Using Ryff's scales of psychological well-being in adolescents in mainland China.

BACKGROUND: Psychological well-being in adolescence has always been a focus of public attention and academic research. Ryff's six-factor model of psychological well-being potentially provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for investigating positive functioning of adolescents. However, previous studies reported inconsistent findings of the reliability and validity of Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB). The present study aimed to explore whether Ryff's six-factor model of psychological well-being could be applied in Chinese adolescents. METHOD: The Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB) were adapted for assessing the psychological well-being of adolescents in mainland China. 772 adolescents (365 boys to 401 girls, 6 missing gender data, mean age = 13.65) completed the adapted 33-item SPWB. The data was used to examine the reliability and construct validity of the adapted SPWB. RESULT: Results showed that five of the six sub-scales had acceptable internal consistency of items, except the sub-scale of autonomy. The factorial structure of the SPWB was not as clear-cut as the theoretical framework suggested. Among the models under examination, the six-factor model had better model fit than the hierarchical model and the one-factor model. However, the goodness-of-fit of the six-factor model was hardly acceptable. High factor correlations were identified between the sub-scales of environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the present study echoed a number of previous studies which reported inadequate reliability and validity of Ryff's scales. Given the evidence, it was suggested that future adolescent studies should seek to develop more age-specific and context-appropriate items for a better operationalisation of Ryff's theoretical model of psychological well-being

The importance of classroom climate in fostering student creativity in Design & Technology lessons.

D&T educators have pointed to a ‘crisis’ in creativity within the subject. Research has indicated that organisational climate, defined as ‘the recurring patterns of behaviour, attitudes and feelings that characterise life in the organisation’, can help or hinder creativity. Hence ‘climate’ is a potential explanatory factor for the lack of creativity documented in student outcomes. This paper, therefore, explores whether the classroom climate experienced by secondary students (aged 11-16 years) in D&T lessons is conducive for creativity. Data are drawn from a number of sources including student (N=126) and teacher (N=14) interviews and student (N=4996) and teacher (N=69) questionnaires gathered across a total of 15 schools, as part of an ongoing Gatsbyfunded research and intervention project. Coded data and survey questions relating to the nine climate dimensions outlined in Ekvall and Isaksen’s climate model were identified. The paper focuses on two of these dimensions; challenge and freedom. The analysis revealed that students felt much of the work they do lacks challenge and freedom, hence they do not perceive the climate in their classrooms as conducive for creativity. Teachers’ perceptions differed somewhat and this is discussed with reference to the performativity culture in which they are located. Whilst acknowledging the difficulties this poses it is argued that, as the literature indicates climate is ‘in the hands of the manager’, teachers can change their practice to enable creativity to flourish. Tentative suggestions for ways forward are suggested

Young People’s Conceptualization of Their Wellbeing: Culturally Situated Understandings in the Context of Kazakhstan

Little is known about the wellbeing of young people living in post-Soviet nation contexts such as Kazakhstan. The qualitative data reported represents the views of 309 Kazakhstani young people on their conceptualisations of wellbeing that fell broadly into three major thematic categories: external factors from one’s surroundings; relationships with others, and internal aspects of the self. The direct consequence of inadequate physical environment on health and the environment’s impact on psychological wellbeing through leisure, lifestyle, education, and employment opportunities were emphasised. Affirmative connections with others were associated with increased levels of emotional wellbeing. The importance of making independent choices as well as being actively involved in leisure, volunteering and extracurricular school activities for achieving optimal levels of wellbeing was highlighted.Newton – Al-Farabi Partnership Programme” (Reference number 172734464

‘Oh yeah, yeah you get a lot of love hearts. The Year 9s are notorious for love hearts. Everything is love hearts.’ Fixation in pupils’ design and technology work (11-16 years)

This paper focuses on the design ideas generated by young people aged 11-16 years when solving design and technology problems. A number of methods including focus interviews with pupils and teachers, lesson observations and analysis of documents and pupils portfolios are used to help explain how pupils aged 11-16 years generate their design and technology ideas. The findings indicate that a significant number of pupils produced stereotypical design ideas such as love hearts and sports logos. This was the case regardless of their age and gender and happens at various stages when designing. A review of the creative cognition literature suggests that this occurs as a result of a normal way of thinking and is referred to as fixation. Fixation, that is, what it looks like and how it manifests itself in the D&T classroom is discussed in detail. Fixation was also found to manifest itself in other ways such as a strong desire to do the first idea that comes into your head. It is argued that an understanding of fixation gives insight into why pupils find it difficult to generate creative design ideas. As fixation can be overridden, we believe that the role of the teacher in this process is important. Aspects of current practice that might be problematic are begun to be considered

Technicians’ support: a crucial dimension for implementing creative change in D&T classrooms.

In the context of an ongoing research and intervention project ‘Subject Leadership in Creativity in Design and Technology’ funded by the Gatsby Foundation certain factors were identified as either supportive or hindering to the realisation of the main aim of the project which is introducing changes in teaching practices that help develop students’ creativity. To better understand these factors, participating teachers were interviewed regularly to discuss the progress made in their schools. In these interviews, teachers indicate the importance of the support of the technician in the D&T department and highlight the impact of this support on teachers’ adoption of the teaching practices which the project recommends for enhancing the possibility of students engaging in creative designs for the subject projects. It became clear that technicians needed to redefine their roles to be supportive to teachers during the process of change, yet this would only take place if technicians were involved in the change process from its outset. If these two conditions were met, the result was that technicians supported and facilitated students’ creativity. Hence, the paper highlights the importance of engaging the technician from the outset of change to ensure his/her support to the teachers and outlines possible ways for developing this kind of engagement

Which Boys and Which Girls Are Falling Behind? Linking Adolescents’ Gender Role Profiles to Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement

Funder: Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003343Funder: China Scholarship Council; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004543Funder: Great Britain China Centre; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000624Abstract: Research on gender gaps in school tends to focus on average gender differences in academic outcomes, such as motivation, engagement, and achievement. The current study moved beyond a binary perspective to unpack the variations within gender. It identified distinct groups of adolescents based on their patterns of conformity to different gender norms and compared group differences in motivation, engagement, and achievement. Data were collected from 597 English students (aged 14–16 years, 49% girls) on their conformity to traditional masculine and feminine norms, growth mindset, perseverance, self-handicapping, and their English and mathematics performance at the end of secondary school. Latent profile analysis identified seven groups of adolescents (resister boys, cool guys, tough guys, relational girls, modern girls, tomboys, wild girls) and revealed the prevalence of each profile. Within-gender variations show that two thirds of the boys were motivated, engaged, and performed well in school. In contrast, half of the girls showed maladaptive patterns of motivation, engagement, and achievement, and could be considered academically at risk. By shifting the focus from “boys versus girls” to “which boys and which girls”, this study reveals the invisibility of well-performing boys and underachieving girls in educational gender gap research

A contextually adapted model of school engagement in Kazakhstan

This study introduces a culturally adapted 17-item scale of school engagement. It seeks to measure school engagement in young people in a society undergoing a rapid transition from a collectivist to individualist mind-set, and an education system focused on improving performance in international assessments such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS. The school engagement scale is validated by testing the empirical fit of a second-order multidimensional factor model of school engagement taken from the Western literature to large-scale data in Kazakhstan. Culturally relevant features are added, such as the strong influence of ‘important others. The model tested was formed from 1) an individual’s cognitions and behaviours associated with school and 2) the social influences of parents, peers, and teachers. 1744 secondary education students in Kazakhstan participated in the study. Confirmatory analyses supported the hypothesized additional contributory factors to school engagement. Differences in means across gender, grade, school-type, and geographic location showed: (1) higher cognitive engagement for young women; (2) rural students with higher levels of behavioural engagement; and (3) substantial differences in social support by grade and rurality.Funding for this project covered the period 1st April 2015 to 30th May 2017 and was provided jointly by The British Council and Al-Farabi Foundation through the Newton Fund, Institutional Links Programme (Reference: 172734464)

Understanding Mathematics Anxiety: Investigating the experiences of UK primary and secondary school students

The project investigated individuals’ attitudes towards mathematics because of what could be referred to as a “mathematics crisis” in the UK. Evidence suggests that functional literacy skills amongst working-age adults are steadily increasing but the proportion of adults with functional maths skills equivalent to a GCSE grade C has dropped from 26% in 2003 to only 22% in 2011 (National Numeracy, 2014). This number is strikingly low compared with the 57% who achieved the equivalent in functional literacy skills (National Numeracy, 2014)

Understanding fungal functional biodiversity during the mitigation of environmentally dispersed pentachlorophenol in cork oak forest soils

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is globally dispersed and contamination of soil with this biocide adversely affects its functional biodiversity, particularly of fungi - key colonizers. Their functional role as a community is poorly understood, although a few pathways have been already elucidated in pure cultures. This constitutes here our main challenge - elucidate how fungi influence the pollutant mitigation processes in forest soils. Circumstantial evidence exists that cork oak forests in N. W. Tunisia - economically critical managed forests are likely to be contaminated with PCP, but the scientific evidence has previously been lacking. Our data illustrate significant forest contamination through the detection of undefined active sources of PCP. By solving the taxonomic diversity and the PCP-derived metabolomes of both the cultivable fungi and the fungal community, we demonstrate here that most strains (predominantly penicillia) participate in the pollutant biotic degradation. They form an array of degradation intermediates and by-products, including several hydroquinone, resorcinol and catechol derivatives, either chlorinated or not. The degradation pathway of the fungal community includes uncharacterized derivatives, e.g. tetrachloroguaiacol isomers. Our study highlights fungi key role in the mineralization and short lifetime of PCP in forest soils and provide novel tools to monitor its degradation in other fungi dominated food webs. © 2015 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd