Academic Achievement Expectations Research Articles

Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: Comparative Perspectives of Special and Regular Teachers in Georgia

Within a global debate around inclusion, there is a shared understanding that teachers’ attitudes are decisive in making inclusive education a reality. Research examining teachers’ attitudes in Georgia towards inclusion is scarce. This paper utilizes an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to examine teachers' attitudes toward inclusion, uncovering their predictors and highlighting the persistent influence of the Soviet legacy of 'defectology' on disability perceptions. Drawing on data obtained from 811 regular and special education teachers of 308 public schools, the study contributes to the global knowledge of the role of teachers' attitudes in promoting inclusion. The study reveals that teachers of Georgia are mostly ‘ableist’ and have deficit views of disability. The paper argues that only long-term training in inclusive practices predicts positive attitudes for both groups of teachers. Special education teachers demonstrate higher willingness for inclusion. Regular teachers spotlight normalcy, reveal low expectations for academic achievement, and focus on behaviour management rather than broader teaching practices. Both groups associate inclusion benefits primarily with social and emotional development. Resistance to inclusion is more prevailing among secondary grades, STEM, Georgian, and English teachers. The findings have policy implications for enhancing education quality for children with disabilities and teachers’ professional development system in Georgia.

Chinese school adolescents’ stress experience and coping strategies: a qualitative study

BackgroundStress in adolescence is associated with adverse mental health outcomes. Coping resources have been proved by literature to have buffering effects on the impact of stress on mental health. It is imperative to understand the stress and coping strategies of adolescents. However, to date, there has been a scarce of qualitative examination of stress and coping strategies in adolescents in a Chinese population.ObjectivesThis study aimed to understand the stress experience and coping strategies of high school students in China.MethodsThis study adopted a qualitative design involving three focus group interviews. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit high school students who were enrolled in grades 10 to 11, and their teachers, at a Chinese high school which resulted in 20 students and 9 teacher participants. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.ResultsA total of 4 themes were identified: (i) sources of stress; (ii) impacts of stress (iii) coping strategies used by students; and (iv) recommendations for stress management programs. Students experienced excessive stress in their daily lives. The primary source of stress came from high expectations for academic achievement. Other sources of stress were peer relationships and family issues. The stress had negative impacts on students’ emotions, sleep, study, and mental wellbeing. The students demonstrated various coping strategies, with the most common being avoidant coping. Students and teachers agreed that the coping strategies were not effective in reducing stress in the long run and that more coping skills training was needed.ConclusionsThis study is the first to assess the perceptions of Chinese high school students and their teachers regarding adolescent stress experiences and coping strategies. Chinese high school students experienced significant stress in their daily lives and demonstrated unhelpful coping strategies. Participants demonstrated consensus that they did not have the skills to cope. There is a demonstrated need for interventions that focus on increasing coping skills in this population.

Negative Impacts of School Class Segregation on Migrant Children's Education Expectations and the Associated Mitigating Mechanism.

This study thoroughly analyzes the impacts of school class segregation on the four dimensions of educational expectations of migrant children, and verifies the moderating effects of migrant children's identification with the college entrance examination policy on the relationship between the two. A total of 1770 questionnaires were collected for this study. Through multiple regression analysis and moderating effect tests on the data, this study reveals that school class segregation has a significant negative impact on the educational expectations of migrant children; the migrant children's identification with the college entrance examination policy also partially moderates the impacts of school class segregation on the academic achievement expectations and interpersonal expectations of migrant children. Informed by these results, this study proposes the following three mechanisms that can be used to mitigate the negative impacts of school class segregation on migrant children's educational expectations: (a) an institutional mechanism involving the "unified urban-rural household registration"; (b) a cultural mechanism involving "promoting learning through examinations"; (c) a compensation mechanism involving the "principle of justice". This paper provides a Chinese perspective on the issue of school class segregation by offering a policy reference for the improvement of the college entrance examination policy for migrant children and the reform of the household registration system.

Art therapy utilizing smartphones as a therapeutic stimulus to promote self-expression

This study’s aim was to empower South Korean adolescent girls to explore their creative potential and emotional world by implementing a six-session art intervention with a smartphone stimulus in a therapeutic setting. Within a culture of high expectations for academic achievement, adolescents can experience varying degrees of stress and anxiety, which can contribute to a range of emotional and behavioral problems. Thirty-three Korean adolescent girls received an art therapy intervention with the following components: (a) leveraging the smartphone as a motivational stimulus, (b) introducing response art as an opportunity to elaborate on smartphone imagery, and (c) inviting participants to dialogue with their art. Engagement in these activities was measured quantitatively along three dimensions, motivation, response art, and dialogue, through a researcher-developed instrument, the Participants Engagement Scale. Paired t tests comparing mean scores from the first to final session showed participants’ engagement significantly increased along all three dimensions (p = 0.0001), supporting the hypotheses. Qualitative data in the form of process notations were analyzed thematically to provide context and further insight into the efficacy of the intervention. The findings demonstrate that Korean adolescent girls respond positively to a therapeutic environment that respects their culture and in which they feel safe enough to share their stories in an exploratory or playful manner via their own creative expressions.

Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey

This study focused on whether and how teachers implemented the principles of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies and the challenges teachers faced while trying to implement these principles with Syrian students in Turkey. The study was built on the four components of pedagogies: academic achievement; cultural competencies; sociopolitical consciousness; and the sustainability of culture. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews and field notes with four teachers who had Syrian students in their classes and four Syrian students. Content analysis was used to examine the data. The findings revealed that both teachers and students had low expectations of academic achievement. Teachers conducted the teaching–learning process entirely according to the perspectives of students who were from the mainstream culture. Teachers tried to improve the cultural competencies and enhance their sociopolitical consciousness of the Syrian students; however, the attempts were limited and inadequate. Although teachers were aware of the importance of sustaining the Syrian culture, they did not know how to do so. The teachers did not have sufficient competencies or experiences to make revisions or to carry out an effective instructional process tailored to the needs of Syrian students because of an absence of skills and knowledge of multicultural education.

Investigating the drivers of higher education expectations among students from low and high socio-economic backgrounds in Australia

Educational attainment is in part determined by students’ educational expectations, which are strongly influenced by their socio-economic status (SES). This paper contributes to the existing literature by explicitly focusing on the influence of student engagement and their perceptions of teachers’ expectations for academic achievement on their educational expectations among low- and high-SES students. Using growth curve modelling, it capitalises on a unique large-scale dataset that links administrative records and longitudinal survey responses of 13,697 primary and secondary school students in Australian schools. The results show a significant and consistent gap between low-SES and high-SES students’ trajectories of expectations for higher education, highlighting the crucial role of the timing of interventions, and point to factors such as positive peer relations, interest in learning, and teachers’ expectations that may reduce this gap.

Mismatch between student and university expectations of academic achievement

Student perceptions of their studies and learning are important influencers of academic performance and outcome. Here we find that the grades students anticipate obtaining may differ significantly from grades awarded: students’ perceptions of their studies appear to be at odds with the university’s assessment of their academic worth. A previous study introduced students to the concept of self-efficacy and its effects on academic performance and outcome; we demonstrate that students’ self-efficacy can be raised. Importantly, the focus is not on the validity of the concept of self-efficacy as the guiding or defining principle in this research, but rather a means to potentially identify important student perceptions that may influence academic performance. Moreover, the effect, emphasises a mismatch between student and university expectations of the measure of achievement: students overestimate their anticipated grades against grades awarded. By encouraging improved self-efficacy are we emphasising differences between anticipated and awarded grades? Are we diminishing the student’s sense of achievement and therefore negatively impacting on student performance? To resolve this, in this study we shift the focus from the purely analytical analysis of the impact of self-efficacy and highlight assumptions of the primacy of grades as signifier of academic success. Academic success is motivated by a desire for learning as much as for good grades. Furthermore, a student’s academic success reflects a complex of socio-personal influences. These perspectives allow the effects of improved self-efficacy to be formative in the student’s maturing sense of belonging within education. The survey and concept of self-efficacy is now better understood as the vehicle for improved experiences of learning, becoming potent drivers of student success.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy—Adolescent Skills Training With Youth From Asian American and Immigrant Families: Cultural Considerations and Intervention Process

Although research has identified effective evidence-based depression prevention interventions for diverse youth, little is known about how the intervention process unfolds with immigrant family youth. This study utilized a qualitative approach to explore cultural and clinical differences in the implementation of Interpersonal Psychotherapy–Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) in two schools, one serving youth from primarily immigrant, Asian American families and the second, youth from mostly nonimmigrant, non-Hispanic White families. A total of 131 IPT–AST sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded for presence and patterns of cultural and clinical constructs. Results revealed that sessions with immigrant family youth were more likely to contain discussions of interpersonal problems characterized by estrangement, goals of spending time together with important others, mentions of emotion suppression and academic achievement expectations, conversations about acculturation, differences in value orientation, and discomfort with implementing new intervention skills. Dialogue from interventionist and youth exchanges is presented to illustrate how these themes emerged and were addressed by interventionists in a culturally responsive manner. The study highlights how IPT–AST with immigrant family and Asian American youth may unfold differently compared to youth from nonimmigrant families. Implications of findings for providers are discussed.

Effects of attending preschool on adolescents’ reading literacy: Evidence from the ethnic minority children in China

This study aims to investigate the long-term effects of attending preschool on Chinese reading literacy in the ethnic minority Zhuang adolescents. Altogether 457 Zhuang students (Nfemale = 250, Mage = 13.81, SD = 0.86) were randomly sampled, surveyed, and tested with the PISA Reading Literacy (Chinese). The OLS, PSM, and regression analyses results jointly indicated that: (1) Chinese reading literacy varied over different levels of extracurricular reading, parental educational expectation (PEE), and preschool attendance; (2) family income, extracurricular reading, parental expectations of academic achievement and educational levels, and self-education expectations were found the significant predictors of reading literacy; and (3) after controlling for the confounding factors, preschool attendance did not predict any variation in Chinese reading literacy. The implications for policymaking and educational development for ethnic children are also discussed.

Journal Writing: Effects on Students’ Writing Proficiency and Student and Teacher Attitudes

In today’s world, writing is no longer a natural activity, especially for the younger generation. They look upon this activity as too complex, overwhelming and sometimes irrelevant. These attitudes are amplified when having to write in a second language. In EFL tertiary education, the expectations of academic achievement have become far greater than actual student capabilities. This study examined the possibility of using journal writing, both with and without an audience, as a way to address this issue. It is believed that by engaging students in the act of writing without the burden of an academic topic, it will indirectly impact students’ academic performance. Seventy-six undergraduate students in three groups (one control and two experimental) were involved. Data was collected in the form of pre-test and post-test writing, student focus group meetings and an interview with the instructor. From the study, it was found that dialogue journal writing with an audience contributed to an increase in the proficiency level of students, especially in terms of their organizational skills. In addition, students who undertook journal writing expressed gains in self-confidence, and were aware of the role of journal writing in this. Finally, journal writing was found to offer insight to the instructor with regard to what is happening under the surface of a class, and thus better address students’ needs. Keywords: EFL, academic writing, writing proficiency, journal writing

“You can be anything” – Career guidance messages and achievement expectations among Cape Town teenagers

Do high school learners in Cape Town have realistic tertiary study plans? During 2015, 813 Grade 11 learners were surveyed with regard to their expectations for academic achievement and post-school plans. Learners attended average-performing, no- or low-fee Cape Town high schools. Follow-up discussions were held with 10 learners, 2 teachers and 1 family. In line with previous South African studies, it was found that almost all Grade 11 learners expected to study at tertiary level. Although learners expressed confidence that they would achieve their goals, 70% predicted that their school marks would increase over the following 15 months to an unlikely or impossible degree. Learners in the lowest quartile of school performance were most at risk of overestimating their future improvement and, additionally, reported that their current marks were higher than reflected in school records. Young people are encouraged to plan for university education without consideration of how realistic or attainable this option is for them. They are repeatedly told: “You can be anything!” Some learners moderate this message with practices of self-regulated learning, involving careful checking of recent marks, setting goals, and reviewing progress. Others pretend to have marks that they do not have and rely on the power of self-belief to make their expectations a reality. This leads to a likely mismatch between plans and actual academic attainment. Keywords: achievement; career guidance; goal setting; self-belief; teenagers; tertiary education

Teaching to Transform: (W)holistic Science Pedagogy

As the scientific and technological divide widens, access to quality science instruction has become a civil rights issue: those equipped with the knowledge and skill will remain caretakers of status and power. This inequality is especially salient for students in marginalized communities and schools where stereotypes fuel low expectations for academic achievement and success. For many students the classroom represents their earliest formal experience with both the content and process of science, placing science teachers in a unique and precarious position: getting students excited and engaged about science while simultaneously preparing the next generation of STEM professionals. We offer the (W)holistic Science Pedagogy (WSP), a student-centered approach of instruction to disrupt patterns and hierarchies. The WSP approach requires 5 commitments from the teacher: A commitment (1) to an ever-developing self-awareness, (2) to science and its practices, (3) to science as a transformative agent, (4) to their students’ social emotional wellness, and (5) to restorative practices. In this article, we define the 5 commitments and present an example lesson that reflects the commitments.

Black Male Degree Attainment: Do Expectations and Aspirations in High School Make a Difference?

Using the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002), this study investigates predictors of Black male students’ educational attainment and bachelor’s degree completion. Regression results showed that above and beyond the effect from socioeconomic status (SES), students’ expectations and math teachers’ expectations were statistically significant in predicting Black male students’ educational attainment, and students’ expectations was the only significant predictor of bachelor’s degree completion. Independent sample t-tests also found significant differences between Black male students who completed their bachelor’s degree and those who did not with regard to their expectations of academic achievement, teacher-student relationships, parental involvement and expectations, and influence of friends. Implications for K–12 and higher education are discussed.

Generalizability in the Mediation Effects of Parental Expectations on Children’s Cognitive Ability and Self-concept

Previous research involving Hong Kong Chinese parents and their children showed that parental home involvement, beliefs of their children’s cognitive ability and their expectations for academic achievement mediated the relationship between their children’s cognitive ability and school achievement scores. This mediation effect was interpreted as the cognitive-affect model of academic achievement. The current research confirms the generalizability of the findings and tests the hypothesis that there are cultural differences in the mediation effects with the inclusion of non-Chinese students and their parents as a comparison group. The responses from 103 Chinese speaking (CS) and 163 non-Chinese speaking (NCS) primary students and parents from two schools in Hong Kong were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Student measures included self-concept, cognitive ability and academic achievement in mathematics, English and Chinese. Parent measures included home involvement, beliefs of their child’s cognitive ability and expectations of academic success. Initial model showed that parental expectations mediate the link between cognitive ability and academic achievement for both CS and NCS groups, with parental involvement predicting English achievement for only the NCS group. After the inclusion of academic self-concept, the model showed that CS parental expectations also mediate the link between self-concept and academic achievement. However, the model showed that the parental expectations of NCS play a lesser role in mediating the link between academic self-concept and their children’s academic achievement. Despite the differences, the results provide evidence for the generalizability of the cognitive-affect model.

Teachers' explicit expectations and implicit prejudiced attitudes to educational achievement: Relations with student achievement and the ethnic achievement gap

In this paper, we consider whether teachers' explicit and implicit prejudiced attitudes underlie the ethnic achievement gap. To date, most research on teacher expectation effects has relied on explicit expectation measures that are prone to social desirability biases. In contrast, we examine the effects of teachers' (a) explicit ethnicity-based expectations for academic achievement and (b) implicit prejudiced attitudes about academic achievement on students' actual academic success over time. A total of 38 teachers completed both a traditional teacher expectation measure and a modified Implicit Association Task designed to assess ethnic stereotypes associated with academic achievement and failure. A multi-level analytic framework showed that students in classrooms of teachers with high expectations performed better in reading at the end of the year and that these effects were found across all ethnic groups. In contrast, whereas students' mathematics achievement scores were largely unrelated to teachers' explicit expectations, teachers' implicit prejudiced attitudes predicted student performance. Specifically, students benefited most academically when their teachers' implicit biases favored the ethnic group to which the student belonged. Findings are discussed in relation to differences in the salience of teachers' expectations and implicit prejudiced attitude in the classroom, and the ethnic achievement gap.

For Your Enrichment: Jay Gatsby Goes to College

Jay Gatsby, the main character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, is a self-made man. He entered St. Olaf College in Minnesota but then dropped out during his first term because of the humiliating circumstances of his poverty. Gatsby’s flight from college contrasts with the Ivy League education of Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, the Yale graduate better equipped to navigate East Egg’s social world. Gatsby’s experience is still relevant today: while the transition to higher education is often difficult for young people, it is especially so for first-generation students. Many students can call on the experiences of family members to help them acclimate to the college environment, but first-generation students lack a road map for academic success and social comfort in what can feel like an alien world. These students often face even greater hurdles at highly selective institutions such as Dartmouth College, where expectations for academic achievement are high and the social climate is often unfamiliar.

Education of Children with Intellectual Disabilities in Slovenia

AbstractIn the Republic of Slovenia, the concept of inclusion was formally codified with the adoption of the Placement of Children with Special Needs Act (2000, 2007), which calls for inclusive education of students with special needs in settings as close to their homes as possible. Despite numerous innovations, Slovenian legislation still maintains a dual education system. Some students with special needs are educated separately from age peers in special schools/institutions (specialization), while others attend regular schools along with age peers (inclusion). This dichotomy results from thinking that many children with special needs (especially those with intellectual disability) are not able to achieve at the standards set for their age peers, that schools have not provided adapted programs to accommodate lower expectations of academic achievement, that many Slovenian school teachers do not have suitable skills and knowledge appropriate for educating children with special needs, and that most schools lack the capacity and resources that permit teachers to focus on children with special needs. Strategies for bringing about needed changes in practice are required, and some of these key strategies include: enforce the legal provisions enabling children with special needs to receive appropriate schooling; institute prevention processes of the improper placement of children with disabilities; constitute a strategic plan for effective inclusive education of children with intellectual disability; comprehensively monitor and evaluate education practices and inform education policy‐makers of findings; and involve special schools and institutions in the implementation of inclusion of students with intellectual disability in regular schools.

On-Campus and Fully-Online University Students: Comparing Demographics, Digital Technology Use and Learning Characteristics

First-year university students (n = 185) completed an online questionnaire that allowed comparison of those who reported studying on-campus with those who reported studying fully-online. Independent sample t-tests compared the means of students in the two study modes on demographics, frequency of use of digital technology and metacognitive learning characteristics. Compared to students who studied on-campus, students who studied fully-online were older, more likely to be native English speakers and had lower expectations of academic achievement. Compared to students who studied fully-online, students who studied on-campus were more likely to use a computer to chat or tweet, had higher levels of extrinsic achievement motivation and expressed greater need for peer and teacher support for learning. Some differences between on-campus and fully-online students appear to be eroding; other differences persist. Implications for instructional practice are presented.

On-Campus and Fully-Online University Students: Comparing Demographics, Digital Technology Use and Learning Characteristics.

First-year university students (n = 185) completed an online questionnaire that allowed comparison of those who reported studying on-campus with those who reported studying fully-online. Independent sample t-tests compared the means of students in the two study modes on demographics, frequency of use of digital technology and metacognitive learning characteristics. Compared to students who studied on-campus, students who studied fully-online were older, more likely to be native English speakers and had lower expectations of academic achievement. Compared to students who studied fully-online, students who studied on-campus were more likely to use a computer to chat or tweet, had higher levels of extrinsic achievement motivation and expressed greater need for peer and teacher support for learning. Some differences between on-campus and fully-online students appear to be eroding; other differences persist. Implications for instructional practice are presented.

Culturally Responsive Caring and Expectations for Academic Achievement in a Catholic School

Culturally Responsive Caring and Expectations for Academic Achievement in a Catholic School