Main factors to make wellbeing and learning a reality
Anne G. Danielsen (PhD)Oslo, 2010
1. Background
2. Outcomes: Wellbeing and learning
3. Aim
4. Theoretical perspective
5. Previous research
6. Research questions
7. Methods
8. Results
9. Conclusions
10. Implications
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
a risk or resource for students’ wellbeing (Samdal, 1999)
Anne G. Danielsen
Subjective wellbeing
Positive development in children and youth
Focus on◦ Developing strengths
◦ Positive responses to adversity
◦ Strenghtening important institutions
Complements, does not replace, risk behaviour-and disability-approaches
Main purpose: Identitfying supportive and motivating factors that may relate to
wellbeing and learning of students (Danielsen, 2010).
Anne G. Danielsen
(a) positive subjective experiences, ◦ like subjective wellbeing , self-determination, self-
efficacy and self-regulated learning (academic initiative)
(b) positive personality – a perspective on human beings as self-organizing, self-directed, adaptive entities, ◦ e.g. self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and
social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997), and
(c) positive institutions ◦ e.g. schools, bringing out the best in positive character
and subjective experiences (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
◦ School setting: the major extra-familial environment
Anne G. Danielsen
Belonging at school: ◦ economic or educational success as adults
◦ long-term health and wellbeing (OECD, 2004)
Success in education:◦ individuals’ opportunities to live a successful life
(Ottawa Charter to Health Promotion, 1986; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; OECD, 2004).
Individuals’ wellbeing and learning ◦ prerequisite for societies to achieve sustainable
socio-economic and democratic development (OECD, 2004)
Anne G. Danielsen
Chapter 9a. The pupils’ school environment
Section 9a-1. General requirements
All pupils attending primary and secondary schools are entitled to a good physical and psychosocial environment conducive to health, wellbeing and learning.
Anne G. Danielsen
Subjective Wellbeing Quality of life or “happiness”
people’s own evaluations of their lives, both affective and cognitive
Anne G. Danielsen
life satisfaction, as for school students in Norway, and
school satisfaction, considering school as one of the important life domains of wellbeing ◦ such as work, family, friends, or community
(Huebner, Suldo, Smith, & McKnight, 2004a; Huebner, Valois, Suldo, Smith, McKnight, Seligson et al., 2004b).
Anne G. Danielsen
an important cognitive aspect of subjective wellbeing (Huebner, Valois, Paxton, & Drane, 2005)
views of life conditions and wellbeing experienced and assessed by the individuals themselves (Huebner et al., 2004)
global, cognitive judgments of one’s life (Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991)
a person’s evaluation of various areas of his or her life (such as the school context)
Anne G. Danielsen
A right to feel good about themselves and the institutions in which they function (Verkuyten &
Thijs, 2002)
An important outcome of schooling in itself
An affective variable, students’ enjoyment and evaluation of their school experiences (Huebner &
Gilman, 2006)
Social belonging and inclusion (PISA-studies;
educational policy documents)
Liking school: (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children-studies)
Disaffection with school may reflect alienation or disconnection from school and
withdrawal from school activities (Finn, 1989; Fredricks et al., 2004).
Anne G. Danielsen
Engagement in challenging, task oriented behaviour (Larson, 2000)
Self-regulated learning; motivational processes◦ Goal setting, effort, positive beliefs, valuing
learning (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997)
Obtain better results (more likely)
Become lifelong learners (more likely)
Major new goal of education (OECD, 2004)
Contribution to creating a good life (Report
No. 16 [2006-2007] to the Norwegian Parliament)
Anne G. Danielsen
a critical developmental period in shaping patterns of mental health (WHO, 2000) and
health enhancing-behaviors (Larson, Wilson, Mortimer, 2002).
Both growth and problems are potential outcomes of the adolescent period, depending on the kind of care and opportunities that adults and institutions afford (Roeser, Eccles, Sameroff, 1998).
improving a student’s school initiative may prevent student boredom, disaffection, and
drop-out from school (cf. Finn, 1989;
Fredricks et al.). Anne G. Danielsen
Apply a positive psychological perspective
School-related factors
Lower secondary schools, i.e. grade 8-10
relate positively to students’
Life satisfaction,
School satisfaction and Academic initiative
Anne G. Danielsen
Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000)
What are
supportive and motivating environments in schools
according to self-determination theory?
Anne G. Danielsen
Warmth
vs
Hostility
Structure
vs
Caos
Autonomy-
Support vs
Coercion
Self-determined
Motivation
-
Engagement
Life
satisfaction
School
satisfaction
Academic
initiative
Relatedness
Competence
Autonomy
Supportive and Motivating Environments
Active en-
couragement Student needs Student motivation Outcomes
Anne G. Danielsen
Figure 1
Relatedness; belonging and feeling connected to
others
Competence; to control outcomes and to
experience effectance, such as having a sense of mastery over one’s capacity to act in the environment
Autonomy; to be agentic, to feel like the “origin”
of one’s actions, and to have a voice, initiative, input or choice in determining our own behavior
(Ryan & Deci, 2000; Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Anne G. Danielsen
Interpersonal involvement
Competence-involving structure
Autonomy-support
Reeve (2002); Reeve et al. (2008)
Anne G. Danielsen
Warmth
vs
Hostility
Structure
vs
Chaos
Autonomy-
Support vs
Coercion
Interpersonal involvement (Reeve, 2005)
The creation of social bonds◦ a) the other person cares about my welfare
◦ b) the other person likes me (Baumeister & Leary, 1995)
Support for relatedness provided by teachers◦ a sense of being close to students,
◦ a sense of warmth, affection, and acceptance of students (Reeve, 2006; Reeve et al., 2008)
◦ pedagogical caring (Goldstein, 1999; Wentzel, 1997; Noddings, 2005).
◦ can be important to students’ development of secure relations to adults (Furrer & Skinner, 2003)
Anne G. Danielsen
Warmth
vs
Hostility
Competence-involving structure
Continued feed-back provided by teachers: clear expectations, optimal challenges, and timely,
informative, consistent, sensitive, and responsive feedback (in contrast to chaos or laissez-faire)
suggestions for how future performance can be improved, may ◦ reduce perceptions of uncertainty
◦ help the student in developing a sense of perceived control over possible stressful circumstances (Rosenfeld et al., 2000, Hattie, 2009;
Hattie & Timperley, 2007; OECD, 2005; Reeve, 2002).
Anne G. Danielsen
Structure
vs
Chaos
Autonomy-supportive teachers◦ help students develop a sense of congruence
between their classroom behavior and their inner motivational resources
◦ provide students with high-quality interpersonal relationships (Reeve, 2002).
Responsive, supportive, motivate through interest, asking students what they want (Reeve; Reeve & Jang, 2006).
◦ enhanced motivation, engagement, learning, and psychological wellbeing (Reeve & Halusic, 2009)
Anne G. Danielsen
Autonomy-
Support vs
Coercion
two independent contextual variables◦ can be complementary and mutually supportive
Teachers can◦ provide little or much competence-involving
structure
Teachers can◦ be controlling or autonomy-supportive
“A lack of structure yields not an autonomy-supportive environment but instead one that is permissive, indulgent, or
laissez-faire” (Reeve, 2006, p. 231).
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
Most young adolescents report
relatively high levels of life satisfaction (Currie, Gabhainn, Godeau, Roberts, Smith, Currie et al., 2008).
11, 13 and 15-year-old school-students in 41 countries and regions across Europe and North America.
social support from family, teachers, and peers is associated with perceived life satisfaction (Diener & Fujita, 1995).
Anne G. Danielsen
School may be one of the life domains with the largest impact on students’ life satisfaction (Huebner, Laughlin, Ash & Gilman, 1998)
Literature in this area is scant (Suldo, Riley, & Shaffer, 2006).
Knowledge about the impact of school satisfaction on students’ life satisfaction:
important for understanding how school-related resources influence (and change) health and well-being.
Anne G. Danielsen
if the school context
provides social support for
relatedness,
competence and
autonomy (Baker et al., 2003).
Associated with increased school satisfaction
In accordance with self-determination theory
(Ryan & Deci, 2000)
Anne G. Danielsen
Large cross-country differences in the prevalence of students reporting to like school (Currie, et al., 2008).
Female students tend to report higher levels of school satisfaction than males do, but
this gender gap narrows between ages 11 and 15.
Compared with other countries; ◦ Norwegian students tend to report very high
levels of liking school (Currie et al.) and also a very high sense of belonging to their school (ILS,
2006). Anne G. Danielsen
-such as
perceived teacher support
care, understanding, fairness, and friendliness,
appear very influential on
students’ school satisfaction
(Rosenfeld et al., 2000; Reddy, Rhodes, & Mulhall, 2003; Hamre & Pianta, 2006; Skinner et al., 2008).
Anne G. Danielsen
Youth initiative
studied in different social contexts,
structured voluntary activities, but also in
school, family, and when students spend time with peers in more unstructured ways
during schoolwork, students report low intrinsic motivation.
(Larson, 2000; Hansen et al., 2003; Larson et al., 2005) .
academic initiative was not previously examined
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
Psycho-
social
support
from
parents,
teachers
and
classmates
Students’
Life
Satisfaction
Support in
the school
environment
School
satisfaction
Perceived
competence General
Self-Efficacy
Student outcomesS
e
l
f
-
d
e
t
e
r
m
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
t
h
e
o
r
y
Academic
Initiative
Figure 2
1. To what extent is support in the school environment related to students’ perceived life satisfaction, school satisfaction and academic initiative?
2. To what extent do perceived teacher support, perceived classmate support, and perceived student autonomy relate to students’ self-reported academic initiative at the individual and at the school class levels?
Anne G. Danielsen
1: Danielsen, Samdal, Hetland, & Wold, 2009;
The Journal of Educational Research, 102, 303–318.
2: Danielsen, Wiium, Wilhelmsen, & Wold, 2010;
Journal of School Psychology, 48, 247-267.
3: Danielsen, Breivik, & Wold, in press;
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research.
Anne G. Danielsen
nationally representative samples of 13 and 15 year-olds,
the sixth and seventh World Health Organization (WHO) survey of
Health Behavior in School-aged Children (Currie et. al., 2004; Currie, et al., 2008).
rriet
Anne G. Danielsen
National ethical approval was obtained from the Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics (REK).
Data collection Teachers, or other specially trained personnel, supervised the students’ self-completion of the questionnaires in the school classrooms
Anne G. Danielsen
Descriptive analysis
Structural equation modeling (SEM)
Two-level modeling
Multiple-group analysis
Anne G. Danielsen
The sample sizes were large
The samples were nationally representative (Currie et al., 2001).
The results can be generalized to the Norwegian populations that were studied
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
Preliminary results
Classmate
support
Teacher
support
Parent
support
School
satisfaction
Perceived
competence
General
Self-
efficacy -
Life-
satisfaction
.14
.23
.55
.19
.05
.27
.18
.43
.
.25
. .47
. .43
.37
.16
.16
.
Figur 2. Structural model of relationships between
support in the school environment and
students’ perceived life satisfaction (paper 1)
Anne G. Danielsen
.68
(a) Student level
(b) Class level
Teachersupport
Classmatesupport
Studentautonomi
Teachersupport
Classmatesupport
AcademicInitiative
AcademicInitiative
Figure 3. Two level analysis.
Dependent variabel: “Academic Initiative”.
PCAS: CombinedTeacher support andStudent autonomy
(paper 2)
.86***
.32***
.13**.43***
.75***
.47***
R2=.88***
.37 .18
.83***
.85***
PCAS
Studentautonomi
R2=.16***
Note: ***p < .001
**p < .01
Anne G. Danielsen
PCAS
Anne G. Danielsen
pedagogical caring and
perceived competence are related to
academic initiative and
life satisfaction
in 13- and 15-year old students.
Anne G. Danielsen
- in consistency with previous US studies (Rosenfeld et al. 2000; Reddy, Rhodes, & Mulhall, 2003; Hamre & Pianta, 2006)
This result is in accordance with
self-determination theory;
social contexts that support the needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy are associated with psychological well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Anne G. Danielsen
The students’ perceptions of
pedagogical caring and autonomy support
(PCAS)
from their teachers were
strongly related (.86) to self-reported academic initiative at the class level.
Students’ perceptions of teacher support
varied considerably between school classes.
Some school classes provide more favourable environments for the development of
academic initiative than do others.Anne G. Danielsen
the findings furthermore support
the existence of a relational zone (Goldstein, 1999), and the importance of
pedagogical caring (Wentzel, 1997; Noddings, 2005),
relatedness (e.g. Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, & Kinderman, 2008), and
emotional support (Malecki & Demaray, 2003) in the learning environment.
Anne G. Danielsen
crucial to human life, both to nurture a global need to belong and to provide more situational or task specific support (cf. Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
Because relatedness is likely to facilitate
internalization of the value of schoolwork,
relatedness may facilitate students’ engagement with school and
have a positive influence on students’
initiative for those school tasks that initially are not intrinsically motivated.
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
By supporting students’ experiences of relatedness, competence, and autonomy in schools,
a developmental pathway to psychological wellbeing and increasing learning may open.
Self-determination theory:
interpersonal involvement,
competence-involving structure, and
autonomy-support
are crucial and mutually supportive factors
Anne G. Danielsen
Anne G. Danielsen
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