The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) serves a diverse population of English Learners (ELs) with different ethnic backgrounds, cultural identities, and languages spoken. SDP's population of ELs has grown significantly, from about 12,000 in 2014-15 to nearly 20,000 in 2022-23, an increase of 66%. This community-informed study focuses on English…

Most studies of school bullying in China are atheoretical. To fill the gap in the literature, we introduce criminological theories in an attempt to test propositions broadly derived from these perspectives in the study of physical bullying. Relying on data collected from 12 middle schools (Grades 7 to 9) in three cities with information on both…

Exploring students' systems thinking (ST) is essential in enhancing science learning, but existing studies have failed to understand students' ST fully as it relates to ecological issues. This study aimed to fill the aforementioned literature gap by exploring lower-secondary school students' ST regarding ecological issues. The Systems Thinking…

This 2-year longitudinal study examined relations between enjoyment of learning in Chinese and mathematics, two major subjects in Chinese schools, and indexes of school performance. The participants included 1041 students (501 boys) initially in third, fifth, and seventh grades (mean age = 10.49 years) in China. Data on enjoyment of Chinese and…

Bullying is a peer relational problem that can inflict psychological harm onto both those who are victimized and those who witness it occur. Fostering a positive classroom environment is an important protective factor in preventing bullying. Authoritative classroom climates may protect victimized and bystander youth from negative mental health…

Although school climate plays an important role in the development of adolescent prosocial behaviors and problem behaviors, little is known about the mechanisms underlying school climate's impact on such behaviors, particularly in Chinese adolescents. This study used a multi-informant approach to investigate the mediating role of social-emotional…

Psychological Capital (PsyCap) has received much attention in industrial-organizational research because it is linked to a broad spectrum of adaptive work-related outcomes. However, few studies have been conducted on PsyCap in non-Western school contexts, especially in the ethnic minority areas of Mainland China. The present study aims to validate…

Researchers using VAM (Value-Added Models) methods have found that student achievement is substantially impacted by both schools and teachers. However, most of this work has been conducted within the context of the United States. Information is lacking about the educational system in China. This first study examines methodological concerns…

Research into metacognition has found it to facilitate self-regulation and correlate to learners' L2 writing level. Following Lee & Mak's (2018) framework of Metacognitive Instruction (MI) for L2 writing classrooms, this study applies Dynamic Assessment (DA) to writing MI (MI-DA) in a rural middle school EFL class in China. A one-semester…

Reading strategies have been documented as beneficial facilitators for readers to understand text; their potential efficacy, however, has not yet adequately assessed among struggling readers in the context of a large number of students below grade level at secondary schools internationally. Using a pretest-posttest control group experimental…

Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study examined trends in depression and the longitudinal impacts of teacher autonomy support and teacher-student relationships on students' depressive symptoms. A total of 1613 Chinese primary school students (48.17% females) and 1397 Chinese middle school students (47.67% females) completed self-report…

With particular reference to Changsha, China (recognised as a UNESCO creative city in 2017), the purpose of the present study was to examine the under-researched relationships between music types, music activities, and sources of creativity in school music learning as perceived by adolescent students. Between October 2019 and May 2020, data were…

Probing children's understanding of science concepts has been a focus of research in science education since the 1980s. In the process of learning, learners often produce many conceptions that differ from established scientific knowledge, which are commonly labelled as alternative conceptions (ACs). Knowing these ACs, their prevalence, nature,…

Recent research has shown that internal factors are important predictors of adaptation, but little research has studied the relationship between a sense of coherence and school adaptation. The present study examined the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship. A total of 1,072 middle students completed self-report…

In tracing two Chinese rural middle school classes for 3 years, this study found the positive impact of adopting the algorithm-based mobile short video platform Douyin on rural adolescents' intrinsic motivation. The application's broad adoption has reshaped the social processes supporting adolescent users' intrinsic motivation and spontaneous…