Pupil Peer Research Articles

Quality Nutrition Education and Its Impact on Haemoglobin Levels of School Pupils of Muranga County, Kenya

Anaemia can dramatically affect school children with adverse impact on their cognitive development and school performance. Nutrition education has not been given the priority it deserves in primary schools due to the busy school curriculum although it is concerned with changing an individual’s behavior. It is in this light that this study was designed. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of three main nutrition education facilitators on nutrition knowledge among primary schools children in Gatanga Sub-County. The facilitators used were researcher, 5 pupil peer educators and an agriculture staff in nutrition education classes using the FAO curriculum chart. A baseline survey was conducted in 12 randomly selected schools for class six pupils’ households. Questionnaires for pupils and an interview schedule for caregivers were used to collect data, with pre and post-tests. Demographics and socio-economic factors, food production hygienic practices, dietary intake and biochemical data were obtained. The intervention schools were Mabanda, Kigio and Kirwara (experimental) and Gakurari (control school). Baseline data were analyzed by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 and Nutri-Survey software using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The data were coded to search for emerging themes and gaps identified. On average, the mean mark in nutrition knowledge at baseline was 30.05%. In the post-tests all experimental schools significantly improved in nutrition knowledge with the highest school scoring an average of 52% and lowest 40%. A total of 31.4 % pupils at baseline and 21.4% after interventions were found to be anaemic after altitude adjustments at a calculated factor 0.5 for Gatanga altitude (2237m ASL). Improvement in the adoption and use of the projects that enhance nutrition and health significantly occurred in the experimental schools as opposed to the control school. Pupils’ haemoglobin status were not significantly different (p>0.05) between the experimental and control schools at baseline. However, notable differences in haemoglobin levels occurred in the experimental schools after the interventions. The relationship between nutrition knowledge and nutrient intake was positive and there was a significant relationship between nutrition knowledge and haemoglobin levels at p<0.05 (r=0.253, p=0.025). Anaemia was found to be a significant problem and therefore the need for a comprehensive intervention strategy by all stakeholders. The study findings would contribute towards operationalization of the Kenyan National School Health Policy and Guidelines, the National Food Security and Nutrition Policy in prevention and control of IDA by enhancing nutrition education.

Adolescents’ psychological well-being and self-esteem in the context of relationships at school

Background: The school environment has shown itself to be an important factor in explaining adolescent behaviour. The relationships and experiences that pupils have at school have been found to influence their development, psychological well-being, self-esteem and social adjustment.Purpose: The aim of the study is to explore whether there is a relationship between pupil–peer and pupil–teacher relationships and psychological well-being and self-esteem, and whether this relationship varies according to pupils’ experience of bullying or being bullied.Sample: Data consisted of a sample of 3694 students (mean age ± SD 14.3 ± 0.62 years; 51% girls) from elementary schools in Slovakia.Design and method: Questionnaires were administered to the students. In terms of data analysis, linear regression was firstly used in the whole sample to explore pupil–peer and pupil–teacher relationships and psychological well-being (the depression/anxiety and social dysfunction subscales of GHQ-12) and self-esteem (positive and negative self-esteem subscales of RSE). Next, the whole sample was divided into four groups in terms of involvement in bullying (normative contrasts, passive victims, aggressive non-victims and aggressive victims). Linear regression was used to explore the associations between pupil–peer and pupil–teacher relationships with the two factors of psychological well-being and two factors of self-esteem in these four groups.Results: As findings showed, better pupil–peer relationships and also pupil–teacher relationships were significantly related statistically to less depression/anxiety and social dysfunction, as well as to more positive and less negative self-esteem. All bullying categories were significantly related to pupil–peer relationships and the four dependent variables. However, in the categories of aggressive victims and aggressive non-victims, the pupil–teacher relationship was not significantly related to their psychological well-being and self-esteem. Also, in all subgroups, better pupil–peer relationships were significantly related to less depression/anxiety and social dysfunction, as well as with more positive and less negative self-esteem.Conclusion: Given the differences found in the connections between pupil–teacher relationships and well-being and self-esteem, between those who bullied and those who were bullied, it would seem that the school environment can play an important role in implementing anti-bullying prevention strategies.

School bullying as a creator of pupil peer pressure

Background: Research into school bullying has a long tradition but a rather narrow scope. Many prevention programmes have been designed, but despite extensive investigation, most studies suggest that bullying is not decreasing. There is something paradoxical in this phenomenon. In order to have any real impact on some phenomena, thorough understanding is needed. What, then, is the essence of school bullying? How does it develop and how is it maintained in a community? In the present study written material and interviews concerning pupils´ experiences of bullying were used to examine how the status of the bully is created among pupils and how cultural norms and values in the community are constructed via bullying. Bullying as a phenomenon is a hidden process, where teachers are often misled. The meanings given to bullying behaviour can often be understood only by the pupils in the community. This is why bullying is possible in the presence of the teacher and also during lessons. The study suggests the need to see bullying in a broader social and cultural framework, which also provides a new way of understanding pupils´ social relationships. Purpose: This study attempts to understand school bullying as a phenomenon from a social and cultural viewpoint. Communication in and meanings given to bullying acts in the school community are in focus. Sample: The study sample comprised 85 lower secondary school pupils, aged 13–15, from various schools in central Finland. The data analysed consisted of 85 written accounts and 10 interviews. Design and methods: Pupils were asked to write about ‘School bullying’. The interviews were open-ended thematic interviews or episodic interviews (cf. Friebertshäuser). A hermeneutic method was used in analysing the meanings in the texts. The transcribed texts were analysed using categories and themes within which the meanings given to bullying were interpreted. Results: Our study suggested that bullying behaviour consists of short communicative situations which are often hidden from teachers. These separate situations account for the subjective experience of bullying. Bullying behaviour is a way of gaining power and status in a group or school class. The status is maintained by calling a pupil who is bullied different names. The ‘difference’ in the bullied pupil is interpreted as a culturally avoidable characteristic. In this way, bullying behaviour creates cultural norms and forces all pupils in the bullying community to follow them. Telling stories and calling the bullied pupil names increases the group's cohesion and the treatment of the bullied pupil creates fear in other pupils, who do not dare to fight bullying. In a community where bullying occurs, fear and guilt are obvious. Conclusions: Bullying is embedded in cultural norms, values and social status in the whole community. The hidden nature of the phenomenon emerges in short communicative situations that should be taken seriously. This research applies an approach from sociology and cultural studies to an area that has been dominated by psychological approaches. In doing so, it opens up a variety of interpretations of what bullying is and how it develops in schools.

User perceptions of process–outcome linkages in pupil peer counselling for bullying services in the UK

ABSTRACT Users of pupil peer counselling for bullying services (n=50) rated their most helpful and their least helpful experiences of these services on five counselling process variables. The aim was to identify which, if any, of these variables differentiated between the two types of experience. Participants gave significantly higher ratings to ‘core conditions’, ‘client openness’ and ‘maintain positive self-regard’, but significantly lower ratings to ‘counsellor directiveness’, for their most helpful experience than for their least helpful experience. No significant differences emerged for ratings of ‘counsellor self-disclosure’. None of these effects were qualified by gender. The implications of these findings for providers of peer counselling for bullying services are discussed.

‘I'm not seen as one of the clever children’: consulting primary school pupils about the social conditions of learning

Bernstein (1996) suggests that we need to engage critically with what it would mean to extend democracy in schools through pupil consultation. This paper explores the ways in which pupil consultation can uncover aspects of both pupil peer group cultures and classroom dynamics that work against fairness, collegiality and a sense of community in classrooms. Often it is the disruptive and the underachieving pupils who are the focus of teachers' concerns. However, the findings of this study suggest that consultation can also reveal the detrimental impact that a fractious, competitive peer group riven with power struggles can have on well behaved, high achieving pupils.

How Young Schoolboys Become Somebody: The role of the body in the construction of masculinity

This paper explores the key role of the body in the construction of identity in school boys aged 10-11. The findings are based on data gathered from a 1-year empirical study set in three UK junior schools. I argue that the body is used by the boys as a means of classification, inclusion and differentiation, and is the principal resource to establish status and position within the pupil peer group. The most prevalent and esteemed resource is physicality and athleticism (found particularly in sports and informal playground games), but I also examine how the body is used in tough and intimidating ways, and show how boys construct identities by using their bodies as a social symbol to display items of sports-related and brand-inscribed clothing. Finally, I consider how the body forms a major component in the construction of dominant and subordinated forms of masculinity.

Co‐operation in the Countryside: small primary school clusters

Summary This paper examines the role and significance of co‐operation (clustering) between small primary schools in rural areas across England and Wales. By increasing the range of resources available and enlarging staff and pupil peer groups, clustering can counter many of the challenges that confront curriculum delivery in small schools. However, effective inter‐school liaison can be impeded by fears surrounding the loss of individual school autonomy and logistical barriers caused by the nature of rural localities. Just as significantly, reductions in local authority support for cluster schemes combined with increased incentives to compete for pupils may be curtailing useful co‐operation. Findings from a sample of small‐school headteachers suggest, however, that despite recognition of these detrimental pressures, clustering is likely to remain central to a wider set of local coping strategies which are making a significant contribution to the viability of rural education provision.

IEP-Specified Peer Interaction Needs: Accurate but Ignored

This research addressed two questions about instruction to enhance the social competence of students with disabilities: (a) How adequate were individualized education program (IEP) statements of present level of functioning and goals related to peer interactions? and (b) How appropriate to pupil peer interaction needs and how extensive was instruction? Data sources included IEPs; observations of pupils and teachers in content area, special area, and special education settings; and interviews. Analysis indicated that the IEP accurately characterized peer interactions, but that instructional practices to foster peer interaction were not appropriate, and were provided only to a limited extent. General education settings were somewhat more likely than special education settings to foster peer interaction, providing support for claims that inclusion fosters social integration.

Classmates as Workmates: Informal Peer Activity In the Elementary School1

Drawing on case study data from an American urban school, this paper examines the elementary school classroom as a setting for children's learning of culturally appropriate modes of informal work group behavior. Rather than representing an intrusive, disfunctional element in schoolroom social organization, pupil peer activity is strongly conditioned, in form and function, by the classroom situational context and by school‐sponsored norms for peer conduct. School norms are communicated to children through both informal and formal channels, and are sanctioned in the classroom disciplinary process. Although several forms of peer activity occur at the expense of organizational goals, peer group activity takes a number of forms that evince cooperation with school goals and authority and that lend support to individual achievement. SCHOOLING, ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION, PEER BEHAVIOR, HIDDEN CURRICULUM, ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION.