Sigrun K. Ertesvåg

Prevention and Reduction of Behavioural Problems in School: An evaluation of the Respect program

Disobedient pupils, off‐task behaviour, and bullying are common problems in schools in many countries; they interfere with teaching, create an unsafe learning environment, and challenge the staff. Effective programs involving entire schools to prevent and reduce such problems have already been designed and implemented. However, most interventions target one type of problem behaviour, and their effects have only been evaluated in the short term. The Respect program 1 is broad in the sense that it targets not just one but several types of behaviour in order to prevent and reduce problem behaviour. The program was implemented among all the staff and pupils at three primary schools and one secondary school in Norway. A cohort longitudinal design was used in evaluating the program. Pupils in the four schools reported a decrease in the four areas of problem behaviour. This decrease was sustained or continued after the intervention period for some types of behaviour, even though the results differed between grade levels. In terms of effect size, the results were small to moderate for most grade levels. Although this analysis was non‐experimental in nature, it does document sustainable change resulting from intervention in an entire school and suggests that this could be maintained in the long term.

Bullying and affiliation: A study of peer groups in native and immigrant adolescents in Norway

This study (1) investigated the extent to which native Norwegian and immigrant girls and boys bully others and (2) examined peer groups to find out with whom pupils affiliate with when bullying others. Furthermore, the study explored whether immigrant boys, more than native Norwegian boys, were carrying out bullying together with others. To identify bullies, self-assessments, nominations by co-bullies and nominations by victims were used. Social cognitive mapping (SCM) was used to identify peer groups. Peer groups were classified according to number of bullies and non-bullies in the group. The sample comprised 97 native Norwegian adolescents (55 girls, 42 boys) and 59 immigrant adolescents (34 girls, 25 boys) attending grades 8, 9 and 10. Configural frequency analyses showed that immigrant boys were less often identified as non-bullies but more often identified as bullies than expected by chance. On the contrary, immigrant girls were more often identified as non-bullies but less often identified as bullies than expected by chance. In addition, immigrant boys were overrepresented in bullying groups and immigrant girls were overrepresented in zero bullying groups. Furthermore, more immigrant boys than one would expect were bullying together with others, and more Norwegian girls that one would expect were bullying alone. Implications for bullying prevention programmes in schools are discussed.

Assessing Reasons for School Non-attendance

The aim of the present study is to assess reasons for school non-attendance including somatic symptoms, subjective health complaints, truancy, and school refusal and to investigate the relationship of these with gender, grade, and self-reported special educational needs. The study is based on a self-reported questionnaire distributed to students recruited from seven municipalities in Norway. The total sample included 5,465 students in the sixth to tenth grades. The measurement model yielded indices of good fit, and the four suggested dimensions of reasons for school non-attendance were supported. Subjective health complaints emerged as the most commonly reported reason for school non-attendance, whereas 6.2% of students reported that their non-attendance “quite often” was due to truancy- or school refusal-related reasons. There was a tendency for students who report special educational needs to report more truancy reasons and for females to report more school refusal reasons. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Parental perspectives of the role of school factors in school refusal

The aim of this study was to explore parents’ perspectives on the role of school factors in school refusal (SR). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 parents who had experienced SR with their own child. They identified several school factors related to SR. Some of these findings suggest that students who are prone to SR need more predictability and more teachers’ support than they sometimes get in school. Their need for predictability seems to occur particularly during less structured activities and during transitions in school. Findings also imply that disruptive behavior among classmates and harsh management from teachers affects perceived predictability and support for SR-prone students. All parents expressed concern about bullying, and roughly a third of them reported that their child had been a victim of bullying. Insufficient adaptation of schoolwork was also mentioned relatively frequently. Parents emphasized that adaptation of schoolwork needs to be done in close cooperation with the student and parents to avoid negative differentiation from classmates or stigma. Finally, several parents commented that teachers and schools need more knowledge about SR and felt that schools needed a more coordinated approach to supporting students who are at risk of SR.

Schools’ readiness and capacity to improve matter

The literature reveals that up to half of all evidence-based programmes introduced in schools will fail to reach their expected outcomes due to poor implementation. Addressing the reasons why school change works in some schools and not in others is therefore important. It is argued in this article that if a school’s readiness and capacity for improvement is identified, it may predict the outcome of a future change initiative when adequate support is provided. Drawing on the Burke-Litwin model of organisational change, supported by theory and previous research from school improvement and prevention practice, we aim to present an overview of factors to take into consideration before new change initiatives are implemented in school settings. These factors exist on the external, school or individual level and have either a transformational or transactional nature. Yet factors at all of these levels may influence a school’s capacity and readiness to improve.

Professional cultures and rates of bullying

Preventing and reducing bullying requires long-term and systematic school-wide actions. Researchers on bullying have given little attention to the school organization and its influence on the ability to implement the necessary actions to prevent and stop bullying. This study examines the relationship between aspects of a school’s professional culture and rates of bullying. From a sample of 18,767 students and 1,932 teachers in 85 primary, secondary, and combined schools, subgroups of schools with high (11 schools) and low (10 schools) rates of bullying were identified. Schools with high and low rates differed significantly on all organizational factors; teachers in schools with high rates of bullying reported weaker leadership, teacher affiliation, and collaborative activity than teachers at schools with low rates of bullying. Teacher authority had a mediating role between aspects of the professional culture and rates of bullying. Implications for practice are also discussed.

Development of a measurement for transformational and transactional leadership in schools taking on a school-based intervention

This article describes the development and validation of a measure for transformational and transactional leadership that may be used as part of a more comprehensive instrument to measure a school’s capacity to implement school-based interventions. Data used for this study were gathered from the reports of 1144 teachers from 45 Norwegian schools who were taking on a school development intervention aimed at preventing and reducing problem behaviours among students. Using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, measurement structures with two factors at the teacher level and one factor at the school level provided a good fit to the data. Although there is some overlap between transactional and transformational leadership, the two concepts do measure distinct features. Transformational and transactional leadership was eventually measured by teacher reports on two scales, each consisting of four items. As part of the validation, scores on the scales were related to other aspects relevant for organisational capacity. As expected, the transformational and transactional leadership scales both correlated significantly negatively with staff freedom and positively with innovation climate, affiliation, principal positions in schools, and collaborative activity at both the teacher and the school levels.

An individual learning belief and its impact on schools’ improvement work – An Individual versus a Social Learning Perspective

Why do some schools fail to improve even after taking knowledge-based improvement initiatives? In this article, we argue that some schools do not improve because their staff members have an individual learning belief. An individual learning approach to school improvement will disrupt development processes. Whereas, as we argue, a social learning understanding of school improvement based on the theory of Community of Practice and its application may provide schools with a theoretical understanding which enables successful implementation. The results of two major improvement projects in Norway illustrate how some schools fail to successfully implement improvement due to the voluntary nature of participation, the lack of situated activities in relation to the improvement objective, the low frequency of meetings and the absence of systematic leadership. Our advice to schools is to revisit their beliefs about and understanding of learning so they can manage change among staff and carefully monitor the situations we highlight as being critical to success.

Listening to Shy Voices: Shy Adolescents’ Experiences with Being Bullied at School

This study examined bullying related to adolescents exhibiting shyness as an emotional and behavioral problem in the school context. It is based on in-depth interviews and observations of severely shy girls between the ages of 14 and 18 years. Given this group of students’ difficulties with social skills, peer rejection, and victimization, we sought to explore (a) the form that bullying takes, (b) the genders commonly represented among aggressors, and (c) the reasons that shy adolescents give for being bullied. Results show that shy adolescents perceive a nonsupportive class environment to be a primary explanation for why they are bullied, and relational bullying is the dominant form of bullying exclusion.

A Preliminary Validity of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in Norwegian Lower-Secondary Schools

ABSTRACT Observations seem particularly susceptible to rater error due to the level of subjectivity involved in assessment. Thus, the present paper aims to investigate: (1) inter-rater agreement (IRA) using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System – Secondary version (CLASS-S) and (2) the CLASS-S factor structure in a Norwegian context. Inter-rater agreement analysis comprise percent within one (PWO). Confirmatory factor analysis are performed to analyze the factor structure. Certified trainers scored videotaped observations. The study indicates that an acceptable IRA can be achieved in a Norwegian setting, and it reports promising results regarding the structural validity of the CLASS-S.