute of Marine Research, 5817 Bergen, Norway 2Department of Biology, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway *Email: geir.huse@imr.no ABSTRACT: Norwegian spring spawning (NSS) herring migrate to wintering areas in late summer and remain there for about 5 mo in dense aggregations. First-time spawning cohorts typically adopt the wintering area of the spawning stock. However, over the last 50 yr the NSS herring stock has occupied 7 discrete wintering grounds, spanning from the high seas to narrow fjords, which shows that there is considerable plasticity in choice of wintering area. We show that 5 cases of establishment of new wintering areas take place when abundant first-time spawning cohorts take up the adult migration pattern. The ratio in abundance between age 4 and age 5+ herring is on average 14 in the years when new wintering areas are established compared to 0.3 in years without changes. The wintering areas vary greatly with regards to temperature and distance to the feeding and spawning grounds, features that heavily affect energy expenditure during wintering and migration. Rather than being strictly optimized, the establishment of new wintering areas seems to be governed by general school cohesion mechanisms when naïve first-time spawners flood the population and the social learning process is disrupted. KEY WORDS: Norwegian spring spawning herring · Wintering area · Demography · Schooling · Migration Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Huse G, Fernö A, Holst JC (2010) Establishment of new wintering areas in herring co-occurs with peaks in the ‘first time/repeat spawner’ ratio. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 409:189-198. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08620 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 409. Online publication date: June 23, 2010 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2010 Inter-Research.

Prevalence and associated factors of school physical violence behaviors among middle school students in Beijing

To described the prevalence of school physical violence behaviors and to explore its associated factors among middle school students in Beijing. In 2009, a randomly selected cross-sectional survey was conducted among 5718 students in grades 7 to 12 in Beijing. A self-report anonymous questionnaire involving physical violence at school and socio-demographic variables, such as sex, grades, family economic status and family structure, peer relationships, and communication with their parents etc. were completed by students themselves. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between physical violence and socio-demographic variables. Among the students, 14.3% reported that they had had physical violence behavior in school during the past 12 months. Male students had been more likely to have physical violence behaviors than female students (Male 25.2%, Female 5.1%). For both male and female students, poor school cohesion were the risk factors of physical violence behaviors (Male OR = 1.060, Female OR = 1.065). For male students, factors as father's lower education level (OR = 1.653), remarried/single-parent families (OR = 1.834), low-grade (grade 7 OR = 5.291; grade 11 OR = 1.526), poor school performance (OR = 1.470) etc were the risk factors of physical violence behaviors; while better-off family economic status (OR = 0.546), good peer relationships (OR = 0.618), and easy to communicate with the father (OR = 0.756) were the protective factors of physical violence behaviors. For female students, easy to communicate with her mother (OR = 0.358) were the protective factors of physical violence behaviors. For male and female students, the prevalence of school physical violence and its related factors were different. Actions on prevention against physical violence behaviors should be fully considered, including factors as gender, personal characteristics, family, school and peers etc.

Reliability and validity of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion Scale in a sample of Salvadoran secondary school students

BackgroundDespite a growing body of research from the United States and other industrialized countries on the inverse association between supportive social relationships in the school and youth risk behavior engagement, research on the measurement of supportive school social relationships in Central America is limited. We examined the psychometric properties of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion (SPSC) scale, a 10-item scale that asks students to rate with a 5-point Likert-type response scale their perceptions of the school social environment, in a sample of public secondary school students (mean age = 15 years) living in central El Salvador.MethodsStudents (n = 982) completed a self-administered questionnaire that included the SPSC scale along with measures of youth health risk behaviors based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure of the scale, and two internal consistency estimates of reliability were computed. Construct validity was assessed by examining whether students who reported low school cohesion were significantly more likely to report physical fighting and illicit drug use.ResultsResults indicated that the SPSC scale has three latent factors, which explained 61.6% of the variance: supportive school relationships, student-school connectedness, and student-teacher connectedness. The full scale and three subscales had good internal consistency (rs = .87 and α = .84 for the full scale; rs and α between .71 and .75 for the three subscales). Significant associations were found between the full scale and all three subscales with physical fighting (p ≤ .001) and illicit drug use (p < .05).ConclusionFindings provide evidence of reliability and validity of the SPSC for the measurement of supportive school relationships in Latino adolescents living in El Salvador. These findings provide a foundation for further research on school cohesion and health risk behavior in Latino adolescents living in the U.S. and other Latin American countries.

A Reexamination of the Psychometric Properties of the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET)

As a follow-up to Horner et al., this study focuses on the internal consistency and validity of the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) at all school levels. Analyzing SET data from 833 elementary, 264 middle, and 93 high schools, the authors focused on (a) describing commonalities and differences in SET data across the school levels, (b) assessing the SET's internal consistency at all school levels, and (c) examining the SET's validity as the extent to which SET scores collected by external observers correlated with Team Implementation Checklist (TIC) scores reflecting internal self-assessments. Results indicated that overall, the SET performs best in elementary schools, shows less cohesion in middle and high schools, and highly correlates with TIC scores. Based on these results, the authors formulated a number of recommendations to improve the utility of SET data for research and implementation decisions across school levels and implementation phases.

Cohésion scolaire et politiques éducatives

Les comparaisons internationales des systèmes éducatifs concernent principalement les performances académiques des élèves et plus rarement leurs attitudes. Dans le cadre d’une recherche plus large sur les cohésions sociale et scolaire, cet article vise à entamer une analyse exploratoire des attitudes des élèves appréhendées par la littérature sous le concept de « sentiment d’appartenance à l’école ». Dans un premier temps, à partir des données issues de différentes enquêtes PISA administrées aux élèves de 15 ans, on montrera que, suivant les pays, ces attitudes ne sont pas identiques en ce qui concerne le sentiment d’utilité de l’école, l’esprit de collaboration et de compétition scolaire. Puis des associations seront mises en évidence entre ces attitudes et les caractéristiques structurelles des systèmes, comme l’existence d’une école unique ou de filières, les modalités de regroupements des élèves ou le recours à des pratiques de redoublement. Enfin, pour aller au-delà des structures « dures » de l’école, la variété des attitudes sera mise en relation avec des caractéristiques du climat scolaire tel que perçu par les élèves.

Multiculturalism is Dead: Long Live Community Cohesion? A Case Study of an Educational Methodology to Empower Young People as Global Citizens

This article explores the theme of the ‘two faces of education’ by reviewing new policy directives in the United Kingdom to strengthen community cohesion in schools and their communities. These directives have resulted from growing disaffection with the aims and outcomes of multiculturalism. This article will investigate the ways in which this disaffection has resulted in both ‘quick fix’ politicised solutions, and in more genuine attempts to support young people to develop positive relationships with people from different ethnic backgrounds. It will suggest that whilst inequalities of educational outcome for different ethnic groups persist, schools will continue to be part of the problem, hence the second link with the theme of two (or more?) faces of education. In order to become part of the solution, schools internationally will need to adopt much more creative and complex approaches to the reduction of racism and inequality than those currently being proposed by the UK Government. A case study of an approach that has been used in many countries of the world, including Brazil and Canada, to engage young people in open dialogue, and to develop empathy and critical thinking is provided. The case study from a multi-ethnic college setting within the Midlands, United Kingdom, will illustrate how young people can be enskilled and empowered to consider key debates that have relevance to their lives as global citizens living in a culturally diverse community.

Influence Of Mentoring On Dyad Satisfaction: Is There Agreement Between Matched Pairs of Novice Teachers And Their Formal Mentors?

The practice of mentoring beginning teachers emerged in the early 1980s as an induction strategy to assist new teachers adjust to the demands of teaching, and to become socialized to the school environment (Feiman-Nemser, 2003). This tactic was in response to the high levels of attrition that newcomers experienced during their induction into the teaching profession. Whereas a six percent loss of staff per year might be expected in the corporate world (Norton, 1999), previous research reported that up to 25% of teachers leave the profession by the end of the first year, and almost half of new teachers leave within the first five years of entry into the occupation (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). As such, beginning teacher retention looms as an important challenge for school districts, and was identified by theNational Commission on Teaching and America’s Future as a “national crisis” (2003, p. 21). While it can be argued that some employee attrition is natural and to be expected, the literature contends that high levels of turnover are an indication of ineffectiveness and low performance in an organization (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). Furthermore, research suggests that some of the most talented beginning teachers are voluntarily leaving the profession (Ponessa, 1996). Education’s “revolving door” (Ingersoll, 2003, p. 11) phenomenon has resulted in a high cost of time, resources, teaching effectiveness, student achievement, and school cohesion (Cochran-Smith, 2004).

School Structural Characteristics, Student Effort, Peer Associations, and Parental Involvement

This research examines the extent to which individual-level and school structural variables are predictors of academic achievement among a sample of 10th-grade students abstracted from the National Educational Longitudinal Study database. A secondary analysis of the data produced the following findings. The study results show that individual-level predictors, such as student effort, parent—child discussion, and associations with positive peers, play a substantial role in increasing students' achievement. Furthermore, the results also suggest that school climate—in particular, the sense of school cohesion felt by students, teachers, and administrators—is important to successful student outcomes. In total, school structural characteristics were found to have relatively small effects on student achievement when compared with individual-level characteristics. Given these results, interventions aimed at improving academic achievement need take into consideration the impact of individual-level and school structural factors on students and their ability to succeed.

Individual and School Structural Effects on African American High School Students' Academic Achievement

The research examining the correlates of academic achievement is immense. In particular, scores of studies have examined individual- and family-level variables that influence student achievement. Based upon Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological theory of human development, this study extends one step beyond previous studies and incorporates school-level characteristics into an investigation of the factors that influence adolescents' academic achievement. Using regression-based techniques that account for within-school clustering of students, this research examined the extent to which individual-level and school structural variables predict academic achievement among a sample of 10th grade African American students abstracted from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) database. The results suggest that individual-level predictors, such as student effort, parent-child discussion, and associations with positive peers, play a substantial role in increasing students' achievement. Further, the results also suggest that school climate, in particular the sense of school cohesion felt by students, teachers, and administrators, is important to successful student outcomes. Given these findings, the author suggests that an ecological approach which encompasses individual-, family-, and school-level variables be considered when examining predictors of academic achievement. Also, policy and interventions aimed at improving academic achievement need to take into consideration the impact of individual-level and school structural factors on students and their ability to succeed.

Prior Student Achievement, Collaborative School Processes, and Collective Teacher Efficacy

Collective teacher efficacy refers to teacher perceptions that they constitute an effective instructional team, capable of bringing about learning in students. Previous research demonstrates that a school staff with a strong sense of collective efficacy is likely to generate high student achievement. This study of 2,170 teachers in 141 elementary schools used structural equation modeling to examine the antecedents of collective teacher efficacy. The study found that prior student achievement in grade 6 mathematics predicted collective teacher efficacy, as expected by social cognition theory. The study also found that school processes that promoted teacher ownership of school directions (shared school goals, school-wide decision making, fit of plans with school needs, and empowering principal leadership) exerted an even stronger influence on collective teacher efficacy than prior student achievement. School cohesion and support contributed to collective teacher efficacy, but only in domains in which the school had control over its directions.

Can Stability in School Processes Offset the Negative Effects of Sociopolitical Upheaval on Adolescents' Adaptation?

This article investigates the effect of sociopolitical upheaval in Bulgaria on youths' adaptation and perceptions of supportive environments, focusing on the stability and change of schools as a protective factor in this process. High school students were surveyed twice 2 years apart about their perceptions of support and warmth in school, in their family, and with peers, as well as about their social maturity, optimism, depression, and problem behavior. Multivariate and regression analyses revealed the following: (a) Youths perceived supportive environments as either stable (in the case of friends) or improved (in the case of family and schools); (b) they reported declines in their optimism, relative stability of depression and problem behavior, and improvement in social maturity; (c) declines in perceptions of supportive environments were associated with deterioration in youths' adaptation; and (d) stability and especially the improvement of school cohesion moderated the effect of deteriorating family and peer environments on youths' adaptation.

Article

Among the different assumptions proposed to explain why tropical tuna aggregate around floating objects ("logs"), one of the most recent is that floating objects may represent meeting points for tuna. This "meeting point hypothesis" proposes that tuna can use these floating objects to form larger schools after school fission or dispersion. The influence of meeting points on tuna school sizes is explored through different individual-based models that consider a single fusion rule and a variety of fission rules based on energetic considerations, the role of school size on school cohesion, predator attacks, and dispersion during the night. Results are first analyzed using an averaging approach to study the overall mean school size in habitats having different floating object densities. Second, a dynamic approach is used to compare the temporal dynamics of associated and free-swimming school sizes. The averaging approach indicates that in all the models (except those based on energetics), floating objects increase school size, at least up to a certain object density. The dynamic approach clearly illustrates different dynamics in the school size of associated and free-swimming schools. Most of our models show that tuna associated with logs resume schooling in larger schools after fission events.

EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN A RESOURCE-RICH, STRUCTURED ENVIRONMENT: SELECTION EXPERIMENTS WITH MEDAKA (ORYZIAS LATIPES).

Schooling and aggression in fish are known to be partially inherited traits. Their genetic relationship to growth rate and to each other is, however, not fully understood. In this study we present evidence that schooling, social tolerance, and agonistic behavior in medaka (Oryzias latipes) are altered as an indirect result of selection on growth in two environments that differed in the intensity of social interactions required to obtain access to food. In the high interaction environment food was provided to excess inside a floating cork ring, which limited access to the food and allowed fish to attempt to monopolize it. In the low interaction environment the same amount of food was spread over the container's surface. After two generations of selection on growth the correlation of agonistic behavior and mean growth of broods was negative in the line selected for fast growth, when selection took place in a high interaction environment, but not when it took place in a low interaction environment. School cohesion was higher in the lines selected for fast growth than in those selected for slow growth when selection and rearing environments were both the same, either high or low interaction, but not when they were different. The correlation of social tolerance with growth was significantly more positive in the line selected for fast growth than in that selected for slow growth, but only when selection took place under high social interaction. It appears from these experiments that when resources are aggregated, but unlimited in quantity, competition favors individuals that avoid wasting time and energy on unnecessary and ultimately futile attempts to monopolize food and that also exhibit higher tolerance of nearby conspecifics. The results are interpreted in terms of a hypothesized stimulus-response threshold level for agonistic responses to conspecifics. We suggest that this threshold, which is altered by selection on growth, could provide a common causal (genetic) link between growth and the observed aspects of social behavior. By combining the probabilities from the separate behavioral experiments to obtain an overall significance of our hypothesis we conclude that the probability of no change in threshold is in fact low (P < 0.01).

Escape responses of gregarious mysids (Crustacea: Mysidacea): towards a general classification of escape responses in aggregated crustaceans

Escape responses of a range of schooling/swarming crustaceans both from the literature and from our own observations of Paramesopodopsis rufa Fenton, (1985), Tenagomysis sp., Doxomysis sp., and Anisomysis mixta-australis (Zimmer, (1918)) (Mysidacea) from southeastern Tasmania are examined. The wider applicability of the scheme proposed for classifying escape responses of euphausiids was demonstrated. This is despite the fact that the hyperbenthic mysids chosen showed varying degrees of attraction to the substratum. Three levels of response are proposed for both pelagic and hyperbenthic crustaceans. (1) Primary response. School detects predator out of striking range and avoids threat by moving out of the predator's field of perception. Normal swimming mode and school cohesion are maintained. Mechanisms of concealment from the predator, such as camouflage, which aid detection of the predator prior to it detecting the prey, are included in this category. (2) Secondary response. Predator within striking range causes a coordinated reaction of whole or part of the school, usually manifested by an increase in swimming speed of the individuals nearest to the predator; larger schools may split. (3) Tertiary response. Predator attacks causing a fright response at the individual level resulting in the breakdown of school cohesion. Escape is usually protean in nature, involving leaps or jerks, i.e., tail flips. In each case, the aggregative state of the prey interacts with predator size and distance. Substratum relations also influence the escape in hyperbenthic species. This array of responses is comparable in complexity to that seen in schooling fishes and strongly suggests that this behaviour has coevolved with the form and foraging behaviour of the predator. Finally, the extension of the scheme to cover gregarious crustaceans as a whole is discussed.

Explaining School Cohesion: What Shapes the Organizational Beliefs of Teachers?

Effective schools often possess teachers who hold shared beliefs in similar instructional goals and practices. But little empirical evidence exists that helps to explain what factors shape the level of convergence in teachers' beliefs. Organizational theorists and practitioners alike are divided between two theoretical camps. Some claim that a strong principal and factors within the school can move teachers toward a shared commitment to the school's philosophy and method (a natural-system model). Others suggest that convergent beliefs among school staff are more strongly shaped by the school's environment, including diversity within the local community or fragmentation within the organization of school funding as structured by state and federal education agencies (an open-system model). This study finds that the level of convergence in teachers' beliefs is sensitive to local environmental forces, including heterogeneity of students, size of administrative staff, and the community's social class. But such ...