Barbara Schneider

Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of Flow Theory

We present a conceptualization of student engagement based on the culmination of concentration, interest, and enjoyment (i.e., flow). Using a longitudinal sample of 526 high school students across the U.S., we investigated how adolescents spent their time in high school and the conditions under which they reported being engaged. Participants experienced increased engagement when the perceived challenge of the task and their own skills were high and in balance, the instruction was relevant, and the learning environment was under their control. Participants were also more engaged in individual and group work versus listening to lectures, watching videos, or taking exams. Suggestions to increase engagement, such as focusing on learning activities that support students’ autonomy and provide an appropriate level of challenge for students’ skills, conclude the article.

Revisiting the Gender Gap in Time-Use Patterns: Multitasking and Well-Being among Mothers and Fathers in Dual-Earner Families

This study suggests that multitasking constitutes an important source of gender inequality, which can help explain previous findings that mothers feel more burdened and stressed than do fathers even when they have relatively similar workloads. Using data from the 500 Family Study, including surveys and the Experience Sampling Method, the study examines activities parents simultaneously engage in and how they feel when multitasking. We find that mothers spend 10 more hours a week multitasking compared to fathers and that these additional hours are mainly related to time spent on housework and childcare. For mothers, multitasking activities at home and in public are associated with an increase in negative emotions, stress, psychological distress, and work-family conflict. By contrast, fathers’ multitasking at home involves less housework and childcare and is not a negative experience. We also find several similarities by gender. Mothers’ and fathers’ multitasking in the company of a spouse or children are positive experiences, whereas multitasking at work, although associated with an increased sense of productivity, is perceived as a negative experience.

Scaling-Up Exemplary Interventions:

Scale-up is the practice of introducing proven interventions into new settings with the goal of producing similarly positive effects in larger, more diverse populations. Scale-up research examines factors that influence the effectiveness of interventions as they are brought to scale across settings. This article has three objectives. First, it defines the goals of scale-up research with respect to broader efforts to enhance the quality of educational research and promote evidence-based education. Second, it clarifies the importance of context, conceptually and methodologically, in conducting scale-up research. Finally, it suggests practical guidelines that can assist researchers in developing designs that can be implemented in field settings to produce robust, generalizable findings.

Learning From Our Differences: A Dialogue Across Perspectives on Quality in Education Research

The dialogue re-presented in this article is intended to foster mutual engagement—and opportunity for learning—across different perspectives on research within the education research community. Participants in the dialogue each addressed the following questions: (1) What are the touchstones by which you judge quality or rigor in education research (for a single study, a set of studies, or a “field” or community of researchers in dialogue)? What is your chief concern or fear that the touchstones guard against? (2) Where do you see challenges to your perspective in the perspectives of other members of the panel? How might your perspective evolve to respond to those challenges? Given all of this, what are the implications for the preparation of education researchers? Opening and closing comments set the dialogue in historical context, highlight issues raised, and suggest next steps for collaborative learning from the diversity of perspectives in our field.

A Longitudinal Study of the Self-Concepts and Experiential Components of Self-Worth and Affect Across Adolescence

Classic theories depict adolescence as a period of emotional “storm and stress”. Empirical evidence, mostly from cross-sectional studies, suggests that emotional development presents a mixture of continuity, swings, and resilience. We examined longitudinally the average grade trends in components of self-concept and experiential components of self-worth and affect across adolescence. We followed 1,165 6th through 12th graders for 4 years using a 3-wave, accelerated longitudinal design. Participants completed self-concept scales (global self-esteem and locus of control), and the Experience Sampling Method, which provided daily self- reports on self-worth (living up to one’s own expectations, to the expectations of others, feeling successful, and feeling in control of the situation) and affect (feeling good about oneself and feeling happy). Multilevel modeling indicated that both self-esteem and locus of control grow linearly over time. Self-worth components of experience showed a concave-up trend bottoming around Grade 10, suggesting a pubertal swing and partial readjustment by the end of adolescence. Affect declined quadratically across adolescence. Compared to White students, less positive grade trends were found for Hispanics, Asian Americans, and adolescents from nontraditional families. A mixed pattern emerged for African Americans. Behind the stable growth of components of self-concept, adolescents experience a certain degree of discontinuity as to how they evaluate their capability to meet everyday life demands and their affect declines. The modifications in grade trends due to ethnicity and family structure call for studies on the possible influence exercised by family processes and school environments.

Public School Choice: Some Evidence From the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988

Programs to provide parents with opportunities to choose among public schools have increased to the point that more American high school students are enrolled in public “schools of choice” than private schools. Using indicators of students’ “exercise of choice “ and enrollment in a public school of choice from The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, this article explores certain groups’ propensities to take advantage of opportunities to choose in the public sector. Controlling on the availability of opportunities for choice in their schools, African Americans and Hispanics show a greater propensity to take advantage of those opportunities than Whites and Asian Americans. Students whose parents have lower levels of education are also more likely than those with more education to take advantage of opportunities to choose.

Parent Surveillance in Schools: A Question of Social Class.

Because teachers work in relatively closed classroom spaces, they are notoriously difficult for administrators or parents to observe. At the same time, middle‐class parents have demonstrated an interest in “opening” the closed classroom door. Findings from this research suggest that surveilling parents provided advantages for their child during the school day. Using their social networks, middle‐class and socially connected working‐class parents from this study increased levels of informal teacher surveillance by closely monitoring teachers in classrooms. Teachers, in turn, felt watched by surveilling parents. Poor parents and isolated working‐class parents with little access to information about their child’s classroom relied on teachers for mentorship. In order to isolate class differences, which are easily conflated with race differences, this study investigates a school with all African American families. This study identifies interactional mechanisms dependent on parent social class that facilitate unequal levels of everyday teacher surveillance in classrooms, securing school advantages for middle‐class children.

Workplace Flexibility: Realigning 20th-Century Jobs for a 21st-Century Workforce

As changes in the composition of the workforce exert new demands on employers, considerable attention is being paid to how workplaces can be structured more flexibly to achieve the goals of employers and employees. This book contains essays making the case for workplace flexibility, as well as examining existing business practices and public policy regarding flexibility in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

Drinking, Socioemotional Functioning, and Academic Progress in Secondary School

Secondary schools are sites of academic instruction but also contexts of socioemotional development, and the intertwining of these two functions has consequences for adolescents’ future health and education. Drawing on nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 8,271), this study explored the bidirectional associations among indicators of adolescents’ alcohol use and their feelings of social integration at school. Socioemotional problems did not predict increased drinking over time, but drinking predicted declining socioemotional functioning, with negative implications for adolescents’ academic grades by the end of high school. These associations, however, were conditioned by aspects of school context, with drinkers feeling more marginalized in schools characterized by dense networks with low rates of drinking.

Conditions for Optimal Development in Adolescence: An Experiential Approach

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