British Journal of Educational Psychology最新文献

Background: There is increasing interest in the circumstances under which universal school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions can be most effective, and how implementation moderates intervention outcomes. We focus on the implementation of 'Passport Skills for Life', an SEL intervention that has been introduced into over 100 schools in England to date.

Aim: We examined the experiences and perceptions of both school staff and children in delivering and engaging with Passport.

Method: We report on the implementation and process evaluation of a large cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in mainstream primary schools across Greater Manchester and surrounding areas. We used a qualitative longitudinal design, engaging with children, teachers and senior leaders in five case study schools via focus groups and interviews. We used reflexive thematic analysis to build an integrated picture, guided by relevant implementation theory on dimensions of, and factors affecting, implementation. We triangulated and examined differences in thematic representation among participant groups to understand differences in perspectives.

Findings: Teachers generally reported high fidelity, but commonly made adaptations. The comic book format, emotional reflection opportunities and sensitive content of Passport were considered distinctive and valuable, though implementation was shaped by factors including school context and limited programme differentiation for children with SEND. Children, teachers and SLT were generally aligned in perspectives, with greater within-group divergence.

Conclusions: Findings highlight the need for inclusive, sensitive and context-responsive SEL design, alongside guidance and support to ensure fidelity without compromising accessibility, impact or flexibility.

Background: Emotional and motivational aspects of teacher-student relationships are central to adolescents' psychological need satisfaction and academic development. However, few longitudinal studies examine how these relational experiences evolve during adolescence or co-occur with emotional-motivational functioning.

Aims: Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory and recent models of emotion transmission in classrooms, this study aims to explore how students' emotional and motivational perceptions of teachers co-occur with psychological need satisfaction in distinct developmental profiles and to examine their transitions over time during adolescence.

Sample(s): The sample consisted of 779 German secondary school students (57% female; aged 12-15) from high-track schools, surveyed in Grade 8 (T1) and Grade 9 (T2).

Methods: Latent profile analyses (LPA) and latent transition analyses (LTA) were conducted using six indicators: socio-emotional teacher-student relationship, perceived teacher motivation (positive/negative), and satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness needs. Gender and academic grades were included as covariates.

Results: Three distinct profiles emerged: (1) emotionally disconnected & controlled, (2) emotionally ambivalent & uncertainly self-determined and (3) emotionally safe & self-determined. While transitions towards the moderate profile were most common, extreme profiles remained relatively stable. Lower academic performance significantly predicted membership in less favourable profiles.

Conclusions: Findings underscore the intertwined nature of emotional relationships and motivational experiences in adolescence. Socio-emotional teacher support emerged as a key differentiator between profiles. Interventions should target emotionally supportive climates to foster students' psychological need satisfaction and engagement.

Background: While skill development is generally linked to relevant practice, the 2022 PISA creative thinking report revealed a negative association between students' creative thinking performance and their engagement in creative activities.

Aims: This study explored whether this negative association was linear, persisted across countries and remained after accounting for psychological and contextual moderators.

Sample: We used PISA 2022 creative thinking assessment data. The final analytical sample included 372,193 students across 49 countries.

Methods: We conducted correlation analysis and multiple regression with creative thinking as the outcome and creative activities as well as other contextual and psychosocial factors and their two-way interactions with creative activities as predictors.

Results: Creative thinking was negatively correlated with both in-school (r = -.25) and out-of-school (r = -.32) activities, a pattern observed in 47 of 49 countries. After controlling for other predictors, both types of activities remained negative predictors of creative performance (β = -.06 and β = -.27, respectively). However, the interactions revealed that openness to intellect and creative self-efficacy moderated the relation between out-of-school activities and creative thinking, showing small but significant positive associations, reversing the negative prediction. Additionally, feeling safe at school appeared to weakly but significantly moderate in-school activities. It should be noted that the effect sizes were relatively small and accounted for a limited amount of variance.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that creative activities may need restructuring to better support all students, and creativity measures likely need to continue to be refined.

Background: Social and emotional experiences play a central role in the daily lives of both students and teachers. Although emotions and social relationships are deeply interwoven-each shaping and reinforcing the other-emotional experiences and social dynamics are still considered largely in isolation, with limited attention being given to contextual, interpersonal and individual factors that influence them.

Aims: Accordingly, this paper introduces the Socio-Emotional School Experiences Adaptation (SESEA) model, a novel theoretical framework that conceptualizes socio-emotional experiences in educational settings as dynamic, context-sensitive, adaptive responses to a range of interacting influences.

Theoretical framework: Drawing on theories from psychology, pedagogics, social sciences and medicine-such as Control-Value Theory, Self-Determination Theory and the Social-Emotional Adaptation model, the SESEA model identifies four social domains (emotional-affective, formal-instrumental, behavioural and competence-related) through which emotional experiences are structured. These domains are shaped by individual characteristics, needs, appraisals and broader institutional and cultural conditions.

Key propositions: Unlike existing frameworks, SESEA integrates student and teacher perspectives, allowing for a systemic understanding of classroom dynamics. The model provides a conceptual framework that may support theory-driven research and a basis for the development of innovative empirical approaches, including observational instruments and multi-method designs. It offers a foundation for examining how socio-emotional experiences and adaptation unfold over time, across actors and in diverse school contexts.

Conclusion: Potential applications include empirical validation and the development of interventions to enhance emotional well-being, relationships and learning. The SESEA model promotes a holistic understanding of emotional life in education and advances research, practice and policy.

Background & aims: The present two studies investigated the role of spatial cognition in statistics anxiety. The hypothesis that spatial representations and/or visuospatial skills are related to the acquisition of statistics abilities which, when lacking or unused, generate statistics anxiety is examined.

Materials & methods: To this end, a total of 680 students in Social Sciences from 14 different universities located in one of three countries enrolled in a statistics class at the time of the study were recruited. Study 1 examined a mediation model where visuospatial and verbal working memory (WM) spans as well as spatial anxiety are predictors of statistics anxiety with mathematics anxiety as the mediator.

Results: The results show a partial mediation and strong associations between all three types of anxiety (i.e., spatial anxiety, mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety). The subscale statistics interpretation anxiety was best predicted by visuospatial WM span. Study 2 examined a path regression model where performance on a spatial and a verbal task along with spatial anxiety are predictors of statistics anxiety.

Discussion: The results indicate that the mental manipulation subscale of spatial skills is a strong predictor of mental manipulation anxiety which, in turn, predicts interpretation anxiety in statistics.

Conclusion: Both studies support the role of spatial cognition in statistics understanding. These results have implications for the teaching and learning of statistics.

Background: Research on tracing has predominantly examined instructional materials in science and mathematics, with limited attention to humanities-based content. Moreover, most studies have been conducted in tightly controlled laboratory environments. The narrow focuses may constrain the generalizability of the observed tracing effect.

Aims: Guided by the ICAP framework and cognitive load theory, this study investigated the effects of different learning strategies (tracing, reading and drawing) on children's recall, comprehension and cognitive load when studying an ancient Chinese poem, a prototypical form of humanities-based text.

Samples: Participants included 93 fifth-grade children recruited from three classes at an elementary school in China.

Methods: Classes were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: tracing, reading or drawing. Using the parallel-mode and cross-mode comparisons in an authentic classroom context, we examined how these strategies influence learning outcomes. During the class, children were instructed to learn an ancient Chinese poem. Afterwards, their recall accuracy, comprehension accuracy and cognitive load were assessed. Data analyses were conducted using (generalized) linear mixed-effects models.

Results: Results indicated that the tracing class outperformed the reading class in recall accuracy, which exceeded the drawing class. Similarly, the tracing class demonstrated superior comprehension accuracy compared to both the reading and drawing classes. However, no significant differences were observed across classes in extraneous or intrinsic cognitive load.

Conclusions: These findings provide support for the potential value of tracing (but not drawing) in children's poetry education.

Purpose: This study applied the control-value theory of achievement emotions (CVTAE) to investigate how teacher and parent autonomy support influences adolescents' physical exercise through control-value appraisals and achievement emotions in physical education (PE) classes.

Methods: A sample of 614 Chinese secondary school students (mean age = 14.75 years) completed paper questionnaires measuring autonomy support, academic control, task value, classroom enjoyment and boredom, exercise volume, and adherence.

Results: Results from structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that both teacher and parental autonomy support positively predicted students' perceived academic control and subjective task value. These appraisals, in turn, fostered greater enjoyment and reduced boredom in PE classes. Enjoyment significantly increased both exercise volume and adherence, whereas boredom negatively impacted only adherence. Mediation analyses revealed that autonomy support indirectly affected exercise outcomes through sequential pathways involving control-value appraisals and classroom emotions.

Conclusion: The findings underscore the importance of autonomy-supportive practices from both educators and parents in shaping positive cognitive and emotional experiences in PE classes, thereby promoting adolescents' sustained engagement in physical exercise.

Background and aims: A vast body of theory and research highlights the operation of seriation as a prerequisite to mathematical thinking in young children. However, there is limited evidence that seriation interventions improve early years mathematics. The current study's primary aim was to explore whether a brief computerized intervention for seriation within a dynamic assessment procedure can enhance seriation and transfer to mathematics readiness, the effect of intervention on task dimensions of quantity, size and darkness, and the prediction of math modifiability by seriational modifiability.

Sample: A sample of 440 Kindergarten and Grade 1 children was randomly assigned to experimental (n = 231) and control groups (n = 209). The mean age (in months) of the children in the experimental and control groups was 73.48 and 74.51, respectively. The number of boys and girls was 228 and 212, respectively.

Methods: All children were administered a computerized version of the Children's Seriational Thinking Modifiability Test and the Math Readiness Test before and after the intervention. The experimental group of children received 45 min of mediation on seriation problems, whereas the control group practised seriation problems without mediation.

Results: The findings revealed that children in the experimental group demonstrated improved seriation and math performance compared to children in the control group. More significant increases were observed in size and darkness than in quantity. Seriational modifiability significantly predicted readiness for math improvement. The findings support our hypothesis that seriation intervention is essential for developing math thinking.

Background: This study examined the pathways through which perceived teacher unfairness affects students' psychological adjustment, focusing on the mediating role of self-handicapping and the moderating role of perceived social support.

Aims: The study investigated whether self-handicapping mediates the association between perceived teacher unfairness and students' psychological functioning, and whether perceived social support moderates this indirect relationship.

Materials and methods: The sample comprised 694 students aged 10-14 (M_age = 12.30, SD = 0.95; 52.2% female) attending public schools in Northern Italy. Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing perceived teacher unfairness, self-handicapping, perceived social support, and psychological functioning. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted.

Results: Self-handicapping significantly mediated the relationship between perceived teacher unfairness and psychological outcomes, including emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and prosocial behaviour. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that perceived social support buffered the negative effects of self-handicapping. Specifically, the indirect effects of teacher unfairness on emotional and behavioural difficulties via self-handicapping were weaker among students reporting higher levels of social support, while no significant effects were found for peer relationship problems.

Discussion: Teacher unfairness may contribute to maladjustment through increased self-handicapping, while social support serves as a protective factor.

Conclusion: Interventions promoting teacher-student fairness and strengthening support networks may enhance adolescent well-being.

Background: Errors, traditionally seen as negative, can serve as productive learning tools in low-stakes contexts. However, it remains unclear whether deliberate erring outperforms retrieval practice-another highly effective strategy-across materials and time intervals.

Aims: This study compared deliberate erring, retrieval practice, and copying in terms of immediate/delayed retention and transfer while examining learners' metacognitive evaluations. A copy condition served as a baseline to compare two active learning techniques.

Samples & methods: Two experiments with college students used conceptual terms (Exp1, N = 96) and text passages (Exp2, N = 103). Both measured immediate/delayed retention, transfer, and metacognitive judgements across three learning conditions.

Results: In Experiment 1, immediate retention showed only anecdotal evidence for no significant difference between deliberate erring and retrieval practice-both outperformed copying-whereas delayed retention favoured deliberate erring. Transfer performance consistently favoured deliberate erring. In Experiment 2, memory retention did not differ significantly between deliberate erring and retrieval practice (both superior to copying), yet deliberate erring again led to better transfer. Metacognitive evaluations systematically underestimated deliberate erring, favouring copying and retrieval practice instead.

Conclusions: Under equal-time learning, deliberate erring shows consistent advantages over copying in both knowledge transfer and long-term retention, and it demonstrates potential benefits over retrieval practice in knowledge transfer, although the latter finding requires further replication. The study also reveals a metacognitive bias against deliberate erring, providing insights into theories of memory encoding and classroom error intervention strategies.