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Learning environment research provides a well-established approach for describing and understanding what goes on in classrooms and has attracted considerable interest in Singapore. This article reports the first study of science classroom environments in Singapore primary schools. Ten scales from the What Is Happening In this Class?, Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and Test Of Science Related Attitudes were administered to 1,081 students in 55 classes. Factor and reliability analyses provided strong support for this widely-applicable questionnaire for assessing Involvement, Teacher Support, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation, Personal Relevance, Uncertainty, Student Negotiation, Attitude to Inquiry and Enjoyment of Science Lessons among Singaporean primary-school students. Statistically significant findings of small magnitude emerged for sex differences, grade-level differences, stream differences, the stream-by-sex interaction and the grade-by-stream interaction. [Author abstract]

Guided by the social-ecological, social identity, and social misfit theories, the present study examined the gender, racial/ethnic, and grade-level differences of students' perceived school safety and their associations with bullying victimization and school-wide bullying using a sample of 25,896 students from 114 public schools. Results of hierarchical linear regression modeling suggested that the negative association between individual-level bullying victimization and perceived school safety was stronger among White than Black students, and stronger among middle school than high school students. The negative association between school-wide bullying and perceived school safety was stronger in middle schools than in elementary schools. The perception of school safety also varied across racial/ethnic groups. The findings highlight the ecological influences of school-wide bullying and bullying victimization on student school safety perception. They also highlight the importance of understanding students' perceptions of racial/ethnic identity, membership, and social status in schools when developing interventions that promote school safety. Impact Statement The findings highlight the ecological influences of school-wide bullying and bullying victimization on school safety at both the student and school levels. They also highlight the importance of understanding students' normative perceptions of racial/ethnic identity, membership, and social status in schools when developing racially/ethnically responsive and grade-level specific strategies that promote school safety and alleviate the negative influences of bullying on students' perceived school safety. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1860427

The importance of applying cooperative learning and aiming toward an increase in motivation to maximize the effectiveness of the learning process has not sparked an intense research interest in the Bosnian EFL context. Thus, the current study, conducted among 211 high-school participants, explores the impact of gender and grade level on students’ cooperative learning and motivation for EFL learning and aims to determine whether any cooperative learning components are significant predictors of students’ motivation and their EFL achievement. The findings showed no significant gender and grade level differences in cooperative learning and motivation. Additionally, the results revealed that individual accountability and interpersonal skills are significant predictors of participants’ motivation and that promotive interaction and interpersonal skills are significant predictors of their EFL achievement. The research points to the importance of incorporating cooperative learning strategies and motivation-strengthening activities into EFL teaching, which will eventually lead to the improvement in students’ EFL achievements.

The capacity to interrogate data with critical thinking is a strong predictor of statistical literacy (SL). This data interrogation, from the data consumers’ perspective, incorporates four complex response skills: interpreting, communicating, evaluating, and decision-making, and those skills are strongly supported by students’ appreciation of three interrelated knowledge components (text and context, representation, and statistical-mathematical knowledge). Due to the need to be critical data-information readers, students’ SL should develop during their formal schooling. The aim of this paper was to investigate differences in SL between Indonesian year 9 and year 12 students and between female and male students. The same test was administered to 48 year 9 students (50% females) and 48 year 12 students (50% females) from 16 different schools in Indonesia. Findings revealed that the highest percentage of year 9 and 12 students demonstrated evidence of consistent but non-critical thinking (level 4), suggesting that they exhibited their statistical knowledge but not in critical ways. There were 42% of year 9 students showing limited statistical thinking (levels 1 to 3) compared to 17% of year 12 students. Furthermore, while there were no significant gender differences in students’ SL and its all skills, the study shows significant grade level differences in overall SL as well as in its skills except interpreting. Implications of this study include the development of a framework that provides a coherent assessment of students’ SL from a data consumers’ perspective, along with suggestions for classroom teaching.

Daily physical activity (PA) benefits children’s and adolescents’ overall health while reducing the likelihood of obesity. Elementary school physical education (PE) classes provide opportunities for children and adolescents not only to participate in PA but also to build the knowledge and skills needed to be physically active across their lifetime. Physical Best (PB) is one program physical educators might use to develop students’ physical literacy and skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of PB program inclusion on elementary PE students’ PA levels and health-related fitness knowledge (HRFK). Three activity games were paired once with a PB fitness concept-based warm-up activity and once with a traditional warm-up activity for six lessons. PA levels of elementary school students (n = 75, 30 males, 45 females) were recorded with both movement tracking bracelets and heart monitors during these six PE lessons. Means were calculated for movements and time in and above target heart rate zone (TZ) by warm-up type (PB vs. traditional), sex, and grade level. An HRFK assessment given to students pre- and postintervention assessed changes in fitness knowledge. Repeated-measures analysis of variances were utilized in the comparison of sex and grade level differences in relation to movements, TZ minutes, and HRFK assessment scores. Overall, children had significantly more movements in the PB lessons compared with traditional lessons (p < .05), while there was no difference in TZ minutes. HRFK assessment scores increased from pre- to postintervention (p < .05). Children accrued more movements in PB warm-up lessons than in traditional warm-up lessons but exhibited no difference in PA intensity. Children also increased HRFK from pre- to post-PB experience.

Social status is a salient feature of the classroom peer ecology in early adolescence, yet research has not examined how it plays out within the domains of math and science. The current study investigated the behavioral profiles of cool and admired youth (n = 739, 51% female) in 5th and 6th grade math and science classes. “Cool” youth were perceived by peers as academically oriented, prosocial, and not disruptive. When grade level differences were found, they tended to favor 5th graders, such that cool youth had even more positive profiles in 5th grade compared to 6th grade. Admiration was associated with a more adaptive pattern of behaviors than coolness, and grade level differences were less pronounced. Cross-lagged models revealed some reciprocal relationships between behavior and social status. Implications for teachers are discussed, namely that attention to social status dynamics is important for creating a positive social climate that supports early adolescent engagement in math and science classes.

PurposeThe study aims to evaluate the readability, comprehensibility, and vocabulary knowledge of SRH educational materials available online and on paper to inform health educational material development for young adolescents.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a sequential mixed-method design. Thirty-four online and one print adolescent sexual and reproductive health educational materials were assessed for readability. Two hundred and sixty-three adolescents aged 11–15 participated in the comprehension and vocabulary knowledge assessment of the online sexual and reproductive health texts. Comprehensibility was measured using a cloze test, and vocabulary knowledge was assessed based on a vocabulary knowledge passage. Data processing was performed using SPSS, version 26.0 and the online readability consensus calculator, version 1.0. We analyzed the data using readability algorithms, cross-tabulation and bar charts.FindingsThe results show higher readability levels for online SRH materials. Average Flesch reading ease scores range between 37.5% and 69.1%. Other average range indices were the Flesch Reading Grade Level (7–14), Gunning Fog Index (8.8–19), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (6.6–10.6) and Common-Lieu Index (7.5–11.5). Nearly 51% of participants in the comprehension assessment read at the instructional level. The Chi-square test for grade level differences shows a statistically significant (X2 = 11.349; p = 0.003) difference in comprehension between 7th and 8th graders. The participants also identified 29 words from the 1,048-word passage for assessing vocabulary knowledge as unfamiliar and difficult, and 14 as familiar but difficult to understand.Originality/valueThe study’s findings may inform the design of health educational materials and provide a basis for a national decision on the readability threshold of adolescent health information.

School-related stress and burnout can have serious consequences for students’ well-being and academic outcomes. However, there are few studies that assess the prevalence of school burnout, especially in Germany. The present study aims to determine the percentage of N = 1117 high school students who are likely to suffer from school burnout—also with regard to differences in gender and grade level. For this purpose, two different cut-off criteria are compared. Prior to this, the psychometric quality of the MBI-SuS adapted to the school context is examined. The validity and reliability of the three-factor MBI-SuS could be confirmed. Scalar measurement invariance was found for grade level but only partially for gender. The overall prevalence of school burnout of 20.9% found with the common cut-off criterion fits international prevalences, whereas the prevalence of 4.6% (determined with our recommended content-related cut-off criterion) is in line with observations from clinical practice. Depending on the cut-off value, girls suffer slightly more from school burnout, but no differences were found with respect to grade level. Results indicate that a substantial proportion of students are at risk for school burnout, highlighting the importance of prevention and intervention. Criteria for cut-off values should be applied with caution.

This study investigated differences in the English referencing behaviors in the context of oral narrative retell between typically developing first- and second-grade Spanish–English emergent bilingual children in dual language immersion and English-only instructional contexts (N = 105). Children heard and retold Mercer Mayer wordless picture books, and analyses were conducted to examine how they used nominals and pronominals to maintain and switch reference to potential thematic protagonists in the story. Multivariate analysis of variance showed significant grade-level differences in the proportion of pronominals used to switch and maintain reference to BOY/S (boy and dog or frog), as well as to switch to BOY. In contrast, instructional context differences were significant only for reference to the DOG or FROG. The finding that second graders in both dual language immersion and English-only programs continued to demonstrate an overreliance on pronominal forms to switch reference in a second language suggests that differences in literacy and oral language development may extend beyond the grades that we investigated. It is therefore important to continue investigating the referencing behaviors of emergent bilingual children throughout the elementary years of schooling.

Problem-solving and critical thinking are associated with 21st century skills and have gained popularity as computational thinking skills in recent decades. Having such skills has become a must for all ages/grade levels. This study was conducted to examine the effects of grade level, gender, chronotype, and time on computational thinking skills. To this end, the study was designed to follow a longitudinal research model. Participants were 436 secondary school students. Computational thinking test scores were collected from the students at certain time intervals. Results indicate that computational thinking skills are independent of gender, time, and chronotype but differ significantly depending on grade level. The interaction between grade level and time of testing also has a significant impact on computational thinking skills. The difference in grade level can be interpreted as taking an information technologies course increases computational thinking. The results suggest that such courses should be promoted to children at a young age. The joint effect of gender, grade level, and chronotype were not statistically significant and it is recommended to conduct future studies to investigate this result.