Category: Social and Motivational Outcomes

Categories
K-12 Education Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Examining the effectiveness of SEL program components

Numerous empirical studies suggest that social-emotional learning (SEL) programs generally yield positive outcomes for students. These programs have been shown to enhance academic performance and reduce conduct problems. Shi and Cheung conducted a comprehensive and rigorous meta-analysis to identify the program components that have a significant impact on SEL effectiveness across four domains: social-emotional skills, affect and attitudes, prosocial and antisocial behaviors, and academic performance.

The final sample comprised 12 high-quality SEL programs, 59 studies published between 1980 and 2020. The program components were classified into five categories: cognitive elements, pedagogical activities, teacher social-emotional skills, climate support, and family engagement. Each program could consist of more than one component, and each component was treated as an individual dichotomous moderator when it was indicated as included in the program.

Overall, SEL programs demonstrated significant improvements in youth social-emotional skills (ES=+0.17), affect and attitudes (ES=+0.09), academic performance (ES=+0.13), behaviors (ES=+0.14), and overall effectiveness (ES=+0.15). After controlling for methodological factors such as research design, duration, and dosage, the results of the meta-regression analysis are presented below:

  • Programs that included training for teachers’ social-emotional skills had a significantly higher effect on behaviors, academic performance, and overall effectiveness compared to programs without such training.
  • Programs with cognitive elements showed diminished effects on social-emotional skills and prosocial behavior, although these effects were not statistically significant.
  • Randomized controlled trials yielded smaller effect sizes compared to quasi-experiments, and low program dosages were less effective.

The author concluded that training teachers’ social-emotional skills and reducing cognitive elements in SEL curricula are ways to increase the effectiveness of SEL programs. However, pedagogical activities, climate support, and family engagement did not show significant effectiveness. Notably, individual SEL components do not significantly improve social-emotional skills when methodological factors are controlled.

 

Source: Shi, J., & Cheung, A. C. K. (2024). Effective components of social emotional learning programs: A meta-analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-01942-7… Read the rest

Categories
Achievement Higher Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Psychological factors behind academic underperformance: Findings from a recent meta-analysis

Academic underachievement, the gap between potential achievement and actual academic performance, remains a critical issue, leading to the loss of significant societal contributions and heightening the risk of psychological problems such as depression, substance abuse, and behavioral issues. In November 2023, a meta-analysis was published with the aim of understanding the characteristics of underachieving students. The meta-analysis summarized 80 years of research, shedding light on the correlation between underachievement and various motivational and self-regulated learning factors that could potentially be targeted and modified through interventions.

The analysis of the 125 included studies reveals that underachieving students, compared to non-underachievers, demonstrated significantly lower levels of competence belief (ES=-0.48), autonomous motivation and task values (ES=-0.48), mastery goals (ES=-0.39), as well as self-regulated learning strategies (ES=-0.59). Additionally, underachievers exhibit a statistically significant higher external locus of control (ES=+0.30), and a non-statistically significant lower internal one (ES=-0.11). The analysis of performance-approach goals (ES=-0.03), performance-avoidance goals (ES=+0.07) and learned helplessness (ES=+0.64), based on a smaller number of studies, did not yield statistically significant results.

Consequently, underperforming students, on average, exhibit lower levels of self-esteem as learners, assign less significance to their learning endeavors, struggle with inadequate learning regulation, and lack the motivation to enhance their academic proficiency, attributing the outcomes of their actions to external factors.

In exploring additional factors that account for variation in this association, the authors identified the method of identification and grade level as significant moderators for competence belief, noting a larger effect for middle and high school compared to postsecondary education. Contrary to their expectations, however, they did not find gender-related differences or differences for gifted underachievers. These results could be useful in guiding practitioners in the selection of interventions targeting these psychological constructs with the aim of reversing underachievement.

 

Source: Fong, C. J., Patall, E. A., Snyder, K. E., Hoff, M. A., Jones, S. J., & Zuniga-Ortega, R. E. (2023). Academic underachievement and its motivational and self-regulated learning correlates: A meta-analytic review of 80 years of research. Educational Research Review, 41, 100566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100566… Read the rest

Categories
Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Can an SEL intervention alleviate rural Chinese children’s psychosocial difficulties?

Over the past few decades, urbanization and economic growth have widened the rural-urban gap not only in living standards but also in education quality. Children in impoverished areas are particularly vulnerable to psychosocial problems. While there is an increasing body of evidence regarding social emotional learning (SEL) interventions, such interventions are rarely found among children in rural China. Li and Hesketh conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of a school-based SEL programme among primary school children in a poor rural area in central China. Two schools participated in the study, one intervention school and one control school, with a final sample size of 496 (intervention = 206), ranging from grade 2 to grade 6 students.

A Self-reported Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire and background information were collected 1 week before the intervention (T1) and 1 week (T2) and 5 months (T3) after the intervention. The SEL programme, mostly adapted from the Ministry of Education-UNICEF SEL resources, aimed to enhance five competencies: self-awareness, emotion management, empathy, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Students in the invention group attended 16 weekly 90 min sessions throughout a semester from September 2021 to January 2022. The programme employed various methods, including group discussion, role-play, art activities, story-telling, watching videos, handicrafts and educational games, tailored to different age groups.

After controlling for students’ background information and baseline scores, results of the linear mixed modelling are shown below:

  • Students in the intervention group showed greater improvement in SDQ difficult combined scores at T2 (ES = -0.19) and in the follow-up test at T3 (ES=-0.19).
  • Specifically, the intervention group showed greater reduction in difficult behavior at T2 (ES = -0.18) and T3 (ES = -0.19), in peer problems at T2 (ES = -0.19), and in hyperactivity at T3 (ES = -019).
  • Emotion symptoms, conduct problems, and prosocial behaviors showed no significant improvement.
  • The intervention had greater short-term effect on reducing SDQ difficulties in verbally abused children compared to non or occasionally abused ones (ES=-0.21), with a similar pattern in physically abused children (ES=-0.24).
  • A sustained effect was observed among children with good communication with their mother (ES=-0.23).

The authors suggested that further empirical research is necessary within the Chinese setting and provided some recommendations on how SEL programmes should be conducted in schools.

 

Source (Open Access): Li, J., & Hesketh, T. (n.d.). A social emotional learning intervention to reduce psychosocial difficulties among rural children in central China. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12481… Read the rest

Categories
Educational Administration and Leadership Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Exploring the Mechanisms of Principal Instructional Leadership on Students’ School Happiness

In an effort to understand how principals and teachers can influence students’ sense of happiness at school, a study published in Educational Research of China National Academy of Educational Science analyzed a representative sample of teachers and students from 53 middle schools in a province in central China. The selected schools, located in four districts representing various socioeconomic conditions, encompassed diverse characteristics of schools and principals.

The mediating effects of all variables were: (1) Teachers’ sense of teaching efficacy mediated the relationship between the principals’ perceived instructional leadership and students’ school happiness (mediating effect = 12.6%); (2) Students’ perceived teacher-student relationships mediated the relationship between teachers’ sense of teaching efficacy and students’ school happiness (mediating effect = 34.9%); (3) Teachers’ sense of teaching efficacy and students’ perceived teacher-student relationship play a serial mediation role between principals’ perceived instructional leadership and students’ school happiness (mediating effect = 7.7%). The total mediating effects accounted for 55.2% of the variance, while the direct effect accounting for 44.8%.

The study identified three pathways in which principals’ instructional leadership influences students’ sense of school happiness: (1) The direct effect principals’ instructional leadership made on students’ school happiness; (2) Indirect effect via teachers’ sense of teaching efficacy; (3) Indirect effect by influencing teachers’ teaching efficacy, which in turn affects students’ perceived teacher-student relationships, ultimately influencing students’ school happiness.

To enhance students’ school happiness, it is necessary to improve principals’ instructional leadership skills, thereby stimulating teachers’ teaching efficacy and promoting the development of positive teacher-student relationships. These findings provide evidence-based mechanisms and pathways through which principals’ instructional leadership can influence students’ happiness.

 

Source: 陳霜葉, 榮佳妮, 郭少陽. 如何讓學生在學校感到幸福——校長教學領導力作用機制探索[J]. 教育研究, 2023, 44(02):88-100.… Read the rest

Categories
Higher Education Programme Evaluation Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Does heavy media multitasking impede cognitive control abilities?

Media multitasking is an increasingly common behavior where individuals use multiple forms of media simultaneously (e.g., listening to music while chatting through social media). Heavy media multitaskers may perform poorly in some cognitive control abilities, including inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. The “scatter attention hypothesis” suggests that heavy media multitaskers are more likely to be distracted by irrelevant information, leading to poorer performance on cognitive tasks. To investigate the association between media multitasking frequency with cognitive control, Kong and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis comparing cognitive control abilities between heavy (HMM) and light media multitaskers (LMM), while also examining potential moderators including age using two groups: adolescents (12-18 years old) and young adults (18-35 years old).

The sample included 118 effect sizes from 43 studies that compared at least one component of executive function between HMM and LMM using the media multitask index (MMI) or a modified version of MMI to measure the media multitask experience. MMI is a self-reported tool that requires participants to report time spent on various types of media and their concurrent usage frequency. The results of the three-level meta-analysis indicated that:

  • The HMM significantly underperformed compared to LMM on cognitive control tasks (ES = -0.23)
  • The type of cognitive function was a significant moderator with inhibitory control having the largest effect (ES = -0.31), followed by working memory (ES = -0.24) and flexibility (ES=-0.05).
  • The effect was significantly larger when cognitive controls were measured by a self-reported approach (ES = -047) rather than by laboratory tasks (ES = -0.16)
  • No significant difference was found between adolescents (ES=-0.39) and young adults or college students (ES=-0.20) in terms of the difference in cognitive function between HMM and LMM.

Engaging in media multitasking more frequently is likely to result in poorer performance in inhibitory control and working memory. Authors suggested that the findings supported the scattered attention hypothesis.

 

Source: Kong, F., Meng, S., Deng, H., Wang, M., & Sun, X. (2023). Cognitive control in adolescents and young adults with media multitasking experience: A three-level meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 35(1), 22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09746-0… Read the rest

Categories
Achievement Kindergarten Social and Motivational Outcomes

A cross-cultural comparison the link between executive function and academic outcomes in early childhood

Executive function (EF) refers to a set of self-regulatory skills to consciously guide thoughts, actions, and emotions towards achieving goals. EF includes the cognitive aspect (“cool” EF) and the affective aspect (“hot” EF). Cool EF involves working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, while hot EF involves decision making based on emotions. In a recent study, Chen and Yeung compared how hot EF and cool EF link to academic skills across various ethnic groups of preschoolers in Singapore: Chinese, Malays, and Indians. Cool EF was represented by working memory (WM) and hot EF by delay of gratification (DoG) in the study.

Two wave data were collected from a Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study in 2018/19 and two years later (2021). The study sample consisted of 2,527 children (70.7% Chinese, 19.9% Malays, 12.4% Indians) aged 36-83 months (M=58.9) during the first wave. Each child completed the WM and DoG tasks, and the child’s self-control was reported by primary caregiver (95.4% mothers) in first wave. Standardized math and reading tests scores were collected in the second wave. The findings are shown below.

  • Chinese children developed delay of gratification around age 4, approximately 2 years earlier than their Malay and Indian counterparts and outperformed them in working memory. However, no difference was found in self-control among the three ethnicities in any age group.
  • Chinese children outperformed age-matched Malay and Indian children in reading and math scores.
  • Across ethnic groups, DoG positively associated with WM, which further predicted higher achievement scores in reading and math two years later. WM was a mediator which explained the effect of DoG on test scores.
  • Self-control mediated the effect of DoG on later reading (β=.010) and math skills (β =0.009) was only found significant for Chinese children with very small effect sizes, as the Chinese sample was much larger than the other two groups.

The findings of this study provide further understanding of culture variability and consistency in development of hot and cool EF skills, and their association with later academic outcomes in an Asian context. Further research is needed to investigate which factors might explain the early development gap and academic outcomes across subcultures in Singapore.

 

Source: Chen, L., & Yeung, W.-J. J. (2023). Self-regulation and academic achievement among Singaporean young children: A cross-cultural comparison in a multicultural Asian society. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 01650254231170442. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254231170442… Read the rest