Category: Social and Motivational Outcomes

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Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Mindfulness-based interventions in schools

This Campbell systematic review examines the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) implemented in school settings on cognition, behaviour, socio-emotional outcomes and academic achievement. MBIs are interventions that use a mindfulness component, broadly defined as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”, and is often combined with yoga, cognitive-behavioural strategies, or relaxation-skills training.

A total of 61 studies are included in the review, but only the 35 randomised or quasi-experimental studies are used in the meta-analysis, with a total of 6,207 pupil participants. Most of the studies were carried out in schools in the US (74%), with some in Asia (5%), Europe (16%) and Canada (5%). The interventions ranged in duration (4–28 weeks), number of sessions (6–125 sessions) and frequency of meetings (once every two weeks to five times a week).

The findings show that:

  • MBIs in schools have a small positive effect on cognitive outcomes and socio-emotional outcomes, but do not improve behaviour or academic achievement.
  • There was little heterogeneity for all outcomes, apart from behavioural outcomes, suggesting that the interventions produced similar results across studies on cognitive, socio-emotional and academic outcomes, despite the interventions being quite diverse.

Overall, Brandy Maynard and colleagues find a lack of support at post-test to indicate that the positive effects on cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes then translate into positive outcomes on behaviour and academic achievement.

 

Source (Open Access): Maynard, B.R., Solis, M.R., Miller, V.L.& Brendel, K.E. (2017). Mindfulness-based interventions for improving cognition, academic achievement, behavior, and socioemotional functioning of primary and secondary school students. Oslo, Norway: The Campbell Collaboration.… Read the rest

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Kindergarten Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

A wide range of approaches may help improve pupils’ ability to manage behaviours and emotions

Research published in JAMA Pediatrics has found there are a wide range of different approaches that can be effective in improving self-regulation skills (the ability to control emotions, avoid inappropriate or aggressive behaviour and engage in self-directed learning) in children and teenagers.

Anuja Pandey and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of evaluations of interventions designed to improve pupils’ self-regulation. Data from 49 studies with a total of more than 23,000 pupils ranging in age from 2 to 17 years was examined. The interventions were classified as curriculum-based programmes (n=21), mindfulness and yoga interventions (n=8), family-based programmes (n=9), exercise-based programmes (n=6) and interventions focused on social and personal skills (n= 6).

The researchers found that:

  • Most interventions (n=33) were successful in improving pupils’ ability to manage behaviour and emotion.
  • A meta-analysis showed there was a positive effect of the interventions with self-regulation task performance scores, with a pooled effect size of +0.42.
  • There was no age group in which interventions were more effective.

While a curriculum-based approach was most commonly used to deliver interventions, the study found that self-regulation interventions can be effective in family settings targeting parenting practices and sibling relationships.

 

Source (Open Access): Pandey, A., Hale, D., Das, S., Goddings, A.-L., Blakemore, S.-J. & Viner, R. M. (2018). Effectiveness of Universal Self-regulation–Based Interventions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(6), 566-575. … Read the rest

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Achievement Kindergarten Social and Motivational Outcomes

Preschool inattention and conduct problems linked to reduced exam scores

Research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has used data from the University of Bristol Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to investigate whether preschool hyperactivity/inattention and conduct problems are independently associated with academic outcomes at age 16.

(Washbrook, Propper& Sayal, 2013) found that:

  • Adverse effects were apparent in both boys and girls (n = 11,640).
  • For boys, hyperactivity/inattention scores were associated with reductions of 10 GCSE points, and borderline and abnormal conduct problem scores were associated with reductions of 9–10 and 12–15 points respectively.
  • For girls, early conduct problems rather than hyperactivity/inattention were important, with reductions of 9 and 12 points for borderline and abnormal scores respectively.

The authors say that there is a strong argument for the early identification of behavioural problems, and that this needs to be linked to appropriate interventions to be effective. They also suggest that teachers should be aware of the long-term implications of early behavioural difficulties, particularly for children they might regard as being at risk, and to take parental concerns about behaviour problems seriously.

 

Source (Open Access): Washbrook, E., Propper, C. & Sayal, K. (2013). Pre-school hyperactivity/attention problems and educational outcomes in adolescence: prospective longitudinal study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 203(4), 265–271. … Read the rest

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Kindergarten Social and Motivational Outcomes

Chinese kindergarten teachers’ responses to children’s classroom social behaviours

Teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards children affect their teaching, and these beliefs are subject to cultural influences. A study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly explored the beliefs and attitudes of kindergarten teachers in China towards children’s classroom social behaviours.

Yan Li at Shanghai Normal University and colleagues examined 672 Shanghai kindergarten teachers’ responses to a series of short hypothetical scenarios depicting children with different behaviours when interacting with their peers – for instance, shyness, unsociability, physical aggression and relational aggression. Teachers were asked to rate their tolerance and negative emotions towards children in the scenarios, and to predict the children’s academic performance and whether their peers would respond negatively.

The study found the following:

  • The most negative views were expressed towards scenarios depicting physical aggression.
  • When children in a hypothetical scenario were boys, tolerance towards physical aggression was even less.
  • More tolerance was expressed for shyness compared to aggressive behaviours.
  • Shy children were predicted to receive most negative responses from their peers.
  • Shy children were also predicted to be less likely to achieve academic success than relationally aggressive children.

The authors suggest that these attitudes among Shanghai’s teachers may reflect the influence of Western culture.

 

Source ：Li, Y., Coplan, R. J., Archbell, K. A., Bullock, A., & Chen, L. (2016). Chinese kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about young children’s classroom social behavior. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36, 122–132. … Read the rest

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Primary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Class clowns are no joke

A longitudinal study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that the older pupils get, the less they approve of male classmates who are looked upon as class clowns. Specifically, boys who act mischievously to make their peers laugh in first grade (Year 2) start to be shunned for their behavior by third grade (Year 4), and lose self-esteem.

Educational psychologist Lynn Barnett followed 278 children from kindergarten through to third grade (Year 1 to Year 4) to examine “playful” children’s perception of themselves and how others saw them as the school years progressed. To determine which children were the most “playful,” Barnett used the 23-item Children’s Playfulness Scale; surveys on teacher-, peer-, and self-rated social competence; and teacher-, peer-, and self-rated disruptive classroom behaviors, placing pupils named by at least 25% of their peers into the “playful” category.

Her study found that:

  • Pupils in the first grade equally regarded girls and boys as class clowns, but by third grade, mostly boys were labelled as such, even when the girls still demonstrated playful behavior.
  • Although playful children were often popular in the early school years and saw themselves as having better social skills than others, by third grade the male class clowns were the ones likely to be played with the least, losing confidence and seeing themselves as socially incompetent.
  • This is in sharp contrast to female class clowns, who did not lose popularity or self-esteem by third grade.
  • One pattern of note was that in all Year groups, teachers did not view playful girls as negatively as they did playful boys.

Dr Barnett discusses these implications, and teachers’ influence on the way male class clowns are perceived.

Source (Open Access)：Barnett, l. A. (2018). The education of playful boys: Class clowns in the classroom. Frontiers in Psychology, 9.… Read the rest

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Language Development Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

The benefits of theatre field trips

Field trips to the theatre provide a number of educational benefits to pupils, according to research published in Educational Researcher. Jay P Greene and colleagues found that giving pupils the opportunity to take part in a field trip to see a live theatre performance produced an increase in tolerance as well as a greater understanding of the plot and vocabulary of those plays.

Schools in Arkansas in the US were assigned by lottery to receive free tickets to attend one of five live theatre performances over a two-year period. Grade 9 (Year 10) classes from participating schools were then randomly assigned to take part in theatre field trip or to serve as a control group and not take part in the field trips. In addition, for two of the five experiments, a second treatment group was added in which pupils were randomly assigned to watch a film version of the theatre play. The average age of pupils in the treatment and control groups was 14 years old.

The impact to pupils of the theatre field trip was measured on five outcomes: tolerance, social perspective taking (the ability to understand others’ feelings and perspectives), content knowledge, theatre consumption and theatre participation.

The research found that:

  • Pupils in the theatre field trip treatment groups scored higher for levels of tolerance (ES=+0.14) and social perspective taking (ES=+0.16).
  • Pupils’ content knowledge of the plot and vocabulary in the plays was also greater (ES=+0.15) than pupils in the control group.
  • However, watching a film did not produce benefits, and as the film-viewing group also left school for a field trip, the results suggest that the educational benefits to pupils come from the experience of watching live theatre, and not simply from leaving school for a field trip.

Results also indicate that theatre field trips may encourage pupils to visit the theatre more often.

 

Source ：Greene, J. P., Erickson, H. H., Watson, A. R., & Beck, M. I. (2018). The play’s the thing: experimentally examining the social and cognitive effects of school field trips to live theater performances, Educational Researcher, 47 (4). 246-254.… Read the rest