Student’s Academic Engagement: the Relation between Teacher’s Academic Optimism and Female Student’s Perception of School Climate

Article
  • 356 Downloads

Abstract

The goal of the present research is to identify the correlation between students’ perception of their school climate, their teachers’ academic optimism, and how these two factors affect overall academic engagement among students. The research sample comprised of 1200 female students and 48 teachers. Findings indicated that the perception of teacher’s support and perception of student’s autonomy have significant impact on the student’s academic engagement. Further, the relationship between a teacher’s efficacy and positive role in student engagement was found to be significant.

Keywords

Perception School climate Teacher Academic optimism Student Academic engagement 

Notes

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest

Authors declare they have no conflict of interest. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

References

  1. Anderson, R. N., Green, M. L., & Loewen, P. S. (1988). Relationship among teachers, and students’ thinking skills ,sense of efficacy, and student achievement. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, XXXI, 148–165.Google Scholar
  2. Assor, A., Kaplan, H., & Roth, G. (2002). Choice is good, but relevance is excellent: autonomy-enhancing and suppressing teacher behaviors predicting students’ engagement in schoolwork. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 261–278.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  3. Bandura, A. (1986). Making a difference: Teacher sense of efficacy and student achievement. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
  4. Battistich, V., Solomon, D., Kim, D., & Watson, M. (1995). Schools as communities, poverty levels of student populations, and students’ attitudes, motives, and performance: Amultilevel analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 627–658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Bear, G. G., Yang, C., Pell, M., & Gaskins, C. (2014). Validation of a brief measure of teachers’ perceptions of school climate: relations to student achievement and suspensions. Learning Environments Research, 17(3), 339–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Chang, I. H. (2011). A study of the relationships between distributed leadership, teacher academic optimism and student achievement in Taiwanese elementary schools. School Leadership & Management, 31(5), 491–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Cohen, J., & Geier (2010). School climate research summary. School Climate Brief, 1. New York: National School Climate Center. http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/documents.
  8. Coker, J., & Borders, L. (2001). An analysis of environmental and social factors affecting adolescent problem drinking. Journal of Counseling & Development, 79(2), 200–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Eccles, J., & Wigfield, A. (1993). Negative effects of traditional middle schools on students’ motivation. Elementary School Journal, 93(5), 553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Eren, A. (2012). Prospective teachers’ future time perspective and professional plans about teaching: The mediating role of academic optimism. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(1), 111–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Fan, W., Williams, C. M., & Corkin, D. M. (2011). A multilevel analysis of student perceptions of school climate: the effect of social and academic risk factors. Psychology in the Schools, 48(6), 632–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Fredricks, J., Blumenfeld, P., Friedel, J., & Paris, A. (2005). School engagement. In K. A. Moore & L. Lippman (Eds.), What do children need to flourish? (pp. 305–321). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
  13. Furrer, C., & Skinner, E. (2003). Sense of relatedness as a factor in childrens academic engagement and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(1), 148–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Griffith, J. (1999). School climate as ‘social order’ and ‘social action’: A multi-level analysis of public elementary school student perceptions. Social Psychology of Education, 2, 339–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Hejazi, E., & Aminipoor, S. H. (2014). The relation between academic optimism and teacher self-management strategies with student academic achievement. Journal of Educational Innovations, 13(52), 30–44.Google Scholar
  16. Hejazi, E., Ghazi Tabatabaei, M., Gholamali Lavasani, M., & Moradi, A. (2014). The teachers-student relationship and school engagement: Mediating role of basic psychological needs. Applied Psychological Research Quarterly, 5(1), 19–40.Google Scholar
  17. Hoge, D. R., Smith, E. K., & Hanson, S. L. (1990). School experiences predicting changes in self-esteem of sixth- and seventh-grade students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 117–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Hopson, L. M., & Lee, E. (2011). Mitigating the effect of family poverty on academic and behavioral outcomes: The role of school climate in middle and high school. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(11), 2221–2229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Howard, E., Howell, B., & Brainard, E. (1987). Handbook for conducting school climate improvement projects. Bloomington: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.Google Scholar
  20. Hoy, W. K., & Tschannen-Moran, M. (1999). Five faces of trust: An empirical confirmation in urban elementary schools. Journal of School leadership, 9, 184–208.Google Scholar
  21. Jia, Y., Way, N., Ling, G., & Yashikawa, H. (2009). The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate on Socioemotional and Academic Adjustment: A Comparison of Chinese and American Adolescents. Child Development, 80(5), 1514–1530.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  22. Kuperminc, G. P., Leadbeater, B. J., & Blatt, S. J. (2001). School social climate and individual differences in vulnerability to psychopathology among middle school students. Journal of School Psychology, 39, 141–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Kurs, N. (2006). The relationship between teacher's sense of academic optimism and commitment to the profession. Doctoral dissertation. University of Ohio State, USA. Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1148322317&disposition=inline.
  24. Loukas, A., & Murphy, J. L. (2007). Middle school student perceptions of school climate: Examining protective functions on subsequent adjustment problems. Journal of School Psychology, 45(3), 293–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Marks, H. M. (2000). Student Engagement in Instructional Activity: Patterns in the Elementary, Middle, and High School Years. American Educational Research Journal, 37(1), 153–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Midgley, C. ,Feldhaufer, H., & Eccles, J. (1989). Change in teacher efficacy and student self and task related beliefs in mathematics during the transition to junior high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 247–258. Google Scholar
  27. Moghari, E. H., Mas’oud, G. L., Bagherian, V., & Afshari, J. (2011). Relationship between perceived teacher's academic optimism and English achievement: Role of self-efficacy. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 2329–2333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Muijis, R. D., & Reynolds, D. (2001). Teacher beliefs and behavior: What really matters. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 37, 3–15.Google Scholar
  29. Nurttila, S., Ketonen, E., & Lonka, K. (2015). Sense of competence and optimism as resources to promote academic engagement. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 171, 1017–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Peterson, C. (2000). The future of optimism. American Psychologist, 55, 44e55.Google Scholar
  31. Purkey, S., & Smith, M. (1983). Effective schools: a review. Elementary School Journal, 83, 427–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Rinehart, S. J., & Espelage, D. L. (2015). A multilevel analysis of school climate, homophobic name-calling, and sexual harassment victimization/perpetration among middle school youth. Psychology of Violence. doi: 10.1037/a0039095.
  33. Roeser, R. W., & Eccles, J. S. (1998). Adolescents’ perceptions of middle school: relation to longitudinal changes in academic and psychological adjustment. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8, 123–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Roeser, R. W., Eccles, J. S., & Sameroff, A. J. (1998). Academic and emotional functioning in early adolescence: longitudinal relations, patterns, and prediction by experience in middle school. Development and Psychopathology, 10(2), 321–352.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  35. Ross, J. A. (1992). Teacher efficacy and the effect of coaching on student achievement. Canadian Journal of Education, 17(51), 65.Google Scholar
  36. Sharan, S., & Tan, I. G. C. (2008). Organization schools for productive learning. Springer.Google Scholar
  37. Stewart, E. B. (2007). School structural characteristics, student effort, peer associations, and parental involvement: the influence of school- and individual-level factors on academic achievement. Education and Urban Society, 40, 179–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Taylor, J (2006). School engagement and life changes: 15 year olds in transition - life chances study stage 7. Melbourne: Brotherhood of St. Laurence.Google Scholar
  39. Thapa, A., Chohen, J., Guffy, S., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2013). A review of school climate research. Review of Educational Research, vol., 83(3), 357–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Verkuyten, M., & Thus, J. (2002a). School satisfaction of elementary school children: the role of performance, peer relations, ethnicity and gender. Social Indicators Research, 59, 203–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. Verkuyten, M., & Thus, J. (2002b). School satisfaction of elementary school children: the role of performance, peer relations, ethnicity and gender. Social Indicators Research, 59, 203–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Vieno, A., Perkins, D. D., Smith, T. M., & Santinello, M. (2005). Democratic school climate and sense of community in school: a multilevel analysis. American Journal of Community Psychology, 36, 327–341.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  43. Wang, M., Willett, J., & Eccles, J. S. (2011). The assessment of school engagement: examining dimensionality and measurement invariance by gender and race/ethnicity. Journal of School Psychology, 49, 465–480.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  44. Wu, J. H., Hoy, W. K., & Tarter, C. J. (2013). Enabling school structure, collective responsibility, and a culture of academic optimism: toward a robust model of school performance in Taiwan. Journal of Educational Administration, 51(2), 176–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Zabihi Hesari, N. K., Hejazi, E., Ejei, J., & Farzad, V. (2014). Relationship between Teacher’s academic optimism and student achievement goals. Journal of Psychology, 18, 263–279.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Imam Reza International UniversityMashhadIran
  2. 2.Faculty of psychology and educational sciencesTehran UniversityTehranIran

Personalised recommendations