This study examined whether teacher-rated versus self-rated student temperaments are different in relation to the school grades in Maths and Mother language (ML) instruction in a nationally representative sample of Finnish Secondary School students (n?=?1,063, mean age 15.1 years). The results indicated that teacher-rated temperament was more…

This paper is a retrospective descriptive content analysis of all identified school documents for 90 ninth-grade students with a history of truancy, collected from two Swedish compulsory schools. The study investigates individual, school, and psychosocial factors in the documents and three analyses are presented: (1) a general analysis of the…

This study investigated whether mathematical and reading difficulties and self-reported learning problems predicted school achievement in the ninth grade, at the age of 16, and how these difficulties further explained the transition either to upper secondary academic education or to vocational education. The sample of the present study comprised…

This paper aimed at examining the barriers to and facilitators of disseminating and utilizing the results of a local Swedish school survey. Interviews with 21 school district managers/principals were performed. Results showed that dissemination and utilization of local survey data appeared as two interrelated processes. With those processes,…

Results are reported from a study in which teachers' views of highly achieving ninth grade classes in Norway (KappAbel national competition winners) were compared with teachers' views of average achievement classes with regard to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and pedagogical practices. The main purpose of the study…

The study set out to explore parents' experiences of their child's upper primary schooling. Academically and vocationally educated mothers and fathers (N = 326) were prompted to give positive and negative comments on their child's school years at the end of his/her 7th and 9th grade. It was found that a great majority of the comments were positive…

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of nutrition health intervention on pupils' nutrition knowledge and eating habits from grade seven to grade nine. The study was part of the ENHPS (since 2008, Schools for Health in Europe (SHE)) program in Finland, and more specifically its sub-project titled "From Puijo to the World…

The aim of this study was to describe, reflect upon, and create a deeper understanding of aspects relevant for promoting a positive school environment from a student perspective. The data was analyzed by using an inductive phenomenological method and based on written responses from 200 Swedish students from grades 5-9. The results indicated that…

The present study examined the extent to which mothers' and fathers' expectations for their offspring's future education, their level of education, and adolescents' academic achievement predict adolescents' educational expectations. To investigate this, 230 adolescents were examined twice while they were in comprehensive school (in the 7th and 9th…

Mixed-aged (MA) classes are a common phenomenon around the world. In Sweden, these types of classes increased rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s, despite the fact that existing empirical support for MA classes is weak. In this paper, the effect of attending an MA class during grades 4-6 on students' cognitive skills is estimated. Using a unique…

The topic for this article is parents' participation and willingness to participate in formalized home-school cooperation. The analyses are based on a nationwide survey among parents in lower secondary schools in Norway. A main finding is that parental involvement practices differ according to parents' level of education in the sense that parents…

The aim of this study was to describe students' perceptions of their psychosocial school environment and to examine the associations between such perceptions and students' perceived school performance. Our analyses were based on data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children 2006 study, involving responses by Finnish students from grades 7…

The present study aims to describe the extent and forms (integrated versus segregated) of special education support offered to pupils in comprehensive schools in Sweden over a period of 29 years and to study relations between support, background variables and goal attainment in Grade 9. The study is based on about 35,000 children born in 1972,…

The aim of this study was to explore students' perceptions of their learning environment and on-task orientation across different achievement levels. Data were gathered in two independent cross-sectional studies of Norwegian students in grades 8, 9, and 10 (n = 3453 in 2001 and n = 2987 in 2004). Students within the middle achievement levels…

This study examines the relationship between parental support, parental monitoring, and time spent with parents and academic achievement among adolescent girls and boys in Iceland, a high-income per-capita Nordic country. The indirect role of school effort is also examined. Data of 7430 9th and 10th graders is analyzed in the study. Structural…