DI (Differentiated Instruction) Does Matter! The Effects of DI on Secondary School Students’ Well-Being, Social Inclusion and Academic Self-Concept

In consideration of the substantial increase in students’ learning demands, teachers are urged to address student heterogeneity in their daily teaching practice by means of differentiated instruction (DI). The practice of DI, as a vehicle to achieve inclusive education, not only aims to support all students’ academic learning but also foster their social and emotional development. However, current research in the field of DI has mostly been limited to an examination of its effects on students’ achievement outcomes. Consequently, the potential impact of DI on students’ socio-emotional outcomes has, till now, received very little attention. In order to address this gap in the research, the current researchers seek to investigate the effects of DI on school students’ well-being, social inclusion and academic self-concept. Survey participants in this study included 379 students from 23 inclusive and regular classes in secondary schools in Austria. Following multilevel analyses, the results have indicated that students’ rating of their teachers’ DI practice is positively associated with their school well-being, social inclusion and academic self-concept. However, a t-test for dependent samples demonstrated that students perceive their teachers’ DI practice to be infrequent. Implications of the results along with further lines of research are also presented in this paper.Peer Reviewe

Austrian Students’ Perceptions of Social Distancing and Their Emotional Experiences During Distance Learning Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to far-reaching changes in various aspects of students’ lives. In the particular case of the educational field, classroom teaching was drastically shifted to a distance learning format. Consequently, students needed to deal with a completely different everyday school life. Learning was carried out online, which implied that students could not see some of their regular, important social contacts such as teachers, classmates or friends. It is already proven that such social distancing measures had impacts on students’ emotional experiences during the lockdown. Following a mixed-methods concurrent single-phase design, this study examined students’ perceptions of social distancing and their emotional experiences during the first school lockdown in Austria. Data from an online survey (n = 263 students) and from qualitative interviews (n = 56 students) were analyzed. The results show that distance learning drastically reduced interaction among students and between students and their teachers. Furthermore, the results indicate negative emotional experiences due to less social contact, increased learning pressures, and less structure. However, findings revealed that students also experience and perceived positive emotional experiences during distance learning because of more freedom, autonomy, and to some extent, less performance pressure. Based on the findings, the present study discusses possible perspectives on how to support students during and after distance learning, as well as further lines of research.Peer Reviewe

Teachers’ Implementation of Inclusive Teaching Practices as a Potential Predictor for Students’ Perception of Academic, Social and Emotional Inclusion

The aim of the study was to illustrate the impact of teachers’ implementation of differentiation and individualization (perceived by students) on students’ perception of their inclusion regarding their social inclusion, emotional wellbeing and academic self-concept. The study sample comprised 824 third-to-eighth-grade students [255 males (31%) and 569 females (69%)]. Around 10% of the sample (82) had special educational needs (SEN). Students’ perceived inclusion levels and academic self-concept were examined with the Arabic version of the Perceptions of Inclusion Questionnaire (PIQ-S-AR). Students’ ratings of inclusive practices in their classroom were examined using the Arabic version of the Inclusive Teaching Practices Scale (ITPS). SEN students expressed lower perceived social inclusion, emotional inclusion, and academic self-concept in comparison with non-SEN students. Moreover, high levels of inclusive teaching practices strongly predicted students’ perceived emotional inclusion, social inclusion, and academic self-concept. The results of the study supported the importance of school-level inclusive teaching practices and their relation to students’ school experiences. It also highlighted the need for schools and teachers to work towards improved school-level inclusion experiences for SEN students

Exploring inclusive education in times of COVID-19: an international comparison of German, Austrian and Portuguese teachers

With the start of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the global education system has a faced immense challenges and disruptions resulting in and the necessity for an immediate redesign of teaching and learning in the school context. Face-to-face classroom instruction had to be replaced by ‘emergency remote teaching’, requiring teacher to adapt their daily routines to a new and unprecedented educational reality. Researchers and policymakers worldwide have agreed that, despite the fact that efforts were made to immediately adapt to emergency remote teaching, disadvantaged and vulnerable students may be especially at risk in emergency remote teaching. Given the differences in schooling organization across countries during the COVID-19 pandemic it can be expected that teachers performed inclusive instructional practices significantly different. Against the unpredictable situation, cross-country research has been urgently required to provide data that could inform education policy. Thus, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of supporting at risk students during the first COVID-19 school closures, as well as examining teachers’ inclusive teaching practices in three countries: Germany, Austria and Portugal. ANOVA results revealed important country differences. In general, it appears that teachers in Germany and Austria reported to have implemented less practices to address vulnerable and at-risk students compared to Portuguese teachers. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research are outlined.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ELÜKS

Die vorliegende empirische Forschungsarbeit ELÜKS wird als Fortsetzungsstudie der EKÜKS-Erhebung verstanden, im Zuge welcher die Elternsicht auf den Übergang vom Kindergarten in die Volksschule beleuchtet wurde. Im Rahmen der Masterarbeit wurden die Perspektiven Wiener ElementarpädagogInnen (n=75) und Lehrpersonen (n=122) in Hinblick auf die Zusammenarbeit des Kindergartens und der Schule eröffnet. Hierfür wurden quantitative Fragebögen für die jeweilige Professionsgruppe entwickelt. Grundsätzlich lässt sich auf Seiten beider Berufsgruppen das Interesse an kooperativen Maßnahmen zu Übergangsgestaltung feststellen. Institutionsbedinge Strukturen und Anerkennungsprobleme der pädagogischen Praxis werden jedoch als Herausforderung beziehungsweise Hindernis für die tatsächliche intensive Umsetzung der interinstitutionellen Nahtstellenarbeit angesehen. Für Lehrpersonen stellen das Stresspotenzial und der Zeitmangel die häufigsten Schwierigkeiten dar, während der Großteil der ElementarpädagogInnen fehlende gegenseitige Wertschätzung und geringe Anerkennung der pädagogischen Relevanz ihres Berufes als Hauptproblematiken in Hinblick auf die Bildungsvernetzung nennen.This empirical study (ELÜKS) is a follow-up study of the EKÜKS study, which investigated the view of parents on the transition from nursery school to primary school. Within the scope of this master thesis, the perspectives of Viennese nursery school teachers (n=75) and primary school teachers (n=122) on said transition were taken into consideration. For this purpose, questionnaires for each professional group were developed. Data was analysed using the statistics program SPSS. In general, an interest for cooperative measures could be found on both professional sides. However, structural differences and recognition problems of each professional group were seen as challenging or even burdening for the actual intense implementation of institutional cooperation. When it comes to challenges of professional networking, different answers could be found: For primary school teachers, the stress potential and lack of time were described as the most important difficulties, while nursery school teachers described the lack of mutual appreciation and low recognition of the pedagogical relevance of their profession as main challenges

Investigating teachers’ dyadic self-efficacy and its correlations to students’ perceptions of teacher efficacy and student well-being

Most studies, to date, have ignored variance in teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) in relation to teaching individual students (i.e., student-specific self-efficacy). However, TSE and teacher efficacy differ among students. Thus, this study examines dyadic TSE in four domains and their correlations with students’ perceptions of teacher efficacy and student academic self-concept and well-being. Results of a paper–pencil survey involving 29 teachers and 469 students (39.9% girls, aged 10–17 years) from German secondary schools reveal a moderate overlap between dyadic TSE and students’ perceptions of teacher efficacy. Furthermore, they reveal variance in how teachers’ and students’ ratings are related.peerReviewe

Investigating the Self-Perception of Social, Emotional, and Academic Inclusion of Students with and without Special Educational Needs through Photovoice

Several studies have investigated the perceptions of inclusion by students with special educational needs (SEN) and without SEN, most of them quantitatively. This research aims to expand the understanding of the perceived inclusion of students through qualitative interviews by examining how emotions, social relationships, and academic concepts matter. Therefore, the photovoice method was used for data collection, followed by semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed according to Mayring’s Qualitative Content Analysis. Regarding social integration in the classroom, the results of the interviews with six students with SEN and three students without SEN show mainly positive experiences with their classmates and attach great importance to school spaces (e.g., the schoolyard) that are used for interaction and communication among each other. In terms of the teacher–student relationship, it becomes apparent that the students place particular value on the support and help of the teachers in everyday school life as well as in private matters. Some students’ statements indicate that the self-perception of their academic self-concept differs in various school subjects. A contrast of perception between the students with and without SEN was not detected. Concerning emotional inclusion, the students primarily expressed statements related to emotion regulation and individual adaption strategies

Development of Teachers’ Emotional Adjustment Performance Regarding Their Perception of Emotional Experience and Job Satisfaction During Regular School Operations, the First and the Second School Lockdown in Austria

Starting with the COVID-19 pandemic, research intensively investigated the effects of school lockdowns on involved stakeholders, such as teachers, students and parents. However, as research projects had to be hurriedly conducted, in-depth and longitudinal studies are lacking. Therefore, the current study uses data from a longitudinal study to investigate the well-being of Austrian in-service teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total 256 teachers took part at both measurement waves and participated in an online survey. Standardized questionnaires were used to assess teachers’ perception of emotional experiences and job satisfaction before COVID-19 (retrospective, t1), during the first (in situ, t2) and during the second school lockdown (in situ, t3). The results indicated that the vast majority of teachers generally felt a high level of job satisfaction. However, teachers’ satisfaction decreased between regular teaching and school lockdowns. Similarly, positive emotional activation was reduced and negative activation increased. Further, results from a positive activation cross-lagged path model indicated that the lack of positive activation led to lower job satisfaction. For negative emotional activation, job satisfaction during the first school lockdown predicted negative activation at the second lockdown.peerReviewe

Inklusive Schule und Schulentwicklung Theoretische Grundlagen, empirische Befunde und Praxisbeispiele aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz.

Resch K, Lindner K-T, Streese B, Proyer M, Schwab S, eds. Inklusive Schule und Schulentwicklung Theoretische Grundlagen, empirische Befunde und Praxisbeispiele aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. . Beiträge zur Bildungsforschung. Vol 8 1st ed. Münster: Waxmann; 2021

Will–Skill–Tool Components as Key Factors for Digital Media Implementation in Education: Austrian Teachers’ Experiences with Digital Forms of Instruction during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Although comprehensive digitalization (e.g., the provision of skills and resources) had already been placed on Austria’s education policy agenda prior to the emergence of COVID-19, there is evidence that educators had some difficulty ensuring digital learning opportunities for their students when schools closed in early 2020. Against this backdrop, the present study, which drew on qualitative data from the large-scale INCL-LEA (Inclusive Home Learning) study, aimed to determine whether secondary school teachers (n = 17) from Viennese schools met the prerequisites for successfully implementing digital instruction, formulated in the Will–Skill–Tool model developed by Christensen and Kzenek (2008). Findings reveal that teachers primarily associated their sufficient digital skills with three factors: (1) basic interest and competence, (2) recently attended training, and/or (3) a positive attitude toward changing teaching practices. Interestingly, some educators recognized that digitization offers great potential for implementing individualized teaching approaches. However, the findings point to the didactic necessity of digital socialization in terms of social communication and inclusion when establishing emergency digital education