Students at Risk of School Failure
Students at Risk of School Failure

Author: José Jesús Gázquez

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 2889455912

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The main objective of this Research Topic is to determine the conditions that place students at risk of school failure, identifying student and context variables. In spite of the fact that there is currently little doubt about how one learns and how to teach, in some countries of the “developed world,” there is still there is a high rate of school failure. Although the term “school failure” is a very complex construct, insofar as its causes, consequences, and development, from the field of educational psychology, the construct “student engagement” has recently gained special interest in an attempt to deal with the serious problem of school failure. School engagement builds on the anatomy of the students’ involvement in school and describes their feelings, behaviors, and thoughts about their school experiences. So, engagement is an important component of students’ school experience, with a close relationship to achievement and school failure. Children who self-set academic goals, attend school regularly and on time, behave well in class, complete their homework, and study at home are likely to interact adequately with the school social and physical environments and perform well in school. In contrast, children who miss school are more likely to display disruptive behaviors in class, miss homework frequently, exhibit violent behaviors on the playground, fail subjects, be retained and, if the behaviors persist, quit school. Moreover, engagement should also be considered as an important school outcome, eliciting more or less supportive reactions from educators. For example, children who display school-engaged behaviors are likely to receive motivational and instructional support from their teachers. The opposite may also be true. But what makes student engage more or less? The relevant literature indicates that personal variables (e.g., sensory, motor, neurodevelopmental, cognitive, motivational, emotional, behavior problems, learning difficulties, addictions), social and/or cultural variables (e.g., negative family conditions, child abuse, cultural deprivation, ethnic conditions, immigration), or school variables (e.g., coexistence at school, bullying, cyberbullying) may concurrently hinder engagement, preventing the student from acquiring the learnings in the same conditions as the rest of the classmates.

Homework, Learning and Academic Success: The Role of Family and Contextual Variables
Homework, Learning and Academic Success: The Role of Family and Contextual Variables

Author: Antonio Valle

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2020-02-24

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 2889634922

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The main purpose of this Research Topic is to analyze and identify the main family and contextual variables that are involved in the process of carrying out homework. This will require studying the role played by teachers, students, and families in order to ensure that schoolwork is a useful learning tool. Although the role of the student is, obviously, crucial in homework, research has focused on the cumulative time spent by the student carrying out homework. However, the time spent on homework is not in itself evidence of the student’s involvement nor is time spent indicative of quality time. Indeed, an excess of time can sometimes denote low competence in a field of knowledge, while spending less time on homework could be indicative of high competence. It is more likely that a high dedication of time spent on homework reflects high motivation, or comprehension deficits, rather than commitment to learning or academic motivation. In tandem with the role of the student, teachers, as responsible for prescribing homework assignments for students, also become central players in the process of completing homework assignments. The decisions that teachers make about homework prescriptions, and the amount and type of tasks they set, will determine, to a large extent, the quality of the homework process including the student’s motivation and the student’s level of engagement with homework. Furthermore, the fact that homework is useful, interesting and motivating for students, will depend on how the teacher prescribes those tasks and the connection established with classroom learning. Teacher feedback also acquires particular relevance for this point by helping the students to accurately estimate the quality of their progress and overcome the difficulties they may have encountered in carrying out their homework. Lastly, the effectiveness of teacher feedback depends on its contribution to the student’s educational progress and how that student will perform in the future. In addition to the student who performs the task and the teacher who prescribes and corrects it, we must not lose sight of parents’ role. Although there are discrepancies regarding the role that parents play in relation to homework, it is evident that their implication has important consequences not only on the final result of those tasks but also on the very process of carrying them out. Everything seems to indicate that the family environment and, more specifically, the support and feedback provided by parents is a factor that can determine the involvement of students in school duties. In this way, providing emotional support encouraging children to get involved can contribute positively to improving their motivation and interest in the performance of homework. The objective of this Research Topic is to provide researchers and professionals in psychology and education settings with some of the most recent empirical evidence regarding the homework process, its prescription and correction. Overall, we aim to cease making homework a source of conflict and controversy at the socio-educational level in order to provide useful instruments for improving the quality of student learning. This work was developed with the financing of the research projects EDU2013-44062-P (MINECO), EDU2017-82984-P (MEIC).

The Role of interest in Learning and Development
The Role of interest in Learning and Development

Author: K. Ann Renninger

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 1317783522

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Interest is just emerging as a critical bridge between cognitive and affective issues in both learning and development. This developing "interest" in interest appears to be linked to an increasing concern for studying the individual in context, examining affective variables as opposed to purely structural features of text, analyzing the interrelationship of cognitive and social development, understanding practical applications of theories of motivation, and recognizing the importance of developmental psychology for the study of learning. This book addresses both how individual interest and interest inherent in stimuli (books, text, toys, etc.) across subjects affect cognitive performance. While the book's particular emphasis is on theory-driven research, each of the contributing authors offers a unique perspective on understanding interest and its effects on learning and development. As such, each has contributed a chapter in which particular questions in interest research are described and linked to a clearly stated theoretical perspective and recent findings. Relevant material from the broader literatures of psychology and education are analyzed in the context of these discussions. In addition, the introductory and concluding chapters build on the contributions to the volume by providing the basis of a coherent view of interest across genres such as stories and expository text, and domains as varied as play, reading, and mathematics.