Engaging students at school and with learning: A relevant construct forall students

Using Flipped Classroom Modules to Facilitate Higher Order Learning in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry

In an ongoing effort to incorporate active learning and promote higher order learning outcomes in undergraduate organic chemistry, a hybrid ("flipped") classroom structure has been used to facilitate a series of collaborative activities in the first two courses of the lower division organic chemistry sequence. An observational study of seven classes over a five-year period reveals there is a strong correlation between performance on the in-class activities and performance on the final exam across all classes; however, a significant number of students in these courses continue to struggle on both the in-class activities and final exam. The Activity Engagement Survey (AcES) was administered in the most recent course offering included in this study, and these preliminary data suggest that students who achieved lower scores on the in-class activities had lower levels of emotional and behavioral/cognitive engagement and were less likely to work in collaborative groups. In total, these findings suggest that if students can be guided to engage more successfully with the in-class activities, they are likely to be more successful in carrying out the higher order learning required on the final exam. In addition to the analyses of student performance and engagement in the in-class activities, the implementation of the flipped classroom structure and suggestions for how student engagement in higher order learning might be improved in future iterations of the class are described herein.

The relationship between social support and academic engagement among university students: the chain mediating effects of life satisfaction and academic motivation

BACKGROUND

University students' academic engagement has a significant impact on their academic performance and career development.

METHODS

In order to explore the influential mechanisms of social support on university students' academic engagement and the mediating role of academic motivation and life satisfaction, this study used the Adolescent Social Support Scale, University Students' Academic Engagement Scale Questionnaire, Adolescent Student Life Satisfaction Scale and University Students' Academic Motivation Questionnaire, to conduct a questionnaire survey and empirical analysis on 2106 Chinese university students.

RESULTS

(1) social support significantly and positively predicts academic engagement; (2) social support influences academic engagement through the mediating effect of life satisfaction; (3) social support influences academic engagement through the mediating effect of academic motivation; (4) life satisfaction and academic motivation play a chain mediating role in the effect of social support on academic engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to understanding the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between social support and academic engagement, which in turn provides insights for universities and the departments concerned to make measures to improve the level of university students' academic engagement.

The contribution of mindfulness in the association between L2 learners' engagement and burnout

There has been recently a growing interest in L2 learners' engagement as a central factor in their success. However, not all L2 learners are engaged intellectually, passionately, and behaviorally in L2 learning and this can be due to their experience of burnout in language educational settings. On the other hand, L2 learners frequently encounter heightened degrees of burnout because of emotional and behavioral disengagement. To relieve the relationship between engagement and burnout, the influential technique known as mindfulness, as a coping mechanism for enhancing engagement and reducing burnout among L2 learners, has emerged. Given this conceptual model, the purpose of this paper is to argue the mediator role of mindfulness, in light of self-determination and self-control theory, between L2 students' engagement and burnout. A few directions for future inquiries are discussed following this review.

Student engagement in health professions education: AMEE Guide No. 152

This guide aims to support our colleagues to have comprehensive understanding of student engagement in health professions education. Despite the universal agreement about the significance of student engagement, there is lack of uniformity in conceptualizing and operationalizing this emerging construct. We review the theoretical basis explaining student engagement from three main perspectives: behavioral, psychological, and socio-cultural. In addition, we propose a contemporary and comprehensive framework for the student engagement in higher education, which is applicable to health professions education contexts. Drawing from this framework, we explain the conceptualization of the construct and its preceding factors, mediators, dimensions, spheres, and outcomes of student engagement. The proposed framework introduces student 'engagement through partnerships' as a novel component compared with the existing models of student engagement in higher education. This way, we are proposing a mixed model that not only considers the student as a 'customer' but also as a 'partner' in education. Engagement of students through partnerships include four areas: (1) provision of the education program, (2) scholarly research, (3) governance and quality assurance, and (4) community activities. This guide will provide practical applications on how to improve student engagement in health professions education. Finally, we highlight the current gaps in areas of research in the student engagement literature and suggested plans for future directions.[Box: see text].

On the role of creativity in the application-oriented university students' engagement and success

In today's education, student success still is one of the central objectives pursued by different higher education institutions, including the Application-oriented colleges or universities. Reports show that these schools make a great contribution to social and economic development and they are influenced by the forces driving change in the various sectors, including education, industries, and society. Literature shows that engagement has an essential role for students' achievement. Indeed, there is a consensus that student engagement is one of the key contributors to reinforcing learning and retention. To learners enrolled in these universities, creativity is of paramount importance, as well. More specifically, given that students are seen as the main contributors to societal development, universities have been seeking to foster creativity among individuals by establishing creativity-nurturing programs. As creativity is significant in education these days, the present study attempts to consider the conception of creativity and its role in how it can assist in cultivating student engagement and success in Application-oriented Colleges. Accordingly, some educational implications are offered for educators, learners, and syllabus designers.

Does growth in the outdoors stay in the outdoors? The impact of an extended residential and outdoor learning experience on student motivation, engagement and 21st century capabilities

Introduction

Student motivation and engagement underpin educational success, and recent research has found they are lowest in middle high school, especially for boys. At the same time, education systems are recognizing that academic performance is necessary but not sufficient to prepare young people for the adult world, and so-called "21st Century skills" (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) have been suggested as critical capabilities across all employment sectors in the future. The Glengarry program is a 6-month residential and outdoor learning experience for Year 9 (14-15 years old) boys at an Australian independent school, The Scots College (TSC) Glengarry. Intentionally located during the lowest point of engagement in their adolescent student journey, the Residential and Outdoor Education experience was hypothesized to boost their motivation and engagement and develop 21st Century skills.

Methods

The Glengarry program involves students living in a boarding-style community for 20 weeks away from their families, participating in classes across all regular school subjects at a bush campus, and undertaking increasingly challenging outdoor education trips each week. The study aimed to measure how these factors transferred into students' traditional school environment after their Glengarry experience. Year 9 was split into two cohorts who both participated in the study: one of which completed the Glengarry program in the first half of 2019, and the other during the second half of the year.

Results

Self-reported quantitative and qualitative data supported the hypothesis that the Glengarry program did indeed, boost student motivation and 21st Century skills. While gains in 21st Century skills endured over the next 8-10 months, motivation and some engagement factors decreased upon return to the traditional school environment. Students described key factors in the Glengarry program which facilitated their development, including: an intense residential environment necessitating social growth, a closer connection with teachers in both school and community life, and an appreciation of learning in the natural environment. Recommendations are made for future research to strengthen these findings, and for how these mediating factors could be incorporated into the regular school environment.

The Role of Chinese Language Learners' Academic Resilience and Mindfulness in Their Engagement

One of the growing area of interest in the educational area is student engagement which is the major construct of positive psychology (PP) vital in growing energetic, innovative, and pleasurable learning, but unluckily, all students are not engaged in terms of cognition, emotion, and behavior in learning. Another concept in the PP literature is resilience which emphasizes institutes' and people's powers and self-constraint to conform to accidental conditions. Furthermore, mindfulness as a significant term in PP has critical benefits such as improving working memory, improving wellbeing, and lowering tension. Considering the importance of mindfulness and engagement in academic environments and that such a notion in foreign language learning is neglected, the current study attempts to inspect the effect of mindfulness and resilience on the engagement of Chinese foreign language students. To meet this objective, 1,693 EFL learners participated in this study. They responded to the mindfulness scale, resilience scale, and engagement questionnaire. Subsequently, the Spearman Rho test was exploited to shed light on probable relationships. The findings indicated that there was a significant correlation among the variable of the study. Moreover, a linear multiple regression analysis was run to examine the predictor roles of mindfulness and resilience in learners' engagement. The findings revealed that both mindfulness and resilience are positive and reliable predictors of engagement. In a nutshell, the central position of resilience and mindfulness in language learning was verified, and based on the findings; a few suggestions are made considering the results of the research.

Students' engagement across a typology of teacher feedback practices

The provision of feedback is widely practised as part of formative assessment. However, studies that examine the impact of feedback are usually from the teachers' perspective, focusing on why and how they provide feedback. Fewer studies examine feedback from the students' perspective, especially in the way they experience, make sense of and take up their teachers' feedback. This paper provides empirical evidence of student engagement with different patterns of teacher feedback in their written essays. Data were gathered from 45 students (from 5 different schools) through group interviews and analysis of student artefacts from three rounds of writing tasks. The findings on affective, behavioural and cognitive engagement surfaced the conditions that will contribute to students' will and skill to act on their teachers' feedback. The implications on both teacher and student assessment literacy are discussed. The discussion will provide professional development providers and policy makers with new perspectives of and approaches to strengthening formative assessment practices in ways that are more cognizant of students' experience of feedback.

The Influence of Student Engagement on Mathematical Achievement among Secondary School Students

Student engagement is a multidimensional construct that predicts learning performance. However, student engagement receives limited attention, especially in mathematics. Thus, this study conducts a survey to determine the influence of student engagement on mathematical achievement. Stratified random sampling was employed to select secondary school students (n = 1000). Questionnaires and end-of-year examination grades were collected as data on student engagement and respective mathematics achievement. The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between cognitive engagement, affective engagement, behavioural engagement, and mathematical achievement. The results of multiple linear regression analysis show that affective engagement is the largest predictor of mathematical achievement (β = 0.743, p < 0.001), followed by behavioural engagement (β = 0.585, p < 0.001), and cognitive engagement (β = −0.375, p < 0.01). This suggests that policymakers should formulate a curriculum that enables the improvement of affective and behavioural engagement. Furthermore, this study recommends that school administrators and teachers plan and implement activities that stimulate such engagement.

Emotionally engaged or feeling anxious and cynical? School experiences and links to school achievement among Finland-Swedish general and special education students

The aim of the study was to enhance understanding of how seventh graders vary in emotional engagement and experienced well-being at school in terms of anxiety and cynicism. The two profiles were explored, and comparisons were made between students in general education and those in special education. The study participants comprised 119 Finland–Swedish students from five secondary schools. Four emotional-engagement and well-being profiles were identified based on cluster analysis. The students with the most typical profile were moderately engaged in teacher-student interaction and emotionally highly engaged in peer interaction, combined with a low risk of anxiety and cynicism. The profiles showed no statistically significant differences regarding gender and school achievement. However, there were differences between students in special education and those in general education. In Finland, Swedish –speaking Finns are a language minority group. Swedish has official language status in Finland. Compared to many other language minority groups they can be considered somewhat exceptional, since according to many welfare indicators they tend to do better than the general population. There are a few studies on differences between Swedish and Finnish– speaking students’ school experiences in Finland, however, so far studies exploring Swedish- speaking general and special education students’ emotional engagement and study well-being in terms of anxiety and cynicism have been scarce.

Computer Vision and Human Behaviour, Emotion and Cognition Detection: A Use Case on Student Engagement

Computer vision has shown great accomplishments in a wide variety of classification, segmentation and object recognition tasks, but tends to encounter more difficulties when tasks require more contextual assessment. Measuring the engagement of students is an example of such a complex task, as it requires a strong interpretative component. This research describes a methodology to measure students’ engagement, taking both an individual (student-level) and a collective (classroom) approach. Results show that students’ individual behaviour, such as note-taking or hand-raising, is challenging to recognise, and does not correlate with students’ self-reported engagement. Interestingly, students’ collective behaviour can be quantified in a more generic way using measures for students’ symmetry, reaction times and eye-gaze intersections. Nonetheless, the evidence for a connection between these collective measures and engagement is rather weak. Although this study does not succeed in providing a proxy of students’ self-reported engagement, our approach sheds light on the needs for future research. More concretely, we suggest that not only the behavioural, but also the emotional and cognitive component of engagement should be captured.

Student engagement in Higher Education, age and parental education level

Abstract Within the scope of socio-cognitive theories, student engagement in school has been studied as a multidimensional construct. A four-dimensional perspective was adopted, with the dimensions: affective, cognitive, behavioural and agentic. The objective, to analyse how the variables age and parental education relate to student engagement in school. The sample consisted of 715 Portuguese public Higher Education students from the Lisbon area. The data was collected through an online survey, which included the Student Engagement in School: a Four-Dimensional Scale – Higher Education Version. Data analysis not only revealed that students of age 26 or older scored considerably higher results in engagement than younger colleagues, but also highlighted significant differences of engagement in the affective, behavioural and agentic dimensions, depending on parental education. The results, while partially corroborating the revised literature, suggest future in-depth studies.

Domain-Specific Inhibitory Control Training to Improve Children's Learning of Counterintuitive Concepts in Mathematics and Science

Evidence from cognitive neuroscience suggests that learning counterintuitive concepts in mathematics and science requires inhibitory control (IC). This prevents interference from misleading perceptual cues and naïve theories children have built from their experiences of the world. Here, we (1) investigate associations between IC, counterintuitive reasoning, and academic achievement and (2) evaluate a classroom-based computerised intervention, called Stop & Think, designed to embed IC training within the learning domain (i.e. mathematics and science content from the school curricula). Cross-sectional analyses of data from 627 children in Years 3 and 5 (7- to 10-year-olds) demonstrated that IC, measured on a Stroop-like task, was associated with counterintuitive reasoning and mathematics and science achievement. A subsample (n = 456) participated either in Stop & Think as a whole-class activity (teacher-led, STT) or using individual computers (pupil-led, STP), or had teaching as usual (TAU). For Year 3 children (but not Year 5), Stop & Think led to better counterintuitive reasoning (i.e. near transfer) in STT (p < .001, ηp 2 = .067) and STP (p < .01, ηp 2 = .041) compared to TAU. Achievement data was not available for Year 3 STP or Year 5 STT. For Year 3, STT led to better science achievement (i.e. far transfer) compared to TAU (p < .05, ηp 2 = .077). There was no transfer to the Stroop-like measure of IC. Overall, these findings support the idea that IC may contribute to counterintuitive reasoning and mathematics and science achievement. Further, we provide preliminary evidence of a domain-specific IC intervention with transferable benefits to academic achievement for Year 3 children.

Examining the measure of student engagement in the classroom using the bifactor model: Increased validity when predicting misconduct at school

Few studies have used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and exploratory bifactor factor analysis (EBFA) to define a baseline factor structure model checking the construct-relevant psychometric multidimensionality of student engagement. This study was conducted on a sample of 3,374 students in France, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and Luxembourg by using EFA and EBFA, and by comparing four confirmatory factor models of student engagement in the classroom. Results indicated the relevance of a bifactor model to disentangle general and specific factors of student engagement in the classroom in relation with student misconduct at school. The study suggests that if student engagement is principally a unidimensional construct, specific latent dimensions also exist (e.g., specific boredom behaviors) that have a substantive value and must be specified to increase quality of measurement and predictive validity.

Racial and Linguistic Status Differences in the Effect of Interscholastic Sport Participation on School Engagement and Academic Performance Among High School Students

The purpose of the study was to examine whether the effects of interscholastic sport participation on academic performance and school engagement vary by race and linguistic status of high school students. High school participants ( n = 16,200) were selected from the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002, a nationally representative database. Results of a structural equation model showed that Asian, black, and Hispanic students’ interscholastic sport participation had a positive effect on grade point average, while the effect was not significant for white students. However, white students’ interscholastic sport participation was likely to have a positive, indirect effect on grade point average through their engagement in school. The results showed no linguistic status variation in the effects of interscholastic sport participation on school engagement and grade point average. The findings suggest that supporting high school students in school-sponsored extracurricular sport programs should be continued, highlighting the important role of schools in shaping the proper educational environment for sport participation.

Effect of Participation in School Sports Teams on Middle School Students’ Engagement in School

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of participation in school sports teams of students studying in middle school on their levels of school engagement. The relational screening model was used in the study. The study group of the research consisted of a total of 610 students selected by the random sampling method and studying at middle school level (fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades). For analysis of the data obtained from the participants by means of the ‘School Engagement Scale’, descriptive statistics were calculated and interpreted with independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based on the research findings, the mean level of school engagement of the participants was found to be 3.62 ± 0.51. In terms of the gender variable, a significant difference in favour of female participants was found. With respect to another variable, that of state of participation in school teams, it was determined that as length of participation in school teams increased, mean level of school engagement of the participants also increased. In conclusion, it was determined that participation in school teams made a positive contribution to students’ engagement in school, and it is recommended that in order to further increase students’ level of school engagement, measures should be taken to ensure students’ participation in school teams.

Teacher Victimization in Authoritative School Environments

BACKGROUND

Victimization in schools is not limited to students. Teachers increasingly face threats and attacks from their students. An authoritative school environment, characterized by high structure and support, has been associated with lower rates of victimization. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between authoritative school environments and teacher victimization rates.

METHODS

Researchers examined public school teacher responses (N = 37,497) from the Schools and Staffing Survey regarding rules and issues facing the school community. Descriptive statistics were gathered, and a hierarchical regression technique was employed to assess the impact of a structured, supportive school environment on teacher victimization.

RESULTS

Results indicate an authoritative school environment helped reduce rates of teacher victimization. White, female teachers are among the teachers most likely to experience violence from students. Enforcing school rules, by both teachers and administrators, is the most effective way to diminish episodes of teacher victimization.

CONCLUSIONS

P-12 school personnel should emphasize the importance of enforcing school rules and reducing negative issues, such as student truancy and apathy within each school. As high levels of structure and support reduce instances of violence, these findings have important implications for school environments and teacher health.

A Model on the Contribution of School Assets to the Achievement of Adolescents' Well-Being and Academic Performance

The aim of this study was to examine a model on the contribution of school assets on the development of adolescent´s well-being and school success. The sample comprised 1944 adolescents (893 girls and 1051 boys) aged between 12 and 17 years (M = 14.4; SD = 1.13), from secondary schools in Western Andalusia, which completed some self-report questionnaires. The results of structural equation modeling showed the goodness of fit of the initial theoretical model. This model confirmed the importance of school connectedness as a key factor in the relationships between other school assets (social climate; clarity of the rules and values, and positive opportunities and empowerment) and commitment to learning, academic performance and life satisfaction. However, the re-specification of the initial model considered two complementary paths with theoretical sense: first, a direct influence between clarity of the rules and values and commitment to learning, and second, between academic performance and life satisfaction. This model obtained better goodness of fit indices than the first one: χ2 = 16.32; gl = 8; p = .038; χ2/gl = 2.04; SRMR = .018; RSMEA = .023 (95% C.I. = .005; 040); NNFI = .98; CFI = .99. From our study, the need to invest in initiatives focused on the promotion of adolescents' links with their school emerges as a key goal to contribute towards, at the same time, both a good academic performance and a better life satisfaction.

The Measurement Structure of School Engagement Among Youth in China: An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Study

In this research, we examined the construct of a school engagement scale using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). This study involved a translated measurement model that was originally developed by Li and Lerner for U.S. youth, and data from a sample of eighth-, ninth-, and 11th-grade Chinese adolescents ( N = 364). First, the results indicated that instead of the three factors (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement) that have been found in previous research on school engagement, four factors emerged for the current sample: school compliance, participation, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement. Second, the factor structure was gender invariant in the ESEM framework. We further found that female students scored higher than males on school compliance and emotional engagement. Third, the convergent correlations among school engagement subscales and academic performance were in line with theoretical expectations. Finally, based on the differences between this study and previous studies in Western countries, the need for a more thorough investigation in the conceptualization and measurement of school engagement among youth in China was discussed.

A closer look at school bonding among African American adolescents in low-income communities: A latent class analysis

Positive school bonding is a significant precursor to students' school success. However, African American youth report lower school success compared with their White counterparts. This study examined correlates of school bonding among 633 African American youth who were recruited from community settings in Chicago. Major findings indicated that negative peer norms, exposure to community violence, and poor mental health were negatively correlated with school bonding, while parental monitoring, positive self-regard, and future orientation were correlated with higher school motivation. Students classified as having high or moderate school bonding were more likely to live with both parents, experience higher levels of parental monitoring, and exhibit positive self-regard. Implications are discussed in view of these findings.

Peers' perceived support, student engagement in academic activities and life satisfaction: A structural equation modeling approach

This study investigates the relationships among peers' perceived support, life satisfaction, and student engagement in academic activities. Three hundred and fifteen Iranian students (172 boys and 143 girls) who were studying in one suburb of Tehran participated in this study. All participants were asked to complete Peers' Perceived Support scale (PPSS), Student Engagement in Academic Activities scale (SEAAS), and Brief Multi-dimensional Students Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). Structural equation modeling was used to analyse the data. According to the results, there are significant positive correlations between components of peers' perceived support, student engagement in academic activities, and life satisfaction in pairs. In two examined models, the direct and indirect effects of peers' perceived support on student engagement in academic activities and life satisfaction were significantly positive. In addition, life satisfaction and student engagement in academic activities had a mediating role and bi-directional effect in the surveyed models. In sum, the results of this research endorse not only the importance of peers' perceived support in enhancing student engagement in academic activities and life satisfaction but also the cross-effect of student engagement in academic activities and life satisfaction variables on each other.

The interplay of socio-psychological factors on school engagement among early adolescents

The study examined a conceptual model integrating existing knowledge on the linkages between life satisfaction, affect, purpose in life, and resilience with school engagement. This model posits direct relationships between all the social psychological variables and school engagement, and also indirect relationships between life satisfaction and school engagement as mediated by all the other variables in the study. The participants were 2381 students (1119 boys and 1262 girls) with average age of 15 years, from 40 national secondary schools in Malaysia. The findings supported the theoretical conceptualization. All variables were positively associated with school engagement. The strongest relationship was observed between overall life satisfaction and school engagement. The mediating model was partially supported. The study reiterates the adage that "it takes a village to raise a child". Implications for practice and future research are discussed in the context of engagement in school learning.

Navigating into, through, and beyond the middle grades: the role of middle grades attendance in staying on track for high school graduation

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the use of attendance during middle school as a behavioral indicator of engagement to predict whether students are on track toward high school graduation. We used administrative data from four cohorts of students in New York City schools (N=303,845) to (a) explore patterns of change in attendance between Grades 4 and 8 and (b) determine the extent to which changes in attendance between Grades 4 and 8 predict which students are on track in Grade 9 for going on to graduate from high school. Results of latent growth modeling indicated that students demonstrate the most substantial declines in attendance during Grade 8 and that attendance changes are most variable in this year, with some students demonstrating much more dramatic declines than others. In addition, these changes in attendance were robust predictors of whether students were on track for high school graduation. To identify students who are at risk for not graduating for the purposes of providing appropriate interventions, educators should pay attention to their commonly collected data on attendance rates as a behavioral indicator of engagement.

Brief report: The protective effects of school engagement for African American adolescent males

This study examined whether school engagement was protective with regard to externalizing behaviors, gang involvement, sexual debut, and unsafe sexual behaviors among African American adolescent males. Self-administered surveys were administered to 219 male students from an urban Chicago high school. Controlling for age and socioeconomic status, higher school engagement levels were associated with lower rates of aggressive behaviors, lower levels of gang involvement, delay of sexual debut, and lower levels of unsafe sexual behaviors. Findings support the development of school-based interventions designed to promote student–teacher bonds, academic performance, and after-school activities for African American youth.

Serious games: leverage for knowledge management

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the use of “serious games” with students can improve their knowledge acquisition and their academic performance.

Design/methodology/approach

– The research is an exploratory investigation resorting to the use of a serious game to evaluate the evolution of the students’ competencies in project management, through questionnaires processed using a structural “learning model.”

Findings

– This research shows indeed that the use of “serious games” improves the knowledge acquisition and management competencies of the students with the evidencing of significant factors contributing to this improvement.

Practical implications

– The findings of this research show that serious games can be an effective tool to be used in teaching students particularly as traditional methods are less and less accepted by today's students.

Originality/value

– Although the use of games is not something new in education, it is still limited in teaching practices in higher education. This experiment can help lecturers and trainers to resort to them in their pedagogy and to conceive them according to variables that can enhance their effectiveness.

Testing pathways linking exposure to community violence and sexual behaviors among African American youth

Exposure to community violence and HIV sexual risks are two major public health concerns among youth. This study tests various pathways linking exposure to community violence and sexual behaviors among African American adolescents. Using a sample of 563 (61% females) African American youth attending high school we examined whether problematic psychological symptoms, low school engagement, and/or negative perceptions of peer norms about safer sex functioned as pathways linking exposure to community violence and sexual behaviors. Major findings indicated that, for boys, the relationship between exposure to community violence and sexual début and sexual risk behaviors were linked by aggression. In addition, the relationship between exposure to community violence and sexual risk behaviors were linked by negative perceptions of peer attitudes about safer sex. For girls, the relationship between exposure to community violence and sexual début was linked by aggression and negative perceptions of peer attitudes about safer sex. These findings provide support for pathways linking exposure to community violence to sexual behaviors.

Drop-Out Predictors Among Students With High-Incidence Disabilities

Students with disabilities have high rates of dropping out of school despite safeguards from Individuals With Disabilities Education Act provisions. The purpose of the study was to explore the effects of disability classification, demographics, and selected academic experiences on school drop-out rates among youth with disabilities. Variables related to youth characteristics and school experiences were drawn from selected participants ( N = 5,018) in the first three waves of the National Longitudinal and Transitional Study 2 database. Data were entered sequentially into a logistic regression model to identify factors associated with dropping out. Findings indicated that students with emotional and behavioral disorders had a significantly higher risk of dropping out but that disability classification was not significant with consideration of academic factors. Disciplinary exclusion, grade retention, and lower than average grades were associated with a higher risk of dropping out. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Do girls and boys perceive themselves as equally engaged in school? The results of an international study from 12 countries

This study examined gender differences in student engagement and academic performance in school. Participants included 3420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th graders) from Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results indicated that, compared to boys, girls reported higher levels of engagement in school and were rated higher by their teachers in academic performance. Student engagement accounted for gender differences in academic performance, but gender did not moderate the associations among student engagement, academic performance, or contextual supports. Analysis of multiple-group structural equation modeling revealed that perceptions of teacher support and parent support, but not peer support, were related indirectly to academic performance through student engagement. This partial mediation model was invariant across gender. The findings from this study enhance the understanding about the contextual and personal factors associated with girls' and boys' academic performance around the world.

School engagement: what it is and why it is important for positive youth development

The observation that too many students are disengaged from school has inspired interest in the concept of school engagement. However, the growing excitement about school engagement is tempered by numerous conceptual and measurement issues. In this chapter, I briefly reviewed the history of the study of school engagement, summarized some prominent theoretical perspectives in the school engagement literature, discussed why it is important to understand the mechanism through which school engagement promotes positive youth development, and made recommendations on future research directions for this topic. Specifically, I called for a better understanding of and the nuances within the school engagement construct, advocated for the development of school engagement measures with sound psychometric property, and encouraged methodological innovations that can be used to understand the development of school engagement and its implications to positive youth development.