Teacher Support as a Protective Factor? The Role of Teacher Support for Reducing Disproportionality in Problematic Behavior at School
Journal of Early Adolescence, Feb 13, 2023
This study investigated whether support from teachers could serve as a protective factor and redu... more This study investigated whether support from teachers could serve as a protective factor and reduce disproportionality in problematic behavior. Data from the CILS4EU project on 14-year-old European students were used ( N = 18,308). Students reported on their social background (parental resources, migrant background and adverse family risks), experiences of teacher support (academic and social) and problematic behavior (getting angry, acting impulsively and skipping classes). Multilevel regression analyses showed that students’ disadvantageous social background was associated with more problematic behavior. Teacher support had a beneficial effect: academic support from teachers was associated with less problematic behavior for almost all students, while social support reduced problematic behavior among students with low educated parents. Enhancing academic and social support from teachers could thus help reduce educational inequalities by protecting vulnerable students against negative behavioral outcomes.
Teacher beliefs influence student behaviour and learning outcomes. Little is known about the role... more Teacher beliefs influence student behaviour and learning outcomes. Little is known about the role of specific teacher characteristics (e.g., gender and teaching domain) in the formation of these beliefs. In the current study, three versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) were used to assess gender-related beliefs regarding career, aptitude for science and learning styles, respectively. The IAT-genderLearningStyles instrument was designed especially for the study. The beliefs of 107 participating teachers and student teachers in the Netherlands were investigated. Neither the gender nor the teaching domain of the teacher was associated with gender-related beliefs regarding student career choices. For male teachers, having a STEM background was associated with stronger gender-related beliefs regarding aptitude for science. The results of the IAT-genderLearningStyles reveal small gender-related scores (stronger male-independent learning association) for male teachers and STEM teachers, along with negligible gender-related scores for female teachers and non-STEM teachers.
Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) has internationally been recommended as an effective method to achie... more Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) has internationally been recommended as an effective method to achieve learning goals for students in elementary education. On the condition that students are provided with adequate teacher guidance during IBL, they learn more than students who are taught the same content with explicit instruction. Yet, it is unknown whether IBL is also effective for specific student populations, such as students with social-emotional and behavioral difficulties (SEBD), as these students struggle with skills that are required for IBL. We conducted a systematic review to examine what is known about the use of IBL instructional methods and its adjustments for students with SEBD and whether this instructional method is effective to achieve learning goals with this specific student population. Results showed that IBL is applied for students with SEBD, and that teachers play an important role in making adjustments in terms of teacher guidance and differentiation. IBL instruction is, however, often used and adjusted for students with various disabilities in inclusive classroomsand not for students with SEBD specifically. Consequently, it is difficult to pinpoint which specific adjustments to IBL instruction are needed for students with SEBD in particular. It seems that the field of IBL for specific student populations is in its infancy. Yet, the available predominantly practice-based research yields sufficient indications to consider IBL instruction as a method to achieve learning goals for students with various social-emotional and academic needs.
Research in Post-compulsory Education, Oct 1, 2020
Although the importance of critical thinking skills for students when they enter university is wi... more Although the importance of critical thinking skills for students when they enter university is widely endorsed, previous research has shown that incoming students show great variation in levels of critical thinking skills. The pre-university track of secondary education plays a major role in preparing students to think critically at university. The present study aims to investigate the way in which secondary education teachers think about and foster critical thinking skills to prepare their students for university. Semi-structured interviews with nine teachers showed that teachers do not have an unambiguous picture of critical thinking skills. Instead, teachers varied in their perceptions of the importance of critical thinking skills for university and in the practices they employ to foster these skills. It appears that teachers' perceptions and practices, firstly, depend on their images of university which are often based on their own study experiences, and secondly reflect the way they think about the cultivation of critical thinking skills and the transition to university. These results indicate that whether certain critical thinking skills are more or less encouraged in secondary education depends on the teacher.
European Educational Research Journal, Sep 4, 2019
Content and language integrated learning (CLIL), an educational approach in which subject matter ... more Content and language integrated learning (CLIL), an educational approach in which subject matter and a foreign language-predominantly English-are taught and learnt side by side, has developed into a very popular educational innovation in most European countries. A host of research studies have shown its benefits, and discuss favourable effects especially with respect to L2 gains. However, critical voices have underscored the fact that CLIL attracts or selects mainly high-achieving learners. Hence, the question arises whether it is justified to attribute improved L2 performance mainly to the CLIL intervention, or to favourable learner characteristics. Several reviews of literature were published in the past, but due to a lack of longitudinal findings no conclusive evidence about the added value of CLIL in the process of L2 learning could be produced. The present review aims to fill this void and has undertaken a search of two decades of longitudinal studies into the effects of CLIL on various linguistic skills in the field of English as a foreign language. The findings indicate that robust studies were undertaken in only a limited number of European countries, and that only a few of them were large scale. Yet, the conclusions provide clear indications regarding the contexts in which CLIL leads to significantly better L2 results. Keywords Selective content and language integrated learning, longitudinal effects, English as a foreign language gains, literature review, European content and language integrated learning
Journal of vocational education & training, Dec 12, 2018
There are indicators that a substantial number of students in vocational education and training (... more There are indicators that a substantial number of students in vocational education and training (VET) experience problems with successfully building their careers. This is often attributed to VET students' motivation. The present study provides insight into VET students' motivational profiles based on selfdetermination theory. Additionally, differences between those motivational profiles in terms of self-efficacy, test anxiety and perception of motivating teaching were investigated. The study involved 195 VET students, from one VET college in the Netherlands. Using latent profile analyses, four motivational profiles were identified that differed with respect to quality and quantity of motivation. Profiles with higher quality (25%) and higher quantity (27%) of motivation were related to higher levels of self-efficacy and perceived motivating teaching compared to profiles with low quantity (7%) or low quality (41%) of motivation. Furthermore, students in the profile with high-quality motivation reported the lowest levels of test anxiety. Additionally, our findings suggest there is indeed a relatively large group of VET students (48%) who actually experience motivational problems. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Given the importance of student engagement for students' current and future success, it is essent... more Given the importance of student engagement for students' current and future success, it is essential to explore how teachers can foster student engagement within lessons. This study relied on classroom observations to describe how teachers applied Self-Determination Theory (SDT) related (de)motivating teaching behaviours to foster students' engagement. Results from 120 observed lessons of 43 teachers indicated there were distinct relations between motivating teaching behaviours and student engagement. Most striking regarding the use of motivating teaching behaviours were the higher levels of relatedness support and guidance during activities in lessons in which students showed the highest levels of engagement. Conversely, in lessons where students were least engaged, teachers showed higher levels of chaotic teaching behaviours. Analyses of behaviours within lowly and highly engaging lessons showed that teachers in highly engaging lessons were observed to start with high levels of enthusiasm and after about ten to fifteen minutes focused on activating their students by offering room for experimenting and support while students worked on assignments. In contrast, teachers in lowly engaging lessons seemed to have a tendency to employ demotivating teaching behaviour at the start of the lesson. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
School leaders and teachers are two important agents within the school organisation to promote pa... more School leaders and teachers are two important agents within the school organisation to promote parental involvement. The aim of the study was to investigate how school leaders and teachers foster parents' involvement in their children's education. It was hypothesised that both transformational school leadership for the support of parental involvement and inviting behaviour from the part of teachers encourage parents to become more strongly involved with their child's education. Surveys were administered to 2,151 parents and 90 teachers of 18 elementary schools spread across Java, Indonesia and analysed using multilevel regression analyses. Results showed that transformational leadership did not have significant direct effects on parental involvement. Significant effects were found of teacher invitations on parental involvement. In particular, teacher invitations contributed to school-based parental involvement, such as recruiting parents as volunteers and involvement in decision-making at school.
Transformational Leadership for Parental Involvement: How Teachers Perceive the School Leadership Practices to Promote Parental Involvement in Children’s Education
Leadership and Policy in Schools, Oct 16, 2019
ABSTRACT Teachers are the key agents in the promotion of parental involvement in education. In th... more ABSTRACT Teachers are the key agents in the promotion of parental involvement in education. In this study, we examined the concept of transformational leadership for parental involvement (TLPI). The Transformational Leadership for Parental Involvement Questionnaire (TLPIQ) was developed to assess teachers’ perceptions of support from school leaders in inviting parents to be involved in their children’s education. Participants were 90 primary school teachers in 18 schools in urban and rural areas of Java, Indonesia. Results showed that teachers’ perceptions of transformational leadership was positively associated with their invitational behaviors toward parents. This study points to the supporting role school leaders can play in the context of parental involvement.
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, Oct 29, 2019
The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of school-wide positive behavior intervention... more The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) on student academic performance. The participants in the study are eight middle schools from an urban Southern California school district where the implementation of SWPBIS was mandated. Using archival data collected by the school district and information from the California Department of Education Website, multiple baseline trends were conducted. The findings revealed that when schools implemented SWPBIS, the student outcome data was positively impacted and this positive impact continues as schools continue to fully implement all components of SWPBIS. In schools where SWPBIS was implemented fully and the staff sustained the program at the school site, the growth in academic achievement was strongly associated with the implementation of SWPBIS with fidelity. Discussion centers on recommendations for educational leaders for implementing SWPBIS.
In the Netherlands, parental involvement is part of the constitution, which states that parents h... more In the Netherlands, parental involvement is part of the constitution, which states that parents have the right to found their own government-funded schools. Since the 1970s, parental involvement has been on the policy agenda to overcome educational disadvantages of children from lower socioeconomic and cultural-ethnic-minority families. More recently, as a result of neoliberal education policies and a research focus on evidence-based practices, effective forms of parental involvement have been identified and taken as aims for school improvement and teachers' professional development programmes. Negative side effects of a focus on those effective parental involvement practices are discussed, which may exacerbate educational inequalities. In particular, parents with higher levels of social, cultural and financial resources and their children profit from existing policies. For educational researchers it is important to monitor the effects of parental involvement policies on the educational opportunities of children with different backgrounds and to provide empirical evidence for the effects of programmes that focus on inclusionary parent involvement policies and practices of schools and teachers.
Despite a growing body of research on parental involvement and its effects on students' academic ... more Despite a growing body of research on parental involvement and its effects on students' academic achievement, our knowledge about the mechanism of parental involvement in non-Western contexts remains scarce. Our study addresses this gap by exploring the factors that motivate parents from different socioeconomic status and educational levels to be involved in their children's education in Java, Indonesia. We further explored how parents were involved and what challenges they faced in their involvement. The analysis is embedded in Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's parental involvement motivation model. Sixteen parents in eight elementary schools in urban and rural areas in Java participated in this interview study. We found differences in parents' expectations and aspirations for their children's education and in their perceptions of their obligations and responsibilities regarding their children's education. These differences were related to parents' socioeconomic background and also to the urban and rural community contexts. Although all parents felt welcome at school, some highly educated parents reported lack of power and lack of opportunity for active parental involvement at the school. As is typical for a collectivist culture such as the Indonesian society, this study points to the shared responsibility of some Indonesian parents for the education of children other than their own in the local community.
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Papers by Eddie Denessen