Social psychology of education III

Schools characteristics as predictors of sense of school belonging High SES Low SES PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Effects of social capital factors on school status: B Sig Exp (B) Female 1.151 .000 3.161 Works to earn money 2.486 12.012 Mother is illiterate 1.241 3.460 Father does not have a stable job .548 .003 1.730 Positive student - teachers relationships -.605 .546 Parents are involved in school -.548 .578 Availability of extracurricular activities .058 .535 1.059 Exp (B) value more than 1 indicates increased, less than 1 indicates decreased probability of dropping out. PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Effects of social capital factors on school status: PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Next step: School enrollment and drop-out problem in primary school education in Turkey: Determining individual, social and ecological factors. Study funded by TUBITAK, with F. Gökşen Longitudinally designed. The first set of data will be collected from 1250 students attending 4th grade selected from five cities with high drop out rates. Twenty four months later, the same participants will be contacted once again. those who are still in school and attending 6th grade, and those who have left school in the mean time. The analyses will investigate the demographic, social, economical, school and community related factors of drop out and its psychological and social consequences on the individual student. PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Your policy recommendations? Based on the findings of these two studies, I want you to write down at least 10 policy recommendations (5 for each) targeting the “at-risk” students and targeting the “risk factors”. Make sure that these are logical and applicable policy recommendations. What to do with at-risk student? What to do with risk factors? PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Policy brief The policy brief is a document which outlines the rationale for choosing a particular policy alternative or course of action in a current policy debate. It is commonly produced in response to a request directly from a decision-maker or within an organisation that intends to advocate for the position detailed in the brief. Depending on the role of the writer or organisation producing the document, the brief may only provide a targeted discussion of the current alternatives without arguing for a particular one (i.e. those who adopt the role of ‘objective’ researcher). On the other end of the scale, i.e. advocates, the brief may focus directly on providing an argument for the adoption of a particular alternative. Nevertheless for any case, as any policy debate is a market-place of competing ideas, the purpose of the policy brief is to convince the target audience of the urgency of the current problem and the need to adopt the preferred alternative or course of action outlined and therefore, serve as an impetus for action. PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Policy brief examples by ERG What is the outline? Auidences? How are the messages communicated? Language used Format Length References ? PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

What is your take from this article? Attempting to improve the academic performanc of struggling college students by bolstering their self-esteem. (Forsyth et al., 2007) What is your take from this article? PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Motivation and Education: The-Self-Determination Perspective Motivation and Education: The-Self-Determination Perspective. Deci et al., (1991). Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro-theory of human motivation concerned with the development and functioning of personality within social contexts. The theory focuses on the degree to which human behaviors are volitional or self-determined - that is, the degree to which people endorse their actions at the highest level of reflection and engage in the actions with a full sense of choice. Intrinsic & extrinsic motivation İnternal & external locus of control 3 basic human needs: competence, autonomy, relatedness PSYC 350 SPRING 2009

Motivation and Education: The-Self-Determination Perspective Motivation and Education: The-Self-Determination Perspective. Deci et al., (1991 How do you think the social contexts of education settings (schools) will influence students’ academic performance and social adjustment? What is the most effective strategy suggested by the authors to be used by the teachers to increase their students’ academic performance social adjustment? Compare this suggestion to the suggestions by Wentzel and Watkins on the effects of peer support. PSYC 350 SPRING 2009