The moderating effect of school type on the relationship between school-based health centers and the learning environment

Field trips for sustainable transport education

Purpose

Field trips can change students’ attitudes and improve their learning performance, but they have rarely been investigated in logistics education research. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from field trips that were designed to increase students’ knowledge of sustainable transport as well as to change their attitudes and behavioral intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 104 logistics students participated in this longitudinal panel study. Non-parametric statistical tests were used to test for significant effects.

Findings

Field trips build students’ knowledge, improve their attitudes and increase their behavioral intentions to use sustainable transport modes in the short and in the long term. Gains in knowledge exceed the results expected from traditional learning theories. Gender and school type are important moderating variables. Gender did not play an important role for knowledge gains, but for attitude and behavioral intentions.

Research limitations/implications

More research is needed to generalize the findings to other populations and longitudinal panel studies are necessary to investigate a long-term effect of field trips.

Practical implications

Field trips are an effective means for successful knowledge transfer and are suitable to trigger attitudinal and behavioral changes. The involvement of practitioners and the hands-on experience ensure that students combine theoretical with practical knowledge.

Originality/value

This is the first longitudinal panel study that investigates the effects of logistics field trips, which were developed collaboratively by industry, educational and research institutions.

Understanding the relationship between school-based health center use, school connection, and academic performance

School-based health centers (SBHCs) benefit the overall health of underserved communities. In fact, there is an abundance of evidence suggesting the positive effects that SBHCs have on physical and mental health. However, research related to understanding the relationship of SBHCs to academic outcomes such as performance and school connectedness is sparse. The purpose of the current study was to (a) compare differences between elementary, middle, and high school student SBHC users and nonusers on school connectedness and (b) test the pathways between SBHC usage and academic performance. A structural equation model was tested and found significant pathways between SBHCs, school connectedness, and academic performance.

The relationship between use of school-based health centers and student-reported school assets

PURPOSE

To examine the relationship between student-reported, school-based health center utilization and two outcomes: (1) caring relationships with program staff; and (2) school assets (presence of caring adults, high behavioral expectations, and opportunities for meaningful participation) using a school district-wide student survey. These relationships were also explored across schools.

METHODS

Using student-reported data from a customized version of the California Healthy Kids Survey from the San Francisco Unified School District (n = 7,314 students in 15 schools), propensity scoring methods were used to adjust for potential bias in the observed relationship between student utilization of services and outcomes of interest.

RESULTS

Estimates generally pointed to positive relationships between service utilization and outcome domains, particularly among students using services ≥10 times. Exploratory analyses indicate that these relationships differ across schools.

CONCLUSIONS

Use of school-based health centers appears to positively relate to student-reported caring relationships with health center staff and school assets. Future research is needed to confirm the robustness of these observed relationships.